Positive Wildlife News 2022

Leopards have been introduced to this Mozambican park ravaged by war and poaching

• Two leopards have been reintroduced to Zinave National Park in Mozambique as part of an extensive rewilding programme.
• The 408,000-hectare protected area, which forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, was decimated by 16 years of civil war.
• The remaining wildlife was ravaged by poaching until the park got new management and a major upgrade.
• The attention is now on rewilding Zinave, with more than 2,000 mammals having been introduced to the park over the past 6 years.

Two leopards have been reintroduced to Zinave National Park in Mozambique, which forms part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA), as part of an extensive rewilding programme.

WATCH | Leopards have been introduced to this Mozambican park ravaged by war and poaching

 

Saving Nature and REGUA Announce Significant Land Purchase as Part of Multi-Year Conservation Vision for Brazil’s Atlantic Forest

Saving Nature, a non-profit, science-led conservation organisation dedicated to preventing extinctions and fighting climate change, announced today a significant land acquisition in Brazil. The investment is part of a multi-year partnership with Reserva Ecologica de Guapiaçu (REGUA), a Brazilian NGO working to restore critical habitat for biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest near Rio de Janeiro.

With barely seven percent of the original forest cover remaining, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and its rich biodiversity are among the most imperiled on the planet. Saving Nature has been working with local conservation partners in the region for over a decade to restore a beachhead for biodiversity. The partners are working to reverse environmental damage by planting native trees on degraded lands to create vital connections between forest fragments where species are stranded in isolation and at risk of extinction, allowing them to disperse and rebound.

Saving Nature and REGUA Announce Significant Land Purchase as Part of Multi-Year Conservation Vision for Brazil’s Atlantic Forest

 

Watch: Translocation effort returns swift foxes to reservation

The swift fox (Vulpes velox) disappeared from the landscape of the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana over 50 years ago, due largely to poisoning as part of a coyote (Canis latrans) eradication effort. Colorado, however, is home to a thriving swift fox population. This year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife contributed 30 foxes to help the community restore a self-sustaining swift fox population.

It’s part of a project led by the Fort Belknap Indian Community and the Smithsonian Biology Institute. Watch the video below to see how biologists capture these animals and restore them to the Montana landscape.

Watch: Translocation effort returns swift foxes to reservation - The Wildlife Society

 

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation Helps Conserve Prime Elk Habitat in Colorado

Prime Colorado elk habitat in two different parts of the state is now permanently conserved thanks to two families who value wildlife and sought out the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to help them protect their land.

“We both salute and recognize the Mancuso and Tolson families who each entered into a voluntary conservation agreement with RMEF to protect a combined 1,966 acres of important elk range,” said Kyle Weaver, RMEF president and CEO.

The Mancuso family enlarged its previous 2018 Burris Mountain conservation easement by nearly 700 acres north of Cotopaxi. The acreage provides important habitat for elk and mule deer. It lies within the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area, a collaborative planning area of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.

RMEF Helps Conserve Prime Elk Habitat in Colorado | Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

 

Australia’s bilbies and bettongs bounce back in predator-free areas

Conservationists are reintroducing threatened mammals to their former ranges with fences to keep out cats and foxes

Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world, having lost 34 mammal species in the past 200 years. To prevent other threatened mammals from disappearing, the Australian Wildlife Conservancy is returning them to their former ranges. Jennifer Anson, who is coordinating the project, tells New Scientist it has been a big success.

https://www-newscientist-com.cdn.am...tongs-bounce-back-in-predator-free-areas/amp/

 

Thundelarra – our newest conservation park

The creation of Thundelarra Conservation Park in WA’s Mid-West is the latest step in the State Government’s Plan for Our Parks initiative.

The new conservation area, spanning more than 100,000 hectares, supports significant ecological communities including threatened flora and vegetation types, and threatened fauna species including the mallee fowl.

The land includes a 25-kilometre stretch of land along Mongers Lake, with associated fringing vegetation and swamps that provide important nesting habitat for waterbirds. It also contains a lignum cane grass swamp listed in the Australian Directory of Important Wetlands.

Thundelarra - our newest conservation park - WA Parks Foundation

 

National Fish & Wildlife Foundation’s Central Appalachia Habitat Stewardship Program Announces Fifth Year of Grants

Habitat for forest birds, brook trout, eastern hellbender and freshwater mussels to be restored with $1.7 million in new grants

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) today announced more than $1.7 million in grants to restore forest and freshwater habitat in central Appalachia, including projects in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. The grants will generate more than $1.9 million in matching contributions for a total conservation impact of more than $3.6 million.

NFWF’s Central Appalachia Habitat Stewardship Program Announces Fifth Year of Grants

 

Protected area created to benefit one of the rarest birds in the world

A partnership among Rainforest Trust, American Bird Conservancy (ABC), and Brazilian conservation organization Instituto Marcos Daniel has established a 704-acre protected area of primary Brazilian Atlantic Forest — the latest success in the organizations’ work to save the last population of the critically endangered Cherry-throated Tanager from extinction.

The Cherry-throated Tanager had only been seen once after its discovery in 1870 and was believed to be extinct until 1998, when a small population was rediscovered in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. The bird spends most of its life high in the rainforest canopy, searching for insects among the branches. Rampant agricultural conversion has forced it to live in highly fragmented habitat that is now also threatened by urban encroachment. Conservationists estimate that only 17 individual birds may remain.

Protected area created to benefit one of the rarest birds in the world

 

More than 12,000 forest acres will be permanently protected from development in western Maine

A coalition of conservation-minded groups, federal agencies and private landowners today announced that 12,000 acres of forestland in Oxford County has been permanently protected from development with a conservation easement. More than half of the lands filter water into Sebago Lake, the public drinking water supply for much of southern Maine. The project is considered a significant milestone to protect water quality, wildlife and recreation.

Known as the Crooked River Headwaters, the forestlands are located in the towns of Waterford, Greenwood, Norway and Albany township. Philanthropists Mary McFadden and Larry Stifler, owners of the Mineral and Gem Museum in Bethel, began acquiring the parcels in the 1970s.

At a small celebration at the museum, Stifler said he and his wife were happy to have achieved a longtime dream.

https://www-mainepublic-org.cdn.amp...d-from-development-in-western-maine?_amp=true

 

Some very good news for the alpine bosnian newt :

First of all, since 2015, the Paris Zoological Park is succesfully breeding this subspecies which was considered so far extinct in the wild by some reseachers. According to Zootierliste, Paington was the only zoo holding the animals so now there are two at least.

Secondly, since 2017, the zoo is working with a local bosnian association called ATRA (
Bosnia and Herzegovina Herpetological Association), Sarajevo University and a
group of private breeders of urodel (French Urodel Group) to check the situation of this animal in captivity and in nature. Field missions were oragnized around the Prokosko Lake on the Vranica Mount (the subspecies was known to be endemic of this unique place) and researchers found some remaining animals in small ponds near the lake. Genetic analysis has confirmed the animals found were from the same subspecies.
This is a first step towards implementing protection measures for this subspecies.

Des découvertes positives pour le triton de Bosnie !

 

Orange-bellied parrot numbers are increasing in the wild, giving hope for the species' survival

Volunteers working to help save the orange-bellied parrot from extinction are eagerly awaiting the first nestlings of the summer.

• 70 critically endangered orange-bellied parrots have returned to their breeding ground in Tasmania's south-west this year
• It's an increase from just 17 birds in the wild five years ago, and is also up on last year's record of 51 birds
• The bird is one of only three migratory parrots in the world

The critically endangered orange-bellied parrot is one of just three migrating parrot species in the world.

The birds are on average 20 centimetres long and weigh just 45 grams but make the treacherous journey across Bass Strait every year.

They breed at Melaleuca in south-west Tasmania, but spend winters in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.

This year, 70 birds have returned to Melaleuca to breed — breaking last year's record of 51 birds.

https://amp-abc-net-au.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/100715366

 

The Encouraging Comeback of the Azores Bullfinch

At a time when most European bird populations are shrinking, the recovery of a Portuguese songbird is a bright spot that underscores the importance of habitat restoration.

Just before Luís Pacheco was born in 1992, a mysterious man began showing up near his family’s home on the Portuguese island of São Miguel. The man would search the woods for a small grey songbird with a black crown, tail and wingtips, arousing the locals’ curiosity. “When I was young, my father and my uncles talked about this guy, wondering what he was doing in the forest,” Pachecho told me. “It was very strange for the people from the island!”

It turned out the man was biologist Jaime Ramos, who was initiating what became a decades-long effort to save the Azores Bullfinch, an endemic songbird that was already in trouble when he arrived. Locals knew the bird as the
Priolo, but paid little attention to it back then. Their attitude has changed significantly over Pacheco’s lifetime, and today, thanks to the efforts of conservationists, volunteers, and supportive locals, the recovery of the Priolo is hailed as a rare success story in a challenging time for European birdlife.

The Encouraging Comeback of the Azores Bullfinch

 

American Prairie buys Musselshell ranch that BLM had eyed

After a Bureau of Land Management purchase fell through in August, the nonprofit conservation group American Prairie stepped in to buy the 32,000-acre 73 Ranch along the Musselshell River.

The group announced the purchase on Tuesday. A price was not disclosed. The land abuts the southern border of the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge.

This latest acquisition brings American Prairie’s total deeded and leased property in Montana to more than 450,000 acres.

“We are very excited to add the 73 to the habitat base already stewarded by American Prairie, for the benefit of wildlife and people in perpetuity,” said Alison Fox, CEO of American Prairie, in a statement. “This purchase will further our mission to grow a contiguous habitat area, which is essential to restoring ecosystem biodiversity on the prairie.”

American Prairie buys Musselshell ranch that BLM had eyed | State & Regional | billingsgazette.com

 

Latest survey demonstrates population boom for the Griffon Vulture in Sardinia

The population of the Griffon Vulture in Sardinia is booming according to the census conducted by LIFE Safe for Vultures through survey groups and in collaboration with LIPU, Legambiente and L’altra Bosa. The data collected in 43 days of monitoring is presented in the report recently published by Fiammetta Berlinguer – scientific head of the project led by the Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Sassari, and partnered by Agenzia Regionale Forestas, Sardegna Corpo Forestale, E-Distribuzione and the Vulture Conservation Foundation – Mauro Aresu, Francesco Guillot and Alfonso Campus.

Population, reproductive success and productivity increases for the Griffon Vulture in Sardinia
The survey started with data collected as part of the preceding project, LIFE Under Griffon Wings, which, over five years, grew Italy’s only indigenous Griffon Vulture population, located in North-West Sardinia. The population increased in all its parameters: from 27 Griffon Vulture breeding pairs and 20 young fledged in 2015 to 51 breeding pairs and 37 young fledged in 2020.

Latest survey demonstrates population boom for the Griffon Vulture in Sardinia

 

Hoping this is not an issue, I came across several positive wildlife news/conservation success stories from early to mid-2021. I didn't come across them until just yesterday, so I would like to post them here.

Starting with this one...

Conservation Program Benefits an Iconic Bird of the Southern Great Plains

The lesser prairie-chicken and its habitat are making a comeback thanks to a USDA conservation program. The ground-dwelling bird was once abundant in the southern Great Plains, living in parts of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. But over the past 150 years due to human migration and settlement, the lesser prairie-chicken population has declined by more than 90 percent, and its range has shrunk by over 80 percent.

Conservation Program Benefits an Iconic Bird of the Southern Great Plains

 

Nova Scotia government poised to add 20 sites to its list of parks and protected area

The Nova Scotia government says it plans to establish up to 20 new parks and protected areas, a pledge it says will achieve the government's goal of protecting 13 per cent of the province's land.

Environment Minister Gordon Wilson made the announcement today, adding that Canada's second-smallest province has become a leader in conserving unique habitats, coastline and biodiversity.

https://beta-ctvnews-ca.cdn.ampproj...ews.ca/local/atlantic/2021/2/2/1_5292705.html

 

More dibblers released onto Dirk Hartog Island in bid to bring them back from brink of extinction

A precious cargo of cute but carnivorous dibblers have been released onto Dirk Hartog Island in the latest bid to bring back the creatures from the verge of extinction.

The dibbler, one of the smallest marsupials in the world, became extinct on the island about 300 years ago, but thanks to the teams at Perth Zoo and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions they are now back and thriving.

The latest cohort of 31 join the 24 dibblers re-introduced to the national parkland last spring as part of the “Return to 1616” program. Dirk Hartog, just off WA’s Gascoyne coast, lost most of its native animals after European arrival in 1616.

https://www-perthnow-com-au.cdn.amp...k-from-brink-of-extinction-ng-b881695824z.amp

 

Mendocino County, California old-growth redwood forest protected in $24.7 million conservation deal

San Francisco socialite and civic leader Charlotte Mailliard Shultz and her family have agreed to a $24.7 million deal that protects a nearly 15,000-acre ranch with old-growth redwood forests in southern Mendocino County.

The Mailliard Ranch, said to contain the largest coast redwood forest left in private family hands, lies west of Highway 128 in the Anderson Valley between Yorkville and Boonville. It has been owned by the Mailliards since 1925.

Save the Redwoods League, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has been protecting redwood forests since 1918, announced the deal Tuesday. It includes three conservation easements that prevent subdivision and development of the entire 14,838-acre property, regardless of future ownership.

‘An exquisite place’: Mendocino County old-growth forest protected in $24.7 million deal

 

New Evidence Raises Hopes for the Survival of Rare Siamese Crocodiles in Kaeng Krachan National Park

The recent discovery of evidence of an apparently mature male croc has given a gleam of hope for the more fruitful reproduction and chances of survival of the critically endangered species, Siamese Crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis), in this park.

It takes them more than sixteen years to have obtained new evidence to confirm the existence of a rare creature in one prime habitat deep in the country’s lush and largest national park of Kaeng Krachan after some few last sightings in 2004.

And if proved to be true, this could also help confirm the existence of the creature of different sex, after a female beast has been spotted in the area nearby alone for years.

New evidence raises hopes for the survival of rare Siamese crocs in Kaeng Krachan National Park

 

We're returning wētāpunga to the Bay of Islands after a 180-year absence!

We're proud to be returning wētāpunga to the Bay of Islands after a 180-year absence!

We've partnered with Project Island Song (a partnership between the Guardians of the Bay of Islands, Te Rawhiti hapu (Ngati Kuta and Patukeha), and the Department of Conservation) in an exciting three-year reintroduction programme that kicked off last week with the initial release of 128 wētāpunga to Urupukapuka, Moturua and Motuarohia Islands.

We're returning wētāpunga to the Bay of Islands after a 180-year absence! | Auckland Zoo News