Let's Not Forget About Plants!

When thinking of conservation efforts, plants tend to get the back burner.  While doing research for a Cincinnati conservation paper, I had the opportunity to interview a horticulturalist who works at the zoo and joins in many plant conservation efforts.  During the interview he mentioned that most people tend to associate conservation or the “save the ___” theme with the cute and cuddly.  For instance, polar bears, tigers, gorillas, and the like get the conservation focus.  However, plants can also be endangered or threatened and need a conservation focus. 

Like endangered or threatened animals, plants also face the same obstacles when it comes to survival.  Both share the same causes of extinction and have the potential for mutual conservation efforts.  Many plants are listed as endangered or threatened due to logging (either direct or indirect), invasive species, or believe it or not, illegal trading.  That’s right…plants can also be poached and sold online.   One example of this I mentioned in my “Earth Day” post with the Gibson guitars. 

One endangered plant that many recognize is the Venus Fly Trap.  This carnivorous plant is endangered due to poaching and illegal trade.  I have attached the link to the article from ABC News.

 http://abcnews.go.com/US/endangered-venus-flytrap-poached-profit/story?id=15444075

Conservation Initiatives Around the World

Having only attended one of the four Barrow’s Lectures at the Cincinnati Zoo, I can say that my view on conservation efforts around the world has drastically grown.  As mentioned a few weeks ago, I attended Amy Dickman’s lecture on the Human-Carnivore conflict in Tanzania.  In the conservation world, Amy Dickman is a common name and her efforts have made a large positive impact on the lion population.  I look forward to the other lectures in the Barrow series and learning more on these issues. 

Other than Amy’s efforts, many conservation efforts occur around the world.  Basically, if there is an endangered animal, then there is an effort toward its conservation.  These efforts can include conserving the habitat through natural park reservations, educating the locals on the animal and it’s habitat, and the like. 

After researching conservation around the world, the first thing that came to mind was Bernadette Plair. Bernadette is a researcher as the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and she works with CREW, The Center for Conservation and Research of Endangered Wildlife. I had the pleasure to meet with Bernadette and hear her story about the Blue and Gold Macaws, Ara ararauna, and their reintroduction into her homeland of Trinidad (LaFay, 2004). Bernadette grew up with these birds in the 1950’s. She left Trinidad for her studies but never forgot the macaws. In 1993, Bernadette and the zoo began the very successful reintroduction project by first organizing the Trinidad-based Centre for the Rescue of Endangered Species of Trinidad and Tobago (CRESTT) (Lafay, 2004).

Reintroduction efforts began with pin pointing the reason for eradication. The macaws completely disappeared from Trinidad due to poaching, industrial rice farming, and the pet trade in the 1960’s (CZBG, 2011). Also, the efforts needed to begin with wild caught birds(those confiscated from illegal traders) and teaching those captively born how to survive in the wild. These captive born chicks were raised in Trinidad under the Wildlife Division by researchers and other bird surrogates. However, it was nearly four years before their breeding efforts were successful. The first successful group of blue and gold macaws were reintroduced in December 1999 (LaFay, 2004). This group consisted of nine macaws which formed fours breeding groups and produced twelve chicks within two nesting periods (LaFay, 2004). Finally, the natives needed to be educated on these birds and the pet trade. The success continues today and will continue due to the passionate efforts of Bernadette and her researchers. Many years were put into this effort with trial and error. By teaching the macaws how to live in the wild and the natives how to keep this species in Trinidad, the researchers established a safe environment for the Blue and Gold Macaw to thrive.

References:
Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden (2011) Blue and Gold Macaws.

http://www.cincinnatizoo.org.
LaFay, L. (2004). Resurrecting the Blue and Gold. http://www.parrotchronicles.com.

Earth Day

April is Earth Day (April 21st) Month and a very important month for conservation.  In grade school, we celebrated Earth Day by ordering t-shirts with animals and “save the ___” slogans.  We did art projects and had an “environmental” lesson on Earth Day.  Earth Day is much more then new shirts and a one day focus of environmental tid-bits.  Earth Day was established in 1970 by founder Gaylord Nelson, a U.S. Senator.  The first Earth Day brought all cultural backgrounds, political parties, and personal war opinions together for one cause.  As years progressed, some years focused on different conservation efforts and clean environmental campaigns.  Many events are scheduled on Earth Day to celebrate going green, recycling, and planting.  I have attached the link below which will lead you to the Cincinnati Earth Day celebration at Sawyer Point.  This year’s theme is “One Earth…One Chance”.  The event will have many vendors with hands-on displays, animals, creations from recycled materials, and much more.  The main aim for Earth Day is to remind everyone of the constant fight for a clean environment and educate on environmental changes such as climate change. 

http://www.cincinnatiearthday.com/

Seeing that one main event during Earth Day is planting trees, I wanted to post this article.  While researching articles, I came across the below link to the article about a company making guitars from endangered trees.  Having owned and played a guitar in the past, I feel somewhat guilty.  One of the trees included in this article is the Madagascar Ebony which is responsible for the beautiful eye catching fretboard of the Gibson guitars.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/feds-environmental-enforcement-on-guitars-leaves-musicians-in-fear/

Gorilla Run

A reminder that the Gorilla Run is right around the corner.  April 1st will have many Cincinnatians running a 5K dressed as gorillas.  All profits go toward Lowland Gorilla conservation efforts!!  http://cincinnatigorillarun.com/

I had to share this photo from the Cincinnati Zoo's facebook page.  It looks like Thane Maynard is ready for the Gorilla Run!!!

Conserving Ohio

Many conservation efforts have occurred in our backyard of Ohio.  The Endangered Species Act is the highlight of these efforts and has saved many species over the years since its start in 1973.  Two main species that have increased considerably are the American Bald Eagle and the peregrine falcon.  While researching I came across some statistics from 2005 that were very interesting surrounding these two species.  The bald eagle had only 4 pairs in wild Ohio in 1979 and recovered to 125 pairs in 2005 (Nature Conservancy, 2006).  The peregrine falcon had no listed pairs in Ohio in the mid 1960’s and recovered to 19 pairs in 2005.  The 19 pairs produced an overwhelming 57 young (Nature Conservancy, 2006). 

The Nature Conservancy website is a great website which links Ohio citizens and conservation efforts.  “Since 1958, the Conservancy has protected more than 55,000 acres of critical natural land in Ohio” (Nature Conservancy, 2012).  Ohio is a rich source of natural preserves, forests, and parks.   It is up to its citizens to conserve it. 

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/ohio/placesweprotect/index.

Another link that I found allows you to report animals that are orphaned or injured so wildlife officials can help the animal.  The Ohio Wildlife Center sponsors a wildlife hospital for these animals and relies on the kindness of other to provide items.  These items are listed on the website.

 http://www.ohiowildlifecenter.org/

Additional Sources:

The Natural Conservancy (2006). The Endangered Species Act: Conserving Ohio’s Natural Heritage. Environmental Defense. 2006. http://www.environmentaldefense.org.

Volunteer Ohio

Following the conserving Ohio theme, below are links to information regarding volunteer opportunites.

http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/ohio/placesweprotect/index.

http://www.ohiowildlifecenter.org/getstarted.cfm Looking for hotline volunteers to answer calls from citizens with wildlife and nature questions.

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/wild_resourcessubhomepage/TurnInaPoacher/tabid/17888/Default.aspx There are no tattle tails when it comes to conservation.  Here you can report poachers and injured animals. 

http://www.columbuszoo.org/join_the_team/volunteer/default.aspx Volunteer at the Columbus Zoo.  People of all ages can have the opportunity to help in many conservation efforts.

http://www.cincinnatizoo.org/support/volunteer/  Volunteer at the Cincinnati Zoo.

Bird Conservation

After researching many topics on wildlife conservation it seems that cute and cuddly receive the most attention.  Birds (and plants) seem to fall on the back burner of conservation.  Birds also face issues with habitat loss and degradation from logging and agriculture.  I know in the area of Ohio that I live in, I see less and less of the many species of woodpeckers.  While searching, I found many organizations that focus solely on bird conservation and are broken down into different categories of birds, i.e. birds of prey, migratory, and the like.  It seems that the main reason behind birds being listed as endangered is due to DDT, a pesticide used for agriculture.  However, government officials recognized DDT as an issue and banned to product in the 1970’s.  Unfortunately, some species could not recover and are still listed as endangered or have since gone extinct.  One species that comes to mind is the American Bald Eagle which has recovered and is no longer listed as endangered.

In addition to the restrictions that the Endangered Species Act puts on hunters and poachers in regards to any species red listed*, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act also helps with adding more regulations.  The Migratory Bird Conservation Act was initiated in 1929 to preserve any area of land and water that migratory birds visit.  Members of the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission work alongside the local authorities to conduct investigations, maintain refuges, and help with conservation education.  (Information from www.fws.gov).    

*Red listed means that the species was listed as endangered, threatened, or at risk under the IUCN Red List.

 Since I am highlighting bird conservation this week, I wanted to talk about one species of bird that once faced extinction.  The peregrine falcon was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1999 when it was completely removed from the list.  The falcon has made great recovery and continues to inhabit every continent except Antarctica.  Peregrine falcons are considered the fastest flying bird in the world and can drive at 200 miles per hour!  The reason behind their decrease in numbers was due to habitat loss but mostly due to the use of DDT.  DDT is a pesticide that causes egg shells to be thin which causes the shells to break early and the offspring cannot survive.  However, DDT was banned in the 1970’s and the falcon has since come back from near extinction. 

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/peregrine_falcon/id/ac

The above site is a link to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which helped to develop EBird.  EBird is an online community engagement tool which allows citizens to bird watch and report sittings for other bird watchers and researcher.  The website gives identification facts, photos, and call clips to help citizen identify the correct bird.