Latest news with #InternationalUnionforConservationofNature
New Straits Times
5 hours ago
- Science
- New Straits Times
Rare three-coloured langur spotted with offspring in Sarawak
KUCHING: The recent sighting of a critically endangered three-coloured langur and its offspring offers strong evidence that the species is still reproducing naturally in the wild. Senior Sarawak Forestry Department (JHS) researcher, Dr Ahmad Ampeng, said the finding indicates a possible recovery in the population of this highly threatened species, thanks to ongoing conservation efforts. He praised the Sarawak government's decision to gazette an 845-hectare area in Sungai Selai Inah, Jemoreng, Matu, as a Permanent Forest Reserve, highlighting its ecological importance. "Previously, we observed that the three‑coloured langur population was growing very slowly, "However, when camera‑trap footage showed a female langur with her infant, this was a very positive development." he said. Ahmad explained the difficulty in observing the species directly, as they are highly sensitive to human scent. To avoid detection, researchers wore the same unlaundered clothing for months and refrained from using any scented products. "If the expedition lasted three months in the forest, we wore the same clothes for that entire period," he said, adding that the langurs also react to noise, such as camera shutters. "Even a single camera click can startle them into running away, which is why we installed silent video‑trapping cameras on trees." The three-coloured langur is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is fully protected under the 1998 Sarawak Wildlife Protection Ordinance. Previously, the species had only been recorded in the Maludam Forest Reserve in Betong Division in 1832, 192 years ago. Ahmad and his team from JHS confirmed the langur's reappearance using camera-trap footage gathered during their intensive survey, which began in July 2022. The remarkable discovery was published on Marc 27h 2024 in the peer-reviewed journal Check List The Journal of Biodiversity Data
RTÉ News
13 hours ago
- General
- RTÉ News
Deforestation in Sierra Leone national park threatens chimps, humans alike
Esther and Rio, two orphaned baby chimpanzees, clung tenderly to their caregiver's chest at a sanctuary inside one of Sierra Leone's flagship national parks, where unprecedented deforestation and illegal urban encroachment pose a risk to both primates and humans. The young apes, who arrived at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary when they were just three months old, listened with wide eyes as other chimps screeched and played nearby. The park's dense vegetation, stifling heat and the metallic fever pitch of reverberating insects served as a backdrop for the country's spectacular biodiversity, which includes several protected species. While the sanctuary rehabilitates orphaned Western chimpanzees, it is also a leading site for wildlife research and conservation education programmes. It is extremely popular with tourists - but its keepers have defiantly kept it closed since late May. The protest is meant to spur the government into action over the rapid environmental degradation taking place in the national park where it is located. The deterioration does not just affect the chimps, experts say, but also inhabitants of the wider region including the nearby capital of Freetown, home to some two million people. Situated just 15km from the overcrowded metropolis, the sanctuary lies inside the country's Western Area Peninsula National Park (WAP-NP). Mining, logging and urban development have claimed vast swaths of the verdant park. Meanwhile, poachers place traps dangerously close to the terrain for the sanctuary's Western chimpanzees, which are listed as "critically endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Since 2000, Sierra Leone has lost 39% of its forest cover, according to monitoring site Global Forest Watch. And of the 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of forest in WAP-NP, almost a third has been ruined or severely degraded since 2012. "The last two (or) three years we have seen an increase of chimpanzees rescued, simply because you have a lot of degradation outside where wild populations are," sanctuary director Bala Amarasekaran, who founded the facility in 1995, said. Freetown threatened The dangers of deforestation extend well beyond chimpanzees, however, and also threaten humans, particularly those in Freetown whose water supply is controlled by the Guma Dam, located inside WAP-NP. The enormous structure sits about 6km south of the chimpanzee sanctuary and is surrounded by a green, old-growth tropical rainforest. In the valley below the dam, urbanisation is highly visible. The sprawl causes runoff which contains extra silt and sediment that collects in the dam's reservoir and creates sanitation issues, especially in the long rainy season. "This settlement did not exist three years ago," Maada Kpenge, managing director of the Guma Valley Water Company, said. But "every year a few houses get added to it" he said, stating that the squatting residents claim to own the land legitimately. "Every year we lose thousands of hectares of the forest," he said, adding that in 10 or 15 years' time there will be hardly any forest left. Without the trees to help regulate the water cycle and capture and retain water, the dam's level will additionally drop drastically. Under such circumstances, "living in Freetown would be a challenge, almost impossible," Kpenge said. The government faults opaque and corrupt land allocation practices carried out in the past, while highlighting new, stricter laws on land ownership that it says are helping. But activists and experts say the new regulations are not being adequately enforced. Ranger patrol AFP was able to follow a team of underequipped rangers who are attempting to enforce the rules and keep deforestation at bay. "We have so many challenges in the national park and so many (illegal) activities," Alpha Mara, commander of the forest guards within the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA), said. On the day AFP spoke with Mara, he and about 20 other rangers packed into one pickup truck to check on six sites located in the park and its buffer zone. Except for one man with a machete, the guards lacked weapons or protective gear to fend off traffickers and squatters. To tear down illicitly constructed structures or remove beams demarcating land that had been claimed illegally, the men used their bare hands. At one site, the ranger with a machete slashed the sheet metal of shacks. Suddenly, a terrified young woman emerged from one, holding a crying baby. The woman, Famata Turay, explained that her husband worked guarding the piece of land and was paid by a wealthy person living abroad who claimed it as his own. "This is illegal construction," ranger Ibrahim Kamara told her as he wrote up a report on the site. Turay said defiantly that she had been unaware. "I feel bad because I don't have any other place to sleep," she said after the rangers left, sobbing as she looked at her half-destroyed shack. Institutional failure Because of deforestation, already extreme temperatures could become unbearable for the majority of residents in Freetown and the surrounding region, experts warn. Deforestation also exacerbates soil erosion, which is already dire during the country's rainy season, as evidenced by Africa's deadliest ever landslide, which struck in Freetown in 2017 and killed 1,141 people. Back at the Tacugama sanctuary, its founder Amarasekaran was appalled at what he saw as the government's institutional failure. If someone is breaking the law, "there should be penalties, there should be prosecution (but) that is not happening," he said. The orphan chimps often arrive malnourished and disabled. Some additionally suffer from gunshot or machete wounds while others were caught by poachers then kept as pets in villages. Even after orphans such as Esther and Rio are rehabilitated, they must still spend the rest of their lives living on the sanctuary's dozens of hectares of protected wilderness, alongside some 120 other chimps. The apes have made Tacugama the country's "number one ecotourism destination", Amarasekaran said.
Kuwait Times
16 hours ago
- General
- Kuwait Times
Deforestation in S Leone national park threatens chimps, humans alike
Esther and Rio, two orphaned baby chimpanzees, clung tenderly to their caregiver's chest at a sanctuary inside one of Sierra Leone's flagship national parks, where unprecedented deforestation and illegal urban encroachment pose a risk to both primates and humans. The young apes, who arrived at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary when they were just three months old, listened with wide eyes as other chimps screeched and played nearby. The park's dense vegetation, stifling heat and the metallic fever pitch of reverberating insects served as a backdrop for the country's spectacular biodiversity, which includes several protected species. While the sanctuary rehabilitates orphaned Western chimpanzees, it is also a leading site for wildlife research and conservation education programmes. It is extremely popular with tourists - but its keepers have defiantly kept it closed since late May. The protest is meant to spur the government into action over the rapid environmental degradation taking place in the national park where it is located. The deterioration does not just affect the chimps, experts say, but also inhabitants of the wider region including the nearby capital of Freetown, home to some two million people. Situated just 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the overcrowded metropolis, the sanctuary lies inside the country's Western Area Peninsula National Park (WAP-NP). Mining, logging and urban development have claimed vast swaths of the verdant park. Meanwhile, poachers place traps dangerously close to the terrain for the sanctuary's Western chimpanzees, which are listed as 'critically endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Since 2000, Sierra Leone has lost 39 percent of its forest cover, according to monitoring site Global Forest Watch. And of the 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of forest in WAP-NP, almost a third has been ruined or severely degraded since 2012. 'The last two (or) three years we have seen an increase of chimpanzees rescued, simply because you have a lot of degradation outside where wild populations are,' sanctuary director Bala Amarasekaran, who founded the facility in 1995, told AFP. An aerial view of Guma Dam inside the Western Area Peninsula National Park in Freetown.--AFP photos Caretaker Hawa Kamara holds rescued chimpanzees Esther (left) and Rio (right) at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Freetown. A general view of a sign that reads "Please help us protect our forest and environment for you and us" at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. A caretaker looks at a chimpanzee eating at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. A chimpanzee climbs a tree at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Founder and director Bala Amarasekaran stands next to a sign with a quote from British primatologist Jane Goodall at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Founder and director Bala Amarasekaran (right) visits the chimpanzee enclosures with a caretaker during feeding time at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Founder and director Bala Amarasekaran greets a chimpanzee inside his enclosure. An aerial view of houses encroaching next to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. An aerial view of houses encroaching next to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary. Freetown threatened The dangers of deforestation extend well beyond chimpanzees, however, and also threaten humans, particularly those in Freetown whose water supply is controlled by the Guma Dam, located inside WAP-NP. The enormous structure sits about six kilometres south of the chimpanzee sanctuary and is surrounded by a green, old-growth tropical rainforest. In the valley below the dam, urbanization is highly visible. The sprawl causes runoff which contains extra silt and sediment that collects in the dam's reservoir and creates sanitation issues, especially in the long rainy season. 'This settlement did not exist three years ago,' Maada Kpenge, managing director of the Guma Valley Water Company, told AFP. But 'every year a few houses get added to it' he said, stating that the squatting residents claim to own the land legitimately. 'Every year we lose thousands of hectares of the forest,' he said, adding that in 10 or 15 years' time there will be hardly any forest left. Without the trees to help regulate the water cycle and capture and retain water, the dam's level will additionally drop drastically. Under such circumstances, 'living in Freetown would be a challenge, almost impossible,' Kpenge said. The government faults opaque and corrupt land allocation practices carried out in the past, while highlighting new, stricter laws on land ownership that it says are helping. But activists and experts say the new regulations are not being adequately enforced. Ranger patrol AFP was able to follow a team of underequipped rangers who are attempting to enforce the rules and keep deforestation at bay. 'We have so many challenges in the national park and so many (illegal) activities,' Alpha Mara, commander of the forest guards within the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA), told AFP. On the day AFP spoke with Mara, he and about 20 other rangers packed into one pickup truck to check on six sites located in the park and its buffer zone. Except for one man with a machete, the guards lacked weapons or protective gear to fend off traffickers and squatters. To tear down illicitly constructed structures or remove beams demarcating land that had been claimed illegally, the men used their bare hands. At one site, the ranger with a machete slashed the sheet metal of shacks. Suddenly, a terrified young woman emerged from one, holding a crying baby. The woman, Famata Turay, explained that her husband worked guarding the piece of land and was paid by a wealthy person living abroad who claimed it as his own. 'This is illegal construction,' ranger Ibrahim Kamara told her as he wrote up a report on the site. Turay said defiantly that she had been unaware. 'I feel bad because I don't have any other place to sleep,' she told AFP after the rangers left, sobbing as she looked at her half-destroyed shack. Institutional failure Because of deforestation, already extreme temperatures could become unbearable for the majority of residents in Freetown and the surrounding region, experts warn. Deforestation also exacerbates soil erosion, which is already dire during the country's rainy season, as evidenced by Africa's deadliest ever landslide, which struck in Freetown in 2017 and killed 1,141 people. Back at the Tacugama sanctuary, its founder Amarasekaran was appalled at what he saw as the government's institutional failure. If someone is breaking the law, 'there should be penalties, there should be prosecution (but) that is not happening,' he said. The orphan chimps often arrive malnourished and disabled. Some additionally suffer from gunshot or machete wounds while others were caught by poachers then kept as pets in villages. Even after orphans such as Esther and Rio are rehabilitated, they must still spend the rest of their lives living on the sanctuary's dozens of hectares of protected wilderness, alongside some 120 other chimps. The apes have made Tacugama the country's 'number one ecotourism destination', Amarasekaran said. 'You cannot be boasting about having a world-class sanctuary and we are still failing to protect it,' he said. - AFP
New Straits Times
a day ago
- New Straits Times
Case of beheaded elephants still unsolved
KOTA KINABALU: The case of the decapitation of three elephants in Tawau remains unsolved, with no suspects identified. Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Christina Liew said authorities have yet to identify those responsible, despite suspicions of local involvement. "While authorities have suspicions about possible local involvement, there has been no solid evidence that would stand in court," she told reporters after the Asean Travel Exchange (ATEX) launch at a hotel here. She added that enforcement teams continue to engage villagers and policemen in the area, but no new incidents have been reported since the third killing in April. The government has offered a RM10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. "We suspect that the villagers know, but they are very hesitant to come out and tell," she said. Liew also dismissed suggestions that an organised syndicate was behind the killings, but said the reward amount could be renegotiated if needed. Bornean pygmy elephants, listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), are only found in Borneo. Fewer than 1,500 remain in Sabah. Despite tougher wildlife laws, enforcement remains difficult in remote regions. Separately, Liew expressed hope that Sabah could continue to host regional tourism events. ATEX, held this week, brought together over 500 delegates from 10 Asean countries. Sabah recorded over 1 million tourist arrivals from Jan to April, an 18% increase compared to the same period last year. Liew said the state is on track to reach its 2025 target of 3.5 million visitors.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
AI helps tell snow leopards apart, improving population counts for these majestic mountain predators
Snow leopards are known as the 'ghosts of the mountains' for a reason. Imagine waiting for months in the harsh, rugged mountains of Asia, hoping to catch even a glimpse of one. These elusive big cats move silently across rocky slopes, their pale coats blending so seamlessly with snow and stone that even the most seasoned biologists seldom spot them in the wild. Travel writer Peter Matthiessen spent two months in 1973 searching the Tibetan plateau for them and wrote a 300-page book about the effort. He never saw one. Forty years later, Peter's son Alex retraced his father's steps – and didn't see one either. Researchers have struggled to come up with a figure for the global population. In 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature reclassified the snow leopard from endangered to vulnerable, citing estimates of between 2,500 and 10,000 adults in the wild. However, the group also warned that numbers continue to decline in many areas due to habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict. Those who study these animals want to help protect the species and their habitat – if only we can determine exactly where they live and how many there are. Traditional tracking methods – searching for footprints, droppings and other signs – have their limits. Instead of waiting for a lucky face-to-face encounter, conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, led by experts including Stéphane Ostrowski and Sorosh Poya Faryabi, began deploying automated camera traps in Afghanistan. These devices snap photos whenever movement is detected, capturing thousands of images over months, all in hopes of obtaining a rare glimpse of a snow leopard. But capturing images is only half the battle. The next, even harder task is telling one snow leopard apart from another. At first glance, it might sound simple: Each snow leopard has a unique pattern of black rosettes on its coat, like a fingerprint or a face in a crowd. Yet in practice, identifying individuals by these patterns is slow, subjective and prone to error. Photos may be taken at odd angles, under poor lighting, or with parts of the animal obscured – making matches tricky. A common mistake happens when photos from different cameras are marked as depicting different animals when they actually show the same individual, inflating population estimates. Worse, camera trap images can get mixed up or misfiled, splitting encounters of one cat across multiple batches and identities. I am a data analyst working with Wildlife Conservation Society and other partners at Wild Me. My work and others' has found that even trained experts can misidentify animals, failing to recognize repeat visitors at locations monitored by motion-sensing cameras and counting the same animal more than once. One study found that the snow leopard population was overestimated by more than 30% because of these human errors. To avoid these pitfalls, researchers follow camera sorting guidelines: At least three clear pattern differences or similarities must be confirmed between two images to declare them the same or different cats. Images too blurry, too dark or taken from difficult angles may have to be discarded. Identification efforts range from easy cases with clear, full-body shots to ambiguous ones needing collaboration and debate. Despite these efforts, variability remains, and more experienced observers tend to be more accurate. Now people trying to count snow leopards are getting help from artificial intelligence systems, in two ways. Modern AI tools are revolutionizing how we process these large photo libraries. First, AI can rapidly sort through thousands of images, flagging those that contain snow leopards and ignoring irrelevant ones such as those that depict blue sheep, gray-and-white mountain terrain, or shadows. AI can identify individual snow leopards by analyzing their unique rosette patterns, even when poses or lighting vary. Each snow leopard encounter is compared with a catalog of previously identified photos and assigned a known ID if there is a match, or entered as a new individual if not. In a recent study, several colleagues and I evaluated two AI algorithms, both separately and in tandem. The first algorithm, called HotSpotter, identifies individual snow leopards by comparing key visual features such as coat patterns, highlighting distinctive 'hot spots' with a yellow marker. The second is a newer method called pose invariant embeddings, which operates similar to facial recognition technology: It recognizes layers of abstract features in the data, identifying the same animal regardless of how it is positioned in the photo or what kind of lighting there may be. We trained these systems using a curated dataset of photos of snow leopards from zoos in the U.S., Europe and Tajikistan, and with images from the wild, including in Afghanistan. Alone, each model worked about 74% of the time, correctly identifying the cat from a large photo library. But when combined, the two systems together were correct 85% of the time. These algorithms were integrated into Wildbook, an open-source, web-based software platform developed by the nonprofit organization Wild Me and now adopted by ConservationX. We deployed the combined system on a free website, where researchers can upload images, seek matches using the algorithms, and confirm those matches with side-by-side comparisons. This site is among a growing family of AI-powered wildlife platforms that are helping conservation biologists work more efficiently and more effectively at protecting species and their habitats. These AI systems aren't error-proof. AI quickly narrows down candidates and flags likely matches, but expert validation ensures accuracy, especially with tricky or ambiguous photos. Another study we conducted pitted AI-assisted groups of experts and novices against each other. Each was given a set of three to 10 images of 34 known captive snow leopards and asked to use the Whiskerbook platform to identify them. They were also asked to estimate how many individual animals were in the set of photos. The experts accurately matched about 90% of the images and delivered population estimates within about 3% of the true number. In contrast, the novices identified only 73% of the cats and underestimated the total number, sometimes by 25% or more, incorrectly merging two individuals into one. Both sets of results were better than when experts or novices did not use any software. The takeaway is clear: Human expertise remains important, and combining it with AI support leads to the most accurate results. My colleagues and I hope that by using tools like Whiskerbook and the AI systems embedded in them, researchers will be able to more quickly and more confidently study these elusive animals. With AI tools like Whiskerbook illuminating the mysteries of these mountain ghosts, we have another way to safeguard snow leopards – but success depends on continued commitment to protecting their fragile mountain homes. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Eve Bohnett, University of Florida Read more: In protecting land for wildlife, size matters – here's what it takes to conserve very large areas Grizzly bear conservation is as much about human relationships as it is the animals I run 'facial recognition' on buildings to unlock architectural secrets Eve Bohnett receives funding from San Diego State Research Foundation and Wildlife Conservation Society. She is affiliated with University of Florida.
