Zoo News Digest 28th September - 9th October 2013 (ZooNews 876)
New Elephant Calf at Albuquerque Zoo
Dear Colleagues,
It has been a busy week and I have been away from my computer. Traveling on two days and my sons wedding taking up the best part of three others. I have a ton of emails to catch up on so I will forego most comments this week. Lots of news of interest though. See the links below.
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Dolphin killing town in The Cove to open a marine park
- and continue annual slaughter
Taiji will continue
to hunt small whales and dolphins despite project
A Japanese town that
became synonymous with the killing of dolphins after it was the subject of an
Oscar-winning documentary on the controversial practise is to open a marine
park that will allow visitors to swim with the animals.
The town of Taiji,
in the Higashimuro District, continues to hunt for small whales and dolphins
after commercial whaling was suspended in 1988.
The town was the
subject of the 2009 documentary The Cove, which examined Japan’s infamous
dolphin hunting culture and the controversial dolphin hunt that takes place in
the town between September and April annually. The film won the Academy Award
for Best Documentary the following year.
Organisers in Taiji
have now begun preparing proposals that would see a part of the cove sectioned
off to create a marine park, offering visitors the opportunity to swim
alongside dolphins and whales, Masaki Wada, a local government official told
AFP.
Once built, the
marine park would span 69 acres and could be open within the next five years
under current proposals. It would be located within close proximity of
Hatakejiri Bay, where Taiji fishermen regularly corral dolphins into nets
before slaughtering them.
Black whales and
bottlenose dolphins captured in nearby waters would be released into a pool
that would eventually be developed into a nature park for tourists.
“We already use
dolphins and small whales as a source of tourism in the cove where
dolphin-hunting takes place,” Wada said.
“In summer, swimmers
can
Huge legal fees push former Zion operator into
bankruptcy
Former Zion Wildlife
Gardens operator Patricia Busch has been declared bankrupt after she failed to
pay more than $171,000 in legal fees.
Associate High Court
Judge Roger Bell made the order on September 26 after a hearing in Whangarei
early last week in which Mrs Busch participated by telephone.
The District Court
last year ordered her to pay $171,866 in legal fees, plus costs, to Whangarei
law firm Henderson Reeves Connell Rishworth for legal work carried out between
August 2008 and August 2010.
Ms Busch appealed
against the District Court decision in the High Court but lost.
She argued that when
she signed an agreement for Henderson Reeves to represent her, she did so on
the understanding that the firm was representing her then-company Zion Wildlife
Gardens and not her personally.
All the lawyers'
bills, she said, were paid for by her company Zion Wildlife Gardens and she did
not have the money to pay
World’s zoos battle threat to their penguins
Zoos all around the
world love penguins. They’re cute, they don’t require much space, they never
eat zookeepers. And children adore watching them, especially at feeding time.
But as carefree as
they might look, torpedoing through the water or rocketing into the air like a
Poseidon missile, zoo penguins are stalked by an unrelenting killer: malaria.
“It’s probably the
top cause of mortality for penguins exposed outdoors," said Dr. Allison
Wack, a veterinarian at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, which is building a new
exhibit that will double its flock to a hundred birds. If left untreated, the disease
would probably kill at least half the birds it infected, though outbreaks vary
widely in intensity.
The avian version is
not a threat to humans because mosquitoes carrying malaria and the parasites
are species-specific; mosquitoes that bite birds or reptiles tend not to bite
mammals, said Dr. Paul Calle, chief veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation
Society, which runs New York City’s zoos. And avian malaria is caused by
strains of the Plasmodium parasite that do not infect humans.
But for penguins in
captivity, the threat is so great that many zoos dose their birds in summer
with pills for malaria, said Dr. Richard Feachem, director of global health at
the University of California, San Francisco.
Last year, six
Humboldt penguins in the London Zoo died of malaria.
London is also where
the first case of penguin malaria was diagnosed almost a century ago; it was
found in a King penguin in 1926.
Since then, there
have been many outbreaks of avian malaria, including at zoos in Baltimore,
South Korea, Vienna and Washington, D.C.
The last major
American one was at the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines during the hot, wet summer
of 1986. From May to September of that year, 38 of the 46 Magellanic penguins
the zoo had just imported from Chile succumbed.
They died despite
the efforts of the National Animal Disease Center in nearby Ames, Iowa.
Veterinarians made the correct diagnosis from symptoms even though parasites
were not found in blood samples until late in the outbreak. The birds died
despite being put on a two-drug prophylactic cocktail of the sort that a
tourist to Africa might take.
While human malaria
Keeper Error Strikes Again
I have lost count of
the number of keepers who have been killed or injured by Big Cats during 2013.
It is a lot. Though entering an enclosure with a big cat is always 'an accident
waiting to happen' so too is letting your attention waver or misjudging a situation
from the outside of a cage.
The latest victim of
keeper error was a female employee of the Garold Wayne Interactive Zoological
Park (G.W. Exotic Animal Park) which is owned by Joe Schreibvogel....the
infamous 'Joe Exotic' who keeps and breeds Ligers and White Tigers. The
collection has a very bad reputation.
The 20+ year old
keeper had apparently placed her arm into the cage to work on a lock on a
divider and was unable to extract it fast enough before she was grabbed by the
tiger. Her arm was very badly mauled but it appears at this stage not to be
permanently damaged. Details are scant. Some newsline headers
911 call released on tiger attack at GW Exotic Animal
Park
Authorities released
the 911 call from GW Exotic Animal Park after one of it’s employees was
attacked by a tiger they were caring for. Below you can listen to that 911
call:
More Bullshit:
Orangutan And Dog: A Love Story
And
The insane world we live in:
School book-banning
becoming excessive
"The children’s
book “And Tango Makes Three” written by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson is
another book that was challenged. The book takes place in New York’s Central
Park Zoo where two male penguins decide to make a nest together. When zookeepers
see that they have become a couple, they give them an egg, which came from a
male and female penguin couple. The penguins hatch the egg successfully and
have a baby penguin together."
WAZA Launches New Online Professional Development
Center
ROCHESTER, N.Y /
Gland, Switzerland - Oct. 07, 2013 - The World Association of Zoos and
Aquariums (WAZA) has launched its Online Professional Development Center (OPDC)
as a service to its members. The initiative expands member expertise in the
zoological field and furthers the excellence of animal care.
In collaboration
with learning management system developer CypherWorx and subject-matter experts
from San Diego Zoo Global Academy, WAZA is able to provide users with an
interactive online learning environment that offers more than 300 self-directed
courses and recorded webinars.
By offering the
OPDC, WAZA teamed with zoological professionals from top institutions including
San Diego Zoo Global, Birmingham Zoo, Lowry Park Zoo, National Zoo, Reid Park
Zoo and Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. This network of experts allowed WAZA
to offer courses with a broad applicability to animal care, human resources,
horticulture, zoo operations and leadership training.
The content of each
course was developed to support four core learning concepts: Expertise,
Engagement, Excellence and Evolution. These fundamental qualities create a
learning environment in which users can expand their knowledge of the field,
gain confidence in learned material to ensure work performance accuracy as well
as strengthen the zoological profession as a whole within the OPDC learning
community.
To support the
technology and services needed to launch OPDC, WAZA used CypherWorx's
CollaborNation® Collaborative Learning Environment platform to create an online
learning space. This community-based web
system can allow members to communicate, spread ideas, discuss topics and
expand their knowledge about the field of animal-care.
"Our mission is
to provide zoological professionals throughout the world with a learning
resource to ensure keeper safety, animal health and welfare, enjoyment and
safety of guests, and conservation," says Steve Stookey, chief operations
officer at CypherWorx. "We are proud of our collaborative efforts in
helping zoos and aquariums achieve these goals, and the mission continues as we
add new educational online courses and webinars to share knowledge across the
globe."
"E-Learning is
the most convenient way of improving skills - people can do courses whenever
they have time and with the new WAZA
Online Professional Development Center, vets, zoologists, keepers and
other related professionals are offered a great selection of online training
courses for a very reasonable price, WAZA members benefit! I am grateful to San
Diego Zoo Global and Cypherworx for the wonderful cooperation which made this
unique offer possible", says Dr Gerald Dick, WAZA Executive Director.
About CypherWorx
Founded in 2007,
CypherWorx develops comprehensive eLearning solutions for membership
associations, non-profit organizations and small business providers using a
unique, collaborative business model that has won praise for its effectiveness
and accessibility. Services range from course development to learning
management system (LMS) integration under the NP Training WorksTM and
CollaborNation brands. For more information, visit www.cypherworx.com.
About The World
Association of Zoos and Aquariums
The World
Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) is a global organisation that
harmonises the principles, policies, practices and strategy for zoos and
aquariums worldwide. Via regional associations WAZA reaches over 1,300 leading
zoos and aquariums. WAZA is the unifying representative of the global zoo and
aquarium community and works in partnership with international conservation
organisations such as IUCN and
non-government organisations to ensure high standards of animal welfare and to
achieve conservation in zoos and aquariums (ex situ) and in nature (in situ).
WAZA Facts and
Figures
Attracting more than
700 million visitors a year, the world's 1,300 leading zoos and aquariums have
a unique potential to attract, inspire and mobilise mass public engagement for
species and habitat conservation. By making a direct connection between people
and wildlife, zoos and aquariums educate the public on biodiversity
conservation, human welfare, livelihoods and poverty alleviation and hence
promote environmentally sustainable development and social and political
change. The additional funding produced from entrance tickets to zoos and
aquariums is spent on conservation projects around the world, creating major
conservation implementation and funding agencies. Collectively, this can match
or surpass the contributions of some other leading global conservation
organisations.
With 70% of the
world's population living in cities by 2030, zoos and aquariums offer a vital
connection to the importance of biodiversity in our lives.
About San Diego Zoo
Global Academy
San Diego Zoo Global
Academy is a powerful online learning platform that harnesses the expertise of
San Diego Zoo Global and its partners to offer courses that meet the specific
needs of individuals in the zoological profession. For more information, visit www.sdzglobalacademy.org.
Ringling Bros. shows off elephant conservation center
West Africa's newest zoo reopens its doors in Mali capital
Revamped Bamako zoo,
whose residents include a baby elephant, baboons and a panther, hopes to do a
roaring trade
Mali's national zoo
reopened with little fanfare after two years of renovation. The facility
provides visitors with a refuge from the traffic-ridden streets of the
sprawling capital, Bamako, filled with cheap motorbikes imported from
Indonesia, and where pavements and roadsides are brimming with small traders.
The six-hectare zoo
– small compared with European counterparts – is home to three lions, a small
elephant and baboons among the 100 animal species, which also includes 12
breeds of birds, such as white egrets and ostriches, and 58 varieties of fish.
The zoo sits outside the city, on a hillside next to the national park, which
has also recently received a facelift. The building is opposite what Malians
call the colline du pouvoir – the hill of power. It gets its name from the
gleaming white presidential residence on top.
On a recent morning,
a few families me
Zoo Revolution explores ethical debate about zoos
Doc Zone season
premiere hopes to 'open people's eyes'
When filmmaker Geoff
D’Eon was a boy in England in the late 1950s, his parents took him to the
London Zoo to see the “Chimpanzee’s tea party.”
“They would dress
the chimps in bowler hats and waistcoats and frocks and dresses, and they would
put cups of tea and little cakes on the table and the chimps would play havoc
and we’d roar with laughter and that was a form of entertainment and nobody saw
anything wrong with it,” he recalled. “And then we would ride the elephants,
not just look at them.”
D’Eon is the writer
and director of Zoo Revolution, produced by Dream Street Pictures in
association with CBC Television. It aired Thursday on the season premiere of
Doc Zone.
Watch the trailer
for Zoo Revolution
D'Eon admits that
when he was first asked to do a film about zoos, he was unaware of the “raging
debate” over zoos and whether they do more harm or more good.
“Like anyone else,
I’m opposed to cruelty to animals and I react badly. But for the most part,
that’s not what I saw when I visited zoos,” D’Eon said in an interview.
That was before he
started calling zoos and asking to film them and interview their staff.
Aquariums refused to
participate
Many refused,
including every single aquarium he contacted and the London Zoo, which he
really wanted to include.
“The hardest part of making the film probably
was not getting the access to all the places we wanted to go,” he said.
But he noted that
zoos are a huge industry that attracts 700 million visitors a year worldwide.
“There’s more people
in North America that go to zoos than go to all the major sport franchises
combined. So you’re dealing with an industry which is very conscious of its
image and is very protective of its image.”
In the end, D’Eon
managed to visit about a dozen zoos, from large city zoos to unaccredited
roadside attractions.
Some, such as Zoos
Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, were welcoming and proud of their work, which
they believe is helping the public develop a connection with animals and builds
support for conservation efforts.
Canadian zoos, D’Eon
said, were “open to us visiting, with more hesitation.” The Toronto Zoo refused
to talk at all about its elephants, which are slated to be sent to a sanctuary
in California, after animal rights groups voiced concerns about the animals’
welfare.
D’Eon didn’t even
tryl to interview the owners of the roadside zoos, which prohibited
photography. Instead, he and hi
Sturgeon conservation centre on schedule
The science facility
being built to save the Nechako White Sturgeon from extinction is halfway to
completion.
The Vanderhoof
conservation centre is on schedule to open in spring, said officials on
Tuesday. It is one of the key components to a "multi-pronged recovery
plan" said Brian Frenkel, chair of the Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery
Initiative's community working group.
"We are pleased
with the progress of the facility and I’m very excited that this coming spring
the conservation centre staff will be capturing brood stock - mature male and
females - and raising the group of young sturgeon.”
Along with the
hatchery component, the conservation plan also includes a research component
that, said Frenkel, "aims to identify and remove survival bottlenecks for
wild sturgeon and improve the health of the Nechako watershed for sturgeon and
other species."
The construction and
operation of the conservation centre is the responsibility Freshwater Fisheries
Society of BC, a private, non-profit fisheries organization. That
organization's facilities manager, Cory Williamson, said “I am excited to see
this project well on its way. Not only will the new facility produce young
sturgeon to rebuild the population, it will serve as a centre for white
sturgeon research in the north.”
The rare and
mysterious fish likely cannot be saved by this facility alone, Frenkel added.
The spawning habitat needs to be kept in good health and that requires
commercial, industrial and public sides to all work together.
“While the sturgeon
conservation centre is a key component of
China’s rarest seabird benefits from colony
restoration
Until this year,
there were only two known breeding colonies of the Critically EndangeredChinese
Crested Tern Sterna bernsteini: the Mazu Islands off the coast of Fujian, and
the Wuzhishan Islands off Zhejiang.
However, this summer
an innovative tern colony restoration project has apparently established
another.
Earlier this year, a
small island called Tiedun Dao in the Jiushan Islands – an archipelago where
Chinese Crested Terns used to breed – was chosen for colony restoration. The
restoration team expected it would take some years before there was any hope of
attracting the birds back. Their plan was to use decoys and playback tern calls
to initially attract Great Crested Terns Sterna bergii to Tiedun Dao. It was
hoped that the Great Crested Terns would initially colonise the island, their
numbers would then gradually grow, and that Chinese Crested Terns, which have
always been found
Goodbye Toronto Zoo elephants. We’re sorry.
Last Monday, I went
to see Toronto Zoo’s three aging African elephants who are about to leave for a
new home in California—if they survive the 60-hour journey. In the late
afternoon sun, the elephants were outdoors walking slowly around their barren
enclosure, lifting each foot gently as if trying out new shoes. Thika, 33, the
youngest, was captive-born at the Toronto Zoo. Hard to imagine 33 years of life
in so small and empty a space, awakening each day to so repetitive a journey.
Occasionally they looked at the spectators, eyelashes blinking in the sun. They
engaged with me for just one moment and then turned away.
After the deaths of
four elephants at the zoo in a space of four years, city council voted in 2011
to close down the elephant exhibit. They might have voted to allocate more
funds for the zoo for better enclosures, but even in so wealthy a city as
Toronto, with $20-million-plus condos and Lamborghinis all over the place,
money and private donors couldn’t be found. The zoo’s 2014 budget has zero
increases for operational costs plus cuts in maintenance. Wrangling over the
elephants has gone on for years and now it all ends with Iringa, 44, Toka, 43,
and “baby” Thika being trained to enter crates in which they will be tethered
for a road trip that may kill them. Flying would have been better and there is
still a chance that the Department of National Defence will relent and allow a
plane to be used (not at taxpayers’ expense—The Price is Right celeb Bob
Barker, an elephant saviour, has offered to contribute up to almost a million
dollars for the journey) but there are only days left.
Zoos exist for a
variety of reasons: conservation and research—although captive behaviour is
unlikely to mirror life in the wild. Sometimes they serve political purposes:
China’s giant pandas now on loan at the Toronto Zoo are a useful stage in our
trade negotiations. The essential purpose of a zoo though is to allow us to see
animals we would never encounter: a live Sumatran tiger of fantastic beauty or
a rhino mud bathing. Zoos don’t exist for animals but for people—except
possibly when people have encroached on habitat for human survival at the
expense of driving a species to extinction. It’s a separate issue that a
rapacious Asian demand for ivory is creating such terrible killing f
Tom Kaplan: Billionaire King Of Cats
Thomas Kaplan, a
slim, red-headed 50-year-old mining investor, sits in a midtown Manhattan
office, staring at me with his intense hazel eyes. He is speaking slowly and
deliberately–he doesn’t want me to miss a thing–about his abiding passion:
saving endangered big cats and snakes, animal species that he considers to be
as precious as the gold and silver that have made him a billionaire (his
estimated net worth: $1.3 billion). Kaplan describes a love affair with these
animals that began early on. As a child growing up in Fort Lauderdale, instead
of playing football or baseball, he tracked bobcats for fun. He recalls one day
when a girl from his neighborhood called him in a panic. A crowd of kids had
cornered a large bluish-colored snake in a barn, and they were trying to kill
it. Kaplan sprinted to the scene, picked up the snake and casually placed it
around his neck. Then he took it home.
The snake was an
Eastern Indigo, North America’s largest native snake, which reaches lengths of
up to 10 feet. “They are quite voracious,” says Kaplan, fondly. “Their favorite
snack is rattlesnake.” They are also in serious trouble, listed as a threatened
species primarily because of habitat degradation
But Kaplan believes
he has the means and the will to change that through his Orianne Society, a
charity named after his daughter that fights to protect Eastern Indigo habitat
in the southeastern United States. It is the second such wildlife charity that Kaplan
has founded. The first, which launched in 2006, is Panthera, which aims to
protect another of Kaplan’s childhood passions, wildcats. “If you want psychic
gratification, one of the greatest ways is to know that you’ve made a real
contribution to saving a species from blinking out during your lifetime,” he
says.
He’s put his money
where his mouth is. Over the past five years Kaplan and his wife, Daphne, have
given more than $75 million to the causes of threatened big cats and snakes.
His mission now, he says, is to bring others into the fold. As an enticement, he
pays 100% of administrative costs for the two charities, which means every
donor dollar goes directly to the field. “It’s completely inclusive. It’s not
about, ‘This is my domain,’” he says. “My role is to create something that
gathers momentum and is really welcoming to people who share this passion.”
Public support has been steadily growing, but the Kaplans still do the lion’s
share of the funding: half of the $10.5 million budget for Panthera, and
two-thirds of the $2 million for the Orianne Society.
The Oxford-educated
Kaplan, who made his hay on investment bets on silver, platinum and gold mining
(he’s been called “the gold evangelist”), says he never intended to found
conservation organizations. He initially funded programs at the Wildlife
Conservation Society at the Bronx Zoo, focusing on big cats. But he soon
realized that more could be accomplished out in the field without the
bureaucracy of a big organization. So he poached Alan Rabinowitz, the world’s
leading big cat expert, and Luke Hunter, Rabinowitz’s number two, from the WCS
to found Panthera and monitor the world’s remaining big cat populations.
The first roadblock:
Rabinowitz didn’t have enough trained people for his staff. Kaplan’s response:
“We must mint them!” So he and Daphne created the Kaplan Graduate Awards for
big cat scholars and endowed WildCru, a graduate wildlife conservation management
program at Kaplan’s alma mater Oxford University. “We’
Great Apes Summit Delegates Issue Statement on Palm
Oil
The Great Apes
Summit, which brought together scientists, advocates, public policy experts,
media professionals, conservation leaders, range state officials and program
funders to discuss issues and propose solutions, was co-hosted by the Great
Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), the Arcus Foundation, and the Jackson Hole
Wildlife Film Festival.
We, the delegates to
the Great Apes Summit, gathered 21-24 September in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA,
and committed to the conservation of apes and their habitats, are concerned
that the rapid and under-regulated expansion of oil palm plantations across Asia
and Africa poses a significant danger to the long-term survival of all ape
species in the wild. We therefore issue a coordinated response that seeks to
protect priority forests and the apes they contain, including chimpanzees,
gorillas, bonobos, orangutans and gibbons, and seek to promote the use of
sustainably sourced palm oil through the following six action points:
1.Governments to
suspend any development of palm oil concessions until areas of High
Conservation Value (HCV) and High Carbon Stock (HCS) are identified, including
existing protected areas and areas off-limits due to national planning laws.
2.Governments to
cease any expansion of plantations into existing protected areas, and commit to
expanding protected area size and connectivity of forested areas through a
combination of a) enforcement of national laws, b) improved management
practices, c) participatory community engagement, and d) public exposure of
non-adherent companies.
3.Governments and
producers to develop rules for palm oil concessions that a) prevent
deforestation and promote use of previously non-forested land, b) improve
yields on existing plantations as opposed to expansion of land area, c)
discourage use of toxic pesticides, d) promote the human rights of the
workforce, and e) implementation of an accessible, transparent system of
reporting on these commitments through independent third-party auditing.
4.Purchasers,
processors, traders, and retailers to investigate and publicize current supply
chains and halt sourcing from companies that a) are involved in current
deforestation or new peatland development, b) not identifying and protecting
HCV and HCS areas in their concessions, c) involved in developments on
peatland, and d) breaking national environmental and conservation laws.
5.The Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to monitor existing Principles and Criteria (RSPO P
& C) and strengthen protocols, where necessary, to ensure that standards
are enforced in a transparent way and members are accountable for their actions,
with special attention to: a) no clearance of protected forests, HCV forests or
areas off-limits due to National Spatial Planning regulations, b) no clearance
of HCS forest, c) no clearance of peatlands or new planting on previously
cleared peatlands, d) consideration of existing ape population ranges prior to
development of concessions e) immediate public reporting and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, f) fixed time limits for members to certify
plantations and associated smallholders, and g) enforcement of current
standards.
6.Consumers
(companies and individuals) and financiers to a) immediately shift to
sustainably sourced palm oil and palm oil products, b) cease partnerships with,
and funding support for, suppliers that do not implement RSPO P&C, c)
commit to a clear timelines to transition certified palm oil sourcing to fully
segregated physical product, d) direct purchases to suppliers willing to go
beyond current RSPO standards, and e) commit to a zero deforestation policy
with clear targets and timelines.
We can strengthen
the palm oil regulatory processes and act together to halt the illegal or
under-regulated expansion of plantations that threatens ape species and their
habitats. Experts predict that by 2030 over 90 percent of ape habitat in Africa
and Asia will have been disturbed by the expansion of development projects, and
the palm oil industry represents a significant portion of that development.
Failure to act now will have serious consequences that could hasten the
extinction of chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons.
For more
information, please visit www.un-grasp.org
Activists blast 'animal safari' show
Animal rights
activists have expressed concerns about the welfare of wildlife featured at a
show at Seacon Square. The shopping mall's exotic animal show is entitled
"Seacon Pet Planet: The Safari" and...
Sex is matter of
life, then death for male marsupials
A new study suggests
that some species of marsupials mate with such vigour and intensity that it
quite literally kills them.
The scientists say
that males die in large numbers after mating with as many partners as possible
in sex sessions lasting up to 14 hours at a time.
A key factor in this
costly coitus is the promiscuous behaviour of females who all breed at the same
time of year.
The study is
published in the journal PNAS.
Suicidal
reproduction or semelparity is well known in many species of plants and fish
but is rare in mammals.
This new study looks
at the mating behaviour of 52 different species of small, insect eating
marsupials in Australia, South America and Papua New Guinea.
They found that in
some of these animals, such as the antechinus, the phascogale and the
dasykaluta, male attempts to father offspring cost them their lives.
Lust for life?
This
"dying-off" trait is more likely to be found in species living in
regions where food was plentiful in one period of the year.
This makes the
females of the species more likely to shorten their mating seasons so they only
give birth when there is plenty to eat.
The marsupials just
keep ramping it up more and more and are driven to spend all their time mating
competitively”
Ragunan Zoo: Not yet a world-class attraction
The city
administration offered Ragunan Zoo in South Jakarta the financial support it
needed to become a world-class tourist destination, but the offer was refused
by the management.
Governor Joko
“Jokowi” Widodo offered to disburse up to Rp 500 billion (US$45.5 million) for
the project, with the only requirement being a master plan that would be valid
for a century.
“The preparation to
make the blueprint and macro design for the zoo should start now. The
administration is ready to release the funds as long as there is a clear
program,” he said on the sidelines of the public dialogue at the zoo on
Tuesday.
The newly installed
zoo supervisor, business tycoon Hashim Djojohadikusumo, declined the offer,
saying that the blueprint could only be formulated next year.
“We can request
budget funds the following year, once we finish collecting public feedback,”
said the younger brother of Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) patron
Prabowo Subianto.
Zoo director
Marsawitri Gumay said that the zoo was in dire need of more funds to improve
infrastructure, such as animal enclosures.
Marsawitri said the
zoo needed at least Rp 50 billion to cover its annual operational costs. She
said it relied mainly on the city fund of Rp 33.5 billion and ticketing
revenue. The zoo, which welcomed 4.2 million visitors in 2012, hopes to reap Rp
28.5 billion from ticketing this year. The current amount collected this year
is Rp 20 billion as of this month.
On regular days, the
147-hectare zoo is visited by around 3,000 people, this number rises to 20,000
people on weekends and can reach 60,000 during school holidays. During peak
seasons, such as Idul Fitri, visitors can number over 140,000 each day.
“With such a tight
budget, we cannot make infrastructure improvements. Most of the enclosures need
to be replaced, not to mention street vendors who enter the zoo and littering
visitors,” Marsawitri said.
She told The Jakarta
Post that the zoo might need to build more attractions to bring in more money.
Hashim said the
zoo’s management planned to address 12 infrastructure projects, including
filtering dirty water from the 6.8 hectare lake, fixing the cinema, improving
electronic security devices and fence maintenance.
He said the zoo
management was deciding if it was feasible to increase the entrance fee, which
he said was the cheapest in the world.
“We need to study
the hike first. Rp 4,000 is than a pack of cigarettes and the ticket price
affects the facilities and employees’ welfare.”
Currently, weekday
tickets at Ragunan Zoo only cost Rp 4,000 for an adult and Rp 3,000 for
children. The prices are doubled on weekends and holidays. A ticket to Su
Ragunan Zoo
Zoo keeper raises money for endanger monkeys
Jodie Dryden, a zoo
keeper at Drusillas Park, has raised more than £1000 to help an endangered
species she looks after at the zoo in East Sussex.
She arranged a
charity quiz to raise funds for the critically endangered Sulawesi black
crested macaque.
Circus cancelled as Chinese stress animal welfare
A circus featuring
animal performances was cancelled after citizens called for a boycott and
tipped off authorities, which activists have billed as a victory for a growing
animal welfare movement in China.
The promotional
material for Jinan Animal Carnival Festival's suggested the shows would have
bears lying on their backs twirling flaming rods, tigers riding horses and a
monkey riding a goat.
Chinese regulations
ban animal performances, but animal rights activists estimate hundreds of shows
still take place each year. They say animals are kept in poor conditions and
trained under fear and stress to perform tricks.
A local Communist
Party-run newspaper, the Qilu Evening News, reported that citizens had
organized an online boycott of the nearly-three-week festival that was due to
open in late September and tipped off the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development, which has responsibility for zoo management. The paper said the
ministry issued an "urgent notice" for the festival not to go ahead
and that the organizers had refunded tickets.
The ministry refused
to comment on Wednesday. Some microbloggers on Sina Weibo objected to animals
being made to perform for people's pleasure and they noted the official ban.
The organizer, Jinan
Municipal Horticulture Greening Administration, and host, Jinan Quanche
First rhinos to ever set foot in Chile
At an estimated
US$29,480 per pound, rhinoceros horn demands a higher price on the black market
than gold. Lured by the exorbitant price, poachers killed a record number of
southern white rhinos this year, heightening fears that the near threatened
species will soon face extinction.
In an effort to
preserve the species, two young white rhinos were brought to Chile last month
to create a breeding program. The first rhinos ever to set foot on Chilean
soil, the rhinos, “Oliver” and “Hanna,”
were made available for public viewing at the Buin Zoological Park in the
Santiago Metropolitan Region on Saturday.
“This why we have a
male and female and hopefully they’ll be able to facilitate conservation
through a breeding program,” Francisco Córdova, veterinary sciences graduate
and educational tour guide at the Buin Zoo, told The Santiago Times.
“Our job is to keep
them in the best possible condition, keep them busy and in a good frame of mind
with a life that is very similar to the one that they have in the wild,” he
says. “We want them to be happy.”
Francisco goes on to
say that the wild is not always the best place for these animals, especially in
South Africa where the he said the problem of poaching is “terrible.”
Poachers in South
Africa — home to 83 percent of Africa’s rhinos and 73 percent of the world’s
rhinos — have already killed more rhinos
this year than any in the past and scientists say the death rate could start exceeding
the birth rate in just three years. In 2008 under two dozen rhinos were
reported poached in Southern Africa — that figure rocketed to 668 in 2012, and
the number is expected to tip 900 by the end of 2013.
Rhino poaching has
also caused human deaths as increasingly frequent shootouts are occurring
between poachers and security forces. S
World's largest aquarium: Palm Deira
Serious interest and
demand as salesmen are swamped with inquiries
Four islands already
built by Dubai-based Nakheel on Palm Deira project will be used to launch a new
mixed-use development.
Nakheel will build a
250-room hotel with one the islands being home to one of the world’s largest
aquariums.
The Deira project,
covering 1600 hectares, will be a waterfront destination, adding over 40
kilometres, including 21 kilometres of beachfront, to Dubai’s existing
coastline. The cost of the project was not disclosed.
“This project will
contribute significantly to the Government of Dubai’s tourism strategy. Nakheel
intends to offer special payment plans and incentives for hotels to develop on
these new islands,” Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said in a statement.
Three hectares have
been dedicated to hotels and resorts and 424 hectares for mixed-use
developments.
Nakheel will be
developing whole of the south island (called: Island A), building a creek side
destination which will be accessible by road bridges or abras running to and
from the mainland.
A night market
designed in the style of a Arabic souk will be built, having over 1,400 retail
units and restaurants with a number of anchor stores.
There will be an
amphitheatre with a capacity 30,000 people; a creek marina to accommodate large
yachts and a range of additional marinas offering mooring facilities directly
outside residences. The island will also have a number of waterfront plots for hotels,
resorts and serviced apartments.
The three remaining
islands will also feature hotels, resorts and residential, commercial and r
Sumatran Rhino Caught on Camera in East Kalimantan
Camera traps have
caught a glimpse of the elusive Sumatran rhino in the last place conservation
experts expected to look: the jungles of East Kalimantan, the World Wildlife
Fund-Indonesia announced on Wednesday.
“The team is
delighted to have secured the first known visual evidence of the Sumatran rhino
in Kalimantan,” the organization said in a press release.
The Borneo
subspecies of the Sumatran rhino was thought to be extinct in Indonesia. About
25 of the critically endangered rhinos may remain in Malaysia’s Sabah state,
according to WWF-Indonesia.
Conservation experts
first stumbled on footprints that looked suspiciously like rhino tracks during
a trek through the jungle to monitor orangutans in East Kalimantan.
WWF-Indonesia and district officials then set up sixteen camera traps in the
West Kutai district and waited.
It took three
months, but in late June officials caught first sight of the two-horned rhino.
A similar rhino appeared on camera on two other occasions — on June 30 and Aug.
3, WWF-Indonesia said. The animal was seen wallowing in the mud and wandering
through the shots in search of food.
It is unknown if the
footage is of one rhino or two, WWF-Indonesia said.
“This physical
evidence is very important, as it forms the basis to develop and implement more
comprehensive conservation efforts for the Indonesia
Socorro Dove Returns to Mexico for First Time in Over
40 Years
For the first time in four decades, the
critically endangered Socorro Dove has returned to its native country of
Mexico, thanks to a captive breeding program involving 33 organizations in 12
countries.
The Socorro Dove was
endemic to Socorro Island on the Revillagigedo Archipelago, approximately 400
miles southwest of the west Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta. The last record of
the species in its natural habitat dates from 1972. Introduced mammals likely
drove it to extinction through predation and habitat destruction.
Mexico’s role in the
conservation breeding program was ramped up earlier this year when six Socorro
Doves were moved from facilities at New Mexico’s Albuquerque BioPark to Africam
Safari, located near Mexico City. Today, facilities in Europe, the United States,
and now Mexico breed Socorro Doves in their aviaries as part of the globally
managed breeding program. Altogether, there are approximately 70 doves in
Europe, 37 in the U.S., and six in Mexico.
In recognition of
the effort, an official ceremony was held in September at Africam Safari zoo in
the city of Valsequillo, Puebla, Mexico. The ceremony was attended by the
coordinating team of the Socorro Dove Project, members of the conservation
community, and representatives of Mexico's ministries of the interior (SEGOB),
the environment (SEMARNAT), and the Mexican Navy (SEMAR). During the ceremony,
a commemorative plaque was offered to the Mexican Navy and all institutions
participating in the international conservation breeding program whose efforts
made possible the repatriation of this endemic dove.
Dr. Luis Baptista,
founder of the Island Endemics Foundation, initiated the Socorro Dove Project
in 1987-1988 after corroborating that a viable population existed in human
care. The ultimate goal of the project is to return Socorro Doves to Socorro
Island. After Baptista’s death in 2000, Juan Martínez-Gómez joined the
foundation and crafted a collaborative program with the Mexican Navy. By 2004,
a breeding station funded by the Island Endemics Foundation and the Mexican
Navy had been built on Socorro Island. However, in 2005, concerns about the
potential for spreading avian influenza from Europe prevented the return o
The man who bred 120 tigers in rural Lincolnshire
Following the birth
of the first tiger at London Zoo in 17 years, a former circus owner talks about
his life breeding tigers in rural Lincolnshire.
At the height of his
career in the 1970s, Martin Lacey was known as the "man that fear
forgot" - being the only one to put his head inside a lion's mouth.
That was just part
of his work to run the now-closed Great British Circus, which has also included
breeding more than 120 tigers at his home in Keal Cotes.
Now aged in his 70s,
Mr Lacey plans to retire, with most of the tigers will now go to his sons'
circus in Germany.
His work has
included starring in the children's TV show Magpie and training some of the
tigers used in the Esso adverts.
He said he had
enjoyed a fantastic career and "had certainly done his bit" to help
with tiger conservation.
"This year
we've had 12 cubs in Lincolnshire and 12 in Germany," he said.
"Most will go
to my sons' circus, but we are able to let any surplus go to zoological
gardens, which reduces the need to bring in any animals from the wild.
"We are
definitely doing well in the conservation stakes - we also bred reindeer here
this year, and that's not easy."
However, changes in
public attitudes to performing animals mean he has faced criticism in recent
years.
The UK government
has announced that a ban prohibiting the use of wild animals in circuses in
Britain would come into effect in 2015.
Under the terms of
the draft W
BABY TWIN CHIMPANZEE ‘OUTLAWS’, THELMA & LOUISE,
STEAL THE LIMELIGHT AT MONKEY WORLD IN DORSET!
The team at Monkey
World – Ape Rescue Centre in Dorset, are proud to announce the safe and rare
arrival of baby twin chimpanzees, Thelma and Louise!
The beautiful twin
girls were born last week, on September 25th,
and have an extended family of 19, including mum, Cherri. Monkey World’s female chimpanzees are given
birth control pills to avoid over-populating the 65-acre primate rescue centre
and because there are still more chimpanzees around the world that need
rescuing. Cherri was put on antibiotics last winter for a chest infection,
which caused her contraception to fail. As the park’s birth control ‘outlaws’, the twin girls have been aptly
named Thelma and Louise - after the famous movie fugitives!
Albuquerque zoo welcomes new elephant calf
Albuquerque’s zoo is
welcoming the newest member of its elephant herd.
Zoo officials will
introduce the second calf delivered by 20-year-old Rozie, an Asian elephant, at
a news conference this morning.
Rozie gave birth to
the female calf after 22 months of gestation.
The calf makes for
the seventh elephant at ABQ BioPark.
Elephant manager
Rhonda Saiers says both mother and daughter are doing well. Saiers says the
calf is learning to nurse and will meet her sister, Daizy, and grandmother,
Alice, in a few days.
The zoo says the
calf will not yet be part of the public exhibit.
The zoo plans to let
the public vote on a name for th
Rare Snail Bred in Edinburgh Flies Back to Tahiti
Three species of
tree-snails that are among the most endangered species in the world are due to
be reintroduced to their former Polynesian home following the success of an
international zoo conservation project involving the Royal Zoological Society
of Scotland (RZSS).
Three varieties of
Partula snail will be released - Partula affinis, Partula nodosa, and Partula
hyalina - which have been bred at Edinburgh Zoo and 16 other zoos around the
world, into their native home of Tahiti in mid-October. RZSS will release 90 of
the Partula affinis variety, a species that was thought to be extinct for many
years until last year 12 individuals were found still surviving on one single
tree.
Edinburgh Zoo houses
six species in total and Partula snails have been bred at the Zoo for almost 25
years in a tiny off show room the size of a broom cupboard. Needing very
specific husbandry, amongst other things it is vital to get the temperature,
humidity and light levels exactly right; even the slightest change in these
parameters can have a detrimental effect. Edinburgh Zoo was even given the very
last captive individual of the Partula taeniata simulans variety, which the Zoo
then bred back to a safe level of several hundred, as luckily that individual
had been fertilised and produced viable young. RZSS regularly send snails to
other institutions so that captive populations are located in more than one
location as a precautionary measure.
An historical
landmark, not only for Polynesian tree snails, but for wildlife conservation as
a whole, this reintroduction is a result of a consortium of committed zoos
working together as part of an international breeding programme. The Partula
Global Species Management Programme has been vital in securing a future for
Partula snails and returning them to their native Tahiti is an exciting first
step in the reintroduction phase for all the species in the breeding programme.
Originating from the
steep volcanic forested islands of French Polynesia, Partula snails provide
valuable insights into the mechanisms of evolution. Partula snail populations
were decimated after the predatory ‘rosy wolf snail’ was introduced from Florida
in the 1970s to rid the islands of a previously-introduced alien species - the
giant African land snail - but instead the rapacious predator devoured the tiny
native snails.
Ross Poulter,
Presentations Keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, who has cared for the Zoo’s snails for
the last ten years, said:
“We are extremely
proud that the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has played such a key role
in this species reintroduction back to their native wild. This type of
conservation and eventual reintroduction back into the wild when conditions are
again sustainable embodies exactly what RZSS is about. The global programme has
managed to keep alive a species that otherwise would have been lost to the
world. Now, with the wonderful support from the Critical Ecosystems Partnership
Fund, who gave money to build the wildlife reserve, we can put the snails back
where they belong, and help restore some of the natural heritage of Polynesia,
for future generations of Polynesians.
“The new reserve is
situated in the Te Faaiti valley, which is government land and a protected
National Park. The actual reserve is amazingly only 12m by 9m and has been
confirmed as the world’s smallest nature reserve! The reserve has been cleared
of invasive plants and animal species, and when we arrive we will give the
snails a couple of days to get used to the climate before releasing them.
During this time we also plan to build and erect a protective sun shade.”
Whilst on this trip,
Ross will also search for a lost population Partula clara in the Fautaua Valley
on Tahiti and locate and health check known populations of other rare Partula
varieties on Mt Marau, above 1000m, in Tiapa Valley and Maramuu Valley.
The Partula Global
Species Management Programme that RZSS is part of cares for 17 taxa in 16
European and American zoos, which also carry out and fund extensive field
conservation work in collaboration with the French Polynesian Government.
Wildlife Crime Vietnam
Wildlife Crime
Bulletin (issue August 2013)
The main content of
this issue includes:
- Think smart: Putting confiscated
wildlife legally back into the trade compromises the efforts of law enforcement
and puts wildlife at risk
- Learn from the failure: Confiscate
marine turtles when they are discovered
- Enforcement alert: CITES adopts stricter
controls on freshwater turtle and tortoise trade
- Quick reference on CITES changes
- Case review: Provincial decision
conflicts with protection of rare and endemic species
- Enforcement advisor: Why bear farmers
should not be compensated Enforcement alert for giving up their bears
- In the spot light: National Awards honor
outstanding achievements in wildlife protection law enforcement
- Remarkable wildlife crime cases
March for Elephants - 4th October
See images of the
march here
Zooquaria 83 - Autumn 2013
Read it online here: https://interactivepdf.uniflip.com/2/48142/314254/pub/
New Gorillas for Belo Horizonte
The arrival of two
new Gorillas is confirmed for this Saturday, October 12. The male Leon, 14
years old, female and Lou, 9, will be the companions for Imbi, who has lived
alone since March this year when Kifta died.
Gorilla 'Idi Amin',
who was 38, died
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