Wildlife
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:
Hope rose for the endangered
Florida panther in late May when volunteers
from the Coryi Foundation discovered a car-
cass, a single pawprint, and clumps of fur on
the grill of a car that struck an unknown animal
in the St. Johns and Kissimmee River water-
sheds––far outside the Big Cypress Swamp
area of Lake Okeechobee, which was previ-
ously the panther’s only known habitat.
A coalition of U.S. environmental
groups has petitioned the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to add koalas to the endan-
gered species list. The koala population of
eastern Australia has fallen lately due to habi-
tat loss, caused by the combination of devel-
opment, logging, wildfires, and drought.
The World Wildlife Fund said
April 18 that the number of wildlife species at
risk of extinction in Canada increased by 19
last year, and now stands at 225.
The one-horned rhino population
of Chitwan National Park in Nepal has
grown to 450, Arup Rajauria of the King
Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation
announced May 1, up from 370 during the
past nine years despite the constant threat of
poaching. Only Kazirange National Park in
northeastern India has more. Rajauria said the
Chitwan carrying capacity for rhinos is about
500. When that level is reached, he said,
Nepal may lift a ban on exporting the rare rhi-
nos to zoos.
Conservationists in the Gir Forest
region of western Gujarat state, India, are
seeking new homes for small prides of scarce
Asiatic lions, whose numbers are up from 180
in 1974 to 284 today. Gir Forest is now their
only wild habitat. An obstacle to reintroducing
the lions to otherwise suitable habitat in
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan states is that
human settlements would have to be moved.
A 12-year study of the wildlife of
Guizhou province, China, has discovered
8,000 native plants and 300 native animals of
economic value, according to the May 1 edi-
tion of The China Daily. Of the animals, 68
species are highly endangered.
