Land of the Leopard: Hope for Amur Leopards

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The Amur Leopard is the most endangered large cat on the planet. In fact, it is ranked among the most endangered animals on earth. It's wild population in a remote forest of Eastern Russia has been reduced to just 30 remaining animals. You would think that living in such a remote, frozen area of the world would protect these cats from human encroachment, but unfortunately, that is not the case. Habitat destruction due to logging and forest fires, not to mention illegal poaching and game hunting have very nearly brought this species down.

But, where there is a will, let's hope there will be a way. There have been some amazing steps taken to help save the Amur Leopard recently. For example, when the Russian government tried to build an oil pipeline through the center of the only remaining habitat for these animals, organizations like The Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance (ALTA) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCA) spoke out in opposition, bringing the plight of these animals and their certain demise to the international media. They convinced all of the major banks to refuse to fund the billions of dollars needed to complete the pipeline if it was built through the leopards' home. In the end, the decision was made to run the pipeline through an already established industrial area, instead, and the Amur leopards were granted a reprieve.

Now there is even better news. It seems the Russian government may have recognized the value of protecting these animals. Land of the Leopard National Park has just opened in Russia in an effort to protect the critically endangered Siberian Tigers and Amur Leopards. It combines three smaller protected areas and adds a large tract of previously unprotected lands along the Chinese boarder. The park is now 1,011 square miles of protected habitat. Many organizations including the two already listed will continue helping to protect the park's large cats and their prey from illegal hunting. They will continue to create fire breaks and train fire fighters in the prevention of further forest fires, and they will work to prevent further logging and habitat destruction. Finally, there may just be some hope for the future of these beautiful cats. In their honor, here's a little video of some captive Amur Leopard cubs for your viewing pleasure. Please consider visiting  ALTA or WCS and find out how you can help save the Amur Leopards.

Bat Brains, New Snakes, and Stupid Humans

The new year brings some fantastic animal news. And, not surprisingly, it also brings some extremely stupid human behavior. But, let's look to the good news first, shall we?

Georgetown University Medical Center just released the article "Bat Brains Parse Sounds for Multitasking," on a study by Georgetown professor and renowned bat researcher Jagmeet Kanwal, PhD. His research, recently published in the European Journal of Neuroscience, reports on bat brain multitasking, showing that, apparently, they process both incoming signals which allow them to navigate via echolocation, while at the same time, they also process a variety of social communication sounds from the other bats. Furthermore, Dr. Kanwal has been able to track this parsing of duties to a single neuron level for the first time.

After having been told off personally by a bat I rescued last year, I am not surprised to hear scientists describing bat communication as similar to humans. The article describes a bit of bat lingo as follows: "Bats make angry sounds such as "back off," warning sounds like "watch out!" and other sounds for communicating messages such as "please don't hurt me," of even "I love you!" " The one I rescued sounded more to me like he was saying, "Up yours!" Anyway, what I was most excited by were some of the similarities found in bat and human brain functions, like a similar lopsided split in the cerebral cortex's wiring to deal with the phenomenon of combination-sensitivity. That's right, I get excited about this kind of stuff.

Photo by Michele Menegon Courtesy of The Science Museum of Trenton/WCS

I'm both excited and dismayed to learn of a new species of snake, Matilda's Horned Viper, discovered in the Tanzanian forest. I'm thrilled to see this new, beautiful species first described in the December Zootaxa journal. I'm dismayed to read Tim Davenport of The Wildlife Conservation Society report that this beautiful new species may be listed as critically endangered in short order. It's forest habitat is already decreased to less than 40 square miles due to deforestation and human encroachment for development. Tanzanian forests are some of the most bio diverse in the world, home to numerous newly discovered species, including the Kimpunji monkey first described in 2005, another species already critically endangered, because their forest home continues to disappear at an alarming rate. 

Last, but not least, the new year brings along more stupid humans doing incredibly stupid things. A woman was filmed at the LA Zoo letting herself into and out of the elephant exhibit last week. She was taken into custody where she admitting to having skipped medication for a number of mental disorders. Let's just hope the elephants won't have to suffer being kept off exhibit due to the questions raised over public safety. I say if someone is stupid enough to cross multiple barriers to get into the elephant exhibit, nobody should complain if they don't make it back out. This particular woman was extremely lucky the elephants didn't take offense to her presence. And furthermore, the question I think people should be asking the LA Zoo is if their elephants are safe from all those crazy humans.