Poaching of old forest elephant matriarchs threatens rainforests

Scientists warn that killing of the oldest, wisest females -- the guardians of their community's forest and social knowledge- could cause cascading effects on ecosystem integrity

Date: May 12, 2016

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

Scientists working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Stirling, and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants say that the high levels of poaching forest elephants will result in a loss of the oldest, wisest matriarchs, who are living libraries of their vast rainforest domain. The oldest females guide and teach their young where to go for food and minerals, what to eat, how to process tricky foods, and how to avoid danger. Without these mothers, forest elephant social lives and their understanding of their ecosystem will be lost. This exacerbates the ongoing loss of ecosystem function already underway by the loss of these most effective seed dispersers and forest gardeners.

Future conservation plans for the lesser known cousin of the African savannah elephant, they say, must include strategies that consider changes to elephant social structure, habitat integrity, and pressure from growing human populations.

The essay titled "Consequences for elephants and forests: poaching and anthropogenic change" appears in the online version of Conservation Biology. The authors are: Thomas Breuer of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Fiona Maisels of the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Stirling; and Vicki Fishlock of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants and the University of Stirling.

"We've been aware of the catastrophic decline of forest elephants since 2013" said WCS Conservationist Dr. Thomas Breuer, lead author of the essay. "But, as with savannah elephants, the impacts are greatest when we lose the matriarchs."

Scientists conducting long-term studies on savannah elephants have documented numerous and long-lasting effects of poaching and other forms of anthropogenic disruption on behavior. For instance, savannah elephants exposed to poaching become more nocturnal and more skittish outside of protected areas, which in turn can become more crowded with elephants and may be impacted by increased grazing and browsing.

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Agreements working to stop beef ranches destroying Brazil rainforest says study

The destruction of large areas of rainforest in Brazil to provide pasture for beef herds has been positively affected by “zero deforestation agreements” between the Brazilian government and ranchers.

A recent study conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison and published in the journal Conservation Letters, assesses the impact of these agreements on the country's rainforests. 

The team found that these zero deforestation agreements prompted ranchers to swiftly register their properties in an environmental registry, led slaughterhouses to actively block purchases from ranches with recent deforestation, and saw lower deforestation rates among supplying ranches.

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Poison frogs rely on experience to find the way home in the rainforest - via Herp Digest

Biology Letters, Published November 19, 2014 , Volume 10 Issue 11

Go to 

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/11/20140642

to see entire article for free

Andrius Pašukonis, 

Ian Warrington, 

Max Ringler, 

Walter Hödl

Abstract

Among vertebrates, comparable spatial learning abilities have been found in birds, mammals, turtles and fishes, but virtually nothing is known about such abilities in amphibians. Overall, amphibians are the most sedentary vertebrates, but poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) routinely shuttle tadpoles from terrestrial territories to dispersed aquatic deposition sites. We hypothesize that dendrobatid frogs rely on learning for flexible navigation. We tested the role of experience with the local cues for poison frog way-finding by (i) experimentally displacing territorial males of Allobates femoralis over several hundred metres, (ii) using a harmonic direction finder with miniature transponders to track these small frogs, and (iii) using a natural river barrier to separate the translocated frogs from any familiar landmarks. We found that homeward orientation was disrupted by the translocation to the unfamiliar area but frogs translocated over similar distances in their local area showed significant homeward orientation and returned to their territories via a direct path. We suggest that poison frogs rely on spatial learning for way-finding in their local area.

Rainforests in Far East shaped by humans for the last 11,000 years

Date: January 24, 2014

Source: Queen's University, Belfast

Summary:  New research shows that the tropical forests of South East Asia have been shaped by humans for the last 11,000 years. The rain forests of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Thailand and Vietnam were previously thought to have been largely unaffected by humans, but the latest research suggests otherwise.

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Monkeys can identify human hunters

By Ella Davies, Reporter, BBC Nature

Woolly monkeys can identify human hunters by their behaviour, research has revealed.

Poeppig's woolly monkeys live in the rainforests of Ecuador, Peru and Brazil but are vulnerable to hunting by the local Amazonian people.

Scientists investigating how the monkeys respond to threats found that they acted differently depending on the behaviour of humans in the forest.

The results are published in the online journal PLoS One.

Woolly monkeys are named for their thick covering of fur and are found in the rainforests of South America.

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, all four species are hunted for food.

To understand how the monkeys responded to this threat, researchers from Imperial College, London, UK travelled to Ecuador to study the behaviour of Poeppig's woolly monkeys.

"We worked with wild woolly monkeys [and] presented them with a person behaving as a hunter, gatherer or researcher at two sites with differing hunting pressure," explained PhD student Sarah Papworth, co-author of the paper.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/22128404

Amphibians yield new parasite species – via Herp Digest

MEDIA CLUB SOUTH AFRICA. COM 11/5/12 BY Wilma den Hatigh.  Professor Louis du Preez from North-West University has discovered five new parasite species in the rain forests of French Guiana in South America. 

A renowned South African researcher has discovered five new parasite species – considered by many scientists to be nigh impossible to find – in the rain forests of French Guiana in South America.

Professor Louis du Preez from North-West University (NWU), who is an expert on flatworm parasites that live in amphibians and fresh water turtles, didn’t know that his research mission to the remote South American forests would yield such a remarkable find.

Du Preez says the parasite species were found in a caecilian, a legless earthworm-like amphibian, in turtles and in a frog.

"We knew beforehand that chances of finding this caecilian were slim, and those of finding the parasite in one even slimmer,” he says.

“Our best scenario was to get one, and we got five.”

Answering questions about amphibians

He says although the discovery is not of veterinary or economic importance, it will help researchers to answer important evolutionary questions about amphibians and their geographical location.

“Now that we have the DNA of the parasite we can find out how its hosts evolved,” he says. “Amphibians were around long before dinosaurs, yet they survived when dinosaurs became extinct.”

Du Preez, who is also an authority on frogs, says it is important to research these amphibians as their survival is critical for a healthy ecosystem.

Frogs are the most threatened vertebrate group in the world because of habitat destruction and the threat of disease and fungi.

“Frogs are important because they eat vast quantities of potentially harmful insects and serve as staple food for some birds and reptiles. Wherever frog numbers are in decline, there is a disruption in the ecosystem.”

An unusual research trip

Du Preez’s search for the parasites started when the National Museum of Scotland contacted him about a parasite they discovered in a caecilian which had been preserved in a bottle of formalin for 120 years.

Scientists were examining the specimen as part of a study on the reproductive organs of caecilians.

But the scientists couldn’t study the DNA as it had been destroyed by the formalin.

The only solution was to find a living sample – and the aim of the research mission was to find the parasites in a caecilian so that the DNA could be extracted.

“We needed to search for a live parasite,” Du Preez says. “It was a huge gamble because we were told that we didn’t stand a chance, but we decided to go and look anyway, and on day two we found it.”

Into the jungle in a banana boat

A team consisting of Du Preez, Oliver Verneau from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and an NWU postdoctoral student, Mathieu Badets, travelled to the virtually inaccessible area of the French Guiana forests in search of the elusive parasite.

Du Preez describes the research mission and discovery as one of his career highlights.

They first stayed at the CNRS base in Cayenne before embarking on a gruelling 120-kilometre trip upstream on the Approuague River in a dugout canoe, also known as a banana boat.

“It took seven hours to travel up the river to reach our destination,” he tells.

The team was based at a remote French scientific research base in the Nouraques Reserve next to the river.

“There are no roads to access it, and the only way is by helicopter, which is very costly, or a banana boat, which is much more cost effective,” Du Preez explains.

They had to take all their equipment and microscopes with them, but the base is well equipped with basic infrastructure and food kept in freezers.

The base lies only four degrees north of the equator and du Preez says the team had to work in hot and rainy tropical conditions, with a constant threat of venomous snakes and jaguars.

“We never slept on the floor. I spent two weeks sleeping in a hammock while at the research base,” he says.

Finding the parasites

Du Preez explains that they were only allowed to catch two kinds of aquatic turtles as part of their research.

The turtles were kept in containers filled with water, after which the water was examined for the parasites. Three aquatic caecilians were also caught in the reserve and in one of the caecilians they found the rare polystome, or flatworm.

"Now, at last, we could extract the DNA from the parasites to see where they fit into the evolutionary development process,” Du Preez says.

He says these discoveries can help to establish how the parasites developed and how they spread across the earth over geological time, as this group of parasites is species-specific.

He adds that amphibians are the first group of vertebrates that moved onto dry land, even before dinosaurs.

“The parasites found in the group of aquatic animals consequently give us a good indication of when this movement occurred in geological time.”

Answering more questions

Du Preez says the discovery of the unique parasites will be keeping scientists very busy in months to come. He is in the process of analysing the new species and describing them, but their research has created even more questions.

He expects to return to the rain forests to do more research next year.

“It was an incredible place to do research and we have been invited by the CNRS to visit the base again.”

More Amazon extinctions looming unless action is taken: study - via Kithra

The rainforests have been subjected to widespread deforestation over recent decades as trees have been chopped down to allow areas of farmland to expand, and to make way for roads. Among the many species threatened with extinction are the Brazilian bare-faced tamarins and white-cheeked spider monkeys. Previous mathematical models of the effects of deforestation on biodiversity have assumed the deforestation occurs as a single event. The new research extended the model to see what happens when deforestation occurs in a number of events rather than just one, which more closely models the real situation. Leader of the research team, Dr Robert M. Ewers from Imperial College London, said there is a time lapse between deforestation and extinctions because animals do not usually die directly, but are forced to live more densely in smaller areas. This leads to increased mortality through reduced breeding rates and more intense competition for food. Mathematician Daniel Reuman, also from Imperial College, explained that if deforestation occurs in one area and then in another area before the effects of chopping down trees in the first area are felt, there is an “outstanding debt.” The team used their new model to examine data on deforestation and data on individual vertebrate species affected by loss of habitat over the period 1970-2008, and they found that 80 to 90 percent of extinctions caused by existing deforestation are yet to occur, giving the rainforest a massive “extinction debt.” The team also used the model to examine a range of scenarios for the future of the rainforest over the next 40 years. These included scenarios with no change from current policies to the more optimistic scenario of a halt to deforestation by 2020. They found that for the most optimistic scenario 38 species would still be lost, but in the worst case scenario 40-50 species would become extinct in the period with an extinction debt of 100 more that would be lost later.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-07-amazon-extinctions-looming-action.html#jCp

New species of frog named nectophyrnoides deloittei in recognition of Deloitte’s support for rainforest conservation work

Leap year for Deloitte

2 March 2011

A new species of frog has been named after Deloitte, in recognition of the firm’s work in helping to preserve the Rubeho Forest in Tanzania, an ecologically distinct part of the country known as the ‘Galapagos of Africa’. Nectophrynoides deloittei was discovered in the Rubeho Forest in 2005 was named by the African Rainforest Conservancy (ARC), an agency set up to conserve and restore Africa’s rainforests.

Deloitte is a founder of the United Bank of Carbon, a UK registered charity that brokers partnerships between individual businesses and specific rainforest conservation projects run by established NGOs. Through this partnership, Deloitte identified a rainforest conservation project with ARC to provide an opportunity for its people to support an environmental cause through fundraising and volunteering.

The firm raised over £200,000 to support the project in the past year with all funds going towards the on-going conservation of the entire mountain and forest range in the Rubeho region and helping to ensure the local community can earn a sustainable living from the forest.

Heather Hancock, Managing Partner for Innovation and Brand at Deloitte, said: “This project was a pioneering move by Deloitte. We wanted to demonstrate our commitment to the rainforest, to biodiversity and to the development needs of local people. And we wanted to learn more about how we could make a difference in remote and important parts of the world.

“At Deloitte, we believe it is our responsibility to show leadership in tackling the environmental challenges that face us all. It is a rare honour that ARC have chosen to name a newly discovered species from the Ruhebo region for our firm, and one we will cherish.”

Carter Coleman, President of the African Rainforest Conservancy said: “Twenty years of ‘on-the-ground’ projects led by ARC have yielded 10 million trees planted and many new economic and educational opportunities in Tanzania’s Eastern Arc region.

“By empowering those living amidst the forest—endowing them with project ownership—we have helped the local people remain invested in preserving their natural heritage for decades to come. The Deloitte Rainforest Conservation Project is a great example of this and we are delighted to honour Deloitte UK this year with the name of a new species”.

http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/news/news-releases/c0b9bc3f0167e210VgnVCM2000001b56f00aRCRD.htm

Rainforest collapse kickstarted reptile evolution

The fragmentation of tropical rainforests 300 million years ago helped pave the way for the rise of the dinosaurs, a new study suggests.By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News


In the Carboniferous period, North America and Europe lay at the equator and were covered by steamy rainforest.

Global warming is thought to have brought about the collapse of these tropical habitats, triggering an evolutionary burst among reptiles.

The work, by a British team, is published in the journal Geology.

The forests that covered the ancient supercontinent of Euramerica are colloquially referred to as the Coal Forests.

The team used fossils to track the course of reptile evolution


They are so called because they accumulated a large amount of peat, which later turned into the coal that is mined today.

Towards the end of the Carboniferous, the Earth's climate is thought to have grown hotter and drier.

"Climate change caused rainforests to fragment into small 'islands' of forest," said co-author Howard Falcon-Lang, from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Dr Falcon-Lang continued: "This isolated populations of reptiles, and each community evolved in separate directions, leading to an increase in diversity."

To reach their conclusions, the scientists studied the fossil record of reptiles before and after the collapse of the rainforests.

They showed that reptiles became more diverse and even changed their diets as they struggled to adapt to a rapidly changing climate and environment.

Advantage reptiles
Professor Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, said: "This is a classic ecological response to habitat fragmentation.

"You see the same process happening today whenever a group of animals becomes isolated from its parent population.

Reptiles diversified into forms such as Dimetrodon, a top predator in Permian times


"It's been studied on traffic islands between major road systems or, as Charles Darwin famously observed in the Galapagos, on oceanic islands."

His Bristol colleague Sarda Sahney commented: "It is fascinating that even in the face of devastating ecosystem-collapse, animals may continue to diversify."

Amphibians appear to have been hardest hit by the collapse of the rainforests. The relative success of reptiles may have been due to physical adaptations in which they differed from amphibians.

Firstly, the hard-shelled eggs of reptiles could be laid on dry land (most amphibians lay theirs in water). Secondly, reptiles possess protective scales that help them retain moisture (amphibian skin is very permeable to water).

"These key adaptations freed them from the aquatic habitats to which amphibians were tied and gave them ecologic advantage in the widespread drylands that developed," the researchers write in Geology.