Friday, November 25, 2011

Loose Feathers #318

California Condors in flight above Bitter Creek NWR in California / Photo by Scott Flaherty (USFWS)
Birds and birding news
Nature blogging
Environment and biodiversity
  • A study on ecotourism found no detrimental effect from ecotourism on wild mammal populations and suggested that ecotourism could help conservation by providing an economic incentive to preserve areas along rivers, which tend to be under pressure from human settlements.
  • A federal appeals court restored Endangered Species Act protections for grizzly bears around Yellowstone National Park.
  • The American Museum of Natural History discovered 11 new sweat bee species, including five from New York City and its suburbs, which are published in the journal Zootaxa. The five New York bees are Lasioglossum gotham, found at the New York Botanical Garden and Brooklyn Botanical garden; L. ascheri, from Westchester and Suffolk counties; L. katherinae, from Brooklyn and Nassau County; L. rozeni, from Suffolk County; and L. georgeickworti, from Queens and Nassau and Suffolk counties.
  • A newly-discovered orchid from Papua New Guinea is the only species of orchid known to flower only at night.