wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Yahoo News 7 Aug 07
Lost Forest in Africa Yields New Species
Charles Q. Choi Special to LiveScience

Yahoo News 7 Aug 07
New species of bat, frogs found in Congo forests
By Claudia Parsons

Six new species, including a bat and two frogs, have been discovered in Democratic Republic of the Congo in an eastern area off limits to scientists for decades because of violence, a wildlife group said on Tuesday.

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said researchers conducted a survey of a remote forested region just west of Lake Tanganyika between January and March.

"If we can find six new species in such a short period it makes you wonder what else is out there," said researcher Andrew Plumptre.

The new species discovered were a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.

Aid agencies estimate around 4 million Congolese have been killed in fighting or by related hunger and disease since the outbreak of the country's 1998-2003 war, in which six foreign armies joined in fighting over its huge mineral riches.

Despite a 2003 peace deal and the country's first free elections in more than 40 years being held last year, militia fighting continues in parts of the east.

"In spite of the conflict and related degradation in the area, the survey team found that some 1,000 square kilometers have remained intact, from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 2,725 meters above sea level," a statement said.

It said the area had been off limits to scientists since 1960 because of instability. The team also included researchers from the Field Museum in Chicago, the National Centre of Research and Science in Lwiro and the World Wildlife Fund.

The statement said the forest was extremely rich in biodiversity, containing a large number of chimpanzees, buffalo, elephants, leopards and monkeys. Around 10 percent of the plant samples collected have yet to be identified.

"Given the findings with the vertebrates, it is likely that some of the plants will represent new species as well," said Ben Kirunda of the group's botanical team.

The researchers said they met village leaders who were mostly supportive of making the region a protected area.

"Since few people live there, it would be relatively easy to create a park while supporting the livelihoods of people who live in the landscape," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Africa Program.

Democratic Republic of the Congo's wildlife, particularly mountain gorillas in the Virunga National Park, was a significant tourist attraction before the 1998-2003 war. The conflict devastated the east of the vast central African country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has displaced millions of people.

Yahoo News 7 Aug 07
Lost Forest in Africa Yields New Species
Charles Q. Choi Special to LiveScience

In a once-lost forest in Africa, six animal species new to science have been discovered, members of a two-month expedition now reveal, including a bat, a rodent, two shrews and two frogs.

"If we can find six new species in such a short period, it makes you wonder what else is out there," said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Andrew Plumptre.

The bat appears to be a kind of horseshoe bat (genus Rhinolophus), known for the large horseshoe-shaped "nose leaves" used for directing their ultrasound.

These new species were discovered in an expedition from January and March 2007 into woods just west of Lake Tanganyika, which have been off limits to scientists for more than 50 years.

The area is a remote corner of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been gripped by unrest and war for decades.

Spirits linked with this area include Kabogo, said to occasionally manifest itself as a ghostly boat on Lake Tanganyika at night said to guarantee good fishing if seen, as well as Misotshi, who has taboos against the killing of chimpanzees and the destruction of the forest.

For this reason, local chiefs suggested naming the area the Misotshi-Kabogo Forest, the researchers said.

The scientists found that nearly 386 square miles (1,000 square kilometers) of forest, almost the size of all of Hong Kong, remained intact. The woods stretched from the shores of Lake Tanganyika up to elevations of 8,940 feet (2,725 meters) above sea level, or roughly seven times the height of the Empire State Building.

These woods have been isolated from much of the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest in the world, for at least 10,000 years, which explains why they held new species, said Wildlife Conservation Society researcher Deo Kujirakwinja.

They proved extraordinarily rich, providing a home to chimpanzees, elephants, leopards, monkeys, birds, reptiles, frogs and other amphibians, hogs, jackals, mongooses, porcupines, and antelopes known as bongos.

The expedition collected additional material that may also yield a number of new plant species. Local botanists were unable to identify some 10 percent of the collected plants.

Plumptre, Kujirakwinja and their colleagues will send these samples to specialists in the near future to assess their novelty.

The Wildlife Conservation Society notes that chiefs and elders at local villages are supportive of transforming the region into a protected park. Currently, human impacts on these forests are relatively low, with gold mining on a minor level being the most substantial threat.
links
Related articles on Global issues: biodiversity
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com