Meet the Manatee Profiler

When I heard of biologists using manatees' many boat scars to tell them apart, I pictured a fast CSI-like computer sorting flippers like fingerprints until, seconds later, MATCH flashed on the screen. Unfortunately, says wildlife biologist Cathy Beck, who runs the program for the U.S. Geological Survey, it's a lot more slow and still requires a human to make a match. (Cops say the same thing about fingerprint matching, too.)

"Years ago we looked at various software," she says. "It's way out of the kind of budget we'd ever get."

So the Geological Survey mantains a meticulous database of 2,200 known manatees known as the Manatee Photo Identification System (MIPS). Of those 300 are known to be dead. With a U.S. population roughly estimated at about 3,000 to 4,000, that could be half the population. But the facts about manatees and their populations are so uncertain that Beck doesn't like to speculate.

Instead, she's trying to make sure everything in the database is certain. So, she only allows in manatees that have at least two distinguishing features. There has to be pictures of each manatee's tail, back and each side. In theory that could be done with just four pictures, she says "but that's never happened." And then the match has to be verified by two humans. Complicating the process, manatees are constantly aquiring new injuries and changing their appearance. "We need to keep up," Beck says. "A new injury may obliterate an old feature."

• At least two distinguishing features
• Clear pictures of the tail, back and each side
• Match verified by two humans
• Wounds have to be healed because they change appearance so much

People may think they've seen their favorite manatee, but Beck demands proof: "People are always saying 'I saw so-and-so,' but I ask 'where's your picture?'"

Complicating matter, she has a number of what she calls "twins," manatees whose scars are nearly identical. Others, like Ilya, the manatee that recently trekked to Cape Cod and is--we hope--heading on his way down to Florida, ares easy to ID in photos, Beck says. Ilya has a distinctive chunk taken out of his tail and a white scar on his forehead. The head scar is handy for trackers to pick him out when he sticks his head up by docks up and down the East Coast. The fact that he visits docks, however, doesn't set him apart. Since manatees need to live on the coast, with its mix of salt, brackish and fresh water, they're naturally around docks. "That's just what manatees in Florida do," she says.

Because she only allows complete matches in the system, she has lots of photos that come in that are just sorted by body part, waiting for a match. "We may follow one animal for years and only get its back. We may follow one animal for years and only get its tail," she says. "And then we find out its the same one."

Some animals aren't spotted for a long time. Chessie, the manatee famous for migrating to New England in the 90s, hasn't been seen since 2001. But, they haven't found his carcass, either. They once had a manatee that stayed out of pictures for 14 years, then was spotted again. Manatees can live 50 or 60 years, so even the pictures she has of manatees dating back to the '70s could still be out there.

Some manatees stay out of the database by being clean of scars, while others continually get banged up. Beck has noticed that females are more apt to get entangled in fishing lines around their flippers.

And Beck is hoping to build on the database. The USGS still has thousands of pictures people send in yet to be sorted. And she'd like to track genetics, but already knows the small population is closely related. That will help eventually not only track individuals but help biologists make the population healthy.


Want to See a Manatee in the Wild? Check out this map and list of places.

Will Beijing Slaughter Dogs Over Plague?

The Chinese government now blames outbreak of pneumonic plague that killed 3 people in central Qinghai province on a dog. If I were a Chinese dog, I'd be going into hiding about now.

Beijing has a habit of mass dog culls to fix (or at least assuage anger over) health problems. In 2006, government workers beat 50,000 dogs to death in the streets after they were blamed for causing three deaths from rabies. Despite world outrage and nausea, the practice continues. In May another 20,000 dogs were brutally dispatched, some on film.

Professor Wang Hu director of the Qinghai disease control bureau told Xinhua that the first to die, a 32-year-old herdsman, had just buried his dog, who might have gotten plague from a marmot he ate.

That may all be true, but I'd bet that Beijing's desire to cast blame and their hostility to dogs may play a role. There are a couple problems with the theory. Dogs can get plague, but they usually don't get that sick from it. Pneumonic plague doesn't need to be spread by fleas and blood like bubonic plague; pneumonic plague is airborne.

Unless there are already undercover cameras in that isolated town like there were at the May dog slaughter, we probably won't find out how many dogs they kill over this.

Supposed Allergy Sufferers Whine about Dogs and Cats on Airlines

The New York Times recently ran a story on pets on planes, specifically the hassle and expense. It will come as no surprise to dog and cat people that they were overwhelmed with people complaining that animals just shouldn't be allowed on planes at all. The issue is inevitably claimed to be allergies, but once again it seems more cultural than scientific.

Any reasonable dog person would be happy to accommodate one of the rare people who have severe dog allergies. But I won't accommodate any one else's irrational fears or cultural biases.

I've got severe allergies myself, but I am deeply suspicious of claims of being allergic to dogs. First off, the incidence of allergies to dogs is much rarer than it is to cats. Second, I don't know how many times I've heard someone claim they were allergic to something, but it turns out it's just a hunch. Unless you've had a RAST test, where they poke little anti-bodies in your arm, don't claim that you're allergic to something. I dated a guy who grew up thinking his brother was allergic to dogs. Turns out his mom made it up because she didn't like dogs. But the aversion to dogs--as well as the allergy excuse--is now passed down to a new generation in the family.

The complaints are more about dogs on planes instead of cats, which is peculiar because cats cause so many more allergies. Any dog sitting in a cabin of a plane is under 20 pounds and on some airlines under 15 pounds. That's not a lot of dog to be allergic to.

If we're going to be rational about animals on planes, then let's just have people be required to bathe their dog or cat within 48 hours of a flight. Therapy dogs generally have to do that before they visit a hospital. Yeah, it's huge nuisance, but dog owners already have to haul themselves to the vet right before a trip, too.

Second, if we're really dealing with allergies, then there should be no problem with poodles or any of the other breeds documented to be hypo-allergenic flying in the cabin no matter what their size. The president's Portuguese Water Dog Bo was selected not to cause allergies in the White House; that ought to be good enough for a Continental flight to Tampa.

One angry pet-hater wrote in with her fantasy of fining dog owners for every bark or growl or peeing in their crate. Sounds fine, as long I as I can exact a fee from every participant in an inane business meeting or flirtation among strangers I have to listen to, for every time someone slams their seat back or is befuddled by where to put their luggage. A toy dog travelling is at the bottom of my list of airline complaints. If you're afraid of a 15-pound lhasa apso growling, I really can't be responsible for your comfort.

Which Animal to Blame for Lyme Disease? Not Deer

I'm in my third week of antibiotics after returning from a trip from New Hampshire with a textbook bullseye surrounding a tick bite. Which animal should I blame?

The New York Times let five biologists and entomologists debate the issue. The first guy out, Thomas Mather, professor of public health entomology, gave the answer that has become commonly lore: deer. The premise: Deer populations have risen along with lyme disease cases.

But then other scientists basically cast some reasonable doubt on the case against the deer. Ixodes scapularis, commonly known as deer ticks, bear ticks or black-legged ticks, can pick up the bacteria that causes lyme disease from a whole range of animals, not just its namesake. The American Lyme Disease Foundation calls deer this species' "preferred host" but notes that mice are the primary carriers of the disease, which can also be spread via birds, dogs, cats, horses, squirrels and other small mammals.

Richard S. Ostfeld, of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, notes that the incidence of lyme disease and deer don't correspond, but that acorn crops (which feed white-footed mice) do. William L. Krinsky, entomologist at Yale's Peabody Museum, says we don't have enough data to understand how much blame rodents and deer should get.

Interestingly, two species come out as heroes. Bard biology professor Felicia Keesing cites the Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) as the under appreciated fighter of lyme disease; these guys attract and kill ticks by the thousands. Ostfeld gives some credit to owl, who eat the mice, who carry the disease.
Why is it important which species is to blame? Because when people think deer are to blame, they want to get rid of them. I have a reasonable, educated friend who supports getting rid of deer on Long Island because she's afraid of lyme disease. Lyme disease--along with car crashes and eaten gardens, are used to drum up support for deer hunts. If white-tailed deer had any kind of PR muscle, they'd follow the example of pig farmers after the outbreak of swine flu--sorry H1N1--and lobby for changing the deer tick's name.

Is West Nile Causing NYC's Red-Tailed Hawk Boom (by Killing Crows)?

Robert DeCandido, PhD, a bird biologist who lively tours of owls and other avians in Central Park, has agreed to let me run his newsletter here. Birding Bob is always full of great information not only about New York City birds, but wildlife in general.
Photo courtesy of Flickr's Bryce Bradford
Last week's history of West Nile disease in NYC (1999-2009) prompted a few emails - folks filling in the consequences of this Asian disease post 1999. What has changed in the local environment in the last decade? Most noticeably, the American Crow population has not rebounded to pre-1999 levels, especially during the breeding season. And wintering populations of 50 or more crows in one park are unusual. Gone are the days when one could find a Great Horned Owl in many of NYCs (larger) parks by simply following the cacophony of crows surrounding the owls.


And during this same time frame, as the crows have precipitously declined as residents in NYC, the population of Red-tailed Hawks as breeders has increased exponentially. Is this simply correlation (two un-related events occurring simultaneously) or causation? Time may tell

A second noticeable change has been the decline in certain insect species - especially Tiger Swallowtail butterflies which were once common in our area in summer. There are other changes, such as a severe decline in Ring-necked Pheasants in our parks - these are verging on extinction locally...but tracing the decline of Asian pheasants to West Nile is more difficult - it might be mere correlation.

Finally, other insect species such as certain wasps that laid their eggs on the leaves of cherry trees have declined as well...but most people would not notice these even if they disappeared from our area completely.

In our Bronx neighborhood, one exotic bird species continues to increase, and is now nesting on at least a few Bronx streets. We even have them feeding in our pear trees in our yard each July-August: And while we are at it, another (native) bird has made a remarkable comeback as a breeding species since the late 1990s, particularly in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx:
Our historical reports this week highlight a breeding pair of American Coots in Queens (2000); 70+ Cormorants in the Reservoir of Central Park (28 July 1999); and the first record of breeding Blue-grey Gnatcatchers in New York City at Pelham Bay Park (27 July 1999). Debs and I have seen families of Gnatcatchers there in July since 1999 - and Gnatcatchers have bred in at least one other NYC park (Prospect Park in Brooklyn, circa 2007). And to show that good things can still be found nearby, we include two news reports about dolphins in the Long Island Sound in late June 2009 (in Queens and the Bronx).
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Good! Here are the bird walks for this week ($5):

1. Friday, July 31st: $5. Central Park - Meet at Conservatory Garden (105th street and 5th Ave.) at 9am.

x. Saturday, August 1st: No BIRD WALK
2. Sunday, August 2nd: 9:00 am - Central Park - Meet at the usual location: the Dock on Turtle Pond at 9 am. $5.
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The fine print: Our summer walks on Sundays meet at the Dock on Turtle Pond (approximately 79th street in the middle of the park). Look for Belvedere Castle and you have found Turtle Pond. Bathrooms are located at the adjacent Delacorte Theater (Shakespeare in the Park) - and are nice. We end our weekend Central Park walks at the Boathouse at about noon. On Fridays, we meet at 9am at Conservatory Garden, 105th street and 5th Avenue (just inside the main gates). There are bathrooms open year-round at Conservatory Garden, and that is good. Easiest way to get there by subway is to take the #2 or #3 train to 110th street and Central Park north. Then walk south along the east side until you reach Conservatory Garden. You can also take the #6 train to Lexington Avenue and 103rd street. Walk west for three blocks and then north by two. Finally, buses run up Madison Avenue regularly too. If you need better directions, just email or call (718-828-8262) - especially for how to get to the meeting location of the Saturday walks.

Most bird walks last about two to three hours in Summer, but feel free to leave at anytime, we won't take it personally. We have an extra pair or two of binoculars to rent, so if you want to rent a pair, just call or email before the walk to let us know. Also, if you are thinking of purchasing new binoculars, ask us - we probably have used them, and we will let you know how to get them for the best price.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is what we saw last week (selected highlights) with some anecdotal notes and observations. Not all species we saw are reported here - we list the best:

Friday, July 24th (North End – Central Park) – Lately winds have been more southerly, with seasonable temperatures (low to mid 80s) and humidity levels. Migrants, which drift to our area on northwest winds, have not been as common in the latter half of July as we would hope. Nevertheless, with an intrepid crew of birders including at least two NYC school teachers, we set off to find some lost migrants in the north end of the park. Our best luck was with a bird I have seen in migration at night atop the Empire State Building (in October!) - a Belted (Eastern) Kingfisher was our best find - it flew past us in the woodlands on the north side of the "Loch." We thought we heard it at a distance, and a small nudge from the iPod (kingfisher call) immediately brought the bird to us - and it continued on its way southwest through the woods. By the way, Belted Kingfishers bred in Pelham Nay Park in the Bronx until the mid-1980s...These days they are rather uncommon migrants in our area, though 1-2 may take up residence in Central Park for several days to weeks in spring and then again beginning in late summer, but not every year. Also today we tracked down a pair of Carolina Wrens at the north end...This is very interesting to us: each year beginning in late July, there is a dispersal of Carolina Wrens into our area (perhaps even from other city parks) - and we believe some of them begin nesting in Central Park in August. We are still investigating this, and will have more to report in the coming weeks as we watch this pair at the north end. Finally, no sign of The Hairy Woodpecker pair today, nor the lone White-breasted Nuthatch we had been seeing near the Blockhouse. Our best wishes to Emily Driscoll who is off to Iceland (and Grad School at NYU in film - science documentary.

Sunday, July 26th (Central Park, Ramble area) – With the hope of late summer migrants, off to the Ramble we went. For quite a while we had to be content with a Green Heron seen at Turtle Pond by all, and a House Wren seen by two. From the terrace of Belvedere Castle we spotted not one but two flocks of migrating Red-winged Blackbirds/Common Grackles (mixed) and a female Wood Duck (Carinne Mitchell - off to Cape Cod!) in Turtle Pond. From there we headed to the Ramble in the hopes of finding one of the recently released Eastern Screech-owls (no luck but we are not worried); instead we tracked down some migrants, all in the same area: The Point. From the rocky overlook near the Oven, we pulled in two Northern Waterthrushes (Thanks Sandra Critelli), and a few House Finches feeding on the last of some Mulberries. At the end of the Point, we pulled in another Northern Waterthrush and a Yellow Warbler, a Warbling Vireo, and surprisingly, a pair of very moulty Black-capped Chickadees. At Warbler Rock, we found a just fledged Grey Catbird, and learned that the Red-bellied Woodpeckers are not as aggressive toward intruders now than they were just 2-3 weeks ago. As per the suggestion for Regina Alvarez, we looked for and found a saprophytic native wildflower that grows on its own in Central Park: Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora). There were many clumps of this all-white plant that gets its nutrients not from photosynthesis but rather, directly from the roots of trees, particularly oaks on whose roots it likes to grow. Look for it in the area of the bird feeders. Finally, in prior years, we would recommend viewers to head to Turtle Pond at night to see this bird. foraging along the surface for fish. This year the pond is covered with Duckweed (Lemna minor), the smallest flowering plant in the world. Instead the skimmers have shifted their nocturnal foraging to The Model Boat Pond and The Reservoir....Though you can see them until about 9am on foggy mornings there too.

To the Bat Cave--or Maybe Just Outside the Bat Cave's Entrance

The federal government wants you to stay out of caves to help save bats. They fear white-nose syndrome, which has kill up to a million bats in the northeast is spreading. States as far away as Georgia are thinking about closing down caves, Mark Davis reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Now big caves around the country are debating the proposition of closing to save their big attraction.

A fungus is believed to be behind the mysterious illness that leaves bats starving at the end of hibernation. Scientists know that the sick bats wake up a lot more during hibernation, but are not sure if that's a cause or effect. Either way, they don't want anybody barging in on their caves and waking them up. Of course, that won't be much of an issue over the summer.

There are a ton of great places to see bats around the country. People have finally caught on to the allure of seeing thousands of bats stream out of a dark hole at dusk. And we've finally realized that they aren't going to deliberately fly into our hair or suck our blood. It would be a shame to lose all of our goodwill toward bats.

The Wildlife Service seems to be talking about cavers, that is people who actually go in the caves, not hang out outside waiting for the fly-out. They say caves visited by cavers have seen more of the disease and fear it might be spread on equipment. So it's unclear if we'll still be able to enjoy a bat fly-out from a distance. A lot of big bat caves are closed to the public anyway--like former mine shafts that have bars in front so kids don't climb in.

Get well bats, hope to see you soon.