August 2019 - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

We share our home planet with an awe-inspiring abundance of living things. The official cohabitant count stands at 8.7 million identified species, give or take, which represents only 15% of the estimated total number. From the smallest microorganisms to the largest mammals and most complex ecosystems, biological diversity—the diversity within and between species—supports the healthy functioning and maintenance of the interdependent environmental systems we rely upon to thrive. One of the most consistent threats to the creature components of biodiversity is accelerating land-use change resulting in degradation and loss of habitats and wilderness areas. According to the most recent Living Planet Report, only 25% of the world’s land surface can now be considered wilderness, 70% of which is concentrated in just five countries: Australia, Canada, Russia, the United States, and primary keeper of planetary lungs, Brazil.

The ongoing modification of Earth’s natural landscapes is forcing an increasing number of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians from wild places to fragmented in-between spaces. These isolated remnants of habitat prevent animals from moving freely to find food, migrate, reproduce, and maintain biological variety, resulting in diminished and endangered populations globally. Loss of keystone species, which play a critical role in the functioning of food webs, also increases pressure on and reduces the resilience of ecosystems, putting them at risk of collapse.

Since 1970 global wildlife populations have plummeted by an alarming 60%. One of the most effective things that we can do right now to conserve terrestrial biodiversity is to protect and restore wilderness areas and ensure ecosystem connectivity through the creation of networked wildlife corridors that link larger areas of native vegetation to facilitate the safe passage of species from butterflies to bighorn. Wildlife corridors can be manmade, like Africa’s first dedicated elephant underpass in Mt. Kenya National Forest, or naturally occurring, like the Terai Arc Landscape in Nepal. Enlarging corridor systems and protected areas holds the potential to save threatened and endangered native species and restore habitat across the world’s last remaining biodiversity hotspots.

We are in, and we are of, the interconnected web of life. It sustains us all physically, spiritually, culturally, and economically. Making room for the wild ones through the restoration and protection of the places that they roam and call home will help to ensure the future health, wellbeing, and survival of all cohabitants of the living world. To borrow from author Rick Bass, “If it’s wild to your own heart, protect it. Preserve it. Love it. And fight for it.”

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Lisa S. French August 31, 2019

Traveling Trees

Like all living things, trees have a comfort zone where they grow best and thrive-an evolutionarily determined combination of sunlight, soil nutrients, water and temperature that supports the structure, bark, and leaves of diverse species. But what happens when a tree no longer gets the moisture and nutrients it needs to put down roots and send up shoots in a hotter, drier world? While the mighty oak in your front yard can’t just up sticks and trot down the block to the yard with the fancy sprinkler system, trees do have the ability to migrate in response to environmental change, about ten miles per decade, through various modes of seed dispersal. In the United States, trees move in two directions, gravitating toward cooler temperatures in the North or increased rainfall in the West. However, when the rate of change in temperature or precipitation exceeds a species ability to adapt or migrate, climate-induced dieback can occur, negatively impacting the resilience and sustainability of forest ecosystems.

In anticipation of increased global warming, researchers at the Schoodic Institute at Maine’s Acadia National Park are conducting experiments in assisted tree migration—planting and monitoring non-native, heat and drought-resistant seedlings to determine which species will adapt best to projected climatic changes in Acadia in the coming decades. Deciding which trees to relocate and which to leave behind is a tricky business. Altering one component of a natural system can result in cascading changes that may impact the survival of interdependent, co-evolved plants, and wildlife. What future forests will look like, who decides and whether or not trees should be assisted to migrate is a matter of ongoing controversy and debate. Time will tell if those tree species that just can’t get there from here will be able to survive in a warming world with a little travel assistance from their friends in forest ecology. You can learn more about the science of trees on the move from our planting partners at American Forests here.

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Lisa S. French August 18, 2019

Restoring Rhinos

The precious population of southern white rhinos just added a history-making new clan member. On July 28, reproductive science researchers at the San Diego Zoo Global announced the arrival of Edward, the first southern white rhino calf born in North America through the process of artificial insemination. The birth of a healthy male rhino through IVF represents an important breakthrough in a Recovery Ecology project aimed at restoring rhino populations worldwide, including the functionally-extinct northern white rhino of which only two females, Najin and Fatu, are remaining following the death of the last male, Sudan, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, in March 2018. With the help of six southern white rhino surrogates, including Edward’s mother Victoria, scientists at the Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center eventually hope to create a sustainable crash, or herd, of northern white rhinos as part of a collaborative effort to save this iconic animal.

Of the five species of rhinoceros living today, which include black, white, Sumatran, Indian, and Javan, southern white rhinos are the least endangered. From a historic low of 100 individuals in the early 1900s, through dedicated conservation efforts over the last century the population has grown to an estimated 21,000 animals in the wild, and close to 700 in zoos globally. The majority of southern white rhinos live in South Africa, but they can also be found in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya—and now a wobbly, little one in California. You can learn more about the ongoing initiatives focused on restoring rhinos to their rightful place in the wild from Save the Rhino International.

Update:

Ol Pejeta has announced more exciting progress on the road to rhino restoration! On August 22nd, veterinarians at the Conservancy successfully harvested a total of ten eggs from Najin and Fatu to create embryos for implantation into southern white rhino surrogates. On August 25th, seven out of ten donated eggs were successfully inseminated with frozen “donations” from Suni and Saut, two northern white rhino bulls. If this groundbreaking IVF procedure results in the development of viable embryos, we’ll be one step closer to reconstituting a sustainable population of northern white rhinos.

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Lisa S. French August 3, 2019