In central Africa, one of the world’s richest biological hotspots, an international group of scientists is working to preserve biodiversity as the climate warms.
Source: m.livescience.com
GR: Africa’s growing human population makes preservation of diversity a daunting problem even without global warming.
By Ahmed El Sherbiny,
Chairperson of ESAF
Cairo, Egypt
ESAF (the Egyptian Society for Animal Friends), working together with Vier Pfoten, the international animal organization based in Austria, Hauza Beach Resort, Sharm Safari Park, and Sharm Action for Animals are conducting a TNR program in Sharm El Sheikh that will run from November 29 through December 13, 2014.
The South Sinai Governor and the Sharm El Sheikh City Council are supporting this project.
We wish to express our heartfelt thanks to Vier Pfoten, Hauza Beach Resort, and Sharm Safari Park for their financial contribution, and to the SAFA group, particularly Diane Clement, Sally, and Roswitha for their efforts.
ESAF hopes to initiate more TNR projects in other governates in Egypt.
Photos: Courtesy of ESAF
To visit ESAF’s Facebook page, click here.
Joshua Tree NP, California
Southern California is a lot of desert and a lot of people, but fortunately the two co-exist. This is due in part to an early environmental activist, Minerva Hoyt, who recognized in the early 1900s that increased auto traffic was destroying the California desert. To read more about her efforts, click here.
This is why, when I visit in the 21st century, I can look out over an expanse of odd-looking trees and cacti, miles of desert and six mountain ranges, and see nothing but wilderness.
Joshua Tree National Park is a combination of the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert, and can be found in southeastern California. This park, at an elevation of 4,000 feet, covers nearly 800,000 acres. It is dominated by its namesake plant: Joshua Trees. In the agave family, Yucca brevifolia are endemic to southwestern United States. For more Park info, click on
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Via LaughingSquid, a collection of gorgeous images of the northern red fox.
Ivan Kislov is a Russian photographer who captured the red fox in the remote Chukotka Peninsula in the northeastern area of Russia.
“Foxes are curious and can come very close, and I shoot with wide angle and telephoto lenses.”
This video is called How Kids Save Swifts. It says about itself:
2 December 2014
A short video presenting a valuable initiative of a workshop for school kids in Gdynia (Poland) on building homes for Swifts.
From BirdLife:
Spring Alive springs to action for migratory bird conservation
By Shaun Hurrell, Fri, 05/12/2014 – 08:22
As migratory birds are settling in for winter in Africa, we reflect back on another successful season of Spring Alive. As well as celebrating the arrival of migratory birds, this year children and adults have been acting for their conservation all the way from Eurasia to Africa in this BirdLife educational conservation initiative coordinated by OTOP (BirdLife in Poland).
This year in Europe and Asia, nearly 67,000 children enjoyed welcoming their avian visitors, learned about their conservation, and took photos as they engaged in Spring Alive migration-themed activities. Over 500 events were held; over…
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(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected BP’s challenge to its multibillion-dollar settlement agreement over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which the oil giant complained has allowed payouts to some businesses that are unable to trace their losses to the disaster.
The court’s decision not to hear the London-based company’s appeal is the latest setback for BP, which is trying to limit payments over a disaster that killed 11 people and triggered the largest U.S. offshore oil spill.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/08/us-usa-court-bp-idUSKBN0JM1KR20141208
This is a video from Spain about Egyptian vultures.
From the North African Birds blog (with more extensive information there in French, and photos):
7 December 2014
Release of an Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus) saved from the illegal bird trade in Tunisia by the Association “Les Amis des Oiseaux” (AAO) (BirdLife partner in Tunisia) in coordination with the Directorate General of Forests (DGF). Thanks to the collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Radolfzell), the Egyptian Vulture was equipped with a GPS transmitter to track its movements which will be followed via movebank.
This 6 December 2014 video is about the return of wildcats to the Netherlands.
The Dutch conservationists of ARK Natuurontwikkeling report (translated):
Saturday, December 6th, 2014
For the first time since centuries in the Netherlands wildcats have been born in the wild. ARK Nature investigates the return of this rare animal. During the study this year we found at least five different wildcats, two of the animals were born here. The return of the wildcat happens with impressive speed.
The wildcat research was in the Vijlenerbos nature reserve and elsewhere in Limburg province.
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Press Release Center for Biological Diversity
WASHINGTON— After several decades when endangered plants and animals were allowed to languish indefinitely on a waiting list, an annual federal summary released today reveals that for the second year in a row, the number of species waiting for Endangered Species Act protection decisions remains below 150 — the lowest number since the list, in its current form, was created in the 1990s.
The steady progress the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is making in addressing the backlog highlights the success of a landmark agreement reached with the agency by the Center for Biological Diversity in 2011, which requires the Service to speed protection decisions for 757 species. The 2014 “candidate notice of review” released by the agency today includes 146 species…
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I was at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley today for the Roderick Lecture on “Botanizing Baja California by mule: Adventures into remote regions of Baja California, including cowboy uses of indigenous plants” by Sula Vanderplank. Before the lecture I did a short walk around the garden and took a few pictures with at compact camera. Many of the Manzanitas are starting to bloom as well as at least one species of Ribes. There is still a bit of fall color. The rains have brought out bright green in the mosses, show off the lichens, and have brought up some mushrooms. There is also a fair amount of bird activity although today the only ones I really paid attention to were Anna’s Hummingbirds and a Song Sparrow.
Art, animals, and the earth 