A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
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Heat continues to be a big story. It is now winter in Australia and yet they just endured a day with a high temperature of 107 degrees F. Moreover, a recent study found that deaths from heat-related causes have doubled in this country in recent decades.
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Atlantic hurricane activity has been on the quiet side this summer.
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The world's second-largest diamond ever found has been discovered in Botswana.
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Even in the Sahara Desert it sometimes rains.
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In Iceland, the news continues to be of volcanic eruptions.
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The Northern Bald Ibis was extinct in central Europe for three hundred years but with a helping hand from science, it is making a comeback.
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The Pantanal region of Brazil is being consumed by wildfires that are made worse by ongoing drought.
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Meanwhile, Colombia is being overrun by marauding hippos, a legacy of cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar who brought the original ones there. To say they have flourished would be an understatement.
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Here is the week in wildlife pictures as presented by The Guardian.
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Southern white rhinos are a near-threatened species, but there is cause for rejoicing over the recent birth of a male calf at the Melbourne Zoo.
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The scribes of ancient Egypt were high-status individuals but that did not protect them from ergonomic injuries related to their profession.
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Horticulturist Carlos Magdalena wants to save every species of plant on Earth.
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Sparrow weaver birds in Africa appear to learn distinct building styles that require careful thought. Perhaps they aren't such birdbrains after all!
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What is it about the Maldives that attracts tiger sharks?
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The dam removal project on the Klamath River will allow salmon to once again have free run in the river.
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Sacred objects, including skulls, that were looted from the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu years ago are being returned at the behest of the FBI.
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It seems that marmoset monkeys have individual names and they call each other by those names.
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Bristle worms, venomous sea worms, have been washing up on the Texas coast recently. If you encounter one, don't touch!
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Behold the miracles contained in seeds.
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Prozac is getting into waterways and it is changing the way that fish behave.
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I've long been fascinated by the ancient cuneiform relics from Babylon. A new translation of those relics emphasizes the warnings that astrologers attached to solar eclipses.
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Good morning, Dorothy: Thank you for the weekly roundup, my predictable Saturday morning treat. It’s interesting to read of rain in the Sahara. I remember reading many years ago about a proposal (a little fanciful perhaps) to pipe in desalinated water and create fertile land there. It was expensive but less than the cost of one or two space missions. With ever increasing global temperatures evaporation would probably be instant, although plants would aid in climate regulation. It’s never going to happen anyway! All the best - David
ReplyDeleteI, too, remember reading of that Sahara project of which you speak. Perhaps when our situation gets desperate enough, we might actually do it.
Delete...I love to have a of two Cooper's Hawk to snack on mices here!
ReplyDeleteCooper's Hawks really enjoy snacking on birds. They have their role to play.
DeleteNever thought I would read a sentence connecting Pablo Escobar and marauding hippos.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated the fish/Prozac story. I take Lexapro (not the same of course but overlap treating some things) to help manage my stress-induced migraines. It's quite good and sometimes I think EVERYONE should be on Lexapro so we can all calm tf down. Not sure that needs to apply to our wildlife though...
DeleteOh, no, did my comment get eaten?? Blogger is up to its old tricks again *eyeroll*
ReplyDeleteIt's SO weird! For MONTHS in 2023 Blogger was sending nearly everything to the spam folder - even my OWN comments on my OWN blog. It did it a lot to CK as well. It has tapered off quite a bit now and only sends maybe 3-4 a week to spam but still. It's just silly at this point.
DeleteSometimes I get so caught up in checking out your links that I forget to actually hit Publish on my comments. I must have done that yesterday. I looked up the Bristle Worms and then took a look at the discovery of the second-largest diamond, and I guess I failed to leave my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteWell, I do love getting comments but I appreciate your taking the time to visit the links.
DeleteDoes the Cooper's Hawk have a band on his leg? Just wondering. I like the story about the falcons making a comeback in Yosemite. That's an interesting story.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a band - maybe just part of the tree. I was looking at the bird fairly up close and I didn't see a band.
DeleteA few years ago, there was a young Cooper's hawk that liked to visit me regularly. You don't often think of hawks frequenting large metro areas.
ReplyDeleteI see them on a regular basis here. Of course, we are in the suburbs.
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