The Persian leopard (Panthera pardus ciscaucasica) was “long thought to have disappeared from” Afghanistan. However, a camera trap captured an image of one cat, which suggests that a breeding population may still occur in parts of the war-torn country. More via National Geographic:
The newly released photographs, taken in the fall, include this September shot of an adult leopard investigating the camera, “appearing to threaten it with canines exposed,” according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped set up the camera traps. The images are “indisputable proof” that the big cat is hanging on in the region, the group said.
Anthropogenic activities are resulting in rapid habitat degradation, loss, and fragmentation, which fuel more extinctions of species that can’t adapt to human-dominated environments. This period of Earth’s history, which is dominated by human activities, is often referred to as the anthropocene. According to recent research, mass extinction, which is currently fueled by an increase of human populations and activities, may forever change the outcome of evolution. More via Wired.com:
Rates of species diversification — the speed at which groups adapt and fill open ecological niches — seemed to predict what’s flourished in the aftermath of past planetary cataclysms. But according to the calculations of Macquarie University paleobiologist John Alroy, that’s just not the case.
“Mass extinction fundamentally changes the dynamics. It changes the composition of the biosphere forever. You can’t simply predict the winners and losers from what groups have done before,” he said.
. . .
In the past, many evolutionary biologists thought life would eventually recover its present composition, said Alroy. In 100 million years or so, the same general creatures would again roam the Earth. “But that isn’t in the data,” he said.
Instead Alroy’s analysis suggests that the future is inherently unpredictable, that what comes next can’t be extrapolated from what is measured now, no more than a mid-Cretaceous observer could have guessed that a few tiny rodents would someday occupy every ecological niche then ruled by reptiles.
“The current mass extinction is not going to simply put things out of whack for a while, and then things will go back to where we started, or would have gone anyway,” said Alroy. Mass extinction “changes the rules of evolution.”
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I believe that unknown populations of the Madagascar pochard still exist in poorly explored areas of Madagascar. However, due to another political crisis, Madagascar’s national resources are being illegally pillaged. Consequently, aggressive conservation efforts are needed. However, now that the species is one step closer to being propagated in captivity, its survival is further guaranteed. More from guardian.co.uk:
Conservationists battling to save the world’s rarest duck have managed to almost double the bird’s population in Madagascar in just one month, it was revealed today.
Fewer than 20 Madagascar pochard were believed to be living on just one lake in the wild.
But a last-gasp conservation plan to save the birds has resulted in two broods totalling 17 ducklings being found and raised in captivity.
A third clutch of seven eggs were discovered earlier this week and are being incubated.
If they all hatch successfully the Madagascar pochard population will have more than doubled in the space of a few weeks.
The conservationists are looking after the ducklings in a hotel room due to the last-minute nature of their quest.
. . .
“Despite almost every conceivable obstacle, in just a few short weeks we have almost doubled the world population — albeit that half of them are in a hotel bathroom! It will be a long road to full recovery for the Madagascar pochard, but we have achieved everything we could have hoped for in this first step.”
The critically endangered duck is so rare that it was declared extinct in the late 1990s until scientists found a few of the birds by chance during a trip to Madagascar in 2006.
To stop the beautiful cinnamon-coloured diving duck slipping permanently into extinction a team of bird specialists known as “team pochard” devised a conservation plan that was due to be implemented next year.
They were hoping to collect some of the pochards’ eggs, incubate them and raise the ducklings via a conservation breeding programme.
More information on the project to save the Madagascar pochard, video of the ducklings, & video of an adult Madagascar pochard in the wild
An endangered kakapo — a species of flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand — apparently found zoologist Mark Carwardine shagalicious. British actor Stephen Fry couldn’t resist the hilarity of the situation: “This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, you are being shagged by a rare parrot.”
New Zealand is an island of birds, since it was originally devoid of mammals—except bats and a few species of pinnipeds. However, the arrival of human beings changed New Zealand’s unique ecological landscape forever.
As a result of both Polynesian and European settlers, many species that evolved in the absence of predatory mammals became extinct. Some examples of species that went extinct after the arrival of Polynesian and European settlers include the New Zealand Swan (Cygnus sumnerensis), the Auckland Island Merganser (Mergus australis), the Stephens Island Wren (Traversia lyalli), all species of moa (although some people believe at least one species of Moa still exists in remote parts of New Zealand), and the Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei). Most likely, the Haast’s eagle was a moa specialist, so having depended on the moa as a food source, it probably went extinct when moas became scarce or extinct.
Humans and the introduction of cats, dogs, rats, and various species of mustelids have decimated another unique bird species—the kakapo (Strigops habroptila), which is a flightless cryptic parrot. The video below provides an excellent historical reference of the kakapo and one man’s efforts—Allan Munn—to save this unique parrot species from extinction.
More on Richard Henry, the only surviving Fiordland kakapo, and another kakaop named Rangi from Stuff.co.nz:
A Momentous Waitangi Day on Whenua Hou/Codfish Island has seen a male kakapo rediscovered 21 years after vanishing and world-first artificial insemination using the sole surviving Fiordland kakapo.
Rangi’s miraculous find by kakapo ranger Chris Birmingham boosts the critically endangered endemic parrot population to 91 and potentially adds important genetic diversity.
The flightless nocturnal bird was one of four male kakapo released on the 1400ha conservation sanctuary, near Stewart Island, in 1987 without a transmitter. He had not been seen since.
Birmingham told the Sunday Star-Times he was surprised to hear a male booming, its unique resonant mating call, near South Bay, where no kakapo had been detected before.
“I followed the booming sound and eventually spotted him. He bolted so I followed him through the supplejack and ferns. Finally, when it was safe, I managed to grab him.”
It was only then that he realised the bird’s significance because it wore a numbered metal band on his leg. Incredibly, Rangi survived two aerial poison drops during Codfish Island’s rat eradication in 1998.
Once Rangi’s vitals were checked, showing he was in top form, sperm was collected from him before he was carefully carried back to home territory and released. He vanished within seconds into the island’s thick undergrowth, but has now been fitted with a transmitter to ensure his days of anonymity are over.
Tests later that day at a makeshift laboratory on the island showed he had high quality sperm. DNA research was also planned.
Rangi’s discovery could improve the species chances if he is genetically different to the other birds, the kakapo team’s technical officer, Daryl Eason said. “Every kakapo is important. Rangi was a founder bird and he could be a very important bird.”
Meanwhile on Friday, Richard Henry, the only surviving Fiordland kakapo (the rest were caught on Stewart Island or were their descendants), gave what could be his last shot at fatherhood.
For the first time ever, sperm was collected from the bird, which is estimated to be at least 70 years old.
Although checks showed it to be poor-quality, it was used to artificially inseminate a female kakapo to try for more offspring with his valuable diverse genes.
