Wild animals fight to beat 2007 weather

Published Friday, December 28, 2007

KANSAS CITY (AP) - Having to survive everything from late freezes to droughts and flooding made 2007 a challenging year for wildlife in Kansas and western Missouri.

Wild animals have had to adapt to extremes, experts say, and some ground-nesting bird species have taken big population losses because of weather this year.

Wildlife that doesn’t migrate or hibernate in winter, particularly ground-feeding and -nesting birds, started the year by riding out a major ice storm.

In March, weather turned unseasonably warm, with greenery popping out and birds starting to nest. Then a major late freeze struck in early April, hurting domestic fruit crops and fruits and seeds of many plants used by wildlife for food during nesting season or as winter food.

"The freeze on Easter weekend killed wild turkey eggs," said Tom Dailey, a biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation in Columbia. "They began re-nesting. But then we had heavy rains and flooding in June that got them again, and that’s when all the other ground birds like quail were nesting."

The lowest wild turkey production in the state this year was in western Missouri, he said, with less than one successful poult per hen.

In late summer, a drought quashed seed production, and this winter already has seen periods of snow and ice, with some areas getting major ice storms.

Temperatures last week rose and melted ice and snow off wildlife food sources. "This warm spell could have been just in time," Dailey said.

Even squirrels this winter are more numerous and persistent at the wildlife feeders at the Ernie Miller Nature Sanctuary in Olathe, Kan., said park naturalist Elaine Giessel.

The spring freeze killed acorn production in white oaks and berry production on some wild shrubs.