Rachel Carson’s influential book Silent Spring, which documented the effects of the indiscriminate widespread use of pesticides on the environment, was published back in 1962, nearly 60 years ago now. Since that time, the book has often been cited as one of the drivers behind environmental action and regulation of various kinds. Following the release,
In Mozambique, human honey hunters communicate and cooperate with a species of bird called the greater honeyguide in order to find bee hives. They do this by making a certain vocalization to the birds that they are ready to be guided. The birds come to where the humans are and then begin taking them to the locations. The
Today’s World Animal Day, celebrated across the globe since a 1931 convention of ecologists in Florence, Italy, conceived of it as a way to highlight the plight of endangered species. They chose October 4 because it’s the Catholic Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. Since then, people have used the
Okay, so people have seen this video about owls five million times since zefrank1 published it on YouTube last July (photo: ear of an owl). Zefrank1 owls is still one of the wackiest and most fact-filled nature specials you’ll ever see. Watch it again here! If you liked this short vid, the guy has 156
Giant insects with wingspans of more than two feet used to rule the skies from 300-150 million years ago. New research is suggesting that they were killed off by the emergence of birds, not by declining oxygen levels as had previously been believed. When birds first appeared 150 million years ago, insect sizes shrunk
Almost seven million birds die every year in North America by running into communication towers during migration. There are 84,000 communication towers in North America, and they can rise up to 2,000 feet. For context, the Exxon Valdez oil spill killed 250,000 birds and the height of the Empire State building is 1,250 feet.
Top climate science news of the past day: Live Q&A with Climate Scientist Dr Michael Mann (TODAY) The UK’s Guardian is hosting a live question and answer with Dr. Michael Mann, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, today. To participate, head on over to Guardian post linked above at 4:00pm GMT (11am EST). Snowy
If you’ve seen the beautiful movie Fly Away Home, this might really bring out some sentimental feelings… and the picture above might remind you of something. But the story here is slightly different. Operation Migration is an effort to conserve migratory bird species through innovative ways and research. Most notably, perhaps, it has helped
I would venture a guess to say that the vast majority of Americans have never heard of the sage grouse, let alone seen one. Sage grouse used to be one of the most abundant birds in the sagebrush steppes of the American west, providing food for early settlers and game for modern hunters. Their complicated
You would never think that a bird could attack a much bigger animal, especially a tiger! But it does happen! Smaller animals can attack bigger ones as well. Size isn’t always what’s most important.
This is an amazing story. Seriously. Just watch:
After sharing the photos and video of baby tiger and orangutan friends the other day, one of our Facebook friends, Rachael Rose, commented that she had run across a video of an owl and cat playing together. Another adorable animal friends story, so sharing it above.
Yasuni National Park, located 250 km inland along the Eastern most border of Ecuador, is a world record holder in biodiversity richness: The roughly 10,000 km² forest is home to 139 species of amphibians (besting Columbia’s Leticia Park with its 98 species) and an estimated 100,000 species of insects. This latter figure represents the highest
LC’s eye via Flickr Hi there, I’m sorry not to upload 10 Friday Photos last week, but I was kidnapped and taken to Wonderland! Well, one of all the amazing creatures there were flamingos with their awesome, pink feathers and majestic poise. I found some photos of them so you can look at them and
A transgenic chicken has been developed that blocks transmission of the avian flu to other chickens. The new technique — some aspects of which are not clear even to the geneticists developing it — holds out great promise for preventing human illness as well as unnecessary animal deaths. But nothing is quite that simple when
Stephen Colbert (the quite famous fake conservative pundit) covered global warming in a recent show in which he interviewed Fen Montaigne, author of the new book Fraser’s Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica. Colbert says that he believed global warming was happening in 2007 “because Al Gore’s movie made money, but now,.. he’s
Somebody has gone through the trouble of mapping where numerous bird and fish deaths (as well as some other animal deaths) have been occurring in recent weeks (screenshot above). Check it out here: Mass Animals Deaths.
Jeremy Bloom of our sister site Red, Green, and Blue has a great follow-up to the mass bird death story that gets into the very likely possibility that the deaths are related to hydraulic fracking (the top possibility in my mind) as well as other interesting topics. Here’s the intro: Alfred Hitchcock must be smiling.
Seems like you can’t swing a dead…um, strike that. It’s hard to miss the wave of news coverage of late concerning the mysterious die-offs of flocks of birds (in two Southern U.S. states). And then there’s that slightly earlier, mass fish kill (all one species), not far away, coming just a short time before the
Thankfully, our recent story on 3,000-5,000 blackbirds falling from the sky and dying in Arkansas on New Year’s Eve has gotten quite a few comments and brought up some additional potential explanations. In addition to these, I’ve gone searching for more potential answers and have found a few worth sharing. But before getting into these,
Here’s a crazy story (thanks to one of our loyal readers, Kristen Farquhar, for passing it on to me). On New Year’s Eve in the small Arkansas town of Beebe, blackbirds starting raining down from the sky. Concerned citizens called the odd occurrence in and once the Game and Fish Commission confirmed this wasn’t a
Photo Credit: James Lines via Flickr I come from Poland and I will never forget these days when I was young, when I went to the nearest park where there was a huge pond with swans. I loved to go there and I was really disappointed whenever there were no swans. I remember that once
Peacocks, in my humble opinion, are one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet. I was lucky enough to have a peacock family in my neighborhood for awhile while I was growing up (although, some considered them a menace due to the loud noises they would make — never bothered me). Still, they
470 endangered sea turtles and thousands of birds officially killed by BP oil spill so far. Many more covered in oil and on the brink of death. Well, BP has stopped burning endangered sea turtles alive and has apparently gotten the leak stopped, but official reports show that, as of yesterday, at least 470 endangered
The last major section from the EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators in the US report is society and ecosystems. Below are key summary points. Clear changes in growing seasons, bird migration leaf growth and blooming dates have occurred and the trends suggest that they will continue. Heat-related deaths show much more variability, despite clear heating trends,
[social_buttons] Whether you are eating turkey or tofurkey this Thanksgiving, you cannot deny the great sacrifice that turkeys are making to fill dinner plates across the nation. I figured I would honor their sacrifice here on the eve of thanksgiving, with some fun turkey facts. More than 45 million turkeys are eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving (one sixth
Communities of all sorts are being disturbed by the fires in California. As another result of climate change, bird communities are expected to see some big changes in other ways, according to a new report released on September 1.
[social_buttons] Swedish scientists have discovered that vast numbers of wild birds in the Baltic Sea area are dying of a strange paralytic disease caused by advanced thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency in eggs, young, and adults. In a new research paper the team, from Stockholm University, Sweden, report that levels of Thiamine, vital for the proper
The recovery of peregrine falcons is one of the great success stories of conservation. Now their population in Florida has rebounded enough to remove them from the state’s endangered species list. Upon approving their removal from the list, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called the combined efforts of wildlife managers and individuals to
[social_buttons] As a child, eggs were special one day of the year: Easter. Back then an egg was a treasure. But since my parents stopped hiding eggs for me, eggs haven’t held much meaning. White and, well, egg-shaped, they help me when I need to make a quick meal or mix up some cookie dough.
When researchers from the Syrian Society for Conservation of Wildlife and RSPB noticed that hunters were shooting down sociable lapwings, one of the world’s rarest bird species, they immediately reached out to the government for protection. [social_buttons] Syria sent rangers out to discuss the plight of the lapwings and apparently they have agreed to stop
The cheeky kea, a type of parrot native to New Zealand, is under “severe stress,” according to conservationists. The bird was determined to be the smartest in the world by the Institute of Cognitive Biology in Vienna, even concluding that its intelligence rivals some primates. In the 1990’s, 15,000 of the birds soared
Get out some binoculars and a video camera: if you can find an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, you could be $50,000 richer. [social_buttons] The Nature Conservancy has had enough. They’ve been searching for an Ivory-Billed Woodpecker in Alabama ever since 2004 when a video of one surfaced on the internet in 2004, but despite having the best
