SATICOY, Calif.— Conservation groups scored a key courtroom victory on Monday for endangered Southern California steelhead harmed by operation of the Vern Freeman Dam on the Santa Clara River. In a 152-page decision issued by Honorable Judge David O. Carter, the court found United Water Conservation District violated the federal Endangered Species Act by clearly […]
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By John R. Platt Do the species most in need of conservation also receive the most scientific research? To answer that question, a new study examined the past five years’ worth of research into felids and canids—better known as wild felines and canines—and found some interesting patterns, as well as some notable omissions. Of 4,351 […]
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The International Observation Days (IOD) for bearded vultures have started in 2006 and consist in a one-day simultaneous count of bearded vultures across the whole Alpine arc, organised by the International Bearded Vulture Monitoring network (IBM), which is coordinated by the VCF. Since 2012 bearded vultures are also counted in the Massif Central in France, […]
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Between the 1600s and the early 20th century, European settlers in New York City ate their way through 220,000 acres of oyster reefs covering 350 square miles, The Washington Post reported. That decimated a natural barrier that could have reduced the wave energy of storms like Sandy, which cost New York City $40 billion in […]
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California became the first state in the U.S. to ban plastic straws in dine-in restaurants Thursday when Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to that effect, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The law, which will enter into force Jan. 1, prohibits restaurants from providing straws unless a customer requests one. It covers only sit-down eateries, not […]
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Twelve more griffon vultures are flying in the Sardinian skies. On Thursday, 13th of September the Forestas Agency released a second group of vultures in Monte Minerva (Villanova Monteleone, Sardinia), within the LIFE Under Griffon Wings project. These birds came from rehabilitation centres in Spain, and had been transported to Sardinia by the VCF last spring. […]
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As anyone who’s ever been to a picnic can attest, wasps can be extremely annoying. Not very surprisingly, a new study found that most people loathe wasps, whereas bees — which are closely related to wasps — are seen very positively. The authors, however, stress that this cultural narrative isn’t helpful, nor accurate. Wasps play […]
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Editor’s note: September 29 marks National Coffee Day in the U.S. Throughout the month of September, Human Nature is highlighting Conservation International’s sustainable coffee work. This is the third post in the series. In just 24 hours, the world consumes approximately 2.25 billion cups of coffee — and demand is growing. At the same time, the […]
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The Earth’s magnetosphere contains plasma, an ionized gas composed of positive ions and negative electrons. The motion of these charged plasma particles is controlled by electromagnetic fields. The energy transfer processes that occur in this collisionless space plasma are believed to be based on wave-particle interactions such as particle acceleration by plasma waves and spontaneous […]
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A Danish research team has delineated a complex symbiosis between a ‘parasitic’ noncoding RNA gene and its protein coding ‘host’ gene in human cells. The study reveals how co-evolution of the host gene and parasite gene has shaped a feedback mechanism in which the parasite gene plays a completely new and surprising part as regulator […]
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