Animal Spotlight: Spix’s Macaw

Taxonomy:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Aves
• Order: Psittaciformes
• Family: Psittacidae
• Genus: Cyanopsitta
• Species: Spixii

• Nicknames: Little Blue Macaw, Guacamayito Azul, Guacamayo de Spix

• Average Length: 21.65-21.75 in (55-57 cm)
• Average Weight of Captive Males: 11.2 oz (318 g)
• Average Weight of Captive Females: 10.2 oz (288 g)
• Estimated Lifespan: 20-30 years

The Spix’s macaws are elegant parrots to view with their various shades of blue and striking deep blue wings and tail. However, their beauty has led to their decline as it has become the world’s rarest bird.

Conservation News: National Park

National Marine Monument Upgraded to World’s Largest National Park

To end the week of 100th anniversary celebrations for the National Park Service, President Barack Obama turned to the ocean to create the largest protected area anywhere on Earth.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, established in 2006 by  President George W. Bush, already covered 140,000 square miles of ocean around the uninhabited northwestern islands of Hawaii to protect marine life and native Hawaiian culture. However, under the U.S. Antiquities Act, President Obama extended most of the monument’s boundary to quadruple its size to 582,578 square miles, an area larger than all the national parks combined.

The Muscles Behind the Cat

It takes more than just bones for a cat to move. Overlying the skeletal framework is a complex network of muscles, 517 total, that gives the cat it’s powerful and graceful movement and its lithe body shape. It is what allows the cat to leap up to five times its own height, keep its balance, and land safely. The cat also moves in a contralateral fashion where the right front leg and left back leg move together and the same goes for the left front leg and right back leg.

Photo By: Warren Photographic

The way in which the muscles and bones have developed in species of the cat family clearly indicates the variety of lifestyles found. For example, the cheetah, who spends most, if not all, of its time on the ground running, has narrow and deep muscle attachments on its shoulder blades. However, the leopard, who prefers climbing rather than running, has shallow and broad muscle attachments.

Animal Spotlight: Hawksbill Turtle

Taxonomy:

@William Goodwin

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Reptilia
• Order: Testudines
• Family: Cheloniidae
• Genus: Eretmochelys
• Species: Imbricata

• Estimated Average Life Span: 30 to 50 years
• Average Weight: 100 to 150 pounds (45 to 68 kg)
• Average Shell Length: 30-40 inches (76-102 cm)

Hawksbill turtles are the smallest species of sea turtles and are named for their narrow, pointed beak. They have a distinctive pattern of overlapping scales on their shells that form a serrated-look on the edges. However, these colored and patterned shells make them highly-valuable and commonly sold as “tortoiseshell” in markets.

They are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems, helping to maintain the health of coral reefs and seagrass beds. As they remove prey such as sponges from the reef’s surface, they provide better access for reef fish to feed.

Conservation News: Storks, Fur Farms, and Toxic Algae Blooms

An All-Woman Army Protecting the Greater Adjutant Stork

In a few months, the greater adjutant stork, also called the hargilla, will be descending on a remote village, situated in Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley of northeastern India, to breed in large numbers. Dadara and two nearby villages, Pasariya and Singimari, are surrounded by food-rich wetlands with tall trees perfect for nesting and have become a major stronghold for this species.

Greater adjutant storks stand near a garbage dump on the outskirts of Gauhati, India, on June 5, 2012. Photo By: Anupam Nath

“You will soon catch sight of this dark, quirky-looking bird, with large, thick bills, stalking over the beds of these wetlands or on the rain-soaked paddy fields in its typical military gait,” describes Charu Das.

Due to deforestation and widespread development of wetlands, only about 800 to a 1,200 greater adjutant storks remain in India and Cambodia.

But thanks to the efforts of the Hargilla Army, a conservation brigade of 70 local women, the greater adjutant stork has found a refuge. The Hargilla Army has been successful reducing threats and protecting habitat of the stork, backed by the direct administration and local conservation groups. With their efforts, the region has become “the biggest greater adjutant nesting colony in the world,” according to the Purnima Devi Barman, a wildlife biologist from Aaranyak, a conservation nonprofit in Assam, with around 550 of the birds living in these three villages.

Conservation News: Asiatic Lions, Giraffes, and Foxes

The Growing Success Story of the Asiatic Lion

Easily overshadowed by the African lion, the Asiatic lion once roamed the vast swaths of the Middle East and Asia. Up until the 17th century, it was found as far west as Palestine and throughout Arabia, Persia, and Northern India. However, indiscriminate hunting and killing to protect livestock led to a mass slaughter, leaving as few as ten Asiatic lions remaining by the late 1800s.

Their last refuge is western India’s Gir National Park, home to, according to a 2015 census, a little more than 500 Asiatic lions, the world’s only wild population. In comparison, about 20,000 African lions remain in the wild. The forest was originally hunting grounds for the royalty of Junagadh province. In the early 1900s, ruler Nawab Muhammad Rasul Khanji Babi noticed the startling decline and declared Gir as a protected area. The first official lion census, conducted in 1936, found 150 lions. Since then, a census has been taken every five years and has shown an upward trend.

Photographer: Tambako The Jaguar (Flickr user)