ThinkingShift

Australia’s Prime Minister is yet to put his autograph on the Kyoto Protocol but at least the Federal Government is smart enough to figure out that wildlife on the world’s driest continent is going to have a pretty rough time as the planet heats up. Australian State and Federal Governments have agreed (a shock in itself really) to create a 2,800 kilometre wildlife corridor according to a piece in Reuters.

The entire East Coast of Australia - from the Australian Alps (south-eastern Australia) to the tropical north - will link national parks, state forests and Government land. Clearly, there’s going to have to be some snappy negotiation with private landowners who might be in the path of the proposed corridor. Not sure either how the animals and plants will find this magical corridor, but presumably as the Land Down Under sizzles under temperatures rising by up to 6.7 degrees Celsius (12 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2080, the preserved areas will function as protective ecosystems.

As one of the scientists involved in the proposal said: “The effects of climate change will likely to be less severe in systems that have some resilience and that we haven’t gone in and buggered-up”.

A thumbs up to the Australian Government for this initiative!

And in related news from National Geographic: the heat is off the sun. A favourite argument of those denying climate change has been that cyclical changes in solar activity have periodically resulted in warmer periods throughout history. The beginning of the 20th Century, particularly the 1930s, experienced warmer temperatures. But that trend reversed after 1985 and cannot explain the rapidly increasing temperatures the world is facing. As one climate scientist quipped:

“Think of the sun as a criminal suspect who has a long record, but a cast iron alibi for the latest crime…..And meanwhile, the fingerprints of CO2 are all over the murder weapon”.

Over 3,000 people in one day visited my recent post on endangered species, so I will assume one of two things. Either a whole bunch of you out there are interested like me in what’s happening to our fellow species; or over 3,000 people became lost in cyberspace at around about the same time and accidentally stumbled onto the post. Mmmm….think I’ll go for the first assumption! In light of this, I’ve been on the lookout for some good news about endangered species to share with you. There are some wonderful efforts at species recovery or discovery and this post highlights the top ones I’ve found so far. You may know of others, so leave a comment if you like.

The world’s ugliest bat? I’ve never been a fan of bats; I think I watched too many vampire movies as I was growing up and the poor mammal has a dark and dreadful reputation that’s not really deserved. So National Geographic brings us news that the Maclaud’s Horseshoe Bat has been photographed for the first time whilst going about its business in Guinea, West Africa. It certainly isn’t the prettiest animal I’ve ever seen but 16 members of the species decided it was time to parade for a glossy photo shoot so the world could finally see this cheeky-looking bat. The Maclaud’s bat, with its frilly-face, is one of about 70 known species of horseshoe bat and many more appear to exist than thought. The skinflaps (or noseleafs) around the bat’s nose aid in echo location. Apparently, this bat is very sensitive to its environment, which is rich in iron ore. Let’s hope its habitat isn’t threatened. Photo credit: National Geographic.

Bald eagles. On the brink of extinction, the US Bald Eagle has made a dramatic resurgence and has just been removed from the endangered and threatened species list. Considering this regal looking bird is the US National symbol, it would have been tragic if the eagle had snuffed it. Apparently, the bald eagle once existed in every US state except Hawaii but was shot or poisoned mainly by farmers until only 417 nesting pairs were left in the lower 48 states by 1963. Decades of hard work by conservationists and volunteers has resulted in there now being 9,789 breeding pairs - the largest population since World War II. Let’s hope this eagle continues to soar.

Siberian Tigers. These are amongst the world’s rarest animals and fewer than 400 of them survive in the wild, mainly in China and Russia. Human activities and poaching have encroached on this elegant cat’s habitat but 84 cubs have just been born at a northeastern China breeding centre. The plan is to train the cubs to survive in the wild. Let’s hope the cubs don’t eventually face the fate of Xiang Xiang - the captive bred Chinese panda who was released back into the wild and died in February 2007.

The Mona Lisa of birds. National Geographic sports news of the first photo of a rare, smiling bird. Seems lots of species are coming out these days for their photo shoot! The bird is the recurve-billed bushbird and has been rediscovered in Colombia after a 40 year absence. The curving beak gives the impression that this little chap is smiling, happy to have an audience of admirers. The researchers also found and photographed the extremely rare Perija parakeet, of which only 30 to 50 individuals likely survive. Photo credit: National Geographic.

An unexpected migration. Southern Sudan has been subject to years of war, desertification of the land, poaching, hunting and drought. It’s a wonder anything lives there let alone more than a million animals. News from Live Science tells us that elephants, buffalo, ostrichs, giraffes, lions and a rare type of stork have been spotted migrating across the Southern Sudan region. A huge surprise considering no animals have been seen in the region over the last 25 years! An impressive comeback indeed. Since 2005, scientists have been able to take aerial photographs and surveys and were stunned to see around 8,000 elephants along with other animals and they believe this to be the third largest migration of animals. I’ve seen the migration of zebra, wilderbeest and so on in the Masai Mara, Kenya. I will always remember the landscape filled to the brim with all kinds of animals silently walking side by side from the Serengeti in Tanzania to the Masai Mara in Kenya. A conservationist said: “I think what we found in Sudan is nothing short of extraordinary“.

Rare giant mussel. The BBC has news that a rare giant mussel, previously thought to be extinct has been discovered (or is that rediscovered) in Irish waters. Known as the fan mussel, it was only thought to swim in the waters of Plymouth Sound and off the west of Scotland. Divers from the Environment and Heritage Service and the Ulster Museum came face to face with the mussel and also discovered two species of sea anemone, one of which may be a new species. The mussel has now had a photo shoot and its location will be kept a secret - good idea since it’s very vulnerable to polluted waters and trawling.

And to finish this post: news that is more curious really -when squirrels go wild. Some Germans were on the suffering end of a rampage from a squirrel. Three people in a German town were attacked by an aggressive squirrel recently. The squirrel began its rampage by running into a house, where it leapt onto a woman and sank its teeth into her hand. With the squirrel hanging from her hand, the woman (who was pretty alarmed!) ran into the street and managed to shake the animal off. But the squirrel was up for some more and ran onto a construction site where it jumped onto an unsuspecting construction worker and bit his hand and arm. Up for more, the feisty squirrel then rushed off into an elderly man’s garden, attacked the man, but was despatched by the man’s cane. Apparently, the squirrel may have been ill or suffering from the ecstasy of mating season. Either way, when I next see a furry, cute-looking squirrel, I will be very cautious indeed:)-

And of course, to all US ThinkingShift readers - happy American Independence Day!

Well, let’s start off with the really bad news: Scientific American has listed 10 animals that are about to disappear: extinct, kaput. They are:

• Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) the world’s most endangered cat species that once thrived in Spain, Portugal and Southern France. Two years ago, I had the privilege of spotting an Iberian lynx whilst staying in Portugal - beautiful animal, with large, intelligent eyes.
• Sumatran orangutan (Pongo abelii ) there are only 7500 or so of these gorgeous animals left in the world and their numbers are declining by about 1000 per year. So if my maths is right - they’ll be extinct in the year 2015 or so. And the cause of their plight? well no surprise - deforestation, logging etc.
• Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii). Even though I’m Australian, I haven’t heard too much about this endangered species. Wombats are cute looking Australian marsupials that burrow underground. The northern hairy nosed is the largest wombat, growing as long as one metre and can weigh in at 40 kilos. Only 100 of these wombats are left in a small, protected area in Queensland - shocker.
• Wild bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus). This lovely creature is a very shy ancestor of domesticated camels and lives in the arid Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China and southwestern Mongoli. It has two humps. The irony is that this camel withstood 45 years of nuclear testing in the Gashun Gobi, but is unlikely to survive mining, hunting and industrial development. There are only about 650 bactrian camels remaining in China and 350 in Mongolia.
• Dama gazelle (Gazella dama). An elegant animal that is on the fast-track to extinction. During the 1990s, 80% of the population vanished due to (you guessed it) hunting and habitat destruction. Probably about 100 of these beauties still exist, scattered throughout north Africa—in Chad, Niger and Mali. Hunters continue to stalk this gazelle, so it’s just a matter of time.
• Seychelles sheathed-tailed bat (Coleura seychellensis). Only 50-100 of these furry flying cuties are extant - that’s all. They are endemic to Silhouette, Mahé, Praslin and La Digue, islands in the Seychelles archipelago. Researchers believe that only two substantial roosts remain, both in boulder caves on Silhouette Island. Not good.
• Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis). This is a mini-alligator and dwells in the wetlands of the lower reaches of the Yangtze—the same river that sheltered the rare and probably now extinct Chinese river dolphin. It’s a very secretive animal and loves to burrow tunnels,which annoys local farmers. Experts estimate a mere 150 to 200 individuals persist in the wild, making this reptile the most endangered crocodilian species in the world.
• Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis). I came face to face with two black rhinos in South Africa about 3 years ago when on a walking safari. Despite the fright of coming across them suddenly and the stand-off between us, I took a photo. Just as well considering future generations will only have images to look at and probably not the real animal. Black rhino horns are highly prized as ornaments and for its medicinal properties. At the turn of the 20th Century, hundreds of thousands happily roamed the African landscape; now only a few thousand remain, vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss.
• Pied tamarin (Saguinus bicolor). What a cute monkey! It has a hairless face and ears and lives in a very small, very precarious area - Manaus, Brazil - a sprawling city of 2 million people. Urban expansion is threatening the monkey’s habitat, along with competition from close-relative, the golden-handed tamarin, which inhabits the same area.
• Leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). I didn’t realise this turtle was endangered. Leatherbacks are the largest of all sea turtles and the deepest divers, plunging to depths of 1200 metres as they seek out jellyfish. Leatherbacks are distributed in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans, as far north as British Columbia and as far south as Argentina. They migrate between continents, making both transatlantic and transpacific journeys between feeding and nesting sites. But their numbers have declined over the last 20 years or so as a result of poaching for egg and meat consumption, destruction of nesting sites from beachfront development, disorientation of hatchlings from the artificial lighting created by those developments, accidental capture by commercial fisherman and other factors. In 1980 the global population of nesting females was estimated at 115,000. Now that number has dropped to between 26,000 and 43,000.

Go and have a look at the gallery of photos for these 10 beautiful but doomed animals over at Scientific American. The photo accompanying this post - I’ve pinched from Sciam and it’s of the Iberian lynx.

Meanwhile, I have found a good news story on endangered species. I found this website - devoted to success stories in species recovery. The site includes 100 amazing success stories that were put together for Endangered Species Day 2007 (May 18). Here are some heartwarming tales:

• the American Bald Eagle increased from 416 to 9,789 pairs between 1963 and 2006.
• the Peregrine Falcon increased from 324 to 1,700 pairs between 1975 and 2000.
• Gray Wolf populations increased dramatically in the Northern Rockies, Southwest and Great Lakes.
• Virginia big-eared bat, the state bat of Virginia, US, which increased from 3,500 in 1979 to 18,442 in 2004.

A section of the site is called The Race Against Extinction - a list of species on the brink. So although the 10 species featured in this post are facing extinction, at least there are species being saved by dedicated and caring people.

And to finish this post on a really good note: a pair of golden eagles have produced the first chick to be hatched in the Republic of Ireland in nearly a century after the species was hunted to extinction in the country.

This is a shocker of a story. I can’t imagine the sorts of cruel morons who would be doing this to poor animals. A deserted rickety wooden boat has been found drifting off the coast of China with (wait for it), 5,000 (yes, you read correctly) rare, endangered, hunted, smuggled animals (take your pick) on board. Most of the animals were dead or close to death, having succumbed to dehydration under the hot sun.

I can hardly bring myself to tell you what was discovered:

• 21 bear paws wrapped up in newspaper
• pangolins, Asian giant turtles and lizards, crushed and squashed inside crates
• 1,130 Brazilian turtles
• 2,720 monitor lizards

And what was the destination of this vessel? The restaurants and markets of China’s southern province of Guangdong, which is famous for its exotic cuisine. China is the main market for illegally traded exotic species and China’s appetite is growing, which only further threatens populations of endangered animals and impacts on global conservation efforts. I’ve reported on this barbarity before.

Pangolins are apparently in great demand because their meat is considered a delicacy and their scales are thought to help mothers breastfeed their babies. And as a result, the pangolin populations of China, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia have been wiped out. The pangolin’s last habitats are in Java, Sumatra and the Malaysian peninsula but as illegal smugglers and hunters move south, these populations are under serious threat.

China’s vigilence of illegal trade and activity is slack to say the least. Fines are usually so minimal that traders happily risk being fined as the rewards are so great. The price of 1kg of pangolin served in Guangdong or Yunnan is between 600 and 800 yuan per kilo (between £43 and £50). One recent raid on a restaurant in Guanghzou turned up 118 pangolins, 60kg of snakes and 400kg of toads. A waitress was reported as saying that the pangolin “..is very big - about 10kg.We serve it in hotpot. That is the tastiest way.“

And then there’s the way these poor defenseless creatures are killed: “We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death. We then boil them to remove the scales. We cut the meat into small pieces and use it to make a number of dishes, including braised meat and soup. Usually the customers take the blood home with them afterwards.”

Frankly, I am at a loss as to what to say. I really can’t believe that people treat fellow species in this manner. Whilst we’re busy worrying about global warming, we should be placing rigorous sanctions on illegal trading and perhaps putting traders on the same sort of rickety vessel floating abandoned under a boiling hot sun.

I often wonder what the world will look like in 100 or 500 years’ time. I used to be optimistic about the future; now I think that archaeologists will dig up dusty DVDs and old films of animals such as cheetahs, tigers, pangolins and so on; people will gather around to watch, perplexed, because they’ve never in their lives seen such beautiful creatures - because their world is devoid of rich vegetation and diversity of animals. And they’ll ask pointedly: what were 21st Century people thinking? how could they eat fellow species and kill them in such a depraved manner? they will think of us rather like I suppose we think of Neanderthals - brutish, barbaric, primitive, low intelligence. Actually, that’s being pretty unfair to the Neanderthals!

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Chinese Government is considering lifting its ban on the domestic trade in tiger parts used in traditional medicine. Well here’s a shocker of a postscript to that story. The Harbin (China) Tiger Park has more than 100 dead tigers stuffed in freezers, waiting for the ban to be lifted so they can be sold and used for medicinal purposes. The park is the world’s largest Siberian tiger breeding base and its tiger population has grown from 8, when the park opened in 1986, to around 700. It is set to be home to 1,000 tigers by 2010. But the tigers are expensive to feed and maintain with an adult tiger eating about 5-10 kilos of meat a day, along with medicines and other nutrients. It costs an average of 100 yuan (about $US13.00) for each tiger every day. Tourist dollars help to bring in funds, as do tax allowances and expenses to train the tigers to live in the wild.

But here’s the problem: no captive-bred tiger has ever been successfully released into the wild. So….let’s say the Government lifts the ban and takes financial responsibility for the Harbin tiger park (and others). Tigers could then be “farmed” to be used for traditional medicine and this may of course avoid the poaching that still goes on. But that still leaves the problem of tigers being raised and released back into the wild. Captive-bred tigers apparently have gene deficiencies that make it extremely unlikely that they can survive in nature. Before the Chinese Government imposed the ban, tiger population numbers were in free fall. Even with the ban, there are only 2,500 breeding adult tigers surviving in the wild - 80% of them in India and only 50 tigers in China. Their habitats are severely threatened by deforestation and poaching. So I don’t see how lifting the ban is really going to help. Sure, you get tigers raised specifically so their parts can be used to save ancient chinese medicine recipes but…these recipes rely on wild tiger parts. Will captive-bred tiger parts be seen to have the same “medicinal value”?. Personally, I think the lifting of the ban will only serve to place the Siberian tiger onto the “Extinct List”.

A ThinkingShift reader has pointed me to a good news story. Przewalski’s Horse or the Mongolian Wild Horse is the closest living wild relative of the domestic horse and the sole surviving genuine wild horse in the world. Back in 1900, this cute horse was on the “Pretty Well Extinct” list with only 15 surviving in zoos. But the descendants of these original 15 have blossomed and around 250 now exist in the wild, happily roaming the Mongolian landscape. Przewalski’s Horse is now listed as an “Endangered Species”, which is a whole lot better than what I fear will happen to the Siberian Tiger. Thanks to Sophie for this story.

I came across another species good news story. The Somerset Wildlife Trust deserves a huge vote of thanks for its efforts in saving horseshoe bats. The Trust has coughed up UK£ 100,000 to convert a former keeper’s cottage in the Mells Valley, Somerset, into a permanent bat haven. Over the last 2 years, the bat roost has been prepared with non-native trees and plants being replaced with British species such as oak and ash. I’d say there’ll be some pretty happy bats hanging upside down in their new abode.

And here’s a great story about a golden beauty. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (aka nasty vicious fungus) devastated golden frog populations in Panama, along with the usual suspect of habitat loss due to human’s encroachment on the frogs’ ecosystem. The nasty fungus has already wiped out 120 species of amphibians in the region. But the golden frogs aren’t giving up without one huge fight, which gives us hope for the resilience of some species.

The Hotel Campestre in El Valle De Anton, Panama, is literally a lifeboat for the golden frog. More than 300 frogs found their way to the Hotel via a wonderful man - 28 year old Panamanian biologist, Edgardo Griffith. The nasty virus had finally entered Panama, a name that means “a place of abundant fish and butterflies” in the indigenous language. Griffith, working with an international network of biologists, zoologists and environmentalists created The Golden Frog Project: a modern-day Noah’s Ark for frogs. An effective ecosystem has been given to the frogs, complete with an aquarium irrigated with filtered tap water; river stones to encourage algae; and tropical plants. The frogs are so happy in their new home that hundreds of tadpoles have now hatched. The golden frog occupies an important place in Panamanian culture. They are considered extremely lucky and their image appears on lottery tickets.

But I suppose it’s a bit like the Siberian tiger: will these purposely bred frogs escape the onslaught of the fungus? are they naturally evolving frogs? will there be genetic mutations and inbreeding issues similar to what’s happened to the cheetah? only time will tell, but in the meantime, I’d sure love to be a guest at the Hotel Campestre - can you just imagine the cacophony of croaks the golden cuties make!

Regular readers will have sensed my interest in the environment and endangered species. So I’ve decided to introduce a regular feature - the ThinkingShift species watch, which will illuminate species on the verge of extinction or, conversely, species that are being saved or protected. Like me, I’m sure you might find this a tad depressing but Earth and its many exquisite species are our responsibility and so we should be armed with the knowledge of their welfare so we can protect those who cannot protect themselves.

The Amur Leopard is the world’s rarest big cat. About 34 of these beautiful creatures still exist in the wild, yes that’s right only 34 or so. Only 7 are female. And this is 66 fewer amur leopards than needed for the species to survive. So I guess we put this cat on Earth’s doomed list. It will come as no surprise to learn that the human propensity to take over the planet aka development and deforestation, is the immediate cause of this leopard’s demise. Oh, and throw in hunting too.

The Amur Leopard’s natural habitat is along the Korean Peninsula, in the Russian Far East, and in northeastern China. It loves deep snow and the harsh cold of Siberian winters. Recently, four leopard litters were located, which could be a sign the population has some hope for regeneration. But conservationists say at least 100 are needed to ensure the cat’s survival.

There is some good news: the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources is looking to unify three protected areas where the leopard now lives and the Russian government is changing a planned oil pipeline route to avoid Amur territories. But there’s also some bad news: China is considering lifting its ban on the domestic trade in tiger parts used in traditional medicine. And leopards are often used as substitutes for tigers in Chinese remedies.

Also sliding towards extinction are amphibians and reptiles in a protected rainforest in Costa Rica - the dedicated reserve meant to save them not kill them off. Species of frogs, toads, lizards, snakes and salamanders have plummeted on average 75% in the past 35 years. Researchers suspect climate change has brought warmer, wetter weather to the refuge, with the knock-on effect of reducing the amount of leaf litter on the forest floor, which the various species rely on for shelter and tasty insects. Amongst those in dire straits: two species of salamander; the mimicking rain frog; the common tink frog; and the strawberry poison frog.

Amphibians are considered delicate sentinels of environmental change. Sudden population collapses were first noticed during the 1980s, during which more than 120 species are thought to have become extinct. The collapse of amphibian populations is happening in other ecosystems. Declined at least 75% in the past 35 years, even in protected areas: common salamander; strawberry poison frog; Bransford’s litter frog; broad-headed rain frog; Noble’s rain frog; mimicking rain frog; common tink frog; Warszewitsch’s frog; orange-tailed gecko; leaf litter lizard; striped litter skink.

At least there’s a good news story: Uganda’s mountain gorillas are increasing in number. There are only two places in the world where these rare gorillas live - Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is one of them and a recent census has found that the population has increased by 6% since the last census in 2002. Bwindi’s gorilla population now numbers 340 individual gorillas, up from 320 in 2002 and 300 in 1997. The overall population shows a healthy distribution of adults, infants and juveniles.

Bwindi is a thriving gorilla ecotourism spot and four of the 30 family groups are habituated for tourism or conditioned to tolerate the presence of humans for short durations. This brings in much needed revenue for the ongoing maintenance of Bwindi.

The current total population of mountain gorillas at Bwindi and the Virunga Volcanoes on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (the second gorilla site), brings the worldwide tally to approximately 720 individual gorillas.

Let’s hope that whilst we’re busy angsting over global warming, we also remember to angst over Earth’s declining species diversity.

There are only five sertanistas left in Brazil. One of them recently said: “Everything dies at its own time. The forest dies, with it die the Indians, with them die the sertanistas”. Outnumbering the sertanistas is an assortment of characters in a sorry tale of diminishing rainforests, species loss and displaced people. Miners, cattle ranchers, loggers and global fast food chains encroach on virgin jungle and indigenous people.

Deep inside the steamy Amazon jungle is a closed world of elusive darting jaguars; huge anacondas; caimans hiding languidly in rivers, their eyes silently watching; and brightly-coloured parrots squawking from high in the trees. Sharing this world are tribes who have little or no knowledge of the “Western world” and are unaware that their ancestral territories and traditional ways of life could suddenly be destroyed by highways, cattle ranches and forest loss.

A sertanistas is a “backlands expert” with rich knowledge of remote Indian tribes. Like the great explorers, sertanistas carve their way through the verdant jungle and track down isolated tribes in need of protection. The sertanistas job is to divert development around tribal areas and they do this in the face of threats and violence from developers and the unpredictable actions of vulnerable Indian tribes.

The sertanistas are a dying breed. It has been 20 years since the last sertanista was hired and former sertanistas have retired or died. And so with them goes knowledge that is quickly fading from memory. Lost knowledge of the location of indigenous tribes; knowledge of the complex ecosystem that is the Amazon; knowledge about traditional ways of life; the secrets of life-saving medicinal plants; knowledge of diverse and fast disappearing local dialects.

One of the last remaining sertanistas is Sydney Ferreira Possuelo, a rugged 67-year old who has spent the last 20 years of his life discouraging contact with Indian tribes. Contact with the outside world often results in Indians ending up on the fringes of developed areas dependent on alcohol, prostitution or disease. Possuelo has incurred the wrath of developers who care little for the culture or dignity of remote tribes. Yet, he has been instrumental in having 11% of Brazil’s species-rich rainforest set aside and protected as exclusion zones. Possuelo occupies a land of tension in which indigenous people are scared and threatened and profiteers are aggressive and abusive of Earth’s abundance.

He is perhaps fighting a losing battle. Nearly 4 million indigenous people in 1,000 ethnic groups once lived in Brazil; today they number fewer than 734,000 in 220 tribes, having succumbed to disease, murder and cultural dislocation.

So it was with some interest that I read about Amazon Indians using Google Earth and GPS to produce a catalogue of their forest home. In conjunction with the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT) - a nonprofit organisation working with indigenous people to conserve biodiversity, health and culture in South American rainforests - local knowledge is combined with modern technology to map deforestation areas and identify where new mines or logging areas are popping up and infringing on protected areas. Indians have access through ACT offices to Google Earth and head out on foot to areas where images have highlighted development or deforestation.

The really interesting thing here is that the indigenous people map in six dimensions - longitude, latitude, altitude, historical context, sacred sites and spiritual or mythological sites - whereas Westerners map in three dimensions (latitude, longitude, altitude). And so the maps produced are a rich source of preserved knowledge. With meticulous detail, sources of diverse food are charted, along with the location of medicinal plants, and sites where animals have been seen, including mythological creatures with deep spiritual meaning.

The maps help to span generations. As elders die off, younger Indians, perhaps seduced by the Western style of living, are not listening to the long-cherished stories about how places were named or which medicinal plant is used for a particular ailment. In a story-telling project, tape recorders have been used to preserve some of the elders’ stories and pass on their knowledge.

Vasco van Roosmalen, ACT’s Brazil program director commented: “A common question from politicians and developers is ‘Why do so few Indians need so much land?”..when you can illustrate it with these detailed maps - showing that they are using it for all their various purposes - it’s a much more powerful argument than just having a blank map..”.

A recent Yahoo! News article talked about how Brazil will offer free satellite Internet connections to indigenous tribes in an effort to crack down on illegal logging. 150 small communities in the Amazon and other remote areas including Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands and its arid Northeast will benefit from this programme.

These are great efforts to preserve ancient cultures and their stories, but it’s surely a very fine balance - you have to wonder whether access to the internet and computers will further erode indigenous culture.

Regular readers of the ThinkingShift blog may have noticed that I am pretty interested in anything to do with future trends. Alas, what I usually find points to a darkening world of increasing social unrest, class struggles, terrorism, flash mobs and a totally stuffed climate. So I’ve decided to introduce a ThinkingShift good news story every week - mainly to cheer myself up :)- feel free to leave a comment if you also find a good news story.

This week I found two stories. The first is about a very shy, rare rabbit - the Sumatran striped rabbit. It has only been photographed 3 times: in 2007, in 2000 and in 1998. Before this, our elusive friend had been spotted way back in 1972. Fifteen specimens of the Sumatran striped rabbit exist in museums but they all date from pre-1929 and the rabbit is now listed on the endangered species list. But the recent photograph of the striped rabbit as it hopped out of an Indonesian rainforest, indicates that proof of its continued existence is a good news story indeed. And what timing: our hippity hop friend made his appearance over Easter, although he left no Easter eggs:)- This good news story also highlights the importance of maintaining the ecosystem this rabbit inhabits. You can check out the cute bunny here.

The second story is about creativity arising out of a squatter city. The squatter or shadow city has been the subject of recent books, including a good one by Robert Neuwirth. Here’s a link to his blog. Squatter cities dominate the developing world and are vibrant networks of people who, for various reasons, are illegal squatters. I saw my first squatter settlement (Alexandria) in Johannesburg in 2003; and the Brazilian squatter settlement of Racinha in 2004. First impressions don’t always lead you to think that creativity can arise out of such squalid conditions. That’s why I think Neuwirth’s book does such a great job of humanising the often maligned shadow city.

And so does our second good news story. This is the tale of a passionate, young Venezuelan, Gustavo Dudamel, who has just been announced as the next music director for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, replacing 48 year old Esa-Pekka Salonen who is stepping down after 15 years as music director. Salonen instinctively knew the 26 year old Venezuelan wonderkind was his natural replacement when he saw Dudamel make his US debut in 2005 conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Why is this such a good news story? Because Dudamel is the successful product of a pioneering programme in Venezuela that offers children from the slums a route out of poverty and crime through a classical music education. Out of the squalor and violence that is the life of South American slums arises a creative talent. Love the photo of Dudamel - you can see the passion he has for music with his hair flying everywhere!

Hot on the heels of a recent post where I talked about dominant narratives, comes the news that the March 29 2007 issue of the journal, Nature, carries an article questioning the long-cherished view that the dinosaur mass extinction paved the way for the ancestor’s of today’s mammals to thrive.

Every school child is taught that the dinosaurs ruled for hundreds of millions of years until a large rock aka asteroid smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula and wiped our giant friends off the face of the Earth some 65 million years ago. The void left by Dino the dinosaur, we were told, was filled by the immediate diversification of species. This has been the grand narrative up to now.

But an international team of scientists has constructed a complete evolutionary tree for mammals - a super-tree - that places the rapid species diversification well after the dinosaur disappearance. In fact, there was a 10 to 15 million year gap!

Scientists can estimate the time species diverged from their common ancestor by counting the number of mutations. Talk about a complex web of relationships - scientists have been exploring the evolutionary relationships among all extant mammal species over the past 160 million years. 4,500 extant mammals’ DNA was matched against fossil records to create a “super tree”. What they found was that although there was a small spike of mammalian diversification immediately after the dinosaur die-off, most of those species, however, died out without leaving descendants today. Diversification didn’t really take off until the Eocene epoch, about 56 to 34 million years ago. What took the ancestors of today’s mammals so long to diversify? the jury is still out on this one, but what is really exciting is that scientists are using the new super-tree to determine how evolutionarily unique a species is.

The endangered red panda of northern India and southern China is 39 million years removed from its closest relative, for example, which may mean it is more worthwhile to save this species than one that only diverged 1 or 2 millions years ago.

When I think of Mediterranean countries, images of azure seas sparkling in the sun against a backdrop of white-washed houses baking in the sun comes to me, along with narrow, winding hilltop pathways descending to the sea. Down these pathways, a sturdy animal laboriously winds it way down, laden with baskets of fruit and vegetables. An image perhaps not too unfamiliar in the time of Homer or Xenophon.

In ancient times, the Arcadian donkey was a familiar sight. In modern Greece, however, the number of donkeys (including the Arcadian) has fallen 96.4%, from 508,000 to 18,173, between 1955 and 2006 and numbers are still falling.

The donkeys on the ‘extinction hit list’ are numerous: Asinara, Sardinia, Sicily and Corfu donkeys; and the Martina Franca donkey of southern Italy has just been saved from extinction, only to be targeted for its meat.

I just don’t get the sad stories I’ve come across: donkeys brutalised and tortured; and the saddest case of a donkey in a Spanish village forced to bear the weight of the heaviest man at each annual fiesta “until the unfortunate creature was crushed and died of exhaustion“. Are we humans so cruel and can find nothing better to do than torture poor animals? is it a reaction or denial of our agrarian past?

Fortunately, there is Judy Quinn, who opened the Donkey Rescue Centre on Corfu, two and a half years ago. 45 donkeys are being cared for by this wonderful woman who has found new homes in Austria, Germany, Holland and Britain. She funds the sanctuary with her own money and has fought off attempts by the Greek Government to shut the sanctuary down because of planning objections. An outbreak of equine infectious anaemia struck earlier this year and so funds are being raised to help quarantine the donkeys.

As the world explores what an environmentally sustainable future needs to look like, surely transportation provided by the donkey is a sure bet - no expensive fossil fuels needed; no polluted air from cars; no traffic jams. Obviously, we can’t rush down the streets of Sydney or New York on donkeys as we make our way to work, but in cultures where the donkey has a long history of being the major transport, we can help to save them rather than making them the objects of cruelty.

So full marks to the island of Hydra who have banned all cars and motorcycles, so that the natural beauty of the island is preserved. Land transport is by the humble mule or donkey. Hydra will certainly be on my future holiday list.

And those smart people at the Free University of Hydra hit on the idea of establishing a biennial conference on the role of the donkey and the mule in Mediterranean culture, past and future. The first conference was held on 7-10 October 2005. There were 25 international speakers and another 25 were turned down for reasons of time. How good is that!

Of course, what ANZAC Day would be complete without remembering Simpson and his donkey, who valiantly rescued Australian and New Zealand soldiers trapped by shellfire at Gallipoli in WWI. And as we celebrate Easter, the Christian religion holds the donkey close to its heart with imagery of this humble animal quietly and determinedly carrying Mary, the mother of Jesus, from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

In Ethiopia, the donkey is an important economic symbol. Ownership of a donkey secures a woman’s financial independence and an old Ethiopian proverb states: “A woman without a donkey is a donkey herself.”

So….while we celebrate Easter, let’s take a moment to consider this endangered species. To learn more, you can visit the UK Donkey Sanctuary website; the Corfu Donkey Rescue website; and the Donkey Home Page.