Issue 81 – February 2013
A lesson too slowly learned
We have recently been informed that hunting is being shut down in various African countries and I can still
hear the resounding cries of joy from the ill-informed armchair conservators. What a victory for conservation
they think has been achieved. On the contrary! I believe that it is a very serious blow to conservation in
those regions, but then again I have expressed this opinion many times and won’t belabour the
point.
Several years ago I co-hosted a group of duck hunters from the American
organisation Ducks Unlimited. Among them was Bill Morris, the
then mayor of Shelby County and personal friend of Elvis Presley!
Bill told us some interesting stories about Elvis, but he also
explained how Ducks Unlimited works. I was impressed by the way
they raised funds to protect and extend wetlands and how farmers
were encouraged to flood their fallow fields as waterfowl habitat in return
for having them fertilised and enriched for free. I know the organisation has done
sterling work over the years.
I was very interested to read an article recently which again proves that properly controlled
hunting can only benefit conservation and whatever species it is that is being hunted. The article
claimed that ducks and geese numbers were declining across the United States – not because of over
hunting, but because of a decline in the numbers of duck hunters!
Dr Mark Vrtiska and colleagues from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission recently published a paper
in the wildlife Society Bulletin to this effect. Since the 1970’s millions of dollars have been raised annually by
Ducks Unlimited selling “duck stamps” as a license to hunt waterfowl. This money was used to fund
development of habitat and resulted in a close relationship between cash raised and the number of wild
waterfowl. Until now. Due to changing cultural values and political and social pressures, the number of duck
hunters is declining and the revenues generated by sale of duck stamps has declined steadily since 2008.
Despite other attempts to raise funds, no better solutions have been found to this problem. Waterfowl
numbers continue to decline there. It seems that for all practical purposes, the health of waterfowl
populations in the United States depends squarely on those who are willing to pay money to shoot them out
of the sky.
“I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead,
few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.”
Author Unknown
Malcolm Douglas
Tel: 083 233-5264 | Fax: 086 619-5492 | Email: malcolm.enviroskills@gmail.com
Opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of Enviroskills or of the editor.
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February 2013
Page 2
Update on the Amur falcon massacre
In a few months, Amur falcons will return to their Asian breeding
grounds from southern Africa and once again face the terrific
slaughter that happens in Nagaland, India during their migratory
passage. Hopefully this may not happen to the same extent for
very much longer. I recently received the following promising
news from Pete Hancock of BirdLife Botswana, which he received
in an email from Asad Rahmani.
“We have exchanged lots of emails on this issue, and I have also
replied to some of you. Yesterday I had a meeting with Ramki
Sreenivasan of Conservation India, the person who brought out
this issue through his visit to Nagaland in second half of October,
and Dr S. Subramanya. Full credit should go to Ramki for
bringing out this issue to our attention. I want to brief you on
some points and also update you:
 BNHS/IBCN is fully involved in this campaign. Neha Sinha,
Policy and Advocacy officer of BNHS (funded by RSPB) was
involved with Ramki from the beginning and helped in some
policy and legal issues.
 After seeing the massacre, Ramki contacted the Nagaland officials who acted quickly, and prevented
further killing. They have posted police and forest guards in the area.
 The Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, Mrs Jayanthi Natarajan, has asked for an explanation
and action taken report from the Nagaland government, so there is a flurry of activity in Nagaland.
 Small scale opportunistic killing of Amur Falcon annually was going on for a long time, but this large-scale
killing started only 5-6 years ago after the development of a reservoir. Possibly the presence of large
number of dragonflies (due to reservoir water) attract falcons but this need to be confirmed through
studies. Anyway, soon after development of the reservoir the villagers found out falcon concentration and
started killing them, although it is legally banned. Two years ago, a separate government notification was
brought out by the Nagaland government banning falcon killing but not much was done as the area is
remote and difficult to monitor. Now, with this media campaign, people have realized the extent of killing.
 Ramki is in regular touch with people of that area and yesterday he told me that strict steps have been
taken to prevent further killing, and anyway falcon migration is over.
 Yesterday, Ramki and Dr S. Subramanya (known person in BirdLife, and IBCN State Coordinator of
Karnataka) agreed that we have to start a long-term environmental education (EE) programme in
Nagaland to prevent all type of bird killing. I will discuss this with Cristi, Mike and Marco next week during
BirdLife Asia meeting, and with Ian Barber (whom I am meeting on 17th). We will write a project proposal
for funding by Indian MoEF, but we will also require more funds. EE in Nagaland has to be long-term as
killing of birds is quite extensive in rural areas all over Nagaland (and some other states of north-east
India).
 International campaign should go ahead and RSPB, BirdLife International, CMS, Conservation
International, Raptor NGOs, BirdLife partners etc should write to Mrs Jayanthi Natarajan, Minister of
Environment and Forests, Government of India, Paryavaran Bhawan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New
Delhi, India. They should congratulate her for her quick action. IBCN members are also writing letters to
Mrs Natarajan. I will bring up this issue in the next meeting of the Standing Committee of the National
Board for Wildlife.
 Atul Sathe, PRO of BNHS has been very active in contacting media so lot of newspaper reports have
come out, shocking people. He is in touch with Ramki for updates. Please forward media reports from
your country and elsewhere to Atul as he is keeping track. If anyone of you want media reports from
India, please contact Atul.
Enviroskills - Keeping Guides on Target
February 2013
Page 3
Crossword
Across
1
3. The thick rear part of the rifle stock that is
shouldered when aiming the rifle. (4)
2
3
4
5
5. The correct word for "gunpowder". (10)
9. The term used to describe the amount of free
forward / backward play a cartridge has in a closed
rifle chamber. (9)
10. The working mechanism of a rifle is properly
described as the .... (6)
6
8
7
9
10
11
11. The study of the forces, dynamics and flight
performance associated with firing a projectile. (10)
12
13
13. The longitudinally twisting pattern "engraved" in the
rifle barrel which causes a fired projectile to spin. (7)
Created with EclipseCrossword — www.eclipsecrossword.com
Down
1. The (old) unit often still used to denote the mass of projectiles and powder charges. (6)
2. The opening where a bullet exits the barrel. (6)
4. The curved flight path described by a bullet in flight. (10)
6. The sudden rearward thrust generated by a fired cartridge. (6)
7. A complete loaded round of rifle ammunition. (9)
8. The opening from the primer pocket into the cartridge case body which allows the plasma to ignite the
powder. (5 + 4) (9)
12. The portion of the trigger mechanism that engages with the firing mechanism and prevents the firing pin
from falling until the trigger is pressed. (4)
Spare a thought for the reptiles!
In my experience, most nature-minded people seem to fall into one or other definite
interest group. You have the “birders” and the ones keen on mammals. There are tree
huggers and the butterfly collectors. Everyone seems to have a preference of sorts, but
sadly, very few are interested in wild reptiles. As a group, reptiles are among the most
threatened animals on earth, with about 20 per cent of them struggling to survive in a changing
world. They need all the friends they can get!
In conjunction with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the IUCN Species Survival Commission
(SSC) more than 200 world renowned reptile experts recently assessed the extinction risk of 1,500 randomly
selected reptiles from across the globe. They found that about 20 per cent of them are in serious trouble. Dr.
Monika Böhm, lead author on the paper said “Reptiles are often associated with extreme habitats and tough
environmental conditions, so it is easy to assume that they will be fine in our changing world. However, many
species are very highly specialised in terms of habitat use and the climatic conditions they require for day to
day functioning. This makes them particularly sensitive to environmental changes”. The study appeared in
the journal of Biological Conservation.
Enviroskills - Keeping Guides on Target
February 2013
Page 4
Virgin births in wild vertebrates
It is amazing to think that some animals can reproduce without engaging in any form of sexual contact. In
fact, for many invertebrates such as aphids, this is the most common form of reproduction. The process
involves unfertilised eggs developing into new individuals and is called parthenogenesis.
Surprisingly, some vertebrates such as whiptail lizards are also known to reproduce by the same method.
Members of some species of whiptails are all females, all of them reproducing asexually all the time. It is a
weird situation to say the least, and it is known as obligate parthenogenesis. They have to breed this way.
Other vertebrates were recently suspected of being able to reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis and in
fact several snakes and lizards have been proved to have the capability – but always in captivity when they
were excluded from all male contact. Facultative parthenogenesis has often been thought of as a
reproductive dead end because the offspring were presumed to be infertile themselves. What would the point
be of them being born this way if they could not continue the species’ genetic heritage?
Scientists have now found that at least two species of North American pit vipers (the copperhead and the
cottonmouth) are able to breed this way and do so – in the wild. Researchers collected pregnant female
snakes from habitats where males were known to occur. They then checked the DNA of the resulting
offspring to see if in fact a male had been involved in their
production. They were startled to find that between 2,5 and
5%
of
all
pregnant
females
had
reproduced
parthenogenically.
The most important part of the discovery is yet to come.
Are the young sexually viable? If not, then indeed this is an
evolutionary dead-end, but if they can breed it opens a
whole new insight into the way wild animals reproduce. The
study was lead by Professor Warren Booth, of the
University of Tulsa, Oklahoma, US and was published in
Royal Society's Biological Letters.
What is it?
The picture shows a strange looking hook on the underside of one of the first
walking legs of a baboon spider. This is not found on all baboon spiders and
can be used to tell some interesting information about the animal in question.
A twist in the ... neck
An old guides joke about owls is to ask a guest if an owl can twist its neck through 360 degrees. The answer
is yes of course it can, but just once! The idea that owls have special structures to allow head turning is not
new at all and any search on the subject will reveal a host of references to the idea.
To summarise their adaptations for this we see that the carotid arteries run just in front of the spine instead of
at the sides of the spine. This prevents twisting and obstruction of these major vessels. The neck has
fourteen instead of seven cervical vertebrae, which allows a greater degree of flexibility than most animals
can achieve. Finally there are large expansions of the carotid arteries just below the skull which seem to act
as reservoirs of oxygenated blood. It is not true that owls shunt blood from one vessel to another as they
rotate their necks either left or right.
Much more interesting to me is why owls rotate their necks so much in the first place? The answer is quite
Enviroskills - Keeping Guides on Target
February 2013
Page 5
straightforward actually. Because most owls are nocturnal, they need very
large eyes to accommodate a large retina, which gathers lots of light to form a
visual image in the brain.
Their large eyes of course have to be crammed into very tight eye sockets and
this disallows extra muscles which in our case pull the eyeballs around in the
sockets. We are able to keep our heads still and rotate our eyeballs to see
things through quite a wide arc whereas owls cannot. Being nocturnal
predators, owls need binocular vision and directional hearing to be successful.
Their facial disc and forward facing eyes make it impossible to see anything at
their sides, making it essential to be able to rotate the head to see and hear
prey and predators more successfully.
Interestingly, bushbabies are also unable to move their eyeballs, which is why when using a spotlight at night
you will always see two red eye shines from a bushbaby or none at all. If you see a single eye shine from a
bushbaby it is blind in one eye!
The unfortunate downside to all this is that because of their huge eyes, they are left with minimal cranial
capacity and are in fact rather stupid birds. They are not the “wise old owls” they are reputed to be.
What is it – Answer
When still young, a male baboon spider it is virtually indistinguishable from a female of the same species
until it moults into its sexually mature adult form. If one has the know-how it is possible to sex them using the
moulted skin, but this is not something one can do in the field.
If you encounter a baboon spider wandering around outside of its normal sheltered burrow, there is a good
chance that it is a male on the lookout for mature (and willing) females with which to mate. In his final form
he will have well-developed emboli or sperm sacs which are visible as swellings on the tips of his pedipalps.
Also, on the underside of each of the front walking legs is a mating hook or spur. This is what is seen in the
picture. The proper name for them is tibial apophyses, but I’m sure he has no idea (nor cares) that they have
such an important sounding name!
These are the most important tools he has to prevent a female from possibly killing him during mating. He
uses the hooks to lift the female up by her fangs (chelicerae) while he impregnates her with sperm
transferred from his emboli. If all goes well he should be able to appease the female and gently release her
after “mating” and make good his escape.
By the way, it is a fallacy that spiders eat their mates after mating. In most cases even the “black widow”
leaves her mate intact after breeding. In some species such as the Australian redback spider (same genus
Latrodectus as our button spiders) the male is consumed around 60 per cent of the time, while female
community web spiders sacrifice themselves as the first meal her babies will eat.
“We're finally going to get the bill for the Industrial Age. If the
projections are right, it's going to be a big one: the ecological collapse of
the planet.”
Jeremy Rifkin, World Press Review, 30 December 1989
Enviroskills - Keeping Guides on Target