ESTUARY EXPERTS

ESTUARY EXPERTS

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

A WRONG TURN


Rare Asian bird takes "wrong turn," lands in Tennessee

An Asian hooded crane is seen at the Hiwassee Refuge in Tennessee in an undated handout photo. REUTERS/John Kuehnel/Handout
An Asian hooded crane is seen at the Hiwassee Refuge in Tennessee in an undated handout photo.

(Reuters) - A rare Asian hooded crane, normally seen only in Southeast Asia, China and Japan, apparently "took a wrong turn" and has joined sandhill cranes wintering at the Hiwassee Refuge in southeast Tennessee, bird experts say, drawing flocks of curious birdwatchers along with it.

"It's a great thrill," said Melinda Welton, conservation chair for the Tennessee Ornithological Society and a bird migration researcher. "People are coming in from all over the country to see this bird."


Welton said local birdwatcher Charles Murray has been keeping a log of visitors to the town of Birchwood, near the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency refuge.


"He has had more than 700 people come and visit from all over the country to see this bird," she said. "People have come from 26 states and from two countries, including Russia."
The bird has been seen every day since mid-December, when the sandhill cranes arrived for their winter residency at the refuge.


Welton said this particular type of crane "nests in southern Russia and northern China and winters in Japan."


The TWRA said in a release that more than 8,000 of the hooded cranes - approximately 80 percent of the world's population of the species - winter on the Japanese island of Kyushu.
Welton said it is unlikely that the bird escaped from captivity, since there are no bands or other markings. Instead she said it's probably a happy freak occurrence that brought it to Tennessee.


"There have been other records of birds that take a wrong turn," she said. "And now that he's on the North American continent, it looks like he's associating with his closest relatives."
In addition to the Asian crane and the flock of sandhills, whooping cranes are wintering at the refuge.


"This is the highlight of the century for southeast Tennessee," said local birder Tommie Rogers.


"Likely there have never been three different crane species visible in the wild east of the Mississippi River before."


Bald eagles also are a common sight at the refuge that is about a 45-minute drive north or Chattanooga.

Monday, November 25, 2013

New York Sewer Alligators

      

Are Alligators living under New York City (Documentary)

                 
Published on Jun 10, 2013
A look back at a story from the 1930s that a swarm of alligators was found living in the sewers under New York City, and a new delve into the sewer system to see if the creatures could still be lurking there.

Sewer alligator stories date back to the late 1920s and early 1930s; in most instances they are part of contemporary legend. They are based upon reports of alligator sightings in rather unorthodox locations, in particular New York City.

Following the reports of sewer alligators in the 1930s, the story has built up over the decades and become more of a contemporary legend. Many have even questioned the extent of truth in the original stories, some even suggesting it to be fiction and that Teddy May's creative mind may have contributed to the tales. However, the story of the 'Sewer Gator' in New York City is well known and various versions have been told.

Some versions go further to suggest that, after the alligator was disposed of at such a young age, it would live the majority of its life in an environment not exposed to sunlight, and thus it would apparently in time lose its eyesight and the pigment in its hide and that the reptile would grow to be completely albino, pure white in color with red eyes. Another reason why an albino alligator would retreat to an underground sewer is because of its vulnerability to the sun in the wild, as there is no dark pigment in the creature's skin, it has no protection from the sun, which makes it very hard for it to survive in the wild.

There are numerous recent media accounts of alligators occupying storm drains and sewer pipes:

However, herpetologists believe that a sewer is not a fit environment for any alligator, and they would be unlikely to be able to reproduce. The animals need warm temperatures all year round, as opposed to the frigid cold of the Sewer Systems

  • License  Standard YouTube License

Sunday, November 24, 2013

WHOOPING CRANE MIGRATION

 Whooping crane migration from Wisconsin enters Kentucky

Tuesday, November 19, 2013
                  Photo from Operation Migration Whooping Crane.
Photo from Operation Migration Whooping Crane. (http://operationmigration.org/)
A flock of whooping cranes being guided by an aircraft on the way to Florida has arrived in Kentucky. 

The endangered birds began a migration in early October from a wildlife area in Wisconsin.
A release from the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership this week says the cranes have entered Union County. It is the 13th group of birds involved in a project to reintroduce the species in eastern North America.

The birds are following two ultralight aircraft on a journey through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia to reach a wintering habitat at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in the Gulf Coast.

The birds can be viewed on a live webcam at ustream.tv/migratingcrane

 

Operation Migration Safeguarding Whooping cranes

              


Please visit us In The Field for the latest news.
Operation Migration has played a lead role in the reintroduction of endangered Whooping cranes into eastern North America since 2001. In the 1940s the species was reduced to just 15 birds. Using ultralight aircraft, Operation Migration pilots act as surrogate parents and guide captive-hatched and imprinted Whooping cranes along a planned migration route beginning in Wisconsin and ending in Florida - as depicted in the Columbia Pictures film Fly Away Home.

We need your help! Operation Migration relies on contributions from individuals and foundations to continue our work. You can help ensure the Whooping crane survives for future generations by calling 800-675-2618, or visiting this link to pledge your support.
Operation Migration is a founding partner of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), the coalition of non-profit organizations and government agencies behind the project to safeguard the endangered Whooping crane from extinction.
  MileMaker Campaign
You can help!

Operation Migration is a non-profit organization in the United States and Canada. Your tax-deductible contributions help keep this exciting wildlife reintroduction literally, "In The Air"
 Please visit Contribute to learn more...

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Jaguar Attacks Crocodile EXCLUSIVE VIDEO





Published on Sep 26, 2013
When a jaguar pounces, sometimes one bite is all it takes to get a meal. National Geographic has exclusive video of a jaguar taking down a caiman in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands, photos of which went viral earlier this month. Luke Dollar, a conservation scientist who helps manage National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative, explains the hunt and explosive moment of predation.

Read the article from National Geographic News:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...

VIDEOGRAPHERS: Kedar Hippalgaonkar and Parul Jain
NARRATOR: Luke Dollar
EDITOR: Will Halicks
SPECIAL THANKS: Jason Kurtis
RESEARCH: Joe Lemeris




 Link:
 http://youtu.be/DBNYwxDZ_pA

Alligator Babies

Baby Gator Hideout

                               
Uploaded on Jun 11, 2010
Watch how this protective alligator mother uses her "Jaws of Love" to protect her newborns from the dangers that lurk in the Florida Everglades.

Alligator baby hatching in my hands at Gatorama


                              
I went to Gatorama in Palmdale, Florida, and took part in the "hatch and hold" experience. I was given an egg, and the baby hatched in my hands.

License:  Standard YouTube license

Friday, November 1, 2013

Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles? / UCLA Newsroom

Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles? / UCLA Newsroom

Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles?

Answer may be 'adaptive zones' that limit species number, life scientists report

Relationships between age and species richness
(Click image for description)
There are more than 400,000 species of beetles and only two species of the tuatara, a reptile cousin of snakes and lizards that lives in New Zealand. Crocodiles and alligators, while nearly 250 million years old, have diversified into only 23 species. Why evolution has produced "winners" — including mammals and many species of birds and fish — and "losers" is a major question in evolutionary biology.
Scientists have often posited that because some animal and plant lineages are much older than others, they have had more time to produce new species (the dearth of crocodiles notwithstanding). This idea — that time is an important predictor of species number — underlies many theoretical models used by biologists. However, it fails to explain species numbers across all multi-cellular life on the planet, a team of life scientists reports Aug. 28 in the online journal PLoS Biology, a publication of the Public Library of Science.
"We found no evidence of that," said Michael Alfaro, a UCLA associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the new study. "When we look across the tree of life, the age of the group tells us almost nothing about how many species we would expect to find. In most groups, it tells us nothing."
Another idea, that some groups are innately better or worse at producing species, similarly fails to explain differences in species number among all of the major living lineages of plants and animals, the life scientists found.
"We know that some groups, like flowering plants or cichlid fishes, have been exceptionally good at producing species during certain periods of their evolutionary history," Alfaro said. "However, when we look at the ages of all of the major groups of plants and animals, these differences in speciation rate are not sufficient to explain the differences in species number that exist in extant groups."
Alfaro and his colleagues studied 1,397 major groups of multi-cellular eukaryotes — including animals, plants and fungi — that account for 1.2 million species. Working as "evolutionary detectives," they were able to see whether the groups that split the earliest tended to have the most species. They assigned a "species richness score" to these 1,397 groups, using novel statistical and computational methods they developed.
If age does not explain species diversity, an alternative idea is that a lineage will produce species up until the point that it fills an "adaptive zone" that allows a maximum number of species, Alfaro said. In other words, a lineage of bats, whales or penguins has a maximum capacity that is determined by habitat requirements and competitors.
When an adaptive zone is first colonized, the growth of new species will be rapid, up until that limit has been reached. Once a zone is full, this speciation rate will level off. New species will not emerge until one of two events occurs: First, an existing species may go extinct, in which case it may be replaced. Second, a species within the adaptive zone may evolve a new trait —sharp teeth, wings, chemical defenses or camouflage, for example — that confers a significant ecological advantage and takes it into a new adaptive zone, creating opportunities for new species to emerge, Alfaro said.
"Adaptive zones are an old idea in evolutionary biology, but there is little understanding of whether speciation rates or adaptive zones are more important in explaining species richness across the tree of life," Alfaro said. "If adaptive zones control biodiversity at the broadest scales, then the rate of species growth will be a good explanation of species richness only right after a lineage has entered into a new adaptive zone. Once the adaptive zone has filled up, then, no matter how much time goes by, the number of species will not change much."
Thus, these adaptive zones, which Alfaro also calls "ecological limits," serve to restrict the number of new species that can emerge.
"Most of the groups that we studied have hit their limits," he said. "Ecological limits can explain the data we see. What's really driving things is how many times lineages evolve new innovations that move them into new adaptive zones.
"The ultimate goal in our field is to have a reconstruction of the entire evolutionary history of all species on the planet," Alfaro added. "Here we provide a piece of the puzzle. Our study sheds light on the causal factors of biodiversity across the tree of life."
Daniel Rabosky, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor is the lead author of the study, and Graham Slater, a National Science Foundation–funded UCLA postdoctoral scholar in ecology and evolutionary biology, is a co-author.
The research is funded by the National Science Foundation and by the University of California's Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.
In a 2009 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Alfaro and his colleagues reported that mammals and many species of birds and fish are among evolution's "winners," while crocodiles, alligators and a reptile cousin of snakes and lizards known as the tuatara are among the "losers." That study also showed that new species emerge nearly as often as they die off.
For more about Alfaro's research, visit his website at http://pandorasboxfish.squarespace.com.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

Cranes return to Beacon Hill Park


A Great Blue Heron stands tall near the shoreline of Goodacre Lake in Beacon Hill Park, Victoria,BC, Saturday July 7, 2012.
The birds are most raucous when parents return with food, sending the chicks into a noisy frenzy. Otherwise, the bird’s main call sounds like a person crying for Frank while being strangled.
The herons have returned to the west side of the park to build a colony of nests atop sequoias and copper birches. These are near Goodacre Lake, a man-made pond within sight of Douglas Street, just five blocks from the terminus of the Trans-Canada Highway.
A team led by Trudy Chatwin, a rare and endangered species biologist for the provincial Environment Ministry, spent hours in the park patiently counting heron nests. They spotted 54, and more have been built since the count concluded a fortnight ago.
Some chicks are already six to eight weeks old. Meanwhile, other pairs of adults oddly continue to build nests.
In years past, the birds established a heronry atop towering Douglas firs. The colony lasted about a quarter-century with as many as 110 nests at the peak.
So many birds led to the accumulation of droppings so acidic as to destroy the underbrush below the trees. (“After a year or two of dropping guano,” Mr. Hook said, “it gets a bit ripe.”) As well, root rot made it necessary to cut down 11 cedar trees.
The lessening of crown cover made the herons more visible and more vulnerable.
Five years ago, the birds came under assault from eagles. Eggs were destroyed, chicks killed. The colony was devastated.
Some thought the destruction was the work of a single adult eagle, dubbed Birdzilla, whose intent it was to wreak havoc among the herons.
Janis Ringuette, a nearby resident and an expert on the history of Beacon Hill Park, dismisses the theory of a lone rogue eagle. She witnessed a juvenile eagle dining on a heron egg, so she thinks the Birdzilla theory is birdbrained. Instead, she thinks the colony suffered from the birds being exposed.
“The nests were laid out like a buffet in those Douglas firs,” she said.
The herons abandoned 71 nests in May, 2007. The birds are believed to have moved seven kilometres north to Cuthbert Holmes Park along the Colquitz River in Saanich.
Herons are not banded, so no one knows for sure which birds are which, but 19 nests were re-established at Beacon Hill Park last year. Today, few if any herons are spotted at Cuthbert Holmes. The herons, likely chased away again by eagles, have resettled closer to downtown.
Herons prefer quiet spots and the Victoria park is a busy one, but the waterline at the nearby Dallas Road bluffs along the Juan de Fuca Strait provides a tempting selection of daily hors d’oeuvres.
Great Blue Herons are listed as a vulnerable species in the province. The eggs and nests are protected under provincial law, as are the trees being used as nests. An egg hatches about four weeks after being laid, while the chicks stay in the nest for another two months before they can fly.
The magnificent Ardea herodias has blue-grey body feathers, a yellow bill, a white head and black stripes above each eye. An adult stands as tall as a Grade 3 pupil with a wingspan stretching as wide as Steve Nash is tall.
“Like pterodactyls,” Ms. Ringuette said.
The city has encouraged the return to Beacon Hill. Red alders, cottonwoods and big-leaf maples have been replanted in the area previously fouled by their droppings. It will take a decade of growth before those trees are tall enough to contribute to a protective canopy.
As well, city crews placed piles of twigs on the ground in the park to encourage the herons in their nest building.
“Everybody loves them,” Mr. Hook said. “People come from thousands of miles away to watch them.”
The heronry, best observed from a polite distance, is the city’s loudest – and stinkiest – tourist attraction.
Special to The Globe and Mail


Cranes on Avianweb

  Black-crowned Crane



Cranes

Species

Cranes (Gruidae) occur on all continents except Antarctica and South America. Some species are long-distance migrants, while those found in warmer climates are mostly sedentary (non-migratory).
These gregarious birds typically form large flocks in places where many of them are found.
However, their numbers are declining and some species are at risk of extinction, such as the North American Whooping Cranes.

Description:

Cranes are large birds with long legs and long necks. They are often seen flying with their necks outstretched.


Many have elaborate and noisy courting displays or "dances". These birds mate for life.



Diet / Feeding:

Cranes have opportunistic feeding habits and their diet changes with the season. They prey on small rodents, fish and amphibians; but will also take grain and berries during late summer and autumn. The cranberries, for example, were named for the fact that some of the northern crane species extensively fed on them.




 Species Black-crowned Cranes Black Crowned Cranes (Balearica pavonina)
Black-necked Cranes (Grus nigricollis)

Blue Cranes (Anthropoides paradisea)

Brolga Cranes (Grus rubicunda)

Crowned Cranes: Red-crowned Crane ... Black Crowned Crane ... Grey Crowned Cranes

Demoiselle Cranes (Anthropoides virgo)
Eurasian Cranes aka Common Cranes (Grus grus)

Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum)
East African Crowned Crane (Grey-crowned Crane)

Hooded Cranes (Grus monacha)

Red Crowned Crane aka Red Crown Crane (Grus japonensis)
Red-necked Cranes: Red-necked Cranes (Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodge)

Paradise Cranes (Blue Crane)

Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis)

Sarus Cranes (Grus antigone)

Siberian Cranes (Grus leucogeranus)

Stanley Cranes (Blue Crane)

Wattled Cranes (Bugeranus carunculatus)

White-naped Cranes (Grus vipio)

Whooping Cranes (Grus americana)



Sandhill Cranes












Avianweb: By and For Bird Lovers.








 Source:
http://www.avianweb.com/cranes.htm