tagged w/ Wildlife
-
Newfoundland and Labrador drivers are suing the government over vehicle accidents involving moose. Sorry posting again first link broke :-(Newfoundland and Labrador drivers are suing the government over vehicle accidents... more
-
-
The comings and goings of otters in Norfolk have become a big online attraction. Peter Marren reports.It takes patience and a lot of luck to even spot an animal as elusive as the otter, let alone watch it over weeks and months.
link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8244349/You-never-saw-Tarka-like-this.htmlThe comings and goings of otters in Norfolk have become a big online attraction. Peter... more
-
-
-
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO SEE THE LATEST UPDATES, ETC.]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dead Birds Fall From Sky In Sweden, Millions Of Dead Fish Found In Maryland, Brazil, New Zealand
The Huffington Post | Travis Walter Donovan First Posted: 01- 5-11 09:11 AM | Updated: 01- 5-11 06:16 PM
UPDATE: Wildlife officials say that even more previously unreported dead birds were found in Kentucky last week.
--
Millions of dead fish surfaced in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay in the U.S., Tuesday, while similar unexplained mass fish deaths occurred across the world in Brazil and New Zealand. On Wednesday, 50 birds were found dead on a street in Sweden. The news come after recents reports of mysterious massive bird and fish deaths days prior in Arkansas and Louisiana.
The Baltimore Sun reports that an estimated 2 million fish were found dead in the Chesapeake Bay, mostly adult spot with some juvenile croakers in the mix, as well. Maryland Department of the Environment spokesperson Dawn Stoltzfus says "cold-water stress" is believed to be the culprit. She told The Sun that similar large winter fish deaths were documented in 1976 and 1980.
ParanaOnline reports that 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish have washed up in Brazilian fishing towns since last Thursday. The cause of the deaths is unknown, with an imbalance in the environment, chemical pollution, or accidental release from a fishing boat all suggested by local officials.
In New Zealand, hundreds of dead snapper fish washed up on Coromandel Peninsula beaches, many found with their eyes missing, The New Zealand Herald reports. A Department of Conservation official allegedly claims the fish were starving due to weather conditions.
While all three events are likely unrelated, they come after recent reports of mysterious dead birds falling from the sky in both Arkansas and Louisiana. Thousands of dead birds were found in Beebe, Arkansas on New Year's Eve, and a few days later, around 500 of the same species were found 300 miles south in Louisiana. A Kentucky woman also reported finding dozens of dead birds scattered around her home. In the days prior to New Year's, nearly 100,000 fish surfaced in an Arkansas river 100 miles west of Beebe. Officials are now saying that fireworks likely caused the Arkansas bird deaths, and power lines may be to blame for the death of the birds in Louisiana.
Some remain skeptical of the explanations. Dan Cristol, a biology professor and co-founder of the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary, told the AP that he was hesitant to believe fireworks were to blame unless "somebody blew something into the roost, literally blowing the birds into the sky."
Wednesday, officials in Sweden reported the finding of 50 dead birds on a street, suggesting that cold weather or fireworks were the likely culprit.
Bird deaths and fish kills at smaller numbers aren't all that uncommon, though the size and proximity of some of the recent events have led people to allege their relation, though officials deny the frequency of these wildlife deaths as being anything other than coincidence.
In August of 2010, tens of thousands of dead fish were reported washing ashore in two separate occasions, 200 miles apart on the East Coast.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------... more
-
-
Tortoises Displaced By San Bernardino Solar Plant Now Sick
January 5, 2011 2:54 PM
File photo (credit: AP)
From darleeneworks
SAN BERNARDINO (AP) — Five threatened desert tortoises relocated to build a solar energy plant in northeast San Bernardino County now appear to be sick.
Biologists working for BrightSource Energy Co., which is building a solar project in the Ivanpah Valley, tested blood from 32 desert tortoises for two types of bacteria that causes respiratory infections and have contributed to the decline of the species.
Five of the animals have or are suspected of being infected. Federal wildlife officials will require that the sick tortoises be quarantined while the healthy animals will be returned to the wild.
The Oakland-based company broke ground in October for the plant which is expected to generate enough electricity for about 140,000 homes.Tortoises Displaced By San Bernardino Solar Plant Now Sick
January 5, 2011 2:54 PM... more
-
-
Were they shooting fireworks too?
"Paging Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren...
After reports of thousands of dead red-winged blackbirds falling from the sky in Beebe, Arkansas -- along with reports of a massive fish kill in the same area -- raised concerned eyebrows across the land, another bird kill is being reported in a small town near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Reports the Baton Rouge Advocate:
State biologists are trying to determine what led to the deaths of the estimated 500 red-winged blackbirds and starlings on La. 1 just down the road from Pointe Coupee Central High School.
The discovery of the dead birds — some of which were lying face down, clumped in groups, while others were face up with their wings outstretched and rigid legs pointing upward — comes just three days after more than 3,000 blackbirds rained down from the sky in Beebe, Ark. ... In Louisiana, biologists with the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries spent part of the day Monday scooping up some of the birds in Pointe Coupee Parish to be sent for testing at labs in Georgia and Wisconsin.
Officials in Arkansas say that the thousands of dead birds and fish discovered there over the weekend died of natural causes. As you might expect, others are insinuating that something more sinister is going on."Were they shooting fireworks too?
"Paging Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi... more
-
-
New Years revelers in a small Arkansas town were enjoying midnight fireworks when they noticed something other than sparks falling from the sky: thousands of dead blackbirds..
http://www.indiareport.com/India-usa-uk-news/ap/National/75485New Years revelers in a small Arkansas town were enjoying midnight fireworks when they... more
-
-
US scientists believe fireworks may have caused thousands of birds to fall from the sky over an Arkansas town on New Year's Eve.
Karen Rowe, of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the red-winged blackbirds probably flew low to avoid explosions and collided with objects.
However, she stopped short of declaring the mystery solved, saying further tests on the dead birds are planned.
Officials say more than 3,000 birds fell over the city of Beebe.
The few that survived their fall stumbled around like drunken revelers, witnesses said.
Birds were "littering the streets, the yards, the driveways, everywhere," said Robby King, a county wildlife officer.
"It was hard to drive down the street in some places without running over them."
Initial laboratory reports said the birds had died from trauma, the AGFC said.
Residents reported hearing loud fireworks just before the birds started raining from the sky.
Tornado damage, Arkansas (31 December 2010) Severe weather over Arkansas could also be the cause of the mystery deaths
"They started going crazy, flying into one another," said AGFC spokesman Keith Stephens.
The birds also hit homes, cars, trees and other objects, and some could have flown hard into the ground.
"The blackbirds were flying at rooftop level instead of treetop level" to avoid explosions above, said Ms Rowe, an ornithologist.
"Blackbirds have poor eyesight, and they started colliding with things."
Beebe police chief Capt Eddie Cullum said they were inundated with calls from residents who saw the birds fall.
Poisoning has been ruled out after several cats and dogs that ate the dead birds suffered no ill effects, he added.
However, another theory is that a violent thunderstorm could have disoriented a roost of blackbirds.
Tornadoes swept through Arkansas and neighboring states on 31 December, killing seven people.
City authorities have hired a specialist waste disposal firm to collect the dead birds from gardens and rooftops, and remove them
Via BBC news and no word on the Fish!?US scientists believe fireworks may have caused thousands of birds to fall from the... more
-
-
Owls are dying under gruesome circumstances, bleeding to death from stomach hemorrhages in an agonizing and days-long decline. The culprit: An extra-potent class of rodenticides that has flooded the market in recent decades. Six of 164 dead barn owls, barred owls and great horned owls in a western Canada study had pesticide levels high enough to kill them outright, while readings in up to 30 percent of the others appeared toxic and seemed likely to handicap owls. The study is the latest evidence amassed by researchers that poses an unsettling question: Are we willing to poison owls and a variety of other wild animals in order to fight rats?
December 13, 2010
Part 1 of 2
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – With the spooky glow of his headlamp illuminating an antenna in his hand, Paul Levesque stalks one of Canada’s last remaining barn owls.
“Are you getting anything?” research team leader Sofi Hindmarch asks over a walkie-talkie.
“I got it!” Levesque responds. Then a few seconds later, dejected, he radios back: “No. I lost the signal.”
Working in darkness, with the quarter-moon obscured by clouds, these two scientists are trying to figure out what an elusive, radio-collared owl is eating along this country road just beyond the suburbs that ring Vancouver. Their mission is to determine whether the decline of Canada’s barn owl is tied, in part, to super-toxic rat poisons.
Scientists know that at least some owls are dying under gruesome circumstances, bleeding to death from stomach hemorrhages in an agonizing and days-long decline. The culprit: An extra-potent class of rat poisons that has flooded the market in recent decades, designed to more effectively kill rats, a food source for the owls.
An extra-potent class of rat poisons has flooded the market in recent decades, designed to more effectively kill rats, a food source for the owls.Six of 164 dead barn owls, barred owls and great horned owls in a 2009 western Canada study had rodenticide levels high enough to kill them outright, causing the fatal stomach hemorrhages. Pesticide readings in 15 percent to 30 percent of the others appeared toxic and seemed likely to handicap owls in a variety of ways, scientists say.
The study is the latest evidence amassed by researchers that poses an unsettling question: Are we willing to poison owls and a variety of other wild animals in order to fight rats?
“We’re finding this stuff all over the place,” said John Elliott, an Environment Canada scientist who co-authored the owl study published last year. “There’s a lot more rodenticide in the food chain than we would have ever thought. We’re surprised that there’s that much of the stuff kicking around.”
Studies in Canada, the United States and Europe show that this newer generation of rat poisons is killing a variety of wild animals, including mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, foxes, skunks, deer, squirrels, possums and raccoons, along with bald eagles, golden eagles, owls, hawks and vultures.
Hundreds of wildlife poisoning deaths have been documented. In the United States, and the pesticides have been found in hundreds of animals, according to a 2006 memo by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency biologist Bill Erickson. Two years earlier, he documented more than 300 incidents of wild animals suspected of being killed by the chemicals.
“Clearly, more information is urgently needed on the potential impacts such exposure may be having on populations” of raptors and other wild animals, Erickson wrote.
Erickson’s memo was part of a years-long process at EPA that resulted in 2008 in new rules to better control the rat poisons. In June of 2011 those rules go into effect, although they did not go as far as desired by some wildlife advocates, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The chemicals in question are known as anti-coagulants because they prevent an animal’s blood from clotting or coagulating. The first of these, synthesized in the 1940s, is known as warfarin – the same chemical sold in miniscule concentrations to people as Coumadin, a prescription blood thinner.
This barn owl study is the latest evidence amassed by researchers that poses an unsettling question: Are we willing to poison owls and a variety of other wild animals in order to fight rats?The new strain of rat poisons came along in the 1970s. The reason: Warfarin and its cousins required the rats to return to feed on the pesticide over the course of several days. With the newer versions, only a single dose is needed, although it might take five days or more to do the job. Brand names include Havoc, Talon, Contrac, Maki, Ratimus and d-CON Mouse Pruf II.
Some animals are ingesting the pesticides by eating poisoned rats as the rats stagger about, dazed but not yet dead. This goes on for days before the rats succumb, in the meantime making them easy targets for owls and other predators.
But there’s a mysterious wrinkle in this picture. How are plant eaters like deer and sheep ingesting rat poison? Grain eaters like squirrels? What about hawks that subsist almost exclusively on songbirds – songbirds that probably aren’t eating rats?
Scientists wonder: Just how far into the food web have these poisons penetrated?
cont.Owls are dying under gruesome circumstances, bleeding to death from stomach... more
-
-
Mass death of local wildlife in Arkansas begs to question what is happening to our ecosystem.Mass death of local wildlife in Arkansas begs to question what is happening to our... more
-
-
Who is shooting California sea lions? It's usually a mystery
January 2, 2011 | 11:33 am
The weak and woozy California sea lion found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach in December with buckshot embedded in its skull has become an all-too-common sight for wildlife officials.
Wildlife officials have seen a slight rise in the shooting of ocean mammals in recent years, and investigators often struggle to find a culprit. “We always try to do an investigation, but unless there's an eyewitness to the shooting it's hard to make a case for our enforcement folks,” said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks reports of the shootings.
NOAA said there were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 in the waters off the California coast — nine more than in 2008 and 14 more than five years earlier. Of the reported shootings in 2009, all were sea lions. And officials say many more cases likely go unreported.
Wildlife officials say sea lion and human populations continue to increase, making interaction more common, especially among fishermen who compete for the same food and often view the creatures as a nuisance.
Though NOAA and the California Department of Fish and Game are responsible for investigating these cases, few of them result in prosecution. Recent public outcry over highly publicized cases like that of the wounded sea lion near San Francisco have brought more attention to the shootings.
Veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., are treating the wounded critter in the hope an aquarium or zoo will take it. The 7-foot-long male, dubbed Silent Knight by its rescuers, is now blind and cannot return to the wild.
When there is a witness, there usually is a case. A witness came forward after the 2009 shooting of a 650-pound sea lion nicknamed Sgt. Nevis was covered by local press and television. Larry Legans of Sacramento was ordered to pay more than $51,000 in restitution for the cost of treating the critter, who recently underwent plastic surgery at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to close bullet holes in its muzzle. Legas also spent a month in jail and got five years' probation.
Lt. Rob Roberts, a warden with the state Fish and Game Department, noted that reports have increased in kind with the growth of the sea lion population along the Northern California coast. Roberts hopes successful prosecutions and intense media coverage of cases like Legans' will help. “If the general public sees that there's recourse and accountability, that's a deterrent,” he said.
The Marine Mammal Center, where Silent Knight is being treated along with hundreds of ocean animals suffering a variety of ailments, treated nine gunshot victims in 2010. The center treated 18 in 2009, down from a high of 72 sea lions in 1992, when the center started keeping statistics.
While the number of mammals treated for gunfire wounds has trended downward at the center over the decades, in recent years it has begun to creep back the other way, statistics show.
On Monday, more than 400 people came to see Silent Knight during the center's visiting hours, fascinated by the plight of the wounded pinniped, said Jeff Boehm, the center's executive director.The center tries to help wardens in the investigations by determining the kind of weapon that were used and how long an animal has been wounded.
“We've seen over 1,000 patients in 2010, and of that number only nine were shooting victims, a small fraction,” said Boehm, whose center studies and treats animals that have been injured by fishing nets, disease or environmental hazards like pollution.“But it's dramatic, because (these shootings) are entirely unnecessary situations.”
-- By Jason Dearen / Associated Press
Photo: Sea lions, including a large Steller sea lion, center, bask at the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, a group of craggy, remote islands nearly 30 miles west of San Francisco. The Steller sea lion is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Credit / Ben Margot / Associated PressWho is shooting California sea lions? It's usually a mystery
January 2, 2011 |... more
-
-
The New York Times
December 19, 2010
As Incomes Rise, So Does Animal Trade
By BETTINA WASSENER
HONG KONG — Four suitcases full of ivory, intercepted by customs at Suvarnabhumi International Airport near Bangkok. Rare tortoises, openly for sale at a fair in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. More than 2,000 frozen pangolins — scaly anteaters — seized from a fishing vessel off China.
Oh, and a 2-month-old tiger cub, alive but sedated, found inside a suitcase, also at the Bangkok airport.
If you think all of this sounds like old news — didn’t we see this in the 1970s and ’80s? — think again.
Every one of these incidents, documented by Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, took place within the past few months. They provide just a glimpse of the massive trade in endangered animals — and their bones, skins and other organs — that is taking place across Asia.
And they illustrate that half a century’s worth of efforts by governments, international organizations and conservationists have failed to stem wildlife trade and the extinction of numerous animals and plants.
Yes, conservation projects have helped preserve individual species, but over all the trade in rare creatures has grown, not shrunk — thanks largely to rising demand from an increasingly affluent Asia.
“I’ve been doing this job for close to 20 years,” said Chris R. Shepherd, who helps oversee Traffic’s Southeast Asia operations, “and I can say it’s never been anywhere near as bad as it is now.”
In the 1970s, when international conservation efforts began to take off, the issue was one of largely niche demand from wealthy consumers in the West. Now, however, the picture has changed radically.
Rapid growth across developing Asia over the past decade or two has caused wealth to increase quickly across much of the region. Credit Suisse, in a recent study, estimated that parts of Asia, including China, India and Indonesia, have seen the average wealth per adult soar between 100 percent and 400 percent since 2000.
Along with many of its neighbors, China is now a giant consumer of items like machinery, cars, washing powder, clothes and — yes — python-skin handbags and tiger penises, bear bile and other ingredients for traditional medicines or meals that once belonged to the aristocracy.
“Over the past 20 years, the nature of the demand has changed, thanks to a rising middle class in Asia,” said Colman O’Criodain, a wildlife trade policy analyst in Switzerland for the environmental group W.W.F. International.
James Compton, senior program director for Asia at Traffic, said from Beijing, “Whether it’s high-end luxury stores or the man on the street corner selling dried sea horses — you can see animals and animal parts being sold quite openly. Wildlife trade is now quite pervasive in Asia.”
The problem, experts say, is often not a lack of top-level political will. Many Asian countries, like those elsewhere, ban the trade of rare plants and animals. Rather, the problem is enforcement on the ground and growing demand from populations that are often simply not fully aware of just how endangered the creatures they are consuming are.
Wildlife species with high commercial value have declined drastically, and many are now rare, endangered or even locally extinct, Traffic wrote in a report about Southeast Asia in late 2008.
Figures are hard to come by, as only select species can be closely monitored. But here are a couple of examples to illustrate the scale of some the population declines:
•Some species of sharks are thought to have declined 90 percent. Considered a status symbol in Chinese culture, the soup made from pricey shark fins is now within the reach of many, many more people than it once was.
• There are now thought to be as few as 3,200 tigers left in the wild globally, down from 100,000 a century ago. Despite their acute rarity and international bans on tiger trade, officials throughout most of the tiger range countries, which span Russia and much of Asia, are intercepting the claws, skins or bones of about 100 tigers every year, a report published by Traffic last month found.
On the upside, attitudes are starting to change. Shark’s fin soup, for example, is becoming a decidedly uncool meal to serve in Hong Kong, the main hub for trade in the fins.
And in mainland China, where there was barely any coverage of animal welfare and related topics a decade ago, the media are now engaged, said Jill Robinson, founder of the Animals Asia Foundation, which campaigns for animal welfare and the conservation of endangered animals.
The sale of bear bile — often harvested from animals kept in tiny cages, and used in traditional medicine to cure ailments as varied as headaches and hemorrhoids — is legal in China, and demand is booming. But many doctors are starting to turn away from its use, not least because of a growing realization that bile from bears farmed in such conditions is often diseased, Ms. Robinson said.
Unfortunately, these efforts, commendable though they are, make only a small dent. Unlike in the West, where generations of children have grown up with nature programs, populations in Asia are not yet sensitized to issues like conservation, said Mr. O’Criodain of the W.W.F.
And while some countries have pretty advanced projects for preserving terrestrial species, “most consider the resources of the high seas — including overfished species of fish — as up for grabs,” he added.
Often, said Mr. Compton of Traffic, it is actually the rarity of the animal that makes it attractive to consumers, driving up its price.
For example, in Vietnam, where it is illegal to sell bear bile, a milliliter, or one-fifth of a teaspoon, of fresh, liquid bear bile can fetch as much as $30 on the black market, Animals Asia said.
Such prices mean fines and other penalties are an insufficient deterrent to often impoverished local populations.
“Wildlife crime is becoming more and more organized and sophisticated, and enforcement capacities are not managing to keep up,” said Mr. Shepherd of Traffic.
“The political will is changing; we’re seeing a lot of high-level commitments. But we need to see that translate into action on the ground. Otherwise, it will just be business as usual.”
For some species, even the welcome change in awareness may already simply be too little, too late.The New York Times
December 19, 2010
As Incomes Rise, So Does Animal Trade
By... more
-
-
Food journalist Stefan Gates investigates a community appetite for bushmeat in Cameroon. Though it's illegal to hunt or purchase meats from animals like the porcupine, gorilla, and chimpanzee, a local woman explains that she can still get a lot of money for preparing them in secret.
If Vanguard did a food show, it'd be Cooking in the Danger Zone. Gates goes on a worldwide odyssey to check out the crazy (to us) foods that people eat in the far flung corners of the globe. In each episode he samples the culture and meets the locals before diving into the local delicacy.
Tune into Current TV on Sundays at 10pm to watch more.Food journalist Stefan Gates investigates a community appetite for bushmeat in... more
-
-
Musk Oxen Live to Tell a Survivors’ Tale - The New York Times
Photo: A holdover from the Pleistocene era, the musk ox has managed to hang on while most of its brethren disappeared at the end of the last ice age.
December 13, 2010
Musk Oxen Live to Tell a Survivors’ Tale
By NATALIE ANGIER
Among the various large, charismatic and visibly winterized mammals that one might choose as a mascot for life in the Arctic belt, polar bears are, let’s face it, too hackneyed, reindeer too Rudolph, caribou too Sarah Palin’s target practice, and woolly mammoths too extinct.
There’s a better choice, though few may have heard of it. According to Arctic biologists, the quintessential example of megafaunal fortitude in the face of really bad weather is the musk ox, or Ovibos moschatus, a blocky, short-legged, highly social ungulate with distinctively curved horns and long hair that looks like shag carpeting circa 1975.
Ovibos’s common name is only partly justified. The males do emit a musky cologne during mating season, but the animal is not an ox. Nor, despite its back-of-the-nickel silhouette, is it a type of buffalo either. Its closest living relations are thought to be goats and sheep, but taxonomically and metaphorically, the musk ox is in an icy cubicle of its own. Once abundant throughout the northern latitudes worldwide, today they are found only in Arctic North America, Greenland and pockets of Siberia and Scandinavia. The musk ox is a holdover from the Pleistocene, the age of the giant mammals memorialized in natural history murals everywhere — the mammoths and mastodons, the saber-toothed cats, the giant ground sloths, the 400-pound beavers. Yet while a vast majority of the frost-fitted bigfoots disappeared at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago, Ovibos hung on, as stubbornly as the ox it is not.
Scientists are now seeking to understand how, exactly, the animal has managed to persist through repeated climate shifts and habitat upheavals. Researchers see in the musk ox’s story clues to help guide efforts to conserve other large land mammals now at risk of extinction. They also hope to raise the profile of a species they consider magnificent, at once stalwart and supple, a page of living prehistory whose social and behavioral complexities they have just begun to decode.
“There’s evidence that they have an elephantlike social structure, and even some form of culture,” said Joel Berger, a researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society and a professor at the University of Montana. So why is everybody flying to Africa to see elephants when we’ve got this marvelous species living in our own backyard?
In a presentation last week at the Bronx Zoo, where the wildlife society is based, Dr. Berger described preliminary results from field studies of the musk ox that he has performed with Layne Adams of the U.S. Geological Survey and other collaborators. He talked about the challenges of catching animals to weigh and measure them, check their teeth, take their blood and furnish them with G.P.S. collars. One group of musk ox in Cape Krusenstern National Monument in Alaska had such bad, broken teeth you’d think they were subsisting on a diet of Pepsi and Snickers bars, said Dr. Berger, and the researchers worried that the population was unhealthy and on its way out.
Yet after suffering several seasons of declining numbers, the brown-toothers rebounded this year to match in fecundity and offspring survival a group living in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve that had exemplary teeth. The cause of their rotten dentition remains a mystery, but the Krusenstern clan clearly was not biting the dust.
For all their storied past as co-prancers with mastodons, musk oxen are not huge animals. Adult males stand about four feet high and weigh around 600 to 700 pounds, less than half the weight of the average draft horse. Yet they look hulky as a result of their spectacular double-layered fur coat. The long, shaggy outer layer they keep year round, not only to help shield them against the brutal cold of an Arctic winter, when temperatures can plunge 40 degrees or more below zero, but also to deter the insect pests of an Arctic summer.
“You’ll see caribou in summertime trotting across the countryside trying to get away from all the mosquitoes and biting flies,” said Jim Lawler, a biologist with the National Park Service’s Arctic Network in Fairbanks. “But the musk ox just stand there with clouds of mosquitoes hovering above them. It’s hard to penetrate that fur.” For added insulation, musk oxen grow a second fur layer each winter, an undercoat called qiviut that is said to be many times warmer than wool and softer than cashmere — and how obliging of the animals to shed that qiviut in spring for use in scarves.
With their stubby legs, musk oxen are not migratory like caribou or great dashers like reindeer. Their basic approach to winter management is: Don’t just do something — stand there. “You’ll see them in a big storm, drifted over, covered with snow,” said Dr. Lawler. “They’re almost part of the scenery.” They lapse into a state of what might be called hibernation al fresco, as their oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production drop and their metabolic rate slows by about a third. “They’re basically shutting down some of their machinery so they can survive on less food,” said Dr. Lawler, who has studied musk ox energetics.
Whatever their occasional resemblance to the scenery, musk oxen are by no means as dumb as a post. “They live in loosely knit family-bonded societies,” said Dr. Berger, and they keep track of who’s who. The group is, after all, essential to their survival. When confronted with predators like wolves, a herd of musk oxen will famously circle the wagons, the adults forming a wall of horns facing outward, the vulnerable young safely shielded behind them. They also seem to have a keen memory for where the best foraging grounds may be found in the spring, the optimal mix of grasses and willow twigs to maximize the performance of the microbes at work in their ruminant gut. Musk oxen turn out to be very efficient at extracting calories to put on the fat they need to survive the long winter fast.
Historical records and genetic evidence alike suggest that the musk ox is a Rasputin, “the comeback kid of the Quaternary,” said Ross MacPhee, curator of vertebrate zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. “They undergo periods where they really bolster their numbers for a few years, then they go down to an almost complete collapse, then later they come back like gangbusters.”
As a result of passing through repeated population bottlenecks, in which only a handful of individuals survived to spawn subsequent generations, today’s 100,000 musk oxen are thought to be notably homogenous, lacking in the sort of genetic diversity once thought critical to a species’ long-term prospects. “It would be hard to argue that musk ox are on their way out the door,” said Dr. MacPhee. “They are not weak sisters.”
Just ask that saber-toothed cat fossilized under the floor.
_____
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/14/science/14ANGI1/14ANGI1-articleLarge.jpgMusk Oxen Live to Tell a Survivors’ Tale - The New York Times
Photo: A... more
-
-
Stefano Unterthiner Photography : Animals Face to Face
Including these photos because they're just so wonderful!Stefano Unterthiner Photography : Animals Face to Face
Including these photos... more
-
-
Think the Secretary of the Interior wouldn't sell out our wolves and the Endangered Species Act? Think again.
We now know that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has been negotiating directly with the governors of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, and we now have strong reason to believe that he is going to propose and promote legislative language to eliminate life-saving protections for wolves in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and portions of Washington, Oregon, and Utah.
Hundreds of wolves — maybe more than a thousand — could die.
Don't let Secretary Salazar sell out our wolves and the Endangered Species Act. Write your senators and urge them to oppose this awful plan.
Under Salazar's proposal, wolves would be delisted and lose federal protection. They would also no longer be subject to the Endangered Species Act at any time and under any circumstances except at the sole discretion of the Secretary of the Interior.
And it would no longer be possible for the American public to propose protections for wolves no matter how critically imperiled they become. And once the Endangered Species Act is weakened in such a way, it would invite further outrages... dealing a serious blow to the very foundation of the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock conservation law in this country.Think the Secretary of the Interior wouldn't sell out our wolves and the... more
-
-
SHARED BY...
Jennifer Lee Pryor
President, Indigo Inc.
President, Tarnished Angel, Inc.
www.richardpryor.com
Director, Pryor’s Planet
www.pryorsplanet.com
From: nancyelizabeth green
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 1:07 PM
Subject: Fwd: WCTV (Tallahassee) CBS affiliate refusal to air news spot
A quick update to the situation in Ga. The station backed down from showing the spot, as the lawyer for the ministry called their legal dept. I called CBS in New York to issue a complaint. I am trying to find an attorney to help protect this woman and her animals from a greed-entrenched Christian entity and a town totally intimidated. These animals will starve if she cannot receive some type of feed assistance. I am hoping if people call CBS, maybe the spot will be aired and the truth will be revealed. Thank you
nancyelizabeth green
__________________________
-----Original Message-----
From: nancyelizabeth green
To: pjcooper
Cc: kokob
Sent: Wed, Nov 24, 2010 10:53 am
Subject: RE:WCTV (tallahassee) CBS affiliate refusal to air news spot
Ms. Cooper: The reporter (Ms. Caroline Gonzmart) did the interview. She was both professional and kind. High Point Ministries was informed, but did not send anyone. The spot was to be aired twice yesterday. Ms. Bannister received a call, approx. 4pm, telling her apologetically that the station could not air the spot as scheduled. Apparently, Mr. Kevin Cauley, attorney for the High Point Ministries, called WCTV's legal dept., and the rest is history. There was nothing negative or disparaging in the spot; just informing the community of the removal of animals, without any writ of possession filed or served, by High Point Ministries. I left messages with both the news director and station manager @ WCTV. This is of great concern to the animal community. This truly is a story of David vs. Goliath. The Tallahassee community has a right to know , and WCTV has a duty to reveal the truth, regardless of the influence of parties involved.
nancyelizabeth green atlanta ga.
"I urge you to ask yourself just how honorable it is to preside over the abuse and suffering of animals."
Richard Pryor
Dream High Farms (5013c) in Wigham, Ga. has been evicted without notice, by the High Point Ministries (Tallahassee, Fla.). This "christian"-based group, run by Donna Floyd, is wealthy; some say it has more $$$ than God! Three jets, a Russian orphanage; you get the idea. They had the sheriff remove 8 horses and one donkey last Friday night. No papers were ever filed or served, and Becky Bannister (founder of Dream High Farms) has adoption papers (2008) for the equines. They also took most of the feed and hay, which leaves Becky with barely enough to feed the remaining animals. This is a very small, rural town (631 people), and this ministry has the power of wealth and religion. I called local TV stations, trying to get a reporter to the property, when the sheriff was allowing the removal of these animals.
P.S. Becky just called me and told me a WCTV (CBS affiliate in Tallahassee), has responded, and is due @ Dream High Farms @ 9am, tomorrow (Tuesday) morning! I hope they have the guts to show the community, what the High Point Ministries is really all about. This situation is particularly despicable, as animals and children are being deprived under the guise of religion.
Thank you for passing this along to your contacts.
Respectfully, nancy elizabeth Green atlanta ga.
____________________________
Subject: Fwd: -11/12/10 HIGHPOINTE MINISTRIES EVICTING 5013c rehab for special needs children through animals
ATTENTION: The situation with the High Point Ministries (see below) has worsened. This evening, the sheriff of Wigham approached Mrs. Bannister's property and said they were removing her horses. No legal papers (eviction or otherwise), were presented. Several horses were confiscated. I was on the phone with Becky during the "theft" of her animals. The sheriff threatened her with obstruction of justice, as she objected. I tried to call TV stations, to get a reporter on the scene. I could not get anyone's attention. This is a travesty!
High Point Ministries needs to be confronted on their seemingly "unchristianlike" behavior. This is a small Georgia community (631population.) But, like its large city counterparts, $$$ appears to make right. The Sheriff needs to be investigated( Grady county) as to why he would assist in the removal of property without any type of court mandate. Please contact Becky Bannister.
Sent: Fri, Nov 19, 2010 10:30 am
Subject: -11/12/10 HIGHPOINTE MINISTRIES EVICTING 5013c rehab for special needs children thru animals
Press Release
11/12/10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dream High Farms, Whigham, Georgia
A Nonprofit Animal Rescue falls victim to greed of Christian Ministry.
Dream High Farms (an IRS approved 501(c)(3)) was founded in 2007 by Becky Bannister and her husband Richard. Richard Bannister is a Vietnam Air Force Veteran, who works for the U.S. Post Office. Becky has a background in adolescent psychology, mental retardation and substance abuse. They are located in Whigham, Georgia, in the southwestern portion of the State.
They currently provide needed shelter for 98 horses, 13 greyhounds, 50 peacocks, and 187 other assorted animals, including 2 llamas. Over the last five years they have provided Equestrian Assisted Therapy for hundreds of at risk youth in southwest Georgia and northern Florida.
In 2008 High Pointe Ministries stepped in to assist the agency, offering to purchase the land so that the Animal Rescue agency could continue in perpetuity. Tragically, benefactor Mike Floyd, passed away in January of 2010, leaving no will and control of the Christian Conglomerate to his wife Donna Floyd and his daughter Melode.
Donna Floyd is host of a Christian TV Show called “Wisdom for Winning” on WKOW, carried on Titan TV. High Pointe Ministries owns many interests in TV and radio, among other business entities.
I month ago High Pointe Ministries suspended all youth programming on the property, citing liability issues. With no warning, Dream High Farms was informed that they will be thrown off the property and High Pointe Ministries would take over the operation (see www.magnoliahorsefarm.com)
High Pointe Ministries (supposedly a Christian Organization) is behaving in a decidedly Un-Christian manner.
For more information contact:
Becky Bannister
850-899-7844
229-762-4407
.
http://highpointeministries.com/images/HighPointeSplash.jpg
.SHARED BY...
Jennifer Lee Pryor
President, Indigo Inc.
President, Tarnished... more
-
-
After a two-day train ride from Winnipeg, Robert Reid of Lonely Planet (http://lonelyplanet.com) and Kim Mance (http://galavanting.tv), arrive in the subarctic 'polar bear capital of the world', Churchill Manitoba which sits on the Hudson Bay. The two travel writers take off on adventure tours to see wild polar bears and beluga whales in their natural habitat. They also get unexpected bonuses like a rocket launcher, souvenir shopping, a visit to Polar Bear jail, and a chat with Parks Canada Bear Patrol.
hosted by: Kim Mance from http://galavanting.tv & Robert Reid from http://lonelyplanet.com
edited by: Kim Mance
music by: Robert Reid
motion graphics by: Courtney Hannibal
travel & accommodations provided by: Tourism Manitoba http://travelmanitoba.comAfter a two-day train ride from Winnipeg, Robert Reid of Lonely Planet... more
-
-
-
Tiger Summit aims to save big cats
AP
FILE - In this March 23, 2000 file photo, an Indian tiger looks on from a camouflaged cover of strawgrass in Ranthambhore National Park near Rajasthan AP – FILE - In this March 23, 2000 file photo, an Indian tiger looks on from a camouflaged cover of strawgrass …
By IRINA TITOVA and JIM HEINTZ Irina Titova And Jim Heintz – Fri Nov 19, 12:37 pm ET
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Global wildlife experts and political leaders from 13 countries on Sunday open a meeting aimed at finalizing complex and costly plans to revive the world's tiger population, which has plummeted so sharply that it may be near the point of no return.
Although the fierce and wily tigers may be the epitome of power in their natural habitat, they have seemed nearly helpless against man. The World Wildlife Fund and other experts say only about 3,200 of the big cats remain in the wild, a severe plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago.
Their forest habitat is being eaten up by timber operations and construction, while poachers stalk the dwindling tiger populations, killing them for their skins and for body parts prized in Chinese traditional medicine. The wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC said in a report this month that more than 1,000 parts of tigers slain by poachers across Asia had been seized in the past decade.
"The Tiger Summit is our last best chance to ensure a future for these animals in the wild," Ginette Hemley, a WWF vice president, said in a statement Thursday.
The summit, which ends Wednesday, is hosted by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has adroitly used encounters with tigers, polar bears and other wildlife to bolster his image, and was driven by the Global Tiger Initiative which was launched two years ago by World Bank President Robert Zoellick.
The summit intends to approve a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 and to produce a declaration of commitment signed by government leaders from al countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.
The summit also will be seeking donor commitments to buttress expenditures by each of the country's governments. A draft of the Global Tiger Recovery Program, expected to be approved at the meeting, estimates the countries will need $330 million in outside funding over the next five years to fulfill the plan. About 30 percent of that estimate would go toward programs to suppress the poaching both of tigers and of the animals they prey on.
For advocates, saving tigers has implications far beyond the emotional appeal of preserving an attractive and thrilling animal.
"Because tigers are apex predators at the top of the food chain in many Asian ecosystems, they are essential to the effective functioning of other parts of these ecosystems," the GTRP draft says. "Protecting tigers and their landscapes also protects a host of other endangered species and their habitats."
Over the past two decades, much has already been done to try to save tigers, but conservation groups say their numbers have continued to fall markedly, by about a third just since 1998.
In part, that decline is because conservation effors have been increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas where tigers can breed, according to a study published in September in the Popular Library of Science Biology journal.
Putin has done much to draw attention to tigers' plight. During a visit to a wildlife preserve in 2008, he shot a female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck as part of a program to track the rare cats.
Later in the year, Putin was given a 2-month-old female Siberian tiger for his birthday. State television showed him at his home gently petting the cub, which was curled up in a wicker basket with a tiger-print cushion. The tiger now lives in a zoo in southern Russia.
___
Heintz reported from Moscow.Tiger Summit aims to save big cats
AP
FILE - In this March 23, 2000 file... more
-
