May 2020 - 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

2-minute read

Just one. That’s how many Norfolk Island boobook owls (aka morepork owls) were left on the small, South Pacific territory of Australia in 1986. Decades of extensive deforestation of the large, old-growth trees the birds depended on for safe nesting had reduced the population of the small, spotted owls to a sole female survivor. With a shortage of trees to nest in and no other owls to nest with, the last Norfolk Island boobook was in reproductive dire straits—owl alone. In 1987, concerned scientists determined to ensure the world’s rarest owl wouldn’t be the end of her species’ genetic line came up with a conservation strategy for matchmaking in the wild.

When it’s a matter of preserving DNA representing thousands of years of evolutionary adaptation in a specific environment, it’s not as if any old owl would do for the lone bird’s mate. To ensure the offspring of the last Norfolk Island boobook would carry on her unique traits, Australian conservationists imported two male New Zealand boobooks, her nearest genetic relatives, for a species-saving liaison. The Norfolk Island boobook took to one of the feathered New Zealand fellows almost immediately, and the two owls produced five hybrid offspring. The population continued on an upward trajectory and by 1995 there were nine new hybrid owls resulting from the original Norfolk Island/New Zealand match up. It looked as if the assisted avian pairing had paid off. But in 2012, the birds hit another rough patch and stopped breeding for close to a decade.

To help overcome the dual pressures of invasive predators and habitat loss, avian ecologists from Australia’s Monash University added more nesting boxes and owl monitors to Norfolk Island National Park in hope of encouraging the birds to carry on. And in April of 2020, researchers made an exciting discovery—two utterly adorable hybrid owl chicks were located, putting an end to a long reproductive dry spell for a bird species perched on the edge of extinction.

Some may ask why preserving the genome of one little owl is so important in the grand scheme of things. There are many reasons to conserve species, including the right to existence, ethical considerations, and cultural significance, as well as maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Conservation interventions that protect the island bird’s forest habitat can also benefit other threatened flora and fauna.

As conservation strategies go, most researchers agree that the intentional hybridization of endangered animals is far from a perfect solution. But when there is only one isolated bird of its kind remaining, as in the case of the Norfolk Island boobook, hybridization may be the only option left to maintain its distinctive genetic traits. There’s a saying that perfect is the enemy of great, and these owl hybrids are living proof because they sure look great to us. The last little boobook just needed a bit of extra help to be owl-right!

…

Lisa S. French May 28, 2020

Sweet City: Cultivating Citizen Pollinators

1.5-minute read

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature — Joseph Campbell

Cities—energizing, innovative hubs of productivity as well as stress-inducing sources of noise, pollution, and congestion that often diminish nature, negatively impacting the health, well-being, and resilience of inhabitants. Instead of depleting nature, what would happen if city planners reimagined urban living in a holistic way that promotes nature and green living by design?

When the Mayor’s office of the small Costa Rican city of Curridabat realized that the vast majority of its 65,000 citizens lived with paved surfaces that discouraged the attraction of native flora and fauna, they came up with a transformative nature-based solution for sustainable urban development—the Sweet City. Curridabat’s urban planners envisioned a naturalized city as a “sentient” space that boosts biodiversity and enhances ecosystem services by granting citizenship to V.I.P.’s—very important pollinators.

The Sweet City model recognizes that humans are not separate and distinct from nature but are members of a community of living beings that contribute to the creation of healthy, resilient, biodiverse environments.

Curridabat has reframed the role of essential pollinators, including bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and bats as prosperity agents, valuable native citizens that increase well-being and help ensure the continuity of natural systems that support fresh, nutritious food through local production. By studying conditions that help pollinators thrive, and planting trees, flowers, and community gardens that are natural attractors, the city of Curridabat is encouraging pollinating activities, increasing connectivity to nature through biological corridors essential to species conservation and improving the beauty of visual landscapes.

Naturally recovered urban space, thriving biodiversity, happy citizens—both people and pollinators. We call that a triple-win! It’s no wonder that Costa Ricans are some of the most contented humans on the planet. Apparently the pollinators are feeling pretty alright too!

You can read more about Curridabat’s sustainable development policy to increase biodiversity and protect essential urban pollinators here.

If you would like to join a network dedicated to connecting cities and nature, sign up at biophiliccities.org.

As it so happens, May is Garden for Wildlife Month, and that’s just what we’re gonna do! If you’re also feeling inspired to cultivate your own “sentient space” for pollinators, you can learn about butterfly heroes, native plants and certified habitats from the National Wildlife Federation. Sweet!

…

Lisa S. French May 21, 2020

Saving the Elusive Okapi

2.5-minute read

In honor of Endangered Species Day, we’d like to invite you to say hello to the rare and elusive okapi.

While “okapi” may sound like the name of an alternative fuel SUV, or perhaps a new brand of oat milk, or maybe an alternative fuel SUV that runs on oat milk, as you can see it’s none of those things. And even though it may have a body similar to a horse and striped legs like a zebra, it’s also neither of those. Although sometimes figuring out what something isn’t can help you figure out what it is, we know that you don’t have all day, so here is some instant info on the okapi, its whereabouts, and the international efforts to save the hard-to-find forest dweller from extinction.

The okapi (Okapia johnstoni) or African “forest giraffe” is one of only two remaining members of the Giraffidae family and also one of the most threatened animal species on the planet. With its striking physical characteristics, including outsized ears, long neck and extra-long (up to 18 inches!) dark blue tongue, the okapi is a sight to behold. However, not many people have seen it because the shy herbivore simply does not want to be seen. Even though the okapi has been around for approximately 18 million years and is one of the oldest mammal species on Earth, it was only officially discovered by scientists in the rainforests of what is now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1900.

The okapi’s uniquely striped coat enables it to blend in seamlessly with shafts of sunlight in forest undergrowth, helping it to steer clear of predators and researchers alike. Combined with its camouflaging ability, the okapi’s highly elusive nature and remote location pose a special challenge to scientists working to track populations and develop conservation strategies in hope of bringing the rare animal back from the brink.

As is true of many endangered animal species, one of the biggest threats to the okapi’s existence is the loss of the forest habitat that it depends upon for survival. Despite being classified as protected in 1992, as a result of ongoing deforestation, conflict, poaching, and mining, the iconic creature’s numbers continued to plummet. When the okapi was officially listed as endangered by the IUCN in 2013, it was estimated that over the previous 24-year period, the global population of 10,000 to 35,000 animals had declined by 50%.

So how do conservationists set about finding and protecting an endangered animal that doesn’t want to be found? Historically, to confirm the presence of okapi in a specific location, scientists relied on good old-fashioned dung detection along with anecdotal reports of animal remains from conservation patrols across protected areas. To modernize monitoring of the evasive animal in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, a 13,700 square kilometer stretch of the Ituri Forest in the DRC and home to the largest known population of the imperiled species, researchers from the Zoological Society of London, working alongside local communities and the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature, are now aiming to integrate technology into the mix, including camera traps and genetic testing.

One of the most important factors in ensuring endangered species like the okapi remain present and accounted for is raising public awareness of their existence. So now that you’ve met the okapi, feel free to introduce the blue-tongued wonder to your friends.

You can learn more about the collaborative efforts to protect this beautiful, bashful animal, it’s remarkable creature features, as well as the indigenous origins of its distinctive name from the Okapi Conservation Project.

If you’d like to find out how to help save other endangered animals, National Geographic has a handy slideshow of 50 at-risk species and a what-to-do list to get you started.

And to kick off your weekend in—or out—we leave you with some wildlife video joy—endangered olive ridley turtle hatchlings on the way to making tiny waves in their water world. Go, go, go!

…

Lisa S. French May 15, 2020

Do You See How I See You?

2.5-minute read

One aspect of this lockdown situation that we hadn’t anticipated, out of a long list of things that we hadn’t anticipated, because we’ve never done this before, was the staring. The uninterrupted (except by naps), somewhat guilt-inducing house cat staring. Since we’ve been “inside,” we can’t shake the feeling that we’re being watched—and that’s because we are. Watched from the bookshelves, watched from the windowsill—from the stairs, from the hallway, from inside the closet. Those innocent gold-green eyes track our every move and seem to be saying, “We’ve noticed that you are here all of the time now. Since you are here all of the time now—umm, more food?”

The cat staring got us thinking about eyes in general and pupils of eyes in particular and why cat pupils are shaped differently than human pupils. As it turns out, pupil shape is primarily a function of the predator-prey relationship—whether a species hunts or is hunted, is an herbivore or a carnivore, and what time of day it’s active. Through evolutionary adaptation, animals have developed optical superpowers that will maximize the odds of finding food or minimize the odds of becoming food.

According to researchers at UC Berkeley, ambush predators like house cats, tigers, and crocodiles that are either nocturnal or hunt both during day and night are highly likely to have vertically slit or vertically elongated pupils. Animals more likely to become prey like sheep, horses, and goats tend to have horizontally elongated pupils. Pupil shape is an adaptation that increases survival in the environment where a species evolved. Vertically elongated pupils give ambush predators laser-sharp focus on vertical shapes and greater perception of depth and distance so they can choose the ideal path to their next meal. The horizontally elongated pupils of prey species enable them to have a nearly panoramic view ahead and behind to detect approaching predators and make a quick getaway. Both vertically and horizontally slit pupils can expand up to 300 times for better vision in low light.

The location of eyes on an animal’s head also determines how they perceive depth and distance. Ambush predators with frontally-placed eyes like cats and tigers combine visual information from both eyes to home in on their target. Scientists believe some prey animals with lateral eyes that don’t have overlapping fields of view, including pigeons, quails, and doves, bob their heads to visually perceive their environment. However, head movement in ambush predators with lateral eyes like crocodiles would give away their position and potentially cost them their lunch. To compensate, their eyes have a structural advantage that projects images through different parts of the pupil, allowing them to better focus on prey.

Interestingly, height is also a factor in pupil shape. The UC Berkeley study found that in general, the taller the predator, the more rounded the vertically elongated pupils, which is why tiger pupils are closer to oval, and low-lying crocodiles have pupils that are vertical slits.

Bottom line, should you ever find yourself to be an object of intense interest for a wild one with vertically slit pupils, consider proceeding immediately to extreme social distancing.

And what about the vertically slit pupils of the staring house cat then? Well, even if you’re an indoor, purr-prone, domesticated descendant of wildcat predators and your prey comes out of a can and that can has to be opened by non-prey with opposable thumbs—evolutionary optical adaptations still dictate that you keep your eyes on the purveyor of the prize.

…

Lisa S. French May 6, 2020