To all the “cat people” out there: ever wonder about the evolutionary history of Mittens, Fluffy, and Socks? All domestic cats are thought to be descended from African wild cats, Felis silvestris lybica, with the first domesticated individuals appearing about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East.
African wild cats are common in the savanna, but are rarely seen because they are active mostly at night. We recently snapped this photo of a beautiful wild cat in the Serengeti.
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Wild Nature Institute received a donation from Steven Free / GIRAFA, a Bay-Area artist is known for his giraffe character and Long Neck 4 Life branding. After hearing the story of Omo, the leucistic giraffe in Tarangire National Park, he designed a "Rare White Giraffe Air Freshener" and donated a portion of his proceeds towards our giraffe conservation work. Thanks so much, Steven, for caring about giraffes and spreading the message "Stand Tall Live Long!" To purchase an air freshener, visit the Long Neck 4 Life website.
Last night we were honored to celebrate St. Valentine's Day at a special dinner with the singular and indefatigable Dr. Jane Goodall. Her passionate and tireless efforts to further our understanding of non-human animals and champion the preservation of wild nature make her one of the world's shining lights, and definitely one of our great heroes. Joining Dr. Goodall on the day of love, to share and spread the word of love for all living creatures, was a wonderful and inspiring experience. We presented Dr. Goodall with a signed copy of our multi-lingual children's book The Amazing Migration of Lucky the Wildebeest. We will be working with her "Roots and Shoots" program to use our series of wildlife-focused children's books to instill ecological values in the next generation of young Tanzanians.
This baby giraffe on Manyara Ranch was so freshly newborn it was still wobbly on its legs. Every giraffe in the herd was coming near it and sniffing it with interest, including this older calf.
We are happy to have another giraffe join our database of more than 2,100 individuals we are monitoring and conserving in the Tarangire Ecosystem of Tanzania. Our goal is to protect the wildebeest migration route from Tarangire National Park to the Northern Plains, where they give birth. Manyara Ranch is a critical piece to protect the Tarangire ecosystem from losing its migratory species and the wildlife tourism economy that depends upon them. We are using our research to create data-driven products like this map to inform conservation decisions in the region. We are advocating for speed bumps and Wildlife Crossing signs on the tarmac roads that slice across the migration route north and south of Manyara Ranch. Land use planning and law enforcement is also needed to maintain open rangelands between Tarangire National Park, Manyara Ranch, and the Northern Plains. We support community conservation in the area through education, land-use planning, Masai warrior anti-poaching patrols, and grassroots ecotourism. Last year we reported on our blog our sighting of a beautiful leucistic giraffe calf in Tarangire National Park. Her body surface cells are not capable of making pigment, but she is not an albino. We were lucky enough to resight her again this January, almost exactly one year later. We are thrilled that she is still alive and well. Below are photos of the leucistic giraffe calf, then and now. A local lodge guide christened her Omo, after a popular brand of detergent here. Alternative names are welcome, or vote for Omo as her moniker.
A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has determined that the area burned by wildfires is unaffected by recent mountain pine beetle outbreaks.
Contrary to the expectation that a mountain pine beetle outbreak increases fire risk, this study shows no effect of outbreaks on subsequent area burned across the West. This study expands upon our own work in southern California, and work by other scientists, that found pre-fire insect- and drought-caused tree mortality does not influence forest fire severity. These results refute the assumptions that increased bark beetle activity has increased area burned or fire severity. Therefore, policy actions should focus on societal adaptation to the effects of warmer temperatures and increased drought. Wild Nature Institute scientist Derek Lee, who was not part of the PNAS study said,"Logging will not change fire behavior, our forests are naturally resilient, if we would just have the courage to leave them alone, they will self-regulate." In the western United States, mountain pine beetles have killed pine trees across 71,000 square kilometers of forest since the mid-1990s, leading to widespread concern that abundant dead fuels may increase area burned and exacerbate forest fire behavior. The false assumption that outbreaks raise fire risk is driving far reaching policy decisions involving logging that costs U.S. taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Wild Nature Institute scientist Monica Bond, who was not part of the PNAS study said,"Far from being a threat, high-severity fire and insect outbreaks actually provide great benefits to forests and many wildlife species. Logging—including thinning in the name of fire reduction, and salvage logging of burned trees—is actually the greatest threat to our western US forest ecosystems." Watching a rhinoceros is like stepping back in time 5 million years. These behemoths, like giraffes, elephants, and hippopotamuses, are some of the few remaining “megaherbivores,” plant-eaters that weigh more than a ton and were once common throughout the world. Today's megaherbivores are mostly restricted to Asia and, especially, Africa. Like all megafauna, rhinos live a long time (up to 35 years in the wild), have slow population growth rates, low adult mortality rates, and few natural predators capable of killing adults. Their slow reproductive rates make their populations vulnerable to human overexploitation. Millions of years ago, more than 30 genera of rhinoceroses were found throughout Eurasia, North America, and Africa, but only 5 species in 4 genera survived into modern times. All 5 species now teeter on the brink of extinction. As we reported in an earlier blog, the mass extinction of megaherbivores in North America during the Pleistocene epoch reduced soil and plant fertility. The modern-day extinction of rhinoceros could similarly damage ecosystems. Black rhinos—the only species in Tanzania—have two horns, which grow continually from the skin at their base like human fingernails. The front horn is longer than the rear horn, males tend to have thicker horns, and females usually have longer and thinner ones (see photos below). The horn is made of thousands of compressed hair-like strands of keratin (same material as hair and fingernails), making it extremely tough, but it can be broken or split during fighting. Uncontrolled poaching for horns, used in Yemen for ceremonial dagger handles and in Asia for traditional medicine, decimated the rhino population in Tanzania to only 32 in 1995. The species remains critically endangered. Black rhinos are most easily seen in the Ngorongoro Crater, especially during the rainier months. We saw 11 rhinos on a recent trip to the Crater, and caught a glimpse of one male’s impressive penis. According to veterinarian and rhinoceros expert Dr. Nan Schaffer, a fully erect rhinoceros penis extends up to two and a half feet and is shaped like a lightning bolt. To accommodate it, the reproductive tract of the female rhino is also quite long, with many twists and angles of its own. The penis is curved backwards, allowing the characteristic rear-directed urination. Urine spraying is a common form of scent marking, both for males marking their territory, and also for females to signify to nearby bulls when they are in estrus. Spraying bursts can reach up to 3-4 meters away and males often follow a spray with vigorous horning of the urine-soaked soil and vegetation. Scent-marking is critical for communication, as rhinos have extremely poor eyesight. One way to help protect and restore rhinoceroses is to financially support bold, effective, grassroots organizations working to stop the poaching crisis. The best group in Tanzania is PAMS Foundation. PAMS works tirelessly to ensure a future for megaherbivores like elephants, rhinos, giraffes, as well as other animals suffering from poaching.
During a recent visit to Serengeti National Park, we happened upon this huge male lion who had apparently killed this sub-adult giraffe. This is a rare occurrence in Tarangire, but lions in Ruaha have learned to effectively hunt adult giraffe and lions take giraffe regularly there. Giraffe calves only have about a 50% chance of surviving their first year due to predation by lions, hyenas and leopards, but adult survival is typically 90% as they are usually too large for non-human predators.
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