Last year an average of 96 elephants were killed for their tusks every day to feed an ever-growing demand for ivory trinkets the new bling in Asia.
If just 10 percent of Chinese families making more than $16000 per year buy one two-ounce ivory carving about the size of a piece of hotel soap 32600 elephants must die.
and are now even hacking off elephants'toenails for new traditional medicine cures. Raising awareness about the plight of elephants is without doubt necessary.
It has galvanized Former Secretary of state Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea the Vice-Chair of the Clinton Foundation to mobilize support from presidents of elephant-range states to take concrete action to halt the slaughter of elephants for their ivory.
It convinced U s. President Barack Obama to issue an Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking
and risking their lives doing so elephants have a much greater chance of escaping the poacher's bullet axe and chainsaw.
and consumer demand elephants will never be safe from the slaughter driven by a desire to own ivory
because catching poachers with ivory does not help the elephants who died. So what disincentives can conservationists muster to curb the trade
and prevent the death of the next elephant? Great work by the conservation community is confirming our suspicion that the trade in ivory is driven no longer by poor hunters who see poaching as a quick albeit risky way out of poverty.
and their allies can ensure that elephant poachers and the thousands of other participants in the illegal wildlife trade might become just a little less untouchable.
#New Action Plan to Save Madagascar's At-Risk Lemurs (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
Contrary to the film of Dreamworks'imagining Madagascar is ruled not by King Julien and his colony of lemurs.
In fact the status of the lemurs on the island the only place on earth that they exist is a very precarious one.
To try to reverse the frightening fact that 94%of lemur species are under threat myself
and lemur experts around the world have issued a renewed action plan for their conservation. We highlight three key ways to save lemurs:
community-based conservation management the long-term presence of researchers at field sites and ecotourism. While the action plan separately identifies these three areas they do not exist independently of each other.
Madagascar s political problems have helped make lemur species the most endangered group of mammals on the planet.
There are currently 106 species of lemurs in Madagascar (new species continue to be discovered) and their natural forest habitats especially suffered from this political turmoil.
Increased banditry illegal logging in national parks and nature reserves and a sharp increase in the hunting of lemurs as bush meat#has left them facing extinction.
Ecotourism can allow rural communities in Madagascar to earn revenue for protecting lemur habitats; create economic incentives and benefits for local residents;
While Madagascar is one of the world s top biodiversity hotspots lemurs easily represent the country s brand#for drawing ecotourists.
The success of Rwanda s and Uganda s mountain gorilla ecotourism ventures shows that ecotourists are certainly willing to pay a premium to observe rare species in their natural habitat Madagascar can provide that in spades.
One success story that can serve as a model for promoting lemur and forest conservation at other sites across Madagascar is centred on Maromizaha Forest in the eastern part of the island.
This vast forest is rich in biodiversity including no fewer than 13 lemur species. With good transport links to the capital
It is actually a combination of 30 action plans each targeting different sites of importance for lemur conservation.
Ecotourism driven by lemurs along with research inspired by them would contribute significantly to that cost. Ian Colquhoun does not work for consult to own shares in
but still slower than the myths of them outrunning horses would suggest. Over longer distances they average about 7 mph (11 kph.
Black mambas typically eat small mammals and birds though there have been reports of mambas found with whole parrots or full-grown cobras in their stomachs.
It also lacked big predators like mountain lion and disease-transmitting animals like domestic sheep. 6 Extinct Animals That Could Be brought Back to Life The fossilized poop was found in a cave in the Sierra Kunkaak mountain range of the eastern side of the island
while scientists were looking for the traces of ancient woodrats. Researchers took DNA samples from the dung
#Sloth Facts: Habits, Habitat & Diet Sloths are tropical mammals that live in Central and South america.
They use their long claws to hang onto branches while they feast on the leaves that other animals can't reach.
Unfortunately for the sloth their long claws 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 centimeters) make walking on the ground difficult so they spend most of their time in the tall trees they call home.
There are two categories of sloths. The two-toed sloth is slightly bigger than the three-toed sloth though they share many of the same features.
They are about the size of a medium-sized dog at around 23 to 27 inches (58 to 68 cm) and 17.5 to 18.75 pounds (about 8 kilograms.
Thousands of years ago sloths were much bigger according to the San diego Zoo. Ancient sloths could grow to be as large as an elephant.
They roamed North america and became extinct around 10000 years ago. Though their ancestors lived in North america modern sloths live in Central
and South america enjoying the tall trees found in rain and cloud forests. Sloths prefer sleeping
while curled into a ball in the fork of a tropical tree. They also like to sleep hanging by their claws from tree branches.
For the most part a sloth's life revolves around sleeping and eating in their tree homes. The only times these mammals leave their tree is to use the bathroom
and to take a swim. Sloths in captivity sleep from 15 to 20 hours per day which can leave them very little time for social activities.
Sloths in the wild though sleep about as much as humans according to research by the Planck Institute for Ornithology in Starnberg Germany.
After around nine hours of sleep the sloth still doesn't make an attempt at getting friendly with others.
They live solo lives. The closest a sloth gets to social time is sleeping in the same tree with another sloth.
Sloths mate in trees and give birth to their young in trees. Courting starts when a female yells a mating scream to let the males in the area know she is ready to mate.
Males will fight for her by hanging from branches by their feet and pawing at each other.
The victor wins the prize of mating with the female. Like many other mammals sloths only have one baby at a time.
Baby sloths have a gestation of five to six months for some types sloths and as much as 11.5 months for others such as the Hoffman's two-toed sloth.
After they are born the babies aren't in a hurry to leave their mother. They ride around clinging to their mother's belly for several weeks after birth.
Even after they stop dangling from their mother little sloths stay by their mother's side for up to four years.
The tough leaves in a sloth's diet are difficult to digest. Sloths have a four-part stomach that slowly digests the leaves with bacteria.
It can take up to a month for a sloth to digest one meal. Their leafy diet isn't very nutritious
though so they don't get much energy from it. This may be why sloths are so slow.
The sloth's scientific name is Bradypus tridactylus. Here is its taxonomy according to the National History Museum:
The pygmy three-toed slothis on the IUCN Species Survival Commission's top 100 listof most threatened species. These tiny sloths can only be found on Escudo Island which is found off the coast of Panama.
Its scientific name Bradypus is Greek for slow feet which makes sense since it is the world's slowest animal.
It is so slow in fact that algae grows on its fur according to National geographic. The algae works to the sloth's advantage though.
The green of the algae helps the sloth blend into the trees hiding it from predators.
Compared to most mammals a sloth moves very slowly. Sloths can climb only 6 to 8 feet (1. 8 to 2. 4 meters) per minute.
Sloths are excellent swimmers. Like humans they can do the breaststroke with ease. To get to the rivers for a swim sloths will drop themselves off of branches into the water.
Since sloths bodies are only 25 percent muscle they can't shiver when they are cold to warm up.
It is a good thing they live in a tropical climate and are covered in fur. There are times of cold in the forest though.
If a female gets too cold she is unable to digest food. If her young is still nursing she may starve to death.
A sloth only has its claws for defense against predators. However its very low level of movement
and the camouflage make it difficult to notice. Nina Sen contributed to this article. Other resources:
San diego Zoo-Two-toed sloth National geographic-Two-toed sloth National geographic-Three-toed sloth BBC Nature-Three-toed sloth Smithsonian National Zoological Park-Slot l
#Chinchilla Facts Chinchillas are rodents that are native to the Andes mountains of northern Chile. Often kept as pets chinchillas are prized also for their luxuriously soft fur
and were driven nearly to extinction because of the demand. Chinchilla fur was mottled originally yellow-gray in the wild according to The Merck Veterinary Manual.
Through selective breeding however other colors have become common including silver yellow-gray bluish-gray white beige and black.
Each hair ends in a black tip no matter what color the chinchillas are. First appearing around 41 million years ago the chinchilla's ancestors were some of the first rodents to infest South america.
Chinchilla fur became popular in the 1700s and the animals were hunted nearly to extinction by 1900 About that time Argentina Bolivia Chile
and Peru banned the hunting of wild chinchillas. However according to the Chinchilla Chronicles website an American mining engineer named Mathias F. Chapman got special permission from the Chilean government to bring chinchillas to the United states in 1923.
Nearly every pet chinchilla in the United states today is a direct descendant of 11 chinchillas that Chapman brought to the country.
Chinchillas are related to guinea pigs and porcupines. With short forelimbs and long muscular hind legs chinchillas resemble rabbits
but their ears are much shorter and rounder. They have large black eyes and bushy tails.
They have four toes on each foot and the thin claws on each toe are surrounded by stiff bristles.
Chinchillas are typically 9 to 15 inches (23 to 38 centimeters) long but the tail can add another 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 cm) to their length.
They generally weigh 1. 1 to 1. 8 lbs. 0. 5 to 0. 8 kilograms.
Chinchillas are covered in thick fur for a reason. In the Andes they can live in elevations of about 3000 to 5000 meters (9800 to 16400 feet.
Chinchillas can tolerate freezing temperatures but they cannot survive in temperatures higher than 80 F (27 C);
high temperatures and humidity can cause these rodents to suffer from heat stroke. Chinchillas are crepuscular and nocturnal
which means they are very active at dawn or dusk and sleep during the day.
and live in colonies that consist of hundreds of chinchillas. Females tend to be aggressive toward other females.
The breeding season for chinchillas runs from November to May in the Northern hemisphere and from May to November in the Southern hemisphere.
Once a female chinchilla becomes pregnant she will carry her young for about 111 days before giving birth.
Generally chinchillas live eight to 10 years though some have lived as long as 20 years. Chinchillas are omnivores;
they eat both plants and meat. Primarily they eat grass and seeds but they also eat insects
There are two species of chinchillas: the long-tailed chinchilla and the short-tailed chinchilla. According to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) the taxonomy of chinchillas is:
Though chinchilla fur is valued highly for use in clothing and coats the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species has restricted the sale and trade of wild chinchillas since 1975.
Many chinchillas are bred commercially for their fur. Both species of chinchilla are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural resources'endangered-species list.
Both the short-tailed chinchilla and the long-tailed chinchilla are listed as critically endangered. Short-tailed chinchillas are thought to be extinct in Bolivia
and Peru but are suspected to be recovering in other areas. In 1996 there were only 42 colonies of long-tailed chinchillas
and the population has declined since then and continues to decline. The Michigan Humane Society recommends keeping domestic chinchillas in a wire mesh cage with a solid floor.
The cage should be well ventilated and kept dry and cool in temperatures from 60 to 70 F 16 to 21 C). Chinchillas do not get along well
when caged together and should be kept in individual cages. Chinchillas can eat food pellets available from pet stores as well as hay dried fruits and nuts and carrots and green vegetables in moderation or about 10 percent of their daily diet.
A bottle equipped with a sipper tube is the best way to provide water. To stay clean these rodents give themselves dust baths.
It is recommended that domestic chinchillas take dust baths once or twice per week in fine volcanic ash that can be purchased at pet shops.
Chinchillas are thought to be smarter than rabbits and can be taught to play with humans. They do not make good pets for small children
however because chinchillas are hyperactive and high-strung. t
#Gazelles: Facts & Pictures Gazelles are thin graceful antelopes that live in Africa and Asia. They resemble deer
and are in the same family as goats cattle and sheep. Gazelles can be identified by their curved ringed horns tan or reddish-brown coats and white rumps.
Often there are spots or stripes on their coats. Their light frames help make them agile and better able to escape from predators.
There are 19 species of gazelle according to the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS. Smaller species such as the Speke's gazelle and Thomson's gazelle are only 20 to 43 inches (51 to 109 centimeters) at the shoulder.
They weigh from 26 to 165 pounds (12 to 75 kilograms. The dama gazelle is the largest gazelle.
It weighs in at 88 to 165 pounds (40 to 75 kg) and is 4. 5 to 5. 5 feet tall (137 to 168 cm).
Most gazelles live in the hot dry savannas and deserts of Africa and Asia. To stay hydrated in these grueling environments gazelles shrink their heart
and liver according to a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. Breathing can cause an animal to lose a lot of water.
so that the newborn fawns will have plenty to drink. Gazelles carry their young for around six months before giving birth.
Baby gazelles are called fawns or calves. To keep her calves safe from predators a female gazelle will hide her babies in tall grasses.
The dama gazelle is not only the world's biggest gazelle it is also the rarest according to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
For most mammals the sweet-taste receptor that responds to sugars in plant-based carbohydrates is made up of two proteins:
When scientists sequenced the genomes of cats lions tigers and cheetahs true carnivores that also don't have a taste for sweets#they found these species still have a nonfunctional pseudogene (a nonfunctional gene that's lost its protein-coding powers) for the sweet-taste receptor.
But in bird genomes scientists never even found a trace of a pseudogene for a sweet tooth Baldwin told Live Science.
Pandas vs. Horses This Behind the Scenes article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation. 2014 is the year of Year of the Horse in China.
But pandas it turns out aren't celebrating. Why not? Because livestock particularly horses have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival.
The reason: Horses have been beating pandas to the bamboo buffet. Michigan State university (MSU) panda habitat experts revealed the oft-hidden yet significant conservation conflict between pandas and horses in a recent article in the Journal for Nature Conservation.
Across the world people are struggling to survive in the same areas as endangered animals
and often trouble surfaces in areas we aren't anticipating said Jianguo Jack Liu of MSU.
Creating and maintaining successful conservation policy means constantly looking for breakdowns in the system. In this case something as innocuous as a horse can be a big problem.
Pandas have specific habitat needs they live in gently sloping areas far from human populations. And they only eat bamboo.
Watch a panda bellying up to the bamboo buffet here. China invests billions to protect its panda habitat and conserve the 1600 remaining endangered supported by this habitat.
Panda in Wolong Nature Reserve eating lunch from CSIS at MSU on Vimeo. For years timber harvesting has been the panda's biggest threat.
But conservation programs limiting timber harvesting have chalked up wins in preserving panda habitat. Vanessa Hull a doctoral student at MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS) has been living off and on for seven years in the Wolong Nature Reserve most recently tracking pandas that she has outfitted with GPS collars.
Over the years she started noticing that uninvited guests had apparently been serving themselves at the bamboo buffet
and they were eating like horses#literally. It didn't take particular panda expertise to know that something was amiss
when we'd come upon horse-affected bamboo patches. They were in the middle of nowhere and it looked like someone had been in there with a lawn mower Hull said.
Alarmed by the increasing devastation Hull learned that keeping a horses in this region serves a similar function as maintaining a bank account.
Because horses are prohibited from grazing in designated grazing areas to prevent them from competing for food with cattle some farmers have been letting horses graze unattended in forests.
When these horse-keeping farmers need cash they track down their horses in the forest and sell them.
Eventually some Wolong farmers though not traditionally horse-keepers learned from horse-keeping friends who lived outside of the reserve that they too could cash in by keeping horses
and letting them loose to graze unattended in Wolong. Where unfortunately they would compete for food with pandas.
Over time the popularity of this practice soared. In 1998 only 25 horses lived in Wolong.
By 2008 350 horses lived there in 20 to 30 herds. To understand the scope of the problem Hull
and her colleagues put the same type of GPS collars they were using to track pandas on one horse in each of four herds they studied.
Then over a year they compared the activity of the horses with that of three collared adult pandas in some of the same areas and combined resulting data with habitat data.
The researchers discovered that the galloping gourmets are indeed big on bamboo and are drawn to the same sunny gently sloped spots as pandas.
Pandas and horses eat about the same amount of bamboo but a herd of more than 20 horses created veritable feeding frenzies destroying areas that the reserve was established to protect.
The researchers presented their findings to Wolong's managers who have banned since horses from the reserve.
But Hull and Liu note that this work has shed light on how competitive livestock can be in sensitive habitat an issue that is duplicated across the globe.
Livestock affect most of the world's biodiversity hotspots Liu said. They make up 20 percent of all of the earth's land mammals
and therefore monopolize key resources needed to maintain the earth's fragile ecosystems. This research project received funding from the National Science Foundation.
Editor's Note: The researchers depicted in Behind the Scenes articles have been supported by the National Science Foundation the federal agency charged with funding basic research and education across all fields of science and engineering.
Any opinions findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. See the Behind the Scenes Archive h
and microbes Quentin Wheeler the president of the college said in a statement. Each year a small dedicated community of taxonomists and curators substantively improves our understanding of the diversity of life and the wondrous ways in
#Plan to Build'CSI Elephant'Uses DNA Forensics to Track Poachers (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
The shocking news that Satao the much-loved African elephant who lvied in Kenya s Tsavo East National park has been killed
and butchered for his tusks highlights once again the terrible and unsustainable toll of poaching elephants for their ivory.
Satao s death is just one among the many thousands of elephants killed each year. The Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants programme part of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora
and Fauna (CITES) set up as part of the worldwide ban in 1989 reported that 22000 African elephants were killed illegally by poachers in 2012 based on data from 27 countries across Africa.
The figures for 2013 reported this month show a toll of over 20000 African elephants the vast majority of seizures by customs
or border officials being made in Tanzania Kenya and Uganda. The CITES report reveals that while the numbers of elephants poached appears to have stabilised among large seizures of more than 500kg the number of tusks found in each seizure is rising.
This suggests two things: that there are fewer elephants to poach and that the trade is organised well and not the work of individual poachers or small groups.
This level of slaughter far exceeds the reproductive potential of the remaining elephants and will by any account lead to the extinction of the African elephant in many parts of the continent.
The international community is only now responding to this crisis for the African elephant with action.
Knowing which populations the poachers are targeting can play an important part. Work pioneered by Professor Sam Wasser at the University of Washington uses DNA profiling from seized ivory to trace it back to the geographical location within Africa from which the ivory was taken once roamed.
There are two species of elephant in Africa the savanna elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis.
Within these two species are many subpopulations such as extended family groups where there is a greater sharing of DNA types due to inheritance from common ancestors.
Under CITES there is a total ban on the trade in elephant ivory although not from all other species that have ivory nor from tusks removed from mammoths being extinct they cannot be provided any legal protection.
The cost of mammoth ivory is approximately US$350 per kilogramme significantly cheaper than elephant ivory but often looks very similar.
Again DNA typing can distinguish between African and Asian elephants and mammoths. This aspect of wildlife forensic science is supported by the United nations Office for Drugs
and Crime and has already proved highly successful in tracking seizures and locating their source.
For example when a 6. 5 tonne shipment was seized in Singapore DNA testing revealed it had come from elephant populations in Zambia.
If nations wish to save the African elephant then action to provide and fund the tools necessary is required.
And as ivory becomes rare due to the alarming decrease in elephant numbers the concurrent increase in value will put ever more pressure on the dwindling elephant populations.
#Lemur Lady Campaigns for Endangered Lemurs This Sciencelives article was provided to Live Science in partnership with the National Science Foundation.
and conservationist devoted to saving lemurs. Lemurs are a primate found naturally only in Madagascar the world s fourth largest island located about 250 miles off the coast of southern Africa.
One of the World s Most Endangered Primates In 2012 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature described 91 percent of the 103 known species and subspecies of lemurs as threatened with extinction;
this is one of the highest levels of threat ever recorded for a group of mammals.
Because of Madagascar s island isolation most of its plant and animal species are found nowhere else in the world.
Multifaceted Approaches A professor at Stony Brook University Wright approaches to saving Madagascar s lemurs and their forest habitat involves combining science and conservation.
and 12 lemur species. In addition Wright is the founder of the Centre Valbio Research Station located on the edge of the Park.
Owl Monkeys Are Caring Fathers Too Wright partners with Malagasy villagers to develop conservation strategies that are scientifically sound
Three days later Wright#ccompanied by several lemurs#ang the New york stock exchange s Closing Bell. Along with gaggles of jumping and leaping lemurs#right is featured in the new IMAX film Island of Lemurs:
Madagascar which is currently playing throughout the U s. Also Wright recently described her early research on owl monkeys
My Quest to Understand the Monkeys of the Night (Lantern Books: 2013). ) Name: Patricia Wrightinstitution:
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