Mr. Smokey Bear has always held a figurehead position. His pay is exorbitant and many firefighters believe that the money should go to a more worthwhile cause. We know that Mr. Smokey Bear has been the face of the U.S Forest Service since 1944, but we need a more modern representative. We have extended Mr. Geico Gecko and Mr. Ben Aflac offers to replace Mr. Bear.

Smokey the Bear has been spotted in the Sierra foothills in the Mojave, spending thousands of dollars in Indian casinos and rummaging through trashcans behind $10 seafood buffets. Lonepine native Shelley Birdsong reports,

Mr. Bear sat next to me at the craps tables and ordered me a giant Pina Colada. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and was pretty drunk already. He asked me to come up to his room. I nervously declined, and he didn’t really notice; he just got up and went to puke in the back alley.

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In the wake of the decision by the Bush administration to try and neuter the Endangered Species Act, environmental groups across America have come out in opposition to the plans. The latest, the Ecological Society of America, has come out hitting hard.

"The concept of independent scientific review has been in practice since the 18th century and is crucial to ensuring that ideas and proposed work are scientifically sound," said Alison Power, president of the Society and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University. "This overhaul of the Endangered Species Act would place the fate of rare species in the hands of government stakeholders who are not qualified to assess the environmental impacts of their activities."

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Rogue prefers his steak medium-well. But when it comes to sniffing out a rare plant, this dog performs work that’s very well done, indeed.

The 4-year-old Belgian sheepdog is part of a Nature Conservancy collaborative project to test the efficacy of using dogs to sniff out the threatened Kincaid’s lupine. The plant is host to the endangered Fender’s blue butterfly, found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Watch a video of Rogue in action!

Using detector dogs for such inventory work is new territory: No one’s tried it before.

But since dogs use their remarkable sense of smell to uncover illegal drugs or locate missing persons, why not use them to help find and protect endangered plants and animals?

Rogue’s reward for finding the correct plant? That steak. (Or sometimes mackerel.)

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She gathered all her inner strength and courage to cross a crocodile infested river near her home deep in the arid Masai warrior tribe country with her father and her wannabe husband in hot pursuit.

Betty Lason, now 17 and still in primary school, said recently that she vividly remembers the incident six years ago because she executed her plan one evening after returning to her new husband’s home from day-long sheep and goat herding in the bush under the scorching sun.

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A large part of the excitement, however, is not that Henry seems to be racing against time but he is enjoying the company of three mates in his sunset years. He has lived long, though, with his species having a lifespan of about 70 years in the wild.

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“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact.

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If you live in a city or suburban area, you can help. Directly below are three unique ways that you can use to join the effort to protect urban wildlife as well as make some positive additions to urban ecosystems at the same time. Some of these ideas you might be familiar with, and others you might not. In any case, spread the word!

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I find that zoos tend to reliably provoke more thoughts in my mind than other places that can also stimulate me to think, like aquariums, museums, shopping malls, movie theaters, and parks. Before I started writing this article, in my nerdy social scientist way I dug through numerous scientific papers about topics such as whether or not people learn anything when they visit zoos, what attitudes people tend to have about zoos in general, and studies about how animals living in zoos might be negatively affected by us going to see them (especially those of us with more interest in animals). After reading and seeking more knowledge, I was only left with more questions.

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Scientists will tell you that men have a lot to learn from the animal world in as far as the art of sex is concerned.

This fact was reinforced last week with the announcement that ecologists at the University of California, Davis had isolated scent-emitting enzymes that could be manipulated to prevent sexual activity between males and females of the Japanese beetle as a way of checking their population.

Essentially, this means that scent has been confirmed to play a major social-environmental stimuli role for sexual activity in insects and other animals, like the mammals and even human beings.

The importance of smell in relation to sex has been studied for centuries. Books like The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality by James V. Kohl and Robert T. Francoeur and The Scented Ape: The Biology and Culture of Human Odour by David Michael Stoddart offer great insights into human pheromones, the sense of smell, and human sexual behavior.

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Now — in one of the most significant conservation sales in history — The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land have preserved 320,000 acres of forestlands in western Montana that provide valuable habitat for species in the Crown of the Continent.

“There hasn’t been an animal extinction here since Lewis and Clark encountered it in the early 19th century,” explains Kat Imhoff, the Conservancy’s state director in Montana. “It’s the only such ecosystem in the Lower 48 states.”

The deal is part of the Conservancy’s large-scale efforts to protect forestlands around the world — the majority of which are working forests supplying sustainably harvested timber.

Over the past five years, the Conservancy has protected 3.5 million acres of forestlands — at a time when nearly one-half of Earth’s original forest cover is gone and global deforestation rates continue to rise.

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Now, for the first time, scientists have observed long-tailed macaques fishing with their bare hands.

Nature Conservancy scientist Erik Meijaard and other researchers are the first to scientifically document this rare conduct. In a recent article published in the International Journal of Primatology, Meijaard and his coauthors say that, while conducting field studies in Indonesia, they have repeatedly observed long-tailed macaques catching fish from fast-flowing rivers.

“This is interesting behavior and some of the first observations of primates catching fish,” says Meijaard, the Conservancy’s senior ecologist in Indonesia.

A Very Hungry Monkey?

In the first sighting back in 1998, researchers describe seeing five female macaques sitting alongside the Ketambe River in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra.

The macaques’ eyes scanned the water. After about three minutes, one of the macaques reached into the river. With her bare hands, she pulled out a fish and quickly ate it. Other macaques watched her — and one even tried unsuccessfully to catch a fish herself.

“Clearly it may raise the question of whether there is some sort of learning going on,” says Meijaard. “If perhaps a couple of generations back, one primate caught a fish and it was subsequently copied.”

Researchers documented a similar sighting in 2006 in a separate macaque population in the Lesan Conservation Area, a Nature Conservancy program site in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. There, on two separate occasions, a macaque was observed swiftly grasping a fish out of the shallows before retreating into the forest with the fish still in its mouth.

While the fishing macaque sighting in Lesan coincided with a time of low fruit availability, Meijaard is hesitant to blame the fishing behavior on resource scarcity or draw conclusions about its meaning.

“It might be nothing more than a hungry monkey who is smart enough to extract nutrients from its environment,” he says.

Protecting Indonesia’s Forests

Meijaard is also the Kalimantan coordinator for the USAID-funded Orangutan Conservation Services Program.

But he says that forests — not macaques or orangutans — are the Conservancy’s real focus.

The Conservancy is fighting an ongoing battle to protect the forests around the Lesan Conservation Area. These forests, which harbor a substantial orangutan population, are slated to be destroyed for agriculture and plantations.

The Conservancy is working around the clock to convince local communities and governments to instead consider their long-term economic needs and put the forests into permanent, sustainable management.

“Macaques and orangutans are neat symbols, but they’re not going to convince people here,” Meijaard says. “What we need is data that shows the microeconomic implications of forest conversion.”

“Depending on the decisions made now, the forest could be around forever, or it could be gone forever by next year.”

1. Reduce your plastic consumption. The most frequently collected items during beach cleanups are made of plastic—think reusable shopping bags, water bottles and utensils.
2. Make informed seafood choices. Keep a copy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood guide in your wallet or text Blue Ocean’s FishPhone to help you choose sustainable seafood at the grocery store or a restaurant.
3. Dispose of chemicals properly. Never pour chemicals, pharmaceuticals, oil or paint into the drain or toilets. Check with your county’s household hazardous waste program to properly dispose of or recycle chemicals and keep them out of rivers and oceans.
4. Choose green detergents and household cleaners—or make your own! Besides being better for your own health, these products are safer for the environment since what goes down the drain can end up in our oceans.
5. Get the dirt on your beachside retreat. Before you stay in a hotel on the coast, ask staff what happens to their sewage and swimming pool water, and if they source their restaurant fish from sustainable sources.
6. Find out the source of your food. Buying local, organic food reduces your carbon footprint, supports the local economy and reduces the amount of pesticides and fertilizers that end up not just in your stomach, but as run-off in rivers and oceans, too.
7. Fill your yard with native species. Reducing the amount of grass in your lawn by planting native shrubs and flower beds will provide a better habitat for birds and other wildlife and require far less water and fertilizer, which can seep into the oceans.
8. Keep your beach visit clean. When visiting the beach, stay off fragile sand dunes, take your trash with you and leave plants, birds and wildlife for everyone to enjoy. Find a Conservancy coastal preserve near you.
9. Choose alternatives to coral. Whether shopping for jewelry, household décor or accessories for your fish tank, do your part to leave fragile coral reef habitats untouched by buying products that aren’t made of real coral.
10. Celebrate our oceans. Whether you live inland or on the coast, we are all connected to the ocean; take the time to organize or participate in activities that restore and celebrate the ocean, and help support The Nature Conservancy’s ocean conservation work.
    • Donate online now to support The Nature Conservancy’s work to protect and restore marine habitats in your area and around the world.
    • Rescue a Reef to help protect some of the most threatened corals in the world.
    • Sign up for the Conservancy’s Great Places Network, a free online membership program, to learn more about what the Conservancy is doing in your state and around the globe.
    • Test your oceans knowledge with our online quiz.
    • Send an ocean e-card to friends and family.

But scientists estimate that 70% of all corals reefs could be lost by 2050 if current rates of destruction continue — from factors ranging from overfishing to climate change.

That’s why The Nature Conservancy is supporting three major policy efforts by island nations around the world to conserve marine diversity — the Micronesia Challenge, the Coral Triangle Initiative and the newly launched Caribbean Challenge, which is being aided by a $20 million Conservancy pledge.

Together, these regions contain 83% of Earth’s coral species, according to James Robertson of the Conservancy’s Center for Global Trends.

“The threats to coral reefs are huge and occur across the globe, so coral conservation has to be at a scale that matches those threats,” explains Lynne Hale, director of the Conservancy’s Global Marine Program.

“The Caribbean Challenge is a perfect example of how the Conservancy is working with governments and people who depend on coral reefs to catalyze bold and immediate conservation action,” says Hale.

Caribbean Nations Launch Challenge

The Caribbean Challenge will accelerate marine conservation in the region — with the aim of protecting 20% of the region’s marine and coastal habitat by 2020.

The Conservancy announced its support for the challenge when it was launched by Caribbean leaders at a U.N.-sponsored conference in Bonn addressing worldwide threats to biodiversity.

The Caribbean Challenge will enable the Conservancy to help participating nations do essential marine conservation work, such as:

• Create new marine protected areas (MPAs);
• Hire, equip and train park managers and other staff;
• Reduce destructive fishing practices;
• Incorporate protection strategies that mitigate the impacts of climate change; and
• Establish a sustainable funding source for future marine conservation.

“The Caribbean Challenge is a broad and collaborative effort,” says Rob Weary, the Conservancy’s senior conservation finance and policy advisor for the Caribbean. “By supporting island nations with funding, scientific expertise and training, we can help them achieve their goals.”

It’s an approach that’s already working in two of the world’s most significant coral areas — Micronesia and the Coral Triangle.

Protecting Marine Resources in Micronesia and the Coral Triangle

Launched in 2006, the Micronesia Challenge is a commitment by five governments to conserve 30% of their marine resources and 20% of their terrestrial resources by 2020.

In less than two years, the Micronesia Challenge has already spurred the creation of new protected areas and new legislation for the support and management of such areas. Heralded by the President of Palau and supported by the Conservancy, the Micronesia Challenge is the inspiration and model for the Caribbean Challenge.

The Conservancy is working similarly in Southeast Asia’s Coral Triangle region — where an astounding 76% of the world’s coral species are found.

“The Coral Triangle is the global epicenter of marine biodiversity,” says Rod Salm, the Conservancy’s director of marine conservation in Asia Pacific. “The world’s coral diversity hinges on the health and survival of this area.”

In the Coral Triangle, Salm and other marine scientists are pioneering the identification and protection of resilient coral communities — those that are most likely to survive bleaching and other traumatic events. They are hopeful that this effort will help save corals from the impacts of climate change.

“It’s critical that we begin incorporating principles of climate change resilience to protect corals and all of our marine resources,” says Salm. “The Conservancy is leading the way in helping marine resource managers to do this worldwide.”

But no, it finally scuttled away again, returning once more a bit later with its friend/sibling for another reconnoitering mission. It is still hanging around, eating fallen birdseed and doing various other mischievous things.

While this unusually friendly squirrel was clearly wary as it investigated the baking human, I would not say that it showed a whole lot of fear…even if it did not jump up in my lap and surely would not have let me pick it up.

Later, in a bit of synchronicity, my father told me on the phone about how friends of his had saved a baby raccoon from a tree that was being cut down. It was no more than the size of a mouse when they originally rescued it, and they were raising it as a pet. So now it was sort of like your typical rambunctious kitten or puppy, playing with toys and perfectly content interacting with its owners/rescuers. In saving the baby raccoon’s life, then, these kind people had also domesticated it (along with practicing a bit of “adoptive stewardship”), turning it from wildlife to family pet–with all the familiar behaviors.

Incidents like these where wildlife do not flee from the first sign (sight, smell, or sound) of humans always make me wonder about the nature of animals’ fear of us. I wonder if it is something instinctual, a natural reaction to us and relationship with us, something perhaps developed for survival through the ages. Maybe the ancestors of modern wildlife had bad experiences with our ancestors, who were likely looking for anything to serve as food and clothing and what have you. Maybe those animals saw one too many of their companions captured and turned into workers and/or pets, and so they learned to distrust and avoid us in order to live free.

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That scent is so rich, so savory, so earthy, so pungently sweet that just one whiff seems to bury you in an olfactory pleasure dome. And if you keep basking in the aroma, you may well feel driven to grab a pitchfork, plop a straw hat on your head, stick a blade of grass in your mouth, and head on out to the fields. This is especially true on those oh-so-humid mornings in the peak of summer, when the air is so moist and dense that you almost have to put on scuba gear. But any old day is a great day for cow poop.

I confess that I am no connoisseur of creaturely caca, but I would bet that none can compare with the quality of a cow’s. Horse manure comes close, but it pushes pungency at the expense of sweetness, plus it is not very good for fertilizer. The feces of fowls is not even in the same league; it is far too acrid, not to mention slimy and sticky and all around offensive. Elephant excrement is similarly versatile (for example, it makes a great alternative source for paper), yet so far it lacks the time-tested dependability and widespread availability of cow dung; pachyderm pooh is thus still an exotic delicacy rather than a common staple. (I cannot speak to its odoriferous character, alas.) And nobody would sing paeans to dog and cat poop. Look at how tenderly people carry those telltale plastic bags when walking their dogs–usually with one arm extended as the dog pulls the leash and the other arm, hand, and pinching fingers extended as far away as possible with the bag bobbing in the air. When it comes to the felines, we have managed to train them to go potty in specified places, cover it with “fresh scent” granules, and graciously shake off anything sticking to their paws. I suppose “domestication,” in part, means proper toilet training…or “house training,” as it is called. And as for “humanure”…I am not even going there.

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Obviously, nature is often “red in tooth and claw,” as Tennyson puts it.1 However, nature also has its soft-and-fuzzy side, which provides a wonderful lesson and model for how humans in general and environmentalists in particular can relate to nature. A particularly splendid example of this is animals “adopting” other animals.

I have been watching a pair of cardinals parenting a baby cowbird at my bird feeders recently. Cowbirds (like other birds, such as the cuckoo) will lay their eggs in other birds’ nests and let the foster parents do the dirty work–changing dirty diapers, wiping runny noses, feeding at all hours of the night and day. And so along with the little baby cardinals flapping flopping and squawking like mad, this little cowbird is right there with the rest getting dutifully fed by the cardinals. I am sure all pet owners can recount endless tales of cats adopting dogs, dogs adopting cats, and so on.

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The Center for Biological Conservation was the group who filed a petition on February 17, 2005, asking that the polar bear be listed under the ESA. They have followed the landmark decision approving this petition by adding the three seals for consideration as species under threat. The “landmark” aspect of these decisions is that the polar bear was the first animal to be recognized as threatened as a direct result of climate change.

“While the polar bear may be the first Arctic species listed under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming, it will, unfortunately, not be the last,” says Shaye Wolf, a biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

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I’m not the only one who has noticed this overlap, of course. And rarely have I encountered such a thorough examination of the connections between animal welfare and just about every other issue that concerns me than in the book Why Animals Matter by Erin E. Williams and Margo DeMello.

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Editor’s note: Part two of the “Human Interaction with Nature” series focuses on human impacts on fauna. This post was written by Lindsay Crupper, and originally published on Friday, May 9, 2008.

While it is obvious that climate change affects humans across the globe, it also affects the animal kingdom as well. For millions of years, animal extinction and endangerment has been a major problem. The Endangered Species International web site states, “Today, 99.9 percent of all species that have existed on Earth are extinct.”

That is truly a shocking statistic. In order to get a better idea of how this problem is becoming more prevalent, I spoke with Liz Harmon, who is the curator at the Kansas City Zoo. Harmon, who has a degree in zoology, has worked at the Kansas City Zoo for four years. Her job as curator entails overseeing the animal department, which includes the staff, animals and exhibits.

Harmon identified over twenty species of animals currently listed as endangered that live at the zoo. Some of the more well-known animals include cheetahs, chimpanzees, gorillas, black rhinos and slender-snouted crocodiles. She certainly agrees that animal endangerment can be attributed to humans. “Animals become endangered for a number of reasons. Man-made reasons include loss of habitat, over hunting, pollution, and changes in the environment (such as global warming).”

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