iWILD

iWild is Back!

Apologies for the prolonged absence:  We were off chuntering about biodiversity in foreign lands and what not.  But now we’re back, and there’s lots to catch up on:

• Some good news from the Serengeti!  After a recent visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Tanzania announced that it would give up plans to build a road across the Serengeti.  But the group that sounded the alarm, Serengeti Watch, approaches the news with caution:  “Our interpretation - A battle has been won, but the struggle to save the Serengeti goes on. Roads will still be constructed up to the edges of the park. The pressures on the Serengeti, including a commercial corridor to Uganda, still exist. The highway across the Serengeti has been proposed three times now, and can be raised again.  But yes, let’s congratulate ourselves on the work we’ve done.“ 
  
• Terrifying news from the IUCN Red List:  More than 19,000 species are heading to extinction, according to the latest data.  That’s up from 11,000 a decade ago.  The Economist lays it out.
• Ocean ecosystems continue their precipitous slide, according to the latest report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, citing a “deadly trio of factors”:  warming, acidification, and anoxia (low oxygen levels).  Videos here.
• Al Gore takes the lazy-ass media and the Obama administration to the woodshed re inaction on climate change in the latest issue of Rolling Stone.  I’m getting emails every week now from Barack, asking me to donate $375 for a chance to have dinner with him and from Michelle, trying to sell me t-shirts.  Hey guys, I still love you, but I don’t want dinner, and I don’t want a t-shirt.  I’m with Al:  I want you to get on it.

More soon.

Another Extinction for Australia?

At COP 10, the grim news keeps coming:  An IUCN press conference this morning announcing a new report on the fate of the world’s species highlighted the sad fate of the Christmas Island Pipistrelle, a microbat that has probably vanished from the earth in the past year. RIP, tiny one.

Here are the numbers on what’s left on earth, from the IUCN Red List website:

Total species assessed = 55,926

Extinct = 791
Extinct in the Wild = 63
Critically Endangered = 3,565
Endangered = 5,256 
Vulnerable = 9,530
Near Threatened = 4,014
Data Deficient = 8,358
Least Concern = 24,080

“Nature’s Future Is Our Future…

…and if it fails, we will fail too. So when a Red List like this raises the alarm, the implications for our ecosystems and for our own future are clear. This is a worrying decline.” 

So said EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potočnik on last month’s release of the European Red List, highlighting species threatened by climate change and habitat loss across the continent.  With nearly a third of Europe’s butterflies in decline, along with unique beetles and dragonflies—such as today’s Endangered All-Star, the beautiful Greek Red Damsel—in decline, the IUCN, or International Union for the Conservation of Nature, hopes that the Red List will bring concentrated attention to the need to stem biodiversity loss.  The Greek Red Damsel now occupies only seven sites in the mountains of Greece.

To see more on the European Red List and to view a Gallery of photos, check out the IUCN’s press release.

Photo:  © Jean-Pierre Boudot

Yes, It’s Rodent Week!

Why Rodent Week, you might ask?  Despite being well-mannered and attractive—I once knew a fine fellow named Ralph, who just happened to be a rat—rodents are too-often despised for their prolific nature and a reputation for spreading disease.  But in their native ecosystems, rodents play a critical role, serving as a prey base for carnivorous mammals and birds, spreading the seeds of plants far and wide, and aerating and improving soil.  A recent study by a team from the University of Tokyo found that rodents promote ecosystem restoration in harsh, arid lands.  The researchers asked:  “Are small rodents key promoters of ecosystem restoration in harsh environments?” and in a paper published in 2009 in the Journal of Arid Environments, the answer was yes.  Mongolian gerbils, the team found, provided a valuable service by removing plant litter and breaking up a crust that formed across the top of degraded agricultural fields, preventing the growth of a native grass species.  They concluded that “small rodents are key agents in the recovery of degraded grasslands.”

While the Golden (or Syrian) Hamster is commonly kept as a pet and used in medical research, the species is threatened in the wild, listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.  Routinely poisoned by farmers (with rodenticide supplied by the Syrian government) and losing habitat to agriculture and development, the golden hamster occupies a shrinking, fragmented range along the border between Syria and Turkey.  Should these hamsters become extinct in the wild, their key role as seed dispersers will come to an end, doubtless affecting native plants in the region.  According to the IUCN, no conservation measures are in place, and Syria considers the species an agricultural pest.

Photo:  © Robert Pickett / papiliophotos.com