Page 30 - downmagaz.com
P. 30
Home from home
From sea otters and mountain lions to vultures and alligators, animals
are turning up in unexpected places. Isabelle Groc nds out why
HEN Brian Silliman found himself more of them – and they seemed to be right predators could be conservationists’ best
face to face with an alligator, he at home. Diving into the scientific literature, allies, because they can help improve their
Wthought he was seeing a ghost. It was he discovered that alligators are not the only old stomping grounds.
night and he was knee deep in mud in a salt predators found thriving in places where they Sea otters in California were some of the
marsh in Georgia, searching for crabs and are not supposed to live. It was a light-bulb first animals to shake our assumption that
snails. Alligators are freshwater reptiles, so moment. “I started re-evaluating everything I predators showing up in unexpected habitats
Silliman was not expecting to come across had been taught about large animals,” he says. were lost or searching for food. Hunted almost
one, but the pair of red eyes watching him was It turns out that at least 23 species of to extinction by fur traders in the 18th and
unmistakably real. Thinking fast, he shook predator have been spotted living in 19th centuries, conservation efforts have
a cage between him and the predator to scare surprising habitats. As well as alligators, the seen sea otter numbers increase from about
it away. “That freaked me out,” he says. list includes otters, mountain lions, wolves 50 several decades ago to some 3000 now.
The next morning, haunted by the and raptors. But the real revelation is that The recovery was initially limited to coastal
encounter, Silliman, a conservation biologist these creatures are actually returning to areas but, after 1990, otters started turning
at Duke University, North Carolina, couldn’t places they once occupied. This is giving us up in Elkhorn Slough, a major estuary on
stop wondering why the alligator was in the astonishing insights into the lives of animals California’s central coast that is covered in
salt marsh. Returning to the site, he spotted we thought we knew. What’s more, these salt marshes and seagrass beds.
28 | NewScientist | 27 October 2018
