Saving birds in the shadowhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif of the Taliban's menace
Published On Mon Nov 28 2011
Tom Hussain Special to the Star
For conservationist Ehsan-ullah Wazir, it’s been a 12-year “mission.”
Now, the amateur ornithologist, along with a group Pakistani tribesmen, plans to finally conduct a wildlife survey in South Waziristan — a territory on the Afghan border known more for its Taliban safe havens than nature conservation.
“We will cover the whole region, filling in questionnaires, and travel to the most remote settlements to gather data on birds, animals and their habitats,” said Wazir, founder of the Waziristan Nature Conservation Organization.
The survey is the outcome of Wazir’s 12-year campaign — or “mission,” as he calls it — to discourage tribesmen from hunting and trapping migrating flocks of birds that stop over at the confluence of the Gomal and Zhob rivers.
It’s been more than a century since such a survey has been conducted.
And it would have been unthinkable just two years ago, when an estimated 15,000 Pakistani Taliban insurgents occupied much of South Waziristan.
Wazir became interested in conservation by chance. In 1999, his nephew brought him a dead, sparrow-like bird — called shangharai in Pashto — with a plastic ring on its leg.
The ring bore the address of a bird observatory in the Swedish town Annsjon.
Intrigued, Wazir asked hunters in his village of Dabkot to bring him any rings they found.
Then, in March 2001, he summoned his courage and posted a letter to Annsjon, along with a ring.
He was shocked to receive a reply from Dr. Thomas Holmberg, head of the Swedish bird centre.
Wazir had inadvertently solved the mystery of where the Scandinavian bluethroat spent its winters — something that had befuddled ornithologists for decades.
“The recovery of the bluethroat from Pakistan is the most memorable event for Swedish bird-ringing this year,” wrote Holmberg.
He sent Wazir a book about the birds of the Indian subcontinent and advice on how to record migratory data.
Painstakingly, Wazir set about gathering data on the bluethroat, chakor partridge, demosielle crane, sandgrouse and houbara bustard.
But it came to a halt in 2002, when Al Qaeda and Taliban militants fleeing NATO forces swamped South Waziristan, prompting nine years of brutal warfare with the security forces.
It wasn’t until June that the Pakistani government was able to declare a victory of sorts — and Wazir was able to resume his work.
He and his colleagues at the conservation organization took advantage of the recent Eid Al-Adha — the Muslim festival of animal sacrifice — to launch a public awareness campaign. The festival is in early November, when the birds return from Eurasia.
They urged residents to stop hunting birds, and to breed captive animals at home rather than trapping them. “For the sake of Allah, spare these birds so they might multiply.”
The conservationists said they were greeted with a mix of interest and incredulity.
“Many people said: human life isn’t worth a damn here. Birds? You’re joking, right?” laughed Ali Mohammed, a director of the NGO.
But Wazir is serious. And he has no illusions about the challenge ahead.
“Hunters have trapped more than 7,000 cranes, the most in living memory,” he said. “Every year, the flocks are diminishing. If the hunting goes unchecked, we’re worried they might disappear altogether.”
Tom Hussain is a freelance writer living in Islamabad.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Recommended Viewing.
Last night, Dave and I happened to catch a documentary called "Ghost Bird". It's from 2009, so we're not exactly on to something new here, but it was a great film. It focuses on claims of sightings of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, a species long thought to be extinct from loss of habitat. These alleged sightings were made in 2004 in a small town in Arkansas. The film examines the impact of the "rediscovery" had on the town and the birding world. There are interviews with those who believe and the skeptics, the ensuing controversy and the government's role with regards to conservation and funding. We also learn about the tragic loss of a wonderful and unique species and how this could have been prevented if habitat had been set aside. It's sadly a message that many still do not hear and we continue to carve up forests for the sake of industry. I wonder how many more species will meet the fate of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.
Here's the link to the film. It would be great for high school students and families who ware interested in this material.
Here
Here's the link to the film. It would be great for high school students and families who ware interested in this material.
Here
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wow!
Bird Thought to Be Extinct for 150 Years Is Rediscovered
By Alisa Opar
09/26/2011
Storm petrels are nicknamed “Jesus birds” for their habit of seemingly walking on water. Now, the New Zealand storm petrel shares another trait with the biblical figure: It has risen from the dead. Thought to be extinct for 150 years, new evidence proves that the bird is alive.
Researchers compared DNA from birds caught in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf to tissue fragments of the "extinct" species housed in British and French museums. The samples from the 150-year-old skins matched blood samples from living birds.
"We found they were one and the same, and these birds are a distinct species of storm-petrel [Oceanites maorianus]," says Bruce Robertson, a University of Otago zoology lecturer who published the findings in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution with co-authors Brent Stephenson of Eco-Vista and Sharyn Goldstien of Canterbury University.
“Since 2003, researchers had largely accepted that the bird was the NZ storm-petrel, but until we had taxonomic certainty, the conservation effort to protect the bird was paralysed,” says Robertson. “There was always going to be this controversy because no one knew exactly what the museum skins were.”
The black-and-white petrel was rediscovered by birdwatchers Ian Saville and Brent Stephenson, near the Mercury Islands in the Hauraki Gulf in 2003.
"It was a complete fluke," Saville told Auckland Now. "We'd seen heaps and heaps of the common storm petrels, the white-faced storm petrels, and then I just saw this little black and white thing. It raced toward the boat, did a quick circle, raced off again and that was it."
Since then, observers have seen the birds in flocks of up to 30 individuals in the gulf from October to April. Yet the birds remain largely a mystery. Their breeding grounds remain unknown, despite failed efforts to follow them to their nests using radio telemetry. And it’s thought that the birds are merely summer-breeding visitors to the Hauraki Gulf, migrating elsewhere for the rest of the year, though no one knows where they go.
“Hopefully now the NZ Storm-Petrel will be given a conservation priority that would be given to a nationally endangered species,” says Robertson. “This will help us to fund further study of the bird, such as where it breeds.”
Finding the breeding grounds would not only help to determine the population size, it would also enable conservationists to protect the site and the elusive birds.
For more on the New Zealand storm petrel, visit birdlife.org.
By Alisa Opar
09/26/2011
Storm petrels are nicknamed “Jesus birds” for their habit of seemingly walking on water. Now, the New Zealand storm petrel shares another trait with the biblical figure: It has risen from the dead. Thought to be extinct for 150 years, new evidence proves that the bird is alive.
Researchers compared DNA from birds caught in New Zealand’s Hauraki Gulf to tissue fragments of the "extinct" species housed in British and French museums. The samples from the 150-year-old skins matched blood samples from living birds.
"We found they were one and the same, and these birds are a distinct species of storm-petrel [Oceanites maorianus]," says Bruce Robertson, a University of Otago zoology lecturer who published the findings in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution with co-authors Brent Stephenson of Eco-Vista and Sharyn Goldstien of Canterbury University.
“Since 2003, researchers had largely accepted that the bird was the NZ storm-petrel, but until we had taxonomic certainty, the conservation effort to protect the bird was paralysed,” says Robertson. “There was always going to be this controversy because no one knew exactly what the museum skins were.”
The black-and-white petrel was rediscovered by birdwatchers Ian Saville and Brent Stephenson, near the Mercury Islands in the Hauraki Gulf in 2003.
"It was a complete fluke," Saville told Auckland Now. "We'd seen heaps and heaps of the common storm petrels, the white-faced storm petrels, and then I just saw this little black and white thing. It raced toward the boat, did a quick circle, raced off again and that was it."
Since then, observers have seen the birds in flocks of up to 30 individuals in the gulf from October to April. Yet the birds remain largely a mystery. Their breeding grounds remain unknown, despite failed efforts to follow them to their nests using radio telemetry. And it’s thought that the birds are merely summer-breeding visitors to the Hauraki Gulf, migrating elsewhere for the rest of the year, though no one knows where they go.
“Hopefully now the NZ Storm-Petrel will be given a conservation priority that would be given to a nationally endangered species,” says Robertson. “This will help us to fund further study of the bird, such as where it breeds.”
Finding the breeding grounds would not only help to determine the population size, it would also enable conservationists to protect the site and the elusive birds.
For more on the New Zealand storm petrel, visit birdlife.org.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
This hurts my heart...
Birds Are Changing Their Tune
Because of noise pollution, some birds are forced to sing at higher frequencies making them less attractive. Read more HERE.
Because of noise pollution, some birds are forced to sing at higher frequencies making them less attractive. Read more HERE.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
ALERT! SAVE OAKVILLE'S NATURAL HERITAGE SYSTEM
Special thanks to Diane B. for sending this my way. PLEASE READ!!
ALERT! ALERT! ..... SAVE OAKVILLE'S NATURAL HERITAGE SYSTEM
The first public meeting for the Town of Oakville Transportation Master Plan Review will be held at Oakville Town Hall on September 14, 2011 at 6.30 pm. Please attend this meeting and tell our Town Council and Mayor Burton to CHANGE this plan as it is the first step to the destruction of our Natural Heritage System.
This transportation plan reveals the massive infrastructure maze of new roads, bridges, sewers, and huge expressway (before 2031) that will be imposed upon Oakville's Natural Heritage System. Large parts of the eco-passages, linkages, buffer zones and core areas of forest and wet lands including critical habitat of endangered , rare and threatened species, is being given over to become road allowance. Where roads are placed, nature dies and development follows! Clear cutting more roads and bridges through Lion Valley Park, The majestic forests and valley lands of the North l6 Mile Creek and the Glenorchy Conservation Area must be stopped.
The Natural Heritage System, including The Glenorchy Conservation Area was promised to the people of Oakville as a refuge for nature, to save the fragile biodiversity of Oakville's remaining nature lands.
Only about 30% of the traffic on these new roads will originate in Oakville. The rest is being built with lots of your tax dollars for cross GTA/Regional traffic diversion, directly through our nature land reserve.
Please write to Regional Chair Gary Carr gary.carr@halton.ca. Mayor Burton Mayor@Oakville your Councillors and our MPP Kevin Flynn KFlynn.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org (who fought hard to help us reserve these lands ) and tell them we need our forests and our song birds.
Oakville does not need a third bridge and road corridor dissecting the majestic forests only 500 meters north of the latest new bridge addition at l6 Mile Creek at Dundas. We don't need an expressway clear cut through Glenorchy at Fourth Line through the l6 Mile Creek. Bull dozers must not gouge through our valley forests and destroy the habitat of our most fragile species and this sanctuary for our remaining wildlife! The l6 Mile Creek Valley (ANSI) and Glenorchy Conservation Area is the heart of the NHS and must not be the place for road development.
Please write to all your political representatives. Please view www.oakvillegreen.org click issues and contact President(at)oakvillegreen.org and http://fog-friendsofglenorchy.blogspot.com/ and onwingedthoughts.blogspot.com wingedthoughts with a note of support.
Please help save Oakville`s Natural Heritage System once again.
Diane Burton Dianeburton(at)eol.ca
Friends of Glenorchy: Director Oakvillegreen
ALERT! ALERT! ..... SAVE OAKVILLE'S NATURAL HERITAGE SYSTEM
The first public meeting for the Town of Oakville Transportation Master Plan Review will be held at Oakville Town Hall on September 14, 2011 at 6.30 pm. Please attend this meeting and tell our Town Council and Mayor Burton to CHANGE this plan as it is the first step to the destruction of our Natural Heritage System.
This transportation plan reveals the massive infrastructure maze of new roads, bridges, sewers, and huge expressway (before 2031) that will be imposed upon Oakville's Natural Heritage System. Large parts of the eco-passages, linkages, buffer zones and core areas of forest and wet lands including critical habitat of endangered , rare and threatened species, is being given over to become road allowance. Where roads are placed, nature dies and development follows! Clear cutting more roads and bridges through Lion Valley Park, The majestic forests and valley lands of the North l6 Mile Creek and the Glenorchy Conservation Area must be stopped.
The Natural Heritage System, including The Glenorchy Conservation Area was promised to the people of Oakville as a refuge for nature, to save the fragile biodiversity of Oakville's remaining nature lands.
Only about 30% of the traffic on these new roads will originate in Oakville. The rest is being built with lots of your tax dollars for cross GTA/Regional traffic diversion, directly through our nature land reserve.
Please write to Regional Chair Gary Carr gary.carr@halton.ca. Mayor Burton Mayor@Oakville your Councillors and our MPP Kevin Flynn KFlynn.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org (who fought hard to help us reserve these lands ) and tell them we need our forests and our song birds.
Oakville does not need a third bridge and road corridor dissecting the majestic forests only 500 meters north of the latest new bridge addition at l6 Mile Creek at Dundas. We don't need an expressway clear cut through Glenorchy at Fourth Line through the l6 Mile Creek. Bull dozers must not gouge through our valley forests and destroy the habitat of our most fragile species and this sanctuary for our remaining wildlife! The l6 Mile Creek Valley (ANSI) and Glenorchy Conservation Area is the heart of the NHS and must not be the place for road development.
Please write to all your political representatives. Please view www.oakvillegreen.org click issues and contact President(at)oakvillegreen.org and http://fog-friendsofglenorchy.blogspot.com/ and onwingedthoughts.blogspot.com wingedthoughts with a note of support.
Please help save Oakville`s Natural Heritage System once again.
Diane Burton Dianeburton(at)eol.ca
Friends of Glenorchy: Director Oakvillegreen
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