Large Blue - Wild Connection

Everything in the natural world is connected; parasites and hosts, predator and prey and all the other symbiotic relationships to name just a few. Many of these connections are still unknown and certain types are extremely complex and rely on multiple different organisms.

Today I’m going to be talking about the Large Blue (Maculinea arion) and for those of you who do not know this is a species of European butterfly, which were found in the UK from 1795 till 1979. But it was then reintroduced in 1984 with a greater understanding on what it requires to be successful and became one of the UKs best reintroduction programs.

The problem the large blue faced is that through its multiple life stages it requires specific habitat and conditions which were decreasing in the UK. For instance they will only lay their eggs on wild thyme or marjoram flowers but in turn these plants require certain conditions. They are generally only found in grasslands which are well drained, acidic coastal or limestone based areas which are well grazed.  This generally means that these grasslands need to be well populated by species such as rabbits which will keep the grasses low so as not to out-compete the flowers whilst not damaging the flowers themselves which happens when larger domesticated animals such as cows are present. 

Once hatched the larva depend on a single species of ant (Myrmica sabuleti). It has long been know that ants were involved in the large blue’s life cycle but it wasn’t until the late 1970s that Jeremy Thomas uncovered the specific reliance. The large blue relies on these ants in a part parasitic part symbiotic relationship, as they are taken down into the ant’s colony where they feed on the grubs both dead and alive. It is thought that this process is both parasitic and symbiotic as although some potential ants are lost from the colony the larva also is helping to effectively clean the nest of dead individuals.  

Finally the larva will metamorphose into an adult and emerge from its subterranean existence then will climb onto some vegetation and proceed to expand its wings. From that point of the butterfly will rely on wildflowers nectar as a food source to provide them with sufficient energy to find a mate and contribute to the next generation.

The extinction of the large blue in 1979 was believed to be due to a number of reasons but it boiled down to two main reasons. The first of which was due to excessive uses of pesticides in the areas it can be found which killed the butterflies at each of their life stages. While the second reason was believed to be due to our lack of understanding of the species specific behaviour and so as we changed the grasslands through overgrazing and other activities to benefit humans the butterflies suffered. Luckily however since the successful reintroduction program the is believed to be a positive growth trend in the large blue UK populations.

So to summaries this one invertebrates influences and needs within the natural world it are; two types of plants to lay their eggs, grazing animals, ants and then flowers as an adult food source and if any of this critical components are lost from the chain the large blue will become extinct as it did in 1979.

You could almost class the large blue as an umbrella species! To find out more information on umbrella species check back next week.

Thanks for reading!

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Weekly Article - Back From The Brink!!

So there was a good bit of news which came out this week and I feel like it needs to be shared.

The WWF icon and a creature which is known across the world have finally made it out of the endangered classification on the IUCN Red List and into the vulnerable classification. I am of course talking about the giant panda! This is a big deal as giant pandas have been classed as endangered since 1990 despite a massive effort across the world in an attempt to increase their population numbers.

Pandas are a huge and controversial deal in the world of conservation for many reasons; there are several different views on what exactly should be done with them. On one side of the argument people believe that it is extremely important to conserve as it is because of human activities that they are struggling. The other side of the argument believes that too much funding goes into pandas as an individual species, which could be spent in better areas with potentially more success. However it is important that although pandas are extremely hard to keep and breed in captivity, but then again they are also a flag ship species and bring in a lot of money for all sorts of conservation charities.

What are your thoughts on panda conservation?

Check out the BBC news article here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-37272718

The IUCN RED LIST page where The giant panda has been reclassified 

http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/712/0

Thanks for reading!

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Fact File 005 - Plastic's Are Eternal

If you live in the UK you might have heard some good environmental news the other day relating to plastic, or to be more accurate micro beads. These beads can be found in lots of different types of cosmetic and beauty products and are a ecological disaster, in the UK however a recent pledge has been made to ban the use of these beads by 2017.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37263087

So because of this news today's fact file will be focusing on plastics.

• Only a very small amount of plastic we produce globally is ever recovered to be recycled (5%), the majority of it heads to landfills, where it makes up 10% of all waste generated. Also sadly a lot of it is sweep into the oceans to become part of the large garbage patches which are forming there. In Los Angeles for instance 10 metric tons of plastic are swept into the sea every day.

• The plastic which has been swept into the sea has an extreme effect on marine life. 1 million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals are estimated to be killed annually by plastic. This can take several forms, for instance turtles and other creature’s mistake bags for jelly fish and so ingest the plastic and then starve as they fill their stomachs with indigestible products. While many sea birds become trapped in some types of plastic and then either suffocate of drown because of it.

• The main problem with plastics is the time it takes to decompose. Depending on the type it can take anywhere from 500 to several 1000s of years to breakdown. There is a hope that bacteria hold a solution to our ever growing piles of waste plastic. A lot of work is being done to attempt to find viable bacteria which can be used to speed up the rate of decay of plastics.

Check out this link for more information

https://theconversation.com/new-plastic-munching-bacteria-could-fuel-a-recycling-revolution-55961

• Recycling even a little bit of plastic will make a difference as recycling will save 3-5x the energy used to produce fresh products. Also with the 32.5% of plastic recycled in 2006 equates to 39.4 million cars worth of emission being removed, or 222.1 million barrels of oil saved.

• Finally if you have the time check out this link from ecologycenter to give you a few tips and trick on how you can either completely cut out plastic from your life or at least reduce your consumption of it.

http://ecologycenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/eliminate-plastic.pdf

Thanks for reading!

What do you do to try and reduce your plastic consumption?

Check out this video from NeilPryde Wind

Weekly Article - Devil Facial Tumour Disease Can The Recovery Being?

So there has been some good news recently in the conservation world. A species which has been experiencing a rapid unstoppable decline in its populations might be about to turn a corner.

The Tasmanian devil have suffered over a 80% decline in it's population since the original outbreak of DFTD or Devil facial tumour disease. This is a type of contagious cancer which grows on the faces of devils and expands till the individual eventually dies through starvation or suffocation.

There has been a lot of work attempting to find a cure for this disease so as to prevent the extinction of the species and recently research believe a solution has been found thanks to a evolutionary response due to the selection pressures DFTD is applying to the devil populations.

Check out the study here!
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12684

Check out a summary of the findings here!
https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/tasmanian-devils-evolve-resistance-to-facial-cancers

Check out a video produced by SmarterEveryDay a year ago today about the disease here!

Thanks for reading!

Fact File 004 - Zoos A Conservation Tool?

So it is a bank holiday weekend currently in the UK and thanks to that I was able to get to West Midlands Safari Park and Cotsworld wildlife park this weekend so because of this today's fact file will be based around Zoos.

• Zoos commit a lot of time money and effort towards the conservation of certain endangered species, and in some cases without the input from Zoos many of these species would either be extinct or nearer extinction. However many endangered species aren’t represented in breeding schemes (95% of threatened birds, 0.6% of threatened amphibians and only 3.5% of all threatened species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species). These numbers are extremely low. It is important to remember that these number can never be 100% due to factors such as space and the fact that some species don’t lend themselves to captivity.

• Zoos can cause unusual problems for captive animals. This is because they are a collection of animals from all over the world and most of which don’t usually ever come into contact with each other. Therefore it is possible for the transfer of new and unusual diseases and parasites to be passed between animals. A classic example of this was when Asian and African elephants were kept in the same enclosures many of the Asian elephants would die as a type of elephant herpes  would be passed from host African elephants to the Asian ones, which were unable to survive the infection unlike African elephants.

• Zoos are a great source of education for all generations, everyone remembers their childhood trip to the zoo with either their families or school trips. In fact 175 million people visit zoos every year, and this creates an income of $US 16 Billion annually from all zoos and aquariums worldwide.

• Finally many Zoos are trying to change the image created by some other institutions which act as money sources. In fact in Australia four Zoos (Taronga, Perth, Adelaide and Victoria zoo) are all acting as non-profit organisations as when the running costs are recouped all profit is put into conservation and welfare schemes.

So Zoos help and also neglect some issues but overall thanks to greater control and restrictions on animal welfare I believe they are a extremely useful conservation and education tool. What do you think?

Thanks for reading!

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Bushmeat - A Problem Which Is Spreading

There is a growing problem in some parts of the world, and it is a problem which has already been faced in other regions where it turned into a complete disaster, bushmeat. Hunting has always been present in human society with it providing a key source of protein for many different cultures around the world, however like everything with a growing population and economy it’s becoming more of an issue.

Currently the main areas which have been affected by hunting is lowland tropical forest that have been opened up to easy access due new forestry roads and the increased availability of weapons which make hunting more efficient. Bushmeat began to become a problem in South East Asia just over 40 years ago. Since then 12 vertebrates have been extirpated through over hunting driven by the bushmeat demand within Asia. Bushmeat demand has now become a problem in  the rich forests of Central Africa with estimates of 1-3.4x10⁶ tonnes begin harvested every single year many of which are primates and so are not being replaced due to slow breeding cycles. The trade is beginning to pick up in South America in countries such as Peru as well, with it expected to become a major issue in that region in the next 10 years.  

The bushmeat trade is mainly being driven by growing economies. This happens because as rural populations move into urban areas and become successful they still like traditional foods and as they can now afford it bushmeats become a regular meal and so animals become harvested at an unsustainable rate.  For instance on the Island of Bioko of the west coast of Africa is consuming  over 100,000Kg of wild meat by some 80,000 inhabitants annually.

There is hope with some bushmeat however as long as they are harvested sustainably. In South America studies have shown that many animals such as peccary (a species of wild pig), grey brocket deer and paca can all be harvested due to their r selected breeding systems, while tapir and many primates will suffer if the same levels of bushmeat harvest were to continue.

It isn’t just the meat that wild animals are hunted for in Java many thousands of snakes are captured every year to provide skins for the fashion trade. Within living memory the average length of the large constrictors has dropped by over a foot (from a little over 4ft to less than 3ft). This is a sad fact as until recently there had been a smaller call for animal based fashion products since the protests in the 20^th century. These protests have slowly been forgotten about and I believe that they is a need for a reminder of the pain fur and skin fashion industries cause on wildlife.

Finally it’s important to remember that although bushmeat usually refers to the collection of terrestrial meat, but can also be stretched to include marine life as well. Due to the fact that both Japan and South Korea refuse to monitor their marine bycatch market a large number of whales are being caught and not reported, number from genetic data recently have suggested that twice the numbers of whales which have been reported are being sold in markets. This is due to the fact that a single whale has a worth in excess of $100,000 and so it is economic greet and demand driving this trade.

So how can the effects of illegal and unsustainable bushmeat harvesting be reduced? Well to start with more money needs to be spent in developing rural areas so as the villages don’t have to resort to hunting as a source of income. Currently in Peru for example, the rural hunting sector is worth US

$1,131,910 annually so is see as a profitable sector to enter and this is a view we need to change.

Secondly people need to be educated so as to understand that these methods ‘they have always used’ are no longer an option simple due to the large number of people wanting to practice them.

Thanks for reading!

 Check back on Monday for another fact file

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Weekly Article - Elephant Seals New Job As A Research Assistant

So if you read the post on Monday you would have heard about the excessive amounts of freshwater melting from the polar ice caps. To follow this on a article which has become available in Nature Communications has been using elephant seal behaviour to assess how the increased input of fresh  water is changing the salinity of the sea water which in turns disrupts the great ocean currents.

So how did Elephant seals help this study? Well they were fitted with sensors which would record critical information whilst the seal is diving (sometimes up to 500m) and then proceeds to upload this information to satellites. This method of collecting information is extremely helpful as it can provide a near constant stream of information as opposed to if it was manly collected it would be slower, expensive and extremely time consuming.

Check out Monday's post here!
http://littlechangestoday.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/fact-file-003-rivers-veins-of-world.html

Check out the seal article (summary) here!
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-antarctic-mystery.html 

Check out the original article here!
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12577

Thanks for reading!

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