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magazine / dec08
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December 2008 issue |
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FEATURE - WILDLIFE STORIES
Wildlife stories of 2008 (Page 3 of 3)
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On May 14, the polar bear
became a threatened
species under the
United States Endangered
Species Act.
Photo: Fotolia.com/Jan Will |
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Bowhead whales back in abundance ~
After decades of debate between
Inuit hunters and government scientists over the size and status of the eastern
Arctic’s bowhead whale population, the news is good, if scientifically embarrassing.
According to a new population figure from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, there are
14,400 of these social, slow-moving baleen whales in the Baffin Bay-Davis Strait
region, not the 5,000 estimated just three years ago. The new number is attributed
to improved survey methods and increased acceptance of Inuit knowledge.
Photo: Larry Dueck, DFO
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The year of getting closer
All things considered, can conservation possibly trump destruction?
By Eric Harris
The logical implication of the “threatened” designation
is that economic activity which harms the species — for
example, climate-altering greenhouse-gas emissions that
reduce the bear’s sea-ice habitat — would have to stop. But
the U.S. Department of the Interior has no intention of
letting that happen.
“Listing the polar bear as threatened can reduce avoidable
losses of polar bears,” says Kempthorne. “But it should not
open the door to use the ESA to regulate greenhouse-gas
emissions from automobiles, power plants and other sources.
That would be a wholly inappropriate use of the ESA law.
The ESA is not the right tool to set U.S. climate policy.”
Further, the designation was accompanied by a special rule
to allow the continuation of energy production in Alaska,
says Kempthorne, “to protect the polar bear while limiting
the unintended harm to the society and economy of the
United States.”
In 2007, the extent of Arctic sea ice was at the lowest level
ever recorded by satellite, 39 percent below the long-term
average from 1979 to 2000. Almost every scientific indicator
out there shows that human activity is inducing climate
change. Yet the world’s most powerful and influential government refuses to take any action that might cause the
slightest hardship to its motorists and industries. The “threatened”
designation is a gesture as hollow as a polar bear’s hair.
In stark contrast to the U.S. government’s view on
the urgency of protecting wildlife, two newly released benchmark
reports make dire predictions for birds and mammals
throughout the world. In September, BirdLife International,
a partnership of conservation organizations, released its
“State of the World’s Birds” report: one in eight bird species
worldwide is threatened with extinction. And, in October, the
World Conservation Union published its “IUCN Red List”
for mammals, its first comprehensive assessment of the world’s
5,487 known mammal species: up to one in four species is
inching closer to extinction. But there is also a positive aspect:
five percent of currently threatened mammals are showing
signs of recovery in the wild, an indication that conservation
can bring species back from the brink of extinction.
As for our revenant wild turkeys, a little more research into
Ontario’s hunting regulations revealed that the wildlife
management unit in which we live is excluded from the fall
hunt this year. Ten kilometres to the west, guns will blaze. So
our birds get an extended lease on life, at least until next
spring’s hunt. Now all they have to do is survive the winter.
Eric Harris is Canadian Geographic’s executive editor.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: CG Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Stephen Krasemann and get
a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic.
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