Monkey Business

Monkeys making tools.  What’s next, using them?  And, then before you know it they are our overlords.

Scientists saw a group of capuchin monkeys making stone flakes, an important type of early tool. It's not clear the monkeys knew what they were making, but nonetheless, it might prompt researchers to be more cautious when they come across ancient sites where similar tools are usually attributed to early humans.

You make a flake by whacking two rocks together. It has to be a kind of rock that breaks in a certain way, and you have to hit one rock on another rock to break flakes off the striking rock. The flake is shaped kind of like a scallop shell. Hold it carefully and you've got a knife.

Source: M. Haslam and the Primate Archaeology Group/University of Oxford/Nature

Save Every Patch of Ground

The battle against invasive insects and plants is being waged at one of the most beautiful botanical gardens in the world – the Cornell Plantations in New York.

John Menard

Cornell University in Ithaca, New York is home to one of the state’s largest and most prominent botanical gardens, the Cornell Plantations. Created in the mid-19th century as a part of the university’s dedication to the natural sciences, the Plantations consists of a 100-acre arboretum, 25 acres of gardens, and over 4,000 acres of nature preserves.

Unfortunately, an influx of invasive species has put many of the Plantations’ over 40 natural areas in jeopardy. Newly introduced non-indigenous species can compete with and consume native plants and animals, dramatically reducing biodiversity in the Plantations. Invasive insects are especially dangerous, as their consumption of native plants could potentially lead to the extinction of trees and flowers that have been housed at the Plantations for over a century.

Conservation vs Slaughter - The US Election

Hillary Clinton has been in awe of elephants since a trip to Africa nearly 20 years ago.  As Secretary of State she pushed an aggressive conservation agenda for the Obama Administration and implemented an $80 million anti-poaching program through the Clinton Global Initiative.  She is committed to wildlife conservation.

“I love the way…the matriarch of the family looks for everybody, I just have such a sense of connection to elephants and it just breaks my heart that they are being poached and murdered and babies being left to fend for themselves,” Clinton said on a portion of the show that only aired on Facebook.

Clinton’s affinity for elephants is not widely known or reported. But during her tenure as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, she helped bring the issue of global wildlife trafficking out of obscurity.

“International criminal syndicates are orchestrating the slaughter of many of the world’s iconic wildlife species and profiteering by marketing ivory, rhinoceros horn, and other wildlife parts in the U.S., Asia, and Europe,” said Jorge Silva, a spokesperson for the Clinton Campaign. “Many of the criminal syndicates have ties with, and are helping to fund, terrorist groups around the world, and also are engaged in human, drug, and arms trafficking.”

When asked for input regarding Donald Trump position on elephant conservation The Guardian got no response.  Of course, you could infer the Trump position on conservation from this photo of his namesake son, taken just after Trump Junior had shot and killed an elephant. 

 The Trump campaign did not respond to repeated requests for its position on elephant conservation or the global wildlife trade, but its website mentions neither. This is not surprising given the website lists very few positions regarding any environmental issues, including making no mention of climate change – although Donald Trump has claimed that climate change was a hoax invented by the Chinese.

In 2012, media leaked photos of Donald Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, taken during a big game hunt safari in Zimbabwe. In one image, Donald Trump Jr. stands next to an elephant he shot to death and holds up its severed tail. Cutting off an elephant’s tail is traditional in some African cultures where the hair is made into a bracelet.

Huggin and Freki

The sense of wonder that the wild world provides us makes up for many things that are missing in the modern, technically oriented world.  Below is a bit excerpted from a one-off blog that both discusses the relationship of wolves and ravens in nature and in the symbolic representations of those animals by humans in mythology and religion.   Read the whole post, it is worth the time.

Some zoologists speculate that the raven's relationship with wolves may be because of their psychological make-up. Dr. L. David Mech wrote in "The Wolf: The Ecology and Behaviour of an Endangered Species": "It appears that the wolf and the raven have reached an adjustment in their relationships such that each creature is rewarded in some way by the presence of the other and that each is fully aware of the other's capabilities. Both species are extremely social, so they must possess the psychological mechanisms necessary for forming social attachments. Perhaps in some way individuals of each species have included members of the other in their social group and have formed bonds with them."

Wolves and ravens have long been connected in folklore and fact. The Nordic God Odin is often represented sitting on his throne, flanked by his two wolves Geri and Freki and two ravens Huggin and Munin. Tales of hunting interaction involving wolves, ravens and humans figure prominently in the storytelling of Tlingit and Inuit, Native American tribes of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, with the ravens appearing as form-changing wise guys and tricksters, taking advantage of both humans and wolves.

h/t  Avicultural Society of America San Diego

Send in the Drones

Drones are becoming a “go-to” tool for conservationists.  Cheaper and much more flexible than fixed wing aircraft or helicopters, drones are being used to counter poachers and for field observation.

Thanks to drones, researchers are helping the southern right whale make a comeback while keeping an eye on the effects of climate change.  Researchers from Murdoch University, supported by WWF Australia, are monitoring the whales as they breed in the Great Australian Bight in the country's south.

Fredrik Christiansen, a researcher at Murdoch University, told Mashable southern right whale populations are recovering, albeit slowly. In Australia, they are thought to number only around 3,500.

When the whales visit Australia, they typically breed and aggregate along the south coast of the country from late May to late October. That gives scientists the opportunity to use drones to monitor their health.

Ultimately, the team hope to discover how climate change will affect the whales. For example, how krill production in their Antarctic feeding ground — the abundance of which will likely be impacted by the rise in sea temperature and receding sea ice — will affect their condition once they arrive in Australia.

TripAdvisor Says No

TripAdvisor will no longer book travel to destinations that encourage direct human contact with wild or endangered animals.

The world’s largest travel website has banned destinations which encourage contact with wild or endangered animals. The company is also implementing an educational portal with information on animal welfare practices and advice and opinion from conservation charities. It’s a laudable step, but it’s still not enough to counter the cruel and exploitative practices encouraged by the tourism business.

We see it all the time. Your friends on Facebook riding an elephant in Thailand. That guy swimming and touching dolphins. The tiger petting “sanctuaries.” People love to be in contact with wild animals, and tourism businesses want to capitalize on that. The human-wild animal interaction has never been so readily available – all you have to do is pay up, and you can do it. Whether it’s petting tigers, riding elephants or whatever, you can do it for the right price. Naturally, this isn’t helping anyone.

Conservationists and biologists have long campaigned against this type of interactions, due to the stress and potential damage it has on the animals. This also leads to the creation of many so-called sanctuaries, which in fact are just places where animals are kept in miserable conditions solely for the purpose of making money. Is that what you would want in your vacation? TripAdvisor says no.

Birds Got Rhythm

Where did the harmony and composition skill of birds come from, and did we learn about music from them?

Perching birds are like nature’s choir, raising their voice to the tune of life, along with the clicks of crickets, the howl of wolves, the choirs of fish. But there’s more to a bird’s chirps and whistles than meets the eye. Some species of birds push the envelope and literally act musically. For instance, the pied butcherbird’s tuneful behaviour rivals that of professional human musicians, a new paper concludes.

According to the researchers, the more complex a bird’s repertoire, the better it is at singing in time, rhythmically interacting with other birds more skillfully than those birds who only knew a few songs. The most skillful birds extensively play around with their tunes, balancing repetition and variation. It’s not all that different from a jazz musician, said Constance Scharff, a co-author who directs the animal behavior laboratory at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Why Destroy Lions for Bones?

The destruction of wildlife for lion bones.  The lions were the target, but the other animals that ended up being poisoned were just collateral damage. 

The ongoing Asian demand for lion bones has led to an horrific wildlife poisoning in the Limpopo National Park, just over the Mozambican border from Kruger Park.

A mere two kilometres from the Machampane tourist camp, a research team came across the carcases of two nyala, a warthog and an impala laced with what they describe as a black granular poison. Lying nearby were two lions, 51 vultures, three fish eagles, a yellow-billed kite and a giant eagle owl. There was evidence of a leopard but its body was not found.

The lions had been dismembered, their bones removed, and 22 vultures had been decapitated, their heads presumably to be used for muti. Snares had also been set around the poisoned carcases. The team from the Limpopo Transfrontier Predator Project burned all the poisoned carcasses.

The Limpopo research team found the two lions had been carried 200 metres away from the epicenter of the poisoning onto a nearby ridge and butchered. The skins, a portion of the abdomens with significant layer of fat and the intestines were left.

The two male lions were both estimated to be about two years old. All their bones had been removed and meat had been cut into strips, dried and mostly removed.

Can Conserving Water Slow Global Warming

California is a global leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.  The state is now studying the impact of reductions in the use of water in reducingthe load on the state’s power grid.

When most of us think of slowing global warming, we think of reducing car exhaust and power plant emissions – limiting activities that involve combusting fossil fuels. But we rarely draw the connection between the production of energy and another important resource: water.

Yet in California, 20% of the state’s electricity and 30% of the natural gas that isn’t used by power plants goes to the water system – from pumping it for delivery to disposing of wastewater. Could saving water play a significant role in addressing climate change? And, if so, could we achieve these savings without incurring significant costs?

Our analysis showed that the quantity of electricity saved statewide through reducing urban water use by 25% in 2015 was roughly equivalent to all of the electricity saved by all of the energy efficiency programs from the state’s four major investor-owned energy utilities in 2015. The conclusion: energy savings from water conservation are significant.

The Worm Has Turned

Graphene is pretty remarkable stuff.  It has existed in theory since the 1940s, but it wasn’t until 2004 that scientist at the University of Manchester were able to grow graphene crystals (a discovery that resulted in a Nobel Prize by the way).  So the potential was demonstrated for an atom thin strand of super strength material that is transparent and conducts electricity.   How do you mass produce strands of such exotic material?  Let’s try silk worms. 

Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing sparked international interest recently with what may become one of the first large-scale applications of graphene.

Chemist Yingying Zhang and her colleagues fed the tremendously strong yet flexible, carbon allotrope to silkworms by dissolving it in water, then spraying the solution (0.2 percent graphene by weight) on mulberry leaves. The experiment yielded a silk that is twice as tough as ordinary silk and can cope with 50 percent more stress. It also conducts electricity, meaning it could be used to produce wearable electronics.

The double-strength silk is one of the first signs of the graphene revolution that scientists have been hoping for. They say that graphene may someday be used in everything from water purification to energy storage and lightweight planes.

Book Report - Citizen Scientist: Searching for Heroes and Hope in an Age of Extinction

Mary Ellen Hannibal’s book is a testimonial to the power of individuals to help expand our knowledge of the natural world.   A notebook and an accurate weather report can turn into a 45-year study in how plants adapt to global warming, and that can help determine ways to help hummingbirds survive.  Figuring out how lilac trees know when to bud in spring and how that decision is made, might help forests survive.  It’s the little things that add up and individuals can make huge contributions.  Buy the book.

Science is built from observations, and for a subject as vast as global climate, there is no way for any one researcher — or team — to gather all the information alone. More and more, researchers are inviting all of us, as citizen scientists, to help collect the data that will truly save the world.

“I want to know what the lilacs know!” Toby Ault, a Cornell University climatologist told me. Lilac trees have been around for a very long time. One hundred and twenty thousand years ago, they persisted through a major shift in the climate spectrum.

Another scientist making important contributions in the field is David Inouye…  For more than 45 summers Inouye has conducted a field study in flowering phenology at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Crested Butte, Colorado. Although initially focused on bumblebees and hummingbirds, Inouye soon got interested “in the resources,” or the flowers on which the insects and birds depend. When his study began, Inouye had no idea that with time his work would become among the most important in documenting long term ecological change due to shifting weather patterns.

Bees Are Doing Fine – Or Are They

The Washington Post tells us, despite all you might hear, that bees are doing just fine.  Of course the Post is telling us the good news related to commercial honey-producing bee colonies.  Colonies that are intensively and, expensively, managed by humans for profit.

The bees you're more familiar with — the ones that buzz around your yard dipping into flowers, making honey, pollinating crops and generally keeping the world's food supply from collapsing? Those bees are doing just fine, according to data released by the USDA this year.

In 2015, there were 2.66 million commercial honey-producing bee colonies in the United States. That's down slightly from the 2.74 million colonies in 2014, which represented a two-decade high. The number of commercial bee colonies is still significantly higher than it was in 2006, when colony collapse disorder — the mass die-offs that began afflicting U.S. honeybee colonies — was first documented.

On the other hand, wild bees, the ones that do the busy work in forests and grasslands, those bees might be having a bit tougher time.

Of course, the discussion above concerns  only commercial bees that are managed by humans and businesses. Wild bees — whether they're honeybees or one of our 4,000 other native bee species — face different difficulties. If those species suffer die-offs, there's nobody around to breed new queens and help them recover. Wild bees are on their own.

Recent research has shown that the use of certain insecticides called neonicotinoids has been linked to declines in wild bee populations. But assessing the true magnitude of the effect is difficult, because it's a lot harder to survey wild bee populations than domesticated ones.

“Artisanal Mining” for Cobalt

Companies like Apple could make life better for the families that mine the cobalt.  Want to make a bet on how much effort Apple will put into that?   Is your smart phone worth this?

The world’s soaring demand for cobalt is at times met by workers, including children, who labor in harsh and dangerous conditions. An estimated 100,000 cobalt miners in Congo use hand tools to dig hundreds of feet underground with little oversight and few safety measures, according to workers, government officials and evidence found by The Washington Post during visits to remote mines. Deaths and injuries are common. And the mining activity exposes local communities to levels of toxic metals that appear to be linked to ailments that include breathing problems and birth defects, health officials say.

The Post traced this cobalt pipeline and, for the first time, showed how cobalt mined in these harsh conditions ends up in popular consumer products. It moves from small-scale Congolese mines to a single Chinese company — Congo DongFang International Mining, part of one of the world’s biggest cobalt producers, Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt — that for years has supplied some of the world’s largest battery makers. They, in turn, have produced the batteries found inside products such as Apple’s iPhones — a finding that calls into question corporate assertions that they are capable of monitoring their supply chains for human rights abuses or child labor.

Dig into this story and you will find greedy multi-national corporations and shady Chinese companies working together to insure their own profits no matter the human or environmental costs.

Sir David Attenborough Presents Planet Earth II

Planet Earth II will be broadcast on BBC America in the winter of 2017.

Planet Earth is back! Lion attacks, monkey thieves and giant dragons star in first trailer for the return of Sir David Attenborough's stunning series.  A decade after the first Planet Earth series was filmed, Sir David has given a first glimpse of the second season of the hit series - and it looks every bit as stunning as the first.

Filmed over three years across the globe with all the very latest technology, the series uncovers stories about the natural world we have simply never been able to witness before.

Fox Has Done Its Work

The divide between Democrats and Republicans regarding climate change is profound.  The work of the right wing think tanks, their media megaphone and, of course, their corporate pay masters has created enormous head winds against meaningful action in the U.S.

What’s clear is that U.S. policies on addressing climate change could go two very different ways, depending on what happens November 8. If Clinton is elected, she will likely use the various regulatory actions mentioned in Pew’s analysis to try to curtail greenhouse gas emissions and thereby lessen the effects of climate change. If Trump is elected, climate change denier Myron Ebell will lead the Environmental Protection Agency’s transition team, and perhaps global warming will just magically disappear altogether. Or not.

Extinction Watch

Uganda will have to change its flag once the gray crowned crane is driven to extinction.

Commonly called the crested crane, it is a bird of national significance to Uganda, occupying a prime position on the country's national flag and coat of arms. Yet despite its serenity, beauty and popularity, the crested crane is facing the threat of extinction.

Once widespread, only about 10,000 to 20,000 gray crowned cranes are left in Uganda, compared with an estimated 100,000 four decades ago, according to statistics from Nature Uganda and the Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife.

Conservationists say habitat loss has had a particularly negative impact on crane numbers over the years because a number of seasonal wetlands and swamps where the birds nest and breed have been converted into agricultural land or used for other development projects.

"This unfortunately brings them in conflict with farmers for actual and perceived damage caused to crops," said Mr Mafabi, adding, "The cranes' nesting manner is unique because they often return to the same spot year after year. Any threat or destruction to such a habitat means the chances of breeding are also reduced."

New Study Linking Climate Change and Forest Fires

More climate change propaganda from the National Academy of Sciences.  I’ll bet there isn’t a single Exxon/Koch sponsored researcher in the whole place.  If you live in the west, or Canada, or Australia, or Spain…you might want to consider the impact of a warming planet on the local forests.  You can bet the energy companies won’t give it a second thought.

"No matter how hard we try, the fires are going to keep getting bigger, and the reason is really clear," said study coauthor Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. "Climate is really running the show in terms of what burns. We should be getting ready for bigger fire years than those familiar to previous generations."

Mike Daniels

Fires in western forests began increasing abruptly in the 1980s, as measured by area burned, the number of large fires, and length of the fire season. The increases have continued, and recently scientists and public officials have in part blamed human-influenced climate change. The new study is perhaps the first to quantify that assertion. "A lot of people are throwing around the words climate change and fire—specifically, last year fire chiefs and the governor of California started calling this the 'new normal,' " said lead author John Abatzoglou, a professor of geography at the University of Idaho. "We wanted to put some numbers on it."

Coal-Fired Power Plants

If we don’t stop building coal-fired power plants, the planet will blow through the Paris agreed CO2 targets.  That will not end well.  Smart infrastructure development is critical.

Slowing down construction of coal-fired power stations will be vital to hit globally agreed climate change goals, the World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim, said as he outlined a five-point plan to flesh out last year’s Paris agreement to reduce CO2 emissions.

Speaking at a climate ministerial meeting in Washington during the bank’s annual meeting, he said there was no prospect of keeping global warming at or below 2C (3.6F) if current plans for coal-fired stations, especially those earmarked for Asia, were built. “Many countries want to move in the right direction. We can and should all help to find renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions that allow them to phase out coal,” Kim said.

Figures Don't Lie, But Liars Do Figures

The cost of renewable energy continues to drop, but apparently some in the media can’t figure out how graphs work.  Renewable costs have not flattened out, they continue to decline.

Costs declines have flattened - Is that true?

Last week I wrote a post on this remarkable graph from the Department of Energy (DOE), which I deemed the chart of the year — clear evidence of the rapid cost declines driving the ongoing clean energy revolution.

Now you might think that anyone looking at this chart would see the incredible story it tells, especially since it comes from the newly-released update of a DOE report titled, “Revolution…Now: The Future Arrives for Five Clean Energy Technologies.”

In fact, as Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and others have been explaining to the media and public for quite some time, these price drops are projected to continue since they represent a learning curve, whereby more deployment leads to more price drops.

Oh wait.  Costs are actually continuing to drop.

Farmed Salmon – Popular, but is it Healthy

Lots easier to catch a fish if it’s in a cage.  Unfortunately, farmed salmon isn’t as healthy nor is it as good for you compared to wild salmon.  Although the real danger created by farmed fish is what escaped farm salmon can do to the wild population.

Salmon farming is only about four decades old, but it is the fastest-growing food production system in the world according to WWF. Globally, about 3.5 million tons are caught or raised each year, and salmon accounts for 17 percent of the global seafood trade. About 70 percent of the world's salmon production is farmed.

Farm-raised and wild caught salmon contain the same amount of cholesterol, but wild salmon have half the fat of farmed in a typical half-filet serving. Farmed fish also deliver three times the saturated fat as wild. But to feed a growing global population and provide the omega-3s they need, wild fisheries may not be up to the job.

Crowded conditions in the pens used for raising salmon provide an ideal breeding ground for sea lice, which are now invading wild Alaskan salmon populations. Sea lice can be lethal to juvenile pink and chum salmon. In farms in some parts of the world, a pesticide is used to combat sea lice that is toxic to marine life and banned by both the European Union and U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Let’s Steal Some Orcas, Dolphins and Penguins

Let’s Steal Some Orcas, Dolphins and Penguins

When the Blackfish yahoos did irreparable damage to Sea World, they did a victory lab or two.  Guess what?  The Chinese are stripping ocean wildlife wherever they can find it, whether they have to violate sovereign national waters or not.  Where’s the Blackfish posse now?

Update on possible captures of dolphins from Namibian waters - this is the ship that would be involved in holding the animals

Thank you to everyone who has so far supported our campaign to stop the capture of dolphins from Namibian waters for the Asia aquarium trade. This planned capture would not to be limited to dolphins but would also include African penguins and seals as well as whales migrating along the African coast. Dr Moses Maurihungirire, the ministry’s permanent secretary recently confirmed that his office has been inundated with emails and that Bernhard Esau , the Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources will announce his final decision in two weeks upon his return.

There are concerns that even in the event that the ministry denies the application, the ship’s operators may still proceed and illegally capture animals. In view of these concerns the Ministry has instructed fisheries inspectors to monitor the vessel closely. Watching wildlife such as dolphins in their natural habitat attracts millions of visitors globally per year and we have urged Namibia to embrace and promote responsible wildlife watching rather than consider the capture of wild stocks from their coastal waters for export.

Great Photos

Check out this site.  Not every wildlife photo displays majesty or grace.  Animals have bad days, too.

"You talking to me?"

"Just want to hide my head."

"This makes me feel taller."

Good News – Maybe?

The REDD+ process might just be making a difference in Peru.  Over half of the territory of Peru is the Amazon rainforest – 10% of the total rainforest that is called the “lungs of the world.”  Conservation there is critical.

Peru is home to around one tenth of the Amazon rainforest, the second largest block after Brazil. It’s also the best carbon mapped nation in the world thanks to the work of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory which found that Peru’s forests’ store more carbon than the United States emitted in 2014.

Sixty percent of Peruvian territory is Amazon rainforest, around 73 million hectares of jungle. It has the ideal conditions to implement programs for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, known as REDD+ and benefit from the carbon market, say scientists. REDD+ creates financial value for the carbon stored in forests and compensates developing countries who meet targets in reducing carbon emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.

Yes, deforestation is down, but the pressure to cut down the rainforest persists.

Fabiola Munoz said tougher new laws and enforcement, including fines 700 percent higher and jail time for people who destroy primary forest, are helping Peru rein in deforestation.

"People really used to think there would be no consequences," Munoz told foreign media. "That's changed."

Environmentalists have criticized Peru for not doing enough to keep wood and gold from being torn illegally from its forests for export, and for allowing local authorities to dole out agricultural concessions that include swaths of virgin rainforest.

Munoz said the government has ordered oil palm plantations in Peru owned by United Cacao Limited SEZC to halt activities after finding they had illegally cleared primary forest in previous years.

But efforts to evict workers from the land have been met with threats, Munoz said.

"We're still fighting that battle," Munoz said. "We hope the courts understand the importance of these emblematic cases...of sending the right message."

A large Indonesian palm oil company interested in operating in Peru recently requested a meeting with Munoz and other public officials to discuss possible investments, Munoz said.

Urban Birds of Prey

Cool event in New York featuring Big Apple birds of prey.

"We are educating the public about the benefits of birds of prey," Richard Simon, a director and ranger, said.

The festival was first held in Central Park and later moved to Prospect Park. Last year was supposed to be its first time in Queens, but threats of Hurricane Joaquin rained out those plans.

Skyhunters in Flight, which rehabilitates birds of prey, will also host two live shows featuring falcons, hawks or any of the other birds they help get back into the wild.

Noted wildlife rescuer Bobby Horvath, who runs Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation (WINORR), will have tables featuring some of the birds he's rehabilitating from injury or illness.

Birds of prey can be found all across the city, Simon said, and the Parks Department keeps track of them through its Urban Park Rangers.

Manhattan has the highest concentration of birds, perhaps due to the availability of food and number of tall buildings, he said.

Birds live in parks, forests, and college campuses — like the family of protective hawks at St. John's University that attacked people who got too close to an njured baby this summer.

Red Wolf Controversy

Battles between the Fish and Wildlife Service and conservationists put red wolf recovery at risk.

For millennia, wild red wolves roamed across much of the American southeast. But in 1980, after centuries of overhunting and habitat loss due to human development, the wolves were declared extinct in the wild. Since then, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has worked to reintroduce the endangered creatures to their old tromping grounds, starting in North Carolina. But recent clashes with conservationists over the program’s future has landed the government agency in court with no clear resolution at the moment.

The problems with reintroducing red wolves goes back to 1987, when the FWS began moving those born in captivity back into the wild. But while government officials set aside ranges for the wolves in the middle of North Carolina, wild animals don’t often abide by lines drawn on a map.

There Be Monsters

Artwork using iconic movie monsters to illustrate environmental issues.

The exhibition, Here There Be Monsters, takes its title from ancient maps. During the Middle Ages, cartographers imprinted words of warning on unexplored areas of the map, like "Here there be monsters; dragons be here." The title also refers to the exhibition's juxtaposition of classic Hollywood monster movie characters with current environmental issues.

"Iconic movie monsters, who were often the by-products of corporate greed and human egotism manipulating nature to spawn our own annihilation, are used to present the consequences of pollution, climate change, genetic engineering, for-profit destruction of animal habitats and extinctions," the artists explain in a catalog for the event. "We are mutating into the monsters devouring our world."

Dogs are Awesome

Dogs helping critically injured and ill veterans.  

Christopher Baity always wanted to work with animals.

His parents bred and trained dogs when he was growing up. He thought maybe he’d become a veterinarian. But eventually, Baity found his niche as a dog handler for the U.S. Marine Corps. He worked with drug dogs and bomb dogs during deployments to Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan in the early 2000s.

When he came home in 2009, Baity said he couldn’t imagine finding different work. He had spent his life with dogs. So, he improvised.

A few years ago, Baity had the idea to start an organization that pairs trained service dogs with injured or critically ill veterans.

“There was a huge need,” said Baity, founder and executive director of Semper K9 Assistance Dogs, in an interview with The Huffington Post. “I saw the benefit that service dogs could provide.”

Then Baity met Russell Walters, a veteran who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. He worked with Walters for over six months before he felt both Buster and his new owner were ready for the transition.

The long hours and hard work paid off the night Baity watched the pair go home together.

“To see the look on his face, it’s almost like you could see a change — an instant change,” Baity said of Walters. “It felt like I was on springs. It was miraculous, I don’t know how else to describe it.”

Hiding in the Bathroom

A Florida zoo has posted pictures of its animals taking refuge where possible.

Amid the chaos, confusion and fear of Hurricane Matthew, one Florida zoo is warming hearts with an adorable picture of a stork finding shelter in its bathroom.

The St Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park shared the precious photo on Facebook of the marabou stork hiding out from the storm on Thursday night.

'No species discrimination in this bathroom!' the zoo joked in the caption of the photo, which has already been liked nearly 2,000 times.

The zoo spent two days preparing for Matthew, making sure every one of its animals was safely indoors before the weekend storm.

Glowing Polish Bike Path

Cool use of technology in the construction of a bike path in Poland.

Poland—home to some of the most bike-friendly cities in the world—unveiled a gorgeous, glowing bike path near Lidzbark Warminski in the Mazury region last week to help nighttime cyclists get from A to B.

The 100-meter track, created by construction company TPA Instytut Badan Technicznych in Pruszkow, is still in test phase.

Next Nature Network reported that the bike path illuminates at night thanks to blue luminophores, a synthetic material that emits light after being charged by the sun. The color blue was chosen for the path because the engineers thought it would best suit the scenic Mazury landscape.

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Disappearing Villages in Ghana

If only we had evidence of the impact of global warming driven climate change.  I mean more evidence than massive droughts, melting glaciers, disappearing sea ice, sinking island nations.  Well, these photos won’t convince the deniers, but the impact of climate change on real humans is heartbreaking.

The fishing village of Totope is disappearing as the rising sea and worsening coastal erosion bury buildings in sand. The villagers say they were once three miles from the sea. Here women sweep sand towards the sea in a forlorn attempt to prevent their homes from being buried completely.

Nyani Quarmyne/Panos Pictures

Oil and Food – Perfect Mix

So let’s see how much of our food is in jeopardy.  Fracking wastewater and crop irrigation.  What could go wrong?

99 percent of artichokes, 99 percent of walnuts, 97 percent of kiwis, 97 percent of plums, 95 percent of celery, 95 percent of garlic, 89 percent of cauliflower, 71 percent of spinach, and 69 percent of carrots.

A new report by researchers at PSE Healthy Energy, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and the University of the Pacific sheds light on a very troubling practice in the field of Big Ag — the use of oil industry wastewater for irrigating food crops.

Would you water your garden with the wastewater from an oil field? No. So why does California allow this practice in industrial agriculture?

“This disturbing scientific report identifies dozens of hazardous chemicals used in oilfields supplying waste fluid to water California food crops and recharge drinking water aquifers. People in the Central Valley could be drinking these oil industry chemicals right now, and current water-testing procedures wouldn’t detect these dangerous substances. Given these shocking findings, California regulators should immediately halt the use of oil-waste fluid in any procedure that could contaminate the water we drink or the food we eat,” said John Fleming, a staff scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

The Genius of Dogs

OK…Some will suggest that this dog has its head stuck in a drain hose, but they would be wrong.  This dog is utilizing a time travel device.  Trust me.  Look at the tail – something good is happening here.

Let’s Continue to Destroy Montana

Montana has been owned by the mining interests for over a century.  It looks like they are working to extend that ownership for another century.  Sadly, Montana Republicans and a Canadian mining company have turned to an idiotic climate change denier for help.

What do members of a sovereign citizen-style shadow government group, rank and file Republicans and a mining company all have in common?

Well, if they’re in Montana, then they’re all supporters of a speaking tour by British climate science denier Lord Christopher Monckton.

The hereditary peer has long held the debunked views that human-caused climate change is largely a scam and that the science is enabling the likes of the United Nations to put in place an all powerful world government.

Monckton has no science qualifications and his proclamations on climate science have been repeatedly ridiculed and dismissed by genuine climate scientists.

One of Monckton’s first appearances was at the Fall meeting of the Gallatin County Republicans.

Is it surprising that America is now more polarized on climate change policy than ever before, when GOP groups continue to listen to non-experts like Monckton?

More concerning perhaps, is that Monckton will also be sharing his non-expertise on global warming with students of Montana Tech on 6 October.

When some at the prestigious University College London realized that Monckton’s “science conference” had reserved one of its rooms for the gathering, they cancelled the booking.

Perhaps Montana Tech is not quite so discerning?

You can see an example of the consequences of unconstrained mining operations on Montana here.

Map of the Internet

This incredible tool that we are using to communicate is a marvel, but how does it work – and why?

The internet is physical. Aside from smartphones and wireless routers, most of us are confronted with few daily reminders of that truth. Much like highways and tunnels, the internet is a vast global infrastructure made up of wires, cables, and machines. But what does it look like? And how does it work?

The Future Starts Now

We need a critical reordering of infrastructure investments immediately.  Smart, energy efficient and carbon neutral projects are critical if we expect to slow global warming.

A gigantic overhaul of the world’s buildings, public transport and energy infrastructure costing trillions of dollars is required if dangerous climate change is to be avoided, according to a major new report.

The study by the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, which is co-chaired by prominent climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern, found that the world is expected to invest about $90tn in infrastructure over the next 15 years, requiring an “urgent” shift to ensure that this money is spent on low-carbon, energy-efficient projects. Such smart investment over the next two or three years could help ameliorate the climate crisis, but “the window for making the right choices is narrow and closing fast”.

1,500 coal plants in construction in a world that needs renewable energy sources, not more pollution.  These are the investments that need to be reprioritized if we are to dodge the climate change bullet.

Around 1,500 coal plants are estimated to already be in construction worldwide, which would send the world spiraling towards disastrous environmental changes. Carbon-heavy infrastructure “literally kills people by causing deadly respiratory illnesses, exacerbating road accidents and spreading unclean drinking water, among other hazards”, the report reads.

“It also puts pressure on land and natural resources, creating unsustainable burdens for future generations such as unproductive soils and runaway climate change.”

Stern said the next few years will be “critical” to the future of sustainable development and the battle to ensure civilization isn’t ravaged by heatwaves, extreme weather, sea level rise and other risks.

Apes Are Smarter Than Trump Voters

Apes can apparently understand “that someone else may have false beliefs.”  They would go crazy at a Trump rally.  Once again we see that other species have the capacity for levels of understanding that we once only attributed to humans.  

An international study found that chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans seem to have this ability, even when they know that point of view is dead wrong. It’s called theory of mind, or the ability to know that others have different beliefs and perspectives.

"Apes have some understanding of others’ actions and can predict others’ actions even when those individual are acting on misinformation,” said Krupinye, who conducted psychological research at Duke University and is now at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. “This kind of skill is central to a lot of sophisticated human behavior that we use in cooperative context and culture and communications.”

We Need More Enforcement – Fewer Bureaucrats

Here’s a video taken at the Faraday Muthi market, in Selby, Johannesburg, South Africa.  The video was shot at the same time as the 17th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference was going on in the same city.  If a reasonably strong African nation such as South Africa won’t enforce its own and international laws regarding illegal wildlife trade, what hope is there that the trade will be stopped?

Yet at this Joburg market, a rather well-known muthi market in fact, the video clearly shows rampant trade in illegal wildlife products, most of which have very specific restrictions attached to trade, if any is even allowed.

The person who took the video and shared it with Blood Lions wishes to remain anonymous, but confirmed the video’s authenticity to Traveller24 and that it was taken on Monday 3 October, saying it was “alarming to see so many leopard skins available”.

In January this year the Department of Environmental Affairs set provincial leopard trophy hunting quotas at zero for 2016, effectively banning leopard trophy hunting throughout South Africa for a year.

This calls into question the origin of these products, which include Pangolin skin, just moved up to CITES Appendix I as critically endangered. Other illegal products include lion skins and bone as well as endangered vulture species.