Down To Earth brings you the top happenings in the world of global ecology
Professor fired for saying that ‘polar bears are thriving’
A zoologist, who was an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, has claimed that the University rejected her renewal application in May this year for her view that polar bear populations were thriving.
Susan Crockford said she had published research which showed that polar bears were thriving as a result of melting Arctic ice, which, in the scientific world, is the tell-tale sign of a climate change denier.
Crockford, according to a media report, was worried about other professors and scientists who, like herself, could be fired if they ‘challenged climate catastrophe predictions.’
Olive Ridleys come ashore in their thousands in Costa Rica reserve
Olive Ridley turtles have come in their thousands to the beaches of the Ostional Wildlife Reserve in Costa Rica, which is ‘one of the two most important areas in the world for nesting of the Olive Ridley turtle’ according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The turtles have come ashore in an event called the arribada, a mass nesting that can last several days, a media report said. The report noted that as many as 300,000 turtles come ashore to nest in a typical arribada.
Rules for tourists wanting to see the turtles nesting have been tightened after a 2015 incident when some turtles were disturbed due to tourist activity. Now, tourists can only do turtle-watching with a licensed guide.
Tral Wildlife Sanctuary declared for Hangul in Kashmir
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has declared an area of 154.15 square kilometres in south Kashmir as the Tral Wildlife Sanctuary for the conservation of the critically endangered Hangul or Kashmir stag.
The sanctuary is unique in that it harbours a relic population of Hangul outside the Dachigam National Park near Srinagar, the bastion of the rare deer, a media report said.
It also has 15 other species of mammals.
The sanctuary, in Pulwama district, ‘will function as a protected wildlife corridor for the Hangul population present down south in Shikargah-Panyer and Khiram conservation reserves with the main population in Dachigam National park in the north’, the report said.
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