Sandhills and Wind Mills

Over spring break, as some of you may know, I went to Yellowstone National Park. While the park was amazing and an experience that I will never forget, one of my favorite parts of the trip happened a couple of states away in Nebraska. The last day we left Montana so that we could get to Kearney at sunrise. Kearney is on the Platte River and is a very important to a specie of birds. Every year hundreds-of-thousands of sandhill cranes, 80% of the total population, gather on the Platte River on their migration north They were calling constantly; the air was filled with noise. Massive flocks of 4-5 foot birds flew over head, it was amazing. Unfortunately we did not arrive in time to see them dance before they took, off but it was still awesome. Thanks to Dr. Mike Rentz and Dr. Cassandra Nuñez I was able to have this experience and thanks to Dr. Stephen Dinsmore I was awe-inspired. I spent a lot of time looking at the cranes and taking pictures, just ask my fellow students who waited on Dr. Nuñez and I. Seeing the sandhill cranes fly above as pairs or in massive flocks and watching them eat in the corn fields was something I will never forget and something I will definitely go see again.

Sandhill cranes are one of the largest species of birds in North America, with a wingspan over 5 feet wide. They are usually have gray plumage but will rub red dirt into their feathers and gain a reddish hue. They also have a red forehead and white cheeks. Sandhill cranes will eat whatever is available, from plant matter to invertebrates and small mammals. There are six subspecies of sandhill cranes and they live as far south as Cuba and all the way up to eastern Siberia. Sandhill cranes are also possibly one of the oldest still living specie of bird with a fossil in Nebraska found that is an estimated 2.6-5.3 million year old. Sandhill cranes can live up to twenty years and will mate for life.

Many believe that windmills hurt birds, but a recent United State Geological Survey paper tells the opposite. Sandhill cranes over-winter in the central and southern Great Plains, an area that contains many wind turbines. The USGS looked at sites where the cranes wintered in the past and current sites of wind turbines. They tracked some cranes using GPS to monitor their locations. They found that there may be some slight evidence of tagged cranes avoiding windmills when they tended to avoid areas with windmills. They countered that this may be due to location of suitable habitats rather than avoiding the turbines. The major finding was that the past winter range of the sandhill cranes only overlapped the current areas with windmills by 7%. This number is low and means that the turbines are not directly affecting the cranes. A major threat to sandhill cranes is removal of suitable habitat, namely wetland. Wetland preservation is what is important to help this species.

Sandhill cranes are amazing animals and are a fantastic sight that I hope everyone gets the chance to observe.

Articles

Cranes vs Windmills

USGS Crane Study

Sandhill Cranes

Saving Cranes

Picture

All by Justin Hohlen

Wildlife Wednesday: Bowerbirds

Bowerbirds are unique avians found in Papua New Guinea and Australia. There are 20 species total with ten found in Papua New Guinea, eight found in Australia, and two found in both. They live in a variety of habitats from dense rainforest to eucalyptus forests. These birds feed on many different items including: insects, fruit, leaves, and nectar.

Maypole Bower

While all of that information was interesting, what bowerbirds are known for are their mating behaviors. There are four species that are monogamous. Those are cool, but the fascinating species are polygynous, meaning males mate with as many females as they can. These males also build some of the most fascinating structure created by an animal. the bowers. Male bowerbirds will spend months collecting anything from twigs and leaves to bottle caps and shells to add to their bower to make females like it. Males will create the bowers and then lay their items around the bower hoping to attract a mate. There are two kinds of bowers, the maypole and the avenue. A maypole bower is a structure that is centered around a sapling and then all the twigs are laid against it to make a hut of sorts. The avenue bower is a walled path that the male created and then he may paint the inside with juices.


Avenue Bower

Bowerbirds are fascinating animals and if pictures are not enough for you then check out these videos and learn from National Geographic and the fantastic David Attenborough.

Articles

Bowerbirds

Bowerbird Page

British Beavers

When people from North America think about beavers they are generally thinking about North American beavers (Castor canadensis), but there is another species of beaver that is native to Europe and parts of Asia, the Eurasian beaver. Eurasian beavers are a topic of debate in the United Kingdom. Many want to reintroduce the species but there is also a lot of people against it.

Eurasian beavers do not grow as large as their North American counterparts and are a rare example in mammals where females may actually grow larger than males of the same size. They are also Europe's largest native rodent. Eurasian beavers have been extinct in the wild for hundreds of years in Britain with some of the last populations found in Scotland in the 1800's. Beavers were hunted for their pelts as well as their castor glands that produce castoreum. Castoreum is a secretion that the beavers use in scent marking but humans decided to use it in medicine to relief headaches. It has also been noted that Eurasian beavers are less aggressive and build fewer dams and build them in shallower water than their North American relatives.

Eurasian beavers have been kept on private lands for a number of years, but the first reintroduction by a government agency started in 2009 when the Scottish government released 16 beavers in four family groups into Knapdale Forest. Several private trusts and foundations have established areas that they release beavers into including areas near Devon and the Cotswold Water Park. Wild sightings of beaver have also been spotted near Devon and it was determined that they had not escaped from the nearby enclosure and had successfully reproduced. There is also a population in Scotland at Tayside and it is believed that these beavers came from private collections. In all of these areas beavers are currently being allowed to remain by government agencies and are monitored to see their impacts.

There have been positive and negative impacts of the beavers. It has been found that beavers have had a great impact on the local environments. The dams they create act to slow down rivers and mitigate local flooding. Slowing down the rivers also reduces erosion. The beavers have also increased local species by providing more suitable habitat for otters, dragonflies, waterfowl, other birds, and amphibians. Beavers also increase plant biodiversity by removing trees and flower will grow their inviting insects.They also stimulate more tree growth when they remove some of them. By increasing wetland areas the wetlands are able to filter out more pollutants as well as decrease the amount of silt moving down river.



The beaver also worries people about having negative impacts. One group of people that have concerns are the farmers. The farmers are worried that the dens in the banks of the rivers will cause the ground under their farms to collapse and they are worried that the beaver dams will flood their fields. It should be remembered that these beavers build dams more infrequently than what is thought. Farmers are also worried about disease transmission to their livestock, but none has been found thus far. The anglers of Britain are also worried about the impacts of beaver on migrations of salmon and eel. It has been shown in other European countries where these animals all coexist that the beavers do not hurt fish migrations and actually help them by providing more safe spawning areas. Their is also a misconception that beaver eat fish, but this is not true.

I believe that their has been sufficient evidence to show that beavers can thrive in Britain if they are given some initial protections and allowed to remain. I think reintroduction of an extirpated species is a great idea and we should try to do what we can to restore environment to a balanced setting.

Articles

Beavers Return to Britain

Six Beavers Released

Beaver Facts

Beavers in Scotland

Beaver Blamed for Flooding

Scotland reintroduction a success

Wild Beavers seen in England

Are beavers about to chew up Britain?

Beavers are Mysteriously Back

Beaver Brouhaha

Pictures

Beaver in Water

Beaver Sitting

Beaver Nursing

Beaver Eating

Endangered Species Day

Today is Endangered Species Day. In honor of this I am launching a new series on the blog and joining others by participating in Wildlife Wednesdays. Every Wednesday I will be doing a wildlife spotlight. This spotlight will be a brief overview of the animal. Since today is Endangered Species Day I will be spotlighting an endangered animal.

                                                               

Today's Wildlife Wednseday is about the Amur leopard. The Amur leopard is an extremely rare subspecies of leopard that lives only in eastern Russia; they also once lived in Korea and northern China where they are now extinct. It is estimated that only about 20-40 adult leopards exist in the wild. Amur leopards are listed as critically endangered. Amur leopards have long hair that is especially thick during the winter. They feed mostly on hares, roe and sika deer, badgers, ad raccoon dogs. They are also phenomenally athletic with top speeds of 37 mph and the ability to jump 19 feet horizontally and 10 feet vertically. While Amur leopards are generally solitary animals it has been observed that some males will stay with the females after mating and may even help raise the young. They will also move and hide their kills so that other animals do not steal them. Amur leopards may live up to 15 years in the wild

While there are about 150 supposedly Amur leopards in captivity, they suffer from inbreeding and breeding animals of unknown pasts together. Due this only about 12 contain pure genetics. This is also a problem faced by wild populations which have low reproduction rates and low genetic diversity.



These animals face habitat loss from logging, road building, and encroaching civilization. People also poach these animals for many body parts that are used in traditional eastern medicine. Global climate change is also an issue as these animals can not with stand the increased temperatures. Amur leopards also face a different threat from humans, being ignored. While a lot of money and publicity has gone toward saving Amur tigers, very little attention has gone to Amur leopards.

Articles

Endangered Species Day

WWF: Amur Leopard

Amur Leopard

All About Wildlife: Amur Leopard

Pictures

Leopard Staring

Leopard in Snow

Leopard Laying: Justin Hohlen

Saiga Saga

                                                               
Well to begin with I must make a confession. While this post may be about saiga antelope it is not really a saga, even though it makes a catchy title. While this is not a saga it is a fascinating and mysterious situation. Saiga antelope are an interesting and ancient species that currently face threats of human and microscopic origins.

Saiga antelope are a unique speceis that are recognizable due to their bulbous nose, spiral horns, and chestnut-colored pelts. Saiga have been around since the Ice Age and once roamed the steppes and tundra with wooly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. They have been found in the fossil record ranging from Europe to Alaska. Currently saiga atelope are only found in central Asia in countries such as Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzebekistan but the majority of individuals are located in Mongolia and Kazakhstan. While there exist two subspecies of saiga they are look very similar and are distinguished only by genetics and location. The unique nose of the saiga antelope is functional because they can move and inflate it to breathe clean air in the dusty summers and  warm air during cold winters. The pelt of the saiga changes with the seasons; in the summer it is thin with the chestnut color and in the winter the coat is thick and white. Saiga participate in one of the largest migrations on Earth where tens of thousands of saiga form herds.



While saiga antelope are fascinating and look like nothing else, they face great threats from humans and disease.  There have been people who poach saiga for their pelt and horns. It is believed that saiga horns have medicinal uses in traditional eastern medicine. Saiga have also lost habitat to farming. One of the greatest problems facing saiga antelope is a bacterial infection that has high mortality. In the 1990's there were over a million saiga in the wild and now it is around 50,000. One key aspect that is killing these animals is this bacterial infection. Last year the bacteria killed 120,000 individuals. The bacteria has been determined to be Pasturella. Pasturella is usually found in cattle, bison, and buffalo but have a much lower mortality rate in those animals. Pasturella causes the animals to hemorrhage. The disease has symptoms such as depression, diarrhea, and frothing at the mouth. Within a couple of hours of showing signs of disease the animals die. The disease is usually most prevalent when females gather to birth. This is when the females and calves usually become infected and die.

The government of Kazakhstan had been working hard to find the cause of the disease and had hired veterinarians from Europe to work on it. They have also been enforcing poaching laws more heavily. Saiga are an important species for the steppe landscape and are a unique species.

                                  

Articles

Mass Deaths of Saiga

WWF Saiga Antelope Description

FWS Saiga Description

Mysterious Die-off

Saiga Antelope Death Toll Reaches 85,000 

Scientists Probe Mysterious Wave of Antelope Deaths

Saiga Mysteriously Die-off

Ministry of Agriculture Continues to Relict Animal Protection

Kazakhstan Government


Pictures

Male, Female, Calf

Herd

Dead Pile