WERC Highlights -- February 2006

Desert Tortoise Stars in Television Special! USGS scientists Cecil Schwalbe,Southwest Biological Science Center, and Todd Esque and Ken Nussear, Western Ecological Research Center, explain the ecology of, habitats used by, and threats to the desert tortoise on a television program examining the tortoise throughout its latitudinal range. Host David Yetman begins this trek in Utah and Nevada at threatened populations in the Mojave Desert, travels south to Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona, one of the densest populations in the Sonoran Desert, then continues to southern Sonora, Mexico, near the southern end of the tortoises' range in tropical deciduous forest. More than a dozen scientists, tortoise biologists, and managers are interviewed. This 30-minute episode, "On the trail of a living fossil," airs on the Desert Speaks (a weekly series on the Tucson, Arizona, PBS affiliate) at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 1, and 7 p.m. Sunday, March 5. (Cecil Schwalbe, Tucson, AZ, 520-621-5508, Todd Esque, Henderson, NV, 702-564-4506)

Interviews on Fire, Night Light Pollution: USGS scientist Robert N. Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed about the possible impact of fire on wildlife in a Feb. 8, 2006, story in the Orange County Register on the Sierra fire in southern California’s Santa Ana Mountains. Fisher was also interviewed this week by Science News magazine, KPCC (Southern California public radio), and the Orange County Register about a new book on ecological effects of artificial night lighting, in which he coauthored a chapter on reptiles. (Robert Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)

Are Artificial Night Lights a Threat to Declining Reptiles? Artificial night lighting may affect behavior of wildlife in complex ways, and may even contribute to declines in some reptile species, according to a study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Texas Tech University published in a chapter in a new book by Island Press. In the book, experts worldwide explore the ecological effects of artificial night lighting across animal groups and plants. In their book chapter, USGS scientist Robert N. Fisher of the Western Ecological Research Center and Gad Perry, an assistant professor at Texas Tech University, reviewed the knowledge base from published and unpublished accounts and reported that scientists know relatively little about the effects of night lighting on reptiles, other than young sea turtles. In rapidly urbanizing southern California, Perry and Fisher noted that declines appear to be occurring in populations of many local reptile species for a variety of causes, but significant local declines of two nocturnal snakes – California glossy snake and western long-nosed snake -- may have links to light pollution. For more about the book: http://www.islandpress.org/books/detail.html/SKU/1-55963-129-5: (Robert Fisher, San Diego, CA, 619-225-6422, rfisher@usgs.gov)