Category Archives: Mammals

Monotremes, marsupials, placental mammals

Chinese endangered animals on camera traps

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This video is called Cute tiger cubs sniff WWF camera trap.

From Wildlife Extra:

Camera traps open up hidden corners of China

Photos offer rare glimpse into panda habitat

MAY 2013. WWF has released dozens of photographs and video footage of endangered species captured by camera traps in the mountainous giant panda reserves in China, marking this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity. The images and footage, rarely seen before, showcase an array of endangered species in their remote habitats in south-western Sichuan Province, including giant panda, red panda, Tibetan stump-tailed macaque and leopard cat.

“The multimedia materials are obtained under circumstances, where there was little external disturbance and therefore they truly reflect the conditions of those species in the wild,” said Jiang Zeyin, species programme officer at WWF-China.

100 camera traps

The photos have all been taken since 2011, by more than 100 infra-red camera traps set up in six nature reserves by WWF and its partners from the local forestry authority as part of the monitoring effort under the giant panda conservation programme.

With the footage, WWF conservation officers have gained a better understanding of the identification of animal traces and areas of their activities, the study of the impact of human activities on the species and management of nature reserves, according to Jiang.

Panda is just the flagship

“The images demonstrate that through the conservation of the giant panda, a flagship umbrella species, we can also protect other threatened wildlife from the same habitat and preserve biological diversity,” said Fan Zhiyong, director of WWF species programme in China. It is a tried method in WWF’s biodiversity conservation and the reason why WWF would underscore the value of protecting flagship species, he said.

China has more than 6,500 species of vertebrates representing 14 percent of the global total, making it one of the 12 globally recognized “mega-biodiversity” countries.

Tigers, finless porpoise and musk deer all in decline

However, the population of more than 10 flagship and keystone species in China, which include Amur tigers, musk deer and the Yangtze finless porpoise, have undergone a marked decline that was particularly severe between the 1960s and 1980s.

“The overall biodiversity in China is in decline despite partial improvement in some places. The main threat has been the habitat loss and fragmentation due to invasive human activities,” said Fan.

“Conservation of flagship species would not only benefit the ecological system, but also human development. Large-scale planning and implementation aimed at establishing a network of habitats should always be considered,” said Fan.

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Beavers help kingfishers

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This video from Ireland is called Kingfisher | The Secret Life of the Shannon | RTÉ Goes Wild.

In Dutch nature reserve Lepelaarplassen, there are beavers.

According to Vroege Vogels TV, as these beavers fell trees, they help kingfishers find nesting opportunities.

The kingfisher was the favourite bird of Prince William of Orange, well known from the sixteenth century Dutch revolt against the king of Spain.

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Wild bison calf born in Germany after centuries

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The new European bison calf born in Germany has been named Quintus, photo: DPA

From The Local in Germany:

First bison born in wild ‘for centuries’

Published: 21 May 13 16:54 CET

A wild bison has been born in Germany for the first time in centuries. The lead female of a herd released from captivity in April gave birth to the calf on May 5th, it was revealed on Tuesday.

The herd, which was released into the Rothaar mountain range in North Rhine-Westphalia, is currently roaming an area of between 2,000 and 2,500 hectors, according to the “Wittgenstein Wisent World” animal protection group.

Ranger Jochen Born, who encountered the latest addition to the herd by chance, said the calf was “alive and kicking”.

“They’re letting themselves be seen more than we expected,” Johannes Röhl, estate manager for Prince Richard of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, said.

The prince has long been campaigning for the reintroduction of bison back into the German wild.

The appropriately named “Quintus” is the fifth bison to be born as part of a species protection project but stands out as the first to be born in the wild. The other four were bred in captivity.

A total of nine bison now live in the Rothaar mountain range, while another herd lives in an enclosure.

Two of the bisons have been fitted with GPS chips so their movements can be monitored.

In the past bisons were known to range in large parts of Europe though they were hunted almost to extinction in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The herbivorous even-toed ungulates do not pose a risk to humans. Nevertheless, animal experts are advising people to keep their distance as the mother bison might be feeling particularly protective of her star calf.

See also here.

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New Zealand kokako birds’ songs

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This video is about New Zealand kokako birds.

From Wildlife Extra:

Birdsong can change surprisingly quickly after relocation

Lost in translocation? How bird song could help save species

May 2013. Translocation – or moving animals to safer places – is a vital tool for saving species from extinction. Many factors influence the success of these new populations, including habitat quality, predators, capture and release techniques, the number and sex of individuals, and their genetic diversity. Now new research, the first of its kind, published in the British Ecological Society‘s Journal of Applied Ecology suggests bird song could also be important.

Ecologists from the University of Waikato and Lincoln University in New Zealand studied the North Island kōkako, an iconic bird with a haunting, organ-like song. Once widespread in the North Island, loss of habitat by deforestation and predation by rats, possums and stoats decimated the population. By 1999, fewer than 400 pairs remained, and between 2001 and 2007, several pairs were moved from Te Urewera National Park to two other reserves: Boundary Stream Mainland Island and Ngapukeriki.

Songs analysed

To find out how moving the kōkako has affected their song, the researchers made hundreds of recordings in the three populations and analysed differences in song using sonograms. They then used playback experiments to discover how birds from one population reacted to another populations’ song.

Songs changed after relocation

They found the songs of translocated birds had diverged substantially from the source population, becoming less diverse with shorter and higher-pitched elements. According to Dr Laura Molles from Lincoln University: “Not only how kōkako sing in translocated populations, but also what they sing differs from kōkako in the source population.”

The greatest changes were found in the population that had been translocated for longest, indicating the songs may become more different over time. But despite the divergence between each population’s song, the playback experiments showed that the birds could not yet tell them apart.

“The songs diverge because birds such as kōkako learn their songs from parents, siblings and neighbours. As translocation usually involves only a small number of individuals, they will take with them only a small portion of all the song elements in the larger source population. Subsequent variation in small populations will depend on that subset of songs and will then differ from the larger song pool in the source population,” Dr Molles explains.

Incompatibility

The study has important implications for conservation. Although in this study the kōkako populations have not been separated for long enough to cause song incompatibility, it will occur in time, the authors say. Once that happens, releasing additional birds into these populations could be problematic because song incompatibility could make interbreeding difficult.

As a result, says Dr Molles, conservationists should consider song variation as part of bird reintroductions: “We need to be aware that behavioural factors like song can also affect translocation success and recovery of endangered birds, and adapt our management of these populations accordingly. This means that we may have to work harder but the good news is that if we consider one more factor that we now know may also affect translocation, we will be more likely to succeed in conserving birds.”

North Island kōkako

The North Island kōkako is one of New Zealand’s most iconic bird species. The size of a common pigeon, both males and females have blue-grey plumage with black masks and striking bright blue wattles. Both sexes sing, and pairs duet, with a haunting voice and the birds’ astonishingly varied organ-like notes can be heard over 1km away.

They have limited flying power, instead moving like squirrels through the branches and gliding from hill tops to valleys. They live in the temperate rainforest, feeding mainly on fruit and leaves. Once widespread, their numbers collapsed due to deforestation and predation by rats, stoats and possums, and by 1999 fewer than 400 pairs remained. Thanks to translocation to safe offshore islands, numbers have increased to around 800 pairs today.

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Kakapo parrot voted world’s favourite animal

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This video, recorded in New Zealand, is called The Unnatural History of the Kakapo.

From ARKive:

What’s the World’s Favourite Species?

It’s ARKive’s 10th birthday and to mark the occasion, you’ve been joining us in your thousands from 162 different countries to help us find the world’s top ten favourite species. The results are in! The species that were most frequently voted as favourites by you can now be revealed…

The array of life with which we share our planet provides an endless source of wonder, so for many of you the decision was tough. But which species was voted the World’s Favourite? Here are a few clues:

The most frequently selected reason for voting this species as your favourite was “because it’s under threat and we need to protect it”.
It is active at night…
It has feathers… but it can’t fly!

Also from ARKIve:

No.1 Kakapo

The magnificent kakapo stole 9% of the total votes. It’s a beautiful bird that cannot fly and is only found in New Zealand. But from the many thousands of creatures with which we share our precious planet, what made the kakapo stand out from the crowd? For most of you, tragically, it was the kakapo’s Critically Endangered status. We hope the title of World’s Favourite Species will bring it the attention it deserves.

Kakapo facts

The kakapo is the world’s only flightless parrot.
Unusual for a bird, the kakapo is only active at night.
As well as being the world’s largest parrot, the kakapo is also the heaviest.

The rest of the Top 10:

2. Tiger
3. African elephant
4. Grey wolf
5. Polar bear
6. Red panda
7. Cheetah
8. Snow leopard
9. Bornean orangutan
10. Amur leopard

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Why moa bird females were so big

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This video from England says about itself:

Jan 19, 2009

Prof Kenneth Cumberland looks at New Zealand‘s giant moa bird and its demise, and the Hunters classic Malcom Hall Julius Von Haast, British Natural History Museum, London.

From Australian Geographic:

Moa mystery solved: why females were giants

By: Mischa Vickas | April-12-2013

The reason giant female moa birds towered over diminutive males may be simpler than experts thought.

THE MYSTERY OF WHY female giant moa were more than twice the size of their male counterparts may have finally been solved, say researchers.

The moas of New Zealand were made up of around nine species of giant flightless birds (Dinornis), which became extinct when the first Polynesians arrived 700 or so years ago.

Giant moas are thought to have been the tallest birds that ever lived. Females of some species reached over 2m in height and weighed in at up to 240kg. Males, on the other hand, weighed just 34-85kg.

The enormous size that moas grew to was possible because were no other large herbivores with which they had to compete, and few predators.

But the size difference between males and females had always been puzzling to experts.

Tallest bird ever to have lived

New research now suggests that existing size differences between males and females were simply scaled up as the moas evolved to great sizes, which led to seemingly enormous size differences.

“Our study is the first to explicitly investigate the evolutionary mechanism responsible for making male and female moa so wildly different in size,” says co-author Dr Sam Turvey, a palaeontologist at the Zoological Society of London.

“Beyond documenting this remarkable situation, there has been little consideration of the evolutionary reason as to exactly why these birds had evolved such an unusual and striking level of difference,” Sam says.

To understand these differences, Sam and co-worker Dr Valérie Olson, compared the body mass of giant moa to their relatives, both living and extinct. These included the emu, ostrich and cassowary.

Their findings, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, reveal that a similar size difference occurs in related species, though not to the same extent.

As a result, the researchers argue that the giant moa scaled up its existing size difference, following a pattern of body size difference between genders begun by its predecessors.

“In moa, greater female body size may be associated with the lack of mammalian predators in the prehistoric New Zealand ecosystem,” Sam says.

He adds that some of the strongest selective forces acting on moa populations could have been competition between individuals for resources. This could have driven females to increase in size, says Sam, in association with providing for their offspring.

Studying biological oddities in extinct animals

Dr Wayne Longmore, a bird expert at Museum Victoria, in Melbourne, says the study is significant, and raises new questions about the breeding biology of giant moas, and whether or not males and females used the same habitat resources.

Working with the skeletal remains of moas, and drawing comparisons with other birds, may also shed light on the breeding biology of these animals, he says.

This study of moas is just one of many that Sam and his co-workers are carrying out looking at biological oddities.

“We are continuing to investigate the evolution of other bizarre morphological structures shown by recently extinct species, such as the elongated teeth of sabretooth cats,” he says.

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Bar-headed geese, fox, harrier, grebe chicks

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Nieuwkoopse Plassen scenery, 19 May 2013

On 19 May 2013, as described earlier, still in the Nieuwkoopse Plassen nature reserve.

Common tern, 19 May 2013

A common tern flying. The light makes it look almost like a black tern.

A buzzard flying.

Marsh marigold still flowering, though the flowers are mostly finished.

A carrion crow.

Red campion flowers.

Red fox, 19 May 2013

A fox sitting on a meadow.

Pheasant male, Nieuwkoopse Plasen, 19 May 2013

About thirty meter to the right, a male pheasant. A buzzard flies above them both. The fox does not try to catch the pheasant, maybe knowing that the bird has seen it already. After a long time, the fox goes away, to the left.

A female marsh harrier flying.

And a swift.

Curlew, dung heap, Nieuwkoopse Plassen, 19 May 2013

A curlew on a dung heap.

Bar-headed goose and poney, 19 May 2013

Then, two bar-headed geese on a meadow between ponies.

Barnacle geese with gosling, 19 May 2019

More to the right on that meadow, two barnacle geese with a gosling.

Mute swan on nest, 19 May 2013

A mute swan on its nest.

Great crested grebe and chicks, 19 May 2013

A great crested grebe swims with three chicks on its back.

Grebe chick on back, 19 May 2013

Nieuwkoopse Plassen scenery, reed harvested for roofs, 19 May 2013

Just before our boat arrives back in Noorden, a blue tit on a reed stem.

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