extinction – Page 13 – See Animals Wild

July 20, 2021June 30, 2022

Will climate change kill the forests of Africa?

There are many threats facing the great apes of Africa, from habitat destruction and fragmentation, to hunting for bush meat. Unfortunately, it is now thought that Chimpanzees gorillas and Bonobos face a still greater threat (assuming humans avoid killing off what remains of their population) the loss of about 94% of their remaining habitat due to forest die off from the warming that we are creating.

Could this become something impossible to see, within this generation? I hope not

Even under our most rosy scenario, they stand to loose 85% of their range.

The same studies suggest that as areas become unsuitable, there are likely to be other that become suitable. Unfortunately, dealing with slow adapting animals this will not help at all without significant assistance from humans.

What is even more scary is that this loss would occur by 2050.

I find this horrifying. I have not been able to yet visit any wild great ape populations, and now it looks as though their future is severely limited. It also looks like, by the time my children have children the huge forests of Africa teeming with wildlife, will be no more.

We must act now!

Human communities which live alongside great ape populations must benefit. Of course these communities must not grow and crowd out the wildlife, but if a similar system can be set up that worked for the mountain gorillas, perhaps many of the great apes could be saved and at the same time, pull millions of Africans living in poverty, into more sustainable and profitable lives.

This is not something that must be left to African governments. Indeed, it also must not be just left to tourism. Governments around the world, need to help in this work.

As well as replanting and recovering rainforests across the globe, the human population as a whole needs to work together to save the remaining tropical rainforests which are so precious to our future and that of our descendants.

A French company Biotope is working on sustainable cohabitation between chimpanzees and local communities in the highlands of western central Guinea.

The west African Chimpanzee once numbered around 2 million. Currently there are roughly 500,000, but without urgent action that number is liable to move quickly down to close to zero.

Conservation for its own sake is all very well for those people living on the other side of the world. For those who live close by it is a different matter. Ending the population explosion that is occurring in Africa, is essential both for the human and wildlife populations that share this continent. Similar programs could do the same thing in south America and Asia.

I am well aware that even if successful, this website will only be part of the solution, but I hope that with your support we can do some good.

July 17, 2021June 30, 2022

Australian Environmentalist groups want the UN to put the Great barrier reef on the ‘in danger list’, will the government listen?

While Australian government ministers are fighting hard against, there are increasing calls from Australian environmentalist groups for the great barrier reef to be added to the list of ecosystems in danger.

The great barrier reef is one of the true spectacles of the natural world, but we are in danger of loosing it forever.

It is frankly insane that this is still a discussion. Of course the great barrier reef is in danger.

Indeed, it is endangered by a number of things

July 7, 2021June 30, 2022

Can we save bonobos, the great ape most similar to humans? They are more endangered than we thought.

According to the African wildlife foundation estimates, there are 15000 to 20000 bonobos left in the wild. Bonobos or pygmy chimpanzees are thought to genetically be closer to humans, certainly their appearance – they are thinner, have thinner faces and a more noticeable crop of hair on their head, but are horrifically threatened.

Although these bonobos do not look human, they look very different to other chimpanzees.

Yet it would appear that even this estimate is too high.

July 5, 2021July 1, 2022

Think the UK is prioritizing the survival of the few mammal species left? think again

The UK government is in the process of changing the rules for property developers. At the moment, a range of wildlife from red squirrels, pine martens, mountain hares, water voles, adders and slow worms have special status.

Might adders become an even rarer site, or disappear altogether under these rules?

June 25, 2021July 1, 2022

A reduction of African great apes of 80% by 2050?

Current prediction is great apes will lose 80% of their habitats by 2050

Of the great ape species, 3 out of the 4 non human species live in Africa. This is why it is so alarming the current estimates are that by 2050 great habitat will have reduced by 80%.

This is also a huge concern for the rest of the world. An 80% reduction in rainforest cover in Africa could make halting global warming impossible.

Obviously there are multiple strands of global warming and halting species loss. Unfortunately this could sink both problems into impossible or near impossible to solve.

Furthermore, there are other sad facts about this idea. Farmland rarely benefits the people who live in its vicinity. The huge plantations of Indonesia have destroyed the rainforests but they have not lifted living standards, indeed in many places they have eradicated the ability for locals to live – forcing them to leave their home.

Game reserves require significant staff to look after the guests. Furthermore, there are a great deal of resources that can be extracted without destroying the trees above. This allows locals to increase their standard of living, while at the same time allowing the rainforests to stay standing and the wildlife that lives there to continue to thrive.

It would seem that it should be possible to dig deep mines under rainforests without cutting the forest down first. Obviously we come back to the problem of poaching that might increase with the mine workers, but the simple fact is that most mines do not disturb the surface (except for the mine entrance). It likely increases mine costs, but given the wealth of minerals that are thought to lie under the Congo rainforest it should be more than worth it.

I do not want to have to explain to my grand children, why there are no great rainforests left in Africa. I have only visited one rainforest (that of the Udzungwas in East Tanzania), but apart from the environmental services that these places provide there are many parts of the planet which rapidly turn to desert if you remove the rainforests covering the ground.

June 17, 2021July 1, 2022

Could lakes become water deserts, devoid of life?

As water warms up, its ability to hold oxygen decreases. This is unfortunate for the plants and wildlife that live in these waters as they cannot survive without oxygen.

Unfortunately in a recent study it became clear that this is occurring in lakes around the world.

It is true that this impact is not being had at all levels of lakes to the same degree. Unfortunately, the majority water life is very depth sensitive and are uncapable of changing their habits to survive this change.

This is a new, and less considered threat of global warming. Unfortunately it could have significant negative effects on the world.

It is unfortunately possible that in the short term this is irreversible, it is merely one more signpost to require us to change our ways faster.

June 17, 2021June 30, 2022

Solving the Climate crisis and biodiversity loss together

Yesterday I was writing about a series of dams that have collapsed in Brazil. We need to remember that there are two imminent threats that we are facing in the natural world.

The world is warming. This is going to make life far harder for our children
We are loosing much of the wilderness on the planet. Unfortunately we rely on this to survive in the long-term

We need to cut carbon emissions dramatically, we know as the human race that if we do not cut emissions dramatically and very fast, our planet will go through horrific change from the loss of the ice caps (and the resulting sea level rise) to the desertificion of large parts of the planet – some of this previously being rainforest.

If we cannot halt the loss of areas such as rainforests, the problem becomes even larger as we destroy one of our largest carbon sinks.

In the west, we have a responsibility to not only cut our own emissions to net zero in the space of a few decades, we must also help developing countries grow their own economies and increase the standard of living for their citizens without destroying what remains of the ecosystems that still exist.

June 13, 2021June 30, 2022

Poacher suspected of killing 70 Bengal tigers finally caught

Tigers are still found in small populations across large parts of Asia, and as such, many millions of people live in relatively close areas to places that protect the wild tiger. A poacher in Bangladesh has finally been caught, it is estimated that he is responsible for the deaths of 70 tigers. Given the current population is thought to be between 300 and 500 in the whole of Bangladesh, this poacher alone could greatly increase the risk of local extinction in the near term.

June 11, 2021June 30, 2022

Great apes predicted to loose 90% of their range in the coming decades

It is thought that between global warming and habitat loss, 90% of the remaining great ape range will be lost – potentially as early as 2050!

Wild Bonobo resting in a tree Photo taken by Alexander Georgiev

The loss of these rainforests will make climate change mitigation far harder, and I do not wish for my grandchildren to grow up in a world where there is no such thing as a large rainforest. As elsewhere, the loss of the apex species such as great apes both makes conservation harder, and imperils the ecosystem as a whole, as less visitors come so there is less money for protection.

May 9, 2021July 1, 2022

Just 3% of worlds ecosystems classed as prestine!

Apart fro areas of the Congo and Amazon rainforests, and areas of Siberia canada and the Sahara, virtually all other ecosystems have been adversely affected.

Many ecosystems look intact, until we realize that important members from these ecosystems are missing. It is unfortunately true that humans are almost always responsible for these holes in the food web.