Floating, floating on the current.
Air pushes my back, pushes me
Toward the next piece of home.
Toward restlessness, old needs,
Toward the timeless endless journey.
Toward birth, new lives growing
Into mastery, into familiarity,
Into the next link.
Midway.
Shimmering lake, red-berried bushes,
Bug-filled mud, cooling water.
The promise of rest and a full belly,
That old-new burst of energy,
Re-ascent into the forever air.
Something is off.
Hot air oddly stagnant.
Black ooze reeking of not-mud,
of not-bugs, of undefined danger.
The silent scream of Don't!
But the body's long memory, exhaustion take over
And it's too late to stop.
Monday, December 23, 2013
Whooping Cranes
Tell me what you think of when I say, Midwest. Exotic animals? Five foot tall birds with a wingspan of seven and a half feet flying overhead? That are native to the Midwest? That perform elaborate courtship rituals? I thought not.
You came close to being right. As recently as 1941 there were only 15 whooping cranes left in the world. All current whooping cranes descend from these 15 birds. The population is still very small and highly endangered even as it grows.
The main flock, about 250 - 300 birds, migrate between a wildlife preserve in Texas (Aransas Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christie) and northern Alberta, Canada (Wood Buffalo National Park), where they breed. In the Spring and Fall they cross 2,500 miles to get to their summer and winter homes. In the winter, in Texas, they fill up on crustaceans, especially blue crabs, enough to prepare them to migrate and give birth to the next generation. During migration they eat insects and other animal protein when the can, though they will make do with grain from agricultural fields if necessary. In summer they eat seafood, make nests in swamps and raise their young. They lay two eggs a season. Usually, only one survives.
Like other large predators, whooping cranes were never numerous. Before Europeans colonized the Midwest there were about 2000 whooping cranes according to the latest estimates. They lived across the American Midwest, north into Canada. Agriculture took away almost all of their preferred habitat. Hunters who sold their feathers for fashionable hats decimated a large part of the population. Interestingly, the other major cause of their near extinction was the collection of their eggs for scientific research.
This flock, the Western flock, is the original, and the only truly wild flock in the world. Scientists worked and work hard to establish other flocks in order not to put all the whooping crane's eggs in one basket, so to speak. They've tried techniques from fostering whooping crane eggs with sandhill crane mothers to using light planes to establish new migration routes. As a result there's an eastern flock that migrates between Florida and Wisconsin and a few non-migratory flocks, but none of these are self-sustaining yet. Some are also in captivity (zoos, etc.). Nevertheless, the Western flock of about 279 birds is the only self-sustaining, truly wild flock in the world. That small number, all migrating at around the same time, is vulnerable and could easily be wiped out by one oil spill.
Unfortunately, the route of the proposed KXL pipeline follows the migratory path of the Western flock from one end to the other. The endpoint of the proposed pipeline route is across Texas at Port Arthur, but the most of the rest is on the migration path. In Canada the same. Currently, their biggest cause of premature death is collisions with power lines.If the KXL pipeline was to be built, there would necessarily be hundreds of miles of pipeline specifically for the pipeline, to power pumping stations. In Alberta the birds travel up the Athabasca River, stopping to rest at Ft. McMurray (ground zero for tar sands extraction) before continuing to their breeding sites, downstream from tar sands mining operations. In addition to the high possibility of spills along their migration route, they are in danger from ordinary tar sands operations.
These birds don't use the oil. How much do they have to sacrifice for our unwillingness to change our habits? How much are their lives worth? The answer is in our hands.
Possum
You came close to being right. As recently as 1941 there were only 15 whooping cranes left in the world. All current whooping cranes descend from these 15 birds. The population is still very small and highly endangered even as it grows.
The main flock, about 250 - 300 birds, migrate between a wildlife preserve in Texas (Aransas Wildlife Refuge near Corpus Christie) and northern Alberta, Canada (Wood Buffalo National Park), where they breed. In the Spring and Fall they cross 2,500 miles to get to their summer and winter homes. In the winter, in Texas, they fill up on crustaceans, especially blue crabs, enough to prepare them to migrate and give birth to the next generation. During migration they eat insects and other animal protein when the can, though they will make do with grain from agricultural fields if necessary. In summer they eat seafood, make nests in swamps and raise their young. They lay two eggs a season. Usually, only one survives.
Like other large predators, whooping cranes were never numerous. Before Europeans colonized the Midwest there were about 2000 whooping cranes according to the latest estimates. They lived across the American Midwest, north into Canada. Agriculture took away almost all of their preferred habitat. Hunters who sold their feathers for fashionable hats decimated a large part of the population. Interestingly, the other major cause of their near extinction was the collection of their eggs for scientific research.
This flock, the Western flock, is the original, and the only truly wild flock in the world. Scientists worked and work hard to establish other flocks in order not to put all the whooping crane's eggs in one basket, so to speak. They've tried techniques from fostering whooping crane eggs with sandhill crane mothers to using light planes to establish new migration routes. As a result there's an eastern flock that migrates between Florida and Wisconsin and a few non-migratory flocks, but none of these are self-sustaining yet. Some are also in captivity (zoos, etc.). Nevertheless, the Western flock of about 279 birds is the only self-sustaining, truly wild flock in the world. That small number, all migrating at around the same time, is vulnerable and could easily be wiped out by one oil spill.
Unfortunately, the route of the proposed KXL pipeline follows the migratory path of the Western flock from one end to the other. The endpoint of the proposed pipeline route is across Texas at Port Arthur, but the most of the rest is on the migration path. In Canada the same. Currently, their biggest cause of premature death is collisions with power lines.If the KXL pipeline was to be built, there would necessarily be hundreds of miles of pipeline specifically for the pipeline, to power pumping stations. In Alberta the birds travel up the Athabasca River, stopping to rest at Ft. McMurray (ground zero for tar sands extraction) before continuing to their breeding sites, downstream from tar sands mining operations. In addition to the high possibility of spills along their migration route, they are in danger from ordinary tar sands operations.
These birds don't use the oil. How much do they have to sacrifice for our unwillingness to change our habits? How much are their lives worth? The answer is in our hands.
Possum
Caribou
Rudolph has American cousins. Tar sands mining is killing them.
Caribou are kissing cousings to reindeer. Some experts even consider caribou to be the American version of reindeer. Or reindeer to be the European cousins of caribou. Depends on one's perspective.
There are three major types of caribou: tundra, mountain and woodland. Tundra caribou are the ones most like Rudolph. They live in the open spaces of the north country and migrate long distances at a fast pace (they "fly" across the tundra). Woodland caribou can run fast but they live in smaller groups and migrate shorter distances, from 9 - 50 miles between the summer and winter grounds. However far they migrate, the boreal forest is their only home; they don't leave the forest. Unlike some of the animals we'll meet in this blog - moose, wolves - these caribou don't easily co-exist with us humans. We stress them out.
Children of the forest, woodland caribou need intact old growth forest, lots of it, to survive. In addition to the stress of being anywhere near us, their major source of food, lichen, depends on intact old-growth forest. Edges, breaks in the forest (roads for example), provide easier access to them by wolves, their most important predator. As animals dependent on lots of wild forest, woodland caribou are an "umbrella species". If they are doing well, chances are everyone else is doing well, also.
October ramps up the excitement - mating time! The impressive antlers on males are used to keep away competitors. Though the male antlers are much more impressive than the female's, in December the guys shed theirs. Mating season is done, and there is no need for these cumbersome appendages but the antlers of the pregnant females, used for driving aggressive males from their feeding territories and invaluable when you're eating for two, stay. Incidentally, caribou are the only animals where both sexes have antlers. Makes me wonder how the female of other deer species deal with aggressive males.
May to June is birthing season. The mothers give birth alone, but they all give birth in the general area, and all within a few days of each other. This helps protect newborns. Safety in numbers. Wolves, the main predator, have more live caribou flesh than they need so a good portion are spared. Wolves do take a lot, though, up to 40% in some populations.
A tragedy for an individual can strengthen the group. Wolves can only kill the vulnerable; weak, old and sick. By culling out the weaker animals they leave the collective gene pool stronger, while helping keep the caribou/food numbers in balance.
Human industry, specifically logging and energy extraction, are disrupting this balance. Roads multiply forest edges, facilitating the introduction of invasive species, wolf and human hunting, and creating barriers in caribou territory. Woodland caribou are migrating north, away from areas of human disturbance, and roads as barriers make that more difficult. As they lose habitat to logging and tar sands mining, the caribou need to aggregate closer together, making it that much harder to find food and that much easier for wolves to find them.
Climate change, hastened by tars sands mining and use, also impacts caribou. In the winter they can find fungus under the snow by scent but deeper snow makes this harder and caribou starve. In the summer the increase of annoying insects take energy that should be being used to feed.
So Rudolph's cousins in Alberta are in sharp decline, on their way to extinction. In 2011 scientists proposed changing their status from threatened to endangered but industry intervened. The courts instead ordered that major steps be taken to protect the caribou, but so far the only intervention has been to kill wolves, not to protect critical habitat.
Because woodland caribou can't adapt to our unwillingness to change, they lose. As I've said before, we, individually and collectively, need to make it a priority to live with other species, not just use the earth as a commodity.
Possum
Caribou are kissing cousings to reindeer. Some experts even consider caribou to be the American version of reindeer. Or reindeer to be the European cousins of caribou. Depends on one's perspective.
There are three major types of caribou: tundra, mountain and woodland. Tundra caribou are the ones most like Rudolph. They live in the open spaces of the north country and migrate long distances at a fast pace (they "fly" across the tundra). Woodland caribou can run fast but they live in smaller groups and migrate shorter distances, from 9 - 50 miles between the summer and winter grounds. However far they migrate, the boreal forest is their only home; they don't leave the forest. Unlike some of the animals we'll meet in this blog - moose, wolves - these caribou don't easily co-exist with us humans. We stress them out.
Children of the forest, woodland caribou need intact old growth forest, lots of it, to survive. In addition to the stress of being anywhere near us, their major source of food, lichen, depends on intact old-growth forest. Edges, breaks in the forest (roads for example), provide easier access to them by wolves, their most important predator. As animals dependent on lots of wild forest, woodland caribou are an "umbrella species". If they are doing well, chances are everyone else is doing well, also.
October ramps up the excitement - mating time! The impressive antlers on males are used to keep away competitors. Though the male antlers are much more impressive than the female's, in December the guys shed theirs. Mating season is done, and there is no need for these cumbersome appendages but the antlers of the pregnant females, used for driving aggressive males from their feeding territories and invaluable when you're eating for two, stay. Incidentally, caribou are the only animals where both sexes have antlers. Makes me wonder how the female of other deer species deal with aggressive males.
May to June is birthing season. The mothers give birth alone, but they all give birth in the general area, and all within a few days of each other. This helps protect newborns. Safety in numbers. Wolves, the main predator, have more live caribou flesh than they need so a good portion are spared. Wolves do take a lot, though, up to 40% in some populations.
A tragedy for an individual can strengthen the group. Wolves can only kill the vulnerable; weak, old and sick. By culling out the weaker animals they leave the collective gene pool stronger, while helping keep the caribou/food numbers in balance.
Human industry, specifically logging and energy extraction, are disrupting this balance. Roads multiply forest edges, facilitating the introduction of invasive species, wolf and human hunting, and creating barriers in caribou territory. Woodland caribou are migrating north, away from areas of human disturbance, and roads as barriers make that more difficult. As they lose habitat to logging and tar sands mining, the caribou need to aggregate closer together, making it that much harder to find food and that much easier for wolves to find them.
Climate change, hastened by tars sands mining and use, also impacts caribou. In the winter they can find fungus under the snow by scent but deeper snow makes this harder and caribou starve. In the summer the increase of annoying insects take energy that should be being used to feed.
So Rudolph's cousins in Alberta are in sharp decline, on their way to extinction. In 2011 scientists proposed changing their status from threatened to endangered but industry intervened. The courts instead ordered that major steps be taken to protect the caribou, but so far the only intervention has been to kill wolves, not to protect critical habitat.
Because woodland caribou can't adapt to our unwillingness to change, they lose. As I've said before, we, individually and collectively, need to make it a priority to live with other species, not just use the earth as a commodity.
Possum
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)