Zoo News Digest 16th June 2016
(ZooNews 925)
(ZooNews 925)
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
Every now and again
I get requests (sometimes threats and sometimes bribes) not to post zoo related
news stories in ZooNews Digest. This is rather like waving a red flag at a
bull. I won't do it. I am quite prepared to post the other side of the story but
only if it has the name of the author attached. At the same time, as the
editor, I can choose what and what not to post. It may seem a bit unfair and I suppose it is.
The choice is nearly always down to
those news items that colleagues of mine would discuss amongst ourselves in the
zoo staff room.
I can't really
understand why 'Animal Oracles' even get a column inch in the press. Okay, it
may be cute to some but really…does anybody believe that anybody or anyone can
really predict the outcome of a football match or anything else for that
matter? Zoos jump on the bandwagon at every opportunity and nothing wrong with
that, at least it is positive passive advertising.
So Kruger Park has
started to cull its wildlife. Where is the outcry, the condemnation? There is
none that I have noted. Is it perhaps that everybody, like myself, completely
understands why it has to be done? I wondered if the AR's would make a fuss if it
was proposed that hundreds of Hippo and Buffalo were to be shipped off to the
US to 'save' them. After all they moved heaven and earth to try and prevent a
few elephants going off to the US, preferring, it would seem, to have them culled.
Does an elephants life count for more than a Hippo or a Buffalo? I think not.
Then there are those poor unfortunate Lions and Leopards trapped and dying in
the Taiz Zoo in Yemen. Those Leopards are extremely rare Arabian Leopards…their
genetic input into the breeding programme would be of immense value to the
breeding programme. Are they worth more or less than the few animals currently
being possibly rescued out of Gaza? Those in Taiz are certainly suffering more. And I
can almost guarantee that the animals in Gaza are going to have to have money
paid for them which in effect makes them a purchase and NOT a rescue. Would it
not perhaps better for all the Yemen and Gaza zoo animals to be quickly and
kindly culled (euthanasia) rather than have them suffer longer. The Kruger
animals are not suffering…yet. The population is being sensibly managed whether
we like it or not. Zoos manage their populations too and also whether we like
it or not surplus animals have to be removed now and again like Marius the
Giraffe which I also completely understand.
There have been a
few recent articles on the defence of zoos and I applaud it and the fact that
some newspapers are publishing. Not all are making the point however of the
difference between GOOD and BAD/DYSFUNCTIONAL zoos. It is so very important to
do so. I still maintain that the majority of zoos are bad zoos. Bad zoos do not
do the good any favours. They put us all in the same dirty bin. The good zoos
need to speak out as do the Zoo Associations because there are bad zoos amongst
their members. Numbers of members should count for less than caring
professionalism.
Around thirty years
ago I had a dream plan to go searching for the Japanese Sea Lion. It was only a
dream but I spent some days studying maps of the Japanese Islands. To see an
article of a single animal being spotted makes me dream again a little. I do hope
that there is a small unremarked upon population that has been hidden away.
My remark on ZSL
moving out of one stop water bottles in the last digest resulted in a few
emails. The one I liked best said "Detroit Zoo has always had water
fountains, weather permitting--obviously in winter here in Michigan water
fountains outdoors are unworkable. The zoo has now stopped selling bottled
water and instead will sell you a refillable bottle and has placed free filling
stations around the zoo." What a brilliant idea!!
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,700 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Dear Colleague,
Every now and again
I get requests (sometimes threats and sometimes bribes) not to post zoo related
news stories in ZooNews Digest. This is rather like waving a red flag at a
bull. I won't do it. I am quite prepared to post the other side of the story but
only if it has the name of the author attached. At the same time, as the
editor, I can choose what and what not to post. It may seem a bit unfair and I suppose it is.
The choice is nearly always down to
those news items that colleagues of mine would discuss amongst ourselves in the
zoo staff room.
I can't really
understand why 'Animal Oracles' even get a column inch in the press. Okay, it
may be cute to some but really…does anybody believe that anybody or anyone can
really predict the outcome of a football match or anything else for that
matter? Zoos jump on the bandwagon at every opportunity and nothing wrong with
that, at least it is positive passive advertising.
So Kruger Park has
started to cull its wildlife. Where is the outcry, the condemnation? There is
none that I have noted. Is it perhaps that everybody, like myself, completely
understands why it has to be done? I wondered if the AR's would make a fuss if it
was proposed that hundreds of Hippo and Buffalo were to be shipped off to the
US to 'save' them. After all they moved heaven and earth to try and prevent a
few elephants going off to the US, preferring, it would seem, to have them culled.
Does an elephants life count for more than a Hippo or a Buffalo? I think not.
Then there are those poor unfortunate Lions and Leopards trapped and dying in
the Taiz Zoo in Yemen. Those Leopards are extremely rare Arabian Leopards…their
genetic input into the breeding programme would be of immense value to the
breeding programme. Are they worth more or less than the few animals currently
being possibly rescued out of Gaza? Those in Taiz are certainly suffering more. And I
can almost guarantee that the animals in Gaza are going to have to have money
paid for them which in effect makes them a purchase and NOT a rescue. Would it
not perhaps better for all the Yemen and Gaza zoo animals to be quickly and
kindly culled (euthanasia) rather than have them suffer longer. The Kruger
animals are not suffering…yet. The population is being sensibly managed whether
we like it or not. Zoos manage their populations too and also whether we like
it or not surplus animals have to be removed now and again like Marius the
Giraffe which I also completely understand.
There have been a
few recent articles on the defence of zoos and I applaud it and the fact that
some newspapers are publishing. Not all are making the point however of the
difference between GOOD and BAD/DYSFUNCTIONAL zoos. It is so very important to
do so. I still maintain that the majority of zoos are bad zoos. Bad zoos do not
do the good any favours. They put us all in the same dirty bin. The good zoos
need to speak out as do the Zoo Associations because there are bad zoos amongst
their members. Numbers of members should count for less than caring
professionalism.
Around thirty years
ago I had a dream plan to go searching for the Japanese Sea Lion. It was only a
dream but I spent some days studying maps of the Japanese Islands. To see an
article of a single animal being spotted makes me dream again a little. I do hope
that there is a small unremarked upon population that has been hidden away.
My remark on ZSL
moving out of one stop water bottles in the last digest resulted in a few
emails. The one I liked best said "Detroit Zoo has always had water
fountains, weather permitting--obviously in winter here in Michigan water
fountains outdoors are unworkable. The zoo has now stopped selling bottled
water and instead will sell you a refillable bottle and has placed free filling
stations around the zoo." What a brilliant idea!!
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,700 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Zoos Are Not Prisons. They Improve the Lives of
Animals.
The recent death of
Harambe—the Western lowland gorilla shot dead at the Cincinnati Zoo after a
three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure—has ignited a fierce debate about
the role of modern zoos. Some critics have seized the tragedy as an opportunity
to advance an uncompromising anti-captivity narrative in which all zoos and
aquariums are inherently unethical and cruel.
To be sure, there
are bad actors. The spawning of so-called “roadside zoos”—an exploitative
enterprise known for its systematic negligence and abuse of animals—are some of
the most egregious cases-in-point. But blunt and sweeping indictments of zoos
and aquariums fail to account for how ethical institutions enrich and
ultimately protect the lives of animals, both in human care and in the wild.
Responsible zoos and
aquarium
MEET DAMIAN ASPINALL, SOCIETY'S DR DOOLITTLE
A bright sun is
beating down on Damian Aspinall as he sits outside one of the lavishly
appointed (and rentable) treehouses he's had built at his Port Lympne Reserve,
in Kent. Below are some of the 600 acres in which black rhino brood, gorillas
gambol, zebra frolic and Amur tigers exude sleek ferocity; through the haze the
English Channel can be seen. 'Evocative, isn't it?' he says, pleasure pouring
from the 56-year-old's six-foot-three frame, and who's to disagree?
Licences for UAE dog owners and exotic animal
ownership are target of new draft FNC law
Dog owners must buy
a licence for their pets and keep them on a leash at all times when in public
under a new draft law passed by the Federal National Council.
There will be fines
of up to Dh500,000 and up to six months in jail for owners who fail to keep
their pets under control and the animal will be confiscated.
The penalty also
applies to owners who do not vaccinate their dogs against dangerous diseases.
Owners will have six months from the date the law comes into action, which is
yet to be announced, to buy the necessary licence and vaccinations.
The law, which was
discussed by the FNC on Wednesday also bans the private ownership of wild and
exotic animals.
It aims to regulate
the possession and trade of predatory, dangerous and semi-dangerous animals.
Only zoos, wildlife
parks, circuses, breeding and research centres are allowed to keep wild or
exotic animals. The public is urged to report cases of wild animals being kept
as pets.
Anyone who takes a
leopard, cheetah or any other kind of exotic animal out in public will be
fined between Dh10,000 and Dh500,000.
People who use an
animal to threaten
Australia Zoo cleared of animal mistreatment
An eight-month
investigation into poor treatment of animals at Australia Zoo's animal hospital
has found no evidence its hospital staff deliberately mistreated animals.
The Queensland
Government's Biosecurity Queensland investigated 31 allegations since 2015
against the hospital st
Questions over probe as Australia Zoo cleared of
animal mistreatment
A WITNESS who made
allegations of animal mistreatment at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital was not
interviewed as part of an eight-month State Government investigation.
Biosecurity
Queensland yesterday announced there was “insufficient evidence” that injured
animals were given poor or wrong treatment at the Sunshine Coast facility
operated by “Wildlife Warrior” Terri Irwin.
Zoo visitor perceptions, attitudes, and conservation
intent after viewing African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Elephants in the
wild face several conservation issues. With the rebranding of zoos as
conservation and education pioneers, they have the ability to both educate and
inspire guests to action. The purpose of this research was to analyze visitor
perceptions and attitudes toward elephant conservation and outcomes
post-exhibit visit. A one-page survey was randomly administered to assess
perceptions of elephant behavior, attitudes about elephant conservation, and
intended conservation-related outcomes from September 2013 to January 2014.
Principle component analysis identified three major components: concern for
elephants in zoos, importance of elephants in the wild, and modification of
nature. Visitors who scored highly on conservation intent were those with
positive attitudes towards elephants in the wild and negative attitudes
regarding the modification of nature. The greatest changes in conservation
intent were a result of a self-reported up-close encounter and the ability to
witness active behaviors. Prov
St. Augustine Alligator Farm becomes first U.S. zoo to
breed endangered Indian gharial
The first successful
hatching of an Indian gharial outside of India or Nepal took place Sunday at
the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.
The park announced
the hatching Monday morning.
John Brueggen, the
Alligator Farm’s director and general manager, said the keepers have been
trying to get a live Indian gharial hatchling for decades.
It’s a difficult
feat to pull off, Brueggen said, because the animals like to lay their eggs in
sandy river banks in their native territory. The Alligator Farm staff did its
best to replicate that environment.
Brueggen added that
the animals also need very specific
National Aquarium to move dolphins into refuge
Eight dolphins that
have spent their lives swimming in tanks will be retired from the National
Aquarium in Baltimore into a seaside sanctuary.
By announcing plans
to move its dolphins into the ocean enclosure by the end of 2020, the aquarium
sails into uncharted waters for the marine mammal industry.
People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals welcomed the news, and the CEO of the Humane
Society of the United States blogged that his counterpart a
Separate bill for zoo management sought
The Environment
Protection Committee of the Legislature-Parliament today directed the Ministry
of Forest and Soil Conservation, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary
Affairs and Council of Ministers to bring a separate bill for zoo management
within three months.
Mother of tragic Scots zookeeper says wildlife park
should be closed over continuing safety concerns
THE mother of a
Scots zookeeper mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger has said the wildlife park
should be closed while concerns continue over the safety of the public three
years after the tragedy.
Fiona McClay, whose
daughter Sarah, 24, was killed at South Lakes Safari Zoo in Cumbria three years
ago, said the zoo should not have its licence renewed as David Gill – who
walked free from court last week over the 24-year-old’s death – faces new
claims over fears about animal welfare and interfering in management decisions.
Last week Mr Gill,
the 55-year-old founder of the z
Family 'horrified' at zoo's letter
The family of a
zookeeper killed by a tiger at Hamilton Zoo last year are horrified a letter
sent to Australasian zoos appears to blame the keeper for her death.
Samantha Kudeweh was
killed by a Sumatran tiger on September 20 when she was working in the tiger
enclosure.
Hamilton City
Council pleaded guilty last Thursday to a Worksafe prosecution that alleged the
council failed to take all practical steps to ensure the 43-year-old was not
exposed to hazards arising out of working with the tiger.
The letter, signed
by Hamilton Zoo director Stephen Standley, said "although we felt our
tiger management systems and processes were adequate and met MPI standards,
there is more that we could have done to ensure staff were safe in the event of
human error, particularly those managing dangerous animals. It is no longer
enough to rely on procedures as people make mistakes. We need to identify
engineered solutions that prevent human error resulting in staff ending up in
the same space as a dangerous animal."
The letter, issued
last Thursday, a
‘They could have killed me instantly, but they didn’t’
Even if they look cute and cuddly, don’t
mistake zoo animals for pets.
“They are wild
animals. You have to respect them. They will kill you,” says Guy Lichty,
curator of mammals at the N.C. Zoo.
He knows that better
than most people.
On May 17, 1979, two
polar bears nearly mauled him to death.
The incident took
place at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado, about a year after he graduated
from Furman University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. As a keeper, Lichty
cared for a variety of animals … elephants, antelope … and sometimes bears when
the regular keeper was on vacation.
“My job was to shift
the bears from bedroom to bedroom and clean, then feed and put them back in the
assigned bedrooms.”
Each series of rooms
for the various bears was separated into sleeping and eating quarters, divided
by a lift door in the ceiling and doors leading to the hallway. To clean each
stall, Lichty used a water hose he pulled down the hallway.
On this day, he was
working alone. It was about 4 p.m., around closing time, and he was at the last
stall, home to a male and female pair of polar bears. He sprayed the den and
climbed on top to lift the guillotine door and move the bears back.
From that vantage
point, Lichty noticed
Probing the Link between Biodiversity-Related
Knowledge and Self-Reported Proconservation Behavior in a Global Survey of Zoo
Visitors
Many environmental
communication interventions are built on the assumption that increased
knowledge will lead to changes in proenvironment behaviors. Our study probes
the link between biodiversity-related knowledge and self-reported
proconservation behavior, based on the largest and most international study of
zoo visitors ever conducted. In total, 6,357 visitors to 30 zoos from 19
countries around the globe participated in the study. Biodiversity
understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity were
significantly related, but only 0.6% of the variation in knowledge of actions
to help protect biodiversity could be explained by those same respondents’
biodiversity understanding. Biodiversity understanding was only the sixth most
important variable in significantly predicting knowledge of actions to help
protect biodiversity. Moreover, biodiversity understanding was the least
important variable of those that were significantly related to self-reported
proconservation behavior. Our study indicates that knowledge is a real, but
relatively minor, factor in predicting whether members of the public – zoo
visitors in this case – will know about specific proenvironment behaviors they
can take, let alone whether they will actually undertake such behaviors.
Dingo attacks Peel Zoo staff
A zookeeper and a
volunteer at a private Pinjarra zoo are recovering after a dingo attacked them
last week.
The 21-year-old
volunteer is understood to have walked into the dingo enclosure at Peel Zoo to
take a male dingo, Shiloh, for a walk.
She radioed
zookeeper Emma Mitchell-Collett, 23, for advice about moving the animals when
she was bitten by Shiloh.
With so many dolphins in captivity, Spain is swimming
against the tide
More than half the dolphins held in aquariums are
owned by Spanish companies
A dolphin called
Buffalo Bill serves hamburgers and chips while another in a cowboy dress jumps
repeatedly through a hoop. Part of an “educational” spectacle, the animals are
photographed by a British family being led around the pool by Fiona, a sea lion
who nudges them forward with her nose while winning over her audience with cute
“human” gestures.
In the same park,
children’s cries blend in with the squawking of parrots overhead, beers come
and go in big plastic cups and a vulture flies just meters above the crowds,
close to where two albino tigers are dozing off, clearly bored by the constant
pointing of cellphones in their direction.
Man Jumps Into Zoo Enclosure To Save A Drowning Chimp
In 1990, during a
visit to the Detroit Zoo, truck driver Rick Swope did something no one else
would do, and tragedy was averted because of it. As Swope stood looking in on
the facility's ape enclosure, a fight broke out between a chimp named Jo-Jo and
another male. After the brief scuffle, Jo-Jo tried to escape — only to end up
falling into a deep moat designed to keep him in.
Since chimps are
unable to swim, the move nearly proved fatal.
"Everyone in
the whole place was just standing around watching this monkey drown,"
Swope told the Deseret News. "When he went down the second time I knew I
had to do something."
ZSL celebrates Zoo success after winning big at annual
BIAZA awards
ZSL walked away with
a total of 14 awards from the event held on 8 June, with key acknowledgements
in a variety of categories such as animal breeding, care and welfare,
conservation, education, exhibits and research.
Zoological director
David Field said: “The BIAZA Awards are designed to illustrate best practice in
zoos and aquaria across Britain and Ireland. The volume and variety of awards
won across the board is a wonderful demonstration that ZSL is not only leading
the way in the welfare of animals, we are at the forefront in exhibit design,
horticulture and animal training.”
In addition to the
Zoos’ collective achievements, Luke Harding from ZSL London Zoo’s herpetology
department won this
India puts 18 lions on trial for murder, and the
culprit may get a life zoo sentence
Police have rounded
up 18 male suspects wanted for the murder of three in Gujarat, an arid western
Indian state.
If one is found
guilty, he will be sentenced to life in prison. Or, a kind of prison at least:
a zoo. The suspects are all Asiatic lions.
The species is
endangered, and its population has dwindled as human settlements encroach on
its remaining habitat. As that process speeds up, humans and lions are more
likely to come into contact, leading to killings that go both ways.
Approximately 400 Asiatic lions are left in the wild, and they are the only
lion population outside of Africa. Wildlife officials in India say that Gir
National Park, where almost all these lions live, can accommodate only 270 of
them, leading some prides to venture outside its boundaries.
High Park Zoo captures one of two escaped capybaras
One of the capybaras
that escaped from the High Park Zoo last month has been captured, the zoo says.
“With a big team
effort one of the capybaras has been rescued. It is resting off site for now,”
Ward 13 Coun. Sarah Doucette wrote on Twitter.
The two capybaras –
a male and a female – escaped from the High Park Zoo May 25 as they were being
brought to join one other capybaras capybara who lives at the zoo and the two
have been on the loose ever since.
Sea lion so far from home has experts in a sea of
theories
The presence of a
sea lion here so far south of its natural habit has researchers in a tizzy.
They are hard
pressed to figure out whether the mystery creature is a foreign visitor that
strayed far off-course or confirmation that the Japanese sea lion, far from
being extinct, is alive and well.
The animal in
question was spotted on an island off Kagoshima Prefecture earlier this year. A
Japanese sea lion has not been seen in 40 years.
After seeking expert
opinion, Kagoshima City Aquarium here said the large marine mammal with
impressive flippers photographed on the island was “definitely a sea lion.”
It was spotted by
local fishermen March 15-16 near Tsurikakezaki cape, which is part of
Shimo-Koshikijima island and located 60 kilometers or so from Satsuma-Sendai in
Kagoshima Prefecture.
Toshihiro Hamada, a
51-year-old fisherman who lives on the island, had a close encounter with the
aquatic animal on the morning of March 17 and took a photo of it. When he got
to within 10 meters from the creature on his boat, it barked, as if to fend him
off, and eased itself into the water.
“It appeared to be
about 2 meters long,” Hamada said. “I think I’d lose if it came to a fight.”
The following day
the fisherman told the aquarium he saw a fur seal and forwarded the digital
photos he took. But when the aquarium staff saw the pictures, they were pretty
sure it was a sea lion, an animal not found in Japanese w
Bettongs learn to survive through predator training at
Arid Recovery park near Olympic Dam
FOCUS on the hunted,
not the hunter — teach them to be afraid, very afraid.
That’s the aim of
groundbreaking research in South Australia’s Outback showing “encouraging”
results in a new strategy to save threatened species.
Most conservation
projects work by excluding or culling feral pests to protect native animals.
The research by an
organisation called Arid Recovery wants the native animals to learn to look
after themselves.
At Arid Recovery’s
park on the outskirts of the Olympic Dam mine, at Roxby Downs, four desexed
male cats have been inserted into a 26sq km enclosure along with 352 burrowing
bettongs and 46 greater bilbies and some rabbits.
“We wanted to
simulate what would
Down to 60: scientists mull risky captive breeding for
panda porpoise
Today, there are
approximately 7.3 billion people on the planet – and only 60 vaquitas. The
vaquita has seen its population drop by 92 percent in less than 20 years in
Mexico’s Gulf of California as the tiny porpoises suffocate to death one-by-one
in gillnets. Now, scientists with the International Committee for the Recovery
of the Vaquita (CIRVA) are cautiously moving forward on a once unthinkable
option: captive breeding.
“We have no idea
whether it is feasible to find, capture and maintain vaquitas in captivity much
less whether they will reproduce,” said Barbara Taylor, one of the world’s
foremost experts on the vaquita with NOAA. “The uncertainties are large.”
Captive breeding of
vaquita, if it ever happens, would be a last-ditch and incredibly risky action,
according to scientists. The world’s smallest porpoise and cetacean, vaquita
(Phocoena sinus) are shy and retiring with eye patches that have led them to be
described fondly as the ‘pandas of the sea.’ These rarely-seen porpoises also
have the smallest range o
Did That Come Off Wrong?
As zoo
professionals, many of us (all of us?) have dealt with our share of animal
rights extremeist questions. I could
probably write a Russian novel-length blog about AR extremeism, using real-life
examples from my own career path. And
it'd all probably be stuff you've heard before.
CuriousCity: Calcium-dusted bugs and tasty wallaby all
on the zoo menu
The circle of life
takes some curious twists in captivity.
Fluttering tui watch
from bushes as Zulu the lion guzzles his "triple mix" of beef heart,
lungs and kidneys off his pride's rock.
Elsewhere in
Wellington Zoo, the meerkats snack on $250-a-kilogram crickets and meal worms.
The cruelty behind that selfie of you with a baby
tiger
Tigers leap on cue
through a ring of fire, walk along double tightropes and step backwards on
their hind legs in scenes similar to circuses that traversed Australia last
century.
Elsewhere in the
sprawling complex outside Bangkok, elephants drop balls into baskets, dance,
take bows and gently lift their giant feet on to the backs of members of the
audience lying facedown on concrete.
Catalogue of concerns at zoo where tiger killed Scots
keeper
THE owner of a zoo
where a Scot was mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger three years ago stands
accused of putting more lives at risk in spite of the tragedy.
David Gill - who
walked free from court over the 24-year-old's death last week - also faces
claims over fears about animal welfare, interfering in management decisions and
going back on a pledge to hand over its running.
He vowed to council
bosses changes would be made after Sarah McClay, originally from Glasgow, was
savaged to death in the keeper's corridor of the tiger house on May 24, 2013.
Zoo owner says police inactivity left him no choice
but to shoot down drone
The owner of a
private zoo in the Nicosia district who shot down a drone that had been
hovering over his home and business for the last two months, said on Saturday
he filed a report to the police chief as he believes the force failed to
protect him and his customers from privacy and security violations.
Melios Menelaou, who
owns a zoo in Ayioi Trimithias, shot down a drone reportedly worth €1,700 on
Thursday that was operated by a neighbour after police failed to convince the
device’s operator to stop flying it over the former’s zoo and home.
After two months of
constant day and night drone flying over his property and himself personally,
and numerous calls to the police, which he said proved ineffective, Menelaou
told the Sunday Mail, he had “had enough”.
Not only was the
drone user invading his and his family’s privacy, he said, it was also causing
panic to the animals, every time it hovered over them, “twice per day” and it
also posed a safety hazard in the case it fell on a zoo visitor.
“The last time I
called the police, I told them this is it, I’m going to buy bullets. Two days
ago, when it was following me around all day long, I shot it down,” he said.
He says he was not
to the only one to feel disturbed by the drone.
“Neighbours too were
complaining that he would fly the drone at night outside their bedroom
windows,” Menelaou said. “And zoo visitors were complaining to me as t
Gir lions gifted to Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park
die; Mulayam's dream project could be in question in next year’s elections
The uncertain fate
of the Gir lions gifted by Gujarat to the Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park, a
dream project of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father
Mulayam Singh Yadav, could possibly be revived as a political slogan in next
year's assembly elections. Of the 11that arrived in September 2014, four have
died as have five cubs that were born of the original Gir pride. The ninth
death was that of Kuber on June 2.
The chief minister
and Prime Minister Narend ..
Letter of invitation to Sir Roger Moore to meet Morgan
and the other orcas at Loro Parque
Dear Sir Roger Moore,
Loro Parque
recognises your distinguished acting career, but believes that you have been
seriously misinformed by the extreme animal-rights organisation, PETA. PETA
appears to have enlisted your support to accuse Loro Parque of mistreating the
orcas in its facilities, but nothing could be further from the truth. For you
to verify the situation directly, Loro Parque invites you to visit the park and
orca facilities.
The incident which
appears to have triggered your involvement in this issue is the recent video of
the orca Morgan lying out of the water at the edge of the pool, which
animal-right activists alerted to the media with the completely false message
that her behaviour was abnormal, and that it signalled such a high level of
stress in the animal that she was supposedly trying to commit suicide. This
allegation is so absurd that even the well-known activist for Morgan´s
liberation, Dr. Ingrid Visser, otherwise quite a critic of Loro Parque, has
rejected the suicide attempt explanation in National Geographic magazine.
Loro Parque wishes
to inform you that th
Kruger Park forced to cull its wildlife
The Kruger National
Park has started culling hippos and its buffalo will be next. Although the
park, which is one of the largest game reserves in Africa, received rain in
March, there is not enough food for the animals.
William Mabasa,
spokesman for South African National Parks, said that 59 hippos had been culled
and another 100 were in the firing line for later this year as well as 200
buffalo.
Memphis Zoo begins ‘unusual’ conservation efforts to
save rare snake
The Memphis Zoo is
spearheading efforts to save the rarest snake in North America by pulling all
of them from zoos across the country.
"We're doing
something a bit unusual honestly," zoo spokeswoman Laura Doty said.
"We are recalling all of the snakes."
Each of the 108
Louisiana Pine Snakes hosted in 21 zoos will be redistributed to four
institutions: the Memphis Zoo, the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, the
Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin Texas, and the Fort Worth Zoo. The large, nonvenomous
serpent is native to Louisiana and Texas.
"Now just four
zoos will have 12 or more pairs and they're going to have room to really,
really grow the population," said Steve Reichling, curator of reptiles at
the Memphis Zoo. "It's a real conservation machine."
Memphis has long
headquartered the snakes' Species Survival Plan, a program managed by the
American Zoo Aquarium Association. Reichling also serves as the species
coordinator for the project.
"The whole
purpose of the program is to make sure that ge
‘SOS Taiz zoo’: As civil war rages, lions and leopards
at a zoo in Yemen don’t have enough food to survive
Add lions and
endangered Arabian leopards to the casualties of Yemen’s civil war.
To see the impact,
enter through the rusting gates of the zoo in this southwestern city, go past
the handful of donkeys in a fenced compound and walk toward the cages.
Inside are the
desperate-looking lions, leopards and other animals. Their pens are the size of
walk-in-closets, with some cramped with two predators. One lion is taking
medication because his skin peeled off from hunger.
“We have about two
and half weeks of food for them,” said Victoria Johner y Cruz, a Geneva-based
lawyer who is trying to help save the animals.
The animals were in
far worse condition four months ago. They were emaciated, bones protruding.
Some were covered with untreated sores from fighting each other for scraps of
food, according to zoo workers. The city’s go
Georgia: A Happy Hippo and a Rebuilt Zoo for Flood
Anniversary
One year after a
devastating flood that killed 21 people and sent zoo animals into the streets
of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, both the city’s zoo and its famous wandering
hippopotamus, Begi, are back in shape.
On June 13, 2015,
flood waters lifted Begi and other animals out of their downtown enclosures,
creating an apocalyptic tableau of a city of 1.1 million people overrun by
water and beasts. Some 230 animals drowned or were shot by police to prevent
attacks on humans. Still, one man was mauled to death by an escaped tiger three
days after the disaster.
It was on that
tragic night that Begi (“hippo”) offered comic relief as he sauntered around a
central highway that cuts through the heart of Tbilisi. Next morning, he was
sighted passing stately by a downtown Swatch store, pausing to munch
phlegmatically on tree leaves. A tranquilizer and some I
Going to the zoo while black
A first-grader from
Wichita, Kansas was mauled by a leopard after the boy scaled a 4-foot railing
that surrounded the leopard exhibit, crossed an 8-foot gap and approached the
animal's cage. The child received lacerations to his head and neck after the leopard
stuck its paw through the cage and grabbed the boy by the side of the head.
A 3-year old boy at
Little Rock Zoo with his father and grandfather slipped through the railings
surrounding a jaguar exhibition and sustained multiple injuries after he fell
15-feet into the cat pit. The family’s request to keep the child’s name private
were granted by the hospital, zoo and multiple media outlets.
A 2-year-old boy at
the Cleveland Zoo suffered injuries to his legs after he experienced a 10-foot
fall into a cheetah exhibit after his mother dangled him ov
Al Wabra has already 100 Spix’s Macaws, two chicks are
being raised under their parents
After a huge success
from the last year when 16 Spix’s Macaw babies were raised in Qatar, Al Wabra
is breaking new records. In the last week, the 17th chick of this season was
hatched.
„To add to this
success, a new era has started, we would also like to announce that we have 2
Spix’s macaw chicks been parent reared, they are been monitored and the parents
are doing a fantastic job, the parent reared Spix’s are now currently 6 weeks
old and looking good,” said Al Wabra representatives on their official Facebook
page.
“We have been
training pairs and are hoping over the coming years to have the majority of
chicks parent reared,” they added.
It seems that the
record of 17 chicks raised within one season might be still improved. “The
season is not over yet although it is waning a
Caring For The Animals In The World’s Zoos And
Aquariums
tic shows what we’ve
all known for millennia...that we have a remarkably deep emotional connection
with the animals who share our world.
And yet that
connection is in danger of disappearing. In the face of what scientists are
calling a “Sixth Extinction” with species disappearing at a rate 8-100 times
higher than expected since 1900, today’s zoos and aquariums are playing an
increasingly important role in preserving the vital web of life on Earth.
Serving as arks of hope for endangered animals and powerful ambassadors for
conservation, these institutions are cultivating new generations who care about
the future of these creatures. Through zoos and aquariums, people are becoming
increasingly aware of and invested in the fate of the world’s animals. At the
same time, they are also rightly demanding that the millions of creatures who
live in human care at zoos, aquariums and conservation centers be afforded good
treatment and welfare.
To help achieve
this, American Humane Association, which has been leading the compassion
movement for 140 years and is the largest certifier of the humane treatment of
animals, developed the first-ever independent, science-based, third-party
humane certification program focusing solely on the well-being of the animals
living in zoos and aquariums. This new Humane Conservation™ program is based on
comprehensive standards created by an independent Scientific Advisory Committee
consisting of the most well-respected, iconic names in animal welfare, animal
ethics, and the conservation community. The standards cover everything from
good health to good housing, good feeding, good management, and appropriate
behaviors, and their implementation is verified through rigorous audits by a
completely independent third party.
“People won’t
protect what they don’t love, and they can’t love what they don’t know,” said
Dr. Robin Ganzert, American Humane Association president and CEO. “Zoos and
aquariums fill an important, lifesaving role in the quest to save the
magnificent creatures who share our world, but at the same time it is important
that these facilities treat their animals humanely. When consumers visit a zoo,
aquarium or conservation park they want to kno
Indianapolis Zoo to close polar bear exhibit
The Indianapolis Zoo
announced on Monday that they are closing their polar bear exhibit.
The exhibit opened
in 1988 and is in need of updates. That means 29-year-old Tundra will be
relocated.
Tundra will be
transported to the Detroit Zoo which is considered one of the leading polar
bear facilities in the world. The Detroit Zoo offers large spaces and pools
with easy slopes for Tundra to enter and exit the water, especially as she gets
older.
Olm eggs: First two Slovenian 'dragons' emerge
After a four-month
wait, the eggs laid by a peculiar salamander in a Slovenian cave have started
to hatch.
Ghostly pale and
totally blind, olms - fondly known by locals as "baby dragons" - only
reproduce every 5-10 years and are thought to live to 100.
This clutch of eggs
started to appear in January in an aquarium in Postojna Cave, a tourist
destination where the creatures have lived for millennia.
Observing baby olms
develop and hatch is a rare opportunity for science.
The first of 23
developed eggs hatched
Oil massage, coffee and new toothbrush everyday: Hyd
zoo pampers Suzi the Chimp
Talk about being
pampered! Suzi the Chimp is all of 28 years old and seems to carry her star
status with easy panache ever since she arrived at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological
Park in 2011.
Earlier the prized
pet of business tycoon and Sahara chairman Subrata Roy, Suzi is indeed lucky
that the authorities have no qualms about catering to the lifestyle that she is
used to, as they consider her the star attraction of their zoo.
Shivani Dogra –the
zoo curator- while speaking to The News Minute admitted that Suzi’s lifestyle
was indeed lavish but then she felt that was what made Suzi unique: “As is done
for every other animal, we take care of Suzi too. It is not all that difficult
to fulfill her demands, but yes…Suzi does have a lavish life which actually
makes her unique. We
Elephant calves more likely to survive in the care of
their grandmothers
Among the Asian
elephants, the grandmothers have a significant role. They ensure the survival
of the calves and breeding success for their daughters.
Grandmothers often
provide vital childcare in human communities across the world. In traditional
societies such help even increases grandchildren's survival prospects and leads
to shorter birth intervals for the daughters. In a new study, a research group
from the University of Turku in Finland has now discovered that a similar
phenomenon exist among the elephants in Myanmar.
"We found that
calves of young elephant mothers under 20 years of age had eight times lower
mortality risk if the grandmother resided in the same location compared to
calves whose grandmother was not present," says Dr. Mirkka Lahdenperä, the
lead author of the study.
Resident
grandmothers also decreased their daughters' inter-birth intervals by one year,
so that altogether mor
'Finding Dory' Could Be More Bad News For Sea World
The latest data from
TickerTags indicates that Walt Disney Co
DIS
's upcoming movie
“Finding Dory” could be a huge hit for Disney and a major blow for one Disney
rival.
TickerTags monitors
social media sites to identify trends by searching for words or phrases that
appear together in social media content, such as tweets.
Zoos Are Not Prisons. They Improve the Lives of
Animals.
The recent death of
Harambe—the Western lowland gorilla shot dead at the Cincinnati Zoo after a
three-year-old boy fell into his enclosure—has ignited a fierce debate about
the role of modern zoos. Some critics have seized the tragedy as an opportunity
to advance an uncompromising anti-captivity narrative in which all zoos and
aquariums are inherently unethical and cruel.
To be sure, there
are bad actors. The spawning of so-called “roadside zoos”—an exploitative
enterprise known for its systematic negligence and abuse of animals—are some of
the most egregious cases-in-point. But blunt and sweeping indictments of zoos
and aquariums fail to account for how ethical institutions enrich and
ultimately protect the lives of animals, both in human care and in the wild.
Responsible zoos and
aquarium
MEET DAMIAN ASPINALL, SOCIETY'S DR DOOLITTLE
A bright sun is
beating down on Damian Aspinall as he sits outside one of the lavishly
appointed (and rentable) treehouses he's had built at his Port Lympne Reserve,
in Kent. Below are some of the 600 acres in which black rhino brood, gorillas
gambol, zebra frolic and Amur tigers exude sleek ferocity; through the haze the
English Channel can be seen. 'Evocative, isn't it?' he says, pleasure pouring
from the 56-year-old's six-foot-three frame, and who's to disagree?
Licences for UAE dog owners and exotic animal
ownership are target of new draft FNC law
Dog owners must buy
a licence for their pets and keep them on a leash at all times when in public
under a new draft law passed by the Federal National Council.
There will be fines
of up to Dh500,000 and up to six months in jail for owners who fail to keep
their pets under control and the animal will be confiscated.
The penalty also
applies to owners who do not vaccinate their dogs against dangerous diseases.
Owners will have six months from the date the law comes into action, which is
yet to be announced, to buy the necessary licence and vaccinations.
The law, which was
discussed by the FNC on Wednesday also bans the private ownership of wild and
exotic animals.
It aims to regulate
the possession and trade of predatory, dangerous and semi-dangerous animals.
Only zoos, wildlife
parks, circuses, breeding and research centres are allowed to keep wild or
exotic animals. The public is urged to report cases of wild animals being kept
as pets.
Anyone who takes a
leopard, cheetah or any other kind of exotic animal out in public will be
fined between Dh10,000 and Dh500,000.
People who use an
animal to threaten
Australia Zoo cleared of animal mistreatment
An eight-month
investigation into poor treatment of animals at Australia Zoo's animal hospital
has found no evidence its hospital staff deliberately mistreated animals.
The Queensland
Government's Biosecurity Queensland investigated 31 allegations since 2015
against the hospital st
Questions over probe as Australia Zoo cleared of
animal mistreatment
A WITNESS who made
allegations of animal mistreatment at Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital was not
interviewed as part of an eight-month State Government investigation.
Biosecurity
Queensland yesterday announced there was “insufficient evidence” that injured
animals were given poor or wrong treatment at the Sunshine Coast facility
operated by “Wildlife Warrior” Terri Irwin.
Zoo visitor perceptions, attitudes, and conservation
intent after viewing African elephants at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Elephants in the
wild face several conservation issues. With the rebranding of zoos as
conservation and education pioneers, they have the ability to both educate and
inspire guests to action. The purpose of this research was to analyze visitor
perceptions and attitudes toward elephant conservation and outcomes
post-exhibit visit. A one-page survey was randomly administered to assess
perceptions of elephant behavior, attitudes about elephant conservation, and
intended conservation-related outcomes from September 2013 to January 2014.
Principle component analysis identified three major components: concern for
elephants in zoos, importance of elephants in the wild, and modification of
nature. Visitors who scored highly on conservation intent were those with
positive attitudes towards elephants in the wild and negative attitudes
regarding the modification of nature. The greatest changes in conservation
intent were a result of a self-reported up-close encounter and the ability to
witness active behaviors. Prov
St. Augustine Alligator Farm becomes first U.S. zoo to
breed endangered Indian gharial
The first successful
hatching of an Indian gharial outside of India or Nepal took place Sunday at
the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park.
The park announced
the hatching Monday morning.
John Brueggen, the
Alligator Farm’s director and general manager, said the keepers have been
trying to get a live Indian gharial hatchling for decades.
It’s a difficult
feat to pull off, Brueggen said, because the animals like to lay their eggs in
sandy river banks in their native territory. The Alligator Farm staff did its
best to replicate that environment.
Brueggen added that
the animals also need very specific
National Aquarium to move dolphins into refuge
Eight dolphins that
have spent their lives swimming in tanks will be retired from the National
Aquarium in Baltimore into a seaside sanctuary.
By announcing plans
to move its dolphins into the ocean enclosure by the end of 2020, the aquarium
sails into uncharted waters for the marine mammal industry.
People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals welcomed the news, and the CEO of the Humane
Society of the United States blogged that his counterpart a
Separate bill for zoo management sought
The Environment
Protection Committee of the Legislature-Parliament today directed the Ministry
of Forest and Soil Conservation, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary
Affairs and Council of Ministers to bring a separate bill for zoo management
within three months.
Mother of tragic Scots zookeeper says wildlife park
should be closed over continuing safety concerns
THE mother of a
Scots zookeeper mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger has said the wildlife park
should be closed while concerns continue over the safety of the public three
years after the tragedy.
Fiona McClay, whose
daughter Sarah, 24, was killed at South Lakes Safari Zoo in Cumbria three years
ago, said the zoo should not have its licence renewed as David Gill – who
walked free from court last week over the 24-year-old’s death – faces new
claims over fears about animal welfare and interfering in management decisions.
Last week Mr Gill,
the 55-year-old founder of the z
Family 'horrified' at zoo's letter
The family of a
zookeeper killed by a tiger at Hamilton Zoo last year are horrified a letter
sent to Australasian zoos appears to blame the keeper for her death.
Samantha Kudeweh was
killed by a Sumatran tiger on September 20 when she was working in the tiger
enclosure.
Hamilton City
Council pleaded guilty last Thursday to a Worksafe prosecution that alleged the
council failed to take all practical steps to ensure the 43-year-old was not
exposed to hazards arising out of working with the tiger.
The letter, signed
by Hamilton Zoo director Stephen Standley, said "although we felt our
tiger management systems and processes were adequate and met MPI standards,
there is more that we could have done to ensure staff were safe in the event of
human error, particularly those managing dangerous animals. It is no longer
enough to rely on procedures as people make mistakes. We need to identify
engineered solutions that prevent human error resulting in staff ending up in
the same space as a dangerous animal."
The letter, issued
last Thursday, a
‘They could have killed me instantly, but they didn’t’
Even if they look cute and cuddly, don’t
mistake zoo animals for pets.
“They are wild
animals. You have to respect them. They will kill you,” says Guy Lichty,
curator of mammals at the N.C. Zoo.
He knows that better
than most people.
On May 17, 1979, two
polar bears nearly mauled him to death.
The incident took
place at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado, about a year after he graduated
from Furman University with a bachelor’s degree in biology. As a keeper, Lichty
cared for a variety of animals … elephants, antelope … and sometimes bears when
the regular keeper was on vacation.
“My job was to shift
the bears from bedroom to bedroom and clean, then feed and put them back in the
assigned bedrooms.”
Each series of rooms
for the various bears was separated into sleeping and eating quarters, divided
by a lift door in the ceiling and doors leading to the hallway. To clean each
stall, Lichty used a water hose he pulled down the hallway.
On this day, he was
working alone. It was about 4 p.m., around closing time, and he was at the last
stall, home to a male and female pair of polar bears. He sprayed the den and
climbed on top to lift the guillotine door and move the bears back.
From that vantage
point, Lichty noticed
Probing the Link between Biodiversity-Related
Knowledge and Self-Reported Proconservation Behavior in a Global Survey of Zoo
Visitors
Many environmental
communication interventions are built on the assumption that increased
knowledge will lead to changes in proenvironment behaviors. Our study probes
the link between biodiversity-related knowledge and self-reported
proconservation behavior, based on the largest and most international study of
zoo visitors ever conducted. In total, 6,357 visitors to 30 zoos from 19
countries around the globe participated in the study. Biodiversity
understanding and knowledge of actions to help protect biodiversity were
significantly related, but only 0.6% of the variation in knowledge of actions
to help protect biodiversity could be explained by those same respondents’
biodiversity understanding. Biodiversity understanding was only the sixth most
important variable in significantly predicting knowledge of actions to help
protect biodiversity. Moreover, biodiversity understanding was the least
important variable of those that were significantly related to self-reported
proconservation behavior. Our study indicates that knowledge is a real, but
relatively minor, factor in predicting whether members of the public – zoo
visitors in this case – will know about specific proenvironment behaviors they
can take, let alone whether they will actually undertake such behaviors.
Dingo attacks Peel Zoo staff
A zookeeper and a
volunteer at a private Pinjarra zoo are recovering after a dingo attacked them
last week.
The 21-year-old
volunteer is understood to have walked into the dingo enclosure at Peel Zoo to
take a male dingo, Shiloh, for a walk.
She radioed
zookeeper Emma Mitchell-Collett, 23, for advice about moving the animals when
she was bitten by Shiloh.
With so many dolphins in captivity, Spain is swimming
against the tide
More than half the dolphins held in aquariums are
owned by Spanish companies
A dolphin called
Buffalo Bill serves hamburgers and chips while another in a cowboy dress jumps
repeatedly through a hoop. Part of an “educational” spectacle, the animals are
photographed by a British family being led around the pool by Fiona, a sea lion
who nudges them forward with her nose while winning over her audience with cute
“human” gestures.
In the same park,
children’s cries blend in with the squawking of parrots overhead, beers come
and go in big plastic cups and a vulture flies just meters above the crowds,
close to where two albino tigers are dozing off, clearly bored by the constant
pointing of cellphones in their direction.
Man Jumps Into Zoo Enclosure To Save A Drowning Chimp
In 1990, during a
visit to the Detroit Zoo, truck driver Rick Swope did something no one else
would do, and tragedy was averted because of it. As Swope stood looking in on
the facility's ape enclosure, a fight broke out between a chimp named Jo-Jo and
another male. After the brief scuffle, Jo-Jo tried to escape — only to end up
falling into a deep moat designed to keep him in.
Since chimps are
unable to swim, the move nearly proved fatal.
"Everyone in
the whole place was just standing around watching this monkey drown,"
Swope told the Deseret News. "When he went down the second time I knew I
had to do something."
ZSL celebrates Zoo success after winning big at annual
BIAZA awards
ZSL walked away with
a total of 14 awards from the event held on 8 June, with key acknowledgements
in a variety of categories such as animal breeding, care and welfare,
conservation, education, exhibits and research.
Zoological director
David Field said: “The BIAZA Awards are designed to illustrate best practice in
zoos and aquaria across Britain and Ireland. The volume and variety of awards
won across the board is a wonderful demonstration that ZSL is not only leading
the way in the welfare of animals, we are at the forefront in exhibit design,
horticulture and animal training.”
In addition to the
Zoos’ collective achievements, Luke Harding from ZSL London Zoo’s herpetology
department won this
India puts 18 lions on trial for murder, and the
culprit may get a life zoo sentence
Police have rounded
up 18 male suspects wanted for the murder of three in Gujarat, an arid western
Indian state.
If one is found
guilty, he will be sentenced to life in prison. Or, a kind of prison at least:
a zoo. The suspects are all Asiatic lions.
The species is
endangered, and its population has dwindled as human settlements encroach on
its remaining habitat. As that process speeds up, humans and lions are more
likely to come into contact, leading to killings that go both ways.
Approximately 400 Asiatic lions are left in the wild, and they are the only
lion population outside of Africa. Wildlife officials in India say that Gir
National Park, where almost all these lions live, can accommodate only 270 of
them, leading some prides to venture outside its boundaries.
High Park Zoo captures one of two escaped capybaras
One of the capybaras
that escaped from the High Park Zoo last month has been captured, the zoo says.
“With a big team
effort one of the capybaras has been rescued. It is resting off site for now,”
Ward 13 Coun. Sarah Doucette wrote on Twitter.
The two capybaras –
a male and a female – escaped from the High Park Zoo May 25 as they were being
brought to join one other capybaras capybara who lives at the zoo and the two
have been on the loose ever since.
Sea lion so far from home has experts in a sea of
theories
The presence of a
sea lion here so far south of its natural habit has researchers in a tizzy.
They are hard
pressed to figure out whether the mystery creature is a foreign visitor that
strayed far off-course or confirmation that the Japanese sea lion, far from
being extinct, is alive and well.
The animal in
question was spotted on an island off Kagoshima Prefecture earlier this year. A
Japanese sea lion has not been seen in 40 years.
After seeking expert
opinion, Kagoshima City Aquarium here said the large marine mammal with
impressive flippers photographed on the island was “definitely a sea lion.”
It was spotted by
local fishermen March 15-16 near Tsurikakezaki cape, which is part of
Shimo-Koshikijima island and located 60 kilometers or so from Satsuma-Sendai in
Kagoshima Prefecture.
Toshihiro Hamada, a
51-year-old fisherman who lives on the island, had a close encounter with the
aquatic animal on the morning of March 17 and took a photo of it. When he got
to within 10 meters from the creature on his boat, it barked, as if to fend him
off, and eased itself into the water.
“It appeared to be
about 2 meters long,” Hamada said. “I think I’d lose if it came to a fight.”
The following day
the fisherman told the aquarium he saw a fur seal and forwarded the digital
photos he took. But when the aquarium staff saw the pictures, they were pretty
sure it was a sea lion, an animal not found in Japanese w
Bettongs learn to survive through predator training at
Arid Recovery park near Olympic Dam
FOCUS on the hunted,
not the hunter — teach them to be afraid, very afraid.
That’s the aim of
groundbreaking research in South Australia’s Outback showing “encouraging”
results in a new strategy to save threatened species.
Most conservation
projects work by excluding or culling feral pests to protect native animals.
The research by an
organisation called Arid Recovery wants the native animals to learn to look
after themselves.
At Arid Recovery’s
park on the outskirts of the Olympic Dam mine, at Roxby Downs, four desexed
male cats have been inserted into a 26sq km enclosure along with 352 burrowing
bettongs and 46 greater bilbies and some rabbits.
“We wanted to
simulate what would
Down to 60: scientists mull risky captive breeding for
panda porpoise
Today, there are
approximately 7.3 billion people on the planet – and only 60 vaquitas. The
vaquita has seen its population drop by 92 percent in less than 20 years in
Mexico’s Gulf of California as the tiny porpoises suffocate to death one-by-one
in gillnets. Now, scientists with the International Committee for the Recovery
of the Vaquita (CIRVA) are cautiously moving forward on a once unthinkable
option: captive breeding.
“We have no idea
whether it is feasible to find, capture and maintain vaquitas in captivity much
less whether they will reproduce,” said Barbara Taylor, one of the world’s
foremost experts on the vaquita with NOAA. “The uncertainties are large.”
Captive breeding of
vaquita, if it ever happens, would be a last-ditch and incredibly risky action,
according to scientists. The world’s smallest porpoise and cetacean, vaquita
(Phocoena sinus) are shy and retiring with eye patches that have led them to be
described fondly as the ‘pandas of the sea.’ These rarely-seen porpoises also
have the smallest range o
Did That Come Off Wrong?
As zoo
professionals, many of us (all of us?) have dealt with our share of animal
rights extremeist questions. I could
probably write a Russian novel-length blog about AR extremeism, using real-life
examples from my own career path. And
it'd all probably be stuff you've heard before.
CuriousCity: Calcium-dusted bugs and tasty wallaby all
on the zoo menu
The circle of life
takes some curious twists in captivity.
Fluttering tui watch
from bushes as Zulu the lion guzzles his "triple mix" of beef heart,
lungs and kidneys off his pride's rock.
Elsewhere in
Wellington Zoo, the meerkats snack on $250-a-kilogram crickets and meal worms.
The cruelty behind that selfie of you with a baby
tiger
Tigers leap on cue
through a ring of fire, walk along double tightropes and step backwards on
their hind legs in scenes similar to circuses that traversed Australia last
century.
Elsewhere in the
sprawling complex outside Bangkok, elephants drop balls into baskets, dance,
take bows and gently lift their giant feet on to the backs of members of the
audience lying facedown on concrete.
Catalogue of concerns at zoo where tiger killed Scots
keeper
THE owner of a zoo
where a Scot was mauled to death by a Sumatran tiger three years ago stands
accused of putting more lives at risk in spite of the tragedy.
David Gill - who
walked free from court over the 24-year-old's death last week - also faces
claims over fears about animal welfare, interfering in management decisions and
going back on a pledge to hand over its running.
He vowed to council
bosses changes would be made after Sarah McClay, originally from Glasgow, was
savaged to death in the keeper's corridor of the tiger house on May 24, 2013.
Zoo owner says police inactivity left him no choice
but to shoot down drone
The owner of a
private zoo in the Nicosia district who shot down a drone that had been
hovering over his home and business for the last two months, said on Saturday
he filed a report to the police chief as he believes the force failed to
protect him and his customers from privacy and security violations.
Melios Menelaou, who
owns a zoo in Ayioi Trimithias, shot down a drone reportedly worth €1,700 on
Thursday that was operated by a neighbour after police failed to convince the
device’s operator to stop flying it over the former’s zoo and home.
After two months of
constant day and night drone flying over his property and himself personally,
and numerous calls to the police, which he said proved ineffective, Menelaou
told the Sunday Mail, he had “had enough”.
Not only was the
drone user invading his and his family’s privacy, he said, it was also causing
panic to the animals, every time it hovered over them, “twice per day” and it
also posed a safety hazard in the case it fell on a zoo visitor.
“The last time I
called the police, I told them this is it, I’m going to buy bullets. Two days
ago, when it was following me around all day long, I shot it down,” he said.
He says he was not
to the only one to feel disturbed by the drone.
“Neighbours too were
complaining that he would fly the drone at night outside their bedroom
windows,” Menelaou said. “And zoo visitors were complaining to me as t
Gir lions gifted to Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park
die; Mulayam's dream project could be in question in next year’s elections
The uncertain fate
of the Gir lions gifted by Gujarat to the Etawah Wildlife Lion Safari Park, a
dream project of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his father
Mulayam Singh Yadav, could possibly be revived as a political slogan in next
year's assembly elections. Of the 11that arrived in September 2014, four have
died as have five cubs that were born of the original Gir pride. The ninth
death was that of Kuber on June 2.
The chief minister
and Prime Minister Narend ..
Letter of invitation to Sir Roger Moore to meet Morgan
and the other orcas at Loro Parque
Dear Sir Roger Moore,
Loro Parque
recognises your distinguished acting career, but believes that you have been
seriously misinformed by the extreme animal-rights organisation, PETA. PETA
appears to have enlisted your support to accuse Loro Parque of mistreating the
orcas in its facilities, but nothing could be further from the truth. For you
to verify the situation directly, Loro Parque invites you to visit the park and
orca facilities.
The incident which
appears to have triggered your involvement in this issue is the recent video of
the orca Morgan lying out of the water at the edge of the pool, which
animal-right activists alerted to the media with the completely false message
that her behaviour was abnormal, and that it signalled such a high level of
stress in the animal that she was supposedly trying to commit suicide. This
allegation is so absurd that even the well-known activist for Morgan´s
liberation, Dr. Ingrid Visser, otherwise quite a critic of Loro Parque, has
rejected the suicide attempt explanation in National Geographic magazine.
Loro Parque wishes
to inform you that th
Kruger Park forced to cull its wildlife
The Kruger National
Park has started culling hippos and its buffalo will be next. Although the
park, which is one of the largest game reserves in Africa, received rain in
March, there is not enough food for the animals.
William Mabasa,
spokesman for South African National Parks, said that 59 hippos had been culled
and another 100 were in the firing line for later this year as well as 200
buffalo.
Memphis Zoo begins ‘unusual’ conservation efforts to
save rare snake
The Memphis Zoo is
spearheading efforts to save the rarest snake in North America by pulling all
of them from zoos across the country.
"We're doing
something a bit unusual honestly," zoo spokeswoman Laura Doty said.
"We are recalling all of the snakes."
Each of the 108
Louisiana Pine Snakes hosted in 21 zoos will be redistributed to four
institutions: the Memphis Zoo, the Audubon Nature Institute in New Orleans, the
Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin Texas, and the Fort Worth Zoo. The large, nonvenomous
serpent is native to Louisiana and Texas.
"Now just four
zoos will have 12 or more pairs and they're going to have room to really,
really grow the population," said Steve Reichling, curator of reptiles at
the Memphis Zoo. "It's a real conservation machine."
Memphis has long
headquartered the snakes' Species Survival Plan, a program managed by the
American Zoo Aquarium Association. Reichling also serves as the species
coordinator for the project.
"The whole
purpose of the program is to make sure that ge
‘SOS Taiz zoo’: As civil war rages, lions and leopards
at a zoo in Yemen don’t have enough food to survive
Add lions and
endangered Arabian leopards to the casualties of Yemen’s civil war.
To see the impact,
enter through the rusting gates of the zoo in this southwestern city, go past
the handful of donkeys in a fenced compound and walk toward the cages.
Inside are the
desperate-looking lions, leopards and other animals. Their pens are the size of
walk-in-closets, with some cramped with two predators. One lion is taking
medication because his skin peeled off from hunger.
“We have about two
and half weeks of food for them,” said Victoria Johner y Cruz, a Geneva-based
lawyer who is trying to help save the animals.
The animals were in
far worse condition four months ago. They were emaciated, bones protruding.
Some were covered with untreated sores from fighting each other for scraps of
food, according to zoo workers. The city’s go
Georgia: A Happy Hippo and a Rebuilt Zoo for Flood
Anniversary
One year after a
devastating flood that killed 21 people and sent zoo animals into the streets
of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, both the city’s zoo and its famous wandering
hippopotamus, Begi, are back in shape.
On June 13, 2015,
flood waters lifted Begi and other animals out of their downtown enclosures,
creating an apocalyptic tableau of a city of 1.1 million people overrun by
water and beasts. Some 230 animals drowned or were shot by police to prevent
attacks on humans. Still, one man was mauled to death by an escaped tiger three
days after the disaster.
It was on that
tragic night that Begi (“hippo”) offered comic relief as he sauntered around a
central highway that cuts through the heart of Tbilisi. Next morning, he was
sighted passing stately by a downtown Swatch store, pausing to munch
phlegmatically on tree leaves. A tranquilizer and some I
Going to the zoo while black
A first-grader from
Wichita, Kansas was mauled by a leopard after the boy scaled a 4-foot railing
that surrounded the leopard exhibit, crossed an 8-foot gap and approached the
animal's cage. The child received lacerations to his head and neck after the leopard
stuck its paw through the cage and grabbed the boy by the side of the head.
A 3-year old boy at
Little Rock Zoo with his father and grandfather slipped through the railings
surrounding a jaguar exhibition and sustained multiple injuries after he fell
15-feet into the cat pit. The family’s request to keep the child’s name private
were granted by the hospital, zoo and multiple media outlets.
A 2-year-old boy at
the Cleveland Zoo suffered injuries to his legs after he experienced a 10-foot
fall into a cheetah exhibit after his mother dangled him ov
Al Wabra has already 100 Spix’s Macaws, two chicks are
being raised under their parents
After a huge success
from the last year when 16 Spix’s Macaw babies were raised in Qatar, Al Wabra
is breaking new records. In the last week, the 17th chick of this season was
hatched.
„To add to this
success, a new era has started, we would also like to announce that we have 2
Spix’s macaw chicks been parent reared, they are been monitored and the parents
are doing a fantastic job, the parent reared Spix’s are now currently 6 weeks
old and looking good,” said Al Wabra representatives on their official Facebook
page.
“We have been
training pairs and are hoping over the coming years to have the majority of
chicks parent reared,” they added.
It seems that the
record of 17 chicks raised within one season might be still improved. “The
season is not over yet although it is waning a
Caring For The Animals In The World’s Zoos And
Aquariums
tic shows what we’ve
all known for millennia...that we have a remarkably deep emotional connection
with the animals who share our world.
And yet that
connection is in danger of disappearing. In the face of what scientists are
calling a “Sixth Extinction” with species disappearing at a rate 8-100 times
higher than expected since 1900, today’s zoos and aquariums are playing an
increasingly important role in preserving the vital web of life on Earth.
Serving as arks of hope for endangered animals and powerful ambassadors for
conservation, these institutions are cultivating new generations who care about
the future of these creatures. Through zoos and aquariums, people are becoming
increasingly aware of and invested in the fate of the world’s animals. At the
same time, they are also rightly demanding that the millions of creatures who
live in human care at zoos, aquariums and conservation centers be afforded good
treatment and welfare.
To help achieve
this, American Humane Association, which has been leading the compassion
movement for 140 years and is the largest certifier of the humane treatment of
animals, developed the first-ever independent, science-based, third-party
humane certification program focusing solely on the well-being of the animals
living in zoos and aquariums. This new Humane Conservation™ program is based on
comprehensive standards created by an independent Scientific Advisory Committee
consisting of the most well-respected, iconic names in animal welfare, animal
ethics, and the conservation community. The standards cover everything from
good health to good housing, good feeding, good management, and appropriate
behaviors, and their implementation is verified through rigorous audits by a
completely independent third party.
“People won’t
protect what they don’t love, and they can’t love what they don’t know,” said
Dr. Robin Ganzert, American Humane Association president and CEO. “Zoos and
aquariums fill an important, lifesaving role in the quest to save the
magnificent creatures who share our world, but at the same time it is important
that these facilities treat their animals humanely. When consumers visit a zoo,
aquarium or conservation park they want to kno
Indianapolis Zoo to close polar bear exhibit
The Indianapolis Zoo
announced on Monday that they are closing their polar bear exhibit.
The exhibit opened
in 1988 and is in need of updates. That means 29-year-old Tundra will be
relocated.
Tundra will be
transported to the Detroit Zoo which is considered one of the leading polar
bear facilities in the world. The Detroit Zoo offers large spaces and pools
with easy slopes for Tundra to enter and exit the water, especially as she gets
older.
Olm eggs: First two Slovenian 'dragons' emerge
After a four-month
wait, the eggs laid by a peculiar salamander in a Slovenian cave have started
to hatch.
Ghostly pale and
totally blind, olms - fondly known by locals as "baby dragons" - only
reproduce every 5-10 years and are thought to live to 100.
This clutch of eggs
started to appear in January in an aquarium in Postojna Cave, a tourist
destination where the creatures have lived for millennia.
Observing baby olms
develop and hatch is a rare opportunity for science.
The first of 23
developed eggs hatched
Oil massage, coffee and new toothbrush everyday: Hyd
zoo pampers Suzi the Chimp
Talk about being
pampered! Suzi the Chimp is all of 28 years old and seems to carry her star
status with easy panache ever since she arrived at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological
Park in 2011.
Earlier the prized
pet of business tycoon and Sahara chairman Subrata Roy, Suzi is indeed lucky
that the authorities have no qualms about catering to the lifestyle that she is
used to, as they consider her the star attraction of their zoo.
Shivani Dogra –the
zoo curator- while speaking to The News Minute admitted that Suzi’s lifestyle
was indeed lavish but then she felt that was what made Suzi unique: “As is done
for every other animal, we take care of Suzi too. It is not all that difficult
to fulfill her demands, but yes…Suzi does have a lavish life which actually
makes her unique. We
Elephant calves more likely to survive in the care of
their grandmothers
Among the Asian
elephants, the grandmothers have a significant role. They ensure the survival
of the calves and breeding success for their daughters.
Grandmothers often
provide vital childcare in human communities across the world. In traditional
societies such help even increases grandchildren's survival prospects and leads
to shorter birth intervals for the daughters. In a new study, a research group
from the University of Turku in Finland has now discovered that a similar
phenomenon exist among the elephants in Myanmar.
"We found that
calves of young elephant mothers under 20 years of age had eight times lower
mortality risk if the grandmother resided in the same location compared to
calves whose grandmother was not present," says Dr. Mirkka Lahdenperä, the
lead author of the study.
Resident
grandmothers also decreased their daughters' inter-birth intervals by one year,
so that altogether mor
'Finding Dory' Could Be More Bad News For Sea World
The latest data from
TickerTags indicates that Walt Disney Co
DIS
's upcoming movie
“Finding Dory” could be a huge hit for Disney and a major blow for one Disney
rival.
TickerTags monitors
social media sites to identify trends by searching for words or phrases that
appear together in social media content, such as tweets.
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
*****
About me
After more than 47 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
or on Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an international independent zoo consultant, critic and writer. Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, one time zoo inspector, a dreamer, a traveler, a people watcher, a lover, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.
"These are the best days of my life"
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant        |
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