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LoC Conflicts Driving Predators toward Villages in Kashmir

11/1/2013

Source: Thehindu.com

By Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

Wildlife warden suspended, private hunters engaged to shoot the man-eaters in Kupwara.

Wildlife authorities have suspended a Divisional Forest Officer over an alarming rise in man-animal conflict after predators killed four children. Private hunters have been engaged to eliminate two predators in the Kupwara district in northern Kashmir.

Minister of Forest and Wildlife Mian Altaf Ahmad told The Hindu that Wildlife Warden Abdul Rauf Zargar had been attached for dereliction of duty on Monday as he had failed to cope with the increasing leopard and bear attacks on people in several villagers. Officials believe that the children, killed in Magam, Pazipora, Rishiwari and Rajwar villages in the last three months, had been mauled by one or two man-eaters.

“We have flashed a high alert, set up control rooms at district level, sought help from the Army, police and Forest Protection Force [FPF\ and even engaged private hunters to neutralise the man-eater. An awareness campaign has been launched through local newspapers and radio stations,” Mr. Ahmad said.

Shuja Haideri, Wildlife Conservator for Kashmir, has been camping in Kupwara since his appointment on Monday.

Mr. Haideri asserted that a chain of encounters between militants and security forces since August along the LoC could be a major factor behind the unusual migration of the leopard and the Himalayan black bear toward the foothill villages. He counted the seasonal return of the Bakerwal herds from the high-altitude pastures as another reason.

“When the leopards don’t get a lamb or dog or when they get scared due to firing and shelling on the ridge, they move to the fringe in search of food. It’s an annual routine but this year’s firing in the border strip is definitely a major reason of their migration,” he said. More....

Rhino Horns Can Make You Sick, Vietnamese Moms to Be Warned

9/16/2013

Source: Blogs.wsj.com

The Humane Society International is for the first time launching a major campaign to stop illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia, zeroing in on rhinoceros horns, which are sought after as purported cures for everything from hangovers to cancer to impotency.

The animal rights group is teaming up with the Vietnamese government to stop smuggling of rhino horns for such illegal purposes. Jointly, they are launching a public education campaign with tailored messages to buyers of rhino horn products.

Teresa Telecky, the director of the Wildlife Department of the Humane Society International, says most buyers of rhino horns in Vietnam are older women concerned about their family’s health. A game reserve in South Africa has injected a mixture of chemicals into rhino horns so that people risk becoming “seriously ill” if they consume them. That development will be part of the message for those women. Other buyers are wealthy Vietnamese who want the horns as a status symbol.

Ms.Telecky answered questions from The Wall Street Journal’s Vu Trong Khanh about how her group and the Vietnamese government are working together to try to reduce the illegal rhino-horn trade and what else is ahead as the Southeast Asian nation reports it is uncovering an increasing amount of illegal wild-animal smuggling. Edited excerpts follow.

WSJ: Can you talk about the situation of wildlife trafficking in Asia, and in Vietnam particularly?

Ms. Telecky: The global wildlife trade is massive, involving thousands of species and millions of individual animals—not to mention plants—annually, and valued in the billions of U.S. dollars. Most of the trade is legal and regulated under the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). More....

Habitat Loss and Poaching Threatens Survival of Sun Bears

5/22/2013

Source: Nst.com.my

Habitat loss and poaching have led to a decline of up to 30 per cent of the Malayan sun bear population in the last three decades, according to the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC).

In Borneo, this smallest of the world’s eight bear species is also seeing a drop in numbers following their illegal capture for the pet trade and when they are wrongly perceived as pests and gunned down, said BSBCC founder and chief executive officer Wong Siew Te.

The Polar Bear, Brown Bear, American Black Bear, Spectacled Bear, Sloth Bear, Giant Panda and Asiatic Black Bear are other better known bear species.

Found throughout mainland Asia, Sumatra in Indonesia and Borneo, the exact number of sun bears in the wild is unknown, making it even more pressing toreduce pressure on a species that is classified as “vulnerable” on the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List, and at risk of becoming endangered unless circumstances threatening their survival improve.
Sun bears are also classified as a totally protected species under the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, providing it the same status as the Orang Utan and the Sumatran Rhinoceros.

Wong said the sun bear was divided into two sub-species – the Helarctosmalayanus malayanus and the Helarctos malayanus euryspilus, with the latter, smaller bear found only in Borneo. More....

Saving Bears in China

2/11/2013

Source: Emagazine.com

By Lindsey Blomberg

Last Thursday, Animals Asia, an organization devoted to the welfare of wild and urban animals in Asia, reported that six bears rescued this past January from an illegal bear bile farm in China have each undergone successful surgery to remove their damaged gall bladders.

Bear bile is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat gallstones, liver problems and other ailments. To produce this remedy, bears are forced to live on “bile farms”, where they are cramped into confined cages that allow them little or no movement so that their gall bladders can be drained of bile twice a day. According to Animals Asia, some bears are put into cages as cubs and kept there for up to 30 years. Hundreds of thousands of farmed bears throughout Asia are starved, dehydrated and suffer from multiple diseases and malignant tumors that ultimately kill them. In turn, conservation and wildlife groups warn that populations of sun bears and Asiatic black bears, also known as moon bears, could be facing extremely dire long-term consequences.

‘‘No bears are extinct, but all Asian ones are threatened,’’ said Chris Shepherd, a conservation biologist and deputy regional director of the Malaysia-based wildlife trade group TRAFFIC, a joint project of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the Worldwide Wildlife Federation. In just the last few years, bear poaching has increased in Indonesia, says Dr. Gabriella Fredriksson, a conservation biologist who has been in the region for 15 years.

‘‘Fifty years ago, bears were doing well in Cambodia and Laos,’’ Fredriksson said. ‘‘Now there’s hardly any left.’’

The 2011 TRAFFIC report Pills, Powders, Vials & Flakes: The Bear Bile Trade in Asia found bear bile products on sale in Chinese traditional medicine outlets in twelve of the thirteen Asian countries surveyed. The study further noted that the vast majority of the bear farms surveyed in Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam did not have captive breeding programs, suggesting they depend on bears captured from the wild. More....

The Lion's Fading Roar: Declining West African Lion Population Hints at Grim Future

1/14/2013

Source: Ibtimes.co.uk

By Chandrashekar Srinivasan

It was alarming to read new research which suggests that the West African Lion may be on the verge of extinction, with just 645 members of the sub-species left in western and central Africa.

The study, carried out by conservation group LionAid, finds there are no lions at all in 25 of the region's countries, and the animal is virtually extinct in 10 others. In Nigeria, once home to a huge community of West African Lions, just 34 remain.

In total, the researchers believe no more than 15,000 wild lions remain across the whole of Africa.

A study in 2004 estimated that up to 850 West African Lions remained in the wild. If LionAid's new figures are correct, about a quarter of the population has been wiped out in less than a decade.

Analysis by Duke University used satellite imaging to confirm nearly 75 percent of Africa's savannah has been destroyed for lion and wildlife populations, having been converted into farmlands or otherwise encroached on by humanity.

The study suggested that there are now just 67 "lion areas" left, and only 10 of these are, in any sense, stable.

The Duke researchers offered a more optimistic estimation of the lion's survival in Africa, suggesting the population numbers 32,000. However 6,000 of these are believed to be living in areas with a very high risk of local extinction, automatically reducing the estimate by about 19 percent.

Lions and Conservation

The overall picture suggests the inexorable decrease in lion population has been accelerated by a catastrophic rate of habitat loss and increasing human population. Evidence suggests the lion is a growing part of the illegal trade of wild animals and wild animal parts, and this could seal the species' extinction unless immediate action is taken.

Global Financial Integrity's (GFI's) 2011 report on transnational crime in the developing world estimates the total value of the illegal animal trade market at $10bn (approximately £6.2bn). The primary recipients of illegally traded animal parts are the Chinese (who use them in traditional medicine), as well as Americans and countries in the European Union. More....

Bear Bile Industry Reportedly Shrinking in South Korea, but China Market Stays Strong

7/24/2012

Source: Blogs.scientificamerican.com

By John R. Platt

At least 1,000 Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) live in tiny, cramped cages in South Korea, where they are farmed for their gall bladders, which can sell for up to $25,000 or more for use in traditional Asian medicine. Many of these bears are continually drained of the bile from their gall bladders in the years before they are old enough for their organs to be harvested. As I wrote last year, bile and gall bladders are often used to “treat” conditions ranging from epilepsy to hair loss to impotency. These medicinal claims have no scientific backing.

But the days of bear farming in South Korea may be numbered. Many farmers want out of the business, according to a report from the news site Dong-A Ilbo. Bear farmers, facing a shrinking market and nonexistent profits, are pressuring the South Korean government to take the animals off their hands at a cost the government has calculated as up to $88 million. Farmers say the price could be as low as $2.6 million if the government euthanizes most of the bears, but the South Korean Ministry of Environment says that isn’t an option.

So what is driving this change? For one thing, bear farming is immensely unpopular in South Korea. A 2011 poll conducted by the World Society for the Protection of Animals found that 90 percent of South Koreans think bear farming is inhumane and support ending the practice in the country.

Meanwhile, bear farming is incredibly expensive. Under South Korean law, bears cannot be harvested for their gall bladders until they are at least 10 years old. Meanwhile, they each eat about $1,700 worth of food every month. That adds up. Some owners are reportedly turning to the black market to sell their products before the bears are old enough to be legally harvested. More....

Vile: Illegal Trade in Bear Bile Flourishes Throughout Asia

5/12/2011

Source: Blogs.scientificamerican.com

By John R. Platt

The sale of bear bile for use in traditional medicine is rampant throughout 12 Asian countries, despite national and international laws banning or limiting the practice, according to a new report from TRAFFIC International, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

Bile, also known as gall, is a fluid produced in the liver and stored in the gall bladder to help with digestion. Traditional Asian medicine uses bile or gall bladders to “treat” a variety of ailments, including epilepsy, muscle pain, bruises, sore throats, hair loss and hemorrhoids or to “clear” the liver. None of these medicinal claims are supported by science, although one component of bile, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is used in gastric bypass surgery and to treat liver disease. (The main source of commercial pharmacological UDCA is cows.)

Bear bile has also recently shown up in nonmedicinal products, such as shampoo and wine, according to the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

TRAFFIC found bear bile for sale in traditional medicine outlets in 12 Asian countries, most notably China, Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar) and Vietnam. The bile often originated in China, Japan, Russia and Laos. Some of these bears are raised captivity. Others are caught in the wild and then placed on “farms,” where they are often kept in tiny cages, unable to stand or move while their bile is drained up to three times a day through a catheter or syringe inserted into the gall bladder. Many are kept that way for years, or even a decade. Other bears are killed and their gall are bladders removed. More....

Threat to Bears from Illegal Bile Trade Unabated

5/12/2011

Source: Mnn.com

By Elaine Lies

Poaching and illegal trade of bears, whose bile is used in traditional medicine and folk remedies, remains robust across Asia, putting wild bear populations under unrelenting pressure, according to a report by a wildlife trade monitoring network.

Products made from bile extracted from bears' gall bladders were found on sale in traditional medicine outlets in all but one of the 13 nations and territories surveyed by TRAFFIC. Macao was the sole exception.

"Both the Asiatic Black Bear and the Sun Bear are threatened by poaching and illegal trade," said Kaitlyn-Elizabeth Foley, lead author of the report and senior program officer of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, in a statement.

"The demand for bile is one of the greatest drivers behind this trade and must be reduced if bear conservation efforts are to succeed."

In cases where bile is extracted, the process requires milking open incisions, which animal rights groups say causes physical and psychological suffering.

The products — including whole gall bladders and pills — were most frequently found in mainland China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam, where they were for sale in half of all places surveyed.

The report noted that while sales of bear bile are legal in some Asian nations — including mainland China and Japan — any trade across borders is prohibited by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). More....

The Road to Ketambe

2/21/2011

Source: Robertfest.wordpress.com

I left for Aceh late at night with two students (Ary & Andrew), a former student (), a gym teacher (Mr. Suyono), and our driver. We embarked on an 8 hour journey on what I would describe as the worst road ever. It looked like it was carpet bombed, followed by a session of jack hammering just for fun. It was a rough ride even for a guy that likes to go off-roading in a Jeep, especially considering that fact that we were travelling in the middle of the night and I was already very tired from a long day in Medan giving speeches and presentations.

The point of this endeavor was to visit and trek through Gunung Leuser National Park with the hopes of observing a few of the last remaining wild Sumatran Orangutans. Today, there are less than 5000 left in the jungles of Sumatra, and sadly I do not hold out much hope for their future survival. Even as I was in the borders of the national park, I could hear the depressing and persistent sounds of chain saws cutting down 500 year old trees to make room for “gardens”. Gunung Leuser National Park (GLNP) is a World Heritage listed sight that is considered to be one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. There you can find the last Sumatran Tigers (~300), Sumatran Rhinos (>300), Sumatran Elephants (unknown by me), along with the aforementioned orangutans. There are gibbons, Thomas leaf monkeys, along with other primate species. The clouded leopard, sloth bear, cobras, and Asian black bear (which was heard during the night) also call the park home. More than 300 bird species have been recorded in the park. Poachers have virtually wiped out the crocodile population and according to the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, a fifth of the park has been adversely affected by illegal logging and construction. I think it may be higher than just a 1/5 though. The worst thing is that most Indonesians I speak with have little to no idea about the park’s incredible importance (or even that it is there!). Most people in Medan could not fathom why I would want to go to such a “dangerous” place. The students here don’t know much about orangutans either. I can see now why most primatologists predict that the orangutan will be the first great ape to go extinct. If the people do not even know what they have, they certainly are not going to care much if it is gone. Needless to say I have been spreading the word about the plight of the park and its special inhabitants to the students, teachers, and anyone else who will listen. More....