{"id":2001,"date":"2014-12-12T13:39:29","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T13:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dolly.jorgensenweb.net\/nordicnature\/?p=2001"},"modified":"2014-12-12T13:39:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T13:39:29","slug":"welcome-to-the-anthropocene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dolly.jorgensenweb.net\/nordicnature\/?p=2001","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Anthropocene"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, I had a tour of the new exhibit Willkommen im Anthropoz\u00e4n<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(Welcome to the Anthropocene) at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. While the validity of the Anthropocene as a geologic time frame has been been debated, few would debate that human impact on the planet is wide and deep. Humans, unlike most other animal species, have the ability to radically transform the environment through technological artefacts (a subject which you can read more about in\u00a0my recent article “Not by human hands”<\/a>). Acknowledging the role of technology in the reshaping of Earth, it was fitting that the first large Anthropocene exhibit be hosted in a museum of science and technology. The physical exhibit, which has a companion online exhibit\u00a0in English<\/a>, organises its material onto six ‘islands’: urbanization, mobility, man & machine, nature, food, and evolution. One of these–nature–contains a reintroduction story.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The northern bald ibis, known as Waldrapp in German, as described by Conrad Gessner. Image from Icones avium omnium<\/em><\/a> (1555).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The northern bald ibis<\/a> (Geronticus eremita<\/em>) is critically endangered with a main wild breeding colony in Morocco<\/a> of less than 500 birds. Another separate small colony of 100 semi-wild birds (they are brought indoors for the winter) lives in Turkey and a small reintroduction project has begun in Spain. It is believed that the bird was widespread in central Europe until\u00a0the 17th century, having been first described and drawn by the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in 1555.<\/p>\n

A large EU-funded reintroduction project “A Reason for Hope<\/a>” run by Waldrappteam is attempting to reintroduce the ibis to the Germany-Austria border region. The birds, however, are migratory, which means that the reintroduced animals need to be taught how to migrate to their wintering grounds in Tuscany.\u00a0A human-led migration<\/a> using a microlight craft was used in 2014 to train young birds where to fly in future years. The birds are tracked with GPS units and the movements\u00a0of all of the reintroduced animals can be monitored\u00a0online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Welcome to the Anthropocene<\/em> exhibit, the visitor encounters one of the birds who didn’t make it. The northern bald ibis is suspended within a plastic case in flight. It still has its GPS transmitter attached.<\/p>\n