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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #150 on: May 27, 2016, 12:36:00 AM »
Scientists say unseasonal rains could have caused the mass deaths of Kazakhstan's endangered saiga antelope.
Quote
Nearly half of the world's population of the saiga - a species of antelope older than the mammoth - were wiped out by a freak pathogen last year, in an event scientists are blaming on rapid temperature fluctuations caused by climate change.

More than 200,000 of the saiga, a small antelope native to central Asia, died over the course of two weeks in Kazakhstan's Betpak-Dala region in May, pushing the critically endangered species to the brink of extinction.

In the run-up to this year's breeding season, scientists say that toxins - produced by an otherwise common bacteria that lives harmlessly in the respiratory tract of the saiga - may have been responsible for the sudden deaths.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/05/kazakhstan-antelopes-saiga-160525181510378.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #151 on: June 16, 2016, 12:19:36 AM »
Revealed: first mammal species wiped out by human-induced climate change
Exclusive: scientists find no trace of the Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent that was the only mammal endemic to Great Barrier Reef
Quote
Human-caused climate change appears to have driven the Great Barrier Reef’s only endemic mammal species into the history books, with the Bramble Cay melomys, a small rodent that lives on a tiny island in the eastern Torres Strait, being completely wiped-out from its only known location.

It is also the first recorded extinction of a mammal anywhere in the world thought to be primarily due to human-caused climate change.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/14/first-case-emerges-of-mammal-species-wiped-out-by-human-induced-climate-change
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Clare

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #152 on: July 03, 2016, 02:57:23 AM »
 Mouse eradication project on remote Antipodes Islands SE of NZ:
http://milliondollarmouse.org.nz/



A really good video here, sorry I've forgotten how to embed the link!

« Last Edit: July 03, 2016, 04:52:35 AM by Clare »

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #153 on: July 27, 2016, 12:56:43 PM »
Good news, for a change!

Seahorse population reflects improved health of Chesapeake Bay
http://www.stardem.com/news/environment/article_77db7afc-9943-5993-992d-f27e513b2306.html
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OrganicSu

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #154 on: August 28, 2016, 03:48:37 PM »
Wasps - where have they gone?
Today, for 5 hours we crushed grapes for wine making, outdoors. Not a single wasp (or hornet) came during the whole time. The mulch of skins and pips is still outside and still nothing. Normally it's a ferocious feasting time.
Similarly have seen almost no mosquitoes or horseflies and only a few hornets and bees all summer, but at least I did see some of these.

budmantis

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #155 on: August 28, 2016, 04:07:52 PM »
Wasps - where have they gone?
Today, for 5 hours we crushed grapes for wine making, outdoors. Not a single wasp (or hornet) came during the whole time. The mulch of skins and pips is still outside and still nothing. Normally it's a ferocious feasting time.
Similarly have seen almost no mosquitoes or horseflies and only a few hornets and bees all summer, but at least I did see some of these.

That cant be good OrganicSu. We live in Florida, about half way down the peninsula. We have an abundance of paper wasps here, building nests in the eaves and in our carport, as well as in our shed.

OrganicSu

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #156 on: September 23, 2016, 04:34:23 PM »
Sea cucumbers - where have they gone?
I live near a large, shallow, inland bay (circa 20km long by 10 km wide). Everywhere I used to swim had huge amounts of sea cucumbers. They are not a part of the Greek diet. There was maybe an average of 1 per sq meter. Some places had 3 or 4 per sqm. Potentially one of the most densely populated regions in the world for sea cucumbers.
One person eventually got the paperwork together to export to China. He employed many people to pick them up between December 2015 and March 2016. The bay is emptied of 'almost' all sea cucumbers. I have seen none. I say 'almost' because it is surely impossible they got every single one.

1 part of the food pyramid here was eliminated in 1 winter.

The fisherman have complained hugely of the lack of sardines and octopus in the bay this year but at least they have been at the elimination of those 2 species for much longer.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #157 on: September 25, 2016, 02:46:27 PM »
Caspian Terns follow record warm temperatures in 'shock' migration to north of Alaska
Researchers on north-west coast of Alaska startled to discover Caspian terns 1,000 miles farther north than species had been previously recorded
Quote
Eyebrows would be raised if American crocodiles, found on the southern tip of Florida, decided to relocate to New York’s Fifth Avenue or Moroccan camels suddenly joined the tourist throng outside Buckingham Palace in London. Yet this is the scale of species shift that appears to be under way in Alaska.

In July, researchers in Cape Krusenstern national monument on the north-west coast of Alaska were startled to discover a nest containing Caspian terns on the gravelly beach of a lagoon. The birds were an incredible 1,000 miles further north than the species had been previously recorded.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/23/terns-migration-alaska
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #158 on: October 27, 2016, 07:26:34 PM »
World on track to lose two-thirds of wild animals by 2020, major report warns
Living Planet Index shows vertebrate populations are set to decline by 67% on 1970 levels unless urgent action is taken to reduce humanity’s impact
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/27/world-on-track-to-lose-two-thirds-of-wild-animals-by-2020-major-report-warns
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Clare

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #159 on: November 15, 2016, 10:18:12 PM »
These crayfish & paua (the bumps of side of rocks =abalone) have suffered a climate change of a different sort: uplift from Sunday's 7.5 earthquake in NZ caused up to 2m of uplift on the shoreline of Kaikoura:



Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #160 on: December 07, 2016, 09:39:56 PM »
Thousands of snow geese die in Montana after landing on contaminated water
Huge flock of migratory birds landed on acidic waters of an open pit mine where employees attempted to scare them off
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/07/thousands-of-snow-geese-die-in-montana-after-landing-on-contaminated-water
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #161 on: February 04, 2017, 06:39:56 PM »
"Piles of dead turtle hatchlings are lining Queensland's famous Mon Repos beach amid a heatwave which has pushed the sand's temperature to a record 75 degrees Celsius."

Turtle hatchlings dying in extreme heat at Mon Repos
Quote
...
The rangers, scientists and volunteers at Mon Repos have been working around the clock to save as many clutches of hatchlings as they can from the heat.

Deceased turtles in the dunes lead them to the nests where some hatchlings may still be alive beneath the surface and they work quickly to dig them up, separating the dead from the living.

They are also relocating any new nests to hatchery areas underneath shade cloths, with sand surface temperatures under the shades up to 30 degrees cooler. ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-04/mon-repos-turtles-hurting-in-heatwave-qld/8230036
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #162 on: February 10, 2017, 07:34:30 PM »
'It's the worst whale stranding we have ever seen'

Rescuers Fight to Save Hundreds of Pilot Whales Beached in New Zealand
Quote
Hundreds of volunteers formed a human chain in the shallows of a remote beach in New Zealand as they tried desperately to save hundreds of pilot whales that have beached themselves there.
...
Volunteer rescue group Project Jonah said 416 whales were stranded, and 75 percent of them had died by the time they were discovered. The Department of Conservation put the number of dead whales at 250 to 300. ...
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rescuers-fight-save-hundreds-pilot-whales-beached-new-zealand-n719206
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sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #163 on: May 26, 2017, 09:40:28 PM »
This made me feel very bad: poachers are using scientific research to find, capture or kill endangered species

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-scientists-accidentally-poachers-rare-species.html

paper at doi:10.1126/science.aan1362

"Poaching has been documented in species within months of their taxonomic description in journals (4). For example, more than 20 newly described reptile species have been targeted in this way, potentially leading to extinction in the wild."

Must we humans eat all the world ?

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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #164 on: October 16, 2017, 10:53:25 PM »

(in English from 1:25:00)

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #165 on: November 23, 2017, 12:31:17 AM »
This is obscene: Bluefin tuna catch limits raised:

http://www.france24.com/en/20171121-expansion-tuna-quotas-step-backward-conservation

We are eating the world. I eat no tuna now for many years.

sidd

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #166 on: January 26, 2018, 06:10:30 PM »
Going, going, gone. Posting this to avoid a rant about how any species that gets in the way of human demand, the species loses.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/11/north-atlantic-right-whale-faces-extinction

The North Atlantic right whale faces extinction
By Elizabeth PennisiNov. 7, 2017 , 5:40 PM


Quote
HALIFAX, CANADA—In a sad reversal of fortune, the North Atlantic right whale is in deep trouble again after rebounding in recent decades from centuries of hunting. Recent population trends are so dire that experts predict the whale could vanish within 20 years, making it the first great whale to go extinct in modern times.

At a meeting of the Society for Marine Mammalogy here last month, whale experts reported that roughly 100 reproductively mature females remain, but they are not living long enough or reproducing quickly enough for the species to survive. Ship strikes have long been a threat, and fatal entanglements in commercial fishing gear are taking an increasing toll. And researchers have found that even when an entangled female doesn’t die, dragging ropes, buoys, or traps can exhaust her, making her less likely to reproduce.

“It’s going to take a bold effort on the part of everyone involved” to save the species, says Ann Pabst, a functional morphologist at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. “We have to redouble our efforts.”
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #167 on: March 03, 2018, 02:27:07 PM »
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/photos/11-of-the-smallest-mammals-in-the-world/itty-bitty-fur-balls



"A baby marmoset monkey rests on a human hand. (Photo: bluedog studio/Shutterstock)"

< embracing nonviolence means minimizing trail of destruction left behind you >

« Last Edit: March 03, 2018, 03:14:17 PM by ivica »

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #168 on: March 14, 2018, 05:13:43 PM »
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/14/worlds-great-forests-could-lose-half-of-all-wildlife-as-planet-warms-report

World’s great forests could lose half of all wildlife as planet warms – report
From the Amazon to Africa, WWF report predicts catastrophic losses of as much as 60% of plants and 50% of animals by the end of the century


Quote
The world’s greatest forests could lose more than half of their plant species by the end of the century unless nations ramp up efforts to tackle climate change, according to a new report on the impacts of global warming on biodiversity hotspots.

Mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds are also likely to disappear on a catastrophic scale in the Amazon and other naturally rich ecosysterms in Africa, Asia, North America and Australia if temperatures rise by more than 1.5C, concludes the study by WWF, the University of East Anglia and the James Cook University.

The research in the journal Climate Change examined the impact of three different levels of warming – 2C (the upper target in the 2015 Paris agreement), 3.2C (the likely rise given existing national commitments) and 4.5C (the forecast outcome if emissions trends remain unchanged) on nearly 80,000 plant and animal species in 35 of the world’s most biodiverse regions.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #169 on: March 20, 2018, 02:36:11 PM »
Sudan, World's Last Male Northern White Rhino, Dies
Quote
Sudan, the world's last male northern white rhinoceros, died in Kenya Monday, leaving his species one step closer to complete extinction, even as a group of scientists undertake an unprecedented effort to try to keep this animal from vanishing entirely. ...
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2018/03/20/591075801/sudan-worlds-last-male-northern-white-rhino-dies
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gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #170 on: March 23, 2018, 07:15:56 PM »
If climate change don't get you, destroying the biosphere will.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/23/destruction-of-nature-as-dangerous-as-climate-change-scientists-warn

Destruction of nature as dangerous as climate change, scientists warn
Unsustainable exploitation of the natural world threatens food and water security of billions of people, major UN-backed biodiversity study reveals


Quote
Human destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food, water and security to billions of people, according to the most comprehensive biodiversity study in more than a decade.

Such is the rate of decline that the risks posed by biodiversity loss should be considered on the same scale as those of climate change, noted the authors of the UN-backed report, which was released in Medellin, Colombia on Friday.

Among the standout findings are that exploitable fisheries in the world’s most populous region – the Asia-Pacific – are on course to decline to zero by 2048; that freshwater availability in the Americas has halved since the 1950s and that 42% of land species in Europe have declined in the past decade....................

....“The time for action was yesterday or the day before,” said Robert Watson, the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) which compiled the research. “Governments recognise we have a problem. Now we need action, but unfortunately the action we have now is not at the level we need.”......

....In the Americas, more than 95% of high-grass prairies have been transformed into farms, along with 72% of dry forests and 88% of the Atlantic forests, notes the report. The Amazon rainforest is still mostly intact, but it is rapidly diminishing and degrading along with an even faster disappearing cerrado (tropical savannah). Between 2003 to 2013, the area under cultivation in Brazil’s northeast agricultural frontier more than doubled to 2.5m hectares, according to the report.....

....The authors stressed the close connection between climate change and biodiversity loss, which are adversely affecting each other. By 2050, they believe climate change could replace land-conversion as the main driver of extinction.

Qu: Surely something will have to break before 2050?
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TerryM

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #171 on: March 23, 2018, 08:49:14 PM »
If nothing has broken by 2050, I'll be spinning in my grave for having so misread the situation. :-X


Glaciers who have provided reliable water supplies for millennia are retreating and many already lack clean water. Insects, and the animals that rely on them for sustenance are moving north, or into extinction. Nuclear armed nations think nothing of insulting and vilifying the leaders of other nuclear armed nations, as though Mutually Assured Destruction was somehow a disproven relic of bygone times.


Exciting times we live in.
Terry


Does anyone know when or how insects determine when to hatch? Is it the heat, a simple timed cycle from when they were laid, or could the daily hours of sunlight be involved?


Anecdotally I witnessed what I perceived as a huge downswing in insect populations here in Southern Ontario Canada last year. This was possibly accompanied by a die off, or fly off, of a number of bird species.
It seems possible that if the insects were hatching when another cold snap was due, or when no fresh plants were available for their dining pleasure, that we could lose whole species of insects, at least regionally, and in turn lose generations of insectivores.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #172 on: March 24, 2018, 08:14:28 PM »
Not due to poisoning.  Due to lack of insects for food.

'Catastrophe' as France's bird population collapses due to pesticides
Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, because insects they feed on have disappeared
Quote
Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said.

Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies – one national in scope and the other covering a large agricultural region in central France.

“The situation is catastrophic,” said Benoit Fontaine, a conservation biologist at France’s National Museum of Natural History and co-author of one of the studies.

“Our countryside is in the process of becoming a veritable desert,” he said in a communique released by the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), which also contributed to the findings.

The common white throat, the ortolan bunting, the Eurasian skylark and other once-ubiquitous species have all fallen off by at least a third, according a detailed, annual census initiated at the start of the century.

A migratory song bird, the meadow pipit, has declined by nearly 70%.

The museum described the pace and extent of the wipe-out as “a level approaching an ecological catastrophe”.

The primary culprit, researchers speculate, is the intensive use of pesticides on vast tracts of monoculture crops, especially wheat and corn.

The problem is not that birds are being poisoned, but that the insects on which they depend for food have disappeared. ...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/catastrophe-as-frances-bird-population-collapses-due-to-pesticides
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #173 on: March 24, 2018, 08:26:05 PM »
I am reminded of China’s “War on Sparrows,” which led to uncontrolled swarms of insects which destroyed food crops, resulting in widespread human famine.

China’s Worst Self-Inflicted Environmental Disaster: The Campaign to Wipe Out the Common Sparrow
https://io9.gizmodo.com/5927112/chinas-worst-self-inflicted-disaster-the-campaign-to-wipe-out-the-common-sparrow
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #174 on: March 24, 2018, 08:28:08 PM »
“There are times when I hear people complain about possums eating their roses, birds calling too loud and fruit bats pooing on their houses. I just smile, nod, and think you don't know how lucky we are to still have wildlife sharing our suburbs. We need cherish and protect them.“
https://twitter.com/JWhiteWildlife/status/977130281701224449
Image below.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #175 on: April 07, 2018, 05:20:55 PM »
A reminder that other species see the world differently than humans do.
(And that puffin sunglasses are now a thing.)

Puffin beaks are fluorescent and we had no idea
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4607386
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gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #176 on: April 23, 2018, 02:15:16 PM »
We are now looking at extinction big-time.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/23/one-in-eight-birds-is-threatened-with-extinction-global-study-finds

Extracts below:-

One in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, global study finds

Report on the state of the world’s birds reveals a biodiversity crisis driven by intensive farming, with once-common species such as puffins and snowy owls now at risk


Quote
In all, 74% of 1,469 globally threatened birds are affected primarily by farming. Logging, invasive species and hunting are the other main threats.

“Each time we undertake this assessment we see slightly more species at risk of extinction – the situation is deteriorating and the trends are intensifying,” said Tris Allinson, senior global science officer for BirdLife International, which produced the report. “The species at risk of extinction were once on mountaintops or remote islands, such as the pink pigeon in Mauritius. Now we’re seeing once widespread and familiar species – European turtle doves, Atlantic puffins and kittiwakes – under threat of global extinction.”.....

.....According to the report, at least 40% of bird species worldwide are in decline, with researchers blaming human activity for the losses. After farming, logging is a key factor in declines of 50% of the most globally endangered species, followed by invasive species (39%), hunting and trapping (35%), climate change (33%) and residential and commercial development (28%). The illegal killing of birds – usually because of traditional hunting – results in an estimated 12 to 38 million individual birds dying or being taken each year in the Mediterranean region alone.
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ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #177 on: April 27, 2018, 01:10:56 AM »
My observation on animal/feathery friends:

   They also have emotions. They return good with good, bad with a spite.

   Like a human child

     


How often do you kill a child?




sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #178 on: April 27, 2018, 01:22:19 AM »
It's spring in the midwest now, and i have been whistling at birds, as is my wont. i have become convinced over my life that avian language is far more sophisticated language there than we suspect. Not just intra, but inter species.

This year, as often happens, there is a pair of red finches nesting in a colorado blue spruce variant by a window. They speak to eache other in one tongue, to the sparrows in another, to the robins in yet another. They speak not to the cats, but the robins and bluejays do ...

sidd

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #179 on: May 05, 2018, 07:46:05 PM »
There are more things on heaven and earth: sea slugs use photosynthesizers sucked out of algae and lives off photosynthesis.

Amazing.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180503085550.htm

sidd

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #180 on: May 18, 2018, 09:38:33 AM »
The somewhat disturbing data on threats to life on earth is now coming thick and fast.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/17/climate-change-on-track-to-cause-major-insect-wipeout-scientists-warn

Quote
Climate change on track to cause major insect wipeout, scientists warn
Insects are vital to ecosystems but will lose almost half their habitat under current climate projections

The new research is the most comprehensive to date, analysing the impact of different levels of climate change on the ranges of 115,000 species. It found plants are also heavily affected but that mammals and birds, which can more easily migrate as climate changes, suffered less.

“We showed insects are the most sensitive group,” said Prof Rachel Warren, at the University of East Anglia, who led the new work. “They are important because ecosystems cannot function without insects. They play an absolutely critical role in the food chain.”

“The disruption to our ecosystems if we were to lose that high proportion of our insects would be extremely far-reaching and widespread,” she said. “People should be concerned - humans depend on ecosystems functioning.” Pollination, fertile soils, clean water and more all depend on healthy ecosystems, Warren said........

......Another study published in Science on Thursday found that one third of the world’s protected areas, which cover 15% of all land, are now highly degraded by intense human pressure including road building, grazing, and urbanisation.

Kendall Jones, at the University of Queensland, Australia, who led the work, said: “A well-run protected area network is essential in saving species. If we allow our protected area network to be degraded there is a no doubt biodiversity losses will be exacerbated.”
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Forest Dweller

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #181 on: June 02, 2018, 01:20:35 PM »
Reindeer crisis in Siberia:
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/reindeer-crisis-in-yamalo-nenets-as-number-of-deaths-rise/

This whole Siberian wildlife & anthrax affair is pretty darn crazy.
When the first outbreak took place the Russians thought they could just incinerate the heck out of the tundra and failed.
Another outbreak took place.
Now it seems they have the illusion of being able to vaccinate every animal and the herders say it's killing them.
Interestingly, the previous anthrax problems 70 years ago took place during an exceptionally warm period and warming/thawing of permafrost is associated with increased chances of such diseases popping up, even long forgotten ones.
Meanwhile the ambitious work to clone and bring back prehistoric species and establish Pleistocene Park goes on...in the 6th mass extinction of extant species...bonkers!

SteveMDFP

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #182 on: June 02, 2018, 07:40:00 PM »
Reindeer crisis in Siberia:
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/reindeer-crisis-in-yamalo-nenets-as-number-of-deaths-rise/

This whole Siberian wildlife & anthrax affair is pretty darn crazy.
When the first outbreak took place the Russians thought they could just incinerate the heck out of the tundra and failed.
Another outbreak took place.
Now it seems they have the illusion of being able to vaccinate every animal and the herders say it's killing them.
Interestingly, the previous anthrax problems 70 years ago took place during an exceptionally warm period and warming/thawing of permafrost is associated with increased chances of such diseases popping up, even long forgotten ones.
Meanwhile the ambitious work to clone and bring back prehistoric species and establish Pleistocene Park goes on...in the 6th mass extinction of extant species...bonkers!

It's an interesting article and a fascinating subject.
Anthrax spores can persist in the soil in temperate regions for years.
In frozen permafrost, I wouldn't be surprised if they could remain viable for decades, maybe centuries.  Melting permafrost therefore presents bona fide biological hazards.

The current Russian vaccines for anthrax use live attenuated spores, both human and veterinary versions.  Live-attenuated vaccines, in general, tend to produce strong, lost-lasting immunity, sometimes with a risk of higher side effect rates.

The herders' claim that the vaccine is causing widespread deaths among stressed animals strikes me as plausible.  More biology detail here:
Russian vaccines against especially dangerous bacterial pathogens
https://www.nature.com/articles/emi201482

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #183 on: June 02, 2018, 08:48:52 PM »
 :'(

Whale that died off Thailand had eaten 80 plastic bags
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44344468


Australia alert after ship loses 83 containers
Quote
Sanitary products, surgical masks and nappies have begun washing up on beaches north of Sydney.

There are concerns the items could prove dangerous to whales and other animals if they swallow them.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44343423
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #184 on: June 03, 2018, 12:57:07 AM »
“Feels like” temperatures in the upper 60’s (~19°C) in Anchorage, Alaska.

“It was noticeably warm to just about everyone today...even the bull moose in our yard. The big boy found a shady spot to pant it out this afternoon. Maybe he’ll be back tomorrow and Sunday with more sunny weather expected. Check out your local forecast. #AKwx ”
https://twitter.com/NWSAnchorage/status/1002738394928205824
Short video of very large moose at the link.
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Forest Dweller

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #185 on: June 03, 2018, 03:19:38 PM »
Reindeer crisis in Siberia:
http://siberiantimes.com/ecology/casestudy/news/reindeer-crisis-in-yamalo-nenets-as-number-of-deaths-rise/

This whole Siberian wildlife & anthrax affair is pretty darn crazy.
When the first outbreak took place the Russians thought they could just incinerate the heck out of the tundra and failed.
Another outbreak took place.
Now it seems they have the illusion of being able to vaccinate every animal and the herders say it's killing them.
Interestingly, the previous anthrax problems 70 years ago took place during an exceptionally warm period and warming/thawing of permafrost is associated with increased chances of such diseases popping up, even long forgotten ones.
Meanwhile the ambitious work to clone and bring back prehistoric species and establish Pleistocene Park goes on...in the 6th mass extinction of extant species...bonkers!

It's an interesting article and a fascinating subject.
Anthrax spores can persist in the soil in temperate regions for years.
In frozen permafrost, I wouldn't be surprised if they could remain viable for decades, maybe centuries.  Melting permafrost therefore presents bona fide biological hazards.

The current Russian vaccines for anthrax use live attenuated spores, both human and veterinary versions.  Live-attenuated vaccines, in general, tend to produce strong, lost-lasting immunity, sometimes with a risk of higher side effect rates.

The herders' claim that the vaccine is causing widespread deaths among stressed animals strikes me as plausible.  More biology detail here:
Russian vaccines against especially dangerous bacterial pathogens
https://www.nature.com/articles/emi201482

Thanks for the link Steve, it's a bit over my head i'm afraid.
The number of years anthrax spores can lay dormant was just about 70 years i think, possibly longer in frozen permafrost?
The ST reports the last cases as 70 years ago in earlier articles anyway.
Seems plausible some reindeer died from it in 1946 or thereabouts and thawed out recently therefore...in which case others could pop up as well in several places.

The Native American knowledge in southern US was pretty interesting to see i might add.
It seems they had related the outbreaks to the cyclical population explosions of mice due to an abundance of food sources.
Next the deer are affected, the humans hunting those and so on.
Perhaps voles and mice in Siberia under warming climate should be considered as well...who knows?
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 03:31:14 PM by Forest Dweller »

Forest Dweller

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #186 on: June 03, 2018, 04:00:37 PM »
:'(

Whale that died off Thailand had eaten 80 plastic bags
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44344468


Australia alert after ship loses 83 containers
Quote
Sanitary products, surgical masks and nappies have begun washing up on beaches north of Sydney.

There are concerns the items could prove dangerous to whales and other animals if they swallow them.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44343423

This is a crime, and we are dealing with it as criminals do by committing more.
California is banning plastic straws....big deal.
They will use many more new plastic products.

A Dutch 14 year old kid(now almost 30) had a bright idea of the "Ocean Cleanup".
He will use more plastic, create a new fossil fuel based industry on top of the old and has not done anything!
But the capturing device will have a solar panel, made of plastic and other pollutants.
Close the damn factory i say, if you don't want plastic!
Don't want pesticides wiping out biodiversity and poisoning your kids?
Close the whole damn industrial sector!

It seems we are too stupid to understand we are stabbing the Earth to death.
We merely try to use a different knife for it.

mitch

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #187 on: June 03, 2018, 07:22:25 PM »
Lots of shipping containers lost at sea every year. Here is a blog on them:
https://www.tjocargo.com/how-many-containers-are-lost-at-sea-and-what-happens-to-them

He estimates in the several thousand container range. This is on top of the huge amount of plastics that washes down rivers every year, especially in Asia.

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #188 on: June 04, 2018, 02:01:17 PM »
A dreadfully sad story - climate change and plastic again.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/03/shetland-seabirds-climate-change-catastrophe-terns-kittiwakes-puffins

Eerie silence falls on Shetland cliffs that once echoed to seabirds’ cries
Climate change has caused a catastrophic drop in the numbers of terns, kittiwakes and puffins


Quote
Sumburgh Head lies at the southern tip of mainland Shetland. This dramatic 100-metre-high rocky spur, crowned with a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson’s grandfather, has a reputation for being one of the biggest and most accessible seabird colonies in Britain.

Thousands of puffins, guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes and fulmars gather there every spring to breed, covering almost every square inch of rock or grass with teeming, screeching birds and their young.

Or at least they used to – for this year Sumburgh Head is a quiet and largely deserted place. Where seabirds once swooped and cried in their thousands, only a handful of birds wheel round the cliffs. The silence is uncanny – the result of a crash in seabird numbers that has been in progress for several years but which has now reached an unprecedented, catastrophic low.

One of the nation’s most important conservation centres has been denuded of its wildlife, a victim – according to scientists – of climate change, which has disrupted food chains in the North Sea and North Atlantic and left many seabirds without a source of sustenance. The result has been an apocalyptic drop in numbers of Arctic terns, kittiwakes and many other birds.
.....figures that reveal the staggering decreases in seabird numbers in Shetland, the most northerly part of the British Isles. In 2000, there were more than 33,000 puffins on the island in early spring. That figure dropped to 570 last year and there are no signs of any recovery this year, although it is still early in the season.

Similarly, Shetland’s kittiwake population plummeted from over 55,000 in 1981 to 5,000 in 2011, and observers believe those numbers have declined even further in the past few years. Only the lack of a properly funded census has prevented ornithologists from putting precise numbers on the devastation that is occurring.

"I went to check our sites at Dalsetter and Troswick last week to compare numbers of Arctic terns with those we counted during Seabird 2000, the last national seabird census carried out across Britain and Ireland,” added Moncrieff. “I found there were around 110 Arctic terns there last week compared with around 9,000 that were counted in the same area in 2000. That is the kind of loss we have sustained here.”

This point is backed by Euan Dunn, principal policy officer for the RSPB. “These are apocalyptic numbers,” he told the Observer. “We are seeing something very dramatic happening, something that has never occurred in the history of ornithology up there.”

........Yet as these crises have unfolded, the government has declined to fund a new national census, along the lines of those organised in 1970, 1985 and 2000, even though it is supposed to instigate one every 15 years. “Fortunately, it has now agreed to proceed with one, which we hope should be completed by the end of next year,” said Dunn. “Then we should have a better overall picture of what is happening and why these striking declines are happening in particular places.”
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gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #189 on: July 20, 2018, 02:52:35 PM »
Trumpistan continues its relentless attacks on the environment. Seems they want to turn the USA into a garbage filled desert.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=4&pgtype=sectionfront

Interior Department Proposes a Vast Reworking of the Endangered Species Act
Quote
The Interior Department on Thursday proposed the most sweeping set of changes in decades to the Endangered Species Act, the law that brought the bald eagle and the Yellowstone grizzly bear back from the edge of extinction but which Republicans say is cumbersome and restricts economic development.

The proposed revisions have far-reaching implications, potentially making it easier for roads, pipelines and other construction projects to gain approvals than under current rules. One change, for instance, would eliminate longstanding language that prohibits considering economic factors when deciding whether or not a species should be protected.

The agency also intends to make it more difficult to shield species like the Atlantic sturgeon that are considered “threatened,” which is the category one level beneath the most serious one, “endangered.”

Battles over endangered species have consumed vast swaths of the West for decades, and confrontations over protections for the spotted owl, the sage grouse and the gray wolf have shaped politics and public debate. While the changes proposed Thursday by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service wouldn’t be retroactive, they could set the stage for new clashes over offshore drilling and also could help smooth the path for  projects like oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #190 on: July 23, 2018, 06:06:53 PM »
Aquariums have all tried — and failed — to keep a great white shark on display. Here's why:
https://twitter.com/voxdotcom/status/1021201982562824192/video/1
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gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #191 on: July 27, 2018, 11:49:08 AM »
Once upon a time I lived in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/24/beavers-forest-dean-possible-flooding-solution

Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding

Hope is that dams built by pair of beavers will hold back water and improve biodiversity

Quote
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals have been reintroduced on government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.

Two Eurasian beavers were released on Tuesday into their new lodge within a large penned-off section of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The hope is that the animals will build dams and create ponds on Greathough Brook, which feeds into the River Wye, and slow the flow of water through the steep-sided, wooded valley at times of torrential rainfall.

In 2012 the villages of Lydbrook and Upper Lydbrook were badly flooded. Hundreds of thousands of pounds  on conventional schemes such as replacing drains to try to keep the communities dry and safe.

The government hopes that introducing the beavers into a 6.5-hectare (16-acre) enclosure on Forestry Commission land will help hold back the waters in a more natural way and improve biodiversity.

Should the three-year scheme prove successful, beavers could be introduced in other areas susceptible to flooding.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
"And that's all I'm going to say about that". Forrest Gump
"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #192 on: July 31, 2018, 01:07:08 PM »
An illustration of how climate change may be making a bad situation worse.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45014746

Largest king penguin colony shrinks 90% in 30 years
Quote
The world's largest king penguin colony has shrunk nearly 90% since the 1980s, research suggests.

Aerial and satellite images show breeding pair numbers have fallen 88% in the last three decades, an article in the journal Antarctic Science says.

The colony lies on the France's uninhabited Île aux Cochons between Africa and Antarctica in the Indian Ocean.

Researchers say there is no clear reason for the decline. The paper says that only 60,000 penguin pairs remain in photos taken in 2015 and 2017, down from half a million pairs recorded on a previous conducted in the 1980s. Second only to the emperor penguin in size, the king penguin breeds on the more temperate islands north of the Antarctic coast.

Research published in February says some of the birds populations could be at risk from climate change.

Study is at:-
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/massive-decline-of-the-worlds-largest-king-penguin-colony-at-ile-aux-cochons-crozet/E254E3E24DE3BDC523B25FA3A3261584

and includes as just one of the hypotheses for the decline the 1997-8 El Nino.
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #193 on: August 03, 2018, 08:14:26 PM »
An orca named J35 has been carrying her dead calf, pushing it with her head, for more than a week off the Pacific Northwest coast. The sad spectacle is a prime example, and confirmation, of the complex emotional lives of these sophisticated cetaceans, experts say.

Orca’s Death Vigil Shows Complexity of Killer Whale Emotions
A Pacific Northwest orca likely bonded closely with her calf before it died, which could help explain her record-breaking emotional sojourn.
Quote
Balcomb points to a lack of food as the culprit. “We have long demonstrated that these fish-eating whales are getting skinnier and skinnier, and the death rate is increasing,” he writes on the center’s website.

“Whales in this endangered population are dependent upon Chinook salmon for their primary food source. Unfortunately, Chinook salmon are also endangered,” he adds.
https://relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/animals/2018/08/orca-mourning-calf-killer-whale-northwest-news
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Sebastian Jones

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #194 on: August 04, 2018, 07:26:03 AM »

Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding

Hope is that dams built by pair of beavers will hold back water and improve biodiversity

Quote
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals have been reintroduced on government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.........
.....Should the three-year scheme prove successful, beavers could be introduced in other areas susceptible to flooding.
Well, while I am sure that given half a chance the beavers will be fruitful and multiply, and that they will alter the hydrology of their habitat, I'm not so sure about preventing flash type flooding. I have seen many beaver dams washed out by floods, and to the extent that the dams hold back a reservoir of water, the dams, when they fail, can exacerbate flooding.

Forest Dweller

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #195 on: August 04, 2018, 05:53:44 PM »
Once upon a time I lived in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/24/beavers-forest-dean-possible-flooding-solution

Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding

Hope is that dams built by pair of beavers will hold back water and improve biodiversity

Quote
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals have been reintroduced on government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.

Two Eurasian beavers were released on Tuesday into their new lodge within a large penned-off section of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The hope is that the animals will build dams and create ponds on Greathough Brook, which feeds into the River Wye, and slow the flow of water through the steep-sided, wooded valley at times of torrential rainfall.

In 2012 the villages of Lydbrook and Upper Lydbrook were badly flooded. Hundreds of thousands of pounds  on conventional schemes such as replacing drains to try to keep the communities dry and safe.

The government hopes that introducing the beavers into a 6.5-hectare (16-acre) enclosure on Forestry Commission land will help hold back the waters in a more natural way and improve biodiversity.

Should the three-year scheme prove successful, beavers could be introduced in other areas susceptible to flooding.

I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Europeans and their so called "rewilding" projects are basically industrial scams with no chance at all.
A form of denial imho.
Beavers were brought back to Netherlands as well, much pride and hullabaloo involved.
How useful they are...
Problem was they didn't stay in the places we wanted them to be for wildlife photographers to make pretty pictures alone.
The cheeky buggers actually sabotaged a road somewhat and so of course the hunters were the first to say "Ah we must shoot beavers!".
The politicians holding their hand.

It is the same with any species really, industrial society leaves no room but symbolic presence of wildlife to serve denial.
Otters, eagles, insects or whatever...wolves are walking around now.
They have no chance at all but for a miserable existence at best.
Sounds harsh but i speak from experience.
Even the badgers here are hailed as a wonderful story of success.
I pick up their bodies and find only ruined den sites.
When they are forced to move elsewhere again and get noticed people say:
"See! they are spreading in numbers thanks to our great work!"
They are actually being wiped out just as anything else is.

Bit different from the beaver situation over there you describe but fundamentally the same.
People are already expecting those guys to serve some sort of hydrological goal?
Pardon my French but that sounds like bullshit to me.
Leave it alone we say here and nothing else...i hope those beavers do well.

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #196 on: August 04, 2018, 10:35:48 PM »
Once upon a time I lived in Lydbrook in the Forest of Dean

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/24/beavers-forest-dean-possible-flooding-solution

Beavers released in Forest of Dean as solution to flooding

Hope is that dams built by pair of beavers will hold back water and improve biodiversity

Quote
Four hundred years after the beaver was hunted to extinction in the UK, two of the mammals have been reintroduced on government land in an English forest as part of a scheme to assess whether they could be a solution to flooding.

Two Eurasian beavers were released on Tuesday into their new lodge within a large penned-off section of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. The hope is that the animals will build dams and create ponds on Greathough Brook, which feeds into the River Wye, and slow the flow of water through the steep-sided, wooded valley at times of torrential rainfall.



I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Europeans and their so called "rewilding" projects are basically industrial scams with no chance at all.
A form of denial imho.
Beavers were brought back to Netherlands as well, much pride and hullabaloo involved.
How useful they are...
Problem was they didn't stay in the places we wanted them to be for wildlife photographers to make pretty pictures alone.
The cheeky buggers actually sabotaged a road somewhat and so of course the hunters were the first to say "Ah we must shoot beavers!".
The politicians holding their hand.

Leave it alone we say here and nothing else...i hope those beavers do well.

And then we have unintentional rewilding. In the Forest of Dean (again) - some pig farmers switched to wild boar (higher prices), another species hunted to extinction in the UK many moons ago.. Of course, it was guaranteed that none would escape, and,of course, they did, and have been spectacularly successful ( no wolves = no predators), and do the forest a lot of damage (and scare the tourists).

Culling of boar is now an annual event.
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"Damn, I wanted to see what happened next" (Epitaph)

Bruce Steele

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #197 on: August 04, 2018, 11:40:53 PM »
Beavers were reintroduced to the Santa Ynez river about seventy years ago . They are IMO the best mammal carbon engineers on the planet. With a strong work ethic, fast growing teeth, and softwood trees,  they can engineer green riparian habitats from flat sunburned gravel riverbed. Once the beaver dams have been established cattail ( bullrush ) fill in the pond perimeter. Cattail are much better carbon sinks than sunburnt gravel. Anyway I am a fan ! Viva la beaver ! 

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #198 on: August 07, 2018, 10:49:34 PM »
Killing the soil:

This is something i have many times seen up close and personal. There is no life in the soil with conventional agriculture in the USA. Last year I went thru Indiana, Illinois, Iowa southern Minnesota, some of the richest soil of the midwest. I frequently found myself pausing by fields (almost exclusively corn/soy rotations) and a more than a  few times I reached down and picked up a handful  of earth. Dead, dead, dead. Solitudinem faciunt, agrum appelant.

"Thus is it concluded that cascading soil fauna depletion occurs when woodland is cleared for pasture, when pasture is cultivated for crops, when synthetic fertilizers replaced organics, especially after WW1, and when excessive toxic and systemic biocides are introduced, especially after WW2, followed by the onslaught of alien/invasive species and diseases. Continued catastrophic trajectory for earthworms—the builders of fertile topsoils and humic SOM, upon which most life on Earth ultimately depends—seems as serious as for insects and most other organisms. Demonstrated solutions to restore biotic abundance and curtail loss of biodiversity are to readopt or to re-invest in more natural farming by recycling organic fertilizers and avoiding both waste and chemical poisons. Concomitant with a shift by farmers and consumers, governments may need to reallocate funding from agri-chemistry that continues to seek stop-gap solutions to problems often caused by chemical toxins themselves, and to raise support for practical, applied agro-ecology and sustainable Permaculture for efficient and flexible natural designs."

Open access.Read the whole thing.

http://www.mdpi.com/2571-8789/2/2/33

sidd

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #199 on: September 10, 2018, 05:30:09 AM »
These guys live in some of the most rugged and impassable country on earth. And wild and beautiful, to boot.

"As a result of the campaign by some people in the tribe, the village council decided to cordon off about 20 sq km, where they would not allow hunting. In 1998 this area became the Khonoma Nature Conservation and Tragopan Sanctuary.

In the years since the council has banned al forms of hunting, logging, jungle burning as well as any kind of commercial operation that exploits natural resources and the forests that surround the village."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-45328322

sidd