Other less well known species make their homes at Safari West, and many of these are on the list as well. Did you know for instance, that every lemur species on the planet has made the list? The famous ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) qualify as “Endangered”. While both our black and white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) and red ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra) sit in the “Critically Endangered” category. You’d never know it as you watch them frolic at the preserve, but these lemurs’ wild cousins are in crisis.

Bird Numbers in Decline

Alongside our big mammals, Safari West houses a large number of endangered birds as well. The hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus), like so many vulture species, teeters on the edge of extinction. “Critically Endangered”, hooded vultures have suffered from a variety of modern issues, ranging from expanding agriculture and its overuse of pesticides to inadvertent poisoning. The incredibly strong stomach acids of vultures can actually digest the lead ammunition left in the carcasses of many human-hunted animals. This very thing accounts in part for the decline of the magnificent California condor as well.

The Waldrapp ibis (Geronticus eremita)—which also looks a bit like a vulture though it isn’t—was until very recently classified as “Critically Endangered” as well. Ominous looking birds, they once ranged across much of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Over time, their numbers dwindled until only few widely scattered colonies remained. Enormous effort and energy has been expended trying to conserve this species and it appears to have paid off. Migratory by nature, Waldrapp ibises have begun to revisit some of their ancestral ground, showing up in places like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Turkey.

While Waldrapp numbers are still vanishingly small (only 200-250 mature individuals) the population has mostly stabilized, leading to reclassification in the fall of 2018 from “Critically Endangered” back up to “Endangered”. A small victory to be sure but in the fight for wildlife conservation, we treasure victories of any sort.

Struggles in the Sahara

Alongside the Waldrapp ibis many North African species face an uncertain future. Many of our most endangered mammals hail from the same arid region. The Sahara desert is among the most inhospitable regions on the planet. Species that thrive there are by their very nature, desert specialists. Specialists tend to have a tough time adapting to rapid change. Things like urban sprawl, oil exploration, expanding roadways, and war have all had a major impact on these desert species.

The beautiful scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) falls under the direst of classifications: “Extinct in the Wild*”. Wild scimitars have not been seen since the late 1980’s and the species survives solely in human-managed care. It’s worth pointing out that classification nearly always lags behind the reality on the ground. Counting animals in the wild is hard and proving extinction even harder. Although the last wild scimitar disappeared around 1989, the “Critically Endangered” classification persisted for a decade before they were finally recognized as “Extinct in the Wild*”.

The addax (Addax nasomaculatus), a spiral-horned antelope from the same Saharan region falls under the “Critically Endangered” classification. While the official estimate puts their population at around 100 individuals, some suspect that like the scimitar, the addax may already have gone extinct in the wild as well.

Reason to Hope

Extinct means extinct and extinct is forever. But “Extinct in the Wild” means we still have a chance. Thanks to places like Safari West, conservation facilities that care for and propagate human-managed populations, sometimes we can come back. In the decades since the scimitar-horned oryx disappeared from North Africa, herds of these animals have thrived in zoos, wildlife parks, and conservation breeding facilities across the globe. Just within the last few years, a massive cooperative program has begun to slowly reintroduce these animals to their ancestral home. This reintroduction program gives us reason to hope. While we may have lost the dodo, the stellar sea cow, and the passenger pigeon, perhaps we don’t have to lose these species.

We should be encouraged by the scimitar reintroduction program, by the upgraded classification of the Waldrapp. We should continue to work to find ways to live less impactful lives. To pursue balance with our environment. To give as much as we take. On Endangered Species Day, we want to take a moment to look honestly at the situation faced by so many species and ecosystems. But we don’t want to let it discourage us. There are still ways to conserve what’s left. Still ways to build a better tomorrow.

Thank you for supporting Safari West and all the other facilities and programs like us. And thank you for joining us and commemorating this Endangered Species Day.

*as of 2023, the status of the scimitar-horned oryx is now Endangered, which is a huge victory for the conservation and survival of this species!

The post Endangered Species Day 2019 appeared first on Safari West.

The goal of Conservation Corner has always been to introduce readers to topics and ideas that aren’t yet part of the national discourse. We want to illuminate ongoing issues in the world and hopefully, incite some critical thinking and discussion on these topics. When it comes to conservation, progress only takes place when demanded by an informed public.

To that end, we try to cover a broad spectrum of topics. While we often write about specific events such as the death of Nola the white rhinoceros, we’ve also been known to delve into the more esoteric fare, like migratory adaptation. Regardless of the topic, we always try to drive the conversation deeper and to explore the broader ramifications of the concept under discussion.

The death of Nola was perhaps the biggest news item so far covered by Conservation Corner. When she passed away at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the number of northern white rhinos left on the planet was reduced to three. The story blew up online and on TV for all the usual reasons; it was dramatic, it was traumatic, and it illuminated a gigantic and obvious conservation problem. People responded in droves and that can only be counted as a win for the forces of wildlife conservation.

In our coverage of the loss of this beautiful animal, we tried to refrain from focusing on the depressing and macabre and instead investigated what her species’ decline had meant for the particular ecosystem.

That article led directly to our opening piece of 2016, entitled “Settling for Second: The Evolutionary Cost of Trophy Hunting”. This piece focused on a frequently unnoticed side-effect of human hunting. While it’s well-documented that such pressures can eliminate a species (as seen in the dodo, Stellar’s sea cow, and others). What has been largely ignored is the effect it can have even on well-managed target populations; such as those of bighorn sheep or mule deer. Whereas standard predatory practice targets the old, the sick, and the weak thereby weeding out undesirable genetic traits, trophy hunting specifically targets idealized specimens. This has the side-effect of leaving less-qualified individuals to reproduce and carry on the species.

From there we covered another topic related to anthropogenic over-hunting; a novel reintroduction project enacted by the Sahara Conservation Fund and their partners, Environment Abu Dhabi, and the Government of Chad. This ambitious project aims to reintroduce into the deserts of Chad, a species of antelope that has been extinct in the wild for nearly three decades. The scimitar-horned oryx (which roam in the habitats here at Safari West) is one of the many victims of unrestricted human hunting discussed above. Luckily, forward-thinking conservationists were able to establish functional captive breeding programs before the last wild individual was shot in 1989. Thanks to that foresight and the ongoing work done by so many, including our own hoofstock keepers, the species is now getting a second chance to thrive in their natural habitat.

This is not to say, however, that the re-wilded scimitars are being released into an Edenic, human-free environment. Quite the opposite in fact. They will be competing for resources with domesticated goats and cattle. They will need to contend with roadways and vehicles. Undoubtedly, hunters, human and otherwise, will also be a concern.

We explored this intersection of humanity and our wild neighbors deeper in a piece focused on the ways in which animals are adapting to us. In the long history of this planet, life has always had to evolve to deal with challenges; climate change, sea level rise and fall, the invasion of novel species, and natural disasters galore. While the ubiquity and industry of the human species may be unprecedented in nature, life appears to be up to the challenge.

In that article, we focused primarily on the fascinating and mysterious monarch butterfly. This world-famous pollinator makes the longest migration of any insect species, traveling up and down the United States; from the border of Canada to the forests of northern Mexico. Although they’ve always been forced to fly around the Gulf of Mexico—sticking doggedly to the coastlines along the way—they’ve recently begun to make surprising use of offshore oil rigs. Normally a symbol of environmental exploitation and degradation, these machines of industry are increasingly becoming stopover points, allowing millions of delicate but determined butterflies to rest their weary wings as they make the arduous trip south.

Discussion of this migration must’ve stuck in our minds because the very next edition of Conservation Corner furthered the discussion. Dovetailing into the centennial of the National Parks Service, we discussed their incredible success at protecting specific areas of the wilderness and the sedentary species that make their homes there. What the park system has been less successful at is creating safe havens for migratory animals like the monarch. Their focus as they move into their second century is centered on how to address the needs of migrating birds, pronghorn antelope, salmon, butterflies, and more.

The National Park Service is one of the world leaders in human management of the ecosystem, but the example they’ve set is being followed by others. The Pepperwood Preserve—Safari West’s neighbor to the east—is among those pioneering forces. Earlier this year they held a prescribed burn. They intentionally set fire to a portion of their vast acreage. This technique is increasingly used to reduce the potential for wildfires across the world, but Pepperwood’s experiment had a different aim. They were hoping to reduce the spread of an invasive grass. Medusahead grass has exploded beyond its original range and continues to flood into novel environments at an alarming rate. The Pepperwood experiment is part of an increasing trend toward utilizing natural processes rather than synthetic ones—like toxic herbicides—to help control and restrict environmentally destabilizing invasive species.

Ecosystem engineering of this sort is looking more and more like it will be a necessity in the world of tomorrow and further exploration of the idea lead us to explore the kind of bioengineering that takes place even without our intent. We looked into how species like beavers can transform an entire forest with their teeth and tails as effectively as we can with chainsaw and bulldozers. This exploration revealed how ecosystems that have adapted to the activity of bioengineers like beavers suffer at their loss, whereas ecosystems that experience novel engineering, such as that so frequently brought about by human industry, tend to suffer.

Tying into this idea of environmental resilience, we then discussed invasive species more directly. Invasive species have become one of the largest conservation issues dealt with by facilities like Safari West. The term “invasive species” is one that has established itself in the common discourse and is familiar to any farmer, rancher, any boater, or any traveler who’s crossed a state line. They’ve become the boogeymen of modern conservationist thought which is a bit of a mixed blessing. While public awareness of the problems of invasive is by all accounts a good thing, the underlying fact is that invasive species are also critical to the process of evolution. Ecosystems are by their very nature dynamic and novel influences help keep populations healthy and strong. To an extent. In isolated ecosystems like those found on many islands, the much slower pace of invasion leaves them vulnerable to extreme disruption when something new appears. As with the bioengineering article, our exploration of invasive species revealed a concept in which frequency or intensity made the difference between what is a stabilizing influence, and what is catastrophically destabilizing.

That article brought us into back-to-school season and so we came out of the deep weeds on conservation philosophy and presented a targeted piece that aspired to illuminate the vast and growing problem of rampant consumerism. We now live in a culture that constantly tells us that every occasion requires a purchase and that last year’s model can’t compare to this year’s. In a world of more frequent buying, products must be cheaper and more disposable. This leads inevitably to exploding waste, primarily of cheap and easy to produce plastics.

Ecosystems may be able to adapt to a novel species in their midst, but thus far, no system has come up with a cure for plastics. Plastic polymers persist almost eternally, don’t biodegrade, and are detrimental to virtually all forms of life. We are filling our planet with plastics and most of the human race is so far unaware that there’s a problem.

The last two articles of the year continued the theme of illuminating largely invisible problems. The first piece focused on palm oil; an ingredient nearly as ubiquitous as plastic and one which has an equally detrimental impact. The oil palm is an amazing plant that produces—quite efficiently—a product which has found use in everything from food to cosmetics. Many studies have suggested that over fifty percent of all products on store shelves contain palm oil derivatives. The problem with palm oil is that it grows best in the same places that tropical rain forests do and coincidentally, those tend to be the very same locales that have the least amount of legal protection. The high and growing demand for palm oil has led to unrestrained deforestation on an apocalyptic scale. Slash-and-burn land clearing techniques and unrestricted persecution of local wildlife has led to precipitous declines in hundreds of irreplaceable species like orangutans, Sumatran rhinos, and elephants. Luckily, there is progress even on this front and it is now easier than ever to track you palm oil usage and direct your dollars toward companies that supply it sustainably.

The most recent issue of Conservation Corner focused on yet another widely unknown but absolutely critical conservation issue; that of our seafood supply. Fish arrive in our supermarkets daily and almost none of us question where they come from. The oceans are vast and fished by massive fleets representing hundreds of nations. The difficulties in regulation, the loopholes in labeling, and a complete and utter lack of transparency have all helped to lead us where we are today. Worldwide, fishing stocks have been depleted by anywhere from seventy to ninety percent. Our oceans are becoming deserts and the vast majority of us don’t even know there’s a problem.

Over the last year, we’ve covered a long list of topics that range from land to sea, and from practical to philosophical. We’ve made an effort to be illuminating rather than depressing and to offer solutions wherever possible. As we close out this year, and in case we failed in that goal, I’d like to point out a few of the bright rays of hope that have 2016 shine.

Safari West became partners with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program. This program is one of the leaders in combating the issues with our seafood supply. Simply by downloading their app onto your phone, you become instantly equipped to make informed choices in your seafood purchases, whether in a restaurant or at the grocery store. Experience has shown again and again that industry follows the money. If we’re buying sustainable supplied products, they will shift to capitalize on that trend.

On a similar note, the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has an app that accomplishes the same thing with palm oil. The app includes a barcode scanner that will tell you at a glance whether the ice cream in your hand is produced by a member of the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil. It’s a great tool for identifying sustainability-minded companies that you may want to support.

This was also a year which saw the meeting of nearly two-hundred nations in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss and regulate trade in endangered species. This conference of parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) not only shut down several proposals to re-legalize trade in ivory and rhino horn, but also established new protections for many species including elephants, rhinos, pangolins, and numerous species of sharks and rays. The conference was a big step forward for many endangered species and ecosystems.

Lastly, I want to take a moment to mention some of the practical things that have been accomplished right here at Safari West. We updated the plumbing system throughout our luxury tent camp. While this update in no way impacted guest experience, it did reroute all gray water (water draining from sinks and showers) to be used in our landscaping. Thousands of gallons that would otherwise have drained away wastefully are now being put to use among our vegetation. In a state stricken by drought, this is a valuable conservation action.

We’ve also initiated a brand new wildlife monitoring project. Our habitats aren’t only home to our exotic collection, but also to all manner of local wildlife. At Safari West our safari guides and keeper regularly encounter hawks, vultures, snakes, turtles, deer, otters, and countless other member species of the Mayacamas Mountains biome. This wildlife monitoring program will help us to better understand how these species are adapting to our presence and how to make the environment of Safari West more welcoming to them.

As we close out this chapter and begin the next, it is with a palpable sense of excitement and motivation. Many challenges await—both those we know about and the inevitable surprises waiting in the wings—but every year, our species gets smarter and more ambitious. We figure out what we’re doing right and how to correct what we’re doing wrong. We continue to improve our ability to live effectively within our ecosystems, rather than struggling to dominate them. Progress is being made and it’s thanks to people like you. We at Conservation Corner thank you for your support throughout this year and we look forward to working with you to make the next one even better.

Happy Holidays to you and a very Happy New Year!

The post Conservation Corner: Looking Back, Moving Forward appeared first on Safari West.

Among the 800 or so animals making their home at Safari West, you can find seven beautiful scimitar horned oryxes. The scimitar horned oryx is an incredible desert antelope. Typically white in color with sandy colored necks and incredibly long, backward curving horns, the scimitars are startling on first look. Some estimates claim that there were once over a million scimitar horned oryx ranging across North Africa. A sad convergence of factors drove the oryx from that population high to the point of eradication. Resources are limited in the desert and so the oryx proved especially vulnerable to competition with livestock and the constant encroachment of human habitation. These beautiful antelope have also been hunted extensively. Historically they were hunted as a food source, a fact which makes a great deal of sense as they are a large, heavy-bodied antelope occurring in an area otherwise mostly devoid of protein sources. In modern times, they’ve also been targeted as trophy animals. One look at the graceful curve of those long slender horns should give a clue as to why.

The combination of these factors led to a string of localized extinctions. By the end of the 1800s, the oryx was extirpated from Egypt. Shortly thereafter they disappeared from Senegal and Burkina Faso. The belief is that the very last wild scimitar horned oryx was shot in Chad in 1998. In the year 2000, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the scimitar horned oryx extinct in the wild.

In the 16 years since then, places like Safari West have done what we can to keep the captive members of the species healthy and successfully breeding while outfits like the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF), the Zoological Society of London, and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), have worked at finding ways to re-establish wild populations.

The Sahara Conservation Fund may sound familiar to you. If you happened to visit Safari West last fall, you’ll have wandered through our conservation pumpkin patch where our hoofstock department raised funds for the SCF. The fund has been doing incredible work for years including a partial introduction of scimitars in Tunisia. Starting in March, however, conservation efforts surrounding the scimitar horned oryx are stepping up to a whole new level.

Historically, reintroducing extinct species has been a complex and frustrating endeavor. Typically these efforts amount to limited introductions in fenced off reserves encapsulating fairly small areas. For example, a previous introduction project involved releasing 8 scimitars into the North Ferlo Wildlife Reserve in Senegal. The population grew to 120 animals over the course of a decade. An impressive recovery to be sure. It is important however to bear in mind that the Ferlo reserve is only 3,000 acres in area and is entirely fenced and patrolled. The scimitars making their home in the Ferlo reserve are protected from human interaction and any interloping cattle or sheep are quickly escorted off the premises. Not only that, but the vegetation in Ferlo is significantly different from what can be found beyond the fences. If the scimitars were to cross the fence line, they’d find themselves competing with millions of cows, sheep, and goats for a much more restricted supply of nutrition.

The Senegalese scimitar reintroduction project (as well as similar projects in Morocco and Tunisia) has been successful but with severe caveats. These populations do not qualify as truly wild and are most definitely managed by humans even if their interaction with their managers is limited. These reserves are in many ways Safari West writ large.

Beginning in March, the government of Chad, in concert with SCF and EAD will begin a grand experiment. They have selected the Ouadi Rime-Ouadi Achim Game Reserve in central Chad as the new home for 500 captive-bred scimitar horned oryx from Abu Dhabi. This reserve spans nearly 19-million acres as opposed to Ferlo’s 3,000. Not only that, but it is unfenced and straddles the oryx’s historical range in the Sahel grasslands. This area is large enough that the oryx will be able to engage in more natural behaviors than are possible in fenced reserves. In part, this means that the highly nomadic and migratory species will finally regain the ability to truly stretch their legs.

SCF and the Chadian government will not release all 500 animals en masse. They are beginning with a small population, 25 individuals to start, and at the outset there will be temporary fencing in place. This will help protect and contain the animals as they acclimate to their new home. As the animals acclimatize, the fences will expand to encompass new territory and with time, will disappear altogether. When that happens, the Chadian population of scimitar horned oryx will become the first wild population the planet has seen in nearly two decades.

This is a huge reason to celebrate. It’s not often that we get to see extinction run in reverse and a species on the edge begin to regain a toehold. Beyond the excitement for the species in question, there is also a great deal of evidence that these animals will have a beneficial impact on the ecosystem. This has been the case with wolf reintroductions in Yellowstone. Ecosystems tend to be thrown out of balance when pieces of them are lost and re-balanced to some extent when they are returned.

But is that the whole story? It’s important to note that the success of this project is in no way guaranteed. There have been reintroductions in the past that were less than successful. The Arabian oryx was once incredibly endangered to the point that it too was considered extinct in the wild. A successful reintroduction of the species in Oman eventually collapsed as the species suffered untenable pressure from poachers. The few remaining individuals had to be recaptured and relocated. Luckily for the Arabian oryx, reintroductions in other parts of the Middle East saw better results and on the whole the population has now recovered to the point of being classified as “vulnerable”.

Likewise, the Northern Bald Ibis (5 of which make their home at Safari West) has been making a bit of a comeback of late. The last wild population of these mid-sized black birds has rebounded in the last year or so. Though their numbers are climbing, this Morocco based population doesn’t migrate as it once did. Likewise, a satellite population in Yemen is captured each year to prevent them from migrating, mainly because the birds don’t often survive the trip. They simply encounter too many obstacles, some man-made, some natural along the way.

The question has to be asked, at what point does it no longer make sense to expect a species to compete with humanity when the scales are so heavily weighted? We like the idea of these animals existing in a wild state. They have a documented impact on the welfare of the environment, and the environment has a direct impact on us. On the other hand, even the wilds of Ouadi Rime-Ouadi Achim are no longer truly wild. A pre-release survey study noted that vegetative cover was diminished in the west of the park, an area in which the survey team had the most encounters with domestic livestock. Markus Gusset, chief conservation officer at the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums made this concession in a discussion with PBS;

“Every ecosystem on earth is somehow impacted by human activities and most wildlife populations will need to be managed in the future.”

At some point, what we are doing is not bringing back an animal to an ecosystem from which it’s been lost, but introducing a novel organism into an ecosystem to which it no longer belongs. The scimitar horned oryx reintroduction in Chad presents a remarkable and unprecedented opportunity to find out whether or not we’ve crossed that line.

The post Conservation Corner: Stepping Back from Extinction appeared first on Safari West.

The scimitar-horned oryx is a truly fascinating antelope for reasons beyond its extreme scarcity. For one, it is among the most well-adapted animals for the desert living. True desert nomads, wild scimitars will traverse tremendous distances in search of scrubby desert grasses and shrubs. They are only able to make these extended treks through the Sahara by carefully conserving their water supply. Incredible adaptations like specialized kidneys that severely restrict urinary water loss and an ability to allow their body temperature rise to 116-degrees before perspiring let these animals go weeks or even months between drinks.

Those beautiful scimitar-shaped horns of theirs are another tremendous adaptation. Not just for looks, those horns also help the animal keep cool. As the desert temperatures rise and their body temperatures creep up to the point of water-expensive perspiration, the scimitar-horned oryx pumps its increasingly hot blood up into those long slender horns where the heat radiates out into the environment. The mechanism is not unlike what a radiator accomplishes in our cars and keeps the animal from overheating.

Our own herd of scimitar-horned oryx numbers seven animals; not a large number to be sure, but compared to the zero that exists in the wild it’s huge. Come visit us and take in the incredibly rare sight of our healthy herd right here in (thankfully) temperate Sonoma County. If you find them as fascinating as we do, stop by our Conservation Pumpkin Patch on the way out and learn something about the Sahara Conservation Fund, an incredible organization we are supporting who have begun to take the first steps toward reintroducing these animals to the wild and pulling them back from the brink of true extinction.

The post Safari Spotlight: The Scimitar Horned Oryx appeared first on Safari West.