Back from the Brink

Siberian Tiger

The Siberian (or Amur) Tiger is a subspecies of the tiger that is critically endangered. Human intervention has not yet brought it back from the brink of extinction. However, it has rebounded from 50 individuals after WW II to around 400 today. Given the Chinese demand for tiger parts as part of 'traditional medicine', any current increase is precarious.

The species discussed on this page are generally keystone species within their natural environment. Upon the brink of extinction, they have been subject to minimal to extraordinary human intervention for their benefit. The prognosis at this time appears positive. Their stories suggest approaches applicable to other species, currently or in the future, under threat of extinction.

On a broader note, a rebirth of the keystone species that once roamed this world may be good for the environment. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been a crucial leader in the effort to save these endangered keystone species. Just one example is their support of the Vietnamese government in its quest to save the Saola, an ox which is one of the world's rarest animals.

 

Bison

 

American Bison

Evidence of the great slaughter

There were more than 30 million American bison (estimates vary considerably, ranging up to 60 million) on the Great Plains before the American Civil War. Within 20 years of the end of that war, the animal was on the brink of extinction. They were slaughtered for their hides, to deprive the Plains Indian of their primary source of sustenance or just for the hell of it. As the mountain of skulls to the right makes clear, few doubted the rightness of this killing spree.

American Bison

An 1889 survey conducted by William Hornaday, the first director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (then the New York Zoological Society), found that only 1,091 bison, wild and captive, remained in North America. At that point with the great herds gone, a few isolated individuals took actions to preserve the scattered remains of the species. Some ranchers in Montana and Texas, wealthy New Yorkers, preservation from poachers of a few isolated wild bison in Yellowstone National Park, New York City zoos, and some dedicated federal employees all had a hand in the saving of the survivors.

From this new beginning, bison have increased in numbers to over 350,000 today. Most of these animals are being raised commercially on private ranches. Some 90% include cattle genes from cross breeding at some time in the past. Although even these hybrids appear like purebred bison. Less than 20,000 are pure bison and many of these are the product of a very narrow gene pool associated with the late 19th Century population bottleneck.

European Bison

European Bison or Wisent

The European bison or wisent, evolving in a more forest environment, is more of a browser than the American Bison. The wisent was common in Europe at the time of the arrival of the first humans as attested by their images drawn on cave walls. In Western Europe, wisent lasted in the Ardennes into the 14th century. In the east, wisent were legally the property of royalty. The last wild wisent in Poland was killed in 1919 and the last wild wisent in the world was killed by poachers in 1927 in the Western Caucasus. By that year fewer than 50 remained, all in zoos.

Wisents were re-introduced successfully into the wild beginning in 1951. Free-ranging herds are found in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan and since 2006 in Moldova. Zoos in 30 countries also have quite a few animals. The total worldwide population recorded in 2019 was around 7,500 – about half of this number being in Poland and Belarus, with over 25% of the global population based in Poland alone. Because of their limited genetic pool, they are considered highly vulnerable to diseases like foot and mouth disease. Wisents are now found in the 30km radiation exclusion zone around the Chernobyl Nuclear complex. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Action Plan aims to continue reviving the species as free ranging population and save its genetic diversity. 

Chestnut Tree & Elm

 

American Chestnut Stump Sprout

The American Chestnut was once the dominant tree of the eastern American forest, rising up to 36 meters (120 feet) in height and reaching 6 meters (20 feet) or more in circumference. It grew throughout the Appalachian region from southern Canada to Georgia. The nut of the chestnut was one of the primary food sources for the wild inhabitants of this forest. It was also a valuable commercial product gathered by the rural human inhabitants of these mountains. Other chestnut species are found in China, Japan and Europe.

Soon after 1900 there arrived on American shores the chestnut blight, a fungus of Chinese origin. This blight caused an ecological disaster. I still remember my father's tale of the impact of the tree's demise on the rural countryside of his youth in New York's southern tier. Virtually every chestnut tree in the forest and along city streets succumbed, wild turkey populations were devastated, and rural residents were deprived of a resource. Animal populations were reduced substantially, as they were forced to adjust their diets to include more acorns and other seeds.

The tendency for the tree to continue sprouting saplings from the roots stimulated the search for resistant individuals. None to date found among the American species were consistently resistant across their offspring as was the Chinese species. The American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation (ACCF) continues this search, intercrossing among American chestnuts selected for native resistance to the blight.

Former distribution of the American Elm

Another program was initiated to cross American chestnuts with resistant Japanese and Chinese species. However, even if the offspring was resistant, they bore little resemblance to the tall American giant of the forest. Researchers from the SUNY in Syracuse, N.Y., are planting 10 chestnut trees with a tweaked gene that they believe will help the trees resist the blight. 

The ultimately seemingly successful approach was initiated by Charles Burnham and Philip Rutter, the two men who formed the American Chestnut Foundation. This approach involved a series of backcross breedings of the most resistant individual trees, beginning with pure Chinese and American species. Each backcross adding additional American tree characteristics. In each step, the backcross is selected for resistance through the process of blight inoculation and for American characteristics by visual observation. After six backcrosses or more, the tree should be 15/16 American Chestnut with blight resistance equal to the Chinese parent. Successful replanting throughout the North American east is targeted for 2015. 

The magnficent American Elm, although less dominant in the forest than the chestnut, experienced a similar population collapse brought on by an introduced fungal disease, Dutch elm disease (DED). Recovery of the tree is still uncertain.

The elm too has a family connection, having graced with its imposing presence the streets of my home town in upstate New York when I was growing up. My father even helped lead the opposition to a proposed "street improvement" that involved the removal of virtually every elm tree along the main street. The other side, called the 'progressives', triumphed.

Panda

Panda eating bamboo at the Wolong Nature Preserve, Susan A. Mainka, WWF

The panda is one of the most popular animals in the world. Internet users can view the panda occupants of the US National Zoo. 

Unfortunately, it is also one of the most endangered. Found only in China, the world's most populous country, the giant panda clings to survival. Habitat fragmentation and poaching are its greatest threats. 

Today, it is estimated that as few as 1,600 pandas remain in the wild. Though they once could be found in southern and eastern China, and in neighboring Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam, currently giant pandas are confined to temperate forest scattered across six mountain ranges in southwestern China in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi along the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. These forests constitute one of the most biologically rich temperate areas on Earth.

Habitat loss and fragmentation are the most pressing threats to the giant panda. Habitat loss due to explosive population growth and unsustainable use of natural resources has pandas clinging to survival across their range, as large areas of natural forest have been cleared for agriculture, timber and fuelwood.

Across the panda's range, habitat is fragmented into isolated patches, and since pandas cannot migrate between these far-flung habitat blocks, they have less flexibility to find new feeding areas during periodic bamboo flowering and die-off episodes. Small, isolated populations also face a greater risk of inbreeding, which can lead to reduced resistance to disease, less adaptability to environmental changes and reproductive problems.

Some poaching of pandas still occurs and even low levels of poaching can have grave consequences for such an endangered species. Poaching is a riskybusiness carrying stiff penalties; panda poachers and smugglers have received death penalties or long prison terms for their crimes.

Current Panda distribution map

In 1979, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was invited by the Chinese government to collaborate in panda conservation, becoming the first international conservation organization to work in China. After several years of arduous fieldwork and months of data analysis, the State Forestry Administration of China and WWF were able to estimate that there are as many as 50 percent more pandas in the wild than previously thought to exist. The biggest challenge now is reconnecting the forests that contain pandas. Pockets of giant pandas are isolated from each other on more than 20 "islands" of habitat across six mountain ranges. It's crucial to their survival that they be linked with each other to find mates and adequate bamboo supplies. WWF and Chinese government agencies are already putting the survey to work to create new reserves and forested "corridors" to do just that.

Thanks to a joint conservation strategy mapped out by WWF and the Chinese government in 1992, there are nowmore than 40 reserves covering about half of the giant panda's habitat. The original strategy included a blueprint for adding new panda reserves to the existing network of 13, and plans to expand existing reserves and add new ones continue to be in the works under a new initiative to extend China's protected areas system. Additionally, a new forest protection program launched by the government in 1998 includes a widespread ban on logging by which virtually all panda habitat is now off limits to timber harvesting. A related measure calls for reforesting former farmland on steep slopes.

In 1997, WWF initiated a community-based conservation program in Pingwu County, Sichuan Province, home to the largest concentration of pandas in China. The program teaches local people how to protect panda habitat without compromising their economic livelihood, by training them in sustainable logging methods, introducing new income-generating activities like ecotourism and raising local awareness about conservation.

Tule Elk

Tule Elk at Point Reyes, CA, H. Graem © 2009

Tule elk are the smallest subspecies of American elk (wapiti) , weighing an average of 200 kilos, with occasional individuals reaching 300 kilos. Prior to the 1849 Gold Rush, herds of tule elk grazed the grasslands of Califoria's Central Valley at a density that rivaled the bison on the Great Plains. There were an estimated half-million in pre-European California.

The Gold Rush all but sealed their doom as an expanding gold mining population sought meat from wherever available. An 1854 law limiting elk hunting in several counties did little to arrest their decline, and when elk hunting was banned outright in California in 1873, many people believed the tule elk had vanished altogether.

In 1874, workers for cattle baron Henry Miller discovered a lone pair in a swath of marsh they were draining. Miller gave instructions that the animals be spared. His men continued to drain the marshes and discover more elk. In 1895 there were 28 known remaining elk, most on Miller's land. Over the remaining two decades of his life, Miller continued to protect them, and the elk soon numbered in the hundreds. Such a sizable herd quickly began to wreak havoc on nearby farms, and it was this damage as much a spirit of preservation that drove Miller to ship the elk all over California. Today more than 4,000 tule elk roam California in more than 20 herds. One of the largest herds is found at Point Reyes. 

Ironic that Henry Miller, one of the most powerful Californians in the last half of the 19th Century and the largest landowner, should be renown more than 100 years later for saving a handful of deer. The original action must have seemed no more than an afterthought at the time.

California Condor

California Condor

The California Condor is a large, black vulture. It has the largest wingspan (around 2.77 meters or 9.1 feet) of any bird found in North America and is one of the heaviest. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. They are one of the world’s longest-living birds, with lifespans of up to 50 years.

Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 1800s due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction. Eventually, a conservation plan was put in place by the United States government that led to the capture of all the remaining wild condors in 1987. These 22 birds were bred at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors have been reintroduced into the wild as far away as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The project is the most expensive species conservation project ever undertaken in the United States. As of 2005, there were 273 individuals, including 127 in the wild.

Despite opposition from the American Rifle Association, California passed in 2007 and Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation outlawing lead ammunition in the areas inhabited by the condor. Lead bullets in the carrion are a primary cause of death among the reintroduced condors. Copper substitutes for the lead cost just a few pennies more.

Northern Elephant Seal

Elephant Seal, Año Nuevo, CA, H Graem © 2019

The Northern Elephant Seal was hunted almost to extinction by the end of the 19th century, being prized for oil that could be made from its blubber. The population may have fallen to less than 1000. Finding refuge in Mexican waters, there was only one sole surviving rookery on Guadalupe Island, Mexico. This colony was granted protection by the Mexican government.

Since the early 20th century, the elephant seal has been protected by law in both Mexico and in the United States. It has fully protected status under California law. The U.S. protection was strengthened after passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. 

In California, the population continues to grow and new colonies are being established. Populations of rookery sites in California have exploded during the past half-century. Elephant Seal numbers have now recovered to over 160,000. 

For example, at Año Nuevo State Park, there were no individuals observed whatsoever until the 1950s. The first pup born there was observed in the early 1960s. Currently, thousands of pups are born every year at Año Nuevo, on both the island and mainland. The growth of the site near San Simeon has proved even more spectacular. There were no animals there prior to 1990. Currently, the San Simeon site hosts more breeding animals than Año Nuevo State Park. Despite the rising numbers, there is a genetic bottleneck in the existing elephant seal population, which could make it susceptible to disease.

"Back from Beyond the Brink?"

 

 Aurochs 

Drawing of extinct Auroch

The aurochs is an extinct European mammal of the Bovidae family. Most or all modern cattle are direct descendants of the aurochs; the South Asian domestic cattle, the zebu, may be descended from a related species, the gaur. Modern cattle have become much smaller than their wild forebears: the height at the withers of a domesticated cow is about 1.4 meters, whereas an aurochs could reach about 1.75 meters.

Aurochs are depicted in many cave paintings such as those found at Lascaux and Livernon in France. The last recorded live aurochs was reportedly hunted and killed by poachers in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest, Poland.

In the 1920s two German zookeepers— brothers by the names of Heinz and Lutz Heck— attempted to breed the aurochs back into existence from the domestic cattle that were their descendants. The brothers believed that all living creatures werethe result of their genetic make-up and that genes could be rearranged like the pieces of a puzzle to recreate certain vanished species. Only breeds that still had living descendants could be recreated because those living breeds would be a source for genetic material.

"Tauros" first generation

The result is the breed called Heck Cattle, or "Recreated Aurochs" or "Heck Aurochs", which bears a physical resemblance to what is known about the wild aurochs. The major difference is in size. Recreated auroch bulls are not much larger than the bull of most breeds of domestic cattle, while wild aurochs bulls are believed to have often exceeded 1000 kilograms, half the size of a rhinoceros. Breeders work to increase the size in the future.

In 2009, Henri Kerkdijk and Ronald Goderie started the Tauros Program whose goal is the 'Tauros', a bovine breed indistinguishable from the former Aurochs. They dismiss the Heck cattle as a failure. The project is being aided by research on ancient aurochs DNA and comparison of that with DNA of European cattle breeds. The 'tauros' are created by cross breeding various primitive European cattle breeds considered to retain auroch-like features. Their goal is herds of tauroses roaming across sections of rewilded Europe in 2020.

Tarpan 

Konic variety of the recreated "Tarpan"

The Tarpan was the Eurasian wild horse. The Tarpan ranged from Southern France and Spain eastward to central Russia. Cave drawings of Tarpan horses can be found in France and Spain. In Southern Russia this horse was domesticated by Scythian nomads in about 3000 B.C. The last individual wild Tarpan died in captivity in Ukraine before 1920.

Several European horse breeds descended from the Tarpan. Polish farmers often crossed the tarpan with their domestic horses. The result was a small horse breed, the Konik. The Sorraia horse, a remnant population of an indigenous wild horse which survived almost pure in the inaccessible lowlands of the Portuguese river Sorraia until the early 1900s, was preserved in Portugal. Both breeds are used to breed back the Tarpan, and to fill in the niche that was left vacant by their extinction in the wild.

The Heck brothers (same ones recreating the aurochs) in the early 1930’s started a selective breeding program in the hope of bringing back the extinct tarpan. Mares from descendent breeds were mated to Przewalski stallions to supposedly serve as a catalyst to draw out the latent Tarpan characteristics dormant in these more modern breeds. At first the Prezwalki horse influence was too strong, but soon they succeeded in producing a horse which resembled the skeletal evidence of the extinct tarpan.

In 1936, Professor Tadeasz Vetulai of Poznan University also began attempts using the Konik to breed the Tarpan back to its original state. Two of the horses even turned white in winter, but face, fetlocks, mane and tail retained the dark colour, as did the extinct Tarpan. After 3 years there were 18 horses at Bialowieza, 8 having been born in the Bialowieza forest. Another reserve was established in the Popielno forest.

The selective breeding programs in Portugal, Germany and Poland resulted in the semi-wild herds of modern tarpans that can be seen today. More than 500 Konik-Tarpan horses are found in Poland. The modern tarpan is a strong horse. It is resistant to harsh climate, a prolific breeder that rarely aborts, healthy, and accustomed to foraging in the wild. However, although the modern tarpan resembles the original extinct tarpan in its skeleton and colour type, there is no genetic evidence that the modern tarpans are the same creature.