Western Black Rhino: IUCN declares the African species officially extinct

We've lost one and the world is a lesser place for it.

Today, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Western Black Rhinoceros of Africa officially extinct.

In addition, two other sub-species of rhinos are being considered as most likely gone. The Northern White Rhino of central Africa is considered "possibly extinct" in the wild, and the Javan Rhino is "probably extinct" in Viet Nam (a small population is still holding on in Java, but their numbers are declining).

Rhino populations have suffered for decades due to habitat loss and, in particular, poaching. The demand for rhinoceros horn as a homeopathic cure in Eastern medicine, ranging from cancer cures to an aphrodisiac, has lead poachers to track down rhinos within supposedly protected animal reserves. The same situation is putting tigers and Asian bears at a high level of risk also.

When the population of a particular species gets low enough, several factors come into play that can cause their numbers to rapidly decline, spinning out of control. Lack of sexually mature males and females; bio-dispersion, whereby the population is now so diverse the odds of an encounter between a male and a female become more remote; poor health due to a lack of good mixing of the DNA gene pool - all begin to work against the few remaining animals.

"In the case of both the Western Black Rhino and the Northern White Rhino, the situation could have had very different results if the suggested conservation measures had been implemented," he added. "These measures must be strengthened now, specifically managing habitats in order to improve breeding performance, preventing other rhinos from fading into extinction," said Simon Stuart of the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

But all is not a total loss for one of wild nature's iconic species. Although a quarter of all mammal species are facing extinction, according to the IUCN's Red List, when conservation measures are put in place and effectively managed and enforced, there can be positive results. Case in point: Africa's Southern White Rhino had reached a perilous low of around 100 animals at the end of the 19th century - a victim of both poaching and "great white hunters." But today the Southern White Rhino numbers over 20,000.

In Nature, any extinction is a loss - from a small insect to a massive animal like a rhino. The biological web that ties all species together within an ecosystem makes adjustments for the loss and sometimes those adjustments cascade through several different flora and fauna as it looks for some sort of stability. Whether the changes are subtle or catastrophic, they are changes at the hand of man, changes that nature was never truly prepared to deal with.

When we lose the Western Black Rhino, we lose a little bit of ourselves, of our potential as stewards of the environment.

Source: MSNBC.

Africa's Masai Mara Reserve: study shows alarming decline in wildlife

Ocean conservationists often talk of how commercial activities impact marine environments to where species populations are brought to a tipping point, when the steady decline in numbers can reach a point of sudden collapse. From sharks to coral reefs, species after species are being impacted by commercial fishing, urban development, or other human activities and, left unchecked, could lead to dire and irreversible consequences.

This is not a scenario exclusive or unique to the oceans. In Kenya, within the Masai Mara reserve, a similar situation is taking place which has brought about a crash in the wild animal populations over the past 30 years. According to a study recently published in Journal of Zoology, researchers have determined that the number of impala, warthog, giraffe, topi, and hartebeest have declined by over 70%. Where huge herds of wildebeest would migrate from the Serengeti through the Mara region, their numbers have now dropped by 64% and the reserve's resident wildebeest population during the wet season has effectively disappeared, declining by as much as 97%.

"We were very surprised by what we found," said Dr. Joseph Ogutu from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and who headed up the study. "The Mara has lost more than two thirds of its wildlife."

In reaching their conclusions, the researchers combed through aerial photographs and monitoring data of animal herds and populations dating back to 1977. Over this 33-year period, they saw, among the 12 species of large animals, ostriches, and livestock studied, a drastic, relentless, and unexpected decline. Only a few species either within the reserve or just outside of its boundaries managed to maintain their numbers or show slight improvement. Since a major conservation effort was begun at the start of 2000, the researchers anticipated much greater improvement in the animal populations. But such was not the case.

To be sure, poaching has played a significant role in the decline, as it has in many developing nations. According to the BBC news, over 1500 poachers have been arrested within the Mara conservancy between 2001 and 2010, with more than 17,300 snares collected by rangers in the same period.

However, in addition to poaching, cattle grazing has played as great, if not greater, a role. The expansion of land used by ranchers for grazing, both within the reserve and outside its borders, has diminished the size and quality of wild animal habitat.

"Not only have numbers of cattle, sheep and goats increased but their distribution has widened, with the density of cattle increasing more than three-fold and that of sheep and goats more than seven fold up to 5km inside the reserve," Dr. Ogutu noted. "Sadly though, wildlife distribution has contracted throughout the entire Mara region in the same period."

Overgrazing impacts the natural fauna which can spill over into the remaining open land. The wild animal populations of the Mara region and, indeed, of all of Kenya, have evolved based on available area, quality of grazing land and food sources, and the animals' reproductive rates - all combine to make for a stable population. So, to put it simply, if you take away half the land, the animal population does not simply adjust and reduce itself by half. Instead, the once balanced system begins to collapse.

Just as industrial overfishing and degradation of marine habitat from development and population, when left unchecked or unregulated, can threaten marine ecosystems, so it is on the dry savannas of Kenya that poaching and expanding ranch land can threaten the rich animal diversity and expansive herds we have always come to associate with Africa.

The BBC News noted, "The expansion of settlements, fences and livestock numbers need to be regulated if these declines in wildlife are to be arrested, the researchers proposed, as well as bringing down poaching levels."

"Otherwise, the status of Masai Mara as a prime conservation area and premier tourist draw card in Kenya may soon be in jeopardy," said Dr Ogutu.

Turtles and Sharks: long migrations studied in the South Atlantic

Animal migration is one of nature's most mysterious presentations of animal behavior. What makes an animal travel great distances? How are they able to do it in a relatively straight path? Why do they use the same route year after year? Just how are they so good at it, while I can get lost in the local Costco?

One vast body of water where several marine species migrate but where mankind has not spent much time studying these movements is the South Atlantic, between South America and Africa. However, two recent studies have shed some interesting light on the long migration paths taken by leatherback turtles and blue sharks. Both of these species are threatened with possible extinction, so the more we know, the better we can manage our conservation efforts.

As reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers from England tagged and track the migratory routes of leatherback turtles for five years, from a breeding colony in Central Africa to feeding grounds in the southwestern Atlantic. Using satellite tracking tags on 25 females, the researchers found that the turtles followed three migratory paths, often traveling in remarkably straight lines.

One female turtle was tracked along a path that totaled just under 4,700 miles and took about 150 days of nonstop swimming to complete. The researchers are keen to know the "when and where" of these journeys to ensure that commercial fisheries do not take advantage of the turtle's singular purpose and place themselves right in the turtles' paths. The researchers are hoping to avoid a large decline in leatherback turtles in the South Atlantic as has happened to leatherbacks in the Pacific.

"All of the routes we've identified take the leatherbacks through areas of high risk from fisheries, so there's a very real danger to the Atlantic population," said University of Exeter professor Brendan Godley.

At the same time, researchers from the University of Florida were tracking the migratory routes of the blue shark. Working with a Brazilian team of researchers, Felipe Carvalho, under the supervision of renown shark expert Dr. George Burgess, Director of the Florida Program for Shark Research, began tagging blue sharks along the Brazilian coast. The question was whether the tracking results would show a migration that would link shark populations in both the southeastern and southwestern Atlantic.

Blue sharks are heavily fished in the South Atlantic and within coastal territorial waters some nations are trying to determine how to best manage the remaining populations. By showing a migratory link between these separate locations, it emphasizes the need for multinational cooperation. As it turned out, one of Carvalho's blue sharks, tagged off the coast of Brazil, was detected off Africa 87 days later.

“This is the first evidence of the transatlantic migration of a blue shark from the southwestern Atlantic Ocean to the southeastern Atlantic Ocean. We thought this migration might be happening, but we never had the data before to prove it,” Carvalho said.

More and more, we are finding species that travel along oceanic highways, making incredible journeys over and over again. Navigating by prevailing currents, or visual cues, or even by the Earth's magnetic fields - all have been suggested as possible theories that could account for the animal's amazing accuracy.

Whatever the method, it is important for us to understand these migrations and their purpose and use that knowledge to protect rather than take advantage of leatherback turtles, blue sharks, and so many other species that roam the seas.

Read about tracking leatherback turtles from the Associated Press.
Read about tracking blue sharks from Physorg.com

Africa's Great Green Wall: renewed interest in project to combat encroaching desert

Centuries ago there was the Great Wall of China, built to thwart marauding invaders. Recently, the United States talks of a wall along its southern border to resist illegal immigrants. And then there is the Great Green Wall of Africa, literally a wall of trees stretching across the African continent, designed to fight the encroaching Sahara Desert, which is consuming vital farmland.

An effect of climate change and the reduction in rainfall throughout central Africa, the Sahara Desert has been slowly expanding southward for decades. This desertification process reduces usable farmland critical for feeding developing African nations. While some research has indicated that desertification can actually provide some relief from climate change by reflecting the sun's heat outward - much like what the polar ice caps do - the agricultural impact is considered a more pressing issue.

The Great Green Wall of Africa was first proposed over five years ago and supported by the African Union but the project has languished due to lack of funds. A conference involving ten African nations is taking place in Chad in the hopes of revitalizing the project. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), an independent financial organization consisting of governments and international groups committed to addressing worldwide environmental issues, has proposed funding support of as much as $119 million dollars USD.

For the Great Green Wall of Africa to succeed, it will need that kind of support. Trees have been shown to be proven barriers against wind, sand, and erosion. For Africa, the proposed wall would consist of drought-resistant trees indigenous to each region and would need to be approximately 9 miles wide and over 4,800 miles long. Not only is it an ambitious project but there are concerns as to whether it can be properly maintained. But with the Sahara's relentless drive southward, it may be the best defense against loss of farmland and the risk of widespread starvation.

Read BBC News article.
Read Yahoo News article on GEF support.
Read Treehugger article of desertification research.

iGorilla: fun and informative iPhone app that helps the mountain gorillas

Here's a recommendation for an iPhone app that is both entertaining and informative: iGorilla. With this app you can follow the day-to-day lives of several mountain gorilla families that reside in one of Africa's most important national parks. Information is regularly updated and you can see pictures and videos to learn about specific family individuals.

The Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been one of the vanguards in African wildlife protection and has put considerable effort into their mountain gorilla program by developing a network of trained rangers to reduce poaching. Of the 720 remaining mountain gorillas on this planet, 200 of them live within the park's boundaries.

While the Virunga National Park is a well established park (second oldest in the world, next to Yellowstone), it too struggles for funding. For the gorilla program, considerable funds go into ranger training, uniforms and salaries, and equipment - money well spent in establishing a strong conservation and protection presence within the park.

You can download the app through the Apple store or right on your iPhone for $3.99. It's well worth it as a portion of the proceeds goes to the park.

Please note: don't get confused - there's another app called iGorilla! (with an exclamation mark) that is a game.

Read more about the iGorilla app.
Read more about the Virunga National Park.