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National Geographic : 1993 Mar
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EarthAlmanac From the Amazon, Face of a New Species Adorned with zebra-like stripes and furry ear tufts, a new primate species has been found in Brazil's central Amazon. Weighing less than half a pound, the monkey was christened the Rio Mau6s marmoset (Callithrix mauesi)for its discovery on the Maues River by Swiss pri matologist Marco Schwarz. He first saw the marmoset in April 1985, but it was not rec ognized as a new species until last October, when it was for mally described in a paper by Schwarz, Brazilian ecologist Jose Marcio Ayres, and primatologist Russell Mitter meier, president of Conserva tion International. "To find a new tropical beetle is not surprising," says Mittermeier, "but primates are well known and well studied-yet we're still find ing new ones. It's extremely exciting, and it shows how lit tle we know about tropical diversity." He adds that the marmoset does not appear to be endan gered, because its Amazon territory is not currently being developed. _ 1 STEPHENNASH, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL This is the third new monkey dis covered since 1990 in Brazil, which is home to the most pri mate species in the world-68. Knock on Wood: Help for Birds in Peril o carve out a nest, most woodpeckers find a nice dead tree and turn their bills into jackhammers. Not so the red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoidesborealis), whose per snickety nesting habits-along with widespread clear-cutting in the U. S. Southeast-landed the bird on the endangered species list in 1970. For its home this bird needs a living pine tree, and an old one too, aged 80 or more, with enough dead heartwood to excavate. And that can take months, even years. In 1988 a federal judge in Texas ordered the U. S. Forest Service to stop clear cutting within 4,000 feet of red-cockaded woodpecker colonies in that state. After negotiating with conserva tionists, the Forest Service agreed to limit clear-cutting near colonies in national forests throughout the Southeast. "Now the prospect for the bird's recovery is excel lent," says Doug Honnold of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund. Other efforts include those of the military at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, site of about 130 woodpecker breeding groups. Hoping to expand the population, officials have limited development on the Army post and joined an effort to restore woodpecker friendly habitat on adjacent state and private lands. Britain's River Robots Stand Pollution Duty lectronic detectives named Sherlock and Merlin are blowing the whistle on Brit ish water polluters. These two robots, developed by the National Rivers Authority (NRA) about two years ago, are deployed when inspectors find a suspicious dis charge or when a citizen files a com plaint. Sherlock, consisting of two boxes, sits on a riverbank with a probe in the water. Merlin, a drum, rides at anchor in open water-here on the River Avon (below). Twenty Sherlocks and six Merlins are now on call, measuring dissolved oxygen, acidity, temperature, and turbidity. Their findings have helped convict several farm and fac tory owners. "Some farmers make their own ammonia fertilizer to spray on crops," says NRA's Paul Williams. "After a heavy rainfall we find high levels of ammonia. We use the robots' evidence in confronting the offender." When a dispute goes to court, a convicted offender may be fined as much as $30,000. -JOHN L. ELIOT C. C. LOCKWOOD,BRUCECOLEMAN NATIONALRIVERS AUTHORITY National Geographic,March 1993
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