Species

The story of a 24-year-old Georgia graduate student fighting a flesh-eating disease has prompted a microbiologist with the Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System to speak out about the infection. Aimee Copeland lost most of her left leg after the flesh-eating bacteria necrotizing faciitis is believed to have entered a cut on her leg, according to the Associated Press, which reports she may also have to have her fingers amputated. The waterborne bacteria Aeromonas hydrophila is believed to have caused the infection.

If we're serious about getting the invasive snakeheads under control before they eat all the other fish in the Chesapeake watershed, then let me suggest that we get serious about the bounty. Those $200 gift certificates from a major outdoors retailer are nice, but there are only three of them, and those who catch a snakehead have to enter a drawing to win them, and the drawing isn't until November. That's not much of an incentive. Let's engage in some bigger thinking about this.

YOU CAN'T FOOL Mother Nature, the saying goes. But you can fool around with her.And humans have been fooling around with nature for centuries, particularly since the dawn of the Industrial Age. Humans pollute the air, mow down forests, cover the land with the concrete of roads, replace the natural skyline with skyscrapers, scoop fish out of the oceans, and dump fertilizer and pesticides all over the place.The problem with all this, many scientists say, is that humans aren't the earth's sole inhabitants.

As an ardent supporter of former Republican Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr., it saddens me to observe what has happened to his Grand Old Party. It has made a grand terrible bargain with the devil. The equation is easy to see. They don't want to raise taxes on people earning over $1 million a year, which they say is critically important for the average American. To achieve this goal, they say, we must accept some things we may not like from a vocal minority of the party: Limiting women's access to contraception; limiting women's ability to make decisions regarding their health; and limiting men and women's right to marry whomever they wish.

Sometimes subtext is much more interesting than text. Take the case of "Species," for example.On the surface, it's another routine bug-hunt movie, with a team of crack experts heading down into the sewers to do battle with a slimy green monster with mandibles of steel. "Them!" did it better 41 years ago and "Alien" did it authoritatively 14 years ago.But underneath the stale sci-fi/horror conventions, the movie is saying something quite interesting and it's too bad Hugh Grant didn't see it in time to spare himself such embarrassment.

SAN DIEGO - The only captive member of what might be the world's most endangered species of bird has died in Hawaii, according to zoo officials. The death of the male po'ouli at a Maui conservation center came less than three months after its capture. Only two other po'ouli are known to exist, both in Maui's dense rain forest. Bird specialists had hoped to capture one or both of the other birds to assist in a captive breeding program. That effort has been unsuccessful. Alan Lieberman, the San Diego Zoo's avian conservation coordinator, said the chances for survival of the species were "infinitesimally small" after the bird's sudden death Friday.

In one of Asia's most isolated jungles, the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, naturalists have discovered a vast unexplored preserve of exotic species new to science. Among the previously unknown species researchers found during a 15-day expedition in December were more than 20 species of frogs, five palms and four butterflies. They also found hundreds of rare birds and giant rhododendrons with white blossoms the size of bread plates, believed to be the largest on record. All told, the 3,700 square miles of mist-shrouded tropical forest might be the most pristine natural area in Asia and the Pacific, Conservation International announced in Indonesia today.

After the 18,000-year-old bones of diminutive people were found on the Indonesian island of Flores, the discoverers announced two years ago that these were remains of a previously unknown species of the ancestral human family. They gave it the name Homo floresiensis. Doubts were raised almost immediately. But only now have opposing scientists from Indonesia, Australia and the United States weighed in with a comprehensive analysis based on their first-hand examination of the bones and a single mostly complete skull.

The blue-green algae that bloomed in tidal rivers throughout the upper Chesapeake Bay last month was toxic, an independent laboratory has confirmed, but so far has not harmed wildlife or caused human health problems, state officials said yesterday. Some strains of the algae, identified as Microcystis aeruginosa, can cause skin problems and flu-like symptoms in humans and can sicken or kill livestock or pets that drink it. Tests performed at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, confirmed the presence of the algae's toxin, said Rob Magnien, director of tidewater ecosystems assessments for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Some creepy-crawly bugs, such as ants, flies and spiders, may be unwelcome in our homes. But at least they're familiar. We can deal with them. For plenty of Marylanders, though, a new species of household pest is just insufferable. "These are just so ugly, they're horrible," said Adele Hammerman, whose condominium in Baltimore's Deer Ridge community has become a hangout for the critters. "I was in bed one night and there was one crawling on my finger, and another in my hair," she said.

Maryland's threatened little bog turtles may be getting some extra help from the state's farmers, under a new federal conservation initiative. Obama adminstration officials are slated to unveil today (3/8) a $33 million bid to make more farmers and other landowners partners - instead of potential adversaries - in efforts to save seven rare and endangered critters, including North America's smallest turtle, which in Maryland is found here and there in marshy spots in Carroll, Baltimore, Harford and Cecil counties.

My mother's landscape is full of pachysandra and periwinkle ground cover, both of which are on invasive species lists. Do I need to pull all of it out this spring? These two are different from most non-native invasive plants. Yes, these popular groundcovers are invasive when they are planted adjacent to a natural or park area, where they'll expand indefinitely and crowd out native plants. However, in a typical yard, expansion can be controlled. And they do not produce berries that birds spread or seeds that blow or wash away.

A Chestertown man pleaded guilty this week in a New York federal court to trafficking live snapping turtles that he processed in Queen Anne's County and then sold as turtle meat. Michael V. Johnson, 57, faces a maximum of one year in prison for turning the wildlife into food at his business in Millington called Turtle Deluxe Inc., according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of New York in Buffalo. During 2007 and 2008, the statement said, Johnson purchased common snapping turtles — considered protected wildlife under New York law — from sellers in several states, brought them back to the Turtle Deluxe facility to sort and weigh and then paid the vendors based on weight.

How can I have better success starting flower seeds indoors? Few of my seeds sprout, and those that do die of fungus. I'm determined this year, so I'm starting them super-early in January. Whoa! When starting any transplants, check the seed packet of each species to calculate the planting times. Most seeds should be planted indoors six to eight weeks before planting in the ground. If you plant extremely early, your plants may get very tall and spindly from lack of light or require lots of repotting as they outgrow their flats.

Just as it can with human couples, sharing a good meal apparently sparks thoughts of love among whooping cranes. The stately, endangered birds at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel are being primed by their keepers for another season of carefully orchestrated mating with a "special breeder diet. " No chocolate or oysters, though, just subtly enriched pellets of the cranes' usual prepared bird food. "We give them a little more calcium, a little more protein," said Jonathan Male, who supervises the center's whooping crane propagation effort.

It's just a spit of woods buffering a creek that winds through a cluster of apartments and houses in Northwest Baltimore. But it's a cozy winter home to the city's birds. These aren't the average urban pigeons. These are hawks, crows, sparrows, doves and woodpeckers that stay all seasons in Baltimore, foraging for insects, seeds and berries, or hunting for rodents or even the eggs or nestlings of other birds. A handful of humans, who also live in the city year-round, ventured out in the chilly air late Saturday afternoon to get a look at and appreciate them.

The silver spot butterfly was a common sight over the meadows of Baltimore and Cecil counties a decade ago. During the last two years, only five have been spotted in all of Maryland.The butterfly is just one of a staggering 281 species that the state is planning to add to its listing of endangered and threatened species.The state's proposal, which is up for public comment until Monday, would nearly double to 618 the number of plant and animal species whose continued existence in Maryland is considered questionable, said Gene Cooley, a data base botanist with the state Department of Natural Resources' 10-year-old Natural Heritage Program.

As wildflowers go, Torrey's mountain-mint isn't that striking. The short-stalked plant sports white blooms in late summer, but otherwise would be hard to pick out in a leafy lineup. "You have to really be on a search to find it," says botanist Cris Fleming of Chevy Chase, who recalls spying some several years ago in a rocky outcrop on a Baltimore County farm. Even when they're looking for it, though, scientists have a tough time finding Pycnanthemum torrei these days. It's rare - recorded in fewer than 20 places in the world - and likely to get rarer still, as homes, shopping centers, roads and parking lots gobble up more land in Baltimore's sprawling suburbs.

- Judas 760 knew just where to swim last fall after federal trappers set him free: back to his home in the marshes of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, where other nutria lived. But true to his name, Judas betrayed members of his colony by providing a virtual road map through dense cattails and inky inlets via a tiny GPS unit on his back. Trappers followed and, in a scene played out with other Judases, exterminated a handful of the destructive rodents that have been responsible for denuding thousands of acres on the Eastern Shore.

They weigh nearly 500 pounds, reach 10 feet in length, and look gorgeous, with muscles rippling through their striped orange-and-black coats. An adult Bengal tiger could be yours for about $700. If you could take one home, you'd need much deeper pockets. (Tigers such as those that were kept at a farm in Zanesville, Ohio, can eat more than 20 pounds of meat a day.) But Maryland doesn't allow residents to own a tiger or any other large and dangerous animal. The owner of the Zanesville farm, Terry Thompson, who apparently killed himself, had 18 Bengals, 17 lions and eight bears in his menagerie of 56 exotic animals.