Good News in Numbers

The National Wildlife Federation reports that several species of endangered animals have increased their number or survive in numbers larger than previously thought.  Good news indeed at a time when the loss of biological diversity is becoming pervasive.  Some exceptions to the general trend towards extinction:

• Grizzly Bears--Senator John McCain ridiculed the expenditure of federal funds to study bear DNA, but the study resulted in the most accurate population count of the largest grizzly bear population in the lower 48 states.  There are now 765 grizzly bears in northwestern Montana, two and a half times the previous federal estimate;
• Western lowland Gorilla--recently 125,000 lowland gorillas were discovered in a remote area of the huge Congo Basin thanks to months of gut wrenching effort by staffers from the Wildlife Conservation Society.   Their discovery more than doubles previous estimates, and has encouraged the Congolese government to create a new national park to protect them.  The Society is searching for ways to protect our primate cousins from an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus that kills both humans and apes;
• Black-footed Ferrets--a reintroduced population of ferrets in Wyoming's Shirley Basin managed to survive a double whammy of disease.  Plague and distemper reduced a population of 200 released animals to five in 1997.  But the latest counts show that the resilient ferrets have rebounded to 239.  Extrapolating from the study area count, there may be as many as 1,000 in the Basin, which makes the reintroduction effort a great success.  Given a helping hand, animals can make it back from the brink;
• Eastern Bowhead Whales--Scientists thought the eastern population was very small, but native Inuit were asking for increased quotas for their annual hunt based on their observations.  The Canadian government used satellite tracking combined with aerial surveys to produce a figure of around 14,400 bowheads.  That number was reduced by the International Whaling Committee after a critique of their methodology to about 6,300.  The truth may lie in between, but it's good news either way because the eastern group may have finally hit a threshold for speedier growth barring renewed commercial whaling and the threat posed by global warming;
• Tokin Snub-Nosed Monkey--another monkey thought to be on the verge of extinction.  Scientists estimated a total of 150 or fewer of the extravagantly colored primate confined to a few patches of forest in northeastern Vietnam. Last December Vietnamese biologists found a new breeding group of twenty monkeys including 3 infants.  The find prompted the government to protect their patch of forest and help nearby villagers avoid hunting them for food or destroying their habitat;
• Sociable Lapwings--a plover scientists had written off as headed towards extinction because of habitat loss.  By 2003 the estimate was only 200 breeding pairs remaining in Eurasia. But in 2007 a flock of 3,200 birds was found in the remote Turkish steppe.  Researchers were led to the site by a bird that had been tagged with a satellite signal responder.  Lapwings are the smallest bird ever to be successfully satellite tagged thanks to the Darwin Initiative funding the project by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Do not be misled. All of these animals still face possible extinction due to environmental destruction. No better example of the truth of this statement is Louisiana's state bird, the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalus). Recently removed from the endangered species list, the pelican now faces catastrophic destruction of it's breeding habitat along the Gulf Coast because of the recklessness of a virtual person, British Petroleum, Plc.