South Korea confirms endangered stork breeding successful

Endangered stork breeding attempt succeeds in central S. Korea

2016/05/23 11:59

YESAN, South Korea, May 23 (Yonhap) — A released stork has hatched two chicks in the wild in the country’s central region, marking the species’ first natural breeding in the country, the Yesan municipal government said Monday, quoting a research center tasked with restoring the endangered bird.

The Oriental White Stork Park in Yesan, a town in South Korea’s central province of South Chungcheong, said its researchers confirmed the chicks in a nest of a female stork named Minhwang and a male stork named Manhwang on Sunday. The two are part of eight storks that the park returned to the wild in September last year.

The female stork Minhwang (L) and male stork Manhwang tend to their newly hatched chicks at a stork park in Yesan, a town about 134 kilometers south of Seoul, in this photo provided on May 23, 2016, by the Yesan municipality. (Yonhap)

Observation of the chicks through a telescope showed they are around 10 centimeters long, and they are believed to have hatched on Friday and Sunday, respectively, based on their body sizes, the center said.

It is the first time since 1971, when the species became extinct in the wild in South Korea that the stork has had natural breeding. About a month ago, the park said Minhwang laid at least two eggs in the wild.

Minhwang and Manhwang had flown as far as North Korea via the southwestern town of Yeonggwang before settling in the nest early last month. The couple were spotted taking turns sitting on the eggs and keeping the nest in good shape, it said.

This file photo, dated Sept. 3, 2015, shows Oriental white storks being released into the wild from a stork park in the town of Yesan, 134 kilometers south of Seoul. (Yonhap)

The Yesan municipal government established the park in 2009 as part of its efforts to promote the reintroduction of the bird, designated as national monument No. 199, and released six adult storks and two young ones into the wild last year. It plans to return 10 storks a year to the wild after reorienting them.

namsh@yna.co.kr

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Norway to ban gas-powered cars

Norway Aims To Ban Sales Of Gas-Powered Vehicles By 2025

CHRIS WHITE

 10:56 PM 06/04/2016

 

 A Tesla Motors Model X electric sports-utility vehicles is seen on stage a presentation in Freemont, California September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Norway has decided to prohibit the selling of all gasoline-powered cars by 2025, according to Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.

The ban, which has received support from political parties on the left and the right, is pegged to be the most aggressive anti-gasoline energy policies of its kind in the world – the irony, of course, is that Norway is one of the largest producers of fossil fuels in the entire world.

Norwegians produced and exported in 2013 more than 1.2 million barrels of oil, placing it 14^th overall on a list of exporting countries, just below Qatar and Mexico.

India and Denmark have discussed the possibility of banning gas-powered cars as well, but India’s policy would begin five years after Norway’s, in 2030, and the Dutch parliament is heavily divided on their version of the ban, which would also start in 2025.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/06/04/norway-aims-to-ban-sales-of-gas-powered-vehicles-by-2025/#ixzz4AjDKflYp

Environmental conservation efforts to address developmental needs in Arunachal Pradesh

Environmental conservation efforts also have to address the developmental needs in Arunachal Pradesh: Pul

Mar 29, 2016 15:27 IST

#Arunachal Pradesh   #Kalikho Pul   #Modernisation   #NewsTracker   #Pul   #Wildlife Protection Act

Itanagar:  Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul has stressed on the need for striking balance between conservation of environment and development interest.

“Conservation of environment is always our top priority but development interest should also be taken care of,” Pul
said during a meeting with top forest officials on Monday in Itanagar.

The forest officials met him to discuss on the growing conflict between the rights of the people and the conservation created through protected areas, a CMO release informed on Tuesday.

The chief minister pointed out that many protected areas in the state were created through arbitrary demarcation of the forest reserve violating the Wildlife Protection Act.

“The inhabitants in the area were not consulted and their consent was not obtained. Boundaries were demarcated sitting on a table with the lines running across settled villages and towns,” he said.

“As a result many big towns, villages, agriculture and jhum areas have come under the protected areas limiting the scope for taking up development projects,” he said noting that the scope to find possible ways for co-existence between wildlife habitats and human settlement were limited.

“Moreover, many of the protected areas are now barren lands without forest cover and wildlife. It is neither serving the purpose of conservation or development. So these are the areas where we hope to find a middle ground,” said Pul.

On the need to find a middle path, the chief minister said the state has to first address the key issues of development with respect to conservation.

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Beetles and forests

A forest full of beetles: an interview with bug researcher Caroline Chaboo

1st March 2016 / Shreya Dasgupta

Mongabay interviewed Caroline Chaboo, an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, who has been documenting beetles in the forests of Peru since 2008. Chaboo hopes that the beetle diversity she is uncovering in Peru will help showcase the value of the Peruvian forests.

Published under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND

• Caroline Chaboo has been documenting beetle diversity in the Peruvian forests since 2008.
• She focuses on leaf beetles, one of the most commonly encountered groups of beetles.
• Mongabay spoke with Chaboo about her love for beetles, and her work in Peru.

Beetles are everywhere.

Of the roughly 1.5 million species described so far, beetles account for around 400,000 species, making them the most species-rich group known in the world. In contrast, birds account for only around 10,000 of all described species, while only 5,600 of all known species are mammals.

Beetles are incredibly adaptable and diverse. They have learned to use a wide variety of habitats, and have become very specialized in the process, playing crucial roles in the ecosystem. They are important pollinators, recyclers, scavengers and decomposers. Much of beetle diversity, however, is yet to be uncovered.

In Peru, Caroline Chaboo, an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas, is doing just that. Since 2008, she has been meticulously collecting beetles in the Peruvian forests, hoping to build an accurate picture of the rich beetle diversity there.

 

(…)Mongabay spoke with Chaboo about her love for beetles, and her work in Peru.

Pseudocalaspidea: Very little is known about this spectacular leaf beetle from ACA Villa Carmen Biological station. Photo by Caroline Chaboo.

Dindim the penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him

Penguin travels every year to visit man who rescued him

Dindim the penguin likely spends most of his time in Patagonia

By Arman Aghbali, CBC News Posted: Mar 11, 2016 4:21 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 14, 2016 3:51 PM ET

Joao Pereira de Souza rescued this penguin, which he calls Dindim, from the beach near his house, starting a long-running friendship. (University of Rio de Janeiro)

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“He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,” Pereira de Souza told TV Globo, a Brazilian TV network.

Magellanic penguins regularly swim thousands of kilometres a year to breeding spots on the coast of Argentina and Chile. From time to time, penguins show up in warmer Brazilian waters, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Many of Pereira de Souza’s friends thought that when Dindim finally left, that was it for the human-bird friendship.

But a few months later, Dindim returned and found Pereira de Souza. He visits for about four months, a ritual kept for the last five years.

“He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February, and every year he becomes more affectionate, as he appears even happier to see me,”Pereira de Souza told TV Globo.

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