zebras now in South Dakota

Zebra mussel veligers (babies) were found in two water samples collected in South Dakota a ways below the Gavins Point dam in the Missouri River. Presence of enough veligers to find them in water samples indicates the presence of an established population of adults somewhere upstream. This is without a doubt the result of human transfer, probably unintentional because the critters were on somebodies boat or trailer or fishing gear. Please take appropriate precautions to not move zebras or other exotics around. Cr*p, I really do feel like a stormcrow now.

We had that problem a few years back..but reports now showing them dying off by the thousands….not sure why?

There are a few places where the zebras have had some big dieoffs. I don’t know that anyone knows for sure what happened, but I am going to go out on a limb and say i bet there was something viral going on. If that is the case, the virus will run its course and the zebras will be back. I wish there was more going on to pin down the reasons for this. Lots of places still have zebras as bad as ever.