Care2: Protecting Migratory Land Animals is More Complicated Than We Thought. “Some species inherently know when and where to migrate, but a new study has offered a more complicated perspective for land animals by providing the first solid evidence that they need to learn about seasonal migrations from each other…. This study is part of a growing body of migration discoveries coming out of Wyoming, a lot of which will be put together in ‘Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming’s Ungulates,’ due out this October, which details all of the state’s ungulate migrations, in addition to an online database that makes migration data widely available to interested stakeholders.”
wildlife
BBC: Facebook animal trade exposed in Thailand
BBC: Facebook animal trade exposed in Thailand. “More than 1,500 listings of live animals for sale have been found on Facebook in Thailand by a wildlife trafficking watchdog. Traffic, which monitors such activity, said many of the species, despite having international protection, were not native to the country, and so trading them was unregulated.”
The Local Denmark: Denmark’s plants and wildlife to get own website
The Local Denmark: Denmark’s plants and wildlife to get own website. “A new website entitled Danmarks Artsportal, to be launched in 2020, will provide nature enthusiasts with a guide to animals and plants in the Scandinavian country. The web portal, which will be produced by the Natural History Museum of Denmark and the Environmental Protection Agency, will collate public and private data on species of wildlife prevalent in Denmark, the Ministry for the Environment and Food announced in a press statement.”
National Parks Conservation Association: Eliminating Species Act: Senate Legislation Threatens Wildlife and Wild Lands
National Parks Conservation Association: Eliminating Species Act: Senate Legislation Threatens Wildlife and Wild Lands. “Senator John Barrasso hosted a hearing today in the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) on his draft Endangered Species Act Amendments of 2018 legislation. The draft bill proposes to radically weaken the Endangered Species Act, which has been the nation’s most effective law protecting wildlife in danger of extinction. The legislation undermines reliance on best available science and reduces public involvement in the process of adding ESA protections to species. The more than 500 plant and animal species with habitat in our national parks are chronicled in a new online database, launched this week by National Parks Conservation Association.”
EurekAlert: Ecology and AI
EurekAlert: Ecology and AI . “It’s poised to transform fields from earthquake prediction to cancer detection to self-driving cars, and now scientists are unleashing the power of deep learning on a new field – ecology. A team of researchers from Harvard, Auburn University, the University of Wyoming, the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota demonstrated that the artificial intelligence technique can be used to identify animal images captured by motion-sensing cameras.”
Wildbook: facial recognition for critters in the wild (Boing Boing)
Boing Boing: Wildbook: facial recognition for critters in the wild. “The Wildbook project conducts wild animal population censuses by combining photos of animals taken by tourists, scientists, and volunteers and then using their distinctive features (zebra stripes, whale fluke shapes, leopard spots, etc) to identify individuals and produces unprecedented data that uses creepy facial recognition tools for non-creepy purposes.”
University of Southern California: Scientist’s new database can help protect wildlife from harmful hues of LED lights
University of Southern California: Scientist’s new database can help protect wildlife from harmful hues of LED lights. “A new generation of outdoor lights spreading across landscapes require greater scrutiny to reduce harm to wildlife, says a USC-led research group that developed a new tool to help fix the problem. The team of biologists surveyed select species around the world to determine how the hues of modern light-emitting diode (LED) lamps affect wildlife. They found that blues and whites are worst, while yellow, amber and green are more benign. Some creatures, including sea turtles and insects, are especially vulnerable. The findings, which include the first publicly available database to help developers, designers and policymakers choose wildlife-friendly lighting colors, appear today in the Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology.”
