Horseshoe crabs, rescued Trenton cats & more

Last month was the time when red knots (birds that feed on horseshoe crab eggs) would usually have feasted along the Delaware Bay.  But our crazy spring temperatures kept water temps too cold for the crabs to come ashore to lay their eggs. 

That forced countless red knots to continue their migration from South America to Arctic Canada without the fuel of that especially nutritious food.  Lacking their ideal nourishment and possibly heading north later than usual, the birds’ breeding success was in some jeopardy.  

Those water temperatures below the 59 degrees the crabs needed was only one obstacle these “evolutionarily ancient invertebrates” must survive.  Described as “one of the oldest and most tenacious species on earth,” horseshoe crabs have endured since 200 million years before the dinosaurs.

Then came humans, always full of ideas for how to use non-human animals for their own benefit.  First, it was using horseshoe crabs as commercial fishing bait, but overharvesting the crabs so threatened the species that limits and embargoes were put in place.

For some time now, a component of horseshoe crab blood is used to test injectable medicines, including vaccines, for bacterial contaminants.  And in case you wondered, yes, there is an alternative animal-free test widely used in Europe, which would free up more crabs and benefit the birds dependent on their eggs.  

However, the US organization that decides which test will be used just called for more info on the proposed substitute test.  So still more years of using horseshoe crab blood will be necessary.  Worse, the myriad tests of vaccines against the coronavirus, and the billions of doses involved to find the right vaccine, then use it, puts horseshoe crabs once again (needlessly) in demand.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/science/coronavirus-vaccine-horseshoe-crabs.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/science/migration-red-knot.html?campaign_id=34&emc=edit_sc_20200616&instance_id=19433&nl=science-times&regi_id=20760274&segment_id=31022&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd

How’re they doing?

A kind St. Hubert’s rep has updated the story of the 47 cats rescued in Trenton.  (See 2 May posts.) Some have already been adopted, while others are now ready for new loving homes while temporarily living with fosters.  The website  (https://www.sthuberts.org/adoptable-animals-madison) showed Chatty (M), Benni (F) and Crookie (M) when I last looked.

Some of the Trenton cats are still being treated for medical issues, including several eye surgeries and removal of nasal polyps.  Easel Animal Rescue (Ewing, Mercer County) took in 10 of them.

2 painful stories

First, China seems to be doing to jaguars in South America what that country already did to elephants and other wildlife in Africa.  That is, with the move-in of Chinese companies, the demand for animal parts (jaguar canines for necklaces!) begins, along with poaching.  Tigers are ever more scarce, so . . . look out, jaguars!  

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/science/jaguars-poaching-china.html?campaign_id=34&emc=edit_sc_20200616&instance_id=19433&nl=science-times&regi_id=20760274&segment_id=31022&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd 

And second, cruel and soulless traits clearly run in some families.  It’s now been made much easier to kill bear cubs and wolf pups in Alaska.  Often writing on the environment and politics, this columnist shows appropriate disgust at “soft-handed predators masquerading in manliness,” and their enablers. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/opinion/trump-jr.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20200619&instance_id=19536&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=20760274&segment_id=31340&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd

                                     NYTimes pic

Aw-w-w-w-w, too bad!

Two cruel events involving animals have been hit hard by the pandemic, today’s NYTimes reports.  Hundreds of Western towns have cancelled their annual professional rodeos.  And, already battered by animal rights activists, the bulk of Spain's March-October bullfighting season has been called off.   (Huzzah!) 

         The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry

 When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
Who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
Waiting with their light.  For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.   

                    
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Till next month . . . !  

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