Rainforest & Wolves!

Rainforest

I have chosen the Rainforests of Atsinanana to write about, which comprise six National Parks distributed along the eastern part of Madagascar.  Madagascar geologically separated from Africa about 60 million years ago, so plant and animal life has evolved in isolation.  The rainforests are important to both the ecological and biological processes as well as to their biodiversity and the threatened species they support.  Rainforests generally have an abundance of plants and animals due to their tropical climate and the forest canopy.   Three-quarters of the animals of Madagascar can be found nowhere else in the world, among the most unusual rain forest creatures on the island are the various types of lemurs. The Madagascar tops the list as home to the most threatened primates.  In particular the lemurs are now one of the world’s most endangered groups of mammals.   An incredible 91 percent of the world’s lemurs (out of 103 species and subspecies) are currently classified as threatened with extinction by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List.  Madagascar is also the home to about half the world’s 150 or so species of chameleons.  This chameleon community is not only the world’s largest; it is also the world’s most unique, with 59 different species existing nowhere outside of Madagascar.  

Madagascar’s lowland rainforests have been preserved generally better than the high central plateau, presumable due to historically less population density and longer distance to the capital city via marginal highway.  There has been widespread slash-and-burn activity in the lowland rainforests, together with illegal logging, reducing certain forest habitat and applying pressure to some endangered species.  Slash-and-burn is a method sometimes used by shifting cultivators to create short term yields from marginal soils.  When practiced repeatedly, or without intervening fallow periods, the nutrient poor soils may be exhausted or eroded to an unproductive state.  These habitat loss impacts are especially significant because of the inherent biodiversity and high endemism of these rainforests.  It is estimated that only a third of the original lowland forest remains intact.  Seven percent of the lowland forests that remain are protected in national parks and reserves

Opposing View to Wolf Re-introduction

In 1914 the U.S. Biological Survey was founded and federally funded, with their main goal being to eradicate the wolves in Yellowstone National Park and surrounding areas.  By 1926 the last two wolves in Yellowstone were shot and it is documented that the wolves were almost wholly eliminated from all of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho by 1927.   By 1935, biologists were reporting an imbalance in the ecosystem, thus creating the need for “Wildlife Management”.   As a result of the removal of the wolf, overpopulation of the elk was causing a significant decline in the new growth of native plants and trees, and this, in turn, was causing erosion and a population reduction in birds, beavers etc.  In 1966 wolf reintroduction was presented to Congress by biologists and after much controversy, in 1995 wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone.

Of course, not everyone missed the wolves.  Hard working livestock owners, battled one less obstacle, and hunters loved the new abundance of game animals.  Paradise Valley in Montana became an elk hunting mecca.  Now recent opinion seems to be that the wolf population has recovered to the point that they, like other wildlife, need to be “managed”.  These scientists admit that wolves have had a minimal impact on the elk populations.  Overall, a mess was created when we took it upon ourselves to “manage” Mother Nature.