Wildlife
Adorable but Endangered: Lemurs Face Possible Extinction
If there were a contest for cutest animal on the planet, the lemur would be a strong contender. But cuteness alone can't save the creatures from the political forces threatening their existence, especially not the illegal loggers destroying the lemurs' precious rainforest habitat.
Lemurs are small primates that are endemic to Madagascar and are not found living in nature outside the island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa.
There are nearly 100 different species of lemurs, including the black and white lemur, the ring-tail lemur, the tiny mouse lemur and even the mischievous dancing lemur.
"Nightline's" Dan Harris visited a lemur park about 15 miles outside Antananarivo, the capital city, where he got to know these impish little animals and saw, firsthand, the emerging threats to their survival.
A recent military coup in the impoverished, unstable country left a power vacuum that has allowed heavily armed illegal loggers, known as the "timber mafia," to pillage the lemur's natural habitat.
One of the forests is the Marojejy National Park, a towering, dauntingly beautiful landscape reminiscent of a set from "Jurassic Park." A few weeks ago, the forest in northeastern Madagascar had largely been taken over by looters and had to be shut down.
Why Orangutans Will Go Extinct if We Don't Act Now
One of the world's largest paper companies plans to clear a large
portion of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary
for critically endangered orangutans, according to environmental groups
working in the area. Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper and a local
joint venture partner, Sinar Mas Group, received a license to clear
hundreds of hectares (acres) of trees just outside the Bukit Tigapuluh
National Park on Sumatra island in May.
Last week Matthew at TreeHugger.com reported that $30 million in debt will be forgiven in exchange for increased forest protection in Sumatra. This is the largest debt relief for conservation agreement ever reached. What this means is that Indonesia will put $30 million over the next eight years into a trust fund, which will issue grants for forest conservation and restoration work on the island. That work is sorely needed, considering that in the past 20 years or so about 90 percent of the original forest cover has been removed due to logging or conversion to agriculture. That's simply unconscionable.
Jaguars Habitat Fragmented and Shrinking
Path of the Jaguar
If forward-looking conservationists prevail, this wanderer will live on.
By Mel White
Photograph by Pete Oxford, Minden Pictures
(Update: Big cats can protect humans from the rise of future pandemics. See more in National Geographic News.)
At dusk one evening, deep in a Costa Rican forest, a young male jaguar rises from his sleep, stretches, and silently but determinedly leaves forever the place where he was born.
There's shelter here, and plenty of brocket deer, peccaries, and agoutis for food. He has sensed, too, the presence of females with which he might mate. But there's also a mature male jaguar that claims the forest-and the females. The older cat will tolerate no rivals. The breeze-blown scent of the young male's mother, so comforting to him when he was a cub, no longer binds him to his home. So he goes.
But the wanderer has chosen the wrong direction. In just a few miles he reaches the edge of the forest; beyond lies a coffee plantation. Pushed by instinct and necessity, he keeps moving, staying in the trees along fences and streams. Soon, though, shelter consists only of scattered patches of shrubs and a few trees, where he can find nothing to eat. He's now in a land of cattle ranches, and one night his hunger and the smell of a newborn calf overcome his reluctance to cross open areas. Creeping close before a final rush, he instantly kills the calf with one snap of his powerful jaws.
Orangutan on the Brink
BANGKOK, Thailand - Orangutan numbers have declined sharply on the only two islands where they still live in the wild and they could become the first great ape species to go extinct if urgent action isn't taken, a new study says.
The declines in Indonesia and Malaysia since 2004 are mostly because of illegal logging and the expansion of palm oil plantations, Serge Wich, a scientist at the Great Ape Trust in Iowa, said on Saturday.
The survey found the orangutan population on Indonesia's Sumatra island dropped almost 14 percent since 2004, Wich said. It also concluded that the populations on Borneo island, which is shared by Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, have fallen by 10 percent. Researchers only surveyed areas of Borneo that are in Indonesia and Malaysia.
In their study, Wich and his 15 colleagues said the declines in Borneo were occurring at an "alarming rate" but that they were most concerned about Sumatra, where the numbers show the population is in "rapid decline."
"Unless extraordinary efforts are made soon, it could become the first great ape species to go extinct," researchers wrote.
Reclaiming Belize
Belize: Dark Cloud
Mention Belize and most people conjure green thoughts – images of thick rainforest canopies, lush and filled with unexpected living treasures. And well they should. The Belize Rainforest provides habitat for 877 known species of animals including jaguars, ocelots, armadillos, tapirs, howler monkeys, kinkajous, manatees and crocodiles. Toucans, scarlet macaws, and huge jabiru storks, as well as 500 other species of birds soar through the vine-trailed jungle, and over 4,000 species of flowers, including 250 kinds of orchids, bejewel the trees and forest floor.
Tropical Rainforests comprise only 7% of the planet
yet harbor over 50% of the world’s species.
Until recently, 80% of the Belize Rainforest and her creatures thrived under government protection. Sadly, that no longer holds true. Foreign logging companies from China, Japan and Indonesia have begun clear-cutting thousands of acres of rainforest, reaping enormous profits by exporting rainforest timber to the international market. American and European land speculators have burned, bulldozed and destroyed many more thousands of acres of rainforest to create citrus, cocoa and banana plantations or doomed cattle ranches.
