An amphibian and reptile conservation charity is to transform an area of heathland in east Hampshire into a reserve for a rare breed of toad.

The natterjack toad is an endangered native species

The district council has given £1,000 to The Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) to turn an area at Longmoor into the natterjack toad's habitat. The grant will be used help clear birch, willow scrub and make a pond. The most important remaining heaths for the toad and other rare animals are in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey and Sussex.

Grazing cattle

"Now that we have cleared areas of scrub, the cattle play a vital role by grazing land around the pond to keep it in an ideal state for the natterjack," said John Buckley, the trust's amphibian conservation officer.

The natterjack - which features in the local authority's coat of arms - used to be common across England but due to loss of habitat it has become an endangered species and is now one of the rarest native amphibians.

The HCT has a licence to manage some 100 hectares of land at Longmoor and is working closely with Ministry of Defence agents, Defence Estates, in conserving the area, including through the grazing of cattle.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hamp ... 260589.stm

Over-fishing and demand for shark fins, an expensive delicacy, have pushed one of the world's iconic animals towards the brink of extinction, say experts. The scalloped hammerhead shark is to be added to the official endangered species list this year, under the heading "globally endangered".

Hammerheads are among the most commonly caught sharks for finning

Their plight has been discussed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. It was told that enforcement of marine reserves would aid shark protection.

The observation takes account of new research that shows hammerhead and great white sharks patrol fixed routes in the ocean, gathering at hotspots to mate or feed.

Dr Julia Baum, a marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, US, and a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), said excessive fishing was putting many of the ocean's "most majestic predators" at risk of extinction. Speaking at the Boston meeting, she said: "Sharks evolved 400 million years ago, and we could now lose some species in the next few decades - so that would be just a blink of an eye in evolutionary time." She said conservation concern for sharks had been mounting for several years, and it was now critical that there was effective management action in order to restore and conserve their numbers.

Fishing for sharks in international waters is unrestricted, but conservation groups are calling for urgent measures to set limits on shark catch and fishing quotas. They say demand for shark fins as an expensive delicacy is greatly increasing the pressure on shark populations. They want a meaningful ban on the practice of shark finning, which involves a shark's fins being removed before the rest of the animal is thrown back into the ocean to die. Hammerheads are among the most commonly caught sharks for finning. A large shark fin can fetch over £50 a kilo.

Research presented at the AAAS in Boston is starting to unravel the mysteries of shark behaviour, and how they might best be protected. Tagging studies show that the scalloped hammerhead gathers at fixed sites around islands in the Eastern Pacific Ocean during its long-distance migrations. The animals move between a series of "stepping stone" sites off groups of coastal islands between Mexico and Ecuador. They also congregate around mountains rising from the ocean seafloor.

Electronic tagging of 150 great white sharks found off the coast of central California revealed similar findings - the sharks gather in "hotspots". One site between Hawaii and Mexico attracted so many visitors that researchers dubbed it "the white shark cafe". Salvador Jorgensen, a researcher at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, US, said it was still not clear why the sharks went there. "They're going there to feed, or they're going there for meeting, where males and females could meet perhaps away from a feeding area, where there's less competition and more focus on mating behaviour," he suggested.

The scientists say information on shark "superhighway" routes and stepping stone sites can be used to help fisheries managers focus on protecting these areas.

Previous research by Dr Baum's team has found that sharks are declining rapidly in parts of the Atlantic Ocean. All species they looked at had declined by over 50% since the early 1970s. For many large coastal shark species, the drop in numbers was much greater: tiger, scalloped hammerhead and dusky shark populations have fallen by more than 95%.

A total of 233 shark species are currently on the IUCN Red List, 12 of which are classified "critically endangered". Nine, including the scalloped hammerhead, have been added or will be added this year. Among them are three species of thresher shark and the shortfin mako shark. These are considered "vulnerable to extinction".

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7251651.stm

Walkers in the Highlands are being asked to help discover the true numbers of one of Britain's most secretive creatures - the Scottish wildcat.

A wildcat and kitten at Wildwood Discovery Park, Kent

It became extinct in England and Wales 150 years ago but continues to be sighted in Scottish woods and moorland. Some estimates suggest just 400 survive - although there could be up to 4,000.

Now Scottish Natural Heritage is asking everyone who uses the countryside to take part in a year-long survey and report sightings of the timid animal. The conservation body hopes to assess numbers and distribution. The count is being carried out as part of the Scottish Government's Species Action Framework and is an effort to safeguard the rare mammal.

Minister for Environment Michael Russell is due to launch the survey at the Highland Wildlife Park, near Kincraig, which has captive purebred wildcats.

However, Adrian Davies, who is co-ordinating the research, said it helped if people had seen a wildcat before and knew what they looked like.

Last survivor

He said: "There's obviously a number of occasions where it might actually be quite difficult to determine a wildcat. "They're often seen at dusk and at dawn or in the dark so it can be quite difficult to determine what a wildcat is in the field."

The animal is the last surviving native member of the cat family to be found in the wild in Britain. It has been listed in the Species Action Framework for conservation effort over the next five years in an attempt to improve its habitat and reduce threats of cross breeding with feral domestic cats.

The Scottish wildcat has survived by clinging on in habitat margins between mountain and moorland and forest and fields, preying on rabbits, small birds and mammals.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/hig ... 240908.stm

Laws protecting the critically endangered Sumatran Tiger have failed to prevent tiger body parts being offered on open sale in Indonesia, according to a TRAFFIC report launched today.

Tiger body parts, including canine teeth, claws, skin pieces, whiskers and bones, were on sale in 10 percent of the 326 retail outlets surveyed during 2006 in 28 cities and towns across Sumatra. Outlets included goldsmiths, souvenir and traditional Chinese medicine shops, and shops selling antique and precious stones.

The survey conservatively estimates that 23 tigers were killed to supply the products seen, based on the number of canine teeth on sale.

“This is down from an estimate of 52 killed per year in 1999–2000”, said Julia Ng, Programme Officer with TRAFFIC Southeast Asia and lead author on The Tiger Trade Revisited in Sumatra, Indonesia. “Sadly, the decline in availability appears to be due to the dwindling number of tigers left in the wild”.

All of TRAFFIC’s surveys have indicated that Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, and Pancur Batu, a smaller town situated about 15 km away, are the main hubs for the trade of tiger parts.

Despite TRAFFIC providing authorities with details of traders involved, apart from awareness-raising activities, it is not clear whether any serious enforcement action has been taken.

“Successive surveys continue to show that Sumatran tigers are being sold body part by body part into extinction”, said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF International’s Species Programme. “This is an enforcement crisis. If Indonesian authorities need enforcement help from the international community they should ask for it. If not, they should demonstrate they are taking enforcement seriously”.

The report recommends that resources and effort should concentrate on effective enforcement to combat the trade by arresting dealers and suppliers. Trade hotspots should be continually monitored and all intelligence be passed to the enforcement authorities for action. Those found guilty of trading in tigers and other protected wildlife should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“We have to deal with the trade. Currently we are facing many other crucial problems which, unfortunately, are causing the decline of Sumatran Tiger populations” explained Dr Tonny Soehartono, Director for Biodiversity Conservation, Ministry of Forestry of Republic of Indonesia. “We have been struggling with the issues of land use changes, habitat fragmentation, human–tiger conflicts and poverty in Sumatra. Land use changes and habitat fragmentation are driving the tiger closer to humans and thus creating human–tiger conflicts”.

As a recent show of commitment, the President of the Republic of Indonesia launched the Conservation Strategy and Action Plan of Sumatran Tiger 2007–2017 during the 2007 Climate Change Convention in Bali.

Sumatra's remaining few tigers are also under threat from rampant deforestation by the pulp and paper and palm oil industries. The combined threats of habitat loss and illegal trade—unless tackled immediately—will be the death knell for Indonesian tigers.

“The Sumatran tiger is already listed as Critically Endangered on IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, the highest category of threat before extinction in the wild,” said Jane Smart, Head of IUCN’s Species Programme. “We cannot afford to lose any more of these magnificent creatures”.

“The Sumatran tiger population is estimated to be fewer than 400 to 500 individuals. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that the Sumatran Tiger will disappear like the Javan and Bali tigers if the poaching and trade continues” Julia Ng adds.

As Indonesia currently chairs the ASEAN-Wildlife Enforcement Network, TRAFFIC National Co-ordinator Dr Ani Mardiastuti suggested the country “demonstrate leadership to other ASEAN countries by taking action against illegal trade, including in tiger parts.”

source: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroo ... sID=124480

On February 6, the Department of the Interior plans to move ahead with leasing nearly 30 million acres in Alaska's pristine Chukchi Sea for oil and gas activities.

© Steven Morello

Together, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas support an estimated one-fifth of the world's polar bear population. The polar bear's existence is already threatened by the impact of climate change-induced loss of sea ice. Its chances for survival will be greatly diminished if much of its remaining critical habitat is turned into a vast oil and gas field. The Chukchi Sea lease must be halted until protective measures are in place for the polar bear.

In early January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service released a proposal to list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. However, a final decision has yet to be made. On January 30, Margaret Williams, WWF’s Director of the Bering Sea ecoregion program, called for urgent action to save polar bears at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing entitled “Examining Threats and Protections for the Polar Bear.” The hearing was convened to examine existing protections for the polar bear and other measures that may be needed. WWF supports the position to classify the polar bear as threatened, based on a large volume of compelling information about significant changes in the polar bear's Arctic sea ice habitat.

WWF has worked around the world's Arctic regions for over 20 years and has been a voice for the conservation of biodiversity, protected areas, wildlife and cultural values central to the indigenous peoples of the North. WWF is the only environmental NGO active in all of the Arctic countries. Polar bears, the charismatic icon of the polar environment, have long been a focus in WWF's on-the-ground research and conservation projects in the Arctic - also with regard to climate change.

source (and photos): WWF Newsletter

A female Indian rhino and her calf have been killed for their horns in Kaziranga National Park, India. The female survived for 35 hours after the attack, but slowly bled to death after her horn was sawn off and shot twice by poachers. The region's rhinos had recently featured in the BBC's natural history series Saving Planet Earth.

Despite best efforts by conservation groups, and increased funding, poaching has recently escalated in the region.

Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, from Aaranyak, a conservation charity based in India, told BBC News: "The vet tried to save her but it was not possible. "It is the first time I have seen a rhino struggle to survive for 35 hours after having their horn sawn off."

INJURED FEMALE RHINO [Warning: Graphic photo]

The attack took place under the cover of darkness on 19 January. The next morning the female was found in a critical condition. She struggled to survive until 21 January.

Animal ambassador David Shepherd said: "Can man, the most lethal animal on the planet, sink any lower in depravity just to make money? "In 50 years of conservation, I have seldom seen such a sickening example of wildlife abuse. I love rhinos and they deserve a better fate than this."

Mr Shepherd is the founder of the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF), which supports Aaranyak in its mission to protect the Indian one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Kaziranga National Park.

Melanie Shepherd, from the DSWF told BBC News: "Between 1998 and 2006 rhino poaching in Kaziranga was brought under some control. "However, last year poaching increased at an alarming rate, with 20 rhinos killed in 2007. Despite increased funding, there have already been four deaths in 2008."

Ms Sherpherd suggests poaching has escalated in the region as the market for rhino ivory has increased in China, for use in traditional Chinese medicine and because the location of Kaziranga National Park makes it particularly vulnerable and difficult to patrol. The park is situated in the far eastern corner state of Assam, close to the Chinese border.

"Kaziranga National Park is a key pivotal area. Assam is on the doorstep of the consumer market. It is easy for poachers to get across the border and then into China, Thailand, and Myanmar. The park is an obvious target," she says. Another problem is that the Bhamaputra river makes up the Northern park boundary and is currently exploited by poachers to gain access to the park, especially in the monsoon season.

However, it is hoped a patrol boat, funded by a £62,000 donation from the BBC Wildlife Fund after Kaziranga's rhinos were featured on the BBC's Saving Planet Earth series, will help provide extra reinforcement to this problem. The money is also going towards the ongoing project, started in 1995, of equipping the 400 park rangers with radios so they can report poaching incidents and call for reinforcements.

The ongoing conflict between rangers and poachers has claimed the lives of 60 people over the past 20 years. Ms Shepherd says: "Bibhab and his team do the most amazing work fighting against sophisticated criminal well armed gangs. "Despite losses, including his second in command who was killed in action, they never give up. The Indian rhino's future lies in their hands and we must continue to support them."

The world population of one-horned Indian rhino is estimated to be 2,500 animals, three-quarters of these are found in Kaziranga National Park. The species was once found throughout the northern Indian sub-continent, but can now only be found in India and Nepal.

INDIAN RHINO FACTS
- Numbers have increased from 200 in 1900 to about 2,500 today
- Rhino horn, kilo-for-kilo, is five times more valuable than gold
- Rhinos can reach speeds of 55km/h (34mph)
- Males mark their territory with dung piles measuring up to a metre high
- Indian rhinos have scent glands on their forefeet, and leave scent trails for other rhinos to smell

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7217866.stm

Today it was said in the news that the Indian government intends to spend 100 million euro to try and save the bengal tigers. They mention the number of tigers had decreased from 3000 to 1500 but while I was in India we heard from intimacy that the hard numbers are 750 tigers left in the wild.

The government claims to open eight new tiger reserves in India and to keep people (like poachers) away from the tigers in order to make a serious effort to try and save them. Eight new tiger reserves, even though they haven't managed to keep the tigers alive in the already existing reserves.

I have to add that I don't believe in this kind of news anymore as while I was spending time in India, on a so-called tiger study tour, with a wildlife biologist, I was told the government is as corrupt as a lot of people working in the tiger reserves/National Parks, and every now and then they send positive news like this one in the world to keep everybody quiet and to keep them minding their own business.

For years they lied about the exact number of tigers and they still do!

It's good to keep people informed about the hard reality and that's what I'm already doing with my website and other articles. But in the meantime we of course try to keep faith

Nearly half of the sharks and rays that live in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of becoming extinct, according to wildlife experts.

They're under threat because of too much fishing and because the wrong fish are being accidentally caught in nets.

The destruction of the places they live is another reason sharks are in danger, says the World Conservation Union. It says more should be done to protect shark and ray species to make sure they're not wiped out.

At the moment, there are no limits on the amount of sharks and rays you can catch in the Mediterranean Sea.

'Rules ignored'

But the World Conservation Union says new rules passed to protect them have been ignored by fishermen and governments.

The Maltese skate and the angular roughshark are two of the species named most at risk in the survey.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsi ... 875.stm?ls

For the first time in more than two weeks there are no other ships on the horizon. With only enough fuel left to make it back to port in Australia, at two o'clock this afternoon (0500GMT) Greenpeace ended its pursuit of the Japanese factory ship, the Nisshin Maru. The ritual of such moments on the Esperanza is now familiar to all on board.

First everyone gathers on the ship's bridge. Then Greenpeace expedition leader Karli Thomas hails the Nisshin Maru's captain over the ship radio.

The Greenpeace expedition leader, Karli Thomas, tries to contact the Japanese whaler

"Nisshin Maru, Nisshin Maru, this is the Esperanza."

He ignores her. She calls him again.

Silence, perhaps a static crackle.

Undaunted, a prepared statement is then read out. This time the whaling fleet is informed that Greenpeace is leaving.

"Why, if there is nothing wrong with your scientific programme, do you have to run away from legitimate scrutiny and peaceful protest?" Ms Thomas demands. Unsurprisingly there is still no reply, so the crew of the Esperanza rather sadly wander out on deck to watch the Japanese ship, the focal point for the whole trip, disappear from view.

The unspectacular epic

The pursuit may not have been spectacular but it has turned into something of an epic. Greenpeace first came across the Japanese fleet near Prydz Bay, roughly equidistant between South Africa and Australia on the Antarctic coast. For the first few days the Nisshin Maru headed north and then north-west - out of the whaling grounds. Then it abruptly turned around and headed back south and east where it was rejoined by the rest of the fleet and the tanker ship, the Oriental Bluebird. After a day spent refuelling, the Nisshin Maru headed west yet again.

Overall the pursuit covered about 5,000 miles. If this rather tangled line was straightened out it would reach from London to Bangladesh.

But while Greenpeace may have pulled out of the chase, the Japanese fleet hasn't been left on its own. The Oceanic Viking, the Australian surveillance ship, is following and the Sea Shepherd vessel, the Steve Irwin, claims to be not far away.

Having suspended whaling for the last two weeks the question now is whether Japan is willing for Australian officials to film and photograph them at work, or whether they insist on carrying out their research in private.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 171409.stm

Wildlife lovers and activists, who were sceptical about the presence of tigers in the Buxa Tiger Reserve (BTR), may now heave a sigh of relief. For the latest tiger census confirms the presence of at least 12 tigers in Buxa, including four adult males, six adult females and two cubs.

Forest officials are hopeful to confirm the presence of another four to eight big cats in Buxa in another two months.

“There are a minimum of 12 tigers in the reserve by a conservative estimate. There are evidence suggesting the presence of at least another four to eight tigers. But we have not considered the latter cases because these evidence were either based on scats or poor quality of pug marks. Some of the cases were doubtful as these bordered between sub-adult tigers and big leopards. So, we decided to leave these cases till they could be confirmed by additional field work,” said S S Bist, Chief Wildlife Warden, forest department.

The state forest department and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) conducted the tiger census from December 11 to 15, last year. Twelve NGOs participated in the tiger enumeration process. Four wildlife experts from the National Tiger Conservation Authority, Zoological Survey of India, WWF-India and state board of wildlife were also present during the census. This time, the forest department took into account ecological and biological factors as well, including evidence like direct sightings, kills, scats and scratch marks.

Pugmarks were found to be well-dispersed in forests between the rivers Pana and Sankosh, spreading over 600 sq km, which is over 80 per cent area of Buxa. Scats collected during the tiger census have been sent to the WII for DNA analysis. The final results are expected in March.

source (and photos): http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news ... us/263703/

In 2007, with direct support from WWF, the Russian government established three new national parks to protect forests and habitat for the endangered Amur (Siberian) tiger. The parks cover almost a million and a half acres of forest in Russia's Far East. Unlike existing protected areas in the region--called zapovedniks--that restrict access to scientific purposes only, the new parks are the first protected areas in the region to bear the "national park" designation, meaning they exist for both conservation and tourism. With tourism permitted, the parks have the potential of generating their own long-term financial sustainability.

source: http://www.worldwildlife.org/news/displ ... enews0108c

Lying somewhere in the mountainous, snow-cloaked terrain of Pakistan's Tooshi Game Reserve is a collar that could help unlock the secrets of the elusive snow leopard.


For the past year, this piece of hi-tech equipment has sat around the neck of a wild snow leopard, recording, via the global positioning system (GPS), almost every step of her travels as she roamed the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. And now the collar has dropped off - as it was programmed to - the hunt is under way to retrieve it and for the first time shed light on the secretive animal's movements.

For Tom McCarthy, science and conservation director of the Snow Leopard Trust, getting hold of the collar is especially important thanks to some of the technical difficulties that the project has faced over the last 14 months.

In November 2006, he and his team captured a 35kg (75lb) female snow leopard - who they named Bayad-e-Kohsaar (Urdu for In Memory of the Mountains) - in the Chitral Gol National Park in Pakistan and fitted the satellite collar.


It was the same cat that featured in the BBC's Planet Earth and more recent Natural World documentaries.

The team had planned for the collar to send a burst of Bayad's GPS location coordinates every two weeks, through uplinks to the Argos satellite system, so that they could study the collared cat's latest movements. But a fog of background radio noise over central Asia has meant that it has had problems "talking" to the Argos satellites and the bulk of the GPS data has remained stored on the collar.

Dr McCarthy explained: "The power of the collar comes so close to breaking through that background noise, just not quite and not very often."

Technical tests on the collar carried out with a captive snow leopard in the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle revealed that the collar had no problems uplinking to Argos outside of Asia.


The researcher added: "Through China and down to where Bayad is, it is definitely a background noise problem." However, the team did not have to suffer total-satellite silence.

In May, a signal managed to break through, sending GPS data that revealed Bayad had moved from Pakistan to Afghanistan; in July, another uplink confirmed she had travelled to a slightly different spot in Afghanistan.

Dr McCarthy told the BBC News website: "All we are getting now is a few little blips that tell us over summer she is out in the mountains of Afghanistan, but when we see the full set of data off that collar, what it shows us could be incredible."

Unanswered questions

He estimates that the collar could hold between 500 and 1,000 GPS location coordinates, which when analysed could shed light on the behaviour of an animal that is notoriously difficult to study. He explained: "It will not only show us her range, but it will show us how far she moved in any 8-hour period or over the course of a month, the longest single trip that she did, how long on average she sat at a kill site, or whether she got close to humans during her travels."

Recent sightings of a collarless Bayad have revealed she has now returned to Pakistan, close to where she was initially tagged, for winter; a signal from her collar shows that it can be found nearby, lying somewhere in the rocky landscape.

Dr McCarthy said: "I'm not surprised that she came back to exactly where she was last year; the BBC film crew filmed her in the same site three years in a row, so we expected her to come back. "We even knew which day to expect her, and sure enough that was right when she turned up."

Because of political unrest following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, Tom McCarthy has been advised against travelling to this region, so a local team are now trying to locate and retrieve the collar using VHF radio-tracking.

But heavy snowfall has so far scuppered their efforts and they are now waiting for the conditions to improve.

Loss of a friend

For the Snow Leopard Trust the challenge of finding the collar has gained even more significance following the news that wildlife biologist Eric York, one of the scientists involved in the tagging project, had died unexpectedly in November. He had caught pneumonic plague following an autopsy on a mountain lion that had probably died of the same disease a week earlier in Grand Canyon Park, US.

Eric York who died in November was a member of the tagging team

Dr McCarthy said: "Eric was an incredible person and he had worked on so many collaring programmes and was such an asset to all of us. He has been a friend of mine for many years so to have this come out of the blue - one day he's with you one day he's gone - it was just a tremendous loss for all of us."

The team remain confident that they will find the collar and that the information it holds will help with the conservation efforts for this endangered cat.

Dr McCarthy told the BBC: "There are just so many basic ecological questions that you need to answer if you are going to try to design a good sound conservation programme that we don't have and the only way to get it right now is through collars. He added: "We have also pioneered less invasive methods to learn all we can about these cats, such as automated cameras and using genetics, but certain questions are impossible to answer any other way than through collaring. We will soon have those answers when the collar is retrieved - if it just quits snowing!"

SNOW LEOPARDS
- Between 3,500-7,000 snow leopards estimated in wild
- Live in high, rugged mountains of central Asia
- Shy, elusive and solitary animals
- Home-range is unknown
- In captivity, live up to 21 years
- Adults weigh between 35-55kg, and stand about 60cm tall
- Pale dense fur covered in unique dark spots for camouflage
- Female snow leopards mate every other year
- Usually 2-3 cubs born in litter

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7188197.stm

Government regulations extending the times of year during which nesting sea turtles are protected, and which seek to further limit the number of turtles taken from Cayman Islands waters each year have been approved by Cabinet.

The Marine Conservation (Turtle Protection)(Amendment) Regulations, 2007 were put into effect last month to expand the time in which sea turtles are protected against fishermen from April to November. The previous closed season for turtle fishing lasted from May to October.

“It changes the closed season for turtles because (April and November) were when we were seeing adult turtles being taken,” said Department of Environment Director Gina Ebanks–Petrie.

The regulations also seek to specify a minimum and maximum size for turtles which can be taken. Ms Ebanks–Petrie said the DoE has recommended a maximum size of 60 centimetres, or just less than two feet in length.

“This would allow fishing to focus on the more abundant sub–adult population in the Cayman Islands, while protecting the nesting adult turtle population,” she said.

The DoE has suggested that the maximum number of turtles that can be taken per season be lowered from six to four. Both recommendations must be considered by the Marine Conservation Board.

Finally, the Cabinet–approved regulations have outlawed the taking of turtles by use of a harpoon, spear gun, or a fixed net.

The regulations state turtling licences, which are issued only to island residents, must be issued annually and that those licences specify the terms under which turtles can be taken from the waters surrounding Cayman.

Ms Ebanks–Petrie said the Department of Environment had advocated that turtling in Cayman be halted while the numbers of nesting adult turtles continue to remain so low. She estimated that only 25–30 adult sea turtles in all were known to nest here during the warmer months.

“Based on the nesting data we’ve collected over the last nine years, the DoE would like to see turtle fishing halted altogether,” she said. “But we think these regulations are an important step forward.”

Of the adult turtles identified in Cayman during the 2007 nesting season, Ms Ebanks–Petrie said about half were green turtles and the other half loggerhead turtles. She said the hawksbill turtle did not make an appearance in Cayman during the season, although she said one did come here in 2006.

A DoE study that began in 1998 has found about 43 sea turtle nests per season on Grand Cayman, 12 per season on Cayman Brac, and about 11 per season on Little Cayman.

Though adult sea turtles generally lay 80–120 eggs on the beach each time one gives birth, its estimated only one in a thousand hatchlings will survive into adulthood and return to nest on Caymanian beaches.

source: http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPne ... ID=1027857

NO whales have been killed by the Japanese whaling fleet for the past 48 hours, after its discovery in the Southern Ocean by conservation groups Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, which each has a ship in pursuit.

The Customs ship Oceanic Viking, ordered by the federal Government to monitor the Japanese fleet, is yet to catch up after leaving its berth at Stirling naval base late last Tuesday.

Dismissing criticism that the Government was dragging its feet after promising tough action, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Oceanic Viking would monitor the Japanese fleet for 20 days, gathering evidence for possible future legal action. Canberra also plans to deploy an Airbus jet manned by Australian Antarctic scientists to help shadow the fleet.

Speaking by satellite phone to The Australian yesterday, Paul Watson, the skipper of the Sea Shepherd pursuit ship Steve Irwin, vowed to put the Japanese whalers out of action.

While declining to reveal what tactics he would use against the Japanese, Mr Watson said he had "no problems causing damage to their equipment".

"We're not here to protest," he said. "We're here to uphold international conservation law, and that means using aggressive tactics designed not to injure anybody but to cut down their operations."

source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 17,00.html

A leopard is released in the Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa, after a three-day trip from Monaco zoo. Originally it was rescued from a French travelling circus.


source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7178948.stm

Federal officials said Monday that they will need a few more weeks to decide whether polar bears need protection under the Endangered Species Act because of global warming. The deadline was Wednesday, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it now hopes to provide a recommendation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne in time for a decision by him within the next month.

The department has never declared a species threatened or endangered because of climate change, said Dale Hall, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "That's why this one has been so taxing and challenging to us," he said.

AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, Steve Amstrup

Environmental groups that petitioned to protect polar bears, arguing that warming threatened their habitat, said they would go court to ensure a timely decision. "We certainly hope that the polar bear will be listed within the next month," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Listing polar bears as "threatened" with extinction could trigger limits on development, particularly oil and gas exploration and production, that could harm the animals. That listing is a step below "endangered," the most severe classification under the Endangered Species Act. Kempthorne proposed the "threatened" listing for polar bears in January 2007, and under the Endangered Species Act that gave him a deadline of exactly one year for a final decision. Among other things, the yearlong period includes opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed listing.

The Biological Diversity Center, along with Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed a petition more than two years ago claiming that global warming was eroding sea ice, the polar bear's primary habitat. In September, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report concluding that two-thirds of the world's polar bears, including the entire population in Alaska, will be killed off by 2050 because of thinning sea ice from global warming in the Arctic.

source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/ ... 7-18-22-15
photo: AP Photo/Steve Amstrup

WYOMING TO LIST THEM AS PREDATORS OPEN TO KILLING

Sheltered for many years by federal species protection law, the gray wolves of the West are about to step out onto the high wire of life in the real world, when their status as endangered animals formally comes to an end early this year.

The so-called delisting is scheduled to begin in late March, almost five years later than federal wildlife managers first proposed, mainly because of human tussles in Wyoming over the politics of managing the wolves.

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"I think it's going to be open season," said Suzanne Stone, a wolf specialist at Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation group.

Stone said she thought the changes that led to federal approval of Wyoming's wolf plan were mostly cosmetic.

Stone and others are concerned that the plan grants Wyoming something that no other state in the Yellowstone region received: the right to kill wolves at any time by any means across most of the state.

In the northwest corner of the state near Yellowstone and in Idaho and Montana, wolves will be classified as trophy game animals and may be killed only in strictly controlled numbers by licensed hunters. In the 80 percent of Wyoming outside the Yellowstone area, however, wolves will be labeled predators, with no limits and no permits required to kill them.

The state has pledged to maintain at least 15 breeding pairs, or about 150 animals, in a five-county region around the park. The state now has about 362 wolves, according to the most recent estimates in late September.

full story: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_7861479?s ... ck_check=1

Kiwi numbers have declined rapidly over the past century, as populations struggled with the twin threats of shrinking habitat and expanding legions of new predators.


Hugh Robertson, who runs the Kiwi Recovery Program of New Zealand's Department of Conservation, estimates that there were as many as five million kiwis when European settlers arrived in 1840 and that the population now stands at 75,000.

"It's because of people and introduced predators - ferrets, stoats, weasels, dogs, cats," said Jeremy Maguire, manager of the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, just outside the town of Christchurch. "They are a species in decline, and if it continues at the current rate, they will become extinct."

There are five species of kiwi, which is a ratite, a smaller nocturnal relative of New Zealand's now-extinct moa, and, more distantly, the emu and the ostrich. All kiwi species are threatened to a greater or lesser degree. One, the rowi, is thought to be down to 250 birds.

So New Zealand is pursuing a partnership among government agencies, local communities, nonprofit groups like Save the Kiwi and commercial operations like the Willowbank reserve, which has offered its hatchery services.

The plan they have come up with, called Operation Nest Egg, is simple in conception but difficult to execute.

Eggs are taken from kiwi nests in the wild and incubated in places like Willowbank. The newly hatched chicks are then taken to protected areas, many of them on isolated islands off the coast without predators, for about a year until they are big enough to fend for themselves. Then they are returned to the place their egg was found.

The program began in 1994, but it has taken a while to perfect the process. It is expected to pass something of a milestone early next year when it hatches its 1,000th chick.

Full story (and photo credit): http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/27/asia/kiwi.php

Success in saving the rare Asiatic lion in India has in turn created new challenges to the king of the jungle in its last natural habitat, as problems with human encroachment and poaching mount.

The population of lions in the Gir forests of western Gujarat state has climbed from 20 in 1913 to more than 350 today, experts say.

Full story: http://news.smh.com.au/success-in-savin ... -1iq0.html

Plans are in the pipeline for beavers to be released into the Scottish wild for the first time in 500 years. Wildlife bodies have asked the Scottish Government for a licence to allow about 20 beavers to be set free in Argyll in 2009. The Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland believe the animals will improve the eco-system and boost tourism.

About 20 beavers would be brought to Scotland from Norway

Beavers were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the 16th Century. The mammals, best known for their dam building and tree felling skills, have been successfully reintroduced elsewhere in Europe, including parts of Germany and the Netherlands. The licence application submitted to the Scottish Government is for a trial reintroduction of European beavers in the Knapdale Forest in Mid-Argyll.

Beavers are thought to play an important role in aquatic and wetland eco-systems, and on the wider biodiversity of the area in which they live. Allan Bantick, chairman of the Beaver Project Steering Group and trustee of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, said: "We are delighted that this licence application has now been submitted and we look forward to conducting a full scientific trial of the first formal reintroduction of a native mammal into the wild in the UK.

Approval for the trial reintroduction would see 15 to 20 beavers from Norway introduced to the trial site following a period of quarantine. The ultimate aim of the trial would be to monitor the success and impact of the beaver reintroduction before the animal is released elsewhere in Scotland.

Full Story (and Photo): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7158210.stm

WWF Press Release: New Anyuiskii National Park becomes the third national park created this year
For Release: 12/19/2007

Vladivostok, Russia--Today the Russian Government created a new national park that is habitat for the endangered Siberian tiger in the country’s Far Eastern region after six years of research and negotiation by World Wildlife Fund. Roughly the size of Rhode Island, Anyuiskii National Park—1562.5 square miles--is the largest of three protected areas established by the Russian government in 2007.

“Anyuiskii Park is a critical piece of the puzzle for tigers in the Russia’s Far East,” said Dr. Darron Collins, WWF’s Managing Director for the Amur-Heilong. “A core zone of protection in the north, it’s part of a large ‘network’ for tigers that WWF has championed for more than a decade.”

The park includes some of the most pristine forest in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range along the right bank of the Amur River, the Eastern Hemisphere’s longest undammed river. These mountains were the setting for Vladamir Aresniev’s Dersu the Trapper and the 1975 film by Akira Kurosawa based on the book Dersu Uzala.

“Tigers occupy about two-thirds of the new park,” said Dr. Yuri Darman, WWF’s Russian Far East director based in Vladivostok, Russia. “We’ve estimated that five to seven tigers live and will now be protected by Anyuiskii.”

Source: http://www.worldwildlife.org/news/displ ... m?prID=483

A controversial Japanese mission to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic has been temporarily abandoned, a top government official says. Nobutaka Machimura said the humpback hunt would not go ahead - although the fleet will still hunt about 1,000 other whales in the area. The move comes after pressure from the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Japan is regularly condemned for its annual whaling missions. But this year's Antarctic expedition was particularly controversial because, in addition to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales, the fleet intended to kill up to 50 humpbacks. It was the first time Japan had targeted the humpbacks since a moratorium was introduced in the mid-1960s - when the species had been hunted almost to extinction.

Full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 155255.stm

The BBC's Jonah Fisher is on a Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, tracking the Japanese whaling fleet, as it hunts the vulnerable Humpback whale. You can follow his travels for the next two months on the BBC Ten O'clock News, and in Jonah's diary on the BBC website.

Source, photo & full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 154508.stm

Please help prevent the extinction of the unique, Australian Mary River Turtle by signing this petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/741410919

Japanese whaling ship Nisshin Maru leaves port, 18 November 2007

The Japanese whaling fleet left port in mid-November Australia will send a patrol ship and aircraft to monitor Japan's whaling fleet off Antarctica, the government in Canberra has said. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the vessels would collect evidence to assess whether legal action could be taken against the whalers.

Australia would also lead a formal international protest against Japan over the issue, the minister said. Japan's fleet set sail in November, aiming to kill over 1,000 whales.Several nations have condemned Japan's annual hunt, which it says is for scientific research purposes. Critics say the same research goals could be achieved using non-lethal techniques.

Legal challenge
Acting against the whalers was one of the new Labor-led Australian government's election pledges.

An adult humpback whale breaching
Japan says its hunt is too small to affect whale populations"We are dealing here with the slaughter of whales, not scientific research," Mr Smith told a news conference in Canberra. "That is our start point and our end point."

The Oceanic Viking, a Customs ship, would depart within days, he said, and an Airbus A-319 will soon begin surveillance flights over the fleet.The two vessels would collect photographic and video evidence of the fleet's activities to help Canberra decide if it could take action against the whalers in international courts, the minister said.

A formal protest would also be lodged with the Japanese government within weeks, he said, without naming other nations involved."The Australian government will take all diplomatic measures to seek to persuade the Japanese government to stop the whale slaughter," Australian broadcaster ABC quoted Mr Smith as saying.

The Japanese fleet plans to kill 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales between now and mid-April 2008.It will also will kill up to 50 humpback whales for the first time since a moratorium was introduced in the mid-1960s. The species had been hunted almost to extinction before the ban.The hunt has drawn strong opposition from environmental and conservation groups.

Boats from environmental group Greenpeace and the more radical Sea Shepherd group are tracking the fleet. Sea Shepherd says its activists will attempt to intercept the ships.

Source: BBC News