529
In each instance, these sanctuaries all had to supersede conflict, applying data
sets recovered with grueling persistence against cultures of poaching, palm oil
extraction, the hatred of wolves, or illegal trade in wildlife, government intransigency, controversial in situ versus ex situ trade-offs, fear of bears, illegal logging
interests and corrupt officials, land negotiations with farmers and/or indigenous
peoples who had for decades been undermined by forces beyond their control.
Every conceivable conflict and obstacle invariably dragged on for years as a precondition of the many ecological luminaries in each instance ultimately saving some
piece of precious turf. Both situational and normative ethical mores come to the fore
in any animal rights initiatives. These are not “virtue” or descriptive ethics, but caseby- case instances of desperation, as with one of the rarest seabirds in North America
(Kittlitz’s murrelet, Brachyramphus brevirostris), whose waning life-histories are
being systematically studied and championed by researchers with the US Fish and
Wildlife Service; the beleaguered orangutans of Tanjung Puting National Park and
their champion, Dr. Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas (b. 1946).
Without her, one of humanity’s closest relatives, the Borneo orangutan, one of
two Ponginae family Pongos, Pongo pygmaeus, might not have survived to this day.
Between 50% and 70% of them have been extirpated—150,000 individuals killed
between 2002 and 2018. The same 11th hour emergency efforts have been expended
by Ms. Marieta Van Der Merhe and her family at the 25,000 acre Harnas Wildlife
Sanctuary 185 miles east of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, where the Merhe’s and
local San tribe have protected, among others, the last large genetically robust populations of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus; Fig. 56.2).
56.3 The Hotspots Methodology
In a feature film documentary titled “Hotspots”
10
with Dr. Russell A. Mittermeier
(then President of Conservation International), we examined a similarly illustrative
array of conservation efforts involving dozens of partnerships from numerous protected areas of New Zealand, to Chilean Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the Atlantic Rain
Forests of Brazil, the Tambopata National Park in Peru, and other national and state
parks, scientific reserves and a military base containing numerous endangered species, from Madagascar to California. Every effort, a massive series of liberations not
without compromise; of animal and habitat communions and commiserations,
involving the combined passions, anxieties and endurance of countless individuals
feb/15/dramatic-decline-in-borneos-orangutan-population-as-150000-lost-in-16-years, Accessed
May 26, 2020. See also, “Family Hominidae (“Great Apes”) in Handbook Of The Mammals Of The
World. Chief Editors, Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands and Don F. Wilson, Published
by Lynx Edicions in association with Conservation International and IUCN, 3. Primates, Barcelona,
Spain, 2013, pp. 792–793.
10 A Dancing Star Foundation Production, in Collaboration with Conservation International, with
KQED/PBS, www.hotspots-thefilm.org.
56.3 The Hotspots Methodology
In each instance, these sanctuaries all had to supersede conflict, applying data
sets recovered with grueling persistence against cultures of poaching, palm oil
extraction, the hatred of wolves, or illegal trade in wildlife, government intransigency, controversial in situ versus ex situ trade-offs, fear of bears, illegal logging
interests and corrupt officials, land negotiations with farmers and/or indigenous
peoples who had for decades been undermined by forces beyond their control.
Every conceivable conflict and obstacle invariably dragged on for years as a precondition of the many ecological luminaries in each instance ultimately saving some
piece of precious turf. Both situational and normative ethical mores come to the fore
in any animal rights initiatives. These are not “virtue” or descriptive ethics, but caseby- case instances of desperation, as with one of the rarest seabirds in North America
(Kittlitz’s murrelet, Brachyramphus brevirostris), whose waning life-histories are
being systematically studied and championed by researchers with the US Fish and
Wildlife Service; the beleaguered orangutans of Tanjung Puting National Park and
their champion, Dr. Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas (b. 1946).
Without her, one of humanity’s closest relatives, the Borneo orangutan, one of
two Ponginae family Pongos, Pongo pygmaeus, might not have survived to this day.
Between 50% and 70% of them have been extirpated—150,000 individuals killed
between 2002 and 2018. The same 11th hour emergency efforts have been expended
by Ms. Marieta Van Der Merhe and her family at the 25,000 acre Harnas Wildlife
Sanctuary 185 miles east of Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, where the Merhe’s and
local San tribe have protected, among others, the last large genetically robust populations of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus; Fig. 56.2).
56.3 The Hotspots Methodology
In a feature film documentary titled “Hotspots”
10
with Dr. Russell A. Mittermeier
(then President of Conservation International), we examined a similarly illustrative
array of conservation efforts involving dozens of partnerships from numerous protected areas of New Zealand, to Chilean Rapa Nui (Easter Island), the Atlantic Rain
Forests of Brazil, the Tambopata National Park in Peru, and other national and state
parks, scientific reserves and a military base containing numerous endangered species, from Madagascar to California. Every effort, a massive series of liberations not
without compromise; of animal and habitat communions and commiserations,
involving the combined passions, anxieties and endurance of countless individuals
feb/15/dramatic-decline-in-borneos-orangutan-population-as-150000-lost-in-16-years, Accessed
May 26, 2020. See also, “Family Hominidae (“Great Apes”) in Handbook Of The Mammals Of The
World. Chief Editors, Russell A. Mittermeier, Anthony B. Rylands and Don F. Wilson, Published
by Lynx Edicions in association with Conservation International and IUCN, 3. Primates, Barcelona,
Spain, 2013, pp. 792–793.
10 A Dancing Star Foundation Production, in Collaboration with Conservation International, with
KQED/PBS, www.hotspots-thefilm.org.
56.3 The Hotspots Methodology