Picture: 3D mapping of rainforests
In 2009, researchers with the Carnegie Institution, World Wildlife Fund, Amazon Conservation Association, and the Ministry of Environment, Peru used satellite images and airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), together with field plots, to map aboveground carbon stocks and emissions at 0.1-ha resolution over 4.3 million ha of the Peruvian Amazon. To measure forest deforestation, degradation, and regrowth, the researchers collected 27 LiDAR survey areas covering a total of 514,317 ha were collected throughout the 4.3 million ha region, at a spatial resolution of less than one meter.
Forest on New Year’s morning
Huddart County Park, Woodside, CA.
Pictures from the Yucatan (post COP16)
After the 20+ hour work days during COP16 in Cancun, Mexico earlier this month, I enjoyed a couple of days out in the forests of El Eden Reserve and Punta Laguna.
2000 picture galleries
We’ve updated the topical picture galleries — there are now more than 2,000, some of which are more comprehensive than others. Some 50,000 photos are included in the galleries, about 99 percent of which were taken by Rhett.
Pictures: Forest hike in California (today)
A few pictures from a short hike today in Wunderlich County Park in Woodside, California.
Picture: magenta and yellow insect
This magenta and yellow katydid was common in the lowland rainforest near Manokwari in West Papua. I don’t know the species.
Devastation, Madagascar – tar sands project in the land of lemurs
Total’s proposed tar sands operation in Madagascar is potentially the dirtiest mining operation its kind in the world, in a region where the local people have few options but to live next to it. If, as some charge, Total helped bring down a democratically elected government in order to install a regime that would favour their tar sands project, it’s likely that international campaigns against Total and their social and environmental record could well expand.
Picture: Red-eyed tree frog
Red-eyed tree frogs are found in lowland rainforests ranging from southern Mexico to Colombia.
Picture: Christmas chameleon
Male panther chameleon near Maroantsetra, Madagascar.
Picture: Arctic musk oxen in defensive posture
The musk ox was extinct in Alaska as recently as the 1880s but was re-introduced into Alaska’s Arctic in the 1970s and today, approximately 3500-4000 musk oxen exist there. According to Joel Berger, a conservationist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), says that only 10-30 of the animals remain in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge–down from more than 400 that lived in the refuge in the 1990s.
Picture: strange and beautiful – the snowy owl
Snowy owl at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo.
Video: Otters opening “gifts”
Keepers at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Prospect Park Zoo present food-containing “gifts” to animals as an enrichment exercise to provide mental and physical stimulation.
Photo: baby Mini-Nubian Goat
Mini-Nubian Goat. Photo by Julie Larsen Maher © Wildlife Conservation Society Spot is a Mini-Nubian Goat born at the Tisch Children’s Zoo at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Park Zoo. Named for the white spot on his head, the mini-Nubian goat is just two weeks old and can be seen running around the petting yard and greeting visitors with tiny bleating sounds. Spot, with his parents, and other members of the goat family can...
Turquoise waters of Cancun
Despite the massive build up of hotels in Cancun and along the Mexican Riviera, the waters off Cancun remain a stunning turquoise hue.
Photo: spider monkey in Mexico
Spider monkey in Mexico. Photo by Rhett A. Butler Punta Laguna, between Nuevo Xcan and Coba, is famous for its population of spider monkeys.
Looking back and thinking ahead – conservation in Madagascar
MADAGASCAR CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT, a free online journal on conservation in Madagascar, has released its latest issue.
Photo: Morelet’s crocodile in Mexico
Morelet’s crocodile in El Eden, outside of Cancun, Mexico.
Video: wildlife in Madagascar’s Ankarafantsika National Park
Ankarafantsika National Park (‘Ampijoroa’), in north-west Madagascar, a wildlife hotspot packed with a wonderful array of lemurs, rare birds and reptiles.
Photo: Mexican hawk
I spotted this hawk atop a dead tree on the shores of the freshwater lagoon at Punta Laguna. I haven’t determined the species. Any ideas?
Photo: Tiger cubs playing in the snow
Two Amur (Siberian) tiger cubs at the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo roll around in the first snow of the season clearly enjoying the winter weather. The cubs and their mother can be seen year-round at the zoo’s Tiger Mountain exhibit.
