Showing posts with label zoo conservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zoo conservation. Show all posts

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Zoo News Digest 23rd February 2017 (ZooNews 945)

Zoo News Digest 23rd February 2017 
(ZooNews 945)



Peter Dickinson

elvinhow@gmail.com

Dear Colleague,

There was a discussion on one of the Facebook zoo groups this week as to whether membership of ABWAK (the Association of British Wild Animal Keepers) was worth it. There were those who thought it was too expensive. If you are a tax paying British citizen then membership can be free. You are entitled to claim for membership to one professional body on your tax form so cost should not be an issue. Some lucky zoo staff are lucky enough to have their employers pay for membership…for anyone in their employ for more than 12 months. If your zoo doesn't do this then I would encourage you to have a word with the directors. It is in 'their' zoos interest to further their staffs education.

I had been working in zoos for several years before ABWAK was formed and attended the very first formative meeting. I saw that such an organisation was important then and I believe it is even more important today. Way back then zoo staff included some rather unsavoury characters and of course none of these attended the meeting. They weren't interested. ABWAK represented from the beginning the cream of the profession as it does so today. ABWAK members are the staff who really care, are eager to learn and contribute.

Remember it was ABWAK which took a leading role in the development of the first nationwide UK ZooKeeping course. This is so important for those who genuinely want to pursue the career. It continues to get better in each phase.

In the discussion on Facebook there were mentions that some of the articles in 'Ratel' (the excellent journal) were of little interest. Well that is up to members. Every one of them can contribute. Believe me you know things and have observed things that none of your peers are aware of. Did you know that 'Animal Enrichment' had not even been "invented" at the time of the formation of ABWAK? In fact it was several years later before the first articles started to appear. The American Association had been going a few years longer (I was a member of that too) did not go into that subject either till later and yet today we recognise it as one of the most important tenets of our profession.

I look back with some pride on one particular issue of 'Ratel' where every single one of the articles was written by present or former members of The Welsh Mountain Zoo staff…an accomplishment which I don't believe has yet been equalled.

I say 'Profession' and look upon myself as a Professional Zoo Keeper regardless of whatever title I hold or have held over the years…..but the 'Profession' is very sadly not fully recognised as such in most parts of the world….and it needs to be. Membership of ABWAK should not be about getting free entry to various zoos. True, it's great when you can get it but really membership is about being stronger together, sharing your knowledge and learning from others.

In recent years we have seen the arrival of the ICZ, The International Congress of ZooKeepers making ABWAK members part of a huge International family of Zookeeping Professionals. So I encourage everyone to be an ABWAK member. If you are not you simply become 'somebody who works in a zoo'.
If you are in the US, Australasia, the Philippines or elsewhere you owe it to yourself and the animals you care for to be a member of your local professional association.




    

Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 52,000 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ 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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http://en.calameo.com/read/001552297e77855cb27da



Protocol delays opening of $272m Dubai Safari, says municipality chief
The opening date of $272 million (AED1 billion) Dubai Safari Park has been pushed back as the municipality adheres to an “animal protocol”, Dubai Municipality director general told Arabian Business.
The safari, which covers an area of 119 hectares in the Al-Warqa Fifth district, was scheduled to open last year, but a confirmed date of opening has yet to be announced. It will be home to 1,000 animal species, of which over 350 will be rare and endangered.
“We should be ready in the next three months, with the opening taking place this year. We have been bringing the animal but there is an ‘animal protocol’ that we need to follow,” Hussain Nasser Lootah said.
“You bring them blindfolded and so they don’t see the new area. They are released slowly so they get use to the new env





Wildlife conservation breeding in Iran
However, for conservation breeding and the implementation of A.R.T. scientists have to know more about reproduction physiology. Artificial insemination in large Felidae can be an important tool. Most of non-domestic felids are endangered because of isolation, habitat destruction, inbreeding and so on.

Research into semen collection methods and cryopreservation of sperm needs scientific collaboration and that’s why vets, conservationists, and also geneticists work together.

Kija (literary meaning daughter) and Rika (literary meaning son) are the two Persian leopards living in captivity in Tehran zoo. Kija is not young enough and despite years of living together the two have not mated naturally for unknown reasons. So recently a team comprising of Iranian and foreign researchers and vets have succeeded in collecting semen from the male leopard, preserving it and waiting for the female to be prepared for future pregnancy.





Africa's Other Elephant Is Fading Fast
When Richard Ruggiero first saw the gold mine from the air, he was reminded of one of Dante’s circles of hell. It In the midst of Gabon’s Minkebe National Park—a huge protected area the size of Belgium—there was “a gaping hole in the forest more than half a mile wide and long.” On the ground, the mine was a “noisy, crowded, polluted, lawless confusion”—a hub of 6,000 miners, prostitution, drugs, and arms trafficking. And amid the chaos, Ruggiero and colleagues found caches of ivory, high-caliber weapons, and huge, grey carcasses. That’s when they knew that the forest elephants of Minkebe were in trouble.

Contrary to popular belief, Africa isn’t home to just one species of elephant—but two. The savannah or bush elephant is the familiar one that tourists see on safaris, and that turns up in nature documentaries. The forest elephant is smaller, darker, straighter of tusk, and rounder of ear. Its i





Japan zoo culls 57 monkeys carrying ‘invasive’ genes
A Japanese zoo has culled 57 native snow monkeys by lethal injection after finding that they carried genes of an “invasive alien species”, officials said Tuesday.

The Takagoyama Nature Zoo in the city of Futtsu in Chiba prefecture east of Tokyo, housed 164 simians which it believed were all pure Japanese macaques.

But the operator and local officials discovered about one-third were crossbred with the rhesus macaque, which in Japan is designated an “invasive alien species”.

A city official told AFP on Tuesday that Japanese law bans the possession and transport of invasive species, including the crossbreeds, and that culling of them is allowed under the law.

He said the monkeys were put to death by lethal injection over about one month ending early February.

The zoo operator held a memorial service for the monkeys at a nearby Buddhist temple to appease their souls, he added.

Snow monkey-rhesus macaque crossbreeds wer





Panthera Statement on Proposed U.S.-Mexico Border Wall And Impact on Wild Cats and Other Wildlife
In the wake of President Trump’s executive order advancing his administration’s intention to erect a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, issued the following statement:

Panthera opposes the construction of a border wall that would disturb the natural movement and dispersal patterns of wildlife, including cougars, ocelots and jaguars, between Mexico and the United States. Fencing has already broken natural connections between wild cat populations in some areas of the border. Further fortification, as proposed by the Administration, would fragment wildlife populations already under pressure. 

“Apex predators like wild cats are among the first species to disappear when humans disrupt and fragment natural landscapes, leading to impoverished ecosystems with impacts on both wildlife and people,” said Dr. Luke Hunter, President of Panthera. “The unique habitats of the borderlands were once inhabited by five species of wild cats. Only two, the cougar and bobcat, are still relatively secure on both sides of the border.”

Panthera’s CEO Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, who envisions a single connected jaguar population throughout its remaining range, added: “Largest of American cats, the jaguar once





Rhino orphanage attacked. Please help.
In a brutal manifestation of how out of control the rhino situation is in South Africa, Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage was attacked, baby rhino/s killed, care-givers savagely beaten and a young woman sexually assaulted.





Nepal’s biggest zoo to be built in Tanahun
Tanahun will soon host the country’s largest zoo. The process to build an ‘animal sanctuary’, at Bhanu-Ghansi Kuwa municipality of Tanahun district, is already in progress, according to Yagya Nath Dahal, assistant spokesperson for Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation. Spread over an area of 425 hectares, the zoo will be home to all animal and bird species found in Nepal. The decision to establish the zoo in Tanahun is in accordance with the government’s policy to build an animal sanctuary in each province. “Our goal is to establish the zoo as a venue for wildlife research,” Dahal informed. “The zoo will also be a milestone in the de - See more at:





5-meter crocodile ripped off man's leg after he PETS its snout while feeding it
- A monstrous 800 kilo crocodile, the star of a Malaysian zoo, attacked a zoo worker that was feeding it

- The victim’s colleague barely managed to pry the croc’s jaws open and pulled the man out of its mouth

- According to the chief of police the crocodile bit the man’s right leg off in the attack and managed to severely mangle the man’s right arm





Himachal saves brilliantly plumaged western tragopan from extinction
 As the population of the western tragopan, a brilliantly-coloured Asian pheasant species, hovers on the brink of extinction globally, Himachal Pradesh is engaged in breeding its state bird in captivity.

The world's only breeding centre in Sarahan town, located some 160 km from this state capital, has 26 breeding birds. Five chicks were born in 2016.

"Currently, we have 12 female and 14 male western tragopans," breeding centre biologist Lakshmi Narasimha told IANS.

The pheasantry is jointly funded by the Central Zoo Authority and the wildlife





Antimicrobial substances identified in Komodo dragon blood
In a land where survival is precarious, Komodo dragons thrive despite being exposed to scads of bacteria that would kill less hardy creatures. Now in a study published in the Journal of Proteome Research, scientists report that they have detected antimicrobial protein fragments in the lizard's blood that appear to help them resist deadly infections. The discovery could lead to the development of new drugs capable of combating bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics.

The world's largest lizard, Komodo dragons live on five small islands in Indonesia. The saliva of these creatures contains at least 57 species of bacteria, which are believed to contribute to the demise of their prey. Yet, the Komodo dragon appears resistant to these bacteria, and serum from these animals has been shown to have antibacterial activity. Substances known as cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) are produced by nearly all living creatures and are an




New study reveals what penguins eat
The longest and most comprehensive study to date of what penguins eat is published this month. The study, published in the journal Marine Biology, examines the diets of gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) at Bird Island, South Georgia over a 22 year period and is part of a project investigating the Southern Ocean ecosystem and its response to change.





Egg-free surrogate chickens produced in bid to save rare breeds
Hens that do not produce their own chicks have been developed for use as surrogates to lay eggs from rare breeds.

The advance -- using gene-editing techniques -- could help to boost breeding of endangered birds, as well as improving production of commercial hens, researchers say.

A team led by the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute used a genetic tool called TALEN to delete a section of chicken DNA.

They targeted part of a gene called DDX4, which is crucial for bird fertility.

Hens with the genetic modification were unable to produce eggs but were otherwise healthy, the team found.

DDX4 plays an essential role in the generation of specialised cells -- called primordial germ cells -- which give rise to eggs.

Researchers say that donor primordial germ cells from other breeds could be implanted into the gene-edited chickens as they are developing inside an egg. The surrogate hens would then grow up to produce eggs containing all





Facial Recognition Software: The Next Big Thing in Species Conservation?
How do you care for the creatures you love? You shoot them with tranquilizer darts, capture them in cages, embed microchips, pierce their ears or make them wear funny collars.

For scientists who monitor endangered species, these are tried-and-true methods to count and track individuals in a given population—along with photography and experts’ sharp eyes. But capturing or sedating an animal can be stressing (and could cause physical harm), and boots-on-the-ground counts can be inconsistent and costly. Sometimes, getting up close and personal with animals isn’t feasible.

So researchers asked a question that’s come to define a generation: Can a computer do this?

If the LemurFaceID system is any indication of preliminary success, it sure can. Biologists and computer scientists at Michigan State University built a facial recognition system that, with a little training, correctly identified individuals in a set of red-bellied lemur photos with





There is a moral argument for keeping great apes in zoos
I get apprehensive whenever someone asks me about my job. I’m a philosopher who works on the question of how language evolved, I reply. If they probe any further, I tell them that I work with the great apes at Leipzig zoo. But some people, I’ve discovered, have big problems with zoos.

Plenty of philosophers and primatologists agree with them. Even the best zoos force animals to live in confined spaces, they say, which means the animals must be bored and stressed from being watched all the time. Other critics claim that zoos are wrong even if the creatures aren’t suffering, because being held captive for human entertainment impugns their dignity. Such places ‘are for us rather than for animals’, the philosopher Dale Jamieson has written, and ‘they do little to help the animals we are driving to extinction’.

But I want to defend the value of zoos. Yes, some of them should certainly be closed. We’ve seen those terrible videos of solitary apes or tigers stalking barren cages in shopping malls in Thailand or China. However, animals have a good quality of life in many zoos, and there’s a strong moral case for why these institutions ought to exist. I’ve come to this view after working with great apes, and it might not extend to all species equally. However, since great apes are both cognitively sophisticated and h





Speciation is not all about good looks: For stick insects, the right partner should smell good too
An attractive scent is just as important as good looks when it comes to choosing a mate -- at least among stick insect populations.

According to a new study, fragrance is an important factor in stick insects' choice of mate. It could explain why, when looks are deceiving, the insects are still able to show a preference for mates from the same species -- a key to evolutionary success.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, are part of an 18-year research programme, in which scientists at the University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway, University of London, examined stick insect populations in California, in the US, to try to understand better what drives new species formation.

In evolutionary terms, the ability to avoid mixing genes with other species is important to preserve differences between species and evolve characteristics that are advan





What Mirrors Tell Us About Animal Minds
A couple of weeks ago, an editor at The Guardian tweeted an image of a bald eagle staring at its reflection in a body of water. “This photo of an eagle taking a hard look at itself is not a metaphor for anything that's been in the news recently,” he wrote.
At the time of this writing, the image has been retweeted 62,000 times.

And it prompted one of my colleagues at The Atlantic to ask: “Are eagles intelligent enough to recognize their own reflections?”

Well.

In March 1838, a young and little-known biologist named Charles Darwin asked the same question. On a visit to London Zoo, he stepped into a cage with an orangutan named Jenny, and marveled as she played with a mirror. He noted that she was “astonished beyond measure” at the glass. She examined it, kissed it, made faces at it, and contorted her body as she approached it. What did she see in the mirror? Did she recognize herself? And perhaps most importantly, how could you even tell?

Psychologist Gordon Gallup Jr. came up with a way, over a century later. In 1970, he got four captive chimps accustomed to a mirror




Republicans begin effort to gut the Endangered Species Act
On Wednesday, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings on legislation to "modernize" the Endangered Species Act, part of a push by Republicans to roll back environmental regulations and protections. The Republicans on the committee, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), and three of the five witnesses at the hearing argued that the 1973 law to keep animal species from extinction impedes oil drilling, mining, and farming, and infringes on the rights of states and private landowners. The proposed legislation would make it harder to list animals on the endangered species list and li





Penguin found decapitated in car park after being stolen from German zoo
A penguin has been found decapitated near a car park after being stolen from a German zoo.

The young bird went missing from the Luisenpark in Mannheim on Saturday, sparking a police investigation.

A passer-by found the penguin’s body on Thursday morning, mounted on a fence on the edge of a nearby car park.




Climate Change Has Already Harmed Almost Half of All Mammals
The effect of climate change on endangered species has been wildly underestimated, a new study has found.
A survey of studies has determined that climate change has had a particularly dire effect on mammals and birds on the endangered species list. That includes about half of the mammals and almost a quarter of the birds on the “red list” kept by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), according to a study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study found that about 700 species on the list were affected by the warming planet.
The findings show that climate change is already a major threat to many species on Earth, not at some vague point in the future, said James Watson, a researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia. Watson said most climate studies on biodiversity focus on the effects climate change could have 50 to 100 years from n




The Future of Zoos: Challenges Force Zoos to Change in Big Ways
For a mother escorting her kids through the Philadelphia Zoo, it was a close encounter of the ferocious kind. Directly in front of her as she strolled down the zoo's main walkway was a Siberian tiger, a 400-plus-lb. carnivore capable of tearing apart a wild antelope. But rather than panic, the family laughed. The tiger was out of its lair, but its pathway was at a safe, meshed-in distance from onlookers, and after a few moments of looking around, the tiger moved on.
The tiger's trail, dubbed Big Cat Crossing, is part of a bigger initiative called Zoo360 that has changed the way humans and animals experience the nation's oldest zoo. There's no question the experience is compelling for the humans. On a recent visit, I watched children drop their lunches in awe of white-faced saki monkeys hanging out in the trees. I witnessed one couple stop mid conversation when a gorilla lumbered overhead, and saw more than a few families startled by the appearance of a large cat that seemed eerily close to them. But the bigger impact of Zoo360, says its chief operating officer, Andrew Baker, may be its effort to transform the experience of animals in captivity.
At a time when scientists know more than they ever have before about the inner lives of animals--and when concerns about animal rights loom large--many experts think that zoos need a major overha





This is What Zoos of the Future Could Look Like
A slew of challenges from animal rights activism to financial pressures have forced the leaders of American zoos to rethink their footprint and purpose.
The cutting-edge zoos that could emerge in years to come look different depending on their location, size and structure. Here are three types—and sizes—of zoo adapted from the thoughts of visionary landscape architect Jon Coe. They represent just the tip of the iceberg for how zoos might change in the coming decades.





Safari Park Educates Indonesians on Animal Welfare
 Recent incidents of animal cruelty in Indonesian zoos, which often keep underfed animals in tiny cages, have led to international outrage, further damaging Indonesia’s already poor reputation in animal welfare.

But there's some good news. Bali Safari and Marine Park, owned by Taman Safari, will now provide animal conservation and education on animal welfare, making them one of a few institutions in Indonesia dedicated to raising awareness and protection of wildlife.

The World Animal Protection currently gives Indonesia an overall Animal Protection Index of D, with A being the highest and G the lowest.

In regards to animals in captivity, the index indicates there is legislation in place already to protect captive animals in Indonesia, but it is only partially applied throughout the country.

A 2015 report published by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry said there are only four wildlife parks in the country, three of them owned by Taman Safari, including the Bali Safari and Marine Park.

Bali Safari and Marine Park's veterinarian, Kadek Kesuma





Galapagos giant tortoises make a comeback, thanks to innovative conservation strategies
The Galapagos Islands are world-famous as a laboratory of biological evolution. Some 30 percent of the plants, 80 percent of the land birds and 97 percent of the reptiles on this remote archipelago are found nowhere else on Earth. Perhaps the most striking example is the islands’ iconic giant tortoises, which often live to ages over 100 years in the wild. Multiple species of these mega-herbivores have evolved in response to conditions on the island or volcano where each lives, generating wide variation in shell shape and size.

Over the past 200 years, hunting and invasive species reduced giant tortoise populations by an estimated 90 percent, destroying several species and pushing others to the brink of extinction, although a few populations on remote volcanoes remained abundant.





An 'Arctic' safari in the Scottish Highlands
The temperature is below zero and a bitter wind is tugging at our clothes. In the distance, the Grampian hills are catching the early sunlight but it’s dark in the shadows of the wood. Curious eyes are trained on us from beneath the trees – a pack of grey wolves are just metres away. It’s rare to see these beautiful creatures at such close quarters: wolves are naturally wary. The privilege of the moment is lost on six-year-old Nelly. Her toes are aching with cold.

We’ve come to Scotland to seek out some of her favourite polar animals, creatures she’s so far enjoyed only in books and wildlife shows on TV – but wolves are not on her list.

With a polar explorer as a father, I feel drawn to all things Arctic. This area of the Highlands has a particular resonance, as it was where my dad spent his final years. It reminded him of north-west Greenland, where we had spent happy years living with a remote Inuit community. Our visit is an opportunity for me to show Nelly this special place and introduce her to the kind of animals I grew up with.
I’m not normally one for zoos, but the Highland Wildlife Park is unique. It’s run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), which also operates the zoo in Edinburgh, and its focus is on threatened species usually found in northerly locations.

In winter, this can feel like an Arctic landscape. The Cairngorms national park has some of Britain’s harshest weather and the heaviest snowfall in Scotland, creating snowfields that stretch to the horizon. Lochs, lochans and waterfalls can be frozen solid. Blizzards are common and temperatures frequently dip below -10C. Hurricane-force winds can blast through the glens, making them feel as wintry as the summits. In the higher altitudes, blizzards,





Zoos to be standardized to combat animal abuse
The government plans to standardize all zoos and conservation institutions in the country following a series of reports of animal abuse at several zoos.

Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said standardization would be stipulated in a ministerial regulation that was being prepared.

“Because [if there’s no standardization], it could create problems, such as those at Surabaya Zoo and Bandung Zoo. These zoos have been criticized by the community,” she said in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, on Saturday.

Siti was referring to mismanagement plaguing the Surabaya and Bandung zoos.



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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


*****
About me
After more than 48 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/

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, 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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Sunday, August 14, 2016

Zoo News Digest 14th August 2016 (ZooNews 935)

Zoo News Digest 14th August 2016 
(ZooNews 935)

Orangutan Portrait is a piece of digital artwork by Larry Linton which was uploaded on July 15th, 2011
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-orangutan-portrait-larry-linton.html


Peter Dickinson

elvinhow@gmail.com

Dear Colleague,

This week I posted out a spoof link on the relationship between Orangutans and Red Haired people. It was amusing and as we are in the run up to 'World Orangutan Day' I thought it well worth posting and after all a little humor never goes amiss. It attracted a massive amount of views. I am happy that most people enjoyed it…..however some people actually believed the article was serious. Others declared it was a fake…of course it was! I don't know about you but I find this extremely disturbing.

As Taman Safari is hosting the next SEAZA Conference I along with others are wondering what they will do about the posing with Orangutans and Tigers? Will it be all swept under the carpet, hidden away, for the duration of the Conference? The real irony of the situation is that during the last SEAZA conference in Singapore the directors of Taman Safari were the adjudicators of the workshop I attended on this very subject.


I note that now the Indonesian Government are preparing guidelines for zoos with the help of the Indonesian Zoo Association. That's great news except I would question which of the zoos will have the strongest say. Sadly if they follow the lead of some the situation then the situation is not going to improve one iota. They need to embrace the guidelines of BIAZA and the AZA and build upon them. I note the article on the story states "obliges the zoos to recruit permanent veterinarians". I think this is a great idea as long as they are not going to follow the direction of some other Asian zoos by believing that 'hiring more vets' will solve their problems. It won't. It is trained, caring professional Zoo Keepers who keep zoos running efficiently.

Sadly we have yet another zookeeper badly injured by a big cat. Yet again this appears to be a case of 'keeper error'. I do hope that she makes a full recovery. We all make mistakes, and we learn from them. In my personal experience some of the very best keepers I know have made major mistakes and given that second chance have become better than the best. They know who they are.

I wonder about the Humboldt Penguins in Mumbai. Fish scarce in the market and so they have to eat " the penguins were being fed fish like smelt, Bombay Duck and eel till now". Most Penguins I know will turn up their beaks at anything out of the ordinary unless they are starving.

Learning of the Greenland Shark reaching 400 years of age I found extremely interesting and at the same time very worrying. I can imagine that an interest has already been stirred in soup from the species.
  
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 26,100 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 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.


I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos, 
not DYSFUNCTIONAL zoos.

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Myths surrounding Isle of Man’s wild wallabies
Throughout the duration of the wallaby project last year, I encountered some Manx myths surrounding the origin and impact of the wallabies. One of the most mysterious aspects of the wallaby story is their origin. When talking to some people about where the wallabies came from, they are firm in their belief that they originated from a private collection or from Glen Helen Zoo, rather than from the Wildlife Park. As part of my project, I spent a lot of time going through the newspaper archives at the Manx Museum and was unable to find any substantive source for these claims. Certainly, there was one wallaby at Glen Helen Zoo, named ‘Rufty Tufty’, but this wallaby was never reported as having escaped. There were numerous wallaby escapes reported from the Curraghs Wildlife Park, including ‘Wanda’ the wallaby who escaped shortly after the park opened and returned later that year. One of the most documented incidents occurred in 1989 when eight wallabies dug under their enclosure and escaped. Unfortunately, the story of the wallabies thins out from 1989. Both wallaby escapes and sightings were infrequently repo





The menu at Dublin Zoo includes rose petals imported from Holland with elephants eating the most
Dublin Zoo spent over €550,000 a year feeding the 400 animals at the zoo.

Dieticians carefully prepare all the food on the menu with some animals even given rose petals which are imported from Holland.

Asian Elephants in the zoo get through 200kg of food a day each.

Their diet takes up most of the yearly budget with €231,000, is spent on vegetation including branches, hay and straw.





Elephant Nandi stuck in Sri Lanka
There's an elephant in the courtroom and Auckland Zoo's not saying a word.
Five-year-old Asian elephant Nandi should already be in her new home at the zoo after being gifted to Prime Minister John Key by Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena in February.
But legal action by more than a dozen community groups has delayed, and may even prevent, her from leaving her current home at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.
The Dharmavijaya Foundation is one of 18 groups who have petitioned the Sri Lankan Court of Appeal in an attempt to keep Nandi in the country.
Their petition reportedly states that Sri Lanka is one of few countries home to the rare and vulnerable elephas maximus species, and that exporting elephants like Nandi to be displayed for commercial purposes is ill-conceived.
A decision was expected this month, but the court has now ordered Nandi remain in Sri Lanka until at least after the next court appearance on September 27.
Local media have indicated the case may become a test case for discontinuing the practice of gifting Asian Elephants to foreign dignitaries and heads of state.
Auckland Zoo has revealed it does not know the details of the petition currently before the court, and will not comment on the case.
But zoo director Jonathan Wilcken spoke out to correct claims Nandi's gifting was for commercial purposes.
"Auckland Zoo does not make money from having elephants, but it is through our elephant programme that we can con





Lion confined after mauling Canadian zoo employee, staff in shock
An employee at the Canadian Granby Zoo located east of the city of Montreal suffered serious injuries as she was attacked by a female lion. The animal was confined, a zoo official said adding that the zoo staff is in a state of shock.
One of the zoo’s three lions assaulted a female worker Monday morning as she was preparing to feed the animals and entered the lions’ enclosure. The zoo was not yet open to the public at that time.

The animal backed off when another employee came to the worker’s rescue, using a fire hose. The woman suffered a cervical fracture and several cuts on her back. She was immediately hospitalized. Stephan Scalabrini, head of Granby's ambulance services, said the woman is now in stable condition and conscious.





Rare giant panda cub born at Vienna zoo - mother's fourth
Another giant panda cub has been born at Vienna's Schoenbrunn Zoo - the fourth time that mother Yang Yang has conceived naturally.
Such an event is very rare - most panda breeding centres resort to artificial insemination.
The cub's sex is not known yet. The tiny pink creature - born at 05:05 local time (03:05 GMT) - is just 10cm (four inches) long and weighs 100g (3.5 ounces).
Yang Yang's other cubs are now in China, where an estimated 1,864 live in the wild.
The zoo's panda area has been closed to let Yang Yang rear her cub in peace and the father, Long Hui, is being kept away for the cub's safety.
Zoo director Dagmar Schratte





Putting the King of the Sea in Cages
PHRI Officials in North Bali Wants to Build Mid-Ocean Cages to Captivate Dolphins for Tourist Visits
The chairman of the Buleleng chapter of the Indonesian Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI), Dewa Suardipa, is suggesting that middle ocean dolphin cages be built in offshore locations near Lovina in order “optimize” the attractiveness of dolphin tours promoted to North Bali tourist visitors.

Currently, hundreds of domestic and international tourists visiting Bali’s north coast pay local boatmen to take them out on early morning boat tours in search of the pods of dolphins that live in the area.

Suardipa has the view that local boats chasing after the wild dolphins cause stress on mammals and that would be remedied by turning wild dolphins into captive dolphin held in offshore cages. Continuing to describe his vision, Suardipa told Bali Post that the caged dolphins then could be summoned with whistles and pieces of fish t





Former aquarium temp worker: 'I didn't know' flipping switch was hurting fish
A switch that controls the life support systems for the Great Ocean Tank at the South Carolina Aquarium were turned off several times last month, and now police are looking into the issue.

Employees say it happened the week of July 9, after a temporary worker was hired onto the aquarium's janitorial service. Police report says the man was caught flipping the switches after aquarium officials set up a surveillance camera.

Employees noticed on July 10 that breakers had been switched off. Two alarms activated -- one signifying a sand filter was down, another showing one of the pumps was off.

According to the report, the electrician at the aquarium could not find any electrical issue, and was able to rule out all issues except "manual manipulation."

Three more alarms went off July 13.

After noticing five more breakers were switched off on July 14, employees decided to place a camera in the room. Within an hour, according to the report, a temporary employee was observed turning off one of the panel breakers as he walked through the room. As of the publication of this article, the 25-year-old temporary em



http://en.calameo.com/read/001552297d3c7de425181





Lion Bites Worker In Canadian Zoo And Is Put In Isolation
A lion bit a Canadian zoo worker in the back on Monday as it was being prepared for exhibition and has been put in isolation until the zoo decides what to do with it, an official said.

The worker at the Granby Zoo east of Montreal had a fracture, but was conscious and in stable condition in hospital, director general Paul Gosselin told reporters.

Gosselin said the zookeeper was bitten in the back.

"At this point we don't have the exact diagnosis," he said.

It was not immediately clear how the attack occurred, though Gosselin said the employee had been preparing the female lion for exhibition before the incident. The zoo worker is in her 20s and has been with the organisation since 2011, Gosselin said.

He said the zoo would be contacting experts in the United States before making a decision about what to do with the lion, which is one of three kept by the zoo. All three lions had been isolated and were made unavailable for public viewing after the attack.

When asked whether the zoo considered killing the lion during the incident, Gosselin said that was not necessary as another empl





Zoo releases last summer batch of threatened butterflies
The Oregon Zoo has released the last batch of its zoo-raised Oregon silverspot butterflies into the wild as it winds up a summer program aimed at boosting the numbers of the once-common yellow-and-black butterfly in coastal habitats.

The zoo has transported nearly 450 butterfly pupae to four sites along the Oregon Coast in the past month. There, the butterflies finish their metamorphosis in “pupae pockets” inside protective mesh, the zoo said in a statement Monday. They flit away when they emerge.

“It was the perfect time of year to be out there, right in the middle of the flight season,” said zoo conservation research associate Karen Lewis.

The silverspot was once common in coastal grasslands from northern California to Canada. It is now listed as threatened due und





SD Zoo Global Awards Australian Zoos for Wildlife Conservation
San Diego Zoo Global (SDZG) honors two major Australia zoos for their work on wildlife conservation on the global scale.

On Monday, Aug. 8., the San Diego Zoo Global staff presented representatives from Zoos Victoria in Melbourne and the Taronga Conservation Society Australia in Sydney with the San Diego Zoo Global 2016 Conservation Partners Medal.

At the awards ceremony, SDZG praised Zoos Victoria’s incredible contributions to wildlife conservations and its intense focus on saving species. Zoos Victoria is actually an organization of zoos comprised of the Melbourne Zoo, the Healesville Sanctuary and the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

According to SDZG, one remarkable program from Z





Religious month affecting fish diet for penguins in Mumbai zoo reveals poor planning
Shraavana is the fifth month of the Hindu calendar which begins in late July and continues till the third week of August. For many Hindus, it is the month of fasting. Many people also avoid non-vegetarian food during Shraavana.
In Mumbai, this year's Shraavana would have been like any other if eight Humboldt penguins were not involved.
Eight Humboldt penguins were brought to the Byculla zoo. News18Eight Humboldt penguins were brought to the Byculla zoo. News18
In July, eight Humboldt penguins had been brought to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan — better known as the Byculla Zoo.
Penguins almost exclusively live in the Antarctic. They are also carnivores. Although their main diet is fish, they also eat krill and squid. They are also found on every continent in the southern hemisphere, abundant on many temperate and sub-antarctic island.
According to this report in The Times of India, the variety of fish in the market has become limited due to the month of Shraavana.
The report also said that the penguins were being fed fish like smelt, Bombay Duck and eel till now, adding that the appetite of the penguins had increased since they had been brought to the Byculla z





Zoos forced to register after Big Cat fight
Two zoos at the center of a government crackdown on illegal trade in big cats in Lebanon have taken the first steps to legitimize their status, but activists warned that there was still a ways to go to safeguard the welfare of exotic animals in the country. “They have started to collaborate with us,” Dr. Ali Romih, acting head of the Veterinary Health Service at the Agriculture Ministry, told The Daily Star Wednesday. “It’s a good sign.”

Lebanese zoos were given a deadline of Aug. 11 to register with the Agriculture Ministry as a key part of the “Last Chance for Big Cats” campaign launched by the NGO Animals Lebanon. The campaign aims to end the trafficking, sale, and mistreatment of lions, tigers, cheetahs, and other big cats in Lebanon.

According to the decree delivered to Animal City Lebanon and ZaZoo City zoos, registration requires that they present a list of their animals, along with their medical records, passports and a report from a veterinary office. The ministry confirmed that Animal City Lebanon had submitted the requested documents and ZaZoo City had been in contact to indicate they had begun the process.

Animal City Lebanon in Zikrit and ZaZoo City in south-east Beirut were the main targets of the directive. Both have allegedly sold lions to private owners according to Animals Lebanon, resulting in poor treatment and conditions, leading to suffering and even death. There are estimated to b





Expert visits Chandrapur for leopard safari plan
The Maharashtra State Zoo Authority (MSZA) took its first major initiative by working on a proposed leopard safari in Chandrapur district, hometown of forest minister Sudhir Mungantiwar.
On Tuesday, MSZA managing director Anurag Choudhary and former chief wildlife warden of West Bengal and well-known zoo expert Dr Brij Raj Sharma visited the proposed leopard safari site on Chandrapur-Ballarpur Road.
Mungantiwar, in the last state budget, had announced setting up of two leopard safaris. One is to come up in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGN





Shocking Plans Reveal Motivation in Push for Sea Pens – It Is Brilliant!





Woman attacked by lion at Granby Zoo should make full recovery: director
The head of a Quebec zoo says an employee who was attacked by a lion should make a full recovery.

Granby Zoo’s Paul Gosselin says the woman in her early 20s had surgery on Monday night after a “minor” neck fracture.

The 14-year-old female lion that attacked her will not be put down because it did not show any abnormal behaviour before or after the attack.

Gosselin says Kao felt threatened on its turf and acted consequently before a second employee sprayed the animal with water from a hose





400-year-old Greenland shark is the oldest vertebrate animal
She was born during the reign of James I, was a youngster when René Descartes set out his rules of thought and the great fire of London raged, saw out her adolescent years as George II ascended the throne, reached adulthood around the time that the American revolution kicked off, and lived through two world wars. Living to an estimated age of nearly 400 years, a female Greenland shark has set a new record for longevity, scientists have revealed.

The discovery places the lifespan of the Greenland shark far ahead of even the oldest elephant in captivity, Lin Wang, who died aged 86. It is also far longer than the official record for humans, held by 122-year-old Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment.

“It kicks off the bowhead whale as the oldest vertebrate animal,” said Julius Nielsen, lead author of the research from the University of Copenhagen, pointing out that bowhead whales have been known to live for 211 years.

But the Greenland shark doesn’t scoop all the gongs – the title of the world’s longest-lived animal is held by Ming, an Icelandic clam known as an ocean quahog, that made it to 507 years before scientists bumped it off.

Grey, plump and growing to lengths of around five metres, the Greenland shark is one of the world’s largest carnivores. With a reported growth rate of less than one centimetre a year, they were already





Rare tarantulas hatch in ‘world first’ at Chester Zoo
Invertebrate keepers at the zoo are the first in the world to successfully breed the Montserrat tarantulas, marking a crucial step towards discovering more about the mysterious species.

Native to the Caribbean island of Montserrat, very little information is known about the tarantulas and how they live.





Human Ginger Gene Linked To Orangutan
ARE you a ginger? Do you or any of your family members have red hair? Well, if so, you may be related to one of the cleverest monkeys on the planet, the Orangutan.

Scientists taking part in a study of genetic make-up at Trinity College Dublin have proved this week that red haired people directly descended from Orangutans, who also have flowing, beautiful auburn hair.





Orca calf dies under the amateurish handling by Dr. Ingrid Visser
In their Facebook page, Delfinarien-Info has published a comment of an expert, which we wanted to share with the general public taking into account constant and ungrounded criticism by extremist animal groups, with the support and encouragement from Ingrid Visser, towards the orcas kept in Loro Parque.

It turns out that in reality Mrs. Visser, who has recently undertaken to give care to the stranded orca calf, has committed unthinkable number of blunders, including not having performed a post-mortem study of the animal, which could have been a very important opportunity to obtain vital data to help other orcas and whales in the future.

What happened in New Zealand has caused a lot of commotion in recent days. However, I have not given my opinion about it because we are not like those who hate dolfinariums hysterically, nor are we activists for animal rights. Secondly, I use this report to demonstrate to this completely unprofessional and radical woman how a true scientist works: you wait for the results before you publish anything.

The addressee of my criticism is Ingrid Visser, a cetacean researcher. This person tried to spread a touching story about an orca baby and its rescue. Why tried? Well, because the little orca has died in the process. Ingrid Visser has no better to do other than to spy on dolphinariums led by the approved scientists and to discredit their professional and successful rescue programs. Such is the example of Morgan, the young female orca that was rescued on the Dutch coast by experts of Dolphinarium Harderwijk. Again, successfully.

Ingrid Visser criticizes the captivity of dolphins and orcas. This is the reason why she insisted that New Zealand orca, named Bob, upon its rescue, should upon recovery, under any circumstance, be returned to the wild. Any whale rescue expert would tell her n





Animal activists urge Wingham Wildlife Park to halt import of lab chimps despite blessing of expert Jane Goodall
Animal welfare campaigners are urging a wildlife park to halt its efforts to bring seven laboratory chimpanzees from America to a new home near Canterbury.

Wingham Wildlife Park has already built a £1 million enclosure for the apes and say they are confident the chimps will be happy in their new home.

It will be a huge change for the animals, which have spent years at the Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Centre in Atlanta.





Asia’s Darkest Secret: Impending Elephant Extinction
The magnificent elephants are revered in Asian culture and seen as the embodiment of Lord Ganesha himself. Yet right now in the name of religious festivities that also serve as lucrative tourist attractions, elephants are separated from their families, beaten, shackled and enslaved in order to tame and control this powerful, intelligent animal.

Director Sangita Iyer created the documentary film God in Shackles as an expose of the dark side of treatment of elephants for festivals and temples in Kerala, South India. It reveals the pain and torture the elephants go through under the guise of culture and festivities that generate money from unwitting tourists.

Elephants should live as long as 70 years but in captivity they often die much earlier, either from cruelty or exhaustion. Figures obtained from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reveal the numbers of elephants left in Asia is estimated to be a mere 40,000.

The majority of the Asian elephant population remaining today is situated in India and Sri Lanka at around 30,000 and the rest scattered acro





What a wacky safari: On the lookout for cheetahs, giraffes and endangered oryxes... in the middle of the Arabian desert
What the Sheik desires, the Sheik will have — the tallest skyscraper in the world? No problem. A Louvre-like gallery in the desert? The architects and auction houses will do the rest.
Just over 100 miles south-west of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is an island retreat that demonstrates a different kind of ambition; one that even by the standards set in this part of the world is a little barmy.
Sir Bani Yas recreates the African safari experience in th




Gov`t Formulating Standard Zoo Guideline
The Environment and Forestry Ministry is preparing a standard zoo guideline for zoos in Indonesia.

"We are working with PKBSI (the Indonesian Zoo Association)," said Director General of Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems of the Ministry Tachrir Fathoni in Jakarta, Sunday (14/8).

Tachrir added that the guideline includes several aspects, including the management of cages, zoo area, number of animals that populate the zoo, zoo management, human resources, food, and animal welfare.

The guideline is still in the process of completion, he added.

Tachrir also acknowledged some zoos in Indonesia still have poor management.

The management of ten zoos under the supervisory of regional government, he said, is still not optimal, for example Bandung zoo.

"We've reprimanded the management," Tach



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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/

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, 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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