New Zealand forests still threatened, but not THAT threatened

Last week Conservation International published its list of the world’s ten most threatened forest hotspots, where biodiversity and endemism is high and less than 10% of the original habitat is remaining.  New Zealand was, somewhat shockingly, number 2 on their list.  I must admit I thought this was a little odd – especially as their list claims we have only 5% of our forest (which is listed as tropical and subtropical broadleaf forest) remaining – and well, it turns out the folks at Conservation International were a little confused.

Apparently New Zealand was confused with New Caledonia, and is actually ranked number 22 on the list, with 22% of its original forest cover remaining.  Easy mistake to make, I guess (although the folks over at Kiwiblog of course think its all a big conspiracy of the part of the Greens).

So its not quite as alarming as we thought, but this is no reason to be complacent about the state of our forests.  A timely bit of research published online in the journal Science last week shows how even small changes in the makeup of our forests, like extinction of one or two key species, can have a cascading effect on biodiversity.  I’m not sure that it matters whether we are number 2 or 22 on Conservation International’s list, when we still have one of the worst records of biodiversity loss in the world.

Cheetah genetic diversity revisited

Another chapter has been added to the story of genetic variation in the cheetah, with a paper out in next month’s Molecular Biology and Evolution journal giving a detailed description of variation at key immune genes in the species.  I first became familiar with the cheetah story as a PhD student when I was studying genetic diversity in the black robin.  At the time the cheetah was something of a poster child for the perils of low genetic variation, but this most recent paper suggests that their immune system is not as genetically invariant as first thought, and they may not be so vulnerable to disease after all.

RIP Richard Henry

From Codfish Island this morning comes the sad news of the death of Richard Henry, the last remaining Fiordland kakapo.  Richard Henry was captured in Fiordland in 1975, at a time when kakapo were thought to be virtually extinct.  All other kakapo currently living are descended from birds discovered on Stewart Island in 1977.  A 2003 study* showed that kakapo have low genetic variation, with the exception of Richard Henry who was genetically distinct from all the Stewart Island birds.  Richard Henry had thus become an important player in the kakapo recovery program as the recovery team attempted to boost the genetic diversity of the species. 

This DNA fingerprint of kakapo clearly shows how distinct Richard Henry was. His fingerprint is marked with an asterisk - all the others are from Stewart Is. birds

More from Stuff.co.nz:

One of the key players in the Kakapo Recovery Programme was found dead on Codfish Island yesterday, marking the end of an era.

Kakapo Richard Henry was discovered by one of the recovery team members after what was believed to be an 80-year life.

Richard Henry, who was named after a Victorian conservationist who pioneered kakapo recovery, was originally found as an adult in Fiordland in 1975 when his species was believed to be extinct.

Since that time he has contributed to the genetic diversity of kakapo in the recovery programme and is well known for his efforts.

Department of Conservation programme scientist Ron Moorhouse said Richard Henry would be sorely missed by everyone who knew him.

“Richard Henry was a living link to the early days of kakapo recovery and perhaps even to a time before stoats when kakapo could boom unmolested in Fiordland,” he said.

Richard Henry was showing signs of ageing for some time before he was found, including blindness in one eye, slow movement and wrinkles, he said.

Meanwhile, the kakapo breeding season is under way on Codfish and Anchor islands and the first eggs are expected to appear next month.

*Disclaimer: I was part of that study, and the fingerprint gel is one of my more arty pieces of molecular biology, so I thought I’d post it in tribute.

The reference is: Miller HC, Lambert DM, Millar CD, Robertson BC, Minot EO (2003) Minisatellite DNA profiling detects lineages and parentage in the endangered kakapo (Strigops habroptilus) despite low microsatellite DNA variation. Conservation Genetics, 4: 265-274.

 

Presence of observers prevents fur seal attacks

Further to the recent attacks on fur seals in Kaikoura, comes a timely study just published in Conservation Biology.  Alejandro Acedevo-Gutierrez and Lisa Acedevo of Western Washington University, and Laura Boren, DoC’s national marine mammal coordinator, found that the presence of an official-looking volunteer stationed at a popular seal viewing areas was enough to deter tourists from harassing seals. 

The researchers carried out their study at Ohau stream waterfall, Kaikoura, near the location of the recent attacks that saw 23 animals bludgeoned to death.  Over a period of 9 months they recorded the behaviour of tourists in the presence or absence of a volunteer observer who was wearing a neon vest and made to look “official”.  Tourists were deemed to be harassing the seals when they approached the animals to within a few metres or threw an object at them.  They found that harassment dropped by two-thirds when the observer was present – from 38.4% down to 13% of groups with at least one person who harassed the seals  - even if the observer said nothing to the tourists. 

Viewing of fur seals is regulated by the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1992, but the researchers had previously found that simply having a sign up stating these regulations does nothing to ensure that tourists actually comply.  Having an actual person wearing a neon vest is far more effective at preventing harassment, even if this person is a volunteer with no authority to actually enforce compliance with the regulations. 

The researchers point out that using volunteers in this way is a cheap and effective way of managing tourist-wildlife interactions at popular wildlife viewing areas, and has the added bonus of observers being able to educate tourists about the animals. They found that approximately half the tourist groups approached the observer and asked questions about the behaviour of the seals, and all of them had misconceptions about how to behave around young seals.

Other posts on sciblogs about the fur seal attacks are here and here

Reference:

Acedevo-Gutierrez et al.  Effects of the Presence of Official-Looking Volunteers on Harassment of New Zealand Fur Seals.  Conservation Biology. Article first published online: 3 DEC 2010 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01611.x

Tuatara tuesday – how cold is too cold for a tuatara?

Tuatara like it cold.  Unusually so, for a reptile.  While reptiles in most other countries are happiest with temperatures over 25 degrees celcius, here in New Zealand our reptiles prefer much lower temperatures.  Alison Cree’s group at the University of Otago has been investigating exactly which temperatures tuatara prefer, with a view to determining whether new populations of tuatara could be established in the southern South Island.

New Zealand Conservation Week

This week (September 12-19th) is New Zealand Conservation Week. There are a huge number of events planned around the country, including weed swaps, planting days, beach clean ups, and talks.  The chickenoreggblog family will be doing its bit by taking to the Darwin’s Barberry seedlings that are threatening to take over the garden here on our windy Karori hillside.

Details are on the Department of Conservation website, so get out there and participate!

Cloning extinct species #2: Should we bother?

Two weeks ago I posted about how, theoretically at least, one could go about bringing an extinct species back to life by cloning.  Its clear that for long-extinct species like the mammoth, where only degraded remains are available, cloning is still a very long way off and in fact may not ever be possible.  But for species that have only recently gone extinct, or are on the verge of extinction, correct preservation of tissues could see clones created (in fact this has already happened in the case of the pyrenean ibex).  But should we bother going down this path?

Cloning extinct species #1: A how-to guide

 Fancy seeing herds of mammoths running across the tundra, moa crashing through the undergrowth, or perhaps a tasmanian tiger lurking in the Aussie bush? Well in the near future these images might not just be the stuff of far-fetched Hollywood movie plots.  Advances in molecular biology and genomics mean that the ability to clone extinct species is getting closer. In theory, at least.  In this post I’m going to look at how one would go about bringing back to life their favourite extinct species, and in a later post I’ll discuss whether we should bother.

Rare giant gecko turns up (dead) in mainland sanctuary

Here’s one from the good news but bad news file:  The good news is that a Duvaucel’s gecko (Hoplodactylus duvaucelii) has been found on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in nearly 100 years.  The bad news is that it was found dead in a mouse trap.

Duvaucels geckos are the largest of our native geckos, and one of the biggest geckos in the world, growing to up to 30cm in total length.  They are found on a number of offshore islands off the north-east of the North Island and in Cook Strait, and were thought to be extinct on mainland New Zealand.  The last recorded sighting of this species on the mainland was near Thames in the 1920s, but subfossil remains have been found on both the North and South Islands, suggesting it was once widespread across the country. 

The dead gecko was found at Maungatautari, in the Waikato.  Maungatautari is a 3400 ha nature reserve ringed with a predator-proof fence, making it the largest pest-free area on the mainland.  Many rare species have been released into the sanctuary, including kiwi, kaka, takahe and hihi, and reintroductions of many more species are planned.  The Duvaucel’s gecko find suggests that there is a remnant nautral population of the species in the sanctuary, which somehow survived the years when the area was overrun with introduced predators. The hunt is now underway for more of the geckos (which will hopefully be found alive).

This discovery shows that you never know what you might find when you protect an area instead of mining it.

More on the discovery on Stuff.

Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease: too good a match for the immune system

A central premise in conservation genetics is that high genetic diversity is good for a species’ continued survival, and low genetic diversity is bad. This seems intuitively obvious (after all, we all know that you shouldn’t marry your cousin) but actually finding examples in nature where we can say for sure that low genetic diversity has contributed to a population’s demise is difficult.   

However, the recent decline of tasmanian devil populations due to disease provides an excellent example of the perils of low genetic diversity.  Wild devil populations in eastern Tasmania have been decimated in recent years by devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).  This nasty disease is a transmissible cancer spread by biting, and causes large tumours to form around the mouth, interferring with feeding and eventually causing death.  Kathy Belov’s group at the University of Sydney has been studying the genetic basis of DFTD susceptibility in devils and has found that a lack of variation in immune system genes is responsible for the spread of the cancer in some populations.