Wild Nature Institute
  • Science
    • Giraffe
    • TUNGO
    • Spotted Owl
  • Education
    • Environmental Education
    • Snag Forest
    • Forest Fire Truths
  • Action
    • Save The Giraffe
    • Corridor Campaign
    • Snag Forest
    • Forests For Everyone
  • Donate
    • Ways To Give
    • Purchase NFT
    • Adopt A Baby Giraffe
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Monica
    • Derek
    • James
    • Veila
    • Our International Team
    • Our Tanzanian Partners
Updates From the Field and News From Wild Nature

Environmental Education in Tanzania

9/29/2016

0 Comments

 
Wild Nature Institute is excited to be rolling out our new giraffe-themed environmental education materials here in Tanzania.  We are distributing a Swahili-English version of our Juma the Giraffe children’s book, a beautiful poster about giraffe physiology (made by David Brown and Chris Barela), an activity book in Swahili (made by Megan Strauss), and more copies of The Amazing Migration of Lucky the Wildebeest books.  Several schools have been using the materials, including the Burunge, Mbwiba and Maswa areas.  Thank you to PAMS Foundation and Friedkin Conservation Fund for distributing the materials to these areas, and for these wonderful photos.
Children reading giraffe-themed education materials_Wild Nature Institute
Boys reading Juma the Giraffe
Children read giraffe-themed education materials_Wild Nature Institute
Girls reading Juma the Giraffe
Children learn about wildebeest migration_Wild Nature Institute
Boys reading The Amazing Migration of Lucky the Wildebeest
We also thanked Oliver’s and Little Oliver’s camps in Tarangire National Park for providing long-term logistical support for our giraffe work, by giving Juma the Giraffe to all 42 of their Tanzanian staff members!  They can take the books back to their families and communities throughout the country to share the message.  Thank you to Asilia Africa, especially Oliver's and Little Oliver's camps.
Nature Guides Juma The Giraffe_Wild Nature Institute
Olivia and Monica with Little Oliver's staff and their Juma books!
Nature Guides with Juma the Giraffe_Wild Nature Institute
Nature Guides with Juma the Giraffe_Wild Nature Institute
Monica and Derek with nature guides from Little Oliver's Camp in Tarangire National Park
0 Comments

Spotted Owls Continue to Teach Us About What a Forest Is

9/28/2016

0 Comments

 
By: Dominick DellaSala
Original Post at Elsevier SciTech Connect on September 26, 2016

As a newly minted biologist in the 1980s, I cut my intellectual teeth capturing spotted owls for radio telemetry studies and investigating owl prey needs in dense temperate rainforests of the HJ Andrews Experimental Station just east of Eugene, Oregon. At the time, the owl was considered the quintessential canary in the coal-mine. Widespread destruction of its old-growth haunts led to unprecedented reforms in forest management across nearly 25 million acres of federal lands within its northern range.

We learned this – as goes the spotted owl, so too does a larger community of mature forest specialists and the prodigious ecosystem benefits that these forests provide. That remains the case today but we know more about owl biology, the most intensively studied threatened raptor in the world, because of painstaking investigative work of biologists like Monica Bond. Bond recently synthesized new field data in several locations revealing that spotted owls actually use burned forests and are not harmed by fire.

There are three subspecies of spotted owls that range from temperate rainforests of southern British Columbia (although nearly extinct there) and the Pacific Northwest to dry forests along the eastern Cascade Crest, Sierra-Nevada, southwest, and Mexico. That’s a lot of forest area to cover.  As one traverses the expansiveness of the drier forests, the chance of encountering a wildfire increases dramatically.

In a Darwinian sense, specialists win when habitat remains fairly constant as in rainforests where fire is the exception. But this flips in dynamic systems – being flexible (or adaptable) wins where fire is the rule. As it turns out, spotted owls can do both, otherwise how could they have existed over such a wide range?

Picture of Female owl in burn. Photo by Rachel Fazio
Female owl in burn. Photo by Rachel Fazio
Think kitchen and bedroom.

Large fires in dry forests produce mixed effects on vegetation along a fire severity continuum:  Some areas untouched (fire refugia) or lightly burned (low severity), others torched (high severity), and most in between the extremes (moderate severity). In nature, variety is the spice of life and mixed-severity fires are nature’s architects of “pyrodiversity,” which, in turn, begets biodiversity.

A resilient owl sees the forest for more than just the green trees. Fire-free areas with big trees still provide the familiar bedroom environment; nearby, scorched areas with standing dead perch trees, fallen logs, newly established shrubs, and scores of seedlings become fully stocked with recolonizing small mammals, especially gophers, a preferred food item in burned landscapes.

After a fire, owls may shift their territories around, as Bond discovered, to take advantage of newly created foraging “hot spots” while continuing to roost and nest nearby. But this kitchen-bedroom juxtaposition works only if owl territories are not logged after fire. Logging repossesses the bedroom furniture and turns the kitchen into a wasteland. As Bond’s research aptly notes, it is often difficult to separate cause from effect when owl sites are abandoned after fire since logging is the raison d’etre of the Forest Service in post-fire areas. Unlogged, productive nest sites are almost never vacated if burned foraging habitat is left standing.But the spotted owl continues to amaze. Just when biologists think they had it all figured out as to what constitutes a “forest” for owls, we have to recalibrate our ecological understandings. As it turns out, both blackened and green forests are equally valuable to owls and have intrinsic beauty for those that can see the forest the way the owl does.

The owl’s true nature remains old-growth dependent in relatively fire-free wet areas but is more of a mixed bag in dry forests as this raptor is just one of the many occupants of nature’s fire “phoenix.” Mixed-severity fires will continue to replenish habitat for all species – fire colonizers/fire avoiders – along the post-fire continuum, if we let them.

Climate change could upset this push-pull between burned and unburned periods by making fires more intense or frequent, and possibly both in places. But logging forests to prevent fires or save owls from climate change induced fires, as often proposed, will do neither. Logging to reduce flammable vegetation is known to degrade owl prey habitat and can lead to more intense fires if logging slash is left on site. It also typically produces more emissions than the largest forest fires given that for logging to influence fire behavior, which is not even possible in extreme-fire weather, huge swaths of forests need to be cleared, leading to expansive damages and substantial emissions.

If there is one thing that I have learned over the years is that nature is full of surprises, paradigms are for smashing by investigative biologists like Monica Bond, and always, always, get out in the field. Check your perceptions and pre-conceived notions at the door or test them as hypotheses to be refuted. That’s the power of investigative science.

To learn more read Monica Bond’s article The Heat Is On: Spotted Owls and Wildfire recently published in the Reference Module in Earth and Environmental Sciences. Hosted on ScienceDirect, the Reference Module combines thousands of comprehensive and encyclopedic articles into one interdisciplinary database. Every Month the content is reviewed, updated and new articles are commissioned where needed to ensure the latest developments and discoveries are included. Achieve more with this empowering resource, learn more here.

About the Author

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala is President and Chief Scientist of the Geos Institute (www.geosinstitute.org) in Ashland, Oregon and was President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section (http://www.conbio.org) from 2008-2014.  He is an internationally renowned author of over 200 technical papers on forest and fire ecology, conservation biology, endangered species management, and landscape ecology. Dominick has given plenary and keynote talks ranging from academic conferences to the United Nations Earth Summit.
He has appeared in National Geographic, Science Digest, Science Magazine, Scientific American, Time Magazine, Audubon Magazine, National Wildlife Magazine, High Country News, Terrain Magazine, NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, MSNBC, “Living on Earth (NPR),” several PBS documentaries and even Fox News! Dominick is currently on Oregon’s Global Warming Commission Subcommittee on Forest Carbon and is Editor of numerous scientific journals and publications.

His book Temperate and Boreal Rainforests of the World: Ecology and Conservation received an academic excellence award in 2012 from Choice magazine, one of the nation’s premier book review journals. His recent co-authored book– The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix – presents groundbreaking science on the ecological importance of large fires. Dominick co-founded the Geos Institute in July 2006. He is motivated by his work to leave a living planet for his daughter and all those that follow.

Monica Bond's New Paper Summarizing the Science of Spotted Owls and Fire is Available Free Open Access Through October 2016

Download Monica Bond's Spotted Owl and Fire Summary
0 Comments

Giraffes Are More Than One Species

9/8/2016

0 Comments

 
The release of a new study today suggesting there are four species of giraffes is the latest piece of scientific evidence indicating giraffes belong to more than one species. Fennessy et al. (2016) sampled natural giraffe populations from across their range in Africa and performed genetic analyses that indicated four species should be recognized. Previous work by Brown et al. (2007) did similar analyses and suggested six species for giraffes, although there was evidence for more or fewer species within the data (see figure below). The genetic definition of species does not yet have a universal criteria, but work in coalescent species delimitation shows promise, and additional data will surely refine the species structure for giraffes and other organisms. Whatever the final number of giraffe species, the fact that giraffes as a whole are declining, with some populations numbering only in the hundreds of individuals, should ring alarm bells around the world and inspire action to conserve the world's tallest animal. There are likely more surprises hidden in the genome of giraffes, and we are also still learning about wild giraffe population biology and ecology. All these knowledge products are necessary to conserve giraffes, and Wild Nature Institute is proud of our partners and peers in the field and throughout the conservation community who are working to save the giraffes.
Genetic subdivision among giraffe groups and populations from Brown et al. (2007). The four species proposed by Fennessy et al. (2016) correspond to k=4 in this figure (with the addition of Nubian giraffes to the blue cluster). Wild Nature Institute Blog
Genetic subdivision among giraffe groups and populations from Brown et al. (2007). The four species proposed by Fennessy et al. (2016) correspond to k=4 in this figure (with the addition of Nubian giraffes to the blue cluster).
0 Comments
    Science News and Updates From the Field from Wild Nature Institute.

    Follow @WildNatureInst

    RSS Feed


    If You Love Us,
    Make A Donation!

    All Photos on This Blog are Available as Frame-worthy Prints to Thank Our Generous Donors.
    Email Us for Details of this Offer.

    Archives

    January 2023
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    January 2011

Home
About Us
Monica Bond
Derek Lee
James Madeli
Our Tanzanian Partners
Our International Team
Juma The Giraffe
Celebrating Africa's Giants

Science
   Giraffe
   TUNGO
   Spotted Owl
Education
   Environmental Education
   Snag Forest
   Forest Fire Truths

   Sinema Leo Video Children's Books
Action
   Save The Giraffe
   Corridor Campaign
   Snag Forests
   Forests For Everyone
Donate
   Ways To Give
   Purchase NFT
   Adopt A Baby Giraffe


Wild Nature Institute Logo
Mailing Address:
Wild Nature Institute
PO Box 44
Weaverville, NC 28787

Phone: +1 415 763 0348
Email: info@wildnatureinstitute.org

The Wild Nature Institute is a New Hampshire non-profit corporation and a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.
© Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.
View Wild Nature Institute's Privacy Policy
  • Science
    • Giraffe
    • TUNGO
    • Spotted Owl
  • Education
    • Environmental Education
    • Snag Forest
    • Forest Fire Truths
  • Action
    • Save The Giraffe
    • Corridor Campaign
    • Snag Forest
    • Forests For Everyone
  • Donate
    • Ways To Give
    • Purchase NFT
    • Adopt A Baby Giraffe
  • Blog
  • About Us
    • Monica
    • Derek
    • James
    • Veila
    • Our International Team
    • Our Tanzanian Partners