Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

As cautionary tales, I'd like to share with you some stories about species that went extinct in recent times. When I say 'recent' I mean anything from about 10 000 years ago to yesterday; in geological terms, all such periods count as recent. I want to give you all some idea of how much biodiversity Planet Earth has already lost. We are right now in the midst of an extinction crisis. While extinction is a natural process, it usually happens quite slowly, with enough, or more than enough, time for new species to evolve to take the place of the old. What is happening now, is a rate of extinction that is far, far more rapid than the typical natural rate. In fact, it seems to be rapid enough to qualify our present times as one of the Earth's great mass extinctions, such as the one at the end of the Permian, and the one that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs.

Speaking of avians … birds have suffered their own holocaust already, at the hands of humans. Today there are about 10 000 species known and recognized. Within the last two thousand years or so, we might have lost well over 1 000 species, so the bird diversity right now is already reduced by about 10%, and we now stand to lose many more.

The bird we look at today is the Atitlán Grebe, Podilymbus gigas. It was related to the still-extant Pied-Billed Grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, of the Americas, but was significantly larger, with a much stouter bill. This grebe was vulnerable from the start, for two reasons. First, it was restricted to just a single lake, Lake Atitlán in Guatemala. Second, it was flightless. It is somewhat unusual for a bird that doesn't live on a predator-free island to be flightless, but the phenomenon does occur in some other species of grebe, duck and coot in South America. Basically, if birds don't have to fly, they don't, and it's a matter of 'use it or lose it'. Flight capability is extremely demanding on a bird's entire physiology, so losing the ability to fly enables a bird to save on metabolic expenses.

Lake Atitlán has an area of about 130 square kilometres or 51 square miles. It lies inside the crater of an ancient volcano in the highlands of Guatemala, in Central America. The grebes in the lake were discovered by western science in 1929. The original population of the grebes was likely about 400 birds in total. They fed mainly on crabs, using their stout bills to crack the shells, and also on other small aquatic critters. They bred amidst the shoreline vegetation, anchoring their floating nests to the submerged portions of the reeds and rushes.

The original native peoples of Guatemala did little to disturb the grebes, but European colonists had different attitudes. Everything had to be 'developed'. In the late nineteen fifties, they decided to 'improve' the lake by stocking it with new kinds of fish, smallmouth and largemouth bass, to attract anglers. The bass ate up the crabs and most of the other fish and critters the grebes fed on. They led to the reduction of the lake's indigenous fish species from 19 down to 6. The adult bass even ate the chicks of the grebes as well. This caused the grebe population to drop to 65 individuals by 1965.

Give people some credit – they did indeed start worrying about the grebes at this point. International conservation organizations took note and together with the Guatemalan government launched a campaign, 'Operation Poc' – 'Poc' being the local name for the grebes. A law was made banning the poaching of birds, but people didn't pay much attention to it. The collecting of reeds, which the locals used to make woven articles, was also banned. In 1968 an area of 2 hectares was proclaimed a reserve. In 1969 the conservationists were able to stop the creation of a large hydro-electric project on the lake, which would have had serious adverse influences on the grebes and their habitat.

These measures were successful. Bu 1975 the grebe population had recovered, a census having found 232 birds. The conservationists congratulated themselves on saving the species. But the human factor remained. Many people liked the idea of having cottages on the tranquil lake as holiday homes. They pressured the local people into selling them their lands. They built their properties and destroyed much lakeside vegetation in the process.

Nature itself also had a say. In 1976, Guatemala experienced an earthquake. The lake bottom cracked, and the water level dropped by about 5m/17'. This caused the shoreline habitat suitable for the grebes to shrink by 60%. The grebe population dropped to only about 130 individuals.

Conservationists panicked again. A large project was started, to plant bullrushes and cat-tails on the lake's shores to replace the habitat lost. But then Guatemala descended into civil war. The project was aborted, and E. Bauer, who promoted it, was murdered. In the ensuing anarchy, the destruction of lakeside vegetation, and hunting of the birds, resumed. In 1984, a count found only 55 birds.

In 1986, a new element entered: the aforementioned pied-billed grebes now appeared on the lake. It is possible that they took advantage of the disappearance of the native Atitlán grebes; being able to fly, there were somewhat more resilient to disturbances. But their arrival and competition might also have been a factor contributing to the flightless grebes' demise. It is also possible that to some degree they interbred with the native grebes, thus diluting their genetic distinctiveness, but this was never proved. In 1987 no native Atitlán grebes could be found, and the species was declared likely extinct. This unique and wonderful little creature was no longer part of the living world.

This goes to show how vulnerable some species can be, how easily a small change in circumstances can prove disastrous. Today, we have many species of birds in conditions similar to those of the Atitlán grebes when conservation projects were first initiated: a small population that is being monitored and aided by various projects that seem to be working. But a slight turn could wipe out all the progress. Just as with the civil war in Guatemala, today in many countries in which seriously threatened species occur, conditions are volatile. Any serious crisis – including a disease pandemic such as we're experiencing today – could sideline conservation projects, following which species can decline with catastrophic rapidity. The fates of humans and animals and plants hang together: a setback for one can cause a setback for others. But it's usually the animals that fare the worst. The bottom line is that in the end we need to watch out for everything, taking care of lives both human and non-human.

Willem

22.06.20 Front Page

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