SKCEA.ORG » Wildlife

Satellite Study Reveals Critical Habitat and Corridors for World’s Rarest Gorilla

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:45:02 +0000

Conservationists working in Central Africa to save the world’s rarest gorilla have good news: the Cross River gorilla has more suitable habitat than previously thought, including vital corridors that, if protected, can help the great apes move between sites in search of mates, according to the North Carolina Zoo, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and other groups.

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Satellite Study Reveals Critical Habitat and Corridors for World’s Rarest Gorilla

Obama’s Forest Service Weakens National Forest Wildlife Protections

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:28 +0000

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Forest Service today released a new proposal for the nation’s 193-million-acre national forest system that will weaken rules protecting fish and wildlife from logging, livestock grazing, mining and off-road vehicles. The new proposal, which was released as part of the final environmental impact statement for the rule, is the Forest Service’s fourth attempt since 2000 to revise nationwide regulations governing national forests. All three previous attempts were challenged in court by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, and all three prior attempts were found unlawful. Like the 2000, 2005 and 2008 rules, the Obama administration’s planning rule would decrease longstanding protections for wildlife on national forests.

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Obama’s Forest Service Weakens National Forest Wildlife Protections

The World is Still Consuming Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 02:02:17 +0000

Not too long ago, a big problem with the fishing industry was that dolphins were being captured in the large nets used to harvest tuna. They would get mixed in and their meat would be ground up and served with the tuna in the tuna can. When people caught on, they were outraged. Now tuna fish providers offer their tuna cans with labels which say dolphin free. But not everything is so peachy for the dolphin in other parts of the world. According to a new study from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Okapi Wildlife Associates (Okapi), dolphins and other marine mammals are still being eaten. In fact, since 1990, 114 countries claim to consume one or more of at least 87 species of marine mammals.

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The World is Still Consuming Dolphins and Other Marine Mammals

Mexico pipeline oil spill may take month to clean

admin — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:24:25 +0000

Two weeks after a pipeline leak in coastal Mexico sent oil gushing into a river, state oil monopoly Pemex has recovered about two-thirds of the spilled crude, but the full clean-up could take another month. Mexico’s environmental protection agency, Profepa, is supervising containment of the 1,500-barrel spill that killed fish, injured wildlife and left greasy slicks in the Coatzacoalcos river. “Right now it is more about containing the emergency,” Profepa official Sergio Herrera told Reuters. “There will be further actions to clean the river, the banks of the river, and the zone where the damage has happened.” Pemex blamed the December 31 leak in Veracruz state on vandalism. Fuel thieves routinely tap into Mexico’s network of pipelines to steal oil and gas for sale on the black market, often causing small spills. The company has contracted 140 workers to clean up the mess, which it said was mostly contained in a lagoon near the affected valve.

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Mexico pipeline oil spill may take month to clean

Top-secret snake!

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:37:11 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. This newly-discovered snake species , named Matilda's Horned Viper after the discoverer's 7-year-old daughter, lives in Tanzania somewhere. Beyond that, who can say? The answer is nobody (except Matilda's dad Tim Davenport, who took the photo above, and maybe a handful of other people from the Wildlife Conservation Society), because the snake lives in an undisclosed location. The viper is so endangered that conservationists are keeping its exact habitat is a secret , out of fear that it will attract trophy hunters and exotic animal poachers. It is often the case that the first few specimens of a newly discovered bush viper can be worth a high price and this can have a very damaging impact on the population, In the case of Matilda’s Horned Viper, a sudden rush to collect as many specimens as possible could actually extirpate the species in the wild. To avoid the unsustainable collection of such a rare snake, we have agreed with the editor of the scientific journal Zootaxa – where the species description is published – to keep the locality as vague as possible (only very general information is given), with the possibility of more specific information provided by the authors on request, for scientific purposes only. Such a practice should be taken into consideration by taxonomists every time a new, rare species of potential commercial interest is described. A species this new can't be classified as endangered — there's some paperwork to do first. But the snake has a range of only a few square miles (SOMEWHERE), and researchers are predicting that it will be considered critically endangered. They've set up a breeding program in Tanzania (SOMEWHERE), partly to ensure the species' survival even if it does get overrun with poachers, and partly to provide specimens of the new snake to animal breeders in order to dissuade them from trying to collect the vipers in the wild.

Nature is trying to reabsorb the exurbs

admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:06:40 +0000

by Greg Hanscom. Great news for folks who have watched the value of their exurban McMansions circling the drain over the past few years: These fringe habitations can be returned to nature to find new life as wildlife habitats. It’s basically the real estate version of composting. Okay, so there's not really an official effort to make subdivisions into sanctuaries, but apparently nobody told bears that. In Hopatcong, N.J., a cable TV repairman recently descended into 85-year-old Frank Annacone's basement and found a 500-pound black bear slumbering there. The folks at Gothamist dubbed it the “Reverse Goldilocks Bear,” and in a true case of lopsided justice, it was quickly tranquilized and subjected to an “examination” (yikes) before being released back into the wild. (What did Goldilocks get, a good scare and a few hours of community service?) It’s not the first time wild animals have done the “creative reuse” thing on the outer edges of civilization. BldgBlog has dredged up tales of bobcats lounging around foreclosed exurban mansions , bees that turned a California home into a honey factory, and a pack of coyotes that squatted in a burned-out house in Glendale, Calif. Someone needs to tell these guys that the long commute back to the forest will ruin their marriages .

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Nature is trying to reabsorb the exurbs

‘Christmas miracle’ for endangered rhinos

admin — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:42:46 +0000

Conservationists and wildlife officials in the Malaysian state of Sabah airlifted a young female Sumatran Rhinoceros — one of the world’s most endangered animals — to an area of forest where she would encounter a potential partner, reports the Sabah Wildlife Department and Borneo Rhino Alliance. Sumatran Rhinoceros populations are so low, some individuals live in areas where they have no hope of ever finding another rhino. “This is a fantastic gift for our uphill battle in ensuring the survival of this truly unique species and wonderful timing with Christmas, a time to give thanks for our blessings,” said Laurentius Ambu the Director of the SWD. “We have monitored her since 2007, and there is no sign that any other rhino has entered her range in the past five years,” added Junaidi Payne the Executive Director of Borneo Rhino Alliance. “This is a stark indication that so few rhinos remain that they are simply not meeting for reproduction.”

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‘Christmas miracle’ for endangered rhinos

The eco travel guide to Finland

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:00:25 +0000

Finland has become synonymous with Christmas thanks to its northern Lapland region. But with buzzing cities and wonderful wildlife, there’s far more to the country than Santa Claus. Scandinavia’s youngest country and its second largest, Finland offers a curious blend of cosmopolitan cities and cutting-edge design juxtaposed with huge stretches of wilderness.

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The eco travel guide to Finland

Wildlife Protection at Glover’s Reef, Belize Falling Short

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:24:09 +0000

Belize, the small Central American nation facing the Caribbean Sea on the Yucatan Peninsula, is home to extremely diverse and tropical wildlife. A large stretch of sea surrounding Glover’s Reef, an atoll reef lagoon that is home to a beautiful resort, has been placed under government protection. As a result of the fishing ban, populations of barracuda, groupers, snappers, and other predators have rebounded. However, populations of herbivorous fish have only slightly increased. This means trouble for the corals which depend on the herbivorous fish to eat the algae which collects upon and smothers them.

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Wildlife Protection at Glover’s Reef, Belize Falling Short

Border fence is bad for bears

admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:26:43 +0000

by Sarah Laskow. Ever since America decided the best way to keep the teh-rur-ists and immigrants out was to build a fence along the southern border, environmentalists have worried about the impact of a gigantic, impenetrable fence on the local wildlife. And while we know that it's hard for most people to get their hackles up about the fate of the dune sagebrush lizard, we've got your charismatic fauna right here: adorable black bears . According to a new study, the bears near the Arizona border are actually Illegal Immigrants — they’re more closely related to black bears in Mexico than to those living further north in the state. In the past they were wont to migrate back and forth over the border, but now they're stuck, and their population is dwindling. Maybe they will wander over to Texas and eat George W. Bush in retribution.

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Border fence is bad for bears

Great Lakes wolves to lose federal protection

admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:05:50 +0000

Thousands of gray wolves in the Midwest will soon be stripped of federal safeguards under the Endangered Species Act, the government said on Wednesday, in a move that could open the animals to state-licensed hunting. An estimated 4,000 wolves in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and parts of adjacent states are due to lose their status as either endangered or threatened species on January 27, 2012 under the newly issued U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule. Some environmental groups criticized the action as likely to jeopardize the wolf’s recovery, but federal wildlife managers said the animal’s population had grown robust enough to hand control of the iconic predator back to the states. A review of the Great Lakes wolf population found the species has exceeded its recovery goals in recent years, Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said in a statement. The agency estimates there are now 2,921 wolves in Minnesota, 687 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and 782 in Wisconsin.

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Great Lakes wolves to lose federal protection

Great Lakes wolves to lose federal protection

admin — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:05:50 +0000

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Great Lakes wolves to lose federal protection

This Chicago park will be almost 10 times as big as Manhattan

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 18:29:29 +0000

by Sarah Laskow. On Chicago's South Side, 140,000 acres of brownfields and other underused land are just sitting there. But Illinois is putting $17 million into turning that fallow ground into what will be the largest city park in the lower 48 . (Alaska has one that's bigger.) The park will be called the Millennium Reserve and will promote wildlife conservation as well as giving Chicagoans a place to bike, walk, and whatnot. And as the Atlantic shows so simply in the graphic above, it’s way, way bigger than Central Park. In fact, this sucker's so big that it's 9.5 times the size of all of Manhattan, and almost as big as Chicago itself. If the Illinois government knows what's good for it, it will save some funding for signage and park maps: 140,000 acres is a big chunk of park to get lost in.

Radioactive monkeys will patrol Fukushima

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:59:05 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. Scientists have a new approach to monitoring radiation levels around Fukushima: They're outfitting local monkeys with radiation-measuring collars , then releasing them back into the wild. The monkeys will spend a month frolicking around the (potentially) nuclear forest, collecting data about radiation levels on the ground. The experimental device, which will also include GPS tracking and a device to measure height, will be attached to as many as three monkeys in the forest in Minami Soma City as soon as February, [the lead researcher] said. [Ed. note: No way, as many as three whole monkeys??] The creatures are expected to wear the collar for about a month. It will then be detached by the researchers using remote control technology and collected so the data can be analyzed. This has the potential to give scientists a much better idea of the effect a disaster like the Fukushima meltdown has on the natural world, including water, trees, and wildlife. But it also has the potential for one of the radioactive monkeys to bite a researcher who will then develop the proportional strength of a monkey. I smell a musical!

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Radioactive monkeys will patrol Fukushima

New species from Asia include noseless monkey named ‘Snubby’

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:50:33 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. There are still way more kinds of creatures out there than science knows about — we're discovering new species all the time, and it always seems like the new ones are the weirdest yet. The World Wildlife Fund just released info about their 2010 discoveries in Asia's Mekong River region, which traverses Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and China. Among the new finds: A monkey with a pompadour and (effectively) no nose, nicknamed “Snubby.” This description of Snubby from the report cannot be improved upon: Locals claim that the black and white monkey is very easy to find when it is raining because the monkeys often get rainwater in their upturned noses causing them to sneeze. To avoid this evolutionary inconvenience, snub-nosed monkeys spend rainy days sitting with their heads tucked between their knees. Snubby's pals include a psychedelic orange and purple gecko, a fish that looks like a gherkin, and a species of skink that has no males and reproduces via parthenogenesis — i.e. it clones itself. These were discovered when scientists stumbled on them in a restaurant, which is a story you hear sometimes about models and actresses but rarely about self-cloning lizards. (The models and actresses are not usually in the restaurant because they're being sold as food, though.) The Mekong region has exceptional biodiversity, and species are discovered there at an average rate of one every two days. Last year's totals reached 208 new species, although 145 of them were plants and therefore relatively boring except the five carnivorous plants which are cool.

International Mountain Day – 11th December 2011

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:14:34 +0000

Since 2003, the United Nations General Assembly has designated the 11th December as International Mountain Day, in order to raise global awareness of the importance of mountains. The annual celebration was born from the success of the 2002 UN International Year of Mountains, which saw the creation of the Mountain Partnership, an alliance dedicated to protecting mountains for both people and wildlife.

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International Mountain Day – 11th December 2011

Brits make disused landfill into wildlife sanctuary

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 19:36:16 +0000

by Sarah Laskow. There are a few options of what to do with an old landfill: cover it over and leave it alone; turn it into a field for solar panels; convince people t o play soccer on top of it . One town in England is going a step further and returning a decommissioned landfill to nature. The 16-acre spot in Stourpaine (how do British places names always sound so British?) was taken out of active use in 1993. Now, the town is planting trees and shrubs over the area in the hopes of attracting woodland animals and birds. The new forest will also be harvested (responsibly, of course) for firewood, which, one assumes, will be burnt in the hearth of a local pub, to which we will all go round on a winter's day. Anyway, this is a nice project, and more people should copy it.

Psychedelic gecko, "Elvis" monkey in new Mekong finds

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:04:23 +0000

A wildly-colored gecko, a fish that looks like a gherkin, and a monkey with an Elvis-like hairstyle are among the more than 200 new species discovered in the Greater Mekong region last year, environmental group WWF said on Monday. The area’s diversity is so astonishing that a new species is found every two days, but regional cooperation and decision-making must take centre stage to preserve its richness, the group added. The dangers posed to local wildlife were highlighted earlier this year, when WWF said that Vietnam’s Javan rhinos have been poached into extinction. “While the 2010 discoveries are new to science, many are already destined for the dinner table, struggling to survive in shrinking habitats and at risk of extinction,” said Stuart Chapman, Conservation Director of WWF Greater Mekong, in a statement. Among the new species highlighted in the report “Wild Mekong” is a gecko with bright orange legs, a yellow neck, and a blue-gray body with yellow bars on its bright orange sides, discovered on an island in southern Vietnam.

It’s panda-countin’ time!

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:52:56 +0000

by Jess Zimmerman. Get out your panda-counting equipment, because it's panda census time ! China's government is organizing the first panda census in a decade, sending out teams of wildlife biologists over hill and under dale in search of the elusive critters. And it's not as fun as it sounds. Pandas are really rare in the wild — the last census, which was conducted in 2000, turned up only 1,596 of them. So most of panda census-taking involves traipsing around in the mountains looking at a distinct absence of pandas. Although actually, coming up empty-handed might be preferable to what your hands are full of when you do find evidence of pandas: Panda droppings are pale green and look a little like bundles of twigs. When the team finds them, a junior researcher accompanying Dai does a maneuver that any U.S. dog owner would recognize, grabbing it with his hand inside a plastic bag that he then turns inside out and ties shut. With a handheld GPS device, the team also records the precise locations where excrement is found. Each panda's droppings are a signature, varying according to how thoroughly the animal chomps the bamboo. Back at the lab, researchers extract and measure the stalks of bamboo. By studying the samples and their locations, the scientists can get a rough idea of how many pandas are in a particular area. For this census, they will also conduct DNA analysis of the poop. The likelihood is that this census won't find heartening numbers: “There is no way it could have gone up,” says [conservation researcher Sarah] Bexell, who is also a research scholar at the University of Denver. “The Chinese government is trying so terribly hard to protect their national treasure, but until humans globally get our population under control and our consumption habits under control, it's impossible to save wildlife.” But it's not impossible — conservation efforts have slightly increased the panda population since the 1980s, though only slightly. We won't know for sure until the census is completed and the results are published, which won't be for at least two years. Meanwhile, godspeed, panda pooper-scoopers!

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It’s panda-countin’ time!

It’s panda-countin’ time!

admin — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:52:56 +0000

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It’s panda-countin’ time!