Activists continue challenge to state bear hunt in northwestern New Jersey
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One Huge Contradiction Is Undoing Our Best Climate Efforts
Utah wildlife officials seek hunter who reportedly shot deer, struck it with boulder
Forest elephants are the ‘glue’ holding Congo rainforests together, experts say
by Mike DiGirolamo on 7 November 2023
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/forest-elephants-are-the-glue-holding-congo-rainforests-together-experts-say/
- African forest elephants play a vital role in shaping the environment and composition of the Congo Basin rainforest, including the giant carbon-sequestering trees it is noted for.
- Without them, the Congo rainforest would lose carbon stocks and biodiversity, and the composition of the forest itself would change.
- Yet the full ecological value of this charismatic species — and the ecosystem impacts if it is lost — are not fully understood, so increased funding for study and conservation is needed, experts say.
- On this final episode of the Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin podcast season, Andrew Davies, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, and Fiona “Boo” Maisels, a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, detail the unique value of forest elephants, what still remains unknown, and why urgent protection is needed.
The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) makes the Congo Basin rainforest what it is today. As a key seed disperser, its dietary habits help construct the giant carbon-sequestering tree community that this rainforest is known for. Without them, the very composition of the forest would change, experts say.
On this final episode of the Congo Basin season of the Mongabay Explores Podcast, Fiona “Boo” Maisels, a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and Andrew Davies, assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, detail the ecological benefits of this charismatic species, why they are so crucial for forest health, and what could happen if we lose them.
The full ecological value of African forest elephants is not entirely known, but some organizations have attempted to put a dollar amount on what that would be. While recognition of the value of forest elephants is important for their conservation, Davies says, there is also intrinsic value that can’t be quantified.
“If you think of your garden, if you were to lose the gardener, you would lose the shape and the structure of that garden, which would then have many ramifications for many other species,” Davies says.
“They’re the functional glue that makes everything click together in the system,” Maisels says.
The Congo rainforest also contains unique mineral-rich clearings roughly half a kilometer in width (more than a quarter mile) that scientists say elephants depend upon for socialization and nutrients. These clearings, called bais, are visited by elephants in numbers upward of 80 per day, and also sustain a diverse array of other biodiversity. The sounds of their social interaction can be heard in this episode.
Subscribe to or follow Mongabay Explores wherever you get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all our previous ones.
Listen to the previous episode in this podcast series here:https://play.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/27885981/height/128/theme/modern/size/standard/thumbnail/yes/custom-color/344c24/time-start/00:00:00/playlist-height/200/direction/backward/download/yes
Sounds heard during this episode: Soundscape recording from the Dzanga Bai forest clearing in the Dzanga Sangha Protected Area in the Central African Republic, where elephants aggregate in very large numbers. It is likely that there were 80 elephants or more at the clearing at the time of the recording, which was shared by The Elephant Listening Project at the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Banner Image: Two elephants tussle at a watering hole, Dzanga Sangha National Park, Central African Republic. Image by Markus Mauthe / Greenpeace.
Mike DiGirolamo is Mongabay’s audience engagement associate. Find him on LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram, TikTok and Mastodon.
See related episode with more recordings at bais:https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/audio-listening-to-elephants-to-protect-central-africas-tropical-forests/embed/#?secret=nfdNmvVhPf#?secret=i8tnTctaTH
Conflict bear euthanized in Meyers – two cubs transported to rehabilitation facility
Submitted by paula on Wed, 11/08/2023 – 10:05pm
By Paula Peterson
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – It’s the story nobody wants to hear – the trapping of a conflict bear that leads to its being euthanized. There was no happy ending like that experienced by Hank (Henrietta) the Tank) in 2022. This was a female bear recently trapped whose DNA was linked to 12 incidents of significant property damage and home invasions at many different properties in different locations.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) said they received several depredation permit requests from multiple property owners in the Meyers area of Lake Tahoe on this one bear.
She was always seen with her two cubs, teaching them the habits of finding food in homes, vehicles, and trash cans instead of out in the wild. Her two cubs were also captured and CDFW staff took them to an undisclosed permitted, wildlife rehabilitation facility. There they will be cared for and ultimately released back to the wild once they are old enough and big enough to care for themselves, said Peter Tira, CDFW Information Officer.
Based on DNA, Tira said this particular mother bear had a long history of break-ins in the Meyers area where she was captured, and elsewhere.
CDFW issued at least two depredation permits on this bear, and traps were put out. Property owners have to apply to CDFW for depredation permits. While the agency issues the permits, they do not carry out the permit or do the trapping. Property owners then have to handle that themselves, which means they typically work with federal trappers, sometimes county trappers, to actually catch the offending animal, said Tira. He said in this case, trappers caught the offending bear, confirmed her to be the right bear through DNA evidence, and then humanely euthanized.
Tira said the property owners who applied for the permits had been doing everything right and everything possible to prevent bear conflicts. Permits aren’t given casually and measures have to be taken to prevent future conflict before a depredation permit will be granted. A depredation permit is a measure of last resort. When these permits are requested, they are thoroughly reviewed, and several steps are taken to ensure the permit is warranted.
“There are some bears such as this one that learn to break into homes and there is nothing that can be done to stop them,” said Tira.
“The level of behavior within some of our urbanized bears is not only alarming but that behavior is being taught to the cubs of the year,” said South Lake Tahoe urbanized black bear expert Toogee Sielsch. “There is no maliciousness behind this behavior, but it’s creating more and more highly dangerous human/bear confrontations. We need to address this situation sooner rather than later.”
Once a depredation permit is issued there is only one possible outcome if the trapped bear is identified as the conflict bear – euthanasia. This is explained to those who request the permits. In many instances, however, a permit is issued, traps are set, but no bear – or not the correct bear – is caught and the permit expires. Any non-target bears are safely released (back in wild habitat if caught in a neighborhood). Depredation permits are not open-ended, meaning there is a limited window or time frame during which they can be carried out and there typically are other conditions and stipulations added to the permit.
CDFW will trap bears for other purposes, like to catch an orphaned cub, relocate a wayward bear, or trap for research projects such as their Trap, Tag, Haze program. Tira said a bear deemed a public safety threat by CDFW law enforcement division may also be trapped and euthanized, but that is not the situation that was in Meyers, nor action taken as part of a “depredation permit.”
If caught, grown bears are very rarely transferred to a zoo, or refuge facility, due to multiple rules and regulations. Hank (Henrietta) was a very rare case.
To keep bears from learning bad behaviors and ending up in a trap it is up to all humans to be educated. There are several resources:
Keep Tahoe Bears Wild – https://www.tahoebears.org/about
CDFW – https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Black-Bear
The Bear League – https://savebears.org/
Live Responsibly with Bears – https://bearwise.org/
Bird flu infections detected at six more B.C. farms
By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted November 8, 2023 3:35 pm
Updated November 8, 2023 3:36 pm
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Avian flu is spreading rapidly through British Columbia poultry farms, including half a dozen diagnosed in commercial flocks this week alone.
The fall migration of wild birds is considered the primary cause of infection for B.C.’s commercial and backyard operations.
B.C.’s chief veterinarian issued two orders last month to try to stop the disease from spreading, telling farmers to keep their birds indoors and stopping markets and auctions.
4:27Bird flu virus spreads to mammals
Since Oct. 20, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency shows there have been 16 confirmed cases of the highly virulent H5N1 virus.
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In total, eight were confirmed at Fraser Valley commercial poultry farms, in addition to two small flocks in Merritt and Port McNeill.
The B.C. Agriculture Ministry says once a positive test is confirmed, the flock is quarantined, culled and then disposed of.
The ministry says farmers need to remain vigilant despite the preventative measures put in place, and any sick or dead bird should be reported through the province’s wild bird surveillance hotline.
CWD Discovered In New Idaho Hunting Unit; South Of Other Outbreak
El Niño is getting stronger and that’s already making Earth hotter
- Andrew Freedman, author ofAxios Generate
https://www.axios.com/2023/11/09/el-nino-extreme-heat
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El Niño continues to strengthen in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which is likely to give global average temperatures a sizable boost going into next year.
Why it matters: El Niño, a natural climate cycle, affects weather patterns around the world, bringing drought to some countries and flooding to others.
Driving the news: NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center issued an update this morning that finds El Niño is now in the “strong” category, and there is more than a 55% chance that it will remain this way through the January-through-March period.
- Compared to last month, NOAA slightly increased the likelihood (to 35%) that this event will become historically strong for the November-through-January period.
- NOAA also now expects the event to last through the Northern Hemisphere spring.
The big picture: El Niño can also lead to record warm years by giving a natural bump to human-caused warming, like a person jumping up while on a moving escalator.
- The most recent strong El Niño in 2015-2016 led to a record warmest year, which is on track to be surpassed this year.
- “El Niño is really going to start to bite next year,” said Andrew Pershing, VP for science at Climate Central, during a media call on a climate change attribution study.
- Pershing and other outside scientists noted that El Niño is only thought to be responsible for about 0.04°C (0.07°F) of the record warmth seen during the during the 12-month period from November 2022 through October 2023, but that this is likely to grow through 2024.
The ongoing event is already reshaping weather patterns in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, bringing drier-than-average conditions to Indonesia and Australia.
Exposing the Big Game 
