New research is calling for the preservation and restoration of natural habitats to prevent future pandemics.

A study, published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, showed that without abundant food sources, animals abandon their habitats and risk spreading disease to domesticated animals and humans.

Cornell University scientists, who authored the research, focused on fruit bats in Australia between the years of 1996 and 2020 to understand the risk of animals transmitting disease from one species to another.

According to the researchers, every viral pandemic since the 1990s has been caused by what they call a pathogen "spillover" from animals to humans with two driving factors. The first is habitat loss, which pushes animals into agricultural areas, and the second is climate-induced food shortages.

"Right now, the world is focused on how we can stop the next pandemic," Raina Plowright, professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at Cornell University, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, preserving or restoring nature is rarely part of the discussion."

During the years when food was abundant over winter months, researchers discovered the bats remained in their native forests and away from human communities. During food shortages, the bats moved closer to agricultural areas and humans where they could excrete more virus.

In agricultural areas, pathogens can spread when urine and feces drop to the ground where horses are grazing, which can lead to Hendra virus infections. Horses have the potential to spread the virus to people, which has a 57% fatality rate.

Other deadly viruses, such as SARS, Nipah and possibly Ebola can also spill from bats to humans, sometimes through an intermediate host.

Information on bat behavior, where they live, how they reproduce and where they get their food was found to be in line with records over the years on climate, habitat loss and environmental conditions, according to the study.

"We put these data into the network models and found that we could predict spillover clusters based on climate, the availability of food and the location of bats," Plowright said. "We show that when remaining habitat produces food, spillover stops, and therefore a sustainable way to stop these events could be to preserve and restore critical habitat."

Battle to save Panama turtle at center of aphrodisiac superstition
Punta Chame, Panama (AFP) Nov 17, 2022 - The sea turtles of Punta Chame, a peninsula of Panama that juts into the Pacific Ocean, face an existential threat similar to the rhino and pangolin: human superstition.

The eggs of the protected olive ridley turtle, illegally harvested from the beach, are sold door to door in town for 75 cents to $1 each for their purported aphrodisiac qualities.

"Especially men think that by eating turtle eggs they will have more sexual pleasure," said Jorge Padilla, a conservationist with the NGO Fundacion Tortuguias which collects and hatches the precious eggs.

"The eggs won't help you. They are not an aphrodisiac," he insisted.

The olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) is listed as "vulnerable" on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with its numbers declining.

Its survival relies heavily on people like Padilla, who with village volunteers collect freshly laid eggs and bury them in sand at the nursery.

Hundreds hatch here each year between July and February. Within hours they are brought to the beach and released near the water's edge by volunteers who look on with parent-like pride as the tiny critters make a frantic dash for the ocean.

"We cannot just put them (in the water) because they have to go through a process called 'imprinting' (along the beach) that will bring them back in 18-20 years to the same beach where they were born" to lay their own eggs.

- Used for combs, clothes -

Day and night, Padilla patrols the beach to scare off poachers.

Other threats include stray dogs roaming the beaches for food, and eagles.

Padilla repels the dogs but leaves the eagles as they are natural turtle predators and part of the circle of life.

The turtles also end up as by-catch from fishing, and face threats to their nesting beaches from human encroachment and climate change.

"There are many threats to sea turtles, both in the Pacific and in the Caribbean: illegal egg harvesting, overconsumption of their meat, their shells... They are used for combs... clothing," said Padilla.

Marine turtles and their uncertain fate are on the agenda of a global wildlife summit taking place in Panama City, not far from Punta Chame with its 500 human inhabitants.

The gathering of countries under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will consider ways to combat egg theft and trafficking.

A working document on the CITES website states "the illegal harvest and trade continues to threaten marine turtles."

Niger's threatened giraffes find new home
Niamey (AFP) Nov 16, 2022 - Conservationists in Niger said on Wednesday they had transferred threatened West African giraffes to a new home 600 kilometres (375 miles) away.

One of nine giraffe sub-species, the West African giraffe is native to the semi-arid Sahel, distinguishable from its cousins by its light-coloured spots.

Giraffes in the Koure region in the southwest of the vast country are at threat from desertification and farming, which are destroying their habitat.

On Friday, "four female giraffes were captured" in Koure "and have already arrived in Gabedji," a huge nature reserve in central southern Niger, the forestry and water service said.

The giraffes were transported in specially adapted trucks and "everything went well," said a senior official, Commander Lamine Saidou.

The operation was carried out with the help of an NGO called the Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF).

The transfer is the second since November 2018, when seven female and three male giraffes in Koure made the trek to Gabedji, in the Maradi region.

Three baby giraffes were born in Gabedji this year alone, the environment ministry says.

Pain-staking efforts to save the West African giraffe seem to be bearing fruit.

The sub-species once ranged from Senegal to Lake Chad, but in 1996 there were just 49 individuals left.

This rose to 697 in 2017, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which in 2018 downgraded the giraffes' status from "endangered" to "vulnerable."

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Sharks, turtles, disease on agenda of wildlife trade summit
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The trade in shark fins, turtles, and other threatened species will come under scrutiny at a global wildlife summit in Panama, starting Monday, that will also focus on the spread of diseases such as Covid-19. Conservation experts and representatives of more than 180 nations will gather to study 52 proposals aimed at modifying protection levels set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The CITES delegates will also take stock of the fight ... read more