BAMBOO: THE GREAT CONTEST BETWEEN PANDAS AND HORSES

FROM:  THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 
Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses
Livestock, particularly horses, have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival

2014 is the Year of the Horse in China. But pandas, it turns out, aren't celebrating

Why not? Because livestock, particularly horses, have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: Horses have been beating pandas to the bamboo buffet. The oft-hidden, yet significant, conservation conflict between pandas and horses was revealed in a recent article in the Journal for Nature Conservation by Michigan State University (MSU) panda habitat experts.

"Across the world, people are struggling to survive in the same areas as endangered animals, and often trouble surfaces in areas we aren't anticipating," said Jianguo "Jack" Liu of MSU. "Creating and maintaining successful conservation policy means constantly looking for breakdowns in the system. In this case, something as innocuous as a horse can be a big problem."

Pandas have specific habitat needs--they live in gently sloping areas far from human populations. And they only eat bamboo. (Watch a panda bellying up to the bamboo buffet.) China invests billions to protect its panda habitat and conserve the 1,600 remaining endangered supported by this habitat.

For years, timber harvesting has been the panda's biggest threat. But conservation programs limiting timber harvesting have chalked up wins in preserving panda habitat.

Vanessa Hull, a doctoral student at MSU's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS), has been living off and on for seven years in the Wolong Nature Reserve, most recently tracking pandas that she has outfitted with GPS collars.

Over the years, she started noticing that uninvited guests had apparently been serving themselves at the bamboo buffet--and they were eating like horses…literally.

"It didn't take particular panda expertise to know that something was amiss when we'd come upon horse-affected bamboo patches. They were in the middle of nowhere and it looked like someone had been in there with a lawn mower," Hull said.

Alarmed by the increasing devastation, Hull learned that keeping a horse in this region serves a similar function as maintaining a bank account. Because horses are prohibited from grazing in designated grazing areas, to prevent them from competing for food with cattle, some farmers have been letting horses graze unattended in forests. When these horse-keeping farmers need cash, they track down their horses in the forest and sell them.

Eventually, some Wolong farmers, though not traditionally horse-keepers, learned from horse-keeping friends who lived outside of the reserve that they too could cash in by keeping horses--and letting them loose to graze unattended in Wolong. Where, unfortunately, they would compete for food with pandas.

Over time, the popularity of this practice soared. In 1998, only 25 horses lived in Wolong. By 2008, 350 horses lived there in 20 to 30 herds.

To understand the scope of the problem, Hull and her colleagues put the same type of GPS collars they were using to track pandas on one horse in each of four herds they studied. Then, over a year they compared the activity of the horses with that of three collared adult pandas in some of the same areas, and combined resulting data with habitat data.

The researchers discovered that the galloping gourmets are indeed big on bamboo--and are drawn to the same sunny, gently sloped spots as pandas. Pandas and horses eat about the same amount of bamboo, but a herd of more than 20 horses created veritable feeding frenzies, destroying areas that the reserve was established to protect.

The researchers presented their findings to Wolong's managers, who have since banned horses from the reserve. But Hull and Liu note that this work has shed light on how competitive livestock can be in sensitive habitat--an issue that is duplicated across the globe.

"Livestock affect most of the world's biodiversity hotspots," Liu said. "They make up 20 percent of all of the earth's land mammals and therefore monopolize key resources needed to maintain the earth's fragile ecosystems."

This research project received funding from the National Science Foundation.

Editor's Note: This Behind the Scenes article was first provided to LiveScience in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

-- Sue Nichols, Michigan State University
Investigators
Li An
Jianguo Liu
Lisa Pearce
Scott Yabiku
William Axinn

LABOR SECRETARY USES BLOG TO PROMOTE INCREASING THE MINIMUM WAGE

FROM:  U.S. LABOR DEPARTMENT 
Holiday Belt-Tightening for Minimum Wage Workers
by SECRETARY TOM PEREZ on NOVEMBER 26, 2013 

“I’m living out of a spare room at my children’s house.”

“I’m working 70 hours a week…my day starts at 6am…I want to go to college, [but] I don’t have time [and] I can’t afford it.”

“I shouldn’t have to decide: am I going to pay the electric bill or do I pay the heat? I’m a thousand dollars behind in rent now…where is this money going to come from?”

“I’ve worked since I was 15 years old, and I’ve never been fired or asked to leave a job. I can’t work more than 8 hours a day or I’ll lose my day care… If I lose that, I’ll lose access to food assistance. I’m barely staying above water now as it is.”

This is just a sampling of what I’ve heard from low-wage workers I’ve met with recently. I come away from these conversations more convinced than ever that we have to raise the federal minimum wage.

In a nation as wealthy as ours, one based on the belief that anyone can make it if they try, it’s unconscionable that people working full-time are living in poverty and resorting to safety net programs for their very survival. As one young man who works in fast food in Milwaukee told me: “This fight – it’s about the minimum wage, but it’s about respect.”

This is a time of year for plentiful family gatherings. But while many of us are fortunate to enjoy a Thanksgiving of abundance and relaxation, the holidays are too often a source of even greater economic anxiety than usual for those earning at or near the minimum wage.

The American Farm Bureau Federation has estimated that feeding a table of 10 this Thanksgiving will cost $49 on average. But it takes minimum wage workers nearly a full shift to earn that much (and many will have to work on Thanksgiving anyway). For them, putting any meal on the table, let alone a multi-course feast, is a penny-squeezing struggle. So while many Americans will be loosening their belts after helpings of turkey and stuffing, it’s another day of belt-tightening for workers trying to get by on the minimum wage.

But increasing the minimum wage isn’t about holiday giving or charity. This is smart economic policy with universal benefits. In an economy driven by consumer demand, more purchasing power for working families means more sales at businesses large and small. With tens of millions of people heading to stores to start their holiday shopping this weekend, imagine how much more retailers could benefit if low-wage workers had more to spend. I can’t put it any better than one worker who told me: “If they would pay us what we need, we could put money back into the economy and pay for what we need. And that strengthens all of us.”

Minimum wage workers are proud and hardworking. They need and deserve a raise. And that’s not just Tom Perez talking — more than three-quarters of Americans agree, according to a recent Gallup poll. As a matter of social justice and economic common sense, it’s time for Congress to act.