Dams are damaging the conservation of the tiger

It is ironic that hydroelectric power through the building of dams is seen as ecologically friendly as they ostensibly help prevent global warming but at the same time they are ecologically damaging. This is because huge areas of tiger habitat are flooded. This removes habitat from the tiger. Habitat loss is the biggest problem in the conservation of the tiger. 

Dam on the Narmada River in India. Photo in public domain. You can see the tiger habitat around it.

There is constant pressure on tiger habitat which is being gradually destroyed. It is all about increased human activity including deforestation, the building of settlements, mining, the removal of forests to build plantations to create products to sell on the international market. The building of dams adds to that problem.

A study found that 164 dams affect the habitat of the jaguar and 421 dams have eroded tiger habitats. They say that one in five tigers are affected by dams. Tiger numbers are already precariously low at around 3500 total in the world, in the wild.

And as dams destroy forest, they are contributing to global warming because forests remove carbon dioxide from the air, a global warming gas. There are other issues. 

RELATED: 5 reasons why the tiger is endangered

Rivers pass through many countries. If the country at the top of the river, at the source, builds a dam countries further down don't get their water. And as human settlements increase there is more demand for water. Industrialisation creates an increased demand for water. 

There is a big problem building up along the Nile. There is a long-running dispute between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia over a massive hydroelectric dam which is at the heart of Ethiopia's manufacturing and industrial dreams.

RELATED: Indian Bengal Tiger Reserves

Note: This is a video from another website which is embedded here. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Tigers and jaguars need large areas in which to live. Their home ranges are enormous. Adult males in India can have home ranges 15 times larger than those of females. An female home ranges can be up to around 50 km². Arguably, India's reserves are already too small and they're being gradually eroded because of a continually increasing human population in India.

As human population grows there is a commensurate need for more energy, more power which puts pressure on governments to build more dams which in turn destroys tiger habitat at least potentially. It's a vicious cycle. It starts with human population growth. That is the root cause of pretty well all conservation problems.

Conservationists are going to have to try and compensate tigers for the loss of their habitat by providing additional protected areas. This is highly unlikely. Dams are contributing to the gradual and almost inevitable extinction of the tiger in the wild.

Human destruction of animals versus cat destruction of animals

This is going to be short because I don't have a lot of reference material on it but I would like to remind people that when humans criticise the feral and to a lesser extent the domestic cat for the destruction of native animal species, they are forgetting that humans destroy far more through their activities.

Humans destroy animals through habitat destruction and on a much lesser scale through the destruction of prey animals which support native species. There are three ways that humans destroy habitat. For the sake of clarity, I'm referring to the habitat in which wild animals live and without which they cannot live. The three ways are (1) exploitation of resources and (2) pollution and (3) the introduction of exotic species. Habitat destruction by humans is considered to be the most important cause of species extinctions in many studies.

Habitat destruction includes deforestation primarily. Many wild cat species live in forests and depend upon the forests. Across the globe there is massive deforestation. The island of Borneo was pretty much covered in forests but thousands of square miles have been erased over the last 50 years. The Borneo Bay cat lives in this forest. An elusive cat which is highly endangered now because of deforestation. That is just one example.

Bornean Bay Cat. Photograph copyright Jim Sanderson, Ph.D – Please respect copyright.

Other ways that humans have destroyed habitat is through water quality deterioration, drainage of wetlands, mining, agricultural use of prairies, and fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides all change the environment of a variety of bird habitat which led to declines in populations. I don't have hard data but these environmental changes negatively impact birds far more than feral cat predation.

And the experts say that it is "crucial to view cat predation within the context of habitat destruction, since cats have not been shown to be the primary cause of the loss of native species on mainland continents (Mead 1982; Mitchell and Beck 1992). MR Slater says that "unfortunately, evidence regarding extinction is often anecdotal, circumstantial or historical."

I am quoting from MR Slater's section in the book The Welfare of Cats. This section deals with the extinction of native species. It is highly relevant today because global warming is putting pressure on nature and the animals that live within it. Global warming is due to human activity but humans in reaction to that knowledge are reluctant to curb activities which create global warming and instead they criticise the feral cat in Australia for decimating wildlife species.  Humankind is myopic in respect of endangering wild species. Humankind wants to deflect attention away from their anti-conservation behavior.

And MR Slater states something which I like to read, and I'll say it again; habitat destruction by humans is the most important cause of species extinctions. It was and it is and it will be the major cause of the extinction of species because the world relies on economic growth. In relying on growth, you have to rely on increased population size and inevitably economic growth leads to the destruction of habitat.

Until politicians and economists totally adjust their ideal model for society which as stated is economic growth there will be more wild animal extinctions.

What is the African lion's habitat?

Often people see the African lion ambling across the well-known Serengeti plains of East Africa. The Serengeti has wooded grasslands and rolling short grass plains which is quite different from the lion's habitat over much of its distribution in Africa. In general, lions live in "woodlands, dry forest, scrub, and even deserts. Visibility is the common factor throughout the various habitat types; compared with tigers, jaguars, and leopards, lions are at home in more open areas". I have taken the liberty of quoting directly from the best book on the wild cat species: Wild Cats of the World.

This is Cecil the lion. He was famous as a Walter Palmer, an America dentist tried to kill him with a bow and arrow. He failed and hie guide finished the job. There was international uproar. It is etched in the minds of millions even today as a senseless act of mindless bloodlust. Photo in public domain. The background shows you the kind of habitat the lion enjoys.

Lions are adequate climbers but less good than some other wild cat species and they are primarily terrestrial in comparison to some wild cat species such as the margay which is very much an arboreal cat i.e. it lives in trees.

It may interest readers to know that the male lions of the Gir Forest in India patrol ranges of 100-400 km² while lionesses have home ranges of about 50 km². The size of the home range depends largely on the biomass of prey available during lean times. In the prey-rich Serengeti woodlands lion prides have home territories of about 65 km² whereas prides living on the planes require over 184 km² during lean times. To be clear, this is approximately a 30 km x 60 km area of land. You can see how large the required habitat is for an African lion.

Sainsbury's expansion versus hedgehog conservation

Sainsbury's, in Guildford, Surrey, UK, want to expand their facilities because they need to expand their online presence having discovered that Britain is moving towards an online purchasing world. Online purchasing has been spurred on by the coronavirus pandemic as we probably all realise by now. 

Sainsbury's Guildford surrounded by hedgehogs where there are hedgehogs. Map: Google Maps.

In order to accommodate a vastly increased online delivery service, Sainsbury's have placed an application with the local authority to demolish 67 trees in a designated green space next to its superstore. The place where these trees live is important for hedgehog conservation. And as the UK hedgehog population has fallen from 1.5 million in 1995 to 500,000 in 2018 there is added pressure on conservationist to protect this much love species of wild animal.

One of those people is Brian May, the Queen guitarist. He has accused Sainsbury's of chasing profits at the expense of wildlife conservation. Their plan includes tripling their capacity for online orders and groceries. Brian May said that the site was home to threatened hedgehogs, bats, bird species and insects. He argues that Sainsbury's have made enough profits during the pandemic and to approve such a planning application would have a devastating impact upon wildlife in the area. The supermarket chain is prosperous, surely they can find an alternative place to expand in to? That is part of Brian May's submission. Also, when Sainsbury's built the superstore at Guildford their planning application contained a mitigating argument that they would leave the woodland secure. Presumably they knocked down some of the woodland in order to build the superstore. This historical aspect of the application must go against them in their fresh application.

Andy Clapham, chairman of the local Burpham Community Association said that the area was one of the few locally where hedgehogs are often seen. And the land helps to shield houses from the superstore and its car park. Sainsbury's promised to replace the 67 trees with 300 plants and install stacked timber for wildlife to hibernate and supply bird-nesting and roosting boxes. They have commissioned a comprehensive ecological appraisal and taken steps to mitigate the wildlife damage that would be incurred if their application were approved. They argue that the application benefits the local community.

Comment: I have to comment. If you take this planning application in context of a world issue with respect to deforestation and the destruction of wildlife habitat by businesses across the planet, you have to be against Sainsbury's' application. As Brian May asks, why can't they find somewhere else? Okay, it will be less convenient but businesses will have to start accepting inconvenience in the interests of wildlife conservation and creating a better world for people to live in. There's going to be mass inconvenience by businesses going forward for the next hundred years if we are to curb global warming and take genuine steps and show genuine commitment towards the conservation of wild species. It is time that businesses took a far more ethical and sustainable approach when focusing on profits. Profits should not be at the expense of the natural world. Businesses should work with the natural world because there is money to be made from that attitude.

Andean Mountain Cat: Radio Telemetry

The Andean Cat Alliance are involved in trapping expeditions in north-west Argentina.  These expeditions started in 2011 (September).  The trapping campaigns have allowed this organisation, who are concerned with the conservation of this rare cat, to radio tag four Andean Mountain Cats and four Pampas cats. These cats live in the same area.

Despite the fact that there were technical difficulties, information from the radio collars is being collected providing details of the cats' movements and habitat use.

Initial information indicates that both these species of wild cat spend a lot of time in rocky outcrops but also much more time than was expected in open scrublands.

African Golden Cat Habitat

Forest, South Senegal, Casamance region
Photo by Manogamo

The habitat of the African golden cat is all types of tropical forest in equatorial Africa. This includes primary forest, secondary vegetation, logged forest, riverine forest, montane forest, alpine moorland and bamboo forest at 2-3,000 meters above sea level.

The photograph shows an area of south Senegal below The Gambia, a region that is the furthest west of the range of the African golden cat.

This species of wildcat prefers dense "moist secondary undergrowth" along rivers (1).

The African golden cat has a short tail and stocky build indicating that it is not a tree dweller. Long tails are used for balance. Accordingly this cat is a ground hunter.

Note:
(1) Wild Cats Of The World page 248 ISBN-13:978-0-226-77999-7