Gorilla Run

A reminder that the Gorilla Run is right around the corner.  April 1st will have many Cincinnatians running a 5K dressed as gorillas.  All profits go toward Lowland Gorilla conservation efforts!!  http://cincinnatigorillarun.com/

I had to share this photo from the Cincinnati Zoo's facebook page.  It looks like Thane Maynard is ready for the Gorilla Run!!!

Conserving Ohio

Many conservation efforts have occurred in our backyard of Ohio.  The Endangered Species Act is the highlight of these efforts and has saved many species over the years since its start in 1973.  Two main species that have increased considerably are the American Bald Eagle and the peregrine falcon.  While researching I came across some statistics from 2005 that were very interesting surrounding these two species.  The bald eagle had only 4 pairs in wild Ohio in 1979 and recovered to 125 pairs in 2005 (Nature Conservancy, 2006).  The peregrine falcon had no listed pairs in Ohio in the mid 1960’s and recovered to 19 pairs in 2005.  The 19 pairs produced an overwhelming 57 young (Nature Conservancy, 2006). 

The Nature Conservancy website is a great website which links Ohio citizens and conservation efforts.  “Since 1958, the Conservancy has protected more than 55,000 acres of critical natural land in Ohio” (Nature Conservancy, 2012).  Ohio is a rich source of natural preserves, forests, and parks.   It is up to its citizens to conserve it. 

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/ohio/placesweprotect/index.

Another link that I found allows you to report animals that are orphaned or injured so wildlife officials can help the animal.  The Ohio Wildlife Center sponsors a wildlife hospital for these animals and relies on the kindness of other to provide items.  These items are listed on the website.

 http://www.ohiowildlifecenter.org/

Additional Sources:

The Natural Conservancy (2006). The Endangered Species Act: Conserving Ohio’s Natural Heritage. Environmental Defense. 2006. http://www.environmentaldefense.org.

Volunteer Ohio

Following the conserving Ohio theme, below are links to information regarding volunteer opportunites.

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/ohio/placesweprotect/index.

http://www.ohiowildlifecenter.org/getstarted.cfm Looking for hotline volunteers to answer calls from citizens with wildlife and nature questions.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/wild_resourcessubhomepage/TurnInaPoacher/tabid/17888/Default.aspx There are no tattle tails when it comes to conservation.  Here you can report poachers and injured animals. 

http://www.columbuszoo.org/join_the_team/volunteer/default.aspx Volunteer at the Columbus Zoo.  People of all ages can have the opportunity to help in many conservation efforts.

http://www.cincinnatizoo.org/support/volunteer/  Volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Bird Conservation

After researching many topics on wildlife conservation it seems that cute and cuddly receive the most attention.  Birds (and plants) seem to fall on the back burner of conservation.  Birds also face issues with habitat loss and degradation from logging and agriculture.  I know in the area of Ohio that I live in, I see less and less of the many species of woodpeckers.  While searching, I found many organizations that focus solely on bird conservation and are broken down into different categories of birds, i.e. birds of prey, migratory, and the like.  It seems that the main reason behind birds being listed as endangered is due to DDT, a pesticide used for agriculture.  However, government officials recognized DDT as an issue and banned to product in the 1970’s.  Unfortunately, some species could not recover and are still listed as endangered or have since gone extinct.  One species that comes to mind is the American Bald Eagle which has recovered and is no longer listed as endangered.

In addition to the restrictions that the Endangered Species Act puts on hunters and poachers in regards to any species red listed*, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act also helps with adding more regulations.  The Migratory Bird Conservation Act was initiated in 1929 to preserve any area of land and water that migratory birds visit.  Members of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission work alongside the local authorities to conduct investigations, maintain refuges, and help with conservation education.  (Information from www.fws.gov).    

*Red listed means that the species was listed as endangered, threatened, or at risk under the IUCN Red List.

 Since I am highlighting bird conservation this week, I wanted to talk about one species of bird that once faced extinction.  The peregrine falcon was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1999 when it was completely removed from the list.  The falcon has made great recovery and continues to inhabit every continent except Antarctica.  Peregrine falcons are considered the fastest flying bird in the world and can drive at 200 miles per hour!  The reason behind their decrease in numbers was due to habitat loss but mostly due to the use of DDT.  DDT is a pesticide that causes egg shells to be thin which causes the shells to break early and the offspring cannot survive.  However, DDT was banned in the 1970’s and the falcon has since come back from near extinction. 

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/peregrine_falcon/id/ac

The above site is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which helped to develop EBird.  EBird is an online community engagement tool which allows citizens to bird watch and report sittings for other bird watchers and researcher.  The website gives identification facts, photos, and call clips to help citizen identify the correct bird. 

Hello Spring!

Happy first week of spring!  It feels like summer and my flowers have been sprouted for a few weeks now.  Since I do not like the cold weather, I am happy with the change!

I attend the first lecture of the Barrow's Lecture series at the Cincinnati Zoo and found Amy Dickman to be a very informative and insightful speaker.  She lectured on the Human-Carnivore Conflict specifically in Tanzania, Ruaha.  I learned so much and she really made me want to conserve wildlife so much more.  I am looking forward to more lectures and the next one is April 25th.

Amy Dickman's Bio:  http://www.nationalgeographicexpeditions.com/experts/amy-dickman/detail

Courtney

Go Green!

                                                                                                                            Graphic from austintenantadvisors.com

I am sure that most of us have heard of the term, “Going Green” and it basically means to lessen your impact on the environment.  There are many ways to “go green” such as conserving energy, eating organic products, carpooling, etc.  But arguably the easiest (well at least most publicized) way to “go green” is to recycle.  Recycling is turning old products into new products.  You can recycle so many things from cans and glass bottles to tires and paint.  Tires and paint can be recycled at your local Home Depot or Lowes.  Cell phones can even be recycled to help conserve gorilla habitats.  Gorilla habitats are on a drastic decline in Africa due to mining of an ore called coltan.  In order to get to the coltan, miners directly impact the gorilla habitats and population both by killing and eradicating the area.  Coltan is quickly becoming one of the world’s most sought after materials since it plays a major role in technology, including phones and computers.  The United Nations estimates that the remaining wild gorilla population could go extinct within the next 10-15 years .  But there is hope through cell phone recycling.   The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden along with Ecocell are sponsoring the Saving Species Go Bananas Challenge that can recycle cell phones to decrease the need for mining in Africa.  Every little bit helps but imagine if millions of people were involved in cell phone and other recycling.  We really could make a difference!  I do find it painfully ironic that the very computer that this entry was typed on contains coltan.  In some ways we will not be able to escape our impact but we can surely lessen it. 

If you are from the Cincinnati area, I created a map to cell phone donation cites.  Go Bananas!

The Pollution Solution

There are many types of pollution and I would bet that each of us come into contact with them every day.  The three main types are air, water, and soil.  Can you guess the cause? That’s right….us…the very people that complain of the issue.  So rather than complain, let us find solutions to pollution.  But first, some background on the three types…

Air Pollution- It is the accumulation in the atmosphere of substances, mostly tobacco smoke, exhaust fumes, and combustion of coal, that endanger human health.  There are six major types including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, photochemicals, nitrogen oxides, and particulates. 

Water Pollution- It is the addition of dissolved or suspended solids into fresh or ocean waters which degrade the overall quality of water affecting the organisms living into or those who drink it.  Chemicals and biological materials cause the water to lower in quality.  Some chemicals and biological materials include industrial products such as oils, salts, poisons; agricultural wastes such as pesticides, fertilizers, bacteria, and herbicides; and sewage. 

Soil Pollution- Very much like water pollution because it is usually due to the water source.  Herbicides, pesticides, and sewage can alter the overall quality of the soil and may cause harm to those who use it. 

Before researching this topic, I was more familiar with air pollution.  I feel that there is more attention brought to this topic in the media.  TV commercials and programming have focused on this issue and have highlighted ways to decrease our impact on the environment through pollution.  There are many solutions to pollution and it all starts with knowledge.  Many people are simply not aware that smoking and driving have an impact (and you were happy you no longer needed to get an E-check).  By educating the public that dumping chemicals into rivers and the like are no acceptable, we can only then begin to combat the human cause.  However, there are cases where water sources are unintentionally polluted.  Take for example the recent cruise line crash where oil and gasoline spilled into waters off of the coast of Italy or the Gulf oil spill.  The list goes on but where to begin…education?

The endangered species that I wanted to focus on this week is the Andean Catfish.  This catfish is endangered mostly due to pollution of it habitat.  Catfish are the world’s most abundant fish but this species lives in Ecuador in rivers and streams.  It is critically endangered due to not only pollution but overfishing.