Earth hope

Hog deer - Least known introduced species

by Uditha WIJESENA

The Spotted Deer (Scientific- Axis axis-Sinhala : Thith Muwa) is a deer species that has a historical record in Sri Lanka based on the arrival of Arahat Mahinda with his disciples and his dialogue with King Devanampiyatissa at Ambastale. This meeting of the two at Ambastale brings the first ever recorded declaration of a sanctuary for animals in the present day Mihintale.

The flagship species of the project was the Spotted Deer as the declared sanctuary was a royal deer hunting ground. ( Mahawansa chronicle ) Sri Lanka is home for more deer species other than the Spotted Deer. The spotted deer is generally found in the lowland dry zones while the Muntjak or the Barking Deer ( Scientific- Muntiacus muntjak -Sinhala : Weli Muwa-Olu Muwa) is distributed throughout the country? but more in plentiful in the northern dry zone forests but rare in the southern dry zone. It is also to be found in altitudes about 5000-6000 feet as well. Two other deer species are the Sambur Deer ( Scientific - Cervus unicolor - Sinhala: Gona) and the Mouse Deer ( Scientific - Moschiola meminna - Sinhala Miminna) .

There is but another deer in this country not heard of by many people other than those interested or studying wildlife; that is the Hog Deer (Scientific - Axis porcinus - Sinhala - Vil Muwa).

This article is to discuss the history of the Hog Deer in the country and the pathetic state that it has met with in the recent times.

The Hog Deer is generally a deer species peculiar to its habitat ranges from Pakistan, through northern India, to mainland of South-East Asia . It is also to be found in the Southwestern Yunnan province of China.

Its name the Hog Deer is got from the hog like manner in which it runs through the forests with its head hung low so that it can duck under obstacles instead of leaping over them like most other deer do when alarmed.

However in Sri Lanka its habitat is varied from the above and is confined to a very narrow strip of land in the South-Western coast of the wet zone from a few miles North of Kalutara to south wards to Kottawa in the Galle district (W.W.A. Phillips).

As of recent it is highly restricted to the Cinnamon cultivations stretching from Balapitiya to Batapola and Hikkaduwa.

There is no firm historic records found to describe the survival of this species in the country and it is believed that this species is an introduced species in the country. The best evidence to this is its non availability in the south of India and its very restricted range in Sri Lanka. It is believed that the progeny may have survived form pet deer becoming wild. It is interesting to find out how it may have entered the country even as pets.

Australia the land of the marsupials has had no deer species at all. However according to the Australian Deer Association all deer species have been introduced to the country and most of the introductions have been from Sri Lanka, Malaya and India. The Associations' notes quoted below are very informative.

Australia's Sambur ;? Sambar were obtained mainly from Sri Lanka with a smaller number coming from India.

They were first released in the early 1860s at Mount Sugarloaf in what is now the Kinglake National Park, and at Harewood, near Tooradin, on the edge of the then Koo Wee Rup swamp.

Australia's Spotted Deer; Chital, or axis deer as they are sometimes known, are natives of India and Sri Lanka where they comprise the major part of the tiger's prey. They were the first species of deer introduced to Australia when, between 1800 and 1803, some were brought to this country by Dr. John Harris of the New South Wales Corps. Australia's Hog Deer; Hog deer are among the most primitive of all the deer species introduced and are native to several south-east Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Burma.

Sri Lanka is known to have exported its fauna from ancient times and the period of introductions of deer to Australia prompt to the possibility that they would have used the port of Galle for this purpose. The live cargo may have been off loaded for fodder and water as the voyage may have taken several day. Also there would have been animal pens holding the live cargo until they were shipped or transferred to other ships. Port of Galle has been the business hub in the country during this period and is said to have been controlled by consortiums of seafarers who in return paid taxes to the Kandian Kingdom. It is also possible that these animals may have been sources of food supplied to the ships that called at the port of Galle. There is a location known as the Watering Point to this day, a fresh water spring at the sea side toe of the Bounavista Hill were the sail ships replenished their stocks (Seeing Ceylon-R L Brohier). It could be this food source which later developed in to a live cargo trade.

Similarly the Hog Deer too may have been in the trade transit, thus escaping in to the wild and adopting to the habitat in Sri Lanka in the cinnamon estates of the south west coast of Sri Lanka.

? The present day story of this deer species is not very welcoming. This deer was elusive for over a hundred years in this mainly water logged coastal habitat with the occasional high ground that was cultivated with cinnamon. The lush growth of cinnamon was ample cover for the deer during the day and the evenings brought them to the inaccessible watery feeding grounds in the tall reeds and grasses where they foraged till dawn.

Global climate change and the ever unpredictable commodity prices have effected unfavorably to man and beast in this new world.

The cinnamon prices the world over has been an all-time low during the past several years. Synthetic productions have overtaken conventional production with the high production costs. People have waited enough for the prices to pick, and through frustration has now started selling these cinnamon estates for other commercial purposes and housing needs. This has been going on for several years in a small scale but reached its peak last year. As a result the deer in these compounds were pushed to the remaining marshes. It is noted that there was some co-existence of this species with the human habitation during the last 10 years in the Ambalangoda and Batapola areas until recent.

The last five years we have seen much change in the global weather patterns.

Excessive dry weather to excessive wet weather was a common occurrence the world over. A balanced weather pattern has not been to stay within Sri Lanka as well. As a result of the prolonged dry weather the once water logged flood retention marshes dried up and the Hog Deer was to face a more severe problem in sourcing its fodder.

As is always the case when the situation is grave all wild creatures turn to other methods for survival and the Hog Deer too preferred to intrude the farm plots where they relished in the sweet potato foliage. Times have not been favorable ever since they turned to these nocturnal raids. The once co-existent deer-human relationship is no more.

The once friendly humans have turned brutal to these gentle creatures by killing them for meat. The lucky ones that got trapped or caught are handed over to the Department of Wild Life Conservation Office (DWLC) at Hikkaduwa. Of them some of the injured have been handed over to the Wild Life Society at Hiyare Galle. The treatment that these creatures get at the Society is sympathy to the utmost and the treatment is limited to the sympathetic Vet Doctor who gives his/her services free of charge with possible medication with the very meager funds. Maintaining them till recovery is a burden on the society itself. Sweet potato saplings are seasonal and are a hard to find commodity. This is the only known fodder that it prefers. The research into this deer is very minimal or nothing at all, as such trans-location and finding foraging grounds are issues to be addressed with proper conservation planning. I wonder if the DWLC is truly aware how grave the problem is with the Hog Deer today.

It was only in the beginning of this decade that we saw a once famous DWLC Director who had a vision to conserve on the Hog Deer having to leave early with the project being limited to an awareness T shirt only.

The Hog Deer may have been introduced to the country, but it has survived in the country for over a hundred years. This longer time in isolation may have even brought about very minute changes in its species character making it a new species unique to Sri Lankan. Time is running out for this deer in this country. Something needs to be done and it needs to be done very soon for otherwise those who have not seen this deer in the wilds of Sri Lanka will not see it forever.n

(Pix are exclusively from the author.)

 Global seed vault marks 1-year anniversary

With new evidence warning climate change threatens food production, scientists gather in Svalbard to discuss crop diversity and the vault's role in averting agricultural disaster LONGYEARBYEN, NORWAY (26 February 2009)-Four tons of seeds - almost 90,000 samples of hundreds of crop species - from food crop collections maintained by Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, USA, and three international agricultural research centers in Syria, Mexico and Colombia, were delivered today to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault as it celebrated its one-year anniversary. The repository, located near the village of Longyearbyen on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, has in one year amassed a collection of more than 400,000 unique seed samples - some 200 million seeds.

"We are especially proud to see such a large number of countries work quickly to provide samples from their collections for safekeeping in the vault," said Norwegian Agriculture Minister Lars Peder Brekk. "It shows that there are situations in the world today capable of transcending politics and inspiring a strong unity of purpose among a diverse community of nations." "The vault was opened last year to ensure that one day all of humanity's existing food crop varieties would be safely protected from any threat to agricultural production, natural or man made. It's amazing how far we have come toward accomplishing that goal," said Cary Fowler, Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which operates the seed vault in partnership with the Norwegian government and the Nordic Genetic Resource Center in Sweden.

For example, in its first year of operation, the vault at Svalbard has so far received duplicates of nearly half of the crop samples maintained by the genebanks of the international agricultural research centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

These international genebanks are seen as the custodians of the crown jewels of crop diversity. This diversity has been instrumental in the breeding of new varieties responsible for the remarkable productivity gains made in global agriculture in recent decades, and in averting food crises when farm production has been threatened by natural disasters, plant diseases, and plant pests.

To mark the anniversary of the vault, experts on global warming and its effects on food production have gathered in Longyearbyen to discuss how climate change could pose a major threat to food production, and to examine crop diversity's role in averting crisis. They include the authors of a study published last month in Science magazine warning that by the end of this century the average temperatures during growing seasons in many regions will probably be higher than the most extreme heat recorded over the last 100 years. Crop diversity will be required by scientists to breed new varieties able to flourish in such dramatically different conditions.

"This means that the vital importance of crop diversity to our food supply, which inspired the creation of the seed vault, is neither remote nor theoretical but immediate and real," said David Battisti, a climate change expert at the University of Washington and one of the lead authors of the paper.

"When we see research indicating that global warming could diminish maize production by 30 percent in southern Africa in only 20 years' time, it shows that crop diversity is needed to adapt agriculture to climate change right now," added Frank Loy, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs and an advisor to President Obama's transition team on environment and climate change, who is also attending.

With its new acquisitions, the vault is now providing a secure second home for a third of humanity's most important crop varieties, and a level of security for crop diversity conservation that was not available until a year ago. More genebanks and countries are in the process of signing agreements and preparing seeds collections to deposit in the vault.

Seeds arriving for the vault anniversary include samples of 32 varieties of potatoes in addition to oat, wheat, barley, and native grass species from two of Ireland's national genebanks. Ireland's participation and its inclusion of potato varieties is particularly appropriate for an occasion celebrating crop diversity. It was a lack of diversity that is believed to have made Ireland's potato crop particularly vulnerable to the devastating blight of the mid-1800s that led to the deaths of more than one million people.

In addition to Ireland's contribution, 3,800 samples of wheat and barley have come from Switzerland's national seed bank in Changins. The United States is sending 20,000 samples from the seed repository maintained by the Federal Department of Agriculture that represents 361 crop species.

They include samples of crop varieties that originally came from 151 countries and are now part of the US collection. Like all seeds coming to the vault, the samples arriving today are duplicates of seeds from other collections. The vault is intended to serve as a fail-safe backup should the original samples be lost or damaged or, more dramatically, to provide something of a Noah's ark for agriculture in the event of a global catastrophe. n

Source: Goinggreen
 

Wathurana Fresh Water Wetland

More faunal research necessary:

by Sajitha PREMATUNGE

Wetlands are important ecosystems, but we invariably concentrate on salt water wetland and tend to ignore fresh water ecosystems altogether. However this is exactly why more focus should be given to fresh water wetlands. The Bulathsinghala Walawwatta Wathurana Swamp Forest is the only remaining fresh water wetland in Sri Lanka.

Hidden away in the Kaluganga river basin, surrounded by tea and rubber plantations, the Wathurana extended over just 12 ha of privately owned land.

With the Batapola Ela, a tributary of Kaluganga, its water level raises some 3 - 4 m. Sudden seasonal floods occur, due to South Western Monsoons, during May to September.

Plants of the Garcinia genus are most abundant. The canopy layer of the wetland is made up of concentrated patches of Garcinia and six out of eight endemic Garcinia species are found in this wetland. The canopy is made up of mostly Macaranga, Garcinia species and Suwanda. The shrub layer consists of Hora wel and Lentheri and the ground layer Calumus.

The Wathurana swamp is significant because of its many point endemics nationally as well as globally threatened. Some of its endemics - such as Suwanda and Hora wel - are found nowhere else in the island. Moreover the main wild variety of Lentheri puwak is found in the area. It has high species diversity. The area's endemism is an impressive 40%. Vatica paludosa, Macaranga digyna. Wathurana is where the scientist Kostermans first rediscovered Hora wel, which was originally thought extinct. Since then many NGOs like IUCN (The World Conservation Union), CEA (Central Environmental Authority) and the YZA (Young Zoologists Association) have conducted many floristic inventories in the area, while Prof. Nimal Gunatilake, University of Peradeniya, encouraged its conservation. Gothamie Weerakoon, with the supervision of Dr. H.S. Kathriarachchi, Department of Plant Science, University of Colombo. Their most recent studies record 170 plant species, belonging to 130 genera and 75 families.

A lot of work has been done on plants but a dearth of faunal research is obvious. Although the Wathurana Swamp Forest has been nominated for upgrade, it has not been declared as a PA (Protected Area). And its indistinct boundary had made its management very difficult. Among the issues that threaten the fresh water wetlands existence is human encroachment, plantations and usage of forest timber for domestic purposes.

Dr. H. S. Kathriarachchi pointed out that though there was initially a dearth in floristic studies that has now been met. However only basic faunal studies have been conducted in the area. If more faunal studies were conducted species thus far not recorded from the area might be observed.

Moreover she also pointed out that a long term monitoring program is also necessary to preserve this valuable fresh water wetland.