cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5720338

A newly discovered stick insect which weighs slightly less than a golf ball may be the heaviest insect in Australia, scientists say.

The 40cm-long new species, named Acrophylla alta, was found in the high altitudes of the Atherton tablelands in north Queensland – and scientists said the habitat could be part of the reason for its large size.

A peer-reviewed study documenting the discovery, published in Zootaxa journal, noted the stick insect was likely heavier than the giant burrowing cockroach, which is endemic to Queensland and is at present the heaviest insect in Australia.

James Cook University researcher Prof Angus Emmott said a social media post helped with the discovery.

Emmott said he believed the species had not been discovered earlier as its habitat was too hard to access.

“It lives high in the canopy. So, unless you get a cyclone or a bird bringing one down, very few people get to see them,” Emmott said in a statement.

But the habitat could also explain why the stick insect is larger, he said, saying the body mass could help them survive the cold conditions in the “cool, wet environment where they live”.

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Lions and hyenas are a familiar sight to tourists visiting Africa, with many looking forward to seeing them in person. But the animals may occasionally spend less time near roads crowded by humans, according to new research from the University of Georgia.

Etosha National Park in Namibia is a popular site to see animals like lions and hyenas. There are many human-made waterholes that animals gather around, often near the main road frequented by vehicles so tourists can get a good look.

But the presence of tourists can disrupt animals' usual habits and schedules.

"The message here is not that tourism is bad. These large predators need large areas to roam and access prey, and tourism is a huge driver of many economies," said Jim Beasley, co-author of the study and a professor in UGA's Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

A main goal of his lab is understanding how carnivores and other wildlife use space to protect them from conflict with humans. This is especially important for extremely large parks like Etosha, which has many areas for animals to go where humans are less frequent.

"It's important that we have these large parks that are accessible to tourists so they can come see these animals in the wild," Beasley said. "But we should make sure that there are areas within these parks that these animals can go where there's less tourism pressure."

A good news story. The New Zealand Department of Conservation's blog is a regular source of fascinating stories, highly recommended.

A secret under-layer explains why songbirds’ colourful feathers look so damn good.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5682397

The Łingít (Tlingít) Elder and subsistence yaaw (herring) fisherman recalled harvesting gáax’w (herring eggs) in his territories before Alaska became a state in 1959. It was a time when yaaw were plentiful and sightings of whales were rare — just a handful at most.

“There was food everywhere,” mused Yanshkawoo, tracing a slow circle in the air with his hand — a gesture toward the abundance the ocean once held. He sat at a crowded café in Sheet’ká (Sitka), his voice calm but thoughtful.

“They had no reason to come into the Sound back then.”

But things changed in 2019, when fishers, researchers and community members began noticing an influx of grey whales, an order of magnitude larger than in previous years.

Just as vast stretches of coastline transforms into a milky blue haze marking the annual yaaw spawn, suddenly, there were more than 150 grey whales sharing the same waters — and sustenance — as the Sheet’ká Ḵwáan (people of Sitka Tribe).

Every spring since time immemorial, Łingít, Haida and Híɫzaqv (Heiltsuk) people, among others, have gathered haaw da.aa (eggs on hemlock boughs) and kelp to share, trade and gift across communities.

Now, an unprecedented number of grey whales have joined the harvest, drawn by the same rich food source.

Full Article (archive link)

• More than 2,000 terrestrial vertebrate species face a high risk of extinction from natural hazards, including hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis, according to a first-of-its-kind study.
• Nearly 70% of the high-risk species live exclusively on islands, highlighting the particular vulnerability of island ecosystems.
• Only 15% of high-risk species have specific conservation plans in place, while approximately 30% have their entire known range outside protected areas.
• The study calls for increased investment in habitat protection, restoration, captive-breeding programs and species translocation to help vulnerable species survive in an era of intensifying natural hazards.

A study identified 2,001 species (834 reptiles, 617 amphibians, 302 birds and 248 mammals) that have at least 25% of their habitat in areas experiencing high impact from hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.

A little good-news story.

Researchers have conducted the world's biggest ever bird survey, recording 971 different species living in forests and cattle pastures across the South American country of Colombia. This represents almost 10% of the world's birds.

Golden oyster mushrooms, with their sunny yellow caps and nutty flavor, have become wildly popular for being healthy, delicious and easy to grow at home from mushroom kits.

But this food craze has also unleashed an invasive species into the wild, and new research shows it’s pushing out native fungi.

In a study we believe is the first of its kind, fellow mycologists and I demonstrate that an invasive fungus can cause environmental harm, just as invasive plants and animals can when they take over ecosystems.

The border wall between the US and Mexico is, of course, a barrier meant to prevent human migrants from crossing into America as they seek work, family, or refuge from violence.

It’s also a significant barrier to ranging wildlife.

The border wall, a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s agenda, cuts through a rugged, unique ecosystem home to hundreds of native species, from jaguars and pumas to black bears and deer. These animals often need to move to survive, whether to find a source of water or a mate.

We know the wall is impassable for many species, potentially lowering their chance of survival. How exactly the border affects this rich ecosystem, however, has largely been a mystery.

A new study, among the first of its kind, finally offers some answers — by essentially spying on animals near the border. For the research, ecologist and lead author Ganesh Marín, then a doctoral researcher at the University of Arizona, set up 85 motion-sensing cameras in northeastern Sonora, Mexico, along and south of the US border in Arizona and New Mexico. Throughout the course of the research, when animals walked by, the cameras began recording.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/24794791

• The bicolored waterberry (Syzygium guineense subsp. barotsense) is a dominant tree along the Kafue and other major Zambian rivers, where it plays a vital structural and ecological role.
• Though capable of self-pollination, the tree’s flowers attract bees, birds and moths, creating vibrant micro-ecosystems in its canopy.
• While not currently threatened, riparian clearing poses local risks, and the trees’ value to pollinators may offer a path to conservation.

archived (Wayback Machine)

If summer nights seem a little brighter in Michigan this year, you’re not imagining it.

Favorable weather conditions in recent years have led to an explosion of firefly activity.

Researchers say fireflies thrive in climates that are warm and wet, and conditions in Michigan over the past year match that description – with the results shimmering every evening at dusk.

Nathaniel Walton is a consumer horticulture educator for the Michigan State University Extension in Leelanau County.

He says fireflies have a two-year lifecycle, most of which is spent near the ground as larvae before they emerge for an adult lifecycle that lasts just a few weeks.

If conditions take a turn for the worse at any point during those two years, like an unusually dry late summer or early fall, it could have devastating effects. < “We can’t necessarily count on them being good again this year just because they were good last year,” Walton said.

Following a large-scale wildfire, more jaguars migrated to a study site in the Brazilian wetlands that already had the largest population density of jaguars in the world, a new study found.

"Finding even more jaguars and other mammals in the study area following the 2020 wildfire and extreme drought suggests that it may serve as a climate refuge, buffering the effects of extreme climate events," said Charlotte Eriksson, a post-doctoral scholar at Oregon State University.

The 36,700-acre site is a seasonally flooded protected area in the northern portion of the Brazilian Pantanal, the largest freshwater wetland in the world.

Since 1970, 73% of global wildlife has been lost, while the world’s population has doubled to 8 billion. Research shows this isn’t a coincidence but that population growth is causing a catastrophic decline in biodiversity.

Yet a turning point in human history is underway. According to UN projections, the number of people in 85 countries will be shrinking by 2050, mostly in Europe and Asia. By 2100, the human population is on course for global decline. Some say this will be good for the environment.

In 2010, Japan became the first Asian country to begin depopulating. South Korea, China and Taiwan are following close behind. In 2014, Italy was the first in southern Europe, followed by Spain, Portugal and others. We call Japan and Italy “depopulation vanguard countries” on account of their role as forerunners for understanding possible consequences in their regions.

Biodiversity continued to decrease in most of the areas we studied, irrespective of population increase or decrease. Only where the population remains steady is biodiversity more stable. However, the population of these areas is ageing and will decline soon, bringing them in line with the areas already seeing biodiversity loss.

While most farmland remains under cultivation, some falls into disuse or abandonment, some is sold for urban development or transformed into intensively farmed landscapes. This prevents widespread natural succession of plant growth or afforestation (planting of new trees) that would enrich biodiversity.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5512228

The largest tract of public land in the United States is a wild expanse of tundra and wetlands stretching across nearly 23 million acres of northern Alaska. It’s called the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, but despite its industrial-sounding name, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, is much more than a fuel depot.

Tens of thousands of caribou feed and breed in this area, which is the size of Maine. Migratory birds flock to its lakes in summer, and fish rely on the many rivers that crisscross the region.

The area is also vital for the health of the planet. However, its future is at risk.

The Trump administration announced a plan on June 17, 2025, to open nearly 82 percent of this fragile landscape to oil and gas development, including some of its most ecologically sensitive areas.

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The first thing that you'll notice about kākāpō — a type of large, flightless parrot found only in New Zealand — is how rotund they are.

They have endearingly round heads and bodies, owl-like faces and sturdy legs, and they are the biggest of all modern parrots; males measure up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) long and can weigh nearly 9 pounds (4 kilograms). Kākāpō are also one of the longest-lived birds in the world, estimated to reach 90 years.

The name "kākāpō" means "night parrot" in the Māori language, a reference to the birds' nocturnal habits. Though kākāpō cannot fly, they can walk for long distances and are agile climbers, clambering and leaping from trees using their shortened wings for balance.

The American prairie was so vast, so alien, it shattered comprehension.

Newcomers to the seemingly endless grasslands that once spanned approximately a quarter of North America often hit a psychic wall, descending into fits of mania. Prairie madness, as the phenomenon came to be known, was recorded by the journalist E.V. Smalley in 1893 after a decade of observing life on the frontier: “An alarming amount of insanity occurs in the new Prairie States among farmers and their wives.”

America’s treeless, isolated expanse put early European settlers to the test. Drought, loneliness, and debt drove many to failure, forcing the homesteaders to retreat East.

But those who stayed unwittingly launched one of history’s largest terraforming projects, rewiring the land, the climate, and the future of the continent.

In Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie, longtime Minnesota journalists Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty trace this staggering transformation.“ The Europeans who colonized North America in the 19th century transformed the continent’s hydrology as thoroughly as the glaciers,” they write. “But, remarkably, they did it in less than 100 years instead of tens of thousands.”

In putting hundreds of millions of acres of prairie to the plow, settlers not only forcibly displaced Indigenous nations, but completely altered the region’s ancient carbon and nitrogen cycles. They also turned the region into an agricultural powerhouse. The deep black soil once prevalent in the Midwest — the result of thousands of years of animal and plant decomposition depositing untold carbon stores into the ground — became the foundation of the modern food system. But the undoing of the American prairie also dismantled one of the Earth’s most effective climate defenses.

Lorries thunder over the A14 bridge north of Cambridge, above steep roadside embankments covered in plastic shrouds containing the desiccated remains of trees.

The new 21-mile road between Cambridge and Huntingdon cost £1.5bn and was opened in 2020 to fulfil a familiar political desire: growth. National Highways, the government-owned company that builds and maintains England’s A roads, promised that the biodiversity net gain from the construction project would be 11.5%; in other words, they pledged the natural environment would be left in a considerably better state after the road was built than before.

But five years on from the opening of the A14, the evidence is otherwise, and National Highways has admitted biodiversity and the environment have been left in a worse state as a result of the road project.

Empty plastic tree guards stretch for mile after mile along the new road, testament to the mass die-off of most of the 860,000 trees planted in mitigation for the impact of the road. Culverts dug as a safe route for animals such as newts and water voles are dried up and litter-strewn, while ponds designed to collect rainwater and provide a wildlife habitat are choked with mud and silt.

Edna Murphy and her colleague Ros Hathorn believe the failure of the environmental improvements created in mitigation for the A14 are a shocking example of how powerful developers make environmental pledges in order to gain planning permission, which are then not upheld. A slide presentation in 2022 to Murphy and Hathorn indicated 70% of the 860,000 trees originally planted had died.

From 2026, biodiversity net gain will be mandatory for big infrastructure such as the A14 road. But Becky Pullinger, head of land management for the Wildlife Trusts, said developers had to be held to account once the mandate came in, so that recreated habitats had a fighting chance of survival. A recent report showed that only a third of ecological enhancements promised by housebuilders were fulfilled.

Pullinger said the example of the A14 showed how important it was that harm to wildlife was avoided in the first place, reducing the need for compensation planting.

https://archive.ph/JgfLK