Defenders of Wildlife Blog

This summer’s issue sports a wide-eyed harbor seal on the cover–one of this year’s honorable mentions in our annual photo contest. Go inside to get the story behind the grand prize winner’s grizzly bear shot.

This edition also tackles the problems of lead in endangered condors and highlights the critical importance of bees to our food supply. You’ll also find grim statistics behind Wildlife Services war on predators and the animals they kill by accident. On the climate change front, there’s an on-the-ground example of what is already happening at a national wildlife refuge on coastal land in Delaware.

And if you don’t yet subscribe to the hard copy, which comes chock-full of beautiful photos not featured on the website, get it delivered right to your doorstep by joining Defenders today.

The spring issue of Defenders is here! Check out “Shoring up the Red Knot” to find out how conservationists are teaming to help this shorebird recover. While you’re here, get some good news on Florida panthers and Mexican wolves, and find out how Defenders is working to increase protection for right whales, which are too often harmed by commercial fishing gear.

Find more great wildlife stories and photos in the spring issue of Defenders Magazine.

Want to receive your own copy of Defenders Magazine, delivered right to your doorstep? Join Defenders today!

Click the image above to see the full-sized version.

One of the most hauntingly beautiful wildlife photographs that I have ever seen graces the Species Spotlight section of the latest issue of Defenders magazine and website.

The image, made by National Geographic photographer Steve Winter, is of a Central Asian snow leopard on a snowy night in India’s Ladak’s Hemis High Altitude National Park. Like most photographs you will see of snow leopards in the wild, this was made with a remote camera. Unlike most remote camera photos, this image is immaculately composed, beautifully lit and seemingly perfect.

The knowledge that there are only around some 3,500 of these endangered big cats left in the world adds to the drama of witnessing the photo. So does the understanding of just how incredibly hard it is to make a photograph like this. Steve took some 30,000 frames, using 14 “camera traps” over a 10-month period.

Like most photographs you will see of snow leopards in the wild, this was made with a remote camera. Unlike most remote camera photos, this image is immaculately composed, beautifully lit and seemingly perfect.

But in the end, it is the beauty of the photograph that enchants, evokes and becomes unforgettable. The dramatic strobe lighting is balanced with the dark snowy sky. The placement of the snow leopard is perfect, and the expression on its face draws the viewer in like a powerful magnet.

Photographer Steve Winter (far left) finds himself behind the lens in an upcoming 60 Minutes segment on jaguars.

I showed this photo to the Defenders editorial team more than a year ago and said we needed to find a way to publish it. Senior editor Heidi Ridgley offered the image prime real estate in this month’s winter issue—giving the photograph and the subject a perfect forum.

I am not the only person who has been moved by this photograph. It was selected as the best overall photo in the  “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition in 2008 organized by the Natural History Museum of London and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

If you’d like to learn more about the photographer who made this haunting image, and his latest work on another big cat, tune in this Sunday, January 30, when Steve Winter will be featured in a 60 Minutes segment on jaguar conservation.

Over the years, bats have gained a fearsome reputation due to their nocturnal behaviors and Dracula’s fame. But if you actually take a closer look, you’ll find that instead of looking scary, bats are actually quite cute! More important, they are vital members of the natural world because they pollinate plants and eat pest insects that damage crops.

Bats with white nose syndrome

What’s really scary is that many of those insect-eating bats in the Northeast are dying in large numbers from a mysterious disease called white nose syndrome (WNS), which is a fungal infection that affects hibernating bats in cave ecosystems. The fungus responsible for WNS is new to science and is named Geomyces destructens. A fuzzy white growth on the bats’ muzzles gives the disease its name, but the fungal growth has also been found on their ears, tails and the tender tissue of their wings. Scientists believe that bats are waking up more often during winter, perhaps as a result of the disease, and are dying because they use up all their already depleted fat reserves.

Now what are the economic impacts of these bat die-offs? An average of one million bats, the number of estimated WNS fatalities to date, consume around 700 tons of insects, most of which are crop pests. So in the absence of these natural pest controllers, farmers will have to spend a lot more to manage the pest insects that affect their crops.

Six species of bats have been affected by the disease, and little brown bats have taken the brunt of it. If the disease rages on at current levels, they will soon lose their status as the most abundant bat species in the U.S.

WNS first drew public attention in 2006 when wildlife officials and cavers began to see hundreds of dead bats littering the floors of caves. Since then, it has spread so rapidly that it is now present in states all the way from Vermont to Missouri and Oklahoma – as of now, it has been documented in 13 states. Six species of bats have been affected by the disease, and little brown bats have taken the brunt of it. If the disease rages on at current levels, they will soon lose their status as the most abundant bat species in the U.S.  Endangered species like Indiana and gray bats are also highly vulnerable to this disease, and since they hibernate in a few select colonies, it wouldn’t take much at all to drive these two species to extinction.

While scientists continue to discover new information about the disease every day, there are still many unknowns. Extensive research is needed to answer these questions, and in turn, funding is necessary to carry out this research. You can help by writing to your Congress members and asking them to increase federal funding for WNS research. Find out more about this deadly disease in the latest issue of Defenders magazine.

We love them. We fear them. We stand in awe of them.

Lions have inspired strong emotions in humans since prehistoric times. These great cats have come to symbolize power, nobility and fearlessness in cultures around the world, and their images appear everywhere—on flags, currency, statues, corporate logos, sports teams’ uniforms.

But our esteem for lions hasn’t stopped us from killing them mercilessly. In just the past half century, lion numbers have dropped from about 450,000 to 20,000 or fewer today. If we don’t act now, the “king of beasts” could disappear from the wild in a decade, says noted wildlife filmmaker Dereck Joubert in the latest issue of Defenders magazine.

Dereck and his wife, Beverly, have spent most of the past 30 years in the African bush observing, filming and documenting lions and other big cats for the National Geographic Society and other major publishers and broadcasters. They have witnessed first-hand the toll on lions taken by hunting, poaching, habitat loss, the trade in traditional medicines and, lately, poisoning and global warming.

In just the past half century, lion numbers have dropped from about 450,000 to 20,000 or fewer today. If we don’t act now, the “king of beasts” could disappear from the wild in a decade.

Seeing these grisly impacts and alarmed about the future of their beloved cats, “Beverly and I decided that inspiring people is just not enough—we had to roll up our sleeves and get involved directly in conservation,” writes Dereck. They have set up the Big Cats Initiative, and with help from National Geographic and Defenders of Wildlife, they are working to halt the decline in lion numbers by 2015. In addition to educating people around the world about the big cats’ plight, they are working with African communities to set up ecotourism projects, compensate herders for livestock losses from lions and other steps to bolster local support for protecting big cats.

To find out more about efforts to help safeguard lions—and to see more of the Jouberts’ stunning photos of big cats—read the full story. You can also help us pass the Great Cats and Rare Canids Act—a bill pending in Congress that would provide funding for on-the-ground efforts to protect lions and other imperiled species overseas.

Find more great wildlife stories and photos in the fall issue of Defenders Magazine.