Christmas Bird Count: Another Holiday Tradition
...n behalf of the National Audubon Society to record sightings of birds at Christmas time, providing the raw data for the best source of data on distribution and population for the many species of birds. This year the count covers the three weekends between December 20 to January 5. The Society publishe...'BirdSource' Website For Citizen-Science Data
...1934?' and instantly see a map displaying reported sightings of that species," said John W. Fitzpatrick, the Louis Agassiz Fuertes Director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "You will be able to 'watch' as millions of migrating hawks from North America funnel through Central America on their way to South Am...Detecting Deer: New Method For Counting Population In Urban Areas
... Research Center.Their method relies on helicopter sightings from trained observers over atopography covered by about six inches of snow. The snow is helpful as a visualaid to distinguish deer from forest undergrowth. While helicopters flying oversnow-covered terrain have been combined in other studies, no o...Urban Ecology Study Watches Birds On The Web
...er, as the public databasecontinues to record bird sightings and the project is slated to continue wellinto the...ave hundreds of observers regularly recording bird sightings from virtuallyevery Valley neighborhood and contributing information directly over theinternet. ...First Great American Bluebird Count
...though the count encourages participants to submit sightings of more than 30species, the Cornell Lab and NABS named the count for the bluebird because it isa symbol of conservation success. Bluebirds suffered serious population declines during the early part of the 20thcentury. Bluebirds cannot excavate their...Human stem cell research leads Science's top ten list of the best scientific advances in 1999
...tra-solar planets to almost 30. And while previous sightings were indirect, this year, astronomers actually caught one crossing the face of its star, confirming the existence of exoplanets. The latest batch of exoplanets even contains worlds that orbit in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid ...Study suggests that logging may affect monkey health
...g and leaving the groups." The data also show more sightings of solitary males in logged forests, and that, coupled with fewer trees and more open spaces, makes the male mangabeys more vulnerable to attacks from predators, Olupot says. "Males are killed by predators, such as the crowned-hawk eagle, at a much h...The hair of the bear: USGS releases grizzly bear numbers in Glacier National Park
... that because the 1970s estimate was based on bear sightings only, its numbers would not stand up under today's scientific standards for reliability. "Because of this," said Kendall, "we can't use these new, more reliable numbers to say anything about trends, except that in relation to other grizzly population......er communications network to instantly disseminate sightings throughout the area, and has developed an innovative and highly successful sailor training program to aid Navy ships in spotting and avoiding the whales. These and other innovative conservation actions won the Navy and its implementation team partner...Scientists record extraordinary sounds made by minke whales
...ibuted it to minke whales, but there have been few sightings of whales when it has been recorded. It is a mechanical, repetetive sound, but very different from the star-wars sound, Gedamke said. The U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Research funded his work in part because they hoped to pin down the source of the A-...Rare squid found in Gulf of Mexico
...uid is that it has been seen only eight times, but sightings have been worldwide, suggesting this critter is widespread. "Then, too, the fact that we are still finding previously unknown creatures in the year 2001 just highlights scientists' depth of ignorance about the deep oceans."...Wild jaguar photographed in Arizona
...ed as a result of human persecution. Fewer than 20 sightings of jaguars have been confirmed since the mid-1800s. Further, jaguars have lost more than half of their former habitat, a sprawling range stretching from southern Arizona to northern Argentina, during the past century, according to a recent published...Extensive research survey confirms life on Earth now being affected by global warming
... with warming temperatures in the first springtime sightings of butterflies, for example, which have a short lifespan and whose transition from larvae to adult is closely related to temperature," Post says. "Large mammals, in contrast, carry throughout their longer lifetimes the effect of climate conditions t...Rare Asian dolphin threatened by human activities
... of the Ayeyarwady, researchers recorded only nine sightings of this rare dolphin, compared with 14 sightings from a 1998 survey along the same portion of river. The researchers failed to observe dolphins below...World's smallest seahorse discovered
...other seahorse species. But with only a handful of sightings on record, it's hard to know what risks they face, warns Lourie. Heavy-duty trawling gear that can flatten reefs is one potential threat. Underwater tourism is another. "Divers and photographers could possibly love these animals to death," she says. ...Manatee's cousin faces extinction on Tanzanian coast
...g the Tanzanian coast. Out of this group, only 32 sightings of dugongs were reported, and only 8 of these sightings involved living animals. "Effectively managed sanctuaries are probably the only realistic way to pr...US bald eagle counts continue to climb slowly
... analysis. The analysis was based on 101,777 eagle sightings during 5,180 surveys of 563 routes in 42 states. Results of 15 years of the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey have just been published by USGS and Boise State University scientists. Estimated count trends varied by region. In the Northeast, eagle numbers ...History of frog deformities suggests emerging disease
...en fascinated with frogs," says Johnson. Although sightings of deformed frogs are more common today, they have been reported by scientists, as well as the public, since as early as the 1940s, says Johnson, when some of the first cases were described in research journals or consumer publications. Since then,...New evidence suggests that monkey thought extinct still exists
...vorian hunters he knows to keep him informed about sightings of Miss Waldron's red colobus. He's even offered monetary awards to hunters who hear or see the primate. That relationship is somewhat tenuous. Hunting is illegal in Ivory Coast, but the laws aren't enforced, McGraw said. Bush meat has become somethi......erty. The counts gradually increased from five new sightings before 1978, to 17 in the 1978-1983 time span. The...t it's still clear the dramatic rise of first-time sightings continued," Higginbotham said. Why the steady climb and then an increase? Did the feral hog populat...