Endangered Content

Drought and Climate Change Shift Tree Disease in Sierra Nevada

Katherine E Kerlin — August 24, 2021 - 8:54am

Even pathogens have their limits. When it gets too hot or too dry, some pathogens — like many living things — search for cooler, wetter and more hospitable climes. Ecologists have questioned if a warming, drying climate is connected to the spread of plant disease, but detecting a climate change fingerprint has been elusive.

Mountain Gorilla Numbers on the Rise

Katherine E Kerlin — December 16, 2019 - 9:50am

A 2018 survey shows that mountain gorilla numbers have increased in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, and Sarambwe Reserve, DR Congo, according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority. The 2018 Bwindi-Sarambwe mountain gorilla survey found a minimum of 459 mountain gorillas in these regions, an increase from the previous survey estimate in 2011 of 400.

When combined with the 2015-2016 population survey results of 604 mountain gorillas in the Virunga Massif, the total world population of endangered mountain gorillas now stands at 1,063.

Disconnected Salmon: Catching a Ride Over Dams

Katherine E Kerlin — September 21, 2017 - 1:32pm

Wild salmon, historically, are born in rivers, swim to sea to live out their adulthoods, and find their way back to their freshwater spawning grounds to reproduce before dying.

But dams and other barriers to spawning grounds have disconnected that natural cycle, requiring fisheries managers to get creative to support salmon populations. It is now fairly common to transport salmon to and from spawning grounds by truck, boat, and even helicopter.

Study Reveals Evolutionary History of Imperiled Salmon Stocks

Katherine E Kerlin — August 16, 2017 - 12:17pm

New technologies for analyzing DNA may transform how imperiled species are considered and managed for conservation protection, according to a study published today in the journal Science Advances and led by the University of California, Davis.

Mountain Gorillas Have Herpes Virus Similar to That Found in Humans

Katherine E Kerlin — July 13, 2017 - 4:43pm

Scientists from the University of California, Davis, have detected a herpes virus in wild mountain gorillas that is very similar to the Epstein-Barr virus in humans, according to a study published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

Endangered Amargosa Voles Need More Than a Rainy Day

Katherine E Kerlin — June 05, 2017 - 1:57pm

Despite the welcome rains in California this year, the fate of endangered Amargosa voles that depend on rare marshes in the Mojave Desert remains dire, with only about 500 animals remaining in the wild and most of their habitat degraded or dying. Yet techniques to modify vole habitat could create sustainable patches for them to live.

Chewed Plants Help Detect Viruses in Wild Mountain Gorillas and Monkeys

Katherine E Kerlin — July 06, 2016 - 4:58pm

Chewed bark, leaves and fruit discarded by mountain gorillas provide a simple way to test the endangered apes for viruses without disturbing them, according to scientists from 51�ԹϺ�� Davis studying mountain gorillas and golden monkeys in East-Central Africa.

Captive-bred Amargosa voles preparing to head back to the wild

IET WebDev — April 10, 2015 - 10:45am

Less than a year after the 51�ԹϺ�� Davis School of Veterinary Medicine began a captive breeding program, more than two dozen Amargosa voles are preparing to rejoin their cousins in the wild. They are the first captive-bred group to be released and offer hope of rebuilding the population of one of the most endangered mammals in North America.

Loss of habitat, drought and climate change brought this subspecies of the California vole to near extinction, leaving only a few hundred clinging to existence in rare marshes of the Mojave Desert.

‘Refuge’ for the endangered Delta smelt — newly funded

IET WebDev — March 25, 2015 - 8:40am

Delta smelt are hard to find. Federally listed as threatened in 1993 and as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act in 2009, they are an iconic species for water issues in the state. But there’s one place where the fish can be found by the thousands — the 51�ԹϺ�� Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory.

Poisons on public lands put wildlife at risk (VIDEO)

IET WebDev — July 13, 2012 - 2:30pm

Rat poison used on illegal marijuana farms may be sickening and killing the fisher, a rare forest carnivore that makes its home in some of the most remote areas of California, according to a team of researchers led by University of California, Davis, veterinary scientists.