nature conservation
gregladen | April 25, 2008
Washed-up sea snake rescued in New Zealand from PhysOrg.com
A highly venomous yellow-bellied sea snake that washed up on a New Zealand beach was recovering Thursday at an aquarium.
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Researchers recommend ways to fight lake trout invasion in Glacier National Park from PhysOrg.com
Natural barriers like waterfalls play an important role in preventing lake trout from spreading through Glacier National Park, so maintaining those barriers should be a priority, Montana State University researchers said after conducting a four-year study in the park.
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Ozone hole recovery may reshape…
gregladen | April 21, 2008
Happy Earth Day, Earth! Do you recognize any of these locations?
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gregladen | April 21, 2008
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…
gregladen | April 16, 2008A 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.
The project, funded by the Disney World Conservation Fund (DWCF), also established a network of trained wardens in…
gregladen | April 13, 2008State of the Wild 2008-2009: A Global Portrait of Wildlife, Wildlands, and Oceans (State of the Wild) is a production of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
...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…
gregladen | April 11, 2008Birds 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.
At a time when bat populations are declining worldwide, this new-found benefit to organic coffee farmers is another example of how these much-maligned mammals provide ecological services…
gregladen | April 11, 2008
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…
gregladen | April 10, 2008
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…
gregladen | April 8, 2008
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…
gregladen | April 8, 2008
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.
Once prevalent in every Wisconsin county, prairie chickens have been on the state's threatened species list since 1979, as fragmentation and degradation of the birds' native habitat has reduced their…
gregladen | March 31, 2008Canada, 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 Myths
Here 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…
gregladen | March 30, 2008Power 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…