In 11 years, International Bird Rescue s staff veterinarian, Dr. Rebecca Duerr, has seen hundreds of pelican pouch injuries, most of them caused by fish hooks, boat propeller strikes and other mishaps.
But Duerr said the recent injuries differ in that they are straight cuts through both sides of the bird s pouch, extending back along one or both sides of the neck and peeling the skin off the bird s neck. The wounds leave the pelicans in shock and doomed to die in pain.
The most recent victim not only had symmetrical cuts slicing through the entirety of the pouch, detaching it from the neck, but also had a straight cut into the muscle at the back of the neck consistent with a knife or machete cut. The pelican had to be humanely euthanized because of the severity of the wounds.
It could take years for Biden to restore wildlife protections erased by Trump Published December 22, 2020
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Print article When President-elect Joe Biden walks through the door of the White House with his rescue dog, Major, he will inherit a Migratory Bird Treaty Act that no longer protects birds, a watered-down Endangered Species Act, and a policy that allows hunters in Alaska to crawl into bear and wolf dens to shoot mothers and their babies. And that’s just in the United States. The Trump administration has allowed importation of the carcasses of endangered elephants and rhinoceros, as well as lions, as hunting trophies - reversing a ban on the practice enacted when Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama.
In 11 years, International Bird Rescue s staff veterinarian, Dr. Rebecca Duerr, has seen hundreds of pelican pouch injuries, most of them caused by fish hooks, boat propeller strikes and other mishaps.
But Duerr said the recent injuries differ in that they are straight cuts through both sides of the bird s pouch, extending back along one or both sides of the neck and peeling the skin off the bird s neck. The wounds leave the pelicans in shock and doomed to die in pain.
The most recent victim not only had symmetrical cuts slicing through the entirety of the pouch, detaching it from the neck, but also had a straight cut into the muscle at the back of the neck consistent with a knife or machete cut. The pelican had to be humanely euthanized because of the severity of the wounds.
The Audubon Societyâs annual bird count wasn t going to be missed this year. Early Saturday morning, a group of nearly 10 people met at SCICON to count the birds as part of a collective international effort to track the bird populations globally.
For three weeks, in December and early January, bird watchers around the globe go out into nature to count and log different species of birds.
Nancy Bruce, Lead Teacher for SCICON, explained the SCICON count, as well as the Circle J Ranch count that happened later Saturday afternoon, were part of a larger effort of the Springville Christmas Bird Count Circle that encompasses all of the land area in a 7.5 mile radius of the Springville area. Â
Photo: Zac Durant/Unsplash
Andrew Rosenberg, director, Center for Science & Democracy | December 22, 2020, 10:25 am EDT This post is a part of a series on
I confess to a palpable sense of relief. After four years of attacks on science, corruption of the process for making science-based decisions, and a government that exacerbated the big challenges facing us like climate change, racial injustice, and the pandemic, I finally have some hope. I remember my father, a Marine in World War II, telling me that when the war ended, he and his friends went up on the mountain in Hawaii (where he was in the hospital) just to breathe in the air of a new life.