During a 4x4 trip in the Akamas region in Cyprus, we visited Lara bay where there is a green and loggerhead turtle conservation programme. The area is a prime nesting area for these turtles and is visited by many people to try and catch a glimpse of them. As it is listed under the Fisheries Law Cap 135, as well as other legislation, the use of sunbeds, umbrellas, tents etc is forbidden (and very much frowned upon even just sunbathing without these!) as well as littering, disturbing nests and anchoring or using a boat. Unfortunately, I was unlucky and didn't see any turtles but just to see such an unspoilt area and the vast numbers of turtle nests was really interesting. Turtles have been threatened by a large demand for turtle soup, by-catch and tangling during fishing and the increasing use of beaches (i.e. nesting areas) for recreational use by humans. Green turtles especially are on the brink of extinction in the Mediterranean so conservation efforts like these at Lara bay are essential in the attempt to prevent this. On the west coast of Cyprus, the numbers of loggerhead turtle nests was over five times more in 2014 than in 1999. This clearly shows the massive importance of the work being completed in Cyprus. There are five main aims of the project: - To protect and manage turtle nesting beaches - To protect eggs and hatchlings from predators (mainly foxes - shown by surveys early in the project where 80% of nests had been dug up & eaten) and humans - To protect adult turtles - To monitor the turtle population - To raise public awareness An aluminium cage is placed over each of the nests after monitoring of where the eggs are laid. These prevent predator access but allow hatchlings to easily escape - a process often helped by the staff and visitors to guide them in the right direction. When to visit
At Lara Bay, adult loggerhead turtles will kick-start the breeding season in June through to July and the green turtles about 2 weeks later in their start and finishing times. The hatchings will then be in their nests for approximately 7 weeks and typically emerge at night. So, really it depends on what event you hope to see as to when to visit! If I were to visit Lara bay again, I wouldn't choose to do it as part of the 4x4 trips that are commonly offered in Cyprus. Mainly because for me, this part of the trip was what I was most looking forward to but due to the tight schedule of the day, we didn't spend long here. Also, the buggies that people hired to get there without a trip looked super fun and a visit at dusk would probably increase the likelihood of seeing some turtles.
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As you will have noticed from my last post, I took part in some research of the wildlife in the national parks of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe with a company called 'African Impact'. Typically, in the day it was elephant and giraffe research and at night, hyena research. As well as this, full game counts of wildlife above the size of a warthog, and bird surveys were completed. I'll start by talking about elephant research! Elephant research in Victoria Falls is completed so that the population size and herd structures can be found. So, as a photography volunteer, I needed to take ID shots of the elephants. This was required so that each elephant could be identified as they all have unique ear 'notches'. Photos from each side of the elephant, as well as a 'jazz ears' photo were preferably needed of each elephant but this proved rather difficult as they usually walked across in front of you in only one direction. Photos were also useful in identifying the gender and age of the elephants if unable to see these with the naked eye. Other factors such as the GPS, distance and angle were also recorded. It was on my final day in Victoria Falls that I experienced my favourite moment whilst out on elephant research. We were just crossing a road from one national park to another and we noticed a few elephants on one side of the road. We stopped at the opposite side and waited for them to emerge. What happened was such an incredible sight as over 80 elephants, of all ages, crossed in front of us! Whilst we were all rapidly trying to record all of the data and take photos of each of these, I don't think the smile on any of our faces faded.
Giraffe research was similar to elephants and for these, a full body photo from each side, head photo from each side and front-facing head photos were needed. As you have probably guessed, it is the 'spot' pattern that makes each one unique from one another. ID portfolios can then be built up from this. Game counts were similar but ID shots were not required for this. Instead, this was 'what it says on the tin' in that the number of each species were simply counted when seen on a game drive. For bird surveys, you would typically stop at a certain location (e.g. we did one overlooking a waterhole) and every species of bird within an hour period would be recorded. Night drives were done 1 or 2 times a week (usually a Tuesday and Thursday) and had the main purpose of trying to find spotted hyenas (which also have unique spot patterns). ALERT (African Lion and Environmental Research Trust) has 3 collared hyena in Victoria Falls so when one was sighted, it would make for quite an exciting night drive! The hyenas are collared so that their movements can be tracked so that more can be learnt about the population living here. The only downfall to the night drives - a lot of layers and at least 2 blankets were needed to even keep slightly warm!! I have recently returned from a trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe as a wildlife photography and conservation volunteer with 'African Impact'. I'll write more about this in the future, but my main role was to photograph elephants, giraffes, and other wildlife in the parks from different angles to build up ID portfolios so that the population size in the parks can be estimated, as well as herd structures. I was also responsible for photographing the other volunteers 'in-action'! Below I have picked out my favourite 20 photographs which are in order of when they were taken, not from most favourite etc... read below to find out what I was doing and to see the camera settings used for them! © 1. Meeting the lovely people from the market which was a fab experience, getting to know them rather than just purchasing from them! Focal Length: 35mm, ISO 450, f / 6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/60
2. The women's market. Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 400, f / 6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/320 3. Taking part in an art session at a local school. Focal Length: 86mm, ISO 6400, f / 5.3, Shutter Speed: 1/800 4. Sunset at safari lodge which was absolutely stunning (I'm sure you'll agree!) and seeing lions drinking from the water hole made it even better! Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 500, f / 11, Shutter Speed: 1/500 5. A little bee eater with 2 hippos in the background. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 200, f / 7.1, Shutter Speed: 1/320 6. The mighty Zambezi river! Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 220, f / 20, Shutter Speed: 1/60 7. Pied kingfisher looking over the river. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 200, f / 14, Shutter Speed: 1/60 8. White-fronted bee-eater. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 100, f / 11, Shutter Speed: 1/80 9. White-fronted bee-eater in the tree. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 1250, f / 6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/5000 10. Dragonfly at the golf course (also a wildlife haven)! Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 100, f / 9, Shutter Speed: 1/40 11. Traditional method of sieving grains in the local village. Focal Length: 56mm, ISO 2000, f / 4.8, Shutter Speed: 1/1600 12. Giraffe on a research game drive. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 500, f / 22, Shutter Speed: 1/60 13. Giraffe on a game count evening drive. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 250, f / 22, Shutter Speed: 1/60 14. Panoramic view of Victoria Falls. Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 200, f / 10, Shutter Speed: 1/250 15. Meat prep for the lions. Focal Length: 18mm, ISO 1800, f / 22, Shutter Speed: 1/60 16. 'Yum' - Lion Feed. Focal Length: 230mm, ISO 2000, f / 6.3, Shutter Speed: 1/1250 17. Beautiful elephant by a water hole. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 1000, f / 13, Shutter Speed: 1/640 18. Tawny eagle in flight. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 1000, f / 13, Shutter Speed: 1/1600 19. A starling. Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 1000, f / 13, Shutter Speed: 1/640 20. Giraffe - I think this wins it for my favourite photo! Focal Length: 300mm, ISO 1000, f / 13, Shutter Speed: 1/800 As some of you may know, I have been in Bristol for the past couple of weeks on a work experience placement with the BBC wildlife magazine which was absolutely incredible and I have learnt so much in my time there. I have a few articles on the news section of their website that I have written which is pretty exciting (click the buttons below the read them!): Whilst in Bristol, I also visited Bristol Zoo (I should start making a checklist of the zoos I've visited!). It was here that I photographed this wonderful yellow-headed day gecko which was perfectly posed to show off its' reflection. Yellow-headed day geckos are an endangered species according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list and are restricted to Madagascar so really, it's a privilege to be able to see them. Their population in Madagascar is fragmented in two distinct locations so the importance of conserving this species is high as they could rapidly diminish.
This gecko is reliant on bamboo and forest areas for a place to safely live. Slash-and-burn agriculture is therefore a major problem in the destruction of their habitats in Madagascar. There is some hope that as bamboo can establish in cleared land, it might eventually re-establish but whether it actually will or not is unknown. Thankfully, due to the captive breeding of this species, the gecko is no longer known to be subjected to the illegal pet trade as harshly as it previously has been. Commercial exploitation has also greatly reduced. Bristol Zoo is the coordinator of the European breeding programme that is organised as part of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (EAZA) studbook species. This is a population management technique across all of the zoos in Europe that host the yellow-headed day gecko. The coordinator is responsible for keeping all the records to discover how well the species is doing in zoos so that it can be determined if more intensive measures need to be taken in their captive breeding programmes. As well as organising captive breeding programmes, members of EAZA also have a strong place in educating the public on the importance of conservation - both in Europe at the zoos, and in the native countries of the animals. This means that not only are populations being managed in captivity but steps towards improving the state of wild populations are also taken. If you are lucky enough to visit Madagascar, yellow-headed day geckos can often be seen in a small group basking in the sun but like most geckos, they will quickly dash if something gets too close. They are a stunning bright turquoise blue colour with a yellow head and black markings down their side so shouldn't be missed! As you may know, I have just returned from a 12 day field trip in Mallorca with uni. I had an absolutely brilliant time and got to see all the beauty of the island. We stayed in Palma which is the capital but travelled a lot around the North/North-West of the island and saw loads of endemic species (only present in this geographical area). I just wanted to give you a summary of what I got up to and then I will definitely do some more posts about some of my favourite species I saw there! We had 4 main field trip days and 5 days of project work (including a presentation on the final day), a much needed day off and 2 travel days. Oakwood, Botanical Garden and Gorg blau This was a super fun day but we were out for 12 hours and did a lot of scrambling so I was so glad for a big buffet dinner when we got back! We first visited an oakwood in Bunyola where we studied the species present and how the level of disturbance has changed over time. Also, we saw the climbing variant of Smilax aspera here. We then travelled to Sóller Botanical gardens to look at some more endemic species, had a taste of some carob pods and looked at the skeleton of Myotragus in the museum: an extinct cave goat that was an endemic on the island. On to the reservoir of Gorg blau and then down the most incredible windy road in Sa Calobra to the beach where the water source of the reservoir used to run to. Formentor Peninsula This is the most Northerly point in Mallorca and had incredible views, and a lot of goats! First we looked at a few 'hedgehog' plants which have adapted to all the goats by reducing their leaves and/or producing prickles to prevent grazing. The Balearic endemic subspecies of Smilax aspera is present here and it is incredible how different it looks from the climbing variety! We walked down the path from the lighthouse to look at some more species up the side of the cliff. This 'walk' (I was pretty much crawling) up the side was good fun but hard work - especially when you couldn't hold onto the plants as they were all hedgehog plants! We saw the Mallorcan peony at the top which was so pretty and of major conservation status there as it is now limited to the north-western and north-eastern areas. Boquer Valley Here we studied dioecy (separation of sexes on individual plants) in Pistacia lentiscus which showed a female bias and then the species-area relationship by turning over rocks and looking at the species present. The prediction is that the larger the rock, the greater variety of species present. We found geckos, spiders, a scorpion endemic to the Balearics and loads of other interesting creatures! It also meant we got to walk down to the bottom of the valley and spend some time at a stunning beach!! Albufera Nature Reserve and Hermann's Tortoises The morning was spent birdwatching at Albufera nature reserve so that we could try to spot the three birds of high conservation status (red-knobbed coot, red crested pochard and purple swamphen). We spotted (with the help of some keen twitchers) the red crested pochard as well as an osprey, cormorants, a European pond terrapin and loads more beautiful birds! It's definitely worth a visit. We also visited a nature reserve for the western Mediterranean Hermann's Tortoise to complete a mark release recapture experiment which the uni do every year on the trip. This is normally completed by marking the individuals collected but as these tortoises have a unique stomach pattern, we used this to distinguish them. From this, we can estimate the population. We determined this as approximately 214 individuals. I also got a tortoise named after me as nobody had found that one before! Project work For our project, my group studied cyanogenesis (production of cyanide toxin upon tissue damage) in 3 legumes and the effect of this on grazing by snails. I'm currently writing a report on this study but we found some interesting results and it was good fun completing it - even if we did have to grind up 90 samples of plants! So finally here's some of my favourite photos from the trip and I look forward to showing you more! © A slightly early blog post but I am away in Majorca on a field trip with uni for the next 2 weeks so won't be able to post when I'm there! I will definitely have loads to write about when I get back and am especially excited about finding trapdoor spiders, which I never thought I'd say about a spider! After the saddening death of the last male northern white rhino, it has come to light again that giraffes too might be on a rapid decline as part of a 'silent extinction'. It might surprise you to hear but there are in fact 4 species of giraffe with a total of 9 subspecies. They are; Southern giraffe and it's 2 subspecies Angolan and South African giraffe; Northern giraffe with 3 subspecies Nubian, Kordofan and West African giraffe; Reticulated giraffe and Masai giraffe. Of these subspecies, 5 have decreased, 1 is stable and 3 are increasing shown from surveys over the last 30 years. The overall results are a 36-40% decline and shockingly for the Nubian giraffe, numbers have decreased by 95%. It is shocking how rapidly the numbers of giraffes are declining yet they are a species that many people are unaware of as being listed, 'vulnerable' on IUCN red list of threatened species. It is again because of human activity - notably poaching, war and habitat disturbance. The killing of Kordofan giraffes for a part of their tail in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is used for dowry as a gift from a man to his bride's father when asking to marry her. They may also be used as a sign of good luck. Illegal trade of the marrow of giraffes that is thought to cure AIDs is also a major issue, as is the killing of them for their meat due to the shear amount that one kill would provide.
A solution? Of course there is a solution, but this is difficult to establish due to these ongoing traditions and the need to make money by growing crops; reducing their habitat, or by the shooting and selling of giraffe parts. Habitat management in African, and major conservation efforts by zoos all over the world are in place to help prevent the extinction of this species. Previously in Niger in 1996, the West African giraffe had only 50 left in this country so strict poaching regulations, education about the species and an introduction of a 'micro loan' that allow them to put money towards business were put in place and by 2009, there had been a 400% increase in the population - absolutely incredible considering how close this subspecies came to extinction! This provides so much hope for their future and hopefully all African countries that have giraffes present can take this example and use in their own efforts for conservation. © As you've probably seen in the news, there has been a new orangutan species discovered to add to the Sumatran and Bornean orangutans! This is a really exciting discovery but brings about the importance of conservation because the 'new' Tapanuli orangutan is actually the rarest of the great ape species as there are only ~800 individuals living in a very small area - the Batang Toru Forest. So, how has it only just been discovered that there is an additional species? A recent case of an injured orangutan found in Tapanuli allowed the new species to be discovered. The injuries were more than likely due to a common case of inhumanity by humans, as cuts were found over his body and air rifle pellets inside. The poor thing unfortunately died and so a full examination of the body was completed and significant differences in skull shape were found.
Before their genomes were sequenced, it was thought that the Tapanuli orangutans were actually just the Sumatran species. But now, we understand them to be more closely related to the Bornean orangutan (Strange, right?) and they are the oldest species of orangutan. So we think that the Tapanuli species colonised Sumatra first and eventually they split into 2 groups as some individuals moved to the North. Some of the original population of the Tapanuli then travelled to Borneo (simple because there wasn't a sea separating them at the time). There was also a volcanic eruption which destroyed surrounding forest, and caused the Tapanuli and Sumatran species to become physically separated. Over evolutionary time, these have now become three entirely different species. It is so, so important that we preserve the existence of these species - all 3 of them. But because we humans so badly desire more than what we already have, we have been destroying the habitats of the orangutan by building roads that can isolate them and killing them because of crop conflict or by deforestation. We hear so much about these kinds of things yet nobody ever seems to make a stance strong enough to stop a road being built or more likely, because humans are a danger to the planet and they just don't seem to care. Furthermore, illegal orangutan trade is a major issue because so many people think they'd make an adorable pet to show off to their friends when they're babies but they are not a pet for a reason - they grow huge. They then tend to get abandoned or are used in entertainment - boxing matches or forced to drink alcohol or smoke (absolutely sickening, I know). Simply put, it's torture. I was lucky enough to see a fantastic sanctuary for orangutans (Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre) whilst I was in Borneo where they have an environment as close to the wild as possible so that they can eventually be re-released when they are ready. It makes you realise how very desperate we are for more caring people like this to help our wildlife! © |
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