Rethos.com - kshatra's Global Feed

Bats in the cave, canaries in the coal mine

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 10:03:19 -0500

Across New England, bat colonies are dying off at an unprecedented rate from a malady known as “white-nose” syndrome. The disease can be recognized by patches of white fungus on the animals’ muzzles. Rather then being in deep hibernation, as they should be in February, biologists from the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department observed emaciated bats clustered toward the entrance of the Aeolus Cave in Dorset, Vermont, the largest wintering habitat for bat populations in New England. Other bats were flying outside the cave entrance and dead carcasses littered the snow. As ...

Wolves Under Attack

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:37:40 -0500

In a characteristically ill-considered and short-sighted maneuver, the Bush/Cheney administration has announced plans to remove Endangered Species protections from wolves in the Northern Rockies region. The roughly 1,500 wolves in this area, once delisted in this manner, would be subject to hunting and trapping under state regulations, even if their numbers were reduced to as few as 300. This would essentially legalize the killing of up to 80 percent of the wolves in the Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.

From an administration with complete disregard for Constitutiona...