Positive Wildlife News 2024

Status
Not open for further replies.
New saltmarsh nature reserve for the Forest of Dean

Plans to create a new saltmarsh nature reserve in the Forest of Dean across the Severn from Slimbridge Wetland Centre is a step closer as the purchase of 148 hectares of farmland has been agreed.

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) has today (December 10) announced that it has agreed to buy low-lying land on the Awre peninsula for a pioneering saltmarsh restoration project.

New saltmarsh nature reserve for the Forest of Dean
 
Yukon could get new Indigenous protected area the size of Vancouver Island

The Ross River Dena Council, Yukon and Canada are studying what it would take to protect a large swath of at-risk caribou habitat.

Amid wetlands and stunning mountains, at the crossroads of caribou and bird migration routes, is the point where the Pelly and Ross rivers meet. Its name is Tū Łī́dlini, which means “where the rivers meet” in the Kaska language.

“Across from the mouth is where our people used to gather for thousands of years,” Roberta Dick, councillor for the Ross River Dena Council, explained. “People from the Northwest Territories and all over central Yukon would come there and gather and meet and have hand games and dances.”

Today, Ross River is still home to Kaska people, but the landscape has been disturbed in recent decades by mining. The presence of Kaska people has also been disturbed, as they were displaced from Tū Łī́dlini during colonization. Still, the region remains important to the community and the Ross River Dena Council has been working to keep it safe for future generations.

A new Indigenous protected area in Yukon | The Narwhal
 
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: What went right for nature in 2024

Record-breaking breeding birds

Together, we celebrated a bumper year for Bitterns as the research released this year revealed that 234 male birds were heard booming around the UK in 2023. Half of these – 116 booming males – were recorded on RSPB nature reserves. It’s an astonishing increase from the 11 birds recorded across the UK in 1997 – and their recovery wouldn’t have been possible without RSPB members, who have funded leading research and reedbed creation and restoration.

And it wasn’t just Bittern populations that were booming. Thanks to you, Crane numbers reached new heights when 250 birds were recorded across UK wetlands, and there was a bumper number of fledging ‘teaspoons’ – or Spoonbill chicks – on RSPB nature reserves.

Work to prevent first extinction on British soil for 60 years succeeds

One of the world’s rarest birds, the Wilkins’ Bunting, was facing extinction when an invasive insect was introduced to Nightingale Island, part of the UK Overseas Territory of Tristan da Cunha, a group of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Infestations were killing vast swathes of the island's trees – the birds’ food source.

However, RSPB scientists worked with partners, CABI, FERA and the Tristan da Cuna Government, on a project in which a small wasp was introduced to manage the invasive insect populations. After the mammoth task of transporting the wasps over 10,000km, Wilkins’ Buntings are now benefiting from the team's success.

Closure of sandeel fisheries offers lifeline to Puffins and other seabirds

Sandeels are a vital food source for seabirds like Puffins, and we’ve been campaigning for over 25 years to put an end to their decline. Climate change and overfishing have vastly depleted sandeel populations, having a devastating knock-on effect on seabirds. In January 2024, more than 43,000 RSPB members and supporters joined our call to respond to the UK and Scottish government consultations to end industrial sandeel fishing.

20 years of the Albatross Task Force makes waves for wildlife

In 2024, we celebrated the 20-year anniversary of the Albatross Task Force: an on-the-ground conservation project led by the RSPB with BirdLife partners to help save albatrosses. A total of 15 of the 22 albatross species are globally threatened. Bycatch, an unwelcome side effect of commercial fishing in which birds get tangled in nets and lines, is a major factor in their decline.

For example, through working with fishing crews and policy makers to pass new fishing laws, seabird deaths reduced by an estimated 98% in Namibia's longline fishery, and similarly in South Africa's trawl fishery albatross deaths dropped by an estimated 99%.

Swift Mapper reaches 100,000 milestone

This year, we were thrilled to reach a total of 100,000 records submitted to Swift Mapper. Celebrating the milestone, RSPB Swift Species Lead Laurinda Luffman said: “These records help us understand where colonies and nest sites need to be protected across the UK and find the best places in our villages, towns and cities where new nesting sites can be created. The more records we have in the system, the greater our ability to do this. People receive immense joy from watching these birds and Swift Mapper shows the power of people in conservation – their willingness to get involved can help save our Swifts. Thank you!” 

Altyn Dala wins the Earthshot Prize 2024

This year, we were thrilled that the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative was the winner of the ‘Protect and Restore Nature’ category of His Royal Highness Prince William’s Earthshot Prize 2024. The initiative is a long-term partnership, that includes the RSPB, dedicated to conserving and restoring the steppe grasslands, wetlands and deserts of Kazakhstan.

Thanks to the initiative, the local communities and, through support from RSPB members and others, the Saiga Antelope population is now thriving after being on the brink of extinction – with over 2.8 million antelopes roaming the steppe in 2024. This represents one of the most dramatic population recoveries of a mammal ever recorded. The prize will allow the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative to scale up its work, continuing to help species which live alongside the Saiga, like the Steppe Eagle and the Przewalski’s Horse.

The most wonderful time of the year! What went right for nature in 2024 
 
'Britain's wildlife safari': baby boom in Norfolk as seal colonies flourish.

More than 1,200 seal pups were born between the colony in Horsey and a neighbouring beach in November, and 2,500 more are expected to be born before the breeding season ends in January. It is a dramatic increase since 2002, when the seals first formed a colony at Horsey and 50 pups were born.

Wilson and Sayer speculate that more seals are breeding on the east coast because offshore windfarms may have provided a new footing there for underwater vegetation, crustaceans, molluscs, small fish and other marine life, creating a fish nursery that the seals are feeding on.

The structures also form a physical barrier near the coast, pushing shipping traffic further out and preventing commercial fishing boats from competing with seals by the shoreline.

Cleaner water in the North Sea may also have contributed to the increase in seal numbers on the east coast. In 2021, an analysis of two decades of research by the North Sea Foundation revealed there is now 27% less beach waste on non-tourist beaches than there was 10 years ago.

‘Britain’s wildlife safari’: baby boom in Norfolk as seal colonies flourish
 
President Biden adds to list of national monuments across the U.S. There’s an appetite for more

President Theodore Roosevelt did in 1906 what Congress was unwilling to do through legislation: He used his new authority under the Antiquities Act to designate Devils Tower in Wyoming as the first national monument.

Then came Antiquities Act protections for the Petrified Forest in Arizona, Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings in New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley in California, and what are now Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks in Utah.

The list goes on, as all but three presidents have used the act to protect unique landscapes and cultural resources.

President Biden created six monuments and either restored, enlarged or modified boundaries for a handful of others. Native American tribes and conservation groups are pressing for more designations before he leaves office.

The proposals range from an area dotted with palm trees and petroglyphs in Southern California to a site sacred to Native Americans in Nevada’s high desert, a historic Black neighborhood in Oklahoma and a homestead in Maine that belonged to the family of Frances Perkins, the nation’s first female Cabinet member.

Biden adds to list of national monuments across the U.S. There's an appetite for more
 
Dalby Mountain Nature Reserve extended by 62%

Manx Wildlife Trust is extending its Dalby Mountain Nature Reserve by around 62 percent.

It's been made possible by the purchase of 43 acres of moorland and blanket bog thanks to funding from Island business Resilience Asset Management Ltd.

The newly acquired parcel of land will be known as 'Creeny-chreeagh' which translates to 'wise-hearted' in English.

The Dalby Mountain Nature Reserve was originally acquired in 1995 – the expansion takes it to more than 112 acres.

It means it’s overtaken Creg y Cowin as the second largest nature reserve on the Island behind Glion Darragh Nature Reserve.

David Bellamy is the Head of Conservation and Land and said: “Notably this site requires next to no management and impressively has been acquired at no cost to MWT being our second acquisition this year facilitated by green finance.

“Indeed, not only has the full purchase cost been kindly paid for by Resilience Asset Management but so have the legal fees.”

Dalby Mountain Nature Reserve extended by 62%
 
Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust Gains Another Nature Reserve

The Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust is adding to its long list of nature reserves with the acquisition of a 43-acre cranberry bog on Flag Swamp Road in North Dartmouth.

The announcement earlier this fall was of great interest to me because at one time, the bogs were owned and operated by my grandfather, James W. Phillips.

The bog was sold in the 1980s, then resold again before being acquired by DNRT about a year ago.

Another Nature Reserve for the Dartmouth Natural Resources Trust
 
Iowans make progress towards monarch habitat conservation goals

Over the past few years, Iowa has consistently invested in monarch butterfly conservation by adding new areas of monarch habitat throughout the state. The Iowa Monarch Conservation Consortium (IMCC) has recently updated its Monarch Conservation Effort Report, which offers a summary of monarch habitat establishment through 2022 in all 99 counties across the state.

The report summarizes the program goals, methodology, and habitat acres established through 2022. The data shows that since 2015, more than 690,000 acres of monarch butterfly habitat have been established across the state. These established acres represent 88% of the IMCC strategy low-end goal to reach 790,000 acres by 2038.

Iowans make progress towards monarch habitat conservation goals

 
Slovak European roller breeding population is recovering (translation)

CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR ROLLERS

These days, in cooperation with VSE and thanks to the support of the VSE Foundation and the 365 Bank Foundation, we are installing up to 70 new boxes for european rollers on power poles in suitable nesting locations in eastern Slovakia.

A short recap of the story: European rollers have not nested in our country for 10 years since 2010. For 10 years, our lowland landscape lost a beautiful species. In 2020, the rollers returned, nested in the Medzibodrožie Nature Reserve, and the number of nesting pairs is gradually increasing. From 6 pairs in 2020, to 7 pairs in 2021, 15 pairs in 2022 and up to 18 pairs in 2023.

Undoubtedly, the nest boxes that we continuously made every year, often only with the help of volunteers and literally "on our knees" and installed on suitable trees by ourselves, helped. The rollers repaid us and this year we recorded 29 occupied nests through monitoring.

The roller is a typical steppe species that requires large grassy areas and cavities in solitary trees, which can be replaced by nest boxes. We already have extensive experience in the production and installation of nest boxes for the rollers, and the results from recent years only confirm how immensely important it is. We are very pleased that this year, with the help of VSE, nest boxes will also be added to electricity poles that are already standing in the countryside and will thus gain a completely new important function.

We are already looking forward to the next nesting season and believe that the rollers will find and occupy our new nest boxes, so that they can then spread to other parts of Slovakia.
We are still looking for funds to further expand nesting opportunities for rollers and monitor the nest boxes. If you would like to help, please write to us in a message.

Source - Avescentrum Senné
 
'Truly remarkable': A native California species is booming off the coast of San Francisco

As he peered over a secluded cove off the coast of San Francisco, Gerry McChesney couldn’t believe the scene that was unfolding in front of him.

Fur seal pups — hundreds of them — had taken over the inlet at the Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge and were bobbing on the surface of the water in a shiny, blubbery mass, likely hiding from great white sharks as they waited for their mothers to return from the sea to nurse. The sight wasn’t exactly unheard of — island biologists at Point Blue Conservation Science had first noticed the older seal pups using the cove as a covert hideout sometime last year, McChesney, a manager for the refuge, told SFGATE. But he was on the island one day in late October when biologist Jim Tietz delivered the news: The seals were back in full force, and in numbers they had never seen before.

Pupping season runs from June to August, with most of the seals born in July and remaining in the breeding colony for a few months before they are weaned, usually by the end of November. Then, the newly independent animals go out to sea on their own.

Farallon Island biologists from Point Blue Conservation Science have been documenting the population, and this year recorded 2,133 fur seals in total, including 1,276 pups, which McChesney called “the highest pup count yet.”

“Given that the entire colony can’t be seen, this was a minimal count and there were certainly many more,” he noted.

https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/northern-fur-seals-farallon-island-san-francisco-19998598.php
 
China Announces Completion of a 1,800-Mile Green Belt Around the World’s Most-Hostile Desert

It has taken 46 years and reportedly suffered many setbacks, but on Thursday, the People’s Daily wrote that Chinese workers have succeeded in ringing the entire Taklamakan Desert in trees.

Last week, the final 100 trees were planted around the southern edge of the world’s most hostile desert, completing an epic endeavor sometimes called the ‘Green’ Great Wall of China.

Northern and western Chinese provinces suffer from dust and sand storms blowing off the Taklamakan—a word that in native etymology means “Go in and don’t come out”—souring the air and placing arable land at risk of desertification.

China Announces Completion of a 1,800-Mile Green Belt Around the World's Most-Hostile Desert
 
Bumblebees Increase by More than 100x in ‘Remarkable’ Scotland Rewilding Project–From 35 Bees to over 4,000

A Scottish field once home to mono-crop barley has become a pollinator’s paradise after intervention from a local trust saw bumblebee numbers increase 100-fold.

Entitled Rewilding Denmarkfield, and run by the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, the project has also seen a sharp increase in the number of species passing through the rolling meadows after they were reclaimed by dozens of wildflower species.

The area north of Perth is about 90 acres in size, and surveys of bumblebees before the project began rarely recorded more than 50. But by 2023, just two years of letting “nature take the lead” that number has topped 4,000, with the number of different bee species doubling.

Bumblebees Increase by More than 100x in ‘Remarkable’ Scotland Rewilding Project–From 35 Bees to over 4,000


 
Grove of 100 Giant Trees Discovered in 2019 Are Tallest in the Amazon–and Now Protected by State Park

From the depths of the Brazilian Amazon comes the incredible news that a massive new protected area, guarding the tallest and most valuable trees in the great rainforest, has been established in the state of Pará.

Established by Pará’s governor Helder Barbalho on September 28th during New York Climate Week, Giant Trees of the Amazon State Park spans 1.3 million acres, as big as Yosemite and Grand Tetons National Parks put together.

Located along the Yari and Ipitinga rivers, a portion of the new park’s borders overlaps with an existing state-owned forest block, that has now been reorganized for stricter protection.

Grove of 100 Giant Trees Discovered in 2019 Are Tallest in the Amazon–and Now Protected by State Park
 
Hawaiian crow released in Maui

The bird went extinct in the wild in 2002

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and partners released five Hawaiian crows on Maui recently in an effort to return the species to its historical range. After years of preparation by the USFWS, Hawaii’s department of land and natural resources division of forestry and wildlife and the University of Hawaii, experts released two females and three males that had been in conservation centers for months. Also known as “alala,” Hawaiian crows (Corvus hawaiiensis) went extinct in the wild in 2002 due to habitat loss, predation and disease. “The translocation of alala to Maui is a monumental step forward in conserving the species and a testament to the importance of partnership in reversing biodiversity loss,” Megan Owen, vice president of conservation science at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, told The Guardian.

Hawaiian crow released in Maui - The Wildlife Society
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top