IUCN Species of the Day: Hirola

 

Photo credit: Tim Wacher

 

The Hirola, Beatragus hunteri, is listed as ‘CRITICALLY ENDANGERED’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ^TM.

Organization of The Day: WildlifeNOW

WildlifeNOW

George Adamson was a legendary figure in the world of wildlife. He devoted his life to his many lions that he was able to reintroduce into the wild, becoming the infamous ‘lion man.’ In 1989, George Adamson’s life ended devastatingly, murdered by a group of Somali Bandits. Fortunately, his legacy lives on through Tony Fitzjohn, who spent nearly 18 years with Adamson learning all the tricks of the trade from building roads to organizing anti-poaching units. Together this dynamic duo created Kora National Park, encompassing 1200 square miles of land that lays adjacent to Tsavo National Park (Kenya’s largest National Park), creating a massive amount of landscape dedicated to protection and preservation.

These two extraordinary men also fought many battles against bandits and poachers, created airstrips, cut more than 300 miles of bush roads and reintroduced more than 30 lions and 10 leopards back into the wild. Today, Fitzjohn carries on the spirit of Adamson as his protégé. Recently, WildlifeNOW focuses its efforts on the highly endangered rhinos, African Wild Dogs, and elephants. Their accomplishments consist of establishing the first successful rhino sanctuary in Tanzania which is now a highly patrolled, 30 square mile sanctuary. Their veterinary program has made groundbreaking progress in the research of diseases, hoping to one day contribute to immunizations of the African Wild Dogs. After a devastating decrease in population of elephants, WildlifeNOW has around 1,000 elephants roaming the reserve in the wet season.

Additionally, for the past three decades WildlifeNOW has been successful in reintroducing zoo animals back into the wild. Tanzania, being one of the poorest countries, has hunted wildlife for the survival of themselves and their families. To help local communities WildlifeNOW has created an outreach program so that the surrounding villages benefit from the reserve. Their outreach program has provided medical assistance, funded the building of a secondary school, improved water supplies and much more. Their goal is not only to sustain wildlife, but to reverse the damage that has been done. Tony Fitzjohn has spent a lot of time traveling the world, educating the public on issues of wildlife preservation. However, he is now moving back to Kora, where he and Adamson started their magnificent journey, to bring the area back to life and re-introduce more lions into the wild.

To learn more, please visit their website

Organization of The Day: The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

David Sheldrick is a legendary figure in wildlife conservation, he founded what today is the largest national park in Kenya, Tsavo. He was the first warden of the Eastern Sector which stretched over 5,000 square miles. His dedication to helping wildlife lasted until the end of his life. He was a remarkable man with many achievements, he was the first person to ever hand-rear orphaned elephants. He was a man of great integrity and therefore, a trust has been formed in his name to have his legacy live on.

The trust supports the Tsavo National Park and cares for orphaned animals that have lost their parents to devastating events such as poaching. The trust raises them, keeps them from harm and re-introduces them into the wild where they belong. The Sheldrick Wildlife’s support stretches far and wide, they have spoken out about the ivory ban, put in place anti-poaching and de-snaring operations, as well as mobile veterinary projects. Their help gives hope to the war on wildlife.

To learn how you can help or donate, click here

Organization of The Day – Living With Lions

Living With Lions

Until recently scientists believed there were 100-200,000 lions living in Africa, but a recent survey has found that the number has dropped dramatically to approximately 23,000, and most of these are living in protected National Parks. But outside these parks lions are being killed at an alarming rate, and unless urgent action is taken, they may be completely wiped out from these unprotected areas.

Living with Lions is a research and conservation group, whose projects work in unprotected areas of Kenya to save the remaining wild lions and other predators outside National Parks. The organization currently has 5 projects; Lion Guardians, Mara Predator Project, Laikipia Predator Project, Amboseli Predator Project and the Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project. The Lion Guardians were created in response to the slaughtering of over 200 lions in the Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem since 2001, the group monitors lions, educates communities and provides initiatives to prevent human – wildlife conflict. The Laikipia and Amboseli Predator projects study the lions to find out what makes them vulnerable to extinction in an unprotected area, and how practical measures can be developed to encourage coexistence between people, livestock and predators.

The Mara Predator Project (MPP) is monitoring the lions in this area, identifying key trends and shifts in population, and building an online database of individual lions so that effective conservation methods can be applied. Lastly The Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project (KLCP) was established in early 2004 to try to use some of the lessons learnt in Laikipia to halt the massacre of lions in an area of Maasailand between the Chyulu Hills, Tsavo and Amboseli National Parks in southern Kenya.

Living With Lions is lead by Dr. Lawrence G. Frank and his team of project biologists and coordinators. To learn more, click here.

Tsavo National Park: Past, Present, and Future

Tsavo National Park is Kenya’s largest national park with 20,812 square kilometers and is home to incredible biodiversity.  However, the early years of the park were marred by unchecked poaching of many of the native species including rhinos and elephants.  In 25 years of poaching over 90% of the countries rhinos and elephants were illegally killed for their horns and tusks.  However, in the mid 1990s CITES finally recognized what had been going on and listed rhinos and elephants as as Appendix I animals and a moratorium on all elephant and rhino products was enacted.

A local Kenyan who lives on the border of Tsavo National Park

In 1989 in a show of good faith Kenya burned 12 tons of ivory worth $1 million dollars.  Tsavo National Park is now facing new types of pressures; when the park was first founded the population of Kenya was approximately 1 million people, it is now over 40 million people.  This means that the edge of the park and human settlement is now a very obvious line of settlement on one side of the line and wild park line on the other side.  Climate change, trade in arms between war torn states and the bush meat trade  are now all major concerns for the Kenyan government and Tsavo National Park.  Another problem is that as soon as animals cross the border into Tanzania they lose much of their protection as the Tanzanian government is not nearly as strict in their anti-poaching enforcement.

Elephants in Tsavo National Park

Black rhinos that had a population of 6000 in the 1970s is now down to about 50 individuals.  The same story is true for elephants: 36,000 in the 1970s and only 6000 now.  The future of Tsavo National Park is going to depend on some creative thinking of conservationists and government officials.  It is obvious that the park and animals that call it home can not survive if a way is not found to have the park benefit the locals who live around its borders.  With the price of ivory so high in China and other eastern countries the lure of poaching is just too strong.

Kenyan and Tanzanian anti-poaching units with suspected poachers

To read the full article click here

Asia’s police forces cracking down on Ivory, despite booming demand in Asia

As the demand for ivory continues to rise in Asia, more and more African elephants are feeling the repercussions.  A single large elephant tusk can now go for as much as $17,000 on the black market and with that kind of money involved there is no shortage of people willing to sell them illicitly.  Sierra Leone & Burundi no longer have any elephants inside their borders, and Senegal now has less than ten.  Samuel K. Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington has estimated the value of the illegal ivory trade at $264 million dollars over the past decade and warns that: “If we don’t get the illegal trade under control soon, elephants could be wiped out over much of Africa.”

Two tons of ivory seized in Bangkok that was being transported from Africa.

The primary destinations for illegal ivory have traditionally been Thailand, Japan and China, which have thriving black markets and some of the world’s best ivory carvers. However police forces throughout these nations have begun cracking down on the lucrative trade. Thailand had three seizures last year and already had its biggest yet in February, when 2 tons of African tusks worth $3.6 million were found in containers bound for Laos. In the Chinese city of Putian, where ivory demand is high a dealer by the name of Chen shows how difficult it is to control the ivory trade. Chinese police started cracking down on ivory theft in February. Since the raids, Chen said he has stopped selling the “xiang ya,” the Chinese word for ivory, which translates to “elephant tooth.” But not for long. “I don’t dare sell anything now because they’re cracking down,” he said, over the din of electric saws being used to carve wooden dragon statues. “Come back in early June and I should be able to sell.”

While governments insist their cracking down on the trade, officials admit corruption is rife within their ranks, which remains a huge challenge in the war on ivory. Lt. Col. Adtapon Sudsai, who investigates the illegal trade in Thailand, said it is not unusual to find ivory carvings in Buddhist temples or the homes of politicians or high-ranking police and military officers as a sign of power.

A pile of illegally obtained elephant tusks.

To read the full article click here