Okay to hunt elephants?
photo coutesy of Brian Snelson
Successful conservation efforts are resulting in new problems as the swelling number of elephants may exceed what parks can support. The South African government recently lifted the ban on killing elephants as a last resort in controlling the population. According to an article in the Guardian
Amid words of protest and expressions of relief environment minister Martinus van Schalkwyk announced the elephant had been a victim of its own success with numbers growing from 8,000 to nearly 20,000 in national parks and private reserves in just over a decade.
Supporters of culling point to growing difficulties in managing elephants in the country’s biggest and most famous game reserve, Kruger National Park. It has more than 12,500 elephants, 5,000 more than is sustainable, according to park officials. Ecologists say the animals’ huge appetites and fondness for “habitat re-engineering” - reducing forests to flatland by uprooting trees and trampling plants as they feed and roam - threaten the park’s biodiversity.
However, elephants endear a lot of support from South Africans and the rest of the world because of their perceived gentle nature and the strength of their social bonds. Some conservation groups, and animal rights advocates oppose lifting the restriction and approaching the situation as a numbers game.
Michele Pickover of Animal Rights Africa, which has threatened to urge a tourist boycott if culling goes ahead, said there was no scientific proof that the killing of elephants was necessary or even effective in controlling the population.
“This is a sad day for the country. Elephants are being treated as commodities by the government and game managers,” she said.
This article from National Geographic in 2004 gives more background on the debate, which has been going on for years and has included the voices of many different groups: parks managers, game rangers, academics, community leaders, and the representatives of animal rights groups.
Filed under Endangered Species, Hot Topics | Comment (0)Wolf population management
After the gray wolf is delisted, responsibility for population management transfers from the U.S government to individual states like Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
An excerpt from the Idaho Wolf Conservation and Management Plan:
Filed under Endangered Species, Hot Topics | Comment (0)IDFG is charged by statute with the management of Idaho’s wildlife (Idaho Code §36-103(a): “All wildlife, including all wild animals, wild birds, and fish, within the state of Idaho, is hereby declared to be the property of the state of Idaho. It shall be preserved, protected, perpetuated, and managed. It shall be only captured or taken at such times or places, under such conditions, or by such means, or in such manner, as will preserve, protect and perpetuate such wildlife, and provide for the citizens of this state and, as by law permitted to others, continued supplies of such wildlife for hunting, fishing and trapping.”). This plan will enable the transition of the management of the gray wolf back to the IDFG as either a big game animal, furbearer, or special classification of predator that provides for controlled take after delisting. This classification will enable IDFG to provide protection for wolves as well as consider the impacts of wolves on other big game species, those sectors of the economy dependent upon sport hunting, livestock, domestic animals, and humans.
Wolves to be removed from endangered species list
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list.
Between 1995 and ‘96, 66 wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park and now almost 13 years later, 1,500 wolves live in the Northern Rockies, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
A strange component of this story is, “that means that in some areas sport hunting of wolves will be allowed, perhaps as soon as this fall,” according to a USA Today article. It seems illogical that in less than a year, a species could go from being endangered to legally hunted.
Filed under Endangered Species | Comment (0)“Americans will howl with rage when they learn that their government is jeopardizing this iconic animal,” said NRDC’s Louisa Willcox. “Why snatch defeat from the jaws of victory when we’ve made so much progress toward recovering wolves in the Greater Yellowstone region?” according to a NRDC press release
Thousands of gray wolves roamed the Rocky Mountains before being slaughtered and eliminated from 95 percent of the lower 48 states by the 1930s. The gray wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 1973.
Experts on polar bears
I found some interesting commentary and numbers that really get to the heart of the looming threat of global warming and its impact on polar bears. Full article can be found on BBC News Web site.
- Scientists say Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of up to 9% per decade
- Arctic summers could be ice-free by mid-century
- Dr Andrew Derocher, of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, has used the data to assess the impact on the Arctic’s top predator - he believes the polar bear could disappear in the wild by the end of the century unless the pace of global warming slows.
- British polar expert Dr Peter Wadhams of the University of Cambridge says the bear faces a gloomy future unless it is able to change its habits: “It could be that a polar bear could adapt to a new habitat and adopt habits like the brown bear in Alaska which hunts salmon in streams and other small animals on land,” he said.
- Lynn Rosentrater, climate scientist in the WWF International Arctic Programme, thinks that is unlikely to happen.
- Polar bears are currently found in Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway.
- Populations in southern limits such as Hudson Bay are at most risk of dying out.
Protection of smelt - impact on SoCal
Image courtesy of http://www.delta.dfg.ca.gov
Until the droughts in Georgia last summer, I was not aware that water reservoirs and supplies were affected by protections for aquatic animals.
In Georgia’s case, Congressman John Linder was upset that water was being diverted from Lake Lanier that supplies over 3 million residents with water to support a federally protected species of mussel in Florida, according to an article in USA Today.
“We’ve learned from this what a blunt weapon the Endangered Species Act has become,” said state Rep. John Linder. “We need to understand this lake was created not for mussels but for people.”
The first step towards declaring the longfin smelt an endangered or threatened species was taken last week, according to an article in the LA Times.
The California Fish and Game Commission voted 3 to 0 to adopt protection for longfin smelt. The tiny fish makes its home in the delta, which serves as headwaters for the state and federal canals that send water to Southern California.
Those aqueducts, which deliver water to 25 million people and 2 million acres of farmland, have seen exports decline more than 40% in recent weeks because of court-ordered restrictions intended to save another diminutive fish, the delta smelt.
The addition of the longfin smelt to the protected list could affect water exports even more because its life cycle and breeding season are different from delta smelt, prompting restrictions that might begin earlier each year and end later.
Like its aquatic cousin, the longfin smelt has seen its population plummet in recent years. In 2007, it hit a record low along with several other types of delta fish, in what is considered a broad decline in the environmental health of the state’s biggest estuary.
It is unclear exactly how global warming and climate change will affect drought conditions in different parts of the United States, but there is little doubt that it will have an impact.
Examples like these illuminate the broader struggle to protect threatened species while maintaining sufficient resources to support human populations. Clearly these issues will warrant more attention and research.
Filed under Endangered Species, Hot Topics | Comment (0)Polar Bear = Endangered Species?
The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to make a decision soon on whether the polar bear should be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The proposal was initiated over a year ago due to concerns that melting ice is threatening polar bear habitat and their ability to hunt for food.
Filed under Endangered Species, Hot Topics | Comment (0)”A species can be listed under the Endangered Species Act under one of two categories, endangered or threatened. An endangered species is likely to go extinct within all or a significant portion of its range in the foreseeable future. The polar bear was petitioned to be listed as a threatened species, defined as a species likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future,” according to F&WS - Alaska