Category: Wild Animals

Opinions from the Front Lines of Cat Colony Management Conflict

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2012:

RALEIGH,  N.C.–About 80% of feral cat colony caretakers believe feral cat management can be done in a manner that accommodates the concerns of birders, but only 50% of bird conservation professionals share this view, according to a study published on September 6, 2012 by the online science journal PLOS One.Opinions from the Front Lines of Cat Colony Management Conflict, by North Carolina State University wildlife mangement professor Nils Peterson and four colleagues, “began as a class project in Peterson’s “Human Dimensions of Wildlife” course last year,” reported Jay Price of the Raleigh News & Observer.  “The researchers surveyed nearly 600 Americans who identified themselves as cat colony  caretakers or bird conservation professionals affiliated with groups such as the Audubon Society and American Bird Conservancy,” Price summarized. Read more

Chimps injure anthropology student at Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2012:

Chimps injure anthropology student at Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden

JOHANNESBURG–U.S. anthropology student Andrew Oberle, 26, lost an ear, several fingers and toes and a testicle on June 28, 2012 after entering a restricted enclosure at Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee Eden, apparently to pick up a rock that he believed two chimps named Nikki and Amadeus might hurl at a group of about a dozen visitors. Placed in a medically induced coma due to blood loss, Oberle underwent six hours of surgery five days after the attack. Read more

Georgia Aquarium applies to import 18 wild-caught belugas–who would be first to reach the U.S. in 20 years

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2012:

Georgia Aquarium applies to import 18 wild-caught belugas–who would be first to reach the U.S. in 20 years

ATLANTA-The Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta has applied for a federal permit to import 18 beluga whales from the Sea of Okhotsk in eastern Russia. They could be the first belugas to be captured in the wild and brought to the U.S. for exhibition since 1992, when the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago imported four from the vicinity of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Read more

Oliver, 55, chimp called "The Humanzee"

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Oliver,  55,  chimp called “The Humanzee”

Oliver,  55,  a chimpanzee who was promoted in his youth as “The Humanzee,”  was found dead on June 2,  2012 in his sleeping hammock at the Primarily Primates sanctuary near San Antonio,  Texas, operated by Friends of Animals.   Oliver’s companion Raisin was at his side.

Oliver differed from most chimps in usually walking on his hind legs,  having shorter hair on the top of his head,  having a lighter build,  having finer facial features,  and having an easy-going nature,  but genetic testing showed that he was a chimp, not a member of an otherwise unknown species,  former Primarily Primates president Wally Swett told ANIMAL PEOPLE. Read more

Exotic cat exhibitor Joe Schreibvogel responds to HSUS exposé with threat of "a small Waco" if cats are confiscated

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Exotic cat exhibitor Joe Schreibvogel responds to HSUS exposé with threat of “a small Waco” if cats are confiscated

Wynnewood, Oklahoma–– National television broadcasts on May 16,  2012 featured longtime traveling tiger exhibitor Joe Schreibvogel and his GW Exotic Animal Park at Wynnewood in central Oklahoma,  but the self-described “Joe Exotic” probably did not enjoy the spotlight.

“With Congress and the state of Ohio considering bills to restrict private ownership of dangerous exotic animals,  CBS This Morning broke news of another Humane Society of the U.S. undercover investigation,”  blogged HSUS president Wayne Pacelle,  describing Schreibvogel as “perhaps the largest private owner of tigers in the nation.” Read more

BOOKS: Carbofuran & Wildlife Poisoning: Global Perspectives and Forensic Approaches

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Carbofuran & Wildlife Poisoning:  Global Perspectives and Forensic Approaches
Edited by Ngaio Richards   *  John Wiley & Sons 
(111 River Street,  Hoboken, NJ 07030),  2011. 
304 pages,hardcover.  $49.95.

Thirty-nine experts in various related disciplines contribute chapters to Carbofuran & Wildlife Poisoning:  Global Perspectives and Forensic Approaches.   The contributors might outnumber the readers who will ever peruse this first book-length examination of carbofuran and wildlife mortality from cover to cover.

Published nearly 50 years after Rachel Carson in Silent Spring sparked enduring concern about the effects of pesticides on wildlife, Carbofuran & Wildlife Poisoning might also be read as an exposé,  but almost everyone who encounters it will already be aware that carbofuran kills wildlife in many different ways–and probably kills more birds and mammals than any other pesticide still in use.  The primary purpose of Carbofuran & Wildlife Poisoning is simply to pull together within one set of covers all of the information that people encountering possible effects of carbofuran may need to know,  whether to diagnose the problem or to organize a litigative or political response. Read more

Trapper shoots horse as bait to trap last breeding wolf from Toklat pack

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  June 2012:

Trapper shoots horse as bait to trap last breeding wolf from Toklat pack

DENALI NATIONAL PARK,  Alaska–Hunting guide Coke Wallace, of Healy,  has acknowledged walking an aged horse to the Stampede Trail near the northern boundary of Denali National Park,  shooting the horse,  and setting snares around the carcass.  The snares killed the last known breeding female wolf from the Grant Creek pack–the pack that roams the area made famous by the 1996 book by Jon Krakauer and 2007 feature film Into the Wild,  about the 1992 death nearby of 22-year-old would-be survivalist Christopher McCandless.
The Grant Creek pack,  also called the Toklat West pack,  is among the three wolf packs most often viewed and photographed by Denali visitors.  The pack has been continuously studied since 1939, first by Adolf Murie until his death in 1974,  then by Gordon Haber from 1966 until his death while spotting wolves from a light plane in 2009, and currently by Anchorage conservation biologist and former University of Alaska professor Rick Steiner. Read more

BOOKS: Bear Sanctuary by Victor Watkins

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May 2012:

Bear Sanctuary  by Victor Watkins
Bear Sanctuary Publications (P.O. Box 690, Redhill,  Surrey,  RH19DG, U.K.),  2011.  126 pages,  paperback.  $4.99/Kindle, <http://bearsanctuary.com>.

    Captive bears endured wretched lives in Romania for centuries.  Bear-baiting was commonly practiced from Roman times,  or earlier,  until well into the 20th century.  Gypsy “dancing bear” acts reputedly continued into the 21st century. Read more

South Korean judge tells marine park to release dolphins

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May 2012:
South Korean judge tells marine park to release dolphins

    JEJU, South Korea–-Jeju District Court Judge Kim Kyeong-seon on April 5,  2012 ordered the dolphin show promotion company Jeju Pacific Land to release five dolphins who were illegally captured from waters surrounding Jeju Island.  Judge Kim Kyeong-seon also fined Jeju Pacific Land $9,000 and issued suspended jail sentences to the company president and one employee.  The five dolphins who are to be released were among 11 who were allegedly captured for Jeju Pacific Land.  The newsaper Dong-A Ilbo reported that five of the dolphins died.  One was traded to a zoo for two sea lions. Read more

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