Rangers celebrate after trail cameras capture the return of an animal once thought locally extinct: 'Monumental'
Rangers are celebrating the sighting of a mammal once thought to be extinct in the Australian island it is native to.
The echidna is an egg-laying, insect-eating mammal that is a native species to Lungtalanana Island off the coast of Tasmania in Australia. It is also known as a trimanya among Tasmanian Aboriginal people.
After a wildfire devastated the island in 2014, conservationists believed that the animal was locally extinct. To the delight of local rangers from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Center, an echidna was recently caught on trail cameras.
"The importance of having trimanya back on the island is monumental," said Kulai Sculthorpe, a ranger supervisor with the center, in a news release from the World Wildlife Fund.
Trail cameras are an essential tool for conservationists to track populations and manage endangered species without disturbing wildlife. Species management is crucial to maintaining healthy ecosystems, which directly impacts the livelihoods of the humans who live in them.
The Tasmanian Aboriginal Center has been on a mission to restore the island after years of destruction from bushfires and the effects of European colonization. This mission involves bringing back culturally significant native species that are believed to be locally extinct, such as the echidna.
Rangers from the center are now trying to determine if there are more echidnas on Lungtalanana Island.
Echidnas are important to the local ecosystem because they help improve soil that has been depleted of nutrients from years of bad farming practices, according to Australian Geographic. This promotes plant growth and keeps carbon in the soil rather than the atmosphere.
Soil health plays a factor in extreme weather events, such as wildfires, which can displace humans and animals. Soil with low moisture can cause plants to stop growing and dry out, creating fuel for these fires, according to Mirage News.
Rob Brewster, rewilding program manager at WWF-Australia, said in a news release that echidnas "push leaves and seeds underground, enriching soil – they can turn over about seven tons a year."
Should we be actively working to kill invasive species?
Absolutely
It depends on the species
I don't know
No — leave nature alone
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
"Animals like wombats and echidnas are ecosystem engineers," Brewster said, adding, "Their return will be an important milestone for this ambitious venture."
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Let's celebrate: Today is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year
Editor's note: This story was first published on June 21, 2013 Welcome to the best day of the year. Today is the summer solstice, the longest day. In North Jersey, we'll get more than 15 hours of daylight. Go ahead and gloat — that's nearly an hour and a half more daylight than Key West, Florida, will get today. For those who like daylight — pretty much everyone save Dracula — today is a day to celebrate. In past eras, they actually did. "The summer solstice was a carnivalesque feast day," said Pamela H. Smith, a European history expert at Columbia University. "In England, there were bonfires, lots of beer drinking, cannons being fired off, masqueraders — people dressed up as devils and demons. "Days like the solstice were important for ancient peoples in terms of trying to find patterns in nature that were important for their livelihood, like knowing when to plant crops. All cultures had megaliths like Stonehenge," Smith said. The Earth's orbit around the sun is slightly elliptical, but not enough to cause the seasons, said Carlton Pryor, an astronomer at Rutgers University. In fact, at the summer solstice, the North Jersey region is 94.4 million miles from the sun. At the winter solstice, it's only 91.4 million miles away. The seasons are caused by the Earth's axis being tilted at a 23.5 degree angle. When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun, the hemisphere receives sunlight more directly, for longer periods, increasing temperatures. More: Make one of these 10 books that are set in New Jersey your next beach read for summer 2025 In winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away — even though it is closer to the sun in miles — so the light is less direct, more angled. The sun is lower in the sky and appears for fewer hours, causing cooler temperatures. On the summer solstice, the Earth's northern axis is tilted at its most extreme angle toward the sun. Today in North Jersey, the sun at its zenith will be at an angle of nearly 73 degrees above the horizon. On Dec. 21, it will be only 26 degrees above the horizon. The Earth's axis tilt also affects where the sun rises on the horizon. Conventional wisdom that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west is true only twice a year — at the spring and fall equinoxes. During the summer solstice, the sun rises at its northernmost point on the horizon. This morning in Hackensack, if you had faced due east, the sun would have risen about 32 degrees to the north (or to your left). At the winter solstice, it will rise 32 degrees to the south of due east (or to your right). Though the summer solstice once triggered celebrations, that's rarely the case anymore. After the Protestant Reformation in Europe, religious leaders started to call for an end to the celebrations. "A lot of Protestant pastors criticized midsummer night's eve, saying people were drinking too much, fighting," Smith said. Another reason we don't celebrate the solstice is the shift from an agrarian lifestyle. "We live in a more urban society, and we have colonized the night," said Sara Schechner, an expert on science history at Harvard University. "So we are not as bound to the cycles of nature in how we go about our lives." This article originally appeared on Summer solstice 2025 is here
Hamilton Spectator
7 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
‘The biggest betrayal': A year on, staff grieve Ontario Science Centre's snap closure
TORONTO - In the year since the abrupt closure of the Ontario Science Centre, the cost of a new site at Ontario Place has escalated, its opening date has been pushed back, there is no sign of a temporary location – and the old building's roof that was said to be at risk of collapse appears to be intact. Workers say they've dealt with a rodent and raccoon infestation at a building where science centre materials are stored, and the department that builds exhibits is at a virtual standstill. It's been a year of demoralizing changes, they say. Government officials announced midday on June 21, 2024, that the science centre at its original, east Toronto location would permanently close at the end of the day, citing an engineering report on the state of the building's roof. Critics have blasted the decision, noting that the report presented several options other than full closure, and have suggested the whole plan to move the science centre to a revamped Ontario Place was designed to lessen the heat a more controversial tenant — a waterpark and spa by European company Therme — has generated. Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma has said she did not want to jeopardize anyone's safety with the science centre's roof panels at risk of collapse. The workers do not buy it. Toronto set a weather record in 2024 with 1,145 millimetres of precipitation, which included two 'once-in-a-century' storms that flooded thousands of homes last summer and the city's snowiest winter in years. 'And the science centre is still standing,' said Raluca Ellis, the president of Local 549 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. 'It just seems like it was a manufactured crisis and that's the biggest betrayal.' NDP infrastructure critic Jennifer French also takes issue with stated reason for the closure. 'The roof managed to get through winter snow loads and a lot of rain this spring, and the only thing falling apart is the government's plan for a new science centre,' she said. The opening of the science centre at Ontario Place has already been pushed back from 2028 to 2029. A report from the auditor general late last year found that the cost estimate for building and maintaining the new science centre has increased by nearly $400 million from the government's spring 2023 business case for relocating it. Meanwhile, the government has said it will look for a space to house a temporary science centre until the new one opens. A request for proposals seeking a temporary location was released just days after the abrupt closure. It said the government was working 'expeditiously' to find an interim site and wanted it to open no later than Jan. 1, 2026. No such location has yet been announced, nearly one year later. Jason Ash, of the group Save Ontario's Science Centre, said it is a shame children are missing out. 'The bottom line, one year out from the closure of the science centre on Don Mills Road, is that a generation of Ontario kids and youth are without a world-class institution to learn about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education,' he said. 'Regardless of any of the other aspects that enter into the story ... it's a real failure of the government's educational policy to have let down so many children.' The science centre is currently operating two pop-up exhibits at Harbourfront Centre and the CF Sherway Gardens mall in Toronto, and has had staff and small exhibits at various events around the city. The Ministry of Infrastructure said in a statement that it is working with the science centre to 'consider options' for a temporary location. As for the old building, the ministry said Infrastructure Ontario is managing it. 'IO has undertaken preventative measures to maintain integrity of the structure and roof since the facility was closed last year,' the ministry wrote. 'This includes managing snow load in the winter and rainwater and, mechanical repairs and system maintenance to ensure minimal heating and cooling levels.' As workers moved everything out of the old building last fall, one of the new storage locations presented a number of problems. All of the science centre's education materials were moved to a building by Highway 401 in Etobicoke. The building on Resources Road, which has become the science centre's official mailing address, is used as a warehouse of sorts where workers can gather experiments and small exhibits and other goodies for their visits to classrooms. That building had been vacant for more than a decade. Problems began immediately, said four employees with knowledge of what's been happening there. They asked not to be named for fear of repercussion. They said workers discovered mouse, and possibly rat, excrement throughout the basement and on the second floor of the building. And there were also signs of a raccoon infestation, they said. The workers found droppings and little hand prints that suggested a raccoon, or a family of raccoons, was living in the building. The building's manager laid out 'a ton' of rodent traps and one large raccoon trap after workers complained to science centre management, the sources said. There was no running water for a time, with very few power outlets and reams of extension cord snaking throughout the area, they added. Workers also discovered asbestos in the building. 'The entire ordeal moving to Resources Road has been very frustrating,' said one worker. 'The topper was the mouse and raccoon s—t.' The infestation was eventually fixed, the sources said, though it took months. The science centre declined requests for interviews with management, saying no one was available. It referred questions about the problems with the building to Infrastructure Ontario. The Ministry of Infrastructure statement said all pest control and maintenance issues were addressed promptly. 'Given the urgent requirement to find storage suitable for the Science Centre exhibits, artifacts and items in an extremely tight timeline, 101 Resources Road was identified as an available government-owned storage,' the ministry wrote. 'OSC continues to optimize operations, ensuring working conditions consistently meet all health and safety requirements.' The local union declined to discuss problems at the building. Ontario Science Centre CEO Paul Kortenaar pointed to ongoing pop-ups, special events and satellite locations for children to enjoy. 'Planning is underway for our new home at Ontario Place, with a competitive design process for our new flagship location on Toronto's waterfront,' Kortenaar said in a statement. Management is working on a 10-year master plan for the new science centre, he wrote. 'This work reflects our broader vision: we are reimagining what a science centre can be — not only a building, but a dynamic, provincewide platform for learning, discovery and connection.' The connection between management and workers has frayed since the closure. Working from home is not in the employees' DNA, said Ellis, the Local 549 president. 'We are not working in ideal conditions and many ask why we put up with this and the answer is because we love the science centre, but ever since we were shut down, we've lost that essence of what the science centre is,' she said. More than 20 union members have taken buyout packages over the past year, Ellis said, most due to the sudden change in job conditions. And the hope that workers could reunite in person at a new interim location was recently dashed. 'They told me the timeline for the interim location has been changed, that the process has paused and we don't know what the new timeline is,' Ellis said. For union steward Martin Fischer, who works in the education department, the loss of the original building has been 'heartbreaking.' 'It's been extremely difficult,' said Fischer, who describes himself and many colleagues as neurodivergent. 'I'm somebody who needs a physical workplace, I thrived in the environment at the science centre, being with classes a few hours a day, it could be kindergarten, it could be a high school class, it'd be adult and then I'd maybe go talk to the shops to help design and build stuff for the school program, but that's all gone now,' he said. He still goes to schools for presentations, but he also spends a lot of time at home in front of his computer. 'It's just not the same,' he said. Melis Tokgoz, vice president of the local union and an exhibit designer at the science centre, said she too has struggled since the closure. With the fabrication shop shuttered, there are far fewer designs to make, limited largely to the pop-up spots, she said. The science centre is looking at a few spots to restart designing and making exhibits for other science centres, but that work has largely stopped, Tokgoz said. 'We keep getting these reassurances that one day we'll be back in the business of designing exhibits, but again, it is really hard to build that trust when you have no evidence otherwise,' she said. That joie de vivre among employees is missing, she said. 'There's this sense of grief amongst many employees, missing what their jobs once were, missing the fulfilment, and I'm no different.' 'The energy has been sad and melancholic and a bit depressing the whole time.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2025.
3 days ago
This Australian moth uses the stars as a compass to travel hundreds of miles
NEW YORK -- An Australian moth follows the stars during its yearly migration, using the night sky as a guiding compass, according to a new study. When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die. Birds routinely navigate by starlight, but the moths are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without a backbone, to find their way across such long distances using the stars. Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place they've never been. A previous study hinted that Earth's magnetic field might help steer them in the right direction, along with some kind of visual landmark as a guide. Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth's magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted. When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It 'was a very clean, impressive demonstration that the moths really are using a view of the night sky to guide their movements,' said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was not involved with the new research. Researchers don't know what features of the night sky the moths use to find their way. It could be a stripe of light from the Milky Way, a colorful nebula or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the insects seem to rely on that along with Earth's magnetic field to make their journey. Other animals harness the stars as a guide. Birds take celestial cues as they soar through the skies and dung beetles roll their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay on course. It's an impressive feat for Bogong moths whose brains are smaller than size of a grain of rice to rely on the night sky for their odyssey, said study author David Dreyer with Lund University in Sweden. 'It's remarkable that an animal with such a tiny brain can actually do this,' Dreyer said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
