Extremely Active Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted For 2013 — Florida, East Coast, South, Etc

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Image Credit: NOAA/NASA

The 2013 Atlantic hurricane season is gearing up to be an extremely active one according to NOAA’s Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook, which was released yesterday. The outlook, issued by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, states that there is a 70% chance of there being 13 to 20 named storms this year. Out of these, 7 to 11 will likely become hurricanes, of which 3 to 6 will likely be major hurricanes. By “major hurricanes” the report … Read More

Large-River Fish May Benefit From New Conservation Approach

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Image Credit: Brenda Pracheil

Fishes that find their home in large-rivers — such as paddlefish, blue catfish, crystal darters, silver chub, etc — are largely headed towards extinction in the US as a result of habitat loss. But now, new research is suggesting that by utilizing a different approach to conservation that there is “hope” for them. The new research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates that 60 out of 68 US species, or 88% of the fish species … Read More

Animals Bred In Zoos And Reintroduced To The Wild Bring Antibiotic Resistance Bacteria With Them, Research Finds

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Image Credit: Rock Wallaby via Wikimedia Commons

Animals raised in captive breeding programs, and then released into the wild, may transmit antibiotic resistant bacteria to the wild populations, new research on wallabies has found. Specifically, the research found that “endangered brush-tail rock wallabies raised in captive breeding programs carry antibiotic resistance genes in their gut bacteria and may be able to transmit these genes into wild populations.” Currently, captive brush-tail rock wallabies are being raised in notable numbers as part of species … Read More

Dance Of The Planets May 2013 Begins Today — Lasts From May 24 Through May 30

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Image Credit: Nathan August © ; After Sunset via Flickr CC

The Dance of the Planets will be beginning tonight, and will put on a show until around May 30 — Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury will all appear to be “dancing” with each other in the dusk/sunset sky . The “dance of the planets” is the event where Jupiter, Venus, and Mercury (or other planets), all appear to be very close together in the sky and exchange positions with other over a short period of time. … Read More

Off-Road Bike Paths Needed In Transportation Planning “Bible”

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Making the case for off-road bike paths instead of on-road bike lanes (or, ideally, in addition to them), here’s a summary of some recent research I conducted and some recent research out of Harvard Medical School: More or less, bicycle infrastructure policy and its relationship to riderships was the topic of my 2007 master’s thesis. It’s been obvious to some of us for a long time that bicycle infrastructure policy needs to change in order … Read More

How Electric Cars Won Over A Car Hater

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Here’s the story as to why I became an electric car lover after being a car hater: I’m not going to lie — I’ve got issues with cars. My master’s degree is in city and regional planning. From my experience studying that (before, during, and after graduate school), I’m well aware that cars and cities simply don’t mix well. I mean, they could, but the vast majority of cities in the world are overfull of cars. A … Read More

Climate Change And Wildfire — Research Examines Relationship

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Image Credit: Wild Fire via Flick CC

Changes in the climate are intimately connected with wildfires, both causing them and being being caused by them. Recent research has estimated that wildfires will increase by around 50% across most of the US, and by as much as 100% in the West, by 2050, as a result of climate change. And with this increase in the frequency/extent of wildfires, greenhouse gas emissions will rise too. And now, new research, recently published in the journal … Read More

Cave-Dwelling Arachnids — Two New Species Found In Brazil

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Image Credit: Santos AJ, Ferreira RL, Buzatto BA (2013)

Researchers recently discovered two new species of cave-dwelling arachnids in northeastern Brazil — Rowlandius ubajara and Rowlandius potiguara. The arachnids are both a type of short-tailed whipscorpion. The arachnids are a reddish-brown color, and were discovered inhabiting the cool, humid limestone caves present in the otherwise arid northeastern Brazil region. They were both discovered deep inside of these limestone caves. The Arachnids likely prey on the small insects that live in the cave feeding on … Read More

Very Rare Leopards Caught On Camera

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Image Credit: CFIR

Critically endangered Javan leopards have been caught on digital camera traps in West Java. If you have been following conservation news, you know that the Formosan Cloud Leopard was recently declared extinct. They were driven into extinction by human activities. So it is very important that the Javan leopards be protected or they may suffer the same fate. (Javan leopard caught on camera trap from CIFOR stock footage library on Vimeo.) Thirty cameras were placed … Read More

Top Ten New Species Of 2013 — A ‘Musical’ Sponge, World’s Smallest Vertebrate, A ‘Paleolithic’ Fungus, A ‘Trifecta’ Find, & More!

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Lightning raoch - Lucihormetica luckae

The list is here!… Yes, the annual list of ‘Top Ten’ New Species has been announced. Organized annually by the Institute for International Species Exploration (IISE) at the University of Arizona, an international committee of experts reviewed animal, vegetable and microbial species culled from 140 top nominations out of a total candidate pool of 18,000 species — all discovered (and properly named according to taxonomic rules) in the previous calendar year (2012). Top Species selections … Read More