Over the last few posts, I’ve outlined the situation facing several owl species in decline- in general, although there are other factors with influence, the major culprits are habitat change and habitat loss. Since human populations often value the same areas used by owls, sometimes more for what they could be rather than for what […]
Archive for the ‘get involved’ Tag
Giving a hoot for owls
A safe port for harbor seals and other marine mammals
As I mentioned in my last few posts, harbor seals (and a wide variety of sea creatures) seem to challenged most by competition with humans (for food and space), pollution, and disease. Although several harbor seal populations appear stable or increasing, there is still concern about seals in Alaska, Scotland, and other locations. Given human […]
Connecting the dots
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking at the issue of habitat fragmentation in respect to how it divides populations and presents barriers to animal movement which can limit reproductive success and gene flow. When I started gathering information on how to combat and mitigate habitat fragmentation, most of the resources I came across […]
Going on the offensive for sharks
Over the past few posts, hopefully you have gotten a sense of how a combination of increasing demand and general prejudice has led to massive overexploitation of shark populations around the world- some of the information I have passed along is pretty bleak. But I don’t want you to think that it’s all doom and […]
Helping fireflies glow
Over the past few weeks, I’ve spent some time looking into firefly research and conservation around the world- some aspects of it were considerably more challenging to dig up than others, but I think that I have a much better sense of what it means to be a firefly and the roles that these insects […]
Helping bats get to the light at the end of the tunnel
I’ll admit that the reading I’ve done on white-nose syndrome over the last few weeks has been pretty depressing- at one point I saw an estimate of 6.7 million bat deaths so far (Cohn 2012), which is a horrifying number. But I think it would be even more horrifying to simply resign ourselves to the […]
Keeping parrots in their place
Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking into conservation issues involving parrots, and it turns out that there are two very different sides to this story: on the one hand, habitat destruction and the pet trade are threatening wild populations around the world; on the other hand, the pet trade (and to a certain […]
Repelling the invaders
During the past few weeks, I’ve been looking into invasive aquatic plants- it’s clear that there are many species and that we are doing a good job of helping them find new habitats to exploit. It’s also clear that there are big differences between species in terms of impact and the locations where they pose […]
Making international regulations stick
In my last few posts, I’ve talked about species whose international trade was regulated on a global level, with varying degrees of control and success. To finish out this month, I want to discuss one further level of CITES that makes conservation both more individual and complicated. In addition to Appendices I and II, CITES […]
If a tree falls in the forest
Is there any way to be certain that it was cut legally? In many ways, that is the challenge for sustainable management of timber, especially in tropical locations. If you have seen this month’s edition of ‘National Geographic,’ you will already have a sense of just difficult it can be to monitor and enforce national […]