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xonomists who chose the names surely did so at least in part with the intention of attracting attention and awareness of their new discoveries not least from the us political establishment itself we don t know how these newly discovered obama species will fare over the next 20 years of the cbd but in common with the less glamorously named majority of species they re likely to need all the good fortune they can get a more meaningful badge of conservation committment for obama than these cute namings would be to prioritise persuading the us senate and congress to ratify the cbd and then crucially to start to make that mean something the end of the world 22 saturday dec 2012 posted by into the eremozoic in americas analysis culture 3 comments tags mass extinction unsurprisingly the world didn t end yesterday despite all the hype about the mayan prophecy which is derived from the end of a cycle of the mayan calendar it s been interesting to see how this idea in common with many an apocalyptic prediction has successfully and widely entered public culture there s an uncomfortable irony that people will talk often jokingly more easily about ideas such as the mayan doomsday for which there is scant evidence than about the slow seemingly inevitable slide towards real crisis which is unrolling in the biosphere and for which evidence exists in grim abundance it s possible that catastrophic events have led to extinction events in the past for example the kt extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the mesozoic is often attributed to an asteroid impact or extreme volcanic activity it s clear the the current mass extinction however is a cumulative process more death by 1000 cuts than guillotine although gradual it s alarmingly fast with the species extinction rate estimated to be between 1000 and 10 000 times the normal background rate this along with climate change which contributes to biodiversity decline is the real crisis in the natural world it s a shame so few people are talking about that the attention drawn to the mayan civilization by the current doomsday chat however is instructive in their day they were one of the most impressive and stable civilizations on earth but their civilization collapsed in a relatively short period of time most scholars attribute this to a complex of factors driven by overwhelming environmental stresses that s worth pondering amidst the talk about the end of the world dusbspughx7y the untimely demise of bowland betty 21 friday dec 2012 posted by into the eremozoic in europe news 3 comments tags hunting persecution pesticides raptors uk hen harriers circus cyaneus are amongst the rarest raptors in england with only four pairs breeding successfully in 2011 all in the forest of bowland lancashire once widespread in the uk habitat loss and persecution led to eradication of the species on mainland britain by the start of the 20th century and it survived only on the scottish western isles and orkney it slowly recolonised the mainland from these outposts during the second half of the 20th century returning to northern england by the 1960s with such a tenuous foothold in england every individual bird matters so recent news that a hen harrier was shot in north yorkshire is disturbing the female bird known as bowland betty had become something of a figurehead for the conservation of the species in northern england her untimely and illegal death by shotgun is symbolic of the intense pressure that such conservation efforts are under there is estimated to be suitable habitat to support 320 breeding pairs in northern england so the species would be expected to be much more successful but for severe persecution hen harriers breed on grass and heather moors where their prey consists mostly of rodents especially voles small birds especially pipits and nestlings this can include the young of red grouse lagopus lagopus scoticus a subspecies of grouse endemic to the british isles red grouse are a popular gamebird and much moorland in northern england and southern scotland is managed exclusively for the sport of shooting them gamekeepers who manage these moors have therefore long regarded the hen harrier as an enemy and you don t have to be sherlock holmes to deduce what s driving the persecution of the beleaguered raptor a 2008 study by natural england found that persecution pressures were much higher in moors managed for grouse shooting grouse moors are managed to provide an expanse of common heather calluna vulgaris the main food source for red grouse although regimes vary the main components of such management tend to be burning to encourage regeneration of heather eradication of predators which legally includes corvids foxes and mustelids and drainage of wet ground it is certainly true that management for grouse has maintained areas of heather moorland habitat that might otherwise have been lost to agriculture or intensive forestry and that such management can benefit certain other bird species such as curlew numenius arquata and lapwing vanellus vanellus it s also true that red grouse is itself a declining species which is to some extent being maintained by management for shooting these facts along with the general impetus to conserve heather moorland sometimes lead to grouse shooting being cited as an example of good management for biodiversity i don t subscribe to this opinion the picture is admittedly complex with both costs and benefits to wildlife from management for grouse but the overall balance sheet for biodiversity is negative it s hard to see management for grouse as much more than a specialised form of livestock farming the fact that the livestock is a wild endemic does not alter that basic impression all management operations are geared towards maximising the density of red grouse and effects on all other components of the ecosystem are subsidiary or incidental to that objective heather burning and drainage of moors tend to create a less diverse botanical community with concomitant effects on other species and burning can also exacerbate soil erosion if not very carefully controlled the grouse themselves are encouraged to reach artificially high local densities so as to produce a shootable surplus which tends to encourage the strongylosis parasite and requiring grouse to be fed medicated meal to treat outbreaks and of course there is the energetic elimination of predators which the early demise of bowland betty reminds us may not just include those which it is legal to kill there is a large amount of evidence of persecution of raptors across the uk often with strong implications that shooting estates are implicated prosecutions for killing a protected bird of prey are rare however and there is a general impression that the law is failing to protect raptors from persecution by gamekeepers it is becoming widelhttp www guardian co uk environment georgemonbiot 2012 apr 20 richard benyons inclosure quarryy accepted by ecologists that the health of an ecosystem depends on the survival of its top predators and so raptor persecution has significance well beyond the effects on the persecuted species itself it is in general an attack on the biodiversity of the upland ecosystem shooting on upland estates is a lucrative business with participants typically paying 3 000 for a day s shooting this high value and the cultural significance of grouse shooting to the british landed classes justify the 52 5million which the estates say they spend per year on moorland management in england and wales with financial stakes such as these hen harriers and other rare predators will never be welcome the shooting estates also have friends in high places uk prime minister david cameron is a shooter himself but the key player in government here is richard benyon the uk minister with responsibility for biodiversity and wildlife benyon who is mp for newbury readers with long memories may recall his enthusiastic support for the newbury bypass is rolling in inherited wealth including a 20 000 acre estate in berkshire complete with pheasant shoot and an 8 000 acre grouse moor in the scottish highlands he embodies the traditional landed gentry with attitudes towards wildlife to match benyon s tenure as wildlife minister has been peppered with controversial decisions that blatantly bespeak his shooting heritage recent broadsides from benyon s department include dropping a prosecution against the owner of walshaw moor shooting estate for draining and burning ecologically rich blanket bog proposing a plan to capture buzzards and blast their nests with shotguns in order to protect pheasant shooting fortunately abandoned after a public outcry and refusing a request from a parliamentary committee to extend a ban on possession of the outlawed pesticide carbofuran even though it is one of the main agents of illegal poisoning of raptors it really does look as if to use a metaphor benyon would appreciate the fox has been put in charge of the henhouse shooting estates claim to be wise stewards of the countryside in a sense this is true they are very adept at manipulating an ecosystem to produce good numbers of their desired quarry species at the expense of competitors and predators while this blinkered and skewed attitude to ecology holds sway in large parts of the uk uplands the outlook for the likes of bowland betty will remain bleak new snake species found in biodiversity hotspot 08 saturday dec 2012 posted by into the eremozoic in americas news species focus leave a comment tags ecuador new species snakes finding a new species always excites conservationists especially when the species is as distinctive as imantodes chocoensis a previously undiscovered blunt headed vine snake found in north western ecuador the species is described in a recent paper by scientists from quito who confirm it as a novel species differing from the very similar amazonian snake imantodes lentiferus in only minor anatomical details this has led to the theory that the two snakes which occur on different sides of the andes are descended from a common ancestor populations of which were separated by the uplift of the andes millions of years ago and evolved into different species blunt headed vine snakes which are only found in latin america are beautiful slender creatures which swim through foliage by balancing their long bodies against branches and lianas they can hold themselves rigidly against vegetation using the lower part of their bodies thus leaving their head and neck free to seize prey which are generally frogs hunted by night the chocó region where the new snake was discovered and after which it is named is one of the wettest and most biodiverse areas of rainforest on the planet and is part of a global biodiversity hotspot the area is predictably threatened by deforestation mostly for agriculture but it s certain that more species unknown to science still hide in its tangled forests it is sadly all too likely that some unknown number of these will become extinct before scientists get a chance to catalogue them street art on the extinction crisis 27 tuesday nov 2012 posted by into the eremozoic in americas culture europe species focus 1 comment tags art campaigns frogs mass extinction panama uk i m not aware of much street art which highlights biodiversity depletion so it s refreshing to discover london artist xylo his interesting and provocative work addresses a number of subjects but species extinction is a particular focus the critically endangered panamanian golden frog atelopus zeteki symbolises the extinction crisis for xylo and has appeared in various guises in london streets this species is an all too appropriate choice as an icon of the looming eremozoic it has long been seen as a rare symbol of good luck in its native panama and is a popular symbol there appearing on lottery tickets for instance the animal itself is running low on luck however and it s likely that the golden frog is now functionally extinct in the wild it is sobering to reflect that there might now be more of these frogs painted on walls in london than there are living free in panama xylo has also brought his work into the aisles of supermarkets with several cheeky interventions it s good to see a street artist addressing biodiversity in novel settings and through a variety of creative approaches the slide into an eremozoic future though arguably one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century remains poorly recognised or discussed in general culture and xylo s imaginative tactics are a welcome intervention older posts follow this blog enter your email address to be informed of new posts email address follow join 227 other subscribers follow eremozoicblog recent posts the state of nature in the uk eco or eco extinction explored at the natural history museum british moths in decline a raven and a phone 20 years of the cbd the end of the world the untimely demise of bowland betty new snake species found in biodiversity hotspot street art on the extinction crisis wolf hunt expands in usa is the pepperpot past previous posts previous posts select month may 2013 april 2013 march 2013 february 2013 january 2013 december 2012 november 2012 october 2012 tag cloud agriculture art badgers barack obama bees campaigns cbd ccamlr cetaceans climate change corvids e o wilson ecuador endemism ethiopia flowering plants forests frogs fungi greenwash habitat loss hsbc hunting invasive species iucn madagascar mass extinction moths museums new species new zealand oceans palms panama persecution pesticides pine martens protected areas raptors red list roadbuilding sarawak snakes surveys tasmania taxonomy technology uk usa wolves wwf categories categories select category africa americas analysis antarctic asia australasia context culture europe news opinion quotes species focus blogodiversity among the stately trees biodiversity revolution biogeocoenosis conservation of biodiversity conservationbytes dear kitty some blog exit stage right extinction countdown iwild my biodiversity garden not extinct yet raptor persecution scotland reconciliation ecology this changing life thom van dooren under the banyan web of life always think of the universe as one living organism with a single substance and a single soul and observe how all things are submitted to the single perceptivity of this one whole all are moved by its single impulse and all play their part in the causation of every event remark the intricacy of the skein the complexity of the web marcus aurelius first century ce follow this blog blog search blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed into the eremozoic join 205 other subscribers sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy into the eremozoic subscribe subscribed sign up log in report this content view site in reader manage subscriptions collapse this bar loading comments write a comment email required name required website design a 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