To save Australia’s animals, scientists must count how many are left. But what if they’re getting it wrong?

Shutterstock/ Glenda Rees David Lindenmayer, Australian National University; Benjamin Scheele, Australian National University; Elle Bowd, Australian National University, and Maldwyn John Evans, Australian National UniversityHumans are causing enormous damage to the Earth, and about one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction. Keeping track of what’s left is vital to conserving biodiversity. Biodiversity monitoring helps document changes in animal and plant populations. It tells us whether interventions, such as controlling feral predators, are working. It also helps experts decide if a species is at risk of extinction. However, long-term biodiversity monitoring can be expensive and time consuming – and it is chronically underfunded. This means monitoring is either not done at all, or only done in a small part of the range of a species. Our new research shows these limitations can produce an inaccurate picture of how a species is faring. This is a problem for conservation efforts, and Australia’s new “nature repair market”. It’s also a problem for Australia’s unique and vulnerable biodiversity. How monitoring works Biodiversity monitoring involves looking for a plant or animal species, or traces of it, and recording what was found, as well as when and where. Depending on the species, scientists...

Read More........→February 05, 2025

Two Rare Parrots Sent From Different Zoos So They Might ‘Fall in Love’ and Save Species With Just 300 Wild Birds Left

Twycross Zoo’s new red-fronted macaws – SWNSTwo of the world’s most endangered parrots have been united as part of a breeding program to help save the beautiful species from extinction.The pair of red-fronted macaws have arrived at Twycross Zoo in Leicester, England, with the hope they will “fall in love” and breed—adding to the total number of fewer than 300 remaining in the wild.Native to Bolivia, the macaws are one of the most endangered species of parrot on the planet, currently listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.The bird donations from the Welsh Mountain Zoo and Edinburgh Zoo were arranged as part of a European conservation program that called it an “important milestone” in their global effort.Assistant bird curator Rhys McKie was previously working at Edinburgh Zoo when one of the macaws was hatched there last year.“It’s always an exciting day when a new animal arrives at the zoo but being reunited was a really special moment.“When he hatched it was the first time in over 15 years that the species had been successfully bred at the zoo.“So, to now give him a home at Twycross Zoo where he will continue the conservation journey and hopefully breed more of this rare species, is very momentous for me.”The species stands out for their bright red forehead of feathers and...

Read More........→December 23, 2024

The First of 2,000 Privately Owned White Rhinos Get New Home – Rewilded by South African Conservancy

3 of the 2,000 southern white rhinos auctioned Credit: Platinum RhinoAn ambitious plan to rewild 2,000 southern white rhino into secure protected areas in Africa over the next 10 years has officially begun, with 40 of these majestic beasts on their way to a new home at the Munywana Conservancy in Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.It’s the first relocation of a continent-wide effort organized by African Parks called ‘Rhino Rewild, and follows the recent acquisition of 2,000 southern white rhino that had been privately owned by a multi-millionaire who dreamed of keeping them in a preserve for the purpose of harvesting their horns to flood the illegal rhino horn trade and crash the price to disincentivize poaching.Their new home, Munywana Conservancy has a historic foundation: in 2007, over 20,000 acres of land were returned to its ancestral owners, the Makhasa and Mnqobokazi communities as part of South Africa’s land restitution process.Both communities requested that the land continue to be kept under conservation. Through this legacy, the Munywana Conservancy, now a 79,000-acre (29,866-hectare) reserve, is upheld through a collaboration of community and private landowners.“We are extremely pleased to receive these 40 rhino from African Parks, to supplement the current population of white rhino at our community conservancy,”...

Read More........→May 26, 2024

Saltwater crocodiles are slowly returning to Bali and Java. Can we learn to live alongside them?

 Shutterstock Brandon Michael Sideleau, Charles Darwin UniversityOn January 4 this year, a three-metre saltwater crocodile heaved itself out of the water and up the beach. Nothing unusual about that – except this croc was on Legian Beach, one of Bali’s most popular spots. The emaciated reptile later died. Only four months later, a large crocodile killed a man who was spearfishing with friends in Lombok’s Awang Bay, about 100 kilometres east of Bali. Authorities caught it and transferred it to captivity. You might not associate crocodiles with Bali. But the saltwater crocodile once roamed most of Indonesia’s waters, and attacks are still common in some regions. I have been collecting records of crocodilian attacks since 2010, as the creator of the worldwide database CrocAttack. What’s new is that they’re beginning to return to areas where they were wiped out. Does this mean tourists and residents should be wary? It’s unlikely these islands can host anywhere near the same population densities as the wide, fish-filled rivers of Australia’s tropical north. And in Bali, it’s unlikely we’ll see any crocodile recovery because of the importance of beaches to tourism and a high human population. This 4.6-metre saltwater crocodile was captured in Lombok after the fatal attack in May. Bali Reptile Rescue, CC BY-NDWhat happened...

Read More........→October 30, 2023

Analyzing ways to help golden eagle populations weather wind-energy growth

"We are taking basic information about golden eagle ecology in the Anthropocene and developing it into predictive frameworks for how to protect them," says Eric Lonsdorf, Emory assistant professor of environmental sciences.By Carol Clark: Wind energy is a major component of the U.S. clean-energy goals. Already one of the fastest growing and lowest-cost sources of electricity in the country, it is poised for even more rapid growth, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.Wind power, however, does not come without trade-offs, including some negative impacts on wildlife. Throughout the United States, for example, it’s been estimated that as many as three golden eagles per wind farm are killed each year by wind turbines.“Renewable energy sources, including wind energy, are critical for us to achieve a net-zero emissions future,” says Eric Lonsdorf, assistant professor of environmental sciences at Emory University. “We need to address conflicts between renewable energy and wildlife conservation so that we can combat climate change while also limiting damage to biodiversity.”Lonsdorf and colleagues are developing data-driven methods to determine how much effort is needed to save golden eagles in order to offset the impact of wind turbines on their populations.The Journal of Wildlife Management recently published their latest model...

Read More........→October 14, 2023

South Africa’s great white sharks are changing locations – they need to be monitored for beach safety and conservation

South Africa is renowned for having one of the world’s biggest populations of great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias). Substantial declines have been observed, however, in places where the sharks normally gather on the coast of the Western Cape province. Sharks congregate at these locations to feed, interact socially, or rest.In Cape Town, skilled “shark spotters” documented a peak of over 300 great white shark sightings across eight beaches in 2011, but have recorded no sightings since 2019. These declines have sparked concerns about the overall conservation status of the species. Conserving great white sharks is vital because they have a pivotal role in marine ecosystems. As top predators, they help maintain the health and balance of marine food webs. Their presence influences the behaviour of other marine animals, affecting the entire ecosystem’s structure and stability. Marine biologists like us needed to know whether the decline in shark numbers in the Western Cape indicated changes in the whole South African population or whether the sharks had moved to a different location. To investigate this problem, we undertook an extensive study using data collected by scientists, tour operators and shore anglers. We examined the trends over time in abundance and shifts in distribution across the sharks’ South African range....

Read More........→September 21, 2023

Global award for Indian conservationist who saved vultures

Britain's largest nature conservation charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has bestowed the prestigious Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Nature Conservation on Ram Jakati for saving India's vultures from certain extinction.In the 1990's India's vulture population was pushed to the brink of extinction due to the use of the veterinary drug, diclofenac, given to cattle but lethal to vultures feeding on their carcasses.Use of the drug was so widespread that India's vulture population dropped to just one per cent of what it had been before the use of diclofenac.Jakati, who was the Chief Wildlife Warden for the Forest Department in Haryana for many years, played a key role in not only getting the drug banned but also establishing a network of sanctuaries, breeding centres and urgent action needed to ensure that vultures did not go extinct before the ban could be implemented.His work began before the cause of the decline had been identified and his early intervention can be considered a major factor in protecting India's vultures.He subsequently helped to found SAVE (Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction), an international partnership that to this day plays a coordination role in the conservation of South Asia's vultures.The Asian vulture conservation programme is today, 20 years on, a world-leading example of...

Read More........→October 15, 2020

India to launch 10-year project to conserve Gangetic Dolphins

A decade after the Gangetic Dolphins were declared national aquatic animals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day announced Project Dolphin to give a stronger impetus for conservation of the species in the lines of Project Tiger and Project Elephant. It envisages to address conservation concerns and empower the stakeholders like the river-dependent population in reducing the river pollution and allowing sustainable fishery and river-based other livelihood options through scientifically oriented conservation methods, the ministry said. "We will also launch 'Project Dolphin' for protecting ocean and Gangetic dolphins," he said from the ramparts of the Red Fort. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has made elaborate plans to launch the 10-year project 'Gangetic Dolphin' led by Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar. The Gangetic River Dolphin is found in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli River system of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Platanista gangetica gangetica is a species of freshwater dolphins primarily found in the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers and their tributaries in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In India, these dolphins are sighted along deep river reaches in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West...

Read More........→August 16, 2020

Prince William calls to strengthen wildlife protection

By Chatham House (Chatham House Prize 2014) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons0 Hanoi: Prince William on Thursday called on the governments of the world to strengthen efforts to curb wildlife trafficking, warning that the current situation makes extinction imminent for endangered species. Speaking at the Hanoi Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, inaugurated in the Vietnamese capital, Prince William lauded global achievements to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, but warned that poachers and traffickers continue to decimate the planet’s endangered animals including rhinos, elephants, tigers and pangolins, Efe news reported. Prince William, the president of the United for Wildlife advocacy network, is in Hanoi for a two-day visit and ahead of the conference visited a local school to teach children about rhino conservation. “So while we’ve made progress, the truth is we are still falling behind. A betting man would still bet on extinction,” said the Duke of Cambridge at the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference hosted in Hanoi by the Vietnamese forestry administration in conjunction with the British embassy, as tweeted by Kensington Royal Palace. The conference, attended by representatives of more than 50 countries and 10 international organisations, aims to set out an agenda to step...

Read More........→November 19, 2016

Lions added to endangered species list

In response to the alarming decline of lion populations in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has listed two lion subspecies as endangered and threatened. Without action to protect them, African lions could see their populations halved by 2035. This week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced it will list two lion subspecies under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Panthera leo leo – located in India and western and central Africa – will be listed as endangered, while Panthera leo melanochaita – found in eastern and southern Africa – will be listed as threatened. In the last 20 years, lion populations have declined by 43% due to a combination of habitat loss, loss of prey base, trophy hunting, poaching for skins and uses in Chinese traditional medicine, and retaliatory killing of lions by a growing human population. The killing of Cecil the lion in July of this year served to further highlight this issue. Coupled with inadequate financial and other resources for countries to effectively manage protected areas, the impact on lions in the wild has been substantial. Having once been present in south-eastern Europe and throughout much of the Middle East and India, the animals have now lost 85% of their historic range, as shown on the map below. Their numbers could be halved again by 2035, according to a...

Read More........→October 18, 2016

Update on Richard Theiss: new perceptions on life and the world we live in

RTSeaBlog: I have many friends and colleagues, both in life and in the digital world, inquiring as to what I have been up to, as I have not been as visible of late. I've had some life-altering experiences over the past 6 months that took me away from participation in many of my ocean conservation interests. But now I would like to slowly begin to return to "active duty" at least in the writing/blogging arena. In December of 2013, I was diagnosed with advanced Stage IV Melanoma cancer. It seems my activities as a diver and cinematographer kept my body in good enough shape (for someone in his early 60s) that the cancer, which had been growing for probably four to five years, went undetected until a couple of tumors appeared on the skin's surface and further tests revealed cancer throughout my body. Ironic that my healthy constitution which resisted the cancer up to that point also allowed the cancer to rage hidden from view for years. [Lesson #1: As a fair-skinned Southern California native from a time that predated sunscreens (in fact it was called sun tan oil, designed to help fry your skin a golden brown), I and others in my generation all went through our sunburns and various skin damage that we then pay for decades later. So, use your sunscreens, everyone.]  So, with my newly discovered challenge, I retreated from...

Read More........→March 12, 2015

Time to close the circus of marine mamals

Throughout 2013, there has been a spike in interest as to whether or not organizations like Sea World should have marine mammals like whales, particularly orcas or "killer whales," dolphins, porpoises, and even seals and sea lions in captivity. Part of this heightened interest has been due to the release of the documentary "Blackfish" which recently was aired to much fanfare and additional news programming material on CNN. In the documnetary, the 2010 death of orca trainer Dawn Brancheau by the orca named "Tilikum" at Sea World's amusement park, in Orlando, Florida, was investigated. The details leading up to that tragic incident and the subsequent aftermath was used to look at the broader history of orcas in captivity and the impact on the animals physical and psychological condition. In past posts, I have expressed my views regarding maintaining marine mammal like whales and dolphins in captivity for entertainment purposes. (Click here, and here.) For whatever, broad educational or even research purpose it may have served, dating back as much as fifty years, that rationale has run its course.  My initial first-hand experience with whales and dolphins was in the early 60's at Southern California's Marineland of the Pacific, watching pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins leaping into the air and jumping through...

Read More........→December 25, 2013

Ancient mammoth blood gives new life to de-extinction project

Ever fancied your own Mr Snuffleupagus? The dream may not be that far away. Russian scientists claim to have discovered liquid woolly mammoth blood in a frozen carcase in Siberia, which would make cloning a real possibility. An expedition earlier this month, led by scientist Semyon Grigoryev, uncovered the remains of a 60-year-old female mammoth on a remote island in the Arctic Ocean. "This find gives us a really good chance of finding live cells which can help us implement [our] project to clone a mammoth," Grigoryev said. However, many scientists are sceptical. Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, was born after 277 attempts. The discovery has reignited debate over the ethics of cloning. At a conference at Stanford Law School last week, experts debated the ethical, legal and political implications of “de-extinction”. Beth Shapiro, of the University of California at Santa Cruz, expressed concerns about the difficulty of cloning and the inevitable creation of countless deformed and terminal-ill animals. “I think we should consider deeply why we want to de-extinct things" she said. Kate Jones of University College London said that “Conservation biologists worry that if people think we can revive species they won’t care about protecting what’s left". The scientific community also questions the involvement of disgraced South Korean...

Read More........→December 12, 2013

Declining Rainfall Is A Major Influence For Migrating Birds Find Smithsonian Scientists

.. American Redstart. Credit: Dan Pancamo Instinct and the annual increase of daylight hours have long been thought to be the triggers for birds to begin their spring migration. Scientists at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, however, have found that that may not be the case. Researchers have focused on how warming trends in temperate breeding areas disrupt the sensitive ecology of migratory birds. This new research shows that changes in rainfall on the tropical wintering grounds could be equally disruptive. The team's findings are published in scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, today, March 30. Many of the bird species that breed in the temperate forests, marshes and backyards of North America spend the winter months in the tropics of the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Insects are the primary food for many birds during the winter, and rainfall largely determines the amount of insects available. Climactic warming, however, is causing declining and more variable rainfall cycles in many areas, affecting the availability of insects and delaying when birds leave for their northern breeding grounds. To examine this, the Female American Redstart. Credit: Jeanner Smithsonian scientists focused on American redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla), a member of the warbler family,...

Read More........→October 13, 2013

Putin in hang glider leads Siberian crane flock in migratory flight

Putin in hang glider leads Siberian crane flock in migratory flight Vladimir Putin pulled off another of his bizzare stunts when he led a flock of young Siberian white cranes in flight, living up to his action-man image, even as reports said that endangered chicks had died while scientists were setting up the trip. Dressed in a white costume meant to imitate an adult crane, the Russian president was taking part in a project to teach the endangered birds that were raised in captivity to follow the aircraft on their southern migration to Central Asia. Putin has won many admirers with his feats, that have left others less than impressed, starting from 2000 when he flew into Chechnya in the back seat of a fighter jet. He followed it up over the years, with a bare-chested horseback ride through mountains, a Formula One race car drive and piloting a firefighting plane to dump water on wildfires. The flight in the hang glider though hardly cut any ice with the cranes as only one bird followed Putin on his first flight. He attributed it to high winds that caused the hang glider to travel faster than the birds, RIA Novosti news agency reported. He was followed by five birds in his next flight, but after a few circles only two stuck with him through the 15-minute flight. Putin took time off to visit the Kushavet ornithological research...

Read More........→July 31, 2013