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sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #200 on: September 25, 2018, 10:32:09 PM »
N. American amphibian decline not primarily driven by climate change, but more directly by land use changes going back a century or more.

" these declines are a continuation of losses of amphibian populations that have been occurring since the 19th century when human land-use began destroying their habitats."

"The researchers determined that, while climate change likely has been and will be a factor in the decline of some local populations such as in the Rocky Mountain West—where the effect of a warming climate seems to be more severe for amphibians—it is not responsible for the current declines that are occurring."

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-climate-main-driver-amphibian-decline.html

The paper is open access. The patterns it describes are quite complex:

"While we demonstrate that amphibian communities are sensitive to changes in climate, our results suggest that changing climate is not the proximate cause for ongoing assemblage-wide declines that have been observed in North American amphibians. Instead, we find that recent change in climate is a strong predictor of why local species richness is declining more quickly in some regions and that positive effects of climate may be buffering declines in other regions. For 37% of studied locations, we predicted that local species richness would have increased if climate was the primary factor determining changes in amphibian communities. We cannot eliminate factors we have not tested here. However, it would be surprising to find so many climate “winners” in our analysis if climate was a primary driver of the severe declines  being  observed  in  North  American  amphibian populations."

Read all about it:

doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-06157-6

sidd

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #201 on: September 25, 2018, 10:37:55 PM »
Glyphosphate hurts bees: Stop using roundup so indiscriminately:

"As in many animals, honey bees rely on their gut microbial community for a variety of functions, including food processing (25, 26), regulation of immune system (33, 34), and defense against pathogens (17, 27). Perturbations of this system have the potential to lead to negative consequences for host fitness. We found that glyphosate affects the bee gut microbiota composition and that bacterial species and strains within this community vary in susceptibility to glyphosate. Recent experimental and observational studies have provided evidence that dysbiosis affecting the bee gut can increase susceptibility to pathogen invasion (23, 41, 42). Our results also suggest that establishment of a normal microbial community is crucial for protection against opportunistic pathogens of honey bees."

The numbers in parentheses are reference numbers. The article is

doi: 10.1073/pnas.1803880115

coverage at

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-common-weed-killer-linked-bee.html

sidd

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #202 on: September 28, 2018, 12:13:39 PM »
Who needs climate change to kill wildlife when we have all these other means? For the Orca, something that just can't be fixed.

Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution
Quote
Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals – but Arctic could be a refuge

At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study.

Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet. Worse, their fat-rich milk passes on very high doses to their newborn calves.

PCB concentrations found in killer whales can be 100 times safe levels and severely damage reproductive organs, cause cancer and damage the immune system. The new research analysed the prospects for killer whale populations over the next century and found those offshore from industrialised nations could vanish as soon as 30-50 years.

Among those most at risk are the UK’s last pod, where a recent death revealed one of the highest PCB levels ever recorded. Others off Gibraltar, Japan and Brazil and in the north-east Pacific are also in great danger. Killer whales are one of the most widespread mammals on earth but have already been lost in the North Sea, around Spain and many other places.

The new research, published in the journal Science, examined PCB contamination in 351 killer whales, the largest analysis yet. The scientists then took existing data on how PCBs affect calf survival and immune systems in whales and used this to model how populations will fare in the future. “Populations of Japan, Brazil, Northeast Pacific, Strait of Gibraltar, and the United Kingdom are all tending toward complete collapse,” they concluded.

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6409/1373
Quote
PCB—still a problem
Until they were recognized as highly toxic and carcinogenic, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were once used widely. Their production was banned in the United States in 1978, though they are still produced globally and persist in the environment. Persistent organic compounds, like PCBs, magnify across trophic levels, and thus apex predators are particularly susceptible to their ill effects. Desforges et al. looked at the continuing impact of PCBs on one of the largest marine predators, the killer whale. Using globally available data, the authors found high concentrations of PCBs within killer whale tissues. These are likely to precipitate declines across killer whale populations, particularly those that feed at high trophic levels and are the closest to industrialized areas.

Science, this issue p. 1373
« Last Edit: September 28, 2018, 12:47:34 PM by gerontocrat »
"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)

ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #203 on: October 22, 2018, 08:41:17 AM »
"Natural History Museum unveils the top Wildlife Photographer of the Year images."
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/blogs/natural-history-museum-wildlife-photographer-year-capture-diversity-beauty-nature

"Taken by 16-year-old Skye Meaker of South Africa, the photograph is of Mathoja, a calm 8-year-old leopard."


[ I exist. Do i think? ]

< Raising Human Consciousness > :)



sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #204 on: October 22, 2018, 09:02:27 AM »
Nice picture.

"  I exist. Do i think?  "

Very apposite.

Thanx.

I cannot resist straying from the thread topic to contrast an inset from another image, a famous one. This is the one from Cleveland.

sidd
« Last Edit: October 22, 2018, 09:17:28 AM by sidd »

ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #205 on: October 23, 2018, 01:12:58 AM »
sidd wrote: "I cannot resist straying from the thread topic to contrast an inset from another image, a famous one. This is the one from Cleveland."

Thank you, it links us & them :)

Sigmetnow

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #206 on: October 30, 2018, 03:05:54 PM »
Wildlife populations fell by 60% from 1970, WWF says
- Population of more than 4,000 species found to have fallen since 1970
- 90% of seabirds now have plastics in their stomachs
- "Global deal" similar to Paris climate agreement is needed, WWF says
Quote
Global wildlife populations have fallen by 60% in just over four decades, as accelerating pollution, deforestation, climate change and other manmade factors have created a "mindblowing" crisis, the World Wildlife Fund has warned in a damning new report.

The total numbers of more than 4,000 mammal, bird, fish, reptile and amphibian species declined rapidly between 1970 and 2014, the Living Planet Report 2018 says.

Current rates of species extinction are now up to 1,000 times higher than before human involvement in animal ecosystems became a factor.

The proportion of the planet's land that is free from human impact is projected to drop from a quarter to a tenth by 2050, as habitat removal, hunting, pollution, disease and climate change continue to spread, the organization added.

The group has called for an international treaty, modeled on the Paris climate agreement, to be drafted to protect wildlife and reverse human impacts on nature.

It warned that current efforts to protect the natural world are not keeping up with the speed of manmade destruction. ...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/29/health/wwf-wildlife-population-report-intl/index.html
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

solartim27

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #207 on: November 07, 2018, 05:10:39 PM »
Article has a short video clip of Sperm Whales off of Nunavut, apparently only the second sighting so far north.
https://www.ecowatch.com/sperm-whales-sighting-arctic-2618298807.amp.html
FNORD

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #208 on: November 13, 2018, 06:45:26 PM »
A UK supermarket made an advert saying they were no longer using palm oil in their own label products because of the effect on orangutan habitat.
The advert is a cartoon made by Greenpeace



It was banned from TV for being political. So far around 35 million views on social media. Banning it made the difference.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46187070
Iceland Christmas ad: Petition to show it on TV hits 670k
Quote
9 hours ago
A petition to get Iceland's Christmas advert shown on TV has reached more than 670,000 signatures. The advert, which highlights the impact of palm oil on rainforests and orangutan, has gone viral.

TV presenter James Corden shared the ad on Twitter where it's had 15 million views.

Clearcast, the body which approves ads for TV, said it wasn't approved because it breached political advertising rules.

It comes down to the law - political advertising isn't allowed on TV.
"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)

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #209 on: November 17, 2018, 06:13:00 AM »
Industry funded study exonerates industry: 

"The company-funded animal test was performed to ascertain how neural development is affected by the pesticide chlorpyrifos ..."

" ...  concluded that there was no such effect, even at high doses."

" ... we observed a clear effect on the height of the cerebellum ... was reported neither in the study's summary nor in its conclusion."

" ... independent research has also previously indicated that chlorpyrifos adversely affects brain development, including childhood IQ ..."

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-11-flaws-industry-funded-pesticide.html

The reason i post this is "Wildlife" thread is because we are not just poisoning ourselves. We are killing myriads of creatures great and small, and we are too lazy to look and see the blights that follow our footsteps. Perhaps, as a species, we deserve to poison our own young. We do it to every other lifeform, don't we ?

sidd

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #210 on: November 18, 2018, 11:27:44 PM »
As Yeats may have said, "The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/hemimastigotes-supra-kingdom-1.4715823

paper at doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0708-8

sidd


Sleepy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #211 on: November 19, 2018, 08:21:05 AM »
Curiosity and Control, a nice Swedish documentary about our dented relation to nature.
https://www.svtplay.se/video/19863562/curiosity-and-control

Hardcoded Swedish subtitles but mostly in English with some French commentary. Hopefully viewable elsewhere. Adding a small snippet below.
Omnia mirari, etiam tritissima.
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Science is a jealous mistress and takes little account of a man's feelings.

Sebastian Jones

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #212 on: November 22, 2018, 06:55:19 AM »
Climate change makes strange bedfellows, grizzlies show up in Wapusk National park, joining black bears and polar bears for a world first.
https://news.usask.ca/articles/research/2018/usask-researchers-find-changing-environment-bringing-bear-species-together----.php

longwalks1

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #213 on: November 22, 2018, 06:09:27 PM »

The above post looked interesting so I sleuthed.

Here is the site for preview article the 3 bear species co-habiting in space (land), but not so much in time (seasons).
The doi is part of the url  10.1139/AS-2018-0013

http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/AS-2018-0013

Quote
Range  overlap  of  these  three  species  in  this  dynamic  ecotonal  region  should  not  be
viewed as a threat to any of them but as an ecological response to environmental change that needs
to be better understood.
Keywords:
Ursus americanus  ,  Ursus arctos,  Ursus maritimus, Wapusk National Park

Quote
1Novel range overlap of three ursids in the Canadian subarctic  Douglas Andrew Clark 11*
, Ryan Brook
2 , Chelsea Oliphant-Reskanski
3 , Michel P. Laforge
4 , Kiva Olson
5 , Danielle Rivet
6 * Corresponding Author: Douglas Clark, email: d.clark@usask.c

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #214 on: November 24, 2018, 08:25:33 PM »
It seems the slow late freeze in the vicinity of Svalbard is a real threat to the population of bears that are based there. So, once gain, it is not the sea ice maximum and minimum that is the problem it is the length of time without ice that may be the killer. And one thing is sure, that 2018 extent now may be only the 13th lowest, but in many seas the ice-free or low-ice season was longer than usual.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/23/slow-arctic-freeze-raises-risk-of-polar-bear-extinction-say-scientists

Slow Arctic freeze raises risk of polar bear extinction, say scientists
Record absence of ice after freak warm spells denies pregnant bears birthing dens and triggers ‘extirpation event’ warning

Quote
A record slow freeze of many regions of the Arctic this winter is making it harder for pregnant polar bears to find birthing dens.

The delayed formation of sea ice during autumn has worried biologists, who fear a first “extirpation event” – the local extinction of a species – may be approaching faster than forecast for the most affected populations.

The waters around Svalbard, an archipelago between Norway and the North Pole, have a little over half the average area of ice for this time of year. According to the Norwegian Ice Service, the 172,291 sq km (66,522 sq m) of ice on 14 November was the lowest for this time of year since records began in 1967.

October also saw a huge departure from previous trends, particularly in the Barents Sea, which had freakishly warm weather in February and August. Scientists say these shifts, which are caused by the manmade heating of the globe, are disrupting the behaviour of species that depend on thick winter ice, such as narwhals, seals, belugas and polar bears.
"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)

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #215 on: November 29, 2018, 08:01:00 AM »
Beaverage in Alaska: Tundra be Dammed

(I kid you not, that second phrase is part of the title of the paper)

" ... beavers are rapidly expanding their range via major rivers and streams ..."

" ... range expansion in the northwest arctic of Alaska has occurred at an average rate of 8 km/year ... "

" ... beaver dams on the Seward Peninsula (even further from treeline than in the primary study region in Figure 2) and a dozen potential beaver dams in the tundra regions of north-central Brooks Range of Alaska. The location of these dams indicates that beavers likely are colonizing the north-central Brooks Range ... "

"Thermokarst landforms have developed adjacent to new ponds and new stream channels made by beavers, as well as downstream of failed beaver dams ... "

"permafrost that constitutes arctic tundra soils thus makes the tundra uniquely vulnerable to beavers."

doi:10.1111/gcb.14332

coverage at

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/beavers-are-engineering-new-alaskan-tundra

sidd

magnamentis

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #216 on: November 29, 2018, 04:41:41 PM »

"permafrost that constitutes arctic tundra soils thus makes the tundra uniquely vulnerable to beavers."


considering you kind of posts i think i don't get the point here, probably a language barrier ;)
so please elaborate for me the following:

"vulnarable to beavers" how can nature be vulnarable to one of it's native inhabitants? well suited or something along this line is what i would choose as a term, in my translation "vulnarable" sound like
if the tundra would be at risk through the migration of beavers ?

sorry i'm quite sure i just miss something but would like to know what that is ;) T.I.A for your help ;)

oren

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #217 on: November 29, 2018, 05:11:16 PM »
Magna, the beavers are natives but they are expanding rapidly into new (tundra?) territories.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #218 on: November 29, 2018, 05:27:41 PM »
Magnamentis,
I'm quite sure your interpretation that 'the survival of tundra is at risk due to invading beavers' is correct.  included in Sidd's post is "Thermokarst landforms have developed adjacent to new [beaver] ponds ..."  From Wikipedia and the National Geographic, I learn that developing thermokarst is strongly associated with melting of permafrost and the release of carbon into the atmosphere.  Tundra ecosystems are considered to be "among the most sensitive habitats in the world".
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

magnamentis

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #219 on: November 29, 2018, 07:10:55 PM »
thx for various replies, so the beaver is indicating that tundra becomes something else than turndra due to global warming, hope i got that right now, beaver is not the cause but a result with indicative property.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #220 on: November 29, 2018, 08:11:58 PM »
My interpretation from what I've read (today) is that beavers can move into tundra areas because of climate change (warmer? more to eat? I don't know - obviously, something to eat is part of it), and that they speed up certain processes (thermokarst) by building dams.  I appreciate your "tundra becomes something else than tundra", Magnamentis, as what I read didn't say, other than 'shallow ponds and lakes'.
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Red

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #221 on: November 30, 2018, 11:24:21 AM »
The past year is bad enough.

Significant whale strandings in NZ since 2010
November 26, 2018

145 pilot whales died after stranding in Mason Bay on Stewart Island.

November 25, 2018
12 whales, understood to be pygmy killer whales, stranded south of Te Paki Stream in Northland. 10 survived.


November 23, 2018
A 15-metre sperm whale died after being stranded at Tokeroa Beach in Doubtful Bay in Northland.

August 5, 2018
2 whales stranded on Baylys Beach near Dargaville. 1 died.

July 9, 2018
2 rare pygmy right whales died at Taupo Bay in Northland.

May 23, 2018
8 sperm whales died after becoming stranded on a South Taranaki beach.

April 5, 2018
32 pilot whales stranded at the mouth of the Okuru River. At least 21 died.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12166302&ref=twitter

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/more-than-50-whales-dead-after-another-mass-stranding?fbclid=IwAR0kKanjsxHSLpTMj984P0dvYeZrDfsi6pNa5PtCsDlH5qEE6FD4SCpBwpQ

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #222 on: March 04, 2019, 12:54:33 AM »
terrorist parrots hooked on opiods:

"  Often the birds wait until the farmers cut the poppy pods to help them ripen, according to Earth.com, exposing latex that is rich in morphine and opium milk, while in other cases they simply cut the stalks of the plant themselves and make off with the whole pod in their clutches."

https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/8xydp5/opium-addicted-parrots-keep-raiding-poppy-farms-in-india

sidd

vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #223 on: April 12, 2019, 06:23:55 PM »
From the ethically questionable pile ...

Chinese Scientists Added Human Brain Genes to Monkeys—and Yes, They May Be Smarter
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613277/chinese-scientists-have-put-human-brain-genes-in-monkeysand-yes-they-may-be-smarter/



Scientists in southern China report that they’ve tried to narrow the evolutionary gap, creating several transgenic macaque monkeys with extra copies of a human gene suspected of playing a role in shaping human intelligence.

In a study published last month in Beijing’s National Science Review journal, researchers took human copies of the MCPH1 gene, which is believed to play an important role in our brain development, and introduced it into monkey embryos by means of a virus that carried the gene.

Of the 11 transgenic macaque monkeys they generated, six died. The five survivors went through a series of tests, including MRI brain scans and memory tests. It turned out they didn’t have bigger brains than a control group of macaques, but they did perform better on short-term memory tasks. Their brains also developed over a longer period of time, which is typical of human brains.

The Chinese researchers suspect the MCPH1 gene is part of the answer. But they’re not stopping there. One of them, Bing Su, a geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, told MIT Technology Review that he’s already testing other genes involved in brain evolution:

One that he has his eye on is SRGAP2C, a DNA variant that arose about two million years ago, just when Australopithecus was ceding the African savannah to early humans. That gene has been dubbed the “humanity switch” and the “missing genetic link” for its likely role in the emergence of human intelligence. Su says he’s been adding it to monkeys, but that it’s too soon to say what the results are.

Su has also had his eye on another human gene, FOXP2, which is believed to have graced us with our language abilities. Pondering the possibility of adding that gene to monkeys, Su told Nature in 2016, “I don’t think the monkey will all of a sudden start speaking, but will have some behavioral change.”



... Regarding the five survivors, what kind of lives will they have going forward, altered as they are and confined to an experimental laboratory?” ... “The use of transgenic monkeys to study human genes linked to brain evolution is a very risky road to take,”  ... After how many eliminated differences does a monkey shade into a human being? There’s no clear answer to that question.

Open Access: Lei Shi, et.al., Transgenic rhesus monkeys carrying the human MCPH1 gene copies show human-like neoteny of brain development, National Science Review, 27 March 2019

“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Sebastian Jones

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #224 on: April 12, 2019, 08:44:28 PM »
From the ethically questionable pile ...

Chinese Scientists Added Human Brain Genes to Monkeys—and Yes, They May Be Smarter
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/613277/chinese-scientists-have-put-human-brain-genes-in-monkeysand-yes-they-may-be-smarter/


It is hard to imagine what the ethical review for this project entailed, not to mention the rhetorical skills of the proponents who succeeded.

Mozi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #225 on: April 12, 2019, 09:28:57 PM »
It is hard to imagine what the ethical review for this project entailed, not to mention the rhetorical skills of the proponents who succeeded.

"Come on... what's the worst thing that could happen, anyways?"

Sleepy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #226 on: May 06, 2019, 08:17:25 AM »
Curiosity and Control, a nice Swedish documentary about our dented relation to nature.
https://www.svtplay.se/video/19863562/curiosity-and-control

Hardcoded Swedish subtitles but mostly in English with some French commentary. Hopefully viewable elsewhere. Adding a small snippet below.

The above documentary only has two days left on svtplay, apart from the snippet I posted above, here's the trailer:

Omnia mirari, etiam tritissima.
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Science is a jealous mistress and takes little account of a man's feelings.

Archimid

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #227 on: May 06, 2019, 03:53:31 PM »
The beavers find themselves in an environment more favorable to them, thus they grow. You could say that in the beaver world the dam industry is flourishing. As the dam economy grows so does the standard of living of the beavers. That makes them grow to the point where they change the environment around them. They could reach a point when their growth overwhelms the environment and causes a collapse of the dam economy and of the beaver population.

Stupid beavers. Don't they know what they are doing to themselves?
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Pmt111500

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #228 on: May 10, 2019, 05:05:03 AM »
New family of small lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) discovered, two previously unknown species found in Kazakhstan proved not to belong to Urodidae but to a linking group. The placement of Urodidae in the systematic order has been in dispute. The newly formed family of 2 species, Ustyurtiidae, fly during the day, in the early summer, and the caterpillars live above ground during the summer of the desert. Kazakh desert temperatures may rise well above 40°C (105°F).

https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/life-science-news/finnish-researchers-discover-a-new-moth-family

The image of the habitat and the hostplant (© Lauri Kaila)
« Last Edit: May 10, 2019, 05:29:35 AM by Pmt111500 »

gerontocrat

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #229 on: May 30, 2019, 11:41:00 AM »
A small event but there are similar and recent stories from puffin colonies in the North Atlantic - the shape of things to come.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48447394
Climate change link to puffin deaths

Quote
Climate change played a role in the deaths of thousands of puffins in Alaska, according to a study.

Scientists believe the birds starved to death when the fish they eat migrated north with rising sea temperatures.

The bodies of dead, emaciated puffins began washing up on beaches on Saint Paul Island in autumn 2016. Up to 9,000 puffins and other seabirds died over the course of a few months, US scientists say.

And climate-driven shifts in fish populations, combined with the onset of moulting, may have caused this mass die-off. "Mass mortality events are increasing in frequency and magnitude, potentially linked with ongoing climate change," researchers led by Timothy Jones of the University of Washington, Seattle, wrote in the journal Plos One.

The findings add to fears that rising temperatures are having unpredictable effects on birds, bats and other wildlife. A recent study found birds nesting in the Arctic faced a bigger risk of having their nests raided by predators due to changes linked to climate change. And over two days last November, record-breaking heat in Australia's north wiped out almost one-third of the nation's spectacled flying foxes, according to researchers.

The latest study looked at tufted puffins breeding in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska. The birds feed on fish and marine invertebrates, which in turn feed on ocean plankton. Scientists fear that unusually warm waters can shift the ocean food web, spelling trouble for marine life, including puffins.
"Para a Causa do Povo a Luta Continua!"
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be cause

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #230 on: May 30, 2019, 12:03:29 PM »
Here my fears of Ash tree dieback are being realised. Almost all the large trees on the farm are ash as are 90% in the area . #########As they die we will lose much of our species diversity .. so much is dependent on the ivy that the ash trees support . I have campaigned for years for ivy to be protected . Now much of it is doomed with the trees .
 I had hoped we may have some resistance locally , but young trees I have let grow over the last decade have failed to produce leaves other than on a few lonely twigs ..

 The Norse said the end of the Ash was the end of the world .. b.c.
Conflict is the root of all evil , for being blind it does not see whom it attacks . Yet it always attacks the Son Of God , and the Son of God is you .

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #231 on: May 30, 2019, 08:43:54 PM »
Re: ash dieback

Ash borer ? i been burning a lot of ash for firewood over the last few years as a great many ash trees had to be felled. Tapering off now, looks like the ash borer ran outta trees ...

sidd

Tom_Mazanec

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Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #233 on: June 05, 2019, 03:58:22 PM »

b_lumenkraft

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #234 on: June 05, 2019, 04:01:52 PM »
I think a copy&paste mistake just happened Tom.

vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #235 on: June 05, 2019, 04:19:40 PM »
Moved: Chimpanzees In the Wild Reduced To 'Forest Ghettos'
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-chimpanzees-wild-forest-ghettos.html

All four sub-species of the African primate are threatened with extinction, with at least one—the western chimpanzee—declining in number by more than 80 percent over three generations.

Forty chimp experts from around the world—with a combined 300 years of field experience—issued a collective appeal to save the only animal whose DNA overlaps with humans by 98 percent.

"Over the decades that we have been working with wild chimpanzee communities, we have all seen our study groups become isolated," they said in a statement.

"Chimpanzees are being reduced into living in forest ghettos."

Quote
... "When we first arrived in the Ndoki forest, the chimpanzees would often approach us with curiosity, ... Now they hide."

... The famed anthropologist Irven DeVore once marvelled at humanity's indifference to our closest primate cousins.

"If we, in our travels in space, should encounter a creature that shared 98 percent of our genetic makeup, think of the money we would spend to study this species," he said.

"Such creatures exist on Earth and we are allowing them to become extinct."
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

Tom_Mazanec

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Ardeus

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #237 on: June 10, 2019, 01:30:08 PM »
I just finished a doc series about Lake Tanganyika. Here's the trailer of the 7th chapter:



Peter Wadhams and Guy McPherson were a bit surprised that I wanted their input for a Lake Tanganyika doc, but they went along :)

ivica

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #238 on: June 12, 2019, 09:50:47 AM »
Punjab and Haryana High Court Declares:
All animals are ‘legal persons’, all citizens are the guardians of the animal kingdom with a duty to ensure their welfare and protection.
https://www.thebetterindia.com/185543/animal-rights-india-court-judgement-cruelty-prevention/


"I'm gonna sue you!"   Source.


vox_mundi

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #239 on: June 14, 2019, 08:19:40 PM »
NOAA: 260 Dolphins Dead on Gulf Coast, Triple Usual Number
https://phys.org/news/2019-06-noaa-dolphins-dead-gulf-coast.html

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists say it's too early to know the cause. But they're investigating whether lingering effects from the 2010 oil spill and salinity changes from high rivers and a Louisiana spillway opening contributed.

NOAA says on its website that a number of the dolphins stranded from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle had sores consistent with freshwater exposure, but those are common in the spring.

A Mississippi scientist says the spillway opening is at least partly to blame for 126 deaths across Mississippi's coastline. Moby Solangi calls it worse than the BP spill. He says 91 dead dolphins were found in Mississippi during all of 2010.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― anonymous

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late

wdmn

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #240 on: June 17, 2019, 06:55:57 PM »
So Many Dead Whales Are Washing Up On The West Coast That NOAA Is Pleading For Help

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/dead-gray-whales-decompose-noaa_n_5d06c71ce4b0304a1211ab62

Local organizations have struggled to dispose of 70 dead gray whales that have washed up along America’s West Coast. Now, a federal agency is turning to private property owners for help.

The tragic die-off is the highest in 20 years. Scientists believe most of the massive animals are starving to death and speculate that it’s because food sources are vanishing in the dramatically warmer waters triggered by climate change.

....

The whales that have washed up so far are considered to be just a fraction of the death toll, as many of the animals decompose at sea or end up on remote rock outcroppings or small islands.

Gray whales spend the summer in the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas, where they consume nearly a year’s worth of nourishment so they can migrate south to Mexico for the winter. Sea ice has been at or near record lows off Alaska, with rising temperatures likely impacting the population of amphipods crustaceans that are the whales’ primary source of food, according to NOAA.

The emaciated whales, now migrating north, are likely showing the impact of poor feeding last summer, according to officials.
______________________________


If this truly is causally linked to diminishing ice in the Bering and Chukchi, Gray whales are not going to have a good year next year...

wdmn

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #241 on: June 21, 2019, 05:00:30 AM »
More on the dead gray whales:

3 more gray whale carcasses found in Alaska amid spike in deaths along West Coast

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/wildlife/2019/06/20/3-more-gray-whale-carcasses-found-in-alaska-amid-spike-in-deaths-along-west-coast/

Three more gray whales were found dead along the coasts of Alaska this week as scientists continue to investigate why so many of the marine mammals are dying as they migrate up the West Coast.

So far this year, 167 dead gray whales have been found dead from Mexico to Alaska, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The number of the carcasses found on U.S. shores, 81, is the most since 2000.

Many of the dead whales were skinny, NOAA said. Some scientists think it’s likely the whales didn’t get enough to eat last summer in the Bering and Chukchi seas.

By Thursday, the tally of dead gray whales in Alaska had climbed to 10. Normally by this time of year, just three or four carcasses are reported, according to NOAA data from 2016 to 2018.



wdmn

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #242 on: June 25, 2019, 03:57:00 PM »
Dying walruses


forkyfork

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #243 on: June 29, 2019, 01:18:11 AM »
being a conservationist in the united states comes with a heavy emotional price

https://www.audubon.org/news/proposed-pipeline-would-cut-through-golden-cheeked-warbler-habitat

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #244 on: June 29, 2019, 01:28:13 AM »
As Leopold said, we live in a world of wounds.

sidd

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #245 on: June 29, 2019, 10:24:00 AM »
Dying walruses
That was indeed heartbreaking.
"It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly" - Bertrand Russell
"It is preoccupation with what other people from your groups think of you, that prevents you from living freely and nobly" - Nanning
Why do you keep accumulating stuff?

Tom_Mazanec

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #246 on: June 29, 2019, 07:22:38 PM »
What kind of species will we have in Century 22? Will deer be left? Mongooses? Rats? Roaches? Nothing?

kassy

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #247 on: June 29, 2019, 07:39:17 PM »
Þetta minnismerki er til vitnis um að við vitum hvað er að gerast og hvað þarf að gera. Aðeins þú veist hvort við gerðum eitthvað.

Rod

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #248 on: June 29, 2019, 07:52:56 PM »

Sebastian Jones

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Re: Wildlife
« Reply #249 on: June 30, 2019, 07:01:18 AM »
Under the category of amazing animal feats, a radio collared  arctic fox left Svalbard on March 26th, heading for Ellesmere, and arrived on June 10. It  detoured north around open water, crossed the Greenland sea, then took a look at the Greenland ice cap in winter, because, you know, bored, picked its way across the Nares- after the arch had collapsed and arrived at Ellesmere on June 10th!
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/ecology/2019/06/arctic-fox-across-polar-ice-makes-record-run-svalbard-canada-25-month?fbclid=IwAR3KYMP5E63StCMbV2YpJYRlpzQHNy42-1DgsxC_V7C9SP1lWFmMqk6R0Oc