The Wild Cats of Kruger National park Dense brush in rocky areas and forests are their favorite hangouts
Moose habitat The moose lives in many places in forests around the Northern hemisphere. Some moose live in North america in places such as Alaska Canada the Rocky mountains Utah and Colorado.
though their numbers are the largest in coastal scrublands and forests. In the 1800s farmers tried to eradicate the ferocious marsupials
African Wildlife Foundation-Zebra San diego Zoo-Zebra Woodland Park Zoo-Zebra Smithsonian National Zoo Grevy's zebra IUCN Red List Mountain zebra IUCN
Tree dwellers While most funnel spiders live on the ground a few species on the eastern coast of Australia live in wet forest trees.
Is a New Species In the cloud forests of Ecuador scientists have discovered the olinguito the first new carnivore species reported in the Western hemisphere in 35 years.
But these Andean forests are so amazing that even if we didn't find the animal we were looking for
The team found the nocturnal carnivores on the western slopes of the Andes prowling the cloud forests for figs nectar and insects.
Cloud forests are tropical moist forests with persistent fog or cloud cover. A genetic analysis proved the olinguitos were a distinct species. The new species is described today (Aug 15) in the journal Zookeys.
Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise. There is no short cut to achievement.
and their natural habitat is restricted to mountainous forests of China. Captive breeding is one way to study
#Giant pandas May be threatened by Forest Reform There are thought to be fewer than 1600 giant pandas in the wild today
While China has made achievements in saving the pandas in recent years a group of conservations says the government's plans to free up forests for commercial use could be a blow to the endangered species. This change puts these vital habitats potentially under threat from commercial
and non-timber forest products by outside enterprises and other commercial development activities Russell Mittermeier president of environmental organization Conservation International said in a statement.
China is reforming its system of collective forest tenure to allow individual farmers to transfer
or lease operation rights to outside businesses potentially opening up 167 million hectares (nearly 650000 square miles) of forest for commercial use.
Under natural conditions these forests have burned for millions of years with frequent fires said Jon Keeley a fire ecologist with the U s Geological Survey who is based in Sequoia
More than a century of fire suppression has built up piles of dead wood that fuel hot intense fires that burn into the tops of trees instead of staying low on the ground.
Several years of lower than average snowfall in the Sierra nevada have made also the mountain forests dry
and dead matter on the forest floor that can fuel a ground fire. But those precautions may not be said enough Parsons.
#Global Warming Forecast for Amazon Rain forest: Dry and Dying The Amazon rain forest's dry season lasts three weeks longer than it did 30 years ago
and the likely culprit is global warming a new study finds. Rain falls year-round in the Amazon but most of the annual deluge drops during the wet season.
Scientists think that a longer dry season will stress trees raising the risk of wildfires and forest dieback.
The forest's annual fire season became longer as the dry season lengthened according to the study published today (Oct 21) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The length of the dry season in the southern Amazon is the most important climate condition controlling the rain forest Rong Fu a climate scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences said in a statement.
If the dry season is too long the rain forest will not survive. The new findings forecast a more parched future for the Amazon rain forest than the climate report released last month by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the study authors said.
The IPCC models predict the Amazon dry season will last three to 10 days longer by 2100.
The dry season over the southern Amazon is already marginal for maintaining rain forest Fu said. At some point if it becomes too long the rain forest will reach a tipping point.
Fu and her colleagues analyzed rainfall patterns across the Southern Amazon rain forest since 1979 and plugged the data into 50 simulations from eight climate models.
The climate models from the IPCC's AR5 report released in September reported smaller dry season changes than actually measured since 1979.
This means the IPCC models likely underestimate future predictions of rain forest climate change effects the researchers conclude.
when President Theodore Roosevelt issued a proclamation to school children about forestry and the importance of trees. 2. We really do need trees Nebraska may not have been a naturally tree-friendly spot
In the old-growth forests in the Northeast you had hemlock that were six or seven feet in diameter chestnut trees 200 feet tall.
and works with the National Forest Service to replant lost forests. The group estimates that its donations have funded the planting of more than 20 million trees in forests since 1990.5.
Birdsey takes Arbor day international Americans aren't the only ones digging out the garden spades come spring.
Northrop had researched previously forestry in Europe triggering a wave of environmental self-examination back in Connecticut
#Goat Sacrificed for Chicago cubs Curse Forest Preserve police in Cook County Ill. found a grisly discovery this week:
It does not take into account the situation the realities of the conditions on the ground in whitebark pine forests said Jesse Logan the retired head of the U s. Forest Service's bark beetle research unit.
which is responsible for forestry and soil conservation efforts. Oh and don't forget that there are 50 states each with its own ability to influence
and writers to engineers scientists educators foresters lawyers policy analysts consultants animal care givers and recreation workers to name a few.
all goodly fragrant woods of God s-land heaps of myrrh-resin with fresh myrrh trees with ebony and pure ivory with green gold of Emu.
and fruits acting act as pollinators and seed dispersers especially in deserts and rain forests. Bats pollinate wild bananas the famous saguaro cactus and durian the world's most expensive fruit.
Without bats rain forests would recover more slowly from disturbances. There also would be no tequila the agave plant from which tequila is made depends on the Mexican long-tongued bat to pollinate it.
or the average length of time a molecule of gas exists in the atmosphere before being converted into another chemical compound or absorbing back into a sink like a forest or ocean.
#'Hidden'Fires Burning in Amazon Rain forest Small fires in the Amazon rain forest are having a huge impact.
A new satellite imaging technique has allowed scientists to see Amazonian fires burning beneath the jungle canopy called understory fires which were previously difficult to detect.
Amazon forests are quite vulnerable to fire given the frequency of ignitions for deforestation and land management at the forest frontier but we've never known the regional extent
or frequency of these understory fires Doug Morton a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Md. and the study's lead author said in the statement.
and then gradually disappear as the rain forest recovers the NASA statement said. NASA scientists are using an instrument on the Terra satellite to detect these signs of damage which include slight alterations in the amount and condition of foliage present.
and mules to carry all of the supplies from the deep jungles up to the icy peaks.
The fire has destroyed areas of the forest cherished by her family and cost over $100 million to fight
That she says is all the more reason to invest in new forest-management practices to protect future generations for the even larger fires to come.
Experts say this is just a foretaste of major fires to come across the United states as altered forest ecology due to hotter and dryer conditions result in larger more destructive and more intense fires.
Tundra gave way to forest. As the climate changed the very large mammals that had adapted to extreme cold like mammoth and wooly rhinoceros became extinct.
High humidity and light rainfall helped firefighters contain 75 percent of the Rim Fire by Tuesday morning (Sept. 3) the U s. Forest Service said.
Researchers predict that wildfires will tear through the western forests more often as a result of climate change:
To see the effect one has just to look at how quickly the wildfire raced through the Stanislaus National Forest compared to its halting progress in Yosemite national park.
Early on in the Stanislaus National Forest next to Yosemite nearly half of the Rim Fire's 368 square miles (953 square km burned in the first two days.
The U s. Forest Service prefers to thin trees or conduct controlled burns instead of letting forest fires run their course.
In the Groveland district birthplace of the Rim Fire the forest service had eight fire control projects planned Reuters reported.
Tree ring studies show California's mountain forests evolved with frequent low-intensity fires every 10 or 15 years.
In these forests the tall long-lived trees drop their lower limbs so fires can't crawl up into their crowns.
and replanting many of California's mountain forests are dense and overgrown with too many trees crowded together
and dead dry wood and debris piled up on the forest floor according to studies by fire ecologists such as Stephens. Fires today burn hotter and higher up into the big trees (so-called crown fires).
As the Rim Fire incinerated parts of Stanislaus Forest Stephens evacuated a four-person research crew studying an old-growth stand of trees that included sugar pine incense cedar ponderosa pine
The flames raced through experimental forests studied for more than a century and a variety of landscapes such as recently replanted burns and untouched forests.
Such data will help better inform forest management practices in the future particularly under a changing climate.
Email Becky Oskin or follow her@beckyoskin. Follow us@livescience Facebookâ & Google+.+Original article on Livescience n
The findings also shed light on how the Maya managed their rain forests. Scientists have disagreed about
whether the Maya cleared the forests for agriculture or grew crops beneath the canopy. The BYU team found evidence that the ancient people practiced a mixture of both.
And what happened to all that wood? Though some of it may have been in good enough condition to be repurposed into building materials much was shredded into mulch in an effort to expedite the cleanup process
which makes it a lot more fun for the kids Davis said comparing the park with more standard plastic jungle gyms.
though the wood in the Zucker Natural Exploration Area was treated not pressure and may degrade over time Zimmerman said.
Pressure treatment involves treating wood with preservatives and then pressurizing the wood in a closed container to force preservatives into all crevices protecting against degradation by burrowing insects and fungus.
We weren't sure how successful it would be said Zimmerman. But people are very happy to have this type of play area
Other enterprises producing agroforestry crops from the Sahel like the baobab shea nut and cashew trees other such truffula-like trees offer similar potential.
Op-Ed Linda Walkerâ is manager of the Global Forest & Trade Network-North america for the World Wildlife Fundâ (WWF) in Washington D c. She contributed this article to Livescience s Expert Voices:
Your diningroom table may be one of the reasons why Russian tiger forests are being pushed to the brink of destruction.
There companies are turning this illegal timber into hardwood furniture and flooring and shipping it to the United states and Europe where it is purchased by consumers who are unaware that the wood in their furniture was stolen from tiger habitat.
A recent investigation by WWF-Russia looked at more than 10 years of on-the-ground observations
Russia s forest sector has become deeply criminalized with poor law enforcement allowing illegal loggers to plunder valuable timber stocks with impunity.
We also looked at how timber thieves are prosecuted and found that very few are brought to trial.
and is devastating forest ecosystems and the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. Illegal logging degrades vital habitat for Amur tigers and their prey.
And as timber supplies dwindle ecologically sensitive forests like wildlife reserves are threatened increasingly. Tiger Summit:
engaging with companies committed to responsible forestry by promoting Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification; and encouraging international cooperation among governments committed to addressing the trade of illegal wood including the United states with the Lacey Act.
But there's more to be done to reduce the demand for those illegal products here at home.
Knowing where your wood comes from is more important than ever if we are to conserve this crucial habitat for the Amur tiger and its prey.
How can you be sure you re not contributing to the destruction of Amur tiger forests
and that forests have been managed responsibly. So next time you sit down at your dining room table and have a bite to eat
Hundreds of small forested mounts of earth known as forest islands dot these lowlands which are flooded seasonally by water.
These forest islands were thought typically of as natural in origin for instance as landforms cut away by shifting rivers or long-term termite mounds or bird rookeries.
The 10 Biggest Mysteries of the First Humans Evidence of human settlement What first surprised Lombardo about the forest islands he and his colleagues investigated was that under the surface there seemed to be rocklike material he said.
Lombardo and his colleagues now would like to investigate why people abandoned these forest mounds after 6000 years of use.
#If A Dry Tree Pops Sap Bubbles In The Woods (ISNS)--The crackling sounds wood makes as it burns are familiar to anyone who has roasted marshmallows before a campfire
instead or as well for instance fractures in the wood or collapse of the channels in which the sap travels.
and his colleagues gathered very thin samples of wood from three-year-old pine and larch trees slices 50 microns wide thin enough to see through.
As the wood dried the researchers used microphones to hear what happened and microscopes to see what occurred.
The researchers found bubbles within the sap were linked to about half the sounds from the wood.
With their demise the composition of Madagascar's ecosystems changed shrubs and vegetation clogged the forest floor
and leaf litter biomass builds up on the forest floor and frequently causes wildfires. In addition many of Madagascar's plants have evolved defenses against large herbivores such as spines
Most species are going extinct in tropical forests Pimm said. Saving a species through de-extinction
when humans are burning forests and destroying native communities is a joke he said. Biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers The State university of New jersey agrees de-extinction would impede conservation.
#Invasive Earthworms Harming Great lakes Forests DENVER Gardeners and farmers may love earthworms for their rich castings
but in forests near the Great lakes the creatures are alien invaders. No earthworms are native to North america's northern forests (massive ice age glaciers kept the land worm-free.
But in the years since settlers arrived 15 earthworm species have appeared in Minnesota from Europe and Asia.
Some of the invasive species are changing local forests scientists have discovered. After these mixers come in there's a loss in plant species said Kit Resner graduate student
The earthworms eat away at the puffy duff layer blanketing the forest floor where species such as salamanders and ovenbirds live Resner reported Sunday (Oct 27) at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.
And in the sugar maple forests near the Great lakes the churning worms actually compact the upper soil layers instead of loosening them Resner said.
Forest soils are really different than agricultural soils. Here we have a structure. And in this case they actually compact it.
and woodpeckers feeding in the same areas of the forest floor on separate occasions but sometimes within minutes of each other suggesting the animals share the same habitat.
The team thinks the woodpeckers have adapted to feed on the forest floor rather than holing up more cautiously in trees
and removal by sinks resulting from land use activities such as planting new forests. The new wetlands report fills in a substantive knowledge gap Thelma Krug co-chair of the IPCC's Task force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories said during the news conference.
Genetics holds the potential to benefit native systems that range from prairies to pine forests and coral reefs.
Because temperature and moisture predictably change with elevation these gardens reflect climate differences ranging from desert to alpine forest that mimic the effects of climate change.
Scientists Sequence Norwegian Wood Beatles'fans Santa-lovers and plant nerds take heart: The first gymnosperm genome the common Christmas tree (i e.
Norwegian wood) has been sequenced. The coniferous Norway spruce (Picea abies) is one of the most widespread and important plants in Europe.
In May 1610 Thomas Gates the governor who had been shipwrecked on Bermuda before he could arrive at Jamestown made his way to the colony using makeshift ships made partly with wood they found on Bermuda.
It flew into the air with a bloodcurdling shriek killing a midwife in the process and headed toward the woods.
after all descriptions (often at night in the deep woods) vary dramatically. Eyewitnesses who described huge wings may have seen sandhill cranes (which can stand four feet tall
and legend but that doesn't mean that late at night in the Pine Barrens forest people might not see
and drilling operations in Canada's pristine boreal forests. My goal was to draw attention to the dual threats of global warming
I flew over the boreal forest in a small four-seat airplane and watched colossal tree-cutting operations clearing thousands of acres of trees flying over miles of virgin forests that had already been leased for new mines.
But soon there would be millions more acres of clear-cut trees and millions more gallons of toxic waste that would leach into the rivers from tailings ponds
This is the kind of bold leadership we need on this issue leadership that will force us to acknowledge the true damages taking place from industrial tar-sands operations in Canadian boreal forests.
when he disturbed a pile of wood that contained a hive of the notoriously aggressive bees;
The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest home to five out of the 10 largest trees in the world.
Giant Forest is connected to the General Grant Grove of Kings Canyon National park home to the 267-foot-tall (81.3 m General Grant tree the world's third largest.
#Legend of Lost City Spurs Exploration, Debate Deep in the dense rain forests of Honduras a glittering white city sits in ruins waiting for discovery.
Probably not according to archaeologists and anthropologists who generally agree there was once something in the eastern Honduras rain forest though likely not a city of mythical wealth and luxury.
If people become convinced that a gold-laden city is hiding in the Honduran rain forest it could encourage looting he said damaging the real archaeological sites that no doubt lurk among the tropical vegetation.
when an adventurer named Theodore Morde claimed to have found extensive ruins deep in the jungle.
Exploration and preservation In 2012 Elkins and his colleagues announced they had discovered hints of ruins in the Mosquitia forests.
Elkins and his team flew over the rain forests in an airplane shooting laser pulses at the ground in a method called light detection and ranging (Lidar.
Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World Lidar allows researchers to create digital maps of the terrain below the forest canopy something that aerial photography
Illegal logging is eating away at the forests he said. He hopes an archaeological expedition to the region will end up protecting it in the long run.
What's more he said Lidar data could help conservationists showing as it does everything from natural water features to topography to the size of trees in the forest.
The cave-sleeping may be related to a unique feature of this environment the spiny forest. In this area most of the trees are lined with woody spines starting near the ground making for easy climbing for predators.
but the langurs slept in caves only after their forest homes had been logged or clear-cut. The langurs also moved from cave to cave each night instead of returning to the same cave for years.
#Light in Cloud Forests Can Outshine a Sunny Day In mist-enshrouded cloud forests the ecosystem can differ dramatically from those nearby.
On cloudy days these misty forests may actually see more light than they would on a perfectly sunny day.
and water conditions than other mountain forests the research found. In Photos: Life Up in the Clouds Ethereal places Anyone who has been on a mountain hike has seen how the misty mountaintop ecosystem can be a world away from one just a few hours'hike below.
and wet with cloud bottoms often grazing the forest floor and mountaintops shrouded in fog for 60 to 80 percent of all the days in the growing season Reinhardt said.
While an individual leaf may see less light the forest on average as an ecosystem sees quite a bit Reinhardt said.
Afternoon energy boost In other forests the process of making food from light known as photosynthesis tends to drop off in the afternoon.
when a diffuse light penetrates the formerly dark corners of the forest the researchers said.
when Nasutoceratops  lived Utah was full of dense leafy forests streams and swamps that made it resemble the Mississippi Delta of today.
#'Lost'Medieval City Discovered Beneath Cambodian Jungle A lost city known only from inscriptions that existed some 1200 years ago near Angkor in
The previously undocumented cityscape called Mahendraparvata is hidden beneath a dense forest on the holy mountain Phnom Kulen
and map archaeological remains on the forest floor the researchers wrote in an accepted manuscript submitted to the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The survey revealed with exceptional clarity traces of planned urban spaces hidden beneath the dense forest surrounding the major temples of Angkor they wrote.
Lost medieval city To the north of central Angkor the Lidar data revealed a previously unknown city hidden beneath the forest its roadways temples and other urban infrastructure etched into the surface of the holy Phnom Kulen mountain.
and leaves and branches withered away especially among the forest's older more vulnerable canopy trees researchers say.
Even after rainfall levels bounced back in the next several years the forest continued to suffer according to a NASA-led group of scientists.
We had expected the forest canopy to bounce back after a year with a new flush of leaf growth
When drought hits a forest and kills trees dead wood releases carbon dioxide as it rots instead of absorbing heat-trapping greenhouse gas from the atmosphere as plants normally do.
and corresponding slow forest recovery Saatchi said. This may alter the structure and function of Amazonian rainforest ecosystems.
while half of the forest was hit by the 2010 drought with nearly a fifth of it experiencing severe drought.
#More than 30,000 Miles of Roads Built in Amazon in 3 Years How long does it take to build a little more than 30000 miles (50000 kilometers) of new roads through the rain forest?
While roads cover only a tiny fraction of the total land surface of South america's largest nation their effect on local ecosystems particularly rain forests may be huge.
But by mapping road construction researchers think they can aid future efforts to stop destruction of the Brazilian rain forest.
A 2011 study funded by the National Science Foundation found that a fishbone configuration for example offers a solution that merges development with forest livelihood.
But road construction is just one of many factors leading to the continued deforestation of the world's largest rain forest.
Forest fires alone destroyed more than 33000 square miles (85500 square km) of forest between 1999 and 2010 according to a recent NASA release.
and may have had a major explosive eruption in 1800 according to the Mount st helens Forest Learning Center. There were minor eruptions in 1898 1903 and 1932
The shockwave rolled over the forest for another 19 miles leveling century-old trees; all the trunks neatly aligned to the north.
Beyond this oetree down zone the forest remained standing but was seared lifeless. The area devastated by the direct blast force covered an area of nearly 230 square miles (596 square kilometers.
The International Trade Commission estimated damages to timber civil works and agriculture to be $1. 1 billion.
Amazonian Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears The sight of butterflies flocking onto the heads of yellow-spotted river turtles in the western Amazon rain forest is not uncommon at least
and sweating people said Geoff Gallice a graduate student of entomology at the Florida Museum of Natural history who has witnessed butterflies flocking to turtle tears in the western Amazon rain forest.
and organizes trips to the jungle. Gallice said based on his observations that the feeding likely does little direct harm to the turtles.
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