Newsletter 2021-04-29
Carolyn Cowan [04/29/2021]
– Fewer than 100 Sumatran rhinos are believed to remain on Earth, and the species faces dire threats due to a low birth rate, habitat loss and fragmentation, and poaching.
– A new study finds that, despite its small size, the population retains significant genetic diversity, and likely has the genomic “toolkit” necessary to survive threats like climate change or disease.
– The findings are good news for conservationists, but also come with a warning: an analysis of a recently extinct subpopulation revealed that a rapid spike in inbreeding preceded their extinction.
– The research highlights dilemmas currently facing conservationists working to breed Sumatran rhinos in captivity: Should subspecies be mixed? And, when no alternatives exist, should captive rhinos be bred with their relatives?
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Wolves And Humans Giving A Tough Time To Wyoming’s Mountain Lions
Mountain Lion prepares to leap from tree. Image credit: Creativex
There was a time when humanity s intrusion into wild landscapes was minimal - the ecological balance was undisturbed, and pumas and wolves both thrived in North America. Human disturbance, especially indiscriminate hunting, however, completely exterminated wolves, an apex predator, from America s oldest national park - the Yellowstone National Park, by the 1920s. Several decades later, an effort was made to correct the human error and manage the rising elk population by reintroducing wolves to the park in 1995. But the results were, in many ways, unexpected- as evident in a recently published scientific study exhibiting the effects of reintroduced wolves on the puma population in the southern Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in northwest Wyoming. This article explores the current status of pumas and the implications of the scientific study in pu