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Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought

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Sunday, January 5, 2025

This is a Southern right whale in waters off South Australia in 2006. Scientists recently found that Southern right whales have a median lifespan of around 74 years. But they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Image via robdownunder/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Southern right whales live long lives. These sea mammals, which live in the Southern Ocean, have a median lifespan of about 74 years. But some individuals reach 130 years, much longer than previously estimated. North Atlantic right whales face human-induced threats. They have a much shorter median lifespan of 22 years, primarily due to ship strikes, fishing gear entanglement and environmental changes. Whale lifespan data is helpful for conservation efforts. Understanding whale longevity and population dynamics helps shape policies to promote recovery and protect their cultural knowledge passed through older individuals. Right whales can live as long as 130 years Right whales are a docile, migratory whale species that use filters in their mouths to catch small crustaceans in the ocean. The right whales that live in the North Atlantic only have a median lifespan of 22 years, due to human activities in their waters. Meanwhile, right whales in the Southern Ocean have a lifespan of around 74 years. But the University of Alaska Fairbanks said on December 20, 2024, that Southern right whales can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as they thought. Right whales are a type of baleen whale. The filter in their mouths is called a baleen plate. The scientists published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on December 20, 2024. The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Get yours today! Photographs identify and track right whales For the past 40 years, researchers have been studying and photographing individual right whales. South African scientists have been monitoring Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis). Meanwhile, North American scientists have been collecting data on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). Both species are closely related and have similar life histories. Each whale has a unique pattern of thickened skin on the head, called callosities. So you can identify individuals by their unique callosity head pattern. Researchers have been identifying individual right whales in the photographs and tracking them from one year to the next. Just as important, they have taken note of which whales stopped appearing in photos over subsequent years, presumably due to death. The head of a North Atlantic right whale, showing thickened skin on the head, or callosities. These markings are like a unique fingerprint to each whale. Image via Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research Permit # 775-1875/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Survivorship curves In this new study, scientists conducted a mathematical analysis of right whale sighting records based on those 40 years of photographs, concentrating on female whales. (They first identified them as females by the presence of a calf.) The researchers used this data to construct survivorship curves. This is a graph that displays projected life expectancies, showing the proportion of a population that survives to each age. (Insurance companies use a similar technique to calculate human life expectancies.) This graph shows survivorship curves for female right whales. The curves are based on 40 years of photographic identifications. Here, scientists were able to mathematically project a very long lifespan for Southern right whales. In contrast, the blue curve for North Atlantic right whales shows significantly shorter lifespans due to human-caused activities such as net entanglements and ship collisions. The light dotted line shows how humans compare on the survivorship curves (using data from the Social Security Administration). Figure via Greg Breed/ The Conversation. Used with permission. Different life expectancies for different populations Scientists once thought the longest-living Southern right whales were 70 to 75 years old. But the new research indicates their median lifespan is about 74 years. Moreover, a few individuals can be 130 years of age, while the oldest ones could reach the ripe old age of 150 years. In contrast, their data also showed the median lifespan of North Atlantic right whales was only 22 years, with a few individuals making it to 45 years. Greg Breed, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that Northern Atlantic right whales’ significantly shorter lifespans were due to human activities: North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer. They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand. A Southern right whale and calf. Image via Els Vermeulen/ University of Alaska Fairbanks. Baleen whale lifespans may have been underestimated According to Breed, there had long been a lack of information about the ages of whales, leading to underestimates about their lifespans. He said: We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling. By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So, we just assumed they didn’t live that long. Current data on longevity, the scientists proposed, have been skewed by the absence of older whales decimated during industrial whaling. That industry ended just 60 years ago for most whale species. By then, many populations were less than 10% of their original size. Whale lifespan studies help guide conservation policies For most marine mammal species, an understanding of a population’s characteristics, such as lifespan, is essential for assessing how they are threatened by human activities. That, in turn, helps cooperating governments shape policy to aid in their conservation. Breed said: To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years. For animals that live to be 100 or 130 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected. He added that older whales are critically important to a healthy population: There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation. That knowledge isn’t just genetic, it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones. Breed and his colleagues are expanding their research to other whale species to learn more about their lifespans. And they hope to better understand how whaling has impacted elder individuals and the recovery trends that lie ahead. Bottom line: Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Source: Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales Source: Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimate Via University of Alaska Fairbanks Read more: ‘Listening’ to save the North Atlantic right whaleThe post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live for up to 130 years, twice as long as scientists thought. The post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

A large, long black animal with a tail, a right whale, in blue ocean water. A bit of a cliff in the foreground. — This is a Southern right whale in waters off South Australia in 2006. Scientists recently found that Southern right whales have a median lifespan of around 74 years. But they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Image via robdownunder/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Southern right whales live long lives. These sea mammals, which live in the Southern Ocean, have a median lifespan of about 74 years. But some individuals reach 130 years, much longer than previously estimated.
North Atlantic right whales face human-induced threats. They have a much shorter median lifespan of 22 years, primarily due to ship strikes, fishing gear entanglement and environmental changes.
Whale lifespan data is helpful for conservation efforts. Understanding whale longevity and population dynamics helps shape policies to promote recovery and protect their cultural knowledge passed through older individuals.

Right whales can live as long as 130 years

Right whales are a docile, migratory whale species that use filters in their mouths to catch small crustaceans in the ocean. The right whales that live in the North Atlantic only have a median lifespan of 22 years, due to human activities in their waters. Meanwhile, right whales in the Southern Ocean have a lifespan of around 74 years. But the University of Alaska Fairbanks said on December 20, 2024, that Southern right whales can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as they thought.

Right whales are a type of baleen whale. The filter in their mouths is called a baleen plate.

The scientists published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on December 20, 2024.

The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Get yours today!

Photographs identify and track right whales

For the past 40 years, researchers have been studying and photographing individual right whales. South African scientists have been monitoring Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis). Meanwhile, North American scientists have been collecting data on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). Both species are closely related and have similar life histories.

Each whale has a unique pattern of thickened skin on the head, called callosities. So you can identify individuals by their unique callosity head pattern.

Researchers have been identifying individual right whales in the photographs and tracking them from one year to the next. Just as important, they have taken note of which whales stopped appearing in photos over subsequent years, presumably due to death.

The head of a black right whale with white markings on it. It is half submerged in blue ocean water. — The head of a North Atlantic right whale, showing thickened skin on the head, or callosities. These markings are like a unique fingerprint to each whale. Image via Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research Permit # 775-1875/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Survivorship curves

In this new study, scientists conducted a mathematical analysis of right whale sighting records based on those 40 years of photographs, concentrating on female whales. (They first identified them as females by the presence of a calf.)

The researchers used this data to construct survivorship curves. This is a graph that displays projected life expectancies, showing the proportion of a population that survives to each age. (Insurance companies use a similar technique to calculate human life expectancies.)

A graph showing three curves, one in blue for North Atlantic right whales, red for Southern right whales, and black thin dashes for humans. The left axis is labeled “Percent alive” and the bottom axis is labeled “Age.” The blue curve is steep and ends around age 50, while the red curve extends past 130 years. The human curve ends around 100 years. — This graph shows survivorship curves for female right whales. The curves are based on 40 years of photographic identifications. Here, scientists were able to mathematically project a very long lifespan for Southern right whales. In contrast, the blue curve for North Atlantic right whales shows significantly shorter lifespans due to human-caused activities such as net entanglements and ship collisions. The light dotted line shows how humans compare on the survivorship curves (using data from the Social Security Administration). Figure via Greg Breed/ The Conversation. Used with permission.

Different life expectancies for different populations

Scientists once thought the longest-living Southern right whales were 70 to 75 years old. But the new research indicates their median lifespan is about 74 years. Moreover, a few individuals can be 130 years of age, while the oldest ones could reach the ripe old age of 150 years.

In contrast, their data also showed the median lifespan of North Atlantic right whales was only 22 years, with a few individuals making it to 45 years.

Greg Breed, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that Northern Atlantic right whales’ significantly shorter lifespans were due to human activities:

North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer. They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.

A large long black animal with a tail and a few light-colored markings on the head. Next to her is a much smaller animal, her calf. They are in blue ocean water. — A Southern right whale and calf. Image via Els Vermeulen/ University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Baleen whale lifespans may have been underestimated

According to Breed, there had long been a lack of information about the ages of whales, leading to underestimates about their lifespans. He said:

We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling. By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So, we just assumed they didn’t live that long.

Current data on longevity, the scientists proposed, have been skewed by the absence of older whales decimated during industrial whaling. That industry ended just 60 years ago for most whale species. By then, many populations were less than 10% of their original size.

Whale lifespan studies help guide conservation policies

For most marine mammal species, an understanding of a population’s characteristics, such as lifespan, is essential for assessing how they are threatened by human activities. That, in turn, helps cooperating governments shape policy to aid in their conservation.

Breed said:

To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years. For animals that live to be 100 or 130 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.

He added that older whales are critically important to a healthy population:

There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation.

That knowledge isn’t just genetic, it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones.

Breed and his colleagues are expanding their research to other whale species to learn more about their lifespans. And they hope to better understand how whaling has impacted elder individuals and the recovery trends that lie ahead.

Bottom line: Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought.

Source: Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales

Source: Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimate

Via University of Alaska Fairbanks

The post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

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The Biden administration released long-awaited final rules Friday for a tax credit that will send billions of dollars to producers of cleaner hydrogen

The Biden administration released long-awaited final rules Friday for a tax credit that will send billions of dollars to producers of cleaner hydrogen. The new rules drew cautious praise from environmental groups, who said they would likely reduce planet-warming emissions but included loopholes that could still reward producers of dirty hydrogen.The administration is trying to ramp up hydrogen production to displace fossil fuels as an energy source for sectors of the economy that emit massive greenhouse gases, yet are difficult to electrify, such as long-haul transportation and industrial manufacturing, including steel-making. Most hydrogen today is made from natural gas, contributing to climate change. But hydrogen can also be made by splitting water with solar, wind, nuclear or geothermal electricity, yielding little if any planet-warming greenhouse gases. Now, the final rule could also extend the full credit to firms that use natural gas to make hydrogen if they use technology to capture and sequester the emissions, and to firms that make hydrogen from natural gas alternatives sourced from wastewater, animal manure and landfill gas. Hydrogen produced from coal mine methane would likely qualify for lower tiers of the credit.Administration officials said the credit is based only on the lifecycle emissions of the hydrogen production process, rather than on how the hydrogen is produced. The credit is part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, but it has support from some Republican members of Congress. Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the act, along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, are the world’s most ambitious policies to support the clean hydrogen industry. The environmental group Earthjustice said the rules support clean hydrogen projects that by and large do not worsen climate and health-harming pollution. But the group said they're also concerned that dirty hydrogen producers will enjoy the benefits of this important climate program, too.Conrad Schneider, senior director at the Clean Air Task Force, an advocacy group, said the final rules do benefit the climate. If the hydrogen qualifies for a credit, that means it's being made with lower carbon emissions than the fossil fuels it's displacing, he said.“We have a number of industry sectors that are hard to decarbonize, aviation, marine shipping, steel production, that are currently using fossil fuels,” he said. “Having a tax incentive like this for the production of clean hydrogen will create a fuel that replaces those unabated fossil fuels and helps the climate.” But Schneider said accurately tracking the emissions of hydrogen produced with natural gas could be impossible if the Trump administration weakens regulations on methane and emissions reporting requirements.The Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association includes more than 100 members involved in hydrogen production, distribution and use, including vehicle manufacturers, industrial gas companies, renewable developers and nuclear plant operators. Frank Wolak, the association’s president, said they are relieved the rules are finally in place. The big question now, he said, is whether the tax credit will move the industry forward and give firms the confidence to make investments, or whether the provisions work for some and not for others. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

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Explosions roared through the canyons lining the Klamath River earlier this year, signaling a new chapter for the region that hugs the Oregon-California border.In October, the removal of four hydroelectric dams built on the river was completed – the largest project of its kind in US history.The blast of the final dam was just the beginning. The work to restore the river, which winds 263 miles (423km) from the volcanic Cascade mountain range in Oregon to the Pacific coast in northern California, is now under way.Already it’s been among the most hopeful environmental stories of past years. “It has been more successful than we ever imagined,” said Ren Brownell, the spokesperson for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a non-profit created to oversee and implement the removal, adding: “There’s an incredible amount of joy.”The Copco 2 Dam, before and after. Photograph: Swiftwater FilmsA drastic alterationThe Klamath River was once an ecological powerhouse – the third-largest salmon-producing river in the American west. Its basin covered more than 9.4m acres (3.8m hectares) and its network of wetlands was the largest in the region. The ecosystem was home to millions of migrating birds. Tribes, including the Hoopa, Karuk, Klamath, Modoc and Yurok, thrived in this bountiful and beautiful watershed for thousands of years, with the river providing both sustenance and ritual.Over the last hundred years, these landscapes have been drastically altered.After the first dam began operating in 1918 – one of four that would eventually be forged in the lower Klamath to provide hydroelectric power to communities nearby – the course of the river was changed. 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Algae flourished in the shallow warming waters that year, exacerbated by the dams and decisions from the US Bureau of Reclamation to divert vital flows to farms, leaving little for fish. The event killed 70,000 salmon and thousands of other species, resulting in one of the worst die-offs ever to occur in the US.The layers of fish floating belly-up sent an important signal of the horrors that could continue into the future if the dams remained. Forming a coalition, tribes up and down the Klamath launched a fierce campaign to educate the public, inform the shareholders of the companies that owned and operated the dams, and petition their boards. They protested and attended public hearings, and engaged with state and federal officials.‘A tremendous rollercoaster’It took decades of advocacy to convince PacifiCorp, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, to let go of the aging infrastructure straddling the Oregon-California border. 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Ranchers and fishers, environmentalists and farmers, and locals and visitors all had connections to the basin, and were eager to weigh in.“It has been a tremendous rollercoaster,” said Brownell. “Having the river’s health in your hands is an incredible burden to carry.”Brownell, who grew up along the riverbanks, was standing in the canyon as the blast of the first dam released flows and the river that had been held over the last hundred years found its way back to itself.“I got to watch the water come down through the canyon and reconnect with the river below. I watched the river re-establish itself there forevermore,” she said. It was the most exciting moment of the year.The Iron Gate Dam, one of the four hydroelectric dams that once stood on the Klamath River, on 18 August 2023. Photograph: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty ImagesMoments of traumaThere were moments of trauma along the way. 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Photograph: Carlos Avila Gonzalez/APIn the farther parts of the river, Klamath tribal leaders are still waiting to see the salmon that were lost to their homelands more than 100 years ago. Dams still stand in the northern stretches of the river.‘It’s a river again’But for advocates, the dams’ removal on its own serves as a strong reminder that change is possible.Toz Soto, a fish biologist and manager of the Karuk Tribe fisheries program, said with a laugh that he was skeptical right up until the moment they blasted through the concrete. But, by convincing the public that removing the dams made sense, “not just as a social justice issue for tribal health but also from an economic standpoint”, he said, the wheels of change started to turn.As the work continues, Soto is looking upon it with a smile.“There were moments, and those are behind me,” he said. 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It’s funneling money into rural communities and creating material value for healthy forests — something the environmental movement has, for decades, struggled to do. Indeed, at a time when tropical forests and grasslands are besieged by farming, mining, and other threats, birdwatching tourism offers a real incentive to keep ecosystems intact. Without forests, there are no birds, no birders, and no birding tourism. There are, no doubt, concerns about sustainability as this young industry matures and more foreign tourists descend on Colombia. But for now, local communities are at the helm of this industry, which is good for people, good for the local economy, and good for wildlife. They intend to keep it that way. Londoño, who goes by Doña Dora, didn’t dream of running a birdwatching lodge and welcoming tourists into her backyard. In the 1990s, she moved here, to the outskirts of Cali, to escape violence near her home in the tropical grasslands, known as Los Llanos. This story is not uncommon. A decades-long conflict between armed groups and the government has displaced more than 5 million people across the country. Doña Dora arrived with nothing, she told me that morning, as we watched hummingbirds flutter around a pair of freshly filled feeders like a collection of airborne jewels. She cleaned homes and sold empanadas on the side of the road. Her husband picked up odd jobs. Then one day she went to the dentist, and her life changed. Her dentist, a man named Gilberto Collazos Bolaños, was a bird fanatic, and he knew the forest around her home was full of avian life. So he gave her a suggestion: Put some fruit on a table outside, and wait. The fruit will draw in birds, she remembers him saying, the birds will attract tourists, and the tourists will bring in money. She took his advice. And birds came. First there were bluebirds, golden tanagers, and colorful finches called euphonias. Then rarer species like rufous-throated tanagers and toucan barbets arrived. Toucan barbets are the unequivocal stars of the show. Found only in the mountain forests of western Colombia and Ecuador, they have a brilliant plumage — a collection of light gray, red, yellow, and black — and a song that sounds a bit like a frog. As the dentist predicted, birders eventually arrived, too, largely finding her home by word of mouth. And in 2015, Colombia hosted its first annual BirdFair, a major birding festival, and one of the event’s official field trips was a visit to Doña Dora’s home. That put her on the map, she told me. “We always loved nature and trees,” said Doña Dora, who, when I visited, was wearing a head covering and what looked like a white lab coat. “But we didn’t have a vision for what we have right now, of birdwatching.” Today, her home is considered one of the country’s top birdwatching destinations, and some visitors have dubbed it “the best backyard birding spot in the world.” It’s this birding business that now supports her family. Foreign tourists pay about $9 to view birds on her property ($13 if they have a camera). A room for two people is around $50 per night, which doesn’t include her coffee or her homemade empanadas. In the busy season, from September to March, the lodge will get more than 100 tourists a month, according to her son Elber Sanchez Londoño, who helps run the business. In her backyard that morning, I watched birds. But I also watched birdwatchers watch birds. I honestly found this activity just as thrilling. What is it that makes some people so obsessed with birds? One explanation is that you can find them pretty much everywhere. That makes birdwatching easy to start and practice, no matter where you live. Birding can also connect you to a community. It tends to bring like-minded people together, both in person and through platforms like eBird and iNaturalist, where they can share their observations. Plus, it’s free and done outdoors, which is one reason why birding became so popular during the Covid-19 pandemic when people were avoiding crowded, indoor spaces. “It’s like an addiction,” Ocampo-Peñuela, a self-identified birder, told me. “You see these birds, and their beauty, and it just fills you with happy hormones. Then you want to do it more.” That morning, I met several tourists at Doña Dora’s lodge. Most of them toted cameras with long lenses. “This is unbelievable,” said Santiago Ferro, a visitor from Toronto, who grew up in Bogotá. I asked him how this spot compares to birding in North America. He just laughed. Birders are drawn to Colombia for its sheer number of avian species, many of which are found nowhere else. But the ongoing surge in birding tourism has far more to do with safety. Until recently, a conflict between the government and a number of armed groups spread violence across Colombia. At the center of the conflict — which began in the mid-20th century — was the distribution of wealth. The largest such group, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), fought against the government and right-wing paramilitary groups to bring more wealth to poor rural parts of Colombia. Violence tied to the conflict killed more than 200,000 people, and most of them were civilians. In 2016, after years of tense negotiations, the government and FARC signed a peace agreement. Put simply, the agreement required that FARC give up their weapons, stop fighting, and exit the drug trade, which was helping fund the conflict. In return they were offered political power and a promise to invest heavily in rural areas. Violence still persists in some regions, especially near the borders, and the US State Department advises people to reconsider traveling to Colombia. Yet a tenuous truce holds. The peace agreement has made the country much safer, for locals and foreigners alike, than it has been for decades — and that, in turn, has opened the door to more birdwatching tourism. In 2017, Ocampo-Peñuela published a study showing that birdwatching, as measured by activity on eBird, was already expanding in areas that were once considered dangerous, including Putumayo, a department in southern Colombia. Ocampo-Peñuela’s more recent research, which is not yet published, finds that birdwatching activity skyrocketed in Colombia after 2016, though it dipped during the pandemic. (A large portion of eBird users are from the US, so data from the platform over-represents American birding trends.) !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}(); The government doesn’t track birdwatching activity, though it says tourism overall is climbing. Last year, a record 6.1 million foreigners visited Colombia, up 30 percent from 2022, and the majority of them are looking for nature experiences, according to Procolombia, a government agency that markets the country. Tourism is already up this year compared to 2023, Procolombia told Vox. And since 2021, the number of nature lodges, including birding lodges, has nearly tripled, the agency said. In global hot spots of biodiversity like Colombia, economic growth often comes at the expense of ecosystems. A growing cattle-ranching industry destroys rainforests. A mining boom leaches toxins into streams and soil. Comparatively, Colombia’s ballooning birdwatching industry seems like something to celebrate. Tourism is not only funding birdwatching destinations like Doña Dora’s but building demand for local birdwatching guides. That’s created jobs for Colombians with deep ties to their surrounding ecosystems, whether or not they have a formal education. Generational knowledge of local birds and where to find them — referred to in some academic circles as traditional ecological knowledge — is increasingly valuable here, even in a straight economic sense. Birdwatching tourism gives it value. The following morning, I traveled to a place called Laguna de Sonso, a wetland just north of Cali. It’s a blip of natural habitat in a sea of sugarcane plantations, a widespread crop in Valle del Cauca. When I arrived, a cocoi heron, a large gray and white bird with a long, sharp beak, was wading in the water, sending ripples out across a lake. The wetland is a birder’s dream. More than 300 avian species live in or pass through Laguna de Sonso, including giants like the osprey and weirdos like the common potoo, a bird with an unsettlingly wide mouth. It’s also where youth from the surrounding communities learn to become birdwatching guides, or interpreters, as they call themselves. “We call ourselves interpreters because we are a community that has had empirical training,” said local guide Jhonathan Estiven Bedoya Betancourth, meaning they’ve learned through observation and experience. “We do not have, let's say, the training of a professional tourist guide.” (A pair of community organizations at Laguna de Sonso do offer workshops and mentorship for bird guiding.) Bedoya Betancourth, 24, says he’s been guiding birdwatching tours since he was 14. “We interpret everything that this beautiful territory has,” said Bedoya Betancourth, who wore a pair of binoculars around his neck. Bedoya Betancourth started guiding because he loves birds, and he’s good at it. He can imitate the calls of around 30 species, he said. (I obviously asked him to demonstrate, and he impressively whistled the repetitive up-and-down call of a marsh bird called the gray-cowled wood-rail.) But it was also a way to earn money for his family, he said. He makes about $35 for each guiding trip, not including tip, and he’ll lead several trips a month. He supplements his income by making wood carvings to sell to tourists and locals. “Birdwatching for me and for the group of interpreters is one of the economic activities that has been able to keep the community afloat,” said Maria Omaira Rendon Rayo, a community leader at Laguna de Sonso. The birding economy gives people a reason to stay in the community, she said, and offers an alternative to careers that might attract violence, such as cultivating and selling drugs. By training kids, the laguna and its community organizations are also helping build a conservation ethic that will last for decades. “If you are receiving economic income from an activity such as conservation, then you want to conserve more,” said Rendon Rayo, who works with a local organization called Asociación de Productores Agropecuarios del Porvenir, which helps restore forests by planting trees and trains birding guides in Laguna de Sonso. “You want to help plant more trees. You want to help keep the laguna clean.” Nature tourism is not an unequivocal force of good. It actually often harms the environment, as researchers like Ralf Buckley have documented. Tourists have inadvertently introduced invasive species to places like the Galapagos Islands, snorkelers and divers have damaged coral, including in the Great Barrier Reef, and hotels are commonly built atop natural habitat. There’s also an exploitation issue: In many cases tourism companies are owned by foreigners, limiting the benefits that flow to local communities, on which they often depend. Plus, as a place swells with wealthy tourists, the cost of necessities like housing and food can rise, making it unlivable for locals. Birdwatching tourism in Colombia has so far managed to avoid many of these pitfalls. It has some guardrails built in, Ocampo-Peñuela said. For one, birding doesn’t work well in large groups — they scare away birds and make it hard to spot something fluttering far away — and smaller groups have a lighter environmental impact. One of the lodges I visited capped the number of tourists to 10. Another said there are days when they will turn visitors away. What’s more is that finding rare and endemic species, which birders are most drawn to, typically requires local expertise. That helps keep money within local communities. Then there’s the most important guardrail: Birdwatching tourism doesn’t work if it’s not sustainable. Even if you put out fruit, the birds won’t come if they have no habitat — no forest, no wetland. Birding is not like going to the zoo, where you can always expect to see animals. It’s in the economic interest of the birdwatching industry to make sure ecosystems remain healthy. “You can’t do this business without conserving,” Javier Rubio, who runs another birdwatching destination, called La Florida, at his property northwest of Cali. “If you don't conserve, you put your future as a business at risk. If you start cutting down trees and damaging the forest, [the birds] will be left without food, which is the reason why they are here.” Doña Dora says one of her goals is to earn enough money so that her son can buy forested land around their home. He wants to conserve it, she told me. “That’s the idea for the future,” Elber, her son, told me, “to make sure that the birds continue to live in a healthy ecosystem.” The industry is still young, so the full extent of its environmental impact has yet to be seen. People involved in growing birdwatching tourism say it’s critical that Colombians, and especially people in rural, bird-filled regions, determine what the industry ultimately looks like. “It’s necessary that we Colombians define what kind of birdwatching tourism we want,” said Carlos Mario Wagner, the founder and director of Colombia BirdFair and one of the country’s most well-known birders. Birding tourism shouldn’t just cater to foreigners, he said, but also to locals. “Something that makes me very happy is that Colombians are increasingly hiring guides,” Wagner told me. Birding has given Colombians an opportunity to reconnect with their homeland following the peace agreement, he said. It instills in them a sense of pride for a version of Colombia that’s known for nature, not violence. The birding industry will ultimately never be huge, Ocampo-Peñuela says. While it’s growing globally — faster than other forms of ecotourism, she’s found — it will likely remain niche, limited by the small number of people who want to travel to rural places to look at birds, often very early in the morning. “You have to have the right personality,” she told me. So it’s not like birdwatching alone will fix Colombia’s problems and raise the rural class out of poverty. Yet what it offers is incredibly special. Not just money for local communities, alternative career paths, and real incentives to save forests, but also something that’s harder to quantify. On a rainy afternoon in October, I visited Rubio at La Florida. Like Doña Dora, Rubio has a homemade bird feeder in his yard constructed with branches and pieces of fruit. It attracted a different cast of avian visitors. Here, the star was the multicolored tanager, a colorful species found only in the mountain forests of Colombia. My favorite, however, was the crimson-rumped toucanet, which is essentially a mini toucan. They’re bright green with rust-colored beaks that seem far too big for their bodies. Over my fourth cup of black coffee, Rubio told me he was a criminal lawyer for nearly three decades before getting into the birdwatching business. A few years ago, he invited friends to his home to go birding. They saw the multicolored tanager and told him that his property — which abuts a tropical forest — has enormous potential to become a birdwatching destination. Eager to live a more relaxing life, Rubio, 56, quit his job as a lawyer and started building a tourism business. “I feel extremely good doing this,” Rubio told me. “I often feel like I’m giving happiness to people. Almost unanimously the people who come say, ‘This is a paradise.’ When you start birdwatching, you start to feel attracted not only to birds but to the peaceful environment of nature.” This is a point that nearly every birder I spoke to made: Caring about birds is a gateway to caring about nature, of seeing its true worth. “It is a gradual process,” Rubio told me, as we sat on a covered deck as it rained, watching a multicolored tanager bounce around in the branches a few feet away. “You first contemplate them, then you begin to understand them, and then you begin to preserve them. That is the path taken by the one who takes up this habit of birdwatching.”

Animals

Business

Conservation

Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population

Five entire families can be killed, totalling 30 wolves, in move campaigners say is illegal under EU lawSweden’s wolf hunt starts on Thursday, with the country aiming to halve the population of the endangered predator.The Swedish government has given the green light for five entire wolf families, a total of 30 wolves, to be killed in a hunt campaigners say is illegal under EU law. Under the Berne convention, protected species cannot be caused to have their populations fall under a sustainable level. Continue reading...

Sweden’s wolf hunt starts on Thursday, with the country aiming to halve the population of the endangered predator.The Swedish government has given the green light for five entire wolf families, a total of 30 wolves, to be killed in a hunt campaigners say is illegal under EU law. Under the Berne convention, protected species cannot be caused to have their populations fall under a sustainable level.Sweden’s wolf population dropped by almost 20% in 2022-23, and there are now 375 recorded individuals. The decline is due to increased hunting pressure, and the government announced earlier this year that it intended to halve the population, with 170 wolves becoming the new minimum level for “favourable conservation status”, instead of the current minimum of 300.Critics say this will endanger the wolf population, which has historically had a fragile stronghold in Sweden, partly due to overhunting. Sweden had no breeding wolf population from 1966 until 1983, and the species is listed in the country as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list.The plans are part of a wider trend, with the EU intending to loosen rules around wolf persecution, allowing countries to increase the number they can kill.The European Commission is considering revising its habitats directive to reflect the fact that wolf numbers have increased, particularly in alpine and forested regions of Scandinavia and central Europe. Farmers say the increased population poses a threat to livestock such as sheep.Earlier this month, members of the Berne convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats voted to change the status of wolves from a “strictly protected” to a “protected” species. This change will enter into force on 7 March 2025 and will make it easier for the EU to change the habitats directive to allow more wolves to be shot.But environmentalists have said that instead of changing the laws to allow wolves to be culled, farmers can take preventive measures with electric fencing.“We are very critical to the path that the EU is now taking, downgrading the protection status of the wolf,” said Magnus Orrebrant, the chair of the Swedish Carnivore Association. “If the EU follows up the latest Berne convention decision by changing the wolf’s protection status in the habitat directive, the result will be very negative not only for the wolves, but for all wildlife in Europe.skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“In Sweden, it will have no immediate impact on the wolf population, since the Swedish government since 2010 has been blatantly disregarding the wolf’s special protection status, allowing a yearly licensed quota hunt and thereby breaking EU law. We filed a formal complaint to the EU commission, leading to an infringement procedure against Sweden, as yet to no avail.”Léa Badoz, the wildlife programme officer at Eurogroup for Animals, a lobby group, said: “The wolf is unfortunately the latest political pawn, a victim of misinformation. Downgrading protection will not solve the challenges of coexistence, nor help farmers.”The Swedish environmental protection agency has been contacted for comment.

Animals

Government

Sustainable

Using AI to talk to animals

Researchers are building an AI system that they hope will, one day, allow humans to understand the many languages that animals use to communicate with one another.Why it matters: Understanding what animals are saying could not only aid human knowledge of our world, but advocates say might provide a compelling case for giving them broader legal rights.Driving the news: NatureLM, detailed earlier this year, is an AI language model that can already identify the species of animal speaking, as well as other information including the approximate age of the animal and whether it is indicating distress or play.Created by Earth Species Project, NatureLM has even shown potential in identifying the dialogue of species the system has never encountered before.NatureLM is trained on a mix of human language, environmental sounds and other data.The non-profit recently secured $17 million in grants to continue its work.What they're saying: "We are facing a biodiversity crisis," Earth Species Project CEO Katie Zacarian said during a demo of NatureLM at the recent Axios AI+ Summit in San Francisco. "The situation we are in today is driven from a disconnection with the rest of nature," she said. "We believe that AI is leading us to this inevitability that we will decode animal communication and come back into connection."Between the lines: Translation, in the broadest sense, is something that generative AI has proven to be quite good at. Sometimes that's translating from one human language to another, but the technology is also adept at transforming text from one genre to another.Yes, but: An added wrinkle with translating animal languages is that instead of moving between two known languages, we have only limited understanding of how animals communicate and what they are capable of conveying through speech.Researchers know, for example, that birds make different sounds when they are singing songs as compared to sounding a warning call.They also have determined that many species have individual names for one another and some, like prairie dogs, have a system of nouns and adjectives to describe predators.The big picture: Earth Species Project is one of many endeavors looking to tap AI to address planetary concerns. Microsoft last week detailed SPARROW, an AI system designed to measure biodiversity in some of the earth's most remote reaches.Developed by Microsoft's AI for Good lab, the effort uses solar-powered systems to collect data from cameras, acoustic monitors and other sensors.With human progress on combatting climate change seen likely to fall short of needed targets, many are looking to AI to provide alternative approaches.While AI is showing promise in helping better understand nature, its massive energy demand is straining electrical systems and pushing tech companies to defer or alter plans to operate in a carbon neutral manner."It is something the entire field needs to wrestle with, among the many other ethical challenges around responsible use and safety," Zacarian said.Go deeper: Watch Zacarian's presentation at AI+ Summit

Animals

Climate

Energy

Suggested Viewing

TO SEE THE SNOW LEOPARD

“To see a snow leopard is to see God.” It’s a film about the search of the snow leopard - a beautiful and rare animal. There are only a few thousand of them left on the planet. Most of the animals have been given names but almost no one has seen them. This is a story about the mystery of human’s contact with another life, with wild nature, and the search for the lost source of inner strength. Scientists, hunters, shamans, tourists - the leopard sees them, but they do not see him.

Animals

HOME

If you visit Hawaii for the first time, you might be shocked about the wild chickens everywhere around the island. HOME explores the variety of relationship between people and wild chicken in Hawaii. People are trying to protect their community, but wild chickens become a huge part of it. Now we need to find a home for wild chickens, if it’s not already taken over by humans.

Animals

Indigenous

Nature

Dipsas Speaks

Dipsas Speaks is a poetic reflection on the human-wildlife conflict in the Andean Amazon cloud forest of Ecuador, one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. Dipsas klebbai, a snake, observes changes in her world. 100% wildlife cast.

Forests

Conservation

Animals

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

In the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes, more than 3 800 meters above sea level, live alpaca and vicunia breeders. Quechua and Aymara families protect their animals live off of the sale of the animals’ fiber. Gold mining is another activity that predates the Conquest and is widespread among families living in the border area between Peru and Bolivia. The difficult compatibility on the same territory of these two production activities increases the need for environmental protection and workers' rights. It has become indispensable to support producers so that this activity does not disappear with the migration of native peoples, abandoning traditions and animals.

Animals

Indigenous

Business

Karibu Nyumbani

“Karibu Nyumbani” translates as “Welcome to my Home” in Swahili. Guides in the Maasai Mara have a deep-rooted pride, knowledge, and love for wildlife. This film encapsulates that passion from the perspective of George Osono, a guide in Mara North Conservancy, who completely embodies this spirit of caring for nature. Throughout the film, you meet Half Tail, Lola's cubs and the other iconic members of the Marsh Pride, Kweli the Cheetah and her three cubs as they prepare for adulthood, and an impressive elephant named Edwin. This film is visual portrait of the Maasai Mara's majestic wildlife, and the stories of the extraordinary animals that call it home. The film encourages people to see the beauty of these animals, recognise how fragile their existence is and in turn care more about protecting them.

Conservation

Animals

Nature

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Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought

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Photographs identify and track right whales

Survivorship curves

Different life expectancies for different populations

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Using AI to talk to animals

Suggested Viewing

TO SEE THE SNOW LEOPARD

HOME

Dipsas Speaks

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

Karibu Nyumbani

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sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought

Right whales can live as long as 130 years

Photographs identify and track right whales

Survivorship curves

Different life expectancies for different populations

Baleen whale lifespans may have been underestimated

Whale lifespan studies help guide conservation policies

Related News

Finalized Tax Credit for Cleaner Hydrogen Gets a Cautious OK From Some Environmental Groups

California tribes celebrate historic dam removal: ‘More successful than we ever imagined’

Why thousands of people are traveling to one country to see these birds

Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population

Using AI to talk to animals

Suggested Viewing

TO SEE THE SNOW LEOPARD

HOME

Dipsas Speaks

The Custodians of the Andean Gold

Karibu Nyumbani

Join us to forgea sustainable future

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Join us to forge
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