Again this is a worldwide problem but racist Gasfart will politicise it to discriminate against Cyprus.
Snakes declining at alarming rate, say scientists
Study suspects sharp reduction in snake numbers in a variety of habitats in five countries is caused by habitat loss and prey
The Guardian, Wednesday 9 June 2010
Article history
Scientists say the rate of decline in snakes is 'alarming'. The grass snake, Natrix natrix, is stable in the UK and France. Photograph: Solvin Zankl/Getty Images
The widespread disappearance of snakes will be one impact of climate change that some people may find it hard to regret. But as vital predators in sensitive habitats such as rice fields, their decline will have wider ecological consequence, say scientists.
The first major study of the problem, published today, will also be seen as another powerful sign of the worldwide destruction of the natural world, which is causing growing concern about the loss of vital services from rainfall to medicines.
Scientists in five countries across three continents report they found "alarming" declines in snake numbers after monitoring 17 populations in a variety of habitats – something they believe could be part of a global phenomenon.
The paper reports 11 of the population groups "declined sharply", while five remained stable, and one showed a very weak sign of increase. Many of the researchers in the UK, France, Italy, Nigeria and Australia also found evidence of "population crashes" – a sudden decline followed by no sign of recovery – a trend which would make the survivors more vulnerable to being wiped out by further pressures.
"All the declines occurred during the same relatively short period of time and over a wide geographical area that included temperate, Mediterranean and tropical climates," write the authors. "We suggest that, for these reasons alone, there is likely to be a common cause at the root of the declines and that this indicates a more widespread phenomenon."
Although the paper stresses there is no proof of the cause of the losses, the researchers say they "suspect" loss or deterioration of habitats and declining prey are among the main problems faced by snake populations. They believe that all the immediate threats have climate change as a common cause.
"The main importance of these findings is that snakes are top predator within the habitats they are found in and as such play a potentially important role in the functioning of many ecosystems," said Chris Reading of the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who led the research. "For example they play an important role in pest control – small rodents [like] rats and mice - in areas such as paddies and sugar cane plantations."
The snake study, published in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters, is the latest in growing number of research papers warning of widespread biodiversity loss in the UK and around the world. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has said that one third of amphibians and fish, one fifth of mammals and more than one in ten birds is threatened with extinction, and described the rate of loss as one of the great extinctions – the last being the events that wiped out dinosaurs 65m years ago. Natural England, the government's countryside agency, reported in March that on average more than two species are becoming extinct in England every year.
The IUCN said it had not done an analysis of snakes, but based on assessments of nearly one in five reptile species it estimates that 28% are threatened. This figure could reduce in future as vulnerable species are often assessed as a priority.
Researchers tracked the snake populations between 1987 and 2009 by carrying out regular surveys, a method not designed to measure absolute population sizes but relative abundance. The surveys varied in method between sites – from daily reports over several months of the year to monitoring roadkill – but were always the same in each location.
Herpetologists have "suspected" for some time that global populations were in decline, but the paper was the first reliable evidence of the problem, said Reading.
"The problem is that snakes are very difficult to work on and there are very few long-term individual based population studies of them," he added. "If, as a result of our paper we can get herpetologists around the world to analyse their data again then we may start to build a clearer picture of what may be happening to snakes and what the causes of any declines may be. The hope is that through better understanding we might then be able to reverse any declines."
The authors note that six of the eight species showing which "crashed" had small home ranges, sedentary habits and relied on ambushing prey rather than actively seeking it out. "These patterns fit the prediction that 'sit-and-wait foragers may be vulnerable because they rely on sites with specific types of ground cover, and anthropogenic activities disrupt these habitat features, and ambush foraging is associated with a suite of life-history traits that involve low rates of feeding, growth and reproduction'," they add.
Declines
Smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) in the UK
Asp viper (Vipera aspis) in France and Italy
Orsini's viper (Vipera ursinii) in Italy
Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica) in Nigeria
Rhinoceros viper (Bitis nasicornis) in Nigeria
Royal or ball python (Python regius) in Nigeria
Western whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) in France
Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) in France
Stable
Grass snake (Natrix natrix) in the UK and France
Aesculapian snake (Zamenis longissimus) in France
Jameson's mamba (Dendroaspis jamesoni) in Nigeria
Eastern tiger snake (Notechis scutatus) in Australia
Slight increase
Western whip snake (Hierophis viridiflavus) in France
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... arm-snakes
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Snakes in mysterious global decline
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
The Royal python is one of the species showing a big decline
Snakes may be declining across the world, according to a global study.
Researchers examined records for 17 snake populations covering eight species over the last few decades, and found most had declined markedly.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, some populations shrank in number abruptly around 1998.
Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the findings as "alarming" but say much more work is needed to understand the causes.
"This is the first time that data has been analysed in this way, and what we've shown is that in different parts of the world we seem to have this steep decline in a short period," said project leader Chris Reading.
"It surprised us when we realised what we were looking at," he told BBC News.
"And we don't have a clue what it was about that period of time (around 1998)."
Dr Reading's team at the UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology ran the study with institutions in Australia, France, Italy and Nigeria.
Data deficiencies
With so many populations in different places showing decline, it's more than co-incidence
Chris Reading
The main problem for anyone wanting to conduct a global survey such as this is simply lack of data.
Monitoring snake populations means marking the individuals in some way - typically by snipping a pattern into their scales, or implanting a microchip.
Field seasons can last for many months, and have to be repeated annually.
The researchers believe they amassed most, if not all, long-term datasets for this study - although "long-term" in this context means going back more than one decade, in some cases more than two.
Nevertheless, within this relatively short timeframe, eight of the 17 populations were seen to fall markedly in size - some by more than 90% - with only one showing any sign of a rise.
Species in decline include the asp and the smooth snake from Europe, the Gabon viper and rhinoceros viper of West Africa, and the royal python.
Many of the studies involve tagging snakes so they can be followed
Populations shrank even in protected areas, suggesting that the progressive loss of habitat for wild animals being seen all over the world is not the only cause.
Similar steep declines observed in frogs and newts in an earlier period were eventually found to be caused by the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
The year when many of the snake declines began - 1998 - raises the question of whether climatic factors might be involved, as very strong El Nino conditions contributed to making it the hottest year recorded in modern times.
Dr Reading's research group suggests many causes might be involved, and is appealing to other researchers to come forward with any more long-term datasets that might broaden the picture.
"The purpose of this paper was to say 'this is what we've found', and to say to other herpetologists 'now go and look at your own data'," he said.
"But I think that with so many populations in different places showing decline, it's more than co-incidence."
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More than two extinct species a year in England, report reveals
The biggest national study of threats to biodiversity has found that nearly 500 species have died out in England - almost all in the last two centuries
I
The Guardian, Thursday 11 March 2010
Article history
A corncrake, once common in the UK, is now under threat. Hundreds of animals and plants are threatened, according to a report by Natural England. Photograph: RSPB
More than two animals and plants a year are becoming extinct in England and hundreds more are severely threatened, a report published today reveals.
Natural England, the government's agency responsible for the countryside, said the biggest national study of threats to biodiversity found nearly 500 species that had died out in England, all but a dozen in the last two centuries.
The losses recorded compare with a natural rate of about one extinction every 20 years before humans dominated the planet, but are almost certainly an underestimate because of poor records of any but the "biggest, scariest" creatures before the 1800s.
The high rate at which species are being lost is set to continue. Almost 1,000 other species face "severe" threats from the same problems that drove their relatives extinct – hunting, pollution, development, poor land management, invasive species and, more recently, climate change – says the report, Lost life: England's lost and threatened species. This represents about a quarter of all species in the best-studied groups, including every reptile, dolphin and whale species, two-thirds of amphibians and one-third of butterflies and bumblebees. In total, the report records 55,000 known species in England.
"Each species has a role and, like the rivets in an aeroplane, the overall structure of our environment is weakened each time a single species is lost," said Helen Phillips, the agency's chief executive. "We seem to have endless capacity to get engaged about rainforests but this reminds us conservation begins at home."
Tom Tew, Natural England's chief scientist, called for a "step change" in conservation, including more "targeted" schemes to protect individual species, better safeguarding of protected areas and better management of land outside the protected areas, especially farmland.
"This report is not all doom and gloom, but we're losing species at an alarming rate and many of our species are seriously threatened," he said. "These species could the tip of the iceberg unless we take action."
Tom Tew: 'Seven have gone in the last ten years' Link to this audio
Matt Shardlow, head of Buglife, said: "The report [confirms] we are in the midst of an extinction crisis and it is happening here in England under our very noses."
Dozens of scientists trawled records going back to the first century AD from official lists and books. They identified 492 species recorded in England that could no longer be found, all but 12 of which disappeared after 1800.
A further 943 species are listed under the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) as plants and animals under threat. These include a number of species now extinct in many counties or regions of England. One statistic that shocked the experts was a study of nearly half of English counties, which showed one plant species going locally extinct every two years.
So widespread are the problems that some once prolific species are under threat, including the common toad, common frog, common skate and the corncrake. "They are not common any more," said Tew. "Our ancestors used to lie awake at night unable to sleep because of the noise of the corncrake."
Four of the species extinct in England also became extinct globally: the penguin-like great auk; Mitten's beardless moss; York groundsel, a weed only discovered in the 1970s; and the Ivell's sea anemone, last seen in a lagoon near Chichester.
Many more English animals and plants are also on the threatened list, including the whitebeam, a tree with young leaves like "white candles", said Tew: "That signals the start of spring; it can be found nowhere else in the world and has disappeared from much of England."
The remaining extinct and threatened species exist in other countries, though the agency warned that reintroducing species was not reliable because the threats still remained, and national or regional extinctions led to the loss of genetic diversity.
Last year Natural England also published a report highlighting the economic cost of not protecting natural ecosystem services such as clean air, clean water, productive soils for crops, carbon storage, flood defence and natural resilience to climate change.
Other benefits were beyond value, said Tew: "Lots of you, like me, feel the worse for not hearing the corncrake in the country, or the flash of a red squirrel. When we lose wildlife we lose something priceless, and that effects our quality of life."
The report calls for better conservation, especially following successful schemes to reintroduce or bolster populations such as the red kite and large blue butterfly.
Of the hundreds of species on the BAP list in the 1990s, seven have since become extinct but 45% are now stable or recovering. The government has also ordered a review of protected areas.
"Species loss is not inevitable; we can do something about it," added Tew. "But we need to think ambitiously if we're to meet the needs of this and future generations."
This week, Simon Stuart, who oversees the team of experts that declare species globally threatened and extinct, said humans were causing extinctions faster than new species could evolve for the first time since the dinosaurs disappeared.
Winners and losers
Going: Species facing "severe" threats in England
Red squirrel
Northern bluefin tuna
Natterjack toad
Common skate
Alpine foxtail
Kittiwake
Grey plover
Shrill carder bumblebee
Recovering: Recent conservation success stories
Pole cat
Large blue butterfly
Red kite
Ladybird spider
Pink meadowcap
Sand lizard
Pool frog
Bittern
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... es-england
