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11,000 Mile Round-Trip Over Ocean

July 18, 2009 By

dragonflies_Millions of dragonflies are flying thousands of miles from India to Africa in the insect world’s longest migration, scientists say.

If the new claim is confirmed, it would be the first mass journey by insects across the open ocean and would outstrip the famous 4,300-mile monarch butterfly migration from Mexico to Canada.

The 11,000-mile Indian Ocean migration is why millions of dragonflies appear every year in the Maldives as if from nowhere, according to research published this week.

The annual event is mystifying because the chain of islands lies between 300 and 600 miles from mainland India and has no fresh water – essential to the dragonflies’ life cycle.

Biologist Charles Anderson, based in the Maldives, said: ‘No one I have spoken to knew where they came from.’

He has amassed observations since 1996 from the islands, from the mainland and from ships at sea and says they reveal a migration from southern India which arrives in Maldives capital Male about October 21.

‘That by itself is fairly amazing, as it involves a journey of 600 to 800km across the ocean,’ says Mr Anderson.

He believes they fly at heights of at least 3,200 feet because lower down the winds blow in the wrong direction.

The dragonflies – mostly a species called globe skimmers (Pantala flavescens) – appear in surges until December but each surge only stays a few days.

Dragonflies then appear in the Seychelles – between 1,700 and 2,400 miles from India – in November and December.

Mr Anderson adds: ‘I have also deduced that they are flying all the way across the western Indian Ocean to East Africa.’

Globe skimmers appear in Tanzania and Mozambique in December and January.

In April the dragonflies reappear in the Maldives – which suggests the insects are making a round trip of up to 11,000 miles.

‘The species involved breeds in temporary rainwater pools. So it is following the rains, taking sequential advantage of the monsoon rains of India, the short rains of East Africa, the summer rains of southern Africa, the long rains of East Africa, and then back to India for the next monsoon,’ Mr Anderson told BBC Earth.

‘It may seem remarkable that such a massive migration has gone unnoticed until now. But this just illustrates how little we still know about the natural world.’

Filed Under: Education, Environment Tagged With:

The Best Place To See Butterflies

July 16, 2009 By

window_butterflyLindsay Godfree – At The Butterfly Pavilion they say, “Get out of your cocoon!” because interacting with and viewing this extensive collection of live invertebrates can be an eye-opening experience that is both life changing and unique. So when you are traveling across country on I-70 you must stop in Denver, CO for the best place to see butterflies.

From I-70 take I-25 north to Hwy 36 west, exit 104th Avenue north and take a right at Westminster Blvd and it’s on the right.  Parking is available for RV’s and buses too and they are open every day but Christmas and New Years Day.  For complete information see www.butterflies.org

The largest one of the interactive displays is a walk through 7,000 square-foot tropical rainforest that is home to more than 1,200 live butterflies and 350 plant species from around the world. There are other places to touch the animals but do not touch the delicate butterflies.  It is so exciting to watch butterflies emerging from their chrysalis, see them being released into their rainforest habitat and then chase them around the room. The Butterfly Pavilion purchases about 500 butterfly chrysalis each week from butterfly farms located in rainforests around the globe, contributing over $80,000 annually to sustainable farming operations in endangered ecosystems!

The Butterfly Pavilion combines science education with hands-on fun to teach visitors about invertebrates, science and conservation. The interactive exhibits are geared primarily towards families with kids ages 2 to 12 years old, but people of all ages embrace the beauty and wonder of 1,200 free-flying butterflies imported from around the globe.

As pictured here you can see what is displayed through the observation window.  There are rows of brightly colored chrysalis or cocoons that look like jewels each different color and shape is a different kind of butterfly. As you watch the butterflies struggle to emerge at the end of a process of metamorphosis then hang there to dry off before they can fly.  Periodically, the care taker collects them and then at designated times they are released into the rainforest habitat.

Currently, conservation organizations across North America, including accredited zoos and aquariums, are engaged in the captive rearing and reintroduction of endangered butterflies, protection of endangered butterfly habitat, and are conducting research about their unique habitat needs. However these efforts have not been focused on all species evenly. Recovery plans exist for fewer then half of the listed endangered and threatened butterfly species in the US!

Butterflies capture our attention and imagination for countless reasons. Their beauty, unique life cycle, and long migrations inspire artists and storytellers worldwide. They have the ability to serve as sentinels announcing large-scale changes within ecosystems. Hopefully people will be inspired to take action to learn about and protect these amazing animals. It is important for us to learn as much as possible about butterflies, visit butterfly gardens and exhibits, plant a butterfly-friendly gardens/habitats and to get involved!

Filed Under: Environment Tagged With:

Asia’s Biggest Illegal Ivory Market

June 20, 2009 By

asia's_illegal_ivory_marketThailand still has Asia’s biggest illegal elephant ivory market despite promises to crack down, the wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic said on Friday. The report said Bangkok should close “elephant-sized loopholes” in its wildlife protection laws that enable sellers to pass off illegal ivory as coming from a legal source of domesticated animals. “The illegal trade in live elephants and ivory still flourishes in Thailand,” according to Traffic’s 73-page study.

It said the number of worked ivory pieces seen on sale during its latest survey had fallen substantially but was still high at 26,000 pieces compared to 88,000 noted in a previous report in 2001. But it said there were more retail outlets dealing in ivory products than counted in 2001. “Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, a major tourist destination, has emerged as the main hub for illegal ivory activities,” it said. “Thailand has consistently been identified as one of the world’s top five countries most heavily implicated in the illicit ivory trade, but shows little sign of addressing outstanding issues,” said Tom Milliken of Traffic.

The latest data was based on surveys in 2006/07 and a follow-up in 2008. Traffic is run by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the WWF conservation group. The IUCN groups governments, scientists and environmental organizations. Traffic urged Bangkok to tighten law enforcement. It also questioned exports, saying that nine elephants had been sent to Australia and five to Germany since a 2006 proclamation prohibited such sales.

And it said Thailand illegally imported elephants for tourism from Myanmar. Traffic urged Thailand to set up a computer database, using genetic material, to track ivory from domesticated elephants to try to shut illegal ivory out of the market. Under a 1939 law, possession and sale of ivory from domesticated Thai elephants is legal — the law treats them as working animals such as cows or water buffalo. But a 1992 law bans trade in wild Thai elephants and products, and elephants from abroad.

Filed Under: Environment, News & Media Tagged With: ,

In The Care Of Its Own Community

June 15, 2009 By

euan-fergason-in-assyntHaving wrested control of their land from its deer-stalking aristocratic owners, local people in the remote region of Assynt, in north-western Scotland, are pinning their hopes of long-term survival on attracting eco-tourists. Euan Ferguson reports There can be few better places to talk about wolves than here: standing on the col of Stac Pollaidh, one of the most characterful mountains on these islands, gazing out at the Summer Isles, the outer Hebrides, on one of those admittedly rare but nonetheless wonderful Scottish west coast days where the sky’s a hard delighted blue from dawn until the sun slips away somewhere close to 11 o’clock at night. Neil Birnie, who runs a tourism company called Wilderness Scotland, is attempting, remarkably successfully, to reassure me on the subject of wolves, about whose reintroduction there has been much recent debate. “There’s not one recorded instance of them killing a human,” he says. “They could run free here without any problem whatsoever, no danger at all. They’d kill the deer, fine, and help save the area: the deer, kept and bred by the big estates from Victorian times, have for decades got all the young trees just as they’re trying to grow – and the result is all those empty, empty hillsides you see. The wolves are indigenous, anyway, and would do a wonderful job. I think we have to accept that they’d need to be fenced, and sadly it would cost a fortune. People just wouldn’t be ready to bump into them, despite the facts. Personally I’d be delighted to run into one right now.”

This is one of many similarly fascinating conversations he grants me the privilege of enjoying, as we hike back for a late lochside lunch, and as my eco-education begins in something close to earnest. Previously, my only faintly greenish thought about nature came when I started, a few years ago after a trip to Tasmania, to try to remember to pick up my fag butts, in order to play my self-righteous bit. (This did lead to a disgusted shout of panic a week later when I pull two walking shirts from the washer to find twin heavy glops of wet nicotine misery in the top pockets.) But we are spending a couple of days in Assynt, the luckiest couple of sunny days this year, in one of the last truly wild places in the country, and there’s a hell of a lot to learn. Assynt, high on the west coast, nearing Cape Wrath, feels qualitatively different from much of the rest of Scotland. The mountains are not the highest: but they seem it. Partly because of the fascinating geological history – the area used to be part of Nova Scotia, or, as we decide, Nova Scotia used to be part of Assynt – there are few of the long rolling ranges you see around much of the Highlands. Instead you get distinct, separate peaks, shaped like sphinxes, like dogs, like giants: Pollaidh, of course, and the mighty Suilven, and Quinag, and Canisp; and below them some of the most gorgeous sea-lochs on the planet. The Observer, Sunday 14 June 2009.

Filed Under: Environment, Recreation & Sports, Travel Tagged With: ,