All About Human Supremacy

by Blake Deppe / People’s World

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Africa’s western black rhino is now officially extinct. After being a victim of increasingly devastating poaching and seeing little to no conservation efforts, the species is now gone, and others – including the northern white rhino and Asia’s Javan rhino – are expected to swiftly follow unless efforts to stop the senseless killing of them prevail.

The black rhino had not been seen in West Africa since 2006, and had been on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species since then.

“The situation could have had very different results if the suggested conservation measures had been implemented,” said Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN species survival commission. “These measures must be strengthened now, specifically managing habitats in order to improve performance, preventing other rhinos from fading into extinction.”

Jane Smart, director of the IUCN’s global species program, added, “We have the knowledge that conservation works if executed in a timely manner; yet, without strong political will in combination with targeted efforts and resources, the wonders of nature and the services it provides can be lost forever.”

In addition to lack of protection, poaching plays a major factor in the dwindling rhinoceros population. The World Wildlife Fund said that what is believed to be the last remaining Javan rhino in Vietnam was killed by poachers in 2010; it had been found dead with a bullet in its leg and its horn removed. Though other Javan rhinos probably live elsewhere, that species is expected to face extinction next, if the situation does not change.

There are only an estimated 29,000 rhinos remaining worldwide. The animals are coveted in certain countries due to the false belief that their horns can cure or fend off cancer. Poachers have capitalized on this superstition and dehorned thousands of the animals in multiple countries – even in national parks.

There are reports, however, of a recent crackdown on poaching in Vietnam, including the sales and trading of the ill-begotten horns, of which both Vietnam and China are large consumers. Two rhino horns were recently seized by customs officials; the substance had most likely come from South Africa, and was worth an estimated $365,000. Vietnam has now announced it will cooperate with South Africa in order to strengthen the crackdown. Initial steps will include setting up a gene bank and DNA analysis training to better track horns that are taken by poachers.

The two governments will also focus on stopping poachers who obtain hunting permits under false pretenses by masquerading as trophy hunters.

South African government spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa remarked, “As part of the cooperation between the two countries, Vietnam is going to provide us with a list of accredited trophy hunters. We will be able to verify their legitimacy.”

But experts say that even the most admirable efforts to combat the problem cannot be perfect, comparing such campaigns to games of “whack-a-mole,” where when one poaching tactic is defeated, another emerges somewhere else, or in another form.

“The issue seems to be that every time there’s a clampdown in one area, another situation emerges,” said Dr. Jo Shaw, a rhino expert for the World Wildlife Fund. And the situation is just as dire for rhinos in South Africa as they are elsewhere: in 2012 alone, 668 rhinos were killed by poachers. 232 have been killed so far this year. Unfortunately, Shaw concluded, “the patterns indicate that, this year, it will be over 800.”

Photo: LaertesCTB/Flickr (CC)

ORLANDO, Florida — After six years of searching, an entomologist has concluded that three varieties of butterflies native to south Florida have become extinct, nearly doubling the number of North American butterflies known to be gone.

“These are unique butterflies to Florida. This is our biological treasure. Each unique species that we lose, we won’t ever get that back again,” Marc Minno, who conducted the survey for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District, told Reuters on Monday.

The disappearance of butterflies should serve as a warning about the degradation of south Florida’s environment, he said.

“It’s indicating there are major problems, environmental harm to Florida. And this is an indication that quality for people is also degrading and people should be worried about that,” Minno said.

Before Minno’s survey, only four varieties of North American butterflies, all from California, were presumed to be extinct, and the last one added to the list was 55 years ago. Besides the three varieties which Minno concluded are extinct, two more native butterflies no longer exist in Florida but are living in the Caribbean, and two more are heading toward extinction, he said.

What is happening to the Florida butterflies remains an unanswered question. The Schaus’ Swallowtail, found only in the upper Florida Keys, became in 1976 one of the first insects ever given legal protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Minno said only six of the swallowtails were sighted in 2012.

Scientists began noticing a general decline in the butterfly populations in the 1980s, and Minno, like many scientists, assumed the spraying of pesticides to kill mosquitoes might be at fault. But his survey suggested otherwise.

In urban areas, such as Key West which has little natural habitat remaining and is routinely sprayed, Minno said, “There are so many butterflies flying you can hardly keep track of them all. There are just swarms of butterflies sometimes. You just wonder what the heck is going on. It’s just the opposite of what you would think.”

By contrast, Minno said he found few butterflies in vast conservations lands without mosquito control, such as the million-acre Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park.

One of his theories is that mosquito spraying might bolster butterfly populations by killing off native and non-native parasitic wasps which feast on butterfly larvae and caterpillars. Another theory is that invasive predatory ants, such as the Mexican twig ant and fire ants, which were introduced to the area in the 1970s and are unrestrained by pesticides in conservation areas, might be overwhelming butterfly populations there.

Minno said the three butterflies that were found only in southern Florida and are now extinct are the Florida Zestos Skipper, the Rockland Meske’s Skipper, and the Keys Zarucco Skipper. In addition, the Bahamian Swallowtails and the Nickerbean Blues are gone from Florida but alive in the Caribbean. Minno also expects the Shaus’ Swallowtail and the Miami Blue, both of which continue to decline despite formal recovery plans, to become extinct soon. Of 120 varieties of butterflies documented in the Keys, Minno said 18 have become imperiled since the 1970s.

Minno said no state, federal or private agency has funded research to find out what is causing the decline.

by John R. Platt / Scientific America

Thirteen years, 1,500 infrared cameras, hundreds of catnip-baited hair traps and an almost incalculable number of hours in the field have confirmed what scientists have long feared: the Formosan clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa brachyura) is in all likelihood extinct. The subspecies, endemic to Taiwan, was wiped out by poaching, trade in its pelts during the Japanese occupation, habitat destruction and elimination of its natural prey.

“There is little chance that the clouded leopard still exists in Taiwan,” zoologist Chiang Po-jen told the Taipei Times this week. Although he seems to hold hope that a few of the cats might still survive, he said “we do not think they exist in any significant numbers.”

Chiang, a research fellow with the Mammalogical Society of Taiwan, was part of a team of zoologists from Taiwan and the U.S. who have been looking for the Formosan clouded leopard since 2001. The 13-year quest was an extension of earlier work by Chiang, whose doctoral dissertation (pdf) covered the first four years of the search.

The news of this extinction isn’t unexpected, as there hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of the Formosan clouded leopard in more than three decades. One dead cat was supposedly photographed at the bottom of an aboriginal trap in 1983, but that photograph was later discredited and the negative disappeared, according to a 2009 report from Taiwan Review. Pei Jai-chyi, a professor at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology who also participated in the 13-year search, told the magazine that Taiwanese aboriginals did not use pits for hunting, preferring snares instead. He suspected the photo was actually taken in Borneo and depicted a similar-looking species.

Chiang was also interviewed by Taiwan Review. He called the search for the clouded leopard “spiritual,” saying “A forest with clouded leopards and a forest without clouded leopards mean something different. A forest without clouded leopards is…dead.”

A Taiwanese tribesman wearing a leopard pelt, photographed circa 1900 by anthropologist Torii Ryūzō. Public domain.

The cats may have still existed around the time of that 1983 photograph, even if that picture itself isn’t to be trusted. In 1986 Alan Rabinowitz—now CEO of the big-cat conservation organization Panthera—traveled to Taiwan and interviewed aboriginal hunters, forestry officials and villagers; seven people told him they had seen the cats within the previous five to ten years (pdf). Rabinowitz tells me he thinks the leopards probably went extinct soon after he visited the island and says their extinction “represents a sad setback to the incredible biodiversity and vitality of Planet Earth. We must be ever vigilant to prevent such extinctions in the future.”

Taiwan’s government still lists the Formosan clouded leopard as a protected animal, but it will now review the 13-year study and decide if it will formally list the cats as extinct. Meanwhile, there is still one confirmed Formosan clouded leopard in Taiwan: a stuffed specimen sitting by itself at the National Taiwan museum. Sadly, that may be the last one anyone will ever see.

The main species of clouded leopards (N. nebulosa), still exists in the Himalayas, where it is considered vulnerable to extinction. Another species, the Sunda or Bornean clouded leopard (N. diardi), lives on Borneo and Sumatra and is also considered vulnerable.

aunty-fascist:

While there are some issues with the way this article is written from an anti-civilization standpoint (there is no such thing as “good science” for example), this still makes some good points about how fucked we actually are at this point and why we need to stop the death machine NOW.