wildlife – Page 28 – See Animals Wild

June 6, 2021June 30, 2022

Contradiction of wildlife tourism – do not kill the wild natural world while cutting your emissions

The world has an unfortunate problem. In many parts of the world we are successfully reducing our carbon footprint dramatically, through cleaning our electricity generation among other improvements.

Unfortunately, in our current setup, often the only way to pay for conserving the wild places on our planet is by visiting them, and for most people, this requires long-distance flights.

Something we must avoid in more wealthy countries is to simply halt all tourism to wild places. If in order to cut a few tons of carbon from our personal emissions, we remove the reason to conserve a large rainforest in Africa or Asia, can we really blame the locals when it gets cut down? In theory, money does indeed get sent to some of these countries to pay for offsetting our emissions. Unfortunately this rarely reaches people on the ground.

May 22, 2021July 1, 2022

Reintroducing Jaguars to the south west of the USA?

It might be a shock to many, but Jaguars were once native to the USA. What’s more despite humans biggest efforts, the eradication was not completely successful. The third largest big cat, after Tiger and Lion, was persecuted along with many other native fauna after Europeans started to settle in the USA.

A news report from the last decade, talking about what is thought to have been the last Arizona Jaguar

May 20, 2021July 1, 2022

Killer whale shows jumping high from the water is a natural behaviour

There is often an argument that Orca (or killer whales) should not be displayed in aquariums as they show unnatural behaviours. While doing trick after trick would not be seen, and in the wild they might roam tens or hundreds of thousands of square miles in a year, many of the behaviours are indeed something that is seen in the wild.

Perhaps the most likely place to see interesting behaviours is during a hunt, and that is indeed what was recently captured.

Orca hunting smaller dolphins in the sea of Cortex off the coast of Mexico

Orcas swim most oceans around the world. Increasingly, humans are recognizing that far from being one species, there is actually many which have not interbred for in some cases millions of years. Furthermore, many populations are geographically isolated rarely meeting up with other members.

However, this demonstrates that while there are a number of effective predators in the sea from dolphins to sharks and whales, the killer whale is usually the undisputed predator. As well as taking dolphins reasonably regularly, killer whales often target other big predators including great white sharks. Indeed, while it is never easy to be sure of the reason that a wild species changes its behaviour, it is thought that the disappearance of the south african great white shark is linked to more regular sightings of the Orca in South African waters during the second half of the year when they are thought to be in residence.

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.

May 9, 2021July 1, 2022

Cicadas in their trillions are about to make their appearance in USA

Cicadas have a fascinating way of avoiding most predators. They spend most of their lives under ground. Every 17 years they awake from hibernation and emerge. At this point they mate, lay eggs and die. They young then climb back beneath ground and the process starts again.

However the numbers are incredible, with the average acre of land in the right states having 1.5 million Cicadas emerging from the ground.

1,200 cicada sightings have already been made.

One distinguishing characteristic behaviour is the males song, which can reach 105 decibels (louder than a lawn mower or many other heavy equipment.

May 7, 2021July 1, 2022

Fascinating genetic analysis of African and Asian leopards show worrying fact

Despite the fact that over time I’m many zoos have accidentally or intentionally interbred African and Asian leopards they are actually significantly different.

On the left an African leopard on the right an Asiatic leopard

How different you might ask? The two different cat species are more genetically distinct than the polar bear and the brown Bear!

We need to remember that subspecies of animals evolve separately to be able to cope with local requirements. It is clear that we must save as many species as we can but also subspecies.

May 6, 2021July 1, 2022

The Chernobyl accident was a devastating problem, however it is given a laboratory that we would never have had otherwise

After the Chernobyl nuclear accident an exclusion zone 2660 square kilometres (just over 1000 square miles) hod to be abandoned.

Bears are an apex predator, so their return to Chernobyl is a good sign, this photo was taken elsewhere

Now while the area is horrifically damaged by the the nuclear waste, the absence of humans has been such a boon that wildlife populations in the exclusion zone are doing phenomenally well.

The area hosts several dozen wolves, and bears returned for the first time in 2014 – having been absent from the area for more than a century.

Indeed what is fascinating about the area is the clear evidence that the damage caused by nuclear radiation is nowhere near as damaging as the human population.

Whether this can change and we can allow small pockets of wilderness in the heart of Europe is a question that most would answer no. However given how many benefits will genesis like this give to the area around them, perhaps we should be aiming to create more.

May 3, 2021July 1, 2022

Namibia is auctioning it elephants, should this be allowed?

In many countries around the world, some conservation success can lead to problems. In Africa halting elephant poaching can lead to rocketing populations, which in turn can lead to not enough space and human elephant conflict.

Elephants in Namibia taken by Thomas Schoch

In some places countries have sold the animals that they no longer say they have the space for.

The problem is that many countries are now doing this merely for the money. Namibia has decided to sell 170 elephants. The problem is is that namibia’s resident elephant population is very small, perhaps 5000 to 7000. More than 80% of the elephants in Namibia are migratory, in that they roam in and out of the country. In terms of the resident population, the 170 elephants represents at least 3% of the permanent population.

While selling animals can be a good way of raising money for conservation, reduction of this size is not wise particularly when elephants are not in a good place globally anyway.

May 1, 2021July 1, 2022

The UK government banned ivory selling so why are they delaying implementing

Ivory, sometimes known as white gold is a real problem. Often valued as much as gold, the rewards for killing a wild elephant can amount too many decades, sometimes the equivalent of a lifetime’s wage to a poor African or Indian.

There is much discussion about what should be done with seized Ivory. In theory, it could be sold and the money reinvested in protection. Unfortunately, this has been shown to increase the demand for ivory, therefore increasing its value – making further poaching more not less likely. Burning might be the best plan

April 28, 2021June 30, 2022

Sri Lankan elephants are visiting landfill sites

Unfortunately, in many parts of the world wild animals and humans are coming closer and closer in where they live. Due to our wasteful lifestyle, our leftovers can provide good pickings for wildlife though this often leads to conflict.