OR-16 after being radio-collared near Elgin, Oregon in November 2012. (Photo: ODFW)
featured on ANIMAL POSTonly a month ago (“OR-16″ December 29) after having been radio-collared by federal wildlife workers, was shot dead by a hunter in Idaho last Saturday as part of a recreational hunt.
He was a member of the Walla Walla pack in northeastern Oregon and crossed the Snake River into Idaho last month.
Another Oregon wolf, OR-9, crossed the Snake River about a year ago and was illegally shot by a hunter who was issued a warning for poaching.
OR-9 was a litter mate of OR-7 who has traveled into California, and has been the subject of frequent ANIMAL POST updates.
A spokesman for the conservation group Oregon WIld, said news of the kill of OR-16 comes on the heels of a census showing Oregon wolf numbers have climbed to at least 53 while wolf kills of livestock have declined.
Animals & Societyinterview with Tom Tyler, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Culture, Oxford Brookes University, ASI Human-Animal Studies Fellow Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Culture.
Gray whale swims near the Port of Long Beach, California. (Photo: Gina Ferazzi / LA Times)
ACS/LA GRAY WHALE CENSUS AND BEHAVIOR PROJECT
As of 21 JAN 2013
Southbound Today —————- 5
Northbound Today —————- 0
Total Whales Today ————– 5
Southbound Calves Today ——— 0
Northbound Calves Today ——— 0
Season to Date (since 1 Dec 2012)
Southbound ——————– 465
Northbound ———————- 1
Total ————————- 466
Calves South ——————- 17
Calves North ——————– 0
Message from the observers: Although we had great visibility today, we did not see many gray whales compared to yesterday; this could be a local lull in the nearshore migration, or a lot of today’s gray whales may have chosen an offshore migration route (favored by many adult gray whales). Most of our five gray whales passed by us extremely close to shore. Whales in three of our four sightings fluked. One whale kept a very low profile. It would come up and only expose its blowhole region; when it reached the area right in front of us, it showed its back and flukes. We tracked at least ten FIN WHALES; one pair kept lunge-feeding, and other fin whale fluked. We also spotted multiple groups of PACIFIC WHITE-SIDED DOLPHIN (including a group of about twenty that came in just above the kelp, swam in circles, and had at least one calf with them), COMMON DOLPHIN, and BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN….
This year, 460 southbound gray whales have been counted, compared with 455 last year. Last year and this year’s numbers are some of the largest southbound counts that the ACS/LA census project has seen in about 15 years.
Typically, as evidenced in the report above, gray whales travel by themselves. Sometimes in groups of three. On the 20th, whale watchers counted 23 — give or take a whale — in a single pod.
The group was the largest that volunteers with the American Cetacean Society/Los Angeles Chapter Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project have seen in 30 years.
Grays traveling.
Gray whale migration route.
Gray whales begin their southbound migration from Alaska in the late fall. Observers start seeing the whales generally around November. The southbound migration will likely peak in the next week.
A National Institutes of Health (NIH) Working Group on Chimpanzees in Research today recommended that the majority of the 451 identified NIH-owned or -supported chimpanzees currently held in U.S. labs and available for research should be retired to sanctuary.
Ivan Sanderson made his mark in the 1930s as a best selling author of nature books, featuring exquisitely rendered drawings of exotic jungle animals he drew himself.
Ivan Sanderson, the Caribbean, 1937
During WW II, as an officer in the Royal Navy (Sanderson was a Scot), he sailed a schooner in the Caribbean with his wife Alma, in the guise of a naturalist (which he was) secretly on the lookout for German U-boats.
Ivan and Alma Sanderson, 1938
After the war he and Alma established residence in New York City where Ivan hosted the world’s first color television series “The World Is Yours.”
Ivan in TV studio, ca. 1949
He was for many years the Animal Man on the Garry Moore television show, a frequent guest on early national talk radio, and a prolific writer of magazine articles and books.
Ivan with Garry Moore and capaberra, ca. 1956
As the Animal Man, Ivan was required to produce exotic animals on a weekly basis. He originally sourced his animals from the Staten Island and Bronx zoos, but the constant need for new species to exhibit forced him to begin importing animals directly and he and his animal wrangler partner, Ed Schoenenberger, soon found themselves waist deep in what Schoenenberger called the “animal business.” They christened their new venture Animodels and quickly expanded beyond television appearances to include renting their creatures out for film shoots and exhibitions at sportsmen’s shows and other events.
Alma Sanderson, New York City, 1957
New York being the center of the action, Ivan always maintained an apartment in the Whitby, close to Times Square where the television studios were located. Being in the animal business meant that the apartment was used as a way station for the creatures he was exhibiting on TV. In essence, a mini-zoo in the middle of Manhattan with an ever-changing menagerie.
“Ivan met a lot of people,” Schoenenberger said. “And a lot of people he went to school with at Cambridge had become famous.” It wasn’t unusual to walk into Ivan’s apartment and meet someone like Edmund Hilary.”
In 1958, Ivan was preparing a car trip across the continent for research on a book about the natural history of North America when he learned that a giant Yeti-like creature that the newspapers had dubbed “Bigfoot,” had just been reported in California. He immediately altered his itinerary…
Raju lives in Udaipur, India in a sanctuary called Animal Aid. He is blind. Most likely electrocuted. Electrical burns from the chaotic electrical supply of Indian cities are, apparently, common among monkeys there. The incident left Raju with a badly scarred face.
The sanctuary staff
says Raju is about 10 years old and that he came to their facility when he was maybe six months of age. Initially he was housed with others. But when his last companion was successfully healed and released back to the wild, Raju was left alone.
Shirley McGreal,
founder of the International Primate Protection League, learned about Raju and wanted to improve his living conditions. Shirley lived in India for several years, and abhorred the way monkeys were often treated, tied up and forced to perform by the side of the road on the way to tourist sites like the Taj Mahal.
IPPL
provided funds to the sanctuary to double the size of Raju’s enclosure and put a divider down the middle, so that one side could be cleaned and safely re-stocked with enrichment while Raju inhabited the other half.
Erika Abrams
Animal Aid’s co-founder, wrote to Shirley to say thanks: “I know for an outsider who doesn’t know the situation it would not perhaps be obvious what it means to double someone’s entire world as you are doing for Raju. Raju will know it. And you and your [supporters] are angels who are seeing the world through the eyes of a blind monkey.”
Rhesus monkeys are the world’s second-most-widely-distributed primate species (after humans), says Shirley. “They don’t always get a lot of respect in their native countries. Still, Raju’s tale reminds me of the classic story about returning one stranded starfish among thousands back to the sea.”
An estimated two tons of ivory was discovered by Kenyan authorities in a shipping container in the port of Mombasa. The more than 600 pieces are worth an estimated US $1.5 m.
As with most ivory in the escalating black market trade, the consignment was destined for Indonesia. It is believed to have come from Rwanda and Tanzania, cementing East Africa’s reputation as a clearing house for the illegal ivory trade.
Mombassa.
The January 16 seizure alone represents the death of roughly 250 elephants.
“Decorating stones.” (Photo: Reuters)
January 4th
A routine x-ray scan by Hong Kong customs agents of a shipping container said to contain “decorating stones” revealed 779 ivory tusks weighing more than a thousand kilos and valued at more $1.4 million. The seizure comes on the same day that poachers in Kenya, killed a family of 11 elephants in the biggest single mass shooting of the animals on record in the country.
Hong Kong January 4. (Photo: AP)
Smuggled by sea from Kenya via Malaysia, hidden in five wooden crates under valueless rocks, the tusks were the third largest seizure in Hong Kong in just three months.
October 2012
A joint operation involving Hong Kong and Guangdong customs officials in Hong Kong, resulted in the seizure of nearly 4 tons of ivory discovered inside two containers shipped from Tanzania and Kenya.
Hong Kong: 1,209 pieces of ivory tusks and 1.4 kilograms of ivory ornaments.
September 2012
Two suspects were arrested and 317 pieces of raw elephant ivory, weighing 2 tons, and five rhino horns were seized at Nairobi Airport. Investigations are continuing over the source and sender and recipient of the illegal cargo, which had been disguised as avocado fruits.
KWS rangers and officers display ivory seized at the Jommo Kenyatta International Airport. The cargo was destined for Malaysia through Dubai by Emirates airline.
Insatiable Asian demand
continues to drive brutal elephant poaching. Most fingers are pointed at China. The international trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after elephant populations in Africa dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to some 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.
Victims of Sudanese Jangaweed.
Ivory trade was banned in 1989 under CITES,
Born Free Foundation has launched a website that offers the latest news about the illegal ivory trade.
Last month, Zambia’s Minister of Tourism and Arts, Sylvia T. Masebo, announced that specific hunting licenses would be suspended as they had “been abused to the extent they threatened animal populations.”
(Photo: International Fund for Animal Welfare)
This week the Zambian government banned lion and leopard hunting across the board, citing that populations have abruptly declined in recent years.
Botswana has decreed a country-wide ban on sport hunting to begin on January 1, 2014. Botswanan President Ian Khama noted, “The shooting of wild game for sport and trophies is no longer compatible with our commitment to preserve local fauna.”
Kenya banned trophy hunting and dealing in wildlife in 1977. Trophy hunting was properly cited at the time by the new Kenyan government as “a barbaric relic of colonialism.”
Endangered
Lions have disappeared from over 80% of their historic range, and their population declined by nearly 50% from just 1980 to 2002. The threats facing African lions today are numerous and reinforcing: habitat destruction and fragmentation, loss of traditional prey species, disease, and inevitable conflict with humans—to wit: unsustainable trophy hunting and commercial trade in lion parts.
Lust for trophies
The United States is by far the world’s largest importer of both commercially traded African lion parts and lion trophies. Over half of all the lions killed each year are shot by American trophy hunters.
South Africa. Raised for canned hunting.
As a grotesque example of the lack of empathy for wildlife of those who kill animals for sport, the majority of hunted lions in South Africa are bred like cattle in electrified wire pens, then released to be shot by rich European and Americans. Currently captive raised animals can be shot legally in some provinces just FOUR DAYS after being released from captivity. When animals are stalked in a confined area it is known as “canned hunting.”
Help protect African lions from hunters
With lion populations endangered throughout a significant portion of their range they meet the criteria of an Endangered listing under the Endangered Species Act. The United States government and Americans should heed the alarms sounded by African countries to protect their wildlife and move away from killing for sport.
Sign this petition to list the African lion as Endangered under the ESA. An endangered listing will prohibit the importation of lion trophies into the US and and remove one of the biggest incentives for participating in this blood sport which is contributing to the continuing decline of the species.
Needless killing of endangered species for trophies is inherently unsustainable, economically short-sighted, ecologically unsound, and morally wrong.
One of the most biodiverse areas on the planet is found in Sabah, the northernmost state of Borneo.
Sunrise over the Danum Valley, on the northern portion of the island of Borneo, one of the last remaining primary rainforests in the county and one of the last remaining places on earth where Sumatran rhino, elephant, clouded leopard and orangutan live side by side. (Photo: A.J. Hearn)
Disappearing forests
In the last three decades much of Sabah’s forests have been destroyed due to the growing demand of the industrialized countries for tropical timber, paper, palm oil and “biofuels.” What is left is a patchwork of fragmented forest remnants in the midst of endless oil palm plantations.
Sabah, Borneo
Threatened Species
This fragmentation poses an imminent threat to the future of the island’s animals: orangutans—which constitute 80% of Malaysia’s wild orangutan population; the Sunda clouded leopard and other species of threatened wild cats; the Borneo pygmy elephant, found only in Sabah, estimated to number only 2,000; and the Bornean subspecies of the Sumatran rhinocerous, the most endangered species of all, with only an estimated 40 animals left.
Bornean orangutan (Photo: Sabah Wildlife Department/Danau Girang Field Centre)
Rarely photographed clouded leopard cub, one of three animals previously recorded in Danum Valley, Malaysian Borneo.
Wildlife Corridors
To stem the loss, the Sabah State Assembly has introduced the “corridor of life” concept to allow wild animals to move from one place to another to search for food and give them the opportunity to propagate. The goal is to ensure that 55 per cent of the state remains covered with jungle.
Palm Oil Threat
Oil palm planted right up to the river edge along Kinabatangan.
It is common for palm oil estates to plant crops right up to the river bank, blocking the passage of animals. The corridor of life concept involves establishing 500m-wide tracts of forest corridors and riparian reserves, now divided by plantations, along banks of key rivers to serve as wildlife corridors for species to maintain viability.
The government is buying up land little by little while encouraging Non-Governmental Organizations to raise fund themselves to ensure ownership of the corridors is shared by everyone.
Camera traps and wildlife corridors
are proving an essential tool in convincing people who can make a difference that the animals are out there, struggling to survive on a planet that is being systematically stripped of its resources with too little thought to species other than our own. Stay in touch with ANIMAL POST for news of the corridors and up to date photographic evidence that we are not the only living creatures on the planet.
Information about this nefarious but widespread activity is hard to get. Obviously, the people involved prefer to keep a low profile. But here’s an example of the kind of mind set that allows it to proliferate.
Troy Gentry
In 2004, Troy Gentry, half of the musical group Montgomery Gentry, paid Lee Marvin Greenly, the owner of Minnesota Wildlife Connections, to kill a “large trophy caliber bear” that Greenly owned by the name of Cubby.
Greenly promotes himself as a wildlife photography business providing captive-held animals for individuals to photograph in a wild setting.
Cubby was a tame bear, hand fed by Greenly with no fear of people. After the bear developed dental problems, Greenly sold him to Gentry, a bow hunter, for $4600, then helped him stage a video that portrayed the “hunt” as a wild encounter.
The video contains a scene in which Gentry and Greenly talk on camera about the big hunt they have planned, down in a swamp where they’ve seen bear activity.
Greenly and Gentry discuss upcoming “hunt.”
Gentry seconds after shooting the bear.
One Acre Forest
In the video Gentry watches for the bear from high on a tree in the “woods”–in reality, an acre of trees surrounded by an electric fence.
The bear
wanders into the shot drawn to bait beneath Gentry’s post. He draws his bow, shoots an arrow that strikes the bear in the side and shoots a second arrow at the bear as it walks away. The video was edited to show the arrow traveling in slow motion as it strikes the bear. At least some of this video footage was prepared by Gentry for later use on television or in a music video. Gentry also arranged for photographs to be taken that implied he had killed a wild bear.
Trophy photo.
Cubby dies
Greenly takes a trophy shot of Gentry with the bear, then they tag him with a Minnesota hunting license and register him with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as though it was lawfully taken from the wild population.
The bear’s hide was shipped to a taxidermist in Kentucky. Gentry gave a copy of the video of the shooting to the taxidermist. A video showing a stuffed Cubby in Gentry’s game room was aired on television (on the Outdoor Channel) three times during the week of July 24, 2006.
Meanwhile, the US Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) investigating wildlife violations on the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Greenly’s property, turned up evidence of illegal hunting that led to Greenly who admitted that Cubby was not a wild bear.
Greenly and Gentry were charged with multiple violations of Minnesota wildlife law. Gentry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of falsely registering a captive bear as being killed in the wild. Under a plea, the then 39-year-old singer agreed to pay a $15,000 fine, give up hunting, fishing and trapping in Minnesota for five years, and forfeit both the stuffed bear and the bow he used to shoot the animal.
In exchange for Gentry’s plea, federal prosecutors dropped a felony charge of violating the Lacey Act, which authorities said bans possessing or transporting illegally obtained wildlife.
Cubby and Greenly. Released in lawsuit.
Outraged
at what it called a light punishment, the animal protection group Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service to turn over the videotape of Gentry’s canned hunt. In 2010 they won a three-year battle, gained possession of redacted photos showing Greenley and Cubby, and the video. SHARK released it on YouTube (October 25, 2010) so Gentry’s killing of an innocent bear can be seen by everyone.
We pulled her from the pasture a few days ago for no reason other than she seemed to not be acting quite herself. She’d been at the ranch about six months, brought in from a seizure involving six other donkeys.
Sometimes, when the stalls are full, we just let them hang around the barn. They receive special attention and we have the time to really watch them. There was no physical indication that anything was wrong. We had no idea…
It was a warm night, the sky clear, silent….
Early this morning she brought her child into the world, born in the barn hallway because there was no room in the stalls.
The horses stood silent as he took his first steps….
NEW DELHI: The sight of poorly fed and badly treated bears being forced to dance on the streets of India is a thing of the past as a campaign to wipe out the practice has finally borne fruit, activists say.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and India-based Wildlife SOS, which runs sanctuaries for bears, have also declared an end to the practice in the last few months, 40 years after a government ban in 1972.
~~~
HISTORY
Since the 13th century, bears have been forced to dance for the entertainment of humans.
In India, bear cubs were purchased from poachers for about $22.00
~~~
THE PROCESS OF FORCE
The process of force began by hammering a hot iron rod through a cub’s sensitive snout.
The bear cub’s teeth and claws were removed
A threaded rope was inserted through the snout so that the bear can…
Pelangsi, a young male orangutan, underwent a five-hour operation last May to remove his withered hand and arm. He had spent ten days caught in a snare before a team from International Animal Rescue (IAR) reached him and cut him free.
Pelangsi.
The local man who set the trap has admitted to having 60 snares in the forest which is only about 400 hectares in size. The forest in Pelangsi is home to a large number of orangutans that have fled from the new palm oil plantation that has been created next to it by a palm oil company. The man claimed to have tried to free the trapped orangutan but was scared of the animal which was wild with pain and the trauma of being caught. The man was also afraid to report the situation to the authorities for fear of being prosecuted under Indonesian law should the orangutan die. Consequently he abandoned the animal without food or water, leaving it for days struggling to break free and causing an agonizing wound on its hand and wrist.
Thankfully a local from the same village alerted the team at the IAR centre and they responded immediately.
The young adult was close to death when they found him. His right arm was caught in the snare which had been set to trap deer and wild boar. The orangutan had stepped in a loop of rope hidden under leaves on the ground which tightened and pulled upwards when he trod on it.
Pelangsi was trapped in the snare for ten days without food or water.
Rescue team
led by veterinary director Karmele Llano Sanchez, sedated the orangutan, freed him from the snare and gave him fluids for severe dehydration before transporting him back to IAR’s clinic in Ketapang.
Veterinary director Karmele Llano Sanchez cutting Pelangsi free.
He was given the name Pelangsi, after the area where he was found. The medical team worked round the clock to save him. During the first 48 hours his condition remained critical and he wasn’t stable enough to undergo surgery. He had contracted septicemia as a result of the injury and infection in his hand. He received fluids intravenously and was also put on antibiotics and painkillers.
The IAR Indonesia veterinary team was led by Dr Adi Irawan, under the guidance of Dr. Paolo Martelli, Chief Veterinarian Ocean Park Hong Kong
Stressed in captivity, Pelangsi tries to hide under the foliage in his cage whenever the vets approach him.
Palm Oil Industry wreaks havoc on orangutans
IAR’s centre in Ketapang is already caring for three baby orangutans that were rescued from the PT KAL palm oil plantation and the team also tried unsuccessfully to rescue three more that were found there during land clearing operations. The company is a member of the RSPO (Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil), an association set up to promote the sustainable production and use of palm oil. However, in spite of PT KAL’s apparent concern about the social and environmental impact of its industry, they are responsible for large numbers of orangutan deaths in the area.
Alan Knight OBE, IAR’s Chief Executive, said: “Pelangsi’s story is a graphic illustration of the plight of so many orangutans in Borneo. He was driven from the forest when it was destroyed to make way for a palm oil plantation and forced into an area where wildlife and human beings are competing for space and for food.”
There are now 51 orangutans at IAR’s emergency centre in Ketapang, West Kalimantan which have been rescued or confiscated with assistance from the BKSDA – the local forestry department. That number will continue to rise rapidly until drastic measures are taken by the palm oil companies to protect orangutans and other wildlife from the devastating effects of their industry.
Release
After six months of treatment and rehabilitation at IAR’s orangutan centre in Ketapang, Pelangsi was released into the Pematang Gadung forest of West Kalimantan in December, The forest is a safe area free from snares and other man-made threats, and patrolled and monitored by a volunteer group of local villagers from the community of Pematang Gadung. Yet the area is not currently officially protected. IAR is pushing to raise local awareness of the condition of orangutans and their habitat in Ketapang, in the hope that Pematang Gadung will be given status as a protected area.
A team of experts are following and monitoring Pelangsi to see how he is coping.
Alan Knight OBE, IAR’s Chief Executive, added his “thanks to Dr Adi, Dr Wendi, Dr Silje, Dr Richa, Dr Jesus and Dr Raul for all they are doing.”
Critically Endangered Javan Rhinoceros R. sondaicus was, until recently, found in only two populations. One, in Ujung Kulon National Park in western Java, Indonesia, is estimated to number fewer than 50 animals based on a 2008 census and comprised only the subspecies R. s. sondaicus.
Javan rhino ranges.
Fragile population
Another population was only discovered by scientists in 1989 in a forest location in southern Viet Nam at a time when it was widely assumed that no rhinos could have survived the years of conflict in the country.
This area became proclaimed as Cat Tien National Park, and until relatively recently held the last estimated five to 12 animals of the only other surviving Asian continental mainland population of the Javan Rhinoceros subspecies R. s. annamiticus. Since then, this remnant population appeared to be in steady decline, based on the number of camera trap photos obtained in the area.
July 8, 2004, photo taken by a trap camera shows the last rhino in Vietnam in Cat Tien National Park in Lam Dong Province, southern Vietnam. (Photo: World Wildlife Fund)
Wink out
A World Wildlife Fund project using sniffer dogs to find evidence of rhino presence led to the discovery in April 2010 of a rhino carcass with a gunshot wound in the leg. The horn had been removed from the carcass. Genetic tests found that the last 22 dung samples collected between 2009 and 2011 had all originated from this one animal. Hence, with the poaching of this last known rhino for its horn, as of October 2011, rhinos in Viet Nam are presumed to be extinct.
Park director Tran Van Thanh said that while some of his rangers failed to fulfill their duties, it is impossible for them to stop all of the estimated 100,000 people living near the park from hunting exotic animals when the average farmer there earns around 150,000 dong ($7.50) per day.
The Park has had no sightings, footprints or dung from live rhinos since the last known animal living there was found dead last April.
The small remaining population of Javan rhinos in Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia are the last known living members of the species, with none in captivity.
Frame from footage. (Photo: Japan National Science Museum)
Last summer, scientists with Japan’s National Science Museum, in a submersible equipped with near-infrared beams off the coast of Japan, captured the first footage ever of a giant squid in its natural habitat.
Using a smaller squid as bait, they first encountered the giant squid at 2,066 feet below sea level, then followed it down to 2,952 feet.
Giant squid have appeared in drawings depicting reports by seamen for thousands of years, but still little is known about them. To date, scientists have described several species of giant squid, all in the Architeuthis genus.
The squid, said to have razor-toothed suckers and eyes the size of dinner plates, was encountered in the black depths after more than 285 hours and 55 submarine dives, some as deep as 3,000 feet below the surface.
Tsunemi Kubodera of Japan’s National Science Museum said the creature would have been eight meters long but it was missing its two longest arms.
Frame from giant squid video.
Footage
of the encounter will air in Japan on January 13th on the country’s public broadcasting organization NHK. The Discovery Channel will air the footage in the U.S. on January 27th.
First Light Productions 