Firefly populations are disappearing

International Herald Tribune

BAN LOMTUAN, Thailand: Thousands of fireflies fill the branches of trees along the Mae Klong River here, flashing on and off in unison - relentless and silent, two times a second, deep into the night.

Nobody knows why.

The fireflies, all males, sit on the tips of the leaves and hone their flashes into a single synchronized mating call - and then continue without a pause as if they were driven by an invisible motor.

"It's one of the most amazing things you'll ever see," said Sara Lewis, a professor of biology at Tufts University, near Boston. Evolutionary biologists have studied synchronous flashing for 200 years, she said, and it remains a mystery.
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Sparrow numbers 'plummet by 68%'

BBC News

The population of house sparrows in Britain has fallen by 68% in the past three decades, according to the RSPB.

A report by the charity said the paving over of front gardens and removal of trees had caused a big decline in insects that the birds eat.

It suggests sparrows are now disappearing altogether from cities such as London, Bristol and Edinburgh.
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Scientists find new penguin, extinct for 500 years

Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Researchers studying a rare and endangered species of penguin have uncovered a previously unknown species that disappeared about 500 years ago.

The research suggests that the first humans in New Zealand hunted the newly found Waitaha penguin to extinction by 1500, about 250 years after their arrival on the islands. But the loss of the Waitaha allowed another kind of penguin to thrive — the yellow-eyed species that now also faces extinction, Philip Seddon of Otago University, a co-author of the study, said Wednesday.

The team was testing DNA from the bones of prehistoric modern yellow-eyed penguins for genetic changes associated with human settlement when it found some bones that were older — and had different DNA.
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Race to save world's rarest wolf

BBC News

Scientists in the remote Bale mountains of southern Ethiopia are in a race against time to save the world's rarest wolf.

Rabies passed from domestic dogs is threatening to kill up to two-thirds of all Ethiopian wolves.

Scientists from the UK and Ethiopia are currently vaccinating wolf packs to prevent the spread of the disease.

The population has dwindled to as few as 500, as a result of human encroachment into their habitat.

Vaccination campaign
Dr Claudio Sillero of Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Unit (WildCRU) says vaccinations are the only hope of maintaining the Ethiopian wolf population.
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Related Sites:
Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit

Half of mammals 'in decline', says extinction Red List

(Photo © Mark Carwardine/NHPA)

AFP

Half the world's mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, said an update Monday of the "Red List," the most respected inventory of biodiversity.

A comprehensive survey of mammals included in the annual report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which covers more than 44,000 animal and plant species, shows that a quarter of the planet's 5,487 known mammals are clearly at risk of disappearing forever.

But the actual situation may be even grimmer because researchers have been unable to classify the threat level for another 836 mammals due to lack of data.

"In reality, the number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 percent," said IUCN scientist Jan Schipper, lead author of the mammal survey, in remarks published separately in the US-based journal Science. Full Story

Related Sites

IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature
IUCN helps develop conservation science, manages field projects all over the world, and brings together players from different domains and sectors to develop and implement policy, laws and best practice.

This work encompasses all types of animal and plant species on the planet; all types of ecosystems – the different types of natural places that exist on Earth; and a wide range of major environmental and sustainable development issues.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species