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Canada Lynx And Climate Change | Earth Wise

April 19, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Canada lynx are medium-sized North American big cats known for their long, black ear tufts, and their ability to hunt across the surface of deep snow. Historically, the predator’s habitat ranged across Alaska, Canada, and much of the Northern United States. But in the contiguous U.S. today, the Canada lynx exists only in several disjunct populations in Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, Idaho, Washington and Montana.

While Glacier National Park in Montana is famous for its grizzly bears and mountain goats, the park also holds a surprising number of Canada lynx, and could serve as a much-needed climate refuge for the big cats in the future.

Glacier National Park is one of the few, large, protected areas located within the Canada lynx range in the Lower 48. Using an array of 300 motion-sensitive cameras on hiking trails throughout Glacier, researchers from Washington State University conducted the first parkwide occupancy survey for Canada lynx inside the park. They were surprised to find that Glacier is home to roughly 50 Canada Lynx. In fact, the researchers found that the iconic predator resides across most of the park’s 1,600 square-mile landscape, although at lower densities than in the core of its range further north.

The researchers also found that Canada lynx are distributed at lower elevations inside Glacier. Since the cats are a cold-adapted species that need the deep snow, within Glacier, they have a lot of room to climb in elevation as the climate warms.

The researchers hope their survey can serve as a baseline population estimate to help their collaborators with the National Park Service keep tabs on the numbers of Canada lynx in Glacier.

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Glacier National Park could be climate haven for Canada lynx

Photo, posted February 22, 2014, courtesy of Eric Kilby via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Whales Eating Plastic | Earth Wise

December 1, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Plastic waste has been accumulating in the world’s oceans in greater and greater quantities and much of it is in the form of microplastic particles. Many kinds of whales – the largest creatures on Earth – feed by gulping up mouthfuls of krill and other tiny creatures and then straining the seawater through bristly filter structures called baleens. As they do this, they are likely to be swallowing large amounts of plastic.

Scientists at Stanford University recently estimated just how much plastic whales are ingesting by tracking the foraging behavior of 65 humpback whales, 29 fin whales, and 126 blue whales in the Pacific Ocean. Each of the whales was tagged with a camera, microphone, and GPS device suction-cupped to their back.

After accounting for the concentration of microplastics in parts of the Pacific Ocean, the researchers were able to estimate the amount of plastic the whales were consuming. Humpback whales likely consume 4 million microplastic pieces each day, adding up to about 38 pounds of plastic waste. Fin whales swallow an estimated 6 million pieces each – amounting to 57 pounds of plastic. Blue whales, which are the largest creatures on Earth, eat an estimated 10 million microplastic pieces, or as much as 95 pounds of plastic waste each day.

Despite their enormous size, whales actually eat rather low on the food chain, which puts them close to where the plastic is in the water. Krill eats plastic and whales eat the krill. Many marine animals are at risk of eating microplastics, but whales are unique in that they can consume so much of it. It is just one more way in which the ocean plastic situation is a global crisis.

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Blue Whales Swallowing 95 Pounds of Plastic Daily, Scientists Estimate

Photo, posted October 21, 2005, courtesy of Tobias Begemann via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Camera For Insects | Earth Wise

August 26, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Electronic devices get smaller and smaller all the time. We are used to carrying around phones in our pockets that incorporate a whole host of sophisticated devices. But we can still be amazed by miniaturization. Recently, scientists at the University of Washington announced the development of a tiny, wireless camera small enough to be worn by insects. The work was published in the journal Science Robotics.

The device weighs only 250 milligrams, which is less than one hundredth of an ounce. The camera streams high-resolution video to a smartphone at up to 5 frames per second, which allows scientists to record video of what insects see in real time.

The device has a mechanical arm that allows the camera to pivot 60 degrees, which can allow it to create panoramic shots. It is controlled by a smartphone app and can be operated up to 120 meters away from the insect.

The new camera system enables scientists to better understand insect behavior and explore novel environments. Having a first-person view from the back of a beetle while it is walking around allows researchers to explore how it responds to different stimuli that it sees in its environment.

Of more general interest, the technology can be used to help develop the next generation of small robots. Insects can traverse rocky environments, which is really challenging for small robots to do. The device will allow engineers to study how insects can move around in such environments. It will also be useful for observing and collecting samples from hard-to-navigate spaces.

It is remarkable how sophisticated technology keeps getting smaller and smaller.

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Scientists Develop Tiny Camera Backpack for Insects

Photo courtesy of Mark Stone/University of Washington.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Breakthrough In Animal Identification

December 25, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Researchers from the University of Wyoming have developed a computer model that can identify wild animals in camera-trap photographs with remarkable accuracy and efficiency.

This breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI), detailed in a paper recently published in the scientific journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, represents a significant advancement in the study and conservation of wildlife. According to the paper’s authors, “the ability to rapidly identify millions of images from camera traps can fundamentally change the way ecologists design and implement wildlife studies.”

This study builds on previous research from the university in which a computer model analyzed 3.2 million images captured by camera traps in Africa. The A-I technique called deep learning categorized animal images at a 96.6% accuracy rate. This was the same accuracy rate as teams of human volunteers achieved, but the computer model worked at a much more rapid pace.

In the latest study, UW researchers trained a deep neural network on a powerful computer cluster to classify wildlife species using 3.37 million camera-trap images of 27 different animal species. The model was tested on nearly 375,000 images at a rate of about 2,000 images per minute. It achieved a 97.6% accuracy rate, which is likely the highest accuracy to date in using machine learning for wildlife image classification.

Artificial intelligence has been used in environmental science in other ways as well. For example, AI has been used to increase agricultural yields in farm fields and to help predict extreme weather.

Maybe artificial intelligence can prove to be a game changer for the environment.

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Researchers Successfully Train Computers to Identify Animals in Photos

Photo, posted January 8, 2012, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.