Latest news with #PerpetualPlanetInitiative
CNN
2 days ago
- Science
- CNN
The ‘blue dragon' is back from the brink
Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Millions of years ago, Grand Cayman Island rose from the depths of the Caribbean Sea, and in the same epoch, its shores became home to giant blue reptiles. Fast forward to today, and with its spiny crest, prehistoric features and striking blue scales, the Grand Cayman blue iguana appears to have lumbered out of a lost world. Endemic to Grand Cayman, the biggest of the Cayman Islands, the impressive reptile holds the title of the island's largest native land animal. But it was only in 2004 that they were officially declared a species, after being differentiated from their cousins, the Cuban Iguana. Blue iguanas were once ubiquitous on the island, however the arrival of humans, and the invasive predators that came with them, brought deadly threats. Habitat loss, hunting and a wave of feral cats and dogs pushed the lizards, referred to as 'blue dragons,' to the brink of extinction. In the early 1990s, researchers estimated there were between 100 and 200 blue iguanas surviving in the wild. But within a decade, those numbers had plummeted, with fewer than 25 individuals remaining in 2002. Thanks to ongoing conservation efforts, the blue iguana is back from the brink of extinction. Through captive breeding and a habitat protection program, over 1,200 have now been released into the wild, primarily in protected areas. This led to the species being reclassified from "critically endangered" to "endangered" in 2012, according to IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.
CNN
2 days ago
- Science
- CNN
The ‘blue dragon' is back from the brink
Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Millions of years ago, Grand Cayman Island rose from the depths of the Caribbean Sea, and in the same epoch, its shores became home to giant blue reptiles. Fast forward to today, and with its spiny crest, prehistoric features and striking blue scales, the Grand Cayman blue iguana appears to have lumbered out of a lost world. Endemic to Grand Cayman, the biggest of the Cayman Islands, the impressive reptile holds the title of the island's largest native land animal. But it was only in 2004 that they were officially declared a species, after being differentiated from their cousins, the Cuban Iguana. Blue iguanas were once ubiquitous on the island, however the arrival of humans, and the invasive predators that came with them, brought deadly threats. Habitat loss, hunting and a wave of feral cats and dogs pushed the lizards, referred to as 'blue dragons,' to the brink of extinction. In the early 1990s, researchers estimated there were between 100 and 200 blue iguanas surviving in the wild. But within a decade, those numbers had plummeted, with fewer than 25 individuals remaining in 2002. Thanks to ongoing conservation efforts, the blue iguana is back from the brink of extinction. Through captive breeding and a habitat protection program, over 1,200 have now been released into the wild, primarily in protected areas. This led to the species being reclassified from "critically endangered" to "endangered" in 2012, according to IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Thousands of mosquitoes are being dropped by drone over islands in Hawaii. Here's why
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. In June, dozens of biodegradable pods fell from the sky over the forests of Hawaii. Each one, delivered by drone, contained about 1,000 mosquitoes. These weren't just any mosquitoes — they were non-biting, lab-reared male mosquitoes carrying a common bacterium that results in eggs that don't hatch when the males mate with wild females. The hope is that they will help to control the archipelago's invasive mosquito population, which is decimating native bird populations, such as rare Hawaiian honeycreepers. The birds, which are key pollinators and seed dispersers and also play a central role in Hawaiian culture, are in dire straits. There were once more than 50 known species of honeycreepers in Hawaii, but today there are only 17 left, most of which are endangered. Last year, the 'akikiki, a small gray bird, went functionally extinct in the wild, and less than 100 of the yellow-green ʻakekeʻe are estimated to remain. Development and deforestation have had an impact, but according to Dr. Chris Farmer, Hawaii program director for the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the 'existential threat' is avian malaria, which is spread by mosquitoes. The insects are not native to Hawaii, but were first reported in 1826, likely unintentionally carried over by whaling vessels. 'They caused waves of extinction,' says Farmer, as many native birds, such as the honeycreepers, had no resistance to the disease. Since mosquitoes thrive in the warmer tropical habitats in the low elevations of Hawaii's islands, the remaining honeycreepers found a refuge higher up in the mountains of islands such as Maui and Kauai, he explains. Now, this is changing. 'With climate change, we are seeing warmer temperatures and we're watching the mosquitoes move up the mountains,' he says. '(In places like Kauai) we're watching the populations of birds there just completely plummet.' 'It's a constant march of mosquitoes moving up as the temperatures allow them and the birds getting pushed further and further up until there's no habitat left that they can survive in. 'If we don't break that cycle, we're going to lose our honeycreepers,' he adds. Searching for a solution Conservationists have been searching for a solution to control mosquito populations and provide a lifeline to the honeycreepers. But dealing with mosquitoes on a landscape scale is difficult, says Farmer, who explains that the use of pesticides, for instance, would also damage native insect populations such as damselflies and fruit flies that are vital to ecosystems. Because mosquitoes are also such a huge threat to human health, spreading human malaria, dengue fever and the zika virus, among others, scientists have been studying the problem for decades, coming up with various solutions, including the incompatible insect technique (IIT). This involves releasing male mosquitoes that have a strain of naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia, which causes non-viable eggs when they mate with wild females. Over time, with repeated releases, the wild population should decline as a result. In 2016, ABC, together with Birds, Not Mosquitoes, a multi-agency partnership dedicated to protecting Hawaiian honeycreepers, decided IIT had the best chance of succeeding in Hawaii and started to investigate how to apply the same technique to mosquitoes transmitting avian malaria. 'The mosquito that transmits avian malaria is different from the one that transmits human malaria,' explains Farmer, so they began testing various strains of Wolbachia within the southern house mosquitoes found in Hawaii to determine which one was most effective. The process took several years, due to 'a combination of the science, community engagement and the regulatory process,' says Farmer, adding that, naturally, 'whenever you say, 'I want to release millions of mosquitoes in the forest,' people have a lot of very legitimate questions.' In 2022 they started ramping up production, rearing millions of mosquitoes with the chosen Wolbachia strain in a laboratory in California. The following year, they started releasing the insects in areas where the honeycreepers live in Maui, dropping them in biodegradable pods from helicopters. 'We have a rough estimate for how many mosquitoes there are in the wild, and we try to release 10 times as many of these Wolbachia mosquitoes, so (that they) find these females and are able to mate with them, and then their eggs don't hatch,' says Farmer. 'Right now, we're releasing 500,000 mosquitoes a week on Maui and 500,000 mosquitoes a week on Kauai,' he adds, using both drones and helicopters. According to Farmer, it's the first example globally of IIT being used for conservation purposes. If successful, he hopes it will inspire uses elsewhere. He warns, however, that while in Hawaii they felt confident using the technique because mosquitoes are an invasive species that have only been around for 200 years and therefore play no major ecological role, in other countries where they are native, the technique could have unintended repercussions to the ecosystem. Buying time One of the major barriers to releasing the insects in Hawaii has been the remote, mountainous terrain, prone to strong winds and unpredictable weather. The program has had to rely mainly on helicopters for releases, but these are expensive to run and there are a limited number on the archipelago, with competing needs for firefighting, safety and tourism, says Farmer. Often, missions have had to be called off last minute due to weather, he adds. This is where drones come in. After months of testing the aerial vehicles in demanding conditions, checking their range, and designing protective, temperature-controlled parcels that can safely carry mosquitoes and be fixed onto the body, they successfully started deploying mosquitoes by drone in June. It is the 'first known instance of specialized mosquito pods being dropped by drones,' says Adam Knox, project manager for ABC's aerial deployment of mosquitoes. 'We have more flexibility with deployment timing in areas that generally have very unpredictable weather and it's safer because no humans need to ride in the aircraft to deploy the mosquitoes.' It also 'reduces costs, team flight times, emissions and noise, which in turn means cheaper, more sustainable deployments,' he adds. Farmer expects it to be a year or so before they will see the results of the deployments and whether the IIT technique is working. However, he is hopeful that it will help 'buy time' for the birds to recover. A recent study from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute found there is still time to save honeycreepers like the ʻakekeʻe from extinction if IIT mosquito control efforts are successful. Christopher Kyriazis, postdoctoral researcher from San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance and lead author of the report, told CNN that their modeling demonstrated the urgency of the situation: 'If you wait even a couple years, the window narrows really quickly.' While IIT is 'ambitious' and has never been used on this scale for these sorts of conservation aims before, he believes 'there is hope for the species, if it can be effective.' If mosquito populations were under control, there is the possibility that the honeycreepers would have time to replenish populations and with more genetic diversity, and may even develop their own resistance to avian malaria. There are already signs of that happening with one honeycreeper species, the 'amakihi, on Hawaii Island, says Farmer. However, Kyriazis cautions that 'even if a (protective) mutation did arise at this point, for it to be able to spread through the population fast enough to save it is very unlikely.' A safer environment would also give the opportunity to reintroduce captive populations of birds like the 'akikiki; although it is extinct in the wild, some are being bred at bird conservation centers in Hawaii. For Farmer, being at the forefront of this effort and seeing birds go extinct is 'soul shattering.' But it also drives him. 'We have the ability to save these species,' he says. 'If we don't save these birds in this decade, then they probably won't be here for the future. And so the ability to make a difference in the world, make a difference in the future, motivates us all.' Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Lost underwater forests are returning to Sydney's coastline
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. Crayweed, a large, golden-brown seaweed, found along Australia's southeastern coast, plays a crucial role in ocean health. Its underwater forests capture carbon, create shelter for marine species and serve as a nursery for creatures like abalone and rock lobsters. Once widespread along Sydney's coastline, it disappeared from a 70-kilometer stretch around the 1980s, at a time when sewage was being discharged into the sea, according to Operation Crayweed. The conservation initiative, primarily run by scientists from universities and research institutes, aims to restore 60 hectares of forest in shallow rocky reef habitats. 'We're not just bringing back one species, we're building an entire ecosystem,' says Dr. Adriana Vergés, a professor of marine ecology at the University of New South Wales Sydney, and co-founder of Operation Crayweed. Improvements in sewage disposal mean the water around Sydney has become clean enough to support crayweed, according to the group, but for it to make a return, it must first be planted and then successfully reproduce. At designated restoration sites, scientists and volunteers attach healthy male and female crayweed collected from wild populations onto biodegradable mats fixed to reefs. Crayweed reproduces when male plants release sperm into the water, which fertilizes eggs from the female plant. These fertilized eggs grow into young crayweed, known as 'craybies,' which anchor to the seafloor and grow into new forests. Once established, the mats are removed, and the forest continues to grow and spread on its own. Since Operation Crayweed began over a decade ago, it has targeted 16 sites along Sydney's reefs, seven of which now have established self-sustaining crayweed populations. The restored forests cover over two hectares, and microscopic animals are already returning, according to Vergés. Three new sites, Lurline Bay, Dee Why, and South Maroubra, were added in 2024. Dee Why alone jumped from just 10 crayweed plants to 466 juvenile crayweed in a single year and by early 2025, more than 1,500 craybies had established themselves at South Maroubra, according to Operation Crayweed. 'I get a real kick out of seeing it. And now it's expanded so much that you can see it even without getting in the water,' says Vergés. 'When the tide is low, you can see the crayweed swaying as the water pulls away from the coast.' The team plans to restore 10 more sites in the next two and a half years. Dr. Prue Francis, a senior lecturer in marine science at Deakin University, who isn't part of Operation Crayweed, says the project can have a wider impact in the area. 'People often focus on the dramatic bleaching of coral reefs, but with kelp forests, the decline is quieter, until it's too late. These underwater forests are supporting a whole ecosystem. When they're gone, like in parts of Sydney where crayweed has vanished, nothing grows back,' she told CNN. 'Restoration efforts like Operation Crayweed aren't just about bringing back seaweed, they're about saving an entire web of life that depends on it,' she added. As well as planting crayweed, the team is using advanced techniques to help it survive in a world where climate change is making oceans warmer, and environmental conditions more extreme. It has successfully mixed genetic populations sourced from north and south of Sydney, which enables the restored populations to reflect the natural genetic diversity and structure of healthy existing populations — 'an important innovation,' says Vergés — and is testing whether crayweed genetics or its microbes (tiny living organisms that live on its surface) play a greater role in helping it survive rising ocean temperatures. The team is also looking to build up a 'biobank' of crayweed populations as a contingency in case they are wiped out by a heatwave. 'In Western Australia, such a marine heatwave erased entire crayweed populations. To prevent similar losses, we are turning to cryopreservation,' says Vergés. 'We collect the sperm and eggs from different populations and freeze them at ultra-low temperatures.' While other kelp species have been cryopreserved in research labs around the world, no one had successfully applied the method to crayweed, says Catalina Musrri Fuenzalida, who is working on freezing efforts as part of her PhD at the University of Sydney. 'We don't have any genotypes or biobanks for these species,' she explained. 'So, if we lose a population, it's gone forever.' Beyond the technical challenge, the work has a deeper meaning for Musrri Fuenzalida: 'Sometimes, as a young scientist, it's hard not to feel hopeless. But this feels like something real, something that can make a difference,' she says. 'It gives you hope.' The efforts of Operation Crayweed are part of wider global efforts to recover lost kelp habitat. The Kelp Forest Challenge aims to restore four million hectares of kelp globally by 2040. For Vergés, the success of the project is both scientific and personal. 'I swim in the ocean on weekends, and everywhere I go now, I see crayweed again,' she says. 'It was gone, and it never would've come back by itself.'
CNN
24-06-2025
- Science
- CNN
Drone footage reveals orcas using tools in a stunning first
Editor's Note: Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet Initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action. CNN — Behavioral ecologist Michael Weiss was browsing through new drone footage of the orca pods he studies in the Salish Sea when he spotted one of the killer whales carrying something green in its mouth and noticed an unusual behavior: Some orcas were rubbing against each other for up to 15 minutes at a time. At first, Weiss didn't think much of it 'because whales do weird things,' he said. But more observations yielded similar sights on his drone camera. 'I zoom in, and sure enough, there's clear as day this piece of kelp that they're using to rub on each other.' Over the course of just two weeks in 2024, Weiss and his team documented 30 examples of these curious interactions. They found that the southern resident orcas — a distinct population of killer whales — were detaching strands of bull kelp from the seafloor to roll between their bodies in a behavior the scientists dubbed 'allokelping.' Allokelping could be a form of grooming for skin hygiene, as well as a way to socially bond with other members of the pod, the researchers reported in a new paper published Monday in the journal Current Biology. The discovery marks the first time cetaceans — marine mammals including whales, dolphins and porpoises — have been observed using an object as a tool to groom. Across the animal kingdom, using tools is rare, according to behavioral ecologists. But when it does happen, it's often for finding food or attracting mates. 'This is a quite different way of using an object,' said Weiss, the study's lead author and research director of the Center for Whale Research in Washington state. Allokelping theories There are two possible reasons behind the allokelping behavior, Weiss and his team hypothesize. Hygiene, such as treating or removing dead skin, could be one explanation. Cetaceans often shed dead skin, which helps keep their bodies smooth and aerodynamic. Skin lesions, particularly gray patches, are becoming more prevalent in southern resident orcas, Weiss added, so allokelping might be a way to treat those lesions. The other hypothesis, Weiss explained, is that allokelping is a way to strengthen social bonds, as the whale pairs seen exhibiting this behavior were usually close relatives or similar in age. 'These guys are incredibly socially bonded,' said Deborah Giles, an orca scientist at the SeaDoc Society who was not involved with the research. This behavior is fascinating but not entirely surprising, she added. Orcas are curious and tactile, with brains that are large compared with their body size, Giles explained, adding that some parts of the killer whale brain are more developed than what's seen in humans. Each orca population even has its own dialect. Cetaceans also have sensitive skin, explained Janet Mann, a behavioral ecologist at Georgetown University who has studied marine mammals for 37 years. Orcas are known to rub on other objects such as smooth-pebble beaches in Canada, or on algal mats. But it's unusual to see two individual killer whales using a tool to seemingly exfoliate each other, she said. 'What (the study) shows is that we know very little about cetacean behavior in the wild,' Mann said. Allokelping likely wouldn't have been discovered without advances in drone and camera technology, which have opened up 'a whole new world' for scientists to better understand cetaceans' complex lifestyles, Mann said. Historically, whales are observed from shore or from boats, offering a limited perspective of what's happening in the water. But drones offer a bird's-eye view of what marine animals are doing just below the surface. It's likely this population has been allokelping for a while, she said — only now we can see it. Cultural phenomenon Orca scientists with drone footage are probably going to be on the lookout for this sort of behavior now, Giles said. Killer whales aren't the only cetaceans known to use tools, though. Some bottlenose dolphins have been observed carefully removing and using sponges to scare up prey on the seabed, a sophisticated behavior that only a small fraction of the population exhibits, said Mann, who has studied the dolphins in Australia's Shark Bay. Some other bottlenose dolphins use their tails to slap the ground in a circle, creating mud-ring plumes that trap fish. And humpback whales have long used bubble nets to catch prey. Whether these examples constitute 'using tools' is a topic of debate in the scientific community, but regardless, they are all behaviors related to foraging for food. What makes allokelping unique is its potential benefits for skin health and relationships — in other words, it appears to be a cultural practice. 'This idea of allogrooming (with tools) is largely limited to primates, which is what makes it remarkable,' said Philippa Brakes, a behavioral ecologist with the nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation who was not involved with the research. 'This kind of feels like a moment in time for cetaceans, because it does prove that you don't necessarily need a thumb to be able to manipulate a tool.' Brakes, who studies social learning and culture in cetaceans, added that this new research 'tells us quite a lot about how important culture is for these species.' Each population — in this case, southern resident orcas — has a distinct dialect for communication, specific foraging strategies and now a unique type of tool use. In a rapidly changing environment, Brakes said, 'culture provides a phenomenal way for animals to be able to adapt,' as it has for humans. 'It's more reason to ensure that we protect their habitat as well as their behavior,' she noted. A 'completely novel' find Indeed, southern resident killer whales are critically endangered and federally protected both in the United States and Canada, with a total population of just 74 whales. And as bull kelp is in decline due to human activities that disrupt the seabed and more frequent heat waves caused by climate change, the overall ecosystem is degrading. Kelp forests are also critical nursery habitat for juvenile chinook salmon — a key part of killer whales' diet, Giles said. Southern residents have been spending less and less time in the Salish Sea over the years, possibly because of dwindling prey, said Monika Wieland Shields, cofounder and director of the nonprofit Orca Behavior Institute. 'This study makes me wonder if one of the reasons the Southern Residents continue to visit the Salish Sea periodically even during times of low salmon abundance is to engage in allokelping,' Shields wrote in an email to CNN. The research is now leading to new areas of study. 'This cetacean data point is a really important one because it's completely novel,' said Dora Biro, an animal cognition researcher at the University of Rochester who was not involved with the study. Biro, who has mostly studied tool use in wild chimpanzees, added that examples of terrestrial tool use are much more widespread than in aquatic environments. She is now working on a grant proposal with Weiss' team to better understand the purpose of the behavior. But for Brakes, there doesn't necessarily need to be a purpose: 'The objective may just be social bonding, and that would still make it a tool.'
