Watchdog Accuses Trump's NOAA of 'Choosing Extinction' for Right Whales by Hiding Scientific Evidence
11 July
Animals
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Thursday accused NOAA of ignoring its own scientists' findings about the endangerment of the North Atlantic right whale. Lauren Packard / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
By Julia Conley
As the North Atlantic right whale was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's list of critically endangered species Thursday, environmental protection groups accusing the U.S. government of bowing to fishing and fossil fuel industry pressure to downplay the threat and failing to enact common-sense restrictions to protect the animals.
<p>Only 400 right whales are left in existence, and fewer than 250 of them are mature, <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41712/162001243#threats" target="_blank">leading the IUCN</a> to drop its "endangered" classification for the whale and add it to its "critically endangered" Red List. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7_8_20_emails.pdf" target="_blank">According to</a> Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), NOAA has access to extensive science showing the danger in which humans have placed the whales, but internal emails show the agency aimed to put a positive spin on the outlook for the creatures.</p><p>Emails from February 2020 show career scientific staff writing that political officials within the agency were "freaked out" at the notion of the press reporting on Dragon, a female right whale who has not been seen in months and is presumed dead. </p><p>"But they'd be all over another calf sighting," NOAA Fisheries biologist Tim Cole <a href="https://www.peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7_8_20_emails.pdf" target="_blank">wrote. </a></p><p>"Ah, I see. They only want to share the good news, not the bad," replied Allison Henry, another scientist at the agency.</p><p><a href="https://www.peer.org/noaa-balks-at-steps-to-save-remaining-right-whales/" target="_blank">According to</a> PEER, 100% of North Atlantic right whale fatalities are caused by boats striking them and by entanglements in fishing gear.</p><p>"The North Atlantic right whale is the world's first large whale species nearing extinction," <a href="https://www.peer.org/noaa-balks-at-steps-to-save-remaining-right-whales/" target="_blank">said</a> PEER science policy director Kyla Bennett. "Its extinction is entirely preventable. NOAA has powerful tools to protect the North Atlantic right whale, but it is choosing not to use them. In this case, NOAA is choosing extinction."</p><p>In addition to fishing boats and 900,000 vertical lines that right whales are forced to navigate during lobster season, the whales' wellbeing is threatened by seismic airgun blasts conducted by oil and gas companies for offshore drilling. </p><p>In March, Democracy Forward <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">called on</a> the inspector general of the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate whether political appointees at NOAA had altered career scientists' proposed conservation measures regarding the blasts.</p><p>Reports that appointees modified scientists' warnings "raise troubling questions about whether political appointees at NOAA violated federal law and NOAA's own Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity, which mandates that in 'no circumstance may any NOAA official ask or direct Federal scientists or other NOAA employees to suppress or alter scientific findings,'" Democracy Forward <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">said</a>.</p>
<p>Democracy Forward demanded an investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general.</p><p>"In reportedly bowing to political pressure and altering required scientific analysis in the policymaking process, NOAA appointees may have violated federal law and NOAA's own regulations, and jeopardized the very survival of the North Atlantic right whale," <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">said</a> Democracy Forward senior counsel Michael Martinez at the time. "The Trump administration's practice of injecting politics into the scientific decision-making process risks NOAA's credibility as a fact and science-driven agency. An investigation is warranted." </p><p>PEER <a href="https://www.peer.org/scientific-misrepresentations-sinking-north-atlantic-right-whale/" target="_blank">called for</a> a similar probe in 2019 when the National Marine Fisheries Service reportedly omitted scientific research about endangerment in its reporting on the right whale, but neither investigation has been completed. </p><p>NOAA has also failed to aggressively restrict the activities of fishing boats even when the agency is aware of right whales in a particular offshore area, PEER said Thursday.</p><p>In June, one of just 10 calves born this season was struck by a boat and killed off the coast of New Jersey, where officials had not issued a speed warning to vessels. Warnings are only issued when at least three right whales are known to be in an area.</p><p>"At the very least, NOAA must alert vessels when any right whale is in the area of shipping lanes," Bennett said.</p><p>The effects of NOAA's negligence on right whales has been compounded by President Donald Trump's June executive order permitting commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/right-whales-decline-deadly-entanglements-continue-iucn-finds-2020-07-09/" target="_blank">said</a> the Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday.</p>
<p>"The United States and Canada must do more to protect whales from speeding ships and slow, painful deaths in fishing gear," <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/right-whales-decline-deadly-entanglements-continue-iucn-finds-2020-07-09/" target="_blank">said</a> Kristen Monsell, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program. "We should be closing more right whale habitat to fishing, speeding the transition to ropeless gear and requiring large ships to slow down. These are some common-sense measures both U.S. and Canadian officials should adopt to save these beautiful whales."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/10/watchdog-accuses-trumps-noaa-choosing-extinction-critically-threatened-right-whales" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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KESSR
By John R. Platt
It takes a lot of effort and more than a little bit of luck for researchers like André Raine to get to the remote mountaintops of Kauai, where they're working to save endangered Hawaiian seabirds from extinction.
<p>First you need a helicopter capable of reaching sites more than 4,600 feet above sea level.</p>
<p>Then you need exactly the right weather to fly — and the hope that conditions don't shift, as they frequently do.</p><p>"The weather's not that great," said Raine, the project coordinator for the <a href="https://kauaiseabirdproject.org/" target="_blank">Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project</a>. "We keep going and hanging out at the helipad, waiting and watching. And then it looks like it's going to be okay but it gets fogged in, or you get up there and then you get stuck. The joys of working in a remote, inaccessible area."</p><p>The seabirds — including Newell's shearwaters (<em>Puffinus newelli</em>) and Hawaiian petrels (<em>Pterodroma sandwichensis</em>) — obviously have a much easier time getting up the tops of these mountains.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyMjUxMS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNDI0MDYzOX0.Xckl7lehoaKqVpDcl2Iauq_7FsUd3dhhJCqlQ_00T7w/img.jpg?width=980" id="3eff9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a188467cc0cf6aaf6e732ff033bf58be" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Raine holding a Hawaiian petrel chick. Courtesy Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project
<p>So, unfortunately, do several species of invasive predators — including feral cats, black rats and feral pigs — that have put these ground-nesting birds, and so many other native Hawaiian species, on the fast track toward extinction.</p><p>"People are always really surprised by this," Raine said, "but it doesn't matter how remote the area, or how apparently inhospitable it is to predators like cats. You're going to find cats and rats and pigs in these areas. There wasn't a single site that we work in that doesn't have all these predators, busy eating the birds."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyMjUxMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwMDA1OTUzNX0._y8WyIKu-gqIxghf0MAe4M2Jct0kKO_8dRVZeFTkP5s/img.jpg?width=980" id="9566a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a6b43d8eb34efa6830b67e9c9b760acb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An endangered chick in the mouth of a feral cat. Courtesy Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project
<p>Like many island endemics, Hawaii's bird species grew up without mammalian predators, so they're ill-adapted to the teeth and claws that arrived with human society. The cats descended from housecats, while pigs escape from agricultural sites and rats descended from stowaways on ships.</p><p>That's why the Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project has spent the past nine years constructing fences and establishing other predator controls — work that is proving essential in giving these native birds a chance.</p><p>The first step in controlling predators is quantifying the threat.</p><p>According to a paper Raine and his colleagues published earlier this year in <a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.21824" target="_blank">The Journal of Wildlife Management</a>, introduced predators killed at least 309 endangered seabirds at six monitored breeding colonies between 2011 and 2017. That's quite a blow for each of these endangered species.</p><p>"Newell's shearwaters and Hawaiian petrels have suffered catastrophic declines over the last few decades," Raine said. "Any chick that's lost in the population is one that we can't afford to lose."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyMjUxMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzM0Mjk0NH0.OQtFhGyhMY0IdQIFof0hJQjrsMnarkKMPZ7pxFGmbxQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="28423" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67a9f67f9d9b15b91d0c4fb08f3a4018" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Hawaiian petrel. © Ken Chamberlain, some rights reserved (CC-BY-NC). Via iNaturalist.
<p>The researchers took on the sad task of collecting the dead and examining the wound patterns to determine which type of predator made the kill.</p><p>Rats, it turned out, killed the most — more than 50% of mortalities — usually from entering the birds' rocky burrows and eating eggs and chicks. That dramatically slows recovery efforts, but the research shows that adult birds who've lost their chicks returned to the same burrows the following year to try again.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8dd9a93a40e27d91a7d4be3e64989e97"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QqxzWxyzQhc?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Pigs kill fewer birds — about 10% of all tracked mortalities — but they were the most destructive, digging up and taking out entire nests. "It's literally like someone's taken a hand grenade and stuffed it down the burrow and blown it up," Raine said. "They just eat whatever's inside."</p><p>Cats were responsible for another 35% of known deaths, and Raine says the research shows those mortalities were the worst for the long-term health of the bird species. Cats target breeding birds, taking out not just the current generation but any hope of successive generations. The seabirds are very faithful to both their burrow sites and their mates, so if a cat takes out one parent the other might not breed again for several years, if at all. (Without predation, the researchers say an amazing 98.6% percent of breeding pairs matched up again and bred each year of the study.)</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4fc7193649ed712ac1e3c32f773b9299"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FS8meaFqnIQ?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>And while cats in general are the most destructive, some individual cats are downright scary.</p><p>"Every now and then, you get a sort of super cat, which is really good at finding burrows and killing the birds," he said.</p><p>In one incident recounted in the paper, the seabird recovery team found images of a cat taken by nine out of 30 remote cameras on the same day. Each camera was trained at a different seabird burrow — which provided ready meals for the feral feline.</p><p>"It just shows that all you need is for a cat to get into an area for a very short period," Raine said. "When the birds are sitting in a hole in the ground, they're entirely vulnerable to predation. The cat can very easily wipe out a huge number of birds."</p><p>Raine describes another incident as "quite horrific to watch." It took place at a remote site the team can only visit about once a month during breeding season, "because it's expensive and hard to get to," he said. They arrived one day to review the site's automatic cameras and the images revealed "this one cat just wreaking havoc across the site. It goes in and kills an adult Newell's shearwater, and they next thing you know it's emerging from the same burrow with four kittens. So it uses that burrow to raise the kittens, and then we get it on camera at another burrow with the kittens, basically training them how to kill more shearwaters."</p><p>That's a tough thing to see — especially when these researchers have followed the comings and goings at these burrows for years.</p><p>"You start to really empathize with these birds, because you're watching them on the burrow cameras and you're seeing all these amazing behaviors," Raine said. "And we're tracking them as well. We're seeing that they make these incredible journeys to feed their chicks. Hawaiian petrels go towards the coast of Alaska, 11-14,000 kilometers on a feeding voyage, and then you go to the site and you find this bird that's just been shredded by an introduced predator and the chicks left to starve to death. It's quite hard to deal with."</p><p>But as difficult and dangerous as these predators can be, the research also shows that the situation is far from hopeless.</p>
Fence Me In
<p>Over the past decade, the Kaua'i Endangered Seabird Recovery Project and its many organizational partners have concentrated on establishing predator controls at six of their seven regularly monitored seabird breeding sites.</p><p>Again, this isn't easy to accomplish in these remote, rarely visited locations. Materials must be flown in, ungulate-proof fences built, other traps set, and pig-hunting expeditions organized. All of it must be accomplished and maintained in precarious territory full of wet vegetation, narrow ridgelines and steep canyon walls.</p><p>To make things even more difficult, the human visitors must leave the habitat as undisturbed as possible.</p><p>"If you start making trails in these areas, then you're basically just opening them up to the hordes of predators that are out there," Raine says.</p><p>But the hard work pays off.</p><p>According to the paper, fences and other controls not only keep the invasive predators out, they give the birds the opportunity to thrive.</p><p>The research team used seven years data from the six sites, from before and after predator controls were established, and projected striking results for the future of the two seabird species.</p><p>The first model looked at what would happen to each site without predator controls. It was a disaster — mostly due to cats. "We ran that for 50 years, and we found that all of the colonies dwindle toward extinction."</p><p>The paper, in what Raine acknowledges as gallows humor, calls this the <em>CATastrophe</em> model.</p><p>The second modeling approach incorporated data from successful breeding that took place after more extensive predator controls (fences and traps) were put in place. "We found that the populations increased over those 50 years," Raine said. Under the model, which was based on 2017 population growth rates at sites with predator controls, most sites would see a 50-60% increase over the 50-year projection, while one site more than doubled.</p><p>"It really does show that if you remove the predators, the birds will begin to recover."</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ac52cff84afea378f9a779341a21e9c7"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FGzpq0g0KnA?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>This isn't the be all and end all. Hawaiian seabirds face a laundry list of additional threats, including climate change, collisions with power lines, reduced fish populations at sea, and invasive plants that change forest compositions. The models don't address those threats, which also require mitigation.</p><p>There's also another introduced predator: barn owls. Hawaii introduced barn owls in the 1960s to control rats, but — as we've seen in so many other similar examples — they quickly became a new problem. Owls only killed 12 seabirds during the study, but Raine says these newest invaders pose an increasing threat that's proven harder to control. You can build fences to protect birds, after all, but you can't prevent other birds from flying over those protections.</p><p>But this research does prove that current management techniques to protect Hawaiian seabirds from their most pressing threats — cats, rats and pigs — really do work, and that they can be applied to more locations, even by private landowners who have birds on their properties. "Although we've got seven managed sites, there are other sites on the island where the birds are still hanging on, and there's no reason to expect that these techniques wouldn't be effective at other colonies."</p><p>That's important, because some of those additional sites are on the edge.</p><p>"We're finding that these other sites are just going silent," Raine said. "With no management on them, the birds just flit away." The paper recommends predator-proof fences at all sites, as well as dedicated year-round funding for both seabird monitoring efforts and predator-control operations designed to specifically target the composition of animals at each location. The authors also suggest additional port biosecurity to prevent more invasive species from arriving, and possibly the targeted use of landscape-level toxicants to remove rats and cats.</p><p>In addition, Raine says, these techniques can be applied to other species and other island locations where invasive predators threaten ground-nesting birds.</p><p>Perhaps most importantly, the research helps show these conservationists — whose work has continued as "essential" during the pandemic — that their efforts to fight extinction in these challenging, hard-to-reach habitats are paying off.</p><p>"I remember one of our sites in particular — in fact the one I was trying to get into today — the first time I went there I found within a five-foot area a burrow that had been predated by a cat, a dead chick that had been pulled out by a rat, and a burrow that had been destroyed by a pig," Raine recounted. "Now you can go a month without even seeing predators at some of these sites because of the great work that the controllers' crews are doing."</p><p>And this raises one more issue: this work isn't just about birds. It may help heal Hawaii — the extinction capital of the world — in the process.</p><p>"I think it's really important that people understand the critical importance of seabirds as the architects of the island itself," Raine said. "They bring all those ocean nutrients up into the mountains, and their partly responsible for the watersheds that we all rely on. It's a whole ecosystem that needs to be addressed."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/hawaii-predator-catastrophe/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Pangolin hunting for ants. 2630ben / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By Alexander Richard Braczkowski, Christopher O'Bryan, Duan Biggs, and Raymond Jansen
Pangolins are one of the most illegally trafficked animals on the planet and are suspected to be linked to the current coronavirus pandemic.
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Pangolins are also one of the world's most <a href="https://www.pangolins.org/tag/endangered-species/" target="_blank">threatened species</a> but new efforts are underway to reintroduce pangolins to parts of Africa where the animal has been extinct for decades.
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The reintroduction of pangolins has not been easy. But it's vital to prevent this shy, mysterious creature from being lost forever.
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<em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/back-from-extinction-a-world-first-effort-to-return-threatened-pangolins-to-the-wild-138621" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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A Cute But Threatened Species
<p><a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/what-is-a-pangolin" target="_blank">Pangolins</a> are the only mammals wholly-covered in scales, which they use to protect themselves from predators. They can also curl up into a tight ball.</p><p>They eat mainly ants, termites and larvae which they pick up with their sticky tongue. They can grow up to 1m in length from nose to tail and are sometimes referred to as scaly anteaters.</p><p>But <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128155073000332" title="Chapter 33 - Conservation strategies and priority actions for pangolins" target="_blank">all eight</a> pangolin species are classified as "<a href="https://www.pangolins.org/tag/endangered-species/" target="_blank">threatened</a>" under International Union for Conservation of Nature <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/search?query=pangolin&searchType=species" target="_blank">criteria</a>.</p><p>There is an unprecedented demand for their scales, primarily from countries in Asia and <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/conl.12389" title="Assessing Africa‐Wide Pangolin Exploitation by Scaling Local Data" target="_blank">Africa</a> where they are used in food, cultural remedies and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/141072b0" title="Chinese Medicine and the Pangolin" target="_blank">medicine</a>.</p><p>Between 2017 and 2019, seizures of pangolin scales <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/02/pangolin-scale-trade-shipments-growing/" target="_blank">tripled in volume</a>. In 2019 alone, 97 tons of pangolin scales, equivalent to about 150,000 animals, were <a href="https://oxpeckers.org/2020/03/nigeria-steps-up-for-pangolins/" target="_blank">reportedly</a> intercepted leaving Africa.</p><p>There is further evidence of the illegal trade in pangolin species openly on <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/coronavirus-pangolins-outbreak-endangered-species-wildlife-trafficking-a9504776.html" target="_blank">social media platforms</a> such as Facebook.</p><p>The intense global trafficking of the species means the entire order (<em>Pholidota</em>) is threatened with <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12389" title="Assessing Africa‐Wide Pangolin Exploitation by Scaling Local Data" target="_blank">extinction</a>. For example, the Temminck's pangolins (<em>Smutsia temminckii</em>) went extinct in South Africa's KwaZulu Natal Province three decades ago.</p>
Reintroduction of an Extinct Species
<p>Each year in South Africa the African Pangolin Working Group (<a href="https://africanpangolin.org/" target="_blank">APWG</a>) retrieves between 20 and 40 pangolins through intelligence operations with security forces.</p><p>These pangolins are often-traumatised and injured and are admitted to the <a href="http://www.johannesburgwildlifevet.com/our-hospital" target="_blank">Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital</a> for extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation before they can be considered for release.</p><p>In 2019, seven rescued Temminck's pangolins were reintroduced into South Africa's <a href="https://www.andbeyond.com/destinations/africa/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/phinda-private-game-reserve/" target="_blank">Phinda Private Game Reserve</a> in the KwaZulu Natal Province.</p><p>Nine months on, five have survived. This reintroduction is a world first for a region that last saw a viable population of this species in the 1980s.</p><p>During the release, every individual pangolin followed a strict regime. They needed to become familiar with their new surroundings and be able to forage efficiently.</p><p>Previous releases, including early on in South Africa and in other countries such as the <a href="https://pcsd.gov.ph/igov/2020/01/30/twenty-philippine-pangolins-released-back-into-the-wild/" target="_blank">Philippines</a>, the <a href="https://newsroom.wcs.org/News-Releases/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/13877/Its-UN-World-Wildlife-Day-Today-March-3-Rare-Giant-Pangolin-Seized-from-Poachers-Rescued-and-Released-by-WCS-and-Partners-in-Congo.aspx" target="_blank">Democratic Republic of the Congo</a> and <a href="https://www.discoverwildlife.com/news/rescued-pangolin-released-back-into-the-wild/" target="_blank">Thailand</a> had minimal post-release monitoring.</p><p>Pangolins released immediately following medical treatment had a low level of survival for various reasons, including inability to adapt to their release sites.</p>
A ‘Soft Release’ in to the Wild
<p>The process on Phinda game reserve involved a more gentle ease into re-wilding a population in a region that had not seen pangolins for many decades.</p><p>The soft release had two phases:</p><ol><li>a pre-release observational period</li><li>an intensive monitoring period post release employing GPS satellite as well as VHF tracking tags.</li></ol><p>The pre-release period lasted between two to three weeks and were characterised by daily walks (three to five hours) of individuals on the reserves. These walks were critical for acclimatising individuals to the local habitat, its sounds, smells and possible threats. It also helped them source suitable and sufficient ant and termite species for food.</p><p>Following that, the post release period of two to three months involved locating released pangolins daily at first, and then twice per week where they were weighed, a rapid health assessment was made and habitat features such as burrows and refuges monitored.</p><p>Phinda reserve manager Simon Naylor said:</p><blockquote>A key component of the post release period was whether individuals gained or maintained their weight.<br>The way the animals move after release also reveals important clues to whether they will stay in an area; if they feed, roll in dung, enter burrows. Much of this behaviour indicates site fidelity and habitat acceptance.<br></blockquote>
<p>Following nine months of monitoring and tracking, five of the seven survived in the region. One died of illness while the other was killed by a Nile crocodile.</p>
Why Pangolin Reintroduction is Important
<p>We know so little about this group of mammals that are vastly understudied and hold many secrets yet to be discovered by science but are on the verge of collapse.</p><p>The South African and Phinda story is one of hope for the Temminck's pangolin where they once again roam the savanna hills and plains of Zululand.</p><p>The process of relocating these trade animals back into the wild has taken many turns, failures and tribulations but, the recipe of the "soft release" is working.</p>From Your Site Articles
- 10 Facts About Pangolins on World Pangolin Day - EcoWatch ›
- Meet the 'Pangolin Men' Saving the World's Most Trafficked Mammal ... ›
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The current rate of CO2 emissions is a major event in the recorded history of Earth. EPA
At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming, prompting the majority of species on Earth to die out.
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In the past, these events were triggered by a huge <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/volcanoes-may-have-triggered-the-last-unexplained-mass-extinction/" target="_blank">volcanic eruption</a> or asteroid impact. Now, Earth is heading for another mass extinction — and human activity is to blame.
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<p>I am an Earth and Paleo-climate scientist and <a href="https://link.springer.com/search?dc.creator=%22Andrew%20Y.+Glikson%22" target="_blank">have researched</a> the relationships between asteroid impacts, volcanism, climate changes and mass extinctions of species.</p><p>My research suggests the current growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions is faster than those which triggered two previous mass extinctions, including the event that wiped out the dinosaurs.</p><p>The world's gaze may be focused on COVID-19 right now. But the risks to nature from human-made global warming — and the imperative to act — remain clear.</p>
Past Mass Extinctions
<p>Many species can adapt to slow, or even moderate, environmental changes. But Earth's history shows that extreme shifts in the climate can cause many species to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-13/what-is-a-mass-extinction-are-we-in-one-now/11699372" target="_blank">become extinct</a>.</p><p>For example, about 66 million years ago an asteroid hit Earth. The subsequent smashed rocks and widespread fires released massive amounts of carbon dioxide over <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/99/12/7836" target="_blank">about 10,000 years</a>. Global temperatures soared, sea levels rose and oceans became acidic. About <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/K-T-extinction" target="_blank">80% of species</a>, including the dinosaurs, were wiped out.</p><p>And about 55 million years ago, global temperatures spiked again, over <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo578;%20https://www.nature.com/articles/ngeo1179;https://www.whoi.edu/fileserver.do?id=136084&pt=2&p=148709" target="_blank">100,000 years or so</a>. The cause of this event, known as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Paleocene-Eocene-Thermal-Maximum" target="_blank">Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum</a>, is not entirely clear. One theory, known as the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2010RG000326" target="_blank">"methane burp" hypothesis</a>, posits that a massive volcanic eruption triggered the sudden release of methane from ocean sediments, making oceans more acidic and killing off many species.</p><p>So is life on Earth now headed for the same fate?</p>Comparing Greenhouse Gas Levels
<p>Before industrial times began at the end of the 18th century, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere sat at around <a href="https://data.giss.nasa.gov/modelforce/ghgases/" target="_blank">300 parts per million</a>. This means that for every one million molecules of gas in the atmosphere, 300 were carbon dioxide.</p><p>In February this year, atmospheric carbon dioxide reached <a href="https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/" target="_blank">414.1 parts per million</a>. Total greenhouse gas level — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide combined — reached almost <a href="https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/aggi/" target="_blank">500 parts per million of carbon dioxide-equivalent</a></p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxMjI4OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjYwNjkxMH0.yJYFtFc68sqpl1LiOvqI3718AdX7Z8DPy7txXoLd0v8/img.png?width=980" id="4b08d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d985fd410b6bde74e623720294c4ddf" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Author provided / The Conversation /CC BY-ND
<p>Carbon dioxide is now pouring into the atmosphere at a rate of <a href="https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/" target="_blank">two to three parts per million each year</a>.</p><p>Using carbon records stored in fossils and organic matter, I have determined that current carbon emissions constitute an extreme event in the recorded history of Earth.</p><p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.13342" target="_blank">My research</a> has demonstrated that annual carbon dioxide emissions are now faster than after both the asteroid impact that eradicated the dinosaurs (about 0.18 parts per million CO2 per year), and the thermal maximum 55 million years ago (about 0.11 parts per million CO2 per year).</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxMjI5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzQ3ODk3Mn0.g8TTzEvml6Qw9WfBnfhvwXzlR48YhKoKrsZbyRTJDOM/img.jpg?width=980" id="d5fd0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dcf6c33f1d1125674de52879b36d4959" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Shutterstock
The Next Mass Extinction Has Begun
<p>Current atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide are not yet at the levels seen 55 million and 65 million years ago. But the massive influx of carbon dioxide means the climate is changing faster than many plant and animal species <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gcb.13342" target="_blank">can adapt</a>.</p><p><a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/" target="_blank">A major United Nations report</a> released last year warned around one million animal and plant species were threatened with extinction. Climate change was listed as one of five key drivers.</p><p>The report said the distributions of 47% of land-based flightless mammals, and almost 25% of threatened birds, may already have been negatively affected by climate change.</p><p>Many researchers fear the climate system is approaching a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/33/8252" target="_blank">tipping point</a> - a threshold beyond which rapid and irreversible changes will occur. This will create a cascade of <a href="https://sites.hks.harvard.edu/sed/docs/hjs_esa_environment_0510.pdf" target="_blank">devastating effects</a>.</p><p>There are already signs tipping points have been reached. For example, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/27/arctic-warming-scientists-alarmed-by-crazy-temperature-rises" target="_blank">rising Arctic temperatures</a> have led to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7616" target="_blank">major ice melt</a>, and weakened the <a href="https://www.globalresearch.ca/melting-ice-sheets-and-weakened-polar-fronts-onset-of-climate-tipping-points/5668981" target="_blank">Arctic jet stream</a> — a powerful band of westerly winds.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjkxMjI5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NTU1NzMzMX0.TOUH-so4GhjOBq4DEKX2V7x7AdE8m0zSo0wsWvWmmd4/img.jpg?width=980" id="dd3cc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="feaaa383fdbf1df8aa741e49b7bfdd62" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A diagram showing the weakening Arctic jet stream, and subsequent movements of warm and cold air. NASA
<p>This allows north-moving warm air to cross the polar boundary, and cold fronts emanating from the poles to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10584-019-02458-x" target="_blank">intrude south into Siberia, Europe and Canada</a>.</p><p>A shift in climate zones is also causing the tropics to expand and migrate toward the poles, at a rate of about <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-worlds-tropical-zone-is-expanding-and-australia-should-be-worried-77701" target="_blank">56 to 111 kilometres per decade</a>. The tracks of tropical and extra-tropical cyclones are likewise shifting toward the poles. Australia is highly vulnerable to this shift.</p>Uncharted Future Climate Territory
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16494" target="_blank">Research</a> released in 2016 showed just what a massive impact humans are having on the planet. It said while the Earth might naturally have entered the next ice age in about 20,000 years' time, the heating produced by carbon dioxide would result in a period of super-tropical conditions, delaying the next ice age to about 50,000 years from now.</p><p>During this period, chaotic <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/storms-of-my-grandchildren-9781608195022/" target="_blank">high-energy stormy conditions</a> would prevail over much of the Earth. <a href="https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319572369" target="_blank">My research suggests</a> humans are likely to survive best in sub-polar regions and sheltered mountain valleys, where cooler conditions would allow flora and fauna to persist.</p><p>Earth's next mass extinction is avoidable — if carbon dioxide emissions are dramatically curbed and we develop and deploy technologies to <a href="http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?act=view_file&file_id=EC147p14.pdf" target="_blank">remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere</a>. But on the current trajectory, human activity threatens to make large parts of the Earth <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41552709-the-uninhabitable-earth" target="_blank">uninhabitable</a> - a planetary tragedy of our own making.</p><p><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/while-we-fixate-on-coronavirus-earth-is-hurtling-towards-a-catastrophe-worse-than-the-dinosaur-extinction-130869" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>
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Guam Rails Are No Longer Extinct in the Wild (Something Only One Other Bird Can Claim)
07 March
Animals
Guam Rail. Dukas / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
By Jason Bittel
When you walk into the tropical rainforest room at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, the first thing you'll probably notice are the hyacinth macaws perched in mango trees. The feathers of these massive parrots are so impossibly blue that the birds look like birthday party piñatas. And the first thing you'll likely hear is the trill of the much tinier laughing thrushes as they swoop from tall cacao plants to the indoor-jungle floor. But watch out for Gus! He's the blue-headed great argus pheasant who likes to commandeer the walkway while unfurling his four-foot-tall fan of feathers in an attempt to woo female pheasants.
<p>In all, there are 90 tropical birds in this lush and misty room, representing 32 species from all over the world. But in the midst of all this avian splendor, there's one bird you aren't likely to set eyes upon: the <a href="https://www.aviary.org/hyacinth-macaws" target="_blank">Guam rail</a>. They're in there — I just doubt you'll spot one.</p><p>"We can't make a liar out of me," said <a href="https://www.aviary.org/leadership" target="_blank">Kurt Hundgen</a>, the aviary's director of Animal Collections as he scours the understory looking for the small, dirt-colored birds. Not seeing any, Hundgen purses his lips and whistles out a few short calls of rail-speak. "There are nine rails in here!" he laughs. None answer his calls.</p><p>Unfortunately, the rail is even more difficult to find in its native habitat on the Micronesian island of Guam. Impossible, actually. This is because sometime in the mid-1900s, brown tree snakes made their way onto the island, likely stowed away in cargo delivered by a U.S. Navy supply ship. And once these lithe, narrow-necked serpents made landfall, they started gobbling up every native species in sight. Prior to the snakes' arrival, Guam had no large predators that would eat eggs or chicks. So it took just a few decades before 9 of Guam's 11 native species of forest-dwelling birds disappeared for good down the snakes' gullets. In 1987, the Guam rail was added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) ignoble list of species considered <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22692441/156506469" target="_blank">extinct in the wild</a>.</p>
<p>But there is some good news. Just before the species left this world entirely, scientists managed to capture 21 rails and create a captive breeding program on Guam and at several mainland American institutions, including the National Aviary. The breeding program has performed so well that new populations of Guam rails have been reintroduced to the nearby islands of Cocos and Rota. These islands never had rails, but they also don't have any snakes, which makes them ideal sanctuaries for Guam rails. And with just 60 birds on Cocos and 200 on Rota, Hundgen says there are no indications that the birds are becoming an invasive species themselves.</p><p>To date, Pittsburgh has provided 39 birds. That's more than any other Association of Zoos and Aquariums institution, Hundgen points out proudly.</p><p>The IUCN announced at the end of last year that the continued survival of the breeding program's birds justified relisting the species as critically endangered — a step up from extinct in the wild. Guam rails are only the <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/red-list-2019-guam-rail-2nd-bird-species-recover-extinction-wild" target="_blank">second bird in history</a> to accomplish this feat. The other is the California condor, North America's largest bird. The condor's numbers plummeted in the last century due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat loss. If not for extreme conservation interventions, both the California condor and the Guam rail would no longer be around.</p><p>The rails were lucky in that they breed well in captivity, but reproduction is just part of the story. To successfully reintroduce an animal to the wild, you also have to prepare it for what it will face there. Hundgen believes Pittsburgh's tropical enclosure has been especially beneficial on that score. The rails' wild-like tropical rainforest habitat is 80 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 60 feet tall, allowing them to constantly interact with other birds as well as to practice defending their territories from other rails — just like they would do in a real forest.</p>
<p>As if to demonstrate this visually, an aviculturist named Danielle Minkus appears below the raised walkway where Hundgen and I are talking and starts flinging handfuls of mealworms into the leaf litter. Almost immediately, half a dozen long-legged birds with black and white underbellies begin to materialize from the dark understory. They find and snatch up the mealworms Minkus tosses so quickly, I find myself wondering how a snake would ever be able to catch one of them.</p><p>But that would be underestimating the brown tree snake. These suckers can grow longer than 10 feet, are excellent climbers, and pack a venomous bite. Most unfortunately, they have next to nothing keeping their numbers in check on Guam.</p><p>"At one point, there were so many snakes on Guam that they were causing electrical outages on a daily basis," says <a href="https://www.dickinson.edu/site/custom_scripts/dc_faculty_profile_index.php?fac=bobacks" target="_blank">Scott Boback</a>, an animal ecologist at Dickinson College. This happens when a large snake turns itself into a living conductor by trying to move between a power line and a tree branch.</p><p>Oddly, acetaminophen is the snake's kryptonite, with just a small dose able to disrupt its blood's ability to carry oxygen. Scientists like Boback have found that dropping pills glued to dead mice from helicopters flying over fenced-off areas can actually put a considerable dent in the local snake populations. Still, as Boback showed in a recent <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.3000" target="_blank">study</a>, when just a handful of snakes remain, it is nearly impossible to find them. Which means it may never be safe for the Guam rail to return to Guam.</p><p>So prevention on the rails' new islands is "absolutely paramount," said Boback. To that end, the U.S. Geological Survey has installed snake-proof fencing all around the port on Rota — the only such structure on Earth.</p><p>To contribute to the effort of returning these birds to the wild has been rewarding, said Hundgen, but we shouldn't lose sight of just how much time, effort, and money it takes to bring a species back from the brink. "You can bring a species back. It can happen," he said, as the aviary's nine rails disappear back into the underbrush. "But it's 35 years later. It took 35 years to get that."</p><p>Honestly, it's incredible that we still have Guam rails at all, Hundgen said. "It'll probably go down in the conservation history books."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/guam-rails-are-no-longer-extinct-wild-something-only-one-other-bird-can-claim" target="_blank">onEarth</a>.</em><em></em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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Spotted turtles (seen above) are one of the animals listed in a new lawsuit against the Trump administration which claims they have failed to protect 241 plant and animal species under the Endangered Species Act. Mark Wilson / The Boston Globe / Getty Images
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of the Interior have failed to protect 241 plant and animal species under the Endangered Species Act, according to a federal lawsuit filed last week by the Center for Biological Diversity, as Bloomberg Environment reported.
<p>Four years ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services created a framework to address the backlog of more than 500 species that were slated to receive protections, including the 241 species listed in the lawsuit. In the filing, the Center for Biological Diversity claims that the Trump Administration prevented the Fish and Wildlife Service from working its way through the list, as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/environmental-group-trump-administration-241-species-1489713" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> reported. </p>
<p>One of the most pernicious things that can happen for species that need direct protection or habitat protection is for the federal government to do nothing. By systematically doing nothing, the administration has allowed 241 species to reach the brink of extinction, according to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/trump-has-been-very-bad-for-vulnerable-animals-the-administration-may-finally-have-to-change-its-behavior/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a>. Most of the species listed in the lawsuit have been awaiting protections for a decade or longer. </p>
<p>Among the species listed in the suit are spotted turtles in the Great Lakes and on the Eastern seaboard, moose in the Midwest, a western bumblebee that has declined by 84 percent, and a tiny freshwater fish in Chesapeake Bay that flips stones with its nose to find food, according to a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-attacks-trump-failure-protect-241-species-extinction-2020-02-26-2020-02-27/" target="_blank">statement</a> from the Center for Biological Diversity. The Center also created an <a href="http://center.maps.arcgis.com/apps/View/index.html?appid=f92a9c81130c4a05bb180fe1a683b619" target="_blank">interactive map</a> of the U.S. that details which species are living in each state.</p>
<p>"As moose and golden-winged warblers and hundreds of other species fight the rising tide of the extinction crisis, Trump officials won't lift a finger to help," Noah Greenwald, the Center for Biological Diversity's endangered species director said. "This administration's ugly contempt for wildlife and the Endangered Species Act threatens our country's entire web of life. Every day of delay brings these incredible, irreplaceable plants and animals one step closer to extinction."</p>
<p>The Center for Biological Diversity ran the numbers and calculated that the Trump administration has only approved 21 species to be listed on the Endangered Species list, which averages less than seven per year, as <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/trump-has-been-very-bad-for-vulnerable-animals-the-administration-may-finally-have-to-change-its-behavior/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a> reported. That number is the lowest of any administration this far into its presidential term, slightly outpacing the Bush administration, which added protections for about eight species per year. By contrast, the Obama administration added about 45 species per year and the Clinton administration approved 65 species per year.</p><p>"The extinction crisis gets worse by the day, but Trump officials are twiddling their thumbs as plants and animals fade away," Greenwald said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-attacks-trump-failure-protect-241-species-extinction-2020-02-26-2020-02-27/" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It's a moral failure of epic proportions. And it's hurting future generations in ways that can never be undone."</p><p>Greenwald identified several sources of the backlog to <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/trump-has-been-very-bad-for-vulnerable-animals-the-administration-may-finally-have-to-change-its-behavior/" target="_blank">Mother Jones</a>. He said, "There are these various political appointees in different positions [there] who have a very long record of opposition to the protection of endangered species, and I think they just end up hanging up decisions by asking questions: 'Well, are we sure about the range of the species?'; 'Are we sure this threat is really impacting them?'"</p><p>The <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/pdfs/241-species-complaint.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> simply asks that the courts require the Fish and Wildlife Service to end the backlog for 231 species, finalize a determination for six in limbo, and finalize critical habitat protections for four other species. </p>
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Climate Crisis Could Cause a Third of Plant and Animal Species to Disappear Within 50 Years: Study
15 February
Climate
The common giant tree frog from Madagascar is one of many species impacted by recent climate change. John J. Wiens / EurekAlert!
The human-caused climate crisis could cause the extinction of 30 percent of the world's plant and animal species by 2070, even accounting for species' abilities to disperse and shift their niches to tolerate hotter temperatures, according to a study published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
<p>University of Arizona researchers Cristian Román-Palacios and John J. Wiens analyzed data on 538 plant and animal species and 581 sites worldwide, focusing on species surveyed at the same locations over time, at least a decade apart. They found that 44 percent of the species had local extinctions at one or more sites.</p><p>"The study identified maximum annual temperatures — the hottest daily highs in summer — as the key variable that best explains whether a population will go extinct," <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/uoa-soo021220.php" target="_blank">said</a> a statement from the university. "Surprisingly, the researchers found that average yearly temperatures showed smaller changes at sites with local extinction, even though average temperatures are widely used as a proxy for overall climate change."</p><p>As Wiens explained, "This means that using changes in mean annual temperatures to predict extinction from climate change might be positively misleading."</p><p>Lead author Román-Palacios laid out their key findings in a series of tweets Thursday:</p>
<div id="4ad99" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="IRGOP61581801617"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1228106206281003008" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">My latest is finally out in @PNASNews! We examined how populations of 538 species have responded contemporaneous cl… https://t.co/cb7Lim1Xt3</div> — Cristian Román-Palacios (@Cristian Román-Palacios)<a href="https://twitter.com/cromanpa/statuses/1228106206281003008">1581638311.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"By analyzing the change in 19 climatic variables at each site, we could determine which variables drive local extinctions and how much change a population can tolerate without going extinct," Román-Palacios said in the statement. "We also estimated how quickly populations can move to try and escape rising temperatures. When we put all of these pieces of information together for each species, we can come up with detailed estimates of global extinction rates for hundreds of plant and animal species."</p>
<div id="c4280" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="MBXQNL1581801617"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1228121047334940677" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">(3/n) Based on species’ past responses to contemporaneous climate change and projected temperatures by 2070, we est… https://t.co/QpBhRFaYbi</div> — Cristian Román-Palacios (@Cristian Román-Palacios)<a href="https://twitter.com/cromanpa/statuses/1228121047334940677">1581641849.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The university statement noted that "previous studies have focused on dispersal — or migration to cooler habitats — as a means for species to 'escape' from warming climates. However, the authors of the current study found that most species will not be able to disperse quickly enough to avoid extinction, based on their past rates of movement."</p><p>The researchers found that species were able to tolerate hotter conditions at their original locations to a point, but the local extinction rates increased as maximum temperatures did. About half of the species they studied experienced extinctions if the maximum temperature rose over 0.5°C; that figure jumped to 95 percent of species when maximum temperature rose by over 2.9°C.</p><p>"Given dispersal alone, many of these species (∼57–70%) may face extinction. However, niche shifts can potentially reduce this to only 30% or less," according to the study. Considering both dispersal and niche shifts, the researchers projected that 16–30% of the 538 studied species could disappear within the next 50 years.</p><p>While the researchers' new projections are similar for plant and animal species, they found that extinctions could be up to four times more common in the tropics compared with more temperate regions. Román-Palacios said that "this is a big problem, because the majority of plant and animal species occur in the tropics."</p>
<div id="df9a6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="OAYOX91581801617"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1228121054196813824" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">(5/5) There's a ton of work behind this paper, some frustration, but also lots of excitement! Thanks to everyone wh… https://t.co/HzMBfBIkDy</div> — Cristian Román-Palacios (@Cristian Román-Palacios)<a href="https://twitter.com/cromanpa/statuses/1228121054196813824">1581641851.0</a></blockquote></div><p>"In a way, it's a 'choose your own adventure,'" said Wiens. "If we stick to the Paris agreement to combat climate change, we may lose fewer than two out of every 10 plant and animal species on Earth by 2070. But if humans cause larger temperature increases, we could lose more than a third or even half of all animal and plant species, based on our results."</p><p>Some scientists and climate advocacy groups have long criticized the landmark 2015 Paris accord as too weak to adequately address the planetary emergency — and, as Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/14/final-hours-cop-25-denounced-utter-failure-deal-stripped-ambition-and-us-refuses" target="_blank">reported</a> in December 2019, the latest global negotiations about implementing the agreement were denounced as an "utter failure." At the time, nearly 100 civil society groups called out polluting industries and wealthy countries for "throwing gasoline on the fire of the climate crisis."</p><p>Ahead of the COP 25, U.S. President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/11/04/delivering-catastrophic-message-moment-great-urgency-trump-formally-begins-ditching" target="_blank">delivered</a> on his promise to ditch the Paris agreement by beginning the one-year withdrawal process in November 2019. Climate experts and activists condemned the move as "irresponsible and shortsighted" but also looked ahead to the November 2020 election and emphasized that the next president could recommit the U.S. to the accord and fight for even more ambitious action on a global scale.</p><p>The new study comes as young people <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/24/we-have-so-much-more-do-youth-climate-activists-declare-global-elite-close-out-davos" target="_blank">take to the streets</a> worldwide to demand bolder climate policies, experts warn that the climate crisis is an "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/23/most-dangerous-situation-humanity-has-ever-faced-doomsday-clock-now-100-seconds" target="_blank">existential danger,</a>" and scientists contribute to the growing body of research showing how global heating is expected to affect species and the environment. One of those studies, published last week, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/07/consistent-mass-extinction-new-study-warns-climate-chaos-driving-rapid-decline" target="_blank">found</a> that the rate at which bumblebees are declining due to extreme heat is "consistent with a mass extinction."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/14/climate-crisis-could-cause-third-plant-and-animal-species-disappear-within-50-years" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Donald Trump, Jr. speaking with attendees at the 2019 Teen Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, DC. Gage Skidmore / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
By Eoin Higgins
A national hunting group is under fire from animal rights groups for auctioning off the opportunity to spend a week in close quarters with Donald Trump Jr. in Alaska for a luxury "dream hunt" of Sitka black-tailed deer.
<p>The Safari Club International (SCI) will auction the trip at its annual convention. Bidding currently stands at $10,000.<em></em></p>
<p>"This annual event is the largest meeting in the world of people who celebrate the senseless killing, buying, and selling of dead animals for bragging rights," Humane Society president and CEO Kitty Block <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/04/donald-trump-jr-trophy-hunting-auction-nevada-aoe" target="_blank">told</a> The Guardian Tuesday. "As our planet suffers an extinction crisis, it is business as usual for the trophy hunting industry and SCI, who continue to revel in spending millions of dollars every year to destroy imperiled wildlife."</p><p>According to The Guardian:</p><blockquote>The four-day event organized by Safari Club International (SCI) and advertised as a "hunters' heaven," will culminate on Saturday with an auction for a week-long Sitka black-tailed deer hunt in Alaska with Trump Jr, his son, and a guide. At the time of writing, <a href="https://auction.safariclub.org/item.aspx?i=35311827" target="_blank">bidding for the yacht-based expedition stands at</a> $10,000 (£7,685).<br><br>Other prizes include the chance to shoot an elephant on a 14-day trip in Namibia, an all-inclusive hunt package to Zimbabwe to kill buffalo, giraffe and wildebeest, and a 10-day crocodile hunting expedition in South Africa. The proceeds from the auction, which campaigners say could exceed $5m, will fund SCI's "hunter advocacy and wildlife conservation efforts," according to the organization.<br></blockquote><p>Trump Jr.'s presence at the event led Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson and member Al Jardine to call on their former bandmates to pull out of a scheduled appearance at the conference. </p><p>"This organization supports trophy hunting, which both Al and I are emphatically opposed to," tweeted Wilson, linking to a petition against the performance.</p>
<div id="5ec2b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="EQ5ZVN1580925960"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1224412847314276353" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This organization supports trophy hunting, which Both Al and I are emphatically opposed to. There’s nothing we can… https://t.co/gJN3yOq9QJ</div> — Brian Wilson (@Brian Wilson)<a href="https://twitter.com/BrianWilsonLive/statuses/1224412847314276353">1580757745.0</a></blockquote></div><p>The president's son will deliver a keynote address to the convention, a move that Independent reporter Chris Riotta <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisriotta/status/1222587970936545284" target="_blank">noted</a> was a bit on the nose for SCI, a group that claims to be concerned with conservation and protection.</p><p>"His speech comes as the Trump White House continues a rollback of global wildlife protections," said Riotta.</p><p>As Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/12/12/endangering-endangered-species-seems-be-family-hobby-trump-jr-denounced-killing-rare" target="_blank">reported</a>, Trump Jr. was criticized in December over a hunt he took part in Mongolia where he killed an endangered sheep but was granted retroactive permission after a private meeting with the country's president.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/04/amid-global-extinction-crisis-donald-trump-jr-auctions-himself-luxurious-wildlife">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Fireflies Face Extinction From Habitat Loss, Light Pollution and Pesticides, Study Says
05 February
Animals
A firefly perched on a blade of grass, its abdomen lit in bright yellow light. James Jordan Photography / Moment / Getty Images
Human activity threatens to make summer nights a little less magical.
<p>A study <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz157/5715071" target="_blank">published in BioScience</a> Monday set out to assess the greatest threats to the world's approximately 2,000 species of fireflies. While very little population data exists for most species of the "iconic" glowing beetles, researchers in the field have observed a decline in recent years.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY1ODM5MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDA4NjU0Mn0.BVy-RrkdRIdjtZC_vbIE0Vwh7ssUNYDMvarjUFkCOR4/img.jpg?width=980" id="ab6b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be754bc91d791e59e7f163c83287b533" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
This is a composite of several long exposure photographs of fireflies in a yard in Milo, Maine, U.S. Mike Lewinski / Unsplash
<p>"We looked around and said, 'huh, there just don't seem to be as many fireflies around as there used to be,'" lead study author and Tufts University biology professor Sara Lewis, who has spent her career studying the mating rituals of a few firefly species, <a href="https://www.popsci.com/story/environment/firefly-extinction/" target="_blank">told Popular Science</a>.<br></p><p>So the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/" target="_blank">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN) established a Firefly Specialist Group in 2018 to assess the glowing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/insects" target="_self">insects</a>' <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> status. As part of that work, they sent out a survey to 350 members of the Fireflyers International Network asking them the chief risks faced by the species they studied.</p><p>The answer? Habitat loss, artificial light and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides" target="_self">pesticides</a>, in that order.</p><div id="ecefd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9OT1ZM1580917242"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1224781418791874560" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">According to a Tufts University-led team of biologists associated with the International Union for the Conservation… https://t.co/CbObfkRmJx</div> — Tufts University (@Tufts University)<a href="https://twitter.com/TuftsUniversity/statuses/1224781418791874560">1580845620.0</a></blockquote></div>
Habitat Loss
<p>"Lots of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> species are declining because their habitat is shrinking," Lewis said in a <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/lights-out-fireflies-face-extinction-threats-habitat-loss-light-pollution-pesticides" target="_blank">Tufts press release</a>, "so it wasn't a huge surprise that habitat loss was considered the biggest threat."</p><p>However, some firefly species are particularly vulnerable because they require very specific conditions. The Malaysian firefly <em>Pteroptyx tener</em>, famous for its synchronized light shows, needs mangroves to flourish. Previous research had noted the species' decline due to the clearing of mangroves to plant <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/palm-oil">palm oil</a> plantations and aquaculture farms.</p>Light Pollution
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/light-pollution" rel="noopener noreferrer">Artificial light</a> is a major problem for fireflies because they use their famous bioluminescence to find mates, and bright human lights can disrupt these courtship signals.</p><p>"In addition to disrupting natural biorhythms – including our own – light pollution really messes up firefly mating rituals," study coauthor and Tufts PhD candidate Avalon Owens explained in the press release.</p>Pesticides
<p>The use of agricultural pesticides like organophosphates and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/neonicotinoids" rel="noopener noreferrer">neonicotinoids</a> threatens fireflies, especially during their larval stages, when they spend as many as two years living below the ground or underwater. This makes them especially sensitive to pesticides that end up on lawns or in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil" rel="noopener noreferrer">soil</a>, according to Popular Science.</p><p>While more specific research is needed on the impact of these chemicals on fireflies, the evidence suggests that they are harmful to the glowing bugs as they are to other insects, the Tufts release explained.</p>'Insect Apocalypse'
<p>Indeed, the plight of fireflies is reflected across the insect class. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/insect-apocalypse-will-have-dire-con-sequences-for-all-life-on-earth-report-warns-2641341433.html" target="_self">November 2019</a> study warned that 41 percent of insects are threatened with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/species-extinction" rel="noopener noreferrer">extinction</a>, which could lead to an "insect apocalypse" with serious consequences for humans and other life on Earth.</p><p>Dave Goulson, the University of Sussex biology professor who authored that study, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/03/world/fireflies-extinction-risk-scn/index.html" target="_blank">told CNN</a> that the threats of habitat loss and pesticide use were also the leading causes of the overall insect decline.</p><p>"Of course fireflies are particularly vulnerable to light pollution, more so than perhaps any other insect group, so it makes sense that this also emerges as a major concern," Goulson said.</p><p>Lewis expressed hope that focusing the spotlight on fireflies could raise awareness about the plight of insects generally and build the will to save them.</p><p>"Fireflies are actually an insect that everybody can get behind," she told Popular Science.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Pedro Szekely / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
<p>High above the Argentinian plains, an Andean <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/condors">condor</a> (<em>Vultur gryphus</em>) — one of the world's largest flying <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/birds" rel="noopener noreferrer">bird</a> species — catches the distinctive aroma of decaying flesh on the wind. It's quickly joined by other condors, perhaps a dozen or more, who start circling in the familiar pattern of all carrion-loving <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/vultures" rel="noopener noreferrer">vultures</a>.<em></em></p>
<p>Soon the massive condors spy the source of the delicious smell: a dead sheep or goat lying in a field. The hungry birds quickly angle in for descent, land around the body and begin to feed, tearing into the skin and meat with their sharp beaks.</p><p>Then the condors also begin to die.</p><p>At first they appear merely disoriented. Then they start to stumble, convulse and fall around the dead sheep. A few may try to fly, flapping mighty wings that span 10 feet — only to crash to the ground just a few yards away.</p><p>Eventually the field is littered with dead condors. Few, if any, escape.</p><p>This gruesome scene has played out several times in Argentina in recent years. In one incident that made worldwide headlines, <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/news/34-andean-condors-found-dead-argentina-poisoning-needs-stop" target="_blank">34 Andean condors</a> died at a single site in 2018 — a major blow to a species with an estimated population of just 6,700 mature individuals, about 2,500 of which live in Argentina.</p>
<p>What's killing these birds? Tragically, it's a case of persecution by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pesticides">pesticide</a>. Livestock owners who needlessly fear the imposing condors — which only eat carrion (not live prey) — attract the birds with dead sheep and other animals laced with powerful, illegal neurotoxin pesticides such as carbofuran and parathion. They know that anything that eats the carcasses will quickly die — in theory, leaving the rest of nearby livestock "safe" from predators.</p><p>Andean condors aren't the only target. Farmers also use the pesticide-laden bodies to lure in pumas, foxes, lynx, eagles and other predators that really do occasionally prey upon livestock.</p><p>But it's condors that have been hit hardest by the practice. A new paper published Jan. 15 in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320719311450?dgcid=rss_sd_all" target="_blank">Biological Conservation</a> calls the poisonings "the greatest threat to the Andean condor."</p><p>"We conclude that this problem can lead to the extinction of the species if we do not take action urgently," says the paper's lead author, Carlos I. Piña, a biologist with Universidad Autonoma de Entre Rios.</p>
<p>Piña and his fellow researchers — Rayen Estrada Pachecoab, N. Luis Jácome, Vanesa Astore and Carlos E. Borghi — studied 301 birds treated or collected by the Andean Condor Rescue Center in Argentina between 2001 and 2018. Using records and necropsies, they identified 21 poisoning events in Argentina that killed a total of 99 condors — 77 deaths in 2017 and 2018 alone (the paper does not include data from 2019). They also identified another 29 incidents of possible poisoning. In some cases the rescue center located birds suffering symptoms of poisoning that died a few hours after discovery.</p><p>The researchers also found that the poisonings occur throughout Argentina, have increased in frequency since the beginning of 2017, and now represent 79 percent of deaths reported to the rescue center.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY1NzI2NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODgxMTQzOX0.9yxetJmtT3MvEOvFjlwniBeQ7OZKuQkGA8DfBG9P4SQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="ea6b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1e128a5f2f0cd3d25828b95107123d44" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An Andean condor in the conservation breeding program at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. John R. Platt / The Revelator / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
<p>The deaths are particularly alarming because condors already face a range of other threats, including illegal hunting, lead poisoning (similar to <a href="https://therevelator.org/saving-california-condors/" target="_blank">California condors</a>) and collisions with power lines.</p><p>On top of that, their populations grow slowly under the best of circumstances.</p><p>"Condors have a very low reproductive rate," Piña explains. They don't reach sexual maturity until they're 9 or 10 years old, and then they only nest every two years and raise a single chick at a time.</p><p>It's now likely that more Andean condors are dying than are being born.</p><p>"These deaths occur at a rate and on a scale that does not allow the natural recovery of individuals to the population," says Piña.</p><p>And it's not just the condors being killed. The bodies of animals from eight other species have been found near dead condors, according to the paper. These include American black vultures (<em>Coragyps atratus</em>), kelp gull (<em>Larus dominicanus</em>), Molina's hog-nosed skunks (<em>Conepatus chinga</em>) and pumas (<em>Puma concolor</em>).</p><p>The poisons are also potentially harmful to humans. "There are oral records of cases of people poisoned by the placement of these poisons," Piña says. This poses a risk for officials tasked with cleaning up kill sites. The EPA links acute short-term <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-09/documents/parathion.pdf" target="_blank">parathion exposure</a> to central nervous disorders, depressed red blood cell activity, nausea and other health risks.</p><p>And then there's the big picture: the environmental cost of not having condors on the landscape if this problem persists.</p><p>"Vultures occupy a fundamental role in the ecosystem, since they eliminate the carcasses of dead animals which, if not removed, become sources of infection and can affect human health," Piña says. "They're like great natural cleaners."</p><p>In additional to fulfilling that ecological role, condors also have cultural importance.</p><p>"For the native peoples of South America, it is the sacred bird that connects the world we live in with the cosmos," Piña says. "We see condors on the emblems, shields and flags of the Andean countries. The loss of these birds also represents a great cultural loss for our society."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMjY1NzI2Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NTM3NzYzMX0.0I4uBJTZXbXR3R5vw9_PMyFik8hLBny5tMdgvUDBTsI/img.jpg?width=980" id="23f08" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77cbdb290e716332cca3aed7310e98b3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An Andean condor spreads its wings at the National Aviary in Pittsburgh. John R. Platt / The Revelator / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
<p>With the condors fulfilling so many important roles, and the frequency of poisonings increasing, how do we solve this problem?</p><p>Piña and his fellow researchers recommend a three-tier approach.</p><p>The first involves educating livestock owners about the importance of condors and the health risks from the pesticides. "We believe that working on education about the dangerousness of the use of these toxic baits is one of the lines of action needed to address this problem," Piña says.</p><p>That won't solve everything, he acknowledges, because some people already know the poisons are dangerous but use them anyway.</p><p>That brings us to the second solution: protecting livestock. "It's essential to find ways to reduce predation without affecting environmental health," Piña says. "An example could be the incorporation of cattle protection dogs, which have been shown to considerably reduce predation in Patagonia Argentina." The researchers have started studies with cattle breeders to understand various techniques already in use in different parts of the country, as well as how ranchers perceive livestock losses they experience.</p><p>The third tier involves the law. These pesticides are already illegal — parathion was banned in Argentina in 1993, and a new law banning carbofuran and four other pesticides went into effect this past October — but they're widely used anyway. Piña says adding one more law could help address that. "We believe that it would be better to have a national law on traceability and prescription of agrochemicals so that their trade is regulated, and sales of these products are under a professional's prescription," he says. "This way the easy access of these products would be diminished a little."</p><p>Argentina, meanwhile, isn't taking the problem lightly. In addition to the recent pesticide bans, the country and a partner foundation recently launched the <a href="https://www.argentina.gob.ar/ambiente/biodiversidad/estrategia-nacional-contra-uso-cebos-toxicos" target="_blank">Estrategia Nacional contra Cebos Tóxicos</a> (National Strategy Against Poisoned Carrion). "The [program] aims to improve the detection and treatment of cases of poisoning, minimizing the risk to personnel involved in these processes," Piña reports. "The plan also aims to generate a more precise knowledge of the sites of greatest conflict in order to guide conservation efforts and community outreach and education."</p><p>A lot of work remains to be done to save the Andean condor from this emerging threat, but with more than 1 percent of all Andean condors killed since 2017, researchers say it's time for Argentina — and perhaps neighboring countries — to act. Otherwise the great birds may become just another faint waft of death on the wind.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/pesticides-andean-condor/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The oldest living male in the southern resident killer whale community, L41, seen above in the Strait of Juan de Fuca is missing and feared dead. MarkMalleson / iStock / Getty Images
Yet another endangered southern resident orca is missing, and researchers fear he is dead.
<p>The whale, known as L41 or Mega, was the largest and oldest of all southern resident orca males. He was a significant member of the embattled group of killer whales who swim between the waters of Washington and Canada. He and another whale fathered most of the orcas born to the group after 1990, <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/another-southern-resident-orca-feared-dead/" target="_blank">The Seattle Times reported</a>. But when researchers encountered his family last Friday, he was not with them.<br></p><p>"He was just a really big personality, and a big whale, and of course he was an important member of his family," Deborah Giles, a research scientist at the University of Washington's <a href="http://conservationbiology.uw.edu/" target="_blank">Center for Conservation Biology</a> and the research director of the nonprofit <a href="http://www.wildorca.org/" target="_blank">Wild Orca</a>, told The Seattle Times. "I am going to miss seeing him."</p><p>The news of L41's disappearance came when the <a href="https://www.whaleresearch.com/" target="_blank">Center for Whale Research</a> (CWR) <a href="https://www.whaleresearch.com/2020-2" target="_blank">reported</a> its second orca encounter of 2020 on Jan. 24.</p><p>"Unfortunately, L41 was not present for the entire encounter. Given his age and that he looked a little thin in our January 2019 encounter, we fear he may be gone and will consider him missing unless he shows up unexpectedly in an upcoming encounter," CWR staff member Dave Ellifrit wrote.</p>
<div id="2dd2f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="22YWWF1580409039"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1222228218142326784" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This was CWR’s first encounter with the L12s in inshore waters in over a year. Last year’s calf, L124, looked good… https://t.co/eTkVZEmcrz</div> — Whale Research (@Whale Research)<a href="https://twitter.com/CWROrcas/statuses/1222228218142326784">1580236889.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Mega was last seen in August 2019 when he was photographed by Mark Malleson.</p><p>Mega was born in 1977 and fathered 21 calves. He was also a physically iconic whale, as The Seattle Times described:</p><blockquote>He was a classically beautiful orca bull, with a towering dorsal fin, rising straight without a waver from his back. Big and powerful, he was easy to spot and the only adult male left in his immediate family. A nick on the trailing edge of his dorsal made him easily identifiable, along with his massive size, from a long distance.</blockquote><p>If he is truly gone, it will bring the number of southern resident killer whales down to 72, the second-lowest since counting began 45 years ago. There were 71 recorded in 1976 during a time when a third of the whales were captured and sent to aquariums.</p><p>While killer whales around the world are doing well, the southern resident whales are threatened with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/species-extinction" target="_self">extinction</a>, <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/30/us/endangered-orca-missing-dead-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN explained</a>. This is due to a combination of factors including noise and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/shipping-industry" target="_self">shipping</a> traffic, but the biggest threat faced by the species is the disappearance of chinook <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a>, its chief food.</p><p>When the orcas have less salmon to eat, they rely on their stores of fat, which are filled with accumulated toxins that make the whales sick, <a href="https://www.orcaconservancy.org/" target="_blank">Orca Conservancy</a> President Shari Tarantino told CNN.</p>
<p>To address this problem, environmental advocates argue that the Snake River dams should be breached. One study found that if only four of 15 were removed, the population of salmon would double or triple. </p>
<p>"(Killer whales) are at the top of the food chain," Tarantino told CNN. "So when they're failing, everything beneath in the ecosystem is failing. That is a huge warning. It would be an absolute mess."</p>
<p>However, there was a silver lining to Friday's orca encounter. L124, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-calf-southern-resident-orcas-2625954104.html" target="_self">a calf born last year and named Lucky</a>, was present and looked healthy. It is a big deal for an orca calf to live a full year, The Seattle Times said.</p>
<p>And not everyone is convinced Mega is truly gone.</p>
<p>"I'm not buying it," former whale-watch boat captain Hobbes Buchanan told The Seattle Times. "He may have wandered off to do his own thing, and will come back. I am totally just not giving up."</p>
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