More on Wildlife Trade

Today is Boxing day, and I would like to dedicate another blog post to illegal wildlife trade.

In this episode by VICE, Patrick Brown leads us down the road of Trading to Extinction. Little do we know, at Thai Burma border tiger paws and bones are casually on display for sale. Trades are being done based on non-sense mythology, including how rhino horn soup possesses the power to allow two to three hours of mating. But the fact is, rhino horns were soaked in viagra - the greed of traders.. 

Let's look at some astonishing facts and figures presented by Lee:
1) Population of tiger decreased over 90% since the beginning of 20th century 
2) Caspian, Blainese and Javan tigers are already extinct 
3) Different body parts of tiger are used to make traditional medicines in Asian countries
4) All five of Asia's bear species are on the verge of extinction 
5) Bear's gall bladder is valued for medicinal qualities, including cure to blood disorders

Sadly, despite the enforcement of law, endangered species were sometimes not recognised. Patrick mentioned how 25-30 crocodiles pass through Heathrow airport everyday, but officers are not reptile experts, they usually fail to identify the endangered ones.

The followings are selection of pictures taken by Mr. Brown's for his 10-year project on Trading to Extinction. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

After being tranquilized, a bear is removed from its cage in the bear farm, in order to have the bile removed from its gall bladder.

A man drags a live crocodile along the floor of a luxury restaurant. The crocodile will be killed and prepared for lunchtime customers.

At Scotland Yard's animal protection unit, a police officer displays a tiger's head seized during a raid in London.

A snake is cut open and removed of its heart, blood and bile in a restaurant in the city. The animal's organs are consumed in the belief that they increase sexual libido.

Speaking from experience, shark fins were one of those famous dishes my family would "enjoy" during Chinese New Year and weddings. Only until recently has there been a raise of awareness of how illegitimate it is to consume shark fins. Similarly, wildlife trade has raised global concern. Ex-poachers now participate to capture poachers. NGOs and governments take measures to stop them. However, as we can see from the powerful photographs, it is still happening at this moment in time. The attractive monetary value attached to wildlife trade has continued to tempt a lot of people. Trading to extinction, indeed. 

Poaching, Hunting.. Money

Remember the blog by John Platt? In one of his blog posts, he wrote about how Bornean closed leopards have been heavily threatened by poaching. The species are under protection of Brunei's Wildlife Protection Act in terms of killing and selling. However, local hunters were mostly blinded by profits and have little knowledge of such regulation.

Bornean closed leopards

In fact, Brunei is not the only place troubled by poaching. Bornean closed leopards are definitely not the only species affected by poaching as well. Rate of extinction, according to MacArthur and Wilson, is determined primarily by species' population size. This comes into the equation of extinction. Due to widespread poaching/hunting of certain species, their population sizes fall unnaturally. Logically, if rate of death of these species is greater than the rate of reproduction, extinction occurs.

Profit, as I mentioned, is the main driver for poaching and hunting. Emerging demand for tiger bone for Chinese medicinal practices has added pressure on already endangered species. There has been a staggering fall of 95% in world tiger population since the 20th century. Current estimate is as few as 3200 compared to 100,000 before 20th century. Despite the implementation of Project Tiger in 1973, poaching pressures have continued to mount, with practices spreading from Siberia to India. 

Probabilities of extinction due to poaching 5, 10 and
15 tigers per year for 3, 6 and 9 years. 

A study conducted by Kenny and his colleagues regarding the reproduction system of tigers demonstrates the relationship between the probability of extinction and the duration of poaching. Three main ideas were captured: 

1. Increase in duration of poaching leads to higher probability of extinction

2. Probability of extinction rises as the pressure of poaching increases

3. With fewer tigers poached over an extended period, probability of extinction is lower 

The third idea is perhaps the most interesting. Poaching is less likely to lead to the event of extinction if, say 5 tigers were being poached per year for a period of 12 years, in comparison to 15 tigers being poached per year for a period of 4 years. In other words, poaching and hunting of species will not be as alarming a problem now if it were sensibly managed.

Let's just bear in mind that humans once again, have contribute to another factor to push species to their limits. WWF produced a short clip to raise awareness on illegal trading, especially on tigers. 

"If the merchants wanted tigers, I would hunt tigers, if they want other animals, I would hunt them too." - Plot Chien, Ex-poacher

Although the concept of income generation through hunting still exist (Economics 101: Price of tigers/parts of tigers is determined by its rareness, more endangered - higher prices), some poachers have joined the campaign of Zero Poaching to stop poaching and protect the habitat for other animals. Will the action of conservationists and governments be sufficient to stop the multi-billion industry of global illegal animal trade? With only 32 rangers in two protected areas over 6000 kilometres, can they the prevent extinction of tigers in time? 

Look at Them White Rhinos!

As it is fast approaching the end of term, I have more free time to browse around the web. Then I stumbled upon these precious photos on National Geograhic by Ed Yong. 

WWF announced 22nd September as the World Rhino Day in 2010. After killing of rhinos by poachers hit record high in 2012 in South Africa, these rhinos might be the last remaining ones as they might be extinct in the next decade.

Thought of the day: Are the economical and recreational values brought by poaching and/or hunting animals greater than the intrinsic value of our endangered species?

Invasive species - not human's fault?

Last week, I spoke about how humans have been responsible for the introduction of invasive species. On a second thought, there are other contributing factors to the spread of non-native species. Those factors indirectly push native species to their limits, and towards extinction. 

In 2011, EU raised concerns over threatened freshwater species. One of the major risks was alien species, they believed. However, there was little emphasis placed upon the direct introduction of these species by humans. Instead, invasive species, such as Chinese mitten crabs and Himalayan balsam were transferred through Europe's rivers. So, are humans not the source of trouble?

Reading into this - In fact, in the European coastal waters, 24.5% of non-indigenous species entered through the Suez canal. Only 9% of them was intentionally released. Occhipinti-Ambrogi laid out an important relationship between changes in the biosphere and development of invasive species. 

Stages in the development of an invasive non indigenous species. 

Note that the magnitude of the release of invasive species is greatly affected by climatic change. It interacts with non-indigenous species by altering the physical-chemical conditions (PCF) in relation to temperature and oceanographic characteristic. Then PCF contributes to the change of new communities patterns. As we are currently experiencing global warming, the warming of climate is a primary cause to physiological stress. This leads to mass mortalities in benthic organisms, especially those who were already near their tolerance limit. As a result, there will be empty niches for new colonisers (invasive species). 

Without getting distracted into the never-ending discussion of global warming, let's just focus on the complexity of invasive species and the route to extinction of native species. 

Certainly, non-native species play a critical role in driving native species out of where they were originated. From the previous blog, I mentioned how humans have intentionally introduced species to control another. However, the surge in invasive species very much depends on other factors too, such as global warming. But human activity is the main reason for rising CO2, hence the greenhouse effect?Although global warming can be blamed to have exacerbated the effect of invasive species, human is still the key underlying factor. 

Number of references found as evidence for each
mechanism and type of facilitation 

Despite all the negativities, some authors are determined to prove that invasive species do not only bring detrimental impact, like extinction. For instance, zebra mussels, as one of the invasive species, actually support up to 700% more taxa than neighbouring mussel-free habitat. Yellow perch also have higher growth rates as zebra mussel colonies provided increased availability of invertebrate prey. 

Turns out in certain circumstances, invasive species might actually have positive impacts on native species. 

Carry on from last blog, introduction of invasive species might not be entirely human's fault. Although it is one of the reasons behind the verge of extinction of many other species, on the other hand, it may actually have opposite effects, thereby facilitating positive interactions between no-native and native species. Not so hopeless after all?