Obama in hot water over shark fin soup

It was the sort of visit made for cameras, but President Barack Obama's stop at a Chinese restaurant came under scrutiny on Friday after the menu showed that it served shark fin.

Obama, in San Francisco for fund-raisers, on Thursday surprised and delighted lunch-time diners with a surprise stop at a restaurant in Chinatown. He posed for pictures and paid in cash for two bags of take-out food.

But a look at the menu of the restaurant, Great Eastern, showed that it offered soup from shark fin, a Chinese delicacy that environmentalists say is pushing the ancient fish to the point of extinction.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that no one on the staff had been aware of the issue until seeing media reports on Friday and that Obama had not ordered shark.

"The president enjoyed his visit to Chinatown, and, as you know, ordered a lot of dim sum takeout. No soup," Carney told reporters on Air Force One.

Environmentalists say that tens of millions of sharks are killed each year as fishermen slice off their fins for dinner tables, leaving them to die in the water. Sharks have few offspring, compounding risks to their survival.

The United States banned finning in its waters in 2000. Obama in January 2011 signed the Shark Conservation Act that toughened regulations by banning imports of fins that are not attached to corresponding shark carcasses.

While the federal law did not ban shark fins themselves, California Governor Jerry Brown in October signed a bill that barred the sale, trade and possession of shark fins. However, restaurants in San Francisco and elsewhere in California can still sell existing stocks of shark fin until July 2013.

Rebecca Regnery, deputy director of wildlife for Humane Society International, said that shark fin was still on offer at a majority of large Chinese restaurants in cities with large Asian populations.

She said that her group had special cards which it encouraged diners to fill out and send to restaurants if they find shark fin.

"Usually the restaurants say we're happy not to serve it, but then everyone is going to go to our competitor and because of demand we're obligated to serve it," she said.

"If it's the opposite, and people go to a competitor that does not serve shark fin, then it starts making economic sense to take it off the menu," she said.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-hot-water-over-shark-fin-soup-224053506.html

After 12 million years, plant species at risk of extinction

When the moon is full, the poachers come out at night, stalking the hills and mountains of South Africa in search of their valuable prey.

They’re not hunting for ivory or rhino horn. They’re searching for something just as valuable: an endangered 12-million-year-old plant species, the cycad, which can sell for as much as $100,000 on the global black market.

Prized for their rarity and oddity and their link to the prehistoric age, cycads have become objects of fascination for a cult of hard-core collectors around the world. But poaching by organized criminal syndicates has become so devastating that many African cycad species are threatened with extinction in the wild, forcing officials to consider a ban on their trade and prompting a scientific race to catalogue their DNA so they will be harder to smuggle.

Cycads, which look like a cross between a fern and a prehistoric palm, are descended from extinct species of cycads that lived with the dinosaurs in the Jurassic period. Some cycads can take centuries to reach maturity, with their trunks ranging in height from a few centimetres to several metres.

They are among the world’s oldest seed plants, never producing flowers or fruit, relying instead on huge seed cones and using beetles for pollination. Many cycads contain dangerous neurotoxins or carcinogens, along with spiky leaves that are sharp enough to draw blood.

Collectors in Asia and North America are willing to pay huge sums for the rarest of these odd prehistoric plants. And now organized crime syndicates have swooped into the business.

After years of rampant poaching and trafficking, at least four cycad species in Africa have become extinct, with most of those extinctions happening in the past decade. South Africa is one of the world’s last remaining havens for cycads, yet 31 per cent of its cycad species are now listed as critically endangered, and almost all of its cycads are in serious decline in the wild.

In the wilderness of Limpopo province, north of Pretoria, landowners are embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with the cycad poachers, sending out patrols and even helicopters to pursue them.

“These are unbelievably well-organized and highly profitable criminal syndicates,” says Niel Maritz, who owns a game lodge in Limpopo with hundreds of cycads on it.

“It’s happening right under our noses, but the terrain is so difficult that you have to stumble onto them,” he added. “They come in the full moon, they remove the plants at night, and then they get picked up in the morning. In a year or two, at the current rate, there won’t be many cycads left in the wild.”

Last week, when fresh tracks of poachers were spotted on a neighbouring farm, Mr. Maritz joined a patrol on the chase. But they lost the tracks when a heavy rainstorm erupted. “We’re fighting the war on the ground, but these guys are just the labourers in the syndicates,” he said. “It’s completely out of control.”

On his own farm, poachers have raided the mountains in search of cycads, chopping them up into smaller plants that can be transported. He managed to save about 200 of the cycads by moving them to a secure garden near his house, after obtaining a permit from local officials.

In Eastern Cape province, farmers have reported that poachers arrive with pickup trucks and winches to pull out cycads from river valleys.

“They’re well-organized, they know where the plants are, and they know exactly how to avoid being caught in possession,” said David Newton, director of the Southern and East Africa regions of TRAFFIC, an organization that monitors the global wildlife trade.

Cycads are also cultivated in nurseries and botanical gardens, which have become the target of well-organized robberies, forcing them to hire security guards.

Traders are permitted to export artificially propagated cycads from South Africa, and more than 5,000 were exported in 2009 alone. But the government lacks the resources to ensure that these exports are properly monitored and inspected, Mr. Newton said.

A few unscrupulous nurseries have obtained permits to sell seedlings and then illegally replaced them with mature plants from the wild, he said.

Mr. Newton’s organization has called for a complete ban on the trade of cycads, but South Africa has suggested instead a regulation that would halt the trade of only a limited number of cycad species. The regulation, opposed by private cycad owners, has not yet been approved.

To smuggle the cycads out of Africa, the traffickers often strip them of all their foliage, leaving only a naked trunk that can be almost impossible for customs officials to identify.

A scientific project at the University of Johannesburg could make it easier to identify rare species of cycads when they are inspected at border crossings. The project is using a DNA barcoding system to create a database of cycad species. Ultimately their DNA could be checked by customs officials with a small handheld device, preventing cycads from being smuggled illegally. It’s part of the International Barcode of Lifeproject, headquartered at the University of Guelph in Ontario, which seeks to catalogue all of the earth’s biodiversity.

Philip Rousseau, a researcher at the University of Johannesburg who has worked on the DNA barcoding project, is worried that wild cycads could face extinction.

“You can go into the wilderness to where they are supposed to be, walk around for hours and not find any,” he said.

“They’ve survived all this time, but now they’re barely hanging on.”

GEOFFREY YORK

MOOKGOPHONG, SOUTH AFRICA— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/after-12-million-years-plant-species-at-risk-of-extinction/article2306115/

Sea lions 'extinct in decades'

New Zealand sea lions could be extinct within decades if the Government accepts Agriculture Ministry advice on how to manage the species, a University of Otago expert says.

MAF, which now includes the former fisheries ministry, is considering submissions on its initial position paper on managing a squid fishery near the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands.

The fishery overlaps with the breeding and feeding territory of the largest population of New Zealand sea lions, which are considered a nationally critical species – the highest-risk classification in New Zealand's system.

The number of Auckland Island pups being born has halved since 1998.

The paper proposes that there should be no limit imposed on the number of sea lions accidentally caught in trawling nets in the fishery.

"The most recent research strongly suggests that the direct effect of fishing-related mortality on the New Zealand sea lion population is minimal," it says.

However, sea lion researcher Bruce Robertson, a senior zoology lecturer at the University of Otago, said the best evidence available – including research done by the Conservation Department last year – was that fishing was the most plausible reason for the dramatic population decline.

The DOC research concluded that sea lion bycatch at current estimated levels could result in the species becoming "functionally extinct" by 2035.

Outbreaks of disease in some years slowed breeding rates but fishing bycatch – including animals who drowned or died of injuries even after escaping trawling nets – was "the most significant known negative impact".

Dr Robertson said the conflicting advice needed to be considered in an independent review. He had made a submission to MAF that proposed managing the sea lion population under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, rather than the Fisheries Act.

He also advocated the use of squid jigs – a type of hook – rather than trawling nets. "If you did that, tomorrow there would be no more bycatch."

MAF deputy director-general Scott Gallacher said the agency was aware of the research by DOC staff and Otago researchers and would consider it in any decision.

"MAF is confident it has access to the most up-to-date and accurate research on sea lion bycatch in the squid fishery."

Any advice it provided to Primary Industries Minister David Carter – likely to be in early February – would ensure any risk to protected species was avoided, he said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/6237855/Sea-lions-extinct-in-decades

Extinction fears as salmon disappear

t.cork@bepp.co.uk


Atlantic salmon that travel thousands of miles to swim up a West river could become extinct there within three years, environmentalists have warned.

The Wiltshire Avon, which drains most of south Wiltshire through Salisbury and on through Dorset, is one of the most important rivers for salmon in England, but a combination of milder climate and a loss of suitable breeding grounds has badly affected the numbers.

The Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said the number swimming back up the Avon has halved in the past five years, and there could be no salmon left in the river within three years.

The trust is now embarking on a new survey to discover what the problem is, and what can be done to help the epic swimmers.

The salmon hatch from eggs in the upper reaches of the Avon, often as much as 40 miles from the sea, in shallow gravelly stretches of the river and its tributaries like the Nadder, Wylye, Bourne and Ebble, which all meet at Salisbury.

Once a year old, the salmon then swim out to sea and spend their lives thousands of miles away in the north Atlantic, off the coast of West Greenland. There they live for years, before returning for a final journey back across the Atlantic, up the English Channel and into the mouth of the Avon in Dorset. They then have to find the exact tributary where they were born to spawn.

But Wiltshire Wildlife Trust director Gary Mantle said that surveys of the numbers accessing the mouth of the Avon at Christchurch, near Bournemouth, show that numbers have halved in just five years. Tests on stretches of the Wylye tributary which the wildlife trust owns and manages have also shown that the temperature of the water and other habitat information has changed and appears to be badly affecting the Atlantic salmon.

Oxygen levels, and the pH level of the water has changed, and the river appears to be a less salmon-friendly environment.

The trust is actively restoring sections of the river to create more gravelly shallows that the salmon prefer.

"We want to get into the river and clean the gravel so we provide a much better spawning area for the fish," said Dr Mantle.

"It's a range of activities that we can do and we need to make sure we conserve the fish so that the few that remain are protected as well," he added.

"In the next three years, salmon could be extinct from the river," he warned.

Salmon numbers took a nose dive in recent decades as the river quality was damaged by pollution caused by agriculture. Dredging the river to aid flood defences also damaged habitats, and extraction by water companies created a less healthy environment.

http://www.christchurchpeople.co.uk/Extinction-fears-salmon-disappear/story-14279200-detail/story.html

Extinction may be on the cards for most of India's amphibians

Most of India's amphibians may go extinct: Biologist

NEW DELHI: To discover a new species is a huge honour for a biologist. By that yardstick, the achievements of Dr Sathyabhama Das Biju, an amphibian biologist at Delhi University, are staggering. He has discovered 42 species and is in the process of describing another 28, six new genera and one family - all of frogs.

Meet India's Frog Man, the champion of our amphibian diversity. This week, The Economist magazine featured him on its cover, a rare recognition for an Indian scientist. But for Biju, being in the limelight is an opportunity to make people aware of our vanishing wealth - 66% of Indian amphibians are under the threat of extinction, and if these little creatures vanish, a major ecological imbalance would follow.

"Amphibians were the first land animals and have a 350-million-year history. They are an environmental barometer and we can analyse the quality of our environment by studying them. We cannot imagine life without frogs. If there are no frogs, it would not be possible to grow anything in our fields," he says.

Read more here ...

Hen harriers 'on verge of extinction'

The hen harrier is the bird most likely to become extinct in England because of human pressure, says the The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Jeff Knott, species policy officer for the RSPB explains what has been going on.

Hear more here ...

Fresh wave of killings by hunters takes Indonesian orangutan to the brink of extinction

Conservationists urge authorities to take action as report finds great ape population of Kalimantan region gravely endangered.

Conservationists have called on the Indonesian authorities to take urgent action to save the orangutan after a report warned that the endangered great apes were being hunted at a rate that could bring them to the brink of extinction.

Erik Meijaard, who led a team carrying out the first attempt to assess the scale of the problem in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, said the results showed that between 750 and 1,800 orangutans were killed as a result of hunting and deforestation in the 12 months to April 2008.

The numbers, which were higher than expected, indicated that most orangutan populations in Kalimantan could be in serious danger "within the foreseeable future", said Meijaard, of the Jakarta-based People and Nature Consulting International. "At that rate… you're talking about 10-15 years until pretty much all orangutans [in Kalimantan] are gone."

Home to 90% of the world's orangutans, Indonesia also has one of the highest rates of deforestation – a phenomenon driven by a combination of illegal logging, palm oil plantations and gold mining. Loss of habitat is the main reason behind the steep decline in both the Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) and its critically endangered Sumatran counterpart (Pongo abelii). The Sumatran orangutan population is believed to be less than 7,000 and has featured on the World's 25 Most Endangered Primates list since its inception in 2000. In Borneo, an estimated 54,000 orangutans survive, half the number of 25 years ago.

Habitat loss is compounded by hunting, which, though anecdotally well known as a cause of orangutan decline, has been a neglected issue. While much of the killing documented by Meijaard and his researchers appears to have been motivated by opportunism, with villagers hunting for food, a significant proportion could be related to habitat loss. "There is conflict-related hunting where you've got plantations going in. You've got people expanding their fields and gardens and infringing on orangutan habitat, so they are being squeezed into smaller and smaller pockets of forest and automatically come into contact with people more frequently," Meijaard said.
"If you find an orangutan sitting in your garden or eating the fruit from your fruit tree or pulling up your oil palm, the logical reaction is either to scare it off or to kill it. That's what people do."

Read more here ...

Amphibians face spread of 3 threats

WASHINGTON — Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians might eventually have no haven left on the globe because of a triple threat of worsening scourges, a new study predicts.

Scientists have long known that amphibians are under attack from a killer fungus, climate change and shrinking habitat. In the study, appearing online in the journal Nature, computer models project that
in about 70 years, those three threats will spread, leaving no part of the world immune to one of them.

Several important U.S. amphibian species — such as boreal toads in the Rocky Mountains, and the mountain yellow legged frog in the Sierra Nevada — are shrinking in numbers, said zoologist Steve Corn, who is part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. The problem is worse in the western United States.

About one-third of the world’s amphibian species are known to be threatened with extinction.
“It’s no fun being a frog,” said biodiversity conservationist Stuart Pimm of Duke University, who wasn’t part of the study or the USGS effort. “They are getting it from all three different factors.”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2011/11/19/amphibians-face-spread-of-3-threats.html

For the first time in 75 years, an entire genus of mammal is on the brink of extinction

You're looking at three of the last known hirola on Earth. Since the 1970s, unregulated hunting, habitat destruction and drought linked to climate change have driven the number of these large African antelopes living in Kenya and Somalia from over 14,000 to fewer than 400.

Of course, countless species go extinct every day — even the most conservative estimates show that the world is losing species at a rate 100 times greater than the world has seen in thousands of years.

But these hirola are not only among the last of their species, they're among the last of an entire genus — the taxonomic rank above species and below family. (As a point of reference, if the genus Canis were to go extinct, it would mean the disappearance of the planet's dogs, wolves, coyotes, jackals, and numerous other species.)

If the critically endangered hirola cannot be saved, it will be the first time the Earth has lost an entire genus of mammal in three-quarters of a century. (The death of the last known Tasmanian tiger in 1936 spelled not only the end of the genus Thylacinus, but the family Thylacinidae, as well.)

According to National Geographic, conservation efforts to save the hirola are already well under way; the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy is in the process of erecting what it claims will be a predator-free sanctuary for the species.

Whether or not hirola should be considered any more important, from a conservation standpoint, than any other animal facing the threat of extinction is obviously a subject for debate. But the more important question raised by the plight of the hirola is whether it heralds the coming of an age where the term "endangered genus" (or even "endangered family") will become as commonplace as "endangered species" is today. With levels of global biodiversity declining as rapidly as they are, such a future is frighteningly easy to envision.

http://io9.com/5857522/for-the-first-time-in-75-years-an-entire-genus-of-mammal-is-on-the-brink-of-extinction

Biologists warn species at risk from new field

ENDANGERED species such as pygmy possums, bats, mice and striped wallabies will become extinct in northern NSW if the state's largest gas field goes ahead as planned, biologists have warned the federal government.

A planned coal seam gas operation near Narrabri would put at least 110 gas wells and 1000 kilometres of pipelines through the Pilliga woodland area, according to a plan being put forward by Eastern Star Gas.

Eastern Star said it was positive that this could be done with minimal impact on plants and animals and said it welcomed the independent wildlife survey.

But the study, commissioned by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment, found 20 endangered species living in the area slated for the gas field, only some of which had been identified by the company's own research.

A report will be forwarded to the federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke, who will be required to assess the gas field's impact on endangered fauna.

The team of 15 biologists and volunteers who completed the study on a pro bono basis said vulnerable animals would be severely affected.

''These animals will become locally extinct … exotic species will proliferate instead - foxes, goats, feral pigs,'' a director of the consultancy Landmark Ecological Services, David Milledge, said.
''This is 4000 square kilometres of forest and woodland. It is very important for these species.''

A spokesman for Eastern Star Gas, which is about to be taken over by Santos, said more than 2800 hours had been spent over the past year gathering information about the area's plants and animals.
''ESG's proposals … are meticulously planned to avoid areas of high ecological value, minimise impacts where possible and undertake to rehabilitate fully, with a significant amount of this rehabilitation occurring immediately after the construction phase,'' the spokesman, Peter Fox, said.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/biologists-warn-species-at-risk-from-new-field-20111023-1meim.html#ixzz1bn08hdqE

Why the spoon-billed sandpiper's luck might change

The spoon-billed sandpiper faces extinction. But a last-ditch breeding programme might just save this extraordinary-looking species

If prizes were awarded for the world's unluckiest bird, the spoon-billed sandpiper would be a leading contender. It breeds along the coast of Chukotka province, in easternmost Russia, where snow, floods and predators may foil its short window of opportunity to raise a family.

If any chicks do survive, they must undertake one of the most perilous journeys of any migratory bird: 8,000km (5,000 miles) to their wintering grounds in Myanmar and Bangladesh. On the way they pass through the world's industrial powerhouses – Japan, China and South Korea – where the reclamation of coastal wetlands for economic development is proceeding at a terrifying rate. To make matters worse, if the sandpipers do reach their wintering grounds, poor local communities trap them for food. It's hardly surprising the spoon-billed sandpiper is heading for extinction.

Never common – the world population in the late 1970s was estimated at 2,400 breeding pairs – the species declined to 1,000 pairs by 2000. Then the real nosedive began: it may now have dropped below 100 pairs, a fall of 90% in a single decade. Unless something can be done soon, extinction in the wild is virtually inevitable within 10 years. Hence the brave and controversial decision by the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), along with conservation partners including the RSPB and Birds Russia, to take spoon-billed sandpiper chicks from the wild and raise them in captivity, at the trust's HQ at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire.

Brave, because although captive breeding works well with large, long-lived species such as ducks, geese and cranes, it is much harder to achieve with a small, migratory wader. Controversial, because some argue that scarce resources would be better spent on preserving wetland habitats for species more likely to survive in the long term.

Read on...

Coal port could wipe out dolphin pod: WWF

A unique pod of rare Australian dolphins could be wiped out by a coal port planned for an island just off the central Queensland coast, WWF Australia warns.

Researchers believe the 70-strong snubfin dolphin population at the mouth of the Fitzroy River, 40km north of Gladstone, is genetically distinct from other Australian snubfins.

The native snubfin, discovered in 2005, inhabits rivers and coasts of northern Australia and is believed to be rare.

The WWF says an Xstrata coal port planned for Balaclava Island on the mouth of the Fitzroy River could easily wipe out the local snubfin population over the next 10 to 20 years.

"Even just the loss of just one dolphin per year is enough to trigger the extinction of that local population," WWF spokesman Richard Leck said.

The dolphins currently feed in the relatively pristine coastal mangroves of Balaclava Island, Mr Leck said.

"The unfortunate situation is that the habitat they rely on is exactly the type of habitat that's likely to be destroyed or significantly damaged by the Balaclava Island development," he said.

What's more, he expects the Australian snubfin dolphin to be declared a threatened species shortly.
Xstrata's environmental impact statement for its Balaclava Island coal port is expected to be released early next year.

Mr Leck said the port would almost certainly have an impact on local marine life.

"When you're seeing how badly the health is in Gladstone Harbour at the moment the last thing we want to be doing is having that type of impact up and down the coastline," he said.

"At some point you have to say right, we just can't keep industrialising the whole Great Barrier Reef coastline."


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/coal-port-could-wipe-out-dolphin-pod-wwf-20111014-1lnoc.html#ixzz1aqvkgdSM

Climate swings increase extinction risk

Scientists have begun to predict the animals that may become extinct in the next century because of climate change.

Researchers at Brown University in the US have combined predictions of climate change with the geographic ranges of well-studied amphibians.

While the animals will try to migrate to areas with more suitable weather, short-term temperature fluctuations can cut them off.

The findings suggest more effort should be made to relocate vulnerable species.

It has been recognised for the past decade that the continuing future trend of global warming may drive species to permanently migrate in order to stay in an ideal habitat.

Amid concerns that this long-term migration may be disrupted by towns and cities, scientists at Brown University Dr Regan Early and Prof Dov Sax set out to predict the shifts in species' ranges over the next century.

Predictions of global climate change generally show warming trends, though both global annual oscillations and local climatic effects will play a role for given species.

The researchers combined these climate models with information on the ranges and tolerances of various species of frogs, toads and salamanders in the western US, with results that "really surprised", said Dr Early.

While they set out to find the disrupting effect of urban areas, they instead saw that the short-term climate fluctuations were enough to stop a species' migration in its tracks, cutting it off from ideal habitats and driving it to extinction.

They have published their results in the journal Ecology Letters.
By Leila Battison Science reporter


Read on...

How to minimize extinctions due to climate change - New study

When budgets are tight - Fight firesSeptember 2011. More species could be saved from extinction under climate change thanks to a new model scientists have developed to guide allocation of conservation funding. The international team, led by Dr Brendan Wintle of the University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, is the first to develop a pioneering decision-support model that incorporates both ecological and economic information to guide conservation investment in the face of climate change.
Although scientists knew that high extinction rates were predicted to increase under climate change, there was little advice to guide how money could be best spent to minimise extinctions.

Dr Wintle said "The best part about this model is that it can be applied to a range of environments, including many of Australia's native ecosystems, to suggest how to allocate funding. Our analysis supports the existing evidence that climate change will substantially accelerate extinction rates. So the first step is that we urgently need to limit global warming to avoid a mass extinction. Given that we are probably committed to a two degree warming by 2050, we need to develop effective strategies for minimizing the number of species that go extinct as a result.

Effective allocation of funds
"We only have a limited amount of money to spend on managing biodiversity, so the question becomes, how do we most effectively allocate these funds? We needed a systematic approach to guide conservation investment to minimize extinctions and avoid wasting money. An advantage of our approach is that it makes the costs of a plan explicit, reducing the opportunity for politicization of decisions."

The scientists combined ecological predictions with an economic decision framework to prioritize conservation activities, and tested the model on one of world's most biodiverse and highly threatened ecosystems; the South African fynbos.

"An interesting result of our analysis is that the optimal allocation of money depends strongly on the yearly conservation budget. For example if budgets were small then the whole budget would be dedicated to fire-fighting capacity. However, if more money were available, investment would be directed toward avoiding habitat loss due to clearing and weed invasion," Dr Wintle said.

The team included scientists from the University of Melbourne, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, CSIR South Africa, the NERP Environmental Decisions Hub, RMIT University, NSW Office of Environment & Heritage, University of NSW, the University of Queensland and a group of European researchers.

The work is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/climate-extinction.html

Endangered dolphins near extinction

Experts say fishing methods are to blame, with one subspecies in New Zealand down to fewer than 100 mammals.

The world's most endangered sea dolphins are sliding towards extinction in the face of damaging fishing methods, experts are warning.

Hector's dolphins are found only around New Zealand, where the population has fallen from 30,000 to around 7,000 since nylon fishing nets came into use in the 1970s, a conference on marine biodiveristy in Aberdeen will hear on Thursday.

The country's North Island population, a subspecies known as Maui's dolphins, is down to fewer than 100 mammals, according to Dr Barbara Maas, head of endangered species conservation for German environmental group NABU International – Foundation for Nature.

Research by Dr Liz Slooten, from Otago University in New Zealand, suggests commercial fishing gear known as gillnets – which create a wall of netting to catch fish – are drowning 23 Hector's dolphins a year on the east coast of the South Island.

She said the sustainable limit for the area was about one dolphin a year, and at the levels currently seen the population would fall by at least a further 14% by 2050.

Maas, who has worked to protect the species for more than a decade including for the New Zealand Department of Conservation, will warn the conference that gillnets are only part of the problem.
Other fishing methods which had not been included in the calculations are also killing Hector's dolphins, including the recreational use of gillnets, along with pollution, boat strikes and marine mining.

Trawl nets, which are pulled through the water from boats, were likely to kill as many endangered Hector's dolphins as commercial gillnets, bringing the number of deaths due to fisheries to 46 along the east coast, she warns.

"An annual loss of this size will wipe out 62% of the population by 2050. Only a scattering of animals will survive, potentially pushing the population beyond the point of no return."

She said that "absolute protection against commercial and recreational gill-netting and trawling is the only way to prevent their demise".

Dr Maas, who is speaking at the international marine conference organised by the Universities of Aberdeen and St Andrews, is urging the New Zealand government not to bow to industry pressure and to ban the fishing methods in waters up to 100m deep to save the species.

She suggests more selective fishing methods, such as hook and line fishing, or fish traps, which do not catch dolphins, could be used instead.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/28/hectors-dolphins-near-extinction

Philippines eats, sells biodiversity riches

MANILA — A Philippine brown deer hobbles on three legs in a tiny mud pit of a pen at a government-run wildlife rescue centre, a grim symbol of the country's rapidly vanishing flora and fauna.

The deer was a victim of a snare set by villagers hunting it for food that claimed its front right foot six years ago, forcing the old male to live out the rest of its days a long way from home at the animal shelter in Manila.

The deer is just one of hundreds of local species that are being hunted close to extinction mainly by the rural poor who want them for food or to sell to dealers as part of an increasingly lucrative global pet trade.

"It is in our culture to catch, kill, and or cook anything that moves," said Mike Lu, treasurer of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, who has observed a dramatic decline in bird species over many years.

Massive habitat loss compounds the problem, according to Theresa Mundita Lim, head of the government's protected areas and wildlife bureau.

"One-fifth of our major fauna species will disappear within 20 years' time if we don't do something," Lim said.

With more than 53,000 species, environment group Conservation International lists the tropical Southeast Asian nation among 17 "megadiverse" countries that harbour two-thirds of Earth's species.

But it also says the Philippines is one of the world's most threatened hotspots, with just seven percent of its original forests left and one of the world's fastest-growing populations that needs ever-greater amounts of land.

But, with roughly a third of the 95 million Filipinos living on a dollar a day or less, the immediate value of the country's biodiversity is one of its greatest threats, according to Lim.

As an example, Lim said the poor rural villagers had nearly wiped out the country's indigenous orchid species by collecting and selling them.

"It is the main livelihood for some communities," she said.

The Philippines' biodiversity riches makes it a major force in the global illegal wildlife trade, which is worth up to $20 billion annually, according to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network.

The network says wildlife is the world's third-largest black market trade, surpassed only by arms and drugs.

Among the higher-profile animal species to have all but vanished in recent years due to hunting are the brown deer and the national bird, a monkey-eating eagle.

And only about 200 tamaraw, a wild buffalo, remain at a protected mountain range.

Some of the prices are astounding.

Several species of geckos, colourful nocturnal lizards, are collected for the alternative medicine trade, with those believed to cure AIDS selling for up to $1,200 dollars, while some of the rarest Philippine birds of prey are rumoured to fetch upwards of 20,000 dollars, according to Lim.

She said trappers -- typically poor farmers -- got as little as 500 pesos ($12) for a coveted Philippine parrot, but middlemen then sold the critically endangered bird for five times that.

President Benigno Aquino's government, which came to power last year, has stepped up efforts to combat the rampant wildlife trade.

High-profile police raids of pet-shop and trophy suppliers this year have uncovered a wide range of rare or critically endangered species, including sea turtles, snakes and corals.

Protected wildlife used to be openly hawked at big pet markets such as Arranque in Manila's Chinatown and Cartimar near the financial district.

A recent AFP visit to Arranque found no prohibited species, and market administrator Rene Sese said the shopkeepers now observed a wildlife ban.

"Before that was a practice here. Now they only sell those bred in captivity," Sese told AFP.

But the government acknowledges that, despite the higher-profile markets appearing to be better behaved, the illicit trade in protected species continues to flourish under the table.

"Traders are aware that they can be monitored so what they do is offer it for sale clandestinely... you can get it if you want. You can order," Lim said, adding the Internet also fuelled the trade.

Ashley Fruno, senior Asia campaigner for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also said penalties remained far too light to dissuade people from participating in the lucrative trade.

A wildlife protection law was passed in the Philippines in 2001, but fewer than 20 people have been convicted and judges often fine them instead of sending them to jail, said Josefina de Leon, wildlife section head of the environment ministry.

By Cecil Morella
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbQ1dY0U20GXc6PsAaxYVw4HAjgw?docId=CNG.45ad7773272e96d73a589cba96cb6c19.1b1

Bittern: medieval banqueting dish that died due to hunting and loss of habitat

One of the UK's rarest birds, the bittern, is making a new comeback from extinction, after its best year on record led to the numbers of breeding males topping 100 for the first time. Here is a history of the bird.

Britain’s loudest bird was common in west and central Europe up until the 19th century, when many breeding areas were abandoned due to drainage and persecution.

After it was prized as a medieval banquet dish and it was also hit by hunting and the loss of its reed bed habitat as wetlands were drained, became extinct in the UK in 1886.

It managed to recolonise the Norfolk Broads in 1911, but while numbers rose until the 1950s they then crashed once more to a low point in 1997.

The RSPB said the population increase in recent years was down to focused conservation efforts to create and maintain habitat for the species – with measures put in place up to 20 years ago now paying off.

Bitterns are highly secretive wetland birds and live most of their time within dense stands of reed, making them very difficult to count.

But experts say males have an "amazing beatbox ability", in which they fill their gullets with air and released to make a booming "song".

Sometimes its sounds can be heard several miles away, enabling scientists to determine the bird’s population.

But it still is threatened by the reduction in availability and quality of "Phragmites-dominated swamps and other marshes due to drainage and abandonment of traditional uses for reed beds", the RSPB said.
It also faces threats including sea level rise, where freshwater sites along the coast could be inundated by saltwater.

"In the past, continued drainage of land for agricultural uses and excessive water abstraction in the catchment of reed beds reduced the area of reed beds in the UK," a spokesman said.

"The main current threat to the habitat comes from neglect and lack of management, which allows reed beds to dry out and become unsuitable for bitterns."

The bittern is listed on Schedule 1 of the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981, which "affords it special protection at all times".

"It is an offence to take, injure or kill a bittern or to take, damage or destroy its nest, eggs or young," the RSPB said.

"It is also an offence to intentionally or wrecklessly disturb the birds at or close to their nest during the breeding season."

People convicted face a maximum sentence of up to £5,000 per offence and/or a prison sentence of up to 6 months.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8736666/Bittern-medieval-banqueting-dish-that-died-due-to-hunting-and-loss-of-habitat.html

Bittern: other species that have made comeback from extinction

There have been several species that have come back from the brink of extinction. Here are some examples.

Dormice and water voles: Two of Britain's best-loved countryside mammals, are recovering from the brink of extinction thanks to conservation programmes to save them. Both animals are well known through popular fiction: the dormouse was immortalised in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Ratty in Wind in the Willows is a water vole. Intensive farming techniques, pollution and climate change had threatened to wipe out both species across much of England.

Bumblebees: The five most threatened bumblebees in England have made an unprecedented comeback in the South East this year thanks to environmental work by farmers. The large garden bumblebee, the shrill carder bee, the red shanked carder bee, the moss carder bee and the brown banded carder bee are all considered under threat. The species have suffered from intensive farming, that means there are less wildflowers and the spread of towns and cities.

Farmland birds: Endangered species of countryside birds are staging a dramatic comeback on farms taking part in a pioneering conservation experiment. Even fast-disappearing species such as yellowhammer and house sparrow are flourishing on the farms involved.

Grizzly bear and Grey Wolf: After being wiped out in the 1930s, the Grey Wolf's population has swelled to more than 5000 across America. The grizzly bear and the wolf could be removed from the US list of endangered species, in a move likely to spark fierce resistance from environmentalists. Previous efforts by the George W Bush administration to remove protections from the two species were defeated by opposition in court from wildlife conservation groups.

Great bustard: A bid to reintroduce the great bustard to the UK has scored another success with four wild chicks hatching in this country so far in 2010. It is the second year that the internationally endangered birds, which have been reared in captivity and released on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, over the past few years, have successfully bred. The large species, whose males can stand over a metre tall (40 inches) and with a wingspan of up to 2.4m (7.75 ft) had disappeared from the UK by 1832 after being hunted to extinction.

Pictures at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/8736663/Bittern-other-species-that-have-made-comeback-from-extinction.html

Twenty rare Siamese crocodiles hatch in zoo

One of the world's rarest crocodiles is clawing its way back from extinction in the wild, with the hatching of 20 eggs in Laos.
The eggs of the Siamese crocodiles were found floating on a bed of reeds in a lake in southern Laos in June, and were brought to the zoo for protection.

Katherine Smith reports.

Footage of crocodiles in incubator courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society.  See video here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14681662

New strategy needed to save mammals

Time is running out to craft a plan to save Earth's rich diversity of mammals, a quarter of whose species could be wiped out, warn biologists.

"A global mammal strategy is urgent," they write the Royal Society journal Philosophical Transactions .

Millions of people have rallied to the cause of large iconic mammals such as the tiger, the polar bear and the giant panda, they note.

But the news for less visible species is grim, especially those with a commercial value for poachers or whose habitat is at risk from farming, development or impending climate change.

Of the 5339 documented species of mammals that are alive today, a quarter are threatened with extinction in the wild, according to their estimates.

"As of today, there is not yet a comprehensive, widely agreed, global conservation strategy to tackle the mammal decline," says Carlo Rondinini and Luigi Boitani of the Global Mammal Assessment Programme at Rome's Sapienza University , and Ana Rodrigues of the Centre of Evolutive and Functional Ecology in Montpellier, France.

Centralised effort needed

They suggested the UN's Biodiversity Convention weave a single vision, identifying which areas and species are at risk and how resources can be mustered to save them.

This work should then be coordinated by an authoritative institution with global reach, such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Accompanying papers in the journal predicted that the biggest losses of mammal habitat will be in Africa and the Americas, while many species will be lost on the Mediterranean rim if predictions of climate change prove correct.

Quantifying such perils is hard, given that many mammals are elusive species and may live in fragmented, out-of-the-way habitats, the experts admitted.

Indeed, Australian investigators reported last September that of 187 mammals that have been "missing" since 1500, 67 species have subsequently been found again.

Smile: you're on hidden camera
In one of the new papers, scientists reported on the world's biggest "camera trap" survey, aimed at getting an accurate idea of mammal populations, the size of animals and availability of food.

Creatures snapped automatically as they passed by a hidden lens ranged from a tiny mouse to the African elephant, gorillas, cougars and giant anteaters, as well as occasional poachers and tourists, according to the team from the US organisation Conservation International.

The probe set up 420 cameras at protected sites in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Laos, Suriname, Tanzania and Uganda in a project that ran from 2008 to 2010 and yielded 52,000 images.

"We take away two key findings," says Jorge Ahumada of the NGO's Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network.

"First, protected areas matter: the bigger the forest they live in, the higher the number and diversity of species, body sizes and diet types.

"Second, some mammals seem more vulnerable to habitat loss than others: insect-eating mammals -- like anteaters, armadillos and some primates -- are the first to disappear, while other groups, like herbivores, seem to be less sensitive."
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/08/16/3294532.htm