Yellowstone Saves Some Of Its Richest Wildlife Watching For The Colder Months
Simond Raymond of Switzerland braved snow-packed and icy roads, but he considered his winter visit to Yellowstone National Park a success. He saw wolves every day.
“Sometimes the weather is very bad — but we saw the wolves,” he smiled.
Raymond fits into a category of Yellowstone visitor that did not exist 15 years ago: the wolf watcher.
After being wiped out in the park early in the 20th century, 31 gray wolves were re-introduced in 1995 and 1996. They flourished. Today, more than 350 of their descendants roam the park and surrounding area, preying on the abundant elk, deer and bison.
Summer visitors to Yellowstone expect to see wildlife, but most don’t realize that the winter season — which officially begins Dec. 18 — can be prime time for wildlife viewing. Deep snow in the high country drives elk, deer and bison down into the open valleys, where the weather is milder and they can more easily paw or push snow aside to get to the dried grass beneath.
And where the grazing animals gather, predators follow.
My wife and I live only three hours away from Yellowstone and we visit more often in the winter than the summer. We like to tell others about being serenaded by wolf and coyote howls echoing off the mountains, of watching a coyote stalk and pounce on a mouse by listening to it scurrying under the snow, of inadvertently skiing so close to a bison that we could see his bloodshot eyes.
But there’s more than wildlife in Yellowstone in winter. The frigid air enhances the steam spouting from its famous geysers, making them even more spectacular. Its plateaus and broad valleys are made for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing; some scenic drives in summer are designated cross-country ski trails in winter.
Most of Yellowstone is closed to auto traffic in winter, but the part that is open to cars offers some of the richest wildlife viewing opportunities in the park. It runs from Roosevelt Arch, the century-old ceremonial north entrance to Yellowstone at Gardiner, Mont., to the snowbound community of Cooke City, Mont., at the northeast entrance (the road beyond Cooke City is usually closed in winter).
En route, it passes through the Lamar Valley, which some have called America’s Serengeti. This is where most of the park’s wolf watchers hang out.
But even areas closed to auto traffic remain open to visitors, via snowmobile or snowcoach. Visitors can travel by snowcoach to Old Faithful and ski the circuit around the Upper Geyser Basin, the largest geyser concentration in the world. After skiing, visit the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, a modern hotel that invites visitors to curl up in comfy lounging chairs in front of lobby fireplaces.
Those staying in gateway communities can also take snowcoaches into the park on day trips. Cross-country skiers can access scheduled ski drops and pickups for specific trails from in-park hotels.
And for those staying near the north entrance, winter is the best time to try that special Yellowstone experience called hot-potting.
As you drive the five miles from Gardiner to Mammoth Hot Springs, you will cross the Gardner River. You may notice a big parking lot to your left — seemingly serving nothing. It’s not marked, but this is the best opportunity in Yellowstone to take a dip in a wild hot springs without having to hike for 20 miles. By William Kronholm,The Miami Herald
Tracking Down Elusive Whales
A 15-year genetic study of Southern Hemisphere humpback whales has opened a window into the little known mating habits of the giant cetaceans, revealing some whales travel between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to mate.
Analyzing DNA skin samples from 1,527 whales in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, an international group of scientists mapped how different whale populations interact, their mating habits and distribution across oceans.
“Many of the interactions among Southern Hemisphere populations are still poorly understood,” said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the U.S.-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program and lead author of the study.
“This research illustrates the vast potential of genetic analyses to uncover the mysteries of how humpbacks travel and form populations in the Southern Ocean basins,” Rosenbaum said in a statement announcing the study, published on PLoS ONE, an online scientific journal (http://www.plosone.org)
So little was known about Southern Ocean humpback whales that the researchers used whaling records dating back to 1761 for initial insights.
The whaling logbooks tried to determine whale population boundaries and breeding stock, but studying humpbacks in the wild, even in modern times, is difficult due to the wild oceans they inhabit and the vast distances they travel.
“We’re still trying to answer the same question with molecular technology in concert with whaling logbook records,” said Rosenbaum.
The slow-swimming humpback was hunted commercially until the International Whaling Commission protected the species in 1966. Humpback numbers are recovering, but their total population may still be only a small per cent of the original population.
The study found that the highest rate of gene flow between Southern Hemisphere humpbacks occurred with whales breeding on either side of Africa, with one or two whales swimming between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans each year to mate.
This was the first time a humpback had been recorded travelling between the two oceans, said the study.
Whale populations on either side of the South Atlantic did not seem to mate, but similarities in their “songs” revealed a degree of interaction between the two groups, most likely in the feeding grounds in Antarctic waters.
The small humpback population of less than 200 in the Indian Ocean, off the Arabian Peninsula, was distinct genetically and unlike other populations did not migrate and therefore was a “conservation priority,” said the study.
“Molecular technology gives us a window into the lives of whales that can help us understand the ecological forces shaping their movements and distribution,” said Rosenbaum.
“We can also use our findings to inform management decisions for a species that is only now beginning to recover from centuries of commercial whaling,” he said. Canada Dot Com
Two Decades Before Tigers Stop Roaring
Tigers could become extinct in the wild in two decades unless the world ramps up conservation efforts to halt the decline in their population, wildlife experts said Wednesday.
Barely 3,500 tigers are estimated to be roaming in the wild in 12 Asian countries and Russia compared with about 100,000 a century ago, experts and conservationists said.
“Despite our efforts in the last three decades, tigers still face threats of survival. The primary threat is from poaching and habitat loss,” Nepal’s prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal told a conference of tiger experts from 20 countries.
Tigers are being illegally killed for their body parts and Asia is a hotspot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organization Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion a year.
Skins sell as rugs and cloaks on the black market, where a skin can fetch up to $20,000.
Habitat destruction and depletion of prey base are other perils facing the “Asian heritage”, conservationists said.
“A business as usual approach in tiger conservation will doom the tiger population in the next 15 to 20 years,” Mahendra Shrestha, program director of the Washington-based Save the Tiger Fund said on the sidelines of a conference on tiger conservation.
He said law enforcement, patrols to stop poaching and the preservation of remaining habitat would improve the situation.
“There is hope. We can do it. It is not rocket science. It does not require a lot of new activities,” Shrestha said. “But there has to be strong political will to conserve tigers and also strong global international support for the activities of the tiger range countries.”
Tigers still roam terrain in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
John Seidensticker, chief scientist at the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Conservation Ecology Center, said tiger habitat had declined by 40 percent in the last decade due to destruction of forests.
“Our challenge is to make landscapes with tigers alive worth more than landscapes where tigers have been killed,” Seidensticker said. “I think we have a decade from where we will slip from being caretakers to undertakers.” China Daily
The World’s Largest Spider
New clinical research, published in the world’s leading academic journals, is now showing that an extraordinarily rare plant extract first discovered by the ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago may carry remarkable slimming and health benefits.
This mysterious nutrient is found in the roots of a rare cactus plant that was revered by the ancient Egyptians for its health and healing powers.
Thanks to recent medicinal advancements, scientists are now able to isolate and concentrate this nutrient in a convenient capsule form, which is now available exclusively here, and in high-end Beverly Hills salons, under the patent-pending Phosphacore Formula.
A new breed of giant spider – which has huge 12,7cm females and tiny males – has been discovered by scientists. The female of the new species of golden orb weaver spider has a body one and a 3,8cm long with a leg span of five inches and weaves a web more than three feet wide.
The tiny male, however, has a leg span of just one inch. The variation of the Nephila species, named as Nephila Komaci, was discovered by US and Slovenian researchers in Africa and Madagascar. A new giant orb spider has been discovered in South Africa. It has a leg span of five inches and weaves webs three feet wide.
In the paper published in the journal PLoS ONE, the team from the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, described how until recently, said they believed the giant Nephila was extinct.
But Jonathan Coddington from the Smithsonian said a South African colleague found a male and two females in Africa’s Tembe Elephant Park allowing researchers to confirm it did exist. Tests were then carried out that confirmed it was the largest orb weaver ever known and was a newly identified species.
Coddington said: “We fear the species may be endangered, as its only definite habitat is a sand forest in Tembe Elephant Park in Kwa-Zulu-Natal. “Our data suggests that the species is not abundant, its range is restricted and all known localities lie within two endangered biodiversity hotspots: Maputaland and Madagascar.”
Nephila spiders are renowned for being the largest web-spinning spiders. Although males are five times smaller than their mates, they are actually normal-sized – it is the females who are giants. N Komaci was named after Kuntner’s best friend, Andrej Komac, who died in an accident at the time of the discovery.
Kuntner said: “My friend, himself a scientist, encouraged me to tackle this PhD, but did not live to see the discoveries made. “He was a big inspiration, and a great friend, thus it was logical to name this new species to his memory.” Independent Online
Gorilla Protection Should Be A Part Of Copenhagen Climate Talks – UN Official
A United Nations conservation expert has called for the protection of gorillas and elephants to be included in global climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December as a major factor in sustaining healthy African forests, a central element in temperature control.
“I would estimate that the apes and elephants of Africa disperse some 7 billion seeds every day,” UN Ambassador for the Year of the Gorilla Ian Redmond said today, noting that it took more than 1,000 times that period for a project backed by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant 7 billion new trees.
UN agencies have repeatedly pointed to the vital role that forests play in the health of Earth, since they absorb carbon dioxide, a key factor in global warming. UNEP reported last month that the project, launched in 2006 in a bid to push governments into reaching agreement in Copenhagen, had exceeded its goal, with China planting 2.6 billion trees, bringing the total to 7.3 billion trees planted in 167 countries.
“The gorillas and elephants of Africa are doing the world a service,” Mr. Redmond said following a fact-finding mission across eight African gorilla range States. “The full extent of the role they play in maintaining the health of their forest habitat – a central component of the Earth’s climate regulation – is still poorly understood.”
Large mammals, such as elephants and gorillas, are keystone species in their relevant ecosystems. Gorillas act as ‘gardeners’ in the rainforests of the Congo Basin, and protecting them helps prevent loss of flora that are ecologically dependent on them. They are second only to elephants in the number of seeds they disperse. When eating fruit and seeds, the seeds pass through their system and are in this way prepared for germination.
Fifteen years of armed conflicts in the Great Lakes region of Africa, accompanied by illegal exploitation of minerals to finance militias, led to a sharp increase in demand for so-called bush meat. Rapid urbanization has also accelerated deforestation through charcoal production, and gorillas and elephants have been poached in large numbers.
A dramatic decline in the diversity of vegetation can be observed in parts of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). As gorillas declined and elephants vanished from the montane area, the flora changed into denser, less diverse vegetation, and weed-like plants, formerly held in check by elephants and gorillas, have become much more dominant, suffocating trees and thereby accelerating deforestation.
By building nests, gorillas break off branches and create gaps in the forest canopy, letting light through to the forest floor and enabling smaller plants to grow. Hence the survival of forests requires the protection of the animals in them as well as the trees. In the long term, deforestation is as much a consequence of over-hunting as of cutting trees for charcoal or timber, UNEP reported.
Supporting existing national action plans to halt deforestation of gorilla habitat is one of the major objectives of Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) Agreement on the Conservation of Gorilla and their Habitat during the Year of the Gorilla campaign.
UNEP launched the Year, aimed at halting the slide towards extinction of one of humankind’s closest relatives, in January when a troupe of skaters disguised as apes took to the rink at London’s Natural History Museum, highlighting the theme ‘Gorillas on Thin Ice.’ Modern Ghana.