Countries adopt pledge to protect elephants

NIRMALA GEORGE

NEW DELHI (AP) — Representatives of eight countries with large wild elephant populations pledged Tuesday to eradicate poaching of the animals and smuggling of ivory to ensure their survival for future generations.

The environment ministers and officials from Asia and Africa also urged all 50 nations with significant numbers of elephants to meet in two years to adopt a shared vision for promoting their conservation and welfare.

Delegates at Tuesday's "Elephant 8 Ministerial Meet" underscored threats to elephant habitats from mining, deforestation and land development.

Although the threat to elephants is not as dramatic as that facing tigers, the steady decline of their population is worrying, Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

"Unlike the tiger, which faces a crisis of extinction, the elephant in India faces a crisis of attrition," he said.

In less than a century, the number of Asian elephants has fallen by 50 percent.

According to the Switzerland-based International Union for Conservation of Nature, 38,500 to 52,500 wild elephants survive in Asia and another 15,000 in captivity.

The larger African elephant, although more numerous, is also listed as an endangered species, subject to threats from poachers, mining and deforestation. There are around 470,000 to 690,000 African elephants.

Environment ministers or officials from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Botswana, Congo, Kenya and Tanzania attended the meeting in New Delhi.

Full Story

Bronx Zoo ships 100 rare Kihansi spray toads to Tanzania to help create a new colony

BY Barry Paddock
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, August 18th 2010, 4:00 AM

Maher, WCS/AP

The Kihansi spray toad has vanished from it's native habitat in Tanzania.

The cargo wasn't just precious - it was almost extinct.
An official from the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo flew to Tanzania last week with some seriously exotic carry-on luggage: 100 rare, tiny toads.
The Kihansi spray toad has vanished from its native habitat, and scientists hope to create a new colony by importing some from U.S. zoos.
"It's an amazing feeling," said Jim Breheny, director of the Bronx Zoo.
Last Tuesday, their handler, Alyssa Borek, packed 50 toads from the Bronx Zoo and 50 from the Toledo Zoo into plastic deli containers after swaddling them in paper towels soaked in purified water.
They were loaded into two cardboard boxes that Borek hauled onto a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines jet for the trip from Kennedy Airport to Africa.
She delivered them to a state-of-the-art propagation center. The goal is to eventually move them to the Kihansi Gorge, where the Tanzanian government has installed sprinklers in an attempt to recreate the toads' habitat.
The toads were discovered in 1998, living on less than five acres of a spray zone created by waterfalls in the gorge.
The 2000 opening of a hydroelectric dam, which provides a third of Tanzania's electricity, reduced the flow of the waterfalls, eliminating 90% of the mist.
The toads began to dry out and fall ill. Before they were declared extinct in the wild, scientists collected a colony of them and split them among a handful of zoos.
The Bronx Zoo pumps 1,500 gallons of mist a day to the toads, who are on display in the Reptile House. Food, water and air is carefully purified.
Breheny called it an "incredible commitment" that he and Toledo Zoo officials hope will pay off halfway across the world. "We both have worked very hard for a successful end to the story," he said.

Link to the news

Dragonflies face uncertain future

Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News

The Malaysian dragonfly Pseudagrion microcephalum. (K. Wilson)

At least one in ten species of dragonfly and damselfly are threatened with extinction, according to the first world survey of their numbers.

The figure may be an underestimate as so little is known about many species.

However, the news is not all bad. The survey published in Biological Conservation is the first to assess the vulnerability of any insect group on a global scale.

And it suggests the extinction risk faced by insects has been exaggerated.

PROPORTION OF THREATENED SPECIES 31% of amphibians 20% of mammals 12% of birds 10% of dragonflies and damselflies

Viola Clausnitzer led an international team of conservation scientists from Germany, Australia, Japan, Russia and the UK among others. They reviewed the status of a random sample of 1500 of the 5680 dragonflies and damselflies known to science.

The team assessed the population and distribution of each species according to the Red List criteria set down by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

They found that more than half of the species should be categorised as Least Concern, which means they likely remain widespread globally, or are not threatened even if they live in a restricted range.

But one in 10 species is threatened, meaning it is categorised as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable.

The Pemba Featherleg (Platycnemis pembipes) a fragile damselfly first discovered in 2001. The species inhabits a single stream in Tanzania and is listed as Critically Endangered. (V. Clausnitzer)

"It's fair to say that is an underestimate," says Clausnitzer, as too little data exists to accurately assess the status of 35 per cent of the species.

Dragonflies and damselflies, which belong to the insect order known as the Odonata, are susceptible because the larvae of each species live in water. So pollution and changes to habitat, such as forest degradation, which affect water courses can have an impact.

Indeed, because of their sensitivity to water and habitat quality, dragonflies are frequently used to assess environmental health. With their striking colours and behaviour they can be used as indicator species. "If they disappear you've got something wrong with your habitat," says Clausnitzer.

Those species most at risk tend to live in south east Asia and Australia.

In south east Asia, a large number of species are endemic to islands such as the Philippines or within Indonesia, and cannot escape detrimental impacts on their habitat.

ALREADY EXTINCT Two species of Odonata are known to have gone extinct Both lived on islands Sympetrum dilatatum once lived on Saint Helena Megalagrion jugorum once lived on Maui in the Hawaiian islands

In Australia, climate change is having an especially strong impact on freshwater systems.

The survey is the first to assess the global health of any order of insects. Compared to vertebrates, the dragonflies and damselflies are not doing badly.

"Amphibians are more threatened than dragonflies in general," says Clausnitzer. Amphibians are being particularly afflicted by the deadly chytrid fungus. "Another difference is that adult dragonflies are more mobile. If one site is destroyed they still have the chance to fly to another site, which frogs don't have."

They also seem less to be less threatened than the mammals, but at a similar level of risk as birds.

"We were a bit surprised that the dragonflies are not that bad off," says Clausnitzer.

"There is a big discussion going on about invertebrates and extinction rates in insects, and this discussion is not based on any real figures. It is all estimations," she adds.

Only males of Klugi's Threadtail (Protoneura klugi) were known from two locations in Amazonian Peru. The species is listed as Data deficient. (R. W. Garrison)

In general, conservationists have feared that a much higher proportion of insect species face extinction.

However, Clausnitzer cautions that much more research needs to be done to be sure, and different groups of insects might face very different challenges.

For instance, while the reliance of dragonflies and damselflies on water makes them susceptible, says Clausnitzer "dragonflies are the strongest fliers in the insect kingdom. So you might get a very different picture if you take less capable fliers."

Story