Butterfly numbers fall by 84% in Netherlands over 130 years – study

European insect populations shrink as farming leaves ‘hardly any room for nature’

Patrick Barkham

Mon 1 Apr 2019 11.47 BSTLast modified on Mon 1 Apr 2019 13.36 BST

Butterflies have declined by at least 84% in the Netherlands over the last 130 years, according to a study, confirming the crisis affecting insect populations in western Europe.

Researchers analysed 120,000 butterflies caught by collectors between 1890 and 1980 as well as more recent scientific data from more than 2 million sightings to identify dramatic declines in the country’s 71 native butterfly species, 15 of which have become extinct over the last century.

“We are quite sure that the real decline must be much larger,” said Chris van Swaay, of Dutch Butterfly Conservation and one of the co-authors of the study.

The research follows warnings of catastrophic insect declines after a global review calculated that the total mass of insects was falling by 2.5% each year, and a German study found average flying insect abundance had declined by 76% over 27 years.

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Koalas should be given endangered listing, environment groups say

Current regime fails to halt the creeping loss of critical habitat, WWF Australia warns

Ben Smee

Mon 25 Mar 2019 17.00 GMTLast modified on Mon 25 Mar 2019 23.45 GMT

Koala populations on the Australian east coast have diminished to the extent the species should now be considered “endangered”, environment groups have said, amid concern that existing protection measures have failed to halt the creeping loss of critical habitat.

In south-east Queensland, once a stronghold for koala populations, habitat continues to be bulldozed through ineffective offset strategies, loopholes in development restrictions and poor planning for population growth, the groups said.

Last month, the Queensland government released a discussion paper about the state’s environmental offset strategy. It found that in 97% of cases, developers chose to pay a “financial settlement” to clear land rather than provide new habitat for koalas and other species.

The state recently flagged it would use a planning loophole to clear another five hectares of bushland on Brisbane’s south side, by designating the expansion of a shooting complex “essential infrastructure”. The plan is opposed by the Brisbane city council and local conservation groups.

Continued

Mapping trees can help count endangered lemurs

Lemur numbers plummet for some species, higher than anticipated for others, models find

Date:  August 30, 2018

Source:  Duke University

Summary:

Putting a figure on the number of endangered lemurs left in the wild isn't easy, but researchers say one clue might help: the plants they rely on for food. Bamboo lemur populations in their native Madagascar may have shrunk by half over the last two decades; red-fronted brown lemurs by as much as 85 percent. But numbers for other lemur species may not be as low as feared, new models suggest.

The vast majority of lemur species are on the edge of extinction, experts warn. But not every lemur species faces a grim future. There may be as many as 1.3 million white-fronted brown lemurs still in the wild, for example, and mouse lemurs may number more than 2 million, a Duke-led study has shown.

"For some lemurs, there may be healthy populations remaining and our conservation efforts are preserving them," said lead author James Herrera of Duke University.

The findings come from statistical modeling techniques that estimate the total population sizes and geographic ranges for 19 of the roughly 100 recognized lemur species across Madagascar by using the plants they rely on for food as a proxy for counting animals.

These tree-dwelling primates eat mostly fruits, leaves and flowers, such as African star apples, mangosteens, tamarinds and figs across Madagascar, the only place in the world where lemurs live in the wild.

In a study published August 30 in the Journal of Biogeography, researchers show that lemurs are less abundant in areas that lack certain tree species -- even when environmental conditions such as temperature, precipitation and elevation are otherwise suitable.

Using this relationship, the team was able to come up with the first estimates of total population size for some lesser-known species, such as Crossley's dwarf lemur. These estimates can be critical baseline data for managing what's left.

Read on  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180830122207.htm

Key leopard population 'crashing', study warns

April 19, 2017 by Marlowe Hood

The clash between humans and leopards, experts agree, is mostly due to humanity's expanding footprint, especially in Africa, whose population is set to expand by more than a billion before mid-century

The leopard population in a region of South Africa once thick with the big cats is crashing, and could be wiped out within a few years, scientists warned on Wednesday.

Illegal killing of leopards in the Soutpansberg Mountains has reduced their numbers by two-thirds in the last decade, the researchers reported in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

"If things don't change, we predict leopards will essentially disappear from the area by about 2020," lead author Samual Williams, a conservation biologist at Durham University in England, told AFP.

"This is especially alarming given that, in 2008, this area had one of the highest leopard densities in Africa."

The number of leopards in the wild worldwide is not known, but is diminishing elsewhere as well. The "best estimate" for all of South Africa, said Williams, is about 4,500.

What is certain, however, is that the regions these predators roam has shrunk drastically over the last two centuries.

The historic range of Panthera pardus, which includes more than half-a-dozen sub-species, covered large swathes of Africa and Asia, and extended well into the Arabian Peninsula.

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Hedgehogs continue to disappear from British gardens, wildlife survey shows

RSPB campaign urges gardeners to do one thing to help wildlife this summer after survey reveals rise and fall of familiar species

Jessica Aldred

Tuesday 14 June 201605.01 BST Last modified on Tuesday 14 June 201610.00 BST

Gardeners are being urged to do more to help hedgehogs this summer after new figures showed that fewer people than ever are seeing the once-familiar species.

Results from the from the RSPB’s citizen science survey showed that only 25% of people see hedgehogs in their garden at least once a month, around three percentage points less than last year and than in 2014.

The number of people who have never seen a hedgehog in their garden rose again to 24%, up around three percentage points since 2014. A similar survey by BBC Gardeners’ World magazine in February found the number of people who saw hedgehogs in their gardens last year had fallen by 10%.

The rapidly declining UK hedgehog population is estimated to number less than 1 million, down from more than 30 million in the 1950s. One-third of this loss is thought to have taken in the past 10 years. A 2015 report found rural populations had declined by at least a half and urban populations by up to a third since 2000. 

Their long-term but poorly understood decline is attributed to the loss and fragmentation of their habitat in Britain’s towns and countryside, death on roads, and intensive farmland that provides few good foraging or nesting sites. Rising numbers of badgers, their natural predator, have also been cited as a possible cause.

Jill Nelson, CEO of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, said: “One reason for the hedgehog decline is lack of roaming space to find food and mates, as typically hedgehogs need to travel up to a mile a night, so interconnected continuous habitat is crucial ... Unless we are prepared to make an effort as individuals, data suggests that hedgehogs face an uncertain future.”

A petition to raise the level of legal protection by Conservative MP Oliver Colvile and backed by Britain’s hedgehog charities has now gathered nearly 38,000 signatures.

Continued … 

Down to three wolves on Isle Royale

Date:

April 20, 2015

Source:

Michigan Technological University

Summary:

Only three wolves seem to remain in Isle Royale National Park. Researchers observed the wolves during their annual Winter Study, and the lone group, at an unprecedented low, is a sharp decline from nine wolves observed last winter.

Continued ...

Drastic New England Lobster Decline May Be Linked to Warmer Waters

By Samantha-Rae Tuthill, AccuWeather.com | June 10, 2014 12:45pm ET

This article was provided by AccuWeather.com.

Despite booming populations of adult lobsters, marine biologists and fisheries along the northern Atlantic coast of the United States are concerned about a dramatic population decline for young larval lobsters. Scientists searching for the cause of this drop see signs that ocean currents and warmer ocean waters are possible culprits.

Dr. Rick Wahle, research professor for the School of Marine Science at the University of Maine and founder of the American Lobster Settlement Index, has been tracking lobster populations since 1989. The scope of his study today tracks the waters in New England and Atlantic Canada.

Continued

Debate brews over whether to save island's wolves

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — For visitors to Isle Royale National Park, nothing beats the spine-tingling thrill of a wolf's howl piercing an otherwise silent night — or a glimpse of the wily beast slipping across a forest path. But such experiences are becoming increasingly rare, and before long may disappear forever.

The gray wolf population has dropped steadily in recent years at Isle Royale, a rocky, heavily wooded archipelago in Lake Superior that is among the least visited national parks because of its remote location — a six-hour ferryboat ride from the Michigan mainland.

Read on

International collaboration to investigate disappearing reptiles and amphibians – via Herp Digest

UCSC biologist Barry Sinervo leads NSF-funded project to study the effects of climate change on plants and animals around the world

March 13, 2013, By Tim Stephens 

University of California-Santa Cruz Press Release- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2 million in grants to fund a collaborative research project to investigate how climate change is affecting plant communities and animal populations around the world. Led by UC Santa Cruz biologist Barry Sinervo, an international team of scientists will study the effects of climate change at research sites on five continents.

In 2010, Sinervo and others published a landmark paper documenting the widespread extinction of lizard populations due to climate change. The new study will evaluate how climate-driven changes to plant communities are affecting local populations of lizards, frogs, fish, and other "cold-blooded" vertebrate animals. As climate change alters global patterns of temperature and rainfall, the resulting changes to plant communities may be causing local extinctions of many vertebrate species, Sinervo said.

"Our hypothesis is that many vertebrate species are going extinct in part because rising temperatures are directly stressful to them, and in part because rising temperatures also damage plant communities, upon which animals rely for food, water, and shelter," he said.

In the 2010 study, Sinervo's group developed a computer-based model for predicting the risk of local extinction for different lizard populations. The new study will further develop and expand this model, using local studies, remote sensing, and online databases to create a worldwide data set integrating information on temperature, rainfall, plant die-offs, and the physiological limits for heat and water stress of targeted animals. This will enable scientists to predict and test how extinction rates among targeted vertebrate species relate to current and expected changes in rainfall, temperature, and plant communities.

The project includes scientists with expertise in climatology, physiology, biodiversity, and remote sensing. An international team from 20 countries will work together on this project, which will also train a new generation of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in the latest methods of climate change studies.

"The new grants will fund scientists and graduate students working at research stations around the world," Sinervo said. "These researchers have a wealth of data on the species in their regions, which we are integrating into the framework we have developed."

In addition to Sinervo, the other principal investigator involved in the project is Jack Sites, a biologist at Brigham Young University. They were awarded two NSF grants totaling $2 million (award numbers 1241848 and 1241885).

CITES must protect highly vulnerable Manta ray populations

Mantas reproduce extremely slowly and cannot sustain even modest fishing levels. Female manta rays take 8-10 years to sexually mature and may give birth to only one pup every two to five years. 

Manta rays are worth vastly more alive than dead

February 2013. Delegates to the CITES conference in Bangkok have the opportunity to stem the trade in manta ray parts, specifically gill-rakers, and protect vulnerable manta populations. Charismatic manta rays can generate tens of millions of dollars annually through ecotourism if the destructive trade in their gill-rakers is stemmed say proponents.

Very low breeding rates
Manta gill-rakers (plates used to strain plankton) are made of cartilage and are used as a purported health tonic in China. Hunting is driven by the demand for gill-rakers, which can fetch up to $500 per kilo, whilst the meat is of very low value. Mantas reproduce extremely slowly and cannot sustain even modest fishing levels. Female manta rays take 8-10 years to sexually mature and may give birth to only one pup every two to five years.

80+% declines in some populations
Targeted manta populations have declined by an estimated 56% to 86% in recent years. The trade in manta gills amount to only about $5 million annually at retail and is concentrated in a single city in China, Guangzhou. Most of the financial benefit goes to the distribution channel rather than fishermen. In contrast, coastal communities can benefit greatly from global tourism for manta ray watching, which attracts an estimated at over US$140 million annually.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cites-manta.html

Hedgehog population in dramatic decline

The once common sight of hedgehogs in gardens could become a thing of the past, with the spiny species having suffered a dramatic decline in recent years on a par with the loss of starlings, red squirrels and other quintessentially British wildlife.

Ecologists this week published figures suggesting hedgehog numbers declined by over a third between 2003 and 2012.

Such a precipitous drop means the hedgehog, celebrated in culture from Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle to Philip Larkin's poetry, is becoming an increasingly rare sight in the UK's gardens, parks and hedgerows.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), a charity which has been running counts of hedgehogs for over a decade and compiled the figures, believes there are now fewer than a million hedgehogs left in the UK, down from estimates of around 2m in the mid-1990s and 36m in the 1950s. David Wembridge, PTES's surveys officer, said the fall should "ring alarm bells."

Ecologists stress more work needs to be done to pinpoint the reasons behind their decline, but said likely candidates are habitat loss, poor management of hedgerows and fragmentation of habitat, due to new roads, housing and other developments. Tens of thousands are killed by road traffic each year.

Climate change, which increases the likelihood of extreme weather such as heavy rainfall that can flood the homes of hibernating badgers, is also considered a potential factor.

Hugh Warwick, author and spokesman for British Hedgehog Preservation Society, told the Guardian: "The most obvious thing is habitat loss. But the biggest thing is habitat fragmentation. It comes in many different forms - you put a big road through the middle of a hedgehog habitat, and then a crossroads, and the hedgehog habitat becomes smaller and smaller. In each of those habitats, the risks become more dangerous, for example if you have an outbreak of parasites."

The hedgerows which give the species their name were no longer being grubbed up, he said, but were not as "rich" or "vibrant" in the worms and other food eaten by hedgehogs due to poor management. Warwick said that at talks he gave to Women's Institute meetings in recent years, he was regularly approached by people asking him why they were seeing fewer hedgehogs in their gardens.

Continued: http://news.uk.msn.com/guardian/hedgehog-population-in-dramatic-decline

Why Sockeye Salmon Are in Trouble

Every year, millions of adult salmon return from the ocean to their home streams, where they lay eggs and produce the next generation of fish. But far fewer sockeye salmon are making it back to their freshwater mating grounds compared to a few decades ago, and that’s seriously affecting population sizes of the species throughout the Northwest, from Alaska to Washington State.

The discovery suggests that changing ocean conditions may be making life harder for some groups of wild salmon -- possibly by reducing their food supply or increasing populations of predators.

By zeroing in on what, exactly, is causing the widespread decline, researchers hope to help managers figure out what to do about the problem.


“We found that substantial reductions in productivity of over 50 percent have occurred in the last two decades in a wide geographical area,” said Randall Peterman, a fisheries scientist at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. “We were quite stunned to see these results.”


“We’re telling researchers that in order to really explain the decline in a give population, you should be looking at what is causing the decline in productivity in other populations,” he added. “Depending on which mechanism is the cause of the decline, we may or may not be able to do anything about it.”


Continued:  http://www.livescience.com/21517-sockeye-salmon.html

Antarctic sea ice loss could lead to loss of 80% Emperor penguins

Emperor penguins threatened by Antarctic sea ice loss

June 2012. A decline in the population of emperor penguins appears likely this century as climate change reduces the extent of Antarctic sea ice, according to a detailed projection.

The study, led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), with co-authors from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other organizations, focuses on a much-observed colony of emperor penguins in Terre Adélie, Antarctica. The authors conclude that the number of breeding pairs may fall by about 80 percent by 2100.

"The projected decreases in sea ice may fundamentally alter the Antarctic environment in ways that threaten this population of penguins," says NCAR scientist Marika Holland, a co-author of the study.
The study uses a set of sophisticated computer simulations of climate as well as a statistical model of penguin demographics. Building on previous work, it examines how the sea ice may vary at key times during the year such as during egg laying, incubation, rearing chicks, and non- breeding season, as well as the potential influence of sea ice concentrations on males and females.

50 years of observations
The authors stress that their projections contain large uncertainties, because of the difficulties in projecting both climate change and the response of penguins. However, almost all of their computer simulations pointed to a significant decline in the colony at Terre Adélie, a coastal region of Antarctica where French scientists have conducted penguin observations for more than 50 years.

"Our best projections show roughly 500 to 600 breeding pairs remaining by the year 2100," says lead author Stephanie Jenouvrier, a WHOI biologist. "Today, the population size is around 3,000 breeding pairs."

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/antarctic-emperor.html

Why childless Japanese are choosing pets over parenthood

Fewer Japanese adults are opting to have kids. Instead, more and more are buying lapdogs... and pampering them to implausible degrees

As Japan's birthrate plummets, its pet population is exploding. With fewer children to dote on, many Japanese couples and single adults are lavishing attention on their animals, pampering them with everything from spa treatments to Chanel attire, and sparking a boom for the pet industry. Why has Japan suddenly become a "pet superpower"? Here, a brief guide:

Why do so many Japanese obsess over pets?
The country's birth rate has slumped to a perilously low 1.39 children per woman (America's birth rate was 1.93 children per woman as of 2010). If the trend holds, the government estimates that the country's population will collapse from 128 million to 43 million over the next century. But the falling birthrate, which has been blamed on everything from shifting attitudes toward sex to economic problems, hasn't eliminated the basic human need for love and companionship, and an increasing number of childless couples and single adults are filling the void with their pets.

Just how pet crazy is Japan?

The country has 22 million pets compared to just 17 million children under age 15. Tiny lapdogs such as miniature dachshunds, poodles, and Chihuahuas are especially popular with the country's aging population, particularly in dense cities like Tokyo, where most people live in small apartments. An increasing number of people in Japan say that they see their dogs and cats as family members, and they're spending accordingly. The country's pet industry is estimated to be worth $18 billion per year.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-childless-japanese-choosing-pets-over-parenthood-131000206.html;_ylt=Ar4rfU6yEGOXCH5a_porbkh4hMgF;_ylu=X3oDMTRhNmRrNjZwBG1pdANUb3BTdG9yeSBTY2llbmNlU0YgQW5pbWFsUGV0c1NTRgRwa2cDYzM0MGQzNzQtZGRjZC0zMDI1LTg4OWMtNjNjNWI0M2I5ZGFmBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN0b3Bfc3RvcnkEdmVyAzQxZDVlMTYyLWI0MWUtMTFlMS1hY2ZhLWZmZGEwOTY2NjFlOA--;_ylg=X3oDMTFlamZvM2ZlBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAMEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3