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Across the world many species have huge ranges – look at the leopard, found across Africa and much of Asia. It is not a surprise that these animals have a great deal of genetic variability.
However, until recently, far to much of the decisions about subspecies status went on the look of the animal.
Continue reading “Bringing back the Amur tiger to the western part of its range! (The Caspian tiger)”Nepal has significant populations of Tigers Leopards and Snow Leopards. Historical knowledge would state that tigers rule on the countries southern plains, Leopards rule in the mid country hill region and Snow leopards in the Himalayas.
The boy wandered 11 miles from his home through wilderness that surrounds the national park. Tsavo east is an incredibly important reserve, and together with Tsavo west, together protect one of the biggest single ecosystems of east Africa.
It is thought that there is currently about 10,000 big cats in private ownership, often in poor conditions and of no conservation benefit. While as much as 5000 are tigers (more than the 3900 estimated to remain in the wild across all subspecies, and some estimates put the number of tigers as high as 8000) there are also lions jaguars and leopards amongst other species.
Importantly, however well-meaning the owners are, the very existence of this pet trade means that any big cat within easy reach of humans becomes a target. This week the bill: big cat public safety act, passed through the house of representatives. Currently 30 states allow tiger ownership, and a license is just $30. Also, as breeders in the USA have generally mixed up all the subspecies, these tigers do not create a back-stop for the wild population, as these hybrid tigers are unlikely to still have the genetic ability to cope in the extreme heat/cold/desert/flooded area that they used to call home.
Continue reading “Biden expected to sign into law new big cat ownership rules, which will curb or end private ownership”Recent studies have shown that it his highly beneficial to both species when these cross species friendships are made. Indeed, it is not merely a question of chance encounters, instead each species will actively search out the other.
Benefits include protection from predators, increased social skills and finding fruiting trees.
Wildcats have been restricted to parts of Scotland for hundreds of years, despite once being found throughout the UK. Indeed, it is a problem where a significant number of people now refer to it as the Scottish wildcat, something that is only temporary, and should not be the case for ever.
The Kiwi is an interesting bird. As with many birds that developed on islands without mammals, they cannot fly.
In the case of new Zealand, the problem is simple. Those migrating to the island, brought with them rabbits. The rabbits escaped, and without any predators increased to silly levels. In order to control the rabbit population, stoats and similar predators were introduced, but these found the Kiwi a far easier meal.
In this instance, 11 birds have been introduced to the wilds near Wellington, for the first time in 100 years. These are the first of 250 birds that will arrive to settle in this area. Being the capital of new Zealand, it is impressive to have any surviving wildlife nearby. Yet Wellington prides itself on this work, and this is not its only move in the direction of rewilding.
It is thought that before humans arrived, as many as 12 million Kiwis roamed free in the country. Currently just 68,000 remain, however this number is growing slowly but surely. The arrival of Kiwi in this area, has required the countries biggest intensive Stoat trapping network as well as buy-in from a disparate array of land users.
One proposal, is named as half earth. The idea is to set aside half of the land on earth as a human-free nature reserve in order to preserve biodiversity, proposed by Eo Wilson.
It is unfortunately true, that in many of the reserves that have been formed, we do not know what lives within the park. In many places there has been so much poaching that animals keep well clear of any human visitors.
It is also true, that in parks with little or no tourism infrastructure, it is incredibly difficult to find animals. Never-the-less, while this makes it clear that when setting up national parks you need to give them some resources if you wish them to be a success tourism-wise, they can still have impressive conservation successes.
In this instance, clearly chimpanzee are still surviving and even breeding.
Tiger sharks are incredibly fierce, and can grow to be more than 16 foot (nearly 5m long). However, by strapping cameras to these fascinating animals (researchers attached cameras and trackers to the dorsal fins of tiger sharks, giving them hours of footage each time.
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