Latest news with #wildlifeConservation
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Trail cameras reveal stunning glimpses of endangered wildlife in protected region: 'These natural treasures endure for future generations'
Trail cameras captured elusive sightings of a few endangered species in Oman in the first half of this year. Times of Oman reported that the Arabian lynx, Arabian tahr, and Arabian wolf were recorded. They are all unique to the Arabian Peninsula and some surrounding countries. This is great news for the Al Dakhiliyah Governorate in Oman, which is where the animals were found. These observations mean that natural resources are becoming balanced again. The Oman Environment Authority has been observing the Arabian lynx since the 1990s. Trail cameras have observed the species at least since 2021. Suhail bin Muhammad Al-Mushaykhi, an environmental systems specialist at the Jabal Samhan Natural Reserve, told Arabian Daily that 15 observations of Arabian lynx were captured between 2021 and 2023. Of those, five were caught by trail cameras. Jabal Samhan is the largest nature reserve in Oman. As of 2023, it has an approximate population of 50 Arabian lynx. While human activity is very limited inside the reserve, people can still visit and appreciate its environment. Being in nature can be great for your mental health. An experience like this can also drive home how we all affect each other within an ecosystem. By using tools like trail cameras, researchers are using non-invasive methods to keep tabs on animal populations. Observing in this way allows animals to act as they would without human intervention. It can also aid in rehabilitating how an ecosystem functions. Ahmed Salim Al Amiri, director of Al Dakhiliyah's Environment Department, has been pleased with Oman's use of trail cameras. Al Amiri told the Times of Oman that local communities are critical "in supporting environmental efforts, stressing the need to comply with regulations protecting wildlife to ensure these natural treasures endure for future generations." By monitoring animal populations, local researchers play a huge role in ensuring our environment's stability for years to come. Should the U.S. invest in building more wildlife overpasses? Absolutely Depends on how we do it Depends on where we do it Nope Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
ABC News
3 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Endangered Leadbeater's possum found in Kosciuszko National Park
A forest expert says after decades of speculation, scientists may have stumbled upon a new subspecies of the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum inside Kosciuszko National Park. Forest ecologist David Lindenmayer said while the possum was thought to be extinct in New South Wales, a research team from the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water had likely stumbled across a new subspecies of the animal. After reviewing almost 1 million images from ground-based wildlife cameras set up to survey the also critically endangered smoky mouse, the possum was spotted in seven photos taken over a period of just 10 seconds in October. The images weren't discovered until last week. "It looks like a sugar glider, except it's not a glider," Professor Lindenmayer said. "It's a jumping possum that moves like greased lightning in the forest understorey, and this really illustrates the importance of large, protected areas like Kosciuszko National Park." All that was previously known about the mammal's NSW population was from fossil records from around the Yarrangobilly Caves and the Wombeyan Caves, outside Goulburn. "I think this is a relic population that has always been there, just in very small numbers that are very hard to detect," Professor Lindenmayer said. "This new discovery is very significant because other subspecies of the possum in Victoria are now getting perilously close to being lost. "There is a lowland population in southern Victoria, which is now down to about 40 individuals. "This new discovery shows there are some other safety populations outside that one." Two Leadbeater's possums were recently released into Coranderrk Bushland Nature Conservation Reserve in Victoria, in a decade-long effort to help rehabilitate the species. Professor Lindenmayer said after a climate model dating back to 1989 had predicted the possible presence of the marsupial in Kosciuszko National Park, he had been unable to sight the animal. "I spent several months wandering around the park doing night-time surveys and daytime vegetation assessments, and I never saw one in the park," he said. "I had a feeling it might be there, so this new discovery is wonderful news." NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said the department would now conduct further surveys on the population. "It's an amazing discovery that we weren't expecting," she said. "We are really hopeful that this means this possum that we thought was previously extinct in NSW, is actually making a recovery." Ms Sharpe said the department would work with Victorian authorities on better understanding the species. "We know there are many threatened species, so to find one in New South Wales that we thought was extinct gives great hope to all our environmental programs that animals can return if we look after their habitat," she said. Professor Lindenmayer said while improvements in survey technology, such as cameras, had helped lead to the discovery, more would not be known until the population's genes were sequenced. "I think the population has been quite isolated from the populations in central Victoria, and they are not necessarily an easy animal to catch, but they are [able to be trapped] with the right techniques," he said. "It will be possible to take small tissue or hair samples to work out what its genetics are to see whether it's closely or distantly related to the animals in Victoria."
Forbes
3 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
11 Southeast States Offer Tips For People Living Among Alligators
American alligator walking along a two-lane highway in Florida. As more people are move into traditional alligator habitats, 11 Southeastern states have launched the GatorWise website with pointers about how to minimize problems while living among the dangerous reptiles. Destruction of wetland habitats where American alligators have lived is occurring throughout the Southeast due to an influx of land development due to more people living there as well as company expansions or new business locations there. 'Some states are beginning to see an uptick in nuisance alligator reports and sightings, and some of these reports are simply that an alligator exists somewhere people hadn't seen one before,' herpetologist Amanda Bryant, of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, stated in a May 27 state notice. 'Some states, like Florida, have done an excellent job of spreading awareness about alligator behavior and safety, and we wanted to work together to have a cohesive message throughout the American alligator's range.' She noted the website contains useful tips such as 'keeping an eye out before entering the water in alligator habitat and keeping your pets on a leash and away from the shoreline will go a long way in preventing alligator conflicts.' In mid-May, the educational website was unveiled to promote safety between the public and wild alligators. The states behind GatorWise are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Native Range of American Alligators. "The introduction of GatorWise is important because information about how humans should behave around alligators is similar across the southeast, but until now, each state has had to manage their own outreach sites and information,' Morgan Hart, alligator biologist, noted in a May 19 announcement by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. "We hope that being able to reference a central place for information will help people and alligators coexist safely.' The state agency explained that continued 'significant human development' is expected within American alligator habitats in southeastern states. 'Alligators are a robust species that can thrive in areas where development occurs, as long as the people in these areas understand how to responsibly coexist with them,' SCDNR added. The American alligator is a federally protected species and among North America's largest reptiles. The name alligator can be traced back to Spanish explorers who called them 'el lagarto' (the lizard). Alligators laying on the pond's edge in Hilton Head, South Carolina. While most people don't think of Tennessee as having alligators, the reptiles are appearing in confirmed sightings in the southwestern areas. 'What we're seeing are alligators naturally expanding their range into Tennessee from the southern border states,' says Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency on its website. 'The TWRA has not stocked or released any alligators in Tennessee and we would like to remind everyone that possessing or releasing alligators in Tennessee is illegal and poses safety and ecological risks. Alligators expanding into Tennessee is just another species that we must learn to coexist with.' TWRA is reminding people to refrain from feeding or harassing the alligators, which are a protected species. 'Videos have circulated recently on the internet of people poking at and interacting with alligators in Tennessee, which falls under the State of Tennessee's definition of harassing wildlife and you could be cited for any incidents of interacting with them,' TWRA says. Alicia Wassmer, wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, said in May 19 press announcement that people need to learn more about living among alligators. 'As development continues to expand into once-remote areas where alligators live, we need to become GatorWise in order to safely share the land with this species,' Wassmer said. 'Urbanization is projected to increase at exponential rates in areas where alligator habitat occurs. This continuous conversion of natural spaces, coupled with a constant influx of newcomers who may not know that alligators are here or aren't familiar with alligator behavior, have amplified the need for state wildlife resource agencies to proactively connect residents and visitors with vital information on how to coexist responsibly with the alligators that live in these communities.' 'Urbanization is projected to increase at exponential rates in areas where alligator habitat occurs,' 'This continuous conversion of natural spaces, coupled with a constant influx of newcomers who may not know that alligators are here or aren't familiar with alligator behavior, have amplified the need for state wildlife resource agencies to proactively connect residents and visitors with vital information on how to coexist responsibly with the alligators that live in these communities.' American Alligator in Louisiana. The GatorWise website encourages people to learn where alligators live in the different Southeastern states since each state has different alligator ranges and habitats. Warning sign about alligators in Florida. A South Carolina factsheet by the SCDNR offers advice for what to do when attacked by a gator. 'In the rare event that you are attacked, awareness of alligator behavior may save your life. Alligators clamp down with powerful jaws, then twist and roll. If an alligator bites your arm, it may help to grab the alligator and roll with it to reduce tearing of the arm. Strike the nose of the alligator hard and often, and try to gouge the eyes. If at all possible, do not allow the alligator to pull you into the water.' Florida has 1.3 million alligators that live in all of the state's 67 counties. 'In recent years, Florida has experienced tremendous human population growth. Many residents seek waterfront homes, and increasingly participate in water-related activities. This can result in more frequent alligator-human interactions, and a greater potential for conflict,' says the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Another state with a sizeable population of American alligators is Louisiana, which is also home to about 1 million alligators. In Louisiana, alligators live mostly along the state's coastal marshes but also can be found in its canals, bayous, rivers and swamps. The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries manages American alligators as a commercial renewable natural resource by allowing wild harvesting through hunting and alligator farms where 1 million are raised. According to LDWF, Louisiana alligator farmers harvested 438,577 farm-raised alligators in 2019 valued at an estimated $86 million. Alabama's American alligators are found throughout the state. The number has grown significantly within the past 50 years to become a public nuisance in some areas and 'now cause hundreds of complaints annually from citizens concerned about public safety,' according to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Consequently, hunting is allowed annually to curb alligator populations. In Arkansas, larger concentrations of the gators tend to live in the state's southeastern and the southwestern corners in places with large shallow water marshes and swamps. The state's diminishing American alligators rebounded from being decimated due to hunting and lost habitat until restocking efforts from 1970s to early 1980s released over 2,840 American alligators from Louisiana. Greater numbers of the reptiles enable the state to provide regulated hunting. Georgia is thought to have some 250,000 of the American alligators living primarily along the Fall Line (a geological boundary between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain regions) and south of it, such as around Augustus, Columbus and Macon. 'They are found in marshes, swamps, rivers, farm ponds and lakes in the wild, but also have been found in ditches, neighborhoods, drainage canals, roadways, golf course ponds and sometimes in swimming pools,' according to an Alligator Fact Sheet from the wildlife division of Georgia Department of Natural Resources. The agency publicized the GatorWise information on its website May 29. 'As the weather warms up and people are spending more time outdoors, it's a great time to remind everyone that it is normal to see alligators moving around and basking in rivers, ponds and lakes in the southern part of the state,' said Kara Nitschke, state wildlife resources divison alligator biologist. 'Alligators are native to Georgia and are critical to the health and balance of our ecosystems, so being GatorWise means we know how to modify our behavior to minimize any potential conflict.' Mississippi has between 32,000 and 38,000 alligators. The area with the most (nearly 25%) is Jackson County, followed by Hancock County and about 408,000 acres of alligator habitat in. Both counties are at the tip of the Gulf coastline. However, people living in Rankin County are more likely to come across a gator since there. The state determines its alligator populations by counting at night eyeshine counts using lights to document how many alligator eyeballs they find, which appear as orange under the illumination. 'Night-light surveys over the last three years indicate that Rankin County has the highest alligator densities in the state, averaging 7.35 alligators per mile along survey routes, versus an average of 1.76 alligators per mile for the rest of the state. Most of the Rankin County alligator population is located in and around Ross Barnett Reservoir and in the Pearl River to Ratliff Ferry,' says the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. North Carolina's gators tend to live north of Albemarle Sound, south along the eastern coast and as far west as in Robeson County. The two southernmost coastal counties of New Hanover and Brunswick are where most of the alligator nuisance reports are coming from. The state passed a law nearly 20 years ago to deter people from feeding alligators. 'Alligators are usually shy and secretive in nature. If fed, they can lose their natural fear of humans and learn to associate people with an easy meal,' stated the North Carolina Alligator Management Plan issued in 2017 by the NCWRC. 'The perception many individuals have that every alligator is a dangerous nuisance, misconceptions about alligator behavior and biology, public unawareness that alligators exist in North Carolina, and the transient nature of human populations in some areas (e.g., military bases, vacation destinations, recreational areas) all contribute to the need for a strong and continual education and outreach program to keep the public informed.' South Carolina's alligators live in coastal marsh areas but can be found in retention pounds rivers, streams and lakes. Each year there are from 300 to 350 alligators removed and euthanized due to public safety concerns posed to people and their pets. The SCDNR does not relocate alligators because they return to their habitats. 'Alligators have a strong homing instinct. Adult alligators will attempt to return home even after they've been moved many miles, crossing anything in their way to get back, including backyards and highways,' SCDNR says. American alligators in Oklahoma live primarily in isolated areas and marshlands in the state's southeastern corner. The counties that are the home to most alligators in Oklahoma are Choctaw and McCurtain. American Alligator locations in Texas. In Texas, American alligators live in a wide swath from the tip of the state in Brownsville at the Gulf up to the entire eastern side. 'With the human population in Texas continuing to expand, increased contact between people and alligators can be expected,' noted a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department factsheet. 'Alligators naturally shy away from humans. However, problems do arise when people feed alligators because the alligator loses its fear of humans and begins to associate people with food. This produces a potentially dangerous situation. An alligator that has been frequently hand-fed will often lunge at an outstretched hand. This action is often interpreted as an 'alligator attack' when in reality the alligator has been conditioned to respond to an outstretched hand expecting to be fed. For this reason, it is wrong to feed any wild alligator.' Alligator activity. Alligators are thought to have a key role in balancing wetland ecosystems. They can live as long as 50 years in the wild and aren't generally safe from being killed by predators (except people) after they grow more than four feet long. Raccoons, bears, otters and hogs are known to eat alligator eggs in nests. Young gators can become the prey of otters, fish, raccoon, wading birds and even larger alligators. American alligators mostly stay in areas where they were hatched from eggs between two and three years before they move to find their own ranges. Their body size can be from 6 to 14 feet long. Male alligators can weigh 1,000 pounds. Their front feet have 5 toes, while the back feet have 4 webbed toes. Other unusual characteristics is they have two sets of eyelids (a vertical one human like and a horizontal transparent membrane one) and teeth that grown back. A single alligators can grow 3,000 teeth in its lifetime. Juvenile alligators can eat amphibians, insects, amphibians and small fish, while adults consume snakes, birds, turtles, rough fish, small mammals and other opportunistic prey. 'Both males and females vocalize. The male calls with a loud, throaty bellow and may hiss and inflate to impress a mate. Females bellow and grunt, too, but less loudly. Young alligators call with a high-pitched chirp,' notes the NCWRC. A recently published study by Christopher M. Murray, Tyler S. Coleman, Wray Gabel and Ken Krauss looked at the role American alligators play in wetland ecosystems as helping to regulate carbon stored in soil, which has decomposed plants. 'Results indicate that American alligator presence is positively correlated with soil carbon stock across habitats within their native distribution,' noted a U.S. Geological Service article on the study,'American Alligators (Alligator Nississippiensis) as Wetland Ecosystem Carbon Stock Regulators.' Researchers are examining links between climate change and mitigation strategies such as the use of natural carbon stored in soils. This role that alligators are thought to play in the environment is among their place as an apex predator regulating ecosystem populations in wetlands.
ABC News
4 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Breeding program launched in Victoria for critically endangered Leadbeater's possums
Protected by a predator-proof fence, two tiny Leadbeater's possums have settled into their new life at the Coranderrk Bushland Nature Conservation Reserve with a big task ahead. Named Mercury (male) and Narvi (female), the possums have been raised and released by scientists from the Healesville Sanctuary in a decade-long effort to help rehabilitate the species. Healesville Sanctuary's threatened species keeper Amie Hindson said the pair had settled in well to their new habitat and were showing signs of forming a positive bond. "They were getting together straight away from night one, so that was a really good sign that they were getting along pretty well," she said. Scientists will continue to monitor the possums in the hope they will successfully establish a new colony in the wild. The Leadbeater's possum is unique to Victoria and was named the state's animal emblem in 1971. They are only found in the mountain ash forests of the Victorian central highlands, from Healesville and Marysville to Mt Baw Baw. Adult possums are about 40 centimetres in length and have distinctive markings on their face. There are two distinct groups of Leadbeater's possums: highland and lowland. Highland possums live in the central highlands of Victoria, and lowland possums only live at Yellingbo Nature Conservation Area. Once presumed extinct, the Leadbeater's possum was rediscovered in 1961, with the lowland population thought lost until 1986. Ms Hindson said the species was now listed as critically endangered due to habitat loss. "There are a lot of issues due to habitat loss and poor quality habitat, which are really affecting possum numbers in the wild." Both populations are critically endangered, with fewer than 40 lowland possums remaining in the wild. Scientists at Healesville have been working to establish a captive breeding program with the highland Leadbeater. Female possum Narvi was a successful result of that program. Her match with Mercury, a lowland Leadbeater, marks a first for the sanctuary as it tries to successfully match a mixed pairing. Healesville field officer Arabella Eyre worked to bring Mercury into the breeding program. She said breeding across the populations would hopefully ensure greater genetic diversity among wild populations. "The lowland population is so small, there are fewer than 40 individuals left in the wild," she said. "That's nine breeding pairs, and that can only hold on for so long. The team is radio tracking the possums and providing supplementary food as the possums adjust to wild conditions. As Mercury and Narvi settle into their new forest home, scientists will continue to monitor their progress with hopes that a new joey may soon join the pair. "That would mean so much to us," Ms Eyre said.
CNN
5 days ago
- General
- CNN
Elephant seal in Cape Town finds its way into suburbia, stops traffic
A Southern elephant seal makes a surprise visit to the residential neighborhood of Gordon's Bay in Cape Town, South Africa, and triggers an almost nine-hour rescue effort to return him to the coast.
