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	<title>Science &#38; SpaceCategory: Endangered Species &#124; Science &#38; Space &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Science &#38; SpaceCategory: Endangered Species &#124; Science &#38; Space &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>How Human Activity — and Extinctions — Are Driving Evolution</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2013/05/31/how-human-activity-and-extinctions-are-driving-evolution/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2013/05/31/how-human-activity-and-extinctions-are-driving-evolution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 31 May 2013 09:45:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Climate Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[evolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://science.time.com/?p=15536</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We&#8217;re likely in the middle of a mass-extinction wave, most of it likely because of human activity. For a species to go extinct is an intrinsic loss, if not exactly an unprecedented one. Ninety-nine percent of all the species that have ever existed on earth eventually went extinct — but they&#8217;ve rarely died out as rapidly as they are today. It&#8217;s like global warming — it&#8217;s not the simple fact that things are changing that is so worrying, it&#8217;s the speed. And as it turns out, the life on our planet can change very, very fast. That&#8217;s the takeaway from a neat new paper published in the May 30 Science. Rain forests in the Brazilian Atlantic region became increasingly fragmented over the past century as settlers cleared land for agriculture or logging. As the forest broke up, numerous species were pushed into extinction or made increasingly endangered — including the channel-billed toucan, a tropical bird with a characteristically large bill (think Toucan Sam). The channel-billed toucans are frugivores — fruit eaters — that consume large-seeded fruits that smaller birds can&#8217;t handle. When they eat those fruits, they disperse seeds around the forest as they fly from tree to tree, helping to spread the very tree species they feed on. This is a healthy ecosystem at its best.  (VIDEO: Timelapse: Watch the Planet Change Over 30 Years) Or it would be, except that population levels of the toucan have fallen dramatically over the past century, thanks to hunting and deforestation. Bad for the birds, obviously. But what the Brazilian and Spanish researchers in the Science study found was that as the toucan disappeared, the forest around it changed. The palm trees that produced the fruit popular with the toucans adapted to the loss of the bird by producing fruit with smaller seeds — small enough for other birds to disperse. In short, the trees evolved. But not exactly for the better. The new seeds produced by the palm trees in patchy, toucanless areas of rain forest were less fit, producing smaller and less vigorous seedlings than the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=15536&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/galetti4h.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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		<title>Why a Hotter World Will Mean More Extinctions</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2013/05/13/why-a-hotter-world-will-mean-more-extinctions/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2013/05/13/why-a-hotter-world-will-mean-more-extinctions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 09:45:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://science.time.com/?p=15191</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The end of last week saw the carbon concentrations in the atmosphere finally pass the 400-part-per-million threshold. That means carbon levels are higher now than they&#8217;ve been for at least 800,000 years, and most likely far longer. There&#8217;s nothing special per se about 400 parts per million — other than giving all of us a change to note it in article like this one — but it&#8217;s a reminder that we are headed very fast into a very uncertain future. Parts per million and global temperature change, though, are just numbers. What matters is the effect they will have on life — ours, of course, but also everything else that lives on the planet earth. I&#8217;ve written before that while I certainly worry and fear the impact that unchecked climate change will have on humanity, I also feel relatively — relatively — confident that we will, in some ways, muddle through. Human beings have already proved that they are extremely adaptable, living — with various degrees of success — from the hottest desert to the coldest corner of the Arctic. I don&#8217;t think a future where temperatures are 4˚F or 5˚F or 6˚F warmer on average will be an optimal one for humanity, to say the least. But I don&#8217;t think it will be the end of our species either. (I&#8217;ve always favored asteroids for that.) (PHOTOS: Up in the Air: Celebrate World Migratory Bird Day) But the plants and animals that share this planet with us are a different story. Even before climate change has really kicked in, human expansion had led to the destruction of habitat on land and in the sea, as we crowd out other species. By some estimates we&#8217;re already in the midst of the sixth great extinction wave, one that&#8217;s largely human caused, with extinction rates that are 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the background rate of species loss. So what will happen to those plants and animals if and when the climate really starts warming? According to a new study in Nature Climate Change, the answer is pretty simple: they will run out of habitable space, and many of them will die.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=15191&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/138343068.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Polar Bear</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">More...</media:title>
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		<title>Traffic: Why It&#8217;s Time to Get Serious About the Bloody Illegal Wildlife Trade</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2013/03/05/traffic-why-its-time-to-get-serious-about-the-bloody-illegal-wildlife-trade/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2013/03/05/traffic-why-its-time-to-get-serious-about-the-bloody-illegal-wildlife-trade/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Going Green]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CITES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ivory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poaching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife trafficking]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://science.time.com/?p=13858</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Human beings are killers. Not just toward each other, though we do that of course, every hour of every day. We&#8217;re killers of those other species of life that share this planet with us. Some we kill for food, like domesticated animals, or the wild fish and game we harvest from the waters and the forest. Others we kill by as a by-product of modern life, taking their habitat through deforestation or pollution. But many, too many, we simply kill for their parts. Or perhaps murder is the better word. The threat of wildlife trafficking is on my mind, as the biennial meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) continues over the next two weeks in Bangkok. Born 40 years ago, CITES sets the global controls for trade in wildlife, with a focus — at its best — of slowing the slaughter and trafficking of endangered species. For years there was real progress being made in the field. After low points during the 1980s, nations under CITES began to successfully crack down on the illicit ivory trade, which drove the wide-scale poaching of rhinos and elephants in Africa. Between 1973 and 2012, the population of the white rhino in Africa rose from 2,000 to over 19,000 and other endangered species made comebacks, thanks to international sanctions on ivory trade and tougher prosecution on the ground in Africa. But those advances — and the endangered species — are at risk. Last year poaching levels in Africa were at their highest since international monitors began keeping detailed records in 2002. In 2011 a record amount of illegal ivory was seized worldwide: 38.8 tons, equal to the tusks that would be found on more than 4,000 dead elephants. According to CITES&#8217; own numbers, an estimated 25,000 elephants were poached across Africa in 2011, and in South Africa alone 668 rhinos were killed by poachers last year. And the wildlife trade is having a serious impact on biodiversity as well. According to a new study published in the open journal<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=13858&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/sci-ivory-0304.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A Filipino staff of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau shows seized elephant tusks and dried sea turtle stored inside their warehouse in eastern Manila, Philippines</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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		<title>Report: One in Five Reptiles at Risk of Extinction</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2013/02/15/report-one-in-five-reptiles-at-risk-of-extinction/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2013/02/15/report-one-in-five-reptiles-at-risk-of-extinction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Sorcha Pollak</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Biological Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lizard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Monica Bohm]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[report]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reptiles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[snake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[turtle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Zoological Society]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://science.time.com/?p=13446</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new study by the Zoological Society of London has found that 19% — nearly one in five — of the world’s 10,000 species of reptiles are threatened with extinction. The study, which has been printed in the journal Biological Conservation, was carried out by more than 200 experts who assessed the risk of extinction of 1,500 reptiles selected at random from around the globe. The primary author of the paper, Monika Bohm, explained to the Zoological Society: “reptiles are often associated with extreme habitats and tough environmental conditions, so it is easy to assume that they will be fine in our changing world.” However, that&#8217;s far from the truth: “Many species are very high specialized in terms of habitat use and the climatic conditions they require for day to day functioning,” Bohm said. “This makes them particularly sensitive to environmental changes.” The paper highlights three critically endangered species in its research, including the jungle runner lizard Ameiva vittata, which has only ever been spotted in the Cochabamba region of the Bolivian jungle — an area under threat from the growth of agriculture and logging. The two most recent searches for the species have been unsuccessful, writes the study. Meanwhile in Haiti, six of the nine species of Anolis lizard in the country risk extinction due to increased deforestation. (MORE: How a Deadly Snake&#8217;s Venom Could Mean Pain Relief) Also at risk are freshwater turtles, with 50% of all species at risk of extinction from hunting; turtle parts are in high demand as ingredients in traditional medicine. According to the study 30% of freshwater reptile species are also in danger of completely disappearing. Reptiles have a long evolutionary history: certain orders, such as snakes, lizards, amphisbaenians (worm lizards), crocodiles and tuataras first appeared on earth around 300 million years ago. They are an important part of many ecosystems, and play roles as both predator and prey. “This is a very important step towards assessing the conservation status of reptiles globally,” Philip Bowles from the IUCN Species Survival Commission said in response to the study. “Tackling the identified<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=13446&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/132361532.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A lizard basking in the hot sun</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/4b30c81e8722b95dc3a38d4ddb9af214?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">timecontributor6</media:title>
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		<title>The Mystery of the Purring Elephant</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2012/08/03/the-mystery-of-the-purring-elephant/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2012/08/03/the-mystery-of-the-purring-elephant/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 03 Aug 2012 12:22:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Veronique Greenwood</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Animals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blue whale]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elephants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[larynx]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vocalization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://science.time.com/?p=9731</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Stand near an elephant herd, and you may feel a strange vibration in your chest. That’s not your heart beating in terror because you’re, well, standing next to an elephant herd. Or at least that&#8217;s not all it is. It’s also a sign that the elephants are talking to one another. Elephants are famous for their trumpeting, of course, but they also produce rumbles pitched so low that humans can’t hear them, only feel them as a sort of physical buzzing. Exactly how elephants do this has been a mystery — and while solving that mystery is not of first-order importance in understanding and preserving this largest of land animals, it would add new insight into how a whole range of species vocalize. The best way to answer the question of elephant-talk would be to examine the animal’s larynx. Live elephants are notoriously touchy, and recently deceased elephants are hard to come by. So when a team of University of Vienna biologists who study animal sounds heard that an elderly zoo elephant in Berlin had died, they wasted no time requesting the larynx, which was soon on its way to Vienna on a bed of ice. What they did with it next is the focus of a paper in this week’s Science. (PHOTOS: Sri Lanka’s Elephant Shortage) There are two major theories behind elephant rumbling, explains Christian Herbst, a biophysics post-doc in the lab of cognitive biologist Tecumseh Fitch and lead author of the paper. One theory holds that the rumbles are made only by the elephants’ vocal cords, which, like ours, consist of two flaps of flesh in the larynx — though an elephant’s larynx is eight times larger than ours. Much like a slit made in a blade of grass, the flaps vibrate and produce sound when air rushes through them. We then use our throats and mouths to shape that sound — adding vowels, consonants, and other frills that turn it into language. The vibration itself, however, happens passively, without any muscular control, as soon we start<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=9731&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/elephant_0802.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">An African Elephant</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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		<title>Ivory Bonfire Highlights Elephant Poaching Crisis in Africa</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2012/07/02/ivory-bonfire-highlights-elephant-poaching-crisis-in-africa/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2012/07/02/ivory-bonfire-highlights-elephant-poaching-crisis-in-africa/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 02 Jul 2012 12:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Eliana Dockterman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[black market]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[China]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elephants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gabon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ivory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kenya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=9104</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[President Ali Bongo set a pyre of ivory aflame on Wednesday in a symbolic warning to poachers in Gabon: We will fight to protect our elephants.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=9104&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2012/07/02/ivory-bonfire-highlights-elephant-poaching-crisis-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/95497603.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">African Elephant</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor3</media:title>
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		<title>How to Greet a Mountain Gorilla</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2012/06/06/how-to-greet-a-mountain-gorilla/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2012/06/06/how-to-greet-a-mountain-gorilla/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:45:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jacob Templin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[apes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gorilla poaching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gorilla trekking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[park rangers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rwanda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silverback gorilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[silverbacks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vacation Rwanda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Volcanoes National Park]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=8751</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park is home to more than 480 critically endangered mountain gorillas. As part of an effort by the Rwanda Tourist Board to combine tourism and conservation, the park now offers gorilla tours. For around $500, visitors can spend an hour up close and personal with a clan of mountain gorillas. Proceeds from the tours fund further conservation efforts and help build schools for local villages. Video Journalist Ed Robbins recently took the tour and learned what to do (and not to do) when greeting a mountain gorilla. PHOTOS: The Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=8751&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2012/06/06/how-to-greet-a-mountain-gorilla/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/time_rwandagorrila_640b.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Rwanda Mountain Gorilla</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">templinj</media:title>
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		<title>Conditions of Life: How Climate Change Has Driven Evolution</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/12/27/conditions-of-life-how-climate-change-has-driven-evolution/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/12/27/conditions-of-life-how-climate-change-has-driven-evolution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Dec 2011 10:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[history]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=7600</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We are the products of our environment — and that goes for egrets and elephants as much as human beings. The history of all life on this planet has been one of change and adaptation. The environment changes, and life adapts. That&#8217;s evolution in a nutshell. So it shouldn&#8217;t be a surprise that as the planet&#8217;s climate has changed through the geologic past — and it&#8217;s changed severely, from the hot and humid earth of the Triassic period to the ice ages that ended just 20,000 years ago — life has changed along with it. In a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a group of researchers plot out just how the changing climate has impacted mammalian evolution in North America over the past 65 million years. They find that there have been six distinct waves of species diversity, and that the driving force of those waves has likely been climate change. MORE: Life in the Time of the Great Dying Here&#8217;s Brown University evolutionary biologist Christine Janis — a co-author on the paper with a group of Spanish researchers — on how changes in the climate beat out other factors like migration: Although we&#8217;ve always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion. We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change — the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures — and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events. Of those six &#8220;waves&#8221; that Janis and her colleagues identify, four show statistically significant correlations with major changes in temperature, while the other two show a weaker correlation, most likely because those patterns corresponded to times when mammals from other continents invaded North America. Even today, invasive species are a leading cause of species extinction and ecosystem change — keeping in mind the fact that humans are, in a sense, an invasive species. But<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=7600&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/12/27/conditions-of-life-how-climate-change-has-driven-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/39329_web.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Web</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/45aadd4bcc836917a2bee9da10316e12?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F1.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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		<title>Frankincensored: How a Venerable Christmas Gift Could Be Headed for Extinction</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/12/21/frankincensored-how-a-venerable-christmas-gift-could-be-headed-for-extinction/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/12/21/frankincensored-how-a-venerable-christmas-gift-could-be-headed-for-extinction/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:02:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christmas]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=7582</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In the days before Amazon Prime, your Christmas gift-giving options were somewhat more limited. So it that the three wise men in the Biblical account brought local gifts to the baby Jesus in Bethlehem: gold, frankincense and myrhh, each a proper offering for a king—if, perhaps, not all that useful for an infant. (Maybe someone could have bought a baby walker?) But at least one of those Biblical gifts may be on the way out. According to ecologists from the Netherlands and Ethiopia, the Boswellia tree—which produces the perfume frankincense—is on a path to extinction, thanks to fire, insect attacks and grazing. The trees—which grow in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian peninsula, hence the connection the Nativity story—are declining so rapidly that production of the frankincense resin could fall by half over the next 15 years, and Boswellia tree numbers could drop by 90% over the next half-century. Here&#8217;s Frans Bongers of Wageningen University, a lead author on the paper, which was published in the British Ecological Society&#8217;s Journal of Applied Ecology: Current management of Boswellia populations is clearly unsustainable. Our models show that within 50 years populations of Boswellia will be decimated, and the declining populations mean frankincense production is doomed. This is a rather alarming message for the incense industry and conservation organisations. Working in a village in northwest Ethiopia, the research team studied 13 two-hectare plots—some where trees were tapped for frankincense and some where they were left untouched. They monitored more than 6,000 Boswellia trees for two years, then used that data to construct models to predict what would happen to the species in the future. Boswellia trees that had been harvested for frankincense suffered, but so did trees that hadn&#8217;t been harvested for the incense. (The perfume has been traded internationally for thousands of years and is still used today in some churches.) The problem isn&#8217;t the frankincense harvesting itself—rather, the researchers believe the main cause of the decline is likely burning for agriculture, grazing and attacks by the long-horn beetle, which lays eggs<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=7582&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/12/21/frankincensored-how-a-venerable-christmas-gift-could-be-headed-for-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/frankincense.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">frankincense</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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		<title>Is Shark Fin Slowly Becoming Passé in Hong Kong?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/11/23/is-shark-fin-slowly-becoming-passe-in-hong-kong/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/11/23/is-shark-fin-slowly-becoming-passe-in-hong-kong/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Erica Ho</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hong kong]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hotels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[menu]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peninsula]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Shark fin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shark fin soup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Yao Ming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=7200</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It was the go-to soup for emperors of centuries past — a tradition revered in Chinese culture that ultimately symbolized wealth, status and prestige. But as China has gotten richer, shark fin soup consumption has increased. And with that, so has the scrutiny surrounding the issue increased, even in Asia. But as environmentalists and the general populace takes notice, will shark fin’s soup retain its place as a luxe item? Indeed, in places around Hong Kong, hotel chains and restaurants are taking steps to knock it off the menu. Two days ago, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, one of Asia’s most prestigious hotel chains, announced that shark fin soup would no longer be available at its properties starting in 2012. While current orders made before the decision would be honored, it will no longer be part of the menu as an existing option. (MORE: Shark-Fin Soup and the Conservation Challenge) The move would mostly affect the group’s Peninsula properties in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. The flagship, Hong Kong, is one of the city’s most iconic hotels, known for its sheer majestic opulence — a single night in the hotel’s most basic room can start at $600, accompanied by a swanky fleet of Rolls-Royces. Hotel group CEO Clement K.M. Kwok remarked that “As Asia&#8217;s oldest hotel company, we also hope that our decision will inspire other hospitality companies to do the same and that our industry will play a role in helping to preserve the bio-diversity of our oceans.” Perhaps, it is time for guests to stop eating like emperors, though they may continue to sleep like one. While the banning of shark fin has received momentum in states like California and Hawaii, it is in Asia where the vast majority of consumption occurs. Long considered to be the hub of the shark fin industry, Hong Kong is where it is bought, sold and traded — experts estimate that possibly up to 80% of the world’s shark fins pass through here. Ironically, they’re not hunted here: Spain and Europe remains one of<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=7200&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/11/23/is-shark-fin-slowly-becoming-passe-in-hong-kong/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/sharkfin.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">sharkfin</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">ericaho</media:title>
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		<title>How Climate Change Is Turning Plants and Animals into Refugees</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/08/19/how-climate-change-is-turning-plants-and-animals-into-refugees/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/08/19/how-climate-change-is-turning-plants-and-animals-into-refugees/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Aug 2011 09:00:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Climate Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extinction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global warming]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6598</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Regardless of what Rick Perry and the rest of Republican presidential candidate field believe (except for you, Jon Huntsman), climate change is real and it&#8217;s happening. The questions for the 98% of climate researchers who accept the consensus on man-made global warming is how fast the climate is changing, and what impact it will have on humanity and the planet. Here&#8217;s one effect of warming scientists are already seeing: plants and animals migrating to cooler climates to escape hotter temperatures. In a study published in the August 18 Science, researchers in Britain and Taiwan found that species are moving in response to global warming up to three times faster than previously believed. Analyzing studies covering over 2,000 responses from plants and animals, the scientists found that on average, species have moved to higher elevations to escape warmer temperatures at 40 ft per decade, and moved to higher latitudes (ie, further away from the equator) at 11 miles per decade. More from TIME: The New Age of Extinction As York University conservation biologist Chris Thomas says, climate change is putting plants and animals on the run: These changes are equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the Equator at around 20 cm per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century. Scientists have seen evidence of species moving to escape higher temperatures before, but the Science analysis goes further, showing that species have moved furthest in the areas where temperatures have risen the most. That&#8217;s pretty strong evidence that global warming is a main driver of these shifts. And some species really moved—the comma butterfly has shifted 137 miles north in just two decades. The bigger question is what this will mean for the animals and plants forced to hit the road. An influential 2004 paper in Nature estimated that up to 1/3 of the world&#8217;s plants and animals could be committed to extinction<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6598&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/08/19/how-climate-change-is-turning-plants-and-animals-into-refugees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">bryanrwalsh</media:title>
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		<title>One Baby Gorilla Is Rescued From Poachers—But Others Aren&#8217;t So Lucky</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/08/10/one-baby-gorilla-is-rescued-from-poachers%e2%80%94but-others-arent-so-lucky/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/08/10/one-baby-gorilla-is-rescued-from-poachers%e2%80%94but-others-arent-so-lucky/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:00:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tara Thean</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gorilla]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[illegal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[James Franco]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[poaching]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rise of the Planet of the Apes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rwanda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wildlife]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=6482</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s easy enough to get the public interested in the great apes when you plaster James Franco’s handsome face on a movie poster and promise visual effects on the level of Lord of the Rings and King Kong. But these animals get other types of attention too – the wrong kind. On Sunday a baby mountain gorilla named Ihirwe was rescued from the clutches of poachers trying to smuggle her into Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of Congo, mostly to be traded as a pet or sold and butchered for some of her parts. “The good news is that this infant was rescued before it was too late and is now in good hands,” Eugène Rutagarama, director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), said in a statement. “The bad news is that people believe there is a market for baby mountain gorillas and are willing to break laws and jeopardize the fate of a critically-endangered species at the chance for profit.” More from Ecocentric: Why the Apes Aren&#8217;t Going to Rise Thankfully things turned out well for Ihirwe – she was found alive, is under the watchful eyes of caregivers at a Rwandan facility, and will soon join fellow orphan gorillas Maisha, Kaboko, Ndeze, and Ndakasi at Virunga National Park’s Senkwekwe Center in the DRC. “We are cautiously optimistic for this little one – she is tense, but accepting of people, and is eating. All good signs for her eventual recovery,” Jan Ramer of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project said in a statement. And Ihirwe can rest assured that her poachers – a group of Rwandan and Congolese men – won’t be back: they’ve been taken into custody in Rwanda, and a serious investigation into a possible bigger network of poachers is underway. But Ihirwe is one of the lucky ones – most gorillas that fall victim to poachers aren’t so fortunate. She’s also one of the only 786 mountain gorillas believed to remain in the mountains of Rwanda, Uganda, and the DRC. With habitat destruction, regional conflict, and hunting<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=6482&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">tarathean</media:title>
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		<title>Decoding the Genome of the Tasmanian Devil Might Be the Only Way to Save Them</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/06/27/decoding-the-genome-of-the-tasmanian-devil-might-be-the-only-way-to-save-them/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/06/27/decoding-the-genome-of-the-tasmanian-devil-might-be-the-only-way-to-save-them/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:28:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Tara Thean</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Australia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[captive breeding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[devil facial tumor disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[genome sequencing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tasmania]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tasmanian Devil]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=5451</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Whether on television or in the real world, it seems like the Tasmanian devil just can’t catch a break. In Robert McKimson’s Looney Tunes of the 1950s, the devil “Taz” was little more than a dim-witted glutton; in the Australian forest, the animal has been tethered to the endangered species list for over a decade by a deadly cancer called devil facial tumor disease (DFTD). But new research on devil genomes may put a stop to the devils’ never-ending bad luck: scientists are using genome sequencing to engineer captive breeding programs, which will hopefully create hardier devils more resistant to the infectious DFTD—and finally provide that elusive plan of action to save the ferocious marsupials. DFTD has been the main catalyst in the freefall decline of the devils since 1996, with road-kills, predators, and persecution being the other culprits. First observed in a far northeastern corner of Tasmania, DFTD inflicts hideous facial lesions upon unfortunate devils and ultimately causes death from starvation or suffocation. But the worst thing is that DFTD is contagious: devils pass it to one another through biting, and 89% of the island’s devils have fallen prey to the disease since it was first reported.  As research leader Stephan Schuster told Physorg.com: This malignant cell is transferred directly from one individual to another through biting, mating, or even touching. Just imagine a human cancer that spread through a handshake—and what that would do to our species. (More from TIME: Decoding the Tasmanian Devil&#8217;s Deadly Cancer) So the researchers had a pretty big job to do, and they used two Tasmanian devils, named Cedric and Spirit, to do it. The two devils hailed from the extreme northwest and southeast regions of Tasmania respectively, allowing for the widest possible geographic spread of the species – a measure analogous to genetic diversity – in the study. Cedric survived several strains of DFTD, but eventually succumbed; Spirit was nearly dead from the disease when the scientists found her. By sequencing the genomes of both animals, and of one of the tumors<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=5451&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/06/27/decoding-the-genome-of-the-tasmanian-devil-might-be-the-only-way-to-save-them/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">tarathean</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">Tasmanian Devil</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Put Down That Spoon and Back Away From The Soup</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/04/28/put-down-that-spoon-and-back-away-from-the-soup/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/04/28/put-down-that-spoon-and-back-away-from-the-soup/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:44:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Kluger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shark fin soup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=4583</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The last place you&#8217;d expect to see the folks from CSI sleuthing around is the bowl of soup you&#8217;re having for lunch — unless, of course, you&#8217;re having shark fin soup. In that case, you may be enabling an environmental crime, and now there&#8217;s DNA evidence that can give you away. People who grew up on shark fin soup insist the stuff is sublime, and since there&#8217;s no accounting for what different cultures find delicious (anyone care for the boiled tongue of a domestic cow—with spicy mustard?) let&#8217;s stipulate that it&#8217;s as good as its loyalists say. But catching and finning sharks, then tossing them overboard so they can bleed to death is cruel by definition. What&#8217;s more, while the human appetite for shark fin soup seems to be unlimited, the supply of sharks themselves is anything but. By some estimates, global shark populations are down 90%. Worse,  the animals breed extremely slowly; one species popular for its fin — the common dusky shark — enters its reproductive cycle only once every three years. Even if all fishing stopped today, it would take hundreds of years for their numbers to rebound. Efforts are being made by conservationists around the world to ban the trade in shark fins or at least to monitor it — though nothing even remotely comprehensive or binding has ever been enacted. If nothing else however, it would help to know where sharks are being caught; that could at least alert one country if outside fishermen are poaching in its territorial waters, sparing the fish from being doubly plundered. Now, according to a pair of studies published in Endangered Species Research and Marine and Freshwater Research, it may be possible to use genetic testing to pinpoint the home waters of both dusky sharks and the equally popular copper sharks and provide at least those two species a measure of protection. Both duskies and coppers are found in scattered populations around the world. The animals may prowl the deep oceans but the females always return to the coastal<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=4583&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/04/28/put-down-that-spoon-and-back-away-from-the-soup/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f2cdfe953fad799c6100332224e6ecb9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Congress Fiddles With Wildlife Management — and Greens Cry Foul</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/congress-fiddles-with-wildlife-management-%e2%80%94-and-greens-cry-foul/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/congress-fiddles-with-wildlife-management-%e2%80%94-and-greens-cry-foul/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:33:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Kluger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Conservation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Congress]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[delisting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[endangered species act]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[US Fish and Wildlife Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wolves]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=4469</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[[This is a guest post by my colleague, TIME reporter Katy Steinmetz:] One of the collateral matters riding on the budget vote this week was the removal of gray wolves from the endangered species list.  While some of the sound bites in the news were dramatic — &#8220;So Congress will be voting Thursday on the fate of more than 1,600 gray wolves in the northwest,&#8221; reads one NPR article — the wolves were in this same situation just months ago. The newsworthy issue here is not the delisting itself, but the fact that legislators, instead of protection agency officials, are the ones doing it. The new legislation —which was tucked into the spending bill and is thus ensured of the President’s signature even if he doesn’t much care for it — restores a 2009 rule issued by the Department of the Interior that delisted wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountain region, which includes small parts of Utah, Washington and Oregon, as well as all of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. That decision did not mean those states could have a hunting free-for-all and shoot every wolf in sight, from ground or airplane. Rather, it simply turned the management of the animals over to state authorities, provided the plans they developed conformed to the larger Endangered Species Act [ESA]. (Wyoming’s plan failed to do that, so the state was dropped from inclusion in the 2009 rule.) Not surprisingly, delisting the wolves did not go down easily with conservationists and the move led to  a legal brouhaha, which I outlined  in a June 2010 Swampland post: When they first sued in June 2009, the coalition of 14 groups led by the Defenders [of Wildlife], which includes the Humane Society and Sierra Club, failed to get a ban on hunting the animals before the inaugural [hunting] season started in the fall. Their primary complaint then was that that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) was rescinding federal protection “despite significant threats to wolves&#8217; survival,” according to court documents. But a strong case can<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=4469&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/congress-fiddles-with-wildlife-management-%e2%80%94-and-greens-cry-foul/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Endangered Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/endangered-species/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f2cdfe953fad799c6100332224e6ecb9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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		<title>How Whale Songs Rocket to Number One</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/how-whale-songs-rocket-to-number-one/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/how-whale-songs-rocket-to-number-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 15 Apr 2011 16:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Kluger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Research]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cetaceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[courtship]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[migration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[songs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whales]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=4459</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There&#8217;s no accounting for musical taste — particularly when the kind of music you&#8217;re talking about doesn&#8217;t even originate in your own species. Bird songs may be lovely, but whale songs? Say what you will about the combination of whoops, clicks groans and faintly flatulent rumbles that whales use to communicate and woo, the odds are pretty good you&#8217;ve never gotten one them stuck in your head. To the whales themselves, however, this is chart-busting stuff. And like the Top 100 too, the most popular whale songs change over time. In a study just published in Current Biology, a team of marine biologists from the University of Queensland and the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium have tracked those changes, determining not only how long whale songs stay current before they&#8217;re replaced, but where in the world&#8217;s oceans the news songs originate — essentially where the cetacean Motown is — and how they ripple outward. To conduct the research, the investigators analyzed patterns in whale songs recorded over the course of a decade in six different Pacific Ocean populations. The whale pods farthest west were located around Australia; the ones farthest east were in the vicinity of French Polynesia. The other four were scattered at various points in between. In general, the researchers found, new whale songs first popped up among males in the Australian pods, moving slowly eastward over the course of about two years. Whales that adopted the new tunes would typically do so quickly — with all of the members of the community singing from the same songsheet within a single mating season. Sometimes the new songs would simply be variations on old ones with fresh notes mixed in; other times they would be entirely different compositions. Significantly, it was rarely the whales themselves that migrated west to east — just their music. (Listen to the songs here.) &#8220;Our findings reveal cultural change on a vast scale,&#8221; said Queensland grad student Ellen Garland, who participated in the research. The songs moved in &#8220;cultural ripples, from one population to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=4459&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/04/15/how-whale-songs-rocket-to-number-one/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/f2cdfe953fad799c6100332224e6ecb9?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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		<title>Why the Albatross Is Our Albatross</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/03/09/who-knew-60-year-old-albatross-found-in-pacific/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/03/09/who-knew-60-year-old-albatross-found-in-pacific/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:40:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[albatross]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pollution]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=3958</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An irresistible press release popped up in my inbox this morning. Last month, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist spotted this Laysan albatross on the world&#8217;s most remote coral atoll, smack in the middle of the Pacific near Hawaii. The bird was first tagged by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 1956, when she was estimated to be about five years old. That means today, she&#8217;s at least 60 — the oldest known living wild bird in the U.S. Aptly named Wisdom, the albatross was found hanging out in the Midway Atoll Wildlife Refuge to raise a chick she had recently hatched. Bruce Peterjohn, head of the USGS North American Bird Banding Program, estimates Wisdom has probably raised between 30 and 35 birds in her lifetime. After years of courtship, albatross mate for life, lay about one egg per year and take another year to raise their hatchlings. About her travel habits, USGS writes: Almost as amazing as being a parent at 60 is the number of miles this bird has likely logged – about 50,000 miles a year as an adult – which means that Wisdom has flown at least 2 to 3 million miles since she was first banded. Or, to put it another way, that’s 4 to 6 trips from the Earth to the Moon and back again with plenty of miles to spare. How do they do it? When they&#8217;re not nesting, albatross don&#8217;t touch land; they actually sleep while they&#8217;re flying. Unfortunately, their mobility hasn&#8217;t given them much of an evolutionary edge. Nineteen of 21 albatross species are now endangered, due to poisoning of chicks from lead paint that remains on Midway Atoll, longline fishing, invasive species, and the inadvertent consumption of marine garbage. According to a 2006 article in the LA Times, of the 500,000 albatross chicks born annually on Midway, some 200,000 die from starvation or dehydration, the result of eating plastic refuse that regularly washes ashore there. A lot of it comes from the infamous Eastern Garbage Patch, a huge swath<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=3958&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/03/09/who-knew-60-year-old-albatross-found-in-pacific/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">laysan_albatross_fws</media:title>
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		<title>Guam Now One of the Shark-Friendliest Places on Earth</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/02/25/guam-now-one-of-the-shark-friendliest-places-on-earth/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/02/25/guam-now-one-of-the-shark-friendliest-places-on-earth/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Feb 2011 06:33:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[guam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hawaii]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mariana islands]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Palau]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shark fin soup]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sharks]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=3830</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you’re a shark, the Pacific Islands are not a bad place to be these days. Yesterday, the Senate of Guam followed Hawaii’s lead and became the third region to move to ban the sale, possession and distribution of shark products in the U.S. territory. Hawaii was the first U.S. state to make the move last year, followed by the Mariana Islands north of Guam. Palau, the Maldives and Honduras all also prohibit all commercial fishing of sharks in their waters. How did this swath of the ocean become the epicenter of shark conservation? Partly because, in the long run, a live shark is worth more than a dead shark. All of these island economies rely on the tourists who come to ogle their ocean life – and sharks are usually at the top of their list. After supporting the U.S. military defense industry, tourism is Guam’s biggest moneymaker. But Matt Rand, the director of the Pew Environment Group’s Global Shark Conservation program, says there’s more to this growing trend than the bottom line. “My observation is that Pacific Islanders understand that there is a balance that needs to be struck out there in ocean,” Rand says. “When you overexploit it, you throw it out of whack.” Guam, a long-time fishing port, had seen a severe decline in its shark population over the years as shark fishing became more and more aggressive to meet the growing demand for shark fin in Asian cuisine. (Here’s an article I wrote about shark fin soup if you want to know more.) After the U.S. passed the first iteration of its law that bans shark finning – the practice of catching sharks, cutting their valuable fins off, and throwing the animal carcass back in the water – Guam noticed that its shark population began to recover. (Read my earlier post about the passage of the new Shark Conservation Act of 2009, first introduced by Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, here.) Whether the governor of Guam signs this full ban into law in time to save<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=3830&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/02/25/guam-now-one-of-the-shark-friendliest-places-on-earth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/rtx7f7p_comp.jpg" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">A worker dries fins of sharks in a fish port in Banyuwangi in Indonesia&#039;s East Java province</media:title>
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		<title>The Beginning of an End to Whaling in Japan?</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/02/17/the-beginning-of-an-end-to-whaling-in-japan/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/02/17/the-beginning-of-an-end-to-whaling-in-japan/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:38:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Krista Mahr</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Regulation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wildlife]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Antarctica]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sea Shepherd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[whaling]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=3718</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The annual kerfuffle between Japanese whaling ships and the anti-whaling activists who chase them around Antarctic waters every winter is once again getting its seasonal share of ink and airtime. But this year the familiar scenes from the southerly tug-of-war might have a new victor – for now. For the last several winters, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has chased around the whaling fleet Tokyo sends down to Antarctica to continue Japan’s annual whale hunt. Though there has been a global moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986, Japan continues to hunt whales in a loophole in the laws that permits whaling for scientific purposes. The scuffles between the Sea Shepherd activists trying to put a stop to this hunt and the Japanese fleet have been documented from the organization’s perspective in the sensationalist Whale Wars series on Animal Planet. Usually, the battle ends with the end of Japan’s hunt, and the activists vow to try again next year. Yesterday, however, Japan announced they had suspended their whaling activities on Feb. 10 due, officials said, to persistent harassment from the Sea Shepherd. As of Thursday afternoon, Tokyo still had not said whether they were calling off the hunt for the season, which normally ends in March. Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and captain of the Sea Shepherd vessel, said Japan’s whale processing ship had changed course and might be heading home. (UPDATE: On Friday, Tokyo announced the season&#8217;s hunt was, in fact, called off.) (See TIME’s Top 10 Gratuitously Provocative Acts.) It&#8217;s a massive coup for the militant eco group in their long fight against whaling that, for Japan, has seemingly become less about harpooning a few hundred whales than the national identity. Facing Sea Shepherd’s increasingly bold tactics and deafening PR machine, Japan has dug its heels ever deeper in the ocean floor, insisting on its right to cull whales under its scientific program and sell its meat under the international treaty, despite flagging demand (the national stockpile of whale meat stood at 5,093 tons in<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=3718&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://science.time.com/2011/02/17/the-beginning-of-an-end-to-whaling-in-japan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Wildlife</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/wildlife/</primary_category_link>
		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/24522d03b567b6a07e8bd5b61331a18d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Krista Mahr</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://timeecocentric.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/ap1102041370761.jpg?w=300" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">The Japanese whaling ship Yushin Maru No. 3 approaches a Sea Shepherd boat in the Southern Ocean on Feb. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Sea Shepherd, Simon Ager)</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Washington Will at Last Regulate Fish Farms</title>
		<link>http://science.time.com/2011/02/10/washington-will-at-last-regulate-fish-farms/</link>
		<comments>http://science.time.com/2011/02/10/washington-will-at-last-regulate-fish-farms/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:55:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jeffrey Kluger</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ecocentric]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Endangered Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Environmentalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Invasive Species]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Oceans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aquaculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NOAA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[regulations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[runoff]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Salmon]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/?p=3611</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Chances are pretty good that the last fish you ate never saw a river or the open ocean. That&#8217;s because the U.S. imports 84% of the 5 billion lbs. of seafood we consume each year and more than half of that is raised on fish farms and other aquaculture operations. The U.S., however, has not gotten invested in the aquaculture game as heavily as the rest of the world, in part because of environmental concerns and the lack of a coherent federal policy controlling the practice. As I noted in a posting about the perils of Chilean farmed salmon back in June, waste, antibiotics and other effluvium from fish farms can run into nearby waterways, contaminating wild fish with the chemicals and waste generated by raising captive ones. Nets that surround the farms can also entangle dolphins and turtles. And the risk is always present that genetically manipulated farmed fish could escape and breed with wild fish. But underinvesting in aquaculture can do its own kind of damage. With wild fish stocks collapsing worldwide, it&#8217;s environmental folly to keep dragging the deep for the last surviving members of any species, pushing it to the edge of extinction. What&#8217;s more, the $9 billion we spend importing fish each year does not do America&#8217;s growing trade imbalance any favors. And for consumers, eating farmed fish can be a lot cheaper than eating wild fish—as any shopper who&#8217;s ever faced the economic no-brainer of deciding between $11 per lb. farmed salmon and $22 per lb. wild salmon knows. Both our wallets and the oceans may have gotten a break today with the announcement by the  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that it was at last proposing formal aquaculture guidelines, which, once in place, would allow the industry to operate in what are now off-limits federal waters. The new rules would codify how fish farms would be monitored and how they were permitted to operate and would designate which kinds of fish could be raised there—banning certain non-native species, for example, until it<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=science.time.com&#038;blog=13785469&#038;post=3611&#038;subd=timeecocentric&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Invasive Species</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://science.time.com/category/animals-2/invasive-species/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jkluger</media:title>
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