Threatened & endangered species

[waltky]

Great apes bein' lost to illegal wildlife trade...

Chimps, gorillas, other apes being lost to trade
Mar 26,`13 -- The multibillion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife - clandestine trafficking that has driven iconic creatures like the tiger to near-extinction - is also threatening the survival of great apes, a new U.N. report says.

Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos are disappearing from the wild in frightening numbers, as private owners pay top dollar for exotic pets, while disreputable zoos, amusement parks and traveling circuses clamor for smuggled primates to entertain audiences. More than 22,000 great apes are estimated to have been traded illegally over a seven-year period ending in 2011. That's about 3,000 a year; more than half are chimpanzees, the U.N. report said. "These great apes make up an important part of our natural heritage. But as with all things of value, great apes are used by man for commercial profit and the illegal trafficking of the species constitutes a serious threat to their existence," Henri Djombo, a government minister from the Republic of Congo, was quoted as saying.

The U.N. report paints a dire picture of the fight to protect vulnerable and dwindling flora and fauna from organized criminal networks that often have the upper hand. Apes are hunted in their own habitats, which are concentrated in central and western Africa, by sophisticated smugglers who transport them on private cargo planes using small airstrips in the African bush. Their destination is usually the Middle East and Asia. In countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon, great apes are purchased to display as show pieces in private gardens and menageries. In Asia, the animals are typically destined for public zoos and amusement parks. China is a main destination for gorillas and chimpanzees. Thailand and Cambodia have recorded cases of orangutans being used for entertainment in "clumsy boxing matches," the report said.

An infant Bonobo looks on while the substitute mothers Marthe Mianda, left, and Michelline Mzozi, right, spend time with baby Bonobos at the Lola Ya Bonobo Sanctuary around fifty kilometers outside of Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Endangered chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos are disappearing from the wild in frightening numbers, as private owners pay top dollar for exotic pets, while disreputable zoos, amusement parks and traveling circuses clamor for smuggled primates to entertain audiences.

Lax enforcement and corruption make it easy to smuggle the animals through African cities like Nairobi, Kenya, and Khartoum, Sudan, which are trafficking hubs. Bangkok, the Thai capital, is a major hub for the orangutan trade. Conditions are usually brutal. In February 2005, customs officials at the Nairobi airport seized a large crate that had arrived from Egypt. The crate held six chimpanzees and four monkeys, stuffed into tiny compartments. The crate had been refused at the airport in Cairo, a well-known trafficking hub for shipment to the Middle East, and returned to Kenya. One chimp died of hunger and thirst.

The proliferation of logging and mining camps throughout Africa has also increased the demand for primate meat. Adults and juveniles are killed for consumption, and their orphans are captured to sell into the live trade. Villagers also pluck primates out of rural areas to sell in the cities. Humans also have been encroaching upon and destroying the primates' natural habitats, destroying their forest homes to build infrastructure and for other purposes. That forces the animals to move into greater proximity and conflict with people. Sometimes animals are even the victims of war.

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[Mr Natural]

A poacher ripped limb from limb by a pissed off gorilla.

Now that would be something to see on the Discovery channel.

 

[lonelygirl8]

But endangered species are decreasing.

 

[waltky]

lonelygirl8 wrote: But endangered species are decreasing.

Granny says, "Dat's right...

... dat's why dey call `em endangered."

 

[waltky]

Poachers poisoning pachyderms...

Zimbabwe: Poachers poison 91 elephants
Oct 1,`13 -- The stench of rotting elephant carcasses hangs in the air in western Zimbabwe, where wildlife officials say at least 91 elephants were poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks for the lucrative illegal ivory market.

Massive bones, some already bleached by the blistering sun in the Hwange National Park, litter the landscape around one remote watering hole where 18 carcasses were found. Officials say cyanide used in gold mining was spread by poachers over flat "salt pans," also known as natural, mineral-rich salt licks. They say lions, hyenas and vultures have died from feeding on contaminated carcasses or drinking nearby. "The magnitude of what we are witnessing today is much higher than what has occurred previously," environment minister Saviour Kasukuwere told reporters on a trip to the park Monday.

Cyanide attacks the bloodstream, kills almost instantly and causes rapid decomposition. Most of the poisoned elephants died in the past month. The chemical is commonly used by illegal gold panners to separate the metal from surrounding ore and is easily available. Nine suspected poachers have been arrested this month after the biggest, most brutal poaching spree on record. Three men were sentenced to up to 16 years in jail. The Hwange park, stretching over 14,000 square kilometers (5,400 square miles), has one of the highest concentrations of elephants in Africa.

Workers look at a rotting elephant carcass, in Hwange National Park , Zimbabwe. The stench of rotting elephant carcasses hangs in the air in northwestern Zimbabwe where wildlife officials say at least 91 animals have been poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks for the lucrative illegal ivory market. Wildlife officials now say at least 91 animals have been poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks for the lucrative illegal ivory market. Officials say cyanide used in gold mining was spread by poachers over the flat salt pans around water holes.

Kasukuwere, newly appointed to the environment ministry after disputed elections won by longtime President Robert Mugabe in July, said Zimbabwe will intensify efforts to campaign among world nations - including Asia, where there is the highest demand for ivory - to curb a trade declared illegal by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Tusks of the poisoned elephants are thought to have been smuggled into neighboring South Africa through illicit syndicates that pay desperately poor poachers a fraction of the $1,500 a kilogram (2.2 pounds) that ivory can fetch on the black market. "We will cooperate with international organizations such as Interpol to crack down on the pay masters. So the war is on, it's a war which we will win, we are not going to surrender," Kasukuwere said.

The state Environmental Management Authority is planning to burn the elephant carcasses and call in experts to detoxify the affected areas, beginning with digging out the salt licks and removing the top layers of soil contaminated by the cyanide granules. Officials believe at least two deeply drilled wells supplying the water holes may have also been contaminated and will likely have to be sealed. New wells will probably be drilled away from the tainted ones. "We will drill more boreholes in the park because these criminals target areas where there is a shortage of water," said Kasukuwere.

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[waltky]

One of the last of the white rhinos dies...

Endangered White Rhino Dies at San Diego-Area Zoo
Nov 22, 2015, One of only four northern white rhinos believed left in the world died Sunday at San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Nola, a 41-year-old female who has been at the park since 1989, was euthanized after her health took a turn for the worse, a zoo statement said. The geriatric rhino had arthritis and other ailments and was being treated for a bacterial infection linked to an abscess in her hip. Nola had surgery on Nov. 13 to drain the abscess but her health began to deteriorate about a week ago; her appetite faltered and she became listless. She worsened over the past 24 hours and vets decided they had to euthanize her, according to the zoo in Escondido. "Nola was an iconic animal, not only at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, but worldwide," the park statement said.

Nola, a 40-year-old northern white rhino who is only one of five remaining of the species​

The remaining three northern white rhinos, all elderly, are in a closely guarded preserve in Kenya. The subspecies has been decimated by poachers, who kill the rhinos for their horns. The horns are in high demand in parts of Asia where some people claim they have medicinal properties for treating everything from hangovers to cancer. In an effort to preserve the species, the San Diego zoo took possession earlier this month of six female southern white rhinos from South Africa.

Zoo researchers are working on developing northern white rhino embryos to be implanted in the six new arrivals, who will serve as surrogate mothers. Researchers have said they hope a northern white rhino calf could be born from a San Diego surrogate mother within 10 to 15 years.

Endangered White Rhino Dies at San Diego-Area Zoo

 

[waltky]

In the oceans, it's the survival of the smaller...

Survival of the Smallest? Bigger Sea Species More Threatened
September 14, 2016 - In the Earth's oceans these days, the bigger a species is, the more prone it is to die off. That's unheard of in the long history of mass extinctions, a new study finds.

As subfamilies of marine animal species — called genera — grow larger in body size, the likelihood of them being classified as threatened with extinction increases by an even greater amount, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Science. In past extinctions, smaller creatures were more prone to die off, or size didn't matter, said study lead author Jonathan Payne, a paleobiologist at Stanford University. Almost none of the genera that have species averaging 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) long are threatened with extinction. However, 23 percent of those that are 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) are threatened, 40 percent of those that are 39 inches (1 meter) are endangered and 86 percent of those that are 32.8 feet (10 meters) are vulnerable, Payne said.

A blue whale is shown near a cargo ship in the Santa Barbara Channel off the California coast, Aug. 14, 2008. The oceans are turning into a Darwinian topsy-turvy place, where it’s survival of the smallest and the bigger a species is, the more prone it is to die off.​

These are species that are not extinct yet, but are on the respected Red List of threatened and endangered species created by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. “The proportion of species that are threatened increases enormously as body size increases,'' Payne said. Take the blue whale, not only the largest living animal, stretching close to 100 feet long, but the largest to ever have existed, Payne said. It's on the IUCN endangered list and has lost as much as 90 percent of its population in the last three generations, according to the IUCN. On the other end of the spectrum is a grouping of fish, bioluminescent bristlemouths, that are about three inches long. They are the most abundant creatures with a backbone; the population is estimated to be in the trillions.

Focus on oceans

Payne compared fossil records, looked at past mass extinctions and compared them to current threats, concentrating on 264 genera that have the best modern and ancient records. Payne concentrated on oceans, where the fossil records are better over time. The mass extinction 65 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs didn't kill off bigger marine species at higher rates than smaller ones, unlike what's happening now, Payne said. The study “shows us how unusual this crisis of biodiversity we have right now,” said Boris Worm, a top marine scientist at Dalhousie University in Canada. He wasn't part of the study but praised it. “We have had mass extinctions before. This one is totally different than what has happened before.”

A 70-foot female blue whale, that officials believe was struck by a ship, is seen washed ashore near Fort Bragg, California, Oct. 20, 2009. As subfamilies of marine animal species grow larger in body size, the likelihood of them being classified as threatened with extinction increases by an even greater amount, according to a study published Sept. 14, 2016.​

Worm spoke from a break during research in Canada's Bay of Fundy, where after a more-than-20-year career he finally saw his first underwater right whale and basking shark. “They are both in trouble and both among the largest of their kind,” Worm said.

Humans suspected

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Endangered Hawaiian Crow Shows Knack for Tool Use
September 14, 2016 - An endangered crow species from Hawaii that already is extinct in the wild displays remarkable proficiency in using small sticks and other objects to wrangle a meal, joining a small and elite group of animals that use tools.

Scientists said on Wednesday that in a series of experiments, the crow — known by its indigenous Hawaiian name Alala — used objects as tools with dexterity to get at hard-to-reach meat, sometimes modifying them by shortening too-long sticks or making tools from raw plant material. "Tool use is exceedingly rare in the animal kingdom," evolutionary ecologist Christian Rutz of the University of St Andrews in Scotland, who led the study published in the journal Nature, said in an email.

A captive Hawaiian crow using a stick tool to extract food from a wooden log is shown in this image​

The Alala (pronounced ah-la-lah) is the second crow species known to naturally use tools. The other is the New Caledonian crow on New Caledonia island in the South Pacific, which uses tools to extract insects and other prey from deadwood and vegetation. New Caledonian and Hawaiian crows share a common feature: unusually straight bills. The researchers wondered whether this trait might be an evolutionary adaptation for holding tools, akin to people's opposable thumbs. Scientists are trying to save the Alala from extinction. The remaining 131 birds are kept in two facilities on the Big Island of Hawaii and the island of Maui. "A range of factors may have contributed to the species' decline in the late 20th century, including habitat change and disease," Rutz said.

Scientists have mounted a captive-breeding program and later this year plan to release captive-reared birds on the Big Island, their former home in the wild, to try to re-establish a wild population. Humans are the most adept tool users. But our closest genetic cousins, chimpanzees, use stick probes to extract ants, termites and honey. Capuchin monkeys and macaques use stones to hammer open hard-shelled nuts and shellfish, respectively.

A captive Hawaiian crow using a stick tool to extract food from a wooden log is shown in this image​

Egyptian vultures and black-breasted buzzards use stone tools to crack open bird eggs for food. Even some invertebrates, including digger wasps, hermit crabs and some spiders, use tools. In experiments using 104 captive birds, the researchers presented Hawaiian crows with a wooden log with multiple drilled holes and crevices baited with small pieces of meat. The crows could see the meat, but not reach it with their bill alone. The vast majority spontaneously used sticks and other objects to probe for the hidden food: 93 percent of adults and 47 of younger birds.

Endangered Hawaiian Crow Shows Knack for Tool Use

 

[waltky]

Sumatran rhinos approaching extinction...

The fight to save the world’s smallest rhino
Wed, Dec 21, 2016 - CRITICALLY ENDANGERED: Unlike their African cousins, Sumatran rhinos are born covered in shaggy, reddish-brown fur, which has earned them the nickname ‘hairy rhino’

Deep from within the Indonesian jungle a solitary, seldom seen forest giant emerges from the undergrowth. It is a Sumatran rhino, one of the rarest large mammals on Earth. There are no more than 100 left on the entire planet and Andatu — a four-year-old male — is one of the last remaining hopes for the future of the species. He is part of a special breeding program at Way Kambas National Park in eastern Sumatra that is trying to save the critically endangered species from disappearing forever. The species is so rarely seen that even villagers living near the park were stunned when a wild rhino wandered into their community. “They thought it was a mythical creature,” Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary at Way Kambas head veterinary surgeon Zulfi Arsan said. “They chased her and so we had to rescue her.” Sumatran rhinos are the smallest of all rhinos and the only Asian variety with two horns.

Unlike their better-known cousins in Africa, Sumatran rhinos are born covered in shaggy, reddish-brown fur, earning them the nickname “hairy rhino.” Their woolly covering fades to black or disappears almost entirely over their lifetimes, which span 35 to 40 years. This hair — coupled with their smaller stature and short horns — gives Sumatran rhinos like Andatu a gentler, softer appearance than their imposing, armor-plated cousins. They once roamed the vast, dense forests of Sumatra, Borneo and Malaysia, but land-clearing and poaching have devastated their numbers. Last year, the species was declared extinct in the wild in Malaysia, leaving just tiny herds of two to five rhinos scattered across Sumatra and Indonesian Borneo. Somewhere within the 1,300km2 of Way Kambas live an estimated 36 wild rhinos, Arsan said.

Andatu, a Sumatran rhino, one of the rarest large mammals on Earth, grazes at the Rhino Sanctuary at Way Kambas National Park in eastern Sumatra, Indonesia​

In Sumatra there are also small clusters in the west and the island’s northern Leuser ecosystem — the last place on Earth where wild rhinos, orangutans, tigers and elephants roam together. Poaching is a serious threat. The last rhino killed in Way Kambas was in 2006, Arsan said, but staff take no chances in this section of lowland forest. Armed rhino protection units patrol the habitat, disabling snares, and identifying authorities of intruders and suspicious activity. “There’s still illegal activities inside the park,” Arsan said. “The demand for the horn, for rhino products, is still there.” Three males, including Andatu, and four females are kept in a 100 hectare natural rainforest enclosure within Way Kambas, where vets and researchers take every opportunity to study their unusual breeding patterns.

Sumatran rhinos are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity. Females are only fertile for a small window each cycle and need male contact to ovulate. Even then, intercourse does not guarantee conception. To make matters worse, Sumatran rhinos are solitary by nature and often clash upon interaction. “In 100 years we’ve had just seven babies. It’s very hard,” Arsan said of historic efforts to breed the rhinos. Andatu’s birth in 2012 was heralded as a milestone — he was the first Sumatran rhino born in an Asian breeding facility in more than 140 years. Since then he has been joined by a sister, who arrived this May to much fanfare.[ Andatu is close to reaching sexual maturity and conservationists hope he can play a star role in ensuring the longevity of the species. “Every birth is a hope,” Arsan said.

The fight to save the world’s smallest rhino - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Spanish police shut down illegal turtle farm selling endangered species from across the world...

Spanish police shut down illegal turtle farm selling endangered species from across the world
23 Aug.`18 - More than 1,000 turtles and 750 eggs were seized, including specimens of 14 of the 50 most endangered species in the world

The European law enforcement agency says Spanish police have shut down what they believe to be Europe’s biggest illegal turtle farm, selling endangered species worth 10,000 euros (£8,900) each. Europol said on Thursday that police in Mallorca seized around 1,100 turtles and 750 eggs, including specimens of 14 of the 50 most endangered species in the world. Some of the protected species came from the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Europol says the operation began 18 months ago when authorities seized an illegal shipment of turtles at Mallorca airport. That discovery led them to the farm. A pet shop in Barcelona specialising in exotic animals was used to smuggle the turtles out of Spain. Europol says it coordinated information from other EU countries, including Austria, France, Germany and Italy.

Spanish police shut down illegal turtle farm selling endangered species from across the world

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Illegal turtle farm raid nets massive haul including endangered species worth $12G each, officials say
The operators of Europe's largest illegal turtle farm were shell-shocked Thursday during a Spanish police raid that rescued more than 1,100 turtles -- including endangered species selling for nearly $12,000 each, officials said.

Mallorca police also seized about 750 eggs, and will end up with many more than that: 200 female turtles were about to lay eggs. Specimens of 14 of the 50 most endangered species in the world were also discovered at the illicit pet farm, officials said. Tortoises were also seized at the farm. Some of the most protected species came from the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

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Spanish police seized more than 1,000 turtles from an illegal farm.​

Video of the turtles were posted on YouTube. The operation was launched 18 months ago when a shipment of turtles was seized at Mallorca airport, Europol said in a news release. The discovery eventually led them to the farm.

A Barcelona pet shop specializing in exotic animals was allegedly used as a front to smuggle the exotic animals in and out of Spain, officials said. Six people were arrested between Mallorca and Barcelona in connection with the smuggling, Europol announced.

Illegal turtle farm raid nets massive haul including endangered species worth $12G each, officials say