Who is your conservation hero?
As many lockdowns ease, South Africa remains pretty intense. Keeping our blog busy – we are looking at some of our conservation heroes! This blog we quizzed Predator Research Coordinator, Jamie, on his conservation hero. Who is your conservation hero? There are so many names you can think of when we think about conservation, David Attenborough of course, Alan Rabinowitz – what an incredible person – Ullas Karanth, but my conservation hero is Steve Irwin. Why did you choose them? There are a fair few opinions on Steve Irwin, but when I was a kid, his excitement and passion was just mesmerising and inspiring. He was so excited by all things nature and I ended up getting a floppy hat like his, and I believe my brother/parents still have videos of me pretending to be him with my Aussie accent peering through grass, no doubt talking about a creature rather less dangerous than most of the animals I would have watched him presenting! So I think he really set off major conservation/animal love alarms somewhere inside me and his foundation continues to fund vital projects globally, which is awesome. Image from: Irish News When did you first hear about him/become interested in what he did? At my primary school we had an Adventure Club. We would have all sorts of things organised by one of our members of staff – climbing Snowden, walking the Brecon Beacons, first aid courses, camping in local woods and learning survival skills and things like that. On one of the after school times we met up, Mr Martin showed us a video of ‘The World’s Ten Deadliest Snakes’ and it was presented by Steve Irwin – hooked! Not long after, one of the sessions was someone bringing in loads of animals like snakes, tarantulas and giant stick insects and things like that. Eight year old me held everything, proudly, even things the year 8 boys wouldn’t hold! Holding a Western stripe-bellied sand snake (Psammophis subtaeniatus) More than happy to assist with goat matters! Do you think it has influenced you in how you have developed your conservation career/interests? Certainly to some degree. I think my dad has always liked nature so that was a base, and so then when Steve was so all-action-in-love with nature it certainly set something off in me I think. I am not sure it has influenced specifically how I have developed in conservation – I do like crocs and snakes and other dangerous animals, but I haven’t quite gone to the lengths of catching mambas… yet. I think he inspired the pathway for sure, and then as I got older perhaps others like Alan Rabinowitz and reading all about his life and work sent me towards big cats and other large carnivores… and goats! If you could meet Steve Irwin, what would you ask them? Very good question. I have never really thought much about that. Maybe how many words has he made up – he always used to say things in his excitement that just weren’t words, which mum and I found particularly amusing. I think more seriously it would have to be about how we can change people’s mindsets. I said earlier that people had a lot of opinions on him – ‘shouldn’t be jumping on crocs, taking his baby in with him etc.’ – to me he showed just how amazing animals were, just how much trust he had in them to not attack until they really felt they had no choice, removing large crocs form water systems in the only way he knew how at the time, to prevent them from being shot by locals who, understandably, didn’t want that danger around their families. I saw all that as educational, amazing and inspiring, but many saw it as cruel, irresponsible and wrong. But we don’t live in a utopian world where we can all live with no risk of issues with animals, neither can we resolve conflicts by money and/or law alone. Many people or groups active in changing laws to prevent harm to animals don’t have to live with those specific animals, it isn’t a simple resolution to tell those that do deal with those animals to just live with it, we have to be pragmatic and we have to be open to multiple solutions – the problem is how to address so many elements that cause problems – economic, social, tradition, medicinal – real or otherwise, political – there are a lot of stumbling blocks… So Steve, how do we fix all that?! And how do we not lose faith? Who is your conservation hero? Tell us in the comments!
World Rhino Day: could we? should we?
Following World Rhino day on 22nd September, I thought I would share a very interesting chat on the white rhino that myself and Dr Findlay were lucky to be in the audience for at the recent Southern African Wildlife Management Association conference. The presentation was by Professor Yoshan Moodley who works in genetics at the University of Venda. The white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) has historically been considered as two subspecies – the Northern White Rhino and the Southern White Rhino. The current dispersion of these animals is quite different to the considered historical range. Despite both undergoing changes, the histories of each and the pressures faced follow different stories. The southern white rhino population has recovered to be the world’s most numerous rhino, but had seen a great decline in its number to its all time low at the turn of the 19th Century. The northern white rhino remained common through the majority of the 20th Century, before experiencing a rapid decline from the 1970’s onwards to the two remaining today. The study used genetic sampling to review the demographic history of the two subspecies. Using museum samples the study was able to form a considerable data set to conclude prehistoric interglacial population declines in both, as well as, inevitably, declines by human impact – on the northern by Bantu migrations, and the southern through colonial expansion. Most significantly, there was detection of secondary contact between the two as recently as the last glacial maximum, approximately 21,500 years ago. Where other species have experienced issues when left with a low genetic diversity in their population, for example the Cheetah’s kinked tail amongst other issues; these results suggest that the white rhino has not experienced such drastic impacts, despite having been subjected to regular fragmentation of their population, and as a result low genetic diversity. In fact it seems they may have then recovered through this secondary contact during glacial periods. The results therefore suggest there may be the potential for a hybrid rescue strategy to sustain the northern white rhino. The question at the end of this presentation, posed by Professor Moodley, was should we intervene in this way? Can humans get this breeding right? Or if they are so similar can we just move some of the more numerous southern white rhinos up to where the northern white rhino used to exist? Nonetheless, an interesting and, potentially, extremely positive outcome for efforts to conserve the white rhino. Let us know what you think should happen. Featured image AfricanConservation, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons