A weekend in the wild

A peacock’s plumage is one of the most gorgeous sights in nature, but the poor bird is cursed with a hideous shrieking call. This was the sound that woke me up this morning at the rustic house we drove over six hours from Colombo to reach.

Lovingly built by a famous Sri Lankan architect on her paddy field on the edge of the Wasgamua National Park, the house is made of wattle and thatch, and is lit by a feeble solar-powered system. I can’t charge my laptop, so unless I can finish this piece soon, I fear my computer will run out of juice.

But this is an ideal spot to charge my own personal batteries. Last night, we sipped our drinks outside, watching a growing number of fireflies on the surrounding trees. There used to be a lot of these flashing insects when I was growing up. Even as a young man in Lahore, I recall seeing thousands of jugnus in the city’s parks. No more, alas. They say fireflies are a barometer of pollution, and sadly, traffic in cities around the world has wiped them out.

Competing with the fireflies were bright stars that illuminated the sky. There is little light pollution where we are presently, so we can watch the nightly show nature puts on, but is almost invisible in our cities.

The nearby national park is home to elephants, bears, deer and leopards, among many other animals. The lake that laps against our friend’s property was full of numerous birds when we had our coffee on its bank this morning. We were told by our hosts that they had counted 188 species and sub-species of birds around their lovely weekend cottage.

Apparently, elephants often leave the park to raid the surrounding paddy fields, including the one belonging to our hosts. To neutralise the electrified fence that’s supposed to keep them in, they drop branches on the wires, and walk through the gap they have created.

Despite the protection they get in Sri Lanka’s twenty-plus national parks, wild elephants are under threat from several directions. Although the murderous civil war is over, there are still mines that regularly kill and cripple the poor animals. Then there are adult and baby elephants killed by trains; according to specialists, these deaths generally occur when trains are running late.

Apparently, these intelligent animals are aware of normal timings, and keep clear of the tracks. But often, baby elephants get scared and freeze when a train is approaching, and the adults crowd around to protect them. Drivers are unable to stop in time to save the unfortunate animals.

But the biggest threat comes from farmers who protect their fields from hungry elephants by using guns, or explosive devices that usually maim them, and cause them to die in great pain.

Nevertheless, it is remarkable that even during the long civil war, the Sri Lankan state continued to maintain its network of national parks. Millions of acres across the small country have been set aside to protect the abundant wildlife. The fact that hunting is prohibited means that even outside the parks, it is possible to see all kinds of animals and
birds.

Over the last five years or so, Sri Lanka has emerged as a major whale-watching centre. I have seen several varieties of the mammoth cetaceans, together with scores of dolphins that often swim across the boat’s bow as they make playful patterns in the sea.

The biggest national park is at Yalla, towards the east of the island, about an hour and a half from our beach house. I have often bounced through it on open jeeps in an effort to see its elusive leopards. However, this has become such a popular tourist destination that every time a rare animal is sighted, local drivers call their mates on their cells, and within minutes, the spot resembles Oxford Circus at rush hour.

In their frantic efforts to show their clients a leopard and thus earn a fat tip, drivers often take unnecessary risks, and friends tell me two of the big cats have been killed as a result. Add this unpleasant scramble to the deterioration in the roads in the park, and a safari at Yalla isn’t what it used to be. So I, for one, have decided to opt out until things change. Luckily, there are lots of other parks to visit.

In Pakistan, by contrast, virtually unrestricted hunting has decimated our wildlife. The splendid markhor is close to extinction, as is the rare snow leopard. Years ago, I remember going on a fishing trip with friends to Azad Kashmir. When we cast our hooks at a spot on the Neelum River that had been described by the old Gazetteers as being abundant in mahsheer, we were told by a local that the iconic fish had been wiped out in that area. Apparently, army officers would toss hand grenades into the water to stun the fish that would then float to the surface.

Then, of course, the flagrant poaching of the endangered houbara bustard by petty Arab sheikhs with government connivance has been a national scandal for decades. Despite international condemnation, every winter these so-called sportsmen descend on Pakistan with their hawks and their Humvees and kill yet more bustards. As these birds can’t fly very far, I fail to see where the sport lies. Apparently, its meat is supposed to be an aphrodisiac for our brethren from the Gulf. I wish they’d try crow meat to revive their flagging potency.

As I come to the end of this piece, I see I still have enough battery life to quickly read the online edition of this newspaper, and to check my emails. In the distance, I can hear another peacock shrieking, while a kingfisher swoops into the lake, reminding me of the late Taufiq Riffat’s wonderful poem about a kingfisher who misses his prey for the first time. “Will they jeer you then?” asked the poet. Not me, old friend.

Source:http://www.dawn.com/2012/01/30/a-weekend-in-the-wild.html

Speeding vehicles on roads driving wildlife to their early graves

By Malaka Rodrigo
A fully grown sloth bear was killed by a speeding vehicle near the 11th kilometre post on the Panama-Pottuvil road late last month raising concerns over the prudence of having public roads across biodiversity rich National Parks, while vehicles speeding along roads in rural areas also drive wildlife to their graves before their time.
The ill-fated bear was found lying on the side of the road with apparent head injuries. The Ampara office of the Wildlife Department had been promptly alerted, but the animal was already dead due to injuries it suffered. The wildlife veterinary surgeon Dr. Pramuditha Devasurendra who had conducted the post-mortem confirmed the animal died due to damage to its skull. There were signs of profound bleeding from its mouth. The bear's fur coat also had mud stains indicating it could have been hit by a heavy vehicle with large tyres.
Dr. Devasurendra also said there were signs that the vehicle has gone over one of the animal's legs. The bear was a well grown male around eight to nine years old. The body of the bear was sent to the Giritale wildlife facility to be stuffed.
Samitha Harichandra, the managing trustee of the Wildlife Research and Conservation Trust of Sri Lanka who visited the accident site soon after he was alerted, recalled spotting a bear on the same stretch of road recently while he was driving at night. He said he had seen the bear on two occasions and the ambulance driver of the area hospital too has confirmed sighting this bear indicating the animal must be roaming around the area (a territorial bear) near the 11th kilometre post.

The sloth bear killed on the Panama-Pottuvil road

This is the season when the palu and weera berry ripens attracting usually secretive sloth bears out of their hideouts in search of the berries. Mr. Harichandra recalls that there are many weera and palu trees in the scrub jungle on this stretch of the Pottuvil road, luring the secretive bear into the open, making it an unfortunate road victim.
The sloth bear in Sri Lanka is a separate subspecies scientifically categorized as Melursus ursinus inornatus. Their numbers are declining, with them being already categorized as vulnerable to extinction in the IUCN Redlist scale.
Mr. Harichandra says the annual Okanda pilgrim season increases vehicular traffic along this road which becomes a death trap to wild animals of the area. The presence of such a rare animal like the sloth bear is an indication of the quality of the scrub jungle which must be home to many animals.
Harichandra complained that drivers should be more vigilant when speeding on rural roads to avoid killing animals.
He said that as the road network gets better in these areas, drivers tend to speed on long stretches of roads that do not have much traffic. But animals need to move around their natural habitats and require to cross these roads. They virtually have no time to escape from a speeding vehicle, he said.
Slow moving small creatures like tortoises, snakes, and porcupines face the greatest risk when crossing the roads. But even fast movers like civets can fall easy prey at night when they freeze in the middle of the road blinded by the glare of headlights. Some animals like the porcupine have the habit of staying motionless when they feel a threat, making them sitting ducks. Even birds and monkeys can't escape at times from speeding vehicles.
But it is not only the smaller animals that are being hit by careless drivers. On many occasions elephants have also been hit on public roads. In one such incident at Galgamuwa/Ambanpola, a sleepy bus driver hit an elephant at night on the road near the Thekkakele forest. The front of the bus was badly damaged and the conductor was killed in the accident. A few months later, another elephant was hit by a van and the enraged elephant turned on the humans killing a passenger in the van.
Though these elephants recovered with injuries, there were incidents where jumbos get killed in road accidents. At Medawachchiya, a baby elephant of about four months had been killed instantly when it was hit by a tipper. The accident occurred around 1 a.m. and the body of the calf was badly smashed, indicating the vehicle was traveling at speed. Another calf was the victim of a roadside accident at Habarana last year.
It is however hard to provide a solution to such unfortunate accidents as drivers tend to speed in their vehicles on open stretches.
One way to minimize such accidents is by setting up speed limits and placing warning boards in areas where wildlife is abundant. But while wildlife conscious drivers will take note, it is a question whether reckless drivers will abide by the rules.
At present most of the drivers even do not honour the speed limits set up in populated areas which are also frequently monitored by the Traffic Police. It is virtually impossible to set up traffic checkpoints at night so there is little hope that rules would be observed on remote road stretches. Wildlife lovers call all drivers to be vigilant when driving through remote roads.

Roads across National Parks
With animals being killed by speeding vehicles, wildlife activists question the prudence of opening up of new public roads across Protected Areas. A road across the Wilpattu Sanctuary has been opened last year amidst the objections of the wildlife community and there seems to be attempts to open up other roads. Though speed limits are set and traffic allowed during the daytime in wildlife rich habitats, such roads will still be death traps.
There are other dangers for wildlife as a road will increase human presence which will also increase illegal activities. Poachers will get a ready-made market to sell bush meat. More importantly, a public road will also cause a genetic isolation of animal groups between two sides by restricting animal movements. In a free environment, wild animals would mix with each other but a road will halve their movements isolating them genetically or depriving them of their traditional feeding grounds. This will also degrade the quality of their gene pool.

A tortoise run over by a speeding vehicle

The danger of public roads across national parks was in the international spotlight last month as an attempt to construct a commercial road across some parts of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania has been abandoned.
Each year about two million herbivores including wildebeests and zebras make their way from the Serengeti National Park to the Maasai Mara reserve in Kenya.
Environmental activists raised concerns that the new road will restrict the animals' movements and halve the animals in the park. Tagged as one of the planet's greatest natural spectacles attracting thousands of major tourists, the road could have also affected the local economy, in which tourism plays a major role.
The Tanzanian government consequently abandoned the idea of constructing a stretch of 53 kilometres of road to avoid areas of high conservation value.
Likewise, Sri Lankan conservationists also raise the question whether we still need to have roads to make for quicker traveling. If quicker traveling is the need, speed limits cannot be set, ultimately resulting in many road accidents.
Speeding in wildlife parks
Yala National Park has already been infested by the over-visitation bug where around 200 vehicles go in on busy days. The visitors' prime aim is to have a glimpse of Yala's star attractions - leopard, bear or elephant. On receiving a message of a sighting, the vehicles rush to the spot to get a better view.
The safari jeep drivers' often forget they are in a wildlife national park. There is every chance these speeding vehicles too can hit an animal. So if you happen to be in a safari jeep, never allow it to be driven at an uncontrollable speed even though it might cost you a better sighting of a wild animal.

Source:Sundaytimes

Lankan scientists introduce Taruga, a new endemic genus of foam-nesting tree frogs.

Boosting Sri Lanka’s image as an amphibian hot spot, a group of Sri Lankan scientists have introduced a new genus of frogs that is endemic to the island. The new group is named Taruga meaning ‘tree climber’ in ancient Sinhalese and Sanskrit. This name is appropriate as the adults of these are tree-inhabiting frogs, rarely come to the ground, even laying their eggs on trees on overhanging foam nests. Taruga fastigo Taruga is currently the only genus of endemic frogs among the tree-frogs (Rhacophoridae). Definition of a new genus is a rare occurrence, and for a vertebrate group, even rarer. The task of separating these species into a new genus is indeed complex and demanding. The researchers have to analyse molecular DNA and morphological data such as the outward appearance as well as the form and structure of the internal parts like bones and organs of both adult frogs as well as tadpoles to distinguish this ancestry unique to Sri Lanka. Dr.Madhava Meegaskumbura, the principal scientist behind this task, said, the research outcome published recently has been already updated in reputed amphibian journals further strengthening Sri Lanka as one of the world’s most important amphibian hotspots. In science, a Genus is a classification used to group one or more species that has common characteristics which is the taxonomic rank just above that of the species name. For example, the four big cats – lion, tiger, jaguar and leopard are classified under the genus Panthera because of the common characteristics they share. Three of the endemic tree frogs that were previously called Polypedates (Whipping tree frogs) were re-classified under this new genus and have been given new scientific names -- Taruga eques, Taruga fastigo and Taruga longinasus. The first part of a scientific name represents the genus, whereas the second part denotes the individual species name. However, a set of cone-like projections around the vent, a curved fold above the ear and a more pointed snout helped scientists to pull out three frogs to new genus Taruga. During a certain tadpole stage, the vent of Polypedates forms a tube between the left leg and tail, and in Taruga, there is only an opening between the leg and tail. There are also several more features of the mouth cavity, such as the number of projections on the tongue and shape of the tongue that distinguishes Taruga from Polypedates. These frogs also show some interesting characteristics with all frogs in this new genus building foam nests. The female is much larger than the male and carries him during amplexus. The female first selects a site usually a branch that hangs over water to make a bubble nest. Fluids secreted from the egg-carrying channel (termed the oviduct) are beaten up into a foamy mass by the female using her hind limbs. The size of a foam nests can range from a ping-pong ball in some species, to a cricket ball in others. The eggs are laid within this foamy mass and the males fertilize the eggs. First the male and then the female leaves the nest, without providing any parental care to the nest. After several days, the eggs hatch and the tadpoles slip into the water from the overhanging foam nest to start their new life in the water. Dr.Meegaskumbura said the tadpoles falling into the water at an advanced stage ensure a higher survivability from aquatic threats than if the eggs were laid in the water. The juvenile frogs that emerge from the water return to an arboreal life on the trees. Rohan Pethiyagoda, another an expert taxonomist who is also involved in this research paper commented that the genus Taruga joins Nannophrys, Adenomus and Lankanectes as the fourth genus of frogs endemic to Sri Lanka. These three species also show restricted distribution, where Taruga eques can be found 1000m above sea level (asl) in the central hills and the Knuckles range. Taruga longinasus: can be found below 600m in the wet-zone lowlands of Sri Lanka while Taruga fastigo is present only at 900m asl in the Rakwana mountains, recording the most restricted range. Dr.Meegaskumbura acknowledges his graduate student, Gayan Bowatte who contributed to this work and other researchers who assisted them. He also acknowledges the support extended by the Department of Wildlife Conservation and Forest Department of Sri Lanka to carryout this work. Amphibians the highest threatened Around the world many species and populations are declining, but amphibians are the worst affected group among the vertebrates. Amphibians are sensitive to changes in the environment, so a small variation can be deadly for the frogs living in an affected area. To add to the problem, many amphibians such as frogs of the genus Taruga are only found in restricted ranges; one species can only be found in a single forest patch, making them vulnerable to localized threats. Sri Lanka currently records 111 amphibians with 92 of them being endemic to Sri Lanka but the IUCN (World Conservation Union) has categorized 11 species of Sri Lankan amphibians as critically endangered and a further 36 as endangered. Some of these species are on the brink of extinction and require urgent conservation attention, or they could disappear even without our knowing about them. Sri Lanka has already lost 21 amphibians, in other words they have been categorized as being extinct. Deforestation, isolation of forests into smaller patches (fragmentation), disease, pollution, and climate change are triggering the extinction of amphibians. “We have now realized that legal protection alone is insufficient to secure the future of these species. They need active conservation intervention, such as captive breeding and improved habitat security, in addition to regular monitoring of the existing populations so that any decline could be detected and addressed,” points out environmentalist Rohan Pethiyagoda, who discovered many frogs as part of his research few years ago. Mr. Pethiyagoda added that at present, the only species on which the government spent money on conservation were elephants. Yet, hundreds of Sri Lanka's endemic species and whole genera are threatened with extinction. If only a fraction of the funds spent on managing elephants were diverted to the conservation also of other threatened species, the outcome for the country's biodiversity would be much better,” he said. To make matters worse many of the protected areas in Sri Lanka are in the dry zone, whereas 80% of endemic fauna are found in wet zone rain forests, hill country cloud forests and related habitats. Many of the threatened amphibians are in the wet zone and mountain areas where the habitats are shrinking faster than in the lowland dry zone (please see map). There are some critically endangered frogs currently surviving in a few areas outside protected areas, so a disturbance of these habitats would be deadly for these tiny amphibians. Source:http://www.sundaytimes.lk/110417/News/nws_82.html

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