Zoo News Digest 7th May 2018 (ZooNews 992)
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
Over these past few weeks there have been two news stories of tiger cubs being rescued as they were being smuggled across the border from Mexico and into the US. They were then handed on to zoos with much press coverage following on. It is noble work and I am delighted that the cubs survived. Thinking on from here...the zoos don't want them. If a good zoo wants a tiger it will have no problem getting one. They will get their tiger through the officially sanctioned breeding programme for the subspecies they are interested in. These tiger cubs are 'Heinz 57' tigers, tigers of unknown parentage and valueless to the long term conservation of tigers worldwide. In fact they are harmful to conservation because in a good zoo they take up space that can be practically used for species.
It isn't just rescued smuggled animals which make such problems but those playthings of the wealthy which are presented to zoos once their owners have tired of them. It is difficult and sometimes impossible to refuse. So they are maintained for years at considerable expense and contribute little or nothing towards conservation. There could be educational value but saying something along the lines of "this animal was dumped on us" is not going to go down too well.
Sticking with tigers for just a little bit longer. This morning I had a meeting with a friend of mine. He told me of "pink tiger bone jewelry"....which made me sick to the stomach. I am familiar (or I thought I was) with all of the horrors of the Tiger Trade but this one was new on me. So I looked it up.
"she could also supply some of the more upmarket pink tiger bone jewellery and that the pink colour was the result of the tigers being deboned while only sedated."
That is a horror story.
A statement I saw on Facebook this week "Exotic breeders are the life blood of zoos. Without them zoos are effed." I have little doubt that there a few specialist breeders out there who do make a contribution. The rest though are a nonsense supplying the bad zoos.
Did you know that advertising your vacancy or product on ZooNews Digest can potentially reach 77,000 + people?
Lots of interest follows.
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Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 77,000 Followers on Facebook( and over 77,000 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 823 Zoos in 154+ countries? That the subscriber list for the mail out 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.
I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,
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Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 77,000 Followers on Facebook( and over 77,000 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 823 Zoos in 154+ countries? That the subscriber list for the mail out 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.
I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,
********
*****
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Ark, lifeboat or
something wilder? Future of zoos under debate
Earth, in case you
hadn’t heard, or noticed, is going through a sixth mass extinction. Animals and
other life are disappearing the world over and it began well ahead of global
warming, although the human-caused rapid climate change going on isn’t helping.
Scattered across the
globe, attempting to deal with this, at least a little bit, are the world’s
zoos and aquariums. You can debate about animals in captivity. You can argue
about the environmental cost-to-benefit ratio of keeping an orca in a relative
bathtub, a leopard in a studio apartment.
But to familiarize
yourself with the efforts of the best of these animal havens is to understand
that they work with sincerity and some urgency to try to understand and save
endangered species, while also navigating public expectations and budgetary
pressures.
In other words, they
operate in “powerful ethical rapids,” in the words of the editor of “The Ark
and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation,” an eye-opening new
book from the University of Chicago Press. But before we get to that book and
its consideration of zoos, have a quick look around Chicago.
Lincoln Park Zoo,
which you may think of as
Zookeepers Have A
Problem With Diversity
Ask any zookeeper
about the importance of diversity, and they’re likely to launch into a
well-rehearsed speech about biological niches and the importance of the global
diversity of species. Zookeepers are trained and passionate conservationists,
and they know their stuff when it comes to this topic. But there’s another form
of diversity that we don’t talk about nearly enough – zookeeper diversity. That
is, the diversity of zookeepers themselves. It’s alarmingly low, and it’s
something that we should really be thinking a lot more about.
I’ve visited many
zoos across the United States. And I’ve attended many conferences, workshops,
meetings, and professional development courses over the years. And without
fail, the vast, vast, majority of the zookeepers, aquarists, curators, and
other animal care professionals that I’ve met and observed have not been people
o
Sarah Chin: A
zookeeper’s tale of turning passion into action
To say that Sarah
Chin loves animals is an understatement.
As a young girl, she
preferred to spend recess playing with the class rabbits at kindergarten than
with her schoolmates at the playground.
Instead of a cute
puppy or a kitten, she once asked her mother if she could keep a pet snake at
home because for her, reptiles are friends, not foes.
While other kids
would aspire to become doctors, lawyers, and astronauts, she had wanted to
become a veterinarian, a marine biologist, and even a pet shop owner.
And at a young age,
she had made it a personal mission to rescue the different bugs and insects
that had somehow found their way into their home.
Sarah, simply, has
always been passionate about caring for animals.
This passion, which
she has cultivated for many, many years, led her to pursue Zoology in college
and become a zookeeper right in her motherland, Singapore.
Pink Tiger Bone
Jewellery…A new tale in the context of the commodification of the tiger
She then mentioned
that she could also supply some of the more upmarket pink tiger bone jewellery
and that the pink colour was the result of the tigers being deboned while only
sedated. She showed us images on her phone, one a tiger hanging on a meat hook
being butchered and images of pinkish necklaces and bracelets.
Sentenced to life
July 21, a warm
summer day in 2007, Yamuna gave birth to Vijay. Yamuna is from Delhi — her
union arranged like many others — and the father, Laxman, from Bhubaneswar.
In the same year, on
February 6, Kalpana was born to two Delhi inhabitants, Kaveri and Swaraj. Years
later, as fate would have it, or as the world demanded, Kalpana met Vijay. She
was introduced to him for the sole purpose of mating and reproducing at the
Delhi zoo, continuing the line of tigers — more importantly, white Bengal
tigers — in captivity.
There’s no romantic
story here with tragedy lurking behind the surface. The Wildcat Sanctuary says
that normal tiger behaviour in the wild would prevent the kind of inbreeding
that would be necessary to produce white cubs. Furthermore, it alleges that captive
inbreeding of white tigers results in high neonatal mortality rates, typically
exceeding 80 per cent.
That’s not to say
that white tigers have not been seen in the wild — sightings are just rare. The
white colour of the Bengal tiger comes due to the lack of pigment pheomelanin.
But somehow, in a country obsessed with fair and lovely skin tones, one reason
so many visitors come to Delhi zoo
Four lions suffer
paralysis at Lahore Safari Park
The administration
of Lahore Safari Park is concerned because four lions of the African race are
suffering from paralysis.
“The paralysis has
affected their backside and they cannot move about like other lions,” said Lahore Safari Park Deputy Director Shafqat Chaudhry. “Their cubs are also likely
to inherit the disease.”
Two male lions aged
between 2.5 and three years and two female African lion are suffered from
paralysis due to calcium deficiency, he said. He added that the lions suffer
from this problem when they reach the age of six months and one year. “Due to
consumption of beef continuously, the amount of phosphorus increases in their
body and the quantity of calcium decreases. This leads to their bones weakening
which then causes paralysis.”
A Unique Business: A
Conversation with Bill Gersonde, Director of the Abilene Zoo
Bill Gersonde first
made a name for himself when he turned around the Idaho Falls Zoo, bringing it
from an antiquated institution on the verge of closure to a respectable
facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Since 2010, he
has served as Director of the Abilene Zoo. Gersonde has implemented a variety
of creative ideas to push the zoo forward. He also currently serves on AZA's
Wildlife Conservation Management Committee. Here is his story.
BSc (Top-Up) Animal
Management and Applied Zoology Hons
The BSc (Hons) in
Animal Management and Zoology Top Up course aims to create or develop animal
management professionals with a broad understanding on managing farms,
zoological collections or working within the field of conservation.
Undergraduates will acquire advanced practical hands-on animal management
skills whilst furthering business and enterprise skills needed to manage animal
and zoological collections, including enriching the customer experience,
education, environmental interpretation and animal encounters that reach beyond
the boundaries of the collection.
Vocational
relevance, professional standards and transferable skills for employability are
central to this Bachelor’s degree. This will be through the inclusion of a high
proportion of applied and work based learning elements which will ensure a high
calibre graduate entering the industry. The programme will empower individuals
to further develop their practical skills, academic research skills and core
knowledge required to work in zoos, animal rehabilitation reserves, aquaria and
animal collections or related animal industries both nationally and
internationally.
Monogamy Anchored in
Our Genes?
Biological
anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists commonly take it for granted
that human monogamy has a biological basis. Desmond Morris was an influential
early advocate. His 1967 swashbuckling best-seller The Naked Ape proposed
long-term monogamous human mating as an extreme expression of natural
pair-bonding. Morris dismissed alternative mating arrangements in other
cultures as relics of “obscure, backward tribal units”.
Bristol Zoo
Crocodile habitat
Here are a few
random photos from a project at Bristol Zoo, UK where we improved the Dwarf
African Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) and Malayan river turtle (Orlitia
borneensis) exhibits along with Aquarium Technology Ltd who were the main
contractors. Pictures taken on the day the planting was being introduced and
the pools being filled.
Koda Creative were
contracted by ATL to spray concrete the pools, making a smooth surface to which
ATL applied GRP waterproof liner. After this, we made washed out earth river
bank, rockwork, two trees, fallen tree bridge, fallen tree enclosure divider and
tree stump waterfall catcher.
Also during this
project we fit in some extra work, a Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus)
vivarium habitat.
World's oldest
recorded spider spends entire life sitting in her hole, lives to age 43
Researchers in
Australia monitored what is most likely the world's oldest spider on record,
who died at age 43, outstripping the previous record-holder, a 28-year-old
tarantula.
The lead researcher,
Leanda Mason, said of the spider in question, "to our knowledge this is
the oldest spider ever recorded, and her significant life has allowed us to
further investigate the trapdoor spider’s behaviour and population dynamics,”
according to a press release.
A sedentary
creature, the female Gaius villosus trapdoor sp
Akron Zoo sets
global sustainability standard for zoos with 'Big Hanna' compost system
(photos)
The Akron Zoo has
unveiled a composting machine named "Big Hanna," designed to help the
zoo achieve its zero waste goal.
The zoo is the first
zoo in the world to implement such a system, which will divert 47 tons of
material away from landfills, said Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler at a public
unveiling on Monday.
The Ohio EPA awarded
the zoo a $160,000 recycling and development grant for the machine, which the
zoo will match at $81,000.
Summit ReWorks
provided $20,000 toward the sustainably designed building the machine occupies.
Keep Akron Beautifully and Let's Grow Akron will purchase compost from the zoo.
The zoo has had an
organic wa
Contrived extinction
Recently, the death
of Sudan, the “last” northern male white rhino housed at the Ol Pejeta
Conservancy in Kenya, was met with the expected paroxysms of grief around the
world at the “loss of another species”. This is a classic case of an
“extinction” that has been carefully contrived. I have no doubt many white
rhinos still remain in South Sudan, and in a year or two, a “saviour” (most
likely a Caucasian) will “discover” them to much fanfare and acclamation.
This is not a new
phenomenon. In 2016, a population of over 100 lions was “discovered” by Hans
Bauer of Oxford University in Alatash, Ethiopia. The same year, Iain
Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants “discovered” an adult elephant that had
ventured across the border from Kenya into Somalia. Neither of these phenomena
could have existed or occurred without human observation, but it only made news
when they were observed by Caucasians.
This is typical of
the conservation discourse in Africa, where not one of the so-called
“authorities” on any wildlife species is black, nearly a century after the
establishment of formal conservation structures. This can only be caused by two
circumstances—either black Africans have n
Does The Animal Take
Responsibility of a Time Out?
In the last 2 years
I have changed my thoughts on many different topics. Reading books about
psychology made me reflect a lot of different characteristics we humans have
into animals. Anthropomorphism might come to mind with you reading this story
but that’s not really what this is all about.
The other day doing
my usual things I started to think about responsibility. You know how each and
every one of us is responsible for their own thoughts, sayings and actions. We
have the power to change our thinking and what we say. Nobody else has your responsibility.
What comes to mind for me thinking about this is; do animals take
responsibility from their own actions? In a good and a bad way?
'There's a lot of
fakery': insiders spill on the dirty tricks behind wildlife photos
The Brazilian
photographer Marcio Cabral was stripped of a prestigious Wildlife Photographer
of the Year award last week after judges noticed that the anteater at the foot
of a glowing termite mound in his picture looked an awful lot like the
taxidermy anteater found at the entrance to the national park where he captured
the shot.
If Cabral did use a
stuffed creature in his photograph – a charge he strongly denies – it would be
a new low for those claiming to document “wild” animals, and emblematic of a
murky underbelly in the field. Among the tricks regularly used without disclosure
to get magazine-worthy natural history images are the hiring of trained
animals, the gluing or freezing of insects into position and the use of bait to
lure subjects closer to the camera.
“There’s a lot of
fakery,” says the US photographer Clay Bolt, one of the judges in this year’s
Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. Although the British Natural History
Museum’s awards offer the “gold standard” f
Huge lion savages
British wildlife park owner and drags him into enclosure as horrified tourists
scream in fear
This is the
distressing moment a British safari park owner was dragged away by a
blood-thirsty lion after entering its enclosure at a wildlife park.
Horrified onlookers
screamed in terror as the man, believed to be Brit expat Mike Hodge, was
dragged along the ground of the big cat pen like a rag doll towards some
bushes.
The shocking clip is
believed to have been filmed at the Makarele Predator Centre, in Thabazimbi,
South Africa.
According to reports
Mr Hodge was the owner and had relocated from the UK with his wife Chrissy in
2003.
ANIMAL WELFARE
STANDARDS AND EVALUATION IN VIETNAM
This month we
returned to Vietnam to continue our collaboration with the Vietnam Zoo
Association (VZA) and the work we are doing to set national standards in
Vietnam. Following a workshop in
December 2014, co-hosted by Wild Welfare, Animals Asia and Change for Animals
Foundation, both the VZA and a Vietnam government national working group were
set up to discuss animal welfare concepts for captive wild animals. Since then, we have been working with the VZA
and its members, providing individual institutional support as well as
association workshops and training in partnership with Animals Asia
Foundation. This month we met up with
our colleague Mr Tung, Vice Chairman of the VZA to visit some of the members,
taking the opportunity to understand the main animal management practices,
problems and opportunities for future membership criteria.
We considered all
aspects of zoo management practices, including enclosure design and
infrastructure, public feeding opportunities, animal shows, off show exhibits,
holding quarters, feeding and nutritional care, hand-raising provisions,
veterinary support and keeper knowledge regarding husbandry and management.
Government owned zoos and private facilities can have very different approaches
and demands placed upon them, and we worked with both, to help identify a
constructive approach to raising standards within the Vietnam zoo community
that works for any facility regardless of ownership.
We also took the
opportunity to join with Animals Asia, and meet with the Ministry of
Agriculture to continue discussions in regard to developing zoo natio
What Ecologists Can
Learn From Memes
On the other side of
the country, Mason Fidino, a quantitative ecologist at the Urban Wildlife
Institute at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, was wondering something similar: How
should ecologists and wildlife management teams be thinking about the internet,
both as a source of information and as a tool to harness in order to get their
message out?
Fidino’s training is
in statistics, computer programming, and ecology, but he also runs his group’s
Twitter account—a side project that no one quite taught him how to do. When the
UWI played around the idea of a social media presence, he says, they decided,
“Hey, let’s make this thing, and Mason will be in c
Animal rights
activist takes a dive into sea lion pool to avoid angry audience member after
protesters disrupt performance at zoo
Three animal rights
activists have been arrested after disrupting a sea lion show at Antwerp zoo in
Belgium.
One of the
protesters was forced to jump into the pool after an angry audience member
approached her as they held up placards saying 'stop shows with animals.'
The footage, which
was caught on an audience member's phone, shows a trainer interacting with the
animals during the sea lion performance at the zoo.
Anthropology
professor helps create conservation program in Vietnam
A cohesive
conservation plan protecting the Vietnamese environment—and primates—is now
signed legislation, in part due to efforts of a University of Colorado Boulder
anthropologist.
The plan, which was
approved by the country’s prime minister last May, aims to expand protected
forests, increasing habitat for primates.
Tonkin snub-nosed
monkeys in Vietnam. Photo by Le Khac Quyet. At top of the page is an image of a
red-shanked douc. Photo by Herbert Covert.
Worldwide, 75
percent of the world’s primate populations are in decline, while 60 percent are
threatened with extinction, according to a study published in Science Advances
last year. In Vietnam, 88 percent of primates are threatened with extinction.
A journal article
titled “Primates of Vietnam: Conservation in a Rapidly Developing Country,”
published in Anthropology Now in September, details the causes of environmental
degradation in Vietnam, and future challenges and practices used to combat the
rapidl
Environmental
Health: A Conversation with Sharon Deem, DVM, PhD, Dipl ACZM, Director for the
Saint Louis Zoo Institute of Conservation Medicine
The Saint Louis
Zoo's WildCare Institute is one of the most well-regarded conservation programs
at any zoo in the world. It features 13 centers around the globe that focus on
biodiversity hotspots connected to conservation programs led by a staff member on
the zoo. While not one of the centers, the zoo's Institute for Conservation
Medicine works closely with the WildCare Institute. The Institute for
Conservation Medicine is focused on solving issues related to environmental
health around the world and is run by Dr. Sharon Deem. Here is her story.
Authorities seize
132 animals from zoo weeks after lion mauled keeper to death in cage
Animals at 'one of
the worst zoos' have been seized by authorities just a month after one of its
keepers was mauled to death by a lion.
The 132 animals were
taken from the Nicolas Bravo Zoo in Mexico after its owners failed to provide
suitable living conditions or legal documentation.
Following an
inspection of the animal park, the Federal Attorney for Environmental
Protection took away 132 animals, including primates, reptiles, bears and big
cats.
Animal experts
decided that the zoo failed to meet expected standards and is therefore unfit
to house certain species at the park.
Tons of pangolin
scales from Congo seized by Vietnamese customs
Customs officials in
a port in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday seized nearly 3.8 metric tons of pangolin
scales from Congo, in the biggest haul of the animal parts ever smuggled to the
southern metropolis.
The pangolin scales
were stored in two containers, declared as logs imported from Congo, that
arrived in Cat Lai Port on Sunday.
Vietnamese
authorities had received a heads-up from Congolese customs about the suspicious
shipment and had been keeping a close watch on the two containers since their
arrival from a transit port in Singapore, according to Dinh Ngoc Thang, deputy
chief of Ho Chi Minh City customs.
Cargo scanning at
Cat Lai Port following the containers’ arrival at 4:00 am on Sunday revealed
suspicious empty spaces at the center of each container, surrounded by logs.
As no recipient has
since come to cl
What to Expect From
North America’s First Dolphin Sanctuary
According to the
Associated Press, the National Aquarium has begun a three-year program designed
to get its seven dolphins ready for release into this sanctuary. Fortunately,
they just received a major boost from tour company Virgin Holidays, which pledged
$300,000 to make this sanctuary a reality.
The AP reported that
the years-in-the-making project is in the early stages of shopping potential
locations in Florida and, in the meantime, is painstakingly readying the
dolphins for the habitat transition.
For example, the
aquarium is raising the temperatures of the dolphins' tanks so that algae will
grow and start to emulate the real waters to which they'll be relocated.
This donation by
Virgin Holidays fits right in line with the company's stance.
Tiger farms and
illegal wildlife trade flourishing in Laos despite promise of a crackdown
Laos, a landlocked
country in Southeast Asia, has long held a key role in the global wildlife
trade. Corruption and a flow of easy money across its porous borders have
allowed the illegal trafficking of pangolins, helmeted hornbills and other
wildlife products, as well as the country’s notorious tiger farms, to thrive.
In 2016, the Laos
government told the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in 2016 that it intended to shut down the tiger
farms. However, a Post Magazine investigation has found the farms are
flourishing, with another major operation having opened since the pledge was
made. One expert described the trade in tiger parts used for medicines and
potency treatments as “out of control”.
Zoo has three months
to sort ‘qualified’ management
AN animal park in
north Ceredigion has three months to bring in “experienced and qualified”
management or a hearing to stop them keeping dangerous animals will be
rescheduled.
An appeal to the
restriction on Borth Wild Animal Kingdom’s licence was due to hold a case
management hearing on Thursday, 26 April, but it has been adjourned for at
least one month to “allow all parties to come to an agreement”.
Councillors at the
healthier communities overview and s
OPINION | How our
lions are cruelly slaughtered - with government consent
It's been a bloody
time for the South African canned lion industry.
Last week‚ a lion
'abattoir' was exposed on a farm in the Free State‚ where close to 100 lions
were reportedly to be killed and their skeletons prepared for export to Asia.
Shortly after news of the slaughter broke‚ a game reserve owner from Limpopo
was mauled by one of his captive lions‚ Shamba. The lion was immediately shot‚
causing a social media outcry.
In a separate
incident‚ six more captive lions were poisoned and their limbs cut off on
another Free State Lion breeding farm‚ allegedly for use in tradition medicine.
Experts warn that
the bloodshed - facilitated by the flourishing captive-bred lion industry and
SA's Department of Environmental Affairs' recently implemented export quota of
800 lion skeletons per year – may just be the first sight of a new demon waking
from the captive-bred lion industry.
The mass-killing of
captive-bred lions in the Free State was exposed after captive-bred lions were
transported in crates to a farm‚ to be killed and their flesh removed for the
bone export trade. According to Beeld‚ a to
Animals are dying in
Pakistan’s zoos & no one cares
Pakistan had become
an unsafe place for humans after the launch of Global War on Terrorism;
however, it is also becoming dangerous place for animals due to carelessness
and sheer negligence.
A report unveiled on
Thursday has exposed the mismanagement of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa government as it claims that over 30 animals died in the Peshawar
Zoo after inauguration by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in February 2018.
The report is not
compiled by outsiders as Kabir Afridi, Additional Secretary Higher Education
was heading the investigative committee probing recent deaths. The report says
that more than 30 species of bird and a Nilgai have died in the
Caribbean Journey: A
Conversation with Tom Schmid, President and CEO of the Texas State Aquarium
Tom Schmid has been
President and CEO of the Texas State Aquarium since 1999. Over the course of
that time, the aquarium has grown in size, attendance, financial stability and
optimal animal welfare. Schmid also served on the Board of Directors of the Association
of Zoos and Aquariums for several years, including a year as its Chair. This
year, the Texas State Aquarium rehabilitated and released over 1,000 sea
turtles in the largest cold stunning event in history. Here is his story.
Saint Louis Zoo
named best zoo in the country, again
The Saint Louis Zoo
has been named the best zoo in the country for the second year in a row. Not
that there was ever any doubt in our minds.
Saint Louis was
voted No. 1 in the USA Today best zoo category in the 10Best Readers’ Choice
Awards contest. The Saint Louis Zoo was one of 20 nominated U.S. zoos, which
were hand-picked by a panel of zoo and family travel experts.
“We’re humbled to be
chosen again as the best zoo by our dedicated fans in the St. Louis region,
across Missouri and friends around the country,” Jeffrey Bonner, president and
CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo, said in a statement. “Our visitors, volunteers, members,
generous donors, employees, and especially the taxpayers of St. Louis City and
St. Louis County are the real champions. It’s through their strong support that
we can provide superior care for the animals, save wildlife in wild places,
connect people with
First training
workshop in a series kicked off in Indonesia as CITES strives to better
regulate trade in captive-raised animals
A training workshop
on the application of new CITES guidance on trade in captive-raised animals was
held in Bogor, Indonesia from 1 to 4 May 2018, bringing together 50
participants from 11 Asian countries representing national CITES authorities,
as well as international experts.
“Today,
international trade in ‘wild’ animals and plants is in fact mainly in specimens
from captive-raised or artificially propagated sources. The significant
increase in this type of trade has given rise to concerns related to the
control of the production and trade, and the consequences for the conservation
of species in the wild, if management attention moves from in situ to ex situ,”
says Tom De Meulenaer, Chief of Scientific Services of the CITES Secretariat.
“We are actively working with Parties to help ensure that they can better meet
their obligations under the Convention by developing guidance and providing
necessary training.”
The guidance was
used to assess legality, sustainability, and controls of facilities to ensure
compliance with CITES – related provisions concerning captive breedin
A drug lord and the
world's largest invasive animal
At his infamous
zenith in the 1990s, Pablo Escobar's drug-fueled empire—a vast underworld
syndicate built upon the United States' insatiable appetite for cocaine—made
him one of the wealthiest criminals in history.
With income peaking
at more than $30 billion, the drug-smuggling kingpin spent lavishly on a
sprawling estate for his family and members of his Colombian cartel. The
excesses of Hacienda Nápoles, featured on Netflix's wildly popular
"Narcos" series, included a zoo stocked with exotic animals
transported from around the world.
But when Escobar's
empire came crashing down, the animals were relocated to new homes. Lions and
giraffes, sure. But relocation isn't nearly as simple for the largest occupants
of Escobar's zoo: hippopotamuses, the herbivores that are placid in appearance
but several thousand pounds, territorial and dangerous.
In the years since,
four original hippo inhabitants of Escobar's zoo have gone rogue and multiplied
to more than 40 animals—but the count could be 50 … or even 60. No one knows
for sure since the animals are difficult to track. The bizarre situation c
Landowner Aims To
Bring Wolves Back To Scotland, Centuries After They Were Wiped Out
When wolves were
reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, they had dramatic impacts on
parts of Northwestern United States. Decades later, a wealthy landowner wants
to try a limited version of that experiment — in the Scottish Highlands.
Englishman Paul
Lister is hoping to see the ancient Caledonian Forest of Scotch pine, alder and
mountain ash regenerated, and wildlife long absent from the Highlands return.
But as happened with the Yellowstone project, he's running into strong
opposition.
The Highlands' rocky
hills and windswept valleys, known to the Scottish as glens, are an austere,
beautiful landscape. But some visitors are surprised to learn they were once
heavily forested — before huma
Escaped gibbon
forces zoo into emergency lock down
A zoo was forced to
go into emergency lock down after a gibbon escaped from its enclosure.
Families were
ushered into a restaurant for safety until handlers managed to recapture the
gangly-armed siamang.
Twycross zoo near
Leicester later confirmed that the gibbon was only on the run for less than 20
minutes and stressed that no public or staff were ever in danger.
Myrtle Beach zoo
animals in 'psychological distress' according to federal report
The Sun News of
Myrtle Beach reports the U.S. Agriculture Department reviewed the Waccatee Zoo
in Myrtle Beach. The report describes two baboons, a macaque monkey and two
black bears pacing, rocking back and forth and showing repetitive behavior.
Jeff Futrell's
family owns the zoo. He says zoos get inspected, just like restaurants do, and
are given time to fix any problems. When asked how owners would tackle issues
listed in the report, Futrell said the zoo would "take care of them."
The federal
inspection says more needs to be
Ark, lifeboat or
something wilder? Future of zoos under debate
Earth, in case you
hadn’t heard, or noticed, is going through a sixth mass extinction. Animals and
other life are disappearing the world over and it began well ahead of global
warming, although the human-caused rapid climate change going on isn’t helping.
Scattered across the
globe, attempting to deal with this, at least a little bit, are the world’s
zoos and aquariums. You can debate about animals in captivity. You can argue
about the environmental cost-to-benefit ratio of keeping an orca in a relative
bathtub, a leopard in a studio apartment.
But to familiarize
yourself with the efforts of the best of these animal havens is to understand
that they work with sincerity and some urgency to try to understand and save
endangered species, while also navigating public expectations and budgetary
pressures.
In other words, they
operate in “powerful ethical rapids,” in the words of the editor of “The Ark
and Beyond: The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation,” an eye-opening new
book from the University of Chicago Press. But before we get to that book and
its consideration of zoos, have a quick look around Chicago.
Lincoln Park Zoo,
which you may think of as
Zookeepers Have A
Problem With Diversity
Ask any zookeeper
about the importance of diversity, and they’re likely to launch into a
well-rehearsed speech about biological niches and the importance of the global
diversity of species. Zookeepers are trained and passionate conservationists,
and they know their stuff when it comes to this topic. But there’s another form
of diversity that we don’t talk about nearly enough – zookeeper diversity. That
is, the diversity of zookeepers themselves. It’s alarmingly low, and it’s
something that we should really be thinking a lot more about.
I’ve visited many
zoos across the United States. And I’ve attended many conferences, workshops,
meetings, and professional development courses over the years. And without
fail, the vast, vast, majority of the zookeepers, aquarists, curators, and
other animal care professionals that I’ve met and observed have not been people
o
Sarah Chin: A
zookeeper’s tale of turning passion into action
To say that Sarah
Chin loves animals is an understatement.
As a young girl, she
preferred to spend recess playing with the class rabbits at kindergarten than
with her schoolmates at the playground.
Instead of a cute
puppy or a kitten, she once asked her mother if she could keep a pet snake at
home because for her, reptiles are friends, not foes.
While other kids
would aspire to become doctors, lawyers, and astronauts, she had wanted to
become a veterinarian, a marine biologist, and even a pet shop owner.
And at a young age,
she had made it a personal mission to rescue the different bugs and insects
that had somehow found their way into their home.
Sarah, simply, has
always been passionate about caring for animals.
This passion, which
she has cultivated for many, many years, led her to pursue Zoology in college
and become a zookeeper right in her motherland, Singapore.
Pink Tiger Bone
Jewellery…A new tale in the context of the commodification of the tiger
She then mentioned
that she could also supply some of the more upmarket pink tiger bone jewellery
and that the pink colour was the result of the tigers being deboned while only
sedated. She showed us images on her phone, one a tiger hanging on a meat hook
being butchered and images of pinkish necklaces and bracelets.
Sentenced to life
July 21, a warm
summer day in 2007, Yamuna gave birth to Vijay. Yamuna is from Delhi — her
union arranged like many others — and the father, Laxman, from Bhubaneswar.
In the same year, on
February 6, Kalpana was born to two Delhi inhabitants, Kaveri and Swaraj. Years
later, as fate would have it, or as the world demanded, Kalpana met Vijay. She
was introduced to him for the sole purpose of mating and reproducing at the
Delhi zoo, continuing the line of tigers — more importantly, white Bengal
tigers — in captivity.
There’s no romantic
story here with tragedy lurking behind the surface. The Wildcat Sanctuary says
that normal tiger behaviour in the wild would prevent the kind of inbreeding
that would be necessary to produce white cubs. Furthermore, it alleges that captive
inbreeding of white tigers results in high neonatal mortality rates, typically
exceeding 80 per cent.
That’s not to say
that white tigers have not been seen in the wild — sightings are just rare. The
white colour of the Bengal tiger comes due to the lack of pigment pheomelanin.
But somehow, in a country obsessed with fair and lovely skin tones, one reason
so many visitors come to Delhi zoo
Four lions suffer
paralysis at Lahore Safari Park
The administration
of Lahore Safari Park is concerned because four lions of the African race are
suffering from paralysis.
“The paralysis has
affected their backside and they cannot move about like other lions,” said Lahore Safari Park Deputy Director Shafqat Chaudhry. “Their cubs are also likely
to inherit the disease.”
Two male lions aged
between 2.5 and three years and two female African lion are suffered from
paralysis due to calcium deficiency, he said. He added that the lions suffer
from this problem when they reach the age of six months and one year. “Due to
consumption of beef continuously, the amount of phosphorus increases in their
body and the quantity of calcium decreases. This leads to their bones weakening
which then causes paralysis.”
A Unique Business: A
Conversation with Bill Gersonde, Director of the Abilene Zoo
Bill Gersonde first
made a name for himself when he turned around the Idaho Falls Zoo, bringing it
from an antiquated institution on the verge of closure to a respectable
facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Since 2010, he
has served as Director of the Abilene Zoo. Gersonde has implemented a variety
of creative ideas to push the zoo forward. He also currently serves on AZA's
Wildlife Conservation Management Committee. Here is his story.
BSc (Top-Up) Animal
Management and Applied Zoology Hons
The BSc (Hons) in
Animal Management and Zoology Top Up course aims to create or develop animal
management professionals with a broad understanding on managing farms,
zoological collections or working within the field of conservation.
Undergraduates will acquire advanced practical hands-on animal management
skills whilst furthering business and enterprise skills needed to manage animal
and zoological collections, including enriching the customer experience,
education, environmental interpretation and animal encounters that reach beyond
the boundaries of the collection.
Vocational
relevance, professional standards and transferable skills for employability are
central to this Bachelor’s degree. This will be through the inclusion of a high
proportion of applied and work based learning elements which will ensure a high
calibre graduate entering the industry. The programme will empower individuals
to further develop their practical skills, academic research skills and core
knowledge required to work in zoos, animal rehabilitation reserves, aquaria and
animal collections or related animal industries both nationally and
internationally.
Monogamy Anchored in
Our Genes?
Biological
anthropologists and evolutionary psychologists commonly take it for granted
that human monogamy has a biological basis. Desmond Morris was an influential
early advocate. His 1967 swashbuckling best-seller The Naked Ape proposed
long-term monogamous human mating as an extreme expression of natural
pair-bonding. Morris dismissed alternative mating arrangements in other
cultures as relics of “obscure, backward tribal units”.
Bristol Zoo
Crocodile habitat
Here are a few
random photos from a project at Bristol Zoo, UK where we improved the Dwarf
African Crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis) and Malayan river turtle (Orlitia
borneensis) exhibits along with Aquarium Technology Ltd who were the main
contractors. Pictures taken on the day the planting was being introduced and
the pools being filled.
Koda Creative were
contracted by ATL to spray concrete the pools, making a smooth surface to which
ATL applied GRP waterproof liner. After this, we made washed out earth river
bank, rockwork, two trees, fallen tree bridge, fallen tree enclosure divider and
tree stump waterfall catcher.
Also during this
project we fit in some extra work, a Chinese crocodile lizard (Shinisaurus)
vivarium habitat.
World's oldest
recorded spider spends entire life sitting in her hole, lives to age 43
Researchers in
Australia monitored what is most likely the world's oldest spider on record,
who died at age 43, outstripping the previous record-holder, a 28-year-old
tarantula.
The lead researcher,
Leanda Mason, said of the spider in question, "to our knowledge this is
the oldest spider ever recorded, and her significant life has allowed us to
further investigate the trapdoor spider’s behaviour and population dynamics,”
according to a press release.
A sedentary
creature, the female Gaius villosus trapdoor sp
Akron Zoo sets
global sustainability standard for zoos with 'Big Hanna' compost system
(photos)
The Akron Zoo has
unveiled a composting machine named "Big Hanna," designed to help the
zoo achieve its zero waste goal.
The zoo is the first
zoo in the world to implement such a system, which will divert 47 tons of
material away from landfills, said Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler at a public
unveiling on Monday.
The Ohio EPA awarded
the zoo a $160,000 recycling and development grant for the machine, which the
zoo will match at $81,000.
Summit ReWorks
provided $20,000 toward the sustainably designed building the machine occupies.
Keep Akron Beautifully and Let's Grow Akron will purchase compost from the zoo.
The zoo has had an
organic wa
Contrived extinction
Recently, the death
of Sudan, the “last” northern male white rhino housed at the Ol Pejeta
Conservancy in Kenya, was met with the expected paroxysms of grief around the
world at the “loss of another species”. This is a classic case of an
“extinction” that has been carefully contrived. I have no doubt many white
rhinos still remain in South Sudan, and in a year or two, a “saviour” (most
likely a Caucasian) will “discover” them to much fanfare and acclamation.
This is not a new
phenomenon. In 2016, a population of over 100 lions was “discovered” by Hans
Bauer of Oxford University in Alatash, Ethiopia. The same year, Iain
Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants “discovered” an adult elephant that had
ventured across the border from Kenya into Somalia. Neither of these phenomena
could have existed or occurred without human observation, but it only made news
when they were observed by Caucasians.
This is typical of
the conservation discourse in Africa, where not one of the so-called
“authorities” on any wildlife species is black, nearly a century after the
establishment of formal conservation structures. This can only be caused by two
circumstances—either black Africans have n
Does The Animal Take
Responsibility of a Time Out?
In the last 2 years
I have changed my thoughts on many different topics. Reading books about
psychology made me reflect a lot of different characteristics we humans have
into animals. Anthropomorphism might come to mind with you reading this story
but that’s not really what this is all about.
The other day doing
my usual things I started to think about responsibility. You know how each and
every one of us is responsible for their own thoughts, sayings and actions. We
have the power to change our thinking and what we say. Nobody else has your responsibility.
What comes to mind for me thinking about this is; do animals take
responsibility from their own actions? In a good and a bad way?
'There's a lot of
fakery': insiders spill on the dirty tricks behind wildlife photos
The Brazilian
photographer Marcio Cabral was stripped of a prestigious Wildlife Photographer
of the Year award last week after judges noticed that the anteater at the foot
of a glowing termite mound in his picture looked an awful lot like the
taxidermy anteater found at the entrance to the national park where he captured
the shot.
If Cabral did use a
stuffed creature in his photograph – a charge he strongly denies – it would be
a new low for those claiming to document “wild” animals, and emblematic of a
murky underbelly in the field. Among the tricks regularly used without disclosure
to get magazine-worthy natural history images are the hiring of trained
animals, the gluing or freezing of insects into position and the use of bait to
lure subjects closer to the camera.
“There’s a lot of
fakery,” says the US photographer Clay Bolt, one of the judges in this year’s
Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. Although the British Natural History
Museum’s awards offer the “gold standard” f
Huge lion savages
British wildlife park owner and drags him into enclosure as horrified tourists
scream in fear
This is the
distressing moment a British safari park owner was dragged away by a
blood-thirsty lion after entering its enclosure at a wildlife park.
Horrified onlookers
screamed in terror as the man, believed to be Brit expat Mike Hodge, was
dragged along the ground of the big cat pen like a rag doll towards some
bushes.
The shocking clip is
believed to have been filmed at the Makarele Predator Centre, in Thabazimbi,
South Africa.
According to reports
Mr Hodge was the owner and had relocated from the UK with his wife Chrissy in
2003.
ANIMAL WELFARE
STANDARDS AND EVALUATION IN VIETNAM
This month we
returned to Vietnam to continue our collaboration with the Vietnam Zoo
Association (VZA) and the work we are doing to set national standards in
Vietnam. Following a workshop in
December 2014, co-hosted by Wild Welfare, Animals Asia and Change for Animals
Foundation, both the VZA and a Vietnam government national working group were
set up to discuss animal welfare concepts for captive wild animals. Since then, we have been working with the VZA
and its members, providing individual institutional support as well as
association workshops and training in partnership with Animals Asia
Foundation. This month we met up with
our colleague Mr Tung, Vice Chairman of the VZA to visit some of the members,
taking the opportunity to understand the main animal management practices,
problems and opportunities for future membership criteria.
We considered all
aspects of zoo management practices, including enclosure design and
infrastructure, public feeding opportunities, animal shows, off show exhibits,
holding quarters, feeding and nutritional care, hand-raising provisions,
veterinary support and keeper knowledge regarding husbandry and management.
Government owned zoos and private facilities can have very different approaches
and demands placed upon them, and we worked with both, to help identify a
constructive approach to raising standards within the Vietnam zoo community
that works for any facility regardless of ownership.
We also took the
opportunity to join with Animals Asia, and meet with the Ministry of
Agriculture to continue discussions in regard to developing zoo natio
What Ecologists Can
Learn From Memes
On the other side of
the country, Mason Fidino, a quantitative ecologist at the Urban Wildlife
Institute at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo, was wondering something similar: How
should ecologists and wildlife management teams be thinking about the internet,
both as a source of information and as a tool to harness in order to get their
message out?
Fidino’s training is
in statistics, computer programming, and ecology, but he also runs his group’s
Twitter account—a side project that no one quite taught him how to do. When the
UWI played around the idea of a social media presence, he says, they decided,
“Hey, let’s make this thing, and Mason will be in c
Animal rights
activist takes a dive into sea lion pool to avoid angry audience member after
protesters disrupt performance at zoo
Three animal rights
activists have been arrested after disrupting a sea lion show at Antwerp zoo in
Belgium.
One of the
protesters was forced to jump into the pool after an angry audience member
approached her as they held up placards saying 'stop shows with animals.'
The footage, which
was caught on an audience member's phone, shows a trainer interacting with the
animals during the sea lion performance at the zoo.
Anthropology
professor helps create conservation program in Vietnam
A cohesive
conservation plan protecting the Vietnamese environment—and primates—is now
signed legislation, in part due to efforts of a University of Colorado Boulder
anthropologist.
The plan, which was
approved by the country’s prime minister last May, aims to expand protected
forests, increasing habitat for primates.
Tonkin snub-nosed
monkeys in Vietnam. Photo by Le Khac Quyet. At top of the page is an image of a
red-shanked douc. Photo by Herbert Covert.
Worldwide, 75
percent of the world’s primate populations are in decline, while 60 percent are
threatened with extinction, according to a study published in Science Advances
last year. In Vietnam, 88 percent of primates are threatened with extinction.
A journal article
titled “Primates of Vietnam: Conservation in a Rapidly Developing Country,”
published in Anthropology Now in September, details the causes of environmental
degradation in Vietnam, and future challenges and practices used to combat the
rapidl
Environmental
Health: A Conversation with Sharon Deem, DVM, PhD, Dipl ACZM, Director for the
Saint Louis Zoo Institute of Conservation Medicine
The Saint Louis
Zoo's WildCare Institute is one of the most well-regarded conservation programs
at any zoo in the world. It features 13 centers around the globe that focus on
biodiversity hotspots connected to conservation programs led by a staff member on
the zoo. While not one of the centers, the zoo's Institute for Conservation
Medicine works closely with the WildCare Institute. The Institute for
Conservation Medicine is focused on solving issues related to environmental
health around the world and is run by Dr. Sharon Deem. Here is her story.
Authorities seize
132 animals from zoo weeks after lion mauled keeper to death in cage
Animals at 'one of
the worst zoos' have been seized by authorities just a month after one of its
keepers was mauled to death by a lion.
The 132 animals were
taken from the Nicolas Bravo Zoo in Mexico after its owners failed to provide
suitable living conditions or legal documentation.
Following an
inspection of the animal park, the Federal Attorney for Environmental
Protection took away 132 animals, including primates, reptiles, bears and big
cats.
Animal experts
decided that the zoo failed to meet expected standards and is therefore unfit
to house certain species at the park.
Tons of pangolin
scales from Congo seized by Vietnamese customs
Customs officials in
a port in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday seized nearly 3.8 metric tons of pangolin
scales from Congo, in the biggest haul of the animal parts ever smuggled to the
southern metropolis.
The pangolin scales
were stored in two containers, declared as logs imported from Congo, that
arrived in Cat Lai Port on Sunday.
Vietnamese
authorities had received a heads-up from Congolese customs about the suspicious
shipment and had been keeping a close watch on the two containers since their
arrival from a transit port in Singapore, according to Dinh Ngoc Thang, deputy
chief of Ho Chi Minh City customs.
Cargo scanning at
Cat Lai Port following the containers’ arrival at 4:00 am on Sunday revealed
suspicious empty spaces at the center of each container, surrounded by logs.
As no recipient has
since come to cl
What to Expect From
North America’s First Dolphin Sanctuary
According to the
Associated Press, the National Aquarium has begun a three-year program designed
to get its seven dolphins ready for release into this sanctuary. Fortunately,
they just received a major boost from tour company Virgin Holidays, which pledged
$300,000 to make this sanctuary a reality.
The AP reported that
the years-in-the-making project is in the early stages of shopping potential
locations in Florida and, in the meantime, is painstakingly readying the
dolphins for the habitat transition.
For example, the
aquarium is raising the temperatures of the dolphins' tanks so that algae will
grow and start to emulate the real waters to which they'll be relocated.
This donation by
Virgin Holidays fits right in line with the company's stance.
Tiger farms and
illegal wildlife trade flourishing in Laos despite promise of a crackdown
Laos, a landlocked
country in Southeast Asia, has long held a key role in the global wildlife
trade. Corruption and a flow of easy money across its porous borders have
allowed the illegal trafficking of pangolins, helmeted hornbills and other
wildlife products, as well as the country’s notorious tiger farms, to thrive.
In 2016, the Laos
government told the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in 2016 that it intended to shut down the tiger
farms. However, a Post Magazine investigation has found the farms are
flourishing, with another major operation having opened since the pledge was
made. One expert described the trade in tiger parts used for medicines and
potency treatments as “out of control”.
Zoo has three months
to sort ‘qualified’ management
AN animal park in
north Ceredigion has three months to bring in “experienced and qualified”
management or a hearing to stop them keeping dangerous animals will be
rescheduled.
An appeal to the
restriction on Borth Wild Animal Kingdom’s licence was due to hold a case
management hearing on Thursday, 26 April, but it has been adjourned for at
least one month to “allow all parties to come to an agreement”.
Councillors at the
healthier communities overview and s
OPINION | How our
lions are cruelly slaughtered - with government consent
It's been a bloody
time for the South African canned lion industry.
Last week‚ a lion
'abattoir' was exposed on a farm in the Free State‚ where close to 100 lions
were reportedly to be killed and their skeletons prepared for export to Asia.
Shortly after news of the slaughter broke‚ a game reserve owner from Limpopo
was mauled by one of his captive lions‚ Shamba. The lion was immediately shot‚
causing a social media outcry.
In a separate
incident‚ six more captive lions were poisoned and their limbs cut off on
another Free State Lion breeding farm‚ allegedly for use in tradition medicine.
Experts warn that
the bloodshed - facilitated by the flourishing captive-bred lion industry and
SA's Department of Environmental Affairs' recently implemented export quota of
800 lion skeletons per year – may just be the first sight of a new demon waking
from the captive-bred lion industry.
The mass-killing of
captive-bred lions in the Free State was exposed after captive-bred lions were
transported in crates to a farm‚ to be killed and their flesh removed for the
bone export trade. According to Beeld‚ a to
Animals are dying in
Pakistan’s zoos & no one cares
Pakistan had become
an unsafe place for humans after the launch of Global War on Terrorism;
however, it is also becoming dangerous place for animals due to carelessness
and sheer negligence.
A report unveiled on
Thursday has exposed the mismanagement of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa government as it claims that over 30 animals died in the Peshawar
Zoo after inauguration by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak in February 2018.
The report is not
compiled by outsiders as Kabir Afridi, Additional Secretary Higher Education
was heading the investigative committee probing recent deaths. The report says
that more than 30 species of bird and a Nilgai have died in the
Caribbean Journey: A
Conversation with Tom Schmid, President and CEO of the Texas State Aquarium
Tom Schmid has been
President and CEO of the Texas State Aquarium since 1999. Over the course of
that time, the aquarium has grown in size, attendance, financial stability and
optimal animal welfare. Schmid also served on the Board of Directors of the Association
of Zoos and Aquariums for several years, including a year as its Chair. This
year, the Texas State Aquarium rehabilitated and released over 1,000 sea
turtles in the largest cold stunning event in history. Here is his story.
Saint Louis Zoo
named best zoo in the country, again
The Saint Louis Zoo
has been named the best zoo in the country for the second year in a row. Not
that there was ever any doubt in our minds.
Saint Louis was
voted No. 1 in the USA Today best zoo category in the 10Best Readers’ Choice
Awards contest. The Saint Louis Zoo was one of 20 nominated U.S. zoos, which
were hand-picked by a panel of zoo and family travel experts.
“We’re humbled to be
chosen again as the best zoo by our dedicated fans in the St. Louis region,
across Missouri and friends around the country,” Jeffrey Bonner, president and
CEO of the Saint Louis Zoo, said in a statement. “Our visitors, volunteers, members,
generous donors, employees, and especially the taxpayers of St. Louis City and
St. Louis County are the real champions. It’s through their strong support that
we can provide superior care for the animals, save wildlife in wild places,
connect people with
First training
workshop in a series kicked off in Indonesia as CITES strives to better
regulate trade in captive-raised animals
A training workshop
on the application of new CITES guidance on trade in captive-raised animals was
held in Bogor, Indonesia from 1 to 4 May 2018, bringing together 50
participants from 11 Asian countries representing national CITES authorities,
as well as international experts.
“Today,
international trade in ‘wild’ animals and plants is in fact mainly in specimens
from captive-raised or artificially propagated sources. The significant
increase in this type of trade has given rise to concerns related to the
control of the production and trade, and the consequences for the conservation
of species in the wild, if management attention moves from in situ to ex situ,”
says Tom De Meulenaer, Chief of Scientific Services of the CITES Secretariat.
“We are actively working with Parties to help ensure that they can better meet
their obligations under the Convention by developing guidance and providing
necessary training.”
The guidance was
used to assess legality, sustainability, and controls of facilities to ensure
compliance with CITES – related provisions concerning captive breedin
A drug lord and the
world's largest invasive animal
At his infamous
zenith in the 1990s, Pablo Escobar's drug-fueled empire—a vast underworld
syndicate built upon the United States' insatiable appetite for cocaine—made
him one of the wealthiest criminals in history.
With income peaking
at more than $30 billion, the drug-smuggling kingpin spent lavishly on a
sprawling estate for his family and members of his Colombian cartel. The
excesses of Hacienda Nápoles, featured on Netflix's wildly popular
"Narcos" series, included a zoo stocked with exotic animals
transported from around the world.
But when Escobar's
empire came crashing down, the animals were relocated to new homes. Lions and
giraffes, sure. But relocation isn't nearly as simple for the largest occupants
of Escobar's zoo: hippopotamuses, the herbivores that are placid in appearance
but several thousand pounds, territorial and dangerous.
In the years since,
four original hippo inhabitants of Escobar's zoo have gone rogue and multiplied
to more than 40 animals—but the count could be 50 … or even 60. No one knows
for sure since the animals are difficult to track. The bizarre situation c
Landowner Aims To
Bring Wolves Back To Scotland, Centuries After They Were Wiped Out
When wolves were
reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, they had dramatic impacts on
parts of Northwestern United States. Decades later, a wealthy landowner wants
to try a limited version of that experiment — in the Scottish Highlands.
Englishman Paul
Lister is hoping to see the ancient Caledonian Forest of Scotch pine, alder and
mountain ash regenerated, and wildlife long absent from the Highlands return.
But as happened with the Yellowstone project, he's running into strong
opposition.
The Highlands' rocky
hills and windswept valleys, known to the Scottish as glens, are an austere,
beautiful landscape. But some visitors are surprised to learn they were once
heavily forested — before huma
Escaped gibbon
forces zoo into emergency lock down
A zoo was forced to
go into emergency lock down after a gibbon escaped from its enclosure.
Families were
ushered into a restaurant for safety until handlers managed to recapture the
gangly-armed siamang.
Twycross zoo near
Leicester later confirmed that the gibbon was only on the run for less than 20
minutes and stressed that no public or staff were ever in danger.
Myrtle Beach zoo
animals in 'psychological distress' according to federal report
The Sun News of
Myrtle Beach reports the U.S. Agriculture Department reviewed the Waccatee Zoo
in Myrtle Beach. The report describes two baboons, a macaque monkey and two
black bears pacing, rocking back and forth and showing repetitive behavior.
Jeff Futrell's
family owns the zoo. He says zoos get inspected, just like restaurants do, and
are given time to fix any problems. When asked how owners would tackle issues
listed in the report, Futrell said the zoo would "take care of them."
The federal
inspection says more needs to be
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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 50 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 many more before 'hitting the road' 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 independent international 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, an introvert, 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
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 50 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 many more before 'hitting the road' 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 independent international 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, an introvert, 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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