Lions Lose in Colorado - but it ain't over!
November 2024 / Conservation, Wildlife News Roundup
From November … articles of interest.
Snow Leopard Conservation That Works
The Snow Leopard Trust works to protect the endangered snow leopard through community-based conservation projects that are founded on scientific understanding of snow leopard behavior, needs, habitats and threats. The Trust recently reported on their intervention programs in India, China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Pakistan, with positive results that show human coexistence with snow leopards is possible.
Among the findings, people keeping their animals in reinforced corrals reported no losses of small or large-bodied livestock, as opposed to those households with traditional corrals. Of some 1,400 households using livestock insurance programs, 80 percent reported greater financial stability. For more than 20,000 households participating in a “snow leopard friendly” vaccination program, 96 percent said it was effective in keeping their livestock healthy. Additionally, conservation-linked handicraft programs generated household income for 84 percent of 473 households.
Bird Watching
Great bird pics to enjoy from Ken Lamberton’s Big Yard on Substack.
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Read about the status of elephants today here.
Alberta Builds its First Wildlife Overpass outside of a National Park
“The research on wildlife crossing structures is clear,” writes the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y). “Animals are 2.46 times more likely to use a designated structure to cross a busy highway than crossing randomly. Collisions go down. Lives are saved.”
Now thanks to the work of Y2Y, biologists, local communities, transportation specialists and other supporters, as well as 20 years of planning and execution, Alberta, Canada, has a new wildlife overpass across a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway, some 23 miles east of Banff National Park. Known by the Ĩyãħé Nakoda (Stoney Nakoda) Nations as “the place where animals cross forever,” the Bow Valley Gap is also a death zone, with an average of 69 collisions per year, costing about $750,000 CAD annually.
But with the new crossing, expectations are more wildlife will live, and crashes will be reduced. While construction of the crossing was not completely finished at the time of Y2Y’s report, wildlife cameras showed animals already were using the crossing!
NYC Bird Alliance Surveys Suggest Bird Collisions are up Citywide
“New York City is dangerous for migratory birds as they are at risk of accidentally flying into tall buildings’ reflective glass surfaces,” reports The Guardian. “The skyscraper-laden metropolis is located on the Atlantic Flyway, an area through which migratory birds fly between locales as far north as the Article Circle, south to Latin America.
“As numerous migratory species, notably most songbirds, fly at night, the combination of bright light and reflective glass buildings can prove deadly, attracting and disorienting them. A bird might see reflections of the sky or plants, fly into a window at full speed, lose consciousness, and plummet to the ground.”
An estimated 250,000 birds die in collisions in New York City every year. The estimate is based on data from on-the-ground volunteers who count the dead and injured birds. Anecdotal reports indicated this year’s NYC bird deaths would be higher versus the prior year, according to the NYC Bird Alliance.
Whiskers, Claws Still on 35,000-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Tiger
The remarkably well-preserved body of a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed tiger still had its whiskers, fur and claws intact when it was unburied in Eastern Siberia.
Preserved in permafrost, the three-week-old saber-toothed kitten was found when scavengers were looking for mammoth tusks.
A study on the kitten, published in Scientific Reports, noted that this rare cub marked the first time “the appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied.”
End U.S. Taxpayer Dollars for Animal Experimentation
In November, a monkey breeding facility in South Carolina had an escape – 43 monkeys fled the horrors of their imprisonment by Alpha Genesis. AG has more than 10,000 primates at three sites and receives millions of U.S.-taxpayer dollars annually. AG also has received multiple violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act in recent years. Also in November at the same facility, 18 monkeys died, reportedly due to a heater malfunction.
Kathleen Conlee, vice president of animal research issues for the Humane Society of the United States, worked at this facility. What she saw there turned her into an advocate for animals used in labs. In a compelling article for the Humane Society, she writes that the Carolina escape “speaks to a larger systemic cruelty that is happening all the time.” There are more than 100,000 primates in breeding facilities and laboratories in the United States. Conlee advocates for an end to expanding primate breeding and research, a reduction in the importation of primates to the U.S., a curb on testing using primates and other animals and accelerating the development and use of non-animal methods for research.
Read the article here.
Happy Doggo:
Changing Hearts, Minds
“There are 500 million street dogs suffering around the world,” writes Niall Harbison. “Many in agony, being abused and suffering from disease and early death. I see it all on a daily basis. In some countries they are even culled, eaten or shot. We need a huge change of hearts and minds.”
Harbison is on a “mission to save millions of street dogs around the world” through his group, Happy Doggo.
Read his thoughtful piece on how to save the dogs on Substack here.
Prop 127 is Defeated in Colorado, but Fight Continues
After tremendous outreach and informed debate, Prop 127, which would have ended trophy hunting and commercial fur trapping of mountain lions and bobcats in Colorado, was defeated in the November election.
Nearly 1.5 million Coloradans voted for an immediate end to trophy hunting and commercial trapping of bobcats and mountain lions. Cats Aren’t Trophies, the group that drove Prop 127, plans to continue fighting on behalf of the cats, building on those 1.5 million Coloradans.
If you want to support the fight in Colorado on behalf of the big cats and the bobcats, read more here.
Maria Fotopoulos writes about the connection between overpopulation and biodiversity loss, and occasionally other topics that confound her.
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