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Extinction: A Race against Time

by Colin Tudge
The increasing speed to extinction About a million different living species have been identified so far. Recent studies in tropical forests where biodiversity is greatest suggest the true figure is nearer 30 million. Most are animals, and most of those are insects. Because the tropical forests are threatened, at least half the animal species could become extinct within the next century. There have been at least five 'mass extinctions' in our planet's history; the last removed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present wave of extinction is on a similar scale, but hundreds of times faster. Conflicting approaches There is conflict within the conservation movement over what is to be done about this. Some believe that habitats (the places where animals and plants live) should be conserved; others prefer to concentrate upon individual species. Both approaches have strengths and weaknesses, and they must operate in harmony. Habitat protection has obvious advantages. Many species benefit if land is preserved. Animals need somewhere to live; unless the habitat is preserved it may not be worth saving the individual animal. Habitat protection seems cheap; for example, tropical forest can often be purchased for only a few dollars per hectare. Only by habitat protection can we save more than a handful of the world's animals. But there are difficulties. Even when a protected area is designated a 'national park', its animals may not be safe. All five remaining species of rhinoceros are heavily protected in the wild, but are threatened by poaching. Early in 1991 Zimbabwe had 1,500 black rhinos the world's largest population. Patrols of game wardens shoot poachers on sight. Yet by late 1992, 1,000 of the 1,500 had been poached. In many national parks worldwide, the habitat is threatened by the local farmers' need to graze their cattle. Requirements for viability Computer models and field studies show that wild populations need several hundred individuals to be viable. Smaller populations will eventually go extinct in the wild, because of accidents to key breeding individuals, or epidemics. The big predators need vast areas. One tiger may command hundreds of square kilometres; a viable population needs an area as big as Wales or Holland. Only one of the world's five remaining subspecies of tiger a population of Bengals in India occupies an area large enough to be viable. All the rest (Indo-Chinese, Sumatran, Chinese, and Siberian) seem bound to die out. Three other subspecies have gone extinct in the past 100 years the latest, the Javan, in the 1970s.

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Ecologists now emphasize the concept of mosaic. All animals need different things from their habitat, and a failure of supply of any one is disastrous. Giant pandas feed mainly on bamboo, but give birth in old hollow trees of which there is a shortage. Birds commonly roost in one place, but feed in special areas far away. Nature reserves must either contain all essentials for an animal's life, or else allow access to such areas elsewhere. For many animals in a reserve, these conditions are not fulfilled. Hence year by year, after reserves are created, species go extinct: a process called species relaxation. The remaining fauna and flora may be a poor shadow of the original. Interest is increasing in captive breeding, carried out mainly by the world's 800 zoos. Their task is formidable; each captive species should include several hundred individuals. Zoos maintain such numbers through cooperative breeding, organized regionally and coordinated by the Captive Breeding Specialist Group or the World Conservation Union, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each programme is underpinned by a studbook, showing which individuals are related to which. Breeding for conservation is different from breeding for livestock improvement. Livestock breeders breed uniform creatures by selecting animals conforming to some prescribed ideal. Conservation breeders maintain maximum genetic diversity by encouraging every individual to breed, including those reluctant to breed in captivity; by equalizing family size, so one generation's genes are all represented in the next; and by swapping individuals between zoos to prevent inbreeding. Cooperative breeding programmes are rapidly diversifying; by the year 2000 there should be several hundred. They can only make a small impression on the 15 million endangered species, but they can contribute greatly to particular groups of animals, especially the land vertebrates mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. These include most of the world's largest animals, with the greatest impact on their habitats. There are 24,000 species of land vertebrate, of which 2,000 probably require captive breeding to survive. Zoos could save all 2,000, which would be a great contribution. Conclusion Captive breeding is not intended to establish 'museum' populations, but to provide a temporary 'lifeboat'. Things are hard for wild animals, but over the next few decades, despite the growing human population, it should be possible to establish more and safer national parks. The Arabian oryx, California condor, black-footed ferret, red wolf, and Mauritius kestrel are among the creatures so far saved from extinction by captive breeding and returned to the wild. In the future, we can expect to see many more. Related Articles: biodiversity conservation dinosaur ecology

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endangered species extinction (biology) habitat nature reserve poaching rainforest rhinoceros species tiger zoo Copyright Helicon Publishing Ltd 2000. All rights reserved.

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