2008 Nov 3. Asking
'Why Do Species Go Extinct?' By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, The New York Times--A
CONVERSATION WITH STUART L. PIMM. Excerpt:
'I realized that extinction was something
that as a scientist, I could study. I could
ask, Why do species go extinct?' - Stuart
L. Pimm
For a man whose scholarly specialty is one
of the grimmest topics on earth - extinction
- Stuart L. Pimm is remarkably chipper. On
a recent morning, while visiting New York
City, Dr. Pimm, a 59-year-old zoologist, was
full of warm stories about the many places
he travels: South Africa, Madagascar and even
South Florida, which he visits as part of
an effort to save the endangered Florida panther.
Fewer than 100 survive in the wild. In 2006,
Dr. Pimm, who holds the Doris Duke professorship
of Conservation Ecology at Duke University,
won the Heineken Prize for Environmental Sciences,
the Nobel of the ecology world.
Q. HOW DOES A PERSON MAKE EXTINCTION THE CENTERPIECE
OF A PROFESSIONAL LIFE?
A. In 1978, I went to Hawaii, supposedly a
tropical paradise. I am an enthusiastic birder,
and I looked forward to getting into the lush
forest to view the abundant flora and fauna
the islands were famous for. Here you had
this rich island chain, out in the midst of
the Pacific, full of wondrous birds and plants
- a place supposedly richer in natural diversity
than even the Galápagos....
2008 Mar 23. Anger
Over Culling of Yellowstone's Bison By JIM ROBBINS, NY Times. Excerpt: GARDINER,
Mont. - This was not the Yellowstone National
Park that tourists see. ...more than 60 of
the park's wild bison were being loaded on
a semi-trailer to be shipped to a slaughterhouse.
With heavy snow still covering the park's
vast grasslands, hundreds of bison have been
leaving Yellowstone in search of food at lower
elevations. A record number of the migrating
animals - 1,195, or about a quarter of the
park's population - have been killed by hunters
or rounded up and sent to slaughterhouses
by park employees. The bison are being killed
because they have ventured outside the park
into Montana and some might carry a disease
called brucellosis, which can be passed along
to cattle.
The large-scale culling, which is expected
to continue through April, has outraged groups
working to preserve the park's bison herds....
...The standoff has been made all the worse
by the detection last year of brucellosis
in several cattle elsewhere in Montana. Though
experts believe the disease was transmitted
by elk, not bison, the case has stirred passions
among ranchers. Brucellosis ...when detected,
requires that the cattle be destroyed. If
another incidence of brucellosis appears in
Montana, the state would lose its brucellosis-free
status, ....
"Our interest is having a brucellosis-free
United States," said Mr. Knight, the
agriculture official. "The sole remaining
reservoir is in the Greater Yellowstone. ...the
best solution would be a vaccine for bison,
.... Park officials, however, say it is not
known when a vaccine, which they are researching,
will be available.... In the last few years
biologists have discovered that Yellowstone's
bison are one of only two genetically pure
herds owned by the federal government.
James Derr, a professor of genetics at Texas
A&M who is studying the Yellowstone bison,
said he feared that some behaviors or traits,
including the propensity to migrate, could
be lost with the killed bison. "The great-grandmother,
grandmother, mother and daughter often travel
together," he said. Killing them "is
like going to a family reunion and killing
off all of the Smiths. You are affecting the
genetic architecture of the herd."...
13 February 2007. Sharing
of Bison Range Management Breaks Down.
By JIM ROBBINS, New York Times.
Excerpt: MOIESE,
Mont. - An effort to have two Indian tribes
assist government officials in operating
a federal wildlife refuge that is surrounded
by their reservation has collapsed amid
accusations of racism, harassment, intimidation
and poor performance. But top federal officials
say they are determined to resurrect it. ...The
Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 allows
tribal involvement in the management of federal
lands, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai
Tribes, which have strong cultural links to
bison, wanted the authority to manage the
refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service opposed
ceding control over the bison range, and the
Interior Department and tribal officials decided
to split the mission. ..
Archive
of Past Articles for Chapter 2
