Thursday, March 28, 2019

Zoo News Digest 28th March 2019 (ZooNews 1013)

Zoo News Digest 28th March 2019  (ZooNews 1013)


elvinhow@gmail.com

 

Dear Colleague,


I really wonder about Kerala: Safari park planned to rehabilitate stray tigers It's a nice idea but surely it is not the answer? It is a very temporary reprieve. There are just too many tigers in a small area of forest. There will be a continual force out of the old, sick and injured to the perimeter where they will become a problem.

The recent elephant losses are a tragedy. I do hope we come up with a cure in the near future.




"good zoos will not gain the credibility of their critics until they condemn the bad zoos wherever they are." Peter Dickinson


Lots of interest follows. 


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Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 109,000+ Followers on Facebook( and over 109,000 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 900 Zoos in 155+ countries? That the subscriber list for the mail out reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.

I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,
not DYSFUNCTIONAL zoos.
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Top Brazilian award for Qatar's Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
The Brazilian government, through its embassy in Doha, has awarded the Order of Rio Branco to Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation on Sunday for helping preserve, breed, and save the Brazilian ‘little blue macaw’ from extinction.

The species, also known as the Spix’s macaw, was popularised by animated film ‘Rio’ in 2011 and has been considered officially extinct in the wild since 2000.

But today, about 130 of these birds are being taken care of in private institutions in Qatar, Germany and Brasil where they have been able to breed and multiply in safety.

“We are very proud and honoured to say that this is the very first time that the Brazilian government bestowed such award to a Qatari institution. We have already awarded some Qatari citizens but not a Qatari organisation,” said Brazilian ambassador Roberto Abdalla who handed over the award to Sheikh Hamad bin Saoud al-Thani, who owns Al Wabra.


A Contract Dispute at the Zoo Turns into a Night at the Opera
Dane County, Wisconsin, is moving forward to replace the Henry Vilas Zoological Society (HVZS), its fundraising and grounds operating partner for the last 103 years, having decided to part ways during a long antagonistic negotiating process. Still, some remain skeptical about whether or not the nonprofit divorce is the right move.

The shift has been said to have been sparked by a review of the zoo itself, which is run by the county, by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Though the review did raise concerns about future accreditation, HVZS’s zoological vice chair Amy Supple said “the AZA has never mentioned an issue with the nonprofit’s grounds operation or fundraising.”



Animal emotions film raises awareness of Zoo welfare issues
An animal welfare charity has released a film about animal emotions, that delivers simple messaging about good animal welfare and what wild animals held in captivity need to be happy and healthy.

UK-based zoo animal welfare charity Wild Welfare, has released Imagine If, an animated film that discusses animal emotions and asks viewers to imagine if they were a zoo animal, what they might feel.

Very conservative estimates indicate the number of animals held in zoos worldwide exceeds 2.5 million1. Wild Welfare believes that every zoo’s responsibility is to ensure their animals live lives worth living and has produced the short film to raise awareness of some of the current welfare issues facing zoo animals globally.



Jane Goodall sees 'change for the good' as zoos improve conditions for animals
Renowned nature conservationist Jane Goodall, during her visit to the Phoenix Zoo Tuesday, said she has seen a lot of change in zoos throughout the years and has hope for the future of such facilities.

"In my 85 years, I have seen change for the good," Goodall said.

Goodall, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and a United Nations Messenger of Peace, thanked audience members, who were Arizona Center for Nature Conservation trustees and select guests, for their collaboration in making a difference for animals and visitors of the zoo.



Lying, sitting or standing: Resting postures determined by animals' size
Why do we never see cows lying on their sides in fields? In ruminants such as cows, sheep, antelopes, deer and giraffes, the bits of food in the stomach that need to be chewed again are sorted using gravity. In order for the process to work smoothly at all times, the stomach has to stay in the same position relative to gravity whether the animal is standing or lying down. That's the reason why cows always lie on their chests and almost never on their sides. It was therefore assumed that animals that digest food in a different way would be more likely to lie on their sides. To investigate the connection between digestive systems and resting postures in more detail, researchers from the University of Zurich observed 250 mammals in zoos in more than 30,000 rest phases.



 www.zoolex.org in March 2019

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Hello ZooLex Friend,
We have worked for your enjoyment!

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NEW EXHIBIT PRESENTATION

Gorilla Rainforest at Dublin Zoo is home to a breeding group of Western 
lowland gorillas and a male group of red-capped mangabeys. About 200 
plant species in their outdoor exhibit provide forage, cover, outlook, 
enrichment, shade, shelter, screening, colour, structure and an 
impression of a natural habitat.

http://www.zoolex.org/gallery/show/670/

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SPANISH TRANSLATION

Thanks to Eduardo Díaz García we are able to offer the Spanish 
translation of the previously published presentation of "European Otter" 
at Animal Park Goldau in Switzerland.

https://www.zoolex.org/gallery/show/1895/

                      ~°v°~

We keep working on ZooLex ...

The ZooLex Zoo Design Organization is a non-profit organization
registered in Austria (ZVR-Zahl 933849053). ZooLex runs a professional
zoo design website and distributes this newsletter. More information and
contact: https://www.zoolex.org/page/about/


'Destructive’ vultures invade central Pa. once again - this time at Hershey’s ZooAmerica
“Historically, the black vultures were limited to the southeast part of the country,” said Matt Rice, staff wildlife biologist with the USDA Pennsylvania Wildlife Services program. “Over the past few decades - really more specifically in central Pennsylvania over the past five years - we’ve seen a large increase in numbers, and with that, the number of calls we get in terms of damage and conflicts.”

While previous calls to Rice’s office have been everything from individual homeowners or restaurants to boroughs and townships, this year they received a call from ZooAmerica.

Thus far at ZooAmerica, the conflict comes from the vultures competing with the zoo animals for the food left for them by zoo staff. Representatives for ZooAmerica were



Joe Exotic's jury shown his online death threats
The jury Tuesday in a murder-for-hire trial saw more than a dozen videos and Facebook posts of Joe Exotic threatening to kill his chief critic, Florida animal sanctuary operator Carole Baskin.

Baskin told jurors she took the "onslaught" of threats seriously, keeping a gun beside her bed at night and getting a concealed carry permit to take it with her to work.

"I felt like my life was in danger," she said. "I believe that he blames me for everything that's gone wrong in his life."






Saving the ‘Asian Unicorns’: How do you protect what you can’t see?
There’s a mysterious creature lurking in the misty mountains of Southeast Asia. It has the body of a large deer, the horns of an antelope and the ability to turn invisible.

Okay, the animal known as the saola (pronounced SOW-la) can’t really turn invisible, but sometimes it feels that way to people trying to protect saolas. Scientists didn’t even know saolas existed until 1992, even though the animals are quite big and can weigh up to 200 pounds!

“It may be the largest animal in the world that’s never been seen in the wild by a biologist,” said Bill Robichaud, a scientist who works to save animals from extinction with an organization known as Global Wildlife Conservation, or GWC for short.



‘ABANDONED’: Zoo in Spain slammed as bears and tiger left in ‘sad state’ after it suddenly closed
TWO bears, a tiger, four baboons, fallow deer and some other animals have been ‘abandoned in a sad state’ in the south of Spain after a zoo suddenly closed its doors to the public more than two months ago.

The animal charity Proyecto Gran Simio (Great Ape Project) has now denounced the zoo to Seprona, the animal welfare branch of the Guardia Civil, for the ‘chaotic situation’ after the municipal authorities closed the Navarro Zoo in Ayamonte (Huelva).

The charity claims that there are still animals at the zoo that are being kept in bad conditions and without the authorities knowing what they should do with them.
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2019/03/27/abandoned-zoo-in-spain-slammed-as-bears-and-tiger-left-in-sad-state-after-it-suddenly-closed/#.XJt5C5gzY2w


Citizen moves court against Lahore Zoo for not acquiring new elephant
The Lahore High Court on Tuesday heard a petition against the Lahore Zoo for not keeping an elephant for last two years, ARY News reported.

According to details, a citizen named Mohammad Fawad Mughal filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, in which he maintained that the lone female elephant of the zoo, Suzi, had died two years ago.

The petitioner held the view that the Lahore zoo was frequented by people from far-flung areas, who came here to marvel at the rare animals.



Joe Exotic played along with set-up attempt, attorney says
Cat breeder Joe Exotic already had been planning to leave behind the zoo he founded when new owner Jeff Lowe and a "hapless crony"of Lowe tried to set him up, his attorney told jurors Monday.

"He had had it, he was ready to go and he started unloading his inventory," assistant federal public defender Bill Earley said in an opening statement at the former gubernatorial candidate's murder-for-hire trial.

He had even "cozied up" to his longtime nemesis, PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, as part of his extra strategy from the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park, the attorney said.



The Benefits of Zoos and Aquariums
For today’s post, I have decided to tackle the benefits of zoos and aquariums. I was prompted to write this article when I saw The Rocks recent Instagram post of him posing with a sea lion. The comment section of this post was upsetting, to say the least, there were a few supportive voices saying it was a nice picture, but the loudest voices on the post were saying things like “OMG stop supporting captivity…. you have the influence to help them not encourage people to see them as strictly entertainment” and “Unfortunate that you choose to support captivity”. In today’s media, there are many loud voices calling for the shutdown of animal care facilities across the world, especially with social media platforms featuring contextless, education-less, anti-zoo content. I’m by no means saying that there is nothing wrong with zoo’s and aquariums, there are pros and cons to everything and since the cons seem to be widely understood and perpetuated, (whether they are true or false) in this article ill simply be going over the benefits of zoos and aquariums. Let’s start off by debunking some myths and misconceptions surrounding zoos and aquariums.



Without intervention, Iran will effectively make environmentalism a crime
Dr. Ladan Boroumand is the founder and research director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation for Human Rights in Iran and the Omid Memorial Human Rights Library, and a Reagan-Fascell Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy. Irwin Cotler is an international human rights lawyer, former minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada, and longtime parliamentarian who currently chairs the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

A court in Tehran will soon decide whether trying to protect the environment is a capital offence in Iran.

Eight members of Iran’s most prominent environmental organization, the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), are being tried for simply conducting surveys of the endangered Asiatic cheetah. Four face the death penalty, including a British-Iranian-American citizen, while the rest face more than a decade in prison.

And it’s a trial that symbolizes a broader assault on environmentalism in Iran.



Financial planning required to keep elephants in zoos in the United Kingdom in accordance with the Secretary of State's Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for the next 30 years
In June 2017, the Secretary of State's Standards of Modern Zoo Practice (SSSMZP) were updated with an appendix relating specifically to elephants (Appendix 8.8: Elephants). This update was published to bring elephant management standards in line with recognized advancing best practice. All zoos in the UK holding elephants are inspected against the new appendix, in accordance with the Zoo Licensing Act 1981, by dedicated Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)‐appointed inspectors. Achieving the standards set out within the new appendix will require financial investment and careful planning from all the zoos holding elephants within the UK. At the time of writing, the annual cost of keeping a breeding group of elephants at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, UK, was calculated from data collected over the last 10 years and the financial investment required to achieve SSSMZP compliance was estimated. The commercial benefit that elephants bring to ZSL Whipsnade Zoo was also quantified using feedback from visitor surveys. The cost of keeping a breeding herd of elephants at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo was estimated at £593 021–£641 863 per year, excluding indirect staffing costs, ground rent and contributions made by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) to field‐conservation projects. Costs for achieving SSSMZP compliance will be considerably greater with substantial capital investment required. The commercial benefit was found to be extensive; with predicted significant increased visitor dwell time and secondary spend in the presence of elephants. Using ZSL Whipsnade Zoo as an example, this paper aims to consider holistically the financial costs when planning and implementing an optimum, welfare‐centred, sustainable future for elephants in zoos.



San Diego and giant pandas: A match made more than 30 years ago
San Diego's love for giant pandas has been a 30-year commitment.

Since 1987, when the zoo hosted two pandas (Basi and Yuan Yuan) for 200 days, San Diego has been enthralled with the giant black-and-white bears.

What would eventually follow would be a 12-year partnership with China's Wolong Panda Preserve to support research and conservation of the animal — and a local appetite as big as a panda's to see the animal up close.



Chester Zoo's baby elephant now showing symptoms of killer disease
Chester Zoo ’s two-year-old Asian elephant calf Indali Hi Way is now showing symptoms of a killer disease but continuing to respond well to treatment.

The result came up in one of three weekly blood tests meaning Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) was detected at the earliest possible moment.

Specialists remain hopeful Indali, described as ‘a little fighter’, will pull through.



Koalas should be given endangered listing, environment groups say
Koala populations on the Australian east coast have diminished to the extent the species should now be considered “endangered”, environment groups have said, amid concern that existing protection measures have failed to halt the creeping loss of critical habitat.

In south-east Queensland, once a stronghold for koala populations, habitat continues to be bulldozed through ineffective offset strategies, loopholes in development restrictions and poor planning for population growth, the groups said.



The Cat Who Single Handedly Rendered a Species Extinct
When humans and all they bring move into a new area of the planet, it’s hard to know what the impact will be on the local habitats. Even when we’re trying not to, human habitation can have a major impact on the land around them, influencing the local flora and fauna in unexpected ways. One excellent example of this phenomenon is that of the extinction of the Lyall’s wren.

According to New Zealand Birds Online, the entire species was both discovered and made extinct by a cat belonging to a lighthouse keeper.



FACT CHECKING NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S STATEMENTS ON CAPTIVE KILLER WHALES
With animals being well respected on this earth that we share with them, many people don’t give enough credit to places that dedicate their lives for these guys. SeaWorld has long been a victim of animal activists painting them as a bad picture for holding killer whales’ captive. National Geographic, a popular tv show that educates the public on animals, now is targeting SeaWorld’s treatment of orcas. It published an article called, “Why orcas don’t do well in captivity.” This kind of motive of theirs is nothing new, as the education tv show has connections with PETA, whose long-desired goals are to eliminate animals under human care. In this article though we will be fact-checking some of the information given in National Geographic’s article written about orcas under the theme park’s caring hands.

  
Giza Zoo: Zizi, the white rhino, dies at 54 years of age
25 March 2019: Giza Zoological Garden announced Sunday a white rhinoceros died at 54 years of age at Giza Zoo after it surpassed the usual life span of white rhinos, according to a statement published on the garden’s Facebook page.

Zizi, the rhino, arrived at Giza Zoo on October 22, 1983. White rhinos usually live to about 35 - 50 years of age.

The statement said that vets and workers at the zoo exerted all efforts and prepared food that fits its old age but could not save its life. Zizi was announced dead on Wednesday, March 20, 2019.



Joe Exotic’s Trial Begins
Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage, also known as "Joe Exotic," ran for governor as a Libertarian in 2018, but he is perhaps better known for operating a private petting zoo in Wynnewood, Oklahoma. This week he is on trial in Oklahoma City federal court for allegedly hiring two people to murder wildlife sanctuary owner Carole Baskin.

Baskin runs Big Cat Rescue in Florida, and she has been a vocal critic of Joe Exotic, who kept 1,400 animals, including over 150 tigers, on a sixteen acre property.

“A significant part of our mission has been to stop the mistreatment and exploitation of big cats at roadside zoos particularly those who rip tiger cubs from their mothers at birth to charge the public to pet and take photos with them,” Baskin said. “Maldonado ran, in my view, on



Mātauranga Māori and Western science: two worlds meet to save the one we have
In episode two of the Good Ancestors podcast, John Daniell and Noelle McCarthy look at the role of mātauranga Māori in conservation in New Zealand, and as an education tool at Auckland Zoo.
 The interconnectedness of everything is an essential concept in the Māori understanding of the world. Mātauranga Māori – the knowledge, and understanding of everything in our world – starts with Papatuanuku, the earth mother, and Ranginui, the sky father and that everything is related to them.  We are their uri, their children



Kerala: Safari park planned to rehabilitate stray tigers
Faced with the challenge of human-tiger conflicts, the Forest Department is contemplating a proposal to start a safari park to rehabilitate the captured  animals. Human-tiger conflicts are mostly reported from the fringes of the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, which is home to about 75 tigers. Close to other national wildlife sanctuaries like Nagarhole,  Bandipur and Mudumalai, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary has the second largest tiger population in South India after Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

This year alone, two tigers were captured from human habitations in Wayanad. While a 10-year-old female cat was caught from Noolpuzha mid-January, a 13-year-old male, that severely injured a forest watcher, was captured from Pulpally.  



Amy reports from Laos
Free the Bears was founded by Mary Hutton in 1995 to protect and preserve bears across Asia from the illegal wildlife trade. For decades poachers have killed or captured bears from the wild via hunting or snare traps to then sell the bears locally or smuggle them further abroad. In the 24 years since it was first established, Free the Bears has rescued hundreds of bears from poachers, exotic pet owners, or from people planning to use bear parts or the bear’s bile in traditional medicine. Over 220 of these bears (both Sun bears and Moon bears) are now cared for in sanctuaries established by Free the Bears in Cambodia, Vietnam, and where I am, in Laos.




A Shaping Plan; How To Build A Proper Plan
Training animals requires a lot of communication from both sides. We are not able to talk with our animals but we can build a language that will connect the animal and the trainer. Clear communication is important, to start, we need the animal to understand what a bridge means and have them see us as a positive. It may sound funny, but how are you able to train an animal that runs away from you?

With a bridge stimulus such as a whistle, clicker, another vocal sound or even a hand signal (Watch the presentation about A Deaf Killer Whale HERE) you can tell the animal that it did a good job and reached the criteria you have asked for. To be able to know what we ask for, we need to set a criteria to the behaviour. How do you know what the criteria is?



China reports H7N9 bird flu outbreak in Liaoning province
China reported an outbreak of a highly pathogenic strain of H7N9 bird flu at a zoo in northeastern Liaoning province, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said.

The virus, first detected in a flock of peacocks, infected and killed nine birds in the zoo in Jinzhou city, accordi


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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.

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About me

After more than 50 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and many more before 'hitting the road' and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/

Peter earns his living as an independent international 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, an introvert, a people watcher, a lover, a storyteller, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.

"These are the best days of my life"



photo 
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant

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