Entries Tagged 'Fauna' ↓

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Dense populations usually works against biodiversity so if we’re reading TreasureNature, chances are we live far from areas with highly diverse animal and plant life, except for those in Sao Paulo, Brazil. However, if we are fortunate enough to be living in one of the Biodiversity Hotspots, then the greatest single thing we can do to protect biodiversity is prevent habitat loss.

Animals in the wild need a home and sources of food. Once we deny them these resources by destroying forests, reefs, and other ecosystems, they will die. How much area do they really need? It depends on the size of the animal.

Consider the Critically Endangered and majestic Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), of which there are an estimated number of less than 400 pairs in the wild and only a dozen or so in captivity. A breeding pair usually needs 38 square miles (approxiamately 100 square kilometers) of hunting ground–for comparison, Manhattan has 22.7 square miles. That is assuming that the said area is well-stocked with monkeys, rodents, lemurs, civets, and snakes.

Man is competing with the eagle for the available resources by cutting down trees for timber and clearing forests for farming. These activities reduces the eagles’ hunting range which serves as home for their food too. As men encroaches on the eagles’ home ground, the risk of hunters trying to bag one as a trophy also increases.

The Philippine Eagle is not alone, if we check all species on the Critically Endangered list, they all face the same problems: habitat loss, dwindling food supply, and poaching.

If we live far away from Biodiversity Hotspots, are we powerless to get involved in biodiversity issues? On the contrary, we can do a lot to help. See, most biodiversity-related issues has their roots in densely-populated urban environments.

Here are a few measures to protect biodiversity we can do right where we are:

1. Be aware of where the stuff that we buy comes from and don’t buy anything that contributes to habitat loss.

Reaching for a can of corned beef at your local mart? Check where did the beef came from. If it says Brazil, then think about the Amazon rainforest. For the record, Brazil provides only a minuscule amount of the FRESH beef available in the US market. It’s main market is Europe.

Brazilian ranchers tore down the Amazon to raise beef. A few enlightened individuals have cropped up with eco-friendly ideas but they are only a drop in the bucket. Some people contends that cutting down the Amazon for cattle can be compensated for by planting a forest elsewhere. Sadly, this is impossible to do so because we’re not talking here only about trees but of the biodiversity contained in a patch of the Amazon. Biodiversity lost cannot be regained, except on paper.

2. Don’t buy or keep exotic pets.

That colorful Macaw might come from a long line of birds breed in captivity but it still sends the signal that it is okay to keep them. Trapping for the underground exotic pet industry is a major factor why colorful species regularly turn up in the Critically Endangered list.

3. Keep the CREED of REAL mountaineers.

If we head off to the great outdoors for some fun and communing with nature, keep these words close to our hearts:

• Take nothing but pictures
• Leave nothing but footprints
• Kill nothing but time

4. Spread the word.

Do what TreasureNature tries to do, tell other people about it.

5. Support agencies and other entities that works for biodiversity.

There are dozens of them out there. If we want to get our hands dirty, then why not volunteer in Yachana’s Protected Forest in the Amazon?

More ideas on how we can help protect and preserve biodiversity?

As stated in Part 1, there are 34 regions through out the world with rich biodiversity as covered by BiodiversityHotspots.org. We have already tackled nine (9) for the Americas. Let’s get on with Africa, Europe, adn Centrtal Asia…

Guinean Forest (West Africa). It is home to more than a quarter of West Africa’s mammals, including 20 species of primates. Population growth and human activities like logging, mining, and hunting are taking their toll on various species, particularly Jentink’s duiker, pygmy hippopotamus, and western chimpanzees.

Succulent Karoo (South Africa and Namibia). Home to the most number of succulent plant species in the planet. Around 69% of plants are endemic. Grazing, agriculture and mining, especially for diamonds and heavy metals, threaten this fragile region.

Cape Floristic Region (South Africa). One of only two hotspots that encompass an entire floral kingdom. The vegetation on the Cape is dominated by fynbo, a shrubland comprising of hard-leafed, evergreen, and fire-prone shrubs that thrives on the region’s rocky or sandy nutrient-poor soils. It is also home to the geometric tortoise, the Cape sugar-bird, and a number of antelope species.

Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany (Southern Mozambique, parts of South Africa, Eastern Swaziland). Home to nearly 600 tree species, the highest tree biodiversity of any temperate forest on the planet. Thw comeback of the white rhino is a success story of the region but there area increased threats from industrial expansion, farming, and grazing.

Madagascar and Indian Ocean Islands. The region have an astounding total of eight plant families, four bird families, and five primate families that cannot be found anywhere else. Madagascar alone has 50 lemur species (featured in the animated movie Madagascar). The Seychelles, Comoros and Mascarene islands in the Indian Ocean between them support a number of Critically Endangered bird species.

Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa (coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique). The region is home to economically important plant species and a variety of primate species including three endemic and highly threatened monkey species and two endemic species of bushbabies. Agricultural expansion continues as its biggest threat. Horn of Africa (Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Oman, yemen, and Saudi Arabia) . The Horn of Africa is also one of the most degraded hotspots in the world, with only about 5 percent of its original habitat remaining.

Eastern Afromontane (found on widely scattered, but biogeographically similar mountain ranges in eastern Africa, from Saudi Arabia and Yemen in the north to Zimbabwe in the south). Contain’s some of the world’s most extraordinary lakes and a vast amount of freshwater fish diversity.

Horn of Africa (Somalia and parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Entrea, Oman, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia). Home to a number of endemic and threatened antelope, notably threatened species like the beira, the dibatag, and Speke’s gazelle. This hotspot also holds more endemic reptiles than any other region in Africa. Other distinctive endemics include the Somali wild ass and the sacred baboon.

Mediterranean Basin (parts of Spain, France, the Balkan states, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria). Its 22,500 endemic vascular plant species are more than four times the number found in all the rest of Europe. The Mediterranean monk-seal, the barbary macaque and the Iberian lynx, which is Critically Endangered, are among the region’s imperiled species.

Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the North Caucasian portion of the Russian Federation, the northeastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran). The Caucasus falls in Eurasia so we’ll just include it in Europe. The rugged landscape is home to the two species of highly threatened Caucasian mountain goats.

Irano-Anatolian (Central and Eastern Turkey, part of Southern Georgia, a province of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Northeastern Iraq, Northern and Western Iran, and the Northern Kopet Dagh Range in Turkmenistan).Oaks and Junipers dominate the forests of this region. The famed Silk Road crossed through this hotspot. Many of Turkey’s 1,200 endemic species occur only to the immediate east or west of it. It is home to four endemic and threatened species of vipers.

Mountains for Central Asia (Southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Eastern Uzbekistan, Western China, Northeastern Afghanistan, and part of Turkmenistan). The hotspot’s ecosystems is quite varied and range from high glaciers to low desert. It includes a highly threatened and unique type of walnut-fruit forest, which contains ancestors of domestic fruit varieties and is an important storehouse of genetic diversity. A rich variety of ungulates also call the mountains home, including the threatened argali wild sheep.

Next will be the Asia-Pacific region.

Biodiversity is a natural resource.  Just like any resource we have to manage them carefully and avoid the issue of biodiversity loss. We have 34 regions scattered through out the world the serve as a reserve of the world’s total biodiversity. These regions are also the most threatened and are called our biodiversity hotspots.

The site BiodiversityHotspots.org list has a flash presentation of the following regions with highly diverse life-forms. Let’s begin with the American continent…

1. California Floristic Province. Home to the largest living organism, the Giant Sequioa. It also shelters the Critically Endangered California Condor.
2. Madrean Pine Oak Woodlands. Embracing most of Mexico’s main  mountain range and some of Southern California’s. One fourth of Mexico’s total species calls it home, most of which can’t be found outside the region. The monarch butterflies overwinters at the pine forest of Michoacan.
3. MesoAmerican Forests (Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, as well as a third of Mexico and nearly two-thirds of Panama). Third largest of the hotspots and home to hundreds of exotic animal species and 17,000 plant species.
4. Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena (Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru). The white winged guan is seriously threathened with extinction due to deforestation and hunting.
5. Tropical Andes (Western Venezuela, Northern Chile, Argentina, and large portions of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia). Richest biodiversity on Earth. The vastness of the region and range in elevation has provided a home to an amazing number of species, with ecosystems varying from desert to cloud forests.
6. Chilean Winter Rainfall - Valdivian Forests (Chile). The Andes mountains and pacific has walled-off around 40% of Chile’s land area into a biological hotspot withmany unique indigenous species.
7. Caribbean Islands. This hotspot has several unique species such as the Cuban crocodile, bee hummingbird (smallest bird), and Leptotyphlos bilineatus (smallest snake).
8. Cerrado (Brazil). 21% of the country’s land area. The giant anteater, giant armadillo, jaguar, and maned wolf call the region home. The hotspot is being threathened by agricultural expansion.
9. Atlantic Forest (Brazil’s Atlantic coast, Eastern Paraguay, Northeastern Argentina, and parts of the Uruguay coast). 20,000 plant species, 40% of which are endemic (local origins). Less than 10% of the orginal forest remains. More than 2 dozens Critically Endangered vertebrae species are found in the region and barely clinging for survival. It’s long been threatened by sugar and coffee plantations. Recently, the cities of Rio de Janiero and Sao Paulo has began expanding into the forest too.

Next is Africa and Europe.

Why does biodiversity matter? Let’s first have a closer look at the word. Biodiversity is a shortened and blended form of biology and diversity. The Encyclopedia of Earth has a brief but accurate definition of it: variety of living organisms.

There are three kinds of biodiversity: (1) variety of genetic material within a species, (2) variety of species within a specific area or habitat, or (3) variety of habitats within a larger area. Also known as genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity.

As an example of the first, the different races of people represents genetic diversity in Homo sapiens sapiens. For species diversity, a classic example would be a reef ecosystem which is composed of corals (considered as animals), fishes, mollusks, plants, etc. Habitat diversity can be represented by Africa where we find rainforests, savannahs, and deserts (each of which is an ecosystem).

Biodiversity is important because we are highly dependent on other species for survival. Aside from each species fulfilling a role that keeps life on Earth in balance, biodiversity provides us the following services:

1. Ecosystem services

• Protection of water resources
• Soils formation and protection
• Nutrient storage and recycling
• Pollution breakdown and absorption
• Contribution to climate stability
• Maintenance of ecosystems
• Recovery from unpredictable events

2. Biological resources

• Food
• Medicinal resources and pharmaceutical drugs
• Wood products
• Ornamental plants
• Breeding stocks, population reservoirs
• Future resources

3. Social benefits, such as

• Research, education and monitoring
• Recreation and tourism
• Cultural values

If we somehow we will fail to protect other species as stewards of nature, the failure is more to ourselves than to them.

A study in the Ecological Applications journal published by the Ecological Society of America takes a look at arctic animals and how global warming affects them. As discussed in our previous post on 10 effects of global warming, marine arctic animals are threatened by arctic shrinkage or melting of the ice.

The study revealed that seven (7) “core” species, those the spend nearly all their lives in the arctic region, are in danger of being killed-off if global warming escalates. They are the following:

1. Bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus).

The Bowhead Whale is also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to 20 metres (66 ft) in length. Estimated maximum weight of this thick-bodied species is 136 tonnes (152 tons), second only to the Blue Whale, although the Bowhead lags behind several other whales in maximum length. The Bowhead spends all of its life in fertile Arctic waters, unlike other whales that migrate for feeding or reproduction. Current population is estimated from 14,400 to as many as 44,000 (wikipedia.org).

2. Beluga or White whale (Delphinapterus leucas).

The Beluga is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cousin of the narwhal.  Popular as the white whales of the St. Lawrence river. This marine mammal is commonly referred to simply as the Beluga or Sea Canary due to its high pitched squeaks. It is up to 5 metres in length and an unmistakable all white in color with a distinctive melon-shaped head. The global population of beluga today stands at about 100,000, mainly threatened by pollution and hunting (wikipedia.org).

3. Narwhal (Monodon monoceros).

The narwhal’s name is ultimately derived from the Old Norse word for “corpse,” thus it is also known as the corpse whale. Narwhals are famous for their long tusks, which served as the basis for the myth of the unicorn. They are an arctic specialist species and are probably the most in danger to the melting of the ice. Narwhals move closer to coasts during summer and retreat to  densely-packed ice in winter. The world population is currently estimated to be around 50,000 individuals (wikipedia.org).

4. Bearded Seal (Erignathus barbaratus).

The bearded seal or square flipper seal, is a medium-sized seal that is found in and near to the Arctic Ocean. It is a primary food source for polar bears and for the Inuit of the arctic coast. It is currently considered at a lower risk for extinction (wikipedia.org).

5. Ringed Seal (Phoca hispida).

The Ringed Seal, also known as the Jar Seal, is an earless seal inhabiting the northern coasts. They have a light gray coat spotted with black. Ring seals can be found throughout the arctic ocean. They are well known for maintaining breathing holes in the ice. In addition for threats from predators, due to the effects of global warming, icepacks have begun breaking up earlier than in the past. Birthing lairs are often destroyed before the seal pup is able to forage on its own leading to poor body condition (wikipedia.org).

6. Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus).

Walruses are immediately recognizable due to their prominent tusks, whiskers and great bulk. Adult Pacific males can weigh up to 4,500 pounds and are exceeded in size only by the elephant seals among pinnipeds. They spend a significant proportion of their lives on sea ice in pursuit of their preferred diet of mollusks and are considered a keystone species in Arctic marine ecosystems (wikipedia.org).

7. Polar bear (Ursus maritimus).

The polar bear has become almost iconic for global warming but, in reality, the narwhal faces a bleaker future with the melting of arctic ice. Polar bears spends much of the year on the frozen seas as they can hunt consistently only from sea ice, although most polar bears are born on land. Biologists use a working estimate of about 20,000-25,000 polar bears worldwide (wikipedia.org).

Presently, none of these arctic species are on the endangered list. That may change in the future. Which do you think is the most appropriate mascot in our efforts to fight off global warming?