Tag Archives: Endangered Species

Status and trends.

Numbers dwindle at Mexico’s mountain of butterflies

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“The number of Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) wintering in Mexico plunged this year to its lowest level since studies began in 1993, leading experts to announce Wednesday that the insects’ annual migration from the United States and Canada is in danger of disappearing.

“A study released by the World Wildlife Fund, Mexico’s Environment Department and the Natural Protected Areas Commission blames the displacement of the milkweed the species feeds on by genetically modified crops and urban sprawl in the United States, as well as the dramatic reduction of the butterflies’ habitat in Mexico due to illegal logging of the trees they depend on for shelter.”  From: www.theguardian.com

GR:  This Guardian story is worth repeating. It covers the situation very well. It highlights the conservation failure of NAFTA and the disastrous consequences of Monsanto’s war on wildlife. Of course, the Monarch, like the Honey Bees, is just one of the many species being destroyed by pesticides and destructive harvest of the natural environment.

NASA: Worst of El Nino Still to Come. With Climate Change in the Mix, 2015-2016 Event May Equal Most Devastating On Record

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GR:  Perhaps a year of extremes will help bring more people to their senses. Human population pressure (building, farming, logging, grazing, poisoning) has eliminated half of Earth’s accumulated genetic marvels. With population pressure continuing, and with human-caused climate change creating relatively sudden habitat changes, many more of our fellow creatures will surely be lost. Some of the finest minds I’ve encountered have fought for climate prudence. So far, they have failed to slow the change. I’m hopeful that this year’s weather will lend them a hand. Human activities are battering our ecosystems. Harsh weather will be harmful too, but worth it if it wakes up a few more of our too gullible citizens. [So it has to be “like” for me.]

robertscribbler's avatarrobertscribbler

Like and not like.

When we look at the 2015-2016 El Nino and compare it with the 1997-1998 monster we find both similarities and differences.

First the differences. The 2015-2016 El Nino is firing off in a global atmosphere that is on the order of 0.25 C hotter than 1997-1998. It’s an event that’s spring-boarding off an unprecedented hot blob of water in the Northeastern Pacific. One that some studies have linked to human-forced climate change and that has been associated with a plethora of ills ranging from failing ocean health, to the California drought, to strange and troubling warm air and water invasions entering the Arctic. It’s an event that’s occurring in the context of yet another extreme warm air invasion of the Arctic now ongoing in the North Atlantic. And, likely, it’s an event that has, overall, been torqued and twisted by the ongoing pressure of atmospheric…

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Decision to declare lions endangered comes just months after the death of ‘Cecil the Lion’

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GR:  American trophy hunters just aren’t rich enough to stop this move. In other instances, it is clear that protecting economic interests is more important to the Fish and Wildlife Service than protecting wildlife (e.g., the Greater Sage Grouse: http://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse/status.php). That’s the way it is in America. Government agencies that actively harm the wildlife or ecosystems in their care are just one more consequence of a government controlled by money.

Exposing the Big Game's avatarExposing the Big Game

Theo-Bronkhorst-Cecil-lion-Zimbabwe2

“If hunting is part of a conservation strategy, then it’s part of a failing strategy,” said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on a conference call for journalists. The rule is “not reacting to Cecil specifically or any other incident specific, but rather an overwhelming body of science that says that lions are threatened.”

Hefty fees paid in the by hunters of big game like lions ostensibly help fund conservation efforts. But some wildlife experts question whether the policies have been effective as implemented. Lion populations have declined by 43% during the last 20 years, according to the FWS.

The endangered listing comes along with a number of new policies, including new permit requirements for hunters hoping to import trophies from lion hunts. The agency said it will only issue permits in accordance with science on how best to conserve lion species. The rules…

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A call to UN/UNESCO to establish “World Heritage Species” program

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“Lions are not protected! We can change this.

“Join the petition that calls on the United Nations to establish a World Heritage Species program.

“Imagine the world with no more lions – a world where they are just a memory. It is hard to imagine, but this is the direction we are heading. The number of lions in the world has declined so dramatically that they are at a critical point of survival. Immediate action is required. And the involvement of the world’s governing body is now a necessity.”  www.change.org

GR:  Large animals are critically important for balanced ecosystems. If we want to have any hope of repairing Earth’s natural systems, we have to protect our wildlife.

Decline of Tropical Animals Could Hasten Climate Change

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“Hunting and poaching threatens 19 percent of all tropical forest vertebrates, with large vertebrates, including frugivores, disproportionately favored by hunters, the study says. As the frugivore population declines — a process called “defaunation” — fewer seeds of carbon-dense trees are spread throughout the forest, study co-author Mauro Galetti, a Sao Paulo State University ecologist, said.

“The result is a new forest dominated by smaller trees with milder woods which stock less carbon,” study lead author Carolina Bello, a Sao Paulo State University PhD student, said in a statement.”  From: www.climatecentral.org

GR:  It seems common sense that wildlife loss injures ecosystems and that impaired ecosystems sequester less carbon.  It also seems common sense that defaunation is a lawless species’ evil act as horrendous as genocide.

Decline in over three-quarters of UK butterfly species is ‘final warning’, says Chris Packham

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“More than three-quarters of Britain’s 59 butterfly species have declined over the last 40 years, with particularly dramatic declines for once common farmland species such as the Essex Skipper and small heath, according to the most authoritative annual survey of population trends.

“But although common species continue to vanish from our countryside, the decline of some rarer species appears to have been arrested by last ditch conservation efforts.

“This is the final warning bell,” said Chris Packham, Butterfly Conservation vice-president, calling for urgent research to identify the causes for the disappearance of butterflies from ordinary farmland. “If butterflies are going down like this, what’s happening to our grasshoppers, our beetles, our solitary bees? If butterflies are in trouble, rest assured everything else is.”  From: www.theguardian.com

GR:  Coldwater Farm butterflies have declined over the past few years.  This year was the worst with many of my butterfly/bee flowers going untended. Perhaps butterfly numbers will rebound in 2016, but knowing nothing of the specific causes of the decline, I have no assurance they will.

Butterflies Decline at Coldwater Farm

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Butterfly Decline in Arizona

Coldwater Farm butterflies have declined over the past few years.  This year (2015) was the worst with many of my butterfly/bee flowers going untended. For instance, Mourning Cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa) were present only in late spring and early summer. In earlier years, the Mourning Cloaks were so abundant that I had nominated they to represent the Agua Fria River ecosystem. Perhaps butterfly numbers will rebound in 2016, but knowing nothing of the specific causes of the decline, I have no assurance they will. Click here for a checklist of the butterfly and moth species known to live in Arizona. Here are pictures of a few of the common butterflies and moths (Please excuse the fx experiments).

Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Moth
Mourning Cloak FX
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Monarch butterfly at Coldwater Farm.
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Acmon Blue Butterfly (?)
Huge catterpillar
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Buckeye Butterfly
Red Admiral Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly) on Butterfly Bush
Melissa Blue Butterfly?
Tiny catterpillars on grape leaf
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Cabbage White Butterfly
Buckeye Butterfly
Mourning Cloak Butterfly
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Buckmoth
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Monarch Butterfly
Moth
Black Swallowtail Butterfly
Tiny catterpillars on grape leaf
Buckmoth
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Two-tailed Swallowtail (AZ State Butterfly)
Buckmoth

Obama Administration Pushes To Delist Yellowstone Grizzly Bear | Howling For Justice

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No animal is safe from the Obama administration’s USFWS. Dan Ashe wants the grizzly bear delisted and why do you think that is? SO THEY CAN BE HUNTED!!

I know all the trophy hunters are just licking their lips waiting for the Great Bear to become another notch in their belts. Montana and Idaho wolves are suffering under horrible persecution because of this awful agency and now USFWS is after the Yellowstone grizzly. howlingforjustice.wordpress.com

 

Another gray wolf pack identified in Methow Valley | Exposing the Big Game

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“The Methow Valley is now home to two gray wolf packs, with a new pack confirmed to be living in territory that includes Loup Loup Pass.

“State and federal wildlife officials last week confirmed the presence of the gray wolf pack and said it will be designated the Loup Loup Pack, reflecting the prominent landmark within the wolves’ range.”  exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com