5 wildlife adoption gifts for under £25.00

Wildlife adoptions are a great way for people to help raise money for wildlife. It’s a great way for wildlife organisations to raise money for the cause and helps to build up relationships between conservation and people. Unfortunately it does seem to be getting quite expensive and some people are being priced out of the market, especially in the UK.

Since I did my post on the top 5 wildlife gifts for Christmas this year I have had 5 or 6 emails asking me if I know of a good place to buy wildlife adoptions as gifts for people. They have had budgets of between £15.00 and £25.00 to spend but have not been able to find anything.

This post I hope will offer some remedy to that need for affordable animal adoption gifts. All the sites featured below offer wildlife adoption gifts below £25.00. I’ve tried to find sites that are the actual charities that fund projects rather than third party marketing companies. You have to be a bit careful because some wildlife and animal sponsorships will only have about 5% or 10% of your gift actually go to projects involving the species.

Previous Post : New hope for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger

New hope for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger

A new study has provided a rare glimmer of hope for the Sumatran tiger, the last subspecies of tiger still in existence in Indonesia.

Reports that tiger populations are declining in many parts of its range paint a bleak and all too familiar picture. Of the 13 tiger-range countries recognised today, the Indonesian archipelago has already lost two distinct subspecies from the islands of Bali and Java.

Reliably determining where tigers are present within dense tropical jungle is challenging because their secretive behaviour and excellent camouflage naturally make them difficult to detect. But, for the past three years, eight NGOs have joined forces to carry out the first ever Sumatra-wide survey, in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry.

Hariyo Wibisono of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and chairman of the Sumatran Tiger Forum, who led the project, said: ‘This survey is a milestone for Sumatran tigers. The results provide the most up-to-date and reliable information ever collected for this critically endangered species.'

The comprehensive study found that while more than 70 per cent of forest patches surveyed were occupied by tigers, its status varied greatly between the different landscapes.

Speaking about the newly created 3.3 million hectare Leuser-Ulu Masen landscape in Aceh Province, co-author Dr Matthew Linkie from Fauna & Flora International explained: ‘This study puts Aceh's previously unsurveyed forest firmly on the map as a global priority for wild tigers in Asia.'

Blind Indus dolphin survey concludes in Sindh

The study was set in motion on April 16 by the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) in consultation with the World Wide Fund for Nature Pakistan (WWF P).

The SWD functionaries said that the survey team numbered 918 unsighted dolphins in the river Indus from Guddu to Sukkur.

The survey squad comprised 35 key officials of SWD and WWFP.

The officials recalled that that during survey carried on by WWF-P in 2006, around 810 dolphins were counted in the river Indus from the Guddu Barrage to Sukkur Barrage.

Assistant Conservator of SWD Ghulam Mohammad Guddani said : A distance of 200 kilometres from Guddu to Sukkur was covered for the survey and water samples were got after each 10 kilometers to determine causes of the death of 45 uncommon blind Indus dolphins covered from 2006 to 2011 March..

The final report of the water samples would be released publicly in three weeks, he added.

Guddani said that the survey is conducted every five years and formerly each survey has shown 40 per cent lift in the number of the dolphins. However, this survey has posted dissatisfied results.

No supporting growth in the dolphins population has been observed because of different reasons, he remarked.

Use of banned fishing net and poisonous chemicals by fishermen, unhampered release of hot poisonous water of the Guddu Tharmal power into the river Indus, release of drainage water and industrial wastewater into the river at Sukkur and the construction of hydel powerhouse along the Indus are among others, grave threats to the survival of the rare species, spelled out the SWD and WWF P officials.

The SWDs assistant conservator said, Data collected during the survey would be shared with the high officials of the wildlife department and other concerned departments..

He also said that he would suggest in the survey a request to the government to declare the River Indus area between Guddu and Sukkur a protected area for the sake of rare blind Indus dolphins sustainable survival and ban the use of fishnet and poisons chemical for fishing.

Previous Post : River dolphins decline around the world

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

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?