Contents In the Shadow of Man Changing Fauna Hunting Instinct Delicate Balance Disappearing Wilderness Exploitation of the Seas Invasive Species Vulnerable Islands Global Warming Living Collections
6 8 10 12 16 18 20 24 26 28
Protected Areas Yellowstone National Park
30 32
Great Barrier Reef Madidi National Park Lake Baikal Danube Delta
34 36 38 42
Endangered Animals Europe Africa Asia Australia North America South America Oceans and Coasts
44 46 48 52 54 58 60 62
Green Organisations
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In the Shadow of Man
The muskox is superbly adapted to the cold climate of the Eurasian tundra. It was overhunted in the 19th century but today it is threatened by climate change.
Changing Fauna
Gomphotherium is an extinct genus of trunked mammal which roamed the marshes of Eurasia, Africa and North America between 13.6 and 3.6 million years ago, and disappeared due to climate change.
The order of nature
Island of marsupials
Every corner of our planet is inhabited by species of plants and animals of all imaginable shapes and sizes. This extraÂordinary diversity of appearance of the forms of life is the result of 3.8 billion years of evolution. This continuous evolution, which is still taking place in the same way today, means that throughout the course of the Earth’s history countless species of animals have appeared on our planet. Some of them have gone extinct after a longer or shorter period of time. What drives the emergence of new species is the changing environment and the ability of organisms to adapt to it. Over billions and millions of years the position of the continents and, because of this, the climate and vegetation have changed many times. Certain animal species have been unable to adapt to changes such as the cooling and warming of the climate, and as part of the order of nature went extinct.
Fossilised bones provide evidence of the existence of animals that lived millions of years ago. Based on this, scientists are able to establish the evolution of the different groups of animals, including mammals. Of the evolutionary branches of mammals (marsupials, egg-laying mammals and placentals), marsupials were the first of the three to appear. This happened 125 million years ago in the age of the dinosaurs and the diversity of marsupial species became richer and richer across the continents and in Australia as well. However, as the continents drifted, Australia separated from the other land masses about 30 million years ago, and the placental mammals that lived elsewhere evolved separately. The wildlife of this continent which became isolated from the rest of the world evolved independently and Australia became the island of marsupials where the likes of kangaroos, marsupial moles, Tasmanian devils and koalas represent the native mammals. As koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves, their existence depends on the survival of this genus of tree.
The dodo was a flightless bird in the family of pigeons and doves that lived on Mauritius. Prized for its meat, it was hunted to extinction in 1662.
The combined effect of habitat loss, global warming and air pollution caused the disappearance of the golden toad of Costa Rica in 1989.
Providing food The appearance of man significantly changed the order of nature. At the start, our ancestors followed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. They lived in small communities in harmony with nature and did not cause irreversible damage to the environment. Later, however, they abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and settled in villages, where they began cultivating the land and keeping animals. Agriculture was able to provide food for many more people. Increased populations meant that more food needed to be produced, which in turn required using more land for growing crops and as pasture for livestock. This caused the shrinkage or complete disappearance of plains, prairies and forests which were the natural habitats of animals. This trend has tended to gather speed over the last two hundred years.
The sixth extinction
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Endangered Wildlife > In the Shadow of Man > Changing Fauna
The steppic oak forest of NagykőrÜs in Hungary is one of Europe’s last indigenous steppe woodland habitats.
Hunting Instinct The population of the critically endangered angonoka tortoise has been decimated by the conversion of its habitat to pastureland and illegal trade.
Man in paradise Man has hunted since his appearance. However, at the beginning people only felled prey in order to survive. They ate the flesh of the animals, and made clothes from their skins and tools from their bones. Later, however, animals were killed for other reasons. For instance, some parts of the body of animals were attributed with healing or magical powers, such as tiger bones in the Far East, or became adornments for clothing that indicated a hunter’s status in his community. Furthermore, killing a dangerous predator was proof of reaching manhood. Examples of this are the trophies from lion hunting in East Africa. With the spread of firearms hunting became increasingly successful and on many occasions led to the extinction of a particular species. Confirmed cases of extinction due to overhunting include the passenger pigeon in North America, the Zanzibar leopard and the Falkland Islands wolf. In order to prevent further extinctions, hunting endangered species is strictly prohibited in most countries.
Bones, horns and tusks The mandrill is hunted for its meat in many places.
In the early 1970s some 500 northern white rhinos were recorded as living in the wild. The last few individuals live in the Garamba National Park – today there are none left in the wild.
Despite the ban on poaching, protected animals are still killed for their fur, skin, tusks or horns. Those driven to the brink of extinction include the African northern white rhinoceros. It is endangered because powder ground from its horn is believed to be an aphrodisiac and commands a very high price on the black market. To save these rhinos, conservation experts tranquilise them and remove their horn in the wild to stop them becoming the target of poachers. Also, rangers regularly patrol and track poachers. This method has helped protect the southern white rhinoceros population, but only three or four examples of its northern relative remain. They live in captivity, and the survival of the species depends on their reproducing successfully.
Green iguana eggs are alleged to be an aphrodisiac and are used as a medicine.
Illegal trade
The great hornbill chooses an enormous, old tree for its nest, so it is adversely affected by logging.
Men of the indigenous peoples of New Guinea wear head-dresses made with bird-of-paradise feathers when dancing to find a bride. As the nuptial head-dress is passed down from generation to generation and hunting is now regulated, fewer and fewer birds fall victim to this tradition. The great hornbill of the forests of South-East Asia likewise plays an important role in the beliefs of the tribal peoples and, due to the bird’s decline in its natural range caused by this and other factors, it is a near threatened species. The men of the Nyishi tribe in north-eastern India fix the crest of a hornbill beak, called a padam, to the top of their head-dress. Indian conservationists, who noticed the decline, found a solution. Hunting was banned but in exchange the Nyishi were given plastic horns resembling the original to adorn their headwear.
Male musk deer have been hunted for their scent gland for use as an ingredient in perfumes and medicines.
The Asian black bear is a vulnerable species. A traditional medicine is made from its gall bladder to treat eye and liver complaints. Although some countries allow bear bile farming, hunting this species in the wild is prohibited.
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Endangered Wildlife > In the Shadow of Man > Hunting Instinct
Tribal decorations
Delicate Balance Essential links Every species in any habitat plays its own particular role. Predators usually target weak or injured animals as, besides regulating the number of prey animals, this promotes the survival of the strongest and best individuals. Herbivores, on the other hand, are “responsible� for maintaining the right vegetation, which forms the base of the food web. Because there may be as many as a hundred species in a food web, there could be thousands of complex relationships between them. Research in recent years has revealed that not every species is of equal importance in a community of plants and animals. Species that have a critical role in their environment and whose loss would endanger the existence of others are called keystone species. For example, fruitbats pollinate and disperse the seeds of ebony, mahogany and other species of plants on islands in the Pacific Ocean. Due to overhunting, they are unable to fulfil their key role in the reproduction of plants. As a result, the plants bear no or less fruit and will gradually disappear from their habitat.
While foraging at night, fruitbats visit 186 plant species, whose seeds they spread far and wide.
Saviours of the Brazil nut
Agouti
Brazil nuts, which are indigenous to the jungles of South America, are considered a delicacy around the world, but they cannot be grown in plantations due to their complicated reproduction. In addition to collecting these nuts in the wild, deforestation is the reason why this is now a vulnerable species. A few keystone species aid its survival. Only certain large-bodied bees such as Eulaema mocsaryi and Eulaema meriana are able to pollinate the tree’s unusual flower. The bees are attracted by the scent of orchids growing on the trees, which can reach up to 50 metres tall. A rodent called the agouti helps cultivate the plant as it is the only animal able to gnaw a hole in the tough shell containing the nuts of the tree. However, it drops many nuts while eating and, as there are more nuts than it can eat at one sitting, it buries the remainder for later occasions. In the meanwhile it forgets where many are hidden and in time these sprout up from the ground.
Keystone species of the steppe The indigenous rodent of Central and South-East Europe is the ground squirrel, which is a keystone species in open grassland areas. It throws the soil from digging its burrows to the surface, creating bare patches that new plants can colonise. Before this happens, such patches where the ground warms up quickly are the ideal spot for the meadow viper to bask. This snake also uses the frostfree hollow to overwinter. In places where ground squirrels are abundant they are the main prey animals of the endangered saker falcon, the vulnerable eastern imperial eagle and the very rare steppe polecat.
Acid rain
Ground squirrel
Dens are vitally important for Pallas’s cat. As it is unable to dig its own warren, it overwinters in the burrow of the Tarbagan marmot.
By eating fruit the keel-billed toucan disperses seeds and helps maintain the diversity of the rainforest.
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Endangered Wildlife > In the Shadow of Man > Delicate Balance
The size of the lion population depends on the number of antelopes. Many antelopes sustain many lions but many lions eat a lot of antelopes, so after a while the number of both lions and antelopes starts to fall.
The caterpillar of the large blue butterfly develops in the nest of the Myrmica sabuleti ant, where it eats ant larvae. In Britain altered grazing methods caused changes in its habitat. The taller growing grass was sufficient to eradicate the species of ant that the butterfly depends on to develop, which led to the disappearance of the butterfly itself. In this knowledge the ant species has been reintroduced successfully.
In the Shadow of Man
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Endangered Wildlife > In the Shadow of Man
The lynx willingly eats the most abundant prey animal available. When roe deer are plentiful, the lynx preys on them, but as the deer become scarcer it will hunt other prey that is easier to catch. During this period the number of roe deer grows once more.