Category: Wild Animals

Little noticed Operation Noah inspired Operation Gwamba

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

Before there was Operation Gwamba,  documented by John Walsh and Robert Gannon in Time Is Short And The Water Rises,  there was Operation Noah,  a five-year rescue begun in 1958 by Rhodesian chief ranger Rupert Fothergill.

Fothergill,  46, began relocating animals from the Zambezi Valley to Matsudona National Park and other habitat near Lake Kariba in 1958,  after the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River was closed. Fothergill was still at it in 1964,    to little outside notice, when Operation Gwamba began.

The Kariba Dam,  then the biggest in the world,  impounded water for 174 miles below Victoria Falls. Read more

Rick Perry appears to dance a little sidestep on wild burro shootings

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

 

AUSTIN–What Texas governor and candidate for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination Rick Perry knows about wild burros under fire from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department in Big Bend Ranch State Park is uncertain.

But some of Perry’s online backers have made what they know clear:  burros are emblematic of the Democratic Party,  the party of incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama,  and for that reason alone should be shot,  along with “Liberals in Big cities,”  as one poster to the Drudge Report web site put it. Read more

Big Cat Rescue seeks enforcement of 2007 Florida captive wildlife bonding requirement

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

TAMPA–Contacted by ANIMAL PEOPLE about a flamboyant but ill-informed September 28,  2011 “exposé” of Big Cat Rescue by Mike Deeson of WTSP-TV,  Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin seemed only transiently interested in defending herself and her organization.

Her husband,  attorney Howard Baskin, posted an extensive response and rebuttal to Deeson on the Big Cat Rescue web site,  including a detailed summary of why he advised his wife against going on camera with Deeson for what appeared to be an “ambush interview.”  Carole Baskin did e-mail to Deeson an extensive written response to the allegations against Big Cat Rescue.  Read more

Failing Zimbabwe farmers poison elephants

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:


HARARE, Zimbabwe–Driven by drought and inability to farm on property seized a decade ago,  desperate Zimbabweans have begun a second round of land invasions.

Land invasions during the first years of the 21st century left the Zimbabwean trophy hunting industry largely intact,  but destroyed nonlethal wildlife watching and turned Zimbabwe from being one of Africa’s major food exporting nations into requiring international food aid.  Encouraging the land invasions kept the ZANU-PF party in power,  extending the tenure of President Robert Mugabe to 31 years.  But Mugabe,  87,  is suffering from advanced prostate cancer,  according to leaked diplomatic papers. Read more

Wins for apes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  October 2011:

CAIRO,  DUBLIN— Egyptian animal advocate Dina Zulfikar and John Carmody,  founder of the Animal Rights Action Network in Limerick, Ireland,  agree that their longterm goal is not bigger cages but no cages.  Yet both were ecstatic in September 2011 over winning larger cages for several chimpanzees and gorillas for whom there is little hope of life outside of zoos. Read more

What is delaying the promised release of 72 dolphins illegally captured in Indonesia?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:


JAKARTA–Jakarta Animal Aid Network attorney Romy Daniel Tobing advised media on September 7,  2011 that JAAN is ready to pursue “the necessary legal enforcement measures” to ensure that the Indonesian forest ministry honors a memorandum of understanding to return 72 illegally captured dolphins of the wild.

“The commitment, which was signed in October 2010,  was to involve a joint effort by JAAN,  the forest ministry,  and Earth Island Institute to implement a five-year plan for dolphin protection,  rehabilitation and release,”  summarized Ismira Lutfia of the Jakarta Globe.

This largest-ever planned release of captive dolphins remains “caught in a net of delays,”  as Jakarta Post Central Java correspondent Maria Kegel put it three months ago.  That was already three months after Dolphin Project founder Ric O’Barry,  representing Earth Island Institute,  announced that the confiscation and release of the dolphins was imminent. Read more

Wildlife charities booted from CITES ivory talks

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

 

GENEVA--Wildlife charities including the Born Free Foundation,  Elephant Family,  the Environmental Investigation Agency,  Humane Society International, International Fund for Animal Welfare,  Species Survival Network,  and World Wildlife Fund were on August 17,  2011 excluded from attending “deliberations concerning elephant conservation,  the ivory trade,  and China’s increasing involvement in illegal ivory trade” at the 61st Standing Committee meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,  e-mailed Rudy Rosensweig of Born Free USA to global media. Read more

Badger cull to begin in 2012

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:

LONDON--British environment secretary Caroline Spelman is expected to finalize plans before the close of 2011 to license dairy farmers to shoot badgers to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis.

According to a draft strategy released to media in July 2011, the cull would begin in 2012 in two trial areas,  believed to be in Devon and Gloucestershire,  though Spel-man told media that she was undecided about where the sites would be.  After the initial trial, culling would proceed more aggressively for at least four years beginning in 2013. Read more

Among African Apes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2011:


Among African Apes
Edited by Martha M. Robbins & Christophe Boesch
University of California Press
(2120 Berkeley Way,  Berkeley,
CA  94704),  2011.  196 pages,  hardcover.  $29.95.

A series of essays and memoirs by field researchers,  Among African Apes both intrigues and troubles the reader.  Editor Martha M. Robbins says her life is often perceived as glamorous. It is not. Sometimes Robbins and her colleagues sit for hours just waiting for animals to appear. Collecting and then analyzing data is tedious work. Read more

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