The year 2007 brought with it a wide range of wildlife headlines. There were fascinating discoveries—a new species of snow leopard in Indonesia and a new type of hummingbird in the cloud forests of Colombia. There were poignant losses—the disappearance of the Yangtze river dolphin and the loss of seventeen endangered whooping cranes. And there were conservation victories—the cleanup of Osborne Reef and the reintroduction of Rimatara lorikeets to the wilds of Atiu Island.
11. Osborne Reef Tire Cleanup Underway
July 10, 2007. Two-million tires is by any measure a lot of tires. They would have once rolled under as many as 500,000 automobiles. Once you have a sense of how many tires two-million tires actually is, they try to imagine them all scattered across the sea floor off the coast of Florida. It's not a pretty picture. But that's how many tires were dumped into the warm coastal waters near Fort Lauderdale twenty years ago in an effort to encourage reef expansion.12. Shoplifting Seagull Snatches Chips in Broad Daylight
July 20, 2007. The BBC News reports that a rather cunning seagull with a talent for shoplifting has taken to snatching packets of cheese Doritos from a newsagent in Aberdeen, Scotland. The seagull, affectionately named Sam, stalks the store waiting for a quiet moment when the doors are open and the crisps are unattended.13. Where Have All the Copepods Gone?
July 24, 2007. The omnivorous marine copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, plays a pivotal role in the North Atlantic's food chain. It serves as rich source of fatty acids and lipids for the many species of fish that feed on it. A few years ago, I blogged about the possible impact climate change may be having on marine zooplankton and now I'd like to dig a bit deeper to find out how one species in particular, Calanus finmarchicus, is faring.14. New Sonar Poses Threat to Cetaceans
Photo © Daniel Benhaim / iStockPhoto.
July 30, 2007. The US Navy is hoping to widen its testing of SURTASS-LFS, a new generation of active sonar expected to out-stride any previous sonar technology. The new sonar operates at lower frequencies than older systems, producing sonar pings that travel further than ever before. SURTASS-LFS may be a technological leap, but it is also a grave threat to marine life. The US Navy intends to equip four ships the new sonar system and then deploy those ships around the globe so they can test the sonar in many of the world's oceans.
15. Yangtze River Dolphin 'Functionally Extinct'
August 8, 2007. Scientists have declared the Yangtze River dolphin functionally extinct. This conclusion follows an extensive survey conducted in late 2006 in which a team of scientists and conservationists spent a month and a half traveling along China's Yangtze River from Yichang to Shanghai searching for the critically endangered mammal. Sadly, they found no sign of the dolphin.16. Why are Amphibians in Decline?
Photo © Alvaro Pantoja / ShutterStock.
September 5, 2007. In recent years, scientists and conservationists have been working to raise public awareness of a global decline in amphibian populations. Herpetologists first started noting that amphibian populations were falling at many of their study sites in the 1980s. Those early reports were anecdotal and many experts doubted that the observed declines were cause for concern (the argument was that populations of amphibians fluctuate over time and the decline could have been merely natural variation).
17. Rare Rimatara Lorikeets Released on Atiu Island
Photo © Phil Bender / BirdLife International.
October 8, 2007. Twenty-seven rare Rimatara lorikeets (Vini kuhlii) have been released on the Cook Island of Atiu in the South Pacific. The project, lead by Gerald McCormack of the Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, aims to establish a reserve population of the endangered bird. The island of Atiu was chosen as an appropriate site for a reserve population of the Rimatara lorikeet for several reasons. First, Atiu is thought to have been part of the Rimatara lorikeet's former range which is believed to have once extended throughout the Southern Cook Islands. Second, Atiu is free of black rats—an introduced species that is common throughout the Cook islands and French Polynesia.
18. Aircraft to Steer Clear of Barn Swallows
Photo © RSPB Images / BirdLife International.
November 27, 2007. Last November, BirdLife International raised concerns over the South African Government's plans to build an international airport near the Mount Moreland Reedbeds. The proposed development threatened millions of barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) who use the reedbeds as roosting habitat each winter, from early November through mid-April. The proposed development placed the Mount Moreland Reedbeds directly in the path of one of the airport's runways. BirdLife International feared flocking birds would create safety hazards for aircraft and as a result the reedbeds would be removed.
19. Fossil Jawbone Hints at Polar Bear Past
Photo © Nikolay Okhitin / Shutterstock.
December 14, 2007. Scientists have uncovered a fossilized jawbone from the sediments of an island in the Svalbard archipelago, a set of islands in the Arctic Ocean that lie approximately half-way between Norway and the North Pole. The jawbone shares a convincing resemblance to that of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus). If it is indeed the remains of a polar bear, it represents the oldest known fossil record of the species. The research team, lead by Professor Olafur Ingolfsson from the University of Iceland, estimates the age of the fossil is at least 100,000 years old.
20. Searching for Wild Giant Pandas
Photo © Mrbfaust / iStockphoto.
December 24, 2007. Vanessa Hull, a graduate student at Michigan State University (MSU), is hoping to track down some giant pandas (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). She is part of a team of scientists from MSU who have spent years gathering data about these elusive and endangered bears. Now, Vanessa and her colleagues plan to capture and collar up to four wild giant pandas. If they succeed, they can then follow the pandas’ movements in the mountains of Sichuan, China. The task is a challenging one since wild pandas are both secretive and extremely rare— there are only between 1,600 and 3,000 animals left in the wild.
