What!? A Highway Through the Serengeti?

A controversial road that would cut across one of the most spectacular ecosystems and global biodiversity depositories, the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania, may soon receive approval. 

A sample letter for your use is at the end of this article.

If the road is completed in its planned location it would connect western, inland areas, with coastal ports and bisect thousands of acres of pristine African savanna. It would slice directly through the traditional migration route of more than 2 million wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, giraffes, elephants and the cheetahs, leopards and lions that depend on it. 



The Mara River snakes through the Serengeti Plain.

These inland areas possess deposits of rare earth metals which are in short supply and are needed for various items like cell phones.  China recently announced it would decrease export flow of these metals to supply its own growing industries and this may be an already successful attempt to drive up metal prices.



The Serengeti is a critical feeding and calving area for millions of grazing mammals.  In turn the vegetation and herbivores directly or indirectly support thousands of other species of animals. 


A highway will subject many species to roadkill pressure, poaching, disruption of the migration and the inevitable supporting development, such as gas stations, food marts, souvenir shops, residential space, etc.


Ruppell's Vultures feed on a road killed gazelle.  And this was a low speed, dirt road. 

 

Servals are a medium sized species of cat which we saw in areas with higher grass..  The Cheetah speciated from an ancient line of Servals. 

Tanzania is a poor country but there is an alternate route (see link, below).  Tanzania has had an excellent environmental stewardship record; so these plans are a bit shocking.  On our visit we saw Chinese government officials inspecting road improvement projects. 

The connection between manufacturers' urgent need for rare earth metals, China's recent announcement to reduce metal exports and their active investment in roads in Tanzania makes me realize what has occurred to produce this destructive plan.

Since we all contribute to the world demand for metals we should try and mitigate our impacts, SO:  

Please call, email and/or write the Tanzanian embassy and advise them you are vehemently opposed to a highway through the world's greatest biological masterpiece.  At the end of this article is a base letter for your customizable use.   Email finished letter to

ubalozi@tanzaniaembassy-us.org

or  NBP@comcast.net

or mail


Embassy of the United Republic of Tanzania
1232 22nd St. NW
Washington D.C 20037
Telephone: (202)884-1080, (202)939-6125/7
Fax: (202)797-7408

Link to map of area and alternate route:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/world/africa/31serengeti.html

We went on a biodiversity study in this exact area and it is beyond comparison.  Here is a small part of what we saw.


The migratory mammals follow a circannular route that coincides with the rain patterns that influence grass growth on this high plain.  It can be surprisingly cool at times.



When walking an armed guard is best due to the remote possibility of an animal attack.

This male took down a Wildebeest and soon started to call for a female that eventually arrived.



The female came in.

This Cheetah was still wet from the early morning dew of the plains when we were lucky enough to spot it.  They often hunt at day break when the Lions are often satiated from their night kills.  This cat ignored us, and ate quickly while nervously looking in all directions for Lions or cleptoparasites that would easily kill it or steal its prey. 

Here's the whole scene.

African Fish Eagles (Haliaeetus vocifer) are in the same genus as our Bald Eagle. Haliaeetus means lover of fish.  Bald Eagles are increasingly seen on the Rahway River, NJ especially in migration.  A female Fish Eagle can be 8 lbs, with a wingspan of 8 feet.  We saw a handful of these eagles.



We had this Crowned Crane on the east plains not far from the Ngorongoro Crater.



In places where they are not harassed or hunted by people you can get very close to Giraffes.  There are many subspecies but the only other species in the family is the rarer Okapi which was confirmed to be more than a wild rumor finally in 1901. 

This Hippopotamus has horizontal "bath tub" lines caused by moving from one small pool to another.  Several species of birds like these jacanas have a symbiotic relationship with semi-aquatic animals. 



Lilac-breasted Rollers need at least a few trees to ambush their prey of insects and small animals. 

White-crowned Shrikes are loud, usually in groups and perch in thornbush or acacias.



African Elephants are dwarfed in the vista.  They are part of the complex ecological balance that suppresses the savanna from succeeding to forest.  Note the elephant damaged tree.

This is a superb starling.....yes a Superb Starling.

This Red-and-yellow Barbet stood its ground.

Example letter, please cut and paste and change to your liking.  Thanks to Emile DeVito Ph.D. of The New Jersey Conservation Foundation for its authorship.  Send your finished letter to 

ubalozi@tanzaniaembassy-us.org

or

NBP@comcast.net

January 9, 2011

Embassy of the United Republic of Tanzania

1232 22nd street NW

Washington, DC 20037

Re:

SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK HIGHWAY

PROPOSAL

Dear Honorable Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania:

For decades we have witnessed poorly-conceived development projects that exacerbate urban sprawl, and foster decline of rural and natural landscapes.   In the short term these projects sometimes looked advantageous but in the long term they were not good for the area or the people.

Highways through protected parks, forests and natural areas slowly destroy long-term ecosystem function. Remnant ecosystems severed by such poorly conceived projects eventually degrade and fail to support the wildlife they are intended to protect.

Serengeti National Park is a worldwide natural gem, and should not be sacrificed for the insatiable resource extraction needs of our human society. If the true, long-term costs of the destructive impact to Serengeti National Park and the future of both nature and humankind were to be factored into the cost of extracting the rare metals, the project would prove to be unwarranted.

Please do not allow your wonderful nation of Tanzania to succumb to the greed of the material world, and sacrifice one of the world’s greatest treasures that you have stewarded so wonderfully, in the face of overwhelming odds, for so long.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Christmas Bird Census - A Conservation Tradition

In the late 1800s people celebrated a holiday tradition known as the Christmas "Side Hunt".  Teams of gunners would be picked; the winners were the group with the highest pile of feathered and pelted carcasses.   A feast followed.  

Wild Turkeys, Camp Zehnder YMCA Brick, NJ.  Thanks to the manager and Ward Halligan for arranging access.

The 2010 "Hunters".

As 1900 began,  the conservation movement was just developing and on Christmas Day 1900,  Frank Chapman an ornithologist with the fledgling Audubon Society, proposed and started a new holiday.
It was the "Christmas Bird Census" (CBC); birds would be counted rather than killed.  

 

Ring-necked Ducks, Lakewood, NJ

For most species, CBC data is much less important than that of Breeding Bird Surveys gathered in spring and summer.  CBCs have a strong recreational, recruiting and social component and are enjoyed by the public; it's a complex subject to ascertain whether the tens of thousands of hours spent on the annual event could be better applied to projects with immediate returns such as habitat protection and improvement.

The crew on the Manasquan River showing determination to improve their naked eye skills by refusing to even have binoculars.   



Ruddy Ducks, Manasquan River

On this count the best bird was a seal in the Manasquan River that someone thought "had to be a cormorant, since it dove and only showed black".   We had 62 species with the highlights being 5 Bald Eagles, 14 Wild Turkeys, an American Woodcock. 3 Palm Warblers and a Rusty Blackbird.    

Bald Eagle, Manasquan River

Hooded Merganser, male and female, Lakewood



Border of Allaire Airport





Manasquan River, looking west towards the WMA and the distant hills of Allaire State Park

Bird and Turk finding Eastern Bluebird and Palm Warbler



A Great Blue Heron, perhaps getting hungry as the lakes freeze, was stalking the edge of the uplands for something other than fish.



Turk tallying the total take.

Happy Holidays from the Team of Bird Casper, Turk Meriney, Timo Johnson, Tuco Virrazzi and Ward-Turdus Halligan 



Off to Costa Rica

We are back from another exciting expedition to that perennial hotbed of biodiversity, Costa Rica.  The majority of time was spent in the NW section of the country.  We assessed the coast, the peninsula of Santa Elena, the forest and beaches of Santa Rosa National Park and the mountains of Cordilerra de Guanacaste with a few spectacular days in the cloud forests of the older range of  Cordilerra de Tilaran.  This trip was relatively tame and less edgy than our recent assault on the peaks of Darien National Park along the border of Panama and Colombia where we searched for common to rare endemic herptiles, birds and mammals.



White-fronted Parrots in Rincon de la Veija National Park

 



Cataract in Rincon de la Vieja
National Park



However on this trip we were hit by clouds, rain and 60 mile per hour winds along the ash field and our attempt to peer down on the red lava of Rincon de la Vieja from 6,000 feet was rebuked.  The long death hike with full supplies and gear to Playa Naranjo of Santa Rosa National Park proved  blister-making but was rewarded with a panoramic view of one of the most spectacular and secluded beaches in Central America.  We were alone, deep in the 50,000 hectares of the largest remaining dry forest habitat left in Central America on a deserted 20 mile long, Pacific beach. 

Here there was an assortment of insects, sea and land crabs, fishes, sea turtles, Prothonotary Warblers (from NJ?), Pale-billed Woodpeckers, Black Hawks, parrots and Jaguars.  And finally ten miles of switch backs up the Tilaran Mountains, the home of arguably the most beautiful bird in the world, the Resplendent Quetzal, turned on one, two, and then three dashboard lights on the smoking, 4 wheel drive.  We were forced to seek quick repairs at a high altitude, cold, drizzly dairy barn where I had to yell over the vacuum buzz of the milking machines for assistance.




Looking NE from our starting point in the morning for the hoped for goal; a rim view of the only live volcano in the Guanacaste range, Rincon de la Vieja.  The weather is rolling hard off the top ridge which proved dangerous and impassable as the open ash field was entered four hours later.   

The foothills are interspersed with huge trees possessing triangular buttresses.  The soils in tropical forest communities are often nutrient deficient with the great majority of the available carbon in the biomass.  The trees therefore have shallow root systems and the buttresses brace the massive trees from side winds.  If the trees are taken from these areas the deforested lands often have poor agricultural yields.

 

Long sweeping beach in NW Costa Rica on the Santa Elena peninsula that juts into the Pacific Ocean.  Over the ridge one can walk into Nicaragua. 



Playa Naranjo on the west edge of Santa Rosa National Park.  This may be the most secluded beach in Costa Rica.   At night it is visted by Coati Mundis, endangered sea turtles and Jaguars.



The incredible Playa Naranjo sweeps to the NW.

Stream flowing from the heights of Rincon de la Vieja.

Double-striped Thick-knees, an unusual, mainly nocturnal plover of dryer, open areas of Central and S. America. 

We shall have multiple posts on this expedition.

Biodiversity - Rip Van Winkle and Climate Change.

Any subjective or objective analysis of recent extralimital bird occurrences in NJ reveals that several SE, US species are appearing more in NJ and in other NE, coastal states. Most of these species have static or declining US populations so the records are not a reflection of simple range expansions driven by healthy outbreeding.  

In recent years we have seen an increase in the NE of White-faced Ibis, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Anhinga, Magnificent Frigatebird, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Sandwich Tern, Wilson's Plover, American Avocet, Ground Dove, White-winged Dove, Cave Swallows, Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite and most recently (Nov 2010) the second NJ record for White-tailed Kite. Numerous breeding species are also expanding their ranges N but not S (see 4/07 issue Conservation Biology, http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0116-birds.html ). Additionally we are seeing reports of SE insects and fishes reaching further N than in past decades.



Are the higher taxa simply feeding on the lower taxa that are, for some reason, further N?  Indeed the kites feed on Odonates (dragonflies)some of which are migratory.  Many invertebrate, and vertebrate species including birds have a protracted fall migration tuned closely with temperatures which influences food availability. Perhaps dragonflies, other insects and fishes are lingering further N in summer and fall and this is attracting some of these S bird species N. Its seems that multiple species of animals are further N than they were just a few decades ago inferring a broad, large scale event is occurring. 

Lets imagine a scientifically trained Rip Van Winkle arrived on the modern scene. We will shield our guest from biased, special interest messages from both sides of the Climate Change issue (and J. Hartmann and L. O'Boyle, associates of mine).  We will give him NO temperature data or advise him that atmospheric CO2 levels have increased from 270 ppm to near 390 ppm in the geologic blink of 250 years. We will let him study only the zoogeographic distribution of animals over the millennium----compared to what we are witnessing recently. What will he report is causing these range expansions and records that are showing a rapid, northerly movement of animals in our area?

10/24/10 Observations on the lower Rahway River in Carteret and Linden, NJ.

Healthy populations of smaller invertebrates are needed to support larger animals and our native  biodiversity. When visiting the lower Rahway River one will observe many small creatures.  Lets look at some of the hundreds of thousands of invertebrates (e.g. clams, snails and crabs) that inhabit the longest unbridged river mouth ecosystem in N NJ.

 Along the inner bends of rivers there is increased sedimentation and food deposition which forms more extensive mud flats or beaches; these areas support important biological communities that are different than those found on the usually steeper banked, higher energy, outer bends of rivers.  On the major, inner turn of the lower Rahway is one of the widest tidal mud flats where several thousand eastern mudsnails forage.  Snails can be seen on this flat and throughout the lower river.

These eastern mudsnails, Ilyanassa obsoleta, tend to prefer areas of higher sedimentation as noted in this paper.

http://www.citeulike.org/user/sviscido/article/2911888sroughout


Another reference (title below) details food preferences of Diamondback Terrapins which includes various species of snails. The eastern mudsnails along with other invertebrates are important food resources for certain species of fish, birds and Diamondback Terrapins (Malaclemmys terrapin).  NBP and RRA are studying terrapins on the river.

Other species of invertebrates seen on the river include ribbed mussels (Geukensia demissa), the common marsh snail, or eastern melampus (Melampus bidentatus) and at least two species of fiddler crabs (Uca pugnax and Uca minax).  All these animals are eaten by terrapins.   The common marsh snail feeds on Smooth Cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) so its indirectly  important for terrapins to control the growth of the invasive phragmites reed.

Varied and specific sections of rivers, such as inner bends and marsh free of phragmites, that support high densities of invertebrates are important to the ecology and biodiversity of an area.

Observations 10/24 1600 to 1815

Eastern Mudsnail  (tens of thousands)

Atlantic Marsh Fiddler Crab (hundreds) Uca pugnax

Brackish Water Fiddler Crab (10) Uca minax

Black-Crowned Night-Heron

Great Blue Heron 2

Black Duck 15

Wood Duck 5

Gadwall 4

Mallard 7

Canada Goose 40 residents, 5 migrating

Killdeer 2

Greater Yellowlegs 8

Northern Harrier (female and imm.)

Merlin

American Kestrel 2

Hermit Thrush 5

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3

Golden-crowned Kinglet 5

Pine Warbler

Palm Warbler 3

Yellow-rumped Warbler 30+

White-crowned Sparrow 5 (imm.)

Field Sparrow 2

Savannah Sparrow 6

Swamp Sparrow 20+

White-throated Sparrow 20+

Song Sparrow 25+

House Finch 7

American Goldfinch 6

Opossum

White-tailed Deer 8

Title mentioned above: ASSESSMENT OF PREY AVAILABILITY FOR DIAMONDBACK TERRAPINS IN A CONNECTICUT SALT MARSH

Thanks Fred Virrazzi

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