Puerto Rico leatherback turtle conservation

This video is called Inside Nature’s Giants: The Leatherback Turtle.

From the BBC:

14 April 2013 Last updated at 01:15 GMT

New law to protect Puerto Rico leatherback turtles

Puerto Rico has introduced a new law protecting a swathe of the island’s coast that has become a major nesting site for the world’s largest turtle, the leatherback.

The Northeast Ecological Corridor comprises 14 sq km (5.4 sq miles) of the island’s coast.

The law ends a 15-year battle which pitted developers against green activists and several celebrities.

Leatherback turtles are a highly endangered species.

“Today this important, highly ecologically valuable resource is being protected forever… History is being made,” said Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, according to the island’s Vocero news site.

Developers had been looking to build hotels, golf courses and luxury homes in the area, arguing that this would boost the local economy and create jobs.

But the area – boasting lush vegetation and pristine beaches – is now likely to become a centre for eco-tourism.

As well as being a nesting site for the leatherback turtle, the area is home to more than 860 different types of flora and fauna.

It also contains a bioluminescent bay, featuring micro-organisms which glow in the dark.

Leatherback turtles weigh around 600kg (95st) and their shells can be up to two metres (6ft 7in) long.

The shell is flexible and covered in a black leathery skin – hence the name leatherback.

Last August thousands of leatherback eggs and hatchlings were crushed by bulldozers moving waterlogged sand from key nesting areas.

Related articles

• Leatherback turtle nest numbers way down (sfgate.com)
• Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtles May be Extinct in 20 Years: Drastic Population Decline (scienceworldreport.com)
• Leatherback sea turtle headed for extinction, UAB study says (al.com)
• Save Sea Turtles from Deadly Fishhooks (forcechange.com)
• Leatherback Turtles may become Extinct within 20 Years: Study (natureworldnews.com)
• Leatherback Sea Turtles (trkristen.wordpress.com)
• Report: Leatherback sea turtles losing ground (summitcountyvoice.com)
• Alarming decline of leatherback turtles continues (mnn.com)
• World’s largest turtle faces extinction risk (cbsnews.com)

Puerto Rican lizards in Florida, research

This video is called Puerto Rican Anolis displays.

From ScienceDaily:

Rapid Changes in Climate Don’t Slow Some Lizards

(Nov. 26, 2012) — One tropical lizard’s tolerance to cold is stiffer than scientists had suspected. A new study shows that the Puerto Rican lizard Anolis cristatellus has adapted to the cooler winters of Miami. The results also suggest that this lizard may be able to tolerate temperature variations caused by climate change.

“We are not saying that climate change is not a problem for lizards. It is a major problem. However, these findings indicate that the thermal physiology of tropical lizards is more easily altered than previously proposed,” said Duke biologist Manuel Leal, co-author of the study, which appears in the Dec. 6 issue of The American Naturalist.

Scientists previously proposed that because lizards were cold-blooded, they wouldn’t be able to tolerate or adapt to cooler temperatures.

Humans, however, introduced Puerto Rican native A. cristatellus to Miami around 1975. In Miami, the average temperature is about 10 degrees Celsius cooler in winter than in Puerto Rico. The average summer temperatures are similar.

Leal and his graduate student Alex Gunderson captured A. cristatellus from Miami’s Pinecrest area and also from northeastern Puerto Rico. They brought the animals back to their North Carolina lab, slid a thermometer in each lizard’s cloaca and chilled the air to a series of cooler temperatures. The scientists then watched how easy it was for the lizards to right themselves after they had been flipped on their backs.

The lizards from Miami flipped themselves over in temperatures that were 3 degrees Celsius cooler than the lizards from Puerto Rico. Animals that flip over at lower temperatures have higher tolerances for cold temperatures, which is likely advantageous when air temperatures drop, Leal said.

“It is very easy for the lizards to flip themselves over when they are not cold or not over-heating. It becomes harder for them to flip over as they get colder, down to the point at which they are unable to do so,” he said.

At that point, called the critical temperature minimum, the lizards aren’t dead. They’ve just lost control of their coordination. “It is like a human that is suffering from hypothermia and is beginning to lose his or her balance or is not capable of walking. It is basically the same problem. The body temperature is too cold for muscles to work properly,” he said.

Leal explained that a difference of 3 degrees Celsius is “relatively large and when we take into account that it has occurred in approximately 35 generations, it is even more impressive.” Most evolutionary change happens on the time scale of a few hundred, thousands or millions of years. Thirty-five years is a time scale that happens during a human lifetime, so we can witness this evolutionary change, he said.

The lizards’ cold tolerance also “provides a glimpse of hope for some tropical species,” Leal added, cautioning that at present scientists don’t know how quickly tolerance to high temperatures — another important consequence of climate change — can evolve.

He and Gunderson are now working on the heat-tolerance experiments, along with tests to study whether other lizard species can adjust to colder temperatures.

High above the forest floor on the remote Colombian island of Gorgona lives a lizard with brilliant blue skin, rivaling the color of the sky. Anolis gorgonae, or the blue anole, is a species so elusive and rare, that scientists have been unable to give even an estimate of its population. Due to the lizard’s isolated habitat and reclusive habits, researchers know little about the blue anole, but are captivated by its stunning coloration: here.

Related articles

• Physiological Adaptation On Ecological Timescales – New Research By Alex Gunderson And Manuel Leal (anoleannals.org)

Puerto Rico manatees threatened

This is a manatee video from Florida in the USA.

From Wildlife Extra:

Puerto Rico manatees threatened by isolation

Isolation of Puerto Rico’s manatees affects survival odds

October 2012. New evidence shows there is no cross-breeding between endangered manatees in Puerto Rico and those in Florida, resulting in less genetic diversity in Puerto Rico’s small manatee population and impacting its odds of survival.

The findings, which come from a study of West Indian manatees by the U.S. Geological Survey and Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center, could help resource managers make decisions about how to conserve the endangered marine mammal.

Wake up call

“Wildlife management has been one of the fields to benefit greatly from the ability to determine relatedness of individuals from DNA analysis, allowing management decisions to be based on concrete scientific evidence for genetic diversity and prospects for it to increase,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “These results for Puerto Rico’s manatees are a wake-up call.”

Just 250 manatees in Puerto Rico

One key management concern is the ability of Puerto Rico’s manatees to absorb and rebound from population declines. Current estimates suggest as few as 250 individual manatees may currently live in Puerto Rico. Furthermore, the population’s genetic diversity is low, a fact which decreases a wildlife population’s capacity to adapt to changing conditions and rebound after critical events that can cause deaths, such as hurricanes, boat strikes, or disease.

This latest finding – that Puerto Rico’s manatees are genetically isolated – shows the population’s vulnerability to future ups and downs is not being offset by migration from Florida manatees, as was once hoped.

“Puerto Rico’s Antillean manatees have low overall numbers and low genetic diversity, both of which present risks for the population’s long-term survival,” said Margaret Hunter, Ph.D., a USGS geneticist and lead author of the study. “The lack of gene flow is another risk factor. We detected no signs that the Puerto Rico population is being supplemented by Florida manatees, through migration or breeding. This means that Puerto Rico’s population must absorb shocks – such as environmental change or disease – on their own. It’s a trifecta of genetic vulnerability.”

In their most recent 5-year review, released in 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that West Indian manatees be downlisted from endangered to threatened, although no decision was made at that time.

Subspecies

As of the last status review, it was difficult to determine whether the two populations were mixing. Puerto Rico’s manatees were already considered a different subspecies – the ‘Antillean’ subspecies, while those in the continental U.S. are the ‘Florida’ subspecies. Although the distinction had been based on different physical traits observed in the two types of manatees, this study confirms that there is indeed a strong genetic basis to those differences.

The research offers a clearer picture of breeding relationships because the research team compared Florida and Puerto Rico using nuclear DNA, which provides enough granular detail about diversity to draw conclusions about current breeding rates. Earlier genetic data on West Indian manatees came from analysis of mitochondrial DNA, a type of genetic material typically used to understand a species’ ancient migratory past.

Two distinct populations in Puerto Rico

Among other findings in the study is the existence of two manatee populations within Puerto Rico itself that do not frequently interbreed. The two genetically different groups provide diversity that may improve the long-term prospects for manatees in Puerto Rico.

“This study provides solid data that allows us to better understand what Puerto Rico’s manatee population faces internally to survive…both as individuals and as a population. It also directs us in developing and implementing future studies in health assessments and habitat use that will enhance current conservation efforts in the island on behalf of the species,” said co-author Antonio Mignucci, Ph.D., director of the Puerto Rico Manatee Conservation Center and research professor at Inter American University of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico’s manatees are not only isolated from Florida’s population, but have little chance of receiving migrants from other nearby islands. The USGS has been working with the PRMCC and other biologists in Caribbean nations to gather new data about causes of death, habitat use, and breeding among manatees found on the surrounding islands. At this point, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic are believed to have small manatee populations while Guadeloupe, Haiti and the Virgin Islands have no known manatees.

“The more that we continue to learn about this unique mammal, the better we can enable managers to make decisions that ensure adequate protection,” said Bob Bonde, Ph.D., a USGS research biologist and co-author of the research.

Related articles

• Manatees in Puerto Rico Face Low Genetic Diversity (livescience.com)
• Puerto Rico begins building large solar park (miamiherald.com)

Still bombs on Vieques island

This punk rock music video from the USA is called Anti-Flag – Vieques, Puerto Rico: Bikini Revisited – Underground Network. Lyrics are here.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Plan to halt bomb clean-up under fire

Friday 05 October 2012

by Our Foreign Desk

Public consultations ended in Puerto Rico today over US plans to halt the clean-up of explosives on the island of Vieques, which was a US navy bombing range for decades.

The US says it is ready to declare the clean-up complete even though only about half of the 400-acre site, which is now a nature reserve, has been cleared of potentially live munitions debris.

Navy officials claim that it would hurt the area to tear up the dense vegetation to clear the remaining debris.

But activists insisting on a complete clean-up say the plan may have more to do with the cost of removing all the debris, estimated at $50 million (£31m).

“It’s not a clean-up. It is an affront to Puerto Ricans that those responsible for the explosives would refuse to remove them,” said Puerto Rico Independence Party vice-president Maria de Lourdes Santiago.

Territorial Senate natural resources commissioner Jorge Fernandez Porto added: “You found this clean, you can’t just give it back full of bombs.

“I’m sorry if it’s costly. You should have thought about that before. Now you want to do the cheap version and leave the bombs there.”

Vieques was used as a bombing range from the 1940s until the US government agreed to give it up in 2003 after years of angry protests.

Snakes and bats in Puerto Rican cave, video

This video says about itself:

A few times a year we go on adventures to see places and animals we’ve never seen before.

In August 2011, we heard stories about a remote cave in Puerto Rico that was home to a healthy bat population. Starting at dusk, these bats were said to emerge from the cave in extraordinary numbers. At the mouth of the cave, Puerto Rican Boas (Epicrates inornatus) would wait, dangling off the of the cave walls to capture bats in midair. If these stories were true, we had to see this cave and we wanted to capture the bats and boas on film.

Produced and Directed by: Nate Dappen & Neil Losin

Music by: Dano (Danosongs.com) & Dan Warren (danwarren.com)

Puerto Ricans fight for independence

This music video says about itself:

Puerto Rico is the oldest colony in the western hemisphere. It was first colonized by Spain in 1493 and was under Spanish rule for 400 years until the Spanish American War in 1898, since then the US has colonized Puerto Rico. Throughout that 500 year history Puerto Ricans have struggled for their independence. On September 23rd in 1868 there was a Puerto Rican uprising against Spanish colonial rule and Puerto Ricans have always come together and celebrated that uprising. On September 23rd, 2004 the FBI assassinated Filiberto Ojeda Rios, a Puerto Rican independence leader in an effort to destroy the spirit of Puerto Rican independence.

In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the RICANSTRUCTION Netwerk, a group of anti-authoritarian artists organized Marches and Rallies for Puerto Rican independence and in the memory of Filiberto at the United Nations in NYC. On September 23rd of 2007 X-VANDALS performed at the event in support of Puerto Rican independence. The track that they are performing is called “TODOS SOMOS MACHETERO” from their debut album THE WAR OF ART. For more information on Filiberto check out FILIBERTO: THE CLANDESTINE INTERVIEW on Youtube.

Pro-independence demonstrators staged an all-night vigil at a colonial fort in Puerto Rico today ahead of US President Barack Obama’s visit to the island, which was ceded to the US by Spain in 1898: here.

Puerto Rico nightjar threatened

This is a video in Spanish, with English subtitles, about the Puerto Rican nightjar.

From BirdLife:

New study sheds light on nightjar

18-11-2009

A new study of the Critically Endangered Puerto Rican Nightjar Caprimulgus noctitherus suggests that the species’s geographic range is greater than previously estimated. This is the major finding of Geographic distribution of the Puerto Rican Nightjar: A patch occupancy approach, a joint effort between the Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI, the BirdLife Partner and Species Guardian for Puerto Rican Nightjar), Mississippi State University, USGS Cooperative Research Units, BirdLife International, and The British Birdwatching Fair.

With an estimated population of 1,400-2,000 individuals, Puerto Rican Nightjar is a single-island endemic species found in coastal dry and lower montane forests in the south-west of Puerto Rico. Fragmentation, loss and degradation of its habitat, especially from residential, industrial and recreational expansion are the main threats. SOPI, as part of the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions programme, liaised with researchers, Dr. Francisco Vilella and graduate student Rafael González to carry out the first systematic presence-absence survey to improve current knowledge on habitat and distribution of the nightjar.

Singapore nightjars: here.

The Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña, Inc. (SOPI, BirdLife in Puerto Rico) and other organisations have applauded the decision made by the Planning Board of Puerto Rico to reject and suspend the siting permit for an industrial windfarm development in Karso del Sur Important Bird Area (IBA). At the same time, the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed development is being legally disputed: here.

The Cabo Rojo Salt Flats – within Puerto Rico’s Suroeste Important Bird Area – have been designated as the Caribbean’s first site of regional importance for shorebirds by the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network (WHSRN, an international shorebird conservation strategy). The nomination was submitted by Sociedad Ornitológica Puertorriqueña (SOPI, BirdLife in Puerto Rico) and supported by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), North Carolina State University and the BirdLife Caribbean Program: here.

The Caribbean island of Puerto Rico is rich in habitat. Abundant birdlife is found across the island, but El Yunque is a must-see destination for birders: here.

Record number of nightjars in Kent’s Blean Woods: here.

Rare nocturnal nightjar has been found in a Derbyshire wood: here.

USA: Bush’s party wants to stop archaeological research on Puerto Rican Indians

From the Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink review:

Taino Research Targeted for Deletion

In a very public manner, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to ban funding by the National Science Foundation for a range of anthropological and archaeological projects, including one that is specifically about pre-colonial Taino society and culture.

This news came from the American Anthropological Association which sent out the following communique:

The NSF Authorization bill for FY2008 is scheduled to come up for debate today on the House floor. …

For those of you who are resident in the United States, please consider calling your Representative and lodging your protest.

Only in a totalitarian society do politicians get to set research agendas, and given the number of Republicans who believe that the Earth really was made in six days, sometime around 5000 years ago, readers should be very alarmed.

Taino: here. And here.

Pocahontas’ Wedding Site Found: here.