Friday, October 16, 2009

A Leader in Polar Bear Conservation

Polar Bear Conservation

WWF: A Leader in Polar Bear Conservation



A Push for Change for Polar Bears in 2009:
WWF launches a concerted push in 2009 for big conservation wins for polar bears, set firmly in the context of the battle against climate change.


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Common Name: Polar bear Ours blanc; ours polaire (Fr); Oso polar (Sp)
Scientific Name: Ursus maritimus
Habitat: Arctic
Location: Arctic (northern hemisphere)
Biogeographic realm: Nearctic and Palearctic

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Status
With 20-25,000 polar bears living in the wild, the species is not currently endangered, but its future is far from certain. In 1973, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway and the former U.S.S.R. signed the International Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears and their Habitat. This agreement restricts the hunting of polar bears and directs each nation to protect their habitats, but it does not protect the bears against the biggest man-made threat to their survival: climate change. If current warming trends continue unabated, scientists believe that polar bears will be vulnerable to extinction within the next century. WWF provides funding to field research by the world's foremost experts on polar bears to find out how climate change will affect the long-term status of polar bears. To learn more about the topic, read the WWF report Vanishing Kingdom: The Melting Realm of the Polar Bear . WWF's report,Polar Bears at Risk, provides a more detailed analysis.

Read more about World Wildlife Fund's work to stop climate change and help save polar bears.

More on the Ecology of the Polar Bear

Why is this species important?
Of all of the wildlife species in the Arctic, the polar bear is perhaps the most fitting icon for this ecoregion. Its amazing adaptations to life in the harsh Arctic environment and dependence on sea ice make them so impressive, and yet so vulnerable. Large carnivores are sensitive indicators of ecosystem health. Polar bears are studied to gain an understanding of what is happening throughout the Arctic as a polar bear at risk is often a sign of something wrong somewhere in the arctic marine ecosystem.

© Eunice K. Park

Visit the WWF Polar Bear Tracker to track the movements of polar bears and learn more about how warming and changes in sea ice affect the lives of polar bears over time.

As part of our work with the Norwegian Polar Institute, the bears have radio collars that track their positions via a satellite.


WWF works to:

  1. Fund field research by the world's foremost experts on polar bears to find out how climate change will affect the long-term condition of polar bears
  2. Work with governments, industry, and individuals to reduce GHG emissions and mitigate climate change
  3. Promote sustainable consumptive and non-consumptive use of polar bears that directly affect the species, such as hunting, poaching, industrial take, illegal trade, and unsustainable tourism
  4. Protect critical habitat including important movement corridors, and denning habitat
  5. Prevent or remove direct threats from industrial activity such as oil and gas development, and arctic shipping.

The actions we take include providing support for and communication of key science that will help us build resilience; engaging with indigenous/local communities to reduce human-wildlife conflicts and work towards sustainable development opportunities; and drafting and spearheading management solutions that address the major threats of climate change and industrialization of the Arctic.

Overview of Panthera tigris

Tiger

Overview

Common Name: Tiger; Tigre(Fr); Tigre(Sp)

Scientific Name: Panthera tigris spp

Population: Only around 4,000 tigers remain in the wild

Background


© WWF-Canon / Vladimir FILONOV

The tiger, largest of all cats, is one of the most charismatic and evocative species on Earth; it is also one of the most threatened. Less than 4,000 remain in the wild, most in isolated pockets spread across increasingly fragmented forests stretching from India to south-eastern China and from the Russian Far East to Sumatra, Indonesia.

Poisoned, trapped, snared, shot, captured...
Across its range, this magnificent animal is being persecuted. Today, tigers are poisoned, shot, trapped and snared, and the majority of these animals are sought to meet the demands of a continuing illegal wildlife trade - which includes traditional Chinese medicine.

Hunters, traders, and poor local residents whose main means of subsistence comes from the forest, are wiping out the tiger and the natural prey upon which it depends. While poaching for trade continues to menace the tiger's survival, perhaps the greatest long-term threats are the loss of habitat and the depletion of the tiger's natural prey. Large commercial plantations have replaced a lot of tiger habitat in several tropical range countries.

Three tiger subspecies are already extinct, and a fourth is on its way

Tiger Study


WWF in 2005 collaborated with other organizations on the most comprehensive scientific study of tiger habitats ever done. The study finds that tigers reside in 40 percent less habitat than they were thought to a decade ago and now occupy only seven percent of their historic range.

The study also finds that conservation efforts have resulted in some populations remaining stable and even increasing, but concludes that long-term success is only achieved where there is broad landscape-level conservation and buy-in from stakeholders.

Learn more.

In the past century, the world has lost three of the nine tiger subspecies. The Bali, Caspian, and Javan tigers have all become extinct ... and many scientists believe the South China tiger is “functionally extinct”.

Priority areas offer the best hope for tiger conservation
WWF's tiger conservation strategy and action plan -Conserving Tigers in the Wild: A WWF Framework Strategy for Action 2002-2010 - identifies seven focal tiger landscapes where the chances of long-term tiger conservation are best, and four additional areas where conservation opportunities are good.

In each of the focal landscapes, WWF aims to establish and manage effective tiger conservation areas, reduce the poaching of tigers and their prey, eliminate the trade in tiger parts and products, create incentives that will encourage local communities and others to support tiger conservation, and build capacity for tiger conservation.

Physical Description


© WWF-Canon / Martin HARVEY

The tiger is the largest of the Asian big cats and can be found in a wide range of habitats, from the evergreen and monsoon forests of the Indo-Malayan realm to the mixed coniferous-deciduous woodlands of the Russian Far East and the mangrove swamps of the Sundarbans, shared by India and Bangladesh.

The characteristic stripe patterns differ from one individual to another and from one side of the cat's body to the other. In fact, there are no tigers with identical markings. Males exhibit a characteristic ruff (lengthened hairs around the neck), which is especially marked in the Sumatran tiger.

Tigers are typically solitary hunters and prey mainly on deer and wild pig. Where this prey is in abundance, such as in Chitwan National Park in Nepal, territories range from 10 to 20km² for females and 30 to 70km² for males. In Russia, where the density of prey is much lower, territories vary in size from 200 to 400km² for females and 800 to 1,000km² for males.

Tigers have dens in caves, tree hollows and dense vegetation. They are mostly nocturnal but in the northern part of its range, the Siberian subspecies may also be active during the day at winter-time. Using their sight and hearing rather than smell, the tiger stalks its prey and once it has reached close proximity, attacks from the side or rear and kills by a bite to the neck or the back of the head.

Unless they die, tigers are never replaced on their range. Although individuals do not patrol their territories, the range is visited over a period of days or weeks and it is marked with urine and feces.

Size
Body length is 140-280 cm and tail length is 60 to 95 cm.

Colour
The upper part of the animal ranges from reddish orange to ochre, and the under parts are whitish. The body has a series of black striations of black to dark grey colour.

Habitat

Biogeographic realm
Indo-Malayan, Palearctic

Range States
Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Lao PDR, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea (few left), Russia (Far East), Thailand, Vietnam

Why is this species important?

Conservation Results


Four of WWF's priority regions are important for tiger conservation: Amur-Heilong, Borneo and Sumatra, Eastern Himalayas and Mekong.

Learn more.

The tiger is a powerful symbol of reverence among the variety of cultures that live across its range. They command respect, awe or fear from their human neighbours. Even in places where tigers have become extinct or never existed in the wild, they live in myth and legend.

As top predators, they keep populations of wild ungulates in check, thereby maintaining the balance between prey herbivores and the vegetation upon which they feed. A whole myriad of other life-forms are essential to support a healthy tiger population.

Interesting Facts

  • A tiger has been reported to cover up to 10 meters in a horizontal leap.
  • It is reported that at 11 months, juveniles are already capable of killing prey.
























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