Baraza

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 31 2008 | By: Maina

Dr Lucy Spelman, that exceptional Gorilla vet plying her trade at the MGVP is also an acclaimed author. She recently published a very exciting book and Christine Cichetti, who’s been helping us a lot in our communications functions, has also read it. So a brilliant idea came to us here in the office: why not ask Christine to review the book? She came through. She always does. Here is her review.

Book Review
The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes
Edited by Lucy H. Spelman, DVM & Ted Y. Mashima DVM.
Published by Bantam Dell/Random House.
ISBN-13: 978-0-385-34146-2

An eel walks into a bar… Debugging a bug… Health care for dragons… Although these may sound like lead-ins for some silly animal jokes, they are actually just some of the topics described in Lucy Spelman, DVM, and Ted Mashima’s, DVM new book, ‘The Rhino with the Glue-On Shoes.’ ‘Rhino,’ captures the stories of 29 wildlife vets and their remarkable, and sometimes strange patients.

Whether you have a genuine interest in veterinary medicine, or just wild and exotic animals in general, this is an absolute must read. The stories are funny, poignant, miraculous, and yes, on occasion, also sad. But no other book I know of does a better job of making both humans and animals come to life as does this small volume of vignettes.

By the end of the book one is not only left with the hope that a sequel is already in the making, but with a renewed passion for the four-legged, two legged, and yes, even no-legged neighbors we share this planet with.

Now, where does one get shoes for a rhino?

Thank you, Christine, for this review and all the work you are doing for WildlifeDirect. Get more information on buying the book here

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Category: China, Ivory, Trade, elephants, wildlife trade | Date: Jul 30 2008 | By: Maina

In an earlier post, I reported that the US is second only to China in the size of the ivory blackmarket. Well, although most American buyers were said to be unaware of the legality of their ivory purchases, it turns out that there are glaring legal loopholes that traders are exploiting to fan the blackmarket.

Acclaimed wildlife trade investigators, Dr Esmond Bradley Martin and Daniel Stiles, spent several months in the US visiting 16 of America’s main towns and cities where ivory is sold between 2006 and 2007. Their report, Ivory Markets in the USA, has just been published. The report shows that even though the US is far ahead in its control of illegal ivory trade compared to Africa and Asia (US only comparable to Europe), its large population and vast buying power renders stringent control of ivory trade critical.

And there are controls. The US Endangered Species Act (ESA) and various other legislation conform with CITES stipulations but there is leeway that can be exploited. Antique worked ivory (at least 100 years old), for example, can legally be imported and sold (according to both CITES and US laws). This leaves the market wide open for fake antiques (fabricated using smoke, dyes and exposure to heat and acidity). Trophy tusks can also be imported legally from the southern African countries that allow hunting but the raw ivory cannot be used commercially. This opens shady alleys where ivory from anywhere can easily find its way into the market with fake documents of origin. The same law allows sale of trophy tusks imported before July 1975, when CITES came into force, which again makes it that much easier to sell all and any purported trophy.

Twenty-two states have integrated federal wildlife laws into state laws and there is generally good cooperation between state and federal agencies. When wildlife specimens originate outside the US, however, law enforcement agencies find it hard to deal with and ivory is no exception. “Once ivory enters the US, it can move free of inspection within the 50 states. Neither state nor federal agencies regularly inspect shops or antiques fairs for wildlife products.” say Martin and Stiles in an article published in Swara magazine.

In a country where 24,000 worked ivory items on sale in 657 outlets were recorded by this particular investigation, it is no wonder that the market should be second only to China’s statistics. Of the 16 cities investigated, New York had by far the most ivory for sale: a minimum of 11,376 ivory items in 124 outlets, which is almost 5 times higher than the second highest, San Fransisco Bay Area with 2,777 items in 49 outlets. Greater LA records a close 2,605 items although in more outlets (170) closing the top three. Ivory workers are however difficult to find since they mostly work from home and are widely scattered throughout the 50 state colossus.

Interestingly, most of the recent imports of ivory into the US came from China! Since the US has never conducted any census on ivory and maintains no stockpile, it is difficult to know how much ivory is out there.

Granted, the US authorities hold the record for the highest number of ivory seizures in the world. But they also seize large quantities of illegal drugs but that does not mean that they are winning the war on drugs. Illegal ivory, like these drugs, still gets in.

The problem is that although CITES resolutions have called for various actions to control ivory trade, the US has implemented none of them. Particularly, according to the article by Martin and Stiles in Swara magazine, the US should pay attention to these actions:
1) Prohibit the unregulated domestic sale of ivory. the owner of the ivory should prove lawful possession
2) Register or license all importers, wholesalers, and retailers dealing in ivory items
3) Establish nationwide procedure, especially in retail outlets, informing tourists and other non-nationals not to purchase ivory in cases where it is illegal for them to import it into their own home countries
4) Introduce recording and inspection procedures to enable government agencies to monitor the flow of ivory within the country

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Tags: CITES, elephants, Ivory, US, wildlife trade

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 29 2008 | By: baraza

This is for those who may have missed the  earlier post and would still like to participate in this months caption competition which was launched on the 25th of July. We have a great  selection of hilarious captions already proposed on Baraza - now’s your chance to add your crazy thoughts. To submit your idea for a caption leave a comment by 1st August. Enjoy!

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Tags: Baraza, Caption competition, Orangutans, wildlifedirect

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Category: Gorillas, elephants | Date: Jul 28 2008 | By: baraza

Many years ago I was called in my office at the Kenya Wildlife service and alerted to a truckload of elephants en-route to the airport. This sounded extremely suspicious and timely, we were preparing for the CITES conference in Nairobi and Kenya could not be be aiding in illegal trade of live elephants!

As I neared the roundabout there was a truck and coming out of it was a herd of elephants of all sizes, some were already all standing around on the grassy circle. Cars were moving at a snails pace as curious onlookers witnessed one of Kenya’s most renown artists, Kioko Mwitiki arranging a family of metal sculptured elephants.

Today the sight of this herd is one of the most memorable introductions to Kenya for visitors arriving at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

One of the ele’s

From a distance, the elephants look real but they are actually are made from scraps of junk metal scrap and other discarded items.

My friendship with Kioko started I found out that his life as a mechanic in Nakuru was transformed when he started to play with the scrap and a blow torch, to create the animals he loved to watch. A passerby bought his creatures and he made more, and he thought it was a great business until one day he saw his works going for astronomical prices in a shop window in Nairobi. He gave up the mechanics job and started life as an artist there and then. I was hugely impressed that he spends hours observing the animals he makes in order to capture their unique stance or behaviors. We commissioned him to create a menagerie of animals for the banquet at the start of the CITES conference, giving our event an amazing atmosphere - we had porcupines, giraffes, bushbabies, warthogs, and all manner of curious birds.

Today Kioko is world famous and sells his works globally, but despite the fame he’s still the cute guy that I met so many years ago. He does interesting pieces for conservation like this life sized whale named Mfalme (King in Kiswahili) for which he designed the frame, and local community members built the body using flip flops that had washed up on the Indian Ocean beach - thus supporting another ‘recycling art’ venture and raising awareenss about the dangers of wastes in the sea.

Here’s Mfalme under construction. He’s now at Haller Park in Mombasa where I used to work.

I visited Kioko at his house a couple of weeks ago to see if I could rent a gorilla for our “Looking for Miza” book launch - His garden is his show room and I wasn’t surprised to see the usual masses of animals. But at the entrance, on the driveway, stood a life sized metal Gorilla! Perfect. But not available. Turns out he was preparing to take a troop of gorillas to San Diego Zoo in USA and was doing the final touches!

If you are anywhere near San Diego Zoo, look out for Kioko Mwitiki who will be there for an entire month or more promoting his work and their gorilla exhibit. Here’s their promotional blurb…

Kioko Mwitiki, a renowned metal sculptor from Kenya, breathes life into recycled metal. These unique metal animal designs have been exhibited across East Africa, Europe, and now the San Diego Zoo! Recognized as a pioneer, Kioko doesn’t use any new iron sheets for his artwork; instead, he uses what most of us would consider rusty recyclables, from food cans to vehicle parts. Visit Kioko at Sun Bear Forest July 7–September 2.

If you get a chance, write to us and let us know how the exhibit is!

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Tags: African art, Kioko Mwitiki, metal Art, San Diego Zoo, wildlife

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 25 2008 | By: admin

Well, the results are in - we spent hours and hours going through the many many suggestions after 4 people responded to our Conservation Crazy competition :(, and it was close but we were eventually unanimously agreed that the winner is “Jim from Mass” who reported an interesting conservation initiative.

So, CONGRATULATIONS JIM - your prize is on the way (since you already have the book Owen and Mzee, we’re sending you an original photograph of the two signed by the photographer, Peter Greste!). We hope you enjoy it….from all of us at WildlifeDirect

NEW COMPETITION - GIVE THE PHOTO A CAPTION 

Remember this photo on the orangutan foundation blog? The competition here is for a caption - I’ll recognize the top 5 captions in a post (please God let there be at least 5!) and I’ll give prizes to the top 3 - with something yet to be decided but undoubtably something good!

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Tags: competition, Conservation Crazy, Orangutan

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 25 2008 | By: baraza

Join me in taking part in the Population Reference Bureau’s upcoming Discuss Online: “Environmental Change: What Are the Links With Migration?”

When: Wednesday, July 30, 2008, 1-2 p.m. (EDT)

 Who: Jason Bremner , program director for Population, Health, and Environment at the Population Reference Bureau.

Where: http://discuss.prb.org. You may submit questions in advance and during the discussion. A full transcript of the questions and answers will be posted after the discussion.

There are more international migrants today than ever before, with close to 200 million people living outside their country of birth. Internal migration, the movement of people within their own country, dwarfs international migration. Increasing numbers are refugees fleeing their homeland for another country, or are internally displaced within their own country. Human migration can have rapid and complex impacts on rural and urban environments and can pose great challenges to the conservation of the biodiversity and natural resources. At the same time, environmental changes, such as drought and rising sea levels, are expected to force millions more people to migrate.

On July 30, join Jason Bremner , program director for Population, Health, and Environment (PHE) at PRB, as he answers your questions about the relationships between migration and the environment, current trends, and future migrations related to environmental change. Jason has more than 10 years of experience in PHE programs and research and spent several years studying migration and environment links in the Galapagos and Amazon regions in Latin America .

http://discuss.prb.org

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Category: wildlife | Date: Jul 24 2008 | By: Maina

I read about the re-introduction of five cheetahs into the wild at the Cheetah Conservation Fund blog and it reminded me of an article I had read in the Conservation magazine of the Society for Conservation Biology (Vol 9 No.1, Jan-Mar 2008). This particular article took me on a journey of the Lago (Lake) Guri archipelago in east-central Venezuela. For the record, the Lago Guri is the result of the construction of a mammoth hydroelectric dam at the confluence of the Orinoco and Caroní rivers in 1986 and the resultant flooding upstream. The Lago Guri has an expansive matrix of hilltop islands some as little as half-an-acre to 700-ha tracts of land.

So how does this tie in with predators? Simple, in the article, written by William Stolzenburd, one ecologist, John Terborgh, had come up with the theory that top predators were “the irreplaceable forces holding everything together”. Terborgh was not convinced that the modern extinction crisis was as a result of habitats shrinking or their fragmentation. He had observed that in the absence of top predators, the prey would “run amok, with cascades of local extinctions and ecological convulsions in their wake”. Terborgh had boldly declared this theory to his peers in his 1988 essay titled “The Big Things That Run the World” but he so badly needed to prove it.

When he learned of the Lago Guri in 1990, he found what he wanted: a place with islands small enough not to support any large predators. He started his experiment in 1993, by which time, the surviving species at Guri had ballooned to scary proportions. The resident howler monkeys for example, finding themselves without their natural predators, had multiplied and browsed their favorite trees bare. Now they were starving. The trees were fighting back by producing leaves with high concentrations of toxins but the monkeys were too hungry to notice. They would eat only to vomit a few minutes later.

Terborgh was advancing towards proving his theory, and, in a disturbing light, disapproving the island biogeography theory which calculates a ratio to the effect that the smaller and more isolated the island (or forest patch, etc.) the smaller the number of species it can support. According to this theory - proposed by Robert H MacArthur and Edward O Wilson way back in 1963 - fragmentation is the main culprit of extinction and biodiversity loss.

Now, my friend Dino introduced me to the writings of Edward O Wilson and, needless to say, I find Wilson very convincing. But if Terbogh is right, then we, the conservation conscious (and students of Wilson), must then start rethinking how we treat predators. As a matter of fact, we might have to rethink conservation all together.

While am not saying that Terborgh is right and Wilson is wrong (after almost half-a-century), all i am saying is that every species has its place in the whole scheme. Ecosystems are complex. For instance, the reason why there are no predators in the monkeys territory that i spoke of above is because the island is too small to harbor a large predator that can control the population of the monkeys. Therefore, fragmentation led to the absence of predators and the entire system is now collapsing.

Still, the role of the predator is important, and the recent introduction of these five cats into the wild by CCF could help the NamibRand Nature Reserve where they were re-introduced. It would be interesting to find out how these cheetahs fare and how the ecosystem health is affected.

Finally, I need to commend all our bloggers who are working with predators and to encourage them to take good care of our predators. If Terborgh is right, you will have saved the wild as we know it.

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Tags: cheetahs, conservation, ecology, howler monkeys, predators

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Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 23 2008 | By: baraza

I was recently confronted by a really unimaginable concept, that green is actually brown!

If “green” means protecting the environment and conserving natural resources, then economic growth is fundamentally “brown.” 

So, when we buy organic products, recycled paper and plastics and when we think we are being green, we’re actually being brown which sounds pretty dirty to me!

The Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy has been aggressively trying to win endorsement from conservationists around the USA. Part of their argument against continuous economic growth and for a steady state economy - although they concede that they don’t know what this would actually look like.

Does anyone actually know how we can save the planet? Is is as fragile as we think? How should we individually behave? It’s a challenge isn’t it? Should we stop in our tracks today? Can we? Is it in our nature to do so? Is this the solution for the future of our blue planet?

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Tags: conservation, Green, steady state

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Category: Alaska, Climate change, National Parks and protected areas, Oil Exploration, Polar Bears, wildlife | Date: Jul 23 2008 | By: baraza

I was under the impression that there was already too much pressure on the poles and surrounding due to Climate Change so who and where the idea to drill holes and extract oil came from I do not understand. The driving force must be capital off-course and keeping a super economy ahead of the world economic game or is it just one mans inability to comprehend the importance of the environment and wildlife. George.W.Bush favoured the exploration in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), despite studies that showed that oil development would only reduce Americas dependence on imports slightly and lower oil prices by less that 50 cents a barrel.

As many of you may be aware seven oil companies had been granted permission to establish oil refineries in a remote part of Alaska called Chukchi and Beaufort Seas after rights of drilling in the region were auctioned for $2.6 billion by the government. This just happens to be critical habitat for Polar Bears, Whales and other artic species that are already so vulnerable to the effects of global warming.

Despite the negative impacts that endangered polar bears already face from the presence of the oil companies, the US Fish and Wildlife Services issued regulations that in cases of accidental harassment or disturbance by the oil companies towards the polar bears will be allowed, so long as there are no injuries or incidents do not lead to death of the animals.

Where did such immunity for the oil companies come from? Did an incident of such characteristics take place that they had to come up with a regulation to mitigate for ‘problems’ to the oil companies or is this something that is going to happen as a result of an activity they will carry out? I can’t quite get my head around this. So if i have got this straight then, if at any point the oil companies activities cause the disturbance of mating or breeding rituals or cause indirect alterations to polar bear behaviour which do not inflict any physical injury or cause direct death to the bears then it’s ok??? So for instance if the noise of drilling prevents females from mating and the population declines as a result of no births within the 5 year span of this ridiculous regulation then the companies will not be held responsible?

Does anybody have any answers for me?

Personally I don’t think this has been thought out very carefully and it seems to me that the oil companies have been given a green light to do as they please. A deliberate incident can be made to appear accidental if you catch my drift.

Blog by Masumi Gudka.
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Category: Lions, Uncategorized | Date: Jul 22 2008 | By: baraza

Lions! Even though I’ve known Will Travers for years, it took us awhile to get him blogging with us. If you haven’t seen the Born Free Blog yet then you’ve missed a lot. Today the significance of what his family and the Adamson’s have done for lions really dawned on me. I have to thank Sheryl who has a great blog and Christine for this link showing Christian the Harrods lion cub that went back to the wild and still remembered his original owners. I know you will totally adore this clip because it’s completely true.

This is so central to my own personal story. At age 17 I had completed highschool and was forced into secretarial college - the logic being that if all else failed (ie. bad grades preventing me from getting to college) I could at least be as secretary - Oh Yay! My friend and I absconded one day to listen to scientific talks at the National Museums of Kenya about Kora- the home of George Adamson and Christian, Elsa etc. That was the last day we attended secretarial college and the first day of freedom!

We were completely mesmerized with the scientists, so infatuated with the idea of spending time in the bush, but at 17 we had absolutely no clue. So, even though it was totally out of character, I approached Richard Leakey, the Director of the Museum, and told him that I wanted to work for George Adamson. Back then I wanted to be a wildlife ranger and had no concept of the dangers in that part of our country.

Leakey gave me great advice but didn’t let me go to the bush for 3 years - by then I had a bachelors degree and I’ve never looked back. Like so many people who care about wildlife, the Born Free film and books really struck a chord with me. I regret that I never met George, but I’m really happy that Will Travers and his team keeps the Born Free message burning.

Though the video seems so outdated, the issues are just as critical as ever, lions are on the brink of extinction and we need to do everything to save every last individual. That means saving Dolo, a captive Ethiopian lion, check it out here

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