Category: Asia

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Can the Malaysian tiger be saved?

If is easy to think that we should not be saving subspecies, but instead investing money in conserving other animals that are still threatened.

Unfortunately, this is the wrong way to look at it. Malaysia tigers only exist in a small strip between Malaysia and Thailand. The dense rainforest here has been standing in its current form for longer than the Amazon or the Congo.

In the 1950s there were 3000 tigers, yet in just 70 years this number has been reduced to just 200.

Subspecies are different – obviously, and their differences actually make a difference in the species survival, as well as its success. Introducing a subspecies from another area can have unexpected effects. If the subspecies is lost, then a different subspecies is likely to fill the niche better than none.

Tiger subspecies while extremely closely related, have evolved for millennia to be suited to their environment. If we take this to its extreme can you imagine reintroducing Sumatran tigers into the frozen wastelands of Siberia? The Amur tiger can measure 3m from head to end of tail, where as a Sumatran tiger only measures 2.4m

My feeling is that we should be moving from concentrating on specific species to ecosystems. it is certainly harder to generate the interest, but by looking at it on the ecosystem level we recognize that we need the apex predators for that ecosystem – whether they are a subspecies version of the tiger leopard or something else.

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Saving the Persian leopard

Leopards once roamed through Africa and Asia and even up into parts of Europe. Now their range is diminished and many of the subspecies are either endangered or critically so.

The Persian Leopard (also referred to as the Anatolian leopard and the Cascina Leopard)  Iranian Plateau and surrounding areas encompassing Turkey, the Caucasus (Armenia Azerbaijan and other parts of southern Russia), Iran, Israel, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan.

These ancient Iraqi forests are under threat, and with it the last stronghold of the Persian Leopard

Today it is thought that the population only consists of 1000 adults, though their population is highly fragmented. One of its strongholds is the Iraqi Kurdistan forests, unfortunately as much as half of these forests has been lost to illegal deforestation.

Unfortunately if the Persian Leopard cannot hang on here there is little hope elsewhere. Numbers have roughly halved (as habitat has similarly halved).

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Tigers are still moving between reserves, we must make it easier

Tigers once numbered 100,000 in India. My great great grandfather spent time in India, and I grew up hearing my great grandmother talking about the time that she went with her father on her pet elephant (as you do) to find a tiger that had been maimed during a failed hunt. This was essential, as a maimed tiger (or indeed lion leopard or jaguar) is of great danger to those living nearby. A maimed tiger cannot hunt as it normally would, and humans are far easier prey.

We have never learnt to live alongside tigers. As a result, as the human population has grown, the tiger population has been squashed into less and less land. If a healthy population can survive for the next century the human population may fall again and allow the tiger to thrive once more

These days the situation is very different. Currently there is a little over 3000 tigers living in the wilds of India, a number that has doubled in a surprisingly short period of time.

Continue reading “Tigers are still moving between reserves, we must make it easier”
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New baby girl! Sumatran rhino born in captivity in a breeding centre in Sumatra

Today the Sumatran rhino is critically endangered. It is thought that not more than 80 exist in the wilds of Sumatra. Not particularly closely related to the Javan rhino, the Sumatran rhino once had a much larger range extending from foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in Bhutan and eastern India, through Myanmar, Thailand, possibly to Vietnam and China, and south through the Malay Peninsula. Indeed the Sumatran rhino is thought to have lost its last remaining mainland member as recently as 2015.

with only 80 remaining in the wild, and so far little success in captive breeding this baby Sumatran rhino is incredibly important Courtesy Indonesian ministry of environment and forestry

As a result, a breeding centre has been set up on Sumatra to create a captive population with which to boost the wild population.

Unfortunately, they have not done well. This calf is just the third born since the foundation of the centre – the centre was set up in 1996. There have only been another 3 calves born elsewhere in captivity.

As with other Sumatran wildlife, the Sumatran rhino has suffered the dual threats of loss of habitat and the fragmentation of what is left.

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Only Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have a higher proportion of climate change denial than the USA

The USA has rather embarrassed itself. A large minority of the country has kept stating things that were obviously foolish. In particular, Donald Trump has spent the 4 years of his administration undermining all of the science and therefore the gradual move towards acceptance of the the facts that most of the rest of the world has already accepted.

In particular, while the Republican party has in the past advanced science, they have completely abandoned this position. Climate change needs universal support for dealing with it if we are to succeed.

Given all this, it is not a surprise that so many people in the USA actually believe it.

Continue reading “Only Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have a higher proportion of climate change denial than the USA”
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Only 12 Asiatic cheetah are left in the wild!

At the minimum, the Amur leopard population fell to as low as 30 individuals. The Asiatic cheetah is therefore far closer to extinction. At the current time there are thought to be 9 males and 3 females left in the wild. Given that in 2010 there were around 100, while this is still a highly threatened species clearly the threats to their continued existence have not gone away.

There is some debate about how genetically distinct Asiatic cheetah are. However, if fully lost, it may be able to import African cheetah to refill the ecological niche. Saving the last few would always be preferable however
Continue reading “Only 12 Asiatic cheetah are left in the wild!”
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An arrested Sumatran politician – arrested for bribery, was found to have a pet Orangutan among a group of other exotic pets

There is a great deal of corruption in many parts of the world. In many places politicians are almost expected to give themselves extra benefits – indeed those who do not, are often quite notable for standing out.

In this case, after arresting the politician his house was raided, when the animals were found.

Keeping wild animals as pets can carry a 5 year jail sentence, in this case it must -he must not escape penalty for this
Continue reading “An arrested Sumatran politician – arrested for bribery, was found to have a pet Orangutan among a group of other exotic pets”
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Can the red sea teach us how to save the worlds corals?

The coral itself is actually usually quite a dull colour, the brilliant colours of coral reefs come from the algae that lives within its coral tissue. These algae’s are called Zooxanthellae and in return for their home, the algae supply most of the corals nutrients.

The problem, is that these algae are very sensitive to temperature changes, and so if the sea remains unusually warm or cold for more than a few days, the algae leaves the corals and this is called a bleaching. This bleaching has occurred more and more recently in the last few years.

As a result of this, it is feared, that up to 90% of the corals worldwide will be lost by 2050.

This is where the red sea corals become so interesting.

The red sea coral reef looks the same as any other reef, but it appears that there is a difference, that might be the key to saving reefs around the world

Just 2 years ago, researchers found some corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, a trench between Israel, Jordan and Egypt which could withstand higher temperatures for longer. Just 1 degree above normal, sustained for a week can be enough to cause bleaching. If the temperature does not fall quickly, the corals will die. Yet here, corals have been seen to survive temperature rises above 7 degrees. It is thought that these corals have developed these abilities because they regularly suffer large temperature changes.

If they can identify corals that have this ability, and translocate them into new reefs, they will cross-breed. As the heat resistant corals are heat resistant, they are likely to survive far longer and therefore be able to pass on their heat resistant trait into the whole reef.

Given the rapidly warming planet, we only have about 30 years to act. Apart from their own intrinsic value, coral reefs are also worth roughly $600,000 per square kilometre each year, through protecting coastlines, increased tourism, medication and a whole lot more effects.

This is a fantastic possible save for the worlds reefs, time will tell if it works.

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Rare black tiger photographed in the wild

Big cats have a range of colours that they can be found in. It is certainly true that their standard colour is more common, but in different parts of their range other colourings might be more helpful. For instance, an Amur tiger that was white may find it easier to creep up on its prey.

A black tiger photographed in the wild

On the Malay peninsular, as much as half of the leopards are black, as this gives them an advantage.

In this case, a black tiger was photographed. The animals was not entirely black, but having far wider stripes, its back looks more black with yellow stripes rather than the other way round. Fewer animals are taken out of the wild than in the past, when an animal like this would likely have been caught and sold to a zoo for many times the price that tigers normally fetch – as this tiger will increase visitor numbers.

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20% of Indonesia palm oil sites lie within forest estates – thereby illegal by definition

Seemingly, often as a result of mapping issues (though this may not have been accidental) Unesco sites and land mapped as Orangutan habitat have been turned into plantations.

The idea that 1/5 of the plantations fall into this category is hard to explain – not surprisingly this is explicitly illegal.

It should not need saying, but if palm oil plantations can be planted to replace primary forest, are not worth the paper they are written on
Continue reading “20% of Indonesia palm oil sites lie within forest estates – thereby illegal by definition”
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