Positive Wildlife News 2023

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Sundarbans tiger and prey numbers rise amid Bangladesh conservation efforts
  • Recent surveys of big cats and prey in the Sundarbans indicate that numbers for both have increased significantly in recent years, thanks to different conservation measures taken by the Bangladesh government.
  • According to the last survey conducted in 2018, there were 114 tigers in the Bangladesh portion of the Sundarbans, while the number counted in 2004 was 440.
  • An ongoing camera trapping tiger census has found more presence of tigers across the forest than in earlier counts. The final count of the tiger population will be announced on International Tiger Day, July 29, 2024.
  • Experts say that an increase in tigers’ prey animals will reduce human-tiger conflict and help increase the tiger population.
In a heartening turn of events, the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, which spans the southwest border of Bangladesh, is seeing promising signs of recovery for the iconic Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). Five years ago, the conservation community was deeply concerned about the species’ plummeting numbers in this unique habitat.

https://news-mongabay-com.cdn.amppr...ise-amid-bangladesh-conservation-efforts/amp/
 
Australia logging ban to create koala haven

Australia's most populous state announced Tuesday a logging ban in a forest haven for koalas, aiming to protect the local population from being wiped out.

Logging has been halted in 8,400 hectares (21,000 acres) of forest, home to 106 "koala hubs" that are highly populated by the marsupials, the New South Wales government said.

The koala-rich area would form a key part of a planned 315,000-hectare Great Koala National Park on the mid-north coast and "save koalas from extinction in the state", it said.

The move was a "historic step forward", said Nature Conservation Council acting chief executive Brad Smith, describing the area as "the most important koala habitat in the world".

https://amp-france24-com.cdn.amppro...2-australia-logging-ban-to-create-koala-haven
 
‘Great success’: Baker River Sockeye salmon reach record number

A record number of Baker River sockeye are making their way upriver this year.

The fisheries co-managers—consisting of the Upper Skagit and Swinomish tribes and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)—are estimating a total return of more than 65,000 Baker River sockeye for 2023. The Baker River is a tributary of the Skagit River.

The sockeye run, which has been gradually on the upswing from a low of fewer than 100 fish in 1985, has already exceeded the previous record of 51,074 fish trapped and harvested in 2015.

'Great success': Baker River sockeye reach record number - Northwest Treaty Tribes
 
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‘Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve’ becomes Madhya Pradesh’s 7th protected habitat for big cats

Various areas under Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve have been notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change with a view to ensuring the conservation of wild animals.

Madhya Pradesh, which is home to the most number of tigers in the country, has got a new protected area for the big cats named ‘Veerangana Durgavati Tiger Reserve’, the seventh in the state, an official said.

M.P. retained the “tiger state” status in the 2022 census with the number of big cats in the state rising to 785 from 526 in 2018.

https://www-thehindu-com.cdn.amppro...habitat-for-big-cats/article67337729.ece/amp/
 
Three California Tribal Nations Declare First U.S. Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area

It’s an unprecedented day for Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous-led coastal conservation as three federally-recognized California Tribal Nations announce the Yurok-Tolowa-Dee-ni' Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area – the first-ever ocean protection area designated by Tribal governments in the United States.

The Resighini Tribe of Yurok People, Tolowa Dee-ni' Nation and Cher-Ae Heights Indian Community of the Trinidad Rancheria each took action to protect nearly 700 square miles of their ancestral ocean and coastal territories, and waters to advance long-term Tribal stewardship and governance, as well as Tribal and State co-management of critical ecosystems to protect and support cultural lifeways and economies, while directly addressing climate impacts. The Yurok-Tolowa-Dee-ni' IMSA stretches from the Oregon and California border to just south of Trinidad in Humboldt County – about 290 miles north of San Francisco – and will directly help the state of California to achieve its biodiversity and durable conservation goals by 2030.

This first Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area (IMSA) in the U.S. and California (IMSA) is home to species of high cultural value to the Tribal nations including mussels, seaweed, kelp, clams, abalone, surf and night smelts, salmon, candlefish, green sturgeon, shorebirds, and eels, or lamprey.

Three California Tribal Nations Declare First U.S. Indigenous Marine Stewardship Area | Environment
 
Numbat comeback on Eyre Peninsula after first juvenile animals spotted at Secret Rocks

Four juvenile numbats have been spotted at Secret Rocks on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula for the first time, sparking new hope for the region's reintroduction program.

Key points:
  • Ecologists are encouraged after spotting juvenile numbats
  • The four numbats were spotted in early September in a fenced area at Secret Rocks
  • The next step is releasing the animals outside the fenced area
The young marsupials were sighted outside their mother's burrow in early September, nearly a year after a team of ecologists started reintroducing the animals to the Secret Rocks area.

"We reintroduced some numbats last November-December, and this is the first time they've bred since then," Ecological Horizons ecologist Katherine Moseby said.

"We've got four juveniles we've spotted on camera outside one of our female's burrows so it's really exciting."

Dr Moseby, with partner John Read, released 16 numbats in an enclosure at Secret Rocks at the end of last year.

The enclosure was fenced to keep cats and foxes out.

She said there could be more young that had not yet been caught on camera.

"There should be quite a few females out there with pouch young," she said.

"This is just one female we managed to catch. They can be really sort of cryptic when they have pouch young, they deposit them in the nest and then they kind of hide the entrance of the nest so they're quite hard to find."

https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/102862928
 
New Lincolnshire national nature reserve a 'landmark moment'

A new national nature reserve on the Lincolnshire coast has been described as a "landmark moment for nature recovery".

Lincolnshire Coronation Coast National Nature Reserve (LCCNNR) is the first site announced in 'King's Series of National Nature Reserves' plan.

LCCNNR brings together the existing Donna Nook and Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes reserves.

The new site covers 12 sq miles (31 sq km) along 18 miles (30km) of coastline.

LCCNNR contains a rich variety of sand dunes, salt marshes, mudflats and freshwater marshes which are of international importance, Natural England said.

It will support breeding and over-wintering birds, natterjack toads, plants and insects, it added.

https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-66825499.amp
 
To Protect the Water, They Set Fires

By protecting its drinking water, Greenville, South Carolina also created an ecological sanctuary.

Imagine a living laboratory of ecological wonders—a place sheltered from human development for generations, where plants and animals found nowhere else in the world thrive. And in the middle of it are deep, clear reservoirs holding some of the purest water in the United States.

Now imagine someone came along and set fire to this place.

That’s what Austin Williams and McKenzie Boyd do for a living. Well, it’s one thing that they do. Williams and Boyd are part of the conservation staff at Greenville Water, a utility company that provides drinking water for over half a million people in the northwest corner of South Carolina.

Most of that water comes from two reservoirs in Greenville’s strictly protected watershed areas. Perhaps counterintuitively, regular fires are required to maintain the watersheds’ ecology—and maintaining that ecology is what ensures exceptional water quality.

To Protect the Water, They Set Fires
 
Prehistoric bird once thought extinct returns to New Zealand wild

Return of takahē – large, flightless bird – to alpine slopes of the South Island marks a conservation victory in New Zealand.

Tā Tipene O’Regan, 87 years old, leaned into his carved walking stick and reached down to a large wooden box. He paused a second, then slowly lifted the lid. Out shot the hefty body of a bright turquoise bird, legs windmilling, launching from its cage like a football from a slingshot.

“I am now largely blind, but I still saw them,” O’Regan says: a flash of blue feathers and bright red legs racing for the tussocks.

That streak of colour was the takahē: a large, flightless bird, that was believed for decades to be extinct. Eighteen of the birds were released in the Lake Whakatipu Waimāori valley, an alpine area of New Zealand’s South Island last week, on to slopes they had not been seen roaming for about 100 years. For Ngāi Tahu, the tribe to whom the lands belong, and who faced a long legal battle for their return, it is particularly significant, marking the return to the wild of the birds that their ancestors lived alongside, in lands that they had fought to regain.

Takahē are unusual creatures. Like a number of New Zealand birds, they evolved without native land mammals surrounding them, and adapted to fill the ecosystem niches that mammals would occupy. They are flightless, stand at around 50cm tall, and live in the mountains. Their presence in Aotearoa dates back to at least the prehistoric Pleistocene era, according to fossil remains.

“They’re almost prehistoric looking,” says Tūmai Cassidy, of Ngāi Tahu. “Very broad and bold.” Front-on, their bodies can appear almost perfectly spherical – coupled with the blue-green plumage, they look like a model planet Earth perched atop two long, bright red legs.

“Someone once called us, the land of the birds that walk,” says O’Regan, a Ngāi Tahu rangatira (elder). “There are few things more beautiful than to watch these large birds galloping back into tussock lands where they haven’t walked for over a century.”

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amp...e-thought-extinct-returns-to-new-zealand-wild
 
2,000 Southern White Rhinoceros to be Released into the Wild Over Next 10 Years

African Parks, a conservation NGO that manages 22 protected areas in partnership with 12 governments across Africa, announced that it will rewild over 2,000 southern white rhino over the next 10 years. African Parks has stepped in as the new owner of the world’s largest private captive rhino breeding operation, “Platinum Rhino”, a 7,800-hectare property in the North West province of South Africa, which currently holds 2,000 southern white rhino, representing up to 15% of the world’s remaining wild population.

As a result of financial stress, Platinum Rhino was put up for auction on the 26th of April 2023, but did not receive any bids, putting these rhinos at serious risk of poaching and fragmentation. Given African Parks’ experience in effectively managing protected areas and carrying out wildlife translocations at scale, including bringing rhino back to Rwanda, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, African Parks was approached by numerous concerned individuals from the conservation sector to provide a solution to prevent a potential conservation crisis, and to help secure the future for a species in decline.

After conducting a thorough due diligence and with the support of the South African Government, as well as having secured emergency funding to make the transaction possible, African Parks agreed to purchase the farm and all 2,000 rhino. African Parks has one clear objective: to rewild these rhino over the next 10 years to well-managed and secure areas, establishing or supplementing strategic populations, thereby de-risking the future of the species. The breeding programme will be phased out and the project will end once all the rhino are released into the wild. This is one of the largest continent-wide rewilding endeavours to occur for any species.

2,000 Southern White Rhino to be Released into the Wild Over Next 10 Years
 
Rejuvenated Caribbean ‘moonscape’ island granted protected area status

Rejuvenated Caribbean ‘moonscape’ island granted protected area status.

A Caribbean island that has transformed from a barren moonscape to a lush wildlife sanctuary in just a few short years has been made one of the biggest protected areas in the Caribbean. The new designation is the result of the ongoing efforts of the government of Antigua and Barbuda, particularly the Department of Environment (DoE), and local and international conservation NGOs, including the Environmental Awareness Group (EAG), Fauna & Flora and Re:wild.

The new protected area – named the Redonda Ecosystem Reserve – covers almost 30,000 hectares of land and sea, including the entire island, its surrounding seagrass meadows and a 180 square-kilometer coral reef. Though largely unexplored, the new protected area is believed to contain at least 30 globally threatened and near-threatened species, along with globally important seabird colonies.

Rejuvenated Caribbean ‘moonscape’ island granted protected area status
 
Southern purple-spotted gudgeon fish, thought to be extinct for more than 20 years, released into the wild

A so-called "zombie fish" thought to have been extinct for two decades has been released into a Victorian wetland after being brought back from the dead.

Key points:
  • The native southern purple-spotted gudgeon was declared extinct in Victoria in 1998.
  • After two fish were discovered in 2019 a breeding program was established.
  • Nine months on, breeders released fish into McLartys Lagoon, a natural wetland on the mid-Goulburn River
https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/102827530
 
Second group of hamsters released on the Tarutino Steppe

The Rewilding Ukraine team are engaged in long-term efforts to create a wilder and healthier Tarutino Steppe. The ongoing reintroduction of European hamsters will help to restore local food webs, enhance biodiversity, and boost nature-based tourism.

Second group of hamsters released on the Tarutino Steppe | Rewilding Europe
 
A kelp forest in Sussex, southern England, has shown signs of recovery since being protected from trawling in 2021. Seahorses, stingrays and angelsharks have been recorded in the area since protection was put in place:
Lost sea forest is on the road to recovery

Regarding the angelshark - a young pup, presumed to have been born in the nearby area, was caught on July 23rd and returned alive to the water. It is the first record of an angelshark in Sussex for more than 60 years:
Rare shark found off Brighton is 'first sighting in over 60 years'
 
A new hope for critically endangered animal native to the UAE

Expedition to the UAE's east coast found 52 of the elusive and shy Emirati leaf-toed geckos - a species thought to be on the cusp of extinction.

The discovery of 52 critically endangered geckos on the UAE’s east coast has raised hopes for the survival of the threatened species.

The Emirati leaf-toed gecko – Asaccus caudivolvulus – was thought to be on the brink of extinction but a 2022 expedition found the geckos in five locations despite heavy development in the area.

Geckos play a crucial role in ecosystems because they feed on insects and help to balance the number of species.

But due to habitat loss caused by development, the gecko population has dwindled.

The species is now classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

A new hope for critically endangered animal native to the UAE
 
1 Million New Seagrass Seedlings Will Protect Sardinia’s Beaches While Storing 35-Times More Carbon Than Trees

To any government reading, there’s a plant that provides habitat for nearly all the species of the sea, anchors the sediment on the seafloor, dissipates wave energy, regulates ocean acidity, and that holds 35-times more carbon per cubic inch of rootstock than tropical rainforest—and best of all, it’s neither fictional nor rare.

Posidonia oceanica, or seagrass, plays all these important roles for marine ecosystems, and scientists and conservationists working at the Med Sea Foundation on the island of Sardinia, Italy, believe that by restoring their seagrass meadows they can safeguard their own coasts, as well as the world, from climate change.

The new project launched by Med Sea looks to plant 1 million seagrass plants by 2050 across 19 square miles (50 square kilometers) of coastline on Sardinia’s Sinis Peninsula—and also throughout the Mediterranean.

1 Million New Seagrass Seedlings Will Protect Sardinia's Beaches While Storing 35-Times More Carbon Than Trees
 
Florida leaders approve conservation deals impacting Panhandle to Southwest Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet on Monday quickly approved $141 million in deals that will help preserve land from the Panhandle to Southwest Florida.

During a meeting held by telephone, DeSantis and Cabinet members supported three land purchases under the Florida Forever program. They also approved buying three conservation easements, which help preserve land while allowing owners to continue using it for such things as agriculture and hunting.

Florida leaders approve conservation deals impacting Panhandle to Southwest Florida
 
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