Fascinating Paper on Predator-Prey relationships

The latest edition of Ecology Letters has a fascinating paper on the relationship between Predator-Prey authored by Daniel R. MacNulty et al

MacNulty has followed 94 radio-collared wolves in Yellowstone for 13 years. MacNulty was puzzled by some of his observations. The breeding pair in one of the packs in Yellowstone National Park he was monitoring frequently stopped during the elk hunts to rest. He says they sat on the sidelines while their offspring did the work. After their kids made the kill, they would amble up to feed. T he two adult wolves were almost 5 years old, which is fairly old age for wolves. Wolves are old when they're 4. Those older wolves manage to survive because the younger ones in their pack kill the elk and let all the pack members to feed.

MacNulty observed that the wolves' kill rate on elk in Yellowstone declined significantly as the number of older members in the wolf population increased. Ecologists are starting to realize that age needs to be taken in to reckoning, in models of predator-prey abundance. The usual ploy of managers who want to boost numbers of elk is to kill wolves. This study clearly shows we are probably increasing the problem by this practice as we end up with younger wolves that kill more prey.

Good Read - Endangered species for every country in the world

I just read this interesting article in Guardian about endangered species of the world. The thrust is on how Humans have accelerated the rate at which species disappear.

11,686 species have been classed as endangered. US host the lion's share with 10%. About 6% of the total species are in Brazil. Even the tiny island nation of Singapore has100 endangered species.

Read the full article here

Logged Rainforests Can be Made Productive with Imaginative Planning

New research at the University of Leeds has found that Logged rainforests can support as much plant, animal and insect life as virgin forest within 15 years if properly managed.

The research compared biodiversity of birds in three adjoining areas of tropical forest in the north-east of Borneo. First site selected, a managed one, is the oldest and largest area of rehabilitated forest in the tropics which was logged around 20 years ago. The Second site is a naturally regenerating area of forest which was logged at the same time. The third is a conservation area of unlogged forest.

The researchers found that the number and range of species of birds in rehabilitated tropical forest recovered to levels very close to those found in unlogged forest after just 15 years. Forest that was left to regenerate naturally showed less diversity.

Because tropical forest trees soak up large amounts of carbon dioxide, restoring logged forest through planting new trees could also be used in carbon trading. The new research has shown that it is possible to have both carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits within the same scheme

Details of the research appears in the latest issue of Conservation Biology

The Plight of The African Elephants

I was saddened to read this article about the plight of the African elephants, in Telegraph, UK. If urgent steps are not immediately implemented the animals could be gone in another 15 years time. What a shame.

The population of African elephants currently standing at 600,000, is diminishing at the rate of 38,000 each year. This clearly exceeds the birth rates. In 2006 alone 11 metric tonnes of illegal ivory were seized from ships bound for Taiwan and Japan. Chad’s Zakouma National Park had 3,885 elephants in 2005 but by 2009 the figure had come down to 617. 11 rangers were killed by poachers during the same period.

Stopping the legal ivory sales worldwide is must if we are to come out of this vortex. Kenya’s proposal to extend the current “resting period” on elephant and ivory sales from nine to 20 years at the next CITES meeting in March 2010 should also be actively pursued.

Tahrcountry exhorts environmentalists’ worldwide to raise their voice.