Source:  Newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

By Christine Dell'Amore

Five species of acrobatic monkey that have long flown under the scientific radar have been named in South America.

These “flying monkeys,” or sakis, are notoriously shy and hard to study in their vast Amazon rain forest homes, where they’re known to sail quickly from treetop to treetop.

Scientists had previously identified five species of the 8-pound (4-kilogram) primates, known for their colorful facial hair and bushy coats that they puff out when threatened. (Also see “Pictures: Bushy-Bearded Titi Monkey Discovered.”)

But after nearly ten years of analyzing saki museum specimens, photographs, and animals in the field, behavioral ecologist Laura Marsh and colleagues have finally cracked the code of the Pithecia genus, which is now expanding to 16 species, including 5 new to science.

The newbies include Cazuza’s saki, Mittermeier’s Tapajós saki, Rylands’ bald-faced saki, Pissinatti’s bald-faced saki, and Isabel’s saki, according to the study in the July issue of the journal Neotropical Primates, which is published by the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group and Conservation International.

Three of the newly named species were previously thought to be subspecies, while another three were thought to be variants of known species.

Monkey Business

Marsh, director and cofounder of the Global Conservation Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, first became intrigued with saki monkeys—which resemble “fluffy, kinda uglyish cats that run on the tops of trees”—about a decade ago in Ecuador.

The scientist quickly realized that some of the animals she saw weren’t in her field guide—and her curiosity eventually took her to museums in 17 countries, where she examined more than 800 skins and 690 skulls. She also studied hundreds of high-resolution photographs of the primates before reworking the saki family tree. (Also see “New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered, Eaten.”)

Part of the challenge in deciphering sakis is the remarkable diversity in color and shape within a single species: A juvenile male has similar coloration to an adult female, for instance. What’s more, some females have protruding clitorises, so in museum specimens ”it looks like a penis,” Marsh said.

And flying monkeys are stealthy: “They vocalize in grunts, chirps, whistles, and low calls, but can be exceptionally quiet when sneaking away from a perceived threat such as a field researcher,” Marsh wrote in the study.

Marilyn Norconk, a professor at Kent State University in Ohio who studies sakis in Guyana, said the new research is the first comprehensive study of these elusive seed-eaters since the 1980s. (See National Geographic’s photo gallery of other monkeys.)

“I’d been expecting this for some time,” said Norconk, who wasn’t involved in the new research. “[The study is] providing the framework with a lot of new species names and some geographic localities.”

But there’s plenty more to learn. Marsh didn’t do genetic analyses of sakis, for instance, and “in terms of biology and behavior of this group, we still don’t know a whole lot,” said Norconk.

Studying Sakis

The next step will be more expeditions to investigate the newly named sakis’ populations—and vulnerability to extinction.

Norconk noted that in Guyana, the white-faced saki seem to adapt well to habitats that have been affected by humans, and its populations are thriving.

For this species, which is more well studied, “I think they’re a good-news species—let’s understand more about them and why they’re doing so well, even in areas that are disturbed.”

But the status of sakis in other parts of their South American range is unknown. For instance, with parts of the Amazon “completely chewed up” by agriculture and development, Marsh suspects that the habitats of some of the flying monkeys may be dwindling. (Read “Last of the Amazon” in National Geographic magazine.)

That’s why her study is so crucial: ”If we can’t name it, we can’t save it. If we’re calling everyone one species and it’s really ten different things, you have just lost part of the biodiversity on Earth,” she said.

“I feel like we got the road map—now it’s time to get to work.”

Source:  Toledonewsnow.com

By Vanessa Fayz

MAUMEE, OH (Toledo News Now) - Three men were recently convicted for poaching in Maumee last Thanksgiving.  

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources says the white tailed buck was shot around 3 a.m. in the city of Maumee near St. Joseph School and Church.

The ODNR believes Zachary Jarrel shot the buck from a vehicle last November.

While that is during archery season, hunting in the city is illegal.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources Officer Eric VonAlmen says the community can help them crack down on these cases.

"You can call your local law enforcement agency if it's something that's ongoing or something that's an emergency at the time," said VonAlmen. "Definitely call local, and that will be the fastest response time there, and they'll also have our information."

If you see poaching happening in the city call the ODNR at 1-800-POACHER.

Source:  Odishasuntimes.com

Four wild elephants which had got trapped in an abandoned well inside a cashew farm near Joranda in Odisha’s Dhenkanal district were rescued by Forest officials after much difficulty on Thursday evening.

According to reports, two 10-12 year-old female elephants with their 5-year-old baby tusker and a one-year-old female baby were found moving inside a cashew farm owned by one Gopinath Samal of Kendupada village two days ago when one of them fell into a large abandoned well. The other three elephants, in their bid to rescue it, also got trapped inside the well. They could not get out because the well was full of slush.

A cattle grazer of the village found these trapped elephants on Thursday afternoon and informed the villagers.

Following information, the local Forest officials rushed to the spot with a JCB machine. Later, they dug out a portion of the side of the well, thus enabling the elephants to come out.

The herd later left the area.

Source:  UNEP.org

Two chimpanzees that spent the past year living behind a supermarket in Kinshasa were airlifted by United Nations Peacekeepers on 24 August to a permanent sanctuary in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in a joint effort between the Congolese wildlife authority (ICCN), Gorilla Doctors, the Lwiro Centre for Primate Rehabilitation (CRPL), and the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP).

The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission (MONUSCO) in DR Congo flew the chimpanzees directly from Kinshasa to Bukavu in an Antonov An-26 cargo airplane that was returning from an aid mission. The UN support turned a 1,000-mile journey over extremely difficult roads into a smooth three-hour flight.

The chimpanzees - a five-year old male nicknamed "Kin" and a three-year old female nicknamed "Shasa" - were confiscated following the intervention of DR Congo's Minister of Environment. They will join the 55 resident chimpanzees at the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Centre and be integrated into natural social groups.

"As always, GRASP is extremely grateful to the MONUSCO officials who made this transfer possible," said GRASP coordinator Douglas Cress. "MONUSCO's willingness to offer its resources and expertise on behalf of endangered great apes underscores its deep commitment to protecting the Democratic Republic of Congo's natural heritage."

UN peacekeepers have operated in DR Congo since 1999, and the current force includes over 20,000 military, civilian and judicial personnel authorized to help stabilize the region.

The UN has previously airlifted orphaned gorillas and chimpanzees in Central Africa on behalf of GRASP's conservation initiatives, including an endangered Eastern Lowland gorilla on 27 May 2014 that had been orphaned by poachers. The 2013 GRASP report, Stolen Apes, estimated that a minimum of 2,972 great apes are lost from the wild each year in Africa and Asia through illicit activity.

Kin arrived with injuries to his right hip, most likely sustained when captured from the wild by poachers.

"Having been in captivity for well over one year, these chimpanzees will require extensive rehabilitation," said Lwiro director Carmen Vidal. "They will be housed within our chimpanzee groups at the CRPL, once their one month quarantine period if completed. The CRPL also works in collaboration with the IUCN with regards to the Conservation Action Plan for the Kivu Landscape and as such has the long term goal of reintroduction of wildlife into their native habitat."

For more information, please visit www.un-grasp.org or contact grasp@unep.org.

Source:  Newindianexpress.com

By J. Shanmugha Sundaram

VELLORE: A year has passed since the Forest Department officials carried out the country’s major operation of tranquilising and translocating a herd of seven elephants from the Jawadhu Hills in the Western Ghats.  However, the Rs  73-lakh operation ‘Malai’ remained incomplete as a 45-year-old tusker of the herd has been left alone and is still wandering in loneliness for the last one year.

The tusker was part of a 13-member herd that migrated to Jawadhu Hills in 1988 from Rayakotta in AP. The herd was trapped after the elephant corridor connecting the Jawadhu Hills and Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh was destroyed due to encroachments and road work along the stretch.

Three years ago, the herd was reduced to seven members. The tusker, except during the mating period, remained in the RF areas in Tirupattur forest division, while the rest of the herd migrated to forest areas along Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai districts in 2012. “They strayed into human habitation. It resulted in huge crop loss and subsequently, human-animal conflict,” said an official in the Forest Department. It was due to this frequent straying into human habitations that made officials come up with operation ‘Malai’ to translocate the herd to Mudumalai and Topslip. But, this tusker strayed away from the herd during the operation conducted in the Thanipadi Reserve Forest area, Melchengam in Tiruvannamalai. In the operation, a matriarch, four sub-adults and a young tusker, nicknamed as Othakombam were translocated. This deserted the tusker, presently wandering in Ambur, Kavalur and Alangayam forest ranges. The operation was abruptly stopped after the six elephants were captured.

Forest Department officials said the tusker has got used to living here due to availability of good water source and fresh fodder. “The tribal villagers said the elephant often stopped vehicles transporting vegetables and fruits on Alangayam-Jawadhu  road and Jamanamaruthur-Polur road.”

However, experts said, it was not good for the psyche of the animal to be left away from its herd. “Mating cycle comes once in six months. During this period, the animal could turn violent. This is not good for people as well as the animal,” he said.

Source:  IFAW.org

By James Kinney

Sadness but not surprise: That was my first reaction to the findings published in the new report -- Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants -- by George Wittemyer et al published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA). The report indicates that 100,000 African elephants were poached for ivory in just three years.

During 2011 alone, about one of twelve African elephants was killed by a poacher. Forest elephants in Central Africa were killed at much higher rate.

Virtually everywhere in Africa, it seems, elephant poaching deaths are surpassing elephant reproduction rates. You don’t need to be a biologist to understand the inevitable result of this trend: the end of elephants.

If this report’s confirmation of the intensity of the elephant poaching crisis across Africa spurs concerted, targeted action by range states, consumer countries and international law enforcement agencies to stop the killing of elephants and end the global demand for ivory, it will be extremely useful.

If it can point law enforcement agencies to the areas elephant most need protection and marshal the resources needed to stop the poaching and smuggling, it will have done a great service. Short of that, it is like inventorying deck chairs on the Titanic: It is simply not enough to count carcasses as elephant populations plummet and local populations of these animals are wiped out.

Whether the average number of elephants killed each year is 25,000 to 50,000, or about one every 15 minutes – as IFAW has estimated – or 96 per day as the Wildlife Conservation Society has been saying, what is most important are the next steps taken to stop the slaughter.

At IFAW, we didn’t wait for the latest report to start protecting elephants. For years, we’ve been implementing a multi-pronged approach to address the elephant crisis at three points along the bloody ivory trail: source countries, transit countries and consumer countries.

In elephant range states such as Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and India, IFAW helps train and equip anti-poaching rangers, community scouts and forest staff to protect elephants where they live. These brave men and women are the elephants’ first line of defense against poachers.

By helping to provide local people with viable alternatives to poaching and address human-elephant conflicts, we build popular support for elephant protection.

Through our Prevention of Wildlife Trafficking training workshops, IFAW has trained almost 1,500 customs agents, border guards and wildlife law enforcement officials from more than 37 countries to detect and interdict ivory and other illegal wildlife products in transit from source to end-user nations.

We also work with INTERPOL and other law enforcement agencies to conduct operations and strengthen inter-agency and trans-national collaborations that have helped to disrupt and dismantle international criminal gangs and smuggling rings.

Even the Internet is a major conduit for illegal sales of ivory, live wild animals and other wildlife products, as IFAW’s investigations of online wildlife trade have revealed. Our global findings have been used by law enforcement officials to crack down on these criminal activities, led website owners to ban sales of illegal wildlife products and encouraged policy-makers and legislators to tighten regulations and oversight of illegal wildlife sales online.

The combined result of these initiatives has been to make it more difficult for wildlife criminals to move illegal products electronically.

In China, Europe, the United States of America and elsewhere, IFAW advocates for stricter laws and enhanced penalties for wildlife crimes at the same time we run education and awareness campaigns to reduce demand and change the behavior of ivory and wildlife consumers.

Time is running out for elephants as a growing middle class in China and other nations are willing and able to buy more ivory products both as status symbols and as financial investments. In range states where economic opportunities are lacking, poaching sometimes seems to be a lucrative option, and because international criminal gangs and insurgent groups are more and more involved in ivory poaching and smuggling.

But an engaged global community of governments, NGOs, law enforcement agencies and concerned people can end the slaughter before it is too late for the world’s remaining elephants.

We must count ourselves among the active protectors of these majestic animals and not just count carcasses.

Source:  Orilliapacket.com

By Bob Bowles

It is a hard statistic to measure, but narcotics is said to be the largest community by volume of illegal trade in the world, with illegal trade of arms and ammunition coming in at third place. The illegal trade of wildlife species, in most cases endangered species by volume, takes second place.

The United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) closely monitors and controls imports to Canada. I have a friend who is a butterfly collector and purchases many imported species, but in each case, these species come with a CITES permit. That means the species was raised on a farm in a sustainable manner with the intent of it being sold. This activity causes no negative effects to the ecosystem as it would if the collection species were taken from the wild.

Kangaroos are legally harvested for commercial trade and export in Australia and the commercial harvest of saltwater crocodiles from Australia and New Zealand has been largely successful. There has been a call from some environmentalists to include legalized harvest of the white rhinoceros in South Africa. It is being poached at an alarming rate for its horn, which is sold for high prices on the black market.

Queen Alexandra butterflies sell for $8,195 each, tortoises in Madagascar for $10,000, arowana fish for $20,000 each, elephants for $28,200 each, black cockatoos from Australia for $31,000 each, gorillas for $40,000, orangutan for $45,000, tigers for $70,000 — with $1,300 just for the penis and $35,000 for the skin — bear bile for $200,000 per pound and rhino horns for $97,000 per kilogram.

Imports can be somewhat controlled with a CITES permit, but in Canada and United States, there is a black market of illegal trade that cannot be as well controlled.

The greatest black-market trade of endangered species in Canada and U.S. is of native reptiles, mainly turtles and snakes. Ontario has 17 species of native snakes and eight species of native turtles. The Ontario Species at Risk Act, 2007, lists 10 snake species and seven turtle species. Five endangered, three threatened and two special-concern snakes are native to Ontario. Two endangered, two threatened and three special-concern species of turtles are native to Ontario.

An individual in Ontario can’t keep or transport a living animal or plant that is a species at risk. Education organizations can keep a species at risk for science or education if they are a provincially or municipally owned and operated museum, science centre or curatorial institute, a university or college that is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada or a college of applied arts and technology, but they must register it with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and keep records of what species they have. They can only obtain the species from someone who is allowed to have them and must take good care of the species while in their care. They can only transport species to another educational organization or a veterinarian.

A person who is issued a “zoo” licence can keep live-game wildlife and specially protected wildlife in captivity and also can buy, sell or propagate them. Such a person can also hunt or trap to collect specimens for rearing purposes. It appears a “zoo” can be an individual person who wishes to rear reptiles.

Accredited zoos and aquariums in our area include Wye Marsh Wildlife Centre, Toronto Zoo and Science North. Wye Marsh keeps endangered species of snakes, but does not breed them or use them. Other not-for-profit organizations keep at-risk snake and turtle species for education, but do not breed them or use them to promote their business.

The reason the species has become endangered in the first place is not because they don’t reproduce well in the wild, but because of habitat loss or human impact. It has been proven with the eastern loggerhead shrikes on the Carden Alvar. This endangered species reproduces well each year in the wild, with several young successfully reared from nests. There have also been several introductions of birds raised in captivity and released in the wild. Few of these young birds return from the south the following year to breed on the Carden Alvar. Breeding endangered reptiles in captivity will not help bring back the species unless the habitat is protected and the human impact is addressed. Breeding endangered species in captivity could give the public the idea it is acceptable for them to raise endangered species to replenish their numbers.

There are many individuals who would like to have a “one-of-a-kind” endangered snake or turtle in their private collections. It is great people can go places that keep endangered species under permits to view them. But more power and enforcement needs to be given to the Ontario MNR to monitor the permits for keeping and breeding endangered species in captivity. Otherwise, it could impact species already on the brink of extinction.

Source:  Newswatch.nationalgeographic.com

By Katarzyna Nowak

While positive steps have been taken by governments to protect elephants and their ecosystems, private hunting companies are working hard to undermine the potential gains.

Recent regulatory controls include a U.S. ban on the import of elephant trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe. These two African elephant range states (the former officially in the “Gang of 19”) are still largely characterized by elephant population declines, poor (but improving) adherence to CITES directives, and corruption in the hunting sector (see below on “Hunting Violations”), as well as among government authorities who implement wildlife regulations (see recent article by WCS’s Elizabeth Bennett; also, recent findings by WildLeaks).

Texas-based Hunting Club Bucks U.S. Government

Tanzania’s Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Lazaro Nyalandu, recently visited Texas at the invitation (and presumably on the bill) of the Dallas Safari Club (DSC), which then released the following statement: “Tanzania’s top wildlife official…says that the U.S. ban on importing ivory would not curb illicit trafficking…but instead benefit poachers.”

It is worrying that the U.S.-based club is lobbying foreign governmental officials to fight back against regulations imposed by its own government administration.

Fight back on what grounds? How can balanced observers not suspect self-serving politicking to benefit short-term financial interests?

And what does the DSC not grasp about Obama’s “whole of government approach” toward tackling wildlife trafficking, which requires national and international cooperation and partnership?

According to the U.S. Judge’s 12-page decision to uphold the ban, “The agency’s announcement did not prohibit anyone from hunting African elephants in Zimbabwe or Tanzania or anywhere else; it did not bar plaintiff or its members from organizing elephant hunts or earning income by providing services to hunting enthusiasts; and it did not restrict anyone’s ability to support the conservation of elephants.”

In the meantime, The Humane Society is advocating that the ban be broadened to include all African countries that allow elephant hunting. 

“If American trophy hunters were sincere, they could invest their wealth directly to fight illegal killing,” wrote Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, in a CNN opinion piece in June 2014. “Against tremendous pressure from a small cadre of hunters and others who want to trade in ivory, including the folks at Safari Club International [SCI\, the United States has taken strong steps against the trade in ivory goods.”

Sport Hunting of Little Benefit to Local Communities

Last year, Economists at Large released a report that rippled through conservation circles and thoroughly refuted claims that sport hunting is a large industry that benefits local communities and national economies.

Tanzania and Zimbabwe featured in their analysis, which found that hunting revenue in these two countries expressed as a percentage of tourism revenue was a mere 2.3 percent (Tanzania) and 3.2 percent (Zimbabwe), with non-consumptive tourism (in other words, game viewing, with animals neither caught nor killed) making up the balance.

And these were the top two countries of the nine included in the analysis that are benefiting from non-consumptive tourism. If tourism revenue is expressed as a percentage of GDP, Tanzania’s equals 6.1 percent, and Zimbabwe’s, 6.4 percent.

Interestingly, the country with the highest gain from hunting at the time of the report was Botswana, at 11.7 percent (hunting revenue as percentage of tourism revenue). Despite having relatively more to lose, Botswana banned trophy hunting last year after concluding that “The shooting of wild game for sport and trophies is no longer compatible with our commitment to preserve local fauna.” More....

Source:  Onegreenplanet.org

By Lora Dunn

It’s criminal abuse to poison an animal — unless the dog is being doused in toxic chemicals in the name of research.

It’s criminal neglect to deprive an animal of necessary food — unless that animal is a chicken, being intentionally starved as part of the “forced molting” practice that maximizes egg production.

It’s criminal torture to electrocute an animal — unless that animal is a cow used for rodeo entertainment.

As a society, we have determined that even the most egregious practices to animals, practices that cause pain and suffering to undeniably sentient beings, are justified if they serve certain human ends. This divide often falls along species lines: dog versus pig, cat versus cow.

But our treatment of animals also depends largely on the human-centric purpose we have superimposed on those animals’ existence: a rabbit can be a companion animal or food animal, a dog a therapy animal or research animal, a calf used for slaughter or entertainment.

The Voices Lost in “Exemptions”

Our cruelty laws throughout the U.S. reflect this compartmentalized thinking. We criminalize animal abuse and neglect in all 50 states, but make exceptions where prohibiting certain practices as cruelty would inconveniently interfere with our agricultural, research, entertainment, or other purposes.

One way we get around this “problem” is through explicit exemptions: 40 states directly exempt agricultural practices that are “customary” or “traditional,” such as gestation crates for pregnant sows that prevent these creatures from turning around or stretching their limbs, or “trimming” the toe off a chicken (akin to cutting off a human finger) without anesthesia.

Even states that don’t overtly exempt such “common” agricultural practices still implicitly excuse these and other activities as being “justified” or “necessary” for some other human-related purpose. Each year, ALDF compiles a Compendium of animal protection laws in all 50 states and assesses their strengths and weaknesses in the Rankings Report, including these exemptions.

The Danger of Self-Definition in Big-Ag

And as if these blanket exemptions were not enough to sufficiently shield the otherwise criminal behavior of agricultural giants, the powerful industrial agriculture lobby continues to push for “ag gag” legislation, criminalizing undercover investigations of farmed animal cruelty (see the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s recent litigation challenging the constitutionality of these laws in Idaho and Utah).

In other words, an industry that already self-defines the scope of its exempted behavior (what’s “normal,” “common,” or “accepted”) now seeks to silence those who document abuse that is so egregious that it falls outside of these broad exemptions.

So, What Can You Do to Help Animals in Your State?

• Call your legislators and tell them you don’t support ag gag legislation, and urge them to pass stronger animal protection laws.
• Vote for district attorneys who take animal cruelty seriously, and support law enforcement who make animal cruelty investigations a priority.

Be a voice for the voiceless — no matter what context.

Source:  News.Asiaone.com

By Janjira Pongrai

THAILAND - Thailand is asking Myanmar to integrate its Tanintharyi National Park, which is near the Thai-Myanmar border, into the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex that will soon become a natural World Heritage site.

Representatives of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) visited the forest complex yesterday and will continue to observe it today.

Tanintharyi National Park is next to western forestlands in Thailand's Phetchaburi and Ratchaburi provinces.

Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, chief of Kaeng Krachan National Park, said the idea was discussed during a Tuesday meeting on bilateral cooperation in forest and wildlife conservation between Thailand's Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and its Myanmar counterparts.

The matter was discussed among Thai-Myanmar policy-makers while the IUCN facilitated academic coordination, because it believes the Thai-Myanmar border area needs a project to link both countries' forestlands, where large animals such as elephants often cross back and forth.

"If the forestland integration were done and the area were declared a natural World Heritage site, both countries could jointly and more effectively manage this forest resources," Chaiwat said.

He said he expected the forest complex to be registered as Thailand's third natural World Heritage site next year after the country had answered all questions about forestland management.

The two previous sites were the Thungyai Naresuan-Huai Kha Khang Wildlife Sanctuaries in 1991 and the Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex in 2005.

The 4,822-square-kilometre Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex is composed of Phetchaburi's Kaeng Krachan National Park, Prachuap Khiri Khan's Kui Buri National Park, Ratchaburi's Phachi River Wildlife Sanctuary and Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Prachan National Park.

Source:  Thestreet.com

Press Release

The earth's largest land mammal is in crisis – on average, one elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its ivory. A new article published in the American Bar Association's Natural Resources & Environment journal explores the international crisis through the lens of the thriving illegal ivory market in the United States – a significant contributor to the rapid decline of elephant populations in Africa.

The article, Treasured to Death: Elephants, Ivory, and the Resurgence of a Crisis examines the regulatory loopholes in America's domestic ivory market, and how these gaps serve to mask recently-poached contraband.  The piece also describes the Obama Administration's efforts to curtail the domestic trade by proposing stronger policies on ivory commerce.

" The United States is the second largest ivory market behind China," noted co-author and IFAW campaigns officer, Peter LaFontaine.  "We have a responsibility to lead the way in implementing conservation measures at home, aimed at protecting elephants in the wild."

In writing the article, the authors utilized recently analyzed U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data on seizures of illegal ivory at national borders, legal imports and exports of ivory objects, and other data showcasing America's complicity in elephant poaching.

LaFontaine added:  "The relationship between the seemingly insatiable demand for ivory products in Asia and the rampant poaching of elephants for their tusks is well documented.  We need to raise awareness on how American ivory consumers are promoting the mass poaching of elephants, and work together to reverse the elephants' march towards extinction."

About IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare) Founded in 1969, IFAW rescues and protects animals around the world. With projects in more than 40 countries, IFAW rescues individual animals, works to prevent cruelty to animals, and advocates for the protection of wildlife and habitats.

Source:  NYtimes.com

By Darcy L. Ogada

NAIROBI, Kenya — IN July of last year, roughly 500 vultures died after they ate the pesticide-laced carcass of an elephant that had been killed by poachers in Namibia. It was an example of one poaching technique in Africa that seems to be on the rise: the poisoning of vultures so that authorities won’t be alerted to the location of the crime.

The overhead circling of vultures has long been used to locate lost or dead livestock. In the same way, vultures help law enforcement officers zero in on poachers.

With their keen eyesight and distinctive vantage point, vultures can locate an elephant carcass within 30 minutes of the animal’s death. It can take 45 to 70 minutes for the most skilled poachers to hack off two elephant tusks, and when vultures gather overhead rangers can get that much closer to apprehending the perpetrators. By poisoning a carcass and killing vultures en masse, poachers are trying to ensure that next time around there will be fewer of them to contend with.

Vulture conservationists began to take particular note of this development in July 2012, when an elephant was poached in Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe and 191 vultures were found scattered around the carcass, poisoned. Since then, six more cases of these poisonings have been reported. The most recent was in May. All told, some 1,700 vultures died.

If vultures were merely the ancillary damage of poaching, it would be bad enough. But these birds are also dying from eating the poisoned carcasses of livestock that have been baited to kill predators, like lions, leopards and hyenas, in retaliation for killing livestock. Vultures, too, are being poisoned for their body parts, which are used in traditional medicine and for good luck.

What’s worrisome is that of the nine main species of vultures in Africa, four are endangered and three more are listed as vulnerable by the authoritative Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Vultures are among the longest-living birds, surviving up to 30 years in the wild. They reproduce very slowly, reaching sexual maturity at 5 to 7 years of age on average. They generally produce one chick every one to two years. This reproductive strategy worked well, until the poisonings.

While the use of traditional poisons to kill animals is age-old, the intensive use of highly toxic agricultural pesticides is not. Ask anyone involved in anti-poaching efforts in Africa and they will tell you that one method of choice for killing wildlife today is agricultural pesticides because they are available, cheap, effective and silent.

Elephants and rhinos are also being killed by the same poisons that poachers use to kill vultures. These pesticides are poured into water holes and onto salt licks, sprinkled over pachyderm delicacies such as watermelons or pumpkins, or used to coat the tips of arrows. The carcasses of these huge animals can then poison the next round of consumers, the scavengers.

The pesticides most commonly used include carbofuran and aldicarb. In the United States, Canada and the European Union, those pesticides are either banned, or their use is severely restricted. But throughout rural Africa you can walk into many of the numerous small shops selling agricultural products and walk out with enough poison to kill an elephant in perhaps 30 minutes, or a human being more quickly.

While Africa’s vultures have become increasingly entangled in the ivory and rhino horn trade, the commercialization of the trade in vulture parts — in particular their heads, which are valued as fetishes — is worsening the problem. Vultures are associated with clairvoyance. Businessmen sometimes sprinkle a powder of vulture parts around their businesses to improve profits. These powders can also be blown into the air to recall a lost lover.

This trade, especially in West African countries, South Africa and Tanzania, has led to an increase in vulture killings, though it is difficult to come up with a hard number. In particular, the demand for vulture parts in Nigeria is pushing many species of the bird toward extinction there.

Scientists from The Peregrine Fund and their collaborators throughout Africa used to spend their time studying the unique habits of vultures; these days they monitor their imminent extinction. These birds play an important role in the ecosystems where they live. At first glance, many might consider vultures a “disgusting bird,” as Darwin did. But by eating carrion, vultures eliminate rotting carcasses that might otherwise become factories for diseases, and which could have consequences for human health.

More stringent regulation and control over the distribution of pesticides, and prosecutions for those who use pesticides to poison wildlife, are critical in many African nations if this problem is to be brought under control. Money and expertise to fight the new wave of elephant and rhino poaching has been pledged by Western nations. But if we don’t also devote effort and money to saving Africa’s vultures, can we really expect that the war on poaching will ever be won?

Source:  EN.itar-tass.com

During the first interrogation the captain rejected all the charges of illegal catches

A fishing vessel whose captain is Russian has been detained near Japan’s northern Hokkaido Island for illegal catches in the Japanese exclusive economic zone, Russia’s Consulate General in Sapporo told ITAR-TASS on Thursday.

“We have been informed about the detention of a Sierra Leone-flagged ship for crab poaching in Japanese waters,” an official of the diplomatic mission said. “The ship’s captain - Russian Aleksandr Sinebabnov, has been detained.”

The consulate has no information about the number of the vessel’s crew and their citizenship.

According to the Japanese Coast Guard, a vessel with the displacement of 37 tonnes was detained at 01:15am, local time, Thursday (20:15mp, Moscow time, Wednesday) 60 kilometres east of Cape Soya. During the first interrogation the captain rejected all the charges of illegal catches.

Source:  Malaysiandigest.com

HO CHI MINH CITY - The media has been urged to give more coverage of the threat faced by the world's population of rhinoceros, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. The rhino population has declined by 90 per cent over the last 40 years due to the rapid rise of poaching for their horns.

Participants made the call at a discussion on "The media's role in raising public awareness and improving Vietnam's image in the rhino horn crisis", held here Wednesday.

The event was organised by Vietnamese non-governmental organisation CHANGE, the WildAid organisation and the African Wildlife Foundation.

Vietnam and China are the two largest consumer markets for rhino horns due to their purported ability to heal various diseases including cancer.

The last rhino in Vietnam was killed in April 2010.

Research shows that 1,004 rhinos were poached in South Africa last year, with the number reaching 658 in August this year compared to 13 rhinos killed in 2007.

Rhinos are at risk of becoming extinct in the next six years if the trend is not reversed.

Dr. Nguyen Chan Hung, president of Vietnam Cancer Association, cited research from the World Wide Fund for Nature in the eighties that said rhino horns had no healing power.

Several campaigns have been launched in Vietnam to change public misconception about the horns' healing ability and to reduce demand for rhino horns.

The CHANGE organisation in coordination with WildAid, African Wildlife Foundation and the Centre for Environment Training and Communication launched the 'Stop Using Rhino Horn' campaign in Hanoi on March 3.

Source:  Onegreenplanet.org

By Kate Good

This news that Raju’s former owner is appealing to Allahabad courts for custody of the elephant he formerly abused, comes as both a shock and a giant face palm moment for anyone who knows this sad elephant’s story. Raju spent the past 50 YEARS in chains, serving as many as 27 different owners/abusers who use this gentle elephant as a begging prop. His daily  life consistent of standing on the street with his mahout, clad in spiked chains to prohibit him from moving. Raju survived by eating scraps of garbage left on the street.

Deprived of all basic needs of any living creature – not to mention virtually all the needs specific to his species, Raju’s life was a living hell. However, thanks to the hard work of Wildlife S.O.S. and a number of governmental officials, Raju was rescued from his captors. It is said he literally cried with happiness when his spiked chains were finally removed.

Since his rescue, Raju has been living (and thriving) at the Wildlife S.O.S. elephant sanctuary, finally able to receive proper care and a diet composed of edible, nutritious foods. But now Raju’s former owner has decided he wants Raju back.

You’ve got to be kidding, right?

Sadly, no. Raju was a highly profitable prop to his abuser, and he has approached the Allahabad courts pleading for custody of the elephant he illegally kept for years. To any human with even the smallest inkling of compassion, this request seems absurd and unacceptable. Why would illegally holding an animal and abusing them everyday they were in your care be grounds for custody, we do not know. It seems like a no-brainer to us, but unfortunately, this is yet to be seen in the eyes of this court.

Thousands of people took to action to help free Raju, and now it is time to renew that support and help ensure he stays free from his former mahout. Just as the cruel person who imprisoned Raju is appealing to the government, so are we. You can show your support for Raju by urging Shri Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister for the Government of Uttar Pradesh and Dr. Rupak De, the chief wildlife warden for Uttar Pradesh Forest Department, to deny Raju’s captor’s request, by signing and sharing this petition.

The Allabahad Government helped to free Raju, so now it is their responsibility to keep him free.

Source:  Willitsnews.com

By Will Houston

A Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District commissioner's perjury and poaching trial was pushed back to November after concerns were raised about whether the case should proceed on the previously set September date due to a recent change in deputy district attorneys.

"That is plenty of time to be discussing the case, and all aspects of the case," Superior Court Judge Marilyn Miles told attorneys at the Thursday trial confirmation hearing.

With Deputy District Attorney Christa McKimmy's retirement from the office, Deputy District Attorney Jackie Pizzo said she found out Monday that she would be taking over the case. There had been earlier discussion of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife appointing a prosecutor from the California District Attorneys Association, she told the judge.

Commissioner Aaron Newman's defense attorney Manny Daskal said there has been a two-month "void" in contact with the prosecution, and Pizzo's recent appointment came as another surprise.

"I did just present an offer," Pizzo said.

Daskal said a similar plea offer had been made in the past few months, but one of the stipulations was revocation of Newman's commercial fishing license, which would have a "great impact" on his client's livelihood as a commercial fisherman. Pizzo said the current plea offer drafted by the district attorney's office has similar consequences.

Newman faces six misdemeanor charges related to poaching allegations and two felony perjury charges for allegedly lying to state officials. He is accused of perjury under declaration after he allegedly lied to the California Fish and Wildlife Department on June 4, 2009, when he stated in an affidavit that he lost his original 2009 abalone record card, which allows for limited take of the shellfish. Newman allegedly stated he had only used three tags total and was eventually given a new one.

The commissioner faces a second perjury charge after allegedly stating that he lost his 2012 B-Zone deer tag before he could use it. He was granted a duplicate. A warranted search of Newman's home in June 2013 uncovered the original abalone card with 21 tags used and the replacement card with three tags used, as well as the original 2012 deer tag showing Newman had shot a four-point buck on Sept. 2, 2012, according to court documents.

Miles asked the attorneys directly if they were going to be ready for the scheduled Sept. 22 trial date, previously stating that she had heard no reason why she should reset the date.

"Who the prosecutor is doesn't make any difference," she said.

After being asked by Miles whether she would be ready, Pizzo said she would be prepared by September, but still needed to review the many documents put together over the last year by her predecessor.

"If you're not going to prosecute it, then dismiss it," Miles said. "When will the DA be available for trial?"

Daskal spoke briefly with Pizzo and suggested an early November date, which they agreed to, prompting Miles to set the trial for Nov. 3.

Newman stood in the courtroom during the proceedings wearing a blue button-down shirt, but he did not speak.

Source:  Stuff.co.nz

Firearms bought in Marlborough might soon come with a warning against rustling and poaching.

Sergeant Mike Porter, of Blenheim, said the idea to put tags on firearms was a Marlborough police initiative aimed at reminding people that the penalty for unlawful hunting had increased.

Poachers face a maximum of two years' prison and up to a $100,000 fine. People caught could also have their firearms, dogs, and anything else used at the time of the offence confiscated.

The warning tag concept still needed approval, but Porter expected firearms bought from Marlborough shops to come with the warning by the end of the year.

Police had also erected warning signs in areas where unlawful hunting was known to take place, including the Northbank, Ure River and Rainbow Valley.

People in rural Marlborough were continually dealing with poachers on their land, Porter said.

Anyone caught stealing stock, or hunting on private land could be prosecuted.

Marlborough man Adrian Moore found three pregnant sheep with their heads cut off and five more missing from a paddock near State Highway 1, in Riverlands, on Sunday.

Another Marlborough farmer said yesterday about 350 ewes and lambs had been stolen from her farm in the past 10 years.

"It goes on all the time," she said.

"A couple of years ago we had 60 lambs stolen within a year."

It was heart-breaking when stock were stolen, she said.

"We work our arses off full time on a farm - you really struggle to keep it going," she said.

All the gates on the farm were locked because people drove through their paddocks and did what they wanted, she said.

Marlborough Federated Farmers president and Awatere Valley farmer Greg Harris said unlawful hunting was a problem for many farmers in the region.

Stock on his farm had been slaughtered a few times, he said.

"If you have someone slaughtering animals on your property in the dark, near your house, it's pretty confronting. Especially if you've got young children or a family situation."

The majority of hunters were good, responsible people but there was a small element who hunted illegally, he said.

Senior Constable Beau Webster said many people didn't report missing stock, or if they did, it was weeks after the theft.

Police had prosecuted 25 people for unlawfully hunting in Marlborough in the past year.

Many cases were never solved, he said.

Police encouraged people living in rural communities to take more notice of any suspicious activity or behaviour in their area, and to report it immediately, Webster said.

"If it gets reported, we can do something about it."

Source:  News.mongabay.com

By Loren Bell

Police in Langkat, North Sumatra, Indonesia, seized 55 porcupines from smugglers preparing to ship the animals to China. Three suspects were detained during last week's operation, while their accomplices remain at large. Dozens more animals reportedly obtained from dealers in Medan are still unaccounted for.

Police Chief, Yulmar Tri Himawan, said the operation was part of an ongoing investigation which started on a tip by local citizens. He said a truck the police were watching for was spotted traveling through Langkat.

"Upon discovery, our team stopped the vehicle immediately," Yulmar said, "Inside they found 55 porcupines (landak) concealed inside wooden boxes serving as temporary cages."

The three individuals detained are residents of Aceh Province, and are believed to be part of a larger wildlife trafficking network.

One of the detained men claims the three of them are only transporters, carrying the animals from Medan to Aceh for 425,000 rupiah ($36) per trip. During questioning he stated this is the third time he has transported animals. Previously, he hauled pangolins and 118 small turtles. The suspect claims the animals are transported to Aceh where they are smuggled aboard a boat that carries them to a larger ship waiting further out at sea.

"There are other teams involved," the suspect told investigators. "There is a team that picks up the animals, there is a team that arranges the transactions, there are others who are responsible for finding and buying the animals."

The second of the three men stated this is the first time he had transported porcupines, and that he was not aware that the animals were protected. Statements from the third individual have not been released.

The animals that are still alive will be turned over to the Nature Conservation Agency of Sumatra.

Bezoar stones, masses found in the digestive tracts of some porcupines, are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat a range of ailments from dengue fever to epilepsy and cancer. A 1603 lawsuit over the purchase of a bezoar stone is cited as the origin of the concept of "caveat emptor" (let the buyer beware) in English common law.

Pangolins are reportedly the most trafficked animal on earth. Dried or roasted pangolin scales are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat swelling and arthritis, as well as—according to the January 1938 issue of Nature—"women possessed by devils and ogres."

SOURCE: Ayat S Karokaro. Polres Langkat Gagalkan Penyelundupan Landak ke China. Mongabay-Indonesia. August 23, 2014.

Source:  News.nationalgeographic.com

By Jane J. Lee

A ruling by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration bumps the number of protected coral species to 22.

Twenty coral species—ten times the number listed previously—are the newest animals slated for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling, announced Tuesday evening by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), did not come with restrictions on "taking" corals—harming them directly by collecting them or indirectly by altering their habitat—but officials haven't ruled out such restrictions for the future.

The listing of 20 species at once makes this the largest Endangered Species Act (ESA) ruling ever. But it could have been even larger, said Eileen Sobeck, assistant administrator with NOAA Fisheries: 83 species of coral had been proposed for listing.

Reef-building corals around the world are suffering the effects of ocean acidification, rising ocean temperatures, and pollution. A frequent symptom of damage is bleaching: An entire reef may turn white as the corals expel the symbiotic algae that live inside them. (See "Giant Coral Die—Off Found-Gulf Spill 'Smoking Gun?'")

The newly listed species are not going extinct now, said David Bernhart, a biologist with NOAA Fisheries Service in St. Petersburg, Florida, but there's a good possibility that they might in the foreseeable future. That's why these 20 species—which include pillow corals, three species of star corals, and rough cactus coral—have been classified as "threatened," rather than "endangered." (Learn more about how climate change affects coral reefs.)

"Most of these species, particularly in the Caribbean, have started to experience some impacts from bleaching and elevated temperatures and disease," Bernhart said.

They're not the first coral species to garner ESA protection. The Caribbean's elkhorn and staghorn corals were listed as threatened in 2006. But the current group is flung across a much wider geographic area.

Fifteen species inhabit U.S. territorial waters in the Indo-Pacific region, around American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Pacific Remote Islands—a national monument that includes atolls in the Line and Marshall Islands. The five remaining species inhabit the Caribbean around Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Limited Protection for Now

Other federal agencies will be the ones most affected by this newest ruling, said Sobeck. As she explains, if an agency like the Environmental Protection Agency or the Army Corps of Engineers wishes to work in an area that might affect a protected coral species, it must first consult with NOAA to arrange the proper permits. (See "Digging Up the Seafloor Makes Coral Reefs Sick.")

Activities like fishing and tourism remain unaffected for now, as does fertilizer use on land, the runoff from which can pollute coastal waters where corals live. If officials want to institute regulations to protect any of the newly listed corals—by, say, designating the kind of no-take zones that already apply to elkhorn and staghorn corals—they have to go through a separate process. That process, said Sobeck, would include economic impact reviews as well as public comment periods.

The decision to list the 20 new coral species came after an extensive review and comment period, Sobeck noted. Both the public and researchers provided a mountain of information on the various species under consideration. "I feel quite confident that we have a very robust, science-based decision regarding these 20 species," Sobeck said.

Source:  Assamtribune.com

In a major breakthrough against illegal wildlife trade in the Northeastern region, the Nagaland Excise department apprehended a woman at Khuzama check gate for illegalyy carrying 14 elephant tusks. The elephant tusks were being transported from Shillong to Imphal.

The accused, identified as Ching Zou, along with the seized tusks were later handed over to the Forest department officials by Superintendent of Excise, Kohima, Katoho Sumi, today.

Meanwhile, ACF Beizo Suokhrie has acknowledged the Excise department, particularly the Superintendent of Excise Katoho Sumi and Inspector of Excise NeiziezolieAngami for their pro-activeness in the case. He hoped that the seizure may lead to busting of the network of illegal wildlife trade that is suspected to be taking place in the region.

A case has been registered with Khuzama Police Station under the sections of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Elephant being a schedule I animal under the Act, illegal possession of ivory tusk is an offence under section 40 (II) and 44 of the Act, which is punishable with imprisonment of three-seven years, Kohima Forest Range said in a release today.

Source:  AllAfrica.com

A rare male desert lion that has been a valuable source of information for a lion research project in the Kunene Region was killed over the past weekend.

The lion, which was called the 'Terrace Male', was found dead near Tomakas, a village between Purros and Sesfontein, on Sunday, it was reported on the website of the Desert Lion Conservation Project yesterday.

The satellite collar with which the lion had been fitted to record its movements was found burnt about 100 metres from the animal's carcass. The collar last transmitted data on the animal's whereabouts at 12h33 on Sunday.

The Terrace Male, which was given the research title 'Xpl-68', was with a pride of lionesses from the Okongwe area south-east of Purros when he was killed.

Lion researcher Flip Stander, who started the Desert Lion Conservation Project in 1998, said that data from their satellite collars showed that the Okongwe females immediately moved into the northern Okongwe Mountains, possibly due to the disturbance caused by the killing of Xpl-68.

The lion's carcass and burnt collar were found after two vehicles had been sent to the last location recorded by the Terrace Male's satellite collar when it was noticed that the collar had stopped transmitting data.

"It would appear that the people responsible for killing the Terrace Male wanted to hide the evidence," Stander said.

The Terrace Male was born during November 2007. After being fitted with a satellite collar, the lion gained a reputation for its roaming over distances of hundreds of kilometres in Kunene. During August 2012 the Terrace Male was recorded crossing over the Kunene River from Namibia into Angola, where it spent about two weeks before returning across the river to Namibia.

The killing of another male lion in the same area where the Terrace Male met his end appears to have set the stage for the killing of Xpl-68 as well.

Stander recorded on the project's website that after the lion known as 'Rosh' or Xpl-73 was shot on 1 July, the Terrace Male started to explore areas previously used by Xpl-73 and the Okongwe lionesses. That, however, also brought the Terrace Male into danger, since he came into closer contact with humans and livestock.

"[T\he Okongwe lions are well-adapted to living close to people and their livestock. They are cautious and distrustful of vehicles and people, whereas Xpl-68 is naive and oblivious to the dangers," it was stated on the project's website on 16 August.

In an effort to get the Terrace Male away from potential conflict with humans, he was relocated to the Hoanib River area further south of Purros in mid-July.

By the end of July, though, he had moved back to the area previously used by Xpl-73, and was in danger again.

Stander said the killing of the Terrace Male was an unfortunate development because the incident could stimulate a public outcry that may question many fundamental aspects of the conservation, communal conservancy and tourism efforts in the region.

The website of the project says that the value of the unique desert lions is of great significance to the Namibian tourism industry, hence the need to ensure the long-term conservation of the lions.

Stander said the killing is being investigated.

Source:  Thenewage.co.za

A man has been arrested for alleged rhino poaching in Limpopo, SA National Parks said on Thursday.

The man was caught at the Louis Trichardt Magistrate's Court on Tuesday attending the bail application of four of his friends, spokeswoman Divhani Maremba said.

The four were arrested earlier in August for allegedly poaching in the Mapungubwe National Park and World Heritage Site.

The arrested man would appear with the other four for a bail application on September 26.

Source:  Newindianexpress.com

NEW DELHI: With poaching posing a big threat to tigers in the country, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is in the process of devising an online tiger tracking system to check poaching.

The Management Information System (MIS) will provide real-time exchange of information among all the 47 tiger reserves and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) in case of incidents of poaching, seizures and other wildlife crimes.

Addressing the 10th meeting of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said the MIS-based tracking would strengthen the WCCB and help in controlling wildlife crimes in tiger reserves. The system developed by WCCB will be launched in a couple of weeks.

Underscoring the importance of technology in the field of tiger conservation, Javadekar said that the use of National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) “Alert System” would also be utilised in case of disasters pertaining to fire and floods in tiger reserves.

The system gives a platform where all tiger reserves can come on the same wavelength through an online medium, access to which will be protected through use of password. The major advantage of the proposed system is that if any poaching incident were to be reported from one tiger reserve, then a message will be flashed to all the other tiger reserves which will be put on alert.

The minister said that today more than 50 per cent of tigers of the world in wild are in India and their numbers have come down to over 1,600. The NTCA is in the process of enumerating the tiger population and the census is expected to be completed by this year-end.

As per the 2010 census, there are 1,706 tigers in the wild in India. In 2013, 68 tiger deaths were reported while 40 tiger deaths have been reported so far this year. Many deaths happened due to poaching. The NTCA has also introduced Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for rearing orphaned tiger cubs and re-introducing them into the wild.

The MoEF has also asked the states to propose protected areas as new tiger reserves and are hand-holding the states technically and financially to set up rapid response teams to save the big cats.

Source:  NorthYorkshire.police.uk

Two Darlington poachers have been fined a total of £480 thanks to Borderwatch volunteers who spotted them on land in the Richmondshire area.

Craig Usher, 24, of Park Lane, Darlington was fined £200 for night poaching and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £20.

Thomas James David Hurman, 20, of Rockwell Avenue, Darlington was fined £70 for night poaching and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £20.

The pair were caught on 20 February 2014, after volunteers working on Borderwatch patrols spotted lamping activity on land at Newton Morrell near the Durham border.

Hurman was found on a lane nearby with a Lurcher dog and Usher soon appeared from a hedge nearby. A lamp was found in the hedge a short time later.

The pair were arrested and both were charged jointly with trespassing at night with the purpose of taking or destroying game.

Usher was found guilty on 19 August 2014 after failing to previously attend court.

Hurman had previously pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.

A destruction order was also placed on the lamp.

PC John Wilbor, who runs the Borderwatch Scheme in the Richmondshire area, said: ""This case is another great example of the effectiveness of the Borderwatch scheme and how local volunteers are working with the police to help prevent and detect crime in our rural communities.

"It  sends another clear message that we will take action against anyone coming to Richmondshire to commit crime."

Borderwatch is supported by Hambleton and Richmondshire Community Safety Partnership. If you would like to join the scheme, please contact PC Wilbor on 101 and ask for him by name.

If you would like to report any suspicious activity in your area contact North Yorkshire Police on 101 - select option 1 - and pass information to the Force Control Room.

In an emergency, or if you see a crime in progress, please call 999.

If you wish to remain anonymous, Crimestoppers can be contacted on 0800 555 111.

Source:  Newsweek.com

By Graham Boynton

Richard Leakey has returned to Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve, and one of the first social calls he makes is to the local Maasai elders. He says it is traditional in African society that if a known elder—the Swahili word is mzee—travels into other elders’ territory, he should meet with them.

“When I ran [the Kenya Wildlife Service\ I had a reputation for being on the side of the Maasai, so they know me well,” he says. “When we arrived this morning, word went out that I was here.”

The Maasai elders are clearly delighted to see mzee. They gather around him, and for the next 10 minutes there is an exuberant exchange in Swahili, with Leakey telling them that he understands they have great challenges but that he appreciates what they are doing, and that the protection of wildlife is important for the nation. This meeting also serves as a reminder that Leakey is anything but a mzungu (a white man) but rather, as he claims, a true African.

When we get back to camp, Leakey arranges to buy a goat and have it sent to the Maasai elders so they will have a feast that night.

Best known for digging up skulls that shed light on humanity’s origins, Leakey is back to pursuing the other great passion of his life—saving elephants and other endangered species threatened by poachers. The 69-year-old has made this trip with his protégée, Dr. Paula Kahumbu, who now heads up WildlifeDirect, the activist organization he founded in 2006.
This is Leakey’s third, fourth or even fifth coming, depending on how you measure these things, and it is certainly a remarkable comeback. Last September he had a liver transplant at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital and by all accounts was very close to death. He has already endured two kidney transplants, one in 1980 and the second in 2006, and he lost both his legs in a light aircraft accident in 1993 that he is convinced was an assassination attempt in retaliation for his conservation work.

Leakey warns Kahumbu that she should be careful and think seriously about employing a bodyguard. “When I was head of the Kenya Wildlife Service I had five bodyguards, night and day, 24/7,” he says. “And I needed them. There were many, shall we say, interesting incidents.”
That Leakey is back on the anti-poaching campaign trail is good news for African conservationists. When he last rode to the rescue 25 years ago, appointed by the then Kenyan president, Daniel arap Moi, as the head of a bankrupt, corrupt and incompetent Wildlife and Conservation Department, Leakey stopped a tidal wave of poaching.

He turned the department, which was renamed the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), into a paramilitary organization that had presidential permission to shoot poachers on sight. One conservationist said, “If Richard Leakey hadn’t been around then, we’d have probably lost our wildlife by now.”

Now the wildlife of Kenya, indeed of the entire African continent, is in crisis again. It is threatened by a combination of growing demand for ivory and rhino horn in the Far East, increased activity from al-Shabaab terrorists and Somali criminal gangs, and endemic corruption within the wildlife services. The soaring value of wildlife products has driven this latest poaching pandemic—in the Far East a single elephant’s tusks that weighs 10 kilograms, about 22 pounds, will fetch more than $30,000, while rhino horn is selling at $65,000 a kilogram (2 pounds, 3 ounces), more than twice the price of gold.

In August, it was announced that a tipping point had been reached: More African elephants are being killed each year than are being born. Their end is in sight. Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that between 2010 and 2013, Africa lost an average of 7 percent of its elephant population each year; at this rate, the animals could be wiped out in 100 years.

According to the KWS, last year Kenya lost 59 rhinos, a significant number because the entire population numbers around 1,000. Also, according to KWS, 300 elephants were poached last year, a figure that draws snorts of derision from Leakey. “They’re lying,” he says. “We think it is 10 times that number.”

There are now more than 30,000 African elephants a year being poached for their ivory, according to conservation groups, and South Africa, which has more than 85 percent of the continent’s remaining rhino, is losing a rhino every eight hours to poachers. Lion populations are also threatened, with five lions a day being killed illegally. At this rate, these signature species will no longer exist in the wild within a generation or two.

‘My Elephants’

“I hope we’re not just going to talk about endangered wildlife,” Leakey says grumpily as he heaves himself up onto his prosthetic legs and clambers down from the Cessna Caravan onto the dirt landing strip below. “I have been doing a bit more than that, you know.”

It is a typically contrarian remark that belies the work he and Kahumbu have been doing.

Most recently, they made news by accusing the Kenyan government of protecting international poaching networks. Leakey leveled these accusations after one of Kenya’s last big tuskers, the magnificent 45-year-old Satao, was found dead in Tsavo National Park with its enormous tusks hacked off and presumably already smuggled out of the country. He said there was “no question that there’s very high level protection of individuals who engage in the illegal export of elephant ivory and rhino horn.”

Associates of a well-known Kenyan businessman, Feisal Mohamed Ali, were arrested in June in Mombasa with 228 tusks and 74 ivory pieces weighing some 4,630 pounds, and although a warrant was issued for his arrest, he remains free. Leakey and Kahumbu cite this as an example of high-level protection, and Kahumbu says, “There are probably another 10 Feisals operating in Kenya right now.”

Such accusations of corruption directed at African administrations and their business connections frequently invite serious trouble, as Leakey knows from his experience.

Although Leakey has now formally handed over the reins of WildlifeDirect to the feisty, articulate Kahumbu, he is very much the strategic driving force behind this small nongovernmental organization that has already had an impact.

The group has been instrumental in the introduction of dramatic new laws for wildlife trafficking offenses that increased penalties for possession of ivory or rhino horn from 40,000 ($450) to 20 million Kenyan shillings ($230,000), the most severe on the continent. It also helped force the government to ban the use of Furadan, an insecticide used by farmers that has been found responsible for poisoning lions, hyenas, vultures and other animals. And it has successfully pressured the courts to stop the government from going ahead with a Chinese-built, four-lane highway through Nairobi National Park, the country’s oldest wildlife reserve.

Perhaps most important, Leakey and Kahumbu have, through the use of social media, engaged their fellow Kenyans in citizen conservation. Kahumbu says there is now an unprecedented groundswell of “citizen concern,” a significant shift in public engagement. The slogan “My elephants, my heritage” is constantly re-tweeted because “elephants are part of our heritage,” she says.

Kahumbu adds that while white conservationists have sometimes dominated the African wildlife theater and propagated the view that black Africans are uninterested in their wild animals, “our social media traffic completely undermines that stereotyping.”

Leakey cites recent evidence of corruption within the KWS—six senior deputy directors were recently suspended and more than 30 KWS rangers have also been suspended—as reason to radically reform the organization at the heart of Kenyan anti-poaching operations. He has also made a formal request to President Uhuru Kenyatta to declare a state of national emergency on wildlife poaching. As of this writing, Kenyatta has not responded.

The Kenya Wildlife Service did not respond to Newsweek's request for comment on Leakey's accusations. However, a report published in the past few weeks on Kenya’s wildlife security situation, commissioned by the government cabinet secretary Judy Wakhungu, has heaped more criticism on the organization, charging it with being unfit for its purpose. President Kenyatta has requested a copy of the report.

A Stronger Juju

Leakey’s life has from the outset been a stormy brew of successes, controversies, bitter fights with numerous enemies and dreadful misfortunes—a wild post-colonial adventure. Amid the internecine wars, economic catastrophes, tribalism and corruption of modern Africa, he has been one of the few white men to have muscled his way to the top and become a major African figure.

Significantly, he does not see himself as a white man in Africa, but simply an African.

The second of three sons born to the famous paleontologists Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard grew up in 1950s Kenya and witnessed the country’s metamorphosis from a jewel of the British Empire and playground for European aristocrats to independence and black majority rule. By the time he left school in 1960, the old Kenya of Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton existed only in memory and in its place was a sociopolitical order that had no place for the sons and daughters of white colonials.

Despite leaving school at 16 with modest exam results, Leakey has achieved world renown as a paleoanthropologist, has a string of honorary doctorates and has been elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He has also written several books on the origins of man and counts celebrities and royalty among his friends.

He says his avowed intention had been to keep out of the family business, but the young Leakey soon capitulated and began leading fossil-hunting expeditions to Kenya’s Koobi Fora region on the shores of Lake Turkana. In 1969 and again in 1972, his teams at Koobi Fora made fossil discoveries that would establish him as something of a cult figure. The second find uncovered Skull 1470, the 2 million-year-old homo habilis that was to make his name and propel him onto the cover of Time magazine. The pop paleo had arrived.

For all that, Leakey was coldly received by the scientific establishment. After his presentation of 1470 to the Zoological Society of London, the secretary, Lord Zuckerman, responded caustically: “May I first congratulate Mr. Leakey, an amateur and not a specialist, for the very modest and moderated way he gave his presentation.”

Although clearly stung by the scientific establishment’s rejection, Leakey forged ahead as he always did, and in 1977 published Origins, a best-seller that popularized paleoanthropology and made him even more famous. Two years later, while he was preparing The Making of Mankind, the BBC’s documentary on human evolution, he became seriously ill. His blood pressure was extremely high, and he was vomiting four or five times a day and struggling to keep up with his work schedules.

At the time, in his parallel role as director of the National Museums of Kenya, he was having terrible problems with his staff. He remembers that there was “an unfortunate undercurrent of hatred and bitterness in the museum…and some of the staff thought that my hospitalization was due to a spell successfully cast by one of my enemies. Indeed, one of my more senior colleagues, a person who had received a Ph.D. in the United States, had openly boasted that my illness was due to his strong juju.”

It was not juju. It was kidney failure. And in August 1980 Leakey had his first transplant.
It was the first of several confrontations with mortality—all of which Leakey has shaken off with cavalier disdain.

The plane crash in 1993 very nearly killed him. He was flying four passengers up to Naivasha when, soon after takeoff from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport, the engine in his Cessna 206 simply cut out. The plane plunged earthward, and after flying over villages and schools he managed to drop it into a field. As it bounced across the uneven turf, the plane pulled left, a wing snagged on a tree, the fuselage somersaulted, and then it plowed nose first into the muddy earth. Leakey was the most seriously injured, the engine driving into his legs and snapping them.

He was evacuated to Nairobi, where an elderly British orthopedic surgeon fought to stave off septicemia. For 12 days Leakey refused to be transferred to a hospital in Europe or America, determined to keep his hand on the tiller of the KWS from his hospital bed. Finally, he was persuaded to seek a second opinion, and trauma specialist Christopher Colton flew to Nairobi. When he arrived at the hospital, Colton later said, “I could smell the infection from the end of the corridor. Richard was dying.”

Colton decided to fly Leakey to Britain the next day. Eschewing the offer of a private jet from Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Leakey was loaded onto a British Airways flight “right at the back in economy class among the smokers because they could only get the stretcher in at the back.” A series of operations and bone grafts followed but failed to solve the problem, and Colton amputated his left leg below the knee. Six months later the right leg followed.

According to his old friend Georgiana Bronfman, it was Leakey himself who decided on the second amputation because he couldn’t be bothered with a time-consuming rehabilitation program. She says, “Richard’s attitude was, Take off the leg and let me get on with my work.”

After the crash, Leakey told me, he was going to bury his legs at Lake Turkana, the site of many of the Leakey family’s most important paleontology finds. Then he changed his mind and buried them at his home in the Ngong Hills, fearing that if they had been left in such a public place as Turkana his enemies might “urinate on them.”

The scars of his many medical adversities are plainly visible. Once a handsome man—and rather famously a dashing ladies’ man—his face is now cratered with open sores and solar keratoses that are, he says, “a result of 40 years of taking immunosuppressant drugs.” Leakey, however, is entirely uninterested in his physical appearance and unselfconscious about his amputated legs, wearing shorts throughout our stay in the bush, proudly displaying his $20,000 prosthetic extensions. More....