"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
There’s news from South Korea of a rare Asiatic black bear having been spotted in the DMZ.
The DMZ is the Demilitarised Zone which divides North and South Korea. The area is very cut off and as a result, it’s become a pristine nature reserve.
In fact, the DMZ has become a real haven for plants and wildlife; the South Korean government predict that over 100 endangered species call the area home and the Ministry of Environment estimates that there are over 5,097 animal and plant species there, such as the red-crowned crane and black-faced spoonbill.
It’s thought there are about 3,050 red-crowned cranes left in the world so they are a very endangered species indeed. However, it’s also a migrating route for birds and the Eurasian lynx has been spotted in the area too.
Although South Korean soldiers reported seeing bears in the past, there wasn’t any photographic evidence. The South Korea National Institute of Technology installed cameras – and the bear was spotted!
The bear seen is thought to be between 8 to 9 months old, weighing about 25 to 35 kilograms. They think the bear is a descendant of the Asiatic black bears lived in the DMZ for a long time
The DMZ is 155 miles long and 2.5 miles wide and it runs across the Korean Peninsula. It’s heaviliy mined and fortified with barbed wire with surveillance cameras and electric fending. It was created after the armistice which brought an end to the 1950-53 Korean War.
Hiking trails are being established in the DMZ now as recently ties between North and South Korea have improved.
They have noticed that polar bears are showing up in odd places. An exhausted polar bear was seen recently in a village on Russia’s far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula – and that’s 600 kilometers plus from its home range.
Their Senior Director of Conservation, Geoff York, thinks this could be that the bear hitched a ride on an ice floe and drifted south, as the ice broke up earlier in the Bering and Chukchi seas this spring.
Unusual and fast ice loss this year has displaced polar bears form their preferred hunting areas. Seals give birth to their pups in spring In snow lairs or on the sea ice surface. This makes the polar bear’s dinner more abundant and accessible than at any other time of the year.
However the Russian polar bear was far from this area.
It was decided to air-lift him back north, to Chukotka in the Russian Arctic.
But there have been other unusual occurrences in the region over several months. Some have been far from the sea. This could be because of unstable ice cover.
Sustained early sea ice is bad news for polar bears
Polar Bears International know from other regions that sustained early sea ice break up doesn’t do polar bears any good.
Fewer hunting opportunities
Decreased body condition
Impacts on reproduction which aren’t good
Negative impacts on survival, especially the old and young
If there’s less sea ice in the Arctic, it gets more difficult for polar bears to make a living from the frozen ocean. Of course people living on the Arctic rely on stable ice to get around on, and to gather food. We all need a frozen Arctic ecosystem to regulate our climate. So we ALL need the Arctic to be in good health.
Polar Bears International works in 3 ways:
Education and outreach. As more polar bears appear onshore, the charity works to help keep polar bears and people safe, with outreach on best practices for avoiding human-polar bear conflict. These include getting rid of things such as open garbage dumps and installing bear-proof ones.
Research – the charity is studying the effectiveness of using surveillance radar to detect approaching polar bears. This means alerts can be given before a bear enters town. PBI help with research on the best deterrants – and that includes putting together a history of polar bear attacks, and their causes to help avoid future conflicts.
Climate Action. PBI is one working to solve the climate crisis, sharing their knowledge of polar bears and coming up with solutions. This includes the Climate Alliance training program for zoo staff members, outreach to motivate citizen involvement, and advocacy to policy makers on the urgent need to act.
Chicago is an amazing city, with an incredible shoreline but it’s not a happy place for many birds during the migration season.
The problem in Chicago
Every year, 6,000 birds die in one square mile area of downtown Chicago. Why?
Well, Chicago sits in the middle of one of the busiest areas for bird migration. Twice a year, 5 million birds fly through this course twice a year.
They are exhausted by the time they reach Chicago. And that’s when they really hit a problem – literally.
Up to ONE BILLION migratory birds die every year, colliding with skyscrapers.
Birds use the stars to point them in the right direction. That means the problem is worse at night, when tall skyscrapers are lit up all night – that confuses and disorients the birds. And they crash into the buildings.
The solution in Chicago
It's easy! All it needs is for buildings to turn off their lights after 11pm during the migratory season.
Chicago already “encourages” buildings to switch their lights off, but encouragement isn’t enough. To save birds, the Lights Out policy needs to be mandatory.
How you can help with this solution
Care2.com have a petition telling Chicago city officials to require buildings to shut the lights off at night during bird migratory season. (It’s hardly environmentally friendly to keep the lights on, anyway.)
Researchers doing some photo monitoring in the Vorontsov Land of the Leopard National Park have identified 91 adult leopards, as well as 22 cubs!
As a rule, a qualitative increase is possible when the population has at least twice as many females as males. The high percentage of cubs too is good news.
The new trend amongst Far Eastern Leopards suggests stabilisation of this rare cat’s population. They are also known as Amur Leopards.
The Land of the Leopard National Park accounts for about 70% of the leopard’s natural habitat. This was a key decision: it means that the Far Eastern Leopard can now live safely on an area of almost 2,800 square kilometres.
To count the wild cats, national park employees went through nearly a million camera trap images. About 10,000 of them had leopards on them!
To complete the picture, experts from the Russian national park are eagerly waiting for the results that their Chinese colleagues are producing; they too have been monitoring photos.
These data are vital now that the Land of the Leopard has become a “birth centre” for the spotted cats; many young leopards move to the Chinese borders to look out new territories. Some return, but a certain number stay in China – and that means that the leopard population can grow!
Far Eastern Leopards is an autonomous non-profit organisation. Far Eastern Leopards’ mission is “to protect and restore the Far Eastern Leopard population in its historical habitat in the Russian Far East.
It supports the photo monitoring at Land of the Leopard and the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve. About 360,000 hectares are being monitored in the national park. 400 automatic camera traps can be found in the national park, so it’s the largest camera trap network in Russia!
Camera trap images enable scientists to do several things:
to determine the size of the animal population
to monitor changes in their life cycle
to estimate their physical condition
to determine their behavioural traits.
Find out about Far Eastern Leopards here – there’s lots of information on Far Eastern Leopards and also the organisation trying to protect and restore the species.
Reasons for the very low numbers of these leopards are:
Reduced feeding supply – the prey they live off have been dying out because of poaching and deforestation
Habitat destruction and infrastructure development – forest fire risks have increased because of deforestation and mining; roads make the areas more accessible to humans
Poaching – leopard skin and body parts are used in oriental medicine
Their numbers are plummeting in the UK – according to the RSPB, there’s been a 53% decline between 1995 and 2016.
The problem is that when buildings are refurbished or demolished, the nooks and crannies so vital for swifts are lost. This means that swifts have nowhere to nest. They need gaps high up on our homes and in other buildings.
So the RSPB has a goal. Swifts winter in Africa and make their way to the UK for the summer. To help swifts, it wants to get 1,000 swift nestboxes up before the swifts arrive at the end of April.
Put up a Swift nest box from the RSPB £39.99 Buy 2 nestboxes by 9 July 2019 and you can save £2 (applies to selected nest boxes. watch for the offer)
If you’re involved in a new build or renovation project, you can install a swift brick. For advice on bricks, email the RSPB’s conservation team at [email protected] and include 'swift bricks' in the subject line. Every swift brick counts.
