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Tag Archives: Nature conservation
Nature and Science News
Watching wolves, moose — and heat — on Michigan island from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — Ignoring our observation plane circling above the frozen Lake Superior wilderness, the eight gray wolves seemed as harmless as your beloved pooch cavorting with its pals in the yard. Trotting along Siskiwit Bay, they playfully nipped and pawed each other, pausing occasionally to roll in the snow.
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Humane Society files emergency appeal for sea lions in Ore. from PhysOrg.com
(AP) — An animal rights group isn’t giving up on blocking the government and two states from harming California sea lions that are feasting on the spring chinook salmon run at a dam on the Columbia River.
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Ice Escapades: Greenland’s Ice Sheet Is Speeding to the Sea>
On July 29, 2006, there was a roughly 11-billion-gallon (0.044-cubic kilometer) lake that stretched more than two square miles (5.6 square kilometers) and covered the western portion of Greenland’s massive ice sheet. In the span of 16 hours, it was gone. The reason: water pressure cracked through the more than half-mile (980-meter) thick ice, draining the lake as its water rushed through the new funnel and gathered below the giant ice sheet, raising it nearly four feet (1.2 meters) and moving it nearly three feet (0.8 meter) to the north.”My co-workers and I had proposed models [in which] meltwater gets to the bed when a lake fills a crevasse, thus driving the crack down,” says glaciologist Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in the study. Now glaciologist “[Sarah] Das [and her colleagues] have observed it–more than Niagara plunging into Greenland!”In fact, Niagara Falls’s flow per second can be as fast as 202,000 cubic feet (5,720 cubic meters) of water; the glacial lake drained at pace of 307,237 cubic feet (8,700 cubic meters) per second. The meltwater below the glacier then flowed away through channels in the rock below, allowing the ice to subside back to its normal position.
The White-necked Picathartes
A survey of the Western Area Peninsula Forest (WAPF) in Sierra Leone has discovered two new breeding colonies of the Vulnerable White-necked Picathartes Picathartes gymnocephalus, in addition to the 16 sites already known.The survey was part of a one-year project carried out by volunteers from the Conservation Society of Sierra Leone (CSSL, BirdLife in Sierra Leone), the University of Sierra Leone, and the government’s Forestry Division, with help from local communities.
State of the Wild 2008-2009
State of the Wild 2008-2009: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans (State of the Wild)
…State of the Wild is a collection of evocative essays featuring emerging issues in the conservation of wildlife and wild places. The book brings together international conservation experts and writers to analyze our time’s most pressing environmental topics. Seeking to broaden awareness of major trends that are affecting the state of the wild across all continents, it also includes a catalog of the year’s research, rulings, and events.
Just thought you might like to know about it.
The Human Footprint (NGS)
Sunday, April 13th, 9pm ET/PT
Bats and Shade Grown Coffee
Birds have always gotten a fair amount of the credit for ridding shade grown coffee plants of various insect pests. But a new study now shows that bats have a huge positive impact in this area as well. The study also shows something else interesting: These insect eating bats often use a “perch and wait” technique for grabbing flying insects, rather than flying around all the time hunting on the wing. Continue reading Bats and Shade Grown Coffee
Cambodia’s Water Birds
Storks, pelicans, ibises, and other rare waterbirds from Cambodia’s famed Tonle Sap region are making a comeback, thanks to round-the-clock protection by a single team of park rangers. In a project established by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Ministry of Environment of the Royal Government of Cambodia, former hunters and egg collectors have found new employment in monitoring the breeding bird colonies. This novel approach guarantees an active role for local communities in the conservation of this important seasonally flooded wetland.A new report shows that some of the waterbird species have rebounded 20-fold since 2001, when the conservation project began. Before that time, rampant harvesting of eggs and chicks had driven the colonies to the brink of local extinction. “This is an amazing success story for the people and wildlife of Cambodia,” said Colin Poole, director for WCS-Asia. “It also shows how important local people are in the conservation of wildlife in their own backyards.”
Source: Wildlife Conservation Society
Nature News
Deep-sea sharks wired for sound from PhysOrg.com
Deep-sea sharks have been tagged and tracked and their habitats precisely mapped in world-first research to test the conservation value of areas closed to commercial fishing.
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Shorebird numbers crash: survey alarm from PhysOrg.com
One of the world’s great wildlife spectacles is under way across Australia: as many as two million migratory shorebirds of 36 species are gathering around Broome before an amazing 10,000-kilometre annual flight to their northern hemisphere breeding grounds.
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A serious case of poaching of one of Europe’s most threatened bird species has been confirmed in Greece. An adult male Lesser White-fronted Goose Anser erythropus was found dead at Lake Kerkini – a protected area in Greece where hunting is strictly prohibited. An autopsy confirmed that the bird was killed with a shotgun. The species is protected under the EU Birds Directive, and by national legislation within Greece.The bird – known as Mánnu – had previously been individually colour-marked by scientists close to its breeding area in northern Norway. The main part of the Fennoscandian population winters in Greece, in the protected areas at Lake Kerkini and in the Evros Delta.Loss of one adult male represents about 5% of all Fennoscandian breeding males. “This is dramatic, because loss of adult reproductive birds has a significant negative impact on the recruitment of the small population”, says Dr Ingar Jostein Oien (BirdLife Norway).More details from Birdlife International.
Save the Great Cormorants of Lake Constance
Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU – BirdLife in Germany) is protesting vehemently against the planned destruction of Lake Constance’s only colony of Great Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo.”It is hard to believe that Freiburg local authority intends to commit such a destructive act, not only in a National Nature Reserve but especially within a European Special Protected Area (SPA)”, said Dr Andre Baumann (chairman – NABU Baden-Württemberg). “This persecution of Great Cormorants not only contradicts common sense, it also contravenes European bird protection legislation and is morally unjustifiable”. NABU is protesting to the authorities in Freiburg against the planned operations and has started an online petition.
Read the rest here.
Agri-tourism could help save colorful prairie chicken
This is a photo of a Tympanuchus cupido male drumming away on the lek to find a mate. The lek is the traditional breeding ground of the prairie chicken (and many other animals uses lek’s) on which the males display, and to which the females travel to pick a male with whom to mate.This bird, the greater prairie chicken, is threatened, and there is now a move to employ ecotourism to save it. Continue reading Agri-tourism could help save colorful prairie chicken
Its Seal Hunting Season Again!
Canada, land of the holier than thou. Hey, some of my best friends are Canadians, but really, most Canadians look down on Americans for being all the bad things that we truly are. So fine, we deserve it. But if you are a non-Canadian of any nationality, the next time a Canadian condescends to you, mention the one-million-seal a year quote that the Canadian government allows in their annual seal hunt.
Top Three Seal Hunt MythsHere are the top three myths told by Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) about the commercial seal hunt:Myth #1: The seal hunt is humane.All available evidence, including veterinary reports and independent observations, indicates that each year tens of thousands of seal pups die in an unacceptably cruel manner inconsistent with contemporary animal welfare standards.Year after year, observers report abuses such as the hooking and dragging of live seals across the ice, seals clubbed or shot and left to suffer on the ice, and seals skinned while conscious. And while all recent veterinary reports recommend reducing the suffering of seals, their recommendations have not been fully implemented. There is no doubt that Canada’s commercial seal hunt continues to result in considerable and unacceptable suffering.
Power Line Safety for Hungary’s Hawks
Power lines kill raptors. Tens of thousands of raptors a year die on power lines. But there are ways to avoid this.
On 26 February, the Hungarian Ornithological and Nature Conservation Society (MME; BirdLife in Hungary) signed an agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Water (MEW), and all relevant electric companies in Hungary, to provide a long-term solution for bird-electrocutions. The signing parties promised to transform power lines in Hungary, and to make them more ‘bird-friendly’ by 2020.Since the 1980s, electrocutions and collisions with electric power lines have caused the death of thousands of protected birds in Hungary and other European countries. The real extent of the problem, and the approximate number of affected birds, were not clear until MME started to systematically gather data on electrocuted birds in 2004.To date, five national surveys of power lines have been completed by 150 volunteers and national park employees. They covered all important bird habitats in Hungary.In total, 2,183 carcasses of electrocuted birds were found underneath 19,216 electric poles. Based on these findings, MME estimated that at least 30,000 birds (especially Raptors and Corvids) are killed annually.”Electrocution is one of the most Significant causes of death for several globally threatened raptor species, such as Eastern Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca, Saker Falcon Falco cherrug and Red-footed Falcon Falco vespertinus” said Márton Horváth (MME).Another serious problem concerning electric power lines is birds colliding with the wires. These incidents affect mainly large migratory species such as cranes and geese, as well as the Vulnerable Great Bustard Otis tarda.
… read the rest here.