Page 28 - aruba-today-20180714

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 14 July 2018
8 endangered black rhinos die in Kenya after relocation

By KHALED KAZZIHA ministry said. clined dramatically in the
Associated Press "Moving rhinos is compli- 20th century, mostly at the
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — cated, akin to moving gold hands of European hunters
Eight critically endangered bullion, it requires extremely and settlers.
black rhinos are dead in careful planning and se- Between 1960 and 1995
Kenya after wildlife work- curity due to the value of numbers dropped by 98
ers moved them from the these rare animals," Ka- percent, to fewer than
capital to a new national humbu said in a statement. 2,500.
park, the government said "Rhino translocations also Since then the species has
Friday, calling the toll "un- have major welfare con- rebounded, although it
precedented" in more than siderations and I dread to remains extremely threat-
a decade of such transfers. think of the suffering that ened. In addition to poach-
Preliminary investigations these poor animals en- ing the animals also face
point to salt poisoning as dured before they died." habitat loss.
the rhinos tried to adapt Transporting wildlife is a African Parks, a Johannes-
to saltier water in their new In this file photo taken on Saturday Jan.14, 2006, a 4-year old strategy used by conser- burg-based conservation
home, the Ministry of Tour- Female black Rhino, runs after it was darted at Nairobi National vationists to help build up, group, said earlier this year
ism and Wildlife said in a Park. or even bring back, ani- that there are fewer than
statement, describing how Associated Press mal populations. In May, six 25,000 rhinos in the African
the animals likely became Kahumbu of WildlifeDirect. Kenya Wildlife Service said black rhinos were moved wild, of which about 20 per-
dehydrated and drank Conservationists in Africa it hoped to boost the pop- from South Africa to Chad, cent are black rhinos and
more salty water in a fatal have been working hard to ulation there. The govern- restoring the species to the the rest white rhinos.
cycle. protect the black rhino sub- ment agency has not said country in north-central Af- In another major setback
The ministry suspended the species from poachers tar- how the rhinos died. Four- rica nearly half a century for conservation, the last
ongoing move of rhinos geting them for their horns teen of the animals were to after it was wiped out there. remaining male northern
and said the surviving ones to supply an illegal Asian be moved in all. Kenya transported 149 rhi- white rhino on the planet
in the new park were being market. "Disciplinary action will defi- nos between 2005 and died in March in Kenya,
closely monitored. In moving a group of 11 rhi- nitely be taken" if an inves- 2017 with eight deaths, the leaving conservation-
The loss is "a complete di- nos to the newly created tigation into the deaths wildlife ministry said. ists struggling to save that
saster," said prominent Ke- Tsavo East National Park indicates negligence by According to WWF, black sub-species using in vitro
nyan conservationist Paula from Nairobi last month, the agency staff, the wildlife rhino populations de- fertilization.q

Africa's iconic baobab trees dying off at alarming rate

By KEVIN SUTHERLAND rica (AP) — Africa's ancient the "tree of life," is under a "The trees that are falling savanna and are often
Associated Press baobab, with its distinctive new and mysterious threat, over are at the southern in areas roamed by el-
CROOKS CORNER, South Af- swollen trunk and known as with some of the largest range of the distribution of ephants, rhinos and other
and oldest dying abruptly baobabs," said Stephan wildlife. Elephants help to
in recent years. Woodborne with South Af- propagate the trees when
Nine of the 13 oldest bao- rica's National Research they eat baobab fruit, with
babs, aged between 1,000 Foundation, an author of seeds often sprouting in the
and 2,500 years, have died the study. "What we believe nutritious elephant dung.
over the past dozen years, is happening is that the cli- "Baobab trees are obvious-
according to a study pub- mate envelope in which ly iconic because of their
lished in the scientific jour- they exist is shifting, and so size and their shape and
nal Nature Plants. we are not talking about they are very distinctive
The sudden collapse is "an the wholesale extinction of on the African landscape,
event of unprecedented baobabs." and communities have
magnitude," the study says. Researchers are seeing been using them for vari-
Climate change, with its very few juvenile trees in ous reasons through time,"
rising temperatures and the affected region while Woodborne said. "We find
increasing drought condi- the mature trees are dying many archaeological sites
tions, is a suspected fac- off, "so what we are prob- underneath these trees,
tor but no definite cause ably looking at here is a and when we have trees
is known. The deaths oc- shift in their distribution in re- that are more than 1,000
In this photo taken Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017, a woman and curred in the southern Af- sponse to climate forcing," years old we are talking
child walks alongside a giant baobab tree in Chimanimani, rican countries of Botswa- Woodborne said. about occupations that
Zimbabwe. na, Namibia, South Africa, Baobabs stud southern Af- took place many hundreds
Associated Press Zambia and Zimbabwe. rica's hot, dry stretches of of years ago."
Baobabs store large
amounts of water in their
trunk and branches, giv-
ing the trees their bulbous
shape. Large trees can
store as much as 140,000
liters (37,000 gallons) of wa-
ter sucked up during rainy
seasons. Thirsty elephants
often strip a baobab of its
bark and wood to get their
moisture.q