Injured cheetah caught roaming in Abu Dhabi

A young, injured cheetah viewed roaming on the streets in a residential area in the capital on Sunday dawn was caught and transferred to the Abu Dhabi Wildlife Centre.

The animal that might have escaped from private captivity in Al Karamah locality is now at the center and being looked after, wildlife gist conductor Ronel Smutts said.

She said the center incurred a cry from a concerned occupier enouncing a Panthera tigris was on the prowl in the city. Our functionaries and a veterinarian stepped on it to the area and looked for the animate being but they could not find oneself it. The law dealt to capture the fauna, and to our surprise it was a cheetah who was immature and ill injured, she said.

The cheetah was cared for by the ex serviceman and transferred to the midpoint which has a roomy wildlife parkland that will assist it to recuperate from its injuries. She told the 11-month-old animate being was shocked.

The immature brute had a Brobdingnagian chain around its neck opening and had a real big harm on the left movement stage. We gave initial intervention to exempt it of the pain in the neck,.

and tomorrow we will get an X ray to help regulate the internal leg injury. The animate being is now under watching, Smutts added.

The chetah, allotting to a Karamah occupant, was viewed swaning the streets on Sabbatum Nox. It was caught by the Abu Dhabi police force and the pest ascendance employees deputed for the caper. Initial accounts advise municipality section workers too took part in the surgical process to catch the beast.

Still, a voice from the section denied having any function in the search. The Municipality of Abu Dhabi Metropolis interpreter told Khaleej Times that they got a phone call from Al Rahma Society of Animal Welfare viewing a chetah being flecked in Al Karamah country and we just trained them to meet the constabulary and other competent offices for catching the creature.

The Abu Dhabi Law articulated they moved immediately to ensure the base hit of the occupiers in the locality.

The Abu Dhabi Police force reacted immediately to protect the safety of the occupants and in collaboration with other government agencies moved apace to deal with the issue. The fauna was caught and transferred to appropriate attention, in accordance with regulatings and best patterns, Major General Mohammed Al Awadhi Al Menhali General Director of Human Resources and General Director of Police Operations enunciated.

Smutts, who has been looking after chetahs and other big cats at the center for many years, told it was illegal to continue these brutes in small scale houses and secret incarceration.

Previous Post : Return of ivory trade as Britain backs China

Return of ivory trade as Britain backs China

China was given permission to become a licensed buyer of ivory yesterday, provoking widespread condemnation from environmentalists and politicians, who said the move was a grave threat to the future of wild elephants in Africa and Asia.

The British Government came in for fierce criticism after voting – as forecast by The Independent – for China at a UN meeting in Geneva, despite opposition from several African countries.

The Green MEP Caroline Lucas called the vote "a dark and irrevocable stain on the UK's wildlife conservation record overseas".

The vote, at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), gives China the right to buy ivory auctioned by four southern African countries, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Environmentalists claim that the entry of China into the market will provide a substantial opportunity for the laundering of illegal ivory, and provide the impetus for further poaching across Africa, where more than 20,000 elephants are illegally killed every year.

China is the centre of the world's illegal ivory trade, although the government is cracking down on it.

The vote on its approved buyer status was won by nine votes to two, with two abstentions. Britain voted in favour with Bulgaria, on behalf of the European Union. Australia and New Zealand voted against, and several African countries spoke out passionately against the move, including Kenya, Mali and Ghana.

However, it was defended robustly last night by Britain's minister for Wildlife, Joan Ruddock, who took ultimate responsibility for the UK position. Ms Ruddock said that China had now met the conditions laid down to allow countries to take part in the auction.

"In 2002 an international agreement was reached to allow African states to undertake a one-off sale of their legally held ivory stocks," she said. "Criteria were established for trading partners. The EU today accepted that China had met the criteria. Any other form of ivory sales remains illegal under international law.

"China has satisfied the Cites Standing Committee that it has established robust controls to manage the legally stockpiled ivory to ensure it is not exported from and is effectively monitored within China. This one-off sale is only from elephants that have not died as a result of poaching. China has shown itself willing to crack down on illegal ivory trading and we expect them to continue to do so."

Many of Ms Ruddock's parliamentary colleagues expressed anger and dismay at Britain's vote. Eliot Morley, one of Ms Ruddock's predecessors as Wildlife minister, said: "This strikes me as a very bad move. It does open the prospect of a return to the large-scale illegal ivory trade."

Howard Stoate, MP for Dartford and parliamentary private secretary to Estelle Morris when she was Culture minister, said: "It is outrageous. There is no justification for it whatever. I think it is a very retrograde step."

Ian Gibson, former Labour chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, said: "Every animal lover in the country will abhor this decision. I just wonder what excuse Gordon Brown will give."

MPs were threatening to table a protest motion against the Government for supporting China in the vote. More than 150 MPs of all parties signed a cross-party motion calling for the Government not to vote for China to be given a licence to trade in ivory.

Environmentalists were even more critical. Allan Thornton of the Environmental Investigation Agency, which provided much of the evidence for the original ban in 1989, said: "This is a sad day for those who love wildlife and who believe that human society has an ethical responsibility to conserve species that are being destroyed by human activities."

Previous Post : Conservationists battle to prevent mass whale stranding

Conservationists battle to prevent mass whale stranding

Animal welfare experts are battling to prevent about 100 pilot whales being stranded in a sea loch in the Western Isles.

The large pod of whales is circling off Loch Carnan in South Uist and up to 20 appear to have severe head injuries, raising fears they have already struck the rocky foreshore of the loch.

Experts in whale strandings from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) and a senior inspector from the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) are travelling to the scene in case the whales attempt to beach themselves.

The rescuers fear that if some injured animals attempt to beach themselves, many others in the pod will follow them onto the shore, almost certainly leading to mass mortalities.

Alistair Jack, BDMLR's Scottish co-ordinator, said the charity's team in South Uist already had several sets of pontoons and the charity has 12 sets of the whale floatation devices across the UK: all of them were being despatched to South Uist.

"We first became aware of the incident late yesterday and have immediately responded," Jack said. "We anticipate having trained medics and rescue equipment on the scene by mid morning. This is one of the largest events of this kind ever in the country."

Calum Watt, the SSPCA's senior inspector for the Western Isles, is en route to the loch. He said: "When pilot whales come inshore there is a very strong chance some among the group are sick or injured.

"We believe around 20 of these whales have severe head injuries but at this stage we aren't sure of the cause. One possibility is these injuries were sustained during a previous attempt to strand themselves.

"Pilot whales have extremely strong social bonds, which sadly means healthy whales within the pod will follow sick and injured whales on to the shore."

A pod of around 35 pilot whales were involved in a similar emergency at Loch Carnan, a small and narrow loch near the north eastern corner of the island, last October. After being closely watched by the BDMLR, the SSPCA and the coastguard, they went back to sea.

But less then a week later the same pod is believed to have been involved in a mass stranding in County Donegal in Ireland, when 33 pilot whales were found dead on a beach.

Pilot whales are among the most common cetaceans, and the adult male can grow to 20 feet long.

Watt said the largest number they have tried to refloat was seven, in 1993, but all seven returned to the shore and died. He was very worried about the prospects of saving so many whales if the new pod at Loch Carnan became stranded.

"At this stage we remain hopeful they will not strand themselves but our concern is the injured whales will come onshore and be followed by the rest of the pod," he said.

Previous Post : 8 lions poisoned in Kenya

8 lions poisoned in Kenya

Conservationists have warned that Kenya's lion population is in danger of becoming extinct within a few years if nothing is done to stem a wave of poisonings that have already left at least eight lions dead in recent weeks.

In the latest incident, the carcasses of two lionesses and a young male were found in late April near Lemek, apparently killed in retaliation for attacking domestic cattle. In their investigation, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) arrested a local cattle herder who admitted he had used a pesticide to poison the lions.

Suspected carbofuran
The suspect showed investigators a container with the remains of the poison he had used to lace a cow carcass that the lions ultimately ate. The container had traces of a pink powder that the authorities suspect is a form of carbofuran - a deadly pesticide commonly used in the horticultural industry. KWS has sent samples of both the lion carcasses and the pink substance for toxicological tests to confirm what it was that killed the predators.

Suspect released despite admission of guilt
KWS took the suspect to the police but despite the evidence and his admission of guilt, he was released shortly after. According to anonymous sources, a local politician intervened on his behalf.

5 lions killed in Amboseli
This incident brings to 8 the number of confirmed lions poisonings in recent weeks across southern Kenya; the other five occurring near the Amboseli National Park.

Less than 2000 lions left in Kenya
In their National Conservation and Management strategy for Lions and Hyenas, the Kenya Wildlife Service estimates that only 1,970 lions remain across the country, and said "poisoning is perhaps the greatest threat to predators and scavenging birds".

10 other lions killed in 2011
KWS confirms that 2010 has started off badly for lions - in addition to 8 confirmed poisonings, more than 10 other lions have been killed in other circumstances; A lion was shot in or near Buffalo Springs Reserve, Samburu District, by local police, while others have been speared near Amboseli National Park

Previous Post : Govt got its math on tigers wrong?

Govt got its math on tigers wrong?

India may have got its latest tiger population estimation wrong. On Friday, eight top wildlife experts, in a letter published in the Science magazine, said environment minister Jairam Ramesh's announcement that the tiger population had increased from 1,411 in 2006 to 1,706 in 2010 was based on "unreliable" data.

The letter added to the pressure on the government to adopt a new comprehensive methodology to count the tigers. K Ullas Karanth and seven Indian and international scientists said in their letter, "These (government's) assertions cannot be verified because details of tiger photo-captures at sampled locations, as well as of spatial extrapolations from these data, are incomplete."

Ramesh hit back by accusing Karanth, a member of the ministry's National Tiger Conservation Authority, of being intellectually dishonest and said the tiger estimation was correct. "Karanth is like the species (tiger) he studies -- extremely territory-conscious and essentially a loner," he said in an email to HT.

However, the day Karanth's letter was published, asking the government to overhaul its method of estimation, Ramesh approved a new scientific plan for counting the big cat population.

The environment minister Jairam Ramesh incorporated some of Karanth's suggestions in the new plan such as annual monitoring and tiger estimation in 41 tiger reserves, wider coverage of camera-traps to capture in-depth tiger demography and greater reliability of data.

Karanth described the decision as "practical, cost-effective and useful".

Agreeing with him, Ramesh said this important milestone in the tiger conservation strategy will allow regular updates on the number and health of the tigers across India.

India has 70% of the world's tigers but most of them live in 15 reserves, constituting a mere 10% of the remaining tiger habitat.

Previous Post : Javan rhino gets boost of $300,000

Javan rhino gets boost of $300,000

With estimates at between 40 and 60 individuals remaining, the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) is one of the rarest large animals left in the world. The bulk -- if not all -- of the remaining rhinos are restricted to a small area on Java, Indonesia. Now multinational timber company Asian Paper and Pulp (APP) have teamed up with conservationists trying to save this enigmatic animal.

The new partnership agreement between the national park authority and APP will see an initial IND 3 Billion (approx $300,000) used to establish a 5 year action plan for the conservation of the rhino. The funding will contribute towards a series of actions including:

* habitat restoration,
* anti poaching activities to protect the remaining population,
* community education.

Funds will also go towards the ongoing monitoring programme of the javan rhino through the use of camera traps. The species is so rare that researchers try not to disturb the rhinos too much and most of their knowledge of the health of the species comes from use of remote cameras and studies of droppings.

Apart from Java Island, the only place that still may have the Javan rhino is the Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam however this population is now thought to be in single figures, possibly as low as 7 after one was found killed last year. The population on Java is found in the Ujung Kulon National Park and is estimated at between 40 and 50 individuals.

The new partnership was brokered by Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry to help push forward the Rhino Conservation Action Plan that was established in 2007.

Previous Post : WWF Releases Rare Footage of Sumatran Tiger Cubs

WWF Releases Rare Footage of Sumatran Tiger Cubs

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today released rare video footage of Sumatran tiger cubs playfully chasing leaves in the forests of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape in Indonesia. Over the span of months, video & camera traps recorded images of 12 tigers - including mothers with cubs - in an area of 184 square miles, a significant concentration in Sumatra. There's estimated to be only around 400 of the critically endangered Sumatran tigers left in the wild.

The tigers in the videos were filmed in the forests of the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape, or "Thirty Hills". This landscape is designated a "global priority Tiger Conservation Landscape", & is of six landscapes the government of Indonesia pledged to protect at last November's tiger summit of world leaders in Russia. Home to over 30 tigers, 150 Sumatran elephants & 130 orangutans, the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape is under imminent threat of being cleared by the pulp & paper industry.

'It's great to see that tigers are continuing to breed in the Bukit Tigapuluh landscape', said Dr. Barney Long, Manager of the WWF-US Tiger Program.'This is a critical landscape for tiger conservation, & that is quickly being cleared by companies to produce pulp & paper. They must protect this forest landscape & the corridor that connects it to other tiger populations in order to save these magnificent animals, as well as the lots of services that the forests provide for the indigenous communities that call it home.'

The areas of the central Sumatran forests where these tigers are concentrated are also prime targets for pulp & paper companies like Barito Pacific Group & Asia Pulp & Paper/Sinar Mas Group (APP/SMG). Both companies have permits pending to clear the forest. Prominent conservation, animal welfare & human rights groups, including WWF, have urged the companies & the Indonesian government to protect these forests in lieu of allowing them to be cleared.

A document by WWF & partner NGOs from December 2010 revealed that between 2004 & 2010, Bukit Tigapuluh landscape lost over 500,000 acres of forest to the pulp & paper & palm oil industries. A immense amount of the deforestation took place within concessions of APP/SMG, as well as along the logging corridors built to move the wood to pulp mills. A significant amount of clearing was also reported in concessions of another company, Asia Pacific Resources International Limited (APRIL).

"We urge companies & consumers in the U.S. to make sure that any paper products that they buy do not contribute to the destruction of Sumatran tiger habitat", said Linda Kramme, Manager of WWF's Global Forest & Trade Network-North The united states.

One way to keep away from such impacts is to buy Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper. WWF is working with Indonesian pulp & paper producers willing to adopt better practices to bring more options to the marketplace, like paper from responsibly managed plantations on already-degraded lands than on areas converted from natural forests.

The Sumatran tiger & the other surviving tiger subspecies - the Amur, Malayan, Bengal, Indochinese & South China - number as few as two,200 in the wild. WWF is working closely with Indonesia & other tiger range countries to build the political, financial & public support to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022, the next Year of the Tiger.