Wolves, Birds, and Other Animal News
>> Sunday, September 13, 2009
It has been a busy week for animals so lets get to it.
- The gray wolf (Canis lupus) is not making it easy on hunters in Idaho. This year, the state of Idaho sanctioned a wolf hunt and issued 14,000 wolf hunting permits. This large number of permits is despite the fact that the population of the wolves is only estimated at less than 900. In the first 11 days of the hunt, only three wolves have been tagged (legal kills). Montana is due to start their wolf hunting season (population is only 500 there) this week. There are talks occurring as to whether or not the gray wolf should be on the endangered species list again.
- A missing bird was found flying at sea. This is not the booby I mentioned last time. This time it is the Fiji petrel. The bird is incredibly rare and only through a very thorough bird "hunt" were researchers finally able to see them. The only known specimen was an immature one from Gau, Fiji in1855. It wasn't until 1984 that the bird had a confirmed sighting again. You can read more about this elusive bird here.
- Honeybees are telling ants to "buzz off" quite effectively. For the first time on tape, a bee has been caught using its wings to blow away ants that are attacking them and their nests. The bees actually change their wing beat pattern to one far more powerful and aggressive to blow the ants away.
- A few new species have been found inside a crater in Papua New Guinea. Among them were various species of amphibians, plants, and one of the world's largest rats. Mount Bosavi crater was the subject of a recent expedition set up by the BBC. Most of these new species are believed to not exist anywhere else on Earth!
- This last snippet is a bit of local news. Recently, I wrote about turtle nesting in the VI. Well, as luck would have it, Brewers Bay (the location of my opening credits for many Potspoon! videos) has a turtle nest! Not just any turtle nest either. I have lost of luck spotting green turtles at this beach, but the nest is a leatherback nest! Leatherbacks are the fourth largest reptilian species behind three crocodilians. They are endangered worldwide. The picture above is said nest. I am so excited!
7 comments:
Mimi,
I always love your enthusiasm for the animals and your passion for protecting them. Very exciting about the turtles!
I saw your wind turbine picture in your slide-show and just had to mention that I took a slew of pictures yesterday of wind turbines. Also, my husband and I were just talked the other day about getting my blog set up to do slide-shows.
I have so many more pictures than I know what to do with for blog posts now that I could have a field day posting slide-shows. If we get it working, I should post a slide-show of wind turbine pictures. We have areas near where we live with LOTS of wind turbines clustered together. They are really cool. You can get up very close to them. :)
Jeanne
Recent blog:=- Chronic Travel Encore
Being from Miami, I had never seen fields of wind turbines like that. Those turbines were in Wyoming.
Recent blog:=- Hibiscus Canvas Bag
Exciting about the turtle's nest! I hate it when then kill animals (wolves). Just doesn't seem right. Unfortunately, I couldn't see the video of the bee chasing away ants. Will try later. I'd love to watch that bee telling the pesky ants to just "buzz off"!!
The video is rather cute. I, too, feel horrid about the wolf hunting, but all I can do is educate people and hope for the best.
Recent blog:=- How the years have passed...
Thank you for the share, i really appreciate it, you have been brilliant, i am just loving your blog, keep posting.
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Recent blog:=- By: mike
thanks for stopping by
Recent blog:=- What a Week!
We are fortunate to have some endangered bird nesting areas around here. It's pretty wild when they come in by the thousands for mating season.
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