Three of our twelve study species are now listed as near threatened or vulnerable according to IUCN standards. While the Thomson Gazelle was already listed as near threatened since 2008, the zebra’s status as near threatened and the giraffe’s status as vulnerable was just changed this month. The reason for these changes were quite drastic population declines of 25 % in 20 years for zebras and 36-40% in 30 years for giraffes. For example, while zebras are still numerous in the Masai Mara and adjacent areas their population declined from roughly 60,000 individuals in 1978 to 38,000 in 2007. The factors causing the decline in many herbivore species range from illegal hunting and habitat loss to the influence of climate change.
IUCN red list; Ogutu et al. 2011
0 Comments
Dan has just been to Liverpool to give a talk about the existence of menopause in resident Killer whales. We used the opportunity to sit down and discuss the work plan for the next months, especially our priority in terms of data analysis and modelling. We will start by analysing the response to heterospecific alarm calls and hope that we will be able to present some first results by summer 2017.
|
During the course of the project, we will update the blog with field reports and photos, the latest research news and updates relating to our investigation of mixed species groups in the Masai Mara .
Archives
September 2018
Categories |