Unexpected medical issue grounds Isle Royale wolf-moose survey
Scientists from Michigan Tech University had planned to return to the island in January to conduct seven weeks of aerial surveys by ski-planes. Snow and bare branches make tracking easier from the air in winter, but the island lacks a land-based runway, forcing the scientists to use ski-planes that can land in the island's ice-covered harbors. The scientists released their annual report on Tuesday, but it does not include any new population estimates. The report notes that the researchers were not able to get into the air at all this winter because 'our usual aviation resources became unexpectedly unavailable due to extenuating circumstances, and there was insufficient time to find a suitable alternative.'
Michigan Tech spokesperson Hailey Hart explained in a telephone interview that the ski-plane pilot developed a last-minute medical issue and couldn't fly. The scientists were unable to find a replacement pilot. 'It was very sudden,' Hart said. 'It was a big bummer for them.' Researchers have experienced disruptions in three of the last five years they've attempted the survey. The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to cancel the survey in 2021, marking the first time since 1958 that population counts weren't conducted. They had to cut the survey short in February 2024 after weeks of unusually warm weather left the ice surrounding the island unsafe for ski-plane landings. The National Park Service suspended the researchers' work and ordered them to evacuate. Data the scientists gathered before they left showed the wolf population stood at 30 animals, down from 31 the previous year. The moose population stood at 840, down 14 percent from 2023.
Most of Tuesday's report discusses observations a group of college students made on the island in the summer of 2024. They noted regular wolf sightings, observed a wolf chasing a moose, and found the bones of a wolf that died a decade ago, well before the park service began relocating wolves to the island in 2018. The students also found the remains of 115 moose, including 22 believed to have died in 2024. Researchers believe wolves killed all but three of those moose. Hart said the scientists are planning another aerial survey next winter.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
3 days ago
- Arab News
World's smallest snake makes big comeback
WASHINGTON: A snake so small it could be mistaken for a worm has been spotted in Barbados, nearly two decades after it was thought to have been 'lost' to science. The Barbados threadsnake was found hiding under a rock in central Barbados during an ecological survey in March by the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification and conservation group Re:wild. 'Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they're very cryptic,' said Connor Blades, a project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados who helped make the finding, in a statement. 'They're quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately.' Measuring just three to four inches long when fully grown — tiny enough to almost fit on a US quarter coin — the Barbados threadsnake is the world's smallest species of snake. It is distinguished by orange stripes along its back, eyes on the sides of its head and a small scale on its snout. 'When you are so accustomed to looking for things and you don't see them, you are shocked when you actually find it,' said Justin Springer of Re:wild, who made the discovery alongside Blades. 'You can't believe it. That's how I felt. You don't want to get your hopes up too high.' The breakthrough came after more than a year of searching, as the pair upturned rocks trapped beneath a tree root. The tiny snake, which was found alongside an earthworm, was taken to the University of West Indies for careful examination under a microscope — it closely resembles the Brahminy blind snake, an invasive species, so the finding had to be validated — before it was returned to the forest. Only two percent of the Caribbean island's primary forest remains intact, with the rest cleared for agriculture since the start of the colonial era 400 years ago. The Barbados threadsnake remains particularly vulnerable since it reproduces sexually and females lay a clutch of only one egg. Female Brahminy blind snakes, by contrast, can produce fertile eggs without mating. 'The threadsnake's rediscovery is also a call to all of us as Barbadians that forests in Barbados are very special and need protection,' said Springer. 'Not just for the threadsnake, but for other species as well. For plants, animals and our heritage.'
Al Arabiya
4 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Leaping sturgeon provide a show for nature lovers on Maine rivers
The Kennebec River in Maine's capital city of Augusta is known for its population of Atlantic and shortnose sturgeon. The fish sometimes leap completely from the water, as at least one did on Wednesday. The shortnose population on the river nearly doubled from about 5,100 in the late 1970s to more than 9,400 around 2000, and it has likely grown since, state biologists have said. The ancient fish have also shown signs of recovering elsewhere in Maine, such as the Saco River further south. Scientists have proposed a number of reasons why sturgeon jump out of the water, including regulating their swim bladder, communicating with other sturgeon, shedding parasites, and avoiding predators. Shortnose sturgeon can weigh up to 60 pounds (27 kilograms), while Atlantic sturgeon can be much larger, with some weighing as much as 800 pounds (363 kilograms). The fish thrill nature lovers who are fortunate to catch their sudden leaps along Maine rivers. Catching a glimpse of them is often a matter of luck.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Arab News
Clearing Gaza war rubble could release 90K tonnes of greenhouse gases: study
LONDON: Rubble in Gaza caused by Israeli bombardment could cause more than 90,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, a study has suggested. Research using open-source data published in the journal Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability suggested that about 39 million tonnes of concrete debris had been created between the start of the war in October 2023 to December a year later. It added that 2.1 million truck journeys spanning a total of 29.5 million km would be needed to move it, generating about 66,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers at the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh based their findings on two scenarios, one which assumed 80 percent of the debris was viable for crushing, which with a fleet of 50 industrial machines would take more than half a year and add a further 2,976 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Using the same number of local, smaller crushers could take up to 37 years to complete the task, and generate 25,149 tonnes. The longer the task took, the researchers said, the more additional emissions would be produced, adding that the model did not account for additional emissions caused by other substances left in the enclave such as asbestos, as well as unexploded ordnance. It is believed that about 90 percent of homes in Gaza, as well as a significant proportion of its infrastructure, have been destroyed by Israeli strikes. 'The CO2 emissions from clearing and processing the rubble may seem small compared to the total climate cost of the destruction in Gaza, but our micro-focus unpacks the labor and work required to even begin the process of reconstruction,' said Samer Abdelnour, the study's lead author and senior lecturer in strategic management at the University of Edinburgh Business School. 'While filling the military emissions gap is important, our work can also support Palestinian policymakers, civil engineers, planners and other workers on the ground who are determined to reclaim what was lost, stay on the land and rebuild.' Nicholas Roy, a statistical science student at Oxford University and co-author of the study, said: 'Looking ahead, finer spatial and temporal resolution of satellite images, advances in deep learning for building and damage classification, and methods that integrate information from different perspectives — such as street-level cellphone footage and top-down satellite images — open new opportunities to estimate military emissions across different scopes and better understand the true climate cost of war.' The carbon footprint of global military activity is estimated at about 5.5 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions — more than civil aviation and international shipping combined. The Gulf region in particular is uniquely vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Ben Neimark, a senior lecturer at Queen Mary University of London investigating the climate impact of Israeli military activity, told The Guardian: 'The methodological focus on debris is cutting-edge work, highlighting often-missed environmental damage left by militaries after the war is over. It provides a fresh look at the daily images of bombed-out buildings and rubble from Gaza, rather than seeing them as longer-term climate impacts of war.' In June, Neimark's work estimated that the impacts of Israel's war in Gaza could release more than 31 million tonnes of CO2. Stuart Parkinson, executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, told The Guardian: 'Militaries and war are large and hidden contributors to the climate crisis … it is important to include the full range of activities from production of the military equipment to fuel use during warfighting, from the damage to carbon stores like forests to cleanup efforts and reconstruction following the end of the war. This study adds to this bigger picture of war-related emissions.'
