Conservation Science

When thousands of animals die during mass migrations, ecosystems accommodate the corpses and new cycles are set in motion. Fellow Amanda Subalusky and her colleagues have been studying the mass drownings of wildebeest in Kenya and their impact on the Mara River.

Supposedly solitary pumas actually hang out with their fellow big cats quite often, frequently coming together and hissing and snarling before settling down to share a delicious elk carcass. That's the startling discovery made by scientists who recently tracked 13 pumas — also called mountain lions or cougars — and set up cameras at kill sites. They recorded dozens of peaceful social interactions between these elusive felines.

Abstract

Abstract

... “Take a handful of these, we’re gonna make a little path,” Ryan shouts over the wind, handing me some boards. Ryan Carle manages the restoration project with Jessie (Beck). We’re deep in bird territory, so he’s building a path winding through fragile nests and scouting for vulnerable chicks. Western gulls nest on the ground above rhinoceros auklet burrows. They’re literally on top of each other and they don’t get along. Gulls sometimes eat auklets.

Fellow Ayana Johnson says after a natural disaster (strengthened by our warmer planet) is exactly the time to talk about environmental conservation. It protects lives and property, and makes places like Puerto Rico far more self-reliant when disaster strikes.

Fellow Heather Hulton Van Tassel and Audubon South Carolina teamed up under this Switzer Leadership Grant to develop programs to build bird-friendly communities, and to advance climate-resilient initiatives in South Carolina that focus on native plants, community outreach and education, and community-based conservation activities.

Becky Cushing, Mass Audubon’s Berkshire Sanctuaries director, is soaring. She is supervising six properties, hosting bird walks and organizing concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She says of her new home, "I feel like the Berkshires has all these hidden places to explore that make you feel like the first person to have found them."

For decades, California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia has been trying to clean up the air in polluted neighborhoods — first as an activist, then as a legislator. Recently, she celebrated her most significant victory: Governor Jerry Brown needed her help to extend California’s cap-and-trade program. In return for her support, she got the legislature to pay attention to not just greenhouse gases, but all the accompanying nasty that pours out of smokestacks. The result: California’s most significant air-pollution law in years.