It’s a wildlife-friendly day here at Cool Green Morning. We’ve got baby animals (orangutans and lynx), strange animals (swimming mouse-deer), high-profile animals (polar bears) and underwater animals (coral). The news isn’t all good, but it’ll get you going.

1. Could deer provide clues to the evolution of whales? It seems so. Scientists recently discovered two species of mouse deer in Asia that can swim, suggesting that all ruminants were once water-loving and providing further clues to the evolution of whales.
2. Scientists at the Royal Society in London, joined by Sir David Attenborough, warn that to save coral reefs from bleaching, we’ll need to start actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
3. A network of polar bear specialists met at Copenhagen last week to review the latest data from the Arctic, and had sobering news to report: many populations of polar bears seem to be declining.
4. Wildlife rehabilitation centers in Indonesia are taking in more and more baby orangutans orphaned by the clearing of forests for palm oil plantations.
5. Ten newborn lynx have been found in Colorado, giving biologists hope that the species might recover after disappearing from the state entirely in the 1970s, due to habitat loss and purposeful killing.

Posted: July 7th, 2009 under Animals, Arctic, Asia Pacific, Climate Change, Cool Green Morning, Coral Reefs, Environmental Science, Europe, Forest Trade, Forests, Oceans & Coasts, United States.
Tags: carbon dioxide, colorado, Copenhagen, coral, Coral Reefs, David Attenborough, Indonesia, lynx, mouse-deer, orangutans, palm oil, polar bear, Royal Society, Whales