Camera Traps FTW: first photographs of the recently discovered Myanmar snub-nosed monkey.

Myanmar snub-nosed monkey with infants. Credit: FFI/BANCA/PRCF

From PhysOrg

Announced today in Yangon, Myanmar, a joint team from Fauna & Flora International (FFI), Biodiversity And Nature Conservation Association (BANCA) and People Resourhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifces and Conservation Foundation (PRCF), caught pictures of the monkey on camera traps placed in the high, forested mountains of Kachin state, bordering China.

“The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was described scientifically in 2010 from a dead specimen collected from a local hunter,” said Frank Momberg of FFI, who organised the initial expeditions that led to the monkey’s discovery. “As yet, no scientist has seen a live individual,” he added.

“These images are the first record of the animal in its natural habitat,” said Ngwe Lwin, the Burmese national who first recognized the monkey as a possible new species. “It is great to finally have photographs because they show us something about how and where it actually lives,” he added.

Heavy snows in January and constant rain in April made expeditions to set the camera traps difficult. “We were dealing with very tough conditions in a remote and rugged area that contained perhaps fewer than 200 monkeys,” said Jeremy Holden, who led the camera trapping team. “We didn’t know exactly where they lived, and I didn’t hold out much hope of short term success with this work.” But in May a small group of snub-nosed monkeys walked past one of the cameras and into history. “We were very surprised to get these pictures,” said Saw Soe Aung, a field biologist who set the cameras. “It was exciting to see that some of the females were carrying babies – a new generation of our rarest primate.”

As with most of Asia’s rare mammals, the snub-nosed monkey is threatened by habitat loss and hunting. The team is now working together with the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forest (MOECAF), local authorities and communities to help safeguard the future of the species. In February this year, FFI and MOECAF will hold an international workshop in Yangon aiming to create a conservation action plan for the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey.

In addition to the world’s first images of the snub-nosed monkey, the camera trapping also caught photos of other globally threatened species including red panda, takin, marbled cat, Malayan sun bear and rare pheasants such as Temminick’s tragopan, documenting the importance of this area for biodiversity conservation.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

more info: http://www.fauna-flora.org/species/myanmar-snub-nosed-monkey/

Scientists a step closer to cloning mammoth

from Japantimes

The thighbone of a mammoth found in August in Siberia contains well-preserved marrow, increasing the chances of cloning one of the extinct beasts, Japanese and Russian scientists confirmed recently.

The teams from the Sakha Republic's mammoth museum in eastern Russia and Kinki University's graduate school in biology-oriented science and technology will launch full-fledged joint research next year to clone the giant mammal, which is believed to have become extinct about 10,000 years ago, they said.

By transplanting nuclei taken from the marrow cells into elephant egg cells whose nuclei have been removed through a cloning technique, embryos with a mammoth gene could be produced and planted into elephant wombs, as the two species are close relatives, they said.

Securing nuclei with an undamaged gene is essential for the nucleus transplantation technique, but doing so from mammoths is extremely difficult and scientists have been trying to reproduce a mammoth since the late 1990s, they said.

In the Sakha Republic, global warming has thawed its almost permanently frozen ground, leading to numerous discoveries of frozen mammoths. But cell nuclei are usually damaged or have not been kept in a frozen state even when they have been found in a good overall condition, a Russian museum official said.

This time, however, there is a high likelihood that biologically active nuclei can be extracted as the frozen marrow found when museum scientists cut open the thighbone Nov. 13 was fresh and in excellent condition, according to the official. The bone was found near Batagay in northern Sakha.

The technique for extracting nuclei, meanwhile, has improved dramatically in the past few years and some undamaged nuclei have been successfully taken from badly preserved mammoth tissue fragments, albeit at low rates, said the Kinki University team based in Osaka Prefecture.

The museum, located in the republic's capital, Yakutsk, soon notified the Japanese side, with which it has had close ties through joint research since 1997, including professor Akira Iritani and associate professor Hiromi Kato.

Iritani confirmed that the outstanding condition of the marrow has increased the chances of cloning a mammoth, and said the Japanese team will try to obtain elephant eggs for the research project, although he added this would not be easy.

No rhinos remain in West Africa

From the BBC
Western black rhino declared extinct
By Daniel Boettcher

No wild black rhinos remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species.

The Red List, drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has declared the subspecies extinct.

A subspecies of white rhino in central Africa is also listed as possibly extinct, the organisation says.

The annual update of the Red List now records more threatened species than ever before.

The IUCN reports that despite conservation efforts, 25% of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction. As part of its latest work it has reassessed several rhinoceros groups.

Poaching vulnerability
As well as declaring the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) extinct, it records the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), a subspecies in central Africa, as being on the brink of extinction.

The last Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) outside Java is also believed to have disappeared.

Overall numbers of black and white rhinos have been rising, but some subspecies have been particularly vulnerable to poaching by criminal gangs who want to trade the animals' valuable horns.

Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told BBC News: "They had the misfortune of occurring in places where we simply weren't able to get the necessary security in place.

"You've got to imagine an animal walking around with a gold horn; that's what you're looking at, that's the value and that's why you need incredibly high security."

Another focus for this year's list is Madagascar and its reptiles. The report found that 40% of terrestrial reptiles are threatened. But it also says that new areas have been designated for conservation.

Among the success stories identified in the latest annual update is the reintroduction of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus). Listed extinct in the wild in 1996, it was brought back after a captive breeding programme and the wild population is now thought to exceed 300.

Among the partner organisations involved in compiling the research for the list is the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

ZSL's Dr Monika Boehm said: "This Red List update very much shows us a mixed picture of what's happening to the world's species. There's some good news and some bad news.

"Unfortunately, the overall trend is still a decline in biodiversity. We still haven't achieved our conservation potential."

Feathers Preserved In Amber Give Scientists A More Colorful View Of Dinos

from NPR

by EYDER PERALTA

For most of us, the idea of dinosaurs covered in feathers is still something we're getting used to. It's the same with the idea that they weren't olive-colored creatures, but instead were imbued in a wide array of pigments.

Today, brings news that thumbnail-sized feathers found preserved in amber are telling scientists some new things about these glorious creatures. First, it opens a window — as old as 85 million years — into the evolution of their feathers and secondly it gives scientists a better idea of what they looked like.

The Atlantic's Hans Villarica says that in a new report out in the current issue of Science, researchers say the feathers found in a Late Cretaceous site in Canada show feathers "from early-stage, single filament protofeathers to much more complex structures associated with modern diving birds."

That's interesting, but the part of the find that captures our imagination is this:

After analyzing the preserved pigment cells, the authors add that these feathered creatures may have also had a range of transparent, mottled, and diffused colors, similar to birds today.

So what does that mean?

The New York Times spoke to Mark A. Norell, a dinosaur paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who said evidence is mounting that dinosaurs had feathers throughout their evolution — from 250 million years ago to 65 million years ago. Now, "we are filling in the color."

So, the Times asked him, why is still common perception that dinos are drab?

...Dr. Norell said it probably arose from their association with crocodiles, their closest living reptilian relatives.

But he said that was fast changing, citing several colorful examples from recent research. In China, Confuciusornis and a few non-avian dinosaurs appeared to have had ruddy feathers; Sinosauropteryx, a reddish banded tail; and Anchiornis probably resembled a woodpecker, with a black body, banded wings and reddish head comb.

New paper stirs up controversy over how scientists estimate extinction rates

by Jeremy Hance
from mongabay.com

A new paper in Nature negating how scientists estimate extinction rates has struck a nerve across the scientific community. The new paper clearly states that a mass extinction crisis is underway, however it argues that due to an incorrect method of determining extinction rates the crisis isn't as severe as has been reported. But other experts in the field contacted disagree, telling mongabay.com that the new the paper is 'plain wrong'. In fact, a number of well-known researchers are currently drafting a response to the day-old, but controversial paper.

Estimating extinction rates has always been full of uncertainty. Given the lack of knowledge over how many species survive on Earth—is it 5 million or 100 million?—it is equally difficult to know how quickly species (the majority of which haven't even been described) vanish in the face of habitat loss and other impacts. Scientists have predicted that the current rate of extinction loss is between 100 to 1,000 times above the average background rate of extinctions, but the new paper says such predications are overestimations.

Paper adds controversy
The new paper, by Fangliang He and Stephen Hubbell, has aggravated the debate over just how many species are vanishing. He and Hubbell argue that the major way in which researchers estimate species extinction—the 'species-area relationship'—has overestimated extinction rates by up to 160 percent.

Hubbell, a tropical forest ecologist and a scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), says in a press release that although it's true "we are losing habitat faster than at any time over the last 65 million years" the method researchers have used to estimate extinctions is "erroneous".

"The good news is that we are not in quite as serious trouble right now as people had thought, but that is no reason for complacency. I don't want this research to be misconstrued as saying we don't have anything to worry about when nothing is further from the truth," Hubbell says, obviously wanting to make certain the media doesn't turn this into a denial of the mass extinction crisis, which experts agree is currently occurring or very near on the horizon.

But according to Hubbell and He, using species-area relationship does not come up with an accurate answer as to the rate of extinction. Species-area relationship estimates loss of species by looking at the loss of habitat. Surveying how many species are in a given area, researchers than extrapolate how many species are in the wider ecosystem. Working backwards, researchers may estimate the number of species that go extinct as the habitat is destroyed. For example if 90% of a forest is clearcut, the species-area relationship predicts about half the species in the ecosystem would vanish. These species may not vanish right away, small populations may still persist, but ecologists argue these populations suffer from 'extinction debt'. In other words, they are doomed to extinction over time, what some researchers describe as the living dead'. According to research it can take species many generations to go extinct even after a population tipping-point has been reached.

But, the paper argues that this mathematical method suffers from overestimating extinctions because most species still survive, albeit in significantly reduced populations, in the habitat remaining.

"We show that this surrogate measure is fundamentally flawed," says Hubbell, "you can't just turn [the species-area relationship] around to calculate how many species should be left when the area is reduced; the area you need to sample to first locate a species is always less than the area you have to sample to eliminate the last member of the species."

Hubbell says he agrees that 'extinction debt' still exists, but that it is not as prevalent as has been estimated. Instead, the paper argues that researchers should predict species extinction related to habitat loss only when an entire species' habitat is gone (i.e. the species is endemic to the destroyed area).

As an example of where the species-area relationship has overblown predictions, the study points to forecasts in the early 1980s that half of the species on Earth would be extinct by 2000. However, that has not occurred among known species.

"Nothing like that has happened," Hubbell says.

Muddying the waters, of course, is the fact that while habitat loss is the greatest threat to species worldwide, other impacts, such as hunting and poaching, overconsumption, pollution, disease, and invasive species also imperil species. In addition, climate change could become a major in causing future extinctions, especially in the face of tiny populations surviving in habitat fragments.

Complicating the picture even further is conservation efforts of known species. Some species should have gone extinct, but continue to hang-on due largely to long-term and active conservation efforts. However, cryptic species—those not yet known to researchers—don't have such a luxury.

Response
The response to Hubbell and He's paper from other experts in the field has been rapid and negative.

"[The study] is widely inaccurate, not because it is wrong, but because it considers only a very small part of the problem," Stuart Pimm professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University told mongabay.com. "The claims in the title are, simply false, and constitute nothing more than arrogant posturing on part of authors who would not have got their paper published had they not seen fit to ignore and misquote an extensive body of literature published in prestigious international journals. "

Pimm points out that the title of the Hubbell and He's paper, Species–area relationships always overestimate extinction rates from habitat loss, is undercut immediately by studies that have found that species-area relationship has resulted in correct predictions. For example, Pimm points to a study of his where the species-area relationship correctly predicted the extinction of 4.5 birds in Eastern North America. In fact, four birds have gone extinct, and one (the 0.5) is threatened with extinction.

According to Pimm, the problem lies in the paper's conflating immediate species extinction after habitat loss with eventual species extinctions over time, in other words it completely ignores the extinction debt, those living dead populations that will wink out in time.

"Imagine destruction that wipes out 95% of the habitat in an area metaphorically 'overnight'. How many species have disappeared 'the following morning'? The paper tells you. It is not many, just those wholly restricted to the 95% (and absent from the 5% where they would survive)," Pimm says, agreeing that the initial extinction rate would be low, because it would only affect endemics, i.e. those found only in the habitat destroyed. But in time, says Pimm, extinction rates would worsen even if no additional habitat loss occurs.

"The important question is…how many of additional species living lonely lives in their isolated patches (the 5%) would become extinct eventually because their population sizes are too small to be viable?"

Lian Pin Koh, a tropical ecologist at ETH Zurich, agrees with Pimm that the paper's findings are incorrect. Koh says the authors "are simply barking up the wrong tree" because they have confused how researchers estimate the number of species in an ecosystem and how they estimate extinction rates.

"The basic premise of the He and Hubbell paper is plain wrong," Koh told mongabay.com, "The species-area relationships they refer to are actually species accumulation curves—the relationship between sample size and number of species encountered. On the other hand, the species-area models that ecologists use to predict species extinctions are a different set of relationships altogether, one that is based on empirical evidence of the relationship between the size of islands and number of species inhabiting those islands."

In other words, according to Koh, the paper does not take-on the correct model.

Koh and Pimm are apart of a group of experts who are currently drafting a formal response to the Nature paper.

"The paper is a sham," Pimm continues, "it does not report extinction rates or the numbers of species that are threatened. Despite its posturing, it deals with a different issue."

However, Hubbell said in a press release that he has '100 percent' confident in his findings. He sees his paper as 'good news' in that it gives humanity more time to prevent a mass extinction crisis. But, at least, in this researchers agree: life on Earth is threatened worldwide.

The evidence for this is undeniable: according to the IUCN Red List, the world authority on species' threat levels, 41% of the world's amphibians are threatened with extinction, 33% of cartilaginous fishes, 33% of coral reefs, 25% of mammals, 22% of reptiles, 15% of bony fishes, 14% of sea grasses, and 13% of birds. Even these are likely to be underestimates. Studies have shown that recently discovered species have a higher risk of extinction than species known for centuries. Therefore, cryptic species, those still undiscovered (which outnumber known species) are more likely to be weighted towards threatened rather than thriving.

Whatever the exact rate is at which species are going extinct, a biodiversity crisis is occurring that portends a global extinction not seen since the dinosaurs fell. Though not as important to mainstream media as Arnold Schwarzenegger's infidelity and low on the list of priorities for world leaders, ecologists—even when they disagree on the details—still agree the world is in the middle of a full-blown crisis.

"The next mass extinction may be upon us or just around the corner," says Hubbell. "There have been five mass extinctions in the history of the Earth, and we could be entering the sixth mass extinction."

CITATION: Fangliang He and Stephen P. Hubbell. Species–area relationships always overestimate extinction rates from habitat loss. Nature. Vol. 473. May 19, 2011. doi:10.1038/nature09985.

SAFE (Species Ability to Forestall Extinction): a new method to predict how close species are to extinction

From Mongabay.com
New method to measure threat of extinction could help conservationists prioritize
BY JEREMY HANCE

Researchers have developed a new method to predict how close species are to extinction. Dubbed SAFE (Species Ability to Forestall Extinction) the researchers believe the new tool, published in the Frontiers in Ecology and Environment, should help conservationists select which species to focus on saving and which, perhaps controversially, should be let go.

"The idea is fairly simple—it's the distance a population is (in terms of abundance) from its minimum viable population size. While we provide a formula for working this out, it's more than just a formula—we've shown that SAFE is the best predictor yet of the vulnerability of mammal species to extinction," co-author Professor Corey Bradshaw, Director of Ecological Modeling at the University of Adelaide's Environment Institute, says in a press release.

The authors say that the index is not necessarily meant to be a replacement to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species but a tool to use alongside. However, the SAFE index did prove to be a better predictor of extinction threat than another approach of looking at the percentage species' habitat loss.

"The SAFE index provides a more meaningful and fine-grained interpretation of the relative threat of species extinction than do the IUCN threat categories alone," the authors write.

Using rhinos as an example, Bradshaw explains: "our index shows that not all Critically Endangered species are equal […] For example, our studies show that practitioners of conservation triage may want to prioritize resources on the Sumatran rhinoceros instead of the Javan rhinoceros. Both species are Critically Endangered, but the Sumatran rhino is more likely to be brought back from the brink of extinction based on its SAFE index."

The SAFE index team analyzed 95 mammals species and found nearly 60% are close to a 'tipping point' that could push the species to extinction, while 25% are worse off and already close to extinction. Such analyses should allow conservationists a better tool to determine where to spend funds and time.

"Conservationists with limited resources may want to channel their efforts on saving the tiger, a species that is at the 'tipping point' and could have reasonable chance of survival," Bradshaw says.

Reference:
Clements RG, Bradshaw CJA, Brook BW, Laurance WF (2011) The SAFE. index: using a threshold population target to measure relative species threat. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment doi:10.1890/100177.

Abstract:
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List is arguably the most popular measure of relative species threat, but its threat categories can be ambiguous (eg “Endangered” versus “Vulnerable”) and subjective, have weak quantification, and do not convey the threat status of species in relation to a minimum viable population target. We propose a heuristic measure that describes a “species’ ability to forestall extinction”, or the SAFE index. We compared the abilities of the SAFE index with those of another numerically explicit metric – percentage range loss – to predict IUCN threat categories using binary and ordinal logistic regression. Generalized linear models showed that the SAFE index was a better predictor of IUCN threat categories than was percentage range loss. We therefore advocate use of the SAFE index, possibly in conjunction with IUCN threat categories, because the former indicates the “distance from extinction” of a species, while implicitly incorporating population viability as a variable.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concludes eastern cougar extinct

There are still skeptics though that say the Eastern cougar exists in Canada =- you can read about these accounts HERE -MA

USFWS Press Release
Although the eastern cougar has been on the endangered species list since 1973, its existence has long been questioned. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) conducted a formal review of the available information and, in a report issued today, concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the subspecies be removed from the endangered species list.

“We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” said the Service’s Northeast Region Chief of Endangered Species Martin Miller. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.”

Reports of cougars observed in the wild examined during the review process described cougars of other subspecies, often South American subspecies, that had been held in captivity and had escaped or been released to the wild, as well as wild cougars of the western United States subspecies that had migrated eastward to the Midwest.

During the review, the Service received 573 responses to a request for scientific information about the possible existence of the eastern cougar subspecies; conducted an extensive review of U.S. and Canadian scientific literature; and requested information from the 21 States within the historical range of the subspecies. No States expressed a belief in the existence of an eastern cougar population. According to Dr. Mark McCollough, the Service’s lead scientist for the eastern cougar, the subspecies of eastern cougar has likely been extinct since the 1930s.

The Service initiated the review as part of its obligations under the Endangered Species Act. The Service will prepare a proposal to remove the eastern cougar from the endangered species list, since extinct animals are not eligible for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The proposal will be made available for public comment.

The Service's decision to declare the eastern cougar extinct does not affect the status of the Florida panther, another wild cat subspecies listed as endangered. Though the Florida panther once ranged throughout the Southeast, it now exists in less than five percent of its historic habitat and in only one breeding population of 120 to 160 animals in southwestern Florida.

Additional information about eastern cougars, including frequently asked questions and cougar sightings, is at: http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecougar. Find information about endangered species at http://www.fws.gov/endangered.

The Service works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and a trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals, and commitment to public service. For more information about our work and the people who make it happen, visit http://www.fws.gov.

A 2009 Tasmanian Tiger (Thylocine) sighting?

I have had a passing intrest in the tasmanian tiger since i saw a program on trying to clone it and return it to its native habitat (since human hunting was the cause for its extinction). I think it makes for an interesting ethical and conservation debate. Anyway, if it is indeed not extinct, I guess it renders much of the cloning project obsolete...

From Animal Planet.com
The thylacine, also called the "Tasmanian tiger" or "Tasmanian wolf" even though it's not a feline or a canine, was a carnivorous marsupial once native to Australia. Unfortunately, the animal was wiped out by people in its last remaining stronghold, the island of Tasmania. It is now officially considered to be extinct, with the last known living individual dying in the Hobart Zoo in 1936.
But there are some that believe these strange predators still survive in the remote Australian wilderness. There are occasional sighting reports as well as potential tracks, scat and kills, although none can be definitely said to be those of a living thylacine. The video was released this month and the man that shot the footage [Murray McAllister, a physical education teacher at Pembroke Secondary College in Melbourne Victoria] in 2009 claims that it shows a living thylacine.

70% of tigers live in 6% of their habitat. Protect the 6%, save the species.

Location of 42 source sites, embedded within the larger tiger conservation landscapes (TCLs),
areas that encompass the ecological habitats suitable for tigers.

In contrast to yetserday's post, its been found that focusing protection on the main pockets of tiger distribution instead of swaths of land in which they once ranged is crucial for their conservation. Thanks to Emma S. for the link! -MA

From the Washington Post
To save tigers, protect key breeding areas
By ROBIN McDOWELL

Conservationists must protect tiger populations in a few concentrated breeding grounds in Asia instead of trying to safeguard vast, surrounding landscapes, if they want to save the big cats from extinction, scientists said. Only about 3,500 tigers are left in the wild worldwide, less than one third of them breeding females, according to one of the authors of the study, John Robinson of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Much has been done to try to save the world's largest cat - threatened by over-hunting, habitat loss and the wildlife trade - but their numbers have continued to spiral downward for nearly two decades. That's in part because conservation efforts are increasingly diverse and often aimed at improving habitats outside protected areas, according to the study, published in Tuesday's issue of the peer-reviewed PLoS Biology journal. Instead, efforts should be concentrated on the areas where tigers live - most are clustered in just 6 percent of their available habitat - and especially where they breed.

"The immediate priority must be to ensure that the last remaining breeding populations are protected and continually monitored," it says, adding if that doesn't happen, "all other efforts are bound to fail."

The WWF and other conservation groups say the world's tiger population has fallen from around 5,000 in 1998 to as few as 3,200 today, despite tens of millions of dollars invested in conservation efforts. The cats have been lost largely to poachers, who cash in on a huge market for tiger skins and a belief, prevalent in east Asia, that eating or applying tiger parts enhance health and virility.

The new study - to which researchers from the conservationist group Panthera, the World Bank, the University of Cambridge and others also contributed - identifies 42 key areas that have concentrations of tigers with the potential to grow and populate larger landscapes. Eighteen are in India - the country with the most tigers - eight in Indonesia, six in Russia's Far East and the others scattered elsewhere in Asia. The price tag for the plan - which would require greater levels of law enforcement and surveillance - would be around $82 million a year, the study says. The bulk of that is already being provided by state governments and international support. Similar efforts have been successful in the past - especially in India.

The Malenad-Mysore landscape in southern India has 220 adult tigers, one of the largest populations in the world, thanks largely to intensive protection of its "source site," the Nagarahole National Park, in the 1970s. Those high densities have now been maintained for 30 years, the authors wrote, pointing to similar success stories with the African rhinoceros. Alan Rabinowitz, president of Panthera, said focusing on breeding grounds is "absolutely necessary right now if we are to save tigers in the wild." But he stressed that in the long-term, it is important that tigers be able to move in surrounding landscapes to maintain genetic and demographic viability. "Otherwise we are boxing ourselves into a corner that would allow only for contained, managed populations."

Michael Baltzer, leader of the WWF Tiger Network Initiative and independent of the study, agreed, saying conservationists need to be careful not to create "wild zoos." Some money needs to go toward key surrounding habitats, like movement corridors, before the land is swallowed up by palm oil plantations, illegal loggers or roads, he said. Others noted there are several tiger populations not mentioned in the study that have a good chance for recovery - such as in Bangladesh and Thailand - and can't wait for help.

One of the criticisms about recent tiger conservation efforts is that they extend well beyond protected areas, managing ecosystems and working with local communities to help tiger and human populations coexist. Debbie Martyr, who set up an anti-poaching unit on Indonesia's island of Sumatra, said much can be achieved by protecting key tiger habitats. She also was not tied to the study. If the government is determined to help protect such areas and crack down on poachers there could be a significant increase in tiger numbers, she said. "In fact, I'm going to stick my neck out a little here, but I'd say in 10 years time, there could be more tigers on Sumatra (around 300 today) than in India (1,400)."

--
Reference:
Walston J, Robinson JG, Bennett EL, Breitenmoser U, da Fonseca GAB, et al. (2010) Bringing the Tiger Back from the Brink—The Six Percent Solution. PLoS Biol 8(9): e1000485. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000485

Humans drove ancient turtles to extinction 3000 years ago

Fig. 1. Map of southwest Pacific showing locations where meiolaniid remains have been discovered: 1, Lord Howe Island (Australia); 2, Pindai Caves (New Caledonia); 3, Walpole Island (New Caledonia); 4, Tiga Island (New Caledonia); 5, Teouma, Efate Island (Vanuatu); and 6, Viti Levu Island (Fiji).

From Telegraph.co.uk
Ancient turtles 'driven to extinction by humans'
An ancient species of giant turtle was driven to extinction by humans in the Pacific almost 3,000 years ago, scientists have discovered.
By ANDREW HOUGH

Researchers found the last example of supersize animals to roam the earth, a never-before-seen species in the genus Meiolania, were driven to extinction by settlers on an island of Vanuatu. This was despite the turtles, which were more than eight feet in length, outliving most of the other outsized, extinct animals known as megafauna. Experts believe most of the Australian megafauna species, such as the woolly mammoth, died almost 50,000 years ago although debate has raged over what exactly killed them.

But according to scientists at the University of New South Wales the giant turtles were alive when a people known as the Lapita arrived in the area about 3,000 year ago. They found the turtle leg bones, but not shells or skulls, which they said suggested humans helped drive the giant turtles to extinction. The bones, discovered in a graveyard on a site on the island of Efate that was known to be home to a Lapita settlement, date about 300 years after humans' arrival. The majority of the bones, found above an even older human graveyard, were from the creatures' legs, which was their fleshy and edible part. The scientists, reporting Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), concluded this was proof that the turtles were hunted by humans to extinction for their meat.

"It is the first time this family of turtles has been shown to have met with humans and there are many turtle bones in the middens," said Dr Trevor Worthy, from the UNSW. "People arrived on Vanuatu 3100 years ago and the village middens, which are the rubbish dumps that provided these bones, date to 2800 years ago," "So there's essentially a 300-year gap between those first human arrivals and the end of these turtles in these middens."

Dr Arthur Georges, an expert on the evolution of turtles at the University of Canberra, added: "This is a remarkable find, and adds the horned tortoises to the list of charismatic megafauna that has gone extinct in Australasia and the Pacific during the Holocene."

--
REFERENCE
White AW, Worthy TH, Kawkins S, Bedford S, Spriggs M (2010) Megafaunal meiolaniid horned turtles survived until early human settlement in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific. PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.1005780107

Abstract
Meiolaniid or horned turtles are members of the extinct Pleistocene megafauna of Australia and the southwest Pacific. The timing and causes of their extinction have remained elusive. Here we report the remains of meiolaniid turtles from cemetery and midden layers dating 3,100/3,000 calibrated years before present to approximately 2,900/2,800 calibrated years before present in the Teouma Lapita archaeological site on Efate in Vanuatu. The remains are mainly leg bones; shell fragments are scant and there are no cranial or caudal elements, attesting to off-site butchering of the turtles. The new taxon differs markedly from other named insular terrestrial horned turtles. It is the only member of the family demonstrated to have survived into the Holocene and the first known to have become extinct after encountering humans.

last white rhino in SAfrican reserve killed: Shot from plane with tranquilizer, horn sawed off, and left to bleed to death

From TreeHugger.com
Poachers Kill Last Female White Rhino in South African Reserve
by MATTHEW McDERMOTT

One more symbol of the rising global demand for rhino horn and its devastating effect on rhinoceroses in both Africa and Asia: The Guardian reports that the female white rhino in South Africa's Krugersdorp nature reserve has been killed by poachers--who used a tranquilizer gun, fired from a helicopter, to bring down the animal, prior to hacking off its horn, leaving it to bleed to death and orphaning its young calf in the process.

A private airport near the 1500-hectare reserve may have been the launching point for the attack. Japie Mostert, chief game ranger at Krugersdorp:

The exercise takes them very little time. They first fly over the park in the late afternoon to locate where the rhino is grazing. Then they return at night and dart the animal from the air. The tranquilizer takes less than seven minutes to act. They saw off the horns with a chainsaw. They do not even need to switch off the rotors of the helicopter. We do not hear anything because our houses are too far away. The animal dies either from an overdoes of tranquilizer or bleeds to death

Rhino Horn Worth More Than Gold
Rhino poaching is at a fifteen year high as demand for the horn--still used in Traditional Chinese Medicine despite being officially removed from the pharmacopeia--continues to rise. At the end of last year, rhino horn trades for about $1610 an ounce, more than gold.

The southern white rhino population is listed by the IUCN as near-threatened, and is the most abundant rhino population in the world. By contrast the northern white rhino is considered critically endangered or extinct in the wild, with well under 10 individuals left.

Total African rhino population--including the 3,000 or so black rhinos left in the wild--have been reduced from an estimated 65,000 animals in the 1970s to about 18,000 today.

related: WATCH VIDEO - Discovery News: Poaching Endangers Black Rhinos

12,000 critically endagered saiga antelope mysteriously die in Kazakhstan

From WWF
12,000 saiga antelope dead in Kazakhstan

Nearly 12,000 Critically Endangered saiga antelopes have been found dead over the last week in the Ural population in western Kazakhstan.

“This is a tragic and shocking event. It's particularly unfortunate that the population was just emerging from an unusually harsh winter, and that those struck down are mostly females and this year's calves,” said Prof. E.J. Milner-Gulland, Chair of the Saiga Conservation Alliance and a member of IUCN Species Survival Commission Antelope Specialist Group.

The official 2009 estimate of the size of the Ural population was 26,000 animals. The saiga is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species due to a 95% decline in its population size since 1995, caused by uncontrolled poaching in the aftermath of the break-up of the Soviet Union. It has only five populations, which are found in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. In the last few years it has been showing some recovery, thanks to conservation efforts. However, the Ural population is the only group of saiga without an internationally-supported conservation programme.

The cause of the deaths is still unclear and under investigation.

Although the deaths are currently being ascribed to pasteurellosis, the underlying trigger remains to be identified. Pasteurellosis is caused by a bacterium that lives naturally in healthy individuals, but can cause acute illness and rapid death if the animal’s immune system is compromised, either by another infection, poisoning, stress or malnutrition. Any of these explanations are possible.

“The Ural population has been relatively neglected by international conservation until now, but hopefully this event will bring government, national and international conservationists together to mount a coordinated response to save this remote population,” said Milner-Gulland.

The Committee on Forestry and Hunting of the Kazakhstan within the Ministry of Agriculture has mounted a rapid response. These efforts are now being aided by local NGO, the Association for the Conservation of Biodiversity in Kazakhstan, with the support of the Saiga Conservation Alliance, who are helping the government to investigate the cause of death. In addition, IUCN’s Antelope Specialist Group members have been active in advising these organizations.

via IUCN

Behavioural change and its applications to conservation

via the RARE facebook page, article on rareconservation.org
Best-selling author Dan Heath speaking on behavior change

In his new book, SWITCH, New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world, changing your bottom line, or changing your waistline.

On June 10 in Washington, DC, Dan will share insights into the art and science of behavior change, as well as stories of people using the same successful formula to get results.

Dan will be joined by Brett Jenks, CEO of Rare, an environmental organization training community change agents in 50 countries. Rare has been named one of Fast Company magazine’s Top Social Entrepreneurs four years running.

Rare trains local conservation leaders to work at the community level to change destructive behaviors — behaviors such as overfishing, illegal logging, unsustainable agricultural practices and more. Behavior change isn’t easy but both Dan and Brett know what it takes to change hard-to-change behaviors.

Change often seems complex, threatening, and just plain difficult. Dan offers a simple, but powerful framework for thinking about change, and a litany of stories that inspire the belief that you can succeed. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or realign your organization, Dan will make it easier for you to begin.

The Washington Post wrote about Switch, Rare and the power of behavior change in a story earlier this year:

In “Switch,” the authors tell a story about the St. Lucia parrot — a magnificent, colorful creature that lives only on that Caribbean island. Biologists were writing the species’ eulogy when conservation activist Paul Butler found himself charged with figuring out how to save the parrot. Butler had ideas: create a bird sanctuary, license eco-tourism and muscle up the punishments for harming the parrot. But he also had a problem. Most people on St. Lucia didn’t know about the parrot, let alone care, and some people even ate the poor bird. What to do?

Instead of making an analytical case, Butler went for the emotional. He appealed to St. Lucians’ national character. The message: We are the kind of people who take care of our own. This bird is ours alone, and we must protect it. He built popular support for new laws, and today, there are seven times as many parrots happily squawking on the island.

Dan and Brett will leave the audience with some inspiring reasons to believe that people CAN really change to save the world.

For more info on where to see Dan Heath speak go to the rareconservation.org

Praise for SWITCH:

“The one book to read if you’re trying to change the world.” – Katya Andresen, The Non-Profit Marketing Blog

“An entertaining and educational must-read for executives and for ordinary citizens looking to get out of a rut.” – Publisher’s Weekly

Alaotra grebe confirmed extinct

An artist's impression of the rarely seen and now extinct Alaotra grebe

From BBC
By Matt Walker

The Alaotra grebe is extinct, according to the latest assessment of the world's rarest birds.

The last known sighting of the bird was in 1985 and experts have now confirmed its demise, killed off by a combination of poaching and predatory fish. The Malagasy species, which lived in Lake Alaotra, is the first confirmed bird extinction since 2008. However, fortunes have improved for rare birds such as the Azores bullfinch and Colombian yellow-eared parrot.

The Alaotra grebe (Tachybaptus rufolavatus) was a medium-sized bird with small wings that inhabited Lake Alaotra and surrounding areas in Madagascar. Due to its tiny wings, the bird was thought incapable of flying long distances, living a mainly sedentary lifestyle on the lake and in surrounding ponds and highland lakes. Twelve Alaotran grebes were sighted at Lake Alaotra in December 1982, and two near Andreba on Lake Alaotra in September 1985. Some birds with characteristics of the grebe were seen in 1985, 1986 and 1988, but these are thought to be hybrids with another grebe species. Surveys in 1999 and a visit by experts in 2000 found no individuals, or any grebes belong to the same genus Tachybaptus. No direct observations of the species have been made since and hopes that the bird might survive were dashed after a recent expedition to nearby Lake Amparihinandriamabavy failed to find any grebes.

Officials have now declared the bird extinct in the latest update to the IUCN Red List of endangered and threatened birds. The Red List, regarded as the most authoritative assessment of the state of the planet's species, draws on the work of scientists around the globe.

"No hope now remains for this species. It is another example of how human actions can have unforeseen consequences," says Dr Leon Bennun of Birdlife International, which evaluates the status of rare birds for the IUCN Red List.

The grebe is thought to have been driven to extinction by a combination of factors. The bird, usually found in pairs, fed almost exclusively on fish in Lake Alaotra, a large brackish lake which had shores once covered in dense papyrus and reeds. But in recent years, fishermen have covered much of the lake with monofilament nylon gill-nets which can kill diving waterbirds. These nets were introduced after the grebe had already significantly declined, though they may have killed remaining birds. Carnivorous fish (Micropterus and Ophiocephalus) introduced into the lake are also thought to have significantly contributed to the grebe's extinction, while the introduction of other invasive mammals, fish and plants likely depleted the grebe's food sources. Poaching also reduced its numbers.

Knowing exactly when a species has gone extinct is extremely difficult, as records of sightings can be patchy or unsubstantiated. Also, comprehensive surveys must be completed to ensure a species does not survive in previously unexplored habitats. For those reasons, species are often declared extinct many years after they have last been seen.

The last bird species to be confirmed extinct is the Liverpool pigeon (Caloenas maculata), declared extinct in 2008. However, this Pacific species is known from just two specimens, one of which has been lost. It likely went extinct before Europeans colonised the Pacific. In 2005, the Thick-billed Ground-dove (Gallicolumba salamonis) was declared extinct, it too known from two specimens, the last caught in 1927. Other birds declared extinct in the 21st Century include the Hawkins's Rail (Diaphorapteryx hawkinsi), Reunion Shelduck (Alopochen kervazoi) and Kamao (Myadestes myadestinus) among others. Modern species thought to be extinct, but not yet confirmed, include the Po'ouli (Melamprosops phaeosoma). The last known survivor of this honeycreeper species died in captivity in 2004, despite huge efforts to rescue it. Surveys have yet to be done to confirm it no longer survives on the remote highland slopes of Hawaii. Another species suffering from the impacts of invasive species is the Zapata Rail (Cyanolimnas cerverai) from Cuba. It has been updated to "Critically Endangered" on the latest Red List, under threat from introduced mongooses and exotic catfish. Only one nest has ever been found of this species.

However the new Red List does highlight some conservation success stories. The Azores bullfinch (Pyrrhula murina) has been downlisted from "Critically Endangered" to "Endangered" after efforts to restore its habitat. In Colombia, the Yellow-eared parrot (Ognorrhynchus icterotis) has also benefited from protection of its nest sites and education programmes, leading to its status being downgraded to "Endangered". Around 190 bird species out of more than 10,000 known are thought to have gone extinct since modern records began.

Thanks to Jessica G-S for the link

[insert tongue in cheek] and help pick India's new national animal

India's tiger is extremley close to extinction (or at least extirpation from the wild) with 1400 animals left. The petition at newnationalanimal.com will cheekily count your vote for India's next national animal and send a letter of protest to the Indian government to take action to protect the tiger.

Thanks to Jojo B for the link