TheJump.Net News Journal

As part of an effort to reintroduce Lynx back into Colorada a Lynx, a close relative of the bobcat, was trapped in Canada fitted with a radio collar and released. The Lynx then did something that nobody was expecting. He made the 1500 mile trek back to British Columbia. Now we have all heard tales of similar feats in dogs, and we know that many species of birds and fish regularly migrate long distances. Even cougars when dispersing from their mother can make long distance migrations while looking for a place to call home.

But this... this is something different. How did an animal that isn't genetically gear to making long migrations find its way back to its home although some have made trips from one state to another. This is the longest documented dispersal of a Lynx ever recorded.

Another interesting tidbit is that this Lynx was for four years after release pretty much a home body. Not traveling far. Then it just decided it was time to see the world I guess. The radio collar had not been working for years when a trapper in Canada caught the cat and contacted the authorities.

The interesting thing is that although many animals will travel long distances to seek out a mate, this male Lynx already had established a territory and had produced 6 kittens in Colorado.

It is impossible to know exactly why the animal left the region, although unfavorable tax rates could be to blame. haha just a little humor there. Actually the last two years he was in Colorado he had not had any kittens and that could very well have been a factor.

His former mate is still alive and well so it is possible that environmental factors are to blame for the lack of kittens which prompted the migration, but that is just speculation.

Currently over 200 Lynx have been reintroduced to Colorado since 1999.

Since the reintroduction began a total of 126 lynx kittens are known to have been born in Colorado, including: 16 kittens in 2003; 39 kittens in 2004; 50 kittens in 2005; 11 kittens in 2006; and 10 kittens in 2009. But none in 2007 or 2008.

The Coast Guard, the State of Louisiana and the Chevron Pipe Line Company have responded to an oil leak that has leaked 327 barrels of oil into the marsh of Southeast Louisiana. The location of the leak is down stream from Venice in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

At about 1 a.m. on April 6, Berry Brothers General Contractors notified the Coast Guard that oil was discharging into a canal located about 10 miles southeast of Venice which is also a few mile NorthEast of Pilot Town. Chevron operates the pipeline has reported that about 18,000 gallons of crude oil has been released.

Notice this number is the same as 327 Barrels. You know it is a relatively small spill when the news agencies report the spill in gallons instead of Barrels.

CPL closed of valves to prevent more oil from entering the leaking pipeline. Now efforts are underway to minimize the impact. Seven thousand feet of booms has been put out to contain the spill.

Specially trained company personnel and contractors are responding as part of a program to minimize the environmental impact. The pipeline is owned by Cypress Pipe Line Company which is a joint venture between British Petroleum and CPL.

The cause of the leak has not yet been established or released yet.

Here is a news release from the Coast Guard:

The Coast Guard, the State of Louisiana, and the Cypress Pipe Line Company (CPL) have deployed personnel and equipment to respond to an oil spill from a pipeline in the Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

As of this morning, 5,000 feet of feet of containment boom have been deployed to enclose the oil. Workers plan to deploy an additional 2,000 feet of boom today around the environmentally sensitive area near Breton Island.

More than 50 people and 16 vessels are at the scene conducting and managing cleanup operations and environmental protection efforts, which include recovery of the oil and attempting to keep wildlife out of the impacted area. So far, there are no reports of any birds or other animals impacted in the incident.

CPL, which operates the pipeline, reports that approximately 18,000 gallons of crude oil has been released. An area of approximately 160 square miles has been impacted by the spill- 40 square miles of marsh and 120 square miles offshore.

Here is to hoping that this spill can be cleaned up with a minimum impact on the areas ecosystem.

It has been suspected for a few years and now the evidence confirms that Nebraska has a population of mountain lions reproducing on their own in the wild. State officials can no longer claim cougar confirmations are just dispersing males passing through.

The evidential tipping point came this past December when two cougar cubs had their picture taken in Pine Ridge Valley. The trail cam picture came when a hunter put his camera out overlooking a deer carcass.

This photo provides proof that cougars are reproducing in the state and not just passing through because young kittens could not have traveled from out of state to this carcass. This recent photo isn't even the only documentation that mountain lions are reproducing in Nebraska.

The first time proof of a probable home grown cougar came in 2007 when a 6 month old female was hit by a car. The road killed cougar was with its mother and two other cubs at the time. There we a couple of other incidences of cubs that could be these two cubs that made it safely across the street, but then again, they could have been different cubs altogether. One was a male cub that was hit by a vehicle and killed.

With the latest edition to the states growing portfolio of cougar pics it is now semi-official that Nebraska has a breeding population of cougars.

Cougars are native to Nebraska as they are to ever state of the lower 48. Nebraska recently made it legal to kill a cougar if it is threatening people or livestock. This new law basically give you the right to kill cougars because it will be very hard to prove that the cougar wasn't a threat. Sort of a my word against yours.

More and more states are having to go back and address their laws as cougar move back into former habitat.

In a strange turn of events Knight Rifles who went out of business in 2009 has been purchased by a Plastics company??? Yep that is right... not misprint. Knight Rifles will be relocated from Iowa to Athens Tennessee. President of PI, Jeff Beene, plans for Knight Rifles is to return to manufacturing the best inline muzzleloaders on the market.

Amazing what can happen when a fan of Knight Rifles with a lot of money, willpower and loyalty to a brand puts his mind to something.

OK people!!! I have received this picture via email. What do you think it is????


Check out all the pictures here: All The Cat Pics!

My conclusion is at the bottom of the page. What is yours? You can discuss your thoughts either on the messageboard or here if you don't want to bother registering on the messageboard.

There is more than one method to score a turkey but just like Boone and Crockett is the standard from measuring that trophy buck the NWTF is the standard for scoring your turkey. Since turkey season has opened are is about to open where you hunt I figure now is the perfect time to get everyone refreshed on how to go about scoring your turkey.

Luckily I already have everything you will need information wise written up and I even have a very useful turkey calculator for doing the math for you. With easy conversion chart of fractions of an inch to decimal inches.

Here are both links. Link to the methodology
                         Link to the turkey calculator

There is a link on the methodology page to the calculator page but not vice versa. I guess I need to change that. Lazy webmasters suck. Enjoy!

Be wary folks the Obama admin. is at it again... well they never really stopped now did they. A massive restructuring of the management of our fishery resource is about to be pushed through if Obama has his way. It has been reported on The Drudge Report and ESPN that they are pushing a ban of fishing in the Great Lakes and Marine Waters. The Admin response is this. Read Below.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told a House panel that her agency had no plans to halt fishing. And National Marine Fisheries Service chief Eric Schwaab released a statement last night saying NOAA "is committed to adopting policies that will ensure that current and future generations have the opportunity to enjoy the great tradition of recreational fishing."

"Both commercial and recreational fishing are vitally important to this nation," Lubchenco said. "We are not proposing any blanket ban on recreational fishing. I would strongly oppose that, and it is not in the works."

But notice the wording, blanket ban. Gee that makes me feel better. They aren't the response is that they aren't PLANNING to COMPLETELY BAN FISHING.

What this REALLY means and has been known was coming since last year, is that they do plan on BANNING fishing in some areas. They WILL have the right to ban it EVERYWHERE without any input from the public.

Coastal states that depend on revenue generated by both recreational and commercial fishing would no doubt suffer economic loss if this goes through.

Are you looking for a bill number? You wont find it. This isn't a bill. The Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force will issue a final report for marine spatial planning by late March. Obama then could then issue an Executive Order to implement its recommendations. It is legally stretching the power of the presidency possibly beyond legal bounds to yet again give more power to the federal government. The slippery slope we conservatives have been warning people about has turned to a verticle cliff with the Obama administration.

The Mississippi Dept. Of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks isn't totally closing down but they have shut down part of their website. The forums for hunters and fisherman was one of the most successful message boards on the internet for outdoorsman, specifically Mississippi outdoorsman and women. They had thousands of members posting messages talking about all things outdoors over a large range of topic from game animals such as whitetail deer all the way to no game species such as turtles and snakes.

The closure has all of the members scratching their heads as to why, as well as scrambling around trying to find another online home. The reason for the closure was given as MONEY, restructuring, reallocation of resources. Be the skeptic on the board seemed to think it was because the MDWFP didn't like the criticizm they often recieved in the open forums.

Whatever the reason for the closure I would like to take this time and this space to offer those members a new place to call home while online. TheJump.Net Message Boards already has a number of former MDWFP members who are calling the TheJump.Net home and with luck hopefully others will find there way here and join as well (its free).

Actually it doesn't matter if you are a former member or not as long as you enjoy hunting or fishing we have a spot for you. So stop by check us out and I think you will end up staying awhile.

This is far from a done deal but a report on England's largest national park has raised the possibility of reintroduction of a number of different species which according to the report England has enough space for them to have a viable productive population.

Most notable of the 23 species are the large carnivores the wolves and bear. Cited are the beneficial impacts on the environment could also bring in more money from sources such as tourism. Controlling deer numbers has long been a reason ecologist have pushed for reintroduction of wolves and lynx.

Of course there will certainly be opposition due to fear and fear of predation on livestock which bear and especially wolves are famous for.

The Cairngorms National Park report will be presented to the board later this year and only then will a decision be made on which path to take. The board could decide to reintroduce all of the species or only a select few or none at all. I would guess it is highly unlikely most of the species will be reintroduced. It is quite possible that no predators will be reintroduced and only the less threatening animals such as elk and beaver and others will be considered.

It is really ashame considering they have the habitat for all of these species except borderline habitat for the bear.

Is the tide turning. Well it apparently is at least in Canada for the moment. What tide am I talking about? The tide of ridiculous, ineffective gun control laws. For many years the movement was towards a continued erosion of your second amendment right here in the USA and abroad.

The laws are still ridiculous in many places like Australia where you are not even allowed to own a knife over a certain number of inches long or like here in our country where you have to get a permit to carry a concealed weapon which would actually be the safer way to carry one and would be a bigger deterrent to crime in my opinion.

But back to the subject at hand... Canada. Canadian lawmakers are in the process, which is expected to pass and become law, to overturn a 14 year old botched gun registration law that has proven to be a total waste of tax payer money.

The law that required the registration of all long guns was put in place on the wave of hysteria after a multiple homicide took place in which a lunatic used a rifle to kill 14 women and wound 10 others before using the same gun to commit suicide back in Dec. of 1989.

This has long been a tactic here as well were a single incedent is used to push through legislation that doesn't even prevent the crime that is the emotional tidal wave that pushes the law through.

The law was promised to not cost more than 2 million dollars beyond the money that the gun registration would bring in; as if the money that the citizens payed to register their guns didn't count as taxes or a burden! Well we all know that the governments of this world almost always underestimate the cost of projects. We all know of cost overruns that end up having projects double or even triple the projected cost. Well hold on to your hat and you probably better sit down for this one. The 2 million additional cost turned into a whopping 2 billion!!!

So there are a lot of lessons to learn from this Canadian fiasco. One, don't let knee jerk reactions to crimes let emotion rule the day and override common sense. Two, don't believe any cost figures the government predicts for a project (hello healthcare). Three, it takes a long time to get stupid laws overturned.

Some of you may be familiar with Macho B, the jaguar that was recently captured, collared in the USA and then subsequently died a short while later. Macho B was an old jag and was nearing the end of his natural life, You may even be familiar that lawsuits were filed against the governmental agency that was responsible for his capture which violated Federal Law surrounding endangered species or something. Well this story isn't exactly about Macho B but it is sort of.

Macho B help put a spotlight on the Jaguar and its plight. A old but now growing movement among conservationist has been gaining traction on the issue of protecting former Jaguar habitat in the US.

Now a little fuel has been added to the fire. Another jaguar has been photographed just south of the US border in northern Sonora. Sonara is about 30 miles south of the Arizona border. I say another jaguar but it is actually possible that it is two! Two photos of a jaguar, walking in different directions, have been taken from a trail camera set out to capture proof of jaguars in the area. Since the jag is walking in different directions it is impossible to tell if it is the same one or not. Probably is, but that is just me speculating.

The Sky Island Alliance's remote cameras caught a jaguar in the same spot eight days apart this past January.

Working in the northern Mexico area for five years, the group has also documented jaguar tracks and evidence of jaguar kills there.

Despite the excitement among many over the proof, biologist just shrug it off as interesting but not much more. The jaguar faces the same hurdles as cougars do in the east... females! Until females return then the jaguars will not be able to successfully recolonize old stomping grounds which use to extend into southern USA eastward to western Louisiana.

The nearest known females are only about 90 miles south of the border so that female hurdle may not be to high for the jaguars to leap. Time will tell. I will be watching and I hope you will be too.

The occurrence of two whitetail bucks locked together either dead or alive isn't exactly common but does occur numerous times every year. What isn't nearly as common is finding two MOOSE locked by their antlers, dead from the ordeal.

But that is exactly what Tim Bradach of Minn. discovered while searching for shed deer antlers.

The moose were both had large trophy antlers. I can only imagine the battle they must have had. It is ashame that they had to die this way. Not exactly a good way to die... if there is ever such a thing.

"I saw the first horn and thought, 'Wow, that makes my day,' '' said Bradach, 51. "Then I saw two horns and thought maybe the same moose had dropped them in one spot. Then I saw four horns. I felt like I had won the lottery."

The bigger moose had a brow tine stuck in the other moose's chest, they had apparently been dead for a while but a covering of snow had helped preserver them somewhat although they were now pretty rank.

We want to bring something exciting to your attention! As you may have noticed, we've improved a new section of our site... VIDEO! We have installed our very own video player filled with well known produced video content from outdoor shows! On top of this, the player also has user upload capabilities. This will allow you to upload, comment on, and view your videos on TheJump.Net. We're very excited to welcome this new addition to the site and can't wait to share our experiences with you. We hope you will do the same! We encourage you to check out the player and follow it as it grows. Check it out at http://www.thejump.net/multimedia/index.htm

To upload a video is simple. Simply pick a username and password and upload all your cool video's! Guaranteed your video will be seen by LOTS of people. So take a look at it, you will see that it has very quickly surpassed the old video page in user input. We are all very excited about this.

Chronic Wasting Disease has been popping up all over the USA and Canada in recent years and that trend although slowed somewhat from its initial spread is continuing. A Virginia whitetail deer has tested positive for CWD.

Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Virginia officials have confirmed that a deer killed in November in Frederick County had CWD. For those that don't know, CWD is a disease similiar to mad cow disease but occurs in deer and is always fatal. No known cures, treatment are known and the malformed proteins that cause the infection can reside in the enviroment for many many years. So basically once an area get it it is there to stay.

This new occurrence has been discovered just across the state line from a previously known CWD site so it isn't a huge surprise. But it does highlight the fact that this disease although not the end of whitetail hunting industry still has not been able to be contained and it might be just a matter of time before there isn't any where in the United States that isn't affected by CWD.

CWD is now know to been confirmed in 17 other states and Canadian provinces.

Virginia game officials have taken a number of steps to try to keep CWD out of the state but to no avail.

Another Oklahoma cougar picture has surfaced. Check It Out Here!