Only 3% of all falcons are gyrfalcons, and only 1% of gyrfalcons are white, the academy said.
|
|
Aurora's all-white coloring is rare, occurring in only 1 percent of gyrfalcons, according to a 2011 news release from the Air Force Academy.
|
|
There, whether it was because of the new intimacy of the changed landscape, or because of something about the virus itself, the pathogen spread into other bird species, including those that would later head into North America, such as gyrfalcons and northern pintail ducks.
|
|
In the 12th century AD China, swan- hunting with gyrfalcons (海东青 hǎidōngqīng in Chinese) obtained from the Jurchen tribes became fashionable among the Khitan nobility. When demand for gyrfalcons exceeded supply, the Liao Emperor imposed a tax payment-in-kind of gyrfalcons on the Jurchen; under the last Liao emperor, tax collectors were entitled to use force to procure sufficient gyrfalcons. This was one cause of the Jurchen rebellion, whose leader Aguda annihilated the Liao empire in 1125, and established the Jin dynasty in its stead. Most historians agree that the coat of arms of Ukraine, the medieval symbol, was not intended to depict a trident, but most likely a stylized falcon.
|
|
U.S. Natl. Mus. Bull. no. 170.McCaffery, B. J., Booms, T. L., Doolittle, T. C., Broerman, F. R. E. D., Morgart, J. R., & Sowl, K. M. (2011). "The ecology of Gyrfalcons Falco rusticolus on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska" in Gyrfalcons and Ptarmigan in a Changing World. The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho, USA. .
|
|
Sanctions were instigated by industrial-scale falcon smuggling, financed and directed by the ruling sheikhs. Smuggling continues into 2009, to such an extent that saker falcons, altai gyrfalcons, and gyrfalcons have become regionally extinct across much of Central Asia. Golden eagles and houbara bustards (lesser McQueen's bustards) are also critically endangered in Central Asian regions where falconry is practiced.
|
|
Falco antiquus is an extinct species of falcon lived during the Middle Pleistocene in southern Europe. It is thought to be the common ancestor of modern gyrfalcons and saker falcons.
|
|
Gyrfalcons hybridize not infrequently with sakers in the Altai Mountains, and this gene flow seems to be the origin of the Altai falcon. Some correlation exists between locality and colour morph. Greenland gyrfalcons are lightest, with white plumage flecked with grey on the back and wings being most common. Other subpopulations have varying amounts of the darker morphs: the Icelandic birds tend towards pale, whereas the Eurasian populations are considerably darker and typically incorporate no white birds.
|
|
Bird species include hazel grouse, tree pipits, Eurasian three-toed woodpeckers, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, black storks, northern eagle owls, and gyrfalcons."Altaisky Zapovednik." Wild Russia. Center for Russian Nature Conservation, n.d. Web.
|
|
Naujaat is home to a wide variety of animals including polar bears, caribou, seals, whales, and walrus. There are also approximately one hundred species of birds in the area, including gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons.
|
|
Two white gyrfalcons by Audubon Lucy Audubon c. 1870 Audubon returned to America in 1829 to complete more drawings for his magnum opus. He also hunted animals and shipped the valued skins to British friends. He was reunited with his family.
|
|
Meddelelse fra Vildtbiologisk Station (Denmark). peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), and gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus). Adults are quite vigorous at displacing potential predators from the nest site, with predator prevention usually falling to the larger male of the pair.Bent, A. C. (1925).
|
|
Natural separation into regional subspecies is prevented by gyrfalcons' habit of flying long distances whilst exchanging alleles between subpopulations; thus, the allele distributions for the color polymorphism form clines and in darker birdsThe allele combination producing the white morph seems to be recessive. of unknown origin, theoretically any allele combination might be present. For instance, a mating of a pair of captive gyrfalcons is documented to have produced a clutch of four young: one white, one silver, one brown, and one black. Molecular work suggests plumage color is associated with the melanocortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R), where a nonsynonymous point substitution was perfectly associated with the white/melanic polymorphism.
|
|
Species that live in Auyuittuq Park include lemmings (both the North American brown lemming and the northern collared lemming), red foxes, snowy owls, peregrine falcons, ermines, rough-legged hawks, gyrfalcons, beluga whales, snow geese, polar bears, wolves, narwhals, Canada geese, Arctic foxes, Arctic hares, and some barren-ground caribou.
|
|
Currently housed in Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, it depicts two snowy white gyrfalcons. One of his pictures was used as the cover of the 1974 Procol Harum album Exotic Birds and Fruit. Several of his paintings are exhibited in the Hungarian National Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.
|
|
502 Genghis created a settlement of Chinese craftsmen and farmers at Kem-kemchik after the first phase of the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty. The Great Khans favored gyrfalcons, furs, women and Kyrgyz horses for tribute. Western Siberia came under the Golden Horde.Nagendra Kr Singh, Nagendra Kumar – International Encyclopaedia of Islamic Dynasties, p.
|
|
The gyrfalcon ( or ) (), the largest of the falcon species, is a bird of prey. The abbreviation gyr is also used. It breeds on Arctic coasts and tundra, and the islands of northern North America and the Eurosiberian region. It is mainly a resident there also, but some gyrfalcons disperse more widely after the breeding season, or in winter.
|
|
Falcons are known to be very susceptible to avian influenza. Therefore, an experiment was done with hybrid gyr-saker falcons, which found that five falcons vaccinated with a commercial H5N2 influenza vaccine survived infection with a highly pathogenic H5N1 strain, whereas five unvaccinated falcons died. Thus, both wild and captive gyrfalcons can be protected from bird flu by vaccination.
|
|
Large birds of prey, including sea eagles, gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), are sometimes exploited as prey if nesting in rock formations that are accessible on foot, and eagles and falcons may furiously dive at bears near their nests.Kochert, M.N., K. Steenhof, C.L. McIntyre, and E.H. Craig. (2002). "Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)". In: A. Poole, [Ed.
|
|
Animals that inhabit this park include caribou, foxes, peregrine falcons, Yukon moose, grizzly bears, Yukon wolves, muskrats, black bears, wolverines, gyrfalcons, muskoxen, golden eagles, pine martens, ground squirrels, lynxes, and minks. Vuntut National Park is adjacent to another Canadian National Park, Ivvavik National Park. Also, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lies just across the Canada–US border in Alaska.
|
|
Gyrfalcons are rare winter vagrants to the Altai falcon's range. The high altitude cold grasslands of the region constitute habitat intermediate between typical saker habitat (temperate lowland steppes) and typical gyrfalcon habitat (arctic tundra). These two species of falcons also easily hybridise in captivity. Thus the Altai falcon is tentatively considered to be a saker subspecies Falco cherrug altaicus.
|
|
In H. W. Henshaw [ed.], Report upon natural history collections made in Alaska between the years 1877 and 188 1. No. III Arctic Series, Signal Service, U.S. Army, Government Printing Office,-Washington, DC. Anecdotal report indicate predation by gyrfalcons (on snowy owls of unknown age and condition) but it was possibly also an act of mobbing.Heggøy, O., & Øien, I. J. (2014).
|
|
Some wildlife, notably Arctic hares, lemmings, muskoxen and Arctic wolves reside in this national park, but sparse vegetation and low temperatures support only small populations. There is a very small Peary caribou population as well. Other animal inhabitants include ringed seals, bearded seals, walruses, polar bears, and narwhals. During summer months, birds nest in the park including semipalmated plovers, red knots, gyrfalcons and long-tailed jaegers.
|
|
In each case, the natural predators of these animals are just the right size for golden eagle prey, and therefore avoid active eyries. Related species such as eastern imperial and Bonelli’s eagles have been observed to nest in abandoned golden eagle nests, as well as distantly related or unrelated raptors including white-tailed eagles, lammergeiers, gyrfalcons and peregrine falcons.Ratcliffe, D.A. (1990). Bird life of mountains and upland.
|
|
Hybrids of peregrines and gyrfalcons are also available that can combine the best features of both species to create what many consider to be the ultimate falconry bird for the taking of larger game such as the sage-grouse. These hybrids combine the greater size, strength, and horizontal speed of the gyrfalcon with the natural propensity to stoop and greater warm weather tolerance of the peregrine.
|
|
For the decisive battle sent a cowardly Duke Neklan for himself the hero Tyr, dressed in Neklan's princely cloak, balaclava, and seated on Neklan's horse. The decisive battle took place near Tursko. Lučans led many dogs, wolves, sheepdogs and wolfhounds, others carried birds of prey, falcons, gyrfalcons and buzzards on their shoulders. The two armies clashed on May 9, 869, the fight lasted all day.
|
|
In addition, snowy owls have been known to prey on northern harriers, northern goshawks (Accipiter gentilis) and gyrfalcons. In a few cases, both juvenile and adult Arctic foxes have been known to fall prey to snowy owls.Gilg, O., Sittler, B., Sabard, B., Hurstel, A., Sané, R., Delattre, P., & Hanski, I. (2006). Functional and numerical responses of four lemming predators in high arctic Greenland. Oikos, 113(2), 193–216.
|
|
Boggy areas support cranberry, bog rosemary and salmonberry. Wildlife of the Noatak tundra includes Alaskan moose, grizzly bears, black bears, wolf packs, Arctic foxes, lemmings, Dall's sheep, vast herds of caribou numbering more than 230,000 individuals, and a variety of birds. Larger birds include Canada geese, tundra swans, white- fronted geese and common, Arctic, yellow-billed and Pacific loons. Predatory birds include rough-legged hawks, gyrfalcons and golden eagles.
|
|
This dispersal bias is in agreement with the distribution of plumage colour variants with white gyrfalcons in much higher proportion in north Greenland. Although further work is required to determine the ecological factors contributing to these distributions relative to plumage differences, a study using demographic data suggested that plumage color distribution in Greenland may be influenced by nesting chronology with white individuals and pairs laying eggs earlier in the breeding season and producing more offspring.
|
|
The Altai falcon breeds in a relatively small area of Central Asia across the Altai and Sayan Mountains. This area overlaps with the much larger breeding area of the saker falcon (Falco cherrug). It appears that Altai falcons are either natural hybrids between sakers and gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus), or rather the descendants of such rare hybrids backcrossing into the large population of sakers. So far, molecular genetic studies cannot prove or falsify the hybrid hypothesis.
|
|
Other animals that inhabit this park two species of fox, Yukon moose, lemmings, Dall sheep, gyrfalcons, muskoxen, and wolverines. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lies just across the border in Alaska. The Firth River holds some of the longest stocks of Dolly Varden char in western Canada On the south-east, Ivvavik National Park borders Vuntut National Park, established in 1995. Due to land claims negotiations, Vuntut is still quite undeveloped and has no roads or developed trails.
|
|
In Eurasia, their reported predators include, in addition to golden eagles, Eurasian eagle-owls, white-tailed eagles, Steller's sea-eagles, eastern imperial eagles and gyrfalcons. Because they are potentially hazardous prey for raptorial birds, raptors must usually take them by surprise and most attacks are on fledgling ravens. More rarely still, large mammalian predators such as lynxes, coyotes and cougars have also attacked ravens. This principally occurs at a nest site and when other prey for the carnivores are scarce.
|
|
In the early 2000s, it was observed that as climate change began to temper the Arctic summers, peregrine falcons were expanding their range north, and competing with gyrfalcons. Although it is specially adapted for high-Arctic life, and larger than the peregrine, the gyrfalcon is less aggressive and more conflict-averse, and so is unable to compete with peregrines, which regularly attack and overwhelm the gyrs. There is a fear that gyrs will become extinct in their former range within the next ten to five years.
|
|
There are waxwings, Arctic warblers, pine grosbeaks, and wheatears, as well as ptarmigan and the tundra swan. Raptors include a variety of hawks, owls, and gyrfalcons, as well as the abundant but striking golden eagles. A caribou and tour bus on the park road Ten species of fish, including trout, salmon, and Arctic grayling, share the waters of the park. Because many of the rivers and lakes of Denali are fed by glaciers, glacial silt and cold temperatures slow the metabolism of the fish, preventing them from reaching normal sizes.
|
|
Two of his fellow ornithologist, W.M. Modestov and J.M. Kaftanowski however were drafted into the army and died at the front. Dementiev's manuscript on the Gyrfalcons and falconry with colour plates by Vasily Vatagin were lost and Dementiev rewrote it and published it in 1951. The six volume Birds of the Soviet Union published with N.A. Gladkov between 1951 and 1954 is still a major reference. In 1952 he was appointed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences as Vice Chairman of the Commission on Nature Reserves which later became the Commission on Nature Conservation.
|
|
The Peregrine Fund's mission is to restore rare species through captive breeding and release, improve capacity for local conservation, conduct scientific research and environmental education, and conserve habitat. It currently is involved in recovery of the California condor and Aplomado Falcon, and research on American Kestrels and Gyrfalcons in the United States and a variety of raptors in Central America, South America, West Indies, Madagascar, Asia, East Africa, Australia, and the Philippines.Burnham, P., Cafferty, J. 2007. Annual Report 2006, The Peregrine Fund, World Center for Birds of Prey.
|
|
Depending on snow conditions, migrants arrive at breeding grounds during April and May. Home ranges vary with food supply but are commonly reported to be during the winter, but little is known about home ranges during the breeding season. Although frequently attacked in skirmishes by other highly territorial birds such as gyrfalcons and skuas, the rough-legged buzzard is not strongly territorial. However, wintering rough-legged buzzards seems to behave aggressively towards common buzzards in Sweden and both species with try to keep the other off a fixed hunting range.
|
|
A paleosubspecies, Falco rusticolus swarthi, existed during the Late Pleistocene (125,000 to 13,000 years ago). Fossils found in Little Box Elder Cave (Converse County, Wyoming), Dark Canyon Cave (Eddy County, New Mexico), and McKittrick, California were initially described as Falco swarthi ("Swarth falcon" or more properly "Swarth's gyrfalcon") on account of their distinct size. They have meanwhile proven to be largely inseparable from those of living gyrfalcons, except for being somewhat larger. Swarth's gyrfalcon was on the upper end of the present gyrfalcon's size range, with some stronger females even surpassing it.
|
|
White gyrfalcons drawn by John James Audubon Natural history was a major preoccupation in the 18th century, with grand expeditions and the opening of popular public displays in Europe and North America. By 1900 there were 150 natural history museums in Germany, 250 in Great Britain, 250 in the United States, and 300 in France. Preservationist or conservationist sentiments are a development of the late 18th to early 20th centuries. Before Charles Darwin set sail on HMS Beagle, most people in the world, including Darwin, believed in special creation and that all species were unchanged.
|
|
Marine mammals along the north coast include polar bears, ringed seals, bearded seals, beluga whales and bowhead whales. Birds of prey in the park include snowy owls, rough-legged hawks, gyrfalcons, and peregrine falcons, who feed on the lemmings. Prior to the arrival of the Thule culture in southern Banks Island there were some Pre-Dorset culture people living in what is now the Aulavik National Park. Due to the cooling climate brought on by the Little Ice Age Banks Island was most likely deserted until the arrival of the Inuvialuit in the 17th century.
|
|
Gyrfalcons, skuas, and Buteos like rough-legged buzzards, which are normally fierce competitors with each other, have worked together to group-mob golden eagles that have passed their adjacent nesting areas. Occasionally smaller raptors, especially large falcons, will drive eagles to the ground. The eagle typically ignores attacks from smaller species or at least leaves their home ranges, but will occasionally roll and extend talons toward chasing individual often without displaying active predatory behavior. If physical contact occurs, it sometimes ends in injury, death and/or consumption of the attacking species.
|
|
The Eurasian eagle-owl predates the largest members of the most species-rich diurnal raptor genera: the northern goshawks from the genus Accipiter, the upland buzzards from the genus Buteo and the gyrfalcons (F. rusticolus) of the genus Falco. Additional large raptors, i.e. those that can average or more in body mass, taken as prey include osprey (Pandion haliaetus), the red kites (Milvus milvus), short-toed eagles (Circaetus gallicus), the greater spotted eagle (Clanga clanga), the lesser spotted eagle (Clanga pomarina), and the rough-legged buzzards (Buteo lagopus) and saker falcons (Falco cherrug), in both of which females average more than .
|
|
In 1849, the Maharajah Duleep Singh, the last true ruler of the Sikh Empire and owner of the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond was exiled to England, having been removed from his kingdom by the British East India Company. The Maharajah purchased the Elveden Estate in 1863 and set about rebuilding the country house and dressing it in an Italian style. However, he redesigned the interior to resemble the Mughal palaces that he had been accustomed to in his childhood. He also augmented the building with an aviary where exotic birds such as golden pheasant, Icelandic gyrfalcons, parrots, peafowl and buzzards were kept.
|
|
South of the coastal plain, the mountains of the eastern Brooks Range rise to nearly . This northernmost extension of the Rocky Mountains marks the continental divide, with north-flowing rivers emptying into the Arctic Ocean and south-flowing rivers joining the great Yukon River. The rugged mountains of the Brooks Range are incised by deep river valleys creating a range of elevations and aspects that support a variety of low tundra vegetation, dense shrubs, rare groves of poplar trees on the north side and spruce on the south. During summer, peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, and golden eagles build nests on cliffs.
|
|
In sometimes differing parts of the Arctic, competing predators for lemmings are, in addition to short-eared owls, pomarine jaegers (Stercorarius pomarinus), long-tailed jaegers (Stercorarius longicaudus), rough-legged buzzards (Buteo lagopus), hen harriers (Circus cyaenus), northern harriers (Circus hudsonius) and generally less specialized gyrfalcons (Falco rusticollis), peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), glaucous gulls (Larus hypoboreus) and common ravens (Corvus corax). Certain carnivorous mammals, especially the Arctic fox and, in this region, the ermine, are also specialized to hunt lemmings.Reid, D. G., Krebs, C. J., & Kenney, A. (1995). Limitation of collared lemming population growth at low densities by predation mortality. Oikos, 387–398.
|
|
Ambio, 281–286. When unusually breeding south in the Subarctic such as western Alaska, Scandinavia and central Russia, the number of predators with which the snowy owls are obligated to share prey and compete with may be too numerous to name. The taking of the young and eggs of snowy owls has been committed by a large number of predators: hawks and eagles, the northern jaegers, peregrine and gyrfalcons, glaucous gulls, common ravens, Arctic wolves (Canis lupus arctos), polar bears, brown bears (Ursus arctos), wolverines (Gulo gulo) and perhaps especially the Arctic fox.Ovsyanikov, N.G. & Menushina, I.E. (1986).
|
|
It takes a skilled falcon that knows how to forcefully but carefully and accurately strike them in the head or wing to bring them down cleanly. For this difficult prey experienced falconers usually prefer larger peregrine females, gyrfalcons, or gyr- peregrine hybrids,Falconer on the Edge, Rachel Dickinson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009, , pp.64-65 though some female prairie falcons do master the art of bringing down larger game. Proper training for prairie falcons includes providing abundant food when raising them (to avoid them developing the habit of screaming for food), and extensive "manning" (close contact and handling) when training them.
|
|
The origin of the name Ozolnieki most likely comes from Ozolmuiža (in German: Eckhofen or Paulsgnade), the manor house which was located within the territory of the modern Ozolnieki municipality.www.ozolnieki.lv In the age of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1562–1791), Ozolmuiža belonged to its dukes. Amongst its owners was the most renowned of the duchy's DukesJacob Kettler, who kept an aviary of hunting gyrfalcons on the manor farm (Jacob's son, Frederick Casimir Kettler, later expanded the aviary). After the Courland was annexed by the Russian empire, Ozolmuiža manor passed to the tsars of Russia.
|
|
Gyrfalcons and Ptarmigan in a Changing World. The Peregrine Fund, Boise, Idaho, USA. The reliance on ptarmigan has caused some conservation trickle-down concern for the owls because ptarmigan are hunted in large numbers, with the hunters of Norway permitted to cull up to 30% of the regional population. In North America, avian prey on the breeding ground regularly varies from small passerines like snow buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) and Lapland longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) to large waterfowl like king (Somateria spectabilis) and common eider (Somateria mollissima) and usually the goslings but also occasionally adults of geese such as brants (Branta bernicla), snow geese (Anser caerulescens) and cackling geese (Branta hutchinsii).
|
|
In many parts of its range, peregrines now also nest regularly on tall buildings or bridges; these human-made structures used for breeding closely resemble the natural cliff ledges that the peregrine prefers for its nesting locations. The pair defends the chosen nest site against other peregrines, and often against ravens, herons, and gulls, and if ground-nesting, also such mammals as foxes, wolverines, felids, bears, wolves, and mountain lions. Both nests and (less frequently) adults are predated by larger-bodied raptorial birds like eagles, large owls, or gyrfalcons. The most serious predators of peregrine nests in North America and Europe are the great horned owl and the Eurasian eagle owl.
|
|
The only way to reach this community is by aircraft at Coral Harbour Airport or by water (such as the resupply barges, which do not carry passengers, that come from Churchill, Manitoba and the East coast and St. Lawrence area, every summer) and the main transportation on the island itself (nearly the same size as Switzerland) is by snowmobile and dog sled in the winter and all-terrain vehicle in the summer. Despite the harsh climate there is plentiful wildlife around the island. Among some of the species found there are walruses, polar bears, barren-ground caribou, ringed seals, gyrfalcons, and (rarely) peregrine falcons.
|
|
Instead, he traveled to such places as Antarctica, India, Egypt, Burma, Tonga, Australia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Namibia, Kenya, Tanzania, Thailand, China, the Arctic, the Azores, and Borneo. Elephants, whales, manatees, sacred ibis, cranes, eagles, gyrfalcons, rhinoceros hornbills, cheetahs, leopards, African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), caracals, baboons, eland, meerkats, gibbons, orangutans, penguins, pandas, polar bears, lions, giant Pacific manta rays, and saltwater crocodiles are among the animals he has filmed and photographed. Human collaborators include San bushmen, Tsaatan, Lisu, Massai, Chong, Kazakhs, and people from other indigenous tribes around the world. Colbert, who calls animals "nature's living masterpieces," photographs and films both wild animals and those that have been habituated to human contact in their native environments.
|
|
780–82, also 563, 571, 640, 832–36 Frederick II is the author of the first treatise on the subject of falconry, De Arte Venandi cum Avibus ("The Art of Hunting with Birds"). In the words of the historian Charles Homer Haskins: Frederick's pride in his mastery of the art is illustrated by the story that, when he was ordered to become a subject of the Great Khan (Batu) and receive an office at the Khan's court, he remarked that he would make a good falconer, for he understood birds very well.Albericus Trium Fontium, Monumenta, scriptores, xxiii. 943. He maintained up to fifty falconers at a time in his court, and in his letters he requested Arctic gyrfalcons from Lübeck and even from Greenland.
|
|
Late in the 1870s Harting started the New Hawking Club to enable Londoners to observe falconry; the Old Hawking Club was in the Salisbury Plain which was too far away for most people. He bought peregrine falcons and gyrfalcons from John Barr who had worked for Sandys Dugmore as a professional falconer from 1874-1877, hired Barr as a falconer and obtained permission from Lord Rosebery to use Epsom Downs for hawking. He set up near the Grandstand of the racecourse and had a successful season in the autumn of 1878, but the birds died of the croaks in the winter, ending the venture. Harting compiled Bibliotheca Accipitraria over many years, and was one of the few men seen in London with a hawk on his fist.
|
|
The karyological data of Schmutz and Oliphant"Chromosome study of peregrine, prairie, and Gyrfalcons with implications for hybrids", Schmutz S.M. and Oliphant W., Journal of Heredity, 1987, 78:388-390 provided early scientific evidence of the unexpectedly close relationship between the peregrine and prairie falcons. Wink and Sauer- Gürth"Advances in the molecular systematics of African raptors", Wink M. and Sauer-Gürth H, pp. 135-147 in R.D. Chancellor and B.-U. Meyburg (eds.), "Raptors at Risk", World Working Group on Birds of Prey, Berlin, and Hancock House, 2000 later estimated using molecular systematics that the prairie falcon diverged about 3 to 5 million years ago from an archaic peregrine ancestor, assuming a molecular clock calibration of 2% sequence divergence per 1 million years.
|
|
Studying the association between Earth climate and extinctions over the past 520 million years, scientists from the University of York write, "The global temperatures predicted for the coming centuries may trigger a new ‘mass extinction event’, where over 50 percent of animal and plant species would be wiped out." Many of the species at risk are Arctic and Antarctic fauna such as polar bears and emperor penguins. In the Arctic, the waters of Hudson Bay are ice-free for three weeks longer than they were thirty years ago, affecting polar bears, which prefer to hunt on sea ice.On Thinning Ice Michael Byers London Review of Books January 2005 Species that rely on cold weather conditions such as gyrfalcons, and snowy owls that prey on lemmings that use the cold winter to their advantage may be negatively affected.
|
|
Conservation of the natural environment is well-developed in the United Kingdom. The resources of the organisations concerned may be insufficient to the challenge, but the contrast with earlier attitudes about the environment is striking. In Victorian times few animals became extinct in Scotland, but the scale of the slaughter on hunting estates was staggering. Richard Perry records that on a _single estate_ in the Cairngorms between 1837 and 1840 the following "vermin" were exterminated by keepers purely in the interests of preserving the grouse population: > 246 Martens, 198 Wild Cats, 106 Polecats, 67 Badgers, 58 Otters, 475 Ravens, > 462 Kestrels, 371 Rough-legged Buzzards, 285 Common Buzzards, 275 Kites, 98 > Peregrine Falcons, 92 Hen Harriers, 78 Merlins, 71 Short-eared Owls, 63 > Goshawks, 35 Long-eared Owls, 27 Sea Eagles, 18 Ospreys, 15 Golden Eagles, > 11 Hobbys, 6 Gyrfalcons, 5 Marsh Harriers, 3 Honey Buzzards, and for reasons apparently unconnected to grouse shooting, a further > 11 Foxes, 301 Stoats and Weasels, 78 House Cats, 1,431 Hooded or Carrion > Crow, 3 Barn Owls, 8 Magpies and 7 "Orange-legged Falcons".
|
|