by: Tony Duke
FALL 1986
Spider plants are popular house plants with long spidery stems and long spidery leaves. However, it's an endangered species in my house and there was a time when I would have felt little remorse if the species became extinct. But recently my friends have been keeping them in greater numbers because they were found to reduce formaldehyde gas within the home.
So spider plants finally have a "use" and people are more interested in keeping them alive. Unfortunately the plant's namesake, the real spiders, aren't widely recognized as having a "use" and no doubt there are many people around who could care less if spiders disappeared forever. But as a biologist I know spiders play an important role in the web of nature. Despite their appearance or their usefulness to mankind it is extremely important to maintain all the parts of the web. because, like the framework of a house, you can take away one stud from a wall with little noticeable effect, but take away a few more studs and part of the house collapses. Eventually, you're without a home.
Within Nova Scotia there are countless animals in nature's web but historically only the ones "useful" to hunters have been protected by laws. today, hunting is regulated to the point that no animal is endangered due to hunting or trapping. In fact, these "useful" animals are now some of the most common we have.
Most of our wildlife species are doing extremely well. Mild winters and extensive forest cutting have contributed to the highest deer population the province has ever seen. There are more bald eagles nesting here than in most of north-east North America because of the abundance of good feeding areas and good nesting sites. Cormorant populations are high because of the good food and nesting sites they find here. Nova Scotia has good habitat for all of them.
Despite these pluses we have some animals with low populations that we should still be concerned about. The Committee on the Status of endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) lists two animals that live and breed here as endangered, the Atlantic or Acadian whitefish which is found only in Nova Scotia and the piping plover which frequents our beaches in summer. Endangered means it is threatened with immediate extinction or extirpation throughout all or significant portions of its range, owing to the actions of man.
The Atlantic whitefish is the most rare, found nowhere else in the world than Millipsigate Lake and the headwaters of the Petite Riviere and Yarmouth Harbour. In the past, its numbers have been greatly reduced by hydro-electric dams and heavy fishing pressure. today, although protected by law, the Atlantic whitefish is still in danger from accidental catches and acid rain. In addition to legal protection, there are plans to transfer the fish to other watersheds and raise fish in hatcheries to reduce the chances of its becoming extinct.
To protect the piping plover, Lands and Forests and the Canadian Wildlife Service erected signs on the beaches where it nests to discourage public use during the birds' breeding season. However, this has met with only moderate success and in some cases, has attracted people to see this rare bird. The present low population is generally attributed to nest disturbance but may also be a result of the few naturally occurring nesting sites - which means the population may always have been small. This plover is rare in all its range which extends along the Atlantic shore of North America and over the prairies of central Canada so there are many jurisdictions that share in protecting its habitat.
Also listed as endangered is the eastern cougar, a small reddish cousin of the more common western cougar. None have ever been shot or trapped within the province. But every year, a few unconfirmed sightings are report in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (21 in 1985), so the Department continues to list it as protected during the hunting and trapping season.
Fortunately for the endangered eastern peregrine falcon, which was exterminated from eastern North America by pesticide poisoning and to a lesser degree by habitat loss and shooting, there is a captive breeding program being carried out by the Canadian Wildlife Service. Sixty-one birds hatched in incubators in Alberta have been released around the Bay of Fundy since 1982 and Nova Scotians get an occasional glimpse of them near the Bay. We hope this small nucleus of birds will return to breed and develop into a self-sustaining population
The right whale gets its name from the first whale hunters who felt it was the "right" whale to hunt because its slow speed and oil-rich body floated when it was dead. After centuries of exploitation off our shores, it is listed as endangered and since 1972 there have been no Canadian whale hunts. While this has protected the whales, it has removed the best method scientists had to measure whale numbers. It takes a lot of expensive flying and shipboard time to find and count these animals, and, apart from oil companies and some United States investigators, few sources of money are available for whale censuses.
The World Wildlife Fund Canada is supporting a research project in the southern Bay of Fundy this fall and winter to investigate the right whale's feeding grounds located 15 kilometres offshore. These areas of dense zooplankton are critical parts of the whales' habitat where conflicts with marine traffic take their toll on feeding whales.
This past summer, COSEWIC listed the roseate tern as "threatened", which is the next step up from endangered. There are 3100 breeding pairs in North America and up to 125 pairs nest on Nova Scotia's south shore beaches and Cape Breton. Ornithologist Robie Tufts reported historical tern nesting colonies had been taken over by increasing populations of the more aggressive herring gulls. Roseate terns are found along the seaboards on both sides of the Atlantic. Unfortunately on the birds winter range in South America, hunters still collect the birds for their feathers.
Apart from these animals officially listed by COSEWIC, there are some small populations of animals found in Nova Scotia that are termed "remnant" populations. They are isolated from the major populations by geographical barriers at the northern or southern fringes of their range. They continue to live here because there are isolated pockets of habitat that are similar to that found where the major population is found.
A well known example is the Blanding's turtle that lives within the boundaries of Kejimkujik National Park. The same animal can be found in large numbers in southern Ontario west to eastern Nebraska, and in scattered locations farther south on the east coast. So it's not in danger of becoming extinct; but our population may be threatened by fire or other habitat change or disturbance by people in the Park.
These remnant populations are a scientific curiosity and may one day give researchers insight into animal adaptation to colder or hotter climates. They may also be part of the ongoing process of evolution where survival of the fittest may eventually lead to a new species. They may also turn out to have a"use" for Nova Scotia's or, in case of a catastrophe, be a seed stock to reintroduce animals if the major population is wiped out (like our peregrine falcon or the bald eagles in the southern United States).
Other remnants include the lynx, rare on the highlands of Cape Breton but abundant in northern Canada; the ribbon snake which occurs only in Queens and Lunenburg counties but it is also found through south central North America; the yellow lamp mussel who only Canadian location is the Sydney River, but is also found from Maine to Georgia; and the Gaspe shrew (which is the only North American mammal who range lies entirely within the borders of Canada, found in Victoria County but more extensively in the Gaspe and northern New Brunswick.
We may yet find more remnant or endangered populations of small mammals, reptiles and amphibians but it will take a long time since there are only a few investigators in the field looking for them. Biologists from the Nova Scotia Museum only trapped the first specimen of long-tailed shrew from Nova Scotia in 1984. It takes many hours of looking to find these animals that are not so "useful" to us as the white-tailed deer.
Whether rare, threatened or endangered, the best policy for animal protection is protecting the habit. a 1985 policy statement by the government of Nova Scotia set up a committee to examine wildlife habitats and gave authority to protect vital habitats. The new forestry legislation introduced in 1986 dictates that wildlife habitats will be considered in forest management plans on Crown lands and guidelines will be drawn up for private lands.
However, accidents will happen and animals like the whitefish may be lost if their small habitat is damaged. but if extensive habitat is opened up to the whitefish, the population will grow by itself and overcome the risks. habitats will change as a forest matures or is harvested but if representative samples of different ages of forest are designed into the forest management plan, the Gaspe shrew will always find the mature hardwood forest on steep talus slopes it needs.
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