- bison take up way less energy in the winter because they dont need shelter and theyre built for blizzards, their hump is literally adapted to plow through snow
[image description: an articulated bison skeleton display on a mostly black background, the spinous processes between the shoulder blades are approximately as long as the shoulder blades are and get gradually shorter towards the hips end description]
- bison have no natural predators, (aside from humans), and can protect themselves. it would remove the excuse of slaughtering wolves to protect cattle
- theres the idea that cattle will trip on prairie dog holes, be injured, and cost a lot of money to fix. bison are smart enough to avoid holes and are adapted alongside with prairie dogs. less killing of prairie dogs equals more prey for black footed ferrets. which are heavily endangered due to cattle grazing land and mass slaughter/revenge killing of prairie dogs by farmers
- a large portion of bison conservation efforts are indigenous ranchers and support of these efforts is support of indigenous sovereignty and vice versa
- bison graze by taking off the tops of grass and moving on, they avoid most wildflowers as well, cattle tear clumps of grass out and destroy vegetation that arent made for cattle predation
- bison are more efficient in digestion than cattle are and need less grass to sustain themselves, and tho bison still create lots of methane like all bovids do, we have more cows than we would have bison (also spoiler alert, majority of greenhouse gas emissions are burning of fossil fuels, not cattle, despite the amount of people preaching how evil cow methane is)
and finally…
theyre supposed to be here!!!! they were strategically killed nearly to extinction to aid in the genocide of native americans, restoration to bison isnt the whole picture but its a huge step to righting many wrongs
Fox Mourns The Loss Of His Friend Killed By A Passing Car.
February 3, 2015 - Island Beach State Park, NJ.
I was photographing a fox emerging from a grassy knoll on the side ofShore Road in Island Beach State Park, NJ on February 3, 2015. After the fox I was photographing cleared through the brush he noticed another fox just down the road heading towards him. They both saw each other and began chasing each other up and down, and back and forth across the road. They were jumping on each other playing tag and rolling around. And just like that an SUV came barreling down the road, the driver slammed on their brakes and swerved but it was too late. The white SUV struck one of the foxes with the front passenger side tire of the car. I stared not knowing what to do. The fox who was hit was spasming and rolling around on the ground. The spooked fox who nearly avoiding being hit saw his friend on the ground. He thought he was fine, just playing like they were moments before; so he ran over and pounced. They were both rolling around until the fox who was hit stopped moving. This is when I decided to walk over and see what was going on. As I got closer I saw the both foxes covered in blood. The fox who avoided the accident kept circling around his playmate just staring confused; he looked so sad. He continued nuzzling his friend to see if he was ok and picked him up by his neck (like a mother does to her young) and set him down. Nothing. After a few try’s he noticed the blood on his coat and wasn’t too happy. He ran into the brush and started rolling around on the ground and brushing against a tree trying to get his friends blood off his fur. He came back out after a couple moments and started to circle again. He tried pawing and nosing a couple more times, still nothing. He walked off the road slowly, he stopped to look back for a moment then ran off into the the grassy knoll. The driver never stopped.
Just ten minutes beyond the center of Wellington lies a wild paradise, where the birdsong of as many as 40 species ring out above hikers.
The massive urban forest of Zealandia is helping prove that if you restore native forest in cities, native species will come back, and for a place with as unique an ecology as New Zealand, that’s all the more important.
The park, described as an eco-sanctuary, is delightful on its own, but it’s having a halo effect on bird communities in suburban, and even urban areas of the nation’s capital.
The Zealandia model drove researchers to investigate whether native tree density in and around cities resulted in an increase in native bird species. To get an answer, they examined 25 urban forest projects totaling 72 years of work. They found that the longer the reforestation work, the greater the diversity of native species.
Furthermore, populations of invasive predators like weasels, cats, possums, and rats, which were logically thought to be a reducer of population, had no affect in areas reforested with native tree species.
Opened in 1999, native birds have since increased during annual counts by 50%, while for some species that aren’t rare but shy away from cities, those figures are much higher. The numbers of kākā had increased by 250%, kererū by 186%, and tūī by 121% (the Māori accents denote a long vowel, i.e. “too-ee.”)
“In the 1990s seeing a tūī in suburban Wellington was a big deal, let alone a kākā,” Adam Ellis, a keen birdwatcher in Wellington, told the Guardian, reporting on the news. “Zealandia … created such a change in bird life that birds like tūī became a common garden bird.”
People across Australia’s east coast are catching an earlier than expected first glimpse of breaching humpback whales as they migrate north, and scientists say the reason why is a conservation success story.
Whale watchers were treated to a spectacular show in Sydney on Monday as two humpback whales surged from the water metres from their boat. Dr Wally Franklin, director of the Oceania Project, said sightings have also been reported off the coast of Merimbula, Byron Bay, Tweed Heads, the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay, as the whales journey north from the Antarctic to the Great Barrier Reef.
Prof Mike Noad, director of the centre of marine studies at the University of Queensland, said the number of sightings this early in the season, which usually peaks at the end of June and into July, is due to the eastern Australian humpback whale population booming during a remarkable period of recovery.
In the early 60s when commercial whaling was banned in the region, Noad said it was estimated only about 300 of the eastern Australian humpback whales remained. Sixty years later, he suspects the population now sits at about 40,000.
“Around 20 years ago we’d get the first one or two whales coming through about Easter time, but there was around an eighth of the number of whales that there are now,” he said. “So one or two at Easter time now becomes 16 or 30 … so every year that’s probably the same migration. It’s just there’s more whales in the population.
“It’s a wonderful success story. They got down to around 1% of the original population – 99% were wiped out. That’s how close they came to being completely wiped out.
“All we had to do was stop killing them, we haven’t done much else apart from leaving them alone … and they’ve bounced back in a really healthy way themselves.”
Noad said the last major survey of the whale population was conducted in 2015, so the estimated whale population is a “best guess”. The surveys had since been de-funded by the federal government due to the whales returning to a healthy population level.
But Noad said there is a need to continue surveying the population to understand how the whales are being affected by the climate crisis, pollution, and underwater noise and potential collisions caused by boat traffic.
In February, humpback whales were struck from the threatened species list, which drew the ire of a number of scientists due to the threats the species continues to face.
“We’ve got no idea if [the population level] is sustainable, we’ve got no idea … whether they’re going to go higher or whether they might crash if they’re outstripping their food supply,” he said.
Franklin said the whale population grew by 10% every year from the 90s to 2015.
He said drastic growth in whale populations has surprised researchers, with scientists working in the northern hemisphere who study whale populations previously thinking the maximum growth rate of whales annually was 8%.
Franklin suspects the eastern Australian whale population has surpassed this expectation due to the Great Barrier Reef being the “perfect location as a breeding area”. He said researchers have found evidence that whales from other parts of the Pacific have migrated to eastern Australia.
“The benefit of it is that whale watchers along the coast of New South Wales and Queensland get to start seeing the whales earlier, and they’ll see them longer.”
The manatee, also known as the sea cow, inhibits marshy, shallow regions on the coast of tropical areas. They are mainly found in the Caribbean sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon Basin, and West Africa.
Manatees are herbivores and eat freshwater plants. They use their back flipper to dig for plants, and then scoop the plants into their mouth. The manatee will eat 10-15% of it’s body weight a day. They weigh about 800-1,200 lbs.(400-550 kg.) and spend about 7 hours of their day grazing for food.
Manatees are usually found alone as they are very independent. Unless with their calf or mating. They usually mate every 2 years and live, on average, 40 years in the wild.
The manatee is threatened and vulnerable to extinction. This is mostly due to human causes. Their biggest threat is habitat destruction. Poaching is also a big concern as they are hunted for their hide and bones.
To see what you can do to save the manatees, click here.
To donate to manatee conservation and show your love for them, purchase a $5.00 bracelet here.
To support manatee conservation and adopt a manatee, click here.
