DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 19, 2016

Technology to the Rescue

We reported the other day that some turtle species were making strong comebacks, but in Central and South America poachers take up to 90% of eggs before they hatch.  Here’s a high tech solution to the problem.

A conservation group has created 3D printed sea turtle eggs containing GPS trackers. The eggs are set to be deployed this fall in Central America during an arribada, or mass nesting event when 90 percent of eggs will be poached from certain beaches.

The 3D eggs created by Conservation group Paso Pacífico could easily pass for any of the millions of ping pong ball-size eggs laid and buried every year by endangered sea turtles on the beaches along the North and Central American coasts. The group plans to create a tracking map on the movement of eggs to help law enforcement officials and activists to crack down on the big players involved in poaching.

Kim Williams-Guillén, director of conservation science at Paso Pacífico says:

We want to sneak them into nests that are most vulnerable to poaching. It would be really easy for them to grab one of those eggs and not even notice it. We’re not planning on collecting data in real time, unless that’s something that they express real interest in. It’s certainly a possibility. Being able to determine the players with money who are really driving the trade and removing even a couple of them could have a huge effect.”

Ecosystems are Life

We reported on this a while ago, but the potential loss to Hawaii’s ecosystem due to the continuing depredation of the ‘ohi’a trees is tragic.

Hawai'i’s native forest birds are in danger of losing a keystone tree species in most of their remaining habitat as a virulent disease wipes out tens of thousands of acres of mature 'ohi'a trees.

The disease, known as rapid 'ohi'a death, is caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fimbriata. Ceratocystis is known as a tree-killer around the world, and different species of the fungus have affected oaks, coffee, cacao, and several other species. But the strain currently attacking the 'ohi'a tree is considerably more aggressive than those that have previously invaded Hawai'i.

The current infestation has so far affected 34,000 acres on Hawai'i Island—also known as the Big Island—and has killed over 100,000 'ohi'a trees. Scientists suspect many more trees are infected but haven’t yet died.

The 'ohi'a tree—also called the 'ohi'a lehua tree—has deep roots in Hawai'i’s history and culture, and plays a key role in its ecosystems. The tree and its lehua flower are precious to the Hawaiian people; even plucking the flower from the tree is taboo in accordance with Hawaiian folklore. Many consider it to be the most important tree in the state.

Africa

There is something about Africa that stirs the soul. 

Africa my Africa

Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs

Africa of whom my grandmother sings

On the banks of the distant river

I have never known you

But your blood flows in my veins

Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the fields

The blood of your sweat

The sweat of your work

The work of your slavery

Africa, tell me Africa

Is this your back that is unbent

This back that never breaks under the weight of humilation

This back trembling with red scars

And saying no to the whip under the midday sun

But a grave voice answers me

Impetuous child that tree, young and strong

That tree over there

Splendidly alone amidst white and faded flowers

That is your Africa springing up anew

springing up patiently, obstinately

Whose fruit bit by bit acquires

The bitter taste of liberty.

“You've got no right to grow here.”

Lewis Carroll would have found this to be tragic, but the dormouse is facing extinction.

There’s a small, shy and nocturnal mouse in Britain that’s in big trouble. The dormouse was made popular by Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland;” You might remember the dormouse as a guest in the The Hatter’s mad-tea party who can’t stay awake. But in real life, if humans don’t wake up to the plight of dormice, then we might lose them forever. That’s why the Sussex Wildlife Trust in Henfield is issuing an urgent appeal to save the local dormice from extinction.

Even though the IUCN Red List classifies the species as Least Concern, the British dormouse population has drastically dropped over “the past hundred years and they are now vulnerable to extinction,” reports the West Sussex County Times.

The IUCN Red List recognizes that even though the mouse is widespread across Europe and Asia Minor, there’s a “cause for concern” in parts of the mouse’s range, more specifically: the U.K., Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and Denmark.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are driving the mouse’s decline, even though they were popular in the pet trade until most countries made it illegal to keep them as pets. In the wild, the dormouse thrives in woodlands and other heavily wooded areas. But forestry, urbanization and agriculture are destroying and fragmenting ideal dormouse habitat, according to the IUCN Red List.