One Fun Thing: Birding on the Rise

COVID-19 has made us stop and notice the natural world we live in — and its been for the birds – literally!  The National Audubon Society has seen downloads of its bird identification app in March and April doubled over numbers since the same time period last year, and visits to its website are also up dramatically, according to E&E News.  Similarly, Cornell University has live bird cams and “visits” to that site have doubled, as well as public interactions with Cornell’s crowdsourced bird-logging app, eBird.  On Cornell’s site you can check out Barred Owls (and their adorable chicks), Red-Tailed Hawks (and their chicks), and Savannah Osprey, among others.  And you can take courses on bird identification, biology, and even their songs.  I (Monica) am hooked – can’t stop watching these beauties!  This one’s for you, Jessie G and David C!

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Dogs Can Sniff Out COVID-19

Dogs Can Sniff Out COVID-19

Scent detection dogs may be the best tool for finding and fighting the spread of COVID-19, according to some promising new research at the University of Helsinki.

Why This Matters:  COVID-19 detecting dogs could be immensely helpful in rooting out the disease in places where it might otherwise be hard to detect, such as sporting events, airports to find the virus on surfaces, and border crossings, and places where early detection is important, like nursing homes and retirement communities, and by helping to screen people within the medical care sector who test positive so as to avoid unnecessary quarantines for those who have been exposed.

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We Need Animals to Survive—But First, We Need to Include Them

We Need Animals to Survive—But First, We Need to Include Them

By Beth Allgood, U.S. Country Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare It’s often said that dogs are man’s best friend. This common phrase may seem simple to most, but it holds a very important lesson: animals are important to human wellbeing. IFAW’s newest report, Animals are Key to Human Development: A Guidebook for Incorporating Conservation […]

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One Cool Thing: Wildlife Comes Out At National Parks

One Cool Thing: Wildlife Comes Out At National Parks

Park Rangers at National Parks that have been closed for many weeks have observed things they had never seen before.  For example, pronghorn antelope in the sun-scorched lowlands of Death Valley National Park, and at Yosemite, with traffic a distant memory, deer, bobcats, and black bears have made their way into Yosemite Valley and are […]

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