More news from TRAFFIC; a live tiger cub was found concealed in a woman’s luggage at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport on Sunday. The tiger was sedated and hidden amongst stuffed toy tigers.
Airport staff suspicions were aroused when the bag went through the sensors and the x-ray showed an image of a cat’s beating heart and other organs. Tests of the tiger DNA are currently being conducted to determine the tiger’s origin and sub species, which will determine whether it was wild caught, or captive born.
Tiger Cub Found at Bangkok's Airport, Sulma Warne-TRAFFIC
While over in Vietnam, a massive seizure of wildlife from restaurants was conducted by the Lam Dong Forest Protection Department (FPD). A huge co-ordinated campaign involving over 100 officers from the province investigated restaurants suspected of selling illegal wildlife based on results from a survey that found that 44 restaurants and 33 Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) shops (representing 68% restaurants and 21% TCM shop visited) were serving wildlife.
Civets Found During the Raid. ZooNews Digest
A huge number of animals and animal parts were found, over 300kg of meat from animals including civets, pangolins, porcupine, mouse deer, bear paws, clouded leopard, short-clawed otter, leopard cat, binturong, and small Indian civet. These animals were destined to end up on the plates of customers at the restaurants.
Langurs and Other Animals Seized. ZooNews Digest
The two findings this week indicate that the illegal wildlife trade is still going strong in South East Asia, and with the tiger heading for Iran, the trade is not just staying in South East Asia. Although it is fantastic that the raids occurred, and the staff at the airport were quick witted enough to spot the tiger amongst the toys, it shows that people will still try to smuggle animals, dead or alive, and will continue to poach them unless something is done to really act as a preventative.
Angelina Jolie wants you to save the Stellate Sturgeon.
Not likely, mainly because the Stellate sturgeon is not a beautiful fish. Rather the opposite, in fact. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but in a cute competition with, say, a panda, the Stellate sturgeon would be happy to go home with the wooden spoon.
Flagship species such as; the cute and cuddly panda bear, the majestic Asian elephant and beautiful tiger, are visibly attractive, and of course excellent fundraisers for conservation and animal welfare charities. And why not? After all, these organisations cover all aspects of conservation and animal welfare.
But, as the underdogs, it is important that the species, that are not so beautiful, except maybe to their mothers, get a chance to shine.
Here are 5 of the not so attractive, but still endangered, animals on the
Things are not looking too bright for this frog, only 135 specimens have been found, and only three of these have been female, no wonder then, that the numbers are thought to be declining. Also not helping the frogs chance of survival, is its behaviour of living 1.3 – 2.7m underground and only emerging for a few weeks a year to breed.Found only in two places in Western Ghats in India, deforestation is the main threat facing this animal.
This critically endangered reptile’s home is being destroyed, and the females are nesting less and less each year. When the females do nest, their eggs are sometimes eaten by tribal people, who consider the eggs a delicacy. Most conservation efforts have not been successful, and this has resulted in the number of males thought to be in the wild estimated at less than 20.
No prizes for guessing what trade has caused this shark to be on the endangered list. Longline catches and the shark’s large fins make them a target for the Asian fin trade. Sharks have a very low reproduction rate, with this shark producing only one pup every two years the numbers are not looking good.
Over fishing is the cause of this sturgeon’s population decrease, pollution also tipping the scales. Another fish with low population rates, the females only mate every 3-4 years and the males every 2-3 years. If the over fishing continues, it won’t be long before this bizarre little fish disappears.
This tree frog is yet another victim of chytridiomycosis, caused by a fungal growth in South America. This fungus is thought to have wiped out over 80% of the population. Since the fungus was discovered to be killing frogs in 2006, calls from male frogs have decreased. The forests are becoming devoid of the calls and breeding efforts have so far not been successful.
Zoos Forum: Review of elephant husbandry in UK zoos
The RSPCA has called for an outright ban on elephants in zoos, following a report of the welfare conditions of these highly intelligent animals.
The report, from Bristol University, was reviewed by Zoo Forum, an independent body set up by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It found that there are serious welfare problems in UK zoos with regards to the wellbeing of the elephants.
Elephants are wide ranging, travelling between a few kilometres to up to 12 a day. They are highly social animals, living in family groups of up to 15 related females, plus calves. Providing adequate living conditions for captive elephants is a challenge for any zoo, and would involve a large living space with a complex enrichment program, plus areas of seclusion. The enclosure would ideally, accurately represent a wild environment.
When the review was written, there were around 70 elephants in British zoos, with roughly equal numbers of Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana). This report can serve as a representation of all elephants in zoos, all across the world.
The original report does not say that the zoos are not trying to improve their elephants welfare, indeed they report that ‘Zoos are acutely aware of the issues surrounding the welfare of their elephants, and attempts to enrich and improve their lives are ongoing.’ Harris et al 2008.
It has previously been documented that the larger the enclosure an animal lives in, the less likely stereotypical behaviour will occur, this report goes on to state that ‘It would not be possible to provide space equivalent to home ranges in the wild.’
While acknowledging lameness in elephants being a serious problem, the report compares the level of lameness in zoos as being on par with lameness with dairy cattle, broiler chickens and factory farmed pigs. This is a damning comparison, but the report seems to defend the level of lameness, saying that is it not a problem of elephants only. Just because it affects more than one species, doesn’t make it right.
The elephant mortality rates in zoos was shocking, both Asian and African elephants in zoos suffered from decreased mortality compared to wild populations and those working in Burmese logging camps. The still birth and infant mortality rates were also shockingly high. One possible reason for this was the behaviour of mothers killing their young, a trait absent in wild elephants.
Zoos are keeping elephants in zoos for conservation, to attract visitors and create fundraising opportunities, to educate the public, to educate keepers on husbandry and elephant medicine and to provide research for conservation efforts.
But if the elephants are suffering, as this report implies, then at what cost is conservation? African elephants are being culled for their effects on farmland in Africa, and there are calls to keep Asian elephants in Asia. Why do elephants need to be kept in the UK, so far away from their homeland?
Why not instead focus on maintaining a wild population, creating a land space in home countries of the elephants, or helping those elephants who are trapped in the tourist industry, those zoos that have phased out the keeping of elephants are still doing well. Zoos, who house elephants today, should follow their example, and work towards making the suffering population of elephants extinct in UK zoos.
Other countries should look at themselves in the same critical light, and take a step forward, as the UK has done, to improve the lives of their elephants that reside within their zoos.
A baby hippopotamus, who was orphaned when a tsunami washed away the rest of his family, has found a surrogate mother, in the form of a century old Aldabra tortoise, called Mzee. When the tsunami devastated the Kenyan Coast in 2004, the calf was washed down Sakabi River, and into the Indian Ocean, rangers found him when the waves hit the Kenyan coast.
Owen, as the hippo has been named, would have been clearly traumatized and has found solace with the male tortoise, who has reportedly taken to acting as ‘mother’ in his stride.
The pair eat together, sleep together and swim together. Hippos are social animals, and young will stay with their mothers for about 4 years. However, despite the keeper’s intentions to separate the unlikely duo, they are destined to live together, although Owen has a new friend, Cleo, a lonely female hippo.
The inseparable two even have their own website, and have had books written about them, they are famous all over the world!
A recent car advert features cars driving out from under a tent, with fan fare music and streamers. OK, just another normal car advert right? Well, no, unfortunately Dodge decided that to make the advert even more ‘exciting’ they had to use a ‘monkey’ in the advert. Someone should have pointed out that in fact, chimps, as this was the animal they used in the advert, are apes.
The chimp appears dressed up in an Elvis style suit and is on the screen for a total of 3 seconds, just to walk on, and push a plunger. His appearance is the punch line of the advert, but was completely unnecessary.
In another advert, Old Navy is advertising their new jeans range, the advert features human mannequins having their jean style fortune told. At the end of the advert a capuchin bangs a gong. Again, the capuchin is only on the screen for 3-4 seconds.
There really is no need for animals, including chimps and other primates to be used for adverts and films. Technology is so advanced now that real animals do not need to be used in film.
Everyone knows orang utans are endangered, usually when you see a picture of an orang utan, it is attached to an organisation, and it is a similar story with gorillas. However, a lot of people do not realise that chimps are endangered, mainly because, especially in the west, chimps are seen on TV advertising products.
In the UK, possibly the most famous chimps are the Tipps family, from the PG Tips adverts, which ran from the 1950’s to the 1990’s. These adverts were inspired by London Zoo’s chimp tea parties. The adverts featured chimps moving pianos, motor racing, usually with a slap stick part of the advert that ended with the chimps dressed as humans having a cup of tea at the end. Thankfully, PG Tips has ended these adverts, and now has a comedian, Jonny Vegas, and a stuffed chimp called Monkey instead.
Chimps and wild animals used in entertainment, in circuses, films, adverts and photography sessions are ripped from their mothers from a very young age, could you imagine trying to train a fully grown chimp? If he doesn’t want to wear that hat, he won’t wear that hat. The psychological damage is phenomenal, and usually ends tragically, when the chimp is too old to be used any more he is usually discarded at a roadside zoo or turned into a pet.
Times have changed, and there are now more humane ways of training animals to do things, but the fact still remains that physical punishment is a well used method of training animals; you just have to look at PETA's campaign on Ringling Brothers circus elephants to see that.
The fact still remains that these are wild animals, and they should be given the opportunity to behave as such, not forced to act out silly dramas, even if it is a 30 minute program, or a 3 second advert, the animals will be going home to live in a cage until the next time they are needed, they are not given the opportunity to act as they would in the wild.
So, yes, maybe it doesn’t physically harm a chimp to push a plunger down for a few seconds, but the journey he would have taken from being born and being cradled by his mother, to a young chimp acting in an unknown environment would have caused him cataclysmic damage. The concept of being demeaned is a very human one, but when dressing animals up and parading them around leads people to be uneducated and misinformed about the basic needs of an animal, advertisers need to address what is really important; getting a cheap laugh, or business ethics.
Why not send an email to Dodge and Old Navy, politely asking them not to use wild animals to promote their products again?
Besides, you can still get a laugh with a man in a gorilla suit playing Phil Collins.
