Hunters turn gamekeepers to help C. Africa's threatened wildlife

AUGUST 30, 2019

by Florent Vergnes

Jean moves deftly through the tangle of roots and branches before waiting for the rainforest to give him a clue.

In the heart of the Dzanga-Sangha wildlife reserve in western Central African Republic, the Pygmy hunter is looking for the tracks of a large female elephant he has been following for the last three hours.

The elephant is not Jean's prey, but rather the opposite.

He is part of a force of local hunters who have trained to become rangers. Their mission: to protect the park's precious animals from ruthless poachers.

Lying on the flanks of the Sangha River, the 4,000-square-kilometre (1,500-square-mile) park, created in 1990, is the CAR's last haven for elephants and Central African gorillas.

Luis Arranz of the environment group WWF, which runs the park in partnership with the CAR government, is worried that this precious refuge will also fall one day.

"It won't last," he predicts sadly.

He points to the potential booty for poachers from ivory tusks, giraffe skins, pangolin scales and gorilla meat.

Scientists, with the help of the Pygmy rangers, are moving through the park to draw up an inventory of the major species.

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Protect forest elephants to conserve ecosystems, not DNA

Date:  April 25, 2018

Source:  Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Summary:

New research has found that forest elephant populations across Central Africa are genetically quite similar to one another. Conserving this critically endangered species across its range is crucial to preserving local plant diversity in Central and West African Afrotropical forests -- meaning conservationists could save many species by protecting one.

Although it is erroneously treated as a subspecies, the dwindling African forest elephant is a genetically distinct species. New University of Illinois research has found that forest elephant populations across Central Africa are genetically quite similar to one another. Conserving this critically endangered species across its range is crucial to preserving local plant diversity in Central and West African Afrotropical forests -- meaning conservationists could save many species by protecting one.

"Forest elephants are the heart of these ecosystems -- without them, the system falls apart, and many other species are jeopardized," said the principal investigator of this research, Alfred Roca, a professor of animal sciences at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES).

African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are morphologically and genetically distinct from their iconic larger cousins, the African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) that populate the grasslands of Eastern and Southern Africa. Forest elephants are smaller with straighter tusks and live in the rainforests of Central and West Africa where they maintain tropical ecosystems through seed dispersal and germination, as well as nutrient recycling and herbivory.

Continued

Scaly-tailed squirrel described as the ‘ultimate Pokémon’

AUGUST 16, 2016

by Chuck Bednar

While millions of mobile gamers are obsessed with catching elusive creatures with the popular “Pokémon Go” app, biologists at the University of Southern California (USC) are working hard to track down an elusive, real-life creature that has never been spotted live by researchers.

Known as a Zenkerella, this hard-to-find animal is a mysterious scaly-tailed squirrel that lives in central Africa and which was dubbed “the ultimate Pokémon” by Erik Seiffert, a professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, in a Tuesday press release – and for a very good reason, too, as there had been no reports of it living in the wild for 20 years!

In fact, not even a dozen Zenkerella specimens could be found in museums around the world, the university said – that is, until Seiffert and his colleagues recently discovered three recently killed specimens of the elusive rodent that not only raises that amount to 14 but could also provide new insight into how this long-lived creature has evolved over the past 49 million years.

“Zenkerella could be seen as the ultimate Pokémon that scientists have still not been able to find or catch alive,” the USC professor, whose research was published in the August 16 edition of the journal PeerJ, explained. “After all, it probably only shows up in the middle of the night, deep in the jungles of central Africa, and might spend most of its time way up in tall trees where it would be particularly hard to see.”

Creature is one of just six surviving species alive during the Eocene epoch

Seiffert’s team used the newly-discovered specimens to sample Zenkerella's DNA for the first time, collecting cells from cheek swabs then comparing its genetic make-up with other rodents using an online database. Much to their surprise, they discovered that Zenkerella was a distant relative to two different scaly-tailed squirrels that had webbing between their limbs.

While this webbing made it possible for Zenkerella’s cousins to glide from one tree to another, the creature itself was unable to perform such feats, the study authors said. Nonetheless, it still belongs as part of the newly-formed Zenkerellidae family, which is part of the Anomaluroidea superfamily, because all three types of squirrels possess scales on the bottom of their tails that provided additional support and traction when they attempted to climb trees.

Read more at 

Lions in West and Central Africa apparently unique

Date: August 11, 2016

Source: Leiden, Universiteit

Lions in West and Central Africa form a unique group, only distantly related to lions in East and Southern Africa. Biologists at Leiden University confirm this in an article published in Scientific Reports.

Genetic data

In this study, the researchers gathered a genetic dataset of lion populations covering a total of 22 countries. This included samples from each remaining lion population in West and Central Africa, a region where lions and other wildlife are rapidly declining as a consequence of the increasing human population. The researchers managed to gather all the information by teaming up with other people in the field and local conservationists.

300,000 years ago

Based on the genetic data, it was estimated that the split between the two major groups that can be identified in the lion must have occurred 300,000 years ago. To explain what happened in their evolution, the researchers made a reconstruction of African climatological history. It seems that periodic expansions of the rain forest and the desert drove lions into isolated pockets of suitable habitat, where the different genetic lineages originated that can still be observed today.

Continued   

Declining great apes of Central Africa get new action plan for conservation for the next decade

Date:

April 7, 2015

Source:

Wildlife Conservation Society

Summary:

The number of gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa continues to decline due to hunting, habitat loss, and disease, combined with a widespread lack of law enforcement and corruption in the judicial process, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, and partners in a new conservation plan.

Continued ...

The population of forest elephants has declined by 65 per cent in 12 years

February 2014: A shocking 65 per cent of forest elephants have been illegally killed for their ivory in between 2002 and 2013 new data from the field in Central Africa shows. Many organisations collaborated in the study, which was coordinated by WCS, and covered 80 sites, in five countries, over the twelve years of data collection.
“These new numbers showing the continuing decline of the African forest elephant are the exact reason why there is a sense of urgency at the United for Wildlife trafficking symposium in London this week,” said Dr. John Robinson, WCS Chief Conservation Officer and Executive Vice President of Conservation and Science. “The solutions we are discussing in London this week and the commitments we are making cannot fail or the African forest elephant will blink out in our lifetime. United for Wildlife, which is headed by The Duke of Cambridge, is determined to work together to turn back these numbers.”

Continued

Fruit Bat Population Covering Central Africa Carries Two Deadly Viruses

Nov. 19, 2013 — The study, conducted jointly by the University of Cambridge and the Zoological Society of London's Institute of Zoology and published today in the journal Nature Communications, found that the "gregarious" bats span over 4,500 km of central Africa (around the distance from California to New York). The researchers also discovered that thirty-four per cent of the bats had been infected with Lagos bat virus, a disease similar to rabies, and 42 per cent had been infected with henipaviruses.

The African straw-coloured fruit bat (Eidolon helvum), which can live in roosts of over one million and often congregates near cities, was previously known to be a reservoir for these viruses, but it was not known to what extent.

Continued

Central Africa forests could die as keystone species are wiped out

Study by the Universities of Stirling, Oxford, Queensland, and WCS warn of imminent ecological collapse caused by unsustainable hunting and other factors

July 2013. Scientists from the Universities of Stirling, Oxford, Queensland and the Wildlife Conservation Society warn that current hunting trends in Central African forests could result in complete ecological collapse.

The authors maintain that the current rate of unsustainable hunting of forest elephants, gorillas and other seed-dispersing species threatens the ability of forest ecosystems to regenerate, and that landscape-wide hunting management plans are needed to avoid an environmental catastrophe.

Humans have shared forests for millennia, but are now destroying them

"Humans have lived in the forests of Central Africa for thousands of years, until recently practicing subsistence hunting for the needs of their communities," said Kate Abernethy, lead author of the study. "Over the past few decades, this dynamic has drastically changed. Much of the hunting is now commercially driven, and species that play important ecological functions are being driven to local extinction."

Continued

Another poaching gang broken up in Central Africa

Increasing co-operation between Gabon & Congo helping the fight against elephant poaching

June 2013. Jean Marie Mabamza, a Congolese man believed to be a ring-leader of an elephant poaching gang that targeted Gabon's Mwagna National Park has been arrested in a joint operation by Gabon and Congo authorities.

Jean Marie Mabamza, the ring-leader of a large network of poachers, was arrested on Congolese territory when he came to collect ivory and weapons from his fighters.

At the time of his arrest, Jean Marie Mabamza was in possession of 12 ivory tusks, two military weapons and a quantity of ammunition. During questioning by the authorities, the defendant admitted that his employees hunted in a nearby Gabon reserve.

The arrest of Jean Marie Mabamza is the result of some strong cooperation that is increasingly taking place between officials of Gabon and Congo. 

Mwagna National Park

The Mwagna National Park and bai (Forest clearing) is sacred to the pygmies a haven forest elephants, monkeys, forest hogs, bongo antelopes, sitatungas and duikers.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/gabon-poaching-arrest.html

At Least 26 Elephants Killed by Poachers in Central Africa

Denise Chow, LiveScience Staff Writer 

Date: 10 May 2013 Time: 12:33 PM ET 

At least 26 elephants were killed in Central Africa after a group of armed poachers raided a protected sanctuary on Monday (May 6), according to wildlife officials. 

Seventeen poachers armed with Kalashnikov rifles entered Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic earlier this week, representatives from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a statement. The poachers made their way to the Dzanga Bai, an open area where anywhere from 50 to 200 elephants gather daily to drink nutrients and mineral salts in the sands. 

At least 26 elephant carcasses, including four calves, were counted in and around the Dzanga Bai on Thursday (May 9), WWF officials said. All had had their tusks removed, Jules Caron, head of communications for the WWF's anti-poaching program in Central Africa, confirmed to LiveScience. 

Wildlife representatives described the Dzanga Bai scene as an "elephant mortuary," and it was evident that local villagers had started taking meat from the remains of the dead animals, they added.

"The killing has started," Jim Leape, WWF's international director general, said in a statement. "The Central African Republic must act immediately to secure this unique [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] World Heritage site. The brutal violence we are witnessing in Dzanga Bai threatens to destroy one of the world's great natural treasures, and to jeopardize the future of the people who live there." 

Read on: http://www.livescience.com/29506-elephant-massacre-central-africa.html

African forest elephants decline by 62% in 10 years

Forest elephant numbers have decreased by 62% across Central Africa over the last 10 years, according to a study.

The analysis confirmed fears that African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are heading for extinction, possibly within the next decade.

Conservationists said "effective, rapid, multi-level action is imperative" in order to save the elephants.

They are concerned the forest elephants are being killed for their ivory.

Results of the study, undertaken by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and several other conservation organisations, are published in the scientific journal PLoS One.

Over 60 co-authors contributed to the study, which was led by Dr Fiona Maisels, a WCS conservation scientist from the School of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, and Dr Samantha Strindberg, also a WCS conservation scientist.

"Although we were expecting to see these results, we were horrified that the decline over the period of a mere decade was over 60%," Dr Maisels told BBC Nature.

Findings also indicated that large areas where the elephants ranged just 10 years ago now have very few elephants remaining.

Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21655613

Poachers have killed more than 11,000 elephants in northern Gabon since 2004

As many as 75% of elephants killed since 2004

February 2013. A new study confirms what has been long suspected: elephant populations are being decimated to the point that the survival of the species in Central Africa is now in question.

According to a study by the Gabonese National Parks Agency, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), poachers have killed an estimated 11,100 elephants - between 44 to 77 per cent of the population -in parts of Minkébé's National Park and its surroundings in northern Gabon since 2004, when it held Africa's largest forest elephant population.
 

‘Out of control'

"The situation is out of control. We are witnessing the systematic slaughter of the world's largest land mammal," said Bas Huijbregts, head of the Central African strand of WWF's global campaign against illegal wildlife trade.

Ivory war has spread across Africa
"Some reports lead the world to believe that the ivory war has moved from the Central Africa region to other parts of the continent. This is wrong. What has changed is that these criminals are now also attacking the better protected elephant herds in Eastern and Southern Africa. But here in Central Africa, unnoticed to the world, elephants are losing this war at lightning speed."

Regional Crisis
Fiona Maisels, a conservation scientist at WCS who has been analyzing the survey data, said that the data pointed to a regional crisis.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/gabon-elephants013.html

Animals struggling to survive on Zimbabwe's Starvation Island

The island has shrunk to about one-third of its original size after record seasonal rains from central Africa drained into the Kariba lake.


The two-square-mile island has become four dots of land in the lake, stranding hundreds of animals without enough to eat. At least 200 animals are in immediate danger of starvation, conservationists have warned.
Eight impalas were stuck on one part that was surrounded by encroaching water, said wildlife guide Richard Vickery. Two impalas managed to swim to larger rocks nearby as their tiny refuge shrank. But more than 20 animals plunged into the water and seven of them drowned, Mr Vickery said.


Some of the exhausted survivors swam to safety and others were assisted by a boat of rescuers holding them by the horns to keep their heads above water for the last stretch of their escape.

Elephants and some other animals have routinely swum to and from the island, but smaller species of antelope, kudu, buck, warthogs and monkeys either won't dare swim more than a few feet or are too weak reach the main lake shore about two miles away.

Funds are being raised by conservationists, including the SAVE Foundation of Australia, to take hay bales and food blocks to the animals who remain on the island.

"We would rather try to feed them than dart and capture them and bring them out because they are weak and have not been exposed to predators except for crocodiles," Mr Vickery said.

The Kariba dam was completed in 1960 and stretches about 190 miles (300 kilometers) along Zimbabwe's northern border with Zambia. During the dam construction on the Zambezi River, tens of thousands of animals were herded inland from the vast valley as it filled. Others were captured and relocated from high ground and outcrops like Starvation Island. That program was known as Operation Noah.