 |
|
Beavers: Dam good for songbirds
October 09, 2008The songbird has a friend in the beaver. According to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the busy beaver's signature dams provide critical habitat for a variety of migratory songbirds, particularly in the semi-arid interior of the West.
The study, which appears in the October 2008 issue of the journal Western North American Naturalist, says that through dam building, beavers create ponds and stimulate growth of diverse streamside vegetation critical for birds, including many migratory songbirds in decline. The study found that the more dams beavers build, the more abundant and diverse local songbirds become.
"We found that increasing density of beaver dams was associated with a diverse and abundant bird community and the wetland and streamside habitat these species depend on," said Hilary Cooke, the study's lead author who is now finishing her dissertation at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. "This habitat is critical to birds in semi-arid regions yet has been severely degraded or lost through much of the West. Our results suggest that management of beavers may be an important tool for restoring habitat and reversing bird declines."
Beaver populations once numbered in the millions in the American West but dramatically collapsed due to the fur trade in the 1800s. Currently, beaver are often considered a pest species when they take down trees and flood property. Their influence is still missing on most watersheds in the West, yet this and other studies suggest that beaver are very important to wildlife and to reviving the natural function of streams.
"Beaver are an essential ecosystem engineer," said co-author Steve Zack of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Beavers help repair degraded stream habitats and their dams and associated ponds recharge local water tables and create wetlands. With our changing climate likely to mean increasing droughts in the West, managing ways to allow watersheds to act more like sponges will be a challenge. Beaver are a powerful tool to be considered for that, and the associated benefits to other wildlife add to their value."
This study was part of a larger effort by WCS to identify how to restore wildlife to streamside habitats in the western U.S. This study occurred in Wyoming where beaver reintroductions have been done on both private and public lands with owner consent and interest.
In 2007, WCS made history with other beaver news when an active beaver lodge was discovered in the Bronx River on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo - the first one spotted in New York City in at least two centuries.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Beaver populations once numbered in the millions in the American West but dramatically collapsed due to the fur trade in the 1800s. Currently, beaver are often considered a pest species when they take down trees and flood property. Their influence is still missing on most watersheds in the West, yet this and other studies suggest that beaver are very important to wildlife and to reviving the natural function of streams.
"Beaver are an essential ecosystem engineer," said co-author Steve Zack of the Wildlife Conservation Society. "Beavers help repair degraded stream habitats and their dams and associated ponds recharge local water tables and create wetlands. With our changing climate likely to mean increasing droughts in the West, managing ways to allow watersheds to act more like sponges will be a challenge. Beaver are a powerful tool to be considered for that, and the associated benefits to other wildlife add to their value."
This study was part of a larger effort by WCS to identify how to restore wildlife to streamside habitats in the western U.S. This study occurred in Wyoming where beaver reintroductions have been done on both private and public lands with owner consent and interest.
In 2007, WCS made history with other beaver news when an active beaver lodge was discovered in the Bronx River on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo - the first one spotted in New York City in at least two centuries.
Wildlife Conservation Society
Conservation Society Current Events and Conservation Society News RSS4 years after tsunami: Corals stage comeback
A team of scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has reported a rapid recovery of coral reefs in areas of Indonesia, following the tsunami that devastated coastal regions throughout the Indian Ocean four years ago today.
Missing: 2,000 elephants
Elephants in Zakouma National Park, the last stronghold for the savanna elephants of Central Africa's Sahel region, now hover at about 1,000 animals, down from an estimated 3,000 in 2006.
New national survey says public reveres bison
Americans are woefully out of touch with the fact that the American bison, or buffalo, is in trouble as a wild, iconic species, but they do love them as an important symbol of their country-and as an entrée on the dinner table.
World's rarest big cat gets a check-up
The world's rarest big cat is alive and well. At least one of them, that is, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who captured and released a female Far Eastern leopard in Russia last week.
'Deadly dozen' reports diseases worsened by climate change
Health experts from the Wildlife Conservation Society today released a report that lists 12 pathogens that could spread into new regions as a result of climate change, with potential impacts to both human and wildlife health and global economies.
Study: urban black bears 'live fast, die young'
Black bears that live around urban areas weigh more, get pregnant at a younger age, and are more likely to die violent deaths, according to a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Photo reveals rare okapi survived poaching onslaught
A set of stripy legs in a camera trap photo snapped in an African forest indicates something to cheer about, say researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society. The legs belong to an okapi-a rare forest giraffe-which apparently has survived in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park, despite over a decade of civil war and increased poaching.
Photos reveal Myanmar's large and small predators
Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores. These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's wildlife.
Unexpected large monkey population discovered
A WCS report reveals surprisingly large populations of two globally threatened primates in a protected area in Cambodia.
Protection zones in the wrong place to prevent coral reef collapse
Conservation zones are in the wrong place to protect vulnerable coral reefs from the effects of global warming, an international team of scientists warned today.
More Conservation Society Current Events and Conservation Society News Articles
| Amazing Gorillas! (Wildlife Conservation Society I Can Read Books) by Sarah L. Thomson Stage 2: Reading with help, High-interest story for developing readers. Wildlife Conservation Society book about the life cycle of a... | |
 | Large-Scale Ecology and Conservation Biology: The 35th Symposium of the British Ecological Society With the Society for Conservation Biology (Symposium of the British Ecological Society) by British Ecological Society Symposium 1993 (University of Southampton), Robert M. May, Peter J. Edwards What will be the ecological consequences of rapid climatic change? What rate of exploitation of deep sea fish stocks is sustainable? Can we predict the dynamics of epidemic diseases such as AIDS? Where should we direct our conservation efforts in the face of the accelerating rate of loss of biodiversity? A fundamental issue in our attempts to answer these and other questions, is whether we can... |
 | Woodpecker in the Backyard (Wildlife Conservation Society Books) by Cathy Mania, Robert C., Jr. Mania |
 | A Whale Biologist at Work (Wildlife Conservation Society Books) by Sneed B. Collard |
 | Saving Wildlife: A Century of Conservation |
 | Wild Lives: A History of People & Animals of the Bronx Zoo by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld From the moment the very first animals–two small, bedraggled prairie dogs–arrived at the Bronx Zoo in 1899, history was being made. Zookeeping has steadily been evolving over the years: Today, animals that would once have been kept in iron cages roam freely in habitats similar to real prairies, jungles, and forests.With engaging animal photos and lively anecdotes, Wild Lives takes readers... |
 | Golden Eagles of Devil Mountain (Wildlife Conservation Society Books) by Mark J. Rauzon |
| Evolutionary Conservation of Developmental Mechanisms: 50th Symposium of the Society for Developmental Biology, Marquette University, June 20-23, 1991 by Allan C. (Editor), and Society for Developmental Biology Spradling | |
| Conservation: overhead or value added? A viewpoint from the Soil and Water Conservation Society's executive director. (Home Front).(Brief Article): An ... from: Journal of Soil and Water Conservation by Craig Cox This digital document is an article from Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, published by Soil & Water Conservation Society on March 1, 2002. The length of the article is 801 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web... | |
| Baalbak: North & south Lebanon : description, history and touristic guide by George Haddad |
| © 2009 BrightSurf.com |