Tag: endangered animals

Australia completes world’s largest cat-proof fence to protect endangered marsupials

zooophagous:

rjzimmerman:

Cute mammals, protected from cats now. See photos.

A critically endangered mala or rufous hare wallaby in the feral predator-proof fenced area on Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary. Photograph: Wayne Lawler/Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Excerpt:

The world’s largest cat-proof fence has been completed in central Australia, creating a 94 square kilometre sanctuary for endangered marsupials.

The 44km fence – made of 85,000 pickets, 400km of wire and 130km of netting – surrounds the Newhaven wildlife sanctuary, a former cattle station that has been bought by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy.

Endangered species such as the bilby, the burrowing bettong and the mala (also known as the rufous hare-wallaby) will have a chance to replenish their populations inside the massive sanctuary, safe from Australia’s feral cat epidemic.

Feral cats kill a million native birds every night across Australia and have caused the extinction of 20 native species since they were introduced by the first fleet.

Bilby

Burrowing bettong

And people still doubt that cats are problem animals somehow

Keep your cats inside. Stop adding to the problem.

Australia completes world’s largest cat-proof fence to protect endangered marsupials

did you seriously just say we should let pandas go extinct to save other animals or am i misinterpreting because that is a very questionable judgement

biologizeable:

ALRIGHT MY FRIEND I have received about six messages in this vein since yesterday, but I worked for thirteen hours today and I have no time for this nonsense. Short answer: YES. 

I’m gonna summarize some salient points on why pandas are awful from a conservation standpoint:

  • PANDAS LITERALLY CANNOT MATE IN CAPTIVITY. IT’S UNBELIEVABLE
  • Artificial insemination and hand-rearing of cubs are basically standard practice, and still they usually die. At what point is it reasonable to give up because I think we hit it DECADES AGO
  • In 35 years, only 90 cubs have been born in captivity outside of China
  • Wild panda numbers have increased a bare (bear?) 200 individuals in 10 years, despite literal billions of dollars being poured into conservation
  • NO OTHER AREA OF ANIMAL CONSERVATION EVEN COMES CLOSE TO THE MONEY BEING POURED INTO PANDAS. NONE
  • And yet we’ve managed to literally rebuild populations of black-footed ferrets, oryx, and California condors with exponentially less money
  • Despite all of this, only 10 pandas have been released since the 80s, and all but two died
  • I bet you wouldn’t have guessed that it’s because their habitat is destroyed and fragmentary and barely protected!!!!!! 
  • The only good thing about panda conservation is that protecting their range is also protecting tons of other species. Which would be great, if more of their range was being protected effectively.
  • There is way more money in keeping captive pandas captive than in releasing them!! surprise!!!!!!
  • Zoos pay a lot of money to get pandas on loan because people just LOVE looking at pandas and they can’t afford to house and care for their other animals without people coming to visit! Or do any kind of conservation whatsoever!! Panda-economics! (this is kind of a pro as opposed to a con but its the kind of pro that makes me feel like I need a shower)
  • Pandas are endangered and sort of have a role in spreading bamboo seeds around, so they get billions of dollars. Every shark ever is MORE endangered, and without them the entire ocean ecosystem would collapse, but that’s fine they don’t need money (I’m not bitter) ((I am bitter))

I’m gonna be frank with you. We are in the middle of a mass extinction event, caused by us. Not to be a downer (jk, I’m gonna) but we’re already driving so many species to extinction that we cannot afford to save them all with the money and interest that is in conservation right now. 

Instead, we have to do some kind of awful extinction triage and assess which animals will do the most good to work to conserve – and getting into keystone species, ecosystem engineers, and other truly integral species is a whole other can of worms I’m not gonna touch on – but there are animals that are “more important” in a certain sense than others, in that they can support or affect a much wider range of other species than another. 

People only care about big, cute, fluffy animals – a common lament heard from conservationists, but it’s so true. There are thousands, if not millions of species that don’t fit this mold that conservation work would benefit eons more than pandas. It’s like fixing a pretty, stained-glass window in a house whose foundations are collapsing and thinking you’re helping. 

Pandas have always been the face of conservation, and they continue to be one of the biggest and most expensive ongoing failures. 


[Sources/ stuff to read to make sense of my incoherent response!]

Keep reading

What’s your stance on panda conservation? Several people I know think it’s a huge waste of money and effort.

why-animals-do-the-thing:

joutacujo:

why-animals-do-the-thing:

I like pandas, they’re cute. In an ideal world, sure, I’d love to see energy put into keeping them on this planet for us to coo over. Unfortunately, we’ve got limited energy and limited resources and I really think that we need to focus on conserving species that play a more critical role in their environments, rather than on cute megafauna that don’t do much more than chew on weird grass. 

I read this post a while ago about Panda Conservation that cleared up the reasons why it’s a waste of money

mobile link: http://biologizeable.com/post/139579615532/did-you-seriously-just-say-we-should-let-pandas-go

@biologizeable‘s post above is a really good explanation of the problems with panda conservation and worth a read. 

Pink Poison, the Surprising New Trend That’s Saving Rhinos

lalna:

shewillpunchyouintheface:

fluffmugger:

1) Does not hurt rhinos

2) Discolours ivory (BRIGHT PINK) thus reducing saleability

3) Can be detected by airport scanners, even if ground up, thus increasing the chances you will be caught

4) Causes nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea if ingested by humans, thus driving away your customer base

Win. Win. Win. Win.

5) makes rhinos look adorable & fashionable

Pink Poison, the Surprising New Trend That’s Saving Rhinos

Rare ‘baby dragons,’ Olms, discovered in five new caves thanks to DNA

endangereduglythings:

typhlonectes:

It was like identifying a criminal from a bit of DNA left at a crime
scene. No murder mystery was solved, but researchers have found rare
blind cave salamanders in five caves they were not previously thought to
live in, thanks to the DNA the animals shed in water.

This extends the known range of the vulnerable salamanders and raises hopes for their long-term monitoring and conservation.

The olms (Proteus anguinus), or baby dragons as locals call them,
spend their entire life in the underground waters of the Dinaric Alps
running from Slovenia through Croatia and several other Balkan
countries.

DNA from bits of skin that they have shed or their feces gets
dissolved into their watery habitat and can be washed out of the cave.
This is good news for biologists studying cave life, because most of the
7000 or so caves in Croatia are inaccessible to humans…

I’m always excited to hear good news about endangered species. This, along with the eggs hatched last June, show that there is some good news happening for these weird and wonderful little troglobites. As caves tend to be endangered ecosystems in general, any good news is welcome.

Rare ‘baby dragons,’ Olms, discovered in five new caves thanks to DNA

earlgraytay:

overlyygayy:

So the Great Barrier Reef was pronounced dead today.
Do you even realize that is this our home. We were blessed with such a beautiful, loving, and magnificent home and look what we have done to it. Mother Nature doesn’t deserve this. We don’t deserve this world we were so graciously given.
Are you waking up yet

K, so this is mostly bollocks. 

The Great Barrier Reef is not dead. About a third of the coral in it is dead, and it’s suffering a really bad case of a disease called coral bleaching (which is what caused the photos down below)- but it’s not dead and it has a chance to recover. Hell, you can even see it in the bottom right picture- the only coral that’s actually dead in it is the big dark twiggy bit. The rest of it is still alive- it’s just under stress and so it’s bleached. 

A lot of scientists are actually kind of pissed off about this message going viral, because it sends the message that there’s nothing we can do. It’s like sending out an obituary notice for your loved one that has cancer and is on life support. They’re still not dead. They can keep fighting; they can survive. 

And we can still save the Reef. It’s not too late to turn things around. 

Source: overlygayy

franzanth:

Sixteen animals racing against extinction in 2016

In this year’s congress, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared that 12,316 species are currently threatened by extinction. This number is merely the tip of the iceberg, considering only 61,007 species have been assessed – a small portion out of at least six million species currently living on Earth. In this article published on @eartharchives, guest writer @strigiforma profiles sixteen of them. Follow the link above to read their story.

– – –

Will Art for Science · Shop

Source: franzanth

Recovery: Saving American Burying Beetles, Nature’s Undertakers

typhlonectes:

The shiny black, orange-spotted adults can approach two inches in
length. Offspring beg both parents for food, inducing regurgitation by
stroking their jaws like wolf pups. They’re federally endangered
American burying beetles, largest of the 31 species of North American
carrion beetles.

Recovery: Saving American Burying Beetles, Nature’s Undertakers

Whale and winghead sharks move step closer to extinction

toothybabies:

Whale sharks and winghead sharks have moved one step closer to extinction, after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) redefined them both as endangered species on the group’s ‘Red List’.

The two predatory species have fallen foul of increased pressure from human activity, especially the fishing industry, with populations of whale sharks – the world’s largest living fish – halving in the last 75 years.

Jane Smart, the director of the IUCN’s Global Species Programme said: “It is alarming to see such emblematic species slide towards extinction. The world’s oceans and forests will only continue to provide us with food and other benefits if we preserve their capacity to do so.”

[read more]

Oh shit, not the whale shark…

Whale and winghead sharks move step closer to extinction