Through The Backyards;: January 2012

Here's a post dedicated to Amanda,

and BoyBoy (a female actually) after much procrastination, in view of having recently concluded my volunteering stint with her!

Amanda's honours project is a baseline study for NParks' Eco-Link project. The Eco-Link project seeks to address biodiversity-related issues by bridging adjacent plots of forests – BTNR and CCNR,

Ecolink2

which was previously a continuous patch of forest (before it was fragmented in 1986 to make way for development).

The construction of the Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) subjects sensitive landscape areas to edge effect:

Abiotic – involve changes in the microclimatic stresses (e.g. increased light, elevated air and soil temperatures, increased nutrient, increased moisture stress)
Biotic (direct) – involve changes in vegetation diversity and wildlife implication (e.g. weed abundance, roadkills)
Biotic (indirect) – involve changes in species interactions (e.g. predation, parasitism, pollination and seed dispersal)

The BKE also effectively bisected arboreal-terrestrial forest communities, resulting in species isolation (which may promote inbreeding, reducing the fitness and hence survival of a species).

Driven by the 5 strategies listed in the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP),

"... NParks will be developing an Eco-Link across the BKE, in the form of an overhead bridge to connect the Bukit Timah and Central Catchment Nature Reserves. With a width of 50-metres at its narrowest point, this hourglass shaped bridge will be densely planted with vegetation to encourage animal crossings between the two nature reserves. Not only will the Eco-Link benefit the wildlife, people will also be able to enjoy extended hikes between the two nature reserves via trails on the new link. The first of its kind in Southeast Asia, this overhead Eco-Link affirms the Government's commitment to the long-term conservation of Singapore's biodiversity." – Mr Mah Bow Tan (Minister for National Development)

Though we all know that it would have been more effective to plan to retain linkages in a landscape than to attempt to re-establish them in a previously fragmented landscape, hopefully this $17, 000, 000 ecological corridor, upon completion, can meet its objective of ensuring the exchange of genetic material, adequate feeding areas and breeding grounds. More on the Eco-Link

Back to Amanda's project! In which, she studies the population and distribution of small mammals at various locations within BTNR and CCNR.

When deciding on a suitable field technique, the size of the animal, its niche (i.e. arboreal, aquatic, subterranean, terrestrial, volant), and its behavior (e.g. nocturnal), are necessary considerations. In her case, field survey entails live-trapping of small mammals using baited Tomahawk and Sherman traps, coupled with the Mark-and-Recapture technique for a more qualitative analysis on the small mammal populations. More on survey techniques

Anyway, below is a series of photos which chronicles (more or less) her fieldwork. All photos taken with iPhone 4, and rather hastily so... sorry for the poor quality!

She sets up 36 traps at every site. And each trap is placed 20m apart, alternating between Tomahawk and Sherman in the entire grid system. She also checks all 36 traps twice a day.

Singapore Rat (Rattus annandalei)

Besides the Singapore rat, she also caught the Malaysian Wood Rat (Rattus tiomanicus), Common Treeshrew (Tupaia glis), Hooded pitta (Pitta sordiad cucullata) and a baby monkey (long-tailed macaque I think)!

I'm thankful to have been given the opportunity to help her (and other honours students) during these two months! The experiences have been rewarding and I've definitely picked up some skills (like setting the camera traps, micro-chipping and using the total station).

References:

Laurance WF, Nascimento HEM, Laurance SG, Andrade A, Ewers RM, et al. 2007 Habitat Fragmentation, Variable Edge Effects, and the Landscape-Divergence Hypothesis.PLoS ONE 2(10): e1017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001017
Good, J. A. (1998) The potential role of ecological corridors for habitat conservation in Ireland: areview. Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 2, 72pp.

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Further Readings:

Study uncovers how animals in Maryland use underground highway culverts (More photos on their FB page)
Conservation Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and Greenways by National Agroforestry Centre
The role of corridors and types
An analysis on the effectiveness of different traps

In the video, Ric O'Barry reveals the living conditions of cetaceans in Taiji's aquarium and mentions the hypocrisy behind the Japanese whaling administration.

From the 'Channel Info':

@RichardOBarry is the director of DolphinProject.org, a campaign conducted by the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute. DolphinProject.org was formed to put an end to the Japanese drive fishery slaughter of dolphins and stop the capture and live trade of dolphins to zoos and aquariums around the world.

The work of Ric and the Dolphin Project team was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove as well as in Animal Planet Channel's Blood Dolphin$ series with @LincolnOBarry.

Save Japan Dolphins is active in creating worldwide pressure against the Japanese dolphin slaughter, generating petitions with more than 2 million signatures from 151 countries. The team is also involved in investigations and monitoring at the Cove and in exposing the toxic mercury in Japanese dolphin meat products.

Is the act of domesticating and conditioning wildlife still relevant today? Possibly, though most animals generally do not fare well in captivity. (More on the zoo debate) Also, zoos and aquariums often assert captive breeding and re-introduction as a conservation strategy. But is it, really?

The main threats to wildlife are the introduction of exotic species, which may threaten the livelihood of local species through increased competition or the spread of diseases (see invasive species and poverty), overexploitation, and habitat alteration/conversion. No amount of re-introductions will save a species if there is no habitat to re-introduce the species to.

Effectively, the point I'm driving at is that in the long-term, successful conservation cannot be achieved solely by focusing on chronicling biodiversity, studying wildlife, relying on governmental policies etc. In addition to that, we have to promote eco-literacy among fellow human beings.

Helping the public see the link between the loss of species or reduction in genetic diversity and declines in ecosystem functions, will help advance conservation efforts at the community level - revamping the attitude held by the majority, towards wildlife/the environment, will allow them to reconsider their relationship with nature, and in so doing, promote sustainable living and mitigate human-wildlife conflicts.

So how do we go about informing people?

The conservationists' culture

"Today's conservation culture and rhetoric are primarily focused around ‘nature’ and its conservation. This culture encourages a negative and destructive dichotomy between the Human and the Natural—the Natural as a romanticized ideal that we are trying to preserve and the Human as the interloper that is wrecking our idyll."

While the degree of receptiveness to different messaging angles vary from person to person, research has shown that positive messaging has a greater impact on the uninformed (or people who have yet to discover that they care for the environment). Kelvin Zelnio explains it better.

In his blog post, he terms the following trailer for the documentary, The Call of Life, "a classic environmentalist negative messaging."

For those who have yet to check out the link above, here is the last paragraph of his post:

"Environmental messages need to break through the communication barrier to the other half of the population that doesn’t know that they care about the environment. Since they are not supportive of the issue, negative messaging does not easily sway them. And this is where I believe ecosystem services valuation can play a much stronger role. Those who are unsupportive of biodiversity loss issues are more than likely to be supportive of saving money and property, uncovering new medical advances or more efficiently and safely gathering raw materials. This is positive messaging. By changing your behavior – going against the norm – they view themselves trendsetters, improving their lives."

Yes, ecosystem services valuation (in theory at least!) does seem to work, especially since most of the untouched nature (some, in their most pristine form) exist in countries where the locals' livelihood depends very much on the health of the ecosystem. You're going to have to convince them if you want to discourage them from certain agricultural practices or stop the government from signing agreements with MNCs (who will have lesser regard for the ecosystem). There has to be an alternative way in which they can draw their income from.

In the above footage, Ric O’Barry also mentioned that following their (dolphins) death in captivity, the carcasses are brought into slaughter houses. After which, they’ll end up in little packages in the supermarket, where they’re sold to the public. If what he says is consistent with the practice throughout Japan (and around the world), then the health of uninformed consumers are being jeopardised. The consumption of cetacean products endangers the health of consumers as the toxic pollutants found in the water bodies (often, as a result of man's activities), eventually accumulates in large concentrations, in the majestic marine mammal since it occupies the upper tiers of the trophic level (see bioaccumulation and biomagnification). In this case, high levels of mercury and radioisotopes have been detected, with large concentrations in the blubber of these cetaceans.

A recently published paper on putting a price (then you ask, "How do you put a price on the value of nature?") on whales (Costello et al, 2012) was analysed by John Bruno and in a Nature editorial piece. In which both failed to address concerns, which were eventually raised by Jennifer Jacquet (author of Guilty Planet - Scientific American blog).

I'd also like to add that whaling and outright dolphin slaughters aren't the only threa t to cetaceans. Besides plastic pollution, destructive fishing methods, ghost nets and such, one major threat which arose from recent human development, is noise pollution. Learn more about how researchers like Michel André can continuously monitor the marine soundscape and do so in real time here. Roger Payne (Ph.D) will also be giving a talk on the Behaviour and Acoustics of Whales and the Threats Whales Face this Wednesday (18/1). {***See tweets here}

In Jennifer Jacquet's words,

"Similar to chimp research, it is wrong to think that the question of whaling can be distilled to an economic argument."

"Not for food, research, or oil. Whaling has continued as an accessory to the notion of empire, which is why numbers are nice but ultimately irrelevant, just as they are in the fight to expand the empire of our morality – to our neighbors, across continents, to our next of kin, and deep into the oceans."

All of which rams home once again, that we need the public's support if we are to be successful in conservation.

by Tyler Knott Gregson (click through for img src)

Thankfully, after decades of unyielding efforts displayed by activists and educators alike, the emerging generation of young adults appear to be more informed, more concerned, and demonstrate a heightened consumer awareness, with the gain in momentum against the inhumane act of shark finning as the prime example. With citizens and corporate companies engaged in local conservation efforts, we may be able to stall the decline of shark population by reducing the demand (and hopefully restore the numbers too), thereby preventing top-down trophic cascades which may arise in the event that a top-predator is removed from the ecosystem.

P.S. Tell Resorts World Sentosa to free the bottlenose dolphins!

*P.P.S In collaboration with Project: FIN, NUS PEACE will be hosting a roadshow and conducting free movie screenings of Sharkwater at the NUS Central Forum this Wednesday (18/1) and Thursday (19/1)! More info here

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*Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:08:16 +0800
**Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:31:56 +0800
***Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:36:51 +0800

Through The Backyards;

Friday, January 27, 2012

Sign up for the first year-round coastal cleanup @ Tanah Merah!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Small Mammal Research! (:

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Ric O'Barry's Dolphin Project

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