Relocation project of Pika like rodent in Chile

Operation Chinchilla Is a Go
Twenty-five of the endangered rodents are living on top of a multi-billion-dollar Chilean gold reserve. Miners are going to great lengths to relocate them.

The Atlantic
ED STODDARD
10/18/20

... Big mining initiatives take years to roll out, with conservation compliance an increasingly crucial part of the package. Gold Fields’ environmental permit for the Salares Norte mining project—which has a construction price tag of more than $800 million—hinged on the company finding a way to move the chinchillas, which are protected under Chilean law. The result is a kind of mini–Noah’s Ark initiative, high in the mountains of northern Chile.

... The Gold Fields conservation operation—which started in August and is expected to take nine months—aims to trap and move 25 chinchillas from the mine site to an area with suitable habitat around two and a half miles away. Their fate is linked to a project that could generate billions of dollars down the road. The cost of the chinchilla project to date is $400,000, including population surveys using satellite technology in rough terrain.

... Closer to the chinchillas in size and habitat is the American pika, a mountain-dwelling relative of rabbits and hares. A 2015 study in the journal Biodiversity found that experimental translocations of the species between alpine habitats in the 1970s had “mixed results.” But it concluded that pikas were “a good candidate species” for relocation projects in cases where their habitats were threatened by climate change.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/10/chinchillas-gold-mine-rescue-mission/616718/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2020 11:50AM by KenS.