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magazine / dec08
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December 2008 issue |
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FEATURE - WILDLIFE STORIES
Top 10s: Animal stories (Page 3 of 3)
A year in review: Canadian Geographic highlights the most dramatic and strangest wildlife stories of 2008.
By Sheri Gagnon
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Hello, goodbye
In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its Red List, an update on recent events and status changes of endangered species. Conservationists are working hard to ensure some of these rare animals don’t disappear; it may be too late to save certain species. But the news is not all bad — scientists and biologists made some amazing breakthroughs and discovered several new species. Others found species in the wild that were previously thought to be extinct. Here is our top-10 selection of animals to which we either say hello or possibly prepare to say goodbye.
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| Thirty-two species of reef fish were found to have flourescent red patches.
Photo: iStockphoto.com/
Stephen Boyd |
SEEING WATER WORLD THROUGH ROSE-COLOURED GOGGLES
When Nico Michiels of Germany’s University of Tübingen plunged into the Red Sea
last year, he expected to discover how red wavelengths travel in water — instead he found
glowing fish. Wearing a special diving mask that only allowed him to see red, Michiels was
caught off guard when he saw fluorescent fish swimming around him. In a report published this
year, he and his colleagues share their discoveries of 32 reef species that fluoresce red.
They’ve learned that a special substance on these species’ bodies captures light
energy at other wavelengths and transforms it into red light. The scientists believe that the
animals use the red glow to communicate for mating purposes or as a warning to fellow fish.
Visit: www.abc.net.au/science/articles
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| The Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle is the world's largest freshwater turtle.
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THE LOCH NESS OF THE TURTLE WORLD RETURNS
Something mysterious is swimming in the waters of the Red River in Northern Vietnam. Residents
believe it’s the return of a legendary turtle that presented a sword to the Vietnamese
people to help them ward off the Chinese army in the 16th century. Maybe they’re right.
One metre long and weighing 136 kilograms, the rare Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle was found
by Doug Hendrie, coordinator of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo’s Asian turtle program. Only
three of these turtles were known to exist, all in captivity because the species was extinguished
from overhunting and habitat destruction. Two are at zoos in China, the other in Hoan Kiem
Lake, in Hanoi. Finding this rare species in the wild has given conservationists hope that
the Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle can make a comeback. The newfound turtle remains in the
wild, and the local government has taken measures to ensure it remains protected in its natural
habitat.
Visit: www.foxnews.com
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| The Leptotphlops
carlae has colour patterns and scales unlike any other threadsnake species.
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INTRODUCING THE WORLD'S SMALLEST...
Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State, and his research team, have made big
headlines across the globe with several small discoveries. In 1996, they found the world’s
smallest frog in Cuba and in 2001 they discovered the world’s tiniest lizard in the Dominican
Republic. This year, they added the world’s smallest snake to their list. The Leptotphlops
carlae, named after Hedges’ wife Carla, was found in an eastern Barbados forest.
Measuring 10 centimetres long, this snake is as slender as a spaghetti noodle and can curl
up comfortably on a quarter. Not much is yet known about this non-venomous snake. Researchers
have found that it lays one egg (others lay multiples). The hypothesis is natural selection:
the L. Carlae egg is already one quarter the size of the adult; if two eggs existed,
the babies would be even smaller and less likely to survive.
Full the full report, go to: www.mapress.com
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| This martian ant marks the first new subfamily of living ants found since 1923.
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BLIND MARTIAN ANTS INVADE THE AMAZON
Hidden beneath the tropical soils of the Amazon, they crawl blindly. Their wasp-like
bodies are pale and only two to three millimetres long. Their oversized mandibles look like
forceps which they use to devour larvae and worms. When this eyeless ant species was discovered
in 2003 by evolutionary biologist Christian Rabeling and his team, they named it Martialis
heureka, because this “ant from Mars” was unlike anything they had ever seen.
In a report released in the Sept. 15 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
Rabeling and his colleagues reveal how these ants fill the missing link that accounts for
the evolution of ants from wasps.
For more, visit: www.newscientist.com
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| Amphibians are more likely to be lungless — many are adapted to using alternative methods of gas exchnage.
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SOME FROGS CAN BREATHE EASY — WITHOUT LUNGS!
On the outside, Barbourula kalimantanesis doesn’t look much different from any
other frog. Sure it’s smaller than most, up to 70 millimetres long and 6.5 grams, and its
body is slightly flatter than most frogs, too. So what is its defining feature? It’s
lungless! Its lack of breathing organs was discovered last year by researchers in Borneo who
found it by accident when obtaining routine tissue samples. Because the species is so rare,
they dissected as few possible — only eight — to confirm their findings. In a report released this year, they hypothesize
that the lungs disappeared gradually through an evolutionary process. This species prefers
to stay underwater, and lungs would cause them to float to the surface and be carried downstream
in the fast-flowing waters where they live. Without lungs, the frog’s skin adapted to
absorb oxygen from the cold water, much like the function of gills on fish.
To learn more about this mini-amphibian, visit: www.sciencedaily.com
GOODBYE GORILLA?
The mountain gorilla is classified as an endangered species on this year’s IUCN Red List.
It is the biggest of all primates and the hairiest of all gorillas. Two subspecies, both endangered,
are found across Rwanda, Uganda and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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| Gorillas are more threatened now than before, as hunting and poaching has made a comeback.
Photo: Fotolia.com/Karen Roush |
Their largest
threat is from humans. The gorilla’s habitat is shrinking as the area is used for farmland,
illegal cattle grazing, timber extraction and hunting of other animals. Poaching has also reemerged — gorillas
are hunted to be illegally sold as exotic pets, or simply for bush meat. Gorilla populations
are not recovering, as they do not procreate quickly. Females have only two to six offspring
over their lifetime of 50 to 60 years. Despite preservation efforts, illegal activity continues
to threaten the gorillas.
Visit: www.iucnredlist.org
CALIFORNIA CONDOR DREAMING
California condors out-soar all others as the largest North American bird. With a wingspan
of 2.8 metres, it surpasses the golden eagle’s wingspan of 2.2 metres. As the name would
have it, the California condor is found only along the Pacific Coast in that state.
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| By 1987, California condors were no longer found outside of California state.
Photo: Fotolia.com/James Steidl |
They were
classified as extinct in nature in 1987, as the six remaining birds were taken into a captive-breeding
recovery program. Since then, their numbers slowly increased and some birds were reintroduced
into the wild to gauge their ability to survive. The largest threat to the California condors
is poisoning. As scavengers, these birds munch on the carcasses of larger animals. When they
eat animals that have been shot by hunters, they often consume the pellets and contract lead
poisoning. The threat of power lines has declined slightly as conservationists use fake poles
to condition the captive birds before they are released. Regardless of this modest progress,
the California condor remains on the Red List as Critically Endangered.
Visit: www.iucnredlist.org
RHINOS REMAIN, FOR NOW
The world’s smallest rhinoceros, and also the hairiest, is Red Listed this
year as Critically Endangered. The Sumatran rhinoceros stands out from the rest for its diminutive
size — 130 centimetres tall — and for the two horns that protrude from its snout.
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| Experts estimate the total remaining population of the Sumatran Rhinoceros is between 220 to 275.
Photo: Fotolia.com/Judy Worley |
The horns are sought by poachers for their supposed medicinal value. Overhunting has caused
a massive decline in the Sumatran rhinoceros population. It is found in areas across Indonesia
and Malaysia. In the past 60 years, more than 80 percent of its population has disappeared.
Today there are fewer than 25 adults. Over the next 20 years, the population is expected to
drop by 25 percent. The majority of these rhinos remain in the wild, but more than 20 have
been taken into captivity. To restore the Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia and Indonesia, conservationists
are increasing efforts to enforce anti-poaching programs.
Visit: www.iucnredlist.org
RED WOLF REVIVAL
The deep reddish-brown fur that highlights the red wolf’s ears, neck and legs may disappear
in nature for good. The red wolf has been classified as Critically Endangered for the threats
it faces from predator control programs and hybridization with coyotes. In 1980, these wolves
were considered extinct in nature.
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| Hybridization with coyotes is the number one threat to the Red Wolf population.
Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Steve Maslowski |
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service captured them
for breeding and released some back in the wild, in North Carolina seven years later. More
wolves were reintroduced into the wild at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee
in 1991. Of 37 released, only 11 survived in the wild — the other 26 either died or were
recaptured. By 1999, researchers noted that the red wolf population would disappear within
12 to 24 years, if hybridization could not be curbed. A small population of wolves remains
in captivity in the United States in order to preserve its DNA.
Visit: www.iucnredlist.org
PÈRE DAVID’S DEER DISAPPEARED?
This animal has had quite a run throughout history. Exclusive to China, the Père David’s
Deer was Extinct in the Wild by the 1900s — the last wild deer was shot in 1939 near
the Yellow Sea. As with many other species on the Red List, this deer was overhunted and faced
habitat destruction. What saved the species was a herd locked away in the Emperor of China’s
private hunting park in the late 1800s. The Emperor had excess to spare, so he sent a small
herd as a gift to Germany, France and the United Kingdom. Natural disaster and wars wiped out
most of the deer populations — except for a small herd preserved in the U.K. In recent
years, several small herds have been sent back to captivity in China, an attempt to one day
revive the indigenous populations. With such small numbers and a gene pool that lacks diversity,
the fate of this species still hangs in the balance.
Visit: www.iucnredlist.org
top
 ‹EN› ENDANGERED, ‹CR› CRITICALLY ENDANGERED, ‹EW› EXTINCT IN THE WILD
(International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN)
Red List of Threatened Species)
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