Wildlife

Elephant Numbers Decline Across Africa

A pan-African survey of African savannah elephants has revealed declines of a staggering 30% – 144 000 elephants, between 2007 and 2014 in the areas covered by the survey. The Paul G Allen’s Great Elephant Census (GEC) is the first continent-wide aerial survey of African elephants using standardized methodology.

Among the worst declines were Angola (22% decline), Mozambique (53% decline) and Tanzania (60% decline).

Extremely low numbers of elephants were also found in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Cameroon and southwest Zambia. The “populations there face local extinction.

Regional areas in both Zimbabwe and Zambia, especially along the Zambezi valley, are showing that poachers are decimating elephant numbers. Zimbabwe’s overall population was down by 6% with a carcass ratio of 8%, which is bad enough, but within the Sebungwe region, on the Zambezi River and Lake Kariba north of Hwange National Park, populations were down a whopping 74% while Zambia experienced a startling 85% carcass ratio in Sioma Ngwezi Park on the border with Namibia and Angola.

In contrast, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, parts of Malawi, and the W-Arli-Pendjari conservation complex of protected areas that span Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso were found to have stable or slightly increasing elephant populations. The W-Arli-Pendjari area is the only large savannah elephant population left in West Africa.

Namibia also showed increasing numbers of elephants especially in the Zambezi-Caprivi area, but this is possibly because the territory runs the length of the unfenced border with Botswana, the country with the largest single population of elephants, which stands at about 130 000 strong. The bulk of Botswana’s elephants are in the north close to Namibia. And since elephants are not confined by national boundaries there is a constant movement of large herds between the two countries.

American Pika Is Disappearing Due to Climate Change

The American pika, a pint-size rabbit relative, is feeling the heat: Hotter summers induced by climate change are threatening these cute creatures' habitats throughout the western United States.

The small herbivores make their home in rocky slopes, known as taluses, across the West's mountain ranges. A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that whole populations of the tiny mammal are disappearing due to climate change. The pika's mountainous habitats have become hotter and drier in the summer and harsher in the winter, with less snow cover to insulate their burrows in the ground, the researchers said.

According to the survey, American pikas have completely disappeared from Zion National Park in Utah, where there had been sightings of the animals as recently as 2011. In Cedar Breaks National Monument, also in Utah, pikas were found within only one-quarter of their historical range. And in northeastern California, the animals were found in just 11 of their 29 confirmed habitats.

According to the USGS, the pika is also seen as an "indicator species," meaning the animal can offer scientists an early warning about ecosystem changes.