Category: Help a species

1. Amur/Far Eastern Leopards on the rise

   Posted on 3:00pm Friday 19th Apr 2019

   Researchers doing some photo monitoring in the Vorontsov Land of the Leopard National Park have identified 91 adult leopards, as well as 22 cubs! As a rule, a qualitative increase is possible when the population has at least twice as many females as males. The high percentage of cubs too is good news.  The new trend amongst Far Eastern Leopards suggests stabilisation of this rare cat’s population.  They are also known as Amur Leopards. The Land of the Leopard National Park accounts for about 70% of the leopard’s natural habitat.  This was a key decision:  it means that the Far Eastern Leopard can now live safely on an area of almost 2,800 square kilometres.   To count the wild cats, national park employees went through nearly a million camera trap images.  About 10,000 of them had leopards on them! To complete the picture, experts from the Russian national park are eagerly waiting for the results that their Chinese colleagues are producing; they too have been monitoring photos. These data are vital now that the Land of the Leopard has become a “birth centre” for the spotted cats; many young leopards move to the Chinese borders to look out new territories.  Some return, but a certain number stay in China – and that means that the leopard population can grow! Far Eastern Leopards is an autonomous non-profit organisation. Far Eastern Leopards’ mission is “to protect and restore the Far Eastern Leopard population in its historical habitat in the Russian Far East. It supports the photo monitoring at Land of the Leopard and the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve.  About 360,000 hectares are being monitored in the national park.  400 automatic camera traps can be found in the national park, so it’s the largest camera trap network in Russia! Camera trap images enable scientists to do several things: to determine the size of the animal population to monitor changes in their life cycle to estimate their physical condition to determine their behavioural traits.  Find out about Far Eastern Leopards here – there’s lots of information on Far Eastern Leopards and also the organisation trying to protect and restore the species. Reasons for the very low numbers of these leopards are: Reduced feeding supply – the prey they live off have been dying out because of poaching and deforestation Habitat destruction and infrastructure development – forest fire risks have increased because of deforestation and mining;  roads make the areas more accessible to humans Poaching – leopard skin and body parts are used in oriental medicine

    

2. Come swiftly to the swifts' rescue

   Posted on 8:00pm Thursday 28th Feb 2019

   Swifts need our help.   Their numbers are plummeting in the UK – according to the RSPB, there’s been a 53% decline between 1995 and 2016. The problem is that when buildings are refurbished or demolished, the nooks and crannies so vital for swifts are lost.  This means that swifts have nowhere to nest.  They need gaps high up on our homes and in other buildings. So the RSPB has a goal.  Swifts winter in Africa and make their way to the UK for the summer. To help swifts, it wants to get 1,000 swift nestboxes up before the swifts arrive at the end of April.  ©RSPB How you can help swifts You can make a swift nestbox or if you’re short of time or practical abilities, you can buy a swift nestbox from the RSPB’s shop.  Put up a Swift nest box from the RSPB £39.99 Buy 2 nestboxes by 9 July 2019 and you can save £2  (applies to selected nest boxes. watch for the offer) If you’re involved in a new build or renovation project, you can install a swift brick. For advice on bricks, email the RSPB’s conservation team at [email protected] and include 'swift bricks' in the subject line.   Every swift brick counts. Find out more about swifts here.

    

3. New partnership to curb elephant poaching in Kenya

   Posted on 8:00pm Wednesday 20th Feb 2019

   The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has partnered with the TUI Care Foundation to prevent the poaching of elephants and stop human-elephant conflict in the Tsavo conservation area in Kenya. TenBoma is IFAW’s innovative wildlife security initiative.  It means that government and community rangers are trained to better predict and respond to threats and protect the animals and local communities. In short, the tenBoma approach combines tradition – taking traditional knowledge from communities – with modernity – incorporating this knowledge into modern methods and technology. The support from the TUI Care Foundation has enabled IFAW to provide urgently needed equipment to community rangers.  This equipment includes items such as mobile devices, cameras and boots.  These items enable the rangers to gather information on potential threats to wildlife and people. Technology, systematic data processing systems and intelligence will enable the two organisations to implement the initiative. Rangers have communications and mobility equipment such as GPS, smartphones and radios so that they can respond more quickly and effectively to intercept poachers.   These also enable the rangers to get to areas where elephants are raiding crops and so coming into conflict with people. The Tsavo Conservation Area is one of Kenya's most visited tourism destinations.  IFAW say about 12,850 elephants live there, and amongst them are at least 11 of the world’s remaining big tuskers.  They are all facing a threat from poachers who want their ivory and from human-elephant conflict. Find out more

    

4. Durrell has a film called Conservation Works

   Posted on 5:00pm Saturday 2nd Feb 2019

   The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has moved into 2019 looking forward to its 60th anniversary....It was founded back in 1959 by author and naturalist Gerald Durrell.  The charity is committed to saving some of the most vulnerable animals on the planet from extinction. For instance, a duck thought to be extinct for 15 years has been brought back from the brink and given a new home on a remote lake in Madagascar. The Jersey based charity has a video called Conservation Works, narrated by Alexander Armstrong and here it is from You Tube: Durrell's approach: The charity runs 50 projects in 18 countries, focusing on islands.    The role of the zoo in Jersey and overseas is conservation, managing breeding programmes for release back into the wild. It has 25 years of conservation training and runs courses for conservationists.  And it uses science to help idenfity priorities, design conservation policy and practice and animal husbandry and to evaluate the impact of its work.  In the last 30 years, Durrell has helped move 14 target species in danger of extinction away from the edge.  As a Jersey girl, I'm very proud of Durrell and the work it does, and wish everyone there and associated with it a very Happy 60th Anniversary!   Keep up the wonderful work :-)

5. Good news for tiger conservation in Satpuda in central India from Born Free

   Posted on 9:00pm Tuesday 8th Jan 2019

   Today there’s good news from Born Free. 100 years ago, there were about 100,000 tigers across Asia.   Today, there are just 4,000 and the tiger is officially classified a Endangered by the IUCN (that’s the International Union for Conservation of Nature). Threats to tigers include Human-wildlife conflict Poaching for body parts for traditional “medicine” Habitat loss because of deforestation and development, which people are driving Born Free have an initiative called Living with Tigers.  It’s a network of Indian NGOs working across central India in the Satpuda area.      The network does a number of things, namely to: Tackle the poaching crisis Safeguard tiger habitats Find compassionate solutions so that communities and wildlife can live together There’s a dedicated teams of Tiger Ambassadors.  These are local villagers who are trained to identify signs of tigers being present in their area and to help if conflict arises. There’s also a Mobile Education Unit which teachers local school children about wildlife conservation. So the good news for tiger conservation is.... Tiger numbers have increased to 500 across the Satpuda landscape in the last 10 years.  This is great news but Born Free wants to go further.   It wants to:  Safeguard wild tiger populations in central India Work with more local communities to reduce human-wildlife conflict Create more protected areas so that wildlife can flourish Educate more people on the importance of conservation and approaches to co-existence.

   Help Born Free protect tigers here by donating to their work