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Kahuzi-Biega National Park was established in 1937 by the Belgium colonial rulers and then expanded in 1975. It now covers 6000 square km or 2300 square miles. Roughly 13000 Batwa were cleared out of the area to make way for the park (along with other people who had settled more recently).
Continue reading “On the founding of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, locals were pushed out -they now have the right to return, what will happen”There are claimed to be 200 Arabian leopards remaining in the wild (most sources suggest the number is more like 120). This subspecies has suffered a decline in the last 120 years of between 90 and 98% (estimates on population size from the 19th century).
This population is spread across 3 countries with Oman and Yemen thought to have around 50 leopards each. Saudi Arabia has an estimated 20 leopards -though this may be overly positive, with none having been seen since 2014. While found in Israel until recently, the last confirmed sighting was in 2007, with this leopard found dead in 2009.
It would appear that chimpanzee medicine is quite a complicated field.
This is a significant range of conditions that can be treated, though it should also be noted, that this knowledge is likely to be shared in the group, as no one individual will have seen their mother suffer from all these conditions.
While gorilla medicine does not appear to be quite as advanced, it does include
Orangutans have also been observed –
And finally, Bonobo –
It perhaps should not be a surprise that other great apes have the ability to treat simple ailments – after all, there are a wide range of illnesses, for which a sensible treatment is very simple. One of the most common simple long known treatments in humans in dock leaves – when rubbed on a stinging nettle sting, it greatly reduces both the pain and irritancy of the of the sting. It is not even restricted to the great apes with birds, bees, lizards, and elephants all regularly treating simple conditions. Even a domestic dog knows to eat grass when feeling sick.
In 2020, wolf reintroduction into Colorado was agreed by the human population there, while this happened in December of 2023, the nearest wolf population lies around 400 miles north in Wyoming, and this is a distance that is easily covered by wolves. As a result, some wolves have turned up on their own.
Around the beginning of September this year, it was decided to move the pack, to halt hunting of livestock that the pack was doing (though generally hunting of livestock is at very low levels). Unfortunately, the male of the pack was killed in the attempt. Given that wolf packs generally contain a breeding pair, and their offspring (cubs and older offspring often from the year before), the female cannot pick another mate from her pack, as they are often all her cubs. The capture of the wolves for translocation, occurred through leg traps, which in this individual became infected and caused the death. A second of the moved wolves has died, after a suspected fight with a mountain lion.
The cubs are intended to be released in the winter, when they are old enough to hunt for themselves, though the fate of their mother is yet to be decided.
This gives an idea of the recovery of wolves around the USA. One thing to note, is that even Alaska has a wolf population that is very similar to the rest of the USA.
It should be noted, that the red wolf is a separate species. Genetic analysis has found that the red wolf has both grey wolf and coyote DNA, but is to distinct to be classed as a subspecies. The map above only lists 17 red wolves in the wild (other sites suggest 17-19). They were reintroduced in 1987, and while their population did grow to roughly 150, hybridization with local coyotes, meant that the population has since collapsed once again. There are an estimated 290 red wolves in captivity, and there has been action taken to remove coyotes in areas where they species were meeting – and people are working towards releasing more red wolves into its range.
Of interest, the Southwest wolf numbers are also known as the Mexican wolf. There are a further 45 across the border in Mexico. This population was thought originally to number in the several 10s of thousands (though given the USA population was estimated at between 250,000 and 2 million both have suffered horrific declines).
As with Europe, the recovery of the wolf is requiring people to learn to live alongside an incredibly wily and potentially dangerous species. However, wolves play important roles in the natural environment, and their return should be seen as a good thing. While occasional culls are necessary, these should be decided on scientific basis, and not at the whim of state politicians, who often choose unscientific culls because it is a vote winner. Many argued against delisting, as the wolf population is below 4% of the historic population (and excluding Alaska, below 2%) but Donald Trump rarely worried about science. What is going to happen to wolves now, as he has been returned to the white house for a second term, we will have to wait and see.
Bees across much of Europe have not had an easy time of things in the last few decades, and that has been caused by a variety of things, including: pesticides, climate change, disease, climate change, parasites and nutrition deficiency just to name a few.
Should this new invader spread, it may well be the last straw for our bees across many areas.
Not only is it likely to compete for pollen with local bees, but the bees are also likely to carry various diseases, which while might hinder their health could kill our bees (this is often the case, as with squirrel pox, which kills the native red squirrels fast, but grey squirrels are often immune).
Initially only found in parts of Asia, it is now found around the middle east, and parts of Africa as well.
Having been found near a shipping cargo hub, it is feared that this is how it arrived. If this is true, it seems likely, that others might find their way all over the place through the same method.
The winters are mild in this location, leading to the insects surviving the winter, an advantage that more northerly European destinations have – though climate change is also seeing this advantage reducing, and an increasing number of invasive species growing out of control.
This is the place were beavers first appeared in 2008, though were only fully recognized in around 2013. A full study on the impact of these animals on the river, was launched in 2014 and after 10 years it has reported. The results are incredible, with much of the local environment totally changed.
Space along the river was given over to the beavers, and they have taken full advantage. Their dams mean that in storm conditions, surges are 30% smaller, allowing the river to cope, and not flood towns along its route. An estimated 24 million litres of water is now stored in these beaver areas. This has in turn created areas where toads, water voles dragon-flies and even otters are able to thrive.
Similar impacts have occurred in other places where beavers returned such as Scotland.
Clearly, we should be looking to facilitate the spread of the beavers, and translocating them to suitable rivers up and down the country. Our rivers are known as some of the dirtiest in the country. While much of the blame for this lies with sewage treatment, beavers would likely have a fantastic impact on this.
Cats are one of the families of species that perhaps show rare colourations relatively regularly. I say relatively, because naturally these can be very rare. Like a black leopard or a king cheetah, these can exist as a recessive gene.
Having said this, a tiger with more black on it, may well be better at hunting when there is little light, which could boost its chances of breeding effectively. This picture is from late in 2023, from Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. There is a significant history of this genetic mutation in this reserve (though that is not particularly surprising, as black leopards and similar are also genetic so tend to occur in the same area for a time).
Continue reading “Rare black tiger spotted in Odisha”
I wrote, yesterday about the fears for the future of the polar bear species, and the problems that global warming are causing. Today, I am writing about another news subject from a few months ago – that of hybrids between brown bears and the polar bears.
Polar bears as a species, are only though to be between 150,000 and 1.7million years old, with most putting their estimate at around 600,000 years. This is very young for a species, and they descend from brown bears, with a 2011 study finding that female polar bear DNA seems to originate from a group of brown bears living in Ireland during the last ice age when vast ice sheets stretched from there to the north pole, and allowed polar bears to truly wander far and wide.
Pizzly’s and Growler bears, while found in nature on rare occasions, would have naturally been so rare as to be insignificant. It is only human caused global warming which has forced these animals together – and regular meetings in the natural world, of closely related species, usually ends up with offspring.
These hybrids (male polar bear and female grizzly ends with a Pizzly bear, while a female polar bear and a male grizzly ends with a Growler bear) are likely to become more common. Polar bears will increasingly have to head south, to be able to survive, and Grizzly bears will increasingly head north for cooler environments, bringing them into contact more and more often.
I am not going to pretend that this is not bad. Donald Trumps former term was bad for the natural world and the fight against climate change. Likely changes:
The situation is serious. Having been president before, it is highly likely that trump will be more effective this time, as he knows more than last time. He has retaken the Senate, and it looks like he is going to take the house as well. Will he manage to use his position more effectively? Leadership on climate, biodiversity and many more things will fall open, we must wait and see if other countries step up to fill their shoes, and continue to push forwards.
We are in for another bumpy road
Of the slightly over 8 billion humans on earth, 4.641 billion, or just under 60% live in Asia. While this is expected to grow to 5.25 billion people in 2055 it will only be 54% (due to increasing populations elsewhere in the world) of global population at the time.
So, what is the problem? An average fertility rate of 2.1 is currently considered necessary to maintain population levels (that is, 2.1 births per female). When the fertility rate drops below this rate, there are not enough babies being born to replace all of the people dying. As environmentalists, this is good, as the human population is thought (by some) to be too high to sustainable retain long-term (estimates as to what population the earth can sustain long-term range from a relatively small 0.65 billion to an enormous 9-10 billion). Of course, it depends on what we consider as sustainable survival – for me, and I hope for most of you, what I would consider sustainable, would be a low enough population to allow all other species on earth to thrive, so I would suggest that a number near the bottom of this list is more reasonable.
Below, we will look at a range of Asian countries with large populations
Continue reading “Is Asia’s plummeting fertility rate a going to lead to a crisis, or might it help save the planet?”