index

Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)^[1]

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Bovidae
Subfamily:	Bovinae
Genus:	Bison
Species:	B. bison

Bison bison
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Subspecies

B. b. athabascae
B. b. bison

Synonyms

Bos americanus

The American Bison (Bison bison) is a North American species of bison, also commonly known as the American Buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Asian Buffalo (or "Water Buffalo") and the African Buffalo. However, "bison" is a Greek word meaning ox-like animal, while "buffalo" originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts boeufs, meaning ox or bullock. So both names, "bison" and "buffalo," have a similar meaning. In reference to this animal, the term "buffalo," which dates to 1635, has a much longer history than the term "bison," which was first recorded in 1774.^[2] The American Bison is more closely related to the Wisent or European Bison.

These bison once inhabited the grasslands of North America in massive herds; their range roughly formed a triangle between the Great Bear Lake in Canada's far northwest, south to the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo León, and east along the western boundary of the Appalachian Mountains.^[3] The two subspecies include the Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), smaller in size and with a more rounded hump, and the Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae), which is the larger of the two and with a taller, square hump. Wood Bison is one of the largest species of cattle in the world, surpassed only by the Asian gaur and Wild Asian Water Buffalo. It is the largest extant land animal in North America.

Description

An American Bison near a hot spring or fumarole in Yellowstone National Park

A bison has a shaggy, long, dark brown winter coat, and a lighter weight, lighter brown summer coat. Bison can reach up to 2 meters (6.6 ft) tall, 3 meters (10 ft) long, and weigh 400 kg (900 lb) to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb). As typical in ungulates, the male bison is slightly larger. The biggest specimens on record have weighed as much as 1,130 kilograms (2,500 lb). The heads and forequarters are massive, and both sexes have short, curved horns, which they use in fighting for status within the herd and for defense.

Bison are herbivores, grazing on the grasses and sedges of the North American prairies. They eat in the morning and evening, and rest during the day. Bison mate in August and September; gestation is 285 days. A single reddish-brown calf is born the following spring, and it nurses for a year. Bison are mature at three years of age, and have a life expectancy of approximately 15 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity.

Juveniles are lighter in color than mature bison for the first three months of life. One very rare condition is the white buffalo, where the calf turns entirely white. White bison are considered sacred by many Native Americans.

Differences from European bison

Although superficially similar, there are a number of physical and behavioural differences between the American and European bison. The American species has 15 ribs, while the European bison has 14. The American bison has four lumbar vertebrae, while the European has five.^[4] Adult American bison are not as rangy in build, and have shorter legs.^[5] American bison tend to graze more, and browse less than their European cousins, due to their necks being set differently. Compared to the American bison, the nose of the European species is set further forward than the forehead when the neck is in a neutral position. The body of the American bison is hairier, though its tail has less hair than that of the European bison. The horns of the European bison point forward through the plane of their faces, making them more adept at fighting through the interlocking of horns in the same manner as domestic cattle, unlike the American bison which favours charging.^[6] American bison are more easily tamed than their European cousins, and breed with domestic cattle more readily.^[7]

Reproductive habits and sexual behavior

A juvenile bison in late May in Custer State Park, South Dakota.

Bison are polygamous. Dominant bulls maintain a small harem of females for mating. Individual bulls "tend" females until allowed to mate, by following them around and chasing away rival males.

Homosexual behavior—including courtship and mounting between bulls—is common among bison. The Mandan nation Okipa festival concludes with a ceremonial enactment of this behavior, to "ensure the return of the buffalo in the coming season." Inter-sexual bison also occur. The Lakota refer to them as pte winkte—pte meaning bison and winkte designating two-spirit—thereby drawing an explicit parallel between transgenderism in animals and people.^[8]

Wallowing behavior

A bison is taking a dust bath in a wallow in Yellowstone National Park.

A bison wallow is a shallow depression in the soil, which was used either wet or dry. Bison roll in these depressions, covering themselves with dust or mud. Past explanations and current hypotheses suggested for wallowing behavior include grooming behavior associated with shedding, male-male interaction (typically rutting behavior), social behavior for group cohesion, play behavior, relief from skin irritation due to biting insects, reduction of ectoparasite (tick and lice) load, and thermoregulation.^[9]

Predators

An American Bison standing its ground against a wolf pack

In some areas, wolves are a major predator of bison. Wolf predation typically peaks in late spring and early summer, with attacks usually being concentrated on cows and calves. Observations have shown that wolves actively target herds with calves over ones without. Bison display five apparent defense strategies in protecting calves from wolves. These include running to a cow, running to a herd, running to the nearest bull, run in the front or center of a stampeding herd, and to enter water bodies such as lakes or rivers. When fleeing wolves in open areas, cows with young calves take the lead, while bulls take to the rear of the herds, to guard the cows' escape. The length of a bison hunt varies, ranging from lasting a few minutes to 11 hours. Bison typically ignore wolves not displaying hunting behavior.^[10] Packs specialising in bison tend to have a greater number of males, as their superior size to the females allows them to wrestle bison to the ground more effectively.^[11] The Grizzly Bear can also pose a threat to calves and sometimes adult bison.

Hunting

Native hunting

A bison bull on a Nebraska wildlife refuge.

The American bison is a relative newcomer to North America, having originated in Eurasia and migrated over the Bering Strait.^[12] About 10,000 years ago it replaced the steppe bison (Bison priscus), a previous immigrant that was much larger. It is thought that the long-horned bison became extinct due to a changing ecosystem and hunting pressure following the development of the Clovis point and related technology, and improved hunting skills. During this same period, other megafauna vanished and were replaced to some degree by immigrant Eurasian animals that were better adapted to predatory humans. The American bison, technically a dwarf form, was one of these animals.

Bison were a keystone species, whose grazing pressure was a force that shaped the ecology of the Great Plains as strongly as periodic prairie fires and which were central to the lifestyle of Native Americans of the Great Plains. However, there is now some controversy over their interaction. "Hernando De Soto's expedition staggered through the Southeast for four years in the early 16th century and saw hordes of people but apparently did not see a single bison," Charles C. Mann wrote in 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus. Mann discussed the evidence that Native Americans not only created (by selective use of fire) the large grasslands that provided the bison's ideal habitat but also kept the bison population regulated. In this theory, it was only when the original human population was devastated by wave after wave of epidemic (from diseases of Europeans) after the 16th century that the bison herds propagated wildly. In such a view, the seas of bison herds that stretched to the horizon were a symptom of an ecology out of balance, only rendered possible by decades of heavier-than-average rainfall. Other evidence of the arrival circa 1550-1600 in the savannas of the eastern seaboard includes the lack of places which southeast natives named after buffalo.^[13]^[14] Bison were the most numerous single species of large wild mammal on Earth.^[15]

A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin.

What is not disputed is that before the introduction of horses, bison were herded into large chutes made of rocks and willow branches and then stampeded over cliffs. These Buffalo jumps are found in several places in the U.S. and Canada, such as Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. Large groups of people would herd the bison for several miles, forcing them into a stampede that would ultimately drive many animals over a cliff. The large quantities of meat obtained in this way provided the hunters with surplus, which was used in trade. A similar method of hunting was to drive the bison into natural corrals, such as the Ruby site.

To get the optimum use out of the bison, the Native Americans had a specific method of butchery, first identified at the Olsen-Chubbock archaeological site in Colorado. The method involves skinning down the back in order to get at the tender meat just beneath the surface, the area known as the "hatched area." After the removal of the hatched area, the front legs are cut off as well as the shoulder blades. Doing so exposes the hump meat (in the Wood Bison), as well as the meat of the ribs and the Bison's inner organs. After everything was exposed, the spine was then severed and the pelvis and hind legs removed. Finally, the neck and head were removed as one. This allowed for the tough meat to be dried and made into pemmican.

Later when Plains Indians obtained horses, it was found that a good horseman could easily lance or shoot enough bison to keep his tribe and family fed, as long as a herd was nearby. The bison provided meat, leather, sinew for bows, grease, dried dung for fires, and even the hooves could be boiled for glue. When times were bad, bison were consumed down to the last bit of marrow.

19th century bison hunts

Bison were hunted almost to extinction in the 19th century and were reduced to a few hundred by the mid-1880s. They were hunted for their skins, with the rest of the animal left behind to decay on the ground.^[16] After the animals rotted, their bones were collected and shipped back east in large quantities.^[16]

The US Army sanctioned and actively endorsed the wholesale slaughter of bison herds.^[17] The US Federal government promoted bison hunting for various reasons, to allow ranchers to range their cattle without competition from other bovines, and primarily to weaken the North American Indian population by removing their main food source and to pressure them onto the reservations.^[18] Without the bison, native people of the plains were forced to leave the land or starve to death.

According to historian Pekka Hämäläinen, Native Americans also contributed to the collapse of the bison.^[19] By the 1830s the Comanche and their allies on the southern plains were killing about 280,000 bison a year, which was near the limit of sustainability for that region. Firearms and horses, along with a growing export market for buffalo robes and bison meat had resulted in larger and larger numbers of bison killed each year. A long and intense drought hit the southern plains in 1845, lasting into the 1860s, which caused a widespread collapse of the bison herds.^[19] In the 1860s, the rains returned and the bison herds recovered to a degree.

The railroad industry also wanted bison herds culled or eliminated. Herds of bison on tracks could damage locomotives when the trains failed to stop in time. Herds often took shelter in the artificial cuts formed by the grade of the track winding though hills and mountains in harsh winter conditions. As a result, bison herds could delay a train for days.

A pile of bison skulls in the 1870s.

The main reason for the bison's near-demise, much like the actual demise of the Passenger Pigeon, was commercial hunting.

Bison skins were used for industrial machine belts, clothing such as robes, and rugs. There was a huge export trade to Europe of bison hides. Old West bison hunting was very often a big commercial enterprise, involving organized teams of one or two professional hunters, backed by a team of skinners, gun cleaners, cartridge reloaders, cooks, wranglers, blacksmiths, security guards, teamsters, and numerous horses and wagons. Men were even employed to recover and recast lead bullets taken from the carcasses. Many of these professional hunters, such as Buffalo Bill Cody, killed over a hundred animals at a single stand and many thousands in their career. One professional hunter killed over 20,000 by his own count. A good hide could bring $3 in Dodge City, Kansas, and a very good one (the heavy winter coat) could sell for $50 in an era when a laborer would be lucky to make a dollar a day.

The hunter would customarily locate the herd in the early morning, and station himself about 100 meters (100 yd) from it, shooting the animals broadside through the lungs. Head shots were not preferred as the soft lead bullets would often flatten and fail to penetrate the skull, especially if mud was matted on the head of the animal. The bison would drop until either the herd sensed danger and stampeded or perhaps a wounded animal attacked another, causing the herd to disperse. If done properly a large number of bison would be felled at one time. Following up were the skinners, who would drive a spike through the nose of each dead animal with a sledgehammer, hook up a horse team, and pull the hide from the carcass. The hides were dressed, prepared, and stacked on the wagons by other members of the organization.

A bull bison, illustrated in The Extermination of the American Bison. Used on the obverse of the 1901 American Bison $10 bill.

For a decade from 1873 on there were several hundred, perhaps over a thousand, such commercial hide hunting outfits harvesting bison at any one time, vastly exceeding the take by American Indians or individual meat hunters. The commercial take arguably was anywhere from 2,000 to 100,000 animals per day depending on the season, though there are no statistics available. It was said that the Big .50s were fired so much that hunters needed at least two rifles to let the barrels cool off; The Fireside Book of Guns reports they were sometimes quenched in the winter snow. Dodge City saw railroad cars sent East filled with stacked hides.

The building of the railroads through Colorado and Kansas split the bison herd in two parts, the southern herd and the northern herd. The last refuge of the southern herd was in the Texas panhandle.^[20]

As the great herds began to wane, proposals to protect the bison were discussed. Cody, among others, spoke in favor of protecting the bison because he saw that the pressure on the species was too great. Yet these proposals were discouraged since it was recognized that the Plains Indians, often at war with the United States, depended on bison for their way of life. In 1874, President Ulysses S. Grant "pocket vetoed" a Federal bill to protect the dwindling bison herds, and in 1875 General Philip Sheridan pleaded to a joint session of Congress to slaughter the herds, to deprive the Indians of their source of food.^[21] By 1884, the American Bison was close to extinction.

Comeback

A group of bison at a watering hole.

The famous herd of James "Scotty" Philip in South Dakota was one of the earliest reintroductions of bison to North America. In 1899, Phillip purchased a small herd (5 of them, including the female) from Dug Carlin, Pete Dupree's brother-in-law, whose son Fred had roped 5 calves in the Last Big Buffalo Hunt on the Grand River in 1881 and taken them back home to the ranch on the Cheyenne River. Scotty's goal was to preserve the animal from extinction. At the time of his death in 1911 at 53, Philip had grown the herd to an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 head of bison. A variety of privately owned herds had also been established, starting from this population.

Simultaneously, two Montana ranchers, Michel Pablo and Charles Allard, spent more than 20 years assembling one of the largest collections of purebred bison on the continent (by the time of Allard's death in 1896, the herd numbered 300). In 1907, after U.S. authorities declined to buy the herd, Pablo struck a deal with the Canadian government and shipped most of his bison northward to the newly created Elk Island National Park.^[21]

An isolated bison herd on Utah's Antelope Island has also been used to improve the genetic diversity of American Bison. The current American Bison population has been growing rapidly and is estimated at 350,000, compared to an estimated 60 to 100 million in the mid-19th century. Most current herds, however are genetically polluted or partly crossbred with cattle.^[22]^[23]^[24]^[25] Today there are only four genetically unmixed herds and only one that is also free of brucellosis: it roams Wind Cave National Park. A founder population of 16 animals from the Wind Cave herd was established in Montana in 2005 by the American Prairie Foundation. The herd now numbers near 100 and roams a 14,000-acre grassland expanse on American Prairie Reserve.

Bison graze near a hot spring in Yellowstone National Park.

The only continuously wild bison herd in the United States resides within Yellowstone National Park. Numbering between 3,000 and 3,500, this herd is descended from a remnant population of 23 individual mountain bison that survived the mass slaughter of the 1800s by hiding out in the Pelican Valley of Yellowstone Park. In 1902, a captive herd of 21 Plains bison were introduced to the Lamar Valley and managed as livestock until the 1960s, when a policy of natural regulation was adopted by the park.

The end of the ranching era and the onset of the natural regulation era set into motion a chain of events that have led to the bison of Yellowstone Park migrating to lower elevations outside the park in search of winter forage. The presence of wild bison in Montana is perceived as a threat to many cattle ranchers, who fear that the small percentage of bison that carry brucellosis will infect livestock and cause cows to abort their first calves. However, there has never been a documented case of brucellosis being transmitted to cattle from wild bison. The management controversy that began in the early 1980s continues to this day, with advocacy groups arguing that the Yellowstone herd should be protected as a distinct population segment under the Endangered Species Act.

Bison hunting today

Bison grazing on a wildlife ranch in Texas.

Adolescent Bison in Yellowstone National Park.

Hunting of wild bison is legal in some states and provinces where public herds require culling to maintain a target population. In Alberta, where one of only two continuously wild herds of bison exist in North America at Wood Buffalo National Park, bison are hunted to protect disease-free public (reintroduced) and private herds of bison.

In Montana, a public hunt was reestablished in 2005, with 50 permits being issued. The Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commission increased the number of tags to 140 for the 2006/2007 season. Advocacy groups claim that it is premature to reestablish the hunt, given the bison's lack of habitat and wildlife status in Montana.

Bison were also reintroduced to Alaska in 1928, and both domestic and wild herds subsist in a few parts of the state.^[26]^[27] The state grants limited permits to hunt wild bison each year.^[28]^[29]

The bison is one of the few North American large game animals that can be hunted year round, though it is best to hunt it at certain times of the year to achieve desired appearances of the coat.

Bison trails

The first thoroughfares of North America, save for the time-obliterated paths of mastodon or muskox and the routes of the Mound Builders, were the traces made by bison and deer in seasonal migration and between feeding grounds and salt licks. Many of these routes, hammered by countless hoofs instinctively following watersheds and the crests of ridges in avoidance of lower places' summer muck and winter snowdrifts, were followed by the Indians as courses to hunting grounds and as warriors' paths. They were invaluable to explorers and were adopted by pioneers.

Bison traces were characteristically north and south, but several key east-west trails were used later as railways. Some of these include the Cumberland Gap, from the Potomac River through the Allegheny divide to the Ohio River headwaters, and through the Blue Ridge Mountains to upper Kentucky. A heavily used trace crossed the Ohio River at the Falls of the Ohio and ran west, crossing the Wabash River near Vincennes, Indiana. In Senator Thomas Hart Benton's phrase saluting these sagacious path-makers, the bison paved the way for the railroads to the Pacific.^[30]

Bison today

Bison in Colorado in spring 2006.

Bison are now raised for meat and hides. Over 250,000 of the 350,000 remaining bison are being raised for human consumption. Bison meat is lower in fat and cholesterol than beef,^{[citation needed]} which has led to the development of beefalo, a fertile cross-breed of bison and domestic cattle. In 2005, about 35,000 bison were processed for meat in the U.S., with the National Bison Association and USDA providing a "Certified American Buffalo" program with birth-to-consumer tracking of bison via RFID ear tags. There is even a market for kosher bison meat; these bison are slaughtered at one of the few kosher mammal slaughterhouses in the U.S., and the meat is then distributed nationwide.

American bison grazing in Custer State Park in South Dakota.

Bison are found in both publicly and privately held herds. Custer State Park in South Dakota is home to 1,500 bison, one of the largest publicly held herds in the world. Wildlife officials believe that free roaming and genetically pure herds on public lands in North America can only be found in Yellowstone National Park, Henry Mountains in Utah, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, and on Elk Island in Alberta, Canada.

Recent genetic studies of privately owned herds of bison show that many of them include animals with genes from domestic cattle. For example, the herd on Santa Catalina Island, isolated since 1924 after being brought there for a movie shoot, were found to be mostly crossbreeds.^[31] It is estimated that there are as few as 12,000 to 15,000 pure bison in the world. The numbers are uncertain because the tests so far used mitochondrial DNA analysis, and thus would miss cattle genes inherited in the male line. Most hybrids look exactly like purebred bison.

A proposal known as Buffalo Commons has been suggested by a handful of academics and policymakers to restore large parts of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie grazed by bison. Proponents argue that current agricultural use of the shortgrass prairie is not sustainable, pointing to periodic disasters including the Dust Bowl and continuing significant human population loss over the last 60 years. However, this plan is opposed by most who live in the areas in question.

Endangered California Condor

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:51:47 +0100

California Condor
Fossil range: Early Pleistocene to Recent

Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)^[1]

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Incertae sedis (disputed)
Family:	Cathartidae
Genus:	Gymnogyps Lesson, 1842
Species:	G. californianus

Gymnogyps californianus
(Shaw, 1797)

Synonyms

Genus-level:

Antillovultur Arredondo, 1976
Pseudogryphus

Species-level:

Vultur californianus Shaw, 1797
Gymnogyps amplus L. H. Miller, 1911

California Condor on the 2005 California State quarter

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a North American species of bird in the New World vulture family Cathartidae and the largest North American land bird. Currently, this condor inhabits only the Grand Canyon area, Zion National Park, and western coastal mountains of California and northern Baja California. Although other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps.

It is a large, black vulture with patches of white on the underside of the wings and a largely bald head with skin color ranging from yellowish to a bright red, depending on the bird's mood. It has the largest wingspan of any bird found in North America and is one of the heaviest. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 50 years.

Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 19th century due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction. Eventually, a conservation plan was put in place by the United States government that led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors in 1987. These 22 birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors have been reintroduced into the wild. The project is the most expensive species conservation project ever undertaken in the United States. The California Condor is one of the world's rarest bird species. As of April 2009, there are 322 condors known to be living, including 172 in the wild.^[2]

The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths.

Taxonomy

The California Condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as Vultur californianus. It was originally classified in the same genus as the Andean Condor (V. gryphus), but, due to the Andean Condor's slightly different markings, slightly longer wings, and tendency to actually kill small animals to eat,^[3] the California Condor has now been placed in its own monotypic genus. The generic name Gymnogyps is derived from the Greek gymnos/γυμνος "naked" or "bare", and gyps/γυψ "vulture",^[4] while the specific name californianus comes from its location in California. The word condor itself is derived from the Ecuadorian Quechua cuntur.^[5]

The exact taxonomic placement of the California Condor and the remaining six species of New World vultures remains unclear.^[6] Though both are similar in appearance and have similar ecological roles, the New World and Old World vultures evolved from different ancestors in different parts of the world. Just how different the two are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks.^[7] More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures^[8] or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes.^[9] The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.^[6]

Evolutionary history

The genus Gymnogyps is a prime example of a relict distribution. During the Pleistocene epoch, this genus was widespread across the Americas. From fossils, the Floridan Gymnogyps kofordi from the Early Pleistocene and the Peruvian Gymnogyps howardae from the Late Pleistocene have been described.^[10] A condor found in Late Pleistocene deposits on Cuba was initially described as Antillovultur varonai, but has since been recognized as another member of Gymnogyps. It may even have been a subspecies of the California Condor.^[10]

Today's California Condor is the sole surviving member of Gymnogyps and has no accepted subspecies; although its range greatly contracted during the Holocene, the species always had a small and inbred population. However, there is a Late Pleistocene palaeosubspecies, Gymnogyps californianus amplus, which occurred over much of the bird's historical range – even extending into Florida – but was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean Condor. This bird also had a wider bill.^[11] As the climate changed during the last ice age, the entire population became smaller until it had evolved into the Gymnogyps californianus californianus of today.^[12]^[13]

[edit] Description

The adult California Condor is a uniform black, with the exception, especially in the male, of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers nearly surrounding the base of the neck, and brownish red eyes.^[14] The juvenile is mostly a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers.^[1]

Juvenile

As an adaptation for hygiene, the condor's head and neck have few feathers, which exposes the skin to the sterilizing effects of dehydration and solar ultraviolet light at high altitudes. The skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state, a capability that can serve as communication between individuals.^[15] The skin color varies from yellowish to a glowing reddish-orange.^[14]

Contrary to the usual rule among true birds of prey, the female is smaller than the male. Overall length can range from 109–140 cm (42–55 in.) and the wingspan is 2.49-3 m (8.2-9.9 ft).^[1] Their weight can range from 7–14 kg (15–31 lb), with estimations of average weight ranging from 8–9 kg (18–20 lb). Most measurements are from birds raised in captivity, so determining if there are any major differences in measurements between wild and captive condors is difficult.

California Condors have the largest wingspan of any North American bird. They are surpassed in both body length and weight only by the Trumpeter Swan and the introduced Mute Swan. The American White Pelican and Whooping Crane also have longer bodies than the condor. Condors are so large that they can be mistaken for a small, distant airplane, which possibly occurs more often than they are mistaken for other species of bird.^[16]

The middle toe of the California Condor's foot is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed. The talons of all the toes are straight and blunt, and are thus more adapted to walking than gripping. This is more similar to their supposed relatives the storks^[17]^[18] than to birds of prey and Old World vultures, which use their feet as weapons or organs of prehension.

Distribution and habitat

California Oak savanna on the east flank of Sonoma Mountain

Five hundred years ago, the California Condor roamed across the American Southwest and West Coast. However, due to their decline in numbers, the last wild bird was taken into captivity for the breeding program in 1987. Recently, captive-bred condors have been released in southern California, in Baja California, and at the Grand Canyon.^[1] There are two sanctuaries dedicated to this bird, the Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary in the San Rafael Wilderness^[19] and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest. These areas were chosen because of their prime condor nesting habitat.

The condors live in rocky scrubland, coniferous forests, and oak savannas.^[20] They are often found near cliffs or large trees, which they use as nesting sites. Individual birds have a huge range and have been known to travel up to 250 km (150 mi) in search of carrion.

Ecology and behavior

Adult in flight

When in flight, the movements of the condor are remarkably graceful. The lack of a large sternum to anchor their correspondingly large flight muscles restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. They have been known to fly up to speeds of 90 km/h (55 mph) and as high as 4,600 m (15,000 ft).^[21] They prefer to roost on high perches from which they can launch without any major wing-flapping effort. Often, these birds are seen soaring near rock cliffs, using thermals to aid them in keeping aloft.^[22]

The California Condor has a long life span, reaching up to 50 years. If it survives to adulthood, the condor has few natural threats other than humans.^[23] Their vocal display is limited to grunts and hisses.^[15] Condors bathe frequently and can spend hours a day preening their feathers.^[21] Condors also perform urohydrosis, or defecate on their legs, to reduce their body temperature.^[15] There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a pecking order decided by body language, competitive play behavior, and a variety of hisses and grunts. This social hierarchy is displayed especially when the birds feed, with the dominant birds eating before the younger ones.^[24]

Diet

Wild condors inhabit large territories, often traveling 250 kilometres (160 mi) a day in search of carrion.^[25] It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California Condor lived off of the carcasses of the "megafauna", which are now extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial mammalian carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears, or cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals, such as rabbits or coyotes, aquatic mammals such as whales and California Sea Lions, or salmon. Bird and reptile carcasses are rarely eaten. Since they do not have a sense of smell,^[26] they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like smaller vultures and eagles, who cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and Golden Eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass.^[14] In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating,^[25] then gorging themselves on 1–1.5 kilograms (2.2–3.3 lb) of meat at once, sometimes to the point of being unable to lift themselves off the ground.^[27]

Reproduction

Adult

Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of six.^[21] To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display. In the display, the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life.^[24] The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other February or March. The egg weighs about 280 g (10 oz) and measures from 90–120 mm (3.5–4.75 in.) in length and about 67 mm (2.6 in.) in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for hand-rearing; this induces the parents to lay a second egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.^[28]

The eggs hatch after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to hatch from their egg.^[15] The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after five to six months, but continue to roost and hunt with their parents until they turn two, at which point they are displaced by a new clutch.^[14]

Conservation

A juvenile in the Grand Canyon, with its numbered tag prominent.

At the time of human settlement of the Americas, the California Condor was widespread across North America. However, climate changes associated with the end of the last glacial period and the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna led to a subsequent reduction in range and population. Prehistorically, California Condors are known from Arizona,^[29] Nevada,^[30] New Mexico,^[31]^[32] and Texas.^[33]

In modern times, a wide variety of causes have contributed to the condor's decline. Its exacting mating habits and resulting low birth rate, combined with a late age of sexual maturity, make the bird vulnerable to loss of population. Significant damage to the condor population is also attributed to poaching, especially for museum specimens,^[34] lead poisoning (from eating animals containing lead shot),^[35] DDT poisoning,^[36] electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction. During the California Gold Rush, some condors were even kept as pets.^[37]

In addition to this, cattle ranchers who observed condors feeding on the dead young of their cattle assumed that the birds killed the cattle. This fallacy led to the condor's extinction in some parts of the western United States. This belief was so deeply ingrained that the reintroduction of condors to the Grand Canyon was challenged by some cattle ranchers, who mistakenly believed that the bird hunted calves and lambs.^[38]

As the condor's population continued to decline, discussion began about starting a captive breeding program for the birds. Opponents to this plan argued that the condors had the right to freedom, that capturing all of the condors would change the species' habits forever, and that the cost was too great.^[39] However, the project received the approval of the United States government, and the capture of the remaining wild condors was completed on Easter Sunday 1987, when AC-9, the last wild condor, was captured.^[40] There were only 22 condors in existence, all in captivity. The captive breeding program, led by the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo, got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double clutch, biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.

As the number of condors grew, attention began to focus on releasing some back into the wild. In 1988, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Andean Condors into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean Condors were recaptured and re-released in South America.^[21] California Condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California, and again in 1996 in Arizona near the Grand Canyon.^[1] Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.

Condor chick being fed by condor feeding puppet

Unanticipated deaths among these populations occurred due to contact with Golden Eagles, power lines, and other factors such as lead poisoning. Since 1994, captive-bred California Condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased.^[41] Lead poisoning due to fragmented lead bullets in large game waste is a particularly big problem for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices;^[42] this lead waste is not as much of a problem for other avian scavengers such as the Turkey Vulture and Common Raven. This problem has been addressed in California by the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, a bill that went into effect July 1, 2008 that requires that hunters use non-lead bullets when hunting in the condor's range.^[43]

The California Condor conservation project is also the most expensive species conservation project in United States history,^[44] costing over $35 million, including $20 million in federal and state funding, since World War II.^[45] However, nesting milestones have been recently reached by the reintroduced condors. In 2003, the first nestling fledged in the wild since 1981.^[38] In March 2006, a pair of California Condors attempted to nest in a hollow tree near Big Sur, California. This was the first time in more than 100 years in which a pair of California Condors had been seen nesting in Northern California.^[46] In early 2007, a California condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s.^[47] The population of the condors has risen due to these wild and also captive nestings. As of April 2009 there are 322 individuals living, including 172 in the wild^[2] and the rest in the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Oregon Zoo, or the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the San Pedro Martir National Park and was named "Inyaa" ("Sun" in Kiliwa language) by local environmentalists.

Relationship with humans

A Chumash from the 1800s

Throughout its historic range, the California Condor has been a popular subject of mythology and an important symbol to Native Americans. Unusually,^[48] this bird takes on different roles in the storytelling of the different tribes.

The Wiyot tribe of California say that the condor recreated mankind after Above Old Man wiped humanity out with a flood.^[49] However, other tribes, like California's Mono, viewed the condor as a destroyer, not a creator. They say that Condor seized humans, cut off their heads, and drained their blood so that it would flood Ground Squirrel's home. Condor then seized Ground Squirrel after he fled, but Ground Squirrel managed to cut off Condor's head when Condor paused to take a drink of the blood.^[50] According to the Yokut tribe, the condor sometimes ate the moon, causing the lunar cycle, and his wings caused eclipses.^[51] The Chumash tribe of Southern California believed that the condor was once a white bird, but it turned black when it flew too close to a fire.^[51]

Condor bones have been found in Native American graves, as have condor feather headdresses. Cave paintings of condors have also been discovered.^[52] Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers. Shamans then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds. Whenever a shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed,^[53] so new clothing had to be made for his successor. Some scientists, such as Noel Snyder, believe that this process of making ceremonial clothing helped contribute to the condor's decline.^[53] If so, this would be the only known species that was endangered by the California natives.^[53]

Endangered Sea Otter

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:56:13 +0100

Sea Otter

A sea otter wraps itself in kelp in Morro Bay, California.

Endangered (IUCN 3.1)^[1]

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Mustelidae
Subfamily:	Lutrinae
Genus:	Enhydra Fleming, 1828
Species:	E. lutris

Enhydra lutris
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Modern and historical range

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal native to the coasts of the northern and eastern North Pacific Ocean. Adult sea otters typically weigh between 14 and 45 kg (30 to 100 lb), making them the heaviest members of the weasel family, but among the smallest marine mammals. Unlike most marine mammals, the sea otter's primary form of insulation is an exceptionally thick coat of fur, the densest in the animal kingdom. Although it can walk on land, the sea otter lives mostly in the ocean.

The sea otter inhabits nearshore environments where it dives to the sea floor to forage. It preys mostly upon marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans, and some species of fish. Its foraging and eating habits are noteworthy in several respects. First, its use of rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools. In most of its range, it is a keystone species, controlling sea urchin populations which would otherwise inflict extensive damage to kelp forest ecosystems. Its diet includes prey species that are also valued by humans as food, leading to conflicts between sea otters and fisheries.

Sea otters, whose numbers were once estimated at 150,000–300,000, were hunted extensively for their fur between 1741 and 1911, and the world population fell to 1,000–2,000 individuals in a fraction of their historic range. A subsequent international ban on hunting, conservation efforts, and reintroduction programs into previously populated areas have contributed to numbers rebounding, and the species now occupies about two-thirds of its former range. The recovery of the sea otter is considered an important success in marine conservation, although populations in the Aleutian Islands and California have recently declined or have plateaued at depressed levels. For these reasons (as well as its particular vulnerability to oil spills) the sea otter remains classified as an endangered species.

Taxonomy

The first scientific description of the sea otter is contained in the field notes of Georg Steller from 1751, and the species was described by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae of 1758.^[2] Originally named Lutra marina, it underwent numerous name changes before being accepted as Enhydra lutris in 1922.^[3] The generic name Enhydra, derives from the Ancient Greek en/εν "in" and hydra/ύδρα "water",^[4] meaning "in the water", and the Latin word lutris, meaning "otter".^[5] It was formerly sometimes referred to as the "sea beaver",^[6] although it is only distantly related to beavers. It is not to be confused with the marine otter, a rare otter species native to the southern west coast of South America. A number of other otter species, while predominantly living in fresh water, are commonly found in marine coastal habitats. The extinct sea mink of northeast North America is another mustelid that adapted to a marine environment.

Evolution

Although it is a relatively new marine mammal lineage, the sea otter can live in the ocean at all stages of life.

The sea otter is the heaviest member of the family Mustelidae,^[7]^[8] a diverse group that includes the thirteen otter species and terrestrial animals such as weasels, badgers, and minks. It is unique among the mustelids in not making dens or burrows, in having no functional anal scent glands,^[9] and in being able to live its entire life without leaving the water.^[10] The only member of the genus Enhydra, the sea otter is so different from other mustelid species that as recently as 1982, some scientists believed it was more closely related to the earless seals.^[11] Genetic analysis indicates that the sea otter and its closest extant relatives, which include the African speckle-throated otter, Eurasian otter, African clawless otter and oriental small-clawed otter, shared an ancestor approximately 5 million years ago (mya).^[12]

Fossil evidence indicates that the Enhydra lineage became isolated in the North Pacific approximately 2 mya, giving rise to the now-extinct Enhydra macrodonta and the modern sea otter, Enhydra lutris.^[3] The sea otter evolved initially in northern Hokkaidō and Russia, then spread east to the Aleutian Islands, mainland Alaska, and down the North American coast.^[13] In comparison to cetaceans, sirenians, and pinnipeds, which entered the water approximately 50 mya, 40 mya, and 20 mya, respectively, the sea otter is a relative newcomer to a marine existence.^[14] In some respects, however, the sea otter is more fully aquatically adapted than pinnipeds, which must haul out on land or ice to give birth.^[15]

Subspecies

There are three recognized subspecies, which vary in body size and in some skull and dental characteristics:^[7]^[16]

The common sea otter, E. l. lutris (Linnaeus, 1758), ranges from the Kuril Islands to the Commander Islands in the western Pacific Ocean.^[7] Also known as the Asian sea otter, it is the largest subspecies with a wide skull and short nasal bones.^[17]
The southern sea otter, E. l. nereis (Merriam, 1904), is found off the coast of central California.^[7] Also known as the Californian sea otter, it has a narrower skull with a long rostrum and small teeth.^[17]
The northern sea otter, E. l. kenyoni^[18] (Wilson, 1991), is native to Alaska and the Pacific west coast from the Aleutian islands to British Columbia, Washington, and northern Oregon ^[17]. After being extirpated from southern British Columbia south due to overhunting, it has since been re-introduced off Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. ^[7]

The reintroduction effort off the Oregon coast was not successful. However, reintroductions in 1969 and 1970 off the Washington coast were very successful and sea otters have been expanding their range since. They have now entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca and can be found almost as far east as Pillar Point. Individuals have even been seen in the San Juan Islands and northern Puget Sound.

Physical characteristics

A sea otter's thick fur makes its body appear much plumper on land than in the water.

The sea otter is one of the smallest marine mammal species.^[10] Male sea otters weigh 22 to 45 kg (49 to 99 lb) and are 1.2 to 1.5 m (4 to 5 ft) in length. Females are smaller, weighing 14 to 33 kg (30 to 73 lb) and measuring 1.0 to 1.4 m (3 ft 3 in to 4 ft 7 in) in length.^[19]

Unlike other marine mammals, the sea otter has no blubber and relies on its exceptionally thick fur to keep warm.^[20] With up to 150 thousand strands of hair per square centimeter (nearly one million per sq in), its fur is the most dense of any animal.^[21] The fur consists of long waterproof guard hairs and short underfur; the guard hairs keep the dense underfur layer dry. Cold water is thus kept completely away from the skin and heat loss is limited.^[19] The fur is thick year-round, as it is shed and replaced gradually rather than in a distinct molting season.^[22] As the ability of the guard hairs to repel water depends on utmost cleanliness, the sea otter has the ability to reach and groom the fur on any part of its body, taking advantage of its loose skin and an unusually supple skeleton.^[23] The coloration of the pelage is usually deep brown with silver-gray speckles, however it can range from yellowish or grayish brown to almost black.^[24] In adults, the head, throat, and chest are lighter in color than the rest of the body.^[24]

The sea otter displays numerous adaptations to its marine environment. The nostrils and small ears can close.^[25] The hind feet, which provide most of its propulsion in swimming, are long, broadly flattened, and fully webbed.^[26] The fifth digit on each hind foot is longest, facilitating swimming while on its back, but making walking difficult.^[27] The tail is fairly short, thick, slightly flattened, and muscular. The front paws are short with retractable claws, with tough pads on the palms that enable gripping slippery prey.^[28]

Skeleton of a sea otter. The hind flippers are larger than the mitten-like front paws.

The sea otter propels itself underwater by moving the rear end of its body, including its tail and hind feet, up and down,^[26] and is capable of speeds of up to 9 km/h (5.6 mph).^[7] When underwater, its body is long and streamlined, with the short forelimbs pressed closely against the chest.^[29] When at the surface, it usually floats on its back and moves by sculling its feet and tail from side to side.^[30] At rest, all four limbs can be folded onto the torso to conserve heat, whereas on particularly hot days the hind feet may be held underwater for cooling.^[31] The sea otter's body is highly buoyant because of its large lung capacity – about 2.5 times greater than that of similar-sized land mammals^[32] – and the air trapped in its fur. The sea otter walks with a clumsy rolling gait on land, and can run in a bounding motion.^[27]

Long, highly sensitive whiskers and front paws help the sea otter find prey by touch when waters are dark or murky.^[10] Researchers have noted that when they approach in plain view, sea otters react more rapidly when the wind is blowing towards the animals, indicating that the sense of smell is more important than sight as a warning sense.^[33] Other observations indicate that the sea otter's sense of sight is useful above and below the water, although not as good as that of seals.^[34] Its hearing is neither particularly acute nor poor.^[35]

An adult sea otter swimming on its back.

An adult's 32 teeth, particularly the molars, are flattened and rounded, designed to crush rather than cut food.^[36] Seals and sea otters are the only carnivores with two pairs of lower incisor teeth rather than three;^[37] the adult dental formula is:^[38]

Dentition
3.1.3.1
2.1.3.2

The sea otter has a metabolic rate two or three times that of comparatively sized terrestrial mammals. It must eat an estimated 25 to 38% of its own body weight in food each day in order to burn the calories necessary to counteract the loss of heat due to the cold water environment.^[39]^[40] Its digestive efficiency is estimated at 80 to 85%,^[41] and food is digested and passed in as little as three hours.^[20] Most of its need for water is met through food, although, in contrast to most other marine mammals, it also drinks seawater. Its relatively large kidneys enable it to derive fresh water from sea water and excrete concentrated urine.^[42]

Behavior

Sensitive whiskers and forepaws enable sea otters to find prey using their sense of touch.

The sea otter is diurnal. It has a period of foraging and eating in the morning, starting about an hour before sunrise, then rests or sleeps in mid-day.^[43] Foraging resumes for a few hours in the afternoon and subsides before sunset, and there may be a third foraging period around midnight.^[43] Females with pups appear to be more inclined to feed at night.^[43] Observations of the amount of time a sea otter must spend each day foraging range from 24 to 60%, apparently depending on the availability of food in the area.^[44]

The sea otter spends much of its time grooming, which consists of cleaning the fur, untangling knots, removing loose fur, rubbing the fur to squeeze out water and introduce air, and blowing air into the fur. To an observer it appears as if the animal is scratching, however sea otters are not known to have lice or other parasites in the fur.^[45] When eating, the sea otter rolls in the water frequently, apparently to wash food scraps from its fur.^[46]

Foraging

The sea otter hunts in short dives, often to the sea floor. Although it can hold its breath for up to five minutes,^[25] dives typically last about one minute and no more than four.^[19] It is the only marine animal capable of lifting and turning over boulders, which it often does with its front paws when searching for prey.^[46] The sea otter may also pluck snails and other organisms from kelp and dig deep into underwater mud for clams.^[46] It is the only marine mammal that catches fish with its forepaws rather than with its teeth.^[20]

Under each foreleg, the sea otter has a loose pouch of skin that extends across the chest. In this pouch (preferentially the left one), the animal stores collected food to bring to the surface.^[47] There, the sea otter eats while floating on its back, using its forepaws to tear food apart and bring it to its mouth. It can chew and swallow small mussels with their shells, whereas large mussel shells may be twisted apart.^[48] It uses its lower incisor teeth to access the meat in shellfish.^[49] To eat large sea urchins, which are mostly covered with spines, the sea otter bites through the underside where the spines are shortest, and licks the soft contents out of the urchin's shell.^[48]

The sea otter's use of rocks when hunting and feeding makes it one of the few mammal species to use tools.^[50] To open hard shells, it may pound its prey with both paws against a rock on its chest. To pry an abalone off its rock, it hammers the abalone shell using a large stone, with observed rates of 45 blows in 15 seconds.^[19] Releasing an abalone, which can cling to rock with a force equal to 4,000 times its own body weight, requires multiple dives.^[19]

To keep from drifting apart, sea otters may sleep holding paws.^[51] Note the high buoyancy of the animals' bodies.

Social structure

Although each adult and independent juvenile forages alone, sea otters tend to rest together in single-sex groups called rafts. A raft typically contains 10 to 100 animals, with male rafts being larger than female ones.^[52] The largest raft ever seen contained over 2000 sea otters. To keep from drifting out to sea when resting and eating, sea otters may wrap themselves in kelp.^[53]

A male sea otter is most likely to mate if he maintains a breeding territory in an area that is also favored by females.^[54] As autumn is the peak breeding season in most areas, males typically defend their territory only from spring to autumn.^[54] During this time, males patrol the boundaries of their territories to exclude other males,^[54] although actual fighting is rare.^[52] Adult females move freely between male territories, where they outnumber adult males by an average of five to one.^[54] Males who do not have territories tend to congregate in large male-only groups,^[54] and swim through female areas when searching for a mate.^[55]

The species exhibits a variety of vocal behaviors. The cry of a pup is often compared to that of a seagull.^[56] Females coo when they are apparently content; males may grunt instead.^[57] Distressed or frightened adults may whistle, hiss, or in extreme circumstances, scream.^[56]

Although sea otters can be playful and sociable, they are not considered to be truly social animals.^[58] They spend much time alone, and each adult can meet its own needs in terms of hunting, grooming, and defense.^[58]

Reproduction and lifecycle

During mating, the male bites the nose of the female, often bloodying and scarring it.

Sea otters are polygynous: males have multiple female partners. However, temporary pair-bonding occurs for a few days between a female in estrus and her mate.^[46] Mating takes place in the water and can be rough, the male biting the female on the muzzle – which often leaves scars on the nose – and sometimes holding her head under water.^[7]^[59]

Births occur year-round, with peaks between May and June in northern populations and between January and March in southern populations.^[60] Gestation appears to vary from four to twelve months, as the species is capable of delayed implantation followed by four months of pregnancy.^[60] In California, sea otters usually breed every year, about twice as often as sea otters in Alaska.^[61]

Birth usually takes place in the water and typically produces a single pup weighing 1.4 to 2.3 kg (3 to 5 lb).^[62] Twins occur in 2% of births; however, usually only one pup survives.^[7] At birth, the eyes are open, ten teeth are visible, and the pup has a thick coat of baby fur.^[63] Mothers have been observed to lick and fluff a newborn for hours; after grooming, the pup's fur retains so much air that the pup floats like a cork and cannot dive.^[64] The fluffy baby fur is replaced by adult fur after about thirteen weeks.^[2]

A mother floats with her pup on her chest. Georg Steller wrote, "They embrace their young with an affection that is scarcely credible."^[65]

Nursing lasts six to eight months in California populations and four to twelve months in Alaska, with the mother beginning to offer bits of prey at one to two months.^[66] The milk from a sea otter's two abdominal nipples is rich in fat and more similar to the milk of other marine mammals than to that of other mustelids.^[67] A pup, with guidance from its mother, practices swimming and diving for several weeks before it is able to reach the sea floor. Initially the objects it retrieves are of little food value, such as brightly colored starfish and pebbles.^[47] Juveniles are typically independent at six to eight months, however a mother may be forced to abandon a pup if she cannot find enough food for it^[68] and at the other extreme, a pup may nurse until it is almost adult size.^[62] Pup mortality is high, particularly during an individual's first winter – by one estimate, only 25% of pups survive their first year.^[68] Pups born to experienced mothers have the highest survival rates.^[69]

Females perform all tasks of feeding and raising offspring, and have occasionally been observed caring for orphaned pups.^[70] Much has been written about the level of devotion of sea otter mothers for their pups – a mother gives her infant almost constant attention, cradling it on her chest away from the cold water and attentively grooming its fur.^[71] When foraging, she leaves her pup floating on the water, sometimes wrapped in kelp to keep it from floating away;^[72] if the pup is not sleeping, it cries loudly until she returns.^[73] Mothers have been known to carry their pup for days after the pup's death.^[65]

Females become sexually mature at around three or four years of age and males at around five; however, males often do not successfully breed until a few years later.^[74] A captive male sired offspring at age 19.^[62] In the wild, sea otters live to a maximum age of 23 years,^[19] with average lifespans of 10–15 years for males and 15–20 years for females.^[75] Several captive individuals have lived past 20 years, and a female at the Seattle Aquarium died at the age of 28 years.^[76] Sea otters in the wild often develop worn teeth, which may account for their apparently shorter lifespans.^[77]

Population and distribution

Sea otter floating in Morro Bay, California

Sea otters live in coastal waters 15 to 23 meters (50 to 75 ft) deep,^[78] and usually stay within a kilometer (⅔ mi) of the shore.^[79] They are found most often in areas with protection from the most severe ocean winds, such as rocky coastlines, thick kelp forests, and barrier reefs.^[80] Although they are most strongly associated with rocky substrates, sea otters can also live in areas where the sea floor consists primarily of mud, sand, or silt.^[81] Their northern range is limited by ice, as sea otters can survive amidst drift ice but not land-fast ice.^[82] Individuals generally occupy a home range a few kilometers long, and remain there year-round.^[83]

The sea otter population is thought to have once been 150,000 to 300,000,^[6] stretching in an arc across the North Pacific from northern Japan to the central Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. The fur trade that began in the 1740s reduced the sea otter's numbers to an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 members in thirteen colonies. In about two-thirds of its former range, the species is at varying levels of recovery, with high population densities in some areas and threatened populations in others. Sea otters currently have stable populations in parts of the Russian east coast, Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, and California, and there have been reports of recolonizations in Mexico and Japan.^[84] Population estimates made between 2004 and 2007 give a worldwide total of approximately 107,000 sea otters.^[2]^[85]^[86]^[87]^[88]

Russia

Currently, the most stable and secure part of the sea otter's range is Russia.^[89] Before the 19th century there were around 20,000 to 25,000 sea otters in the Kuril Islands, with more on Kamchatka and the Commander Islands. After the years of the Great Hunt, the population in these areas, currently part of Russia, was only 750.^[85] As of 2004, sea otters have repopulated all of their former habitat in these areas, with an estimated total population of about 27,000. Of these, about 19,000 are in the Kurils, 2000 to 3500 on Kamchatka and another 5000 to 5500 on the Commander Islands.^[85] Growth has slowed slightly, suggesting that the numbers are reaching carrying capacity.^[85]

Endangered Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:07:24 +0100

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Subclass:	Anapsida
Order:	Testudines
Family:	Cheloniidae
Genus:	Caretta Rafinesque, 1814
Species:	C. caretta

Caretta caretta
Linnaeus, 1758

The Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta) is a sea turtle and the only member of the genus Caretta. The genus name "Caretta" is a latinization of the French "caret", meaning turtle, tortoise, or sea turtle.^[1] A loggerhead sea turtle reportedly grows up to 800 lbs (364 kg) and 3.5 feet (1.1 m) long.^[2] Their shell color is a reddish brown color, and the color of their skin is brown yellow. They are named for their disproportionately large head. They are also the state reptile of South Carolina.^[3]

Trophic ecology

The species feeds on molluscs, crustaceans, fish, jellyfish, crabs, shrimp and Portuguese Man o' War and other small to medium-sized marine animals, which they crush with their large and powerful jaws. As with other sea turtles, females return to lay their eggs on or near the same beach where they hatched. Unlike other sea turtles, courtship and mating usually do not take place near the nesting beach but rather along the migration routes between feeding and breeding grounds.

Scientists in Hawaii use satellite transponders to track loggerhead sea turtles in the Northern Pacific Ocean.^[4].

Life history

Close up of the head

Baby Loggerhead Sea Turtle.

In the Mediterranean, Loggerheads mate from late March to early June. The female nesting season is at its peak in June and July, but this depends on the nesting beach. The clutch may vary from 70 to 150 eggs. Each egg is roughly the size and shape of a ping-pong ball. The average interval between nesting seasons is two to three years.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle laying eggs.

Loggerhead turtles are the most common sea turtle to nest in the United States. Loggerheads nest from Texas to North Carolina, requiring soft sandy beaches, where there is little light pollution; with the largest concentration of nests in south Florida. Statistics collected in Florida since 1998 however indicate the lowest nesting levels Florida has seen in 17 years, where nesting rates have declined from 85,988 nests in 1998 to approximately 45,084 in 2007.^[5]

After approximately 60 days, the hatchlings emerge usually at night when protection from predation is greater. Because they usually follow the brightest light to the ocean's edge, artificial lights from human activity can lead them astray. Once in the ocean they use ocean currents to travel to the Sargasso Sea using the Sargassum as protection until they mature.^[6]

An alternative to migration for many loggerheads is hibernation to varying degrees as the water cools. Loggerhead turtles have no bones on the tip of their front legs. By February they are submerged for up to seven hours at a time, emerging for only seven minutes to recover. Although outdone by freshwater turtles, these are the longest recorded dives for any air-breathing marine vertebrate^[7].

Most loggerheads that reach adulthood live for longer than 30 years, and can often live past 198.7 years.They are immune to the toxins of a Portuguese Man o' War as the turtles have often been seen feeding on them.

Etymology and taxonomic history

Two subspecies are recognized: Caretta caretta gigas, is found in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and C. caretta caretta, the Atlantic loggerhead, also found in south Italy and the Greek islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia, Crete, and the Peloponese and in Dalyan in southwestern Turkey. (see article; June Haimoff).

Feeding

A loggerhead mainly feeds on bottom dwelling invertebrates. They eat horseshoe crabs, clams, mussels, and other invertebrates. Their powerful jaw muscles help them to easily crush the shellfish. During migration through the open sea, loggerheads eat jellyfishes, floating mollusks, floating egg clusters, squids and flying fishes.

Importance to humans

Loggerhead Sea Turtles were once intensively hunted for their meat and eggs, along with their fat which was used in cosmetics and medication. The Loggerhead Sea Turtles were also killed for their shells, which are used to make items such as combs. As a result, both subspecies are now internationally protected.

Conservation

Loggerhead Sea Turtle escapes from fishing net through a TED (Turtle Excluder Device).

Loggerhead turtles are classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and are listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. In the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and National Marine Fisheries Service classify them as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Today the main threat to the adult loggerheads lies in shrimp trawls and crab fishing nets, to which many loggerheads annually fall victim^[8]. Furthermore, adults are often injured by speedboat propellers and by swallowing fishing hooks or getting caught in nets. Internationally, animal protection organizations take pains to monitor and protect the turtles' nesting grounds in Turkey,^[9] Greece^[10], Bonaire, and Costa Rica. The turtles can also be found around the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Linosa, off the coast of Sicily, and in Calabria, where it is particularly endangered. Furthermore, the turtles are known to nest on the beaches of Cyprus, especially Akamas and Alagadi Beach.^[11]

Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest roped off as part of the Sea Turtle Protection Project on Hilton Head Island

In many places during the nesting season, workers search the coastline to find evidence of nests. Once found, a nest will be uncovered and the eggs carefully counted, if the nest is dangerously located the eggs will be moved to a better spot. Plastic fencing will be placed at or near the surface to protect the eggs from large predators such as raccoons or even dogs. The barrier used is large enough to allow the hatchlings to emerge without difficulty. The nests are checked daily for disturbances; several days after there is indication that the eggs have hatched the nest will be uncovered and the tally of hatched eggs, undeveloped eggs, and dead hatchlings will be recorded. If any hatchlings are found, they are either taken to be raised and released, or taken to research facilities. Ones that appear strong and healthy may instead be released to the ocean. Typically, those that lacked the strength to hatch and climb to the surface by that point would have died otherwise.

Hatchlings require the travel from their nest to the ocean in order to build up strength for the journey ahead, so interfering by helping it to the ocean actually lowers their chances of survival.The Fripp Island, SC Turtle Patrol each year sets pieces of drift wood from the nests toward the sea as guides so the hatchlings get to start out in the right direction.

Habitat

The loggerhead sea turtle lives in areas such as bays, lagoons, salt marshes, creeks, ship channels, and the mouths of large rivers. Coral reefs, rocky places, and ship wrecks are places where you might find a feeding ground for loggerheads. Loggerheads nest on ocean beaches and on estuarine shorelines with suitable sand. They like to feed in coastal bays and estuaries, as well as in the shallow water along the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Endangered Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:56:58 +0100

Santa Cruz long-toed salamander

Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Amphibia
Order:	Caudata
Family:	Ambystomatidae
Genus:	Ambystoma
Species:	A. macrodactylum
Subspecies:	*A. m. croceum*

Trinomial name

Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum
Russell & Anderson, 1956

The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander (Ambystoma macrodactylum croceum) is an endangered subspecies of the long-toed salamander, which is found only close to a few isolated ponds in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County, California. It has a black body, broken yellow or orange irregular striping along its spine, and a tail fin well designed for swimming. Like other mole salamanders it is found near pools or slow moving steams; this creature has a very secretive lifestyle, making it difficult to find.

Comparison with the Common Long-toed Salamander

The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander has a range separate with the more common long-toed salamander. Whereas the range of the long-toed salamander is from Tuolumne County north, the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander is found only near a few isolated ponds in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Like other long-toed salamanders, its belly is sooty to dark brown, and it has tubercles on its feet. The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander has an irregular broken yellow stripe on its back, whereas the common long-toed salamander has a more regular yellow vertical stripe. Both species have twelve or thirteen costal grooves visible from the side. The Santa Cruz long-toed salamander has a measurable degree of mitochondrial DNA genetic distance from the 'coastal' or 'western' subspecies of long-toed salamander. The genetic relationship, however, is still unclear as more evidence is needed from additional genes and individuals ^[1] (Thompson and Russell 2005).

In both species, eggs are laid singly near the water surface on rushlike spikes, but sometimes in small clusters at the base of logs or sticking to vegetation in the deeper parts of a pond. Hatching larvae are approximately ten millimeters long, and in their first summer, they grow to 50 to 100 millimeters. But the Santa Cruz long-toed salamander is generally considered the smaller species. The precise times of migration for both species, to and from the breeding ponds, occur during periods of sustained nighttime rainfall.

Valencia Lagoon, the modern discovery site

On December 2, 1954 the Santa Cruz Long-toed Salamander was discovered in Valencia Lagoon by R.W. Russell and James Anderson. This small seasonal lagoon clogged with cattails in Aptos, California, measured only about 30 meters by 150 meters (100 feet by 500 feet) at that time. Caltrans filled half of the lagoon with a widening of State Route 1 in the year 1968. The next study of Valencia Lagoon occurred in 1974 by Earth Metrics, whose staff examined the lagoon to develop further migration strategies to allow the creature to better breed and migrate; that study also called for the permanent protection of Valencia Lagoon, which was later effected when the State of California purchased the lagoon. Hogan's study also noted the adverse effects of siltation that were occurring in Valencia Lagoon from the highway embankment erosion created by widening of Route 1; it was reasoned that the siltation should decrease once the vegetation became re-established on these slopes and allow the habitat to improve; moreover, the Earth Metrics study derived additional mitigation for the county of Santa Cruz to follow in considering any further discretionary actions around Valencia Lagoon. Another mitigation breeding area in the same drainage along Bonita Road was set aside as a protected area.

Life cycle

Most of this salamander's adult life is spent in upland Coast Live Oak forest in small animal burrows during the long dry season (May to October) in coastal California. Once winter rains have soaked the soil and filled ephemeral streams, both males and females migrate up to two kilometers to breeding ponds that exist only in winter. In January, the males arrive at the ponds first, in time to prepare for a night time courtship. When the male and female have completed their courtship, the male deposits a packet of sperm, called the spermatophore, in the water, which the female retrieves and uses to fertilize her eggs. She may lay the eggs singly or in loose clusters of six to eight eggs in shallow water five to eight centimeters deep.

Neither parent tends the eggs, which hatch into tadpoles in March and metamorphose into adult salamanders when the pond begins to dry out. The tadpoles commonly eat small copepods. Predators that eat long-toed salamander larvae include aquatic invertebrates, garter snakes, and other vertebrates (California's Wildlife, 1988). Other species of salamander tadpoles (larvae) compete with those of the long-toed salamander.

The breeding ponds of most species of long-toed salamanders completely dry up during the dry season. It's likely that year-round ponds harbor frogs, fish and other aquatic predators that eat young salamanders, and the salamanders therefore prefer ephemeral ponds. Most species of long-toed salamanders migrate up into nearby forests and do not spend any time near the breeding pond once they have metamorphosed and the pond is dry. But A. m. croceum juveniles often spend their first summer close to the breeding pond in a rodent burrow or rock fissure, only later migrating uphill into the forest. This may be because A. m. croceum breeding ponds retain water all summer.

Endangered Asian Arowana

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:57:51 +0100

Asian Arowana

Super red arowana

Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Osteoglossiformes
Family:	Osteoglossidae
Genus:	Scleropages
Species:	S. formosus Additional species disputed (see text)

Scleropages formosus
Müller and Schlegel, 1844

The asian arowana is referred to several varieties of freshwater fish all in the genus Scleropages. Some sources differentiate these varieties into multiple species,^[1]^[2] while others consider the different strains to belong to a single species, Scleropages formosus.^[3] They have several other common names, including Asian bonytongue, dragon fish, and a number of names specific to different varieties.

Native to Southeast Asia, Asian arowanas inhabit blackwater rivers, slow-moving waters flowing through forested swamps and wetlands. Adults feed on other fish, while juveniles feed on insects.^[4]

These popular aquarium fish have special cultural significance in areas influenced by Chinese culture. The name dragon fish stems from their resemblance to the Chinese dragon. This popularity has had both positive and negative effects on their status as endangered species.

Evolution and taxonomy

Like all members of Osteoglossidae, Asian arowanas are highly adapted to fresh water and are incapable of surviving in the ocean. Therefore, their spread throughout the islands of southeast Asia suggests they diverged from other osteoglossids before the continental breakup was complete. Genetic studies have confirmed this hypothesis, showing that their ancestor of the Asian arowanas diverged from the ancestor of the Australian arowanas, S. jardinii and S. leichardti, about 140 million years ago, during the Early Cretaceous period. This divergence took place in the eastern margin of Gondwanaland, with the ancestors of Asian arowanas carried on the Indian subcontinent or smaller landmasses into Asia. The morphological similarity of all Scleropages species shows that little evolutionary change has taken place recently for these ancient fish.^[5]

The first description of these species was published between 1839 and 1844 (1844 is the date commonly cited) by German naturalists Salomon Müller and Hermann Schlegel, under the name Osteoglossum formosum, although later this species was placed in Scleropages with the name S. formosus.^[6]

Super red arowana in a public aquarium.

Several distinct, naturally occurring colour varieties are recognised, each found in a specific geographic region. They include the following:

The green is the most common variety, found in Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia.
The silver Asian (not to be confused with the silver arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum) is considered part of the green variety by some. It has two subvarieties, the "grey tail silver" or "Pinoh arowana," and the "yellow tail silver," each found in a different part of the island of Borneo in Indonesia.
The red-tailed golden is found in northern Sumatra, Indonesia.
The gold crossback, blue Malayan, or Bukit Merah blue is native to the state of Pahang and Bukit Merah area in Perak, Malaysia.
The red, super red, blood red, or chili red is known only from the upper part of the Kapuas River in western Borneo, Indonesia.

In 2003, a study^[1] was published which proposed breaking S. formosus into four separate species. This classification was based on both morphology and genetics, and includes the following species:

Scleropages formosus was redescribed to include the strain known as the green arowana. The gold crossback, which was not part of the study, was included in this species by default.
Scleropages macrocephalus described the silver Asian arowana.
Scleropages aureus described the red-tailed golden arowana.
Scleropages legendrei described the super red arowana.

Other researchers dispute this reclassification, arguing that the published data are insufficient to justify recognizing more than one Southeast Asian species of Scleropages.^[7]

Description

Asian arowana scales are large (most over 2 cm in length) and have a delicate net pattern.

Asian arowanas grow up to 90 cm (35 in) total length.^[8] Like all Scleropages, Asian arowanas have long bodies; large, elongate pectoral fins; dorsal and anal fins located far back on the body; and a much larger caudal fin than that of their South American relative, the silver arowana, Osteoglossum bicirrhosum. The mouth is oblique with a very wide gape. The prominent lower jaw has two barbels at its tip. The gill rakers are stout. Asian arowanas bear teeth on many bones of the mouth, including the jaws, vomer, palatines, pterygoids, parasphenoid, and tongue.^[9]

Asian arowana scales are large, cycloid, and, in some varieties, metallic coloured, with a distinctive mosaic pattern of raised ribs.^[10]^[1] The lateral scales are arranged in horizontal rows numbered from the most ventral (first level) to the most dorsal (fifth level), with dorsal scales designated the sixth level.^[11]

Asian arowanas are distinguished from Australian congenerics S. jardinii and S. leichardti by having fewer (21-26) lateral line scales (versus 32-36 for the Australian species), longer pectoral and pelvic fins, and a longer anterior snout.^[1]

Green arowanas are dark green on the back, silvery or golden green on its sides, and silvery or whitish on its ventral surface, with dark greenish or bluish patches visible through the lateral scales. In mature fish, the top of the eye and the head behind the eye are bright emerald.^[1]

Both grey-tailed and yellow-tailed silver Asian arowanas are dark grey on the back and silver on the sides, with dark ring patches on the lateral scales and a silvery or whitish belly. In yellow-tailed specimens, the fin membranes are yellowish with dark grey rays. In grey-tailed specimens, the fins are uniform dark grey.^[1]

Red-tailed golden arowana. Although the scales are golden, the anal and caudal fins are reddish-brown.

Mature red-tailed golden arowanas have brilliant metallic gold lateral scales, gill covers, bellies, and pectoral and pelvic fin membranes, although the back is dark. In juveniles the areas destined to develop golden colour start out metallic silver. The anal fin and the bottom portion of the caudal fin are light brown to dark red.^[1]

Mature gold crossback arowanas are distinguished from the red-tailed golden arowanas by having metallic gold crossing the back completely. This variety also lacks the reddish fins of the red-tailed golden.^[12]

In mature super red arowanas, the gill covers, lateral scales, and fin membranes of these fishes are metallic red, with the exact hue varying from gold-tinged to deep red. The back is dark brown. In juveniles, the darker the dorsal colouration, the deeper the red will be on maturity.^[1]

Behavior

Asian arowanas are paternal mouthbrooders. They are slow to reach sexual maturity and difficult to breed in captivity, with successful spawnings typically taking place in large outdoor ponds rather than in aquaria.^[13]

Two breeders reported success using a garden pond measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) by 18 feet (5.5 m) by 3.5 feet (1.1 m) deep, with pH maintained between 6.5 and 7.0. The fish were over five years old. The successful harvest took place after the third spawning; in the first two spawnings, the male swallowed the eggs, possibly due to improper water quality.^[14]

Relationship with humans

Cultural beliefs

Asian arowanas are considered "lucky" by many people, particularly those from Asian cultures. This reputation derives from the species' resemblance to the Chinese dragon, considered an auspicious symbol.^[15] The large metallic scales and double barbels are features shared by the Chinese dragon, and the large pectoral fins are said to make the fish resemble "a dragon in full flight."^[11]

In addition, positive Feng Shui associations with water and the colours red and gold make these fishes popular for aquariums. One belief is that while water is a place where chi gathers, it is naturally a source of yin energy and must contain an "auspicious" fish such as an arowana in order to have balancing yang energy.^[12] Another is that a fish can preserve its owner from death by dying itself.^[16]

Conservation

The Asian arowanas are listed as endangered by the 2006 IUCN Red List, with the most recent evaluation taking place in 1996.^[17] International trade in these fishes is controlled under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), under which it was placed on Appendix I, the most restrictive category, in 1975.^[18] S. formosus is one of only eight fish species listed on Appendix I.^[19] There are a number of registered CITES breeders in Asia and the specimens they produce can be imported into several nations. Other nations restrict or prohibit possession of Asian arowanas; for example, the United States has listed this species under the Endangered Species Act, and therefore it cannot be possessed in that country without a permit.^[20]

Declining habitat is a major threat. For example, Asian arowanas are now uncommon in the Malay Peninsula, where they were once widely distributed, due to environmental destruction.^[21] Inclusion in the IUCN Red List was originally based not on biological reasons but on practical ones: though widely distributed throughout southeast Asia, they have been harvested heavily by aquarium collectors. However, habitat loss is likely a greater threat than aquarium collecting.^[22]

There is no recent evaluation of conservation status by IUCN.^[17] Additionally, considering the current confusion as to number of species as well as the wide distribution, conservation status needs to be reconsidered. All strains are probably endangered, but some more critically than others.^[1]

The Asian arowana's high value as aquarium fish has impacted its conservation. Its popularity has soared since the late 1970s, and hobbyists may pay thousands of U.S. dollars for one of these animals.^[23]^[24]

Beginning in 1989, CITES began allowing Asian arowanas to be traded, provided certain criteria were met, most notably that they were bred in captivity on a fish farm for at least two generations.^[25] The first of these farms was in Indonesia.^[24] Later, the Singapore government's Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (then called the Primary Production Department) and a local fish exporter collaborated in a captive breeding program. Asian arowanas legally certified by CITES for trade became available from this program in 1994.^[25]

Captive-bred arowanas that are legal for trade under CITES are documented in two ways. First, fish farms provide each buyer with a certificate of authenticity and a birth certificate. Second, each specimen receives an implanted microchip, called a Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT), which identifies individual animals.^[24]

Genetic fingerprinting has been used to assess the genetic diversity of a captive population at a Singapore fish farm in order to improve the management of this species.^[26] DNA markers that distinguish among different strains and between sexes have been identified, allowing aquaculturists to identify these characteristics in immature animals.^[27]

Care in captivity

Because they can grow up to 90 centimetres (35 inches) long, Asian arowanas require a large aquarium. They are territorial and may be kept with other Scleropages only in a very large aquarium, provided all fish are of similar size. Like other arowanas, they need a tight-fitting cover to prevent jumping.^[28] The water should be well-filtered, soft, and slightly acidic, and maintained at a temperature between 24-30° C (75-86° F).^[28]

Asian arowanas are carnivorous and should be fed a high-quality diet of meaty food, such as shrimp and crickets. They are surface feeders and prefer to take food in the upper parts of the water column. Aquarists recommend live foods and meaty prepared foods. Examples of appropriate live foods include mealworms, crickets, shrimps, feeder fish, small frogs, and earthworms. Prepared foods include prawns (shrimp), lean pork, frozen fish food, and pelleted food.^[29]

Endangered Iberian Lynx

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:08:32 +0100

Iberian Lynx

Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)^[1]

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Felidae
Genus:	Lynx
Species:	L. pardinus

Lynx pardinus
(Temminck, 1827)

The Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus), sometimes referred to as the Spanish lynx, is a critically endangered species native to the Iberian Peninsula in Southern Europe. It is the most endangered cat species in the world. ^[2] According to SOS Lynx, if this species died out, it would be the first feline extinction since the Smilodon 10,000 years ago.^[3] The species used to be misclassified as a subspecies of the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx), but is now considered a separate species. Both species occurred together in central Europe in the Pleistocene epoch, being separated by habitat choice.^[4] The Iberian lynx is believed to have evolved from Lynx issiodorensis.^[5]

Close up of the Iberian Lynx

While the Eurasian Lynx bears rather pallid markings, the Iberian lynx has distinctive, leopard-like spots with a coat that is often light grey or various shades of light brownish-yellow. Some western populations were spotless, although these have recently become extinct.

The head and body length is 85–110 cm, with the short tail an additional 12–30 cm; the shoulder height is 60–70 cm. The male is larger than the female, with the average weight of males 12.9 kg and a maximum of 26.8 kg, compared to 9.4 kg for females; this about half the size of the Eurasian lynx.^[4]^[6]^[7]

The Iberian Lynx has four sets of whiskers: two groups on the ears and two on the chin. It uses these to sense its prey.

Ecology

The Iberian lynx is smaller than its northern relatives, and so typically hunts smaller sized animals, usually no larger than hares. It also differs in habitat choice, with Iberian lynx inhabiting open scrub and Eurasian lynx inhabiting forests.^[4]

It hunts mammals (including rodents and insectivores), birds, reptiles and amphibians at twilight. The European Rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is its main prey (79.5-86.7%), with (5.9%) hares (Lepus granatensis) and (3.2%) rodents less common.^[4] A male requires one rabbit per day, and a female bringing up cubs will eat three rabbits per day.^[8]

As the population of rabbits in Spain has declined, the Iberian lynx is often forced to attack young deer, Fallow Deer, roebuck or mouflons. The Iberian lynx competes for prey with the Red Fox, the meloncillo (Herpestes ichneumon) and the wildcat.

It is solitary and hunts alone; it will stalk its prey or lie in wait for hours behind a bush or rock until the prey is sufficiently close to pounce in a few strides.

The tufts of hair on its ears helps it to detect sources of sound; without them, its hearing capacity is greatly reduced. The edges of its feet are covered in long thick hair, which facilitates silent movement through snow. A Lynx, especially with younger animals, will roam widely, with ranges reaching more than 100 km. Its territory (~ 10–20 km²) is also dependent on how much food is available.^[8]

The Iberian lynx marks its territory with its urine, droppings and scratch marks on the barks of trees.

Reproduction

During the mating season the female leaves her territory in search of a male. The typical gestation period is about two months; the cubs are born between March and September, with a peak of births in March and April. A litter consists of two or three (rarely one, or four to five) kittens weighing between 200–250 grams. The kittens become independent at 7–10 months old, but remain with the mother until around 20 months old. Survival of the young depends heavily on the availability of prey species. In the wild both males and females reach sexual maturity at one year old, though in practice they rarely breed until a territory becomes vacant; one female was known not to breed until five years old when its mother died. The maximum longevity in the wild is 13 years.^[4]^[7]

Violent Episodes

Siblings become violent towards one another between 30 and 60 days, peaking at 45 days. A cub will frequently kill its littermate in a brutal fight. It is unknown why these episodes of aggression occur, though many scientists believe it is related to a change in hormones when a cub switches from its mother's milk to meat. Others believe it is related to hierarchy, and "survival of the fittest." No matter the reason, conservationists must separate the kittens until the 60 day period is reached.

Habitat

This lynx was once distributed over the entire Iberian Peninsula. It is now restricted to very small areas, with breeding only confirmed in two areas of Andalucía, southern Spain. The Iberian lynx prefers heterogeneous environments of open grassland mixed with dense shrubs such as Arbutus, lentisk, and Juniper; and trees such as Holm oak and Cork oak. Mainly in mountainous areas covered with vegetation; maquis or "Mediterranean forest".

Population

The Iberian lynx is a critically endangered species.^[1] The Iberian lynx is the world's most threatened species of cat, and the most threatened carnivore in Europe.^[9]

Studies conducted in March 2005 have estimated the number of surviving Iberian lynx to be as few as 100, which is down from about 400 in 2000 ^[10] and down from 4,000 in 1960 ^[11] If the Iberian lynx were to become extinct, it would be the first big cat species to do so since the Smilodon went extinct 10,000 years ago.

The only breeding populations are in Spain, and were thought to be only living in the Doñana National Park and in the Sierra de Andújar, Jaén. However, in 2007, Spanish authorities have announced they have discovered a previously unknown population in Castilla - La Mancha (Central Spain). ^[12] It was later announced that there were around 15 individuals there. ^[13]

The Iberian lynx and its habitat are fully protected and are no longer legally hunted. Its critical status is mainly due to habitat loss, poisoning, road casualties, feral dogs and poaching. Its habitat loss is due mainly to infrastructure improvement, urban & resort development, tree monocultivation (pine, Douglas-fir, eucalyptus) which serves to break the lynx's distribution area. In addition, the lynx prey population of rabbits is also declining due to diseases like myxomatosis and hemorrhagic pneumonia.^[14]

Recovery

On March 29, 2005, Saliega, the first Iberian Lynx to breed in captivity, gave birth to three healthy cubs at the El Acebuche Breeding Center, in Doñana (Huelva) Spain.^[15]

In the Sierra Morena area just north of Andújar, Andalucía, there were 150 Iberian Lynx individuals overall in 2008, up from 60 in 2002. As a result of this increase, the lynx area in Andújar-Cardeña has probably reached its carrying capacity, and thus could provide animals for future reintroductions elsewhere. In addition to these on-site conservation achievements in the Sierra Morena, the off-site conservation captive breeding program has also progressed well, totaling 52 individuals, 24 of which were bred in captivity. The off-site conservation population will provide 20 to 40 individuals per year for reintroductions, beginning in 2010. Finally, in Doñana National Park, the lynx population seems to have remained steady in recent years, with around 50 individuals reported in total each year between 2002 and 2008. On March 20, 2009, it was announced that three more cubs were born as part of the breeding program at Doñana National Park, in Seville.^[16] The Iberian Lynx is planned to be reintroduced into Guadalmellato beginning in 2009, and into Guarrizas sometime in 2010 - 11. ^[2]

Endangered Arakan Forest Turtle

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:59:09 +0100

Arakan forest turtle

Critically Endangered (IUCN 2.3)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Bataguridae
Subfamily:	Geoemydinae
Genus:	Heosemys
Species:	H. depressa

Heosemys depressa
(Anderson, 1875)^[1]

The Arakan Forest Turtle (Heosemys depressa) is an extremely rare turtle species which lives only in the Arakan hills of western Myanmar.^[1]

The Arakan Forest Turtle was believed extinct (last seen in 1908), but in 1994 was rediscovered when a few specimens turned up in Asian food markets. Like most Asian turtles, it is collected yearly as a food source or for "medical cures." Only a handful of these conservation reliant turtles are in captivity, and their status in the wild, which is dubious at best, is listed as critical.

"The animals seem to be extremely difficult to establish in captivity," said Peter Paul van Dijk, director of the tortoise and freshwater turtle program for Conservation International. There are only 14 Arakan Forest Turtles in Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited institutions in the United States -- at Zoo Atlanta, the St. Louis Zoo, the Miami Metro Zoo, River Banks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, South Carolina, and Knoxville Zoo.

In May 2007, Zoo Atlanta, the only Arakan Forest turtle breeding facility in the world, announced the successful hatching of their fourth hatchling to have been born there in the last six years. They also announced that there is another egg near hatching, and two additional hatchlings did not survive. Arakan Forest turtles only mate once a year, and the eggs take 100 days to hatch.

In 2009, scientists discovered wild Arakan Forest Turtles for the first time in history in an elephant sanctuary in Myanmar.^[2]

Endangered Javan Rhinoceros

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:59:38 +0100

Javan Rhinoceros^[1]

A European hunter with a dead Javan Rhino in 1895

Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)^[2]

Domain:	Eukarya
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Perissodactyla
Family:	Rhinocerotidae
Genus:	Rhinoceros
Species:	R. sondaicus