Society for Biodiversity Preservation

Everything you ever wanted to know about ... the threats to the world's forests

The world’s forests are our last line of defence in mitigating climate change, stopping the extinction of wildlife and helping to prevent the next pandemic ...

🌳 Find out more about EIA's ongoing campaigns to combat illegal logging and deforestation

🌴 Get the facts at https://eia-international.org/forests/fighting-deforestation/

Fun Fact Friday! Did you know that the Ontario Field Onithogist chose the Bobolink, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, as their Bird of the Year for 2024!?! What a great way to recognize and celebrate a unique species of bird all year long.

In Ontario, the Bobolink has been listed as a threatened species since 2010 and is at risk of one day becoming endangered if continual efforts are not taken to protect them. Bobolinks are found in open fields and grassland habitats across southern Canada and the Northern US states. Their name 'oryzivorus' means rice-eating, referring to their fondness for wild and domesticated rice, grains, and other small seeds. During the breeding season, Bobolinks eat and feed their young exclusively insects, spiders, and insect larvae. Changes in habitat use, loss of meadows, and hay fields, and use of pesticides are some of the main challenges this species faces. Maintaining breeding habitat by not mowing fields until after nestlings have fledged is one practice that could really make a difference for this species.

Right now Bobolinks are far away from Ottawa, hopefully happily enjoying the sunshine in South America. They have one of the most impressive migrations for a songbird with some travelling 20,000 each migration season. No maps are needed for these amazing birds. Flying under the cover of darkness they use the stars to help navigate their way but they can also orient themselves with Earth's magnetic field. Bobolinks have iron oxide in bristles and tissues surrounding their olfactory bulb to successfully use their magnetic superpower.

If you have never seen one before perhaps they can be your bird of the year to try and spot! During the breeding season scan open fields for a bold male perched singing on a tall grass stem, branch, or doing his display flight over a field. Even from a distance, their 'backwards tuxedo' of black underneath and white patches on top are easily visible.

Do you make a birding goal each year? Please share with us!

📸 Thank you Victoria Andrew for submitting this photo of a very proud-looking Bobolink!📸

Get a new phone this holiday season? 🎁 Here's a post-holiday tip: Recycle those old cell phones!

Each year millions of cell phones end up in landfills. That's approximately 65,000 tonnes of waste! Donate your old phones to the Zoo’s Phone Apes program by dropping them off on your next visit or mailing them to the Zoo, and we will provide 100% landfill-free recycling. This ensures that minerals such as Coltan are recycled, reducing the demand to mine them in the Congo and saving the habitats of lowland gorillas.

📫: Toronto Zoo - Cell Phone Recycling Program C/O Manager, Conservation Programs & Environment
361A Old Finch Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M1B 5K7

All proceeds raised by this program support Great Ape Conservation programs. Learn more: https://www.torontozoo.com/tz/phoneapes 🦍

New Species Alert: A new species of slender snake has been found in Otishi National Park in Peru and has been named in honor of Harrison Ford for his conservation dedication. The newly described Tachymenoides harrisonfordi is a small harmless colubrid. While Harrison Ford's character Indiana Jones famously hated snakes, the real-life actor has a fondness for them and said, "The snake's got eyes you can drown in, and he spends most of the day sunning himself by a pool of dirty water — we probably would've been friends in the early '60s...".

Learn more about this species in the species description paper found here: https://tinyurl.com/25xa9r3k

It has been proposed that early humans learned to shape their pottery by following the example of the Potter Wasp. Their nest is a perfect little pot with a fluted opening. They lay an egg into the pot, then add several paralyzed caterpillars before sealing the opening. When their egg hatches, the wasp larva consumes the tasty caterpillars as it grows, then emerges as an adult wasp. How cool is that?!

Fraternal Potter Wasp (stuffing its nest on the visitor center), photo by Michael Schramm/USFWS

In an enchanted submerged forest, a snapping turtle perches atop the woody stalagmite structure of a cypress knee in hopes of ambushing a meal that might swim by. I hoped for something like this when I set out to show how these cypress swamps looked underwater, but knew the odds of it materializing were pretty low. Snorkeling in this flooded Eden, I swam past a massive tree trunk, looked to the right and saw this. I was so excited but also nervous I would spook the turtle, so I walked that all-too-familiar razor edge of urgency and caution and made a few frames. Sometimes, you encounter scenes where it seems like the elements are too perfectly aligned to be real. I’m so lucky to find moments like this all the time in swamps and I think that’s what keeps me coming back.
Photographed for “Ghost Forests,” a feature story in the September issue of magazine and online written by Joel Bourne Jr. and edited by with support from . Pick up a copy on newsstands now to see more images and read a fascinating story of these incredible trees.

I’ve seen so many surprising things while slogging in the swamp. It’s what keeps me coming back. But, this quiet wildlife encounter was truly exceptional and one of my favorites. Explorer and I were rigging old growth cypress trees to study the canopy life on the Black River, NC when I saw slight movement at the base of a decaying trunk. It was a massive catfish! With all the surrounding water gone, it looked stuck. But then I looked closer and realized it was exactly where it wanted to be because it was guarding a large clutch of eggs at the base of its tail. If you zoom in, you can see the pink mass. It turns out that once females lay eggs, the male flathead catfish will often take over guarding them from predators, including from their own mother. This dedicated dad stayed with his progeny, delicately moving his tail so sediment wouldn’t smother them, even while all the water dried up around him making him vulnerable to predators. Once dusk approached, Peter and I went back to make this portrait. And just like that, my love and appreciation for the complex ecology of these ecosystems deepened even further.
Shot for on property for “Ghost Forests” in Sept issue of Nat Geo Magazine, editing by .

BREAKING: We reveal the global investors in traditional medicines made with endangered wildlife

A new EIA UK investigation has found the body parts of threatened leopards and pangolins being used as ingredients in at least 88 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) products

Manufactured by 72 Chinese companies and licensed by the National Medical Products Administration of China, some of those identified also contain tiger and rhino, in contravention of recommendations made by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

EIA has also identified 62 banks and financial institutions – many of them Fortune 500 companies and household names – based in Australia, Canada, the EU, Japan, Switzerland, the UK and USA which have invested in three publicly listed Chinese pharmaceutical groups manufacturing nine of the products stated to contain leopard and/or pangolin ...

* New report out today - get the full story at https://eia-international.org/news/we-reveal-the-global-investors-in-traditional-medicines-made-with-endangered-wildlife/

New amphibian family tree a leap forward in understanding frogs, shows they evolved tens of millions of years later than previously thought. Researchers at the Natural History Museum, London, have unveiled the most extensive evolutionary tree of frogs (anuran amphibians) to date. This comprehensive phylogeny, based on hundreds of genetic markers and a staggering 5,242 frog species, is set to transform our understanding of these fascinating creatures..

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/press-office/press-releases/new-amphibian-family-tree-a-leap-forward-in-understanding-frogs-.html #:~:text=PRESS%20RELEASE-,New%20amphibian%20family%20tree%20a%20leap%20forward%20in%20understanding%20frogs,years%20later%20than%20previously%20thought

My talent: not sleeping at night.⁣⁣
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Well, since you're up, why not learn about night skies in national parks? We generally think of night skies as a scenic resource, valued by amateur astronomers as well as casual stargazers. Sometimes forgotten is the importance of natural darkness for wildlife. Nearly half the species on Earth are nocturnal—active at night instead of during the day. Many species rely on natural patterns of light and dark to navigate, nest, mate, hide from predators, and endlessly scroll on Facebook.

Have you experienced the night sky in a park?

Learn more about at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/natural.htm

Image: Mesa Arch below a starry night sky at Canyonlands National Park, UT.

‘Mind blowing’: Grizzly bear DNA maps onto Indigenous language families Both bears and humans may have been attracted to the same resource-rich regions

SA economy suffers from declining White and Black Rhino populations: Bukhosini - SABC News The sharp decline decline in White and Black Rhino populations has a negative impact on the South African economy, according to Isimangaliso Wetland Park CEO, Sbusiso Bukhosini.

U.S. Consulate General Kolkata We represent the U.S. across 11 states in East and Northeast India.
Terms of Use: state.gov/tou

National Science Week is a great time to find out about the incredible work of Victorian scientists. Check out our STEM and Society webinar series at vicparl.news/3OTF8KE conducted in partnership with Royal Society of Victoria and Victorian Parliamentarians for STEM. It includes presentations on citizen science, caring for rare species, biodiversity conservation, First Peoples' perspectives on environmental management, and more.

This years Walpole Wilderness Bioblitz is fully booked but spaces are still available for the WWBB dinner on Saturday evening (head to our website and follow the links to book). The Soho Hills area has a huge variation in habitat from tall forest to low heath and should give us a huge species list.