Agency Agreed Wildlife Risk From Oil Was ‘Low’
Peace, Love, and Understanding
Although war and insecurity have made it difficult to survey their habitat, the Bonobo population has almost certainly declined precipitously in the last thirty years. From 50,000 to fewer than 5,000 of these slightly smaller and mellower chimps may remain in the wild. Head over to the laudable Bonobo Conservation Initiative (BCI) to learn more, and perhaps to adopt a bonobo. Mongabay.com recently posted a detailed report on one of the Bonobo Conservation Initiative’s most encouraging new achievements: the creation of a nearly 2,000-square-mile rainforest protected area, the Kokolopori Bonobo Preserve, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It has been a model of community conservation: “Every step of its creation—from biological surveys to reserve management—has been run by the local Congolese NGO and villages of Kokolopori.” Two years earlier, the BCI had also also instrumental in the establishment of the Sankuru Nature Reserve in the DRC, a bonobo preserve larger than the state of Massachusetts, encompassing 11,803 square miles of tropical rainforest, extremely rich in biodiversity. The threat to the bonobo and the BCI campaign to save it was the subject of a recent episode of NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, which can be heard here.
It’s Monkey Month!
With apologies to the apes and prosimians—yes, we know they’re not monkeys—iWild is about to go hog-wild for all things primate, highlighting a different endangered simian every day this month. Sadly, there are plenty to choose from: One in four primates may become extinct without drastic conservation intervention. Some are already gone. But hope remains: For example, Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus, thought to be lost forever, may survive in small numbers in a small corner of the Ivory Coast—although not even a photograph of that beautiful but imperiled animal exists.
Earlier this year, the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) issued a list no self-preserving monkey wants to be caught dead on, identifying the top 25 most endangered primates on earth. It has been impossible to survey areas wracked by war or conflict to ascertain the whereabouts and population of certain species. That’s no reason to forget about them: Our nearest relatives, from lemurs to langurs, are part of the family too. We can’t spare a single one.
The Coolest Cat
Read all about this transcendent predator and the fight to keep it alive in the wild at the superb Melbourne-based Saving Snow Leopards blog.
In this undated photo released by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, long-billed vulture chicks huddle at a breeding center in Pinjore, northern India’s Haryana state. The one of world’s most endangered birds has been bred in captivity for the first time in India, scientists said Tuesday, June 29, 2010.
AP (via Day in Pictures - Sacramento Bee)
Fleeting Foxes
Bats are the only mammals that have been able to colonize the 300 islands that make up the Fiji archipelago, and of these creatures the Fijian Monkey-Faced Bat is the only bat species that is endemic to Fiji. The sole confirmed habitat for this flying fox is the misty forested uplands of a single island, Taveuni. Since Fiji has very few pollinating species, bats play a crucial role in Fijian ecosystems. This is another heartbreaking example of an important species that was only discovered recently — it was identified in 1977 — yet it may become extinct before we learn much about it.
(via theanimalblog)
Mark your calendars! It’s almost Monkey Month at iWild! July will be dedicated to all things primate….
