Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/09/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Habitat loss - they do not, for example, go through a tea garden or other agricultural land to access another patch of forest, so once they are isolated, they stay isolated, which weakens the gene pool considerably. In addition, the tea and coffee estates do not plant trees endemic to this region, which would support varying degrees of fauna - they plant water leaching, quick growing species like eucalyptus, which has no ecological value whatsoever, but do have commercial value. Valparai is totally surrounded by huge tea estates growing very average tea - mainly for use in inexpensive tea bags - so this problem of isolation is becoming acute. To add to the woes, more eco-friendly companies like Unilever have sold all their gardens to some local buyers, who want to maximize profits through land development. There are people actively working on this, like Nature Conservation Federation, who are persuading the tea garden owners to hand back some land to reforest and maintain animal corridors, with varying degrees of success: http://www.ncf-india.org/viewtypes.php?class=ecosystem&type=western+ghats+rainforests Cheers Jayanand On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 11:11 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo at frozenlight.eu> wrote: > Beautiful shots, beautiful animal. Why have the numbers declined--hunting > or just habitat loss? > > Cheers, > Nathan > > Nathan Wajsman > Alicante, Spain > http://www.frozenlight.eu > http://www.greatpix.eu > http://www.nathanfoto.com > PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws > Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog > > YNWA > > > > > > On Sep 3, 2010, at 12:26 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote: > >> My trip to the rainforest was primarily to see the Lion-tailed Macaque, a >> monkey endemic to the rainforests of the ?Western Ghats mountain range ?in >> South India, and one of the rarest primates in the world, only an >> estimated >> 3000 or so survive in the wild. Why it ended up being called Lion-tailed >> instead of Lion-maned eludes me, because its silver gray mane is far more >> spectacular than its admittedly lion like tail. Luckily we got close to a >> troop, and they did not seem bothered in the least - this being the >> monsoons, the weather and light was fairly miserable, and most shots are >> at >> ISO 800 and above: >> >> A good scratch: >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Rainforest/_JGR3583.jpg.html >> >> An infant: >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Rainforest/_JGR3525.jpg.html >> >> On the lookout: >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Rainforest/_JGR3637.jpg.html >> >> In the habitat: >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Rainforest/_JGR4001.jpg.html >> >> High Key (with the tail) : >> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/jayanand/Rainforest/copy1.jpg.html >> >> Comments & criticism welcome, as always. >> >> Cheers >> Jayanand >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >