Friday, October 30, 2020

Loose Feathers #773

Ruby-crowned Kinglet / Photo by Peter Pearsall/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • USFWS is proposing a new rule to remove the Gray Wolf from Endangered Species Act protections. Because of the abbreviated comment period, the rule could be finalized by the end of the year. While the wolf populations has rebounded from its historic lows, it still has not returned to its historic range and faces the threat of unsustainable hunting.
  • Some spiders can hear by sensing airborne vibrations with their hairs and leg joints.
  • The USFWS refused again to list wolverines under the Endangered Species Act.
  • Protecting nature, both by preserving habitats and stopping the wildlife trade, could prevent future pandemics that pass from wildlife to humans.
  • Wild fruit production is falling in Gabon, which is reducing the food available for large mammals like forest elephants.
  • Fin whales sing multiple song types instead of just one as previously thought.
  • Remoras can move around on a blue whale's skin without falling off.
  • A study in Guam showed the value of endangered trees to the forests where they survive.

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 23, 2020

Loose Feathers #772

Western Meadowlark / Photo by Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 16, 2020

Loose Feathers #771

Northern Harrier / Photo: Tom Koerner/USFWS

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • Climate change is turning Central Asian steppes into desert, and there was a similar change 34 million years ago.
  • The smalltail shark population has dropped by 90% since the 1980s, going from being one of the most common shark species in Brazil to being critically endangered. Their decline has been driven by overfishing, in which many young sharks end up as bycatch.
  • Governments are not protecting enough land and ocean to stop the biodiversity crisis. The Convention on Biological Diversity recommends protecting 17% of land area and 10% of the oceans.
  • A North Atlantic Right Whale, a critically endangered species, was tangled in fishing gear off the New Jersey coast. Abandoned fishing gear is one of the biggest contributors to plastic in the ocean.

Climate change and environmental politics

  • The Earth just had its hottest September on record, and 2020 has the potential to break or tie the record for hottest year set in 2016. This extraordinary heat comes in spite of La Niña, which usually produces cooler ocean temperatures around the tropics. In addition, Arctic sea ice reached its second-lowest extent this September.
  • Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett refused to answer questions on climate change (or even acknowledge that it is real) on the grounds that it is too controversial.
  • Despite bragging about cleaning up Superfund sites, the Trump administration has cut funding for the program and reversed climate change policies.
  • Sudden intensification of hurricanes shortly before landfall has been linked to ocean heat waves.
  • Some Republicans are realizing that they need to do something (or at least look like they are doing something) about climate change. It remains to be seen if this realization will lead to concrete action.
  • The Border Patrol tear gassed Native American protests on Indigenous Peoples Day as they protested militarization of the border, which divides the homelands of several tribes.

Friday, October 09, 2020

Loose Feathers #770

Black-throated Blue Warbler / my photo

Birds and birding news

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • Every October features an online celebration of spiders and other arachnids. To follow along, see @arachtober or #arachtober on Twitter, or the Arachtober group on Flickr.
  • Letting forests grow back naturally may be more effective for fighting climate change than tree-planting programs (and would probably be more beneficial to wildlife).
  • DNA evidence suggests that Asian Giant Hornets have been introduced more than once.

Climate change and environmental politics

Friday, October 02, 2020

Loose Feathers #769

Black-crowned Night-Heron / Photo by Grayson Smith/USFWS

Birds and birding news

  • The outcome of the November election will affect bird conservation, both directly through enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Endangered Species Act and indirectly through protections for public lands and water and action on climate change. The link explains some of the issues at stake.
  • Some American Robins migrate long distances between their wintering and breeding grounds, while others stay in the same area year-round. A research project is currently tracking their movements.
  • The White Stork Project is tracking the migration routes taken by captive-bred storks released in the UK. So far storks have been recorded as far south as Morocco.
  • Pinyon Jays and Clark's Nutcrackers use similar habitats and both cache food to survive the winter.
  • Melting ice revealed a lost colony of mummified Adelie Penguins that were frozen a millennium or more ago.
  • Last year there were 85 incidents of birds being killed to support grouse hunting in the UK.

Science and nature blogging

Biodiversity and conservation

  • Captive breeding has restored pygmy rabbits to the Columbia Basin, but the wild population is still vulnerable to wildfires and habitat fragmentation.
  • Some beetles can withstand cyanide gas released by their millipede prey.

Climate change and environmental politics