http://www.sundaytimes.lk/190929/news/experts-assess-sri-lankan-species-for-global-red-list-370638.html published on SundayTimes on 29.09.2019

Sri Lanka’s reptile experts gathered last week to assess the latest threat levels facing the country’s lizards and snakes.

The group of experts that participated at the recent workshop

During a six-day workshop at the Simpson’s Forest Hotel, they used some of the modern techniques to assess the threat levels these species have been exposed to, says Dr. Anslem de Silva, one of the organisers of the workshop, which also drew several foreign experts.

Sri Lanka is one of the global biodiversity hotspots (along with India’s Western Ghats), particularly for its high endemism of having creatures and plants that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

But many of these species are threatened with extinction due to different reasons and the first step to protect them lies on understanding the threat levels to prioritise conservation actions.

The experts used the criteria accepted by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to assess the threat levels and list them in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The list devised in 1964 is also known as the ‘Red List’.

The IUCN Red List classifies species into nine categories based on assessments such as the rate of decline, the population size and the area of distribution. On the IUCN Red List, the term “threatened” embraces the categories of Critically Endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable. When no living trace can be found of a species, it is categorised as “extinct”.

While the global Red List explains the threat level on a global scale, most countries have their own Red Lists based on threat levels assessed nationally. Sri Lanka published its last National Red List on 2012, but the criteria used in assessing the threat levels were slightly different.

Technically, a standard assessment is required to go into the global red list.

Dr. Simon Stuart, the former Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC)

Dr. Anslem de Silva

However, during the workshop, the standard method was adopted to assess the threat levels Sri Lanka’s lizards and snakes faced, said Dr. de Silva, who was recently honored as ‘Father of modern herpetology’.

He organised the workshop with the assistance of Dr. Kanishka Ukuwela and Sameera Karunarathne. The assessment was driven by the Zoo Outreach Organisation and some of the world’s well-known scientists proficient in IUCN Red Listing. They included Dr. Sanjay Molur, Dr. Neil Ashley Cox, Marcelo Fabio Tognelli, Philip Michael Bowles and Claudine Gibson. The latter had specifically visited Sri Lanka for the assessment.

Almost all the Sri Lanka experts working on reptiles were present at this workshop. Speaking to the Sunday Times, herpetologist Mendis Wickremasinghe said this kind of assessment was important as there was an extinction crisis Sri Lanka’s reptiles faced. The checklist of reptiles consists of 155 species in 1993 but by 2012, it grew upto 211, with half of them endemic to Sri Lanka. It keeps on ticking. However, due to habitat loss and other key reasons, Sri Lanka’s reptiles are becoming rarer.

The final report being co-authored by all the resource persons will be an important document in conserving Sri Lanka’s reptiles, Dr. de Silva said.
The Sunday Times also learns that a similar red listing assessment had been completed for Sri Lanka’s freshwater fish. The freshwater fish study was conducted a few months ago by the IUCN country office.

IUCN Sri Lanka’s Senior programme officer (biodiversity) Sampath Goonatilake said the assessment would appear on the global red list web portal in December. “It is really important to update the threat levels of species as this is the global inventory for conservation actions,” he said.

Meanwhile, experts are also getting ready to conduct a similar assessment for Sri Lanka’s amphibians to update their status on the Global Red List of Threatened Species. This was revealed at a speech by Dr. Simon Stuart, the former Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).

The speech was organised by Dilmah Conservation that is assisting the assessment process. The Sunday Times learns that the Amphibian Workshop will be held towards end of this year.

“The world’s species extinction crisis is getting worse. There are 1.8 million described species live on Earth and about 100,000 of them are assessed for the Red List. Of them, about 27,000 are threatened – this is closer to one third of the species – so the picture is not seemingly good,” Dr.Stuart said, pointing out that 941 species were already ‘extinct’ or ‘extinct in the wild’ — surviving only in captivity. “While we need to do more, if we stop conservation, this extinction crisis would be 7-8 times worse, the expert warned.

There were some conservation problems that we could not easily fix, but not all were negative, he said, giving examples where some species started to bounce back from the edge of extinction. Giant Pandas, Californian condors, Indian rhinos and Humb-back whales are few of such examples.

Sri Lanka produced a number of country-specific national red lists, with the last red list being published in 2012. The next one is scheduled to be published after five years.

Sri Lanka’s Biodiversity Secretariat Chief Padma Abeykoon said they would be able to publish the flora section of the Red List assessing national threat levels of plants, herbs and trees. She said that due to a number of issues, the fauna section would not be able to completed this year.

Beautiful colouration: Ornate flying snake and green pit viper. Pic by Ruchira Somaweera

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/191020/news/expect-thousands-of-dual-citizens-at-election-time-374099.html published on 20.10.2019 on SundayTimes

While the dual citizenship of presidential election candidates has been a hotly-debated topic in the political arena, it is expected that thousands of other “dual citizens” will be in Sri Lanka by election day in November.

Exhausted Indian Pitta found fallen on 28.10.2018. Pix by Sarath N. Senanayake

Some of them are eligible for European passports while others come from Asian countries.

None, however, will come through immigration channels, and they do not care at all about the political drama in Sri Lanka.

These dual citizens are migratory birds that come here annually from northern countries at this time.

About 2,500 of the 10,000 world bird species engage in long-distance migration as a response to changing weather and the availability of food, spending their life in different countries.

Nearly half – 245 species – of the 508 bird species recorded in Sri Lanka are migratory and generally begin arriving in late August, staying on here until about March-April next year before returning to their country of origin to breed.

“As the main steps of the migratory routine are predictable and move in a rhythm, bird migration can be considered to be like a ballet dance – in fact, bird migration could be called the greatest dance in the world,” ornithology expert Dr. Sampath Seneviratne told the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society this week.

A helping hand for the Indian Pitta

“Birds that breed in European countries such as Russia, and in Asian countries such as China, Mongolia, Afghanistan and India, migrate to Sri Lanka.

“We need more research on migratory patterns as there is a lot to unravel,” said Dr. Seneviratne, President of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) and a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo.

Historically, migrating birds are believed to have arrived in Sri Lanka along three main routes to Sri Lanka, using designated pathways. This view was based on observations carried out in colonial times.

“It is time to have more advanced research to link the dots with the use of new technologies,” said Dr. Seneviratne.

The traditional method of researching migration is carried out with the use of rings fixed on birds’ legs.

If a bird with a ring fixed by ornithologists in one country is found in another country it acts as proof of presence of the bird at two locations.
Science has led to improvements in tracking. The new trend is “geo-tagging”, in which scientists place a satellite tag on a bird. The tag emits signals that pinpoint the bird’s location.

Dr. Seneviratne said satellite tracking by India has led to findings that contradict traditional knowledge of the main routes used by birds migrating to Sri Lanka.

“Geo-tagging is expensive, so we can’t do it in Sri Lanka at this point,” he added.

A national bird-ringing program carried out by FOGSL and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) under Professor Sarath Kotagama has revealed interesting patterns such as the same birds migrating annually to the same site – sometimes to the same plots – in a pattern used by their ancestors.

“Some people believe the ringing process puts birds in danger. But this is a myth and it is perfectly safe, and I’m bit disappointed when I hear such allegations,” the FOGSL President said.

“We need science, and without understanding birds, their behaviour and their migratory patterns it is not possible to conserve them.”

About an hour later the bird had revived

Published on SundayTimes on 27.10.2019

The possibility of mass migratoin of dragonflies across Sri Lanka was first published by SundayTimes on 2011. It is believed the same phenomena reported last Sunday.

Not only birds, but dragonflies too are found to be migrating long distances. The sudden increase of dragonflies in some areas of colombo suggest their annual mass migration happened last week.

Sudden influx of dragonflies were best felt by those live in coastal belts as they usually arrive as a wave. The coastal community in near Dehiwala railway station confirms they sudden influx of dragonflies on Sunday 20th of October. “It was around 8.30 or 9 in the night that these creatures start coming. They flew directly into our houses like those winged-termites (meru in sinhala) swarming around” said Chaminda Pushpakumara a resident near Dehiwala Railway station. “We tried to put them out, but it was just futile exercise” others in the community too shared similar experiences.

Sudden increase of Dragonflies were observed in other areas as well. Hemal Pieris who lives in Kynsey road in Borella found one in his upstair bathroom. “I haven’t seen a dragonfly in many years and delighted of seeing one inside my own house. I gently coaxed it to fly away through  the
window” Mr.Peiris said.

Responding to a post on the social media put by the team of MigrantWatch who promote observation of migratory species in Sri Lanka, many responded seeing sudden influx of dragonflies from different areas. Vishwamithra Kadurugamuwa made his observation at Town hall in colombo 7. “I Was actually telling my wife that it must be a dragonfly migration” Mr.Kadurugamuwa who had heard of the phenomena said.

The posibility that a mass migration of dragonflies could be happening across Sri Lanka was first observed in 2011 by Nashath Hafi who is a member of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka that setup its MigrantWatch program with intention to study the migration phenomena. “I was waiting for the train in Moratuwa railway station in the morning watching some birds at the time I observed wave of dragonflies. Usually the dragonflies flying casually on circular route, but all these were moving southward. Thousands of dragonflies were seen moving across and it was a spectacular scene” Mr.Hafi reminded his rare sight.

Mr.Hafi continued to observe the Southbound dragonflies from Moratuwa to all the way until Kollupitiya. When finding more information, the information about a dragonfly migration. Maldivian-based biologist Dr. Charles Anderson initially revealed about this migration which he suggest be happening across India to Maldives and all the way to Africa based on observations of mass aggravation of dragonflies in different areas. . According to Dr.Anderson’s study, the path dragonfly use has a distance of around 14,000 kilometres and could be called the world’s longest insect migration.

A Globe Skimmer Dragonfly found dehiwala

Dr.Anderson based on his data calculated the Dragonflies first appear in the capital city of Maldives on mean 21st of October on average. Quite interestingly the wave of Dragonflies was observed in Sri Lanka in 2011 was on 20th October. What is more surprising is this year the mass movement of dragonflies were observed on the same day – 20th of October. Dragonfly numbers peak in November and December, before the insects then disappear once more. The insects arrive in waves, with each staying for no more than a few days.

Indian observers also reported large agrevation of Dragonflies on Indian beaches. a dragonfly swarm reported from Mumbai coast on 14th Oct and different parts according to Sujith Chandran who is from Kerala. The migratory dragonflies fly along with the coast is observed in Indian.

According to Mr.Chandran, the communities in Keral coastal areas know this phenomena happened with the onset of Monsoon winds. “The locals believe the dragonflies emerge at time of when sun enters zordiac of Libra. In local language the Zordiac sign Libra is called ‘thula’ and dragonflies are called as ‘thumbi’- so locals call named them as ‘Thula Thumbi’”, said Mr.Chandran.

When interviewed, even the local coastal community – specially the members of the fishing communities live near coast are known of the phenomena, eventhough it is still least studied phenomena that came into light recently.

The species that involve in the migration are called as the globe skimmer or globe wanderer scientifically known as Pantala flavescens. The dragonfly is up to 4.5 cm long, that can have wingspans around 7.5 cm . They are good flier who tirelessly fly for hours without making any perch. The wandering glider flies in large swarms.

Globe skimmer is considered to be the most widespread dragonfly on the planet with good population on every continent except Antartica although rare in Europe according to the literature. According to a research by scientists at Rutgers University-Newark of USA studying the genes of Globe Skimmer found that specimen found from different areas of the world have similar genetic profiles so similar. They studied Pantala flavescens from USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, India, South America and interpret this similarities as a result of long distant migration.

Earlier this week, on the coastal areas observed in Dehiwala, Wellawaththa and Bambalapitiya, swarms of dragonflies consisting of 10 – 15 individuals could be commonly observed, but by the Friday, this number had decreased drastically spotting only few individuals according to the observers. This could indicate either the dragonflies moved away from Sri Lanka to continue their journey toward Maldives or spread inland. Perhaps part of the swarm moves away, while another stays. There are more questions for science to find out and if it could firmly establish, the Dragonfly migration could be yet another spectacular wildlife encounter Sri Lanka could be blessed to witness.

Report increase of dragonflies in your area

Have you seen an increase of dragonflies in your area..? If so, it could possibly be a migratory dragonfly. The MigrantWatch team of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) based at University Colombo welcomes your to contribute to their citizen science program to study this phenomena. You can send them your observations through email to migrantwatch.srilanka@gmail.com

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/191117/news/butterfly-boom-sees-crowds-of-yellow-visitors-suddenly-appear-378447.html Published on SundayTimes on 17.11.2019

A swarm of Lemon Emigrants (c) Dr.Michael van der Poorten

Sri Lanka is experiencing a butterfly boom these days with even suburbs of congested cities such as Colombo seeing an increase in the fluttering visitors.

Many of them belong to the yellow Lemon Emigrant (Catopsilia pomona) species that traditionally begin a seasonal movement at this time of year, says butterfly expert Rajika Gamage.

Mr. Gamage, who is observing butterflies in the Thanamalwila area, said about 70 per cent of what he is seeing are Lemon Emigrants and about 10 per cent the Common Leopard and Lesser Albatross species.

Many reports are also coming in of clouds of butterflies such as the Crimson Rose out at sea, several nautical miles from shore. Renowned lepidopterist Dr. Michael van der Poorten confirmed butterfly movements have been observed from the Mannar area westward out to sea and from the Trincomalee area eastward out to sea.

A Female Lemon Emigrant (c) Michael van der Poorten

Until the mid-80s when, for reasons ranging from deforestation to pollution the phenomenon disappeared, it was customary to see thousands of butterflies appearing in clouds in Sri Lankan skies from February to April.

As this is the season of pilgrimage to Sri Pada mountain, Buddhist folklore had it that the butterflies also visited the mountain to pay homage to Lord Buddha. Thus the mountain was given another name, Samanala Kanda or “butterfly mountain.

“Indeed, many butterflies of several species are seen flying towards and up the mountain and are sometimes found dead at the top,” said Dr. van der Poorten.

Lemon Emigrants make this seasonal movement, as do many other species such as the Common Albatross, Lesser Albatross, Pioneer, Common Gull, Blue Tiger and Common Banded Peacock, he said.

Lesser Albatross

In 1949, the lepidopterist, L.G.O. Woodhouse, reported 69 species in this migration but now fewer species are seen, Dr. van der Poorten said.
He explained that seasonal movements occur soon after a boom in butterfly populations, which often happens soon after rainfall breaks a drought.

“A drought can reduce populations of both butterflies and their prey. But when the right conditions arrive the butterfly population can recover fast, leading to a boom,” Dr. van der Poorten said, adding that science knew little about these migration patterns or their causes.

Rajika Gamage said butterfly migrations occur throughout the year but only come to public notice when there is a boom in numbers.

“Continuous rain could help plants to grow lots of tender leaves that could provide healthy host plants for caterpillars to feed on, resulting in a boom,” Mr. Gamage said.

Himesh Jayasinghe of the Butterfly Conservation Society of Sri Lanka said society members are sharing reports of butterfly sightings on Whatsapp and these will be analysed to identify migration patterns.

The most extravagant butterfly migration occurs on the American continent when thousands of Monarch butterflies make an annual migration.

These swarms, unlike those found in Sri Lanka, including those that go to Sri Pada, return home after their seasonal migration.

While these swarms – officially a swarm of butterflies is known as a kaleidoscope of butterflies – eventually return home they are then made up of new butterflies. It takes as many as four to five generations to complete the full journey all the way back up to Canada and the US as the Monarchs’ lifespan can be just two to five weeks.Each year, millions of Monarch butterflies leave their summer breeding grounds in the North Eastern United States and Canada and travel almost 5,000km to reach overwintering grounds in Mexico.

Lemon Emigrants in Matara

“Symphony of Serendib” is Erich’s first book and will be launched at his maiden photography exhibition to be held from November 29 to December 1 at the Harold Peiris Gallery of the Lionel Wendt. Erich who works in the IT field always felt the urge to explore nature and capture its unique moments in his spare time. He bought his first camera in 2007 and his first DSLR camera in 2010 when he began taking his photography seriously.

The book contains over 200 pages that feature not only a wide array of animals, but also some breathtaking scenes of different wildernesses across Sri Lanka. He has a particular passion for birds, tuskers and leopards, but these attractive animals are interspersed with species like frogs, mantises, spiders, lizards, insects and other creatures that are often overlooked. Like a master musician who has skills to build his symphony over little things, Erich captures these usually non-charismatic animals from different angles giving the viewer fresh perspectives. A common bird like the Red-vented Bulbul looks like a ballet dancer performing in the rain to his symphony. Of note are his photos of the elusive leopard in Horton Plains and many rare migratory birds – even from the city of Colombo.

The Symphony of Serendib follows a geographical trail starting from the central hills  mainly featuring Horton Plains and then moving down to Haputale, Ella to the Sinharaja rainforest. He then showcases photographs taken in Uda Walawe, and moves to Galgamuwa, Kalawewa, Wilpattu and Yala.

Writing the foreword of the book, veteran wildlife photographer Namal Kamalgoda states that the cross-section of images from the highest regions of our country down to the coast, showcasing the diversity in location and subjects is remarkable. There is also a refreshing array of landscapes, often ignored by wildlife photographers, but Erich has the eye not to miss them. “One of my favourite images is of the Ghost Crabs, like a wall of aliens. Even a shrew and a mouse have been represented in the book and there are lot more ‘small stuff’ like this to enjoy,” Kamalgoda writes.

The innocent eyes of a leopard cub

In his book, Erich shares the painstaking efforts and sometimes disappointments he had to bear in capturing these unique photographs.

There is sadness to his symphony as a number of his favourite tuskers that he photographed had been killed and their memories are restricted to photographs.

The book contains several black and white photographs particularly featuring leopards and elephants. “Black and white can bring an artistic touch, giving character to otherwise a pretty ordinary photograph,” says Erich.

The coffee table book ‘Symphony of Serendib’ is priced at 8,500 but visitors to the exhibition can purchase it for the special price of Rs.6,000.

The Symphony of Serendib exhibition is open to all.

Ghost Crabs, like a wall of aliens – Chundikulam beach

 A mossy labyrinth – Horton Plains National Park

Comb ducks in Colombo

Elephants in Kalawewa – Black & White adds an artistic blend  

Published on Mongabay on 26.11.2019 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/elephant-seal-native-to-antarctica-spotted-for-first-time-in-tropical-sri-lanka/

COLOMBO — Uthpala Adaranga, a ranger with Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation  (DWC), was initially doubtful about the call he received of a seal spotted near Unawatuna, off the country’s southern coast on Nov. 20. He assumed, as had happened in the past, that it was another case of misidentification, given that the tropical Indian Ocean island lies well beyond the native range of seals. But to Uthpala’s surprise, it was a seal — a marine mammal never before recorded in Sri Lankan waters.

The seal, about 2 meters (6 feet) long, spent all day on Dalawella Beach, drawing a crowd of onlookers. Wildlife officials together with navy and police personnel had to cordon off the beach to allow some resting space for the animal.

The very next day, the seal disappeared, only to resurface two days later on Nov. 23 near Midigama Beach, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) farther south. This time, it was seen resting on rocks, offering a better view to observers, including of visible signs of old wounds. When a navy team attempted to capture the seal to assess its health, it disappeared again and has not been seen since.

Using amateur video shared on social media, marine biologist Asha de Vos identified the animal as a southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina), named for its nose that resembles an elephant’s trunk. The largest seal species in the world, the southern elephant seal spends most of its time near Antarctica, only reaching land twice a year to mate and to molt.

De Vos told Mongabay that this individual seal could be from an elephant seal colony from one of the islands off Antarctica, possibly the Kerguelen Islands. That means it would have had to swim about 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) to get to Sri Lanka — a feat that’s possible with the aid of ocean currents.

“Seals are active swimmers, but it’s hard to speculate why this individual swam this far north, leaving its native range. The individual found in Sri Lanka looks exhausted and would have reached the beach for some rest,” de Vos said.

Greg Hofmeyr, the curator of marine mammals at Port Elizabeth Museum at Bayworld, South Africa, and a specialist on southern elephant seals, confirmed that southern elephant seals are known for migrating long distances of thousands of kilometers between sub-Antarctic islands and their foraging areas in the Southern Ocean. Many younger animals have an exploratory phase in their life, and the individual spotted in Sri Lanka could be one, he added.

But he said the seal sighting in Sri Lanka, so far away from the species’ native range, was unusual, as seals in general are rarely recorded near the equator.

In 1989, a southern elephant seal was spotted off Oman. It was shot dead for identification purposes. Hofmeyr said there had also been seal sightings in the Mascarene Islands, close to Madagascar, but still about 3,600 kilometers (2,200 miles) south of Sri Lanka.

These seals aren’t considered threatened because they occur in several populations, many of them large, some of them growing, and none of them isolated. But global warming has become the main threat to their existence, manifested in the loss of the pack ice habitats in which they breed, Hofmeyr said.

‘Give it space’

With the confirmed sighting, the question now for conservationists and officials in Sri Lanka is what to do about the elephant seal. The species is perfectly adapted to the Antarctic cold, and the tropical waters around Sri Lanka would be too harsh for it. There have been calls to capture it and house it in a zoo, although it’s not clear that Sri Lanka has suitable facilities.

“We do not have facilities to accommodate an animal that swims thousands of kilometers and dives thousands of meters in search of food. My advice is to give the animal space, so it can rest and then begin its journey back,” de Vos said.

Claire Simeone, a conservation veterinarian at the California-based Marine Mammal Center, which rescues and rehabilitates seals, said the seal in Sri Lanka could find it difficult to survive in the warmer waters, but that keeping it in captivity would be harder.

“Ideally, the seal’s health should be evaluated by a veterinarian familiar with the particular species,” she told Mongabay. “If the seal is sick or injured, rehabilitation at a zoo or an aquarium could be helpful. But unfortunately, it is challenging to provide the conditions needed for this species in a zoo for its entire life, because they can dive to more than 2,000 meters [6,600 feet] deep. Elephant seals eat squid and deep-water fish and finding this prey might also be one of the challenges to an animal this far from home.”

Simeone suggested the best thing to do would be to give the seal some space. Whether it’s sick, injured, or just resting, the animal will be further stressed by human harassment. “While this seal is indeed quite lost, it is possible that it just needs to rest before going back home,” she added.

She said people should not approach the seal, as it is a wild animal that can bite if it feels threatened. Though it appears exhausted and passive, seals can quickly and turn dangerous if confronted.

Chandana Sooriyabandara, the director-general of the DWC, said there were no plans to capture the seal unless its condition looked particularly bad. “We will let it be our visitor and stay freely in our waters,” he added.

Banner image of the juvenile southern elephant seal resting near the Midigama coastal area in southern Sri Lanka, courtesy of Ravindra Kumara, Department of Wildlife Conservation Sri Lanka

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/191124/magazine/young-eyes-on-nature-379123.html published on SundayTimes on 24.11.2019

“Young Eye on Nature” the annual wildlife photography exhibition and “Kin Wild” the annual wildlife arts exhibition by the Young Zoologists Association (YZA) will be held on November 28, 29 and 30 at the J.D.A. Perera Art Gallery, Colombo 7.

‘Kin Wild’ -the exhibition of wildlife paintings and sketches is the longest running wildlife art exhibition in the country. The Young Zoologists Association established the ‘Wildlife Arts’ group in 1989 to assist youth talented in drawing.  YZA held the first wildlife art exhibition in 1990 and since then it has been an annual event.

YZA initiated its wildlife photography exhibition to showcase the talent of its young members who chose photography as a media to capture the beauty of nature long before the digital age of photography. YZA groom the youth who aspire to be wildlife photographers teaching them techniques, while guiding them to take the ethical path. Its members use wildlife photography as a tool to raise awareness among the public on the need to conserve nature.

YZA is conducting Wildlife Art and Wildlife Photography classes every Sunday at the National Zoological Gardens, Dehiwala. The best art and photographs by its members chosen through a selection process will be showcased at these exhibitions.

Entrance is free for these exhibitions.

He uses his brush to capture them on canvas, he smiles and “as a birdwatcher, when I visit the wilds, I do literally ‘brush’ with birds letting my eyes pass through gently observing without disturbing them,” says Lester explaining the exhibition title.

A well known bird artist who has been featured as a guest artist in prestigious international exhibitions held in the UK and France, in 2005, Lester donated some of his paintings to be auctioned at the British Bird Watching Fair in Leicestershire, with the proceeds going to the conservation of birds in the Orient.

‘Brush with Birds’ is Lester’s 10th exhibition in Sri Lanka. He had his last exhibition, ‘Wild in Ruins’ in 2014 on a different theme, painting birds and nature in archaeological sites such as Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Most of the paintings in ‘Wild in Ruins’ were in black and white, but ‘Brush with Birds’ brings birds to life in colour.

“For me, visiting the wilderness is like a visit to a religious place which calms me. I look at every detail and freeze those moments in my mind like someone taking a picture. Even a dead branch has a lot of detail to pay attention to,” he says.

“Brush with Birds” will be at the Harold Peiris gallery of the Lionel Wendt on December 6, 7 and 8 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Entrance is free.

It is thought the animal is in distress and disoriented as the waters around Sri Lanka are much warmer than the water they naturally live in the deep Antarctic.

As the animal is resting passively on rocks it was assumed at first that it was wounded or ill. The navy and some fishermen attempted to capture the seal to check its condition but they found it to be fit and strong when it pulled a net away from them and escaped.

The Director-General of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, Chandana Sooriyabandara, said officers would not try to catch the seal again.

“Let it be free in our waters. Let the animal decide what it wants,” he said.

The problem is that local residents gather whenever the seal surfaces to gain a glimpse of the unusual visitor, some of them going very close to it to take photographs and video.

Marine mammals expert Dr. Asha de Vos asked for the seal to be given space to rest.

“Elephant seals live in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions so its native range would be several kilometres away from home. He is lost but might soon try to start finding its way back. It needs rest before starting its journey back,” she said.

She also warned about safety. The seal looks passive and does not move until people get very close. “But if threatened, the seal can be dangerous as it could pounce back, biting,” Dr. de Vos said.

The southern elephant seal is the largest seal species in the world with males weighing as much as four tons.

Experts believe this individual could have begun its long journey from a seal colony on Kerguelen Island in the north Antarctic, 6,400km from Sri Lanka.

Marine watcher Ranil Nanayakkara said photographs of old wounds on the seal indicated it could have been travelling for several months.

“Those rounded wounds on its back could have been caused by bites by cookie-cutter sharks,” he said. These sharks, which can grow to 22 inches, live in warm waters so this could indicate that the seal spent some time in warm waters, Mr. Nanayakkara said.

Mr. Nanayakkara warned that deeper waters around Sri Lanka would also not be safe for the seal on its return journey as there could be killer whales, which often hunt seals. 

“Perhaps the seal had been forced to change its normal route in an attempt to escape such attacks and became caught in a current that dragged it all the way to Sri Lanka,” Mr. Nanayakkara said.

A ranger at the Hikkaduwa DWC office, Uthpala Adaranga, said there was a danger of the seal becoming entangled in fishing nets as it came close to shore, and he appealed to fishermen and other locals to alert rangers if the animal was seen or found in distress.

Marine mammals veterinary surgeon Claire Simeone of the Marine Mammals Center in the United States said elephant seals eat squid and deepwater fish, and finding this prey might be a challenge for an seal this far from home.

Dr. Simeone said southern elephant seals only come onto land twice a year, to mate and for their fur to moult. While it is rare for them to come farther north than the sub-Antarctic islands where they live, there have been cases where seals have been spotted on beaches in South Africa or Brazil. There was a sighting of Southern Elephant Seal in Oman, the furthest until now in tropical waters.

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/as-nesting-season-begins-sri-lankas-olive-ridley-turtles-face-myriad-threats/  published on Mongabay on 04.12.2019

COLOMBO — The Sri Lankan Navy has rescued 32 sea turtles that were likely being reared for their flesh, highlighting just one of the key threats to turtles migrating through this Indian Ocean island at this time of year.

A naval patrol on Nov. 24 in the Gulf of Mannar, which separates Sri Lanka from India, initially identified a turtle trapped in a shrimping net. A team of sailors deployed to rescue the animal discovered more turtles trapped in the net. In all, they rescued 32 sea turtles, among them olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas).

Though turtles are frequently trapped by accident in fishing nets, it appears likely these animals had been caught elsewhere and corralled in these shrimp pens, according to navy spokesman Isuru Sooriyabandara. He told Mongabay that a patrol two days earlier, on Nov. 22, had seized 4 kilograms (9 pounds) of turtle flesh from a boat close to the same location, raising the prospect that local fishermen were keeping the turtles for later consumption.

Sri Lankan waters are home to five of the seven species of marine turtles: the green turtle, olive ridley, hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea).

It’s the first two, however, that account for nearly the entire population of nesting turtles in Sri Lanka: 68 percent are green turtles and 30 percent olive ridley turtles, according to the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA). While the peak nesting frequency for green turtles in this region runs from February to April, the period between November and March is prime time for olive ridleys, which flock in the hundreds of thousands to beaches around the Bay of Bengal, including parts of Sri Lanka, to nest.

But the rise in turtle numbers during this time of the year leads to a spike in hunting of the animals by local fishermen — a trend that navy spokesman Sooriyabandara said authorities were vigilant about.

Still, fishing nets set in the Gulf of Mannar and elsewhere accidentally catch a lot of turtles, especially in the final quarter of the year as they migrate across Sri Lanka waters to their breeding grounds, according to Thushan Kapurusinghe, the project leader of the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) in Sri Lanka.

Entangled in fishing nets

The TCP conducted its first olive ridley rescue program from September 1999 to March 2001, in a bid to save turtles entangled in nets. It hired a boat and followed fishermen as they went fishing at dusk. The nets were checked throughout the night for possible entanglements, and any turtles found were immediately released. Over the two and a half years of the project, a total of 278 olive ridleys were rescued, comprising 157 females, 86 males and 35 whose sex was undetermined.

“The monitoring was strenuous, as a fishing net could extend several kilometers and these are laid on considerable distances to prevent turtles from getting entangled. So only a portion of fishing nets could be monitored by the TCP boat each night,” Kapurusinghe said, adding that the real rate of entanglement was likely much higher.

Lalith Ekanayake, the chairman of the Bio Conservation Society (BCSSL), which also focuses on turtle conservation, said that while entangled turtles are able to keep their head up to breathe, the turtles that get caught deeper underwater are at high risk of drowning. Even those saved from the nets don’t always get away clean; many suffer injuries from the nylon mesh of the fishing nets, sometimes so severely that they require amputation of their flippers.

The IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Marine Turtles Specialist Group also recognizes the impact of fisheries as the biggest threat to marine turtles, while other threats include hunting, egg extraction and other pressures. “The turtles virtually everywhere are impacted by fisheries, especially longlines, gill nets and trawls. Millions of turtles are killed indirectly by fisheries every year worldwide,” said Roderic Mast, co-chair of IUCN-SSC Marine Turtle Specialist Group. Fishing nets that have been lost, abandoned or discarded at sea, known as ghost nets, pose the worst of fishing threats to turtles, Mast told Mongabay.

All marine turtle species found in Sri Lanka are listed as endangered on the country’s National Red List and are legally protected under the Fauna and Flora Protection Ordinance and the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Act. But laws alone can’t address the threats, Ekanayake said, adding that there needs to be greater awareness among fishing communities about their role in the issue. Both the BCSSL and the TCP run awareness campaigns about the importance of marine turtle conservation.

Turtle nesting sites abound all around Sri Lanka, with the major nesting beaches on the western, southwestern and southern coasts. There’s a rapid decline of turtles all over the island, Kapurusinghe said, especially the leatherback, hawksbill and loggerhead varieties.

“For example, the Rekawa nesting site [in the south] hasn’t seen a leatherback turtle in two years or a hawksbill in four years, which is alarming,” Kapurusinghe said.

Banner image of a turtle stuck in a fishing net. Image courtesy of the Bio Conservation Society.

Remnants of war were still evident in 2014 when this team launched its search operation in the Jaffna peninsula. Members combed the territory, checking muddy marshes, waterholes, beaches, thorny scrub jungles and abandoned facilities; they moved carefully across the rugged landscape, turning rocks, lifting decaying logs and even fallen palm leaves in their path.

Bombed out pits-turned freshwater pools have become home to Uda Handya fish (Killifish). Pic Sameera Karunarathna

They conducted the operation both in daytime and by stealth at night, maintaining silence and listening for movements and sounds from those disturbed by their presence. They chased down those trying to flee.

This team was, however, not a search party looking for caches of weapons or landmines but a group of herpetologists studying the reptiles and amphibians in the Jaffna peninsula.

Altogether, 44 species of reptiles and 15 species of amphibians were found, including 18 that had not previously been reported from Jaffna. The documented tally of the peninsula’s reptiles and amphibians now stand at 85 species.

The findings of the team, consisting of Majintha Madawala, Thilina Surasinghe, Dinesh Gabadage, Madhava Botejue, Indika Peabotuwage, Dushantha Kandambi, Sameera Karunaratna and well-known herpetologist Dr. Anslem de Silva, were published this week in the Russian Journal of Herpetology.

The team had some pleasant surprises.  “Soon after we landed from the boat on Delft island and had just started turning over fallen palm leaves we found 15 saw-scaled vipers, known as weli polanga in Sinhala.

“They are all venomous snakes, but it was a happy start for herpetologists like us,” study author Sameera Karunaratna said.

The last battles of the three-decade-long war took place at Nandikadal Lagoon and that is where the research team found the rare Beddome’s striped skink (Eutropis beddomei), a beautiful red skink that moves rapidly.  

“It is so fast and makes sudden moves to elude pursuers so you’d need at least a team of 10 people to catch one,” said Mr. Karunaratna, laughing. “The good news is that there is a healthy population of this skink.”

Among other special findings, the research team found a green whip snake (ahatulla) which is not common in this area.

Mr. Karunaratna said there is considerable urban biodiversity in Jaffna. “We found soft-shelled terrapins and hard-shelled terrapins in the drainage of Jaffna town itself,” he said. “We also found some empty shells that indicate they would have been targeted for meat.”

He said the team’s field survey was based on four field visits covering 12 days, so the area covered was small.

“The fact that we managed to find this many reptiles indicates that Jaffna and northern Sri Lanka could harbour even more reptile species,” Mr. Karunaratna said.

“Our study will provide a basic foundation for conservation planning and future research,” he said.

Eutropis-beddomei (Beddome’s stripe skink) found in Nandikadal

The southern elephant seal on the Kollupitiya beach on Saturday (c) Damith Danthanarayana

Southern elephant seals live in cold Antarctic regions and observers were mystified when this seal was initially spotted on a beach off Unawatuna on the south coast on November 20.

Since then it has made appearances around the coast, and in the days before reaching Colombo was seen at Lunawa on December 4, and prior to that in Wadduwa for two days and, before that, in Ahungalla on December 1.

Wherever the seal came to rest, locals gathered in numbers to photograph the unusual sight, sometimes disturbing the animal which lies passively on rocks.

Photographs taken by the paper’s Galle correspondent, Sugathapala Deeyagahage, indicated that the seal’s skin was damaged. The photographs were sent by The Sunday Times to noted veterinarian Dr. Claire Simeone of the Marine Mammals Centre in California, for her analysis.

Dr. Simeone, an expert in seal rescue and treatment, said the seal appeared to be moulting, a natural process whereby seals shed old skin annually to make way for a new one.

“Some seal species moult all of their fur and the top layer of skin over a short period once a year,” Dr. Simeone said. “Elephant seals come onto shore for a brief period to complete this normal step so that a new, clean coat can be revealed.”

Moulting is a normal process for many other species. The most familiar example is snakes, which shed their skin periodically. Some insects and spiders moult by shedding their rigid exoskeleton to let the organism grow. Birds shed old, worn feathers to replace them with fresh plumage. Cats and dogs shed fur in warm weather.

“While most animals, like pet dogs, shed hairs year-round, elephant seals do it all at once,” Dr. Simeone said. “The process is so abrupt that it’s called a ‘catastrophic’ moult. Because the animal is susceptible to the cold during this period it spends the entire month ‘hauled out’ on land.”

“During this time it spends most of the time dozing and lazily flipping sand onto itself in an attempt to manage body temperature. It doesn’t eat and may lose up to 25 per cent of its body weight. Please do not attempt to move it back into the ocean,” marine mammals expert Dr. Asha de Vos of Oceanswell added. 

Dr. Simeone said the catastrophic moult process is very taxing for the animal, so it was best to give this seal plenty of space to rest.

An expert on southern elephant seals, Dr. Greg Hofmeyr of the Port Elizabeth Museum in South Africa, states that when moulting, the old skin of the elephant seal starts to peel off like wallpaper.

He said the first real evidence of the moult is often seen behind the front flippers and around the eyes, and the entire moult takes about four weeks, with the two weeks in the middle being the most intensive.

Dr. Hofmeyr said when seals come ashore for the moult they will typically move a few times to select a good spot, and then lie in that spot for three to four weeks unless they are disturbed.

“Since the seal in Sri Lanka looks like it is in good condition, I don’t think that the moult will be an issue for him,” Dr. Hofmeyr said assuringly.

He suggested a group of volunteers be formed to keep people away from the seal. “Perhaps keep people 20m away, though the response of the seal will determine whether the distance is suitable. We used this system to guard an adult ellie seal and pup over 20 days in October-November this year. Since she was nervous, we had to keep people 100m away,” Dr. Hofmeyr said..

Dr. de Vos warned that as the moulting process is intensive the seal could feel vulnerable and threatened and become aggressive if anyone went too close to it.

“We continue to ask that people maintain a distance of at least 25m from the seal to give it sufficient space to go through this important lifecycle event,” she said.

Dr. de Vos requested any updates on the seal’s progress to be sent to of Oceanswell through @OceanswellOrg on Facebook and Instagram.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/191215/news/you-better-watch-out-antarctic-seal-in-town-382887.html published on 15.12.2019 on SundayTimes

It seems the elephant seal from the Antarctic might be here for Christmas, continuing to attract crowds and cause traffic jams in Colombo. The southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina) that was first spotted on November 20 off Unawatuna has been resting on rocks off Wellawatte and Kollupitiya in Colombo, creating traffic congestion along the Marine Drive as curious crowds gather to watch it.

The closest colony of southern elephant seals is 6,500km from Sri Lanka, in Antarctica. This seal, which has apparently been driven here by ocean currents, is resting on Lankan beaches while going through what is termed a “catastrophic moult”.

“The moulting is an annual process for elephant seals go through and that is why its face has strips of fur falling off. This will happen all along its body, and the moult takes about four weeks,” marine mammals expert Dr. Asha de Vos of Oceanswell said.

“During this period the animal is basically shedding hair and skin, making it look pretty scabby but also making it pretty grumpy – please respect its need for space,” Dr. de Vos said.

She applauded navy and wildlife officers for controlling the crowds to give the seal rest.

When the seal was first sighted off southern Sri Lanka, it was speculated that the animal was sick as it was often seen passively resting on rocks. There was an attempt to capture it to check its health, but Dr. de Vos said the animal was healthy.

“The information going around that the animal is sick is not accurate. We have continued to monitor its body condition and have been talking with seal experts in the USA and South Africa who work with these species.

“Our assessment is that this animal is healthy and going through a completely normal process, so leave it alone,” Dr. de Vos appealed.

As the moulting process may take few more weeks to complete, it is thought the Antarctic seal will celebrate Christmas in Sri Lanka before heading back home or wandering the seas.

The Sinharaja rainforest harbors high endemism. Image courtesy of Vimukthi Weeratunga.

Published on Mongabay on 17.12.2020 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/sri-lankas-sinharaja-rainforest-reserve-to-be-quadrupled-in-size/

Colombo – Sri Lanka plans to quadruple the size of the protected area inside its last viable rainforest, in a nod to the ecological significance of the region. The Sinharaja Forest Reserve currently spans 8,864 hectares (21,903 acres) in the island’s southwest and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 because of its rich and unique plant and animal life.

Over the years, however, this prime lowland rainforest  and the areas surrounding it have faced multiple threats, ranging from illegal logging and cardamom cultivation, to unauthorized settlements and gem mining. To counter this fragmentation of the forest, the Sri Lankan government has opted to incorporate surrounding forests into the reserve, effectively increasing the size of the protected area four times to 36,000 ha (88,960 acres).

The proposed expansion was signed last month by Maithripala Sirisena during the final days of his presidency, and is now awaiting formal notification via gazette.

Sri Lanka has two different types of protected areas: one managed by the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and the other by the Forest Department. Sinharaja falls under the jurisdiction of the latter, and the newly expanded area will be formally declared as part of the Sinharaja Forest Reserve, to be governed under the Forest Ordinance.

The forests that surround it harbor similarly high levels of biodiversity and endemism as the core area, and the importance of bringing these forests under the protected area network was identified years ago. The National Conservation Review (NCR) published in 1997 proposed 12 such satellite forests to be declared as protected area for their conservation value. Known as the Sinharaja Adaviya (Sinharaja Range), this would create a contiguous forest complex comprising the existing reserve and the neighboring forests of Ayagama, Delgoda, Dellawa, Delmella-Yatagampitiya, Diyadawa, Kobahadukanda, Morapitiya-Runakanda-Neluketiya Mukalana, Warathalgoda, Silverkanda, Handapanella, Gongala and Paragala. Much of these have been proposed for absorption into the protected area under the new scheme.

Thilak Premakantha, a conservator with the Forest Department, told Mongabay that it took a long time for the demarcation of new boundaries, starting in early 2000. Generally, a gazette notification declaring a protected area runs into one or two pages, but the new gazette declaring the expansion of Sinharaja is 80 pages long. The draft is now being finalized, pending a vigorous process of verification of GPS coordinates, which is expected to delay the publication of the gazette notice by a few more weeks, Premakantha said.

The culmination of the years-long process will be a vindication of the strenuous work of local scientists and recognition that their recommendations have been given serious consideration, said Nimal Gunatilleke, emeritus professor at the University of Peradeniya. Gunatilleke was among the long-term campaigners calling for greater protection of the Sinharaja region, including through his opposition to a mechanized logging project in the 1970s there to produce plywood.

A biodiversity hotspot

Researchers helped Sinharaja be recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, identifying more than 60% of its trees as endemic and many of them as rare. They also estimate the forest reserve is home to more than 50% of Sri Lanka’s endemic species of mammals and butterflies, as well as many birds, insects, reptiles and rare amphibians.

According to Gunatilleke, in addition to its biodiversity significance, Sinharaja has tremendous value in terms of ecosystem services. “For example, the headwater of few of Sri Lanka’s main rivers such as Nilwala and Gin Ganga are enriched by the water that flows into them through the forests of the Sinharaja complex. So if not for biological diversity, we should protect these forests for our own survival,” he said.

In Sri Lanka, a forest reserve has similar status to a national park, both of which are managed by wildlife conservation authorities and where research and nature-based tourism are permitted. But unlike a national park, a forest reserve is potentially open to human activities, under a stringent permit system, thus allowing non-destructive forestry activities that are central to the livelihoods of communities living adjacent to the forests, Premakantha said.

Expanding the forest reserve in Sinharaja to include neighboring forests would help stave off a number of threats such as encroachment, hunting, logging, illegal gem mining, and overharvesting of forest products such as agarwood. “The new declaration would provide much-needed legal backing for the protection of these forests which contain high value of biological diversity,” said botanist Suranjan Fernando. “However, the next step is to ensure practical enforcement. With the expansion of the reserve area, the land extent that is to be monitored by forest officials is extensive. So it is important to establish more presence to ensure enforcement.”

Suranjan said villagers living close to Sinharaja need a sustainable management plan that would support the conservation aim of creating corridors to link the forests, to prevent fragmentation.

“These villages in between forest patches would require the setting up of planned home gardens which in turn can support the biodiversity corridors,” he said. A key crop cultivated in the area is tea, but tea plantations aren’t considered ecological friendly. Finding alternative livelihoods for tea growers living adjacent to the forests is a vital next step, Suranjan said.

The area is dotted by a number of traditional villages whose residents depend on a number forest services. These include the tapping of the kitul flower to collect syrup to make treacle and jaggery sugar, the harvesting of rattan climber for the production of natural cane, and the collection of herbs and firewood.

These traditional activities do no harm to the forest, and have allowed the villagers to live sustainably in the rainforest for centuries, Premakantha said, and thus should be encouraged over other, more destructive, practices.

“These villagers lived in harmony with nature, deriving many benefits from the forests,” he said. “It is poverty that converts some of them to engage in illegal and harmful practices.”

Banner image of a white monkey from the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in southern Sri Lanka, courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle.

The female elephant calf was thirsty. Standing in the shallows of a water hole at dusk, it hurriedly sucked water into its trunk. It then curled its little trunk toward its mouth in an attempt to quench its thirst but there wasn’t a proper mouth to take in the trunk: the calf had lost his tongue; the small, fleshy base of what used be his tongue made a futile effort to guide the water down his throat.

The three-year-old elephant’s upper mouth palate had been totally smashed, creating a large wound that was infected. Its jaw and teeth were all blasted and the torn lower lip was rotting, attracting swarms of flies.

This has been the sad plight of victims of the little jaw bombs – illegal improvised explosive devices often hidden in food to explode in mouth when an unwary animal munches them. The bombs are commonly called hakka patas – hakka meaning jaw and patas denoting the sound of a blast.

The veterinary surgeon and team of the Department of Wildlife Conservation’s (DWC) Central Wildlife Region rushed to Nildandahinna area in Walapane after villagers told them about the injured calf.

They found it standing on the bank of the Uma Oya, sedated it, cleaned its mouth and provided saline as the suffering animal was weak: it was unable to eat or drink.

The vet, Dr. Akalanka Pinidiya, also injected strong antibiotics against infection in the injuries but he clearly knew the elephant would not survive its wounds.

“It is actually nearly impossible to successfully treat a hakka patas victim,” Dr. Tharaka Prasad, who heads the DWC’s veterinary unit said. “Our veterinary surgeons are helpless in most cases and can just employ painkillers until certain death ends the victim’s agony.”

The Anuradhapura wildlife range is one of the worst hotspots for hakka patas. The veterinary surgeon in charge of the range, Dr. Chandana Jayasinghe, said he had encountered hundreds of hakka patas victims during his 15 years of service.

“We saved the lives of only a handful of hakka patas victims, those that had minor injuries,” Dr. Jayasinghe said.

Hakka patas are a relatively new threat to Sri Lanka’s dwindling elephant population, with the first victims recorded around 2008.

The improvised device is made by mixing gunpowder with tightly-packed small stones or other hard materials. A chewing motion makes the hard bits grind against each other and set off sparks that ignite the gunpowder.  

Because the device is tightly packed the pressure makes an explosion. This explosion is usually powerful enough to kill its main target, wild boar, but larger animals such as elephants do not die instantly.

Hakka patas became the main cause of elephant deaths in 2017 and 2018, overtaking the deaths by gunshot wounds. In 2019, out of a total of 395 elephants killed, hakka patas deaths were high as 67, only four fatalities short of the 71 gunshot deaths.

Data from the wildlife department shows a sharp decrease in elephants dying from gunshots in 2010-2013 and a sharp increase of hakka patas mortalities during the same period. These deaths have kept increasing.

Last year, 67 elephants fell victims to hakka patas and, tragically, half – 35 – were less than 10 years old.

Hakka patas deaths are the main cause of deaths for elephants less than five years of age: 14 baby elephants less than five years were victims of hakka patas last year, 13 of them being male. Elephant experts point out that male elephant babies are more playful and curious about their surroundings.

In 2016, a 10-year-old boy in Hambegamuwa died when a hakka patas exploded in his mouth. On several other occasions, children playing with hakka patas laid for animals suffered injuries when the devices exploded.

It is not easy to apprehend the culprits who set these explosive devices, DWC Director-General Chandana Sooriyabandara said.

“When an animal is killed using a gun or poison, poachers leave some traces but in case of these explosive devices, it is extremely difficult to trace culprits as the victims are often found in a different area from where the devices were placed,” Mr. Sooriyabandara said.

Also, unlike when using a gun, it is easier for offenders to hide or throw away these little devices when they encounter law enforcement officers, he added.

Elephant researcher Dr. Prithviraj Fernando stressed that the issue must be addressed both from elephant conservation and anti-poaching angles since these devices are mainly set up for wild boar.  

“The only way to address the issue is to use peer pressure to try to stop poachers from using this inhumane killing method,” Dr. Fernando said.

The Centre for Environmental Justice conducts a number of awareness campaigns in hakka patas hotspots for schoolchildren, using temples as venues, to raise awareness of the agony of deaths caused by these disguised explosives.

Experts say the problem could be alleviated by using intelligence networks in villages. Hakka patas cannot be made by everybody: there is a technique to making them and only a few people in a village would have the skills; most often, other villagers know who is responsible.

It is suggested that police or the Civil Defence Force to be authorised to set up such intelligence networks.

Another hakkapatas victim (C) Dr. Vijitha Perera

There will be protests to protect forests such as Wilpattu, Sinharaja and even mangroves. “But are we concerned enough about the conservation of marine species and the marine ecosystems that support them?” questioned Nishan Perera, marine biologist at the Blue Resources Trust.

“As a society, we do not traditionally consider fish as wildlife, only as food. This perception has become a block in conserving our marine resources,” he said in an address to the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society.

The popular yellow-fin tuna (Thunnus albacares), locally known as kelawalla, is now “near-threatened” according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Its cousin in the Atlantic Ocean, the bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) is already categorised as “endangered” due to overfishing. Many species of sharks and rays are termed “vulnerable”.

“endangered” fish species such as hump-head wrass (Cheilinus undulates) end up on our plates.

According to the Red List, overfishing has pushed two families of rays, wedgefishes and giant guitarfishes in Sri Lankan waters to the brink of extinction, their populations declining more than 80 per cent in the past 45 years.

Sadly, these fish are not even being targeted by fishermen but simply caught most often as bycatch – captured accidentally in nets. Most rays and sharks are slow breeders.

“I dive in many places around Sri Lanka and witness a lot of illegal fishing activity,” Mr. Perera said, citing over-large nets, dynamiting and bottom-trawling among such illegal fishing methods.

“We shouldn’t be sympathetic towards these fishermen. Stringent measures have to be taken,” he urged.

Resources are not always aimed at priority interventions. A prime example, Mr. Perera said, was the case of several teams being deployed to protect the southern elephant seal from the Antarctic that came accidentally into local waters while not using similar efforts to curb everyday violations of fishing around Colombo.

“Building innovative public-private partnerships, empowering local communities to help with surveillance and monitoring, and increasing communication and networking are cost-effective ways of improving management,” Mr. Perera said in his lecture, delivered on February 20.

“This has been done in many other developing nations such as Maldives, Kenya, Tanzania, Indonesia, Philippines, and Fiji.

“Increasing funding alone will not solve the problem. Many past conservation projects have resulted in large sums of money being spent with little to no change on the ground.”

There is little enforcement even for the protected marine sanctuaries, Mr. Perera said, pointing out that the Department of Wildlife Conservation lacked manpower and direction to conserve marine wildlife.

Mr. Perera said Sri Lanka needs to declare more marine protected areas to lessen the damage from unsustainable fishing but admitted this was not easy.

“The recent declaration of a small area of around 950ha as the Kayankerni Marine Sanctuary was opposed by the fisheries lobby even though only a few fishermen actually fish within the sanctuary, and it was agreed to allow limited, regulated fishing within the sanctuary,” he said.

Almost 99 per cent of the east coast remained open to fishing and the areas under protection were very small.

Protected areas can act as breeding grounds, with excess fish moving outside the protected area and having positive impacts on fish catches in the long term. This is well documented in other countries, Mr. Perera said.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/200301/news/jaw-breakers-endangering-lives-of-children-and-pets-394590.html Published on SundayTimes on 01.03.2020

Jaw bombs used to harm elephants could also end up being a social issue, activists warn.

Laura, a playful female German Shephard who suffered grievous injuries to her jaw from a hakka patas blast eventually succumbed to the injuries

Children and domestic animals including pets are falling victim to the small explosive devices called ‘hakka patas’.

Recently, a four-year-old pet dog suffered fatal injuries.

Laura, a playful female German Shephard, owned by Amila Sanjeew who lives in Passara, Badulla, had raised the dog in  his wife’s home in nearby Madolsima village.

On February 17, they had ignored what they thought was a firecracker blast, but the following morning they found Laura lying in a pool of blood at their front door.

They rushed the dog to a veterinary surgeon. The dog’s jaw was shattered in four places, and the tongue damaged. Steel rods were used to fix the jaw in a five-hour surgery.

Laura appeared to be recovering but she began bleeding from the nose and started to show signs of paralysis. Her condition worsened and she died on  February 27.

The explosion is believed to have damaged the brain as well.

Hakka patas is not uncommon in Passara.

Sanjeew believes that someone had planted the hakka patas to harm the dog, which usually would not stray further from their garden. “She likes to play with balloons. There were pieces of a balloon in the roof of the jaw. The device had been set up in a balloon,” said Sanjeew.

Hakka patas is a small improvised explosive device made of gun powder and small particles like rocks mixed and tightly packed like a potato. Hidden in food, the explosives are often used to kill wild boar and other animals, but causes collateral damage.

It is only last week that the Sunday Times reported that hakka patas had become the leading killer of elephants in Sri Lanka, accounting for 67 deaths in 2019.

It is mostly elephant calves that are less than 10 years old that suffer, but there also incidents of humans being wounded.

These jaw breakers have wounded children, sometimes fatally.

A 10-year-old boy died in Hambegamuwa in 2016. The boy had tried to bite into one, a media report said.

On February 3, in Deraniyagala, an eight-year-old boy suffered severe injuries to his arm after dashing a hakka patas on a boulder. His 11-year-old sister was also injured.

Mala Ranjani in Ingiriya lost her hand due to a hakka patas explosion in 2015

Both had been  admitted to Avissawella Hospital and the boy was later transferred to Colombo General Hospital.

In October last year, in Wanduramba in the Galle district, an eight-year-old girl was wounded in an explosion along with her brother. She had been playing with an object she found.

A suspect was later arrested with hakka patas.

Meanwhile, the Janasansadaya people’s forum, through a video on their YouTube channel reveals information about a 30-year-old woman, Mala Ranjani in Ingiriya who had lost her hand due to a hakka patas explosion in 2015. Her daughter had found the explosive on their land. Ms Ranjani had tried to prise it open with a knife and it had exploded.

There are wildlife poachers too, who have lost their fingers while attempting to make or setup hakka patas.

Domestic animals like cattle are among victims.

According to Hemantha Withanage of the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), villagers often know who makes these explosives.

Sri Lankans should act fast before it causes widespread damage, he said.

http://www.sundaytimes.lk/200308/news/unsung-eco-warrior-gains-long-due-protection-395606.html published on SundayTimes 08.03.2020 

Vidattaltivu mangrove forest in Mannar district (c) EFL

A hugely underrated eco-warrior is only now gaining national protection with the first steps being taken to safeguard existing mangrove forests and reclaim lost growth.

Forest Officer Devanee Jayathilaka’s courageous stance in protecting a mangrove patch in the Negombo lagoon has brought welcome media attention to the issue, speakers at this week’s National Workshop on Community-Based Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Restoration said, revealing crucial first steps to protect Sri Lanka’s mangroves.

Mangroves absorb more atmospheric carbon than other trees, making them a critical asset in the fight against global warming.

“The 2004 tsunami was an eye-opener about the importance of mangroves, which protect coastal areas from sea surges by absorbing the raging power of the waves,” Mala Amarasinghe of the Kelaniya University’s Botany Department said. “There were many reports of mangroves protecting villages from the tsunami.

“Mangroves are full of life because they also attract other biodiversity. They are good breeding grounds for fish because their root system provides perfect protection for small fish from predators.”

The Mangrove Task Force approved by Cabinet on January 20 has produced a Mangrove Conservation Policy, the head of the Environment Ministry’s Biodiversity Secretariat, Padma Abeykoon, told the conference, organised by Sri Lankan Youth Climate Action Network Trust.

Gaining approval for the policy was an important milestone, Dr. Sevvandi Jayakody of the University of Wayamba said, explaining that mangroves are seen as areas to be “developed” rather than conserved.

Another problem was that mangroves are considered nobody’s baby as mangrove patches in different parts of the country came under different agencies.

The Forest Department is now working to get the mangroves under its network of protected areas, the department’s Deputy Conservator, Nishantha Edirisinghe, said. He said 76 mangrove patches were declared forest reserves in 2019, with plans to include 12 more this year.

“Sri Lanka set a mangrove restoration target of 10,000ha by 2030. We have already initiated this programme and started a pilot project attempting to restore a few plots of abandoned shrimp farms that were previously mangrove lands,” Mr. Edirisinghe said.

Research in 2017 found that about 1,000-1,200ha of mangroves across 23 project sites have been under restoration.

Dismayingly, the failure rate is huge: only 200-220ha showed successful restoration; nine out of 23 project sites had no surviving plants. Only three sites – Kalpitiya, Pambala, and Negombo – showed a level of survival higher than 50 per cent.

Fresh threats to mangroves were revealed by environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardane when he informed the conference about renewed attempts to gain approval for a shrimp farm in Wedithalathivu, in Mannar, which harbours one of the country’s largest mangrove forests and was declared a Nature Reserve in 2016.

Just a year after being declared a protected area, the National Aquaculture Development Authority proposed that a 1,000ha industrial park for farming fish, crabs and exotic shrimp species be established there, involving a fishery with a history of failures across Asia, and a record of widespread destruction of mangroves. That plan is now being pushed again. Mr. Gunawardane said.

Fire at garbage dump at Muthurajawela adjacent to a mangrove patch (c) Dinusha Nanayakkara

Coral is created by tiny creatures called coral polyphs, whose hard exoskeletons become part of the coral. To obtain food, these polyps often build a harmonious symbiotic partnership with the zooxanthellae algae, which produce food through photosynthesis and become the corals’ food supplier and also their source of colour.

Increasing temperatures cause the algae to leave the polyps, leaving the latter without food and vulnerable to disease. The coral gradually goes white without the algae and dies – a process called coral bleaching.

Dying corals performing the dance of death

“During this process of coral bleaching some of the corals can appear much more colourful and brightly fluorescent. This is a spectacular sight – but it is only the dance of death of the corals,” Mr. Rajasuriya said.

As the sea surface temperature rises as a result of global warming, corals are at risk of dying everywhere and are the most threatened organisms on the planet, he added.

Coral bleaching is a serious problem in Sri Lanka with the live coral coverage of number of reefs having fallen to just 10-20 per cent of what they used to be. This is a worrying fact globally, with Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef, for example, losing more than half of its live coral coverage mainly due to bleaching.

In order to highlight the impact of global warming on fragile coral ecosystems, a global campaign was launched last week on World Wildlife Day, March 3, called “Glowing, glowing, gone”, displaying three new colours symbolising the hues that dying corals take on prior to bleaching.

The campaign was initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme and The Ocean Agency, an international NGO dedicated to marine conservation, partnered by graphic design giant Adobe and the colour design company, Pantone Colour Institute.

In a press release, Adobe described how corals produce brightly-coloured chemicals as a kind of sunscreen against fatally high water temperatures and sun exposure. “This glowing phenomenon, called coral fluorescence, is a final line of defence before the coral dies and bleaches to white. It’s been described as ‘a most beautiful death’,” Adobe said.

“Only a handful of people have ever witnessed the highly visual spectacle of corals ‘glowing’ in vibrant colours in a desperate bid to survive underwater heatwaves,”  The Ocean Agency founder, Richard Vevers, said in a statement. “Yet this phenomenon is arguably the ultimate indicator of one of our greatest environmental challenges — ocean warming and the loss of coral reefs.

“Glowing corals are a highly visual sign of climate change — an attention-grabbing indicator that we’ve reached a tipping point for the planet. We’ve turned these warning colours into colours to inspire action that everyone can use.”

 

The new colors

Pantone, Adobe and The Oceans Agency together captured the exact colours of coral fluorescence and named them Glowing Yellow, Glowing Blue and Glowing Purple

Pantone, Adobe and The Oceans Agency together captured the exact colours of coral fluorescence and named them Glowing Yellow, Glowing Blue and Glowing Purple. They say this is the palette of colours of climate change that call “citizens of the world to recognise Earth’s major ecosystems in peril”.

Why worry so much about coral reefs, Arjan Rajasuriya was asked. “Corals are like the canary in the coal mine, acting as an indicator of upcoming disasters,” he replied. “The ocean surface absorbs large amounts of climate change heat, and corals are the first sign of increasing temperatures.

“There will be more catastrophes – the excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will make oceans more acidic, and that will also have an impact on fishing,” Mr. Rajasuriya said.