Zoo News Digest 28th May 2019 (ZooNews 1028)
Photo Steve Biro https://www.instagram.com/stevebiro/?hl=en
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
For around the seventh time this last week I came across the newspaper header "rare white lion cub". It will be the same next week along with "endangered rare white tiger". It goes on and on and never stops. The Dumb zoos out there are sucked in and will purchase one if the opportunity arises and usually at a vastly inflated price...and for what? All of these unfortunate beasts are inbred. They are of no value or use to conservation. They are just taking up space and mis-educating the public. They will breed and so compound the problem. No GOOD zoo will take them so they will be passed along to another Dumb zoo.
Example from today:
Welcome, Sonja: Rare White Lion Born At Hungary Zoo, Makes First ...
Two rare white tiger cubs find new home in Nicaragua
There is no officially sanctioned studbook for these unfortunate creatures. They are valueless and yet come at a price.
Nobody disputes that white tigers and lions can and do occur in the wild and that's great if that is where they remain. Naturally occurring mutations be they black, white, red or blue are just fine as they are still able to contribute to the wild gene pool and that's a good thing. Putting any of these inbred (and sometimes subspecific mix) captive animals back is not. It will cause problems.
Tigers in the wild are in trouble. This is not just because of poaching. Besides poaching is less lucrative now that Tiger Farms in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Vietnam and South Africa are churning the animals out. Cheaper to kill something in a cage than in a jungle.
No, Tigers in India today are in trouble because there is no where for them to go. So this week I put this little poster on my Facebook page.
Wow. What a lot of comments. Some understood exactly what I was getting at. Many did not. I just hope that the discussion that evolved allowed contributors and readers to learn something.
This popped up in one of the stories during the week "Vegan and animal-rights activist". Just what is the point of mentioning you are a Vegan? Does this give some special gift of understanding? I think not.
Incidentally I have often noted that in photographs of rallies of Animal Rights Anarchists that many are sporting tattoos. Most tattoo ink contains animal by-products.
"good zoos will not gain the credibility of their critics until they condemn the bad zoos wherever they are." Peter Dickinson
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ZooNews Digest has over 110,400+ Followers on Facebook( and over 110,500 likes) and has a monthly reach often exceeding over 1000,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 900 Zoos in 155+ 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 110,400+ Followers on Facebook( and over 110,500 likes) and has a monthly reach often exceeding over 1000,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 900 Zoos in 155+ 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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Monkeys
saved after Birmingham nature reserve arson attack
Two spider monkeys were saved by firefighters
after an arson attack at a nature reserve.
Crews were called to a blaze in the monkey
house at Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park at about 23:00 BST on Thursday.
Paul Bayliss, from Bournbrook fire station,
said: "The fire was at one end and the monkeys were hiding in
another."
Shortage
of staff to protect wildlife in Turkey: Official
“Many species in the nature have dwindled. For
example, the number of chevrotains should be 200,000-250,000 in Turkey, but it
is only 35,000; the number of gazelles should be 600,000, but it is only
16,000; the number of mountain sheep should be 600,000-700,000, but it is only
20,000. Why is this the case? This issue is followed by the General Directorate
of Nature Conservation and National Parts. We are supposed to undertake this
protection with forest security public servants, but how many of them are left?
Only 250 and they are also retiring,” said Erdem İsmetoğlu, the directorate’s
vice president, on May 22.
Kawan
At Islamabad Zoo Being Treated Inhumanly: Wildlife Expert
Wildlife especially elephant 'Kawan' at
Islamabad zoo is in dire need of attention of the quarter concerned as it is
being treated inhumanly.
Talking to APP, a wildlife expert requesting
anonymity said, the quality of food served to Kawan was unhygienic and it was
being fed sugarcane and hay by the visitors.
Pioneering
Veterinary Medicine for Africa’s Enigmatic Pangolins
Veterinarian Dr. Karin Lourens has become
known as Africa’s “pangolin doctor” for leading medical efforts to help the
scaly anteaters rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.
Case in point, she’s treating an endangered
ground pangolin, one of a species found in South and Eastern Africa, and he’s
lucky.
He’s one of 50 pangolins rescued this year
from wildlife traffickers and put in the care of Lourens.
Vietnam
seizes 5 tonnes of pangolin scales from Nigeria
Communist Vietnam is a hotbed for the illegal
wildlife trade, where animal products from elephant ivory to rhino horn and
tiger bones are consumed domestically and also smuggled abroad.
Police on Thursday found 5.3 tonnes of
pangolins scales hidden in a shipment from Nigeria at a port in southern Ba Ria
Vung Tau province, according to Hai Quan, the official mouthpiece of Vietnam
Customs.
"The scales were stuffed into 151 sacks
inside a container... (and) bags of raw cashew nuts were used as a disguise in
order to avoid detection from authorities," the online news website said
Friday.
Republicans
aren’t just climate deniers. They deny the extinction crisis, too
Maybe you’ve read King Lear and remember this
famous line: “‘Tis the time’s plague when madmen lead the blind.” The words
were written more than 400 years ago as a comment on the deadly consequences of
greed, delusion and political folly, but they could serve just as well as a
Republican party slogan today. They’re a fitting description of the Republican
party’s delusional campaign to deny the environmental crises that threaten our
planet and our civilization.
Colombian
breeds rare frogs to undermine animal traffickers
In a small farmhouse surrounded by cloud
forest, Iván Lozano inspects dozens of glass containers that hold some of the
world's most coveted frogs.
The conservationist has been fighting the
illegal trade in rare tropical frogs for years, risking his life and his
checkbook to save the brightly colored, poisonous amphibians whose population
in the wild is dwindling.
But Lozano doesn't hunt down poachers and smuggl
Andrew
Crawford: Colombia’s frogs face “massacre” with illegal trafficking
ndrew crawford is Associate Professor of
biology at Universidad de los Andes and member of the Smithsonian Tropical
Research institute. His research on amphibian evolutionary genetics covers
plenty of terrain in Colombia, from the Pacific coast with its poison dart
frogs to the discovery with a team of scientists of a new species in the cloud
forests of the high Andes. As a frog expert, Crawford spoke with The City Paper
about the many threats facing this species in the country.
Five
Things to Know About Botswana’s Decision to Lift Ban on Hunting Elephants
Botswana, home to the world’s largest African
elephant population, has lifted its five-year suspension of elephant hunting,
attracting the ire of conservationists while placating those who argue that the
land giants, known to kill livestock and destroy crops, are wreaking havoc on
locals’ livelihoods.
Trump
Administration Orders the Removal of 30 Species from the Endangered Species
List
In late 2017, top leaders from the US Fish and
Wildlife Service’s (FWS) southeastern region issued a directive that instructed
agency officials to delist, downlist, or otherwise preclude 30 species each
year from the endangered species list. The directive, dubbed the “Wildly
Important Goal,” was framed as a method to promote “positive, proactive
conservation,” though it fails to explain how the denial of federal protections
for endangered or threatened species aids conservation efforts.
New
Details About Hours-Long Struggle to Retrieve Body of Woman Mauled by Lion in
North Carolina
Alex Black came face to face with an escaped
lion when she was just 10 days into her unpaid internship at a private animal
sanctuary.
The 22-year-old had been preparing deer meat
to feed the big cats, and suddenly found herself alone, staring down the lion
in a place where it could have reached visitors, according to her aunt,
Virginia Black.
Rare
all-white panda spotted in China
A rare all-white panda has been captured on
cameras in the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Southwest China's Sichuan
province, the reserve management authorities said on Saturday.
The panda was captured in mid-April by an
infrared camera about 2,000 meters above sea level in the wild, the authorities
said.
The panda has no spots on its body and its
eyes look red. It was crossing the forest at the time.
DNREC’s
Brandywine Zoo wins international avian husbandry award
DNREC’s Brandywine Zoo has won a Plume Award
from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) Avian Scientific Advisory
Group, recognizing the zoo’s achievements in avian husbandry and conservation.
The Brandywine Zoo is one of only three AZA-member facilities internationally
to receive the prestigious award this year. The Plume Award was for the zoo’s
American Kestrel Monitoring Program, recognized by the AZA as a “Noteworthy
Achievement for an Avian In-Situ Program” – meaning “in the field,” or studying
animals in the wild.
Dolphins'
happiness living in captivity at marine animal park probed, as tourist
attraction considers sea pen
The question of whether dolphins can be happy
living in captivity at a marine animal park is about to be tested on the New
South Wales mid-north coast.
A world-leading scientist is in Coffs Harbour
for an Australian-first study into the welfare of five dolphins at the tourist
attraction, Dolphin Marine Conservation Park.
Philippine
eagles Geothermica and Sambisig to be loaned to Singapore: Ambassadors for
Philippine biodiversity
On June 4, a pair of captive-bred Philippine
eagles will fly to Singapore as part of a Wildlife Loan Agreement (WLA) entered
into by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Wildlife
Reserves Singapore (WRS), Singapore’s leading wildlife conservation
organization.
Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu and WRS
Deputy Executive Officer Cheng Wen-Haur signed the agreement highlighting a
first of such agreement for the critically endangered Philippine eagle
(Pithecophaga jefferyi), the country’s
national bird.
In
a first, UP to set up four tiger rescue centres
With the number of both tigers and leopards
increasing in th ..
TAM,
SABAH’S LAST MALE SUMATRAN RHINO, IS DEAD
Malaysia’s last male Sumatran rhino, Tam, has
died, following an abrupt decline in health due to old age, sources say.
Tam, short form for Kertam was pronounced dead
shortly after noon Monday, BorneoToday has learnt.
Sabah is now left with one last Sumatran
rhino, a female, Iman, whose own health has weakened due to a ruptured tumor in
her uterus.
After
Tam's death, Sabah hopes to ink deal with Indonesia on rhino breeding programme
Following the death of Malaysia's last male
Sumatran rhino, the Sabah government is hoping to officially seal an agreement
with Indonesia on a proposed breeding programme involving the country's only
surviving female rhino.
Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment
Minister Datuk Christina Liew said that offspring of the sole surviving female
Sumatran rhino named Iman will be shared ownership with Indonesia.
Amid
U.S./China tensions, pandas' presence in Atlanta becomes more exceptional
With the San Diego Zoo's two giant pandas
safely back in China, Zoo Atlanta has become a member of an even more exclusive
club.
The California zoo's loan agreement for pandas
Bai Yun and Xiao Liwu recently ended and was not extended, leaving Atlanta, the
Memphis Zoo, and Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Zoo as the only
locations with pandas. Though there are currently tensions over trade between
the U.S. and China, the conflicts have no connection to the giant pandas on
loan to Atlanta's zoo, according to Hayley Murphy, deputy director of Zoo
Atlanta.
Are
we facing a potential species mass extinction event or are we in the midst of
it?
Is species at ‘risk of extinction’ the correct
metric to apply in assessing and for convincing people of the worsening global
biodiversity and ecosystem services predicament?
In this article it is argued that
biodiversity, in terms of the number of species, is less important from an
ecological perspective than the biomass/population size of the ecosystem’s most
common species.
5
essential tools for nature conservation we are still missing (Part 1/2)
There is not a day passing without the
announcement of new web based tools, dashboards or platforms launched in
support to nature conservation. Maps and data sets have become very easy to
access and share over the web and any junior programmer can today easily
integrate these data in a nice looking interface. Looking behind the doors, one
will find most of the time that the content presented is the same as anywhere
else and that only the packaging has been changed, either to make it more
attractive or simply to target different end-users.
Ranked:
The Ten Countries With The Most Endangered Species In The World
It’s tough to argue with the fact that
humankind is having a dramatic – and terrible – impact on the animal kingdom.
Industry, pollution, agriculture, deforestation, air travel and decreasing
habitats are conspiring to make it very hard for thousands of species to
survive, let alone flourish. And that truth stretches to every corner of the
world, be it forest, mountain, reef, ocean, city or savannah.
Gregory
Wrightstone: exposing the mass extinction lie
The latest chapter of the climate campaign
consists of warnings about a coming mass extinction of species. Here is a
stunning analysis of these claims by Gregory Wrightstone. This made a big
impact at Wednesday’s House hearings. I doubt you will see this in the news (it
does not fit the narrative).
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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/Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an independent international zoo consultant, critic and writer. Until recently 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 storyteller, 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"
"These are the best days of my life"
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