Owls Well That Ends Well For Lost Bird
An owl and her owners have returned to the Giant's Causeway to thank National Trust staff and local people who helped reunite them. Patricia O'Callaghan and Terry Turkington were holidaying on the north coast two weeks ago when their beloved barn owl Arya escaped.
Think Fast! Bats Make Decisions In Mere Milliseconds
Bats are among nature's quickest thinkers, capable of making actual split-second decisions. Using echolocation, or ultrasonic squeaks to locate prey, bats interpret the returning echo to decide when and how to attack, or even to call off the attempt — all within milliseconds, as researchers at the University of Southern Denmark discovered.
Bats In Your Attic?
Big brown bats and little brown bats are year-round residents of Maine and New Hampshire. The other six species that call our region home actually migrate to warmer climes or hibernacula during the winter. Of the eight species that call our region home, six species are now listed as Special Concern status: eastern small-footed myotis (Myotis leibii), little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), Northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), red bat (Lasiurus borealis), hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), silver-haired bat (Lasionycterus noctivigans), Eastern pipistrelle (Pipistrellus subflavus). Maine is considering listing the little brown bat and the Northern long eared for endangered listing. The crash in populations can be attributed to White Nose Syndrome, and there is much to be learned about the habitats and behaviors of these special species. The Center for Wildlife is proud of our work with bats (and all of our species!) because treating each individual can make a big difference to local ecology. Bats can consume their body weight in insects each night, which means a great deal to human health (think mosquitoes and EEE or West Nile), agriculture (USDA estimates bats provide 3 billion dollars worth of agricultural pest control each year in our country), and forestry (picture over-population of gypsy moths).
All Eyes On Owls
It’s not every day the birth of a wild animal changes the course of a person’s life, but that’s what happened to Karla Bloem. In the spring of 1997, Bloem was working for the small community of Houston, Minn., in the state’s southeastern corner, creating a nature center as a way to serve the town’s trailhead for the Root River Trail. At the same time, some 200 miles to the east in Antigo, Wis., a 3-week-old great-horned owlet fell out of her nest in a pine tree, permanently injuring her left elbow and leaving her unable to fly. The owlet, which would eventually be named “Alice,” remained in the care of the Raptor Education Group, Inc., in Antigo for several months.
Rentokil Shares Rise on Stronger Profits
Rentokil Initial shares rose to a four-and-a-half-year high on Friday as strong demand for its pest control services combined with cost measures to drive pre-tax profit up 58.4 per cent. The company unveiled a series of innovative products, including a trap for small vertebrates that sends a text when it catches a creature and an infrared-activated poison dispenser as it seeks to stimulate further growth in its mature markets, where competition is intense.
NYC Rats Carry Bubonic Plague-transmitting Fleas - Study
New York City’s notoriously massive rat population appears to present a bigger health risk than was thought before. According to a new study, the rodents’ fleas could transmit Bubonic plague. Scientists from Columbia and Cornell Universities collected 133 Manhattan rats for their research. The animals were euthanized while the insects living on them were killed with a vapor.
