TheJump.Net News Journal

The brown pelican once was driven nearly to extinction by use of the pesticide DDT, has now been taken off of the endangered species list. This all thanks to federal protection, ban on DDT and restoration of habitat. Earlier in Nov. the decision was made that the numbers of brown pelicans was now high enough to delist them.

The announcement was made by officials of the U.S. Interior Department in a ceremony with Senator Mary Landrieu at Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Lacombe, Louisiana. The brown pelican was declared endangered in 1970 after their numbers nosedived due to the near inability to reproduce because the egg shells of poisoned Pelican would be thin and break easily.

But all is not well with the Louisiana State bird. Louisiana coastal erosion problem poses a serious long term risk to the continued survival of the Brown Pelican. Coastal erosion has affected much of their few breeding grounds which are usually small island right on the coast. Coast Restoration projects have already been performed in the past to rebuild some of these islands.

But at least for the short term all is well.

For all you deer hunters out there. You know better than any how hard it is to bag you buck during hunting season. These deer are in tune with their enviroment and well over half of the hunters fail. So deer hunting is tough right and those old bucks are smart and don't come easy right!!!


Well this story isn't going to help you convince your non-deer hunting buddies of that. A seven-point buck was killed when it rammed a concrete statue of an
elk in a families back yard. Thats right... an unpainted chunk of concrete resembling and elk was all it took to kill a nice seven point buck but us hunters tromping through the woods with high powered rifles more times than not return home with nothing more than memories of watching a couple of squirrels search for acorns.

Bucks often fight during the rut. Well this genious of a buck gets all pissed off at the concrete deer that it thinks is going to out compete him for the right to breed with the does and decides to take matters into his own hands... errrr I mean antlers. The buck lowers his head and charges the statue from the side. Well long story short the concrete elk won the fight and the seven point buck didn't live to tell any tales of the epic battle.


The buck staggered about 20 feet and fell over dead with a shattered skull.

This incident is actually not that surprising to those familiar with buck behavior. This should although it won't, also dispell the stupid tree huggers belief that all animals are nice and love each other like is shown in the typical Disney movie. Fact remains that even the vegetarian animals in the animal kingdom care ONLY about theirself and a buck will kill another buck if given the chance. Penned deer will usually try to kill the dominant buck if they can get to him after the owner tranquilize the buck for various purposes.

Another cougar has found in the upper peninsula of Michigan by a trail cam. The picture was snapped on Oct. 10, 2009.

There has been a long running debate on the presense of cougars in Michigan and the evidence has recently started trickling in after years of people trying to obtain proof. Does this mean the cougars are increasing their presense in the state of Michigan? Only time will tell. Most experts feel it is safe to say that these cougars are most likley transient cougars and are not part of an established breeding population.

The question is how long before a female or two make their way into the upper penisula?

Photo of the cougar can be seen here!

Paul Harbour of Clay City went deer hunting with a bow (2009) and got more than he bargined for. He spotted a cougar making its way past his deer stand. Paul had the presense of mind to pull out his cell phone and take a few pictures of the cougar as it walk by.

Paul then tried to shot it with his bow but luckily he missed. It is illegal to shoot a cougar in Indiana... they are a protected species.

There is speculation that this cougar might be an escaped cougar from the Exotic Feline Rescue Center which lost one of its female cougars in 2007.

Closure of the Recreational Amberjack fishery!!! This scathing quote below comes straight from the CCA Press Release room. And I have to agree that yet again the feds have screwed up again in a big way.

"The one-sidedness of federal fisheries management is at a level that makes it almost impossible to believe recreational interests will ever be considered in any meaningful way,” said Brewer. “No fishery has ever been overfished by recreational angling alone, and any number of economic studies indicates that the recreational sector is by far the most valuable part of our marine fisheries. And yet, fishery after fishery is closing down for anglers while the Councils bend over backwards to keep the longlines and nets in the water. In the eyes of many recreational anglers, the federal management system is on the edge of a total breakdown."

Why you ask is the CCA so upset? Shouldn't they (feds) do what is neccessary to protect the resource? Well for starters lets clarify something right of the bat. This IS NOT crying over the protections placed on a species in need. This whole issue goes way way beyond that.

The issue is that there are two competing user groups that harvest Amberjack. Recreational fisherman and the commercial fisherman. The outcry comes from the simple fact that the feds declared the Gulf Amberjack over fished in 2007. They went on to then INCREASE, that's right, INCREASE the commercial sectors quota while reducing the recreational sectors quota. This was done despite the fact that money wise the recreational fisherman have a bigger economic impact that the commercial fisherman and it was the commercial fisherman that have most severely impacted the Amberjack fishery in the first place.

Insane is the word that comes to mind. Now the feds have struck again and closed the recreation fishery completely in the gulf for the year as of Oct. 24th.

This is analogous to a boss with two employees cutting the pay of employee A and giving employee B a pay increase despite the fact the employee A brings in more money for the boss than employee B. It is completely insane.

To make matters worse, this type of action isn't a one time deal. It is a firmly established pattern which has been being followed with other fisheries such as Red Snapper. Red Snapper in the Northern Gulf of Mexico have not been replacing themselves fast enough to reach the replacement level required by law. So restrictions must by law be tightened.

So each year the recreation fisherman get squeezed tighter and tighter. Soon recreation fisherman might not have a season at all. But that will not help the Red Snapper much because the real problem has nothing to do with the recreational fisherman. It all comes back to Shrimpers. Shrimpers are killing the baby red snapper so fast that the red snapper population is in trouble but the feds do little to stem this killing despite the fact that they are required to by law. Once again the recreational fisherman get the short end of the stick and once again it makes no logical sense.

And just so you know other fisheries such as billfish have had to endure the same illogical decisions. The feds keep hammering the recreational fisherman and it doesn't help because we aren't the problem. Am I in the twilight zone!

Kansas Cougar

To read more about this confirmation in Kansas and to see a picture of the cougar follow the above link. This is only the second confirmation in Kansas in the last 100 years.

October 13, 2009 kim@mediadirectcreative.com
(309) 944-5341

LONDONDERRY, NH (October, 2009) Insight Technology, the world’s leading provider of tactical lasers, illuminators and thermal imaging equipment, will be the title sponsor of the evening portion of the Day-Night-Day match being held December 12-13 at The Range in Oxford, N.C.

The Day-Night-Day match is comprised of three separate events and competitors compete in one, two or all three events. The Insight Technology Night Championship will be held on the evening of Saturday, December 12 and limited to 80 shooters.

“We’re excited to be the premier sponsor of the Insight Technology Night Championship – the night portion of the match. For more than 20 years Insight has been making products to help the warfighter, law enforcement officer and responsible citizen dominate the darkness, and now we add the competition shooter to that list,” said Paul Erhardt of Insight Technology.

During the Insight Technology Night Championship competitors will negotiate six challenging courses of fire under the low light conditions of the winter evening sky. Insight products will be incorporated into the match giving competitors the opportunity to test the equipment under the stressful conditions of real world scenarios.

“Our night match is one of the few true low light outdoor matches in the country making it a big draw for serious handgun competitors, bringing in shooters from the IDPA, USPSA and ICORE disciplines. The night match is approaching its 20th anniversary and we’re proud to have Insight Technology joining as our title sponsor. We expect this year’s match to be the best ever,” said Scott Ruby, sponsor coordinator for the Day-Night-Day match.

The Range is widely regarded in the competition community for the quality of its matches and challenging course designs. It is also home to the Carolina Cup, one of the three major matches on the IDPA circuit.

More than 18,000 rounds will be put downrange across all three matches as competitors compete for titles in two divisions – Weapon Mounted Lights or Handheld Lights.

For more information on the Insight Technology Night Championship and the Day-Night-Day matches please visit www.the-range.com. For information on Insight Technology’s full line of tactical lasers, illuminators and thermal imaging equipment, visit www.InsightTechGear.com.

About Insight Technology: Insight Technology Incorporated is the leading developer and manufacturer of tactical laser aiming and illumination products, integrated sighting systems, and thermal imaging systems for use by consumers, law enforcement officers and military personnel. Founded in 1988, the company operates its state-of-the-art facility providing highly effective and innovative tactical devices for extreme environments, advancing the effectiveness of the warfighter and first responder. Internationally recognized as exceeding the quality standards of ISO 9001, Insight Technology is located in Londonderry, New Hampshire.

Insight Tech-Gear…Dominate the Darkness.

Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD as it is commonly called is a disease that infects deer and elk. It was first know in a small section out west but has now spread to a number of areas outside of the original area. The disease causes holes to form in the brain of the infected animal and death follows in every infected animal. The disease is very similiar to Mad Cow disease and so this has caused a great deal of concern among hunters.

Well there is good news and there is bad news on the CWD front. Bad News first. So far areas that have become infected are still infected and show no signs of subsiding. Erradication zones have often been formed with the hope of eliminating the disease by drastically reducing population densities but infection rates in those areas has not decreased despite the much lower deer densities. Infection rates could reach as high as 30 percent if the disease continues on its present course in these areas.

Questions like will the disease eventually cover all areas that have deer populations through out the USA and Canada and down into Mexico are yet to be answered and it will be many many years before that will happen if it ever does. Other questions that can affect local economies are things such as "will hunters continue to hunt and eat deer from areas of infection or will they take their money elsewhere? Only time will tell.

OK now for a little bit of good news. Fear of getting infected from eating an infected animal have been knocked down a number of notches. Never is a big word and a long time so a 100% definitive answer on deer to human transmission might never be know but we have taken a major step in showing that it can not occur.

A species of monkey (Cynomolgus macaques) that is genetically very similiar to humans genetically and is often used in animal testing because of this similarity has been put through a test to determine if they can be infected with the CWD causing prions. After six years of exposure through direct oral transmission the Monkeys have shown no signs of infection.

The study is ongoing because although it only takes short time (~1 to 2 years) for symptoms to show in deer it might take much longer in humans. So the study is ongoing.

There was a great fear... almost a panic that if the spread could not be stopped and if the transmition to humans was possible then the long tradition of deer hunting could be lost forever. Well that fear, although not totally put to rest has been dealt another serious blow that we can all feel good about.

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist off Louisiana's coast pulled up a giant squid from 1,500 feet deep, the first ever caught alive in the Gulf of Mexico.

Even though they one they caught was over 19 feet long they believe it to be a juvenile female of the species Architeuthis dux. It was caught in a net alive but was dead by the time it made the long journey from the ocean depths while over 100 miles out in 1500 feet of water. Few if any creatures can survive such drastic pressure changes.

The last time scientists got a giant squid from the gulf was in 1954 and that one was found floating dead on the water.

Sperm whales have been sighted off the Louisiana coast and NOAA was in the are to do research on them and other marine mammals that inhabit the gulf. This species of squid is a major food source for sperm whales. The capture of this squid gives some confirmation that the sperm whales that sometimes show up near the mouth of the Mississippi River are hear for this particular food. Similiar expeditions in the past have only turned up small fish and small squid.

A car struck and killed a cougar Friday night in Minnesota near Bemidji .

The car hit the cat Friday night on the Schoolcraft Bridge as the cougar was using the bridge to cross the Schoolcraft River.

The cat was a sub-adult male 2 to 2½ years old and weighing an estimated 110 pounds. The lion was in good health before it was hit and does not appear to have ever been held in captivity.

The cougar is not the first to be confirmed in Minnesota but is still one of only a few.

This cougar like most other cougar that show up where there are not believed to be populations of cougars is a young male. Male cougars often travel long distances looking for a place to call home. These travels can be many hundreds of miles from their place of birth. This cougar is likely a disperser from the Badlands or Black Hills of South Dakato.

Years ago the American Chestnut was the dominant tree in much of the Eastern USA. But a fungus (Cryphonectria parasitica) was accidentally introduced way back in 1904. Brought over on the roots of Chinese Chestnut trees. In less than 50 years virtually all of the mature American Chestnut trees had died or had been cut to salvage some wood before they were killed by the blight.

Few people today realize what we lost back then. Today in the East pine trees are the money tree for timber companies. But in the past the American Chestnut tree was THE most valuable tree in the forest for a whole host of reasons. You have heard the phrase Jack of all trades. Well the American Chestnut was the King of all trade.

But it has long since vanished from our woods and our minds. Fortunately these fallen trees have kept sprouting back from root stock of the fallen giants long enough for modern science to devise a way to bring them back from certain extinction.

Over the last few decades there has been a large effort by the The American Chestnut Foundation to breed, via a novel backcross method blight resistant trees. What they basically have been doing is crossing a Chinese Chestnut with one of our trees. They then take the seed from these trees that have resistance and again cross with another American Chestnut. Each time this is done the seedlings are a larger and larger percent American Chestnut but are carefully selected so that only plants are kept that still have blight resistance. Ultimately you end up with an American Chestnut that only has 4 percent chinese chestnut genes and is indistiguishable from a pure American Chestnut tree.

Well their years of hard work is finally coming to fruition. They have announce that first trial restorations using 500 saplings grown from completely blight-resistant nuts will begin at the end of 2009 in three national forests in the southern United States.

Each year more and more nuts will be produced and restoration if all goes well should proceed and an increasing rate over the coming years and decades. It will of course take many years well past any of our lifetimes before the tree is as wide spread as it use to be but the tree is back. I for one can't wait till they have enough nuts for the general public to be able to purchase some for our own private use. I won't see it grow to gigantic size but hopefully I will be around long enough to taste the delicious nuts that we sing about each Christmas.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida's "stand-your-ground" law allows the use of deadly force for self-protection even if an attacker or intruder is in retreat, an appellate court said Wednesday.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal issued that explanation for last month releasing Jimmy Hair from jail, where he had spent two years awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge.

(Read More...)

Hello everyone. As you know I don't normally do product reviews but I felt this was something that might really help some people out. So for my second product review ever I want to introduce a small book that virtually every deer hunter will benefit from.

The book is titled "Blood In Motion" by Jerry Allen. This book is 62 pages long covers the truth and facts about blood trailing and will help any hunter that takes the time to read it... I guarantee. I don't care if you are an old hand at deer hunting are a beginner. Trust me... you WILL learn something new and probably a whole lot more than you could imagine.

Still need convincing. Well Jerry Allen has made a carrier in Crime Forensics working with Law Enforcement. So any of you fans of CSI should know taking one of those guys who just happens to be a life long deer hunter and you can see it is a marriage made in heaven when it comes to getting advice on blood tracking and recovering your trophy!

The book can be purchase for $19.99 here: Blood In Motion

Chapters in the book include titles like this: Before the hunt, Blood trail basics, Blood patterns, Differences in gun and bow blood trails, Common problems, Tracking tools and much more. But that should give you a general idea of some of the types of information covered in the book.

If there is any knock on the book then it would have to be that there are a number of errors that his English teacher would have marked up with red making a blood trail of red within the book itself. Stuff such as using 'there' instead of 'their' for example.

We pay our youngest daughter whenever she finds errors in published books to encourage her to read. Well this book ended up costing me a pretty penny. Haha

So check it out, entertaining and extremely informative.

The numbers for the central flyway are up 13% this year over last. I am not going to get into all the specifics on each species because getting that detailed isn't all that important for most hunters. The overall numbers is what is going to determine the length of the season and the overall bird limit, which will probably be 60 and 5 but that depends on the options each state decides to take.

Although individiual species numbers can have a big impact on hunters in particular areas that depend on a certain species for the bulk of their bag. Throughout much of the range, particularly the deep south the success is actually more dependent of cold weather freezing up the northern half of the country to push the ducks south.

And although this years duck numbers are up giving hunters high hopes the state of the breeding grounds does lead many to worry what the future may hold. With ethanol demand mandated by the government affecting farmers more and more marginal land is being converted over to agriculture. So although this years numbers look strong the future looks bleak.

Time will tell on this and lower duck numbers in the future is not something that is written in stone. So do what every duck hunter does every year. Pray for ducks and their critical habitat.

Florida's governor asked wildlife officials to begin trapping pythons right away. The governor issued the request after a 2 year old girl was strangled to death by a python that escaped from its cage. Typical government knee jerk reaction to a news story. Not saying this is a bad call just that they are now doing the right thing for the wrong reason. The python in that killed the girl was a pet living in a house with its owners. The call to kill wild pythons living in Florida is really unrelated to that issue.

But this is an unrelated issue that should have been dealt with long ago. Florida, especially south Florida is under attack not just from snakes but lizards and fish and plants that don't belong there but were brought over from other countries mainly as pets. They liked sunny Florida and desided to stay.



Problem is they are putting a big strain an a number of native animals that are flirting with the idea of extinction. So finally Florida is taking some action to try to reduce the estimated 150,000 Burmese Pythons that now call Florida home.

Although Florida is taking action it is a bit on the meek side if you ask me. initially about 10 hunters would be permitted to hunt the snakes which can grow to 26ft long and weight as much as 200 pounds, although most are much smaller.

The hunters are not allowed to use firearms or traps!!! They must capture and later euthanize the snakes. They say they are trying to prevent the spread of the snakes before the problem get much worse and moves further north.

Ummm... how about allow anyone to kill any pythons, or iguana's for that matter, on site by any means. You want them all dead right? You probably know that that will not be an easy task and is most likely impossible to accomplish so why not just allow or even require the killing of all pythons in Florida anytime the opportunity presents itself.

This first trial hunt will last 3 months at which time the results will be evaluated to see what the next step will be. Could there possibly be a fall python season in Florida future? Unless Florida gets on the ball and moves more quickly to stomp out this problem they may not have a choice.