‘It’s a success’: Pangolins return to a region where they were once extinct

by Elizabeth Claire Alberts on 23 June 2020

Temminck’s pangolins have been “ecologically extinct” in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province Africa for the past 30 or 40 years, but a new program managed by the African Pangolin Working Group is reintroducing the scaly anteaters back into this region.

Pangolins rescued from the illegal wildlife trade tend to be physically ill and mentally stressed, and need to go through a lengthy rehabilitation process before they can be released.

Instead of simply releasing pangolins back into the wild, the African Pangolin Working Group puts the animals through a “soft release” program, and continues to closely monitor them through GPS satellite and VHF radio tracking tags.

In 2019, seven pangolins were released at Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal; two died of natural causes, but the remaining five are doing well.

Pangolins have been locally extinct in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province for the last 30 or 40 years, experts say. But now, local conservationists are working to slowly reintroduce these shy, sensitive animals in a world-first effort to reinstate wild populations.

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Bison return to Banff national park in Canada

6 February 2017

A herd of plains bison have been successfully reintroduced to Canada's oldest national park, more than 100 years after they were nearly hunted out of existence.

The 16 bison were moved to the Banff National Park in Alberta last week. 

On Monday officials said the transfer had gone smoothly and the animals were adapting well to their new home.

The move will restore their role in the park's ecosystem, officials say, and has been welcomed by indigenous groups.

The bison will be kept under observation in an enclosed pasture of the park in the foothills of the Rockies until the summer of 2018, Parks Canada officials say.

Image copyright Parks Canada via Reuters Image caption The animals were prized by aboriginal Canadians for the food and clothing they supply Image copyright Parks Canada via Reuters Image caption If the phased release goes according to plan, the bison will be allowed further into the park next year Image copyright Parks Canada via Reuters Image caption The bison have been arriving at Banff since the end of January 

The animals were once the dominant grazers in the park, in addition to being spiritually significant to Canada's aboriginal groups, supplying them with food, clothing and shelter.

The herd will eventually be released into a far wider area of the park where they will be at liberty to interact with other native animals and search for food, The Calgary Herald reported.

It said the hope is that natural barriers and wildlife fencing will stop the bison from wandering astray.

Read on 

Water voles to be reintroduced to England's highest lake

National Trust will release 100 of the endangered animals, not seen at Malham tarn in Yorkshire dales for 50 years

Jessica Aldred

Friday 19 August 201606.01 BST

Britain’s endangered water voles will reach new heights when they are returned to Yorkshire’s Malham tarn for the first time in 50 years.

Around 100 water voles will be reintroduced on Friday to the National Trust estate in the Yorkshire dales, home to England’s highest freshwater lake, in what the trust says is the highest-altitude reintroduction of the species it has carried out in Britain.

Immortalised as Ratty in Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, the water vole is Britain’s fastest-declining mammal. The animal was once found in nearly every waterway in England, Scotland and Wales, but is now thought to have been lost in up to 90% of these sites, clinging on in isolated pockets, coastal marshes and backwaters.

The intensification of agriculture, pollution and development, plus poor riverside management, has brought about the loss and degradation of the riverbank habitat in which the voles live. But the sharpest declines in the past 30 years have been caused by the spread of the American mink. These animals have established themselves on the waterways after escaping from fur farms, and they prey voraciously on the water vole.

Continued  

Gorillas reintroduced into Congo & Gabon are thriving

The reintroduction of western lowland gorillas by The Aspinall Foundation to areas of Africa where they have been hunted to extinction appears to be working, according to a scientific study.

October 2013. The Aspinall Foundation's reintroduction of western lowland gorillas to areas of Africa where they have been hunted to extinction appears to be working, according to a new scientific study. 

Critically Endangered

Western lowland gorillas are classified by the World Conservation Union as Critically Endangered, based on a projected 80% decline in the wild over just three generations, ranking them alongside the most threatened species on the planet. Reintroduction of gorillas to protected areas from where they have previously been exterminated is still considered controversial, but a pioneering, long-term programme to do just that is starting to show it may be possible after all.

Continued

Dingo repopulation could control feral animals

Scientists say governments need to seriously consider reintroducing dingoes to the landscape in order to protect vulnerable native species.

Dingoes cause hundreds of thousands of dollars damage each year to livestock and there have been huge efforts to cull them by laying poisonous baits and shooting them.
But this has allowed feral species like cats and foxes to thrive and experts say the current approach is counter-productive.
About 40 per cent of the country's native species are listed as threatened or close to extinction, thanks to the explosion in numbers of feral cats and foxes.
Dr Tony Friend, the president of the Australian Mammal Society, says trying to control these animals is a losing battle.

"We are getting reasonably good at controlling foxes in the local areas but cats are a huge problem, partly exacerbated by removing foxes, so once the foxes are taken out, cats do well and basically step into the feet of the foxes," he said.
Research is being conducted Australia-wide to see if bringing back dingoes will help control these pests.

One recent study in South Australia's north recorded a reduction in feral cat and fox numbers with the introduction of dingoes.

Continued:  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-28/dingo-repopulation-could-control-feral-animals/4286500?section=tas

Critically Endangered tortoises, raised in captivity, breed in the wild for the first time

Durrell reaches crucial milestone in the battle to save the rarest tortoise in the world

April 2012. The discovery of two baby ploughshare tortoises born in the wild to parents bred in  Durrell's conservation breeding programme provides hope that despite huge challenges the fight to save the world's rarest tortoise can be won.

There are probably as few as 500 adult ploughshare tortoises, or angonoka in Malagasy, left in their natural range, the bamboo scrub of Baly Bay in north-western Madagascar. Historically the main pressures on the ploughshare were habitat loss and introduced species, but in recent years the rise in poaching for the illegal pet trade outside of Madagascar has threatened to send the angonoka to extinction.

Durrell has been working for 25 years to save this species by reducing pressures to the remaining wild population and its habitat. Early successes included the establishment of Baly Bay National Park and the empowerment of local communities to protect habitat from bushfires. A core component of Durrell's efforts was the establishment of a captive breeding programme that would act both a safety net and the basis for a reintroduction programme.

Breeding programme
The breeding programme has been a great success but it takes a long time for tortoises to reach an age when they can be released back to the wild. First trial releases began in 1998 into an area of bamboo scrub habitat from which the species had previously been wiped out. Since that time, a total of 65 animals have been released with the goal that they would reach maturity and start breeding to secure the viability of the re-introduced population.

The tortoises were released as sub-adults and it has taken them a few years to reach maturity and so it only now that we are seeing the first generation of tortoises to be born from animals released from the programme into the wild.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/ploughshare-madagascar.html

Scimitar-horned Oryx to be reintroduced into the wild in Chad

Extinct in the wild since 1990s - Courtesy of  Sahara Conservation Fund 
April 2012. The last wild scimitar-horned oryx probably died sometime in the early 1990s in the vast, open, sub-Saharan grasslands of Chad or Niger. 

The species' disappearance mirrors to a very large extent the colonization of its prairie rangelands by human beings and the growing impact of technology, changing land-use and climate change.

Once abundant - Hunted to extinction
The oryx was once abundant across its Sahelian habitat, from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Nile Valley in the east. For lack of accessible water for many months of the year, the area was only lightly occupied by nomadic herders. And while the oryx has always been a target of choice for traditional hunters, the odds were always in the antelope's favour until modern firearms and off-road vehicles made their appearance, first in North Africa, where the oryx became extinct by the mid- 19th Century, and then more gradually south of the Sahara.

Coupled with periodic drought, changing land-use patterns, habitat loss and civil strife, hunting has had a catastrophic impact on the oryx and many of the other species, like the addax and dama gazelle, with which it shares the Sahel and Sahara.

Chad was last stronghold
Up until its extinction in the wild, central Chad was the oryx's last major stronghold, with a population of at least 5000 animals occupying the Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve, an Indiana-sized piece of sub-desert rangeland established in the 1960s specifically for the species' protection. Migratory in behaviour, it was possible to witness massed herds of oryx numbering over a thousand when gathered in undisturbed areas of fresh grazing.

Civil war
Civil war in Chad in the early 1980s put paid to all that but luckily a number of oryx had previously been captured and dispersed amongst zoos to form the basis of what is today the quite substantial oryx populations held in captivity in formal breeding programs and private collections.

Reintroduction into Chad
Since 2009, SCF has been spearheading efforts to develop a strategy for the restoration of the oryx. This has included range state and expert meetings, as well as two major ground surveys carried out by SCF and its partners, Chad's Wildlife Department and the Zoological Society of London, in the framework of the Pan Sahara Wildlife Survey.

Currently, SCF are working closely with Chad's Environment Ministry and the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi (EAD) and other players to develop a project to reintroduce oryx back to the Ouadi Rimé reserve. In the coming weeks SCF will be carrying out further fieldwork and holding high level meetings in Chad to forward this initiative and to set out a timetable for the project's implementation. Both Chad and the reserve offer a very significant but increasingly rare opportunity to restore this magnificent animal back to its native habitat.

We would like to thank the following organizations for their generous support in this truly ambitious project: St Louis Zoo, Addax & Oryx Foundation, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Al Ain Zoo, Convention on Migratory Species, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, and the Antelope, Reintroduction, and Conservation Breeding Specialist Groups of IUCN.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/scimtar-oryx-reintroduction.html

Yellowstone ecosystems - reintroduction of wolves

Wolves spur rebirth of Yellowstone ecosystems
By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The reintroduction of wolves has resulted in profound ecoystem changes in the Greater Yellowstone region.

For the first time in 70 years, the over-browsing of young aspen and willow trees has diminished. Trees and shrubs are recovering along some streams, providing improved habitat for beaver and fish.

“Yellowstone increasingly looks like a different place,” said William Ripple, a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, and lead author of a recent study documenting some of the changes.

“These are still the early stages of recovery, and some of this may still take decades,” Ripple said. “But trees and shrubs are starting to come back and beaver numbers are increasing. The signs are very encouraging.”

The findings of this report are based on a recent analysis done by OSU researchers and a review of other studies. They were published recently in Biological Conservation, a professional journal. They outline an ecosystem renaissance that has taken place since wolves were restored toYellowstone after being extirpated in the 1920s

Among the observations in this report:
•Since their reintroduction in 1995-96, the wolf population generally increased until 2003, forcing changes in both elk numbers and behavior due to what researchers call the “ecology of fear.”

•The northern range elk populations decreased from more than 15,000 individuals in the early 1990s to about 6,000 last year, and remaining elk now have different patterns of movement, vigilance, and other traits.

•By 2006, some aspen trees had grown tall enough they were no longer susceptible to browsing by elk, and cottonwood and willow were also beginning to return in places.

•Improved willow growth is providing habitat that allows for a greater diversity and abundance of songbirds such as the common yellowthroat, warbling vireo and song sparrow.

•The number of beaver colonies in the same area increased from one in 1996 to 12 in 2009, with positive impacts on fish habitat.

•Increases in beaver populations have strong implications for riparian hydrology and biodiversity – Wyoming streams with beaver ponds have been found to have 75 times more abundant waterfowl than those without.

•The coyote population decreased with the increase in wolf numbers, potentially allowing more small mammals that provide food for other avian and mammalian predators, such as red foxes, ravens and bald eagles.

Read more here ...

The great bustard is back in the south-west after 180 absence

Great Bustard flies again across South West – after 180 year absence
Once a familiar sight in grassland areas of southern Britain, the Great Bustard was hunted to extinction in Britain in the early 19th Century.

But, as part of a pioneering reintroduction programme, begun on a shoestring budget, the first of several clutches of rescued chicks from Saratov in southern Russia were introduced to Salisbury Plain, seven years ago.

Standing up to 3ft tall and with a wingspan of more than 8ft, some Great Bustards have been known to weigh as much as 21kg (46lb).

But with males taking up to five years to reach maturity – and facing threats ranging from foxes to electric power lines – they are considered one of the most difficult wild birds to breed.

In 2009 the first three native British chicks were hatched in nests at a secret site on Salisbury Plain, with more following last year.

Read more here ...

Leopards reintroduced into Malawi's Majete reserve

Part of a massive wildlife reintroduction programme

December 2011: Big cats are returning to Malawi thanks to an inspiring reintroduction programme.

The 70,000 hectare Majete Wildlife reserve has been a conservation success story since African Parks assumed management in 2003, with more than 2,550 head of wildlife, including elephant, buffalo, sable and black rhino, introduced to the park over eight years in a project that has, so far, cost more than $2.4 million.


The plan to gradually introduce big cats back into the park started in October 2011 with the introduction of two leopards relocated from the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Six more of these magnificent cats will be introduced to Majete as part of this programme - in pairs. The introduction of leopard is the penultimate step in the Majete restocking programme, which will culminate in the reintroduction of lions in 2012.

'To ensure every species flourishes, we have to get the timing right'

Until the launch of this project only one viable population of leopard existed in Malawi within the Nyika National Park. These leopards are the first to be introduced to Malawi across international borders, and the first leopards to make their home in Majete for nearly two decades.

Dorian Tilbury, field operations manager, African Parks Majete said: ‘Our mission is to restore, restock and rehabilitate Majete to the condition it was in before human impact. A vital component of the natural system, leopards have been the first big cat to be introduced because they have less of an impact on prey species than lion, which is the other indigenous predator to be re-introduced to Majete.

‘To ensure all species flourish we had to get the timing right. Leopards and lions often conflict with each other and if lions were brought in first it would have been more difficult for the leopards to establish themselves. Lions also eat more and it was necessary to allow the prey species numbers build up a little more before we introduced lions to ensure their survival.'

Kelly White, managing director of the Malawi Travel Marketing Consortium said: ‘The work African Parks is doing at Majete is set to have a phenomenal impact on tourism in Malawi, particularly for the safari industry.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/leopard-malawi.html

Cheetah to be reintroduced into India

Dr. Laurie Marker, CEO of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, comments on historic cheetah re-introduction initiative in India
September 2011. In 2009, the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) was invited to participate in a programme by the Indian government to reintroduce cheetahs to that country after nearly 60 years of extinction. The plan, headed by Dr. M.K. Ranjitsinh, who served as India's first Director of Wildlife Preservation and is now Chairman of the Wild Trust of India (WTI), will reintroduce cheetahs in stages over the next decade, possibly starting in early 2012.

The Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary
In an advisory capacity, CCF has been working with the WTI and India's authorities to discuss the best strategies for this reintroduction and has conducted field inspections in order to determine the most viable release areas. The Palpur-Kuno Wildlife Sanctuary, a 344,686 square kilometre (133,084 square mile) reserve in central India, has been chosen for the first reintroduction. The sanctuary is home to many species, including wolves, leopards and nilgai --Asia's largest antelope.

CCF has made suggestions about necessary infrastructure changes as well as community involvement and education. CCF advises that local communities be counselled in living harmoniously with wildlife, particularly predators, through training and communications programmes. Sustainable tourism will be encouraged so that jobs and business opportunities for the local people can be created. Conservation biologists from India have attended several of CCF's international courses in Cheetah Conservation Biology, and in Integrated Livestock, Wildlife, and Predator Management. These courses focus on capacity building and mitigating conflict between people and wildlife countries, with a special emphasis on the cheetah. Dr. M.K. Ranjitsinh and colleagues have visited CCF in Namibia.

Reintroducing wild-caught cheetah
CCF developed a proven protocol for re-introducing wild-caught cheetahs that allows the animals to perfect their skills in a safe environment before being released. To date, CCF has successfully re-wilded cheetah in two regions in Namibia. Lessons learned from these successes will assist local Indian NGOs with the reintroduction. In addition, CCF will provide an experienced ranger to train local rangers and WTI researchers in cheetah monitoring and behaviour.

The reintroduction has been approved and budgeted by the Government of India. It will return cheetahs to the grasslands ecosystem where they used to thrive. Some parties have voiced their fear that the reintroduction of the cheetah will diminish efforts to save the tiger. There is also concern about the genetic history of Asiatic cheetah. As there are no living Indian cheetahs and, thus, no concern about mixing populations, the Indian programme plans to import cheetahs from Southern Africa. CCF respects the Indian Government's stance on these issues and is providing assistance when appropriate.

CCF is currently gathering information about animals for possible export to India, and pending all import permits necessary to abide by CITES regulations, cheetahs might be roaming in India once again as early as 2012.

Tarpans returned to the wilds of Bulgaria

Twelve tarpans have been reintroduced for the first time into the Eastern Rhodopes region of Bulgaria.

The reintroduction of the back bred wild horses is part of a wilderness restoration project backed by Bulgarian and Dutch authorities.

The tarpans have been released near Sbor, in the municipality of Krumovgrad, in the expectation their grazing will improve the natural environment.

They were imported from a free-living population in the Netherlands in a project that received funding from the Dutch Postcode Lottery.

In the first year of the Bulgarian experiment, wildlife experts will keep the tarpans fenced for appropriate habituation to the Rhodopian wilderness.

Once the horses are acclimatised, they will be released into the wild.

Their role in Eastern Rhodopi will be the same as in ancient times - to graze the wild vegetation and support a natural ecosystem.

Wild tarpans have a reputation for being tough and easily adapted to the harsh conditions of semi-open wilderness landscapes.

Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus), also known as the Eurasian wild horse, is an extinct subspecies of the wild horse.

The tarpan is a prehistoric wild horse type that ranged from Southern France and Spain east to central Russia.

There are cave drawings of what are considered to be tarpans in France, Spain and Scandinavia, as well as artifacts from southern Russia, where Scythian nomads domesticated a horse of this type around 3000 BC.

Also, in Bulgaria, paleaontologists found tarpan bones, proving this wild horse once lived there.
Tarpans became extinct in the wild between 1875 and 1890, when the last known wild mare was accidentally killed in Russia during an attempt to capture it.

The last captive Tarpan died in 1909 in a Russian zoo.

Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts were initiated to recreate a look-a-like tarpan through selective breeding with domestic breeds which allegedly retained much Tarpan DNA in their genome.
The look-a-like Tarpan reintroduced in Bulgaria is also known as the konik (Polish for 'little horse'). This breed originated from Polish tarpan re-creation projects.

In 1936, Tadeuzs Vetulani was fascinated by the exterior resemblance of some specific primitive farmer's horses and the extinct tarpan.

He started a breeding programme with 35 such horses from an area where a century earlier the last tarpans were captured in the wild and distributed to farmers.

In some countries, such as in the Netherlands, the konik was reintroduced to nature parks successfully about 30 years ago.

Tarpans, which stand about 137-149cm tall and weigh 400-500kg, are robust horses with well developed social behaviours.

A social herd of horses helps provide protection against predators - wolves.

The total number of tarpans in the world at this moment is estimated at 4000, almost half of them in the Netherlands.

In 2010, 21 Dutch tarpans were reintroduced to the wild in Latvia. In previous years, tarpans from Holland have gone to wilderness areas in England, France, Belgium and Germany.

Before implementing the reintrodution of the Tarpans in Bulgaria, the team explored the Eastern Rhodopes for a suitable area and checked Bulgarian legislation and official requirements.

The team organised meetings with local authorities and local people, because local co-operation was necessary in such unique experiment.

Bringing tarpans to the Eastern Rhodopes is part of the wilderness restoration plans of the five-year New Thracian Gold project, to develop the area environmentally.

Last year, semi-wild Karakachan horses were reintroduced in the area of Chernichino. Red deer reintroduction is also planned.

Ecologists believe the reintroduction of ancient herbivores to the wild improves the biodiversity and makes the ecosystems more complete.

Free-ranging wild horses are rare in Europe and unique in Bulgaria.

The combination of beautiful landscapes, rich biodiversity and wild tarpans is a potential key factor in boosting eco tourism as a new economic driver in the Eastern Rhodopes. Eco tourism helps to support the Eastern Rhodopes as a prosperous and attractive place to live and work.
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2011/09/171.shtml

Britain's largest spider to be reintroduced

The Fen Raft spider is one of the country's most endangered species of spider. With an adult leg span of 4 inches across they are also the largest native spider to the UK.

They are only found in three locations in the UK, with declines in their wetland habitat and water quality causing their numbers to plummet.

Now Chessington World of Adventure is leading a project to hand-rear 200 baby fen raft spiders for release into the wild.

The spiderlings will be raised in test tubes and hand-fed fruit flies every four days before being released into the wild in October.

Bob Ward, reptile keeper at Chessington Zoo, said: “Having to feed 200 spiders one at a time is certainly a challenge, but it’s vital to help see them through the most vulnerable period of their lives before they are released back into the wild, as they will then have a much better chance of surviving."

Raft spiders are one of just two British spiders protected under law because they are so endangered. They are now found in just three places in East Sussex, Swansea and the Suffolk/Norfolk border.
Their large hairy legs allow them to float on the water of the fens and wetlands, where they hunt sticklebacks and tadpoles underwater.

Currently the tiny spiderlings measure just a few millimetres across but they will grow to be up to four inches in size as adults.

Mr Ward added: "The spiders’ mums were collected from the wild in June when they carry their eggs in huge silk sacs held in their mouths.

"When the babies emerge from the sac the mother guards them in a big silk tent called a nursery web. In the wild the babies leave the web after about a week to fed for themselves. Our captive mums made their nurseries in five-litre water bottles.

“After a week we used a ‘pooter’ to collect the spiderlings from the nursery, which involves sucking them up into a tube with a piece of mesh and then dropping them into a container – but now we’re seeing them grow and they’re actually getting too big for the pooter.”

By Rhiannon Williams
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8770898/Britains-largest-spider-to-be-reintroduced.html

Mexico to reintroduce wolves into Sonora

Wolves reintroduced into Mexico
September 2011. Mexican authorities plan to release five Mexican wolves this month at an undisclosed ranch location in northeastern Sonora, Mexico; it is believed that the wolves being released will be fitted with satellite tracking collars.

Arizona has been actively involved in the multi-partner effort reintroducing Mexican wolves to portions of their historical range in the east-central portion of the state for many years. In 1998, 11 captive-reared Mexican wolves were released into the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area (BRWRA) in eastern Arizona. The current population was assessed to be around 50 animals during 2011 monitoring.

Sky Islands of SonoraThe Sky Island region of northwest Mexico and southwest United States is a unique blend of temperate and tropical biological zones and species, and was named a World Biodiversity Hotspot by Conservation International in 2005. El Aribabi is a huge ranch that hosts over 35 species of plants and animals protected by Mexican law, including jaguars, golden eagles, Chiricahua leopard frogs and ocelots.
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/mexico-wolves.html