Endangered species conservation - how scientists bring back species from the edge of extinction

Hi everyone,

We always talk about endangered species and how we really need to help them. But we never really say how we can help them. I mean of course, stop climate change, remove the plastic pollution from the ocean, ban hunting, but those are massive tasks and not easy or quick to do. So how do scientists stop species from going extinct? With nearly 40 000 species threatened, there is no one solution for all species.

Habitat conservation and official protection

One of the most basic and yet often really effective form of conserving and restoring populations is to protect and conserve their habitats. This often includes legal bodies forbidding deforestation or mining. Many habitats have been made into national parks or other protected areas and in some places, visitors are strictly prohibated. In other places, voluteers are working day and night to clear plastic on beachs and in rivers. Bans on hunting and poaching have been effective in many speices such as sea otters, whose incredible fur lead to excessive hunting until an international ban on hunting, which pushed sea otter populations back up. Another common example of legal protections is whales. They were hunted close to extinction until protected by the International Whaling Commission. Although there are still countries that refuse to ban whaling, whale populations have been slowly making their comeback.

Captive breeding and artificial insemination

Now we start to move into methods that have a lot of critism. Don't get me wrong, banning hunting and whaling met a lot of opposition, but probably not as widespread as our next method. Lots of people don't like zoos, I get that, I don't particulary like looking at big cats pacing inside small inclosures or polar bears desperately trying to find shade in an ice free enclosure in the middle of hot summer. But lots of zoos do important conservation work. Sometimes, it isn't possible to protect an animal in its natural habitat. Lots of governments don't want to or can't ban hunting and it often continues illegally anyway. Many zoos have breeding programms to help with exactly those problems. They breed animals in the zoo and wait until the young have matured before sending them back to their natural habitat to boost the local population. This isn't without problems, animals can find transportation from zoos to wilderniss very stressful especially if it means long distance travel. There are also problems with the animals not being able to survive in the wild because of not being used to predators or different food to what they had in the zoo. Not to mention the fact that this still doesn't make their time in the zoo any better. Some animals like pandas don't always mate even when given the chance. Here zoos often resort to artificial insemination. Again this is met with the critism that these procedures aren't comfortable for the animals and are sometimes unnecessary.

Relocating species to a new habitat

The last point I want to talk about today, is possibly the most controversial. The idea of relocating species to a different habitat is constantly argued about among scientific circles. Many biologists and ecologists say that it's a bad idea, others say that it's necessary to stop these species from dying out. The main idea is that if a habitat becomes uninhabitable, for example it dries out due to climate change, researchers look for another area that the homeless animals might thrive in. Another name for this is assisted migration. This is currently being trialed in western swamp turtoises in Australia. Their habitat is drying out because of reduced rainfall. So a team has attempted to rehome them. Critics warn of these relocated species becoming invasive species and uprooting the new ecosystem. Species can also often have a hard time adapting to new environments due to different climates, landscapes, food options and predators, similar to how animals bred in capativity struggle when reintroduced to their actual habitat.

There are obviously more options that scientists are looking into, but these are a couple of them. We hope you enjoyed this post. Let us know what you think about these methods in the comments!

Your Green World Blog Team💚

Sources:
https://earth.org/how-many-endangered-species-are-there/
https://www.buildastash.com/post/types-of-wildlife-conservation
https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/biodiversity-conservation-types-importance-methods.php
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/endangered-animal-species-mating-spd
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/ten-animals-we-have-saved-from-extinction.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02732-0

Images:
Title image owned by a blog editor with copyright free images included.
Whale, owned by Blair Haggerty (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Close-Up Shot of a Panda Bear on a Tree Branch is owned by .M.Q Huang on pexels.com.

Comments

16.08.2020 Animal of the week: Elephant

Hello. On the 12th of August it was International Elephant Day, so we decided that this week's post should be about elephants. Elephants are the largest living land mammals. There are three types of elephant; the African bush elephant; the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. African elephants have larger ears, whereas Asian elephants have smaller ears. Elephants use their trunks to breath, bring food and drink to their mouths and to grasp objects. Elephants' legs are like pillars. They carry the Elephant's massive weight. African bush elephants weigh 6000kg, Asian elephants weigh 4000kg and African forest elephants weigh 2700kg. Basically, they are very heavy.Elephants eat grasses, small plants, bushes, fruit, twigs, tree bark, and roots. Elephants can live up to 70 years old in the wild. They communicate by sight, touch and smell. Sadly, these wonderful mammals are in danger. African elephants are listed as vulne...

Ozone layer

Hi everyone, What even is ozone? And the ozone layer? Where does the hole in the ozone layer come from and what does it mean? Is it dangerous? What can be done? Often the ozone-talk can be complicated and confusing, keeping an overview is hard and understanding all the problems always difficult. Let us break it down a bit for you: What is the ozone layer? We'll start with the basics: The ozone layer is part of the stratosphere, which is the second layer of the Earth's atmosphere, between 10 and 50 km above the Earth's surface and made up of protective gases. One of these protective gases is ozone. There is not much ozone in the atmosphere, only 0.3 molecule of ozone per 1 million molecules of air. This is because ozone is chemically unstable and only forms when ultra violet radiation (UV light) hits oxygen and breaks the bonds between the atoms. It fact it is so unstable that even when it has formed, it breaks down again relatively quickly. This leads to ozone turning back ...

10 animals on the edge of extinction you didn't know about no. 9 - South Island takahē

Hello Today we’re talking about the South Island takahē, porphyrio hochstetteri . They are flightless birds, endemic to New Zealand. Takahē are brightly coloured and weigh 2.3-3.8 kg. They have red legs and a large red beak. Their feathers are coloured blue and green. They have wings, but these are only used during courtship or rivalry displays. They are territorial, with one family’s territory reaching anywhere from 4 ha to 100 ha (0,04-1km^2). Pairs will live in the same territory each year. They breed once a year and will raise 1-3 chicks (normally 2) each year. Both parents raise the chicks together. In the wild, takahē live in native grasslands and have a lifespan of 16-18 years. If snow covers the ground then they will move into nearby forests. They eat tussock grasses, sedges and sometimes rushes. But they are opportunists, so they will occasionally go for insects or even ducklings and...

The Responsible Traveller by Karen Edwards || a practical guide to reducing your environmental and social impact // BOOK REVIEW

HI Everyone! Our January monthly post was a zero-waste challenge, but as we explained in our 2023 wrap up , this year we will be alternating a monthly challenge with a book review, of course related to the environment. This week, I'm going to share a recommendation for a fantastic book, all about how you can travel more sustainably and responsibly. I absolutely love travelling, but I'm also very aware of the impact it has on the world, and I am very keen to learn more about how I can further reduce my impact. That's why I bought this book around a year ago, and I've really enjoyed reading it and learning from it. This is a practical, small-format guide, sharing both basic information about the climate crisis and the impact of various travel activities, and how you can do your bit. It shares specific journeys that are more environmentally friendly options, for example long distance train journeys such as The Alaskan Railroad with its stunning alpine forests and wide ar...

How much do you know about marine animals? | quiz

Hi Everyone! Welcome to another monthly quiz! Today we are so excited to share some quiz questions on marine animals. Let us know how you did in the comments! Questions 1) Which of these came first: sharks, dinosaurs or jellyfish? 2) How many electric bulbs could an electric eel light up? 3) True of False: dolphins sleep with only half their brain. 4) True or False: an octopus has purple blood. 5) What is the loudest sound made by a marine animal (and indeed any animal on the planet!)? 6) True or False: oysters are all female. 7) In which animal species do the males and not the females give birth and care for their young? 8) True or False: a shrimp's heart is in its head. 9) True or False: sea sponges have no head, brain, mouth, eyes, feelers, bones, heart, or lungs. 10) How many continents do turtles live in? Answers: 1) Jellyfish! They've been around for more than 650 million years. 2) 10 3) True! They also...

Pollination

Hello everyone, Today we're talking about pollination and its importance in the world's ecosystems. First a bit of basic plant biology. To reproduce most plants do have a differentiation into male and female, but not in the same way that we see in mammals. Both male and female reproductive organs can be found on the same plant, although not in the same place. Male gametes are produced in the stamens and are then found in pollen. On the other hand, female reproductive organs are called pistils and egg cells are found in the ovule (normally in the flower heads). Pollination describes the process of transporting the pollen to the egg cells, making it an essential part of the reproduction of plants. Nearly all seed plants worldwide require pollination to reproduce. Cone bearing trees also need pollination. Pollination is almost always assisted by other organisms such as insects, birds and mammals to transport the pollen. In some species wind ...

Biodiversity

Hello, Today we're talking about biodiversity and why it's so important. As you probably know biodiversity describes the variety of living species, often referring to one specific place or ecosystem. For example, the Amazon rainforest is a very biodiverse ecosystem. The opposite of biodiverse is a monoculture. A monoculture often refers to farmland, where only one crop is produced. Palm oil plantations are normally monocultures, with rows and rows of palm trees and nothing else. I'm going to start by giving you an idea of the current situation. This year, the State of Nature 2023 report was published. This report looks at recent changes in biodiversity in the UK. To be frank, it's bad news. One in six (17%) of all UK species and almost half (43%) of bird species are at risk of extinction. 31% of amphibians and reptiles and 28% of fungi are also at risk. There has been a 54% decline in flowering plant species and a 34% decline in ...

Carbon credits

Hi everyone, Welcome back to Green World! Today we're talking about an industry that has expanded massively in the past few years. Carbon credits are one of the measures that companies are taking to reduce CO2 emissions . But how does it actually work? The companies that sell carbon credits fund projects to protect an area of forest or rainforest from deforestation . They then calculate how much carbon dioxide emissions they have saves by protecting this area. This means they can now sell 'negative carbon emissions' to companies. In this way, the companies are funding the protection of said area and are causing negative emissions while doing so meaning that the company can still emit greenhouse gases but can claim to be net zero. One carbon credit is basically the permission to emit one ton of CO2. This is good for the company as well as they are able to advertise as sustainable at a relatively low cost to actually reducing the...

Ecotourism: what it is, the advantages and the disadvantages

Hi Everyone! Today we wanted to talk about the idea of ecotourism, including the advantages and disadvantages of this concept. If you are looking to reduce your environmental and social impact when travelling, then this is the post for you! Ecotourism is a form of tourism which limits the damage to the environment and local community. It can involve helping in community projects such as planting trees, as well as taking part in local customs and festivals. It helps to keep the local culture alive, while preserving the natural environment. The advantages are abundant. By helping in a project conserving the environment, tourists gain a new understanding and appreciation for the natural world and may be inspired to make changes in their "real" life to live more sustainably. It provides a valuable insight to a country and community, perhaps also inspiring more respect for different people and the lives they lead. The projects also provide sustainable income sources for locals, h...

Zero-waste Challenge

Hi everyone, Welcome back to Green World for our first post of 2024! As explained in our wrap up post, this year the monthly series will switch between challenges and book reviews. We're starting with a challenge and this month we're challenging you to cut down on your waste! 1. No single use plastic bags challenge Plastic bags are a disaster for the environment and they're not always even usable for us. Some of the really thin plastic bags will just rip as soon as you put something in them which is a nightmare if you're out shopping and need to transport your groceries home. When these plastic bags are then thrown away, they cause significant damage to our planet. Plastic bags often clog waterways and sewers which is a massive problem. Waterways, such as streams, and their ecosystems depend on moving water and if they get too blocked, the migration of different species is hindered. If a dam starts to form with all of the sticks, rocks and more plastic that is being tr...

Green World

Search This Blog