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A Short-tailed Albatross hatched at Midway for the second time, ever / Photo by Pete Leary (USFWS) |
News about birds and birding
Nature blogging
Environment and biodiversity
- This week, the Obama administration denied a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil from tar sands mines in Alberta for refining in Texas. The State Department said that it needed more time to evaluate the project than the 60-day deadline imposed by Congress in December. Cancellation of that route could mean more tanker traffic departing from British Columbia. The Obama administration also left the door open for TransCanada to reapply with an alternate pipeline route. Here are some of the animals that would be affected by the Keystone XL pipeline's route.
- In 2009, scientists discovered over 19,000 new species. These included 7 birds, 41 mammals, 120 reptiles, 148 amphibians, 314 fish, 626 crustaceans, 9,738 insects, 1,360 fungi and 2,184 plants. That brings the number of known species over 1.9 million, but there may be as many as 10 million undiscovered plant and animal species.
- According to NASA, 2011 was the ninth-warmest year on record. Here is an animation of the average global temperatures since 1880.
- The Amazon is actually two distinct forests, one much richer in biodiversity than the other.
- The Catalina Island fox has rebounded from a low of 100 individuals in 1999 to 1,542 today thanks to conservation efforts. The population had been about 1,300 before it was devastated by an epidemic of distemper.
- About six million bats have died from white-nose syndrome in the past six years – many more than previously estimated. Here is an interview on the disease's potential for spreading west.