Saturday, January 26, 2013

Cool Cats in Colorado

We are so worried about the state of so many species that's it's a refresher to take a moment and appreciate a conservation success, especially when it's this beautiful.  Steve Chaney, a retired National Parks Service ranger, in the southwest of my home state of Colorado.  Lynx were thought, 40 years ago, to be extirpated from the state (About that time, the same situation was declared for the Colorado grizzly bear population, although a trickle of evidence continues to suggest that might be wrong.)  Anyway, in 1999 an aggressive reintroduction program began, eventually totaling some 200 animals.  There have, through 2010, been at least 141 kittens born to this population.  Tthis view of two lynx crossing a snowy road has gained impressive popularity, with thousands of views and Reddit upvotes, whatever those may be. 

1 comment:

Laurence Clark Crossen said...

The "sixth extinction" has been vastly exaggerated:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/01/25/always-trust-your-gut-extinct/ http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/04/where-are-the-corpses/] http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/25/new-paper-from-loehle-eschenbach-shows-extinction-data-has-been-wrongly-blamed-on-climate-change-due-to-island-species-sensitivity/.