Tag: conservation

Media Representations of Animals Are Distorting Our Perception of Their Extinction Risk

elodieunderglass:

This article starts with the rather arresting sentence, “Most people see about 4–5 lions each day — as toys, on television, in logos.” It goes on to discuss that this overrepresentation has caused people to think that there are generally a lot of lions in the world, with repercussions for conservation.

I’ve seen 2 lions already today – a toy that Glassbab had this morning, and the one in the article. Today, I am going to keep track of how many lions I see.

Media Representations of Animals Are Distorting Our Perception of Their Extinction Risk

zsl-edge-of-existence:

The Seri, or Comcaac, people of the Sonora coast have had a long and important relationship with the leatherback.  Considered to be one of their five creator deities, the capture and release leatherback is cause for ceremony and celebrations.  In recent years, however, the nation has noticed the drastic decline of the leatherback population, and decided to take action.  The new conservation movement, called Grupo Tortuguero Comaac, consists of both elders and youths and uses both modern technology and tradition knowledge to monitor turtle populations and research their foraging habits.  Five person teams consisting of an elder, two younger team members, and two trainees make monitoring expeditions into the 

Canal de Infiernillo, the center of Seri territory and a site of extreme importance for migrating juvenile turtles.  This has proven an effective means of both monitoring local turtle populations and passing traditional knowledge on to the younger generations.

Source: zsl-edge-of-existence

China’s Giant Salamanders Pose a Conservation Conundrum

rjzimmerman:

A Chinese giant salamander, in a glass enclosure in Zhangjiajie, China. There are as many as eight distinct species, but farming is muddling them into a single hybridized population.Credit Goh Chai Hin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images.

Excerpt:

The Chinese giant salamander, the world’s largest amphibian and a critically endangered species, has quietly slipped toward extinction in nature. Following an exhaustive, yearslong search, researchers recently reported that they were unable to find any wild-born individuals.

“When we started the survey, we were sure we’d at least find several salamanders,” said Samuel Turvey, the lead author and a senior research fellow at the Zoological Society of London.

“It’s only now that we’ve finished that we realize the actual severity of the situation.”

Millions of giant salamanders live on farms scattered throughout China, where the animals are bred for their meat. But another study by Dr. Turvey and his colleagues shows that reintroducing farmed animals is not a simple solution for saving the species in the wild.

In the wild, Chinese giant salamanders were not just one species but at least five, and perhaps as many as eight. On farms, they are being muddled into a single hybridized population adapted to no particular environment. “The farms are driving the extinction of most of the species by homogenizing them,” said Robert Murphy, a co-author and senior curator of herpetology at the Royal Ontario Museum. “We’re losing genetic diversity and adaptations that have been evolving for millions of years.”

Given that, the best strategy for preventing extinction in the wild, he added, is to rescue genetically pure animals from farms, and then undertake carefully controlled conservation breeding to rebuild each species’ numbers.

China’s Giant Salamanders Pose a Conservation Conundrum

Fires Restore Wetlands for Desert Fish

rjzimmerman:

The fish to be protected by the prescribed burn is the Owens speckled dace. Here’s what it looks like. Kind of grumpy.

Excerpt:

It may seem strange to burn the area around the wetland as a habitat restoration technique, and even more oxymoronic to do so in order to save an aquatic creature in the desert. But for a nearly extinct species of fish in the arid Owens Valley, a prescribed burn is exactly what the doctor ordered.

After years of planning, the Eastern Sierra Land Trust, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and Cal Fire executed a prescribed burn this past December in order to create a sustainable habitat for the Owens speckled dace, a small fish that is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Fish in the desert might sound impossible, but there are several species of desert fish in California. During geographically transformative events that occurred thousand of years ago, these fish found their way to tiny pools and streams that punctuate the dry landscapes during wet periods. As landscapes changed over time, the desert fish have adapted into unique species specialized for their environs. According to Peter Moyle, a biologist at University of California, Davis, genomic testing suggests that the Owen speckled dace’s prehistoric ancestors came from around the Mono Lake basin, where volcanic activity blew out the waters and dropped the common ancestor of the Owens speckled dace and other dace species into surrounding areas.

“These fish have been going their own way for a very long time and adapted to very difficult conditions,” Moyle says. “If we can restore the speckled dace, you’ll have brought back a significant part of the fish fauna in that region. It just belongs there.”

Over the past 80 years, the Owens speckled dace has been in steep decline due to water mismanagement, pressures from agriculture, and encroachment by non-native species. Streams and seasonal ponds in the Owens Valley are expected to decline further with climate change-related temperature increases and less snowpack, and what has not evaporated will continue to be diverted for agricultural use. Thirsty cattle, a linchpin of the valley’s ranching history, are especially hard on area streams. The little water that does remain is often overrun with invasive plants and non-native fish species.

Fires Restore Wetlands for Desert Fish

Don’t get a Dory (and why sweeping generalizations are bad)

ohnotheybettadont:

immersive-lore-friendly-cheese:

charming-eel:

So lately I’ve been seeing a post called “Don’t get a Dory” going around. I get it. The intentions of this post are good! But saying things like saltwater fish suffer in captivity, and that all saltwater fish are wild caught, is dangerous and incorrect. Skimming through the reblogs on that post, I have seen several people ask if they should start buying sw fish with the intent of either “donating” them to zoos/aquariums or releasing them into the wild. LET’S STOP RIGHT THERE. What makes you think that zoos/aquariums want those fish? You’d just be stuck with sw fish you are not prepared or knowledgeable enough to keep. Those fish die. Let’s say you release those fish into the wild. What makes you think that the ocean is one single habitat type? You release a Dory and that fish dies and potentially takes wild fish with it by introducing disease and parasites that native fish/inverts aren’t equipped to handle. If by some miracle you release a fish that can survive in the waterway you release it in, it has the potential to reproduce and drive out native species. Ever hear of the invasive lionfish epidemic in the Atlantic?

Let’s move on to another point I see brought up often: That “Finding Nemo” increased demand for clownfish. This is true! But it also increased motivations to breed clownfish in captivity. Most clownfish for sale are now aquacultured and have zero impact on reefs in the wild. We have now bred yellow tangs in captivity and I have no doubt that we will figure out how to breed blue hippo tangs as well in the near future. The biggest problems I have with these films are that Disney made aquarium products. These tank kits were inappropriate for even simple and easy fish like bettas, much less “nemos” and “dorys”.

I’ve also seen people say that saltwater fish do not belong in homes. WHY? Are you against people keeping freshwater fish? Without professional and hobbyist aquarists, we would not have captive populations of fish and corals. Owning fish is extremely important to conservation and continuing to be able to enjoy these animals in a climate that is changing.

As long as you do your research and keep them properly, saltwater fish are excellent pets. Blue hippo tangs (and tangs in general) are very long lived, intelligent, and personable fish. I’ve known blue tangs in hobbyist tanks that were in their twenties. IMO, chain pet stores should not carry saltwater fish because they often do not allow their employees to deny sales to people who will neglect or abuse those fish. And the employees are also often uneducated and not hobbyists themselves. That being said, condemning an entire industry and hobby just causes misguided instances where people will unknowingly introduce invasive species and harm wildlife with the best intentions. Not unlike the bison incident that has made headlines recently.

In short, if you find yourself wanting to rescue fish from the evils of the pet industry, EDUCATE yourself on the benefits of captivity and why hobbyist propagation of fish and coral species is so important.

This is such a good post, especially the part about hobbyists efforts to grow and conserve corals in captivity, which may one day in the future be the saving grace of all corals.

They have actually successfully bred blue hippo tangs in captivity! There haven’t been many yet but the first ones were born sometime last year so hopefully soon we start getting some captive bred ones available!

typhlonectes:

Extremely Rare (and Peculiar) Fish Found Off Coast of Tasmania

The new population could double the known numbers of these oddball creatures

by Briget Katz

The red handfish is a funny little critter that uses its fins to scuttle along the rocky seafloor. Dwelling exclusively in the waters off Tasmania, it is also one of the rarest fish in the world. So researchers were excited to find an entirely new population of red handfish hiding amidst Tasmania’s reefs. As Calla Wahlquist reports for the Guardian, the discovery may double the number of known red handfish.

Previously, scientists were aware of only one red handfish population of between 20 and 40 individuals, which swim along a stretch of reef in the Frederick Henry Bay. But a member of the public recently reported seeing a little handfish in a nearby area. So seven divers from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and the citizen science project Reef Life Survey set out to try and find these elusive marine creatures…

Read more: Smithsonian Magazine