Habitat destruction – Page 19

February 24, 2021July 1, 2022

The Chinese alligator – critically endangered in the wild yet with tens of thousands captive members

These animals were covered during the BBC wild China series a few years ago, and as such a relatively poorly known but highly important animal which plays an important part of the ecosystem in this part of China has likely been saved – though there is still much work to do.

Chinese Alligator being returned to the wild

As with an awful lot of other wildlife found within the borders of China, the Chinese alligator is severely endangered. In the wild it’s population numbers around 150, at this population is highly fragmented and no habitat has a significant number of these animals.

February 5, 2021July 1, 2022

Absurd green washing of an environmental failure

One of the most reliable forms of renewable electricity generation is hydro. Create a dam, and then make electricity when ever you release the water from behind it. However, there are clearly places where this is not going to be good for the environment.

The Belo Monte dam is sold as part of the fight against global warming. This is however not a green project, indeed apart from the destruction of a huge area of rainforest, its construction will emit more carbon than it could possibly save in the next several hundred years

If the river that is dammed is running through a forest, then the flooding will cover the rainforest. What happens then? Well all the carbon that is stored in the trees, and the ground is released back into the air.

February 4, 2021July 1, 2022

Elephant counting from space

For the first time the population of elephants in addo elephant park in South Africa has been counted from space using computer learning.

Counting elephants from space is increasingly possible. Why is this good? it can be done cheaply, and therefore can be done regularly. This allows remote reserve poaching epidemics to be noticed early. As elephants are often the first animal to be targeted, automated satellite counts could give early warning about parks in danger.

The satellite images now taken are detailed enough to show each individual elephant has a separate grey blob. Then by using computer learning, a program can be taught to count these accurately.

June 7, 2020September 2, 2023

Russia has had a large oil spill deep in the Arctic

One of the main concerns for oil exploration and use in the Arctic, has always been the difficulty of cleaning up any spills in this pristine environment.

A large spill has just occurred. A fuel reservoir for a power plant has just collapsed releasing 20000 tons of diesel fuel.

The company in question try to cover it up for some time, and indeed it seems that it only became common knowledge when the WWF found out about the spill and went public.

This problem is ongoing and they are yet to choose the method of dealing with this spill

March 12, 2018December 3, 2023

The loss of wild dogs from the Serengeti – and their return

Image source Burrard-Lucas Photography

Before 1992, as well as the Lions and Cheetah, there were huge packs of African Wild Dog (also called African Hunting Dogs) that would follow the herds as well. This was one of the largest populations of African Wild Dog population so it was devastating to have the population wiped out so quickly. However, the land given to the nomadic people of the Serengeti
Continue reading “The loss of wild dogs from the Serengeti – and their return”

February 27, 2018December 3, 2023

New species of Orangutan

The Tapamuli Orangutan has recently been discovered. There are only thought to be 800 of these animals left and they are only found within the Batang Toru Forest of North Sumatra. It is thought that they have been a separate from the Borneon Orangutan for 674,000 years (despite living on Sumatra they appear to be more closely related to the Orangutans of Borneo than of Sumatra). As well as having such a tiny population they also live in an area of roughly 1000 square kilometres (386 square miles). This is the first great ape species to be discovered since 1929 when the Bonobo was discovered.

February 18, 2018December 3, 2023

Cape leopards

Cape Leopards are a fascinating part of the leopard population of South Africa. It is estimated that there are as many as 1000 cape leopards living throughout the western cape. Now the western cape covers roughly 50,000 square miles so it is a rather large area, and they are spread across a few national parks. What is interesting about this group is that they are significantly smaller than any other group of leopards with females weighing around 20kg and males 35kg (generally leopards weigh between 60 and 70kg). Continue reading “Cape leopards”

February 10, 2018December 3, 2023

Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived

In Africa it is becoming increasingly common for national parks to be declared on both sides of a border. This allows the protected area to be vastly larger than either country could succeed in, on its own. This is important because many of the mammals that live in Africa need a lot of space and live at low densities. Without transfrontier parks it would be too expensive to protect a large enough area to support populations of animals such as wild dog and cheetah. In an ideal world this is a relatively simple solution, however as with everything it isn’t often that simple. With war and famine and other problems the animals could suddenly become less secure in one country than another. Continue reading “Transfrontier parks – allowing wildlife to exist closer to how it did before humans arrived”

January 21, 2018December 3, 2023

Problems with Palm Oil – and how to avoid it

Palm oil is a plant based alternative to digging up hydrocarbons (like oil).

In theory, the concept of growing the fuel that we use might be a good idea, unfortunately this has not worked well in practice. The best place to grow palm oil is along the equator, but this is where much of the tropical rainforest also grows. It has already been established that as much of this needs to be left intact as possible for the world to function as an ecosystem.

While I would have a problem in the way this is being undertaken for the simple reason that these rainforests hum with life there are other issues. Continue reading “Problems with Palm Oil – and how to avoid it”