Wildlife

Wild bee populations dwindle in main U.S. crop regions

Wild bees, crucial pollinators for many crops, are on the decline in some of the main agricultural regions of the United States, according to scientists who produced the first national map of bee populations and identified numerous trouble spots.

The researchers on Monday cited 139 counties as especially worrisome, with wild bee numbers decreasing while farmland for crops dependent on such pollinators is increasing.

The counties included agricultural regions of California such as the Central Valley, the Pacific Northwest, the upper Midwest and Great Plains, west Texas and the southern Mississippi River valley.

The counties grew crops such as almonds, pumpkins, squashes, blueberries, watermelons, peaches and apples that are highly dependent on pollinators, or had large amounts of less-pollinator-dependent crops including soybeans, canola and cotton.

Some crops such as corn and wheat do not need pollinators.

Pesticides and diseases were cited as other factors behind the declines among the roughly 4,000 U.S. species of wild bees.

Their decline may prompt greater dependence on commercial honeybee colonies for pollinating crops, but honeybee numbers also are falling.

Lions Gain New Endangered Species Protections

Two lion subspecies will now be protected by the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced Dec. 21.

Panthera leo melanochaita, a lion subspecies living in eastern and southern Africa, will be listed as threatened, while Panthera leo leo, a subspecies found in western and central Africa and in India, will receive endangered status, FWS officials said. New genetic data prompted the agency to recognize western and central African lions as subspecies P. leo leo, and spurred their"endangered" classification.

Under the ESA, species are listed as "endangered," which describes "any species which is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range," and "threatened," identifying "any species which is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future." A 2013 list published by the FWS identified 2,054 species worldwide as endangered or threatened, of which 1,436 are native to the United States.

In a statement, the FWS cited decades of alarming and continuous decline in African lion populations as one of the chief reasons for the status change. Factors identified as the biggest threats to lions included habitat loss due to agriculture, killings to prevent or retaliate against lions' preying on livestock, and inadequate management of protected areas.

In July 2015, the death of the African lion "Cecil" at the hands of an American hunter sparked waves of outrage across social media channels, along with calls for stronger conservation measures to protect African lions. During today's news briefing, Ashe said that, while hunting is not responsible for the recent sharp decline of African lion populations, steps must be taken to ensure that revenue from hunting provides economic support for lion management and conservation efforts.

Wildlife

There Are Less Than The Expected Lions

Since the 1940s, when lions count was an estimated 450,000, lion populations have declined across the world. A new study has revealed that the number of predators like lions are declining relative to their prey in inverse proportion.

Lions are dying off rapidly across African continent. These wild cats once an integral part of the continent and countries like Syria, Israel, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, and even northwestern parts of India. While, 2,000 years ago more than a million lions roamed the Earth, the total has fallen to as few as 20,000 animals.

The ratio of predators, mostly lions, to it’s prey across twelves of parks in East and Southern Africa were analyzed and the results were astounding.

The parks were full of potentially tasty treats for the lions. So one might think that the lion population in each park would increase to match their prey. However, it was the opposite. It was seen that in populated areas, the predators reproduced less despite the abundance of prey. This decline did not appear to be related to an increase in human hunting.

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.