tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ethiopian-wolf-34973/articles
Ethiopian wolf – The Conversation
2021-06-17T16:05:21Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162768
2021-06-17T16:05:21Z
2021-06-17T16:05:21Z
Fossil find introduces a new ancestor to the jackal family tree
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406389/original/file-20210615-3832-b4k03q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Fossil of the skull and
mandibles of the new species.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alberto Valenciano</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <em>family <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/canine">Canidae</a></em> is an instantly recognisable group of carnivores that includes dogs, wolves, jackals and foxes. It originated more than 35 million years ago in North America and migrated to the rest of the planet only about 7.5 million years ago. </p>
<p>Jackals are among the most remarkable and sneaky canids. They sit somewhere between the red fox and the Australian dingo in terms of shape and size – for instance, the average side-striped jackal of both sexes weighs 7-12kg and stands 40cm tall. They’re generally known for their scavenging activities in open savanna and grassland ecosystems. Jackals are omnivorous (eating both meat and plants); they scavenge and actively hunt and are considered nocturnal, most active in the early evening and at dawn. Their prey includes small vertebrates like rabbits, and they also eat birds, eggs, fruit and seeds and have been known to go through people’s trash. </p>
<p>Today there are five jackal species worldwide – four of them in Africa. These African species are the <a href="https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_side_striped_jackal.html">side-striped jackal</a>, the <a href="https://www.sanbi.org/animal-of-the-week/black-backed-jackal/">black-backed jackal</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/African-golden-wolf">African golden wolf</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/battling-to-save-the-ethiopian-wolf-africas-rarest-carnivore-76328">Ethiopian wolf</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A dog-like animal with pointed ears, a fluffy tail with a white tip and a light stripe along its side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406477/original/file-20210615-25-jtmp36.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A side-striped jackal. The new find is its direct ancestor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Fourie/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They were all classified within the genus <em>Canis</em> (which also includes wolves and domestic dogs), but recent DNA analyses have re-classified them into different genera. In other words, they are close relatives: they have the same evolutive relationship as, for example, the one between lions and cougars. Scientists know very little about their evolutionary origin. Until now, it was thought that <em>Eucyon davisi</em>, a North American canid that lived between 10 million and 5 million years ago, was the common ancestor of all wolves, jackals, and coyotes. </p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlab022/6288410?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Our research</a>, conducted at a rich fossil site about 120km outside Cape Town in South Africa, changes that: we now know there’s another ancestor in the mix. We’ve described a new species of canid, named <em>Eucyon khoikhoi</em>, based on fossils found at the Langebaanweg site, which dates back to about 5.2 million years ago. This provides novel and vital information about the origin of jackals, showing that jackals appeared and established themselves in Africa in at least the last 5 million years. These animals have evolved and adapted to the changing environment, allowing them to survive.</p>
<p>The name of the new species honours the heritage of the Khoikhoi (KhoeKhoen) people, an indigenous people who were among the first to live in South Africa. The name allows us to recognise the importance of the Khoikhoi’s culture and heritage.</p>
<h2>The site</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/gigantic-wolverines-otters-the-size-of-wolves-fossils-offer-fresh-insights-into-the-past-140752">Langebaanweg</a> lies 120km north of Cape Town, on South Africa’s west coast. It is the site of one of the world’s richest and most diverse terrestrial and aquatic fossil vertebrate ecosystems from the late Miocene (about 6 million years ago) and early Pliocene (5.2 million years ago) epochs.</p>
<p>The site is home to fossil remains of more than 250 distinct species including otters, sabretooth felids, bears, hyaenids, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, wild pigs, and a wide variety of birds, including parrots, ostriches, and penguins, as well as fishes, sharks, rays, skates, seals, and cetaceans. Langebaanweg continues to shed light on the evolution of several mammal groups in Africa and improves our knowledge of them as they spread and diversified through the continent. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gigantic-wolverines-otters-the-size-of-wolves-fossils-offer-fresh-insights-into-the-past-140752">Gigantic wolverines, otters the size of wolves: fossils offer fresh insights into the past</a>
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<p><em>Eucyon khoikhoi</em> fossils were unearthed at the site by palaeontologist Brett Q. Hendey and his team in the 1970s, though they weren’t identified as a new species until now. We studied both these fossils, which are part of the Iziko Museum of South Africa’s collection, and some that we newly unearthed at the Langebaanweg site.</p>
<p>Iziko’s sample comprises more than 50 fossils. These include a very well-preserved, nearly complete skull, several jaws, deciduous (milk) teeth, parts of the neck, forelegs and hind legs. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two people, one in a red shirt and a brown hat, the other in a tan hat and a pink shirt, are using spades in a small cordoned off area against a backdrop of trees and hills." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406393/original/file-20210615-19-1689hiv.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr Romala Govender and Dr Alberto Valenciano digging in Langebaanweg in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Angus Rayners</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By studying the proportions of the mandibles and long bones of these fossils from the site we estimated that <em>Eucyon khoikhoi</em> weighed 9kg on average and that it was an omnivorous scavenger, similar to the living side-striped jackal. </p>
<p>Another novelty of the research is that it represents the first evolutive analysis of medium-size canids from the Late Miocene and Pliocene together with a wide sample of living jackals and wolves, with a special emphasis within the African fossils. Essentially, it’s the first time that the genus <em>Eucyon</em> is linked with both an African species, the side-striped jackal, and North American and European species through the black-backed jackal and wolves.</p>
<p>This is a particularly important result of our research: the morphological (physical) traits of <em>E. khoikhoi</em> indicate a direct relationship with the side-striped jackal and confirms the presence of this group in Africa more than 5 million years ago.</p>
<p>So, how does this new species fit in with other canids and their paths around the world?</p>
<h2>Three events</h2>
<p>Medium-sized canids have an intricate evolutive history. Three main migration events have occurred since canids first left North America about 7.5 million years ago.</p>
<p>The oldest canid outside North America is <em>Canis cipio</em> from the Spanish localities of Concud and Los Mansuetos, about 7.5 million years ago. That’s the first event.</p>
<p>Then came the second event, between 6.2 million and 5.5 million years ago, when three new canid species appeared simultaneously in different parts of the globe: <em>Eucyon debonisi</em> in western Spain, <em>Eucyon monticinensis</em> in Italy, and <em>Eucyon intrepidus</em>, in Kenya and Ethiopia.</p>
<p>These first fossil species outside North America are rare and not well known; their evolutive relationship with extinct and extant relatives is unknown. </p>
<p>The third event starts with the new species <em>Eucyon khoikhoi</em>. This marks a critical moment in the evolution of medium-size jackal-like canids 5 million years ago, when they began to diversify outside North America. Later, they become more diverse and common in Eurasia and Africa, until they culminated in the four living species of jackals in Africa.</p>
<p>This is an exciting find that adds to our understanding of jackals’ ancient origins and how they developed. Future research will help us learn more about these extinct carnivores from South Africa’s west coast – and, hopefully, shed even more light on the ancestors of today’s jackals.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alberto Valenciano Vaquero receives funding from DST-NFR Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (COE2018-09POST and
COE2019-PD07) as well as the “Juan de la Cierva Formación” program (FJC2018-036669-I), from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jorge Morales Romero receives funding from Spanish Ministerio de Economıa y Competitividad
(Research Projects PGC2018-094122-B-100)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Romala Govender receives funding from NRF/AOP (UID 9984 and UID 117782).</span></em></p>
Jackals appeared and established themselves in Africa in at least the last five million years. These animals have evolved and adapted to the changing environment, allowing them to survive.
Alberto Valenciano Vaquero, Postdoctoral fellow, Universidad de Zaragoza
Jorge Morales Romero, Research Professor, Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC)
Romala Govender, Curator of Cenozoic Palaeontology, Research and Exhibitions, Iziko Museums of South Africa; Honorary Research associate Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/150423
2021-03-07T14:36:31Z
2021-03-07T14:36:31Z
Conservation hope: Many wildlife species can recover if given a chance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388082/original/file-20210305-23-6tnnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C25%2C4298%2C2721&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis), lives in scattered populations across distant mountain ranges in Ethiopia, and its remarkable resilience suggests recovery is possible if threats like habitat loss and degradation can be kept at bay.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is real and justified concern about the state of our world’s ecosystems. Satellite imagery reveals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07183-6">few places left untouched by humanity</a>. As the global human population and our overall consumption continue to grow in concert with the upheaval of our <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/">climate systems</a>, the outlook for non-human species seems grim.</p>
<p>In response, scientists have tried to measure the state of global biodiversity. One of the biggest impact efforts has been the <a href="https://www.livingplanetindex.org/home/index">Living Planet Index (LPI)</a>, an ambitious project that compiles population trends for more than 4,000 vertebrate species around the world. </p>
<p>According to the LPI, the average population has declined by more than 50 per cent since 1970. The most common and intuitive interpretation of this is that the average animal population is less than half the size it was 50 years ago — <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/09/world/wwf-report-species-decline-climate-scn-intl-scli/index.html">and so it has been widely reported in the media</a>. A number of other global studies concur that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704949114">the situation</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1684-3">is dire</a>.</p>
<p>So it may come as some surprise that a growing number of influential studies, at both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1269-4">the continental</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13242">and global</a> scales, find that there is no average change to the local abundance of animal species. This has fuelled a heated debate about how to reconcile <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2017.12.021">contrasting claims</a> of the magnitude of the threat to biodiversity.</p>
<p>The answer to this debate is important for our understanding of how humans are reshaping the world’s biodiversity. Several of us wondered whether the conflicting results were because of methodology. In our investigation, we focused on the LPI, which calculates the aggregated change for all wildlife populations that have data in a given year based on the mean of the population trends. Unfortunately, means are notoriously sensitive to extreme data points. Importantly, some populations have been monitored many times since the 1970s, but many have only been surveyed two or three times.</p>
<h2>Measurement matters</h2>
<p>And indeed, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2920-6">methods do matter, a lot</a>. When one removes the most extreme 354 collapsing populations from the near 14,700 populations analyzed (so, dropping a measly 2.4 per cent), an average 56 per cent decline since 1970 changed to about a zero per cent decline.</p>
<p>There is a small set of populations that seem to be doing extraordinarily badly. For the rest of the vertebrate populations in the database, roughly half are increasing, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12669">often from past lows</a>, like humpback whales in the North Pacific. Half are decreasing, even from past lows, like right whales in the North Atlantic.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/1409030-animals-wildlife-wwf-decline-science-world">more-than-50-per-cent global decline statistic</a> widely reported in the media is driven by very few, but very extreme, populations.</p>
<p>Importantly, the extreme trends driving the mean tended to be those with less data. And this may go some way to resolving the debate: several of the influential papers reporting less extreme overall changes intentionally left out populations with few observations, because they were felt to be unreliable.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An underwater photograph of a humpback whale" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C6%2C4459%2C2930&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/388080/original/file-20210305-17-106zgnw.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A humpback whale calf. Humpback whale populations are increasing in the North Pacific.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A detailed global picture</h2>
<p>Of course, trying to summarize the state of the world’s vertebrate biodiversity with a single number entirely masks the complicated picture of how different species and regions are faring. Entire groups of related species are in significant decline in some broad regions, such as land birds in the Indo-Pacific. Other groups may be improving, such as land birds in Asia and Europe. In total, 17 per cent of the species groups examined could be undergoing broad declines. </p>
<p>And even in regions that are demonstrably improving on average, a sizeable fraction of populations are still in decline. Entire groups of species indeed have poor prospects in an era of human ecological dominance, but others seem to be stabilizing or recovering from historic lows.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s still hard to predict which species will thrive and which won’t. Though our data sets are better than ever, even wealthy countries often only have good data for a limited set of species. Tellingly, most of those extreme, data-poor time trends that had outsized influence on the LPI came from poorly studied, biodiverse regions like the tropics. </p>
<p>The sad reality is that we don’t fully know how the Earth’s biological diversity is faring, because we have not invested enough in understanding this question.</p>
<h2>Accuracy and prevention</h2>
<p>And so, precaution is prudent. Logically, most species on Earth will not fare well when their habitat is destroyed, filled with ecologically novel predators and pathogens or over-harvested, but our results suggest to us that many can recover if given a chance. </p>
<p>Many species are happy to live cheek-to-jowl with us: think of the many birds that may visit your backyard feeder or the opportunistic mammals that can thrive in urban environments like skunks, raccoons and coyotes. The apparent balance in population trends suggests that we need to better identify where species are managing to thrive alongside humans, and why, so that we can direct our resources to replicate this success everywhere. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CpoqOnlyVEU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">David Attenborough describes raccoon life in the city.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And there’s hope we can identify those species and those places. The five-decade-old volunteer-based <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/bird-surveys/landbird/north-american-breeding/overview.html">North American Breeding Bird Survey</a> has been indispensable for guiding conservation. </p>
<p>Opportunistic species observations through citizen science initiatives — like <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird</a>, <a href="https://www.e-butterfly.org/">eButterfly</a> and <a href="https://inaturalist.ca/">iNaturalist</a> — are growing exponentially. Our ability to work with these big (and messy) datasets <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.04.012">is also improving</a> thanks to advances in computing power and analytical techniques. We will soon be able to pinpoint where biodiversity is doing better (and where it is doing worse) with much greater accuracy.</p>
<p>Hope is an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.11.098">effective motivator</a>, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/02/other-side-catastrophe/617865/">motivation is always welcome</a>, since there remains a lot that needs to be done to secure our natural heritage for future generations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arne Mooers is a non-governmental science member of the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), an arms-length body that assesses species at risk for the federal government.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Leung is the UNESCO Chair for Dialogues on Sustainability. Brian Leung receives funding from NSERC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Hargreaves and Dan Greenberg 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>
Reports of global biodiversity doom hide a more complex and encouraging picture. Conservation efforts can be targeted with more nuance species population data.
Dan Greenberg, Postdoctoral research associate, Simon Fraser University
Anna Hargreaves, Professor of Conservation Ecology & Evolution, McGill University
Arne Mooers, Professor, Biodiversity, Phylogeny & Evolution, Simon Fraser University
Brian Leung, Associate professor, McGill University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/76328
2017-05-10T13:38:19Z
2017-05-10T13:38:19Z
Battling to save the Ethiopian wolf – Africa’s rarest carnivore
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168706/original/file-20170510-28055-1bkjxnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tight social bonds help Ethiopian wolves protect their families and territories.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© by lorenzfischer.photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most members of the Canidae family, such as wolves, dogs and foxes, are versatile and opportunistic animals, thriving in many habitats and some even living in urban and suburban settings. In contrast, Ethiopian wolves are highly <a href="http://ethiopianwolf.org/wolves">specialised</a> to life in the <a href="http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/ecoregions/ethiopian_highlands.cfm">Ethiopian highlands</a>. Also called the “Roof of Africa”, it <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/ecoregions/at1008">encompasses</a> 80% of Africa’s land above 3,000m.</p>
<p>They are remarkable rodent hunters, with long muzzles and slender legs. Their tight social bonds help them protect their precious family territories from competitors. For a canid of their size (about 14-20kg - the weight of a medium-sized dog), Ethiopian wolves are unique at surviving on small prey (most highland rodent species weigh less than 100g) and are solitary foragers. With their striking red coats and black and white markings, they appear physically distant from their closest relative, the grey wolf.</p>
<p>These qualities made them successful colonisers of an expanding ecosystem as the African glaciers retreated during the end of the <a href="http://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html">last ice age</a>, but paradoxically have contributed to their demise. </p>
<p>Due to a warming continent, in the last 100,000 years the tree line has gone up by 1,000m encroaching on open <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4647977-island-africa">Afroalpine grasslands and meadows</a>. Due to the pressure of humans, livestock and domestic dogs, the wolves are now restricted to tiny mountain pockets on either side of the Great Rift Valley and are constantly being pushed up the slopes.</p>
<p>Although they were never particularly common, today there are <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/3748/0">fewer than</a> 500 adult wolves in the mountains of Bale, Arsi, Simien and Wollo, over half of whom are harboured within the <a href="http://balemountains.org/">Bale Mountains National Park</a>. This makes them Africa’s rarest, and most threatened carnivore species. As an indication this is 10 times fewer than <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/12436/0">African wild dogs</a> and fifty times rarer than <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/15951/0">lions</a>.</p>
<p>But there is hope. The <a href="http://ethiopianwolf.org/">Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme</a> and its Ethiopian partners continue to put all their strength into fighting the wolves’ various challenges through awareness, education and science-led approaches to disease and population management. </p>
<h2>The challenges</h2>
<p>The challenges they face are diverse.</p>
<p>It’s not for lack of food that wolf numbers are small. Their environments harbour a particularly high rodent biomass, some <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.1995.tb01041.x/abstract">3,000kg of rats</a> per km2 in some meadows. The wolves live in large family packs, where all patrol and scent mark the boundaries of small communal territories. This protects their rich food patches from neighbouring wolves and other carnivores such as spotted hyenas and jackals.</p>
<p>The most immediate and real <a href="http://www.ethiopianwolf.org/threats">threat</a> to wolves is in fact domestic animals. While many highland wildlife species have been able to coexist with highland shepherds and their livestock, domestic dogs bring an additional challenge.</p>
<p>The dogs not only compete for food but, as dogs and wolves are inexorably drawn to each other and interact, dogs transmit rabies and canine distemper virus to their wild cousins. This has the potential to decimate wolf populations in a short period of time. In extreme cases dogs may even mate and hybridise with the wolves, threatening the genetic integrity of this rare and endemic canid.</p>
<p>Disease ultimately determines the dynamics of the last remaining wolf havens. Three out of four wolves typically die in populations <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acv.12036/abstract">hit by outbreaks</a>, and may result in local extinctions. </p>
<p>In the last three years, populations in the Bale Mountains <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4412237/">have endured</a> back-to-back rabies and distemper outbreaks. Smaller populations are at even greater risk. At the end of last year disease decimated the <a href="http://ethiopianwolf.org/news#let-s-save-the-wolves-of-delanta">smallest wolf population</a> in Wollo, now feared on the brink of extinction.</p>
<p>The other great threat to the wolves is Ethiopia’s a changing landscape due to farming. Expanding populations and the need for arable land bring about an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605303000139">incessant pressure</a> on natural habitats. </p>
<p>By and large the people that live in the Ethiopian highlands are relatively <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2009/11/saving-the-worlds-rarest-wolf/">tolerant of wildlife</a>, but their priority is survival. Unless their livelihoods can be brought into line with sustainable practices, the meadows and moors they need for grazing, to gather firewood and tend their crops, will soon be degraded to bare rock. </p>
<h2>Bouncing back</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, there are reasons to be optimistic about the future of the Ethiopian Wolf. In the <a href="http://www.ethiopianwolf.org/">Bale Mountains the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme</a> have vaccinated over 80,000 dogs to prevent rabies getting across to wolves. And when the deadly virus strikes, swift interventions to vaccinate the wolves have taken place. </p>
<p>There are early signs that the wolves in Bale are bouncing back. By the end of January, nearly all of 18 focal packs monitored – and most recently vaccinated – had bred successfully. As many as seven pups were born to a dominant female and there were over 80 healthy pups located in the Bale Mountains alone. It was also encouraging to see some of the larger packs split, increasing the number of breeding families.</p>
<p>In a shift from <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7112/full/nature05177.html">reactive vaccination</a> of Ethiopian wolves following outbreaks to a preventive approach, an oral vaccine <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27543453">has been</a> trialled. This will offer protection from future rabies outbreaks.</p>
<h2>More to be done</h2>
<p>Rare, ecological specialists such as these wolves, will continue to be threatened as environments change and human populations grow. That means that heavy intervention is needed to secure their survival. </p>
<p>A critical factor in their preservation is the commitment and dedication to finding common ground between the needs of people and wildlife. For example, Ethiopia’s long-term conservation view is that within protected areas there should be no domestic dogs. More can be done to facilitate this, such as improved night protection for people’s livestock with predator-proof enclosures. This would reduce their dependence on guard dogs and, in time, reduce the negative impact of dogs on wild carnivores.</p>
<p>Another key intervention would be to implement a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313093956_The_Role_of_Metapopulations_in_Conservation">metapopulation management</a> paradigm under which isolated populations are treated as part of a single (or meta) population and animals are trans-located between them. This enables recovery and a healthy flow of genes. </p>
<p>In the meantime, our vaccination work brings us closer to the local communities and provides a channel of communication to transmit our environmental education message.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudio Sillero receives funding from the Born Free Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Network, Fondation Segré, Ethiopian Public Health Institute, UK Animal Plant Health Authority, US Fish & Wildlife Agency, and others. He is Head of Conservation of the Born Free Foundation and Chair of the IUCN SSC Canid Specialist Group. </span></em></p>
A critical factor in the preservation of the Ethiopian wolf is the commitment and dedication to finding common ground between the needs of people and wildlife.
Claudio Sillero, Associate Professor of Conservation Biology, Deputy Director of the WildCRU, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/70427
2017-01-18T15:01:13Z
2017-01-18T15:01:13Z
Africa’s mammals may not be able to keep up with the pace of climate change
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152988/original/image-20170117-23050-1uxakwf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the climate changes and the needs of humans increase, lesser-known species like the Ethiopian wolf will face greater risk.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humans have decimated the world’s mammals over the last several thousand years and continue to do so today. Ghosts of mammoths, bison, horses, and saber-toothed cats haunt the Americas and Eurasia, casualties of expanding <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/281/1787/20133254">Upper Paleolithic populations</a> over the last approximately 100,000 years. Oceanic islands, such as the Hawaiian Islands, were once remote sanctuaries of biodiversity but have been reduced to impoverished faunas overrun with invasive species transported there by <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12488">ships and planes</a>.</p>
<p>Africa has largely been spared from this destruction, but even on this continent all is not well. The <a href="http://www.arkive.org/bluebuck/hippotragus-leucophaeus/">bluebuck</a>, an antelope native to southern Africa, was hunted to extinction around 1800 AD. This made it the continent’s first large mammal to disappear in historical times. </p>
<p>Other species in Africa seem destined for a similar fate – and while the decline of elephants, gorillas and rhinos garners weekly headlines in the press, many lesser-known species like the Ethiopian wolf and hirola are at an even greater risk. These already fragmented and fragile populations will compete for resources with a human population that the United Nations says is going to <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf">quadruple by 2100</a>.</p>
<p>Ominously looming over the direct conflict for space between wildlife and an expanding human population is climate change. In eastern Africa, droughts have increased in frequency over the last several decades. This has happened in parallel with human-induced warming of the Indian Ocean, which <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/9/e1500682.full">controls the region’s rainfall</a>. </p>
<p>In response to these developments, scientists in Africa and across the world have initiated a great deal of <a href="http://www.nature.com/nclimate/insight/africa-climate-change/index.html">research</a> into mitigating the effects of climate change on wildlife. This tide of research has led us to revisit some fundamental questions: how are mammal species’ distributions related to climate? How does climate sensitivity vary across different mammal groups? </p>
<p>Almost every study addressing these questions begins with the same assumption. That is, mammal distributions and communities today are in sync with modern climate and will track future climate change in real time. The validity of this assumption is critical to forecasting species’ responses to future climate change. My colleagues and I were interested in testing it.</p>
<h2>Human impact</h2>
<p>The devastating 2009 drought in <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090916-kenya-animals-drought-water.html">Amboseli, Kenya</a>, provides a macabre example of how changing climate and human encroachment into wild lands may play out over the next century.</p>
<p>In Amboseli, the seasonal rains failed and the park’s herbivores sought refuge in the lowland swamps and woodlands that had buffered them from scarce times in the past. Human development within and around the perimeters of the ecosystem, however, had destroyed these safe havens and <a href="https://www.eawildlife.org/swaraonline/swaras/swaraIssues/EAWLS_Swara_Magazine_03_2010.pdf">cut off any exit route</a>. Surrounded by roads and farms, thousands of elephants, wildebeest and zebras had nowhere to flee. Marooned on their drying island, these animals starved to death in the shadow of Kilimanjaro.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/152987/original/image-20170117-23034-104njjg.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bids are opened for a paved highway that will run through the Serengeti in Tanzania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sadly, while the magnitude of climate change will increase over the next century, the shrinking and isolation of wild lands is unlikely to end. As I write this, the Tanzanian government has once again opened bids for a paved highway through the <a href="http://serengetiwatch.org/highway/">heart of the Serengeti</a>, a UNESCO World Heritage site.</p>
<h2>The past informs the future</h2>
<p>In our study, we wanted to test the assumption that mammal distributions and communities today are in sync with modern climate and will track future climate change in real time. So we compiled a large dataset of mammal communities in Africa today. We quantified their ecological structure, and asked whether this structure was more closely tied to present climate or to climate of the deep past, <a href="https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data">paleoclimate</a>.</p>
<p>We looked to paleoclimate because present-day mammal communities are the ultimate products of species interacting with changes in their environments across space and time over decades, centuries, and millennia. It is possible that rates of environmental change may outpace species’ abilities to respond. Such a finding would cast doubt on the assumption that species today are in sync with present-day climate.</p>
<p>Our results were clear and startling. The structure of mammal communities today is largely the product of climates thousands of years ago: the cool and arid Last Glacial Maximum (around 22,000 years ago) and warm and wet mid-Holocene (around 6,000 years ago).</p>
<p>There are two potential explanations for this pattern. First, mammal species have failed to track their preferred climates over the last several thousand years and there is a significant time lag between climate change and species’ responses. This would certainly be a disheartening result considering natural rates of climate change are dwarfed by those of <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_Chapter05_FINAL.pdf">man-made climate change</a>.</p>
<p>A more optimistic view is that mammals are flexible enough to have persisted through changing climates over thousands of years. This explains why community structure is more closely tied to paleoclimate, and therefore may be able to cope with future changes. Even under this scenario, however, there is cause for alarm. If species have coped with gradually changing climates, we still don’t know how they will respond to rapidly changing ones over the next century.</p>
<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>Going forward I believe that a greater integration of paleoclimate data into ecological studies will provide a more comprehensive understanding of how species respond to climate change. Several studies have already begun to investigate how ancient human impacts alter ecological patterns today, including <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v529/n7584/full/nature16447.html">species associations</a> and <a href="http://www.ecography.org/article/anthropogenic-impacts-weaken-bergmanns-rule">geographic relationships</a>. Extending this work to paleoclimate will bear both theoretical and applied fruit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70427/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Rowan 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>
It is crucial to integrate paleoclimate data into ecological studies. This will increase understanding of how species respond to climate change.
John Rowan, PhD student Institute of Human Origins | School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.