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Ice Age Animals

Going the way of the dodo?

From: New Scientist, 15 February 2003. This is an excellent magazine, and well worth subscribing to.

In a bid to save the rhino, conservationists suggested using saiga horn instead of rhino horn in traditional medicines. Their plan has backfired as hunters run amok

By Fred Pearce

An antelope that just a decade ago crammed the steppes of central Asia is this spring on the verge of extinction, victim of an epidemic of poaching. Biologists say it is the most sudden and dramatic population crash of a large mammal ever seen.

In 1993, over a million saiga antelopes roamed the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan. Today, fewer than 30,ooo remain, most of them females. So many males have been shot for their horns, which are exported to China to be used in traditional fever cures, that the antelope may not be able to recover unaided.

The slaughter is embarrassing for conservationists. In the early 199os, groups such as WWF actively encouraged the saiga hunt, promoting its horn as an alternative to the horn of the endangered rhino.

Saiga (Saiga tatarica) once dominated the open steppes from Ukraine to Mongolia. They have always been hunted for meat, horns and skins. However, even in Soviet times, hunters killed tens of thousands each year, without dramatically lowering the population.

But since the collapse of the Soviet Union, a lucrative market in the horns has opened up, with hunters using motorcycles and highpowered weapons to chase and kill their quarry. In China, saiga horns fetch around $100 a kilogram. Organised gangs illegally export the horn by train from Moscow to Beijing, or across the border from Kazakhstan.

"The plains used to be black with these antelopes, but now you can go out there and not see any at all," says Abigail Entwistle, a zoologist from Flora and Fauna International, a British-based charity. "This is the most sudden change in fortune for a large mammal species recorded in recent times." The closest comparison may be with the African elephant, which faced a similar poaching frenzy in the 1980s, causing its numbers to fall from a million to half a million in a decade. But the saiga's numbers, which started at a similar level, have fallen by 97 per cent.

The scale of the slaughter, and its almost total destruction of the male saiga, has overwhelmed the animals' famed fecundity "We don't know of any case in biology where the sex ratio has gone so wrong that fecundity has crashed in this way," says Eleanor Milner-Gulland of Imperial College, London, the leading expert in the West on the species.

Between 1993 and 1998, saiga numbers across central Asia almost halved, to around 600 000. Then, with most of the males gone, the population crash began in earnest, says Milner-Gulland. Numbers have halved each year since, until last year's census recorded just 30 000 individuals. There is, she says, no sign that the crash is due to disease or unusual weather.

One of the most critically endangered herds is in the huge Betpak-Dala region in central Kazakhstan, where in 1993 more than half a million saiga lived. By last year their numbers had crashed to just 4000 - a 99 per cent drop from which there may be no return. Aerial surveys last year by the Institute of Zoology in Kazakhstan revealed no adult or juvenile males, only females, says Milner-Gulland. And time is running out to bring extra males in, as saiga antelopes normally only live for three to four years.

Conservationists have struggled to keep up with the scale of the disaster, and did not put the saiga on the Red List of critically endangered species until October 2002. In the coming months they will launch an emergency appeal to rescue wild herds. "We think we have probably got just two years to save the species," says Entwistle. "The trouble is, most people have never heard of the animal, so it is hard to raise funds."

It is unlikely that hunters will drive the saiga to total extinction, as they did the dodo, quagga. and passenger pigeon. But without a dramatic reversal of its fortunes, it will soon be confined to zoos and a few small reserves.

A decade ago, the saiga antelope seemed so secure that conservationists fighting to save the rhino from poaching suggested using saiga horn in traditional Chinese medicines as a substitute for rhino horn.

Research commissioned by WWF at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the late 1980s found it to be as effective as rhino horn in fighting fevers, and in 1991 WWF began a campaign in Hong Kong to publicise it as an alternative. The following year, the UN Environment Programme appointed WWF ecologist Esmond Bradley Martin as its "special envoy" to persuade pharmacists across Asia to adopt saiga horn (New Scientist, 9 March 1991, p 15, and 3 October 1992, p 10).

But the saiga had died out in China in the 1960s, and the resulting upsurge in demand opened the floodgates to unregulated imports. By 1993, says Milner-Gulland, "Hong Kong markets were piled high with saiga horn" from Kazakhstan and Russia. The slaughter had begun.

Bradley Martin is unapologetic. He told New Scientist: "I supported the use of saiga antelope horn as a substitute for rhino horn from the early 198os. In my opinion it was the correct policy at the time. But I stopped around 1995, when I read about the start of the sharp decline in saiga populations."

Photo: Kalman, B. 'Arctic Animals'

The ptarmigan becomes very hard to see in winter against a backdrop of snow. Even its feet are covered in feathers. Despite all these efforts at camouflage, the ptarmigan is a loud bird. Its noises resemble the sounds bullfrogs make.

Photo: Kalman, B. 'Arctic Animals'

When the female ptarmigan sits on her nest, its summer colouring blends with its nesting place. The ptarmigan is completely covered by warm feathers. Even its nostrils and feet are feathered to provide protection from the cold. The plumage on its feet also makes the ptarmigan's feet wider. Wide feet spread its weight more evenly so it can walk on soft snow without sinking. These feet feathers are, not surprisingly, called snowshoe feathers!

Photo: Kalman, B. 'Arctic Animals'

Caribou

Megaloceros, a giant deer, was just over 2m (6ft 6in) at the shoulder, about the size of a moose.

The antlers together span about 3.6m (12ft), or 1.8m (6ft) each. Some were even larger.

Cave paintings often seem to indicate a colour pattern for Megaloceros with a brownish back, a creamy chest and dark markings around the neck and shoulders. Although 'Irish Elk' is a common name used for Megaloceros, it is a deer, rather than an elk (most closely related to the Fallow deer). Also it is not just found in Ireland, but all across Europe. Thus, Megaloceros (meaning 'giant antler') is a better name for it.

The large numbers of skeletons from the peat bogs of Ireland have revealed that many male Megaloceros died from malnutrition and exhaustion during the winter. This is probably due to the rigours of the autumn rutting season, which many European deer have, during which males do not eat, and fight for the right to mate with a harem of females.

Photo: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/landofmammoth/eyecandy/main.html

Text: Adapted from http://www.bbc.co.uk/beasts/evidence/prog6/page3_2.shtml

Photo: Kalman, B. 'Arctic Animals'

Arctic Wolf

The wolverine has been called a glutton, a trouble-maker, and a ferocious predator. Some people even believe that it is the animal behind the abominable snowman legends. A cloud of mystery surrounds the wolverine because this animal likes to be alone and is rarely seen by people. Recent studies have shown that the wolverine does not gorge itself on food and is not any more ferocious than an angry red squirrel.

Mating season is the only time of year that wolverines get together. Once mating has occurred, couples go their separate ways. Several months later mother wolverines make dens in rocky caves or beneath the roots of fallen trees. In March or April they have from two to five cubs. Wolverines do not breed until they are four years old. Most other arctic animals mate and have young long before this because they mature more rapidly than wolverines. Maturing late may account for the low wolverine population.

The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family and, like other weasels, it is an omnivore that feeds on a variety of animal and plant foods. In summer it eats blueberries, ground squirrels, and birds' eggs. In winter it hunts small animals but spends most of its time as a scavenger, feeding on the carcasses of caribou, seals, and even whales.

The wolverine is known for its big feet and loping gait. As it runs, its four furry feet hit the ground all at once. These furry feet tend to slow the animal down in the summer, but they are a great advantage in the winter. When the wolverine chases a caribou, moose, or other large animal in the deep snow, it can move quickly, whereas the prey exhausts itself. Thanks to its snowshoe feet, the wolverine is able to bound along on top of the snow and kill stranded animals.

Photo and text: Kalman, B. 'Arctic Animals'

The "sabretoothed tiger," Smilodon, is the second most common fossil mammal found in the La Brea tar pits. The first Chairman of the University of California Department of Paleontology, Professor John C. Merriam , and his student Chester Stock, monographed the morphology of this great carnivore in 1932. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Smilodon bones have been found at La Brea. These finds have permitted remarkably detailed reconstructions of how Smilodon lived. We now know Smilodon was about a foot shorter than living lions but was nearly twice as heavy. Also, unlike cheetahs and lions (which have long tails that help provide balance when the animals run) Smilodon had a bobtail. These suggest that Smilodon did not chase down prey animals over long distances as lions, leopards, and cheetahs do. Instead, it probably charged from ambush, waiting for its prey to come close before attacking.

Smilodon is a relatively recent sabretooth, from the Late Pleistocene . It went extinct about 10 000 years ago. Fossils have been found all over North America and Europe. Smilodon fossils from the La Brea tar pits include bones that show evidence of serious crushing or fracture injuries, or crippling arthritis and other degenerative diseases. Such problems would have been debilitating for the wounded animals. Yet many of these bones show extensive healing and regrowth indicating that even crippled animals survived for some time after their injuries. How did they survive? It seems most likely that they were cared for, or at least allowed to feed, by other sabretoothed cats. Solitary hunters with crippling injuries would not be expected to live long enough for the bones to heal. Smilodon appears to have lived in packs and had a social structure like modern lions. They were unlike tigers and all other living cats, which are solitary hunters. Occasional finds of sabretooth tooth sized holes in Smilodon bones suggest the social life of Smilodon was not always peaceful. The cats may have fought over food or mates as lions do today. Such fights were probably accompanied by loud roaring. From the structure of the hyoid bones in the throat of Smilodon, we know it could roar.

Photo: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/landofmammoth/eyecandy/main.html
Text: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/carnivora/sabretooth.html

The ermine is another member of the weasel family. In the summer its long, lean body is covered in a coat of short dark brown fur. In the winter its coat turns to a snowy white color except for the black tip on its tail. In the past ermine furs and tails decorated the robes of royalty. Today ermines are still bred so that their pelts can be used to make coats. Ermine farmers of the Siberian Arctic make a good living raising these animals for their pelts.

Ermines make their homes in underground holes that have been dug out by other burrowing animals. Mother ermines make a cozy nursery lined with the fur from other animals. Their young grow quickly and are able to have families of their own in less than a year!

The ermine is an efficient hunter that preys on other small animals and birds. Its excellent sense of smell allows it to expertly sniff out its prey during the dark arctic nights. When killing its prey, the ermine pounces on it and bites it at the back of the neck. It then wraps its snakelike body around the victim to ensure that it cannot escape.

The European Red Fox

Photo: Bottoni L. et al, 'Central Europe'

The Pine Marten is an agile climber and is able to prey on squirrels and birds.

Photo: Bottoni L. et al, 'Central Europe'

The Otter
This aquatic mammal has become quite rare in Europe. It lives in areas near fairly deep streams and lakes that have abundant vegetation. The otter has several mechanisms that enable it to live on both land and water. The eyes and nostrils are located toward the top of the head. The skull is flattened and the feet are webbed. When swimming, the legs are held against the body and the animal is propelled forward by a wavelike movement of the body. The tail also helps this movement and it also functions as a rudder.

When the otter is underwater, the nostrils and ears are closed and the muscles of the eyes adjust the eye lens so that the otter can see better. At night or in cloudy water, its vision is assisted by the sensitive whiskers of the snout Its coat has long, thick fur that is waterproofed by oils produced by the skin. In the water, the fur flattens and offers little resistance. The fluffy hairs near the skin remain dry, and the air trapped by them acts as an insulating layer.

The otter feeds mostly on fish and sometimes on aquatic birds, water voles, and nutrias (aquatic rodents that resemble beavers). It is an expert hunter. It can swim faster than fish, so it can follow them for long distances. It may wait for them under a rock or surprise them with a lightning fast dive.

The European mink, foraging in an ice edged stream

Photo: http://zoology.nsys.by:8101/eminks/mink.html

The European lynx

Photo: http://lynx.uio.no/jon/lynx/eulynx1.htm

The European lynx in a nature park in northern Norway.

Photo: Per, 2001

The aurochs is the ancestor of domestic cattle. It became extinct at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The aurochs probably evolved from an ancestor that also lived in Asia Minor and North Africa. Evidence for this comes from drawings and paintings of an animal similar to the aurochs from ancient Egyptian and Assyrian sculptures. This animal was also mentioned in the Bible as "Re-em." The last written proof of the aurochs' existence comes from a document written by the Baron of Herbestein during 1513-1533. Under a drawing of the animal he wrote: 'I am the aurochs, called Thur by the Poles, Aurox by the Germans, and sometimes even bison by the ignorant.'


Photo: http://www.aristotle.net/~swarmack/aurochs.html

Text: Bottoni et al, 'Central Europe'

Roe deer feed on the leaves of a shrub. This deer is the smallest hoofed animal of the forest. It is also the most adaptable and widespread. It is even found in small villages and cultivated fields. The roe deer often enters gardens, and it is sometimes seen on paved roads. It has adapted well to the conditions of the modern world. Photo: Bottoni et al, 'Central Europe'

The last wisents (European bison) living in the wild in the forest of Bialowieza were killed by hungry soldiers during the Russian Revolution and World War 1. Luckily, several wisents remained in the various zoos throughout the world. These animals were able to reproduce in captivity. The zoos carefully selected the animals to be mated, avoiding blood relationships that were too close (otherwise the offspring would have been less healthy). As a result of this breeding program, there are now over two thousand wisents in the world. They are found mainly in Poland and the Soviet Union, and they are exported to various countries. Photo and text: Bottoni et al, 'Central Europe'

A fully-grown Red Stag can stand 120cm (48") high at the shoulder and can weigh anything up to 190kg (420lbs). Mature stags carry a large rack of antlers, which are in peak condition in the early autumn for the rut, when they are used for bouts of sparring between rivals. A dominant animal may have 18-20 points (tines) on the antlers, although 14-16 is more common. The females (hinds) are smaller, with a shoulder height up to 110cm (44"), and a weight of up to 110kg (240lbs). Photo: http://www.chantec5.co.uk/animaluk/articles/deer/deer2.html Text: http://homepage.tinet.ie/~knp/deer/

The woolly mammoth Elephas primagenius

Photo: H. Osborn, 'Men of the Old Stone Age' (1916)

Skeleton of a mammoth reconstructed from bones found in various caves in France.
Photo : Man before History by John Waechter

Dr Len Hills by mammoth tracks revealed in the St. Mary's Reservoir, southern Alberta, in 1999.

This is a rare shot of a Przwalski mare with foal.
Photo from http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/images/horse.jpg

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