conservation
voltagegate | June 19, 2007"I am glad that the life of pandas is so dull by human standards, for our efforts at conservation have little moral value if we preserve creatures only as human ornaments; I shall be impressed when we show solicitude for warty toads and slithering worms."
-Stephen Jay Gould
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: researchblogging.org, global warming, climate change, ornithology, birds, avian biodiversity, habitat destruction
White-crested hornbill, Tropicranus albocristatus, also confined to African rainforests, may see more than half of its geographic range lost by 2100.
Image: Walter Jetz, UCSD. [larger]
Thanks to the combined effects of global warming and habitat destruction, bird populations will experience significant declines and extinctions over the next century, according to a study conducted by ecologists at the University of California, San Diego and Princeton University. This…
grrlscientist | June 15, 2007tags: conservation, rainforest, Costa Rica, birds
Cagan Sekercioglu of the Center for Conservation Biology used a radio antenna to monitor bird positions in the agricultural countryside at Las Cruces Biological Station in Costa Rica.
Image: Scott Loarie
We all know the common wisdom; coffee grown on open plantations in Costa Rica is bad for the native tropical forest birds' long-term survival. But a new study shows that this situation is more complex than originally thought. According to this study, by Cagan Sekercioglu, senior scientist at the Stanford University Center for Conservation…
voltagegate | June 14, 2007Nuthatch reviews some current research in Animal Conservation and Biological Conservation about the effects of domestic cats on wildlife. Definitely worth a look, especially if you let your cats explore the neighborhood.
Heather and I have two cats - Stripey (right) and Lily (left) - who are perfectly content being in the house. Lily spent the first eight months or so of her life on the street and is petrified of leaving our apartment. Stripey's too lazy to care.
I think people feel bad for keeping animals cooped up, and when it comes to energetic dogs like border collies and corgis, they…
grrlscientist | June 9, 2007tags: horseshoe crab, Limutus polyphemus, red knot, Delaware Bay
Horseshoe Crab, Limutus polyphemus,
a living fossil.
Image: Pier Aquarium, Florida [larger].
In a controversial ruling, a Delaware Superior Court judge partially rolled back the two-year ban on the horseshoe crab harvest by limiting it to males only. The decision was a reaction against John Hughes, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, who was actually doing his job. However, according to the judge, Hughes had already decided to enact a complete moratorium on horseshoe crab harvests…
voltagegate | June 9, 2007Learn all about the vacated habitats of the river dolphins courtesy of the EDGE Blog.
grrlscientist | June 8, 2007tags: slow loris, endangered species, conservation, CITES
The Slow Loris, from the genus Nycticebus, is a nocturnal animal endemic to Asia.
This animal's cuteness could very well be its undoing.
Image: Anna Nekaris, Oxford Brookes University, UK.
Aww, isn't this cuddly little creature simply adorable??
Apparently thousands of people from around the world agree with you because the slow loris, a small nocturnal and arboreal animal that is endemic to much of Asia, is experiencing population declines due to habitat destruction and trapping for the pet trade.
They certainly make ideal pets…
voltagegate | June 8, 2007This means you, Defenders of Wildlife!
I have been a member of the World Conservation Union and the National Wildlife Federation for years now, and I've grown used to receiving quarterly mags, posters and gift wrap (just in time for Xmas - phew). But in the past couple of years, on a daily basis, I get loads of junk from other NGOs looking for new members - stickers, return address labels, postcards, envelopes, keychains, offers for backpacks, totes, stuffed animals, etc.
Most of these organizations point out how much we contribute to global warming through transportation. Perhaps they should…
voltagegate | June 8, 2007Well, for Greenpeace anyway.
Police helicopters forced down a Greenpeace hot air balloon on today as the environmental group took to the skies to try to get its message across to world leaders at a G8 summit.
[...]
The white hot air balloon had a giant yellow banner with the slogan "G8 Act Now" hanging below it, with the word "Failed" stamped across it. It was in the air for around 15 minutes before it was forced down.
"The hot air balloon was spotted immediately," said police spokesman Manfred Luetjann. "The air space is closed. They did not get very far. The two people on board were taken…
grrlscientist | June 4, 2007tags: northern spotted owl, barred owl, old growth forests, logging
Nothern Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis caurina.
Image: HRF [larger]
Despite the fact that President Clinton set aside 7 million acres of forest for owl habitat, the northern spotted owl population is still peril. So the government is using another, very controversial, approach to save this icon of the Pacific Northwest: shooting its cousins, the larger and more aggressive barred owls.
Basically, barred owls push the mild-mannered spotted owls from their habitat and they also eat them -- or, very rarely, according to…
voltagegate | May 22, 2007About a week or so back I actually checked my MySpace account to find an invite from a new conservation organization called EDGE: Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered, sponsored by the Zoological Society of London. NGOs nowadays are a dime a dozen, valuable but virtually identical. EDGE, however, seems to have, well, an edge.
They published a paper describing the application of their plan in PLoS One, my new favorite publication (a ton of ecology stuff, free and open access). EDGE is based on a relatively simple idea; they seek to prioritize mammalian conservation practice with…
grrlscientist | May 19, 2007tags: Trypanosoma evansi, parasite, wasting disease, Tabanus, Australia, conservation
A PhD student from James Cook University in Australia hopes her research will help protect Australian wildlife from an exotic wasting disease that could devastate kangaroos and other endemic marsupials.
Kirsty Van Hennekeler has spent four years studying Surra, the disease caused by a parasite that lives in mammalian blood. This parasite, Trypanosoma evansi, causes fever, weakness, and lethargy in its victims and can lead to weight loss, anaemia and even death of infected animals. It is thought this parasite…
grrlscientist | May 18, 2007tags: endangered species day, conservation
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution supporting the establishment of Endangered Species Day on 18 May. Endangered Species Day is a national celebration of America's commitment to protecting and recovering our nation's endangered species .. species such as the American bald eagle, peregrine falcon, gray wolf, grizzly bear, humpback whale and many others of our nation's wildlife, fish and plants.
The goal of Endangered Species Day is simple -- to educate people about the importance of protecting endangered species. With over 1,800…
grrlscientist | May 18, 2007tags: parrot, Lories, Lorikeet, Loriinae, Loriidae, Rimatara Lorikeet, Kuhl's Lory, Vini kuhlii, conservation, ornithology, South Pacific Islands
Endangered Rimatara lorikeet or Kuhl's lory, Vini kuhlii, feeding on nectar.
Image: G McCormack, Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust (CINHT). [larger image]
My life's passion is the birds of the South Pacific, particularly the Loriinae, which are parrots commonly known as the lories and lorikeets. I study them professionally and I have lived with them and bred them for most of my life. So it was exciting to me when I learned that one of my…
grrlscientist | May 16, 2007tags: turtle, Cantor's giant softshell turtle, Pelochelys cantorii, endangered species, herpetology, reptiles
This photo released by Conservation International, shows two rare Cantor's giant
softshell turtles, Pelochelys cantorii, thought to be on the brink of extinction.
Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund announced today, 16 May 2007,
that scientists discovered the rare species in Cambodia in a former stronghold of the
Khmer Rouge in March.
A rare soft-shell turtle has been found in Cambodia's Mekong River, raising hopes that the threatened species can be saved from…
voltagegate | May 16, 2007This post discusses an article published in PLoS Biology reviewing Cornell Ecologist Josh Donlan's idea of importing African analogs of extinct North American vertebrates like the American lion and the mammoth in the hopes that filling these niches will restore and stabilize lost ecosystems. Two questions from my end: Are these non-native organisms truly analogous to their extinct American cousins and is it too late to make such a bold move?
Ecologists have been debating about whether or not they know enough to begin rebuilding long-lost ecosystems by replacing extinct large vertebrates with…
voltagegate | May 15, 2007Welcome to the 5th edition of Oekologie, the 'sphere's only blog carnival focusing on ecology and environmental science. We are always looking for hosts (especially for October) and contributors, so please check out those tabs if you're interested in either.
Some of you may know that I have a tendency to mix in some history when hosting science carnivals. So, for the first themed edition of Oekologie, we will be using ancient and medieval Arabic nature writing to frame our moving monthly mag of biological interactions in the environment.
Zoology One of the most famous Arabic zoological…
voltagegate | May 14, 2007"The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else."
-Jane Goodall
voltagegate | May 12, 2007From Ontario to Greece to Panama, what are participating bloggers finding out in the field? This thread will be constantly updated throughout the week, blog carnival style, compiling all of the bioblitzes that are being conducted. Please contact me if you have something up; I'll make sure I add it to the list.
Don't forget to check out all of the participant's photos at the Flickr group (over 300 photos now).
For info about the Blogger Bioblitz, follow the links:
Read more about the blitz
Visit the forum
See submission guidelines
Join the Flickr group
Find a field guide online
Download a…