Gray wolves, once nearly extinct, could be coming back to Colorado

Conservationists are applauding a ballot measure to reintroduce the gray wolf to the state. But ranchers and hunters are putting up a fight

Josiah Hesse

Thu 23 Jan 2020 11.00 GMTLast modified on Thu 23 Jan 2020 11.02 GMT


The gray wolf, once numbering in the tens of thousands throughout North America, have faced public vilification and extermination programs that drove it to near extinction in the US. Now Colorado will vote on whether to reintroduce them into the wild after an 80-year absence, thanks to an effort that has cattle ranchers outraged but which conservationists say could restore an ecosystem that has long suffered without the apex predator.

The species was systematically exterminated by controversial, US government-backed programs in the 19th and 20th centuries. This was primarily due to wolves’ attacks on the cattle, a booming industry that has been integral to the expanding west economy. By 1940, wolves were almost completely gone.

Their inclusion on the 1973 Endangered Species Act, along with a 1995 effort to build a home for them in Yellowstone national park, has helped bring their numbers back up to 5,500 in the lower 48 states.

This year, a ballot measure in Colorado will let voters decide whether a home should be built for the gray wolf in the state. Polling indicates the measure is likely to pass, though segments of both the ranching and hunting communities are strongly opposed.

Conservationists argue that eradication of wolves threw the ecology of the Rocky Mountains into disarray, with elk and deer excessively grazing in open lands where they otherwise would have been targets for wolves, created a domino effect that has harmed a variety of species.

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Rare sand lizards reintroduced to Eelmoor Marsh, UK - via Herp Digest

September, 23 2019

Image caption

Sand lizards are protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981

Eighty juvenile sand lizards - one of the UK's rarest reptiles - have been released into the wild in Hampshire.

Conservationists from Marwell Wildlife released the creatures at Eelmoor Marsh, near Farnborough.

The animals were tagged with tiny radio transmitters as part of the group's three-year research project.

The programme has so far brought the number of lizards reintroduced at the site to 240, with the aim of creating a self-sustaining population.

Once common in heathlands across southern England, habitat loss means sand lizards are now only found in a handful of sites.

PhD student Rachel Gardner, who led the scheme, said: "It's been a privilege to work on this project and observe the sand lizards in such detail.

"We hope the research will help inform and make recommendations for the reintroduction protocol in the future, and therefore help optimise its conservation success."

Sand lizard facts:

•                 They live on protected heathland sites in Surrey, Dorset, Hampshire and in the protected Merseyside dunes
•                 They grow up to 20cm (7.8in) long and weigh about 15g (0.5oz)
•                 Both sexes have brown patterns down their backs with two stripes
•                 Their diet is mainly insects, spiders and grasshoppers

Source: Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

Beaver reintroduction key to solving freshwater biodiversity crisis

Date: August 26, 2019

Source: University of Stirling

Reintroducing beavers to their native habitat is an important step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis, according to experts at the University of Stirling.

New research from the Faculty of Natural Sciences has provided further support to previous work that has shown beavers have an important impact on the variety of plant and animal life.

The latest study, led by Dr Alan Law and Professor Nigel Willby, found that the number of species only found in beaver-built ponds was 50 percent higher than other wetlands in the same region.

Dr Law, Lecturer in Biological and Environmental Sciences, said: "Beavers make ponds that, at first glance, are not much different from any other pond. However, we found that the biodiversity -- predominantly water plants and beetles -- in beaver ponds was greater than and surprisingly different from that found in other wetlands in the same region.

"Our results also emphasise the importance of natural disturbance by big herbivores -- in this case, tree felling, grazing and digging of canals by beavers -- in creating habitat for species which otherwise tend to be lost.

"Reintroducing beavers where they were once native should benefit wider biodiversity and should be seen as an important and bold step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis."

Beavers are one of the only animals that can profoundly engineer the environment that they live in -- using sticks to build dams across small rivers, behind which ponds form. Beavers do this to raise water levels to avoid predators, such as wolves and bears: however, numerous other plants and animals also benefit from their work.

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More bears needed to sustain Pyrenees population: activists

December 26, 2018

A protest by shepherds in Pau, southwest France, this year against the reintroduction of bears in the Pyrenees mountains

The release of additional bears into the Pyrenees mountains straddling France and Spain is needed to ensure the fledgling population's survival, the activist group charged with the bears' protection said Wednesday.

"The good news of 2018 is without doubt the release of two bears in the Bearn region in October," the Ferus association said, referring to the border region.

"But there's still a long road ahead of us," it added.

Government officials have pushed ahead with plans to reintroduce brown bears in a bid to boost biodiversity, despite fierce resistance by sheep and other livestock producers.

Around 40 bears currently roam the mountains since France began importing them from Slovenia in 1996, with Ferus hoping the two newest, Claverina and Sorita, will have cubs sometime next year.

Environmental activists say they are crucial for maintaining a fragile ecosystem threatened by human activity and climate change.

Some farmers, however, have vowed to shoot the bears on sight, saying they are decimating flocks, which now require costly protection from the predators.

Claims by farmers for government compensation have soared, rising by 70 percent this year to 448 cases in the single French department of Ariege, where opposition to the bears has been particularly intense.

"Complete security for the bears is far from assured because of an anti-bear minority which remains violent," Ferus said.

Read more at:

Water voles returning to national park in west country after 30 years

150 ‘Ratty’ river creatures to be released in Somerset estate where they had become extinct

Steven Morris

Tue 11 Sep 2018 00.01 BST

One of the most beloved and endangered riverine creatures is returning to a west country national park where it has been extinct for more than three decades.

Over the next few days 150 water voles will be released at six locations in the Aller river on the Holnicote Estate on Exmoor in Somerset.

Once regularly spotted on Britain’s riverbanks, they are now the nation’s fastest declining land mammal, disappearing from 94% of their former sites due to factors including increased urbanisation, predators and a decline in natural habitat.

The new arrivals at Holnicote will be closely watched to see how they are settling in. Rangers, volunteers, students and members of the public will monitor their numbers.

They will use simple field signs to record their presence and behaviour, from actual sightings and “plopping” sounds as they dive into water to the tell-tale signal of grass blades nibbled off at distinctive 45 degree angles.

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Bringing back large herbivores to the steppes

For the first time in more than a century, kulan -- or Asiatic wild ass -- are now roaming the central steppes of Kazakhstan

Date:  November 7, 2017

Source:  Norwegian Institute for Nature Research

Summary:

On 24th October 2017, the first group of nine kulan (Asiatic wild ass) was released into an acclimatization enclosure on the edge of the Altyn Dala protected area in central Kazakhstan. The animals had been transported 1200 km by helicopter from Altyn Emel National Park in the southeast of the country. They will be released in early spring. This is the first step in a multi-year project that aims to restore the full range of large herbivores to this unique area of steppe habitat.

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The plan to reintroduce a big cat that might never have existed

13 September 2017

Ideas are afoot to return the clouded leopard to Taiwan, where it was declared extinct in 2013. Yet some say the big cat never lived there

By Sean Mowbray

“THIS is another animal from the distant wilds of the interior, whose skins the savages bring to the borders to barter with the Chinese.” With these words, published in 1862, Robert Swinhoe introduced the Formosan clouded leopard to the Western world. Europe’s consular representative to Taiwan, he had seen only a few flattened skins on the island, but this was enough for him to distinguish it as a species new to science. Unlike its relatives elsewhere in Asia, wrote Swinhoe, the Formosan clouded leopard had a short tail.

It was declared extinct in 2013, but this is no ordinary story about a large cat being wiped off the planet. There’s a catch. Plans are afoot to bring the svelte feline’s closest relative back to Taiwan – despite lingering questions over whether the clouded leopard ever existed at all.

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Kazakhstan to reintroduce wild tigers after 70-year absence

Project supported by WWF is likely to take many years and involves creation of nature reserve and restoration of forest

Sandra Laville

Friday 8 September 2017 08.52 BSTLast modified on Friday 8 September 2017 10.25 BST

Wild tigers are to be reintroduced to Kazakhstan 70 years after they became extinct in the country.

The animals will be reintroduced in the Ili-Balkhash region in a project that involves the creation of a nature reserve and the restoration of a forest that is part of the animal’s historical range.

If successful, Kazakhstan will be the first country in the world to bring wild tigers back to an entire region where they have been extinct for nearly half a century. Previous relocation projects have only been considered in existing tiger habitats, such as in reserves in India.

Poaching and habitat loss has decimated the wildlife on which wild tigers once fed, including the kulkan, or wild donkey, and bactrian deer, both native to central Asia. The animals will be reintroduced to the nature reserve to provide enough food for the tigers when they are relocated from elsewhere in Asia.

The project, which is being supported by WWF, is likely to take many years. The landscape has to be prepared and the wildlife they feed on reintroduced before the first tigers are brought in in 2025 at the earliest.

Igor Chestin, the director of WWF-Russia said: “Thanks to years of close collaboration between Kazakhstan and Russian conservation experts, we have now identified the best possible territory in Ili-Balkhash for the restoration of a thriving wild tiger population.

Read on 

Reintroduced Przewalski's horses have a different diet

Date:  July 20, 2017

Source:  University of Veterinary Medicine -- Vienna

Summary:  The preferred fodder of horses is grass. This is true for domestic horses and wild horses in the Gobi Desert. Researchers have now found through tail hair analysis that before their extinction in the wild Przewalski's horses had been on a different diet than today. Thanks to improved societal attitude, the horses have now access to richer pastures. In former times, the wild horses were hunted and chased away.

     

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Black rhinos return to Rwanda 10 years after disappearance

Around 20 eastern black rhinos are being moved to Akagera national park from South Africa

Agence France-Presse

Wednesday 3 May 2017 02.27 BST

Around 20 endangered eastern black rhinos are returning in an “extraordinary homecoming” to Rwanda after the species disappeared from the country 10 years ago, the African Parks organisation has said.

The rhinos are being moved from South Africa to the Akagera national park in eastern Rwanda, according to the non-profit group that manages protected areas for African governments.

“This extraordinary homecoming will take place over the first two weeks of May,” it said in a statement.

The eastern black rhino, one of the sub-species of the rhinoceros, is in critical danger of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Back in the 1970s, more than 50 black rhinos thrived in the savannah habitat of the Akagera park, but their numbers declined due to wide-scale poaching and the last confirmed sighting was in 2007.

“Rhinos are one of the great symbols of Africa yet they are severely threatened and are on the decline in many places across the continent due to the extremely lucrative and illegal rhino horn trade,” said African Parks boss Peter Fearnhead.

According to the conservationists, there are fewer than 5,000 black rhino in the wild worldwide, with only about 1,000 of the eastern sub-species.

Since 2010 African Parks has boosted security at Akagera and has prepared to accept the rhinos with financial help from the Howard Buffett Foundation, headed by the son of US billionaire Warren Buffett.

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Campaigners seek to reintroduce Eurasian lynx to parts of Britain

Charity begins local consultation on plan to introduce 10 Eurasian lynxes back into wild in north of England and southern Scotland

Libby Brooks

Sunday 24 July 201615.53 BST Last modified on Sunday 24 July 201616.10 BST

Lynx could soon be reintroduced to the north of England and southern Scotland as the charity campaigning for the return of the wild mammal, which was last seen across Britain around 700AD, launches its final stage of a consultation.

The project to introduce 10 Eurasian lynxes back into the wild, which has also considered sites in Aberdeenshire, will this week begin discussions with farmers and tourist operators around Kielder Forest in Northumberland.

Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser of the Lynx UK Trust, described the cross-border site and the largest forested area in Britain as ideal because of its low human population density, limited road networks and large deer populations.

Following this local consultation, which is expected to last two to three months, the trust will submit its licence application to Natural England and Scottish Natural Heritage in the autumn, and expects a “speedy and positive” response.

It will source lynx for the trial while the application is being considered, and O’Donoghue said the animals could be reintroduced “as soon as practicably possible”.

The Eurasian lynx, which were hunted for their highly prized pelts, have been successfully reintroduced in northern Germany, where 14 of the cats introduced in 2000 have grown to a population of up to 100.

Their preferred diet of roe deer makes them popular with the rewilding movement, which argues for the reintroduction of apex predators in order to control herbivore populations, promote forest growth and reinvigorate ecosystems.

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Reintroduction of lynx requires larger numbers to avoid genetic depletion

Date: May 19, 2016

Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB)

For successful reintroduction of lynx into the wild, the number of released animals is crucial. If only a few lynx are reintroduced to found a population, the genetic diversity is too low to ensure their long-term sustainability. An international research team has recently published these findings in the scientific journal Conservation Genetics. The researchers highlight the need to strengthen newly established European lynx populations by additional translocations of lynx as well as other conservation measures.

Scientists of the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), the Bavarian Forest National Park (Germany), the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland) and the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) investigated the genetic status of two lynx populations in the Bohemian-Bavarian and Vosges-Palatinian forests in central Europe.

The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is the largest European cat species and has been protected in the EU since 1992. Originally spread throughout all of Europe, the species is now mainly limited to protected areas such as national parks. Current populations only exist because countries have invested a considerable effort to protect lynx in Europe or to reintroduced them to suitable habitat in its former range. Reintroduced populations face some specific challenges: "Our results show that these reintroduced populations usually consist of too few individuals to be self-sustaining. Small populations are highly vulnerable to loss of genetic variation because each individual represents a high percentage of the population's gene pool," explains Daniel Förster, geneticist at the IZW.

The population in the Bohemian-Bavarian forest was founded by introducing 5 to 10 lynxes in the 1970s and later supplementing them with 18 additional individuals. The population in the Vosges-Palatinian forest was founded by 21 lynxes released between 1983 and 1993. From this already limited number of founders, only some individuals actually produced offspring. "From a genetic point of view this means that the few founder animals represented little genetic variation," says Jörns Fickel, coauthor of the study and also a geneticist at the IZW. To assess the effect of the reintroduction on the genetic status of these two lynx populations, the scientists compared their genetic diversity with those of naturally occurring lynx populations in Eastern Europe. For this purpose they analysed molecular markers in lynx DNA obtained from fecal, blood, and tissue samples.

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British public vote in favour of lynx reintroduction

The majority of the British public would like to see the lynx back in the British countryside a survey carried out by the Lynx UK Trust shows.

More than 9,000 people took part in the survey, with 91% supporting a trial reintroduction and 84% believing it should begin within the next 12 months.

Almost seven weeks ago the Lynx UK Trust, a team of international wildlife and conservation experts, announced their hopes to carry out a trial reintroduction of Eurasian lynx to the UK. Wiped out in the UK over 1,300 years ago by fur hunters, lynx have been successfully reintroduced across Europe, and the team hope that reintroduction here will provide a valuable natural control on the UK's overpopulated deer species, leading to forest regeneration and a boost to the entire ecosystem.

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Lynx to be reintroduced into wild in Britain after a 1,300-year absence

The predators eat deer, rabbits and hares among other animals but are not considered a risk to people

IAN JOHNSTON

Lynx are to be reintroduced into the wild in Britain after a 1,300-year absence, under an ambitious “rewilding” plan drawn up by a conservation charity.

The Lynx UK Trust would release up to 18 of the cats onto private estates in Aberdeenshire, Cumbria and Norfolk if the idea is given the go-ahead by Natural England and Scottish Natural Heritage.

The predators eat deer, rabbits and hares among other animals but are not considered a risk to people as they tend to stay away from humans.

Dr Paul O’Donoghue, who advises the trust, told The Sunday Times: “The lynx is one of the most enigmatic, beautiful cats on the planet. The British countryside is dying, and lynx will bring it back to life.”

Source

How the coalition is stopping the reintroduction of wildlife to the UK

The infrastructure bill seeks to reclassify extinct species as non-native, and prevent them from returning

Can any more destructive and regressive measures be crammed into one piece of legislation? Already, the infrastructure bill, which, as time goes by, has ever less to do with infrastructure, looks like one of those US monstrosities into which a random collection of demands by corporate lobbyists are shoved, in the hope that no one notices.

So far it contains (or is due to contain) the following assaults on civilisation and the natural world:

• It exempts fracking companies from the trespass laws.

• It brings in a legal requirement for the government to maximise the economic recovery of petroleum from the UK's continental shelf. This is directly at odds with another legal requirement – to minimise the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.

• It abandons the government's commitment to make all new homes zero-carbon by 2016.

• It introduces the possibility (through clauses 21 and 22) of a backdoor route to selling off the public forest estate. When this was attempted before, it was thwarted by massive public protest.

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White-faced darter dragonfly reintroduced to Cheshire

A project to reintroduce a rare dragonfly to Cheshire has had "a successful start", a wildlife trust has said.

The white-faced darter dragonfly was last recorded in the county in 2003.

Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT) have placed 100 larvae into pools in Delamere Forest in the hope that they will thrive.

It is only the second time a dragonfly reintroduction has been attempted, following a project in Cumbria in 2010.

'Long-term hope'

The dragonfly, which CWT said was "one of the UK's rarest", is only found in Cumbria, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Scotland.

Dr Vicky Nall, who led the project, said it had been a "tense" time for her team, as they waited to see the "first tentative emergence of the darters and begin the painstaking process of counting the dried larval cases they leave behind".

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Wolf top dog in BBC Countryfile reintroduction poll

A Highland landowner has a long-term plan to reintroduce wolves to Scotland

Wolves have been leading an online poll of animals people would like to see re-introduced to the British countryside.

European lynx and beavers have been joint second in the survey run by the BBC's Countryfile Magazine. Fewer votes have favoured bears and wild boar

The magazine launched the poll following its interview with Highland landowner Paul Lister.

Mr Lister has a long-term plan to release wolves and bears on his Alladale Estate in Sutherland.

More than 400 votes have been cast so far in the online poll.

Elk and wild boar were introduced on a trial basis to the 23,000-acre Alladale Estate in the past, but Highland cattle are the biggest animals to be found there today.

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Ratty returns to riverbank after absence of a decade

A much loved animal which has become extinct in a huge tract of the South West is being reintroduced – Martin Hesp went to Bude Marsh to find out more.

When most readers viewing this article were young, water voles were common in the Westcountry – now they are rare. So rare, that they've been extinct in Cornwall for over a decade.

But a pioneering project developed by a new nature conservation charity – Westland Countryside Stewards – is now on course to return one of Britain's best loved mammals to the riverine landscapes west of the Tamar.

In early 2013, more than 300 captive-bred water voles were released at a number of locations on the River Strat above the Bude Marshes.

Read on

Near extinct snails bred at ZSL London Zoo to be released back into the wild

Populations of the snails were decimated after the predatory rosy wolf snail (Euglandina rosea) was introduced from Florida in the 1970s

Tiny endangered tree-snails to be reintroduced onto Tahiti

September 2013. Hundreds of tiny endangered tree-snails will be reintroduced to their former Polynesian home following the incredible success of an international breeding programme led by ZSL London Zoo.

30 year absence

Three species of Partula snail, Partula affinis, Partula nodosa, and Partula hyalina, which were bred at ZSL London Zoo and other partner zoos around the world, will be released on to the island of Tahiti in October after a nearly 30 year absence. 

ZSL London Zoo invertebrate keeper and coordinator of the international Partula studbook, Don McFarlane, along with staff from Bristol and Edinburgh Zoos, will be escorting the precious cargo of snails to Tahiti, where they will be released into a protected reserve in their native forest habitat. 

McFarlane said: "We're incredibly proud of the role ZSL London Zoo has played in bringing these snails back from the brink of extinction and reintroducing them to their native Tahiti. There used to be more than 70 species of Partula tree snails across the Pacific French Polynesian islands, but due to man's influence, most of these species are now endangered or extinct in the wild. 

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Bumblebee, extinct in UK, breeding again after reintroduction

Experts celebrate as extinct bumblebee show first signs of comeback

September 2013. A bumblebee species driven to extinction in the UK has nested for the first time in a quarter of a century. The short-haired bumblebee disappeared from our shores in the 1980s and a mission to reintroduce it was launched at the RSPB Dungeness reserve in Kent. After two releases of queen bees at the site experts have now recorded offspring worker bees for the first time.

Milestone

Dr Nikki Gammans, who leads the project, said: "This is a milestone for the project and a real victory for conservation. We now have proof that this bumblebee has nested and hatched young and we hope it is on the way to becoming a self-supporting wild species in the UK once again.

"It's been a long journey to get here, from creating the right habitat for them, collecting queens in the Swedish countryside, scanning them for diseases and then eventually releasing them at Dungeness. Seeing worker bees for the first time is a fantastic reward for all that hard work, but we still have a way to go to ensure this population is safe and viable.

25 UK species of bumble bee

"Bumblebees are among the most threatened wildlife in the UK - we have 25 species, seven are declining and two have been declared extinct. The State of Nature report launched in May highlighted the short-haired bumblebee project as a beacon of hope for nature so we're very proud to have recorded the first signs of success."

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