Big increase in animal populations in Ugandan national parks

It seems as though the number of animals in Ugandan national parks and game reserves has soared over the past decade. In fact, Lillian Nsubuga from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) claims that the population of some species has actually doubled since 1999.

The biggest increases in population have been for zebras, impalas, buffalos, giraffes, elephants, hippopotamuses and waterbucks. The successes are believed to be due to improved monitoring, the expulsion of rebels from the country, and offering incentives to local communities to protect wildlife.

Concern over Serengeti road plans

A group of scientists writing in the journal Nature has appealed against a road planned in the Serengeti National Park, saying it would cause an environmental disaster and curtail wildebeest migration. The migration of the wildebeest was the "largest remaining migratory system on Earth", they said.

Instead, the scientists have proposed an alternative road running to the south of the park. However, there has been pressure to start building the 50km stretch of road through the north of the Serengeti due to increasing economic interest in central African mineral wealth. The planned road would form part of a link between Tanzania's coast and Lake Victoria, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"The proposed road could lead to the collapse of the largest remaining migratory system on Earth - a system that drives Tanzania's tourism trade and supports thousands of people," the appeal said.

Buying pieces of rainforest through organisations such as the World Land Trust is one way of helping to protect rainforests and wildlife habitats threatened by so-called ‘economic development’.

Trophy hunting

Trophy or 'sport' hunting has been used as a conservation measure, with the money hunters pay then used to help protect a wider population of animals. For example, in Tanzania quotas of lions and leopards are shot each year by trophy hunters.

However, conservation experts have started to question the viability of trophy hunting with some arguing that lion and leopard numbers will crash in countries such as Tanzania unless fewer big cats are killed.

Tanzania holds most of the remaining large populations of African lions and also has wide areas of leopard habitat. Vast areas of the country have been set aside as 'hunting blocks', in which private companies fund trophy hunting by tourists.

Tanzania currently allows about 500 lions and 400 leopards per year to be killed for ‘sport’.

How deeply depressing to think that there are people out there who get pleasure from shooting and killing such magnificent animals.

Freshwater turtles in catastrophic decline

It is estimated that over a third of the estimated 280 freshwater turtle species around the world are threatened with extinction.

The unsustainable collection of turtles for food and to supply a lucrative pet trade are believed to be the key drivers behind the worrying fall in numbers.

Habitat loss as a result of river-damming for hydro-electricity is another major concern.

Humpback whales form lasting bonds

Scientists have found that female humpback whales reunite each summer to feed, swim and socialise in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off Canada.

Though humpbacks spend the rest of the year apart migrating and breeding, it seems that individual humpbacks manage to find each other again in the open ocean each summer, spending the season feeding together.

It also seems that such friendships benefited the female humpbacks, since those with the most stable and long-lasting associations tended to give birth to the most calves. How the whales find each other each summer remains a mystery.