Posted on behalf of Hannah Hoag.

Populations of swallows, swifts and nightjars have dropped by almost 85% since the 1970s.{credit}Nick Saunders{/credit}

Almost half of Canada’s bird species are in a downward slide. Overall, Canadian breeding bird populations have dropped 12% since the 1970s, according to a report released today. The State of Canada’s Birds 2012 is the first comprehensive summary of the health of bird populations across Canada. The report carries both good and bad news, with some populations rebounding after devastating slumps and others continuing on a steep downward trajectory. It also stresses how what goes on in one country affects bird populations in others.

“We need to find ways to do better because right now we are in the process of losing species. It takes a big investment to recover a species and in a difficult economic time it will be very difficult to find these sorts of resources,” says Ted Cheskey, the manager of the bird conservation programme at Nature Canada, a not-for-profit conservation organization in Ottawa, Ontario, that contributed to the report.

Aerial insectivores, such as barn swallows (pictured), have been hit the hardest. Their numbers are now less than 40% of what they were in the 1970s, with 22 of the 26 species that breed in Canada in decline. The causes aren’t entirely known, but because their sole food source comes from flying insects,  pesticides, other contaminants or shifts in insect population peaks due to climate change may be at the root. “Perhaps these birds are out of synch with the insect populations and they are having trouble feeding their young,” says Dick Cannings, a scientist at Bird Studies Canada in Port Rowan, Ontario, who contributed to the report. Continue reading →

Posted on behalf of Henry Nicholls.

Lonesome George has died, at the age of around 100.{credit}RODRIGO BUENDIA/AFP/Getty Images{/credit}

Lonesome George is dead. The celebrity Galapagos giant tortoise, widely known as the world’s rarest creature, passed away unexpectedly on Sunday in Puerto Ayora, the largest town in Galapagos on the central island of Santa Cruz.

George, who is thought to have been around 100 years old, was discovered in 1971 by a Hungarian-born snail biologist working alone on the uninhabited northerly island of Pinta. Until then, conservationists had assumed his subspecies was extinct, owing to centuries of exploitation by hungry pirates and whalers. When the Galapagos National Park (GNP) captured him and shipped him to Santa Cruz the following year, it was hoped that Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni might be coaxed back from the brink of extinction.

But in spite of further searches on Pinta and in zoos around the world, the GNP never found another of his kind. In the 1990s, two female tortoises from a different island — Wolf volcano on Isabela — joined George in his enclosure at the Charles Darwin Research Station in Puerto Ayora, but George remained aloof. He showed no more interest in females of the more closely related Espanola variety introduced to him in 2009.

As his popularity grew among the boatloads of tourists turning up in Galapagos in ever-increasing numbers, he became a conservation icon, a reptilian poster boy for the Galapagos conservation effort.

His lack of sexual prowess also made George a figure of considerable fun, but as the most famous Galapagos resident — human or otherwise — he remained a quiet but powerful ambassador for the islands and for endangered species everywhere.

Lonesome George’s untimely death has deprived Galapagos of another of its irreplaceable species. The Islands have also lost an animal with whom a meeting was, for many visitors, a revelation. The human impact on Galapagos has been profound, and nothing could communicate this as effectively as this singular tortoise.

Posted on behalf of Jane Qiu.

{credit}Xinhua/Photoshot{/credit}

A week after China made history by sending astronauts to its space station, the country has celebrated another success in proving its technological prowess.

At 11 a.m. local time on Sunday, the country’s manned submersible Jiaolong successfully completed its deepest test dive yet, to 7,020 metres in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, reports China Daily.

China now joins an exclusive club of countries that are capable of achieving human access to the deep sea. The other countries are the United States, Russia, France and Japan. The achievement will allow China to explore more than 99.8% of the ocean floor, Liu Cigui, director China’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA), told the media.

“Jiaolong’s 7,020-metre dive is a remarkable milestone achievement,” says Jian Lin, a marine geophysicist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “It symbolizes China’s increasing leadership in scientific exploration of the deep ocean.”

Jiaolong, named after a mythical sea dragon, is about eight metres long and weighs nearly 22 tonnes, with a crew of three. The construction of the vessel, spearheaded by SOA and the science ministry, began in 2002.

Yesterday’s dive was the fourth of six that Jiaolong is scheduled to undertake in the current expedition. During the 11-hour dive, the scientists aboard Jiaolong conducted geological surveys, took photographs and video footage and collected water, rock, sediment and animal samples.

The depth that Jiaolong reached is not the deepest place humans have ever been. But it is the deepest point achieved by any scientifically designed manned submersible. The previous record holder was Japan’s Shinkai, which can dive to a depth of 6,500 metres.

The submersible’s three-person crew can allow for a range of sophisticated scientific activities such as observations, collecting biological and geological samples, deploying instruments, and conducting experiments, says Lin.

“Jiaolong’s deep-diving capability will lead to exciting scientific discoveries in the coming years,” says Lin.