Tag: illness

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Dominica’s mountain chicken frog is heading to extinction faster than anything recorded before

Once so common that they were cooked as a national food on the island. Yet in just two decades, the animal is one of the rarest in the world, with an estimated population of just 21.

Growing to 20cm long and weighing over 1kg, it was one of Dominica’s apex predators. eating small mammals, snakes and other frogs.

It’s decline is notable, as its calls were formerly something that you heard across the island.

Now, silence from this frog has fallen across most of the island.

Initially, its decline was caused by a fungus, which impacted amphibians skin – important, as many amphibians breathe through there skin, and all breathe through their skin.

The breakout of this fugni led to a decline of 80% in just one year. Known to only occur on one other island (Montserrat), scientists urged strict quarantine measures to stop it arriving, but these warnings failed to have any effect.

A number of these frogs were removed in 2009 as the illness began to spread, and they are housed around the world in various zoos, such as London zoo.

In recent times, a few surviving individuals have been discovered. These appear to be naturally resistant to the chytrid fungus that is at fault.

Unfortunately, shortly after, hurricane Maria hit, and the population declined a further 80%, back into double digits.

Due to the lack of immunity to this fungus, it would appear that zoo individuals that were rescued back in 2009 are all irrelevant. Whether with such a small wild population, it is worth capturing more (it is possible that these new individuals could be bred with already captive individuals, bit this may not retain the immunity).

The remaining wild frogs are found in 2 populations, and neither are found on protected land. As such, the situation could change fast if land use changes would occur.

The conservationists in the wild are still working, but it is thought that there is only 2 years left to save the species from extinction.

Lynx (Iberian)

Lynx (Iberian)

Iberian lynx ( Lynx pardinus ) lying down on a rock in Spain

Iberian Lynx: Once found throughout the Iberian Peninsular as well as much of France: The Iberian lynx population fell to just 94 cats in two populations (23 years ago). Through intensive work the population has returned to 1668 as of May in 2023. This is currently restricted to just the south and west of the Iberian peninsular, but is likely to slowly expand its range North and East.

It is fantastic to see the Iberian Lynx returning to places that it was found in the past, however, what is clear is that as the human race, our current understanding of science allows a great deal of power, and it is scary to think that the introduction of an illness to kill rabbits could come so close to exterminating all Iberian Lynx.

 

African wild dog

African wild dog

Whether there were originally multiple African wild dog subspecies, these have not been retained. There were once 500,000 wild dogs roaming Africa. There are currently just 6600, spread across Africa, though many of the populations are unlikely to be genetically healthy long-term.

The Kruger wild dog population swings between extremes. In 2007 there were about 350 within the Limpopo transfrontier park. in 2022 there are thought to be about 800 wild dogs in the same area.

The Serengeti wild dog population disappeared during 1995 – wild dogs are highly sociable animals, so illness can wipe out populations. Wild dogs appear to have help on and there are thought to be about 120 at the moment. Inoculation of the domestic dog population surrounding the park will hopefully stop this happening again, and the population will grow back to the former highs -where packs 100 strong could be seen chasing the Wildebeest migration across the plains.

The largest single population lives in the Selous reserve (much of this reserve is now classed as the Nyerere national park) with a population of perhaps as many as 1000.

There are thought to be about 700 wild dogs in northern Botswana.

There are small populations all over Africa, such as 100 in Chad, but whether these survive long-term is another question. The map below shows the huge number of small populations all over Africa. The total african wild dog population is thought to be around 7000, with 700 packs.

There are 5 subspecies that have been recognized:

  • Cape wild dogs                   This is the only subspecies that appears to be doing relatively well with around 4000 animals left (though the underestimate                                                            the current population of the Kruger – while in the past it has been as low as 350, the current population is at its peak of around                                                       850. Significant wild dog populations in this subspecies include the Kruger, while the KAZA transfrontier park is likely to be                                                              another. (Botswana is thought to host around 1300 wild dogs within its boundary, with most of the other countries in the region                                                      having at least 500 somewhere in the country. 
  • East African wild dog     The east African wild dog has a number of good population – Selous has around 800-1000, while the Laikipia region of Kenya is                                                        thought to host around 300 of this rare animal
  • West African wild dog- The West African wild dog used to be widespread from western to central Africa, from Senegal to Nigeria. Now only two                                                                        subpopulations survive: one in the Niokolo-Koba National Park of Senegal and the other in the W National Park of Benin,                                                                       Burkina Faso and Niger. It is estimated that 70 adult individuals are left in the wild – split pretty evenly split between these two                                                         population.
  • Somali wild dog-                The Somali wild dog is thought to be extinct in Somali, though some are thought to survive in Ethiopia. Bale Mountains national                                                         park is known for Ethiopian wolves, but it is thought that 1 pack of around 30 Somali wild dog also live here (though they live in                                                         the dense Harenna forest, so perhaps they never meet. There are likely, some other wild dog in the country, but it is unlikely                                                                that the whole population excedes more than 100.
    tains National Park
  • Chadian wild dog-             The only part of this population that lives on protected land, are found within the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park in the                                                       Central African republic.           
Limpopo Transfrontier park including Kruger sabi sands and other conservation areas
Greater Serengeti
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Do rich countries need to target aid more carefully?

Air pollution kills more people than Malaria Aids and TB combined, yet it receives just 1% of the aid budget.

Alarmingly, last year, rich countries gave 20% more to fossil fuel projects than to programmes to cut the air pollution they cause. Dirty air, is responsible for roughly 4 million deaths a year.

If comparing the number of years of life lost to each cause of death, HIV receives 34 times as much funding, and. Africa and Latin America have 500,000 deaths a year from air pollution, yet they receive 5% and 10% of the funding respectively.

Now it is true that greening the economies of the world may in the future, eliminate many of these deaths, but we also give more money to fossil fuel projects than we do to green power that might replace it – this is despite the fact that the green project is often cheaper to build and to run and doesnt have the negatives on local people that come with burning things.

See Animals Wild