Nature in the News

deadlybuzzman

Birdnuts wrote: »

Not sure - currently we don't seem to be doing a very good job controlling deer numbers and Wild Boar can multiply even faster!!

Is there even any state level policy on what deer numbers must be kept under?
Deer can only be shot for 4 months of the year and oddly this applies to sitka which is an invasive species. No wonder there are parts of the country with loads of deer (my part included)

Birdnuts

deadlybuzzman wrote: »

Is there even any state level policy on what deer numbers must be kept under?
Deer can only be shot for 4 months of the year and oddly this applies to sitka which is an invasive species. No wonder there are parts of the country with loads of deer (my part included)

I doubt this "state" knows even how many deer are out there let alone designing a sensible management plan for the various species

deise08

The thylacine awareness group have just uploaded a video. They're claiming they've sent trailcam footage yo the Hobart museum looking for verification. Please God I hope this turns out to be true.

https://mobile.twitter.com/collieennis/status/1363863655150927888


https://youtu.be/nUwM16FaEZU

New Home

Awh, I was hoping to see the actual footage...

Kamili

New Home wrote: »

Awh, I was hoping to seethe actual footage...

Me too!

HoteiMarkii

From an article in the Guardian:

In a statement, TMAG said Mooney had “concluded that based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided, the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines, and most likely Tasmanian pademelons”.

A Pademelon (which I must confess I hadn't seen before) is most unlike a Thylacine, and looks more like a Wallaby. Not sure how they could mistake one for the other?!

Mr Crispy

Wallabies. What an anti-climax!

New Home

HoteiMarkii wrote: »

From an article in the Guardian:

In a statement, TMAG said Mooney had “concluded that based on the physical characteristics shown in the photos provided, the animals are very unlikely to be thylacines, and most likely Tasmanian pademelons”.

A Pademelon (which I must confess I hadn't seen before) is most unlike a Thylacine, and looks more like a Wallaby. Not sure how they could mistake one for the other?!

That's exactly what I thought, too - a pademelon looks like a cross between a quokka and a capybara and a wallaby (or something), it's not even remotely similar to a thylacine. I'm hoping it might be diversion tactics, because what they found IS the real thing but they want to keep people from swarming to the area.

odyssey06

Saw this on RTE... a "mesmerising murmuration" of starlings captured over Lough Ennell in Westmeath

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0304/1200943-mesmerising-murmuration-of-starlings-at-lough-ennell/

New Home

Woohoo!! Finally!! A wildlife hospital!

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0217/1197772-wildlife-hospital-opens/

fryup

odyssey06 wrote: »

Saw this on RTE... a "mesmerising murmuration" of starlings captured over Lough Ennell in Westmeath

https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0304/1200943-mesmerising-murmuration-of-starlings-at-lough-ennell/

has to be the wildlife photo of the decade - a murmuration in the shape of a bird, incredible!

pottokblue

New Home there was a nice piece on Friday Nationwide about a Limerick woman who set up a bat rescue centre inspirational story.


Meanwhile Wisdom the worlds oldest known wild bird has a new chick

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/05/wisdom-the-albatross-the-worlds-oldest-known-wild-bird-has-another-chick-at-age-70

New Home

Did you see the photo?



https://miro.medium.com/max/2356/1*c9qJTDFuSOO33JLkc2ZNfA.jpeg

Hold My Hand

RTE have picked their 12 finalists for the Eye on Nature competition

https://www.google.ie/amp/s/amp.rte.ie/amp/1203228/

Poor fella. A bit lost.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2021/0314/1203982-arctic-walrus-valentia/?fbclid=IwAR07HIJ4C7xZJ0e91rt6DGpl-G8ge-slPxMX5JC_nmh9BkEpvYhzsKe4PrY

Birdnuts

Deleted User wrote: »

Poor fella. A bit lost.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2021/0314/1203982-arctic-walrus-valentia/?fbclid=IwAR07HIJ4C7xZJ0e91rt6DGpl-G8ge-slPxMX5JC_nmh9BkEpvYhzsKe4PrY

Astonishing stuff(though apparently Walrus bred as far south as Scotland in Roman times)

magicbastarder

when they say 'exhausted', is that synonymous with malnourished?

fryup

what should we call him.......Paul?

magicbastarder

The girl who spotted it said she wants it to be named isabelle if it's female and cian if it's a male.

Tiercel Dave

fryup wrote: »

what should we call him.......Paul?

Or " John".....

fryup

no! the walrus is Paul

Tiercel Dave

Ah, same Fab Four, different song.....

fryup

anyone know if "Paul" is still down there?

deise08

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/17/sperm-whales-in-19th-century-shared-ship-attack-information

Whales shared information during whaling times and adapted their defences accordingly.

Mr Crispy

fryup wrote: »

anyone know if "Paul" is still down there?

Walrus which washed ashore in Kerry reappears in Wales

Thankfully, not "in Whales" I guess.

pottokblue

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/20/tardigrades-natures-great-survivors


1st time I've heard or tardigrades- the microscopic caterpillar: “They can survive being dried out. They can survive being frozen down to about a degree above absolute zero, which is the temperature at which all molecular motion stops. In their dry state they can be heated up well past the boiling point of water. They can survive thousands of times as much radiation as we can. And they’re the only animal we know of that can survive prolonged exposure to the vacuum of outer space.” Their resilience looks like they'll still be here long after human extinction...

Wilbury Twist

Has the Walrus been given a fine yet for traveling outside the designated Covid 19 5k limit?

IrishHomer

It's amusing the way the Irish media stated the walrus in Kerry was exhausted and then a few days later he turns up in Wales

johnsparkexile

An ornithologist was left elated when he discovered that a Finch he ringed in Wicklow last June became only the second-ever such bird to travel 1,119km from the Republic of Ireland to Germany.

Brian Burke was contacted after a ringer in Germany retrapped the Siskin, which rarely travels to mainland Europe from Ireland.

The expert with Birdwatch Ireland said he caught and recorded about 30 Siskins last year at his new home in Kilpedder in Wicklow and many of them still remain in his garden.

He said: “I got word last week that a male Siskin that I caught and ringed under licence in my Wicklow garden last June was found by a ringer in Germany – 1,119km away between Frankfurt and Stuttgart.

“While there are many records of Siskin moving between Ireland and Britain, fewer than 50 Siskin from Ireland have ever been recorded in mainland Europe.

“As far as we can tell, in the last seventy years since recording of birds started here, it’s only the second Siskin from the Republic of Ireland found in Germany.

“The Siskin is a common species in Ireland and they are usually found in most gardens around February. This year in particular has been a good year for them, with increased sightings being reported in gardens from as early as December.

“I’ve been talking to some of my colleagues, and we can only guess that nomadic instinct set in on overdrive and above and beyond what they normally experience to disperse from their habitat but how or why he got so far to Germany we are not sure.

“Some of the Siskins I caught are still in my garden, some are in the four corners of Ireland and a few made it to the UK.”

He said it was nice to be contacted and told the Siskin was alive and well. He added “I got two calls from the UK last year after Goldfinches had flown into windows and died.

“I would normally catch and record up to 1000 birds in the garden with a small metal ring around their legs, so we can learn more about the birds and their behaviours and status but this time, this Siskin has left us all a bit bewildered but delighted.”

New Home

Chile rejects $2.5 billion iron mine to protect penguins

and

India saves its tigers instead of mining for $330m in diamonds