WLT Spring 2015

WLTnews ISSUE No. 49 SPRING 2015

Inside this issue...

• Big Cat Appeal update • New Buy an Acre project • WLT Action Fund saves more land in Ecuador

• International Trail Camera Competition: the results

• Steve Backshall raises funds for ‘deadly’ frog

Saving habitats Saving species www.worldlandtrust.org

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Big Cat Appeal Special Appeal

Time is running out for big cats in the wild and species such as Bengal Tiger, Jaguar and Puma are at risk.

World Land Trust is currently putting the spotlight on feline predators with a major appeal to raise funds to save habitat for big cats.

As we go to press £350,000 raised for Big Cats Target: £500,000 With £150,000 left to raise we are confident that our supporters will respond generously and help us reach our target soon.

Saving tigers in India The Chilkiya-Kota Corridor in Uttarakhand keeping humans and tigers separate.

World Land Trust Blyth House, Bridge Street Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8AB, UK Tel: 01986 874422 Fax: 01986 874425 Email: info@worldlandtrust.org Registered Charity 1001291

A major project being funded through WLT’s Big Cat Appeal is the creation of the Chilkiya-Kota Corridor which will allow safe passage for tigers and elephants moving between Corbett Tiger Reserve and Ramnagar Division Forest. The route of the corridor crosses the Kosi River, where the settlement of Sunderkhal is overshadowed by steep hills on both sides of the river.

Protecting the corridor is a complex process involving voluntarily relocation of residents away from the corridor to safe land and houses elsewhere.

This means that there are many stakeholders and government departments involved. However, villagers are keen to be moved away from danger, as, according to the latest information from our partner, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), five or six tigers regularly use the corridor and, since 2010, seven people have been killed by tigers in the area.

Roger Wilson (Senior Conservationist at WLT) and David Wright (WLT Head of Programmes) made a site visit to India in December to check on the progress of the project. While there they saw several fresh tiger pug marks close to the river, adjacent to the settlement of Sunderkhal. They also saw two tigers in Corbett Tiger Reserve at a distance of some 30 metres.

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Tigers are magnificent creatures. It would be a tragedy of truly monumental proportions if they were to be lost to the world. Not only that, it would be totally inexcusable on our part but if we don’t act fast to provide them with suitable territory to live in, they will disappear.

We mustn’t let that happen.

World Land Trust’s Big Cat Appeal gives us an opportunity to save an important population of Bengal Tigers in India. And we can save habitat for other wild cats too. I hope you will give generously to this important appeal.

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On track to save tigers and other wild cat habitats

Sir David Attenborough, Patron, WLT

More land for Pumas, Jaguar and Caucasian Leopards Big Cat Appeal funds have helped secure a further 59 acres (24 hectares) for a small group of Pumas that roam in the Atlantic forest of Brazil. The property is strategically significant because it is part of a wildlife corridor linking land owned by Reserva Ecológica de Guapi Assu (REGUA), WLT’s partner in Brazil, and other protected areas.

In Armenia, WLT has funded leases and land purchase to extend the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge, directly buffering the state owned Khosrov Reserve.

This extends the refuge by a further 3,150 acres (1,275 hectares). Meanwhile, in Iran, WLT is working with the Iranian Cheetah Society on a corridor project in north west Iran to benefit Caucasian Leopards.

In Mexico, WLT’s partner Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda (GESG) has been recording Jaguar with trail cameras for several years. More land purchase is planned to extend habitat through land purchase that will not only benefit Jaguars but other wild cats too.

Please support the Big Cat Appeal to enable us to create safe havens for tigers, Jaguars, Pumas and other wild cats

www.worldlandtrust.org

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Spotlight on Armenia Recording top predators: Caucasian Leopard and Lynx Head ranger Manuk Manukyan, a WLT Keeper of the Wild, reports on sightings in the Caucasus Wildlife

In 2014 WLT successfully raised one million pounds to save remnant forests for Orang-utans and other rare and threatened wildlife of the Kinabatangan floodplain in Sabah, Mayalsia.

Protection of strategically important parcels of land is helping create the Keruak Wildlife Corridor to link Keruak Virgin Jungle reserve with the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary. These are riverine properties vital to a priority population of Bornean Orang-utans who would otherwise have fallen victim to the devastating effects of habitat fragmentation due to the rapid spread of oil palm plantations.

We hope to raise more funds to widen the corridor once this land has been secured.

Meanwhile thank you to everyone who supported the Borneo Rainforest Appeal.

A Caucasian Lynx recorded in Armenia showing its distinctive tufted ears and clearly defined spots has some very characteristic features.

The animal is bigger and heavier than the other subspecies and the fur has many clearly defined spots.

See videos of wildlife in Armenia on the World Land Trust YouTube channel

Cover image Sierra Gorda provides forests for Monarch Butterflies Monarch Butterflies migrate between 1,200 and 2,800 miles from the United States and Canada to the forests of central Mexico. There the butterflies hibernate in the mountain forests, where a less extreme climate provides them with a better chance of survival.

Loss of milkweed habitat on which they feed in North America, together with tropical forest loss in Mexico and climate change, have resulted in a catastrophic decline in Monarch Butterfly numbers.

Some estimates record a 90 per cent decline over the past two decades, from about 1 billion butterflies in the mid-1990s to just 35 million individuals last winter.

Conservation groups have been worried about this decline for several years, and in January the US Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed that Monarch Butterflies would be considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Roberto Pedraza photographed these butterflies last November in the Sierra Gorda forests of Mexico, protected with help from WLT.

Roberto said: Last autumn the Monarchs appeared around 20 days later than usual, on their migration to the fir forests further south. I remember as a child them arriving on Day of the Dead, which is celebrated in Mexico on the first two days of November, and gave rise to an old tradition here about them representing the souls of the dead.

I went to where I remembered seeing them many years ago, when the oak branches bent downwards under their weight. I photographed them in a cedar tree and they were also in the oaks nearby but in very small numbers compared to the past. But it is good to know that they ‘remember’ their wintering grounds in central Mexico, and that at Sierra Gorda we are providing them with forests in which to rest on their long route. I think it is quite amazing.

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Update on Borneo Rainforest Appeal

recently had camera trap footage of a Caucasian Lynx (Lynx lynx dinniki), quite a rare subspecies in the South Caucasian Mountains. There are almost no studies on smaller and medium sized felines in Armenia and there is no information about dinniki in the Red Book of Armenia. We are so pleased to know that we are protecting them here.

I’m sure that the lynx on our footage can be identified as a Caucasian Lynx as this subspecies

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On my field trip last year to the Urtsadzor mountains to set up the trail cameras and make sure everything is working properly, I made an exciting discovery. I found animal faeces which I’m sure were those of the Caucasian Leopard.

Months before, in early March, I was able to detect the leopard’s paw print on fresh snow. These two findings provide tangible evidence that the leopard that we recorded in summer 2013 with our camera traps is still in our area.

The Caucasian Leopard isn’t the only wild cat that we are recording in the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge. We

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4 NEW Buy an Acre project

Saving Yungas forest in Jujuy province of Argentina

El Pantanoso Reserve Buy an Acre Brazil

Argentina

El Pantanoso Chile

Yungus forest

Paraguay

Argentina

Brazil

Uruguay

Argentina is marked in green in the map of South America above. The Yungas runs in a narrow band along the eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina The Yungas (pronounced Jungas) encompasses an area of around 55,000 square kilometres in Peru, Bolivia and northern Argentina. WLT’s project site is in Argentina where the forest occupies a narrow fringe along the

Andean eastern slopes in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Tucumán.

More than 90 per cent of Yungas foothill forests have been cleared for agriculture, and all land outside protected areas is subjected to intensive

‘Yungas’ means rainy, humid and warm.

These forests are extremely diverse, ranging from moist lowland forest to evergreen montane forest and cloud forest. A complex mosaic of habitats occur within the changing altitudes and the landscape is formed by valleys, fluvial mountain trails and streams. It is extremely rugged and varied. These areas shelter forests high in biodiversity and the biological distinctiveness of this ecoregion warrants its status as Regionally £100 (half an acre for Outstanding and an acre for £25) Vulnerable at the regional scale and as a enclosed or donate conservation priority in Argentina.

What is Yungas forest?

Buy an Acre project Save one acre for £50 or quarter of See donation form

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logging. While logging does not always result in complete forest clearance it does significantly alter forest composition, exacerbate habitat fragmentation and open up access to hunters and illegal loggers.

Good news for wild cats in El Pantanoso ‘The El Pantanoso Reserve will protect an astonishing array of wildlife, and funding from WLT’s Big Cat Appeal is being directed here to create a safe haven for many wild cat species. The Ocelot on the left was captured by trail camera in the reserve area and there are known to be at least four individual Jaguars using this territory. Puma, Jaguarundi, Margay and Pampas Cat all occur here too, making it an important stronghold for wild cats in northern Argentina.

Other animals recorded by trail camera include Brazilian Tapir, Rufous Agouti, White-lipped and Collared Peccaries, Brazilian Porcupine and Woolly Oppossum.

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Argentina: three projects Protecting Yungas forest, Atlantic forest and coastal steppe Bolivia

El Pantanoso, Jujuy Province.

Yungas forest South Pacific Ocean

El Pantanoso in northern Argentina protects Yungas forest

Brazil

Paraguay

Argentina

Buenos Aires

Emerald Green Corridor, Misiones Province.

Atlantic forest

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Uruguay

Chile

Estancia la Esperanza (Ranch of Hope), Patagonia, Coastal steppe South Atlantic Ocean

The Emerald Green Corridor in Misiones province, Argentina protects Atlantic forest Estancia la Esperanza (Ranch of Hope) in Patagonia protects coastal steppe The El Pantanoso project area is marked with a red square in northern Argentina. This Buy an Acre protect protects important Yungas forest and will secure an ecological corridor to the nearby Calilegua National Park.

Update on the Emerald Green Corridor, Misiones

El Pantanoso continued

Wildlife at El Pantanoso

Looking across the Uruguay River from the Emerald Green Corridor. This land was secured through a multicultural Agreement with three Guaraní communities, their neighbours who were the titleholders of the land, and the provincial government, settling a 16 year dispute over the future of their shared land

Buy an Acre

Biodiversity studies in the area have identified 120 species of mammal, 140 species of butterfly and more than 120 species of tree. Amphibians and reptiles are yet to be counted but they are numerous, and a rare marsupial frog is known to occur in the locality.

Bird species number at least 350, which is half of all bird species recorded in Argentina. There are hopes that the Tucumán Amazon (Amazona tucumana), an extremely rare parrot restricted to small areas of Yungas forest in northern Argentina, and south east Bolivia, will occur on the reserve. This is prime habitat within their range.

The rare Tucumán Amazon, a species of parrot found only in Yungas habitats of Bolivia and northern Argentina

John Burton reports Over recent months we have experienced setbacks in agreeing an access path to the land acquired with WLT funding. This is essential for the Guaraní communities who live in the reserve area, so that they have access to medical supplies. However, we are now at the point where agreement has been reached and this access will also be used for limited visits by tourists interested in the wildlife.

The Provincial Government continues

to support the project by providing rangers to control illegal immigration (mostly from across the Uruguay River, in Brazil). Fundación Biodiversidad Argentina has been carrying out surveys of the wildlife, to help develop a long term management plan with the support of the indigenous communities. A WLT site visit in June is planned, to discuss extending the protected areas, and the long term plans for the Yabotí Biosphere Reserve.

Life on the coastal steppe of Patagonia

WLT Chairman, Simon Lyster (above right), has just returned from a site visit to WLT-funded Estancia la Esperanza (Ranch of Hope).

While there he and his wife, Sandra, met with biologist Santi (in the photographs above) who had just recorded a Puma on a trail camera set on the reserve.

The grassland and bushes of the Patagonian scrub are recovering from more than 100 years of overgrazing, but now the sheep have been replaced by native Guanacos, whose numbers have risen from 100 to more than 850. The Guanacos’ successful population increase has lured back their top predator: the Puma. A natural balance is being restored.

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6 NEWS from Buy an Acre projects

Buy an Acre

Bolivia

Land purchase made possible through WLT supporters More land to be saved - £100 an acre Beni Savanna: Bolivia’s conservation jewel In Bolivia, WLT is helping its conservation partner, Asociación Armonía, protect and expand the Barba Azul Nature Reserve which lies in the south west corner of the Amazon basin.

This is the only breeding ground of the

Critically Endangered Blue-throated Macaw. In 2007 a roosting site for over 70 individuals was discovered - glorious news for a bird that previously was only recorded in isolated pairs on widely distributed, privately owned cattle ranches.

Safeguarding the Blue-throated Macaw

Barba Azul Nature Reserve

Peru

Brazil

BOLIVIA

South Pacific Ocean

Paraguay Chile

Argentina

Barba Azul protects the global population stronghold of the Blue-throated Macaw. These birds feed primarily on the Motacu (Attalea phalerata) palm fruit and the tree also provides nesting cavities.

Armonía’s research indicates between 350 and 400 individuals are present on the reserve.

250 bird species have been recorded on the reserve including the Near Threatened Orinoco Goose and Greater Rhea.

Resident birds in the tall grass include the endangered Cock-tailed Tyrant, Sharp-tailed Tyrant and Streamer-tailed Tyrant and the Black-masked Finch.

A paradise for water birds there are large numbers of egrets, spoonbills, Jabiru Storks and waterfowl. Nine species of North American migrant shorebirds have been recorded, including over 1,000 Buffbreasted Sandpipers (Near Threatened), recorded in one day, making the reserve an important migrant stopover site.

And mammals The reserve also has many mammal species such as Jaguar, Puma, Maned Wolf, Giant Anteater, Marsh Deer, Pampas Deer, Red Brocket Deer and Grey Brocket Deer, Southern Tamandua, Black Howler Monkey, Capybara and Nine-banded Armadillo.

The Barba Azul Reserve is a jewel of natural savanna, containing five distinctive habitats: savanna, cerrado, forest islands, gallery forests and marsh wetlands. Flooding is due to heavy seasonal rainfall and river overflow. This cycle of flooding creates the natural savanna habitat and forested islands

Can I visit?

Barba Azul has a field station for researchers and small numbers of tourists.

The cost is US$150 per night per person, with a three night minimum stay. The price is all inclusive (lodging in the research station, food, boat and horses), and offers complete access to the reserve.

There is horse and small plane access year round with vehicle access only possible from May to October. If you are interested in visiting please contact WLT in the first instance.

The tall grassland is perfect habitat for species such as the Greater Rhea and the Pampas Deer, both listed by IUCN as Near Threatened

A message from Bennett Hennessy, Director of Armonía

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It is great to know that WLT is making the Beni savanna a priority through its Buy an Acre fund. With more funding we can extend the protected savanna and provide more habitat for threatened

species such as Jaguar, Puma, Maned Wolf and, of course, the Bluethroated Macaw. A plea from Bolivia: please donate generously to help us achieve more.

Thank you.

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A haven for rare birds

7 NEWS from Buy an Acre projects

Buy an Acre

Colombia & Ecuador Land purchase made possible through WLT supporters.

More land to be saved - £100 an acre Caribbean Sea PANAMA

Chocó forest

COLOMBIA Galapagos Islands

ECUADOR Pacific Ocean

PERU

Land purchase and protection of Chocó forest Chocó habitat extends south from Panama, through north-western Colombia south into northern Ecuador.

It is one of the worlds’ wettest and most biodiverse habitats and holds many species threatened with extinction.

WLT is supporting ProAves’ work to save more Chocó from expanding agriculture, illegal logging and mining.

For the moment WLT can still buy Chocó habitat for around £100 an acre and current priorities are to extend the Andivia Wren and Lora Carirosada Reserves in the western Andes. This will safeguard vital habitat for the Critically Endangered Munchique Wood Wren (Henicorhina negreti) and Vulnerable Tanager Finch (Oreothraupis arremonops); it will also create protected habitat for threatened amphibians such as Lehmann's Poison Frog (Oophaga lehmanni) (below).

New Buy an Acre projects in the Chocó of Colombia will protect habitat for threatened amphibians such as Lehmann’s Poison Frog.

See also back page: Steve Backshall’s fundraising which will fund land purchase and Keepers of the Wild

Signs of big cats in Nangaritza Reserve, Ecuador World renowned field biologist, Dr George Schaller recently visited Maycú Reserve in the Nangaritza Valley to look for areas that could shelter Jaguar populations. The reserve is owned and managed by Naturaleza y Cultura Ecuador (NCE).

During one week the team explored many properties purchased with the support from WLT. They found signs of Jaguar as well as collecting testimonies from villagers who confirmed the presence of Jaguar. In the image above Schaller is pointing to claw marks of a big cat (Jaguar or Puma) on the bark of a tree. This photo was taken within a WLTfunded reserve.

The lush foothill rainforest of the Nangaritza Valley protects the last remaining extensive bank of foothill forest connecting the Andean mountains around southern Ecuador’s Podocarpus National Park with the lowland Amazon in bordering Peru. Most other Amazonian foothill forests to the north have been degraded due to clearing land for cattle grazing, and nowhere else in Ecuador is there a corridor of forests that connects the high Andes to the Amazon rainforest.

As well as Jaguar and Puma, the Nangaritza Valley is home to other charismatic animals including Ocelot, Spectacled Bear and Mountain Tapir.

This region around Podocarpus National Park has an astonishing 600 bird species, including 60 species of hummingbirds and 80 different tanagers.

It also has one of the highest concentrations of endangered plants in the world, and over 40 per cent of the park’s 3,500 plant species are endemic to this area.

WLT will use Buy an Acre funds to purchase forest in the Amazonian province of Zamora Chinchipe, along the Nangaritza River Basin. This is a complex mosaic of ecosystems and contains a confluence of species coming from Amazonian lowlands and Andean foothills.

Dr Schaller is an American mammalogist, biologist, conservationist and author, and is recognised as one of the world’s greatest field biologists. He has studied wildlife throughout Africa, Asia and South America.

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8 NEWS from Buy an Acre projects

Mexico Land purchase made possible through WLT supporters More land to be saved - £100 an acre Buy an Acre

Magnolia species new to science found in Sierra Gorda Three new species of magnolia have been discovered in Sierra Gorda by Roberto Pedraza Ruiz, Technical Officer of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda; one of the new species has been named after him.

Magnolia specialist Dr Antonio Vázquez is currently completing their descriptions.

“To find three new tree species in central Mexico, where supposedly everything has been labelled, is quite outstanding.” said Roberto, who is pleased that the one he is holding will be given his name pedrazae.

Buy an Acre projects in Mexico will save more of Sierra Gorda’s amazing range of habitats. Big Cat Appeal funds are also being used to save Jaguar and Puma habitat

Donations to the Action Fund have extended Fundación EcoMinga’s Cerro Candelaria Reserve in Ecuador by 111 acres (45 hectares).

Continued extension of Cerro Candelaria Reserve is a top priority, not only because of its exceptional biodiversity but also because it occupies a gap between two large national parks, Sangay to the south, and Los Llanganates to the north.

Every new land purchase is a step towards closing the gap between the two national parks. The corridor is a large tract of virgin forest, with unique diversity of endemic orchids and endangered species.

Saving Paddington Bear With public attention focused on the film version of English literature’s most famous Spectacled Bear – Paddington – we are pleased to report a trail camera recording of a Spectacled Bear close to Cerro Candelaria Reserve.

Lou Jost, of EcoMinga, told us how the film of the bear was recorded.

“Some neighbours who farm near the reserve had complained to us

And more new magnolia species in Ecuador Lou Jost reports from Fundación EcoMinga

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Little did I know when Roberto was telling me about his magnolia finds, at the WLT partner syposium in Kew Gardens last year that two new magnolia species were also to be discovered in our Río Zuñac Reserve! It was an extraordinary coincidence that botanists working with EcoMinga staff should discover them at this time.

Another fortuitous coincidence was that Dr Antonio Vázquez, the very same Mexican expert who described Roberto’s species, happened to have been hired temporarily by the Ecuadorian government to help improve the academic status of our local university, just a few kilometres

about bears eating their corn, so Reserves Manager, Juan Pablo Reyes, and Keeper of the Wild, Luis, set up a camera trap to identify the culprit.

Interestingly the bear captured on film is not one of the eight individuals that had been filmed

from Río Zuñac Reserve.

Dr Vázquez and EcoMinga staff made another expedition into the reserve to search for flowers, and thanks to the daring treeclimbing abilities of our rangers, they were successful in finding flowers of one of the species.

Luis Recalde, a WLT Keeper of the Wild, was among the first to photograph the new species.

Later in the year, a third expedition revealed flowers of the second species and we were also able to photograph the beetles that pollinate the magnolias.

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Land purchase funded

by WLT Action Fund

The other two species are named rzedowskii (after Dr Jerry Rzedowsky, the leading botanist in Mexico) and sierragordae.

before in our reserve.”

EcoMinga has compensated the owners of the corn field for the cost of the damage caused by the bear, so that the wildlife that live in the reserve do not cause resentment among local people.

9 The importance of WLT Action Fund

Action Fund

The Action Fund is WLT’s unrestricted conservation fund and allows the Trust to direct funding quickly to where it is most urgently needed. The fund is used for any of WLT’s key funds and appeals. It is also used to respond to urgent requests from overseas project partners

Action Fund update Narupa Reserve expansion extends winter habitat for Cerulean Warbler The Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea), one of the Americas’ fastest declining migratory birds, now has more protected wintering habitat in Ecuador, thanks to a successful international effort to extend Narupa Reserve on the eastern slopes of the Andes.

Funds for the 117 acre (47 hectare) extension were allocated from WLT Action Fund and boosted by contributions from American Bird Conservancy and the March Conservation Fund.

WLT Friends’ donations support the Action Fund Become a WLT Friend and your regular donations will be used for our most urgent projects. Regular monthly contributions made by Friends are tremendously important because knowing funds have been pledged in advance enables us to plan future land purchase and conservation projects.

securing it for the future. By giving project control to local people they are stimulating a sustainable relationship between the environment and its human inhabitants.

Alex, WLT’s The number of Friends has These interventions are 1,500th Friend been increasingly steadily and essential in order to has now reached 1,500. We conserve biodiversity and invited WLT’s 1,500th Friend to tell us why combat environmental degradation.” he supports the Trust.

In return for a monthly donation of £5 (or more) WLT Friends receive an annual He told us: “I donate to World Land Friend Card, early notification of WLT Trust because their model of events and, if requested, regular news conservation is perfectly designed to updates (WLT News three times a year reverse the catastrophic loss of global and/or monthly eBulletins). We do not ecosystems. By reclaiming land offer ‘free’ gifts or constantly ask for ownership for nature they are donations.

Please consider becoming a WLT Friend or giving the Gift of Friendship

www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/friends The Narupa Reserve is owned by WLT partner Fundación Jocotoco. Created in 2006 with an initial purchase of 250 acres (100 hectares), Narupa has been gradually expanded over the years. With this latest addition it now measures 1,871 acres (757 hectares). Situated in the province of Napo at elevations ranging from 3,300 to 5,250 feet above sea level, the Andean foothill rainforest has a remarkable convergence of lowland and highland wildlife species.

Photo credits: Cover: Roberto Pedraza Ruiz; Page 3: FPWC (lynx), Chris Perrett/naturesart.co.uk (Orangutan); Page 3: Kevin Schaffer/naturepl.com (forest), Fundación Biodiversidad (ocelot); Page 5: WLT (Misiones), Gerda Coetzee (Tucumán Amazon); Sandra Charity (Patagonia); Page 6: WLT (macaws), Bennett Hennessey/Armonίa (reserve); Page 7: Naturaleza y Cultura Ecuador (Dr Schaller), Phil Savoie/naturepl.com (frog); Page 8: Roberto Pedrazo Ruiz (magnolia, Mexico), Lou Jost (magnolia Ecuador); Page 9: getintobirds/audubon.org (warbler); Page 10: Guyra Paraguay (jaguar), Botswana Predator Conservation Trust (leopard); Page 11: Jack Hill/The Times (judging); Instituto Biotrópicos, Brazil (Maned Wolf); Back page: Bethan John (poison frog), Steve Backshall, Kamilla Zahno.

This is what our Friends told us: 2015 questionnaire At the beginning of 2015 we invited Friends to have their say.

The response to our questionnaire has been truly overwhelming, with an amazing 25 per cent returned already.

In addition to ensuring that all contact details are correct, the survey gave us insight into what key supporters think of the way we handle communications.

Friends were almost unanimous about liking the fact that we do not bombard them with appeals for funds. Clearly Friends are generous and many support a range of worthy causes, particularly local Wildlife Trusts, RSPB, WWF and various health charities.

Other comments are extremely valuable and gratifying. There were so

many that were very supportive, with a common theme: “You are doing an important job well. Keep on doing more of the same and you will continue to have my support” (J Barrett); “You are the sole beneficiary of my will” (J King); “WLT is my favourite because it does so many things better than others – please continue” (D Belfield); “Of all the charities I give to, this is the one I feel most worthwhile and user friendly” (P Ballard). There were dozens more along similar lines. Please be assured that we are taking note of all comments.

Thank you to all Friends who returned the questionnaire.

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www.worldlandtrust.org

International Trail Camera Competition Paraguayan Jaguar image wins top prize

An image of a Jaguar in Paraguay has scooped the overall prize in the WLT International Trail Camera Competition, run in conjunction with The Times

The overall winner

Classic animal portrait and overall winner The image of a Jaguar, recorded at Three Giants Biological Station in the ChacoPantanal Reserve, Paraguay, was voted the overall winner. Pictured right, the winning image was first published in The Times on 28 February 2015.

Guyra Paraguay, WLT’s conservation partner in Paraguay, submitted the image and wins an award of £5,000.

Simon Barnes, writer and WLT Council member, was one of the competition judges. He explained why this image won the top award: “Spotty cats have an unfair advantage when it comes to making humans viewers go ‘phwoar’. A few years ago David Bebber and I strolled on that very path, flooded in this image, as we worked on a story about conservation. It’s the way the cat ignores the camera that makes the picture work so well: slouching out of frame with feline contempt for humans and their works.”

The International Trail Camera Competition closed on 31 January 2015.

There were four categories - three for still images: classic animal portrait, unusual animal behaviour, endangered species and new discoveries and a moving image category: wildlife behaviour.

The winner of each category won a prize of £2,000 for their wildlife conservation organisation and the overall winner collected an additional £3,000 to make their top prize £5,000. This was won by Guyra Paraguay.

Winner: unusual behaviour

Unusual behaviour Trash is often a problem in areas with wildlife-based tourism industries and an image of a leopard carrying a water bottle won the award for unusual behaviour.

Simon commented: “The leopard, carrying a plastic water-bottle for reasons best known to himself, won the behaviour category: an uncomfortable and vivid reminder that all non-human animals must these days live their lives in the context of their ever-more-numerous neighbours.”

Botswana Predator Conservation Trust submitted the image, which wins them £2,000.

An image of a leopard carrying a water bottle wins top prize in the unusual behaviour category. It was submitted by Botswana Predator Conservation Trust You can see a video of the judging of the shortlisted images for the International Trail Camera Competition on the World Land Trust YouTube channel.

New competition for 2015 We are currently discussing the next trail camera competition and hope to announce it shortly.

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Chance-driven images testify to wonderful conservation efforts across the world

The judges at work Joining Simon Barnes (centre) on the judging panel were (l-r) Sue Connolly (The Times Picture Editor), John Burton, WLT Chief Executive, David Bebber (freelance photographer) and Jack Hill (The Times Photographer)

Thanks to our sponsors: Enterprise Plants who sponsored the cash prizes and Bushnell who donated the trail camera for the winner of the People’s Choice

Winner: endangered species

Winner: endangered species The award for the endangered species category (and the People’s Choice) went to this image of a melanistic Maned Wolf. The Maned Wolf is the tallest of the wild canids and usually has reddish brown to golden orange fur. This is the first black Maned Wolf to ever have been observed. The Maned Wolf is listed as Near Threatened by IUCN and is extinct over much of its former range.

Instituto Biotrópicos submitted the image, which was recorded in Veredas do Acari Sustainable Reserve, Minas Gerais, Brazil, by park rangers who were assisting a species inventory of the area. The image wins them £2,000.

Of this image Simon commented: “The Maned Wolf is a strange species at best, usually described as a fox on

A film of an Asiatic Cheetah at a drinking point in Miandasht Wildlife Refuge in north Khorasan, Iran won the video category award. Although perhaps it was the camel that won the day. According to Simon: “It was the one category that sparked no debate: we were unanimous from the first viewing. It’s a glorious tale in miniature and it begins – but only begins – with a camel.”

The video was recorded by Iranian Cheetah Society and wins £2,000.

To watch this video go to the World Land Trust YouTube channel.

Reviewing the shortlisted images, Simon Barnes commented:

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We have here some breath-taking chance-driven images. They tell us of the many wonderful conservation efforts going on across the world, the sort of thing World Land Trust exists to help. But even more than that, they tell us of the still more wonderful wild animals that we – still – share our planet with: creatures that inspire scientists and conservation organisations and for that matter, millions and millions of human beings all around this crowded and troubled planet.

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stilts. But this individual is not in the usual foxy colours but in fashionable black: a strange dark animal lurking in the greater darkness and wondering what its human neighbours have left out on the trail.”

The People’s Choice WLT invited people to vote online for their favourite trail camera image from among the 16 images shortlisted for the International Trail Camera Competition.

The resounding winner was the Maned Wolf who clearly captured the imagination of our voters. We are delighted that Instituto Biotrópicos will receive the Bushnell trail camera Natureview 119440, and look forward to seeing more of the institute’s stunning camera trap images in the future.

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Going that extra mile to raise funds for WLT Steve Backshall is fundraising for WLT to save rainforest and their deadly creatures in Colombia Easter Weekend, 4/5 April

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I spend a lot of time in rainforest environments. I get to see how fast they are disappearing. It is frightening.

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Last word

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unflinching way in which she describes WLT supporter Kamila Zahno has her future. The film, Kamila’s Story, is a generously agreed to be the public face moving tribute to someone determined of the Trust’s legacy fundraising to live life to the full and to leave a lasting campaign. legacy for the wild world. She told us: “I To launch the campaign WLT has think it’s really good that my spirit released a short film about Kamila and her will live on in some land in South reasons for leaving a bequest to the Trust.

America.”

Under the direction of freelance film View the film on the World Land Trust editor Claire Whittenbury, working for YouTube channel.

WLT, four students from Norwich City College helped make the film.

Southwold was the location and afterwards Kamila visited WLT’s office in Halesworth.

During her career she worked with the community and voluntary sector, and she approves of the social dimension to the Trust’s work.

As she puts it: “World Land Trust isn’t just about land. It isn’t just about wildlife. It’s about the whole - which does include people as well.”

WLT staff have been moved Kamila (seated on the left) with the crew from

by Kamila’s honesty and the Norwich City College

wild animals pose no threat to people – in fact quite the opposite.

One of the animals that he is most in awe of is the Golden Poison Frog (Phyllobates terribilis) (above). Possibly the world’s most poisonous frog, the species is protected by the Rana Terribilis Amphibian Reserve in westernmost Colombia. Good luck Steve and George and thank you from everyone at WLT! Says Steve:

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Kamila’s Story

Steve and George are attempting to kayak 125 miles non-stop from Devizes in Wiltshire to the Houses of Parliament

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Steve Backshall and his fellow paddler, George Barnicoat, will start early in the morning on Easter Saturday from Devizes, aiming to reach the Houses of Parliament within 24 hours in the classic DW race.

As we go to press Steve has raised a wonderful £13,000 which is being matched by a WLT Council member. The aim is to raise £30,000 to purchase and protect an area of Colombian rainforest, saving it from potential exploitation and logging.

As followers of Steve will know, he has a passion for all things ‘deadly’. He has travelled the world and been inspired by some of the planet’s most dangerous predators. He has had close encounters with sharks, tarantula and giant squid, as well as being charged by elephants. Despite many terrifying experiences, he still maintains that