New Zealand's Bird of the Year Is a Bat
The winged mammal is critically endangered and won the award to raise awareness about their existence and importance to the island ecosystem
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Sea Turtle Surgery
A critically endangered species
Kemp’s ridleys can weigh as much as 100 pounds as adults—though they are still the smallest species of sea turtle— and can live for decades. It takes about 15 years for turtles to mature to the point that they can lay eggs, and a mature female can lay two to three clutches of about 100 eggs each nesting season. But less than one percent of hatchlings survive to adulthood, so every adult turtle is important to the overall population—especially a breeding female.
Kemp’s ridley turtles live primarily in coastal environments in the Gulf of Mexico. Over the past century, these gentle creatures have faced increases in pollution, oil spills, and accidental catch risk from commercial fishing, as well as coastal development and crowded beaches in their nesting areas. And as Toni’s situation exemplifies, recreational fishing also poses a major threat.
It’s hard to count how many individual Kemp’s ridley sea turtles live in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean, so biologists count nests to track the health of the population. In the early 1940s, biologists estimated there were 40,000 nests in the Gulf of Mexico. By the mid-1980s, that number had fallen to fewer than 750. Through intensive conservation efforts, nests increased to 19,000 by 2009, but the number has dropped back down to 11,000 nests in 2014, the last year biologists published a nesting survey.
Read more hereCarolina Raptor Center
Carolina Raptor Center
Latta Nature Preserve
Huntersville, North Carolina
From Atlas Obscura -
From golden eagles to peregrine falcons, this rehabilitation and education center is a haven for birds of prey.
In 1975, an injured broad-winged hawk found its way to Dr. Richard Brown, an ornithologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Along with several biology students, Brown helped the bird back to health and released it into the wild—it would be the first of many rehabilitations.
Over the years that followed, more and more birds were brought into the makeshift clinic in the basement of the university’s biology building. In 1980, Brown and Deb Sue Griffin, one of his students, decided to make things more official. Together they founded Carolina Raptor Center, which has admitted some 20,000 birds over the last four decades.
In 1984, the center moved into a new home inside Latta Nature Preserve, which spans more than 1,400 acres. The preserve offers opportunities for hiking, horseback riding, and paddling in the waters of Gar Creek and Mountain Island Lake.
Around 60 percent of the raptors admitted are rehabilitated and then released back into the wild. The birds that cannot be released become permanent residents at Carolina Raptor Center or another facility that can care for them.
Over the years the center has grown in size and complexity—helped along the way by the 300+ Boy Scouts who have completed Eagle Scout projects on its grounds. Today the center is home to 85 permanent resident birds from all over the world, many of which can be seen from the Raptor Trail that encircles the center. One of the highlights of the trail is the eagle aviary, where visitors can take in the impressive sight of golden and bald eagles. Other species on display include a peregrine falcon, red-shouldered hawk, spectacled owl, and turkey vulture.
In 2016, the center began a project that will expand its educational offerings and ability to care for injured birds of prey. This includes Quest, a newly-built facility that will house both the Latta Nature Center and Carolina Raptor Center along with exhibit space, indoor classrooms, and an amphitheater.
Know Before You Go
Carolina Raptor Center is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children. Check the website for more information.
Note: Erosion prevention measures make the trail inaccessible for most powered wheelchairs, but the Visitor Center is wheelchair accessible.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/carolina-raptor-center?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=2cd7c186e8-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_04_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-2cd7c186e8-63315921&mc_cid=2cd7c186e8&mc_eid=11ee67816a
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Metropolitan Cats - A Video of the Metropolitan Museum Cat Collection
Who knew there were so many cats in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC?
Watch Rescued Tigers Swim for the First Time
This is an inspiring video of rescued tigers swim for the first time in their new sanctuary.
Fostering Stray Cats Gave Me Purpose
From the New York Times - an excerpt on the movement to rescue feral cats. Inspiring!
‘I Literally Had No One.’ Then the Foster Kittens Arrived.
Last summer, Jali Henry was feeling lonely and depressed after many of her friends moved out of the city because of the pandemic. “I literally had no one,” she said. “I was like, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’” Then she began noticing street cats in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where she lives: first, a group of four that lived behind a school; then, a cat on her block, obviously sick and infested with fleas. Ms. Henry, 28, who had started volunteering with the rescue group Puppy Kitty NYC, corralled the cat and took it to the vet. “I kind of chased her around the neighborhood, it was really crazy,” she said. “Random people stopped to help me.”
Longtime animal-rescue volunteers in the city suspect there are more stray and feral cats on the streets these days, but there are also, it turns out, more New Yorkers like Ms. Henry, who want to rescue and foster them. “On one hand, we have a group of people who are subject to financial and housing insecurity, which makes them more likely to have to part ways with their pet in a very tragic way, which leads to more cats on the street,” said Will Zweigart, the founder of the Brooklyn-based nonprofit Flatbush Cats. “An entirely different group is experiencing this pandemic with more free time. They’ve finished their Netflix queue, they’re aching for a sense of purpose.”
Betty Arce, a retired Education Department administrator who has been rescuing cats for eight years in the Bronx, said that she had never seen as many cats on the streets before, especially friendly cats and, starting last spring, kittens. “We suspect there is an increase, we just don’t know by how much,” said Kathleen O’Malley, who leads the Bideawee Feral Cat Initiative, which focuses on spaying and neutering community cats.
Neighborhood Cats, a group based in Manhattan, said its number of online donations doubled last April and May, and continue to come in at much higher rates than before the pandemic. Bryan Kortis, the national programs director, said he had also noticed an increase in the number of New Yorkers seeking training on how to help community cats. “They’re home more; they’re more aware of what’s going on in the backyard,” he said.
That’s what happened to Carmen Castillo-Barrett, a science teacher who lives in Flatbush, Brooklyn. Last June, she and her husband realized that three newborn kittens were living in their backyard. After she had the kittens and their mother fixed, Ms. Castillo-Barrett, 42, went through what she called an “interesting summer socializing feral cats.” She would sit beside the kittens as they ate, hissing at her, she said, until eventually they would let her touch them with just one finger. It provided a welcome distraction. “It was like a big experiment,” she said. If it hadn’t been for the pandemic, “it’s possible this could have happened and we wouldn’t have noticed.”
Cat volunteers still face major challenges. There is no city or state funding for organizations that trap, neuter and return cats to the streets. That method, which Bideawee practices, is endorsed by the A.S.P.C.A. and the Humane Society. The Audubon Society and other bird and wildlife advocacy organizations, however, oppose the practice because they consider outdoor cats a predatory threat to songbirds. And getting appointments for free or low-cost spaying and neutering, which has always been difficult, is even more so now.
Still, the rising interest in helping street cats during the pandemic offers a glimmer of hope for people like Mr. Zweigart, who, when not rescuing cats, researches the future of work as a brand strategist. “I’m very optimistic that past 2021 we’re only going to see a higher interest in fostering as people have higher flexibility and only spend more time at home,” he said.
Hayong Lau, 28, who lost her job at a cocktail bar last spring, began fostering kittens, even bottle-feeding a newborn every two hours at one point. “Fostering feels like we have something to control, and it just felt good to do something good,” she said. Ms. Henry, who also plans to continue fostering, has started documenting her experiences on Instagram, in the hopes of getting her charges adopted. “I want to eventually take in smaller kittens and expand my expertise,” she said.
Save Joe the Pigeon
From OXY news - Joe will reunite the nations. Not that Joe. Joe the pigeon, discovered the day after Christmas in a suburban Melbourne backyard, looking exhausted and weak, and wearing a tag that appeared to be from Alabama. The bird now faces “humane destruction” to guard the country against alien avian ailments. Australians and Americans alike have campaigned to save the bird, named Joe after the U.S. president-elect. It's emerged in the last hour or so that Alabama racing pigeon authorities are saying the tag is fake, and the pigeon deserves a reprieve, but it's unclear if the disavowal is more about the name than the bird.
Sources: News.com.au, Reuters
UPDATE: JOE THE PIGEON HAS RECEIVED A REPRIEVE
Cats Available For Adoption
Our dear friend Margot passed away in October. She was caring for these rescued cats who are now available for adoption. Are you looking for more love in your home? Please contact Kiley to get more details.
The Most (and Least) Pet Friendly States in America
As a result of the pandemic, pet adoption rates have skyrocketed, increasing by nearly 90% in some cities.
Since so many Americans are also looking to move to a new home this year, the SafeWise team thought this was a perfect time to release their annual report ranking the best and worst states for pet owners.
How we ranked the pet-friendly states
When it comes to pet-friendly states, we wanted to point out places where you and your pet will find a strong community with proper measures to protect animals.
We ranked states on the following:
- Percentage of pet-friendly apartments (30%)1
- Pet population (20%)2
- Pets-left-in-car laws (10%)3
- Veterinary reporting requirement laws (10%)4
- Tether laws (10%)5
- Anti-cruelty laws (15%)6,7
- Animal fighting paraphernalia laws (5%)8
Note: We omitted Alaska and Hawaii because not all data points were available. See our animal ranking-factor or law overview sections for more information.