National Geographic Society

National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen's YouTube video "Face-Off With a Deadly Predator," an account of his scary encounter with a leopard seal in the Antarctic, has been downloaded more than a million times.

In this subsequent video interview with NatGeo News Watch, below, Nicklen shares his thoughts about leopard seals--and other polar predators he has studied since he was a boy growing up in a small Inuit community in the Canadian Arctic.

He talks about the patience and time needed to make the photographs of polar predators for ten National Geographic Magazine articles and for his new National Geographic book, Polar Obsession.

A large female leopard seal greets photographer Göran Ehlmé. Anvers Island, Antarctica (p. 161 of Paul Nicklen's new book, Polar Obsession.)

A leopard seal feeds Paul Nicklen a penguin. Antarctic Peninsula (p. 36)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Growing up in the Arctic, Nicklen said, "We didn't have a television...telephone...radio...so all of my entertainment came in the form of playing outside, and that meant being around animals...seeing my first polar bear when I was five years old.

"So you really learn from the time you are young how these animals work, what makes them tick. You learn about social hierarchy, and then most of all, the best thing you learn is their connection to the ecosystem," he said.

Looking towards an uncertain future, a huge male bear triggers a camera trap, taking his own picture. Leifdefjorden, Spitsbergen, Norway (p.239)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

All this information plus a college degree in marine biology taught Nicklen how to approach and get up close to animals, to use body language to communicate with them, and devote many hours to get them used to his presence before getting into the water with them.

A large bull walrus returns to the shores of Prins Karl Forland after diving and feeding on clams. Svalbard, Norway (p. 150)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

What people don't realize when they see his pictures, Nicklen says, is the sometimes days, weeks or months he needed to get the animals to care less about his presence.

Narwhals dive deep under the ice to feed on Arctic cod, then return to the surface to breathe and raise their tusks high in the air. Lancaster Sound, Nunavut, Canada (p. 103)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

"The narwhals story...a chapter in the book, took me 15 years to try to figure it out," Nicklen said. The project involved working with the Inuit, buying an ultralight plane, flying out to the remote pack ice in the Arctic, "and finally, in one day, getting all those images for that narwhal story. It's just time and patience."

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Polar Obsession (National Geographic Books; November, 2009; $50; hardcover) is a showcase of Nicklen's best pictures and an opportunity for him to share important insights into animal behavior, the fragile polar environment and climate change that threatens the ice and its inhabitants.

In the Arctic spring, meltwater channels drain toward and down a seal hole, returning to the sea. (p. 71)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

"The polar regions are disappearing quickly, and I want my photo essays to stand as a reminder of what is at stake. It is my mission to bring the rare, remote and threatened to caring people who can enjoy and help protect these lands and creatures," Nicklen writes in his introduction.

The book includes 150 of Nicklen's most spectacular images from the polar regions. Elephant seals, leopard seals, whales, walruses, narwhals, polar bears, penguins, albatrosses, petrels, arctic cod, and krill, are among the cast of characters he captures through his lens. To make these photos took many years of thinking and planning and sometimes many hours of waiting in difficult conditions for the right moment.

A kittiwake soars in front of a large iceberg. Svalbard, Norway (p. 29)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

In essays introducing each chapter, Nicklen describes the ice fields, floes and frozen seas that are the backdrop to his images.

A young polar bear leaps between ice floes. Barents Sea, Svalbard, Norway (p.16). Click on the feature "Ice Paradise" for more photos from Nicklen's Svalbard assignment for National Geographic Magazine.

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

"Nicklen has risked his life many times in the 20 years he has been documenting the polar regions," says the National Geographic news release about this book. "He has crashed his ultralight airplane, fallen through the sea ice, been lost in blizzards, bitten by fur seals, attacked by a walrus and an 8,000-pound elephant seal, charged by a grizzly bear and sniffed through the thin fabric wall of a tent by a polar bear."

A gentoo penguin chick peeks, checking for patrolling leopard seals before tempting fate. Port Lockroy, Antarctic Peninsula (p. 166)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

"If I really want people to care about polar species, my images have to be wild and raw," he writes. "I want people to feel what it's like to be in the water, swimming three feet from a polar bear. I want them to experience what it's like to be offered a penguin as food by a leopard seal. Only then will they really care about that habitat and that species."

Paul Nicklen emerges numb from the cold after an hour under the ice. Admiralty Inlet, Nunavut, Canada (p. 15)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Mother bear and two-year-old cub drift on glacier ice. Hudson Strait, Nunavut, Canada (p. 77)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Included in the book is a gear list detailing the enormous amount of equipment that accompanies Nicklen on his assignments, "likely more equipment than any other natural history photographer on the planet," because Nicklen shoots above and below water.

He usually travels with 14 to 20 cases and hockey duffel bags weighing between 60 pounds and 70 pounds each. "Getting to and from location with all the gear is often the worst and hardest part of the assignment," he writes. A list of some of the equipment Nicklen is currently using can also be found on his Web site.

Paul Nicklen on assignment. Lewes Lake, Yukon Territory, Canada. (not in book)

© 2009 Paul Nicklen/National Geographic

Colombia has made impressive progress in declaring a large part of its Amazon rain forest protected for conservation. But there's another rain forest in Colombia, the Chocó, on the Pacific side of the country. This forest teems with even more species than in the Amazon forest, but it is not as well protected. Conservation biologist Stuart Pimm recently visited the region to see the biodiversity for himself.

By Stuart L. Pimm
Special contributor to NatGeo News Watch

Ten days ago I was in Colombia with my Colombian graduate student German Forero Medina, about to give a keynote address on REDD--Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation -- the subject now uppermost in the minds of those of us who care about biodiversity. (Read about REDD on my earlier blog on NatGeo News Watch.)

I wasn't going to go that far without taking time to visit one of the most diverse rain forests on Earth--the Chocó, along the country's Pacific Slope.

Colombia has more than one rain forest. The most familiar is the Amazon.

This has been a good few weeks for the Amazon, so that news first.

Just over a week ago, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced that only 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon were cleared in the 12 months to August 2009. [NatGeo News Watch: Amazon deforestation slows as Brazil tightens prevention.]

That's by far the lowest rate since the country's National Institute for Space Research started using satellite imagery to monitor forest losses.

Neighbouring Colombia has much less of the Amazon compared to Brazil, but it too has been losing forest cover.

At the International Forum on Biodiversity and Climate Change on the November 6, Environment Minister Carlos Costa told his audience in Bogotá: "It is important for the world to know that the Colombian Amazon is for conservation only." I was in the audience.

The Colombian government was making more than bold statements. At the Protected Areas Conference and on the Biodiversity Forum two weeks earlier (October 26, also in Bogotá), the country announced the creation of the Yaigoyé Apaporis National Par --an area of over 1,000,000 hectares (4,000 square miles) in the Amazon close to the equator.

Even before that addition, Colombia had exceeded the targets for conservation it had agreed to meet by signing the Convention on Biological Diversity. Signers agreed to set aside 10 percent of their land for protected areas by 2010.

With this latest addition, Colombia has protected 12.5 million hectares of its country--about 49,000 square miles, or 11 percent of the country-- an area a little smaller than the State of Florida. Some 70 percent of the protected land is in the Amazon.

Here's the problem that had me at the second meeting--and German Forero Medina at both meetings: Colombia is spectacularly rich in biodiversity. (Ask any birdwatcher. Colombia has nearly 1,900 species, more than any other country and 19 percent of the world's total. It has a similar excess of mammals and amphibians.)

But rich in species though the Amazon might be, it's Colombia's other forests that have even more species--and they are not been given the same protection. German and I were in Colombia to argue for more reserves outside Colombia's Amazon.

Conservation biologist Stuart L. Pimm visits Colombia's Chocó rain forest. There Jorge Orejuela, director of the Cali Botanic Garden and an expert on the Chocó's birds and orchids, tells Pimm about the remarkable orchids and other species in one of Earth's biodiversity "hotspots."

Video by Stuart L. Pimm

One of those regions, the Chocó was where I headed after the meeting. The old road from Cali to Buenaventura is "the best area in the world for seeing a rich diversity of birds," according to Steven Hilty and William Brown, authors of the Birds of Colombia.

How could I resist? This is one of 25 "biodiversity hotspots"--places that my Duke University colleague Professor Norman Myers and colleagues showed contained half of all the variety of life on Earth--in about 10 percent of the land surface. By definition, hotspots are also places where there's been large losses of habitats.

22 feet of rain a year

Resist? Well, easily, it happens. Dripping wet mountain forest, some areas getting 7 metres (22 feet) of rain each year sounds wonderful, but tragically, it's been a war zone. Coca grows well here. The consequence of U.S. citizens being unable to "just say no" to cocaine have played havoc with Colombia and scarred the lives of millions of its people. Armed conflict and anti-government guerrillas had been active in the Chocó.

But all my Colombian friends were cautiously optimistic about the reduction in violence in the last few years. So I set off with Jorge Orejuela, an old friend with whom I shared a house in graduate school decades ago.

Jorge won the prestigious National Geographic/Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation in 2007. He's the director of the Cali Botanic Garden and an expert on the Chocó's birds and orchids. And he won the prize for his efforts to protect the Chocó's forest.

Photo of orchid Dracula wallisii by Luis Mazariegos

In the rain, our 4x4 slipped and slid down the narrow dirt road, from Cali to the coast. Then we turned into the watershed of a large reservoir, showing our permits to the Colombian military who guard the area.

The next morning the rain let up. Jorge spotted orchids everywhere--many were small and I missed them. Close up, they were lovely.

"Here's a branch covered with orchids." Jorge pointed them out. "There's an orchid in the genus Pleurothallis--perhaps it's a new species...There are a hundred or more new species being described every couple of years from this genus in Colombia and Ecuador."

Video still by Stuart L. Pimm

Later, standing in the middle of a small river, looking at its bank covered in showy Sobralia orchids, Jorge continued, "Biodiversity here is unbelievable. Along this gradient from the Andes to the lowlands, we may have 1,500 species of butterflies and 800 bird species." (That's half as many again as birds that nest in all of Europe and North Africa.) "Orchids--perhaps 1,000 species."

"There's high human pressure on this area. My work that was highlighted by National Geographic was protecting areas that, had they been destroyed, the endemic species--those that we found only within them--would have been lost for ever."

Photo of orchid D. syndactyla by Luis Mazariegos

Just how many species are found only in these areas, I wondered. "And how many species are still unknown to science here," I asked Jorge.

"It's hard to tell," he said. "In one area, not knowing anything about orchids, we collected 400 species--and that was not the only thing I had to do. This was in an area of only 30 square kilometres." (About 12 square miles).

"Easily 20 percent of those species were new to science...Many of those are endangered--they are rare and found only in those particular places."

Professor Stuart L. Pimm is a conservation biologist at Duke University, North Carolina. A former member of the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Pimm is the author of dozens of books and research papers, including the book "The World According to Pimm: A Scientist Audits the Earth."

Read earlier blog posts by Stuart Pimm>>

"There can be no food security without climate security," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said today at the start of the World Summit on Food Security in Rome.

"If the glaciers of the Himalaya melt, it will affect the livelihoods and survival of three hundred million people in China and up to a billion people throughout Asia," he said at the event convened by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO.

Photo © FAO/Giulio Napolitano

World leaders meeting at FAO headquarters for the summit "unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth sustainably and at the earliest date," according to an FAO news release.

"Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture and promote new investment in the sector, to improve governance of global food issues in partnership with relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector, and to proactively face the challenges of climate change to food security."

Photo © FAO/Alessandra Benedetti

"Africa's small farmers, who produce most of the continent's food and depend mostly on rain, could see harvests drop by 50 per cent by 2020. We must make significant changes to feed ourselves and, most especially, to safeguard the poorest and most vulnerable," Ban Ki-Moon said.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf stressed the need to produce food where the poor and hungry live and to boost agricultural investment in these regions, according to the FAO statement.

"In some developed countries, two to four percent of the population are able to produce enough food to feed the entire nation and even to export, while in the majority of developing countries, 60 to 80 percent of the population are not able to meet country food needs," Diouf said.

Photo © FAO/Giulio Napolitano

"The planet can feed itself, provided that the decisions made are honoured and the required resources are effectively mobilized," he said, calling for an increase in official development assistance to agriculture, a greater share of developing country budgets devoted to agriculture and incentives to encourage private investment.

"Eliminating hunger from the face of Earth requires US$44 billion of official development assistance per year to be invested in infrastructure, technology and modern inputs. It is a small amount if we consider the $365 billion of agriculture producer support in OECD countries in 2007, and if we consider the $1,340 billion of military expenditures by the world in the same year," Diouf said.

"Over the past five years, several countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia have succeeded to substantially reduce the number of hungry people in their territories," Diouf said. "This means that we know what should be done and how it can be done to defeat hunger."

"In low-income food-deficit countries, food security programmes and plans exist and are awaiting political will and financing to become operational," he noted.

Diouf also underlined the fact that food security goes beyond production, the statement added. "We need protection against pests and diseases of plants and animals which often directly affect human health. We have likewise to face emergency situations resulting from natural disasters and to conserve the national resource base of food production to ensure sustainability."

The pope called for greater understanding of the needs of the rural world. "At the same time," he said, "access to international markets must be favoured for those products coming from the poorest areas, which today are often relegated to the margins. In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to separate the rules of international trade from the logic of profit viewed as an end in itself."

Native American Heritage Month (November) is when we reflect on the heritage of the first people in the Americas and honor their traditions and ancestors.

North America before the time of contact with Europeans five hundred years ago was a mosaic of extraordinary human diversity. Hundreds of tribes had their own cultures, political systems, art forms, spiritual beliefs--and languages.

NGS stock photo by David Boyer

By the late 19th Century all that had changed. Most tribes had been restricted to reservations. Many of their children were taken to boarding schools where they were required to speak only in English as part of a program to assimilate Native Americans into the white culture. Native American languages were mainly dead or dying.

By the late 20th Century, more than half the Native Americans in the U.S. were living in urban areas, where English was their everyday and home language. The few remaining Native American languages still in use were increasingly spoken only by the elders.

But there has been a resilience among the first people of North America in the 21st Century, and many of them have been determined to hang on to their heritage. Others are looking for ways to revitalize traditional cultures, spiritual values--and languages.

NGS stock photo by Chris Johns

One organization that has been established to record the disappearing languages around the world, including those of North America--and perhaps to help revitalize those that are on the brink of extinction--is the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages.

Under the Enduring Voices Project, linguists journey to meet with last speakers, listen to their stories, and document their languages with film, pictures, and audio to help communities preserve their knowledge of species, landscapes, and traditions before they vanish, according to the project's Web site.

I spoke to Dr. Greg Anderson, director of Living Tongues, about the disappearing languages of the U.S. and what's been done to document, if not save them.

Why should we care about preserving languages?

Whether for heritage or scientific reasons, languages need to be recorded.

Every language is useful as a means to identify a group. It codifies the history and world view of a people. It's clear that it's important to many people that they have their language that identifies them uniquely as a group.

Most native communities in the U.S. want to have as good and accurate record of their language as possible, in a format to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. There is great interest in documenting this heritage.

Documenting a disappearing language is so important, but it's possible only to really begin to appreciate all the subtleties and complexities of language if you have some speakers left to give you the dynamics and social context. If a language goes then it can't find new life without recorded materials.

"Every language furthers and refines our understanding of cognition, communications systems, the nature of the mind and the different ways people categorize our collective human experience."

From a scientific perspective it is also imperative to document languages while they are still alive. Languages are markers of identity and group cohesion. Linguists will tell you that every language furthers and refines our understanding of cognition, communications systems, the nature of the mind and the different ways people categorize our collective human experience.

For scientists, who knows what benefits there will be down the line that we don't even know about now yet. Certainly there will be uses for the data. But you can be sure it won't be used if it's not documented.

Tell us about the language hotspots in North America

In the Enduring Voices project, we focus on the situation of languages in hotspots. Several hotspots have been identified in North America, most notably in Oklahoma. It is where we find a concentration of unique languages that are vanishing. These are the priority areas for future work in language documentation.

The idea is to create areas where efforts need to be concentrated, where the number and different types of languages have consequences that are greater collectively for humanity.

Source for Language Hotspots map: Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages

Each language is of course equally valued, but we have a finite number of people, dollars, and time to do this work, so we need to maximize our efforts and resources.

In North America there are 150-170 languages that still have at least one speaker. Many of these languages have fewer than a hundred speakers. There are very few languages that have decent prospects of surviving without significant effort on the part of their communities to continue to find a use for them.

Oregon was probably the most diverse region of languages in the U.S. California might have the claim, but it is much larger, so the award for density of linguistic diversity goes to Oregon.

"At the time Lewis and Clark arrived in what's now Oregon 200 years ago there were 14 language families, more than in all of Europe combined."

At the time Lewis and Clark arrived in what's now Oregon 200 years ago there were 14 language families, more than in all of Europe combined. Today only five families of languages exist, and most of them have only a handful of speakers.

There is only one language family that has more than a hundred or two hundred speakers, and that's Northern Paiute, in southeastern Oregon, where the elders can still speak it when they get together. For most of the rest of the people there the everyday language is English.

The vast majority of the remaining languages in Oregon are known only by very few elders. The language diversity of that region has fallen off a cliff.

NGS stock photo by David McLain

There has been some documentation of these languages, but mostly just as text, and often a hundred years old. The complexity of the setting of these texts, and the sounds of the languages have often been lost.

With the loss of the languages, all kinds of wonderful things that the speakers did with their languages have also vanished, for example, some of the greatest works of oral literature ever produced--the multilingual performances with different characters speaking different languages that was found in the Pacific Northwest.

The highly elaborate dances that accompanied the oral tradition are frequently also gone.

Large amounts of local knowledge about fauna and flora, ecosystem management, local place names, spiritual values, and so on are all submerged, altered or gone because the original languages that expressed these concepts are gone or no longer well understood.

 How is this situation being addressed?
 
Two directions. We have tried to do a little through the Enduring Voices program, which has been quite effective at raising public awareness about the issue of language endangement. A longer-term arrangement is through Living Tongues, where we plan and execute larger scale projects. These are the main ways we engage the communities and help them to document and revitalize their languages.

Through Enduring Voices, we have been helping the Winnemem Wintu, one of the indigenous peoples of north central California. We have given them a technology kit and are providing training to help them compile video and audio recordings, with the purpose of producing language revitalization materials for their language.

Winnemem Wintu representatives are going to take part in an Enduring Voices workshop in Santa Fe next April. They will be joined by representatives of the Sac and Fox tribes, who are also interested in maintaining their Sauk language.

Our workshop takes people step by step through the raw data they collect and shows them how to produce a book or audio or some other product they can use to document their language and/or to teach others to speak it.

NGS stock photo by B. Anthony Stewart

There is a long process between raw data and usable material. But the communities themselves must want to collect the data and do something with it. This is really the only way that languages will survive into the future, if activists in the communities are interested in maintaining their language.

How communities use their language is up to them. It can be informal, such as by producing a reader, or formal, such as a course taught in schools. Languages can be revitalized by finding new users and creating new uses for them.

Some communities outsource this work to us. We have been working with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians in Oregon and helping them build a talking dictionary. It now has many thousands of words. Only the tribe has access to it. It is knowledge they want to keep to themselves, which is their right.

NGS stock photo by Bates Littlehales

Once a language is dead it is pretty hard to imagine how it could be brought back. When you are down to only a few speakers you can find ways to build speaker communities, such as happened successfully in Hawaii, where they have created new speakers.

Language nests have been built in other native American communities with some success. The Cherokee in Oklahoma have shown great success in generating new speakers with their immersion school.

NGS stock photo by Maggie Steber

The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, a casino-funded tribe, has resources and the will to support language regeneration programs, and have successfully generated new speakers of Chinuk Wawa, the lingua franca of many Oregon reservations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This shows that it is possible to reclaim languages.

If you have five speakers of a language and you start immersion schools you can produce 25 speakers. Then you can multiply those again. The Cherokee can be thinking of thousands and tens of thousands of speakers of their language on this basis ultimately. It is a model that has worked.

Children are sponges and absorb languages easily. If they are placed in a language immersion situation where everyone is speaking the language they will become fluent.

Preserving languages should be of interest to everyone, right?

Enduring Voices is promoting the key hotspots issue in your backyard. Sure there are vanishing languages around the globe, but your neighbors might be speakers of one of them. Most people appreciate that diversity is good. You wouldn't want to be allowed to eat only one kind of ice cream flavor or only one type of food always and forever with no options. 

"The loss of any language is a loss for us all. We lose part of the human genius, and with the disappearance of a language also goes a lot of spiritual concepts, art, and so on."

The loss of any language is a loss for us all. We lose part of the human genius, and with the disappearance of a language also goes a lot of spiritual concepts, art, and so on.

There is also the concept that you don't have to be tied to one language, or worse, be forced to learn one over another. You don't have to give up one language for another. People are capable of learning and appreciating more than one language. Multilingualism is the norm in many parts of the world. 

How do you find languages to rescue?

We wait for people to come to us. Native American communities tend to be cautious with outsiders. They are also perfectly capable of finding the information through the media and public information sources, and through word of mouth, if they want to do something about preserving their language.

We will work with any North American community, no matter what the size or the state of their language (unless it has no speakers and was never recorded of course), to see what kinds of solutions might be possible.

If there is a will to maintain the language, we seek to find the way to make it happen. Interested community activists are welcome to contact Enduring Voices or Living Tongues to start the discussion.

The brown pelican, a species once pushed toward extinction by the pesticide DDT, has recovered and is being removed from the list of threatened and endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

"At a time when so many species of wildlife are threatened, we once in a while have an opportunity to celebrate an amazing success story," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said when making the announcement this week. "Today is such a day. The brown pelican is back!"

Pelicans are primarily fish-eaters, requiring up to four pounds of fish a day, according to the USFWS Brown Pelican Fact Sheet. "Their diet consists mainly of 'rough' fish such as menhaden, herring, sheepshead, pigfish, mullet, grass minnows, topminnows, and silversides. On the Pacific Coast, pelicans rely heavily on anchovies and sardines. The birds have also been known to eat some crustaceans, usually prawns."

NGS stock photo by Bianca Lavies

The brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) was first declared endangered in 1970 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, a precursor to the current Endangered Species Act. "Since then, thanks to a ban on DDT and efforts by states, conservation organizations, private citizens and many other partners, the bird has recovered. There are now more than 650,000 brown pelicans found across Florida and the Gulf and Pacific Coasts, as well as in the Caribbean and Latin America," said a statement released by the Department of Interior (DOI).

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the brown pelican population in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and northward along the Atlantic Coast states from the list of endangered species in 1985. This week's action removed the remaining population from the list.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates the global population of brown pelicans at 650,000 individuals.

NGS stock photo by Bates Littlehales

"After being hunted for its feathers, facing devastating effects from the pesticide DDT and suffering from widespread coastal habitat loss, the pelican has made a remarkable recovery," Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Tom Strickland said at a press conference in New Orleans to announce the delisting. "We once again see healthy flocks of pelicans in the air over our shores."

The pelican's recovery is largely due to the federal ban on the general use of the pesticide DDT in 1972, the DOI said. "This action was taken after former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and alerted the nation to the widespread dangers associated with unrestricted pesticide use."

Measuring up to 54 inches long, weighing 8 to 10 pounds, and having a wingspan between 6-1/2 feet and 7-1/2 feet, brown pelicans are the smallest members of the seven pelican species worldwide, says the USFWS Brown Pelican Fact Sheet. "They can be identified by their chestnut-and-white necks; white heads with pale yellow crowns; brownstreaked back, rump, and tail; blackishbrown belly; grayish bill and pouch; and black legs and feet.

NGS stock photo by Robert Madden

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton praised the Gulf and Pacific Coast states for their constant efforts to restore this iconic coastal species. "Brown pelicans could not have recovered without a strong and continuing support network of partnerships among federal and state government agencies, tribes, conservation organizations, and individual citizens," said Hamilton. "This is truly a success story that the whole nation can celebrate."

In the southwest, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, The Nature Conservancy and numerous other conservation organizations helped purchase important nesting sites and developed monitoring programs to ensure pelican rookeries were thriving, the DOI added.

"Louisiana, long known as the 'pelican state,' and the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission jointly implemented a restoration project. A total of 1,276 young pelicans were captured in Florida and released at three sites in southeastern Louisiana during the 13 years of the project."

Brown pelicans have extremely keen eyesight, states the USFWS Brown Pelican Fact Sheet. "As they fly over the ocean, sometimes at heights of 60 to 70 feet, they can spot a school of small fish or even a single fish. Diving steeply into the water, they may submerge completely or only partly--depending on the height of the dive--and come up with a mouthful of fish. Air sacs beneath their skin cushion the impact and help pelicans surface."

NGS stock photo by Micheal E. Long

Past efforts to protect the brown pelican actually led to the birth of the National Wildlife Refuge System more than a century ago in central Florida, according to the DOI.

"German immigrant Paul Kroegel, appalled by the indiscriminate slaughter of pelicans for their feathers, approached President Theodore Roosevelt. This led Roosevelt to create the first National Wildlife Refuge at Pelican Island in 1903, when Kroegel was named the first refuge manager. Today, the system has grown to 550 national wildlife refuges, many of which have played key roles in the recovery of the brown pelican."

Brown pelicans have few natural enemies. Although ground nests are sometimes destroyed by hurricanes, flooding, or other natural disasters, the biggest threat to pelicans comes from people, says the USFWS Brown Pelican Fact Sheet. "In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pelicans were hunted for their feathers, which adorned women's clothing, particularly hats."

NGS stock photo by Bates Littlehales

With removal of the brown pelican from the list of threatened and endangered species, federal agencies will no longer be required to consult with the FWS to ensure any action they authorize, fund, or carry out will not harm the species. However, additional federal laws, such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Lacey Act, will continue to protect the brown pelican, its nests and its eggs, FWS said.

FWS has developed a Post-Delisting Monitoring Plan, designed to monitor and verify that the recovered, delisted population remains secure from the risk of extinction once the protections of the Endangered Species Act are removed. The Service can relist the brown pelican if future monitoring or other information shows it is necessary to prevent a significant risk to the brown pelican.

The pouch suspended from the lower half of the pelican's long, straight bill really can hold up to three times more than the stomach, according to the USFWS Brown Pelican Fact Sheet. "In addition to being used as a dip net, the pouch holds the pelican's catch of fish until the accompanying water--as much as three gallons-- is squeezed out. During this time, laughing gulls may hover above the pelican, or even sit on its bill, ready to steal a fish or two. Once the water is out, the pelican swallows the fish and carries them in its esophagus. The pouch also serves as a cooling mechanism in hot weather and as a feeding trough for young pelicans."

NGS stock photo by Robert Madden

Monitoring brown pelicans from now on will be done in cooperation with the State resource agencies, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Mexico, other federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and individuals, FWS said this week, adding, that the service is working with state natural resource agencies where the brown pelican occurs to develop cooperative management agreements to ensure that the species continues to be monitored.

Countries that invest in the management and restoration of ecosystems are likely to see far higher rates of return and stronger economic growth in the 21st century, according to a study by 100 experts from science, economics and policy from across the globe.

"Some countries have already made the link to a limited extent and are glimpsing benefits in terms of jobs, livelihoods and economic returns that outstrip those wedded to older economic models of the previous century," says a statement accompanying the release today of a report prepared by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB).

NGS stock photo by Michael Nichols

TEEB was launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. It is an independent study, hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme with financial support from European countries.

In its report released today, TEEB gave these examples of countries already reaping benefits from ecosystem projects:

• In Venezuela, investment in the national protected area system is preventing sedimentation that otherwise could reduce farm earnings by around U.S.$3.5 million a year.
• Planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of mangroves in Vietnam costs just over $1 million but saved annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well over $7 million.
• One in 40 jobs in Europe is now linked with the environment and ecosystem services ranging from clean tech "eco-industries" to organic agriculture, sustainable forestry and eco-tourism.
• Investment in the protection of Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve is generating an annual of income of close to $50 million a year, createed 7,000 jobs, and boosted local family incomes.

"Accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems."

The TEEB report, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, calls on policy-makers to "accelerate, scale-up and embed investments in the management and restoration of ecosystems."

It also calls for more sophisticated cost-benefit analysis before policy decisions are made.

The report cites a study on mangroves in south Thailand on the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms, an example of cost-benefit analysis that was perhaps not very well thought-through.

"Subsidized commercial shrimp farms can generate returns of around $1,220 per hectare by clearing mangrove forests. But this does not take into account the losses to local communities totaling over $12,000 a hectare linked with wood and non-wood forest products, fisheries and coastal protection services," TEEB said.

"Nor does the profit to the commercial operators take into account the costs of rehabilitating the abandoned sites after five years of exploitation---estimated at over $9,000 a hectare." 

Ecosystem-savvy economy

TEEB's report outlines a plan to catalyze a transition to more ecosystem-savvy economies able to meet the multiple challenges and deliver the multiple opportunities on a planet of six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.

Said Pavan Sukhdev, TEEB's study leader, "Nature's multiple and complex values have direct economic impacts on human wellbeing and public and private spending. Recognizing and rewarding the value delivered to society by the natural environment must become a policy priority.

"The economic invisibility of ecosystems and biodiversity is increased by our dominant economic model, which is consumption-led, production-driven, and GDP-measured. This model is in need of significant reform. The multiple crises we are experiencing--fuel, food, finance, and the economy--serve as reminders of the need for change.

"It is now up to governments to provide fiscal or other incentives to move us from short-term opportunism to long-term stewardship. The right policies can help us move toward a resource efficient economy."

The report comes in advance of the United Nations climate convention meeting in Copenhagen where governments are expected to give the green light to funding developing countries to maintain forests, the statement says.

"Close to 20 per cent of current global greenhouse gas emissions are linked with deforestation. Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) aims to counter this while also generating financial flows from North to South.

"REDD and REDD-Plus, which includes not only maintaining forests but planting and recovering forest systems, secured the backing of close 15 presidents and prime ministers at a special meeting hosted last month by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon." (Read about this on Stuart Pimm's blog Better REDD than dead when it comes to climate change.) 

NGS stock photo by James P. Blair

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "Paying developing countries under REDD marks a fundamental step forward in terms of bringing the huge financial importance of ecosystems and biodiversity into the centre of economic activity."

"It could open the door to more creative and forward looking funds and mechanisms covering other nature-based infrastructure such as peatlands and wetlands en route to support for the services generated by coastal and marine ecosystems such as coral reefs to mangroves," he said.

Read on for the key recommendations of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biovidersity:

The coniferous forest that wraps around the subarctic latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere offers the world's best opportunity to apply conservation as a climate change strategy, according to a report released today.

The boreal forest, as it is called, must be preserved because it is holding vast amounts of carbon in and under its trees, and also because it offers a buffer for plants and animals impacted by climate change.

Cut down those trees and develop the land and all that carbon will be released into the atmosphere--and the animals and plants seeking sanctuary from the warmer lower latitudes will have nowhere to go.

Carbon-rich wetlands in Canada's Northwest Territories.

Photo by Chad Delany, Ducks Unlimited

"When the world thinks of forests and their value to offset global warming, tropical forests come to mind," say the Boreal Songbird Initiative and the Canadian Boreal Initiative, sponsors of the report The Carbon the World Forgot.

The report released today shows that the global impact of Canada's boreal forest, which stores nearly twice as much carbon per acre as tropical forests, has been vastly underestimated.

Canada's boreal forest

Map courtesy of Boreal Songbird Initiative

"The Carbon the World Forgot identifies the boreal forests of North America as not only the cornerstone habitat for key mammal species, but one of the most significant carbon stores in the world, the equivalent of 26 years of global emissions from burning fossil fuels, based on 2006 emissions levels. Globally, these forests store 22 percent of all carbon on the earth's land surface," says a statement accompanying the release of the report.

Breakdown of carbon stored by global forest biome

Chart courtesy of Boreal Songbird Initiative

"Past accounting greatly underestimated the amount and depth of carbon stored in and under the boreal forest," says Jeff Wells, an author of the report. "In addition to carbon storage in trees, organic matter accumulated over millennia is stored in boreal peatlands and areas of permafrost. Some of this boreal carbon has been in place for up to 8,000 years."

"The boreal forest's status as the most intact forest left on Earth also offers a unique opportunity for plants and animals forced to adapt to shifting habitats."

The boreal forest's status as the most intact forest left on Earth also offers a unique opportunity for plants and animals forced to adapt to shifting habitats. Most other habitats today are highly fragmented by human activity, creating a variety of additional obstacles for species survival, the statement added.

Oscar Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories

Photo by D. Langhorst, Ducks Unlimited

"In light of these findings, today's report urges that international negotiations on carbon and forest protection consider ways to account for and protect the boreal," the authors say.

"Any effective and affordable response to climate change should include preserving the world's remaining, carbon-rich old-growth forests," said Steve Kallick, director of the Pew Environment Group's International Boreal Conservation Campaign. "This report makes clear that nations must look not just at the tropics but at all the world's old-growth forests for climate change solutions."

Map courtesy of Boreal Songbird Initiative

"Keeping that carbon in place by protecting boreal forests is an important part of the climate equation," said Andrew Weaver, "If you cut down the boreal forest and disturb its peatlands, you release more carbon, accelerating climate change." Weaver of the University of Victoria is a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Photo by Jeff Wells, Boreal Songbird Initiative

"The collision of climate disruption and massive human degradation of ecosystems is seriously worrying globally," said conservation biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "These changes are surely novel in earth's history. Maintaining the boreal forest's intactness will be critical to slowing ecosystem shifts and to providing migratory corridors for displaced wildlife." Stuart Pimm is a regular contributor to NatGeo News Watch. 

Photo by Larry Innes, Canadian Boreal Initiative

"Conservation can be an important tool in the fight to mitigate climate change," said Larry Innes, director of the Canadian Boreal Initiative, a sponsor of the report. "International protocols and legislation need to create opportunities to maintain the carbon stored in intact boreal forest soils, peatlands, and wetlands while enabling indigenous and local communities to take a leadership role in determining how to best conserve not only carbon, but the full suite of ecological, cultural and economic values that the boreal forest represents."

Photo by Jeff Nadler

More than 1,500 international scientists led by authors for the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommended in 2007 that at least half of Canada's boreal forest be protected from further disturbance--in large part to keep both the boreal forest carbon bank and internationally significant wildlife habitats intact.

Despite the current lack of international protocol, several Canadian First Nation, provincial, and federal governments have taken important steps to protect hundreds of millions of acres of Canada's carbon rich boreal forest. In all, scientists are recommending that at least 300 million hectares be protected.

Read on for more photos, maps, and the full text of the executive summary of the report The Carbon the World Forgot:

Koalas could be in deep trouble. Their numbers have dropped by 20-60 percent in six years, owing to habitat loss and the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia.

If the steep decline continues unchecked, Australia's iconic tree-climbing koala could be extinct by 2040, the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) said this week. The foundation is a charity dedicated to the conservation and effective management of the wild koala and its habitat.

NGS photo by Joe Scherschel

AKF CEO Deborah Tabart is concerned that the Australian administration will remain reluctant to list the koala as a threatened species, the foundation said in a statement.

The AKF released the latest koala census ahead of a meeting by the government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The foundation has been trying for years to get the koala listed as a threatened species, an important step for recovery and threat abatement. Previous administrations have not been swayed that the marsupial warrants this status, however.

"Once you get into power you realise that developers and infrastructure builders do not like the environment in the way," Tabart said.

"Our scientists have scoured every inch of the maps, read every piece of literature available, and we are ready for the fight of our lives."

NGS photo by Anne Keiser

To produce the latest estimates of koala numbers, the AKF's researchers visited 1,800 field sites and examined 80,000 trees. Koalas spend much of their lives up trees, especially eucalyptus, their main diet. 

"We are sure we have it right. There could be as few as 43,000 and no more than 80,000 koalas left on the mainland of Australia. We know this because we have the science, and the koala habitat is just not there," Tabart said.

"Previous estimates [made in 2003] were around 100,000, but the data is now more accurate," Tabart added.

"The koalas are missing everywhere we look."

By April Reese
Special contributor to NatGeo News Watch

MERIDA, Mexico--Protecting the world´s remaining wilderness areas should be a top priority at internationial climate change talks scheduled for next month in Copenhagen, conservation groups said yesterday in a formal statement aimed at influencing the negotiations.

While the burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal is responsible for the majority of emissions of carbon dioxide, a major contributor to climate change, the clearing of forests, wetlands and other wildlands accounts for 30 percent of carbon releases into the atmosphere, the groups said in the statement.

Left intact, wildlands absorb carbon dioxide, helping to offset emissions from fossil fuels.

"Runaway carbon emissions are driving the climate towards irreversible tipping points," the groups´"Message from Merida" reads. "This situation is in stark contrast to the world we can have if wilderness and its contribution to natural life support systems are properly valued and protected."

About a dozen groups signed the statement yesterday during the WILD9 international wilderness conference, being held here this week. The signatories include Conservation International, the Wilderness Foundation Africa, Naturalia, Sanctuary Asia, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Currently, only about 15 percent of the worlds´land area is protected, said Nik Lopoukine, chair of the World Commission on Protected Areas, speaking during the conference.

The most recent draft of the new climate change agreement does not acknowledge the importance of protecting the world's wildlands, those familiar with the negotiations said.

"If we don't address this problem in the negotiations, climate change will only get worse," said Brendan Mackey, an ecologist with Australian National University.

Keeping wildlands whole will also help buffer ecosystems from the worst effects of a warming world, he said, explaining that the larger the protected area, the more resiliency an ecosystem has.

Pay to preserve?

Many conservationists and government officials are pushing for the creation of a system in which countries with high emissions can pay countries with abundant, carbon-absorbing wildlands to preserve them.

That approach, initially championed by Mexico but now gaining support among other developing nations, would create a financial incentive for developing countries to keep their natural areas intact while allowing the most polluting countries to offset some of their emissions, said Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich, head of the Commission for Natural Protected Areas for United Mexican States, a government agency.

"It´s a cheaper way of reducing their carbon footprint," he said in an interview. "It´s basically to create a market and use that market to achieve emission reduction goals."

Photo by Boyd Norton/via The WILD Foundation

Many developing countries contain tropical forests, which store about one-fourth of all the carbon sequestered in the world's trees. Consequently, these wilderness-rich but cash-poor nations could see significant economic benefits from such a market, Enkerlin-Hoeflich added.

Safeguards to prevent corruption and ensure that wildlands enrolled in the market stay intact still need to be worked out, supporters acknowledged. But with both developed and developing countries warming to the idea, momentum is building for a climate change agreement that includes wilderness, conservationists said.

"I think this will come through one way or the other," said Michael Sweatman, who sits on the WILD Foundation´s board.

The next round of climate change talks, which are conducted by the United Nations, will be held December 7-18 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The National Geographic Society is a sponsor of WILD9.

The only uncontacted tribe in South America outside the Amazon is having its forest rapidly and illegally bulldozed by ranchers who want their land to graze cattle for beef, Survival, a British-based charity that advocates for indigenous people, said this week.

© GAT

"The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode is the only uncontacted tribe in the world currently losing its land to beef production," Survival said in a statement accompanying the satellite image above. The image was made on November 1.

Ayoreo, Paraguay, first contact between this specific Ayoreo-Totobiegosode group, 2004. 

© GAT

Survival has been publicizing the deforestation by advertising it on a major Paraguayan radio station, Radio Nanduti.

The ranchers are operating on the tribe's land in Paraguay despite having their licence suspended by the Environment Ministry in August for previous illegal clearance, Survival said in its statement.

"This is a serious threat to the Totobiegosode. The illegal deforestation ... in Paraguay is continuing without any control whatsoever,' said the Paraguayan charity GAT, which is working to protect the Ayoreo's lands.

© J Mazower/ Survival

Some of the Totobiegosode have already been contacted and have relatives among those who remain uncontacted, Survival said.

Said Survival director, Stephen Corry, "The Totobiegosode are the most vulnerable uncontacted tribe in the world. A tragedy is unfolding right before our eyes--and the satellite camera's lens. President Lugo must not sit back and watch as Paraguay's most vulnerable people see their homes and livelihoods annihilated."

© GAT

Concerned that the headline-grabbing news of nonnative giant snakes invading Florida's Everglades and possibly more of the U.S. is becoming politcized and ignoring science, the United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) is speaking out.

Several people have written to NatGeo News Watch in response to our early posts, Congress weighs ban on importation of pet pythons and Nine giant invasive snake species threaten U.S. ecosystems, pointing out that the people who know most about boas and pythons, the pet reptile owners and traders, have different perspectives about what's needed to prevent and reverse the problem of the snakes breeding in the wild.

Written testimony handed to the U.S. Congress last week by Andrew Wyatt, president of USARK, presents the analysis of the reptile industry, which he says is not only opposed to releasing the animals into the American wilderness but is promoting ownership accreditation, teaching best practices, and helping to extract alien snakes already established in the wild

Responsible ownership and trade

"USARK represents the highly sophisticated commercial production of captive bred reptiles in the United States. We are a science and education based advocacy for the responsible private ownership of, and trade in reptiles. USARK endorses caging standards, sound husbandry, escape prevention protocols, and an integrated approach to vital conservation issues," Wyatt said in his testimony.

"The health of these animals, public safety, and maintaining ecological integrity are our primary concerns."

"Our goal is to facilitate cooperation between government agencies, the scientific community, and the private sector in order to produce policy proposals that will effectively address important husbandry and conservation issues. The health of these animals, public safety, and maintaining ecological integrity are our primary concerns.

"Over the past 60 years, the practice of keeping reptiles has changed from an obscure hobby to an incredibly widespread and mainstream part of the American experience. Reptiles have become intensely popular and are now present in millions of American households (1 in every 25 U.S. households has 1 or more reptiles). They now permeate pop culture, movies and advertising. Who doesn't know the Geico Gecko?"

U.S.$3 billion industry

From early beginnings in the pet trade, herpetoculture, the practice of breeding reptiles and amphibians, has grown into a sophisticated and independent $3 billion annual industry, Wyatt said.

"Herpetoculturists produce high quality captive bred animals for collectors, research, zoos, museums, TV & film...These animals can be valued at over $100,000 for individual specimens.

"Millions of dollars flow into the national economy from the reptile industry. It is interlaced and interconnected with all levels of economies. Purchases of equipment, dry goods, bedding and cages channel money into U.S. manufacturing.

"Millions of dollars go to support American agriculture with purchases of food, including rodents, grain, bedding, vegetables and prepared diets. Millions of dollars more support airlines and parcel shippers."

The reptile industry in the United States accounts for 82 percent of the worldwide export and trade in high quality captive bred reptiles, Wyatt added. Thousands of American small businesses and their employees depend on
the industry.

Reptile Nation

"Reptiles are an animal interest that have captivated an incredibly diverse cross section of the American demographics; from scientists to school children, Wall Street bankers to construction workers, conservationists, attorneys, teachers, rock stars, actors and even politicians.

"Your friends and neighbors keep reptiles. Some member of your family keeps, or has kept, reptiles. Collectively we refer to this demographic as the Reptile Nation, comprising more than five million Americans. All are intensely interested in protecting their legal rights to possess and work with reptiles."

USARK is concerned about feral Burmese pythons in the Everglades and the impact they could potentially have on the ecosystem of South Florida, Wyatt said. "We recognize the problem and have committed to be part of the solution."

Python removal program

USARK members helped create a python removal program in coordination with Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and were the first to be licensed to remove pythons from state lands in South Florida, Wyatt said.

"USARK has actively appealed to the U.S. Department of the Interior to open up Everglades National Park to a removal program modeled on the Florida program.

"We do not believe captured pythons should be re-released back into the Park for any reason."

USARK has offered $10,000 to United States Fish & Wildlife Service to establish the basis of a program to get pythons out of Florida and into qualified hands that can securely and humanely house them for the rest of their natural lives, Wyatt said.

"The federal government has failed to capitalize on this vast pool of knowledge and experience to most effectively address the issue of feral Burmese pythons in the Everglades National Park and South Florida."

"USARK has great expertise in regards to pythons; how to find them, where to find them, reproductive behaviors, predation, safe secure maintenance in captivity... etc. Unfortunately, in our view, the federal government has failed to capitalize on this vast pool of knowledge and experience to most effectively address the issue of feral Burmese pythons in the Everglades National Park and South Florida."

Beyond the invasiveness of the Burmese python, USARK fears that the issue is becoming "overly politicized and media-driven, thus creating a situation where we've selectively interpreted the available science," Wyatt said.

The issue isn't especially wellknown, and thus it lends itself to misinformation and over-generalizations, he added.

Danger to humans 'grossly overstated'

"The physical danger posed by pythons toward humans has simply been grossly overstated. Even in their native range of Southeast Asia, where human population densities far exceed that of South Florida, deaths attributed to pythons are extremely rare.

"As a general matter, pythons have never posed a real threat to humans. That's not to say, however, they make the best family pet in every case, or that they cannot pose a threat when best handling practices are not followed or existing laws designed to ensure responsible ownership are ignored. Only that they are not the dangerous killers portrayed by activists in the media."

USARK estimates that today there are over four million boas and pythons in captivity in the United States, representing about $1.6 billion in asset value and $1.8 billion in annual revenues. Of these in captivity today, 100,000 are Burmese pythons or African pythons.

USARK will continue to work on shifting the ongoing debate over these species toward policy resolutions based upon complete and solid science, Wyatt said. "The utmost of care should be taken in any attempt to manage the captive and feral populations. If mistakes are made, problems will only be compounded.

"Simply legislating animals onto the Injurious Wildlife List of the Lacey Act will not accomplish HR 2811's stated intent. Rather, it will destroy the most valuable resource capable of effectively managing the millions of animals already here. If you reduce the value of these animals to zero and destroy the livelihoods of those most qualified to deal with the secure disposition of all of these animals, where will that leave us?

"Best management practices and professional standards specific to certain reptiles is what is needed, not draconian measures that will only succeed in destroying a viable industry."

"USARK has been developing and employing best handling practices and accreditation for many years and welcomes a more in-depth discussion in this regard with Congressional and administration officials. It is our belief that best management practices and professional standards specific to certain reptiles is what is needed, not draconian measures that will only succeed in destroying a viable industry.

Captivity as conservation

"Not only is the reptile industry a viable component of the American economy, but we have made an unparalleled contribution to conservation: captive breeding as a conservation safety net. Captivity is now considered an important tool of vertebrate conservation.

"What is today being attempted around the world for amphibians through the International Amphibian Ark, and as
proposed by the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act, and many captivity programs for other rare vertebrates ranging from Sumatran rhinos to Guam kingfishers, has already been accomplished for reptiles. Today the vast majority of boas and pythons held in captivity are captive-bred animals. These are animals that have not been removed from the wild.

"Reptiles are today more securely established in captivity than any other vertebrate group. This is truly one of the greatest conservation accomplishments of the past 20 years.

"Almost all species and subspecies of boas and pythons have been bred in the United States. There are now viable self-sustaining captive populations of several hundred species of reptiles being maintained in the United States. Most pythons and many boa species now exist in captivity as viable ancillary populations.

This has been accomplished through a decentralized, nongovernmental, economically driven model of conservation. It is American private enterprise that has achieved this very impressive modern goal, not a penny of American taxpayer dollars has been spent in this endeavor."

State legislation as model

State-level legislation in place in all but eight U.S. States should be considered by the U.S. Congress, Wyatt said.

"For example, last year legislation was passed in North Carolina with the support of the North Carolina Partners in Amphibian & Reptile Conservation to regulate the ownership and use of large constricting snakes. Similar legislation exists in the states of Texas and Florida.

"These measures ensure that safe, secure, professional best management practices are observed to legally work with these animals. USARK is also currently working in Virginia and South Carolina to introduce similar legislation in 2010.

"These best management practices embodied in existing state legislation could easily be adapted to a national USARK accreditation process insuring uniformity and professionalism across the country."

Climate scientist Stephen H. Schneider could easily say "I told you so," now that data pour in on an almost daily basis to prove what he has been warning about for many years: Greenhouses gases we are pumping into the atmosphere are disrupting Earth's climate, threatening our way of life, if not our survival.

Instead, he remains hopeful that it's not too late to do something about it.

Schneider, along with his colleagues on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore, won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to enlighten the public about human-induced climate change and to inspire action to confront it. The Stanford University climatologist is also a National Geographic Fellow.

In SCIENCE AS A CONTACT SPORT: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate (National Geographic Books; ISBN: 978-1-4262-0540-8; on-sale date Nov. 3, 2009; $28; hardcover), Schneider chronicles the infighting and backroom negotiations, the courage of some and the ignorance and duplicity of others, that have inhibited the world community from implementing solutions sooner to combat the dangers of a warming Earth.

Watch this video interview with Schneider, in which he discusses why it is difficult to follow the raging debate about climate change, where to get reliable information, his hopes for COP15 (the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen from December 7 to 18),and what steps governments and individuals can can take toward positive action.

Professor Schneider's Web site: climatechange.net

Video interview of Stephen Schneider by David Braun

Decades may have been lost and most of the early, dire predictions are happening--sea levels rising; glaciers melting; unprecedented heat waves and wildfires; intensification of hurricanes as they move over warmed oceans; and arctic sea ice rapidly thinning all year long and increasingly disappearing in summer.

Further delay may result in irreversible conditions, including melted ice sheets, redrawn coastlines and species driven to extinction.

Steps toward positive action

But Schneider remains hopeful, offering a realistic prescription for how governments and individuals can take steps toward positive action.

For governments, that means creating energy-efficiency standards for buildings and machines; investing in clean technology research; cap and trade or carbon taxes; geoengineering schemes to try to remove CO2 from the air and help prevent some of the large impacts of climate change; and smart growth planning.

Individuals can avoid unnecessary automobile use; conserve energy at home; buy energy-efficient cars and appliances; eat more local foodstuffs and less imported foods; show up at city council meetings to advocate for a greener town; and support local politicians who stand up for sustainability.

In addition to his collective share of a Nobel Peace Prize, Schneider is winner of a MacArthur "genius grant" and has been an expert adviser to officials in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Obama administrations. He is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, a professor in the Department of Biology, and a Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

National Geographic Books provided a copy of SCIENCE AS A CONTACT SPORT: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate for this entry.

Canada, Mexico, and the United States have become the first countries to agree formally to cooperate on wilderness conservation measures across a continent, Mexico's President Felipe Calderón announced.

NGS photo by Bianca Lavies

"This Agreement will facilitate the sharing of successful experiences, monitoring, and training of human resources, as well as the financing of projects that will protect and recover wild areas," President Calderón said.

The MOU provisions address ecosystems, migratory wildlife, and natural resources that do not start and end with geographical boundaries, the organizers of the WILD9 conference reported in a statement. "This MOU also encourages cooperative efforts to conduct and share scientific research."

Signed in the three national languages of English, Spanish and French, the agreement is cross-cultural, and respects native approaches to conserving wild nature, accommodation for indigenous customs, priorities for species survival, and national environmental policy, the statement added.

Seven agencies responsible for wilderness management signed the MOU: the Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources through the National Commission on Protected Areas (CONANP) of the United Mexican States; the Parks Canada agency of the Government of Canada; the National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of Interior, and the Forest Service and Office of Ecosystem Services and Markets of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Map by NG Maps

The MOU process was facilitated by the WILD9 executive committee and is the result of 18 months of work by the North American Governmental Advisory Committee chaired by Ernesto Enkerlin-Hoeflich, National Commissioner, CONANP, in Mexico.

"Mexican legislation currently allows for incorporating the concept of wilderness in our protected area operations and private lands certification," Enkerlin-Hoeflich said. "We are close to having it formally incorporated into environmental law. This MOU builds on our tradition of trilateral cooperation. It will greatly benefit Mexico as it shares and learns from the Canadian and U.S. experiences such that wilderness conservation, while respecting each country's institutions and regulations, works seamlessly in North America.

The National Geographic Society is a sponsor of WILD9.

Can we eat our way to a better future for the planet's climate? Only if we become more responsible farmers.

The twin battles to improve food security for a growing world population and contain climate change can be fought on the same front--the world's farmland, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said today.

"Agriculture not only suffers the impacts of climate change, it is also responsible for 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But agriculture has the potential to be an important part of the solution, through mitigation--reducing and/or removing--a significant amount of global emissions," FAO said in a statement.

NGS photo of farming in Ethiopia by James P. Blair

Some 70 percent of this mitigation potential could be realized in developing countries, the agency believes.

"Many effective strategies for climate change mitigation from agriculture also benefit food security, development and adaptation to climate change," said FAO assistant director-general Alexander Müller. "The challenge is to capture these potential synergies, while managing trade-offs that may have negative impacts on food security."

The FAO released its report, Food Security and Agricultural Mitigation in Developing Countries: Options for Capturing Synergies, during the Barcelona Climate Change Talks this week.

Scientists have warned that if carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continue to rise because of human activities the planet's climate could change drastically, setting off intense warming, droughts, flooding and rising sea levels.

NGS photo of farming in South Africa by Kip Ross

One of the options that could be part of the climate change mitigation is climate-smart farming.

The most important technical options for climate change mitigation from agriculture are improvements in cropland and grazing land management and the restoration of organic soils and degraded lands, FAO said today.

"Nearly 90 percent of the technical mitigation potential of agriculture comes from soil carbon sequestration. These options involve increasing the levels of organic matter, of which carbon is the main component, in soil. This can translate into better plant nutrient content, increased water retention capacity and better structure, eventually leading to higher yields and greater resilience."

Agricultural mitigation options that sequester carbon can include:

• low tillage
• utilizing residues for composting or mulching
• use of perennial crops to cover soil
• re-seeding or improving grazing management on grasslands.

Other options involve difficult trade-offs, FAO noted, with benefits for mitigation but potentially negative consequences for food security and development. "In some cases, there are synergies in the long-run, but trade-offs in the short-run."

NGS photo of farm in Virginia, U.S., by Anne Francis Revis

"Biofuel production provides a clean alternative to fossil fuel but can compete for land and water resources needed for food production. Restoration of organic soils enables greater carbon sequestration, but may reduce the land available for food production. Rangeland restoration may improve carbon sequestration but involves short-term reductions in herder incomes by limiting the number of livestock."

Some trade-offs can be managed through measures to increase efficiency or through payment of incentives or compensation, the report says. "Many of the technical mitigation options are readily available and could be deployed immediately. But while these actions often generate a net positive benefit over time, they involve significant up-front costs."

Other barriers, such as uncertain property rights, lack of information and technical assistance or access to appropriate seeds and fertilizer, also need to be overcome. "Linking to ongoing agricultural development efforts that address these same issues is one cost effective way of doing this," said Kostas Stamoulis, director of the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Division.

NGS photo of citrus farm in Japan by James L. Stanfield

The report outlines possible design features for financing mechanisms that could help unlock agriculture's potential benefits for climate change mitigation, food security and agricultural development.

"A range of financing options---public, public-private and carbon markets--are currently under negotiation for climate change mitigation actions in developing countries. These could be future sources of finance for agricultural mitigation actions, the report says, as could a dedicated international fund to support agricultural mitigation in developing countries and coordination with financing from official development assistance for agricultural development."

NGS photo of rice farming in China by James P. Blair

Despite its significant potential, agricultural mitigation has remained relatively marginal within the climate change negotiations. FAO said.

"To capture the multiple benefits of agriculture. the report recommends a work programme on agricultural mitigation within the UNFCCC Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice to help address methodological issues related to implementation. It also proposes country-led piloting of action and field testing, using a phased approach linked to national capabilities and supported by capacity building and financial/technology transfers."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Resolution today that condemns the unchecked illegal logging and decimation of Madagascar's endemic species, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), author of the resolution, said in a statement published on his Web site.

"The House is sending a firm signal that the devastating and illegal destruction of Madagascar's natural resources will not be tolerated," Blumenauer said. "Illegal logging not only does irreparable harm to the environment, but it destroys livelihoods.

"In Oregon and across the United States, at a time when we are working to recover the economy, illegal timber imports undermine legitimate logging operations.

"While Madagascar's de facto government continues to use its endangered resources to boost its regime, Congress today joined the administration in calling for an immediate end to these practices."

The Resolution responds to growing anxiety in the international conservation community that the continued plundering of Madagascar's few protected forests, for valuable rosewood and other timber, and with it the destruction of habitat vital for the survival of lemurs and numerous other rare species, has inflicted irreparable damage on the African island country's environment.

Satellite image courtesy NASA

Much of the California-size island has been eroded because of deforestation for farming. Most of the country's twenty million people are poor. Conservation projects such as national parks that would showcase Madagascar's abundance of endemic species were supposed to provide drawcards for tourists and researchers, creating income and work to kick-start local economies. But much of that is at risk because of recent political instability and the destruction of the forests.

There is also concern that what's been happening in Madagascar exacerbates the problem of worldwide illegal logging, which costs countries U.S.$10 billion-15 billion each year in lost revenues for legitimate lumber industries.

"Madagascar is home to almost 150,000 species of flora and fauna. The illegal extraction of these resources threatens biodiversity as well as legitimate logging operations in the U.S.--up to $460 million lost in export opportunities every year," Blumenauer said.

"After a coup in March, the new and weakened government of Andry Rajoelina issued sweeping decrees allowing the harvest and export of wood from protected forests and World Heritage Sites. The Obama administration has condemned the de facto government, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and Conservation International have denounced the wholesale exploitation of some of the world's most diverse forests and decimation of the local population's resources and livelihoods. These groups have strongly endorsed Blumenauer's resolution," the Congressman's statement said.

NGS photo by Luis Marden

The House voted 409-5 to join the administration and environmental groups in speaking out against the devastation occurring in Madagascar. The Resolution was co-sponsored by 49 members, representing both Democrats and Republicans and including Congressman Donald Payne (D-New Jersey), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health on the Committee for Foreign Affairs, and Congressman Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and the Global Environment.

Author of the Legal Timber Protection Act, Blumenauer is a global leader on the issue of illegal logging, his Web site states. The law, signed in May 2008, bans the import of illegally harvested timber and wood products and empowers regulators to keep illegally harvested timber out of the U.S.

NGS photo by Luis Marden

Commenting on today's House resolution, John Calvelli, Wildlife Conservation Society Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, said, "The situation in Madagascar is nothing short of tragic--not only for the people and wildlife of Madagascar, but for the entire planet. I applaud Congressman Blumenauer for his continued leadership in the United States Congress on the issue of illegal logging. This resolution will serve as a clear message to the current Malagasy government that the illegal harvesting of Madagascar's natural resources is unacceptable."

Said Lisa Steel, Deputy Director for Madagascar at WWF, "The loss of Madagascar's spectacular biodiversity would not only be a global tragedy, but it will further impoverish rural communities whose lives are inextricably tied to the health of their natural environments. While Madagascar is under the rule of a weakened government, it is essential that the international community work to stop the harvest and trade of illegal wood and other protected species, and we appreciate this important first step by Congressman Blumenauer."

"Congressman Blumenauer continues to play a leadership role in the global problem of illegal logging and the responsibility of consumer nations like the U.S. to support the fight against it, through policies like the Lacey Act and this resolution," said Alexander von Bismarck, executive director of the Environmental Investigation Agency, which conducted a mission to Madagascar in August 2009 to evaluate the illegal logging situation.

Full text of the Resolution passed by the U.S. House of Representatives today:

H. RES. 839
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA) submitted
the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

RESOLUTION
Condemning the illegal extraction of Madagascar's natural
resources.

Whereas Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island, and
home to up to 150,000 species of unique flora and fauna;

Whereas during the last 20 years, with the support of the
U.S. Government and others, Madagascar has made substantial
progress in stopping environmental degradation,
effectively managing natural resources and preserving its
unique biodiversity;

Whereas these natural resources provide essential benefits
and services for the basic needs of the majority of
Madagascar's people, three-quarters of whom live in rural
areas and two-thirds of whom live on less than $2 per
day;

Whereas these natural resources also provide economic development
in the tourism sector, drawing an estimated
$390,000,000 per year;

Whereas the Obama Administration has condemned Marc
Ravalomanana's forced resignation as President of the
Republic of Madagascar, and Andry Rajoelina's installation
as de facto head of state, as tantamount to a coup
d'etat, undemocratic, and contrary to the rule of law;

Whereas in March 2009, the Obama Administration announced
a suspension of non-humanitarian assistance to
the de facto Andry Rajoelina government;

Whereas, given that 2⁄3 of people live off the natural resources,
decreased assistance for conservation efforts is
having dire humanitarian consequences;

Whereas the African Union and the Southern African Development
Community have suspended Madagascar's participation
until constitutional order is restored;

Whereas in October 2009, the World Wide Fund (WWF),
Conservation International, and the Wildlife Conservation
Society condemned an interministerial order issued by the
current administration granting sweeping authorization
to export raw and semi-processed hard wood as
''legaliz[ing] the sale of illegally cut and collected wood
onto the market; allow[ing] for the potential embezzlement
of funds in the name of environmental protection
and constitut[ing] a legal incentive for further corruption
in the forestry sector'';

Whereas the following natural resource degradation is occurring
under the de facto government's watch--

(1) open and organized plundering of precious wood
from natural forests, including World Heritage Sites such
as Marojejy and Masoala National Parks;

(2) intimidation and menace of legitimate local community
management structures, and expropriation of revenue
and benefits from them, causing suffering and impoverishment;

(3) intensified smuggling of endemic and protected
species and species parts and/or products to the national
and international markets;

(4) proliferation of destructive practices such as illegal
mining and slash-and-burn agriculture within protected
areas and environmentally sensitive areas;

(5) degradation of forests, pushing some rosewood
and ebony species to the brink of extinction; and

(6) the degradation of the resource base upon which
rural communities depend representing an immediate and
future threat to local governance, local incomes, and food
security; and

Whereas the vast majority of this precious wood is destined
for global export markets: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) calls on people of Madagascar to immediately
undertake a democratic, consensual process
to restore constitutional governance, culminating in
free, fair and peaceful elections;

(2) strongly condemns the illegal extraction of
Madagascar's natural resources and its impact on
biodiversity and livelihoods of rural communities,
including illegal logging, smuggling of wild species,
and illegal mining;

(3) supports action by competent authorities
and the people of Madagascar to stop this illegal
devastation and bring those perpetrating these
crimes to justice;

(4) calls upon importing countries to intensify
their inspection and monitoring processes to ensure
that they do not contribute to the demand for ille10
gally sourced precious woods from Madagascar; and

(5) calls upon consumers of rosewood and
ebony products to check their origin, and boycott
those made of Malagasy wood, until constitutional
order is restored.

 

You might also be interested in:

The call to boycott Madagascar's rosewood and ebony explained
Conservation biologist Stuart Pimm writes about his observations of the diversity in Madagascar and how the current pillaging of the country's natural heritage threatens not only to destroy decades of conservation work, but also ruin the one chance that communities adjacent to national parks have to escape poverty.

Conservationists Call on Malagasy People to Stop Forest Plunder
Eleven groups that fund and help manage conservation of Madagascar's remaining wilderness heritage issued a joint statement deploring the invasion by armed looters of national parks and forests, illegal timber extraction, illegal mining, and intensified smuggling of endangered species.

Act Aggressively to Curb Illegal Logging, Madagascar Urged
Madagascar's efforts to curtail illegal logging in the World Heritage Sites of Masoala and Marojejy National Parks and their peripheral zones have not reduced the impact of logging in the immediate term, say governments, international agencies, and conservation groups that support conservation of the country's natural heritage.

Lemurs, Rare Forests Threatened by Madagascar Strife
Looters are invading Madagascar's protected wildlife sanctuaries, harvesting trees and threatening critically endangered lemurs and other species. (March 2009)

 

Explore evolution in a way Charles Darwin couldn't imagine--by delving into the DNA evidence of each species' unique evolutionary journey.

Geneticist and author Sean B. Carroll will explain how DNA holds a living record of the evolutionary adaptations that allow species to evolve and thrive in diverse environments all over the Earth.

By Brian Handwerk,
Special contributor to NatGeo News Watch

The story of evolution is written in our genes. But that story isn't merely the "survival of the fittest," it's also a story about how the fittest are made.

"It's a look at evolution at its most fundamental level, the genetic changes that make individuals and species different. Species change because of changes in their DNA," said University of Wisconsin geneticist Sean B. Carroll.

Sean B. Carroll is the author of The Making of the Fittest (2006, W.W. Norton) and of Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo (2005, W.W. Norton).

His book, The Making of the Fittest, describes how scientists have learned to pinpoint the specific genetic changes that cause evolutionary adaptations. DNA evidence records the many gene shifts that gave rise to incredible species like fish able to live in sub-freezing waters, or birds that see in ultraviolet light, as well as others no less incredible but more familiar--including ourselves.

Carroll will take listeners inside the gene, and celebrate the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, in a lecture, "The Making of the Fittest," delivered Wednesday, November 4 (8 p.m. ET) at the University of Wisconsin and live to the Web audience around the world.

Listen to the Lecture >>

Drinking out of the firehose

The past decade has seen the discovery of a massive new record of evolution, locked in the DNA of species both living and extinct. Geneticists working with this material are learning to pinpoint the specific DNA changes that have enabled species to adapt to wherever they may live on the planet

In fact, in recent years DNA studies have begun to produce so much evidence that Carroll calls the analysis "drinking out of the firehose." The amount of information contained in the genes of a particular creature is simply enormous.

"All the sets of changes that have occurred that make it different from its existing relatives or previous species [are in evidence]," he explained. "Which ones account for changes in form, physiology, behavior--it's just a massive amount of information."

Evolution itself only moves forward, but evidence of the process may be traced in either direction.

"Information in DNA can tell us how current species are different from their ancestors, not just in new information that's gained but also in old information that's lost or decayed--fossil genes," Carroll said. "Those broken pieces of genetic information give a hint as to how these species' ancestors lived."

The record not only shows when successful adaptations occurred. It also evidences what kinds of genes, slowly decaying through the generations, are no longer important to species but were once vital to their ancestors.

"For example a lot of our human genes for detecting odors are in the process of decay, whereas they are intact in animals like mice that are still living by their noses. A shift in our lifestyle made us probably more dependent on vision and has relaxed pressure on our olfactory system. The evidence of that is right here in the DNA."

Darwin's Mystery Solved

Carroll adds that the evolutionary study of DNA is replete with surprises, like finding the same type of adaptations happening again and again, in different species, in different parts of the world, at different times. In that case the DNA record shows that different animals came up with the same genetic solution to the same survival problems.

"There is nothing like repetition to drill home the message, and that's what biology has conveniently [provided]," he said.

Charles Darwin himself, of course, couldn't pursue his theories into the study of DNA. The science simply didn't exist. But the father of evolution understood that the mechanism of heredity was essential, though he didn't know exactly how traits were inherited at the most basic level.

"He knew in time that if we understood heredity we'd understand variation," Carroll said.

Darwin Live on the Web

"The Making of the Fittest" is the third of a free Webcast lecture series in which some of the world's top scientific minds tackle evolutionary topics.

Later speakers will include E.O. Wilson on the future frontiers of evolutionary biology (November 24).

The first lecture, Everett Mendelsohn on The World Before Darwin, is archived here.

The second lecture, Jonathan Weiner' On Variation, can be heard here.

The series was organized by a group of volunteer Darwin devotees who also hope to rally 1,000,000 users to a Facebook group (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53320310123) celebrating this year's 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.

Darwin Facebook campaign:

Darwin Devotees Make "Father of Evolution" Facebook Superstar
Hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life joined a Facebook group devoted to the celebration of this year's 200th anniversary of the birth of the "Father of Evolution," Charles Darwin. Now the organizers of the Facebook group are hoping hundreds of thousands more will sign up to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Darwin's famous book, On the Origin of Species.

The World Before Darwin
Travel back in time to visit "The World Before Darwin," courtesy of a free webcast lecture with Everett Mendelsohn, emeritus professor at Harvard University. (See the lecture here.) Mendelsohn explored the milieu in which Darwin published "On the Origin of Species" 150 years ago, reveal its other evolutionary thinkers, and shed light on skeptics from the worlds of religion and science.

Darwin on Variation
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Columbia University professor Jonathan Weiner delved into Darwin's evolutionary theories in the webcast lecture "On Variation." (Hear the podcast here.) Weiner tracked Darwin's footsteps to reveal how the Father of Evolution deduced that many species are descended from common ancestors, and that the variation among them evidences their evolutionary journeys of natural selection.

Darwin resources:

Darwin's First Clues (National Geographic Magazine)

Was Darwin Wrong? (National Geographic Magazine)

PHOTOS: 7 Major "Missing Links" Since Darwin (National Geographic News)

"Instant" Evolution Seen in Darwin's Finches, Study Says (National Geographic News)

Darwin's Secret Notebooks (National Geographic Channel)

PHOTOS: How Do Species Evolve? (National Geographic News)

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

Darwin Correspondence Project

Darwin Digital Library of Evolution

The Charles Darwin Trust

Researchers have found a migration route of pronghorn antelope that ranks among the farthest for any land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Idaho-based Lava Lake Institute for Science and Conservation, said in a news statement.

The route stretches from the base of Idaho's Pioneers Mountains to the continental divide's Beaverhead Mountains, passing through Craters of the Moon National Monument and Reserve--a round trip of more than 160 miles.

"The route crosses federal, state, and private land and narrows in one stretch to a bottleneck less than two football fields wide.

Migration map courtesy of WCS

There, animals are restricted by mountains, fences, a highway, and fields of jagged lava from Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve," WCS said.

The discovery is part of an ongoing study to track pronghorn using GPS and radio collars. Investigators include Scott Bergen of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Tess O'Sullivan of the Lava Lake Institute of Science and Conservation, and Mark Hurley of Idaho Fish and Game.

"This study shows that pronghorn are the true marathoners of the American West," said Scott Bergen, project director for WCS. "With these new findings, we can confirm that Idaho supports a major overland mammal migration--something that is becoming increasingly rare in the U.S. and worldwide."

NGS photo of pronghorn by Sam Abell

To establish the newly discovered migration route, the researchers tracked the pronghorn's daily movements during their annual migration. They estimate 100-200 pronghorn currently use the migration route. During the winter, the pronghorn congregate with other regional herds from the area, making it Idaho's largest pronghorn herd of around one thousand animals, WCS said.

"Growing interest in development of large-scale wind farms and their associated power lines could threaten the migration route."

The newly discovered route is threatened by increased habitat fragmentation from development and other land-use changes, the researchers said. "Growing interest in development of large-scale wind farms and their associated power lines could threaten the migration route."

Both sexes sport impressive, backward-curving horns. The horns split to form forward-pointing prongs that give the species its name.

NGS photo by Bates Littlehales

As the American West continues to face increased development pressure, preserving migratory corridors will become more and more crucial to safeguarding large populations of wildlife like pronghorn, said Jodi Hilty, director of North America Programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society, and author of the book Corridor Ecology. "We have lost so many migrations globally, that these sorts of finds should inspire more of us to help give this uniquely American species a chance to roam in Idaho and throughout its range."

"Recently the Governors of Idaho and Montana signed agreements with the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, and Energy to improve management on federal lands where pronghorn migrate. In addition, Congress has recognized the value of wildlife migrations corridors as a strategy for adapting to global warming in pending climate change legislation."

Watch this National Geographic Wild Chronicles video "Epic migration seen 'through eyes'of' antelope". It covers the work of National Geographic grantee Joe Riis, a wildlife photojournalist and biologist who was the first to document an entire pronghorn migration on foot.

In a separate project in 2005, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists used GPS collars to document another migratory herd of pronghorn in Wyoming that travel from Grand Teton National Park to the Green River Valley. "With the leadership of the U.S. Forest Service, the nation's first designated wildlife migration corridor to protect 150-mile round-trip movement of pronghorn in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem was created. It has since been safeguarded in a unique public/private partnership called 'Path of the Pronghorn,'" WCS said.

The project which led to the discovery of the new migration route is being supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society, Lava Lake Institute for Science and Conservation, Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Idaho Conservation League, LightHawk Aviation, National Park Foundation, the National Park Service, The Conservation Fund, Wood River Land Trust, Carey area landowners and ranchers, The Nature Conservancy, and the Craters of the Moon Natural History Association.

National Geographic Channel will premiere an epic series about animal migrations in Fall 2010.

Related National Geographic News stories:

Rallying to Protect US Antelope Migration Route

Photos: Epic Migration Seen "Through Eyes of" Antelope