CDP: Wildlife Clips: June 15, 2022
Senate Committee Approves DOE, Interior Nominees. According to Politico, “The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning approved a trio of President Joe Biden's nominees to lead agencies within the departments of Energy and Interior. The panel cleared Evelyn Wang to lead the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, David Applegate to serve as director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Carmen Cantor to serve as assistant secretary of the Interior for insular and international affairs. They passed by voice vote. ‘[All three nominees] are well qualified for the positions to which they have been nominated,’ said Chair Joe Manhcin (D-W.Va.). ‘I think all three nominees will bring their extensive knowledge and experience to their positions.’” [Politico, 6/14/22 (=)]
Wildflowers For Urban Gardens To Help Threatened Hummingbirds. According to Bloomberg Green, “With its temperate climate and rich diversity of wildflowers, Mexico is a haven for hummingbirds. It boasts 58 species, including all 19 types seen in the US and Canada. The tiny birds proved elusive, however, when Rocío Meneses tried to catalog each species, starting in 2013, while co-writing a book called Hummingbirds of Mexico.” [Bloomberg Green, 6/14/22 (=)]
Happy The Elephant Loses Legal Bid For Human Rights. According to Politico, “New York’s highest court today rejected a novel claim that an elephant is a legal person with the right to contest her confinement in the Bronx Zoo. In a 5-2 opinion, the New York Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by the Nonhuman Rights Project to secure a writ of habeas corpus — which protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment — on behalf of Happy the elephant to transfer her to a sanctuary. ‘Because the writ of habeas corpus is intended to protect the liberty right of human beings to be free of unlawful confinement, it has no applicability to Happy, a nonhuman animal who is not a ‘person’ subjected to illegal detention,’ wrote Chief Judge Janet DiFiore for the majority.” [Politico, 6/14/22 (=)]
From Spring To Fall, New York Harbor Is A Feeding Ground For Bottlenose Dolphins, A New Study Reveals. According to Inside Climate News, “The bottlenose dolphins arrive in New York Harbor in the spring and frequent the busy waterway through autumn, sometimes feeding with such frenzy that their foraging clicks sound like a buzz on underwater listening devices off Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey. ‘We’ve been seeing dolphins regularly,’ said Howard Rosenbaum, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program and senior conservation scientist at the New York Aquarium. ‘I think what’s interesting is that you can see them quite frequently, if you’re on the beach. It’s not all the time, and it might not be the right time of the day when you’re looking, but we do see them regularly.’ A study released this month by the Wildlife Conservation Society, based on passive acoustic monitoring between April and October from 2018 to 2020 in the New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary, found that the dolphins came to feed in an ecosystem rich with more than 200 species of fish, most prevalently in late summer and early autumn.” [Inside Climate News, 6/14/22 (=)]
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