hobolog :: Nature

The Encyclopedia of Life attempted to go live, and was immediately so popular it went down again. I hope it gets enough support to serve demand – I’m looking forward to seeing it.

It’s not known how these birds are surviving, but seven have been captured in the past four years after 150 years of none at all.

My suspicion that many extinction headlines have been sensationalized is well founded, it appears. The sad part is that if most people pay no attention to the exaggerated headlines, the truth will likely have even less impact.

If I haven’t seen any bears this year in Colorado, it may be because they’ve been hanging out in people’s back yards. Fifty-nine have been killed in Colorado so far, up from the 2002 record of 55. Human encroachment is one of the factors that put bears at a higher risk of extinction than other species.

I’m no botanist, but it does seem like leaves are hanging onto trees longer than usual here in Colorado. I wouldn’t have paid much attention, but Carolyn at Roundtop Ruminations is flipping out about the clinging leaves in Pennsylvania. What does it mean?

The article doesn’t say it, but I think the vague threat of mass extinctions is increasing the number of species we know about as it spurs on research. It’s an odd contrast – it makes it look like biodiversity is increasing, but that has to happen before we can know for sure that it is decreasing.

Update: It seems the folks at the Extinction Blog were having similar thoughts.

An international conference of butterfly experts confirmed this global extinction, and many more within individual countries. It looks like butterflies, along with mountain frogs, may be a warning sign of approaching biodiversity losses.

(Via Extinction Blog)

…look like ocean waves made of clouds. NASA posted some time lapse videos taken recently in Iowa.

Among them a white-lipped snake and a leafless, fungal orchid. Are all orchids fungus? Weird…

This must be a sign of our incredible trend toward monocultures in worldwide agriculture – the first global survey of livestock breeds reports that one goes extinct every month. That’s more extinctions by far than I’ve seen reported anywhere else.

Now that the Chinese dolphin species has been declared extinct, reports of sightings are getting more attention. None of the reports I’ve seen so far look very reliable, but who knows?

If this is what a two month expedition yields, researches figure more discoveries are waiting in the heart of darkness…

It’s not looking good for the Chinese paddlefish. The only other recent suspected extinction I’ve heard reported was the Baiji dolphin, also from the Yangtze River.

Steve Perlman works in Hawaii to preserve over 120 plant species with fewer than 50 individuals left. His is the first claim I’ve come across to actually witnessing extinction:

I have gone back and actually witnessed extinction at least a dozen times, when I go back and the last one is dead. The first time we kind of took our hats off and had a moment of silence.

(Via Extinction Blog)

A little sample of something we might learn from frogs:

This survey was sponsored by a mining company probing for good places to expand. Frogs, fish, beetles, and a unique ant were discovered, and a catfish presumed extinct was sighted for the first time in 50 years.

“Strategies [for future conservation] should focus on protecting freshwater streams and preventing fragmentation of the natural habitat from unchecked or poorly planned development,” they said.

This is making the rounds for good reason:

So announced the World Conservation Union today. The assessment doesn’t seem to include a time frame, or claim that any mammals have yet gone extinct.

An Indonesian fisherman hooked this odd fish, which seems to turn up every few decades to quell rumors of its extinction. This specimen later died, so the species may now be extinct again.

Ferrets are great fun to watch. This 5-minute piece on the Black-footed Ferret recovery effort in Colorado, which is now releasing hundreds of ferrets into the wild. Not too much depth, but presents some reasons why the ferrets nearly went extinct, and why they might survive the second time around. No information about how much it costs to recover a species in captivity over decades like this.

(Via The Extinction Blog)