With its tiny wings and fur-like feathers, the North Island brown kiwi looks more like a mammal. Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation and Biology Institute in Virginia are studying this odd bird—considered vulnerable in the wild—to improve zoo habitat and better care for kiwi chicks and adults.
mudwerks reblogged
darksilenceinsuburbia
Francesca Rossio Restauro: Venerina
July 1942. "Conservation. Rubber. This truck tire has run 146,000 miles. It is now planned to retread it with a life expectancy of at least half the original mileage. The tire is size 9.75 x 20, weighs 129 pounds and was run at an air pressure of 70 pounds. Miss Jean Spanitz, stenographer in the Division of Motor Transportation, Office of Defense Transportation, poses with the tire." 4x5 inch acetate negative by Albert Freeman for the Office of War Information. View full size.
Source: shorpy.com
Issued by the Mines Department of Great Britain during WWII to promote conservation. Circa 1939.
Source: vintagraph.com
mudwerks reblogged
rhamphotheca
Sea Lampreys Fear the Smell of Death: Repellant Could Be Key to Better Controlling Destructive Invasive Species
(Aug. 6, 2011) — A repellent for sea lampreys could be the key to better controlling one of the most destructive invasive species in the Great Lakes, says a Michigan State University researcher. Scientists have seen the effect alarm cues have on lampreys. When scents from dead sea lampreys are poured into a tank of live ones, the lampreys’ efforts to escape are dramatic. In the past, these reactions were simply dismissed as novel. But Michael Wagner, MSU assistant professor of fisheries and wildlife, sees this reaction as a potential game changer.
“Sea lampreys are one of the most costly and destructive Great Lakes’ invaders,” said Wagner, who published his results in the current issue of the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. “The effectiveness of the odor combined with the ease in which it’s obtained suggests that it will prove quite useful in controlling sea lampreys in the Great Lakes…”
(read more: Science Daily)