The "Gorilla King" Titus has passed away from old age.
September 2009. On the morning of Sept. 14, trackers at the Karisoke Research Centre found the legendary silverback gorilla Titus, dead on his night nest in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. He was 35, which is quite old for a male mountain gorilla. Titus had been the dominant male in one of the gorilla groups studied for many years by Karisoke and was the subject of the documentary "Gorilla King" TV series.
Born in 1974
Titus' eventful life began in 1974, observed by Dian Fossey and her research assistant Kelly Stewart, daughter of actor Jimmy Stewart. Kelly was the first to see the newborn, so she named him Titus after a character in a novel she was reading. His mother, the elderly Flossie, lived in Fossey's Group Four, led by his father, Uncle Bert. Fossey noted in Gorillas in the Mist that Titus seemed to be "underdeveloped and spindly" and had difficulty breathing. He soon overcame these disabilities, the first of many challenges he faced in childhood.
Father killed by poachers
When Titus was 4 years old, poachers killed his father Uncle Bert, his uncle Digit, and his younger brother. Soon after, a newly arrived silverback named Beetsme killed Titus' infant sister, causing his mother and older sister to flee to another group. Titus was left at age 5 to live with a few unrelated males, including Beetsme and Tiger, that were soon joined by Peanuts and two others. The group remained all-male for several years, until another group's silverback died and five females came to join the bachelors. Beetsme eventually drove off all the other males except for Titus, who was favoured by Papoose, the dominant female.
Even tempered
An unusually even tempered and skillful leader, Titus maintained his dominance over a group of some 25 individuals without difficulty for many years.
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Please follow link to learn more about Titus and his incredible story...
* Follow the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International on Twitter.com and get the latest updates http://twitter.com/savinggorillasThe "Gorilla King" Titus has passed away from old age.
September 2009. On the... more
What harm can a simple road do in a pristine place such as Ecuador's Yasuni National Park, home to peccaries, tapirs, monkeys and myriad other wildlife species? A great deal, it turns out.
Specifically, it can turn subsistence communities into commercial hunting camps that empty rainforests of their wildlife, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society http://www.wcs.org/ and the IDEAS-Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador have found.
A study by WCS field scientists in the park found that the presence of a single road in a protected area and the subsidies provided by oil companies to local people can fundamentally change how indigenous communities use their resources by providing both access to deeper parts of the forest and a cheap means of getting meat to nearby wildlife markets.
The study appears in the most recent issue of the journal Animal Conservation.
"We've found that a road in a forest can bring huge social changes to local groups and the ways in which they utilize wildlife resources," said WCS and USFQ researcher Esteban Suárez, lead author of the study. "Communities existing inside and around the park are changing their customs to a lifestyle of commercial hunting, the first stage in a potential overexploitation of wildlife."
" A simple, seemingly inoffensive road can have far-reaching effects on a landscape and its people," said Dr. Avecita Chicchón, Director of WCS's Latin America and Caribbean Program. "It provides hunters with more access to a wider range of forest while providing a low-cost transportation route to markets. More importantly, it plugs communities more easily into the larger economic world while creating increased demand for numerous species of animals. It is the road to unsustainability."
In the study, WCS scientists measured the levels of wild meat sold in a market in Pompeya, located about 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) outside Yasuni National Park, between the years 2005-2007. The study also examined the effects of a road constructed in 1992 by oil company Maxus Ecuador Inc. that traverses more than 149 kilometers (92 miles) into the protected area.
The majority of animals brought in by hunters were pacas (mid-sized Amazonian rodents), white-lipped peccaries, collared peccaries, and woolly monkeys comprising some 80 percent of the total biomass monitored.
The wild meat market emerged shortly after the construction of the road. Although road access was strictly controlled, the oil companies operating this concession provided free travel along the road for hunters from local Waorani communities, according to the studyWhat harm can a simple road do in a pristine place such as Ecuador's Yasuni National... more
"The Bushmeat Crisis" - the commercial hunting of many critically endangered species
(DRC, Africa)
GORILLA HANDS FOR SALE AT A MARKET IN THE
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO... FOR 6 US DOLLARS.
*WARNING: GRAPHIC & DISTURBING IMAGES
This slideshow includes other critically endangered species also for sale.
Some are STILL ALIVE.
Please follow link to 'Endangered Species International' (ESI) for more information & to see what you can do to help..
For the first time, ESI reveal's photos of their field monitoring using undercover methods at key markets in the republic of Congo. Their research reveals that most of illegal bushmeat sold in markets originates from one single region where primary and unprotected rainforest still remains.
ESI estimates about 300 gorillas are illegally killed each year for the bushmeat market in the city of Pointe Noire.
With your help, ESI can stop the illegal commercial hunting of endangered species in Central Africa.
DID ANYONE HEAR THIS?
$6.OO...
THIS IS UNEXCEPABLE!"The Bushmeat Crisis" - the commercial hunting of many critically endangered species... more
PHOTO: A mountain gorilla is having a snare removed. Illegal logging/deforestation has created access for illegal hunting and illegal wildlife-trade. The snares are used to catch "bushmeat" (anything that ends up in the trap).
Large numbers of endangered animals have been killed by armed groups at Africa's oldest national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the start of the year, park officials and environmental groups said Tuesday.
Chimpanzees, elephants, antelopes, birds and hippos have been slaughtered after Virunga National Park became the scene of intense fighting.
The park, on the frontier with Uganda, was made a world heritage site by the UN's cultural body UNESCO, and is home to endangered species such as the mountain gorilla.
"Four chimpanzees were killed last week in the central zone and 11 elephants since the start of the year," park director Emmanuel de Merode told AFP.
He added "a large number of game animals", including antelopes, had also been slaughtered.
Bantu Lukamba, from local environmental NGO Innovation, said: "At least 31 animals, including 11 migratory birds and three hippos were killed over 21 days."
They died between May 25 and June 16, he said.
Armed groups have overrun the park since violence flared up last year.
It became the theatre of intense fighting, mainly between government forces or their proxies and rebels of the National Congress for the Defence of the People.
"It is impossible to get control the situation in the park, given the huge number of armed men who exploit its resources," Merode said.
The park is also home to Lake Edward, which in 1980 was the world's most important hippopotamus sanctuary with 27,000 of the animals.
There are now less than 300, according to Merode.
Created in 1925, Virunga National Park is the oldest in Africa.PHOTO: A mountain gorilla is having a snare removed. Illegal logging/deforestation has... more
International Experts Issue Frankfurt Declaration to Call for Better Protection of Gorillas
Under the title 'Gentle Giants in need” 160 government officials, experts, corporate representatives and conservationists from 20 countries attended a conference in Frankfurt, 9-10 June to mark the UN Year of the Gorilla, a global campaign to help implement the gorilla agreement.
In the “Frankfurt Declaration” they highlighted major threats to gorillas and their habitats, as well as the strategies available for the conservation of the second closest relative to
humankind.
In the Declaration delegates appeal to governments, the international community and industrial companies to enhance activities to reduce threats to the remaining gorilla populations in the wild, which can contribute to peace-making and prosperity in Central Africa.
Why are the gorillas threatened with extinction? Humans.
An omnipresent yet invisible threat to gorillas and their habitats, as well as to countless other species, is the ever-growing human demand for energy and its consequences.
Human encroachment, "bushmeat" hunting, the destruction of their habitat for charcoal, and coltan mining.
Charcoal production is a major threat to gorilla forests in many areas, not least the Mountain Gorilla habitat in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. To reduce this threat, solar cookers, tree-planting on farms and the spread of fuel-efficient stoves are needed.
The Year of the Gorilla (YoG) is supporting a project in the Mountain Gorillas’ range which enables local residents to purchase highly fuel-efficient stoves for a low price, thereby enabling them to use less firewood, which is often taken from the very same forests that are home to the gorillas.
For more information:
'GRASP' - Great Ape Survival Partnership http://www.unep.org/grasp/International Experts Issue Frankfurt Declaration to Call for Better Protection of... more
Has the recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened the populations of lowland gorillas? How many are left?
The short answer is yes, dramatically.
Not to be confused with Western Lowland Gorillas, which are thriving in significant numbers in neighboring Congo (a recent census counted 125,000).
Today fewer than 5,000 Eastern Lowland Gorillas are estimated to remain in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly known as Zaire. Some 17,000 inhabited the region as recently as 1994, but today habitat loss, hunting ('bushmeat'), and war and violence are combining to push them over the edge.
Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, an influx of refugees, along with bloodthirsty militias, moved across the border into the neighboring DRC. These militias set up training grounds in the very forests the gorillas call home, making conservation work impractical to say the least. Park rangers, game wardens and wildlife researchers either fled their wooded beats or were removed at gunpoint.
In the wake of this, civilian populations in the affected areas still had to make ends meet somehow. So hunting for so-called “bushmeat,” and cutting down the forest for firewood, charcoal and space for agricultural plots became the means for day-to-day survival, and continue to this day.
Some 91 percent of the human population in the region practice subsistence agriculture. This means that large swaths of gorilla habitat throughout the region have been converted to farms. At the same time, 96 percent of the locals rely on firewood as their main supply of energy for warmth and cooking. “Forested parks are for many of them the last remaining source of fuel,” reports the Year of the Gorilla website.
*please follow link for the rest of this story*Has the recent violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo threatened the populations... more
"The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names"
~ Chinese Proverb
May 13, 2009 "Lew Rockwell" -- If you are a poor, hapless Afghan civilian whose family's bodies were ripped apart by U.S. bombs, does it really make a difference to you if the air "strikes" were ordered by the Moron from Texas, George W Bush, or the Agent of Change, Barack Obama? I would think not. If you were a Pakistani civilian whose village had been bombed by the U.S. would your heart be comforted by the fact that the mad bombers have a new, young, hip "Commander-in-Chief" who makes funny jokes to all the stenographers known as "The Washington Press Corps"? I sincerely doubt that as well.
Barack Obama sold himself to the country as someone who would bring massive "change" to the policies of the U.S. government, but of course when it comes to the favorite activity of that cancerous organism, warring against wholly innocent civilian populations in foreign countries, there will be no change. In fact, even the pleas of the President of the supposedly free and democratic country of Afghanistan are meaningless in the face of the U.S. government's desire to enforce its will on as much of the Earth as possible. I wonder if Americans would feel like they lived in a "free democracy" if the U.S. was occupied by a foreign military power that regularly killed our people and refused to stop? A power that calls refraining from murder as fighting with "one hand tied behind our back" as White House "National Security" Advisor James Jones recently did? I am pretty sure they emphatically would NOT.
This morning's news brings more information to us of "Barry's" latest slaughter, with at least 8 people in Pakistan dead, none of whom ever hurt a single innocent American. If they had hurt any U.S. soldiers in the region, that, of course, is wholly a result of the imperialists in Washington invading the region in the first place. To kill someone for defending themselves against aggression is the definition of tyrannical is it not? Or is the U.S. Government so holy, so infallible and morally upright that any who defy it are to be disposed of, like so much human garbage? Is a country that claims to be Christian really ready to accept the blasphemous idea that the U.S. Government is above any laws, even those of the God that the majority of Americans claim to believe in?
The Chinese proverb that opens this piece is true in all times and places, so let's call Mr. Obama by his real names: Wall Street Stooge, Zionist lickspittle, National Socialist, liar and above all, mass murderBarack Obama – Mass Murderer
By Dan Spielberg
"The beginning of wisdom is... more
Government obligations for Social Security and Medicare may soon exceed the combined net worth of every household and nonprofit organization in the country.
Prices dropped last year. But we still need to invest to protect ourselves from inflation. That's why our retirement-plan investing needs an inflation "tilt." You'll understand why in a few paragraphs.
How bad will future inflation be? I don't know. Neither does anyone else. It could be a normal inflation of 3% to 4% a year. It could also be a banana-republic 10% a month.
What we know is that all governments make promises they can't fulfill. Our government certainly has. Under both political parties, it has taken promise making to a high art. This is not hyperbole. The figures can be found in regularly published government reports.Government obligations for Social Security and Medicare may soon exceed the combined... more
Everyday, thousands of wild animals get caught in snares across the continent to feed a rising appetite for wild meat.
War-torn countries like the Democratic Republic of Conago are going into the last frontiers and wiping out the few surviving great apes for the pot, while in Kenya, which has no war but unfortunately has unclear policies on wildlife utilisation and an increasingly poor population that sees it as an easy target, poachers set snares to catch anything from ostrich to the tiny dik dik antelope, including Kenyan endemic species such as the rare bongo or the roan antelope.
“Today, the greatest threat to wildlife after habitat loss, is the bushmeat trade,” says Iregi Mwenja, a wildlife biologist who returned recently from a bushmeat conference in Ghana.
“Statistics show that the trade is increasing by the day and we have all the reasons to make the situation worse.” He pauses for a moment and continues. “There’s poverty, landless people settled next to wildlife areas and unemployment. And they all have to eat something and the most available thing is wildlife.”
“Even though our situation is not as bad as in Tanzania or Uganda or other African countries, there’s no reason to celebrate because things are getting worse. For one, we have no national strategy on bushmeat.
“And there’s weak collaboration between the government bodies. The Ministry of Tourism probably doesn’t realise how serious the situation is and this will translate directly in tourist numbers falling as we lose our wildlife.”
In the stark heat of the mid-morning sun on the burnt out plains of Kapiti within half-an-hour’s drive from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city, a small team of youngsters walk along the fence, stopping every few metres.
The youngsters are part of a desnaring team, volunteers with the Born Free Foundation – the animal rights group set up by the actress Virginia Mckenna and her late husband Bill Travers, the duo who starred in the 1960s epic film, Born Free.
Born Free supports wildlife conservation work across the globe such as protecting tigers in India, bears in Canada, elephants in Sri Lanka and partnering with Kenya Wildlife Service in Kenya to support its anti-poaching work.
“Bushmeat is a big thing in Kenya today,” says Alice Owen of Born Free. “Statistics show that Kenya has lost 60 per cent of its wildlife in the past 30 years. We’re the generation that’s caused the loss.”
Those not familiar with the term bushmeat will find it hard to fathom how such a cruel and illicit trade has flourished where wild animals meet a slow and painful death trapped in snares with razor-sharp claws.
There are cases of elephants having their trunks amputated to set them free from the snares and lions left to die slow and painful deaths. It’s indiscriminating.
The meat is sold for the pot and it has found its way into urban centres like Nairobi.
Unfortunately, because of no policy on the bushmeat trade, offenders are let off with a minimal fine such as the woman trader in Nairobi’s Burma market who was fined Ksh30,000 ($375) and set free.
With a ready market for bushmeat, poachers have no problem selling the “free meat” to village butcheries and the truckers who ferry containers across the continent.
Unfortunately bushmeat is dirt-cheap in Kenya, unlike West Africa where it is double the cost of the domestic meat.
A chunk of giraffe meat or a dikdik in Kenya goes for as little as Ksh 50 (62 US cents).
This low price does not reflect the true value of the natural resource, undervaluing it at the cost of the national economy. A whole chicken on the other hand, costs five to six times that.
The desnaring team, a group of 10, comprises volunteers from the Wildlife Clubs of Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Service personnel and Born Free staff.
They have been on the move since early morning, walking an average 30 kilometres a day under the hot equatorial sun, looking to collect as many snares as possible.
Alice and I join the group. Two giraffes onEveryday, thousands of wild animals get caught in snares across the continent to feed... more
Bush did not honourably lead America to war, but deliberately misled it into a war he wanted. The Bush administration consistently twisted and distorted the truth by omitting, exaggerating, or trivialising the facts to fit its purpose. Bush and his gang repeatedly told Americans that Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent threat to the security of the USA, but they kept the truth from the American people that their CIA was telling them the exact opposite, that Hussein and Iraq were not an imminent threat to the country. The CIA was explicit that only Al Qaeda was guilty of the attacks. Senator Edward Kennedy, condemning Bush, said that “Bush’s distortions misled Congress in its war vote” and “No President of the United States should employ distortion of truth to take the nation to war. So the consort that Congress gave Bush is nullified by the deliberate misinterpretations he made to Congress in inducing it to give him its consent.” The Bush administration continued to lie and they proceeded to dress up their lies with one distortion after another.Bush did not honourably lead America to war, but deliberately misled it into a war he... more
We are losing the battle against the growing illegal commercial trade in bushmeat because of the following;
Bushmeat is cheaper than beef; thus it is a cheaper source of protein to rural and urban poor.
Rising poverty and landlessness among communities living adjacent to wildlife rich areas worsened by the prevailing drought and food shortage in the country.
Rising incidences human wildlife conflict cases and lack compensation for such loses caused by wildlife
Weak wildlife laws that do not give deterrent fines and sentences to convicted poachers and traders.
Poor knowledge of wildlife laws leads to wildlife crimes being categorized as misdemeanour.
Weak law enforcement that allows poaching cartels to thrive.
Civil police prosecute wildlife crimes-whereas ideally it should be handled by wildlife authorities, preferably KWS prosecutors.
Serial poachers are treated as first offenders in wildlife crimes and most of them are able to pay the small fines imposed and quickly return to make easy money from the illegal trade.
Continued impasse on the wildlife policy review leading to disenchantment by communities and land owners hosting wildlife (outside the tourism circuit) making them turn a blind eye to poaching as a way of removing a pest that doesn't benefit them.
A blanket ban on consumptive use criminalized what had been part of the culture and source of food for some communities like the Kamba, Turkana, mijikenda Taita etc. They were left withour a viable alternative and hence this ban never worked for bushmeat.
As Kenyans, we need to address the issues raised above if we are to eradicate the illegal bushmeat trade in our country. The wildlife policy review offers us the best oportunity and let us not lose it.
Iregi Mwenja is a Bushmeat researcher and a USFWS MENTOR Post-graduate Fellow on Bushmeat in East AfricaWe are losing the battle against the growing illegal commercial trade in bushmeat... more
United Nations declares 2009 'Year of the Gorilla'
Poaching, deforestation and the dreaded Ebola virus have taken a terrible toll on populations of the four remaining gorilla species. Now, in an effort to help save our primate cousins from extinction, the United Nations Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals has declared 2009 the "Year of the Gorilla."
Three of the four species of gorilla are considered critically endangered, with just 700 mountain gorillas, 300 Cross River gorillas, and 5,000 eastern lowland gorillas left. The fourth species, the Western lowland gorilla, is critically endangered in some of its home countries, although the total population is much higher, at around 150,000.
All four species face declining populations, with threats ranging from the bushmeat trade, poaching for traditional medicine, habitat destruction from logging or the charcoal trade (an important source of fuel in Africa), and disease.
Luckily, the Year of the Gorilla is already off to a good start. This week, the 10 nations with gorilla populations agreed to examine the effectiveness of their anti-poaching laws and, hopefully, improve their implementation. Some of the money pledged for the Year of the Gorilla campaign will go toward educating judges so they understand the need to strictly enforce current anti-poaching laws.
Other actions to be funded by the YoG campaign include training park rangers, supporting scientific research, raising awareness of the gorillas' threats, and developing alternative sources of income (such as eco-tourism) for people living near gorilla populations. The UN hopes to raise more than $600,000 to support these efforts.Extinction Blog
United Nations declares 2009 'Year of the Gorilla'
Poaching,... more
BULENGO, Congo — Jean-Marie Serundori wakes up every morning with gorillas on his mind.
“I wash my face, I stare at the mountains and I think of them,” he said. “They are like our cousins.”
But Mr. Serundori, a Congolese wildlife ranger entrusted with protecting some of the most majestic — and most endangered — animals on the planet, is far from the broad-backed mountain gorillas he loves.
Instead, he is stuck in a wet and filthy camp for internally displaced people where the only wildlife are the cockroaches that scurry across the mud floors. He is one of the hundreds of thousands of people left idle and destitute by eastern Congo’s most recent spasm of violence, and the consequences in this case may be dire and irreversible.
Eastern Congo is home to almost a third of the world’s last 700 wild mountain gorillas (the rest are in nearby areas of Rwanda and Uganda). Now, there are no trained rangers to protect them. More than 240 Congolese game wardens have been run off their posts, including some who narrowly escaped a surging rebel advance last month and slogged through the jungle for three days living off leaves and scoopfuls of mud for hydration.
“We figured if the gorillas can eat leaves, so can we,” said Sekibibi Desire, who is staying in a tent near the other rangers.
This is just the latest crisis within a crisis. Congo’s gorillas happen to live in one of the most contested, blood-soaked pieces of turf in one of the most contested, blood-soaked corners of Africa. Their home, Virunga National Park, is high ground — with mist-shrouded mountains and pointy volcanoes — along the porous Congo-Rwanda border, where rebels are suspected of smuggling in weapons from Rwanda. Last year in Virunga, 10 gorillas were killed, some shot in the back of the head, execution style, park officials said.
The park used to be a naturalist’s paradise, home to more than 2,000 species of plants, 706 types of birds and 218 varieties of mammals, including three great apes: the mountain gorilla, the lowland gorilla and chimpanzees.
Now Virunga is a war zone.
Rebel soldiers command the hilltops. Government soldiers fire mortars at them, blowing up precious gorilla habitat that is rapidly disappearing anyway because of deforestation and an illegal charcoal trade.
“Armed groups hide in the park, they train in the park, and most importantly, they eat in the park,” said Samantha Newport, a spokeswoman for Virunga National Park.
Ms. Newport said that two years ago, at one of the lakes in the park, a local militia went on a hippopotamus-hunting rampage, machine-gunning hundreds of hippopotamuses for their meat.
“The lake turned red,” she said.BULENGO, Congo — Jean-Marie Serundori wakes up every morning with gorillas on his... more
Guerillas threaten gorillas in African park - The new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced dozens of rangers to flee Africa's oldest national park, leaving hundreds of threatened mountain gorillas at the mercy of rebel fighters and poachers.
Wildlife officers escaped into the forest when fighters loyal to renegade general Laurent Nkunda occupied part of the park as they launched their march on Goma, the main city in the east of DR Congo, which is now surrounded.
Set up in 1925, Virunga covers some 7800 square kilometres. Its varied terrain includes two of Africa's most active volcanoes, swamps and snow-capped mountains.
It is also home to more than half of the world's 700 remaining mountain gorillas as well as 20,000 hippopotamus, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
UNESCO named Virunga a World Heritage site in 1979 and placed it on the organisation's endangered list in 1994 when a first civil war broke out in the country.
DR Congo's Environment Minister Jose Endundo Mononge said that the fighting between the army and Nkunda's rebels poses a great threat to the park and would hit tourism income, while opening up worrying opportunities for poachers.
"In just 2007, we recorded the slaughter of 15 mountain gorillas ... and more than 20,000 antelopes," he told a press conference in Kinshasa on Friday.
Park rangers told how they fled Virunga on October 26 after Nkunda's forces moved in as part of their campaign to take over Nord-Kivu province.
"We were at our posts when we heard an exchange of gunfire between the rebels and the army. At around 6:30 am, the gunshots got closer so we fled into the forest," said Desire, a 31-year-old ranger.
Benjamin, a ranger at Kalengera, 60km north of Goma, told how his father was killed by rebels and how he has no news of his wife and five children. Benjamin spent four days hiding in the forest before arriving in Goma a week ago.
"There are a lot of people in the forest. Not just park rangers, but families as well. Some have died there; from exhaustion, lack of food and water," he said.
"The rebels came and started killing people. My father lost his life over there. I was hidden in a house with friends. We fled into the forest while my family stayed in the village and they are still there," Benjamin said. "They said that my father has been buried but I wasn't there to see it."
Desire and 52 others headed for the town of Rumangabo as Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) took territory around Goma, 50km to the south of the park.
Desire and 180 of the park's 680 rangers are now hiding in a small camp set up on the outskirts of Goma by the Congolese National Park Authorities.Guerillas threaten gorillas in African park - The new conflict in the Democratic... more
The question of how to eat an environmentally-conscious meal has a number of answers. For example, in Australia, researchers have suggested that kangaroo meat would be an ethical replacement for beef.The question of how to eat an environmentally-conscious meal has a number of answers.... more
Another Wire Snare (Part 1) | GorillaDoctors.wildlifedirect.org / Dr Lucy
"When I first read Benard’s e-mail, I didn’t want to believe it. A blackback in Nkuringo Group had a wire snare around his leg. The gorilla had continued to eat, but he’d begun to fall behind the group. One of us needed to cross the border to Uganda before closing time, stay in Kisoro for the evening, and leave for the forest early the next morning to deal with the snare. The drive would take two hours, followed by another hour’s trekking. I wondered why Bernard hadn’t called until I remembered the poor cellphone reception around the parks in Uganda. He must have gotten the message from the park warden and decided the best way to relay it quickly was via the nearest Internet Café. I wrote back asking him to call me as soon as possible to confirm the bad news. This case sounded a lot like the last three snares in Uganda: no chance that it would resolve on its own.
From the bit of information I had, I suspected that this was not a new snare. It takes a few days for lameness to occur, and that could explain why the gorilla was lagging behind his family. Much depends on how tight the snare is and on whether it is indeed made of wire. I think it’s been years since we had a case of a rope snare in Uganda. What was going on? This would be the fourth wire snare in Uganda in six months, the sixth in the past 13 months
Various questions collided in my mind. The most obvious and important one was: Where are the snares coming from? As I’ve explained before, the snares are set to catch game for food, especially small antelope, or duiker. Are more being set, or are the gorillas moving through snare-laden areas more often? If there are more snares in the parks in Rwanda and Uganda—we have no idea what’s going on in DR Congo—is it because there are more hungry people these days? Whatever the answer, many illegal hunters are still getting into the park. Is this because of the leaky and insecure border with Congo? Maybe the poaching patrols have simply not been doing their jobs, or maybe they lack the equipment to do them effectively.
I’d raised these questions during a recent community conservation meeting held by the chief park warden of the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. I asked them again after little Icyerecyezo’s snare injury. A month earlier, I’d also spoken with the chief park warden in Uganda’s Bwindi and Mgahinga parks and directed Benard to check with the patrols there. Each time the reply has been the same: the wardens have more rangers patrolling more of the parks than ever, and believe they’ve become more proficient at finding snares. That may be so, but given how many snared gorillas we’ve seen recently, there may also be an increased number of snares in the park."
Another Wire Snare (Part 1) | GorillaDoctors.wildlifedirect.org / Dr Lucy
"When I... more
On-the-spot report from Kumudini Hettiarachchi in Uda Walawe, Pix by M.A.Pushpa Kumara
Absolute stillness, the stillness of the jungle, accentuated only by the call of birds from the lotus-studded wewa. Suddenly a humming and whining begin, shattering the stillness. A bulldozer is at work………up and down, leaving a large swathe of land cleared of everything.
What is left is only a trail of destruction – giant trees such as weera and myla on their sides, the scrub jungle no more and the tall grasses cleared. Some of the trees and shrubs have been set ablaze, with patches of areas still smouldering.
This is the fate, since Monday, of part of the Dahaiyagala sanctuary and animal corridor, covering about 2,685 ha, on the northern border of the Uda Walawe National Park, in clear violation of the large green boards of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWLC). See pic of board.
For, this is where the elephants including four majestic tuskers (one being ‘Walawe Raja’) the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur roam. ‘Walawe Raja’, the tallest of the tuskers in the area graces the posters of the DWLC and has also been portrayed in a BBC documentary titled, ‘The Last Tusker’.
“People have been brazenly clearing the sanctuary in violation of the law,” lamented a wildlife official, pointing out that the culprits want to put up a barrier, blocking the animal corridor on the boundary of the Uda Walawe National Park.
The Dahaiyagala corridor links the National Park with Bogahapattiya described by conservationists as the “last remaining savannah (talawa) and intermediate zone forest to remain intact in the southern part of Sri Lanka”.
For, this is where the elephants including four majestic tuskers (one being ‘Walawe Raja’) the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur roam. ‘Walawe Raja’, the tallest of the tuskers in the area graces the posters of the DWLC and has also been portrayed in a BBC documentary titled, ‘The Last Tusker’. “People have been brazenly clearing the sanctuary in violation of the law,” lamented a wildlife official, pointing out that the culprits want to put up a barrier, blocking the animal corridor on the boundary of the Uda Walawe National Park.
The Dahaiyagala corridor links the National Park with Bogahapattiya described by conservationists as the “last remaining savannah (talawa) and intermediate zone forest to remain intact in the southern part of Sri Lanka”.
The blocking of the Dahaiyagala opening into the National Park (see map) will prevent the elephants, the sloth bear, the leopard and the sambhur whose home range is Bogahapattiya, from accessing the National Park. Dahaiyagala also has many wewas including Pokunutenne which has water throughout the year, which the animals use. The smaller ones which are seasonal dry up during the drought
The other tanks which do not run dry are Uda Walawe and Mau-ara which are within the National Park itself.
The stories doing the rounds in Uda Walawe are that a few politicians in the area, along with some officials, have unlawfully taken the lead in efforts to shut the animal access point through Dahaiyagala into the National Park.
Maverick conservationist, Richard Leakey, writes that "commercial bushmeat hunting has become the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa and around the world" in an article on Wildlife Direct. Founded by Leakey, Wildlife Direct is a nonprofit allowing researchers and wildlife organizations in Africa and Asia to connect directly with supporters through blogs.
A paper recently released by the Centre of International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biodiversity (CDB) argued that legalizing bushmeat trade is the only way to ensure species survival and provide protein needs to impoverished people. Leakey disagrees: "legalizing this multi-billion trade will not help the wildlife. It will instead exterminate what remains, species that we are working so hard to preserve." Leakey has spent two decades working to conserve wildlife in his native Kenya.
Comparing legalizing the bushmeat trade to legalizing drugs, Leakey writes that there are other ways in which to provide poor communities with protein. "Why don't people encourage the rearing of chickens, fish or cane rats to alleviate their protein deficiency? This will bring development and a better and healthier existence."
According to Leakey a number of species that have experienced local extinctions or drastic declines due to the bushmeat trade in Africa, including elephants, chimpanzees, gorillas, pangolins, bush pigs, duikers, and monitor lizards. Numerous primate species are especially susceptible. The bushmeat trade is also a threat to many species in Asia.
Richard Leakey, son of famed anthropologist Louis Leakey, is known for his bold conservation views and his long career in politics, anthropology, and conservation in Kenya. Maverick conservationist, Richard Leakey, writes that "commercial bushmeat hunting has... more
Sorry image so big and gross. That is all "bushmeat". I just ask why in a restraunt?
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - An acrid stench of burning hair hangs in the air as a whole monkey roasts over an open fire, a victim of the trade in tropical "bushmeat" that conservationists agree must be curbed, though they disagree how to do it.
Around 25 diners sit on bamboo chairs at this open air restaurant on the outskirts of Cameroon's capital Yaounde, waiting for a plate of monkey, pangolin or bush pig washed down with red wine, beer or aromatic freshly tapped palm wine.
Environmentalists say the hunting and trade of endangered animals from the world's tropical forests must be reduced if rare primates and other species are to be saved from extinction.
Some campaigners want a total ban on bushmeat or at least on its commercial trade. This would allow local people to hunt only fast-breeding, non-endangered species to feed their families.
But a report published on Tuesday said such blanket bans would fail and, if enforced, deprive poor families living in forest regions of much-needed nutrition and cash earnings.
The report by the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity said legalizing parts of the bushmeat trade could dispel the stigma attached to it, aid regulation and help efforts to save endangered species.
"Bushmeat, in particular, offers a number of benefits to forest-dwelling populations. It is an easily traded resource as it is transportable, has a high value/weight ratio and is easily preserved at low cost," the report said.
A survey a few years ago estimated 70-90 tons of bushmeat a month were being sold in Yaounde's four main markets. Across West and central Africa, the trade is worth as much as $200 million, and $175 million in Latin America's Amazon basin. Continued...Sorry image so big and gross. That is all "bushmeat". I just ask why in a... more
Elephants, gorillas and other large forest mammals may become extinct in central Africa within 50 years if hunting meat to feed starving populations continues at the current pace. Each year, rural peoples consume some 2.2 billion pounds (one million metric tons) of so-called bushmeat from wildlife, the equivalent of four million cattle; the flesh accounts for 80 percent of the protein and fat in their diet.
"If current levels of hunting persist in central Africa, the most vulnerable species will become extinct in the near future," cautions Nathalie Van Vliet, a researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) based in Indonesia. The problem is, she adds, that "if the people that currently rely on bushmeat as a source of protein in central Africa had to rely on livestock, we would see the same catastrophe that is destroying the Amazon Basin: deforestation for pasture land and livestock raising."
In fact, there is no simple solution to this problem. CIFOR, in a report released today, argues that a hunting ban would not work, as evidenced by the failure of antipoaching programs, among other things. But it also says that forest species such as elephants, buffalo and apes that are slow to reproduce need to be protected or they will disappear entirely. Already, roughly 40 percent of jungle species are killed in greater numbers than can be regained through reproduction, according to the report "The Bushmeat Crisis."
The report calls for local agreements that allow hunting of species that can rebound quickly (such as various species of duikers, a type of forest antelope) while nixing kills of species with long gestation periods (such as elephants who give birth after 22 months). This is "hunting that can satisfy the demand from the poorest in future generations as well as ensure the stability in the long-term of hunted animal populations," Van Vliet says. But she notes the "success" of such pacts will depend on local communities' willingness to abide by them.
The only examples of such sustainable hunting, however, are either among people who have almost no contact with other human beings, such as the indigenous Aché people in the forests of eastern Paraguay, or those who have already killed off local populations of slow-breeding animals as is evidenced in the bushmeat market in Takoradi, Ghana.
Further exacerbating the problem: illegal and even legal activities in central African forests, such as logging and mining, that carve out new access as well as attract new people who also crave meat. And laws against the wildlife trade have failed to prevent supplies of everything from rhinoceros horns to tiger bones from reaching the estimated $3.9-billion global market.
That suggests that even granting ownership of the common resource represented by a duikers herd might not solve the problem, as some experts suggest. But it also shows that blanket bans are not working either. "In the tropics, they have genuine needs," says entomologist Paul Ehrlich of Stanford University's Center for Conservation Biology, who was not involved with this study but has been assessing the problems presented by expanding human population since the 1960s. "There are desperately poor people surrounding reserves. If I was there, I would shoot the hippo and eat it, too."Elephants, gorillas and other large forest mammals may become extinct in central... more
