Canoe Trip

Field Trip Down Newcastle Stream

Eastern Phoebe

A group of naturalists went on a field trip down the Newcastle Stream recently.  We had visited there last winter to visit Devil's Oven.  See a previous blog posting for the story of that trip.  It was recognized at that time that this might be an interesting area to botanize.  It was!

We saw and heard the usual birds.  The most unusual sighting was of a Black-backed Woodpecker.  The Phoebe pictured above visited us as we stopped for lunch.  We also saw 2 Bald Eagles, 5 Spotted Sandpipers, 3 Turkey Vultures, 1 Broad-winged Hawk, 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1 Alder Flycatcher, 2 Least Flycatchers, 1 Winter Wren, Blue Jays, Robins, Ovenbirds, 1 American Redstart, 2 Common Yellowthroats, 1 White-throated Sparrow, 1 Dark-eyed Junco, Purple Finches, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 1 Chestnut-sided Warbler, and the highlight for me, a Common Merganser with her 6 babies who scurried to get out or sight.  

The scenery was gorgeous.  The cliffs and seeps that make up some of the banks of this river are beautiful.  Notice the big crack in the rock face in one of the photos below.

Newcastle Stream [photo by L Mills]

Rock Face Along Stream [photo by LMills]

Shallow Cave [photo by LMills]

Split in Rock Face

The rocks along the stream vary.  Some are rich calcareous conglomerates.  In other places there are igneous rocks and in other places there are layered sedimentary rocks.  The rare plants love the rich calcareous rock faces with seeps coming from above.  The rare fern we were looking for was there in some places, Steller's Rock Brake.

Steller's Rock Brake Cryptogramma stelleri

Cryptogramma stelleri is a very rare fern (S2) which grows in shaded, moist calcareous cliff ledges and rock faces from Newfoundland to southern Ontario, south to Pennsylvania.  This fragile fern grows 8 to 20 cm high (3-8 in).  It has separate sterile and fertile fronds and the fruiting bodies are along the rolled-under edges of the fertile pinnules.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

We also found a rare Jack-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema triphyllum var stewardsonii.  As shown in the photo above, the 'jack' is white and green, with no brownish-purple.  This variety is sometimes found in the southern part of the province.  

New Brunswick has many beautiful areas.  The season is perfect for exploring afield.

Bog Flowers

Four Pink Flowers 

Swamp Pink Arethusa bulbosa

A visit to a sphagnum bog this week could give you a surprise.  There are often beautiful flowers in bloom now in that habitat.  Shown above is Swamp Pink (Dragon's-Mouth), a small but beautiful orchid.  It stands 12 to 25 cm tall (5-10 inches) and does not produce its single leaf until after flowering is finished.  It is a beautiful deep magenta color.  The three erect 'fingers' standing upward are really sepals.  The pink hood covers the blotched, crested lip.  A close look at this small gem reveals its beauty.  

Pink Lady's-Slipper Cypripedium acaule

Pink Lady's-Slipper Cypripedium acaule

The Pink Lady's-Slipper (Moccasin-Flower) is a fairly common orchid in bloom now in acid woodlands and bogs.  Pink is the most common color but in the Fredericton area white ones are common.  It grows 12 to 35 cm high (5-15 inches).  It has 2 stemless basal leaves giving rise to another one of its names, Stemless Lady's-Slipper.  As you can see, the 3 sepals on this plant are green, unlike the Swamp Pink where they look like petals.  The lip of this flower is 2 to 5 cm long (1-2 in), bigger than the Swamp Pink flower.

Bog Laurel Kalmia polifolia

Bog Laurel (Pale Laurel) grows in sphagnum bogs.  Its pink colour is very pale and its flower is shallow dish-shaped.  Its leaves are dark green and elliptical.  The stem is woody and it grows 15 to 60 cm (6 to 24 inches) high.  The anthers are a burgundy colour and when an insect lands on the flower, the stamens fold around it, holding it in place.  This forces the insect to struggle to free itself and in the process it picks up pollen from the anthers.  The stamens then straighten out, getting ready for the next insect.

 Rhodora is a common bushy flower this time of year growing in bogs, peaty lowlands, and barrens.

Rhodora Rhododendron canadense

Its flower is large and showy with a 3-lobed upper lip, 2 narrow petals below and fully exposed stamens and pistils.  This flower is very common in New Brunswick and can be seen along roadsides.   It grows 30 to 90 cm high (1 to 3 ft).  The leaves are light green and oval-shaped.  

Nature is full of beauty and wonder.  Taking time to explore is very worthwhile this time of year.  

John Michel Cousteau Wants To Save SeaWorld. Really?

 "...Marine-animal expert Jean-Michel Cou­steau — who worked on the successful release of Keiko, the star of “Free Willy,” into a seaside pen (before he died in the wild) — said SeaWorld Entertainment can move its orcas to seaside sanctuaries without costing it money.This brief news article is the musings of John Michel Cousteau (the son of Jacques Cousteau) whose organisation Ocean Futures was involved in the release project of "Keiko" the killer whale..."

  
The comments in the above-linked article in the New York Post by Claire Atkinson are of course misleading. Let us make it clear the "Keiko" project was not a success. In making this statement, I mean that the plan to reintegrate this animal back into a population of wild killer whales off the shores of Iceland did not succeed despite huge amounts of time, money and planning. This is not just my opinion this is the conclusion of the peer review paper published in 2009 in the journal Marine Mammal Science HERE.

John Michel Cousteau himself has also made it clear that he does not now consider it viable to release long-term captive killer whales back to the wild.  

My blog goes into more detail regarding returning captive cetaceans back to the wild HERE.

The releasing of former captive cetaceans has been given some extra impetus in 2012 with the Born Free Foundation's project to release two former captive Turkish dolphins after extensive rehabilitation. Although, details of this project have never been published in any scientific journals. Moreover, as with all these projects, there needs to be a considerable amount of context to understand what they actually mean. These two animals released had in fact not been in captivity for any particularly long period of time; they had been caught within the area they returned to and they were young male bottlenosed dolphins. These three criteria are the actual reason that this release project was likely to have a high degree of success. In addition, it should be noted that it followed a protocol that was used in a successful experimental capture and release project by the late Dr Ken Norris and cetacean biologist Dr Randall Wells published in 1998 HERE.

As to Cousteau's involvements with the eight bottlenose dolphins currently displayed at the Baltimore Aquarium (of which only one was caught in the wild) I have blogged this in some detail linked HERE.

As an opinion, I would say that removing these animals from an urban aquarium to Hawaii goes completely against any value that displaying these animals could have had as there are a number of both captive and wild dolphin viewing opportunities in this particular part of the world. The fact that somebody like Cousteau does not understand the value of urban zoological collections (particularly displaying animals that people are unlikely to experience) speaks volumes and sadly smacks of rather distasteful celebrity elitism.

Rails

More Often Heard Than Seen

Virginia Rail

Rails are secretive birds of marshes.  The are chicken-like with short, rounded wings and long legs and toes.  They hide in the vegetation by running through the cattails or swimming rather than flying. They give away their presence often by vocalizing.  

I visited a local marsh recently with friends and we heard the "kid-dik kid-dik" of a Virginia Rail.  Soon others were answering.  It is frustrating that you know that interesting bird is in the reeds but you cannot see it.  Fortunately it showed itself for a short time, enough for me to get a picture.  

The Virginia stands about 23 cm (9 in) high and has a rusty breast, barred black-and-white flanks, a streaked back, white undertail coverts, reddish legs and a gray face.  Its beak is long and reddish.  It is one of our most common rails.

Sora

The Sora is also a common rail.  It is smaller than the Virginia Rail, about 19-25 cm (7-10 in) high.  It is found in our marshes and makes one of our most common bird calls around the marsh, a loud descending whinny-like sound.  

The Sora is easy to identify because of its short yellow beak.  It has a plump body mostly brown on the upper parts and wings with heavily barred flanks.  The sides of the head and neck are gray and the face is black.  

Clapper Rail

The Clapper Rail, although listed as 'casual' in our "Birds of New Brunswick: An annotated List", would be considered rare here.  Its preferred habitat is coastal salt marshes.  It is a bigger rail than the Virginia, standing about 35-40 cm tall (14-16 in).  Its loud, harsh chattering voice gives its presence away but it is very secretive and hard to see.  Its voice sounds like someone clapping, hence its name.  It can be distinguished from the Virginia Rail by its larger size, its voice and its cheeks are brownish gray and its beak is a little less red.   Location helps in identification, the Virginia preferring inland marshes and the Clapper, coastal marshes.  

The next time you take a walk near a marsh or paddle your kayak through one, take note of the sounds.  Perhaps you can identify a New Brunswick rail.

Platform Feeders

Feeding Birds Off the Ground

Baltimore Orioles Feeding on Raised Feeder

 There are many benefits to feeding birds on raised platforms.  Shown above are a male and a female Baltimore Oriole with a female Red-winged Blackbird in the background.  The orioles are attracted to the oranges and the Red-wing is waiting to  feed on the black-oil sunflower seeds on the tray.  

Raised platform feeders keep the birds off the ground where they are vulnerable to  predators.  Cats can easily prey on them and they are more likely to be taken by hawks while on the ground.  Platform feeders keep the seed confined and reduce wastage if they are built with a lip around them.  One must, however, clean the trays periodically to prevent exposure to spoiled feed.

Crow Feeder with a Visitor

Shown above is our crow feeder.  It is about 1.5 metres off the ground with a heavy base so it will not tip over.  It has a 5 cm. lip around the edge so seed and other feed stuffs do not blow off in the wind.  This feeder was designed to feed table scraps to the crows.  I put out left-over meat scraps, stale bread, cakes, etc. as well as regular mixed bird seed.  It is very successful for feeding crows.  They wait daily for their breakfast!  Other visitors to this feeder include ravens, ring-billed gulls, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, cowbirds, mourning doves, blue jays and, of course, we get the occasional surprise, like this red fox which made a few visits.  

It took the crows quite awhile to learn to use the feeder, but once they realized they could trust us and this new 'apparatus', it has been a great success.  The reason I designed it in the beginning was because I wanted to give left-overs to the crows without putting them on the ground for dogs to get into.  Dogs have never raided this feeder.  They cannot get up to it and it was a surprise that the fox could jump up on it.

Trilliums

Our Four Species of Trilliums

Painted Trillium Trillium undulatum

New Brunswick has four species of Trilliums.  They are in full bloom now and worth finding in order to enjoy their beauty.  Trilliums are in the Lily Family and are spring flowers growing in woodlands, especially hardwoods.  Their leaves are in a single whorl of 3 and the single flowers are large.  Everything comes in 3s with trilliums; 3 petals, 3 sepals, 3 leaves.

Nodding Trillium Trillium cernuum

Nodding Trillium Trillium cernuum

The Nodding Trillium grows 6-20" high and hides its flower by suspending it under the leaves.  It 'nods' beneath the leaves.  The flower is white with pink anthers.  The petals are curved backward at the tips.  It likes rich deciduous woods and floodplains.  It is also called Birthroot because native people once used the root to assist in childbirth.

Purple Trillium Trillium erectum

The Purple Trillium is probably our most common trillium.  It is found in hardwood forests and grows 6-20" high.  Its beautiful purple colour is good to look at but don't try to smell this one; it has a foul odour.  That explains why it is sometimes called Stinking Benjamin.  

White Trillium Trillium grandiflorum

White Trillium Trillium grandiflorum

The White Trillium is our largest and rarest trillium.  It is the provincial flower of Ontario and occurs here in only one or two known places.  It grows 12-20" high.  Its flower is 2-4" wide and is very showy.  The white flower turns pink with age.  It is easy to distinguish from the Nodding Trillium which also has a white flower because the White Trillium's flower is upright and much larger. It also has yellow stamens, differing from the pink anthers of the Nodding Trillium.  The White Trillium is sometimes called the Large-flowered Trillium.

Dolphinaria-Free Europe Coalition: It's a No From Me

Perhaps the most frustrating thing when reading these kinds of reports in the popular press is that there seems to be no acknowledgement of the independent and objective research that has been published as regards this matter. It seems that specific quotes by animal-rights supporters are being excepted verbatim and no effort been made to counter such specific claims with easily available scientific evidence.

The BBC's environment correspondent Claire Marshall recently reported onthe contentious suspension of the filming of a TV reality show in Portugal entitled "Dolphins with the Stars" due to a campaign by various animal-rights groups operating under the umbrella name of the Dolphinaria-Free Europe Coalition. This consortium of groups are currently lobbying to shut down all exhibits of dolphins and whales within the zoos and aquariums of Europe. This campaign is being orchestrated by the group ENDCAPwho are opposed to the concept of keeping wild animals in captivity

  

Ironically, is interesting to note that the animal-rights groups involved in this particular publicity stunt are often heard claiming that animals such as dolphins have no effective protection when in captive care. Yet, in this instance, the Portuguese authorities were concerned the programme may have contravened European zoo legislation and asked for the zoo involvement in this program to be suspended. Therefore, placing some doubt that the animals at least in this facility do have some oversight under the law to protect them.

Although, the actions of the various animal-rights lobby groups has very little to do with animal welfare but more to do promoting their own animal-rights political agenda in seeking the prohibition of animals displayed in European facilities which they state are "exploitative".

The reporting by the BBC did not really help balance the claims made by various members of the animal-rights lobby led by Daniel Turner of the Born Free Foundation who stated:

"Whales and dolphins are hugely intelligent and social species, which when deprived of space and environmental complexity, develop abnormal behaviours such as stereotypic behaviour (repetitive behaviour without any reason), heightened aggression and in some cases, early mortality."

It is unfortunate the BBC did not seem to make an effort to garner other opinions on the statements made by Daniel Turner from other professionals and scientists working with marine mammals who may certainly have a different opinion on what he stated.

To compound this problem the BBC reporter went on to voice her own opinion on the matter that seems to support much of the dubious allegations made by Daniel Turner:

"For a long time there has been a debate about the ethics and effect of confinement on cetaceans - the family of aquatic mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises - especially as more is discovered about their intellectual and cognitive abilities. They are seen as among the more intelligent species on earth. They have complex social networks, recognise themselves in mirrors and have been shown to keep track of more than 100 words."

The disappointing statement of the reporter is clearly quite disturbing. More so as it demonstrates a lack of any actual research being undertaken before making this secondary quote as there is quite a bit of independent and objective research on the welfare of captive dolphins in the public domain that could have been easily reviewed.

As a case in point, in 1986 UK government commissioned an independent scientific investigation into the welfare of dolphins including the ethics and welfare of captive dolphins. This report "A Review of Dolphinaria" by Dr Margaret Klinowska and Dr Susan Brown was published in 1986 after extensive research both in the published peer review literature and field research observing dolphins in captive environments. It should be pointed out that if Drs Klinowska and Brown had found evidence to suggest that cetaceans (dolphins and whales) could not be successfully kept in captive care they had the power to recommend the banning of the keeping of these animals.

However, the conclusion of this report was that there was no evidence that dolphins could not be successfully maintained in captive care.  Therefore (and with the guidance of the subsequent Steering Committee) welfare regulations for the keeping of cetaceans were introduced and incorporated into the U.K.'s Zoo Licensing Act.

More recently independent research was commissioned by the Ontario provincial government in Canada who asked marine mammal scientist Dr.David Rosen (assisted by Dr Heather Koopman and Dr.Colleen Reichmuth) to look into the issue of the welfare of marine mammals with a special emphasis on dolphins.

The report "Developing Standards of Care for Marine Mammals in Captivity and Recommendations Regarding How Best to Ensure the Most Humane Treatment of Captive Cetaceans" was published in May 2014. Here again the researchers could find compelling evidence that prohibited the keeping of the smaller cetaceans in captivity. Nevertheless, in a similar vein to the "Review of Dolphinaria", they codified recommendations for the welfare of these animals that could be placed within a structured legal framework to ensure the consistency of welfare standards for these animals throughout the province of Ontario.

It is interesting to note that the issue of abnormal (stereotypical) behaviour in dolphins mentioned by Daniel Turner is addressed in the two reports cited above and do not appear commonplace and seem displayed under novel situations.

Three cases of stereotypic head-pressing behaviour in captive bottlenose dolphins are described by Greenwood (1977). The animals had been put into small enclosures, again for medical treatment, and the behaviours ceased on return to large pools. Bel'kovich, Krushinskaya and Gurevich (1969) note behavioural changes in animals moved to isolation in small research pools and Caldwell and Caldwell (1972) describe similar symptoms in a show animal in, similar circumstances (see above). (Klinowska and Brown, 1986)

Moreover, instances of high mortality (survivorship) of bottlenose dolphins also mentioned by Turner were found to be the not the case when scientifically reviewed as far back as 1986 by Klinowska and Brownand this has been replicated by other researchers.

Predictably, the article had to mention the animal-rights film "Blackfish"despite the fact that this documentary was exclusively focused on killer whales and not bottlenose dolphins the species being displayed in ZooMarine.

Furthermore, since it is release the film "Blackfish" has received considerable amounts of criticism for both its presentation and factual content.

However, this comes as no surprise as the groups opposing the programme "Dolphin with the Stars" have an active agenda to extend the original remit of such films as "Blackfish" to encompass many other animal species they wish to see prohibited currently displayed in zoos and aquariums.

The article is of course correct in citing the fact that the majority of the animals in the EU have been acquired through captive breeding. In fact, no animals have been imported from the wild to mainland Europe for over a decade with the bulk of imports ceasing in the mid-1980's (see note at the end of this article). The contention that the EU would now allow imports of wild caught cetaceans from outside European waters is extremely contentious.

Certainly, animals from drive fisheries in places such as the Japan are unlikely to get import permits as such capture operations would be considered inhumane. This has been the position of the United States since 1993 as regards animals derived from drive fisheries been imported into this country for public display. In any event, why would European zoological collections want to court such controversy when animals can be acquired successfully through captive breeding programmes.

As to the claims of the intellectual prowess of dolphins it is expedient to cite the recent published work in 2013 by Dr Justin Gregg: "Are Dolphins Really Smart: the mammal behind the myth". This book deftly rationalises the contention of the elevated intellect of dolphins that seems to pervade the popular psyche - this not least due to the controversial research work of Dr John Lilly in the 1960s with dolphins. It should be noted that mainstream scientists working with dolphins have for a number years disputed the claims of the likes of Dr Lilly.

Moreover such things as social complexity, self recognition (mirror experiments) and symbol recognition are not those exclusive domain of dolphins and has been seen in many and diverse species of bird and mammal including elephants, chimpanzeesand magpies.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing when reading these kinds of reports in the popular press is that there seems to be no acknowledgement of the independent and objective research (such as that cited above) that has been published as regards this matter. It seems that specific quotes by animal-rights supporters are being accepted verbatim and no effort seems to be made to counter such specific claims with what is in many instances easily accessed  scientific evidence.

As an example, one only has to look at Dolphinaria-Free Europe's website. Here they present a quote from a report EU Zoo Enquiry: Dolphinaria they co-authored with other animal-rights organisations in 2014.

Trade data records indicate that 285 live cetaceans have been imported into the EU between 1979 and 2008, in spite of a prohibition under EU CITES Regulation 338/97 on imports of cetaceans into the EU for primarily commercial purposes.

The issue with this statement is that it is misleading and factually distorted. Unfortunately, this is a common problem with these kinds of self published, quasi-scientific reports by the animal-rights lobby.

The statement seems to give the impression that this was homogeneous data between 1979 and 2008 as regards animals being imported which not correct. Unfortunately, "EU Zoo Enquiry: Dolphinaria" does not breakdown the figures it presents either into years or species.  Therefore, it cannot be ascertained as to what animals were imported either in numbers or years.

  

Further, the presentation of the time span of 29 years in EU history is also deceptive. In 1979, there were only nine members of the European Union. However, by 2008 there were 28: an increase in membership by 68%. Many of these new members already had zoos and aquaria that displayed dolphins such as Portugal, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, Malta, Bulgaria and Romania which would now be added in this data set.

Putting all these facts together, it can be seen that the statement from this report is statistically of no value and has been produced to mislead not to inform the reader.

Whatever the atheistic merits of a television series entitled "Dolphins with the Stars" it seems unlikely that this would involve any compromise of the welfare of animals involved by ZooMarine  Moreover, it is possible that such a show would have been able to incorporate scientific and educational information within its framework for the benefit of the public as claimed by ZooMarine. Bearing in mind is that many people who watch entertainment shows such as this may well not be the same type of audience who would watch a wildlife documentary.

In conclusion, it was never the intention of the EU Zoo Directive to arbitrarily close zoos down. The whole idea of this legislation was to ensure good standards of animal husbandry and that zoos and aquariums promoted both education and conservation within these facilities. The use of the EU Zoo Directive by animal-rights groups such as ENDCAP and their various followers is not that of honest brokers trying to support and improve standards within zoological collections. Their clearly stated objectives is to see zoological collections closed down as they are anathema to these groups political ideology. No improvement in animal welfare would ever placate these organisations and their behaviour should be noted as belligerent mischief making and nothing more.

Notes on the importation of wild caught dolphins into the EU: The last importation of wild caught bottlenose dolphins into the EU was a number of dolphins imported to the Lithuania Sea Museum- the last of which was caught in the Black Sea 1998.  In addition, six animals were imported to Mediterraneo Marine Park in Malta from Cuba in 2000 and number of dolphins and two beluga were imported to L'Oceanogràfic in Valencia in Spain in 2003. It should be noted that generally most wild caught animals displayed in Europe were imported prior to 1990 with the  majority of dolphins now exhibited having been acquired through captive breeding programmes. In fact, some facilities such as ZooMarine, Italy and Palmitos Parkin the Canary Islands display animals entirely derived from captive breeding. As far as killer whales are concerned of the 12 animals displayed in the EU only one "Freya" was acquired by wild capture in Iceland in 1982 with one other being a rehabilitated animal "Morgan" that stranded in the Netherlands in 2010 which has been deemed unreleasable due to her age and hearing impairment.  Reference: Cetabase and CITES Database.