The marshy ecosystems that beavers help create are good for songbirds.  At least, that is the conclusion of a study by the Wildlife Conservation Society published in the October issue of Western North American Naturalist.  “The study found that the more dams beavers build, the more abundant and diverse local songbirds become.”

If you’ve ever fancied seeing the world’s wildlife you might want to hurry. On October 6th, the IUCN released the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species which lists a whopping 16,928 species threatened with extinction. Of these, 3,246 are Critically Endangered, 4,770 are Endangered and 8,912 are Vulnerable to extinction. 1,226 (or 12.4%) of the world’s bird species are Threatened. It hardly needs adding that these numbers are all UP from last year…