Great News For Russian Wildlife

Russian wildlife has received a huge boost to it’s conservation as the Russian government announced 9 new national reserved and an amazing 13 new national parks will be constructed. This means that 3% of Russia’s huge landmass will be protected. There are also plans for marine buffer zones to be established in Russian waters.

Russia’s enormous environment contains 3 major biomes:

• taiga – wet coniferous forests with productivity mainly confined to summer months.
• steppe – semi-arid grassland plains with wide temperature ranges between summer and winter and day and night.
• tundra – cold treeless environments with a permafrost under the soil. Marshes and bogs offer feeding and breeding grounds during the summer.

Endangered animals from Amur tigers and leopards to polar, brown and black bears as well as sea otters, eagles and walruses Russia has one of the richest and diverse range of wildlife in the world. These new plans to increase the number and sizes of nature reserves will help make sure that these species have the best chance of survival into the future as well as helping to expand their population sizes.  An area the sicze of Switzerland is hoped to be protected over the next 10 years.

This coupled with the size of the country and the amount of untouched wilderness, Russia has a booming Eco-tourism industry as more and more people head to once unreachable places like Kamchatka and Siberia.

Rolf Hogan who is a Biodiversity Manager for WWF International has said; “We need to understand that protecting biodiversity means not only protecting nature but also our economy and wellbeing. By allowing biodiversity loss to continue we are undermining our future”.

These plans are part of a worldwide attempt to halt the loss of species by protecting habitat and putting in place species management plans. The global goal is to prevent further species loss by 2020.  Over 300 researchers have helped to put this Russian plan together and will help to implement it

Russia’s most endangered mammal species are:

IUCN: Critically Endangered:

• Evorsk Vole (Microtus evoronensis).
• Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus monachus).
• MuiskVole (Microtus mujanensis).
• Wrangel Lemming (Dicrostonyx vinogradovi).

IUCN: Endangered:

• Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus).
• European Bison (Bison bonasus).
• European Mink (Mustela lutreola).
• Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus).
• Long-tailed Birch Mouse (Sicista caudata).
• Sea Otter (Enhydra lutris).
• Sei Whale (Balaenoptera borealis).
• Snow Leopard (Uncia uncia).
• Steller’s Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus).
• Tiger (Panthera tigris).
• Ussuri Tube-nosed Bat (Murina ussuriensis).
• West Caucasian Tur (Capra caucasica).

Amazing 3 of the 4 species of critically endangered animals in Russia are endemic to Russia; meaning they are found no where else in the world. They are the Evorsk Vole, Muisk Vole and Wrangel Lemming. There are 20 endemic mammal species in total living in Russia. There are also many bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, plants and insects that are at risk of loss.

This is a bold step for Russia and the right one designating these new nature reserves and will help keep the country the spectacular wilderness it is.

We have a fantastic range of Bear Watching Holidays and some amazing Russia Wildlife Holidays for you to look at.

CITES Is 35 Years Old

CITES 35 years old

One of the most important international treaties to help prevent species from becoming extinct has celebrated it’s 35th birthday. The Washington Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was first adopted on 1st July 1975 with just 10 members agreeing to work to conserve some of the planets most endangered species by restricting trade in them and their products. Now 35 years later there are 176 members of the convention and it has the enviable reputation of being able to claim that not one of the 34,000 species that are or have been covered by the convention has been made extinct because of international trade.

Protecting the world’s diversity can only be done on a global scale through international action and pressure. Over the last 35 years the threats to our most endangered species have not diminished but instead have consistently increased as the world became wealthier. The new middle classes in the Asian nations and the increasing demand for bush meat across the world means that CITES is as relevant today - probably even more so – than it was when it was first put together.

To celebrate it’s anniversary UNEP have launched some web based endangered species trade tools at the CITES trade dashboard.  It’s well worth the visit to look at the trends in wildlife trading that has taken place since the treaty started. With over 10 million records of trades the dashboards offers a insight into what is currently being traded and the changing trends of fashion. for instance currently the items that are increasingly being traded are plants (excluding cacti and orchids) and birds.

You can use the dashboard to look at the trends in wildlife trading  over periods of time, different groups of species or on a country level. The trends are made from 2 sets of figures those reported by the exporters and another set by the importers. It would be interesting to find out if there are any reasons in particular for the different reporting between the two. You would imagine that both figures should be similar as exporters have to export to someone and that’s generally importers. But perhaps that’s just an indication of how shady the trade in endangered species is.

Looking through the information provided for the UK we can see that the most imported endangered mammal into the UK during 2008 (the last year figures available) was the crab eating Macaque (Macaca fascicularis) with almost 300 individuals imported into Britain that year. Does this mean that the UK is full of monkey loving pet owners? Unfortunately not, the crab eating Macaque also goes by the common name of Cynomolgous Monkey which is well known among biomedical institutes as a popular animal to experiment on especially in neurological research.

Fortunately for birds the imports of endangered species into the UK has practically dried up since 2005, but these figures relate to the official trade in endangered species and do not take into account the black-market or illegal smuggling of endangered species. One of the big areas of growth in imports of animals in the UK is reptiles. Snakes seem to be growing in popularity with people and for the first time in 3 years there was a massive imports of Hermann’s Tortoise in 2008 with almost 3000 individuals imported.

The UNEP has really provided an excellent tool in celebration of CITES 35th anniversary and it’s easy to wile away a few hours playing about with some of the facilities. You are sure to find some eye-opening figures and trends in wildlife trade.

If you would like to visit some of the areas and see some of the animals which are helped by the work of CITES then check out our fantastic range of Safari Holidays

Aggressive Mimicry in Cats!

Watch cats in the wild

Cats have been shown to mimic baby monkeys to lure prey to them. For the first time researchers have seen wild cats using aggressive mimicry to attract prey. This is the first time anyone has scientifically documented cats using this hunting method and confirms anecdotal evidence from local Amazonian residents which has told of cats (even large cats such as jaguars and pumas) using sound to lure prey to them.

Some species use aggressive mimicry as a tactic as a means of hunting for food. It involves actively luring prey towards it using a behaviour which is not natural to the animal but is natural to another species or the environment. It differs from normal mimicry we often see by being active. Normal mimicry includes animals like metalmark moths which look like their main predator the jumping spider or even harmless fish looking like their poisonous predatory fish. Aggressive mimics are not as common as defensive mimics (of which a couple have been listed). Probably the most well know aggressive mimic is the Angler fish which famously uses a luminescence ‘lure’ to attract fish the dark depths of the ocean.

Research from the Wildlife Conservation Society in this latest study has discovered cats mimicking the cries of a pied tamarin juveniles. A nearby group of pied tamarins clearly became inquisitive. As the tamarin guard investigated the noise they ignored the warning calls made by other members of the taramin group. The cat was actually unsuccessful one this occasion but the cat got closer to the prey than in usual hunts.

Dr Avecita Chicchón says, “This observation further proves the reliability of information obtained from Amazonian inhabitants,”  and as director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Latin America Program he is ideally suited to make such a statement. He went on to say; “This means that accounts of jaguars and pumas using the same vocal mimicry to attract prey—but not yet recorded by scientists—also deserve investigation.”

In this study the cat in question is the Margay and it has now been conclusively shown to use aggressive mimicry in a hunting strategy to lure prey in to a better location for the final kill. This study means that more research into this needs to be completed; to see if the anecdotal evidence of big cats also using this aggressive mimicry technique to bring their prey to within striking distance proves true.

This and other studies just highlight the fact that there are still many more secrets in Amazon Rainforest yet to be found. Never before has behavioural science has a reason this good to support why we need to protect the virgin forest and ensure that these species can survive to be studied and enjoyed. This discovery of a cat species undertaking this type of intentional misleading of its prey changes peoples perspective of the predators hunting methods and certainly suggests that some of the animals found in the forest are a lot more intelligent than we may first believe.

If you want to travel the world and see wild cats in their natural environments then check out our range of Big Cat Safaris

India Names Three Sites Which Will Be Used To Reintroduce Cheetahs

Some of the cheetah population in Iran will be taken to start the Indian populatons to ensure the gene pool is as close to the original Asiatic cheetahs as possible.

Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan State are recommended

Indian Cheetahs and Big Cats

The Wildlife Institute of India in addition to the Wildlife Trust of India have named a trio of sites as the best suited places to re-introduce cheetah into the wild in India. To begin with 18 cheetah will be released into the three sites; the selected cheetahs will be taken from the Middle East and North East Africa.

Ten different sites where assessed from seven different environments and landscapes in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. To gauge how good each site was they were assessed for prey abundance, local human population dependencies on natural resources and their attitudes towards wildlife as well as habitat size.

An author of the report Dr Y V Jhala who also works for Wildlife Institute of India was quoted as saying; “Reintroductions of large carnivores have increasingly been recognised as a strategy to conserve threatened species and restore ecosystem functions. The cheetah is the only large carnivore that has been extirpated from India, mainly by over-hunting in historical times. India now has the economic ability to consider restoring its lost natural heritage for ethical as well as ecological reasons. With this context, a consultative meeting of global experts was held at Gajner in September, 2009. A consensus was reached at this meeting for conducting a detailed survey in selected sites to explore the potential of reintroducing the cheetah in India.”

His views where echoed by the Minister of State for Environment and Forests as Shri Jairam Ramesh said; “It is important to bring cheetah back to our country. Cheetah have not been seen since 1967 in India. This is perhaps the only mammal whose name has been derived from Sanskrit language, being derived from the Sanskrit word ‘chitraku’, which means spots. Cheetah will help restore India’s grasslands which will help the conservation of many other endangered animals. The way tigers restore forest ecosystems, snow leopards restore mountain ecosystem, the cheetah will restore grasslands of Indiathe country.”

In addition to the three selected sites there are plans under way as part of Project Tiger in the Sanjay National Park and Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary which will dramatically improve these parks. This has lead to hope that they could play host to more than 30 cheetah, while the surrounding buffer zones could support a further 30 cheetahs.
As well as looking at relocating cheetah the team also assessed the possoiblity of spreading the growing population of Asiatic lions to the Kuno Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary. This area was deemed sufficient to have a potential 27 cheetahs with an increase to 32 if the forests are allowed to re-grow to their former sizes. This is in addition to the reintroduction of at least one pride of Asiatic lions as well.

There have also been six further sites which could support a sizable population of cheetahs in the future, which is good news if the original 18 animals increase the population.

All being well with the cheetah reintroduction, Eco-Tourism will benefit greatly, which will also rub off on the local communities. Cheetahs are used as flagship species in Africa already and would defiantly be seen as a way of increasing the safari industry in central India. The reintroduction would leave India with an enviable array of big cat species, tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard and cheetah!

The new venture must be seen as not juts the reintroduction of a species, but as an endeavour to change the management systems for the environment in order to restore some of India’s most neglected ecosystems and the key animal and plant species which depend upon them.

If you are interested in big cats and want to see some of the best that India has to offer then have a look at our Tiger Safaris or if you are a real adventurer and are looking for something different then how about our amazing Snow Leopard Trekking Holiday.