As far as discoveries go, this is a somewhat terrifying one, assuming one has a healthy respect for crocodiles on the ground: They can climb and perch in trees.
And they can really climb, with researchers spotting them more than a dozen feet from the ground. While anecdotal reports have placed the reptiles in trees in Mississippi, Colombia, and [in Egypt] along the Nile, only three references to such behavior appear in scientific literature….
Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais urticae) on barley – Tim Melling – Butterfly Conservation
Farmland butterflies have flourished thanks to last year’s hot summer, the charity Butterfly Conservation says.
The annual Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (WCBS) recorded almost double the number of insects compared with the previous year.
Long, sunny periods provided perfect breeding conditions for some of the UK’s brightest species, it suggested.
But experts warned the mild winter could reverse the insects’ fortunes if they emerged too early for spring.
The survey has been run by Butterfly Conservation, the British Trust for Ornithology [BTO] and The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology since 2009….
Read the full, very interesting article from the BBC, at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/26242496
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Eddie’s comment: This is excellent news! For the past few years, there has been a dismaying scenario of butterfly numbers falling, throughout Britain. This has largely been attributed to inappropriately long periods of cold and/or wet weather, so it is nice to see that a warmer, drier summer brought numbers back up, perhaps to a larger extent than one might have dared hope.
As for the excellent photograph by Tim Melling, some experts say that the European Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) is actually the same species as North America’s “Milbert’s Tortoiseshell” (Aglais milberti).*
The other two North American tortoiseshells (‘California’ and ‘Compton’) are in a different genus — Nymphalis — the same as the Mourning Cloak.
* National Audubon Society Field Guide to Butterflies
An article published today in Britain, by the BBC, under the heading of ‘Bumblebees infected with honeybee diseases’, might not seem to be cause for alarm among nature lovers in America, but there can be no doubt that it is.
Honey Bee on Birds-foot-trefoil. Copyright 2013, Eddie Wren
Given that bees are a massive factor in the viability not only of the wild flowers that we all enjoy but also of many important food crops, the rise of Deformed Wing Virus [DWV] and of the microsporidian ‘Nosema ceranae‘ should be of concern to anyone who has an interest in the health of our environment, and not least to bee keepers, whose livelihoods are once again being threatened.
When I read the above article, I did a search for these two problems in the USA, and sure enough I found this this report from the American Society for Microbiology, about DWV here in the States.
As for the ‘Nosema ceranae‘, Wikipedia has plenty to tell us about the spread of this pathogen, not only in the Americas but worldwide.
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Fox News in the USA has now run a version of this story, here.
This article, by Gerry Rising, was published in the Buffalo News at the end of December, 2013, but it is of more than enough interest for us to give the URL again, here:
Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest is the largest temperate rainforest in the world. This huge and pristine wilderness depends on an unlikely source for its long-term survival – the salmon which spawn in its rivers and creeks….
In the linked video (see below), ecological economist Pavan Sukhdev, The Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist Dr M Sanjayan and camerawoman Sophie Darlington talk about the salmon’s unsung role in fertilising the forest. The bears who feast on the spawning salmon don’t eat on the river – they drag the carcasses far into the forest. The remains of the salmon contain vast quantities of nitrogen that plants need to grow. Eighty percent of the nitrogen in the forest’s trees comes from the salmon. In other words, these ocean dwellers are crucial for the forest’s long-term survival.
Watch the video, from the BBC, at: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140218-salmon-fertilising-the-forests
Would you believe that some people celebrate a National Skunk Day?
Back to the main LINKS page
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BBC Nature – Home Page (global topics)
BBC Nature News (global topics)
BBC Nature – Video Collections (Explore a vast array of wildlife video clips through the eyes of BBC presenters and film makers, and learn about different aspect of wildlife film-making.)
BBC In Pictures: Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners
Birdlife International – Programmes
BTO: The British Trust for Ornithology
Butterfly Corner – butterflies of the world (with a section for each continent)
Earth Times – worldwide environmental issues
National Wildflower Centre (UK)
RSPB – The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (Britain’s equivalent of the U.S. Audubon Society)
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Please feel free to suggest futher links in the comments, below. (Relevant ones will then be moved into this main list.)