Environmentalist

Environmentalist


  Caracal Fishing in the Yemen

Panthera

The country of Yemen is often associated with the revolutionary waves of protests, demonstrations and government reforms of the 2011 ‘Arab Spring’ (it was also recently featured beautifully on the big screen in ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’). Situated in the Southwestern portion of the Arabian Peninsula, the Republic of Yemen is far less known for its biodiversity, which includes the striking ‘Arabian Caracal.’ Recognized for the long, black tufts of hair protruding from its ears, the caracal currently persists in pockets of the Middle East and southwest Asia, and is present across much of Africa.

Yemen is the poorest and one of the least stable countries in the Middle East, and while few resources for wildlife conservation exist in the country, efforts are still undertaken. It’s no surprise given this situation that there has been a documented sharp and recent decline in the nation’s caracal populations, and those in the neighboring states of Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. In Yemen, the caracal is widely persecuted in retribution for loss of livestock, often without evidence of the culprit. Rampant poverty in a nation surrounded by wealthy neighbors, where collecting wildlife is highly fashionable, also spurs trapping and hunting of the caracal for the illegal wildlife trade. It’s not uncommon to spot dead caracals displayed from ‘hanging trees’ or live caracals offered for sale in Yemen’s major city markets, such as Sana’a, Taiz, Hodeidah, and Aden.

Despite these blistering barriers to conservation, Panthera’s Small Cat Action Fund is supporting the first-ever caracal research study in Yemen carried out by the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen (FPALY). Led by FPALY Executive Director and Adviser to the Yemen Minister of Water and Environment, David Stanton, the project has been active in two key biodiversity regions of northwest Yemen - the Jebel Milhan Protected Area (Mahwit) and the Wada’a Protected Area (Amran).

Yemen Caracal Range & Project Sites

Click to Enlarge

Utilizing digital camera traps, Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, field surveys and interviews with local residents, researchers are gathering data about the population size and range of the caracal, gauging local attitudes towards the species, assessing the impact of human threats on caracal populations and the species impact on local economies, and mitigating these threats in partnership with local communities.

In order to maintain credibility and effectively work with local communities to mitigate threats facing the caracal, the study’s principal investigators were strategically recruited from the tribal areas in which the project is based. This has allowed project researchers, including Bilal Al Wada’ai and Nasser Ahmed Aswot, to gather reliable information about hunting practices and local attitudes towards caracals, serve as community spokesmen to influence behavior and attitudes impacting caracal populations and recruit allies to protect this wild cat. FPALY’s reputation in-country and continued work in the Jebel Milhan community has also provided buy-in from community leaders and local residents that is helping to grow the next generation of Yemeni conservationists and to help instill a culture of wildlife conservation in Yemen. As a result of this work, Jebel Milhan was declared a Protected Area by the Yemeni Council of Ministers in November, 2011.

Since the onset of the project, nearly 200 images of caracals from five locations in the Jebel Milhan Protected Area (Mahwit) have been collected using digital camera traps (see images below). Researchers have also identified a previously unknown threat facing the caracal – local villagers’ opportunistic and over-hunting of caracal prey species, such as the rock hyrax, cape hare and Arabian partridge, which scientists suspect may be forcing caracals to feed on local livestock, increasing human-caracal conflicts.

These data are helping to inform FPALY’s scientists about the state of Yemen’s caracal populations and will be used to shape national conservation policies in these regions, raise awareness and galvanize support for caracal conservation within local communities and effectively mitigate the key threats facing the Arabian caracal in Yemen.

Unfortunately, as a result of residual turmoil from the 2011 Yemeni revolution, including closures of major roads and frequent thefts in a region deficient of police, prosecutors and courts, project activities in the Wada’a Protected Area have been put on hold. However, in addition to the work being carried out in the Jebel Milhan region, the study has been expanded and partially shifted to more stable areas of the country that are equally important for the conservation of the caracal, including the Al-Mahjar Forest and Shalal Gabilan in Ibb Governorate.


Learn more about the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen.

Read more about the caracal in Carnivores of the World: A Field Guide by Panthera’s President, Dr. Luke Hunter.

Learn more about the Small Cat Action Fund (SCAF) – a grants program established by Panthera with the oversight of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group that supports conservation projects on wild felids weighing less than 25 kilograms.

Donate to the SCAF to support efforts like these.

 

Map of Caracal Global Range

Click to Enlarge

   

 



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نویسنده: mannane ׀ تاریخ: دو شنبه 10 مهر 1391برچسب:, ׀ موضوع: <-PostCategory-> ׀

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