Kenyan scientists save Grevy’s zebras from possible extinction

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenyan scientists said Wednesday they had rescued endangered Grevy’s zebras from possible extinction after an outbreak of deadly anthrax last year and were working to increase their population.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said “quick intervention” had saved the animals, known for their narrow and finer stripes and large ears, from being wiped out by the disease, which was exacerbated by a recent drought in the scrub-peppered northern Kenya plains.

“After we got reports that the Grevy’s zebras were dying, we mobilised our teams and carried out mass vaccinations against anthrax and treated other diseases,” Patrick Omondi, KWS head of species management, told AFP.

“We contained the threat and ensured that their population, which is extremely low, does not reduce further. We are now working on a five-year programme to increase their population.”

Omondi said the programme, in which Ethiopia is involved, includes creating protected breeding sanctuaries.

Fewer than 2,000 Grevy’s zebras are believed to live in the wild.

About 1,800 live near sprawling plains in and around Kenya’s central Samburu National Reserve, about 230 kilometers (145 miles) north of Nairobi, and the rest in southern Ethiopia.

Conservationists warned of possible extinction after the outbreak in Samburu, one of the animals’ last remaining habitats in the world.

“Due to the alarming deaths, we knew the threat was real and we moved into action,” said Francis Gakunya, KWS’s chief veterinarian.

The Grevy’s zebra’s existence is also threatened by encroachment into their habitat owing to an explosion of human settlement and migrations.

In addition to drying up watering holes and making food scarce, the recent drought stirred up naturally occurring anthrax spores from the parched earth which exacted a heavy toll on the Grevy’s zebra, a species less hardy than its mountain and plains cousins, officials say.

But the KWS said it had launched programmes to stop human-wildlife conflict that is rampant across the east African nation, home to a variety of wildlife species.

Conservationists say the Grevy’s zebra population has decreased from 15,000 across eastern Africa region in 1970 to less than 2,000 that currently live only in arid habitats in northern Kenya and Ethiopia.

Poaching for meat and their valuable hide decimated populations in Eritrea, Djibouti and western Somalia.

While the zebras are prey for lions, cheetahs and hyenas, their population was hit hardest by hunting due to the demand in the fashion world for the animals’ striking black-and-white hides.

In the 1970s, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora banned the trade in Grevy’s zebra pelts, and their numbers began to increase after 1977 when Kenya, home to the largest populations, banned hunting.

Activists led by the African Wildlife Foundation are now pressing authorities to upgrade the Grevy’s zebra “game animal” to “protected animal” under Kenyan law, warning that the species would be hunted again if the CITES ban is ever lifted.

In 2000, the species was listed as “endangered” on the World Conservation Union’s Red List of Threatened Animals.

Grevy’s zebra were named after Jules Grevy, a 19th-century French president who received one as a gift from Ethiopia’s Emperor Menelik in 1882. They are the largest, wildest and most difficult to tame of the three zebra species.

In addition to those living in the wild in east Africa, about 220 Grevy’s zebras are housed in zoos around the world.

Uganda: Ankole Cattle Could Face Extinction

All Africa.com

UGANDA’s indigenous Ankole cattle – famous for their graceful and gigantic horns -could face extinction, a report has said.

The report titled: “The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources” was compiled by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, with contribution from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and other research groups. It indicates that the Ankole cattle faces extinction because they are being rapidly supplanted by Holstein-Friesians, which produce more milk.

Scientists predict that the Ankole cattle could disappear within 20 years. They said during a recent drought, some farmers who had kept their hardy were able to walk them through long distances to water sources while those who had traded the Ankole breeds for imported ones lost their entire herds. The researchers surveyed farm animals in 169 countries.

The report, which was presented to policy makers, scientists and livestock keepers at the ongoing first International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources in Switzerland, warns that over-reliance on a few breeds of farm animal species, such as high-milk-yielding holstein-friesian cows, egg-laying white leghorn chicken, and fast-growing large white pigs, is causing the loss of an average of one livestock breed every month.

About 70 per cent of the entire world’s remaining unique livestock breeds are found in developing countries, according to ILRI. “Africa is one of the regions with the richest remaining diversity and is likely to be a hotspot of breed losses in this century,” ILRI Director General Carlos Seré said. Many smallholder farmers, including those in Uganda, have abandoned their traditional animals in favour of higher yielding stock imported from Europe and the US.

Mr Seré said the exotic animal breeds cannot cope with unpredictable fluctuations in the environment or disease outbreaks when introduced into more demanding environments in the developing world.

U.S. Geological Survey: Polar Bears Could Soon be Extinct By 2050

All Headline News

Nidhi Sharma – AHN News Writer

Washington D.C. (AHN) -As global warming continues to shrink the Arctic ice, nearly two-thirds of the world’s polar bears will die by 2050, the U.S. Geological Survey said Friday.

And if global warming continues for next few years, the polar bear could soon be listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. A final decision on the bear’s designation is due in January.

It is estimated that there will be a decline of about 42 percent in polar bear population during the next half-century along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia. A polar bear’s life usually lasts about 30 years.

“Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report says.

Only 16,000 polar bears around the world are expected to survive through the end of the century in the northern Canadian Arctic islands and the west coast of Greenland, said the U.S. Geological Survey.

The World Conservation Union, based in Gland, Switzerland, has estimated the polar bear population in the Arctic now is about 20,000 to 25,000,

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, sea ice extent had fallen to 4.75 million square miles — fully 250,000 square miles below the previous record low of 5.05 million square miles in September, 2005. These are the latest figures as of September 4, 2007.

“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team.

USGS issued nine separate reports on polar bears Friday based on six months of new studies. “Projected changes in future sea ice conditions, if realized, will result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.

The polar bear is a native to the Arctic. It is the world’s largest land carnivore, with most adult males weighing 300-600 kg (660-1320 lb); adult females are about half the size of males.

On December 27, 2006, the United States Department of the Interior in agreement with the three groups proposed that polar bears be added to the endangered species list, the first change of this type to be attributed to global warming. It will take up to a year to make the final determination.

The Natural Resources Defense Council contends that though it is “a big step forward” the proposal fails to identify global warming pollution as the cause of rising Arctic temperatures and vanishing sea ice.

The World Conservation Union had already given polar bears threatened status in May 2006