Once bleak and lifeless places degraded by years of high-impact farming, Peruvian coffee farms are being transformed by a growing trend for certification schemes offering ethical and environmental guarantees to western consumers.

Coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance is guaranteed to have been produced on farms where rivers, soil and wildlife are protected.

One scheme run by the Rainforest Alliance has helped farmers in eastern Peru return to traditional ways of farming, finally laying to rest the damaging maximum production techniques of the 1970s.

"My parents systematically deforested in order to plant more coffee plants. Now we know that this was a mistake," said Evangelino Condori Rojas who has a small plantation near Quillabamba in the east of the country.

The plantation was one of the first to be certified by the New York-based organisation.

Its seal of approval gives consumers an assurance that the coffee they buy has been produced according to a range of criteria that balance ecological, economic and social considerations.

Coffee certified by the Rainforest Alliance is guaranteed to have been produced on farms where rivers, soil and wildlife are protected.

"The certification is a mechanism to avoid the slide towards deforestation," said Gerardo Medina of the Rainforest Alliance in Peru.

Such schemes are increasingly popular worldwide as a way of bolstering consumer concerns.

They typically offer guarantees on issues ranging from ethically-manufactured diamonds, pesticide-free food or the preservation of bird habitats.

Farm owners certified by the Rainforest Alliance are also required to meet specific standards on payment and treatment of workers.

The majority of Peru's coffee plantations are found in the eastern foothills of the Andes.

Here coffee was grown in the shade of rainforest for some 150 years until the 1970s when a new system promoted by agronomists saw the clearing of trees, according to the Rainforest Alliance.

-- 'You no longer see monkeys or pumas' --

As a result coffee bushes were packed into hedgerows and treated with agrochemicals, decimating wildlife and causing soil erosion and pollution of streams.

In addition to the environmental benefit that certification brings, farmers also find that the coffee sells for 15 to 20 percent more and part of the profits are used for developing infrastructure, according to Raul Del Aguila, head of the central agricultural cooperative Cocla.

The Rainforest Alliance, which is on good terms with manufacturers, started certifying coffee in Peru, Brasil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in 2004.

"The marketing strategy is to persuade the big certified coffee purchasing groups that this corresponds to demand from consumers sensitized to the question of sustainable development," said Medina.

US food group Kraft Foods is the main purchaser of certified coffee from Peru.

Currently 5.7 percent of Peruvian coffee production is certified by the Rainforest Alliance. It aims to reach 14 percent by 2013.

The country currently has some 24,700 hectares (61,000 acres) on 7,200 farms used for producing certified coffee compared to 7,100 hectares (17,000 acres) and 1,600 farms in 2005, added Medina.

With uncertainty over global warming, farmers have become increasingly aware of the importance of farming that is ecologically friendly.

"One is already seeing the effects of climate change here. This year it has not rained very much and if that continues, we are going to have problems," said small plantation owner Isaias Zuniga.

Toucans are coming back to nest in the trees but "you no longer see monkeys or pumas," added his elderly mother Irene Paz Santacruz.

source (and photos): http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Ethic ... t_999.html

As rice production is cut and paddies left fallow across the country, one unexpected victim of the policy is rapidly disappearing from Japanese skies.

The sashiba gray-faced buzzard, which arrives each summer to breed and raise its young, is increasingly threatened due to the deterioration of its satoyama countryside habitat.

A "sashiba" gray-faced buzzard spreads its wings and picks up a frog in a field in Hanamaki, Iwate Prefecture.
(MASAAKI KOBAYASHI/ THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)

The migratory birds of prey build their nests in mountainous countryside areas near human communities from Honshu to Kyushu.

With a wing span of 1 meter, the raptor prefers the yato valley thresholds tucked inside satoyama, close to mountains, rice paddies and fields that form a habitat for a range of other creatures.

Sashiba catch frogs and snakes along the paddies to feed their chicks, and have long been considered a symbol of the rich, life-supporting satoyama ecosystem.

But with the rise in uncultivated fields in nearby mountainous areas, problems have emerged for the birds. Atsuki Azuma, a sashiba researcher who teaches at Iwate University, said, "When (rice) fields are abandoned, they dry up and are covered with grass and can no longer be used as feeding grounds."

Consolidation of rice paddies is another problem. Azuma explained: "Depending on how the fields are reused, (small animals) have trouble traversing between paddy and the water system, causing a dramatic decline in frogs and snakes. Sashiba habitats are definitely shrinking year by year."

In December 2006, the Environment Ministry bumped the bird up to "threatened species" status on its Red List of endangered species. The Wild Bird Society of Japan and the Japan Bird Research Association, a nonprofit organization based in Tokyo, conducted a nationwide survey last year to get a firm idea of sashiba numbers in Japan.

The study found that the bird's population was steadily decreasing, most dramatically on the islands of Shikoku and Honshu, except in the Tohoku region. Until about a decade ago, land development was the major culprit, but now abandoned rice paddies are having a more notable impact.

After breeding in Japan, the birds travel south and winter in Southeast Asia, although some remain around the Nansei island chain in the southernmost prefectures of Okinawa and Kagoshima.

Since 1973, the Miyakojima Yacho no Kai (wild bird society of Miyakojima island) has taken counts of the birds as they travel in groups through the island during the migration.

The group's records show that at their peak, in 1982, about 54,000 sashiba flew over the island. By around 1986, that number dropped to about 40,000, plummeting to around 20,000 in the 1990s. For the past few years, there have been only about 15,000 yearly migrations.

The drastic decline was one factor behind the reappraisal of the bird's Red List status.

The Toyota city nature sanctuary in Aichi Prefecture, managed by the Wild Bird Society, promotes a project to return sashiba to the forests.

In 2004, a breeding pair was spotted at a yato in the sanctuary area. When the rice paddy lay fallow the next year, the birds disappeared.

In February 2006, the group mowed the overgrown grass at the field and irrigated the paddy, inviting frogs to lay eggs and thus providing food for the birds of prey.

The project has since expanded to 150 hectares in and out of the 30-hectare sanctuary, and water has been channeled into fallow fields in four other locations.

A group of researchers, including Hiroshi Hashimoto, associate professor at the faculty of agriculture at Meijo University in Nagoya, is keeping an eye on the frog and snake populations.

They say they are seeing more frog eggs in the area.

Sanctuary director Koji Ohata said: "If there are more frogs, that means more snakes. The feeding environment for sashiba is getting better."

No roosting pairs have yet been seen. However, bird watchers started spotting sashiba in 2006.

"Sashiba are the symbols of the Japanese satoyama," Ohata said. "We want to improve the waterfront environment and bring the birds back. We want to prove ourselves as a model revival project."

source (and photos): http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asa ... 10076.html

The Wildlife Conservation Society reports it had to pull five scientists from their camp on the northern coast of Alaska "because of a new and unusual threat: a polar bear stuck on land due to climate change."

The WCS says, "Polar bears would normally be out on sea ice this time of year, but with recent warming the ice is miles from shore and bears are becoming increasingly trapped on land well away from their usual seal prey."

The scientists were surveying the shorebirds that feed along the Beaufort Sea in summer before heading south. They were near Teshekpuk Lake, about halfway between Barrow, Alaska (the northernmost town in the U.S.) and Prudhoe Bay (the northern end of the Alaska Pipeline). They say the coast (picture) has been eroded by the lack of ice.

You'll recall that in May, the Interior Department listed the polar bears as a threatened species, principally because of the melting ice. Secretary Dirk Kempthorne protested at the time that the Endangered Species Act was being used improperly by environmental groups as a legal weapon against climate warming: "While the legal standards under the ESA compel me to list the polar bear as threatened, I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting. Any real solution requires action by all major economies for it to be effective."

The WCS scientists have now retreated by bush plane to the relative safety of Prudhoe Bay, where it won't be them alone against a hungry bear.

A quote from Dr. Steve Zack, one of the team: “It is ironic that our efforts to understand how climate change is affecting wildlife were disrupted by the top Arctic predator displaced by climate.”

source: http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsoci ... ce-wi.html
photos: Polar Bear by Mark Maftei; Joe Leibezeit on Beaufort Sea coast by Kevin Pietrak. Both from Wildlife Conservation Society

Forty-one species and sub-species of primate are endangered in Madagascar, according to a study by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Lemurs are particularly at risk as they are hunted for food and slash-and-burn agriculture threatens their habitat. Jonah Ratsimbazafy is a local conservationist, sponsored by the international group Earthwatch, who is trying to save the lemurs from being wiped out.

Lemurs live only in Madagascar. Photograph: Loomis Dean/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

Lemurs are found only in Madagascar, in their natural habitat. Yet not many people realise that almost all of the lemurs are on the verge of extinction. We should all act quickly to save those endangered species.

There are not many forests left in Madagascar. They are disappearing mainly because of slash-and-burn agriculture, which means people cut down many trees around a huge area, then burn it and plant rice. The soil can produce good crops only for a couple of years, then people move to a new forest and do the same thing again and again until the forest is completely gone. Then, when there are no trees to maintain the soil, when the big rains come, it creates erosion. Then there are big holes everywhere. The rivers become red.

This is a nightmare every year because it destroys everything. All lemurs are arboreal, so without forest they cannot survive well. Some species can live in captivity, but not all of them.

The other potential threat to the lemurs is hunting. There is still some hunting in Madagascar. People hunt lemurs to eat although they do not provide very much meat.

Many people still believe, even today, that the lemur named Aye-aye, a nocturnal lemur with big eyes and a long third finger, is an omen of bad luck, so if people find an Aye-aye near their village they believe it should be killed. [Aye-ayes have a ball and socket joint in their middle finger, allowing them to stick their finger into holes in wood to search for insects – they are known as the woodpeckers of the forest as they tap on the trees to listen for insects.]

The Aye-aye is now on the verge of extinction, because they are chased and like all lemur species, they only live in the forests. If the forests are gone, they disappear also.

However in some areas in Madagascar, for example in the west, people considered the Sifaka lemur as one of their ancestors, so it is taboo to hunt them.

The lemurs are female dominant, with varying degrees of female dominance between the species. One can see this dominance of the females when they feed, as the female can displace or chase the male or even slap him.

However, the females need the male, because the male’s role in the group is one of vigilance. Males also help to raise the babies. What fascinates me about the lemurs is these social interactions, the female-dominant societies and their behaviour – such as mutual grooming.

I also like their strange vocalisations and the way they use their hands, such as when they manipulate a fruit when eating. I love watching how they jump from several meters high in the trees – this is incredible, they are vertical jumpers. Their body is upright when they jump [lemurs also run on their back legs, not being used to walking on all fours].

When you study a species on the brink of extinction, every single bit of recorded data is useful. Earthwatch volunteers come every year from all around the world to record data on threatened lemurs in the forests of Ranomafana Park in central Madagascar. We use the data to understand the lemurs, and the forest, better.

The volunteers are essential because there is not enough money to pay enough people, either from Madagascar or internationally. But Earthwatch does raise money to pay Malagasy people to train in science and to work in conservation here, such as to be forest guides.

Conservation has changed over the past decade. It is a good thing that conservation has become a collective task, which demands the involvement of everyone – volunteers and scientists as well as the local communities – although most of the conservation money used in Madagascar is still from abroad.

It used to be only a matter for scientists and conservationists. Ordinary people were once just spectators. But the management of a protected area, such as part of a forest, is now conducted with the local community. The locals are responsible for conserving endangered species and their habitats and collecting data.

Our ultimate goal is to conserve endangered species while helping people. People and wildlife can live together. But people need incentives. Activities are now conducted in Madagascar near the areas where there are forests with endangered animals – sometimes we offer prizes for collecting data about the animals.

Earthwatch helps research centres in Madagascar hire people from the local community and train them to be forest guides, to help the students and tourists. Local people already know so much about their forests. I could not finish my doctorate without the help of my trusty local guides.

But we cannot hire all of the communities to work for us.

NGOs like Earthwatch also get involved in activities like healthcare and education in the villages. They help people raise money and provide wells for clean drinking water and materials for schools. They also work with local communities on public awareness.

A group of us are also producing a field guide for people who are not specialists in the field of conservation, but they can learn and contribute to save endangered species – people cannot conserve or understand a species unless they know what it is.

But conservation is still difficult here – when people get little access to education, to healthcare and even to food. When people are hungry, it is difficult for them to listen.

Sometimes I even want to scream, because many of the people who are responsible for conservation and for making laws do not realise that although they have the power to solve the problems and the keys for saving the lemurs immediately, they do not.

Currently, only about 10% of the land in Madagascar is protected, or about 6m hectares. We need to protect more land, to save the lemurs.

• Jonah Ratsimbazafy was speaking to freelance journalist Georgina Kenyon.

source (and photos): http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=e ... 84&catID=4

Thailand on Friday released nine critically endangered deer from a species that vanished from the wild three decades ago, in a bid to bring ecological balance to one of the country's national parks.

The nine Thamin deer were released with radio collars into Huay Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary in central Thailand. They joined 25 others which were set free in May as part of a five-year program by the Thai government and universities, the Smithsonian's National Zoological Park and the Wildlife Conservation Society established to save the deer, which have disappeared in the wild in Thailand but still remain in neighboring Myanmar.

"If we don't do this, the deer will go extinct forever," said Boripat Siriaroonrat, research veterinarian at the state-sponsored Zoological Park Organization, who took part in the release. "Somebody needs to bring them back. They are a missing piece of the ecosystem."

The deer — famous for males which have C-shaped antlers — were once a common site in Thailand but were driven to near extinction by habitat loss and hunting. They are part of a family known as Eld's deer which includes the Sangai deer in India and the Siamese Eld's deer in Cambodia and Laos.

Anak Pattanavibool, Thailand country director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, said the deer will complement five other species of hoofed animals that leopards, tigers and wild dogs depend upon for prey.

"To get them back into the wild is good," Anak said. "In the end, it will complement the system and benefit the conservation of the whole wildlife area." About 1,000 of the deer live in Thai breeding centers.

Long before their release, Boripat said authorities took a number of steps to ensure the deer would survive.

They carried out a series of controlled burns to create the open spaces the deer prefer so they can scan for predators. They also ensured the herd had genetic diversity and screened them for diseases such as tuberculosis and foot and mouth disease.

Boripat said it is too early to say whether the program is a success, acknowledging that a handful of the deer have been killed. "Some have been taken by leopards but that is a function of the ecosystem," he said.

If the program goes well and the deer establish themselves in the park, Boripat said the government is considering releasing hog deer — which are limited to one park in the country's northeast — as well as Sarus cranes.

"We feel responsible to take this challenge into our hands and do something about it," he said.

source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/ ... elease.php

The state of Alaska has sued the U.S. government, arguing that listing polar bears as a threatened species will hurt Alaskan oil and gas exploration, fisheries and tourism.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, seeks the withdrawal of a May 14 decision to list the big Arctic bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because climate change is melting their sea ice habitat.

"We believe that the ... decision to list the polar bear was not based on the best scientific and commercial data available," Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in a statement.

Polar bears live only in the Arctic and depend on sea ice as a platform for hunting seals. The U.S. Geological Survey reported last year that two-thirds of the world's polar bears -- some 16,000 -- could be gone by 2050 if predictions about melting sea ice hold true.

In putting the white bears on the threatened list, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions contributed to the planetary warming that has damaged the polar bears' habitat.

However, the decision does nothing to address climate change, and Kempthorne said any real solution to that underlying problem is up to the world's economies.

source and full article: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN0539708420080805

Mankind’s closest relatives – the world’s monkeys, apes and other primates – are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some being literally eaten to extinction.

The first comprehensive review in five years of the world’s 634 kinds of primates found that almost 50 percent are in danger of going extinct, according to the criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.

Issued at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, the report by the world’s foremost primate authorities presented a chilling indictment on the state of primates everywhere. In Asia, more than 70 percent of primates are classified on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered – meaning they could disappear forever in the near future.

Habitat destruction, through the burning and clearing of tropical forests, which also emits at least 20 percent of the global greenhouse gases, is a major threat to primates. Other threats include the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife trade

“We’ve raised concerns for years about primates being in peril, but now we have solid data to show the situation is far more severe than we imagined,” said Russell A. Mittermeier, longtime chairman of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Primate Specialist Group and the president of Conservation International (CI). “Tropical forest destruction has always been the main cause, but now it appears that hunting is just as serious a threat in some areas, even where the habitat is still quite intact. In many places, primates are quite literally being eaten to extinction.”

The review funded by CI, the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the IUCN is part of an unprecedented examination of the state of the world’s mammals to be released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona in October.

With the input of hundreds of experts worldwide, the primate review provides scientific data to show the severe threats facing animals that share virtually all DNA with humans. In both Vietnam and Cambodia, approximately 90 percent of primate species are considered at risk of extinction. Populations of gibbons, leaf monkeys, langurs and other species have dwindled due to rampant habitat loss exacerbated by hunting for food and to supply the wildlife trade in traditional Chinese medicine and pets.

“What is happening in Southeast Asia is terrifying,” said Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of the IUCN Species Programme. “To have a group of animals under such a high level of threat is, quite frankly, unlike anything we have recorded among any other group of species to date.”

Elsewhere, species from tiny mouse lemurs to massive mountain gorillas face challenges to survive. In Africa, 11 of the 13 kinds of red colobus monkeys assessed were listed as Critically Endangered or Endangered. Two may already be extinct: Bouvier’s red colobus (Procolobus pennantii bouvieri) has not been seen in 25 years, and no living Miss Waldron’s red colobus (Procolobus badius waldroni) has been seen by a primatologist since 1978, despite occasional reports that some still survive.

“Among the African species, the great apes such as gorillas and bonobos have always tended to grab the limelight, and even though they are deeply threatened, it is smaller primates such as the red colobus that could die out first," said IPS President Richard Wrangham.

As our closest relatives, non-human primates are important to the health of their surrounding ecosystems. Through the dispersal of seeds and other interactions with their environments, primates help support a wide range of plant and animal life in the world’s tropical forests. Healthy forests provide vital resources for local human populations, and also absorb and store carbon dioxide that causes climate change.

Meanwhile, scientists continue to learn more about primates and their role in the world. Since 2000, 53 species of primates previously unknown to science have been described – 40 from Madagascar, two from Africa, three from Asia and eight from Central and South America. In 2007, researchers found a long-rumored population of Critically Endangered greater bamboo lemurs (Prolemur simus) in Madagascar in a wetland 400 kilometers (240 miles) from the only other known home of the species. In total, the species numbers about 140 individuals in the wild.

Despite the gloomy assessment, conservationists point to a notable success in helping targeted species recover. In Brazil, the black lion tamarin (Leontopithecus chrysopygus) was downlisted to Endangered from Critically Endangered, as was the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus rosalia) in 2003, as a result of three decades of conservation efforts involving numerous institutions. Populations of both animals are now well-protected but remain very small, causing an urgent need for reforestation to provide new habitat for their long-term survival.

“If you have forests, you can save primates,” said Anthony Rylands, the deputy chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. “The work with lion tamarins shows that conserving forest fragments and reforesting to create corridors that connect them is not only vital for primates, but offers the multiple benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems and water supplies, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”

Researchers also considered reclassifying the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) to Endangered from Critically Endangered due to increasing populations in their only habitat – the protected mountain jungles of Rwanda, Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the slayings of eight mountain gorillas in 2007 and continuing political turmoil in the region delayed the planned reclassification.

The IUCN Red List sets a series of criteria for a species to be categorized as threatened. In cases lacking the necessary information, the species can be listed as Data Deficient, which applied to nearly 15 percent of the primates in the new review. Many of those species, particularly newly discovered ones, are expected to eventually be classified as threatened.

For a list of the assessments of all primate species and subspecies as they will appear on the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (http://www.iucnredlist.org) in October, please visit the website of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group (http://www.primate-sg.org)

Source and full article with photos and videos: http://cms.iucn.org/about/work/programmes/species/index.cfm?uNewsID=1391

Four giant panda cubs have been born within 14 hours in China, boosting the population of the endangered species. The cubs were born at the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Centre in south-west Sichuan province, state media reported. A pair of female twins was born to nine-year-old Qiyuan late on Saturday, Xinhua news agency reported. About an hour later, eight-year-old panda Chenggong gave birth to another cub, while Zhuzhu, also eight, gave birth on Sunday.

On 6 July, a set of twins was born at a another panda breeding centre

The giant panda is one of the world's most endangered species, because of the destruction of its forest habitat and lack of contact between isolated populations. According to experts only about 1,600 pandas remain in the wild, mostly in Sichuan and neighbouring Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Another 180 pandas are being raised in captivity in China.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7527613.stm

Just a handful of journalists and photographers witnessed the historic return of the Red Kite to the north of Ireland.

The RSPB released 27 chicks in what is the first ever species reintroduction to Northern Ireland, part of a pan-UK and Ireland reintroduction.

Set free in groups of four per day, most of the birds took their time to leave their cage.

It gave waiting photographers time to grab the first ever pictures of these birds in their new habitat. But once in the air they soared, turning into the wind and disappearing into dense woodland.

Once commonplace in the countryside, these spectacular birds were driven to near extinction in the UK by hunting, poisoning and changes to their habitat.

But from this week, after an absence of 200 years, their distinctive five foot wingspan and rusty-red colouring can be seen in the skies over County Down.

The RSPB's Red Kite officer, Robert Straughan, is part of the team who planned the birds return.

The RSPB released 27 birds in County Down

"The release has been the culmination of a huge amount of work over this past number of years in order to make this project a reality," he said.

"I have been looking after the birds prior to their release with important help from Forest Service and they are healthy and doing well.

"As they take their first flight in a new country the red kites should soon feel at home in the mixed woodland, farmland and rough grassland of south County Down, as it offers ideal habitat for the birds.

"People will be able to easily identify red kites with their rusty-red colouring, forked tail, white patches under each wing and inky black wing tips, not to mention their five-and-a-half feet wingspan."

With just a small population in Britain, it has not been an easy task to gather sufficient chicks for the reintroduction.

The young birds were carefully removed from nests where there was more than one chick, then hand-reared until big enough to be released and had shown the ability to fly and fend for themselves.

Each bird is tagged and carries a tiny radio beacon. This allows them to be followed and monitored to check on survival and watch how each copes with its environment.

It will also show how the kites interact with each other.

To help develop a sustainable population, more kite chicks were released into the countryside in County Wicklow in the Republic.

Scavengers

These birds will supplement the population re-introduced there in 2007. Across Scotland, England and Wales there are now more than 1,000 breeding pairs of Red Kites.

It's an amazing turnaround from a few years ago when there were just a handful of native birds left in Wales.

But there have been minor setbacks. A kite was recently shot dead in Wicklow and three were poisoned in Scotland.

There has been considerable secrecy about the exact location of the kites released in Northern Ireland.

Despite their size and seemingly menacing hooked bills, the birds offer no threat to farming of local communities.

"Kites are opportunistic scavengers, to conserve energy they feed mostly on worms and small dead animals, which they can see from a great height", Mr Straughan said.

"They are a large bird, but are not designed to feed on mobile prey, so are not a threat to livestock, game birds or songbirds."

Pigeon fanciers will also be relieved to know that the kites don't take other birds in flight.

Down, Newry & Mourne and Banbridge councils chipped in along with other organisations to make the reintroduction possible.

"Not only is this an exciting and important conservation project, but it could also provide a tremendous tourist boost to the local economy in the Mourne area", explained Mr Straughan.

"It is our belief that the Northern Ireland Red Kite Reintroduction Project will provide a similar outcome for conservation and for the benefit of local people."

People are encouraged to report any sighting of the birds to the RSPB either by emailing the information to redkiteni@rspb.org.uk or by telephoning 028 90 491547.

source (and photos): http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7517700.stm

A greater bamboo lemur. The discovery of the lemurs in a new region in Madagascar has raised hopes for the survival of the species. (Jonathan Linus/Reuters)

Researchers in Madagascar have found critically endangered greater bamboo lemurs living far from the only other place they were known to exist, raising hopes for the survival of the species, experts said Tuesday.

The discovery was made in the Torotorofotsy Wetlands of east central Madagascar, more than 400 kilometers, or 250 miles, north of the isolated pockets of bamboo forest where the rest of the known populations of the species live.

Experts say that habitat destruction caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging threatens the previously known population, which totals about 100, making the existence of the 30 to 40 newly found lemurs particularly valuable.

"Finding the extremely rare Prolemur simus in a place where nobody expected it was probably more exciting than discovering a new lemur species," said Edward Louis, a U.S. conservation geneticist who coordinated the joint research, in a statement.

Experts say that habitat destruction caused by slash-and-burn agriculture and illegal logging threatens the previously known populations that total about 100 individuals, making the existence of the newly found lemurs particularly valuable.

"Our hope is that the presence of these critically threatened creatures will increase efforts to protect their habitat and keep them alive," said Rainer Dolch of Mitsinjo, a Malagasy group that manages the Torotorofotsy site.

Biologists have long flocked to Madagascar, where about 90 percent of species are unique to the giant island. Part of the reason for its profuse biodiversity is its varied terrain, including rainforest, dry forest, lowlands and mountains, and part is its geologic history.

Once part of the African mainland, Madagascar drifted off some 100 to 200 million years ago. It eventually drew colonist species, including lemurs, whose ancestors probably rafted over on floating vegetation, scientists say.

The latest research was carried out by Mitsinjo and the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, supported by the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation and Conservation International.

The researchers will present their updated findings on the greater bamboo lemur on August 3-8 at the International Primatological Society 2008 Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland.

source (and photos): http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/22/ ... lemurs.php

In a repeat of last year’s exercise, forest personnel have let loose a large group of captive-bred crocodiles into water bodies of Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary to ward off human interference into its fast-depleting mangrove forest.

Crocodiles are seemingly performing the role of ‘honorary forest guards’ in the core area of the wildlife sanctuary as fear of marauding crocs checked human intrusion in many areas of the sanctuary, forest officials said.

Now the crocodiles’ habitat is being expanded to prevent wanton tree-felling, the officials said, adding that as many as 57 reptiles were released last week into the water bodies in Kharinasi, Batighar, Ramnagar and Jamboo areas of the sanctuary to stop frequent movement of villagers into the forest area. These forest pockets, located at the southern-most part of the 672-square-kilometre sanctuary, are visibly marked by the thinning green cover.

source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/07/23/stories ... 540200.htm

After decades of solitude, 'Lonesome George' may finally save his species of Galapagos giant tortoise from extinction, it has been revealed.

George, a Pinta island tortoise who has shown little interest in reproducing during 36 years in captivity, stunned his keepers by mating with one of his two female companions of a similar species of Galapagos tortoise.

Park rangers found a nest with several eggs in George's pen and placed three in incubators. It will take about four months to know whether the eggs bear George's offspring.

The last on earth: George has lived on his own for 36 years and is probably the only remaining 'pinto' giant tortoise on earth

'Even if these three eggs are fertile and the born tortoises survive it will take several genetic generations to think of having a Pinta purebred ... even centuries,' the park said in a statement.

After trying almost everything from artificial insemination to having George watch younger males mate, his keepers had nearly lost hope.

At the age of 90, George is in his sexual prime for a giant tortoise and should be able to reproduce.

Scientists found a distant relative of George on another island last year, sparking hopes of another male for mating with some Pinta genes.

The visual differences of tortoises from different islands were among the features of the Galapagos that helped British naturalist Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution.

George, considered by many the world's rarest creature and a conservation icon, was thought to be the last of his kind after fishermen and pirates slaughtered his species for food.

Ecuador has declared the islands at risk and the United Nations says efforts to protect them should continue.

Some 20,000 giant tortoises of various species now live on the islands.

source (and photos): http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/worl ... -kind.html

A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction restoring gray wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains to the endangered species list and halting the indiscrimate killing of wolves for the duration of a trial in which conservationist plaintiffs contest the removal of the wolves from the protected list.

The case involves 12 plaintiff conservation organizations against defendant U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the governments of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, and livestock and trophy hunting organizations that have intervened on the side of the government.

Dozens of wolves have been shot since March 28, 2008, when wolves in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington and Washington lost the protections of the Endangered Species Act.

In his order granting the injunction handed down on Friday, Judge Molloy wrote, "This case, like a cloud larger than a man's hand, will hang over the northwest states of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming until there has been a final determination of the complex issues presented. Those issues must be answered in accordance with the intent of Congress as stated in the Endangered Species Act and its implementing regulations."

Wolf in Yellowstone National Park (Photo by Tut99)

In order to be granted the injunction, plaintiff groups had to demonstrate to Federal Judge Donald Molloy that they were likely to succeed on the merits of their claims, and that irreparable injury was occuring to the wolves during adjudication of the case.

The judge ruled that plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the majority of the claims relied upon in their request for a preliminary injunction.

"In particular," wrote Judge Molloy, "(1) the Fish & Wildlife Service acted arbitrarily in delisting the wolf despite a lack of evidence of genetic exchange between subpopulations; and (2) it acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it approved Wyoming's 2007 plan despite the State's failure to commit to managing for 15 breeding pairs and the plan's malleable trophy game area. In both instances, the Fish & Wildlife Service altered its earlier position without providing a reasoned decision for the change."

"The wolf slaughter is halted," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. "We're elated. This injunction will give the wolves a fighting chance."

"Recovery requires allowing wolves in different populations to reach each other in order to mate and raise their pups," said Robinson. "Even before they were unlawfully removed from the endangered species list, the government was gunning down so many wolves that the Yellowstone population was reproductively isolated, a recipe for extinction."

Gray wolves were exterminated from the western United States by the Fish and Wildlife Service and its predecessor agencies between 1915 and 1945, on behalf of the livestock industry.

Passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 led to placement of wolves on the endangered species list, development of a recovery plan, and reintroduction of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains in 1995.

Suzanne Asha Stone, northern Rockies wolf conservation specialist for Defenders of Wildlife, said, "The delisting of wolves was inappropriate and illegal in large part because existing state management plans are inadequate to ensure the long term conservation of wolves in the region, allowing far too many wolves to be unnecessarily killed."

"Responsible, balanced management by the states would benefit wolves, ranchers, hunters and all Northern Rockies residents," said Stone. "While the court continues to weigh our challenge to the delisting decision, we will continue to work to improve the current state plans so that they maintain a healthy wolf population."

The public interest law firm Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, The Humane Society of the United States, Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands Project, Western Watersheds Project, and Wildlands Project.

source (and photos): http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jul2008 ... 21-094.asp

Queensland Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara has taken steps to protect rare white whales while they are in Queensland waters.

The white humpback whale Migaloo was first spotted in 1991 and there have been sightings of other white whales off the Queensland coast in the last two weeks.

"We now have two definite white males - Migaloo, another young adult male and a potential third white whale calf - and I was of the view that we needed to make sure that there was a greater protection around these particularly interesting animals," Mr McNamara said.

He says the fine for boats found within 300 metres of white wales will increase from $9,000 to $12,000.

source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008 ... 310635.htm

THE South Wales grasslands will today be named as a butterfly survival zone to save some of the UK’s rarest species from extinction.

Sir David Attenborough will unveil a network of these zones as he said a national strategy was needed to reverse the steep fall in numbers.

The natural history presenter fears the UK is entering a “post-butterfly era”.

Conservationists will work at 20 key locations – including Dartmoor and the North Yorkshire Moors – to try to re-establish suitable habitats.

Sir David, who will make the announcement at the Natural History Museum in London, said: “Almost unbelievably, much of Britain’s countryside is a no-go area for many favourite butterflies.

“Habitat has been ploughed up or become overgrown. Anybody who’s been for a country walk recently will tell you butterflies are a rarity.”

source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-ne ... -21355209/

Sri Lanka has been rescuing orphaned baby elephants for more than 35 years with state help, and the transit home is part of a drive to save the island's endangered elephant species.

However, after years of being bottle-fed formula milk, eight orphaned baby elephants appear reluctant to leave their temporary home, but mahouts heave-ho them onto trucks for a journey back to the wild.

The elephants are enticed with milk and coconut palm to climb the ramps into the trucks - the time has come to leave Sri Lanka's Elephant Transit Home.

The trucks head deep into the Udawalawe wildlife sanctuary where the freed orphans will fend for themselves for the first time in years.

With luck the babies, aged between three and five years, will join herds among the park's estimated 400 wild elephants, some of them also former transit home inmates.

"This is the eighth batch of baby elephants we are releasing since we started this programme in 1998," said veterinarian Tharaka Prasad.

The 22 elephant keepers have developed bonds with their charges and the parting is difficult, said Prasad, who treats the wounded babies. "But we all accept that this is the best thing for the elephants."

For Prasad and his team, who released their latest batch of charges last month, the real conservation breakthrough came earlier this year when one of their freed orphans gave birth.

"We released Sandamalee in 2000 and in 2007 she was pregnant and had a calf this year," Prasad said. "This was the climax of our rehabilitation programme."

A total of 64 have been released since the first batch of four were freed in March 1998 and most have successfully re-integrated with the herds in Udawalawe, 210 kilometres (131 miles) south of Colombo.

Prasad said another 31 rescued baby elephants were currently being treated at the transit home - some were hit by trains, others shot by farmers, some were rescued from deep wells, and at least one was injured by a land mine blast.

The endangered Sri Lankan elephant is a subspecies of the Asian elephant. It is protected by law and considered sacred.

An estimated 12,000 elephants roamed Sri Lanka at the start of the 20th century, compared to a current population put at about 4,000.

Official figures show about 150 elephants are killed annually by villagers protecting their crops.

Conservationist and wildlife author Srilal Miththapala said shrinking habitat exacerbated human-elephant conflict.

"There is no point in preaching conservation to a farmer who has lost his entire crop or a man whose house has been demolished by elephants," Miththapala said. "We must make sure people directly benefit from conservation."

He has called for expansion of wildlife parks and electric fencing to prevent wild elephants entering villages and destroying crops, particularly rice and sugar cane.

Environment Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said authorities hoped to involve residents in conservation efforts.

"The number of elephants in wildlife parks has increased, although overall there may be a decline in the number of elephants in the entire country," Ranawaka said.

The minister said the separatist conflict in the island's northeast was also impacting conservation efforts, with wild animals among the victims of drawn out fighting which has killed 60,000 people since 1972.

Wildlife department veterinary surgeon Suhada Jayawardana said the mortality rate for elephants brought to the transit home had fallen to 15 percent, from 40 percent, in the past decade thanks to improved equipment and medicine.

But with each elephant needing 40 litres (nine gallons) of milk daily, money for food was short, he said, and this is where a "foster parent" scheme, in which donors pay 1,250 dollars a year to feed one baby, is a lifesaver.

Foster parents Gilbert and Mala Silva, Sri Lankans resident in Britain, recently visited their adopted baby elephant, two-and-a-half-year-old Sahara believed to have been hit by a train.

"We want to be able to give more to look after the babies here," Gilbert Silva said. "Not many people know about the work here."

Sri Lanka's tourism promoters now see the elephant orphanage as a potential destination for wildlife enthusiasts and holiday makers to the island, which has been struggling to lure visitors amid the ongoing Tamil conflict.

Foreign visitors were difficult to entice, said Sulochana Ramiah Mohan of Sri Lanka Tourism, adding: "But after one visit, we can be sure they will come again."

source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/07/17/news30.asp

New light has been shed on the mysterious lifestyle of the critically endangered Leatherback turtle.

A Leatherback turtle returns to the water after laying her eggs

Once they have entered the water minutes after hatching, male leatherbacks never set foot on land again and females come ashore only to lay eggs.

They are ocean voyagers who spend their lives on epic journeys of thousands of miles either in search of a mate or in pursuit of their jellyfish prey.

Now marine scientists have succeeded in tagging female turtles using satellite technology to track them across vast distances over a three year period. It is hoped the insight into their nesting sites and their favourite sea routes will help conserve a species that has seen a 90 per cent population decline in two decades in the eastern Pacific.

The leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) is the world's largest living turtle and can grow to a monstrous size. The largest ever found was washed up dead on a beach in Wales and was more than three metres long and weighed 900 kilos. But from the moment of birth the leatherback, which has a tough, oily skin rather than a hard shell, faces a battle for survival.

Eggs laid by females, normally on the same beach where she was born, often fall victim to collection before they hatch. If the eggs hatch successfully the baby turtles are immediately involved in a life-or-death race to the ocean before they are picked off by predatory birds.

As tiny creatures swimming in vast oceans most fall prey to birds and other sea creatures. Only a handful of the hatchlings will survive to maturity when their biggest threat comes from man. Many drown as by product caught up in long-line fishing nets.

The results of the latest leatherback study by marine biologist Barbara Block and colleagues are revealed in PLoS Biology, Forty-six females were electronically tagged during three field seasons at Playa Grande in Costa Rica, the largest known nesting colony in the eastern Pacific.

The leatherback is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans and its and its range extends well into the Arctic Circle. There are three major, genetically-distinct populations - the Atlantic Dermochelys population, often seen in British waters, is separate from the Eastern and Western Pacific versions.

The turtles who were tagged at their breeding ground were monitored heading south into the open ocean in search of food. They followed a migration corridor from Costa Rica, past the warm waters of the equator, and into the South Pacific Gyre, a vast, low-energy, low-productivity region.

The study, carried out from 2004 to 2007, revealed that the turtles were at the mercy of the ocean's power and their migration routes were influenced by the ocean's currents. But the scientists were able to identify the areas they used most.

The females only mate every two to three years and while protecting the nest sites is important it is also vital that their movement at sea is known so international management agreements can be put in place to protect them.

More information can be found at http://biology.plosjournals.org/

source (and photos): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... tle115.xml

Officers from the Sabah Wildlife Department, Elephant Conservation Unit and the Girang Field Centre fitting a satellite collar on a Pygmy elephant at the Kinabatangan Forest in Sandakan yesterday. BERNAMA

Three Borneo Pygmy elephants in Kinabatangan were fitted with satellite collars last week, marking the start of an inaugural study on the social structure of the Bornean elephants.

Danau Girang Field Centre conservation biologist Nurzhafarina Othman said studies on the genetic aspects of the Bornean elephant had been carried out in the past but their social structure was virtually unknown.

"The collaring of the elephants is to ease our access to them. The bulk of the study will be done with actual field work together with the Elephant Conservation Unit (ECU).

"We will carry out actual observation and collect DNA information via the faeces of particular individuals," she said in statement issued jointly by the Sabah Wildlife Department, Danau Girang Field Centre and HUTAN, a French non-governmental organisation, yesterday.

Nurzhafarina is heading the studies. The ECU, which was founded by HUTAN in 2002 to address the issue of human-elephant conflict, will spend hundreds of man hours tracking the three elephants for the landmark study. Sabah Wildlife Department chief field veterinarian Dr Senthilvel Nathan said with more data, elephants in the Kinabatangan region could be managed more effectively.

"Unlike in previous collaring by WWF-Malaysia where the elephants were only followed via the satellite, this study is different because we pick the individuals we wanted to collar to study their social structure," he said.

The social structure that will be studied include ascertaining the mating pattern and identifying dominant males.

source (and photos): http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/jul14b3.htm

Washington - The 39 member organizations of the International Tiger Coalition (ITC) applaud the World Bank’s announcement today that it will undertake a global joint venture to help reverse the decline in wild tigers — the first-ever species initiative by the Bank.

The Bank has asked the ITC member organizations, representing some of the world's foremost tiger scientists, conservation groups, animal welfare advocates, traditional Chinese medicine specialists, and zoos, to provide expertise and strategic guidance to the initiative.

During the next six months, the Bank promises to hold open and frank dialogues with all stakeholders in tiger range countries—governments and non-governmental organizations—about which tiger conservation methods have worked in the past and which have not. This process is crucial for reversing the damage done to tiger habitat from poorly planned development projects in the past and addressing all major threats facing the fewer than 4,000 tigers remaining in the wild.

“The potential loss of wild tigers is a global problem that requires a global solution," said Judy Mills of the International Tiger Coalition. “The World Bank’s involvement has the potential to catalyze a paradigm shift for wild tigers and their habitats.”

The ITC is encouraged by the World Bank’s stated interest in ensuring that its future investments do no harm to wild tigers and hopes that other development agencies will follow suit. The ITC hopes that the Bank’s efforts will call world attention to the need to stop all demand for and use of tiger skins and bones.

source: http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroo ... sID=136601

Harrison Ford comes to aid of tiger
Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford is throwing is support behind a World Bank initiative to save tigers from extinction. See the video here

Japanese police arrested two Greenpeace activists on Friday on suspicion of stealing about 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of whale meat that the environmentalists said had been illegally siphoned by whalers from government-backed hunts.

Greenpeace members Junichi Sato, 31, and Toru Suzuki, 41, allegedly stole a container with the meat from a postal company warehouse in Aomori, northern Japan, in April, police said in a statement.

The Japanese government kills about 1,000 whales a year under a whaling program allowed under international rules, and sells the meat as food. Greenpeace and other whaling opponents say the program is a cover for commercial hunting, which has been banned for major species since 1986.

Greenpeace presented the meat to authorities last month, saying it showed whalers operating on government-funded hunts were stealing whale meat for their own private use or to sell.

Greenpeace acknowledged taking the meat from the postal company, but said it did so to obtain evidence for its probe and, therefore, did not constitute theft. Greenpeace says the container belonged to a whaling ship crew member. Greenpeace estimates the meat it took is worth as much as 350,000 yen (US$3,300).

But postal firm Seino Holdings Co. Ltd. said the two Greenpeace activists illegally broke into its warehouse and stole the container. The company said Friday it hadn't decided on whether to demand compensation from Greenpeace.

Apart from alleged theft, Sato and Suzuki were arrested for illegally breaking and entering, and authorities also searched Greenpeace's office in Tokyo on Friday.

Yasuhi Tadano, a lawyer for Greenpeace, denounced the arrests.

"The arrests were unjust. The two had to resort to such means in order to get evidence of embezzlement," Tadano told reporters.

Greenpeace Executive Director Jun Hoshikawa called the arrests "an intimidation tactic" by the Japanese government.

Greenpeace last month asked the Tokyo Public Prosecutors to probe the alleged theft of meat by whalers, but the prosecutors office said in a statement it dropped the case Friday. It gave no further details.

The Fisheries Agency refused to comment on the allegations.

The Japanese have hunted whales for centuries, and whale meat was widely eaten in the lean years after World War II. The meat, however, has plunged in popularity in today's prosperous Japan and, while still on the menu in a few upscale Tokyo restaurants, is only eaten regularly in small coastal whaling communities.

source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/ ... Arrest.php

Butterflies and dormice will benefit from a grant of more than £6,000, which will be used to support vital conservation work.

Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) has received the grant from the Dartmoor National Park Authority's Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund to help support conservation work on five of the charity's nature reserves on Dartmoor.

The grant of £6,155 will fund a programme of 12 corporate volunteering events on Emsworthy, Blackadon, Mill Bottom, Lower East Loundson and the Dunsford nature reserve.

The work will benefit species such the rare high brown fritillary butterfly, which enjoys the sunny slopes in the woodland at Blackadon.

The species has been suffering from the increase of bracken that has been shading out the violets on which the insect feeds.

Other species which will benefit include the threatened marsh fritillary, the dormouse, and birds, the pied flycatcher and blackcap.

The corporate volunteers will help clear scrub, cut and rake bracken and coppice the sites. All these tasks are labour intensive and time-consuming for reserve officers to carry out by themselves.

DWT's corporate relations officer, Tracy Ebbrell, has been pioneering corporate volunteering over the past five years through a programme of work with nearly 100 corporate supporters including EDF Energy, Bardon Aggregates and the Met Office.

She said: "We are committed to get more people out on our nature reserves and making businesses increase their accountability.

"As part of our growing Corporate Supporter Scheme, we are now running a corporate volunteering project which helps us deliver labour intensive habitat management work on our nature reserves and gets businesses involved.

"This grant will help with the costs of staff time, transport, tools and materials for the tasks."

For more information about DWT's corporate work visit: www.devonwildlifetrust.org .

source: http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNod ... eId=143738

With only three males and a single female left in the world, a team of experts is battling to save a species on the edge of extinction

He nudged her gently. She nuzzled him back. And, almost as one, the dozen herpetologists, vets, conservationists and zoo officials who were gathered around the enclosure let out a sigh of relief.

He may be 100 years old and she a sprightly 80, but all hope for one of the most critically endangered species on the planet, the Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle, is vested in them. Nature must take its course and, say scientists, the first signs are more than encouraging.

Only four Yangtze turtles are known to exist. Three are male - one in a zoo in Suzhou in China's Jiangsu province, one in Vietnam's famous Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, and another in the wild in a lake east of Hanoi.

Until recently there was no known female. Barring a miracle, the species was to die out, mirroring the destiny of Lonesome George, the sole survivor of the Galápagos's Pinta Island tortoises. So the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society sent urgent circulars to every zoo in China asking for information on large turtles. It seemed futile. Repeated searches have yielded no others in the wild and the few specimens recorded in captivity were male, or had died.

Then Changsha Zoo in Hunan province responded. It had a turtle, but had no idea what kind. It had been bought from a travelling circus about 50 years earlier and had spent the past half century alone and largely unnoticed in a man-made pond.

With its stained, leathery shell, it attracted little interest among visitors to the rundown zoo. But its pig-like snout and wide, flattened dorsal shell resembled the photograph on the conservation society circular. Experts rushed to Changsha. Not only was it indeed a Yangtze turtle, but it was female and, though no teenager, she was still fertile.

'Can you imagine the excitement?' asked Paul Calle, the society's director of zoological health. 'There's four left in the world and only one of them is female. You can't get much more endangered than that without being hopeless. You can't get more critical.'

Today China Girl, as she has been affectionately named, is in a specially adapted enclosure 600 miles away at Suzhou Zoo, where she is becoming acquainted with her centenarian suitor. She was moved three weeks ago and almost immediately the pair began preliminary breeding activities. Bearing in mind that neither had seen another of their own kind for many decades, and that males can be particularly aggressive when breeding, it has gone better than could have been hoped for.

The zoo's pool was divided into three sections, she on one side, he on the other, with the middle empty. On the second day he was moved into the middle section and swam towards her. 'They saw each other and began sniffing each other through the grate,' said Rick Hudson, from the Turtle Survival Alliance. 'The day after that the grate was completely removed. The male was following the female when she moved, then she would move away and then come back to him. It was kind of flirtatious.

'We had mounting attempts within a couple of days - and it's still going on,' he said. 'We were worried. We didn't know when either of them last saw another one of their species. The male has got severe battle scars from a fight, but that was a long time ago. So he probably hasn't seen another turtle in 50 years. And she's been in captivity for probably longer than 60 years.

'We're all really tense. But we feel like we are making history here. This is really something. It's a remarkable event with new hope for a species that was getting ready to blink out on us.'

No one knows how long Yangtze turtles live, but China Girl had been producing unfertilised eggs. Ultrasound examinations proved she was still fertile. The Chinese initially wanted to perform artificial insemination, but no technique has yet been developed and turtles have died following the procedure. 'I don't think this would have been a good pair to experiment on,' said Calle.

So, eventually, it was decided to do it the old-fashioned way. Leading turtle expert Gerald Kuchling, an Austrian living in Australia, monitored China Girl's reproductive cycle and determined this month as the optimum time. 'If it all continues to go well over the next few weeks, she will lay eggs,' said Calle.

Much of the reptile's gradual demise has been attributed to the sale of the meat, bones and shells, partly for traditional Chinese medicine.

'It can't get more desperate than this.' said Hudson. 'This truly is the last gasp of a species and the risk we took is considerable. But the consequences of not doing anything was much worse.'

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2 ... lbehaviour

More than half of the world’s sharks are under threat of extinction, conservationists have warned.

Six more of the sharks were added to the official Red List of species at risk of dying out yesterday bringing the total to 11 sharks and rays out of 21 species studied, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The six named were the Thresher shark, Silky shark, Shortfin mako, the Pelagic thresher, the Bigeye thresher and the Salmon shark. They join a list already occupied by the Whale shark, Great white shark, Megamouth shark and Basking shark. Experts from IUCN said the sharks, commonly found in shallow waters as opposed to deep waters, were threatened both by direct fishing for their valuable fins and meat, as well as indirect by catch in other fisheries. In most fisheries, they said, catches were unregulated and not subject to any management measures intended to ensure the species' survival. Sonja Fordham, deputy chairman of the IUCN's shark specialist group, said: “The traditional view of oceanic sharks and rays as fast and powerful too often leads to a misperception that they are resilient to fishing pressure.

“Despite mounting evidence of decline and increasing threats to these species, there are no international catch limits for oceanic sharks. Our research shows that action is urgently needed on a global level if these fish- eries are to be sustainable.”

The study, published in the journal, Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater ecosystems, says that increasing demand for the delicacy “shark's fin soup,” driven by rapidly growing Asian economies, meant that often the valuable shark fins were retained and the carcasses discarded.

Frequently, discarded sharks and rays were not even recorded. Sharks and rays are vulnerable to overfishing because they take many years to become sexually mature and have relatively few offspring. Nicholas Dulvy, from Simon Fraser university, Vancouver, said: "Fishery managers and regional, national and international officials have a real obligation to improve this situation.

"We are losing species at a rate 10 to 100 times greater than historic extinction rates. Humans are making increasing use of ocean resources so many more aquatic species, particularly sharks, are coming under threat. But it doesn't have to be like this.With sufficient public support and resulting political will, we can turn the tide."

A bell was rung on last Thursday on the cliff-top site of a proposed stone memorial to extinct species at Portland on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset. The ringing of the bell, by Alex Wood, a Portland schoolgirl was the latest step in a campaign to build a stone memorial to the 845 species known to have become extinct in modern times.

The project is backed by the novelist, Philip Pullman, the scientist, James Lovelock and Tim Smit of Cornwall's Eden project.

© The Daily Telegraph

source: http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.as ... st&Topic=0

Each view of the 30 second clip from Blink, helps raise funds for Nyaru Menteng

Please click here to see the clip
By viewing the 30 second clip, you will raise funds for Borneo Orangutan Survival UK and play a role in saving this endangered species. Thank you for your contribution.

source (and photos): BOS UK Newsletter & http://www.blinkbox.com/TV/28655/Orangutan-Island.aspx

I received the following from the Vrienden van Blijdorp.

We need YOUR help!!!


Was has happened?

The Tanoé-Forest - one of the most valuable of Africas magnificent forests - will be destroyed soon! Situated in the eastern Ivory Coast it
has been in the focus of the Heidelberg based Conservation Organisation WAPCA for some time.

End of February 2008 PALMCI an Ivorian Company started to cut the forest down to raise a palm oil plantation. Tanoé-Forest with its 6000
ha harbours still globally significant population of several endangered primate species:

- Scientists discovered in march 2008 a fresh skin of the Miss Waldrońs Red Colobus which was announced to be extinct in 2001. They
even heard callings of this species which might occur only here.

- The Roloway Guenon only occur in the eastern Ivory Coast and western Ghana. In Tanoé-Forest the largest population which could be
found since several years has been detected. It might be the largest population in the world.

- Similar is the situation for the White-Naped-Managbey and in a lesser degree for the Geoffroýs Pied Colobus.


Beside these endangered animals Tanoé contains a huge amount of Biodiversity and alone 19 Plant species which are endemic in West Africa
15 of them listed on the red list of IUCN.

How can YOU help?

Please raise your voice against this destruction. Sign the petition online on the website http://www.manifeste-fmt.org

So YOU can help to show enough public interest in Tanoé-Forest to stop the destruction.
The goal is to raise 10.000 signatures as soon as possible.

Please help us one step further as well! Tell your friends, colleagues etc. about it and send them this mail or the link as well. You may also
link the petition with your website.

Please help us!

Additional information and pictures of these wonderful creatures you can find on the website http://www.manifeste-fmt.org and on http://www.WAPCA.org.
Please understand that we might not be able to prevent that you get this mail twice from different sources.

We would be very glad if you could help us to save some of the most threatened animals species on earth.

Thank YOU


Dr. Klaus Wünnemann
Chairman of WAPCA e-V-.
Director Zoo Heidelberg, Germany

Please take a minute to sign this petition.

Note: the dropdown is listing the countries in French so for The Netherlands you will need to find Pays Bas.