EONXTINCTION
THE
STEPPES
by Diane Boudreau
B
ack at the dawn of history,
in the days when legends were
born, a bright rainbow reached
out across the heavens over
the mountains of central
Kazakstan. From this rainbow, legend says, emerged
the argali—a bighorn sheep
with massive curved horns
over five feet long. ✣ The creature descended to Earth to become the keeper
of the Sary-Arka, Kazakstan’s yellow mountains. Killing the sacred argali is said
to bring grave misfortune to both the hunter and his family. ✣ Legend or no
legend, in the late 1990s, killing an argali brings great fortune to particular members
of the Kazakstani government. Foreign tourists routinely pay up to $25,000 to hunt
a single argali on one of Kazakstan’s many nature reserves, known as zapovedniks.
Income from these hunts is supposed to be funneled
into research and conservation efforts that provide
protection for the argali and other endangered
species. In reality, most of the cash finds its way into
the pockets of high-level bureaucrats.
“The poor zapovednik directors and workers
are being forced to lead hunting expeditions for rich
people flying in from Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United
Arab Emirates, and other countries,” says Andrew
Smith. “Most of the money is going to graft at the
highest levels of government.”
Smith is a professor of biology at Arizona State
University. He studies endangered species, including
many animals found in Central Asia. “Biologically,
this part of the world is fantastically species-rich,”
Smith says. It also is in big trouble.
Smith recalls sighting 60 different species of birds
in a single day on a northern wetlands zapovednik.
But many of the country’s unique species are in
danger of extinction. Snow leopards that have
roamed the Tian Shan mountains for thousands of
years are in trouble. So are the five-foot tall
Dalmatian pelicans, and of course, the argali.
“Many of the most endangered creatures do not
appear on local lists. That’s because high-level officials
can make money on them,” Smith says.
Smith became interested in Kazakstan and the
other Central Asian Republics while working as a
volunteer for IUCN, the World Conservation Union.
He is a member of the group’s Species Survival
Commission. The group develops “red lists” of endangered species.
This region of the world is “largely dysfunctional,” yet mostly overlooked, Smith explains.
“Someone handles Europe. Someone else handles
Asia. The Central Asian Republics just get dropped off
the map,” he says.
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ASU RESEARCH | Spring 1999
Smith traveled to Kazakstan in 1998 on a grant
from the National Research Council. His goal: to help
plan a workshop for listing endangered species on
a national level. The workshop would involve
representatives from government, non-government
organizations, academia, and all five countries of the
Central Asian Republics.
If the workshop ever occurs, participants will
develop a set of quantitative criteria for determining
whether a species is endangered or vulnerable. These
criteria, unlike the subjective methods currently used,
would lend scientific backing to protective efforts.
Although quantitative criteria already exist on a global
level, Smith says it is essential for each country to
have its own method for listing endangered species.
“The reality is that only countries have the
enabling legislation to actually correct for managing
endangered species,” he says. Quantitative criteria
also would allow local non-government organizations to apply for international funding and
get support for their cause. “Right now, local
organizations have no legs to stand on.”
But would the Kazakstani government
sacrifice its graft income to save endangered
animal species?
“Having a list is not necessarily
a guarantee that things would get
better,” Smith says. “But it could
certainly put political heat on
those people who are misusing
the biological resources.”
To date, however, Smith
has not found funding to
actually present the workshop, even though the entire
event has been planned down
to the minute.
(Left) At age two and a half months,
a white-tailed sea eagle chick threatens
intruders to its nest–in this case, ASU
biologist Todd Katzner, who provided
most of the photos for this article.
© 1999 T O D D K A T Z N E R
The IUCN Red List is an internationally
accepted standard to identify endangered
species. ASU’s Andrew Smith arranged
publication for the Russian translation.
The Naurzum Zapovednik sign was
knocked down by a drunken tractor driver
a week after this photo was taken.
A game ranger’s summer residence.
Spring 1999 | ASU RESEARCH
39
Resource Management–It’s for the Birds!
I
N A SMALL REGION
Todd Katzner travelled
the immense steppe
via motorcycle.
of the former Soviet Union, four distinct groups vie
for the same land and resources. Each group fights to ensure its own
survival and success. Sound familiar? Sounds like ethnic or political
strife. Sounds like Bosnia. Sounds like Chechnya or Kosovo or Albania.
Try again.The region is Kazakstan.The competitors in this never-ending
fight are not impassioned nationalists–they are species of eagles.
“We want to empower them
to keep things going once we’re gone.”
—ANDREW SMITH
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ASU RESEARCH | Spring 1999
“It’s absolutely frustrating,” he laments.
“People are reluctant because they know the
difficulties inherent to that area of the world.”
Problems in the Central Asian Republics are
the moldering fruit of communism and its
downfall. ASU graduate student Heather Triplett
knows those problems on an up-close-andpersonal nature.
Triplett was stationed in a Kazakstani village
as a Peace Corps volunteer. She worked as
an environmental advisor on a zapovednik.
She found that she had to address social,
cultural, and economic issues in order to solve
ecological problems.
“Many of their management practices are
very different from ours,” she says. Most are
remnants of life under Soviet control.
For example,during a typical workday, many
employees might have put in about two good
hours of work. They spent the rest of the day
drinking tea and playing cards. Regardless of
what they did, they knew they would be paid.
Four types of eagles living in
one region make for an unusual
situation, according to Todd Katzner,
a doctoral student of ecology at
Arizona State University. “Normally,
you might find one or two species
of generalist predators. But you
don’t have four species with similar
biology all living together.”
Except in Kazakstan.
Imperial eagles, golden eagles,
steppe eagles, and white-tailed sea
eagles live together on the grassy
steppes of Kazakstan. Katzner
wants to know how the four groups
share habitat and food resources
in the Central Asian country.
Katzner has spent the past two
summers studying the eagles on
the wide open plains of the Naurzum
Zapovednik, a nature reserve in
Kazakstan. The ASU researcher
hopes that his work will build on
existing ecological theory. He also
wants to provide practical information that will help land management around the zapovednik.
During his summers at the
zapovednik, Katzner found about
50 active nests belonging to all four
eagle groups. He put high technology
to work. Katzner used a Global Positioning Satellite receiver to determine the exact geographic location
of each nest, then analyzed their
distribution with a computer. He
found that each species of eagle
Instead of improving matters, the Soviet
breakup brought economic disaster to the
Central Asian Republics.
“It’s really hard for them to live,” explains
Triplett. “People saved money. Then one day
the exchange rate changed and money that was
worth $10,000 became worth only $10.” Most
people she worked with on the reserve earned
only $20 per month.
Triplett spent her first Kazakstani winter in
a house without heat, despite the fact that temperatures drop as low as -26 degrees fahrenheit
in that area. The owners just couldn’t afford to
work the boiler for the radiator. There often
was no electricity to run an electric heater.
Economic problems have taken their toll
on the village where she lived. The number of
suicides increased. Many people deserted
families that they could no longer support.
“The people don’t seem to have a purpose.
They have no work. They can’t feed their
families,” Triplett says.
adapted to the space limitations
in different ways.
“Imperial eagles space themselves at very regular intervals. It’s
also apparent that they need a lot
more space to forage in than what
they’ve staked out for themselves,”
Katzner says.
“White-tailed sea eagles probably
respond to one another, but they seem
more willing to clump into groups.
I haven’t found Imperial nests that are
very close together,” he continues.
Katzner analyzed eagle pellets to
find out what the birds were eating.
Marmot at home.
“Birds of prey eat animals whole.
They regurgitate the hard parts–
bones, fur, feathers–whatever isn’t
easily digestible,” Katzner explains.
The regurgitated material consists
of hard oval pellets, each about
two to four inches in length.
During his summers in Kazakstan,
Katzner analyzed more than 3,000
eagle pellets. He collected the
pellets near nests or under large
roosting trees.
Eagles eat almost any kind of
small animal. Katzner’s subjects
appear to have narrowed their
choices.
“The Kazakstani eagles all eat
the same things, but in different
proportions,” he says. “Steppe
eagles eat voles, lots of mice,
and small ground squirrels.
White-tailed sea eagles prefer
more waterfowl–ducks or coots
or grebes. The imperial eagles eat
ground squirrels and marmots.”
However, Katzner also observed
diet variations within each species.
“An individual eagle’s nesting
location determines much of what
it eats,” he says. “Imperial eagles
nesting close to colonies of rooks
will eat lots of rooks. But every
individual bird can’t do that.
If another eagle already lives near
the rook colony, a second eagle
will have to go somewhere else.”
Kazakstani eagles provide a
Encouraged by Smith, Triplett entered
ASU’s master of natural sciences program after
returning from her Peace Corps stint. Part of
her degree program includes work to establish
an ecotourism program for the zapovedniks.
Under such a program, tourists would visit a
reserve and learn about its wildlife. Each tour
group would pay a small fee to the reserve.
Triplett says that even $100 per group would
make a huge difference to the zapovedniks.
The money could be used for research, or to hire
guards to protect the wildlife from poachers.
Poachers are a serious threat to many
endangered animals, Smith explains. In fact,
trade in endangered species is the second
largest form of illegal commerce in the world–
second only to narcotics.
Unlike licensed hunters on commercial
expeditions, poachers pay no attention to the
number of animals they kill. And they provide
no revenues for research and protection.
Triplett believes that ecotourism will offer
wonderful opportunity for research.
Katzner says the unique situation
is useful for analyzing traditional
ecological models.
“There are general models that
describe predator-prey interaction,”
he explains. “And there are general
models that describe competition.
Each of the models usually is viewed
as a discrete, separate thing. I want
to find out just how general these
predator-prey models are when you
add competition to the mix. What
happens if you combine them?”
Katzner also hopes to apply his
research to practical problems.
“I want to use the information
to better understand how land
management is impacting the
eagles,” he says. “Land use in
Kazakstan is changing rapidly.”
Economic problems are changing
Kazakstan’s landscape. For example,
lots of agricultural land near the
Imperial eagle chick in nest.
a double protection against poaching. Besides
allowing the reserves to hire more personnel,
it would pump money into the local communities. Tourists pay for food, lodging, and handicrafts. Such income might ease the financial
desperation that tempts people to poach.
Community involvement is a central theme
for Triplett’s work. She and Smith share a
desire to empower communities to help themselves–not to do the work for them.
“In Kazakstan, people don’t believe they
can do it themselves,” Triplett says. “Going in
and doing the work for them would only perpetuate that belief. It would be just like it was
under Soviet rule–they were told what to do,
they did it, but they didn’t know why. They
need a sense of belonging.”
In his grant proposal, Smith says that he
asked for slightly more money than the workshop would actually cost.
“I wanted to make sure we overshot so that
we could leave some money behind,” he says.
Todd Katzner photos
Steppe eagle (left).
(Opposite) A fire lookout tower on the steppe. On the horizon,
a patch of birch trees that provide nesting habitat for raptors.
Evgeny Bragin, zapovednik biologist,
displays Demoiselle crane chicks.
zapovednik has gone fallow simply
because farmers have no fuel to run
their farming machinery. Marmot
squatters stake their claim on the
empty fields.
Unreliable electric services
present other dilemmas. To keep
warm through bitter cold winters,
people are cutting down trees to burn
as firewood. Tree cutting impacts
the forest and its inhabitants.
Katzner plans to spend one or
two more summers in Kazakstan.
He will continue observing the interrelationships between eagle nest
spacing, nesting success, and diet,
as well as study how land use
affects all of these factors.
–DIANE BOUDREAU
For more information, contact
Todd Katzner, Department of Biology,
480.965.4024. Send e-mail to
[email protected]
“It’s their only chance to get money. We want
to empower them to keep things going once
we’re gone.”
“There are very few people in Kazakstan
who really think that they themselves can make
a difference,” Triplett adds. “But very slowly,
some of them are starting to see the light.”
Triplett has written about her experiences in Kazakstan.
To read more, visit the “Ask A Biologist” web site
created by ASU’s Life Sciences Visualization Group,
http://lsvl.la.asu.edu/askabiologist/research/kazakhstan
ASU research in Central Asia is supported by the National
Research Council. Research on endangered species is
supported by the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the
IUCN Species Survival Commission. For more information,
contact Andrew Smith, Ph.D., Department of Biology,
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 480.965.4024.
Send e-mail to [email protected]
Spring 1999 | ASU RESEARCH
41