Study: One-quarter of U.S. bird species at risk

USA Today

 

Almost all of Hawaii’s non-migratory native birds are on a new watch list of the USA’s most imperiled bird species.

The list, released Wednesday by the National Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy, includes about one-quarter of the more than 700 species that breed in the USA.

The groups cited an array of human activities — habitat loss from urban sprawl and energy development, introduction and invasion of foreign animals and disease, and global warming — as key causes of declining numbers for 217 kinds of threatened and endangered birds.

Ninety-eight species are regarded at “imminent risk of extinction,” Audubon president John Flicker says. “The clock is ticking. Many will not survive unless we act to save them.”

The birds’ home territories range from tropical forests in Florida to eastern woodlands to the sagebrush deserts of the interior West. The most alarming location, however, is Hawaii. Thirty-nine of the 41 native species that live and breed only on the islands are on the list.

“Hawaii is way out there, so it’s out of sight and therefore out of mind in the continental U.S.,” says George Fenwick, head of the conservancy.

Fenwick’s group has petitioned the federal government to put two of those birds on the endangered species list, which would give them more protection. Six others are seldom-seen and may already be gone, conservancy vice president Mike Parr says.

“They are so fascinating and so little-known, we don’t even know if some of them are extinct, and yet (Hawaii) is one of the United States,” Parr says. “You expect that in the wilds of New Guinea or the Amazon Basin, but not in America.”

Those species may still live in remote parts of the islands. Parr says digital recorders are being tested there to try to detect the birds’ songs. He compares them to the ivory-billed woodpecker, a southern species long believed extinct until scientists spotted it in Arkansas in 2004.

Co-author Greg Butcher of Audubon says the bird groups combined their efforts to create a standard list and to build better support and funding.

“People and birds share a need for clean water, for clean air and for a natural habitat,” Butcher says. “As we see bird populations that are out of kilter, there’s a sense the entire environment is out of kilter.”

New fish quota to protect plaice and sole

For years European Union fishermen have seen a reduction in their fishing quotas. This is meant to keep the maritime species from dying out. Recently the situation has seen a slight improvement and the numbers of some species in European waters are stabilising. On Wednesday, the EU’s Executive Committee announced its recommended quotas for next year. The quotas will again be lowered and fewer fish will be caught than in previous years. The European fishing quotas are determined on the basis of advice given by various experts, including Dutch biologists, and the IMARES research institute which specialises in marine ecology research.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Two biologists are on their hands and knees on the deck of a ship sailing the Wadden Sea. They are searching for fish such as plaice, sole, whiting, crabs and shrimp – sometimes they even find a jellyfish. The boats fish at different spots during the day. According to Marcel de Vries of IMARES:

“Each year we fish at 130 fixed locations. We return every year and we compare what we find and what we caught in previous years.”

At every spot an enormous fishing net splashes into the sea, where it remains for 15 minutes. Sometimes the net is full of junk; other times it is teeming with fish.

Plaice and sole
Plaice and sole are the most important species in the Dutch fishing trade, which is why the study placed special emphasis on the two flatfish. Biologist Loes Bolle says the fishing expeditions are only a minor part of the extensive research which determines European Union advisory policies.

“We count fish in all Dutch waters, but the same happens in Germany, Belgium, England and Denmark. We also estimate how many fish are caught by fishermen. We combine the statistics in an attempt to determine how many fish can be caught without threatening the species’ survival.”

After the fish are counted on the Wadden Sea, each one is measured to determine the proportion of smaller and younger fish, or young and old.

Thankless task
In the course of the day the scientists spend many hours on their knees, counting and measuring hundreds of plaice and sole. But the work seems thankless, since the politicians will probably ignore their advice. Biologist Loes Bolle says they are more concerned about protecting the economic interests of the fishing industry, which means they’ll often allow an increase in the quotas.

“We give biologically responsible advice, in other words, we do our best to recommend how fish can be caught in a sustainable manner. We are attempting to help fishermen keep the population at a viable level so that the species can survive. The best course of action would be to ban fishing for the time being, but that is not realistic. We do our best to ensure that enough fish will survive so that the species do not become extinct. This will also guarantee that fishing does not become extinct.”

Biologists are recommending a reduction in the quota for plaice and sole in 2008. It’s now the politicians’ turn, beginning with the European Commission.

Toads may [become] extinct in 10 years in UK areas due to infection

China View

BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhuanet) — Scientists predict that Britain’s toad population could face extinction in some areas within 10 years due to an infectious fungal disease Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, media reported Wednesday.

The big unknown is just how long the fungus, which lives on the skin of host amphibians, can survive on its own in water. Scientists fear it may be a very long time.

“We start to see dramatic effects if the chytrid (fungus) lives for longer than seven weeks outside the host,” said Mat Fisher of Imperial College in UK.

“We strongly suspect that it can live for longer because of the devastating effect it has had elsewhere, and the new mathematical models show that this would be very bad news for toads in this country.”

If the fungus is able to live outside the host for a year, there would be a severe decline in the overall population of the European common toad (Bufo bufo) in Britain and, in some places, extinction in 10 years.

The disease has already destroyed entire amphibian populations in Central and South America, and Australia, and is a growing problem in some parts of Europe. Scientists have linked its spread to global warming.

Endangered orang-utan baby born at Perth Zoo

Perth Now

PERTH Zoo has announced the birth of one of the world’s most critically endangered animals – a Sumatran Orang-utan.

Today’s public debut of the male infant coincides with the 12-month anniversary of the Zoo’s historic release of one of its female orang-utans into a protected national park in Indonesia as part of an orang-utan re-introduction program.

Temara – the first captive bred orang-utan in the world to be released into the wild – is thriving in her new home and continues to be closely monitored and tracked daily.

Perth Zoo’s Curator of Exotics, Leif Cocks, said the Zoo’s newest addition, young Nyaru, was born on October 20 to 14-year-old first time mother Negara. Nyaru weighed just under 2kg at birth.

“We gave Nyaru and his mother some private time together before introducing him to the public,” Mr Cocks said.

“He is doing very well and Negara is proving to be a wonderful mother. She is very protective and caring.”

Perth Zoo is a world leader in breeding Sumatran Orang-utans and is part of a regional breeding program for this most threatened species.

“Orang-utans are facing imminent extinction in the wild due to poaching and habitat loss, in particular, land clearing for palm oil plantations,” Mr Cocks said. “There are only 7300 Sumatran Orang-utans left in the wild.

“With the success so far of the reintroduction of the first zoo-born orang-utan to the wild, successful breeding programs like that at Perth Zoo may assist with the re-establishment of extinct populations of Sumatran Orang-utans in protected areas.”

Fifteen-year-old Perth Zoo-born Temara was released into the Bukit Tigapuluh National Park in Sumatra in November 2006 as part of an international effort to re-establish a population of this critically endangered species in the national park. The park is protected by specially trained anti-logging and anti-poaching patrols.

“The release of Temara provides the opportunity to increase the numbers and genetic diversity of the orang-utan population in Bukit Tigapuluh,” Mr Cocks said.

The community can support Sumatran Orang-utan conservation by donating to Perth Zoo’s Wildlife Conservation Action to help build an open orang-utan breeding sanctuary in Sumatra.

• Nyaru will start eating some solids, such as tropical fruit, at about five months of age but will continue to suckle for the next five to six years.

• The father of Nyaru is Perth Zoo’s breeding male 20-year-old Dinar, who arrived from Canada in 2004, bringing with him a valuable new genetic line.

• Nyaru is named after an orang-utan rehabilitation centre in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Nyaru is also a Dyak word meaning ‘very strong’. The Dyak people are the original inhabitants of Kalimantan.

• Since 1970, 26 orang-utans have been born at Perth Zoo. The last birth (a male named Semeru) was in 2005.

• The Zoo’s colony currently comprises eight females and four males.

• Perth Zoo is part of an Australasian captive breeding program for the critically endangered Sumatran Orang-utan.

• Sumatran Orang-utans are the slowest reproducing species in the world. Adult females only give birth to an infant every nine years. The gestation period of orang-utans is 260 days (or 8.5 months) – almost identical to that of humans. The oestrous cycle of orang-utans is 30 days – once again, almost identical to humans.

• Females usually have their first offspring between 12-16 years of age.

• One of our closest biological relatives, orang-utans have around 97% human genetic make-up and have an intelligence level equivalent to that of a five or six-year-old child.

• Orang-utan means person of the forest in Indonesian.

Tasmanian devil now officially endangered

ABC News

The status of the tasmanian devil has been upgraded from vulnerable to endangered.

The devil is one of the 51 species with a change of status because of increasing vulnerability.

Sightings of the devils have declined by more than 50 per cent and the devil facial tumour disease is found across half of Tasmania.

The changes are part of the Threatened Species Scientific Advisory Committee’s five year review.

With eye on economy, India may be blind to endangered tigers

Environmentalists fear that the new Act could reverse decades of progress in preserving the tigers, forests.

LiveMint.com

Kailashpuri, India: A tale about the forest dweller and the tiger sounds like some ancient Indian fable, a parable of man versus beast handed down through the ages and adapted by Rudyard Kipling for Western consumption.

But this is a real-life story unfolding today, as India’s government seeks to protect the country’s dwindling population of Bengal tigers while balancing the privileges of man. India has nearly half the world’s estimated 3,500 tigers. But in a country where the human population has ballooned to more than 1.1 billion—most of whom live on less than $2 (Rs79) a day—the government is also focused on expanding the economy and reducing poverty.

Parliament recently passed a law that enshrines the right of forest dwellers to remain in the forests and could allow the return of hundreds of thousands of people who abandoned their claim to the forest decades ago.

Environmentalists fear that the new law—known as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, and due to come into force in the coming weeks—throws open the gates of India’s national parks and reverses decades of progress in preserving the country’s shrinking forests and the tigers that live in them.

“The economy is the priority now and everything else can go to hell,” said Valmik Thapar, a conservationist and author who for more than a decade has publicized the plight of India’s critically endangered tigers.

As more and more of India’s forests are logged or turned into farms to feed its ever-expanding human population, the number of tigers has plummeted from an estimated 40,000 in 1925 to fewer than 1,500 today, a figure that some experts say is the tipping point for extinction. Protecting the animal has long been a national goal.

In Rajasthan, the Ranthambore National Park attracts tens of thousands of tourists every year eager to glimpse the elusive orange-and-black striped cats, the core of a growing tourism trade here that brings in more than $22 million a year, including at least $300,000 in park entry fees. But the potential strains created by the Forest Dwellers Act are plain to see here, too.

About 200,000 villagers live just outside the national park, many of them former forest dwellers. They were coaxed out of the forest over the past 30 years with promises of schools, health clinics and electricity—all part of a government-backed programme to protect the tiger habitat.

“By now, most of us have forgotten how to live in the forest. We are farmers now, not hunters,” said Chittat Gurjar, 67, a slim man in a white turban. Another villager, Kastoori Gurjar, 78, said she has no intention of returning to live in the forest. But she does want to visit.

“We just want to be allowed back in to worship our gods, who stayed in the forest,” she said, with tearful eyes as she recalled her childhood in the thick woods of the park.

The rights of India’s forest dwellers need to be protected, the Act’s supporters say. Media reports that thousands of forest dwellers have been evicted and many forest communities violently harassed in recent weeks, which some analysts say is an effort to limit the number of people eligible to initiate land claims underthe Act.

Environmentalists and wildlife experts are lobbying Parliament and the courts to strike down the law, widely seen as a populist vote-getter in the lead-up to next year’s general elections.

“This is legislation that no one in Parliament can say no to. It’s part of India’s romanticized notion of forest dwellers as people who live in harmony with the land,” said Goverdhan Singh Rathore, whose non-governmental organization, the Prakratik Society, provides schooling and medical care for many of the villagers who were once forest dwellers.

“That might have been true in the past, but the reality now is that if the growing numbers of forest dwellers are allowed to remain in the national parks and others with historic claims to the land are allowed back in, India’s forests will be gone very soon, and with them, the tigers,” Rathore said.

Luxury hotels and “eco-lodges” have sprouted on the edges of the Ranthambore National Park. Tourists pile into open-roofed jeeps and 20-seater buses that rumble along dirt roads through nearly 800 sq. km of forest, passing langurs, elk-sized deer called sambhars and monitor lizards that dart back into the brush as the cars pass.

But here, as throughout India, the chances of seeing a tiger are getting slimmer.

At least four of India’s 27 tiger reserves no longer have tigers. Some observers believe that at least nine other reserves in India also are in danger of losing their remaining tigers to poachers or to villagers who set out poisoned carcasses to kill animals that venture beyond the boundaries of the reserves to attack their livestock.

Congo establishes nature reserve for endangered apes

International Animal Rescue

Congo is setting aside more than 11,000 square miles of rainforest to create a nature reserve designed to protect the endangered bonobo ape.

The Sankuru Reserve, established by the African country’s Ministry of the Environment in collaboration with environmental groups, will help to preserve numbers of the rare animal that is also one of the human race’s closest relatives.

Announcing the reserve, the Congolese Minister of the Environment, Didace Pembe Bokiaga, emphasised that its creation was another step towards the government’s aim of safeguarding 15 per cent if its forest as protected land.

“This increases the total area of protected land in the DRC to 10.47 per cent, bringing us closer to our goal of 15 per cent,” he explained.

“We are proud that the Sankuru Reserve is being created in the framework of community participative conservation…and will be zoned to guarantee the rights of the local population,” the Minister added.

Start-up funding of $50,000 (£25,000) for the project is being provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Associated Press reported, with an additional $100,000 (£50,000) coming from private donors.

USA. Scientists call for Lower Snake Dam removal to help endangered Orcas

BYM Marine Environment News

Leading Northwest scientists and orca advocates are urging NOAA Fisheries to consider removal of the four lower Snake River dams in order to protect endangered Puget Sound orca populations that need Columbia-Snake River salmon as a critical food source.

“Restoring Columbia River Chinook salmon is the single most important thing we can do to ensure the future survival of the Southern Resident Community of killer whales,” said Dr. Rich Osborne, research associate with The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, WA. “We cannot hope to restore the killer whale population without also restoring the salmon upon which these whales have depended for thousands of years. Their futures are intricately linked.”

The comments from the six prominent orca scientists, delivered in a letter to Northwest members of Congress and NOAA regional administrator Robert Lohn, came in response to the Oct. 31 release of a new draft Biological Opinion from NOAA Fisheries for Columbia-Snake River salmon management. Salmon advocates say the new plan, the result of a court-ordered rewrite of an earlier, illegal 2004 federal salmon plan, fails to do enough to recover imperiled salmon in the seven-state Columbia-Snake river basin, and ignores altogether the four dams on the lower Snake River that do the most harm to these fish.

“History will not be very forgiving of the resource managers who failed in their responsibilities to these icons of the Pacific Northwest, Chinook and orca,” said Ken Balcomb, senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research.

“The draft plan relies heavily on actions that science and time have proven will not restore these fish to the levels necessary for self-sustaining populations of salmon, or abundant enough to provide a healthy food resource for these killers whales,” said Dr. David Bain, a killer whale biologist at Friday Harbor Labs. “Not only are salmon from the Columbia River an important historic food source, recovered abundant salmon in this river are an indispensable requirement for the future recovery of Southern Residents.”

“The new Federal salmon plan for the Columbia and Snake rivers is no better than previous plans in providing access to the basin’s best remaining salmon habitat in the upper reaches of the Snake River,” said Howard Garrett, co-founder of the Orca Network. “The resulting declining salmon runs have a very real impact on the 88 endangered southern resident orcas that depend on these fish, as they have for centuries. As the salmon disappear, the orcas go hungry.”

“The best science tells us,” Garrett added, “that to revitalize Snake River salmon, we’ll need to bypass the dams that block fish passage, and that dam removal, combined with a variety of economic investments, will bring benefits to upriver communities in eastern Washington as well as to Puget Sound.”

The Columbia and Snake River Basin was once the world’s most productive salmon watershed, with tens of millions of fish returning annually. Today, returns hover near 1% of those historic levels. More than 200 large dams on the basin’s rivers are the major cause of this crisis, with 13 populations now listed under the Endangered Species Act, and four directly impacted by the lower Snake River dams. Yet, the Columbia-Snake Basin still holds more acres of pristine salmon habitat than any watershed in the lower 48 states.

It is this opportunity, notes Kathy Fletcher, executive director of People For Puget Sound, that we must take advantage of, if we hope to protect and restore these two iconic Northwest species whose fates are inexorably intertwined.

“Our leaders must look for solutions not only in Puget Sound, but also in the rivers that bring the salmon to the sea throughout the Northwest,” Fletcher said. “The great salmon rivers like the Columbia and Snake can once again produce the healthy runs of Chinook, on which our majestic orcas feed, but only if we recover salmon habitat. We must act quickly to restore clean water, abundant, sustainable salmon populations, and a safe home for orcas. The scientists tell us there is no time to waste.”