Endangered Fishing Cats Making A Splash at Cincinnati Zoo
Sep/090
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A rare litter of endangered fishing cats at the Cincinnati Zoo is delighting and educating visitors with unusual aquatic feeding behavior.
Three fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) born June 30 at the Cincinnati Zoo have made their debut and are showing off their unique talent for fishing. These web-footed cats are specially adapted for catching prey in the water, and are good swimmers. Unlike most other felines, they prey mainly on fish, instead of small mammals. The litter of three males is the first at the zoo since 1993.
But wild fishing cats are in trouble.
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Endangered Fishing Cats Making A Splash at Cincinnati Zoo
Shoot to Kill: Shooters Hired to Cull Animals on Robben Island
Sep/090
A team of “experienced professionals” have been hired to shoot the feral population of rabbits, fallow deer, guinea fowl and cats on Robben Island. According to officials, thousands of rabbits and hundreds of deer are destroying the island’s vegetation and are burrowing under historic buildings.
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Shoot to Kill: Shooters Hired to Cull Animals on Robben Island
Illegal Trade in Endangered Asian Elephants Thriving Under Thai Loopholes
Aug/090
Current laws in Thailand make it easy for live elephants – including infant elephants stolen from their mothers in the wild – to be traded unscrupulously for “entertainment” purposes.
For many people, thoughts of Thailand conjure up romantic notions of being transported to various tourist attractions on the back of an elephant. But tragically, many of the captive elephants used for the Thai tourist trade, and as zoo and circus exports, are the victims of an insidious, illegal market that threatens the survival of endangered Asian elephants, and is responsible for widespread exploitation and abuse of these intelligent and sensitive mammals.
Thankfully, a recent report published by TRAFFIC Southeast Asia exposes the loopholes and reporting inaccuracies that have been providing a smokescreen for Thailand’s illegal trade in endangered, wild-caught Asian elephants (Elephas maximus).
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Illegal Trade in Endangered Asian Elephants Thriving Under Thai Loopholes
Brunei Releases Olive Ridley Turtle Fitted with Transmitter
Jul/090
Researchers in Brunei are studying the migration route and nesting habitat of Olive Ridley Turtles by monitoring the satellite transmitter of a recently-released female turtle.
Earlier this month, a female Olive Ridley Turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea), fitted with a satellite transmitter, was released from Meragang Beach as part of a Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Centre (SEAFDEC) project.
The ability to track this turtle will help locate breeding and nesting grounds, so that conservationists can manage and protect these sensitive sites. By checking daily transmissions, researchers can determine the turtle’s route.
Attaching the transmitter to the turtle’s shell was done with a special glue and then covered with fiberglass, a common method used by researchers to track long-range migration habits of sea turtles.
The extraordinary nesting behavior of the Olive Ridley Turtle
Female Olive Ridley Turtles are responsible for one of the most unusual occurrences found in nature. In a phenomenon known as arribada (”arrival by sea”), it begins when groups of females congregate in the water near nesting sites.
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Brunei Releases Olive Ridley Turtle Fitted with Transmitter
Huge Pangolin Bust: Illegal Trade Causing Protected Pangolins to Disappear from Southeast Asia
Jul/090
Pangolins – scaly, toothless anteaters – are being poached incessantly from their native Southeast Asia habitats. TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, announced that the rising demand for Pangolin meat and scales, mostly from mainland China, is driving the disappearance of these shy animals.
The sheer size of recent Pangolin seizures is alarming:
They include 24 tonnes of frozen pangolins from Sumatra, Indonesia, seized in Viet Nam and 14 tonnes of frozen animals seized in Sumatra in 2008.
(Note: 1 metric ton = 2,204.6 pounds)
Earlier this year, 45 Pangolins were found in the possession of Thai smugglers.
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Huge Pangolin Bust: Illegal Trade Causing Protected Pangolins to Disappear from Southeast Asia
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