Not Extinct After All, Fanged Kashmir Musk Deer Spotted In Afghanistan

April Flowers for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Until sixty years ago, there were seven species of musk deer roaming the continent of Asia. That’s when the last sighting of the Kashmir musk deer occurred in Afghanistan, leaving behind the Alpine, the Siberian, the Dwarf, the Black, the Anhui and the White-bellied species. The Kashmir musk deer, a strange breed with vampire-like fangs, was last spotted by a Danish survey team in 1948. That is, until a new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) was released in a recent edition of the journal Oryx.

The endangered, and presumed extinct, deer has been spotted at five different times by a research team in the forested slopes of the northeastern province of Nuristan. The team reported seeing a solitary male in the same area on three occasions, one female with a fawn, and one solitary female. The last sighting might have been the same female without her young. Because the deer are difficult to spot, and the sightings all occurred in challenging locations — steep rocky outcrops, alpine meadows and scattered, dense high juniper and rhododendron bushes — the research team was unable to get a photograph of the deer.

Like its cousin, the Siberian musk deer, however, the Kashmir musk deer has long fangs used during mating season to joust for mates. They are a small species of deer, standing just over two feet tall at the shoulder, reports Richard Farrell for Discovery News.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species lists the Kashmir musk deer as Endangered because of the loss of habitat and poaching. The animal’s scent glands are prized by poachers for traditional medicines and perfumes, selling for over $20,000 per pound on the black market, Rachel Feltman of the Washington Post reports.

Read more at

New national park for Afghanistan

April 2014: The Wakhan District in Afghanistan has been declared the country’s second national park. Wakhan District, one of the most remote areas of Afghanistan, will provide protection for Afghanistan’s rare and vulnerable wildlife such as the snow leopard, Marco Polo sheep, lynx, Himalayan ibex and urial. This new protected area will be co-managed by the Afghanistan Government and local communities, providing livelihoods related to the park and improved services to one of the poorest and most isolated regions on earth.

It is just over 1 million hectares or 4,200 square miles and borders Tajikistan, Pakistan and China; its narrow valley landscape is sandwiched between the Pamir and Hindu Kush Mountains.

The Director-General of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) Prince Mostapha Zaher, the grandson of the country’s last King Zaher Shah, together with Asif Rahimi, the Minister for Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) formally made the historic Wakhan declaration.

Continued

Illegal hunting on the rise in Afghanistan

By Navin Singh Khadka

Environment reporter, BBC

Illegal wildlife hunting is on the rise in Afghanistan - threatening several key species, campaigners say.

Officials admit it is happening in most provinces despite regulations banning hunting, including a decree by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

There have been claims hunting is carried out by locals and by foreign nationals from Middle Eastern countries.

However, Afghan officials could not confirm this to BBC News.

The country has listed nearly 150 wild animals and birds as at-risk within its territory but there are no detailed records of how many have been killed or poached.

Continued

For the first time in Afghanistan women wildlife rangers are employed

November 2013: In a landmark event for Afghanistan four women have been hired as park rangers in the country’s Band-e-Amir National Park.

The employment of these four women represent a significant milestone for Afghanistan’s law enforcement and women’s employment. Less than one percent of Afghanistan National Police are female, according to NATO, while The World Bank estimates that only 16 percent of Afghan women are employed in the formal economy.

“The new park rangers powerfully demonstrate that Afghan women can successfully step into professional positions where they are actively engaged in protecting Afghanistan’s wildlife and wild places,” said Anne G. Williams, Wildlife Conservation Society's Afghanistan Livelihoods and Gender Advisor.

WCS Afghanistan Country Program Director Richard Paley said: “The four new women rangers will make a great contribution to the effective management of Band-e-Amir. In helping to safeguard Afghanistan’s wildlife and natural wonders, these new employees, along with their male colleagues, can serve as role models for other equally qualified and conservation-minded men and women.”

Read on

Elusive Snow Leopards Collared for Science

Scientists have outfitted two snow leopards in a wild corner of Afghanistan with satellite-tracking collars, a first for the country and a boon for researchers trying to better understand the habits and favored habitats of the endangered cats.

The snow leopards, both male, were captured in Afghanistan's northeastern Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of desolate, windswept mountains sandwiched between Pakistan and Tajikistan, and a spot where camera traps first snapped the elusive cats in 2011.

The first snow leopard was captured and released on May 27, the second on June 8.

Researchers weighed and measured the animals, took DNA samples and fitted them with satellite collars before sending them on their way.


In the intervening weeks, the first cat has traveled more than 78 miles (125 kilometers) and the second cat has traveled more than 95 miles (153 km), according to a statement from the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the main participants in the field work.


A film crew from Nat Geo WILD was on hand to document the research, for a film that is slated to air in December.


Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/21649-snow-leopards-tracked.html

Wildlife Conservation Society Video Advises Department of Defense on Threats of Illegal Wildlife Trade

initiative implores soldiers to cross illegal wildlife products off the holiday gift list, outlines costs to career, mission, and security

NEW YORK (December 22, 2011) - The Wildlife Conservation Society today announced the release of Caught in the Crosshairs: Combating the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Iraq and Afghanistan-a new video aimed at informing U.S. military personnel about the consequences of buying illegal wildlife products when deployed or stationed overseas.

The video  is the latest outreach tool in an ongoing initiative supported by the Department of Defense (DoD) Legacy Program that began in 2007 when WCS staff first noticed illegal items for sale on military bases near Kabul, Afghanistan. A subsequent survey of 395 soldiers at Fort Drum in June 2008 revealed that more than 40 percent of those surveyed had purchased or seen someone else in the military purchase products made from wildlife while stationed overseas.

Launched during the holiday season, it is hoped that the new video will educate and remind military personnel returning home to not purchase and transport these products as gifts for family and friends.

Many of the wildlife products available that end up on bases in Afghanistan and Iraq are from locally or globally threatened or endangered species such as snow leopard, Eurasian wolf, and Asiatic black bear. The purchase and transport of such products violates military regulations, U.S. laws such as the Endangered Species Act, national laws of Afghanistan, and obligations to international agreements such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

"Only a small fraction of respondents to our 2008 survey knew about the various laws regulating trade in illegal wildlife," said WCS North America Program Livelihoods Coordinator Dr. Heidi Kretser. "The video highlights the potential consequences for soldiers purchasing wildlife products and illustrates how demand for these items can put species at risk and contribute to local, regional, and global extinctions."

Military personnel and affiliates stationed overseas have significant buying power that influences local markets-including driving the demand for wildlife products. This is bad news for iconic wildlife such as snow leopards in Afghanistan that are endangered, yet are sometimes poached for their beautiful coat and other body parts. By demonstrating this cause and effect relationship to military personnel, the video looks to end demand for these products, and therefore, the incentive for dealers to carry them and support poaching.

The video, narrated by actor/director and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity Edward Norton, also alerts the viewer to other dangers of purchasing and transporting illegal wildlife products. These include threats associated with zoonotic disease (pathogens that occur in wildlife that are potentially transmissible to people), the depletion of scarce and/or culturally significant natural resources, and the inadvertent support of organized crime.

The video notes that law enforcement authorities are finding that organized crime groups that smuggle weapons and drugs are increasingly involved with the trade of illegal wildlife - a trade estimated to reach into the billions of dollars.

"We believe the video helps the message resonate with military personnel on several levels, said Katherine Hammack, Assistant Secretary of the Army, Installations, Energy & Environment. "If something is seized and it is understood that it has been intentionally purchased with the intent of transporting it back to the United States, then they are subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice and their command is notified. So it could jeopardize a soldier's entire career."

WCS Deputy Director of Asia Programs Peter Zahler said, "We are proud to be advising the DoD on this important project to reduce demand for wildlife products, protect military personnel from inadvertently breaking the law, and protect globally significant wildlife. This video will go a long way in helping both WCS and DoD achieve their missions."

Persian leopard photographed in Afghanistan

Camera trap images tell a story of the survival of Afghanistan's rugged wildlife and continued threats to many species
December 2011. Recent camera trap images from the rocky terrain of Afghanistan's central highlands have revealed a surprise: a Persian leopard, an apex predator long thought to have disappeared from the region, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In a series of images that provides indisputable proof that the big cat persists in the country's interior, a big adult leopard can be seen prowling around the camera trap's field of view and investigating the camera itself, appearing to threaten it with canines exposed.

Lynx, wild cat & wolf
The camera traps captured dozens of images of other wildlife species, including lynx, wild cat, wolf, red fox, and stone marten, an impressive suite of predators still surviving in the Hindu Kush highlands, where Wildlife Conservation Society scientists and Afghan rangers have been conducting surveys in recent months.

"To see such a varied array of wildlife after we have endured so much conflict gives us hope for Afghanistan's future," said Mostapha Zaher, Director General of Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency. "Intact ecosystems represent a foundation for our country's reconstruction and development. This is also our heritage, our natural resources, our fauna and flora. It is incumbent upon all of us to conserve and protect our environment and hand it over to the next generation of the citizens of Afghanistan."
Camera traps give conservationists a valuable research tool in remote wildlife areas. In addition to providing a cross-section of an ecosystem in terms of the presence and absence of wildlife, the devices record data that, in sufficient quantities and placement, can be used to generate population estimates for individual species.

Read more here ...

Thriving Snow leopard population discovered in Afghanistan

Snow leopards in Afghanistan

July 2011. The Wildlife Conservation Society has discovered a surprisingly healthy population of rare snow leopards living in the mountainous reaches of north-eastern Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor, according to a new study.

The discovery gives hope to the world's most elusive big cat, which calls home to some of the world's tallest mountains. Between 4,500 and 7,500 snow leopards remain in the wild scattered across a dozen countries in Central Asia.

16 camera traps
WCS-trained community rangers used camera traps to document the presence of snow leopards at 16 different locations across a wide landscape. The images represent the first camera trap records of snow leopards in Afghanistan. WCS has been conserving wildlife and improving local livelihoods in the region since 2006 with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

"This is a wonderful discovery - it shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan," said Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director for Asia Programs. "Now our goal is to ensure that these magnificent animals have a secure future as a key part of Afghanistan's natural heritage."

Threats
According to the study, snow leopards remain threatened in the region. Poaching for their pelts, persecution by shepherds, and the capture of live animals for the illegal pet trade have all been documented in the Wakhan Corridor. In response, WCS has developed a set of conservation initiatives to protect snow leopards. These include partnering with local communities, training of rangers, and education and outreach efforts.

The study was undertaken by WCS conservationists Anthony Simms, Zalmai Moheb, Salahudin, Hussain Ali, Inayat Ali and Timothy Wood.

Anthony Simms, lead author and the project's Technical Advisor, said, "By developing a community-led management approach, we believe snow leopards will be conserved in Afghanistan over the long term."

59 rangers trained - Guarding snow leopards, Ibex and Marco Polo sheep
WCS-led initiatives are already paying off. Conservation education is now occurring in every school in the Wakhan region. Fifty-nine rangers have been trained to date. They monitor not only snow leopards but other species including Marco Polo sheep and ibex while also enforcing laws against poaching. WCS has also initiated the construction of predator-proof livestock corrals and a livestock insurance program that compensates shepherds, though initial WCS research shows that surprisingly few livestock fall to predators in the region.

In Afghanistan, USAID has provided support to WCS to work in more than 55 communities across the country and is training local people to monitor and sustainably manage their wildlife and other resources. One of the many outputs of this project was the creation of Afghanistan's first national park - Band-e-Amir - which is now co-managed by the government and a committee consisting of all 14 communities living around the park.

Snow leopards have declined by as much as 20 percent over the past 16 years and are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

WCS is a world leader in the care and conservation of snow leopards. WCS's Bronx Zoo became the first zoo in the Western Hemisphere to exhibit these rare spotted cats in 1903. In the past three decades, nearly 80 cubs have been born in the Bronx and have been sent to live at 30 zoos in the U.S. and eight countries in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America.

The study appears in the June 29th issue of the Journal of Environmental Studies


http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/afghanistan-snow-leopards.html

In the Crosshairs: Wildlife Survive Conflict in Afghanistan

http://www.livescience.com/14800-wildlife-survives-wartime-afghanistan.html

Despite years of unregulated hunting and habitat loss due to wartime conflict in Afghanistan, large mammals such as Asiatic black bears, gray wolves and leopards are managing to survive in parts of the region, according to a new survey.

Read on...