By AFP
November 29, 2024
Elephants bathe in a pond at the Elephant Conservation Center in Laos' Sainyabuli province - Copyright AFP TANG CHHIN Sothy
Stuart GRAHAM
Slow and silent, former logging elephant Mae Khoun Nung emerges from a forest in northern Laos and follows her guide to an animal hospital for a check-up.
Once abundant in the forests of Laos, Asian elephants like her have been decimated by habitat destruction, gruelling labour in the logging industry, poaching and scarce breeding opportunities.
But conservationists are hoping DNA analysis of elephants’ dung will help them track both captive and wild tuskers, so they can secure a healthy genetic pool and craft an effective breeding plan to protect the species.
Laos — once proudly known as “Lane Xang” or “Land of a Million Elephants” — has between 500 and 1,000 of the animals left, just one-third of the population two decades ago, according to conservation group WWF-Laos.
Around 10 elephants die each year for every one to two born, a rate that puts the animals at risk of dying out completely in the Southeast Asian nation.
“The ultimate goal would be to secure a healthy population of captive elephants to act as a genetic reservoir if the wild population collapses,” wildlife biologist Anabel Lopez Perez told AFP at her laboratory at the Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sainyabuli province.
Once researchers learn how many individual elephants are in the country — by testing DNA-containing cells in dung — Perez said a breeding plan will help them manage genetic diversity, prevent inbreeding and produce healthier calves that could be introduced into the wild to bolster the declining population.
– Elephant hospital –
At the hospital of the ECC, which shelters 28 elephants at its 500-hectare (1,200-acre) sanctuary, Mae Khoun Nung backs into a tall metal scaffolding structure, designed specially for check-ups on the animals.
Sounthone Phitsamone, who manages the centre’s elephant keepers and acts as an assistant vet, taps the animal’s leg and she calmly raises her foot for him to check.
Using a knife, he slices out the cracks and gaps in her hard, mud-baked nail.
Mae Khoun Nung spent her adult life in logging operations until she was given to the ECC by her owner in 2014 after work dried up and it became increasingly difficult to support her.
Elephants like her once roamed across much of Asia, but are now restricted to less than a fifth of their original range, according to WWF.
Their numbers in the wild have fallen by about half since the early 1900s, with only 40,000 to 50,000 left, the organisation says.
In the Nam Poui National Protected Area, researchers are now traversing the rugged hills and forests, collecting DNA from faecal samples of the area’s 50 to 60 remaining wild elephants.
WWF-Laos, which is collaborating with the ECC and the Smithsonian Institution on the project, said the DNA analysis from dung would allow researchers to identify individual elephants, determine their sex, track their movements and understand familial relationships within herds.
“Although Nam Poui NPA represents a significant habitat for one of the few large wild elephant populations remaining in Laos, we lack precise data about its composition,” WWF-Laos said in a statement to AFP.
— Decreasing numbers —
In 2018, a government ban on illegal logging — an industry that used elephants to haul timber out of forests — resulted in the animals being sent to work in the tourism sector, while others were sold off to zoos, circuses and breeders.
The ECC tries to buy and shelter captive elephants when they are put up for sale, but since 2010, just six pregnancies with three calves have resulted.
Many of the elephants at the centre are of an advanced age and in poor shape from years of arduous labour, Phitsamone told AFP.
Mae Khoun Nung is 45 herself. On the bank of a reservoir, a short walk from the elephant hospital, she stops near the water’s edge.
A small herd is diving under the surface and using their trunks to spray their backs, but she grew up isolated from other elephants and has had difficulty socialising.
Bathing is something she prefers to do alone.
Instead, she turns to a pile of banana plants left out for the herd and crunches on a snack.
Phitsamone has worked at the elephant centre for more than a decade and has no illusions about how difficult it will be to save his country’s gentle giants.
“If we compare Laos with other countries, the number of elephants in the database is small and is decreasing,” he said.
“I don’t know if it will be OK in 20 or 30 years — who knows.”
Philippine Eagle hatchling dies in conservation setback
By AFP
November 30, 2024
Habitat loss and ruthless hunting have caused a rapid decline in the number of Philippine Eagles - Copyright PHILIPPINE EAGLE FOUNDATION (PEF)/AFP/File Handout
A Philippine Eagle chick hatched via artificial insemination has died, an avian conservation foundation has announced, in a fresh setback for one of the world’s largest and most critically endangered raptors.
Habitat loss and ruthless hunting have caused a rapid decline in the number of Philippine Eagles, the national bird of the archipelago country.
The hatching of “Chick Number 30” last month briefly stirred hope that science and conservation could save the forest-dwelling raptor species, but expectations were soon cruelly dashed.
“This heartbreaking loss is a solemn reminder of how delicate chick-rearing can be and how critically endangered species are particularly vulnerable,” the Philippine Eagle Foundation said in an undated statement on its website.
A product of artificiraptorsal insemination, the 17-day-old male chick, which died on Friday, had been the first successful hatchling in the new facility.
Complications from a condition known as “yolk sac retention” were the possible cause of death, the statement said.
The condition, common in poultry farms, indicates the entry of bacteria through incubating eggshells, or chick exposure to bacteria after hatching.
Philippine Eagles, known for their sumptuous head plumage and a 2-metre (seven-foot) wingspan, are difficult to mate, with some even killing unwanted suitors.
There are only 392 pairs of the eagles remaining in the wild, with just 30 born in captivity, the foundation estimates.
The organisation’s ultimate goal is to release the eagles back into the wild, but it has not once succeeded in its 37 years of operation.
Many Philippine Eagles have died after being shot or electrocuted while perched on power lines.
Each pair needs at least 4,000 hectares (about 10,000 acres) of forest, a rapidly-disappearing ecosystem in the Philippines, to hunt flying lemurs, palm civets, flying squirrels and monkeys.
While underweight, the latest chick had initially displayed normal behaviour and feeding patterns until November 26, when it began to exhibit laboured breathing and sneezing, the foundation said.
“Of all the chicks that they’ve successfully hatched and raised, this is the first time that the (foundation) breeding team had a case of yolk sac retention, which is usually linked to infection or other causes,” Bayani Vandenbroeck, who conducted the necropsy, was quoted as saying.
“Strict hygiene and management protocols were followed, so we did not expect this at all, but we will probe where else we can improve,” he added.
By AFP
November 30, 2024
Habitat loss and ruthless hunting have caused a rapid decline in the number of Philippine Eagles - Copyright PHILIPPINE EAGLE FOUNDATION (PEF)/AFP/File Handout
A Philippine Eagle chick hatched via artificial insemination has died, an avian conservation foundation has announced, in a fresh setback for one of the world’s largest and most critically endangered raptors.
Habitat loss and ruthless hunting have caused a rapid decline in the number of Philippine Eagles, the national bird of the archipelago country.
The hatching of “Chick Number 30” last month briefly stirred hope that science and conservation could save the forest-dwelling raptor species, but expectations were soon cruelly dashed.
“This heartbreaking loss is a solemn reminder of how delicate chick-rearing can be and how critically endangered species are particularly vulnerable,” the Philippine Eagle Foundation said in an undated statement on its website.
A product of artificiraptorsal insemination, the 17-day-old male chick, which died on Friday, had been the first successful hatchling in the new facility.
Complications from a condition known as “yolk sac retention” were the possible cause of death, the statement said.
The condition, common in poultry farms, indicates the entry of bacteria through incubating eggshells, or chick exposure to bacteria after hatching.
Philippine Eagles, known for their sumptuous head plumage and a 2-metre (seven-foot) wingspan, are difficult to mate, with some even killing unwanted suitors.
There are only 392 pairs of the eagles remaining in the wild, with just 30 born in captivity, the foundation estimates.
The organisation’s ultimate goal is to release the eagles back into the wild, but it has not once succeeded in its 37 years of operation.
Many Philippine Eagles have died after being shot or electrocuted while perched on power lines.
Each pair needs at least 4,000 hectares (about 10,000 acres) of forest, a rapidly-disappearing ecosystem in the Philippines, to hunt flying lemurs, palm civets, flying squirrels and monkeys.
While underweight, the latest chick had initially displayed normal behaviour and feeding patterns until November 26, when it began to exhibit laboured breathing and sneezing, the foundation said.
“Of all the chicks that they’ve successfully hatched and raised, this is the first time that the (foundation) breeding team had a case of yolk sac retention, which is usually linked to infection or other causes,” Bayani Vandenbroeck, who conducted the necropsy, was quoted as saying.
“Strict hygiene and management protocols were followed, so we did not expect this at all, but we will probe where else we can improve,” he added.
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