The siamang gibbon live in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and are one of the most popular for the pet trade, which has led to a great reduction in the wild. Loss of habitat, plantation growing, logging and mining, all threaten this species, so to see species returned to the wild is incredibly good news. The male was very ill when first arrived, but was able to be rehabilitated before release back into the wild.
They started singing on their first day in the wild, which suggests that they were comfortable. They have been followed by a team for 4 months, in order to help show them what to eat, and to make sure that they are able to fend for themselves.
Pet gibbons are often found in tiny cages, where they cannot stretch out. Given their wild behaviour, which tends to find them swinging through the trees, at speeds of up to 35 miles an hour, and jumping up to 13m from tree to tree, being crammed into a small cage, when they can barely move.
The situation is not helped, by few people in their range are aware how endangered they are. Often, when informed the demand for pets disappears. As with many species, the conservation improves as locals know why they need protecting, and how close they are to extinction.
The Tapanuli Orangutan, was only described in 2017 and makes the eighth species of great ape. Unfortunately, it only numbers 800 in the wild, and a dam threatens its future survival.
Click on its underlined name to visit its page. Do get in touch, if you work in conservation of this species, or tourism around its habitat, we are eager to help people visit, and support its continued survival.
50% growth in a year, is the fastest pace recorded in the last 20 years. The COP28 has a target of tripling clean energy capacity by 2030, and this speed keeps this target in contention.
Worldwide renewables have now reached 510 gigawatts of energy, which is fantastic, and means that humanity stands a good chance of pushing out fossil fuels in the near future. However, it suggests that renewable power is behind target, with the expected increase being 250% by 2030, rather than 300%.
Still, it is growing, and many countries are only slowly getting round to making their own progress. Another positive, is the increasing number of houses that are putting solar panels on their own roofs – with the huge rewards for investing in solar (and other home generation) and the reducing costs, the finances are increasingly obvious. While this is initially, meaning that well off people in the developed world are doing this, there are large parts of Africa, which are skipping large joined electricity networks, and getting remote communities off grid one by one.
It seems inevitable, that wind and solar are going to supply the majority of our energy needs in the future, however, the faster this happens, the better it is for all of us.
The coast guards released a total of 446 baby turtles, that had hatched from 736 eggs that were recovered. As one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, 5 of the 7 wild turtles live in this country. Sea turtles, however, have very low survival rates. It is thought that 1 in 1000 survive to adulthood.
Climate change is also a huge threat, as rising sea level rises, are destroying the beaches that have been historically been used to lay their eggs. It is true, that they are likely to move to new beaches, but it is likely that many of these, will prove unsuitable – thereby loosing many nests. Given the endangered status of 6 out of 7 sea turtles, a period where few survive until they find a new beach, would likely make this far worse. Another issue with climate change, is that the sex is turtle is worked out on the basis of the nest temperature.
This means that far more females are being born than 50%, meaning that there are fewer males to fertilize the female eggs, and therefore, there are fewer that can grow into turtles. This could well lead to extinction of all sea turtles over time.
Wild cats avoid areas with wind turbines. This is a fact, which is why it is alarming that this one was given approval, as it is on wild cat land, and is one of the few healthy populations in the country.
Hopefully, this review will be positive, but we will see.
Wild cats are extremely close to extinction in the UK (and Scotland) because of interbreeding with our domestic cats, which are descended from the Asiatic wild cat.
Historically, scientists have treated Neanderthals and humans (homo sapiens) as separate species, but this has been called into doubt. Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals) and homo sapiens clearly share some links, as the majority of the human race, has around 2% of our genome from the Neanderthals.
Thought to have split around half a million years ago, the Neanderthals are thought to have arrived in Europe up to 430,000 years ago. Humans only left Africa (and arrived in Europe around 50,000 years ago.
It suggests, that Neanderthals and humans coexisted around 50,000, in a relatively harmonious way, and interbreed relatively frequently. The issue with this, is that according to strict rules, separate species are not supposed to be able to produce fertile offspring, when they interbreed (there are plenty of examples of ligers (it should be noted that generally, while the female liger (or tigon) is infertile, the male is usually fertile) or zeedonks in zoos, where closely related individuals were put in the same enclosure for company, only to find that an unexpected offspring occurred.
This suggests, that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, should not be considered as separate species, but merely separate subspecies (much like the Amur leopard of far eastern Russia, and the Cape leopard of Southern South Africa, are both leopards, so could have offspring).
It is true, however, that there are no individuals with high levels of Neanderthal DNA. However, it is quite easy to see how interbreeding could eliminate a subspecies. Should the wolves from France migrate west into Spain, in large numbers, the Iberian wolf, and its genetic traits could be lost. While in some instances this can be positive, as it can give a subspecies with low genetic variability the capability to recover, It can also have a negative impact – imagine the Amur tiger, whose wild population in the 1940s was below the lowest that the Amur tiger population dropped to just 50. Had humanity transferred 50 Bengal tigers into this range, and they had interbreed with Amur tigers, before dying of the cold, there offspring, would likely have not had long enough coats to survive the harsh winter, and the whole subspecies would have likely been lost.
All this is to say, that we need to be careful how we reintroduce species. It is one thing, if a subspecies has already been lost, as a closely related subspecies is better than a hole in the food web, but if this subspecies is introduced to help the population, it may instead drag it towards extinction.
As with virtually all river dolphin species, the Indus river dolphin was seriously endangered, with the total population dropping to just 150 individuals in 1974. It has bounced back to 2000 in the current time.
However, scientists have engaged fishermen as citizen scientists. Spending so much of their life on the river, they encounter the dolphins far more regularly, and as such are able to record where they encounter them. The relationship is bittersweet to be sure, as fishermen and river dolphins are competing for the same resource. Should the river dolphin continue to recover, will there be enough fish left for the fishermen?
Conservationists have been paying the fishermen to take them back to the source of the sighting, thereby helping with the high cost of fuel. While they do compete, it is quite clear that should the dolphins be lost, it is likely that the fish population will suffer (as they have elsewhere). The biggest threat to both communities is the loss of the fish, as a result of lowering water quality. It and its closest relative, the Ganges river dolphin (found in India) split from other cetaceans 24-34million years ago, when they lived in a prehistoric sea.
What is sad, is that it was only recognized as a separate species in 2021, making it one of just 6 freshwater dolphin species.
It is harder to support this species, as both it looks relatively drab (unlike the pink Amazon dolphin) , and does not leap from the water, which does not help it to be as attractive to tourist visitors, never-the-less, there is still a thriving ecotourism industry around this species.
Originally lost in the wild around the start of this millenium, as a result of illegal pet trade, and habitat degradation in Brazil, in 2022, 20 of these birds were released back into the wild. Referred to as “the most successful reintroduction of any parrot I have ever seen” by a leading parrot conservationist.
Unfortunately, the cooperation agreement between the Brazilian government and the German breeding center that holds most of the currently living Spix maccaws, could cause serious problems.
Initially, the idea was for the German breeding centre to supply 20 of these birds each year, so that, within 20 years, 400 birds would have been released, and combined with offspring, we might have reached 700-800, which is the number thought to be required for a species to thrive long-term.
What will happen now? Will we be left with just the 20 already released? Will these two groups make up, and sort things out? Might the 20 breed so well, that they can recover on their own (unlikely)?
Here is an image of part of the Congo rainforest, almost every tree is different
Whether you are looking at the Amazon, Congo or the rainforests of South-east Asia, a study has shown that just 2% of species account for 50% of trees in all systems.
In numbers, this means, that of the roughly 800 billion trees on earth, roughly half come from around 1000 species, while the other half are made up of a further 46,000 different species.
While this could have many negatives, it suggests that accurately modelling may well be easier, as the forests would likely survive if just these 1000 trees were to live (this is not to say that we do not care, the 46,000 trees that might be lost, would likely cause many other extinctions, and who is to say that these trees, do not hide medication that would one day be useful to humanity?
Back in march, there was plans for the EU to put into laws, that would require 20% of land and sea areas in the EU to be restored by 2030. This was postponed indefinitely, after it became clear that it would not pass.
More than 50% of Romanias ancient forests have been lost in the last 20 years
In the main, two groups withdrew their support. The first group (often touted as pro-wildlife) was farmers, and the second was the country of Hungary.
Firstly: Farmers are often talked about as being pro-wildlife but this is often not the case. Laws on usstainable farm practices (such as crop rotation and reduced use of pesticides have been weakened or abandoned as a result of opposition – despite the vast majority of consumers being for these laws).
Secondly: Hungary – why is Hungary so against recovery of wildlife? This is an important question, though it should be noted, that Hungary is one of around 5 countries in central Europe, that is almost a complete block for wildlife to migrate from Eastern Europe into the little (wildlife) populated areas of western Europe. This can be a problem, as the few populations that hold on, in western Europe, are often small meaning that in order for the wolves/bears/lynx or other species to survive and thrive long-term, they need new members of their species to arrive, in order to widen the genetic base.
If such a small group of people can block this sort of project, it is a problem, as we do not vote to destroy areas.
