Positive Wildlife News 2022

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Five years without elephant poaching in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park

Remarkable turnaround for iconic landscape where poachers wiped out 90% of elephants during the country’s civil war

No elephant has been killed by poachers in five years in the Gorongosa National Park, located in the central Mozambican province of Sofala.

https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.a...lephant-poaching-mozambique-b2227163.html?amp
 
Release of rare honeyeaters in New South Wales

The wild population of one of Australia's rarest birds is being boosted this week with the release of 50 zoo-bred regent honeyeaters in the Lower Hunter Valley.

NSW Environment Minister James Griffin said the release on Wonnarua Country was the second large-scale release of the endangered honeyeaters undertaken in NSW.

Release of rare honeyeaters in NSW
 
Snow Leopard Photographs Cheer Wildlife Conservationists in Kashmir

Wildlife conservationists are heartened by a rare sighting of a snow leopard in what they say is the first member of the endangered species to be captured on camera in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The adult animal was identified from images taken last month using infrared camera traps in a remote region some 3,500 to 3,800 meters above sea level. The trap was installed earlier this year in an effort by the Jammu and Kashmir government to determine how many of the cats exist in the territory.

"In coming days more such findings from the ongoing surveys are expected from these landscapes," said Munib Sajad Khanyari, high altitude program manager of India's Nature Conservation Foundation, who explained that the enigmatic animals can serve as a "flagship" for the promotion of conservation and development programs.

"The camera trapping exercise also revealed other important and rare species such as Asiatic ibex, brown bear and Kashmir musk deer, besides incredible information regarding other biodiversity components of such habitats, interactions and threats [which] will be documented in the shape of a final report," he said.

Snow leopards, weighing up to 75 kilograms, favor the solitude of the snowy Himalayan highlands, making sightings highly uncommon. With their thick, silky, gray coats ringed with black patches, they blend with the granite habitat, contributing to their air of mystery.

https://www-voanews-com.cdn.ampproj...life-conservationists-in-kashmir/6840647.html
 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announces $800M for Indigenous-led conservation initiatives

Conservation projects set for Ontario, British Columbia, Northwest Territory and Nunavut.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced $800 million in funding over seven years for large Indigenous-led conservation projects covering almost a million square kilometres of land.

"Communities have been clear — safeguarding lands and waters will help build a strong future for generations to come," Trudeau said Wednesday. "As a government, our role is to listen and support that vision."

The prime minister made the announcement in Montréal, which is hosting the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as COP15.

Trudeau announces $800M for Indigenous-led conservation initiatives
 
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Klamath Dam Removal: A Key Step in Freshwater Restoration and Protection Goals

The Klamath River Dam removal, slated for early 2024, is a significant milestone in the journey towards bringing back healthy rivers in the United States. This action will restore nearly 300 miles of river habitat in the Klamath and its tributaries across Southern Oregon and Northern California, allowing salmon, a critical source of economic and nutritional value for the local communities, to return. As the world’s largest dam removal and river restoration project in history, this project will have lasting impacts on the health of this river and represents an opportunity for building momentum to continue global river protection and restoration.

Klamath Dam Removal: A Key Step in Freshwater Restoration and Protection Goals
 
New populations of rare bees discovered in Cornwall

Invertebrate conservation charity Buglife is delighted to announce the discovery of two new populations of one of Cornwall’s most threatened bee species. A second nationally scarce species of bee has also been recorded in Cornwall for the first time in almost 20 years.

The Large Scabious Mining Bee (Andrena hattorfiana), previously known from only four areas in Cornwall, has been found at two new sites for its species, one near The Towans, and one near Rock. In addition to this a new site, also near the Towans, has been identified for another nationally scarce solitary bee – the Red Bartsia Bee (Melitta tricincta). The discoveries were made by local entomologist Paddy Saunders, as a part of Buglife’s North Cornwall B-Lines project.

Buglife News: New populations of rare bees discovered in Cornwall
 
Bison Are the Latest Indigenous Conservation Success Story

Ambitious plans are ongoing

Last year, an in-depth Vox report explored conservation efforts around the globe, and pointed to the importance of Indigenous-led efforts at keeping land preserved and endangered species thriving. A New York Times article from the same year cited multiple studies in reaching one conclusion: “Nature is healthier on the more than quarter of the world’s lands that Indigenous people manage or own.”

Among the species that are benefiting from this approach? Bison. An Associated Press report (via The Guardian) notes that Indigenous stewardship of bison has a number of benefits, ranging from economic to nutritional. The article cites an impressive statistic: 65 tribal herds that comprise 20,000 bison, all under the jurisdiction of 82 tribes.

Bison Are An Indigenous Conservation Success - InsideHook
 
Good News for Bears, Birds, Whales and People

This month, Links From the Brink looks at several conservation success stories and shines a light on new tools to fight pollution.

Did you hear the recent good news about songbirds, whales, bears (both black and grizzly), and pollution?

No? Well, that doesn’t surprise us. In a season dominated by the chaos of the midterms, the latest U.N. climate conference and billionaires gone bad, a lot of good environmental news slipped through the cracks.

So let’s spackle those cracks with some stories you may have missed. Welcome to Links From the Brink: Good News Edition.

Good News for Bears, Birds, Whales and People • The Revelator
 
At the Tip of the Americas, A Rare Global Climate Win

In Argentina, legislators of Tierra del Fuego Province have passed a law to permanently protect Peninsula Mitre. The last tip of the continent, it’s home to intact kelp forests and one of the largest peat reserves of South America, two powerhouse ecosystems crucial to planetary climate stability.

A grassroots campaign that spanned three decades in the remote province of Tierra del Fuego has terminated with an unexpected win. A special legislative session has unanimously approved a law to create the 1.2-million-acre Peninsula Mitre Natural Protected Area, protecting Argentina’s biggest carbon sink, and setting the path for a more robust nature-based economy.

At the Tip of the Americas, A Rare Global Climate Win
 
European hamsters return to the Tarutino Steppe

The reintroduction of these endearing and ecologically important rodents, which were once widespread across Ukraine and Europe, will help to create a healthier and wilder steppe landscape.

A family of three European hamsters has been released onto the Tarutino Steppe, in the Danube Delta rewilding landscape in Ukraine. This is the first release of a reintroduction programme overseen by the Rewilding Ukraine team, in collaboration with Kyiv Zoo and the Tarutino Steppe Nature and Ethnographic Park. As their population grows, the diminutive rodents should have an outsized impact, helping to restore local food webs, enhance biodiversity, boost nature-based tourism, and create a wilder steppe landscape.

The hamsters are the latest in a line of native herbivorous animals returned to the Tarutino Steppe by the Rewilding Ukraine team, with kulan (Asiatic ass), European fallow deer and steppe marmot populations all doing well.

“We hope that the hamsters will acclimatise to their new home, successfully overwinter, and lay the foundation for a stable population in the region,” says Oleg Dyakov, a rewilding officer attached to the Rewilding Ukraine team. “We are delighted that another species of animal, which was common in this region until the end of the last century, is returning to the recovering Tarutino Steppe.”

European hamsters return to the Tarutino Steppe | Rewilding Europe
 
Colorful frogs downed by disease are making a surprising comeback

Researchers have rediscovered about half of harlequin frog species feared extinct, but serious threats remain

No bigger than a strawberry and often more colorful, harlequin frogs suffered greatly as a rapidly spreading fungus killed amphibians around the world over the past several decades. More than 70 of the 94 named species in this charismatic group seemingly disappeared from their South and Central American homes by 2010, and researchers feared they had gone extinct. So, Juan Manuel Guayasamin could not believe his eyes when he spotted one of the missing frogs sleeping on a leaf in a cloud forest in Ecuador in 2008.

“My initial emotion was disbelief,” recalls Guayasamin, an evolutionary biologist at the San Francisco University of Quito. “And after that, of course, joy.”

Guayasamin’s fortuitous encounter with that Andersson’s stub-foot toad (Atelopus palmatus) isn’t the only potentially good news for harlequin frogs (sometimes called harlequin toads). Over the past 2 decades, other researchers have rediscovered 32 of the missing species, he and colleagues report today in Biological Conservation. The discoveries “give us hope” that the extinctions are fewer than once believed, Guayasamin says, and could ultimately aid conservation efforts by helping researchers understand how some species have managed to survive.

Science | AAAS
 
Whipbird seen in Victoria for first time in decades

A scarce bird of Australia's mallee habitats has been seen in the state of Victoria for the first time in almost five decades.

White-bellied Whipbird was widely thought to be extirpated from Victoria and therefore endemic to neighbouring South Australia.

The species was never particularly common in the Victorian mallee. Records in the state's north-west gradually dwindled during the 20th century in the face of widespread clearance of mallee vegetation and changed fire regimes. Despite a few unconfirmed reports in the early 1980s, the last confirmed record of the species in Victoria was back in 1974.

Whipbird seen in Victoria for first time in decades - BirdGuides.
 
New nature reserve being established south of Thunder Bay

The Thunder Bay Field Naturalists have purchased 410 acres in the Municipality of Neebing,

A new nature reserve featuring scenic wilderness, rugged cliffs, two lakes, stands of jack pine and white pine, and habitat for peregrine falcons and eagles is the latest acquisition of the Thunder Bay Field Naturalists.

The group has purchased 410 acres of property in the Municipality of Neebing, overlooking Lake Superior near Sturgeon Bay.

Spokesperson Susan Bryan calls the site — to be known as the Ward Lake Nature Reserve — "hugely, wonderfully beautiful."

New nature reserve being established south of Thunder Bay - TBNewsWatch.com
 
The Conservation Fund Acquires Largest Unconserved Portion of Fones Cliffs, Halting Development Threats

Partnership with Rappahannock Tribe and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will protect site’s natural resources and cultural importance

Building on its earlier work to protect Virginia’s historic Fones Cliffs, The Conservation Fund today announced its acquisition of an additional 964 acres along the Rappahannock River. This land, which was for years under threat of significant commercial and residential development, represents the largest unconserved portion of Fones Cliffs.

The Fund’s purchase, finalized Dec. 8, is an interim step in protecting the property. In the months ahead, the Fund will work with its partners at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Rappahannock Tribe to permanently conserve the property and protect the site’s natural resources and cultural importance. Ultimately, the USFWS will purchase a conservation easement on the land, using federal funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and then the Fund intends to transfer the encumbered land to the tribe during the latter half of 2023.

Largest Unconserved Portion of Virginia's Fones Cliffs Secured | The Conservation Fund
 
The U.S. government is helping to preserve land...in Canada

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is helping conserve a large tract of land...in Canada.

On Wednesday, November 16, the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Kenauk Institute announced a plan to conserve Kenauk: 61,776 acres in the Outaouais region of Quebec, north of the Ottawa River. The lands are home to exceptional biodiversity, including rare and endangered plant and animal species.

The Kenauk lands are north of the village of Montebello, which is located on the north bank of the Ottawa River east of Gatineau. Part of the lands were originally part of the elegant Fairmont Chateau Montebello resort where the announcement was made.

According to the NCC, the USWS has contributed CDN$100,000 to the initiative because of the importance of the Kenauk lands as a site for migratory birds whose habitat also includes the United States.

The U.S. government is helping to preserve land...in Canada
 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife celebrates reintroduction of rare West Virginia fish that 'looks like a candy cane'

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has "huge news" about a "small fish." And in case you aren't sufficiently excited about the fate of the endangered candy darter, the agency offered this all-caps headline on Thursday: "HATCHERY RAISED FISH THAT LOOKS LIKE A CANDY CANE RELEASED INTO WILD FOR FIRST TIME."


The candy darter (Etheostoma osburni), listed as a federally protected endangered species in 2018 and included in WBOY's 2022 list of West Virginia's six "weirdest animals," is a festive-looking fish. And its red-and-green coloration — or orange and teal, but close enough — does resemble a candy cane, if candy canes were red, green, gold, and fish-shaped. But the news here is that a dedicated team of biologists at the White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery in West Virginia just took a big step in ensuring the candy darter's survival.

https://theweek-com.cdn.ampproject....roduction-of-rare-west-virginia-fish-that?amp
 
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