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African penguins are being hunted by caracals

African penguins live in South African and Namibia, with a total population of around 18500 (13,200 in South Africa and the rest in Namibia). In south Africa, there are thought to be 2 colonies, with Boulders beach, near Cape town, has a population of around 3000 penguins.

In wilder places, one would think that penguins would be hunted by land mammals, and certainly these behaviours have been filmed, with me remembering footage of a brown hyena hunting penguins on the Namibian beach.

It has generally thought that penguins were relatively safe on Boulders beach, but it is becoming clear that the caracal, which is a smaller cat than a lion or leopard, are living in the area around boulders beach, and are likely the big predator of the penguins. It is true, that cape leopards live in small numbers in this area, and they have been known to take penguins, but being the apex predator, they do not live long-term in the reserve.

This is not the same with the Caracal. This documentary was done around the area of table mountain, but found throughout the cape.

One might argue that this is just natural behaviour, but the problem is that neither species is being able to live in a normal way. In 2016, 2 caracals were documented to have killed 130 penguins in just 2 months. It would not take much more than this, for the African penguin to disappear from South Africa, and indeed the world.

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Has France decided their wolf population is too big?

In 2023, the wolf population of France fell by 9%. This population was thought at 1003, down from over 1100.

It should be noted that France, as a large country, is likely to easily be able to support many more wolves than this. There are parts of the country, where wolves have not returned, with their main population lying in the Alps and surrounding areas, but also along the border to the East, and along the south of the country, with another population lying in the Pyrenees (it should be noted that this population is just started – thought to only be 16 individuals, though likely already increased). Should the wolf population in the Pyrenees become stable, wolves would be capable of using them as a staging area for repopulating both Spain and France.

In short? No, there is not too many wolves in France. This is patently absurd. It is true that many people believe that wolves have no place in France. In the UK, while I cannot see any UK government doing something sensible and returning them, there are many benefits. There are likely over 200,000 red deer, and 500,000 roe deer within the French nation. As such, predators are important, and with careful monitoring, the downsides are small.

With care, wolf watching could develop as a significant market within France

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The end of coal powered electricity generation in the UK? Where is the rest of the world on cleaning their power generation

The last coal powered power plant in the UK is having its last day today, before it is closed down

The shrink in the electricity generation in the UK for coal, has been quite astounding. in 2006, coal produced 37% of the electricity for the UK, dropping to zero by 2024.

Holborn Viaduct was the first coal power plant, opened in 1882 (In the early 1800s, coal was used to make town gas for lighting and to fuel the expansion of Britain’s burgeoning railways, but not for electricity).

It is estimated that the UK has burnt 4.6 billion tonnes of coal since this time, emitting a little over 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Greece and the U.K. achieved the fastest coal power reductions — moving at a quicker pace than what’s needed globally but Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Romania, Germany, the United States and Chile are all not too far behind. However, there is still a huge amount of work to be done. Coal, the most polluting fossil fuel, supplied 36% of electricity generation in 2022. This must drop to 4% by 2030 and then 0% by 2040 if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C and prevent the most catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. This is frankly an astounding rate of decline, and there are many countries around the world, who will have to be supported, if we are to meet this requirement.

Paradoxically, the USA also appears on the list of countries furthest from phasing out coal, along with India and China. It is quite feasible for the USA to cut its way to coal at a surprising rate (though whether Trump returns to the White house, or Kamala moves from the vice presidents wing, to the presidents wing, is likely to have a big impact on whether coal is left behind in the USA or not)

It is true that coal is the most dirty fuel, but we still have a great deal of work to do as a species, if we are to avoid the worst of global warming. It is thought that we have just 6 years to stop burning gas, and this accounts for around 22% of global electricity generation. In much of the west, gas is also used for heating, and while there are alternative options (we had a heat pump installed this year, after it was clear that our boiler was failing). 73.8% of UK houses are heated in this way, and so there is clearing a big need for the transition to occur faster.

In the UK, all electricity generation is meant to be carbon neutral by 2035, so gas must disappear by then – though as the financial penalties for continuing to burn things and the cost of other electricity generation falls, the financial imperative to end gas power plant use, is only going to increase, so we may well get there far faster. It should be noted, that the government also has a 95% electricity generation target in 2030, so gas must reduce fast over the next 5-6 years.

Currently, wind power generation accounts for 30 gigawatt hours, but the 2030 target is 50, and solar generation is targeting a 5 fold increase in the amount of generation by 2035. These two alone, will greatly outweigh the loss of gas.

Of course, you can save money in almost any part of the world, but installing solar (we nearly have ours working) will not only help in cleaning up the grid, but our investment, is likely to be paid back from savings in around 3 years.

In the global south, it is even easier to make this work.

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2 Siamang gibbon were rereleased into the wild in January

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.

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Video on the Tapanuli Orangutan

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.

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Wind energy grew by 50% in 2023, is it enough?

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.

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Costa Rica coast guards caught poachers with hundreds of baby sea turtle eggs

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.

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A wind farm near Aberdeen has been given approval despite the threat to wild cats

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.

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Are Neanderthals extinct, or are they actually part of the human race

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.

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Fishermen are helping to save the Indus dolphin

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.

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