Elephant contraception possible to save from culling

Contraception May Save Future Elephants from Culling

In South Africa they have a problem, a big one: too many elephants.
For most of the 1900s extensive poaching threatened to wipe out the country’s elephants. In response, conservationists established reserves throughout the region and relocated as many herds as they could. Now those herds are doing quite well. So well, in fact, that they’re causing problems. Wildlife managers are currently facing a dilemma: how to deal with too many elephants. While some advocate for culling the giants, a group of scientists has outlined a different plan to control their populations: contraception.

Rather than simply setting a quota and culling the extras, immunocontraception could be a tool to allow land managers to control elephant populations in response to conditions on the ground such as food availability. "The approach now has to be much more dynamic and look at the influence the animals are having on the land," says Robert Slotow, a biologist at the Amarula Elephant Research Program in Durban, South Africa. His team recently published a paper in PLoS ONE describing how scientists might be able to use immunocontraception—a vaccine that gets the body to make antibodies that target sperm receptors on the surface of the egg cell. Slotow and his team outlined an immunocontraception schedule that would halt the growth of herds in a South African park and even out their population structure.

The problem
In the wild, two things control elephant populations: natural mortality and environmental conditions. Calves and full-grown animals get sick and die from all kinds of things, from predation to viruses. And when the environment is unfavorable–during years of drought or food shortages, for instance–females will put off having babies. In closed systems like conservation parks, however, neither of those controls is in place. The fences around the park keep out new animals and pathogens, and controlled park conditions make sure that there is ample food. Mothers keep having babies, and the death rate seems to slow to a crawl

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More Than 50 Percent Decline in Elephants in Eastern Congo Due to Human Conflict

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2011) — Humans play a far greater role in the fate of African elephants than habitat, and human conflict in particular has a devastating impact on these largest terrestrial animals, according to a new University of British Columbia study published online in PLoS ONE this week.

In some of the best-documented cases to date, the study shows the elephant population in the Okapi Faunal Reserve -- one of the last strongholds of forest elephants in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) -- saw a 50 per cent decline in the last decade due to civil war and ivory poaching, from 6,439 to 3,288. In other parks in eastern DRC, the decimation was even greater.

"Having protected areas is not enough to save elephants in times of conflict," says lead author Rene Beyers, a postdoctoral fellow at UBC's Department of Zoology. "The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo had a large impact on elephant populations, including those in parks and reserves."

"We've found that two factors in conservation efforts were particularly effective: a continued presence by a highly committed government field staff and continued support by international organizations -- such as the Widlife Conservation Society, Gilman International Conservation and UNESCO -- made a difference for their survival."

Currently there are an estimated 6,000 elephants left in the wild in eastern Congo, down from approximately 22,000 before the civil war. These remaining animals are the only viable populations left in an otherwise enormous landscape. The war-torn DRC has the largest tract of rainforest in the Congo Basin -- at 1.6 million square-kilometres, it is the second biggest continuous rainforest in the world. Scientists believe most of this forest was probably elephant habitat in the past, but poaching and human encroachment have taken a toll on the animals.

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Orphaned elephant calf rescued in Zambia

Found emaciated and woundedNovember 2011: A newly orphaned elephant calf has been rescued in Zambia.

The orphan, named Kavalamanja, was rescued by the Elephant Orphanage Project (EOP) a few weeks after the body of its mother was discovered. The elephant had been killed by poachers and her tusks had been removed.

When he was found, Kavalamanja was emaciated and bearing infected wounds on his body, his face was quite sunken in and his spine protruding. But he was instantly responsive towards staff trying to eat and drink whatever they could offer. The team rehydrated him with electrolytes and then started him on a weak milk formula, which he took to immediately.

Hopes he will be able to rejoin the herdHe was then mildly sedated for the journey back to the orphanage. Rachael Murton, the EOP manager, was present throughout the journey and the calf took comfort in sucking on her finger. Kavalamanja is still responding well to the team and it is hoped that after a period of quarantine he will be able to join the rest of the herd.

EOP is supported by Colchester Zoo's charity Action for the Wild rescues, rehabilitates and releases orphaned elephants back into the wild. The Elephant Orphanage Project (EOP) which operates in South Kafue in Zambia has worldwide support - including funding from Colchester Zoo in Britain.

For more information or to donate to this project or other projects which Action for the Wild supports please visit www.actionforthewild.org.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/elephant-zambia2011.html

Zimbabwe wildlife news – not good

The latest new from Zimbabwe - And it is all badOctober 2011. Courtesy of Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force

Elephants still under threat at Chiredzi River Conservancy
According to the latest reports from Zimbabwe, The situation in Chiredzi River Conservancy is worsening.

Overrun by ‘invaders'. The Chiredzi River Conservancy, part of the Trans Frontier Conservation Area, is an internationally renowned wildlife conservancy in the Sout Eastern Lowveld of Zimbabwe. It is being overrun by destructive invaders and its elephant and wildlife population is in severe danger of being wiped out. Reports indicate that the destruction of its fragile ecosystem has reached such serious proportions that its very survival is under threat. Appeals for the government to intervene before the destruction of the environment in the conservancy, and in all areas of Zimbabwe, becomes irreversible are falling on deaf ears.

The conservancy is situated in an area classified as arid and unsuitable for agriculture. Despite this, invaders have destroyed large areas by burning tress and vegetation in their efforts to grow crops and graze their cattle. Although there is funding available to help them move to areas more suitable for farming, the government turns a blind eye to the problem. Game scouts are employed to patrol the area but their jobs are extremely dangerous and they live under constant threat from poachers, politicians and invaders. They are continually assaulted and abused.

In an effort to protect the elephants, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, Francis Nhema was approached and asked if the elephants could be moved to a safer area but he was adamant that they stay in the conservancy. Whilst he acknowledged that the invaders were there illegally, he has made no attempt to have them removed.

South Africans hunt buffalo in Kariba
ZCTF have received reports recently of South African hunters allegedly being given permission by National Parks to shoot buffalo in the Kariba area - apparently for rations. It is thought that 2 have already been shot and a third is being hunted.

The reports say that a buffalo was shot and taken to the weigh bay in the National Anglers' Union (NAU) Charara fishing camp where it was skinned. It was then hung in the cold room in the camp - all this apparently with the permission of the Acting Manager of the NAU.

The part that doesn't make sense is that normally, when animals are shot for rations, they are taken to Nyanana and not to the NAU fishing camp. ZCTF were always under the impression that NAU Charara site was a fishing camp - not a hunting camp. If any tourists were present at the time, they would probably have been quite distressed to see a buffalo being skinned in the weigh bay. The other disturbing factor is that there are only about 32 buffalo left out of an original herd of 650.

Read on...

Africa’s forest elephants are running out of space

Easier access for hunters means fewer elephants August 2011: The survival of the forest elephants of Central Africa depends on limiting human access to rainforests, according to new Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) research.

The study says that entry points to the rainforests facilitated by roads, rivers, or other access points have led to more hunters and fewer elephants. Furthermore, roads and other forms of infrastructure construction in the countries where forest elephants still exist usually lack adequate, or any, anti-poaching efforts, putting the future of Africa's lesser known cousin of the savanna elephant in peril.

‘While the science behind testing the effects of access to forest elephant habitat is necessarily complex, the bottom line is pretty obvious, and our findings support the hypothesis that multiple access points to tropical forests are detrimental to elephants and other wide ranging species,' said Dr Samantha Strindberg of the WCS.

Logging roads can have a devastating effectBuilding upon previous studies that examined the effects of roads on forest elephant densities, the researchers looked at the effects of multiple access points by systematically counting and mapping the location of elephant dung across large landscapes. Dung counts are necessary because forest elephants are elusive animals and difficult to count directly, so their dung provides a rough index of abundance.

The study showed that the negative impacts of hunting of species such as forest elephants extend far from settlements and other access points because these species range over such large distances.

Researchers found that levels of human presence in different landscapes varied between the five national parks considered in the study. For instance, Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo contains many human settlements and far fewer dung piles than Minkébé National Park in Gabon, which has only recently been made accessible to humans by the construction of logging roads.

Could lead to general ecosystem decayThe conservation implications of the study underscore the need for development plans on both local and national levels in the Congo Basin.

Dr Charles Yackulic, the study's lead author, said: ‘The proliferation of access points to formerly remote, inaccessible areas is devastating to elephants and other wide-ranging species. Forest elephants' disappearance is the herald of more widespread declines in wildlife which may lead to general ecosystem decay.'

Dr Steve Blake of WCS and the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology added: ‘Unfortunately, governments, development agencies, and private industry - all of which fuel infrastructure development - have known this for a long time, and still little is being done to improve the geography of infrastructure planning at local, national and regional levels.

The time to do things right is running out‘This latest study underscores the fact that time is running out to do things right. The good news is that there is a tiny window of opportunity still available to develop the Central African interstate highway system in a strategic way that maximizes social benefits to people while minimising ecological impacts such as fragmentation and access proliferation.

‘The problem is that in reality this costs more money than the current free for all infrastructure development led by the private sector, in which cost minimization is the primary consideration. Like so many environmental issues we could have a pretty decent win-win for wildlife and people if only the world was prepared to pay a little more.'
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/elephants-forest.html

African elephant is two species, researchers say

Genetic researchers may have resolved a long-standing dispute by proving there are two species of African elephant.


Savannah and forest elephants have been separated for at least three million years, they say, and are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants are from the extinct woolly mammoth.

The researchers also made what they say are the first sequences of nuclear DNA from the extinct American mastodon.

The study is reported in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

The debate over whether the African elephant is one or two species has been going on for about a decade.

Weighing in at six or seven tonnes, the much larger elephants found on savannah are about twice as heavy as forest-dwellers.

This, along with other differences in size and shape, has led some researchers to conclude there are two species - the savannah (or bush) elephant, Loxodonta africana, and the forest species, Loxodonta cyclotis.

The scientists - from the US, UK and Germany - now say they have proved the case.

"The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of the Asian elephant and woolly mammoths," said Michi Hofreiter, a specialist in ancient DNA at the UK's York University.

"The split between African savannah and forest elephants is almost as old as the split between humans and chimpanzees. This result amazed us all."

IUCN
The researchers compared sequences of DNA from the nuclei of African and Asian elephants, and from woolly mammoths and the American mastodon.

All are members of the Proboscidea order of mammals.

The mastodon became extinct about 10,000 years ago - around the same time that mammoths disappeared from most of their range.

Although mastodon mitochondrial DNA has been sequenced before, the researchers say they were the first to do the analysis on DNA from the cell nucleus - in this case, using material from a tooth.

"Experimentally, we had a major challenge to extract DNA sequences from two fossils - mammoths and mastodons - and line them up with DNA from modern elephants over hundreds of sections of the genome," said Nadin Rohland of Harvard Medical School.

The genetic "distance" between the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoth turned out to be about the same as between the two African elephant species - which, the researchers say, proves the case for two distinct species in Africa now.

Fragmented world
The picture of elephant conservation across Africa is a mixed one.

In southern countries, the animals are thriving, with populations increasing so fast that governments have had to consider culls.


However, the picture is very different in Central and West Africa, where poaching, ivory smuggling and the bushmeat trade are fragmenting populations.

If there are indeed two species, the forest dwellers are the ones most under pressure, as they tend to be found in areas where poaching and smuggling are rife.

Potentially, confirming the separation could help direct conservation efforts where they are most needed, according to Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (SSC).

"We'd have to review the evidence to see whether we need to split the African elephant into two entries on the Red List of Threatened Species," he told BBC News.

"Currently the species is listed as Vulnerable but it's possible that if there are two, one would come out in a more serious category and the other in a less serious one.

"This could be helpful for highlighting the Central African issue."

However, he cautioned, other research groups may well challenge the conclusion of the latest study, and the debate may have some way to run.

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12054343

African elephant is two species, researchers say

Genetic researchers may have resolved a long-standing dispute by proving there are two species of African elephant.


Savannah and forest elephants have been separated for at least three million years, they say, and are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants are from the extinct woolly mammoth.

The researchers also made what they say are the first sequences of nuclear DNA from the extinct American mastodon.

The study is reported in the journal Public Library of Science Biology.

The debate over whether the African elephant is one or two species has been going on for about a decade.

Weighing in at six or seven tonnes, the much larger elephants found on savannah are about twice as heavy as forest-dwellers.

This, along with other differences in size and shape, has led some researchers to conclude there are two species - the savannah (or bush) elephant, Loxodonta africana, and the forest species, Loxodonta cyclotis.

The scientists - from the US, UK and Germany - now say they have proved the case.

"The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of the Asian elephant and woolly mammoths," said Michi Hofreiter, a specialist in ancient DNA at the UK's York University.

"The split between African savannah and forest elephants is almost as old as the split between humans and chimpanzees. This result amazed us all."

IUCN
The researchers compared sequences of DNA from the nuclei of African and Asian elephants, and from woolly mammoths and the American mastodon.

All are members of the Proboscidea order of mammals.

The mastodon became extinct about 10,000 years ago - around the same time that mammoths disappeared from most of their range.

Although mastodon mitochondrial DNA has been sequenced before, the researchers say they were the first to do the analysis on DNA from the cell nucleus - in this case, using material from a tooth.

"Experimentally, we had a major challenge to extract DNA sequences from two fossils - mammoths and mastodons - and line them up with DNA from modern elephants over hundreds of sections of the genome," said Nadin Rohland of Harvard Medical School.

The genetic "distance" between the Asian elephant and the woolly mammoth turned out to be about the same as between the two African elephant species - which, the researchers say, proves the case for two distinct species in Africa now.

Fragmented world
The picture of elephant conservation across Africa is a mixed one.

In southern countries, the animals are thriving, with populations increasing so fast that governments have had to consider culls.


However, the picture is very different in Central and West Africa, where poaching, ivory smuggling and the bushmeat trade are fragmenting populations.

If there are indeed two species, the forest dwellers are the ones most under pressure, as they tend to be found in areas where poaching and smuggling are rife.

Potentially, confirming the separation could help direct conservation efforts where they are most needed, according to Simon Stuart, chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission (SSC).

"We'd have to review the evidence to see whether we need to split the African elephant into two entries on the Red List of Threatened Species," he told BBC News.

"Currently the species is listed as Vulnerable but it's possible that if there are two, one would come out in a more serious category and the other in a less serious one.

"This could be helpful for highlighting the Central African issue."

However, he cautioned, other research groups may well challenge the conclusion of the latest study, and the debate may have some way to run.

By Richard Black

Environment correspondent, BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12054343