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Fern Davies

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  1. Jonathan Reed Bowman passed away unexpectedly in Sebring on Sept 18, 2023. Born in 1958 in Columbus, Ohio, Reed grew up in Westchester County, New York, with parents who encouraged his outdoor interests. Against the odds, he survived cancer as a teenager and, with renewed vigor, he embraced life-long wilderness adventure. His young adult experiences as a backcountry ranger in the Adirondack High Peaks region were formative. He began college with a love of English literature (BA degree) that morphed into a passion for biology (MS degree), and birds in particular (Ph.D). His early research in ornithology ranged from American Kestrels in the Arctic, to Common Ravens in the mountains of Idaho and White-crowned Pigeons in the Florida Keys. For thirty-two years, he studied Florida Scrub-Jays at Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid, Florida, where he mentored dozens of interns and graduate students and interacted with biological researchers from all over the globe. His research also focused on endangered species management of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers and Florida Grasshopper Sparrows at the Avon Park Air Force Range. Throughout his career, Reed had an extensive network of colleagues and friends who ignited his intellect and continually propelled him to pursue his research questions and set new goals, both personal and professional. He was very active in professional societies, including his service as president of the Association of Field Ornithologists (2014-16), president of the Florida Ornithological Society (1997-99), chair of the research awards committee for the American Ornithologists’ Union, and co-editor of the Journal of Field Ornithology. He presented scientific papers to ornithological conferences all over the world and received multiple recognitions for his contributions to bird conservation, including Audubon Florida’s Guy Bradley Award (2021) and the Wilson Ornithological Society’s Margaret Morse Nice medal (2018), given to individuals who “exemplify scientific curiosity, creativity and insight, concern for the education of young and amateur ornithologists, and leadership as an innovator and mentor”. He was married to Charlotte for twenty-nine years and together they parented Seth and Mei, of whom he was intensely proud. As a family, they explored landscapes (and food) wherever they went, from their own five acres in Highlands County to mountain trails in southeastern China. Reed consistently encouraged his children to actively pursue what they most loved to do. The family’s last gathering was for Mei’s college graduation, and he was incredibly happy to celebrate her accomplishments together. Inspired by both grand vistas and intimate features of the natural world, Reed also developed a love of photography. His deliberate pursuit of beauty and mystery through his camera lens fed him spiritually and he continually planned his next photo shoots. He hoped his images would foster the public’s emotional connection to threatened landscapes and encourage a deeper appreciation for the diversity of life that he valued so much. Through their shared interest in the photographic process, Reed’s bond with his son grew deeper. He was thrilled to see Seth working as a professional photographer and felt immensely gratified knowing that his influence helped shape Seth’s direction. Reed was especially content and peaceful at his grandparents’ humble fishing cabin in the woods of northern Michigan, where he spent many satisfying weeks every year tying flies and fishing for trout, searching the forest floor for morels, picking wild blueberries, climbing dunes of Lake Michigan, hiking along the clear, cold streams of Manistee National Forest, and reveling in the life-long traditions and relationships he nurtured there. Some of his happiest moments came from sharing these experiences with family and friends. His family misses him profoundly—his purposeful presence, contagious curiosity, the countless dad jokes and food adventures, his ability to provide detailed information about a range of subjects, his many familiar and embellished stories, his desire to keep learning and sharing his knowledge, his motivation to explore new places, and his undeniable steadfast support. As a recent retiree, he’d hoped to invest more time with family, including his two close siblings, Stacy Gates (David) and Todd (Keegan). Reed is also survived by in-laws, aunts, uncles, cousins, and many nieces and nephews throughout the country. He was grateful for his rich and rewarding life. He left us all too soon and will be missed beyond measure.
  2. https://ansp.org/programs-and-events/events/Details/?eid=39366&iid=105250 Friday, October 13, 2023 6:45 PM-8:45 PM For more than a century, Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) has been hailed as the “Father of American Ornithology.” However, groundbreaking new work by Academy Research Associate Matthew R. Halley challenges that paradigm by unveiling the forgotten ornithological contributions of Charles Willson Peale (1741–1827) and his children. Peale was a polymath and proprietor of the Philadelphia Museum, which occupied the second floor of Independence Hall — then known as the Pennsylvania State House — during Wilson’s time. Through a systematic study of mostly unpublished and rare primary sources in Philadelphia-based archives, Halley has reconstructed the first digital inventory of Peale’s famous bird collection, which dramatically changes our understanding of the historical development of scientific ornithology in the United States, and the legacy of Wilson and later scientists. Matthew R. Halley is an ornithologist and historian from Chester County, Pennsylvania. He is the assistant curator of birds at the Delaware Museum of Nature & Science and a research associate at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, where he earned his PhD in 2021. Halley is also a Fellow and former Editor of the DVOC. He has extensive research experience in the United States and abroad, especially in the Neotropics, and has authored dozens of research papers about bird evolution and the history of American science. During the last decade, Halley relocated and exposed a litany of overlooked primary sources, which have reshaped our understanding of historical figures like Wilson and Audubon, and the development of scientific ornithology in the United States. Learn more about Birds of the Philadelphia Museum Illuminating Birds will be open to attendees. The doors to the auditorium will open at 6:30 p.m. and the presentation will start at 7 p.m. The presentation will also be accessible via Zoom which will go live at 6:45 p.m. Whether attending in person or via Zoom, register for the event here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kceqqrT8vHNIIaGUgFJh4h-4wrSyHNB-3 LOCATION The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19103 AUDIENCE Everyone PROGRAMS AND EVENTS Programs Events Event Details Adult Programs Family Programs Festivals and Special Events
  3. Just arrived yesterday, an eagerly awaited new book by Rebecca Heisman - Flight Paths - How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration. Settling in to read it now; full review will be posted here. . https://preview.aer.io/Flight_Paths-NTExMTk2?social=1&retail=1&emailcap=0
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  5. Juita Martinez (ABD, Louisiania State at Lafayette) has been awarded a prestigious Knauss Fellowship from the Sea Grant program of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The National Sea Grant College program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1966 and works to create and maintain a healthy coastal environment and economy. The Sea Grant network consists of a federal/university partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and 34 university-based programs in every coastal and Great Lakes state, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The network draws on the expertise of more than 3,000 scientists, engineers, public outreach experts, educators and students to help citizens better understand, conserve and utilize America's coastal resources. Martinez recently completed another prestigious fellowship at the National Academies of Science. The Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellowship Program is a full-time hands-on training and educational program that provides early career individuals with the opportunity to spend 12 weeks at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC learning about science and technology policy and the role that scientists and engineers play in advising the nation. This Mirzayan Fellowship offers a unique opportunity to obtain the essential skills and knowledge needed to work in science policy at the federal, state, or local levels. At Louisiana State, Martinez studied the effects of barrier island restoration on Louisiana's brown pelican population trends. She was also one of the original founders of Black Birders' Week.
  6. More about Russ here: https://academic.oup.com/condor/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ornithapp/duac027/6674474 and here: https://academic.oup.com/auk/article/122/1/359/5562383
  7. Russell ("Russ") Balda, known widely for his studies of avian cognition and, in particular, avian memory, passed away on 16 May 2022 at the age of 82. Russ spent his entire career at Northern Arizona University, starting in 1966 and continuing to 2003,when he retired. Russ earned his Ph.D. in 1966 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in ecology and ornithology. He began his professional career by studying the ecology of seed-caching corvids, in particular the Clark’s Nutcracker and Pinyon Jay. Working with John Marzluff and others, his intensive study of a color-banded flock of Pinyon Jays led to the 1992 publication of The Pinyon Jay: Behavioral Ecology of a Colonial and Cooperative Corvid, co-authored by Marzluff. His studies branched out into conservation questions, particularly the nest site limitation of cavity nesters. He and his students also launched a study of the Mexican Spotted Owl. Over time, his fascination with the seed-caching-and-recovery behavior of corvids led to a pioneering cross-disciplinary study of the mechanisms of this behavior, working collaboratively with Alan Kamil, an experimental psychologist who had been studying Blue Jays. This work relied on studies of captive birds, enabling Balda and Kamil to document that the birds relied on precise spatial memory, rather than land-marking, to find the seeds they had cached. The work began with a single bird but grew to encompass numerous individuals of several species. The Woodhouse's scrub-Jays, Pinyon Jays, and Clark's Nutcrackers were housed in a large indoor-outdoor aviary. Individual birds were then removed to study rooms where they recoverd seeds they had cached in sand-filled cups, allowing Balda and Kamil to control for spacing or site preferences. Over time, the carefully designed experiments that challenged birds to find seeds they had cached demonstrated that spatial cognition of related corvid species is correlated with differences in natural history and the degree to which species depend on stored food for winter survival and breeding. Balda published nearly 50 papers demonstrating the capacity and longevity of corvid memory and linking differences in spatial and social memory to the ecology of Woodhouse’s (Western) Scrub-Jays, Pinyon Jays, and Clark’s Nutcrackers Russ was a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society, a William Brewster Memorial Awardee from the American Ornithologist’s Union in 2004 with his long-time research partner Al Kamil. He was the 1998 recipient of the Cooper Ornithological Society’s Loye and Alden Miller Research Award, which is given in recognition of lifetime achievement in ornithological research. Former student Aimee Sue Dunlap wrote of Russ, "Russ also cared about the animals we worked with. His deep respect for the care & well-being of the lab birds has deeply influenced how I worked with blue jays later in my PhD work, & how I care for our bees in the lab now. He set a high bar for everyone who worked in the lab."
  8. https://www.postandcourier.com/greenville/news/clemson-wildlife-professor-named-macarthur-fellow-first-in-university-history/article_7e1a5154-4a4c-11ed-bdbf-4b46950adecc.html Clemson wildlife and ecology professor J. Drew Lanham was named a MacArthur Fellow on Oct. 12, the first professor at the university to receive the award. Known as a “genius grant,” the fellowship comes with a no-strings-attached $800,000 award for Lanham to further use his “creative instincts for the benefit of human society.” “I think the genius of it is really in the foundation having the vision to see that you can give license and liberty to thinking in a way that is truly saying to a group of people, ‘Look, you’re doing some unique work here that moves the world’s needle toward some better place. We want to support you in that and do so in a way that can be significant and life-changing and allow you to focus on that for a significant amount of time,’” Lanham said in a news release. “So, that’s the real genius to me: that the MacArthur Foundation sees fit to fund dreams.” His research and teaching focuses on the impacts of forest management on birds and other wildlife. His writing combines his perspective as a Black American and love of conservation.
  9. Scientists are concerned for North American wildlife as the worst avian flu outbreak since 2015 rages on. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/10/bird-flu-2022-avian-epidemic-virus/671627/ By Sarah Trent The National Trust team of rangers clear deceased birds from Staple Island, one of the Outer Group of the Farne Islands, off the coast of Northumberland, where the impact of Avian Influenza (bird flu) is having a devastating effect on one of the UK's best known and important seabird colonies with 3104 carcasses recovered by rangers so far. Picture date: Wednesday July 20, 2022. (Owen Humphreys / PA Images / Getty) OCTOBER 1, 2022, 8 AM ET This article was originally published in High Country News. The July 5 trip was routine: From the deck of an airboat, two wildlife biologists scanned the cattail marsh—one of many seasonal wetlands in the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge—on their weekly lookout for sick or dead birds. In the summer months, avian botulism is a major concern in California’s Central Valley, and removing carcasses can stem its spread. But this year, there was added worry: A new and devastating strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had been creeping west across the continent since December 2021, affecting millions of poultry and countless wild birds. That day, the biologists carefully collected several carcasses, including those of two Canada geese and two American white pelicans, and sent the remains on to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center lab for routine testing. Days later, the lab and then the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed: The avian flu’s H5N1 strain had finally reached California. This year’s avian-flu outbreak—the first in North America since 2015—is caused by a version of this virus unlike any that virologists and wildlife managers have ever seen. “It’s behaving by a different set of rules,” says Bryan Richards, the emerging-disease coordinator at the National Wildlife Health Center. Now it’s spreading widely among wild birds, which has far-reaching implications for wildlife and human health. Wildlife already face unprecedented stressors, from drought to wildfire to habitat loss. Now emerging and widely infectious forms of avian influenza are yet another serious threat—one that wildlife biologists say requires a new approach to disease management on farms, refuges, and landscapes nationwide. “We are in the midst of a completely unprecedented wildlife disease outbreak in North America,” says Rebecca Poulson, a University of Georgia research scientist who’s been studying bird flus for 15 years. “We’ve never seen anything like this.” Before 1996, it was widely assumed that highly pathogenic avian influenzas only infected commercial poultry farms: These were virulent but contained outbreaks caused by on-farm mutations of a wild-bird-origin flu virus. Although devastating to those farms, the mutated strains seemed not to affect wild birds. This made outbreaks simple to manage with biosecurity prevention, isolation of exposed flocks, and swift culls. In 1996, virologists first detected the H5N1 strain in a domestic goose in Guangdong, China. That virus received global attention in 1997 when it sickened 18 people in Hong Kong, killing six. The outbreak prompted international fears of a human pandemic, but the virus never mutated in a way that enabled human-to-human transmission. International media paid less attention to the fact that, by 2002, H5N1 had acquired the ability to move from domestic flocks to wild birds. The virus has continued to evolve ever since. Today, several variants of HPAI are associated with “sporadic mortality events” in wildlife. In Newfoundland and Labrador this past summer, the current strain emptied seaside cliffs of thousands of gannets, puffins, and murres. This August, it killed 700 black vultures at a Georgia sanctuary. Waterfowl, shorebirds, raptors, and scavengers are some of the creatures at highest risk. In Western states most recently hit by the virus, such species include threatened and endangered birds such as the California condor and the snowy plover, though agencies have not yet documented infections in either species. Common urban- and suburban-dwelling Canada geese and crows and nationally symbolic bald eagles are also at risk, as are the millions of waterfowl whose migrations are beginning to peak now in northern states and will continue south through the season. The last major outbreak—caused by a related strain, H5N8—reached North America in 2014, causing approximately $3 billion in losses to U.S. farmers, who had to cull 50 million chickens and turkeys. This year’s outbreak has so far affected a similar number of commercial birds, but it is orders of magnitude larger in wild landscapes. Via wild-bird transmission, it has reached nearly 10 times the number of backyard poultry, and while the 2014–15 outbreak was documented in just 18 wild-bird species across 16 states, this year, it’s been confirmed in at least 108 wild-bird species, with cases in nearly every state. In another unusual development, many mammal-crossover cases and deaths have also been confirmed in foxes, skunks, opossums, raccoons, bobcats, minks, harbor seals, a juvenile black bear, and one bottlenose dolphin. Labs are so overwhelmed that one wildlife official says they’ve stopped submitting carcasses of species that have already been documented in their county. They’re also submitting only a few birds per mortality event, making the official wild-bird death figures a gross underestimate. The next few months could be even worse. Flocks across the continent are migrating now toward Central and South America, home to the largest diversity of bird species on Earth. “I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg,” Poulson says. “We’re just sort of holding our breath to see what’s going to happen.” Among Western states this fall, California is most likely to feel the brunt of the impacts: It’s one of the nation’s largest egg producers, and commercial poultry meat is the state’s sixth-largest commodity, worth $1 billion annually. California’s Central Valley provides essential migration and wintering grounds for wild birds: The Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex alone is visited by hundreds of thousands of migrants each fall. It supports a large number of the continent’s northern pintails (one of the most numerous duck species in the world) and is a critical habitat for overwintering waterfowl. This year’s drought means wintering flocks may be both unusually crowded and especially mobile, heightening the risk of viral spread, says Michael Derrico, the refuge’s lead wildlife biologist. Because the refuge’s wetlands are half their normal size, birds will be forced into closer proximity and may move frequently to find resources, which Derrico thinks may also push birds farther south. Derrico’s concern for birds in the Pacific Flyway is somewhat tempered by the fact that, so far, the country’s westernmost migratory channel doesn’t seem to have as much of the virus as other regions do. But he and other wildlife managers are also very limited in what they can do to mitigate potential impacts. “Once a disease becomes established in a free-ranging population, then you really lose the upper hand,” Richards says from his USGS home office near Madison, Wisconsin. “We’re really, really good at documenting disease on the landscape, but we’re less good at altering disease outcomes.” Instead, he says, “some of us are beginning to pivot towards a conversation of wildlife health as opposed to wildlife disease.” Read: The strongest sign Americans should worry about flu this winter For Derrico, at the Sacramento refuge complex, promoting health instead of preventing disease might involve investing more in wetland management to ensure that birds have access to the largest habitat possible, and minimizing human disturbance to prevent scattering birds to new areas. In many parts of the country, bald eagles and other raptors are already experiencing widespread mortality from lead poisoning by bullets and fishing tackle, and Richards says that addressing that issue might be a better use of resources. “That’s something we can control, right?” he says. Combined with improving biosecurity measures on farms, by tackling environmental factors that are within human reach, Richards believes wildlife managers may be able to increase bird resilience even in the face of deadly new diseases. The pressure to change wildlife-disease management is only increasing. “When you look globally at emerging infectious diseases, we’ve seen some pretty interesting trends,” Richards says. “We have seen more new diseases, larger disease outbreaks, more frequently and with larger impacts.” That includes some with the potential to cause species extinction, and, as seen recently with COVID-19, ones that could mutate to become widely infectious and transmissible in humans. Virologists believe the risk of that happening in this H5N1 strain is low but recommend that hunters, farmworkers, and other bird handlers take extra precautions this year anyway. Of all the emerging diseases that threaten people, Richards says, a majority have originated in wildlife. Sarah Trent is an editorial intern for High Country News based in southwest Washington.
  10. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/29/first-us-appoints-diplomat-plants-animals/ As temperatures rise and habitats shrink, hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species around the world are at risk of vanishing. For the first time, the United States is designating a special diplomat to advocate for global biodiversity amid what policymakers here and overseas increasingly recognize as an extinction crisis. Monica Medina is taking on a new role as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources, the State Department announced Wednesday. She currently serves as the department’s assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs. The appointment underscores the Biden administration’s desire to protect land and waters not just at home but to also conserve habitats abroad. ‘Not just about nature for nature’s sake’ The loss of biodiversity isn’t just a tragedy for wildlife. It’s one of the biggest threats facing humanity. According to a major U.N. report in 2019, a million species face possible extinction, with dire implications for humans who depend on ecosystems for food, fresh water and other resources. Overfishing, pollution, pesticides, disease, urban sprawl and, of course, climate change contribute to declines in imperiled species’ populations worldwide. “There's a direct connection between biodiversity loss and instability in a lot of parts of the world,” Medina said in a recent phone interview. “It's not just about nature for nature’s sake. I think it is about people.” Before the Biden administration, Medina was an adjunct professor at Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service and worked as general counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other government roles. She is the wife of White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain. Her appointment comes weeks ahead of a major biodiversity conference in mid-December in Montreal. The meeting originally was scheduled to take place in the Chinese city of Kunming in 2020 but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The aim of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity — also known as COP-15 — is for nations to reverse the loss of species by adopting an international framework for conserving biodiversity. The effort is akin to the climate talks in 2015 that yielded the Paris agreement. What the United States wants out of the conference: For nations to commit to conserving 30 percent of their land and water area. “We are looking for ways to reach that goal, because that's what scientists tell us we need in order to have a healthy planet,” Medina said. One big hurdle: Defining what, exactly, counts as land and water conserved? “That is part of the discussion, is what counts,” she said. Is the United States doing its part? President Biden set a goal of conserving nearly a third of the nation’s land and waters by 2030. Biden has taken a few steps toward that target, restoring protections for two desert expanses in Utah and reinstating fishing restrictions in a marine monument off New England. Both moves reversed decisions made by President Donald Trump. But the Biden administration has yet to identify many other specific places for new protections. Medina noted that the Inflation Reduction Act passed this year set aside billions of dollars for conservation funding. The link between biodiversity and climate change Rising seas flood forests and kill trees. Increasing temperatures allow for the greater spread of disease, such as an avian form of malaria that is wiping out birds in Hawaii. Warming waters leach out oxygen, suffocating marine life. But protecting ecosystems such as forests and peatlands, Medina noted, will help keep climate-warming carbon out of the atmosphere in the first place. “It's a crisis that we face that's interwoven with the climate crisis, but also independent and important on its own,” she said. “If we can solve the biodiversity crisis, we're a long way along the way to solving the climate crisis.” Update: This story has been updated to include that Medina is married to White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain.
  11. https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2022-09/theodore-roosevelt-genius-prize-winners-announced From an invasive reptile trapping system to a nucleic acid barcode that identifies poached and trafficked wildlife products anywhere in the world, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Theodore Roosevelt (TR) Genius Prize winners and their technological innovations will help address conservation challenges and opportunities and engage new communities and diverse ideas. The six prize competitions encourage technological innovation that advances the Service’s mission by preventing wildlife poaching and trafficking, promoting wildlife conservation, managing invasive species , protecting endangered species, reducing human-wildlife conflict with nonlethal methods, and reducing human-predator conflict. Each of the 2022 prize winners will receive between $50,000 to $100,000 for their winning innovation submission, totaling $550,000 for the 2022 prize competition. “As the Service addresses numerous conservation challenges, the 2022 Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize Competition and future competitions will build a community of innovators with a wide variety of skill sets and perspectives to collaboratively advance resource stewardship,” said Service Director Martha Williams. “These competitions support the larger goals of the America the Beautiful initiative and work being done under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law . Both efforts underscore the Biden-Harris administration’s all-of-government approach to bolstering climate resilience and protecting natural areas for current and future generations.” The TR Genius Prize Competitions were established under the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act to award prizes annually and expand opportunities for new partners and networks to share ideas, catalyze new solutions, and spark conservation collaboration across the nation. The 2022 TR Genius Prize Competition category winners: Preventing Wildlife Poaching and Trafficking: The NABIT- Rapid, portable genetic testing tool for combating wildlife trafficking by Conservation X Labs and the Thylacine Biosciences Team Conservation X Labs developed the NABIT, a portable battery-powered system, to rapidly perform a simple genetic test to identify suspected illegal or trafficked wildlife products. Providing rapid results gives enforcement officers and conservations partners a cutting-edge tool to detect illegal wildlife products, including meat and other tissues that are often difficult to identify. Promotion of Wildlife Conservation: Harnessing Machine Learning to Connect Urban Residents to Wildlife Conservation through Social Media by Jason Holmberg, Executive Director, Wild Me, in collaboration with Lincoln Park Zoo’s Seth Magle, Executive Director, Urban Wildlife Information Network This project harnesses machine learning to connect urban residents to wildlife conservation through social media to create a deeper connection to conservation. Using artificial intelligence software to identify media content and social media posts about urban wildlife, the innovation aims to collect important ecological data and create dialogue between users and scientists via their posts. Protecting Endangered Species: Expanding the Use of Photo-Identification Technology to Include Tiny, Flying and Ephemeral species by Jenny Shrum This innovation aims to expand the use of photo-identification technology to the individual insect level and use photo identification to fill information gaps for rare butterflies, such as the island marble butterfly. Advances in digital cameras, data-base processing and artificial intelligence software can expand our knowledge of individual insects and populations for management and conservation. Managing Invasive Species: A Smart-Trapping System for the Live Capture and Monitoring of Invasive Reptiles by Ben Stookey and Derek Yorks, co-founders of Wild Vision Systems This innovation presents a live-trapping system and data platform that uses artificial intelligence to identify and capture invasive snakes and lizards in a stationary robotic trap. The design could enable scalable, cost-effective and sustained deployment of smart-trap networks for effective control and monitoring of invasive species. Promoting Nonlethal Human-Wildlife Conflict: Creating a No-Fly Zone for Nuisance Birds by Boarman, Boarman and Shields through Hardshell Labs This innovation aims to improve laser repulsion of nuisance birds by using species-specific responses to different colored lasers and flash patterns. Plans for the innovation could include systematizing the use of lasers to provide efficient protection of sensitive species habitat and nesting grounds, agricultural resources, electrical infrastructure and waste treatment facilities. Reducing Human-Predator Conflict Using Nonlethal Means: Cattle-Producer Designed Automated Mineral Bin by Cameron Krebs The innovation’s Automated Mineral Bin is a strategy for reducing human-predator conflict that combines standard livestock handling practices with robotic technology. Created by a fifth-generation Oregon sheep and cattle rancher, the project leverages the natural defensive behaviors of cattle and is easy for producers to implement. The project uses an automated salt bin to herd livestock into larger groups, reducing the risk of predation by large predators. The Service partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help administer the prize competition. The competition was also guided by the Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize Boards. These boards are responsible for selecting topics and issuing problem statements, and they advise the winners of any opportunities regarding development and implementation of the solutions. The competition received a total of 104 submissions that were evaluated by 31 judges. The Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize Advisory Council, managed in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, will hold a public meeting Oct. 4-6, 2022, to hear presentations on the six winners and consider any recommendations for the Secretary of the Interior about potential opportunities for technological innovations related to the winning proposals.
  12. https://www.birdscanada.org/first-of-its-kind-digital-platform-launches-just-in-time-for-fall-migration As millions of birds are flocking to their wintering grounds, Birds Canada and nine partner organizations have announced the Bird Migration Explorer, a state-of-the-art digital platform that reveals migration data consolidated for 458 bird species found in Canada and the US. The free, interactive platform, currently available in English and Spanish, allows users like you to see the most complete data collected on migratory species in your neighbourhood and where those birds go throughout the year. The Bird Migration Explorer reveals insights about the journeys of individual species, the connectedness, through migratory birds, of any given location in the hemisphere, and also details how migratory birds encounter 19 different conservation challenges. It includes more than 150,000 movement tracks of 150 species from the Motus Wildlife Tracking System, a program of Birds Canada and collaborators. For example, the famous “River of Raptors” migration corridor in Veracruz, Mexico, is a hub connecting the extreme northern and southern ends of the globe. The Bird Migration Explorer can also show when each of these species passes through Veracruz or any other location, and the extent to which each of those species overlaps with any number of conservation challenges such as light pollution or power lines along their journeys. More generally, the Bird Migration Explorer illustrates how countries in the Americas are all connected to each other by migratory birds, underscoring the importance of international cooperation and collaboration in the research and conservation of these species. Since 1970, North America has lost more than 2.5 billion migratory birds. By highlighting the places birds need – not only during breeding and wintering seasons, but also throughout the migratory periods in between – the Bird Migration Explorer provides a scientific basis for necessary policies and solutions to address these steep declines. “People have always been curious and amazed by migratory birds and their incredible journeys, but only recently are scientists piecing together the full picture of how these birds travel from one end of the globe to the other,” explains Dr. Jill Deppe, Senior Director of Audubon’s Migratory Bird Initiative, the founding organization of the Bird Migration Explorer. “Migratory birds also need our help—populations are facing steep declines across the board. By consolidating and visualizing these data, the Bird Migration Explorer can teach us more about how to protect these incredible travelers that connect people across the entire hemisphere.” The Bird Migration Explorer brings together three types of geospatial bird data: abundance data from Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s eBird Status models; connectivity data from the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center Bird Banding Lab and Bird Genoscape Project; and tracking data from Birds Canada, the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and hundreds of researchers from across the globe, who generously contributed their datasets to this project. Audubon scientists and cartographers consolidated these data to create animated and interactive visualizations to bring species migration to life on a map. “The Bird Migration Explorer is an urgently-needed new tool for conservation and an outstanding collaborative achievement!” says Stu Mackenzie, Director of Strategic Assets for Birds Canada. “Using the explorer, people can discover the magnificence of migratory birds, the challenges they face, and efforts to conserve them – including steps anyone can take to help birds. Birds Canada is a proud partner, contributing expertise and big data from the Motus Wildlife Tracking System and projects using other tracking technologies.” Palm Warbler Photo: Shirley Rushforth Guinn The Bird Migration Explorer includes: Interactive, animated maps of the full annual migration for 458 species More than 4.2 million point-to-point migratory bird connections across the hemisphere Visualizations for 19 selected Conservation Challenges that migratory birds are exposed to throughout the year across the Americas. The Bird Migration Explorer reflects an extraordinary partnership among science, conservation, and technology organizations and institutions and is made possible with data from the following partner organizations and more than 500 studies from researchers and institutions from around the world: Birds Canada Bird Conservancy of the Rockies Bird Genoscape Project BirdLife International Cornell Lab of Ornithology Esri Georgetown University Movebank National Audubon Society Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center To learn more about migratory birds, the journeys they make, and the challenges they experience along the way, please visit the Bird Migration Explorer here: www.birdmigrationexplorer.org.
  13. https://emorymedicine.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8ifrR8QxIzZ1zDM Introductory text: Below is a survey to document an event in which a life scientist* died during field work, to better understand international patterns of mortality risks to field life scientists at a global level. We are asking for events starting in the year 2000 to present. Please fill out the survey for any fatality (trauma, infectious disease, or otherwise) of a field life scientist that you know about. These can be intentional or accidental fatalities. Please forward the survey link to your scientific colleagues around the world. Please do not hesitate to share widely as we can account for duplication of survey responses. *we define a field life scientist as anyone who studies the ecology/biology of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, plants or fungi in the wild (marine, terrestrial, aquatic). This can also include natural resource managers who study these animals in the field. We include as ‘scientists,’ investigators at any level including employed workers, volunteers, and students. We include any scientist who works for the government, industry, academic or NGO. Events include scientists who have died 'in the field,' even if it was during their 'time off,' but they were still stationed 'in the field.' Names of the deceased will not be reported in any report or publication of this research. This research has been determined as Not Human Subjects research by Emory University Institutional Review Board.
  14. You know, here's my personal .02. We feed birds for oour personal amusement. The birds do not benefit from it, especially at this time of year. It can and does result in disease transmission. So err on the side of caution. The birds come first. Take the feeders down.
  15. ASOCIACIÓN BOLIVIANA PARA LA CONSERVACIÓN DELAS AVES - AVES BOLIVIANAS “Aves Bolivianas”, entidad sin fines de lucro legalmente establecida desde el 2018, que trabaja a nivel de Bolivia, tiene como misión aportar a la conservación de las aves y sus hábitats a través de la investigación y el manejo adecuado de las mismas, promoviendo la participación activa de los habitantes en pos del desarrollo sostenible, valiéndose de herramientas: políticas legales, estrategias educacionales, lúdicas, formativas y de difusión. Su visión es ser un referente a nivel nacional e internacional para la investigación, manejo adecuado y conservación de las aves en Bolivia. Siendo su principal objetivo evitar la extinción de cualquier especie de ave en toda el área geográfica del país. Estas acciones de la asociación están ligadas estrechamente al hombre, quien pasará a ser el actor principal de todas estas tareas.
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