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World wildlife populations halved in 40 years

tiger-nepal-critically_endangered.jpg In Nepal, habitat loss and hunting have reduced tigers from 100,000 a century ago to just 3,000. The global loss of species is even worse than previously thought, the London Zoological Society (ZSL) says in its new Living Planet Index. The report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results than in a report two years ago. The report says populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined by an average of 52%. Populations of freshwater species have suffered an even worse fall of 76%.

2014 Rarest Birds

The 100 most distinct and rare birds

Philippine's eagle: The Philippine's eagle is at number eight
philippines-eagle.jpg

The world's 100 most distinctive and endangered birds have been determined.

Scientists in the UK and US chose the birds based on their rarity, but also how distinctive their appearance, behaviour and evolutionary history was.

The list of birds contains several of the world's largest and most striking, as well as other unusual species threatened with extinction.

Included are the tooth-billed pigeon, known as the little dodo, the Philippine's eagle and a type of kiwi.

Scientists at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), UK and Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, US created the list as part of the EDGE of Existence programme, which seeks to document the most uniquely vulnerable species on the planet.

Details of the exercise are published in the journal Current Biology.
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Giant ibis. The giant ibis stands tall at the top of the list
At number one is a bird called the giant ibis.

The largest member of the ibis and spoonbill family, the giant ibis stands over a metre tall, weighs 4.2kg and is the national bird of Cambodia. Despite this, fewer than 230 pairs remain.

Large carnivore species in decline

More than three quarters of large carnivore species are now in decline. Three quarters of the world's big carnivores - including lions, wolves and bears - are in decline, says a new study. A majority now occupy less than half their former ranges according to data published in the journal, Science. The loss of this habitat and prey and persecution by humans has created global hotspots of decline. The researchers say the loss of these species could be extremely damaging for ecosystems the world over. The authors say that in the developed world, most carnivorous animals have already succumbed to extinction. When they looked at 31 big meat eaters, they found that they were under increasing pressure in the Amazon, South East Asia, southern and East Africa. "Globally, we are losing our large carnivores," said lead author Prof William Ripple from Oregon State University. "Their ranges are collapsing. Many of these animals are at risk of extinction, either locally or globally." The researchers say their work highlights the important ecological role of many of these carnivores. When they looked at wolves and cougars in Yellowstone National Park in the US, they found that having fewer of these big predators resulted in an increase in animals that browse such as elk and deer. While this might seem like good news, the researchers found that the rise of these browsers is bad for vegetation and disrupts the lives of birds and small mammals, leading to a cascade of damaging impacts. Similar effects were seen all over the world.

Farming impact on Global Warming

Changing the way farmers plough their lands could have a big impact on global emissions of greenhouse gases.

Changing farming practices could play an important role in averting dangerous climate change says the UN. In their annual emissions report, they measure the difference between the pledges that countries have made to cut warming gases and the targets required to keep temperatures below 2C. On present trends there is likely to be an annual excess of 8 to 12 gigatonnes of these gases by 2020.

Agriculture, they say, could make a significant difference to the gap. This is the fourth such report, compiled by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) in conjunction with 44 scientific groups in 17 countries. It says the world needs to reduce total emissions to 44 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2020 to keep the planet from going above the 2C target, agreed at a UN meeting in Cancun in 2010. But when all the pledges and plans made by countries are added together, they show an excess of between 8 and 12 gigatonnes per annum in seven years time, very similar to last year's report. To put it in context, 12 gigatonnes is about 80% of all the emissions coming from all the power plants in the world right now.

70m sea level rise by 2050 - total surface ice thaw

melting-arctic-ice-global-warming

Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions have been building up in the atmosphere and warming the planet for the past 150 years, dragging us into the uncharted Anthropocene, or age of man. Almost all of the planet's tropical mountain glaciers have retreated or disappeared in recent decades, including those in the South American Andes, Asian Himalaya, and African Rwenzoris.

The resulting meltwater is finding its way into the oceans. Globally, they are rising at an average of 3.5 millimetres per year – roughly twice the rate seen during the 20th Century. Sea levels are expected to rise by around 2.3 metres (7.6 feet) for every 1C of warming in the coming decades, according to a study published by scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research last month. Most of the rise in the past decade was thanks to thermal expansion – at higher temperatures the water takes up a greater volume because its molecules move about more. Now however glacial melt has overtaken thermal expansion as the leading cause of rising sea levels.

At the poles, change is underway of a magnitude so extreme that Earth hasn’t experienced its like for over 10 million years. The Arctic is warming at least twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. One estimate suggests future average global warming of 2-3C, for example, would mean Arctic warming of 6-8C. This is partly because of the hot southerly winds bearing soot pollutants converging on the region. These particles absorb the sun’s rays and when they land on the surface attached to snowflakes they darken it and speed up melting.

African forest elephants face extinction

African forest elephants decline by 62% in 10 years

African forest elephants by water
 
African forest elephants face extinction if 'drastic measures' are not taken
 

Forest elephant numbers have decreased by 62% across Central Africa over the last 10 years, according to a study.

The analysis confirmed fears that African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are heading for extinction, possibly within the next decade.

Conservationists said "effective, rapid, multi-level action is imperative" in order to save the elephants.

They are concerned the forest elephants are being killed for their ivory.

Results of the study, undertaken by researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), are published in the scientific journal PLoS One.

Over 60 co-authors contributed to the study, which was led by Dr Fiona Maisels, a WCS conservation scientist from the School of Natural Sciences, University of Sterling.

"Although we were expecting to see these results, we were horrified that the decline over the period of a mere decade was over 60%," Dr Maisels told BBC Nature.

Elusive giants

African forest elephants

Reptiles are going extinct

World's reptiles at risk of extinction

 
A mountain horned agama lizard
 
Many lizards are under threat, including the mountain horned agama of Sri Lanka
 

Almost a fifth of the world's reptile species are at risk of extinction, according to scientists.

Research led by the Zoological Society of London found that the future of 19% of the world's reptiles are threatened.

Conservation experts also confirmed that 47% are vulnerable and highlighted the possible extinction of three species.

The figures are based on a random sample of 1,500 of the world's reptile species.

"It's essentially an election poll set up - using this sample to give an example of how reptiles are doing as a whole," explained Dr Monika Bohm, lead author of the study published in the journal Biological Conservation.

The study was made in conjunction with 200 experts from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Species Survival Commission.

 

Lava lizard basks on the head of a marine iguana

Conservation targets need billions in funding

Scientists say billions required to meet conservation targets

 
Ethiopian bush crow
 
The most threatened species tend to be relatively cheap to save because of small range sizes.
 

Reducing the risk of extinction for

threatened species and establishing protected areas for nature will cost the world over $76bn dollars annually.

Researchers say it is needed to meet globally agreed conservation targets by 2020.

The scientists say the daunting number is just a fifth of what the world spends on soft drinks annually.

And it amounts to just 1% of the value of ecosystems being lost every year, they report in the journal Science.

“Nature just doesn't do recessions, we're talking about the irreversible loss of unique species and millions of years of evolutionary history”

Donal McCarthy RSPB

Back in 2002, governments around the world agreed that they would achieve a significant reduction in biodiversity loss by 2010. But the deadline came and went and the rate of loss increased.

At a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya that year governments re-committed to a series of targets to be achieved by 2020.

Leopard poaching in India

India WWF report says four leopards killed every week

 

Indian leopard
 
Wildlife experts say there are no reliable population estimates of leopards in India
 

At least four leopards are poached every week in India, according to a new study by a group of conservationists.

Great ape habitat in Africa has dramatically declined

Bonobos
 
Bonobos have less far to roam.

Great apes, such as gorillas, chimps and bonobos, are

running out of places to live, say scientists. They have recorded a dramatic decline in the amount of habitat suitable for great apes, according to the first such survey across the African continent. Eastern gorillas, the largest living primate, have lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s. Cross River gorillas, chimps and bonobos have also suffered significant losses, according to the study. Details are published in the journal Diversity and Distributions     . "Several studies either on a site or country level indicated already that African ape populations are under enormous pressure and in decline," said Hjalmar Kuehl, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, who helped organise the research.

 

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