Tag Archives: Hawaii

Hawaiian petrels endangered by feral cats

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This video says about itself:

Rare ‘ua’u (petrel) returns to burrow in the moonlight high on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

From Wildlife Extra:

New study provides first direct evidence of feral cats in Hawaii killing endangered Hawaiian petrel

Hawaiian petrel existence threatened by cats

April 2013. A new study by federal and university scientists has provided the first direct videographic evidence of depredation of the endangered Hawaiian Petrel by feral cats. The study affirms large amounts of earlier anecdotal evidence that feral cats are an important factor in population declines of the species and provides important additional information on the behaviour of cats at petrel burrows.

Petrel burrows video surveillance

The study, which was prepared by scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi, National Park Service, and U.S. Geological Survey, involved the monitoring of 14 Hawaiian Petrel burrows with digital infrared video cameras that produced 819 videos and 89 still photographs during 2007 and 2008 at petrel nesting areas on Mauna Loa on Hawaiʻi Island. The study confirmed the presence of feral cats at eight burrows.

The report says that the effects of feral cats on endangered birds are poorly understood because many endangered species are rare and therefore observed infrequently. In addition, some endangered species are nocturnal and occur only seasonally in remote and inaccessible environments.

Numbers reduced drastically

All that is true in the case of the Hawaiian Petrel. This species was once numerous and widespread throughout the entire Hawaiian archipelago but now numbers only about 15,000 birds distributed in isolated breeding colonies on Kauaʻi, Lanaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island. The birds spend most of their time at sea, and return to land only to breed in barren alpine areas and steep forested slopes, where they come and go from underground burrows nocturnally. Usually, confirmation of breeding is determined by a variety of indirect signs such as the presence of droppings, feathers, footprints, or vocalizations.

Depredation of Hawaiian Petrel adults and chicks at colonies has been frequently documented and attributed to cats based on the condition of bird carcasses and the presence of nearby cat scat. Analysis of cat scat and stomach contents of feral cats also suggest that cat depredation is occurring. However, the technology does not currently exist to differentiate whether petrel remains came from consumption of live prey or scavenged dead animals.

One feral cat depredation event was recorded on video in 2008 and showed a feral cat waiting near the entrance of a burrow for over one hour. When the petrel chick emerged, the cat quickly grabbed it. The remains of the chick were found 10 meters from the burrow. Evidence from an additional depredation event was documented in 2008 during a field visit by researchers, while eight other depredation events were documented during field visits in 2007.

The report says that the video data should prove useful in studying both the bird’s nesting behaviour and predator interactions. “This information may prove to be beneficial for developing more targeted management strategies for a suite of endangered bird species in Hawaii,” said Dr. Steven Hess of the U.S. Geological Survey.

Endangered Palila and Hawaiian goose also targeted

Video evidence already exists for feral cat depredation of another endangered Hawaiian bird, the Palila, while another video shows a feral cat trying to take the egg of a Nēnē, the endangered Hawaiian Goose. According to the study, other strong evidence for the negative effects of feral cats on native Hawaiian seabirds comes from the positive response of bird populations where feral cats have been controlled and from comparisons of Wedge-tailed Shearwater reproduction in the presence and absence of feral cats.

The authors point out that while the depredation of Hawaiian Petrel chicks may limit the recruitment of chicks into the population, the killing of adults by cats may have even more severe consequences.

Slow reproduction rate

“This species has delayed sexual maturity, low reproductive potential and extended nestling development, all of which place a premium on survivorship of the adult birds. Further, the birds also have a high degree of mate fidelity and may have difficulty replacing mates that have been depredated,” said Dr. Darcy Hu of the National Park Service.

She pointed out that the majority of numerous depredated Hawaiian Petrel carcasses found in the study area were adult birds, presumably ones that were actively breeding or seeking mates.

Cat based extinction

“These data provide yet more evidence that feral cats are having an impact on many wildlife species, but especially on birds,” said George Wallace, ABC’s Vice President for Oceans and Islands. “Feral cats are believed to have been at least partially, if not fully, responsible for the extinction of several dozen wildlife species, including the Stephens Island Wren of New Zealand and Mexico’s Guadalupe Storm-Petrel. Management controls, such as predator control and predator-proof fencing are urgently needed to prevent that from happening to the Hawaiian Petrel.”

One such effort is underway to protect Mauna Loa’s Hawaiian Petrels. The National Park Service with support from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the American Bird Conservancy, is constructing a fence specifically designed to keep feral cats and mongooses out of important Hawaiian Petrel nesting habitat in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. Once completed, the fence will protect an estimated 45 active petrel nesting sites and enclose 640 acres of prime nesting habitat.

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Pacific island wildlife comeback

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This video says about itself:

May 26, 2009

Senior Scientist and Cultural Advisor for the Nature Conservancy Hawai’i, Sam Ohu Gon, shares why Palmyra is so special and why Hōkūle’a was allowed to visit this protected atoll.

The Hōkūle’a just completed a sail to Palmyra Atoll, 1,000 miles south of Hawai’i, as training for the Hōkūle’a Wolrdwide Voyage in which the traditional Hawaiian canoe will circumnavigate the Earth using ancient Polynesian navigation techniques. The crew carry with them the idea that we are all crew members on Canoe Earth and, just as on Hōkūle’a, we need to care for one another an our resources.

From Wildlife Extra:

Wildlife boom expected after eradication of 30,000 rats on Pacific island

Unexpected positive results already being recorded

January 2013. Wildlife numbers are expected to rebound at Palmyra Atoll, a 580-acre collection of islets located about 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, that has been given a rat-free bill of health one year after about 30,000 rats were eradicated as part of a major effort to remove these invasive predators, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and Island Conservation (IC) announced.

Removing non-native rats was the top priority for the Palmyra Atoll Restoration Project, a multi-year effort to protect 10 nesting seabird species, migratory shorebirds, coconut crabs, and one of the largest, last remaining native Pisonia grandis forests (a rare flowering tree in the Bougainvillea family) in the tropical Pacific.

“The collaborators did an outstanding job. The science on these efforts has been evolving, and while there have been some learning experiences along the way, the Palmyra effort stands out as a great example of how to do it right and get rid of destructive invasive species while still protecting the native wildlife,” said Dr. George Wallace, Vice President for Oceans and Islands at American Bird Conservancy.

Palmyra Atoll is cooperatively managed by US Federal Wildlife Society and The Nature Conservancy as a National Wildlife Refuge and a scientific research station. In 2009, the refuge and waters surrounding it, which include thousands of acres of healthy coral reefs, were designated as a part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Black rats arrived during WWII

Non-native black rats were likely introduced to the atoll during World War II, and the population grew to as many 30,000 rats. The invasive rodents eat eggs and chicks of ground and tree-nesting birds, particularly sooty and white terns. Rats also eat land crabs and the seeds and seedlings of native tree species.

To reverse this trend, in June 2011, FWS, TNC and IC carefully and strategically implemented the removal of the destructive, non-native rats from Palmyra Atoll, using brodificoum, a rodenticide that has been successfully used in similar projects on other islands. The Palmyra project was the result of more than seven years of planning and research to ensure that native species were not harmed during the removal, and was the first step in a longer-term effort to restore the atoll’s ecological balance.

Crab population explosion

“This wonderful atoll is again able to thrive the way nature intended-without rats. Palmyra has been infested with rats for so long, there will be benefits to wildlife we didn’t even fully anticipate-such as the explosion of the fiddler crab population that we’re seeing,” said Susan White, Monument Superintendent/Refuge Project Leader, Pacific Reefs National Wildlife Refuge and Monuments Complex, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Palmyra’s crucial role in sustaining the Pacific oceanscape is solidified because of this remarkable team of exceptionally talented people.”

Rat free

Using the same proven methods that were used years before to detect the extent of the rat problem on Palmyra, scientists conducted surveys over a month-long period this summer and confirmed that the entire atoll is currently rat-free. In the tropical climate at Palmyra, rats reproduce approximately once every 3-4 months, so conducting surveys one year after the removal effort is sufficient time to detect rats remaining on the atoll. During the summer, the project partners established a network of 286 rat monitoring stations that covered the entire atoll. Each station was checked four times during the course of one month. Aside from the detection stations, team members spent hundreds of hours scouring the atoll for indicators of rat presence. In accordance with observations of the recovery of native species over the past year that suggested that the project was successful, the recent monitoring found no rats after one year.

“Millions of seabirds, trees, crabs and other native species can now thrive in their home without the threat of being eaten by rats. Staff and visitors to the atoll have seen a large increase in the numbers of crabs, insects, seedlings and seabirds. Our collective efforts to bring balance back to Palmyra are working. The scientific rigor, attention to detail, and collaboration is a testament to the integrity and cooperative nature of our partnership,” said Suzanne Case, Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Hawai’i program.

Dramatic increases already observed

The University of California Santa Cruz Coastal Conservation Action Lab (UCSC-CCAL) is monitoring the response of Palmyra’s terrestrial ecosystem by comparing measures of seabird, shorebird, and plant populations taken before and after rat removal. In the summer of 2012 they found dramatic increases, including:

Over 130% increase in native tree seedlings (Palmyra has ten locally rare native tree species), and the first record of Pisonia seedlings (no seedlings were observed in 2007 prior to rat removal);
A 367% increase in arthropods (such as insects, spiders, and crabs); and
No change in Bristle-thighed Curlews found at Palmyra (special care was taken to ensure this imperilled species was not negatively impacted by the rat removal project)

“With the atoll free of rats, we are already seeing a dramatic increase in many things that rats preyed upon: nesting seabirds, migratory shorebirds, native tree seedlings, and small invertebrates like fiddler crabs. The island is truly rebounding,” said Gregg Howald, North America Regional Director, Island Conservation.

Although Palmyra is rat-free today, the threat of re-introducing rats or other invasive species is present anytime a boat or airplane travels to the atoll. A detailed biosecurity plan is in place to minimize the threat of non-native species being introduced to the atoll.

The removal of introduced species, such as black rats, is a proven, effective conservation tool that has been successful on numerous islands across the globe, including the Galapagos archipelago, a multitude of islands in New Zealand, the Channel Islands off the coast of California, and Hawadax Island (formerly ‘Rat Island’) of the Aleutian Island chain in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Great white shark mating discovery

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This video is called Nature’s Perfect Predator – Great White Shark.

From New Scientist:

Zoologger: The great white shark cattle market

Species: Carcharodon carcharias
Habitat: Throughout the tropical and temperate oceans, acting mysteriously

Great white sharks are legendary. Ever since Jaws, we have known them as ferocious killing machines that sneak up on unsuspecting prey from the depths of the ocean.

But no animal can spend its entire life hunting and munching. Somehow, somewhere, the sharks must get together to mate.

Finally, we have a clue how they do it.

Because they spend so much time in remote waters, and don’t survive in captivity, great white sharks are deeply mysterious creatures. But over the last ten years, biologists have been able to track them using electronic tags which record their position and depth, and the ocean temperature.

On the face of it, that information can’t tell you what the sharks are actually doing. But Salvador Jorgensen of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, and colleagues have developed a new statistical analysis that picks out patterns of behaviour from the tagging data.

It seems to confirm earlier suggestions that the sharks have a breeding ground in the east Pacific. What’s more, it suggests that the males go there to show off side-by-side in front of the choosy females – cattle-market style.

On the prowl

Jorgensen looked at the electronic records of 53 great whites in the eastern Pacific, covering a period of 5571 days.

He found that the sharks spent a lot of time in two offshore habitats. One is around Hawaii; the other is an area between Hawaii and the Baja peninsula of Mexico, known as the White Shark Café, a region where they are already known to congregate. When travelling between these habitats and the coast of North America, the sharks swam just below the surface, only rarely diving deeper.

In Hawaii and the Café, the sharks spent more time diving – in two distinct ways. In both regions, they often spent the day in the depths and surfaced at night in pursuit of prey.

But sharks in the Café also went in for a different kind of diving: from the surface down to 500 metres and back again. “They go up and down, day and night,” Jorgensen says, often completing 150 such cycles within 24 hours. “It’s an astonishing behaviour.” No other shark has been seen doing it.

Sharks made more of these oscillatory dives the closer they were to the centre of the Café, with males performing them much more than females.

Ever since the Café was discovered, researchers have suspected that it must be a mating ground since it has little prey to draw the sharks. Jorgensen says the sharks’ peculiar diving strengthens the case.

Shark lek?

Many birds mate in a system known as a lek: the males establish territories next to each other, and the females move between them to pick their favourite. Essentially, the system ensures that females have the best possible choice of mates.

Jorgensen says the great whites may be doing the same thing. Rapidly diving and surfacing may be a way for males to display their strength and endurance to the females, just like a man might show off his skills on the diving board of a hotel pool.

Lek systems evolve in species where the males do not help to raise the offspring, so the females simply want to get the best possible genes for their young. That’s very much the case with great whites, as males and females spend very little time together.

If the Café isn’t a lek, it could simply be a designated mating zone: by entering it, females are announcing that they are willing to mate. In that case, the diving behaviour could be interpreted as the males searching up and down for females. “The fittest males will search the most and have the most success,” Jorgensen says.

Violent encounters

Right now we don’t know enough to distinguish between the two possibilities. We do know that females spend much less time in the centre of the Café than males do. That makes sense, because while we don’t know exactly how great whites mate, we know it is violent. Females often have bite marks and other injuries, probably from males holding onto them by biting their fins. As a result, Jorgensen says females would want to slip into the Café, mate once, and then leave in a hurry.

Regardless of exactly what is happening, the Café area is clearly important for white sharks, says Jorgensen. “All the mature males [in that region] go there, every year.”

Great whites are considered vulnerable to extinction due to the high amount of food needed to support each shark, coupled with the fact that people such as trophy hunters and sports fisherman are often eager to kill them. If the Café really is a mating zone, Jorgensen says we should consider making it a protected area.

Journal reference: PLOS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047819

Warmer seas ‘driving sharks towards beaches’: here.

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Welcome subsciber #500, oahuhiking!

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In December last year, my blog was still at Blogsome; where one could not follow blogs like in WordPress.

Then, Blogsome stopped, and I had to move the blog to WordPress.

I am grateful to everyone who started to follow my WordPress blog.

Today, their number has reached the #500 mark.

#500 is oahuhiking, with a fine blog about the nature in Oahu island in Hawaii.

Especially for oahuhiking, a special welcome meal.

It consists of sharkless sharkfin soup.

Edible turtle

Then, vegetarian turtle, which does not kill any real turtles.

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First Polynesian humans discovery

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This video says about itself:

“The last great human migration: DNA and the human settlement of the Pacific” (Part 1)

Professor Lisa Matisoo Smith, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Friday 13 May 2011

Over the last thirty years there has been a fundamental change in our knowledge of the human settlement of the remote Pacific, the last major region of the Earth to be colonised by people.

The story begins with the Neolithic expansion out of Asia via Taiwan, through Island Southeast Asia and Near Oceania and out into Remote Oceania. In the Pacific, this migration event is associated archaeologically with the appearance and spread of the Lapita Cultural Complex (about 3500 to 2000 years ago) and linguistically with the distribution of Austronesian languages. The final stage of this migration was the settlement of the Polynesian Triangle (demarcated by Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand).

While this so called “Fast Train Model” has, for the most part, been rejected by the archaeological community, this general story of the migration of a population making its way out of Taiwan and purposefully sailing through Near Oceania to the islands of Polynesia has captured the public imagination. Genetic research has also contributed to this story with the identification of molecular markers that appear to track this migration event — in particular the distribution of the mitochondrial DNA marker known as the “Polynesian motif”. But as more genetic data accumulate this simple model appears to be problematic.

This lecture will discuss the latest genetic studies that suggest a more complicated picture of Pacific settlement and population origins and show how ancient DNA analyses are allowing us to test some possible alternative scenarios for the settlement of the Pacific islands and beyond.

From Simon Fraser University in Canada:

Scientists improve dating of early human settlement

15 Nov 2012

A Simon Fraser University archaeologist and his colleagues at the University of Queensland in Australia have significantly narrowed down the time frame during which the last major chapter in human colonization, the Polynesian triangle, occurred.

SFU professor David Burley, Marshall Weisler and Jian-Xin Zhao argue the first boats arrived between 880 and 896 BC. The 16-year window is far smaller than the previous radiocarbon-dated estimate of 178 years between 2,789 and 2,947 years ago.

Burley, the lead author, and his colleagues have recently had their claims published in an article in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

Polynesia, a group of 1,000 islands forming a geographic triangle connecting Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean, is one of the last landscapes discovered and settled by humans.

Burley’s team applied uranium/thorium dating to a series of coral artifacts recovered from a site in Tonga known to be the first settlement location for Polynesia.

This dating technique is not new, having been used previously to date coral reefs and stalagmites in caves and other materials. But this study’s authors had to develop new processes and verification protocols to achieve their more precise dating of the Tongan artifacts.

When the results came back from a Queensland University lab, Burley says his only comment was: “Wow! It is spooky that we can track an event that happened so long ago to such an exact period of time.”

The researchers dated coral files, common day artifacts used to file-down wood or shell materials for manufacturing other artifacts. Thirteen of these were successfully dated, all nicely falling into a temporal sequence from top to bottom of their archaeological siting.

Burley is most excited about a coral file found in the very bottom of the site. Not only does it have the oldest date, but also it was found in beach sand, over which the archaeological site formed. “It is the beach on which first landfall took place, and we now know exactly when that happened,” says Burley.

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Extinct birds and art

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From BirdLife:

Extinct Boids Take Flight!

Thu, Nov 8, 2012

Extinct Boids Take Flight!

Last Thursday night, an extraordinary volume launched in the Rough Trade East music shop just off Brick Lane deep in the hubbub of fashionable East London. Artist Ralph Steadman’s Extinct Boids ain’t no ordinary bird book. With a lively commentary from the pen of film-maker, Ceri Levy, this elegant volume charts Steadman’s backing for the 2011 art exhibition, Ghosts of Gone Birds, a show which raised profile and  support for BirdLife’s Preventing Extinctions Programme.

Asked by Levy to produce one picture, Steadman unleashed his infamous pens, and set off on a journey of epic creation that finally filled an entire room of the exhibition.  Birds real and imagined, louche and languid, flamboyant and bizarre, splattered from his pens day after day.  Some are the extinction pin-ups: Great Auk, Passenger Pigeon, and a stolid grumpy off-green Dodo – who could blame it. Others are the backroom boids of extinction, like Snail-eating Coua and Red-moustached Fruit-Dove, late of Madagascar and French Polynesia respectively.

But perhaps the greatest group are the made-up Steadmania, the Gob-Swallow, Needless Smut, the Angered Maggot Sleet, and Lesser Peruvian Blue-beaked Blotswerve, among others, birds culled from Steadman’s superbly quirky imagination, worked up – as he explained to an eager launch audience – from a first beguiling ink splat on paper.

The resulting works fill Extinct Boids, bringing a poignant sense of loss for the species that are extinct already and, frankly, a sense of deep concern for the current crop of Critically Endangered birds, the 197 species that are on cusp of extinction,  and which are the focus of our Preventing Extinctions work, the drivers for both Extinct Boids, and Ghosts.

Based on his e-mails, diary entries and phone conversations with Ralph Steadman, Ceri Levy’s text provides a running commentary for the pictures, detailing the particular stories that lie behind the each piece.  Take, for example, the Canary Islands Oystercatcher, Haematopus maedewaldoi, lost in the 1940’s from islands familiar to many holidaymakers, which, as Levy point’s out. ‘It just shows that we can never be complacent.  Extinction can happen anywhere, at any time.’

Published by Bloomsbury under the wing of editor, Jim Martin, and designed by Pete Hodgson and Paul Beer, Extinct Boids will, with thanks to all concerned, yield a proportion of its sale proceeds to Ghosts of Gone Birds, and to frontline conservation projects by local BirdLife Partners.

The book is available from Bloomsbury:

http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/extinct-boids-9781408178621/

Bloomsbury is also publishing 150 limited edition copies of Extinct Boids. Each one will be cloth bound, cased, signed by Ralph Steadman and Ceri Levy, and will include a signed and limited edition print of Steadman’s Black Mamo Drepanis funerea, late of Molokai, Hawaii. For more information, please visit Bloomsbury:

http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/extinct-boids-9781408181409/

And by way of further background, the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition, curated by Ceri Levy, and Chris Aldhous of the creative agency, GOODPILOT, took place in the Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, East London, throughout November 2011.

For more information, see the original story.

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Birds and hurricanes like Sandy

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This video from the USA says about itself:

Bird’s Nest Survives Hurricane Winds

Oct 30, 2012

As the winds from Hurricane Sandy begin to pick up, hundred foot trees bend in the wind, but the large bird’s nest is not affected. An engineering wonder of nature. Taken in East Northport, NY.

From eNature in the USA:

How Do Birds Deal With Hurricanes Like Sandy?

Posted on Monday, October 29, 2012 by eNature

Hurricane Sandy has, rightfully, dominated the news the past week or so, even pushing the election to the back pages.

While Sandy’s wind, rain and storm surge have certainly affected many people, some folks are also wondering about the effects its had on birds in the places the hurricane passed through.

Numbers are hard to come by, but it’s clear that many birds are killed outright by hurricanes. This is especially true of seabirds, which have nowhere in which to seek shelter from these storms. Beaches may be littered with seabird carcasses following major storm events. Most Atlantic hurricanes occur in late summer and early fall—and fall storms coincide with bird migration and may disrupt migration patterns severely.

Many birds get caught up in storm systems and are blown far off course, often landing in inhospitable places or simply arriving too battered and weakened to survive. Others, while not killed or displaced by storms, may starve to death because they are unable to forage while the weather is poor. The number of birds that die as a result of a major hurricanes may run into the hundreds of thousands.

Healthy bird populations are able to withstand such losses and have done so for eons. However, hurricanes can have severe impacts on endangered species, many of which occur on tropical islands, often among the places hardest hit by hurricanes. For example, Hurricane Hugo in 1989 killed half of the wild Puerto Rican Parrots existing at that time. The Cozumel Thrasher, found only on Mexico’s Isla Cozumel, was pushed to the edge of extinction by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Hurricane Iniki may have wiped out the last survivors of as many as three bird species when it hit Hawaii in 1992.

Apart from the direct, physical effects hurricanes may have on birds, they also can have detrimental effects on bird habitats. Cavity-nesting species can be especially hard hit because the trees in which they nest often are blown down or snapped off at the cavity. Hurricane Hugo, which hit the Carolinas in 1989, destroyed most of the area’s nest trees of the endangered Red-cockaded Woodpecker; one forest lost 87 percent of its nest trees and 67 percent of its woodpeckers. Only through the installation of artificial nest boxes have these populations been restored to pre-storm levels.

Although birds blown out of their normal haunts by storms often don’t survive, bird-watchers by the hundreds may flock to see them. Usually, such sightings involve seabirds blown inland and appearing on lakes and reservoirs. First state records of many species have been obtained in this way. Some birders even head into hurricanes to see lost birds.* Others raptly study weather maps to try to predict where hurricane-swept birds will wind up. A few years back, during Isabel, birders were staked out in an organized fashion around New York’s Cayuga Lake to see what showed up. Land birds blown out to sea typically perish unnoticed.

It’s important to remember that the long-term effects of hurricanes on birds aren’t necessarily negative. Every disturbance event is bad for some species but good for others. For instance, hurricanes create gaps in forests, creating habitat for species that require a brushy understory. Birds blown off course occasionally establish entirely new populations; such events may be responsible for much, if not most, colonization of remote islands by birds. Furthermore, hurricanes have been around for a long time and are part of the system in which birds evolved. It is only when they have impacts on species already pushed to the brink by humans, or if hurricane activity is increased by global climate change, that there is cause for concern.

*Epitaph for a hurricane-chasing birder (not original):
Here he lies
A little wet
But he got
His lifelist met.

Have you noticed changes in bird or other animal populations in the wake of hurricanes or other disturbances?

We’re always interested to hearing (or read) your experiences and stories.

Arthur Kill Oil Spill: Hurricane Sandy’s Surge Dumps Diesel Into New Jersey Waterway: here.

Storm wiped out NYU lab mice, a big blow to medical research: here.

AS New Scientist goes to press, north-east North America is reeling in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. People are dead, millions are without electricity and damage estimates top $20 billion. And that is far from the full impact. Over the next few weeks, the true extent will become clear to millions of people who must now clean up. Whether the implications are clear to their leaders is another question: here.

Sarah Seltzer, AlterNet: Income inequality runs rampant in New York, and – as Hurricane Sandy demonstrated – storms are always more dangerous for the poor: here.

Mass social events that impact tens of millions of people, especially those such as Hurricane Sandy that leave devastation in their wake, inevitably expose fundamental economic and social contradictions at the very heart of American society: here.

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United States birds at risk

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This video is called Painted Bunting Portrait. The eastern United States painted bunting subspecies is considered to be At-Risk but historically has received relatively little conservation attention.

From Wildlife Extra:

A third of US bird species need conserving

New assessment covers all US species and subspecies – Hawai’i of particular concern

October 2012. A new study on the conservation status of American birds completed by American Bird Conservancy (ABC) is the first ever published to include the full range of bird diversity in all 50 U.S. states and dependent territories. The study finds that more than one third of these birds are in need of conservation attention. More details, including a complete bird list with conservation rankings, can be found at abcbirds.org/checklist.

While the conservation status of bird species has been widely researched in the past, the new study is the first national assessment to also rank the status of subspecies: regional forms of species that differ in appearance, and sometimes in habitat choice and migration patterns.

“By looking beyond the species we can better gauge the conservation status of the total diversity of birds in the United States,” said the study’s principal author and American Bird Conservancy Vice President, Mike Parr. “There are more than twice as many subspecies recognized as there are full species, so these data provide a more complete picture than we have ever had previously. In addition, birds that are today classed as subspecies may tomorrow be re-classified as full species when more information comes to light.

This study will help make sure we don’t miss these birds as we move forward with conservation programs. While the good news is that most of the highest scoring (most “At-Risk”) birds are already protected by the Endangered Species Act, there are definitely some surprises in here too,” Parr said.

“ABC’s Conservation Ranking of bird subspecies is a major contribution to our understanding of bird conservation priorities. This assessment elevates these taxa to genuine elements of biodiversity that deserve more attention, and reinforces the fact that we have bird conservation work to do essentially anywhere you look in the United States” said Terry Rich, National Coordinator for Partners in Flight (PIF), a cooperative effort concerned with conserving bird populations in the Western Hemisphere.

Subspecies of particular concern

Some examples of birds that are of particular concern are subspecies such as the eastern Bewick’s Wren, the California population of the Black Rail, the eastern Painted Bunting, and the Gulf Coast population of the Snowy Plover; and full species such as the Bicknell’s Thrush, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, and the Buff-breasted Sandpiper. These are also birds that exemplify the range of threats that birds face today, ranging from habitat loss to climate change.

Hawai’i birds of greatest concern

Half of the birds of greatest concern are restricted to Hawai‘i, yet endangered Hawaiian species such as the Palila and Maui Parrotbill tend to receive significantly less recovery funding than their mainland counterparts. “Having a high score on this list is a red flag,” Parr added. “We need to pay attention to these birds. If you have high cholesterol, it doesn’t mean you have heart disease, but you do want to do something about it. The same principle applies to many birds on this list.”

“By focusing new conservation attention on distinctive bird populations adapted to local habitats, this new analysis adds significantly to our species-centric view of conservation priorities,” said Ken Rosenberg of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Chair of Partners in Flight’s International Science Committee. “Our hope is that more regional and local groups will become engaged in helping to keep these birds from slipping through the conservation cracks.”

Scoring system

The scoring system used by the study employs a standard methodology developed by bird scientists working through PIF, and adopts PIF scores for full species. These scores provide a total “vulnerability rank” for each bird based on a range of factors from population size to threats. Based on these scores, ABC also ranked subspecies, and then placed each bird into one of four status categories: Secure, Potential Concern,Vulnerable, or At-Risk.

“Without the significant body of work already conducted by Partners in Flight and the many independent scientists and volunteers who have contributed the core data on species, the current study would not have been possible,” Parr added.

1826 birds assessed

In total, of the 1,826 birds that were assessed, 273 species or subspecies (or 15%) were regarded as Secure. Some of these are birds (e.g., the familiar American Robin) that have been able to adapt well to habitat changes caused by humans, while more specialized species, for example, the Wood Thrush and Grasshopper Sparrow, have been unable to adapt to many of these changes. A further 850 birds (46%) were considered to be of Potential Concern , meaning that they are also currently safe, but may need more careful monitoring than those in the Secure category. The remaining birds were categorized as Vulnerable (547 birds – 30%), and At-Risk (156 birds – 9%).

“Many of the species and subspecies that are of greatest concern are specialists – restricted to certain food sources or particular natural habitats,” said American Bird Conservancy President George Fenwick. “We are urging the bird conservation community to take a closer look at the Vulnerable and At-Risk species and subspecies in particular. Many of these are below the radar for conservation right now,” he added. “Of course this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to keep common birds common as well. As conservationists, our goal should be to maintain both the abundance and the diversity of birds. Both common and rare species are sustaining significant and unnecessary losses due to habitat change and avoidable mortality caused, for example, by collisions, pesticides, and cat predation.”

Habitat differentiation

In addition to addressing the status of species and subspecies, the study has also created a list of birds that are differentiated because of the habitats to which they are restricted. These “habitypes” are typically birds that are otherwise identical to related populations, but use different ecosystems for nesting or foraging. For example, the Swainson’s Warbler has one population that nests in Appalachian rhododendron forests and another that nests in bottomland swamps; and the Marbled Murrelet has one population that nests in trees in Pacific old-growth forests and one that nests on the ground.

“While this assessment is the most complete we have, it should be considered a starting point, not an endpoint,” said David Pashley, ABC’s Vice President of U.S. Conservation Partnerships. “We hope it will begin a conversation that will lead to an optimal system of both setting and acting on bird conservation priorities for all birds.”

“The new study also provides a baseline or “scorecard” against which future changes in bird populations and threats can be assessed,” added Parr. “The total of all the conservation assessment scores for the 1,826 taxa amounts to 21,662. When we reassess bird conservation status in the future, we will be able to see how this total number differs, providing a measure of comparison to this 2012 assessment.”

Most at risk

These are the most At-Risk birds not currently listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including candidates (all are in the “At-Risk” category, with scores between 17 and 20).

Gunnison Sage-Grouse
Sitka Sooty Grouse (ssp)
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Black-capped Petrel
Pink-footed Shearwater
Ashy Storm-Petrel
Hawaiian Storm-Petrel
Reddish Egret
Yellow Rail
Black Rail (both ssp)
Gulf Snowy Plover (ssp)
Alaskan Marbled Godwit (ssp)
Eastern Red Knot (ssp)
Kittlitz’s Murrelet
Guadalupe Murrelet
Scripps’s Murrelet
Craveri’s Murrelet
Red-crowned Parrot
S. CA Olive-sided Flycatcher (ssp)
S. FL & Is. Loggerhead Shrikes (ssp)
S. CA Pinyon Jay (ssp)
Kauai ‘Elepaio
Hawaii ‘Elepaio
Eastern Bewick’s Wren (ssp)
Bicknell’s Thrush
SF Bay Common Yellowthroat (ssp)
Mangrove Prairie Warbler (ssp)
Arizona Grasshopper Sparrow (ssp)
Eastern Painted Bunting (ssp)
Maui ‘Alauahio (Maui Creeper)

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