South Carolina Department of Natural Resources: South Carolina Wildlife magazine goes digital!. “South Carolina Wildlife magazine, in partnership with the South Carolina State Library, is proud to announce that many of its almost seventy years’ worth of magazines are available to the public in digital form at no cost.”
New Indian Express: Environment ministry creating genetic database of captive elephants to curb illegal trade: Officials. “The Union environment ministry is creating a central genetic database of captive elephants in the country to help curb illegal trade of the animal, officials have said.”
Associated Press: New tool to track the migration of birds across the world. “The Bird Migration Explorer mapping tool, available free to the public, is an ongoing collaboration between 11 groups that collect and analyze data on bird movements.”
Columbia Climate School: Scientists Are Mapping New York City Wildlife. And We Don’t Mean Rats, Squirrels or Pigeons.. “There are possums, raccoons, deer, coyotes (one turned up last year in Central Park), foxes, rabbits, groundhogs and skunks. In the waters, river otters and beavers (after a nearly 200-year absence, one was recently seen running along a promenade near the Williamsburg Bridge). In the air, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, bats and rare native bees.”
Phys .org: Largest database on mammals in Portugal now available. “The new public database includes 105,026 records of 92 species of terrestrial and marine mammals from 1873 to 2021 (of which 72% correspond to the period between 2000 and 2021).”
New York Times: The Animal Translators. “Machine-learning systems, which use algorithms to detect patterns in large collections of data, have excelled at analyzing human language, giving rise to voice assistants that recognize speech, transcription software that converts speech to text and digital tools that translate between human languages. In recent years, scientists have begun deploying this technology to decode animal communication, using machine-learning algorithms to identify when squeaking mice are stressed or why fruit bats are shouting.”
Mongabay: Mongabay Investigates: tracking deforestation with data-driven journalism. “As technology has advanced, so has the availability of near real-time data. Over the years, Mongabay has kept pace using this innovative technology to inform reporting on the world’s most vulnerable and ecologically significant places.”
Clemson News: Where are the venomous snakes? An app created by a Clemson scientist can tell you. “[Rhett] Rautsaw created VenomMaps, a database and web application containing updated distribution maps and niche models for all 158 pit viper species living in North, Central and South America. Pit vipers are a group of venomous snakes, including rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths. While Rautsaw needed the information for his evolutionary biology research, the maps provide vital information for conservation efforts, citizen scientists and medical professionals.”
KRDO: CPW launches conservation dashboard to show progress on protecting sensitive species. “Prior to the launch of the Species Conservation Dashboard, the only way for the public to view information about CPW’s State Wildlife Action Plan was through a PDF. The new dashboard now allows people to explore the progress being made on the more than 350 species and 2,500 conservation actions the agency is taking.”
Phys .org: Listen to the call: Scientists recreate the song of a 150-year-old insect that could help rediscover its species. “A museum specimen has been heard for the first time in 150 years after scientists digitally recreated its song. The body shape and song of Prophalangopsis obscura could help give researchers clues about where the insect might still be living after being lost for over a century.”
EurekAlert: Social media helps scientists monitor rarely sighted whales. “Social media posts helped scientists to monitor one of New Zealand’s rarest whale species, the infrequently sighted southern right whale, or tohorā.”
Newswise: New Course Helps Awaken Curiosity About Nature. “Adults who want to connect kids with nature now have some expert guidance, thanks to a new online course from Bird Academy, the e-learning arm of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. ‘Let’s Go Outside: How to Connect Kids with Birds and Nature,’ contains six lessons with dozens of field-tested activities to reduce screen time for kids and boost their curiosity about the natural world.”
MercoPress: A first international database on Leopard seals’ births and pups, shows they roam well beyond Antarctica. “Leopard seals remain mostly a mystery given the limited information and research on the species and its range of action. However, an international study shared by several Antarctic institutes and universities identifies leopard seal births and pups in the first database of its kind and reveals evidence that these sightings are not limited to the Antarctic.”
ScienceDaily: New database to support conservation. “The database presents a valuable tool for planning conservation actions at any spatial scale and preventing species extinctions globally. This represents a large volume of literature that captures a wide variety of threats such as the collection of medicinal plants, hunting, pollution, and alien invasive species, that are particularly difficult to account for in global datasets.”
Princeton University: Scientific field research and the arts come together in a Princeton course using motion-capture cameras to record campus wildlife. “The visual arts/environmental studies course was taught by Jeff Whetstone, professor of visual arts and director of the Program in Visual Arts. Students watched nature in person and learned techniques of wildlife surveillance photography, using remote still and video cameras to observe animal populations and their behavior. They then used this ‘found’ content from their ecological field research to create works of art with a focus on what can be discovered by looking closely at the wildlife around us.”
