Field Trip Total Responses: 62 / 74

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1 WFB 074 Lecture 4 Field Trip Total Responses: 62 / 74 Biodôme Montreal: 32 YES 26 NO February 11th Roger Williams Park Zoo, RI: 28 YES 27 NO February 20th

2 WFB 074 Lecture 5 - Announcements Saturday, February 11 Field Trip 7:30AM 6 PM Biodôme, Montreal Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) Tropical Biome Cost per person: $30 (Estimate, 36 participants!) Bring bag lunch or $$ for cafeteria & gift store Check your passport! Macaroni Penguin (Eudyptes chrysolophus) Sub-Antarctic Island biome

3 WFB 074 Lecture 5 1. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) 2. Conservation of the temperate Grassland Biome 3. Recovery Plan for a Prairie Species The Black footed Ferret 4. Tropical Grassland Conservation Serengeti revisited 5. VIDEO: Savanna Conservation in West Africa: The Nazinga Game Ranch Bison Graze, ND Photo: Thomas J. Abercrombie

4 WFB 074 Lecture 5 1. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) Extension of natural rights (John Locke) Expanding rights from the self outward: From: Nash, Roderick F The rights of nature: a history of environmental ethics. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. See also: Joe Roman Listed. End of Chapter 4 (Readings)

5 WFB 074 Lecture 5 1. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) Three versions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) What does it provide? Mechanism for listing a species FWS considers 5 factors: 1) Damage to, or destruction of a species habitat 2) Overutilization of a species 3) Disease or Predation 4) Inadequacy of existing protection 5) Other natural or man-made factors that affect contd. existence of a species Defines endangered and threatened status Prohibits the take of listed animals Take = to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, traps, capture, or collect or attempt to engage in any such conduct. Prescribes the recovery of species à Recovery Plans From Stockstad 2005

6 WFB 074 Lecture 5 1. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) the strongest conserva.on law in the world (Stockstad 2005) Currently: 1258 Vertebrate and invertebrate animals listed. 797 Plants listed. 590 Threatened and endangered species in other countries. Explore the USFWS ESA Website: Use: Find Endangered Species links Figure from Stockstad 2005 (see optional readings for Lec. 6 in Bb)

7 WFB 074 Lecture 5 1. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) See basics of ESA and its history in the two short US Fish & Wildlife readings for Thursday. More detail in the two chapters from Dr. Roman s book Listed and in his guest lecture in class on Thursday. Cover: Roman, J Listed Dispatches from the Endangered Species Act. Harvard University Press.

8 WFB 074 Lecture 5 2. Conservation of the temperate Grassland Biome A young ecosystem (8,000 12,000 years ago). Prairie is kept open by 2 disturbances: Fire and grazing. Only 4% of the 148 Million acres of tallgrass prairie remain (Eastern 1/3 rd of Central Plains) grasslands are among the most underrepresented ecosystems in our national park system the central plains qualify as one of America s most abused ecosystems. (Wilcove 1999) Bison Graze, ND Photo: Thomas J. Abercrombie

9 WFB 074 Lecture 5 2. Conservation of the temperate Grassland Biome Scattered remnants throughout the Midwest. Remnant of Tallgrass Prairie: Konza Prairie 3487-hectare area of native tallgrass prairie in the Flint Hills region of NE Kansas ~ 10 km S of Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS From: Konza Praire Biological Station (KPBS) Example of recent KPBS research: McMillan, B.R., K.A. Pfeiffer, and D.W. Kaufman Vegetation responses to an animal-generated disturbance (bison wallows) in tallgrass prairie. American Midland Naturalist 165:

10 WFB 074 Lecture 5 2. Conservation of the temperate Grassland Biome Konza Prairie Longterm Ecological Research (LTER) Fire Ecology

11 WFB 074 Lecture 5 Recovery Plan for a Prairie Species Example: Blackfooted Ferret (Mustela nigripes) Central Plains (Prairie) Distribution

12 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Black-footed Ferret Habitat & Prey BF- Ferret DistribuRon Black-tailed Prairie Dog Distribution Bison Range Map

13 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Black-footed Ferret Habitat & Prey BF- Ferret DistribuRon Black-tailed Prairie Dog Distribution

14 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Prairie Dogs as Keystone Species Compare Reading: C. Fraser Only Connect SwiW Fox Bison Burrowing Owl Prairie RaVlesnake

15 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Prairie Dogs as a keystone species for BF Ferrets Historical Prairie Dog Abundance: 650,000 km 2 inhabited by Prairie Dogs More than 100 Million Prairie Dogs Texas 1918: 90,000 sq miles inhabited by PDs One PD town the size of 25,000 sq mile 32 PDs consume as much grass as 1 sheep 256 PDs consume as much as 1 cow. Massive extermination campaign against PDs also affecting BF ferret. Importance of Prairie Dog towns for the water household ( Macropores ) à see Reading: Fraser, Only Connect

16 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Black-footed Ferret Decline estimated 500,000 ferrets Colony of 90 different ferrets seen & studied incl. 11 litters After 1974 ferrets thought to be extinct Rediscovery near Meeteetse, Wyoming (1 killed by ranch dog) Population Growth Winter 1985 Collapse of wild Meeteetse population due to disease 10 ferrets known to exist: 6 in captivity (2 infected), 4 in wild 1986 no offspring in captivity, but 2 females in wild reproduced Decision to remove all remaining ferrets (n=12) to captive breeding facility.

17 WFB 074 Lecture 5 BF-Ferret Recovery Plan Black-footed Ferret Recovery 2 nd captive-breeding program: 15 / 18 ferrets in captivity 2008 >6,000 ferrets by Reintroduced at 19 sites in 10 states and provinces (CA) Photo: Female BF Ferret and her 4 kits at National BF Ferret Conservation Center near Fort Collins, Oct. 2007, soon before kits were shipped to release sites (M. Lockhart, J. Mamm. 92(4), 2011) BF Ferret Pups Read more on BF Ferret Recovery:

18 WFB 074 Lecture 5 4. Tropical Grassland Conservation The major abiotic factors affecting the Serengeti ecosystem: rainfall and fire. Map: Wildebeest Migration in the SerengetiMara National Park System Keystone Species - affect the populations and communities of species far beyond their immediate food and predator species. Wildebeest (Connochaetes taurinus) maintain diverse assemblage of flowering plants on the plains. Wildebeest and Elephants are Keystone Species in Serengeti.

19 5. Video: Nazinga Game Reserve Small-Scale Savanna Wildlife Conservation with local participation in Burkina Faso Clark Lungren, the son of Canadian missionaries, spent his childhood in West Africa. He returned to Burkino Faso in 1974, a land-locked country suffering from constant drought, poaching and government apathy. The result of his work is the Nazinga Game Reserve, 18,002 square miles a stone's throw from the Ghana border. The area had a high wildlife population in the 1950s, but it had been hunted almost to the point of no return. After a U.N. development officer told him that wildlife was "history," Clark received the blessing of the local government to start a new reserve. He entered into an agreement with locals: they would help him build water holes, and, when the animal populations increased, they would be allowed to hunt an agreed amount. Eventually, 250 miles of new waterways were built in a land where even humans need two gallons of water a day to survive. Anti-poaching patrols were also added. Traps were collected, and game wardens were added to the area. After 10 years, the animal population increased tenfold. Nazinga Game Reserve. (Champions of the Wild Series). 25 min., 30 sec. On reserve at B/H Media Services

20 5. Video: Nazinga Game Reserve Small-Scale Savanna Wildlife Conservation with local participation in Burkina Faso Contrast the small scale local conservation approach at Nazinga in in Burkina Faso with the large scale fortress conservation effort of the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem in Tanzania and Kenya. See more information on Nazinga and recent developments there on Blackboard. Nazinga Map from Damiba & Ables 1993

21 WFB 074 Lecture 5 Prairie Conserv. & ESA Readings (for Quiz 3) For Today: Wilcove, D. S The Condor s Shadow: the Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America. A Sea of Grass, pp New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. Fraser, C Rewilding the World. Conclusion: Only Connect. Biggins, D. E., T. M. Livieri, and S. W. Breck Interface between black-footed ferret research and operational conservation. Journal of Mammalogy 92: Thursday: Roman, Joe Listed - Dispatches from America's Endangered Species Act. Chapter 4: The Endangered Species Act. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. Chapter 9: The Panther s new Genes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service A history of the Endangered Species Act of Arlington, VA: USFWS, 2 pp. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ESA basics: more than 30 years of conserving endangered species. Arlington, VA: USFWS, 2 pp.