wildlife
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There aren't many right whales left
Chris Slay wears bib overalls and wire-rimmed glasses, occasionally recites poetry, and watches right whales for a living. Once more into the breach. David Wiley, National Marine Fisheries Service. After this year’s dismal right whale calving season, the poetry that comes to Slay’s mind is darkly pessimistic. The rarest whale of them all may be […]
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It's high time people stopped shooting mountain lions
V It’s legal to kill a mountain lion in most Western states if it threatens your safety or the safety of your property (including livestock and pets). Williams thus had the legal right to kill that lion. But did she have the moral right? My, what a big kitty. Photo: Predator Defense Institute. One of […]
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Atlantic salmon are even worse off than their Pacific cousins
To catch an Atlantic salmon in the Machias River back in the 1940s — and we’re talking a legitimate salmon here, maybe 30 or 40 pounds — didn’t require a knack with rod and reel, nor even the wily patience of the angler. Mostly what you needed was decent aim with a rifle or pitchfork […]
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A scientist fights back against exotics
The Western U.S. has many well-known problems — overgrazing, rampant development, Garth Brooks look-alikes. But one troublesome issue that hasn’t gotten much attention is cheatgrass, an exotic weed that arrived here in the 1890s and has since taken over an area the size of Montana. Cheatgrass never prospers? Photo: Russel Stevens/Chuck Coffey, Noble Foundation. Because […]
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Preaching the gospel of ecotourism
Costas Christ has a knack for handling sticky situations. I got a glimpse of this as I was making my way home from an ecotourism conference in Senegal in the early 1990s. Along with a number of other conference participants, I was stuck in the airport in the capital city of Dakar. For some unknown […]
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New Mexico ranchers are howling over reintroduction efforts
Two years after the first 11 Mexican gray wolves were released to much fanfare in the Apache National Forest of southeastern Arizona, and a year after an additional 22 wolves were freed in 1998, only seven remain in the wild. A lone wolf. Photo: J. & K. Hollingsworth, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The problems […]
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Will this odd bird be the passenger pigeon of the 21st century?
Conservationists have long been known for their staunch defense of cuddly and charismatic megafauna, and in recent years for their spirited battles on behalf of lowly, unseen creatures and enigmatic microflora. Now they’re going to bat for a species that doesn’t fit neatly into either of those camps and might best be described as, well, […]