The Great Ape Project and the bush meat trade by Karl Ammann

March 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

I have investigated aspects of the
bush meat trade in Africa for the last six
years. I no longer have any doubt that the
increasing commercialisation of this trade is
today the biggest threat to the survival of
many species in West and Central Africa.
The great apes are no exception. Many parts
of their range are being logged. The construction
of logging roads has allowed the
bush meat trade to go commercial. In consequence,
entire gorilla and chimp populations
are eaten into extinction, at a rate of thousands
of animals a year.
Why, at this stage, are the scientific
and conservation communities concentrating
on rather theoretical issues, while the
very existence of the subjects under discussion
is under serious threat?

Last of the dinosaurs

March 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

NEW YORK––The world learned
last year what leading-edge paleontologists
began to whisper a decade ago––that the
dinosaurs were not reptiles but close kin to
birds, or more precisely, that birds are not
merely descendents but survivors of
Dinosauria, a living branch of the therapod
dinosaur family. Among the therapods were
Ornithomimus, actually named for resembling
a bird; Gallimimus, essentially a giant
ostrich; the hawk-like Oviraptors and
Velociraptors; and the Tyrannosaurids,
including Tyrannosaurus Rex.
“Yo, T-Rex!” chortled Newsweek.
“Your mama’s a turkey!”

The price of Willy

March 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

NEWPORT, Oregon––Keiko, the orca star of the
1993 film Free Willy!, was already the costliest, most controversial
whale in history long before he splashed into his
new surroundings, a $7 million state-of-the-art tank at the
Oregon Coast Aquarium. Enjoying four times the space he
had in his 11 years at the El Reino Aventura amusement park
in Mexico City, Keiko increased his activity so much as to
double his appetite within his first week of arrival, as the
biggest package ever flown by United Parcel Service.
But the successful relocation only escalated the
debate over whether and if Keiko can––or should––actually
be freed. Moving him was the easy part. There were disagreements
over who should move him, where, for what
purpose, but even El Reino Aventura general manager Oscar
Porter readily agreed in principle that he needed better quarters.

BOOKS: The Flight of the Osprey

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

The Flight of the Osprey, by Ewan Clarkson. St. Martin’s Press (175 5th
Ave., New York, NY 10010), 1995. 192 pages. $19.95, hardcover.

Nicola Fray is widowed at age 37.
Her late husband, a botanist, taught respect
for all creatures. But when fishery owner
Martin Collier beds and subsequently weds
her, after much dithery coyness on her part,
she not only learns to live happily with his
fishing, but has her eyes “opened” to the
“scientific” virtues of hunting.

Primates

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Forced to cut costs by 24 weekends
of rain during the first nine months of
1995 plus a $53 million construction debt load
for expanded marine mammal facilities,
Marine World Africa USA on October 31 discontinued
the chimpanzee act run since 1982
by husband-and-wife team Liam and Kim
Hussey. Of the seven MWAUSA chimps,
four, ages 13, 15, 21, and 22, were already
retired from performing, and two others, ages
9 and 11, were near the usual upper age limit
for performing chimps. They are, however,
just coming into their prime breeding years,
and are highly valued members of the
American Zoo and Aquarium Association administered
chimpanzee Species Survival
Plan gene pool. “We have always wanted to

The memory of an elephant by Donna Robb

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

At least one of the estimated 600
elephant handlers in the U.S. has been killed
in each of the past 15 years by an elephant’s
foot, trunk, or tusk, or as part of an elephant
sandwich, making elephant training riskier,
in fatalities per thousand, than any other
occupation.
So who would want such a job? I
would. I was an elephant keeper for four
years at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo. I
worked with two female African elephants,
Simba and Tiani, who touched my life more
than anything else but the births of my three
daughters. I went through two of my pregnancies
while working as an elephant keeper,
and never received more than a squashed
wedding band and a few stitches in my forearm
to show for it. What would the statisticians
have done with a stomped 9-monthspregnant
keeper?

Sanctuaries

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Last July someone dumped four
six-week-old kittens at the Wildlife Images
Sanctuary in Grants Pass, Oregon.
Volunteers caught, neutered, and adopted
out three, but the fourth eluded them.
Starving, he eventually dashed into a pen
where Griz, a 560-pound male grizzly bear,
was eating a bucket of chicken. Because
male grizzlies are notoriously grouchy, Griz
had been kept alone since arriving in 1990,
after a train killed his mother and sister.
“The kitten was so hungry he walked up and
begged for food,” recalls Wildlife Images
founder Dave Siddon. “I thought, ‘Oh my
gosh, he’ll be killed.’ With all due deliberateness,
the bear pulled a piece of chicken
out and dropped it beside his forepaw, and
the cat walked up and ate it.” They now eat,
sleep, and play together––and the cat won’t
let humans near him unless Griz is close. He
whacks Griz on the nose if the play gets too
rough; Griz backs off.

News from zoos

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Improvements
Four months after giving the Los
Angeles Zoo one year to make improvements
necessary to keep accreditation,
American Zoo and Aquarium Association
representive Stephen McCusker credits interim
zoo administrator Manuel Mollinedo, 49,
with accomplishing many of the goals. “He’s
worked miracles,” adds Los Angeles city
council member Rita Walters, a member of
the Ad Hoc Committee on Zoo Improvement,
indicating that Mollinedo could soon be
given the top zoo job on a permanent basis.
A longtime Parks and Recreation official,
Mollinedo took the interim post with no
background in either zoo management or veterinary
science. His hand was strengthened
by a recent report to the Ad Hoc Committee
by Los Angeles chief legislative analyst Ron
Deaton and chief administrative officer Keith
Comrie, who argued that the zoo should
become an independent branch of the city
government, with greater authority over the
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, the
private fundraising organization that runs the
zoo concessions. Zoo attendance has fallen
since 1990, while the concessions lost
money in both 1993 and 1994.

Marine Animals

January 1, 1996 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Cetaceans

Captain Paul Watson honors
Captain James Waddell, commander of the
Confederate warship Shenandoah, in the
3rd/4th Quarter 1995 edition of The Sea
Shepherd Log. Waddell in 1865 sank 38 of
the 85 Yankee whalers in the North
Pacific––fighting on for seven months after
the Confederacy surrendered––without either
taking or losing a human life. His official
goal was doing economic harm to the Union,
but crewman Joshua Minor told one whaling
captain, “We have entered into a treaty
offensive and defensive with the whales. We
are up here by special agreement to disperse
their mortal enemies.” Watson credits
Waddell and crew with preventing the extinction
of bowheads and grey whales.

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