SAR in NB
Did you know that freshwater turtles living in New Brunswick can spend up to five months underwater throughout the winter? Or that hatchling turtles are capable of freezing solid, thawing out, and coming back to life?
Did you know the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on earth, and can dive-bomb its prey (smaller birds) and tackle it in mid-air at over 300 km/hr? Or that the monarch butterfly, which lives and breeds in our meadows, travels over 5000 km to Mexico where it spends the winter?
The creatures living in our province have amazing stories to tell, and lessons to share – but many are at risk of disappearing from NB, the maritimes, and even the planet.
Individuals and organizations across New Brunswick are working hard to protect species at risk in what remains of their natural habitat. Charismatic creatures like the Peregrine Falcon, Canada Lynx, Maritime Ringlet, Leatherback Sea turtle, and Wood turtle are all subject to threats like habitat loss, pollution, roads, and invasive species. These pressures are better understood and mitigated due to the efforts of individuals working at organizations including all levels of government (Parks Canada, Department of Natural Resources, NB Museum), and Non-Government Organizations like the New Brunswick Nature Trust and the Nature Conservancy of Canada.
The charismatic and endangered Wood Turtle is a flagship species for conservation efforts in New Brunswick, in particular as an example of a species receiving collaborative support from many stakeholders. Individuals and organizations from government, industry, and the non-profit sector are all collaborating to ensure this species does not disappear from the province.
Dr. Maureen Toner, a biologist for the NB Department of Natural Resource, is helping guide a research program that includes collaborators from Quebec and Base Gagetown, where there is a thriving population of Wood Turtles. Since the turtles that live on the base are on federal land, they are protected by the federal “Species at Risk Act” (SARA), which applies only in National Parks and other federal properties.
Dr. Don McAlpine, the head curator for Natural Science at the New Brunswick Museum, says that the province is working on a provincial Species at Risk Act, which “will mirror the federal legislation, and has been passed but not yet fully implemented.”
Until provincial protection comes into effect, there is much that people can do to help. Every species faces a slightly different suite of threats, and roads tops the list for turtles. Many turtles are killed by vehicles on roads every year, and the majority of the casualties are pregnant females, searching for a place to lay their eggs in June. You can help by carefully picking up the turtle and moving it to the side of the road in which the turtle was headed. Which ever way they were pointing, that’s likely the way they wanted to go!
My father, Peter Caverhill of Woodstock NB, did just that when he was on a bike ride along the Saint John River near Grafton last spring. He saw a conspicuous looking object on the side of the road, and stopped to investigate. It didn’t take long for him to determine it was a turtle – he snapped a pic with his cell phone, and emailed it to me for identification. Sure enough, it was a wood turtle!
Whereas work with wood turtles and other species can help yield positive results and potential population recovery, other species have not been so lucky. Three bat species, including the little brown bat, northern long-eared bat, and eastern pipistrelle, have experienced precipitous population declines since 2011, when “white nose syndrome” first started infecting these vulnerable insectivores. A white fungus grows on a bat’s nose and wings during hibernation. The bats become dehydrated and awake from their slumbers, burning off crucial fat reserves. The result is starvation and death. Less than half of one percent (around 0.314%) of the cave-dwelling bats in NB have survived the onslaught of white nosed syndrome since 2011.
Why should you care? Well did you know that a single bat can eat hundreds of insects, including mosquitoes, moths, and beetles, in a single evening? Multiply that by the tens of thousands of bats we are losing, and we’re talking MILLIONS more bugs to bother you and your family, and local farmers! It is estimated that the current decline in bat populations could cost the North American agriculture business billions of dollars annually.
To make matters worse, aerial insectivores (birds that eat insects), like chimney swifts, swallows, and nighthawks, are also experiencing precipitous declines in our province and throughout the continent.
“It may be a hundred years before bat populations in the province recover, IF they recover at all,” says Dr. McAlpine, who is helping lead a research program to study the effects of white nose syndrome on the bats in New Brunswick. His research is being supported by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, the NB wildlife trust fund, and the NB environmental trust fund. The two trust funds are paid for by recyclables programs, and conservation license plate programs in the province.
If you want to help species at risk in NB, be sure to pay a little extra for those conservation plates, and also return your recyclables to local depots! You can inform your local politicians that nature protection and species conservation is important to you. If you have made it to the end of this article, then you are already well on your way to raising your awareness of the issues that affect species at risk in NB, and you can continue to learn about the particular species that live in your area, the threats those species face, and what you can do to help ensure their populations will remain viable in the province.
Many biologists believe we are currently in the middle of another mass extinction of life on earth (previous wipeouts were precipitated by asteroids and ice-ages) – this time, it’s our fault. If we don’t do something to help the creatures we share the planet with, many will surely continue to disappear.
If we lose bats, who will keep the bugs at bay in the summer? If peregrine falcons disappear, who will keep pigeon populations in check? If we lose turtles, who will teach your children how to “breathe through their bums” in the wintertime? Yes – turtles can absorb oxygen underwater through their highly-vascularized cloacas. Oh, the stories they could tell!
To learn more, check out the NB Museum or Department of Natural Resources websites, visit HelpTheBats.ca or email brennan.caverhill AT gmail.com
Links & Resources
Government of New Brunswick Species at Risk
Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre Species at Risk
Arthur Kyle Nature Preserve, Nature Trust of New Brunswick
Brennan Caverhill
Energy Futures column published in the Bugle-Observer, October 2014.