The reef in question – The Rowley Shoals, are an isolated archipelago about 260km off Australia’s north west coast.
What was found was incredible. Between its protection from fishing, its location and the shape of the reef it has sustained species long lost elsewhere.
Species of giant fish like humphead Maori wrasse and humphead Parrotfish (both growing to over 1.5m were a regular sight, despite the fact that globally they are threatened with extinction. Of particular excitement, across the long study, there was no discernible change in the quantity of these fish – even as they were seen less and less regularly elsewhere.
Humphead Parrotfish Tchami
Humphead Wrasse Larry Koester
Efforts must be made to maintain reefs like this, in their unblemished state. These reefs are far more capable of dealing with environmental changes, and hopefully one day there will be a need to reseed reefs in more accessible parts of the world.
As with the UK, there is an alarming habit (at the moment) within the EU, to make grandiose targets for cuts. Is this one of those or does the EU actually stand a chance of meeting this?
Well between 1990 and 2019 the EU cut its emissions by roughly 24% – a not insignificant achievement.
If the EU is to meet its carbon goals, sites like this will have to become a thing of the past
At the current time, there is only one home for the Asiatic lion. this is despite many millions spent to change this situation. For a decade Gir forest has been meant to transfer a handful of lions to Kuno reserve, in order to give them a second home.
Why is this important? We need multiple homes for Asiatic lions. There was recently a huge storm over their one home. It is not unthinkable for the Gir forest to be devastated by something similar.
Might Gir lions be ignoring the rulings of local politicians and spreading anyway?
The government of this part of India has declared exclusive rights to the lions – an absurd claim given these lions once roamed across Asia, north Africa and southern parts of Europe.
It would appear that lions are taking matters into their own hands (or paws). Gir forest has a lion density way too high, which is leading to high mortality from fights between males and infanticide to bring females back into oestrus
Lions are now regularly seen as far away as Madhavpur an area which would take hours to drive to (from Gir national park). They have also created new populations in Girnar, paniya Mitiyala reserves as well as in a whole host of unprotected zones.
One of the areas that the lions have been moving into is Jasdan-Chotila. Lions disappeared from this area about 150 years ago, but the area is still well suited to them. There are various species of prey, and leopards have survived in the area. There are various mitigations that locals would have to make to live comfortably alongside lions. There are also many wells in the area, which will have to have walls built around them, to stop the lions falling in. Lions falling to their deaths have been a significant reason that the Gir lion population has not grown bigger in recent years.
Still this is exciting, though it should force local politicians to look at the health of the lion population as well as their own bottom line as the only place to see Asiatic lions.
Recent analysis has shown that designating an area protected, reducing threats it faces but does not eliminate them, and the study showed that deforestation inside a protected reserve is only 41% less likely to occur.
This view is repeated all over the earth
Now this is certainly a good reduction in risk, however, this still leaves substantial risk, and leaves us with the true figure of roughly 6.5%
If the earth is to avoid crippling climate change, we need all the forest we can retain.
Mangroves are incredible ecosystems, Highly essential in many parts of the planet. In many parts of the planet, mangrove roots stabilize the shoreline of rivers and seas halting large losses of land.
In this role, these trees also sift out much rubbish.
Having only green-lit beaver reintroduction in the UK in the last decade, there are large numbers of places that they will return to over the next few years.
The Kazakstan population of these antelope has more than doubled in the last 2 years from 334,000 to 842,000. In 2015 there was a mass die-off and distressing images of the steppe strewn with bodies made the rounds. Thankfully, the mothers give birth to twins every year, so their ability to bounce back is impressive.
Back during the Soviet era there were many millions of these antelope, but with increasing development in their range a return to those days is highly unlikely.
With numbers like these of remaining individuals, one would be forgiven for thinking that these species is not critically endangered, or perhaps even endangered. However, these terms are applied based on percentage fall in the size of the population. Saiga antelope have suffered a 90% decline in their population at the end of the 20th century.
So long as there is not another mass die-off and poaching is kept under control, these animals are likely to recover, and continue to be the base of an extremely large food chain.
The Tapanuli Orangutan lives on Sumatra but are thought to be more closely related to Bornean Orangutans. Numbering around 800 members, they had a far wider ranging habitat until recently. They are now restricted to about 1000 square km – about 2.5% of their former range.
While looking very similar to other orangutans, this sub species has not interbred with any other orangutans for over 1 million years and despite living in Sumatra, are more closely related to the Borneo Orangutan
What is harder, is that these Orangutans are not naturally mountainous animals, but have been driven there by the hunting that has so decimated their numbers.
