every journey begins with the 1st step and every language with the 1st word. is in germany to learn german why not with simple. and free to suffer the w.'s you learning course you can speak german. nature has blessed us with an amazing array of flora and fauna. and researchers around the world are committed to protecting that biodiversity replenishing vital ecosystems and the species that inhabit them means we all have to do out pops. scavengers can play an important role. as can animal droppings small and large. what is scientists doing to counteract the dramatic loss and biodiversity that's our topic coming up.

welcome to tomorrow today the science program on d w. this sounds of every organism have a genetic origin which is passed on to the next generation in the case of identical twins to 2 people. when individuals are produced with identical d.n.a. they are called clones 996 or the 1st successful attempt to create a genetically identical copy of a living animal dolly the sheep today researchers hope to use cloning technology to promote and preserve biodiversity. meat caught who's technically been dead for 22 years. you may have guessed it kurt is a clone and he's the 1st white horse ever. successfully cloned which makes him

quite a big deal. and he wasn't just an experiment scientists are now cloning endangered species to slow down the rate of biodiversity loss and even improve entire ecosystems. in one word it's just wow and obviously we want. a species that we can but how exactly would that work and how realistic is it welcome to the very weird world of wild clones gene banks and bringing species back from the afterlife. i am cloning has been controversial around the world. with legitimate concerns about us playing god creating endless copies of species that wipe out biodiversity.

but cuts focus is the exact opposite to bring diversity back to this population of while should walski hasse's. so how is a clone which is an exact genetic or b. of another animal supposed to bring back biodiversity well bear with me. on do 2000 horses a life today have descended from only 12 wild ancestors to clone could researches use a unique gene that was frozen years ago that would have otherwise been lost from the pool and they use a domestic horse as a surrogate mother. is not the 1st endangered species to be cloned that has even been a clone of an extinct species but with limited success the parenting in ibex was cloned 3 years after it went extinct using an old frozen skin sample researchers impregnated over to. 100 domestic goats only 7 became pregnant one made it to term

but the baby died minutes suffered was born. less than one percent of wild clones ever survive and the lack of research and access to wild animals makes the entire process especially difficult. with cut looking healthy scientists thought he would be the 1st clone to directly increase the genetic diversity of a population in the wild. and this is really cool because it's this represents a paradigm shift in conservation where we're no longer reacting to crisis but we're getting out to being preventative. that's been know that one of the scientists who cloned could and has been pushing the idea of cloning for conservation. the idea behind it is that we can use cloning in multiple ways to help endangered species either by increasing the size of their populations or by using it

strategically to maintain genetic diversity let's take a closer look at the increasing population numbers can help species recover but scientists only have a limited gene pool to choose from. but the method being use here is to add to the strength of the genetic pulled by bringing back genes that would have otherwise died out this good to make populations more resistant to the effects of inbreeding and disease and even make them better at adapting to climate change. biodiversity loss is an existential threat we face. these increase our system pollination water and food at severe risk and poor countries are likely to be the worst hit at 1st. species numbers are in such a freefall that since the 1970 s. species populations have declined by around 60 percent today. we could be losing up

to $150.00 species each. net exists around the world have taken notice and not collecting and preserving whatever genetic material they can in the labs and gene banks. i mean today for many species sure i mean storing the d.n.a. is like a last resort. for their. genetic heritage. ed louis co-founded a british bank run by public universities museums and. their consortium has collected over 48000 so far. while the main cloning experiments are taking place in the western world especially the us governments around the world have ramped up their d.n.a. collection. from india to china and in the amazon where researchers like collecting

samples of endangered species banking on the technology to catch up. at least having any information. saving in any. worth. owning is only one part of assisted reproduction which also includes artificial insemination in vitro fertilization and more recently editing. over thousands lose and research institutions around the world are working on assisted reproduction of wild animals including for projects devoted specifically to cloning for conservation. raised chickens of genetic diversity is on cloning may well save some species but would cause a long term effect still on conservationists say it is much more sensible to focus

on protecting the biodiversity we still have how. could we ever revisit all the g.i. losing now. such questions need to drive the technology that is most likely here to stay. rather than trying to save single species it's better to protect entire ecosystems knowing which plants animals and ecological communities need special protection requires regular monitoring until now such monitoring could only provide a momentary snapshot of conditions in a set place and time. but a new method might soon allow us to monitor an entire ecosystem in one fell swoop. this is the airport at the german aerospace center and often near munich a dorney

a 220 is ready for takeoff. it's carrying a hyperspectral camera. ecologists hope to use the device to help identify the species of flora and fauna and their distribution in a particular ecosystem from the air. after a 90 minute flight the darn yea has reached its goal. the varian forest national park in southern germany the ecologist get to work. the hyperspectral camera registers the visible light and other electromagnetic radiation reflected off the forest below something like a regular digital camera. but

a normal digital camera has sensors that are only sensitive to visible light in 3 bands. red green and blue. the hyperspectral camera captures a much wider range dividing it into $250.00 spectral bands it collects lots of images of the same area every substance has its own pattern its spectral signature . taken from a plane or satellite hyperspectral images can already reveal how much chlorophyll or water there is in a forest canopy or whether pasts have infested the trees. but scientists want to do more international research projects in the bavarian forest is taking the next step. as you just put it does this is we want to identify the range of species on the grounds windows and then investigate whether the reflection of sunlight on the ground could be used to identify the species that would lead to

smoke biodiversity from space if you followed. first team of biologists from the netherlands france china and australia. well try to identify all the organisms living in the forest a gargantuan task they take samples of soil which is full of bacteria and other micro-organisms and fun guy. spiders and many other species of animal also leave their trace in the soil in the form of d.n.a. . all of these traces will be brought to the lab where they'll be subjected to genetic analysis. then just a few months the team hopes to compile an inventory of the entire ecosystem and especially its microorganisms. down

the road degrading their leader leaves the dead. there are. plans. grow so. prisons are really important and we can predict and see how. the scientists are also using laser scanners to study 60 distinct areas within the forest different conditions allow different species to thrive so the species will vary if there's a lot of dead what for example. if there's mainly connect or deciduous trees in. the biologists are also very interested in leeds. the forest canopy is also home to insects fungi and microorganisms.

the mix of species living in the canopy can reveal a lot about the health of the forest and the leaves themselves are a kind of mirror. the health of the entire forest ecosystem. the chemistry of the leafs is a presentation of the condition of the tree and quality of the tree is a presentation of the quality of the ecosystem because everything is related to each other and by understanding those relations were in a standing how to change 1st locations 1st 4 stars 1st the forest is porter understanding forces and how diverse a forest ecosystem is. what it hyperspectral imaging could help identify the chemical composition of leaves in a particular patch of forest. and be not so good at predicting individual species but that's not our goal we want to predict the range of species in

a forest and if we could do that from space identify species by their spectral fingerprint then we could map biodiversity o. below which stretches of land and also observed changes in that biodiversity. the health of large scale ecosystems can then be monitored from space and real time in this but very in forest is an ideal testing ground although it will take another 3 years until all the data has been gathered and analyzed. greedy insatiable and cruel in many languages someone who behaves like a vulture is the one who's ruthless a true predator. that does a disservice to the staff which make a big contribution to healthy ecosystems. but in recent decades africa's vulture population has fallen by some 90 percent bringing them to the brink of extinction. a kenyan conservation group has launched an initiative to protect the

birds. over half of africa's 11 votes. just pieces are teetering on the brink of extinction the environmental n.g.o.s kenya has been observing the development in east africa. it's distressing because without these scavengers dead animals would rot wherever they dropped. could upset entire ecosystems. what is a very much important in. cleaning the environment we call them. and i take on the clean the environment all the dead carcasses and by doing these they stop the spread of diseases diseases like. lizzie and all of that nature kenya introduced a vulture conservation program in the muscle i'm our a nature reserve and 2014 it's

a mr spread awareness of the crucial role vultures play. by this group of mice i work as nature can use vulture ambassadors they explain to villages that when a dead cow will go just poisoned with acar chemicals in order to kill predators that threaten their livestock all of the animals that feed on the carcass of poisoned and that includes a lot of vultures. so as i'd like to volunteer i usually go. for example in my location. when there is. that issue before it's place and we actually sometimes take the carcasses of those. and we've put them aside and you can. actually talk to the or know that i'm not always. support from villages and leaders is key to the ngos campaign. the assistant chief of one village tells us that battles between humans and animals

are ongoing issue in the area. there is a lot of conflict. but. also get. elephants and lions. present a serious challenge for us about conflict incident. but all too often the main victims of these conflicts are voters and that's the environmentalists message. to put an end to their agonizing deaths nature kenya also cooperates with the ranges from the mara reserve. i think the biggest challenge is they sure of reporting like. poisoning we normally don't get a lot of reports from the community because they know that it's a crime and so a lot of this case is go under reported. but reporting the cases would give the conservationists a chance to save the birds. that's why keeping communication channels open

is important the effort is. basically talking we discussed because we don't assume that they don't know they know something so what we do is to add to the dividing line and basically to create. also supported by bird life international the program is focused mainly on east africa because that's where vulture death rates are especially high the campaigns push to improve the exchange of information is now starting to yield results. we are getting reports on a human to live conflict and those responses to. what. and by these some voters have been saved because there is. a response protocol that is being followed. case off in the.

incident last year an international initiative was launched with the goal of reducing vulture mortality in africa by 50 percent within the next decade. before it to work its fight all of the local communities are also on board. biodiversity has been in dramatic decline in recent decades. the trend that is set to continue unless urgent action is taken. there are various steps we can take to stop that development or even reverse it by completely rethinking our consumer behavior as well as supporting ecosystems. functioning ecosystems can sometimes be found in the un likeliest of places.

to keep those in wait 30 centimeters across and 2 centimeters high that's about average for a cowpat a single cow produces about 10 of these a day. and the new there is an excellent fertilizer for spots on the pasture that get plenty of cowpats are especially lush and green. but cowpats are far more than just fertilizer on this meadow in a nature reserve in southwestern germany and to manage is to you and who is that and biologist how about nicole looking for fresh samples. as i am here i never asked here we've got a slightly older cowpat as you can see the surface is dried out and there's a pretty good crossed and you can see how the 1st larvae are already appearing like here this year. you can fly larvae thrive in the dong and they're prey for other bugs and beetles and the key for. you can be a top cities that i mean. here is

a clown beetle. q for us is fairly small but they're also much larger species which are natural born predators guns cause they're got very big mouth parts which they use to chop up the larvae much like a butcher's knife and then eat them so this is a very complex crude webinars that's. cowpats teeming with life the dung provides thousands of small creatures with food and shelter. before it even hits the ground a cow path starts to attract dung flies they deposit their eggs in the fresh dung. sounds pretty soon the 1st dung beetles mavin they dig tunnels for their own offspring which in turn everything by spiders and predatory beetles about 2 weeks later the worms arrive soon the cowpat has vanished but the entire area remains a hive of activity birds and other measures of creatures such as lizards dine on

the insects. does beetles predatory birds and then birds of prey for example occupying different positions in the food web so you get a limb norma's functional complexity from one cow pat if it isn't here if the cow stays in the barn this doesn't exist it is like. a single free range cow can produce up to a ton of down the mountains. that fields 20 kilos of insects which comes the stain about 10 kilos worth of birds about 3 stalks or said she starred lynx for example. but that only happens when ecological farming methods he used as on this protected spot of land in the midst of a nature reserve. 40

cows live here in an area of 70 hectares of forest and says he had tens of pasture the meadow is allowed to run wild it's never moaned. i am. tired. but nicole wants to see what kinds of creatures the living here he uses a modified leaf blower to suck up a song poll and finds more than a 100 different species. in his open us we find a lot of cicadas and bugs but there are also beetles and spiders everything that you'll find tom perrotta and on the vegetation it's an amazing thing to see there's a diversity of species you'll no longer find on an ordinary meadow and if they get

. this is an ordinary pasture not far away from the meadow was most recently. the biologist takes a novice on all. of. the finds less than a dozen creatures. far fewer species it's a catastrophe for instruction birds there's hardly anything here is a practice that's been and what about the cow past many farm animals are given substances to control internal parasites that affects biodiversity in the down the zenith i know i think i don't see a single bagel or a tunnel made by one nothing at all not the one here. back at the meadow in the nature of it's a habit nicole says the rich diversity of fountain animal life would be easy to

preserve all. men being dodgeville sex pots and if we had just 5 percent wild beddoes or if stance of year around the consulate in germany last insect life would benefit immensely on tiny plots of land like this one insect biodiversity can be doubled or even tripled in both absolute numbers and species i've seen it here obviously it is a biscuit faces. and all of this wouldn't because of all without its cowhands. if outlet is right why are there are only 5 made it public. do you have a science questions you'd like us to answer. given if we featured on the show you get a little surprise as a thank you. come on just hours. before

most science stories check out our website w dot com slash science or look for us on twitter. but that's all for now thanks for joining us on tomorrow today we'll be back next week with more fascinating stories from the world of science and technology until then but by.

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