Birds frozen in oil: image of a desperate summer

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sat Jun 5, 3:46 am ET

They are the ghastly images of a summer fouled before it started. Squawking seagulls and majestic brown pelicans coated in oil. Click. Gunk dripping from their beaks. Click. Big eyes wide open. Click. Even the professionals want to turn away. They can't.

"They get me. It's just inherently sad," said Nils Warnock, a wildlife recovery specialist. "You see this bird totally covered in oil and all you can see are those eyes looking at you blinking. You'd have to be pretty tough not to be affected by that image."

Warnock didn't see the birds in person. He's in California, but the pictures still hit him in the gut. Warnock has been rescuing birds in oil slicks since 1985 and he still chokes up when talking about photos of birds he hasn't seen in person.

Now put yourself in Melanie Driscoll's shoes. She doesn't just see the pictures. She sees the birds close-up through her bird conservation work for the National Audubon Society across Louisiana. The pleading eyes get her, too.

Driscoll has to shut down her emotions while helping coordinate the rescue of the birds. But the feelings sneak back at night, keeping her awake, making her see oily blackness creeping across her cats and even across the moon when she looks up.

When environmental groups try to tug at the public's heart and wallet, they focus on what biologists call "charismatic megafauna." It's the feathered or furry helpless critter that you can relate to. It's not the oiled hermit crab — an image joked about as not very touching by Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" Thursday night.

It's got to have eyes that melt your heart. And that's what's all over the nation's front pages now.

"The pelican has really become the poster child for this that people are really focusing on," Driscoll said. "The bird is the symbol. They are visible. They are charismatic."

Up in Alaska, where it has been 21 years since the Exxon Valdez spill, residents watching the images of oiled birds are turning off their TV sets because it is just too hard to see, said Nancy Bird. She is director of the Prince William Sound Science Center, which still monitors the effects of the 1989 spill.

"I just wish that somebody would put them out of their misery very quickly," she said. "Watching an animal like that die a slow death is pretty disturbing."

The birds seem frozen in oil. The image is apt.

Birds that get oiled can die from being too cold, or too hot, because the crude oil interferes with the natural oils that make them waterproof. That means their sensitive skin is exposed to extremes in temperature. Even in the relatively mild Gulf waters, they can "die from hypothermia," said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They can also drown.

The brown pelican, the state symbol of Louisiana, is now also the symbol of death — not just for the birds in the pictures, but for the likely thousands unseen.

"If you're seeing oiled birds, we can assume that there's a lot of death going on," Rosenberg said. "They literally are an indicator of what's going on in the entire ecosystem."

Some species of birds, especially those that lurk hidden in marshes — such as the clapper rail, seaside sparrow and mottled duck — will not be photographed coated with oil. They'll just disappear sight unseen, Driscoll said.

"Those birds won't get their eulogy," Driscoll said. "They'll just disappear. It's an unseen tragedy."

See slideshow here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100605/ap_on_sc/us_gulf_oil_spill_bird_images

Czech zoo hopes to save rare rhinos with Africa move - Feature

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Prague - A Czech zoo plans on Saturday to move four extremely rare rhinos to a Kenyan reservation in a last-ditch effort to forestall their extinction. The four animals - two males and two females - belong to the northern white rhino subspecies that is presumed to have been wiped out in the wild by poachers.

Only eight, mostly old animals are known to live on earth at the moment - two in the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and six in the Dvur Kralove zoo in the Czech Republic.

The Czech zoo plans to fly the last four fertile northern white rhinos - females Fatu, 9, and Najin, 20, and males Suni, 29, and Sudan, 38 - to the privately-owned Ol Pejeta reservation in central Kenya in the hope that a change in their living environment will trigger their reproduction.

"Every time one was born it was a result of some change," zoo spokeswoman Jana Mysliveckova said.

Breeding the endangered subspecies in captivity has proved a struggle. Only four were born in Dvur Kralove in the north-eastern Czech Republic since the zoo began raising them in 1975. The last offspring was Fatu, born in 2000.

"On average we had one birth per decade. That is no success," said the zoo's chief zoologist, Pavel Moucha.

While in captivity, the females produce insufficient hormones needed for pregnancy. As a result, they are unattractive to the males, he explained.

Even if the animals do mate in captivity, low hormone levels can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting itself in the womb. Repeated attempts at artificial insemination have also failed.

"Assisted reproduction is not going to save this subspecies. It only delays the end," Moucha said.

Zoo officials still harbour hopes that a handful of northern white rhinos in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo have survived poaching, and that they might be brought to the Ol Pejeta conservancy for breeding with the Czech group.

However, trackers failed to confirm the most recent sightings of three animals in Sudan in 2008.

"There are plans for a team to go in next year and try to confirm if there are northern white rhinos," conservancy spokeswoman Elodie Sampere said. "But for the moment we consider them extinct in the wild."

Moucha said it would be a success if the Dvur Kralove animals at least conserve their genes through crossbreeding with 11 southern white rhinos that live in the Ol Pejeta park.

The long journey is planned to start on what promises to be a frosty Saturday morning in Dvur Kralove, where the rhinos are to board heated trucks and be escorted by police to Prague's international airport.

A commercial cargo plane will make a special stop in the Czech capital to pick up the precious load, which should reach its destination around noon on Sunday.

Twenty-degree temperatures, fresh grass, corrals and a fenced-off run are ready for the rhinos at their new home, where they will be monitored and guarded, the zoo said.

It may take up to two years for the newcomers, three of them born in Czech captivity, to fully adjust to the new environment.

But the project also has its critics and opponents. It has sparked a scientific debate worldwide as well as a charged controversy at home.

A group of Czech activists highly critical of the current zoo leadership, Safari Archa 2007, has attacked the transfer as too dangerous for the priceless beasts.

"They take a risk with treasure," activist and former Dvur Kralove zoo employee Roman Komeda said. "Aside from Sudan, the oldest male, these animals have never seen Africa."

The activists fear, Komeda said, that poaching and disease could threaten the new arrivals - claims that are rejected by the zoo.

Some rhino groups, such as the International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino, view the Kenyan park as safe for the foursome but are skeptical about whether the move could solve their reproductive problems.

The critics see the project, whose total cost the zoo puts at 300,000 dollars, as a waste of money that could have been used on rhino-saving missions with greater odds of succeeding.

But the zoo officials are unwavering.

"I understand the opponents. It is risky," chief zoologist Moucha said. "But it is the only chance to help these rhinos."

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/300043,czech-zoo-hopes-to-save-rare-rhinos-with-africa-move.html

Swifts are missing – Have you got any near you?

Summer migrant in serious trouble

June 2009. You know summer has arrived when you see swifts speeding through the air, screaming their heads off and swooping into crevices in buildings. But fewer and fewer of us are enjoying this spectacle as the RSPB has discovered that the swift is in serious trouble.

47% decline in 10 years

Swift numbers have declined by 47% in the last ten years. And for the first time, the summer migrant has been added to the amber list meaning it is of serious conservation concern. A major cause of this decline is believed to be the loss of nest sites through building improvement or demolition. They nest almost exclusively on buildings, so they really do need our help.

Tell the RSPB if you have swifts near you

The RSPB is launching a nationwide search to identify where swifts are still seen and could be nesting. Swifts pair for life and return to the same nest site each spring. Their nests are located high up in the roof spaces under the eaves of old buildings in particular, and renovation, repair or demolition work is leaving many of them homeless.

The wildlife charity is appealing to us all to look out for low-level screaming groups of swifts, a good sign they are breeding nearby, or where we have seen swifts nesting - perhaps entering a roof or hole in the building. They would like any sightings reported to them via a form on their website (www.rspb.org.uk/helpswifts ).

The best time to look is around dusk on a warm, still evening.Once the charity has discovered more about where swifts are found it will focus its conservation efforts in areas where they are commonly seen and work with the building industry to help birds in buildings.

The RSPB suggests a number of simple measures that could help the fast dwindling swift population.

• 
  It is crucial to leave any existing nest sites undisturbed where possible. Swifts will use the same nest sites again and again.


• 
  If you do need to carry out repair work on your roof or faschias and soffits for example, make new nest access holes to match the old ones at exactly the same spot.


• 
  If you are building a new house, you could create some internal nest spaces at the design stage.
  If you are unable to do any of these, the other alternative is to fit a custom-made swift box.

Sarah Niemann, RSPB Species Recovery Officer says: "Sharing your house with swifts is a great privilege. They are not obtrusive at all, in fact they make perfect, quiet neighbours. They build their nests right next to the entrance hole so they don't get into your roof space and they cause no damage.

"The fact they are declining so rapidly is of huge concern to the RSPB, which is why we're asking people to help us find out where they are so we can focus our efforts in the right place."

If you see or hear swifts screaming at rooftop level or slipping into holes please tell us!"

Swift ID

Swifts are dark brown but often look black against the sky. Their wings are long and narrow and their tail slightly forked, but not as much as a swallow's. They have a piercing, screaming call and nest in colonies which makes it appear even louder.

Swifts spend their life almost entirely on the wing and even feed, sleep and mate in flight. They feed exclusively on insects and only come to land when nesting.

100,000 insects very day!

They hunt for insects over a wide area and range of habitats from meadows, open water and over woods to the skies above towns and cities. An abundant supply of insects is critical for their survival. Parent swifts collect lots of insects to take back to their chicks - up to 1,000 at once which make a big bulge in their throat. When they have chicks to feed, swifts can gather as many as 100,000 insects a day.Various voluntary groups are also working with the RSPB on their swift search, including Swift Conservation, Concern for Swifts (Scotland) and Northern Swift Groups.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/swift-decline.html