Zoo News Digest 3rd July 2016
(ZooNews 928)
(ZooNews 928)
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
Sadly yet another
keeper has been killed by a tiger. It will probably be another of these
situations where there are no definite conclusions made. I understand why, we
all understand why findings are inconclusive. Everyone is sensitive to the
feelings of friends, families and colleagues and nobody wants to point fingers
at the deceased. Be it Tigers, Bears or Buffalo or whatever most all of these
tragic accidents in zoos are down to keeper error. It is human nature to look
for someone else to blame. Nobody likes to speak ill of the dead. But at the
end of the day 'keeper error' is an accident. Accidents are accidents and they
occur every single day in all walks of life. These things happen. Nobody wants
them too. We need to accept this. At the end of the day keepers are responsible
for their own safety.
Buenos Aires Zoo is
in the news a lot since it announced it is to close. The press like the story
but as with the Mayor himself they really have not got a clue. This is borne
out by headlines such as "Animals Head for Freedom as Argentina Closes Zoo".
Do they really think these animals are going to be free? It is simply a case of
moving from one cage or enclosure to a cage or enclosure in another
facility…..another zoo regardless of whatever name you like to give the place.
It may or may not be better or worse than the Buenos Aires Zoo. Perhaps the
Mayor does genuinely care. I would like to think so but so often it is money or
politics at the root as was the case when Costa Rica's Environment Minister,
Rene Castro, announced plans to close the country's two public zoos (I'm none
too sure how much progress has been made there). Money was/is certainly behind
the repeated attacks on the Surabaya zoo…not that the place is without faults.
If some of the
animals in the Buenos Aires Palermo Zoo are deemed suitable for release there
is a lot more to it that opening a cage door. At its simplest the released
animal may introducing a new pathogen into the existing population and/or there
may not be room for it within that population. I do hope they study the
guidelines carefully.
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,800 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Dear Colleague,
Sadly yet another
keeper has been killed by a tiger. It will probably be another of these
situations where there are no definite conclusions made. I understand why, we
all understand why findings are inconclusive. Everyone is sensitive to the
feelings of friends, families and colleagues and nobody wants to point fingers
at the deceased. Be it Tigers, Bears or Buffalo or whatever most all of these
tragic accidents in zoos are down to keeper error. It is human nature to look
for someone else to blame. Nobody likes to speak ill of the dead. But at the
end of the day 'keeper error' is an accident. Accidents are accidents and they
occur every single day in all walks of life. These things happen. Nobody wants
them too. We need to accept this. At the end of the day keepers are responsible
for their own safety.
Buenos Aires Zoo is
in the news a lot since it announced it is to close. The press like the story
but as with the Mayor himself they really have not got a clue. This is borne
out by headlines such as "Animals Head for Freedom as Argentina Closes Zoo".
Do they really think these animals are going to be free? It is simply a case of
moving from one cage or enclosure to a cage or enclosure in another
facility…..another zoo regardless of whatever name you like to give the place.
It may or may not be better or worse than the Buenos Aires Zoo. Perhaps the
Mayor does genuinely care. I would like to think so but so often it is money or
politics at the root as was the case when Costa Rica's Environment Minister,
Rene Castro, announced plans to close the country's two public zoos (I'm none
too sure how much progress has been made there). Money was/is certainly behind
the repeated attacks on the Surabaya zoo…not that the place is without faults.
If some of the
animals in the Buenos Aires Palermo Zoo are deemed suitable for release there
is a lot more to it that opening a cage door. At its simplest the released
animal may introducing a new pathogen into the existing population and/or there
may not be room for it within that population. I do hope they study the
guidelines carefully.
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,800 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Caretaker, 37, is mauled to death by Bengal tiger at Benidorm nature park
A 37-year-old woman has been mauled to death after being attacked by a Bengal tiger in a zoo in Benidorm.
The tragedy happened at about 5pm today when the victim, understood to be a worker at the Terra Natura de Benidorm nature park, was inside the animal's cage.
The pioneering Terra Natura describes itself as a 'new generation immersion park' where visitors, including thousands of Brits, can see wildlife in their enclosures through glass barriers.
Animals head for freedom as Argentina closes zoo
Animals by the
hundreds are being set free as Buenos Aires closes its 140-year-old Palermo
zoo.
Among the first to
leave will be birds of prey like owls and chimangos, destined for a reserve
along the shores of the Rio de la Plata south of the capital. They will be
placed there in larger confines that will give them room to stretch and
strengthen their winds before they're ready for the wild.
Others among the
1,500 animals at the zoo are destined for reserves in Argentina and abroad as
their old home is transformed into a park.
The Hardest Topic For Animal Caretakers
I have a
problem. And I know that the first step
towards a solution is to admit that I have a problem.
Okay. Here it is:
I cannot, under any
circumstance, walk into a book store without buying at least three books.
Please tell me that
many of you have this tendency. Please
tell me that many of you wince at the number on the register as you purchase
700lbs of Must Have reading material but it still doesn't stop you from buying them,
even if that means you can't afford to buy groceries later and/or pay your
electric bill on time.
Last week, I went to
Barnes and Noble and bought a bunch of books on training, one on killer whales,
and one that is totally sinking me into a pit of despair, but making me think
Caretaker, 37, is mauled to death by Bengal tiger at Benidorm nature park
A 37-year-old woman has been mauled to death after being attacked by a Bengal tiger in a zoo in Benidorm.
The tragedy happened at about 5pm today when the victim, understood to be a worker at the Terra Natura de Benidorm nature park, was inside the animal's cage.
The pioneering Terra Natura describes itself as a 'new generation immersion park' where visitors, including thousands of Brits, can see wildlife in their enclosures through glass barriers.
Animals head for freedom as Argentina closes zoo
Animals by the
hundreds are being set free as Buenos Aires closes its 140-year-old Palermo
zoo.
Among the first to
leave will be birds of prey like owls and chimangos, destined for a reserve
along the shores of the Rio de la Plata south of the capital. They will be
placed there in larger confines that will give them room to stretch and
strengthen their winds before they're ready for the wild.
Others among the
1,500 animals at the zoo are destined for reserves in Argentina and abroad as
their old home is transformed into a park.
The Hardest Topic For Animal Caretakers
I have a
problem. And I know that the first step
towards a solution is to admit that I have a problem.
Okay. Here it is:
I cannot, under any
circumstance, walk into a book store without buying at least three books.
Please tell me that
many of you have this tendency. Please
tell me that many of you wince at the number on the register as you purchase
700lbs of Must Have reading material but it still doesn't stop you from buying them,
even if that means you can't afford to buy groceries later and/or pay your
electric bill on time.
Last week, I went to
Barnes and Noble and bought a bunch of books on training, one on killer whales,
and one that is totally sinking me into a pit of despair, but making me think
The Good Zoo and Euthanasia
The Antwerp and Planckendael zoos ban cigarettes
The Antwerp and
Planckendael zoos are preparing to ban cigarettes from their premises in the
next few weeks.
In Antwerp zoo,
smoking will only be authorised in 6 distinct zones from mid-July. It will be
authorised in 8 zones in Planckendael from August. The Gazet van Antwerpen and
Het Nieusblad reported on this story on Saturday.
The parks promise
the smoking zones will be pleasant, and they will not fine those who do not
respect the rules. “We are convinced peo
Professional Development Grants (PDGs)
Professional
Development Grants (PDGs) provide support for mid-career conservationists to
pursue short-term, non-degree training to upgrade their knowledge and skills.
These trainings can include short courses, certificate trainings, or
conferences among other training opportunities. Mid-career conservation
professionals from select WWF-US priority countries must meet all of the
eligibility criteria to be considered for a grant.
Applicants may
request up to $6,500 for the proposed training.
Belize (Mesoamerican
Reef)
Bhutan
Bolivia (Amazon)
Cambodia
Cameroon (Congo
Basin)
Central African
Republic (Congo Basin)
Colombia (Amazon,
Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Dem. Republic of
Congo (Congo Basin)
Ecuador (Amazon and
Galapagos)
Fiji (Coral
Triangle)
French Guiana
(Amazon)
Gabon (Congo Basin)
Guatemala
(Mesoamerican Reef, Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Guyana (Amazon)
Honduras
(Mesoamerican Reef)
Indonesia
Kenya (Coastal East
Africa)
Laos
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mozambique
(Primeiras e Segundas marine area, Quirimbas, Lake Niassa Aquatic Reserve,
Ruvuma Landscape)
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal (Terai Arc
Landscape, Sacred Himalayan Landscape, Chitwan Annapurna Linkage)
Papua New Guinea
(Coral Triangle)
Paraguay
Peru (Amazon,
Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Republic of Congo
(Congo Basin)
Solomon Islands
(Coral Triangle)
Suriname (Amazon)
Uganda
Vietnam
Zambia
Last puma cub in
Karachi zoo ‘mauled to death’
The city zoo
suffered a major blow on Thursday when it lost its last surviving puma cub,
sources told Dawn.
The cub, they said,
was apparently mauled to death by adult pumas housed in the adjacent part of
the enclosure, which was separated from the cub-mother area with an iron
grille.
The tragic incident,
sources said, happened the day when the cub, being hand-reared by the zoo
staff, was to become a two-month-old.
“Initially, the
staff couldn’t find the baby when they went to feed it in the morning in its
enclosure that the cub shared with the mother.
“Later, its mauled
body was spotted in the adjacent enclosure housing a pair of pumas,” said a zoo
official on condition of anonymity.
The cub was brutally
attacked; its back along with hind legs was eaten away while there were severe
injuries on its throat.
“I am hugely
disappointed. We were so sure that it will live and survive successfully,” said
zoo director Fahim Khan, adding that the senior director culture, sports and
recreation Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had inspected the zoo
enclosure after being informed about the incident.
He accused his staff
of negligence and said, “I am not satisfied with their version of the incident.
T
Some big cats from
Tiger Temple in trouble
A tiger rescued from
the notorious Tiger Temple has died and some of the other 147 big cats are
struggling to adjust to their new surroundings and a diet very different from
the cooked food they used to...
The Deep becomes
UK's first attraction to display and breed rare Mexican snake
The Deep has become
the first zoo or aquarium in the UK to display and successfully breed the rare
Lake Zacapu Garter snake.
On 27 June the
attraction welcomed the arrival of 7 hatchlings, 3 males and 4 females. The
adults (1 male, 2 female) arrived at The Deep in February 2016 and have being
living behind the scenes whilst their new home is built.
This new exhibit
highlights fragile river habitats
Judge: Zoo owners
don't have to pay fees for group that sued
The owners of a
private Iowa zoo won't have to pay the legal fees of a national group that
successfully sued to force the removal of endangered lemurs and tigers
Orangutan Goes On
Loose In Florida Animal Park
Visitors had to be
evacuated from part of an animal theme park when an orangutan escaped from its
enclosure and climbed trees.
Video footage showed
the large female sitting about 20ft above a large crowd at Busch Gardens Tampa
Bay.
At one point, the
orangutan drops to the floor and climbs on to a display board, prompting
screams from some of those standing nearby.
A witness told Fox
News: "It climbed up out of the habitat and towards the guest area, just
near the Zambia Smokehouse, which is in Stanleyville."
Some of those in the
park told how they were suddenly told to move.
Bianca Guzman told
the Tampa Bay Times: "They didn't really share much of what was going on.
They just to
African Safari
offers $5K reward in vandalism incident
African Safari
Wildlife officials are offering a $5,000 reward after the park was broken into
and vandalized sometime after closing Tuesday evening.
Large limbs were cut
off trees and trunks were slashed, according to a news release from the park. A
large, valuable pine tree outside of the fenced enclosure was completely cut
down.
The release said no
animals were harmed in the incident.
Charlie Cunningham,
of the Danbury Township Police Department, investigated the scene after the
reported break-in.
The investigation
found that a fence around the property had been pried away from its posts by
the unknown perpetrators. Once inside, the trees along the park’s entrance road
were found to be damaged.
African Safari
Wildlife Park officials said Friday they do not know if the vandalized trees
will be able to survive.
The total cost of
the damage is estimated to be more than $50,000.
The owners of the
park are offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and
conviction of the perpetrators.
Those responsible,
as well as anyone complicit in the incident, could face charges of breaking and
entering, vandalism and destruction of prope
Report on South Lakes Safari Zoo
Wildlife parks
refuse Tasmanian Devil vaccinations as Tasmanian government persist with trials
Some wildlife parks
in Tasmania and New South Wales have been refusing to provide healthy Tasmanian
devils to take part in a vaccination trial for a deadly facial cancer.
But despite that,
the Tasmanian Government is pushing ahead with the program.
As Felicity Ogilvie
reports.
FELICITY OGILVIE:
The Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is one of the few contagious cancers
in the world.
Professor Greg Woods
from the Menzies Research Institute at the University of Tasmania is developing
a vaccine to protect devils from the cancer.
His team is testing
the vaccine by inoculating 32 animals and releasing them into the wild.
GREG WOOD: We know
that in the devils that are immunised, they are producing an immune response,
but we've got no idea whether that's going to be protective and the only way to
determine that is to put it into a real situation, which is why we're releasing
immunised devils into the wild.
FELICITY OGILVIE:
Hundreds of healthy Tasmanian devils are in a breeding programs around the
country.
But some wildlife
park owners are worried about a request from the Tasmanian Government to hand
over some of their animals for the vaccine trial.
Tasmanian Wildlife
Park owner Androo Kelly is holding back.
ANDROO KELLY: It's
the actual concept at this stage of releasing healthy animals that have been,
you k
Foto finds Sun bears
in a ‘19th century zoo’
Investigators from
Friends of the Orangutans Malaysia (Foto) are livid at the conditions animals
are forced to live in at the Miri Crocodile Farm (MCF).
In a press statement
issued Thursday, its director Upreshpal Singh revealed that their investigators
had recently gone to the farm after receiving numerous complaints of cruelty
and exploitation of wildlife from concerned members of the public.
“At MCF, we found
three Sun bears forced to live in appalling conditions. These Sun bears are
visibly stressed and are suffering from zoochosis as a result of living in a
concrete tomb without enrichment.”
“No readily
available, clean drinking water was seen. These are conditions which resemble a
19th-century zoo. Sun bears are a protected species in Sarawak and with many
bear experts calling for urgent action to prevent their extinction in the wild.
These bears and other animals at the farm urgently need help.”
Foto also learnt
that the management of MCF offered farm visitors opportunities to take photos
with a Sun bear cub.
“According to a
staff, this cub is taken (away from its mother) from an enclosure and returned
to it at the end of the day. Although no evidence of this practice could be
determined by our investigators, it seems far more likely that the bear
permanently resides in a barren metal cage next to the photo session area.
Needless to say if this is true, it is extremely cruel to take this cub away
from its mother so farm visitors can have their photographs taken with it.”
“It seems obvious
that it is also extremely dangerous for both the bear and the public as the cub
could at anytime, without warning, maul a farm visitor with its very large
claws and when this happens would this just be the fault of the irresponsible
and abusive MCF management or also the failing of the wildlife authorities in
Sarawak who have allowed this practice to continue for almost 20 years despite
repeated complaints from the public and media? Sun bears are extremely strong
Whipsnade Zoo rhino
accident: Gates 'should be pinned'
A zoo has been urged
to make safety improvements to sliding gates after a senior keeper was injured
by a rhino.
The recommendation
from Central Bedfordshire Council follows an accident at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in
2014.
The incident left a
senior zookeeper, in his 50s, with injuries to the chest, abdomen and pelvis.
However, the zoo
said it deemed the recommendation "unnecessary", adding that no
improvement measures or statuto
Correcting the Myth
of the Amercian Jaguar
No evidence of
Jaguar Breeding Populations in New Mexico or Arizona, after the Pleistocene Era
I Hope the Zoos will be well represented....and not the 'declawed' ones...if you know who I mean.
Centre red-flags
tiger safari project in Corbett reserve
The Centre has red
flagged a proposed tiger safari project in Uttarakhand's Corbett National Park
and asked the state government to first comply with wildlife norms.
It cited the central
government's recent decision to stop tiger safari project in Madhya Pradesh's
Pench National Park citing alleged violation of rules.
The Uttarakhand
forest department had in August last year sought permission of the National
Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the Ministry of
Environment and Forests, to start a tiger safari inside the famous national
park.
The NTCA has asked
the Uttarakhand government to take prior permission from Central Zoo Authority
(CZA).
It may also be
looked into that if the proposal is in conformity with and as per tiger
conservation plan prepared for Corbett reserve, said a letter by the NTCA to
the state, a copy of which was received in reply to an RTI query filed by
wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.
On the issue of the
safari in the Pench National Park, the NTCA had said that it exposes tigers to
poaching. The Madhya Pradesh forest department had failed to take prior
approval from the CZA before construction of tiger safari there, it said.
The tiger population
in the country was estim
China bans consuming
of state-protected wild animals
The amended law
which will take effect on January 1 next year bans the production and sale of
food made from state-protected wild animals and products derived from them.
Bird wings from Age of Dinosaurs found trapped in
amber
Hummingbird-sized
baby Enantiornithes birds lived 99 million years ago
Ninety-nine million
years ago, two baby birds met an unfortunate end and their severed wings became
encased in amber.
Now those
beautifully preserved wings, complete with different kinds of feathers of
different colours still attached to the skin, are revealing new insights about
the evolution of birds.
The amber samples
containing the wings were found by Lida Xing, a paleontologist at the China
University of Geosciences in Beijing who previously worked and studied in
Canada, at an amber market in the Kachin province of Burma, also known a
‘Devastated’: scientists too late to captive breed
mammal lost to climate change
Australian
conservationists spent five months obtaining permissions and planning for a
captive breeding programme for the Bramble Cay melomys. But when they arrived
on the rodent’s tiny, low-lying island, they discovered they were too late.
Transnational conservation in Turkey could save six
threatened bird species
In a great example
of nature conservation knowing no national boundaries, Doğa Derneği (BirdLife
in Turkey), with the support of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of
Birds (BSPB, BirdLife in Bulgaria), MME (BirdLife in Hungary) and the
Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME), have launched a new
protection programme for six globally Threatened bird species breeding in
Turkey’s steppes.
The project – which
aims to protect the Sociable Lapwing, Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Eastern
Imperial Eagle, Great Bustard and White-headed Duck – will be implemented in
collaboration with locals living near the species’ habitats.
The Critically
Endangered Sociable Lapwing occurs in the East Anatolian steppes solely during
migration, while the other five species have significant breeding populations
across the region. Turkey is particularly important for the Endangered Egyptian
Vulture: approximately 20 percent of the world’s population and at least one
third of the European population breeds in Turkey.
In the coming weeks
and months, Doğa’s bird experts and social studies teams will be traveling
across the Central Anatolian steppes to meet locals to generate awareness and
develop local conservation plans where these species breed in significant
numbers. Most of main breeding grounds of these species lie within private land
and community pastures, which are highly affected by farming and grazing. Doğa,
BSPB and MME form networks and alliances with locals to secure the best
possible land use and habitat management for the Egyptian Vulture, Eastern
Imperial Eagle and the Steppe Eagle, building on international best practices,
while OSME is supporting Doğa in protecting the White-headed Duck.
“Grasslands and the
primary steppes of Anatolia play a huge role in the conservation of globally
threatened steppic species in Eurasia,” said Doğa’s Conservation Manager Itri
Levent Erkol. “Conservation action on these species was so far mostly in the form
of legal protection. However, this has proven to be insufficient to sa
Bonobos lie about sex to keep the peace
Bonobos (pictured)
are known as the peaceful ape. They’re less aggressive than their chimpanzee
cousins, and when they have disagreements they’re more likely to make love, not
war. Now, a new study reveals one way females keep the peace. In most primate societies,
female genitals swell to advertise that they’re ready to mate, leading to
fighting among males as they jostle for a partner. But in bonobos, the
swellings only indicate fertility half the time, according to a study in the
wild published this week in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The findings confirm what
scientists have observed in captivity. The researchers behind the new study
hypothesize females may have evolved the behavior to gain the upper hand in
mati
https://elephantconservation.org/programs/research/elephant-rhino-conservation-and-research-symposium/
Two young female pandas complete ‘survival training’
ahead of release into the wild
Two young giant
pandas at a conservation centre in southwest China will be released into the
wild early next month, official media reports.
The China Research
and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Yaan city in Sichuan province
said the two female pandas – three-year-old Huayan and two-year-old Zhangmeng –
had completed their two-year wilderness training programme at a facility in Wolong
where they acquired the necessary survival skills for the wild, according to
the China News Service.
They will be
released into the Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian county early next month,
the report sa
Minister visits controversial zoo, promises decree on
exotic imports
Agriculture Minister
Nicos Kouyialis said on Thursday he was looking into the possibility of
preparing a decree for the regulation of imports of exotic animals to Cyprus.
The move comes after
strong reactions to the reported poor conditions of animals at the Melios zoo
in Nicosia, namely one of the two lions that arrived last year along with two
Siberian tigers. Photos show one of the lions, a female, with a severe eye infection.
The Animal Party has
also raised an issue on the recent import of three Eurasian lynxes to the zoo,
which said the animals arrived on Wednesday.
On Thursday Kouyialis went to the zoo along with two veterinary officials.
“My visit was to
make sure that there are no safety issues for visitors and no issues as regards
animal welfare,” Kouyialis told the Cyprus Mail. He added that it appears that
there was nothing amiss but the state vet services would continue monitoring the
facilities.
As regards the lion,
Kouyialis said, it was being monitored by a private vet and also by the state
vet services. He added that it would be given treatment.
The owner of the
zoo, Melios Menelaou, told the Cyprus Mail that the problem with the lion was
known to the vet services ever since it arrived on the island a year ago.
“It is a condition
that was created due to its age. It is 16-years-old,” Menelaou said.
He added that the
problem lay in the fact that even though he had informed the state vet services
when he brought the lions and the tigers a year ago, that he needed a tra
Are petting zoos cruel to animals?
Do close
interactions with the animal world make us feel more passionately about them?
Do they make us want to save them or make us more proactive about their
protection? On a recent trip across Australia, I was struck by how many
wildlife parks and zoos offered kids and adults the experience of hugging a
koala, feeding a wallaby or clicking a selfie with a kangaroo. The latest rage
right now across the Aussie continent is a selfie with this delightful looking
marsupial called the quokka.
While the experience
of getting up close with wild animals at a zoo may leave indelible memories of
your holiday with your children and make for great Facebook posts, what is it
like for the animal? The question gains prominence in the light of the recent
shutting down of the Tiger Temple in Thailand, where you could walk a tiger
cub, click selfies with it and cuddle it.
Around the world,
zoos offer experiences with animals that bring you close to them. In China, you
can cuddle a giant panda, in Adelaide, Australia you could hand-feed a giraffe,
in Denver, US you can waddle beside penguins on their evening walks within the
con
The Plot
Against Wild Animals
In 1900, John
Elfreth Watkins Jr. wrote an essay for Ladies’ Home Journal in which he laid
out a series of predictions for the next 100 years. He got some things
remarkably right, coming close to the mark on things like air conditioning and
the ubiquity of telephones. But, as invariably happens when even the brightest
soothsayers predict in bulk, he got some things really, really wrong.
One thing he didn’t
expect: The way mankind and wild animals would continue to coexist. Watkins Jr.
assumed that if we kept up our prospecting, we’d end up conquering the whole
planet in pretty short order and the natural world would be brought to heel or,
barring that, a zoo.
This didn’t come to
pass. Wild animals
Calgary Zoo Giraffe Delivers Stillborn Calf While
Being Transported
A giraffe that was
travelling from the San Diego Zoo to the Calgary Zoo prematurely delivered a
"non-viable" calf on Monday.
“This is very
difficult news to share with our community,” said Jamie Dorgan, director of
animal care at the Calgary Zoo, in a release.
“Transporting
animals is a delicate process and we take every precaution necessary to ensure
the safety and well-being of the animals during their journey.”
The zoo says the
mother, a five-year-old Masai giraffe, was
Columbus zoo briefly locked down after bear cub gets
loose
Zoo officials
confirmed the zoo was placed on lock down after a seven-month-old female black
bear cub breached her enclosure Saturday.
The zoo says the cub
got out around 11:15am and was sedated with a dart at 11:30am. She was taken to
her sleeping quarters.
The cub is one of
two orphaned wild cubs that were brought to the zoo just a few months ago.
The main zoo
lockdown was lifted just before noon, but the North America region remained on
lockdown until zoo staff could secure the second cub and take it into the bear
building.
The black bear
habitat will remain closed for the rest of the day.
No human or animal
injuries have been reported.
Modernisation of zoo parks on the cards
The governing body
of Zoos and Parks Authority of Telangana (ZAPAT), headed by Minister for
Forests and Environment Jogu Ramanna, on Saturday decided to take up
modernisation of zoo parks in the State by improving facilities for visitors
and increasing enclosures of fauna.
After adopting the
annual plan for 2016-17, the meeting reviewed the conditions of zoos and parks
in the State and decided to increase security by installing high security
fencing and continuous surveillance with closed circuit television cameras.
The Nehru Zoo P
Snow leopard forced to live in captivity in
Gilgit-Baltistan
A majestic beast has
been stripped of its right to live in the wild and has been forced to live in a
cage in Gilgit-Baltistan for nearly four years.
“King of mountains,”
as the snow leopard is called, usually lives at an altitude of 12,000 to 18,000
feet and walks around an area of around 250 kilometres. This particular cat
called Lovely, was deprived of this and lost its independence in December 2012
when it was hardly six months old.
Its mother
apparently deserted the injured cub after it failed to cross a river in
Khunjerab National Park, one of world’s highest parks in Hunza Valley of G-B.
A field team of the
wildlife department spotted it and shifted it to a rehabilitation centre,
followin
Tiger and goat friendship was 'all a PR stunt', says
safari park insider
The friendship
between tiger Amur and goat Timur, intended as the big cat's lunch, was a fake,
said former Primorsky Safari Park Evgenia Patanovskaya.
The odd couple were
shown around the world after they forged their apparent bond.
The ex-PR said that
said that initially when Timur was taken to the Siberian tiger, it was a
'mistake' because the predator was already well fed.
'Amur the tiger just
did not eat the goat Timur, because he was not hungry,' she wrote. 'Since he
did not eat it, I asked the staff of the park to feed Amur, so he would not eat
Timur. That's how we held out for two months.
'They called it
'friendship' of the tiger and a goa
Israel zoo team
arrives
A three-member expert team
comprising a wildlife ranger, head keeper and a supervisor from Tisch Zoo,
Israel arrived here on Sunday to examine the three chimpanzees that were gifted
by Israel to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.
The Israel Nature Parks Authority (INPA) team will
also conduct an awareness workshop on ‘enrichment and upgrading skills of
animal keepers’ at
A crazed big-cat
lover was thwarted by protective netting when he tried to jump into the Bronx
Zoo’s snow-leopard exhibit, police said Saturday.
The feline
fanatic was prowling around the snow-leopard and red-panda enclosures when he
made a wild leap for the exotic cats a little after 7:30 p.m. Friday,
law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Zookeepers and a
police officer assigned to the zoo acted fast when the man cleared the first
barrier that separates visitors from the cats.
They grabbed him
before he got past the protective netting into the leopards’ enclosure, sources
said.
The unidentified
man ha
Lions and Tigers
Don’t Belong in Zoos. But Some Animals Do.
Black-footed
ferrets once thrived on the North American prairie, with an estimated 5 million
animals occupying some 100 million acres of land from Montana to New Mexico. In
the 19th century, though, America’s expansion west devastated the species.
Prairie was converted into farmland and settlements. Prairie dogs, which the
ferrets relied on for both food and shelter (using the dogs’ burrows for dens),
were eradicated to keep them from competing with livestock for grass. Squeezed
out of their habitat and deprived of their main food source, the ferrets
declined and then disappeared. In 1979, the last captive ferret died, and the
species was presumed extinct.
Then, two years later, a Wyoming rancher’s dog brought home a dead
ferret to its master, leading to the discovery of a small remnant population—100 or so
ferrets that had, against all odds, survived—near the town of Meeteetse. When
disease threatened this group and their numbers started to decline, various
stakeholders came together to decide that the remaining 18 animals should be
brought into captivity and placed in the care of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. They were housed by several zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos
and Aquariums, which today include the Smithsonian Conservation Biology
Institute, the Louisville Zoological Garden, the Toronto Zoo, the Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo and the Phoenix Zoo. The organizations invo
West Kalimantan to Become Hornbill Conservation Center
West Kalimantan Province will
become Hornbill conservation center and captivity.
“We have allocated funds to
prepare for it,” Deputy Chairman, the House’s Commission IV Daniel Johan
told Antaranews in Pontianak on Monday, June 27, 2016.
The captivity and conservation
area will be located in Paloh Sub-district, Sambas District. “But Paloh is not
the only [choice of] location. The alternative is Sintang District,” he said.
The conservation area and
captivity is needed as the bird is an endangered species. Hornbill hunting is
prevalent for their beak.
“The budget for it has been
included in the re
EXCLUSIVE-U.S.
charity loophole enabled trading of 1,300 endangered animals
Last year, after
a Minnesota dentist sparked an uproar by killing a popular lion named Cecil
while on safari in Zimbabwe, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service placed
similar African lions on the endangered species list, making it illegal to
import them as trophies to the United States.
But for African
lions and other threatened and endangered species, there's an exception to this
rule: Hunters, circuses, zoos, breeders and theme parks can get permits to
import, export or sell endangered animals if they can demonstrate that the
transactions will "enhance the survival" of the species.
Often, records
show, this requirement is met in part by making a cash contribution to charity
- usually a few thousand dollars. The practice has angered both animal-rights
activists who say it exploits wildlife and exhibitors who describe the process
as unfair and arbitrary.
In the last five
years, the vast majority of the estimated 1,375 endangered species permits
granted by the Fish & Wildlife Service involved financial pledges to
charity, according to agency documents reviewed by Reuters.
For a $2,000
pledge, the Fish & Wildlife Service permitted two threatened leopard cubs
to be sent from a roadside zoo to a small animal park. After a $5,000 pledge,
the agency approved the transfer of 10 endangered South African penguins to a
Florida theme
Four orangutans escape from Chester
Zoo enclosure
Part of Chester Zoo had to be
closed off this morning after four orangutans escaped from their enclosure
while the Duke of Westminster was visiting.
Two female
Sumatran orangutans and two of their young offspring made their way out of
their enclosed area today (Tuesday, June 28) just after 10am.
A zoo
spokesperson confirmed that Subis and her infants Tuti and Siska, as well as
fellow female Indah, stayed safely within the zoo’s Monsoon Forest building
while primate keepers quickly ushered them back into their enclosure.
Melbourne
Zoo’s baby elephant deteriorating after feeding woes
THE condition of Melbourne Zoo’s baby elephant
continues to deteriorate as keepers say they are struggling to bottle feed the
calf.
The young Asian elephant, born almost two weeks
ago with a rare congenital condition which prevents her from standing, is
currently being fed a mixture of artificial elephant milk formula and her
mother’s milk.
But the zoo’s head vet, Dr Michael Lynch said
the young female was not bottle feeding well and was only taking about half of
what she needed.
“Trying to keep up her nutrition is our
challenge, and we are relying heavily on an intravenous drip to provide both
fluid
Anti-zoo
zealots not helping the animals
Another zoo is going to
close thanks to misinformed dupes and money hungry organizations out for cash
with no regard for the animals concerned.
The whole idea of
captive breeding zoos is to assist endangered animals from being destroyed in
their own habitat.
When all forms of
animals start to become extinct, start blaming these protest groups that have
made jobs for themselves and offer no after-care for the animals.
They get money for
nothing, and they are against the idea of keeping a species alive in the world
that would become poached for bush meat in their own land.
These groups have
no idea of what will happen to the animals after these zoos are
closed. Will most animals be put down and the blood lines will end
forever? No doubt.
Groups against
zoos are basically just looking for funds to support themselves, not the
animals. They move on after another animal’s home is wrecked by them and the
survival zoo has been destroyed by a bleeding heart cult doctrine that uses
mindless zombies and dupes to assist in helping end the life of these animals.
One can help the
animals now by taking a trip to any zoo or wildlife park to actually help the
animals by being the animal’s friend. And tell big corpor
Starved lion's heartbreaking 'cry
for help' after being trapped in war zone zoo for months
This heartbreaking
video has captured the moment an emaciated lion roars in pain from his blood-soaked cage
after getting trapped in a warzone zoo.
The once
magnificent creature is now under-nourished and trapped in a urine and
blood-soaked cage.
Staring from
behind rusted bars in the enclosure, which is barely a few feet wide, this king
of the jungle almost seems to be crying for help trapped at Taiz Zoo , in war-torn Yemen.
The
Middle-Eastern country has been in the middle of a bloody civil war since March
last year and the human cost has already been sickening.
But in the
middle of air raids and tank shells one man and a small group of volunteers
cross the front line every day to go
How Zoos Lost
Their Bars
In the
weeks after Harambe, the lowland gorilla, was shot when a 3-year-old boy fell
into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, I began to notice peculiar news
stories that otherwise wouldn’t have attracted my attention. A leopard in a
Utah zoo slipped through
the mesh that separated it
from the public, forcing visitors to huddle in the gift shop until it was
caught. A black bear cub
briefly escaped its handlers while
being moved between enclosures at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio (it was eventually
sedated and returned). Georgian police killed a tiger that had, in its own turn, killed a man after
escaping its enclosure. Just last week in Brazil, a jaguar exhibited in the
Olympic torch ceremony broke free from its chains, moving freely until it
too was shot after attacking a soldier. When animals and
humans are close enough to one another, mishaps happen in both
directions—humans get in, and animals get out. Invariably, both suffer.
British Water
Testing Company Helping London Zoo Keep its Aquatic Inhabitants Safe
ZSL London Zoo has
one of the largest collections of aquatic life in the UK, including some of the
rarest species of fish and amphibians. This diversity creates unique water
quality demands as each species often requires very specific water conditions
to survive, with a slight change in conditions being potentially
life-threatening. Regular, highly accurate water testing is therefore a
critical part of managing the aquatic collections. To help ensure optimum water
quality for all aquatic species, the Zoo has opted for water testing equipment
from British company Palintest. The aquarium team utilises the Photometer
7100 for monitoring chlorine, alkalinity, phosphate, ammonia, nitrite,
potassium and pH. The herpetology (amphibian) team also uses the Photometer
7100, but in addition uses electrochemical testing products, including
Palintest’s Micro 600 pH meter and a Micro 800 dissolved oxygen (DO) meter
as part of their water quality monitoring protocol. The feedwater for both the
aquarium and herpetology se
Fresh hope for the endangered ptarmigan as 4 chicks
hatched
Four ptarmigan chicks have
hatched at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, marking a second consecutive year
of successful artificial incubation of the endangered species’ eggs.
Ueno Zoo in Taito Ward announced
on June 27 that the four chicks hatched from eggs in succession between 9 a.m.
and 9 p.m. on June 26. They each weighed between approximately 19 and 20 grams.
The four eggs were collected from
nests in Mount Norikura
Elusive capybara captured
after escape from Toronto zoo
The adventures of two furry
fugitives that broke out of a Toronto zoo came to an end on Tuesday, when the
second of two elusive capybaras was trapped.
The tale of the two large rodents
has captivated the city ever since the animals, which resemble a heavy,
tailless beaver with short legs, broke out of the High Park Zoo in late May.
The search for the pair inspired
the hashtag "CapybaraWatch" online, sparked parody Twitter accounts
posting from the rodents' perspectives and turned the male and female creatures
into social media celebrities of so
Why
People Keep Taking Deadly Selfies With Animals
The
photos, or the stories behind them, are horrifying.
Last
week a group of lifeguards and tourists in the Dominican Republic pulled a
shark from the water and posed
for photos with it until it died.
It
was just the latest in a disturbing new trend of people trying to take selfies
with a wide variety of wildlife, ranging from seals and swans to elk and
even lions.
Sometimes,
as in the case of the shark, the animals die as a result of these interactions.
Other times people put themselves at risk. Last month a Chinese man died
while trying to take a selfie with a walrus at a zoo. A year ago—long
before the infamous case where tourists put a bison calf in their car—a visitor
to Yellowstone National Park was gored
and tossed into the air by an adult bison while she tried to pose for
a photo just six yards away from the massive animal.
What
drives this risky behavior?
Part
of it, it seems, is just human na
15-year-old boy
savaged by a wild hyena while sleeping in a tent in South Africa’s Kruger
National Park
A TEENAGE boy had his bones “crushed like a packet of crisps”
after being attacked by a hyena as he slept in a tent on a family camping trip.
According to The Sun,
Erco Janse van Rensburg described the sound of his own bones being crunched by
the predator after it launched the pre-dawn attack on him in South Africa’s
Kruger National Park in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It’s believed
the savage assault only came to an end when the 15-year-old’s uncle was woken
by the sound of the boy being “dragged like a blanket” past his own tent.
The boy’s uncle
chased the animal away.
The teenager is
recovering in hospital in Johannesburg after undergoing multiple surgeries to
reconstruct his face.
Rangers at the
world-famous safari park are now hunting the hyena, which squeezed through a
hole in the fence that w
What It's Really
Like to Work With Animals at SeaWorld
Growing up in the
Midwest, thousands of miles away from the ocean, Jody Westberg dreamed of
working with sea animals. A family vacation to San Diego at 12 solidified her
goal: get a job at SeaWorld some day. She studied biology, spent her summers working with
the farm animals in her 900-person town in South Dakota, and transferred to Cal
State San Bernardino in Southern California her last year of college to be
closer to SeaWorld.
More than 20 years into
her career, Westberg is the stranded animal coordinator at SeaWorld San Diego,
overseeing its animal rescue and rehabilitation
program.
The program — an integral part of SeaWorld's 10 parks — has rescued more
than 28,000 distressed animals since 1964.
I'll never forget the first time I
kneeled down with my bucket of fish to start hand-feeding penguins. It was an
area with 300 to 400 penguins, and they all started to move toward me. One fat
penguin full of personality named King Tut walked right up to me and stared at
me like, "Who is this new girl?" I gave him a fish and he instantly
became one of my favorites. Penguins all have distinct personalities, almost
like dogs. They're curious, and they're loyal. They are monogamous and mate
with the same penguin every year. But sometimes you will have male penguins
that leave their nest to check out [the female penguin] at their neighbor's
nest. During the breeding season, it can become a lot like a soap opera.
My first job at SeaWorld was as an
assistant in the accounting department. After a year, a job opened up with the
aviculture team [the group of keepers and scientists that cares for all the
park's birds]. Even though most animal teams hire for entry-level positions
from within the park, I had to go through several interviews. For the first six
mont
USDA Issues Report
Into Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo; Owner Responds
Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo is under fire once again. The
USDA issued a report on the business, claiming the zoo let
visitors handle tiger cubs that were too large.
This all
comes after the zoo was called into question in July about the care of the
cubs, but the owner said this is all a misunderstanding and everything is
under control.
"All
this inspection that was here is me and my inspector both agreeing that we will
just stop the photos for the season," said Hovatter.
That's
what owner Bryan Hovatter had to say after the USDA's annual
inspection into the business. The report claims that the business was allowing
the public to come into contact with tiger cubs that were too large, too
strong, and too aggressive. But Hovattter said that's not the case.
"There's
a window of working tigers. There's really not something sketched in law that
we can start a cat out at this age and you have to stop him at this age. That's
not in the law books, whatsoever. We work our tigers as w
The Role Of Zoos In An Ever-Changing World
Every day,
Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited zoos open their doors to the
public, inviting people to witness the animals in their care. Many of the
people visiting will be attending with the goal or hope of being entertained.
They’d like to spend a fun day outside of their homes. They’d like to tempt
their children away from screens and media. They’d like to see unusual sights —
creatures they could never hope to see in their own backyards, even if, once
upon a time, their backyards would have been the roaming grounds for those very
animals.
It’s possible that
some of these visitors will think of the zoo as a place built solely for the
purpose of their entertainment. They will go into their visit expecting to be
distracted from the world in the same way a movie or a theme park or a bowling
alley is meant to distract them. It’s not a terrible thing, to want to be
entertained. It’s not a terrible thing to be fascinated by animals, or to hope
to see them closer. It’s just that those wants and needs are not the sole
reason for the existence of the modern, AZA-accredited zoo, and they haven’t
been for some time.
Believing you’re
visiting a theme park where animals are on display purely for your
entertainment does not make it so. Even if you do come away from the visit
entertained. In fact, a three-year, nationwide study found that: “Visitors
arrive at zoos and aquariums with specific identity-related motivations, and
these motivations directly impa
China reports H5N1 avian influenza in two African
lions at Hubei Zoo
Officials with the
Hubei Provincial People’s Government, in a Monday news release (computer
translated), reported on two African lions at the Hubei Zoo that were infected
with H5N1 avian influenza
Two African lions (1
male, 1 female) at the city zoo that demonstrated high fever and other
abnormalities. They were taken to isolation to identify the cause of the
illness and to get treatment. The male African lion’s condition suddenly
deteriorated and he died soon afterwards. The female African lion was treated
by the Changchun military Medical veterinary hospital, Huazhong Agricultural
University and other emergency experts and since been recovered.
It doesn’t appear
that other zoo animals were affected.
Samples were taken
at thee autopsy on the male lion. The Conservancy Military Medical Veterinary
Hospital detected H5N1 influenza virus that matched 99 percent to the strain of
virus that that was isolated from a white tiger in 2
Four Tons of ‘Plastic’ Discovered to Be Smuggled
Pangolin Scales
Hong Kong officials
made one of the largest ever seizures of African pangolin scales on Thursday
after discovering 4.4 tons (4,000 kilograms) of scales hidden in cargo labeled
“sliced plastics” from Cameroon, according to a press release from the government.
The haul is
estimated to represent between 1,100 and 6,600 pangolins and be worth $1.25
million (HK$9.8 million), according to the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international conservation organization.
Pangolins, also
known as scaly anteaters, are nocturnal mammals found in Africa and Asia whose
populations have plummeted in recent years. They gained recognition a few years
ago when wildlife experts gave them the unhappy distinction of being the most trafficked
mammal in the world. More than a million pangolins have been illegally plucked
from the wild during the past decade to satisfy d
FIVE important elements of animal training plans. .
In this podcast
episode I re-connect with Debbie Marrin, Director of training and behavioral
husbandry at San Francisco Zoo, California, USA. You can learn more about
Debbie in a previous podcast episode we did together by clicking HERE. In this
episode we discuss some important elements involved in writing animal training
plans. We cover 5 main areas, these are as follows (See below podcast);
The Antwerp and Planckendael zoos ban cigarettes
The Antwerp and
Planckendael zoos are preparing to ban cigarettes from their premises in the
next few weeks.
In Antwerp zoo,
smoking will only be authorised in 6 distinct zones from mid-July. It will be
authorised in 8 zones in Planckendael from August. The Gazet van Antwerpen and
Het Nieusblad reported on this story on Saturday.
The parks promise
the smoking zones will be pleasant, and they will not fine those who do not
respect the rules. “We are convinced peo
Professional Development Grants (PDGs)
Professional
Development Grants (PDGs) provide support for mid-career conservationists to
pursue short-term, non-degree training to upgrade their knowledge and skills.
These trainings can include short courses, certificate trainings, or
conferences among other training opportunities. Mid-career conservation
professionals from select WWF-US priority countries must meet all of the
eligibility criteria to be considered for a grant.
Applicants may
request up to $6,500 for the proposed training.
Belize (Mesoamerican
Reef)
Bhutan
Bolivia (Amazon)
Cambodia
Cameroon (Congo
Basin)
Central African
Republic (Congo Basin)
Colombia (Amazon,
Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Dem. Republic of
Congo (Congo Basin)
Ecuador (Amazon and
Galapagos)
Fiji (Coral
Triangle)
French Guiana
(Amazon)
Gabon (Congo Basin)
Guatemala
(Mesoamerican Reef, Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Guyana (Amazon)
Honduras
(Mesoamerican Reef)
Indonesia
Kenya (Coastal East
Africa)
Laos
Madagascar
Malaysia
Mozambique
(Primeiras e Segundas marine area, Quirimbas, Lake Niassa Aquatic Reserve,
Ruvuma Landscape)
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal (Terai Arc
Landscape, Sacred Himalayan Landscape, Chitwan Annapurna Linkage)
Papua New Guinea
(Coral Triangle)
Paraguay
Peru (Amazon,
Eastern Pacific Ocean)
Republic of Congo
(Congo Basin)
Solomon Islands
(Coral Triangle)
Suriname (Amazon)
Uganda
Vietnam
Zambia
Last puma cub in
Karachi zoo ‘mauled to death’
The city zoo
suffered a major blow on Thursday when it lost its last surviving puma cub,
sources told Dawn.
The cub, they said,
was apparently mauled to death by adult pumas housed in the adjacent part of
the enclosure, which was separated from the cub-mother area with an iron
grille.
The tragic incident,
sources said, happened the day when the cub, being hand-reared by the zoo
staff, was to become a two-month-old.
“Initially, the
staff couldn’t find the baby when they went to feed it in the morning in its
enclosure that the cub shared with the mother.
“Later, its mauled
body was spotted in the adjacent enclosure housing a pair of pumas,” said a zoo
official on condition of anonymity.
The cub was brutally
attacked; its back along with hind legs was eaten away while there were severe
injuries on its throat.
“I am hugely
disappointed. We were so sure that it will live and survive successfully,” said
zoo director Fahim Khan, adding that the senior director culture, sports and
recreation Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had inspected the zoo
enclosure after being informed about the incident.
He accused his staff
of negligence and said, “I am not satisfied with their version of the incident.
T
Some big cats from
Tiger Temple in trouble
A tiger rescued from
the notorious Tiger Temple has died and some of the other 147 big cats are
struggling to adjust to their new surroundings and a diet very different from
the cooked food they used to...
The Deep becomes
UK's first attraction to display and breed rare Mexican snake
The Deep has become
the first zoo or aquarium in the UK to display and successfully breed the rare
Lake Zacapu Garter snake.
On 27 June the
attraction welcomed the arrival of 7 hatchlings, 3 males and 4 females. The
adults (1 male, 2 female) arrived at The Deep in February 2016 and have being
living behind the scenes whilst their new home is built.
This new exhibit
highlights fragile river habitats
Judge: Zoo owners
don't have to pay fees for group that sued
The owners of a
private Iowa zoo won't have to pay the legal fees of a national group that
successfully sued to force the removal of endangered lemurs and tigers
Orangutan Goes On
Loose In Florida Animal Park
Visitors had to be
evacuated from part of an animal theme park when an orangutan escaped from its
enclosure and climbed trees.
Video footage showed
the large female sitting about 20ft above a large crowd at Busch Gardens Tampa
Bay.
At one point, the
orangutan drops to the floor and climbs on to a display board, prompting
screams from some of those standing nearby.
A witness told Fox
News: "It climbed up out of the habitat and towards the guest area, just
near the Zambia Smokehouse, which is in Stanleyville."
Some of those in the
park told how they were suddenly told to move.
Bianca Guzman told
the Tampa Bay Times: "They didn't really share much of what was going on.
They just to
African Safari
offers $5K reward in vandalism incident
African Safari
Wildlife officials are offering a $5,000 reward after the park was broken into
and vandalized sometime after closing Tuesday evening.
Large limbs were cut
off trees and trunks were slashed, according to a news release from the park. A
large, valuable pine tree outside of the fenced enclosure was completely cut
down.
The release said no
animals were harmed in the incident.
Charlie Cunningham,
of the Danbury Township Police Department, investigated the scene after the
reported break-in.
The investigation
found that a fence around the property had been pried away from its posts by
the unknown perpetrators. Once inside, the trees along the park’s entrance road
were found to be damaged.
African Safari
Wildlife Park officials said Friday they do not know if the vandalized trees
will be able to survive.
The total cost of
the damage is estimated to be more than $50,000.
The owners of the
park are offering a $5,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest and
conviction of the perpetrators.
Those responsible,
as well as anyone complicit in the incident, could face charges of breaking and
entering, vandalism and destruction of prope
Report on South Lakes Safari Zoo
Wildlife parks
refuse Tasmanian Devil vaccinations as Tasmanian government persist with trials
Some wildlife parks
in Tasmania and New South Wales have been refusing to provide healthy Tasmanian
devils to take part in a vaccination trial for a deadly facial cancer.
But despite that,
the Tasmanian Government is pushing ahead with the program.
As Felicity Ogilvie
reports.
FELICITY OGILVIE:
The Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease is one of the few contagious cancers
in the world.
Professor Greg Woods
from the Menzies Research Institute at the University of Tasmania is developing
a vaccine to protect devils from the cancer.
His team is testing
the vaccine by inoculating 32 animals and releasing them into the wild.
GREG WOOD: We know
that in the devils that are immunised, they are producing an immune response,
but we've got no idea whether that's going to be protective and the only way to
determine that is to put it into a real situation, which is why we're releasing
immunised devils into the wild.
FELICITY OGILVIE:
Hundreds of healthy Tasmanian devils are in a breeding programs around the
country.
But some wildlife
park owners are worried about a request from the Tasmanian Government to hand
over some of their animals for the vaccine trial.
Tasmanian Wildlife
Park owner Androo Kelly is holding back.
ANDROO KELLY: It's
the actual concept at this stage of releasing healthy animals that have been,
you k
Foto finds Sun bears
in a ‘19th century zoo’
Investigators from
Friends of the Orangutans Malaysia (Foto) are livid at the conditions animals
are forced to live in at the Miri Crocodile Farm (MCF).
In a press statement
issued Thursday, its director Upreshpal Singh revealed that their investigators
had recently gone to the farm after receiving numerous complaints of cruelty
and exploitation of wildlife from concerned members of the public.
“At MCF, we found
three Sun bears forced to live in appalling conditions. These Sun bears are
visibly stressed and are suffering from zoochosis as a result of living in a
concrete tomb without enrichment.”
“No readily
available, clean drinking water was seen. These are conditions which resemble a
19th-century zoo. Sun bears are a protected species in Sarawak and with many
bear experts calling for urgent action to prevent their extinction in the wild.
These bears and other animals at the farm urgently need help.”
Foto also learnt
that the management of MCF offered farm visitors opportunities to take photos
with a Sun bear cub.
“According to a
staff, this cub is taken (away from its mother) from an enclosure and returned
to it at the end of the day. Although no evidence of this practice could be
determined by our investigators, it seems far more likely that the bear
permanently resides in a barren metal cage next to the photo session area.
Needless to say if this is true, it is extremely cruel to take this cub away
from its mother so farm visitors can have their photographs taken with it.”
“It seems obvious
that it is also extremely dangerous for both the bear and the public as the cub
could at anytime, without warning, maul a farm visitor with its very large
claws and when this happens would this just be the fault of the irresponsible
and abusive MCF management or also the failing of the wildlife authorities in
Sarawak who have allowed this practice to continue for almost 20 years despite
repeated complaints from the public and media? Sun bears are extremely strong
Whipsnade Zoo rhino
accident: Gates 'should be pinned'
A zoo has been urged
to make safety improvements to sliding gates after a senior keeper was injured
by a rhino.
The recommendation
from Central Bedfordshire Council follows an accident at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in
2014.
The incident left a
senior zookeeper, in his 50s, with injuries to the chest, abdomen and pelvis.
However, the zoo
said it deemed the recommendation "unnecessary", adding that no
improvement measures or statuto
Correcting the Myth
of the Amercian Jaguar
No evidence of
Jaguar Breeding Populations in New Mexico or Arizona, after the Pleistocene Era
I Hope the Zoos will be well represented....and not the 'declawed' ones...if you know who I mean.
Centre red-flags
tiger safari project in Corbett reserve
The Centre has red
flagged a proposed tiger safari project in Uttarakhand's Corbett National Park
and asked the state government to first comply with wildlife norms.
It cited the central
government's recent decision to stop tiger safari project in Madhya Pradesh's
Pench National Park citing alleged violation of rules.
The Uttarakhand
forest department had in August last year sought permission of the National
Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), a statutory body under the Ministry of
Environment and Forests, to start a tiger safari inside the famous national
park.
The NTCA has asked
the Uttarakhand government to take prior permission from Central Zoo Authority
(CZA).
It may also be
looked into that if the proposal is in conformity with and as per tiger
conservation plan prepared for Corbett reserve, said a letter by the NTCA to
the state, a copy of which was received in reply to an RTI query filed by
wildlife activist Ajay Dubey.
On the issue of the
safari in the Pench National Park, the NTCA had said that it exposes tigers to
poaching. The Madhya Pradesh forest department had failed to take prior
approval from the CZA before construction of tiger safari there, it said.
The tiger population
in the country was estim
China bans consuming
of state-protected wild animals
The amended law
which will take effect on January 1 next year bans the production and sale of
food made from state-protected wild animals and products derived from them.
Bird wings from Age of Dinosaurs found trapped in
amber
Hummingbird-sized
baby Enantiornithes birds lived 99 million years ago
Ninety-nine million
years ago, two baby birds met an unfortunate end and their severed wings became
encased in amber.
Now those
beautifully preserved wings, complete with different kinds of feathers of
different colours still attached to the skin, are revealing new insights about
the evolution of birds.
The amber samples
containing the wings were found by Lida Xing, a paleontologist at the China
University of Geosciences in Beijing who previously worked and studied in
Canada, at an amber market in the Kachin province of Burma, also known a
‘Devastated’: scientists too late to captive breed
mammal lost to climate change
Australian
conservationists spent five months obtaining permissions and planning for a
captive breeding programme for the Bramble Cay melomys. But when they arrived
on the rodent’s tiny, low-lying island, they discovered they were too late.
Transnational conservation in Turkey could save six
threatened bird species
In a great example
of nature conservation knowing no national boundaries, Doğa Derneği (BirdLife
in Turkey), with the support of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of
Birds (BSPB, BirdLife in Bulgaria), MME (BirdLife in Hungary) and the
Ornithological Society of the Middle East (OSME), have launched a new
protection programme for six globally Threatened bird species breeding in
Turkey’s steppes.
The project – which
aims to protect the Sociable Lapwing, Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Eastern
Imperial Eagle, Great Bustard and White-headed Duck – will be implemented in
collaboration with locals living near the species’ habitats.
The Critically
Endangered Sociable Lapwing occurs in the East Anatolian steppes solely during
migration, while the other five species have significant breeding populations
across the region. Turkey is particularly important for the Endangered Egyptian
Vulture: approximately 20 percent of the world’s population and at least one
third of the European population breeds in Turkey.
In the coming weeks
and months, Doğa’s bird experts and social studies teams will be traveling
across the Central Anatolian steppes to meet locals to generate awareness and
develop local conservation plans where these species breed in significant
numbers. Most of main breeding grounds of these species lie within private land
and community pastures, which are highly affected by farming and grazing. Doğa,
BSPB and MME form networks and alliances with locals to secure the best
possible land use and habitat management for the Egyptian Vulture, Eastern
Imperial Eagle and the Steppe Eagle, building on international best practices,
while OSME is supporting Doğa in protecting the White-headed Duck.
“Grasslands and the
primary steppes of Anatolia play a huge role in the conservation of globally
threatened steppic species in Eurasia,” said Doğa’s Conservation Manager Itri
Levent Erkol. “Conservation action on these species was so far mostly in the form
of legal protection. However, this has proven to be insufficient to sa
Bonobos lie about sex to keep the peace
Bonobos (pictured)
are known as the peaceful ape. They’re less aggressive than their chimpanzee
cousins, and when they have disagreements they’re more likely to make love, not
war. Now, a new study reveals one way females keep the peace. In most primate societies,
female genitals swell to advertise that they’re ready to mate, leading to
fighting among males as they jostle for a partner. But in bonobos, the
swellings only indicate fertility half the time, according to a study in the
wild published this week in BMC Evolutionary Biology. The findings confirm what
scientists have observed in captivity. The researchers behind the new study
hypothesize females may have evolved the behavior to gain the upper hand in
mati
Two young female pandas complete ‘survival training’
ahead of release into the wild
Two young giant
pandas at a conservation centre in southwest China will be released into the
wild early next month, official media reports.
The China Research
and Conservation Centre for the Giant Panda in Yaan city in Sichuan province
said the two female pandas – three-year-old Huayan and two-year-old Zhangmeng –
had completed their two-year wilderness training programme at a facility in Wolong
where they acquired the necessary survival skills for the wild, according to
the China News Service.
They will be
released into the Liziping Nature Reserve in Shimian county early next month,
the report sa
Minister visits controversial zoo, promises decree on
exotic imports
Agriculture Minister
Nicos Kouyialis said on Thursday he was looking into the possibility of
preparing a decree for the regulation of imports of exotic animals to Cyprus.
The move comes after
strong reactions to the reported poor conditions of animals at the Melios zoo
in Nicosia, namely one of the two lions that arrived last year along with two
Siberian tigers. Photos show one of the lions, a female, with a severe eye infection.
The Animal Party has
also raised an issue on the recent import of three Eurasian lynxes to the zoo,
which said the animals arrived on Wednesday.
On Thursday Kouyialis went to the zoo along with two veterinary officials.
“My visit was to
make sure that there are no safety issues for visitors and no issues as regards
animal welfare,” Kouyialis told the Cyprus Mail. He added that it appears that
there was nothing amiss but the state vet services would continue monitoring the
facilities.
As regards the lion,
Kouyialis said, it was being monitored by a private vet and also by the state
vet services. He added that it would be given treatment.
The owner of the
zoo, Melios Menelaou, told the Cyprus Mail that the problem with the lion was
known to the vet services ever since it arrived on the island a year ago.
“It is a condition
that was created due to its age. It is 16-years-old,” Menelaou said.
He added that the
problem lay in the fact that even though he had informed the state vet services
when he brought the lions and the tigers a year ago, that he needed a tra
Are petting zoos cruel to animals?
Do close
interactions with the animal world make us feel more passionately about them?
Do they make us want to save them or make us more proactive about their
protection? On a recent trip across Australia, I was struck by how many
wildlife parks and zoos offered kids and adults the experience of hugging a
koala, feeding a wallaby or clicking a selfie with a kangaroo. The latest rage
right now across the Aussie continent is a selfie with this delightful looking
marsupial called the quokka.
While the experience
of getting up close with wild animals at a zoo may leave indelible memories of
your holiday with your children and make for great Facebook posts, what is it
like for the animal? The question gains prominence in the light of the recent
shutting down of the Tiger Temple in Thailand, where you could walk a tiger
cub, click selfies with it and cuddle it.
Around the world,
zoos offer experiences with animals that bring you close to them. In China, you
can cuddle a giant panda, in Adelaide, Australia you could hand-feed a giraffe,
in Denver, US you can waddle beside penguins on their evening walks within the
con
The Plot
Against Wild Animals
In 1900, John
Elfreth Watkins Jr. wrote an essay for Ladies’ Home Journal in which he laid
out a series of predictions for the next 100 years. He got some things
remarkably right, coming close to the mark on things like air conditioning and
the ubiquity of telephones. But, as invariably happens when even the brightest
soothsayers predict in bulk, he got some things really, really wrong.
One thing he didn’t
expect: The way mankind and wild animals would continue to coexist. Watkins Jr.
assumed that if we kept up our prospecting, we’d end up conquering the whole
planet in pretty short order and the natural world would be brought to heel or,
barring that, a zoo.
This didn’t come to
pass. Wild animals
Calgary Zoo Giraffe Delivers Stillborn Calf While
Being Transported
A giraffe that was
travelling from the San Diego Zoo to the Calgary Zoo prematurely delivered a
"non-viable" calf on Monday.
“This is very
difficult news to share with our community,” said Jamie Dorgan, director of
animal care at the Calgary Zoo, in a release.
“Transporting
animals is a delicate process and we take every precaution necessary to ensure
the safety and well-being of the animals during their journey.”
The zoo says the
mother, a five-year-old Masai giraffe, was
Columbus zoo briefly locked down after bear cub gets
loose
Zoo officials
confirmed the zoo was placed on lock down after a seven-month-old female black
bear cub breached her enclosure Saturday.
The zoo says the cub
got out around 11:15am and was sedated with a dart at 11:30am. She was taken to
her sleeping quarters.
The cub is one of
two orphaned wild cubs that were brought to the zoo just a few months ago.
The main zoo
lockdown was lifted just before noon, but the North America region remained on
lockdown until zoo staff could secure the second cub and take it into the bear
building.
The black bear
habitat will remain closed for the rest of the day.
No human or animal
injuries have been reported.
Modernisation of zoo parks on the cards
The governing body
of Zoos and Parks Authority of Telangana (ZAPAT), headed by Minister for
Forests and Environment Jogu Ramanna, on Saturday decided to take up
modernisation of zoo parks in the State by improving facilities for visitors
and increasing enclosures of fauna.
After adopting the
annual plan for 2016-17, the meeting reviewed the conditions of zoos and parks
in the State and decided to increase security by installing high security
fencing and continuous surveillance with closed circuit television cameras.
The Nehru Zoo P
Snow leopard forced to live in captivity in
Gilgit-Baltistan
A majestic beast has
been stripped of its right to live in the wild and has been forced to live in a
cage in Gilgit-Baltistan for nearly four years.
“King of mountains,”
as the snow leopard is called, usually lives at an altitude of 12,000 to 18,000
feet and walks around an area of around 250 kilometres. This particular cat
called Lovely, was deprived of this and lost its independence in December 2012
when it was hardly six months old.
Its mother
apparently deserted the injured cub after it failed to cross a river in
Khunjerab National Park, one of world’s highest parks in Hunza Valley of G-B.
A field team of the
wildlife department spotted it and shifted it to a rehabilitation centre,
followin
Tiger and goat friendship was 'all a PR stunt', says
safari park insider
The friendship
between tiger Amur and goat Timur, intended as the big cat's lunch, was a fake,
said former Primorsky Safari Park Evgenia Patanovskaya.
The odd couple were
shown around the world after they forged their apparent bond.
The ex-PR said that
said that initially when Timur was taken to the Siberian tiger, it was a
'mistake' because the predator was already well fed.
'Amur the tiger just
did not eat the goat Timur, because he was not hungry,' she wrote. 'Since he
did not eat it, I asked the staff of the park to feed Amur, so he would not eat
Timur. That's how we held out for two months.
'They called it
'friendship' of the tiger and a goa
Israel zoo team
arrives
A three-member expert team
comprising a wildlife ranger, head keeper and a supervisor from Tisch Zoo,
Israel arrived here on Sunday to examine the three chimpanzees that were gifted
by Israel to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park.
The Israel Nature Parks Authority (INPA) team will
also conduct an awareness workshop on ‘enrichment and upgrading skills of
animal keepers’ at
A crazed big-cat
lover was thwarted by protective netting when he tried to jump into the Bronx
Zoo’s snow-leopard exhibit, police said Saturday.
The feline
fanatic was prowling around the snow-leopard and red-panda enclosures when he
made a wild leap for the exotic cats a little after 7:30 p.m. Friday,
law-enforcement sources told The Post.
Zookeepers and a
police officer assigned to the zoo acted fast when the man cleared the first
barrier that separates visitors from the cats.
They grabbed him
before he got past the protective netting into the leopards’ enclosure, sources
said.
The unidentified
man ha
Lions and Tigers
Don’t Belong in Zoos. But Some Animals Do.
Black-footed
ferrets once thrived on the North American prairie, with an estimated 5 million
animals occupying some 100 million acres of land from Montana to New Mexico. In
the 19th century, though, America’s expansion west devastated the species.
Prairie was converted into farmland and settlements. Prairie dogs, which the
ferrets relied on for both food and shelter (using the dogs’ burrows for dens),
were eradicated to keep them from competing with livestock for grass. Squeezed
out of their habitat and deprived of their main food source, the ferrets
declined and then disappeared. In 1979, the last captive ferret died, and the
species was presumed extinct.
Then, two years later, a Wyoming rancher’s dog brought home a dead
ferret to its master, leading to the discovery of a small remnant population—100 or so
ferrets that had, against all odds, survived—near the town of Meeteetse. When
disease threatened this group and their numbers started to decline, various
stakeholders came together to decide that the remaining 18 animals should be
brought into captivity and placed in the care of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. They were housed by several zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos
and Aquariums, which today include the Smithsonian Conservation Biology
Institute, the Louisville Zoological Garden, the Toronto Zoo, the Cheyenne
Mountain Zoo and the Phoenix Zoo. The organizations invo
West Kalimantan to Become Hornbill Conservation Center
West Kalimantan Province will
become Hornbill conservation center and captivity.
“We have allocated funds to
prepare for it,” Deputy Chairman, the House’s Commission IV Daniel Johan
told Antaranews in Pontianak on Monday, June 27, 2016.
The captivity and conservation
area will be located in Paloh Sub-district, Sambas District. “But Paloh is not
the only [choice of] location. The alternative is Sintang District,” he said.
The conservation area and
captivity is needed as the bird is an endangered species. Hornbill hunting is
prevalent for their beak.
“The budget for it has been
included in the re
EXCLUSIVE-U.S.
charity loophole enabled trading of 1,300 endangered animals
Last year, after
a Minnesota dentist sparked an uproar by killing a popular lion named Cecil
while on safari in Zimbabwe, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service placed
similar African lions on the endangered species list, making it illegal to
import them as trophies to the United States.
But for African
lions and other threatened and endangered species, there's an exception to this
rule: Hunters, circuses, zoos, breeders and theme parks can get permits to
import, export or sell endangered animals if they can demonstrate that the
transactions will "enhance the survival" of the species.
Often, records
show, this requirement is met in part by making a cash contribution to charity
- usually a few thousand dollars. The practice has angered both animal-rights
activists who say it exploits wildlife and exhibitors who describe the process
as unfair and arbitrary.
In the last five
years, the vast majority of the estimated 1,375 endangered species permits
granted by the Fish & Wildlife Service involved financial pledges to
charity, according to agency documents reviewed by Reuters.
For a $2,000
pledge, the Fish & Wildlife Service permitted two threatened leopard cubs
to be sent from a roadside zoo to a small animal park. After a $5,000 pledge,
the agency approved the transfer of 10 endangered South African penguins to a
Florida theme
Four orangutans escape from Chester
Zoo enclosure
Part of Chester Zoo had to be
closed off this morning after four orangutans escaped from their enclosure
while the Duke of Westminster was visiting.
Two female
Sumatran orangutans and two of their young offspring made their way out of
their enclosed area today (Tuesday, June 28) just after 10am.
A zoo
spokesperson confirmed that Subis and her infants Tuti and Siska, as well as
fellow female Indah, stayed safely within the zoo’s Monsoon Forest building
while primate keepers quickly ushered them back into their enclosure.
Melbourne
Zoo’s baby elephant deteriorating after feeding woes
THE condition of Melbourne Zoo’s baby elephant
continues to deteriorate as keepers say they are struggling to bottle feed the
calf.
The young Asian elephant, born almost two weeks
ago with a rare congenital condition which prevents her from standing, is
currently being fed a mixture of artificial elephant milk formula and her
mother’s milk.
But the zoo’s head vet, Dr Michael Lynch said
the young female was not bottle feeding well and was only taking about half of
what she needed.
“Trying to keep up her nutrition is our
challenge, and we are relying heavily on an intravenous drip to provide both
fluid
Anti-zoo
zealots not helping the animals
Another zoo is going to
close thanks to misinformed dupes and money hungry organizations out for cash
with no regard for the animals concerned.
The whole idea of
captive breeding zoos is to assist endangered animals from being destroyed in
their own habitat.
When all forms of
animals start to become extinct, start blaming these protest groups that have
made jobs for themselves and offer no after-care for the animals.
They get money for
nothing, and they are against the idea of keeping a species alive in the world
that would become poached for bush meat in their own land.
These groups have
no idea of what will happen to the animals after these zoos are
closed. Will most animals be put down and the blood lines will end
forever? No doubt.
Groups against
zoos are basically just looking for funds to support themselves, not the
animals. They move on after another animal’s home is wrecked by them and the
survival zoo has been destroyed by a bleeding heart cult doctrine that uses
mindless zombies and dupes to assist in helping end the life of these animals.
One can help the
animals now by taking a trip to any zoo or wildlife park to actually help the
animals by being the animal’s friend. And tell big corpor
Starved lion's heartbreaking 'cry
for help' after being trapped in war zone zoo for months
This heartbreaking
video has captured the moment an emaciated lion roars in pain from his blood-soaked cage
after getting trapped in a warzone zoo.
The once
magnificent creature is now under-nourished and trapped in a urine and
blood-soaked cage.
Staring from
behind rusted bars in the enclosure, which is barely a few feet wide, this king
of the jungle almost seems to be crying for help trapped at Taiz Zoo , in war-torn Yemen.
The
Middle-Eastern country has been in the middle of a bloody civil war since March
last year and the human cost has already been sickening.
But in the
middle of air raids and tank shells one man and a small group of volunteers
cross the front line every day to go
How Zoos Lost
Their Bars
In the
weeks after Harambe, the lowland gorilla, was shot when a 3-year-old boy fell
into his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, I began to notice peculiar news
stories that otherwise wouldn’t have attracted my attention. A leopard in a
Utah zoo slipped through
the mesh that separated it
from the public, forcing visitors to huddle in the gift shop until it was
caught. A black bear cub
briefly escaped its handlers while
being moved between enclosures at the Columbus Zoo in Ohio (it was eventually
sedated and returned). Georgian police killed a tiger that had, in its own turn, killed a man after
escaping its enclosure. Just last week in Brazil, a jaguar exhibited in the
Olympic torch ceremony broke free from its chains, moving freely until it
too was shot after attacking a soldier. When animals and
humans are close enough to one another, mishaps happen in both
directions—humans get in, and animals get out. Invariably, both suffer.
British Water
Testing Company Helping London Zoo Keep its Aquatic Inhabitants Safe
ZSL London Zoo has
one of the largest collections of aquatic life in the UK, including some of the
rarest species of fish and amphibians. This diversity creates unique water
quality demands as each species often requires very specific water conditions
to survive, with a slight change in conditions being potentially
life-threatening. Regular, highly accurate water testing is therefore a
critical part of managing the aquatic collections. To help ensure optimum water
quality for all aquatic species, the Zoo has opted for water testing equipment
from British company Palintest. The aquarium team utilises the Photometer
7100 for monitoring chlorine, alkalinity, phosphate, ammonia, nitrite,
potassium and pH. The herpetology (amphibian) team also uses the Photometer
7100, but in addition uses electrochemical testing products, including
Palintest’s Micro 600 pH meter and a Micro 800 dissolved oxygen (DO) meter
as part of their water quality monitoring protocol. The feedwater for both the
aquarium and herpetology se
Fresh hope for the endangered ptarmigan as 4 chicks
hatched
Four ptarmigan chicks have
hatched at Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, marking a second consecutive year
of successful artificial incubation of the endangered species’ eggs.
Ueno Zoo in Taito Ward announced
on June 27 that the four chicks hatched from eggs in succession between 9 a.m.
and 9 p.m. on June 26. They each weighed between approximately 19 and 20 grams.
The four eggs were collected from
nests in Mount Norikura
Elusive capybara captured
after escape from Toronto zoo
The adventures of two furry
fugitives that broke out of a Toronto zoo came to an end on Tuesday, when the
second of two elusive capybaras was trapped.
The tale of the two large rodents
has captivated the city ever since the animals, which resemble a heavy,
tailless beaver with short legs, broke out of the High Park Zoo in late May.
The search for the pair inspired
the hashtag "CapybaraWatch" online, sparked parody Twitter accounts
posting from the rodents' perspectives and turned the male and female creatures
into social media celebrities of so
Why
People Keep Taking Deadly Selfies With Animals
The
photos, or the stories behind them, are horrifying.
Last
week a group of lifeguards and tourists in the Dominican Republic pulled a
shark from the water and posed
for photos with it until it died.
It
was just the latest in a disturbing new trend of people trying to take selfies
with a wide variety of wildlife, ranging from seals and swans to elk and
even lions.
Sometimes,
as in the case of the shark, the animals die as a result of these interactions.
Other times people put themselves at risk. Last month a Chinese man died
while trying to take a selfie with a walrus at a zoo. A year ago—long
before the infamous case where tourists put a bison calf in their car—a visitor
to Yellowstone National Park was gored
and tossed into the air by an adult bison while she tried to pose for
a photo just six yards away from the massive animal.
What
drives this risky behavior?
Part
of it, it seems, is just human na
15-year-old boy
savaged by a wild hyena while sleeping in a tent in South Africa’s Kruger
National Park
A TEENAGE boy had his bones “crushed like a packet of crisps”
after being attacked by a hyena as he slept in a tent on a family camping trip.
According to The Sun,
Erco Janse van Rensburg described the sound of his own bones being crunched by
the predator after it launched the pre-dawn attack on him in South Africa’s
Kruger National Park in the early hours of Sunday morning.
It’s believed
the savage assault only came to an end when the 15-year-old’s uncle was woken
by the sound of the boy being “dragged like a blanket” past his own tent.
The boy’s uncle
chased the animal away.
The teenager is
recovering in hospital in Johannesburg after undergoing multiple surgeries to
reconstruct his face.
Rangers at the
world-famous safari park are now hunting the hyena, which squeezed through a
hole in the fence that w
What It's Really
Like to Work With Animals at SeaWorld
Growing up in the
Midwest, thousands of miles away from the ocean, Jody Westberg dreamed of
working with sea animals. A family vacation to San Diego at 12 solidified her
goal: get a job at SeaWorld some day. She studied biology, spent her summers working with
the farm animals in her 900-person town in South Dakota, and transferred to Cal
State San Bernardino in Southern California her last year of college to be
closer to SeaWorld.
More than 20 years into
her career, Westberg is the stranded animal coordinator at SeaWorld San Diego,
overseeing its animal rescue and rehabilitation
program.
The program — an integral part of SeaWorld's 10 parks — has rescued more
than 28,000 distressed animals since 1964.
I'll never forget the first time I
kneeled down with my bucket of fish to start hand-feeding penguins. It was an
area with 300 to 400 penguins, and they all started to move toward me. One fat
penguin full of personality named King Tut walked right up to me and stared at
me like, "Who is this new girl?" I gave him a fish and he instantly
became one of my favorites. Penguins all have distinct personalities, almost
like dogs. They're curious, and they're loyal. They are monogamous and mate
with the same penguin every year. But sometimes you will have male penguins
that leave their nest to check out [the female penguin] at their neighbor's
nest. During the breeding season, it can become a lot like a soap opera.
My first job at SeaWorld was as an
assistant in the accounting department. After a year, a job opened up with the
aviculture team [the group of keepers and scientists that cares for all the
park's birds]. Even though most animal teams hire for entry-level positions
from within the park, I had to go through several interviews. For the first six
mont
USDA Issues Report
Into Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo; Owner Responds
Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo is under fire once again. The
USDA issued a report on the business, claiming the zoo let
visitors handle tiger cubs that were too large.
This all
comes after the zoo was called into question in July about the care of the
cubs, but the owner said this is all a misunderstanding and everything is
under control.
"All
this inspection that was here is me and my inspector both agreeing that we will
just stop the photos for the season," said Hovatter.
That's
what owner Bryan Hovatter had to say after the USDA's annual
inspection into the business. The report claims that the business was allowing
the public to come into contact with tiger cubs that were too large, too
strong, and too aggressive. But Hovattter said that's not the case.
"There's
a window of working tigers. There's really not something sketched in law that
we can start a cat out at this age and you have to stop him at this age. That's
not in the law books, whatsoever. We work our tigers as w
The Role Of Zoos In An Ever-Changing World
Every day,
Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)-accredited zoos open their doors to the
public, inviting people to witness the animals in their care. Many of the
people visiting will be attending with the goal or hope of being entertained.
They’d like to spend a fun day outside of their homes. They’d like to tempt
their children away from screens and media. They’d like to see unusual sights —
creatures they could never hope to see in their own backyards, even if, once
upon a time, their backyards would have been the roaming grounds for those very
animals.
It’s possible that
some of these visitors will think of the zoo as a place built solely for the
purpose of their entertainment. They will go into their visit expecting to be
distracted from the world in the same way a movie or a theme park or a bowling
alley is meant to distract them. It’s not a terrible thing, to want to be
entertained. It’s not a terrible thing to be fascinated by animals, or to hope
to see them closer. It’s just that those wants and needs are not the sole
reason for the existence of the modern, AZA-accredited zoo, and they haven’t
been for some time.
Believing you’re
visiting a theme park where animals are on display purely for your
entertainment does not make it so. Even if you do come away from the visit
entertained. In fact, a three-year, nationwide study found that: “Visitors
arrive at zoos and aquariums with specific identity-related motivations, and
these motivations directly impa
China reports H5N1 avian influenza in two African
lions at Hubei Zoo
Officials with the
Hubei Provincial People’s Government, in a Monday news release (computer
translated), reported on two African lions at the Hubei Zoo that were infected
with H5N1 avian influenza
Two African lions (1
male, 1 female) at the city zoo that demonstrated high fever and other
abnormalities. They were taken to isolation to identify the cause of the
illness and to get treatment. The male African lion’s condition suddenly
deteriorated and he died soon afterwards. The female African lion was treated
by the Changchun military Medical veterinary hospital, Huazhong Agricultural
University and other emergency experts and since been recovered.
It doesn’t appear
that other zoo animals were affected.
Samples were taken
at thee autopsy on the male lion. The Conservancy Military Medical Veterinary
Hospital detected H5N1 influenza virus that matched 99 percent to the strain of
virus that that was isolated from a white tiger in 2
Four Tons of ‘Plastic’ Discovered to Be Smuggled
Pangolin Scales
Hong Kong officials
made one of the largest ever seizures of African pangolin scales on Thursday
after discovering 4.4 tons (4,000 kilograms) of scales hidden in cargo labeled
“sliced plastics” from Cameroon, according to a press release from the government.
The haul is
estimated to represent between 1,100 and 6,600 pangolins and be worth $1.25
million (HK$9.8 million), according to the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN), an international conservation organization.
Pangolins, also
known as scaly anteaters, are nocturnal mammals found in Africa and Asia whose
populations have plummeted in recent years. They gained recognition a few years
ago when wildlife experts gave them the unhappy distinction of being the most trafficked
mammal in the world. More than a million pangolins have been illegally plucked
from the wild during the past decade to satisfy d
FIVE important elements of animal training plans. .
In this podcast
episode I re-connect with Debbie Marrin, Director of training and behavioral
husbandry at San Francisco Zoo, California, USA. You can learn more about
Debbie in a previous podcast episode we did together by clicking HERE. In this
episode we discuss some important elements involved in writing animal training
plans. We cover 5 main areas, these are as follows (See below podcast);
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
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About me
After more than 47 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
or on Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an international independent zoo consultant, critic and writer. Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, one time zoo inspector, a dreamer, a traveler, a people watcher, a lover, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.
"These are the best days of my life"
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant        |
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