691orangutans killed for meat in Kalimantan

Orangutans killed for meat in Kalimantan
from the Jakarta Post via GRASP UNEP facebook page

A report says 691 Borneo orangutans were slaughtered in Kalimantan – most of whom were eaten by residents.

The great apes were killed for several reasons, Suci Utami Atmoko, a field coordinator for report co-author The Nature Conservancy (TNC), said on Tuesday.

“Some [residents] were desperate and had no other choice after spending three days hunting for food,”
she said.

Local residents also killed the orangutans for safety reasons, Suci said, harvesting orangutan meat to make traditional medicine and selling any surviving orangutan babies.

The Nature Conservancy led the survey, which was conducted between April 2008 and September 2009 and involved 6,972 respondents in 698 villages across Kalimantan.

Nineteen NGOs joined the survey, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the People’s Resource and Conservation Foundation Indonesia (PRCFI) and the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF).

TNC program manager Neil Makinuddin said 70 percent of the respondents knew that orangutans were a protected and endangered species when they hunted the animals.

Decisions to open land in Kalimantan to development have not considered orangutans, leading to the destruction of their habitat, Neil said.

“We must soon open conservation areas for orangutans or their population will become extinct,” he said, adding that the government should punish orangutan killers.

Erik Meijaard, forest director of People and Nature Consulting International, said Kalimantan’s orangutans would become extinct if 1 percent of female orangutans were killed in a year. “Uncontrolled killing will soon diminish their population.”

Forestry Ministry species conservation chief Agus SB Sutito said the ministry had yet to receive reports about the rapid killing of orangutans in Kalimantan.

“We gladly welcome the results of the survey,” he said. “The ministry will work harder to enforce the law.”

There were currently 40,000 to 65,000 orangutans in Kalimantan, although the number was rapidly decreasing due to habitat loss, according to the WWF.

The government previously set a target of raising the populations of 14 endangered species, including orangutans, by up to 3 percent by 2020.

PAN African chimpanzee census, counting chimps and mapping culture

Apes in Africa: The cultured chimpanzees
by Gayathri Vaidyanathan
From NATURE NEWS

pdf can be downloaded here

Do chimpanzees have traditions? As wild populations dwindle, researchers are racing to find out.

Thump! Thump! Thump! As the hollow sound echoes through the Liberian rainforest, Vera Leinert and her fellow researchers freeze. Silently, Leinert directs the guide to investigate. Jefferson 'Bola' Skinnah, a ranger with the Liberian Forestry Development Authority, stalks ahead, using the thumping to mask the sound of his movement.

In a sunlit opening in the forest, Skinnah spots a large adult chimpanzee hammering something with a big stone. The chimpanzee puts a broken nut into its mouth then continues pounding. When Skinnah tries to move closer, the chimp disappears into the trees. By the time Leinert and her crew get to the clearing, the animal is long gone.

For the past year, Leinert has been trekking through Sapo National Park, Liberia's first and only protected reserve, to study its chimpanzee population. A student volunteer at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (EVA) in Leipzig, Germany, Leinert has never seen her elusive subjects in the flesh but she knows some of them well. There's an energetic young male with a big belly who hammers nuts so vigorously he has to grab a sapling for support. There are the stronger adults who can split a nut with three blows. And there are the mothers who parade through the site with their babies. They've all been caught by video cameras placed strategically throughout Sapo.

Chimpanzees in the wild are notoriously difficult to study because they flee from humans — with good reason. Bushmeat hunting and human respiratory diseases have decimated chimpanzee populations1, while logging and mining have wiped out their habitat. Population numbers have plunged — although no one knows by exactly how much because in most countries with great apes, the animals have never been properly surveyed.

The Pan Africa Great Ape Program, the first Africa-wide great-ape census to be mounted, could change that. In addition to surveying chimpanzee numbers (see 'How many chimpanzees are left?'), project scientists plan to set up automated video and audio recording devices at 40 research sites in 15 countries with chimp populations. Led by Christophe Boesch, director of the primatology department at the EVA, and Hjalmar Kühl, also at the EVA, the programme aims to get a picture of how chimpanzee behaviour — from nut cracking to vocal calls — varies across Africa. Ultimately, the hope is to learn about the origins and extent of what, in humans, would be called culture.

Until recently, scientists regarded culture — defined as socially transmitted behaviours — as exclusive to humans, but there is growing recognition that many animals exhibit some sort of culture. Chimpanzees, which share 98% of their genes with humans, have the most varied set of behaviours documented in the animal world. The difference between humans and animals is growing less distinct, say some researchers. "It is not black and white," says Kühl, who is Leinert's supervisor at the EVA.

In the old scenario, "only humans have culture", says Jason Kamilar, a biogeographer in the department of anthropology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. "Then, culture would be the defining feature of humanity, which evolved some time after the split between the human and chimp lineages," he says. But "if chimps have culture, then presumably the last common ancestor of chimps and humans had culture".

Mapping Behaviour
Some chimps dance slowly at the beginning of rain showers, others don't; some use long sticks to dig up army ants; others use short sticks. In West Africa, some chimp groups hammer nuts with a stone or a piece of wood to open them. But east of the river Nzo-Sassandra, which cuts across Côte d'Ivoire, only one group has been seen cracking nuts.

So far, researchers have observed these variations over years spent studying groups of chimpanzee that have been carefully habituated to the presence of humans. There are just 12 such colonies in Africa (see 'Chimpanzee census'), the most famous of which is in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, where primatologist Jane Goodall worked.

In 1999, evolutionary psychologist Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews, UK, and his colleagues compiled a list of behaviours seen in seven of those groups and showed that chimpanzees have unique traditions depending on where they live2. They identified at least 39 behaviours from a list of 65 that varied between groups for no obvious reason.

In humans, culture is passed on from one person to another, and in laboratory studies chimpanzees have shown the capacity to pass on learned customs. In one experiment, Whiten and his colleagues taught two chimps a complex series of steps for getting food from a box. Soon after the chimps were reunited with their groups, all the animals were using this method to get their food3. But whether such social learning happens in the wild is less clear. Gorillas and bonobos can also learn to use tools in the lab, but rarely use them in their natural habitat4.

Deciphering culture in the wild is difficult because researchers must ensure that behavioural differences between groups do not have other causes, such as variation in genetics or environmental conditions. "Why is it all chimps don't do everything? One solution is that there are hidden ecological differences between populations," says primatologist Richard Wrangham at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A behaviour could be linked to any number of variables such as amount of rainfall, the types of tree available, or the kinds of predator in the area, he says.

These influences can be subtle, as researchers found while studying how chimps use sticks to harvest army ants. Chimpanzees in Guinea sometimes use short sticks and sometimes use sticks up to twice as long. No reason for this was obvious until Tatyana Humle, an anthropologist at the University of Kent, UK, found that some ants are more aggressive, with longer legs and larger mandibles; they run up sticks quicker and bite harder5. This might explain why chimps elsewhere in Africa also choose tools of varying lengths to get at ants.

But researchers have not been able to find obvious explanations for other variations related to ant harvesting. Chimpanzees in Cote d'Ivoire sweep the ants off their sticks and into their palms before eating; in Guinea, only about 320 kilometres away, the animals stick the ant-laden sticks directly into their mouths. The same type of ant is present in both places.

Ruling out genetic influences is equally complicated. This year, molecular ecologist Kevin Langergraber at the EVA and his colleagues compared genetic and behavioural data for nine groups of chimpanzee. They found that communities with greater overlap in their mitochondrial DNA showed more similarities in their behaviour6. "What we are saying is, you haven't really ruled out the genetic explanation," says Langergraber.

There may be a few hundred thousand chimpanzees in Africa, but researchers have studied just 700–1,000 chimpanzees at the dozen sites with well habituated colonies, says Whiten. The available information from those groups is too little to determine how genes and the environment influence behavioural variations. Kühl compares the situation to using a handful of villages scattered around the world to draw basic conclusions about all the rituals that define human culture.

Whiten and his colleagues are now carrying out more detailed comparisons of the behaviour and ecology of chimps at all the habituated sites. But it has taken 50 years to capture the data they are using, most of which were recorded by painstaking observational studies.

The way forward may be the use of cameras hidden in strategic sites, like those Leinert and her team are setting up in Liberia. Such techniques have already proved their worth. Two years ago in Gabon, Boesch and his team were puzzled by random pits they observed in the ground. They set up camera traps and obtained video recordings of chimps digging to extract honey from underground bees' nests — something that had never been seen before7. "Camera traps are proving to be an exciting way to reveal new and often complex behavioural techniques in wild chimpanzee communities," says Whiten.
Caught in the act

At the site in Sapo, Leinert pulls on gloves to measure the rock used by the chimp to crack open nuts of the Guinea plum, Parinari excelsa. The rock is sizeable, weighing in at 880 grams. She collects nuts for later analysis, as well as hair and dung samples for genetic studies.

Leinert may later put up a video camera at the location to collect more data on the nut-cracking behaviour. The cameras are mounted in boxes on tree trunks at the height of a chimp's shoulder, and powered by rechargeable batteries. An infrared motion detector activates the camera for one minute when anything moves in its range.

Near the nut-cracking site, a solar-powered audio device is already continuously recording the forest sounds. Chimpanzees emit a range of calls, including short, high-pitched 'pant hoots' that are unique to each individual, and researchers can use them to identify individuals and to tally the size of a community. These calls may be a form of vocal culture, somewhat like human dialects8.

Over the next five years, the Pan Africa Great Ape Program will establish similar recording stations at locations across Africa. "So potentially we might have, in a few years, behavioural differences from 40 different populations, which is, as you know, four times more than what we have now," says Boesch.

Kühl proposes that these data could help in designing computer models to test how genes, ecology and social transmission influence the distribution and spread of behaviours such as nut cracking. One idea is that when female chimpanzees reach sexual maturity and move to new communities, they pass along their learned behaviours. Another possibility is that each group invents its own behaviours, some of which catch on and become a culture. Individual practices can die out in particular groups but thrive in others. Or, it might be that some chimp groups refuse to take up new ways of doing things from incoming individuals. This could explain why some populations show similar behaviours and others do not.

Before Kühl and his colleagues can conduct the modelling work, they need to devise a faster way to go through the recordings made by the camera and audio traps, which are accumulating at a rate of hundreds of hours each month. Students are currently carrying out the analysis but it can take 10 hours to go through an hour of video, according to Kühl. So engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology, based in Ilmenau, Germany, have developed a computer algorithm to recognize individual chimpanzees from their facial patterns and distinctive features, such as the wrinkles under their eyes. In tests of zoo animals, the software can correctly identify individual chimpanzees 83% of the time, and it processes recordings ten times faster than a person can.

Nevertheless, the cameras cannot reveal how an adult chimp patrols its range, or other actions that play out over a wide area. The full portfolio of traditions in the community will remain a mystery. And automated recordings will never capture the subtle ecological information — such as the mandible size and leg length of army ants — that may eventually explain particular behaviours. These require boots on the ground, and long-term behavioural studies are needed to see how chimpanzees pass traditions on to each other as a driver of culture.

But already, the 30 cameras that Leinert has set up in Sapo Park have delivered some tantalizing clues. She is most interested in the lively young male she calls 'Janosch', whom she likes for "his big belly and the way he strikes out to crack the nuts". Besides being entertaining, he sometimes carries his pounding rock away with him, something Leinert hasn't seen with most other chimpanzees in Sapo. The practice may yet catch on with others there. If so, Leinert could be seeing the beginnings of a cultural variation, captured by the cameras she set up in the forest.

--
Box: How many chimpanzees are left?

Jacob the chimp, now two years old, spends most of his day in a wooden box not much bigger than himself. Born in Sapo National Park in Liberia, he was rescued by a forest ranger, who found Jacob and his dead mother in the arms of a poacher.

Such tales are common in Africa. Bushmeat is a vital source of protein and a dead chimpanzee can fetch US$200 in Nigeria. No one knows exactly how many chimps there are in the wild: in 2003, the International Union for Conservation of Nature made a very rough estimate of 172,700–299,700. But the population is declining rapidly, and many communities are likely to disappear in the next few decades. A study in 2008 found that the population in Côte d'Ivoire had decreased by 90% in 17 years.

In 2010, the dearth of data prompted the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (EVA) in Leipzig, Germany, to team up with the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation, headquartered at the EVA, and Conservation International, based in Arlington, Virginia, to launch the Pan Africa Great Ape Program. They aim to conduct nationwide surveys in 15 countries to estimate how many chimps are left in Africa. The scientists involved would not disclose the project's budget, but acknowledged that the surveys will be expensive and that they do not yet have all the necessary funding.

As part of the survey, graduate student Jessica Junker of the EVA and her Liberian team of graduate students and rangers from the Forest Development Authority are walking some 400 kilometres to survey 68 squares laid out on a grid across the country. They trek through uncut bush and overgrown farms, across rivers, and into deep muddy valleys to look for chimpanzee nests. Each chimp usually builds a new nest every day, and the researchers can estimate the age of a nest from its state of decomposition. They can then extrapolate to get an idea of the number of animals in an area. Their findings so far suggest that Liberia holds at least 3,300 chimpanzees.

Using similar methods in Sierra Leone, the 2008–10 Tacugama National Chimpanzee Census estimated that more than 5,500 chimpanzees live in that country. This is much higher than a 1981 estimate of 2,500, probably because the earlier survey used less systematic survey methods.

Christophe Boesch of the EVA, who co-heads the Pan Africa Great Ape Program, says that it will guide conservation efforts to where they can do the most good. But getting precise numbers on the great apes in each country is expensive because of the labour involved, and some conservationists would rather see the money spent on enforcing laws against poaching.

“We don't need a nationwide survey to tell us we are losing the battle,” says David Greer, who coordinates the African Great Apes Program for the conservation group WWF. “We need to be more assertive, more aggressive with intervention measures, trying to stop the decline.”

US apartment complexes genotyping residents' dogs to match up to uncollected poops

picture from the always hilarious sprinkle brigade

I have always been fascinated by this idea since reading about years ago. It always seemed financially unfeasible on a large scale but this makes perfect sense. The program "poo prints" is the brain child of BioPet Vet labs and more info can be found on their website -MA

DNA tests provide the poop on bad dog owners
By NINA GOLGOWSKI
from CNN

A New Hampshire apartment complex is mandating that residents submit pet DNA samples.

Why? To check if any of them are abandoning their dogs' waste on the property.

"Ninety-eight percent do what they're suppose to do," property manager Debbie Violette said of her residents with dogs, "but there are some that don't and you don't know who that is. That'd be pretty foolish if they did that right in front of me."

Timberwood Commons in Lebanon, New Hampshire, says it is among a growing number of apartment complexes implementing PooPrints.

That's a program that matches samples of unclaimed dog waste to DNA collected through pets' mandatory mouth swabs in the hope of imposing greater responsibility among pet owners.

Violette says her violators will first receive a warning if caught, paying a $60 fee to cover the DNA costs. However, if it happens again, it's a lease violation and the offender will be forced to live somewhere else.

"They have a choice to rent here or not. If you live in that community you have to live by those rules and regulations," Violette said. "It's a privilege."

She said she got the idea from a residential community in Boston. Eric Mayer, director of franchise development with BioPet Vet Lab, says the program is currently assisting rental complexes in multiple states, with increasing interest as far away as Canada and Germany.

The tests bought through PooPrints, a subsidiary of BioPet Vet Lab in Knoxville, Tennessee, match the DNA already captured to a sample of each pet's waste. Poop that isn't scooped can then be analyzed.

According to Mayer, apartment complexes that impose a pet deposit or fee on residents could potentially cover the testing costs incurred with the initial DNA registration. The cost of the DNA analysis each time a sample is tested could theoretically be paid through a fee on convicted freeloaders.

It's a service Violette admits to be potentially costly, but with more than 30 dogs on her property, some as large as a St. Bernard, "it's really not about the money for us," she said, "it's about having a nice place to live."

And reaction has been positive, she said.

"I did have one resident that thought it was completely over the top, who's not a pet owner," Violette said. But after considering the possibility of stepping in a mess he himself didn't leave behind, "he changed his mind," she said.

Violette sees long-term benefits in the PooPrints system, saying it could reunite lost pets and owners, especially in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

Mayer says he remains focused on both environmental and human health benefits through the system.

"It's a huge problem with growing environmental impact," Mayer said of the waste. The PooPrints website estimates a single pet creates 276 pounds of waste per year. "We want people to be responsible and not leave things behind. Down the drain means it's going into your lakes, rivers and streams," he added.

New DNA-based Panda census to begin!

China to use droppings to count endangered pandas
from Reuters
Thanks to Zoran A for the link!

China will use analysis of panda droppings as it embarks upon a once-in-a-decade census of the endangered animal, state media said on Monday.

Authorities are training some 70 trackers in southwestern China who will begin their work this week and end the survey by late July, Xinhua news agency said.

"The trackers will collect panda droppings for DNA analysis, which will allow zoologists to track individual pandas and accurately estimate the number of pandas living in the wild," it quoted wildlife official Chen Youping as saying.

The census will count not only how many wild pandas there are, but also their living conditions, how old they are and the state of their habitat, Xinhua added.

The last census 10 years ago counted 1,596 wild pandas in China, most of them in Sichuan province, it said.

A 2004 census by the Worldwide Fund for Nature revealed there were 1,600 pandas in the wild.

Considered a national treasure, the panda is seen as having come back from the brink of extinction while remaining under threat from logging, agriculture and China's increasing human population.

Migration tracking reveals a marine Serengeti

Estimates of the daily mean position in the north Pacific of the six marine predator groups studied. Top, left to right: tuna (yellowfin, bluefin, albacore); pinnipeds (northern elephant seals, California sea lions, northern fur seals); sharks (salmon, white, blue, common thresher, mako). Bottom, left to right: seabirds (Laysan and black-footed albatrosses, sooty shearwaters); sea turtles (leatherback, loggerhead); cetaceans (blue, fin, sperm and humpback whales).

From Nature News via RARE
Decade of tagging has mapped predatorial pathways in the north Pacific Ocean.
by ZOE CORBYN

Two vast areas of the north Pacific Ocean, one off the west coast of the United States and the other between Hawaii and Alaska, have been revealed as marine counterparts of East Africa's Serengeti plain. Teeming with life, these oceanic 'hotspots' provide major migration corridors for large marine predators ranging from tuna to whales.

The discovery comes from a huge data set that synthesizes and compares the seasonal migration patterns of 23 species of predators. The findings are published today in Nature.

Between 2000 and 2009, the species were tracked under the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) programme, part of the Census of Marine Life international collaboration. Electronic tags attached to the animals recorded their movements and the water conditions around them, including temperature, salinity and depth. In total, the programme deployed 4,306 electronic tags, yielding 1,791 individual animal tracks and resulting in 265,386 days' worth of tracking data. The data derived over the course of the project have now been combined for the first time.
(click for a larger image).Block, B. A. et al.

"It is like asking, 'How do lions, zebras and cheetahs use Africa as a whole continent?', only we have done it for a vast ocean," says Barbara Block, a marine scientist at Stanford University in California and lead author of the paper. "We have had single-species papers before on a lot of the migration patterns, but they have never been put together as a whole."
In the zone

The combined data from the tagged species, which carefully removes any bias introduced from where the animals had been tagged, shows two 'hotspot' regions where the predators' migration routes concentrate in the north Pacific. These are the south-flowing California Current off the United States, and the North Pacific transition zone (NPTZ), which runs east–west between Hawaii and Alaska along a boundary between cold sub-Arctic waters and warmer subtropical waters, and which acts like a trans-oceanic migration highway.

"These are the oceanic locations where food is most abundant, and that's driven by high primary productivity at the base of the food chain. These areas are the savannah grasslands of the sea," says Block.

Combining movement and physical data from so many tags can help to explain the behaviour patterns observed. For example, populations of salmon sharks, white sharks and mako sharks can be seen to "split the turf of the central and eastern Pacific", says Block. Records from the tags show that slightly different preferences for water temperature prevent the closely related species from treading on one another's fins.

The work also shows that many species with long migratory paths — including yellowfin tuna, bluefin tuna, white sharks, elephant seals and salmon sharks — return faithfully from their migration to the same region every season. "For me, this homing capacity has been the biggest surprise," says Block. "We didn't really know these creatures had neighbourhoods."
Pinning down predators

The TOPP data suggest that water temperature and the amount of ocean productivity from upwelling (where nutrient-rich water from the depths comes to the surface) could drive the seasonal migration of many species, with the effect particularly evident in the California Current. "Using satellite observations of temperature and chlorophyll concentrations alone, we can now predict when and where individual species are likely to be," said Daniel Costa, an ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a co-author of the paper.

Patrick Halpin, a marine geospatial ecologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, who is a member of the Census of Marine Life but not of TOPP, says that the study is groundbreaking, providing not only a comprehensive picture of patterns of marine-predator behaviour in the region, but also a methodological framework for further broad-scale studies. "Future analyses originating from other regions will likely fill in a more comprehensive picture of the entire Pacific basin and identify additional hotspots," he says.

David Sims, a behavioural ecologist at the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth, UK, also praises the study, noting its "unprecedented number" of electronic tags. "They have launched marine animal behaviour as a 'big' science, rivalling in ambition, perhaps, some large projects in astronomy or physics," he says.

Block says that information from the study could aid efforts to protect and conserve the biodiversity of the hotspots. Knowing where and when species overlap is valuable information for efforts to manage and protect critical species and ecosystems, she says.

---
Citation
Block BA, Jonsen ID, Jorgensen SJ, Winship AJ, Shaffer SA, Bograd SJ, Hazen EL, Foley DG, Breed GA, Harrison A-L, Ganon JE, Swithenbank A, Castelton M, Dewar H, Mate BR, Shillinger GL, Schaefer KM, Benson SR, Weise MJ, Henry RW, Costa DP (2011) Tracking apex marine predator movements in a dynamic ocean. Nature doi:10.1038/nature10082

Abstract
Pelagic marine predators face unprecedented challenges and uncertain futures. Overexploitation and climate variability impact the abundance and distribution of top predators in ocean ecosystems. Improved understanding of ecological patterns, evolutionary constraints and ecosystem function is critical for preventing extinctions, loss of biodiversity and disruption of ecosystem services. Recent advances in electronic tagging techniques have provided the capacity to observe the movements and long-distance migrations of animals in relation to ocean processes across a range of ecological scales. Tagging of Pacific Predators, a field programme of the Census of Marine Life, deployed 4,306 tags on 23 species in the North Pacific Ocean, resulting in a tracking data set of unprecedented scale and species diversity that covers 265,386 tracking days from 2000 to 2009. Here we report migration pathways, link ocean features to multispecies hotspots and illustrate niche partitioning within and among congener guilds. Our results indicate that the California Current large marine ecosystem and the North Pacific transition zone attract and retain a diverse assemblage of marine vertebrates. Within the California Current large marine ecosystem, several predator guilds seasonally undertake north–south migrations that may be driven by oceanic processes, species-specific thermal tolerances and shifts in prey distributions. We identify critical habitats across multinational boundaries and show that top predators exploit their environment in predictable ways, providing the foundation for spatial management of large marine ecosystems.

Extreme conservation measures and cost were/are required to save the Virunga mountain gorillas

Thanks to Cyril G for the link!

Citation
Robbins MM, Gray M, Fawcett KA, Nutter FB, Uwingeli P, et al. (2011) Extreme Conservation Leads to Recovery of the Virunga Mountain Gorillas. PLoS ONE 6(6): e19788. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019788

Abstract
As wildlife populations are declining, conservationists are under increasing pressure to measure the effectiveness of different management strategies. Conventional conservation measures such as law enforcement and community development projects are typically designed to minimize negative human influences upon a species and its ecosystem. In contrast, we define “extreme” conservation as efforts targeted to deliberately increase positive human influences, including veterinary care and close monitoring of individual animals. Here we compare the impact of both conservation approaches upon the population growth rate of the critically endangered Virunga mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), which increased by 50% since their nadir in 1981, from approximately 250 to nearly 400 gorillas. Using demographic data from 1967–2008, we show an annual decline of 0.7%±0.059% for unhabituated gorillas that received intensive levels of conventional conservation approaches, versus an increase 4.1%±0.088% for habituated gorillas that also received extreme conservation measures. Each group of habituated gorillas is now continuously guarded by a separate team of field staff during daylight hours and receives veterinary treatment for snares, respiratory disease, and other life-threatening conditions. These results suggest that conventional conservation efforts prevented a severe decline of the overall population, but additional extreme measures were needed to achieve positive growth. Demographic stochasticity and socioecological factors had minimal impact on variability in the growth rates. Veterinary interventions could account for up to 40% of the difference in growth rates between habituated versus unhabituated gorillas, with the remaining difference likely arising from greater protection against poachers. Thus, by increasing protection and facilitating veterinary treatment, the daily monitoring of each habituated group contributed to most of the difference in growth rates. Our results argue for wider consideration of extreme measures and offer a startling view of the enormous resources that may be needed to conserve some endangered species.

PlosOne website and access to paper HERE

and for more on the veterinary interventions go to the mountain gorilla veterinary project at gorilladoctors.org

Virunga Forests Going to Pot

Marijuana Trade Threatens African Gorilla Refuge
Pot-growing rebels in Virunga National Park clashing with rangers.
by STEFAN LOVGREN
from National Geographic News

The battle over the war-ravaged Virunga National Park, home to some of the world's last wild mountain gorillas, is heating up.

In early April a ranger in the park, in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot to death by militias—the eighth ranger to have been killed in the past three months.

And rebels who have been fueling the illegal charcoal business, which destroys critical gorilla habitat, now appear to have turned to an additional criminal activity: growing marijuana.

"The same people are involved," said Innocent Mburanumwe, the warden in charge of the southern sector of Virunga, where the mountain gorillas live.

A crackdown on the charcoal and marijuana businesses in 2009 was very successful. But the Rwandan militia living in the park, known as FDLR, seems to have reorganized and stepped up its activities, Mburanumwe said.

"The most recent attack is by far the most worrying, as it appears the rebels may be changing their tactics, and are currently getting the better of the wildlife authority," Rob Muir, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society's office in Goma, DRC, said via email.

Virunga Forests Going to Pot
The latest trouble has been occurring in the volcanic Nyamulagira region of the park, away from the gorilla sector, which has so far remained calm.

With the Congolese government absent in much of eastern Congo, the rangers have been left to fight the ragtag militias, poachers, and bandits who have turned Virunga—Africa's oldest national park—into a battleground for decades.

Charcoal is illegally produced in the park by cutting down wood, then slowly burning it for six days inside a kiln made of wood and covered with dirt, according to the park's website. People then sell the charcoal in Goma, or trade it for guns and bullets. In 2007, people involved with the charcoal trade killed seven gorillas. (See a National Geographic interactive time line of the turmoil in Virunga.)

The FDLR rebels, remnants of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, are based in the forest and provide "security" for traders, who transport the illegal charcoal from forest kilns to the main road to be sold.

Villagers provide the FDLR with money, food, cell phone airtime, and medicine in exchange for being allowed into the forest to make the charcoal, the rangers say.

When the charcoal has been removed, the area may be cleared and seeded with marijuana, usually by the FDLR. Rebels will come back to harvest, dry, and sell or exchange the pot, often for uniforms, bullets, and guns, according to the rangers.

"The charcoal trade is destroying the forest, and the marijuana comes in after it," said LuAnne Cadd, a spokesperson for the park service.

In March two people were caught with marijuana plants that had been grown in the forest.

Rangers Need to Rethink Security
Patrols are aimed at eradicating the charcoal business, not going after the marijuana traders. But in the most recent incident, rangers patrolling the Kibumba area in Nyamulagira found not only a charcoal kiln but also a lot of marijuana plants.

A team of 15 rangers began a patrol in Kibumba, specifically looking for charcoal kilns, when they came under fire by an unknown number of men believed to have been FDLR rebels. Ranger Magayane Bazirushaka was killed in the attack.

"It seems likely that the rebels established a charcoal fire to draw the rangers into an area where they could be easily ambushed, and then sat and waited," the Frankfurt Zoological Society's Muir said.

"If this is indeed the case, the rangers will need to rethink their current law enforcement strategy, increase their intelligence and surveillance networks, and diversify their operations on the ground," he said.

"The bottom line is that the park is now under greater pressure than it has been for many years, and this is directly linked to the efforts to uphold and enforce the law."

Gorilla Population Up Despite Strife
Despite the turmoil, the mountain gorilla population in the Virunga region—which straddles the borders of the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda—has increased by 26 percent in the last seven years and now totals 480.

Emmanuel de Merode, Virunga's director, said rangers are now planning to launch new operations to stop illegal marijuana trade.

"Perhaps the most remarkable outcome of this terrible war," de Merode said, "is the unwavering determination of our rangers on the ground not to give up on the efforts to bring stability and the rule of law back to Virunga."

Kahuzi Biega highland sector gorillas stable

The good news, is that the higland sector Kahuzi Biega gorilla population seems to be at least stable. We know that even these direct count nest surveys are unreliable and contain a large amount of error (see Guschanski et al 2009), so I am a bit suspicious of any hard number or claims of increase that this press release reports. But it is great news that this population seems to be doing fine depsite the human conflict that surrounds its habitat . Major kudos to the rangers and teams who are doing these censuses despite such violent and dangerous circumstances.- MA

From eureka alert - WCS press release
Recent census in war-torn DR Congo finds gorillas have survived, even increased
Census team led by Wildlife Conservation Society, ICCN braves insecurity of imperiled Kahuzi-Biega National Park

A census team led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Insitut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) in Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo today announced some encouraging news from a region plagued by warfare and insecurity: a small population of Grauer's gorillas has not only survived, but also increased since the last census.

The census, conducted late 2010 in the highland sector of Kahuzi-Biega National Park, revealed the presence of 181 individual Grauer's gorillas, up from 168 individuals detected in the same sector in 2004.

A "cousin" to the more famous mountain gorilla, the Grauer's gorilla is the largest subspecies of gorilla in the world, growing up to 500 pounds. The Grauer's gorilla (also known as the eastern lowland gorilla) is the least known subspecies, due in large part to the 15 years of insecurity in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorilla is listed as "Endangered" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN's) Red List and may number fewer than 4,000 individual animals.

"We had several close calls with armed militias during the survey," said Deo Kujirakwinja, WCS's Albertine Rift Coordinator in DRC. "Thankfully, no one was hurt, and our census result is positive news for the conservation community."

The census team surveyed the 600-square-kilometer highland sector of the park. The lowland sector has been largely inaccessible to researchers due to the frequent presence of militia. Census teams used nest counts—gorillas make a nest each night—along with the size of nearby dung (the size of which indicates how many adults, juveniles, and infants occur in a group) to estimate the total number of gorillas in the area.

"Given the insecurity that has been present here for so long, we were not sure what we would find," said Radar Nshuli, Chief Park Warden for Kahuzi-Biega. "We were very happy to see that all the efforts that our staff and partners have been taking are leading to a growth in the population."

The Wildlife Conservation Society's field staff have been monitoring the region's gorillas since the 1950s, when preeminent field biologist George Schaller first surveyed the distribution of what would later become classified as Grauer's and mountain gorillas. Since then, surveys have revealed that in the highland sector of Kahuzi Grauer's numbers climbed from 223 animals in the 1970s to 250 in the early 1990s before crashing to 130 in 2000 following the outbreak of civil war in the region.

"Given we were unable to survey the entire highland sector, we are hopeful that our minimum count of 181 might actually be higher than this," said Dr. Andy Plumptre, Director of WCS's Albertine Rift Program. "We hope to be able to survey some of the areas we were unable to visit in the near future."

"This census finding gives us great hope for the future of the Grauer's gorilla," said Dr. James Deutsch, Director of WCS's Africa Program. "It's also a testament to the courage of our colleagues working to protect a World Heritage site in this challenging landscape."

Grauer's gorillas are one of four recognized gorilla sub-species, which also include mountain gorillas, western lowland gorillas, and Cross River gorillas. The Wildlife Conservation Society is one of the only conservation groups working to safeguard all four subspecies.

shameless self promotion - PLoS ONE: Non-Invasive Genetic Monitoring of Wild Central Chimpanzees

Our new paper came out today in PLosONE (so its open access :)
Arandjelovic M, Head J, Rabanal LI, Schubert G, Mettke E, Boesch C, Robbins M, Vigilant L (2011) Non-Invasive Genetic Monitoring of Wild Central Chimpanzees. PLoS ONE 6(3): e14761. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014761

Abstract
Background
An assessment of population size and structure is an important first step in devising conservation and management plans for endangered species. Many threatened animals are elusive, rare and live in habitats that prohibit directly counting individuals. For example, a well-founded estimate of the number of great apes currently living in the wild is lacking. Developing methods to obtain accurate population estimates for these species is a priority for their conservation management. Genotyping non-invasively collected faecal samples is an effective way of evaluating a species' population size without disruption, and can also reveal details concerning population structure.

Methodology/Principal Findings
We opportunistically collected wild chimpanzee faecal samples for genetic capture-recapture analyses over a four-year period in a 132 km2 area of Loango National Park, Gabon. Of the 444 samples, 46% yielded sufficient quantities of DNA for genotyping analysis and the consequent identification of 121 individuals. Using genetic capture-recapture, we estimate that 283 chimpanzees (range: 208–316) inhabited the research area between February 2005 and July 2008. Since chimpanzee males are patrilocal and territorial, we genotyped samples from males using variable Y-chromosome microsatellite markers and could infer that seven chimpanzee groups are present in the area. Genetic information, in combination with field data, also suggested the occurrence of repeated cases of intergroup violence and a probable group extinction.

Conclusions/Significance
The poor amplification success rate resulted in a limited number of recaptures and hence only moderate precision (38%, measured as the entire width of the 95% confidence interval), but this was still similar to the best results obtained using intensive nest count surveys of apes (40% to 63%). Genetic capture-recapture methods applied to apes can provide a considerable amount of novel information on chimpanzee population size and structure with minimal disturbance to the animals and represent a powerful complement to traditional field-based methods.

very cool new resource: protectedplanet.net

Check out this cool new UNEP/IUCN database, ProtectedPlanet.net on the globe's protected areas, which is wiki based (but with fact checking) so you can update the database with information that you have on some of the more remote areas.

from their website:
Be inspired by the most beautiful places on the planet. Explore the worlds national parks, wilderness areas and world heritage sites. Help us find and improve information on every protected area in the world. Protectedplanet.net lets you discover these incredible places through elegant mapping and intuitive searching. Protectedplanet.net wants you to contribute information about protected areas alongside national agencies and international organisations. Protectedplanet.net helps you understand what and where our natural resources are being conserved. If you are interested in analysing a global dataset on protected areas, you can download the data, today, here at protectedplanet.net.

Could camera traps save wildlife worldwide?

Video from the Goualougo Triangle Ape Project at Congo-apes.org

From Mongabay.com
by JEREMY HANCE

It's safe to say that the humble camera trap has revolutionized wildlife conservation. This simple contraption—an automated digital camera that takes a flash photo whenever an animal triggers an infrared sensor—has allowed scientists to collect photographic evidence of rarely seen, and often globally endangered species, with little expense and relative ease—at least compared to tromping through tropical forests and swamps looking for endangered rhino scat . Now researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) are taking the utility of the camera trap one step further: a study in Animal Conservation uses a novel methodology, entitled the Wildlife Picture Index (WPI), to analyze population trends of 26 species in Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. While the study found a bleak decline in species, it shows the potential of camera traps for moving conservation forward since it marks the first time researchers have used camera traps to analyze long-term population trends of multiple species.

"The Wildlife Picture Index is an effective tool in monitoring trends in wildlife diversity that previously could only be roughly estimated," the study’s lead author, Tim O’Brien of WCS, said in a press release. "This new methodology will help conservationists determine where to focus their efforts to help stem the tide of biodiversity loss over broad landscapes."

Gathering 8 years of over 5,000 camera trap photos from Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, O'Brien and his colleagues analyzed population trends of 25 mammals and one ground bird. They found that biodiversity suffered a total decline of 36 percent in the protected area, a loss which actually outpaced deforestation in the area.

Species sought for the lucrative black market, such as tigers, rhinos, and elephants, fell faster than smaller ones like monkeys and deer, which are killed for food or as agricultural pests. Species that had no economic value showed little change in abundance.

The researchers argue that this method, the WPI, could aid the goals of the internationally-recognized Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which by nearly all accounts has not succeeded in its goal of stemming global biodiversity loss by this year. The WPI may help provide better baseline of data for biodiversity worldwide, especially in the tropics where such data is often lacking.

"The Wildlife Picture Index will allow conservationists to accurately measure biodiversity in areas that previously have been either too expensive, or logistically prohibitive. We believe that this new methodology will be able to fill critical gaps in knowledge of wildlife diversity while providing much-needed baseline data to assess success or failure in places where we work," John Robinson, WCS Executive Vice President for Conservation and Science, says.

Another positive aspect of camera trap photos is that they allow the public to peek at rarely seen animals in their natural habitats, hopefully instilling deeper interest in and concern for the world's embattled and shrinking wildlife.

---
REFERENCE
O’Brien TG, Baillie JEM, Krueger L, Cuke M (2010) The Wildlife Picture Index: monitoring top trophic levels. Animal Conservation doi:10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00357.x.

Abstract
Although recent biodiversity loss has been compared with cataclysmic mass extinctions, we still possess few indicators that can assess the extent or location of biodiversity loss on a global scale. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has mandated development of indicators that can meet the needs of monitoring biodiversity by 2010. To date, many indicators rely on unwarranted assumptions, secondary data, expert opinion and retrospective time series. We present a new biodiversity indicator, the Wildlife Picture Index (WPI) that targets medium and large-sized terrestrial birds and mammals in forested and savannah ecosystems that. The WPI is a composite indicator based on the geometric mean of relative occupancy estimates derived from camera trap sampling at a landscape scale. It has been designed to meet the needs of a CBD indicator while avoiding many of the pitfalls that characterize some CBD indicators. We present an example using 8 years of camera trap data from Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, Indonesia to show that the WPI is capable of detecting changes in the rate of loss of biodiversity, a key requirement of a CBD indicator. We conclude that the WPI should be effective at monitoring top trophic levels in forest and savannah ecosystems using primary data and can fill the gap in knowledge about trends in tropical biodiversity.

First-Ever Landscape-Wide Study of Elephants and Great Apes

(sorry I'm a bit late on posting this, but better late than never :) - MA)
from SCIENCE DAILY
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced the results of the first-ever evaluation of a large, "landscape-wide" conservation approach to protect globally important populations of elephants and great apes.

The study looked at wildlife populations in northern Republic of Congo over a mosaic of land-use types, including a national park, a community-managed reserve, and various logging concessions. It found that core protected areas -- coupled with strong anti-poaching efforts -- are critical for maintaining populations of forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, and chimpanzees.

The region, known as the Ndoki-Likouala Conservation Landscape, is considered one of the most important sites in Central Africa for all three species. The Wildlife Conservation Society has been working in the landscape since 1991 and helped establish Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in 1993.

The study appears in the April 23rd edition of the journal PLoS ONE. Authors include Wildlife Conservation Society researchers Emma Stokes, Samantha Strindberg, Parfait Bakabana, Paul Elkan, Fortuné Iyenguet, Bola Madzoke, Guy Aíme Malanda, Franck Ouakabadio and Hugo Rainey; Brice Mowawa of the Ministre de l'Economie Forestière, Republic of Congo; and Calixte Makoumbou, formerly with WCS Congo Program.

The authors found that protected areas remain a key component of the landscape for all three species. Chimpanzees and elephants are particularly sensitive to human disturbance outside the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, and the park plays a major role in their distribution. In fact Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park may be one of the most important sites for chimpanzees in the Congo Basin with some of the highest densities recorded in Central Africa.

The study also found that logging concessions that have wildlife management in place, including protection of key habitats and anti-poaching patrols, can support important populations of elephants and gorillas. However, the authors warn that logging concessions are only of conservation value if there are strict anti-poaching measures in place, and if they are close to protected areas free of human disturbance. As evidence, the study showed the results of surveys in a logging concession without any anti-poaching measures or wildlife management where abundance of all three species was very low.

"Protected areas free of human disturbance, logging, or roads remain key to the protection of great apes and elephants," said WCS researcher Emma Stokes, the study's lead author. "Landscape conservation should focus on protected areas surrounded by other land-use types that also have wildlife management in place."

The forests of the Congo Basin are one of the last remaining tropical wildernesses and a top priority for biodiversity conservation.

Commercial logging is prevalent throughout much of the Congo Basin, with over 30 percent of native forest allocated to logging concessions compared to only 12 percent under protection. More than 50 percent of the current range of western gorillas and chimpanzees is estimated to lie in active logging concessions.

"This study shows that landscape-wide conservation can work in Central Africa -- provided there are the resources and political will to save wildlife over large areas," said James Deutsch, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa programs. "Conservation on this scale is difficult and expensive, but absolutely necessary if we hope to save viable populations of elephants and great apes. At the same time, the government's capacity to follow up and take legal action against poachers should be strengthened and is a key to maintaining the protection of the forests and their wildlife."

The authors estimated elephant and great ape density using distance sampling surveys of elephant dung piles and great ape nests.

The surveys presented in this paper were made possible through generous funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Great Ape Conservation Fund.

Currently, WCS advocates the speedy passage of HR 4416, the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act, which would continue government support for the Great Ape Conservation Fund, and applauds Rep. George Miller (D-CA) for leading the effort. In January, Dr. Deutsch testified before a Congressional panel on behalf of WCS in support of the legislation.

--
Reference
Stokes EJ, Strindberg S, Bakabana PC, Elkan PW, Iyenguet FC, et al. (2010) Monitoring Great Ape and Elephant Abundance at Large Spatial Scales: Measuring Effectiveness of a Conservation Landscape. PLoS ONE 5(4): e10294. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010294

Abstract
Protected areas are fundamental to biodiversity conservation, but there is growing recognition of the need to extend beyond protected areas to meet the ecological requirements of species at larger scales. Landscape-scale conservation requires an evaluation of management impact on biodiversity under different land-use strategies; this is challenging and there exist few empirical studies. In a conservation landscape in northern Republic of Congo we demonstrate the application of a large-scale monitoring program designed to evaluate the impact of conservation interventions on three globally threatened species: western gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants, under three land-use types: integral protection, commercial logging, and community-based natural resource management. We applied distance-sampling methods to examine species abundance across different land-use types under varying degrees of management and human disturbance. We found no clear trends in abundance between land-use types. However, units with interventions designed to reduce poaching and protect habitats - irrespective of land-use type - harboured all three species at consistently higher abundance than a neighbouring logging concession undergoing no wildlife management. We applied Generalized-Additive Models to evaluate a priori predictions of species response to different landscape processes. Our results indicate that, given adequate protection from poaching, elephants and gorillas can profit from herbaceous vegetation in recently logged forests and maintain access to ecologically important resources located outside of protected areas. However, proximity to the single integrally protected area in the landscape maintained an overriding positive influence on elephant abundance, and logging roads – even subject to anti-poaching controls - were exploited by elephant poachers and had a major negative influence on elephant distribution. Chimpanzees show a clear preference for unlogged or more mature forests and human disturbance had a negative influence on chimpanzee abundance, in spite of anti-poaching interventions. We caution against the pitfalls of missing and confounded co-variables in model-based estimation approaches and highlight the importance of spatial scale in the response of different species to landscape processes. We stress the importance of a stratified design-based approach to monitoring species status in response to conservation interventions and advocate a holistic framework for landscape-scale monitoring that includes smaller-scale targeted research and punctual assessment of threats.

Orangutans weren't always found at such low densities, unsurprisingly, humans to blame

From National Geographic blogs
Hunting a key factor in orangutan's decline, study suggests
by RICHARD THOMAS

Humans entering the forests of Borneo 150 years ago were six times more likely to encounter wild orangutans than they would today, a new study finds. The researchers suspect that heavy hunting over the years is to blame. The finding means our understanding of the lives and behaviors of the great ape is based on artificially low population densities. We may need to rethink what we know about our nearest animal relative.

Hunting appears to have been significantly underestimated as a key reason for the historical decline of orangutans, according to a new study published today.

An international team of scientists noted how animal collectors operating in the mid-19th Century in Borneo [an island shared by Indonesia and Malaysia] were able to shoot orangutans on a daily basis and speculated that 150 years ago, encounter rates with the forest primates must have been far higher than they are today.

To test the hypothesis, the researchers attempted to quantify historic encounter rates from information contained in hunting accounts and museum collections and comparing them to recent field studies.

"Even after allowing for variations in the size and length of hunting and survey expeditions and other variables, we estimated that daily encounter rates with orangutans have declined by about six-fold in areas with little or no forest disturbance," said Erik Meijaard, of People and Nature Consulting International in Indonesia, the lead author of the study.

Possible explanations for the decline were examined, including habitat loss and degradation, hunting, disease, and even changes in behavior, such as animals becoming more wary in the face of human persecution.

"Although there are gaps in the data, after examining several possible explanations, we concluded that high levels of hunting was the most likely cause of the reduced encounter rates over time," said Vincent Nijman, of Oxford Brookes University, a co-author of the study.

Despite legal protection, hunting of orangutans still occurs and may have had a more significant impact on wild populations than previously realized.

According to Meijaard, recent unpublished studies in Indonesian Borneo suggest that more than 1,000 orangutans are killed annually.

Orangutans are hunted for a variety of reasons, including food, as agricultural pests, and to obtain young individuals for the pet trade.

Hanging in the balance, an assessment of trade in gibbons and orangutan in Kalimantan, Indonesia, a TRAFFIC report published in 2005, found that the vast majority of orangutans in trade were young animals, suggesting that the adult females had been hunted.

"We need to understand better how orangutan populations are affected by different levels of hunting pressure," said Nijman.

"Indeed, our findings may force us to rethink the whole biology of orangutans. Much of our current ecological understanding is possibly based on field studies of animals living at densities below those that would be imposed by food availability."

"How would the species behave if natural densities were 5 or 10 times higher than those we currently observe?"

Declining orangutan encounter rates from Wallace to the present suggest the species was once more abundant by Erik Meijaard, Alan Welsh, Marc Ancrenaz, Serge Wich, Vincent Nijman and Andrew J. Marshall, is available from PLoS One.

Richard Thomas is the communications coordinator for TRAFFIC, the UK-based wildlife trade monotiring network. This article is reproduced on Nat Geo News Watch courtesy of TRAFFIC.

The views expressed here are those of Richard Thomas or TRAFFIC and not necessarily those of the National Geographic Society.

---
REEFERNCE
Meijaard E, Welsh A, Ancrenaz M, Wich S, Nijman V, et al. (2010) Declining Orangutan Encounter Rates from Wallace to the Present Suggest the Species Was Once More Abundant. PLoS ONE 5(8): e12042. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0012042

ABSTRACT
Background
Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) currently occur at low densities and seeing a wild one is a rare event. Compared to present low encounter rates of orangutans, it is striking how many orangutan each day historic collectors like Alfred Russel Wallace were able to shoot continuously over weeks or even months. Does that indicate that some 150 years ago encounter rates with orangutans, or their densities, were higher than now?

Methodology/Principal Findings
We test this hypothesis by quantifying encounter rates obtained from hunting accounts, museum collections, and recent field studies, and analysing whether there is a declining trend over time. Logistic regression analyses of our data support such a decline on Borneo between the mid-19th century and the present. Even when controlled for variation in the size of survey and hunting teams and the durations of expeditions, mean daily encounter rates appear to have declined about 6-fold in areas with little or no forest disturbance.

Conclusions/Significance
This finding has potential consequences for our understanding of orangutans, because it suggests that Bornean orangutans once occurred at higher densities. We explore potential explanations—habitat loss and degradation, hunting, and disease—and conclude that hunting fits the observed patterns best. This suggests that hunting has been underestimated as a key causal factor of orangutan density and distribution, and that species population declines have been more severe than previously estimated based on habitat loss only. Our findings may require us to rethink the biology of orangutans, with much of our ecological understanding possibly being based on field studies of animals living at lower densities than they did historically. Our approach of quantifying species encounter rates from historic data demonstrates that this method can yield valuable information about the ecology and population density of species in the past, providing new insight into species' conservation needs.

Siberian tiger epidemic blocks their ability to hunt, could decimate entire population.

This is seriously disturbing and then to add salt to the wound is the statement at the end: "The only consolation in this grisly process is that, for once, a serious threat is not originating from human actions, although even that, for now, is open to debate." Please PLEASE don't be due to the radio collars, although I do think they are generally overused, it would be awful if this was a side-effect. In any case, how awful for the species -MA

From The guardian
Siberian tiger threatened by mystery disease
by PATRICK EVANS
Conservationists say an epidemic is destroying the big cats' ability to hunt and turning them into potential man-eaters

A mystery disease is driving the Siberian tiger to the edge of extinction and has led to the last animal tagged by conservationists being shot dead in the far east of Russia because of the danger it posed to people.

The 10-year-old tigress, known to researchers as Galya, is the fourth animal that has had a radio collar attached to it for tracking to die in the past 10 months. All had been in contact with a male tiger suspected of carrying an unidentified disease that impaired the ability to hunt. "We may be witnessing an epidemic in the Amur tiger population," said Dr Dale Miquelle, the Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS) Russia director.

Galya had recently abandoned a three-week-old litter of cubs and come into the town of Terney looking for an easy meal. Following a series of all-night vigils by researchers, attempts to scare the tigress away failed. She was reported to the Primorsky State Wildlife Department as an official "conflict tiger", and a state wildlife inspector was called in to destroy her earlier this month.

"This tiger had lost its fear of humans – typically Amur tigers will never expose themselves for observation. It was like seeing someone you know turn into a vampire," Miquelle said.

Scientists are attempting to understand what compromised the tigress's ability to capture wild prey, which she had lived upon almost exclusively since birth. Her cubs, which were subsequently found dead at the den, are likely to have had their mother's disease transmitted to them through the placenta. "Initial necropsy results show an empty digestive tract, which is highly unusual. We're still waiting for results of further tests, but the abnormal behaviour suggests disease, possibly neurological," said Miquelle. "We are extremely concerned about the possibility of an epidemic that could be sweeping through this region. Animals we have studied extensively, and known well, have demonstrated radically changed behaviour, which is extremely disconcerting."

Weighing only 91kg at death – down from an estimated 140kg at full health – the tigress's death represents the end of an 11-year lineage of related "study" tigers, and leaves the WCS's Siberian Tiger Project with no radio-collared animals for the first time in 18 years. WCS Russia has tracked more than 60 tigers since inception in 1992.

In March this year, Miquelle raised the prospect of disease as a potential threat to an already endangered Siberian tiger population. WCS Russia reported in October 2009 that there had been a 40% decline in numbers since the last full survey in 2005, from 428 to as little as 252 adult tigers. The tiger's range has been reduced to a small pocket in the corner of the country within the region of Primorsky Krai.

Speaking at a conference in Vladivostok, Miquelle said that anything above a 15% mortality rate in adult females could kill off all Amur tigers. With around 150 adult females in the population, any more than 22 deaths of adult females per year may wipe out the species. Poaching accounts for about 75% of all Amur tiger deaths, with 12 to 16 adult females killed annually. "We're in a new era where disease could seriously affect the Amur tiger."

The Russian draft federal tiger conservation strategy has recently been amended to take account of disease, including a section on vaccination against canine distemper, a viral disease which is common in the Russian far east in domestic dogs and cats.

"The addition of disease-related deaths to existing sources of mortality could push this population over a tipping point," said Miquelle.

The federal strategy, which is being designed by a number of scientific groups including WCS Russia, is being prepared for the first global Tiger Summit due to take place in St Petersburg this September. Along with World Bank president Robert Zoellick, Vladimir Putin is due to preside over the conference.

WCS Russia hopes to recommence the capture of study tigers in September. "We aim to change the focus of why we study tigers, with a new emphasis on disease," said Miquelle. "The only consolation in this grisly process is that, for once, a serious threat is not originating from human actions, although even that, for now, is open to debate."

Thanks to Emma S for the link.

Linking camera trap data and non-invasive sampling: Jaguars 'Obsessed' by CK Cologne

One of the weakness of using genetics alone to monitor wild animal populations is that in general its pretty difficult to determine the age of the depositor. Poop size can be used in some species but it leaves much to be desired. Levels of certain hormones can also be measured to determine pre- or post- pubescence, but the method has not been well developed yet. With camera trapping you can actually see the animals you are studying, including their broad age-class, as well as their behaviours and associations - although identification can be a problem when many apes are observed. The method described below combines the two methods by attracting Jaguars with Cologne which makes them rub their face up against the camera, where harmless hair snag traps are laid. Its the next best thing to having the animal poop in front of the camera! I am not sure how intrusive and ethical this would be do to apes and if the hair snags would work since they don't exhibit the rubbing behaviour, but they certainly can be curious around the cameras (see examples here and below from the Goualougo Triangle) although the general goal with apes is to have the cameras go unnoticed. -MA

From NYTimes.com via the RARE facebook page
Jaguars ‘Obsessed’ by Calvin Klein Cologne
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

I’ve written a lot about conservation biologists using automatically activated cameras, or camera traps, to study elusive wildlife. But this is the first time I’ve heard of a men’s cologne, in this case Calvin Klein’s Obsession for Men, proving useful in such work.

Starting in 2003, biologists for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which among many activities runs the Bronx Zoo, began testing various perfumes and colognes on captive cats as possible attractants for camera trapping work. Patrick Thomas, the curator who initiated that effort, told me that the products containing musk were particularly good at eliciting the “cheek-rubbing behavior” that is helpful in studies seeking hair samples from passing cats as a way to check their DNA. (He emphasized that the fashion house has no involvement in the work.)

Last year, the cologne was used as the attractant in camera studies aimed at determining the population density of jaguars in the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. The photograph and the video sequence here show the results. [A reader makes an important point below about the source of some musk used in perfumes and the like -- civets and other wildlife. A student posted some useful background on this awhile back.]

One take-home lesson might be to leave the scents at home if you plan on a wildlife excursion any time soon — although Thomas noted that Obsession didn’t work well when he tried it in a research project focused on predatory cats in South Africa.

Camera Trap Ape Videos from the Goualougo Triangle:

4,000 chimps in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone endangered chimp numbers double: survey
(AFP)

Sierra Leone has 4,000 endangered west African chimpanzees, twice the number previously thought according to results of a national survey released in the capital Freetown on Tuesday.

Terry Brncic, who led the field research for the study carried out by the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, told journalists the last survey conducted in 1980 had estimated the chimp population to be between 1,500 and 2,500.

"The current survey has determined that almost half of these chimps are surviving in highly threatened and marginal habitats outside of the country's protected forest reserves," she said.

"These results confirm that Sierra Leone still hosts a significant population of the endangered Western Chimpanzee, making the country the second after Guinea" in terms of chimp populations.

The 230,000 US dollar survey, carried out between January 2009 and May 2010, is the first nationwide study ever taken in the west African nation concerning the most endangered of Africa's four chimpanzee subspecies.

While these results provide encouraging news the challenges to the long-term survival of these chimpanzees are many.

"With the country's push to develop and eliminate poverty, habitat is being rapidly lost to logging, mining and farming, pushing chimps into direct conflict with communities as they strive for survival," Brncic said.

Official Press Release from the Tacugama website:
Visitors to Tacugama have often asked how many wild chimpanzees there are in Sierra Leone and until recently the honest answer was that nobody knew. The last formal estimate was made in 1981 by Teleki and Baldwin who concluded that around 2,000 wild chimpanzees remained in the wild, predominantly in protected forest reserves.

In the fifteen years that Tacugama has been operating we have continued to receive and rehabilitate orphaned chimpanzees from across the country. Almost 30 years since that estimate was made It became increasingly urgent to determine a more accurate number and to confirm where chimpanzees could be found in the wild. We needed to know the real situation so that more effective protection measures could be implemented and the flow of orphans to the sanctuary could be stemmed.

With support from PASA (Pan African Sanctuary Alliance in April 2008 we prepared a proposal for the census, gained approval from the Government of Sierra Leone and raised enough funds to start the initial phases of the project in October 2008. The census fieldwork concluded in May 2010 and preliminary results were released on 1 June 2010. The final report will be available at the end of July 2010.

The project has provided much valuable information on the state of habitat, impact of human encroachment and other large mammal species as well as the distribution and abundance of wild chimpanzees in Sierra Leone. The groundbreaking approach has resulted in a systematic and extensive survey.

The preliminary results show that Sierra Leone is home to around 4,000 chimpanzees, double previous estimates. This exciting news gives new hope for the survival of the endangered Western Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes verus but also reveals that there are many threats to the remaining chimps.

Visit the Tacugama website for LOTS more info

Turtle Conservation Success in Seychelles

Conservation success: Eight-fold increase of turtle nesting on Cousin Island
from Nature Seychelles

“These findings are a validation of the important work carried out on Cousin.” Says Nirmal Shah Chief Executive of Nature Seychelles – BirdLife’s partner in the Seychelles, which manages the island. “It is long awaited proof that conservation works even for long lived and critically endangered species like marine turtles.”

The evidence shows that Cousin Island, an Important Bird Area (IBA) known for saving birds like the Seychelles warbler from the brink of extinction, is also a sanctuary for other endangered species. “At 29 ha, it is one of the smaller islands within the granitic Seychelles yet one of the most important nesting grounds within this region” the paper says.

Turtle populations are notoriously difficult to census, relying upon long-term monitoring of females at their nesting beaches. This makes the monitoring on Cousin a mean feat.

Turtle monitoring commences each season when wardens observe the first evidence of a turtle emerging onto the beach to lay her nest. This generally occurs around late August, and turtles continue to emerge until late February *or* early March. Beaches are periodically patrolled. A complete patrol involves a full circuit of each of the four beaches on the island and varies in duration from 30 minutes to three hours, depending on the number of turtles and tracks encountered. Females emerging on Cousin are individually tagged, and nesting data collected from nesting attempts observed through tracks and actual turtle sightings.

“Survey effort varied over the years for a variety of reasons, but the underlying trends over time are considered robust,” the authors say.

Tag returns also show inter-island nesting occurs between Cousin and other islands within the Seychelles.

The archipelago provides key nesting and feeding areas for the hawksbill. Seychelles accounts for breeding populations estimated to be in the thousands and is home to the largest remaining populations of hawksbill within the western Indian Ocean.

Hawskbill turtles have been protected by law since 1994 when a total legal ban on turtle harvest was implemented. But populations had already declined due to widespread harvesting of nesting females during the 30 years prior to that, with the exception of Cousin. Some poaching still occurs and there have been several arrests and legal cases.

A worldwide trade in turtle shells had also significantly depleted this species globally. In 1996 a total international ban on trade in this species was instituted. Problems of by-catch and habitat destruction still remain in some countries. In the same year the World Conservation Union listed hawksbill turtles as ‘Critically Endangered’.

Paper: Allen et al. 2010. Hawksbill turtle monitoring in Cousin Island Special Reserve, Seychelles: an eight-fold increase in annual nesting numbers. Endang Species Res 11:, 2010 available for download at: Scientific Papers

Source: Nature Seychelles

Shameless Self Promotion: Effective non-invasive genetic monitoring of multiple wild western gorilla groups

Photo by Josephine Head of a Loango gorilla

My collaborators and I have a paper that just came online which shows that by using scat samples, collected over a 100 square kilometer area in Loango National Park, Gabon, we could obtain individual genetic fingerprints (genotypes) from most of the gorillas there. We then used those genotypes to assess the number of gorillas living in the area, as well as the grouping patterns of the individuals, their ranging area and even some dispersal events between groups. Methods and results like these are an important first step in devising proper conservation management policies for great apes. Despite all the amazing work that has been done on chimpanzees and gorillas, we still do not have a good idea of how many are left in the wild, nor where they range and we don't have very good methods with which to obtain these measures. With repeated genetic sampling over years, we will be able to look at changes in ape number as well as track individual animals over whatever area is sampled. -MA

Arandjelovic M, Head J, Kühl H, Boesch C, Robbins MM, Maisels F, Vigilant L (2010) Effective non-invasive genetic monitoring of multiple wild western gorilla groups. Biological Conservation doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2010.04.030

Abstract
Obtaining reliable population size or abundance estimates of endangered species is critical for their conservation and management. Genotyping non-invasively collected samples is an effective way to gain insights into the number and grouping patterns of rare or elusive animals. In this study we used genetic capture–recapture estimators to obtain a precise estimate of the size of a western gorilla population inhabiting an intensely sampled 101 km2 area in Loango National Park, Gabon. Using 394 putative gorilla samples collected opportunistically over a 3 year period, we identified 83 unique genotypes. We used a rarefaction curve, Bayesian estimator and two maximum-likelihood methods to estimate that between 87 and 107 individuals used the study area between February 2005 and September 2007. The confidence interval surrounding the genetic estimate was smaller than that obtained using traditional ape survey methods. In addition, genetic analysis showed that gorilla and chimpanzee faeces were identified with 98% and 95% accuracy in the field, respectively. Patterns of co-occurrence of individual gorillas suggest that at least 11 gorilla social groups and five lone silverback males lived in the study area and that several individuals transferred between groups during the 3-year study period. When properly designed and implemented as part of a long-term biomonitoring program, genetic capture-recapture should prove an invaluable tool for evaluating, even on a large-scale, the population size and dynamics of apes and other elusive species.

For a copy of the pdf, click here