The federal protections of grey wolves that Trump removed, are returned making them protected once again across much of the USA

Federal protection for wolves has returned across much of the USA. A US District judge ruled that the US Fish and Wildlife service had failed to show wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and west without the protection he was removing.

Given the near eradication of the wolf in many places, this seems to be an understatement. The ruling does not affect (directly) the wolves of the northern rockys – areas of Montana and Wyoming, as well as small parts of a few other states. These remain under state jurisdiction.

Bizarrely, Biden (who has made an effort to undo many of the short-sighted moves of his predecessor, defended Trumps rules. They argued that wolves are capable of rebounding rapidly even if the population drops dangerously low – a foolish view, to say the least.

Of particular concern, 23 wolves have been killed in Montana, after they crossed out of yellowstone. The animals have no idea that they are leaving protected land, and arbitrary lines beyond which hunting is permitted can threaten the future of the animal in that part of America.

Trumps move was both way to soon, and without any controls. There are still many states, where wolves are still missing or only just beginning to recolonize -they were once found in all states. In particular, California, Colorado, Oregon among others are just having wolves move back into the state. California currently only has about 3 wolf packs, so wolves are only recolonising. Their absence from California, alongside the grizzly has impacted the ecosystem, and their return should fix many problems

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Malaysia

The Malaysian tiger population (part of the Indochinese sub species) has a small but pretty stable population of tigers of between 250 and 340.

Unfortunately there does not seem to have been any increase. Having set a target of 1000 members in 2020 back in 2008, their efforts appear to have failed. Indeed some sources suggest that this may be a significant over estimate now.

Wolves howling in Italy

I have only been lucky enough to hear wolves howl once in the wild, on the edge of the Sierra de Culebra in Spain (I have also heard them from a zoo). While it is reasonably common to hear a wolf howling in the wild, seeing it happen is far rarer.

A wolf howl is an eerie sound, and certainly lives up to its claims of being spine tingling. I do not consider it an aggressive sound, and certainly it is not meant as one – wolves howl as a way to spread out, and avoid having to fight. In other words, howls are for other wolves and are not intended to scare humans.

Now, I fully understand that as a farmer these noises can be more alarming. However, it has been clearly shown that with relatively simple processes wolf predation can be reduced to near zero (large dogs to live with the sheep, and bringing the sheep near the farm house at night.

Wolf howls are very useful for wolf researchers as it allows them to document the animals without changing their behaviour by getting too close. European wolves tend to howl less than American wolves as there is more history of wolf hunting here. Still, these howls do occur in Europe, and as they recover these nocturnal noises will spread and become more common once again.

Single wolf talking to its pack from the Ghirandi Reserve in Italy

This wolf happened to howl right next to a camera trap, hence the footage. If you watch (or listen) right to the end, you can hear the pack answer. I know for most people the sound of wolves howling is thought to be scary (this is perpetuated by horror films), yet as this is essentially a long distance chat, or even there to stop violence, this fear should stop.

Tiger doubling from 2010 aim review – Laos

Laos is not doing well with tigers. Back in 2010 the government estimated that 17 tigers lived in the country.

Unfortunately, with ridiculous numbers of snares there is a great deal of fear that all of the tigers and leopards have been lost from Laos.

As with other countries in the area, it is entirely possible that if the poaching is ended these animals will return.

The Democratic republic of Congo has had a moratorium on logging since 2002, the current minister of environment has suggested ending this

Deforestation is rarely good for local communities. Having lived on the land often for hundreds or thousands of years, the deforested land is usually sold off. Furthermore it can no longer be used as a resource for food gathering – and often without the forest the rains are less reliable so local farm crops fail.

Containing enough carbon to cause serious problems worldwide, the Congo rainforest also houses 3 of our closest relatives

It is thought that as much as 70 million hectares could be lost if this goes through. This is 270,000 square miles an area the size of Morocco lost.

Even with the moratorium in place three logging leases have been given to Chinese companies.

What makes this threat even greater, is that some of this area that would be deforested lies in the peatland areas, which could mean the end of the peatlands and the release of billions of tonnes of carbon (these peatlands are thought to contain 30 billion tonnes of carbon

2 and a half billion trees died after the El Nino of 2015-6 in the Amazon

El Nino are natural weather phenonium generally occurring between every 2 and 7 years. It would appear that as predicted, the El Nino is getting worse as a result of climate change.

This mass die off released carbon dioxide greater than the annual emissions of a country like the UK or Australia.

The fear is that this will become a common event as the planet warms.

The problem is that with this much carbon released, the Amazon as a whole was flipped from being a net absorber toa net emitter of carbon.

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