this is an exciting time for the kakapo recovery programme:

Kakapo population boosted by two, more chicks on the way
The Kakapo Recovery effort is one step closer to bringing the world’s kakapo population to 100 after the successful hatching of two kakapo chicks.
The latest additions bring the small but increasing population to 93, and lots more chicks are expected in the coming weeks.
As well as the 25 confirmed fertile eggs yet to hatch, there are another eight to be checked and seven more females are ready to nest.
…
“It will be awesome to bring the kakapo population to more than 100 and all signs are indicating that could very well happen. If this breeding season produces 30 to 40 chicks it will be a huge step in the recovery of this species,” Deidre Vercoe said.

source: kakaporecovery.org.nz
a kakapo chick photo is available at stuff.co.nz.

there’s also a new ranger’s diary entry by deidre mussen.

the galapagos albatross (phoebastria irrorata), as the name suggests, is a species endemic to an island in the galapagos archipelago. partners stick together for their entire life, which can be up to 45 years.
when they first meet, and every year they reunite, they go through a cute little courtship ritual.
in order to describe it, i’d like to borrow a snippet from english wikipedia:

The courtship of the Waved Albatross is a very elusive and spectacular sight to see, it includes: rapid bill circling and bowing, beak clacking, and an upraised bill to make a whoo hoo sound.

those of you who watched season 1 of whale wars (operation migaloo) might find this interesting:

AFP raids Sea Shepherd vessel, seizes footage, ships log
The Australian Federal Police raided the Sea Shepherd vessel Steve Irwin, seizing video, photographs, audio recordings and the ship’s log, as it docked in Hobart late yesterday.
The ship was met dockside by a party of AFP officers who boarded the protest ship with a warrant as it docked.

Sea Shepherd Captain Paul Watson said that among the footage seized was video for the Animal Planet series Whale Wars, which he said showed some of the most dramatic whale-killing scenes ever seen.
“Japan does not wish to see the airing of the second season of Whale Wars and is putting as much diplomatic pressure on Australia as they possibly can to prevent further exposure of their illegal whaling operations in the Southern Ocean,” Capt Watson said.

source: thewest.com.au

first the japanese whaling fleet uses long-range acoustic weapons and high pressure water guns, and now they seem to try their best at damage limitation.

there is, however, a funny twist to the story:

“This is a very strange situation. A Dutch ship, captained by a Canadian, operating in a New Zealand dependency, an accusation from the Japanese and a warrant served in an Australian port. I don’t know how anyone will sort that out legally,” Capt Watson said.

source: themercury.com.au

update 2009-04-13: the latest news article at seashepherd.org states that: “The second season, which documented Operation Musashi, is set to air in the United States on June 5th at 9 PM on Animal Planet.”

love is in the air…

The frenzy of kakapo breeding activity continues on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island with the discovery of new matings and nests an almost daily occurrence.
…
Last night, kakapo rangers found two eggs on Heather’s nest, which were candled – a light shone into them to see if a chick was growing inside. Excitingly, both are fertile.
…
Also last night, a single egg was finally spotted in Ellie’s nest, which is yet to be checked for fertility. Ellie was conceived on Little Barrier Island in 1999 – her parents are breeding gurus Lisa and Ox. This is the first time she has mated so is an exciting time, particularly because she’s a bird hatched and initially raised in captivity. She has two sisters, Aranga and Hauturu – Aranga, also a first-time mum-to-be, has three fertile eggs but Hauturu has not yet mated.
…
To date, the egg tally is 29, with 15 fertile, excluding Lisa’s one fertile egg that died only days before it was due to hatch. Every fertile egg is a potential chick and offers high hopes for new additions to the kakapo population, currently at 91 birds.

source: kakaporecovery.org.nz: ranger’s diaries (article by deidre mussen)

Kakapo back to nest after 21 years
The flightless nocturnal bird was one of four male kakapo released on the 1400ha conservation sanctuary, near Stewart Island, in 1987 without a transmitter. He had not been seen since.
Kakapo ranger Chris Birmingham told the Sunday Star-Times he was surprised to hear a male booming, its unique resonant mating call, near South Bay, where no kakapo had been detected before.
…
It was only then that he realised the bird’s significance because it wore a numbered metal band on his leg. Incredibly, Rangi survived two aerial poison drops during Codfish Island’s rat eradication in 1998.
…
By yesterday, 17 female kakapo had mated, seven had nested and 14 eggs laid, but more nests, eggs and matings were expected daily for weeks to come.

source: stuff.co.nz

Vet first to artificially inseminate a kakapo
Last month, Dr Blanco artificially inseminated a kakapo, making him the first person to successfully perform the procedure on a wild endemic, endangered bird.
Dr Blanco said the purpose was to ensure genetic diversity among kakapo on the island, where only two male birds were the dominant breeders.

source: stuff.co.nz

according to the first article, they were using sperm of Richard Henry – the only surviving kakapo from fjordland, which is believed to be more than 70 years old.

on february 12 1809, a little boy named charles robert darwin was born in shrewsbury, england. he was to become one of the greatest naturalists and scientists in history.
in his book “on the origin of species by means of natural selection”, published in 1859, he expressed his theory of evolution¹, which would provide a scientific and logical explanation for the diversity of life on earth.

today is his 200th birthday, and the 150 year anniversary of that famous book that revolutionized the entire field of biology.

i’d like to take the opportunity to include a few quotes from the book:

it is a truly wonderful fact that all animals and all plants throughout all time and space should be related to each other in group subordinate to group, namely varieties of the same species most closely related together, (…) species of distinct genera much less closely related, and genera related in different degrees, forming sub-families, families, orders, sub-classes and classes.

[more...]

here’s a comment that was recently submitted to one of my frogspawn time-lapse videos over at youtube:

“frogs are a good example of evolution seeing as it only take a month or 2 for them to grow”

ontogeny (the development of an individual organism) may be a glimpse into the evolutionary history of a species, but on the other hand, evolution has nothing to with one soft, translucent piece of frog spawn developing into a tadpole.
while evolution is a shift in genetic information during hundreds or thousands of generations, a tadpole growing legs is just part of its existing genetic programme.

i think if people actually knew what the theory of evolution is all about, there wouldn’t be half as much agitation against it.