THE GREEN PLANET BLOG - Our World and Environment...

All about conservation, ecology, the environment, climate change, global warming, earth- watch, and new technologies etc.

Monday, October 27, 2008

The flight of the Godwits - a world record 11,000km non-stop journey...


World scientists have simply marvelled over the flight of the Godwits - a little female Godwit somewhere in New Zealand has achieved a world record for non-stop flying - an epic 11,200 km journey from Alaska in the north down to New Zealand in the Pacific in one single flight!

A major international study into the birds has been published in the journal PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B and an explanation as to why the Godwit fly so far from Alaska down to New Zealand in the Pacific.

It was reportedly an 11,000 km non-stop journey - gobsmacking to say the least!

Acknowledgements to the photographer above:

Read

Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, October 23, 2008

American gray wolves returned to endangered list


The North American gray wolf was relisted as an endangered species after U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repealed last March’s delisting rule.

Twelve conservation groups sued U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, saying the delisting was premature. They argued that there was too little genetic exchange between the three wolf recovery areas and that state management plans were not adequate to sustain a healthy wolf population.

After it became clear that the plaintiffs were likely to win on these grounds, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved to repeal its ruling. U.S. District Judge Donald Malloy approved this motion last Tuesday, effectively reinstating wolves to the endangered species list while the agency reevaluates its approach to wolf delisting.


This appears to be a great story. Read another?

Read

Labels: , ,

Monday, October 6, 2008

The New Zealand Yellowheads an endangered bird species in New Zealand...


The Yellowheads or Bush Canaries, are an endangered bird species in New Zealand that conservationists have attempted to assist by transfering to a predator free island in the South Island area.

The New Zealand Government's Department of Conservation (locally known as DOC) is at the head of all conservation programs in this country. It has established a mohua(Yellowhead) recovery plan.Its goal is to maintain and enhance the mohua population by halting and reversing the degradation of the forest eco system.


A SMALL PASSERINE found only on the South Island of New Zealand, the Yellowhead (Mohoua ochrocephala) was once abundant and occurred in mature forests throughout its range (Gaze 1985). No estimates are available on the original population size, but based on the area of forest once available and recorded densities (Higgins and Peter 2002), there may have been 1-3 million Yellowheads when Europeans first reached New Zealand. Forest destruction and the introduction of exotic mammalian predators (against which the birds have little defense) have now reduced the species to less than 25% of its former range and a total population of less than a few thousand birds (Higgins and Peter 2002). Control of introduced predators in some populations on the mainland has been successful in reversing the decline, but this strategy is risky: the last surviving population of 15 birds in the north of the South Island increased to 99 birds after a decade-long program of predator control, only to disappear during a rat plague over a single winter (Higgins and Peter 2002).

Read further

Labels: , , ,

posted by Unknown @ 3:04 PM 0 Comments