Big cats have a range of colours that they can be found in. It is certainly true that their standard colour is more common, but in different parts of their range other colourings might be more helpful. For instance, an Amur tiger that was white may find it easier to creep up on its prey.
On the Malay peninsular, as much as half of the leopards are black, as this gives them an advantage.
In this case, a black tiger was photographed. The animals was not entirely black, but having far wider stripes, its back looks more black with yellow stripes rather than the other way round. Fewer animals are taken out of the wild than in the past, when an animal like this would likely have been caught and sold to a zoo for many times the price that tigers normally fetch – as this tiger will increase visitor numbers.
Late last year, the oldest of the two remaining northern white rhino was retired from the breeding programme. This just leaves her daughter as the only egg donor in the embryo implantation scheme.
There are now no remaining male northern white rhino and only 2 females. As a result, the idea has been for some time, to get embryos from the few remaining members and implant them into similar rhino species.
Roaming in reasonable numbers just 40 years ago, they suffered due to poaching for their horn.
Currently there are 12 healthy embryos ready for implantation, so there is still hope that the northern white rhino could rise from the ashes and go back to filling its important niche. Unfortunately there is still much work to do before we can reach that stage.
Do elephants need tusks? It is a big question. Given the fact that they have them would suggest that they do have a purpose and therefore that life without them may be harder.
In Gorogosa national park in Mozambique, tuskless females became more common after ivory poaching become common during their 15 year civil war.
A natural evolution -due to our habit of hunting elephants with the biggest tusks increasing numbers are being born without
Being born tuskless, is not an unnatural affair. Indeed, some females have always been missing tusks. However, during the war 90% of the parks elephants were poached. If an elephant is chosen for its tusks over a period of 15 years, this gives elephants born tuskless a significant advantage. Importantly, with a death rate of 90% even if the tusks make life easier in some way, they are still going to loose them.
Elephants are dangerous animals that need to be treated with respect at the best of times. They can do much damage with their trunks and likewise throwing their weight around can easily overturn a car, As a result, while loss of tusks may be an impediment (and would appear to be so, as post poaching periods tusks usually return) it is clearly not a death sentence – and as in these periods, having tusks IS, it is not surprising that the few born without rapidly come to dominate the population.
Around the planet, humans kill vast numbers of wildlife and we have pushed many to extinction.
Something we need to remember, is that we are not the only dangerous thing on earth. We need to allow each species to be able to cope with natural deaths that occur from elsewhere.
This event from a few months ago is a case in point. African penguins and African bees are both native species. It is unclear as to what caused this mass stinging event, but it is thought to be a fluke and not likely to be repeated.
While not thought of as an African species, penguins to still live in South Africa,
There are only thought to be a little more than 10,000 penguins left in South Africa, so we must watch that this does not become common, as it could push an already stressed population out of existence.
The Sahara desert looks about a desolate a place as it is possible to find. Indeed, it is so unpleasant a place to live, that few forms of wildlife can live anywhere but around the perimeter. However, it would appear that this was not the case.
There are various wind currents which carry moisture around the planet. It is unknown why these shift from time to time, but it would appear that one such current used to bring plentiful rain to the Sahara.
Looking at it now, it is hard to believe that this area so harsh to life, might once have been a rainforest. The climate is so incredibly predictable here, it is hard to believe that it was not always like this.
Indeed, there have been cave paintings found in the area, depicting savannah animals including water loving animals such as crocodiles and hippos.
At the moment, it is unclear what caused these ‘rivers in the sky’ to shift so much, but we must recognize that should it happen again, humanity may well have little ability to do anything about it.
Nigeria was once a wildlife rich country. Unfortunately as a country whose population has soared over the last few decades much of the wilderness has been lost.
Afi River forest reserve in the eastern Nigeria cross river state is an forest corridor which connects small fragments of remaining gorilla habitat. However, this may well cease to be the case in the near future, as satellite data has shown significant deforestation in this area. The problem with forest corridors, is that they do not tend to be particularly wide – which means relatively small levels of deforestation can disconnect one end from the other.
These animals are important for the functioning of the local ecosystem, as well as having the ability to attract enough tourists to greatly benefit the local population – if habitat loss can be haltedContinue reading “Are the days of the Nigerian gorilla numbered?”
The Shellys Eagle Owl was last seen in the wild back in 1870. There is only thought to be a few thousand left (though obviously this is higher than we originally thought.). Estimates put the population between 1500-1700 though other estimates could see a population as high as 10,000. The bird was only seen for about 15 seconds, but enough photos were taken to make a positive identification. First identified in 1872 and a specimen was collected for the Natural history museum in London, from a hunter in Ghana. There have been occasional unconfirmed sightings in central and west Africa over the last few decades.
The birds discovery in the Atewa Forest has lead to it being given protection.
Seemingly, often as a result of mapping issues (though this may not have been accidental) Unesco sites and land mapped as Orangutan habitat have been turned into plantations.
The idea that 1/5 of the plantations fall into this category is hard to explain – not surprisingly this is explicitly illegal.
It is a huge threat to a species if it is only found in one reserve. This I believe is common sense, and not hard to explain. If all the remaining members of a species live in one place, an unexpected event could wipe out the entire population.
At the beginning of the year, a census showed that the population of wolves in Norway was about 81. This (you would think) is a population way to small to need a cull. Indeed at this population, you would think that even for trophy hunting, if you hope to be able to sell hunting permits again should be kept to single digits. In the Sierra de culebra is a hunting reserve: this reserve hosts around 80 wolves, and they allow at most 10 wolves to be hunted each year.
Norway announced that it would allow 51 wolves to be shot – about 60% of the population. This is totally insane, and indeed, they were taken to court. What is more ridiculous, is that the wolves live within the “wolf zone” an area of nature set aside to protect the predators. In virtually every country in the world, the idea of killing animals in an area set aside for their survival seems counter-intuitive. This zone makes up 5% of the country.
The appeal was rejected, and over the weekend hunts went on. A total of 9 wolves were shot.
9 Wolves killed over the weekend in Norway after a cull ban was lifted by the government
This is foolish for Norway’s global reputation, as well as being foolish in terms of managing the local ecosystem. Furthermore, while a small level of culling may be required to control predation of livestock, Norway is likely to be able to make a great deal of money from wolf tourism – many people visit the country to see the wonderful scenery, and the return of the wolf could have increased these wild tourism numbers
Unfortunately all three Nordic countries have similar plans, with Finland suspending plans to kill 3 packs of wolves just last month – citing European legislation.
Sweden has shot most of their annual quota of 27 wolves (this is the country in which I had the best view of a wolf, by chance while sitting in a bear hide).
Pressure on the Nordic nations should be brought to bare, to halt this unnecessary slaughter from being repeated
