By Jason G. Goldman The writing was on the wall more than a decade ago, or at least it seemed to be. Though the species was classified as one of "least concern" by the IUCN, yellow-naped amazon parrots were struggling in the Paso del Istmo region of Nicaragua. The green-feathered birds sport patches of red on their wingtips and are named for the yellow on top of their necks. A...
By Jason G. Goldman The world lurched to a standstill in the spring of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic infiltrated nearly every corner of the planet. But while our daily lives slowed and changed, the rest of the natural world kept plodding on, almost oblivious to the fear and angst gripping human communities. Spending all that time at home, many people began looking out their windows or going on long...
By Jason G. Goldman As the sun sets on the beaches of Costa Rica's Pacific coastline, a man walks along looking for comma-shaped scoop marks in the sand, the telltale sign of a nesting sea turtle. He follows a set of tracks from the water's edge until they stop. That's where he starts digging. Eventually, he uncovers a hundred or more leathery eggs, each the size of a ping-pong ball....
Every winter, the willow flycatcher travels from the U.S. to Central America for the season. Five years ago, we began studying the bird's habitat use in Nicaragua. What we learned was surprising! The birds return each year to nearly the same location. These small flycatchers prefer scrubby vegetation near water. Sadly, these are areas most frequently burned or cleared by farmers. Will you help save one willow flycatcher? Your donation...
By Jason G. Goldman This is the third article in a three-part series on connectivity. Click here to read part one: “Coexistence, Not Corrals” and click here to read part two: “Building Bridges – Literally.” Once upon a time, an animal that was sufficiently motivated could safely travel the 2500 miles from the forests of southern Mexico through Central America to wind up safely in Colombia. The so-called Mesoamerican land corridor is still...
By Jason G. Goldman This is the second article in a three-part series on connectivity. Click here to read part one: "Coexistence, Not Corrals" and click here to read part three: "Making Way for Monkeys." The natural world is being carved and sliced into smaller and smaller parcels. Forests and grasslands and deserts are becoming like individually wrapped fun-size candy bars of nature, each with its own fragmented community of wild plants and...
By Jason G. Goldman This is the first article in a three-part series on connectivity. It was the first of March, 1872, when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. With his signature, the nation's first national park was officially born. It's hard to say exactly where the idea for a national park came from, but the origins of Yellowstone seem to lie in...
This year’s pandemic is causing extra poaching for the pet trade in Central America. Endangered baby spider monkeys are now much more likely to be stolen from their mothers and sold into a life of captivity. Many want a baby spider monkey pet, but that doesn’t mean they’re meant to live with us as a pet. But there’s good news: you can help! Giving Tuesday officially kicks off the holiday...
By Jason G. Goldman Every year, millions of birds of prey migrate from summertime breeding grounds in North America to overwintering grounds in South America. One section of their pathway stretches nearly 2500 miles between central Texas and northwestern Colombia’s Chocó rainforests and is known as the Mesoamerican Land Corridor. More than five million raptors – the family of birds that includes vultures, hawks, eagles, and owls – can be...
By placing 3D-printed and GPS-enabled decoy sea turtle eggs into nests on the beach, it’s possible to gather key evidence needed to expose rampant illegal trade of the eggs, suggests a study publishing in the journal Current Biology on October 5. The researchers specifically tested how well the decoy eggs work and their safety for the endangered turtles. “Our research showed that placing a decoy into a turtle nest did...
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