New findings on what drives the great annual migration across the Serengeti

Across the Serengeti-Mara, millions of wildebeest and hundreds of thousands of zebra are making their annual migration in one of the most spectacular sights of the natural world.

Six of these animals are currently wearing high-tech GPS collars, equipped with mobile phone technology – and over the past 10 years, a total of 40 have done so.

Scientists involved in this unique tracking programme analyse how these animals make decisions during their migration and use this information to devise effective mitigation strategies to ensure their survival.

The research, led by Dr Grant Hopcraft of the University of Glasgow’s Boyd Orr Centre for Population and Ecosystem Health, sheds new light on the drivers behind the animals’ migratory decision-making.

The group’s findings suggest that although wildebeest and zebra migrate together, they move for very different reasons: wildebeest are constantly looking for fresh grazing, whereas zebra balance their need to access good food against the relative risk of being killed by a predator.

However, the results also show that both species are driven, above all else, by the need to avoid the threat of humans and human development.

“The impact of humans trumps everything else,” said Dr Hopcraft.

“This provides critical insights as to why other migrations are collapsing,” he added, pointing elsewhere, to the dwindling numbers of saiga (small antelopes) found on the Mongolian Steppes, the Mongolian gazelle, a horse-like animal called the kulan, the pronghorn antelope in the US state of Montana, and caribou and bison in North America.

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New York family has close encounter with 40-foot humpback whale

It’s rare to see a humpback whale so close to shore off the beaches of Rockaway, N.Y. It’s even more rare to have one of the 40-foot whales emerge from the water just feet from your boat.

But that’s what happened to Bobby Leonard when he was out on a recent fishing trip with his brother and dad.

“There’s no such thing as whale watching on the beach. It was unheard of,” Leonard told Yahoo News in a phone interview on Thursday. “It was just a great experience to be so close to something so big.”

Leonard, who runs The Spy Store in Manhattan, says he grabbed one of his company’s high-powered cameras when he noticed the whales swimming close to the shore.

“I told my brother, maybe we can get some footage of the whales,” Leonard said. “But we were just out there fishing. We never expected them to get so close.”

Leonard says there was a large school of fish near his boat that suddenly scattered.

“It was just chaos out there,” he said. “All of sudden the fish got nervous.”

Just moments later, the humpback whale popped up from the water only a few feet from Leonard, his brother Mike and his dad, Bob.

“I didn’t think we were in danger. I think they know what they are doing,” Leonard said. “They know where the boats are. I think they are smart enough to know that.”

The close encounter was one he says he’ll remember for the rest of his life.

And as it turns out, it’s not his family’s only brush with the local whale population.

“A couple of years ago, a live pilot whale washed up on the shore,” Leonard said. “My brother just lives three blocks down from me, and he raced out there when he heard, and saved the whale. He helped it get back out to sea.”

While whale sightings so close to the shore are rare, they’re not totally unprecedented. A marine environmental scientist told CBS New York that the whales were likely in the middle of their annual migration toward waters in the Caribbean.

Video & Continued

Two Rare Albino Humpback Whales Spotted on Yearly Migration

A famous albino humpback whale was reportedly spotted with a similarly rare all-white companion off the coast of Australia. The two whales are heading north as part of an annual migration that can bring up to 15,000 humpback whales to the Great Barrier Reef for their mating season.

The albino male, named Migaloo (an Aboriginal word that translates to "white fella"), was previously the world's only documented white humpback whale, and scientists are now hoping to conduct DNA tests to determine if the two whales are related, reported the Herald Sun.

Migaloo was first seen in 1991 near Cairns, in the Australian state of Queensland, and was estimated to be about 4 years old at the time, according to the Herald Sun. The 46-foot-long (14 meters) albino whale is believed to have at least one all-white offspring, after photographs of a white humpback calf emerged in 2011.

http://www.livescience.com/37802-albino-humpback-whale-migration.html

Whale watchers get ready as Pacific gray migration begins

The annual Pacific gray whale migration has begun in Southern California and whale watchers are already excited about the number of sightings near the South Bay this week.

About 100 Cabrillo Marine Aquarium volunteer naturalists climbed aboard the Redondo Beach Voyager Wednesday morning at the unofficial start of the local whale-watching season. It was too windy for the boat to venture out to areas where the gray whales might be spotted, but there are already indications that lots of the 50-foot-long mammals will be seen through the end of the season in May.

"Last season, our gray whales migrated closer to shore and our counts were quite high," said Alisa Schulman-Janiger, director of the annual gray whale census count at Point Vicente Interpretive Center in Rancho Palos Verdes. "The migration started earlier than usual. This year, the same thing may be happening."

The census, sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the American Cetacean Society, has been taking place since 1979. Last season, volunteer census takers posted at the interpretive center counted a record 672 southbound and 1,133 northbound gray whales from December to May.

Each winter, the whales swim south in one of the longest known mammalian migrations. On the 14,000-mile round-trip, they go without food as they seek out warm lagoons in Baja, Mexico, to give birth and mate. They must give birth in warm water because their babies are not born with enough blubber to insulate them against the cold Alaskan seas.

Continued:  http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22264429/whale-watchers-get-ready-pacific-gray-migration-begins?source=rss

Maltese hunters start annual autumn massacre - Where are the police?

Illegal hunters take advantage of lax enforcement on first days of hunting season

September 2012. BirdLife Malta today announced that there were no ALE units patrolling the countryside on the opening weekend of Malta's autumn hunting season, and the organization has already started receiving shot protected birds.

BirdLife Malta received an adult Night Heron and a juvenile Bee-eater, both protected species, on Saturday, the first day of the autumn hunting season. A veterinary surgeon confirmed that both protected birds had sustained gunshot wounds.

This morning BirdLife Malta received the third injured protected bird since the start of the season, a juvenile Marsh Harrier, with visible gunshot injuries. The bird has been taken to vet and the authorities have been informed.

Despite a government statement last week that police would "monitor closely the observance of hunting regulations and conditions", Administrative Law Enforcement officers were assigned to other duties.

Since the migration started in August, BirdLife Malta has reported 18 active illegal trapping sites to police, targeting protected species from Wood Sandpipers to Grey Herons. Half of these illegal trapping sites had already been reported to the police last year.

The ALE were unavailable to respond to any of the incidents of illegal trapping reported by BirdLife Malta teams, referring all calls to the Local or District police. The lack of specifically trained officers lead to police failing to locate live decoy birds, neglecting to remove nets or to confiscate illegal tape lures which play calls to attract birds.

When BirdLife Malta's surveillance teams revisited the areas only a few days later the sites were again actively trapping and targeting protected birds.

"This demonstrates, yet again, the falsity of claims that hunting and trapping law is strictly enforced by the Maltese authorities", said Mr Barbara, adding that BirdLife Malta has long been calling for a dedicated wildlife crime unit to deal with illegal hunting and trapping both during and outside hunting seasons.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/autumn-migration-malta.html#cr