Home to one of the two remaining populations of mountain gorillas as well as eastern lowland gorillas and chimpanzees. It is one of the best protected central African rainforest, yet satellite imagery shows significant amounts of deforestation.
In April last year, 12 Virunga rangers and 5 civilians were killed in clashes over this environmental destruction.
As in other places, the locals see little benefit from the park, rather they see large amounts of land that they have lost access to. Locals must benefit from the park, as well as efforts made to feed the local population
A lobster diver suddenly found himself in the mouth of a humpback whale.
Large whales on earth feed exclusively on small sea creatures, and have baleen sheets that stop larger creatures being swallowed.
As such after diving a distance, the whale surfaced and violently shook it’s head to empty it’s mouth, and the man was pulled back into his boat.
While episodes like this might happen from time to time, whales remain animals generally without any animus towards humans. They can not eat us, and now we are not exterminating them they do not fear us.
They are, however, very large and as such can accidently hurt people if they get too close
While currently only exploratory, oil projects in the ecosystems of Namibia and Botswana potentially threaten the survival of 130,000 elephants – one of Africa’s last great wildernesses.
The Okavango delta from space. This exploration could destroy one of Africa’s last great wildernesses
The company ReconAfrica is going ahead with its search despite the threats. At the current time, there are roughly 450,000 elephants in Africa, but that is down from millions just a few short decades ago.
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.
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.
Bears are highly intelligent fascinating animals. However it must also be remembered, that they are highly efficient predators, and that they are more than capable of defending themselves.
Slovenian brown bear foraging with cubs CREDIT: MARCO SECCH
The Slovenian bear population has tripled in the last 20-years, and there are increasingly loud calls to legalise hunting. This will only make these calls more insistent.
Although we set up a seeanimalswild youtube website a few years ago, due to Covid and a few other reasons we havent been able to travel and so havent had any videos to put up.
That changed today.
During half term we took our children to east Devon and managed to see the beavers a few times. Here is the video amalgamation of those sightings.
Please do like and subscribe if you like them.
The youtube channel is meant to work with this website.
The video in question is hopefully the first in a long list for the website section “in the shadow of mankind”
DNA analysis has shown that a grey whale first seen off the South West African coast, originated in a population off the eastern coast of Asia.
Grey whales are known for their incredible migrations
This grey whale in question was spotted off the coast of Namibia by scientists. Given where they are usually found, they wanted to check what was going on so took a DNA sample.
The sighting is exciting, as it suggests that grey whales collectively have memory of long unused breeding grounds, or are merely exploring beyond their current range.
Even more exciting, this male was found to likely come from the North pacific population, a highly endangered population with only 200 members.
Now while from this populations point of view, a female migrating the other way would have been more useful, it suggests that there is far more mixing across huge distances than was previously known.
Perhaps as the pressures of whaling fade into history, these animals will return. It is true that whaling is not yet being left in the past. Norway Iceland and Japan all still have small whaling industries. However, provided whaling is kept at this level, or reduces over time the vast majority of whales will be unaffected. It is important that whaling (even in these limited numbers) stays clear of certain species; for instance northern right whales still only number around 200 in the wild, so even hunting at the levels we will have could push this species to extinction.
Any decision on which species can be hunted must come down to science. It is irrelevant if a people have hunted a specific whale for centuries, if they would exterminate the rest of its species.
Whales should be allowed to recover to previous levels. They are also capable of sequestering carbon in large quantities, both from their dead bodies and waste. We need them to thrive – both for their benefit and for ours.
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.
A herd of elephants left their home in March of 2020, and have been roaming free for the last 15 months. In that time they have travelled 500 km (300 miles) roughly the equivalent of the distance from the most eastern to most western point in the UK.
