reptiles

Tick-Borne Pathogens In Canada | Earth Wise

December 27, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Measuring only three to five millimeters in size, tiny ticks are a big problem. They are widely distributed in many parts of the world, especially in warm and humid climates. Ticks are arachnids – not insects – meaning they’re more closely related to spiders than to flies or mosquitos. They are external parasites that feast on the blood of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – including humans.

In the United States, ticks are responsible for spreading potentially life-threatening infectious diseases. According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ticks infect more than 300,000 people with Lyme disease in the U.S. every year, and the numbers continue to rise. Other common tick-borne diseases include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and powassan encephalitis.

Ticks are becoming a problem in Canada as well. According to a new study by researchers from McGill University and the University of Ottawa, tick-borne pathogens are on the rise in Central Canada – a region where ticks were never previously detected.

In the study, the researchers collected ticks across Ontario and Quebec. They found that five emerging pathogens were present across their study sites, including the pathogens that cause Lyme disease and babesiosis. The researchers also found that pathogens can transmit in different ways. Typically, pathogens are transmitted to a tick after feeding from the blood of an infected host, like a small mammal. But the research team found evidence of pathogens that could be directly transmitted from adult female ticks to larval ticks.

According to the researchers, more comprehensive testing and tracking is needed to detect the spread and risks of tick-borne pathogens to humans and wildlife in Canada.

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Tick-borne pathogens increasingly widespread in Central Canada

Photo, posted May 4, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Kirkhart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

The Living Planet Index | Earth Wise

November 22, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London recently published the latest Living Planet Index, which is designed to measure how animal populations are changing through time. The purpose is to provide an assessment of the health of ecosystems and the state of biodiversity.

The LPI only looks at the population of vertebrates: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. The latest survey looked at how populations have changed between 1970 and 2018. The results are that populations of these animal groups have declined by an average of 69% over that 48-year period.

This result highlights a very real and very severe crisis of biodiversity loss. However, it does not mean that there are 2/3 fewer animals today than 48 years ago. The way the index is calculated is to look at the changes in individual populations of over 5,000 different species. Then these individual relative declines are averaged to get the result.

There are shortcomings in the LPI. For example, individual species that have seen massive population declines will bring the average down. But even removing the outliers both of a negative and a positive impact does not dramatically change the result.

There is no perfect indicator for biodiversity and ecosystem health. The Living Planet Index is nonetheless a useful metric and indicates that many species around the world are in decline. Policymakers and environmental advocates need to make decisions about conservation and protection measures and this index is one tool they can use.

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There’s a frightening new report about wildlife declines. But many are getting the story wrong.

Photo, posted October 12, 2019, courtesy of Visit Rwanda via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Declining Flying Insects | Earth Wise

June 30, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the global decline in insect abundance. A recently published survey of the abundance of flying insects in the UK has revealed very troubling results.

The Kent Wildlife Trust and Buglife – two UK-based conservation groups – compared the number of dead insects on vehicles in 2004 and 2021. In this Bugs Matter Citizen Science Survey, the data was collected by roughly 20,000 ordinary citizens using a smartphone app.

The results were that the number of flying insects in Britain dropped nearly 60% over that time period. The insects declined most in England and Wales, with drops of 65% and 55%, respectively.

It is possible that 2004 was a particularly good year for British insects and 2021 an especially bad one, but the findings of this study are consistent with other research around the world showing an alarming decline in insects. A series of studies in 2019 found that the global mass of insects is shrinking by 2.5% a year and that insects are going extinct eight times faster than reptiles, birds, or mammals.

Insects face multiple overlapping threats including the destruction of wild habitats for farming, urbanization, pesticides, and light pollution. On top of these things is climate change which is disrupting ecosystems in multiple ways.

Insects play a vital role in pollinating crops, consuming organic waste, killing pests, and as essential parts of multiple ecosystems. Severe insect declines can potentially have dire global ecological and economic consequences.

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Flying Insects Have Declined by 60 Percent in the U.K., Survey Finds

Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts

Photo, posted May 6, 2007, courtesy of Richard Giddins via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Global Decline In Wildlife | Earth Wise

October 14, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new report released by the World Wildlife Fund, global populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish have declined by 68% in less than half a century.

The report presents a comprehensive overview of the state of the natural world based on the tracking of almost 21,000 populations of more than 4,000 vertebrate species between 1970 and 2016.

The report shows that the main cause of the dramatic decline in species populations on land is habitat loss and degradation, which includes deforestation driven by food production. Additional factors include land-use change and the use and trade of wildlife.

Wildlife populations found in freshwater habitats have suffered a decline of 84%, which is the steepest decline in any biome.

Insect populations have declined rapidly in many places, but most of the information about insects comes from a small number of countries in the northern hemisphere. There is very little information from large parts of the world, such as Africa, South America, and Asia, where land-use change and agricultural expansion are happening fast. What happens to insects matters a lot to humanity. Insects play central roles in the world’s ecosystems as waste processors, pollinators, predators, and prey.

The report is clear evidence of the damage human activity is doing to the natural world. Threats to the integrity of ecosystems endanger humans and all of nature. This is especially apparent in the midst of a global pandemic. It is now more important than ever to take coordinated global action to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity and wildlife populations across the globe.

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Living Planet Report reveals 68% decline in global wildlife populations since 1970

Photo, posted May 7, 2020, courtesy of Bernard Spragg via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The United States And Ticks | Earth Wise

July 21, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Tiny ticks are a big problem. Measuring only three to five millimeters in size, ticks are widely distributed around the world. They are external parasites, feasting on the blood of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – including humans.

According to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ticks infect more than 300,000 people with Lyme disease in the United States every year, and the numbers continue to rise. Other common tick-borne diseases include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and powassan encephalitis.

But while the prevalence of tick-borne illnesses has steadily increased in the United States over the past two decades, a new study on tick surveillance and control “has revealed an inconsistent and often under-supported patchwork of programs across the country.”

The study, by university researchers at the CDC’s five Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence, is the first-ever examination of tick management programs in the United States. The researchers found clear gaps in our public health infrastructure.

According to the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Medical Entomology, less than 50% of public health and vector-control agencies conduct tick surveillance. Only 25% test ticks for disease-causing germs. And only 12% conduct or support tick-control efforts. Researchers also discovered that the capacity for public tick-control efforts is low, as is the capacity for information and data sharing between agencies on ticks.

The findings highlight the degree to which tick surveillance and control is lagging in the United States. According to the research team, greater support for tick-management programs is critical, and they hope their findings will serve as a baseline from which to measure future improvements.

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Tick surveillance and control lagging in US

Photo, posted May 4, 2009, courtesy of Jerry Kirkhart via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Decline Of Earth’s Largest Freshwater Creatures

September 23, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

While nearly 70% of the globe is covered by water, only 2.5% of it is freshwater. The rest is saline and ocean-based. And only 1% of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it locked away in snowfields and glaciers.

Despite freshwater only making up a small fraction of all water on the planet, it’s home to one third of all vertebrate species. Some have survived hundreds of millions of years, but many of the world’s largest freshwater creatures – including fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals – may soon find themselves on the brink of extinction.

According to a study recently published in the journal Global Change Biology, scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries and international colleagues have quantified the global decline of freshwater megafauna for the first time. In four decades since 1970, the global populations of these freshwater giants have declined 88% – twice as much as the loss of vertebrate populations on land or in the oceans.

Freshwater megafauna include all freshwater animals that weigh 30 kilograms (about 66 pounds) or more, such as certain dolphins, beavers, crocodiles, turtles and sturgeons.

Overexploitation is one of the main threats to freshwater megafauna. (These animals are often targeted for their meat, eggs, and skin). The other main threat is the loss of free-flowing rivers. Many of the world’s large rivers are already highly fragmented, which impacts access to spawning and feeding grounds. The research team says another 3700 large dams are planned or under construction, including 800 in habitats rich with freshwater megafauna, including the Amazon, Congo, and Ganges river basins.

Current conservation measures are clearly failing our freshwater creatures.

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88 percent decline of big freshwater animals

Earth’s largest freshwater creatures at risk of extinction

Photo, posted March 25, 2012, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Exotic Pets Can Become Problems

August 26, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Each year, millions of exotic animals are sold as pets around the world. The term “exotic” lacks a set definition but is generally used to refer to an animal that’s wild or more unusual than standard pets, like cats and dogs.

The exotic pet trade is a multi-billion dollar industry, involving tens of millions of individual animals from thousands of species, including reptiles, amphibians, fish, birds, and mammals.

Some of the exotic pet trade is legal, but a lot of it isn’t. Many animals are illegally captured from the wild to meet the global demand for exotic pets.

People often purchase exotic animals without completely understanding the consequences. Some exotic pets, for example, can live nearly twice as long as the average dog. Caring for exotic pets can be both expensive and risky, since they are largely undomesticated (and therefore can have unpredictable behavior).

As a result, it’s not uncommon for owners to release exotic pets intentionally. When this happens, the consequences can be catastrophic. Sometimes the animal dies from starvation or predation, but in other instances, the animal proliferates and becomes an invasive species.

Invasive species are the second largest driver of biodiversity loss worldwide, and they cost the U.S. $120 billion a year.

According to an academic review recently published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the exotic pet trade is one of the primary causes of the spread of invasive species and has fueled the establishment of hundreds of them. Tegus, Burmese pythons, and red lionfish are examples of pets-turned-pests.

The best way to combat this trend is through education, detection, and rapid response.

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Why you should never release exotic pets into the wild

Photo, posted September 19, 2010, courtesy of Mike Baird via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Humans And Vertebrate Mortality

April 9, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a new study, more than one-quarter of the planet’s land vertebrates die because of humans. This is a “disproportionately huge effect” on the other land vertebrates that share planet’s surface with us.

Researchers from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture reviewed 1,114 published studies in which nearly 43,000 animals had perished. Their study, which was recently published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, found that 28% of the animals’ deaths were directly attributable to humans. The other 72% died from natural sources.

Mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians that died between 1970 and 2018 in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania were the foundation of the study. All of these vertebrates had been either collared or tagged as part of other research projects.

The researchers point out that humans are only one among more than 35,000 species of terrestrial vertebrates globally. The fact that humans are responsible for more than one-quarter of their deaths illustrates the profound magnitude of the problem. And that statistic is just the direct causes. According to the researchers, when urban growth and other land use changes that erode habitat are considered, the human impact is likely even greater.

The study found that the impact of humans across all the different species was not equal. In fact, larger animals were more likely to be killed by humans than smaller animals. Adult animals were more likely to be killed by humans than juveniles.

The researchers conclude that humans are such a major contributor to terrestrial vertebrate mortality that they could potentially impact both evolutionary processes and ecosystem functioning.

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