• Toxic mice airdrop aims to wipe out Guam's venomous snakes

    Eric Talmadge / AP

    A brown tree snake is held by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist Tony Salas outside his office on Andersen Air Force Base on Guam. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on the island.

    By Eric Talmadge, The Associated Press

    ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on Guam's jungle canopy. They are scientists' prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake.

    Most of Guam's native bird species are extinct because of the snake, which reached the island's thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II.

    There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines.

    More than 3,000 miles away, environmental officials in Hawaii have long feared a similar invasion — which in their case likely would be a "snakes on a plane" scenario.

    That would cost the state many vulnerable species and billions of dollars, but the risk will fall if Guam's airdrop strategy succeeds.

    "We are taking this to a new phase," said Daniel Vice, assistant state director of U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services in Hawaii, Guam, and the Pacific Islands. "There really is no other place in the world with a snake problem like Guam."

    Brown tree snakes are generally a few feet long but can grow to be more than 10 feet in length.

    Defenseless birds
    Most of Guam's native birds were defenseless against the nocturnal, tree-based predators, and within a few decades of the reptile's arrival, nearly all of them were wiped out.

    The snakes can also climb power poles and wires, causing blackouts, or slither into homes and bite people, including babies.

    They use venom on their prey, but it is not lethal to humans.

    The infestation and the toll it has taken on native wildlife have tarnished Guam's image as a tourism haven, though the snakes are rarely seen outside their jungle habitat.

    The solution to this headache, fittingly enough, is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in painkillers including Tylenol.

    The strategy takes advantage of the snake's two big weaknesses. Unlike most snakes, brown tree snakes are happy to eat prey they didn't kill themselves, and they are highly vulnerable to acetaminophen, which is harmless to humans.

    The upcoming mice drop is targeted to hit snakes near Guam's sprawling Andersen Air Force Base, which is surrounded by heavy foliage and if compromised would offer the snakes a potential ticket off the island. Using helicopters, the dead neonatal mice will be dropped by hand, one by one.

    U.S. government scientists have been perfecting the mice-drop strategy for more than a decade with support from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior.

    Streamers
    To keep the mice bait from dropping all the way to the ground, where it could be eaten by other animals or attract insects as they rot, researchers have developed a device with streamers designed to catch in the branches of the forest foliage, where the snakes live and feed.

    Experts say the impact on other species will be minimal, particularly since the snakes have themselves wiped out the birds that might have been most at risk.

    "One concern was that crows may eat mice with the toxicant," said William Pitt, of the U.S. National Wildlife Research Center's Hawaii Field Station. "However, there are no longer wild crows on Guam."

    The mouse drop is set to start in April or May.

    A 2010 study conducted by the National Wildlife Research Center found brown tree snakes would cause between $593 million and $2.14 billion in economic damage each year if they became established in Hawaii like they are on Guam.

    Power outages would cause the most damage, followed by a projected decline in tourism. The cost of treating snake bites would account for a small share.

    Native Hawaiian birds "literally don't know what to do when they see a snake coming," said Christy Martin, a spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a partnership of Hawaii government agencies and private organizations.

    "Once we get snakes here, we're never going to be able to fix the situation," Martin said. 

    Related:

    Full environment coverage from NBC News 

    Full technology and science coverage from NBC News

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Russia's Putin takes to sky to lead flight of cranes

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has piloted an ultralight to lead a flock of young Siberian white cranes in flight. NBC's Karl Bostic reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin took his love of wildlife to new heights Wednesday by flying with endangered cranes to help lead them on a migration route.


    Putin donned a baggy white costume with a spacious helmet and goggles and was shown in media reports flying with a copilot in a motorized deltaplane light aircraft.

    Putin flew a test flight followed by two flights with the cranes, Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported.

    "They got used to it. They are not afraid, they are overtaking the deltaplane," a smiling Putin said after landing, broadcaster Rossiya 24 reported. "They are overtaking, approaching the wing from the left, from the right, from above. Well done. Beautiful guys. Cute. They are 3 months old but already quite big."

    Alexei Nikolsky / AP

    Russian President Vladimir Putin

    The cranes were raised at the Kushevat ornithological sanctuary and had to be shown the route to wintering grounds, Ria Novosti news agency reported. Kushevat is near the city of Salerkhard, close to the Arctic Circle.

    PhotoBlog: Russia's Putin takes to sky

    When the cranes were released Wednesday, only one followed the flying leader on his first flight. Five birds followed on the second flight, Ria Novosti said, although only two kept pace for 15 minutes.

    The exercise was aimed at prompting the birds to follow the plane and prepare them for their migration route -- part of the "Flight of Hope" project to protect the endangered Siberian white crane.

    Visibly pleased, Putin said it had been his idea to fly the deltaplane, although it appeared to be steered most of the time by another person in a similar white costume sitting behind him.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    "I liked this program," Putin said, telling Ria Novosti that he had become interested and bought a motorized hang glider with his own money, which he said he would hand over to the scientists.

    "I advise everyone to try it," he said.

    Putin has tracked a Siberian tiger and posed with a polar bear as part of an effort to create the image of a clean-living, nature-loving person during his 12 years as Russia's leader.

    AP

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, (foreground) flies in a motorized hangglider alongside two Siberian white cranes on Wednesday on the Yamal Peninsula, in Russia.

    Macho stunts by Putin, who turns 60 in October, have helped his image but have also irritated some Russians and become fodder for for satire by opponents.

    There was widespread disbelief in 2008 when Putin appeared to save a television crew from a rare Amur tiger in far eastern Russia by shooting it with a tranquilizer gun, the Guardian newspaper of London reported.

    Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter

    The Kremlin's press service admitted last year that Putin's dive in the Black Sea had been staged -- Greek amphorae had been placed on the sea floor for Putin to "discover."

    Putin, a former KGB spy back at the Kremlin for his third term in office, in the winter faced the largest wave of dissent against his spell over Russia since he first became president.

    Though the protests have lost some steam, opposition activists on Wednesday eagerly jumped on the latest stunt by reinterpreting the lyrics of a 1980s disco song, "Deltaplane" -- "Possibly, only a hang-glider will help me" - as heralding Putin's eventual departure from power.

    During a question-and-answer with Russians while he was president, he was asked why he looked more comfortable with wild tigers and leopards than with his own ministers, the Guardian reported.

    "The more I know people, the more I like dogs," Putin replied. "I simply like animals."

    This article includes reporting by Reuters.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook 

  • Fewer female birds after Chernobyl, study finds; same true at Fukushima?

    A year after Fukushima, the government has asked residents to bury radiated soil in their own backyards. But how dangerous is the dirt and where should it go? NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    Scientists are focusing on Japan's Fukushima area after a study published this week found an alarming development at another nuclear disaster site -- Chernobyl.


    The proportion of female birds has fallen off since the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, the study found, and that appears to be causing male birds to increase their chirping in efforts to find a mate.

    "The Chernobyl zone is a population sink, or an ecological trap, that brings in new birds each year but these birds suffer lower survival," co-author Tim Mousseau, a University of South Carolina biologist, told msnbc.com.

    "In other words," he said, "the Chernobyl zone is not an eden for wildlife" as some have claimed.

    Mousseau, who's leading a team along with Anders Pape Moller of the University of Paris-Sud, is now in the Fukushima area preparing to test birds there for radioactivity from the nuclear reactors hit by the tsunami after the March 11, 2011, earthquake.

    NBC's Richard Engel visits the exclusion zone surrounding Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

    "We will be placing small dosimeters on birds and measuring body content of radionuclides," he said. That will also be done this summer around Ukraine's Chernobyl area, where earlier testing focused on counting birds.

    For the Chernobyl study "we collected 1,080 birds using mist nets in forested areas that were highly contaminated but also in areas that were effectively 'clean' and sites in between," Mousseau explained.

    "In the more contaminated areas, most birds were yearlings, suggesting that survival rates were significantly lower in these areas than in clean ones."

    "Sex ratios in the contaminated areas were significantly skewed towards males, reflecting higher mortality rates for females," he added. "In birds, females invest heavily in making large eggs, and these data suggest this investment comes at a cost of lower life span."

    Tim Mousseau

    A Geiger counter is used to test soil in the Fukushima area last year as part of a study on birds.

    As for the chirping, "males in contaminated areas tend to sing more than in clean areas," Mousseau said, "presumably reflecting the greater challenges of attracting and acquiring a mate when sex ratios are skewed."

    Courtesy of Tim Mousseau

    Biologist Tim Mousseau holds a bird caught around the Chernobyl area.

    He's expecting even worse results at Fukushima.

    A team did an initial survey last summer, counting 1,929 birds from among 45 species.

    "Our expectation was that it would take many years and many generations of exposure for the cumulative effects" to show as they have in Chernobyl, Mousseau said.

    "However, once we started our field work we realized that contamination levels were much higher than expected, even in July when we did our surveys," he said, "and it is likely that doses to these birds were very high in March and April when many of the birds were arriving to the area to initiate breeding."

  • Eagles soar when an ancient tradition comes to life

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    A hunter releases his tamed golden eagle during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan Dec. 9, 2011.

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    A hunter with his tame golden eagle sits on a stage during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on Dec. 9, 2011.

    By Natalia Jimenez, NBC News

    I would love to see these eagles in person. What beautiful creatures.

    These hunters are continuing their country's ancient tradition that originated in using eagles to hunt for food. According to the BBC, the Kazakhstan government has been encouraging these eagle hunting competitions actually as a way to help the falcon population, which was facing extinction. The audience the golden eagles attract helps fund a falcon conservation center.

    Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

    A tame golden eagle is seen during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan on Dec. 9.

    A hunter releases his tame golden eagle during an annual hunting competition outside Almaty, Kazakhstan Dec. 9.

     

  • South Africans wait for swallows amid global warming fears

    By Associated Press

    MOUNT MORELAND, South Africa — Wetlands — critical for the health of South Africa's coasts and river systems — already have been degraded or seriously altered by human activity, and experts fear global warming threatens them further.

    As talks to shore up the international response to global warming entered their second and crucial week in the South African coastal city of Durban, environmentalists led a tour of a wetlands area nearby.

    It's a spot where spectators start coming an hour before sunset. They set up deck chairs or spread blankets, take a bottle of white wine from the cooler and a block of cheese or snacks, settle down with binoculars, and hope.

    This Sunday, the barn swallows didn't put on their show.

    Millions of birds, having migrated more than 5,000 miles from Europe and Britain for the southern summer, usually roost in the tall reeds poking through the surface of Lake Victoria at the foot of a hillock called Mount Moreland.

    The weather is chilly — at least 9 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius) cooler than normal, says resident Angie Wilken. And the migration is two or three weeks late this year, she says. The birds are still leaving Europe.

    "I'm constantly questioning. Is it just the weather? Is that really it?" she says.

    Stormy future
    Scientists are reluctant to blame climate change for any single unusual weather event or short-term departure from the norm. But studies and computer modeling show that man-made emissions of carbon dioxide are disrupting normal weather — both hot and cold spells — around the globe, causing more storms, droughts and floods and affecting wildlife.

    If the planet continues to warm at the current pace, one-third of all animal and plant species may become extinct by the end of the century, according to an authoritative panel of U.N. scientists.

    In Durban, climate ministers and other top officials, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, are expected for the last week of negotiations.

    They are under pressure to conclude by Friday with pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions after their current commitments expire next year under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

    They also need to make progress on raising billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with global warming if the talks are to be deemed a success.

    On Mount Moreland, the roosting of barn swallows, which fill the sky and then swoop onto the sage-green reeds in a single massive ball up to 3 million birds thick, is one of nature's most spectacular displays.

    "The horizon just starts spewing them over the top. Then they form a tighter unit, moving left and right. And as they turn, they peel and drop into the reeds as fast as stones dropping. And if you're not watching you miss it," says Wilken, who watches it nearly every evening from October through April.

    'Bedtime stories'
    The sound before the birds settle for the night is like water running, she says. "We call it bedtime stories."

    The vegetation of wetlands like Lake Victoria provides a haven for birds and wildlife, purifies water of nutrients spilled from agriculture and provides a livelihood to poor people who plant its fringes with vegetables or marigolds.

    Experts worry about predictions that as the Earth's average temperatures rise, South Africa's east coast will become more arid and the west coast around Durban will get more rainfall, raising the risk of floods and erosion.

    "If the wetlands dry out, the impact will be huge on small farmers who exist close to the line," says Damian Waters, a wetlands expert for the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa.

    Waters' group and others are working to protect the wetlands and the 250 estuaries that break up South Africa's coastline. Collaborating with local and national authorities, the nonprofit groups are producing detailed topographical maps of wetland areas and how they integrate with farmland and industry.

    They encourage big water users in the area to conserve water and replant climate-resilient indigenous vegetation, which has struggled to compete with invasive foreign trees and shrubs that use more water.

    Disappearing wetlands could mean trouble for the barn swallows of Mount Moreland, where Wilken won approval from landowners over the years to clear an area for bird watchers to view the natural wonder of the roost.

    Some 40 million European barn swallows pass through the area each year, she says, maintaining a low population of summer insects. "They do a huge service when they come to this country," she said.

    But she's concerned about a new commercial development and a nearby airport, whose approach path is directly over the field of reeds and whose runways disrupt the normal flow of rainwater into the valley.

    "I'm constant worrying," she says. "Is nature going to prevail?"

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.