Category Archives: Conservation

Ten challenges when living with big cats

The idea of introducing big cats back into areas from which they have been extirpated seems one of the great opportunities in conservation. Survival of big cats, as apex predators, is an indication of a generally healthy ecosystem. However the practical challenges faced by people who have to live in regions where big cats are present are not insignificant. Here are a few:

A leopard attacks a forest guard near Siliguri, India. People attacked the leopard which later died. Picture: AP Source: AP

1. Risk of personal attack

2. Additional personal protection required

3. New routines for organising work and travel

4. Extra effort required to protect livestock

5. Reduced access to hunting

6. Threats to animals living in or near homes

7. Temptation for locals to seek risky revenge attacks on dangerous animals

8. Inconvenience of fencing, installed for protection, but reduces access

9. Potential ‘no go’ areas prevent safe grazing or agricultural land use

10. Everyday tasks become risky (e.g. water or wood collection)

Photosource: http://www.news.com.au/world/rampaging-leopard-mauls-11/story-fn6sb9br-1226099449916

Would a big cat species be able to survive in North Africa today?

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A significant argument against reintroduction of lions into North Africa is that with the combination of deforestation, desertification and impacts on landscapes, plus the continued ingress of human communities, livestock and infrastructure into formerly wild areas, there is little space for a large carnivore in the region.

However the experience with lions in India is that the animals can be quite resourceful in surviving in a region which is relatively heavily populated. In Gujarat, India the human population is 310/km² (800/sq mi). In Algeria this is 16/km², but it should be noted that most of the land area is desert. In Tunisia there is proportionally less desert and the human density is 70/km². In Morocco it is 74/km^2.(World bank).

However larger cats still appear to hang on (just) – indeed the leopard may still survive in the Atlas mountains, although last seen in the late 1990s. A much smaller feline, the serval has been recently spotted in the Atlas for the first time. Most of the other species keep to remote Saharan areas.

In the southern fringes of the region where the Saharan and the Sahel link to sub-saharan Africa, several cat species are present, even if in low numbers. Scat analysis by scientists working in southern Algeria identified continued presence of leopard. Several cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus hecki) were shot during the early 1990s in southern Morocco and Cuzin (2003) suggested although a few individuals could survive (less than 20), they are most likely extinct. Recent camera trapping in southern Algeria (covering an area of 2,800 square kilometres) the first systematic survey across the central Sahara identified four individual cheetahs.

The first camera trap footage showing a cheetah in southern Algeria in . Credit: Farid Belbachir/ZSL/OPNA; courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (2009)

Reading:

Busby et al (2009) Genetic analysis of scat reveals leopard (Panthera pardus) and cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) in Algeria. Oryx, 43(3), 412–415

Première nationale: un serval photographié dans le moyen Atlas http://ecologie.ma/premiere-nationale-un-serval-photographie-dans-le-moyen-atlas/ (photo: Salim Meghni)

Wildlife Conservation Society. “Critically Endangered Cheetahs In Algeria Snapped With Camera Trap.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 February 2009. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090227082603.htm>.

World Bank http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST accessed October 2014.

Barbary lions: an opportunity for significant zoo-based conservation

The barbary lion is extinct in the wild, most probably since the early 1960s.

Up until that fairly recent time the Sultans of Morocco, followed by the Kings of Morocco after constitutional changes in the 1950s, kept lions in private menageries. These animals had been bred from cubs which were presented as tributes by Berber Tribes of the Atlas Mountains.

In the late 1960s the remaining lions were still in the King of Morocco’s lion garden at the palace of Fez, then later Rabat. After an outbreak of respiratrory disease in the collection in the late 1960s, the lions were then moved to a new purpose built zoo in Rabat in 1973 (Yamaguchi and Haddane, 2002).

The importance of this is that since that first transfer of animals, it has been possible to trace all lions of pure ancestry alive today back to their ancestors – these animals originally in the Moroocan Royal palace collection. This means that zoos holding these descendents have a unique opportunity to keep the bloodline pure, and alive. Efforts by a number of zoos in recent years (Port Lympne, Olomouc, Belfast, Hannover, Madrid) to make breeding transfers and to increase the number of cubs has enabled the population to recover. As recently as 2008 it looked like breeding of these animals was likely to cease and at least one unique bloodline from the original 27 animals moved from the Royal Palace to Rabat zoo was lost at this time when an old non-breeding female in Germany died.

A rejuvinated zoo population with active, well managed transfers of animals between collectiosn will geive enough time for deeper scinetific and genetic analysis to determine the uniqueness and deeper ancestry of these Moroccan animals and their significance to lion conservation.

Black S, Yamaguchi N, Harland A, Groombridge J (2010). Maintaining the genetic health of putative Barbary lions in captivity: an analysis of Moroccan Royal Lions. Eur J Wildl Res 56: 21–31. doi: 10.1007/s10344-009-0280-5

Yamaguchi N, Haddane B. (2002). The North African Barbary lion and the Atlas Lion Project. International Zoo News 49: 465-481.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8109000/8109945.stm

West African lion decline mirrors the loss of the Barbary lion

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The last lions in North Africa ended up in isolated micro populations in Morocco and Algeria (Black et al 2013). Some of these tiny groups quite likely survived for a decade or more in southern Morocco (certainly from the mid 1930s onwards) and North Eastern Algeria (from the 1940s onwards).

Today the picture in West Africa is startlingly similar. In a recent survey, of 21 sites previously considered as known habitat for lions, only four sites still had confirmed presence of lions (indicated in dark orange in the map above).

Our research into North African populations suggests that these tiny groups may survive another few years, maybe a decade, perhaps unnoticed even by local people, but will then rapidly decline into oblivion. The sites shown yellow are likely to have micro-populations of lions exisitng at this point already.

Unlike wildife experts at the time of the Barbary lion’s final demise, we are now much better informed about what this decline would mean and can make choices about how to prevent it.

Reading:

Black SA, Fellous A, Yamaguchi N, Roberts DL (2013) Examining the Extinction of the Barbary Lion and Its Implications for Felid Conservation. PLoS ONE 8(4): e60174. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060174

Bauer, H. & Nowell, K. (2004) Endangered Classification for West African lions. Cat News, 41, 35-36. http://www.catsg.org/catsgportal/red-list/03_cats-and-red-list/classification-of-west-african-lions.pdf

Wolf and bear movements and behaviour offer clues to challenges of future carnivore conservation

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If you reintroduce a large carnivore into a location adjacent to human population centres then human-wildlife conflict is likely. It also raises some important questison – what is ‘adjacent’ and what is ‘human wildlife conflict’.

The first bear to appear in Germany in over 170 years (a migrant who had left Italy, crossed Austria into Bavaria, was deemed to be behaving in a threatening manner by (purportedly) raiding bee-hives, killing 30 sheep, devouring pet rabbits and a guinea pig and raiding wastebins, as well as ‘rearing on his hind legs’ when approached too closely by some over-curious hikers. The latter incident doomed him to the decision by local authorities that he should be shot by a hunter – his body is now displayed as a taxidermy in a Munch museum.

Only this year a female bear with cubs was disturbed by a local cable-car worker as he searched for mushrooms and unsuprisingly she attacked him although left him with injuries without appearing to attempt to kill him. The outcome was an attempt by the authorities to capture her and remove her from the area (where she had been living peacefully in the wild for 13 years). The animal died during the capture.

A wolf’s Journey: In zig-zagging his way from Slovenia to Italy, Slavc is estimated to have travelled some 2000 km. Photograph: Hubert Potočnik, University of Ljubljana

Experiences with reintroduced wolves has highlighted how far-ranging these animals become. Dispersion from release sites over thousands of kilometers is now being observed, although in these cases without apparent conflict issues despite proxmity to human habitation and infrastructure. Even the Netherlands hosted its first wolf in 150 years during 2013, just 30 miles from the densley populated North East coast, sparking alarmist headlines (although the animal that was found, was dead by a roadside).

So, proximity to humans becomes inevitable. Natural behaviour (investigating bee-hives, attacking vulnerable livestock, defending cubs or warding off potential threats) becomes unacceptable aggression. What are the acceptable limits? What does this mean for lions?

Reading:

BBC (2008) Notorious bear ends up in museum. BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7314724.stm

Daily Mail (2013) The wolf’s at the door: first killer beast turns up in Holland for 150 years http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2361758/The-wolfs-door-Killer-beasts-roaming-Western-Europe-time-100-years.html

Davies E. (2014) Wild Bear Danzia dies after attempt to capture her faisl in Italy. The Guardian World News http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/11/daniza-wild-bear-dies-attempt-capture-italy

Nicholls, H. (2014) Incredible journey: one wolf’s migration across Europe. The Guardian Science http://www.theguardian.com/science/animal-magic/2014/aug/08/slavc-wolf-migration-europe?CMP=twt_gu

Whitlock, C. (2006) Feb up Germany kills its only wild bear. Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR2006062600130.html

The realities of life with large carnivores

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For those of us with little experience of living alongside wild populations of large carnivrores it can be tempting to assume that such beasts would keep well clear of human habitation for fear of reprisal.

However animals are not programmed to recognise boundaries between the ‘wild’ and human populated parts of the landscape; there may be no reason to recognise an agricultural area or a road as a ‘no go’ as opposed to forest, scrub or other more suitable habitat. Additionally many of the large carnivores have extensive home ranges or are habituated to wander or migrate, wolves being a well documented example.

The other side of things is equally true; in many environemtns humans expect free access and the opportunities to exploit resources, whether on a personal, family, social or industrial level.

The image below highlights the potential dangers of this mutually exclusive, but spatially overlapping expectation. In the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve there are still a few villages, so people’s day to day lives can unexpectedly cross the lives of tigers. A bad outcome for either species following any interaction is unlikely to be a good outcome for conservation.

A tiger walks on the main road in Mohurli Range in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR) completely oblivious to the humans and vice versa!

Reading:

Conservation India (2011) Tiger Road, Tadoba. http://www.conservationindia.org/gallery/tiger-road-tadoba

Fabbri, E., C. Miquel, V. Lucchini, A. Santini, R. Caniglia et al., (2007). From the Apennines to the Alps: colonization genetics of the naturally expanding Italian wolf (Canis lupus) population. Mol. Ecol. 16 1661–1671.

The Worrying Decline of Lions in West Africa

The Barbary lion story of decline and survival in remote micro populations rarely encountered by humans is relevant to the current demise of lions in West Africa. Lions have been reduced to perhaps just 250 individuals across the entire region. Just 10 years ago estimates for the population in this region ranged from between 850 and 1163 lions, suggesting something like a 75% decline over the decade since.

A brief article outlines some of the recent research findings.

The BBC produced a nice article on this topic with a range of information

It is likely that radical approaches will be required to sustain lion populations in future. For example the establishment of fenced reserves is currently being seen as one part of the solution.

Brian Clark Howard has summarised the situation well in National Geographic Daily News – click on their map link below.