An unlikely citizen scientist is helping to save an endangered dolphin that lives in Pakistan’s Indus River. He’s a fisherman who cannot read or write.
Using his battered mobile, Sikander Ali calls a Pakistan representative of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature whenever he sees a river dolphin, which he says is happening more often.
“Seeing dolphins makes me happy,” he beams. On a recent day, he proudly recounted how he spotted a baby dolphin beached on a river stone and helped save it.
Engaging fisherfolk as citizen scientists is just the latest effort conservationists are trying as they, against all odds, slowly revive the numbers of the Indus River dolphin. From roughly 150 dolphins counted in 1974, there are now nearly 2,000, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Nobody does wildlife conservation better than hunters and fisherfolk. Midwesterners will install hundreds of trail cams and kill invasive species on their property for free, in collaboration with local agencies. Controlled burns, population tracking+management, etc, all for free, out of love for the land and the wild creatures. And to make it easier to catch the stuff they want.
African wildlife preserves that are funded by hunting licenses, just like US land, are more successful because everyone involved hates poachers for their own reasons.