Wild Hope magazine

20/06/2024

Griff ‘splains redwood forest health!

17/05/2024

Make your yard a firefly haven!

Where did all the fireflies glow?

We get asked the question all the time - hey, why don't I see that many lightning bugs anymore? The simple answer is, maybe your community is no longer a good habitat for them. Before we get to the longer answer of why you're not seeing them anymore, you need to know how this beetle starts out life.

Fireflies lay their eggs in the ground where they then mature into glow worms. It's during this larval stage where they spend all their time eating other, tinier insects. Born and raised in the duff, they need the leaves that naturally litter the ground.

That’s why it's important to leave your backyards and street sides as untouched as possible every autumn to preserve the larvae and small insects living in the leaf litter. This helps to ensure a healthy, new year of fireflies.

Ok, leave the leaves, but what are some other ways to help?

💡Turn off outdoor lights in the evening. If you have inside lights on, close the blinds
💡Plant native plants
💡Mow grass less frequently and raise the length of the cut to 4 inches
💡When leaves drop in the fall, rake them if you want, but keep them in your yard
💡Use non-pesticide solutions for insect control

Check out the comments for more ways you can help re-glow and re-grow the firefly population.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Lucia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

29/04/2024

Governments recently adopted new global targets to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity. It is therefore crucial to understand the outcomes of conservation actions. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 186 studies (including 665 trials) that ...

27/03/2024

26/03/2024

A necropsy conducted by the Bronx Zoo found that life-threatening levels of rat poison and a severe pigeon virus contributed to Flaco’s death last month.

12/03/2024

Researchers have been experimenting with ways to combat the deadly disease

06/03/2024

Pronghorns need connected plains of habitat in the Four Corners amid the quick development of solar farms. The elusive pine marten needs mature forest conserved in the highly trafficked Tahoe Basin. To help developers, agencies, wildlife managers, and more take these species and their habitats into account, we’re conducting extensive studies in New Mexico, California, and across the continent to support connectivity and conservation.

To stay in the loop, get updates on these species to your inbox from our newsletter! Sign up here: https://buff.ly/3UZRrIw

12/02/2024

14/12/2023

Please don't gift someone an exotic pet this holiday season. Find out why at notapet.net. High global demand for exotic pets fuels the illegal capture and trade of millions of animals, many of which suffer and die in the process.

11/10/2023

Yet another good reason to join our new campaign to rewild 160 miles of old roads in the Huachucas. Yesterday, news broke that a jaguar was twice photographed earlier this year in the area on trail camera(s) placed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It was the first endangered jaguar seen in this particular range since 2017, which goes to show this is prime habitat for the big cats.

Read more in the Arizona Daily Star: https://conta.cc/3rn1WJT

And join our campaign to restore this big cat’s home: https://conta.cc/46n0Hcn

Photo of the jaguar known as Sombra (shown here in 2017 in the Chiricahuas) by Russ McSpadden/Center for Biological Diversity. Photos of the most recent jaguar sighting have yet to be publicly released, but reports suggest that the photos are too blurry to identify the cat’s spots with precision and know if it’s Sombra, El Jefe, or another new male jaguar.

25/09/2023

Pack position and physical health also influenced cortisol levels

24/09/2023

Don't have a birdbath? It's easy to make one! (Google it.)

14/09/2023

08/09/2023

31/08/2023

The recent attack on swimmers in a Montana river remind us that river otters are wild animals. It was not the swimmers' fault the otter attacked them; very occasionally an otter will become frightened and aggressive with people, usually because they have young nearby. Otters do not often attack people; in fact otter attacks are surprisingly rare considering how many of them there are in the waterways we share. Give them space, and if you see them swimming near you in a river, move to the bank just to be on the safe side.

29/08/2023

Michael Dax, our Western Program Director, has led our Western team to incredible success in making tangible progress toward the vision of a reconnected, restored, and rewilded Western Wildway.

To do so, he has worked with federal, state, Tribal, and private entities within and between state lines, cultural boundaries, and jurisdictions.

Read on to learn more about Michael's important, awesome work here at Wildlands Network: https://loom.ly/cQMOegg

04/08/2023

24/07/2023

A conversation with Dr. Rob Shumaker, President and CEO of The Indianapolis Zoo and Dr. Pablo Borboroglu, a marine biologist and the founder and president of the Global Penguin Society.

12/07/2023

A report suggests they are using sharp metal deterrents like humans do - to keep pests away.

03/07/2023

Fireworks can disturb birds and pets, spark wildfires, and pollute. Consider forgoing your own pyrotechnics, or joining a cleanup the morning after.

29/06/2023

A new issue of Wild Hope magazine has been published! Available in bookstores and online at https://wildhope.org
Discover what you can do to help insure a biodiverse future for Earth. Here's what's inside this issue:
-A wildlife biologist tracking endangered fishers in post-fire forests finds that we have a lot to learn from these elusive animals about best practices for protecting wild places
-One woman’s campaign to do something about the millions of tons of plastic that are dumped into the ocean every year
-How bird banding is helping researchers understand how birds are coping with the stresses of a warming and increasingly unpredictable planet
-An annual count of endangered Peninsular bighorn sheep in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, CA, conducted by community scientists provides crucial data for conservation efforts
-A cave explorer takes us into New Mexico’s famed Lechuguilla Cave and shares what it’s like to be the first person to set foot inside a place where no human has gone before
-Using audio recordings of birds gathered by community scientists, researchers are able to map the ranges of certain bird species and more accurately estimate population sizes
-A conservationist working to save the Sierra Gorda mountains from logging and cattle ranching shares what’s so special about this region of Central Mexico
-A nature photographer takes us down to the concrete shores of the L.A. River to show us the amazing diversity of birds living amidst the human detritus
-Q&A with zoo historian John Kinder about how zoos have changed in modern times and how they might evolve in the future
-A shepherdess looks to nature for hope when faced with the possibility of losing her mom
-A field guide to the carnivorous Whitetop Pitcherplant

26/06/2023

Turtles are among the most threatened groups of vertebrate animals on earth—and too many are dying on our roads.

26/06/2023

Please add your voice in support of the Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act and ask your Congressional representatives
to sign this historic bill. Yes, we all rely on the minerals that mining companies extract from the earth, but they need to be accountable for repairing the damage and pollution their activities cause.

A new bill has been introduced in Congress that would overhaul the 1872 Mining Law and at last bring the United States into the 21st century — ready to meet the demands of a clean energy economy while not repeating the mistakes of the past.

Tell your elected officials to support this historic legislation, and help protect the Santa Ritas, Patagonia Mountains, and other Sky Islands from toxic hardrock mining: https://conta.cc/3PlD8eK

For 151 years, mining for copper, uranium, and other minerals has been governed by a gold-rush era law that promoted westward expansion and extraction at all costs. As a result, according to the EPA, 40% of western watersheds are now polluted. Hundreds of thousands of mines have been abandoned and left to taxpayers to clean up. And Indigenous tribes and other communities have been polluted with arsenic, mercury, and lead. This is unacceptable.

The Clean Energy Minerals Reform Act offers several solutions — including a more transparent permit process, consultation with tribes, specific environmental standards, required cleanup of old mines, and the establishment of a royalty for mining on public lands. Urge your elected officials to support this visionary bill and protect our public lands for future generations.

Photo of western Santa Rita Mountains by Mike Chapman/Flickr.

29/04/2023

Powerful poem by RK Fauth that captures beautifully what will be lost if we don't protect Earth's biodiversity.

Playing with Bees - So the world turned / its one good eye

16/04/2023

Incredible images of bird behaviors. Must see!

Every year the contest attracts entries capturing rare and unusual moments in the avian world. Check out these 11 highlights.

03/04/2023

It’s not uncommon to find young birds away from their nests during spring and summer. But should you help them? That depends.