Expo showcases wildlife conservation in Africa

I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry, and unhappy like we do. --Cesar Chavez, farm worker and activist (1927-1993)

Grey crowned crane

What an animal-rich day today has been: wake up to our beloved felines, Harry and Billy (who had been trying to wake us up!), think about a blog post on animals, then around 11 am, tune in to the Wildlife Conservation Network’s third virtual Expo. 

As occurred before, today’s expo featured reports from around the world about how wildlife is being helped and protected by committed scientists and local people who are ever more sensitized and highly trained to care for animals in their environment.   

And now, taking a break by taking a brisk (I hope) walk, when I’m bound to encounter various animals – sure, the dogs being walked and the “bird-watching” outdoor cats, after a meal, but  possibly groundhogs, squirrels, birds and maybe even a deer besides.  (Everyone must have been napping, except for a few birds chirping and a distant woodpecker.)

Since much of today was devoted to African animals, I’ll share some things I learned from Expo.

Rhino

**    “Wildlife crime” is the greatest cause of danger to rhinos. The illegal trade in their horns – believed (falsely) to have medicinal value – threatens them everywhere.

**    Large animals, like rhinos and elephants, need space/land.  But as human populations grow, the accompanying development shrinks land for large animals hampering normal animal life and migration.

**    Pangolins continue to be the world’s most trafficked mammal.  One video showed a poacher starting to pick up a pangolin, who curled into a ball – virtually its only means of “defense” and with that, the balled-up animal was put into the poacher’s sack.  (Last year, an estimated 1 million pangolins – widely eaten as a delicacy and whose scales are used in traditional medicine -- were killed by  

Pangolin on 'defense'

poachers.)

**    Bonobos, sharing 98% of our DNA, are one of 2 great apes who are our closest relatives.  Unlike more aggressive chimps, our other great ape-kin, bonobos do not kill, truly living to “make love, not war.”  In their Congo rain forest habitat, they are often hunted as “bush meat” by local people who need money.

**    Grey-crowned cranes are making a comeback in Rwanda, thanks to efforts to remind inhabitants of their traditional affinity with these unusual-looking and beautiful birds.  Once, the cranes had been totems and models for the people, but over time, they were captured and fenced in to be used as live garden ornaments (!).  At one point, Rwanda had more captive cranes than  wild ones.  Now those numbers have been reversed; there are no captive cranes in Rwanda.

**    Elephants were also on today’s agenda, of course.  Because there was so much to see and hear about them, I’ll save all that till the next blog post.    

Bonobo

**    Footage throughout today’s Expo showed ongoing efforts to engage local people (often starting with children, who will inherit the country and its fauna) and grow their interest in animals and conservation.  Among other benefits, a country’s healthy, valued wildlife can attract tourists and improve the economy.

The Wildlife Conservation Network (wildnet.org), behind today’s event, works “to put communities in the forefront of protecting wildlife.”  Which was why local people who have become deeply involved in conserving their area animals were often co-speakers and/or leaders in what’s happening there.

But that’s not all for now.  You must see a Dodo video-story featuring an up-and-coming scary African animal who decided it was time to terrorize some tourists.   https://tinyurl.com/z8w9kyu7

#

You’re welcome to comment at 1moreonce.blogspot.com

Cat Camp highlights, measuring by animals & a bat to like

                                                                                    A clouder                                                     MSN pic                                      

When some kids go to camp, they soon beg their parents to let them leave.  But not when they attend “Cat Camp”!   

Last Saturday’s “spring forward @ home!” edition of Jackson Galaxy’s Cat Camp attracted hundreds of attendees, who from the get-go were excited to be there.  The multi-hour virtual event offered so much to see and learn, with cat specialists and cats of all kinds.  

(Rest easy if you’re only hearing about this now; it’s all still online for you: www.catcamp.com.)

Having heard about it for years without knowing its principles, I was especially interested in “clicker training,” and sure enough, the discussion and demo of this art convinced me to “just start,” as one speaker urged.

The clicker training session also attracted Sandra Obi, aka the “cat lady” with the Animal Protection League of NJ, and more formally, that organization’s TNR director.  It’s basically positive reinforcement training, she notes; it rewards the behavior you want so that the cat will repeat it.   

Domino

Every click (signaling the cat has done something desired) must be followed by a reward, which can be consumables (food), activities (pets) or play time (toys).  It’s best to train before a meal (3 a day are recommended), when the cat’s hungry, and it’s important to keep the edible treats “tiny” – remember: a cat’s stomach is about the size of a ping pong ball! 

Clicker training’s a bonding occasion for cat and owner as well as a confidence-builder.

Kitten crisis & fostering

“Kitten Lady” Hannah Shaw detailed her “full-circle strategy” to stop the kitten crisis at its roots.  With an estimated 80% of all US kittens born outdoors, it’s crucial to track rescue kittens back to where they came from, then possibly find more kittens and the mom too. 

Finally, if possible, re-unite moms with their kits to assure the best care, and spay the moms.  These steps can go along way toward stopping the annual kitten production at that site.   

A session on fostering picked up on that mom-kitten combo.  For new fosters, a good place to start is with a mom and her kittens.  That way, the mom takes care of feeding and training her own offspring – and she’s usually the best one for the job.

. . . And there’s so-o-o-o-o much more useful info from the Cat Camp sessions!  You can check the afternoon’s schedule at catcamp.com and take it from there.   

Everybody’s doing it!

Remember the sign using animals to remind people to stay 6 feet away from others?  It showed the required social distance space to be about 2 Great Danes or 7 Chihuahuas long.  Pretty neat.

At a nearby farm, I found another distance chart and of course it used a different animal.  (If you’ve

seen any others, please take a pic or tell us about them.)

Nudge Gov. Murphy

The trunk fighting bill (S975), which would ban a horrific practice, passed both houses and is now on Governor Murphy’s desk.

He has till May 10 to act on the bill --  sign it or not act on it and it becomes law; or veto it.  Please urge him to sign the bill into law.  

**    E-mail Governor Murphy constituent.relations@NJ.Gov

**    Message Governor Murphy through Twitter (@GovMurphy) and Instagram (@GovMurphy).

 We can do this for dogs!  

 Bats about ‘em

Sneaking back into print about bats, who some readers now automatically associate with viruses in general and Covid-19 in particular.  Not true!  There are myriad good bats in our world, and some who are even kinda cute.  Try this video from the Dodo (www.thedodo.com) and see:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFH0nj0evy0&t=12s

Ailurophobia

If you’d like to comment, please go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com

  

After “depressing” content, some (temporary) lightness

                                                                                              WTAH pic

A comment on my last blog post referred to part of it as “so depressing.”  That wasn’t the first time, either.  (I’ve known people who say the same thing about newspapers: who wants depressing news, why not happy news?) 

Consider how much you would read of “AnimalUPBeat” or how long you’d stay with the “Good News Gazette.”  I think you’d soon be casting around for something else to do.

Besides, those of you who read about animals must also care about animals, yet good news gives you nothing to do but nod your head and smile . . . briefly, before you decide to take a nap or have some chocolate or . . . . ?!  Right?   

But for a big change, this post will be all positive, because certainly, positive things do happen in the animal world.  Like this “Good Morning” short from today’s Dodo (www.thedodo.com):

Dolphin moms whistle nonstop while giving birth to their babies for the cutest reason. They do it so the baby can learn his mom’s signature whistle and always be able to find her, even if there are lots of other dolphins around. 

Animal images can be positive too.  Here’s one of many photo examples from my files:

Big cat, tiny mouse & raw meat

I didn’t note the source of that odd-couple image, although the caption assured me that the mouse stayed safe.

Other kinds of animal good news include the people who come upon a litter of abandoned kittens or puppies – and take them all home, with a vet check-up on the way.  

I’ve often mentioned how much I love the daily Dodo video-stories, sometimes starting with one or more before breakfast, and saving one for right before bed.  The animal world can be a happy place, and the people who sometimes help assure it are proof that – despite the daily headlines -- many humans are good.

Like the guy who took up walking many dogs so he could spend more time with his own dog, added to the pack. https://tinyurl.com/33jssnkz

Time for another happy image – this one from a Dodo story about a contented, diverse family.  (I don’t know about you, but I’m still amazed when I encounter proof of interspecies friendships.  That kind of thing always temps me to introduce our cats, Harry and Billy, to nice neighborhood dogs and even more exotic animals.) 

Nuka & family

The happy video linked below tells about a squirrel who asked to be adopted by a nice couple who readily agreed to his request.  From the sound and look of it, Peanut is destined to live happily ever after. https://tinyurl.com/c6ne7z9k

OK, readers, how are you doing so far with all this good news and positive action?  Are you speed-reading by now, hoping for either (1) more of the same or (2) something less sunny?  Tell the truth!

Here’s one of my favorite Dodo pet stories of all time: a kitten so cute and a sweet dog so long-suffering and both of them ultimately loving each other so much . . . complete with great music! https://tinyurl.com/yv84ue56

There's more positivism to come.  Maybe we need more reminders about happy animal interactions and those between animals and people.  I’ll aim to include an upbeat animal photo, video, story, poem or . . . (?) in future, in response to the “lighten up!” comments some of you have posted. 

But I warn you: the focus of every post will continue to be news about animals around the world, and how they need us to help make their lives safer and better.

Brutus & Debbie

#

 

Your comments might include “good news” images or stories you especially like.  Please share them at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.

Pandemic possibilities are all around us -- & growing

                     Coughing gorillas                           NYTimes image
                      

They’re unpleasant subjects – coronavirus, bats, wet markets – but as animal advocates, we need to know about them, to protect ourselves, our pets and the animal world at large.  With the pandemic surging again and vaccines becoming a political/cultural issue, it’s likely we’ll have Covid-19 with us (and in us) for the indefinite future. 

So we need to be armed with knowledge.  It should include (1) the importance of stamping out wet markets everywhere (yes, they’re here too); (2) the frightening situation of humans infecting animals, instead of the reverse; (3) the overarching need for us to bond with all animals and stop the trafficking and consumption of wild animals.

“We are animals, too,” David Quammen reminds us at the end of his latest column on infections and pandemics.  Reporting on coughing gorillas in a California zoo, he illustrates that what goes around comes around.  Tests showed that “SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, was among

Silverback gorilla

them [the gorillas].”

The most ominous part: “It could have come only from a person,” most likely an infected but asymptomatic zookeeper.

Instead of animals transmitting the virus to humans (a zoonosis), which is how the current pandemic began, those infected coughing gorillas signaled transmission from a human to a nonhuman animal.  That this human virus can now spill over to great apes (as well as domestic and big cats, minks and other animals) is fearful because of the potential for its being passed back and forth among animals including humans, and spreading widely.  Read it and weep: https://tinyurl.com/nr52nh3p

Just sign here

Great news: Passed by both NJ’s assembly and senate, the trunk-fighting bill now moves to Gov. Phil Murphy’s desk.  If he signs it or doesn’t act on it within 45 days, it becomes law.

Please ask the governor to sign this legislation into law.  Phone him at 609-292-6000.  And/or message Gov. Murphy through Twitter (@GovMurphy) and Instagram (@GovMurphy).

Allocations for animals

Yes, “the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021” is primarily designed to address continuing issues stemming from the pandemic.  But the government’s new relief law also helps animals, reports the Humane Society of the US.   

Bonobo

“Acknowledging the close link between public health and animal welfare, Congress also allocated millions of dollars to examine and mitigate risks posed by animals susceptible to contracting and spreading diseases, many [animals] of which are currently farmed and traded in local and global exploitative industries.  This includes the legal wildlife trade, wildlife trafficking and mink fur farms.”

Thanks, HSUS, for lobbying on behalf of animals!

Moving a giraffe

How would you move a giraffe from here to there?  Or a few giraffes?

Because poaching in Uganda has severely reduced its giraffe population, a once-yearly “translocation” of giraffes takes place.  It’s a tricky operation to safely move these tall, long-necked animals, as illustrated in a graphic NYTimes story.

Giraffe

Three straps (one on the neck and two on the sides) and 11 people make it happen once a giraffe is gently tranquilized, fitted with ear plugs and blindfolded.  Led to a specially designed trailer, up to 15 giraffes are moved to a livestock enclosure and ultimately to a truck bound for their new home site(s). 

And you thought moving that piano would be tough!  

https://tinyurl.com/yr5fnfwj

April animal events

In the last post, I promoted “Cat Camp,” the Saturday, April 10 session all about felines from Jackson Galaxy & Co.

This time, I’m recommending the Wildlife Conservation Network’s (virtual) Expo, on Saturday, April 24, 11 am-4:30 pm.  These events highlight conservationists in the field all over the world, emphasizing what local people are doing for the animals who share the land with them: all quite exotic -- and heartening.

To learn more about this expo and to register, go to www.wcnexpo.org.

Painted dogs

   #

Please comment at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.

Legislation to act on, a book to read & cat camp to attend

Two Assembly bills that would be horrible for animals are on their way to full Assembly votes, and activists should know about them and take action against them by contacting Assembly members.  

Already released from the agriculture committee, A1581 may soon be posted for a vote in the full Assembly.  It would give agricultural interests and their department at Rutgers the power to “develop plans and recommendations” to kill invasive species – read whitetail deer, geese and other animals.  The resulting plans would then be presented to the Legislature.

Also reported out of the agriculture committee and now heading to the appropriations committee, A4843 would require the state Department of Environmental Protection to write a “stewardship” plan for any forest of 25 acres or more acquired by the state for conservation or recreation.

Bobwhite quail

Based on past practice, “Stewardship” can be assumed to mean commercial logging, restocking hunted birds, and above all, killing deer.  Therefore, A4843 would require drawing up killing and logging plans for lands acquired for recreation or conservation.

It’s crucial that we let Assembly members know our strong objections to these bills.

End trunk fighting!

Activists’ efforts seem to be paying off in the effort to make trunk fighting a felony offense in NJ.  What a good cause to be working for: eliminating the depraved “fun” practice of locking two dogs in a vehicle trunk, then driving around until the (deadly) silence indicates their fight is over.

The trunk fighting bill, A3231, is likely to be considered for a Supplemental Board List for this Thursday, March 25, allowing the Assembly to vote on it at that time.

Please click here to send an email to the full Assembly:  https://actionnetwork.org/letters/march-22-2021-action-alert-trunk-fighting-a3231?clear_id=true&source=email

(NOTE: After you click the link above, the website should direct you to enter your address OR tell you, "We've got your address, [YOUR name]." If you don't see YOUR name, please follow the instructions. This is critically important.)

If you get an error message or prefer to send your email outside that system, please click here and follow the instructions:  www.lohvnj.org/2021-AssemblyEmails.htm

Wholly engrossing: Half Broke

This memoir by horse trainer Ginger Gaffney focuses on her year-plus at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, where she had agreed to help retrain the troubled horses there.  But her job also entails retraining the resident livestock crew in charge of those horses.

On her first visit to the ranch, Ginger demonstrates her expertise in a tour de force with the wild horses – and wins over the prisoners in the group, who recognize immediately that she knows what she’s doing.  Doesn’t that sound like a movie plot: the outsider who effortlessly shows her savvy, dispels doubt and wins believers?

But much as the horses have been traumatized, many of Ginger’s “believers” are also shattered from longtime drug and alcohol addictions, and other offenses.  Knowing intimately how to read horses (much better than she can read people, including herself), Ginger shares her equine insights with the crew, who gain both competence and confidence. 

Occasional chapters flash back to Ginger’s difficult earlier life and her reasons for trusting horses more than humans, while the current story follows her progress toward trusting people too.

For happy campers  

Save the date, Saturday, April 10, for “Cat Camp: Spring Forward,” a big day for learning and fun.  Hosted by Jackson Galaxy, of “My Cat from Hell” fame, the winter holiday version, also necessarily at home, was an event well worth “attending,” with guest speaker-specialists, projects, cat crafts and safe socializing.  For the spring edition, go to catcamp.com for details and registration.

#

To comment, please visit 1moreonce.blogspot.com.

‘Prescriptive burns’ affect wildlife while improving habitat

“Prescriptive burn” – what does that mean?  It’s something I first heard about last month, then checked into it and got some questions answered.  Now that I’ve seen it happen (from a distance), I thought you might want to know about it too.

The purpose of prescribed burning is for the Mercer County Park Commission to manage invasive species and promote a habitat with more native plants.  It involves fire engines at the ready, with trained Forest Fire Service (FFS) officials and their team managing the process, as well as the widespread smell and noise of a fire and heavy smoke rising over burning, blackening fields. 

Cycling last summer, I saw a deer standing neck-high in grasses near the middle of one such field.  At first I thought it was one of those metal animals some farmers use as deterrents, but no, this was a real-deal deer.

House Sparrow

That particular field is flat and black today, with no protective foliage to offer.

My Q&A exchange with the county’s director of stewardship yielded information worth knowing.  I’ve condensed and paraphrased below.

Q – What about the animal inhabitants of the areas to be burned?  What’s being done to assure they escape the burn and find habitat afterwards?

A – Research indicates that wildlife experience a high survival rate.  The fire is loud and typically moves at a pace allowing wildlife occupants time to hide in a burrow, run or fly off – before moving back quite quickly, since mammal tunnels and burrows are not ruined during a burn.  Many acres of grassland nearby won’t be burned this year and spring growth of plants in burned areas is greater than non-burned locations.

Q – Is there any kind of noise/horn/siren that could be sounded before the burn starts to alert animals or even start them moving out?

Field Mouse

A – Beyond the FFS vehicles and crew that are actively moving about the area before igniting, and the loud sounds the fire itself then creates, we don’t have a method to preemptively warn wildlife.  

Q --  You mentioned a “high survival rate,” which means that not all wildlife survive the burn.  I’d like wildlife to realize the same outcome as would be the goal for human lives.  Why not?

A – Wildlife managers have used fire since the 1930s to improve habitat conditions.  The overall impact on wildlife populations is minimal.  Fire will kill a few individuals but not entire populations.  And the long-term effects of prescribed fire on our wildlife populations is beneficial, from insects to small mammals and birds.  https://tinyurl.com/npmekxdd

Wrong baby elephant!

In my last post I used a photo of a young elephant from my file because I couldn’t get a still pic of Endoto from the terrific video I linked to.  But you’ve got to see Endoto himself, as he gradually bonds with other orphan baby elephants.  So here’s that link again -- please watch the video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyYjokvbuzY

Definitely the list to avoid

Coyote

A graphic recently shared by the Humane Society of the US shows the six most trophy hunted animals in the US – a list that no survival-oriented animal wants to be  part of!  At the top: black bears.  At the bottom: foxes.  And in between: coyotes, mountain lions, wolves, bobcats.    

Not all six are found in New Jersey, but four are, and they’re watched over by the Animal Protection League of NJ: black bears, coyotes, bobcats and foxes.

Just one more reason to support the Animal Protection League of  New Jersey (www.aplnj.org), the organization that for more than 35 years has advocated and fought for animal welfare here.

 

#

 

To comment, please go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.

Selected short subjects – all animals, natch!

                         Red fox                       Gary Lehman pic          

Looking down from the dentist’s big windows at a picturesque forested area with a stream running through it, I thought, as usual, how beautifully bucolic the scene was . . . until a staffer mentioned foxes being sighted there recently “and now we don’t see squirrels anymore.”  I hid my surprise.

A little later and not far away, on a lightly wooded road near a canal, I drove past a hawk standing by the side of the road over . . . a large bird?  A squirrel?  Or some other critter s/he had recently killed.  More surprise.

Why surprise?  Because I’ve used tunnel vision (and thinking) on animals: I like foxes and squirrels and I’m interested in hawks – but I’d given no thought to who eats whom.  Hearing about the foxes, my first instinct was to deny foxes would eat squirrels.  Wrong!  

Nor had I thought about what squirrels eat (besides the predictable acorns and the salt-free peanuts I offer).  They’re described as “opportunistic omnivores,” which means they’re also predators themselves, albeit un-fussy ones.

Same with hawks, whose presence overhead, I should have remembered, sends birds and other animals into hiding.

Whether I like it or not, Tennyson’s line, “Nature red in tooth and nail,” is all too true.

Cave art stars a pig

Way long ago, when people (whatever variety of them) still painted in caves, someone immortalized the animal who may be humans’ most popular meat: the pig.  Discovered on an Indonesian island in a remote cave reachable only during the dry season (!), the painting’s estimated to be at least 45,500 years old – possibly the world’s oldest cave art.

The ancient pig picture resembles the warty pig, which still lives on the island.  However, the real mystery is who made the painting: Homo sapiens or a now extinct human species?  No traces of the artist(s) have been found, but while the search continues, the art work is quickly deteriorating.  https://tinyurl.com/2j7ewyce

Can’t beat ’em? Eat ’em.

Familiar to Caribbean locals and visitors, iguanas have gradually moved to Florida, over-populating the southern part of the state.  This has prompted a range of reactions to the reptiles, from capturing them for pets to selling them for food.

One man, basking in his title of “Iguana King,” says he and his friends “don’t club anymore,” choosing instead to hunt for iguanas and sell them for various (not-good-for-iguanas) purposes.  A short film about their lifestyle shows the “hunters” partying while grilling “South Florida tree chickens.” 

Sweet, huh?  People keep finding new ways to disturb wildlife as if it exists solely for human consideration – and consumption.  

https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/610942/iguana-king/

Bald eagles rebound

In 1982, only one pair of bald eagles was known to be nesting in NJ.  Today, the birds – decimated by human use of DDT until a government ban in 1972—are nesting in all of New Jersey’s 21 counties, the Times of Trenton reports.

Improved water quality that boosts fish populations and the discovery that eagles aren’t as fussy about habitat as once thought have also contributed to their growing numbers here.  Though half their nests are in southern counties near the Delaware Bay, the overall total of more than 200 nesting pairs is a major milestone in bald eagle recovery.

Orphan elephant needs others like him

Finally, here’s a wonderful video I came across while roaming around elephant territory online.  It’s about a dear orphan baby elephant who must win the acceptance of older orphans so he can join their herd to return to the wild. 

For a few years, I’ve seen and read nothing but good about David Sheldrick operations for animals, and this one is a stellar example.  You will be charmed and quickly start rooting for Endoto during 13 minutes of what I think is elephant bliss.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyYjokvbuzY

 

#

 

You’re invited to comment at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.