ANIMAL WELFARE: Dolphins trapped behind drifting pack ice

Posted on February 19, 2009

Some white-beaked dolphins (Lagenorhynchus albirostris)—a northern species—are trapped behind drifting pack ice near the coastal village of Seal Cove in Newfoundland. Seal Cove Mayor Winston May “has contacted the Fisheries Department to see whether the coast guard can send an icebreaker to help free the dolphins, [but] officials told the town that no vessels were available.” The image is from Pam Snow/Canadian Press. From the Associated Press:

The 8-foot animals somehow became separated from the open Atlantic and have been swimming for four days in a shrinking open-water area of Seal Cove’s harbor, just 100 feet from shore, said Mayor Winston May.

“They keep going round circles, trying to keep this little pool of water open so that they can have their breathing area. And the whole bay seems to be froze up, there’s no where else for them to go,” said May.

Wayne Ledwell, an expert on whale rescues, said dolphins won’t swim long distances under ice since they need to surface regularly to breathe and the slabs of ice would make that impossible.

Ledwell, who heads Whale Release and Strandings Group, which rescues whales and dolphins, said that if the ice continues to encroach on the open area the dolphins could eventually drown.

More about White-beaked dolphins can be found at NOAA:

White-beaked dolphins are ’endemic’ to the colder temperate and subpolar oceanic waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. They generally prefer shallow waters less than 200 m (656 ft) deep (Jefferson et al. 2008). In the 1970s and 1980s, white-beaked dolphins off the northeastern U.S. Atlantic coast may have shifted habitats with Atlantic white-sided dolphins. During this time, white-beaked dolphins, which were normally found in inshore waters, moved offshore due to an increase in sand lance on the continental shelf and a decline in herring.

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ANIMAL WELFARE: Should chimpanzees be kept as pets?

Posted on February 19, 2009

Recently, a woman was burtally attacked by Travis the chimpanzee. The owner—Sandra Herold—characterized the unfortunate and tragic incident as a “freak accident,” but chimpanzees are wild animals with wild tendencies and instincts. The woman that was attacked “remains in critical but stable condition, [and] her vital signs are improving.” Furthermore, the attack will certainly result in new state and federal regulations. From Gawker:

So your exotic pet might be a wonderful companion, but without thousands of years of domestication getting your back, it might get pissed for no reason and maul your girlfriend.

BIRDS: Amazing video footage of golden eagles hunting their prey

Posted on February 18, 2009

Golden eagles hunting mountain goats:

Some golden eagles are tortoise specialists. Using their powerful talons, these eagles will fly and release a tortoise over a rocky outcrop, and on impact the carapace separates from the plastron.

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CONSERVATION: Dog to sniff out tigers in Cambodia

Posted on February 17, 2009

Dogs already assist conservationists, researchers, and law enforcement officers sniff out wildlife contraband and detect the scat of various species of animals for noninvasive research.

Dogs can be trained to detect scat from all types of animals such as bears, cougars, and even cetaceans. Furthermore, their abilities aren’t limited to faunal detection, since dogs have even been trained to identify certain species of noxious weed as well. According to Working Dogs for Conservation Foundation:

Examples of non-invasive sampling methods include photographic traps, hair snag stations, and fecal (scat) collection. In particular, scat samples can provide a wealth of information such as a species’ presence, relative abundance, food habits, parasite loads, habitat use and home range size. Furthermore, analyses of endocrine extracted from scats can determine the sex and reproductive status of individuals, and analyses of the DNA contained in scat can verify species and sex, and potentially determine population size, home range, paternity, and kinship.

Currently, the talents of our canine companions are being used to detect the last remaining tigers in Cambodia. From the Jakarta Globe, Indonesia:

A dog trained to sniff for tiger droppings will help conservationists determine if the big cats still roam one of Cambodia’s largest nature reserves.

Starting next week, Maggie, a German wirehaired pointer, will begin scouring the undergrowth and sniffing for tiger scent on trees at the 3,000 square kilometer Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area in northeastern Cambodia.

The unorthodox move to employ a dog trained in Russia to search for signs of tigers comes after camera traps and field surveys failed to find the big cats last year. The last sign of a tiger was in 2007, when a paw print was spotted in the park.

“We think this is the best method when we have a large area and not that many tigers,’’ said Hannah O’Kelly, a wildlife monitoring adviser for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which along with the wild cat conservation group Panthera is spending about $30,000 to bring Maggie and a second dog from Russia to Seima later this year.

Hiring the two dogs is part of a $10 million, 10–year initiative by WCS and Panthera, also based in New York, called “Tigers Forever.’’ It aims to increase the numbers of tigers by 50 percent in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Russian Far East and Thailand through a range of measures that include better monitoring, assessments of threats and efforts to minimize the dangers facing the big cats.

The campaign was launched in 2006 to combat a dwindling tiger population in Asia.

Across the continent, the number of tigers has plummeted to as few as 5,000 tigers from a high of 100,000 a century ago due to poaching, habitat loss and other threats. It is unclear how many tigers remain in Cambodia.

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