Positive Wildlife News 2021

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Raimona and Dehing Patkai in Assam Notified as National Parks

With Raimona Reserve Forest and Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary notified as national parks, Assam now has seven national parks, the state with the second highest number of national parks in India. Madhya Pradesh with 11 and the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands with nine, top the list in the respective categories.

Raimona and Dehing Patkai in Assam Notified as National Parks
 
Rare pāteke duck spreads wings from Abel Tasman park

New Zealand’s rarest duck the pāteke is spreading its wings and spilling out of the Abel Tasman National Park and into Tasman Bay, following efforts to help the species survive.

Pāteke (also known as the brown teal) were once a common duck in New Zealand, but now they are the fourth most endangered duck in the world.

There are only 2,000-2,500 pāteke left, mostly in the North Island.

Rare pāteke duck spreads wings from Abel Tasman park
 
Two new Javan rhino calves spotted in the species’ last holdout


    • Indonesia has announced sightings of two Javan rhino calves this year in Ujung Kulon National Park, the last place on Earth where the critically endangered species is found.
    • The new additions bring the estimated population of the species to 73; conservationists have recorded at least one new calf a year joining the population since 2012.
    • Despite the stable population growth, the rhinos remain under the looming threat of disease, natural disaster, and a resurgence in encroachment.
Conservation officials in Indonesia have reported a sighting of two new Javan rhinoceros calves, boosting hopes for stable population growth of the nearly extinct species.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...lves-spotted-in-the-species-last-holdout/amp/
 
Beaver Reintroduction Licence puts Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust one step closer to bringing beavers back to county for 1st time in 400 years

Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has expressed its delight at receiving the official licence for its planned enclosed beaver reintroduction at the spectacular Idle Valley Nature Reserve off North Road, Retford.

2021 has been billed as a record year for beaver reintroductions in the UK, with the East Midlands leading the charge. Both Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Wildlife Trusts are making final preparations to reintroduce beavers to their respective counties for the first time in over 400 years, thanks to funding from Severn Trent’s Great Big Nature Boost and public donations.

Beaver Reintroduction Licence puts Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust one step closer to bringing beavers back to county for 1st time in 400 years | Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
 
New Study Shows Greenhouse Gas Reduction Potential of Natural Climate Solutions

Researchers explored the emission reduction potential of 24 actions involving the protection, management and restoration of natural ecosystems.

Researchers from 16 universities, environmental groups and government agencies have completed the first comprehensive assessment of the potential greenhouse gas emission reductions of key natural climate solutions in Canada.

New Study Shows Greenhouse Gas Reduction Potential of Natural Climate Solutions - Nature Canada
 
$3 million Matching Challenge to scale up conservation actions

Thirty years ago, armed with a hopeful heart and a big vision, AWC Founder Martin Copley purchased Karakamia Wildlife Sanctuary and so began AWC’s story. While our progress is well documented and we celebrate AWC’s transformative conservation model, the imperative to stay focused on our mission and rapidly scale up our conservation actions is as urgent as ever. Consider this: in March 2021 the Australian Government updated the nation’s official wildlife extinction list, noting the loss of an additional 13 endemic species since European colonisation. The revision brings the total number of Australian mammals known to have gone extinct to 34. In other words, Australia’s mammal extinction record, already ranked as the worst in the world, just got worse.

$3 million Matching Challenge to scale up conservation actions
 
Australia joins global biodiversity alliance

The Australian Conservation Foundation has welcomed the Morrison government’s recognition of the need for a strong global agreement at this year’s UN biodiversity conference with its decision to join the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People.

In a statement today Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Environment Minister Sussan Ley announced Australia would join the High Ambition Coalition – an alliance of 60 countries that is working towards a global agreement to halt and reverse biodiversity destruction by protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.

Australia joins global biodiversity alliance
 
Philippine forest turtles stand a ‘good chance’ after first wild release
  • Researchers released a pair of Philippine forest turtles (Siebenrockiella leytensis) on the island of Palawan in February, they announced this month, part of a batch of only 17 to have been successfully bred under human care in the Philippines since 2018.
  • After tracking the turtles for three months following the release, the researchers say there are indications the animals can mature and reproduce if released within guarded and protected areas.
  • The turtles are notoriously difficult to breed in human care and the conservation group that carried out the breeding program took 10 years before recording its first successful hatchling in 2018.
  • Endemic to the Philippines, the forest turtle is threatened by poaching for the exotic pet trade, with wild-caught specimens often passed off as captive-born ones by private traders, despite the great difficulty in breeding this species in captivity.
The Philippines’ most traded turtle species, and among the world’s rarest, received a bit of a population boost as researchers introduced two juveniles in the wilds of the island of Palawan. The release occurred in February this year, but researchers only made the announcement this month. They add that the turtles’ behaviors recorded in the months since their release indicate they have a good chance of surviving in the wild.

The Philippine forest turtle (Siebenrockiella leytensis) is a freshwater species found nowhere else in the world. Heavy poaching of this turtle over the past 15 years pushed the Katala Foundation Inc. (KFI), a Palawan-based conservation group, to carry out extensive captive-breeding programs in hopes of rewilding areas where local populations have gone extinct.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...d-a-good-chance-after-first-wild-release/amp/
 
Sri Lanka banks on the ocean to chart a green path toward a blue economy
  • Coastal and marine ecosystems in Sri Lanka provide a variety of services that are vital to coastal communities and the environment.
  • To protect these ecosystems while addressing national development needs, Sri Lanka is well-positioned to invest in a “blue economy” that focuses on economic growth that incorporates and protects the environment and ecosystem services.
  • Officials and experts have identified huge potential to enhance livelihoods and value chains in Sri Lanka’s coastal and marine sector without destroying local ecosystems, based on technical expertise and guidance.
  • If development of the coastal sector can be achieved in harmony with ecosystem growth and conservation, proponents say, this will enhance Sri Lanka’s capacities for climate change mitigation and adaptation, supporting the resilience of its population and its commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Authorities in Sri Lanka have called for a renewed focus on conserving the island’s rich coastal ecosystems, identifying the “blue economy” as key to the nation’s sustainable development.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...chart-a-green-path-toward-a-blue-economy/amp/
 
Alaska bumblebees are thriving

Extreme environments offer them an unexpected paradise, and now researchers are working to get a head count.

“People don’t come to Denali and other parks in Alaska to look at bumblebees, but they should,” says Jessica Rykken, entomologist for Denali National Park and Preserve. The “Last Frontier” state may be known for supersized wildlife, from bears to moose, but on a smaller scale, the diversity of bumblebees (or bumble bees, depending on whom you ask) there is unusually high, and powers entire ecosystems.

Alaska bumblebees are thriving
 
Bringing back habitat for eastern bristlebirds

The community and National Parks and Wildlife Service are working together to restore habitat for the endangered eastern bristlebird, thanks to the $1 million Gondwana Hotspots project funded by the NSW Environmental Trust over 10 years.

For shrinking bristlebird populations in northern NSW, fire and weeds are a matter of life and death. Fire regenerates the bristlebirds' dual habitat; weeds destroy it.

Work to protect the eastern bristlebird (Dasyornis brachypterus) first began 20 years ago, after populations shrank following habitat loss in northern NSW and southern Queensland. Just 40 birds remained in small pockets. It was realised they needed a unique 'dual habitat' to survive: open grassy forest next to rainforest or wet gullies. And the birds weren't fussy – the habitat could be national park or private land.

Since 2016, the Burning Hotspots – Gondwana Threatened Species and Fire Project has supported 8 endangered or threatened species in northern NSW, including the eastern bristlebird. It's funded through the Environmental Trust's Saving our Species (SoS) Partnership Grant.

Bringing back habitat for eastern bristlebirds
 
NEW TIGER SIGHTING IN THAILAND GIVES HOPE FOR CONSERVATION

Dr. Rungnapa Phoonjampa is WWF-Thailand's project manager for the country's Mae Wong and Khlong Lan National parks. Read her story about this thrilling new sighting!

It has been 10 years since WWF-Thailand’s tiger conservation team started work in Mae Wong and Khlong Lan National Parks—an area that is now a proven tiger source site, or a site from which tigers disperse into other areas. And we now have our gift of hope to celebrate the countdown to the 10th anniversary of our conservation efforts.

In the first week of May, a patrol team performing their daily duties in Mae Wong National Park (which is within Thailand’s Western Forest Complex) stumbled upon a dead sambar. But this was no ordinary carcass. It looked like it had been hunted and left as a feast for later… but by what?

Curious to find out whose prey this was, WWF-Thailand’s tiger conservation team and researchers went back to the forest with the rangers and installed camera traps near the sambar carcass.

New tiger sighting in Thailand gives hope for conservation
 
Colorado Joins Wave of States Protecting Wildlife Corridors

Colorado residents and millions of annual visitors alike enjoy the state’s dramatic landscapes, abundant recreation opportunities, and iconic wildlife. So it’s not surprising that Colorado recently became the latest state to pass legislation to safeguard habitat connectivity and wildlife corridors, which are essential for healthy ecosystems. Protecting the ability of wildlife to move freely across the landscape is a win-win-win: it allows animals to meet their needs, enhances driver safety, and supports recreation opportunities for hunters, anglers, and wildlife viewers.

Colorado Joins Wave of States Protecting Wildlife Corridors
 
Rewilding: New 3,000-acre landscape restoration will boost red squirrels and curlews in Yorkshire Dales

Restoration of once intensively used farmland, will showcase ‘alternative future’ for UK’s uplands, say WWF and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust

A new 3,000 acre rewilding project in the Yorkshire Dales will transform heavily grazed pasture into a biodiversity hotspot, restoring peatlands, creating new forest, and providing habitat for red squirrels, curlews and black grouse.

The project, called Wild Ingleborough, will cover an area from the River Ribble in the south west of the Dales national park up towards the Ingleborough mountain summit – the second highest peak in the park.

https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.a...red-squirrel-climate-change-b1871516.html?amp
 
UngulateNerd92 said:
New survey nearly doubles Grauer’s gorilla population, but threats remain



    • A recent survey led by the Wildlife Conservation Society has revised the population estimate for Grauer’s gorillas to 6,800, up from a 2016 estimate of 3,800.
    • The survey includes data from the Oku community forests in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which could not be surveyed in 2016 due to security issues.
    • Endemic to the eastern DRC, Grauer’s gorillas are still classed as critically endangered, and face threats due to mining and bushmeat hunting.
    • The large numbers of gorillas observed in the community forests surrounding Kahuzi-Biéga National Park underscore the importance of engaging local communities in conservation.
New research indicates that the global population of Grauer’s gorillas may be almost twice as high as previously estimated, leading to renewed optimism among conservationists about the future of the critically endangered ape.

A study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) published last month has updated the global population estimate for Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) — the world’s biggest gorilla subspecies, found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo — to 6,800 individuals from a 2016 estimate of 3,800 individuals.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...rs-gorilla-population-but-threats-remain/amp/
Click to expand...

I think this is being lead by Angelique Todd a former Aspinall park keeper or perhaps it was formerly being led by her.

I seem to remember reading about her being involved in some survey of some kind with Grauer gorillas.
 
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UngulateNerd92 said:
Very interesting. How long has she been involved with that project?
Click to expand...

Never met her personally just know of her work but I think she must have been conducting field research with one or other of the gorilla subspecies since the late 90' s.

Actually I wonder what she thinks about the current moves by the Aspinall parks with reintroducing gorillas.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Never met her personally just know of her work but I think she must have been conducting field research with one or other of the gorilla subspecies since the late 90' s.

Actually I wonder what she thinks about the current moves by the Aspinall parks with reintroducing gorillas.
Click to expand...

Ah very nice. What is her degree in if you don't mind my asking? Wildlife Biology or Conservation Biology?
 
UngulateNerd92 said:
Ah very nice. What is her degree in if you don't mind my asking? Wildlife Biology or Conservation Biology?
Click to expand...

Not too sure what her undergrad degree was in but I know she did a PhD at Oxford or Cambridge on her gorilla research.

I think right now she is with either Fauna and Flora international or WWF or Conservation international and holds a top position.
 
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