Primates Under Threat of Extinction

More:  An example of why primate populations the world over are declining to the point of extinction (see previous post below) comes to us from Thailand.  Pileated gibbons (Hylobates pilietus) living in Thap Lan National Park are being hunted and killed for meat by illegal loggers harvesting prized Siamese rosewood.  Exports to China from the Mekong region between 2000 and 2014 are valued at $2.4 billion.  Rangers have documented the grizzly slaughter.  Thap Lan is supposed to be a sanctuary for endangered wildlife and is part of a larger forest complex designated a world heritage site by UNESCO in 2005.  The DPKY complex is the last remaining significant tract of lowland rainforest in Southeast Asia.  Because of the hunting pressure, the gibbons are calling less and less.  Their singing makes them vulnerable to hunters who locate them by their calls.  Populations are believed to have declined by 50% since 1970.  The last census in 2005 put gibbon population at 14,000.  They are on the ICUN's red list of endangered species.

Gibbons are almost totally arboreal. They live in mated pairs with their offspring.  Offspring are produced one at a time and the young stay with their mother for two years. Gibbons are sexually dimorphic: males are all black with white eyebrows and females are white with black underparts [photo credit: MongaBay]  They feed on fruit about 60% of the time.  Selected leaves and insects make up the rest of their diet.  Their locomotion in the canopy is graceful and impressive sometimes covering gaps of over nine meters.  But most spectacular are their loud duets which can last minutes.  The singing is believed to reinforce pair bounding and delineate their territory from others.

Thailand has made efforts to suppress poaching, but it is difficult and dangerous work.  Poachers trek deep into the rainforest to find rosewood for days at a time and they are well-armed.  A single tree could be as much as $1 million.  Firefights between poachers and rangers are common. In 2015 seven rangers were killed trying to stop the "blood timber" trade.   Hasadin are elite forest rangers formed in 2015 to stop the rosewood trade, but conservationists warn that the trade is increasing.  There is only one deep forest pocket of the timber left in Thailand.  The poachers leave a trail of body parts in their obsession to cut Hongmu timber.


{25.01.17}An assessment of the world's primate populations show that humans are running out of time to save their nearest relatives from extinction.  Of the recognized 504 species, sixty percent are in danger of extinction.  Thirty anthropologists published their findings in Science Advances.  It is no secret that anthropomorphic pressures are causing their decline in numbers.  Habitat loss due to development and poaching for bushmeat and pet trade are the main drivers.

The study authors relied on existing data compiled from research, the ICUN's Red List and the United Nations in an effort to gain a global understanding of primate populations and the threats they face.  Unsurprisingly Asian primates are in the worst situation.  The global demand for palm oil has stripped rainforest habitats bare.  The two species of orangutan still extant are on the brink of extinction in the wild as a result.  Madagascar is also rapidly loosing its forest canopy putting 90% of its 100 primate species at risk.  The study estimates about 7722 square miles of forest cover have been loss.  The remaining forests are heavily fragmented.  An area three times the size of France has been appropriated for agriculture.  As more and more humans occupy the planet, there is less room for wild creatures who need undisturbed nature to survive.  Indeed, the authors found the many causes of primate decline are intimately related to human social problems such as pervasive poverty in those areas where they co-habituate.

The solutions are there for everyone to see: stop forest devastation; cease trading in animals and their body parts; find ways to sustainably feed the world's human population; and control the increase of human populations.  It is the implementation of these solutions in a human society wedded to a profit economic model that is difficult.  Time is running out for our cousins.  If we want them to remain with us on Earth, the mind-set of future human generations must be changed and permanently.

New Male Jaguar Occupies Hauchucas

An unfamiliar male jaguar, probably from Mexico, was spotted living in Arizona's Hauchuca Mountains, the northern most extent of their range in December.  Jaguars went practically extinct in the American southwest early in the last century.  Only six, all males, have been recorded entering the US in the past two decades. No females are known to inhabit areas north of the border. One of the males, El Jefe, became an Internet sensation.  Another, Macho B, was euthanized by Arizona authorities after being collared for tracking purposes.  It is thought he was stressed to the point of kidney failure by wearing a tracking device. {05.02.16, 06.04.09}.  They were designated endangered in 1997 by the federal government, and critical habitat was designated in Arizona and New Mexico for their survival [map courtesy Arizona Game & Fish].  Predictably livestock interests are suing to overrule those designations.

There are no current federal plans to reintroduce females and attempt to resurrect American jaguars (Panthera onca) from extinction.  The closest breeding population is 125 south of the border in Sonora State.  The Center for Biological Diversity calls the proposed jaguar management plan, "an extinction plan, not a recovery plan".  The Fish and Wildlife Service is directing its resources toward conserving Mexican jaguars.  Surprisingly that policy is supported by one of the world's leading Panthera experts, Alan Rabinowitz.  He maintains there is no area in US territory that is essential to conserving the jaguar.  However, Mexican jaguars are also under threat.  Besides inbreeding, difficult desert living conditions and wildfires, several jaguars are shot each year by Mexican ranchers for alleged predation.  How many are poached for their beautiful coats is unknown.  It is a federal offense to kill a jaguar in Mexico, but there is little enforcement of the law (Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!).

On the other side, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has lost three separate lawsuits which forced it to develope a conservation plan for the American jaguar, but it is dodging the controversial issue of reestablishing a resident population by importing Mexican females north. Female jaguars stay relatively close to their mother's home territory, making natural progression north painfully slow.  Research shows it may take 45-85 years for southern jaguars to reach the US sky island habitats such as the Santa Rita Mountains where El Jefe lived [photo].  Private conservation agencies are trying to fill the obvious gap in official policy. The Northern Jaguar Reserve is purchasing land to expand its eighty square-mile protected Sonoran habitat for the cat.  The reserve is home for the cats favorite prey animals, deer and javalina, who live in green canyons midst the desert scrub. Also, the reserve maintains a compensation program for agriculturalists who cooperate in photographing cats on their land using camera traps. An estimated one hundred twenty jaguars roam the area.

Want to know about the New World's "king of the jungle"?  Watch this History Channel documentary in HD.  Yes, they had to construct sets in the Belize forest to capture the images, so in that respect the documentary is artificial.  But the pinnacle predator is so elusive a certain amount of contrivance was necessary to capture a close-up portrait of an incredible lifestyle. https://youtu.be/SGf8WgCoQ1U

Toontime: An Alternate Reality

credit: Nick Anderson
Wackydoodle sez:  Sez now he's goin' to build it hizself!

The goofball-in-chief is living up to the most dire expectations.  Normally staid Paul Krugman twitted so far as to use the "M" word to describe Der Trump.  It does seem to US Person that he prefers an alternate reality filled with alternative 'facts': shades of Orwellian "newspeak", indeed!  His narcissistic need to be adored, and his neurotic insecurity, even more than the ordinary politician's, is on display with his delusional insistence that he actually won the popular vote but for illegal immigrants voting twice. (Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million.)  Has 'Merica finally installed a mentally unstable leader in the room without corners?  Will his Quixotic administration by twit collapse?  Watch this space for shocking developments.

Solar Power May Rise from Chernobyl Ashes

Earth's greatest nuclear catastrophe occurred at Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 when a reactor meltdown and fire contaminated 1000km² of land including the company town of Pripyat and exposed most of northern Europe to fallout, reaching as far as Whales. The disaster directly killed 50 people and at least 4,000 have died from radiation exposure. Now, thanks to two Chinese companies, a solar farm generating one 1500gW of clean, renewable energy is planned for 2500 hectares 10 km south of the reactor remains. Ukraine officials say they will spend up to $1 billion on the project over the next two years. Remaining electrical transmission facilities will be used to distribute the green power.

The zone of disaster has been attracting an increasing number of tourists, anxious to see for themselves what man's folly wrought, or to catch a glimpse of returning wildlife ranging from wild ponies to wolves, elk (moose), boar, bears and bison.[photos credit: Guardian] Radiation levels have subsided enough in some areas for the government to consider what to do with 6000 hectares of vacant land. Recently a huge stainless steel sarcophagus was wheeled into place over the reactor hulks to replace a crumbling, temporary concrete structure.  Most proposals concern industrial uses as residential use is still considered too dangerous.  Sunlight is as strong in this area of northern Ukraine as it is in southern Germany, one of the world's biggest producers of solar power.

Indian Point Nuke to Close

New York's Indian Point nuclear generating station will be closed by 2021.  The announcement by the state's Governor on Monday is a belated win for activists who fought for years to close the dangerously located facility.  Indian Point is situated on the banks of the Hudson River, on top of an active fault in densely populated Westchester County [photo].  See Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 98, No. 4, pp. 1696–1719, August 2008.  About 20 million people live near the two reactors.  Besides all of these risks, the reactors are old, have a history of leaking radioactivity and are nearing the end of their design life. 

The state has made plans to buy hydroelectricity from Quebec, and has approved a new transmission line to replace the 30% of the area's energy needs now provided by Indian Point.  New York is also planning a large (90MW) offshore wind farm east of Montauk, Long Island as replacement sources for retiring nuclear generation.  If completed it will be the largest offshore wind generation station in the US.  Northern Europe has met success with its offshore installations and leads the world in installed offshore capacity.  Development of offshore wind power in the US has been delayed by higher costs, and local opposition such as that embroils Massachusetts' long-delayed Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.

COTW: Shopping Goes Digital

Anyone born, say after 1980, will tell you that you can find everything on-line.  The digital revolution has taken shopping by storm as these two charts vividly demonstrate:

Revenue from big-box stores has dropped steadily and projections are that the downtrend will continue.  Sears has dropped 96% in value while JCPenney dropped 86%.  Amazon in comparison gained 1934% over the last ten years.

Kill Them All!

credit: Sea Shepherds

Sea Shepherds patrolling the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary established by Australia have caught the Japanese factory ship processing ship with a dead minke whale on its deck within the boundaries of the sanctuary.  An Australia federal court fined the Japanese whalers for contempt of its orders to stop killing whales within the Sanctuary.  However, the government of Australia has been loath to take more affirmative enforcement actions against Japan out of diplomatic considerations.  As a helicopter from the Sea Shepherd vessel, Steve Irwin, named for a Australian celebrity naturalist, approached the Nisshin Maru, whalers rushed about to hide their explosive harpoons and cover the dead minkie whale with a tarp.  The Sea Shepherd's plan is to intercept the Japanese fleet and close down its operations.   The whale conservation organization was fined by a US federal court $2.55 million for harassing the so-called Japanese scientific program that was found to be a front for commercial whaling operations by the International Court of Justice and International Whaling Commission in 2014.  In 2016 Japan killed 333 minke whales including more than 200 pregnant females.