Just got this news release from the American Bird Conservancy containing the “First ever photograph” of a Santa Marta Sabrewing, an endangered and nearly extinct hummingbird. Pretty wild! Enjoy. /Gary
MEDIA RELEASE: First Ever Photograph Confirms Colombian Hummingbird
The first ever photo of a living Santa Marta Sabrewing is the first confirmation of the continued existence of this spectacular hummingbird in over 60 years. Stunningly, the area where the bird was found – the El Dorado Bird Reserve in the Santa Marta Mountains of northern Colombia – had been slated for development in 2006 for vacation homes, but was spared by a last minute land purchase through funding from American Bird Conservancy (ABC) and Conservation International (CI), in cooperation with the Colombian conservation organization Fundación Pro Aves who expertly manages several bird reserves in Columbia.
The photograph was taken at El Dorado on 24 March by Laura Cardenas at about 6,200 feet elevation. Cardenas was monitoring migratory birds in the 1,600-acre reserve as part of a research project. This particular bird was caught in a mist net, banded, photographed, and released unharmed. Read the rest of this entry »
Everglades. Photo by Flickr user Stig Nygaard used under a Creative Commons License
More from the Jan. 7 edition of the weekly e-newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity:
On New Year’s Eve, a three-month-old Florida panther kitten was tragically hit and killed by a car in Naples, Florida, bringing the number of 2009 panther road kills to 17 — the highest number ever recorded — while total 2009 panther deaths reached 24. Read the rest of this entry »
Sad news this Christmas from the Dec. 24 issue of the weekly e-newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity:
On Christmas Eve, as countless kids across the world dreamed of Santa and his flying reindeer clattering across their rooftops, the real wild reindeer of the world faced a more dismal reality: population decline.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 2009 “Arctic Report Card,” 18 of the Arctic’s 23 largest migrating reindeer herds are dwindling, and another study found that global populations have shrunk by 57 percent in 20 years. Read the rest of this entry »
129 prominent scientists from around the country sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday, asking him to trash a Bush-era policy that limits the scope of the Endangered Species Act.
The policy lets the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ignore historic range when deciding whether species require protection — thus, if a plant or animal is completely extinct in many areas but doing OK in one, it doesn’t have to be deemed endangered at all. Actually, it seems to me like it should be the reverse — if a plant or animal goes extinct in any area, it should be deemed endangered. It’s like the canary in the coal mine. We need to rescue it while we can still do something about it. Read the rest of this entry »
Macho B, last known jaguar in U.S., died in early March. Photo by Arizona DFG.
Obama bounces Bush ESA changes.
The Obama administration announced Tuesday (April 28) that they would be dumping eleventh-hour Bush Administration changes to its Endangered Species Act that would have dramatically weakened the landmark wildlife protection law.
The decision will once again require federal agencies to consult with experts at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before taking action that could impact threatened or endangered species. Read the rest of this entry »
Wolves looking at dead lambs. (AP Photo/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife)
A motion-detector camera has photographed two wolves that were killing lambs on a ranch in Eastern Oregon — the first documented wolf attack on livestock in Oregon since they started moving into the state in 1999.
Baker City-area sheep rancher Curt Jacobs said Wednesday his family — third generation sheep ranchers — had been moving ewes and lambs from the ranch compound, where they had been brought in for lambing, out to pasture last week.
When his brother and nephew went out to gather a band to load into trucks Friday morning, April 12, they found more than a dozen lambs penned near the house had been driven through the fence and killed. Only a few had been eaten. Read the rest of this entry »
California Condor. Photo courtesy US Fish and Wildlife Service/Scott Frier
It’s bad enough that California condors are frequently poisoned by lead ammo-killed game, but last month two of the highly endangered birds were themselves found shot full of lead bullets.
The Center for Biological Diversity, determined to bring the perp (perps?) to justice, has established a $30,000 reward … and Santa Barbara’s Wendy P. McCaw Foundation has pledged another $25,000 of the total … after the announcement that biologists found a young female condor with three shotgun pellets lodged in her wing and thigh.
Sadly, this was just three weeks after finding another condor shot full of 15 pellets. Read the rest of this entry »
Macho B, last known jaguar in U.S., died in early March. Photo by Arizona DFG.
Dear Gary:
In a lifesaving break for jaguars, the Center for Biological Diversity just this morning won our court case to throw out the federal government’s decision to deny critical habitat and a recovery plan for jaguars in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
Candid jaguar video in Brazil so you can see what they look like. /Gary
Video by YouTube user annamelie78 used under Creative Commons license.
Exactly three weeks after the death of Macho B, the last known jaguar in the United States, on Monday (March 23) a federal court heard oral arguments in the Center for Biological Diversity’s bid to win a federal recovery plan and protected habitat areas for the endangered species.
According to a weekly e-newsletter I just received from the Center, the hearing went very well. They said the judge “peppered the government lawyer with difficult questions and clearly was skeptical of the agency’s changing litany of arguments.” Read the rest of this entry »
Audubon California representatives said last Thursday (March 19) that while a new Federal report offers a compelling snapshot of the conservation issues facing birds nationwide, one must look to more regional data to fully understand how habitat loss, climate change and other threats are already taking their toll on California birds.
“California’s very diverse natural landscapes and unique array of birds set it apart from the rest of the country,” said Graham Chisholm, conservation director for Audubon California. “While the federal report does a good job of capturing issues related to California seabirds, for instance, one really has to take a closer look to fully understand the challenges here related to wetland, grassland, and oak woodland bird species.” Read the rest of this entry »
