Friday, July 08, 2011
ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier
Car-Trouble & Cryptids
From CFZ Australia:
Jack gets his hands on a Thylacine
Plea to save Spotted-Tailed Quoll's home
New from CFZ Press: When Bigfoot Attacks!
Big cat sighting at Halls Gap, Victoria
Weird Weekend 2011 - be there or be square!
UNSW to study foraging behaviour of extinct Thylacine
Monster wombat bones discovered in Australia
Mainland release mooted for Tasmanian Devils
From CFZ New Zealand:
OOPA: Was Emperor Penguin colonising NZ?
Endangered swamp bird Boris gets a second chance
KEN GERHARD VS THE LOCH NESS MONSTER
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
Oliver is away for a few days, but he asked me to remind you all that on this day in 1911 Mervyn Peake, writer of the Gormenghast books, was born.
And now the news:
Rhinoceros head stolen from Brussels museum
Thailand’s booming illegal exotic pet trade is trashing Madagascar's wildlife
Researchers find plastic in more than 9% of fish in northern Pacific Ocean
More than 4,500 fossils found as dig wraps up
Sea urchins see with their whole body
New butterfly reserve in East Sussex to conserve Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary
Kruger rhino massacre continues
The 14 foot wombat: First complete skeleton of prehistoric monster found in Australia
Grizzly Bear Kills Hiker Who Disturbed Cubs
Get Kraken: Why Scientists Should Study Sea Monsters
Rhesus Monkeys Appear to Have a Form of Self-Awareness
Dolphins 'carried body of drowned victim to shore' in July Fourth tragedy
Chimp recognises synthetic speech
Turtles-at-risk study to be conducted by South Nation
PENGUINS ON TRISTAN DE CUNHA
http://www.tristandc.com/newsmsolivatristan.php
Emergency Action for Dartmoor’s ring ouzels
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Emergency Action for Dartmoor’s ring ouzels
The RSPB has teamed up with environmental funder SITA Trust and Dartmoor National Park Authority in an attempt to stem the decline of the ring ouzel in Dartmoor.
Related to, and closely resembling blackbirds ring ouzels are birds of upland areas. Male ring ouzels are particularly distinctive with their black plumage with a pale wing panel and striking white breast band.
This project is the vital first stage in stemming the decline and potential extinction of ring ouzel in southern England. This red listed species has declined by 63% since 1979 on Dartmoor, a former stronghold for this beautiful bird.. Here this project will focus on a remnant population that is hanging on.
Thanks to a grant of over £30,000 conservationists and volunteers will survey the fragile Dartmoor population over two years during the breeding season to research reasons for decline and determine what will be required to sustain future populations.
Jools Granville of SITA Trust said 'The rate of decline has been so steep that it was vital that the RSPB undertakes this work immediately on Dartmoor whilst there is still a breeding population of ring ouzels so that they may implement emergency measures to protect the population. The loss of breeding birds over the past decade on Exmoor and the Long Mynd in Shropshire is testament to the urgency of this work. Naturally we were only too happy to be able to provide the necessary capital for this project to go ahead'
The survey work is being co-ordinated for the RSPB by Dartmoor resident and TV naturalist Nick Baker.
Nick, who has long had a passion for ring ouzels said: ‘For me this bird has a special place, it’s a wild, rugged and windswept place and there is nothing more poignant than its plaintive tri-syllabic song, it is the soundtrack of the remote and secret spaces. Listening to those notes being snatched by the wind on a blustery tor or rugged and rocky valley in spring time encapsulates for me the essence of what is so special about Dartmoor National Park.
‘If the decline continues and this population goes the way of the birds on Exmoor (that have not bred there since 2002) then for me we’ve lost one of the fundamental elements of the moors, without the ring ouzel we lose the beating heart of the Dartmoor.‘
The work is also being supported by the Dartmoor National Park Authority. Norman Baldock, Senior Ecologist at the National Park said ‘The reasons for the decline in ring ouzel numbers nationally are poorly understood, so it is vital that every effort is made to learn what measures can be taken on Dartmoor to help maintain the small breeding population of this special upland bird’.
SITA Trust provides funding through the Landfill Communities Fund. Funding is available for available for projects that enhance communities and enrich nature.