Finger On The Pulse - Nature
Dive deeper into the environmental and nature issues that matter most. At Go Wild With Annette, we are passionate about fostering a love for wildlife and inspiring action to protect our planet. Discover insightful content designed to inform, educate, and empower you.
Floating Scarecrow to Protect Sea Birds
Each year, almost 100,000 diving seabirds such as razorbills and guillemots drown, trapped in gillnets around the coast of Europe. Now, UK-based scientists have shown that a “floating scarecrow” can help save threatened seabirds and reduce bycatch by up to two-thirds.
A floating scarecrow known as a Looming Eye Buoy (LEB) was developed by scientists along with the RSPB. This was trialled off the coast of Cornwall alongside a commercially available kite which is modelled after a bird of prey. The LEB buoy has a spinning head that uses an animated eye effect to scare birds away, stopping them from diving into nets.
It was developed during an eight-year collaboration between scientists (Fishtek Marine) and the RSPB nature conservation charity.
More information here.
Scotland’s Wildcats: A Drive to Save the Species
Good news for Scottish wildcats: a 20-year strategy is designed to secure their future.
More than 25 organisations and individuals have worked together to create the strategy to restore the species to sustainable levels. The strategy was launched at the Eurowildcat Conference at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie, Scotland.
In 2019, conservationists declared the Scottish wildcat functionally extinct, and now they are working to prevent that from happening again. Here's how.
Using Fire to Protect the Ocean
Oil spills are among the most damaging environmental disasters, threatening marine life, coastal habitats, and the communities that depend on healthy oceans. This thick substance clogs bird feathers and impacts mammals, plants and fish. Even after surface oil has disappeared, pollution continues to impact the environment for years, affecting fragile ecosystems.
One of the fastest ways to deal with large oil spills is a technique called .....
The World's Insects Are Being Overlooked
Insects play a vital role and could be called the tiny engines that drive much of the life on this planet.
They pollinate plants, recycle nutrients, and become a vital food source for other wildlife. New research suggests that the places which contain most of the world's insect diversity are where the least conservation work takes place.
More than 80% of the world’s insect species are thought to live in the tropics
Research by Monash University has proposed a new global framework to improve conservation of tropical insects. The study published in Bio Science fights the case that for conservation to be more effective, it needs to move beyond traditional scientific databases and instead, make the most of local expertise, citizen science, museum collections and photos.
With scientists estimating there could be between 14 million and 30 million insect species, many of which are not yet formally described, so much more needs to be done.
Read more here.
