Endangered Species crisis

Disease Opened Door To Invading Species In California

2007-03-15T03:12:00.000-07:00

Plant and animal diseases can play a major and poorly appreciated role in allowing the invasion of exotic species, which in turn often threatens biodiversity, ecological function and the world economy, researchers say in a new report. In particular, a plant pathogen appears to have opened the gate for the successful invasion of non-native grasses into much of California, one of the world's largest documented cases of invading species and one that dramatically changed the history and ecology of a vast grassland ecosystem. The study, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a professional journal, should improve the understanding of invasive species and possibly suggest new tools to combat them, said researchers at Oregon State University.

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PennFuture Files Endangered Species Act Petition Against Bush ...

2007-02-04T10:21:00.000-08:00

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture) today joined environmental, sporting groups, and scientific organizations from all regions of the country in legal action to further press President Bush on global warming and the growing potential of significant wildlife extinctions this century. The diverse conservation groups - led by the Center for Biological Diversity, including California Trout, Center for Native Ecosystems (Colorado), Conservation Northwest (Washington), Friends of the Clearwater (Idaho), Restore the North Woods (Maine), Save the Manatee Club (Florida), and Arkansas Fly Fishers, as well as PennFuture - filed a petition under the Administrative Procedure Act to better protect endangered species from many current dangerous threats, particularly global warming, by fully implementing science-based recovery plans and actions.

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Wild about animals, three women work together

2007-01-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

Wiscasset veterinarian Dr. Tammy Doughty has mended the broken wings of geese, pinned the broken hind leg of a fox and treated a baby raccoon for a respiratory infection. Sure, her degree in veterinary medicine from Colorado State University in 1999 prepared her for such tasks, but when she opened her office in Wiscasset in 2005, she thought she would be doing the more typical dog and cat routine. That was before she became friends with two other animal lovers - Bridget Green of Wiscasset, and Kathy Williams, who live in Edgecomb. In the last two years the three have worked closely together to take care of the animal community - both wild and domestic. Two weeks ago, the three women were at Kathy's farm in Edgecomb where Tammy had come to take care of a horse.

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NOTICED: ENDANGERED SPECIES

2007-01-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

If we didn't know better, it would be tempting to suspect Al Gore and his climate-change pals of somehow fixing the weather. This winter's wacky extremes read like a page from Al's textbook on global warming. Not only does this now officially entitle the negative Nellies in the Green Party to stick out their pierced pink tongues at us and say, "I told you so," it will no doubt mark the tipping point where the fringe notion of environmental sustainability goes mass. As far as I'm concerned, this is a good thing. I'm all for protecting the habitat of an obscure owl, hitting our Kyoto targets and reducing, reusing and recycling (even though, if you actually cook every day for a family, you would need a full-time garbage wrangler). In all this talk about the environment, however, are we missing another crisis? It seems to me that culture -- or, to speak the language of the environmentalists, a certain valuable species -- is in danger of extinction.

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Alaska's Cook Inlet beluga whales under 'considerable' risk of ...

2007-01-14T10:27:00.000-08:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Beluga whales swimming off Alaska's largest city are at considerable risk of going extinct unless something is done to help them, a federal study says. The study by the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle says if the Cook Inlet belugas go extinct, another group of the white whales probably won't come in to swim the silty waters off Anchorage. "The population is discrete and unique with respect to the species, and if it should fail to survive, it is highly unlikely that Cook Inlet would be repopulated with belugas," the study says. The study found there is a 26 per cent chance the Cook Inlet belugas will be extinct in 100 years and a 68 per cent chance they'll be gone in 300 years. To make matters worse, it finds that the whales are becoming increasingly vulnerable to a catastrophic event because they are tending to gather in a restricted area in the upper Cook Inlet.

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Tiny snail that spawned endangered species battle still dwindling

2007-01-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

After clambering down a canyon wall, ducking poison ivy vines along a switchback trail and wading chest-deep across a lukewarm stream, Cary Myler squats down near a riverbank, spies some flecks that look like pepper sprinkled on a wet rock and announces, "Found some." The pinhead-sized dots are Bruneau hot springsnails. The tiny mollusks that thrive in water as warm as 100 degrees are found nowhere else in the world but here, in the bottom of this southwestern Idaho desert canyon riddled with hot springs. A decade ago, the snails were at the center of a national battle over federal laws designed to protect endangered species. Today, years after the lawsuits were decided and most of the rhetoric retired, they are closer to extinction than ever before. That's because the level of the underground geothermal aquifer that feeds the seeps and springs of hot water where the snails live keeps dropping.

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Wild animals on show

2006-12-31T10:24:00.000-08:00

THERE is a new attraction featuring various animals at Genting Skyway Complex in Gohtong Jaya and it is called the Amazing Ten Animal Kingdom. The mini-zoo launched on Dec 17 has over 300 species of marine and freshwater fish, 50 corals, 120 reptile varieties, 30 species of mammals including sloths and 10 species of birds. .

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'We are a dying species'

2006-12-24T10:23:00.000-08:00

BETHLEHEM, West Bank - As Christians from the Holy Land flock today and Christmas Day to the Church of the Nativity, where it is said that Jesus was born in a manger some 2,000 years ago, they must be quietly pondering how much longer their community will be around to celebrate this joyous birth. .

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The Vaquita, the world's smallest cetacean, dives toward ...

2006-12-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

Accidental death in fishing nets is driving the world's smallest cetacean, the Vaquita (Phocoena sinus), towards extinction, according to a new study published in the current issue of Mammal Review, the official scientific periodical of the Mammal Society. The population of the Vaquita, a species of porpoise that measures less than 1.5 m (five feet) long and is endemic to the northwestern corner of the Gulf of California, is believed to be around 400 individuals, making it one of the two most critically endangered small cetaceans in the world. However, unlike whales and some other cetaceans that have been diminished by hunting or habitat degradation, the decline of the Vaquita is purely accidental. Its diminutive size and small range puts the species at particular risk to entanglement in gill nets set for fish and shrimp fishing.

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A new home for wild animals

2006-11-28T10:23:00.000-08:00

The Ridgecrest Regional Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Center has been a project eight years in the making. The Center, which is run by the Bureau of Land Management, just off Hwy. 178 toward Trona, held a grand opening Friday for its new building."Our staff and volunteers have been working in the few trailers out there which they shared with mice and other wildlife," said Hector Villalobos, field office manager for the BLM.. "We will proudly serve the public from this new facility." .

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Unknown extremophile species discovered in seas off New Zealand

2006-11-21T10:22:00.000-08:00

An international team of scientists has found bizarre creatures living around deep-sea methane seeps off New Zealands eastern coast. Colorful tube worms, bacterial mats, corals, and sponges were among the organisms found living in the extreme environment where methane gas serves as the primary energy source for the community. Scientists say that a symbiotic relationship with bacteria enables such communities to convert methane into "living matter" in the absence of sunlight through a form of chemosynthesis. "New Zealand is one of the few places in the world where at least four types of chemosynthetic habitats occur in close proximity, allowing scientists to address key questions about the patterns of biological distribution that cannot be addressed elsewhere," notes a news release from New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) which co-sponsored the expedition.

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Regional Languages Threatened With Extinction

2006-11-14T10:23:00.000-08:00

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: A hundred out of 600 regional languages in various Indonesian dialects are threatened with extinction. According to the Director of the Language Center at the Department of National Education Dendy Sugono , the dying regional languages are mostly in the central and eastern regions of Indonesia. Of the nearly extinct languages, six languages of East Nusa Tenggara and Papua are confirmed as gone. "There is no regeneration of the language users," said Dendy at the Language Center office yesterday (11/9) in Jakarta. In addition to the lack of regeneration, said Dendy, the important factor that causes the extinction is that the users are not yet literate. So "there is no documentation for their languages. If those languages were documented, they might be traced," he said.

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Endangered species are scattered

2006-11-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

SYDNEY: Endangered mammals, birds and amphibians are apparently scattered across the globe, according to British researchers, a finding that contradicts current conservation models that assume they are clustered together. "This means that even if a mountainous area has a real problem with endangered amphibians in its creeks and rivers, mammal and bird species might be flourishing," said Ian Owens of Imperial College London, co-author of the study. Global conservation strategies have long assumed that endangered species from all groups are clustered in the same geographical areas. This new study, published in the British journal Nature, suggests this idea may be flawed - a finding that has big implications for conservation techniques. Current conservation strategies often assume that different groups of animals show similar patterns in diversity: that patterns of distribution for threatened species in one group can act as an indicator for all groups.

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Foreign Exchange from Sale of Wild Animals Very Low

2006-11-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The state's revenue from the sale of wild animal is very low, last year only reaching US$16.7 million. However, according to Malam Sabat Kaban, Forestry Minister, the state's foreign exchange from this activity can be much higher than that amount. It should have reached US$16.7 billion, said Kaban in Jakarta yesterday (10/10). Data at the Forestry Department shows that foreign exchange from making use of plants and wild animals in 2005 was only US$ 16.7 million. This amount was calculated based on the current benchmarks. Last year, forest resources that became the state's non-tax revenue were only Rp3.159 billion. From this amount, Rp2.27 billion was from breeding and the remaining Rp881 million was straight from the wild. According to Kaban, the low level of foreign exchange is because most plants and animal products were exported in the form of raw materials.

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No longer threatened: Elderberry beetle could come off Endangered ...

2006-10-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

A bug that's been a bane of Central Valley land developers has been recommended for removal from the Endangered Species List. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Monday recommended the valley elderberry longhorn beetle lose its status as "threatened." The beetle's status forces developers to protect all elderberry bushes in a project area except at a specific time of year. And then, when a plant is removed, several additional elderberries have to be planted elsewhere to replace each one that is lost. As the elderberry is a very common plant, the mitigation can become expensive. The Fish and Wildlife recommendation follows completion of required five-year reviews for 12 species in California. In addition to the beetle, the service recommended delisting of the island night lizard, and downlisting from endangered to threatened for the Smith's blue butterfly, Morro shoulderband snail, least Bells vireo and California least tern.

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Aiding endangered species

2006-10-22T01:17:00.000-07:00

A program that helps landowners preserve natural habitat should improve prospects for threatened and endangered species such as the corn snake, the river otter and buffalo clover in 10 Illinois counties along the Mississippi River. A recent federal grant will allow the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to expand a pilot landowner incentive program that began two years ago in a 10-county area of central Illinois called the Lower Sangamon Basin. The new funding will allow the agency to include what it calls the Alton Bluffs Area. It consists of Adams, Pike, Calhoun, Jersey, Madison, St. Clair, Monroe, Randolph, Jackson and Union counties, an area along a 300-mile stretch of the Mississippi River. "We felt like the bluffs were really a priority for us because of all the development pressures, the unique habitats and the many species you don't find anywhere else in Illinois," said Joe Hampton, manager of the Illinois program.

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Day Fire Threatens Endangered Species

2006-10-22T01:16:00.001-07:00

(CBS 13) VENTURA COUNTY Ventura County has declared a state of emergency as the Day fire grows to more than 98,000 acres. A big concern is the endangered species threatened by the flames. One of the species is the red-legged frog, made famous in the writings of Mark Twain. Also in danger is the habitat of the California Condor. 19 of the state's 61 birds live in the Los Padres National Forest, wildlife experts are doing what they can to protect these animals. "We gave the forest service the GPS locations of where the birds commonly sleep at night... that way they can let the air operations team know where not to drop retardant," said Christopher Barr. Despite the danger, officials are optimistic these animals will survive. .

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Federal grant to help protect endangered species in NRV

2006-10-22T01:16:00.000-07:00

Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) announced today that the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, through its Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) Land Acquisition Program is providing a federal grant in the amount of $150,000 to the Virginia Department of Department of Conservation and Recreation to help protect endangered species in Montgomery County. With the benefit of the federal funds announced today 86 acres of land will be added to the Pedlar Hills Natural Area Preserve located 13 miles east of Christiansburg, bringing the total acreage of the preserve to 608. The purchase and management of this property by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation will bring the entire watershed of an ecologically significant tributary to South Fork Roanoke River under conservation ownership The South Fork Roanoke River is home to two rare fish species, the federally and state endangered Roanoke logperch and the state threatened orangefin madtom.

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Endangered list is `where species go to die,' critics say

2006-10-22T01:15:00.001-07:00

PHILADELPHIA - When a new list of species worthy of federal protection came out recently, the howls of protest were not about the ones that didn't make the list. They were about the ones that did. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service added seven species to a list now totaling 279 "candidates" - those that warrant federal protection but are a few procedural steps away from being declared threatened or endangered. The additions are two Florida butterflies, two Alabama snails, the pricklyapple cactus, the New England cottontail, and the red knot, a shorebird that alights on Delaware Bay beaches every spring to refuel on crab eggs. While the list gives a species in trouble a bit more cachet and a dribble of federal money, critics say it is a death trap.

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Canada failing endangered species: environmental groups

2006-10-22T01:15:00.000-07:00

Canada isn't living up to its own laws meant to protect endangered species from extinction, Canadian and American environmental groups charge. The groups, including the Sierra Club of Canada and Friends of the Earth, have filed a formal complain against Canada with the Commission for Environmental Cooperation for North America, an inter-governmental body with senior representatives from Mexico, Canada and the United States set up under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The commission's web site says it is investigating the complaint against Canada. In their submission, the environmental groups accuse Canadian governments of delays in listing endangered species and failing to designate species at risk of extinction despite scientific evidence. As well, the groups say, Canada has not been identifying and protecting habitat that might provide sanctuary for animals, in defiance of existing Canadian legislation.

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Texas bighorn achieve every endangered species' dream: open season

2006-10-22T01:14:00.001-07:00

In the 1800s, the Texas Bighorn sheep numbered about 1,500 in the remote, craggy Texas wilderness. But by the 1940s, their numbers had dwindled to around 35 and they were looking to join the ranks of the dodo bird. However, conservation efforts and personal motivation tapes pushed the Bighorn sheep to clamber and hoof their way gradually back up the rocky, precarious cliff to population rebound, and at the windswept peak the Texas Bighorn found the ultimate reward: .

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Law helps endangered species

2006-10-22T01:14:00.000-07:00

It's a tactic from the developer's playbook: If you disagree with the findings, question the method, call it "junk science" and poison the well. Developer Tony Symmes did just that when he demeaned the research that led to listing of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1980. "The science behind the listing of the beetle was faulty from the beginning," he told writer Heather Hacking. A quarter century-plus of scientific review since its listing suggests the contrary. The valley elderberry longhorn beetle and other species are rare, threatened or endangered as a result of human activity, such as land development. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 requires Fish and Wildlife to apply rigorous standards when making decisions concerning rare species.

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Targeted vaccination could save endangered species

2006-10-22T01:13:00.001-07:00

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Targeted vaccination against rabies and other infectious diseases could save from extinction threatened animals such as the Ethiopian wolf, the world's most endangered member of the dog family. Instead of immunising entire populations, which is difficult with wild animals, researchers said on Wednesday they have shown that vaccinating about 25-30 percent of Ethiopian wolves could reduce the number of animals dying from rabies. "You really can vaccinate animals like the Ethiopian wolf safely and effectively against rabies," said Dr Dan Haydon, an ecologist and epidemiologist at the University of Glasgow. In research published in the journal Nature, he and his colleagues described how low-vaccination programmes and monitoring could curb epidemics among endangered species.

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Funding needed for Endangered, Threatened and Non-game Species

2006-10-22T01:13:00.000-07:00

Part I. Last week, The Animal Protection Institute, based in California, filed a lawsuit against our Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife department. The suit, filed in Federal District Court on October 12, accuses IFW that it violates the Endangered Species Act by allowing trapping because, as API alleges, endangered species such as the lynx, bald eagles, and gray wolves are caught by trappers. Funding for protection and research of Maine's endangered, threatened, and non-game wildlife trickles in from several sources. For the next three weeks we will take a look at what is needed to protect Maine's wildlife resources, who is helping, and who is not. Much of the following information was provided by Inland Fisheries and Wildlife: George Matula, Endangered and Threatened Species Coordinator, Richard Dressler, Wildlife Resource Assessment Section Supervisor, and the following Wildlife Biologists: Phillip deMaynadier, Beth Swartz, Charlie Todd, Brad Allen, Tom Hodgman, Lindsay Tudor, Wally Jakubas, Jennifer Vashon, Karen Morris, Don Katnik, Amy Meehan, and Mary Ellen Wickett.

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Sierra Frog May Get Endangered Species Protections

2006-10-22T01:12:00.001-07:00

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to comply with its legal obligation under the Endangered Species Act to consider whether Sierra Nevada mountain yellow-legged frogs deserve listing as protected species. The mountain yellow-legged frog was historically the most abundant frog in the Sierra Nevada, distributed widely in high elevation lakes and streams from Plumas to Tulare Counties. Recent surveys have found that the species has disappeared from 70 to 90 percent of its former habitat. Remaining frog populations are widely scattered and consist of few breeding adults. What was thought to be one of the largest remaining populations, containing 2000 adult frogs as recently as 1996, has collapsed to only two frogs in a 1999 survey. Today's decision is just the latest chapter in the long and winding road to get protection for this native Sierra amphibian.

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Government benefiting from illegal sport hunting of endangered ...

2006-10-22T01:12:00.000-07:00

A symposium on sport hunting organised by Safari Club International attracted a large gathering at the London Zoo on Friday, including safari operators, hunters and government officials from Zimbabwe, who are accused of ignoring the illegal killing of endangered species. Several experts made presentations promoting hunting as a sport and its supposed benefits to the local communities. But there seemed to be a veil of secrecy surrounding the involvement of government officials in the safari business, the illegal seizure of private game reserves and abusive practices that are causing much damage to the environment. It is no secret that war veterans, under orders from top government officials, have taken over protected areas and some national parks where a lucrative and reckless business in sport hunting is thriving.

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