Things related to the web of life; ecology; wildlife; endangered species
"France said Tuesday it planned to 'gradually' ban mink farms in the country as well the use of wild animals in travelling circuses and the breeding of dolphins and orcas in captivity."
"New findings suggest a previously unknown virus may play a role in the sudden death of many freshwater mussels in recent years."
"In the Pacific north-west, local people work the shoreline, creating conditions for useful species to thrive".
"Wildfires in Washington state have burned hundreds of thousands of acres, including an important mating habitat for sage grouse."
"The deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana this year which had baffled and alarmed conservationists were caused by toxins produced by cyanobacteria in water, officials said on Monday."
"A decade-long global effort to save Earth’s disappearing species and declining ecosystems has mostly stumbled, with fragile habitats like coral reefs and tropical forests in more trouble than ever, researchers said in a report Tuesday."
"In the past seven years, trafficking of jaguars and their body parts has become a major threat to the species, with China the main destination."
Bird brains, despite the dictum, are anything but deficient. In fact, a new book by science and nature writer Jennifer Ackerman reveals how scientists, driven by rising diversity in their own ranks and by the leverage of new technologies, are gaining a dramatically new understanding of the complexities of bird behavior. BookShelf has a review of “The Bird Way.”
"The discovery was heartbreaking for biologists, who consider the mountain lions of Southern California to be among the most threatened mammals in North America: a young male with the distortions of inbreeding — a tail kinked like the letter “L” and only one descended testicle."
"Gravel mines, airstrips, and ice roads could appear in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Congress never intended when it agreed to allow oil development there, more than a dozen states are claiming in a bid to stop drilling there."
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