Category: Cites

World Lion Day (and s'mores)

8/10/2016

Today is World Lion Day (RAWR) so to celebrate I am going to share with you a paper recently published by a close colleague of mine, Dr. Laura Bertola, and company. Laura completed her PhD at Universiteit Leiden (that’s in the Netherlands) last year on genetic diversity of the lion focusing on phylogenetic patterns and how populations in West and Central Africa fall in comparison to the rest of the population.

In their recent publication, they “challenge current lion taxonomy” emphasizing the need for rethinking the way we view the species on the population level. To challenge taxonomy means they question how the species is classified or labeled. For the lion, currently there are two officially recognized subspecies (internationally or nationally).

Panthera leo leo and Panthera leo persica (CITES/IUCN: International)
or
Panthera leo melanochaita and Panthera leo leo (USFWS/ESA: National)
*For the purposes of their study, we’ll be focusing on the international CITES classification.

Laura and her colleagues argue there should be more.

Based on their phylogeny (the pretty tree looking thing on the right), there is a definite North Group and South Group (similar to the findings in my study). Within each of these groups, they were able to identify regions which could narrows lions down further into 6 populations. So, very basically, they’re saying from these findings they can put a lion into 1 of 6 groups based on these genetic markers.

The innovative part of this analysis was the addition of a comparison to other species who are recognized to have subspecies and show similar Sub-Saharan population distribution. The study identified 46 animals that show a distinction between West/Central African and East/Southern Africa populations. While some animals are recognized as being more than one species – known as a complex – such as Baboon (5), Rock hyrax (5) and Oryx (3), others are species separated into subspecies, such as Giraffe (9; below), Black (4) and White (2) Rhino, and Caracal (8). Only 13 of the 46 animals aren’t separated between West/Central and East/Southern, including the lion, according to CITES.

The ESA classification is a little closer to demonstrating the Sub-Saharan distribution taxonomically by clumping the West/Central population with the Asiatic population. However, based on these results, lions may be able to be classified even more specifically. Hopefully my research will be able to shed a little more light on this. The help Laura is giving me to continue this investigation is immeasurable.

In case you forgot, today is also National S'more Day and I just bought this....

from San Diego based online marshmallow shop Mallow Mallow.

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Oh the Controversy

10/28/2013

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National Geographic released an article today about the Dallas Safari Club’s most recent fundraising endeavor and it is pissing a lot of people off. The controversy arises from what they are offering their patrons to raise funds – the opportunity to hunt an endangered black rhino. Now, I don’t regularly advocate the hunting of endangered species whose very close relative recently went extinct in the wild, but, Dallas Safari Club’s fundraising strategy is not as ill thought out as all the Facebook comments seem to imply it is. What these angry people are completely disregarding are two things:

The auction prize allows them to hunt specific rhino which are no longer contributing members to the population which, in turn, allows the rhino population to grow by removing counterproductive individuals from a herd. This hunt has also been approved by CITES, US Fish and Wildlife and International Union for Conservation of Nature.

100 percent of the auction proceeds will support the Conservation Trust Fund for Namibia's Black Rhino. The Dallas Safari Club predicts this item to bring in a minimum of $250,000. Last year’s event to help the lions (which, yes, included a lion hunt auction item) raised millions.

The issue is most people, primarily brought on by the tree-hugger variety of environmentalist, think of hunting as poaching. But, while, yes, all poachers (by definition) are hunters, all hunters are NOT poachers. In fact, responsible hunters are proving themselves to be more of a solution to the problem rather than being the problem itself. Hunters are actually more interested in true conservation because if they overhunt they will no longer be able to hunt, so they actually have a higher personal investment in the success of a species than animal lover onlookers who have never seen an animal in the wild.

Think of it this way, hunting organizations, such as the Dallas Safari Club, contribute $300 million annually to conservation. In addition to that, $4.2 billion has been contributed to conservation since 1937 through a 10% federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and gear. As I have said time and time again, the world is run by those who have the money. And who has money? Rich, hunting enthusiasts. Who doesn’t? Me (a budding conservationist). So, bid away, hunters. The more you bid on this item the better. And to whoever wins, I hope it’s the experience of a lifetime.

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Taking a Bite Outta Crime

3/20/2013

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Photo from CITES

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) held their Conference of the Parties for the 16th time at the beginning of this month in Bangkok. As an international agreement between governments, CITES ensures that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. So, in simple terms, CITES is where global wildlife decisions are made. The Conference of Parties only meets every two to three years. Attended by both representatives from member states and observers this is the organization’s opportunity to discuss current problems and successes. This year’s meeting, however, was extra special because it was also the first global meeting of wildlife enforcement networks, covering topics of regional enforcement capacity and cooperative response to threats posed by wildlife criminal networks. Wildlife crime is transnational organized crime (TOC), just like human-trafficking, the drug cartel, or the mafia. And, fighting this type of crime proves to be quite difficult, as it is with all TOCs, not only because of the level of organization within the network itself, but due to poor country to country enforcement communication and differences in laws and regulations guarding wildlife. For example, the legal hunting season for wolves in Canada is April –September while, the much shorter hunting season in the United States, may not begin until October. And, due to close hunting seasons and close proximity, an illegally hunted animal could be transported to another continent “legally” if regulations in one country or the other are not strictly followed.

The purpose of the meeting was to start the process of building more effective and comprehensive national, sub-regional and regional programs to manage wildlife crime by improving global communication and creating a network of wildlife enforcement groups. This will not only aide in the cooperation of neighboring programs which may need to work together to combat a particular issue but will also allow groups to share successful strategies and practices which they can then apply to their efforts. By creating a global network they will also be able to improve efforts to tackle the transnational aspects of wildlife crime.

The Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat, John E. Scanlon, on behalf of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) that hosted the event, said: “The first global meeting of wildlife enforcement networks is an important step in our collective response to combating serious wildlife and forest crime. Illegal wildlife and forest product trade is escalating, transnational and increasingly well-organized. Coordinated responses that connect and align efforts across borders and organizations provide the best opportunities to combat this serious crime, and protect the species and people at risk because of it.”

Photo from The Verge

Conservation genetics is making an appearance in the fight against wildlife crime as well. Using forensic techniques, biological samples can not only identify a species, but also what region it may have come from. This month, CITES passed a measure which requires all 178 member countries to submit seized ivory for DNA testing. This is all part of a renewed effort to crack down on the criminal networks behind elephant poaching, which has doubled since 2007 and more than tripled over the past 15 years. Using specific genetic patterns which correlate to regions where African elephants exist, the technique, developed by Dr. Sam Wasser at UDUB (WOOF!), can pinpoint the seized ivory to within 165 miles of its place of origin, enabling them to locate the source of illicit trade. Although the technique isn’t perfect, requiring large samples of at least 500 kilograms ivory, all involved are optimistic about these beginning efforts to bring poaching to an end.

Where did I get all this information? Check it out:

And on a side not, if Hilary were to try running for President again, this would be a good reason to support her:
"Secretary Clinton’s ‘Call for Action’ on illegal wildlife trade"

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World Lion Day (and s'mores)

Oh the Controversy

Taking a Bite Outta Crime

Caitlin Curry

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