Wildlife

African vultures headed for extinction

Africa's vultures are vanishing, according to a report released on Thursday, a situation that could affect human health and livestock since populations of other scavengers such as rats and jackals could rise as a result.

The assessment, carried out by conservation group BirdLife International, found that six of Africa's 11 vulture species were at risk of extinction.

Deliberate targeting by poachers is one of the reasons as the birds, which circle the sights where they feed, can alert authorities to the carcasses of illegally slain animals.

"Vultures are important. They come in, they clean up and they leave," said Ross Wanless of BirdLife South Africa.

Vultures also help to stem the spread of disease on the world's poorest continent by eating carcasses that would otherwise rot.

Other reasons behind the decline of the big birds include indiscriminate poisonings and the popularity of vulture parts for traditional medicine.

Wildlife

Lions Mysteriously Fall Ill in Northern Uganda

Wildlife officials in Uganda are stumped by a mysterious illness among the lions of Kidepo Valley National Park that has left the big cats emaciated and “docile”.

Kampala’s The Observer newspaper reports that within the past month, the sickness has affected almost all of the park’s lions, located in the north of the country near the borders of South Sudan and Kenya.

Charles Tumwesigye, the deputy director in charge of conservation at the Uganda Wildlife Authority, says experts will examine samples taken from some of the sick lions.

“We have a feeling that it could be partly starvation because we don’t seem to have very many prey animals for the lions in Kidepo,” Tumwesigye told the daily.

He adds that the larger animals currently roaming the park, like buffaloes, are not easy for a lion to take down.

A regal male lion photographed earlier this year in Uganda's remote Kidepo Valley National Park, where the bigcats have mysteriously fallen ill.

Bats facing extinction on Western Ghats, India

Wildlife experts and conservationists have warned that bats are facing extinction in India's Western Ghats due to increasing human activities and destruction of forests. Several species of bats residing in India are finding it increasingly difficult to adjust with varying landscape resulting due to deforestation. They cites reasons including increased use of agricultural land and growing human population for the impact on bats. A team of experts from University of Leeds in Britain, Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore and National Centre for Biological Sciences conducted a survey of different bats species in the southern Western Ghats in order to study the impact of plantation and rainforest fragmentation on them.

The study showed that some bat species can adjust with coffee plantations. Experts said that the reaming part of the forest and wildlife friendly agriculture can help save the bats from extinction. Western Ghats is among the most biodiverse regions in the world and it is also densely populated. The modern development and land-use transformation have left just 6 per cent of the natural habitat. The experts used Geographic Information System (GIS) computer modelling to study association between different bat species.

Environment

Declining snow levels could leave some creatures near extinction

During long, bitterly cold winters, a thick blanket of snow helps protect creatures and plants that live in these harsh climates. That is why recently published findings showing a steady decline in snow cover across the Northern Hemisphere are so alarming.

Since 1970, snow in this part of the globe has decreased by as much as 3.2 million square kilometers (1.2 million square miles) during the spring months of March and April, according to a study published May 2 by a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In their report, scientists describe the gradual degradation of the “subnivium,” the zone in and underneath the snow pack that creates a seasonal microenvironment for habitats of creatures from microorganisms to hibernating bears. In the subnivium, animals can find refuge against dry, biting winds and cold temperatures.

Underneath that homogenous blanket of snow is an incredibly stable refuge where the vast majority of organisms persist through the winter. The snow holds in heat radiating from the ground, plants photosynthesize, and it’s a haven for insects, reptiles, amphibians, and many other organisms.

Changes in the subnivium can have drastic consequences for northern ecosystems. Mammals, reptiles, and amphibians are all threatened by fluctuating temperatures, which can force premature emergence from hibernation, exposing them to sudden freezes, spring deluges, or unfamiliar predators. Plants can be damaged or die when their roots are subjected to alternating periods of freezing and thawing.

Environment

Madagascar palm trees are at risk of extinction. Madagascar's rain forests have shrunk to less than a quarter of their original size. A majority of Madagascar's palms face extinction due to persistent land clearing.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said 83% of the 192 tree varieties had been added to its threatened species list. The group called the figures "terrifying", saying the tree loss also endangered animals and put people's livelihoods at risk.

Madagascar is the world's fourth biggest island after Greenland, New Guinea and Borneo. Because of its isolation most of its mammals, half its birds, and most of its plants exist nowhere else on Earth. Palm trees represent an integral part of the island's biodiversity, with many of its poorest communities relying on the trees to provide housing and food. The extinction risk faced by Madagascar's palms threatens all of the remarkable wildlife that occurs there.

 

Climate Change

NASA scientists say they have discovered an astonishing algae bloom in the Arctic Ocean. When a team of NASA scientists pushed a hole through three feet of ice, they found waters richer in the microscopic marine plants known as phytoplankton than in any other ocean region on Earth. They have equated their discovery as one being 'as dramatic and unexpected as finding a rainforest in the middle of a desert'. The discovery bodes well for the planet, as fast-growing phytoplankton consume large amounts of carbon dioxide.

On the other hand, a group of international scientists suggest that the Earth is reaching a "tipping point" in climate change that will lead to increasingly rapid and irreversible destruction of the global environment unless its effects are controlled by concerted international action.

In their report in Nature, the scientists say their research shows that many combined factors are thrusting the world toward the tipping point they foresee. Among the problems are these:

-- The rapid growth in the world's human population - to 9 billion or more by 2050 and possibly as many as 27 billion by the end of the century - is quickly consuming available resources.

Fossil fuels are being burned at a rapidly increasing rate, increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 35 percent since the industrial revolution began. At the same time, ocean acidity has risen by 5 percent in the past 20 years.

-- Ocean productivity is being diminished by vast "dead zones" where no fish swim, while 40 percent of Earth's land mass that was once "biodiverse" now contains far fewer species of crop plants and domestic animals.

-- More animal species than ever are becoming extinct, and many plant and animal species are being forced by global warming to seek new ranges that could place them at risk of extinction, as well.

-- Within the next 60 years, the average global temperature "will be higher than it has been since the human species evolved."

However, as with many climate change models, there remains an element of uncertainty in their predictions . . . .