Archive for August, 2007

Aug

31

2007
 
 

Turtle confusion



Conservation hinges on understanding species taxonomy, turtle study demonstrates

turtley mixed upGenetic analyses have raised serious questions about the use of animals seized from illegal traders in breeding and reintroduction programs. University of California Berkeley biologist Jonathan Fong and colleagues found that evolutionary trees of the endangered Asian turtle Mauremys mutica complex – which contains the critically endangered M. annamensis – drawn up from DNA samples don’t match the currently accepted morphological taxonomy. Breeding turtles seized from the trade risks mixing the genetic structure too much, according to the report published in Animal Conservation. Instead, the focus should be on understanding the geographic and genetic diversity of turtles, with conservation efforts directed at protecting them in the field. Source: Fong JJ, Parham JF, Shi H, Stuart BL & Carter RL (2007) A genetic survey of heavily exploited, endangered turtles: caveats on the conservation value of trade animals. Animal Conservation DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2007.00131.x

Related story in Conservation magazine: Do No Harm

Image © Peter Paul van Dijk

Read more on Endangered species, Monitoring, Socio-political issues, Tools and technology | 1 Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

29

2007
 
 

It’s a people thing



Scottish public generally positive about controlling alien invasives, survey shows

Ah... Blam!When it comes to halting the spread of invasive non-native species, things can get a little unpleasant, and although researchers and policy makers are mindful of the evil necessity, the wider public can be less sympathetic. (For example, legal action in Italy once delayed a grey squirrel control program for so long that it was later abandoned: the population had since grown too large to make eradication feasible. Doh!). Education is crucial, yet surprisingly few soundings are taken of how people actually feel about control measures that can involve the sticky demise of cuddly little mammals. However, a recent questionnaire-based survey carried out by the University of Stirling’s Alison Bremner and Kirsty Park suggests that Scots people — older, better educated ones at least — are generally appreciative of the need to take active steps to protect native wildlife. The findings, published in Biological Conservation, support the idea that given sufficient information about a biological invasion, most people are okay about blamming aliens, even if pesticides and poisons aren’t exactly popular. Source: Bremner A & Park K (2007) Public attitudes to the management of invasive non-native species in Scotland. Biological Conservation DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2007.07.005

Image © Brent Melton

Read more on Endangered species, Invasive species, Restoration, Monitoring, Community-based conservation, Socio-political issues | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

28

2007
 
 

Going for a song



Some songbirds behave like sheep, but that could be a good thing

going for a songSongbirds’ own behavior can be used to protect them from habitat loss, according to research published recently in Animal Conservation. Working in the Hiawatha National Forest, Beth Hahn and University of Michigan PhD supervisor Emily Silverman tested the adage that “birds of a feather flock together” by playing recordings of singing male black-throated blue warblers Dendroica caerulescens at the start of the mating season. The recordings attracted other males to the area — the birds use the calls of their fellow competitors to judge habitat quality. This opens the possibility of manipulating songbird habitat choice in anticipation of forestry operations (aka habitat destruction), although there are many questions yet to answer. How do birds of different social status respond? Are non-target species affected? Is the age structure of the population affected? It’s an exciting start to what’s likely a long journey. Source: Hahn BA & Silverman ED (2007) Managing breeding forest songbirds with conspecific song playbacks. Animal Conservation DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-1795.2007.00128.x

Image © bbear

Read more on Habitat, Restoration, Monitoring, Tools and technology | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

17

2007
 
 

Power plants not so green



Biofuel carbon count makes it a poor alternative to forests

Power plantTotal carbon emissions from biofuels far exceed those generated by burning fossil fuels, according to research published this week in Science. Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, together with University of Leeds Earth scientist Dominick Spracklen, present data outlining various routes to alternative power, such as production of ethanol and diesel from crops, and conversion from one land use type to another. There’s a startling bottom line: over a thirty-year period, an area of forested land will lock up between two and nine times as much carbon as the emissions avoided if the same area was instead devoted to biofuel production. If that’s not enough bad news, the other statistics don’t make comfortable reading either. Replacing just 10% of petrol and diesel demand with biofuel would require 43% and 38% of current US and European croplands, respectively. Fortunately, we simply haven’t got the space. Given the other problems with biofuel production — vast monoculture being just one form of biological impoverishment it brings — perhaps we should concentrate on finding other ways to reduce emissions. That’s right, reduce emissions. Source: Righelato R & Spracklen DV (2007) Carbon mitigation by biofuels or by saving and restoring forests? Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1141361

Related story in Conservation magazine: Are We Putting Tigers in Our tanks?

Image © Jim Parkin

Read more on Climate change, Habitat, Restoration, Economics and conservation, Socio-political issues, Tools and technology | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

15

2007
 
 

Number four still won’t come in



Survey finds bird species still suffer at world’s worst nuclear accident site

it's dangerous alrightChernobyl remains an ecological black hole, according to findings published this week in Biology Letters. Intrepid scientist Anders Pape Møller — who is based at the Pierre et Marie Curie University, Paris — donned his radiation protection suit and counted how many bird species could be seen or heard at sites throughout the Exclusion Zone. Together with University of South Carolina colleague Tim Mousseau he discovered a huge decline in both species richness (more than half) and abundance (almost two thirds) with increasing radiation levels, somewhat undermining recent attempts to paint the region as a haven for rare and unusual species. Hardest hit were those birds feeding on soil invertebrates: most of the radiation persists in the top layer of soil. Source: Møller AP & Mousseau TA (2007) Species richness and abundance of forest birds in relation to radiation at Chernobyl. Biology Letters DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0226

Image © Eva Serrabassa

Read more on Endangered species, Habitat, Restoration, Monitoring, Socio-political issues | 1 Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

13

2007
 
 

Policy gives us the bird, nicely



International collaboration can and does work, study finds

boom times for bitternsEffective conservation of many species requires internationally-coordinated policy agreements, and a study published recently in Science provides firm evidence that they produce positive results. Using the European Union Council Directive on the Conservation of Wild Birds as a test case, a group of scientists led by Royal Society for the Protection of Birds ornithologist Paul Donald found that policy was indeed working. Among the findings, birds listed under Annex 1 – those requiring special conservation measures, such as the Eurasian bittern Botaurus stellaris – fared better than their unlisted counterparts within the original 15-nation bounds of the EU: a pattern not observed outside this proto-Eurozone. The take-home message is that the Birds Directive is working, and given the level of resources plowed into this political exercise that’s very good news indeed for conservation. Source: Donald PF, Sanderson FJ, Burfield IJ, Bierman SM, Gregory RD & Waliczky Z (2007) International conservation policy delivers benefits for birds in Europe. Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1146002

Image © RSPB Images

Read more on Endangered species, Restoration, Monitoring, Socio-political issues | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

9

2007
 
 

Critically endangered? Hah!



Black-footed ferrets laugh in the face of extinction, Wyoming survey shows

Survival? Easy when you know howIt doesn’t get much closer to the wire than going extinct in the wild, but the black-footed ferret Mustela nigripes appears to have shrugged that off as a minor inconvenience. Reporting their findings in Science this week, University of Wyoming scientists led by Martin Grenier provide evidence that a captive breeding and release program at Shirley Basin appears to be succeeding. Although 228 captive-born animals were released in 1991–1994, disease (plague and canine distemper) and scarcity of prey (the oft-hibernating, less-than-common white-tailed prairie dog Cynomys leucurus) meant that by 1997 only five ferrets could be traced. However, a survey in 2003 turned up an unexpected 52 animals, a number that has since increased to an estimated 223 of the furry little miracles. Population demography models suggest that, unlike the adult survival rate so crucial to most endangered species, survival through the first year is what counts for ferrets. They make it look so easy. Source: Grenier MB, McDonald DB & Buskirk SW (2007) Rapid population growth of a critically endangered carnivore. Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1144648

Related story in Conservation magazine: The Wheel Turns and Turns

Image © LuRay Parker | Wyoming Game and Fish Department

Read more on Endangered species, Restoration, Monitoring | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

8

2007
 
 

Why we need a cover up



Indo-Pacific coral reef cover has slumped, regional-scale study finds

nice coral, good coralScientists have drawn together an extensive review of available data on the state of Indo-Pacific coral reefs, and it’s not a pretty picture. Writing in PLoS ONE, University of North Carolina marine ecologists John Bruno and Elizabeth Selig reveal that average coral cover – from Sumatra in the West to French Polynesia in the East – fell from 42.5 percent in the early 1980s to just 22.1 percent by 2003. In relative terms, coral reefs are being lost faster than humid tropical rainforests. Local reef cover can vary greatly even over relatively small distances and a multitude of factors can be responsible, so uncovering trends at a larger scale could help pinpoint the major causes for the decline. The loss of reef-building corals undermines the entire reef ecosystem and the survival of many other species depends heavily on them, so Bruno and Selig argue for a shift in management focus away from the direct conservation of commercially important species towards the all-important foundation species. Cure the illness, they say, not the symptoms. Source: Bruno JF & Selig ER (2007) Regional decline of coral cover in the Indo-Pacific: timing, extent, and subregional comparisons. PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0000711

Related stories in Conservation magazine: Designing Marine Reserve Networks | Discarded Fishing Lines Kill Coral Colonies

Image © LongShots

Read more on Habitat, Restoration, Marine, Monitoring, Economics and conservation, Socio-political issues | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

8

2007
 
 

Hook. Line. Sinker



As Yangtze river dolphin disappears, questions over lack of response remain

Yangzte River, ChinaThe first cetacean since records began, only the fourth* mammalian family since AD 1500, and the first megafaunal verebrate in 50 years, has now gone. RIP baiji, Lipotes vexillifer. Thanks go, say Zoological Society of London scientist Sam Turvey and colleagues writing in Biology Letters, to the thousands of large shipping vessels, innumerable illegal fishing operations, and ten percent of the world’s human population that lives alongside the Yangtze River, China. Whilst the Chinese paddlefish Psephurus gladius also hasn’t been seen since 2003, the Yangtze finless porpoise Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis has a glimmer of a chance if something is done now. But two decades of debate have done nothing to staunch the precipitous decline of that species either. As China’s economy booms it looks like many more species will go bust. Source: Turvey ST, Pitman RL, Taylor BL, Barlow J, Akamastsu T, Barrett LA, Zhao X, Reeves RR, Stewart BS, Wang K, Wei Z, Zhang X, Pusser LT, Richlen M, Brandon JR & Wang D (2007) First human-caused extinction of a cetacean species? Biology Letters DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0292

Image © Peter Frank

* corrected from an early typo, with thanks to those who noticed!

Read more on Endangered species, Habitat, Restoration, Fresh water, Monitoring, Economics and conservation, Socio-political issues | Post a Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

Aug

6

2007
 
 

The wheel turns and turns



Captive-bred animals continue to evolve, but not necessarily in a useful direction

hey, good lookingThe California condor Gymnogyps californianus owes its existence to captive breeding programs, and many thousands more vertebrate species will only survive in the future through similarly intensive conservation efforts. However, a study published recently in Molecular Ecology warns that Nature’s own solution to changing conditions — evolution by means of natural selection — could work against those valiant attempts to clutch species back from the edge. Genetic adaptation to captivity can have dire effects when animals are returned to the wild, according to Macquarie University’s Richard Frankham. The relatively easy-living conditions — sufficient food, freedom from disease and so on — can cause populations to gear up for maximum reproductive output. This quantity-not-quality approach perhaps works fine under the watchful eye of qualified vets, but in the big bad world it can be disastrous. Replicating natural conditions is one solution, but the removal of predators is usually pretty helpful to the breeding program. If sufficient attention is given to this problem now, we might be able to find a way around it before the flood of extinct-in-the-wild species hits the zoo gates. Source: Frankham R (2007) Genetic adaptation to captivity in species conservation programs. Molecular Ecology DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2007.03399.x

Image © Ferenc Cegledi

Read more on Endangered species, Habitat, Restoration, Monitoring, Economics and conservation, Tools and technology | 1 Comment

Email This Post Email This Post

keep looking »