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Posts Tagged ‘rare’

Duolingo Adds isiZulu. And More.

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on June 14, 2025| 11 Comments »

The Duolingo bird can be very encouraging to a language learner. But it can also get angry.

With Suzanne’s family leaving soon for six months in Stockholm, I’ve been trying to learn some Swedish. I hope to try it on my grandchildren come next January. So it’s daily Duolingo for me. If I ever get to the point where I can understand Erik when he uses Swedish with the kids, I might also try expanding my French. I like the way the silly Duolingo bird cheers me on.

I was surprised to learn how many new languages the app has been adding lately. In the beginning, it didn’t even have Swedish. Now, according to an article in the Verge, it’s adding things like Maori, Tagalog, Haitian Creole, and isiZulu.

Jay Peters reports, “Duolingo is ‘more than doubling’ the number of courses it has available, a feat it says was only possible because it used generative AI to help create them in ‘less than a year.’

“The company [said] that it’s launching 148 new language courses. ‘This launch makes Duolingo’s seven most popular non-English languages – Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin – available to all 28 supported user interface (UI) languages,’ dramatically expanding learning options for over a billion potential learners worldwide’ … the company writes.

“Duolingo says that building one new course historically has taken ‘years,’ but the company was able to build this new suite of courses more quickly ‘through advances in generative AI, shared content systems, and internal tooling.’ The new approach is internally called ‘shared content,’ and the company says it allows employees to make a base course and quickly customize it. …

“ ‘Now, by using generative AI to create and validate content, we’re able to focus our expertise where it’s most impactful, ensuring every course meets Duolingo’s rigorous quality standards,’ Duolingo’s senior director of learning design, Jessie Becker, says in a statement.

“The announcement follows a recent memo sent by cofounder and CEO Luis von Ahn to staff saying that … it would ‘gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle.’ AI use will now be evaluated during the hiring process and as part of performance reviews, and von Ahn says that ‘headcount will only be given if a team cannot automate more of their work.’

“Spokesperson Sam Dalsimer tells The Verge in response to questions sent following von Ahn’s memo. ‘We’ve already been moving in this direction, and it has been game-changing for our company. One of the best decisions we made recently was replacing a slow, manual content creation process with one powered by AI, under the direction of our learning design experts. That shift allowed us to create and launch 148 new language courses today.’ …

“Dalsimer acknowledges that there have been ‘negative reactions’ to von Ahn’s memo. Dalsimer also notes that Duolingo has ‘no intention to reduce full-time headcount or hiring’ and that ‘any changes to contractor staffing will be considered on a case-by-case basis.’ “

Hmm. That is giving me pause. But I do like the app and the way that for English-speaking students like me, Duolingo starts out with some vocabulary that sounds like English. It makes me wonder if it does the same for learners who come from other languages. That could be really tricky.

Have you used Duolingo? I know that blogger Asakiyume, a mega language learner, used Duolingo to add Spanish and Portuguese to what she already knew in Japanese and more obscure languages. One thing I know for sure: she won’t like that Duolingo contractors will lose jobs thanks to AI.

More at the Verge, here.

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Precious Snails

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on January 16, 2025| 1 Comment »

Photo: Ryan Kellman/NPR.
Inside this lab in Hawaii, David Sischo and his team care for 40 species of snails. For some snails, it’s the only place they live, having been brought into captivity to stave off extinction.

If we take care of the least of Earth’s organisms, we ultimately take care of ourselves. That’s one reason why today’s story on some obscure research actually matters, even at a time when humanity seems to have bigger issues on its plate.

Lauren Sommer and Ryan Kellman report at National Public Radio about Hawaii’s “jewels of the forest.”

“When Hurricane Douglas came barreling toward Oahu in 2020, David Sischo quickly packed up and drove to higher ground. But he wasn’t evacuating his family. He was evacuating snails.

“Sischo works with some of the rarest endangered species on the planet, kāhuli — Hawaii’s native tree snails. The colorful, jewel-like snails were once so abundant, it’s said they were like Christmas ornaments covering the trees. Almost all of the 750 different species were found only in Hawaii.

“Today, more than half of those species are gone, the extinctions happening in the span of a human lifetime. Sischo and his team with Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources have the heavy task of saving what’s left.

“To stave off extinction, 40 species of snails, each about the size of a dime, live in human care inside an unremarkable trailer near Honolulu. For some, it’s the only place they’re found, their wild populations having completely disappeared.

” ‘Most people, when they think endangered species going extinct, they think of pandas and tigers and elephants, but imagine having 40 different panda species that are all as rare as pandas are,’ Sischo says. ‘That’s what this facility is.’

“This winter, one species of snail will inch toward an auspicious milestone. It will be released in a special enclosure in the mountains of Oahu, one that has been painstakingly prepared to give the snails the best chance of survival in their natural environment.

“Still, the outlook for Hawaii’s snails is uncertain, symbolizing a new era in the conservation of endangered species. Around the world, plants and animals are being brought into captivity as a last-ditch effort against extinction. But as the climate heats up and invasive species continue to spread, many have no clear path to return to nature in the near-term. That could mean they stay in human care, isolated in zoos for the imperiled. …

” ‘I don’t think people realize how fast things are changing,’ Sischo says. ‘It’s happening, like right now as I’m talking to you, there’s species blinking out, out in the wild right now.’

“To keep that from happening to Hawaii’s native snails, Sischo never turns off his phone. They rely on life support systems in the Snail Extinction Prevention Program trailer, kept in environmental chambers that control temperature and release mist to simulate their native rainforest habitat. Sensors are set up to detect any problems, alerting Sischo and his team 24 hours a day. …

“Sischo pulls out one with snails the size of a fingernail hiding among the leaves. It’s Achatinella fulgens, a snail with a pale yellow shell and a bold black stripe swirling around it. … Other snails have intricate stripe patterns, almost like they’re sporting a plaid shirt. One snail has a shell like a miniature cinnamon roll. Some are almost iridescent, glowing with golds and greens.

” ‘Our tree snails are known as the jewels of the forest,’ he says. ‘The islands were dripping in snails. They were everywhere.’

“Hawaii’s tree snails play a crucial role in the ecosystem, having evolved over millions of years on the isolated islands. They don’t actually eat leaves, instead eating the fungus that grows on them. That helps keep the native trees clean and recycles nutrients in the forest. The snails also hold an important place in Native Hawaiian culture, their shells used to make lei.

” ‘In Hawaiian tradition, snails sing,’ Sischo says. ‘They represent voice. So they were probably one of the most revered invertebrates in the world.’

“Hawaii’s tree snails were no match for the barrage of changes that humans brought. Rats eat snails, and they arrived on ships, both Polynesian and European. The snails’ habitat disappeared as Hawaii’s forests were cleared for agriculture. But the biggest threat came in the form of another snail.

“In the 1950s, a predatory snail was introduced to Hawaii from Florida. The rosy wolf snail was released to control another invasive snail, but as so many invasive species stories go, it quickly spread. Rosy wolf snails are exceptionally good at eating native snails, hunting them down by following their slime trails and ripping them from their shells.

” ‘When they encounter a slime trail, they know the direction it was going,’ Sischo says. ‘Once they’re locked in on a trail from a native snail, they go right up to it. There’s no getting away.’ “

Oh, gee. That’s exactly what I meant in a recent post about introducing a species to address a problem. What if the fix goes awry and creates new problems?

More at NPR, here. No paywall.

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The Crane and the Human

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on April 11, 2024| 14 Comments »

Photo: Chris Crowe/Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute.
The endangered white-naped crane is difficult to breed in captivity. But then a zoo keeper in Virginia bonded with one.

This year marked the death of a white-naped crane called Walnut, a bird unusual not only for her rarity but for her predilections. Let’s go back a few years and learn why she was unusual.

At the Washington Post in 2018, Sadie Dingfelder wrote about the crane that fell for a human.

“Early one summer morning, as rain is misting the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a middle-aged man is courting a crane. Chris Crowe, 42, bends forward in a slight bow and then flaps his arms slowly, like wings. ‘Hey, girl, whatcha think,’ he coos.

“Walnut has heard that line before. The stately bird ignores Crowe, reshuffles her storm-cloud-gray wings, and snakes her head gracefully to the ground, looking for something tasty to eat.

“ ‘Come on, now,’ Crowe says. The zookeeper grabs a fistful of grass and tosses it into the air. This is Crowe’s sexiest move — a sly reference to building a nest together. Walnut looks up, curiosity glinting in her marigold eyes, but then she returns to probing the soft, wet ground with her bark-colored bill. She’s simply not feeling romantic. …

” ‘Try getting in the van,’ Crowe calls to me. I follow his suggestion, and, almost immediately, Walnut starts responding to Crowe’s overtures. She returns his bows and then turns away from him and holds her wings loosely away from her body. Kneeling behind the bird, Crowe rests a hand gently on her back. …

“This strange cross-species seduction has helped ensure that white-naped cranes continue to exist, at least in captivity, says Warren Lynch, a fellow zookeeper at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

‘It’s amazing, what Chris has accomplished with Walnut,’ Lynch says. ‘This isn’t something just anyone can do.’

“When Walnut arrived at the Front Royal, Va., endangered species breeding center, back in 2004, she was the most genetically valuable white-naped crane in captivity. At 23, she had yet to produce a single chick. … Walnut hatched on July 2, 1981, in an old horse barn in Baraboo, Wis. … Volunteers named her, somewhat randomly, after their favorite dessert at a nearby diner, a walnut cream pie.

“The foundation was in full-tilt crane-making mode, trying to churn out as many of the rare animals as possible, recalls former ICF ornithologist Michael Putnam. When a pair of cranes produced eggs, staff would put the eggs in an incubator, which would prompt the pair to make more.

“Walnut’s parents [were] captured illegally in China and smuggled to Hong Kong. … They were intercepted by local authorities and eventually shipped to the [International Crane Foundation].

“Though it would have been better to return the birds to the wild, international tensions in 1978 made that impossible, Putnam recalls. Plus, no one knew exactly where in China they had been captured, or what the birds might have been exposed to during transit. ‘We didn’t want to release birds that might carry diseases and put them back into the wild flock,’ Putnam says.

“This kind of poaching is less common today, but the white-naped crane population is falling fast because of a more relentless foe: booming human populations, which are overtaking, polluting or draining the wetlands that the birds need to survive. ‘One pair of cranes, to breed, usually requires huge wetland areas,’ Archibald says. ‘It may be several acres, it may be several hundred acres.’

“In addition to demanding vast areas of untrammeled wilderness, these difficult birds seem almost drawn to marginal places. For instance, one of the white-naped cranes’ most important wintering grounds is the 2.5-mile-wide demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. There, in a strange, de facto nature preserve, white-naped cranes and their even-more endangered cousins, red-crowned cranes, root for tubers among the land mines they are too light to trigger. If tensions between the Koreas subside, however, the cranes will be in trouble. Farmers are already clamoring for access to the nutrient-rich land, and developers are planning for a reunification city and deepwater port.”

The long and fascinating article at the Post is here, but paywalled. So check out Walnut’s history at the Guardian obit, here.

It reads in part, “Walnut, a white-naped crane and internet celebrity, has died at the age of 42. She is survived by eight chicks, the loving staff at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, and by Chris Crowe – a human zookeeper whom Walnut regarded as her proxy mate for nearly 20 years. …

“Walnut was hand-raised by people and bonded with her human caretakers. That preference continued when she came to the institute – she showed no interest in breeding and even attacked male crane suitors. … As the offspring of two wild-caught cranes, Walnut’s genes were not represented in US zoos. So convincing Walnut to breed was regarded as a priority.

“Crowe, according to a zoo statement, won her over by ‘observing and mimicking’ the institute’s male white-naped cranes’ actions during breeding season. … Once Crowe had gained her trust, he was able to artificially inseminate her using sperm from a male crane.

“The unique arrangement was very successful and Walnut laid fertilized eggs that eventually hatched eight chicks. The fertilized eggs were given to other white-napped crane pairs who tended to them as their own. …

“Earlier this month, keepers noticed that Walnut wasn’t eating or drinking, even her favorite treats, frozen-thawed mice, peanuts and mealworms, couldn’t spark her appetite. The bird declined and, surrounded by an animal care team, died peacefully, an autopsy revealing the cause of death to be renal failure. …

“Crowe said, ‘Walnut’s extraordinary story has helped bring attention to her vulnerable species’ plight. I hope everyone who was touched by her story understands that her species’ survival depends on our ability and desire to protect wetland habitats.’ ”

Makes me think of the book Birdy — only the guy really thought he was a bird. Remember that?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UK4KCEpXdZ0%3Fsi%3DJ__isbx6GwRoMK1t

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Rare Mineral Found by Accident

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 25, 2024| 2 Comments »

Photo: F.Kemner/LfU Bayern.
The rare mineral Humboldtine is known only from about 30 sites worldwide. This specimen was found unexpectedly in a mineral collection in Germany.

I’ve often blogged about surprise discoveries of plants or animals thought to be extinct and about the unearthing of long-buried human artifacts. Today’s story by David Bressan at Forbes magazine is on the surprise discovery of a rare mineral that was hiding in plain sight. It makes me think there will be an endless supply of of things to discover in the future because we keep forgetting what we have.

“During a survey of an old mineral collection now hosted at the Bavarian Environment Agency or LfU Bayern in Germany,” Bressan writes, “experts discovered fragments of Humboldtine, one of the rarest minerals found on Earth.

“Humboldtine is known from only 30 localities worldwide, including quarries and mines located in Germany, Brazil, the U.K., Canada, the U.S., Hungary, Czech Republic and Italy. It rarely forms tiny crystals and is most commonly found as a yellow, amorphous mass. Humboldtine forms when carbon compounds and iron-oxide react with water and is one of the few ‘organic minerals‘ containing carbon-oxygen-hydrogen groups in their crystalline structure.

“Humboldtine was first discovered by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in a weathered brown coal deposit near the municipality of Korozluky in Okres Most in the Czech Republic. [It was] scientifically described in 1821 by Peruvian geologist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz, who named the mineral after the German 19th-century naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt. …

“In 2023, during the digitization of the archive of the LfU, a letter written by a coal mine owner and sent in 1949 to the agency was found. The letter mentions the presence of Humboldtine in coal seams of the Matthiaszeche near the town of Schwandorf, a town on the river Naab in the Upper Palatinate. The agency asked for some samples for further analysis to confirm the discovery. But no follow-up documentation seems to exist.

“But intrigued by the note, Roland Eichhorn, head of the geological department at the LfU, and colleagues decided to check the vast historic mineral collection — comprising over 130,000 rock and mineral samples — hosted in the agency’s basement. If any samples were ever sent in, they still could be here. In one drawer of the systematic mineral collection, where minerals are ordered according to their chemical composition, they found some fragments of a yellow mineral labeled ‘Oxalit,’ German for organic minerals, still inside an old cardboard box. The label also showed that the samples came from the locality mentioned in the letter.

“Modern chemical analysis confirmed the discovery made 75 years earlier; the six fragments, the largest almost the size of a nut, are indeed Humboldtine. Together with other samples, this doubles the amount of Humboldtine known so far. …

“The Matthiaszeche, a former open-pit mine for brown coal, was closed in 1966 and subsequently flooded. There is no chance of getting any more Humboldtine from this locality.”

More at Forbes, here.

I love that geologist Eichhorn was curious. Bless his heart. That’s how discoveries get made. And I also think curiosity is what keeps us all going.

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Blue Frog Found

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on August 21, 2023| 3 Comments »

Photo: Ragosta family via RI Department of Environmental Management.
A family in Rhode Island found a rare blue frog and reported it to the DEM.

What turns kids on to Nature? Often it’s a parent’s enthusiasm about fly fishing, say, or their excitement about a rare bird or wildflower. Sometimes it’s just what kids find on explorations of their world. There are natural curiosities everywhere, even in cities, if you walk around with noticing eyes.

Carlos R. Muñoz reports at the Boston Globe about the rare blue frog Rhode Island boys spotted recently.

“A Rhode Island family made the remarkable discovery of a rare blue frog [in July] and reported it to the state Department of Environmental Management. The bullfrog displayed signs of a rare pigmentation known as axanthism, which is a lack of color-bearing cells that turns green frogs blue.

“The department said in a Facebook post on its Division of Fish and Wildlife Outdoor Education page that the condition is most frequently seen in green frogs, leopard frogs, and bullfrogs — species in the Ranidae family of amphibians. …

“A 1966 study by Cornell researchers found that only 69 out of two million frogs (0.003 percent) are blue.

“Michael Berns and Lowell Uhler, authors of the study, said that blue-green frogs are ‘incredibly rare’ but exhibit different regional occurrence rates. In New England, these blue frogs are most common in Massachusetts and Connecticut. …

“ ‘Green frogs are widely distributed throughout Rhode Island, spending most of their lives in freshwater wetlands such as marshes, ponds, streams, and vernal pools,’ according to a DEM brochure authored by wildlife technician Liam Corcoran.

“Kimberly Ragosta, the mother of five whose kids made the once-in-a-million discovery, said her son Jack spotted the glistening blue bullfrog squatting by the road while the kids were running a roadside stand.

“Jack told his mother he was taking a stroll along the road near a swampy woodland area when he noticed the croaking bullfrog’s shimmering skin ‘sticking out like a sore thumb.’ He ushered it into a bucket to show his mother. ‘It didn’t move at all; it was his easiest catch ever,’ Ragosta said.

“Jack went on to research the amphibian and correctly discovered its rarity. They notified the department, but later released the frog into the woods.

“Another blue frog was caught July 2 in northern Rhode Island by 11-year-old Finn Leonard, according to his mother Kate Arsenault Leonard. She saw the department’s Facebook post and commented with a picture of the giant blue frog with a dark leopard print and a broad grin.

“Finn told the Globe that he was trying to catch frogs for a friend when he saw the blue frog and tried to catch it. He said he also saw it last year but could not get it.

“ ‘He hopped out each time,’ Finn Leonard said of his previous attempts to lure the amphibian. He was triumphant this year when he netted the frog, which he said he knew was rare because he saw it on the YouTube Channel ‘Brave Wilderness.’ …

“Kate Arsenault Leonard said one of the reasons her family loves living in rural Rhode Island is the ability to explore nature in their own backyard. They go out looking for salamanders, fishing, watching fireflies, and of course frog hunting. …

“The family is floating ‘Alien’ as a name. Finn set the frog free. …

“DEM said the exact locations of the rare frogs are being kept secret to limit the number of ‘well-intentioned nature observers who inadvertently may cause negative impacts on habitat.’ “

This story reminds me that maple leaves also “turn color” when a certain pigment is missing. And I’m noting the role of the parents here: the kids in both stories knew their adults would be excited. Now they will be doubly inspired to look closely at Nature and try to make more discoveries. Perhaps they’ll be scientists one day. Even if not, they will always be friends of our planet.

More at the Globe, here.

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Rare Sighting Overwhelms Birder

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on September 14, 2022| 6 Comments »

Photo: Yurgen Vega/Selva/ProCAT.
The rediscovered Santa Marta sabrewing. It is only the third time the species has been documented: the first was in 1946 and the second in 2010. 

As exciting as space exploration is, there are also exciting discoveries being made on Planet Earth — from ancient civilizations revealed by drought to rare birds showing up after many years.

Graeme Green writes at the Guardian, “A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a birdwatcher in Colombia after going missing for more than a decade.

“The Santa Marta sabrewing, a large hummingbird only found in Colombia’s Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species might be extinct as the tropical forests it inhabited have largely been cleared for agriculture.

“But ornithologists are celebrating the rediscovery of Campylopterus phainopeplus after an experienced local birdwatcher captured one on camera. It is only the third time the species has been documented: the first was in 1946 and the second in 2010, when researchers captured the first photos of the species in the wild.

“Yurgen Vega, who spotted the hummingbird while working with the conservation organizations Selva, ProCAT Colombia and World Parrot Trust to survey endemic birds in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, said he felt ‘overcome with emotion’ when he saw the bird.

“ ‘The sighting was a complete surprise,’ he said. ‘When I first saw the hummingbird I immediately thought of the Santa Marta sabrewing. I couldn’t believe it was waiting there for me to take out my camera and start shooting. I was almost convinced it was the species, but because I felt so overcome by emotion, I preferred to be cautious; it could’ve been the Lazuline sabrewing, which is often confused with Santa Marta sabrewing. But once we saw the pictures, we knew it was true.’

“The Santa Marta sabrewing is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list of threatened species and features in the Top 10 ‘most wanted’ list in the conservation organization Re:wild’s Search for Lost Birds, a worldwide effort to find species that have not been seen for more than 10 years. The bird is so rare and elusive that John C Mittermeier, the director of threatened species outreach at American Bird Conservancy, likened the sighting to ‘seeing a phantom.’

“The hummingbird Vega saw was a male, identified by its emerald green feathers, bright blue throat and curved black bill. It was perched on a branch, vocalising and singing, behaviour scientists think is associated with courtship and defending territory.

“The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia is home to a wealth of wildlife, including 24 bird species not found anywhere else. But scientists estimate that only 15% of the mountains’ forest is intact. It is hoped the surprise sighting of the Santa Marta sabrewing will help to protect their remaining habitat, benefiting many different species found there.

“ ‘This finding confirms that we still know very little about many of the most vulnerable and rare species out there, and it is imperative to invest more in understanding them better,’ said Esteban Botero-Delgadillo, the director of conservation science with Selva: Research for Conservation in the Neotropics. ‘It is knowledge that drives action and change – it is not possible to conserve what we do not understand.

“ ‘The next step is [to] involve people from local communities and local and regional environmental authorities, so we can begin a research and conservation program together that can have real impact.’ ” More at the Guardian, here.

By the way, the Guardian routinely covers encouraging environmental stories, including a recent one on the strengthening numbers of protected hen harriers in England. Nadeem Badshah reported here that, according to England’s conservation agency Natural England, “nearly 120 rare hen harrier chicks have fledged in England this year, the highest number for more than a century. … But conservation experts have warned that work needs to continue to tackle the illegal persecution of England’s most threatened bird of prey, which hunt red grouse chicks to feed their young, bringing them into conflict with commercial shooting estates.”

Now, there’s a riddle for you!

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Returning Pilfered Cactuses

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Tini and Jacob Wijpkema.
Rare cactus, Copiapoa cinerascens, found in Chile. According to the NY Times, “Cactus traffickers are cleaning out the deserts.”

Today’s story, about an endangered cactus from Chile, demonstrates the role individuals’ tastes can play in the environment. Our individual choices add up to a force for right or wrong, whether we leave our engine running while we go shopping or we collect plants and animals because they are rare. “One and two and 50 make a million,” you know.

At the New York Times, Rachel Nuwer says some rare cactuses are getting too popular with unscrupulous collectors.

“Andrea Cattabriga has seen a lot of cactuses where they didn’t belong. But he’d never seen anything like Operation Atacama, a bust carried out last year in Italy. A cactus expert and president of the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation, Mr. Cattabriga often helps the police identify the odd specimen seized from tourists or intercepted in the post.

“This time, however, Mr. Cattabriga was confronted by a stunning display: more than 1,000 of some of the world’s rarest cactuses, valued at over $1.2 million on the black market.

“Almost all of the protected plants had come from Chile, which does not legally export them, and some were well over a century old. The operation — which occurred in February 2020, but is being made public now because of the cactuses’ recent return to Chile — was most likely the biggest international cactus seizure in nearly three decades. It also highlights how much money traffickers may be earning from the trade. …

‘Here is an organism that has evolved over millions of years to be able to survive in the harshest conditions you can find on the planet, but that finishes its life in this way — just as an object to be sold,’ [Mr. Cattabriga] said.

“As with the market for tiger bones, ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn, a flourishing illegal global trade exists for plants. ‘Just about every plant you can probably think of is trafficked in some way,’ said Eric Jumper, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Cactuses and other succulents are among the most sought after, along with orchids and, increasingly, carnivorous species.

“Trafficking can take a serious toll. Over 30 percent of the world’s nearly 1,500 cactus species are threatened with extinction. Unscrupulous collection is the primary driver of that decline, affecting almost half of imperiled species. Yet this realm of illegal trade is typically overlooked, a prime example of ‘plant blindness,’ or the human tendency to broadly ignore this important branch on the tree of life.

“ ‘The basic functioning of the planet would effectively grind to a halt without plants, but people care more about animals,’ said Jared Margulies, a geographer at the University of Alabama who studies plant trafficking. ‘A lot of plant species are not receiving the amount of attention they would be if they had eyes and faces.’

“Yet the size of Operation Atacama could be a notable exception. It is also the largest known example of cactuses stolen from the wild being repatriated for reintroduction into their native habitat.

“Experts also hope the case can be a turning point for how countries, collectors, conservationists and the industry deal with the thorny issue of international cactus trafficking.

“ ‘Society as a whole can no longer continue to have a naïve view of this problem,’ said Pablo Guerrero, a botanist at the University of Concepción in Chile. …

“Cactuses confiscated by the Italian authorities are normally destroyed or, if they are rare species, sent to botanical gardens. But with Operation Atacama, ‘it was very different,’ Mr. Cattabriga said. … At first, there was discussion of sending the plants to other botanical gardens in Italy and broader Europe. But Mr. Cattabriga, [Lt. Col. Simone Cecchini, chief of the wildlife division of the local police department] and Dr. Guerrero were adamant they be returned to Chile for both conservation and symbolic purposes.

“Working with [Bárbara Goettsch, co-chair of the Cactus and Succulent Plant Specialist Group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature] and several others, they spent much of 2020 navigating Italian, Chilean and international bureaucracy to secure permission to send the plants home. ‘It’s the first time this has happened, so no one was really clear on how to do this,’ Dr. Guerrero said.

“The authorities finally agreed to the transfer in late 2020. But neither Chile nor Italy would pay the approximately $3,600 shipping cost.

“Dr. Goettsch managed to secure about three-quarters of the funds from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and the botanical garden in Milan pitched in as well. The rest was provided by Liz Vayda, owner of B. Willow, a plant shop in Baltimore that regularly donates to environmental groups.

“Finally, in late April, 844 cactuses made the return journey to Chile.”

Read about the homecoming at the Times, here.

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Not So Very Extinct

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on August 31, 2020| 8 Comments »

Photo: NewsBeat Social/Youtube
“Seven years after conservation groups started a breeding program to save the Myanmar Roofed Turtle, 60 were released into the country’s river system,” says Science Times.

Anytime a creature thought to be extinct makes a comeback, it gives one hope that other things can come back. We really shouldn’t minimize the importance of, say, the little fish called the snail darter that was the focus of a big fight. We never know what aspect of a biodiverse world will benefit us in the future. And, besides, we need metaphors.

I loved this story about a comeback for a rare turtle in Myanmar.

Liz Kimbrough reports at Mongabay, “Once considered extinct, the Burmese roofed turtle (Batagur trivittata) was brought back from the brink by an ambitious conservation program.

“Now, almost 30 years after its rediscovery in the wild, scientists have [published] photos and descriptions of hatchlings and eggs, as well as some background information about the conservation of the species [in] the journal Zootaxa by scientists from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Myanmar, Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), Global Wildlife Conservation, and Georgetown University.

“The Burmese roofed turtle is the second-most critically endangered turtle in the world. Once abundant, hunting and overexploitation of eggs has driven the population to near-extinction, with only five or six adult females and two adult males known to exist in the wild today.

“The species was presumed extinct until 2001, when researchers found the shell of a recently killed turtle in a village along the Dokhtawady River in Myanmar. Shortly after, a U.S. turtle collector found a living turtle at a wildlife market in China.

“Encouraged by these findings, researchers conducted field surveys to find the wild populations. After following locals’ descriptions of ‘duck-sized eggs,’ the researchers found living turtles in two separate rivers in Myanmar. However, the population had collapsed to a whisper. …

‘The biggest threat is that there are so few left in the wild and so if there’s an accident we’ve lost a big chunk of the population,’ Steven Platt, first author of the study and WCS associate conservation herpetologist for Southeast Asia, told Mongabay.

“ ‘Otherwise its mostly fishing. I worry about them getting entangled in fishing gear and drowning. And if we didn’t monitor, the eggs would be collected.’

“More than half of the world’s turtle and tortoise species are now threatened with extinction. Loss of habitat is their biggest threat globally, but turtles also face dangers from the pet trade, overconsumption for food and medicine, fishing, pollution, invasive species, and climate change.

“In an effort to bring the Burmese roofed turtle back from the brink of extinction, WCS and the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) in collaboration with the Myanmar Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry began a program to ‘headstart’ the species in 2007. Researchers and technicians collected eggs from wild turtles for a captive-breeding program. …

“The captive population is now approaching 1,000 turtles, and the species appears to be in little danger of biological extinction. The goal is to eventually release them back into their wild habitat in the Chindwin River.

“In 2015, WCS and TSA reintroduced some male turtles back to the wild, but reintroduced turtles can be hard to follow and locate in the river when the wet season rolls in, Platt says. For now, the team is trying a different strategy, keeping some of the turtles in floating cages in the river as a ‘soft release’ of sorts. The hope is that once the turtles become acclimated to the area they can be released and won’t stray too far.

“ ‘River turtle conservation is really difficult,’ Platt said. ‘Tortoises can move about a kilometer, or, normally just stay within a few hectares of where we release them, but these turtles, once they’re in the river, they can go up or down for several hundred miles if they just keep swimming.’ ”

Read more at Mongabay, here. And hope for other comebacks.

Photo: Myo Min Win/WCS Myanmar
Burmese roofed turtle shown moments after emerging from an egg collected from a sandbank along the Chindwin River and incubated at a facility in Limpha village, Sagaing region, Myanmar. See Platt et al.

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The Seed Zoo

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 21, 2019| 6 Comments »

cloverlawn

Photos: Richters.com
The company behind the SeedZoo for rare species offers a range of services, including replacing lawns with edible plants.

I recently learned that in addition to Norway’s Seed Vault, where 400,000-plus seeds are (we hope) safe from global warming and other disasters, there is also a seed bank that individuals around the world can contribute to.

It’s the SeedZoo at a company called Richters. And depending on the level of your concern about invasive species, you can buy unusual seeds there or contribute your own.

From the website: “Richters is proud to introduce SeedZoo™, a project to preserve traditional and indigenous food plants from around the world. Teaming up with botanical explorers and ethnobotanists, we are searching for rare and endangered food plants that home gardeners can grow and enjoy, and help to preserve.

“Of the 7,000 or so species of food plants known to man, only 140 are cultivated commercially, and of those, most of the world’s supply of food depends on just 12.

Even as the world increasingly speaks about food security, incredible varieties that are known only to a single tribe or in small and remote localities are being lost forever.

“We sent plant explorers across the world in search of rare beans, squashes, melons, greens, and grains. They have been to the jungles of Borneo, to small farms in Japan and Italy, and to the bustling food markets of Africa. In the coming months they will visit India, Vietnam and beyond. Many of the rare and exotic plants that they bring back don’t even have names and can only be called landraces — plants with unique features found in only one region or sometimes in just one village.

“Often our explorers can bring back only a handful of seeds, sometimes fewer than 100. Because these seeds are so rare and from such remote regions of the world, they are sold on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. Once they sell out they may never be available again. …

“Join us in this grand project to preserve a part of the world’s food diversity. Try some of the planet’s treasures, and enjoy the culinary adventure. And please save some seeds and share them with your friends.”

Let me give you an example from the Richters website. How do you like the idea of the Kyrgyzstan Banane Melon?

Richters calls it a “gorgeous casaba type melon from southern Kyrgyzstan near the city of Osh. It is one of many local variations of melons found throughout central Asia. The yellow fruits have a creamy white flesh that is very sweet and delicious. It should be as easy to cultivate as other melons. Assume about 100-110 days to maturity. Will likely do best in warmer slightly drier areas. Fruit sweetness is enhanced when there is not too much water available. Fruits are picked when mature and deep yellow, and the stem begins to dry up. They are usually eaten fresh but the flesh is also dried as and used in the winter.”

I’m worried what Jean will say about this idea, but I’m pretty sure Jill will be up for it.

More here.

The Kyrgyzstan Banane Melon, with an admirer.

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Queens, New York, a Language Museum

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on October 4, 2019| 5 Comments »

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Photo: Ann Hermes/Christian Science Monitor
Daniel Kaufman, founder of the Endangered Language Alliance, is recording and preserving the many endangered languages of New York.

A number of people who follow this blog are interested in endangered languages and what is being done to save them. Recently, I saw this article on the treasure trove of rare languages that is found in — of all places — Queens, New York. Here it is.

Harry Bruninius writes at the Christian Science Monitor, “Like many immigrants who live near the busy subway hub in Jackson Heights, Tenzin Namdol usually talks to her family and friends with a shape-shifting array of tongues.

“She’ll jump from colloquial Tibetan to standard English in the middle of a conversation almost without a thought, and then start speaking what she says has become a third hybrid of slang, combining the phonetics of both. She also speaks fluent Hindi. ….

“Despite this easy fluency in a number of very different languages, Ms. Namdol becomes wistful when it comes to one she hasn’t quite mastered – the native tongue of her mother, whose people speak a rare Himalayan dialect called Mustangi.

“There are only about 3,000 people left in the world who still speak Mustangi, and most live in a remote Himalayan region in western Nepal. But a few hundred or so of these speakers, including Ms. Namdol’s mother, now reside in the New York borough of Queens.

This also happens to be the most linguistically diverse neighborhood on earth, scholars say.

“With as many as 800 distinct languages, Queens has a diversity of tongues and dialects unprecedented in human history – and its epicenter is here amid the concentrated din of Jackson Heights. …

” ‘Sadly, my mother didn’t pass down her language to me,’ says Ms. Namdol, whose family lived among the Tibetan diaspora in Dharamshala, India, before emigrating to New York. …

“Part of this classic story, too, has been the well-intended reactions of immigrant parents like her mother, who raised her daughter to speak the lingua franca of their wider community, the standard Tibetan used for commerce, government institutions, and the traditions of Buddhism. What use could a language like Mustangi offer her daughter?

“ ‘Now if I go to a gathering of my mother’s people, I’m not able to understand their words, so they don’t really identify me as one of their own because I don’t know their language,’ says Ms. Namdol. …

“For the past year, she has begun to learn the words of Mustangi, volunteering with the Endangered Language Alliance, a nonprofit in Manhattan that works with immigrant communities to preserve their dying languages.

“Collecting the stories of local Tibetans in their native tongues, she’s been recording them for the alliance’s project ‘Voices of the Himalayas,’ learning more about some of the other seven languages spoken in Jackson Heights’ Tibetan diaspora, including her father’s native tongue, Kyirong, a three-tone Tibetic language spoken mostly in Nepal. …

” ‘This  neighborhood in particular is like, I would say, the Noah’s Ark of languages,” says Daniel Kaufman, a professor of linguistics at Queens College and the executive director of the Endangered Language Alliance. … And it’s really just a coincidence, Dr. Kaufman says, that Jackson Heights happens to be at the crossroads of language diversity. The immigrant communities clustered here happen to be from countries that already have the most spoken languages in the world. …

“Alex Paz, however, may be one of only a handful of people living in New York who speaks P’urhépecha, an indigenous pre-Columbian language spoken in southern Mexico.

Considered an ‘isolate’ among human tongues, P’urhépecha is not only rare, but also one of a kind, linguistically unrelated to any other known language in the world.

“ ‘There are things that can only be said in my language,’ says Mr. Paz, an immigrant from the small mountain town of Ocumícho in the Michoacán region of southern Mexico. ‘Even at home, I can see how my language is disappearing, and this means a lot of cultural aspects, too, because language – once we lose our language, I think that’s the essence of who we are.’ …

“Mr. Paz, too, has been volunteering for the Endangered Language Alliance, trying to locate and collect everything that’s been written in P’urhépecha over the past few decades. And while he hasn’t found anyone else in New York who speaks his language, Mr. Paz has been immersed in it as he never has before, putting what he finds into a database and then providing word-by-word translations into English and Spanish – a complex and complicated task, he says, since many of his language’s words contain concepts nearly impossible to translate. …

“ ‘It’s like the language is the only thing that we have left, and its concepts,’ Mr. Paz says. ‘I don’t want to read somewhere, or have to say, “Back in the day in Michoacán we used to speak this language, P’urhépecha.” It’s sad, and I want to at least try to keep it alive.’ ”

More here.

Photo: Mark Lenihan/AP
The No. 7 subway train arrives at the 82 Street Jackson Heights station in Queens. Jackson Heights is one of the more diverse neighborhoods in New York City. 

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First North America Visit by Rare Species

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , on March 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Photo: Thomas Turner/Reuters
This hoodwinker sunfish, a species discovered only in 2017, has washed up on a California beach. Scientists believe it belongs in the Southern Hemisphere.

As much as I love learning about new species like this giant sunfish from the Southern Hemisphere, I can’t help feeling concerned that it ended up on a beach where it doesn’t belong. Is this another sign of global warming? Not likely. This fish likes temperate water and would have had to pass the hot Equator. A mystery.

Christina Zdanowicz has the story at CNN. “This is the extraordinary tale of how a massive, strange-looking fish wound up on a beach on the other side of the world from where it lives. The seven-foot fish washed up at UC Santa Barbara’s Coal Oil Point Reserve in Southern California [in February]. Researchers first thought it was a similar and more common species of sunfish — until someone posted photos on a nature site and experts weighed in. …

“It turned out to be a species never seen before in North America. It’s called the hoodwinker sunfish.

‘When the clear pictures came through, I thought there was no doubt. This is totally a hoodwinker,’ said Marianne Nyegaard, a marine scientist who discovered the species in 2017. ‘I couldn’t believe it. I nearly fell out of my chair.’

“Nyegaard … works in the marine division at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand. … ‘We know it has the temperate distribution around here and off the coast of Chile, but then how did it cross the equator and turn up by you guys?’ …

“An intern at Coal Oil Point Reserve alerted conservation specialist Jessica Nielsen to the dead beached sunfish on February 19. When Nielsen first saw it, the unusual features of the fish caught her eye.

” ‘This is certainly the most remarkable organism I have seen wash up on the beach in my four years at the reserve,’ Nielsen said in a UC Santa Barbara press release. She posted some photos of the fish on the reserve’s Facebook page. When colleague Thomas Turner saw the photos later that day, he rushed to the beach with his wife and young son. …

“He snapped some photos of what he thought was an ocean sunfish, a rare sight up-close, he said.

” ‘It’s the most unusual fish you’ve ever seen,’ said the UC Santa Barbara associate professor.

‘It has no tail. All of its teeth are fused, so it doesn’t have any teeth. It’s just got this big round opening for a mouth.’

“Turner posted his photos on iNaturalist, a site where people post photos and sightings of plants and animals. A fish biologist commented and alerted Ralph Foster, a fish scientist and the fish curator at the South Australian Museum.

“It was Foster who first said this may be a hoodwinker sunfish and not an ocean sunfish in the comments on iNaturalist. …

“Foster excitedly emailed Nyegaard, the woman who discovered the species, and told her what he was thinking. …

“It had been two days since Nielsen had first seen the fish. When Turner and Nielsen went back to the beach [to get sharper photos], the creature was no longer there.

“They started two miles apart from each other on the beach and kept looking, walking toward each other until they found the missing fish. It had refloated on the tide and washed up a few hundred yards away, Turner said. …

“All of the features in the photos matched up with the hoodwinker. When Nyegaard saw the photos, she knew she had a hoodwinker case on her hands. …

“Both Nyegaard and Turner marveled at how social media and the iNaturalist site can help bring researchers closer to an answer. …

“Turner said it was exciting for him to help identify the first recorded sighting of a hoodwinker sunfish in North America — and only the second in the Northern Hemisphere.

” ‘I’m a professor, I’m a biologist but I didn’t actually know what was special about this fish,’ Turner said. ‘I just posted a picture and that connected me with the world’s expert and the discoverer of the species.’ ”

Super photos at CNN, here.

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Preserving an Ancient Instrument

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 5, 2016| 7 Comments »

Photo: Iñaki LL

One of my Facebook friends shared an entertaining page on “rare and strange instruments” (you have to see it to believe it), leading me to seek more information on an instrument called the txalaparta. It may not be as unusual as the piano that makes cats meow but is nevertheless worthy of investigation.

According to Wikipedia, the txalaparta is “a specialized Basque music device of wood or stone. In some regions of the Basque Country, zalaparta (with [s]) means ‘racket,’ while in others (in Navarre) txalaparta has been attested as meaning the trot of the horse, a sense closely related to the sound of the instrument. …

“During the last 150 years, txalaparta has been attested as a communication device used for funeral (hileta), celebration (jai) or the making of slaked lime (kare), or cider (sagardo). After the making of cider, the same board that pressed the apples was beaten to summon the neighbours. Then, a celebration was held and txalaparta played cheerfully, while cider was drunk. …

“Traditional txalaparta was almost extinct in the 1950s with a handful of pairs of peasants maintaining the tradition. It was then revived by folklorists, such as Jesus and Jose Antonio Artze from the group Ez dok amairu.” Now you can hear it on YouTube, below.

More at Wikipedia.

Video: The Give and Take of Wood and Stone. Oreka Tx Brings Once Threatened Basque Sounds and New Global Resonances to the U.S. in September 2010 and on Nömadak Tx.

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Repopulating a Rare Butterfly

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 12, 2016| 4 Comments »

Here’s a guy who didn’t just ring his hands when he learned that a magnificent butterfly species was endangered in his part of California; he decided to do something about it.

Zachary Crockett reports at Vox, “It begins its life as a tiny red egg, hatches into an enormous orange-speckled caterpillar, and then — after a gestation period of up to two years — emerges as an iridescent blue beauty. Brimming with oceanic tones, the creature’s wings are considered by collectors to be some of the most magnificent in North America.

“For centuries, the California pipevine swallowtail — or, Battus philenor hirsuta — called San Francisco home. As development increased in the early 20th century, the butterfly slowly began to disappear. Today it is a rare sight.

“But one man’s DIY efforts are starting to bring the butterfly back.”

Tim Wong, a 28-year-old aquatic biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, tells Crockett, ” ‘I first was inspired to raise butterflies when I was in elementary school … We raised painted lady butterflies in the classroom, and I was amazed at the complete metamorphosis from caterpillar to adult.’ …

“Years later, he learned about the pipevine swallowtail — which had become increasingly rare in San Francisco — and he made it his personal mission to bring the butterfly back.

“He researched the butterfly and learned that when in caterpillar form, it only feeds on one plant: the California pipevine (Aristolochia californica), an equivalently rare flora in the city.

” ‘Finally, I was able to find this plant in the San Francisco Botanical Garden [in Golden Gate Park],’ Wong says. ‘And they allowed me to take a few clippings of the plant.’

“Then in his own backyard, using self-taught techniques, he created a butterfly paradise.”

Read more here. It sure takes persistence.

Here’s hoping an elementary school project in 2016 will lead to the rescue of another endangered species down the road.

Photo: Tim Wong (@timtast1c)

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Saving Minority Languages Through Song

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on November 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

Thousands of languages are becoming extinct as the last of the people who speak them die off.

In a race against time, some determined souls who value the richness and insights that individual languages provide are making efforts to save as many minority languages as possible. We posted about that here.

Today National Public Radio had a feature on another approach to preservation, the Liet International Song Contest.

“Auditions are now underway for next May’s Eurovision Song Contest — that often-ridiculed television spectacle that has drawn millions of viewers around the world every year since 1956. In 2012 the host country will be Azerbaijan, since that country fielded last year’s winner. The show’s performers rely on outlandish costumes, dance moves and gimmicks to grab attention because most viewers can’t understand what they’re singing. But language is at the heart of another Eurovision-sponsored song and performance competition this weekend in Italy. The Liet International Song Contest is a very serious attempt to keep some of the continent’s neglected languages alive.”

Read more.’

 

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