In fantastic news for nature conservation, the New Zealand Government announced today it has abandoned plans to mine 7000 hectares of land protected under Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, including strongholds of two top priority EDGE Amphibians.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson declared that the government has decided not to remove any land from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act (which provides protection) for the purposes of further mineral exploration or extraction.

Numerous rare species were threatened by the proposal, including top priority EDGE Amphibians Archey’s frog (Leiopelma archeyi) and Hochstetter’s frog (L. hochstetteri). These prehistoric frogs have survived mass extinctions and represent half of New Zealand’s native amphibian fauna, but are currently struggling to cope with increasing human pressure. Years of work have gone into preventing the extinction of these remarkable frogs, so it is fantastic that these efforts have not been in vain.

The areas proposed for mining exploration included several long-term frog monitoring sites representing over 40 years of the best data on frog populations anywhere in the world. In addition the proposed mining area includes the ‘type’ locality of Archey’s frog (Tokatea on the Coromandel Peninsula) and Hochstetter’s frogs (Coromandel Peninsula). Archey’s frogs only occur in two areas and the Coromandel is considered the ‘stronghold’ population.

The government received 37,552 submissions on its discussion paper. “The vast majority of submissions were focused on the proposal to remove 0.2 per cent of land from Schedule 4 to allow for wider mineral prospecting on those sites,” Mr Brownlee said. “Most of those submissions said we should not remove any land from Schedule 4.  We heard that message loud and clear.â€�

Ms Wilkinson said the government had agreed to continue with its proposal to add 14 areas totalling 12,400 hectares of land to Schedule 4. In addition, in the future all areas given classifications equivalent to current Schedule 4 areas (such as national parks and marine reserves) will automatically become part of Schedule 4, receiving the protection listing provides. Ms Wilkinson also confirmed that the idea of mining in national parks in New Zealand was “off the table�, now and in the future.

This decision represents a fantastic victory for the conservation of these ancient frogs, but actions are still required both within and beyond protected areas to guarantee the survival of these species. We look forward to supporting continued efforts to protect the New Zealand frogs.

You can support conservation of the world’s most unusual threatened species by donating here.

A massive occupancy monitoring programme has been initiated over the past 18 months to assess the persistence of lorises in over 100 of the remaining fragmented rainforest patches spread across south-western Sri Lanka.  The principal threat facing the slender loris is habitat change, resulting from nearly two centuries of over exploitation for coffee, tea, rubber, and cinnamon. Combine with the facts that the species is endemic to central and south-western Sri Lanka, and is typically found in the southern “wet zone� of the island, up to the central “intermediate zone�, and the picture is bleak.

Fortunately, the ZSL EDGE programme is collaborating with University of Colombo and the Open University of Sri Lanka to bring conservation focus to this species and its remaining habitat. The overall programme is being monitored by the National Steering Committee on slender loris appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource, Sri Lanka.

A major objective of the project is to provide the first spatial data on loris species at this scale in Sri Lanka allowing questions regarding habitat use, forest preferences, and distribution to finally be answered. To focus attention and resources on this mammoth task, seven hypotheses were selected for slender loris occupancy monitoring:

1 - Loris occupancy is highest in lowland rainforest ecotype compared to sub-montane and  montane, 2 - Loris occupancy is  related to connectivity to other habitat patches 3 - Protected and managed areas have greater loris occupancy than gazetted but unmanaged and unprotected areas, 4 - Loris occupancy is highest in secondary forest compared to primary forest and agroforestry systems, 5 - Loris occupancy changes according to patch size, 6 - Loris occupancy is highest in forest with highest substrate connectivity than moderately connect and no connection; 7 – Different loris species has difference occupancy.

The first round of the occupancy monitoring programme for slender lorises was completed in March 2010. Nocturnal transect surveys (2km each) were repeated across some 115 forest patches in the wet zone and intermediate zone of the country – totaling over 1000 surveys!

The team are now beginning to process and interpret a huge amount of data, to reveal some of the secrets of loris life. One early success has been the rediscovery the virtually unknown Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides). Originally documented in 1937, there have only been four known encounters in the past 72 years. The rediscovery and capture by the team (working under the ZSL EDGE programme) has resulted in the first detailed physical examination of this sub-species.

The Horton Plains slender loris is evidently extremely rare and was only found after more than 200 hrs of nocturnal transect surveys in the known habitat. The red slender loris is a focal EDGE species, and the rarity of L. t. nycticeboides resulted in it being listed as one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates.

More results of the fieldwork will follow in the next blog………

EDGE mammal number 46, the remarkable golden-rumped elephant-shrew, is the Species of the Day!

Elephant-shrews (or sengi’s) are so-named because they have long, flexible trunks, and when you see them in action they are actually surprisingly elephantine! Funnily enough, recent studies show that elephant shrews are in fact more closely related to elephants than to the shrew and hedgehog family with which they had been traditionally associated.

The golden-rumped elephant shrew is the largest species in the group, at about the size of a small cat, with long spindly legs and, as its name suggests, a distinctive golden-coloured bottom.

Unusually for a small mammal, golden-rumped elephant shrews are monogamous, pairing with their partner elephant-shrew until one of them dies. Each pair has its own territory which they defend sex-specifically.

Threatened primarily by habitat destruction, the golden-rumped elephant shrew’s forest habitat has become highly fragmented, and most remaining areas are thought to be too small to support viable populations. The only sizeable areas of forest are under pressure from practices such as tree and pole cutting, and encroachment for agriculture. Elephant-shrews are known to shelter from predators in hollow trees. However, many of the trees favoured by the species are being removed by woodcarvers who supply the tourist industry with carvings of African wildlife. The removal of these trees mean less hiding places for the elephant-shrews, making them more vulnerable to predators – both natural and introduced (e.g. dogs).

The EDGE of Existence programme has supported a young Kenyan scientist, Grace Wambui Ngaruiya, through the EDGE Fellows programme. Grace assessed the status and population size (presence, distribution and abundance) of the golden-rumped elephant-shrew in the poorly known Boni and Dodori Forests on the Kenya-Somalia border. She also gathered critical data on the threat processes impacting the habitats and elephant-shrew populations in this region, one of the two major sites this elephant-shrew is found along with the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest further south.

To help conserve remarkable and overlooked species and to support young aspiring conservationists, please become an EDGE Champion or donate here.

EDGE Amphibian number 80 - the wonderful Luristan newt (Neurergus kaiseri) - is today’s Species of the Day!

The Luristan newt is the smallest of the four Neurergus salamanders, a colourful and attractive group found in the Middle East. Their attractive colouration warns predators of their toxic skin secretions. This species lives in just three fast-flowing spring-fed streams in the southern Zagros Mountains, Iran, which run through very arid shrubland. However, the newt has disappeared from one of these streams, further restricting the population. Fewer than 1,000 adult newts are thought to survive.

Male Luristan newts perform a courtship dance for females, undulating the tail in front of the female. The female lays eggs under rocks in the stream; the larvae that emerge are adapted to the fast-flowing water with conspicuously long tails which help them swim against strong currents. They develop for about a year in the stream, spending their first winter in water before metamorphosing into the adult newt.

This species is threatened by habitat loss, which is occurring as a result of wood extraction for small-scale subsistence use. The Luristan newt is extremely sensitive to environmental change because they live in arid, marginal conditions. The effects of recent severe droughts have negatively impacted this species, which depends on spring-fed streams for breeding.

Over-collection is also a major threat - this attractive newt is in demand for the international pet trade and it appears that individuals caught in the wild are being illegally exported out of Iran for this global market. The threats are estimated to have caused a decline in the population of over 80% in ten years, and this newt is now restricted to a very small area.

On Sunday March 21st this year delegates at the CITES conference in Doha, Qatar, voted unanimously to list the Luristan Newt in CITES Appendix I, in a fantastic step forward in the conservation of the species. As a result, trade in the Luristan newt is now illegal except in very exceptional circumstances when a license is required.

To help support conservation of threatened and unique EDGE species, please donate here.

Asian river dolphins are among the most threatened large vertebrates, because the regions where they occur have high human population densities, resource overexploitation and environmental degradation, with escalating pressures on local biodiversity and diminishing ecosystem services.

Tragically we have already been witness to the extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin or Baiji. Efforts to better understand the key factors threatening the Ganges River dolphin with extinction have already begun in the Assam region of India, however funding has recently been secured to extend research down into Bangladesh throughout the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli river systems. Funding is for a three year PhD project based here at ZSL but in collaboration with Julia Jones of University of Bangor, and Dr. Simon Northridge of the Sea Mammal Research Unit in St. Andrews. The project shall build upon some of the current research being done by the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project which has already started documenting habitat preferences, abundance hot spots, and resource use in this species.

This species is considered to be particularly threatened by overfishing (incidental by-catch, direct exploitation, resource depletion), and high industrial and agricultural pollutant loads may also have a severe impact on dolphin immunocompetence and fertility. However, although these threat processes are known to constitute major causes of mortality in cetacean populations worldwide, almost no information is available on the interactions of Ganges River dolphins with fisheries or fish stocks, and similarly little is known about either observed levels or predicted health effects of persistent organic pollutant loads in the species. In the absence of such data, it is effectively impossible to assess the conservation status of the species across its range, or to develop appropriate sustainable recovery strategies.

The purpose of this project is to identify patterns and drivers of river dolphin mortality, and the relationship between regional river dolphin abundance and the status of commercially significant freshwater fish species (e.g. hilsa shad). Data on the timing, cause and distribution of river dolphin mortality events (including both incidences of by-catch and other events) will be gathered during an extensive interview survey of knowledgeable informants from riverside fishing communities across Bangladesh. During the survey additional data shall be collected on fishing gear type and use in different parts of the river system during both high- and low-water seasons, data on fish catch size and composition for target fisheries representing important resources for local communities. Further data on fishing gear use, and landings shall be obtained from the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute. In order to look at pollutant loads in the dolphin, tissue samples shall be obtained from carcasses and returned to the UK for analysis.

The findings of this study shall both provide an important insight into the major factors contributing to the decline of this highly threatened species and therefore identify appropriate conservation recommendations, but shall further develop the effectiveness of monitoring  techniques employed when studying cryptic, aquatic species such as this.

The project will officially start at the beginning of October, but work is already underway to plan for a field season in early 2011. A one month trip is planned for November/ December 2010 in which Dr. Sam Turvey (project principal supervisor) and Nadia Richman (PhD student) will go to Bangladesh to meet with the WCS team and discuss the logistics of fieldwork across the country.