International Wildlife articles from July 2000

International Wildlife archives from July 2000

Letters.
July 1, 2000... Just How Many Cats? I thoroughly enjoyed "New Look at Cats!" in the March/April issue. However, a question did arise on the actual number of wild cat species science recognizes today. I would welcome clarifications. John W. Fischer...

"THEY'RE LOGGING YOUR RAIN FOREST!" - A young researcher in Indonesia runs into unexpected trouble at her study site.
July 1, 2000... THE PHONE RANG in New York at 2:00 am on Easter night, 1997. Sasimar Sangchantr was on the other end, and her voice was frantic. Like me, "Sas" was a graduate student interested in studying monkeys on the remote Mentawai Islands of Indonesia....

CASE OF THE DWINDLING CLOUD FOREST - Something is amiss in Costa Rica's famous fogged-in hilltops, and global climate change may be the cause.
July 1, 2000... Naturalist Michael Fogden had lived in the cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, for nearly 15 years before he began to realize that gradually, subtly, the forest was changing. The signs were easy to overlook: Even at the height of the winter...

A Global Consensus on the Environment.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The environmental enlightenment and action that blossomed across America in the past 30 years paid huge dividends for the health of the nation's air, water, land and wildlife. Now, we must expand that enlightenment to an entire world...

A MALE'S WORK IS NEVER DONE - In the topsy-turvy world of wattled jacanas, it's the females who get their guys.
July 1, 2000... Dawn comes early on the Isthmus of Panama, and life along the Chagres River is already stirring at 5:30 am when biologist Stephen Emlen points his canoe into a mat of floating plants in the middle of a lagoon. Keel-billed toucans with their...

On Butterfly Wings: A Bright Ray of Hope.(demand for butterflies aids forest conservation in Kenya)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The shy little Sokoke scops owl (pair, below) lives only in one coastal reserve in Kenya and in a second isolated forest in Tanzania. The species wasn't even known to ornithologists until the 1960s. By then, people along the Indian Ocean were...

Most States Ignore Leading Causes Of Water Pollution, NWF Finds.(National Wildlife Federation)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Four-fifths of the states are failing to use the Clean Water Act to protect people and wildlife from the major sources of water pollution- polluted runoff and contaminated rain-which are fouling more than 300,000 miles of rivers and shorelines...

Lynx Release Caps Years of Effort By NWF Biologist.(National Wildlife Federation biologist Steve Torbit)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... When 13 Canada lynx were released recently in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, NWF biologist Steve Torbit was the only representative of a citizens' conservation organization invited to attend. The moment was the culmination of more...

Forest Service Seeks Wilderness Protection For Alaskan Delta.(Copper River Delta)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... The U.S. Forest Service has recommended wilderness status for the eastern half of Alaska's 700,000-acre Copper River Delta, the largest wetlands complex on the Pacific Coast of North America. The agency's action is a victory for NWF and...

'Greening the Corps' Campaign Targets Worst Water Projects.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Since its formation in 1779, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has constructed 8,500 miles of levees and seawalls, more than 500 dams and 11,000 miles of inland waterway navigation channels at tremendous cost to both taxpayers and the...

NWF Fellows Study Effects on Wildlife Of Climate Change.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... A census of marine life in the tide pools of California's Monterey Bay shows that biodiversity hasn't changed much in the past 60 years. But as the water has gradually warmed, the abundance of species typically found south of Monterey has...

Backyard Habitat Site in California Features Tree Frog Symphony.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... When NWF member Connie Pranger decided to create a modest wildlife habitat at her San Jose, California, home three years ago, she had no idea it would make her famous. "We had been putting out wading pools for frogs and decided to give...

Keep the Wild Alive - Volunteers Monitor, Clean Up Turtle Nesting Beaches.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... NWF's Keep the Wild Alive[ordinal indicator, feminine] program is urging members in south Texas to get directly involved in wildlife conservation by helping to monitor nesting sea turtles on Padre Island and a few nearby beaches, the only...

Guarding the Landscape with Paint - How Robert Bateman masters the art of conservation in Canada's coastal forests.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Art and reality mesh often for Canadian painter Robert Bateman, but seldom so dramatically as they did in 1989 on a trip to the Carmanah Valley of British Columbia. Chain saws in the distance screamed and ripped, and the sickening explosions of...

ON THE WINGS OF HOPE - In Kenya, butterflies are saving a unique coastal forest and the impoverished people who live there.
July 1, 2000... Kahindi Samson slips through the dense underbrush of the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, gracefully lifting his sandaled feet over a tangle of vines. This is familiar territory for the 23-year-old Kenyan. At age 12, he began stealing past the "No Entry"...

A Cut Above: Making the Wild Alive.(Thomas Bewick, English engraver)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2000... Woodcuts by Thomas Bewick Known for his attention to detail, English engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) popularized natural history in the late eighteenth century when he published his wildlife illustrations in A General History of...