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On a rainy spring morning, huddled under the shelter of an ancient cedar, Jared Hobbs hoots, whoops and squawks. In years past, he could lure curious owls by drawing on his extensive repertoire. Among them are the whoo whoo whoo whooo territorial calls, alarm barks and a simple “helicopter” breeding call that coo coo coo coos into the air.

The calls bounce through the thick stand of trees and dissolve into the vast British Columbia rainforest.

Hobbs doesn’t wait for a response. Only one spotted owl remains in the Canadian wild, less than two kilometres from where he stands. Her precise location in the misty forest is a closely guarded secret and her lonely presence has become a symbol of the country’s inability to save a species on the verge of destruction.

The silence of the woods is familiar for the veteran biologist. For nearly three decades, Hobbs has watched the collapse of the species. He has tagged and tracked dozens of young owls who represented the hope of recovery. He has fed them mice in a futile effort to stave off death. His truck tyres have been slashed and the remains of a murdered spotted owl was once left on a tree stump as a threat.

“When I drive the highways and backroads here in their former range, all I see are ghosts,” he says. “The owls we’ve lost, I know their stories. And those stories are gone.”

For decades, the Canadian government and the province of British Columbia have fretted over the owls’ “catastrophic population decline”. The country’s environment minister has warned it faces “imminent threats to its survival” and a number of management plans have been drawn up, revised and reassessed amid community and scientific consultations.

The most recent identifies more than 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres) of protected habitat, but critics say is “completely watered down” and falls short because it withholds key areas from protection and still permits logging in old growth forests. Portions of old growth forest have been designated “future critical habitat” but only the designation “core critical habitat” triggers federal protections.

• Old-growth forrest in Fraser River canyon, east of Vancouver, British Columbia, where the last known wild-born northern spotted owl in Canada is believed to live. Photograph: Jesse Winter/The Guardian

The cascade of failures, and the news this month that two more owls have died, raises the uncomfortable possibility that it might be too late for the northern spotted owl.

Owls have long represented the mystical and supernatural elements of human experience. They are harbingers of death, protectors and conduits to the spirit world. Even the way they move silently through a forest can feel otherworldly. Their keen, piercing eyesight is bettered only by their hearing, allowing them to experience the world on a seemingly different plane of existence.

“They’re ‘gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear’ when they move through their environment,” says Hobbs, quoting the naturalist Henry Beston. “I tell people that when you get close to an owl, you need to be calm because it is, quite literally, listening to the beating of your heart … to discern your intent.”

Called skelúleʔ in the the Nlaka’pamux language, legends of the spotted owl’s fearsome nature loomed over James Hobart as a child, when his family would spend summers deep in the forest.

“My mom, she’d tell us stories about them, how they’d grab us if we didn’t behave or if we were out too late,” remembers Hobart, now chief of the Spô’zêm First Nation. “When you hear the owls, you better be inside … I remember the owls and I remember the fear.”

It has been decades since he heard the haunting barks and trills of the diminutive owl, but with the terror gone, they remind him of the warm summer nights of his youth.

“When I tell my own kids that story, it feels different. Because they’ve never heard the sounds of the owl at night. I don’t know if they ever will.”

The Spô’zêm First Nation, which occupies the lower swaths of the Fraser Canyon, has become a leading force in the last-ditch fight to save the owl, joining environmental groups to protest against the logging of old growth forest within their territory.

Last summer, the community released three male owls into the wild, an event marked by prayer and ceremony. The birds, raised nearby at the Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program (NSOBP) in Langley, carried a heavy burden as they disappeared into the woods. The First Nation, and the province, hoped that by joining the one lone female, whose mate had recently died, the young owls could be a turning point in recovery efforts.

Tragedy first struck in the autumn, when one of the males was hit by a slow-moving train. He survived, but had to be brought back to the breeding facility to recover. Then, this month, it was announced that the two remaining reintroduced owls had been found dead, the tragedy highlighting the fragile nature of reintroducing captive animals into a hostile environment.

Hobart says efforts to bring back the owls will be redoubled, with plans to release more in the coming years. In a news release, he pledged to investigate if anything could have been done to prevent the grim outcome. “We took on this challenge together, and we will continue to keep on the intended path of repopulation of skelúleʔ,” he says.

For thousands of years, northern spotted owls, a subspecies of the spotted owl, lived in southern British Columbia, their range extending through Washington, Oregon and into northern California. In Canada, as many as 1,000 owls probably once lived in the cathedral-like forests. But generations of industrial development and logging have fractured the landscape and gutted their habitat.

When Hobbs began working for the provincial government as a species-at-risk biologist in the 1990s, there were an estimated 40 breeding pairs, but the numbers kept dropping. Through his fieldwork, he noticed the adult owls were living into old age but the juvenile owls were dying before they could acquire a territory of their own and produce young.

Spotted owls require as much as 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of forest to hunt and survive, says Hobbs, because their diet is largely limited to just two species of small rodent. For generations, the productive old-growth forests offered a haven for the birds. But logging irrevocably changed the makeup of the forests, swapping thick stands of diverse trees with young, fast growing replacements that resemble a monoculture farm.

In recent years, when the young owls left the nest to seek out new food sources and establish their own territories, they had to negotiate a patchwork of forest broken up by cleared areas or development. They were forced to fly further and further, a distance far greater than their small bodies could tolerate. Locked in a vicious cycle of desperation, the young owls began to starve.

Chief Hobart remembers how the owls weren’t just an evil spectre, but a source of inspiration for his artist mother, Hrome’tik’inquakoen, who recreated the owls in vibrant yellows, oranges and greens.

Because Hobart’s ancestors couldn’t study the depths of the powerful Fraser River, which produced a needed bounty of salmon, nor could they scale the giant trees to study the crown canopy of the forest, they relied on certain animals to serve as messengers for the state of the ecosystem.

“If you wanted to know if the rivers were healthy, you looked at the salmon. And if you wanted to know if the forests were healthy, you looked at the spotted owls,” says Hobart. “They were messengers.”

Biologists call this an indicator species, meaning it functions as a barometer for the broader health of an ecosystem. In the case of the spotted owl, the fate of old-growth is linked to the decline of the bird. They are also an umbrella species: a creature selected for preservation because their recovery inadvertently helps myriad other plants and animals.

Alongside Indigenous oral history, American biologists uncovered the link between northern spotted owls and old-growth forests in the 1980s. For decades, owls in the region attracted little research interest. Most of the effort was instead focused on the fauna that were hunted for food, says Aaron Scott, host of the Timber Wars podcast.

“After all this time bushwhacking through the woods and following it, we finally realised the owl lived in old-growth. It depends on these forests to survive,” says Scott. “For environmentalists worried about old-growth logging, they were like ‘This could be kind of our silver bullet’.”

The discovery came amid a fierce battle, four decades ago, over the future of the region’s forests and the owl quickly became a tool for activists who rushed to file lawsuits, calling on the courts to halt logging to protect nesting sites.

Frustrated loggers, whose job prospects were already dwindling amid the mechanisation of the industry, began shooting the birds. “I love spotted owls … fried,” became a popular catchphrase. Another slogan declared: “Save the trees, wipe your ass with an owl.”

Susan Jane Brown, a senior lawyer with the Western Environmental Law Center in Washington state, has spent the past two decades fighting for the spotted owl and says a deep “emotional trauma” remains for everyone who was part of “the war in the woods”.

I think the spotted owl is going to go extinct in my lifetime. For someone who has spent their entire career trying to conserve the species, that’s a failure

Susan Jane Brown

Despite some decisive wins in protecting the forest, the prospects for the northern spotted owl in the US are also dire. As few as 3,000 remain in the Pacific Northwest, down from more than 15,000 in the 1990s, according to estimates from the US Forest Service. Environmental advocates see a bleak future for a species where the birthrate is collapsing in some areas by as much as 9% every year.

A larger, more opportunistic owl has spread aggressively across the region in recent decades. Barred owls, originally from eastern North America, consume a wider range of prey and are more adaptable to changing ecosystems than spotted owls, easily outcompeting them for increasingly scarce resources. Officials in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Canada, have approved widespread culls of the barred owl, killing the invader in order to give the spotted owls a chance to fight back. But experts worry the efforts are too late.

“I think the spotted owl is going to go extinct in my lifetime. And for someone who has spent their entire career trying to conserve the species, that’s a failure,” says Brown. “We spent billions and billions of dollars fighting over the owl and trying to conserve its habitat – in court and in Congress. And at the end of the day, you mean that none of that works?”

Earlier this year, Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, warned an emergency order was needed to stem the owl’s rapid decline and the “imminent threats to its survival”. Emergency orders, a powerful tool within Canada’s endangered species legislation, have been used only three times in the country’s history, and grant the federal government jurisdiction over decisions typically reserved for a province. In this case, it would permit the federal government to dictate which forests are off limits to logging. The forestry industry, however, remains dominant in British Columbia, contributing nearly C$2bn to provincial government revenues and making up nearly one-third of the regional economy.

• Canada’s environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, has threatened to wield an emergency order to protect the owl. Photograph: Canadian Press/Shutterstock

Guilbeault, a former environmental activist, has said old-growth logging must stop within the Spô’zêm Nation territory, including the Spuzzum and Utzlius watersheds, as well as a further 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) of forest habitat at risk. The British Columbia government deferred logging in those areas after the minister’s comments.

In early April, Guilbeault told the Guardian he hadn’t yet recommended the emergency order, hopeful he could negotiate a deal with the province to protect key habitat areas.

And yet in the time since he first suggested the order was imminent, two of the owls have died, highlighting their vulnerability and the precariousness of any recovery effort. When British Columbia released its plan for the spotted owl’s recovery in 2006, it hoped to have 250 mature owls in the wild, enough for a “self-sustaining” population. Today, there is just one.

“Our endangered species laws have been interpreted in a way that allows the province and the federal government to deflect responsibility back on to the other,” says Charlotte Dawe of the Wilderness Committee, an advocacy group that successfully fought, alongside EcoJustice, to have the federal environment minister threaten an emergency order. “And so the province goes on logging like it is business as usual.”

Geoff Senichenko, a mapper with the Wilderness Committee, points to the logging in owl habitat that was needed to allow the federally owned TransMountain pipeline expansions to go ahead. “Is this the project that will kill them off? No. But it’s yet another instance of habitat disappearing and so, in a way, it’s death by a thousand cut down trees.” He and others call it the “talk and log” strategy.

For advocacy groups, the inability of the British Columbia and Canadian governments to reverse the decline reflects a failure and weakness of the laws meant to protect endangered species. Canada’s environment commissioner agrees, suggesting in a scathing report that the federal government has abandoned its efforts, leaving grassroots organisations to fight for the province’s wildlife.

It was in 2007 that the world’s only captive breeding programme for the northern spotted owl was established as a way to increase numbers. Run largely on donations, the NSOBP hopes to one day release hundreds of owls into the wild. Currently, there are nearly 20 birds that could soon be ready.

• Jasmine McCulligh, Northern Spotted Owl Breeding Program facility coordinator, with one of the owls in her care. Photograph: Courtesy of BC government

On its website, the breeding facility points to the success of the California condor recovery programme, which brought a population of 22 wild birds to more than 330 in the wild. But the recent deaths of the two owls have been a blow to the breeding centre’s efforts.

“We spent countless hours nurturing these owls, from their first heartbeats to their first flights. It was an exciting and rewarding moment to finally see three of them released into the wild last summer,” Jasmine McCulligh, facility coordinator at the centre, said in a statement when the deaths were announced, adding “this is clearly not the result we had wished for”.

The federal government has long argued that Canada can be a climate leader. Prime minister Justin Trudeau says he sees no incompatibility between buying a multibillion-dollar pipeline, and Canada’s goal of lowering its emissions. But the plight of the owl, whose survival requires a halt to logging ancient forests, challenges this assumption. There can be owls, or there can be logging in the areas owls require for survival, but biologists agree both cannot exist.

Hobbs, who previously served as a scientific adviser to British Columbia’s spotted owl recovery team, says the current plight is a scathing indictment of the provincial government’s failure to recover the species and the “rapacious commercial greed” of the logging industry, which continues to cut down old-growth forests amid mounting public backlash. “I worked so hard to protect habitat, meanwhile the habitat kept rolling by on the back of the logging trucks every day that I was out there,” he says.

More likely than not, the spotted owl’s eradication is imminent, joining more than 130 other species that have disappeared from the Canadian wild.

Hope remains faint. The last ribbons of old-growth near the border could serve as a corridor, linking the lone female in Canada to the northernmost owls in the US. But each tree that gets cut down, and each day she remains alone in the woods, pushes her and the species towards oblivion.

“You will never, ever hear me say that it is not biologically or technically feasible to recover the species,” says Hobbs. “But every time you log old-growth forests, you reset the clock a few hundred years. We – and the owls – just need the passage of time.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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New video and photographs purporting to show ivory-billed woodpeckers flying in a Louisiana forest were published by researchers on Thursday, as government officials said they will make a final decision this year on whether the birds are extinct.

The images — grainy and taken from a distance by drones and trail cameras — offer tantalizing hints the large woodpecker may yet exist almost 80 years after the last agreed-upon sightings, in Louisiana.

Several experts said it adds to prior indications of their survival. They called on the government to drop the pending proposal to write off the so-called Lord God Bird — a nickname derived from the exclamation some viewers made upon seeing one.

But others dismissed the new research as inconclusive, including a scientist who said some of the footage clearly depicts another type of woodpecker many amateurs mistake for the ivory-billed.

The peer-reviewed research in the journal Ecology and Evolution comes from a group that’s spent more than a decade searching for the woodpeckers at an undisclosed site.

It includes drone video from as recently as October that shows a pair of birds with black-and-white coloring on the wings that researchers say helps distinguish them as ivory-billed woodpeckers.

“The last time a pair of birds was photographed would have been in the 1930s, so it’s really extraordinary on that level,” said Mark Michaels with Project Principalis, which sponsored the work and said it was being shared with federal wildlife officials.

The researchers also collected audio recordings of the woodpeckers and most of the search team had some kind of direct encounter, either seeing or hearing them, said Michaels and lead study author Steven Latta with the independent National Aviary in Pittsburgh.

An ivory-billed woodpecker would seem hard to miss with a 30-inch wingspan and a call reminiscent of a bulb bicycle horn. However, the bird’s preferred habitat is dense woodlands that can be hard for people to navigate. Many of those areas were logged early last century and the most recent agreed-upon sighting was in 1944.

There have been multiple reported sightings over decades. None fully resolved doubt, and federal officials said in 2021 there was “no objective evidence” of the bird’s continued existence.

After Project Principalis released early results of its work last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delayed the pending extinction declaration so it could take more public comment.

Federal officials want photos or videos all experts can agree on. Wildlife service spokesperson Christine Schuldheisz said the agency would “receive information on any species at any time.”

One of the study’s co-authors works at the wildlife service. A disclaimer said the research does not necessarily represent the agency’s views.

Millions of dollars have been spent on prior search efforts.

Cornell University Professor John Fitzpatrick, who was involved in a years-long search launched two decades ago in Arkansas, said the latest videos and photos when added to prior sightings provide sufficient cause to drop the extinction proposal.

“The region they are working in is highly likely to be able support ivory-billed,” he said.

This article was first published by Fox News on 18 May 2023. Lead Image: Video footage purports to show the ivory-billed woodpecker, believed extinct, alive in the wild. (AP Photo/Haven Daley, File).

What you can do

Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.

Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.

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Sub-Saharan Africa, known for its diverse wildlife and stunning landscapes, is home to one of the world’s most iconic and majestic creatures—the lion. However, the king of the savannah is facing grave challenges that threaten its very existence. Lions in this region are being targeted by poachers and herders, resulting in devastating consequences for their populations.

Lions as Targets: Poachers and Herders

In a tragic incident that unfolded in Kenya recently, one of the country’s oldest wild lions, Loonkiito, met a heartbreaking end. The 19-year-old male lion was speared by herders defending their livestock, adding to the tally of 10 big cats killed in just one week. Loonkiito, described as frail by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), ventured out of the Amboseli National Park in search of food and fell victim to the conflict between lions and herders. The incident underscores the persistent struggle between these magnificent predators and human communities.

The decline in lion populations is primarily attributed to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, poaching, and illegal wildlife trade. Phot: PEXELS

The Perils Faced by Lions

The primary reason for the targeting of lions by poachers and herders is the clash between humans and wildlife, NBC reports. Villagers living near nature reserves often bear the brunt of livestock losses and pet attacks, which they attribute to lions and other predators. This friction is particularly prominent in areas such as the Amboseli National Park, a significant tourist destination and home to a diverse range of wildlife, according to News 18. The rising number of lion killings near such nature reserves has become a cause for alarm among conservationists and government officials in Kenya, where tourism plays a vital role in the economy.

The unfortunate reality is that some local communities perceive lions as a threat to their economic well-being, prompting retaliatory actions to protect livestock, reports The Dodo.

This clash between humans and lions underscores the urgent need for sustainable solutions that address the concerns of local communities while ensuring the conservation of these magnificent animals, according to The Conversation. Balancing the socio-economic needs of the people with the preservation of lion populations requires a comprehensive approach that integrates effective wildlife management practices, community engagement, and education about the intrinsic value of these apex predators.

The Impact of Drought and Human-Wildlife Conflict

The severe drought conditions in sub-Saharan Africa have amplified the challenges faced by both humans and wildlife. As water and vegetation become scarce, the struggle for survival intensifies. In this desperate quest for resources, the competition between lions and herders becomes even more pronounced. The scarcity of food and water pushes lions to venture closer to human settlements in search of prey, which inadvertently puts them on a collision course with herders seeking to protect their valuable livestock, shows a study in Nature.

The devastating effects of the drought have left herders grappling with immense economic losses. With reduced access to water and grazing lands, their livestock’s vulnerability increases, making them more determined to defend their livelihoods at any cost. This desperation and sense of urgency have created a volatile situation where conflicts between humans and lions escalate, often resulting in tragic outcomes for these majestic felines, WRAL reports.

Lions are apex predators, meaning they have no natural predators in their habitats.
PHOTO: PEXELS

How Long Do Lions Have Left

Male lions rarely survive past 15 years in the wild, with their counterparts in captivity sometimes living up to 30 years, Wildlife Trip reports. As the number of lion killings continues to rise, concerns about the long-term survival of lions in sub-Saharan Africa become more pressing. If the current trend persists, it could push these magnificent creatures closer to the brink of extinction. The loss of mature male lions, like Loonkiito, who play a crucial role in maintaining the social dynamics within prides and passing on their genes, further compounds the threats faced by the lion population.

The diminishing lion population not only affects the ecological balance but also has broader implications for the cultural and economic value of these regions. Lions are not only apex predators but also cultural symbols deeply rooted in the heritage and identity of local communities. Their presence in wildlife reserves attracts tourists from around the world, contributing significantly to the economies of countries like Kenya. The potential extinction of lions would not only result in an irreplaceable loss of biodiversity but also undermine the tourism industry, livelihoods, and the overall well-being of the local communities.

Lions play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of ecosystems by controlling herbivore populations and preventing overgrazing. PHOTO: PEXELS

A Call for Compassion and Action

It is crucial for us, as concerned global citizens, to recognize the significance of lions in the rich tapestry of African wildlife. The plight of lions in sub-Saharan Africa is not a battle that can be fought by conservationists alone; it requires a collective effort involving governments, communities, and individuals who value the incredible biodiversity of our planet.

Compassion lies at the heart of the needed response to this crisis. It is essential that we empathize with the challenges faced by local communities living in close proximity to lion habitats. Understanding their concerns and providing sustainable solutions that address their needs while safeguarding the lion population is key to fostering a harmonious relationship between humans and wildlife.

Education and awareness play a vital role in changing perceptions and behaviors, too. By educating communities about the ecological importance of lions and the economic benefits of wildlife tourism, we can foster a sense of stewardship and pride in protecting these magnificent creatures. It is crucial to highlight the interconnectedness of all living beings and emphasize that the well-being of lions is intricately linked to the health of ecosystems as a whole.

Male lions are easily distinguishable by their impressive manes, which serve as a visual indicator of their strength and dominance. PHOTO: PEXELS

Furthermore, innovative approaches to mitigate human-wildlife conflicts can be explored. Implementing effective livestock management practices, such as the use of predator-proof enclosures and the promotion of alternative livelihoods, can reduce confrontations between herders and lions, reports Mongabay. These strategies not only protect the economic interests of local communities but also alleviate the pressure on lion populations.

Law enforcement efforts could be intensified to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trade, which are significant contributors to the decline of lion populations. Strengthening legislation and enforcing strict penalties for those involved in these illicit activities will act as a deterrent and disrupt the illegal networks that drive the exploitation of these majestic creatures.

Collaboration among governments, conservation organizations, and local communities is essential for the success of conservation initiatives. By fostering partnerships and sharing resources, we can amplify our collective impact and work towards creating a future where lions can thrive in their natural habitats.

Help us protect lions from extinction! PHOTO: PEXELS

Finally, supporting responsible tourism is crucial in protecting lions and their ecosystems. Travelers have a responsibility to choose tour operators and destinations that prioritize sustainable practices and contribute to local conservation efforts. By opting for ethical wildlife tourism experiences that respect animal welfare and promote conservation, we can help generate economic benefits for local communities while safeguarding the natural heritage of sub-Saharan Africa.

The plight of lions in sub-Saharan Africa demands urgent attention and action. Their survival hangs in the balance and it is our collective responsibility to ensure that these iconic creatures continue to roam the African savannahs, inspiring awe and playing a vital role in maintaining the delicate balance of nature.

Take the pledge and help secure a future where lions can thrive, reminding the world that their majestic presence is an irreplaceable part of our shared heritage.

This article by Matthew Russell was first published by The Animal Rescue Site. Lead Image: PHOTO: PEXELS – LIONS HAVE WELL-DEVELOPED SOCIAL BONDS AND ENGAGE IN VARIOUS FORMS OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR, INCLUDING GROOMING, RUBBING, AND PLAYFUL INTERACTIONS.

What you can do

Support ‘Fighting for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It only takes a minute. Thank you.

Fighting for Wildlife supports approved wildlife conservation organizations, which spend at least 80 percent of the money they raise on actual fieldwork, rather than administration and fundraising. When making a donation you can designate for which type of initiative it should be used – wildlife, oceans, forests or climate.

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Scientists have discovered more than 5,000 new species living on the seabed in an untouched area of the Pacific Ocean that has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining, according to a review of the environmental surveys done in the area.

It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and Mexico in the Pacific, has been comprehensively documented. The research will be critical to assessing the risk of extinction of the species, given contracts for deep-sea mining in the near-pristine area appear imminent.

Bolosominae stet is a type of sponge, believed to be new to science. Photograph: NOOA

Most of the animals identified by researchers exploring the zone are new to science, and almost all are unique to the region: only six, including a carnivorous sponge and a sea cucumber, have been seen elsewhere.

Contracts for mining exploration in the CCZ have been granted to 17 deep-sea mining contractors in an area covering 745,000 sq miles. The companies, backed by countries including the UK, US and China, want to exploit minerals including cobalt, manganese and nickel, in part to sell to the alternative energy sector.

In July the International Seabed Authority, a quasi-UN body based in Jamaica that regulates deep-sea mining, will begin accepting exploitation applications from these companies.

To better understand the impact of mining this fragile ecosystem and its newly discovered inhabitants, an international team of scientists has built the first “CCZ checklist” by compiling all the records from expeditions to the region. Published in the journal Current Biology, it includes 5,578 different species, of which an estimated 88% to 92% had never before been seen.

“We share this planet with all this amazing biodiversity and we have a responsibility to understand it and protect it,” said Muriel Rabone, the paper’s lead author, a deep-sea ecologist at the Natural History Museum (NHM).

An anemone. Photograph: Smartex Project/NERC

To study and collect specimens from the ocean floor, biologists have joined research cruises in the Pacific that send remote-controlled vehicles to traverse the seabed 4,000 to 6,000 metres below.

Dr Adrian Glover, a deep-sea biologist at the NHM and senior author of the study,who has taken partin several expeditions to the CCZ, most recently on the UK’s Smartex expedition, described it as an “incredible privilege”.The expedition, funded through the Natural Environment Research Council and others, is backed by UK Seabed Resources (UKSR), a deep-sea mining company that operates the UK’s exploration area.The NHM has previously worked with UKSR and Deep Green, now the Metals Company, another mining firm, as a contractor in the area to provide baseline biodiversity data. It insists all data gathered is open-access in peer-reviewed literature.

A seastar. Photograph: Smartex Project/NERC

The scientists watch operations by video link direct from the boat, as new species are gathered by remote operating vehicles in the darkness below.

The seabed, Glover said, is an “amazing place” where, despite the extreme cold and dark, life thrives. “One of the characteristics of the abyssal plane is the lack of food, but life has a way of persisting down there,” he said. “It’s a mystery.”

One of the deep-sea animals discovered was nicknamed the “gummy squirrel”, because of its huge tail and jelly-like appearance, he said. There are also glass sponges, some of which look like vases. The most common categories of creatures in the CCZ are arthropods, worms, members of the spider family and echinoderms, which include spiny invertebrates such as sea urchins and sponges.

With approval for deep-sea mining looming, Glover said he believed it was “imperative that we work with the companies looking to mine these resources to ensure any such activity is done in a way that limits its impact upon the natural world”.

Asked about other scientists, including Sir David Attenborough, calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining because of the irreversible damage they say it will do to ecosystems, Glover said he believed his role was to inform.

The gummy squirrel at 5,100 metres depth in the western CCZ. Photograph: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

“Our role as scientists is not to decide if it can go ahead – it is to provide the data,” he said. “Everyone who lives on this planet should be concerned about using it in a sustainable way. There is a big discussion on the horizon and it is incredibly important to engage the public to find out what path people want to pursue. You have regulators, the governments and the public, who will listen and read the information, the pros and cons.

“In some ways I see it as very positive that we can come up with a regulatory structure before mining takes place. [In] other large industries, such as oil and gas, the regulations came later.”

Source

MEPs have been accused of whipping up “a culture war against nature” after the fisheries and agriculture committees voted against the EU’s biodiversity restoration law.

Last June, the European Commission revealed proposals for legally binding targets to restore wildlife on land, rivers and the sea for member states. The nature restoration law was announced alongside separate legislation proposing a crackdown on chemical pesticides with the aim of reversing the catastrophic loss of wildlife on the continent.

But there is growing concern that the laws could be abandoned entirely amid opposition from agricultural, fishing and forestry lobbying groups, and some member states. On Tuesday, the European parliament’s agriculture committee voted to reject the nature restoration legislation, followed by another vote against the proposals by the fisheries committee on Wednesday.

The nature restoration law is a key part of the European green deal that is crucial to meeting international climate and biodiversity commitments. On Monday before both votes, the commission vice-president Frans Timmermans said there would not be another proposal.

The law aims to reverse the decline of pollinating insects while restoring forests, marine ares and other ecosystems key to food production to improve Europe’s resilience to climatic shocks as the planet warms. It was a key part of the EU’s negotiating position at Cop15 in Montreal last year, where the world agreed to protect 30% of the planet for nature.

The centre-right European People’s party (EPP) has called for the nature restoration and pesticide proposals to be scrapped entirely, with liberal MEPs also divided on the issue. MEPs from both groups voted against the nature proposals this week, provoking anger from NGOs.

Sabien Leemans, a senior biodiversity policy officer at WWF Europe, said: “With this rejection, the majority of MEPs in the agri committee are failing all citizens, including farmers. At times when Italy is devastated by flooding and Spain is experiencing severe droughts, this denial of what is happening in Europe is unacceptable.

“The science is clear that nature restoration will increase our resilience to such extreme weather events and support long-term food security. Meanwhile, the agri committee is rejecting the legal proposal to restore nature. It is a totally irresponsible attitude that puts everyone’s livelihoods at risk, first and foremost the ones of farmers.”

In an interview with the Guardian last week, the EU’s environment commissioner warned rejecting the law would send a dangerous signal to the world and undermine climate and biodiversity targets.

Ariel Brunner, a regional director at BirdLife Europe, said: “Politicians are whipping up a culture war against nature, instead of facing up to reality. Without an urgent and massive nature restoration effort, we will simply not survive the climate and biodiversity crisis.

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“Floods, drought and floods will wipe out lives and livelihoods, with farmers and rural communities in the frontline. Without urban greening, many cities will become unliveable. The attempt to kill the restoration law is immoral and irresponsible.”

Next month, EU environment ministers will meet in Brussels to agree a common position on the proposals.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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By the end of the year, Victoria’s trouble-plagued native forest industry will end – six years ahead of schedule. The state’s mountain ash forests and endangered wildlife will at last be safe from chainsaws. And there will be no shortage of wood – there’s more than enough plantation timber to fill the gap.

Yesterday’s announcement by the premier, Daniel Andrews, is excellent news for forests, the state’s economy and its threatened species. We congratulate the Victorian government for this decision.

Ending native forest logging is long overdue. For decades, we’ve known of how much damage it does to wildlife. Logging vast areas of Victoria’s native forests over the past several decades has pushed many once-common animals, such as the greater glider, to become endangered.

Even now, the last remaining logging areas proposed under the state’s timber release plan overlap directly with the areas of highest conservation value for biodiversity.

Our research has catalogued the damage done to produce low-value products such as woodchips and paper pulp. The industry never made economic sense. The state-owned logging company, VicForests, has been running at a loss for many years. The industry can switch to our abundant plantations of eucalyptus and pine.

What damage did native forest logging do?

The vast majority of areas slated for logging provide habitat for more than 50 threatened and rare species. We know that the more forests that are logged, the less likely we are to find species such as the critically endangered Leadbeater’s possum. Logging pushes species into decline. Common species become threatened and threatened species move closer to extinction.

The lead author of this article has been part of a team conducting ecological monitoring and research in Victoria’s forests for almost 40 years.

We have seen the damage first-hand. We’ve watched old forests of high conservation value be clearfelled when they should not have been. We’ve watched essential habitat such as large old trees, with their all-important nesting hollows, become rarer and rarer.

We have seen extraordinary animals such as the southern greater glider go from the most common species identified in night surveys, to so scarce they’re now endangered.

We have seen once-intact landscapes become dominated by highly flammable young forest at risk of extremely severe wildfires.

And we watched in dismay as logging fragmented the landscape. Now up to 70% of Victoria’s critically endangered mountain ash forests are either severely disturbed by wildfire and logging or within 200 metres of such areas.

Native forest logging never made sense

Almost all – 86% – of felled native forests in Victoria are turned into low-value products such as woodchips, paper pulp and box liners.

In 2018 we estimated sawn timber equates to just 14% of the volume of logs cut from native forests.

By contrast, more than 80% of all sawn timber in Victoria comes from plantations. Native forest timber does not help build houses.

Bringing forward the end of native forest logging from 2030 will be a major boost for climate action – equal to removing 730,000 petrol or diesel cars from our roads every year. This single decision gives Victoria – and Australia – a far greater chance of meeting emissions reductions targets.

In its last annual report VicForests announced a loss of $54m and a loan of $80m. It’s now propped up only by the Victorian Treasury.

Even before these losses the Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office showed the state would be $190m better off without it.

How can we help forests recover?

Ending logging will take pressure off our forests but we can’t simply walk away from heavily damaged areas. Many areas have never properly regenerated after logging or repeated fire.

In north-eastern Victoria years of logging have warped the composition of tree species in the forest; many areas are dominated by trees that are largely unsuitable as food sources for koalas and greater gliders.

The urgent task is to restore forests across Victoria while managing fire and invasive species such as deer.

That’s not all. We will still need wood and paper. Ending native forest logging requires getting things right in Australia’s plantations.

At present we export up to 95% of all plantation eucalypt logs we grow for processing overseas. That’s a missed opportunity for local jobs.

Even now the plantation sector is crying out for more workers in haulage and processing. This sector offers comparable jobs for workers leaving the native forest sector. But there will be other jobs: forest restoration, firefighting, feral animal control, carbon stock management and more. Getting the transition right is important.

The exit from native forest logging must now be coupled with the declaration of a Great Forest national park in the central highlands region. The region has been a hotspot for native forest logging.

It’s almost 10 years since the state’s then-environment minister, Lisa Neville, promised this park would be declared. Once established the new park should be co-managed with First Nations peoples to ensure Aboriginal self-determination, as well as good opportunities to work on country.

Today is a day for celebrating. At last Victoria’s government has acted for the future. Preserving our native forests is worth much more in carbon storage, water production and tourism than they ever were as woodchips.

Victoria’s move is a clarion call for other Australian states still doggedly logging their precious forests.

• This article was originally published by the Conversation. David Lindenmayer is a professor at the Fenner school of environment and society, Australian National University. Chris Taylor is a research fellow at the Fenner school

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The dog is moving through the grasses of the open meadow, closely followed by bear biologist Carrie Hunt, who is observing his reactions as he sees the grizzly bear carcass for the first time. “Find it,” says Hunt, encouraging the two-month-old puppy. The puppy’s ears and tail are up as he approaches the bear cautiously, but with the confidence that Hunt is looking for in a bear conflict dog.

This is a Karelian bear dog, a hardy breed from Finland known to be fearless and capable of standing up to large mammals such as brown bears and moose. People once used the dogs to hunt big game in regions that now are part of Russia and Finland. Today, in Montana, Hunt is using the dogs to keep bears alive.

Carrie Hunt, founder of the Wind River Bear Institute in Montana, with two bear conflict dogs. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

Hunt founded the Wind River Bear Institute in 1996, where she trains Karelian bear dogs to scare away bears that get too close to human settlements and that would otherwise be killed. “I wanted to make things safer for bears and people,” she says.

Karelian puppies undergo a series of tests in which trainers teach them the right behaviours and evaluate their personality and how they react in situations that involve stuffed bears and cougars placed in the field. Just 20% of a litter will make the cut as bear conflict dogs, where a wrong move or slightest hesitation can lead to serious injury. “We are looking to figure out which ones have the right stuff. It is important for the safety of the people we are placing the dogs with,” says Nils Pedersen, director of the institute. “What we want to see is a dog that has an intrinsic motivation to hunt and find anything new and scary.”

Hunt during a training session with a Karelian bear dog puppy and bear carcass. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

When they are ready, the dogs are deployed across North America – for example, working with the Alaska fire service to keep firefighters safe on callouts and at the same time reduce the number of bears that are killed each year.

Between 2020 and 2022, dog handler Greg Colligan worked with one puppy on its first assignment helping to resolve conflicts between people and grizzly bears in Alaska’s Denali national park and preserve. “He was integrated into almost every facet of what we do as a wildlife management crew,” says Colligan, former lead wildlife technician for the park. “He helped us detect bears and push them out of an area if we needed to. He was key to everything we did.”

Karelian bear dogs are increasingly being used by wildlife and land managers not just in the US, but in Canada and even Japan to encourage social distancing between humans and wildlife.

In North America, bears live in landscapes where the human footprint is expanding. As a result, people and predators are forced to share space, setting the stage for increased human-wildlife conflicts. Bears may be tempted to visit human-dominated areas with easy to access food sources such as rubbish bins, chicken coops, bird feeders or fruit trees, especially in the summer and autumn, when they need to store energy for hibernation. With warmer temperatures resulting from the climate crisis and more human foods readily available, bears may even delay hibernation.

A grizzly bear. They are increasingly coming into conflict with humans. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

In Nevada, an increase in the black bear population is colliding with a growth in urban development. Game biologist Heather Reich reports that between 1987 and 1991, the Nevada Department of Wildlife received an average of 14 calls reporting conflicts with bears a year. Between 2007 and 2011, that number grew to more than 500, and in 2022, 1,450 calls were received. Reich attributes the latest surge to a late spring frost that killed the bears’ natural resources such as berries. “This drove bears down into urban areas searching desperately for food,” Reich says.

The dogs allow me to keep bears in the landscape as long as I possibly can, rather than having to kill and remove them

Heather Reich

Clayton Lamb of the University of British Columbia studied demographic data for more than 2,500 brown bears in British Columbia over 40 years and found that in human-dominated landscapes, for every bear that lived to 14 years, 29 did not. By contrast, only four died during the same period in a wilderness area with no people to contend with. The animals that were able to survive in human-dominated areas had adopted a nocturnal lifestyle to avoid people. “If a bear can learn to live near people, they can survive, but very few bears make it to adulthood and figure out how to live in that landscape,” Lamb says.

In Nevada, wildlife managers first tried to scare human-habituated black bears away with noise makers and rubber bullets, but that did not always work. “The bears very quickly learned that was not that scary and that nothing bad happened,” Reich says.

Puppies are tested with a number of exercises, including exposure to stuffed predators. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

In 2001, the wildlife department started employing Karelian bear dogs. Now, when a problem bear ventures too close, Reich and her colleagues catch the animal. Then, when the bear is released, the dogs chase it away in a brief pursuit. “For the bear, it is a really bad experience,” Reich says. Bears are naturally wary of canids as coyotes and wolves can kill their cubs. “The dogs have a body language, an animal-to-animal conversation that speaks much stronger to the bear than I can,” Reich says.

The lesson taught by the dogs is one that the bears seem to remember. A study of black bears in the Tahoe Basin led by Mario Klip, environmental scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, found that bears that had encounters with Karelian bear dogs became more nocturnal, were less active in winter, and spent less time in urban areas.

“The dogs make me a better biologist because they allow me to keep bears in the landscape as long as I possibly can, rather than having to kill and remove them,” Reich says.

With their keen sense of smell, bear dogs can also detect the presence of a bear early, allowing wildlife managers to take preventive measures while staying safe. “They allow me to do things with bears that I couldn’t do as a single human,” Reich says. “We have bears that den under homes. It feels a lot better crawling under these buildings with the dogs to help flush that bear out than me alone.”

Ultimately, while the dogs can help save a bear’s life, humans must also do their part by securing garbage in bear-resistant containers or installing electric fences.

The dogs’ sense of smell means they can detect bears before humans are aware they are nearby. Photograph: Isabelle Groc

At the Wind River Bear Institute, Hunt places an emphasis on “bear shepherding”. “It is about teaching bears and people the correct behaviours so they can live in the same area,” she says, but that will only work if people remove the lure of garbage and other temptations.

As Karelian bear dogs are generally people-friendly, they can help educate people about the need to adopt behaviours that will reduce conflict. “People want to talk to you when you show up with the dogs,” Colligan says. “The dogs are a way for us to connect with bears in a human-bear conflict situation, but they also allow us as humans to connect to each other.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features

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Two hundred and ninety plants, 20 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal were among newly discovered in one of Asia’s biodiversity hotspots in 2021 and 2022. Many are already under threat of extinction from habitat loss, deforestation and the illegal wildlife trade. WWF is calling on governments to increase protection for these rare species and to commit to halting and reversing nature loss

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