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The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
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Lisa S. French

2-minute read

Just one. That’s how many Norfolk Island boobook owls (aka morepork owls) were left on the small, South Pacific territory of Australia in 1986. Decades of extensive deforestation of the large, old-growth trees the birds depended on for safe nesting had reduced the population of the small, spotted owls to a sole female survivor. With a shortage of trees to nest in and no other owls to nest with, the last Norfolk Island boobook was in reproductive dire straits—owl alone. In 1987, concerned scientists determined to ensure the world’s rarest owl wouldn’t be the end of her species’ genetic line came up with a conservation strategy for matchmaking in the wild.

When it’s a matter of preserving DNA representing thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation in a specific environment, it’s not as if any old owl would do for the lone bird’s mate. To ensure the offspring of the last Norfolk Island boobook would carry on her unique traits, Australian conservationists imported two male New Zealand boobooks, her nearest genetic relatives, for a species-saving liaison. The Norfolk Island boobook took to one of the feathered New Zealand fellows almost immediately, and the two owls produced five hybrid offspring. The population continued on an upward trajectory and by 1995 there were nine new hybrid owls resulting from the original Norfolk Island/New Zealand match up. It looked as if the assisted avian pairing had paid off. But in 2012, the birds hit another rough patch and stopped breeding for close to a decade.

To help overcome the dual pressures of invasive predators and habitat loss, avian ecologists from Australia’s Monash University added more nesting boxes and owl monitors to Norfolk Island National Park in hope of encouraging the birds to carry on. And in April of 2020, researchers made an exciting discovery—two utterly adorable hybrid owl chicks were located, putting an end to a long reproductive dry spell for a bird species perched on the edge of extinction.

Some may ask why preserving the genome of one little owl is so important in the grand scheme of things. There are many reasons to conserve species, including the right to existence, ethical considerations, and cultural significance, as well as maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conservation interventions that protect the island bird’s forest habitat can also benefit other threatened flora and fauna.

As conservation strategies go, most researchers agree that the intentional hybridization of endangered animals is far from a perfect solution. But when there is only one isolated bird of its kind remaining, as in the case of the Norfolk Island boobook, hybridization may be the only option left to maintain its distinctive genetic traits. There’s a saying that perfect is the enemy of great, and these owl hybrids are living proof because they sure look great to us. The last little boobook just needed a bit of extra help to be owl-right!

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Lisa S. French May 28, 2020

Saving the Elusive Okapi

2.5-minute read

In honor of Endangered Species Day, we’d like to invite you to say hello to the rare and elusive okapi.

While “okapi” may sound like the name of an alternative fuel SUV, or perhaps a new brand of oat milk, or maybe an alternative fuel SUV that runs on oat milk, as you can see it’s none of those things. And even though it may have a body similar to a horse and striped legs like a zebra, it’s also neither of those. Although sometimes figuring out what something isn’t can help you figure out what it is, we know that you don’t have all day, so here is some instant info on the okapi, its whereabouts, and the international efforts to save the hard-to-find forest dweller from extinction.

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) or African “forest giraffe” is one of only two remaining members of the Giraffidae family and also one of the most threatened animal species on the planet. With its striking physical characteristics, including outsized ears, long neck and extra-long (up to 18 inches!) dark blue tongue, the okapi is a sight to behold. However, not many people have seen it because the shy herbivore simply does not want to be seen. Even though the okapi has been around for approximately 18 million years and is one of the oldest mammal species on Earth, it was only officially discovered by scientists in the rainforests of what is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1900.

The okapi’s uniquely striped coat enables it to blend in seamlessly with shafts of sunlight in forest undergrowth, helping it to steer clear of predators and researchers alike. Combined with its camouflaging ability, the okapi’s highly elusive nature and remote location pose a special challenge to scientists working to track populations and develop conservation strategies in hope of bringing the rare animal back from the brink.

As is true of many endangered animal species, one of the biggest threats to the okapi’s existence is the loss of the forest habitat that it depends upon for survival. Despite being classified as protected in 1992, as a result of ongoing deforestation, conflict, poaching, and mining, the iconic creature’s numbers continued to plummet. When the okapi was officially listed as endangered by the IUCN in 2013, it was estimated that over the previous 24-year period, the global population of 10,000 to 35,000 animals had declined by 50%.

So how do conservationists set about finding and protecting an endangered animal that doesn’t want to be found? Historically, to confirm the presence of okapi in a specific location, scientists relied on good old-fashioned dung detection along with anecdotal reports of animal remains from conservation patrols across protected areas. To modernize monitoring of the evasive animal in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a 13,700 square kilometer stretch of the Ituri Forest in the DRC and home to the largest known population of the imperiled species, researchers from the Zoological Society of London, working alongside local communities and the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, are now aiming to integrate technology into the mix, including camera traps and genetic testing.

One of the most important factors in ensuring endangered species like the okapi remain present and accounted for is raising public awareness of their existence. So now that you’ve met the okapi, feel free to introduce the blue-tongued wonder to your friends.

You can learn more about the collaborative efforts to protect this beautiful, bashful animal, it’s remarkable creature features, as well as the indigenous origins of its distinctive name from the Okapi Conservation Project.

If you’d like to find out how to help save other endangered animals, National Geographic has a handy slideshow of 50 at-risk species and a what-to-do list to get you started.

And to kick off your weekend in—or out—we leave you with some wildlife video joy—endangered olive ridley turtle hatchlings on the way to making tiny waves in their water world. Go, go, go!

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Lisa S. French May 15, 2020

Do You See How I See You?

2.5-minute read

One aspect of this lockdown situation that we hadn’t anticipated, out of a long list of things that we hadn’t anticipated, because we’ve never done this before, was the staring. The uninterrupted (except by naps), somewhat guilt-inducing house cat staring. Since we’ve been “inside,” we can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched—and that’s because we are. Watched from the bookshelves, watched from the windowsill—from the stairs, from the hallway, from inside the closet. Those innocent gold-green eyes track our every move and seem to be saying, “We’ve noticed that you are here all of the time now. Since you are here all of the time now—umm, more food?”

The cat staring got us thinking about eyes in general and pupils of eyes in particular and why cat pupils are shaped differently than human pupils. As it turns out, pupil shape is primarily a function of the predator-prey relationship—whether a species hunts or is hunted, is an herbivore or a carnivore, and what time of day it’s active. Through evolutionary adaptation, animals have developed optical superpowers that will maximize the odds of finding food or minimize the odds of becoming food.

According to researchers at UC Berkeley, ambush predators like house cats, tigers, and crocodiles that are either nocturnal or hunt both during day and night are highly likely to have vertically slit or vertically elongated pupils. Animals more likely to become prey like sheep, horses, and goats tend to have horizontally elongated pupils. Pupil shape is an adaptation that increases survival in the environment where a species evolved. Vertically elongated pupils give ambush predators laser-sharp focus on vertical shapes and greater perception of depth and distance so they can choose the ideal path to their next meal. The horizontally elongated pupils of prey species enable them to have a nearly panoramic view ahead and behind to detect approaching predators and make a quick getaway. Both vertically and horizontally slit pupils can expand up to 300 times for better vision in low light.

The location of eyes on an animal’s head also determines how they perceive depth and distance. Ambush predators with frontally-placed eyes like cats and tigers combine visual information from both eyes to home in on their target. Scientists believe some prey animals with lateral eyes that don’t have overlapping fields of view, including pigeons, quails, and doves, bob their heads to visually perceive their environment. However, head movement in ambush predators with lateral eyes like crocodiles would give away their position and potentially cost them their lunch. To compensate, their eyes have a structural advantage that projects images through different parts of the pupil, allowing them to better focus on prey.

Interestingly, height is also a factor in pupil shape. The UC Berkeley study found that in general, the taller the predator, the more rounded the vertically elongated pupils, which is why tiger pupils are closer to oval, and low-lying crocodiles have pupils that are vertical slits.

Bottom line, should you ever find yourself to be an object of intense interest for a wild one with vertically slit pupils, consider proceeding immediately to extreme social distancing.

And what about the vertically slit pupils of the staring house cat then? Well, even if you’re an indoor, purr-prone, domesticated descendant of wildcat predators and your prey comes out of a can and that can has to be opened by non-prey with opposable thumbs—evolutionary optical adaptations still dictate that you keep your eyes on the purveyor of the prize.

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Lisa S. French May 6, 2020

Red Panda Pause

2.0-minute read to distract yourself while distancing

We’re guessing you haven’t spent any time recently (or perhaps ever) thinking about the facial features of endangered red pandas (Ailurus fulgens). But if you’re up for a time-in programming break, here’s a quick creature feature challenge to test your visual acuity. Look closely—can you tell the difference between the panda on the left and the one on the right? Do you think you could pick these two out of a line-up of identical-looking, gingery, bamboo eaters? They may appear alike, but the differences lie in their fine facial details. Even amongst experts, without obvious distinguishing markings to tell one red panda from another, monitoring their dwindling populations has posed a significant challenge. However, new developments in face recognition technology are making the gathering of conservation-critical information on animal species with subtle variations in appearance a whole lot easier.

Until recently, researchers had resorted to micro-chipping and collaring to identify and track at-risk species; now, computer vision tech upgrades are helping to eliminate the stress and risk of capturing and tagging threatened wildlife.

Working in close collaboration with biologists, computer scientists are creating AI-assisted facial recognition programs that map and record granular visual characteristics of individual animals. In much the same way facial recognition software works for humans, Automatic Individual Identification Methods used for wildlife first process and reorient the photographic images so that they are as close in size and shape to one another as possible. Then, distinguishing features such as eye size, fur texture, or whisker spots are isolated and identified for comparison to a database of existing images, greatly expanding researchers’ ability to pinpoint new individuals and track populations.

According to the IUCN, the number of red pandas in the world has decreased by 40% in the past 50 years. As a result of habitat loss and hunting, there are now only 16,000 to 20,000 left in the highland pine forests of Nepal, India, Myanmar, Bhutan, and China. Because every creature counts, for wildlife threatened with extinction like the red panda, innovations in machine learning are becoming increasingly important to monitoring their demographics, health, and response to environmental change. These transformative technologies also hold great potential for expanding the community of citizen conservationists by enabling the public to help track endangered species through online contributions to image database portals.

You can learn more about red panda particulars here and other animal facial recognition projects like LemurFaceID here, and Lion Identification Network of Collaborators here.

We hope you are hanging right on in there, but if the news updates start to feel overwhelming, here’s an NYC semi-pro tip to lighten up your headspace: even if your only view of the outdoors is through a window, remember to turn your face towards the sun and just breathe.

And, today is National Doctor’s Day! For all of the healthcare professionals on the front lines working around the clock to save lives, including the 79,000 medical volunteers in New York, here’s today’s uplifting open-window whoop of extreme gratitude from Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Replay as needed!

As always, take good care and be well.

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Lisa S. French March 30, 2020

Wow, What a Bird!

4.0-minute read

In the midst of the oh, no, it’s officially a pandemic news cycle, we thought you could do with a little featured-creature comfort. So allow us to introduce the tawny frogmouth (Podargus strigoides) for your viewing pleasure—one of those critters you may look at and think “I don’t know what it is, but I know that I like it.” The muppet-esque night bird, while fairly common across Australia, is far from your average winged tree dweller. To get you the lowdown on the 2019 Bird of the Year second runner-up, we’ve gathered some frogmouth facts from Tawny Frogmouth (Second Edition) by double doctorate Gisela Kaplan Emeritus Professor in Animal Behavior at the University of New England in New South Wales.

If you’re gazing at the tawny frogmouth and thinking, “Wow, what a bird!” you may be surprised to learn that historically not everyone has been as enamored with what we think are its obvious charms. Starting in the 18^th century, the poor animal was saddled with rather unflattering common and scientific monikers right out of the egg and has continued to face a bit of bird bullying ever since.

The tawny frogmouth was first classified as belonging to the nocturnal order of birds Caprimulgiformes in 1758 by Swedish naturalist and botanist Carolus Linnaeus, father of the binomial nomenclature system, Systema Naturae. The name Caprimulgus, which roughly translates to “goatsucker,” originated in a primitive myth that frogmouths milked goats or sucked their blood at night. In 1801, the shambling, short-legged Australian native bird received its genus classification Podargus from the Latin for “gouty old man,” followed by the equally deflating (unless you are a frog) common name “frogmouth” in 1895.

Goat-sucking, gouty, old, frogmouth—so far-not so good. As if that sad string of descriptors weren’t enough to take the wind out of its wings, in the 1960s, the tawny frogmouth was assessed as “grotesque, ugly, weak-footed and altogether stupid and silly.” In a more recent editorial pile on, it was harshly labeled again as the “world’s most unfortunate looking bird.” While a bird by any other name may still be a stupid, silly, ugly, goatsucker according to some, bad bird reviews and unfortunate species names haven’t stopped the tawny frogmouth from becoming the second most popular feathered flier in Australia. As Dr. Kaplan illuminates in her fascinating treatise on the beloved animal, there is far more to the delightful tawny frogmouth than meets the eye. Here are some highlights:

One of 14 frogmouth species, the tawny frogmouth (TF) can only be found in Australia, where it makes its home in both arid and humid forests and woodlands, preferring the large horizontal branches of old-growth trees for nesting. Highly adaptive, the bird is comfortable dwelling around humans and will also nest in suburbs, towns, gardens, and parks. Although the tawny frogmouth may have a slightly owlish look, it is more closely related to the nightjar, which also belongs to the Caprimulgiformes or “goatsucker” order.

The tawny frogmouth is one of the island continent’s largest nocturnal birds. Males weigh between 440 and 600 grams and females between 157 and 555. By comparison, the average song sparrow weighs about 24 grams. While the tawny frogmouth is relatively long-lived, documented at 13.75 years in the wild and 32 years in captivity, only about 30% make it to adulthood, falling victim to both predators and pesticides. Voracious carnivores, TFs eat snails, slugs, mice, and frogs, and a wide variety of insects, including poisonous invertebrates like centipedes and scorpions. The bird’s large, wide beak is especially effective at “pulping” hard-to-eat stinging wrigglers. Tawny frogmouths form loyal partnerships for life and can be observed roosting side by side on the same branch, bodies always touching. Equally dedicated co-parents, males and females build nests together and take turns incubating eggs and keeping hatched nestlings well-fed until they learn to hunt on their own and are old enough to fly.

Ten Tawny Frogmouth Features

If you’re thinking, that bird is all eyes, you are correct. The tawny frogmouth’s large, frontally positioned peepers take up 30 percent of its skull and enable the night hunters to see in very low light.
The TF can move those big eyes in opposite directions at the same time to increase its field of vision, and the bird’s iris color can change from yellow to red which is believed to indicate agitation or anger. Handy!
One of the few species of birds with obvious eyelashes, the tawny frogmouth also sports rare, feather tufts on top of its beak.
The TF’s tongue is tiny and paper-thin, and the inside of its mouth is green. That’s right, green!
Those thick layers of luxurious-looking mottled feathers insulate the frogmouth from heat, cold, rain, and insects, and provide excellent camouflage from a long list of predators including ravens, owls, falcons, lizards, snakes, cats, and foxes.
Masters of disguise, tawny frogmouths strategically nest in trees with grey-brown bark color and shingled texture similar to their plumage. To become one with the branch, the birds stretch out their bodies and heads, flatten their feathers, close their eyes to a slit, and think tree.
When camouflaging fails, the tawny frogmouth resorts to poo fighting to deter predators like lace monitor lizards and snakes. A thorough misting with show-stopping fecal spray disguises the bird’s scent, putting the slippery interlopers off their meal. They don’t call the tawny frogmouths “the skunks of the air” for nothing.
Quite chatty, TF’s communicate through a variety of vocalizations that are believed to express a range of emotions including, hunger, fear, annoyance, affection, and sadness.
One of the tawny frogmouth’s most extraordinary vocalizations and displays of emotion occurs when a nestling has lost its parents or when a juvenile is about to leave its family territory. The young bird emits a “gut wrenching” whimpering that is strikingly similar to the sound of a human infant crying in pain.
No long strolls for these birds. Fliers and sitters, known as a perch and pounce sedentary predators, tawny frogmouths rarely use their feet for walking.

As an animal behaviorist and wildlife rehabilitator who has studied, cared for, and lived alongside tawny frogmouths, Dr. Kaplan has come to know them as affectionate, gentle, and curious animals with distinct personalities. Her utterly engaging analysis makes it clear why the bird’s detractors got it all wrong. Obviously, the tawny frogmouth’s beauty is more than a few finely mottled feathers deep.

And that’s your WW creature capsule for the week. Should anyone ever ask, “Hey, do you know anything about that Australian tawny frogmouth?” now you can confidently reply, “Why, yes. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

Until next time, take good care and be well.

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Lisa S. French March 14, 2020

Woylies and Kalutas and Nabarleks, Oh My!

2-minute read

Not only is Australia home to some of the world’s most extraordinary wildlife, it’s also a top contender when it comes to delightfully distinctive creature names. If you’ve ever puzzled over the origins of some of the country’s more curious animal monikers like those given to the mini-marsupials woylie, kaluta, and nabarlek, here’s a quick look at the who and the why behind what’s in a name.

Although Europeans had their own ideas about what to call the feathered, furry and scaly they encountered when they began their settlement of Australia in 1788, the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders who had lived alongside native species on the island continent for over 60,000 years were well ahead of the new arrivals in the animal name game. The 500 clans which made up the population of indigenous peoples of 18th-century Australia had developed over 260 distinct languages and 500 regional dialects reflective of their unique cultures, close ties to the land, and custodial relationship with nature.

While a fair number of the animal names imported by European settlers that are in use today were inspired by similar-looking creatures in other continents such as emu from the Portuguese “ema,” and goanna from the Spanish “iguana,” indigenous names were passed down through thousands of generations and based on the experience and deep understanding gained from interacting with animals in their specific ecosystems and environments. Far from haphazard, indigenous ecological knowledge systems typically identified species based on purpose, relationship to other animals, age, and gender.

The Seussian-sounding indigenous names woylie, kaluta, and nabarlek originate from three different clans and languages. The extremely rare and now critically endangered brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia penicillata), or rat-kangaroo, was first dubbed woylie by the Noongar people of South West Australia. The name of nabarlek, given to the small, nimble hopper also known as the little rock-wallaby (Petrogale concinna), comes from the endangered Aboriginal language of Kunwinjku spoken by the Bininj Kunwok people, who live in the rocky terrain of West Arnhem Land in the northern part of the country. And the little red kaluta (Dasykaluta rosamondae), an auburn colored, carnivorous species of marsupial, the male of which heroically bears the burden of dying after mating, has a hybrid name: kaluta from the language of the Nyamal tribe of north-western Australia and the Latin rosa mundi, after Rosamond, King Henry II’s red-headed mistress.

Despite the fact that many of the commonly used names of Australian animals are those adopted by the Europeans, there is growing momentum to rechristen native species with names chosen from the country’s hundreds of Aboriginal languages and dialects. Brisbane biologist Tim Low, author of Where Song Began, points out that there is also a trend to incorporate indigenous names in the official scientific classification of species in recognition of the Aboriginal peoples’ language and cultural heritage which is as richly diverse as their country’s wildlife.

You can learn more about an ongoing project aimed at promoting indigenous knowledge of Australia’s flora and fauna from the Atlas of Living Australia. And if you’d like to read about the fascinating, sometimes comically contentious process of naming Australia’s bird species, check out Australian Bird Names: Origins and Meanings, by Ian Fraser and Jeannie Gray.

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Lisa S. French January 26, 2020

Adapting to Heartbreak

3-minute read

The rising numbers depicting the catastrophic loss and destruction caused by bushfires across Australia since September of 2019 are painfully difficult to comprehend: at least 28 people have perished, thousands have lost their homes, and an estimated one billion animals and at least 18 million acres (an area equivalent in size to the state of South Carolina) have been affected. Yet, even those heartbreaking figures fail to adequately reflect the long-term environmental impacts that may forever change the lives of many of the inhabitants of one of our most naturally beautiful and biologically rich island continents.

Australia is “megadiverse,” one of 18 countries representing 36 recognized global biodiversity hotspots and home to 600,000-700,000 species, including many which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. There are some you may have never heard of like the northern hairy-nosed wombat, spotted-tail quoll, and Julia Creek dunnart, as well as one you definitely recognize, the cuddly-looking creature most readily identified as a symbol of wildlife down under—the koala. A native resident of Australia for approximately 25 million years, the much-loved marsupial occupies the eucalyptus forests and woodlands of Queensland, Southern Australia, and two of the states hardest hit by the fires, Victoria, and New South Wales.

At the start of the 20th century, millions of koalas could be found across eastern Australia. As of 2018, the population was estimated to be somewhere between 47,000 at the low end and what is believed to be an overly optimistic 100,000. According to recent assessments, the number of koalas that have died or been injured in the 2019-2020 fires stands at approximately 30,000. The ongoing natural disaster that may have reduced the total koala population by more than one third in just a few short months has accelerated the decline of an animal species already facing urgent multiple threats to its survival.

Like many marsupials indigenous to Australia, koalas have evolved to survive the harsh environmental conditions of the arid and semi-arid landscapes of the driest inhabited continent on Earth. But rising average temperatures across Australia over the past five decades, resulting in more frequent and intense droughts and heatwaves, have severely compromised the koala’s ability to adapt. Exposure to prolonged high temperatures can lead to heat stress, dehydration and eventual death. A December heatwave in 2009 that wiped out an estimated one quarter of the koalas in the town of Gunnedah, New South Wales is just one example.

The tree-dwelling animals are primarily dependent upon various species of eucalyptus, or gum trees, for food, water and shelter. Adult Koalas eat a little over a pound of eucalyptus a day, also extracting moisture from the leaves. Because the leaves of drought-affected trees are less nutritious and produce less moisture, koalas need to eat more leaves to meet their daily dietary requirements, but habitat loss and fragmentation as a result of deforestation reduce the number of eucalyptus trees available to support populations. When forced to leave the safety of a tree-top refuge in search of food, water, or another suitable habitat as a result of climate-change-related impacts, the slow-moving marsupials also face the threat of feral dog attacks and car strikes.

In 2015, Australian researchers publishing in the National Academy of Sciences predicted that the effects of climate change will be magnified over the next few decades resulting in severe to catastrophic losses of wildlife. Just four years later, that prediction has become a reality. As the bushfires rage on, the fate of the koala and other rare and remarkable animal species hangs in the balance. By 2030, average temperatures in Australia are expected to increase by 1.5°C. The country will continue to be challenged by unprecedented physical manifestations of a warming world. Climate change mitigation, adaptation, and initiatives aimed at conserving biodiversity will continue to be critical to help ensure the wellbeing and livelihoods of the billions of people who depend upon the healthy functioning of ecosystems in Australia and around the world.

As the science of climate change evolves, we may take some comfort in its logic while making best efforts to develop adaptation strategies for ourselves and individual species, but when it comes to adapting to heartbreak, science has little to offer because there are many precious living beings on our home planet for which there are no substitutes once lost. Although we can’t reverse the irreversible or replace the irreplaceable, we continue to have hope, because hope may not point to a way back, but it can help guide the way forward. To quote author and historian Rebecca Solnit, “Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency… To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future makes the present inhabitable.”

You can help give hope to the suffering people and animals in Australia through these Charity Navigator rated organizations. And you can wear your heart on your sleeve for the land down under by purchasing a Fire Relief T-shirt for a limited time from our pals at For Love Of All Things (FLOAT). All proceeds go to support the recovery efforts of the Australia Koala Foundation.

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Lisa S. French January 14, 2020

Saving Saigas

If you were to imagine a cross between Bambi and a snuffleupagus, you might come up with something that looks a lot like the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica). With its wide doe eyes and large, twin-pipe breathing apparatus, the honey-colored, goat-sized saiga is one of the most whimsical-looking of the spiral-horned antelopes; it is also one of the most threatened animals on Earth. Currently classified as critically endangered, which is the next to last stop on the harrowing road to extinction, the saiga antelope is at very high risk of vanishing from the wild.

Although saigas have roamed the planet since the era of the woolly mammoth, as far back as 2.6 million years, and were abundant across Eastern Europe, Asia, and Alaska throughout the 19th century, their population plummeted from one million in the 1990s to just 60,000 by 2005. Extinct in China for the last five decades, migratory herds of saiga antelopes can now only be found on the vast grassy plains of the Eurasian steppe in remote areas of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Conservationists working to bring the species back from the brink have faced two major challenges, widespread poaching and climate change-induced vulnerability to viral disease that led to a massive die-off in 2015.

Like an elephant’s tusks and a pangolin’s scales, the translucent amber horns of the male saiga are highly coveted for use in traditional medicine, making the antelope an especially valuable target for poachers. As a consequence of rampant poaching over a fifteen-year period, the reduction in the number of saiga males available for mating in proportion to females led to a significant decrease in the rate of new births, and ultimately, reproductive collapse. Following a decade of strategic conservation efforts and enforcement of anti-poaching legislation, the saiga population had rebounded to 300,000 by late spring of 2015 when hundreds of thousands of females gathered on the steppe of Kazakhstan to give birth. In a widely documented mass mortality event which has now been linked to a rapid increase in temperature and humidity, over a three week period, 200,000 saiga mothers and newborn calves succumbed to a respiratory virus reducing the total population to 103,000, once again leaving the struggling animals teetering on the edge.

And now for some good and hopeful news, because we can always use a bit more of that in general, but especially when it comes to animals on the verge of extinction: saiga conservation groups working in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College reported in May 2019 that as a result of ongoing anti-poaching work, disease management, and habitat protection the saiga population doubled to approximately 228,000 between 2016 and 2018. And because lowering vulnerability to climate change-related stressors is key to safeguarding endangered species like the saiga, scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum are also exploring whether the antelopes are flexible enough to relocate. If, like their ice-age ancestors, they are able to survive in colder areas outside of their current semi-arid steppe habitat, the risk of another heat-induced viral infection epidemic may be diminished.

Whether racing against the clock to save the saiga, the right whale, or the rhino, researchers, scientists, and NGOs around the world dedicated to the conservation of the 6,127 species listed as critically endangered have their work cut out for them. Rapid and continuing habitat loss, poaching, and environmental degradation, along with newly emerging viral diseases related to climate change make biodiversity conservation an especially complex and challenging problem that requires unique, ground-breaking, and sustainable solutions.

Speaking of conservation solutions, you can learn about some game-changing innovations from the Nature Conservancy and find out what the next generation of MIT scientists are cooking up on the biodiversity front at the Environmental Solutions Initiative. If you are prone to rooting for the underdog, or the under-antelope, as we are at Weekly Wondrous, you can lend your support to the Saiga Conservation Alliance at the Wildlife Conservation Network. And if you’d like to give a conservation scientist a holiday hug of gratitude for helping to protect and preserve the wild and the wondrous, you may do that wherever you happen to find one.

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Lisa S. French December 10, 2019

Best Bird

It’s bird award season in the southern hemisphere–that special time in late spring when birdwatchers around the world cast their votes online for the annual “it” bird of New Zealand. On November 11, this year’s favored flapper, the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, toddled past its top rival, the charismatic kākāpō, to be crowned 2019 Bird of the Year by New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organization Forest & Bird.

The yellow-eyed penguin, also known as the hoiho, which is Maori for noise shouter, is the world’s oldest and rarest penguin species—only 225 pairs of the seabird remain on New Zealand’s mainland. With its distinctive yellow peepers, pink feet, and slate-blue back and flippers, the hoiho is an unmistakable presence in the island nation’s coastal forests. Generally a solitary, quiet bird, the yellow-eyed penguin earned its Maori moniker due to the high-pitched braying sound it makes in nesting areas.

The Bird of the Year competition was launched in 2005 to raise awareness of New Zealand’s many remarkable native bird species and the threats to their survival. Currently, 80% of New Zealand’s birds are in trouble, and one out of three are at risk of extinction, including the hoiho and the kākāpō. You can learn more about all of the 2019 Forest & Bird contestants and their conservation status here.

If viewing all of the feathered finery down-under has you suffering from a bout of birdwatcher’s envy, here are some resources, tips, and upcoming events for budding and full-blown birders up-top:

You can get facts, photos, and vocalizations for more than 600 North American bird species at Cornell Labs ultimate online ornithology resource, allaboutbirds.org.

If you’d like to get a handle on how birds in your neck of the woods will be impacted by climate change under different warming scenarios, Audubon scientists have created an amazing app for that: Survival By Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink. Just type in your U.S. postal code to find out which birds in your county will be affected by increasing global temperatures and how you can help support the Audubon mission.

From December 14 through January 5, you can put your bird-by-bird watching to really good use by participating in the 120^th annual Christmas Bird Count, helping to collect data that will be used to analyze the health of bird populations across the Americas.

And because winter really is coming, here’s a zero-effort habitat gardening tip: rather than cutting back any perennials on your patch, go wild and leave seed-bearing plant tops intact as a snack station to attract winter bird fly-bys. Not tidy perhaps, but tasty, and tasty rules when it comes to keeping the feathered ones in full chirp mode.

Whether you are slogging through snow in the north or celebrating spring in the south, wherever you walk through the beauty of the world, remember to keep an ear out for the winged wonders. That’s a free Earth music download—and it’s good for you!

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Lisa S. French November 21, 2019

Pouched Pademelons

If you’ve never heard of the pademelon, you are not alone. The medium-sized marsupial hopped right under our radar as well. We like to think we’re fairly species-savvy, so when we came across this featured creature courtesy of First Dog on the Moon, initially we thought, well, he’s just making that one up because he’s a cartoon dog, and that’s what they do. As it turns out, while the pademelon (Thylogale) may sound like some newfangled, furry fruit hybrid, it’s actually a long-footed, short-forelimbed, pouched member of the Macropodidae family native to the dense coastal rainforests of Australia and New Guinea.

One of approximately 250 species of Australian marsupials, the pademelon closely resembles its larger cousins, the kangaroo, and wallaby and is also related to quokkas, tree kangaroos, and wallaroos. There are seven distinct pademelon species, ranging in size from about 17 to 20 inches and weighing between 8 and 26 pounds, with grey to dark brown coloration and varied reddish markings. Pademelons are primarily nocturnal herbivores preferring to rest and forage in the safety of dense forest undergrowth during the day, emerging in the evening to feed on leaves, shoots, berries, and ferns, typically not straying far from the forest’s edge.

In contrast to egg-laying mammals (monotremes) like the platypus and spiny anteater, or placental mammals (eutherians) like dingoes and bats which give birth to well-developed offspring, marsupial mammals complete their development in a special maternal pouch following a short gestation period. After just thirty days in the womb, pademelon young are born blind and hairless but with functional forelimbs and mouth, which enable them to crawl into the pouch and attach to the mother to obtain milk. Newborn pademelons, called joeys like their kangaroo cousins, remain inside the pouch for approximately 200 days before being weaned at six to eight months and officially entering the world as independent hoppers.

So why pouches? While some theories suggest that both egg-laying and pouch-percolating mammals represent progressive steps in the evolution toward the eutherian stage of producing well-developed young, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) offer an alternative explanation: that the marsupial’s unique reproductive ability is not an evolutionary step but instead an advantageous adaptation in response to uncertain and adverse environmental conditions, which has helped them to adjust to the climate of the driest inhabited continent in the world. The ANU scientists believe that the marsupial pouch may play a critical role in the survival of the species by providing developing young with an anti-bacterial, temperature-controlled environment, as well as protection from predators while their mothers forage for food.

Although the pouched ones are more plentiful in Australia than in any other place on the planet and the continent’s dominant species, many marsupials are on the decline due to habitat loss, and impacts of global heating, including bushfires. Changes in the distribution of food, water, and shelter in Australia’s fifteen biodiversity hotspots as a result of reduced rainfall and increased drought frequency will continue to threaten their survival. Currently, four of seven species of pademelon are listed as endangered or vulnerable, as are other little known marsupials including the bilby, bettong, and potoroo.

If you would like to read a special WWF Earth Hour report on how a warming world will affect unique Australian wildlife like the pademelon, you can check it out here.

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Lisa S. French November 12, 2019