Tiger makes royal entry as green activists walk the talk
Sutapa Mukkerjee Kolkata
Thursday, November 26, 2009
The Sun is slowly setting down. There is a nip in the air and the birds are rushing back home. Down in the jungle roads thousands of villagers and urban folks are rushing to get back to their houses. The boatmen are hollering out to rush them, “Shono tomra tara tari esho, ayi jongol shondheyer porey toder jonno theek noye” (Hey guys these jungles are not safe after dark, so hurry). The masked men (few dancers wearing masks like tigers) jig a little and try imitating tigers as they hop into the boats.
And in the midst of this din a huge tiger appears right on the bank, yet maintaining distance in the jungle. He stares at the masked men and growls (read chuckles) at their attempt to emulate his brethrens. Then patiently the big cat waits till all the men, women and children safely board the boats. As the king of the Sunderbans, the royal host, he walks alongside the crowd as they sail for home.
Sometimes he stands, crouches or just stares lazily at them. Now and then he takes a break looks at the crowd as if to say, “Just hang on there and let me mark my territory”, does this bit and strides again. At the end moves into the dark and deep green while the boat moves far into the river and the tiger turns around and gives a loud roar.
This is not an extract from any folklore. Instead it is a page from the six-day campaign, ‘Walk for the tiger’ organised by Sanctuary Asia that took place in the Sunderbans a couple of weeks ago. “The idea was to educate the locals to live with the tigers with a greater sense of tolerance,” says Joydeep Kundu, coordinator Sanctuary Asia. He adds, “The people here should be trained not to get panicky if a tiger enters their village and take the right action thereon, that is inform officials and volunteers from the forest department.”
Anil Mistry from his experience (poacher to conservationist) says, “Till date over tea the locals reminiscence the ‘tiger’s three-hour walk’ they had witnessed. Personally, I have never experienced a similar case before. My friends here have started believing that this was one ominous way to convey their (tigers’) gratitude towards us mortals.” Anil says after the ‘Bagher jonne hatun’ (Walk for the tiger) campaign reaching such a dramatic climax, people are almost fully convinced that if the tigers survive, forests will grow, if the forests grow, environmental hazards will be less and people will be safer”. The message that the ‘walk’ was ordained to send out, has been well assimilated by all at Sunderbans.
The day one of this campaign, the first of its kind, started at a local fair where the ice-breaking ceremony was performed by villagers who were hired for the walk and had come all the way from Bhanjanagar hamlet in Ganjam district in South east Odisha. These dancers (all men) wear striped tawny clothing and masks akin to tigers as they dance and recite tales in favour of the wild cat. The ‘tiger dance’ has a superstitious connotation attached to it: When evil falls on any family, a ‘tiger dance’ takes away all calamities and the family lives happily thereon. The religious connotation still exists in India; Mother Goddess is oft referred as ‘sherawali’ — the one who rides on a tiger. Hence the tiger too needs to be revered.
The ‘Bahger Jonno Hatun’ took place over six days wherein villagers from most islands joined the walk. The walk was organised by several NGOs and voluntary workers. Says Col Shakti Banerjee, honorary director, Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), “The purpose of ‘Bagher Jonne hatun,’ has been well fulfilled; the idea was to convey to the people here that the tigers are the true dwellers of the islands and need to be protected.”
Most often due to sudden attacks from the big-cats, it is indeed difficult to convince the villagers that they can handle the tiger with some wisdom and tolerance. The villagers here depend solely on fishery and forest products for their livelihood. Most often when while engrossed in their work, they stray into the fringe areas and become a victim to a tiger.
That this walk will be fruitful, no one doubts especially the people who have worked for tigers for decades together. Says conversationalist Belinda Wright, Executive Director, Wildlife Protection Society of India, “I missed watching a tiger walk with so many people for such a long time…it is so unusual, never have I heard something close to it before. I take it as a divine blessing from the tigers to help conserve our environment.”
http://www.dailypioneer.com/218464/Tiger-makes-royal-entry-as-green-activists-walk-the-talk.html
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
139 tigers killed in India since 2006: Minister
139 tigers killed in India since 2006: Minister
24 Nov 2009, 1943 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: As many as 139 tigers have been killed in India's forests since 2006, minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday. The latest estimate of tigers in the wild in India is a critically low 1,411.
In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Ramesh informed the upper house of parliament that 22 tigers were killed in 2006, 30 in 2007, 28 in 2008 and 59 by Nov 13 this year.
The minister said Rs.154.59 crore ($33 million) had been released by the Indian government this fiscal in efforts to protect the tiger.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Environment/Flora-Fauna/139-tigers-killed-in-India-since-2006-Minister-/articleshow/5264956.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
24 Nov 2009, 1943 hrs IST, IANS
NEW DELHI: As many as 139 tigers have been killed in India's forests since 2006, minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday. The latest estimate of tigers in the wild in India is a critically low 1,411.
In response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Ramesh informed the upper house of parliament that 22 tigers were killed in 2006, 30 in 2007, 28 in 2008 and 59 by Nov 13 this year.
The minister said Rs.154.59 crore ($33 million) had been released by the Indian government this fiscal in efforts to protect the tiger.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Environment/Flora-Fauna/139-tigers-killed-in-India-since-2006-Minister-/articleshow/5264956.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Three arrested with tiger skin
Three arrested with tiger skin
25 Nov 2009, 1716 hrs IST, IANS
LUCKNOW: Three people were arrested with a tiger skin near the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district, officials said on Wednesday.
Raees Ahmad, Mohammad Naseem and Banarsi, all in their early 40s, were caught from Tulsipur area, some 200 km from Lucknow, in a joint operation by the police and the district forest officials.
Divisional forest officer V.P. Singh said: "The three have confessed that they work for a wildlife poaching racket that operates from Nepal and that the tiger was killed in a forest area in Nepal."
Police said the three men were involved in the racket for over seven years.
"They admitted they had clients abroad. They revealed they were taking the tiger skin to sell it to a leather merchant in Kanpur," a police officer said.
Tiger skins are sold as luxury items and are used for clothes and home décor, according to forest officials.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Flora-Fauna/Three-arrested-with-tiger-skin-/articleshow/5268309.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
25 Nov 2009, 1716 hrs IST, IANS
LUCKNOW: Three people were arrested with a tiger skin near the India-Nepal border in Uttar Pradesh's Balrampur district, officials said on Wednesday.
Raees Ahmad, Mohammad Naseem and Banarsi, all in their early 40s, were caught from Tulsipur area, some 200 km from Lucknow, in a joint operation by the police and the district forest officials.
Divisional forest officer V.P. Singh said: "The three have confessed that they work for a wildlife poaching racket that operates from Nepal and that the tiger was killed in a forest area in Nepal."
Police said the three men were involved in the racket for over seven years.
"They admitted they had clients abroad. They revealed they were taking the tiger skin to sell it to a leather merchant in Kanpur," a police officer said.
Tiger skins are sold as luxury items and are used for clothes and home décor, according to forest officials.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Flora-Fauna/Three-arrested-with-tiger-skin-/articleshow/5268309.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Article on Canada lynx in Nature Conservancy magazine
Nature Conservancy Magazine: Winter 2009
Ghost Cat
A historic land deal will protect forests for the rare Canada lynx - if researchers can find it.
By Scott McMillion
Photographs by Ted Wood
Trap Junkies
March: Trapping a wild lynx is a fairly straightforward piece of business. You can do it with some chicken wire and plywood, some plastic pipe and a haunch of road-killed deer. A couple old compact discs to throw sparkle or, better yet, some bird wings strung to a tree, can lure the cat to the bait. Males in particular often return several times to the same box trap, tempted by the venison. “Trap junkies,” the field crews call them. Once there, they eat voraciously, scraping the bones clean.
If the animal is a recapture, the researchers will release it immediately. As often as not, it will take a few steps, then turn to watch them rig the trap for another cat.
But today you find a fresh capture, and as you approach, it crouches and snarls and gurgles and huffs, a deep-chest oratory of such diversity that it sounds almost like language. It twitches the tufts on its ears, snaps and expands the beard of fur around its neck, and licks its nose with a small pink tongue. So you hold still, waiting for the cat to relax and go silent, to turn its pale green eyes away. Then Zach Wallace, a field technician, delivers a sedative, reaching through the chicken wire with a jab stick, a contraption of wood dowels, plastic pipe and duct tape, with a hypodermic on the business end.
Once the cat falls asleep, Wallace and colleague Dustin Ranglack lift it gently from the trap to examine, weigh and measure it. They wrap it in a blanket to keep it warm, moisten its eyes with ointment, and fit a soft cap about its face to shield its eyes from the sunlight dancing off the snow.
You reach a bare hand into the thick fur to monitor the cat’s breathing and feel the dense muscles that let this animal, on occasion, take down a deer three times its size. You feel its drowsy heartbeat. You hear it snore. Wallace lifts its lips, checking the wear and tear on its teeth to estimate its age. He draws a vial of blood for genetic analysis, collars the cat with a radio transmitter and GPS device, and attaches an identification tag, punching a hole through the dense ear cartilage.
The process takes just a few minutes, and then the team returns the cat to the trap, where, after a half hour or so, it awakens, groggy.
When its legs stop wobbling, you lift the door. The cat steals into the woods, where it disappears like a wisp of smoke.
Ghost Cat
“I never get over it, every time I see a lynx,” says John Squires, a wildlife biologist for the Forest Service.
Squires has seen a lot of lynx. For more than a decade, he has headed up one of the most comprehensive lynx studies in the nation, based out of the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana. Now his research is at the center of a strategy to protect the cat and its forest in one of the biggest conservation deals in history — a joint project between The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) to purchase 310,000 acres of land from Plum Creek Timber Co. for $490 million.
Using data provided by land managers and scientists like Squires, the Conservancy and TPL set out to determine which Plum Creek properties faced the biggest threats from subdivision and held the highest value for wildlife here in the largest intact landscape in the continental United States — a place known as the Crown of the Continent.
Centered on the spine and foothills of the Rocky Mountains that stretch from Montana into Canada, the Crown is a vast place — at 10 million acres of forest and rock and meadow and wetland, it’s nearly five times the size of Yellowstone National Park. These lands and waters still contain the full complement of wildlife — grizzly bears and lynx, wolverines and moose, bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout — that they held when Lewis and Clark crossed the Rockies 200 years ago.
But locating a wild cat in such a vast, wild landscape is no mean feat. And this elusive feline, the “ghost cat” of the forest, earns its nickname fair and square.
The lynx has evolved to scrape a living from the dense boreal forests of North America, places where winter is the lean season, and it lasts a long time. Large males weigh up to 30 pounds, but have hairy feet the size of a 120-pound mountain lion. Those big mitts, combined with light bones and long legs, allow them to glide over deep snow, moving almost like a bird. Their mottled coloring lets them blend into dense forest — where they feed almost exclusively on snowshoe hares, stalking them through the woods or ambushing them from a hidden daybed, usually in a couple of hops.
Although lynx are common in Alaska and Canada, the species has a precarious foothold south of the Canadian border. In 2000, Lynx Canadensis was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and nobody knows just how many of the cats remain in the contiguous United States. Confirmed populations exist only in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming, and the cat was recently reintroduced into Colorado.
Squires began studying lynx in Montana in 1998, when Endangered Species Act protections for the lynx were being proposed and the Forest Service, which manages most lynx habitat in the American West, realized it had little information about the cats.
“Their basic ecology in the lower United States was unknown,” Squires says.
So he set about trying to determine how many of them persist in western Montana and precisely what kind of habitat they need.
Today, Squires estimates there are fewer than 300 lynx left in Montana. He stresses that this number is just an educated guess, but notes that it is the largest native population in the Lower 48, west of the Mississippi.
Every winter, Squires and his field technicians set traps for lynx, hoping to catch and radio-collar as many as they can. Each cat in the study wears a tiny GPS collar designed to detach after seven or eight months and send out a homing signal, so a field tech with a radio receiver can slog through the woods to find it. Once the device is retrieved, Squires plugs it into a computer that maps out every place the lynx has gone.
In the summer, researchers bushwhack into sites favored by lynx — as pinpointed by the GPS data — and analyze what they find. They set up grids, count and identify all the plants, and even count the droppings of snowshoe hares.
It’s difficult work, but it provides knowledge critical to the long-term survival of the species.
“It’s revolutionized our thinking about how these animals use the landscape,” Squires says.
“We let the lynx tell us what they’re using, and we get a very detailed picture of the forest composition and structure that lynx need,” he explains. “Then we try to extrapolate that into a vast landscape: What is lynx habitat, and how much is there?”
As it turns out, lynx have very specific habitat needs. They prefer what biologists call “dense horizontal cover.” In plain English, that means a mess, a thicket, a deep copse of trees and brush likely to harbor snowshoe hares. While those places aren’t hard to find, they’re scattered and patchy because much of that habitat has for decades been managed for timber production, which means a lot of chainsaws and roads.
“They just have such a narrow tolerance,” says Squires.
While lynx are tough and efficient hunters, their needs are precise: high-elevation forests with thick stands of mixed conifers, usually spruce and fir.
A narrow habitat tolerance and an ever-narrowing habitat make for a grim combination.
Into the Deadfall
May: Come May, the toughest fieldwork of the year begins. Spring in northwest Montana means winter and summer scuffle for dominance, so you pack shorts and layers of fleece. You load up the rain gear and stocking hat and snow gaiters and sunscreen.
At first light, you roll out of your tent and scarf some cold cereal. Long before the sun begins to throw any real warmth, you start postholing through the rotting snow, trying to find the female lynx you trapped and collared a couple months earlier.
Even though the cat you seek wears a radio collar and you’ve got a receiver, a GPS and compass, you still might not find her. Even with good maps and good skills and a good set of legs under you. Even with snowmobiles and mountain bikes and four-wheel-drive trucks. Even with an airplane helping out. Snowshoes just in case. Even with all of this gear, it won’t be easy to find your cat — let alone her den.
When, after a few miles, you get to the spot where the airplane last found the cat, you dive into the deadfall, scrambling through the kind of mess a weasel with any sense would avoid. You slither under logs and you climb over them. You find yourself 8 feet above the ground, balanced on a thin log, listening to the beeping receiver and trying to be as quiet as you can be, hoping you won’t bust a leg, hoping the cat won’t bounce too soon from this slop, hoping that she’ll stick, that she won’t run away and spell failure, tell you you’ve wasted a full day’s sweat and toil.
But you don’t even want her, really. Rather, you want her to lead you to her most precious things: her kittens. You need to count them and examine them while they’re still too small to run away, and you won’t get that job done if you blow this stalk, which is easy to do.
Even if you do everything perfectly, you can still fail. Radio signals hop around in holes and hollows. The topography itself seems part of the conspiracy. But it’s what the cat likes, this tangle of deadwood. It’s torture for you. But it’s heaven for her and her young.
Yet even with two receivers trying to triangulate a position, more often than not, the day ends with no kittens.
The weather can foul you up, too. Pulling 2-week-old kittens — tiny, helpless and still sightless — from a den in bad weather, even for a few minutes, could risk their lives. If you find a den during a rainstorm, you mark the spot and make plans to return when the sun is warm.
And you hope the mother hasn’t moved the kittens to a new den in the meantime.
They do that sometimes.
Intact Yet Fragmented
“These animals live in this country and know it so much better than we ever could,” says field technician Zach Wallace. “And they’re trying to hide something in it. In the winter, we set traps where we want to trap. [In the spring,] they place their dens where they want to have them.”
But after more than a decade of studying these cats, Squires and his team have gained a pretty good handle on where lynx live, travel and place their dens. The cats are territorial but sometimes go on walkabouts for scores of miles.
Squires has cataloged about 68,000 locations that his radio-collared cats have visited, primarily around Seeley Lake, the Garnet Mountains and the Purcell range near Yaak, Montana — lands owned mostly by the Forest Service and corporate timber companies.
The maps Squires generated with this GPS data indicate that lynx prefer dense forests, and they try to avoid heavily logged areas, particularly in the winter.
And the region’s long history of logging means that the Crown of the Continent, though one of the largest intact ecosystems on the planet, is also badly fragmented, especially along its edges, where lynx like to stake their turf.
This landscape was splintered in the 19th century, when the federal government offered up millions of acres of land to railroad companies willing to lay track through Montana and other Rocky Mountain states. Congress hoped, correctly, that jump-starting transportation infrastructure would speed the settlement of the West, so it granted every other square mile of land — up to 20 miles out from proposed railroad tracks — to the railroads. The government retained the squares in between, and eventually much of the public land became national forests. But the railroads sold much of their property to timber companies or, in the case of Plum Creek, spun off timber subsidiaries, perpetuating the checkerboard pattern of ownership that endures today.
Though many of Montana’s forests are now pockmarked by square-mile timber cuts, these scraped areas aren’t altogether a bad thing, as far as lynx are concerned. After a parcel has been logged, trees remaining around the edges become vulnerable to windthrow, which creates the dense downfall that lynx seek out for their dens. And 20 or 30 years after harvest, most cuts have grown enough trees to give hares a place to hide, which means lynx have a place to hunt them. But once the plots contain enough vegetation to attract cats again, loggers tend to go in and lop away some of the trees so that remaining ones more quickly grow to commercial sizes. It’s a good way to run a timber company, but it’s hard on lynx.
“Precommercial thinning of spruce-fir forest is detrimental to lynx habitat,” says Squires.
Still, the big threat facing the cats these days comes not from logging but from the residential development of timberland.
For decades, Plum Creek Timber Co. ran its vast holdings largely as a tree farm, producing wood and paper for a growing nation. But in recent years, as the world has discovered western Montana and other scenic parts of the country, the value of the land has skyrocketed: Timberland that once had been valued at a few hundred dollars an acre has been selling as recreational or vacation-home property for as much as $10,000 an acre.
In response, Plum Creek — the largest private landowner in America, with holdings of about 1.2 million acres in western Montana — began shifting its business model from lumber production to real estate, which too often means permanent fragmentation of habitat.
Industrial timberlands can recover, given time, says Brian Martin, director of science for the Conservancy in Montana. But subdivision doesn’t go away.
“Permanent fragmentation is what you get,” he says.
The Nature Conservancy, which has been working in the region for 30 years, took notice.
“If Plum Creek sold that land for development, decades of conservation work in the Crown of the Continent would be for naught,” says Jamie Williams, Northern Rockies initiative director for the Conservancy. “We had to try to come together now or forever lose those opportunities.”
With the specter of backcountry sprawl looming over western Montana, the Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land knew it was time for a major play.
“We knew the lands we absolutely wanted in there,” says Martin. “The science guided us to the most critical parcels.”
Using Squires’ lynx data as a guide, the Conservancy has begun to consolidate the patchwork ownership that is tattering the Crown. Under a 2008 Farm Bill provision authored by Sen. Max Baucus, the federal government provided $250 million for the project, laying the foundation for the Conservancy to permanently protect 310,000 acres of forest from development. The purchase will be complete in December 2010, and over the next decade much of the land will be transferred to the Forest Service and state government agencies to manage.
The purchase will not only bolster the local economy through sustainable logging projects and allow continued access to the land for the recreating public, it will also help link the Crown of the Continent to other vast wildernesses in central Idaho and Canada, providing habitat and dispersal routes for lynx, grizzly bears and wolverines — creatures that need wide swaths of undeveloped land to keep themselves fed, fit and genetically diverse.
Rare fish will benefit, too. The purchases include more than 600 miles of streams that, under conservation management, will continue to offer cold, clean water for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
The deal means that, for the first time in more than a century, the Plum Creek and national forestlands can be managed as a block, says Caroline Byrd, the western Montana program director for the Conservancy.
Though the logging scars are easy to see, they’ll mend in time. And for 310,000 acres, the prospect of subdivision is off the table.
“It has been harvested, but it remains a forest,” Byrd says. “And it will remain a forest for the long term. It won’t be homes or resorts like so much of the world has become.”
Snowshoe hares need forests — and lynx need those hares.
“In regions where snowshoe hares are superabundant, lynx can be superfecund,” Squires says. “They really pour on the kittens.”
Even in good times, life is tough for a lynx. They die from poachers and turn up as roadkill. Mountain lions kill them, given a chance. Some starve every winter when the hare population sinks.
But with more of the dense forests that hares prefer, and without the prospect of more homes and roads and dogs and people in the woods, the lynx has a better shot at survival.
A Rare Find
May: The search continues. You’re trying to locate six-ounce kittens in millions of tons of downed timber — a couple needles in a rugged mess of a haystack.
You’ve scrambled up mountains, sloshed through streams, punched your way through snowdrifts. You’ve even found tracks melting on a logging road and flowing to the far Pacific. But they’re the wrong kind: wolf, not lynx.
Suddenly the walkie-talkie crackles. Squires is 200 yards away, invisible in the deadfall: He has spotted the mother, hoisting herself over a log.
Her offspring must be close at hand. Squires scours the snarl of fallen wood, eyes peeled. The den could be anywhere in this clotted tangle, but he knows what to look for: a patch of ground free of snow, sheltered from the rain by one log or a dozen, someplace hidden, secret. He scans for a snagged hair, maybe a faint pathway carved by the mother’s travels, a footprint. He could step over the silent kittens and never know it. There’s just so much deadfall.
You take off after him.
Before you get far, another crackle from the walkie-talkie: Success, he says. He has kittens.
And you forget about the barked shins, the sweat and the ticks and the cold feet and thirst. You’ve got kittens. Squires cradles them in his hands, two tiny examples of one of the rarest animals in the Lower 48. They yawn and show their new white teeth. They stretch and extend their wee claws, tools they will need someday, after their eyes open.
The mother has bolted, but Squires says she hasn’t gone far. Not once in the study’s 11 years has a mother abandoned the kittens he and his crews have examined.
Still, he takes no chances. The handlers wear rubber gloves and work quickly. Squires pricks a tufted ear on each kitten and takes the drops of blood he needs for DNA sampling.
With sweat and persistence, all six of the female cats in Squires’ study will be tracked down this spring, their kittens counted — a new generation born into a newly secure landscape.
Squires returns the kittens to their den, squirming waist deep in the snug tangle of deadfall.
Their mother found this place. So did you, somehow.
You’re leaving now.
She’ll be back soon.
http://www.nature.org/magazine/winter2009/features/art30070.html
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Ghost Cat
A historic land deal will protect forests for the rare Canada lynx - if researchers can find it.
By Scott McMillion
Photographs by Ted Wood
Trap Junkies
March: Trapping a wild lynx is a fairly straightforward piece of business. You can do it with some chicken wire and plywood, some plastic pipe and a haunch of road-killed deer. A couple old compact discs to throw sparkle or, better yet, some bird wings strung to a tree, can lure the cat to the bait. Males in particular often return several times to the same box trap, tempted by the venison. “Trap junkies,” the field crews call them. Once there, they eat voraciously, scraping the bones clean.
If the animal is a recapture, the researchers will release it immediately. As often as not, it will take a few steps, then turn to watch them rig the trap for another cat.
But today you find a fresh capture, and as you approach, it crouches and snarls and gurgles and huffs, a deep-chest oratory of such diversity that it sounds almost like language. It twitches the tufts on its ears, snaps and expands the beard of fur around its neck, and licks its nose with a small pink tongue. So you hold still, waiting for the cat to relax and go silent, to turn its pale green eyes away. Then Zach Wallace, a field technician, delivers a sedative, reaching through the chicken wire with a jab stick, a contraption of wood dowels, plastic pipe and duct tape, with a hypodermic on the business end.
Once the cat falls asleep, Wallace and colleague Dustin Ranglack lift it gently from the trap to examine, weigh and measure it. They wrap it in a blanket to keep it warm, moisten its eyes with ointment, and fit a soft cap about its face to shield its eyes from the sunlight dancing off the snow.
You reach a bare hand into the thick fur to monitor the cat’s breathing and feel the dense muscles that let this animal, on occasion, take down a deer three times its size. You feel its drowsy heartbeat. You hear it snore. Wallace lifts its lips, checking the wear and tear on its teeth to estimate its age. He draws a vial of blood for genetic analysis, collars the cat with a radio transmitter and GPS device, and attaches an identification tag, punching a hole through the dense ear cartilage.
The process takes just a few minutes, and then the team returns the cat to the trap, where, after a half hour or so, it awakens, groggy.
When its legs stop wobbling, you lift the door. The cat steals into the woods, where it disappears like a wisp of smoke.
Ghost Cat
“I never get over it, every time I see a lynx,” says John Squires, a wildlife biologist for the Forest Service.
Squires has seen a lot of lynx. For more than a decade, he has headed up one of the most comprehensive lynx studies in the nation, based out of the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Montana. Now his research is at the center of a strategy to protect the cat and its forest in one of the biggest conservation deals in history — a joint project between The Nature Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land (TPL) to purchase 310,000 acres of land from Plum Creek Timber Co. for $490 million.
Using data provided by land managers and scientists like Squires, the Conservancy and TPL set out to determine which Plum Creek properties faced the biggest threats from subdivision and held the highest value for wildlife here in the largest intact landscape in the continental United States — a place known as the Crown of the Continent.
Centered on the spine and foothills of the Rocky Mountains that stretch from Montana into Canada, the Crown is a vast place — at 10 million acres of forest and rock and meadow and wetland, it’s nearly five times the size of Yellowstone National Park. These lands and waters still contain the full complement of wildlife — grizzly bears and lynx, wolverines and moose, bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout — that they held when Lewis and Clark crossed the Rockies 200 years ago.
But locating a wild cat in such a vast, wild landscape is no mean feat. And this elusive feline, the “ghost cat” of the forest, earns its nickname fair and square.
The lynx has evolved to scrape a living from the dense boreal forests of North America, places where winter is the lean season, and it lasts a long time. Large males weigh up to 30 pounds, but have hairy feet the size of a 120-pound mountain lion. Those big mitts, combined with light bones and long legs, allow them to glide over deep snow, moving almost like a bird. Their mottled coloring lets them blend into dense forest — where they feed almost exclusively on snowshoe hares, stalking them through the woods or ambushing them from a hidden daybed, usually in a couple of hops.
Although lynx are common in Alaska and Canada, the species has a precarious foothold south of the Canadian border. In 2000, Lynx Canadensis was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, and nobody knows just how many of the cats remain in the contiguous United States. Confirmed populations exist only in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming, and the cat was recently reintroduced into Colorado.
Squires began studying lynx in Montana in 1998, when Endangered Species Act protections for the lynx were being proposed and the Forest Service, which manages most lynx habitat in the American West, realized it had little information about the cats.
“Their basic ecology in the lower United States was unknown,” Squires says.
So he set about trying to determine how many of them persist in western Montana and precisely what kind of habitat they need.
Today, Squires estimates there are fewer than 300 lynx left in Montana. He stresses that this number is just an educated guess, but notes that it is the largest native population in the Lower 48, west of the Mississippi.
Every winter, Squires and his field technicians set traps for lynx, hoping to catch and radio-collar as many as they can. Each cat in the study wears a tiny GPS collar designed to detach after seven or eight months and send out a homing signal, so a field tech with a radio receiver can slog through the woods to find it. Once the device is retrieved, Squires plugs it into a computer that maps out every place the lynx has gone.
In the summer, researchers bushwhack into sites favored by lynx — as pinpointed by the GPS data — and analyze what they find. They set up grids, count and identify all the plants, and even count the droppings of snowshoe hares.
It’s difficult work, but it provides knowledge critical to the long-term survival of the species.
“It’s revolutionized our thinking about how these animals use the landscape,” Squires says.
“We let the lynx tell us what they’re using, and we get a very detailed picture of the forest composition and structure that lynx need,” he explains. “Then we try to extrapolate that into a vast landscape: What is lynx habitat, and how much is there?”
As it turns out, lynx have very specific habitat needs. They prefer what biologists call “dense horizontal cover.” In plain English, that means a mess, a thicket, a deep copse of trees and brush likely to harbor snowshoe hares. While those places aren’t hard to find, they’re scattered and patchy because much of that habitat has for decades been managed for timber production, which means a lot of chainsaws and roads.
“They just have such a narrow tolerance,” says Squires.
While lynx are tough and efficient hunters, their needs are precise: high-elevation forests with thick stands of mixed conifers, usually spruce and fir.
A narrow habitat tolerance and an ever-narrowing habitat make for a grim combination.
Into the Deadfall
May: Come May, the toughest fieldwork of the year begins. Spring in northwest Montana means winter and summer scuffle for dominance, so you pack shorts and layers of fleece. You load up the rain gear and stocking hat and snow gaiters and sunscreen.
At first light, you roll out of your tent and scarf some cold cereal. Long before the sun begins to throw any real warmth, you start postholing through the rotting snow, trying to find the female lynx you trapped and collared a couple months earlier.
Even though the cat you seek wears a radio collar and you’ve got a receiver, a GPS and compass, you still might not find her. Even with good maps and good skills and a good set of legs under you. Even with snowmobiles and mountain bikes and four-wheel-drive trucks. Even with an airplane helping out. Snowshoes just in case. Even with all of this gear, it won’t be easy to find your cat — let alone her den.
When, after a few miles, you get to the spot where the airplane last found the cat, you dive into the deadfall, scrambling through the kind of mess a weasel with any sense would avoid. You slither under logs and you climb over them. You find yourself 8 feet above the ground, balanced on a thin log, listening to the beeping receiver and trying to be as quiet as you can be, hoping you won’t bust a leg, hoping the cat won’t bounce too soon from this slop, hoping that she’ll stick, that she won’t run away and spell failure, tell you you’ve wasted a full day’s sweat and toil.
But you don’t even want her, really. Rather, you want her to lead you to her most precious things: her kittens. You need to count them and examine them while they’re still too small to run away, and you won’t get that job done if you blow this stalk, which is easy to do.
Even if you do everything perfectly, you can still fail. Radio signals hop around in holes and hollows. The topography itself seems part of the conspiracy. But it’s what the cat likes, this tangle of deadwood. It’s torture for you. But it’s heaven for her and her young.
Yet even with two receivers trying to triangulate a position, more often than not, the day ends with no kittens.
The weather can foul you up, too. Pulling 2-week-old kittens — tiny, helpless and still sightless — from a den in bad weather, even for a few minutes, could risk their lives. If you find a den during a rainstorm, you mark the spot and make plans to return when the sun is warm.
And you hope the mother hasn’t moved the kittens to a new den in the meantime.
They do that sometimes.
Intact Yet Fragmented
“These animals live in this country and know it so much better than we ever could,” says field technician Zach Wallace. “And they’re trying to hide something in it. In the winter, we set traps where we want to trap. [In the spring,] they place their dens where they want to have them.”
But after more than a decade of studying these cats, Squires and his team have gained a pretty good handle on where lynx live, travel and place their dens. The cats are territorial but sometimes go on walkabouts for scores of miles.
Squires has cataloged about 68,000 locations that his radio-collared cats have visited, primarily around Seeley Lake, the Garnet Mountains and the Purcell range near Yaak, Montana — lands owned mostly by the Forest Service and corporate timber companies.
The maps Squires generated with this GPS data indicate that lynx prefer dense forests, and they try to avoid heavily logged areas, particularly in the winter.
And the region’s long history of logging means that the Crown of the Continent, though one of the largest intact ecosystems on the planet, is also badly fragmented, especially along its edges, where lynx like to stake their turf.
This landscape was splintered in the 19th century, when the federal government offered up millions of acres of land to railroad companies willing to lay track through Montana and other Rocky Mountain states. Congress hoped, correctly, that jump-starting transportation infrastructure would speed the settlement of the West, so it granted every other square mile of land — up to 20 miles out from proposed railroad tracks — to the railroads. The government retained the squares in between, and eventually much of the public land became national forests. But the railroads sold much of their property to timber companies or, in the case of Plum Creek, spun off timber subsidiaries, perpetuating the checkerboard pattern of ownership that endures today.
Though many of Montana’s forests are now pockmarked by square-mile timber cuts, these scraped areas aren’t altogether a bad thing, as far as lynx are concerned. After a parcel has been logged, trees remaining around the edges become vulnerable to windthrow, which creates the dense downfall that lynx seek out for their dens. And 20 or 30 years after harvest, most cuts have grown enough trees to give hares a place to hide, which means lynx have a place to hunt them. But once the plots contain enough vegetation to attract cats again, loggers tend to go in and lop away some of the trees so that remaining ones more quickly grow to commercial sizes. It’s a good way to run a timber company, but it’s hard on lynx.
“Precommercial thinning of spruce-fir forest is detrimental to lynx habitat,” says Squires.
Still, the big threat facing the cats these days comes not from logging but from the residential development of timberland.
For decades, Plum Creek Timber Co. ran its vast holdings largely as a tree farm, producing wood and paper for a growing nation. But in recent years, as the world has discovered western Montana and other scenic parts of the country, the value of the land has skyrocketed: Timberland that once had been valued at a few hundred dollars an acre has been selling as recreational or vacation-home property for as much as $10,000 an acre.
In response, Plum Creek — the largest private landowner in America, with holdings of about 1.2 million acres in western Montana — began shifting its business model from lumber production to real estate, which too often means permanent fragmentation of habitat.
Industrial timberlands can recover, given time, says Brian Martin, director of science for the Conservancy in Montana. But subdivision doesn’t go away.
“Permanent fragmentation is what you get,” he says.
The Nature Conservancy, which has been working in the region for 30 years, took notice.
“If Plum Creek sold that land for development, decades of conservation work in the Crown of the Continent would be for naught,” says Jamie Williams, Northern Rockies initiative director for the Conservancy. “We had to try to come together now or forever lose those opportunities.”
With the specter of backcountry sprawl looming over western Montana, the Conservancy and The Trust for Public Land knew it was time for a major play.
“We knew the lands we absolutely wanted in there,” says Martin. “The science guided us to the most critical parcels.”
Using Squires’ lynx data as a guide, the Conservancy has begun to consolidate the patchwork ownership that is tattering the Crown. Under a 2008 Farm Bill provision authored by Sen. Max Baucus, the federal government provided $250 million for the project, laying the foundation for the Conservancy to permanently protect 310,000 acres of forest from development. The purchase will be complete in December 2010, and over the next decade much of the land will be transferred to the Forest Service and state government agencies to manage.
The purchase will not only bolster the local economy through sustainable logging projects and allow continued access to the land for the recreating public, it will also help link the Crown of the Continent to other vast wildernesses in central Idaho and Canada, providing habitat and dispersal routes for lynx, grizzly bears and wolverines — creatures that need wide swaths of undeveloped land to keep themselves fed, fit and genetically diverse.
Rare fish will benefit, too. The purchases include more than 600 miles of streams that, under conservation management, will continue to offer cold, clean water for bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout.
The deal means that, for the first time in more than a century, the Plum Creek and national forestlands can be managed as a block, says Caroline Byrd, the western Montana program director for the Conservancy.
Though the logging scars are easy to see, they’ll mend in time. And for 310,000 acres, the prospect of subdivision is off the table.
“It has been harvested, but it remains a forest,” Byrd says. “And it will remain a forest for the long term. It won’t be homes or resorts like so much of the world has become.”
Snowshoe hares need forests — and lynx need those hares.
“In regions where snowshoe hares are superabundant, lynx can be superfecund,” Squires says. “They really pour on the kittens.”
Even in good times, life is tough for a lynx. They die from poachers and turn up as roadkill. Mountain lions kill them, given a chance. Some starve every winter when the hare population sinks.
But with more of the dense forests that hares prefer, and without the prospect of more homes and roads and dogs and people in the woods, the lynx has a better shot at survival.
A Rare Find
May: The search continues. You’re trying to locate six-ounce kittens in millions of tons of downed timber — a couple needles in a rugged mess of a haystack.
You’ve scrambled up mountains, sloshed through streams, punched your way through snowdrifts. You’ve even found tracks melting on a logging road and flowing to the far Pacific. But they’re the wrong kind: wolf, not lynx.
Suddenly the walkie-talkie crackles. Squires is 200 yards away, invisible in the deadfall: He has spotted the mother, hoisting herself over a log.
Her offspring must be close at hand. Squires scours the snarl of fallen wood, eyes peeled. The den could be anywhere in this clotted tangle, but he knows what to look for: a patch of ground free of snow, sheltered from the rain by one log or a dozen, someplace hidden, secret. He scans for a snagged hair, maybe a faint pathway carved by the mother’s travels, a footprint. He could step over the silent kittens and never know it. There’s just so much deadfall.
You take off after him.
Before you get far, another crackle from the walkie-talkie: Success, he says. He has kittens.
And you forget about the barked shins, the sweat and the ticks and the cold feet and thirst. You’ve got kittens. Squires cradles them in his hands, two tiny examples of one of the rarest animals in the Lower 48. They yawn and show their new white teeth. They stretch and extend their wee claws, tools they will need someday, after their eyes open.
The mother has bolted, but Squires says she hasn’t gone far. Not once in the study’s 11 years has a mother abandoned the kittens he and his crews have examined.
Still, he takes no chances. The handlers wear rubber gloves and work quickly. Squires pricks a tufted ear on each kitten and takes the drops of blood he needs for DNA sampling.
With sweat and persistence, all six of the female cats in Squires’ study will be tracked down this spring, their kittens counted — a new generation born into a newly secure landscape.
Squires returns the kittens to their den, squirming waist deep in the snug tangle of deadfall.
Their mother found this place. So did you, somehow.
You’re leaving now.
She’ll be back soon.
http://www.nature.org/magazine/winter2009/features/art30070.html
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Lethal Dose: Agents Poison Wildlife on Public Lands
It can take minutes or even hours, but no matter how quickly it comes, the death is never painless. The body is seized with violent convulsions; the eyes roll back in the head. And amid all the thrashing, there's the constant, desperate gasping for breath. This is death by the lethal toxin Compound 1080 -- one of two poisons that kill some 13,000 animals every year on our public lands, including ecologically important predators like coyotes, wolves, bears, bobcats and foxes. And believe it or not, American taxpayers are footing a big part of the bill.
Wildlife Services, a division of the Department of Agriculture, spends $100 million annually to kill millions of wild animals. As part of that program, toxic poisons are strewn across public wildlands by government agents. They deploy two of the world's most lethal toxins, Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide, intending to kill would-be predators that might threaten livestock. NRDC is fighting to put an end to this deadly misuse of our tax dollars.
"The government shouldn't be doing the dirty work of agribusiness, especially on our own public lands," said Louisa Willcox, NRDC senior wildlife advocate. "These poisons are indiscriminate. They'll kill any animal that comes in contact with them." That includes hundreds of nontarget animals, as well as people's pets. In Oregon, Amanda Wood Kingsley was exposed to sodium cyanide after her dog Ruby stumbled upon a government-set trap. It took a full 15 minutes for Ruby to die as Amanda desperately tried to save her life. Ruby had tripped an M-44, a spring-loaded device that shoots a pellet of sodium cyanide directly into the animal's mouth. The EPA has rated both sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 in Toxicity Category I, the highest degree of acute toxicity. Compound 1080 is so lethal that a single teaspoonful can kill 100 people. Many other countries have banned its use.
"We're paying to poison our own public lands, even though there are effective alternatives for controlling predators that are far less harmful," said Willcox. "Our public forests and lands exist for our enjoyment and the preservation of nature. They should be safe places for wildlife, our pets and our families." Tens of thousands of NRDC Members and online activists have taken action and petitioned Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to stop this needless killing.
http://www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature6.asp
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Wildlife Services, a division of the Department of Agriculture, spends $100 million annually to kill millions of wild animals. As part of that program, toxic poisons are strewn across public wildlands by government agents. They deploy two of the world's most lethal toxins, Compound 1080 and sodium cyanide, intending to kill would-be predators that might threaten livestock. NRDC is fighting to put an end to this deadly misuse of our tax dollars.
"The government shouldn't be doing the dirty work of agribusiness, especially on our own public lands," said Louisa Willcox, NRDC senior wildlife advocate. "These poisons are indiscriminate. They'll kill any animal that comes in contact with them." That includes hundreds of nontarget animals, as well as people's pets. In Oregon, Amanda Wood Kingsley was exposed to sodium cyanide after her dog Ruby stumbled upon a government-set trap. It took a full 15 minutes for Ruby to die as Amanda desperately tried to save her life. Ruby had tripped an M-44, a spring-loaded device that shoots a pellet of sodium cyanide directly into the animal's mouth. The EPA has rated both sodium cyanide and Compound 1080 in Toxicity Category I, the highest degree of acute toxicity. Compound 1080 is so lethal that a single teaspoonful can kill 100 people. Many other countries have banned its use.
"We're paying to poison our own public lands, even though there are effective alternatives for controlling predators that are far less harmful," said Willcox. "Our public forests and lands exist for our enjoyment and the preservation of nature. They should be safe places for wildlife, our pets and our families." Tens of thousands of NRDC Members and online activists have taken action and petitioned Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to stop this needless killing.
http://www.nrdc.org/naturesvoice/feature6.asp
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Data Show a Decline for Tigers in Russia
Data Show a Decline for Tigers in Russia
November 24, 2009
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
MOSCOW — Amid the torrent of bad environmental news in recent years, the story of Amur tigers in Russia offered a flicker of optimism. Nearly extinct half a century ago, the tigers rebounded when the government imposed protections, and their numbers remained more or less stable for much of the last decade.
But new data suggest that Russia’s tiger population is once again declining.
Results from an annual survey conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, an environmental group based in New York, along with several Russian organizations, has shown a 41 percent drop in the Amur tiger population from its average over the past 12 years.
“The most dramatic decline happened in this last winter, 2009, where on our survey units there were dramatically fewer tigers than any of the past years,” said Dale G. Miquelle, head of the society’s Russia Far East program. “It’s time to react.”
Mr. Miquelle cautioned that random factors like heavy snows last winter when the survey was conducted could have interfered with the data. Nevertheless, he said, the evidence points to a steady drop in the past several years.
The decline of the Amur tiger in Russia is especially vexing because the animal had been considered such a conservation success story. Tiger populations in China, India and elsewhere have been rapidly dropping for years, and many species are extinct. “We’re down to the low thousands of tigers around the word, and that’s really very few indeed,” said John Robinson, an executive vice president at the society.
In Russia, the Amur tiger was once found as far as Lake Baikal in central Siberia, some 2,000 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, and in China and North Korea. Before the recent survey, an estimated 400 to 500 animals were thought to be confined to the Primorsky and Khabarovksy regions in the southern portion of what is called Russia’s Far East.
This sparsely populated area was considered the animal’s last bastion of survival. In the last three years, the government has opened three national parks with more than a million acres in tiger territory. Nevertheless, the recent survey noted declining populations in all five protected zones, indicating that the animals were no more secure inside the parks.
Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, has expressed dismay over the decreasing numbers of Amur tigers, also known as Siberian or Ussuri tigers. The animal is a favorite of Mr. Putin’s, who was given a tiger cub for his birthday last year shortly after returning from an expedition in which he personally tranquilized and tagged a large animal.
“For Russia this is particularly grievous,” Mr. Putin said on a visit to a Russian tiger reserve last year, according to his tiger Web site. “Animals like the Ussuri tiger, the largest and most beautiful tiger in the world, are like our calling card.”
The Amur tiger is a fitting mascot for the steely tough image of Russia that Mr. Putin likes to present to the world. It is the largest tiger subspecies: the male can reach 10 feet long and weigh 650 pounds. The big cat stalks the vast snowy wilderness of the Russian east, hunting deer, wild boar and, as food supplies dwindle, household pets.
The Russian government has called for an international tiger summit meeting to be held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in 2010 to address the problems.
Not surprisingly, logging and infrastructure development in the tigers’ habitat have contributed to part of the decline, environmental workers say.
But it is an increase in poaching that is the greatest cause for concern, said Igor E. Chestin, the head of WWF Russia. In recent years, he said, the federal authorities have cut back on resources to prevent poaching.
“Our calculation is that for the time being we have about three times less people controlling poaching in the woods within the tiger range than 10 years ago,” Mr. Chestin said.
Scientists estimate that humans cause from 65 percent to 80 percent of tiger deaths, mostly by poaching. Tiger parts like bones, internal organs and whiskers fetch huge prices in Asian markets where they are coveted for traditional medicines. The deep amber-to-orange pelts are also prized acquisitions inside Russia.
Those caught poaching suffer only minor penalties.
“You can catch a poacher dragging a tiger out of the forest here, and he’ll be given a 1,000 ruble fine,” Mr. Miquelle said, citing the equivalent of about $35.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/earth/24tiger.html
http://www.bigcatrescue.org
November 24, 2009
By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
MOSCOW — Amid the torrent of bad environmental news in recent years, the story of Amur tigers in Russia offered a flicker of optimism. Nearly extinct half a century ago, the tigers rebounded when the government imposed protections, and their numbers remained more or less stable for much of the last decade.
But new data suggest that Russia’s tiger population is once again declining.
Results from an annual survey conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, an environmental group based in New York, along with several Russian organizations, has shown a 41 percent drop in the Amur tiger population from its average over the past 12 years.
“The most dramatic decline happened in this last winter, 2009, where on our survey units there were dramatically fewer tigers than any of the past years,” said Dale G. Miquelle, head of the society’s Russia Far East program. “It’s time to react.”
Mr. Miquelle cautioned that random factors like heavy snows last winter when the survey was conducted could have interfered with the data. Nevertheless, he said, the evidence points to a steady drop in the past several years.
The decline of the Amur tiger in Russia is especially vexing because the animal had been considered such a conservation success story. Tiger populations in China, India and elsewhere have been rapidly dropping for years, and many species are extinct. “We’re down to the low thousands of tigers around the word, and that’s really very few indeed,” said John Robinson, an executive vice president at the society.
In Russia, the Amur tiger was once found as far as Lake Baikal in central Siberia, some 2,000 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, and in China and North Korea. Before the recent survey, an estimated 400 to 500 animals were thought to be confined to the Primorsky and Khabarovksy regions in the southern portion of what is called Russia’s Far East.
This sparsely populated area was considered the animal’s last bastion of survival. In the last three years, the government has opened three national parks with more than a million acres in tiger territory. Nevertheless, the recent survey noted declining populations in all five protected zones, indicating that the animals were no more secure inside the parks.
Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir V. Putin, has expressed dismay over the decreasing numbers of Amur tigers, also known as Siberian or Ussuri tigers. The animal is a favorite of Mr. Putin’s, who was given a tiger cub for his birthday last year shortly after returning from an expedition in which he personally tranquilized and tagged a large animal.
“For Russia this is particularly grievous,” Mr. Putin said on a visit to a Russian tiger reserve last year, according to his tiger Web site. “Animals like the Ussuri tiger, the largest and most beautiful tiger in the world, are like our calling card.”
The Amur tiger is a fitting mascot for the steely tough image of Russia that Mr. Putin likes to present to the world. It is the largest tiger subspecies: the male can reach 10 feet long and weigh 650 pounds. The big cat stalks the vast snowy wilderness of the Russian east, hunting deer, wild boar and, as food supplies dwindle, household pets.
The Russian government has called for an international tiger summit meeting to be held in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in 2010 to address the problems.
Not surprisingly, logging and infrastructure development in the tigers’ habitat have contributed to part of the decline, environmental workers say.
But it is an increase in poaching that is the greatest cause for concern, said Igor E. Chestin, the head of WWF Russia. In recent years, he said, the federal authorities have cut back on resources to prevent poaching.
“Our calculation is that for the time being we have about three times less people controlling poaching in the woods within the tiger range than 10 years ago,” Mr. Chestin said.
Scientists estimate that humans cause from 65 percent to 80 percent of tiger deaths, mostly by poaching. Tiger parts like bones, internal organs and whiskers fetch huge prices in Asian markets where they are coveted for traditional medicines. The deep amber-to-orange pelts are also prized acquisitions inside Russia.
Those caught poaching suffer only minor penalties.
“You can catch a poacher dragging a tiger out of the forest here, and he’ll be given a 1,000 ruble fine,” Mr. Miquelle said, citing the equivalent of about $35.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/science/earth/24tiger.html
http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Siberian tigers almost extinct: Report
Siberian tigers almost extinct: Report
IANS 25 November 2009, 05:14pm IST
LONDON: Siberian tigers are almost on the verge of extinction, thanks to poaching and habitat loss, says a report.
The area monitored for the study, 23,555 square km, represents 15 to 18 percent of the existing tiger habitat in Russia.
Only 56 tigers were counted at these monitoring sites. The total number of such Siberian tigers was estimated to be 500 in 2005, having recovered from less than 30 animals in the late 1940s.
Deep snow last winter may have forced tigers to reduce the amount they travelled, making them less detectable, but the report notes a four-year trend of decreasing numbers of tigers.
The decline is due primarily to increased poaching of both tigers and their prey species in the region, coupled with a series of reforms in Russia, which reduced the number of enforcement personnel in key tiger areas, the report said.
The report revealed that a recent tiger survey over a representative part of the big cat's range showed a 40 percent decline in numbers from a 12-year average.
The report was released by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Programme, which is coordinated by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with Russian governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Annual tiger surveys are conducted at 16 monitoring sites scattered across tiger ranges to act as an early warning system to detect changes in the tiger population.
"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," said Dale Miquelle, WCS's Russian Far East Programme.
"The good news is that we believe this trend can be reversed if immediate action is taken," Miquelle added.
"Working with our Russian partners we are hopeful and confident that we can save the Siberian tiger," said John G. Robinson, WCS executive vice-president.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Siberian-tigers-almost-extinct-Report-/articleshow/5268299.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
IANS 25 November 2009, 05:14pm IST
LONDON: Siberian tigers are almost on the verge of extinction, thanks to poaching and habitat loss, says a report.
The area monitored for the study, 23,555 square km, represents 15 to 18 percent of the existing tiger habitat in Russia.
Only 56 tigers were counted at these monitoring sites. The total number of such Siberian tigers was estimated to be 500 in 2005, having recovered from less than 30 animals in the late 1940s.
Deep snow last winter may have forced tigers to reduce the amount they travelled, making them less detectable, but the report notes a four-year trend of decreasing numbers of tigers.
The decline is due primarily to increased poaching of both tigers and their prey species in the region, coupled with a series of reforms in Russia, which reduced the number of enforcement personnel in key tiger areas, the report said.
The report revealed that a recent tiger survey over a representative part of the big cat's range showed a 40 percent decline in numbers from a 12-year average.
The report was released by the Siberian Tiger Monitoring Programme, which is coordinated by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) with Russian governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Annual tiger surveys are conducted at 16 monitoring sites scattered across tiger ranges to act as an early warning system to detect changes in the tiger population.
"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," said Dale Miquelle, WCS's Russian Far East Programme.
"The good news is that we believe this trend can be reversed if immediate action is taken," Miquelle added.
"Working with our Russian partners we are hopeful and confident that we can save the Siberian tiger," said John G. Robinson, WCS executive vice-president.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Siberian-tigers-almost-extinct-Report-/articleshow/5268299.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Putin's rare Siberian tiger goes missing
Putin's rare Siberian tiger goes missing
By LIYA KHABAROVA (AP) – 2 hours ago
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — A rare Siberian tiger fitted by Vladimir Putin with a radio-tracking collar has vanished, a Russian environmentalist said Wednesday, dramatizing the plight of a species some conservationists fear may be approaching extinction.
Russia's prime minister drew worldwide publicity in 2008 when he shot the five-year-old female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck. That allowed visitors to his Web site to follow the animal's prowlings through Russia's wild Far East. A video of the episode is on YouTube.
But the satellite tracking device has been silent since mid-September, which could be due to battery failure, a broken collar or poachers, Vladimir Krever of the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday.
Tigers are rapidly disappearing from the far-eastern regions of Russian due to poaching and the loss of habitat, conservationists say.
Their number may have declined by 40 per cent since 1997, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a report released Tuesday, although another major conservation group, the World Wildlife Fund, disputed the figure.
The New-York based Wildlife Conservation Society said only 56 tigers have been spotted in an area of 9,000 square miles (24,000 square kilometers) — about one-sixth of their known habitat in Russia. Based on that, the group estimates the total number remaining in the wild at 300.
A similar estimate in 2005 put the number left in Siberia at 500, a huge increase over the less than 30 that were thought to remain in the 1940s. But the Wildlife Conservation Society said the latest count still shows the animals could face extinction.
"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," Dr. Dale Miquelle of the group's Russian Far East Program said in a statement.
The society recommends a greater effort to preserve the tiger's habitat, stronger legal protections and a crackdown on poachers who hunt the animals for hides and bones prized in traditional Chinese medicine.
Krever, of the World Wildlife Fund, disputed the Wildlife Conservation Society report.
"It is absolutely incorrect," Krever told The Associated Press. "There's possibly been a decrease in the last two years, but definitely not 40 per cent."
Krever said deep snow in the last two years limited the tigers' ability to roam, making it harder to count them. His group agreed, however, that the tigers face a loss of habitat.
Sergei Aramilev, of Russia's World Wildlife Fund, said Chinese poachers have begun attaching explosives covered with animal fat to tree branches. When tigers and endangered Amur leopards swallow the bait, he said, it explodes in their mouths.
The World Wildlife Fund's Russian branch has estimated that 30 to 50 Amur tigers are killed every year.
Illegal deforestation in Russia's Far East and corruption among poorly paid park rangers may also be contributing to the tigers' decline, said Sergei Berezniuk of the Fenix Fund, an environmental group in the Pacific coast city of Vladivostok.
Earlier this month, Russian officials and environmentalists said they would hold a "tiger summit" in Vladivostok next September to coordinate multinational efforts to protect tiger populations.
The goal of the program, which could involve as many as 13 countries, would be to double the number of tigers globally to 6,500 by 2022. The total now is believed to be 3,200, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Weighing up to 600 pounds (272 kilograms), Siberian tigers — also known as Ussuri, Amur or Manchurian tigers — prey on wild boars, deer and bears.
They once roamed most of Eurasia from the Black Sea to Central Asia, but now are limited to the forests of Russia's Far East and the Chinese province of Manchuria. In China the killing of a Siberian tiger is punishable by death.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hBGfUVjwwlQ5ncu2C1-N8qRnQr6QD9C6JEVG0
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
By LIYA KHABAROVA (AP) – 2 hours ago
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia — A rare Siberian tiger fitted by Vladimir Putin with a radio-tracking collar has vanished, a Russian environmentalist said Wednesday, dramatizing the plight of a species some conservationists fear may be approaching extinction.
Russia's prime minister drew worldwide publicity in 2008 when he shot the five-year-old female tiger with a tranquilizer gun and helped place a transmitter around her neck. That allowed visitors to his Web site to follow the animal's prowlings through Russia's wild Far East. A video of the episode is on YouTube.
But the satellite tracking device has been silent since mid-September, which could be due to battery failure, a broken collar or poachers, Vladimir Krever of the World Wildlife Fund said Wednesday.
Tigers are rapidly disappearing from the far-eastern regions of Russian due to poaching and the loss of habitat, conservationists say.
Their number may have declined by 40 per cent since 1997, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a report released Tuesday, although another major conservation group, the World Wildlife Fund, disputed the figure.
The New-York based Wildlife Conservation Society said only 56 tigers have been spotted in an area of 9,000 square miles (24,000 square kilometers) — about one-sixth of their known habitat in Russia. Based on that, the group estimates the total number remaining in the wild at 300.
A similar estimate in 2005 put the number left in Siberia at 500, a huge increase over the less than 30 that were thought to remain in the 1940s. But the Wildlife Conservation Society said the latest count still shows the animals could face extinction.
"The sobering results are a wake-up call that current conservation efforts are not going far enough to protect Siberian tigers," Dr. Dale Miquelle of the group's Russian Far East Program said in a statement.
The society recommends a greater effort to preserve the tiger's habitat, stronger legal protections and a crackdown on poachers who hunt the animals for hides and bones prized in traditional Chinese medicine.
Krever, of the World Wildlife Fund, disputed the Wildlife Conservation Society report.
"It is absolutely incorrect," Krever told The Associated Press. "There's possibly been a decrease in the last two years, but definitely not 40 per cent."
Krever said deep snow in the last two years limited the tigers' ability to roam, making it harder to count them. His group agreed, however, that the tigers face a loss of habitat.
Sergei Aramilev, of Russia's World Wildlife Fund, said Chinese poachers have begun attaching explosives covered with animal fat to tree branches. When tigers and endangered Amur leopards swallow the bait, he said, it explodes in their mouths.
The World Wildlife Fund's Russian branch has estimated that 30 to 50 Amur tigers are killed every year.
Illegal deforestation in Russia's Far East and corruption among poorly paid park rangers may also be contributing to the tigers' decline, said Sergei Berezniuk of the Fenix Fund, an environmental group in the Pacific coast city of Vladivostok.
Earlier this month, Russian officials and environmentalists said they would hold a "tiger summit" in Vladivostok next September to coordinate multinational efforts to protect tiger populations.
The goal of the program, which could involve as many as 13 countries, would be to double the number of tigers globally to 6,500 by 2022. The total now is believed to be 3,200, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
Weighing up to 600 pounds (272 kilograms), Siberian tigers — also known as Ussuri, Amur or Manchurian tigers — prey on wild boars, deer and bears.
They once roamed most of Eurasia from the Black Sea to Central Asia, but now are limited to the forests of Russia's Far East and the Chinese province of Manchuria. In China the killing of a Siberian tiger is punishable by death.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hBGfUVjwwlQ5ncu2C1-N8qRnQr6QD9C6JEVG0
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
India: 3 leopard cubs will go to zoo if mother doesn't show up
3 leopard cubs found abandoned
TNN 22 November 2009, 09:45pm IST
CHIKMAGALUR: Three leopard cubs were found abandoned at Ganeshapura near Hadikere in Tarikere taluk and was later rescued by the forest department.
The cubs, abandoned by its mother, was spotted by a villager on his way to his farm. He, along with some villagers, immediately informed the range forest officer Jayanna who rushed to the spot and rescued the spotted felony cubs.
The forest department staff placed the cubs in the same spot with a hope that its mother would return to find its cubs. The RFO said they will wait for the night and if the mother doesn't turn up, the cubs will be sent to Tavarekoppa in Shimoga district or Mysore Zoo.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/3-leopard-cubs-found-abandoned/articleshow/5258174.cms
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
TNN 22 November 2009, 09:45pm IST
CHIKMAGALUR: Three leopard cubs were found abandoned at Ganeshapura near Hadikere in Tarikere taluk and was later rescued by the forest department.
The cubs, abandoned by its mother, was spotted by a villager on his way to his farm. He, along with some villagers, immediately informed the range forest officer Jayanna who rushed to the spot and rescued the spotted felony cubs.
The forest department staff placed the cubs in the same spot with a hope that its mother would return to find its cubs. The RFO said they will wait for the night and if the mother doesn't turn up, the cubs will be sent to Tavarekoppa in Shimoga district or Mysore Zoo.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mysore/3-leopard-cubs-found-abandoned/articleshow/5258174.cms
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Vietnam: Rare fishing cat found in An Giang
Updated : 9:54 AM, 11/10/2009
Residents in the Mekong delta province of An Giang, have caught a number of fishing cats, a rare species listed in the national Red Book of precious fauna and flora.
Banh Thanh Hung, Head of the Forest and Nature Reserve Guard Office of the An Giang Forest Ranger Department, on November 8 informed that the office has released a fishing cat to the Tra Su cajeput forest in Tinh Bien district.
The fishing cats, scientifically named Felis Viverrina, live in fragmented groups in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
They mainly gather in areas where there are streams and rivers of fresh water, usually those covered by reeds, swamps, mangroves, and marsh.
As their name implies, they eat mostly fish. The cats will sit and wait on the shore, and scoop the fish out of the water with its paws, and are even known to dive for fish. They also eat frogs, snakes, crustaceans, snails, birds, and small mammals.
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Rare-fishing-cat-found-in-An-Giang/200911/109693.vov
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Residents in the Mekong delta province of An Giang, have caught a number of fishing cats, a rare species listed in the national Red Book of precious fauna and flora.
Banh Thanh Hung, Head of the Forest and Nature Reserve Guard Office of the An Giang Forest Ranger Department, on November 8 informed that the office has released a fishing cat to the Tra Su cajeput forest in Tinh Bien district.
The fishing cats, scientifically named Felis Viverrina, live in fragmented groups in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.
They mainly gather in areas where there are streams and rivers of fresh water, usually those covered by reeds, swamps, mangroves, and marsh.
As their name implies, they eat mostly fish. The cats will sit and wait on the shore, and scoop the fish out of the water with its paws, and are even known to dive for fish. They also eat frogs, snakes, crustaceans, snails, birds, and small mammals.
http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Rare-fishing-cat-found-in-An-Giang/200911/109693.vov
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Panther wins against cabbage palm
Florida's state tree, the cabbage palm, is being stripped from forests to protect the endangered Florida panther.
Mon, Nov 23 2009 at 3:26 PM EST
Read more: ANIMALS, ENDANGERED SPECIES
FOOD CHAIN: The cabbage palm is crowding out other vegetation eaten by deer that, in turn, are eaten by panthers. (Photo: Larry Richardson/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
If you like your conservation efforts served with a nice dusting of irony, consider what’s happening at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge near Naples, Fla. Workers there are about to start tearing down dense stands of the official Florida state tree, the cabbage palm, in order to benefit the official state animal, the endangered Florida panther, that lives in the refuge.
Refuge wildlife biologist Larry Richardson acknowledges that he hears from people who are confused about the project. But the fact is that the cabbage palms have grown so thick in places on the refuge that they are crowding out other plants that are necessary food for deer. That means the deer move on to find better feeding areas, and the panthers are deprived of the deer they need to prey on.
So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, hired Wildland Services, Inc., of Moore Haven, Fla., to cut down the invasive cabbage palms on more than 1,700 acres inside the refuge. The $171,000 contract is being funded by money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as stimulus funds.
"The construction of canals over the last century for flood control has altered the balance of nature," Richardson explains. "They channel water away from the refuge to the Gulf of Mexico and prevent the summer rains from recharging the aquifer. And the palms have invaded the open pine habitats and wet prairies due to these man-made changes."
In the 20 years Richardson has been working on the refuge, he has seen grassy prairies gradually taken over by palms. Cabbage palms have formed dense, nearly impenetrable stands, shading out forage plants for deer. Thousands of acres of the refuge have been degraded by this cabbage palm invasion.
The thick stands of cabbage palms also make the land undesirable for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, another resident of the refuge.
Wildland Services will use crews and equipment to cut cabbage palms over six feet tall. Smaller palms will be eliminated with herbicides as more funding becomes available. Minimal ground disturbance is a requirement of the contract to prevent invasion by non-native plants such as Brazilian pepper and protect the native grasses and low-growing plants.
Darrel Land, Panther Section Leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is pleased with the restoration that has already occurred on 2,500 acres of pinelands along the eastern boundary of the refuge.
"The restoration so far has greatly benefited panthers by improving habitat for deer, the panthers' primary prey," Land says.
There are only about 80 to 100 wild adult panthers remaining in south Florida. The animal once ranged through most of the southeastern United States, but was eliminated down to a surviving handful by human persecution and habitat destruction. By 1995, only 20 to 30 Florida panthers remained in the wild. The animals, which are tawny or brown with cream markings, rather than black as commonly believed, are elusive and try to stay away from humans as much as possible.
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/panther-wins-against-cabbage-palm
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Mon, Nov 23 2009 at 3:26 PM EST
Read more: ANIMALS, ENDANGERED SPECIES
FOOD CHAIN: The cabbage palm is crowding out other vegetation eaten by deer that, in turn, are eaten by panthers. (Photo: Larry Richardson/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
If you like your conservation efforts served with a nice dusting of irony, consider what’s happening at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge near Naples, Fla. Workers there are about to start tearing down dense stands of the official Florida state tree, the cabbage palm, in order to benefit the official state animal, the endangered Florida panther, that lives in the refuge.
Refuge wildlife biologist Larry Richardson acknowledges that he hears from people who are confused about the project. But the fact is that the cabbage palms have grown so thick in places on the refuge that they are crowding out other plants that are necessary food for deer. That means the deer move on to find better feeding areas, and the panthers are deprived of the deer they need to prey on.
So the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, hired Wildland Services, Inc., of Moore Haven, Fla., to cut down the invasive cabbage palms on more than 1,700 acres inside the refuge. The $171,000 contract is being funded by money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, popularly known as stimulus funds.
"The construction of canals over the last century for flood control has altered the balance of nature," Richardson explains. "They channel water away from the refuge to the Gulf of Mexico and prevent the summer rains from recharging the aquifer. And the palms have invaded the open pine habitats and wet prairies due to these man-made changes."
In the 20 years Richardson has been working on the refuge, he has seen grassy prairies gradually taken over by palms. Cabbage palms have formed dense, nearly impenetrable stands, shading out forage plants for deer. Thousands of acres of the refuge have been degraded by this cabbage palm invasion.
The thick stands of cabbage palms also make the land undesirable for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker, another resident of the refuge.
Wildland Services will use crews and equipment to cut cabbage palms over six feet tall. Smaller palms will be eliminated with herbicides as more funding becomes available. Minimal ground disturbance is a requirement of the contract to prevent invasion by non-native plants such as Brazilian pepper and protect the native grasses and low-growing plants.
Darrel Land, Panther Section Leader for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is pleased with the restoration that has already occurred on 2,500 acres of pinelands along the eastern boundary of the refuge.
"The restoration so far has greatly benefited panthers by improving habitat for deer, the panthers' primary prey," Land says.
There are only about 80 to 100 wild adult panthers remaining in south Florida. The animal once ranged through most of the southeastern United States, but was eliminated down to a surviving handful by human persecution and habitat destruction. By 1995, only 20 to 30 Florida panthers remained in the wild. The animals, which are tawny or brown with cream markings, rather than black as commonly believed, are elusive and try to stay away from humans as much as possible.
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/panther-wins-against-cabbage-palm
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Kevin Woster: "City and lions a fatal mix"
Kevin Woster Journal staff | Posted: Monday, November 23, 2009 8:00 am
Dave Vaughn was surprised early Thursday morning when he hit the brakes and saw the mountain lion.
But not all that surprised.
"That was the 21st lion I've seen in the last eight years," Vaughn, a 40-year-old heavy equipment mechanic in Rapid City said Friday. "I've seen them all over, but the majority were crossing the road."
Vaughn is a hunter, angler, hiker and photographer. So he's out and about in the Black Hills a lot, including near dawn and dusk when wildlife species tend to be most active. He also lives up near Pactola Reservoir and drives to and from work in Rapid City every day. Highways 385 and 44 are prime-time routes to catch a glimpse of a lion - or more than a glimpse - early and late in the day.
Take Thursday, when Vaughn was cruising Jackson Boulevard near State Street at about 6:20 a.m. and had to take evasive action at the wheel.
"When I saw it, it was kind of trotting, and coming off the curb," Vaughn said. "At first I knew it was an animal, and I kind of swerved and stepped on the brakes and said, ‘It's a lion.'"
Vaughn turned around and followed the lion as it moved without any signs of concern north on State Street to the Janet Street. Vaughn had called 9-1-1 and was talking to the dispatcher and describing the lion's location, as it entered a yard on the 2300 block of Janet Street. He lost sight of the lion as it went beyond the house, but continued to cruise the neighborhood as he waited for authorities to respond.
Meanwhile, life around him went on.
"I saw a number of walkers, joggers, people on bikes and also a young man delivering the Journal," Vaughn said.
Knowing there was a big cat about, he was worried. He cruised the neighborhood, waiting for the police to arrive and watching for the lion. He never saw it, however, and had to head for work at 7.
"At one point I was tempted to go knock and say there's a lion out there, since I didn't know if they had kids or pets or whatever," Vaughn said. "My main concern was for the safety of the people living in that area."
That concern is the basis for the state Game, Fish & Parks Department's policy on lions in the city. It's a lethal policy, aimed at erring on the side of public safety. Not everybody likes it. Some hate it. But GF&P wildlife manager John Kanta thinks most support it.
"My opinion is that the majority of people living in the Black Hills would like to see us respond to those calls of lions in town and remove those animals," he said.
And make no mistake about what "remove" means.
"When we talk about removing a lion in town, we're talking about killing it," GF&P regional supervisor Mike Kintigh said. "And we do that as humanely as possible."
After a homeowner reported the lion in a tree in her yard Thursday, GF&P officers sedated it and took it to the regional office. There, a veterinary came and euthanized it.
Kintigh said there's no evidence that the lion had taken up residence in the Storybook Island area. More likely, it was passing through on the Skyline Drive-M Hill corridor and "made a wrong turn," Kanta said.
"This lion wasn't in town looking to eat people or pets," he said. "But when a lion comes into a heavily populated area like this one, there is the potential for something to happen. We believe that cat must be removed."
Forever.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_3f2da03a-d62a-11de-92d5-001cc4c002e0.html
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Dave Vaughn was surprised early Thursday morning when he hit the brakes and saw the mountain lion.
But not all that surprised.
"That was the 21st lion I've seen in the last eight years," Vaughn, a 40-year-old heavy equipment mechanic in Rapid City said Friday. "I've seen them all over, but the majority were crossing the road."
Vaughn is a hunter, angler, hiker and photographer. So he's out and about in the Black Hills a lot, including near dawn and dusk when wildlife species tend to be most active. He also lives up near Pactola Reservoir and drives to and from work in Rapid City every day. Highways 385 and 44 are prime-time routes to catch a glimpse of a lion - or more than a glimpse - early and late in the day.
Take Thursday, when Vaughn was cruising Jackson Boulevard near State Street at about 6:20 a.m. and had to take evasive action at the wheel.
"When I saw it, it was kind of trotting, and coming off the curb," Vaughn said. "At first I knew it was an animal, and I kind of swerved and stepped on the brakes and said, ‘It's a lion.'"
Vaughn turned around and followed the lion as it moved without any signs of concern north on State Street to the Janet Street. Vaughn had called 9-1-1 and was talking to the dispatcher and describing the lion's location, as it entered a yard on the 2300 block of Janet Street. He lost sight of the lion as it went beyond the house, but continued to cruise the neighborhood as he waited for authorities to respond.
Meanwhile, life around him went on.
"I saw a number of walkers, joggers, people on bikes and also a young man delivering the Journal," Vaughn said.
Knowing there was a big cat about, he was worried. He cruised the neighborhood, waiting for the police to arrive and watching for the lion. He never saw it, however, and had to head for work at 7.
"At one point I was tempted to go knock and say there's a lion out there, since I didn't know if they had kids or pets or whatever," Vaughn said. "My main concern was for the safety of the people living in that area."
That concern is the basis for the state Game, Fish & Parks Department's policy on lions in the city. It's a lethal policy, aimed at erring on the side of public safety. Not everybody likes it. Some hate it. But GF&P wildlife manager John Kanta thinks most support it.
"My opinion is that the majority of people living in the Black Hills would like to see us respond to those calls of lions in town and remove those animals," he said.
And make no mistake about what "remove" means.
"When we talk about removing a lion in town, we're talking about killing it," GF&P regional supervisor Mike Kintigh said. "And we do that as humanely as possible."
After a homeowner reported the lion in a tree in her yard Thursday, GF&P officers sedated it and took it to the regional office. There, a veterinary came and euthanized it.
Kintigh said there's no evidence that the lion had taken up residence in the Storybook Island area. More likely, it was passing through on the Skyline Drive-M Hill corridor and "made a wrong turn," Kanta said.
"This lion wasn't in town looking to eat people or pets," he said. "But when a lion comes into a heavily populated area like this one, there is the potential for something to happen. We believe that cat must be removed."
Forever.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_3f2da03a-d62a-11de-92d5-001cc4c002e0.html
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
The Last Lion in Kenya
Written by Jake Richardson
Published on November 23rd, 2009
Posted in About Animals, In Africa
The lion cub pictured above is named Gabriella and lives at an animal orphanage in Nairobi. The Pride of Kenya website reports she lives there because she was left parentless due to a human-lion conflict. (Presumably this explanation means her mother was killed by humans). The post about her goes on to say that her life expectancy in captivity is about 22 years.
In 20 years, according to one estimate, wild lions could be extinct in Kenya. So it is reasonable to wonder if she could be the last, or one of the few lions left in that country in two decades. If she still is alive then, and all the wild lions have been killed via poisonings and habitat loss, there will be no lions left in the wild there - but is a lion living in a cage that has been reared in captivity still a wild animal?
The current Kenyan lion population is estimated to be about 2,000, with 100 or so being killed every year. (WildlifeDirect executive director Dr. Paula Kahumbu has said there used to be 30,000 just 50 years ago). Researcher Lawrence Frank believes they actually could be gone in about 10 years, “Lions are disappearing so fast from Kenya, as well as the rest of Africa, that I think they will disappear [from Kenya] in less than 10 years if action is not taken very quickly”. Dr. Frank is the Living with Lions Director and has been a research associate at UC-Berkeley for twenty-five years. Living with Lions works with local Kenyans to protect wild lions and prevent livestock loss due to lion predation. Dr. Frank was generous enough to answer some questions about lion conservation there.
Is foreign safari tourism helping the situation, or having no impact?
“Of course it is critically important. Protected areas have to be the first line of conservation, and they are totally dependent on tourism for their existence. One of Kenya’s big problems is that almost all Kenya parks are too small to provide long term protection for lions, as they move very widely and when they leave parks, they eat livestock and are killed in retaliation. ”
If the annual rate of lion loss is not curbed, and lions go effectively extinct in Kenya, how much tourism revenue will the country lose?
“Lions are the single major attraction for tourists. If they disappear the tourism market will suffer enormously and Kenya will lose whatever credibility it has in conservation.”
Is the practice of poisoning wild lions with Furadan still taking place?
“FMC, the company that makes Furadan, has attempted to buy it back in Kenya, and poisoning seems to have slowed but it has not stopped. Furadan is still widely available in Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana and elsewhere, and lions and other animals are still being poisoned in those countries. Given the impossibility of controlling the spread and use of poison once it is in Africa, the manufacture and importation of this stuff must be totally banned by governments.”
Furadan or Carbofuradan is manufactured by the American company, FMC Corporation. A single grain can kill a bird. 60 Minutes produced a story on the insecticide’s use in Kenya to poison lions. A very small amount could kill a whole group of lions. (A five minute video overview is on YouTube).
The insecticide is being laced into dead animals such as goats and cows, so that lions will consume them and ingest the poison. It is so toxic it has been banned in Europe. Sixty-two lions have been killed by poisoning in the last 6 years.
What Can I Do?
The work of a non-profit lion conservation organization was written about here on EcoWorldly recently. Lion Guardians works with local farmers and conservation biologists to foster a mutually beneficial environment for wild lions and domesticated livestock. Supporting such worthy organizations can make a difference. Also traveling to Kenya with a reputable tour company can stimulate the local economy and contribute to conservation.
Aside from those activites one could forward this article, read more on the subject, teach your own children, or try to start a fundraiser in a school or church for Lion Guardians. You could also start, or join a Facebook club for Kenyan Lions.
http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/23/the-last-lion-in-kenya/
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Published on November 23rd, 2009
Posted in About Animals, In Africa
The lion cub pictured above is named Gabriella and lives at an animal orphanage in Nairobi. The Pride of Kenya website reports she lives there because she was left parentless due to a human-lion conflict. (Presumably this explanation means her mother was killed by humans). The post about her goes on to say that her life expectancy in captivity is about 22 years.
In 20 years, according to one estimate, wild lions could be extinct in Kenya. So it is reasonable to wonder if she could be the last, or one of the few lions left in that country in two decades. If she still is alive then, and all the wild lions have been killed via poisonings and habitat loss, there will be no lions left in the wild there - but is a lion living in a cage that has been reared in captivity still a wild animal?
The current Kenyan lion population is estimated to be about 2,000, with 100 or so being killed every year. (WildlifeDirect executive director Dr. Paula Kahumbu has said there used to be 30,000 just 50 years ago). Researcher Lawrence Frank believes they actually could be gone in about 10 years, “Lions are disappearing so fast from Kenya, as well as the rest of Africa, that I think they will disappear [from Kenya] in less than 10 years if action is not taken very quickly”. Dr. Frank is the Living with Lions Director and has been a research associate at UC-Berkeley for twenty-five years. Living with Lions works with local Kenyans to protect wild lions and prevent livestock loss due to lion predation. Dr. Frank was generous enough to answer some questions about lion conservation there.
Is foreign safari tourism helping the situation, or having no impact?
“Of course it is critically important. Protected areas have to be the first line of conservation, and they are totally dependent on tourism for their existence. One of Kenya’s big problems is that almost all Kenya parks are too small to provide long term protection for lions, as they move very widely and when they leave parks, they eat livestock and are killed in retaliation. ”
If the annual rate of lion loss is not curbed, and lions go effectively extinct in Kenya, how much tourism revenue will the country lose?
“Lions are the single major attraction for tourists. If they disappear the tourism market will suffer enormously and Kenya will lose whatever credibility it has in conservation.”
Is the practice of poisoning wild lions with Furadan still taking place?
“FMC, the company that makes Furadan, has attempted to buy it back in Kenya, and poisoning seems to have slowed but it has not stopped. Furadan is still widely available in Tanzania, Uganda, Botswana and elsewhere, and lions and other animals are still being poisoned in those countries. Given the impossibility of controlling the spread and use of poison once it is in Africa, the manufacture and importation of this stuff must be totally banned by governments.”
Furadan or Carbofuradan is manufactured by the American company, FMC Corporation. A single grain can kill a bird. 60 Minutes produced a story on the insecticide’s use in Kenya to poison lions. A very small amount could kill a whole group of lions. (A five minute video overview is on YouTube).
The insecticide is being laced into dead animals such as goats and cows, so that lions will consume them and ingest the poison. It is so toxic it has been banned in Europe. Sixty-two lions have been killed by poisoning in the last 6 years.
What Can I Do?
The work of a non-profit lion conservation organization was written about here on EcoWorldly recently. Lion Guardians works with local farmers and conservation biologists to foster a mutually beneficial environment for wild lions and domesticated livestock. Supporting such worthy organizations can make a difference. Also traveling to Kenya with a reputable tour company can stimulate the local economy and contribute to conservation.
Aside from those activites one could forward this article, read more on the subject, teach your own children, or try to start a fundraiser in a school or church for Lion Guardians. You could also start, or join a Facebook club for Kenyan Lions.
http://ecoworldly.com/2009/11/23/the-last-lion-in-kenya/
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Rare African wild cat spotted in Dubai
Rare wild cat located in Wadi Wurayah
Posted on: Tuesday November 24 , 2009 10:31:43 AM (GMT+4) Submit Press Release
Dubai - Camera traps set up in the mountainous area of Wadi Wurayah have captured an image of a rare breed of Wild Cat (Felis silvestris lybica).Until this photo, the presence of the Wild Cat was only assumed based on elusive tracks despite four years of intensive surveys by EWS-WWF and Fujairah Municipality teams., The find demonstrates the high ecological value of the area to the on-going preservation of the UAE and Middle East’s wildlife.
Commenting on the discovery, Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Director of EWS-WWF stated: “The discovery underpins the importance of protecting the Wadi Wurayah area. We have not seen a Wild Cat for many years and it is vital that we do our utmost to protect the area, allowing the wildlife residing there to flourish.”
The Wild Cat is a small feline native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa. Its food is very eclectic ranging from invertebrates to reptiles
, small mammals, birds and fish, and its habitat varies from scrub deserts to forests. Showing a variety of colours and sizes according on their habitats, they are generally grey-brown with black stripes on their back and tail, weighing up to 8kg and 80cm in length.
The species is threatened by genetic pollution with escaped domestic cats to a point that scientists believe the UAE population of Wild Cats might not be pure anymore. The competition for food with feral cats, the introduction of diseases by feral cats,, the maltreatment of carnivores by trapping and poisoning, and the destruction of natural habitats have impacted the survival of this species in the wild.
http://www.eyeofdubai.com/v1/news/newsdetail-36855.htm
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Posted on: Tuesday November 24 , 2009 10:31:43 AM (GMT+4) Submit Press Release
Dubai - Camera traps set up in the mountainous area of Wadi Wurayah have captured an image of a rare breed of Wild Cat (Felis silvestris lybica).Until this photo, the presence of the Wild Cat was only assumed based on elusive tracks despite four years of intensive surveys by EWS-WWF and Fujairah Municipality teams., The find demonstrates the high ecological value of the area to the on-going preservation of the UAE and Middle East’s wildlife.
Commenting on the discovery, Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Director of EWS-WWF stated: “The discovery underpins the importance of protecting the Wadi Wurayah area. We have not seen a Wild Cat for many years and it is vital that we do our utmost to protect the area, allowing the wildlife residing there to flourish.”
The Wild Cat is a small feline native to Europe, the western part of Asia, and Africa. Its food is very eclectic ranging from invertebrates to reptiles
, small mammals, birds and fish, and its habitat varies from scrub deserts to forests. Showing a variety of colours and sizes according on their habitats, they are generally grey-brown with black stripes on their back and tail, weighing up to 8kg and 80cm in length.
The species is threatened by genetic pollution with escaped domestic cats to a point that scientists believe the UAE population of Wild Cats might not be pure anymore. The competition for food with feral cats, the introduction of diseases by feral cats,, the maltreatment of carnivores by trapping and poisoning, and the destruction of natural habitats have impacted the survival of this species in the wild.
http://www.eyeofdubai.com/v1/news/newsdetail-36855.htm
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Rajya Sabha told about efforts to save tiger
Rajya Sabha told about efforts to save tiger
Jumana Shah / DNATuesday, November 24, 2009 8:49 IST
Ahmedabad: While the striking deaths of tiger has shocked the country, the precise details of the death figures and government's conservation initiatives were released in the Rajya Sabha on Monday in an answer to details sought by Jharkhand MP Parimal Nathwani.
Answer was also sought by group president of Gujarat's Reliance Industries to the pendency of appeals in the Income Tax Appellate Tribubal (ITAT) and the effect of sanctioning 10 additional benches in 2004.
Tiger deaths have shot up from 22 in 2006 to 30 in 2007 and shocking 59 in the 11 months of 2009. The government had released Rs6,270.54 lakh in 2007-08; Rs10,240 lakh in 2008-09 and Rs15,459 lakh in 2009-10. However, these grants have not succeeded in controlling the spiraling deaths of the endangered big cats in the country.
In the conservation activities, the response by ministry of environment and forests has highlighted the reintroduction of tigers by rebuilding Sariska and Panna reserves. "The proposal for 13 tiger reserves has been approved. Rs93 lakh each have been released to Corbett, Ranthambore and Dudhwa tiger reserve.
As for ITAT, 10 additional benches have been set up in 2004 with two benches each at Mumbai and Delhi and one each in Pune, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Jaipur and Ranchi. "This has reduced pendency by 229758 cases."
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rajya-sabha-told-about-efforts-to-save-tiger_1315714
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Jumana Shah / DNATuesday, November 24, 2009 8:49 IST
Ahmedabad: While the striking deaths of tiger has shocked the country, the precise details of the death figures and government's conservation initiatives were released in the Rajya Sabha on Monday in an answer to details sought by Jharkhand MP Parimal Nathwani.
Answer was also sought by group president of Gujarat's Reliance Industries to the pendency of appeals in the Income Tax Appellate Tribubal (ITAT) and the effect of sanctioning 10 additional benches in 2004.
Tiger deaths have shot up from 22 in 2006 to 30 in 2007 and shocking 59 in the 11 months of 2009. The government had released Rs6,270.54 lakh in 2007-08; Rs10,240 lakh in 2008-09 and Rs15,459 lakh in 2009-10. However, these grants have not succeeded in controlling the spiraling deaths of the endangered big cats in the country.
In the conservation activities, the response by ministry of environment and forests has highlighted the reintroduction of tigers by rebuilding Sariska and Panna reserves. "The proposal for 13 tiger reserves has been approved. Rs93 lakh each have been released to Corbett, Ranthambore and Dudhwa tiger reserve.
As for ITAT, 10 additional benches have been set up in 2004 with two benches each at Mumbai and Delhi and one each in Pune, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Bilaspur, Jaipur and Ranchi. "This has reduced pendency by 229758 cases."
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_rajya-sabha-told-about-efforts-to-save-tiger_1315714
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Wildlife Protection Act to be amended to curb tiger poaching
Wildlife Protection Act to be amended to curb tiger poaching
Staff Reporter
Monday, Nov 23, 2009
“We will ensure strict punishment to tiger poachers”
Draft amendments circulated to States
Coimbatore: To prevent incidents of poaching and poisoning and to save the remaining population of tigers, the Ministry of Environment and Forests proposes to bring in amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
This was stated by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh here on Sunday.
Talking to journalists at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) here, he said that of the 37 tiger reserves, nine were in good condition, 12 satisfactory and 16 in a precarious condition. As on date, the country had 1,200 to 1,400 tigers. Mr. Ramesh said tigers and leopards were smuggled to China via Myanmar and Nepal because of the medicinal value of their parts. “China is celebrating year 2010 as year of tigers and this could be a threat to tigers in India.”
To control poaching, a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, with field offices, had been set up. The amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act were proposed to make the penal provisions stringent with punishments measuring to the level of those awarded for violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The draft amendments were circulated to the States for their views.
On shifting of tribals from the tiger reserve areas, Mr. Ramesh said that of the 1 lakh families, 3,000 had been shifted. The Ministry would shift them only through persuasion and monetary incentives. Every family was being given an incentive of Rs. 10 lakh. On protection of elephants, Mr. Ramesh said the Ministry had discussed the issue with Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and they had sought financial help for acquisition of lands to restore the elephant corridors.
The Minister said the focus was on the quality of forest cover and not just quantity.
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/23/stories/2009112359591400.htm
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Staff Reporter
Monday, Nov 23, 2009
“We will ensure strict punishment to tiger poachers”
Draft amendments circulated to States
Coimbatore: To prevent incidents of poaching and poisoning and to save the remaining population of tigers, the Ministry of Environment and Forests proposes to bring in amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
This was stated by Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh here on Sunday.
Talking to journalists at the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) here, he said that of the 37 tiger reserves, nine were in good condition, 12 satisfactory and 16 in a precarious condition. As on date, the country had 1,200 to 1,400 tigers. Mr. Ramesh said tigers and leopards were smuggled to China via Myanmar and Nepal because of the medicinal value of their parts. “China is celebrating year 2010 as year of tigers and this could be a threat to tigers in India.”
To control poaching, a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, with field offices, had been set up. The amendments to the Wildlife Protection Act were proposed to make the penal provisions stringent with punishments measuring to the level of those awarded for violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The draft amendments were circulated to the States for their views.
On shifting of tribals from the tiger reserve areas, Mr. Ramesh said that of the 1 lakh families, 3,000 had been shifted. The Ministry would shift them only through persuasion and monetary incentives. Every family was being given an incentive of Rs. 10 lakh. On protection of elephants, Mr. Ramesh said the Ministry had discussed the issue with Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and they had sought financial help for acquisition of lands to restore the elephant corridors.
The Minister said the focus was on the quality of forest cover and not just quantity.
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/11/23/stories/2009112359591400.htm
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Monday, November 23, 2009
59 tiger deaths this year; MP tops chart with 13
59 tiger deaths this year; MP tops chart with 13
STAFF WRITER 16:7 HRS IST
New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) The number of tiger deaths have doubled to 59 so far this year against last year's 28 cases, as Madhya Pradesh topped the list with 13 big cats dying during the period, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Giving details of the deaths till mid-November in the tiger-range states, Environment Minister Jairarm Ramesh said Assam reported 10 deaths followed by Karnataka (9), Uttarakhand (7) Maharashtra(4) and Rajasthan (3).
One big cat each died in Kerala, Orissa, Goa and Tamil Nadu during the year.
"The deaths include seizures of two skins each in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi and one each in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand," he said.
Ramesh said that reports were being received from various sources on the illegal wildlife trade linkages in various countries and action was being taken in respect of any connected crimes on Indian soil.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/389939_59-tiger-deaths-this-year--MP-tops-chart-with-13
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
STAFF WRITER 16:7 HRS IST
New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) The number of tiger deaths have doubled to 59 so far this year against last year's 28 cases, as Madhya Pradesh topped the list with 13 big cats dying during the period, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
Giving details of the deaths till mid-November in the tiger-range states, Environment Minister Jairarm Ramesh said Assam reported 10 deaths followed by Karnataka (9), Uttarakhand (7) Maharashtra(4) and Rajasthan (3).
One big cat each died in Kerala, Orissa, Goa and Tamil Nadu during the year.
"The deaths include seizures of two skins each in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi and one each in Maharashtra and Uttarakhand," he said.
Ramesh said that reports were being received from various sources on the illegal wildlife trade linkages in various countries and action was being taken in respect of any connected crimes on Indian soil.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/389939_59-tiger-deaths-this-year--MP-tops-chart-with-13
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
DNA sampling for tiger census in Sunderbans
DNA sampling for tiger census in Sunderbans
STAFF WRITER 12:9 HRS IST
Kolkata, Nov 23 (PTI) The West Bengal government for the first time will conduct tiger census through DNA sampling of the animal's scat in Sunderbans in January next year.
Till now, pug marks were used to count the tigers, but there was always controversy regarding the veracity.
During the 2006 census, the state government had rejected the Indian Statistical Institute's claim that there were not more than 70 tigers in Sunderbans, the world's largest delta.
"Sunderbans is not like Buxa or any other tiger reserve.
The terrain here is very difficult and requires a special method. So we will go for DNA sampling which will be used for the first time to estimate the number of tigers," Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) director Pradeep Vyas told PTI.
The census would be held in January and February next year.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/389501_DNA-sampling-for-tiger-census-in-Sunderbans
http://www.bigcatrescue.org
STAFF WRITER 12:9 HRS IST
Kolkata, Nov 23 (PTI) The West Bengal government for the first time will conduct tiger census through DNA sampling of the animal's scat in Sunderbans in January next year.
Till now, pug marks were used to count the tigers, but there was always controversy regarding the veracity.
During the 2006 census, the state government had rejected the Indian Statistical Institute's claim that there were not more than 70 tigers in Sunderbans, the world's largest delta.
"Sunderbans is not like Buxa or any other tiger reserve.
The terrain here is very difficult and requires a special method. So we will go for DNA sampling which will be used for the first time to estimate the number of tigers," Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) director Pradeep Vyas told PTI.
The census would be held in January and February next year.
http://www.ptinews.com/news/389501_DNA-sampling-for-tiger-census-in-Sunderbans
http://www.bigcatrescue.org
`Goa tiger among 59 killed this year'
`Goa tiger among 59 killed this year'
TNN 24 November 2009, 06:05am IST
PANAJI: Goa's much-talked about tiger poaching case has been numbered as one of 59 tigers killed in the country this year. This though a preliminary report of forensic tests into samples of bones found at Keri carried out by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun indicated they did not belong to a big cat.
The figures were released by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Madhya Pradesh accounted for a maximum of 13 tiger deaths this year.
While 22 tiger deaths were reported in 2006, the number rose to 30 in 2007 and fell marginally to 28 in 2008. The number, however, rose sharply this year with 59 big cats killed up to November 13, 2009.
The bones, teeth, fur and blood-stained leaves recovered on May 30 and on subsequent days by forest department officials from the site where the tiger was allegedly killed in Keri in February this year had been sent in June to WII for forensic tests.
Forest officials and guards were confident that finding the tiger carcass almost three months later was a breakthrough, but three months later, the WII report came as an anti-climax to animal lovers and others who had assisted in the process of recovery of the tiger bones.
However, Goa's chief conservator of forests Shashi Kumar, while saying that the configuration of teeth sent to WII does not match that of the tiger, had pointed out that the report was only primary in nature.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-tiger-among-59-killed-this-year/articleshow/5263010.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
TNN 24 November 2009, 06:05am IST
PANAJI: Goa's much-talked about tiger poaching case has been numbered as one of 59 tigers killed in the country this year. This though a preliminary report of forensic tests into samples of bones found at Keri carried out by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehra Dun indicated they did not belong to a big cat.
The figures were released by Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh in the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Madhya Pradesh accounted for a maximum of 13 tiger deaths this year.
While 22 tiger deaths were reported in 2006, the number rose to 30 in 2007 and fell marginally to 28 in 2008. The number, however, rose sharply this year with 59 big cats killed up to November 13, 2009.
The bones, teeth, fur and blood-stained leaves recovered on May 30 and on subsequent days by forest department officials from the site where the tiger was allegedly killed in Keri in February this year had been sent in June to WII for forensic tests.
Forest officials and guards were confident that finding the tiger carcass almost three months later was a breakthrough, but three months later, the WII report came as an anti-climax to animal lovers and others who had assisted in the process of recovery of the tiger bones.
However, Goa's chief conservator of forests Shashi Kumar, while saying that the configuration of teeth sent to WII does not match that of the tiger, had pointed out that the report was only primary in nature.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-tiger-among-59-killed-this-year/articleshow/5263010.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Population of tiger, leopard rises at reserves
Population of tiger, leopard rises at reserves
TNN 22 November 2009, 09:32pm IST
BAHRAICH: At least 15 tiger and leopard cubs have been sighted at various spots of the Dudhwa National park (DNP), 14 in Katarniaghat wild life sanctuary area and 6 in Sohelwa Tiger Reserve area Shailesh Prasad, field director Dudhwa Reserve told TOI.
He said a tigress with three cubs was sighted in Madraicha while tigresses with two cubs were seen in Chhota Palia, Chaltua, Puraina and Jhadi Tal areas of the national park and Kakraha, Katarnia and Sadar beat of Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary (KWS).
He also said, "A tigress with one cub was reported to be straying in Trans-Gerua area of Katarniaghat wild life sanctuary (KWS). Three Leopard cubs have been sighted in Sohelwa Tiger Reserve area adjoining hilly area of Nepal." The survival rate of cubs has also increased, he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Population-of-tiger-leopard-rises-at-reserves/articleshow/5258109.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
TNN 22 November 2009, 09:32pm IST
BAHRAICH: At least 15 tiger and leopard cubs have been sighted at various spots of the Dudhwa National park (DNP), 14 in Katarniaghat wild life sanctuary area and 6 in Sohelwa Tiger Reserve area Shailesh Prasad, field director Dudhwa Reserve told TOI.
He said a tigress with three cubs was sighted in Madraicha while tigresses with two cubs were seen in Chhota Palia, Chaltua, Puraina and Jhadi Tal areas of the national park and Kakraha, Katarnia and Sadar beat of Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary (KWS).
He also said, "A tigress with one cub was reported to be straying in Trans-Gerua area of Katarniaghat wild life sanctuary (KWS). Three Leopard cubs have been sighted in Sohelwa Tiger Reserve area adjoining hilly area of Nepal." The survival rate of cubs has also increased, he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/allahabad/Population-of-tiger-leopard-rises-at-reserves/articleshow/5258109.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Season's 6th cougar killed in western North Dakota
Mandan hunter kills sixth cougar
Posted: Saturday, November 21, 2009 2:00 am
A Mandan hunter has killed the sixth mountain lion of the season, leaving two cats remaining in the quota before the season closes in zone 1.
Trevor Hastings shot the 3-year-old female mountain lion Thursday while deer hunting in McKenzie County northwest of Grassy Butte.
The lion weighed 92 pounds, according to the Game and Fish Department.
If two more mountain lions are taken before the March 31 closing date, the season will be closed immediately for zone 1.
Zone 1 basically includes the Badlands area while zone 2 comprises the remainder of the state.
There is no quota in zone 2 and no mountain lions have been killed there this season or last season.
- Brian Gehring
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_e95a2288-d65a-11de-9fa4-001cc4c002e0.html
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Posted: Saturday, November 21, 2009 2:00 am
A Mandan hunter has killed the sixth mountain lion of the season, leaving two cats remaining in the quota before the season closes in zone 1.
Trevor Hastings shot the 3-year-old female mountain lion Thursday while deer hunting in McKenzie County northwest of Grassy Butte.
The lion weighed 92 pounds, according to the Game and Fish Department.
If two more mountain lions are taken before the March 31 closing date, the season will be closed immediately for zone 1.
Zone 1 basically includes the Badlands area while zone 2 comprises the remainder of the state.
There is no quota in zone 2 and no mountain lions have been killed there this season or last season.
- Brian Gehring
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_e95a2288-d65a-11de-9fa4-001cc4c002e0.html
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
India: Leopard killed by vehicle, search is on for cubs
Leopard dies, hunt on for cubs
A STAFF REPORTER
Guwahati, Nov. 21: The Assam forest department has launched an operation to rescue leopard cubs whose mother was run over by a speeding vehicle on National Highway 37 at Bongaon in Golaghat district in the wee hours today.
"There are suckling marks on the abdomen of the leopard and we are sure it has a few cubs," a forest official at Numaligarh range told this correspondent.
He said it was very important to rescue the cubs immediately or else they would die.
A resident of Bongaon, Numal Kurmi, said over phone that the leopard had at least two cubs.
"I saw the cubs once last week when I was returning home in the evening. The cubs are not that small and were walking along with their mother near a bamboo grove by the road."
The leopard was on the run after killing a calf at Bhaiti Ghotowar's house, which is located along the national highway, last night. "Ghotowar's neighbour, who came out of his house in the wee hours, came face-to-face with the leopard which was feeding on the calf. The leopard fled but was unable to dodge a speeding vehicle on the national highway. The animal's head was crushed under its wheels," the forest official said.
The leopard had killed at least 10 cattle in the area in the past month.
The death of the animal comes within a week of another leopard being killed by villagers at Teok in neighbouring Jorhat district.
The frequent killings of leopards have led conservationists to dub Assam as a "killing field" for the animals.
"It is our fault as we have encroached upon the forests which are home to these animals. Now they have no place to go and are in constant conflict with humans. It's time we took some serious steps to protect them," said Amrit Gogoi, a member of an Upper Assam-based NGO, Sewa, that works for the conservation of big cats.
According to an estimate, at least 20 leopards have died in the Upper Assam districts of Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar in the past year.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091122/jsp/northeast/story_11769181.jsp
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
A STAFF REPORTER
Guwahati, Nov. 21: The Assam forest department has launched an operation to rescue leopard cubs whose mother was run over by a speeding vehicle on National Highway 37 at Bongaon in Golaghat district in the wee hours today.
"There are suckling marks on the abdomen of the leopard and we are sure it has a few cubs," a forest official at Numaligarh range told this correspondent.
He said it was very important to rescue the cubs immediately or else they would die.
A resident of Bongaon, Numal Kurmi, said over phone that the leopard had at least two cubs.
"I saw the cubs once last week when I was returning home in the evening. The cubs are not that small and were walking along with their mother near a bamboo grove by the road."
The leopard was on the run after killing a calf at Bhaiti Ghotowar's house, which is located along the national highway, last night. "Ghotowar's neighbour, who came out of his house in the wee hours, came face-to-face with the leopard which was feeding on the calf. The leopard fled but was unable to dodge a speeding vehicle on the national highway. The animal's head was crushed under its wheels," the forest official said.
The leopard had killed at least 10 cattle in the area in the past month.
The death of the animal comes within a week of another leopard being killed by villagers at Teok in neighbouring Jorhat district.
The frequent killings of leopards have led conservationists to dub Assam as a "killing field" for the animals.
"It is our fault as we have encroached upon the forests which are home to these animals. Now they have no place to go and are in constant conflict with humans. It's time we took some serious steps to protect them," said Amrit Gogoi, a member of an Upper Assam-based NGO, Sewa, that works for the conservation of big cats.
According to an estimate, at least 20 leopards have died in the Upper Assam districts of Jorhat, Golaghat and Sivasagar in the past year.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091122/jsp/northeast/story_11769181.jsp
----------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Florida panther found decapitated near Yeehaw Junction
By Craig Pittman, Times staff writer
In Print: Saturday, November 21, 2009
The location was odd enough. An anonymous caller reported seeing a dead Florida panther by the side of the Florida Turnpike near Yeehaw Junction. That's more than 150 miles north of where most panthers live.
When Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staffers checked out the tip Thursday afternoon, they discovered something more disturbing.
Someone had cut off the panther's head.
On Friday the state wildlife agency offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information that could lead to the arrest of whomever took the grisly souvenir.
"To just simply whack off a panther's head is against the law," explained agency spokeswoman Joy Hill.
Possession of panther parts — even ones that came from an animal that was already dead — is illegal without a state permit, she said.
The decapitated panther, which was found near the Osceola-Indian River county line, had apparently been dead for a couple of days before it was reported, Hill said. At this point, though, no one can say for sure where the panther was killed or what killed it, much less where its head has gone.
"It appears to have been hit by a car," she said. "It was right there on the turnpike."
So far this year 20 panthers have died, according to Dave Onorato, a scientist with the wildlife commission's panther team. Twelve of the 20 were run over, making cars and trucks the primary predator of what the Chickasaw Indians once called "the cat of god."
Two centuries ago the Florida panther roamed throughout the Southeast. But since at least 1967, when it was included in the nation's first endangered species list, the panther population has been largely confined to the state's swampy southern tip.
About 100 prowl the woods and water there now, hunting for deer and hogs. From time to time, though, one of the wide-ranging males will show up well north of its normal habitat. Four years ago one was run over on Interstate 95 near St. Augustine.
Although it's been Florida's official state animal since 1981 — not to mention a popular license plate icon and the mascot of Miami's pro hockey team — panthers have had it particularly rough lately.
In April, someone shot a female panther in Hendry County near the Big Cypress National Preserve. Despite the offer of a $15,000 reward, federal officials still have made no arrests in that case.
More problematic was the case of a hunter in Georgia who called authorities last fall to report that he'd shot a big cat he thought was threatening him. Genetic tests this summer confirmed that it was a male panther that had roamed so far north it had crossed the state line.
And then there's another panther mystery. Officials still have not revealed the cause of death for one panther found dead last month near the Ave Maria development in Collier County, saying the case is still under investigation.
Know anything?
Anyone with information about the headless Florida panther found Thursday by the Florida Turnpike should call the state's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous. Callers whose information leads to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Know anything?
Anyone with information about the headless Florida panther found Thursday by the Florida Turnpike should call the state's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous. Callers whose information leads to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
[Last modified: Nov 20, 2009 08:59 PM]
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/florida-panther-found-decapitated-near-yeehaw-junction/1053347
----------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
In Print: Saturday, November 21, 2009
The location was odd enough. An anonymous caller reported seeing a dead Florida panther by the side of the Florida Turnpike near Yeehaw Junction. That's more than 150 miles north of where most panthers live.
When Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staffers checked out the tip Thursday afternoon, they discovered something more disturbing.
Someone had cut off the panther's head.
On Friday the state wildlife agency offered a reward of up to $1,000 for information that could lead to the arrest of whomever took the grisly souvenir.
"To just simply whack off a panther's head is against the law," explained agency spokeswoman Joy Hill.
Possession of panther parts — even ones that came from an animal that was already dead — is illegal without a state permit, she said.
The decapitated panther, which was found near the Osceola-Indian River county line, had apparently been dead for a couple of days before it was reported, Hill said. At this point, though, no one can say for sure where the panther was killed or what killed it, much less where its head has gone.
"It appears to have been hit by a car," she said. "It was right there on the turnpike."
So far this year 20 panthers have died, according to Dave Onorato, a scientist with the wildlife commission's panther team. Twelve of the 20 were run over, making cars and trucks the primary predator of what the Chickasaw Indians once called "the cat of god."
Two centuries ago the Florida panther roamed throughout the Southeast. But since at least 1967, when it was included in the nation's first endangered species list, the panther population has been largely confined to the state's swampy southern tip.
About 100 prowl the woods and water there now, hunting for deer and hogs. From time to time, though, one of the wide-ranging males will show up well north of its normal habitat. Four years ago one was run over on Interstate 95 near St. Augustine.
Although it's been Florida's official state animal since 1981 — not to mention a popular license plate icon and the mascot of Miami's pro hockey team — panthers have had it particularly rough lately.
In April, someone shot a female panther in Hendry County near the Big Cypress National Preserve. Despite the offer of a $15,000 reward, federal officials still have made no arrests in that case.
More problematic was the case of a hunter in Georgia who called authorities last fall to report that he'd shot a big cat he thought was threatening him. Genetic tests this summer confirmed that it was a male panther that had roamed so far north it had crossed the state line.
And then there's another panther mystery. Officials still have not revealed the cause of death for one panther found dead last month near the Ave Maria development in Collier County, saying the case is still under investigation.
Know anything?
Anyone with information about the headless Florida panther found Thursday by the Florida Turnpike should call the state's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous. Callers whose information leads to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
Know anything?
Anyone with information about the headless Florida panther found Thursday by the Florida Turnpike should call the state's Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Callers can remain anonymous. Callers whose information leads to an arrest are eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.
[Last modified: Nov 20, 2009 08:59 PM]
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/wildlife/florida-panther-found-decapitated-near-yeehaw-junction/1053347
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Wildlife sleuths find China link thriving
Wildlife sleuths find China link thriving
Rahul Tripathi, TNN 21 November 2009, 05:41am IST
NEW DELHI: A probe into illegal wildlife trade after some poachers and their associates were nabbed recently has revealed they were involved in an international racket and smuggled animal parts to various countries, including China.
CBI recently arrested a poacher, Keru (30), who allegedly supplied two tiger skins to a group of seven people, reportedly led by Tashi Tshering. The seven were nabbed in Delhi and Nagpur in the first week of November.
Keru was arrested from Ballarshah in Maharastra. Sleuths said Keru, a member of Banwariya tribe, was involved in several cases of poaching. He was arrested in Mysore in 2002 and was convicted for two years. But after coming out of jail, he again started dealing in illegal wildlife trade. CBI officials said Keru sold two tiger skins to Tshering, the main supplier of tiger skins and bones to China, Tibet and western countries.
Tshering's interrogation revealed the animal parts were first sent to Nepal using land routes and from there smuggled into China and Tibet where pharmaceuticals companies used tiger bones for manufacturing aphrodisiac medicines. "A spotless tiger skin was sold for Rs 10 lakh,'' said a CBI official. He added a poacher is paid between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for a one skin.
Based on information from the seven, the officers arrested another notorious poacher, Bheema, near Badarpur on Tuesday. "Bheema was also supplying tiger skin and body parts to Tshering. Currently he is in custody of Gurgaon Police and we will soon approach them, seeking his custodial interrogation,'' added an officer.
CBI arrested five persons on November 5. They were carrying two tiger skins and bones concealed in a cloth consignment from Nagpur. Sources said Sadhu Baderia, Ranjit Mangatram, Ramswaroop, Jogaram Charandas and Amit Singh were hiding in a tent near the Ballarshah railway station. Two tiger skins, about 39 kilograms of tiger bones and other body parts were seized from them, said a CBI official. Charandas and Amit were agents of Tshering. They were carrying Rs 1.5 lakh cash to buy animal parts, said officers.
Among the two skins that were seized, one was about seven feet in length. Experts said it came from a tigress. Another skin was over five feet in length. The police, on the instance of Tshering, also seized two leopard skins, seven otter skins and red sandalwood.
"We have identified few international buyers and are trying catch them. The tigress whose skin was seized from poachers was killed on October 21. The accused had put anti-odour powder on animal parts to conceal foul smell,'' added the officer.
A wildlife experts said the arrest would curb tiger poaching. Explaining the method of poaching, the expert said, "A good poacher always uses iron trap as bullet mark reduces the price of the skin. Kalya Bawaria, who was arrested in September 2005, was one of the notorious poachers who used to poach big cats using iron trap at Sariska Tiger Reserve.''
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Wildlife-sleuths-find-China-link-thriving/articleshow/5252678.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Rahul Tripathi, TNN 21 November 2009, 05:41am IST
NEW DELHI: A probe into illegal wildlife trade after some poachers and their associates were nabbed recently has revealed they were involved in an international racket and smuggled animal parts to various countries, including China.
CBI recently arrested a poacher, Keru (30), who allegedly supplied two tiger skins to a group of seven people, reportedly led by Tashi Tshering. The seven were nabbed in Delhi and Nagpur in the first week of November.
Keru was arrested from Ballarshah in Maharastra. Sleuths said Keru, a member of Banwariya tribe, was involved in several cases of poaching. He was arrested in Mysore in 2002 and was convicted for two years. But after coming out of jail, he again started dealing in illegal wildlife trade. CBI officials said Keru sold two tiger skins to Tshering, the main supplier of tiger skins and bones to China, Tibet and western countries.
Tshering's interrogation revealed the animal parts were first sent to Nepal using land routes and from there smuggled into China and Tibet where pharmaceuticals companies used tiger bones for manufacturing aphrodisiac medicines. "A spotless tiger skin was sold for Rs 10 lakh,'' said a CBI official. He added a poacher is paid between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh for a one skin.
Based on information from the seven, the officers arrested another notorious poacher, Bheema, near Badarpur on Tuesday. "Bheema was also supplying tiger skin and body parts to Tshering. Currently he is in custody of Gurgaon Police and we will soon approach them, seeking his custodial interrogation,'' added an officer.
CBI arrested five persons on November 5. They were carrying two tiger skins and bones concealed in a cloth consignment from Nagpur. Sources said Sadhu Baderia, Ranjit Mangatram, Ramswaroop, Jogaram Charandas and Amit Singh were hiding in a tent near the Ballarshah railway station. Two tiger skins, about 39 kilograms of tiger bones and other body parts were seized from them, said a CBI official. Charandas and Amit were agents of Tshering. They were carrying Rs 1.5 lakh cash to buy animal parts, said officers.
Among the two skins that were seized, one was about seven feet in length. Experts said it came from a tigress. Another skin was over five feet in length. The police, on the instance of Tshering, also seized two leopard skins, seven otter skins and red sandalwood.
"We have identified few international buyers and are trying catch them. The tigress whose skin was seized from poachers was killed on October 21. The accused had put anti-odour powder on animal parts to conceal foul smell,'' added the officer.
A wildlife experts said the arrest would curb tiger poaching. Explaining the method of poaching, the expert said, "A good poacher always uses iron trap as bullet mark reduces the price of the skin. Kalya Bawaria, who was arrested in September 2005, was one of the notorious poachers who used to poach big cats using iron trap at Sariska Tiger Reserve.''
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Wildlife-sleuths-find-China-link-thriving/articleshow/5252678.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Friday, November 20, 2009
Bihar likely to have tiger protection force soon
Bihar likely to have tiger protection force soon
Sanjeev Kumar Verma, TNN 21 November 2009, 04:04am IST
PATNA: Bihar is likely to have a force dedicated to protect its tigers very soon. Christened `Tiger Protection Force' (TPF), the said force would be specially trained to take on the poachers who indulge in trapping the big cats, whose number has registered a marked decline in the past few years across the tiger reserves of India.
The Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Bihar's only such reserve, has not been an exception to this trend, and the latest tiger census estimated the number of big cats in this reserve to be around 10 (3). This number stood at 33 in the previous tiger census conducted in 2005.
"We have sent a proposal to the Centre demanding Rs 2.22 crore for the Valmiki Tiger Reserve of which about Rs 20 lakh would be spent on raising the TPF," Bihar chief wildlife warden (CWW) Bashir Ahmed Khan told TOI.
TPF would consist of 20 personnel of which 10 would be either ex-armymen or those from the special task force and remaining 10 would be locals. This would be more like a strike force which would help the existing forest personnel, manning the reserve, in hours of need.
"The process of raising the TPF would get underway once the Central fund is released," the CWW said, adding, "This year demand has been pegged at Rs 20 lakh only as proposal to the Centre was sent midway the current fiscal year, but from next fiscal onwards the demand under this head would be almost double the current demand."
Bihar could not press for Central demand in the beginning of the current fiscal as it had not signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which is now a statutory requirement for being eligible to receive the Central funds.
According to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2006), the states having tiger reserves have to sign a tripartite MoU with NTCA with director of tiger reserve being the third party, to get Central assistance. As Bihar has inked the MoU, the state's only tiger reserve has become eligible for the Central assistance.
Khan said apart from raising the TPF, the Central fund would also be used for habitat development and to meet other recurring cost incurred on proper upkeep of the reserve.
"Things would depend on volume of fund the Centre releases and also under what heads funds are released by it," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Bihar-likely-to-have-tiger-protection-force-soon/articleshow/5253076.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Sanjeev Kumar Verma, TNN 21 November 2009, 04:04am IST
PATNA: Bihar is likely to have a force dedicated to protect its tigers very soon. Christened `Tiger Protection Force' (TPF), the said force would be specially trained to take on the poachers who indulge in trapping the big cats, whose number has registered a marked decline in the past few years across the tiger reserves of India.
The Valmiki Tiger Reserve, Bihar's only such reserve, has not been an exception to this trend, and the latest tiger census estimated the number of big cats in this reserve to be around 10 (3). This number stood at 33 in the previous tiger census conducted in 2005.
"We have sent a proposal to the Centre demanding Rs 2.22 crore for the Valmiki Tiger Reserve of which about Rs 20 lakh would be spent on raising the TPF," Bihar chief wildlife warden (CWW) Bashir Ahmed Khan told TOI.
TPF would consist of 20 personnel of which 10 would be either ex-armymen or those from the special task force and remaining 10 would be locals. This would be more like a strike force which would help the existing forest personnel, manning the reserve, in hours of need.
"The process of raising the TPF would get underway once the Central fund is released," the CWW said, adding, "This year demand has been pegged at Rs 20 lakh only as proposal to the Centre was sent midway the current fiscal year, but from next fiscal onwards the demand under this head would be almost double the current demand."
Bihar could not press for Central demand in the beginning of the current fiscal as it had not signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), which is now a statutory requirement for being eligible to receive the Central funds.
According to the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 (as amended in 2006), the states having tiger reserves have to sign a tripartite MoU with NTCA with director of tiger reserve being the third party, to get Central assistance. As Bihar has inked the MoU, the state's only tiger reserve has become eligible for the Central assistance.
Khan said apart from raising the TPF, the Central fund would also be used for habitat development and to meet other recurring cost incurred on proper upkeep of the reserve.
"Things would depend on volume of fund the Centre releases and also under what heads funds are released by it," he added.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Bihar-likely-to-have-tiger-protection-force-soon/articleshow/5253076.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
Sierra Club petitions to have critical habitat for endangered Florida panther
November 19, 2009
news-press.com
Learn more about Florida panther
The Sierra Club today filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther.
Such a designation would help the panther survive sea level rise and other impacts of global warming.
The Florida panther population is about 100, and almost all live south of Lake Okeechobee, a low-lying and exposed area vulnerable to climate change.
A critical habitat designation would protect migration corridors and other important parts of the panther's core habitat.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091119/NEWS0125/91119048/1075/Sierra-Club-petitions-to-have-critical-habitat-for--endangered-Florida-panther
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
news-press.com
Learn more about Florida panther
The Sierra Club today filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther.
Such a designation would help the panther survive sea level rise and other impacts of global warming.
The Florida panther population is about 100, and almost all live south of Lake Okeechobee, a low-lying and exposed area vulnerable to climate change.
A critical habitat designation would protect migration corridors and other important parts of the panther's core habitat.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091119/NEWS0125/91119048/1075/Sierra-Club-petitions-to-have-critical-habitat-for--endangered-Florida-panther
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
S. Calif. naturalists know the local bobcats by name
Naturalists know that bobcat
They have tagged several adult bobcats, including Bucky and Marsha. Babe is probably looking for a mate.
By Brianna Bailey
Updated: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:36 PM PST
If local naturalist Dick Newell gets a report of a fearless bobcat strolling casually across the path of cyclists riding around Upper Newport Bay, or dropping in on a well-manicured Newport Beach backyard, he knows it's probably Babe.
Babe, a 17-pound female bobcat Newell guesses is about 5 years old, is easily recognizable by the distinctive pattern of her spotted coat and identification tag in her left ear.
"She'll just walk down the path right past you," Newell said.
It was a group of wildlife researchers who named Babe. The researchers tagged her four years ago with a white ear tag and a radio tracking collar.
They called her Babe because of her affinity for the Back Bay, where she stalks rabbits and coots, a small black bird favored by local bobcats because they are easy to catch.
Similarly, a male bobcat the researchers tagged around Buck Gully was dubbed Buck, and a female discovered in a marshy area was given the name Marsha.
Babe's tracking collar has since fallen off and her tag has yellowed with age, but Newell, a docent for Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends, still spots her every now and again.
"Newport naturalists get reports of cougars all the time, but there haven't been cougars around here in many years — it's probably Babe and offspring," Newell said.
It's not uncommon for people to spot Babe, because she seems to have little fear of humans, sometimes walking right past them, Newell said.
Newport Beach animal control officers will occasionally get a phone call about a bobcat who seems unafraid of humans in their back yard, said Sr. Animal Control Officer Eric Metz.
"Every once and while, we'll get a call about Babe, and we'll tell them about her and it pretty much makes them happy," Metz said.
Newport Beach resident Michael Fleming, 16, recently snapped a few photographs of Babe as she walked within four feet of him one day, while he was out riding his bike around Upper Newport Bay.
"'He said, 'oh, I saw a cat,' a really pretty cat,'" Michael's mother, Penny Fleming, said. "I said 'That is a really pretty cat, but it's a really serious cat.' It's not something I would want to put down kibble in the kitchen for," Fleming said.
Newell identified Babe in Michael's photos from her ear tag and the pattern of her coat.
It's around the time of year Babe typically goes on the prowl for a new mate, digging in the dirt and spraying trees to let male bobcats know she's available, Newell said.
Bobcats usually breed about once a year and Babe's two surviving kittens from this year's litter are getting old enough to leave her side.
There's no need for residents to call animal control if they spot Babe, or another bobcat in Newport Beach, unless it appears sick, Metz said.
Metz cannot recall any instances that bobcats have attacked a pet or human.
"It's just part of the local wildlife," he said.
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/11/19/politics/dpt-bobcats112009.txt
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
They have tagged several adult bobcats, including Bucky and Marsha. Babe is probably looking for a mate.
By Brianna Bailey
Updated: Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:36 PM PST
If local naturalist Dick Newell gets a report of a fearless bobcat strolling casually across the path of cyclists riding around Upper Newport Bay, or dropping in on a well-manicured Newport Beach backyard, he knows it's probably Babe.
Babe, a 17-pound female bobcat Newell guesses is about 5 years old, is easily recognizable by the distinctive pattern of her spotted coat and identification tag in her left ear.
"She'll just walk down the path right past you," Newell said.
It was a group of wildlife researchers who named Babe. The researchers tagged her four years ago with a white ear tag and a radio tracking collar.
They called her Babe because of her affinity for the Back Bay, where she stalks rabbits and coots, a small black bird favored by local bobcats because they are easy to catch.
Similarly, a male bobcat the researchers tagged around Buck Gully was dubbed Buck, and a female discovered in a marshy area was given the name Marsha.
Babe's tracking collar has since fallen off and her tag has yellowed with age, but Newell, a docent for Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends, still spots her every now and again.
"Newport naturalists get reports of cougars all the time, but there haven't been cougars around here in many years — it's probably Babe and offspring," Newell said.
It's not uncommon for people to spot Babe, because she seems to have little fear of humans, sometimes walking right past them, Newell said.
Newport Beach animal control officers will occasionally get a phone call about a bobcat who seems unafraid of humans in their back yard, said Sr. Animal Control Officer Eric Metz.
"Every once and while, we'll get a call about Babe, and we'll tell them about her and it pretty much makes them happy," Metz said.
Newport Beach resident Michael Fleming, 16, recently snapped a few photographs of Babe as she walked within four feet of him one day, while he was out riding his bike around Upper Newport Bay.
"'He said, 'oh, I saw a cat,' a really pretty cat,'" Michael's mother, Penny Fleming, said. "I said 'That is a really pretty cat, but it's a really serious cat.' It's not something I would want to put down kibble in the kitchen for," Fleming said.
Newell identified Babe in Michael's photos from her ear tag and the pattern of her coat.
It's around the time of year Babe typically goes on the prowl for a new mate, digging in the dirt and spraying trees to let male bobcats know she's available, Newell said.
Bobcats usually breed about once a year and Babe's two surviving kittens from this year's litter are getting old enough to leave her side.
There's no need for residents to call animal control if they spot Babe, or another bobcat in Newport Beach, unless it appears sick, Metz said.
Metz cannot recall any instances that bobcats have attacked a pet or human.
"It's just part of the local wildlife," he said.
http://www.dailypilot.com/articles/2009/11/19/politics/dpt-bobcats112009.txt
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
S.D. officials kill cougar for being within city limits
G&FP kills lion captured near Storybook Island
Emilie Rusch Journal Staff | Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:00 am
A 2-year-old mountain lion was found in a city neighborhood near Storybook Island on Thursday morning.
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks regional wildlife manager John Kanta said they received calls starting about 6:30 a.m. from residents who spotted a lion in the west-side neighborhood just east of Storybook Island. Officers didn't initially see anything, but about 9:30 a.m., they received another call from a Janet Street resident who said the lion was in a tree in her front yard.
The healthy 120-pound male cougar was tranquilized and taken back to the GF&P office before being euthanized, Kanta said.
"Our protocol states if a lion is within city limits, we'll remove the lion -- especially in a case like this where it's deep within the city in a heavily populated area," Kanta said. "We just don't take any chances."
The last mountain lion found within city limits was shot in the Robbinsdale area in August, a 1-1/2-year-old male cat that weighed 76 pounds.
"We don't see any rhyme or reason," Kanta said. "It comes in spurts."
Contact Emilie Rusch at 394-8453 or emilie.rusch@rapidcityjournal.com.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_6e92575c-d55e-11de-9a96-001cc4c03286.html
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Emilie Rusch Journal Staff | Posted: Friday, November 20, 2009 4:00 am
A 2-year-old mountain lion was found in a city neighborhood near Storybook Island on Thursday morning.
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks regional wildlife manager John Kanta said they received calls starting about 6:30 a.m. from residents who spotted a lion in the west-side neighborhood just east of Storybook Island. Officers didn't initially see anything, but about 9:30 a.m., they received another call from a Janet Street resident who said the lion was in a tree in her front yard.
The healthy 120-pound male cougar was tranquilized and taken back to the GF&P office before being euthanized, Kanta said.
"Our protocol states if a lion is within city limits, we'll remove the lion -- especially in a case like this where it's deep within the city in a heavily populated area," Kanta said. "We just don't take any chances."
The last mountain lion found within city limits was shot in the Robbinsdale area in August, a 1-1/2-year-old male cat that weighed 76 pounds.
"We don't see any rhyme or reason," Kanta said. "It comes in spurts."
Contact Emilie Rusch at 394-8453 or emilie.rusch@rapidcityjournal.com.
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/news/article_6e92575c-d55e-11de-9a96-001cc4c03286.html
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Utah: Cougar hunting permits still available at DWR
November 20, 2009
Cougar hunting permits still available at DWR
The Spectrum Daily News
Utah's cougar hunting season started Nov. 18. Even if you didn't obtain a limited-entry permit for the hunt, you can still participate.
Permits to hunt on harvest-objective units are available at DWR's offices, at the DWR's Web site (wildlife.utah.gov) and from hunting license agents across Utah.
Judi Tutorow, wildlife licensing coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said there are three major differences between harvest-objective units and traditional limited-entry units.
"There is no limit on the number of permits we can sell for a harvest-objective unit. And you can buy harvest-objective permits on the Internet or over-the-counter," Tutorow said. "The hunt on a harvest-objective unit can close before the season ends. if hunters take the number of cougars biologists want taken.
"For example, let's say the harvest objective on a unit is 10 cougars. The hunt on that unit will close when 10 cougars are taken, even if the date when the season is supposed to end hasn't arrived yet."
The chance a unit might close early shouldn't be a big challenge, though. Harvest-objective hunting is allowed on 38 units in Utah. If the unit you want to hunt closes, you can still hunt on any harvest-objective unit that's still open to hunting.
Tutorow reminds you that you may not buy a harvest-objective permit if you've already obtained a limited-entry cougar permit for the 2009Ð10 season.
Before each hunting trip, you must call 1-888-668-LION (5466), or visit the DWR's Web site, to verify that the unit you'd like to hunt the next day is still open to hunting. The phone line and the Web site are updated by noon with information for the following day.
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20091120/SPORTS/911200338/Cougar+hunting+permits+still+available+at+DWR
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Cougar hunting permits still available at DWR
The Spectrum Daily News
Utah's cougar hunting season started Nov. 18. Even if you didn't obtain a limited-entry permit for the hunt, you can still participate.
Permits to hunt on harvest-objective units are available at DWR's offices, at the DWR's Web site (wildlife.utah.gov) and from hunting license agents across Utah.
Judi Tutorow, wildlife licensing coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said there are three major differences between harvest-objective units and traditional limited-entry units.
"There is no limit on the number of permits we can sell for a harvest-objective unit. And you can buy harvest-objective permits on the Internet or over-the-counter," Tutorow said. "The hunt on a harvest-objective unit can close before the season ends. if hunters take the number of cougars biologists want taken.
"For example, let's say the harvest objective on a unit is 10 cougars. The hunt on that unit will close when 10 cougars are taken, even if the date when the season is supposed to end hasn't arrived yet."
The chance a unit might close early shouldn't be a big challenge, though. Harvest-objective hunting is allowed on 38 units in Utah. If the unit you want to hunt closes, you can still hunt on any harvest-objective unit that's still open to hunting.
Tutorow reminds you that you may not buy a harvest-objective permit if you've already obtained a limited-entry cougar permit for the 2009Ð10 season.
Before each hunting trip, you must call 1-888-668-LION (5466), or visit the DWR's Web site, to verify that the unit you'd like to hunt the next day is still open to hunting. The phone line and the Web site are updated by noon with information for the following day.
http://www.thespectrum.com/article/20091120/SPORTS/911200338/Cougar+hunting+permits+still+available+at+DWR
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Wisconsin DNR hosts cougar tracking, ecology, behavior workshop
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Wildlife Management Will Host A Cougar Training Program
by Dr. James Halfpenny
Wisconsin DNR
Wisconsin --(AmmoLand.com)- The Cougar Tracking, Ecology, and Behavior Workshop at the Crex Meadows Center, Grantsburg, WI on December 2 – 3, 2009. Dr. Halfpenny will be instructing a focused training relative to cougar management, but the workshop is available to members of the general public with a genuine interest in cougar ecology.
The workshop fee is $115. This includes registration, afternoon luncheon each day and workshop materials. Payment must be received in full before confirmation of registration is made.
This two-day workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. on December 2 and end at 4:00 p.m. on December 3. A complete agenda will be sent after payment is received. Registration is limited to 40 people and is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Recommended lodging is at the Lodge on Crooked Lake in Siren, twelve miles east, phone: (715) 349-2500, with a block of rooms reserved at the rate of $65.00 single or double occupancy. When making a reservation refer to the "DNR Cougar Workshop" for these reduced rates.
Registration must be received by November 30, 2009. Payment can be made by sending a check along with completed form to: WI Department of Natural Resources, ATTN: Shawn Rossler, P.O. BOX 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921.
Cougar Tracking, Ecology and Behavior Workshop
Crex Meadows Center, Grantsburg, WI December 2-3, 2009
As western cougar populations saturate and dispersal occurs, the Great Lakes region will continue to experience the occasional "visitor". As wildlife professionals, additional knowledge is needed regarding this species.The public, both rural and urban, will demand it. Therefore, Dr. Halfpenny will be instructing a focused training relative to cougar management. This two-day workshop will cover details on population ecology, biology, identification and detection, collecting quality evidence, the cougar pet trade, and human-cougar interactions. The workshop format includes classroom lectures and indoor training.
The workshop fee is $115. This includes registration, afternoon luncheon each day and workshop materials. Payment must be received in full before confirmation of registration is made.
This two-day workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. on December 2 and end at 4:00 p.m. on December 3. A complete agenda will be sent after payment is received. Registration is limited to 40 people and is on a firstcome, first-served basis.
Recommended lodging is at the Lodge on Crooked Lake in Siren, twelve miles east, phone: (715) 349-2500, with a block of rooms reserved at the rate of $65.00 single or double occupancy. When making a reservation refer to the "DNR Cougar Workshop" for these reduced rates.
Registration must be received by November 30, 2009. Payment can be made using WI DNR budget code or sending a check along with completed form to: WI Department of Natural Resources, ATTN: Shawn Rossler, P.O. BOX 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921
For more information contact Wisconsin DNR at (715) 685-2934 or (608) 261-6452
Instructor
Dr. James C. Halfpenny (A Naturalist's World) is one of the world's foremost experts on finding rare carnivore species. His work on Human/Mountain Lion encounters is featured in A Beast in the Garden by David Baron and the November 2003 Reader's Digest.
This professional-level workshop is designed for finding and documenting the signs of rare carnivore species, not just cougars. The focus will be cougars and differentiating their sign from those sign of other species, wild and domestic. Emphasis will be placed on collecting and preserving quality evidence to document field track scene and facilitate analysis.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. James C. Halfpenny, Ph.D., President of A Naturalist's World, tracker, carnivore ecologist, educator, and writer. Jim is author of many books and videos including Tracking Cougars: The Basics, A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking, Tracking: Mastering the Basics, Tracking Elk for Hunters, Yellowstone Bears in the Wild, Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild, Scats and Tracks Regional Series, and Winter: An Ecological Handbook, among others. See www.tracknature.com for more information.
Jim specializes in finding signs of cougars, lynx, bears, wolves, wolverine and other carnivores. He trains professionals on a worldwide basis in the skills of finding carnivores. Dr. Halfpenny knows what level of skills it takes to find signs that will "stand up in a court of law." Jim will share his personal experience and pass on valuable tracking skills that have helped him locate mountain lions.
Schedule: (variable depending on number of participants, and whims of instructor)
Day 1 – Setting the Stage: The Cougar from Myth to Reality
* 9:00 – Registration and Introductions – Ecology
Morning Lectures
* The Gestalt: Ecology and Verification
* Cougars: Biology, Ecology, and Behavior
Afternoon Lectures
* Cougars and People: Pets
* Cougars and People: Confrontation
* Cougars and People: The Neighborhood and Confrontation Time Line
* Trails: Carnivore Gaits, Behavioral Stories, and Blood
Day 2 – Track Scene Identification: Field Knowledge and Skills
* 9:00 – Programs start
Morning Lectures and Laboratories
* Footprints: Clues, Criteria, and Measurements
* Signs: Scats, Burials, and Sounds
* Lab A – Footprint Interpretation and Track Preservation
* Lab B – Cougars in Wisconsin: Research, Laws, and Management
Afternoon Lecture and Laboratories
* Predation: Events, Signs, and Case Studies
* Lab A – Cougars in Wisconsin: Research, Laws, and Management
Lab B – Footprint Interpretation and Track Preservation
http://www.ammoland.com/2009/11/19/wildlife-management-will-host-a-cougar-training-program/
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Wildlife Management Will Host A Cougar Training Program
by Dr. James Halfpenny
Wisconsin DNR
Wisconsin --(AmmoLand.com)- The Cougar Tracking, Ecology, and Behavior Workshop at the Crex Meadows Center, Grantsburg, WI on December 2 – 3, 2009. Dr. Halfpenny will be instructing a focused training relative to cougar management, but the workshop is available to members of the general public with a genuine interest in cougar ecology.
The workshop fee is $115. This includes registration, afternoon luncheon each day and workshop materials. Payment must be received in full before confirmation of registration is made.
This two-day workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. on December 2 and end at 4:00 p.m. on December 3. A complete agenda will be sent after payment is received. Registration is limited to 40 people and is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Recommended lodging is at the Lodge on Crooked Lake in Siren, twelve miles east, phone: (715) 349-2500, with a block of rooms reserved at the rate of $65.00 single or double occupancy. When making a reservation refer to the "DNR Cougar Workshop" for these reduced rates.
Registration must be received by November 30, 2009. Payment can be made by sending a check along with completed form to: WI Department of Natural Resources, ATTN: Shawn Rossler, P.O. BOX 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921.
Cougar Tracking, Ecology and Behavior Workshop
Crex Meadows Center, Grantsburg, WI December 2-3, 2009
As western cougar populations saturate and dispersal occurs, the Great Lakes region will continue to experience the occasional "visitor". As wildlife professionals, additional knowledge is needed regarding this species.The public, both rural and urban, will demand it. Therefore, Dr. Halfpenny will be instructing a focused training relative to cougar management. This two-day workshop will cover details on population ecology, biology, identification and detection, collecting quality evidence, the cougar pet trade, and human-cougar interactions. The workshop format includes classroom lectures and indoor training.
The workshop fee is $115. This includes registration, afternoon luncheon each day and workshop materials. Payment must be received in full before confirmation of registration is made.
This two-day workshop will begin at 9:00 a.m. on December 2 and end at 4:00 p.m. on December 3. A complete agenda will be sent after payment is received. Registration is limited to 40 people and is on a firstcome, first-served basis.
Recommended lodging is at the Lodge on Crooked Lake in Siren, twelve miles east, phone: (715) 349-2500, with a block of rooms reserved at the rate of $65.00 single or double occupancy. When making a reservation refer to the "DNR Cougar Workshop" for these reduced rates.
Registration must be received by November 30, 2009. Payment can be made using WI DNR budget code or sending a check along with completed form to: WI Department of Natural Resources, ATTN: Shawn Rossler, P.O. BOX 7921, Madison, WI 53707-7921
For more information contact Wisconsin DNR at (715) 685-2934 or (608) 261-6452
Instructor
Dr. James C. Halfpenny (A Naturalist's World) is one of the world's foremost experts on finding rare carnivore species. His work on Human/Mountain Lion encounters is featured in A Beast in the Garden by David Baron and the November 2003 Reader's Digest.
This professional-level workshop is designed for finding and documenting the signs of rare carnivore species, not just cougars. The focus will be cougars and differentiating their sign from those sign of other species, wild and domestic. Emphasis will be placed on collecting and preserving quality evidence to document field track scene and facilitate analysis.
Biographical Sketch
Dr. James C. Halfpenny, Ph.D., President of A Naturalist's World, tracker, carnivore ecologist, educator, and writer. Jim is author of many books and videos including Tracking Cougars: The Basics, A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking, Tracking: Mastering the Basics, Tracking Elk for Hunters, Yellowstone Bears in the Wild, Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild, Scats and Tracks Regional Series, and Winter: An Ecological Handbook, among others. See www.tracknature.com for more information.
Jim specializes in finding signs of cougars, lynx, bears, wolves, wolverine and other carnivores. He trains professionals on a worldwide basis in the skills of finding carnivores. Dr. Halfpenny knows what level of skills it takes to find signs that will "stand up in a court of law." Jim will share his personal experience and pass on valuable tracking skills that have helped him locate mountain lions.
Schedule: (variable depending on number of participants, and whims of instructor)
Day 1 – Setting the Stage: The Cougar from Myth to Reality
* 9:00 – Registration and Introductions – Ecology
Morning Lectures
* The Gestalt: Ecology and Verification
* Cougars: Biology, Ecology, and Behavior
Afternoon Lectures
* Cougars and People: Pets
* Cougars and People: Confrontation
* Cougars and People: The Neighborhood and Confrontation Time Line
* Trails: Carnivore Gaits, Behavioral Stories, and Blood
Day 2 – Track Scene Identification: Field Knowledge and Skills
* 9:00 – Programs start
Morning Lectures and Laboratories
* Footprints: Clues, Criteria, and Measurements
* Signs: Scats, Burials, and Sounds
* Lab A – Footprint Interpretation and Track Preservation
* Lab B – Cougars in Wisconsin: Research, Laws, and Management
Afternoon Lecture and Laboratories
* Predation: Events, Signs, and Case Studies
* Lab A – Cougars in Wisconsin: Research, Laws, and Management
Lab B – Footprint Interpretation and Track Preservation
http://www.ammoland.com/2009/11/19/wildlife-management-will-host-a-cougar-training-program/
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Some mountain lion hunting closes in Montana
November 19, 2009
Some lion hunting closes
By Tribune Staff
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks closed northcentral Montana hunting districts 413 and 432, which include portions of Cascade, Meagher and Judith Basin counties, to all mountain lion hunting effective half an hour after sunset today.
The closure notice for the hunt came shortly after FWP received word that the pre-established harvest quota for the districts combined had been met.
These districts will re-open for the hunting of mountain lions for the Winter Season beginning Dec. 1.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091119/NEWS01/91119011/Some+lion+hunting+closes
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Some lion hunting closes
By Tribune Staff
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks closed northcentral Montana hunting districts 413 and 432, which include portions of Cascade, Meagher and Judith Basin counties, to all mountain lion hunting effective half an hour after sunset today.
The closure notice for the hunt came shortly after FWP received word that the pre-established harvest quota for the districts combined had been met.
These districts will re-open for the hunting of mountain lions for the Winter Season beginning Dec. 1.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20091119/NEWS01/91119011/Some+lion+hunting+closes
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
India: Injured leopard recovers, soon to be on display
TNN 19 November 2009, 10:56pm IST
KANPUR: The ferocious female leopard which was brought to the Kanpur zoo from the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, a month back was now recovered and will soon be on display for the visitors at the zoo. it was injured while enclosed in the cage.
The authorities claimed that the man-eater is brought to the zoo. They were a part of the zoo on earlier occasions. Leopards that belong to the cat family were acknowledged as good sprinters. They were also said to be capable of climbing up the trees and thus were good hunters.
Director Kanpur zoological park K Praveen Rao informed TOI that the female leopard is in the quarantine ward and its de-worming schedule is also complete. "Before it is moved out of the ward, it will be properly vaccinated... only then it will be put on display for the visitors."
A zoo keeper informed TOI that the wild cat was gradually getting used to the zoo environment. But still it is not in the situation to move out off the ward. The cat now consumed four kilograms of meat everyday and was healthy. Rao said the cat was familiar with the keeper who serves the meat.
However, a senior zoo official explained the reason for the leopard being ferocious. He said when a leopard becomes old and weak it becomes man-eater. For such big cats, human beings are soft and easy target, enough to satisfy their appetite. Cutting of the green cover at a vast scale and interference of the mankind in the jungles also annoyed these wild animals leading them to an extent that they even start attacking human beings, he added.
Meanwhile, zoo authorities informed that the severely injured hyena which was brought to Kanpur zoological park from Guthaiya village in Rura on Monday evening after its brief encounter with the humans was under constant watch in the zoo. "Its condition is critical and efforts were made to revive it...antibiotics were provided to it and its regular medication was going on", said an official.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Injured-leopard-recovers-soon-to-be-on-display/articleshow/5248526.cms
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
KANPUR: The ferocious female leopard which was brought to the Kanpur zoo from the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, a month back was now recovered and will soon be on display for the visitors at the zoo. it was injured while enclosed in the cage.
The authorities claimed that the man-eater is brought to the zoo. They were a part of the zoo on earlier occasions. Leopards that belong to the cat family were acknowledged as good sprinters. They were also said to be capable of climbing up the trees and thus were good hunters.
Director Kanpur zoological park K Praveen Rao informed TOI that the female leopard is in the quarantine ward and its de-worming schedule is also complete. "Before it is moved out of the ward, it will be properly vaccinated... only then it will be put on display for the visitors."
A zoo keeper informed TOI that the wild cat was gradually getting used to the zoo environment. But still it is not in the situation to move out off the ward. The cat now consumed four kilograms of meat everyday and was healthy. Rao said the cat was familiar with the keeper who serves the meat.
However, a senior zoo official explained the reason for the leopard being ferocious. He said when a leopard becomes old and weak it becomes man-eater. For such big cats, human beings are soft and easy target, enough to satisfy their appetite. Cutting of the green cover at a vast scale and interference of the mankind in the jungles also annoyed these wild animals leading them to an extent that they even start attacking human beings, he added.
Meanwhile, zoo authorities informed that the severely injured hyena which was brought to Kanpur zoological park from Guthaiya village in Rura on Monday evening after its brief encounter with the humans was under constant watch in the zoo. "Its condition is critical and efforts were made to revive it...antibiotics were provided to it and its regular medication was going on", said an official.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kanpur/Injured-leopard-recovers-soon-to-be-on-display/articleshow/5248526.cms
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Notorious tiger poacher Totha Ram arrested
Notorious tiger poacher Totha Ram arrested
TNN 18 November 2009, 05:55pm IST
NEW DELHI: A notorious tiger poacher from Panipat, Birbal alias Totha Ram, was arrested on Wednesday in Banbasa at Champawat district of Uttarakhand in a joint operation of the Uttarakhand police and forest department with assistance from the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
Totha Ram, who is the leader of a bawaria poaching gang, was arrested along with a local associate. A tiger trap, another half-made trap, two deer antlers, knives and skinning tools, a net, two mobile phones and a motorcycle were recovered from them. Totha Ram has been arrested twice before - in May 2003 with poaching tools, and in August 2004 with a tiger skin (this was also a WPSI assisted case). He was out on bail from the 2004 case and is believed to have been camping in Banbasa with the intention of killing a tiger.
"We are delighted with this case, particularly since it appears that this poacher was caught just before he was able to kill a tiger. It is another example of how important it is to stop the activities of habitual poachers, who continue to carry out their illegal activities even while out on bail", said Belinda Wright, executive director of WPSI.
Totha Ram comes from a family of tiger poachers. His sister Dilpo was recently convicted to five years rigorous imprisonment by a court in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, for a 1992 tiger case. She had earlier been convicted in November 2005, by a court in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, for carrying the skin and bones of a tiger that was killed at Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in February 2005.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Notorious-tiger-poacher-Totha-Ram-arrested-/articleshow/5243786.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
TNN 18 November 2009, 05:55pm IST
NEW DELHI: A notorious tiger poacher from Panipat, Birbal alias Totha Ram, was arrested on Wednesday in Banbasa at Champawat district of Uttarakhand in a joint operation of the Uttarakhand police and forest department with assistance from the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI).
Totha Ram, who is the leader of a bawaria poaching gang, was arrested along with a local associate. A tiger trap, another half-made trap, two deer antlers, knives and skinning tools, a net, two mobile phones and a motorcycle were recovered from them. Totha Ram has been arrested twice before - in May 2003 with poaching tools, and in August 2004 with a tiger skin (this was also a WPSI assisted case). He was out on bail from the 2004 case and is believed to have been camping in Banbasa with the intention of killing a tiger.
"We are delighted with this case, particularly since it appears that this poacher was caught just before he was able to kill a tiger. It is another example of how important it is to stop the activities of habitual poachers, who continue to carry out their illegal activities even while out on bail", said Belinda Wright, executive director of WPSI.
Totha Ram comes from a family of tiger poachers. His sister Dilpo was recently convicted to five years rigorous imprisonment by a court in Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh, for a 1992 tiger case. She had earlier been convicted in November 2005, by a court in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, for carrying the skin and bones of a tiger that was killed at Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in February 2005.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/flora-fauna/Notorious-tiger-poacher-Totha-Ram-arrested-/articleshow/5243786.cms
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/
India: Leopard chasing deer run over by truck
Radha Venkatesan, TNN 18 November 2009, 05:50am IST
COIMBATORE: A young male leopard was run over by a speeding vehicle while it was chasing a sambar deer at Karapallam on the national highway between
Sathyamangalam and Mysore in the early hours of Tuesday. The one-and-a-half-year-old leopard was crossing the national highway near Asanur, 30 km from Sathyamanglam town in Erode district, and got hit by a truck, the Sathyamangalam divisional forest officer, S Ramasubramaniam, told TOI.
"It is sad that we are losing our animals in road accidents," the DFO said. An survey of the area, which had both pug marks and hoof marks, indicated that the leopard was chasing a sambar deer when it was hit by a truck. However, the deer escaped while the leopard died on the spot.
Post-mortem examination revealed that the spinal cord of the leopard was broken, causing its instant death. The sprawling Sathyamanglam forests, which is contiguous with the Nilgiris and Karnataka forests, has just about 15 to 20 leopards, besides two black panthers.
The Sathyamangalam forests, once the home of legendary bandit Veerappan, faces torrid heat for four months in a year and has only a small population of leopards. However, in the last two years, tigers are being sighted in the Bhavanisagar range.
Often, huge tuskers and elephant calves are sighted on the drive through the national highway from Bannari in Erode district to Mysore in Karnataka. There are over 800 elephants in the Sathyamangalam forests. However, it is the first time that a wild animal has been hit in the recent years in Sathyamangalam, say forest officials.
While the national highways from Mudumalai and Bandipur, which fall within the tiger reserve, are closed for traffic at night, the highway coursing through Sathyamangalam forests is open to vehicular traffic. Besides, with rains ravaging the Mudumalai and Ooty roads, most vehicles headed for Bangalore are now taking the Sathyamangalam route, putting the passing wild animals in peril.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Leopard-chasing-deer-run-over-by-truck/articleshow/5241242.cms
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
COIMBATORE: A young male leopard was run over by a speeding vehicle while it was chasing a sambar deer at Karapallam on the national highway between
Sathyamangalam and Mysore in the early hours of Tuesday. The one-and-a-half-year-old leopard was crossing the national highway near Asanur, 30 km from Sathyamanglam town in Erode district, and got hit by a truck, the Sathyamangalam divisional forest officer, S Ramasubramaniam, told TOI.
"It is sad that we are losing our animals in road accidents," the DFO said. An survey of the area, which had both pug marks and hoof marks, indicated that the leopard was chasing a sambar deer when it was hit by a truck. However, the deer escaped while the leopard died on the spot.
Post-mortem examination revealed that the spinal cord of the leopard was broken, causing its instant death. The sprawling Sathyamanglam forests, which is contiguous with the Nilgiris and Karnataka forests, has just about 15 to 20 leopards, besides two black panthers.
The Sathyamangalam forests, once the home of legendary bandit Veerappan, faces torrid heat for four months in a year and has only a small population of leopards. However, in the last two years, tigers are being sighted in the Bhavanisagar range.
Often, huge tuskers and elephant calves are sighted on the drive through the national highway from Bannari in Erode district to Mysore in Karnataka. There are over 800 elephants in the Sathyamangalam forests. However, it is the first time that a wild animal has been hit in the recent years in Sathyamangalam, say forest officials.
While the national highways from Mudumalai and Bandipur, which fall within the tiger reserve, are closed for traffic at night, the highway coursing through Sathyamangalam forests is open to vehicular traffic. Besides, with rains ravaging the Mudumalai and Ooty roads, most vehicles headed for Bangalore are now taking the Sathyamangalam route, putting the passing wild animals in peril.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Leopard-chasing-deer-run-over-by-truck/articleshow/5241242.cms
------------
Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Kashmir animal population increases as violence drives poachers away
Published: 4:40PM GMT 17 Nov 2009
Indian Kashmir's wildlife population has seen a dramatic increase after two decades of fighting scared off poachers and hunters from the region, a wildlife official said on Tuesday.
Rare birds like the black partridge and pheasant have increased by the thousands while populations of Asiatic black bears, leopards, musk deer and rare red deer have swelled in the disputed Himalayan region's pine forests.
"For fear of being caught in exchanges of fire between militants and the security forces, no one dared to venture deep into the forests in the past 20 years," Rashid Naqash, the region's wildlife warden, told Reuters in Dachigam Sanctuary.
In 1990, Indian authorities disarmed the local population, ordering residents to deposit their hunting rifles with police as part of efforts to quell the revolt.
Authorities estimate the number of threatened black bears, which inhabit hilly and mountainous forests across Asia from Afghanistan to Taiwan, has jumped in Kashmir to 2,500-3,000 from 700-800 since 1990.
Officials said the increase in wildlife population was good news for Kashmir's ailing tourism industry.
Kashmir has been disputed by India and Pakistan since they won independence from Britain in 1947 after a bloody partition.
More than 47,000 people have been killed since simmering discontent against Indian rule turned into a full-blown rebellion in 1989.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6590566/Kashmir-animal-population-increases-as-violence-drives-poachers-away.html
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
Indian Kashmir's wildlife population has seen a dramatic increase after two decades of fighting scared off poachers and hunters from the region, a wildlife official said on Tuesday.
Rare birds like the black partridge and pheasant have increased by the thousands while populations of Asiatic black bears, leopards, musk deer and rare red deer have swelled in the disputed Himalayan region's pine forests.
"For fear of being caught in exchanges of fire between militants and the security forces, no one dared to venture deep into the forests in the past 20 years," Rashid Naqash, the region's wildlife warden, told Reuters in Dachigam Sanctuary.
In 1990, Indian authorities disarmed the local population, ordering residents to deposit their hunting rifles with police as part of efforts to quell the revolt.
Authorities estimate the number of threatened black bears, which inhabit hilly and mountainous forests across Asia from Afghanistan to Taiwan, has jumped in Kashmir to 2,500-3,000 from 700-800 since 1990.
Officials said the increase in wildlife population was good news for Kashmir's ailing tourism industry.
Kashmir has been disputed by India and Pakistan since they won independence from Britain in 1947 after a bloody partition.
More than 47,000 people have been killed since simmering discontent against Indian rule turned into a full-blown rebellion in 1989.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6590566/Kashmir-animal-population-increases-as-violence-drives-poachers-away.html
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
"Cougar Clippings" for 18 Nov 2009 from Mountain Lion Foundation
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Learn more about big cats and Big Cat Rescue at http://www.bigcatrescue.org
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