keystone species Archives - 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 when we thought sea otters couldn’t possibly be more lovable, researchers at Sonoma State University have discovered that the bewhiskered marine mammals, aka kelp keepers, are also helping to save Monterey Bay’s coastal salt marsh, the Elkhorn Slough—one tasty crab dinner at a time.

The Elkhorn Slough, a seven-mile stretch between Santa Cruz and Monterey, is home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including 340 bird species, 550 invertebrates, and 60 mammals. Salt marshes like the Slough are among the most threatened ecosystems on Earth. And why is saving salt marshes important? Well, they are invaluable ecosystems that help protect shorelines, store carbon, and promote healthy fisheries, in addition to supporting thousands of species of plant and animal life.

According to the Sonoma State researchers, striped shore crabs, left unchecked by natural predators, have been disrupting the soil and eating the roots of marsh plants that hold the shoreline of the Slough together, contributing to almost a foot of erosion every year.

Enter the hungry, hungry sea otters, enthusiastic consumers of the burrowing crustaceans. In areas of the salt marsh where the once plentiful native otters were reintroduced, erosion was reduced by 2/3, helping to maintain this critical habitat for all wildlife.

By protecting the sea otters that keep runaway grazers like striped crabs from disrupting coastlines, we can reduce erosion, protect marine habitat that supports native wildlife and help cool the planet—that’s a conservation triple win—otterly amazing!

ICYMI Nature News

It’s Beautiful Out There
If you need to rest your eyes on something restorative amid bleak mid-winter, the Nature Photo Contest winners have been announced, and you can see their work right here.

When Whales Walked the Earth
Did you know that seal-like whales used to walk the shores of North America? Find out how they moved from land to sea from the Smithsonian Magazine.

Flaco’s Year of Freedom
It’s been a year since Flaco the owl escaped from the confines of the Central Park Zoo and took up residence on NYC’s Upper West Side. How is the feathery fellow, and what’s he been doing? NPR has thoughts on his free-bird-a-versary here.

The World’s Oldest Forest Two Hours From NYC
Would you like to visit a forest that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Earth? You don’t have to travel to the heart of the Amazon because the world’s oldest forest was recently discovered just two hours north of NYC.

Silk Spinning Crustaceans
If you thought that spiders were the only creatures capable of spinning silk, scientists at the University of California would like you to meet these crafty crustaceans.

Big Bear Valley Eagle Nest Cam
Looking for some animal cam comfort? Magnificent bald eagles Jackie and Shadow are back on the roost, protecting their eggs from the elements. You can keep tabs on the dedicated parents and future hatchling happenings here.

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Lisa S. French February 10, 2024

Community Conservation: Love and Hope in Action

2.5-minute read

And just like that, it’s December…

Before we give Wild & Wondrous a holiday rest, we’d like to dedicate one of the last posts of the year to one of our favorite topics: community conservation—local communities working together to restore nature and protect wildlife. This rights-based, bottom-up approach to preserving global biodiversity is one of the most effective strategies for healing our planet. What makes it work? It’s low cost, it’s flexible, and it benefits both people and endangered species. What’s not to love?

From the Florida Keys to the Amazon rainforest to the savannahs of East Africa, innovative conservation organizations are empowering local communities to protect the land and seascapes that sustain them and native wildlife and support the healthy functioning of ecosystems.

One of the most impactful community-based conservation organizations operating today and an all-around, results-oriented top pick that inspires us throughout the year is Big Life Foundation. Whether you’re new to their work or already a fan and can spare a moment to be re-enthused, we’d like to share some highlights about how they do what they do so well.

Big Life’s team of 500-plus rangers protects and secures wildlife and critical habitat across 1.6 million acres across the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem in East Africa. Home to an amazing variety of wildlife like African bush elephants, impalas, lions, cheetahs, Masai giraffes, Grant’s zebras, and eastern black rhinos, Big Life’s area of operation is one of the most important habitats left in Africa.

The secret to Big Life’s effectiveness is they understand that the only way to protect wildlife and wildlands is to win the hearts and minds of local communities and provide a mutual benefit through conservation—win-win. By including people in the decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods and offering income-generating opportunities, healthcare, education, school lunches, sustainable farming projects, land leases, and other critical community support, Big Life has been incredibly successful in helping to protect one of the world’s few remaining natural treasures.

One of their most important initiatives is preserving corridors for migrating wildlife—like Africa’s last tusker elephants. You can read about the challenges of saving space for these giants and other endangered wildlife here. And if you’d like to join us in supporting Big Life’s holistic, community-based conservation programs, you can put your love and hope into action here. Because when people come together to heal the Earth, amazing things can happen!

ICYMI Nature News: Resilience, Beauty and Brilliance.

These Penguins Take a Thousand Naps a Day
When it comes to power napping, it’s hard to beat the micro-sleeping skills of chinstrap penguins. To keep a watchful eye on nests and chicks while also managing to snooze, the Antarctic birds only sleep for seconds up to a thousand times a day. Talk about dedicated parenting!

Redwoods Recovering from Fire Sprout 1000-Year-Old Buds
In an amazing testament to the resilience of nature, scientists have discovered that northern California redwoods affected by a 2020 wildfire mobilized sugar energy to sprout centuries-old buds. Who’s a clever ancient tree!

Starfish Arms Are Actually Head Extensions
They might look like arms, but according to new research, the five appendages forming the star of a starfish are not arms but a part of the creature’s head. That explains why the sea animals have eyes on the ends of their arms—because their arms are not arms but head. Okay.

Preventing Sea Life Entanglement in Advance
What if we could plan to avoid sea animal entanglement a year in advance? Well, thanks to the brilliant work of marine ecologists in Australia, it’s now possible to forecast when whales and turtles are most likely to get caught in fishing gear and keep them out of harm’s way. That’s what we’re talking about.

Has the Time Come for Flatworm Emojis?
If you feel that the current library of animal emojis doesn’t quite represent your full spectrum of emotions or the natural world, scientists agree. To help increase awareness and enthusiasm for all the amazing biodiversity on the planet, they’re calling for an expanded collection of creatures, including invertebrates. Perfect for when a text leaves you feeling… flatworm.

The Beauty of Northern Lights
The travel and photography blog Capture the Atlas has announced the winning photographers of northern lights for 2023. You can enjoy the splendor of nature as captured by artists around the world here.

A Murmuration in Italy
You can read about the mechanics of a starling murmuration here, and you can watch the sheer magnificence of the sound-shapes of birds in flight here, courtesy of everyone’s favorite positive Twitter (X) purveyor, Buitengebieden.

A Celebrity Owl in Central Park
If you’ve not seen news of zoo escapee Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl who has graced NYC’s Central Park with his magnificent presence for the past year, you can read about his fan club here and follow his escapades here. He’s a FWP neighborhood regular, and there is no more hauntingly beautiful sound in this city than listening to Flaco speak at night.

And A Brilliant Podcast on Animal Perception
Science writer Ed Yong’s book, An Immense World, winner of the 2023 Royal Society book prize, is one of the best books we’ve read on the functioning of creature features this year. You can listen to Ed talk about the fascinating world of animal senses right here.

And that’s our final nature news picks for 2023. Thank you so much for reading!

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Lisa S. French December 16, 2023

Humpback Whale Play: Water Toys, and Spa Treatments

2-minute read

Have you ever wondered what baleen whales get up to in their spare time? Do they even have spare time? Sure, whales work from home, make their own schedules, and come and go as they please, but nature can be a harsh taskmaster, and the business of surviving in the wild is a 24/7 endeavor. To fulfill basic physiological needs, the giant marine mammals spend most of their waking hours migrating, foraging for food, caring for young, and, more recently, ship dodging. But according to a new study, humpback whales also make room for fun—engaging in seaweed-centric play known as kelping.

Water Toys and Spa Treatments
Thanks to video and photo contributions from keen-eyed citizen scientists and whale watchers in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and French Polynesia, researchers from Griffin University have reported that humpbacks intentionally seek out and interact with kelp beds and floating seaweed. They swim through it, drag it, and roll in it. They throw it in the air and rub it on their pectoral fins. They kelp alone, and they kelp with other whales.

And what is the purpose of kelping? The whales aren’t talking, but marine scientists have proposed several possibilities: it’s fun—the playful interaction stimulates the giant mammals’ senses and enhances their motor abilities; it’s soothing—they enjoy the sensation of seaweed on their head and jaws; it’s medicinal—they use it to remove parasites and dead skin; it’s a communications tool—they use it to signal other whales.

Humpbacks aren’t the only marine animals known to use random floating objects to engage in what could be interpreted as fun-seeking behavior. Innovative object-oriented activity has been documented in a variety of species, including otters, dolphins, orcas, grey whales, and walruses. Some biologists believe that participating in behaviors outside of the essential tasks of daily living may help animals acquire knowledge, adapt to a changing environment, or build life-sustaining relationships.

Continuing to study how various whale species spend their time in the wild can contribute to conservation efforts by increasing our understanding of how to maintain the ecosystems they depend upon for survival. We may come to learn exactly how important a bit of clean, green, exfoliating whale fun is to their existence.

ICYMI Nature News

This She-Bear Chomps Salmon Like a Boss
Well, it’s official. The really big winner of Katmai National Park’s annual Fat Bear Week contest is the formidable female feaster, Grazer. She out-chomped our pick, second runner-up, Chunk, by a salmon-scarfing mile to be crowned Queen of Katmai. And long may she reign.

Humans Make the Scariest Sounds of All
Apparently, human voices are more frightening to South African wildlife than the roar of lions. Now, researchers are conjuring ways to use recordings of human chitter-chatter to deter animals from entering high poaching areas. So, we’re a good kind of scary, then. Sort of.

Kangaroo Moms Form Clubs to Deter Predators
According to a new study in Animal Behavior, kangaroo moms form neighborhood watch networks to keep their joeys safe from foxes and dingoes. Don’t mess with the socially savvy sisterhood of marsupials.

Even More Glow-In-the-Dark Mammals
It seems a whole lot more mammals have fluorescent fur than previously believed. New research found that 107 of 125 species evaluated had fur that glowed under UV light, including bats, zebras, and polar bears. Solar-powered, we presume?

As If You Need an Expert to Tell You, Cats Are Perfect
A biologist from the Natural History Museum in London has determined that felines have achieved evolutionary perfection. Here’s why. Also, a few thoughts on the matter from FWP resident catnip curator Stella: “Who am I to argue with the scientific community? Now, how about a treat?”

And How Does Your Hammer Grow?
If you’ve ever wondered how a hammerhead shark develops its tool-shaped snout, for the first time ever, you can watch it grow.

Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards
Dancing bears, scolding birds, or lazy lions? You have until November 23rd to cast a vote for your favorite Comedy Wildlife Photograph for 2023. Check out the 41 funniest finalists here.

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Lisa S. French October 11, 2023

Bees Buzz the Garden Electric

2-minute read

In celebration of World Bee Day, we’re going to look at one of the unexpected ways the planet’s hardest working pollinators go about the business of helping to keep us stocked in essential fruit, flowers, and veg.

Capable of visiting up to 1,000 flowers a day in their quest for pollen, these brainy insects use a variety of sensory capabilities to detect color, pattern, texture, and fragrance to scope out prime floral real estate efficiently.

According to scientists at the University of Bristol, bees have one tool in their pollen-detecting arsenal that may come as a bit of a shock—an electrostatic field. We humans can’t see it or feel it, but honeybees and bumblebees can perceive a weak electric field around flowers, helping them to determine which plants are the best bets for providing floral rewards.

As a bee travels through the air, it accumulates a positive electric charge. When the positively charged pollinator zeroes in on a negatively charged flower, an electric field is created that helps to dislodge and transfer pollen from flower to bee and from bee to flower.

How bees interpret and use information gathered from the floral e-field is species-dependent. Researchers believe that bumblebees perceive the strength of the force of the e-field through sensory hairs on their bodies that communicate by way of their central nervous systems which flowers will provide the best pollen pay-off. Honeybees detect e-field locations through their antennae and carry pollen source information back to the hive, disseminating news of first-rate foraging locations via an intricate waggle dance.

Given that 75 percent of food crops rely on pollinators, we are glad to learn that everybody’s favorite buzzers are equipped with all the necessary capabilities to ensure they can get the job done. Another amazing way that nature’s adaptations provide big benefits.

If you would like to learn how you can help keep these industrious e-field detectives in top form, check in with the Bee Conservancy.

ICYMI Nature News

Pollinating Tree Frogs
Uh oh, look out bumblebees! Scientists believe they may have discovered a new species of pollinator to add to the list of planetary helpers—a tiny, pollen and nectar-feasting Brazilian tree frog.

Touch-Tasting Octopuses
According to scientists at the University of Texas, octopuses use sensory mechanisms in their tentacles to taste potential food sources. So, no long sleeves for these multi-limbed marvels, then?

Extinct Animals Re-Imagined
To help draw attention to the extinction crisis, author Lucas Zellers and the Center for Biological Diversity have created a role-playing game manual inspired by 70 extinct animal species. The book is due later this year, but you can get a preview here.

Video Chatting Parrots
The University of Glasgow researchers have discovered that isolated pet parrots taught to video chat with distant bird pals gained similar social benefits to living in a flock. Polly want a video call?

More Fascinating Bird Behavior
If you think video-chatting parrots are awe-inspiring, check out what these clever winged creatures get up to in the wild as captured by the 2022 Audubon Photo Award winners.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
Happy one-year Tree-Nation tree-versary FWP readers! From April 2022 through April 2023, we are glad to report that the trees we’ve planted across 12 projects bring our carbon capture total to 3459 tons. That’s the equivalent of 8,000 barrels of oil consumed, 389,204 gallons of gasoline consumed, or 3,874,454 pounds of coal burned.

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Lisa S. French May 19, 2023

Desert Elephants’ Quest for Clean Water

1.5-minute read

You can lead an elephant to water, but you can’t make it drink.

The desert-dwelling elephants of Namibia live in one of the harshest, driest landscapes on Earth. The average annual rainfall in the Namib Desert, where the mega-mammals make their home, is just 2mm, and permanent bodies of water are few and very far between.

Conservation researchers studying the survival strategies of the water-dependent herbivores were surprised to learn that despite having traveled hundreds of miles across inhospitable drylands, the intrepid trekkers weren’t overwhelmingly slurp-happy to quench their thirst at human-made drinking pools. Rather than rehydrate with readily available water, the elephants would use their feet and trunks to dig their own wells in adjacent dry riverbeds.

You Don’t Expect Us to Drink This, Do You?
So, what compelled the parched pachyderms to take a pass on the life-sustaining fluid from pre-dug pools? A quest for clean water. After comparing samples from the two water sources, researchers discovered that the multi-user boreholes were contaminated with bacteria that made drinking from them a non-starter for the discerning animals.

Although elephants have an extraordinarily sensitive olfactory system, it’s unclear whether the bacteria were detected through taste or scent, or both. One thing is certain, continuing to study how megafauna adapt to changes in water availability in a warming world will be critical to their survival.

ICYMI Nature News

Easy Ways to Stop Extinction
As scientists scramble to conserve our planet’s remaining biodiversity, FWP’s favorite cartoonist, First Dog on the Moon, recommends three easy steps to stop extinction. Most importantly, we have to want to. Count us in!

Want to Live Longer? Plant Trees
Good news for city dwellers. According to new research from the U.S. Forest Service, planting trees in urban neighborhoods can increase longevity. Another great reason to dig in and green your block!

New Designs for Robo-Planting
Speaking of planting, scientists are developing new solutions for planting trees and crops and fertilizing soil that mimic natural seed dispersal. Good to know. Until further notice, we’re still planting the old-fashioned way.

Meet the DIY Cockatoos
These brainy handy-birds know just what tools to use to solve a puzzle box. Ooh, can they unclog a sink?

Nat Geo’s Photos of the Year
Don’t forget to feast your eyes on National Geographic’s award-winning photographs of the natural world. Enjoy the splendor!

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Lisa S. French February 20, 2023

Planet-Protecting Pachyderms

2-minute read

Could protecting Earth’s largest mammals help tackle the two most critical items on our planetary to-do list: reducing the impacts of both climate change and biodiversity loss? According to new research from Oxford University, by virtue of their size, the most mega of megafauna may have a role to play in maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems negatively impacted by global heating.

One of the greatest hazards we face in a warming world is more frequent and intense wildfires. Between 2002 and 2016, 10.45 million acres a year were destroyed by fire globally—67% of the loss was in Africa. As the planet becomes hotter, drier, and more fire-prone, scientists are examining how protecting and increasing populations of endangered species of megafauna like elephants might help lower the temperature and limit the damage.

Beloved for their oversized ears, twisty trunks, keen intelligence, and exceptional empathy, elephants are also prolific stompers, chompers, and seed dispersers; those daily activities can reduce both CO2 in the atmosphere and the threat of wildfires. How so? It’s complicated, but the short story is that by consuming potentially flammable vegetation (and lots of it, up to 375 pounds a day), creating natural fire breaks by trampling soil, and dispersing seeds of trees with high capacity to store CO2, elephants, and other large herbivores, could limit the spread of fires and reduce the conditions that create them.

Elephants aren’t alone in their ability to influence the health of wild places. Conservation projects aimed at protecting ecosystem-engineering wildlife like whales, bison, sea otters, and wolves can help increase the resilience of natural environments under intense pressure from global heating. By continuing to examine the interdependence of wildlife and Earth systems and by creating conditions that allow nature to heal and flourish, amazing things can happen—like this.

ICYMI Nature News

Mighty Forest Mice
Even mini mammals can have a mega impact on the health of ecosystems. According to The New York Times, mice scurrying around forest floors are also important seed dispersers that help ensure the survival of trees exposed to environmental stressors.

Remember the Manatees
Pollution and habitat loss continue to take their toll on the Florida megafauna–over 2,000 manatees have perished in the last two years. It’s well past time to re-classify the charismatic creatures as endangered before they disappear.

NYC’s New Old Tree
In the spring of 2023, visitors to NYC’s High Line Park will be seeing red. A new rosy-hued sculpture installation, Old Tree, by Swiss artist Pamela Rosenkranz, will explore the indivisible connection between human and plant life. Have a look at the preview and swing by in the spring!

Christmas Bird Count
Okay, citizen scientists, if you need a good reason to tear yourself away from the fireplace and holiday cookie pile, Audubon’s 123rd annual Christmas Bird Count runs from December 14th through January 5th. Grab your binoculars and get those cookies to go. You can sign up here.

FWP Carbon Capture Report
We believe trees make a big difference in the health and well-being of people, wildlife, and the planet, and that’s why we keep planting them with the help of our partners at Tree-Nation. The trees that we’ve planted from April through November bring our carbon capture to 2,200 tons of CO2. That is equivalent to 2,235,456 pounds of coal burned, 247,604 gallons of gasoline consumed, and 267,669,777 smartphones charged. Oh, yeah, treeing is believing!

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Lisa S. French December 2, 2022

Traveling Wildebeest Alert

1.5-minute read

One of the most spectacular events in the natural world is taking place now in the African Serengeti—the awe-inspiring, seasonal wildebeest migration. In late spring through fall, up to 1.5 million wildebeest and thousands of zebra and Thomson’s gazelles embark on the long trek from the treeless plains of the southern Serengeti in Tanzania, north to the savannas and woodlands of Kenya.

Navigating Mara River rapids and dodging the hungry lions, cheetahs, and hyenas that trail the herd is no small feat, so what motivates these high plains drifters to travel so far in such massive numbers? Survival.

Like many migrating species, wildebeests are on a mission to find food. These bearded relatives of antelopes can weigh up to 600 muscle-packed pounds. Maintaining almost a billion pounds of wildebeest-i-ness across the herd requires a tremendous amount of grass and water. When the dry season begins in May and food and water are in short supply, wildebeests head west and north, following a route determined by rainfall, grass growth, and access to prime grazing real estate. In early winter, they complete the 300-mile migration loop, tracking the rain and grass back down to the southern plains. Every February, approximately 8,000 calves a day are born in transit and are up on their hooves toddling along with the herd in just three hours—the great migration and life cycle of the wildebeest continues uninterrupted.

The remarkable journey of these African ungulates has now inspired scientists to create algorithms that mimic the highly efficient swarm-like movement of the herd, which instinctually finds the shortest route to the greenest pastures. Intelligent algorithms based on these natural patterns of wildebeest herd migration could be used in cutting-edge applications ranging from unmanned vehicles and planetary mapping to nanobots that can target and destroy cancer cells—because nature is the most intelligent system of all.

Wherever you are in the world, you can keep tabs on the amazing traveling wildebeests courtesy of HerdTracker. Compared to the congestion of mega-migration, this summer’s bumper-to-bumper beach-bound traffic doesn’t seem so bad after all…

If you’d like to learn more about the megafauna of the Serengeti, we highly recommend Animals of the Masai Mara (Wildlife Explorer Guides), by Adam Scott Kennedy and Vicki Kennedy.

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Lisa S. French July 30, 2021

The Prophecy of the Manatee

2.5-minute read

What does the manatee, Florida’s beloved native marine mammal, have to teach us about the importance of maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems? As recent environmental events indicate, quite a lot. A keystone species, the gentle, slow-moving occupants of the Sunshine State’s rivers, marshes, and lagoons are sensitive to environmental stressors that impact the normal functioning of their underwater world. Although manatees have few natural enemies, harmful changes in water quality have become a matter of life and death for the iconic animals—alerting us to the fragility of marine ecosystems.

Manatees, a.k.a sea cows, need two things to stay comfortably in the swim: access to warm water (at least 68°F) and a whole lot of vegetation to eat. The 1,000-pound animals can consume up to 10% of their body weight a day in plant matter, primarily seagrass. Because manatees don’t have blubber to keep them warm like whales and dolphins, the colder the water, the more calories they need to survive. The seagrass that manatees depend on for the bulk of their diet, in turn, depends on sunlight for photosynthesis.

As reported in Science, 761 manatees wintering in one Florida lagoon died of starvation in 2021 due to a shortage of seagrass. Because massive algal blooms resulting from excess nitrogen and phosphorous in the water prevented sunlight from reaching carbon-storing seagrass beds, the plants that support manatees, as well as sea turtles, fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, failed to reproduce. Although Florida manatee numbers have doubled from 3300 in 2001 to close to 7000 in 2021 thanks to protective legislation, last winter’s die-off represents a gut-wrenching 10% loss of the marine mammal’s population.

In addition to struggling to survive the algal blooms that diminish life-supporting seagrass, manatees, and other marine life, are facing the environmental effects of toxic red tides that are increasing in size and duration due to rising ocean temperatures. Between 2017 and 2018, an estimated 200 manatees died from ingesting and inhaling the neurotoxic algae from a year-long red tide event.

Despite the manatee’s status as a protected species, as with many living creatures, its capacity to adapt to adverse environmental and climate impacts is limited. The fate of the manatee and other marine animals rests on protecting and restoring life-supporting habitat. Changes to the population and well-being of the silent marine sentinels speak volumes about the health of coastal ecosystems and marine biologists and conservationists are paying close attention. They’re developing strategies to provide manatees with adequate food supplies and warm-water sanctuaries when temperatures drop and promoting policies that will help to improve water quality year-round in a rapidly warming world.

To find out how you can become a citizen scientist and help make coastal ecosystems user-friendly for the magnificent manatee and other aquatic creatures, check out this fact-sheet from the University of Florida, which includes tips on how to reduce nutrient runoff and the next right thing to do if you come across a manatee in distress.

Wherever you are in the world, if you’re looking for another great reason to head to the beach, the Ocean Conservancy has more bright ideas on how to participate in the global mission to combat water pollution by starting a local trash cleanup. And for ten simple ways to help power the pristine by reducing your plastic footprint stop by the World Wildlife Fund. Planet tidying—good for water, good for people, good for wildlife.

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Lisa S. French June 17, 2021

Saving Lions with Solar Lights

1.5-minute read

Clever farmers in Kenya are lighting up the night for the love of lions. Because the big cats need big meals to maintain their body weight, which ranges from 280 pounds for females and up to 450 pounds for males, they are always on the prowl for large prey. In areas where people have settled in close proximity to increasingly fragmented wildlife habitats, lions are roaming into farm communities in search of food, leading to conflict that is contributing to the decline of the iconic African animals. Working alongside conservationists, livestock keepers around Nairobi National Park are implementing a simply ingenious strategy to help lions and farmers peacefully co-exist—the installation of flashing solar lights around livestock enclosures.

The bright idea was originally devised by an 11-year-old school student determined to find a non-violent method to discourage lions from helping themselves to the farm animals that his family depended on for survival. Since lions have learned to associate flashlights with life-endangering night patrols, they steer clear of light-protected enclosures. Now, a growing number of farm communities are successfully employing the light-fright-based technique to protect their livestock. By installing continuously flickering solar-powered LED flashlight bulbs around animal pens, participating farmers were able to reduce night raids by 96%. At a time when lion populations are in decline (43% over 21 years), this is roaring good news.

Paying careful attention to how lions interact with their environment enabled livestock farmers to come up with a simple solution to one of the sticky problems that can arise when humans and wild animals occupy the same space. Local communities and conservationists are continuing to explore innovative ways to live in harmony with wildlife, united in the common purpose of maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems and preserving Africa’s precious, natural heritage. Good for people, good for wildlife, good for the planet.

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Lisa S. French March 2, 2021

Kelp Keepers

Widely admired for its conspicuous cuteness, the sea otter is proving to be far more than just another appealingly furry face. Research into this keystone species’ role in maintaining carbon-storing macroalgae, commonly known as kelp, indicates that the bewhiskered marine mammals may be important allies in the battle against climate change. One of 13 otter species, and the largest member of the weasel family, sea otters can be found floating about in coastal waters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the Russian Federation. As their name suggests, sea otters spend the majority of their lives in the ocean, preferring to feed, sleep, and raise their pups in close proximity to kelp, which they use as cover from predators and to anchor themselves and their young when resting.

Equivalent to an underwater rainforest, densely layered kelps are an integral component of healthy marine ecosystems, providing food and shelter for myriad species including fish, shellfish, seabirds, harbor seals, and sea lions. In addition to functioning as critical habitat, recent analysis suggests that kelp forests also have immense potential for permanently storing large amounts of carbon dioxide—up to a whopping 634 million tons per year, an amount greater than the annual emissions of Australia.

One of the reasons that kelp is an especially effective sequester of carbon is because it grows quite rapidly, as much as two feet per day, attaching to undersea rocks with root-like structures called holdfasts. Unfortunately, kelp’s natural nemesis, the sea urchin, is particularly fond of feasting on holdfasts, causing the macroalgae to detach from rock surfaces, drift, and die. Left unchecked, the spiny invertebrates can form hungry herds large enough to decimate undersea forests. And that’s where the sea otter comes in—alongside crabs, mussels, and clams, sea urchins happen to be a favorite food of the voracious shellfishionados. By keeping sea urchin populations under control, otters help to ensure kelp’s survival. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have estimated that the presence of otters in a coastal habitat increased the sequestration capacity of kelp forests by 4.4 to 8.7 megatons—and they support this valuable ecosystem service every day, absolutely free of charge—give or take a sea urchin or two.

When sea otters were hunted for their fur to near extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries, coastal kelp forests and many of the creatures that relied upon them for survival all but vanished. Effectively eliminating the sea otter from its ecological niche had profoundly detrimental cascade effects on other species in its marine community. Although still currently classified as endangered, over the past century, as a result of dedicated conservation efforts, Pacific otter populations have rebounded from a low of several thousand to approximately 148,000 across Canada, Alaska, Washington, and California. And, as the kelp keepers have returned to their historic range, so have the undersea forests and their inhabitants.

As our knowledge of the interdependence of living things continues to evolve, and we learn more about how mutually beneficial relationships between species like sea otters and kelp can help to maintain biodiversity and contribute to ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, history serves to remind us that in nature, as in life, sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

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Lisa S. French October 16, 2019