wildlife down under Archives - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

Following a Forest & Bird campaign gone massively global, thanks to the unbridled enthusiasm of Last Week Tonight host John Oliver, the Bird of the Century results are in, and it’s Mr. Oliver’s pick for the win: the orange-mulleted, prolific puker, the one and only Australasian crested grebe, a.k.a. the pūteketeke.

Even though we’re kākāpō loyalists, because a clumsy, slow-moving, flightless bird needs all the love it can get, every New Zealand bird is a winner as far as we’re concerned. And if all that media frenzy ratchets up the global enthusiasm for protecting endangered bird species everywhere, we’re all in—keep the critical conservation momentum going!

And congratulations pūteketeke! Long may you weed dance!

…

Lisa S. French November 14, 2023

Humpback Whale Play: Water Toys, and Spa Treatments

2-minute read

Have you ever wondered what baleen whales get up to in their spare time? Do they even have spare time? Sure, whales work from home, make their own schedules, and come and go as they please, but nature can be a harsh taskmaster, and the business of surviving in the wild is a 24/7 endeavor. To fulfill basic physiological needs, the giant marine mammals spend most of their waking hours migrating, foraging for food, caring for young, and, more recently, ship dodging. But according to a new study, humpback whales also make room for fun—engaging in seaweed-centric play known as kelping.

Water Toys and Spa Treatments
Thanks to video and photo contributions from keen-eyed citizen scientists and whale watchers in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and French Polynesia, researchers from Griffin University have reported that humpbacks intentionally seek out and interact with kelp beds and floating seaweed. They swim through it, drag it, and roll in it. They throw it in the air and rub it on their pectoral fins. They kelp alone, and they kelp with other whales.

And what is the purpose of kelping? The whales aren’t talking, but marine scientists have proposed several possibilities: it’s fun—the playful interaction stimulates the giant mammals’ senses and enhances their motor abilities; it’s soothing—they enjoy the sensation of seaweed on their head and jaws; it’s medicinal—they use it to remove parasites and dead skin; it’s a communications tool—they use it to signal other whales.

Humpbacks aren’t the only marine animals known to use random floating objects to engage in what could be interpreted as fun-seeking behavior. Innovative object-oriented activity has been documented in a variety of species, including otters, dolphins, orcas, grey whales, and walruses. Some biologists believe that participating in behaviors outside of the essential tasks of daily living may help animals acquire knowledge, adapt to a changing environment, or build life-sustaining relationships.

Continuing to study how various whale species spend their time in the wild can contribute to conservation efforts by increasing our understanding of how to maintain the ecosystems they depend upon for survival. We may come to learn exactly how important a bit of clean, green, exfoliating whale fun is to their existence.

ICYMI Nature News

This She-Bear Chomps Salmon Like a Boss
Well, it’s official. The really big winner of Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week contest is the formidable female feaster, Grazer. She out-chomped our pick, second runner-up, Chunk, by a salmon-scarfing mile to be crowned Queen of Katmai. And long may she reign.

Humans Make the Scariest Sounds of All
Apparently, human voices are more frightening to South African wildlife than the roar of lions. Now, researchers are conjuring ways to use recordings of human chitter-chatter to deter animals from entering high poaching areas. So, we’re a good kind of scary, then. Sort of.

Kangaroo Moms Form Clubs to Deter Predators
According to a new study in Animal Behavior, kangaroo moms form neighborhood watch networks to keep their joeys safe from foxes and dingoes. Don’t mess with the socially savvy sisterhood of marsupials.

Even More Glow-In-the-Dark Mammals
It seems a whole lot more mammals have fluorescent fur than previously believed. New research found that 107 of 125 species evaluated had fur that glowed under UV light, including bats, zebras, and polar bears. Solar-powered, we presume?

As If You Need an Expert to Tell You, Cats Are Perfect
A biologist from the Natural History Museum in London has determined that felines have achieved evolutionary perfection. Here’s why. Also, a few thoughts on the matter from FWP resident catnip curator Stella: “Who am I to argue with the scientific community? Now, how about a treat?”

And How Does Your Hammer Grow?
If you’ve ever wondered how a hammerhead shark develops its tool-shaped snout, for the first time ever, you can watch it grow.

Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Dancing bears, scolding birds, or lazy lions? You have until November 23rd to cast a vote for your favorite Comedy Wildlife Photograph for 2023. Check out the 41 funniest finalists here.

…

Lisa S. French October 11, 2023

A Big Win for a Little Bird

2-minute read

Wren you’ve got it, you’ve got it!

The pīwauwau rock wren, the little songbird with the really big feet, has hopped and bopped past its competitors to be crowned 2022 New Zealand Bird of the Year. And what makes the diminutive mountain dweller a winner? For starters, the feathered rock climber is New Zealand’s only true alpine bird, spending its entire life flitting around the unforgiving, rugged terrain of the island country’s mountain regions. Despite weighing less than a double-A battery and lacking an insulating layer of down, the rock wren manages to endure months of bitter cold temperatures that can drop below -10℃ at elevations as high as 3,000 meters.

You might think that an ancient bird species robust enough to survive 62 million years in such a harsh environment could handle just about anything nature throws its way, but the rock wren is in serious trouble. Unfortunately, human-introduced predators have pushed the intrepid avian mountaineers to the brink of extinction.

Even though our Bird of the Year pick, the rockhopper penguin, failed to capture the crown, we’re happy to congratulate this little endangered underbird on its much-deserved big win. With 49% of bird species globally in decline, drawing attention to the plight of rare and at-risk fliers like the New Zealand rock wren can promote conservation strategies that ensure they stick around to prettify the planet for another few million years.

You can find out more about the rock wren and other amazing New Zealand bird species from Forest & Bird. And if you’d like to offer your support to all of the winged wonders of our world, Birdlife International has lots of ways you can lend a hand. Faced with the triple threats of climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species, our beloved birds might just survive with a little help and TLC from their fwrens.

ICYMI Nature News

Prescription Bird Benefits
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again, being around birds is good for you. In case you need another great reason to spend time in nature with the feathered songsters, researchers at King’s College have concluded that seeing and hearing birds improves overall mental well-being. So, if you’ve got a stubborn case of the blues, you may benefit from a daily dose of prescribed birdsong.

Bees Just Want to Have Fun
Apparently, all work and no play makes for very dull pollinators. We knew the brainy, little insects were hard workers, but according to scientists at Queen Mary University, bees are also fun seekers that like to play with toys given the opportunity. Note to self: add teeny-tiny toy chest to garden.

Mapping Pachyderm Facial Feels
Have you ever wondered how elephants maintain such effortless control of their trunks? According to Science Advances, it’s because they have tens of thousands of nerve cells in the grape-sized brain region that controls their facial muscles—63,000 cells for African elephants and 54,000 for Asians. We humans, by comparison, have only 8-9000 nerve cells in our facial control center. Now you know why you can’t pull out tree trunks with your nose.

Nose-Picking Primates
It’s long been accepted that Mother Nature provides each unique species on the planet with the essential tools and abilities needed to survive. In the case of the Madagascar aye-aye, it seems the primate needs to pick its nose, so is equipped with an 8 cm extra-long middle finger to do the job. Researchers believe that the nose-picking habit (hobby?), also common in other primates, is likely a form of self-cleaning. Tissue, little fellow?

FWP Carbon Capture Report
We’ve got another month of tree planting and carbon capture updates to report. But before we get to the number crunching, we’d like to provide a bit of info about why we plant where we plant.

Almost every region on Earth can get a boost from tree planting, but picking spots that provide the optimal social, biodiversity, and environmental benefits is critical to our mission. Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, we plant the majority of our trees in the tropical zone, where they receive the most sunlight to expedite growth and CO2 capture.

Tropical regions also host about 85% of all terrestrial species. Planting trees in the tropics helps combat deforestation and habitat loss that threaten many species with extinction. The Tree-Nation platform also enables us to plant drought-resistant crop trees that support communities most at risk from famine and malnutrition. Our goal is to plant the right trees in the right places for the greatest all-around benefit.

From April through October, the trees we’ve planted across 11 projects bring our carbon capture total to 2020 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to 2,235,456 pounds of coal burned, 227,350 gallons of gasoline consumed, or 5,015,197 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.

…

Lisa S. French November 1, 2022

A family of Superb Fairy-wrens in South Eastern New South Wales, Australia; brilliant blue and black father and cute brown chicks on a branch with leafy green background

Bestest Australian Bird: The Superb Fairy-Wren

1.5-minute read

Australia is home to some of the world’s most remarkable birds—brolgas, galahs, rosellas, currawongs—to name a splendid few. According to BirdLife International’s State of the World’s Birds report, like many species globally, Australia’s birds are threatened by the ongoing environmental stressors of habitat loss and climate change. For the past two weeks, to help raise awareness of the need to protect the island continent’s diverse avian wildlife, friends of the feathered cast their votes for the top-of-the-tree, best-in-beaks Bird of the Year.

The 2021 all-around favorite, announced on October 8, was the superb fairy-wren, a passerine, aka perching bird, that inhabits backyards and woodlands across eastern Australia and Tasmania. Although the fairy-wren edged out our preferred pick, the tawny frogmouth, by a chin feather, we can appreciate the songbird’s many winning attributes. For starters, it’s hard not to be positively inclined toward a creature called “superb”. In addition to their esteem-enhancing moniker, the dainty songsters have other champion qualities:

It takes a bird village:
Superb fairy-wrens raise their young in cooperative social groups. One to four male helpers support nesting parents by contributing to the defense and feeding of hatchlings.

Winged chameleons:
During mating season, the plumage of the male superb fairy-wren changes from a muddy brown to a striking shade of blue. While female fairy-wrens prefer the males that turn blue first and stay blue the longest, when it comes to life expectancy, changing colors puts male birds at a competitive disadvantage because that vibrant hue also attracts predators. As a result, according to researchers at Monash University, male fairy-wrens in blue mode have learned to be super cautious. Compared to their brown flock mates, they spend more time foraging for food in hiding and they’re the first birds out of the bush in response to alarm calls—file those adaptive risk avoidance skills under survival of the bluest.

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs:
In the avian world, males commonly sing more frequently and produce more complex songs to attract mates. However, superb fairy-wrens are equal opportunity vocalists. Both males and females sing solo year-round and tutor their sons and daughters in familial trills, twitters, and tweets. Have a listen.

And with those songbird snippets, we wrap up the 2021 Australian Bird Of The Year competition. To celebrate all of this year’s contestants, author and illustrator Georgia Angus has created a downloadable poster for your viewing pleasure. It’s free, it’s beautiful, and you can get it here. A hearty congratulations to the superb fairy-wren! Don’t despair, tawny frogmouth—you’ll get another chance to strut your feathered stuff in 2022.

Just a reminder: the southern hemisphere’s best-in-bird competitions continue with Forest & Bird’s New Zealand Bird of the Year, from October 18 through October 31. At the moment, we’re leaning toward the rockhopper penguin, but the royal spoonbill is pretty darn hard to resist. Hmm, and what about the southern brown kiwi… It’s a veritable bird watchers paradise down there!

…

Lisa S. French October 9, 2021

Here Be Leafy Seadragons

1-minute read

Just when we thought we’d discovered every wild and wondrous creature that occupies Australian waters, another unique specimen drifts out of the seagrass and onto our radar. Despite its moniker, the leafy seadragon (Phycodurus eques) is no moat-dwelling flame thrower. In fact, it’s not a dragon at all, or even a reptile, but a uniquely beautiful species of fish with frond-like appendages that extend from rings of bony armor encircling its body.

The leafy seadragon’s fishy foliage serves as camouflage that helps the marine animal hide from both predators and prey in the reefs of its southwestern coastal habitat. While the seadragon may have a delicate appearance, don’t let those frills fool you. The voracious carnivore is a crustacean ambush artist, using the suction power of its tubular snout to capture vast quantities of tiny mysid shrimp.

The fish species most likely to be mistaken for underwater escarole has another highly distinctive characteristic: male leafy seadragons pitch in with pregnancy in a big way—they carry and brood eggs. Female seadragons transfer up to 250 eggs to their mate for eight weeks of safe-keeping until they hatch. Some scientists believe that females pass off eggs to papa to hide soon-to-be seadragons from predators—crafty!

Until recently, there were only two known species of seadragons, the leafy and the common (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus). In 2015, for the first time in 150 years, a new seadragon was discovered in waters off the coast of Western Australia, Phyllopteryx dewysea, a.k.a. the Ruby Seadragon. The brilliantly colored, crimson fish is not quite as elegant as its leafy cousin, but it’s splendid just the same.

Researchers think that we’ve only identified 1.6 million species out of an estimated 8.7 million globally. Now that we’re plus one fancy red seadragon, there are 7,099,999 species to go, give or take. That’s a lot of living things to factor into the healthy functioning of our planet. We’d better get busy!

If you’d like to read a lyrical ode to one of the world’s most ornate ocean dwellers, you can get free access to Miho Nonaka’s poem The Leafy Seadragon, through JSTOR.

And if you want to learn more about some of Australia’s most extraordinary animals, we invite you to explore WW’s wildlife down under.

…

Lisa S. French August 7, 2021

Fishy Antifreeze

1-minute read

It’s officially summer in the northern hemisphere. With record-breaking high temperatures already being recorded in the U.S., Canada, parts of Europe, and the Arctic, it looks like 2021 is going to be another climate change-intensified scorcher.

If you’re in need of a way to keep cool—really cool—how about a little cold water swimming? And what could be more refreshingly chilling than a dip in a polar sea? Well, as tempting as that may seem when the thermometer reads 116°F, unlike polar fishes, we gill-free types are just not equipped to last long in cold water. So what do our piscine pals have that we don’t to help them survive frigid marine temperatures? Bodies fortified with antifreeze.

To manage the challenges of a life lived in icy seas, Arctic and Antarctic fish species that aren’t able to migrate to warmer waters evolved with antifreeze proteins in their blood and body tissues. These protective proteins lower the freezing point of polar fishes to below water temperature. When they come into contact with ice crystals either on their skin or gills or through eating or drinking, the antifreeze binds to the ice to prevent the scaly swimmers from turning into fish-icles. Now, how cool is that?

If you’d like to learn more about which animals have adapted to life in the coldest environment on the planet, the New Zealand government has created a splendidly informative poster of the wildlife occupying the world’s largest marine protected area in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

And if you’re keen to swim with fishes of the non-polar variety this summer, courtesy of The Guardian, scientist Heather Massey has some tips on how to avoid hypothermia while paddling in open waters.

Fishy business aside, just a reminder that extreme heat, like extreme cold, can be life-threatening. If you’re suffering through triple-digit temperatures and can’t make it to a pool or the beach, Google the location of your nearest cooling center and head on over. For tips on how to manage a heat wave without air conditioning, check out this list from MedicineNet. Keep cool. Stay safe.

…

Lisa S. French June 29, 2021

Endangered Species Day: Say Hello to the Hairy-Nosed Wombat

2.5-minute read

We think one of the best ways to honor Endangered Species Day (May 21) is to increase awareness of the most precious wild creatures remaining on our planet because we believe that to know them is to love them and to love them is to protect them. So, to aid the conservation of a rare one, we’d like to introduce you to the critically endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat. A species is classified as critically endangered if its population has declined by at least 90%. At last count, there were only 250 of the iconic Australian marsupials left in the wild. Although conservation scientists are working diligently to prevent the hairy-nosed wombat’s extinction, the cuddly-looking critter remains one of the most at-risk animals on Earth.

For your ESD information, here’s a wombat what’s what:

Claim to fame:
In addition to having an unusually furry snout, the northern hairy-nosed wombat is the largest, plant-eating, burrowing mammal on Earth. The average weight of an adult wombat is about 70lbs—roughly the same weight as a golden retriever. Now, that’s a big digger! By comparison, a burrowing groundhog weighs only 9 lbs.

Aboriginal name:
When the Dharug people of southeast Australia first came across the short-legged, bear-like marsupial, they christened the animal wambad, which officially evolved into wombat in 1798. Although they’ve also been called native badgers and native bears, we think they definitely have more of a wambad look about them.

Preferred Hangout:
Underground. Wombats are expert excavators, digging 70 to 100 ft of tunnels, 10 to 13 ft below the earth with multiple entrances for easy access. The northern hairy-nosed wombat’s burrowing habitat once spanned parts of New South Wales and Queensland, but now they can only be found in Epping Forest National Park and Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in Queensland. However, their reduced range hasn’t stopped the wombats from digging in—they’ve tunneled out 470 burrows in their Epping Forest habitat.

Social style:
The nocturnal hairy-nosed wombat is a social distancing specialist, spending about 70% of burrow time on its lonesome. In 1300 hours of video recorded in Epping Park, there were only 12 social interactions. Although wombats occasionally burrow hop, they prefer home base, avoid unfamiliar situations and aren’t particularly chatty. When the introverted marsupials do vocalize, they communicate through whispery squeaks. You can listen to the cautious chittering of the common wombat here.

Favorite foods:
The wombat might look a bit like a bear, but it eats like a bunny—90% of its diet is grasses.

Special skills:
What’s good for the wombat is good for healthy ecosystems. Burrowers help to improve soil quality and plant diversity and create habitats for other endangered animals like wallabies, echidnas, and bettongs.

Why they need TLC:
Between 1870 and 1920, the northern hairy-nosed wombat was nearly wiped out. Researchers believe that their burrows were destroyed to eliminate pests that inhabited their tunnel system. Habitat loss, invasive species, and competition for food resulting from worsening drought continue to take a toll on the critically endangered animals.

How to help:
Like many of Australia’s amazing species, wombats need help to survive the increasing threats of climate change and habitat loss. If you would like to find out how you can support the work of scientists and volunteers dedicated to ensuring the northern hairy-nosed wombat can tunnel on, visit the good people at The Wombat Foundation.

To learn more about the status of threatened wildlife globally, check out the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List—the world’s most comprehensive source of information for endangered flora and fauna. For a compelling overview of where we are on the wildlife conservation front and where we’re headed, we highly recommend The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.

And because we’d like to leave you with some hopeful news, you can learn about a bold initiative launched by Leonardo DiCaprio to restore some of the planet’s rarest species at re:wild.org. The other good news is you don’t have to be a celebrity to help protect and preserve wildlife. You can find local ESD events, educational material, and more recommended reads at Endangered.org. Then head on over to World Wildlife Fund to sponsor a favorite creature year-round. Until we get Endangered Species Day off the calendar, it’s all hands on deck.

…

Lisa S. French May 21, 2021

The Platypus: You Could Even Say It Glows

1.5-minute read

As quirky creatures go, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a pretty tough act to follow. The web-footed, duck-billed, paddle-tailed, venom-producing water dweller is one of only five egg-laying mammals on Earth. Although the ancient, semi-aquatic oddity has been paddling around the streams, lakes, and lagoons of eastern Australia for around 110 million years, researchers have only recently discovered another unusual platypus-ian trait—biofluorescence. Platypus fur contains special proteins that absorb sunlight and re-emit it as a blue-green glow under ultraviolet (UV) light.

Why the need for built-in brightness? Because the platypus is primarily active at night, scientists believe its biofluorescence could be an adaptation to the murky, low-light underwater world it inhabits. By absorbing rather than reflecting UV light, the fluorescent fur of the platypus may help keep it hidden from the prying eyes of predators with UV sensitive vision. Navigating in stealth mode could be especially important to the animal’s survival, given that it closes its eyes and ears underwater and can’t see or hear when trouble is headed its way.

While St. Nick’s reindeer could probably do with a break, it looks like he won’t be hitching a submersible sleigh to a team of platypuses anytime soon. Unlike Rudolph’s blinking, bright-red nose, the nocturnal animal’s blue-green fluorescence isn’t visible to the naked human eye.

You may also be interested to learn that the platypus doesn’t glow it alone. Fluorescent substances that emit light in shades of yellow, green, red, blue, and pink have also been found in the bones, fur, and skin of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and other night critters, including the flying squirrel, which glows hot pink and the water opossum, which glows purple.

Blue platypuses, pink flying squirrels, and purple opossums! We might have to spring for a UV flashlight!

…

Lisa S. French December 7, 2020

Charmingly Chubby Champion

1.5-minute read

We’ve got some exciting news about an important election! Forest & Bird, one of New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organizations, have announced the results of the 2020 Bird of the Year contest. The winner is—drumroll please—one of our favorite birds Down Under, and the world’s only flightless parrot, the charismatic, critically endangered kākāpō. Take a bow your royal feathered green-ness—no bird waddles quite like you!

Once widespread across New Zealand, the parrot’s populations have been decimated by habitat loss and the introduction of invasive predators. Although the number of kākāpōs has been increasing from a low of just 18 birds in 1977, according to the IUCN, there are currently only 209 on the planet.

The slow-moving, ground-dwelling kākāpō can live up to 95 years, given a fighting chance. Scientists continue to work intensely to save the rare species from extinction through captive breeding and identification and protection of safe habitat. The ultimate goal of conservationists is to establish a self-sustaining population of the beloved birds as part of a healthy island ecosystem.

You can learn more about the kākāpō and all of the beautiful Bird of the Year contestants here.

On a related creature-conservation note, if you’d like to help bee the change, through November 30th, non-profits, schools, and community organizations in the U.S. can apply to the Bee Conservancy through their Sponsor-A-Hive program for a custom bee house to host mason, leafcutter, and carpenter bees. While spring may seem a long way off, flowering plants in need of pollination will be popping up before you know it!

And since it is Monday, we leave you with a sweet, soothing dose of musical sunshine to help ease you into your week.

Wherever you are in the world, stay safe and be well.

…

Lisa S. French November 16, 2020

New Guinea Singing Dogs—Not Gone

1-minute read

For the small remaining population of New Guinea singing dogs (Canis hallstromi), the recent news that their clan is no longer classified as extinct in the wild was surely music to their petal-shaped ears. At one time, the melancholy howls of the extraordinarily shy canines could be heard at dusk and dawn throughout the mountain ranges of New Guinea. Unfortunately, for the past 50 years, their haunting vocalizations have only been heard in captivity. Declared extinct in the 1970s as a result of habitat loss, it was believed that only 200-300 descendants of eight captured wild dogs were left on the planet.

Now the rare animals may get a new lease on life in the wilderness thanks in part to the distinctive sound of their howling. According to researchers, New Guinea singing dogs (NGSDs) are the only wild dogs adept at bird-like trilling—a rapid change in pitch from high to low and back again emitted at five to eight different frequencies that is unmistakably different from the vocalizations of wolves, coyotes, and dingoes. Typically, a lead dog starts the chorus, and other canine songsters quickly chime in with well-synchronized howls that stop simultaneously. It was this unique capability for harmonic vocalizing along with genome analysis that helped an expedition from the University of Papua to identify an isolated group of wild dogs in the highlands of New Guinea as ancestors of the NGSD family of highly skilled howlers.

With more than 32,000 species currently at risk of extinction, the discovery that the NGSDs living in captivity are not the end of their line is encouraging news—dogs not gone after all. That’s truly something to howl about!

Conservationists hope that by diversifying the animal’s genetic pool, they will be able to increase the population of NGSDs freely roaming the mountains of Papua singing their ancient and beautiful song of the wild.

You can learn more about the history and hopeful future of the singing dogs of New Guinea from the New Guinea Highland Wild Dog Foundation.

…

Lisa S. French October 10, 2020