The year 2006 brought with it a wide range of wildlife headlines.
Photo © John Zook / Ohio University.January 5, 2006. A study by Ohio University Professor John Zook has demonstrated that bats have touch-sensitive receptors on their wings that enable them to fine-tune flight and capture prey. The touch sensors take the form of tiny bumps on bats' wings that are particularly sensitive to the airflow over the wing thanks to a small hair that grows out of each bump and senses air turbulance. John Zook believed that the touch receptors that cover the bat's wings work together with echolocation to provide precise biofeedback about flight posture and enable the bat to capture prey with great accuracy.
Photo &169; Simon Cook / BirdLife International.February 1, 2006. There is renewed hope for the protection of a critically endangered bird in India, BirdLife International revealed in a recent press release. Jerdon’s Courser (Rhinoptilus bitorquatus), a small ground-dwelling wading bird in India, was thought to have been extinct since the early 20th century. But in 1986, the bird was rediscovered in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Photo © LifeJourneys / iStockphoto.February 6, 2006. Something very disturbing is happening in the ponds that border corn fields in America's midwest, a UC Berkeley press release has revealed. Numerous pesticides, herbicides and fungicides applied to the corn fields gradually run off into nearby ponds. The ponds build up a cocktail of hazardous chemicals and those chemicals are inflicting devastating effects on the health of amphibians inhabiting the contaminated water.
February 9, 2006. Ten Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) in Cambodia's Mekong river have died recently, the WWF reports. The dolphin deaths are part of a trend that has conservationists gravely concerned for the continued viability of the Irrawaddy dolphin population. Experts are unsure as to the cause of the deaths but cite water pollution as one of several significant contributing factors.
February 25, 2006. An injured Borneo Pygmy elephant was located and rescued by a team of conservationists who had been using satellite tracking methods to monitor the elephant. The elephant had been shot in its right foreleg. The injury is thought to be the result of a human-elephant conflict. The habitat of the Borneo Pygmy elephants is highly fragemented and they often stray from the small Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary onto private lands where they cause damage to crops and villages.
February 28, 2006. According to a recent press release by BirdLife International, the New Zealand Storm-petrel (Oceanites maorianus), not recorded for over 100 years and thought to be extinct, was recently rediscovered and photographed. News of this monumental rediscovery comes at a time when New Zealand's Government is proposing the closure of 1.2 million square kilometres of ocean habitat to bottom trawling and dredging. This action could further contribute to the protection of the critically endangered storm petrals and other species in the region.
March 17, 2006. BirdLife International has called for immediate conservation action to protect the Tumbesian Endemic Bird Area, a region located in west Ecuador and north-west Peru. The area, once covered by a continuous stretch of deciduous dry forest, has suffered greatly from deforestation and habitat fragmentation.
April 6, 2006. A pair of birds recently took up residence in a hollowed-out cavity of a tree, probably hoping to get a bit of piece and quite before starting a family. Similar scenes are being repeated throughout the northern hemisphere, by countless pairs of birds. Some nest in trees, others in bird boxes, a few in tall grasses. Some pairs lay one egg, while others lay several. All, usually, do this without inspiring a whirl of press and excitement surrounding the event.
April 10, 2006. Through a series of essays, travel writer Richard Bang examines the complex issues affecting Rwanda's highly endangered mountain gorilla populations. His writings reveal many reasons for concern—habitat destruction, water shortage, poaching. But he also finds reason for hope, as an increasing number of people are joining in the effort to save the gorillas from the brink of extinction.
April 26, 2006. The Mesopotamian marshes of Iraq that lie between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are the sight of the new conservation project funded by the Canadian government and organized by BirdLife International. Ornithologist Richard Porter leads the project and has set out to train local biologists on how to monitor and conserve Iraq's marshes. The region is home to eighteen globally threatened species of birds and three endangered endemic bird species.
