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Conservationists demand larger habitat for endangered Florida panther
September 25th, 2009 · No Comments
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Florida’s housing bust may be disheartening for developers and damaging to the state’s economy, but it’s a blessing – short-lived, most likely – for one of the world’s most endangered big cats.
 The Florida panther once roamed most of southeastern America, from the Carolinas to Louisiana and all over Florida. It was hunted, and then squeezed into an increasingly shrinking range as Florida’s human population boomed. Many other native species in the state have been pushed to the brink of extinction (and a couple are considered extinct).
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Tags: · Big Cat Rescue, Council of Civic Associations, Defenders of Wildlife, endangered Florida panther, endangered species, Florida panther, Florida panther habitat, Florida wildlife, Public Employees for environmental Responsibility, The Center for Biological Diversity, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Wolves under fire; Idaho hunter called ‘wolf murderer’
From Green Right Now Reports
At least three of Idaho’s wolves have been killed as hunting commenced this week under the first authorized sport wolf hunt in the lower 48 states.
But while the hunt has attracted sportspeople, it has repelled others. A Lewiston-area man who killed the first wolf on opening day told the local media that he has received numerous calls of protest.
Robert Millage, a real estate agent, says he’s been called a “wolf murderer, a fat redneck and other names” in some 50 phone calls and hundreds of e-mails, according to the Lewiston Tribune. (To see a picture of the young wolf Millage killed view the story on Lewiston’s KLEW-TV.)
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Tags: · Defenders of Wildlife, endangered species, Friends of Animals, gray wolves, Idaho, Montana, Rocky Mountain Gray Wolf, Rodger Schlickeisen, Suzanne Stone, Wolf hunting, Wolves, Wyoming, Yellowstone
So strange, but so special: Meet 10 oddball, endangered species
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
It’s not all about lions and tigers and bears, you know.
They are the familiar furry faces threatened with extinction, so they get a lot of time in the spotlight.
But where are the little-known endangered creatures, the ones that don’t get a lot of press? How about those at-risk species that aren’t so striking or noble, the ones that are downright odd – or ugly?
Thus, we turned to ARKive, a global initiative that gathers film, photos and audio of all the world’s animals, plants and even fungi to create a digital library. With their help, we’ve gathered a photo gallery of 10 slightly strange species that may be living on borrowed time. It’s time for their their 15 minutes of fame:
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Tags: · Antsingy leaf chameleon, ARKive, at-risck species, Aye-aye, babirusa, bald-headed uakari, endangered species, IUCN, leafy seadragon, nocturnal slender loris, proboscis monkey, Sumatran orang-utan, tasseled wobbegong, Threatened Species, Verreaux's sifaka, vulnerable species, Wildscreen USA
Monarch butterflies: A natural wonder under threat
By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now
Up close they are such delicate creatures, their bright orange wings outlined in black and accented with white spots. But when they migrate by the millions each year — from Canada through the United States and most to a specific mountainous region of Mexico and back – monarch butterflies become one of nature’s most breathtaking spectacles.
Their tiny brains are hard-wired with biological clocks, and their eyes detect ultraviolet light variations to guide them. Every year, generations of the beautiful monarchs travel from 1,200 to 2,800 miles to their winter and summer habitats. Because most adults only live four weeks, they only travel part of the way. Then their offspring continue the trek, and on and on until they reach their habitats.
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Tags: · endangered species, International Union for Conservation of Nature, milkweed, monarch butterflies, monarch butterflies and climate change, monarch butterflies and deforestation, monarch butterflies and urban sprawl, monarch butterfly habitats, monarch butterfly migration, monarch butterfly migration threats, monarch butterfly threatened habitats, North American Monarch Conservation Plan, pollinators, The Monarch Watch Program
Frogs could be nearing extinction thanks to human consumption
By John DeFore
Green Right Now
Last year may have been the Year of the Frog, but it appears that twelve months of focus on amphibian-threatening disease haven’t eased one threat to Kermit’s cousins: Human beings may simply gobble the survivors all up.
Researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia say that frogs are in danger of extinction partly because of human consumption; they say over-harvesting — coupled with more significant natural threats currently endangering wild frog populations, like “disease, habitat loss, and climate change” — are putting frogs on track to the kind of dwindling populations seen in certain kinds of fish.
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Tags: · endangered species, Food/Drink, frogs
Chalk Mountain, between a rock and a nesting place
November 4th, 2008 · 1 Comment
By Barbara Kessler
Every spring, as sure as the sun warms the cedars and the birds flock back from Mexico, Lee Clauser leads a stealth group of intense adults dressed in khakis and boots to the edge of a wild thicket near his house in north central Texas.
They creep into the brush, quietly unloading their weapons of mass observation.
 Putting binoculars to eyes, they look, and listen, for the brilliant Golden-cheeked warbler, and for the reclusive Black-capped vireo. Both songbirds are listed as endangered in the United States, their nesting grounds having been narrowed to a strip of Texas Hill Country that supplies just the right shrubbery and old-growth cedars. The birders, who come from Fort Worth, Dallas, New England, the Pacific Northwest and beyond, know that catching a glimpse of one of these delicate creatures is a rare treat.
“People have come from Europe to see those birds, both species. For birders all over the world, it’s a huge deal,” says Clauser, a retired banker and life-long bird rescue and rehabilitation expert.
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Tags: · Audubon Society, Black-capped vireo, Chalk Mountain Preservation Association, Dallas, endangered species, Fort Worth, Golden-cheek warbler, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Texas, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, World Wildlife Fund
Despite scary Halloween image, bats are environmental helpers
By Catherine Colbert
Bats have historically gotten a bad rap as rabid, blood-thirsty creatures. While it’s agreed that the very thought of them conjures up vivid images of Béla Lugosi-style Dracula flicks, a growing body of research proves the mammals are beneficial to the environment in several ways.
Bats are chemical-free exterminators. A National Geographic profile on bats calls them “nature’s own bug zappers.”
The pint-size creatures also spend their time pollinating and feeding on crop-damaging bugs. “Worldwide, bats are important pollinators, dispersers of seeds, and help to control insects, including serious crop pests,” says Barbara French, a biologist and Science Officer for Bat Conservation International (BCI), located in Austin, Texas.
“Each summer, a colony of 150 big brown bats can protect farmers from up to 33 million rootworms, which are serious crop pests. Many bats feed on moths. The moths lay eggs that develop into caterpillars, like corn earworms and army worms, which feed on an amazing variety of crops,” says French. “Important agricultural crops, such as bananas, breadfruit, mangoes, cashews, dates, and figs, rely on bats for pollination or seed dispersal. And bats are critical for rain forest regeneration,” asserts French.
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Tags: · Austin, bats, endangered species, Hill Country, insects, pollinators
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