Project Cheetah is billed as the world’s first transnational transfer of endangered predators. Eight Namibian cheetahs are slated to arrive in India now that legal hurdles are cleared and India’s prime minister has signed the authorization. The project hopes to relocate 50 of the cats eventually.
Cheetahs rely on speed and using their claws as a hook to rip the prey they eat.Project Cheetah hopes to bring them back to India. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Project Cheetah was conceived in 2008 according to The Hindu.com news, but implementation was delayed until recently.
The Hindu quoted a government tweet:
“The proposal for ‘Project Cheetah’ was prepared in 2008-09. Manmohan Singh’s government gave approval to it. The then Forest and Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, went to Cheetah outreach centre in South Africa in April 2010,” the Congress said in a tweet.
In 2013, the Supreme Court stayed the implementation of the Cheetah Reintroduction Programme and in 2020 allowed it, the party said, adding that now the cheetahs are coming.”
What the legal objections were was not stated.
Genetic testing now shows cougars. cheetahs and jaguarundis are closely relatd and form the puma lineage among the 37 or so species of cats in the world. Photo by Jiří Mikoláš on Pexels.com
Cheetah Outreach is a South African conservation group. On its website the group says the world’s cheetah population has dropped to about 7,000. Cheetah Outreach says it is concerned most with South African cheetahs that live outside of parks and reserves on private land.
As usual, the Indian project has its share of critics within and without government and conservation circles. The Wire Science listed a number of these. Cheetahs are not native to India, critics say, and have been locally extinct since the 1950’s. Therefore reintroduction should be lower priority than support for native species, particularly the Asiatic Lion, which is confined to the Gir forest. However, the government cites the needs to improve India’s grasslands. Cheetahs and their prey are expected to do that.
Other critics fear the cheetahs will be killed and eaten by leopards and tigers, but some counter that the animals coexist with numerous predators in Africa and should be able to survive in India. There are questions about the project’s viability and the suitability of habitat. Indian officials are taking a “wait and see” approach to the criticisms as the plan moves ahead.
Springbok are common prey animals of cheetahs Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
The cheetah’s range has shrunk to eastern and southern Africa with the possibility of up to a few hundred surviving in Iran.
We have discussed cheetah conservation before. Theft of cheetah cubs
seems to be hastening the decline in numbers. The Iranian Cheetah Society is working to protect Iranian cheetahs and other wildlife. Pumas, or cougars are found from deep in south America to Canada and is fairly widespread. Jaguarundis are small cats living in central and South America.
Satkosia Tiger Reserve is a 963 square kilometer tiger reserve in Odisha India that currently has no tigers. Which appears to be fine with local leopards as they have reappeared in the park and seem to be increasing in number.
As we have reported, India’s “tiger centric” conservation policy has been very successful as the country may have greatly increased its tiger population. But at what cost?
Leopards and tigers overlap in prey interest. But leopards have to have trees and other safe spots from tigers. Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Critics are beginning to suggest that the efforts made to increase tiger populations may actually hurt other endangered animals in India, and Satkosia may give a clue as to what is happening and why,
The land was set aside in 1976 as a wildlife preserve. When India became very serious about tiger preservation in 2007 it became a tiger reserve. It sits along the gorge of the Mahanadi River. India uses such sites both to preserve wildlife and attract tourists. Tourist facilities can be found near the reserves.
Tigerst tend to eat bigger prey than leopards, but the two species overlap in eating habits and therefore compete.Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
“In the absence of tigers, competition for prey and territory reduces for leopards, and they thrive,” Aditya Panda, a conservationist and the honorary wildlife warden of Angul district, told The Wire Science. “In the case of Satkosia, the tiger has been functionally extinct for several years now.”s”
Tiger and leopard populations dropped drastically between 2000 and 2015. A tiger reintroduction in 2018 failed.
Panda said the decline was a result of poor protection for the animals, bad park management and uncontrolled poaching. He said the increase in local leopard population is a sign that these problems no longer persist.
Wild pig can be on the menu for both tiger and leopard and competition for food can be fierce.Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
“These issues have been addressed over the past five years. As a result, improvement in protection, habitat quality and prey base is being seen, causing a visible revival of leopards in the reserve,” Panda said. “Unfortunately, these corrective measures were too late to save the local tiger population, which fell below viable numbers by 2010.” Another reintroduction attempt is in the offing and he predicted greater success.
Another issue is the “tiger centric” approach. Indian officials had believed that what is good for tigers is good for leopards and other creatures too. But landscaping preserves to benefit tigers does not appear to help other creatures. Meanwhile, another theory is emerging: Helping tigers and leopards actually begins with a “pepole centric approach.”
Conservationists must balance competing interests. It was thought that tiger habitat was suitable for all other animals. Now it is understood that leopards, for example, prefer a different landscape. Now the new idea is that the needs and interests of people must be considered in order to get assistance with conservation goals.
We all know COVID-19 has had an enormous impact on the world. The impact was especially poignant for many wild animals including 6 tigers on the island of Guam. The tigers were part of a Las Vegas style tourist attraction that ould no longer afford them,
The story is featured in the Fall 2022 The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) newsletter. This account is based on that newsletter.
The Keenesburg Colorado sanctuary has room for room for many animals on its 789 acres. TWAS also owns more than 9,000 acres elsewhere in the state and has a small refuge in Texas.
According to TWAS he tigers were facing a very questionable future when the sanctuary stepped forward to rescue them – a process that took many months and the concerted efforts of TWAS the United States and many concerned individuals to accomplish.
Guam is a territory of the United States in the Micronesia region of the Pacific Ocean. It is about 200 square miles in size and has a population of about 160,000. It was the scene of heavy fighting in World War Two.
Some of Sand Castles Advertising before they gave up the tigers. TWAS says no lions or tigers are currently on the island.
More recently, it has become a tourist attraction, primarily for Asian tourists, and that is where the tigers come in. A large corporate entity, the Baldyga Group operated the Sand Castle Dinner Theater which featured a Siegfried and Roy style tiger show, according to the newsletter. Baldyga’s website says they have been the leading entertainment provider on Guam for almost 30 years. Siegfried and Roy were Las Vegas entertainers with a tiger act. A near-fatal tiger attack ended the show.
When Covid hit, the tourists stopped coming. Unlike other venues, the owners tried to wait out the pandemic. Baldyga Group had deep pockets and owned many venues including bars and restaurants and other tourist sites. The corporation cared for the animals and waited. Sometime in 2021 the sanctuary was contacted to rescue the tigers.
That was the beginning of a series of problems that didn’t end until July, 2022. TWAS said Guam prohibited human travel longer than other countries. Once the travel embargo ended all suitable travel to Guam was taken up by necessities and other shipping backlogs. Late in July, TWAS arranged for the cats to be shipped from Guam to Hawaii and then from Hawaii to Denver, Colorado.
But the airlines involved changed their plans and the tigers wound up in Seattle instead of Denver, which meant a 1,300 mile road trip to Colorado. Clearances with federal agencies were also involved.
TWAS transports large animals frequently and has the correct carriers to do so. But the temperatures were climbing from the 80’s into the 100’s and TWAS will not transport animals if the temperature is too high, the article said.
Two of the Wild Animal Sanctuary tigers in their spacious quarters. The animals can live there with very little human interaction.. TWAS photo
The solution? Thousands of pounds of ice. The containers are aluminum and ice on the top chilled the carriers to the point that the cats could sleep like cubs during the long trip.
One of the caretakers who had cared for the animals for most of their lives has joined them at TWAS. At the time of printing the tigers – Takara, Caesar. Napal, Shanti, Alita and Xena – were all acclimating at the Keenesburg facility. It was undecided exactly where they wound remain. TWAS owns about 10,000 acres in three states.
The freshwater Indus Dolphin has been added to the endangered species list in Punjab, India. Punjab is a large state in northwestern India. Almost 1,800 miles long, the Indus River rises in western Tibet. It flows through the Punjab and Pakistan before reaching the Arabian Sea near Karachi.
Ocean going dolphins are familiar from many media appearance including the TV show Flipper in 1964, Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
The dolphin was named the state aquatic animal of Punjab in 2019. Authorities hope this new level of protection will boost the animal’s chances of survival.
According to the Tribune. of India the dolphins were thought to be a subspecies of the Ganges dolphin. However, scientists studying them realized they were a separate species in 2021. They were believed to be extinct. However, a population was rediscovered in 2007. . The current estimate is seven to nine individuals.
Placing them on the endangered species list means that both the dolphins and their environment will receive a new level of protection.
Punjab’ s chief conservator of forests told the Tribune:
“Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) RK Mishra said, “The small number of dolphin population makes it even more important to protect and conserve the species. Its inclusion in the Schedule I has given legal protection to conservation efforts.””
Furthermore, according to the World Wildlife Federation there are six species of freshwater dolphins in the world. They inhabit the Amazon Basin and nearby river systems as well as the Indus, the Ganges and the Mekong rivers.
According to the WWF Website river dolphins are important to local ecosystems:
“River dolphins act as indicators of river health in the basins where they live. If the dolphin population in a river is thriving, then the overall state of that fresh water system is also likely flourishing. But if that population is on the decline, then it’s considered a red flag for the ecosystem as a whole.
WWF is the only organization working to safeguard all river dolphin species across the world. Under our River Dolphins Initiative, WWF collaborates with governments, communities, and other partners in countries with river dolphin populations to change policies and practices, address direct threats to the species such as bycatch and infrastructure, protect habitats, and bolster scientific research.””
Pollution and algae blooms have reduced sunlight in Florida waters. The sea grass on which manatees depend is not drowing as well and they can starve. Photo by Jakub Pabis on Pexels.com
Both the Indus dolphin and the Ganges dolphin have tiny eyes and are considered functionally blind. Like bats they depend on echolocation – bouncing sounds off of objects — to eat and locate each other in the muddy river waters. Recently we have reported on other aquatic mammals in distress. The Chinese dugong was recently declared functionally extinct. The Florida manatee has recently been experiencing a sudden die off and rescue efforts are underway.
Weather in the western United States has been unusually challenging recently. Much of the west has been scorched by a heat wave.
But in southern Utah around the city of St. George the problem has been very different and has eight legs.
If this scorpion is headed your way get out fast Photo by Soly Moses on Pexels.com
Scorpions seem to be everywhere. According to the St. George News there are four reasons residents are encountering the creatures. One is monsoonal rains in the area which flush them out from their underground burrows. Another is mating season, which sets them to wandering in search of romance. A third is the fact that as St. George expands people move into scorpion territory. This is a pattern seen with human expansion around the world. As people move in bringing water and leftovers to the area, many creatures are attracted to our wastes. This leads to the fourth reason, insects seeking water and human food or garbage bring scorpions which hang out near houses to eat the insects.
Do you doubt this owl will eat a scorpion? Owls and hawks are both fond of scorpion meals. l Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Utah has up to a dozen species of scorpions in its borders and three or four are the most common. Most are considered nuisances to humans and not particularly dangerous. The exception is the Arizona bark scorpion, which has deadly venom. Encounters with these scorpions sometimes proved fatal in the past. Advances in anti-venin development mean that only two people have died from their sting in the last 50 years. Thousands of people are stung annually, the paper said. The stings are quite painful and symptoms can last a few days.
Centipedes are also known to eat scorpions Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com
So what to do?
Be aware at night as that is when the creatures come out to eat. They will eat anything they can overpower or sting with a special fondness for crickets. They have many enemies, including lizards, bats, spiders, hawks, owls and even mice. The southern grasshopper mouse kills and eats scorpions on a regular basis. Scorpions also eat each other so they have to be pretty wary. In turn the scorpion poses risks to pets including dogs and cats.
One trick is to get a readily available black light. Scorpions are fluorescent so they glow under black light, a handy way to spot them at night. One place to go and see scorpions safely is the Wildlife Learning Center in Sylmar, which has several on display,.
Scorpions are related to spiders, but do not produce silk or build webs.
In early August we reported on a raid conducted by Mexican police authorities backed by animal welfare groups on “Black Jaguar,White Tiger” (BJWT). BJWT advertised itself as an animal welfare organization, but persistent claims of abuse led to the raid. Raiders discovered as many as 200 animals, mostly lions and tigers. The animals were in varying stages of abuse, according to authorities.
The Wild Animal Sanctuary of Keenesburg, Colorado has been one of the animal rescue groups working to find homes for the animals, including 177 lions. According to the WAS fall 2022 newsletter. the solutions currently offered for the animals are not optimum. Mexican officials plan to place the animals in Mexican zoo, which are already overcrowded and may not have optimal conditions.
“Placing animals in zoos anywhere would be difficult,” WAS staffers wrote,”due to space limitations.” Mexican zoos tend to be smaller and many enclosures are outdated or otherwise questionable, WAS continued.
“We are continuing to offer help. however it may be needed.” the newsletter said. Our colleagues at the Invictus Foundation in Pachuca, Mexico are working directly with the officials in charge, so we hope to hear of a much better solution, soon,” WAS said. Fundacion Invictus is an animal welfare organization. It is separate from the Invictus Foundation which seeks to support brain injured persons and sponsors the Invictus Games. Invictus means “unconquered: in Latin.
WAS called BJWT founder Eduardo Serio “Mexico’s Tiger King” after the now-jailed Joe Exotic, whose criminal abuses have been covered here. According to WAS Serio discovered that he could purchase tiger and lion cubs. He allegedly began to play with them in videos on social media. His fanbase grew. He began to attract celebrity attention. Suddenly he had perhaps hundreds of cubs. Where they came from is unknown. Cubs in such situations grow quickly and soon are past bottle feeding and casual handling. WAS said the adults appear to have been banished to a secondary location. That was after they could no longer be safely handled by celebrities who visited BJWT.
WAS said Serio began small in 2013 but by this summer had reached an unsustainable point. He had so many animals he had difficultly feeding them. He may have fed them low quality chicken but WAS suspects he fed them stray dogs. Animal welfare agencies became suspicious, even sending drones over his large compounds. Although there were never dogs featured in his videos the compound had large kennels filled with animals. WAS said Mexico City has 20 million stray dogs. A mind-boggling number.
Finally, about two months ago the roof caved in for Serio.
Mexico City police served warrants in a raid on the sanctuary on the capital’s south side.
Authorities alleged that the animals were abused and mistreated, but the Serio said videos of the raid were “out of context” and that the sanctuary was rescuing animals and most were healthy.
Lion numbers in the wild are declining but thousands are in captivity including lions bred for slaughter Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
The raids took place at Black Jaguar White Tiger Sanctuary. On the sanctuary website ,Eduardo Serio, says the sanctuary is dedicated to rescuing abused animals. Serio says that most of the animals were rescued starting in 2015 after Mexico banned animal acts and a great number of animal attractions closed.
WAS said that of the nearly 200 animals seized, about 80 still need relocation. Veterinary care has been given the animals since the raid. The remaining animals are under guard at the former BJWT site.
The raid was conducted after The Attorney General’s Office for Environmental Protection obtained a warrant and Mexico City police conducted the raid. Authorities said the sanctuary was not operating on land sanctioned for animal sanctuary use and that the animals – lions, tigers, jaguars, lynxes servals and others were abused. The animals allegedly were dehydrated and ill, some unable to walk.
Despite some recent gains there are probably only 5,000 tigers left in the wild. Perhaps twice as many live in the Unites States in zoos, sanctuaries and private hands. Photo by GEORGE DESIPRIS on Pexels.com
Serio disputed the allegations. He was quoted in Englands’s Daily Mail:
“Eduardo Serio, the founder of the reserve, told local media that he had rescued some of the animals from some of the 500 circus venues in the country after the government outlawed their use in shows in 2015.
At least 90 to 95 percent of the animals were at their weight limits, he said, but the ones that were highlighted in the videos ‘which look scared, were animals that we were trying to rescue, (the videos) were taken out of context.’
Some jaguars were seized in the Mexico City raid. Native to Mexico there are efforts to strengthen their numbers and hopes they will return to Arizona. Photo by Flickr on Pexels.com
‘Yes, some (were malnourished), others have collapsed due to genetic problems because their kidneys no longer function, they have diabetes, things like that and we try our best,’ Serio added. ‘The time comes that sometimes we (are able to treat them), but we are not God, sometimes we make it through and sometimes we don’t. When we can’t, we have no choice but to give him a dignified death.’
Serio also said donations to the sanctuary had fallen off more than 70 percent due to Covid 19 and that impacted the care the animals received. It appears Serio had applied for the paperwork necessary to run the shelter legally.
WAS said Serio has since stopped giving interviews and his wherabouts are unknown. e WAS said that millions adored the cubs when they were little. If they stepped forward with donations to legitimae rescue groups the situation would quickly resolve. they said.
A total of 202 animals were removed from the site, and most were transported to zoo facilities in Mexico. Bobbi Brink, the founder of Lions, Tigers and Bears sanctuary near San Diego says Mexican facilities will be overwhelmed by the size of the rescue and is calling for the cats and other animals to be brought to the US to live at accredited rescue facilities such as hers.
One such sanctuary is The Wild Animal Sanctuary (TWAS) which operates 10,000 acres in Colorado and Texas. TWAS was recently involved in saving sun bears from the bile trade and many animals from Joe Exotic.
Invasive species are very common around the world. The term refers to living beings (including plants) of all kinds that wind up in places they don’t belong. Sometimes they are somewhat benign, other times, like pythons, they are enormous problems. They succeed in adapting to their new home, often at the cost of native species.
Jellyfish vary vastly in size but they all eat in about the same way.. Their tentacles paralyze smaller creatures which are then digested. Photo by Diogo Brandao on Pexels.com
Recently there has been news about fresh water jellyfish from China that appear to have colonised most of the United States. A fisherman in Minnesota has spotted hundreds of them in a lake. Apparently, the jellyfish have been spotted in 44 of the 50 United States. These were found and photographed in Lake Jane near the city of Lake Elmo.
The jellyfish in question is known as Hydromedusa. Hydromedusa actually refers to a family of jellyfish, about 800 strong, that live in bodies of water worldwide. The one found in Minnesota is native to the Yangtze River Valley. Like other jellyfish it uses stingers to paralyze small fish and eat them. They are small enough that their stingers can’t harm humans. So far, the jellyfish don’t appear to be causing environmental damage. They are quite tiny, some around the size of a quarter.
How did they get here? The best guess is that they came over in ornamental aquatic plants from China. Once here, they likely spread with stocked fish, aquatic plants or by waterfowl.
Invasive species in the United States include pythons, Joro spiders, Atlas moths, and giant African land snails. The United States Department of Agriculture has a list of invasive species in the United States.
The Atlas moth has recently been spotted in Florida where larvae may damage fruit. Photo by John on Pexels.com
Here at Wild Animal News we have recently been reporting quite a bit on genetic science as it can be applied to wild animals. A few months ago we reported on a breakthrough in the war against ticks. Researchers have for the first time found a way to attack ticks by genetic modification. Previously, ticks were too resistant for the kind of manipulation that leads to control. The kind of manipulation that led to the virtual eradication of screwworm flies. That was relatively crude as it simply involved releasing billions of sterile male flies into affected areas. The modification of ticks was more complicated but can lead to similar results.
Chinese scientists have completely reworked the genes of a lab moue this oens the door to many genetic changes, ePhoto by Pixabay on Pexels.com
More recently we wrote about efforts by scientists to “de-extinct” the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacine) That Marsupial was the apex predator of Australia but went extinct in 1937. Scientists are now working to use DNA from thylacine specimens and its nearest living relative to try and revive a very near hybrid. That involves sequencing the DNA from the extinct animal and the relative to create an embryo that is brought to term in the relative.
Florida may soon be able to genetically alter pythons to drastically reduce their numbers by creating male only egg clutches. Photo by Jan Kopřiva on Pexels.com
We have also written about invasive species. Species that are brought to one part of the world to another and wreak havoc on the new home. Burmese pythons in Florida and feral cats in Australia are two examples. Scientists are trying to manipulate the DNA of these animals to bring them under control. One possibility is manipulating pythons so that the eggs are all male.
Today comes news that scientists in China say they have made a gigantic breakthrough in genetic studies. The kind of breakthrough that changes the world forever, for better or worse. The claimed breakthrough was reported in the journal Science. It is also reported on here.
In simple terms they say they have taken a laboratory mouse and re-programmed its entire genetic structure gene by gene. This is considered a huge break through with huge implications in many areas. But it will likely not go down without serious controversy,
Quoting the abstract:
“Chromosome engineering has been attempted successfully in yeast but remains challenging in higher eukaryotes, including mammals. Here, we report programmed chromosome ligation in mice that resulted in the creation of new karyotypes in the lab. Using haploid embryonic stem cells and gene editing, we fused the two largest mouse chromosomes, chromosomes 1 and 2, and two medium-size chromosomes, chromosomes 4 and 5. Chromatin conformation and stem cell differentiation were minimally affected. However, karyotypes carrying fused chromosomes 1 and 2 resulted in arrested mitosis, polyploidization, and embryonic lethality, whereas a smaller fused chromosome composed of chromosomes 4 and 5 was able to be passed on to homozygous offspring. Our results suggest the feasibility of chromosome-level engineering in mammals.”
The scientists used CRISPR which stands for “Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats.” Huh?
“CRISPR stands for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.” Those repeats are found in bacteria’s DNA. They are actually copies of small pieces of viruses. Bacteria use them like collections of mug shots to identify bad viruses. Cas9 is an enzyme that can cut apart DNA. Bacteria fight off viruses by sending the Cas9 enzyme to chop up viruses that have a mug shot in the collection. Scientists recently figured out how bacteria do this. Now, in the lab, researchers use a similar approach to turn the microbe’s virus-fighting system into the hottest new lab tool.
This CRISPR/Cas9 tool was first described in 2012 and 2013. Science labs around the world soon started using it to alter an organism’s genome — the entire set of its DNA instructions.”
What the future holds is of course unknown, but the tool has been used to modify food. Proponents say that it can soon lead to hypoallergenic pets, prevention of disease and other miracles.
But at what cost?
Even this brief discussion should show that the new technology raises many ethical and legal, moral and political issues that will have to be solved. Many probably haven’t even been thought of.
Tasmanian devils are being driven to near-extinction by an outbreak of facial tumors. Could genetic re-programming protect them?Photo by Chaim Mehlman on Pexels.com
How can this work to prevent extinction? One possibility is provided by Tasmanian Devils. The creatures are afflicted by a debilitating disease that might extinct them. More than 80 percent of devils that come down with the facial tumors die. We reported on a ray of hope in their plight. If this new technology based on genetic re modeling performs as promised it is possible devils can be genetically manipulated to be disease resistant.
Dugongs, a placid “gentle giant” marine mammal have been declared “functionally extinct” in China. Meanwhile, their freshwater cousins, Florida manatees, have been under siege as a record number have died in recent years.
According to the New York Post it has been more than a decade since dugongs have been spotted in the wild off Chinese shores. “Functionally extinct” means that even if a few survive it is not a large enough number to breed successfully.
Pexels identified this tubby buddy as a dugong, but they are hard to tell apart. Large and slow moving they both depend on seagrass for food. They are related to elephants. About 50 million years ago the dugongs and manatees went back to the water. iPhoto by Chris F on Pexels.com
In other parts of their range they appear to be doing better. They live off the coasts of Australia, India and Thailand and are protected in those regions. The animals eat only sea grass and are slow to reproduce although they can live up to 70 years. Australia has enacted protected zones to avoid conflict with boats and fishing nets. Dugongs often drown after being trapped in a net. They can be killed in boat collisions.
Dugongs were hunted for their flesh and oil for centuries. Some people believe that the dugong gave rise to the belief in mermaids. That theory suggests that fisherman would see a glimpse of a dugong from a distance and image it as a mermaid.
Sea grass is grass that grows underwater and is the principal food of manatees and dugongs
Dugongs and manatees are very similar, They differ mostly in where they live. Dugongs live entirely in saltwater and manatees rarely leave freshwater.
Manatees in Florida are facing very similar threats to dugongs. Both depend on sea grass. In Florida decreased water clarity has led to smaller amounts of sea grass. Manatees are also killed by boats and trapped in nets. Florida has responded to the crisis by working to protect the creatures. 2021 saw a record number of manatee deaths. 2022 didn’t start well
Both manatees and dugongs are sometimes called sea cows because they graze in a similar fashioniPhoto by Iyan Darmawan on Pexels.com
.
Conservationists place much of the blame on pollution which is clouding the state’s freshwater. Sea grass depends on sunlight to grow. Pollution clouds the water and blocks the sunlight. If there is not enough sea grass the creatures will starve to death. Federal and state officials are enacting manatee feeding programs to offset the loss of food.
Dugongs and manatees are not without their defenders. In Australia the Australian Marine Conservation Society works to save the estimated 800 dugongs in that country In Florida quite a number of organizations including conservation groups and utilities are working to reverse the pollution in waterways and increase the amount of seagrass. In the modern world celebrity involvement is often a route to success. The manatees have singer Jimmy Buffett in their corner, Buffett is co-founder of the Save The Manatee Club.
The gray wolves (canis lupus) of Isle Royale have seen their numbers rise and fall since their arrival on the Island in 1948. Wolf numbers have been as high as 50 and as low as two. They are currently rebounding after almost going extinct on the island.
In fact, the most recent count shows about 28 wolves on the island. This is up from as few as two a few years ago.
This is important because the island has provided researchers including L. David Mech the perfect opportunity to study wolf -prey interactions. Mech has studied wolves since 1958. He is the author of The Wolves of Isle Royale. He is also closely connected to The International Wolf Center.
The island, the largest in Lake Superior, has been a national park since 1940. The island is about 45 miles long by 9 miles wide. The wolves are believed to have crossed from Canada on an ice bridge during the 1948 winter. The isolation and lack of human contact provided a perfect opportunity to watch wolves interact with prey.
But it came at cost as the isolation of the island “laboratory” led to inbreeding, low birth rates and poor survival. Canine disease eventually reached the island and the population of moose rose and fell, too. Contrary to myth, wolves cannot kill any moose they choose. Healthy moose can stand them off so most of their meals come from old, ill and young moose.
An artist’s view of three dogs and two wolves meeting
According to Newsweek magazine wolves have been captured and relocated to the island to reduce the inbreeding and help stabilize the population. The reintroduction has been a success.
Gray wolves have been persecuted worldwide for centuries but most countries, except Russia, now have protections in place. Reintroduction or support has resulted in growing wolf populations in Italy. Himalayan wolves appear to be increasing their range. In the United States the situation is mixed. Until recently gray wolves could only be found in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Since the 1990’s wolf reintroduction and support programs have been initiated. Wolves reintroduced from Yellowstone National Park have spread to Wyoming and Idaho. Wolves from Canada have come to Oregon, Washinton and California, There are plans to reintroduce them to Colorado.
Moose by Alexander Phimister Proctor is licensed under CC-BY 3.0 Moose are large and powerful animals. Their hooves and horns are powerful weapons against wolves. That is why old, sick and juvenile moose are most often eaten by wolves.
But there is pushback. Someone has poisoned wolves in Oregon. Packs have disappeared in California and hunters have waited to kill wolves outside the protection of Yellowstone. The reintroduction in Colorado has met with hostility.
But wolves are fertile and rebound quickly. Newsweek quoted a scientist noting that the Isle Royale events show how quickly wolves can bounce back when not persecuted.
