Where the Wild Things Go … When There's Nowhere Else

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130228155757.htm

February 28^th, 2013

Recently, ecologists have found that some endangered species, especially primates and large cats, have found shelter from human disruption in mangrove and peat swamp forests. These biomes are located in the coastal regions of tropical areas within Africa and Asia. The mangroves are characterized by thick vegetation, trees adapted to growing in salt-water and a wet, swampy forest floor scattered with layers of fallen leaves, dead branches and logs. Humans are relatively uninterested in mangroves, which provide animals facing extinction a place to seek shelter from humans.

Katarzyna Nowak, an ecologist and evolutionary biologist at Princeton University, created a list that consisted of 60 primates and 20 felids (large-cats) that were found to distribute their time between their natural habitat and swamp forests in Africa and Asia. The list included tigers, which are currently facing extinction with only 3200 tigers predicted to be alive today.

One problem that some of the animals seeking refuge in these swamps may come across is the lack of freshwater and food sources. Some animals also lack mobility in these forests since few mammals are actually adapted specially to survive in these environments. There are however few species of cat who are accustomed to fishing as well as crab eating macaques. These species may be better accustomed to surviving in the swamp forests.

Research has shown that in fact 55% of the Old World monkeys, such as baboons and macaques, either live in the mangroves all year round, seasonally, or whenever they need to seek shelter. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society, in 2008 a staggering 125,000 lowland gorillas were found to be living in the swamp forests of Lake Tele, Republic of Congo. This population of gorillas found was larger than was thought to exist in the wild. Lake Tele is extremely remote and is therefore somewhat inaccessible. As well as gorillas, the Bengal tiger also lives solely in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world located in Bangladesh.

I personally believe that it is quite horrible that we have forced certain species to abandon their natural habitats due to increasing pressure caused by human overexploitation of these species and their respectful resources. It is however relieving to know that many of these species are able to survive in the mangroves and avoid extinction such as the lowland gorillas in Lake Tele. I chose this article because it goes hand-in-hand with the topic of loss and maintenance of  biodiversity in ecosystems.