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Welcome to CoveBear.com! Read About What Is Going On In Nature This Year
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CoveBear Nature News
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07-23-08 DIESEL SPILL SHUTS DOWN MISSISSIPPI RIVERA tug boat pulling a barge loaded with diesel fuel collided with a fuel tanker in the Mississippi River at New Orleans early this morning. The people on board the tug had no license to drive the boat. The oil spill is estimated to exceed 400,000 gallons of diesel. A 58-mile stretch of the river is shut down for the next few days, while experts will try to contain the oil and stop it from spreading any further south or into the Louisiana wetlands. The fuel tanker did not leak any oil. Click here for photos - http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/07/diesel_spill.html. 07-16-08 WHITE LIONS BORN IN ZOOThree white lions have been born in the Schloss Holte-Stukenbrock safari park in Germany. Two lionesses gave birth at the same time (that has not happened there in the last 40 years), and out of seven little cubs born, three were white. We have requested photos of the baby lions from the zoo, and are waiting to hear if we have permission to show them to you. 07-09-08 FIRST WILD TIGER RELOCATION BEING COMPLETEDBengal Tigers have now been successfully relocated to the Sariska wildlife reserve in India, from another reserve there, at the end of June. The male tiger is in good health, and was fitted with a radio collar that will show his travel range over the next few months, before the collar wears off. A female was airlifted to that reserve on July 5, and more tigers will be relocated there in the new weeks, in an effort to repopulate the area. All of these tigers were taken from the Rathambore Reserve, and the relocation was a joint project between the Government of Rajasthan and the Government of India, with help from the World Wildlife Fund. All of the tigers in the Sariska were killed off over the past year, by poachers, and every effort is being made to apprehend the people who are killing tigers in protected areas. Tigers are killed for body parts for use on the black market and in Oriental traditional medicines. There are seven tiger reserves in India - these are not zoos, they are pieces of wild lands set aside to be left alone so that wildlife can thrive. All tigers in India tiger reserves are wild tigers and are very dangerous.
Bengal Tiger Copyright US Fish & Wildlife Service Washington D.C. Library Used with Permission Rathambore Reserve's tiger population has fluctuated between 25 cats and 44 cats at any one time since 1979. In 2001, they reported poaching in that reserve had dropped the cats' numbers down to 20. those numbers are on the increase since then. Rathambore boasts a lush forest setting, full of many kinds of animals, and is a national park. This is one of the best places in the world to see tigers in their natural habitat. The public is invited to visit this reserve only during the hours of 6-9 A.M. / 3-6 P.M. October to March, and 6:30-9:30 A.M. / 3:30-6 P.M. April to June. The reserve is closed to the public at all other times. The Rathambore National Park is actually a small part of the Rathambore Reserve. It is the national park that is open to the public at certain times. http://www.ranthambhore.com/park.html
Bengal Tiger Copyright US Fish & Wildlife Service Washington D.C. Library Used with Permission Sariska Reserve's tiger population may be re-introduced with these relocated tigers from Rathambore Reserve. Tigers in this area, in Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary, tend to be more nocturnal, coming out at night rather than in the daytime, and so are not so easily seen by people. This tiger reserve is open mostly all year to the public, however, will be closed, as others are, during the monsoon (heavy rains) season, and during tiger mating season. This reserve also has a national park where the public is allowed to visit, called Sariska National Park. This reserve was the gem of the Project Tiger at one point in the 1970's, but it was brought to light that protection of the tigers in this reserve had failed totally, and by 2005 all tigers had been slaughtered for their skins and other body parts. In an emergency move by the government, a huge protection effort is being made in 2008. Over $150 million are pledged to pay more national park rangers to guard those lands and animals, to outfit tigers with radio collars and hire people to monitor the tigers within their protected areas, to introduce programs that will stop deforestation of the countryside and re-establish critical habitat, to relocate tigers into areas where tigers have been wiped out, and to relocate people who are still living in villages within the reserve. This relocation project in 2008, carried out by the Wildlife Institute of India, is the first step in carrying out those promises. http://www.indiantiger.org/tiger-reserves-in-india/sariska-wildlife-sanctuary-tiger-reserves-in-india.html Other tiger reserves in India include Panna National Park, Kanha Tiger Reserve, Sundarban National Park, Bandhavgarth Tiger Reserve, and Manas Tiger Reserve. At the turn of the century, India had about 40,000 tigers in the wild. In 2002, there were about 3,600 tigers in the wild there. In 2007, the estimated wild tiger population in India is about 1,400. Also visit these websites to read about tigers: www.savethetiger.org and http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/finder/amurtiger/item522.html. 07-02-08 NOAA and PARTNERS FREE DOLPHIN FROM DEBRISMembers of the Southeast Regional Marine Mammal Stranding Network successfully removed a black rubber strap Tuesday that was wrapped around the head of a juvenile bottlenose dolphin, averting a life-threatening injury.
In a coordinated effort, NOAA and network members located the juvenile dolphin in the Wilmington River, part of the intracoastal waterway near Savannah, Ga., and removed the piece of rubber that had wrapped around the area between its flippers and blowhole. The team of scientists from NOAA, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Savannah State University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, University of Georgia Marine Extension, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and others, began by carefully capturing the dolphin. An experienced marine mammal veterinarian gave the animal a complete physical exam and removed the rubber strap. The dolphin was then released into the river. “We launched a rescue effort for this dolphin because the animal was entangled in marine debris and the entanglement was life-threatening,” said Jenny Litz, a NOAA Fisheries biologist. “As the dolphin was growing, the piece of rubber was tightening around its body and could have lead to infection.”
This injury is an example of the growing threat of marine debris to mammals and other animals in ocean waters. Rope, plastic materials and other debris discarded by humans can entangle, suffocate, starve and kill fish, turtles and marine mammals. NOAA works to address the problem of marine debris through prevention and removal. NOAA-supported marine debris removal projects are underway in coastal communities around the nation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects. Reprinted with permission from NOAA to CoveBear.com.
06-06-08 THE WORLD MOURNS THE DEATH OF A SPECIES A five-year study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) now concludes that the Caribbean Monk Seal is verified to be extinct. The cause of its disappearance is over-hunting by people for the seal pelts. These seals were always vulnerable when birthing or watching over their little pups, and of course, were utterly defenseless against humans with clubs. This is the only seal to have gone extinct due to human cause. The last recorded sighting of a Caribbean Monk Seal was in 1952, in the Caribbean Sea at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatán Peninsula. They were listed as officially endangered in 1967 and added to the list, following a few unsubstantiated reports of sightings of the seals. Those sightings proved to be false. There are other monk seals in other parts of the world. It has been proposed that species that have gone extinct be removed from the endangered species list, since they no longer exist, but until that happens, they will remain on the list. Here is a description of the history of this seal, from NOAA:
"Caribbean monk
seals were first discovered during Columbus’s second voyage in
1494, when eight seals were killed for meat. Following European
colonization from the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were exploited
intensively for their blubber, and to a lesser extent for food,
scientific study, and zoological collection. Blubber was
processed into oil and used for lubrication, coating the bottom
of boats, and as lamp and cooking oil. Seal skins were sought to
make trunk linings, articles of clothing, straps and bags.
Scientists are unsure about exactly when Caribbean monk seals
went extinct. Although there have been no confirmed sightings
since 1952, it is conceivable that undetected seals persisted
for a short period thereafter. The seals lived 20 to 30 years,
so experts believe that some adults possibly lived into the
1960s or 1970s." www.noaa.com
Christopher Columbus named this seal "Sea Wolf." After its territory was populated with people, a lot of habitat was lost, and numbers began to dwindle then. There are none currently in captivity.
05-13-08 Click here for panda update after cyclone!
05-12-08 CYCLONE HITS MYANMAR IN MAY A cyclone is the same as a hurricane, except in a different part of the world than the U.S. Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, in southeast Asia 11 days ago, and has left over 100,000 people dead or missing, and more homeless. The official death toll at this point is 28,000 people. 1.5 million people have survived the storm, but disease and hunger threaten them. Relief efforts are few, due to the military government's policy of allowing few people into the country. Finally, the U.N. was granted permission to land a plane with non-food emergency supplies such as tents. There are few people there available to distribute the goods. The World Food Program has now been granted permission to distribute 38 tons of high-energy biscuits. A U.S. military transport plane has now been cleared to land there with mosquito nets, blankets, and water. More aid has now arrived from Thailand and India. The International Red Cross had supplies on a barge to take to 1,000 people who were stranded in one area, but the barge has sunk after hitting a rock, and the supplies are now lost. The government there has announced over the past week, that some supplies may be welcome, however, workers from outside the country that may help distribute the supplies are not welcome. That may change now as time is slipping away for hundred of thousands of stranded people. Cyclone Nargis was a category 4 tropical cyclone. The following statement was made by NASA after the storm hit. Wildlife found in Myanmar are a shrinking tiger population, leopards, wild boar, wild buffalo, elephant, rhino, and the jungle habitats support many more smaller animals, such as monkeys, cobras, pythons, crocodiles, parrots, and peafowl. NASA -
The first cyclone of the 2008 season in the northern Indian Ocean was a
devastating one for Burma. According to reports from Accuweather.com,
Cyclone Nargis made landfall with sustained winds of 130 mph and gusts
of 150-160 mph, which is the equivalent of a strong Category 3 or
minimal Category 4 hurricane. News reports stated that several thousand
people have been killed, and thousands more were missing as of May 5. 
BEFORE Myanmar (Burma) before the storm, April
15, 2008.
Reprinted
from NOAA with permission. www.noaa.gov
Last year alone global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 percent, or 19 billion tons. Additionally methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase. NOAA scientists released these and other preliminary findings today as part of an annual update to the agency’s greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites around the world. The burning of coal, oil, and gas, known as fossil fuels, is the primary source of increasing carbon dioxide emissions. Earth's oceans, vegetation, and soils soak up half of these emissions. The rest stays in the air for centuries or longer. Twenty percent of the 2007 fossil fuel emissions of carbon dioxide are expected to remain in the atmosphere for thousands of years, according to the latest scientific assessment by the International Panel on Climate Change. Viewed another way, last year’s carbon dioxide increase means 2.4 molecules of the gas were added to every million molecules of air, boosting the global concentration to nearly 385 parts per million (ppm). Pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels hovered around 280 ppm until 1850. Human activities pushed those levels up to 380 ppm by early 2006.
The rate
of increase in carbon dioxide concentrations accelerated
over recent decades along with fossil fuel emissions.
Since 2000, annual increases of two ppm or more have
been common, compared with 1.5 ppm per year in the 1980s
and less than one ppm per year during the 1960s.
Methane levels rose last year for the first time since 1998. Methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but there’s far less of it in the atmosphere—about 1,800 parts per billion. When related climate affects are taken into account, methane’s overall climate impact is nearly half that of carbon dioxide. Rapidly growing industrialization in Asia and rising wetland emissions in the Arctic and tropics are the most likely causes of the recent methane increase, said scientist Ed Dlugokencky from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory. ”We’re on the lookout for the first sign of a methane release from thawing Arctic permafrost,” said Dlugokencky. “It’s too soon to tell whether last year’s spike in emissions includes the start of such a trend.”
Permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, contains vast
stores of carbon. Scientists are concerned that as the
Arctic continues to warm and permafrost thaws, carbon
could seep into the atmosphere in the form of methane,
possibly fueling a cycle of carbon release and
temperature rise.
NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
04-23-08 TAME GRIZZLY KILLS TRAINER California's "Randy Miller's Predators In Action" facility for training animals for movies had a tragedy this week: one of the trainers was attacked and killed by a tame 5-year-old grizzly named Rocky. This bear appeared in the movie "Semi-Pro" starring Will Ferrell as a guy who wrestles a grizzly. This bear stood 7 1/2 feet tall and weighed 700 pounds. Other movies that Randy's animals have been featured in include "Gladiator" (tigers), "The Postman," "The Island of Dr. Moreau," and "the Last Samurai." Animals trained there for the movies and television include wolves, bears, tigers, leopards, lions, and cougars. Some of their trained animals have appeared in documentaries produced by National Geographic and Discovery Channel. Captive predators are usually killed once they attack their trainers. This training facility has been in operation over 25 years and has never had an attack by any animal. 39-year-old Stephan Miller was bitten on the neck and died instantly.
03-21-08 NEW SUNSPOT COULD MEAN PROBLEMS ON EARTH
This image of the Sun's corona was taken with the Yohkoh Soft X-Ray Telescope and shows the complex, hot plasmas that make up the corona. Image Credit: NASA Reprinted from NASA with permission. www.nasa.gov
What does a spot
on the sun have to do with everyday life on Earth?
Quite a lot, as it turns out. Scientists say the January appearance of a sunspot in the sun's Northern Hemisphere marks the beginning of what is expected to be an 11-year period of increased solar activity, which could have an important impact around the world. Sunspots are localized areas of strong magnetic fields on the surface of the sun and are often signs of solar storms to come. Solar storms are powerful explosions of energy that erupt from the sun, blast through space and sweep past Earth. Such events can cause power outages and disrupt communications on Earth, and they can harm astronauts in space. 03-13-08 COOLEST WINTER SINCE 2001 FOR LOWER 48 . . . AND GLOBE Reprinted from NOAA with permission. www.noaa.gov
The average
temperature across both the contiguous U.S. and the globe during
climatological winter (December 2007-February 2008) was the
coolest since 2001, according to scientists at
NOAA’s
National Climatic Data Center
in Asheville, N.C. In terms of winter precipitation, Pacific
storms, bringing heavy precipitation to large parts of the West,
produced high snowpack that will provide welcome runoff this
spring.
A complete analysis is available online. U.S. Winter Temperature Highlights
Map Courtesy of NOAA; Permission to CoveBear.com
U.S. Winter Precipitation Highlights
Map Courtesy of NOAA; Permission to CoveBear.com
Global Highlights
February Temperature Highlights
03-07-08 OCEAN DESERTS ARE EXPANDING Reprinted from NOAA with permission. www.noaa.gov
The least
biologically productive areas of the oceans are expanding much
faster than predicted, according to a new study by researchers
at NOAA and the University of Hawaii. This change in ocean
biology, linked to the warming of sea surface waters, may
negatively affect the populations of many fish species trying to
survive in these desert-like environments.
Between 1998 and 2007, these expanses of saltwater with low surface plant life in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans grew by 15 percent or 6.6 million square kilometers, according to the study which appears in Geophysical Research Letters. The expansion is occurring at the same time that sea surface temperatures are warming about one percent or .02 to .04 degrees Celsius a year. The warming increases stratification of the ocean waters, preventing deep ocean nutrients from rising to the surface and creating plantlife. These barren areas are found in roughly 20 percent of the world’s oceans and are within subtropical gyres — the swirling expanses of water on either side of the equator. “The fact that we are seeing an expansion of the ocean’s least productive areas as the subtropical gyres warm is consistent with our understanding of the impact of global warming. But with a nine-year time series, it is difficult to rule out decadal variation,” said Jeffrey J. Polovina, an oceanographer with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in Honolulu, who authored the study along with NOAA’s Evan A. Howell and Melanie Abecassis of the University of Hawaii. The evidence of this expansion comes from data collected by a sensor aboard NASA’s orbiting SeaStar spacecraft. The Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor, called SeaWiFS, is a unique tool that maps ocean biological productivity around the globe. This visual sensor reads reflective color to measure the density of chlorophyll in phytoplankton, the microscopic plants that are the base of the marine food web.
The
research showed that the areas of low productivity in
the Pacific Ocean are expanding from the center toward
Hawaii. In the Atlantic Ocean, the least productive
areas of the subtropical gyre are expanding at an even
more rapid rate eastward across the Caribbean toward
Africa. The low-productivity zones, likened to deserts,
now cover an estimated 51 million square kilometers in
the two oceans. The least productive area of the Indian
Ocean shows the same trend, but there has been too much
variability for it to be statistically significant.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
05-10-08 Click here to read about oceans!
01-13-08 POLAR BEAR BORN AT GERMAN ZOO This polar bear was born at the Nuremburg Zoo. The reason that the zookeepers are now taking care of this baby polar bear, and he is not still with his mother, is because sometimes a mother bear does not want to take care of her babies. That happened here, and the zoo decided to take the baby from the mother.
Baby Polar Bear at the Nuremburg Zoo, in Germany Used with Permission to CoveBear.com See more photos of this bear in our polar bear news section!
01-12-08 SAN FRANCISCO ZOO IN THE NEWS The San Francisco Zoo (www.sfzoo.org) is under another wave of media coverage, after zoo handlers reported to the local newspapers that some other animals have tried to escape over the past week, a leopard who pushed his head through a small enclosure, and a polar bear, who came to the zoo wild, who nearly succeeded in climbing a wall of his enclosure and was pushed back with a fire hose. These incidents followed the escape of a large tiger on Christmas Day, who escaped and chased some people believed to be harassing the tiger, resulting in the death of one person. The zoo admitted that some of their walls that surround predator enclosures need to be higher and have begun making improvements to be more in line with AZA (American Zoo Association) guidelines. They are also working on improving their security, planning on putting into place a better procedure to work with law enforcement, as well as installing security cameras. The San Francisco Zoo regrets any accidents that happen, and always tries to do what is best for the public and what is best for the animals. The zoo will be working with many people to make sure that other predators, such as their big cats and grizzlies, are protected from escape. This zoo has been in operation many, many years, and has always been responsible and proactive in their protection of both animals and the public. See other nature news at: http://www.covebear.com/BlackBearIntro.htm http://www.covebear.com/PolarBearIntro.htm http://www.covebear.com/BrownBearIntro.htm http://www.covebear.com/PandaBearIntro.htm http://www.covebear.com/Great%20Smoky%20Mountains%20Intro.htm
ARCHIVED NEWS OF INTEREST: 2007 05-11-08 Click here to see a bear rescue from a bridge in 2007! 10-19-07 WILD PIGS ARE LARGE AND DANGEROUS Below is a very large creature we encountered in a marsh in Florida. No, it is not a black bear! Look again!
Wild pigs, in this case, boars, are very dangerous - keep your distance!
06-02-07 HUGE ALLIGATORS SEEN IN TEXAS (Someone sent us these photos on email for our newsletter - however, we have no knowledge of ownership - if photos are copyrighted, please contact us.) Here are two photos taken by someone flying over Lake Conroe in Texas. This huge alligator is swimming fast with a full-grown deer in its mouth.
The third photo is of a truly monster-sized alligator found in a waterway behind some houses in Palestine, Texas, near Lake Conroe. Montgomery County Sheriff's Department was on the scene. Texas Parks and Wildlife officials had to do kill the gator because it was too large to relocate and it could not stay in a residential area - the alligator measured 23 feet 1 inch long. For perspective, the official walking behind the gator is 6'5" feet tall. It is speculated that this alligator may have been over 100 years old.
See our alligator tee shirt here - order one today!
KMG is not responsible for errors in information, but accuracy is our goal. Text, Photos, & Products (c) KMG 1992-2008 Website Content and Design (c) KMG 2001-2008 All Rights Reserved CoveBearTM is the trademarked brand of Kate Marshall Graphics, Inc., a retail-wholesale-educational video production & post-production company www.covebear.com
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AFTER Myanmar (Burma) after the storm, May 5,
2008.
