tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/habitat-degradation-68216/articlesHabitat degradation – The Conversation2021-10-04T14:53:14Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1595692021-10-04T14:53:14Z2021-10-04T14:53:14ZCreature that inspired Pikachu is being blamed for an ecological crisis – but it may be innocent<p>Known as the water tower of Asia, the Tibetan Plateau is where the mighty Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers begin as tiny trickles. The plateau is also sometimes referred to as the roof of the world – a vast plain raised 4,500 metres above sea level and surrounded on all sides by imposing mountain ranges, one of which includes Mount Everest. For the 1.4 billion people living downstream, the plateau is an irreplaceable source of fresh water.</p>
<p>For the nomadic people who live here, the plateau is their livelihood. But half of the meadows in the region are at risk of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12665-013-2338-7">turning into black soil</a> – the eventual fate of degraded alpine meadows. Local communities who rely on the plateau’s pastures to graze their cattle and sheep often blame pika, a small, rabbit-like mammal on which the Pokemon character Pikachu is based. But is this really fair?</p>
<p>Black soil patches occur when plants and grass turf have been completely lost from a meadow, and their emergence can be accelerated by the burrowing of plateau pikas. Tibetan nomads think the arrival of pikas from degraded pastures several kilometres away heralds the downfall of their own pasture. Traditional beliefs maintain that pikas arrive riding on the backs of snow finches, but Buddhist thought discourages nomads from killing them. Instead, they often invite monks to say pika-expelling prayers.</p>
<p>Despite their certainty, the pika’s role in the degradation of the plateau’s pastures is actually rather complex, as <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10980-021-01191-0">my research reveals</a>. Far from condemning this tiny herbivore, the evidence points to a greater villain: recent changes to how the land here is managed.</p>
<h2>Pikas in the dock</h2>
<p>Plateau pikas are timid animals and prefer to live in grassland that is less than 10cm high. Short-grass pastures with bare soil patches allow them to better see their predators, such as <a href="https://ebird.org/species/uplbuz1">the upland buzzard</a>.</p>
<p>Pikas also have similar taste in plants to the Tibetan Plateau’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/04/yak-politics-tibetans-vegetarian-dilemma-amid-china-meat-boom">14 million yaks</a> – the long-haired domestic cattle which share their pasture and typically feed within ten metres of their burrows. Once pikas move into an area of pasture, their feeding reduces the amount of palatable plants, so yaks graze neighbouring areas of untouched taller grass. This grazing then creates better habitats for pikas, especially during the summer when the average family size of pikas <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/9/6/622/336181?login=true">swells</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A herd of shaggy cattle with horns spread out on an undulating grassland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424447/original/file-20211004-27-rvr69n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Yaks inadvertently create ideal habitats for pikas by grazing tall grass.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/yaks-tibetan-plateau-160431626">Martinez de la Varga/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plateau pikas can produce up to five litters a year, so the grazing intensity of domestic yaks has to be controlled to prevent them making lots of habitat well-suited to pika, to limit how fast and high pika populations grow.</p>
<p>But herding livestock is time consuming, and this kind of land management is not always in place. In many parts of the plateau’s meadow regions, livestock numbers peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, when they were two to three times higher than they were in the early 1960s. Rangeland once held in common was parcelled up to individual households in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, now-sedentary nomads began installing metal fences along the boundaries of their land to prevent their livestock from wandering off and to help keep them safe from wolves. This meant shepherds no longer had to watch over and herd their livestock.</p>
<p>Confined inside fences, however, yak and sheep can graze wherever they like, mowing and trampling the grass. When pikas are nearby, it’s easy for them to cross over fences and disperse into these overgrazed patches. The result of nomads being unable to move their livestock as freely as before is the intensive grazing that has provided the ideal environment for these small mammals to thrive in.</p>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>The plateau provides a home to around <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26799089?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">6 million</a> herders. Expanding black soil patches on the grassland threaten their livelihood and, while pika numbers continue to increase, the scientific community is divided over the best response. </p>
<p>Some believe the little creatures should be culled, while others argue they play a critical role at the bottom of the food chain, supporting populations of foxes, weasels, pole cats and birds of prey, and so must be protected.</p>
<p>The plateau pika does play a central role in this crisis, but land-use changes among local nomads are the real issue. Keeping grass higher than 10cm would mean less food for yaks, and most nomads can’t afford the shortfall in meat, butter and milk they derive from their livestock. Government subsidies which are more accurately tied to each family’s herd size could compensate nomads for leaving areas free from grazing.</p>
<p>The key to saving the plateau’s meadows, then, is not to demonise the pika, but to develop a culturally acceptable solution that both controls this wild mammal’s populations and allows pastoral nomads to continue making a living.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Li Li receives funding from China Postdoctoral Science Foundation and National Key Research and Development Program of China. She is currently the consultant for the Grassland Conservation Project of Shan Shui Conservation Center in Beijing. </span></em></p>The electric Pokemon’s real-life muse is charged with degrading the vast meadows of the Tibetan Plateau.Li Li, Assistant Professor of Landscape Ecology, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1564592021-03-04T15:16:24Z2021-03-04T15:16:24ZSeagrass meadows shrank by 92% in UK waters - restoring them could absorb carbon emissions and boost fish<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387609/original/file-20210303-19-1hcyzfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2102%2C1182&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A healthy seagrass meadow outside of Porthdinllaen harbour, North Wales.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Richard Unsworth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The native oyster beds are gone. The vast saltmarshes that soaked up carbon and buffered the coast from stormy seas have been reclaimed for farms and towns. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-of-earths-most-biodiverse-habitats-lies-off-the-scottish-west-coast-but-climate-change-could-wipe-it-out-144832">species-rich maerl</a> and horse mussel beds have vanished and now, in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.629962/full">new research</a>, we’ve uncovered the decline of another jewel in the UK’s marine environment: seagrass meadows.</p>
<p>Seagrass is a flowering plant that forms rippling underwater meadows in shallow coastal seas. Our study is the first to analyse all published data on this habitat in the UK, gathered from newspapers, diaries and other sources throughout history. We found that at least 44% of the UK’s seagrass has been lost since 1936 – most of it since the 1980s. But when we modelled which coastal areas were likely to have been suitable for seagrass, we found that as much as 92% of it might have disappeared.</p>
<p>Thankfully, there are still 8,493 hectares (20,987 acres) of mapped seagrass in UK waters. That’s about the same size as Newcastle upon Tyne. But seagrass may have once covered 82,000 hectares of seabed – an area as large as 115,000 football fields. While we may never know exactly how much of the UK’s seabed was once covered by this habitat – old data sets are often light on detail and contain inaccuracies – we know these underwater meadows were vast. We can only imagine how their loss has transformed the country’s coastal seas.</p>
<h2>Widespread loss</h2>
<p>Seagrass meadows are one of the world’s most efficient sinks of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0204431">carbon</a> and support <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12566">20%</a> of the world’s biggest fisheries. We estimated that the UK’s meadows once stored 11.5 million tonnes of carbon, equivalent to the annual emissions of 7.7 million cars. With the destruction of the seagrass, much of that carbon has been added to the atmosphere and needs to be returned. These huge meadows could also have sheltered <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X13004633?via%3Dihub">400 million fish</a>, and annually <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969720342108?via%3Dihub">filtered pollution</a> equivalent to the amount of urine produced by the entire population of Liverpool each year.</p>
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<p>The first estimates of seagrass around the UK emerged in the 1930s. Descriptions and anecdotes suggest it was a common sight at the coast. Seagrass abounded in sheltered and protected spots, and there were plentiful populations in the lochs of Ireland and the west of Scotland. </p>
<p>Seagrass was considered so abundant in the 1860s that entrepreneurs writing in the Times of London described it as a potential cash crop that could rival imported cotton. While accurate data on the past size and extent of seagrass meadows is rare, the information we do have paints a picture of widespread loss. And these declines continue. The seagrass that has persisted is in a <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.150596">poor state</a> – beset by pollution, coastal development, and disturbance from boating.</p>
<p>Seagrass losses were widespread from urban coastlines to remote estuaries. While huge areas of the Humber, the Essex and Suffolk estuaries lost seagrass, so did more rural locations on the east coast of Anglesey in Wales, the Cromarty Firth in Scotland, and the inlets and estuaries of Cornwall. Areas once covered by seagrass are now lifeless seabeds in many cases.</p>
<p>These losses have numerous and complex causes, but most involve <a href="https://theconversation.com/sewage-and-livestock-waste-is-killing-britains-seagrass-meadows-new-study-91805">poor water quality</a> resulting from sewage discharges and nutrients running off farmland. Coastal developments – and mines in the past – have also polluted and disturbed seagrass.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A long, thin fish stirs in a thick clump of seagrass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387703/original/file-20210304-17-1cx5tyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seagrass meadows support UK species such as the greater pipefish (<em>Syngnathus acus</em>).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Naturepl.com/Alex Mustard/WWF</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A chance for renewal</h2>
<p>Our findings should not inspire blame, though. They should highlight the massive opportunities in restoring these habitats. Reviving the UK’s seagrass meadows could help fight the climate emergency, rebuild wildlife populations and put beleaguered fisheries back on a path to productivity.</p>
<p>The tide is turning for some marine habitats in the UK. Work led by the WWF is <a href="https://www.projectseagrass.org/seagrass-ocean-rescue/">replanting seagrass in West Wales</a>, oysters are being laid in <a href="https://nativeoysternetwork.org/portfolio/deep/">the Durnoch Firth</a> and coastlines are being reshaped to encourage saltmarshes in Somerset. But these projects must aspire to a bigger vision of coastal biodiversity, mirroring achievements in the US. In Virginia, thousands of hectares of seagrass <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/41/eabc6434">have been planted</a>. This is the scale of ambition the UK needs. </p>
<p>The evidence of its decline is stark, but seagrass was once common throughout UK waters and could be again. The opportunity for the restoration of this vital habitat is immense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard K.F. Unsworth is a founding director of the conservation charity Project Seagrass.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alix Green received funding from the Natural Environmental Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael A. Chadwick and Peter JS Jones do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seagrass meadows are a powerful ally in the effort to slow climate change and reverse wildlife losses.Richard K.F. Unsworth, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology, Swansea UniversityAlix Green, PhD Candidate in Conservation Biology, UCLMichael A. Chadwick, Senior Lecturer in Aquatic Biology, King's College LondonPeter JS Jones, Reader in Environmental Governance, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1504022020-11-24T18:22:23Z2020-11-24T18:22:23ZAn exclusive (and imaginary) interview with the coronavirus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370059/original/file-20201118-21-it124k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C328%2C1800%2C999&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Transmission electron micrograph of particles of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. </span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>In this interview, Franck Courchamp, director of research at the CNRS and holder of the AXA Chair of Invasion Biology at the University of Paris-Saclay, puts himself in the place of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has infected nearly 60 million people worldwide and killed more than <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/">1.4 million</a>. In addition to its unexpected form, this interview also gave the author an opportunity to change our perspective on the stakes of the pandemic and the lessons that it may hold for us.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Coronavirus, who are you?</h2>
<p>I’d like to start by saying, in all modesty, that I am the king, and the name you gave me proves that – <em>corona</em> is Latin for “crown”. Strangely enough, my very simplicity confuses you. You can’t even decide whether or not I’m alive, and you’re still wondering the same thing <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369848616300103">about all my fellow viruses</a>.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t much care where you classify me. You could say I’m a sort of microscopic biological machine, with a very simple program: survive and reproduce in order to live on from one generation to the next. In that respect, I have exactly the same goal as any living species.</p>
<p>The fundamental difference is that I only need the bare minimum to achieve that goal: I just get into my host’s cells, borrow whatever I need to keep operating, and hijack the cells’ machinery to make copies of myself. I then release my clones – brand new viral particles – and they set out in search of other cells to infect. We <a href="https://theconversation.com/ce-que-les-coronavirus-font-a-notre-corps-130898">coronaviruses</a> can produce a thousand copies of ourselves per infected cell in barely 10 hours.</p>
<p>Yet in spite of all that, I’m not big. My diameter is about <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7224694/">100 nanometers</a>, or one ten-thousandth of a millimeter.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1314996537898885121"}"></div></p>
<p>So I’m a thousand times smaller than bacteria (which are 10 to 100 times smaller than a human cell) – in other words, 50 trillion times smaller than a drop of water. A single one of your cells is way bigger to me than an immense city is to you.</p>
<h2>Why do you infect people?</h2>
<p>That’s a strange question. Humans are my habitat, my ecosystem, my resources… It’s like me asking you why you live where you do – on a mountain, or a plain, or wherever.</p>
<p>But I don’t have a sedentary lifestyle like yours. I’m a nomad, because my vessels – the people or animals I infect – aren’t immortal. To survive, I have to find a new host before the first one disappears. I admit we’re sometimes responsible for their untimely demise, because the bodies of some of our hosts don’t like it when we start proliferating. Others fall victim to the war their immune systems wage on us, which can sometimes <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)31235-6">spiral out of control</a>.</p>
<h2>How do you infect us?</h2>
<p>I use simple means. You’ve already discovered some of my secrets – that I can travel in saliva and sneeze droplets, and stay on people’s hands or on objects touched by hands.</p>
<p>I can squeeze inside a millilitre of saliva with 100 billion of my fellow coronaviruses and survive for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41407-020-0313-1">five days on plastic, or a week on a surgical mask</a>. I may not be very sophisticated, but I’m really efficient… like all viruses, in fact. We’re endlessly adaptable.</p>
<p>Consider the problem of spreading to another host. Luckily you humans produce nasal mucus, especially when you’re infected by one of us respiratory viruses. An infected person who sneezes is transformed into a powerful spraying machine that can transport us to our next victims at a speed of over 50 km/h, in a cloud of tens of thousands of droplets. These also end up on your hands, which you put all over the place. All this provides a very practical means of transport and helps us spread more easily. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Sneezing is a very efficient way of spreading respiratory diseases.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Other viruses choose different fluids. For example, some of us give you diarrhea, which results in highly efficient mass spreading. Others hang around in your seminal or vaginal fluid and spread when you have sex. You can isolate all you like, but, as a species, you have to reproduce at some point…</p>
<p>Some viruses change their hosts’ behavior to spread more easily – like rabies, which causes confusion, aggression and a tendency to bite. And it’s difficult to fight against that, isn’t it?</p>
<h2>Why do you viruses have it in for us humans?</h2>
<p>Don’t be so self-centered! We don’t have it in for you – we neither love nor hate you. You just happen to be our favorite vessels and make things easier for us in so many ways. To start with, humans often live in densely populated places and their global population is interconnected, which makes potential hosts almost systematically available to us the world over.</p>
<p>I made that quite clear over the last year. After starting out from somewhere in China, I soon turned up on every continent and in the remotest corners of the planet – and I don’t even have legs. Other animal populations are generally fragmented, limiting our chances of dispersal and confining us to small areas. But human beings are a whole other kettle of fish, so as to speak. As the song goes, “Ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough, ain’t no river wide enough” to keep us from getting to you. We travel from host to host by car, boat or plane: the world is our oyster. Given how restlessly humans move, you helped us create initial infection sites on every continent in less than a week.</p>
<p>What’s more, humans keep a large part of their population in pretty deplorable sanitary conditions, which really helps us. Not to mention the behavior of some of your leaders, who aren’t ethical or intelligent enough to behave responsibly. This creates opportunities for us in some parts of the world, where the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-responses-highlight-how-humans-are-hardwired-to-dismiss-facts-that-dont-fit-their-worldview-141335">epidemic is downplayed or denied</a> to avoid the problem of having to face up to it…</p>
<h2>But you didn’t infect human beings at first…</h2>
<p>That’s true. <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-origins-genome-analysis-suggests-two-viruses-may-have-combined-134059">I used to depend on other animal species</a>. However, by replicating over and over in the animals’ infected cells, some clones mutate and become slightly different. And, from time to time, one of those mutants hits the jackpot: its mutation allows it to survive and spread via other animals than those its fellow viruses usually infect. Then you have a new strain of virus, ready to change host.</p>
<p>But it’s not just a question of having the ability to infect a new animal species, you also have to get close enough to be able to infect it. The likelihood of those events coinciding is pretty small, but two factors work in our favor.</p>
<p>First, we’re very, very numerous. For the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article/99/1/1/4834091">6,500 or so mammalian species</a>, there are about 320,000 different viruses that can infect mammals. And the more the viruses, the more the mutations.</p>
<p>Second, humans’ many contacts with other species increase our chances of encountering and infecting you. And those opportunities are increasing thanks to your intrusions into the territories of species that are already stressed by being hunted, deprived of their natural habitats and resources, and subjected to pollution or climate change. Then there are all the wild species you hunt, put in cages, pile up in markets and eat, sometimes improperly cooked, to the tune of millions of tons per year. That’s how the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3234451/">HIV</a>, <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/severe-acute-respiratory-syndrome#tab=tab_1">SARS</a>, l’<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ebola-origins-reservoirs-transmission-and-guidelines/ebola-overview-history-origins-and-transmission">Ebola</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330993/">Zika</a> and <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30032-2/fulltext">MERS</a> viruses managed to infect you in recent years.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/356802/original/file-20200907-24-1rfijqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Colonized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) heavily infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (yellow), isolated from a patient sample.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihgov/50098153461/in/photolist-2jynB5V-2jk2hum-2jk18mh-2iTjLFU-2iEP3MV-2iH8Kxi-2iERQ6u-2jcerea-2jfwmb2-2jfwm7p-2iCRVSJ-2jk18Cz-2jfwm3X-2iTjLJQ-2iH8KzC-2jk18s4-2iDVeRk-2ivWYAQ-2iYmxva-2j4dFiW-2iLBJKi-2iCRVRX-2inuGL9-2iCUCv6-2ivY9Xk-2iETgaX-2jciuth-2iERQ8d-2iERQiZ-2itfPmQ-2iCUCvw-2iG5wqt-2ivY9VB-2jfzdMX-2iLBJK3-2iDSu3E-2iDVeUX-2iDSu77-2iDWFNp-2iDVeVt-WwL7yT-2iERQmQ-2iNeJNB-2iG5wss-2iCUCvr-wewpg4-2ivUoUn-2ivUoW6-2ivUoVj-2itgZyx/">NIAID/NIH</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>I might add that the result is pretty much the same when a virus infects a domesticated species rather than a human being. When you encroach on bats’ territories and set up massive pig farms near their ruined habitats, you’re increasing the chances that a bat virus (such as the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/46/29190">Nipah</a>) will shift to the pigs that come into contact with bat saliva or excrement (which contain viruses). And as the pigs are crowded together and kept in wretched sanitary conditions, the chances of transmission increase and nothing can stop us.</p>
<p>Picture a bunch of stressed and sickly hosts, living in their own excrement among the corpses of their fellow creatures… it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for a virus. That’s how swine flu and the <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/influenza-(avian-and-other-zoonotic)">H5N1</a> bird flu managed to infiltrate poultry and pig farms a few years ago. Concentrations of sickly hosts result in incredible concentrations of virus, which boosts our chances of spreading from domesticated animals to humans. Like the H5N1 or the Nipah (whose case fatality rate is 40% to 75% in humans).</p>
<p>As I said before, my main problem is infecting the first human. Your globalization system does the rest. It’s as if you set it up to allow for the free circulation of viruses. So thanks very much, <em>merci beaucoup</em>, <em>danke schön</em>, 衷心感谢, <em>muchas gracias</em>, большое спасибо, etc.</p>
<h2>Do you realize the damage you do?</h2>
<p>We mean you no more harm than a sheep does to a clump of grass. If we had any say in the matter, we’d obviously prefer our infected humans to stay alive and keep accommodating us indefinitely. But because our hosts sometimes die, we have to replicate quickly so that we can infect another host before the first one disappears. This intense replication causes symptoms that can be harmful or even fatal. One of the problems is that if we just chill out and lie low, and if we don’t find a good hiding place in your body, our initial small numbers risk being overcome by your immune systems. It’s not easy to strike a balance between surviving without doing you too much harm and being totally wiped out.</p>
<p>Anyway, we viruses and the species we infect are usually linked by hundreds of thousands of years of co-evolution and by now are relatively well “adapted” to each other. So, in the vast majority of cases, there’s little damage on either side.</p>
<p>Above all, you mustn’t forget that we viruses play an important regulatory role on other living populations (micro-organisms, plants, animals, etc.). If we all disappeared, they might end up overpopulating and using up all their resources, which would put them at risk of starving to death… Actually, we’re said to be of major importance for the ecology and evolution of the living world.</p>
<p>What’s more, a lot of viruses are beneficial to you. For instance, they kill certain bacteria that you’re not too keen on, either. Some researchers have even succeeded in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/05/viruses-genetically-engineered-kill-bacteria-rescue-girl-antibiotic-resistant-infection">using viruses instead of antibiotics</a> to kill bacteria. And let’s not forget that many viruses have what could be called a “neutral” effect: in humans (since you’re so self-centered), some 5,000 different viruses have been discovered, but less than 3% are “pathogenic”, i.e. the cause of an illness. Which is not very many, when you think about it.</p>
<p>Finally, there are all the viruses that you’re not interested in because they’ve shown so little interest in you. They’re present in the soil, suspended in the air, floating in the water, and are in plants, insects, starfish… For example, there are a million viruses suspended in one liter of seawater. In fact, there are so many viruses <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro1750">suspended in the oceans</a> that, despite their ridiculously tiny size, they would stretch beyond our neighboring galaxies if they were laid end to end.</p>
<p>As I’ve said, viruses are everywhere, even though you can’t see them. Sometimes they’re right in front of you and you don’t even recognize them, like the <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/discovery-of-the-giant-mimivirus-14402410/">amazing giant viruses</a>, bigger than the bacteria that scientists used to mistake them for.</p>
<h2>Actually, where do you viruses come from?</h2>
<p>I suppose you mean <em>when</em> do we come from? Well as a matter of fact, we’ve always been around. Long before human beings ever existed, and long before even your oldest animal ancestors. Some people say we’re older than the oldest bacteria. We were already present at the origin of life and have played a central role in evolution, particularly by allowing for gene transfer – not from one generation to the next, but between species. We’re so old that some of us have integrated into human genomes and become a part of you.</p>
<p>In all, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/04/science/ancient-viruses-dna-genome.html">almost 10% of the human genome is virus DNA</a>, integrated into your chromosomes. And some of the new genes we viruses have given you are important, or even essential. In mammals, for example, the only reason the mother’s immune system doesn’t reject the embryo as a foreign body (a hybrid between the father and mother) is the existence of the placenta, which evolved from a virus integrated into your genome. Hey, don’t worry about thanking us.</p>
<h2>And what about you, coronavirus SARS-CoV-2? Where do you come from?</h2>
<p>Which species did my ancestors infect before they moved on to you? I don’t know. But does it matter whether they were bats, pangolins, monkeys or something else? What would you do if you found out? Would you stop poaching and eating that particular species? Would you wipe it out? Would you do the same to all the species whose viruses you might catch? That’s obviously out of the question – there’d be hardly any animals left.</p>
<p>Anyway, why are you looking for culprits when it’s obvious who they really are? Aren’t the real ones the people who stir things up by upsetting virus-animal systems that had managed to remain pretty much self-contained for millions of years? If you tease a cat and it scratches you, will you eliminate all cats? Wouldn’t it be better to stop pulling their tails?</p>
<h2>How can we get rid of you?</h2>
<p>In theory it’s quite simple. You just need to think of an epidemic as a forest fire. Both are natural phenomena, but they can get out of control when you play with the laws of nature. Fires, for example, are fueled by a combination of favorable conditions such as the accumulation of deadwood. After a strong initial blaze they generally die out when they occur in areas where the trees are too far apart for the flames to move from one to another (the equivalent of your social distancing), or where the tree species are less flammable (immunized against fire).</p>
<p>The situation is pretty much the same with natural epidemics. They appear then keep spreading until contagion is slowed when the majority of infected people fail to contaminate others – because they don’t encounter any (thanks to social distancing and quarantine), or because the people they meet have acquired immunity (during a previous infection or by vaccination). If the infection rate slows, the epidemic will fade out and eventually disappear.</p>
<h2>So what really matters most is learning how to avoid the next of your fellow viruses?</h2>
<p>Yes indeed, because it’s not a question of whether the next cross-species virus will threaten humans, but of <em>when</em>.</p>
<p>Will you be ready? You’ll need to react quickly, because more and more epidemics have spread from wild animals <a href="https://theconversation.com/lemergence-des-nouvelles-epidemies-saccelere-comment-y-faire-face-140568">in recent years</a>, and your societies on several continents have already had a taste of some of my cousin viruses…</p>
<p>We emerging viruses have killed millions of humans, sometimes striking at random and sometimes targeting specific categories – the most physically vulnerable, in the present case. We’ve jeopardized your economic and political systems, locked you up in your homes in fear and <a href="https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/covid-top-10-current-conspiracy-theories/">prompted the craziest conspiracy theories</a>. What lessons have you learned?</p>
<h2>What do you have in store for us in the future?</h2>
<p>I’d be hard put to answer that question: my numerous offspring and I infect and mutate at random. If you survive my presence in your body and recover, will you be immunized against my return? I don’t know and don’t care. Will you be able to keep me at a distance with your masks and your social distancing during the second wave or third wave? That’s what we’ll find out together.</p>
<p>One thing’s for sure: I won’t be exactly the same from one year to the next. Remember, we viruses mutate. And if we’re very numerous – for example, when millions of humans are infected, which is the case at the moment – our mutations are more numerous too.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-origins-genome-analysis-suggests-two-viruses-may-have-combined-134059">Coronavirus origins: genome analysis suggests two viruses may have combined</a>
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<p>Most mutations result in less viable, less contagious or less virulent strains that soon die out. But, less frequently, mutations can lead to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/world/covid-mutation.html">more contagious or deadlier strains</a>. Although these more dangerous mutations are unusual among coronaviruses, the harder you find it to keep us in check, the more prolific we become, and – logically – the greater the chances of a more dangerous strain emerging…</p>
<p>But rest assured: no virus becomes so deadly that it wipes out its host population. Quite simply because that would mean destroying its own resources, ecosystem and environment – destroying itself, in other words. I may not be intelligent, but I’m not so stupid that I’d destroy my own environment. Who would be that crazy?</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Created in 2007 to help accelerate and share scientific knowledge on key societal issues, the Axa Research Fund has been supporting nearly 600 projects around the world conducted by researchers from 54 countries. To learn more, visit the site of the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org/en/">Axa Research Fund</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was ranslated from the French by Sally Laruelle for <a href="http://www.fastforword.fr/en">Fast ForWord</a> and Leighton Walter Kille of The Conversation France.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150402/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Franck Courchamp ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The SARS-CoV-2 virus at the origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is one ten-thousandth of a millimeter in diameter. How can such a microscopic organism have such an immense impact on global health?Franck Courchamp, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Université Paris-SaclayLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387102020-07-30T12:11:04Z2020-07-30T12:11:04ZDon’t blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346724/original/file-20200709-62-uc4lv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4799%2C3058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are cats really to blame for the worldwide loss of biodiversity?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/homeless-cats-in-the-street-royalty-free-image/626427276">Dzurag/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of conservationists claim cats are a <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-cat-one-year-110-native-animals-lock-up-your-pet-its-a-killing-machine-138412">zombie apocalypse for biodiversity</a> that need to be removed from the outdoors by “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167411/cat-wars">any means necessary</a>” – coded language for shooting, trapping and poisoning. Various media outlets have <a href="https://gizmodo.com/we-have-to-do-something-about-outdoor-cats-1834252423">portrayed cats</a> as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/opinion/sunday/the-evil-of-the-outdoor-cat.html">murderous superpredators</a>. Australia has even declared an official <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-war-on-feral-cats-shaky-science-missing-ethics-47444">“war” against cats</a>. </p>
<p>Moral panics emerge when people perceive an existential threat to themselves, society or the environment. When in the grip of a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420">moral panic</a>, the ability to think clearly and act responsibly is compromised. While the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">moral panic over cats</a> arises from valid concerns over threats to native species, it obscures the real driver: humanity’s exploitative treatment of the natural world. Crucially, errors of scientific reasoning also underwrite this false crisis.</p>
<h2>The (shaky) case against cats</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1633">Conservationists</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/09/essay-to-save-birds-should-we-kill-off-cats/">media</a> often claim that cats are a main contributor to a <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250062185">mass extinction</a>, a catastrophic loss of species due to human activities, like habitat degradation and the killing of wildlife. </p>
<p>As an interdisciplinary team of scientists and ethicists studying animals in conservation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">we examined this claim</a> and found it wanting. It is true that like any other predator, cats can suppress the populations of their prey. Yet the extent of this effect is ecologically complex. </p>
<p>The potential impact of cats differs between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032">urban environments, small islands and remote deserts</a>. When <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025970">humans denude regions of vegetation</a>, small animals are particularly at risk from cats because they have no shelter in which to hide. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In a 2019 study, cat remains were found in 19.8% of coyote scat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/coyote-carrying-cat-royalty-free-image/93419185">jhayes44/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Small animals are similarly vulnerable when humans kill apex predators that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv100">normally would suppress cat densities and activity</a>. For instance, in the U.S., cats are a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/urban-coyotes-eat-lot-garbageand-cats-180974461/">favorite meal for urban coyotes</a>, who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075718">moderate feline impact</a>; and in Australia, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02207.x">dingoes hunt wild cats</a>, which relieves pressure on native small animals. </p>
<p>Add in contrary evidence and the case against cats gets even shakier. For instance, in some ecological contexts, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/2102-birds-glad-cats-eat-rats.html">cats contribute to the conservation of endangered birds</a>, by preying on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00285.x">rats and mice</a>. There are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WR19181">documented cases of coexistence</a> between cats and native prey species. </p>
<p>The fact is, cats play <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12103">different predatory roles</a> in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/08/australian-cats-and-foxes-may-not-deserve-their-bad-rep">different natural and humanized landscapes</a>. Scientists cannot assume that because cats are a problem for some wildlife in some places, they are a problem in every place. </p>
<h2>Faulty scientific reasoning</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13527">most recent publication</a> in the journal Conservation Biology, we examine an error of reasoning that props up the moral panic over cats. </p>
<p>Scientists do not simply collect data and analyze the results. They also establish a logical argument to explain what they observe. Thus, the reasoning behind a factual claim is equally important to the observations used to make that claim. And it is this reasoning about cats where claims about their threat to global biodiversity founder. In our analysis, we found it happens because many scientists take specific, local studies and overgeneralize those findings to the world at large. </p>
<p>Even when specific studies are good overall, projecting the combined “results” onto the world at large can cause unscientific overgeneralizations, particularly when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.01.003">ecological context is ignored</a>. It is akin to pulling a quote out of context and then assuming you understand its meaning. </p>
<h2>Ways forward</h2>
<p>So how might citizens and scientists chart a way forward to a more nuanced understanding of cat ecology and conservation?</p>
<p>First, those examining this issue on all sides can acknowledge that both the well-being of cats and the survival of threatened species are legitimate concerns. </p>
<p>Second, cats, like any other predator, affect their ecological communities. Whether that impact is good or bad is a complex value judgment, not a scientific fact. </p>
<p>Third, there is a need for a more rigorous approach to the study of cats. Such an approach must be mindful of the importance of ecological context and avoid the pitfalls of faulty reasoning. It also means resisting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13126">the siren call of a silver (lethal) bullet</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A lazy day at a cat sanctuary in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lazy_day_at_the_Richmond_Animal_Protection_Society_cat_sanctuary.jpg">Canadianknowledgelover/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Yet there are many options to consider. Protecting apex predators and their habitat is fundamental to enabling <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-give-feral-cats-their-citizenship-45165">threatened species to coexist with cats</a>. In some cases, people may choose to segregate domestic cats from vulnerable wildlife: for instance, with <a href="http://www.feralcats.com/catio/">catios</a> where cats can enjoy the outdoors while being kept apart from wildlife. In other cases, unhomed cats may be managed with <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/community-cats-changing-legal-paradigm-management-so-called-%22pests%22">trap-neuter-return programs</a> and <a href="https://www.lanaicatsanctuary.org">sanctuaries</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, contrary to the framing of some scientists and journalists, the dispute over cats is not primarily about the science. Rather, it evokes an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13494">ongoing debate</a> over the ethics that ought to guide humanity’s relationship with other animals and nature.</p>
<p>This is the root of the moral panic over cats: the struggle to move beyond treating other beings with domination and control, toward fostering a relationship rooted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108648">compassion and justice</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://vetsites.tufts.edu/one-health-fellowship/2018/05/04/joann-lindenmayer-dvm-mph/">Joann Lindenmayer, DVM, MPH</a> is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University and contributed to this article.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arian Wallach receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on cats, and from Alley Cat Allies for a workshop on cats in 2017. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila and William S. Lynn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Framing cats as responsible for declines in biodiversity is based on faulty scientific logic and fails to account for the real culprit – human activity.William S. Lynn, Research Scientist, Clark UniversityArian Wallach, Lecturer, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology SydneyFrancisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1371512020-05-20T19:04:09Z2020-05-20T19:04:09ZWhy bats don’t get sick from the viruses they carry, but humans can<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/336212/original/file-20200519-152292-3nomu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=46%2C23%2C2161%2C1806&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bats are key pollinators and seed-spreaders, and keep pests away.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the first questions scientists ask when a new disease appears is, “Where did this come from?”</p>
<p>Many viruses jump from animals to humans, a phenomenon known as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.45">zoonotic spillover</a>.” Although it remains unclear which animal was the source of the current coronavirus pandemic, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7">all the attention is on bats</a>. </p>
<p>The transmission of viruses from bats to humans is not just a matter of a bat biting someone or licking their blood. (Bats do not suck blood as they do in vampire stories.) It is often a much more complex scenario that may involve an intermediary host. </p>
<p>Many other animals are also known to be repositories for human diseases. Rodents carry the plague, pigs transmit influenza and birds transport the West Nile virus. So, why are bats so often blamed for transmitting disease?</p>
<p>As a scientist who has spent years studying the evolution of bats in several countries in South America, North America and the Caribbean, I think that these night creatures are often the victims of misinformation. Most people are afraid of bats, and there is a tendency to connect them to bad things.</p>
<h2>Heating up</h2>
<p>One reason bats are blamed for disease has nothing to do with science. Bats are associated with vampires and horror stories, which causes fear and misunderstanding towards these flying creatures. </p>
<p>The other reasons are grounded in evidence. Bats are the second-most species-rich order of mammals. There are <a href="https://mammaldiversity.org/#Y2hpcm9wdGVyYSZnbG9iYWxfc2VhcmNoPXRydWUmbG9vc2U9dHJ1ZQ">more than 1,400 species distributed worldwide</a>, except in <a href="https://www.lynxeds.com/product/handbook-of-the-mammals-of-the-world-volume-9/">Antarctica</a>. They live in urban and natural areas, and they all have the potential to carry viruses. Bats are also mammals, and this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22975">relatedness to humans makes them more likely to be hosts of zoonoses</a> than birds and reptiles, for example. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/viruses-can-cause-global-pandemics-but-where-did-the-first-virus-come-from-94551">Viruses can cause global pandemics, but where did the first virus come from?</a>
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<p>Some bat species prefer to live in colonies, close to one another, creating a perfect setting for pathogens to spread between each other — and to other species who might also share the space. Bats are also the only mammals capable of true flight, making it easier for them to spread diseases through their guano (bat feces). </p>
<p>But what is particularly interesting is their tolerance to viruses, which exceeds that of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-019-0371-3">other mammals</a>. When bats fly, they release a great amount of energy, which increases their body temperature <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid2005.130539">to 38–41 C</a>. The pathogens that have evolved in bats are able to withstand these high temperatures. This poses a problem for humans because our immune system has evolved to use high temperatures — in the form of fevers — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2435.2010.01815.x">as a way to disable pathogens</a>. </p>
<h2>Seed dispersers</h2>
<p>Despite all the negative press bats receive, they make positive contributions to the environment and to our lives. </p>
<p>The majority of species feed on insects, helping protect crops from infestations. They are involved in seed dispersal, such as those from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184023">fig trees</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01650521.2016.1151244">silver palms</a>, and the pollination of many plants, including several commercial ones, such as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcp197">eucalyptus</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2019.01.004">agave</a>, which provide natural fibres and beverages, such as tequila and mescal. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-aussie-bats-wont-give-you-covid-19-we-rely-on-them-more-than-you-think-137168">No, Aussie bats won’t give you COVID-19. We rely on them more than you think</a>
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<p>Bats have also been used in scientific research to understand <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/evolutionary-adaptation-in-the-human-lineage-12397/">adaptive evolution</a> (how beneficial mutations become common in a population) and how ecosystems function. They have also be used in studies on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao0926">aging</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41568-018-0004-9">cancer</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-07824-2">immunity</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/11/3/036007">biomimetic engineering</a>. </p>
<p>And most importantly, bats might actually help to provide the solution for COVID-19 and other viruses. Bats do not get sick from many viruses that might kill humans, and research on how bats achieve this could hold the key to help us fight this and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tim.2013.05.005">future outbreaks</a>.</p>
<h2>‘Bad reputation?’</h2>
<p>It is clear that researchers around the world are doing whatever they can to report the origin of SARS-CoV-2. So far, the most accepted hypothesis is that the novel coronavirus originated in bats. The genome of the virus found in humans is 96 per cent identical to one found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7">in bats</a>. But are these findings being reported the way they should? </p>
<p>Not always, from the bat’s perspective, at least. </p>
<p>Complex scientific studies are being published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jmv.25722">very fast</a>, which is understandable considering the urgency of this new disease. However, this hastiness is leading to mistrust, confusion and sometimes even fear and hatred towards these flying mammals. </p>
<p>In some places, this growing “bad reputation” has led to the intentional and needless killing of bats in the name of protecting <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1126/science.abb3088">public health</a>. But this could have negative consequences: disturbing hibernating bats causes abnormal arousal <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.2307/2404227">and stress</a>, which could lead to the spread of new diseases. </p>
<p>But even if bats are proven to be the source of this virus, they are not to blame for the transfer of SARS-CoV-2 — humans are. We destroy natural habitats at a frenetic speed; we kill threatened species, changing entire food chains; we pollute the air, the water and the soil.</p>
<p>It is expected that new pathogens that were previously locked away in nature will come in contact with people and spread fast as people move around the world. The people who blame bats for COVID-19 should look in the mirror to see if the real vampire resides within.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Livia O. Loureiro does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bats get a lot of negative press, but they also make positive contributions to the environment and to our lives.Livia O. Loureiro, Research Fellow, The Cente for Applied Genomics — Sickkids Hospital, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1267532019-11-13T12:00:37Z2019-11-13T12:00:37ZRediscovery of ‘extinct’ mouse deer highlights Vietnam’s wealth of bizarre but threatened wildlife<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301316/original/file-20191112-178484-1drq3ox.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2922&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Until its rediscovery, the silver-backed chevrotain was among Global Wildlife Conservation's 25 "most wanted lost" species.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://press.nature.com/camera-trap-evidence-that-the-silver-backed-chevrotain-tragulus-/17329412">SIE/GWC/Leibniz-IZW/NCNP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As humans encroach ever more on the planet, nature is running out of hiding places. Species thought lost for decades are <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-extinct-species-seem-to-be-returning-from-the-dead-113067">making a regular habit of returning from the dead</a>, while science’s newfound access to nature’s nooks and crannies is fuelling a boom in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-theres-been-a-boom-in-discovering-new-species-despite-a-biodiversity-crisis-99475">discovery of entirely new ones</a>.</p>
<p>Vietnam has seen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/travel/vietnam-wildlife-species-ecotravel-tourism.html">far more than its fair share</a> of resurrections and discoveries. It is a treasure trove of weird and wonderful wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. But hunting, habitat destruction and the black market are placing the future of many of these precious rare plants and animals under severe threat.</p>
<p>The country’s densely forested hills and <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?22871/The-Greater-Annamites-Ecoregion-Brochure/">unique mountain refuges</a> have for decades provided great cover for secretive species to flourish. The Annamite mountains that separate Vietnam from Laos house a <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?22871/The-Greater-Annamites-Ecoregion-Brochure/">particularly unique evergreen forest refuge</a> that survived the last ice age, allowing many rare plants and animals to evolve in isolation.</p>
<p>One of these rarities has now <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-1027-7">shown its face</a> after being thought lost to science. The silver-backed chevrotain, a tiny deer-like species the size of a large rabbit with small fangs, a grizzled coat, ochre front quarters and a white stripe running down its underbelly, was first discovered more than 100 years ago but then escaped the attention of scientists for 80 years.</p>
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<p>In 1990, scientists obtained a dead specimen from a local hunter near the coastal city of Nha Trang. But with no validated sightings in the 28 years since, many feared that an epidemic of snare hunting in the region had pushed the species, also known as the Vietnam mouse deer, to the brink of extinction – a fate that has befallen <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-10-southeast-asia-illegal-threat-wildlife.html">numerous others in the country</a>.</p>
<p>After using local knowledge of suspected sightings to set up camera traps in three Vietnamese provinces, more than 200 independent detections reveal that this chevrotain remains in the wild, although how close to extinction the species is remains unknown. This is a common problem – three other diminutive deer species have also <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180522123327.htm">been discovered</a> in Vietnam in the <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/?214555/a-rare-truong-son-muntjac-was-found-in-thua-thien-hue-saola-nature-reserve-after-10-years-not-found-in-the-wild">past 30 years alone</a>, but sightings are so rare that very little is known about any of them.</p>
<p>It’s not just deer that have been hiding in Vietnam’s dense landscapes. One of the most iconic recent discoveries was the rather bizarre <a href="https://www.savethesaola.org/the-saola/what-is-a-saola/">saola</a>, discovered in 1992. Measuring almost one metre tall, that such a large mammal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jmammal/article-pdf/79/2/394/2534028/79-2-394.pdf">apparently unfazed by humans</a> went unnoticed to science for so long is amazing in itself. It’s the <a href="http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/master.html?http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsite/0303/0303_feature.html">largest land-dwelling animal discovered</a> anywhere since 1937.</p>
<p>What makes the discovery of the saola particularly interesting is that we still do not know what it is related to. It is likely a member of the Bovidae – the family containing cloven-hoofed animals such as bison, cattle, sheep, antelopes and gazelles – but beyond that where it fits is anyone’s guess. It looks more like an African antelope than any bovine species from South-East Asia, with its two long curved horns, white face markings and multi-coloured tail.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301305/original/file-20191112-178511-7wl7up.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The saola is one of the world’s rarest large mammals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flickr.com/photos/globalwildlife/28560535993/">Global Wildlife Conservation/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Double discovery</h2>
<p>While Vietnam is renowned for its animal diversity, its plants should not be underestimated. During the period since the last sighting of the silver-backed chevrotain, an astonishing <a href="https://www.ipni.org">1,136 new species</a> of plants have been described from Vietnam, more than 20% of which are orchids.</p>
<p>Worthy of special mention among these are the alluring and brightly coloured slipper orchids. These orchids have a petal that evolution has modified into a pouch-like slipper to aid pollination. When insects fall into the open pouch while searching for nectar, the only way out is to squeeze their way through an opening at the back of the pouch, in the process depositing pollen from elsewhere and picking up more from the plant.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the black market is to thank for many recent discoveries of slipper orchid species. With 99% of South-East Asian tropical slipper orchids <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org">at risk of extinction</a>, their international trade requires a permit subject to the highest possible level of control – equivalent to the protection rhinos receive.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40529-018-0232-z">highly desired</a> by collectors, a booming illegal trade continues. Like many others, the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317952483_The_distribution_of_Paphiopedilum_vietnamense_and_its_current_status_in_the_wild">Vietnamese slipper orchid</a> was
identified from plants being traded on the black market before it was ever found in the wild. By this point it was selling for more than US$5,000 a plant, with nearly $1m worth being traded illegally in the first years after its discovery.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301312/original/file-20191112-178494-kwvztu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Vietnamese slipper orchid. Not to be confused with…</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paphiopedilum_vietnamense_(28012698658).jpg">Naoki Takebayashi/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The Vietnamese slipper orchid followed the path of many orchids before it. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/LV_Averyanov/publication/317318464_Endangered_Vietnamese_Paphiopedilums_Part_2_Paphiopedilum_delenatii/links/5931bc860f7e9beee7842e58/Endangered-Vietnamese-Paphiopedilums-Part-2-Paphiopedilum-delenatii.pdf">Delenat’s slipper orchid</a>, which also has a defining pink slipper, though less intense in colour, was itself thought extinct in the wild for 70 years after its initial discovery in 1922.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301313/original/file-20191112-178520-13pxcmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">…Delenat’s slipper orchid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/18619612@N04/42686491921">Naoki Takebayashi/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The situation changed in the early 1990s when plants started turning up on the international black market in the US, Europe and Japan. In these first few years, an estimated <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/LV_Averyanov/publication/317318464_Endangered_Vietnamese_Paphiopedilums_Part_2_Paphiopedilum_delenatii/links/5931bc860f7e9beee7842e58/Endangered-Vietnamese-Paphiopedilums-Part-2-Paphiopedilum-delenatii.pdf">six tonnes of the orchid</a> were stripped from the wild – an astronomical amount considering the weight of an individual plant. This flood of black market plants led scientists to mount an expedition, which eventually led to it being rediscovered in the wild, near the silver-backed chevrotain’s home.</p>
<h2>Uncertain future</h2>
<p>Regrettably, these scientific identifications have had little impact on the black market trade – both in orchids and other species. In fact, all of the species discussed in this article are either “critically endangered” according to the IUCN Red List of threatened species, or there is so little data that no determination can be made.</p>
<p>This begs the question: how many species have become <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-many-species-can-we-find-they-disappear-forever-180950184/">extinct before they were even discovered</a>? The clock is ticking down on Vietnam’s unique wildlife as its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/01/travel/vietnam-wildlife-species-ecotravel-tourism.html">forests empty</a>. Hunting and habitat destruction have decimated species across the country – in a single national reserve set aside for the saola and other rare animals, 23,000 snare traps were found in 2015 alone. Despite intensive surveys, no verifiable sighting of a saola has occurred since a photo was last taken of one in 2013. The country’s last known rhino was <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160920-we-know-exactly-how-the-vietnamese-javan-rhino-went-extinct">shot by poachers in 2010</a>, while bears, elephants and primates are barely hanging on.</p>
<p>That the silver-backed chevrotain has managed to dodge hunters’ snares thus far is some cause for optimism. The future of this tiny deer and other invaluable wildlife in the country hangs in the balance – and it’s up to us which way the pendulum swings.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1126753">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126753/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Roberts works for the University of Kent and is a Fellow of the Oxford Martin School's Programme on Illegal Wildlife Trade and Visiting Researcher at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. He receives funding from a number of sources including NERC, ESRC and the University of Kent. He is affiliated with the Alliance to Counter Crime, and is a member of the Illegal Wildlife Trade Advisory Group for the UK Government (Defra), the Cyber Enabled Wildlife Crime Priority Delivery Group (UK Police) and Academic Lead for the Global Wildlife Cybercrime Action Plan (INTERPOL/IFAW) . </span></em></p>This diminutive deer isn’t the only fantastical life form discovered in Vietnam. But hunting and habitat destruction threaten many with extinction.David Roberts, Reader in Biodiversity Conservation, University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140082019-03-21T06:44:25Z2019-03-21T06:44:25ZNSW election: where do the parties stand on brumby culling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265058/original/file-20190321-93063-1k3xosw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Feral horses have severely damaged the landscape in Kosciuszko National Park.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Travelstine</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The future management of New South Wales’s national parks is one of the issues on the line in Saturday’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/mark-latham-in-the-upper-house-a-coalition-minority-government-the-nsw-election-is-nearly-upon-us-and-its-going-to-be-a-wild-ride-113119">state election</a>. Other states will be watching the outcome closely.</p>
<p>Depending on who wins, the outcome for Kosciuszko National Park spans from restoration and recovery to ongoing environmental decay, with feral horses given priority over native species.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/low-key-nsw-election-likely-to-reveal-a-city-country-divide-112968">Low-key NSW election likely to reveal a city-country divide</a>
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<p>All political parties have been well informed about the science behind feral horses in the Australian Alps. The <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emr.12357">peer-reviewed literature</a> shows that:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>feral horse impacts put multiple species at greater risk of extinction</p></li>
<li><p>streams and bogs are degraded, threatening water quality, and will require restoration</p></li>
<li><p>even small numbers of horses lead to cumulative environmental degradation</p></li>
<li><p>a range of high and low elevation areas are severely degraded by feral horses; it is not clear whether any areas can withstand horse impacts</p></li>
<li><p>rehoming and fertility control are not effective control methods when horses number in the thousands and are hard to reach</p></li>
<li><p>aerial culling is humane, effective, and cheaper than other methods.</p></li>
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<p>But despite the clarity of recommendations emerging from research, political parties have taken a broad range of approaches.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265053/original/file-20190321-93036-pzxo8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A feral horse exclusion fence. But which side of the fence are the major parties on?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Liberal/National Coalition</h2>
<p>The Liberal/National coalition has pledged to enact its <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bills/Pages/bill-details.aspx?pk=3518">Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Bill</a>, which was passed by the state parliament last year and aims to “recognise the heritage value of sustainable wild horse populations within parts of Kosciuszko National Park”. </p>
<p>This legislation would ensure several thousand feral horses remain in the park, potentially compromising the conservation goals of the park’s <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/research-and-publications/publications-search/kosciuszko-national-park-plan-of-management">management plan</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/passing-the-brumby-bill-is-a-backward-step-for-environmental-protection-in-australia-97920">Passing the brumby bill is a backward step for environmental protection in Australia</a>
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<p>This month, Deputy Premier John Barilaro <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-05/brumby-backflip-claims-rejected-by-barilaro/10872306">said</a> the government would “immediately” reduce horse numbers by 50%, through trapping, rehoming, fertility control, and relocating horses to “less sensitive” areas. Although he appeared to endorse an ultimate population target of 600 feral horses in front of an audience that was receptive to that idea, under pressure from the pro-brumby lobby, he later clarified that the coalition would aim to keep 3,000-4,000 feral horses in Kosciuszko.</p>
<h2>Labor</h2>
<p>Labor, along with the Greens and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party, has pledged to repeal the Kosciuszko Wild Horse Heritage Bill if it wins the election, and has <a href="https://wp.me/a3KLMh-61">committed A$24 million</a> to restore the national park. </p>
<p>Its <a href="https://www.michaeldaley.com.au/labor_unveils_comprehensive_plan_to_rebuild_national_parks_in_nsw">six-point national parks restoration plan</a> bans aerial culling, instead proposing to control horses using rehoming, while expanding research on fertility control. </p>
<p>Labor’s plan also mentions active management of feral horses in sensitive ecosystems, and ensuring large horse populations do not starve to death. It plans to achieve these two goals by trapping and rehoming brumbies. Labor also plans to keep a “smaller population” of feral horses in areas within the national park “where degradation is less critical”.</p>
<h2>Greens</h2>
<p>The NSW Greens has arguably the most <a href="https://wp.me/a3KLMh-62">evidence-based policy</a>, aiming to reduce horse numbers by 90% in three years, with a longer-term goal of full eradication. </p>
<p>This means national parks would be managed for native Australian species. That is important in NSW, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nsws-no-cull-brumby-bill-will-consign-feral-horses-to-an-even-crueller-fate-96905">where only 10% of the state has been allocated to protected areas</a>, well below international standards of 17%. They would achieve this reduction using all humane methods currently available, including trapping, rehoming, mustering, and ground-based and aerial shooting. </p>
<p>The Greens would also fund rehabilitation of damaged habitat, and has flagged <a href="https://greens.org.au/vic/stopinvasives">substantial funding</a> for conservation initiatives. </p>
<h2>Shooters, Fishers and Farmers</h2>
<p>The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party <a href="https://reclaimkosci.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/NSW-election-Shooters-Farmers-Fishers.pdf">supports</a> immediate action to reduce feral horse numbers using humane methods, including ground shooting, but not aerial culling. </p>
<p>The party, which holds one lower house seat and has two upper house members, has announced no plans for restoration of the national park.</p>
<h2>Animal Justice Party</h2>
<p>The Animal Justice Party, which has just one upper house member in the parliament, has <a href="https://animaljusticeparty.org/policieslist/animals/brumbies/">endorsed</a> “non-lethal control measures” in areas that are clearly being degraded by feral horses. It says this should be achieved entirely using fertility control and relocation. The party has also described brumby culling proposals as “horrific” and called for urgent national legislation to protect them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-brumbies-evoke-such-passion-its-all-down-to-the-high-countrys-cultural-myth-makers-97933">Why do brumbies evoke such passion? It's all down to the high country's cultural myth-makers</a>
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<p>There is pressure from pro-brumby lobbyists to keep feral horse populations in Guy Fawkes, Barrington Tops, Oxley Wild Rivers, the Blue Mountains, and other NSW national parks. In Victoria, a pro-brumby pressure group will <a href="https://www.comcourts.gov.au/file/Federal/P/VID1569/2018/actions">take Parks Victoria to the Federal court later this year</a> to prevent removal of a small but damaging horse population on the Bogong High Plains in the Alpine National Park. </p>
<p>When NSW voters decide the fate of Kosciuszko National Park on Saturday, their verdict could have broader ramifications for protected areas throughout Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Don Driscoll receives funding from the Herman Slade Foundation, OEH NSW Environmental Grants program, DELWP Vic, and Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC. He is President of the Ecological Society of Australia, Director of the Centre of Integrative Ecology and Director of TechnEcology at Deakin University. Don is a member of the Ecological Society of Australia and Society for Conservation Biology.</span></em></p>Feral horses are a clear point of division between parties in this weekend’s election. Labor has pledged to repeal the Coalition government’s bill to preserve large numbers of brumbies.Don Driscoll, Professor in Terrestrial Ecology, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.