Zoo News Digest 2nd May 2019 (ZooNews 1020)
photo: @alexvgeorgiev
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
Much was made of the young chimpanzee scrolling through an instagram feed see: That Viral Video of a Chimp Scrolling Instagram Is Bad, Actually I didn't like it and probably because it was another clever move by the infamous Mr Antle. When I thought about it however it didn't include people with the animal. So what makes it so different to an Orangutan choosing a mate on an iPad screen or an iPad being used as an enrichment device for any number of animals? If you don't see a link to something like that in the next two weeks I will be surprised. No. We should be more concerned about people posting photographs of themselves posing with apes and big cats...the 'Tarzan Complex'. I don't give a hoot how famous a person is or if they are my friends and colleagues because they are advertising a certain type of animal handling and all the harm that goes with it. I have posted about it before a few times The Zoo Keepers Part in the Illegal AnimalTrade never much of a response other than hate mail...which I will expect again.
From the moment those Rhino horns were confiscated I suspected that John Hume had a hand in it somewhere and sure enough he did SA's largest private rhino breeder, John Hume, says seized rhino horns are his property see link below
"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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Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 109,500+ Followers on Facebook( and over 109,700 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 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 109,500+ Followers on Facebook( and over 109,700 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 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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That
Viral Video of a Chimp Scrolling Instagram Is Bad, Actually
There’s a video going viral this week of a
chimpanzee idly scrolling an Instagram feed on a smartphone. It flicks through
the feed, selects a photo or video, takes it in, and then goes back to the
feed. At first, it’s astounding, adorable behavior for a chimp—it looks a lot
like me at 1 a.m., bored and heading endlessly down an internet content hole.
Animal
lovers, ex-employees of Yerevan Zoo conduct protest action demanding
resignation of director
Animal lovers and former employees of Yerevan
Zoo are conducting protest action in the Zoo against the director Ruben
Khachatryan.
They are holding posters “Stop annihilation of
animals!” and “Ruben leave!”
Aysor.am correspondent reports that they
launched the protest action in front of the zoo but later entered its
territory.
Rare
Ethiopian lions set to get new home
The authority running the Ethiopian capital,
Addis Ababa, has been showing off the new enclosure where the city’s 12 rare
black-maned lions will live.
Antidote
found for box jellyfish, world's most venomous sea creature
University of Sydney researchers have
discovered an antidote for the world’s most venomous creature, according to a report
from the Guardian.
The publication reports the sting from an
Australian box jellyfish carries enough venom to kill more than 60 people.
CNN reports venom from the sting can cause
tissue necrosis, extreme pain, cardiac arrest and death within minutes after
severe exposure.
Thousands
of peacocks on the run in mass escape from farm in southern China
Around 6,500 peacocks escaped from a farm in
southern China after a storm damaged their enclosures on Saturday.
Only several dozen had been recovered by
Tuesday.
The remaining flock at the farm in Louxia
village, Guangdong province, consisted of 1,000 chicks and 200 peacocks used for
breeding, state broadcaster CCTV reported.
Siem
Reap’s wildlife sanctuary, aquarium to break ground in May
Construction of the ambitious Wildlife Park
and Aquarium in Siem Reap is due to begin next month, investors announced
during an event Monday.
The project – funded by a consortium of
investors from Cambodia, Japan, and the United States – has been hailed as the
first step in building Siem Reap into a world-class destination for tourists
seeking to experience exotic wildlife.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50599384/siem-reaps-wildlife-sanctuary-aquarium-to-break-ground-in-may/
Why
have some lemurs lost their colour vision?
Primates’ trichromatic colour vision, with its
red-, blue- and green-sensitive cone cells in the retina of the eye, is better
than that of most mammals, which have to limp along dichromatically. It is
thought to have evolved because primates are generally arboreal frugivores, and
fruit are often brightly coloured. Some lemurs, however, are exceptions. They
do indeed live in trees and consume fruit. But they have only two sorts of cone
cell and are therefore unable to distinguish what other primates see as red and
green, even though close relatives are trichromatic. That might be expected to
make it hard to pick out red fruit, in particular, from a green, leafy
background.
Why
Whales and Dolphins Join the Navy, in Russia and the U.S.
Fishermen off the northeastern coast of Norway
may have spotted the first evidence of a renewed Russian program to use marine
mammals for military operations, according to widespread media reports on
Tuesday. Last week, local fisherman noticed a beluga whale near their boat that
seemed to want their attention. As they got closer, they saw a harness strapped
to the beluga, outfitted with mounts for GoPro-type cameras. Further inspection
revealed “St. Petersburg equipment” embossed on the harness clips.
www.zoolex.org in April 2019
~°v°~ ~°v°~ ~°v°~ ~°v°~ ~°v°~
Hello ZooLex Friend,
We have worked for your enjoyment!
~°v°~
NEW EXHIBIT PRESENTATION
Patas Monkeys and Meerkats can be seen on the "African Hillside" at
Tokiwa Zoo - an area that displays the African savannah. Exhibits of the
two species are scenically staged and landscaped.
We would like to thank Kenji Wako for preparing this presentation.
~°v°~
ZOO DESIGN COURSE
Monika Fiby will give another exhibit design course for the EAZA
Academy. Tomislav Krizmanic from Zagreb Zoo will cover the education
part. The course will take place at the EAZA office and at Artis Zoo in
Amsterdam on 23 and 24 October 2019:
~°v°~
We keep working on ZooLex ...
The ZooLex Zoo Design Organization is a non-profit organization
registered in Austria (ZVR-Zahl 933849053). ZooLex runs a professional
zoo design website and distributes this newsletter. More information and
contact: https://www.zoolex.org/page/about/
The
Strange Sex Life of Freshwater Mussels
To imagine the life of a freshwater mussel
living in a southeastern U.S. river, picture a couch potato with a constant
buffet line rolling past.
Anchored along the river’s bottom, this
freshwater shellfish simply filters the water as it drifts by, getting its
meals from the current.
For certain people, this may sound idyllic.
BGSU
research points genetic diversity of penguins
The New York Times recently highlighted a
study published by Oxford University Press in the journal of the Society for
Molecular Biology and Evolution that demonstrates the importance of island
formation in the diversification of penguins and posits the discovery of two
extinct penguin species from New Zealand.
The research was conducted by a diverse team
of 19 scholars representing eight countries and 16 research institutions and
universities, including Bowling Green State University.
During his sabbatical, Juan L. Bouzat, a
professor in Bowling Green State University’s Department of Biological
Sciences, initiated collaborations at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark
alongside a consortium of scholars who are uncovering the genomes of 10,000
species of birds.
Calgary
Zoo wins international recognition for Panda habitat
The Calgary Zoo's panda exhibit has won an
award from an international conservation group for using sustainable building
practices.
The $14.4-million Panda Passage has been
awarded "Petal certification" by the International Living Future
Institute.
We
asked people in Vietnam why they use rhino horn. Here's what they said
Vietnam is one of the world’s largest
consumers of rhino horn, contributing to the continued poaching of rhinos in
the wild. Last year in Africa 1,100 rhinos were killed by poachers. And today
there are only about 29,500 left in the world.
Considerable efforts have been devoted to
reducing the demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. In 2015, the Government of
Vietnam increased sanctions on the illegal trade and use of rhino horns. And,
through a variety of campaigns, conservation organisations have tried to
educate Vietnamese consumers about Africa’s rhino poaching crisis and the
uselessness of rhino horn in medications.
Gove
delivers legislation to ban wild animals in circuses
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has today
(1 May) announced a new Bill to ban the use of wild animals in travelling
circuses.
Some of the animals which currently perform in
circuses include reindeer, zebras and camels. The use of wild animals in
travelling circuses has no place in modern society and does nothing to further
the conservation or our understanding of wild animals.
Isle
of Wight Zoo shuts down Facebook and Tripadvisor pages after hate campaign
against Chris Packham
THE Isle of Wight Zoo has closed its Facebook
and TripAdvisor pages following an influx of negative comments by online
trolls.
The zoo has come under attack by those
campaigning against wildlife presenter Chris Packham, a regular visitor to the
Island.
Speaking today (Tuesday) on Good Morning Britain,
Chris said staff at the zoo — run by his long-term girlfriend Charlotte Corney
— are worried the animals will be targeted.
The
Journal of Zoo and Aquarium Research
Vol
7 No 2 (2019)
Published:
2019-04-30
Genes
from an extinct “ghost ape” live on in modern bonobos
Chimpanzee fossils are thin on the ground.
After their lineage parted ways with ours, our human ancestors spent millennia
kicking about in arid regions and caves ideal for preserving our remains. The
ancestors of modern chimpanzees and bonobos, meanwhile, were hanging out in the
lush jungles of central Africa.
“There’s a reason pretty much every image of a
paleontologist in the field is in a desert or badlands,” writes paleontologist
Dave Hone. Fossils can be found only when we have access to exposed rocks that
were formed in the epoch of interest, and so
SA's
largest private rhino breeder, John Hume, says seized rhino horns are his
property
The owner of the largest number of privately
held rhinos, John Hume, has confirmed he legally sold 181 horns to a Port
Elizabeth buyer allegedly linked to one of the biggest reported seizures of
rhino horns in South Africa.
On Friday, Petrus Stephanus Steyn, 61, and
Clive John Melville, 57, both of Port Elizabeth, appeared in the Brits
Magistrate’s Court for a formal bail application.
Keeping
zoo animals healthy
How do you keep all the different kinds of
animals that live in zoos happy and healthy? To find out, Adam Murphy went to
the Shepreth Wildlife Park to meet Yve Morrin, a zookeeper, with a laundry list
of animals, including owls, red pandas, and some naughty monkeys under her
care...
Yve - They all have very different needs.
Monkeys, for example, are quite challenging to work with because they are very
smart, they're very curious animals, they'll challenge you. They will test your
padlocks after you leave to make sure that you've locked them properly so you
have to be very security conscious. Sometimes I can't go in wearing sunglasses
because they'll take them and run away with them, and they seem to do it almost as a way of
teasing you. They know they're being cheeky and they do it for fun.
Europe’s
biggest aquarium faces legal action over the deaths of 30 hammerhead sharks,
which a marine conservation group alleges were mistreated.
Sea Shepherd France announced at the weekend
that it would file a lawsuit on Monday against the Nausicaá aquarium in the
French port of Boulogne, near Calais. The last of the 30 sharks, which were
introduced into the aquarium in 2011 and 2018, died on Thursday.
Buffalo
Zoo fined for exposing workers to lead and silica dust in reptile house
The federal agency responsible for worker
safety fined the Buffalo Zoo more than $45,000 for putting employees at risk of
lead and silica exposure during last year’s interior demolition work of the
reptile house.
An OSHA official with knowledge of the
investigation said an employee had stated during the probe that prior to the
renovation work, some animals had gotten sick from exposure to lead, requiring
emergency medical treatment. A former zoo official confirmed to News 4 Investigates
that “there was a medical issue” several years ago but referred reporters to
the zoo for more details.
The zoo admiration, led by CEO and president
Norah Fletchall, refused numerous interviews requests with News 4 Investigates
and failed to respond to several questions sent by email. In a prepared
statement, the zoo disputed that animals had ever been harmed.
AZA-Accredited
Zoos and Aquariums Announce Nationwide “Party for the Planet” to Celebrate
Earth Month
Recognizing the importance of taking direct
action to help preserve our planet, members of the Association of Zoos and
Aquariums (AZA) are springing into action and hosting family-friendly events
designed to encourage volunteerism and help the environment.
“AZA-accredited facilities are experts at
connecting families to nature. Party for the Planet® offers families the
perfect opportunity to visit their local AZA-accredited facility, celebrat
Family
of woman killed in Conservators Center lion attack pens letter to N.C. House
committee
The aunt of a woman who was killed in a
December lion attack at the Conservators Center wrote a letter to the N.C.
House Judiciary Committee.
Virginia Black, the aunt of 22-year-old Alex
Black who was killed on Dec. 30, urges the house to strengthen and pass House
Bill 577, which would prohibit the ownership, possession, import, purchase or
sale of big cats, bears, hyenas and great apes in certain situations.
Bear
conservation centre in Ninh Binh saves bile bears
Seventeen bears – which used to be kept in
captivity and illegally traded to harvest their bile - are living in a bear
conservation centre in the northern province of Ninh Binh.
The centre was inaugurated by Four Paws, an
international animal welfare organisation, in March 2019, in Ky Phu commune,
Nho Quan district.
Covering around 10 hectares, the centre is
able to take care for nearly 100 bears.
The first phase of the project has been
completed with 3.6 hectares.
Is
a sad-eyed panda worth saving more than a slimy salamander?
he Chinese giant salamander, the largest
amphibian in the world, is not as cute and receives almost no attention -
despite being one of the rarest creatures in the world.
It weighs as much as an adult human, has slimy
brown skin, a giant mouth curled to a gormless grin and beady eyes.
Its appearance alone causes it to receive far
less attention than its bamboo-eating compatriot.
Plea
to UAE to find new homes for baboons rescued from war zone zoo in Gaza Strip
An appeal has been sent out to the UAE to help
find new homes for baboons that are among 47 animals rescued from a run-down
zoo in Gaza.
Six adult baboons, two male hamadryas, three
green females and one male savanah at under-siege Rafah Zoo have been saved
from neglect and hostilities in the Gaza Strip, and transported to Jordan.
Animal specialists are now appealing for help
from UAE zoos or registered private collectors, to permanently re-home the
primates.
Zoos
and aquaria deliver missing information critical to sustaining biodiversity
In an era of always-on information, it is
surprising how little we know about key biological aspects of animal species
worldwide. A paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals that fundamental pieces of information, such
as fertility and survival rates - the building blocks of how populations
persist - are missing from global data for more than 98 percent of known
species of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.
MPs
and Peers call on UK Government for action to end tiger trade
Following discussions on the serious threats
posed by the big cat trade and policies in China which serve to perpetuate it,
71 MPs and Peers have now called on the UK Government to support strong action
to save big cats.
Fewer than 4,000 wild tigers survive and
Asia’s leopards, clouded leopards and snow leopards are all in decline; a major
cause is illegal killing and trade to meet demand for their parts and products,
primarily from Chinese consumers.
Australian
zoo evacuated when orangutan escapes for a second time
Visitors were evacuated from an Australian zoo
when an orangutan got out of his enclosure for the second time in four years.
The Melbourne Zoo confirmed Malu, a
15-year-old Sumatran orangutan, escaped from his enclosure just after 3 p.m.
local time Friday.
Interview:
Moscow Zoo head says poised to host pandas from China
The Moscow Zoo has made all preparations to
host a pair of giant pandas from China for 15 years or longer in a scientific
program, its General Director Svetlana Akulova has said.
"The existing enclosure has been rebuilt
to meet new requirements," she told Xinhua recently as the zoo was
preparing to receive Ruyi, a male panda, and Dingding, a female one, on April
29.
The complex gets divided so as to house a
female and a male, with either division including an indoor and an outdoor
space. Both spaces are equipped with swimming pools, drinking bowls and a
variety of entertainment tools for the bears to rest and play.
As
India’s dholes face decline, scientists say more research is needed to frame
conservation plans
Carnivores of the wild have always fascinated
humans. Around the world, extensive efforts have been made (and large fortunes
spent) to revive the number of some top predators in their natural habitat. But
not all these efforts have borne fruit.
Several species of carnivores have been
witnessing a global population decline. The Asiatic wild dog, also known as
dhole (Cuon alpinus), has been added to the list. It is declared as Endangered
in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List.
https://scroll.in/article/918261/as-indias-dholes-face-decline-scientists-say-more-research-is-needed-to-frame-conservation-plans
For
the Love of Punishment
There are many different facets within the
animal training field. Dog training, horse training, falconry, marine mammal
training, elephant training, etc. All of these fields of expertise have their
own thought process around behaviour, and this is one of the ways we can
communicate to each other. One of our passions here at Zoospensefull is trying
to connect all these facets together to share the thoughts about behavioural
modification within those different fields. One way is through our Facebook
page Zoospensefull – conditioning a creative way.
At Zoospensefull we talk a lot about positive
reinforcement techniques and strategies but we shouldn’t forget that more
techniques exist. Let’s have a deeper look into another one that is used often.
https://zoospensefull.com/2019/04/29/for-the-love-of-punishment
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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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