Bees killed 63 endangered penguins in south Africa

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.

6000 years ago the Sahara was a thriving grassland, as recently as 11,000 there was forest in parts of it

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.

Are the days of the Nigerian gorilla numbered?

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 halted
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Is the UK going to start being more ambitious in the animals it chooses to reintroduce?

The UK has plans to start reintroducing bison to the UK. While this is very exciting, these are large animals and when they are allowed to roam free they could hurt humans. This is highly unlikely for any one individual, but may occasionally cause significant injury when looked at as a whole. 

European bison are large animals, far bigger than anything else currently found in the UK

Why do I bring this up? The main reason that wolves have not been reintroduced to the UK, is human fears. It is true that we would likely suffer low levels of predation of livestock, yet the main fear is of attacks on humans. While wolves can act aggressively towards humans on occasion, injury to the human is incredibly rare (the wolf will almost always run before the human gets close enough to be at risk).

Lynx is an even easier animal to suggest. There are no fatal attacks on humans as far as I’m aware, and as forest specialists they are even less likely to take sheep and wolves. What’s more, while a large links watching industry is likely to Spring up, these animals are incredibly hard to see. This means that without going to extreme lengths people are unlikely to encounter them and therefore be scared by them.

Beavers have been given the right to remain. Indeed genetically correct beavers (i.e. European beavers) are multiplying rapidly, and gradually spreading out from where they were first discovered on the River Otter in Devon, with the population thought to number at least 300-500. These animals are being reintroduced all over the place. The Tayside population in Scotland is thought number at least 1000 animals and these is spread across a large part of Scotland though they still have a long way to go. Beavers however, rarely threaten human life and while they can do some damage are easier to accept.

It’s thought that the UK population of boar number at least 4000, with between 1/3 and 1/2 of these living in the forest of Dean. A pair of boar can have as many as 30 offspring in one season- meaning that without regular culling the population could very rapidly explode. They are having very positive effects on woodlands in the areas that they exist, and my hope is that some of the animals could be moved rather than being shot. Boar unlike beavers can certainly be a threat to humans, though again will only hurt people when they feel threatened. 

Other species like bears have had trials done, and likely would be far easier than lynx or wolves to live alongside. This is because as omnivores bears spend much of the year eating vegetation. It is true that some bears take to eating many sheep, but this is not common, and it is entirely possible to cull or move animals that take out this habit. Bears could also create vast tourism in areas that they live.

Animals such as pine martens should be given a helping hand. Locally extinct across much of the UK, they should be reintroduced to woodlands up and down the country. Apart from restoring a native mammal, the grey squirrel – an invasive animal which does much more financial damage each year than the pinemartin ever has, would be rapidly removed, this in turn could allow the red squirrel to start to repopulate the UK

I hope that by 2050 all these animals have thriving populations in the UK. If this was the case, then we would have rebalanced the natural world in the UK allowing it to thrive in a way that it hasn’t for centuries. Of course with precious little remaining wilderness we may find that we do not have space for anything more than a handful of some of these species. I believe even this would be of use.

Federal resources minister of Australia declares that solar panels dont work in the dark

Australia seems to have a group of politicians that are totally anti renewable. Australia is perfectly situated to use renewable resources for all their power. When Keith Pitt was asked if he still believed renewables didn’t work – he gave this ridiculous statement. The junior partner in the government is demanding they work towards zero carbon by 2050.

The worlds largest solar farm is being built in Australia but to send the power to Singapore, perhaps this huge project will wake up the Australian citizenry to the idiocy of their government
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Shelly’s Eagle Owl was not seen for 150 years -seem alive and well at the end of 2021

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.

20% of Indonesia palm oil sites lie within forest estates – thereby illegal by definition

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 should not need saying, but if palm oil plantations can be planted to replace primary forest, are not worth the paper they are written on
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Proposals have been floated to move Asiatic lions to 6 different relocation sites – including Kuno-Palpur

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.

A Gir lion, part of the Asiatic subspecies and current only Asian home
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Despite all the evidence, the government is determined to placate farmers by killing a further 60,000 badgers and for what

The UK has had a problem with bovine TB for years. The problem has continued to be that many cattle are lost each year.

Badgers are blamed for carrying the infection between fields. It has been pointed out that cows are often not checked when bought or sold, and that the spread of the illness can often be attributed to this. Never-the-less, the British government has steadfastly continued on this plan for a very long time.

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The UK has 11 billion climate fund:60 ngo are calling for some of it to be used for family planning

Across much of the world where species are at risk of extinction there is an exploding human population. From Africa with rapidly growing populations in the east west and south, to Asia with growing populations in almost all countries, the biggest threat to the continued survival of wild species is the loss of habitat.

The thing is, that a rapidly growing population is generally an issue in countries which are poor. The reason for this is that they have lower standards of healthcare, and therefore less family planning.

As such, if the government were to set up a project which spend a couple of million educating educators in 50 countries across the third world, and supported the resulting work, the growth of the populations in these countries could slow or even stop and go into reverse. This would allow the standard of living to increase again.

Alongside these benefits, would be lower pressures on the wealth of biodiversity which so much of these countries economy is based around.

Importantly, this would be likely to have far more impact than it would cost.

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