This is a much shortened version of what you will read if you are on Barry’s email list. Be sure to contact Barry MacKay, Bird Artist, Illustrator. His contact information is below.
The Red Jungle Fowl has been domesticated for thousands of years. It is widely known as the chicken. There are between about 25 and 35 billion of them, world-wide, give or take a few billion! The Red Jungle Fowl has been domesticated for thousands of years. It is widely known as the chicken. There are between about 25 and 35 billion of them, world-wide, give or take a few billion!
Sadly, the demand for their meat and eggs coupled with greed-driven desire to maximize production of both has resulted in two things: One, the grace, color and elegance of form that contribute to what I see as the beauty of the wild progenitor has, through intensively selective breeding directed at maximum profiting, resulted in a scraggly, essentially or quite flightless all-white bird. And worse, almost all are kept under abysmal conditions that deny them the ability to exercise natural behavior or experience the infinitely textured richness of lives led at the tip of three billion years of past evolutionary history. It’s part of what motivates my own vegan diet.
And yet, I had enjoyed the appearance and strutting behavior of the rooster in charge of a group of most contented hens living, at the moment, under the kind of idyllic conditions featured in children’s books about farm animals, and so I painted my first domestic bird, a rooster.
If you have ever been to Maine, you probably already know that it is one of the wildest frontiers left in the United States. Once you pass the southern Maine coast and Portland, Maine, you’ll encounter huge areas of vast wilderness, with few towns and roads. The coast certainly has more human activity, but due to the sheer amount of shoreline, much of it is still undeveloped, and left to those who respect it the most – the wildlife!
Holbrook Island Sanctuary is situated on Cape Rosier, just north of Deer Isle, and not far from Acadia National Park. While the animals and habitats have a lot in common with those you’ll see in Acadia, you will appreciate that many fewer people are exploring the smaller Holbrook Sanctuary.
Despite being a relatively small sanctuary, Holbrook has a variety of places where you can spend your time searching for wildlife. Starting on Cape Rosier, there are a few trails through the pine forests which are great places to look for woodland individuals. One animal that seems to be relatively common in this area is the porcupine. The two times when I visited the sanctuary I got great looks at these spiny mammals in broad daylight.
Among the woodland trails, the Goose Falls Trail goes along the shoreline and has the best spots to step out of the trees and gaze upon the waters of the Penobscot Bay. The bay is home to a wide variety of marine animals. Loons and cormorants can be seen regularly flying over the bay, or floating on the surface between fishing dives. Also keep an eye out for sea ducks, like Eiders and Scoters, as well as soaring raptors like Bald Eagles and Osprey. This area is one of the few places on the East Coast of the United States where you have a chance to see a species of Auk from shore. Please, check closely to see if one of the birds floating in the bay is the Black Guillemot.
Besides exploring the trails on Cape Rosier, hopefully you have the chance to explore the island that gives the sanctuary its name. If you do have access to a boat, make sure to look for seals and dolphins as you cross the bay in order to get to Holbrook Island. Once on shore, you can continue to search the bay for seabirds and marine mammals.
Holbrook Island is also home to white-tailed deer that can be seen browsing in the meadows. Also, make sure to look in the grass as many garter snakes inhabit the island as well. Holbrook Island Sanctuary is a very wild place where you can escape the crowds while searching onshore and off for many different types of animals. Getting this far up into Maine gives you the opportunity to see species that are rare or not found lower down in the United States. And while these coastal peninsulas are generally not home to Maine’s largest land animal – the moose – you never know when one might wander out there.
Joe Anderson is an avid wildlife watcher, and enjoys sharing his favorite locations with others.
We are a large wildlife rehab rehabilitation center in Michigan that includes the rehabilitation of Whitetail fawns. The Michigan DNR requires they be released by October 1 and if they are not ready to be released, then they have to be euthanized. The picture of the fawn you saw is a fawn that we had in 2020 and the DNR ordered that the three of them be euthanized because they were too young to be released. They were born late in the year. We went to court to fight them over the euthanasia order For Healthy fawns, and by the time the judge ruled, we had already rehabilitated and released them. We frequently have issues with the DNR in Michigan ordering to kill Fawns. We just had another one that was non-releasable this year and we transferred it to a facility that can keep fawns for education and the DNR ordered it to be euthanized. There was a public outcry and we had legislators involved and thankfully the fawn’s life was saved.
Wildlife Watch caller sent this heartbreaking photo.
A call came to the Wildlife Watch hotline from a woman in Ulster County, NY, who said that she saw a deer with an arrow in him. The unfortunate deer was outside her house in the Village of New Paltz, a densely packed university town. She reported that the arrow had a green glow at the end, and “yes,” she was fortunately able to get a photo.
A call came to the Wildlife Watch hotline from a woman in Ulster County, NY, who said that she saw a deer with an arrow in him. The unfortunate deer was outside her house in the Village of New Paltz, a densely packed university town. She reported that the arrow had a green glow at the end, and “yes,” she was fortunately able to get a photo.
We don’t know where he was shot, but he was found on the first day of firearms hunting. A check revealed that crossbows can be used during the regular firearms season. dec.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2025-08/crossbowqanda.pdf (See the third question.) We gave the caller the number of a deer rehabilitator and a veterinarian who is also a wildlife rehabilitator.
The deer rehabilitator told her that there were regulations preventing her from helping adult deer; we are waiting to hear from the veterinarian.
At the end of July, Wildlife Watch was contacted by two young American music students who were studying in Italy for the summer. They were shocked by the spikes that were placed above doorways to keep pigeons from landing. This one pigeon became impaled on the spikes and was left to die. They had a performance to give the following evening, and yet they spent the entire day reaching out to help the suffering pigeon who was in full view above an entry to the building. Not having lists of wildlife rehabbers in Italy, we contacted a friend who was fluent in Italian so she could talk to the management of the building. Though we didn’t hear what ultimately happened, we are certain that with their perseverance, they were able to get help for the pigeon.
Despite their sometimes negative reputation, pigeons are another animal trying to survive during a difficult time for wildlife. At least they deserve to be treated humanely and receive care when needed.
Protecting wildlife is getting a tech boost that overcomes the challenges of terrain, weather, and limited manpower to study, protect, monitor, and plan strategic conservation goals. India’s wilderness is learning to speak a new language, one written in signals, sensors, and silent data.
Making a Difference
Technology is being extensively used in wildlife conservation in India through diverse and innovative tools such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), GPS tracking collars, camera traps, AI, and geospatial technologies. These technologies enable efficient monitoring, protection, and management of wildlife and their habitats. India’s wildlife conservation efforts leverage a synergistic integration of technologies to enhance wildlife monitoring, combat poaching, and manage habitats more efficiently, thus contributing to the preservation of its rich biodiversity. The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) has also developed HAWK (Hostile Activity Watch Kernel), a cloud-based, centralized forest and wildlife crime management system, which is currently adopted by four government Forest Departments.
GPS tracking collars, drones, and GIS/satellite imagery are being used in the forests and wildlife corridors for monitoring animal movements and habitats. GPS tracking collars are regularly used to monitor the movements of all sorts of wildlife. Either for ecology studies or tracking potentially problematic individuals—tigers or elephants in particular—integrating GPS collar signals with GIS-integrated layer maps to understand migration patterns, home ranges, land use, and vulnerable areas that animals may be moving to improve management of wildlife and protected areas. Thermal camera-equipped drones are used to monitor fires and human and wildlife movement in dense cover, track specific species like rhinos or elephants in flood-affected or hard-to-access country, do corridor mapping, do anti-poaching, and check on fires. They are used as they can cover much larger areas quickly to get real-time information on water holes, habitats, fences, and wildlife, especially in open country like grasslands or trans-Himalayan desert landscapes. Many projects combine multiple technologies—drones with thermal sensors & cameras, GPS, camera traps, and alert systems—connecting these with ground teams, especially regarding poaching and wildfires.
THE HAWK TEAM: From (L) to (R)_ Shri. D. Jayaprasad IFS, PCCF (Wildlife) & CWLW, Kerala Forest Department, Shri. Ganga Singh IFS, CCF (HoFF), Shri. K R Jyothi | Photo courtesy of the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)
Conservation Cues
Across Central India, GPS collars on tigers and leopards have revealed how they move between forest patches and community lands, crossing rivers, roads, and railway lines under the cover of night. This has helped conservation planners identify corridors that might otherwise have been lost to human expansion. Thermal drones are now used to monitor and reduce conflict by spotting elephants or tigers near village fringes during night patrols, allowing staff to respond before any damage or panic occurs. Similar drone-based monitoring has also been extended to wolves. Technology listens as much as it sees: Acoustic monitoring devices, small mouthpiece-style detectors, record ultrasonic calls of bats, allowing scientists to identify species purely through sound frequencies. “It’s a remarkable way of mapping hidden diversity, especially in rainforest canopies.” says Amith Bangre, an award-winning naturalist, conservationist, and wildlife educator. Together, these innovations have made conservation less about guesswork and more about understanding, giving us new ways to protect old wisdom.
In 2022, to better understand the ecology and behavior of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus), Wildlife SOS, in collaboration with the Karnataka Forest Department, collared ten sloth bears in three districts. The long-term study monitors how these bears navigate fragmented forests and agricultural landscapes, collecting detailed data on movement, habitat use, and interactions with human-populated areas. Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS, says, “In 2023, in Sonmarg, Jammu & Kashmir, six Himalayan brown bears (Ursus arctos isabellinus) were fitted with GPS collars to study their movement across alpine terrain and proximity to human settlements. Preliminary findings highlighted brown bears frequently visiting garbage dumps in human-adjacent areas, guiding conservation planning and conflict mitigation. In 2018, in Mahasamund, Chhattisgarh, GPS-enabled collars tracked Van Devi, the matriarch of a 21-member elephant herd, forming the backbone of the Early Warning Alert System (EWAS). The system helped prevent human–elephant conflict by sending alerts to nearby villages as the herd moves through croplands and human habitations.” Across all initiatives, GPS technology provides fine-scale spatial and temporal data essential for identifying conflict hotspots, critical corridors, feeding grounds, and seasonal migration routes, enabling targeted conservation measures and safe coexistence between wildlife and local communities.
These layers reveal how the land changes over time: grasslands, forest cover, and river courses. Satellite mapping has guided the restoration of grasslands for swamp deer recovery. In the Anamalai–Parambikulam region, GIS mapping identified elephant corridors through plantations, helping direct mitigation measures. Dr. Sandeep Kumar Soni, Assistant Manager and OiC (GIS Cell), Wildlife Trust of India, says, “GIS mapping technology plays a crucial role in wildlife conservation by providing powerful tools for habitat mapping, protecting habitat suitability, distribution modelling, species tracking and movement behavior, risk analysis, and conservation planning. Through spatial data integration and analysis, GIS empowers conservationists to make informed, precise decisions to protect wildlife and habitats and plan interventions on a scientific basis.”
GIS is the memory of the landscape; it layers the past and present into a single living map. GIS mapping has shown how fire patterns and vegetation cycles shift with changing rainfall. In Kanha, it guides habitat restoration, marking zones for controlled burning or grassland regeneration. “And in the Western Ghats, GIS has traced elephant and gaur movement through fragmented tea and cardamom estates, influencing how buffer zones are planned. In simple terms, GIS helps us see what fieldwork alone cannot do—how land, water, and wildlife interact across time and space,” says Bangre. Geospatial and remote sensing platforms enable near real-time monitoring and analysis. These tools allow large-scale, high-frequency data collection, assessment of environmental changes (like deforestation and wildfires), and the early detection of risks for timely mitigation. “GIS analysis identifies spatial patterns, tracks pollution, measures event impacts, and produces maps that support policymaking, collaboration, and public communication. Such data-driven geospatial analysis has become a backbone for modern conservation decision-making and resource management. Over the years, WTI has utilized geospatial tools for markhor and wild buffalo habitat suitability modelling, as well as thematic mapping across six forest divisions in Odisha to support forest management planning,” adds Soni.
In Ramdurga Valley, Karnataka, radio telemetry was used to track 12 repatriated Indian star tortoises released into the wild. The transmitters emit short-range radio signals, which means researchers must physically enter the habitat with specialized receivers to detect each tortoise’s location. “While telemetry provides signals that allow researchers to plot movements over time, field teams still need to walk through the habitat to pick up these signals, locate each tortoise, and record observations. By tracking their positions over several weeks or months, researchers can identify preferred microhabitats, feeding zones, and dispersal ranges—valuable data that helps assess the success of reintroduction programs and refine future release protocols,” says Dr. A Sha Arun, Director of Research and Veterinary Operations, Wildlife SOS.
Across India, over 26,000 camera traps now record millions of images each year, identifying individual tigers, leopards, and other species. The data has made India’s tiger census one of the most scientifically robust in the world. GPS data from collared tigers and leopards have directly shaped corridor conservation projects. Thermal drones have reduced human–wildlife conflict incidents by providing early warnings, especially during crop seasons and flood periods. “In Central India, GPS-enabled safari vehicles regulate speed and route adherence, ensuring low disturbance to wildlife. These systems also record sightings and tourist movement patterns, allowing authorities to plan future tourism zones more sustainably. GIS and satellite mapping have helped identify areas most prone to fire or illegal grazing, allowing targeted protection and better resource allocation, making patrolling more efficient and strategic,” says Bangre. GPS tracking collars, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and GIS/satellite imagery are advanced technologies used for monitoring animal movements and their habitats, each serving specific functions in wildlife research and conservation. “Together, these technologies provide conservationists with powerful, complementary methods to collect, integrate, and analyze spatial and behavioral data, driving data-driven conservation efforts and more precise wildlife protection strategies,” says Soni of the Wildlife Trust of India.
Kashmir Markhor struggling in rough terrain.|Photo courtesy of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)
Human Connection
Technology has undeniably changed conservation, but it works best when paired with field intuition and local knowledge. A ranger’s instincts, a villager’s warning about elephant movement, or the naturalist’s quiet observation are still irreplaceable. GPS helps track where we go; empathy helps decide why we go there. In many ways, the future of conservation in India lies in merging the two—letting technology serve intuition and allowing data to reflect care. The forest doesn’t need us to outsmart it, only to understand it more deeply, with every tool at our disposal.
Bindu Gopal Raois a freelance writer and photographer from Bengaluu. She enjoys birdwatching and environment, as well as taking the offbeat path when traveling. You can follow her on Instagram @bindugopalrao and find her work on bindugopalrao.com
A small hamlet located about 75 kilometers from Bengaluru, India, is Kokkarebellur, which ensures birds like painted storks and pelicans can breed in peace.
Did you know that there is a village in Karnataka’s Mandya District that is not a bird sanctuary and yet sees hundreds of migratory birds that come to breed? Well, this is Kokkarebellur, a village that is named after the painted stork (Ibis leucocephalus), locally called ‘kokkare’ in Kannada.
EXEMPLARY HUMAN-ANIMAL COEXISTENCE
The first ever historical mention of Kokkarebellur and its pelicanry was made by British naturalist T.C. Jerdon. An outbreak of plague forced the villagers, pelicans, and storks to move from the old location on the banks of River Shimsha to a new site 800 meters away. Interestingly, this is the only community reserve in Karnataka and one of the 45 across the country and one of the 21 breeding sites of the spot-billed pelican in South India (listed by IUCN as Near Threatened).
Recovering birds
At a time when there is a lot of noise around man-animal conflict, the villagers here work in tandem to ensure that the birds can breed safely. This is a bond that goes back centuries and is deeply embedded in the culture of the local communities and in the unique behavior of the birds that prefer proximity to people. Viewed as harbingers of good fortune, the birds are welcomed each season as they set up nests in the tree canopies of banyan and tamarind. This relationship nurtures both, demonstrating an example of how living so closely with nature can benefit the health of the ecosystem. In fact, even the children of the village have been taught that it is their duty to take care of the birds and not disturb them or their nests. This is why the tamarind is not harvested, as the birds prefer to roost on specific trees only. The bird droppings are a source of ‘guano’ that is used as manure for farming, and this is exactly why there is a symbiotic sustenance seen here. Venkatesh, a resident of the village, says, “These birds are harbingers of good fortune, and we believe that by coming here each year, they are doing us a good turn.”
The village now has a nature interpretation center that is open to visitors who can come here and learn all about the place. Hejjarle Balaga (Friends of the Pelicans), local communities Gram Panchayat, CHESCOM, the Forest Department, and WWF-India have come together to conserve the biodiversity and natural resources of Kokkarebellur. K. Sri Krishna, a member of Hejjarle Balaga who also looks after the center, says, “I have been here since 2008, and I am working on educating the community as well on the need for conservation here. As birds are declining, we need this interpretation center, as we have several infographics here that serve to educate and create awareness of this area.” He also runs small camps for the locals to reinforce conservation methods as well.
Located near the Nature Interpretation Centre is a place where Lokesh P, a forest watcher, takes care of injured birds. As Kokkarebellur is not really a formal bird sanctuary, there are cases when birds fall off the nest or sustain injuries, and Lokesh works tirelessly to help them get back on their feet. “If the bird is on the ground, it is abandoned by the family. This is when we take care by rescuing and feeding them. Once they are fit, they are released so that they can live a regular life,” says Lokesh. At the center, I saw him apply medicine on an injured foot of a pelican, and as a visitor, you can also contribute (it is completely voluntary) for the food (fish feed) for these injured birds. “Some birds cannot survive in the wild, as their injury has crippled them, and that is why we keep them in an enclosure here,” adds Lokesh.
Hejjarle Balaga, in association with local communities, conducts periodic awareness programs to educate community members, schoolchildren, and the youth on the significance of this ecosystem and the means to protect it. They have also intervened successfully to stop the felling of trees by people, reduce the chemical and water use, and provide financial compensation to the owner of the tree where the birds nest. Electrical cables throughout Kokkarebellur were insulated at a cost of Rs. 45 lakh (approximately USD 52K) by the Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Company, which has resulted in the prevention of accidental electrocution of the birds. Sustainable agricultural practices like the use of organic manure and biopesticides are being adopted in this village as well. Various initiatives have been undertaken by local communities in association with the Forest Department and WWF-India to plant trees in the area.
CHALLENGES GALORE
However, there are several issues that are behind the steady decline in the number of birds. Large trees such as Ficus religiosa, Ficus Bengalensis, Tamarindus indica, Acacia nilotica, and Thespesia populenea have been preferred by the birds for roosting and nesting. With the increase in the opportunity cost of land occupied by such trees, there is an increased tendency towards tree felling. Widening of roads and other construction activities have also resulted in a reduction in the number of trees in the area. With frequent failures in monsoon and changes in the land use patterns, natural drainage to wetlands has been altered. These wetlands, including Kokkarebellur tank and other smaller wetlands, do not receive sufficient surface runoff. Increased incidence of sand mining in the riverbed has aggravated habitat degradation. Fishing is one of the traditional livelihood activities carried out in the Shimsha River, Tailur Kere, Sole Kere, and Maddur Kere (lakes in and around the region), which are the sources of fish for the birds. Indiscriminate commercial fishing and the presence of invasive species like catfish are leading to a rapid decline in the native species. However, with proper intervention, many of these challenges can be and are being mitigated. There is more to be done, and one hopes that this unique habitat and relationship between man and bird withstands the test of time.
Bindu Gopal Rao is a freelance writer and photographer from Bengaluu. She enjoys birdwatching and environment, as well as taking the offbeat path when traveling. You can follow her on Instagram @bindugopalrao and find her work on bindugopalrao.com
Background: The alligator’s guardian, Tony Cavallaro of Hamburg, NY, had for many years held a special permit to possess Albert. He invested thousands of dollars to enhance Albert’s living quarters, including a specially built swimming pool. According to Tony, the DEC then informed him that double-doors were a new requirement so Albert wouldn’t be able to escape. Tony contacted the DEC to request Albert’s home situation to be grandfathered in as there was little chance he could escape. Tony received no response and no communication after Covid in 2021.
Then, in March 2024, Tony was blindsided by an onslaught of vehicles in his driveway from local law enforcement, fire department, the DEC, and local SPCA—invading his home to take Albert away.
Since then, Tony has been fighting in the courts to bring back Albert, who had lived with him for over 30 years. Tony reports he had contacted the DEC multiple times receiving no response. In December 2024, Tony sued the DEC, calling the seizure of Albert “excessive” and his license to possess Albert unreasonably denied. This past February a judge ruled in Tony’s favor: the DEC was in error and must process Tony’s application for a permit to possess Albert. If approved, it would allow Albert to return to Tony’s home.
In March the DEC appealed the decision and has from 6–9 months to present its case. In the meantime, Albert is living in a Texas theme park, away from the only home he has ever known. Tony believes he’s not being taken care of properly but won’t visit because he feels it might upset Albert.
Tony obviously cares deeply for Albert—he never displayed him for money or exploited him in any way. Friends would visit; one even swam in the pool with Albert. Tony’s determined to keep fighting for Albert; he’s spent $15,000 thus far in legal fees. Perhaps the new acting Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation will be more empathetic to our neighbors who try to do right by the animals.
Albert remains somewhere in this amusement park in Beaumont, Texas: gatorrescue.com/about
TAKE ACTION: To express your opinion, please contact the NYS DEC, Attn: Amanda Lefton, Acting Commissioner, DEC. contact@dec.ny.gov
Ask them to return Albert!
Maureen Schiener is on the board of the League of Humane Voters/NY
As soon as the weather warms up, more folks are outside hiking and biking, strolling, and encountering wild animals who need help! Wildlife Watch’s national mnemonic number, 877 WILDHELP, is given out by game agencies, veterinary offices, police, and folks who find it online.
This year has been no exception. As always, fawns, Canada geese, turtles, fledglings and bunnies have been the species we’ve had the most calls about.
Much injury and death of wildlife is caused accidentally by drivers. While it’s upsetting when it happens accidentally, it’s infuriating when it happens intentionally.
Normally, youngsters follow their moms onto the roads, so the mother is likely the first to be struck, leaving the surviving young ones without direction. Unfortunately, speed limits increase significantly in areas where it’s more likely that wildlife will be killed. Have you noticed that the more rural the area, the higher the speed limit?
One caller said she witnessed a Canada goose being struck on the road by a driver who indifferently hit the goose. She sent this photo and report:
A car driving by hit the mother as the babies were following her across the road. The driver just drove off. The goose is alive, but bleeding from the beak and can’t walk. I have her in my car.
Wildlife Watch provided several numbers of wildlife rehabbers, but in a short time, a veterinary hospital said they would take the goose.
We’re following up with the caller and hoping that this particular goose can have a chance at life again and be reunited with her family. Sadly, in a follow-up text we learned the mom will never fly again.
The heavy flooding in May in the Mid-Hudson Valley, which is where we’re located, caused the rivers to rise with strong currents. It put water where it hadn’t been before. Calls came in about disoriented goslings that had become separated from their parents and siblings and found themselves far from water when the water receded.
The good news is that Canada geese are magnanimous and they will adopt the goslings of other adults. We suggested that they find a flock and let the goslings go to them. That explains why you see so many goslings with two adults.
In the 1970s, I was driving around Wisconsin and came across a farm where they were raising baby raccoons in cages for the pelt.
After weeks of sleepless nights, I returned to buy one to save, and I adopted many more over the next 35 years.
Cooney, one of my adopted raccoons led me to the world of naturalist Henry Beston and his masterpiece, “The Outermost House,” published in 1928. A paragraph in Chapter 2 set the tone. Beston wrote:
We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.
After reading this paragraph, I couldn’t imagine living the rest of my life without the knowledge of what I’ve learned from these lines.
I no longer could accept people’s narrow-minded description of raccoons as “trouble makers, a nuisance.” The raccoons lived in my arms, on top of my head, for 35 years. I knew their DNA! Their intellect dictates that they boomerang the mistreatment, injustice back to the sender.
Cooney was 15 when Noelle, 9 years old, had kidney failure. I had her euthanized. When I returned home, the accusatory look in Cooney’s eyes was horrifying. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? The next 47 days were indescribable. She curled up in Noelle’s bed and “tuned me out” in the most brutal way. She looked through me, no acknowledgement of my existence. She did the absolute minimum of getting up to eat. On the 48th day, she came up to me, intense eye contact, “OK mom, I’m ready to move on.” Forty-seven days of pure agony I couldn’t quell, it had to be on her terms!
Cooney fell in love with a garden statue. You could not force, teach, bribe a pose like this. It comes from a beautiful heart, mirroring my emotional investment in them.
Artists have captured the beauty of wildlife since time immemorial. It is far more challenging to capture EMOTIONS. That is what Cooney offers in this photo, the beautiful side of a raccoon. Ava Barcelona asks, “How can society tolerate ‘coon’ hunting?”
AVA BARCELONA is a longtime Wildlife Watch member who has rescued and nurtured both wild and domestic animals.
Let’s Go Wildlife Watching at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Newburyport, MA
By Joe Anderson
Spring is in the air and while we all start to get outside and enjoy the warmer, longer days, the wildlife around us is hard at work capitalizing on this time of abundance. That is why this is the best time of the year to get out and look for wild animals.
Spring is your best chance to catch a hungry black bear searching for food after sleeping through the winter. This is also when most species give birth and you may see juveniles trying to get a head start in life.
For birdwatchers, spring is the season we have been waiting for all year. Don’t blink. If you are looking for migrating birds in the Northeast, there are not many better places to go than the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (PRNWR). This refuge, located on Plum Island in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is great for a wide variety of wildlife viewing opportunities. It’s home to sandy dunes, salt marsh, pine forest, and freshwater ponds with trails, boardwalks, and bird blinds offering easy access to each habitat.
Whether you prefer to walk into the woods or just get out of the car to see what’s around, PRNWR makes it easy to access nature and see wild animals. Plum Island is a great place to visit without any specific target species in mind. But if you want to see Snowy Owls, the massive salt marshes and sandy dunes on the island are the best places to look in the winter. While these majestic birds can be elusive, and surprisingly hard to spot (given their bright white feathers), they are actually among the few diurnal owls, meaning they are active during the day.
Besides Snowy Owls, there are a few other hard-to-find birds that can be seen more easily at PRNWR. One example is the American and Least Bitterns, which hide in tall grasses of marshes and ponds. Searching for these species in the freshwater ponds on Plum Island might be your best bet to actually see one anywhere around the Northeast. These ponds are also home to a wide variety of ducks, wading birds, and other species that prefer to stay close to water.
But if you are going to Plum Island in spring, you are probably going to look for the warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and other migrating birds that can only be seen at certain times of the year. While these species can be found throughout the refuge, there is nowhere better to see them than the Hellcat boardwalks. Raised a few feet from the ground and going through a habitat that is great for bird viewing, these boardwalks give you the chance to see these beautiful birds up close and often at eye-level.
Hellcat, and the rest of PRNWR, can be crowded with birdwatchers during the spring migration but there is good reason for it. It’s because Parker River National Wildlife Refuge is known to many as the best birdwatching spot in all of Massachusetts.
Joe Anderson is an avid bird watcher and enjoys sharing his favorite birding locations with others.
The Common Raven, also known as the Northern Raven (Corvus corax), is tied with Africa’s Thick-billed Raven (C. crassirostris) as the world’s largest species of songbird and is often considered to be the most intelligent of any bird species—or at least tied for that distinction with other members of the genus Corvus.
They also have an enormous range across much of the northern hemisphere, north to above the Arctic Circle and south into the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Therefore, Common Ravens inhabit a wide range of habitats. Since they are not particularly migratory (and are one of the few bird species to be found above the Arctic Circle even in winter), they have diverged into about a dozen distinctive geographic variations. I have shown C. c. principalis, found throughout most of North America.
But therein lies a mystery from my youth. I live in the Greater Toronto Area, between the boreal forests of the Precambrian Shield just a few hundred kilometers to the north, and the Appalachian Mountains just a few hundred kilometers to the south and east, as the raven flies. While ravens were common in both those regions, we had no ravens where I lived. Now we do. They have filled the gap and moved into my area—still far from abundant, but the day I started this painting, late last year, two flew over my head as I was thinking about my painting while filling my garden bird feeders. I looked up when I heard them call. I chose to deem their appearance to be a good omen.
Their low croaking call, very different from that of crows, is oddly pleasing to me. I am not sure why—maybe it is just because I am so fond of them.
This painting, which took months to do, is life-size, 38 by 26 inches, in oils, on wood. Ravens mate for life, and I have shown the female above her mate.
Two pandas, Bao Li and Qing Bao were moved from a panda research center in China to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
Ren Zhijun, a panda keeper at the giant panda research center in Dujiangyan, China
Having cared for the bears for weeks, it would be hard to say goodbye, Ren told CNN on Sunday. “The pandas are like my own children,” he said.
The World Wildlife Fund reports that “…pandas remain scattered and vulnerable, and much of their habitat is threatened by poorly-planned infrastructure projects – and remember: there are still only 1,864 left in the wild.”
THE FUTURE OF THE “WILDLIFE CROSSING ACT” IN NYS COULD BE DETERMINED BY YOU!
According to National Geographic, automobiles shockingly kill more than a million animals a day! Wildlife-vehicle collisions result in 29,000 driver/rider injuries and over 200 fatalities a year. The New York Wildlife Crossing Act would be a win for wildlife, people, and the economy. Wallis Annenberg of the Annenberg Foundation wrote: Wildlife crossings restore ecosystems that had been fractured and disrupted. They reconnect lands and species that are aching to be whole. I believe these crossings go beyond mere conservation, toward a kind of environmental rejuvenation that is long overdue. See this link: 101wildlifecrossing.org
Pete Buttigieg’s plan to save people and animals on the highways of the US offers states an exciting opportunity, as the federal government will fund 80% of a state’s effort!
The League of Humane Voters/NY quickly made this one of its priority bills and began lobbying for it. With many environmental groups on board, this popular bill quickly sailed through the NYS Senate and Assembly, and is now awaiting Governor Hochul’s signature!
New York voters, please contact Governor Hochul at (518) 474-8390 and ask her to sign bill A.4243B/S.4198B!
When most people head outside hoping to see wildlife, they try to get away from towns into more remote areas. This makes sense in the Hudson Valley due to the vast areas of pristine habitats and incredible nature around. I personally love long hikes to get far away from civilization into the wild spaces of the Catskill mountains. But in some places all you need to do is stroll just outside of town to see the great birds and animals and nowhere is this more true than the Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary.
The first spot to look for wildlife on this walk is the New Paltz Gardens for Nutrition, one of the oldest continuous community gardens in New York. These gardens make great habitat for song-birds and raptors such as red-tailed hawks that like to perch on the fence posts in the gardens.
Staying left of the gardens and along the Wallkill river, you will enter the woods marking the start of the sanctuary. Unlike the generally dense and dark woods of the mountainous areas surrounding New Paltz, these woods are more open making them great for birdwatching. We were able to find the well camouflaged brown creeper in this area on my last visit.
Continuing on the path, you will eventually come out to a cultivated field. This open area gives you the chance to look for birds from far away such as raptors that perch in the trees surrounding the field and hover over it searching for prey. There will also certainly be grassland birds crossing the path in front of you including less common ones like field and fox sparrows.
Once you make your way across the field you will arrive at the first of a series of marshy wooded ponds that makeup the oxbow, once part of the Wallkill river. These are great habitats for a variety of birds including herons, kingfishers, rails, and ducks. Also keep your eye on the water for a chance to see aquatic animals such as turtles, beavers, or even a rare river-otter. Across the ponds there are trees sticking out from the standing water and this is where we hoped to find a majestic red-headed woodpecker. We had no luck on this visit but this remarkable species can be found in marshy areas around New Paltz.
Crossing a wooden bridge you will approach the exit of the sanctuary but there is still much more to see! Complete your tour by walking along historic Huguenot street and check out the stone house museums to learn about these French-speaking settlers who fled Europe due to religious persecution. Perched above the street we found a red-shouldered hawk so don’t put away your binoculars yet! While Huguenot street will take you back to the parking lot you can make a small detour for a bite to eat in the lively town of New Paltz.
Overall this walk offers a glimpse into history, great food, and many wildlife viewing opportunities, all without moving your car!
Joe Anderson specializes in social media marketing. He enjoys birding in his spare time.
(Reprinted with permission of the author. The full article has been shortened. Contact the author for the full text.)
Painting and text by Barry Kent MacKay
This is quite an old painting, really a study, of a Crimson-crested Woodpecker (Campephilus melanoleucos), which has a very large range from southern Panama south through pretty well all of Amazonia, east of the Andes and north of the pampas all the way to the northern and northeastern coasts of South America, although absent from the south-eastern regions of Brazil.
These birds are fairly common and resilient, being able to live in second growth forest and tree plantations. They have a typical woodpecker diet mostly consisting of insects found in trees and branches by pecking away at the bark, but supplemented by small berries and other fruit. I have shown a male.
Both sexes carve out the nest cavity, and tend to the young, but for such a common, colorful, and widespread species relatively little is known about their breeding habits. This painting is about 20 by 15 inches, in acrylics, on illustration board.
Sarah Bookbinder, CWR and Dr. Paul Bookbinder’s Amazing Center
Photo by Sarah Bookbinder, Courtesy of Gordon Wildlife
In the six years since they opened their center, this husband and wife rehabilitator and veterinary team have built an incredible rehab and medical microcenter specializing in raccoons.
Filling a tremendous need in NYS (and beyond), Gordon Wildlife is one of very few places which will offer veterinary medical services to raccoons. Rehabilitators travel from around the state to get help with their animals, and the Bookbinders have gained both a national and international reputation for all things raccoon. Gordon Wildlife’s 200 plus page Raccoon Rehabilitation Protocols has been purchased by wildlife professionals in over 40 states and 13 countries!
Gordon Wildlife is in the process of creating New York State’s only wildlife rehabilitation training center to help more rehabilitators (of all species) aquire training, mentorship and other assistance. Their pioneering “Raccoon Rehab: Baby Bootcamp” training program also offers weekly hands-on learning opportunities for those interested in specifically working with raccoons.
In the offseason, Sarah Bookbinder lectures on raccoon rehabilitation, helps aspiring rehabilitators to navigate the licensing process, and works to address shortcomings in the regulations relating to wildlife rehabilitation.
In 2025 Gordon Wildlife will be investigating a strategic expansion into bear rehabilitation.
To learn more about this amazing place, and to support the efforts of the Bookbinders and Gordon Wildlife, please visit their website:gordonwildlife.org
As the winds of climate change blow across the world, there has been a steady decline in several species that has prompted captive breeding efforts.
October 16th, 2024 is going to be a date that will always be remembered at the Sudasari Great Indian Bustard Breeding Centre in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. In fact, this date will also not be forgotten by wildlife lovers as this day saw a historic first when a baby chick of the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) was born via artificial insemination.
CHEERING FOR THE GIB CHICK India has several different captive breeding programs running across the country for the conservation of several endangered species. The hatching of the GIB has specifically brought in cheer as the species is critically endangered with just about 128 of them alive in the wild. This captive breeding program is a tripartite project between MoEFCC (GoI), Raj. FD (Rajasthan Government) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun. All team members/biologists involved in the project are employed from the WII side as project staff. Sumit Dookia, Wildlife Biologist and Faculty at GGS Indraprastha University, New Delhi, says, “as per the documents available with Raj. FD/WII, this project is going to produce GIBs through captive breeding and third generation born out of captive bred birds will be released into the wild. The project started in 2019 and release year probably in 2042-2043. I am working exclusively outside the boundary or jurisdiction of Desert National Park (Protected Area). My working area is a community owned landscape where GIBs are freely roaming.”
ONE OF ITS KIND This project is completely unique, as so far there has been no experience of producing captive GIB anywhere. The expertise came from the Houbara Bustard Breeding Centre from Middle East Asia, especially Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. The project team visited those centres for months to get trained with the Houbara Breeding Team. “Initially two expert scientists from Abu Dhabi Centre also stayed in Jaisalmer for training and starting the centre. Wild laid eggs were being picked with care and taken into captive incubation machines, each egg in a single incubator. These chicks were reared in hand by caretakers, human imprints were purposefully done so that these chicks can be handled like pet birds. These birds became part of the founder population and now a second generation is being produced from these birds. These second generation chicks will be trained to become wild now and this is a real challenge. Only the future will tell the success of this project. Rewilding is a real challenge for any wildlife, as how to face the real life danger in the wild is not possible to teach in captivity,” adds Dookia.
Snow Leopards
ZOOS FOR CONSERVATION Under the central zoo authority there are certain species that have been identified that are endangered and are of special interest. Different zoos have been assigned for taking up their conservation via a captive breeding program. It creates a backup population that can be used for research, release, and other studies. Dr Basavaraj S Holeyachi, Director, Padmaja Naidu Zoological Park (PNZP) says, “Darjeeling Zoo has the highest mandate of these including snow leopard, red panda, thar, blue sheep and pheasants and Himalayan Salamander. The snow leopard and red panda breeding have been very successful and we have 11 individuals of snow leopards now.
Red panda is also successful as we have now taken up an augmentation program that would lead to releasing them into the wild. We have released nine red pandas of which seven have acclimatized to the wild, with five births also recorded.”
Red Panda
Vulture
FLYING HIGH India has also achieved some success with releasing vultures through a conservation breeding program at four Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres (VCBC) across the country in partnership with the Governments of Haryana in Pinjore (2001), West Bengal in Rajabhatkhawa (2005), Assam in Rani, Guwahati (2007), and MP in Bhopal (2011). The population of Gyps species – white-rumped vulture (Oriental white-backed vulture), Indian vulture (long-billed vulture), and slender-billed vulture crashed during the mid-1990s throughout the Indian subcontinent.
Kishor Rithe, Director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), says, “there are several advantages I see as when there are species that are at the threshold of extinction, we must ensure that we do something for its conservation and captive breeding is a strategy to bring that population back. Vultures is one of the species as is the green munia as well as other bird species. We have released about 57 vultures to the wild. Success of conservation breeding can be measured only based on how many birds were released that is proportionate to those in captivity and how many of them have been able to survive living in the wild.”
CHALLENGES GALORE However, captive and conservation breeding is not without challenges. This is a need-specific activity that is undertaken only when the population of a species is dwindling in the wild and there is a need to go for a rewilding process. “On the flip side, care needs to be taken to ensure that any breeding program is done carefully and scientifically. We must maintain genetic diversity; pedigrees should be properly maintained and most diverse individuals should be paired to avoid any inbreeding issues. This needs people who are qualified to handle this,” says Holeyachi. Rewilding is the challenge. “The habitat is not going to remain the same in 2042-43 and it is already facing share decline due to various anthropogenic issues and powerlines here and there. It’s a bird, training these birds to fly in open sky, in captivity, is a real herculean task. There is a plan to construct a long-wide tunnel shaped cage to train and make their flight muscles strong enough to take the flight,” says Dookia.
It is also obvious that lessons have been learnt from mistakes in the past, in terms of releasing birds as soon as we had enough breeding stock population. “Now we have set up the right infrastructure and two aviaries have been constructed in Maharashtra and one is scheduled to be constructed in Assam and Madhya Pradesh. We have released 31 birds from 2020 to 2022 in West Bengal and while four died the rest have survived, so I would say it has been a successful effort,” says Rithe. While the debate about captive breeding will probably not end in a hurry, it does seem to be a step in the right direction to ensure endangered species see the daylight for the next generation.
Bindu Gopal Rao is a freelance writer and photographer from Bengaluu. She enjoys birdwatching and environment, as well as taking the offbeat path when traveling. You can follow her on Instagram @bindugopalrao and find her work on bindugopalrao.com
Onondaga County Executive, Ryan McMahon, is using 85 million in Covid relief funds to build an aquarium! While the construction of this project will cost closer to 100 million, the County Executive is asking for private donors. If they are not able to obtain the difference from private donors, it’s likely the taxpayers will foot that bill! Covid relief money was for the health of the citizens of Onondaga ...shouldn't it be used for that purpose?
Syracuse, NY is known for being a poverty-stricken city! Driving around, you will see destitute people standing on street corners holding signs asking for help. There are people sleeping under bridges in makeshift tents, other poor souls are living in remote areas. I was in a restaurant not so long ago and was shocked when someone came up to the table asking for food!
Recently, a homeless person was found dead in a city creek. Another jumped from a bridge. Does Syracuse, NY, really need an aquarium that would only add animal suffering? If the Covid relief funds are not used for that purpose, then certainly Syracuse needs more mental health services and qualified professionals to prevent these tragic events.
There is a constant stream of shootings and knifings by teenagers in addition to car and house theft. Why not spend some of that money on more youth programs? How about places for kids to go that are inexpensive with fun things to do that are safe? Why not do that and create jobs? An aquarium will not create an abundance of jobs.
The local news has been reporting that a majority of pipes in the city of Syracuse contain lead, there’s lead in the drinking water! Sewage is being dumped into Onondaga Lake! The aquarium is being built on an inlet from Onondaga Lake! So, not only are the people being exposed to this lead and sewage, but this proposal will uproot saltwater mammals, and put them in a tank laden with lead ad chlorine!
Aquariums are bad news: The Seaquest Aquarium in Woodbridge, NJ, is receiving increasing pressure to shut down after only 5 years of being open as 100 animals have died! What a waste of millions of dollars to start a project like this when the city of Syracuse has the money to improve the lives of its citizens rather than giving a dismal life to aquatic animals.
The best thing for this project would be to put a stop to it now; use the remaining funds for the people of Syracuse, NY! An aquarium is an antiquated, useless use of funding especially when that funding was meant to originally be used for people who are greatly in need of help.
In mid-May, 1967, my mother, the late Phylis E. MacKay, and I encountered a horrific situation in a local pet store. We were trying to document the largely unregulated flow of exotic animals into the commercial pet trade, with the hope of stopping its most egregious excesses. In those days you could order a vast range of animals from price lists, directly from the forests of distant, tropical countries. Pet owners chose whatever animals appealed to them based entirely on their names, with not the slightest knowledge of what the animals even ate. We had to feign indifference to the suffering, and presented my interest as an artist who required fresh dead birds to be preserved as specimens for my artwork.
A shipment had just come in from Thailand, and we were invited to help open the boxes, cardboard containers with screen mesh openings. I particularly remember ones filled with tiny sunbirds and flowerpeckers. There was a mush at the bottom of the boxes that were all that remained of those who had died early, with fresher dead birds on top of that, and sick, fluffed up birds on top of that, being excreted on by those healthy enough to sit on thin doweling perches above that.
In one container there was a freshly dead Red-billed Blue Magpie, that I preserved, but only now have I gotten around to portraying him. The experience, and many similarly sad encounters with the animal victims of the exotic pet industry, pushed me ever deeper into conservation and animal welfare work that continues to this day.
