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KRUGER NATIONAL PARK LOSES MORE RHINOS
Nearly 200 rhinos have been killed in South Africa during the first half the year, according to statistics from the national parks department. The rate of poaching, if not curbed, could exceed 2010 levels when a record 333 rhinos were killed in the country.South Africa has lost at least 193 rhinos during the first six months of 2011 with Kruger National Park continuing to be hardest hit. The world famous safari destination has already lost 126 rhinos to poaching this year in addition to 146 killed there in 2010."Poaching is being undertaken almost without exception by sophisticated criminals, sometimes hunting from helicopters and using automatic weapons," says Dr. Joseph Okori, WWF's African Rhino Programme Coordinator. "South Africa is fighting a war against organized crime that risks reversing the outstanding conservation gains it made over the past century."
Arrests and convictions
In response to the recent poaching crisis, law enforcement measures have been increased resulting in 123 arrests and six successful convictions so far in 2011. Last year South African authorities arrested a total of 165 suspected poachers and convicted four. Judicial proceedings are ongoing for many of the suspects.
"We are pleased to see more successful convictions of poachers," said Dr. Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa. "Applying strict penalties for wildlife crimes such as rhino poaching will demonstrate the South African government's commitment to maintaining this important part of the country's heritage."
Rhino poaching is being fuelled by demand for horns in Asia, where they are highly valued for traditional medicine, although rhino horn has no scientifically proven healing properties.
"The poaching surge shows no sign of abating," says Tom Milliken, Elephant & Rhino Programme Coordinator with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring group. "Only a concerted international enforcement pincer movement, at both ends of the supply and demand chain, can hope to nip this rhino poaching crisis in the bud."
Arrests and convictions
In response to the recent poaching crisis, law enforcement measures have been increased resulting in 123 arrests and six successful convictions so far in 2011. Last year South African authorities arrested a total of 165 suspected poachers and convicted four. Judicial proceedings are ongoing for many of the suspects.
"We are pleased to see more successful convictions of poachers," said Dr. Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF South Africa. "Applying strict penalties for wildlife crimes such as rhino poaching will demonstrate the South African government's commitment to maintaining this important part of the country's heritage."
Rhino poaching is being fuelled by demand for horns in Asia, where they are highly valued for traditional medicine, although rhino horn has no scientifically proven healing properties.
"The poaching surge shows no sign of abating," says Tom Milliken, Elephant & Rhino Programme Coordinator with TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring group. "Only a concerted international enforcement pincer movement, at both ends of the supply and demand chain, can hope to nip this rhino poaching crisis in the bud."
AFGHANISTAN HOUSES PLEASANTLY SURPRISING POPULATION OF SNOW LEOPARDS
The Wildlife Conservation Society has discovered a healthy population of the felines in a mountainous, northeastern area of war-torn Afghanistan. Between 4,500 and 7,500 snow leopards remain in the wild scattered across 12 countries in Central Asia, according to a recent study in the Journal of Environmental Studies.
"It shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan," Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director for Asia Programs, said in a press release. "Now our goal is to ensure that these magnificent animals have a secure future as a key part of Afghanistan's natural heritage."
Among the threats the snow leopard faces in Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor are poaching for their pelts, attacks by shepherds and their live capture by those hoping to sell the animals in the illegal pet trade. In a program supported by the WCS, a team of 59 trained rangers are monitoring the region to protect the snow leopards and outreach intiatives are teaching local communities about the importance of protecting the animal.
Snow leopard populations have dropped more than 20 percent over the past 16 years and are considered endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
TOP PREDATORS PRESERVE THE ECOSYSTEM - new findings
Wolves, whales, sea otters, lions, sharks, bears and more: perched atop the food chain, these animals intrigue and inspire us, and sometimes scare us.
Now new research highlights a bigger role for these animals as crucial managers of ecosystems. Large top predators (and some top plant-eaters) keep systems in balance in ways that control human disease, wildfires, carbon emissions and more, while benefiting agriculture, water resources, and forestry, among others. We deplete them at our peril.
"I think it's in many ways the most important paper in conservation that's been published in a decade or so," said Peter Kareiva, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, who was not a part of the study. "Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that all species aren't created equal and some are much, much more important than others."
"That should change how we invest our money, how we manage, what we do. Instead of blindly protecting all species we could go after those really important ones," he said.Predators are disproportionately vulnerable to human impacts because they need large spaces.We're in a quandary right now because we're making all these new scientific discoveries about predators, and at the same time we're losing them faster than many other species.In Yellowstone National Park, where wolves' delisting as an endangered species remains a contested issue, researchers found that in the absence of wolves, elk increase in number and begin to graze without fear of predation, damaging the shores of streams and changing their courses.
They prevent aspen and willow seedlings from taking hold and reduce the shady habitat needed for stream fish to thrive. Reintroducing wolves has brought back young aspen and allowed willow saplings to take hold along stream beds in the park, which provides habitat for beavers, songbirds and fish.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific Ocean, sea otters allow kelp forests and the mussels and fish that live nearby to thrive by keeping sea urchins from overgrazing the kelp.
In an example from Africa, the researchers point to rinderpest, a viral disease also known as "cattle plague," which decimated populations of wildebeest and buffalo. Without these large herbivores, vegetation overgrew the area, turning grasslands into shrublands and leading to more frequent, more intense wildfires.
Also in Africa, the loss of lions and leopards has boosted populations of olive baboons who then come in greater contact with humans, seeking food. This increased contact has led to increases in intestinal parasites in both the baboons and the people living near them.
As some of these examples highlight, reintroducing top predators reverses the changes caused by their loss. "The world can be fixed in many cases. I think that's the good news," said study lead author Jim Estes.
On the other hand, sometimes the changes are a one-way street and the systems change in ways that prevent recovering to the same point, even if the top-of-the-food-chain animals are reintroduced.
"I'm not proposing that we reintroduce big predators to the whole world," Estes added. "I think the point of this is that we need to think about these things as we think about the whole future of the world and how we manage our resources."So the solution may boil down to saving the umbrella species which would ensure protection of the ecosystem as well as the other inhabitants.