african wildlife Archives - Page 3 of 3

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

If you find yourself sloshing around a lagoon on the coast of southern Africa and happen upon a long-necked, spindly-legged, petite pouf of avian pinkness and think “Hmm, that one’s not quite the full flamingo,” you would be correct. Standing up to three feet tall but weighing only three to six pounds, Phoeniconaias minor, a.k.a. the lesser flamingo, is the smallest and one of the most brightly colored of six species of flamingo. What lesser flamingos lack in size, they make up in numbers, forming million-strong mega-flocks in their African home. These very vocal gatherings also known as stands, colonies, or the aptly named flamboyance, help to ward off a long list of potential predators including lions, leopards, cheetahs, jackals, and hyenas. When you are on everyone’s menu, there is safety in numbers.

Like other wading birds, the lesser flamingo is dependent upon the healthy functioning of biodiverse coastal ecosystems for food. Lesser flamingos are filter feeders, skimming blue-green algae, insects and the occasional crustacean from the water through sieve-like structures called lamellae which line their boomerang-shaped bills. All flamingos stand on both legs when feeding, but tuck one leg under their plumage for up to four hours when sleeping. This famed one-legged posture, which long puzzled scientists, has now been attributed to the wading bird’s need for thermoregulation. Standing around in cold water for hours every day, even in a warm climate, can cause a rapid drop in body temperature. Researchers estimate that keeping one leg high and dry helps flamingos reduce heat loss by up to one-half.

This avian adaptation works in conjunction with the rete mirabile, a rather beautiful-sounding Latin term meaning “wonderful net” which refers to the intricate, fine web of arteries and veins that also serves to minimize heat loss in warm-blooded vertebrates. In flamingos, this arterial net functions to preserve upper body heat when their feet and legs are immersed in cold water during prolonged feeding and sleeping sessions.

These champion waders are also able, if awkward, fliers. Gangly necks and legs outstretched, lesser flamingos are capable of reaching speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. Although non-migratory, the birds do relocate in response to changes in climate that affect water levels and food supplies.

With coloration ranging from pastel to coral to bubble-gum pink, the eminently preen-worthy feathers of the flamingo species are a function of “you are what you eat.” Flamingo chicks are born grey or white, slowly acquiring their happy hue over several years as a result of consuming beta carotenoids. Carotenoids, which are found in foods like carrots, squash, apricots, and the blue-green algae favored by flamingos, are broken down by the liver into yellow, orange, and red fat-soluble pigments which are transmitted to plumage—no carotenoids in the diet, no pink in the flamingos.

While lesser flamingo populations are estimated to be between 1.5 and 2.5 million, the species is listed as near threatened by the IUCN as numbers are decreasing due to predation, habitat loss and illegal poaching. Here’s to hoping the smallest pink feathered ones hang on in there—lesser but not less than.

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Lisa S. French September 16, 2019

Roaming Room

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

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

Good News for Gorillas

Home to over 3,000 different species of plants and animals, the Virunga Mountain range bordering Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the most biologically diverse places on earth. The best known and most beloved occupants of this UNESCO World Heritage site are the majestic mountain gorillas. Discovered by German explorer Captain Robert von Beringe in 1902, over the course of the 20th century, mountain gorillas suffered the impacts of habitat loss, hunting, war, and disease leading scientists to estimate that continued environmental pressures would render the critically endangered species extinct by the year 2000. Although populations of mountain gorillas in the Virunga range continued to dwindle to near extinction, 480 individuals had survived as of 2010.

An inspiring testament to the progress that can be achieved through a creative combination of government, NGO, and community-based conservation efforts, including eco-tourism, these gentle herbivores, vital to the health of forest ecosystems, are slowly making a comeback. Population surveys in 2016 found that the Virunga gorillas had increased to 604 individuals. The total population of mountain gorillas now stands at 1,004 which includes a second group in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. At a time when animal species around the globe are facing extreme challenges to their survival, this bit of good news for mountain gorillas underscores the vital importance of supporting wildlife conservation initiatives for the benefit of all inhabitants who share the planet.

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Lisa S. French May 7, 2019

Evolving Elephants

Unlike their Asian elephant cousins, both male and female African elephants grow tusks over the course of their lifetimes which they use for defense, debarking and moving trees, and digging for roots, salt, and water. These long incisors used as tools for daily living have made elephants targets of ivory poachers across the continent of Africa for centuries and to devastating effect. While it is extremely rare for male African elephants to be born without tusks, the 3 to 4 percent of wild female African elephants that never grow tusks have a distinct evolutionary advantage as they are more likely to survive periods of intense poaching. Scientists believe that through the process of natural selection, tuskless female elephants are passing this trait on to their daughters. As intensely hunted big tusked male elephants, known as tuskers, are eliminated from the population through poaching, the offspring of smaller tusked males and tuskless females spread the tuskless trait.

Researchers are now studying tuskless populations in heavily poached areas across Africa to determine what this growing phenomenon means for the future of the species. According to Dr. Joyce Poole of Elephant Voices, 51 percent of 200 adult females 25 years or older in Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique that survived the rampant poaching that took place during the 15-year civil war are tuskless. Since the civil war ended in 1997, 32 percent of female elephants born in Gorongosa are tuskless. In the early 2000s in Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa, 98% of 174 females were also observed to be tuskless. While current populations of tuskless elephants appear to be healthy and thriving, scientists are continuing to study the impact of tusklessness on both individual and group behaviors as well as on other plant and animal species in their native ecosystems. Through critical ongoing research, we’ll learn more about how these iconic, highly intelligent, and empathic animals are continuing to evolve and adapt to the growing human-induced pressures that impact their survival.

For breathtaking photos of some of Africa’s last great tuskers, check out Land of Giants by Will Burrard-Lucas.

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Lisa S. French March 19, 2019

The name "pangolin" comes from a Malay word that means "one who rolls up".

World Pangolin Day

To celebrate World Pangolin Day, we pulled together a few interesting facts about these remarkable Asian and African mammals to raise awareness and impress your pangolin-party pals. Pangolins are shy, solitary, nocturnal animals that range in size from about three to 73 pounds and make their homes in forests, grasslands, and savannahs. Although the eight species of pangolins are also known as “scaly anteaters”, and do indeed eat ants as well as termites and other insects, they are genetically more closely related to cats, dogs, and bears. However, unlike carnivores, pangolins do not have teeth so can’t chew their food. Their stomachs are lined with keratinous spines which, combined with stones they swallow, help to pulverize the insects they’ve captured with their long sticky tongues. A pangolin tongue can be up to an impressive 15 inches long, which comes in handy when probing inside of an anthill or termite mound in search of dinner. Pangolins can eat up to 20,000 ants and termites a day (that’s 70 million a year), helping to protect forests from destruction.

Most of a pangolin’s body is covered by overlapping scales also made from keratin, the same protein that forms human hair, nails, and rhino horn. These sharp-edged scales, which make up about 20 percent of a pangolin’s body weight, protect it from predators. When under attack a pangolin curls into a tight ball and extends its scales to shield its vulnerable undersides.

Because their meat is considered a delicacy, and their scales are believed to have magical and medical properties, pangolins have become the most trafficked animal in the world. Sadly, as a result, all eight species are currently listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as threatened with extinction. Check out this rare footage of a giant pangolin doing a bit of tree-hugging and find out what the African Wildlife Foundation is doing to help ensure the world’s only scaly mammal is not lost forever.

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Lisa S. French February 16, 2019

Matching Giraffes

Particular patterns of spots passed down from female giraffes to their offspring may play an important role in helping to keep calves safe in the wild. Scientists are working to understand how inheriting similar shapes and patterns of spots from their mothers could increase young giraffes chances of survival. It appears those beautiful markings, which also serve as camouflage from predators, may not be random after all—apparently, the larger and more irregular the spots the better. When it comes to giraffe survival in the savanna, it seems there’s no such thing as being too matchy-matchy.

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Lisa S. French January 18, 2019

Hoppy They’re Here

Pop quiz! What can be found on every continent except Antarctica, fits in the palm of your hand, comes in 4,740 different models, amazingly eye-popping colors, and drinks and breathes through its skin? Hint: it’s not the iPhone 30X. It’s a humble hopper–the frog. Last fall, a particularly tiny, bright green member of the frog family, the Pickersgill’s reed frog, made a big splash in biodiversity conservation when two hundred of the endangered amphibians were returned to the only place they call home, a 56-square-mile patch of habitat in coastal South Africa. So, why the tiny frog fuss? This particular army of frogs was raised in captivity by scientists working to rapidly breed species on the brink of extinction, one of many global teams rushing to conserve threatened wildlife.

While they may not take up much space in our minds or on the planet, frogs are important because they are a keystone species, a critical link in the chain of organisms that support functioning ecosystems, benefiting both humans and other animals. Sticky-tongued frogs are natural bug zappers, eating a variety of insects including the disease-carrying mosquito. They are also a food source for larger species including fish, birds, and monkeys. Pre-frogs, otherwise known as tadpoles, do their bit to help to keep waterways clean by eating algae. And because frogs are super-sensitive to environmental stressors, a typically frog-friendly habitat that becomes frog-free can alert us to changes in climate, air and water quality. Conserving the creature components of global ecosystems, even the tiny, green ones, keeps interdependent living parts of the natural world healthy and that’s a wonderful thing. If you’d like to support the preservation of forest and wetland habitats for our amphibian friends, hop on over to WWF.

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Lisa S. French January 5, 2019