Zoo News Digest 8th - 17th August 2013 (ZooNews 871)
Pezoporus occidentalis
Dear Colleagues,
I saw the story of a
Chinese Zoo exhibiting a Tibetan Mastiff in a cage labelled 'Lion' when it
first appeared. So what? I thought. Zoos
often move animals around temporarily and dogs are frequently in zoo displays outside
of the UK. The story did not appear anywhere else. Not to be taken seriously.
Besides there were rats in an exhibit that was labelled 'Snakes'. No-one could
be so stupid. Obvious to me that the rats were either wild or were
intentionally there for the snakes to eat. Mind you in the photo I saw, though
unclear, the rats looked larger than the norm (and I have seen huge rats in
Asia) and may be something just a bit different….not your ordinary rat. Again a case of utilising space for an
alternative species without changing the sign…I'll bet every zoo has done it at
least once.
So to me this was a non-story and not really worth reporting. It shortly became clear I was wrong because every newspaper and its cousin on planet earth
have picked up on this. The public love it….Not Peta of course. They use the
opportunity to make blanket statements like "Pretending
to be a lion is about as good as it gets for any animal in the grim reality of
everyday life in a zoo," a spokesman said, stating "deception is the
norm at many zoos."
The various newspaper headlines varied from the
ordinary to the amusing but whereas I am in no way defending Luohe Zoo I think
the header "World’s worst zoo" bestowed upon it by 'Metro' was not
just cruel but ignorant. Come to think of it there are too many worst zoo lists
compiled by people who really know nothing about zoos. If however the video
clip I saw related to the Luohe Zoo in Henan was all shot in that zoo then I
have a number of questions which need to be asked. Did not look good at all.
Take a look at Forget
About Dogs Dressed as Lions - Consider Extreme Tiger Abuse to see what I
mean.
I am delighted to
see the new translocation guidelines from the IUCN. As 'new' I hope that more
people will read them. Sadly, there are a number of zoos out there which
release 'surplus' animals without giving a second thought to the damage they
may be doing. They seem to believe that what they are doing is clever. It
isn't. There are a host of important things to consider first.
I would expect no
less from CAPS. They like to kick zoos in the crotch when we have something go
wrong and now they pour boiling water on us when we do right.
World's Oldest
Penguin is 36. It appears to be a good claim. Can anyone come up with an older
one I wonder?
10 Rhinoceros to
Cuba….a goodly number.
In a few weeks I will be attending the International Penguin Conference. Really looking forward to it.
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Scientists breed endangered Panamanian golden frogs in
captivity
Determined
scientific efforts to preserve the tiny Panamanian golden frog from extinction
due to the spread of a deadly fungus have begun to pay off with its successful
reproduction in captivity.
The rescue project
of the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center, or EVACC, with the participation
of both Panamanian and foreign scientists, announced this month that it has
managed to breed 42 healthy Panamanian golden frogs.
Project director
Heidi Ross told Efe that this is the first time since 2006, when the project
began, that the golden frog could be added to the list of other amphibian
species bred in capti
Namibia to send 10 rhinoceros, five elephants to Cuba
zoo
Namibia will airlift
10 rhinoceros and five elephants to Cuba in September, concluding a massive
translocation project of 135 animals taken from its national parks, the
environment ministry said Wednesday.
The 15 animals will
be captured from the Etosha National Park in northern Namibia – one of the
country's major tourist attractions – plus a nearby smaller game reserve, the
Waterberg Plateau, environment and tourism deputy-minister Pohamba Shifeta told
AFP.
The ambitious
project, dubbed Noah's Ark II, has populated Cuba's 342-hectare National Zoo
outside Havana.
A total of 120
animals of 23 species – including endangered black and white rhinos, cheetahs,
leopards and lions – were already transported to the Caribbean island nation in
November.
Animal rights groups
have protested the capture of wild animals.
But Shifeta defended
the translocation as Namibia's "token of appreciation" to Cuba for
its support.
Cuba gave the
southern African country political and military backing during its struggle for
independence from South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
"Cuban people
were not complaining when their government was supporting us," Shifeta
told AFP.
The donation is also
aimed at helping Cuba establish a "proper wildlife programme", he
added.
China's People's Park claimed dogs, foxes and rats
were more exotic species
A CHINESE zoo that
used a large, hairy dog to impersonate a lion was rumbled when the 'big cat'
started barking.
The People's Park in
Luohe, Henan, also tried to pass off a fox as a leopard and used another dog to
impersonate a wolf. The zoo's most creative feat was labelling a pair of rats
as snakes.
The chief of the
park's animal department told Chinese media its real lion had been sent to a
breeding facility. Not wanting to disappoint the public, a Tibetan Mastiff
belonging to a member of staff was used as a substitute.
One woman told the
local newspaper Dahe Daily: "I had my young son with me so I tried to play
along and told him it was a special kind of lion. But then the dog barked and
he knew straight away what it was and that I'd lied to him."
A spokesperson for
the zoo explained that it had put domestic animals in some of its cages because
it
Saving species by translocation – new IUCN Guidelines
A new publication by
IUCN has set a precedent for deliberately moving plants and animals for
conservation purposes around the world. Based on 30 years of experience and
pioneering reintroductions such as the Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) in Oman,
the Golden Lion Tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) in Brazil and the Red Wolf
(Canis rufus) in the USA, and many other plants and animals subsequently, this
publication is an essential guide to the contentious but increasingly necessary
action of translocating species.
Published by the
Reintroduction Specialist Group (RSG) and Invasive Species Specialist Group
(ISSG) of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC); ‘Guidelines for
Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations’ explores the biological,
social, and political aspects of translocating species, and provides a starting
point for risk assessment and feasibility studies. It is envisaged that by
incorporating these guidelines into wider conservation strategies,
conservationists will be ever-more prepared to intervene and save species,
should extrinsic pressures require it.
“Adoption of the new
Guidelines has been swift, a few weeks ago the Spanish national government’s
Wild Fauna and Flora Committee proposed a new national code for conservation
translocations, based in detail on the new IUCN guidelines” says Dr Emilio Laguna,
senior officer in the Wildlife Service, Valencia, Spain.
Humans have moved
organisms between sites for their own purposes for millennia, and this has
yielded benefits for human kind, but in some cases has led to disastrous
impacts. Most invasive alien species are the result of non-conservation related
movements, and in some cases invasive species have been introduced due to
mistaken conservation efforts. The Canadian Beaver (Castor canadensis) for
example, was mistaken for the Eurasian Beaver (Castor fiber) and released into
Finland in the early 20th Century, where it now out-competes the native
species, and the Cane Toad (Rhinella marina) originally introduced to Australia
to control sugar cane pests, has caused wide ecological disruption across the
country.
“Any conservation
translocation must be justified, with development of clear objectives,
identification and assessment of risks, and with measures of performance. These
Guidelines are an essential tool for any proposed conservation translocation;
they are based on principle rather than example, and offer a platform to make
an informed decision about this increasingly common conservation intervention”
says Dr Mark Stanley Price, Chair of the IUCN SSC Sub-Committee for Species
Conservation Planning.
Translocation is
usually considered a last resort by wildlife conservationists, but as the
world’s biodiversity faces the incessant threats of habitat loss, invasive
species and climate change, this type of conservation intervention will become
more frequent all over the world. The Council of Europe has based its November
2012 Recommendation No. 158 (2012) of the Standing Committee of the Bern
Convention on “Conservation translocations under changing climatic conditions”
on the new IUCN Guidelines. Further, the Turner Endangered Species Fund of the
USA and the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have already used
the Guidelines for their own planning purposes.
About the Guidelines
These Guidelines and
their Annexes were developed by a Task Force of the Reintroduction and Invasive
Species Specialist Groups, working between 2010 and 2012. The Chair of the
Species Survival Commission, Dr Simon Stuart, appreciated that IUCN’s 1998 Guidelines
for Reintroductions needed review and revision and the Chair of the
Reintroduction Specialist Group, Dr Frédéric Launay, offered the resources of
the Reintroduction Specialist Group to carry out this task. He, in turn,
invited Dr Mark Stanley Price to assemble and manage a small Task Force for the
work. It soon became evident that the Invasive Species Specialist Group
contained expertise of direct relevance to the work, and its Chair, Dr Piero
Genovesi, wholeheartedly brought in his Specialist Group. The Guidelines can be
downloaded here: http://ow.ly/mRgRG
For more information
contact:
Lynne Labanne, IUCN
Global Species Programme ; t +41 229990153, lynne.labanne@iucn.org
Jonathan Hulson,
IUCN Global Species Programme; t +41 229990154, jonathan.hulson@iucn.org
Conservationists’ anger at list of animals “reliant
for survival on zoos”
Conservationists who
have dedicated their lives to ensure a safe future for endangered species of
primates and their habitat have today hit out at a report published by the
British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA). The report
entitled “Top Ten Mammal Species Reliant on Zoos” names ten animals which,
BIAZA claims, “may be lost to extinction forever” if it were not for the work
of their member zoos.
Inmates raising fish to feed Columbus Zoo’s penguins
A partnership
between a state prison and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium that will teach
inmates how to raise rainbow trout for penguin feedings started with a splash
yesterday.
Inmates at the
Southeastern Correctional Institution, about 35 miles southeast of Columbus,
opened the prison’s new fish hatchery by tilting into the water a cascade of
5,000 fingerlings, or baby trout. This first batch will take 180 days to raise,
and then the fish will be flash-frozen and delivered to the zoo.
Penguins love to eat
trout. Otters and polar bears do, too, and may be added later to the zoo
animals fed with prison-raised fish.
Warden Sheri Duffey
came up with the idea earlier this year and contacted the zoo. Zookeepers had
been buying all the penguins’ trout from an Idaho supplier and welcomed the
chance to buy locally, less expensively and from a prison.
“The main focus was
to help them reduce their cost and provide an education to inmates,” Duffey
said.
How much the zoo
will pay the prison for the fish is among the details still being worked out.
This first batch of baby trout came from a supplier in Knox County.
Sgt. Dan Kinsel and
inmates built the hatchery inside a large out-building on the prison grounds,
using recycled concrete blocks and other construction materials salvaged from
the institution.
It will operate
without tax dollars. Instead, some of the money the prison earns from
collecting, baling and selling all its recycled plastic, aluminum, paper and
cardboard to a Columbus compan
Forget doggy paddle – apes prefer breaststroke
Different strokes
for different folks? Not when it comes to the aquatic ape: the first detailed
observations of swimming chimpanzees and orang-utans suggest that they, like
us, tend to swim using a form of breaststroke. The findings imply that we may
owe our swimming style to our evolutionary past.
Apart from humans,
great apes usually avoid deep water for fear of unseen predators that might be
lurking there, but anecdotal evidence shows that they will go for a dip if they
feel safe enough.
Cooper the
chimpanzee and Suryia the orang-utan are extreme examples of this. These two
captive apes, raised respectively in Missouri and South Carolina, have thrown
off any instinctive fear and taught themselves to swim in a swimming pool.
Footage taken by
Renato Bender at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South
Africa, shows that both of the apes instinctively opted for a version of
breaststroke to keep afloat – that is, they moved their limbs out sideways from
their bodies, roughly parallel to the water's surface. Suryia's limbs moved
mostly alternately (see video) but Cooper often kicked with both hind limbs
simultaneously, mo
Moments of horror at the zoo!
Child, 2, seriously injured in tapir mauling at Dublin
Zoo
A two-year-old child
is in a serious condition in hospital after a shock attack by a tapir at Dublin
Zoo ripped muscles from its arm.
The incident, which
occurred yesterday afternoon, is understood to have left the child unconscious,
and with deep stomach and arm injuries caused by the animal’s powerful jaw.
The child’s mother
was also wounded after attempting to bring a halt to the extremely rare attack
from the usually docile creature, which occurred during a supervised
“encounter” visit to the Brazilian tapir enclosure.
The child was last
night continuing to receive treatment from surgeons at Temple Street Children’s
Hospital, while the two-year-old’s mother was cared for at the Mater.
The Irish Examiner
understands the incident took place after zoo keepers agreed to allow the
family to view the tapirs from a closer site than most visitors — a step that
is usually closely monitored by expert workers.
However, after
entering the second site it is understood one of the zoo’s two adult tapirs — a
female called Rio, whose weeks-old baby was also in the location — became
agitated.
An attack followed,
resulting in the child suffering serious injuries after being mauled by the
animal.
A Dublin Zoo
spokeswoman confirmed there was “an unfortunate accident involving a mother and
her child in the Brazilian tapir area” during one of the facility’s “regular
supervised animal visits”.
She said zoo
managers have launched an investigation into exactly what happened and, as a
result of the incident, are “reviewing all procedures with respect to
supervised animal visits”.
“Dublin Zoo would
like to underline this was very much an isolated incident. We would also like
to emphasise that our immedi
Foreign zoos present endemic turtles to Vietnam
VietNamNet Bridge –
On August 16, the Cuc Phuong National Park will receive 71 Vietnamese pond
turtles from the zoo of the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands and the Munster
Zoo in Germany, said Mr. Bui Dang Phong, director of the Cuc Phuong Turtle
Conservation Center.
The Vietnamese pond
turtle is an endemic freshwater turtle species in Vietnam, which is included in
the list of critically endangered wildlife.
Endemic to a small
area in central Vietnam, it was reportedly abundant in the 1930s, but all field
surveys after 1941 had failed to locate any individuals in the wild. As it was
occasionally seen traded as food, it was not yet extinct in the wild however.
In 2006, a wild population of Vietnamese pond turtles was found in Quang Nam
Province.
Currently, the
number of Vietnamese pond turtles in the wild is rapidly declining due to
poaching, illegal trade and habitat loss.
Cuc Phuong National
Park is located in Ninh Binh Province. It is Vietnam's first national park and
is the country's largest nature reserve. The park is one of the most important
sites for biodiversity in Vietnam.
The turtle
conservation center was established
Edinburgh Zoo Keeper reveals what panda pregnancy would mean to t
CNN Anchor Says Zoos 'Feel Like a Stone Age Thing':
They Had Zoos Then?
CNN anchor Erin
Burnett ended her evening news show Upfront on Thursday night with a commentary
suggesting America should close its zoos. "It feels absolutely wrong to
cage" animals. "It feels like a Stone Age thing."
They had zoos in the
Stone Age? Isn't it more likely they just killed and ate animals rather than
put them on display? She began her commentary by relaying how a Sumatran tiger
had cubs at the National Zoo in D.C., but then shifted to the zoo-cruelty line:
BURNETT: Costa Rica,
known for its incredible biodiversity, is closing its zoos because cages are
bad for animals.Costa Rica's minister of the environm
Court action being considered in elephant cruelty case
Police investigating
allegations of cruelty to elephants at Twycross Zoo have handed a file to the
Crown Prosecution Service to consider court action.
Three workers at the
Leicestershire zoo were sacked and arrested after allegedly causing unnecessary
suffering to two animals in September last year.
The hit documentary Blackfish has a message as dubious
as its methods
A current hit on the
arthouse circuit, Blackfish is the type of documentary that covers over its
flaws in argumentation with the sort of trickery you'd expect to see in
negative political campaigning: decontextualized video footage presented in
slow motion, with a voiceover offering the most damning possible explanation of
its meaning, while the soundtrack strikes gut-churning minor chords. Through
interviews with former whale trainers, an OSHA expert with an ax to grind
against Sea World, and copious video footage, the film attempts to make several
cases at once while dishonestly withholding its ultimate message.
First, by focusing
on the tragic death of expert Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau while working
with the 12,000-point bull orca Tilikum in 2010, director Gabriela
Cowperthwaite and her witnesses argue that Tilikum was a violent whale, a
ticking time bomb who had already racked up two prior kills. (The film
practically uses obscene serial-killer psychology to discuss Tilikum, mostly
for cheap dramatic effect.) Second, the film argues that whales are
sufficiently intelligent that keeping them prisoner for human amusement is
unethical and cruel. Third, whales are wild animals, uncontrollable and
dangerous.
As braided
throughout the film, these three propositions are increasingly incompatible. We
are supposed to understand that orcas are both sensitive and vicious, that they
cannot adapt to life around humans but must be rescued due to their immense
capacity for empathy. For much of the film, Blackfish's rhetoric and
argumentative structure are so muddled that there are very few things we can
discern from it with certainty. We can clearly tell that its makers consider
the owners of Sea World aquatic parks to be irresponsible profiteers. We can
clearly tell that Blackfish is against holding whales in captivity.
But it's only in the
final 10 minutes that Blackfish discloses its actual agenda. What Cowperthwaite
and company hold back, as their "big reveal," is that they believe
sea parks should return their current stock of whales to the oceans, either in
cordoned-off "sea pens" or in a wholesale effort to reintroduce
whales, wild-caught or otherwise, to their pods. At least this is what we could
glean from two careful viewings, since even this take-away message remains
quite muddled and inarticulate.
There are difficult
issues at stake, some practical and some philosophical. For one thing, it has
proven almost impossible to return orcas to the ocean after years of captivity.
Keiko, the star of Free Willy, was the subject of a massive rehabilitation effo
Hundreds of people streak through London Zoo completely naked for t
Zoo Photos Capture Caged Animals’ Melancholy
Photographer Gaston
Lacombe doesn’t hate zoos. He just thinks some of them need improving.
For the past four
years, he’s been trying to make that point with a series of photos called
Captive. All of the photos are shot from regular, public viewing areas and are
meant to highlight the poor or unnatural conditions some animals live in when
they’re removed from their normal habitat.
“Even in the very
best of zoos you still find animals placed in horrible cement enclosures or
little glass boxes,” says Lacombe, who was born in Canada but now lives in
Washington D.C.
Captive shows zoos
from nine different countries on five different continents. Lacombe’s images
have a melancholy feel to them — not overly dramatic, just real. They’re an
anthropological study of humans encaging animals to be viewed safely and
leisurely.
People love zoos.
And the people running them say it’s unfair to judge them just by what’s
visible. Steve Feldman, spokesperson for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums,
says he knows some of the enclosures at zoos might not look natural, but that
there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes at AZA zoos to ensure that all
animals’ physical, social and psychological needs are met and that AZA zoos and
aquariums “don’t engage in practices that are bad for the animals.”
All 212 zoos
accredited by the AZA in the U.S. encour
The Zoo is Alive (In Japanese but interesting behind the scenes)
AND then
Sad Animals in Zoos
“Aw, that polar
looks so sad. He doesn’t like this cage”. “Poor monkey, so bored with nothing
to do”.
Have you ever made a
comment like this? Have you ever heard someone say this at a public zoo or
petstore? The answer is likely to be yes. Despite unfamiliarity with the
species in question, or even that animal as an individual, this is a common
occurrence and a blatant example of the conflict with anthropomorphism.
DNA confirms elusive Night Parrot found
Work at the Western
Australian Museum’s recently acquired DNA laboratory has proved conclusively
the Night Parrot – often referred to as the Holy Grail of ornithology – is not
extinct.
Queensland bird
enthusiast John Young, who has been searching for the Night Parrot (Pezoporus
occidentalis) for nearly 15 years, sent five feathers from a roost site he
found within the Lake Eyre Basin to the Museum’s Molecular Systematics Unit for
testing, convinced the birds he had been watching were indeed the elusive
parrot.
The feathers were
found to be 100 per cent identical to Pezoporus occidentalis, listed as extinct
in New South Wales, regionally extinct in Victoria, critically endangered in
Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and endangered in Queensland and South
Australia.
WA Museum CEO Alec
Coles said this was an incredibly significant discovery and one the Museum was
very excited to be part of.
“The Night Parrot is
a bird many people believed to be extinct up until 1990, and the WA Museum is
very pleased to have been asked
Look into the eyes of a caged tiger and you will see
the zombie victim of 'zoochosis':
A passionate plea by
conservationist who breeds big cats to return them to wild It is more than 180
years since the first zoos opened in Britain. To put that in perspective, the
electric telegraph hadn’t been invented, never mind the telephone, and passenger
railways had only just come into
existence.
People rarely
travelled far, hardly ever abroad, so imagine their delight when they visited
menageries filled with chimpanzees, oryx and orangutans.
I can also
understand why so many of you today want to take your children to see an
elephant or giraffe or gorilla close up.
But I think the time
has come to re-evaluate the role of zoos. I know it’s not practical to close
all zoos today. Nor am I suggesting that all zoos can be closed tomorrow. But I
am proposing that we phase them out over the next 20 to 30 years.
If you are going to
the zoo today, I urge you to look closely. In the wild, these creatures roam
hundreds of miles. They hunt their prey, raise their offspring and enjoy
complex social relationships. So think how it must feel to be
After a Whale Trainer Is Injured, Man Who Videotaped
It Stands by Marineland
A trainer at the
park was injured during a whale show this week, prompting another backlash
against the park from animal activists.
Last month, TakePart
reported on a Tampa father, Carlo De Leonibus, who brought his family to
SeaWorld Orlando, only to witness and videotape a juvenile pilot whale stuck in
the concrete slide-out, struggling to free itself.
The video went
global and overnight De Leonibus became and anti-captivity activist. His young
daughter Cat no longer wants to be a dolphin trainer at SeaWorld—she now wants
to be a marine biolgist.
And just yesterday,
TakePart reported on another young father, this time from Ontario, Canada,
named Tom Blake, who brought his own family, including two children ages two
and five, to see the shows at Marineland, near Niagara Falls.
During a segment in
which two trainers performed in the water with two belugas, the beguiling white
whales known for their docility, the young female trainer was injured and
hauled up on the slide-out area by her colleague, writhing in pain.
It would appear that
the whale may have bitten down on her knee, though Marineland has not responded
to requests f
Tapir attacks past, present, but hopefully not future
Last Thursday
(August 8th, 2013) a Brazilian or Lowland tapir Tapirus terrestris at Dublin
Zoo (Ireland) seriously attacked and injured a two-year-old girl that, believe
it or don’t, was taken into the tapir’s enclosure. The child’s mother was
injured as she tried to rescue (or, rescued) the little girl. The girl
reportedly received “deep abdomen and arm injuries” that involved arterial
damage and de-gloving of hand and arm skin (yes, this is exactly what it sounds
like).
Reparative surgery
has occurred in hospital. It may not surprise you to know that the tapir was a
mother with a young calf (you may have seen this case being much discussed on
facebook and twitter: I tweet @TetZoo). The story broke about two days ago and
features worldwide in online and printed media to
Sabah in no rush to send rhinos overseas for breeding
Sabah is in no rush
to send its rhinos to zoos abroad for breeding amid fears that the animal faces
extinction in Borneo, said state Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister
Datuk Masidi Manjun.
He said it would be
the state’s last resort to send rhinos overseas for breeding.
“We are looking at
all available options and the most important thing is to ensure that these
animals will not become extinct,” he said.
“However, to send
them overseas will be our last resort,” he said at the Sabah Muslim Cabinet
ministers’ Hari Raya open house at Likas Sports Complex on Saturday.
Asked about the
growing calls for the near extinct rhinos to be sent to a US zoo for breeding
purposes, Masidi said that it was hard to get rhinos to mate due to
geographical factors.
“Rhinos are loners.
They don’t really move in packs. It makes it much ,more difficult fo
Saudi gift to city zoo accepted
The state government
has approved the request of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar Bin Saud Bin Mohammed
Al Saud to gift cheetahs and African lions to the city’s Nehru Zoological Park.
“The state
government has agreed to accept the gift and the wild animals will soon be
brought to the city zoo,” said chief wildlife warden A.V. Joseph. “Apart from
cheetahs and African lions, several other wild animals like squirrel monkeys,
black swan etc., will also be brought in from Saudi Arabia”, he said.
Joseph said the new
animals would join the city zoo as part of its soon-to-be-celebrated golden
jubilee. Meanwhile, the footfalls in the Nehru Zoological Park have increased in the weekends following
Id-ul-Fitr.
On Saturday and
Sunday over 52,000 people visited the zoo, for which the zoo officials had to
set up additional ticket counters. The zoo has ac
Manila Elephant to Stay Put, Despite Push by Powerful
Pals
Mali, a 39-year-old elephant in a Manila zoo,
has very powerful friends. Including the ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.
But a push by
McCartney and many other animal lovers hasn’t succeeded in persuading the mayor
of Manila to send Mali to a Thai sanctuary, which has already said she’s
welcome and would have elephant friends. One animal rights group has even
offered to spring for her plane ticket.
Instead, Mali will
stay at the Manila Zoo, with the goal of bringing two elephant friends in,
Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada has decided. Plus the zoo is going to be renovated
so Mali – who will continue to be a star attraction – will have better digs.
Still, Mali – short
for Vishwa Maali, which means “world” and “lady” in Thai — might get a vacation
from the zoo she’s called home for 30 years. Manila’s zoo is getting ready to
have a big renovation. That means Mali may get to go temporarily to the 50-hectare
Zoobic Safari in Subic, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay.
Mali arrived in the
Philippines at age three, as a gift from Sri Lanka to then-First Lady Imelda
Marcos.
Since then, Mali has
proven to be wildly popular. She is the only elephant at the zoo. She spends
her days picking peanuts and bananas from visitor’s hands and being cooled off
by water squirted by them at her.
But her living
conditions aren’t like in the Sri Lanka jungle. Instead, she spends her days in
a cramped enclosure at the Manila Zoo.
Animal rights groups
led by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been trying
to get the Philippine government to transfer Mali to Boon Lott’s Elephant
Sanctuary (BLES) in Thailand. PETA says it intends to continue pushing for
Mali’s move to Thailand despite the apparent final denial by the mayor.
“Mali has been alone
for over three decades, and she is undeniably lonely. Continuing to deprive her
of the socialization with others of her own kind, which is so fundamental to
her well-being, amounts to mental abuse,” PETA Campaign Manager Rochelle Regodon
said, adding the group would pay for her travel.
At the sanctuary,
Mali would enjoy “acres to roam, rivers to bathe in, fresh vegetation to eat,
foraging opportunities, the company of many other elephants, and, of course,
the care of elephant experts 24 hours a day,” says Ms. Regodon.
Instead, Mali will
stay at the 54-year-old Manila Zoo, which is home to about 700 animals from 104
species. New elephants, under the plan, will be brought in for Mali from Sri
Lanka.
Dr. Donald
Manalastas, Manila Zoo’s resident zoologist, welcomes the plan, but adds,
“Mali’s living space should be improved first before accepting the additional
elephants.”
Experts are at odds
over what would be best for Mali.
World-renowned
elephant expert Dr. Henry Richardson gave Mali her first thorough check-up in
May of 2012, and concluded the only threat to her health is her confinement.
The long years of confinement have led to severe foot problems – the leading
cause of death among captive elephants.
In his published
report in November of last year, he
stated, ”I am absolutely certain Mali has pain in her front limbs and feet.
Elephants carry the majority of their weight on their front legs and so it is
expected that elephants living in ill-conceived, unimaginative, and abusive
environments like Mali’s at the Manila Zoo would suffer the most in their front
end.” Dr. Richardson has been involved in assisting with numerous elephant
moves.
Another expert said
she looks well cared.
Dr. Nikorn Thongtip
of Kasetsart University’s Department of Large Animal and Wildlife Clinical
Sciences came to Manila in June, at the request of the Department of
Environment and Natural Resource’s Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, to
check Mali and evaluate whether she was fit enough to move to Thailand.
Dr. Thongtip said a
more thorough examination would be needed before a decision could be made about
moving Mali.
“She looked healthy
…. The color of the mouth is pink. It’s a good color. And her skin is healthy,
no wound. From her blood profiles and external signs, I have not found
remarkable abnormal signs. She only needs to slim down,” Dr. Thongtip said in
an email to The Wall Street Journal.
But Heinrich
Domingo, the senior veterinarian at the Manila Zoo, has his doubts that Mali
could survive a journey to Thailand. Noting the lifespan of an elephant in
captivity is 42 years, Mali, at 39, is
an old lady. (Asian elephants in the
wild can live up to 80 years.) A trip to Thailand would put her under a lot of
stress — she would be placed in a crate, loaded on a plane and quarantined, Mr.
Domingo said.
“If Mali left the
country, there is a big chance that she will not reach Thailand safely,” Mr.
Domingo said.
Another question
remains.
Now that it looks to
be decided that she is staying in Manila, after not seeing another elephant in
33 years, does Mali even want elephant friends?
If the plan to add
two more elephants pushes through, the next step would be to determine whether
or not Mali will get along with them.
“The two additional
elephants will be temporarily placed inside a vacant horse pen if Mali would be
uncomfortable with them,” Dr. Manalastas said.
Regardless of how
she feels about fellow elephants, she has many human friends. British pop star
Steven Patrick Morrissey, 2003 Nobel laureate in literature J.M. Coetzee and
animal welfare campaigner Jane Goodall all wrote letters to the Philippine
government asking for Mali to be transferred.
And Noel Co, Mali’s
caretaker for nine years, s
World’s oldest penguin reaches 36
MISSY the penguin
has waddled forward to claim the crown as the oldest in the world after
reaching 36 years old – a staggering 108 in human years.
King penguin Missy
arrived at the Birdland wildlife park in Gloucestershire when she was at least
five years old in 1982. And despite losing the vision in one eye she is still
the leader of the colony today.
Despite her age her
keepers had no idea that she was the world’s oldest until a zoo in Denmark
claimed the title with a Gentoo penguin two years younger than Missy. Staff at
the park in Bourton-on-the-Water are now planning to send her details to
Guinness World Records to prove her claim to the title.
King penguins –
Aptenodytes patagonicus in Latin – are only expected to live up to 26 years in
captivity, much more than their 15-20 years life expectancy in the wild.
Missy spends most of
her time with her partner of 18 years, Seth, who is thought to be 34 years old
and had a starring role in the 1992 film Batman Returns.
Simon Blackwell,
park manager, said: “The Danish zoo recently announced they believed that a
Gentoo penguin there was the world’s oldest living penguin having reached the
age of 34 in May.
Although we cannot
categorically age Missy we do know she was an adult when she came to Birdland
and king penguins take five years to become fully mature.
“Therefore she must
be, at the very least, 36 and she could
Tiger Farms
South Africa’s trophy hunt industry linked to rhino
horn trafficking … AGAIN
The July 2013
seizure of 24 rhino horns and arrest of 16 suspects in the Czech Republic
points yet again to South Africa’s failure to properly monitor its own trophy
hunt industry.
The “hunters” were
said to have been hired by an “international criminal gang” to legally kill
rhinos in South Africa. This is in order to use the CITES permit loophole which
allows for the import of “legally” sourced rhino horns into the Czech Republic.
Customs officials at Prague’s Václav Havel International Airport became
suspicious and contacted the police, according to Radio Prague. Although no
names were released due to the ongoing investigation, among those arrested were
Czech as well as foreign nationals. The operation was conducted in conjunction
with
INTERPOL.
South Africa’s
trophy hunt industry has been at the center of rhino horn trafficking for quite
some time. The first Vietnamese “pseudo-hunt” apparently took place in 2003,
and in November 2009, the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC warned in
its report ahead of CITES CoP15 that these bogus hunts had already been taking
place on “the same game ranches repeatedly”.
Meanwhile, several
professional hunters were arrested more than once between 2006 and 2010
forrhino crimes:
Professional hunter
Peter Thormahlen was hit with a “token fine” in 2006 for illegally hunting a
rhino (on behalf of a Vietnamese client), before he was brought to court again
two years later on identical charges. It is worth noting that Thormahlen’s rhino
hunts have frequently taken place on Mauricedale Game Reserve.
Professional hunter
Christaan van Wyk had already been twice convicted of rhino horn offenses when
he was found guilty of illegally hunting a rhino (also on behalf of his
Vietnamese client) in 2010.
Prior to the 2011
arrest of professional hunter and game farmer Hugo Ras for unlawful possession
of scheduled veterinary drugs and an unlicensed firearm, he had thrice been
fined for assault and “crimen injuria” convictions, as well as for contravening
conservation and customs laws.
Suspected syndicate
mastermind Dawie Groenewald’s criminal history is remarkably extensive
—including a long list of international complaints, lawsuits, and criminal
allegations and convictions — and far pre-dates his 2010 rhino-related arrest.
Among other things, he was terminated from his job as a police officer for
involvement in an organized crime ring that was smuggling stolen cars into
Zimbabwe and also has a felony conviction in the US for unlawfully
12 years until elephants are all wiped out as one dies
every 15 minutes
12 years until
elephants are all wiped out
Elephants could be
extinct within 12 years because poachers are killing one every 15 minutes, a
charity warns.
About 36,000 of them
were slaughtered last year in Africa, the Kenya-based David Sheldrick Wildlife
Trust claims in a report today.
‘A world without
elephants is hard to comprehend but it is a real possibility,’ said Dame Daphne
Sheldrick.
‘Elephants have
walked the earth for 50million years but against a sub-machine gun or poacher
armed with a spear, they stand little chance.’
The 4.5 tonnes of
ivory seized in Hong Kong last month was a tiny fraction of the amount smuggled
each year, says the trust which rescues and rears orphaned elephants.
Only about a tenth
of the tusks transported are detected by customs officials, the charity
estimates.
In Kenya so far this
year, 162 elephants out of a population of about 35,000 have been killed, it
adds in the report timed to coincide with World Elephant Day.
Dame Daphne, who
said the trade put money in the hands of criminal gangs and terrorists, called
for a ban on dealing in ivory of any kind, including antiques.
‘Buying ivory only
serves to fuel a trade which results in more senseless deaths of these
beautiful animals,’ she said. ‘We can’t let man-made extinction be the end of
this iconic species.’
About a third of all
ivory seizures worldwide are made in Europe, with Britain, Belgium, France and
Portugal acting as transit routes, the trust says.
London is a ‘major
hub’ for the illegal ivory trade, it claims.It will protest against the trade
by staging an i
Judge rules SeaWorld made good faith effort to protect
trainers
SeaWorld scores
significant legal victory in ongoing battle with OSHA
An administrative
law judge has ruled that SeaWorld has made a good faith effort to protect its
trainers from the dangers posed by working with killer whales.
The judge also
indicated that SeaWorld has more expertise than the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration in determining how close trainers can safely work
alongside killer whales.
However, OSHA
investigators still have concerns the marine park is jeopardizing the safety of
its employees.
Following the 2010
death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was drowned by a killer whale
named Tilikum, OSHA issued citations against SeaWorld and ordered the company
to take steps to better protect its employees. Last summer, Judge Kenneth
Welsch ordered the company to pay a $12,000 fine and abate the hazards. OSHA
recommended that trainers be kept behind barriers or remain a safe distance
away from killer whales during show
Close call for zoo worker bitten by Russell viper
hatchling
In what could be
considered exuberance or sheer carelessness, a 60 plus man working at the
corporation zoo for nearly two decades came close to death after a Russell
viper hatchling bit him on the base of his left hand index finger on Monday
afternoon. A Russell viper snake at the Corporation Zoo here in the city had 22
hatchlings today and it was one of these hatchlings that decided to bite
Singaraj's finger. The incident occurred when Singaraj was showcasing the batch
of hatchlings, as per instructions of zoo director K Asokan, to be photographed
and passed on to local media houses for publication.
"He is an
experienced man and has been handling snakes for more than 20 years. I asked
him if he wants any medication but he said he was fine. We have gloves and
tongs to handle snakes but these workers do not use them," said K Asokan.
TOI tracked down
Singaraj outside his residence in Nagarajapuram with his swollen left hand.
Narrating the sequence of events, Singaraj told us that he was holding the
hatchlings in his palm when one of them bit him close to the base of his index
f
Kangaroo meat issue not about contamination or quality
THE kangaroo meat
trade has suffered another blow, with Russian authorities questioning an export
bungle that threatens the $180 million industry.
Australian exports
of kangaroo meat to a region that includes Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are a
sensitive issue after the market was closed in 2009 following lobbying by
Animal Liberation.
The Russian
quarantine authority Rosselkhoznadzor partially lifted the ban in December,
granting sole access to South Australian processor Macro Meats.
Yesterday, animal
rights group Voiceless claimed Russia had reinstated the ban after the
discovery of unauthorised shipments. It quoted news agency RIA Novosti as
reporting Rosselkhoznadzor had acted after seizing an 18.6-tonne shipment.
"Rosselkhoznadzor
notified Australia's veterinary service of the necessity to suspend
certification of Macro Investments products for the market of the Customs union
states," the authority reportedly said in a statement. But the Department
of Agri
UAE conservation fund helps hundreds of endangered
species
Almost 200
endangered species benefited from grants worth Dh5.5 million from the Mohammed
bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund in 2012.
The fund supported
250 projects in 75 countries during the year, contributing to the survival of
185 endangered species - 101 of which are critically endangered - and 27 other
species.
Among the species
the fund helped to preserve is Morocco's Bald Ibis, a bird classed as
critically endangered.
According to the
fund's annual report, six Arab countries received funding for conservation
projects in 2012.
Almost half the
fund's grants, 43 per cent, were allocated to projects in Asia, 27 per cent in
Africa, 15 per cent in South America, 9 per cent in North America, 4 per cent
in Europe and 2 per cent in Oceania.
In terms of species,
41 per cent of the funding went to mammals, 16 per cent to birds, 12 per cent
to reptiles, 8 per cent to plants, 8 per cent each to fish and amphibians, 5
per cent to invertebrates and 2 per cent to fungi.
In addition to
supporting endangered species, the fund, chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed,
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces,
also helps species that are as yet unclassified or insufficiently documented.
Since its est
Zoo animals recover after Ivory Coast civil war
During Ivory Coast's
civil war in 2011, Abidjan's only zoo fell into disrepair and many animals
died. Now, the facility is getting a makeover, and wants to become a center for
conservation excellence in West Africa.
Ivory Coast's zoo -
in the heart of the country's biggest city, Abidjan - almost ceased to exist
during the country's 2011 civil war. During the conflict, which killed at least
3,000 people, more than a quarter of the animals at the zoo died of starvation.
Violence that
erupted after the 2010 presidential elections turned parts of the city into
no-go areas. Fearing for their lives, people stayed indoors, and food wasn't
delivered to the zoo for months. Those animals who could survive on vegetation
grew painfully thin. Others, including a pack of lions, starved to death.
Cages became filthy,
with many animals living in their own feces. In the stifling heat, infections
and disease spread easily. Zookeepers ran out of funding, and those that
ventured onto the site could do little more than watch the animals starve.
"For human
beings, it is difficult, but for animals, it's worse," said head zookeeper
Lama Tia. "I can run away, but where will the animals go?"
He described the
violence which consumed the city, making it impossible for zookeepers to care
for the caged creatures. "Thank God no wardens were killed or shot,"
Tia recalled. "There was fighting right in front of the zoo."
Rotting cages
Abidjan Zoo opened
in 1930, but years of neglect during the past decade of instability, along with
two civil wars, have taken their toll. Cages became outdated and some of th
Zoo acquires rare white lion from South Africa
The Hodonin zoo is
the first in the Czech Republic to acquire a South African lion, a rare species
widely dubbed "white lion" for its fur of a butter colour, the zoo
spokeswoman Bohuna Mikulicova told CTK yesterday.
The zoo gained the
seven-month-old male lion from the Lory Park, South Africa, in exchange for
other animals.
Now it plans to
acquire a female to form a couple.
"We want to
secure a female either from Ukraine's Belogorsk zoo, which specialises in
breeding South African lions, or from Yalta," Hodonin zoo director Martin
Krug said.
Besides its light
colour of fur, the South African lion
Chile investigates condor deaths
Health authorities
are trying to find out what poisoned at least 20 condors in the Andes mountain
range between Chile and Argentina.
The huge endangered
birds, with a wingspan of up to 3m, were found near the town of Los Andes,
about 80km east of the Chilean capital, Santiago.
The authorities say
two birds died, but 18 are recovering at a clinic.
Mauricio Fabry,
director of Metropolitan Zoo, told re
'Slow loris tickling' video points to online peril for
endangered species
Study follows arc of
public opinion as awareness grew of pygmy slow loris's endangered status and
lethal properties
New research
suggests that viral videos can have a devastating effect on the populations of
endangered species and that a mechanism is urgently needed to report images of
them online.
Picture the scene:
people clustered around a computer screen, cooing over the latest cute
baby-animal video. A grinning, umbrella-toting slow loris is entrancing them
and the video views pile up.
But the work of
Professor Anne Nekaris points to a darker side to this internet fame, as it has
led to slow lorises, an endangered species, being targeted by vendors
exploiting the public perception of the species as the ideal pets – despite
their being potentially lethal to humans.
The primates are
transported miles from their original homes in China, Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia, to be sold for as little as £10.
Nekaris's study is
based on a video of a pygmy slow loris called Sonya, uploaded in 2009, two
years after the species was designated as endangered by the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).
Nekaris and her researchers analysed user interaction with the video, noting
how perceptions of slow lorises changed in response to media coverage and the
awareness campaigns of wildlife pressure groups.
They collected data
from a 33-month period, examining trends within the 12,411 comments posted.
What the scientists found was encouraging: toward the end of the comment thread
the desire among users to own the animals as pets decreased sharply. The data in
the study suggested that by February 2012 more viewers were aware that slow
lorises are poisonous.
The proportion
increased when a related article appeared in the Daily Mail after the study was
concluded. Graphs report a dramatic spike in comments after the BBC br
From bats to tigers, zoos lead the fight against
extinction
ONE of the most
powerful predators on Earth and a bat that loves figs are among the top 10
mammals beating extinction thanks to zoos around the British Isles, it was
claimed yesterday.
The critically
endangered Sumatran tiger – of which fewer than 400 remain in the wild – is
being helped by an international breeding programme, said the British and Irish
Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
The endangered
Livingstone’s fruit bat, from the Comoros Islands, is being helped by the
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust on Jersey and by Bristol and Chester zoos.
Others include the
scimitar-horned oryx, Peru’s San Martin titi monkey and Madagascar’s blue-eyed
black lemur.
Western lowland
gorillas are being helped by zoos including Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in
Kent which has released 21 into rainforest.
The Case for Closing Every American Zoo
In a surprising
announcement last week, Costa Rica will be closing down two of its most popular
zoos by next year, with hopes to bring the country to a new environmental
standpoint: "No cages." The Simon Bolivar Zoo and the Santa Ana
Conservation Center will become a botanical garden and a park, respectively,
with the animals either released into the wild or sent to rescue facilities and
wildlife reserves. The administration hopes to close all public zoos under this
new guidance. The decision is already fraught with controversy in Costa Rica —
legal, economic, environmental, and political issues are all playing parts.
The event brings a
new question into the U.S. as well: Should America close its zoos?
Absolutely.
Costa Rica's
decision is bold and inspiring: their new environmental creed of 'No cages' is
one that people around the world ought to listen to. Wild animals belong in the
wild, and anything less is not enough.
The U.S. is home to
over 200 zoos recognized by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), and
has some of the most famous in the world, including the San Diego Zoo, the
Columbus Zoo and even Disney's Animal Kingdom. Each and every one of these
facilities has been credited with priceless benefits: wildlife conservation,
public education, breeding programs, family values, animal rehabilitation, and
more. Most of all, these zoos provide visitors with the chance to personally
experience and connect with animals, in a way that they cannot through
documentaries and literature. Each trip to the zoo can inspire a new generation
of animal lovers. Without this tangible
connection, how can advocates and environmentalists fight for the safety and
health of these animals?
Easily, that's how.
Wild animals are cha
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