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The Mauritian dodo is the iconic emblem for both island conservation and extinction, sadly one of the birds lost from the Mascarene archipelago. One might often wonder how this strange bird could have originally been descended from a pigeon, but in Samoa we find the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), otherwise known as the little dodo, or locally the Manumea. This strange pigeon is the only member of its Genus (a measure of evolutionary uniqueness), and is also the national bird of Samoa. Sadly, like the dodo, this species is on the fast-track to extinction. Mean numbers have crashed from thousands in the 1980s to only rare sightings today. Extinction of island birds is still continuing today. The fledgling Samoan Conservation Society is working with island conservation scientists from New Zealand and elsewhere to survey populations and establish a conservation programme, including captive-breeding, as part of wider work on the conservation of all Samoan birds. With backing and support the team are confident that extinction of the Manumea can be averted.

Agriculture, oil and gas exploration and other human activity have reduced Alberta’s sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) population to about 50 birds. Once ranging as far north as Empress, Alta., sage grouse are now found only in the southeastern corner of the province, south of the Cypress Hills. Saskatchewan populations have had a similar fate, with grouse found in a small southwestern region in the Frenchman River valley and Grasslands National Park. “The sage grouse population decline has been severe,” said Alberta Fish and Wildlife biologist Joel Nicholson, noting most of the remaining North American population now lives in Montana and Wyoming. “We’re at a situation in Alberta now where we likely have 50 or fewer grouse, total population, and so we need to do some really significant immediate actions to prevent this population from becoming extirpated in Alberta.”

A cocktail of contaminants could threaten to further push the Arctic’s population of glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) into decline, a Canadian scientist has found. The breeding population of the glaucous gull — which looks like your average seagull — has halved in the Canadian Arctic since the 1980s. Several contaminants, plus other threats that endanger the gull, like global warming and new parasites in the environment, work together to harm the gull, explained Jonathan Verreault, a professor at Université du Québec à Montréal and a Canada research chair in comparative avian toxicology. “For example — If I punch you in the stomach, it will hurt. But if I punch you in the back, and the head, and the stomach, it will hurt more. And eventually it can reduce your health if you do it every day,” Verreault said. Verreault studied the gulls near Cape Dorset in 2012 and found levels of contaminants like mercury, polybrominated diphenylether (PBDE) and halogenated flame-retardants in the gulls’ livers, eggs and plasma.

The Environmental Protection Agency and several other federal agencies released new policies today designed to better assess the risks that pesticides pose to endangered species. These policies will ensure that mitigation measures recommended by the federal wildlife agencies are put in place to protect endangered species in agricultural areas, as well as in areas downstream that are affected by pesticide runoff. They come in response to an April 2013 report from the National Academy of Sciences that criticized the EPA for failing to fully assess the impact of pesticides on endangered species. “The actions announced today represent an important step forward in protecting our nation’s most endangered plants and animals from toxic pesticides, but this is just the first step,” said Brett Hartl, endangered species policy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The EPA needs to do much more to ensure this new plan results in meaningful, on-the-ground conservation actions to protect our most endangered species and their habitats.”

The study by Quercus, Northern Ireland's Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, found the number of diving ducks migrating to the lake for the winter months has dropped from 100,000 to less than 21,000 in the space of a decade. The research, published in the journal Freshwater Biology, found the ecosystem of the lake has dramatically changed since 2000/01 leading to a huge decline in the numbers of insects and snails living at the bottom of the lake.
This combined with the effects of global climate change dramatically affected the numbers of migratory and overwintering water birds, a feature for which the lake is designated a Special Protection Area. Dr Irena Tománková, from Quercus at the School of Biological Sciences at Queen's and who led the study, said: "Our research found there was a 66 per cent decline in the numbers of insects and snails in the lake and that this was associated with a decline of algae. As the water birds, which migrate from Northern and Eastern Europe to spend the winter months on the lake, depend on these invertebrates, we partly attribute their decline to the lack of food as well as the effects of climate change. "Historically the lake was heavily affected by organic pollution as a result of nutrients from agricultural run-off. This artificially boosted its productivity. Now that conservation schemes are beginning to have an effect and reduce levels of pollution we are seeing increasing water quality and the unexpected consequence is fewer invertebrates and as a result less duck food."

The number of migrating golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) through Montana’s Bridger Mountains, the top fall golden eagle migration route in the Lower 48, has dropped 35 to 40 percent over the past two decades, mirroring similar declines at migrating raptor count sites elsewhere in the West and raising concerns for Montana Audubon, which conducts the surveys. Steve Hoffman, executive director of Montana Audubon, says the declines in southwest Montana are being documented in migrating golden eagles, which could indicate habitat loss in wintering grounds in the United States or problems in breeding areas in Canada and Alaska. The decline in numbers of golden eagles has been documented in annual raptor counts conducted at Bridger Bowl Ski Area near Bozeman since 1992. Each year, from Sept. 1 to late October or early November, two official observers count raptors from a helicopter-landing platform at an elevation of 8,600 feet. In the 2013 survey, which concluded earlier this month, the trend of declining golden eagles continued with 1,131 golden eagles counted compared to 1,272 in 2012. In 1992, the first full year of survey results, 1,579 golden eagles were recorded. In 1999, the last year counters recorded a high number of eagles, 1,870 golden eagles were spotted. "Our data in the Bridgers has determined it is a problem,” Hoffman said. Since the late 1990s, the number of birds counted has declined 35 to 40 percent, the survey results show.

Continuing on from their recent article “Risk Assessment for Bees I – Recent Regulatory Developments in Europe” Huntingdon Life Sciences has published a follow-up article which focuses on developments in the area of pollinator
regulatory testing and risk assessment in North America.

In his latest forthright intervention on issues of public debate from architecture to homeopathy, the heir to the throne has highlighted the iniquities faced by farmers who deal with dramatically fluctuating incomes while retailers reap substantial profits from their squeezed suppliers. The Prince, who has previously been outspoken on threats to the countryside and is himself a substantial landowner through the Duchy of Cornwall, takes up the cudgels against the supermarkets in an edition of Country Life magazine which he guest-edited. His lengthy editorial defends the work of farmers as guardians of rural Britain and argues that plummeting incomes are depriving farmers of the ability to invest long-term in their land, thereby storing up problems for sustainable domestic food production. He said producers were, in effect, being “penalised” for choosing their way of life, adding: “Small farmers find themselves in the iniquitous position of taking the biggest risk, often acting as the buffer from the retailer against all the economic uncertainties of producing food, but receiving the least return.“It cannot be right that a typical hill farmer earns just £12,600, with some surviving on as little as £8,000 a year, whilst the big retailers and their shareholders do so much better out of the deal, having taken none of the risk.”

Starfish are dying in massive numbers due to a disease outbreak that melts the animals into a white goo, leaving researchers scrambling to explain the troubling phenomenon. Dubbed Sea Star Wasting Syndrome, the disease is most prominent on the Pacific Coast, ranging from Southern California to Alaska, where at least 10 species of sea stars have reportedly been afflicted. According to the Associated Press, up to 95 percent of sea star populations in some tide pools have been killed. While major sea star die-off was documented in Southern California in the 1980s and 1990s, the current outbreak, which causes lesions, tissue decay and eventual loss of limbs, is unprecedented. “We've never seen it at this scale up and down the coast,” Pete Raimondi of the University of California Santa Cruz told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. “They essentially melt in front of you.”