Forest fragments surprising havens for wildlife

AUGUST 9, 2019

by Wildlife Conservation Society

Destruction of tropical rainforests reduces many unprotected habitats to small fragments of remnant forests within agricultural lands, and to date, these remnant forest fragments have been largely disregarded as wildlife habitat.

Researchers conducted camera trap surveys within Sumatra's Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park and five surrounding remnant forest fragments, finding 28 mammal species in the protected forest and 21 in the fragments—including critically endangered species such as Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae), along with species of conservation concern such as marbled cat (Pardofelis marmorata) and Asiatic golden cat (Pardofelis temminckii).

The biodiversity found within the fragments suggests that these small patches of remnant forest may have conservation value to certain mammal species and indicates the importance of further research into the role these habitats may play in landscape-level, multispecies conservation planning.

More information: Sarah R Weiskopf et al, The conservation value of forest fragments in the increasingly agrarian landscape of Sumatra, Environmental Conservation (2019). DOI: 10.1017/S0376892919000195

Provided by Wildlife Conservation Society 

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Record numbers of Australia's wildlife species face 'imminent extinction'

Fauna crisis highlights the failure of regional forest agreements, says Wilderness Society

Helen Davidson

Sat 30 Mar 2019 19.00 GMTLast modified on Sat 30 Mar 2019 21.28 GMT

Regional forest agreements have failed in the 20 years since they were established by state governments, says a new report, which reveals that record numbers of threatened forest dwelling fauna and many species are heading towards imminent extinction.

The report, Abandoned – Australia’s forest wildlife in crisis, has assessed the conservation status of federally listed forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna species affected by logging and associated roading and burning across Australia’s regional forest agreement (RFA) regions in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia.

Released by the Wilderness Society this week, the report identified 48 federally-listed threatened species of forest-dwelling vertebrate fauna living in areas subject to state-run logging operations.

Four of those species – the leadbeater’s possum, swift parrot, western ringtail possum and regent honeyeater – are among the 20 bird and 20 mammal species most likely to become extinct within 20 years.

It also found that since the time the RFAs were signed, 11 forest vertebrate species had been raised to “endangered” or “critically endangered” categories, bringing the total to 24, and none had been lowered. Another 15 species were listed as threatened for the first time.

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Wildlife is abundant in Chernobyl, study reveals

Date:  January 31, 2019

Source:  University of Georgia

A scavenger study that used fish carcasses as bait provides additional evidence that wildlife is abundant in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, University of Georgia researchers said.

A one-month camera study prompted the sighting of 10 mammal and five bird species, according to James Beasley, associate professor at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.

"These animals were photographed while scavenging fish carcasses placed on the shoreline of rivers and canals in the CEZ," he said. "We've seen evidence of a diversity of wildlife in the CEZ through our previous research, but this is the first time that we've seen white-tailed eagles, American mink and river otter on our cameras."

Beasley is referring to a 2015 study that provided the first evidence that wildlife -- including gray wolves -- exists in abundance in this ecological zone of about 1,000 square miles that was abandoned by humans after the 1986 nuclear accident.

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What happens after you take injured wildlife to the vet?

January 14, 2019 by Bronwyn Orr, The Conversation

Australia's wildlife is unique and endearing, with many species found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, it isn't rare to encounter sick or injured wildlife around your home or by the side of the road. My research, recently published in the Australian Veterinary Journal, estimates between 177,580 and 355,160 injured wild animals are brought into NSW veterinary clinics alone every year.

But until now, very little was known about what happens to wildlife after they're brought to a vet. My colleagues and I surveyed 132 veterinary clinics around Australia, examining the demands and expectations of treating wildlife. We also looked for risks to animal welfare as a result of these findings.

Most clinics only saw a handful of wildlife patients every week, with birds and marsupials such as possums the most common. Sadly, the majority (82%) of wildlife arrived in veterinary care due to trauma of some kind. The most common cause was animals being hit by cars, followed by undefined trauma and predation by another animal.

Most clinics examined and treated wildlife for free, with less than 10% receiving some kind of payment. These were usually made by wildlife rehabilitation groups or members of the public.

Due to the painful and serious nature of trauma, around a third of clinics reported euthanasia was the most common outcome for wildlife at their clinic. More positively, more than half indicated that wildlife were usually passed onto wildlife rehabilitators, suggesting this is the most common outcome.

Almost three quarters of veterinary clinics said they only saw wildlife when they had spare time. This is concerning, as delays to treatment raises serious animal welfare concerns.

Additionally, many veterinary clinics indicated they felt a lack of time, knowledge and skills interfered with their ability to treat wildlife.

Read more at: 

NASA satellites assist states in estimating abundance of key wildlife species

Date:  August 9, 2018

Source:  S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources, Utah State University

Summary:

Climate and land-use change are shrinking natural wildlife habitats around the world. Yet despite their importance to rural economies and natural ecosystems, remarkably little is known about the geographic distribution of most wild species -- especially those that migrate seasonally over large areas.

Climate and land-use change are shrinking natural wildlife habitats around the world. Yet despite their importance to rural economies and natural ecosystems, remarkably little is known about the geographic distribution of most wild species -- especially those that migrate seasonally over large areas. By combining NASA satellite imagery with wildlife surveys conducted by state natural resources agencies, a team of researchers at Utah State University and the University of Maryland, and the U.S. Geological Survey modeled the effects of plant productivity on populations of mule deer and mountain lions. Specifically, they mapped the abundance of both species over a climatically diverse region spanning multiple western states.

These models provide new insights into how differences in climate are transmitted through the food chain, from plants to herbivores and then to predators. Prey and predator abundance both increased with plant productivity, which is governed by precipitation and temperature. Conversely, animals responded to decreases in food availability by moving and foraging over larger areas, which could lead to increased conflict with humans. David Stoner, lead author of the study, "Climatically driven changes in primary production propagate through trophic levels" published today in the journal Global Change Biology, remarked that, "We expected to see that satellite measurements of plant productivity would explain the abundance of deer. However, we were surprised to see how closely the maps of productivity also predicted the distribution of the mountain lion, their major predator."

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Wildlife secrets of Nigeria's last wilderness

By Helen Briggs BBC News

23 February 2018

The world's rarest chimpanzee has been captured on camera in the remote forests of Nigeria.

The Nigeria-Cameroon chimp was seen at various locations within Gashaka Gumti National Park, raising hopes for its future survival.

Conservationists also recorded the first sighting in the country of a giant pangolin.

The park is regarded as a national treasure, but its wildlife is under threat from pressures such as poaching.

Researchers from Chester Zoo, working with the Nigeria National Park Service, surveyed over 1,000 square kilometres of the national park.

Known for its mountain rainforests, savannah woodlands and rolling grasslands, it is home to some of West Africa's most endangered animals.

The cameras spotted some animals that have never been recorded before in the area and others, like chimps, which are rarely seen.

Stuart Nixon, the Africa Field Programme Co-ordinator at Chester Zoo, said confirmation of the locations of chimps was an important discovery.

"Gashaka's been regarded for many years as having the biggest population of this Nigeria-Cameroon chimp, which is the rarest chimp subspecies," he said.

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Half of Canada's monitored wildlife is in decline, major study finds

New report paints a bleak picture for wildlife in a country that is home to a quarter of the Earth’s wetlands, 8,500 rivers and more than 2m lakes

 Ashifa Kassam in Toronto

Friday 15 September 2017 11.00 BSTLast modified on Friday 15 September 2017 15.01 BST

A new analysis looking at the long-term trends of more than 900 species of wildlife in Canada has found that half of them have seen their populations decline, including several species already listed as threatened or endangered.

The Living Planet Report Canada, released on Thursday by World Wildlife Fund Canada, paints a bleak picture for wildlife in a country that is home to a quarter of the earth’s wetlands, 8,500 rivers and more than 2m freshwater lakes.

During the past four decades, human activity – whether industrial development, farming, forestry or the expansion of urban areas – as well as climate change, pollution and overfishing have helped shrink the populations of 451 species, representing half of the 903 monitored species in the country.

“I think for many Canadians, it’s somewhat of a surprise,” said James Snider of WWF Canada and the lead author of the report. “Canada is this vast nation with huge wilderness areas, at times we assume that wildlife here is doing OK.”

The list of species in decline ranges from the woodland caribou, who grace the country’s 25¢ coin but have seen their habitat shrink from logging, mining and gas development, to the several species of whalethat live off Canada’s three coasts.

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England's best-loved wildlife still in serious decline, report shows

Government countryside assessment paints a ‘grim picture’ with key species such as hedgehogs, dormice, birds and butterflies all continuing to decrease in number

Damian Carrington

Friday 26 August 201611.12 BSTLast modified on Friday 26 August 201611.38 BST

Much of England’s best-loved wildlife remains in serious decline, according to the latest official assessment from the government. Birds and butterflies on farmland have continued their long term downward trend and 75% of over 200 “priority” species across the country – including hedgehogs, dormice and moths – are falling in number.

The Natural Environment Indicators for England also showed that water quality has fallen in the last five years, with just one in five rivers and lakes having high or good status, and the amount of time given by conservation volunteers has also fallen.

However, the sustainability of fisheries has improved, as has the amount of carbon locked up in forests and litter in the seas has begun to decline. The indicators were established by the government’s Natural Environment white paper in 2011, which said it would “put right damage done in previous years” by placing “the value of nature at the centre of the choices our nation must make”.

 “This report paints a pretty grim picture of how our wildlife is faring in the countryside,” said Sandra Bell, at Friends of the Earth. “Added to recent new evidence that wild bees have been harmed by neonicotinoid pesticides, it’s clear that if we want to enjoy a thriving natural environment big changes are needed to our farming system. This must be a priority for the government as part of its Brexit strategy.”

Christopher Price, at the CLA, which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses, said: “This progress report is a tough read for all those who care about our countryside. As we prepare to exit the EU, it is clear that the new [farming and environment] policy must have greater ambition in how it supports farmers and land managers to deliver better environmental outcomes.” On Thursday, a poll showed the public strongly supports stronger post-Brexit environmental policies.

Read on 

Using drones without disturbing wildlife

Date: May 23, 2016

Source: Cell Press

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), more popularly known as drones, are increasingly employed to monitor and protect wildlife. But researchers writing in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 23 say that steps should be taken to ensure that UAV operations are not causing undue stress to animals.

"Even though an animal might not appear to be disturbed, it could be quite stressed--for example, a bird may choose to remain near a UAV even when stressed because it is incubating an egg or protecting its hatchling," says Jarrod Hodgson of The University of Adelaide in Australia. "It is likely that animal responses vary depending on a variety of factors, including the species, environmental and historical context, and the type of UAV and its method of operation."

Studies have shown that UAVs can be more efficient than traditional approaches to wildlife monitoring and can provide more precise observational data. Accordingly, there has been a considerable increase in the use of UAVs for research purposes.

In the new paper, Hodgson and colleague Lian Pin Koh develop a code of best practices intended to help mitigate or alleviate potential disturbance to wildlife related to UAV use. Their goal is to ensure that "UAVs can be a powerful, low-impact ecological survey tool."

Hodgson and Koh offer the following recommendations:

In cases where the evidence is lacking, UAV users should consult with appropriate experts and proceed with an abundance of caution. The researchers also say that further study on the impact of UAVs is needed.

Read more … 

State of Britain's wildlife 'increasingly fragile'

By Helen BriggsBBC News

8 December 2015 

Britain's wildlife is in an increasingly fragile state, with animals carrying out vital jobs for farmers being lost more rapidly than others, say scientists.

Species that pollinate crops or fight pests are at risk of disappearing, putting food production in jeopardy, according to the team.

The research brings together millions of wildlife records spanning 40 years.

It suggests conservation efforts should focus on certain areas, they add.

Dr Tom Oliver of the University of Reading, who led the research, said it was the biggest and most comprehensive report ever assembled for any country in the world.

"By standardising records from an army of amateur biologists across the country, we have amassed an impressive array of data, giving us our most complete picture yet of the state of Britain's wildlife," he told BBC News.

"The picture that emerges is of an increasingly fragile system, particularly in species that do vital jobs for humans.

"Unless efforts are made to reverse some of these declines, we face a future where we will be less confident that we can effectively grow our food."

Benefits from nature

The researchers looked at records of the changing fortunes of more than 4,000 types of plant and animal living in England, Wales and Scotland between 1970 and 2009.

Species such as bees, dragonflies, grasshoppers, ladybirds, plants and mosses were put into groups based on the role they play in nature.

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Americans tend to think about wildlife like their ancestors did

October 15, 2015 by Rob Novak

Researchers from Colorado State University and The Ohio State University have found evidence that we think about wildlife like our ancestors did.

More specifically, the strength of Americans' "domination" wildlife values, or the belief that nature should be conquered and the natural environment used for the benefit of humans, can be traced to the country from which their ancestors migrated.

Values are shifting

At the same time, researchers demonstrated that, overall, Americans' values toward wildlife are shifting from a domination view to the view that wildlife deserves treatment equal to humans. Researchers call this line of thought about wildlife "mutualism."

Read more at:

Wildlife thriving around Chernobyl nuclear plant despite radiation

High numbers of elk, deer, boar and wolves show long-term effect of world’s worst nuclear accident is less damaging than everyday human activity, say scientists

Adam Vaughan

@adamvaughan_uk

Monday 5 October 2015 17.00 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 6 October 201510.52 BST

Wildlife is abundant around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, despite the presence of radiation released by the world’s most catastrophic nuclear explosion nearly three decades ago, researchers have found.

The number of elk, deer and wild boar within the Belarusian half of the Chernobyl exclusion zone today are around the same as those in four nearby uncontaminated nature reserves.

Wolves, which are commonly hunted in the region because of their impact on livestock, were seven times as abundant with the zone, according to a study published on Monday.

The findings run counter to previous hypothesises that chronic long-term exposure to radiation would hit animal populations.

“What we do, our everyday habitation of an area – agriculture, forestry – they’ve damaged wildlife more than the world’s worst nuclear accident,” said Prof Jim Smith, professor of environmental science, University of Portsmouth, and one of the paper’s authors.

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Why is Australia so weird?

June 3, 2015

John Hopton for redOrbit.com – @Johnfinitum

The mythology of Australian Aborigines, known as the Dreamtime, is filled with imagery of Australia’s wondrous fauna. Later, European naturalists stood open-mouthed at the unique animal life before them. All of these people had to be careful when going for a walk, a swim, or even to the toilet.

We come across animal stories from Australia almost weekly (raining spiders, anyone?) that leave us in the same boat as those European naturalists: open-mouthed and in awe that such a thing actually exists. This, in turn, causes us to wonder, “Why is Australia so weird?” And it’s a good question. There has to be some evolutionary reason why everything on that island/country/continent can kill you, or just confuse the hell out of you (we’re looking at you, platypus).

So, needing absolution, we turned to some experts who could help us–even if many of them later wrote back, “That’s a good question. I have no idea.”

Some, though, had answers, and this is what they had to say:

A very large life-raft

Here’s Professor Rick Shine, from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Sydney:

“Australia has a unique fauna because it was isolated from the rest of the world for very long periods. The Australian continent was surrounded by ocean for many millions of years, and so the plants and animals on that very large life-raft were able to evolve in distinctive ways.

“Many types of animals that are common in other continents, such as dogs, cats and monkeys, never found their way to Australia (until people brought them over).”

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Soviet Union collapse 'affected region's wildlife'

By Mark KinverEnvironment reporter, BBC News

The socioeconomic shocks following the collapse of the Soviet Union also affected the region's wildlife, researchers have suggested.

A study of large mammal species in Russia found that most experienced a sharp decline in numbers from 1991.

The authors said likely reasons for the declines were poaching and the erosion of wildlife protection enforcement.

Writing in Conservation Biology, they suggested international support was needed during such times.

"What we did was to prove there was a simultaneous decline for wild boar, brown bear and moose in most regions of Russia at the beginning of the 1990s, which was right after the collapse [of the Soviet Union]," explained co-author Eugenia Bragina from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.

"All three species are very different and have different habitat requirements," she told BBC News, indicating that the declines were not the result of a disturbance to one particular habitat.

"For example, moose prefer successional forests where there are young trees that they can forage on. Wild boar really love agricultural crops, which people in the Soviet Union used to plant for this species."

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Tigers, leopards, bears and more seized in Interpol raids

Kevin Heath / 3 days ago

Hundreds of animals have been seized and more than 160 arrests made in Interpol co-ordinated raids across Asia. Under the PAWS (Protection of Asian Wildlife species) programme law enforcement officials from 13 Asian countries moved in on wildlife traffickers.

While the operation led to the seizures of high profile species such as tigers the focus of the operation was on the lesser known but still highly profitable species such as pangolins. The operation did not just cover street traders and markets but also online traders with social media sites also under investigation.

The operation made major seizures of a range of living animals and also dead wildlife products. Included in the haul were:

3.5 tonnes of elephant ivory,

280 kg of pangolin scales,

4 tonnes of red sandalwood,

rhino horns,

tigers,

leopards,

bears,

lions,

red pandas,

crocodiles,

turtles,

tortoises and

a large number of bird species.

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Soap, sunscreen and steroids found in Antarctic waters and wildlife

Range of pharmaceuticals found in fish, clams and sea urchins in waters around two research stations, says New Zealand researchers

Australian Associated Press

theguardian.com, Tuesday 2 December 2014 23.06 GMT

The last great wilderness on Earth now has traces of personal care products and steroid hormones.

New Zealand scientists have said the waters around two Antarctic research stations have evidence of the active ingredients found in soaps, fragrances, sunscreens and lotions.

Researchers from the University of Canterbury and Northcott Research Consultants studied the levels of pharmaceuticals and personal care products, or PPCPs, around New Zealand’s Scott Base and the US facility McMurdo Station.

They found the active ingredients were present up to 25km from where sewage was discharged into the sea from treatment plants.

And they found traces of PPCPs in clams, fish and sea urchins collected from around the bases.

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Wildlife energy: Survival of the fittest

Using a wildlife version of fitness trackers, biologists can finally measure how much energy animals need to stay alive.

Andrew Curry

10 September 2014

After attacking more than a dozen young Hawaiian monk seals, the aggressive male known as KE18 had to be banished from his island home. He now lives in a seawater pool in California, a few hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean.

Instead of assaulting more members of his species — one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet — KE18 is now providing information that could help to keep the seals from going extinct. On a breezy June day at the University of California, Santa Cruz, an animal trainer is working to teach him to wear a metal tube containing a trio of accelerometers, tiny devices that track and log changes in velocity. It is the seal version of the fitness trackers that joggers and other endorphin addicts wear on their wrists to capture their every move.

Heaving his 200 kilograms up on the side of the pool, KE18 opens his mouth to show off his teeth and gets a fish as a reward. “We use a lot of fish and hot dogs in our lab,” says biologist Terrie Williams, who heads the mammalian physiology lab.

The hope is that data collected on KE18 will help to explain a mystery about the threatened Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi). Most of the population lives in the remote northwestern end of Hawaii's island chain, where four in every five pups die before reaching adulthood and the population is falling by more than 3% a year. “They end up starving to death,” says Charles Littnan, who runs the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Honolulu. But a much smaller population living close to the crowded beaches of the main Hawaiian islands is actually growing, despite all the human activity nearby.

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National conference discusses how wildlife is good for business

The Conference for Nature took place in London on 3rd September, which included speeches from Sir David Attenborough and Deputy PM Nick Clegg, and was attended by key executives from business, politics, the utility sector, and conservation.

Speaking before the conference, Sir David Attenborough stressed the importance of working toward the benefit of nature: “The escalating erosion of wildlife from our planet is a direct threat to many facets of our own quality of life. Because of the complex relationship society has with nature, it is obvious that our response to saving it must extend from every possible quarter too. From you and I in our own domains, from business magnates to politicians, and from farmers to faith leaders, everyone has an opportunity to save nature. With an increasing global footprint, mankind is intensifying the crisis for wildlife, but as individuals we can all be part of the solution for saving it too.”

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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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Promoting wildlife will bring UK farmers big rewards

March 2014: A new environmental land management scheme will provide funding for UK farmers and land managers who deliver benefits for wildlife in 2016, in particular those increasing biodiversity, and improve water quality.

The UK Farming Minister George Eustice said: “The new scheme will prioritise promoting biodiversity and will be tailored to fit local needs. It will be more targeted so we can deliver wildlife corridors but there will also be grants available to all farmers.

The news was welcomed by wildlife charities. Stephen Trotter from The Wildlife Trusts said: “The Wildlife Trusts welcome this good news. We’re especially pleased to hear that biodiversity is the priority for the new scheme. England’s wildlife is in trouble and we need to encourage farmers to do the right thing to look after what we have and to restore wildlife wherever possible.

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