Numenius tenuirostris: The Slender-billed Curlew declared extinct.

The Earth's biodiversity is considered to be facing a crisis at a global level, with many experts believing that species may be going extinct at a rate as high as during the great extinctions recorded in the fossil record. Despite this, it is very hard to determine how many species are going extinct, in part because many species have never been documented, but also because it is generally impossible to tell whether a species is extinct, unless it can be confidently asserted that all populations were being monitored prior to extinction. The best recorded organisms tend to be Vertebrates, and one of the most extensively monitored Vertebrate groups are the Birds, a group which tend to be highly visible, and which are often recorded extensively by non-professional citizen-science groups. Despite this attention, many species of Birds have not been seen for a long time, and this cannot always be taken as evidence that they have become extinct: for instance, the Black-browed Babbler, Malacocincla perspicillata, was rediscovered in 2020 after not being observed in 180 years. The apparent extinction of species can be problematic, causing conservationists to cease efforts to protect a species which is close to extinction; conversely failure to realise that a species has become extinct can lead to efforts being dedicated to preserving it which could otherwise have been directed towards other species which might still be saved.

In a paper published in the journal Ibis on 17 November 2024, Greame  Buchanan of the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science, Ben Chapple of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research at University College London, Alex Berryman of BirdLife International, Nicola Crockford of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Justin Jansen of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and Alexander Bond of the Bird Group at the Natural History Museum, formally declare the Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, to be extinct.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species currently lists the Slender-billed Curlew as Critically Endangered, on the assumption that the total population is less than 50 Birds and declining. The species is believed to be restricted to the Palaearctic biogeographical region, breeding in central Asia and migrating to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Arabian Peninsula. Slender-billed Curlews are thought to breed to the east of the Ural Mountains, in the area around Omsk in southern Russia. Isotope studies of museum specimens suggest that the species may also have bred further south, in northern Kazakhstan, while some eggs assigned to the species, also in museum collections, indicate that the species may also have bred to the west of the Urals. Outside of the breeding season the Birds ranged west as far as Western Europe and the Atlantic coast of North Africa, being known from across the Mediterranean Region, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Pannonian Plains of southeast Central Europe.

Once widespread in Europe, Slender-billed Curlews were last observed in Brittany, France, in February 1968, and in North Yemen in January 1984. A colony, thought to be the last, was known on the Atlantic coast of Morocco in the 1990s, with the last reported sighting in the winter of 1997/8, although a flock of Slender-billed Curlews was photographed in southern Italy in  March 1995. No subsequent observations of the species have been made, despite extensive searches across its former range, including the Middle East and Central Asia.

The last known photograph of a group of Slender-billed Curlews, taken in southern Italy in March 1995. Marco Basso in van den Berg (1995).

The Slender-billed Curlew was first observed breeding in 1912 by Russian ornithologist Valentin Ushakov, who first noted that the species appeared to be in decline. The possibility that Slender-billed Curlews might be at risk of extinction was first raised in 1943 by German ornithologists Erwin Stresemann and Hermann Grote, but it was not until 1988 that the species was identified as Threatened by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The species was listed as Critically Endangered in 1994, following a re-assessment of its status, and an action plan for its recovery was produced in 1996. 

Based upon this long absence from its known range, and the extensive, yet unproductive, searched which have been made in the last three decades, combined with the declining number of sightings recorded throughout the twentieth century, Buchanan et al. carried out a statistical analysis of the probability that the species might still exist. Based upon this, they conclude that is most likely that the species became extinct in the 1990s, with only a miniscule possibility that the species might still exist in the 2020s.

If this analysis is correct, then the Slender-billed Curlew is only the third species of Bird known to spend a large part of its annual cycle in the Western Palaearctic to have become extinct since 1500, joining the Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, last reported in 1844, and the Canarian Oystercatcher, Haematopus meadewaldoi, last observed in 1913. 

A preserved museum specimen of a juvenile male Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris. Naturalis Biodiversity Center/Wikimedia Commons.

It is difficult to directly assess the cause of the extinction of the Slender-billed Curlew, since it is likely that the species finally died out around the time that an action plan for its survival was first drawn up. When that plan was produced, it identified that the species was threatened by habitat loss across its range, and potentially being hunted in some areas as well. 

The only records of breeding by the Slender-billed Curlew are those made by Valentin Ushakov in southern Russia in the early twentieth century. It is possibly that the main breeding area for the species was further south, on the steppes of northern Kazakhstan, which were extensively converted to croplands by the Russian Empire and Soviet Union in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the process destroying extensive wetlands, which might have served as breeding grounds for Slender-billed Curlews, however, without further evidence, this is purely speculative. 

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Pothos deleonii: A new species of Arum from Mindanao Island.

Arums of the genus Pothos are hemiepiphytic vines (Plants which begin life as epiphytes growing upon other plants, but which as they grow stronger become self-supporting) found in tropical and subtropical forests in South China, Southeast Asia, Austrolasia, Oceana, and Madagascar. 

In a paper published in the journal PhytoKeys on 15 October 2024, Maria Melanie Medecilo-Guiang of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Extension in Mindanao and Plant Biology Division at Central Mindanao University, and Derek Cabactulan of Cagayan de Oro City, describe a new species of Pothos from Bukidnon Province on Mindanao Island, Philippines.

The new species was first noted as possibly significant on the basis of its remarkable inflorescence, by conservationist and eye surgeon Miguel De Leon at a Robert S. Kennedy Bird Conservancy site in Bukidnon Province during an ornithological expedition in 2019. A subsequent expedition to the same site in February 2024 collected samples of the plant, from which it has been confirmed to be a new species. This is named Pothos deleonii, in honour of the initial discoverer.

Pothos deleonii. (A) Habit with flowering branch, (B) leaf apex, (C) leaf base, (D) venation pattern, (E) inflorescence, (F( detail of spadix. Medecilo-Guiang & Cabactulan (2024).

Pothos deleonii is a root climbing, fibrous liana, with slender, slightly woody, green stems from which slender leaves arise on petioles (leaf stems) at regular intervals. Roots are found along the stem when the plants are young, but become less common as the Plant matures, and tend to be absent around inflorescence-producing termini. Inflorescences are born singularly on elongated peduncles (flower stalks) which hang 16-18 cm below the stem. These inflorescences are a dark wine red, aging to purplish black, with a spadix (spike with a large number of small flowers) up to 6.9 cm long, surrounded by a spathe (petal-like structure) up to 10 cm long and 5.5 cm wide.

Pothos deleonii was found growing at only two locations, climbing on the  base and trunks of Tree Ferns of the genus Alsophila, in an area of degraded secondary, open-canopy Dipterocarp forest, at altitudes of 1150 and 1270 m above sealevel. Once the vines reach about 4-6 m in height they become independent of their host, able to stand free, either on their own base or supported by the surrounding tree canopy. 

Both known sites are within a 5 km² area in the northern foothills of Mt. Kitanglad. This area is protected, and monitored by the Robert S. Kennedy Bird Conservancy, and not considered to be under any threat. However, on the basis of the low number of specimens discovered, and the limited area within which it is found, Medecilo-Guiang and Cabactulan recommend that Pothos deleonii is classified as Critically Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.

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Tylototriton soimalai: A new species of Crocodile Newt from Tak Province, northwestern Thailand.

Salamanders of the genus Tylototriton, known as Crocodile Newts for the scale-like knobbly protuberances on their skin, are found across the Himalayan Region, Southeast Asia, and South and Central China. There are currently 40 described species, most of which are highly endemic (have very limited distributions), with several known undescribed species in Southeast Asia. There are currently six described species from Thailand, Tylototriton verrucosus,   Tylototriton uyenoi, Tylototriton anguliceps, Tylototriton phukhaensis, Tylototriton umphangensis, and Tylototriton panhai, five of which have been described since 2013. 

In a paper published in the journal ZooKeys on 15 October 2024, Porrawee Pomchote of the Department of Biology at Chulalongkorn University, Parada Peerachidacho of the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University, Wichase Khonsue also of the Department of Biology at Chulalongkorn University, Pitak Sapewisut of the Department of Biology at Chiang Mai University, Axel Hernandez of the College of Biology & the Environment at Nanjing Forestry University and the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University Pasquale Paoli of Corsica, Chitchol Phalaraksh, also of the Department of Biology at Chiang Mai University, Parunchai Siriput of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, and Kanto Nishikawa of the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies and Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies at Kyoto University, describe a new species of Crocodile Newt from Mae Tuen Wildlife Sanctuary in Tak Province, northwestern Thailand.

In July 2014, Axel Hernandez discovered a male Crocodile Newt in a muddy pond in the middle of a Dipterocarp and mixed deciduous forest close to the top of Doi Soi Malai (Mount Soi Malai), about 1500 m above sealevel. He initially assigned this to Tylototriton uyenoi, a species which had been described the previous year from the same area. However, subsequent examination of the specimen showed that it differed from Tylototriton uyenoi in a number of ways. In 2015 the Tourism Authority of Thailand published a video clip on the MGR Online platform showing Crocodile Newts at the same location. This led to a field study of the area in August 2022, during which three adult male Crocodile Newts and two tadpoles were discovered in a muddy puddle in a road on Doi Soi Malai, again at about 1500 m above sealevel.

Pomchote et al. carried out both genetic and morphological analysis of the Doi Soi Malai specimens, both of which led them to conclude that they were representatives of a new species. This is named Tylototriton soimalai, in reference to the location where it was discovered, Doi Soi Malai.

The male holotype of Tylototriton soimalai (CUMZ-A-8253) observed at the type locality. Pomchote et al. (2024).

The known specimens of Tylototriton soimalai are medium-sized Crocodile Newts, ranging from 90.7 mm to 109.3 mm in length, with and are black in colour (dark grey on the underside), with two orange ridges on either side of the dorsal surface of the skull, behind which are two rows of orange nodules which follow the length of the body, but not the tail, while a third, solid orange ridge follows the length of the spine, including the tail.

The two tadpoles vary in size, with one roughly double the size of the other, despite being found at the same time. In both, the head is large with visible eyes, and three pairs of reddish-brown external gills.  The tadpoles are pale brown in colour with scattered black markings, and purple-silver markings around the eyes and fin, and on the flanks.

The two larvae of Tylototriton soimalai in life. Pomchote et al. (2024).

All of the specimens were found in a muddy puddle roughly 10 m long and 5 m wide, with a maximum depth of about 35 cm. They were found at about midday on 31 August 2022, which is in the rainy season; this is presumed to be the breeding season of the Newts. The puddle is located on a road running over Doi Soi Malai, with the exact location not given to protect the species from illegal collection.

Pomchote et al. note that the road is extensively used by mountain bike and four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, particularly during the monsoon season, despite these activities being banned in national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in Thailand by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. For this reason, Pomchote et al. recommend that the road should be closed off completely during the monsoon season, remaining open to hikers during the dry and winter seasons. They also note that the environment both within and around the Mae Tuen Wildlife Sanctuary has been degraded by deforestation and fragmentation for agricultural use, primarily cabbage farming. They therefore recommend that Tylototriton soimalai be listed as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. 

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Felis chaus: Observations of the Jungle Cat in by the lower reaches of the Jordan River, Jordan.

The Jungle Cat, Felis chaus, is a medium-sized Felid found in wetlands across the Middle East, Caucasus region, South and Southeast Asia, and southern China. It is not currently considered globally threatened, but is known to be in decline across its range due to the ongoing loss of wetland habitats. In Jordan the species is currently considered to be Critically Endangered, with the last known record of the species being two dead specimens found in February 1998, on Al–Baqurah Island in the Yarmouk River Valley. However, much of the key environment for the species is found along the Jordan Valley, much of which has been designated a military zone with very limited access.

In a paper published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa on 26 July 2024, freelance conservationists Ehab Eid and Mohammed Farid Alayyan of Amman in Jordan present new evidence for the presence of the Jungle Cat in the Jordan Valley of Jordan, based upon camara trap evidence gathered during a survey targeting the Golden Jackal, Canis aureus.

The camera traps were placed on a private farm growing Citrus fruit at Sheikh Hussein, in the north of the Ghor region, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. The boundaries of the farm extend to the Jordan River, where there is an area of wetlands dominated by Common Reeds Phragmites communis, Cattails, Typha domingensis, and Athel Trees, Tamarix aphylla. The area is also home to other wetland Plants, including Sieber’s Wormwood, Artemisia sieberi, Christ’s Thorn Jujube, Ziziphus spina-christi,  Arabian  Fagonia, Fagonia  arabica,  and  Common  Mallow, Malva sylvestris. The area is an important refuge for migratory Birds such as Ducks, Herons, Egrets, and Storks, but is not subject to any form of protection, with the water being affected by herbicide and fertilizer run-off from local farms, and Reed-beds subjected to frequent clearing by farmers who perceive them as a fire-hazard.

Eid and Alayyan placed four camera traps in the Reed beds between June 2020 and 28 February 2022. There were mounted between 40 and 50 cm above the ground, and faced both north and south, to avoid false records during  sunrise  and  sunset. No bait was placed, and the cameras were checked monthly.

During this period, five observations of Jungle Cats were made, with all four cameras making observations. The first observation was made on 12 January 2021 at 12.58 in the afternoon, the second on 17 January 2021 at 9.33 in the evening, the third on 11 April 2021 at 21.35 in the evening, the forth on 3 September 2021 at 10.41 in the evening, and the final observation on 30 January 2022 at 2.12 in the morning.

Jungle Cats photographed in the study area between 12 January 2021 and 30 January 2022. Ehab Eid in Eid & Alayyan (2024).

The camera traps also imaged several other species, including Golden Jackal, Canis aureus, Egyptian Mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon, Wild Boar, Sus scrofa, Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, and numerous Rodents and Birds, as well as four feral Dogs living on the farm.

To the best of Eid and Alayyan's knowledge, this is the first camera trap survey carried out in the Jordan Valley, and has established the presence of the Jungle Cat in Jordan 22 years after the previous  record, of dead Animals, although the data gathered was not sufficient to determine the number of Cats in the area.

Despite the heavy agricultural activity in the area, it appears to remain a suitable environment for Jungle Cats, with dense vegetation along riverbeds and an abundant supply of Rodents, the favoured prey of Cats.

Jungle Cats were only observed a very limited time, despite the long duration of the study, although this is at least in part due to the dense vegetation in the study area, which proved a general hindrance to observations, interfering with observations of Animals and producing numerous observations of swaying Plants. However, Eid and Alayyan suggest that it is this dense vegetation which makes the environment suitable for Jungle Cats, which are known to be averse to encounters with Humans. 

While Jungle Cats are still persisting in the Jordan Valley, their habitat is threatened by Human activities, with agricultural expansion altering the environment, causing the Reed-beds to fragment and degrade. 

During the time when the study was being carried out, a Jungle Cat was also recorded at Al-Mashare’e, about 6 km to the south of the study area, where it became entangled in a Chicken-protection net, being videoed before escaping. Based upon this, Eid and Alayyan propose that a citizen-science approach, in which residents of the Jordan Valley are encouraged to report sightings of Jungle Cats, may reveal more about the presence of, and threats faced by, the species in the region.

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The South East Africa Montane Archipelago.

The continent of Africa was once largely covered by tropical forests. During the Oligocene and Miocene, the climate slowly cooled, and the forests began to fragment. The forests that covered the plains of East Africa withdrew, leaving fragments of montane forest isolated on mountains where the rainfall remained higher. These isolated forest fragments became refugia in which species unable to survive on the new arid grassy plains became trapped, in pockets of stable moist climate. During the climate fluctuations of the Late Cainozoic these refugia grew and shrank, sometimes permitting species to move between areas and sometimes cutting them off, driving speciation and leading to the appearance of a unique flora and fauna.

Effective conservation efforts for these environments requires the identification of mountain ranges shared geology, evolutionary history, and characteristic species assemblages as distinct ecoregions. For example, the Eastern Arc Ecoregion includes mountain ranges across Kenya and Tanzania, and which has long been seen as a global conservation priority. 

Another set of apparently linked mountain ranges is round across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique. In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on 12 March 2024, a team of scientists led by Julian Bayliss of the Department of Biological and Medical Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, the African Butterfly Research Institute, and the Rede Para Gestão Comunitária de Recursos Naturais, propose that these mountains be seen as a distinct ecoregion of their own, which they term the South East Africa Montane Archipelago.

Numerous ecological surveys have taken place in southern Malawi over the past century, and have identified the mountains of the country as being of ecological distinctiveness. Mount Mulanje, the second highest free-standing mountain in Southern Africa, at 3002 m, has been identified as being an area of high endemism for both Animals and Plants, and is home to the Mulanje Cedar, Widdringtonia whytei, which is the national tree of Malawi. Mozambique, on the other hand endured a prolonged was for independence from 1964 to 1974, then a long civil conflict between 1977 and 1992. Consequently, the mountain ranges in the northern portion of the country were surveyed between the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth century, then largely ignored by science until the last twenty years. Twenty first century visits to the region began with a series of short visits by ornithologists and herpetologists, which led to a realisation that there was a biological connection between these mountains and those of southern Malawi, followed by a series of targetted expeditions to high mountains and inselbergs in the region, which have discovered many new species unique to the region, and led to an understanding of the importance of these sites.

The name 'South East Africa Montane Archipelago'  was first suggested in 2019 at the Annual General Meeting of the Transglobe Expedition Trust of  the Royal Geographical Society in London, and  formally proposed in 2022 at the 1st Southern African Mountain Conference in Bloemfontein. Bayliss et al. present a formal definition of the region based upon endemic species, geology, topography and climate, and place this in context through comparison with surrounding ecoregions. In doing this they present a synthesis of previous research on the endemic Plants, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Crabs, and Butterflies of the region, as well as identifying other groups in need of assessment, and identify the threats to the region's biological distinctiveness and the potential for conservation projects which could protect this.

Bayliss et al. recognise 30 distinct sites within the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, nine of which are in Malawi and 21 within Mozambique. Each has an elevation of at least 800 m above sealevel, with the highest point being Mount Mulanje at 3002 m. All of the sites have high humidity, and at least remnants of humid evergreen forests and upland grasslands, combined with ancient soils, similar climates, and a high rate of endemic species, either unique to a single site or shared between several of them but not found in the lowlands between.  

Location and extent of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago showing core sites in red, and an outline boundary of the convex hull of the ecoregion. Bayliss et al. (2024).

The mountains of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago formed between 600 and 125 million years ago, as a result of the intrusion of granitic batholiths into softer metamorphic rock formations, most of which have subsequently eroded away. These batholiths are low in ferromagnesian minerals, with high quartz and feldspar contents, and have a reasonably homogeneous composition, with crystals orientated in a random fashion, all of which makes them resistant to erosion and jointing,

This distinctive weather patterns of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago further contribute to its distinctiveness. The region has a humid climate with high rainfall, fuelled by the southeastern trade winds, which are funnelled up through the Mozambique Channel. Mountains further to the north are in the rain shadow of Madagascar, and have climates driven more by Lake Malawi than the Indian Ocean, while mountains to the south have a drier climate, typically with an arid dry season. Thus the South East Africa Montane Archipelago has a more humid climate that the surrounding regions, with higher rainfall year-round, but particularly in the dry season. This spares the Animals and Plants living their the stresses of seasonal aridity which organisms in the surrounding areas are subject to, enabling evergreen forests to thrive. Within this area, the mountains serve as a trap for orographic rain, so that upland ecosystems receive more moisture than the surrounding lowlands.

Contemporary macro-climatology of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago. Also labelled is the Eastern Arc Mountains (EAM) ecoregion to the north, and the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe to the southwest (EHZ). Annual rainfall (a) is measured in mm. Rainfall seasonality (b) is the coefficient of variation across months. Aridity index (c) is the ratio of annual rainfall to potential evapo-transpiration with values above 0.65, considered humid. Maximum water deficit (d) is a measure of water stress defined across the most arid months of the year, with lower values conducive of potentially dense, evergreen canopy structure. Bayliss et al. (2024).

The region is defined by the furthest extent of mountain ecosystems which fit the criteria for inclusion, plus some other peaks at the fringes of the area which reach the height to qualify (i..e. over 800 m) but have drier climates. It includes the drier, cooler lowlands between the peaks, which are thought to connect the peaks during times of warmer, wetter climate, as well as other peaks within the region which are either too low for montane forest to form, or have already been completely cleared by Human activities.

The whole ecoregion has an area of over 100 000 km² with a core of 3362 km² on the 30 peaks included. This makes it smaller in size than some neighbouring defined ecoregions, such as the Eastern Arc Montane Forests, Southern Rift Montane Forest-grassland Mosaic, or East African Montane Forest ecoregions, but comparable to other mountain ecoregions such as the East African Montane Moorlands and the Knysna-Amatole Montane Forests. It incorporates two previously described ecoregions in southern Malawi, the South Malawi Montane Forest-grassland Mosaic and the Mulanje-Namuli-Ribáuè sub-Centre of Plant Endemism, as well as nine Important Bird Areas and eight Important Plant Areas in Mozambique, and 12 Key Biodiversity Areas across the two countries, and in turn forms part of the Africa-wide Afromontane Archipelago botanical Centre of Endemism. 

Currently 192 species and 25 subspecies of Animal and Plant are considered to be strictly endemic to the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, with more endemic Plants than Animals. This is very high for such a limited geographical area, but nevertheless is thought likely to rise significantly as more surveys are carried out. Rates of endemism are particularly high among Reptiles, Amphibians, Mammals, Crabs, and Butterflies. The majority of endemic Animals are forest-dwelling, while the majority of the endemic Plants are grassland and rock-dwelling species. The fauna and flora show some similarities to all the surrounding regions, but are probably most similar to those of Tanzania to the north, suggesting a former belt of humid rainforest stretching along the eastern coast of Africa from the equator to the Mozambique Channel.

Examples of South East Africa Montane Archipelago endemics. (a) Rhinolophus mabuensis, (b) Chamaetylas choloensis, (c) Nothophryne inagoensis, (d) Atheris mabuensis, (e) Epamera malaikae, (f)  Rhampholeon maspictus, (g) Nadzikambia baylissi, (h) Maritonautes namuliensis, (i) Euphorbia mlanjeana, (j) Widdringtonia whytei, (k) Encephalartos gratus. Bayliss et al. (2024).

Many of the Plants of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago have their closest relatives within the Southern Afromontane Region, which stretches from southern Tanzania to the Western Cape, rather than East Africa. For Animals, however, the closest relationships are often with East Africa. Most organisms within both groups appear to have diversified from their closest relatives in the Plio-Pleistocene, with the oldest lineages having diversified in the Middle Miocene. This suggests that the forets first began to contract during the Middle Miocene, with subsequent episodes of connection and isolation across the Plio-Pleistocene.

The forests of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are threatened by slash and burn agriculture and charcoal production, both subsistence activities for local communities. The high fertility of the soil within the forests is highly desirable for the growing of crops such as Maize, Cassava, and Irish Potatoes. The plots upon which these are grown tend to be quite small, but the way in which they are cleared typically affects a much larger area of woodland, both due to the effects of fire, and the subsequent drying of out of areas on the new forest margin (all forests  tend  to  trap moisture in  their interiors, with the effect that forest margins are drier environments than forest interiors, and support different species). As more of the forest edge is lost to agriculture the forest interior becomes drier and begins to degrade. Fires also threaten the upland grasslands, in particular the custom of using fires to flush Animals into traps. Thus, any conservation efforts within the South East Africa Montane Archipelago will need to place a strong emphasis on the promotion of more sustainable agricultural practices.

The current protection accorded to the forests of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago differs between the two countries. All of the core sites in Malawi are currently classified as National Forest Reserves, under the administration of the Department of Forestry, though this appears to mean little in terms of actual protection afforded, with forests subjected to both regulated and unregulated timber extraction and charcoal production. Thus, all of the forests on Thyolo Mountain, the type locality for a number of species endemic to the South East Africa Montane Archipelago, has been almost completely cleared, with a remaining area of 2700 m² all on private land. The forests were cleared on Ndirande Mountain in the 1990s, on Soche Mountain in the 2010s, with very little remaining on also most of Chiradzulu Mountain and the Malawi Hills. In Mozambique, only a single site, Mount Ribáuè, is a protected forest reserve, and thisl like other forest reserves in Mozambique, was established to regulate timber harvesting rather than for conservation purposes. There are currently plans for a community conservation projects on Mount Mabu, which the forests are still in reasonably good condition, due to the spiritual status afforded to the area by the local community. A similar spiritual status appears to have protected the also-reasonably-intact forests on Mount Pewé, while other sites, such as Mount Lico, gain some protection from their remote and inaccessible locations. 

The degree to which organisms in the core zones of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are threatened is closely linked to their dependence on montane forests of upland grasslands. The majority of the small Mammal, Bird, Reptile, and Amphibian species are dependent on the presence of forests, and thus most of these are classified as Near Threatened or Threatened (a broad category which includes Vulnerable, Endangered, and Critically Endangered) under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species. The majority of Plants endemic to the region are grassland and rock-dwelling species, which are still under pressure but at less immediate risk than forest-dwelling species, although endemic forest plants are still considered to at high risk levels.

The greatest threats to the endemic organisms of the South East Africa Montane Archipelago are deforestation and the burning of grasslands. Between the years 2000 and 2022, 18% of the primary montane forest in the core areas of the Archipelago was lost, a far higher proportion than in any other African montane ecoregion. Over the same interval, areas such as the Eastern Arc, Cameroonian Highlands, and Mt Cameroon and Bioko montane forests lost less than 5% of their forest cover, while the Albertine Rift and Guinean montane forest lost about 10%. The extent of this loss varies considerably between these sites, with sites such as Chiradzulu, Ndirande, and Thyolo Mountains in Malawi having lost all of their forest cover before 2000, the Malawi Hills having lost 80% of their forest cover since the 1980s, and other sites having suffered high losses over the 2000-2022 interval, such as mounts Nállume 43%, Inago 39%, Ribáuè 35%, Namuli 30%, Socone 18% and Chiperone 14%. Other sites lost less cover over the same period, with mounts Meluli and Mabu having lost about 3% each and Mount Lico having lost less than 2%. Bayliss et al. note that all of the areas with high primary montane forest loss have also lost secondary forests (woodland which has regrown after a major disturbance) and woodland on their lower slopes, leading to an even greater loss of overall forest habitat than the figures suggest.

Bayliss et al. conclude that the South East Africa Montane Archipelago ecoregion can be distinguished form its surrounding areas by a series of biological and abiotic features, including a distinct climate envelope. The area is home to a high number of endemic species, with more likely to be discovered as survey methods imrove. The area is Africa's newest defined ecoregion, but also one of its most threatened, with one of the highest deforestation rates on the continent.

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Photographic evidence for the presence of Snow Leopards in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India.

Snow Leopards, Panthera uncia, are the least well understood of the Big Cats, due to their secretive habits and the remote and inhospitable environments in which they live. The species is currently considered to be Vulnerable under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, although our poor understanding of the species numbers and distribution makes this largely a guess. There thought to be about 400-700 Snow Leopards in India (about 2% of the global population), inhabiting the sub-alpine, alpine and trans-Himalayan regions of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Within Kashmir, Snow Leopards are known from Gurez and Sonamarg, the upper Baltal-Zojila region, the Kargil Range, and the areas adjacent to the north-eastern and south-eastern boundary of Kishtwar that connect with the Zanskar range in the Union Territory of Ladakh. In other parts of Kashmir, including many protected areas, the presence of Snow Leopards is uncertain.

In a paper published in the journal Oryx on 9 May 2024, Oyndrila Sanyal of the Wildlife Biology Laboratory at the University of Kashmir, Tawqir Bashir, also of the Wildlife Biology Laboratory at the University of Kashmir, and of the Division of Wildlife Sciences at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir, and Monaj Rana and Pankaj Chandan of the Nature, Wildlife and Climate Change Division of the National Development Foundation, present the results of camara-trap survey for Snow Leopards carried out in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kishtwar High Altitude National Park covers an area of 2191 km², at altitudes ranging from 1800 m and 6000 m, between the Chenab River and the Nagin Sheer Glacier. The park borders Ladakh to the northeast and Himachal Pradesh to the south. Most areas in the park above an altitude of about 4300 m are essentially inaccessible, due to the rugged nature of the terrain and the hostile climate. The wide range of altitudes in the park, combined with similar variations in slope and moisture availability, lead to the presence of a wide range of vegetation types. The park supports thousands of nomadic herders, and is home to a number of temples, which draw large numbers of pilgrims. Anecdotal evidence suggests that Snow Leopards may be present in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, with claims of a possible sighting as well as several reports of tracks, although none of these has been photographed or confirmed by scientists.

Sanyal et al. divided the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park into a grid of 5 km x 5 km cells. Camera-traps were placed at 57 locations in 18 cells for a year, between May 2022 and June 2023. Up to four cameras were placed in a single cell, concentrating on natural trails, trail junctions, ridge lines and other locations likely to be used by Carnivores. Cameras were checked once a month (except in winter) to ensure they were working, and replace their memory cards. All of the camera-traps were placed in the southern, south-western and central areas of the park; the northern, north-eastern, eastern and south-eastern regions being above 4500 m and largely covered by glaciers.

The study area, showing the location of camera-trap stations and the new Snow Leopard, Panthera uncia, occurrence records in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India, and three earlier records in the adjacent landscape. Sanyal et al. (2024).

At 11.03 pm local time on 19 September 2022, a camera-trap located Kiyar catchment of the Dacchan range at 3280 m above sealevel captured an image of two Snow Leopards. This was the first photographic evidence ever obtained for the species being present in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park. During the remainder of the survey, seven further images were obtained in three other grid squares, in the Kiyar and Nanth catchments of the Dacchan Range and the Renai catchment of the Marwah Range. Of the eight images captured, four were taken at night and four in the day. Based upon their patterns (which are unique to individual Leopards), at least four different members of the species were observed. All of the images were taken at altitudes of between 3004 m and 3878 m, in an arid alpine region above the treelike, with a steep and rugged terrain flanked by high-altitude pastures of Junipers, Grasses and Legumes on rolling hills.

Camera-trap photographic records of the Snow Leopard, Panthera uncia, in Kishtwar High Altitude National Park, Jammu and Kashmir, India; (a) is the first camera-trap record, on 19 September 2022, with two individuals. Sanyal et al.  (2024).

Sanyal et al. also recorded the presence of Siberian Ibex and Himalayan Musk Deer in the same areas are the Snow Leopards, as well as Long-tailed Marmots, and Pika, all of which could serve as potential prey species. The most frequently recorded of these species was the Siberian Ibex. A number of other Carnivore species were also recorded, including Himalayan Brown Bear, Asian Black Bear, Red Fox, Leopard Cat, Yellow-throated Marten, and Mountain Weasel. The Red Fox was the overall most frequently imaged Animal in the study, but this is probably because the cameras were positioned to detect Carnivores; it is not suggested that Carnivores are more common than prey Animals.

Sanyal et al. note that the area is under considerable pressure from Human activities, with about 3000 herders regularly visiting the alpine pastures in the Marwah Range, bringing with them about 150 000 head of livestock. This many domestic Animals presents a threat to the prey species relied on by the Snow Leopards, and therefore the Leopards themselves. This could potentially lead to Human-Leopard conflict if the Leopards respond to a shortage of prey by targeting livestock, or to the Leopards being excluded from pasturelands and forced to depend on less optimal environments. The camara-trap evidence suggests that both the Leopards and their prey species tend to avoid livestock grazing areas during summer (May-August) which could mean that anthropogenic pressures are already affecting them. 

The Kishtwar High Altitude National Park is clearly a habitat utilised by Snow Leopards, potentially providing a bridge between three other important Snow Leopard habitats, the greater Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir, the trans-Himalayas of Ladakh,  and the lesser Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. This implies that the park is important to Snow Leopard conservation efforts in India, and globally. To this end, Sanyal et al. recommend a more comprehensive study of Snow Leopards in the Kishtwar High Altitude National Park is carried out, including areas such as the Paddar and Wadwan valleys, which were missed in their study.

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