Get your kleenex: Humpback whale gives show after being rescued.

Sorry I can't embed so just CLICK HERE to watch the video

Thanks to Cleve H for the link!

Lack of conservation effort rapidly increases African great ape extinction risk

Sandra Tranquilli, Michael Abedi-Lartey, Fidele Amsini, Luis Arranz, Augustus Asamoah, Ogunjemite Babafemi, Nsengiyunva Barakabuye, Genevieve Campbell, Rebecca Chancellor, Tim R.B. Davenport, Andrew Dunn, Jef Dupain, Christina Ellis, Gilles Etoga, Takeshi Furuichi,Sylvain Gatti, Andrea Ghiurghi, Elisabeth Greengrass, Chie Hashimoto, John Hart, Ilka Herbinger, Thurston C. Hicks, Lars H. Holbech, Bas Huijbregts, Inaoyom Imong, Noelle Kumpel, Fiona Maisels, Phil Marshall, Stuart Nixon, Emmanuelle Normand, Leonidas Nziguyimpa, Zacharie Nzooh-Dogmo, David Tiku Okon, Andrew Plumptre, Aaron Rundus, Jacqueline Sunderland-Groves, Angelique Todd, Ymke Warren, http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifRoger Mundry, Christophe Boesch & Hjalmar Kuehl (2011) Lack of conservation effort rapidly increases African great ape extinction risk Conservation Letters doi: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2011.00211.x

Abstract
A network of resource management areas (RMAs) exists across tropical Africa to protect natural resources. However, many are poorly managed and weakly protected. We evaluated how the lack of conservation effort influences the extinction risk of African great apes. We compiled information on presence/absence of primary (law enforcement guards) and secondary (tourism,research) conservation activities and nongovernmental conservation organizations (NGOs) support for 109 RMAs over the last 20 years. Along with these data, we collected environmental and anthropogenic variables, including recent records of ape presence/absence for all RMAs. As expected, law enforcement as a primary activity was the best predictor of ape survival rather than tourism or research as secondary activities. Furthermore, long-term NGO support had a significant positive influence on ape persistence. Our study demonstrates the feasibility of evaluating the relative importance of different conservation activities, an important step towards more evidence-based approaches in ape conservation.

Pictures: "Lost" Leopard—And Poachers—Seen in Afghanistan

From National Geographic

Photograph courtesy WCS Afghanistan Program

This cat's out of the bag—a camera trap recently captured a Persian leopard in Afghanistan's central highlands, where the big cat had been thought locally extinct.

The newly released photographs, taken in the fall, include this September shot of an adult leopard investigating the camera, "appearing to threaten it with canines exposed," according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, which helped set up the camera traps. The images are "indisputable proof" that the big cat is hanging on in the region, the group said.

The camera traps also captured dozens of pictures of other wildlife species, including lynx, wild cats, wolves, red foxes, and stone martens.

"To see such a varied array of wildlife after we have endured so much conflict gives us hope for Afghanistan's future," Mostapha Zaher, director general of Afghanistan's National Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement.

"Intact ecosystems represent a foundation for our country's reconstruction and development. This is also our heritage, our natural resources, our fauna and flora. It is incumbent upon all of us to conserve and protect our environment and hand it over to the next generation of the citizens of Afghanistan."

Ivory Coast: Race to save the chimps

To support the efforts of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation in Cote d'Ivoire please go the their homepage!

From the Global Post
by Laura Burke
Conservationists are working to keep endangered chimpanzees alive and wild.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — On a humid October day in a tropical forest in the middle of Abidjan, members of Ymako Theatri theater group, dressed in black suits, jump to the beat of drums and sing: "Chimpan-zees are our cou-sins! Let’s not eat them any-more! Let’s not kill them any-more!"

The rhythm is catchy and the performers are energized, singing: "We must protect the forest for the future of our children!"

Today, like always, the audience is rapt.

The long-established international theater and dance troupe has been working with the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation since 2002 to hammer home a message of conservation in villages around national parks in Ivory Coast and beyond.

It’s a message this country can use.

Years of armed conflict, population growth and a lack of park management has resulted in a free-for-all environment in Ivory Coast's parks and reserves, said Inza Koné, this nation’s only homegrown primatologist. He runs a local organization called Research and Action to Save Primates in Ivory Coast.

Ivory Coast's chimpanzee population declined by 90 percent over a period of 17 years, according to a 2008 report by the German Max-Planck Institute. The ape is now critically endangered.

Many international conservation groups, including World Wildlife Fund and Conservation International, withdrew their offices from Ivory Coast after the 2002 civil war began, deeming the security situation too dangerous to work there, and they have not returned.

“Wildlife Conservation Society had one resource person here and he died two or three years ago. They could not find a single person to replace him. Not a single person,” Koné said.

But in Tai National Park, a small group of conservationists, primatologists and local field officers have weathered moments of crisis to keep the park’s chimpanzees protected from poachers and deforestation.

“[Tai] is the model for Ivory Coast,” said parks official Djé Francois N’goran.

Their efforts seem to have paid off. The chimp population in Tai remained stable from 2007 through 2010, said Dervla Dowd, deputy director of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation.

Data from the last tumultuous year is not in yet, though.

Last November, after Ivory Coast’s former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to leave office following a contested election, the country was plunged into six months of violence that killed thousands of people, many in the west. Park rangers left their posts for months. During their absence, poaching rose sharply in parks across the country, N’goran said.

Koné said when his team returned to Tai there were also signs that poaching had increased.

“We found gun shells and heard gunshots. We saw campsites around the park,” he said.

Field officers reported seeing a couple of chimps in the [bush meat] markets, “but since there are so few chimps left, they are hard for poachers to find, as well,” said Dowd.

But she remains optimistic. At least “the field assistants were able to find all the habituated chimps [in the research area],” she said.

Just miles from the often volatile Liberian border, in Ivory Coast’s southwest, the Tai National Park is the home of some 500 chimpanzees and other threatened species, like forest elephants, the pygmy hippopotamus and the red colobus monkey. The park is the largest protected tropical forest in West Africa and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation and the Tai Chimpanzee Project, both started by German primatologist Christophe Boesch, carry out bio-monitoring, behavioral research and community outreach around the park. Boesch began his research in the Tai forest in 1979 and lived there for 12 years.

There are four sub-species of chimpanzee in Africa and they have different behaviors, said Emmanuelle Normand, director of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation.

“Even within each sub-species there are different cultures. The way they make tools, eat termites, for example.”

Flying Rhinos: Photos You Don't See Every Day

These photos, which came to us via email from the World Wildlife Fund, show an amazing scene: Nineteen sedated black rhinoceroses were airlifted out of an area in South Africa, and spent about 10 minutes upside down in the air en route to a new home.

These thick-skinned mammals, weighing up to 3,000 pounds each, were being transported to the Limpopo Province in South Africa. Led by the WWF's Black Rhino Range Expansion Project, nearly 120 black rhinos have been relocated, with the hope that a new home will help protect the critically endangered species from poachers.

Flying Rhinos from Green Renaissance on Vimeo.

This new technique in removing rhinos from dangerous situations is gentler than previous methods, according to Dr. Jacques Flamand, World Wildlife Fund project leader. "The helicopter translocations usually take less than ten minutes, and the animals suffer no ill effect," he said in a statement. "All of the veterinarians working on the translocation agreed that this was now the method of choice for the well-being of the animals."

Poachers have been responsible for the demise of other rhino species as well. About 65,000 black rhinos thrived in 1970, according to the International Rhino Foundation, but less than 5,000 roam the planet today.

Bonobos - chimpanzees' gentle cousins

Go here to watch a video from the MPI about bonobo research and conservation at Lui Kotale, DRC.

watch Bonobos - chimpanzees' gentle cousins

No rhinos remain in West Africa

From the BBC
Western black rhino declared extinct
By Daniel Boettcher

No wild black rhinos remain in West Africa, according to the latest global assessment of threatened species.

The Red List, drawn up by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), has declared the subspecies extinct.

A subspecies of white rhino in central Africa is also listed as possibly extinct, the organisation says.

The annual update of the Red List now records more threatened species than ever before.

The IUCN reports that despite conservation efforts, 25% of the world's mammals are at risk of extinction. As part of its latest work it has reassessed several rhinoceros groups.

Poaching vulnerability
As well as declaring the western black rhino (Diceros bicornis longipes) extinct, it records the northern white rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), a subspecies in central Africa, as being on the brink of extinction.

The last Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) outside Java is also believed to have disappeared.

Overall numbers of black and white rhinos have been rising, but some subspecies have been particularly vulnerable to poaching by criminal gangs who want to trade the animals' valuable horns.

Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told BBC News: "They had the misfortune of occurring in places where we simply weren't able to get the necessary security in place.

"You've got to imagine an animal walking around with a gold horn; that's what you're looking at, that's the value and that's why you need incredibly high security."

Another focus for this year's list is Madagascar and its reptiles. The report found that 40% of terrestrial reptiles are threatened. But it also says that new areas have been designated for conservation.

Among the success stories identified in the latest annual update is the reintroduction of the Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus). Listed extinct in the wild in 1996, it was brought back after a captive breeding programme and the wild population is now thought to exceed 300.

Among the partner organisations involved in compiling the research for the list is the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

ZSL's Dr Monika Boehm said: "This Red List update very much shows us a mixed picture of what's happening to the world's species. There's some good news and some bad news.

"Unfortunately, the overall trend is still a decline in biodiversity. We still haven't achieved our conservation potential."

691orangutans killed for meat in Kalimantan

Orangutans killed for meat in Kalimantan
from the Jakarta Post via GRASP UNEP facebook page

A report says 691 Borneo orangutans were slaughtered in Kalimantan – most of whom were eaten by residents.

The great apes were killed for several reasons, Suci Utami Atmoko, a field coordinator for report co-author The Nature Conservancy (TNC), said on Tuesday.

“Some [residents] were desperate and had no other choice after spending three days hunting for food,”
she said.

Local residents also killed the orangutans for safety reasons, Suci said, harvesting orangutan meat to make traditional medicine and selling any surviving orangutan babies.

The Nature Conservancy led the survey, which was conducted between April 2008 and September 2009 and involved 6,972 respondents in 698 villages across Kalimantan.

Nineteen NGOs joined the survey, including the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the People’s Resource and Conservation Foundation Indonesia (PRCFI) and the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF).

TNC program manager Neil Makinuddin said 70 percent of the respondents knew that orangutans were a protected and endangered species when they hunted the animals.

Decisions to open land in Kalimantan to development have not considered orangutans, leading to the destruction of their habitat, Neil said.

“We must soon open conservation areas for orangutans or their population will become extinct,” he said, adding that the government should punish orangutan killers.

Erik Meijaard, forest director of People and Nature Consulting International, said Kalimantan’s orangutans would become extinct if 1 percent of female orangutans were killed in a year. “Uncontrolled killing will soon diminish their population.”

Forestry Ministry species conservation chief Agus SB Sutito said the ministry had yet to receive reports about the rapid killing of orangutans in Kalimantan.

“We gladly welcome the results of the survey,” he said. “The ministry will work harder to enforce the law.”

There were currently 40,000 to 65,000 orangutans in Kalimantan, although the number was rapidly decreasing due to habitat loss, according to the WWF.

The government previously set a target of raising the populations of 14 endangered species, including orangutans, by up to 3 percent by 2020.

Emmanuel De Merode Ted Talk

Thanks to Emma S and Steve G for the link!

More pachyderms being targeted by deadly jaw bomb

via TRAFFIC - the wildlife trade monitoring network
From Lakimba News

Patas! More pachyderms being targeted by deadly jaw bomb
By Saliya Kumara Gunasekera

Wildlife and Conservation Department officials in the Wayamba, North and North Central Provinces state that over 300 elephants in total die annually in the above areas.
These officials said that the elephants are being killed by the use of a primitive explosive device known as hakka patas.

Hakka patas are explosives made to resemble loaves of bread and laced with dry fish curry. When an elephant attempts to swallow one, the device explodes, injuring its jaws and sometimes even causing death. Department of Wildlife and Conservation sources told LAKBIMAnEWS that at least ten elephants have been injured by hakka patas in the Wayamba Province alone.

Poachers thriving

According to Wildlife Department officials, poachers use this method to obtain elephant tusks. And with the Department’s raids not having measured up, such ruthless poachers continue to thrive. The officials added elephants have suffered at the hands of these poachers in a wide range of areas including Thuruvila, Rambewa Vavuniya, Padaviya,Kahatagasdigiliya, Galgamuwa and Kala weva.

Environmentalists claimed that Wildlife Department officials have even dispensed with night patrols due to a lack of vehicular facilities. A Department official told LAKBIMAnEWS, on condition of anonymity, “We do not have the necessary vehicles to transport injured animals, nor to bring back to our office suspected poachers.”

Spike in use
When contacted, Director General of the Department of Wildlife and Conservation H.D. Ratnayake commented: “Hakka patas has come into use only relatively recently and its use has increased this year. Not only is it difficult to treat elephants injured by hakka patas, but it is also difficult to track down those using the devices.” He added that they will also be attempting to enlighten villagers on the dangers of using hakka patas.

Camera-Trap Pictures: Mammals—And a Poacher—Exposed

National Geographic has a nice little gallery of some camera trap images from across the globe

Take 2 minutes and fill out this elephants & ivory survey please

via Dan Bucknell from Elephant Family, who posted this on facebook today

"Sorry to be a work bore, but we're running a very quick questionnaire on what people know and think about ivory - a nice little lunchtime exercise that would help us if you'd be happy to fill it in. Cheers"

► Go to the questionnaire HERE ◄

BarcodingBushmeat.org

BarcodingBushmeat.org is a very cool forum whose purpose is to help coordinate in one place the information needed to better develop and apply DNA barcoding technology to the fight against unsustainable trade in wildlife.

To find out more visit their website and join the facebook cause here: http://www.causes.com/causes/286227-barcodingbushmeat-org

Rhino DNA kits added to South Africa's Arsenal

From Rhino Conservation.org

South Africa’s embattled rhinos now have a new weapon on their side: 1,000 DNA kits have been provided to South African National Parks (SANParks) by the faculty of Veterinary Services of the University of Pretoria.

The kits are expected yield a higher conviction rate for rhino crimes, according to Dr. Cindy Harper, Head of Veterinary Genetics Laboratory (VGL) at the Faculty of Veterinary Science.

"The ability to obtain a full DNA profile from rhino horn allows us to match recovered horns to specific poaching incidents."

SANParks CEO, Dr David Mabunda, noted that DNA profiling would allow prosecutors to be tougher on rhino crimes.

"This will certainly go a long way in changing the trend of suspects found in possession of rhino horn only being charged with possession as the horns will be linked to a carcass lying somewhere in a national park or game reserve."

Read the entire release at SANParks receives kits to fight rhino poaching .

DNA analysis at work
Indeed, it was DNA evidence that led to at least three successful convictions over the past 13 months.

For example, in June 2010, a Vietnamese rhino horn smuggler was sentenced to 10 years in prison after the rhino horns in his possession were found to be a DNA match to rhinos that were killed a few days earlier.

So far this year, DNA analysis has been instrumental in two cases which put a total of four rhino killers in jail.

In April 2011, DNA evidence helped put two killers behind bars for a combined total of 19 years.

Earlier this month, DNA analysis of the rhino and horns helped secure the convictions of two Mozambican nationals, who were sentenced to a combined total of 16 years in prison.

Killing continues
SANParks announced that the year’s rhino death toll had already reached 173 as of June 6th.

Since that time, a female rhino was killed on a private game farm in Hoedspruit. The assailants also shot and wounded her four-month-old calf.

However, the number could be as high as 186, according to sources outside the media.

*updated* Bad News from Bwindi

(original post June 20, 2011)
Just posted by the Gorilla organization facebok page: "Just heard some awful news from Bwindi - blackback Mizano has been found dead, and looks like he was murdered by poachers. Will let you know more as soon as we hear more. Sorry to bring you such a tragic story on a Monday"

From what I can tell Mizano is a blackback from the habituated Habinyanja gorilla group

*update*
From the Ugandan Wildlife Authority facebook page:
Merciless poachers on Friday morning of June 17th,speared one of most playful mountain gorillas called Mizaano of Habinyanja Family.The paochers had laid traps targeting antelopes which ended up catching the gorilla.During a fierce fight between the gorilla and the dogs,the paochers are believed to have speared the gorilla to save their dogs,their lifeline.Suspects are gradually being apprehended.

Congolese ecoguards prosecuted for ivory trafficking

image from the x-journals

From the Africa Geographic facebook page

Congo’s courts slam 13 wildlife criminals in push against corruption and ivory trafficking

On Monday, 18 April 2011 in Ouesso, northern Republic of Congo, thirteen wildlife traffickers were prosecuted for various wildlife crimes, hit with tough jail sentences ranging from 12 to 24 months in prison. The highest profile cases include two international ivory dealers, a notorious large-scale elephant poacher and four Ecoguards revealed to have committed the same crimes they were supposed to prevent, and arrested in the act of facilitating ivory traffic.

Other notable cases included other elephant hunters and ivory traffickers, two gorilla hunters, and a truck driver for the logging company working in the region, CIB (Congolaise Industrielle des Bois), who was involved in ivory traffic as well.

The Ecoguards admitted to corruption, having turned their noble task into an organized trafficking operation. They were sentenced to two years in prison each. Other sentences ranged between 12 and 18 months in jail, the two year sentences representing a crackdown on corruption.

The Republic of Congo started a push for the application of its wildlife laws by launching PALF (Project for the Application of Law for Fauna) - a partnership between two NGOs and the Ministry of Sustainable Development, Forest Economy and the Environment. The purpose is to support the ministry in investigations of wildlife crime, operations, follow up on court cases; and to fight corruption which often blocks the full application of the law. “While Congo has advanced in wildlife law enforcement, the North of the country remains an area of great concern, with ivory traffickers and poachers being freed from jail often before ever seeing the inside of a courtroom.

With the support of PALF and serious treatment of illegal trafficking networks by the Ministry of Justice, the way wildlife crimes are treated in Congo is beginning to change. No one is above the law.” says PALF Coordinator Naftali Honig.

The cases exposed international trafficking routes, highlighting the need for international collaboration in the fight. Congo joined Cameroon in an alliance, now including Gabon and CAR as well, coordinated by LAGA (Last Great Ape Organization) to intensify the crackdown regionally. LAGA Coordinator Ofir Drori says, “Corruption
remains our number one obstacle in the struggle to protect Africa’s forests. Not just corruption in government offices but in NGO projects. Congo’s prosecutions serve as a lesson to all those ignoring corruption that it can be fought and won over.”

WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), who supports Ecoguards in a number of protected areas in Congo, is intent upon rooting out the corruption amongst the park rangers. “Corruption in conservation is unacceptable” says Director of WCS-Congo, Paul Telfer. “This case demonstrates that it exists and that we can fight it. We will root it out wherever it exists to make sure that conservation efforts serve to protect wildlife and do not become victim to individual greed.”

The difficulties are numerous in putting wildlife legislation into practice. Arms suppliers are often authorities. Traffic may be facilitated by the presence of logging companies and even park rangers. Bribery attempts are commonplace from the moment a trafficker is taken into custody through the carrying out of a prison sentence.

“The battle is uphill,” says Honig, “but these sentences are a major success for Congo. More sentences like these could really change the way people weigh out the risks of illegally trafficking wildlife and we hope this will echo from cities all the way to the forests and work in the favor of protected species.”

***

PALF website – www.palf-enforcement.org

Complex interplay between whales, penguins, krill, hunting and climate change - whales bounce back, penguins now decline...

National Geographic News
BY BRIAN HANDWERK
Penguin Numbers Plummeting—Whales Partly to Blame?
Krill declines in parts of Antarctica linked to warming, whales, study says.

Penguin populations have plunged by as much as 50 percent during the past three decades in the West Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea, scientists report.

The problem appears to be a shortage of krill, the seabirds' primary fare, caused by rising regional air temperatures and rebounding populations of hungry whales.

Fisheries biologist Wayne Z. Trivelpiece of the National Marine Fisheries Service in La Jolla, California, has been monitoring colonies of chinstrap and Adélie penguins since the mid-1970s.

Because Trivelpiece regularly bands and monitors individual penguins, he's been able to uncover a key factor in the collapse: Far fewer young penguins are surviving their first winter on their own, because they're having a hard time finding krill.

"It's gone from about half of the chicks surviving in the 1970s and mid-1980s to only about one tenth now," Trivelpiece said.

"And we see from direct measurements of krill that there's about 80 percent less out here than there was just 20 years ago. So the probability of young penguins finding it often enough to survive during those first months of independence is much reduced."

Penguins at Risk as Krill Vanish
Krill are tiny, shrimplike animals that live in enormous numbers and represent a large part of the Antarctic food web. Like flocks of herbivores on land, krill feed on single-celled plants called phytoplankton and are in turn gobbled up by many marine predators, including penguins.

The local krill collapse is probably due to a pair of factors, Trivelpiece said.

One is regional air temperatures, which are some 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5 or 6 degrees Celsius) higher than they were in the 1940s and 1950s. Those temperatures drive how much ice forms at the sea surface.

"If the ice no longer forms, phytoplankton in that sea ice aren't available to provide a winter food source for the young krill that spawned the summer before," Trivelpiece said. "Without that food, the young krill don't survive."

The second krill killer is actually a conservation success story—rebounding populations of whales.

"From what information is available, stocks of krill-eating whales are beginning to return, and their numbers are growing," Trivelpiece said. (Related: "Whale Hunting to Continue in Antarctic Sanctuary.")

Nineteenth- and 20th-century whale hunts, which severely impacted populations of the giant marine mammals, appear to have ushered in a penguin heyday.

"We don't have good data prior to the 1930s, but it appears that at least the 1930s to the 1970s were a real boom time for penguins, primarily because of the removal of competition in the form of whales."

"Population data from that period is largely anecdotal and provided by the rough counts of British Antarctic workers. But even if you're counting by the seat of your pants, the difference between 100,000 penguins in the 1930s and 500,000 or 600,000 in the 1970s is enormous."

Marine ornithologist Steve Emslie also provided valuable evidence of the boom with his studies of historic penguin colonies. Chemical analyses of old tissue sources, such as eggshells, found that Adélie penguins actually had been fish-eaters before whale numbers dropped.

"Only in the last hundred years or so did krill come into their diet, when the whales were taken out of the system and there was a krill surplus," Trivelpiece said.

Can Penguins Survive Without Krill?
With krill now dwindling, the previous shift in penguin behavior begs a question: Can the birds simply switch back to eating fish?

"From everything we've seen over a 30-year period, while krill has declined 80 percent, we haven't seen an increase of fish in [penguin] diets," Trivelpiece said.

"But the fish stocks have also been heavily fished out by Russian trawlers, so we don't even know how much of that prey is available to them at this point."

The penguin-decline study appears in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

--
Reference
Trivelpiece WZ, Hinke JT, Miller AK, Reiss CS, Trivelpiece SG, Watters GM (2011) Variability in krill biomass links harvesting and climate warming to penguin population changes in Antarctica PNAS doi:10.1073/pnas.1016560108

Abstract
The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) and adjacent Scotia Sea support abundant wildlife populations, many of which were nearly extirpated by humans. This region is also among the fastest-warming areas on the planet, with 5–6 °C increases in mean winter air temperatures and associated decreases in winter sea-ice cover. These biological and physical perturbations have affected the ecosystem profoundly. One hypothesis guiding ecological interpretations of changes in top predator populations in this region, the “sea-ice hypothesis,” proposes that reductions in winter sea ice have led directly to declines in “ice-loving” species by decreasing their winter habitat, while populations of “ice-avoiding” species have increased. However, 30 y of field studies and recent surveys of penguins throughout the WAP and Scotia Sea demonstrate this mechanism is not controlling penguin populations; populations of both ice-loving Adélie and ice-avoiding chinstrap penguins have declined significantly. We argue in favor of an alternative, more robust hypothesis that attributes both increases and decreases in penguin populations to changes in the abundance of their main prey, Antarctic krill. Unlike many other predators in this region, Adélie and chinstrap penguins were never directly harvested by man; thus, their population trajectories track the impacts of biological and environmental changes in this ecosystem. Linking trends in penguin abundance with trends in krill biomass explains why populations of Adélie and chinstrap penguins increased after competitors (fur seals, baleen whales, and some fishes) were nearly extirpated in the 19th to mid-20th centuries and currently are decreasing in response to climate change.

Bloodhound Anti-poaching Dogs for Virunga - March 2011

The Virunga National Park facebook page has a great album and information on their new bloodhound anti-poaching dogs. Go HERE to see the gallery and read more.

From the site:

These are photos of the first few weeks with our new bloodhound dogs.

The first week, world-renowned bloodhound trainer, Dr. Marlene Zähner, and Robert Williams escorted the six dogs to Congo. They stayed a week to help get the dogs settled, and Marlene worked with the new dog handlers, teaching them everything she could in a week about caring for dogs and training them how to control a dog on a walk in the forest.

A week after they left, Stella, one of the 3-month old dogs, got sick. She was examined by a vet and put on antibiotics with care instructions. She seemed to get better but not well over the next week, and exactly one week later, she crashed. Although we still don't know what it was, it showed signs of possible pneumonia and it seemed that her lungs were filling with liquid and she struggled to breathe. She refused to lie down because she couldn't breathe, even though she was so exhausted she literally fell asleep in the sitting position and fell over several times. Dr. Jan Ramer from Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) rushed over from Rwanda and administered some drugs that helped to release the liquid in her lungs and she survived the night. She now seems mostly recovered to our great relief. Stella has become a favorite with her sweet disposition, and we are grateful she survived and to all who cared for her - the handlers and Dr. Jan in particular, with lots of email and phone advice from Marlene in Switzerland.

These dogs will be trained by Marlene for anti-poaching. It's an important program and will take time with on-going expenses for care and training. If you would like to assist in this program, you can donate on the blog toward monthly for the expenses or with one-time gifts. Go here and find the item on the right side of the blog to contribute. Thank you for your support!

http://gorillacd.org/blog/

Meat from chimpanzees 'is on sale in Britain' in lucrative black market

Is this really shocking? We saw last year that huge amount of bushmeat are passing through Charles de Gaul everyday and we know that US stores are serving bushmeat.
Considering this story I recently posted, that shows that just signing your name to a set of guidelines increases honest behaviour, seems like there are already small measures that should be taken to stave off this massive movement of bushmeat to the developed world. When you enter Canada you must sign your name to a statement that states you have no animals nor animal products with you. There is no such form to sign when entering Europe, and its actually very simple to avoid declaring anything when entering the EU. This all seems to be small scale movements of bushmeat, and at least putting up some easy barriers to deter people could be really beneficial it seems. A band-aid measure for now, for sure, but something needs to change fast -MA

From the daily mail
By CLAIRE ELLICOTT

Chimpanzee meat is for sale in restaurants and market stalls in Britain, it has emerged.

Trading standards officials uncovered the illegal bushmeat from the endangered species whilst testing samples believed to be seized from vendors in the Midlands.

The meat, which can cost more than £20 a kilogram, is part of a lucrative black market trade that experts describe as ‘rife’ in Europe.

Last year, the first research on the import of bushmeat into Europe found over 270 tonnes passing through the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris alone.

The chimpanzee meat is understood to have been discovered following raids by trading standards in the Midlands.

A Government whistleblower revealed: ‘It is well known this practice is underway in the region but I was shocked to discover the meat that was tested was once a chimpanzee.

‘Dubious meat is often tested, and has turned out to be things like rats and vermin in the past – but chimpanzee is unbelievable.’

It is not known how the bushmeat arrived in the Midlands, but experts believe it was probably flown into the country from Africa, possibly concealed in personal luggage.

Dr Marcus Rowcliffe, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London and an expert on the trade, said at least five tonnes of bushmeat arrives in Europe every week to be distributed across the continent.

He said: ‘I’m not at all surprised that bushmeat is on sale in the Midlands because we know the trade is going on in the UK and that there is a regular flow of smuggled meat into the country.

‘However, it is not often that chimpanzee is found as that is rare even in the markets of Africa, so I am surprised by that.

‘When we carried out our study at Charles de Gaulle airport, we estimated that five tonnes a week was coming into Europe and then being distributed across the continent by traders in Paris.

‘Obviously I believe less than five tonnes a week makes it into the UK, but there is still a significant amount that is brought in and customs officials are very aware of it.’

He said that smugglers often made no attempt to hide the meat and were caught smuggling the meat in suitcases.

This could be because detecting and seizing bushmeat is not a priority for customs officials and the penalties for importing it are low and rarely enforced, he added.

The word bushmeat is used to describe the flesh of wild animals hunted in places like tropical forests in West and Central Africa, but also in Asia and the Americas.

According to the Born Free foundation, nearly 7,500 tonnes of illegal meat products enter Britain every year.

Some is bushmeat, brought in disguised as other meat products such as beef or lamb.

Once in Britain, more than half the illegal meat is distributed through wholesalers or sold at local street markets.

The trade in bushmeat has become big business and although accurate figures are difficult to find, it is estimated that the international trade in wild animal products has a value of more than £2.5 billion.

Dr Rowcliffe’s team predicted that a 4kg monkey would cost around £85 from smugglers in France, whereas the price would be as little as £4 in Africa.

But although some hunters target gorillas, chimpanzees and other primate species, great apes constitute less than one per cent of bushmeat from all species sold on the market.

Dr Rowcliffe added that bushmeat products were not just imported for consumption but also for medicinal purposes or as status symbols, signifying luxury and wealth.

But he warned that imported meat could be carrying infectious diseases such as foot-and-mouth, anthrax, the Ebola virus, TB or cholera.

The bushmeat trade has also had a devastating impact on the numbers of primates living in the wild.

Adina Farmaner, Executive Director of the Jane Goodall Institute UK, said: ‘It is a reality that bushmeat is being sold on the streets of Britain and I am not surprised that is available in the Midlands.

‘From my own experience of Brixton market in London all you have to do is ask for some ‘special meat’ for a ‘special ceremony’ and you will get what you are looking for.

‘The bushmeat trade is a huge problem in certain parts of Africa and is one of the main reasons the population in the wild has been reduced from approximately one million about 50 years ago, to just a few hundred thousand today.’

Sea Shepherd Activists Prompt Japan To Suspend Whaling

From the Huffington Post
by MARI YAMAGUCHI

Japan has temporarily suspended its annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a conservationist group, a government official said Wednesday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships have been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet for weeks in the icy seas off Antarctica, trying to block Japan's annual whale hunt, planned for up to 945 whales.

Japan has halted the hunt since Feb. 10 after persistent "violent" disruptions by the anti-whaling protesters, said fisheries agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku.

So far, the attacks have not caused any injuries or major damage to the vessels, he said, but the protesters are throwing rancid butter in bottles and once the protesters got a rope entangled in the propeller on a harpoon vessel, causing it to slow down.

"We have temporarily suspended our research whaling to ensure safety," he said. The fleet plans to resume hunting when conditions are deemed safe, he added, but declined to say how long the suspension is planned for.

The whale hunts, which Japan says are for scientific purposes, are allowed by the International Whaling Commission as an exception to the 1986 ban, but opponents say they are a cover for commercial whaling because whale meat not used for study is sold for consumption in Japan.

The Sea Shepherd group has been shadowing Japan's whaling fleet for several years, and its campaign has drawn high-profile donor support in the United States and elsewhere and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars."

Official Sea Shephard Press releases can be found here and here