| The Magazine of the CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES |
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life on the edge More Endangered Than Thou Nobody is nonchalant about snakes. For most of us there is a visceral, often negative, reaction to them, so we thought long and hard before selecting the cover image. But, inspired by the new exhibit, "Venoms: Striking Beauties," opening at the California Academy of Sciences this spring, we chose to feature venomous snakes and the work of Joe Slowinski, the internationally renowned Academy herpetologist who travels the world in search of new species. His article "Striking Beauties," discusses the different types of venomous snakes, the likelihood of their aggression, and the probable outcome for the victim. Slowinski also contributes his Letter from the Field, "On the Road from Mandalay," which records his experiences on the trail of new species of Burmese snakes. He finds most friendly people and most unfriendly spitting cobras, which dodge around his defenses and give him a major scare. Exciting times. This issue also features two articles set to the south of Myanmar in Indonesia. Although both document the search for endangered species, the stories show contrasting realities, especially when it comes to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The story behind the discovery of a coelacanth in the Sulawesi Sea has all the ingredients of a movie script. From the sight of a dead fish in a small-town market, holiday snapshots on the Internet, a frantic search for a second specimen, to a scientific heist, Mark Erdmann, author of "New Home for Old Fourlegs," recounts a series of events that have, temporarily anyway, changed the course of his life. And not only his, for this script has a happy ending. In cooperation with local conservationists, Erdmann has revitalized local crafts, focusing on the coelacanth, and created an enthusiasm for conservation among the Sulawesi fishermen. Moreover, Indonesia and other countries have proposed that this new species of coelacanth--for so it has been determined--be included in CITES Appendix I. This will preclude any legal cross-border traffic of the fish, alive or dead, or any of its parts. Which brings us to "Journey to Fire Mountain," an excerpt from the new book Orchid Fever. Author Eric Hansen, two devoted orchidophiles, and two local guides spend an arduous week paddling through the rain forest and carrying their canoe around rapids in search of the spectacular, rare, long thought extinct orchid, tropical lady's slipper or Paphiopedilum sanderianum. It turns out, once they arrive at its remote habitat, that the plant is not rare at all: the hillside is blanketed with them. Yet all they can do is take photographs and admire. Because this orchid, like most orchids, is listed by CITES as endangered; no plants, no cuttings, nor even any seeds are permitted across national boundaries without permits rarely bestowed. The same basic laws that apply to animals apply to plants, despite the obvious fact that animals generally reproduce slowly and precariously, while plants can send out thousands of seeds. Whereas animals can, at least temporarily, escape encroaching logging and other development, plants, relatively easy to move, are stuck. Tom Daniel, Curator of Botany at the Academy, welcomes this new spotlight on the current ambiguities in the Convention. "They need to be brought out into the open and dealt with," he says. But this issue of California Wild has more to say about the incongruities surrounding some endangered species. One of the most endangered of all lives in California, and is one of those megafauna that are supposed to grab all the limelight. But the elusive Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, rarely seen by humans, don't make the headlines. Their dire predicament is told by Peter Steinhart in "Bighorn's Last Stand." There are historical reasons-disease from domestic sheep foremost among them-but the straw that seems to be breaking the bighorns' backs is the more fervently protected, though far less endangered mountain lion. Keith K. Howell is editor of California Wild. |
Spring 2000
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