Green Group discussion

http://news.yahoo.com/why-don-t-panda...

Jimmy wrote: "http://news.yahoo.com/why-don-t-panda..."

Things seem to get "lost" in the lower threads. Maybe you would like to repost in the Environmental News thread?

Now de-extincting species which we endangered to the point of death is a real possibility.
Read about the great auk, known as the penguin of the north.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/gene...

Another good time to put in a plug for EO Wilson's book Half Earth!

The Vaquita is looking like the next to go, despite tireless work by voluntary groups like Sea Shepherd. The main cause of death is entanglement in illegal nets set to catch the totoba fish for the Chinese market.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/onl...

Folowing the death of the last male northern white rhino, people in Kenya may be starting to wake up to the extinction crisis.
Given that men and women from America now pay to stand with a guide and a high powered rifle and shoot a leaf-munching giraffe, I am not sure they are angry enough.

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

Apologies in advance - this is an unpleasant photo from South Africa arising from my previous comment. Beside it is a petition which anyone can sign if they feel so inclined.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takea...

Let's have some positive news about endangered species.

This interesting study on re-establishing migratory animals shows that those which have just been re-introduced to a landscape don't know where to go and how to migrate. Clearly this is a cultural behaviour (a meme in Dawkins' terms) and not just instinctive.
https://www.care2.com/causes/protecti...

Generally, the matriarchs of a herd or troop will know where and when to move for better food and shelter. They have to provide nourishment for the growing young. The males are more concerned with territorial rights and predator threats.

A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons

According to this study which compared Puerto Rico's invertebrate and vertebrate life with the 1970s counts, all the wildlife in the forest is becoming endangered.

https://www.care2.com/causes/insects-...
The insects form a base for a food chain.
"In the Luquillo Rainforest of Puerto Rico, a protected area, researchers were shocked to learn that there’s been a 98 percent decline in insect populations between 1976 and 2013. ...
“Boy, it was immediately obvious when we went into that forest,” Lister told The Washington Post. The area used to be filled with butterflies. Researchers saw barely any. Where birds once were everywhere, now they saw precious few."

I just found another look at revitalising the extinct great auk. While this was clearly an important part of the food web in its day, I'd be surprised if there was enough fish left to sustain a large population now.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2...

The auk was the penguin of the north, so when penguins were later discovered in the south, they were named after the original version.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/newly-dis...

Because everyone needs a leaf-tailed gecko from Madagascar. Just, I'd rather they stayed in the forest.

Please, please, never buy exotic animals as pets.
This article is about the rescue of a large number of slow lorises, destined for the pet trade.

https://www.care2.com/causes/rescue-o...

All biodiversity shown in the hotspots on this map, is under threat.

https://www.care2.com/causes/a-new-ma...

Curlews need a lot of help if they are not going to disappear in this generation of birds. Ireland is now down to about 120 breeding pairs.

Preserving the Irish bog habitat and making the nests safe is shown in this two-minute film on Youtube. Go watch, and please give it a Like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwNtG...

Curlew Moon

The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey

Shore birds in general are seriously threatened by hunting and habitat loss.

A photo of an albino giant panda. Yes, you read that correctly.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

All praise to a couple who turned their former arid, mountainous cattle ranch in Brazil into a tree-clad paradise.
What endangered species mainly need is a home. Somewhere with the right conditions for them, where they can live without interference and as part of the biodiverse food web.
The gorgeous photos backing up this planning scheme prove that the vanished and endangered species returned.

https://mymodernmet.com/sebastiao-sal...

" the Instituto Terra, an “environmental organization dedicated to the sustainable development of the Valley of the River Doce,” in 1998. Over the next several years, the Salgados and the Instituto Terra team slowly but surely rebuilt the 1,754-acre forest, transforming it from a barren plot of land to a tropical paradise. "

Plant extinction 'bad news for all species' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-en...

Thanks Ayla... just wish the news was better.

Here comes an army of Bermuda land snails.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

Thanks to Chester Zoo for saving them from extinction.

" The first attempt to reintroduce an extinct mammal in Argentina brings hope for restored ecosystems and increased ecotourism opportunities based on wildlife watching.

In June 2018, two new jaguar cubs were born in northern Argentina’s new Iberá National Park, marking a milestone in the efforts to bring the species back into the region after decades of absence. Now steps are being taken to reintroduce the giant river otter (Pteronura brasiliensis) as well. "

https://www.unenvironment.org/news-an...

" In December 2018, the Congress of Argentina passed legislation approving the creation of the nearly 160,000-hectare Iberá National Park, ensuring its long-term protection....
The park not only has the first jaguar cubs in the region but is home to recovering populations of species that had been lost, including the giant anteater, the Pampas deer, the collared peccary and the red-and-green macaw. "

Cairngorms Connect
As the film narrator says, for too long conservation has been about one species or area. Now Scotland is joining up the jigsaw pieces. The Scots pine / birch / rowan woodlands are being restored to reinvigorate the habitat for many creatures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EKp8...

A poster on Linked In explains how clean water is good for biodiversity, and presence or absence of biodiversity is an indicator that can be used to classify water courses.
Her colour-coded map shows the Potomac.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/conser...

Ireland's grey partridges had shrunk to 21 - now there are over 800 due to reintroduction of chicks hatched in incubators and returned to parents.
I saw this process in a programme made by wildlife cameraperson Colin Stafford Johnson, back in 2011.
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news...

The pangolin is in danger of being extinct in just 20 years, due to African hunting for Asian customers.

https://www.independent.ie/world-news...

Once the Vikings reached Iceland, the local subspecies of walrus was hunted for its ivory, hide etc. and was extinct in 500 years. No surprise; humans killed off the megafauna as fast as they could reach them. New DNA evidence proves that the walrus lived there after people arrived and it was a local subspecies, not the Greenlandic walrus.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/...

I was thinking survival of the fittest was broken by the introduction of tools into an eco system. No big animals, and plenty of small ones, are succeeding anywhere. Look at the apex predators, that strategy is now a sure fire recipe for extinction. Who would have thought trophy time would be an evolutionary factor.

Then someone pointed out to me that the insects we don't like, and those that stay out of sight, like ants, termites, cockroaches, etc., are doing just fine and for them survival of the fittest is working just great. The state of the human engineered environment, being one huge garbage dump, thought it is well manicured, is fit for insects but not for big animals.

This is a good article about the umbrella species concept. This term is used in biodiversity and habitat conservation; protecting the habitat that one species needs will help many others survive under the same umbrella.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/conser...

I like the Yale articles but it appears this one started out backwards. It does explain the situation. Starts with flagship, keystone, umbrella species, but all of it means nothing when it is based on financial gains for humans. The article ends with winners, losers, trade offs. Can a square wheel roll? The property lines will always be arbitrary and in fact having nothing to do with reality. Dysfunctional right out of the box. Will the alphabet work with 18 letters instead of 26? Why isn't the natural world viewed in the same manner. Does 3 tires on a 4 wheeled car work? The ship sets sail with a hole below the water line. It will cruise forward for awhile but it will sink if the hole isn't fixed. You get what you pay for and if everything is done to never have a financial loss the natural world is always going to lose. The irony is that losses in the natural world are much more valuable than the monetary losses of not being able to develop the land into a money making operation. Money is looking more and more like a drug that gives pleasure and destruction at the same time. When money is used to fix a problem, that problem was most likely caused by the actions of money in the first place. We can always print up more money. So far we are unable to print functional life back into developed properties. It probably won't be long before non existent genetic engineering will be touted as the ultimate solution for replacing the loss of bio diversity.

https://www.ecowatch.com/wild-horses-...

Regenerating the environment needed for the rare species. In this case, returning wild ponies to the plains of Europe. By keeping grass short and bushes browsed, the ponies provide good habitat for various butterfly species.

Rare birds are even rarer when their forest habitat is destroyed.

Save Brasil is trying to hold on to and extend habitat.

http://www.birdlife.org/worldwide/new...

London's Natural History Museum has declared a planetary emergency.

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-y...
"The future of humanity depends on the natural world. But we are facing a planetary emergency. We're losing green spaces, animals and plants to deforestation, exploitation, urbanisation and global warming.

But hope isn't lost. If we act together, we can make a positive difference. Here's how to do your bit to protect nature."

Like the stoneflies mentioned in the thread on flying insects, this ancient, rare snail needs glaciated ground to survive. And the glaciers are vanishing.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/meet-iowa...

Plants in high biodiversity areas are likely to provide medicinal compounds we can use. But deforestation or damming can wipe out species before we ever record them.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-medicin...

Here is a report I just found from 2013. London Zoo had two male fish from Madagascar, the presumed last of their species after a dam destroyed their habitat. The Zoo was searching for a female (or presumably more than one) to continue the species. They had asked aquarium and zoo owners around the world, and were turning to private collectors of fish.

https://phys.org/news/2013-05-london-...

Mangarahara cichlid is this type of fish. Does anyone know more details? It's like the Spix's macaw all over again.

Google provided this reply from 2013:

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...

A relict population was found in the wild, a tiny number up a tributary.

The same story again - so it must be from a zoo press release - but this has a photo of the watering hole and collectors. And buffalo. Jan 2014.
https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2014/...

Here is a podcast from 2018 on the same topic.

https://www.oxfordsparks.ox.ac.uk/con...

Museums of Scotland has a fuller report from 2015.
"By 2013 only two males survived and zoo staff put out an appeal around the world that they were looking for a female to try and breed this now critically endangered fish. Sadly none could be found and the last male, this one, died on 7 February 2014 and was donated to National Museums Scotland...
Brian and his team visited a tiny village on the edge of a now-disconnected tributary of the Mangarahara River, where they found a few fish. Eighteen were transferred to an aquaculture facility in Andapa, where they have since bred."

https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2015/09/07/is-...

Wikipedia today:
"A remnant population was discovered by aquaculture entrepreneur Guy Tam Hyock in 2013, and breeding programs in Madagascar and at Toronto Zoo have resulted in thousands of successful hatchlings.[4]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptychoc...

The EU is looking at a transformation of agri land use. We're talking major.

https://www.independent.ie/business/f...

"The new ten-year Biodiversity Strategy will require countries to reduce pesticide use by 50pc, cut fertiliser use by 20pc, reserve 10pc of agricultural land for wildlife and designate 30pc of land and sea as protected areas.

It also requires a reduction in the use of animal antibiotics and the collective planting of 3 billion trees and it will set out legally binding conservation targets for threatened species and habitats. An accompanying ‘Farm to Fork’ policy requires 25pc of all agricultural production to be organic."

With regard to agriculture and biodiversity, a relevant article of mine about the Curlew is on Medium.

https://medium.com/@clareobeara/decli...

Happy Biodiversity Day!

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0521/113...

Our President invited Trinity College students to survey the residence and grounds. They made some unusual finds.
The residence is located in the Phoenix Park, next to the Zoo.

During the lockdown many grass verges in UK and Ireland are not being mown. The result is a proliferation of wildflowers, which then provide food for pollinators.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wal...

Campaigners are trying to make this the norm and ensure council staff are aware.

Researchers from Uni of Adelaide and Uni of Copenhagen have mapped the world's biodiversity hotspots in order to locate areas not currently studied but likely to be similar hotspots.

https://phys.org/news/2020-05-uncover...

Seems obvious to me, places with a large range of elevations will have more niches, places where forest meets ocean will have huge contrast and another food source for land creatures. Heat makes for easier living than cold, moist is easier living than dry.

https://phys.org/news/2020-02-world-f...

This is a worldwide look at fish genetic diversity; mainly we are told that we need to preserve this and not just preserve species. For instance farmed fish, not mentioned, would have similar genes and could not adapt easily to change.
Humans have certainly been changing diversity as the bigger fish like cod have become a smaller fish because we kept catching the big ones. The big genes just are not there any more.

Good news about the Pygmy Hog which looks like a cross between a feral pig and a rat. To me anyway.

https://www.durrell.org/wildlife/news...

These are being captive bred by the Durrell Foundation and released in the Himalayan foothills, where they used to be widespread but went almost extinct. Looking good.

Yet another warning from science that human population growth is destroying ecologies and species.

"In 1830 when Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy captained his ship, the Beagle, through the Magellan Straits of South America, fewer than 1.2 billion people inhabited Earth. By Earth Day in 1970, there were more than 3.5 billion.

Today, only 50 years later the world's population approaches eight billion. Livestock and humans now constitute a staggering 97 percent of the planet's mammal biomass."

https://phys.org/news/2020-06-scienti...

Australia's Night Parrot. Similar to the New Zealand Kakapo.


https://phys.org/news/2020-06-mysteri...

From 2017, the rediscovery of the species.

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-fellows...

In 2017, researchers worried that fire would be a danger to these parrots in the open bushland. They found populations when surveys prior to mining.

https://phys.org/news/2017-03-night-p...

In 2016, wild cats and lack of water were considered threats.

"Bush Heritage manages the 56,000ha Pullen Pullen Reserve, where the population has been estimated at around 50-100 birds. They have been working to reduce threats to the parrots – in particular feral predators and fire. But conservation managers also want to know when the bird needs a drink."

https://phys.org/news/2016-12-arid-zo...

Seeking clues about the parrot led to a museum collection of eggs and DNA sampling.

https://phys.org/news/2016-10-year-co...

And here's how the bird was photographed in 2013.

https://phys.org/news/2013-07-rare-pr...

The West of Ireland used to be home to great numbers of shy birds like corncrake, bittern, curlew.
One vet has been farming nettles and flag iris to recreate a safe home for the corncrake. This report says he is doing well. His rewilding also produces cover for the twite and bumblebee.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0716/115...

The Scottish Wildcat is endangered, not just by habitat loss, but by mating with domestic cats. Here's a site telling us about the current situation.

https://savingwildcats.org.uk/

More species are endangered now than were 50 years ago. Here's why.

"Global animal, bird and fish populations have plummeted more than two-thirds in less than 50 years due to rampant over-consumption, experts have said today in a stark warning to save nature in order to save ourselves.

The Living Planet Index, which tracks more than 4,000 species of vertebrates, warns that increasing deforestation and agricultural expansion were the key drivers behind a 68% average decline in populations between 1970 and 2016."

https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/0910/116...

BBC tells us 1 million species are in danger of becoming extinct. I was able to watch this clip, if you can't look for it on YouTube.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08r...