Positive Wildlife News 2022

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Large grassland region conserved in Saskatchewan

A large piece of grassland within southwest Saskatchewan is now protected. The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC’s) Rangeview conservation project is located south of Robsart and is six kilometres west of the Old Man on His Back Prairie and Heritage Conservation Area, NCC’s flagship property in the province.

The Rangeview property contains 521 hectares of grasslands and wetlands, including seasonal creeks and riparian areas. The property and surrounding areas inhabit many different species of plants and animals, including several listed as threatened, under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, including chestnut-collared longspur, common nighthawk, ferruginous hawk, Sprague’s pipit and swift fox.

Large grassland region conserved in Saskatchewan
 
The Simple Conservation Strategy Saving Threatened Roseate Terns

Conservation efforts have boosted breeding pair numbers by ten times the predicted amount

A simple conservation strategy deployed by conservationists and scientists from BirdWatch Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and University College Dublin is greatly assisting in the extraordinary success of threatened Roseate terns on Rockabill Island, off the coast of Dublin.

Ireland is home to the majority of Europe’s Roseate Terns with Rockabill incredibly hosting 85 percent of the European population on this tiny island, which is the size of a football pitch. The number of breeding pairs is now ten times what it was when the project started in 1989, and chicks that hatched and fledged on Rockabill have gone on to boost other important colonies in Wexford and England.

And every year for the past 33 years, BirdWatch Ireland conservation wardens have been placing hundreds of wooden nest boxes out on Rockabill Island, in effect providing the terns with secure little houses to nest in.

The Simple Conservation Strategy Saving Threatened Roseate Terns
 
Good news! Pacific Bluefin Tuna stock to rebound sooner than expected due to global conservation efforts

Significant young population in current biomass means rebound targets will be met much ahead of schedule.

Concerted effort by countries like the United States, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Mexico for decades to check overfishing has reaped results. The biomass of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna has increased and is second-highest in recorded history, showed a new stock assessment.

The current biomass also includes a significant young population, which can accelerate the process of rebound to levels before 1960, since when the population nosedived, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Good news! Pacific Bluefin Tuna stock to rebound sooner than expected due to global conservation efforts
 
Endangered Amargosa Voles Begin to Repopulate Desert Habitat

Voles Reintroduced to Restored Marsh Have Pups

Seven years of carefully planned habitat restoration on private land in the Mojave Desert have yielded hope for the persistence of the endangered Amargosa vole. In early August, a photograph from a wildlife camera placed by researchers from the University of California, Davis, and dated July 3 revealed the presence of one, possibly two, vole pups born from parents that were reintroduced to restored marsh habitat on private land in Shoshone Village, Inyo County.

The Amargosa vole was first discovered in the marshes of Shoshone in the late 1800s but had disappeared by the early 1900s because of habitat conversion to agriculture and other uses that destroyed the marshes. The only other place in the world where the voles persist in the wild is near the town of Tecopa, about 8 miles south of Shoshone.

Restoration of the Shoshone Spring marsh started in 2015 as a joint effort of Shoshone Village, the Amargosa Conservancy, UC Davis and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The restoration was funded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Section 6 and Partners in Fish and Wildlife grants.

Endangered Amargosa Voles Begin to Repopulate Desert Habitat
 
5,000 Years Later, Beavers Return to the High Plains of West Texas

Centuries after they were hunted nearly out of existence, an obsessed wildlife ecologist has found evidence that the bucktoothed critters are beginning to recolonize.

In the spring of 1831, Albert Pike, a young teacher and poet, uprooted his predictable life in New England and headed west. Lacking both money and a discernible plan, Pike found himself among a group of traders in Missouri who were headed for New Mexico. Once there, he would leave Santa Fe to embark upon an expedition to the Llano Estacado, the elevated expanse of desolate grassland that covers northwest Texas and parts of eastern New Mexico. Pike was in search of beavers, whose pelts had been the obsession of European hatmakers for hundreds of years, decimating the animal’s population. He abandoned his journey and went on to become a freemason as well as a disgraced Confederate general whose Washington, D.C., statue was only recently toppled. Little did he know, the large, semi-aquatic rodents he was in search of had not made an appearance in the Lubbock area for five thousand years. His quest was a futile one.

Nearly two centuries later, another Massachusetts native and naturalist—who grew up twenty miles from Pike’s childhood home—found himself adjusting to life on the southern High Plains. Garret Langlois had lived in Vermont, Louisiana, and the Paraguayan jungle, where he’d studied large, tropical fruit bats, but he’d never set foot in Texas. That changed in 2015, when one of his academic mentors persuaded Langlois to join him at Texas Tech University and pursue his doctorate in wildlife ecology in the school’s Department of Natural Resources Management. He’d lived in remote places before, but Lubbock felt more isolated, and in some ways more unsettling, than the farthest reaches of the South American jungle, where he was subject to being eaten by a jaguar each time he ventured outdoors. “Not long after I arrived, it rained and the dust in the air turned to mud,” Langlois recalled. “You’d look up and your face would be caked in brown dirt. For someone from the forests of New England, this was like something from the end times.”

5,000 Years Later, Beavers Return to the High Plains of West Texas
 
Endangered sea turtles found on Louisiana islands for first time in 75 years

Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, world’s smallest sea turtle species, discovered in Chandeleur Islands off coast of New Orleans

For the first time in 75 years, hatchlings of the world’s smallest sea turtle species have been discovered on the Chandeleur Islands, a chain of barrier islands in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of New Orleans.

Wildlife experts at the Breton national wildlife refuge have documented more than 53 turtle crawls and two live hatchlings that were navigating towards the sea, Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority announced in a press statement this week.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...na-sea-turtles-chandeleur-islands-new-orleans
 
Great Lakes Piping Plovers Have a Record-breaking Breeding Season

Piping plover recovery partners are celebrating many successes as the summer comes to a close.

The Great Lakes population of piping plovers, an endangered shorebird that nests along the coastline of all five Great Lakes, had a 2022 breeding season for the record books. Piping plover recovery partners are celebrating many successes as the summer comes to a close, and are seeing their passion, dedication, and commitment over the last five months make a big difference for these little birds.

This year, 150 chicks fledged in the wild (from 72 unique breeding pairs) – the greatest number of chicks fledged since the population was listed as federally endangered in 1986! For a chick to be considered fledged, it must live until at least 23 days old and be capable of flight. That’s over three weeks that plover chicks are running around busy beaches and incapable of flight, making them vulnerable to predation, dogs off leash, and human disturbance. Monitors and volunteers at nesting sites spend hours each day checking on the birds, educating beachgoers, and protecting plovers from dogs, predators, and other threats.

Great Lakes Piping Plovers Have a Record-breaking Breeding Season
 
Ospreys breed at Belvoir Castle for first time in more than 200 years

Staff at Belvoir Castle are celebrating after the first osprey chicks were born at the site in more than 200 years.

At one point believed extinct in the UK, breeding projects have helped the fish-eating birds of prey recover.

After ospreys were spotted on the historic estate, platforms were put down to encourage nesting.

Beth Dunstan, who managed the eight-year breeding project at Belvoir, said it was "a real triumph for persistence, teamwork and collaboration".

"We are delighted to have attracted ospreys naturally back to Belvoir after all this time," she said.

"They are a beautiful and iconic bird and are right at home in this fantastic landscape."

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-62675910.amp
 
The Republic of the Congo Announces the Creation of the Country's First Marine Protected Areas

The Congo Government, with the support of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other organizations, officially announces the creation of the country's first three Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), protecting marine resources and coastal habitats across more than 4,000 square kilometers (1,544 square miles) and representing 12.01 percent of Congo's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The area includes globally important nesting grounds for leatherback turtles, and critical migrating and breeding habitat for a number of marine mammals including the Atlantic humpback whale.
It is home to the ocean's largest fish, the open ocean whale shark, and more than 40 species of sharks and rays.

It is also home to some of the most productive coastal and offshore fisheries in the world, making a large contribution to the food security of local communities.

The Republic of the Congo Announces the Creation of the Country's First Marine Protected Areas
 
Newly Created Indigenous Reserve La Victoria in Colombia Strengthens Conservation through Indigenous Sovereignty

Andes Amazon Fund celebrates the creation of a new Indigenous Reserve, La Victoria between the Amazonas, Caquetá, and Vaupés departments of Colombia. The reserve formally protects 150,878 acres (61,058 hectares) of Colombian Amazon forest by recognizing the territorial rights of the Kawiyarí, Barasano, Tatuyo, Taiwano/Eduria, Tuyuca, Tucano, Cubeo, Desano, Siriano, Yurutí, Carapana, Piratapuyo, Wanano and Bara Indigenous Peoples, who are the critical actors in safeguarding the ecosystems within the reserve. Meanwhile the reserve provides key ecological connectivity to a much broader mosaic of protected areas and Indigenous territories, linking over five million hectares between the Chiribiquete and Yaigojé Apaporis National Parks.

Newly Created Indigenous Reserve La Victoria in Colombia Strengthens Conservation through Indigenous Sovereignty - Andes Amazon Fund
 
Critical Habitat, Migration Corridor Conserved in Colorado

A significant section of an important northwestern Colorado elk and mule deer migration corridor will remain undisturbed thanks to a collaborative conservation effort by landowners and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

“We appreciate the willingness of the Keystone Ranch to enter into this volunteer conservation agreement,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO. “Thanks to their vision and prudent stewardship, the wildlife values of 11,752 acres will remain intact going forward.”

The Keystone property is approximately 15 miles northwest of Meeker and features a landscape varying from grasslands, sagebrush shrubs and canyons to aspen and conifer woodlands, cultivated croplands and riparian areas. In all, it provides vital elk calving and winter range, and is also home to sage grouse, pronghorn antelope, black bears and other wildlife.

Critical Habitat, Migration Corridor Conserved in Colorado | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
 
Idaho Elk Habitat to Receive $2.1 million in upgrades

Better groceries are on the way for Idaho’s elk population. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and its partners allocated $2,103,338 in grant funding to improve wildlife habitat in Idaho.

“Once completed, these projects will enhance nearly 60,000 acres of elk habitat,” said Blake Henning, RMEF chief conservation officer. “That’s good news for elk, hunters and a myriad of other wildlife, bird and plant species.”

Idaho Elk, Elk Habitat to Receive $2.1 Million in Upgrades | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation
 
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More than 100 hen harriers fledge in England for first time in a century

Conservationists welcome successful breeding season but say birds remain at risk of being illegally killed.

Nearly 120 rare hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this year, the highest number for more than a century, England’s conservation agency has said.

Natural England and its partners recorded 119 hen harrier chicks successfully fledging from nests across uplands in County Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumberland and Yorkshire. A fledgling is a young bird that has grown enough to acquire its initial flight feathers and is preparing to leave the nest and care for itself.

It is the first time in more than a century that the number added to the population has exceeded 100 young birds, the agency said.

But conservation experts have warned that work needs to continue to tackle the illegal persecution of England’s most threatened bird of prey, which hunt red grouse chicks to feed their young, bringing them into conflict with commercial shooting estates.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...fledge-in-england-for-first-time-in-a-century
 
Blue-throated macaws are making a slow, but hopeful, comeback

The Asociación Armonía and the Rainforest Trust report progress in protecting one of the world's rarest birds.

A new report from The Rainforest Trust and Asociación Armonía (Rainforest Trust’s partner in Bolivia) shows that conservation efforts to protect the habitat of one of the world’s most beloved and endangered birds may be working. Once thought to be extinct, a population of nearly 50 blue-throated macaws was rediscovered in northeastern Bolivia in 1992, and thanks to conservation efforts, there are an estimated 200-300 of them living in the wild today.

https://www-popsci-com.cdn.ampproje...-endangered-blue-throated-macaw-comeback/?amp
 
1,500-hectare park in Puebla designated natural protected area

The declaration shields the area from real estate development

The Flor del Bosque park, located southeast of Puebla city, has been declared a natural protected area, the state government announced on Thursday.

This will mean that the park’s 1,501 hectares will be off-limits for real estate development and other kinds of new settlement, and that the communities already living on the land will be obliged to participate in its sustainable use and protection.

1,500-hectare park in Puebla is designated natural protected area
 
Rare image of Arabian leopard and cub captured in Oman's nature reserve

Rare images of a female Arabian leopard and her young cub were monitored in the Jabal Samhan Reserve in Dhofar Governorate.

According to the Oman News Agency (ONA) the preliminary results of the large mammal survey project in the Jabal Samhan Reserve in the Dhofar Governorate showed that rare images of the leopard and her cub, which did not exceed a few weeks, were detected, which is a positive indicator for the survival and reproduction of this species in its natural environment.

Rare image of Arabian leopard and cub captured in Oman's nature reserve I Times of Oman
 
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