A flying squirrel in Florida. Despite their name, flying squirrels do not actually fly, but rather glide between trees. Danita Delimont / Gallo Images / Getty Images Plus
In January of 2019, a concerned citizen in Marion County, Florida noticed something strange: Someone was trapping flying squirrels.
<p>The anonymous tipster notified the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), launching a 19-month investigation that uncovered an elaborate flying-squirrel trafficking operation in which up to 3,600 of the protected <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">animals</a> were captured and sold as part of the international <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/illegal-wildlife-trade" target="_self">illegal wildlife trade</a>.</p><p>"<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">Wildlife</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> laws protect Florida's precious natural resources from abuse," the investigation's section leader Maj. Grant Burton said in an <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLFFWCC/bulletins/2a6945a" target="_blank">FWC press release Monday</a>. "The concerned citizen who initially reported this activity started an investigation that uncovered a major smuggling operation. These <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/poaching" target="_self">poachers</a> could have severely damaged Florida's wildlife populations."</p>
<p>The investigation has so far uncovered seven suspects. Together, the group has racked up 25 felony charges including racketeering, money laundering and scheming to defraud.</p><p>"With the exception of one individual, all those involved have been arrested, so we felt it was the right time to highlight this case," FWC spokeswoman Shannon Knowles told the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article246561948.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>.</p><p>The arrests took place between April and August of this year and include four men from Florida and two men from Georgia. In addition to targeting flying squirrels, the Florida suspects also caught and sold protected freshwater turtles and alligators, FWC said.</p><p>All told, the poachers set at least 10,000 squirrel traps throughout central Florida over a three year period.</p>
<p>The operation worked roughly like this:</p><ol><li>Poachers set traps for squirrels in several Florida counties.</li><li>The captured squirrels were sold to a wildlife dealer in Bushnell, Florida who laundered the wild squirrels through a licensed business that claimed they were bred in captivity.</li><li>South Korean buyers would buy the squirrels from Bushnell and have them driven to Chicago.</li><li>In Chicago, the squirrels' true origin was further concealed, and a wildlife exporter would send them to Asia without knowing they had been obtained illegally.</li><li>When the operation grew larger, drivers from Georgia would help transport the squirrels from Florida to Chicago in rental cars.</li></ol>
<p>The Bushnell wildlife dealer earned at least $213,800 in illegal proceeds, and the international retail value of the stolen squirrels will probably surpass $1 million, FWC estimated.</p><p>Despite their name, flying squirrels do not actually fly, the Miami Herald pointed out. Instead, they glide between trees. They are one of many small, exotic mammals that have become popular pets in South Korea and other parts of East Asia, University of Florida in Gainesville wildlife ecology and conservation associate professor Steve Johnson told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/squirrel-trafficking-ring-florida.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. They are also sometimes featured in cafes where patrons can interact with cute animals.</p><p>However, Johnson pointed out that flying squirrels were not well-suited to domestication.</p><p>"I don't see the point at having a gnawing, nocturnal rodent as a pet," he said.</p><p>In their natural habitat, however, they are an important meal for owls and rat snakes. Johnson thought their absence could have an impact on their predators, but also noted that they reproduced quickly and that their population would likely rebound now that the poachers have been apprehended.</p>
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A wolf chases magpies and ravens from an elk carcass in Yellowstone National Park. Jim Peaco / NPS, CC by 4.0
By Rebecca Niemiec and Kevin Crooks
Colorado voters will decide on Nov. 3 whether the state should reintroduce gray wolves (Canis lupus) after a nearly 80-year absence. Ballot Proposition 114 would require the state to develop and oversee a science-based plan to restore wolves, focused in Western Colorado and initiated by the end of 2023.
<p>Restoring wolves is a contentious topic that taps into diverse values and passions. Indeed, much of the conflict surrounding wolves isn't human versus animal, but human versus human.</p><p>Creating environments that allow humans and carnivores to thrive and that minimize social conflict is a global challenge. Examples include <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-bears-adapt-to-life-near-humans-by-burning-the-midnight-oil-118899" target="_blank">black bears</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bears-become-more-nocturnal-to-survive-1.5636570" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">grizzly bears</a> in North America, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-05/mountain-lions-on-the-streets-chilean-capital-sees-big-cat-influx-amid-lockdown" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pumas</a> in North and South America, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/26/harmless-or-vicious-hunter-the-uneasy-return-of-europes-wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wolves</a> in Europe, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204320" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lions</a> in Africa and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/aug/01/over-1000-people-killed-india-humans-wildlife-territories-meet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tigers</a> in India.</p><p>As researchers who study the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1h72-2oAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">social</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=mZNYgLcAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ecological</a> dimensions of <a href="https://sites.warnercnr.colostate.edu/centerforhumancarnivorecoexistence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human-carnivore coexistence</a>, we see the vote on Proposition 114 as a catalyst for broader discussions about carnivore conservation and management. In our view, the best way to find workable solutions is to include people <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QppmBszEF6zsNnhBJ7Q2-pSWRR-Zx_ln/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">representing all sides of the issue</a> in shared decision-making.</p>
Back by Popular Demand?
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUzOTQxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzI4NTkyMX0.BeRR61CH6a-TWwSw1p4kmng4x4tXRaSMKyTRHKIHmOw/img.jpg?width=980" id="1f7fe" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="339e3443dc63f3be06e24a82f0b37a03" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Gray wolves once roamed much of North America, but hunting, trapping and poisoning in the 19th and 20th centuries greatly reduced their numbers. Living with Wolves, CC BY-ND
<p>For thousands of years before white settlers pushed west, gray wolves ranged throughout the area that is now Colorado, from the Western Slope and Front Range of the Rocky Mountains into the Eastern Plains. As the region was settled, government agencies started <a href="https://mhs.mt.gov/research/collections/newspapers/extra/wolves" target="_blank">paying bounties</a> for wolves and other predators that were seen as threats to livestock and game. By the 1940s, shooting, trapping and poisoning had systematically eradicated wolves from Colorado.</p><p>In recent decades a few lone wolves migrated to Colorado from adjacent states, but were killed or simply disappeared. Then, starting in 2019, a pack of up to six wolves and a separate lone wolf were sighted in northern Colorado. Recent media reports indicate that some of these wolves may have been <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/09/09/colorado-wolves-may-have-been-killed-in-wyoming/" target="_blank">shot and killed along the Wyoming-Colorado border</a>.</p><p>Several scientific studies have concluded that Colorado can still <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-in-colorado-history-and-status-8-007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">support a self-sustaining, viable wolf population</a>. Wolves can live successfully in many types of habitats where there is enough prey and where humans will tolerate them.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9aec767b3325e364a8605524504f95ab"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wTx_jqpqqfU?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>Today gray wolves are <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolf-policy-8-008/" target="_blank">protected in Colorado as an endangered species</a>. However, they have no legal protection in most of Wyoming, where they can be killed on sight. This makes it challenging for wolves to migrate from the Yellowstone region, where they were <a href="https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm" target="_blank">reintroduced in the mid-1990s</a>, through Wyoming into Colorado.</p><p>The only other adjoining states with resident wolf populations are Arizona and New Mexico, where the endangered subspecies of Mexican gray wolf was reintroduced starting in the 1990s. But <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolf-policy-8-008/" target="_blank">federal policy requires</a> that wolves leaving the reintroduction zone be recaptured and returned to it. Ultimately, then, if Coloradans want to bring wolves back, having wildlife biologists reintroduce them is the most likely route.</p><p>Proposition 114 was placed on the ballot through a citizen initiative led by <a href="https://www.wolfactionfund.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund</a>. It asserts that gray wolves are endangered in Colorado; were historically an essential part of Colorado's wildlands, but were exterminated by humans; and will <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/ballots/reintroduction-and-management-gray-wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">help restore ecological balance</a> if they are reintroduced.</p><p>Wolves are predators at the top of the food chain. Studies from <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/ecological-effects-of-wolves-8-005/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">national parks</a> suggest that wolves' presence can produce ecological effects that ripple through ecosystems. But science also tells us that such impacts are difficult to predict outside of national parks, including in Colorado.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUzOTQzMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzM1MjI5M30.tx5g8Nrc4xdmdXgnCdoCmgZKlygX7Gz4haMwOjYKAZo/img.jpg?width=980" id="2c229" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="544f8509acef11a0615aff9380916aea" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A wolf chases magpies and ravens from an elk carcass in Yellowstone National Park. NPS/Jim Peaco, CC BY
Clashing Values
<p>Proposition 114 has strong support in Colorado. <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/public-perspectives-on-wolves-and-wolf-reintroduction-8-004/" target="_blank">Statewide surveys </a> conducted by phone, by mail and online over the past two decades have found that 66% to 84% of respondents supported reintroducing wolves. This support is consistent across different regions of the state and diverse demographic groups.</p><p>In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9074" target="_blank">survey of Colorado residents</a> that we conducted in 2019, the prospect that wolves could contribute to a balanced ecosystem was the most commonly cited reason for supporting reintroduction. Other arguments included people's cultural and emotional connections to wolves, and <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/moral-arguments-related-to-wolf-restoration-and-management-8-011/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">moral arguments</a> that restoring a species humans had eradicated was the right thing to do.</p><p>While overall public support is strong, over half of Colorado's 64 counties have passed <a href="https://www.drovers.com/article/wolf-reintroduction-ballot-colorado" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">resolutions against restoring wolves</a>. Many ranching and hunting associations are actively campaigning against the ballot measure.</p><p>In our 2019 study, we found that media coverage in the state focused more strongly on <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9074" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">perceived negative impacts</a> associated with wolf reintroduction than on beneficial effects. Surveys show that resident concerns include threats to <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-and-human-safety-8-003/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human safety and pets</a>; <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-and-livestock-8-010/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wolf attacks on livestock</a>; and the potential for wolves to <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/wolves-big-game-and-hunting-8-001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduce deer and elk populations</a>, threatening hunting opportunities.</p>Who Decides?
<p>This measure is the first giving voters in the U.S. an opportunity to weigh in on bringing back a native species. Addressing the issue through a ballot measure adds a unique twist to public and media discussions about wolves.</p><p>Supporters call it a democratic way to ensure that the <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/09/29/should-wolves-be-brought-back-to-colorado-a-rancher-and-a-biologist-have-their-say/" target="_blank">public's values are recognized</a>. They also argue that voters are deciding only whether wolves should be reintroduced, while allowing experts at the <a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">state wildlife agency</a> to create a reintroduction plan <a href="https://www.steamboatpilot.com/news/election/howl-you-vote-wolf-advocates-opponents-ask-colorado/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">based on the best available science</a>.</p><div id="4c11f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dec8674441e02372e50b796d848e4130"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1316474105315483649" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">According to a recent poll of 900 demographically representative likely voters, two-thirds supported “restoring wol… https://t.co/74LMG1PYtW</div> — High Country News (@High Country News)<a href="https://twitter.com/highcountrynews/statuses/1316474105315483649">1602706860.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Opponents assert that wildlife management decisions should be <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/09/29/should-wolves-be-brought-back-to-colorado-a-rancher-and-a-biologist-have-their-say/" target="_blank">left to state experts</a>. As some critics note, the <a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/aboutus/Pages/Commission.aspx" target="_blank">Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission</a> has decided <a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/CON-Wolf-Management.aspx/" target="_blank">against wolf reintroduction four times</a>, most recently in 2016. The commission is a citizen board appointed by the governor and made up of sportspersons, agricultural producers, recreationists and nonconsumptive wildlife organizations. Opponents also point out that people who do not support reintroducing wolves, such as ranchers, will bear a disproportionate share of the costs.</p><p>These arguments reflect deeper power dynamics that influence wildlife management across the U.S. Many wildlife agencies tend to represent people and organizations who believe wildlife should be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13493" target="_blank">managed for human benefit</a>, particularly hunting and other consumptive uses.</p><p>These agencies receive much of their funding from <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-better-conserve-wildlife-consider-all-kinds-of-animals-not-just-the-ones-we-hunt-58556" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hunting and fishing license fees</a>. And people who believe wildlife should be managed to benefit humans tend to support using lethal methods to control wolves and other carnivores. They also are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1617138112001173" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more likely to oppose reintroducing them</a> where they have been eradicated.</p><p>However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-hunting-declines-efforts-grow-to-broaden-the-funding-base-for-wildlife-conservation-105792" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">support for this view is declining</a>. A growing share of Americans believe humans should coexist with carnivores and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13493" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">oppose managing them primarily for human benefit</a>. But because agency decisions don't always reflect these increasingly popular values, people who advocate coexisting with nature are seeking a greater say via the ballot box.</p>
Finding Consensus
<p>Studies suggest that ballot initiatives like 114 will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.07.032" target="_blank">become more common</a> as public values toward wildlife change and more diverse groups seek to influence wildlife management. For us, the key question is how to recognize and incorporate these differing values as agencies make decisions.</p><p>Research drawing on insights from <a href="https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/people-predators/dialogue-and-social-conflict-about-wolves-8-009/" target="_blank">psychology, political science and sociology</a> suggests that it is critical to run<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QppmBszEF6zsNnhBJ7Q2-pSWRR-Zx_ln/view" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> truly participatory processes</a> that engage government agencies and people who have a stake in the issue in shared decision-making. Fostering dialogue between groups that value wildlife differently can build empathy and mutual understanding and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2014.07.015" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foster compromise</a>. Broadening the conversation in this way is essential for coexisting with carnivores with minimal impacts on predators and people.</p>From Your Site Articles
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A Cross River gorilla is seen at Limbe Wildlife Center in Limbe, Cameroon. Julie Langford / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Mike Gaworecki
Today we take a look at efforts to protect the Cross River gorilla, one of the world's rarest great ape subspecies, which include a radio program broadcast to nearly 4 million Nigerians that is helping to address the attitudes and knowledge gaps that lead to the human behaviors threatening the gorillas' survival.
Listen here:
<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/16399115/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/3e5014/" height="90" width="100%" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe><p>The Cross River gorilla is a subspecies of the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9404/136250858" target="_blank">critically endangered Western gorilla (<em>Gorilla gorilla</em>)</a> found only in the remote highland forests of the Nigeria-Cameroon border. It's believed that there are just around 300 individual Cross River gorillas remaining in the wild — which is why it's known as one of the world's rarest great ape subspecies.</p><p>There are both federal and state laws in Nigeria that aim to protect great apes, but enforcement of those laws is lacking. And as the human population grows, Cross River gorillas have come under increasing pressure. Human activities like the conversion of the gorillas' forest habitat to farmland, commercial logging, and the building of new roads drive habitat loss and fragmentation. The bushmeat trade is another notable threat to the gorillas' survival — and thanks to the new roads the government is building to connect remote areas of the country, even the most secluded forests are no longer safe havens for the great apes.</p><p>We're joined on the program today by Hillary Chukwuemeka, host of a radio program called "My Gorilla My Community" that is broadcast to numerous communities on the frontlines of gorilla conservation in Nigeria and encourages them to become active participants in the protection of the subspecies. Chukwuemeka talks about why his radio program is an effective means of community engagement and the impacts he's seen from time spent in local communities.</p><p>We also speak with Inaoyom Imong, program director for the Cross River landscape with Wildlife Conservation Society Nigeria and a member of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. Inaoyom discusses the major threats to Cross River gorillas, the main barriers to their conservation, and why community-based conservation measures are so important in this context.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/podcast-a-radio-program-is-helping-save-critically-endangered-gorillas-in-nigeria/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A ring-tailed lemur similar to Maki, who went missing from San Francisco Zoo. Mathias Appel
Police in San Francisco are asking for help with solving an unusual wildlife crime.
<p>Maki, a 21-year-old ring-tailed <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lemurs" target="_self">lemur</a>, disappeared from the San Francisco Zoo sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.</p><p>"Maki is an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered</a> animal and requires specialized care, we are asking the public to help get him returned to the San Francisco Zoo," the <a href="https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/news/san-francisco-police-seeking-publics-assistance-san" target="_blank">San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) said in a press release</a>.</p>
<p>Maki was last seen in his enclosure Tuesday night but had vanished by the morning, zoo officials told <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-zoo-missing-lemur-maki-police/7031021/" target="_blank">ABC7</a>. Police responded to news of his disappearance at around 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, according to the press release, and suspect the lemur was stolen.</p><p>"We found evidence of forced entry, meaning there was damage to the enclosure," SFPD Officer Robert Rueca told ABC7.</p><p>Maki usually lives in the Lipman Family Lemur Forest along with one of his children, zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan told <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/14/san-francisco-zoo-help-find-missing-lemur-maki/3660998001/" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a>. He is one of seven different species of Madagascar lemurs in the enclosure, which is the <a href="http://www.sfzoo.org/animals/exhibits/lemurforest.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">largest outdoor lemur habitat in the U.S</a>.</p>
<p>He was born in the zoo in 1999, making him one of the oldest lemurs at the zoo. Police think he may have been stolen to be sold, or to be kept as a pet, according to ABC7.</p><p>"We understand that lemurs are adorable animals, but Maki is a highly endangered animal that requires special care. We are asking the public for help in his return," zoo executive vice president of animal behavior and wellness Dr. Jason Watters told ABC7. "As one of our oldest lemurs, Maki requires a specialized diet. Of the 19 lemurs here, at 21.5 years, he has exceeded median life expectancy of 16.7 years, but is also one of the slowest, and we believe, likely, the easiest to catch."</p>
<p>The SFPD is asking anyone who sees Maki to call 911 or their local law enforcement agency.</p><p>"Please be prepared to provide the lemur's current location and a description of anyone in possession of him," the SFPD said in their press release.</p><p>Anyone with information about Maki's whereabouts can call the SFPD 24-hour tip line at 1-415-575-4444 or text TIP411 and start the message with SFPD.</p><p>It is illegal to keep lemurs as pets in California, according to ABC7. Despite this, Maki's disappearance is not the first time a lemur has been stolen in the state, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/21-year-old-ring-tailed-lemur-stolen-san-francisco-zoo-n1243488" target="_blank">NBC News pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, a ring-tailed lemur named Isaac was stolen from the Santa Ana Zoo overnight. The 32-year-old Isaac was the oldest lemur in captivity in North America. He was found the next day outside a Newport Beach hotel in a plastic container with a note saying he was from the zoo. He was then returned to his home unharmed.</p><p>A Newport Beach man named Aquinas Kasbar later bragged to a bail agent about the theft when he was picked up for another crime. The FBI said Kasbar had wanted to steal a monkey but couldn't persuade any to leave with him.</p><p>In their native Madagascar, ring-tailed lemurs are considered endangered by the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/11496/115565760" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)</a>, and their population is decreasing.</p><p>"Habitat loss, hunting, and live-capture for the illegal in-country pet trade are the greatest causes of concern," the IUCN said.</p>
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A humpback whale is seen in the Santa Barbara Channel of California. Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Tara Lohan
A blue whale can weigh as much as 200 tons and consume 12,000 pounds of krill in a single day. But even the largest animal on Earth doesn't stand a chance against a fast-moving cargo ship.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Collisions between whales and shipping vessels are especially prevalent in areas where whale habitat overlaps with busy port traffic, such as the Santa Barbara Channel. This 70-mile stretch of water between mainland California and the Northern Channel Islands is a thoroughfare for thousands of cargo ships going to and from the busy ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. It's also a hotspot for endangered and threatened whales.</p><p>The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has instituted voluntary slow-speed zones, but whale-ship strikes have still been on the rise for the past few years.</p><p>To reverse that trend, a group of scientists from all over the country have collaborated on a new project spearheaded by U.C. Santa Barbara's Benioff Ocean Initiative. <a href="https://whalesafe.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Whale Safe</a>, a technology-based mapping and analysis tool, provides near real-time data on whale activity in the Santa Barbara Channel in the hope of reducing fatal whale-ship collisions.</p><p>We spoke to Morgan Visalli, the science lead at the Benioff Ocean Initiative, about how the technology works and what the public can do to help hold shipping companies accountable.</p>
<p><strong>Why is something like Whale Safe needed?</strong></p><p>Many whale species thankfully are recovering from the days of intensive whaling, when they were hunted to the brink of extinction. But now they're facing other threats from ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements.</p><p>The Santa Barbara Channel, where we've launched Whale Safe, is a really important feeding ground for blue, humpback and fin whales — all species that are either endangered or threatened. Those three species are the ones that we're focusing on with this first launch of the project.</p><p>The past two years were some of the worst on record for ship strikes off the West Coast of the United States. Even worse, the number that we actually see recorded in the data is likely a small percentage of the actual number of ship strikes that occurred.</p><p>Scientists estimate that only about 5% to 17% of whale carcasses are actually observed and recorded. So if we see 13 whale carcasses that wash up on the beach, as was the case last year on the West Coast of the United States, it's likely that that could actually be closer to 130 ship strikes that occurred.</p>
<p><strong>What's the best way to reduce or eliminate whale-ship collisions?</strong></p><p>One way to address this issue is to separate ships and whales. In some places it's possible to actually move shipping lanes away from areas of known whale concentrations, which can help reduce the risk of these strikes happening.</p><p>In the Santa Barbara Channel in 2013 they did move the shipping lanes one mile away from an area that is a known blue whale feeding hotspot. But unfortunately, the Santa Barbara Channel is a constrained waterway, and so there's really not too much more that can be moved. The next best option is slowing down.</p><p>Studies have shown that when ships slow down it reduces the probability of a strike happening by potentially giving the whale a bit more time to respond. And we've also found that slower speeds can reduce the lethality of the strikes.</p><p><strong>How does Whale Safe work to try and alert ship captains to whales in the area?</strong></p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxNzY5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDUxNzIyNX0.5lEEQXk8qwUwc4dQEm5FuGyx7OBOx4TBsEoEQxuDtT0/img.jpg?width=980" id="e6b74" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="48e171670d9ac552374520f0d37fcaec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
1. Acoustic monitoring instruments identify whale vocalizations. 2. Observers record whale sightings with a mobile app. 3. Oceanographic data is used to predict where blue whales are likely to be. 4. The data streams are compiled and validated. 5. Whale information is disseminated to industry, managers and the public. Nicolle R. Fuller, Sayo Studio
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">There are three main components.</span><br></p><p>One is an acoustic listening station. Out in the Santa Barbara channel, our collaborators at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Texas A&M University at Galveston deployed an acoustic buoy that has an underwater microphone near the seafloor. There's a small computer that processes any audio that the microphone picks up.</p><p>It is able to automatically detect the calls of blue, humpback and fin whales. Then there's a surface buoy with a satellite transmitter that sends that information back to shore. It's then validated by a scientist on shore before it's added to the database.</p><p>Then the second piece is a blue whale habitat model. We use oceanographic data like sea-surface temperature and current to predict where blue whales are likely to be on any given day. That was developed by our collaborators at U.C. Santa Cruz, the University of Washington and NOAA Southwest Fishery Science Center.</p><p>It's a dynamic model that's running every day in an automated fashion and producing maps that show us blue whale hotspots.</p><p>The third piece is data gathered by community scientists who are out on whale-watching and tourism boats nearly every day. They use mobile apps such as <a href="http://www.whalealert.org/" target="_blank">WhaleAlert</a> and <a href="http://whaleaware.org/index.php?page=download-spotter" target="_blank">Spotter Pro</a> to record whale sightings that are also added to the database.</p><p><strong></strong><strong>I know you've just launched this database, but what are you hearing from people in the shipping industry that may be using it or want to use it?</strong></p><p>We did some interviews as we were building the system to get information from industry in terms of what information would be most helpful, how frequently they would like to receive data and what pathway they would like to receive data through.</p><p>Now we're working on building those relationships, making sure everybody knows that this information is available and also getting more feedback so we can continue to improve the system and tailor the data feeds to fit the needs of different folks within the industry.</p><p>One kind of communication pathway that could be really exciting to implement is getting the whale information piped into the charting system on the ship through the automatic identification system (AIS). It's the navigation and collision avoidance system that all of these large ships have on board.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUxNzcwNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTg0OTM2OX0.V_zkkwXuavZrUX5cyT3Mih7BgqARMButjo0HpBcii_E/img.jpg?width=980" id="617aa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f30407783bbe5b3171e17e582e9223e7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Deploying the acoustic detection system in the Santa Barbara Channel near the shipping lanes in 2019. Benioff Ocean Initiative
<p>There are quite a few challenges, both on the technological side and just the bureaucratic side, of actually getting the data delivered that way. It's their main safety and navigation tool, so you don't want it to be crowded with too much data and information. That would need to be done really thoughtfully. But that's a communication pathway that could really help get this data more easily adopted.</p><p><strong></strong><strong>Right now there are voluntary slow-speed zones, but some ships aren't abiding by those recommendations. How likely do you think they'd be to adopt technology like Whale Safe?</strong></p><p>A few years ago there was actually a NOAA-led working group that brought together many stakeholders to try to develop solutions. One of the recommendations that came out of that process was actually a call for new technology and more real-time data on whale activity. And that was supported by many members of the shipping industry that were part of that working group.</p><p>That helped to inform the approach that we decided to take. Some of these companies expressed that time is money, and if they're going to slow down, they want to make sure that they're slowing down because there are actually whales in the area.</p><p>Our hope is that this data can really help to reinforce those slow-speed zones, especially when there's high whale activity in the channel.</p><p><strong></strong><strong>Whale Safe also provides data on how well companies are abiding by the slow-speed zones. But many of these shipping companies aren't consumer-facing, so how can this information be used by the public to pressure companies to make changes?</strong></p><p>Big companies like Walmart, Target and Home Depot import a lot of stuff and use these shipping companies quite often. We're starting to have conversations with some of those retailers that are more public facing to see if there's information about whale safety that could be helpful for them as they're doing their planning around their sustainability portfolios.</p><p>And from the public standpoint, the more general awareness there is about the problem of whale-ship collisions, the more it helps public-facing companies know that this is something that they should prioritize in their sustainability planning.</p><p>We want people to know that whales are really important for global biodiversity and also as ecosystem engineers that help stabilize the food web. Whales are also important for coastal economies through whale watching and other tourism businesses. And they can help mitigate climate change. <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/natures-solution-to-climate-change-chami.htm" target="_blank">Studies have shown</a> that they can actually help to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.</p><p>Besides whales being incredible creatures deserving of protection in their own right, there are multiple benefits that we see from keeping these populations strong and healthy in our global ocean.</p>
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis. </em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/whale-safe/" target="_blank">The Revelator.</a> </em></p>
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A hiker in Provo, Utah filmed a frightening encounter he had with a cougar as the big cat followed him for roughly six minutes.
<p>The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pg2CDCm34w&feature=emb_title" target="_blank">video</a>, which has gone viral, was filmed by Kyle Burgess who was on a 10-mile run in Slate Canyon when he spotted small animals in the distance. He took out his camera to record them, thinking they were bobcats, but soon realized he had made a mistake when a large cougar (also called mountain lion) jumped out of the brush to protect them, as <a href="https://www.deseret.com/utah/2020/10/12/21513450/utah-cougar-mountain-lion-encounter-viral-provo-slate-canyon-attack-stalk-survive" target="_blank">The Deseret News</a> reported</p><p>"You see the two cubs and one kind of runs off, but then I didn't notice mom was right there and that's when I knew it was not a good situation to be in," he told <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cougar-utah-mountain-lion-man-chased/" target="_blank">CBS News</a>.</p>
<p>Burgess retreated from the cougar quickly and let out a long stream of profanities as he continued to record as the cat followed him down the trail. According to NPR, Burgess maintained eye contact with the cougar while it hissed and growled at him. In one chilling moment roughly 3 minutes and 25 seconds into the video, she comes close to him and flails out her front paws as if she is intending to attack.</p><p>"Come on, dude," Burgess says to the cougar 10 seconds later. "I don't feel like dying today."</p><p>Burgess goes through a series of self-defense maneuvers in the video. He walks away, pleads with the animal, reminds her to return to her babies, and growls and woofs to make himself seem menacing. Toward the end of the encounter, about 5 minutes and 40 seconds into the video, Burgess picks up a rock and throws it at the cougar. She turns and darts back down the road, likely back to the cubs she left behind.</p>
<p>Burgess then sits and turns the camera onto himself to show his trembling hand.</p><p>Kate Remsen, who works with the Living with Lions, told CBS News that the mountain lion was not looking for an encounter or truly threatening him. Instead, she was pushing him away from her cubs. Remsen added that altercations with cougars are extremely rare.</p><p>"These mountain lions are not going to actively attack a human being unless they need to defend themselves or they're scared," she said.</p>
<p>Officials with Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources praised Burgess' strategy during the encounter. Scott Root, a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation">conservation</a> manager for the Division of Wildlife Resources, suggested that runners and hikers always travel with someone else, but otherwise said Burgess did everything correct, as The Deseret News reported.</p><p>"He backed away. He didn't go toward the mountain lion or her kittens. He made a lot of noise ... He stayed large, he stayed loud and he backed away from the area for quite a while. I think he did everything really well."</p><p>As <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/13/us/cougar-attack-utah-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported, The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources <a href="https://www.facebook.com/UtahDWR/posts/4978868888790750" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">posted the video on its Facebook page</a> with a warning: "Utah is cougar country!"</p><p>The post included tips for encountering a cougar, including maintaining eye contact and making yourself look big and threatening.</p>
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The Climate Crisis Has Already Cost the Great Barrier Reef More Than Half Its Corals
14 October
Oceans
The Great Barrier Reef has lost more than 50 percent of its coral in the last 25 years. Andreas Dietzel
The Great Barrier Reef has lost more than 50 percent of its coral in the last 25 years, and the climate crisis is to blame.
<p>Researchers from the <a href="https://www.coralcoe.org.au/" target="_blank">ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies</a> (CoralCoE) made an in-depth study of how coral communities and their colony sizes had changed between 1995 and 2017 along the entire length of the reef. The results, published in the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1432" target="_blank">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a> Wednesday, sound an urgent call for climate action.</p><p>"There is no time to lose — we must sharply decrease greenhouse gas emissions ASAP," the researchers <a href="https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/the-great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-corals" target="_blank">said in a CoralCoE press release</a>.</p>
<p>The researchers found a decline in every size and species of coral in both shallow and deep water. The corals were especially devastated by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-barrier-reef-coral-bleaching-2353658528.html" target="_self">back-to-back bleaching events in 2016 and 2017</a>, study author and James Cook University professor Terry Hughes told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/14/great-barrier-reef-corals-have-more-than-halved-in-past-25-years-study-shows" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p><p>While all the corals were impacted, these bleaching events took an especially heavy toll on branching and table-shaped corals, Hughes said in the press release. This is a big deal because these architectural corals provide habitats for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fish" target="_self">fish</a>. Without them, fisheries decline.</p><p>"The reef is flatter and less three dimensional now," Hughes told The Guardian.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-bleaching" target="_self">Coral bleaching</a>, which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/great-barrier-reef-ecological-memory-2623045702.html" target="_self">occurs</a> when hot water temperatures drive the algae that gives corals food and color from their homes, also struck the southern part of the reef at the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coral-bleaching-great-barrier-reef-2645576557.html" target="_self">beginning of 2020</a>. This event was not included in the study, so the reef may be even more depleted than the researchers calculated.</p><p>The study's findings also have implications for the reef's ability to reproduce itself.</p><p>"A vibrant coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones — the big mamas who produce most of the larvae," lead author of CoralCoE Dr. Andy Dietzel said in the press release. "Our results show the ability of the Great Barrier Reef to recover — its resilience — is compromised compared to the past, because there are fewer babies, and fewer large breeding adults."</p>
<p>Bob Richmond, a research professor and director of the Kewalo Marine Laboratory at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who was not involved with the study, told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/10/13/warming-has-killed-half-coral-great-barrier-reef-study-finds-it-might-never-recover/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR2_x37PLr_SITwRm2VbrAgbOw3aqJPxPKbgnCZHX8kweHAe2g8Ngj6lw6Q" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> he was impressed with the work and agreed the reef was in trouble.</p><p>"If I don't see one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old corals, I know that reef is dead," he said. "It just doesn't know it yet."</p><p>The Great Barrier Reef stretches almost 133,000 square miles, making it the largest <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-reefs" target="_self">coral reef</a> in the world, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/great-barrier-reef-coral-loss-intl-scli-climate-scn/index.html" target="_blank">according to CNN</a>. It provides a habitat for more than 1,500 species of fish and 411 species of hard corals.</p><p>It is also hugely important for the economy of Australia, The Washington Post pointed out. It drew more than two million tourists every year before the pandemic. Despite this, Australia continues to be the world's top <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> exporter.</p>
<p>Hughes explicitly called out Australia's pro-fossil fuel policies as a "profound policy-failure" for managing the reef on <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfTerryHughes/status/1316262459313803270" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. He said the only hope for the reef's survival was to limit global warming in line with the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>"There's not much time to lose," he told The Guardian. "I think if we can control warming somewhere between 1.5-2C [above pre-industrial levels], as per the Paris agreement, then we'll still have a reef. But if we get to 3-4C because of unrestrained emissions then we won't have a recognisable Great Barrier Reef."</p>
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Federal Regulators Rule Controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline Can Restart Construction
13 October
Energy
The Mountain Valley Pipeline is proposed to carry natural gas for over 300 miles through the Virginia and West Virginia countryside, crossing over dozens of water sources, through protected areas and crossing the Appalachian Trail. Appalachian Trail Conservancy / YouTube
Construction can continue on most of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled Friday.
<p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipeline</a> is scheduled to carry <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking" target="_self">fracked</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" target="_self">natural gas</a> through approximately 300 miles of Virginia and West Virginia, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/520668-energy-regulators-approve-resumed-construction-of-contentious" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Hill</a>. The project was begun in 2018 and originally slated to be completed that same year, <a href="https://ca.reuters.com/article/idINKBN26X2A2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters reported</a>. But fierce legal opposition from environmental and community groups has significantly delayed the project. The FERC's latest approval comes just months after the owners of another contested Appalachian pipeline, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/atlantic-coast-pipeline" target="_self">Atlantic Coast Pipeline</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/atlantic-coast-pipeline-canceled-2646347475.html" target="_self">canceled the project</a> after years of similar delays.</p>
<p>"MVP has violated commonsense water protections hundreds of times and allowing them to resume construction just means putting more communities at risk for an unnecessary pipeline that may never even be built," <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a> Beyond Dirty Fuels senior campaign representative Joan Walker told <a href="https://www.wdbj7.com/2020/10/10/ferc-approves-mountain-valley-pipeline-friday/" target="_blank">WDBJ of the decision</a>. "FERC is supposed to regulate these fracked gas projects, not roll over for them."</p><p>The FERC paused construction of the MVP in 2019 after a federal court halted a Biological Opinion from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which allows construction in the habitat of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered</a> or threatened species, according to Reuters and The Hill. Specifically, the court found fault with the opinion's assessment of the pipeline's impact on imperiled bat species, The Hill reported.</p><p>However, the FWS issued a new opinion in September, according to Reuters, though environmental groups are once again challenging it.</p><p>In light of the new FWS opinion, the FERC ruled two-to-one to allow the pipeline to resume construction along most of its route.</p>
<p>"Based on staff's review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Project, we agree that completion of construction and final restoration ... where permitted, is best for the environment and affected landowners," Republican commissioners <a href="https://thehill.com/people/indranil-neil-chatterjee" target="_blank">Neil Chatterjee</a> and James Danly wrote.</p><p>However, the pipeline still needs permission to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/mountain-valley-pipeline-construction-halted-2593256634.html" target="_self">cross</a> the Jefferson National Forest, something dissenting commissioner Democrat Richard Glick pointed out.</p><p>"MVP may eventually receive permission to cross the Jefferson National Forest. But, by allowing it to recommence construction before doing so, the Commission has put the cart before the horse," Glick said, as The Hill reported.</p><p>Pipeline owner Equitrans Midstream Corp. said Monday it would reevaluate its timeline and cost projection for the project based on ongoing lawsuits and anticipated government permits, Reuters reported.</p>
<p>In addition to allowing the pipeline to resume construction Friday, the FERC also extended its certificate for another two years, as the company had requested, <a href="https://appvoices.org/2020/10/09/appalachian-voices-denounces-fercs-greenlight-for-mountain-valley-pipeline-to-resume/" target="_blank">Appalachian Voices reported</a>.</p><p>The extension was granted despite the fact that more than 43,000 people had told the FERC they opposed the move during the public comment period. They noted that the pipeline had already amassed at least 350 environmental violations and $2.26 million in fines over the course of construction so far.</p><p>"It's clear that MVP is pulling out all the stops to rush this project through, and FERC is letting them get away with it," <a href="https://appvoices.org/" target="_blank">Appalachian Voices</a> Virginia Field Coordinator Jessica Sims said. "The agency ignored the 43,000 people who vigorously opposed this project moving forward, and disregarded the hundreds of water quality violations racked up so far. This pipeline was not needed when it was proposed, and is even less needed now. We will continue fighting to stop it."</p>
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A bee gathers pollen on thyme on a balcony in Paris, France. ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP via Getty Images
The European Court of Justice on Oct. 8 found that France did not violate EU rules when it banned certain chemicals considered harmful to bees.
<p>The legal row between the French Crop Protection Association and France goes back to 2018, when the government banned some pesticides belonging to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids">neonicotinoid</a> group.</p><p>The ban placed France at the forefront of a campaign against chemicals blamed for decimating crop-pollinating bees.</p><p>With its ban on five neonicotinoids outdoors and in greenhouses, France went further than the European Union, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/eu-court-upholds-ban-on-pesticides-threatening-bees/a-43821344" target="_blank">which agreed to outlaw three in crop fields.</a></p><p>Opponents of the ban have said that it prevents farmers from protecting their sugar beet crops, which have been decimated by an infestation of green aphids. Sugar beet farmers argue that neonicotinoid chemicals are the only solution to combating such infestations.</p>
<h3>A Ban 'Incompatible With EU Regulations'</h3><p>The Crop Protection Association brought the case to court, arguing that the French decree was incompatible with an EU regulation on the family of chemicals.</p><p>The French government has since rowed back on parts of the controversial ban following pressure by beetroot growers.</p><p>However, on Thursday, the EU's top court ruled that France's initial ban had satisfactorily demonstrated the need to curb a "serious risk to human or animal health or to the environment."</p><p>Last week, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides">pesticides</a> were at the center of a legal battle between the French government and the left-wing and green opposition, which accuses President Emmanuel Macron of neglecting to fulfill his environmental commitments.</p>
<p>On Oct. 6, the French National Assembly approved a proposal to give beetroot growers an exemption from the ban on the pesticides until July 2023.</p><p>France is Europe's top producer of beets used to make sugar and the sector provides 46,000 jobs.</p><p>Introduced in the mid-1990s, lab-synthesized neonicotinoids are based on the chemical structure of nicotine, and attack the central nervous system of insects.</p><p>They were meant to be a less harmful substitute to older pesticides, and are now the most widely-used to treat flowering crops. However, in recent years, bees started dying off from "colony collapse disorder," a mysterious disease partly blamed on the use of such chemicals.</p><p>Studies have since shown that neonicotinoids harm bee reproduction and foraging, while exposure also lowers their resistance to disease.</p><p>The UN has warned that nearly half of insect pollinators, particularly bees and butterflies, risk global extinction. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/european-top-court-upholds-french-ban-on-bee-harming-pesticides/a-55204286?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em></p>
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The companionship, love and affection between a pet and its owner has taken on more importance during the pandemic. filadendron / E+ / Getty Images
Every year, World Mental Health Day is celebrated on October 10. This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been uniquely stressful and taxing on mental health. Still, people have found surprising ways of coping during the shutdowns and the economic crisis that have improved mental health and wellness.
<h3>1. Baking Bread</h3><p>When "Stay-at-Home" orders were first issued, people began making bread. <a href="https://people.com/lifestyle/quarantine-trends-everything-that-went-viral-during-the-pandemic/?slide=a50c8476-3ad3-467f-b614-fda0ce38ac24#a50c8476-3ad3-467f-b614-fda0ce38ac24" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">People</a> magazine named bread-making the number one viral quarantine trend. The hobby became so popular that bakeware, yeast and flour were sold out for months online and in grocery stores, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2020/04/20/24-products-selling-out-online-due-coronavirus-pandemic-toilet-paper-cleaning-wipes-yeast-and-more/5161629002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">USA Today</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/19/coronavirus-stress-baking-sourdough-kneading-relax" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"Stress baking" can help steer thoughts away from worrying about the future by demanding present attention and mindfulness, The Guardian reported. Bread-making also forces people to slow down because it is time-consuming, the report said. It is calming and meditative through the rolling, kneading and mixing. That tangibility is grounding in a world that otherwise has largely gone virtual, The Guardian reported.</p>
<h3>2. Picking Out Pets</h3><p>Pet adoptions and sales have soared during the pandemic, <a href="https://www.fox19.com/2020/04/24/pet-adoptions-soar-during-coronavirus-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fox News</a> reported. Fostering dogs made People's top 5 for most viral quarantine hobbies, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/31e3e60e7ea6bc4566b0ee3998ab98a6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP News</a> reported shortages in many places of pets to rescue. One New York non-profit helping to place fosters has seen an increase from about 140 applications for adoptions per month at this time last year to around 3,000 during the pandemic, the report said.</p><p>The constant companionship, love and affection between a pet and its owner has taken on more importance during the pandemic. <a href="https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/alleviating-anxiety-stress-and-depression-pet" target="_blank">Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)</a> cited a survey of pet owners, 74% of whom reported mental health improvements from pet ownership. Pets can also help instill routine into an otherwise confused, upturned daily life, <a href="https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/adopting-a-new-pet-during-the-pandemic" target="_blank">U.S. News & World Report</a> reported, and caring for something helps give people a sense of purpose that can stave away anxiety and depression.</p>
<h3>3. Planting Through the Pandemic</h3><p>People have turned to home gardening and buying seeds during the pandemic as a "soothing, family-friendly hobby" to do, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-gardens/home-gardening-blooms-around-the-world-during-coronavirus-lockdowns-idUSKBN2220D3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> reported. The <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/styled-staged-sold/5-design-trends-emerging-during-the-pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Association of Realtors (NAR)</a> listed gardening as one of the home design trends that emerged from the pandemic. Seed demand typically rises in tough economic times as people try to plan against food scarcity and economic hardship, Tom Johns, owner of Territorial Seed Company in Oregon, told Reuters.</p><p>Caring for a garden brings many mental health benefits, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/03/health/how-to-start-gardening-coronavirus-wellness/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. It can give a sense of accomplishment, community and belonging, and help people remain connected to nature, even while stuck at home. Being surrounded by green or even just looking at it is linked to less anxiety and depression and better stress management, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/201906/10-mental-health-benefits-gardening" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> reported.</p>
<h3>4. Home Organizing Is Happening</h3><p>Being at home with so much extra time has also inspired many to reorganize their homes. With home offices and virtual classrooms jammed into existing spaces, the need to maintain "liveable space" has made decluttering a necessity during the pandemic, a <a href="https://blog.cheapism.com/pandemic-decluttering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personal blog</a> on the trend said.</p><p>"When there's lots of clutter, you lose control over your physical environment, which is very defeating and can bring on stress, depression, or anxiety," <a href="https://www.mgt.unm.edu/faculty/facultyDetails.asp?id=10095" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Catherine Roster,</a> a professor studying the effect of clutter on our psychological well-being, told <a href="https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/why-decluttering-is-important-for-self-care-and-when-it-isnt/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Everyday Health</a>. On the flip side, decluttering can help restore a lost sense of control and reduce stress and depression.</p><p>Decluttering, aside from being energizing, also creates confidence and efficacy, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201802/6-benefits-uncluttered-space" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> reported.</p>
<h3>5. Learning a New Language</h3><p>In March, U.S. sign-ups for the language-learning app Duolingo grew 148%, reported <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/duolingo-sees-spike-in-new-users-during-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Business Insider</a>. Other similar technologies have also experienced a boom in interest since the shutdowns, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2020/04/15/language-learning-apps-are-seeing-a-surge-in-interest-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/#550861b848f4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forbes </a>reported, and investment in the sector has increased.</p><p>"We've seen evidence of many people taking up language learning during this period of isolation and quarantine as a means of self-improvement," Duolingo's Michaela Kron told Business Insider. "Learning a new language comes with numerous benefits, including cognitive ones such as improved memory and social ones such as connecting better with others."</p><p>Not only does learning a new language provide a productive outlet, but it can combat anxiety and depression, <a href="https://www.languagenetworkusa.com/blog/how-learning-a-new-language-can-benefit-your-health" target="_blank">Language Network USA</a> reported. It also can boost confidence, increase multitasking skills and open your mind, Language Network USA reported.</p>
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The USDA killed 62,000 coyotes in 2019. Steve Krave, TD / DOE
By Andrea Germanos
Days after federal data revealed taxpayers funded the killing of 1.2 million native animal species in 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program was sued Thursday over what conservation advocates decry as a cruel and misguided annual extermination spree.
<p>"Wildlife Services is infamous for the scope and cruelty of its killing campaigns across the nation," Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said in a <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/lawsuit-filed-over-antiquated-federal-wildlife-killing-program-in-new-mexico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>.</p><p>"To carry out such a horrific onslaught on native wildlife in the midst of a mass extinction event and a climate crisis, without any real knowledge of the impact," added Smith, "is utterly outrageous."</p><p>The <a href="http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/NM-WS-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lawsuit</a> was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico by WildEarth Guardians and accuses Wildlife Services (WS) of running afoul of various federal regulations stipulated by the National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality regulations, and Administrative Procedure Act.</p><p>According to the court filing, the program has failed to provide an Environmental Impact Statement on the program's impact on key ecosytems, nor has it provided timely supplemental analysis mandated by law. As such, the document states, WS is disregarding "new scientific publications on the ineffectiveness of lethal predator control and the negative cascading ecological consequences of removing keystone species from their native ecosystems," according to the filing.</p>
<p>WS purportedly exists "to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist." But Smith explains the agency's raison d'etre quite differently. "They are good at one thing—killing animals," Smith told<em> Common Dreams</em>, adding that the program is "still operating on data and science and ideas that are 20, 30, 40 years old."</p><p>The lawsuit explains WS in this way:</p><blockquote>Every year, Wildlife Services—a program within the USDA—poisons, traps, and guns down several of our nation's most majestic animals, including wolves, bears, coyotes, and mountain lions in a futile attempt to save livestock and other "resources." Funded with millions of taxpayer dollars, and without modern scientific support, this program uses cruel and often archaic methods to capture and kill wildlife from their native ecosystems, largely at the behest of livestock producers. Across New Mexico, Wildlife Services uses fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to aerially shoot coyotes; body-gripping traps, neck snares and leg-hold traps to kill mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, badgers, coyotes, skunks, and swift and gray foxes; gas cartridges and poisons to exterminate coyotes, foxes, and prairie dogs in their dens; sodium cyanide M-44 devices to kill canines like foxes and coyotes; and other poisons to eliminate native birds like ravens. Family pets and federally-protected endangered and threatened species have been and will continue to be accidentally injured or killed by the agency's indiscriminate killing methods.<br></blockquote><p>The latest annual <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/wildlifedamage/pdr/?file=PDR-G_Report&p=2019:INDEX:" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tally</a> of the animals killed by WS—including 1,258,738 native species— drew condemnation from WildEarth Guardians, with Samantha Bruegger, the group's Wildlife Coexistence Campaigner, saying in a <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/federal-government-admits-killing-over-1-2-million-native-animals-in-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> Wednesday: "This mass slaughter is carried out in our backyards, on public lands, and in beloved parks; there is no limit to the program's reach."</p><p>A tweet from New York-based Wolf Conservation Center breaks down a portion of the vast death toll detailed in the WS analysis:</p>
<div id="40246" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="efe7c2e0245773da7c3ddfbb0e96890a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313992296753442817" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING In 2019, USDA’s Wildlife Services KILLED: ▪ 62,002 coyotes ▪ 24,543 beavers ▪ 800 bobcats ▪1362 gray… https://t.co/KUwjcNLslM</div> — Wolf Conservation Center (@Wolf Conservation Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/nywolforg/statuses/1313992296753442817">1602115150.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The deaths often came painfully. A statement from WildEarth Guardians says, "Preferred methods include leg-hold traps, strangulation snares, aerial gunning from helicopters and planes, poison gases, and sodium cyanide bombs [M44s] placed on the landscape."</p><p>The lawsuit portrays the annual killing deaths as folly—especially in light of the climate and ecological catastrophes as well water shortages affecting the U.S. West. Regarding beavers, Smith said the agency is "removing the very animals that will save us from these crises." </p><p>They "act as ecosystem engineers, increasing biodiversity and ecosystem function—including filtering drinking water and removing water-borne pollutants—where they are native," the filing states, adding:</p><blockquote>Beavers, due to their beneficial engineering of ecosystems provide outsized ecosystem services. One study, conducted in southern Utah, a landscape analogous to much of New Mexico, found that in terms of wetland habitat only, a mere 2,560 beavers in the lower Escalante River basin would provide $275.5 million dollars per year in wetland habitat services. If riparian and aquatic habitat services are added to that number, it becomes nearly $450 million dollars per year. [...] Beavers particularly can have remarkable impacts on reforestation in areas affected by wildfires.<br></blockquote>
<p>Benefits from other animals further prove the misguided annual kills, the filing states.</p><blockquote>For example, it is now well established that killing predators such as coyotes, mountain lions, and bears create conditions favorable for pandemics to emerge, diminish ecosystem functions, reduce carbon sequestration, and increase instances of irruptions of invasive species, and cost taxpayers millions—and perhaps billions—of dollars in lost ecosystem services... In an arid region such as New Mexico, which is undergoing rapid ecological changes from climate disruption, it is more important than ever that Wildlife Services takes a hard look at the environmental consequences of removing so many animals critical to regulating ecosystems.<br></blockquote><p>Another conservation group, the Center for Biological Diversity, <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/agriculture-departments-wildlife-services-killed-approximately-12-million-native-animals-in-2019-2020-10-07/" target="_blank">offered</a> similar condemnation Wednesday, characterizing the program as both barbaric and needless.</p><p>"Year after year Wildlife Services continues to needlessly kill wildlife, even though effective tools exist to prevent most conflicts," said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center.</p><p>"The scientific consensus is that killing carnivores like coyotes to benefit the livestock industry just leads to more conflicts and more killing," she said, adding, "This taxpayer-funded slaughter needs to stop."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/08/trumps-usda-sued-over-program-allowing-horrific-mass-slaughter-native-wildlife?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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Rescuers assist beached long-fin pilot whales at Hamelin Bay, Australia on March 23, 2009. Tony Ashby / AFP / Getty Images
Alexander Freund
Pilot whales, sperm whales, beaked whales and deep-sea dolphins are the marine mammals most commonly involved in mass strandings. Baleen whales, on the other hand, a group to which all big whales except the sperm whale belong, strand very rarely.
<p>If these mammals become stranded, they can dry out, overheat, suffocate or suffer severe inner injuries because of their enormous dead weight.</p><p>Individual strandings have been observed at many locations, while most mass strandings have been registered in <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/australia-rescuers-save-100-whales-after-mass-stranding/a-55062181" target="_blank">Western Australia,</a> New Zealand (with up to 300 stranded whales annually), and on the east coast of North America and Patagonia (Chile). Occasionally, however, there are also mass strandings in the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/iceland-tourists-find-50-pilot-whales-dead-on-beach/a-49662301" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">North Sea.</a></p>
How Do Whales and Dolphins Navigate?
<p>Like <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/the-science-of-migratory-birds/a-47812308" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">migratory birds,</a> some whale species travel great distances every year. In winter, whales migrate from the cold northern seas to warmer waters in the south, and whales from southern waters move to the north in the same season. Months later, they then begin to travel back home.</p><p>The smaller toothed whales, such as dolphins, have a powerful underwater sonar. They orient themselves on their journeys by emitting sound waves in the form of clicking noises. When these sound waves collide with an object, they are reflected back as echoes to the animals' ears, which in the case of whales are shielded from the skull in foam-filled chambers inside the body to enable spatial hearing. The faster the sound returns, the closer the prey, an obstacle or the coast.</p><p>However, in the case of the large baleen whales, which have horn plates (baleen) instead of teeth in their upper jaws for filtering krill, animal plankton and small fish from the water, this underwater sonar is not very highly developed.</p><p>This echolocation works very well as a rule. However, sound reflection does not function reliably in certain circumstances, particularly when there are shallow or semicircular bays, sandy underwater embankments or silt banks. These types of coasts and obstacles do not produce an unambiguous echo from any particular direction, so the warning system fails.</p>What Influence Does the Earth's Magnetic Field Have?
<p>Whales such as the pilot whale do not use just underwater sonar to orient themselves, but — again, like migratory birds — seem to rely on the lines of the earth's magnetic field, as their migration routes often run parallel to those lines. The slight fluctuations of the earth's magnetic field appear to function like a kind of map.</p><p>Magnetite crystals have been found in the skulls of these animals. The whales could be confused by disturbances of the geomagnetic field near the coast. Magnetic fields running perpendicular to the mainland are also thought to play a role in mass strandings of whales in certain coastal regions.</p><p>Every few years, solar storms and sunspots that occur amid heightened activity on the sun's surface also cause fairly large changes in the Earth's magnetic field. It is at such times that sperm whales, for example, which also use geomagnetism as a natural navigation system, get lost and become stranded in the North Sea.</p>Why Do Whales and Dolphins Become Stranded?
<p>Navigational errors are thus believed to be the main cause of whale strandings, but all the reasons have not yet been conclusively investigated.</p><p>One of them is certainly the social behavior of many whale species, which travel in groups, so-called pods, and are guided by a leader. For example, in the case of sperm whales, a male leads the way from the Arctic Ocean back into warmer waters. By contrast, when orcas are on their travels, a mother or grandmother leads the group.</p><p>If leaders lose their orientation, perhaps because they are confused or because parasites have attacked their ears, rendering them incapable of hearing the echoes of the clicking sounds that have been sent, the accompanying animals will follow them in the wrong direction. If a leader is stuck in shallow waters, the rest of the group stays with it, even if this means their certain doom.</p><p>Sometimes, as has been observed, for example, with orcas on the South African coast, this group cohesion can go so far that whales who have already been saved after a mass stranding return to the beach if another stranded whale calls for help.</p><p>But strandings can also have other natural causes. Sometimes, smaller dolphins become beached because they have taken refuge from orcas and other predators in shallower waters or because they have ventured too far into shallow areas when hunting shoals of fish.</p><p>Occasionally, individual animals are also washed ashore dead after being previously injured by collisions with ships, fishing nets or shark attacks or becoming ill from infections or parasite infestation. </p>Which Human Influences Exacerbate the Situation?
<p>In addition to natural factors, man-made underwater noise from ships, icebreakers, drilling platforms or military sonar equipment can also massively impair the orientation and communication of marine mammals. They flee the strong sound waves in a state of confusion. And since the density of water is much higher than that of air, sound propagates underwater about five times faster than in the air.</p><p>Military sonar operations employing very loud sounds have particularly drastic effects. After NATO maneuvers, for example, beaked whales have washed up dead on the coasts of Cyprus, the Canary Islands and the Bahamas. The sonars, which are louder than 200 decibels, triggered the formation of gas bubbles in the blood vessels and organs of marine mammals (as happens with diving sickness), obstructing the blood supply and leading to their death. </p>How Can You Help Stranded Whales and Dolphins?
<p>When a whale stranding is discovered, there is usually not much time left. Teams of helpers can do little more than try to cool the stranded animals, keep them moist and combine forces to get the heavy animals back into the sea as quickly and gently as possible.</p><p>In some countries, hotlines have been set up so that as many helpers as possible can be mobilized quickly. For many exhausted animals, however, even these immediate measures often come too late. </p>From Your Site Articles
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Tasmanian Devils Are Reintroduced to Australia's Mainland for First Time in 3,000 Years
09 October
Animals
Tasmanian devils have been reintroduced to Australia's mainland in a protected, disease-free area. Mathias Appel / Flickr / CC0
In a giant step forward for the Tasmanian devil, the iconic species has been reintroduced to Australia's mainland in a protected, disease-free area, The Guardian reported.
<p>As the largest carnivorous marsupial species, Tasmanian devils vanished from the mainland about 3,000 years ago, but survived in Tasmania. However, they have declined in the latter in recent decades due to an aggressive, infectious cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) that attacks their faces and mouths, according to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tasmanian-devils-reintroduced-mainland-australia-180975997/" target="_blank">Smithsonian Magazine</a>.</p><p>Scientists believe that a combination of factors — including aggressive dingoes, human activity and extended dry seasons — contributed to Tasmanian devils disappearing from the mainland.</p><p>"I think any one of those three factors alone probably wouldn't have caused extinction — but the three of them together likely caused the devil to become extinct on the mainland," Menna Jones, an ecologist at the University of Tasmania, told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-australia-animals-indonesia-tasmanian-devils-68d6281e4d9342dfbd0d3a5e41ac38c7" target="_blank">AP</a>.</p>
<p>To reinvigorate the health of the species, the Australian NGO Aussie Ark introduced 26 disease-free Tasmanian devils to Barrington Tops, a 988-acre wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/05/australia/tasmanian-devils-mainland-australia-scli-intl-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. Aussie Ark has been involved in Tasmanian devil conservation for the past decade.</p><p>"Seeing those devils released into a wild landscape — it's a really emotional moment," Liz Gabriel, director of conservation group Aussie Ark, told the AP.</p><p>Aussie Ark is using tracking devices and camera traps to monitor their health and evaluate how the devils are responding to the new environment. If the released animals thrive and reproduce, then Aussie Ark intends to release another disease-free cluster in a protected area in 2021, The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>"Not only is this the reintroduction of one of Australia's beloved animals, but of an animal that will engineer the entire environment around it, restoring and rebalancing our forest ecology after centuries of devastation from introduced foxes and cats and other invasive predators," Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, told CNN.<br></p><p>David Hamilton, a researcher at the University of Tasmania who was not involved in the project, explained how the devils scare off cats, which may allow animals that are afraid of cats to come out at night, Smithsonian Magazine reported.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54417343" target="_blank">BBC</a>, the current devil population in Tasmania hovers around 25,000, a fraction of the 150,000 that existed before DFTD took hold in the 1990s.</p>
<p>Those dwindling numbers have classified Tasmanian devils as an endangered species. Aussie Ark hopes that the project is a resounding success so that they can release more devils into unprotected areas in the future.</p><p>"In 100 years, we are going to be looking back at this day as the day that set in motion the ecological restoration of an entire country," Faulkner said.</p>
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