conservation
grrlscientist | March 5, 2009tags: coal mining, mountaintop removal, clean coal, electricity, streaming video
This video shows us the dirty lie behind so-called "clean coal" -- which is one of the main sources of power on the East Coast of the United States [1:55]
sheril | March 4, 2009Guest post by Brian Hare, Evolutionary Anthropologist at Duke University
Last month, a 200 pound male chimpanzee named Travis mauled a woman outside the home where he has been living with his owner Sandra Herold. Charla Nash was nearly killed by Travis and now has life changing wounds to her face while Travis was stabbed by his owner with a butcher knife and shot dead by the police.
Was this incidence preventable or just a freak accident? Should chimpanzees and other primates be kept as pets? What is the effect of the primate pet trade not only on the welfare of these "pets" but on their…
edyong | February 24, 2009In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Gonzalo Mucientes has discovered an invisible line in the sea that separates male mako sharks from females. The line runs from north to south with the Pitcairn Islands to its west and Easter Island to its east. On the western side, a fisherman that snags a mako will most probably have caught a male. Travel 10 degrees of longitude east and odds are they'd catch a female. This is a shark that takes segregation of the sexes to new heights.
Mucientes and colleagues from Spain, Portugal and the UK spent four months aboard a Spanish longline fishing vessel. …
bioephemera | February 24, 2009My friend Nicole sent me this WSJ article about a month ago - it's about the sad reality that artworks made with nonarchival materials often don't outlive the artist:
Art is sold "as is" by galleries or directly from artists. (Can you imagine Consumer Reports reviewing art?) Still, dealers hope to maintain the goodwill of their customers, and artists don't want to develop a reputation for shoddy work. But it's not fully clear what responsibility artists bear to their completed work, especially after it has been sold. That's particularly the case for artists who purposefully use ephemeral…
edyong | February 23, 2009In late 2007, seabirds off the coast of California began to die in record numbers. The waterproof nature of their feathers and been wrecked, and they were soaked to the skin. Without an insulating layer of air trapped within their plumage, the damp birds were suffering from extreme cold. These are exactly the type of problems that seabirds face when they blunder into oil spills, but in this case, not a drop of petroleum had entered the water. The problem was a biological one.
At the same time, Monterey Bay in California was plagued by a massive "red tide" - a bloom of microscopic algae…
sheril | February 18, 2009You've likely already seen this story all over the news:
Chimp's owner calls vicious mauling 'freak thing'
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The owner of a 200-pound chimpanzee that viciously mauled a Stamford woman calls the incident "a freak thing," but says her pet was not a "horrible" animal.
Sandra Herold told NBC's "Today Show" in an interview aired Wednesday that Travis, her 14-year-old chimpanzee, was like a son to her.
Herold tried to save her friend by stabbing the chimp with a butcher knife and bludgeoning it with a shovel.
I have extremely strong emotions concerning this particular issue…
terrasig | February 15, 2009I had occasion this week to tell friends the story of my maternal grandmother. She was born in 1906 in an eastern Pennsylvania coal mining town. Her family was so poor that she was sent at age 16 to northern New Jersey to clean houses for wealthy families. She gave me pictures of her from the late 1940s as the only woman in a machine shop and, later, continued to shop for her own groceries three-quarters of a mile away well into her late 80s. Although she drove my mother crazy (my Mom is a fantastic story of achievement for another day), I suspect that grandma had undiagnosed obsessive-…
grrlscientist | February 4, 2009tags: David Attenborough, nature, evolution, environment, streaming video
British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough presents his views on Charles Darwin, natural selection, and how the Bible has put the natural world in peril in an exclusive interview for Nature Video [4:27]
grrlscientist | February 2, 2009tags: Masked Bobwhite, Colinus virginianus ridgwayi, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Masked Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus ridgwayi)
700 (Nearly extinct in the wild, some 700 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2009tags: Red-Cockaded Woodpecker, Picoides borealis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Red-Cockaded Woodpecker (Picoides borealis)
Estimated 12,210 breeding birds.
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National Geographic…
grrlscientist | January 31, 2009tags: Hawaiian Goose, Nene, Branta sandvicensis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Hawaiian Goose or Nene (Branta sandvicensis)
2,100 (Estimated 2,000 wild and 100 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National…
grrlscientist | January 30, 2009tags: St. Andrew Beach Mouse, Peromyscus polionotus peninsularis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
St. Andrew Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus peninsularis)
6,000 (Estimates range from 3,500 to 6,000).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear…
grrlscientist | January 29, 2009tags: Loggerhead Sea Turtle, Caretta caretta, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta)
90,000 remaining.
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes:
Biologists tally nests, not individuals. Some 47,000 to 90,000 nests were counted each year on the Atlantic Coast over the past decade.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were…
grrlscientist | January 28, 2009tags: Mexican Gray Wolf, Canis lupus baileyi, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Mexican Gray Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi)
320 (60 wild, 260 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
Still on shaky ground, the Mexican gray wolf, an endangered subspecies, is slowly increasing in number in Arizona and New Mexico thanks to captive breeding.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals…
edyong | January 28, 2009The emperor penguin - caring parent, extreme survivor and unwitting movie-star - could be marching to extinction by the turn of the next century. In its Antarctic home, the penguins frequently have to deal with prolonged bouts of starvation, frosty temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius, and biting polar winds that blow at 90 miles per hour. And yet this icy environment that so brutally tests the penguins' endurance is also critical to their survival. This is a species that depends on sea ice for breeding and feeding.
So what will happen to the emperor penguin as Antarctica's sea ice shrinks,…
grrlscientist | January 27, 2009tags: Mexican Spotted Owl, Strix occidentalis lucida, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Mexican Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis lucida)
An estimated 1,000 to 2,000 remain.
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that National Geographic also appreciates his exemplary work. You can view more endangered animals of the United States that were photographed by the talented Joel Sartore here at National Geographic online. All images appear here by permission of National…
grrlscientist | January 26, 2009tags: Alabama Beach Mouse, Peromyscus polionotus ammobates, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Alabama Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates)
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
The Alabama beach mouse ekes out a living on a 14-mile stretch of the state's Fort Morgan Peninsula, where its dune habitat is fragmented by construction and lit up at night. Habitat saved under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prevented these nocturnal mice from going the way of the dodo.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog…
grrlscientist | January 25, 2009tags: California Condor, Gymnogyps californianus, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)
336 (156 wild, 180 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
They survived the Ice Age, but condors barely held out against Homo sapiens. Many of these scavengers were shot or poisoned by fragments of lead left behind by hunters. In 1985 just nine wild birds remained. Captive breeding and reduced use of lead ammunition have brought the species back.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this…
grrlscientist | January 24, 2009tags: Ocelot, Leopardus pardalis, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Ocelot, Leopardus pardalis.
195 animals remaining (Estimated U.S. population is fewer than 100 wild, 95 captive).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
Wild ocelots are gone from all U.S. states except Texas, driven out by human development. The elusive cats still roam the wilds of Central and South America, but there's little reliable data on their true numbers.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you that…
grrlscientist | January 23, 2009tags: Gopher Tortoise, Gopherus polyphemus, Joel Sartore, National Geographic, image of the day
Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus).
Image: Joel Sartore/National Geographic [larger view].
The photographer writes;
Gopher tortoises in the southeastern U.S. often end up as roadkill. Invasive fire ants and armadillos also prey on their eggs and young, while urban expansion, land conversion for pine plantations, and fire mismanagement degrade tortoise habitat, pushing these reptiles closer to the edge.
Joel Sartore has shared some of his work on this blog before, so I am thrilled to tell you…