Latam Eco Review: 'Andean ostrich' gets some bling and Patagonia pumas protected
Latam Eco Review: ‘Andean ostrich’ gets some bling and Patagonia pumas protected
by Mongabay.com on 8 February 2019
The most recent top stories from our Spanish-language service, Mongabay Latam, followed Romeo, the incredibly rare Bolivian frog who’s finally found a mate; puma protection in Patagonia National Park; and the “Andean ostrich” that now features on a Peruvian coin.
Love over extinction: Bolivia’s ‘Romeo’ frog finds his Juliet
After a decade of solitude, Romeo, the last male Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare) in captivity, finally found his Juliet. After a global campaign raised $25,000 for an expedition into the frog’s cloud forest habitat in Bolivia, five other frogs were found, two of them female. While the fundraising campaign promoted the image of a love story, it is more a last-ditch effort against imminent extinction.
The Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare) in the aquarium where it has lived for the last 10
years. Image by Robin Moore.
Newest Peruvian coin features ‘Andean ostrich’
The seventh edition of Peru’s Endangered Wildlife coin features a lesser rhea (Rhea pennata), also known as Darwin’s rhea, a bird endemic to South America that is listed for protection under CITES Appendices I and II (though the IUCN Red List classifies it as being of “least concern” in terms of vulnerability). The coin, in circulation since Dec. 17, carries the image of the bird, also known as the Andean ostrich, which is the largest in South America, reaching up 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in height. Illicit hunting, habitat loss and theft of its eggs are the principal threats to the lesser rhea’s survival.
The seventh edition of the Endangered Wildlife coin collection of Peru is dedicated to the lesser rhea. Image courtesy of the Central Bank of Peru.
Lying with lambs: Chilean reserve finds a way for pumas and sheep to co-exist
“We showed that you can live with predators and not kill them,” said Cristián Saucedo, wildlife program administrator of Patagonia National Park in an interview with Mongabay Latam. Saucedo described a pilot program that permits sheep grazing in the park but prohibits hunting pumas that once preyed on them. At one time more than 30,000 sheep grazed in the area; now a hundred farmers use the Great Pyrenees breed of dogs to guard them. As a result, the entire ecosystem and its resident wildlife, including pumas (Puma concolor), the Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) and the lesser rhea (Rhea pennata pennata), are recovering.
More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/latam-eco-review-andean-ostrich-gets-some-bling-and-patagonia-pumas-protected/
(My bolding.)
