News Aggregator

In this issue of Wildlife News Roundup, we find out about the effects rising carbon dioxide levels have on large marine life, the northward expansion of the range of European...

During the bison mating season, male bison produce loud, low-frequency bellows. These bellows are most often used when one male challenges another and may enable rival bulls to determine which...

Geckos (Family Gekkonidae) are a group of small lizards that possess a remarkable ability to climb smooth, vertical surfaces with speed and ease. This impressive talent hinges on their specially...

The new Clouds Mountain Gorilla Lodge is perched on a narrow ridge adjacent to the vast Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda. The lodge is the centerpiece – but not the only piece – of an array of business ventures recently developed by the Nkuringo community through the direction and support of AWF and International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP).

With its proximity to Bwindi, which is home to half of the world’s remaining mountain gorillas, Nkuringo faced the problem of gorillas leaving the park and feeding on their crops. Yet they had a unique opportunity as well: they could benefit from gorilla tourism and other conservation-related enterprises.

In 2004, AWF through IGCP helped the 30,000 member community form the Nkuringo Conservation Development Foundation (NCDF) to catalyze community development projects. In essence, NCDF has created a fair platform for community members to share benefits of the lodge and also form an association to create their own enterprises.

Chairman of the Nkuringo Conservaiton Development Foundation at the new Clouds ecolodge in Uganda.

Just down the road from Clouds lodge is the Nkuringo Women’s Handicraft Group, a small shop where women make and sell their traditional handcrafted baskets and decorations. Just next door is the shop for a youth wood carver’s group. Both groups have received training by AWF/IGCP to improve quality so that they can tap into international markets. Beekeepers and traditional healers are also active in the community under the umbrella of NCDF.

Me with a couple ladies from the Nkurungo Artisans group. Their baskets are amazing!

Me with a couple ladies from the Nkuringo Artisans group. Their baskets are amazing!

Some of these micro enterprises have been woven into the tourism experience. A visitor to the Clouds lodge can take the guided Community Walk and see the enterprises at work.

A portion of visitor fees at the Clouds lodge goes back to the community through NCDF. The money goes to community projects like education, roads, water supply, agricultural and health projects.

Where people and gorillas meet: the Nkuringo community borders Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Where people and gorillas meet: the Nkuringo community borders Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

These smaller satellite enterprises help local entrepreneurs tap into the growing conservation-based tourism and diversify the opportunities for community members to generate income and play an active role in conservation.

Wilmington, Del. - The red knot could join the extinct dodo bird if it doesn't get help soon. According to a report released today by the Endangered Species Coalition, red knots have landed on the top 10 list of species most in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act.

I managed to capture another leopard last Wednesday, December 10th. On that morning I went out with the tracking team including Eckson Ndlovu, Johnson Mhlanga, Sipps Maswanganyi, and Glass Marimane. When we got to the first trap Eckson, Johnson and yours truly stepped out of the vehicle to go and check if the trap had caught anything.

We walked for less than ten steps and suddenly Eckson jumped up in front of me with his hands raised and pointing in the direction of the trap “Xhi khomile!” meaning “it caught!”

We stopped walking and looked at the cage that was roughly 30 metres away from us and saw an extremely beautiful male leopard pacing to and fro in the cage. There would be no running for me this time, I was not alone. Instead I kept my cool and pretended that I had done it a thousand times before. That was of course a lie because inside my heart was racing like an excited hamster and the little voice in my head was singing all sorts of happy songs.

Everybody around me was extremely excited. I could smell their energy in the air, it was beautiful. Imagine five grown men in a car, all of them smiling. That’s the perfect world I one day want to live in.

I then got hold of the vets to come and help us out. They said they would arrive in two hours. We then went back to do some tracking and check the other cages.

We managed to track the collared leopard and headed back to the lodge to find Dr Peter Buss waiting for us. We got all the equipment ready and headed for the trapped leopard. Getting there I realised that it was one of the leopards that I had captured on camera before. A big young male probably four or five years old with a pink nose still. He looked perfect and he finished all the meat in the cage. Surprisingly he was more leopard than the collared one.

Dormicum did not have a big effect on him. He looked like he was ready to bite someone’s head off. Peter, Jacques (Camera man) and I went up to the cage and asked every one to stay behind the bushes, out of sight. I had to create a diversion by walking past the leopard while Peter would dart him from the blind side. That didn’t take long and in a few minutes he was out.

When I walked past the leopard in the cage I saw something that made my heart sink with great sadness. It was like a dark cloud coming over me. The leopard had a big wound on the neck. The wound went all around and there was a wire deep inside the neck.

Treating the leopard's wound from the snare.

Treating the leopard’s wound from the snare.

It was a snare; the ugly head of snaring is haunting me. “Not again,” I thought. After we had lowered the leopard to the ground we all came to see how brutal snares are. According to Peter, had we not caught this animal in three to four weeks he would be dead. That’s because the snare would keep tightening until it got to the windpipe and that would deal the leopard a fatal blow. Finding the snare wound also meant another thing… there would be no collaring!

Sad as I was I drew comfort in the thought that we saved a leopard’s life that day.

After everyone had left I stayed with the leopard until he woke up. Due to Dormicum in the meat he slept for the whole day. The sun was blazing that day. I sat there with him and when he woke up I was there. He snarled at me and tried to get up but he failed and fell asleep again. When he woke up for the second time I was still there. He snarled again and gave a warning growl and tried to run away. He ended up at the next shade and passed out again.

Voices in my head:
1.    This is clearly not a morning leopard;
2.    The telepathic connection exercise will not work;
3.    He wants to eat you Nakedi, do you want to go pet him?*
4.    Or maybe play the game, “Poke the sleeping leopard and run”*;
5.    He looks like he feels offended; and most importantly
6.    What are you going to do about Mozambique

When he eventually woke up he snarled and growled one more time. I said: “Okay, Okay, grumpy! You’ve made your point,” He went up the mountain and went in to a cave. That is when I headed back to the lodge holding the last thought.

Removing the snare.

Removing the snare.

*Please note that of course I am not serious about these two points. A leopard is one of the most dangerous animals in the wild. It is equipped with all the equipment and technique to kill a fully grown man within seconds…. So please give respect where it is due!

A scathing new report from the Interior Department's Inspector General provides new details of the extent to which Julie MacDonald, a former Interior Department official manipulated decisions made under the Endangered Species Act, to the benefit of developers and the detriment of threatened and endangered wildlife.

I was browsing Flickr this morning and came across a bunch of wildlife photos that are just terrific. Among my favorites is a photo of pair of sally lightfoot crabs....

Every once in a while you run into someone with so much energy that you find yourself wishing you could plug something into them to tap a bit of that excess power. On a dark, cloudy December afternoon, I spoke to Frank Asbeck, the chairman of SolarWorld and dubbed the “Sonnenkoenig” (Sun King) by a leading newspaper in his native Germany for turning an idea (mass use of photovoltaic) into a multi-billion euro corporation with 2,500 employees — in little over a decade.

Asbeck, 49, easily the most entertaining chief executive I’ve met in Germany, lit up the room with a 90-minute surge of ideas, witty comments and untempered optimism about solar power — a delightful respite from the economic doom and gloom of the current era.

But what especially interested me about him was his trip a day earlier to the Vatican, where he donated 2,400 photovoltaic panels worth 1.2 million euros that will produce enough electricity for the equivalent of 100 households (300 Megawatt hours) each year. So I asked: “Did you donate the solar panels to the Vatican because:

A) you’re a good guy
B) it was an advertising gimmick for solar power in general or
C) it was an advertising gimmick for SolarWorld.”

Asbeck answered: “First of all, I am a good person. And, secondly, we’re glad to do advertising in general for solar power because it’s a good thing and, thirdly, we did it as a gesture of thanks for a bit of inspiration I got from Pope John Paul II six years ago.”

Asbeck explained that the original idea to cover the 5,000-square metre roof of the Vatican’s Papal audience hall next to St. Peter’s Cathedral came in 2002 when he presented Pope John Paul with a sample solar cell made from sand (raw silicone) in the course of a general audience. “I showed him a solar cell and mentioned that we were able to produce energy from sand and sun,” Asbeck said, smiling at the fond memory. “And he said to me ‘God can do everything’. That gave me tremendous motivation to think more deeply about this photovoltaic technology and that we could be doing a whole lot more with it than we were. So as a small gesture of gratitude for that inspiration we installed the beautiful solar system.”

It all sounded very sincere from this extraordinarily energetic character. But, in this day and age, I still found myself wondering if his motives were truly genuine or not. What do you think?

The Bush administration is using its waning days to finalize regulations that undermine safeguards for wildlife and natural resources and to build a barrier against Congressional and public challenges to these regulatory changes, according to testimony delivered to Congress on Thursday.

Testimony by Jamie Rappaport Clark before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming's hearing investigating last-minute Bush energy and environment rulemakings. Her testimony covers the Endangered Species Act, regulation changes, oil shale issues, Utah oil and gas leases, polar bear listing and wolf delisting.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced today that it will deny the polar bear the appropriate and necessary protections of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Defenders has provided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with notice that the agency violated the Endangered Species Act with the issuance of the rule accompanying the federal listing of the polar bear as threatened on May 15, 2008.

Rushing to put in place changes it failed to secure in the past eight years, the Bush administration has finalized new Endangered Species Act (ESA) regulations today, cutting huge holes in the safety net that protects animals and plants in danger of becoming extinct.

A coalition of national environmental groups today urged the Office of Management and Budget to stop finalizing rules that would significantly weaken bedrock environmental protections that the agency classifies as not "economically significant."

Federal Register notice about the final special rule from USFWS under section 4(d) of the Endangered Species Act in which the Bush administration blocks needed protections for polar bears.