Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wildlife. Show all posts

January 11 - Happy Birthday, Aldo Leopold

    Posted on January 11, 2022


This is an update of my post published on January 11, 2011:






Sometimes someone comes along that makes such a contribution to a field that the person is called the mother or father of an entire science. Such is the case with Aldo Leopold, who was born in Iowa on this day in 1887.

Because of Leopold's ideas about biodiversity – the benefit of having a wide range of plants, animals, and other organisms in an environment – and ecology – the interconnectedness of the living and nonliving portions of the environment – he is credited with being the Father of Wildlife Management.

Leopold became a professor at the University of Wisconsin and wrote a book called A Sand County Almanac, which has sold over two million copies, and he was influential in movements to conserve wilderness and develop environmental ethics.



Among other things, Leopold helped people rethink the role of large predators such as bears and wolves. He also helped found the Wilderness Society.

Learn more about Wildlife Management at the National Wildlife Federation website.




September 4 - National Wildlife Day in the U.S.A.

 Posted on September 4, 2021



There are several days dubbed "Wildlife Day," including World Wildlife Day on March 3. Today's special day focuses on wildlife of the U.S., especially on endangered species.

The thing is, the United States is pretty large, and it includes a Pacific island state (Hawaii), a Caribbean island (Puerto Rico), and a state that is partly in the Arctic Circle (Alaska). So the wildlife is really diverse!



Here are a few of the biomes found in the United States and a few of the wildlife found in those biomes. (A biome is a large, naturally occurring community of animals and plants and other organisms that can be found in a particular kind of habitat.)


Arctic and alpine tundra - including arctic ground squirrel, caribou, and arctic fox





Coniferous forest (taiga) - including beaver, moose, brown bear





Prairie - including prairie dog, pronghorn, bison





Deciduous forest - including white-tailed deer, raccoon, porcupine





Desert - including Gila monster, coyote, roadrunner





Tropical rainforest - including velvety free-tailed bat, sooty mustached bat, and ghost-faced bat





Chaparral - including the California gnatcatcher, the red diamond rattlesnake, and the California condor (a critically endangered species)





Coastal sage scrub - including bobcat, alligator lizard, and Stephen's kangaroo rat (an endangered species)