The start of October is a bit of a bleak time; not much is going on. Summer has come and gone, the next proper holiday to look forward to is Christmas and Halloween is far less appealing than when you were a kid. But there is a special day, today in fact, which you might not know much about: World Animal Day! The mission: "To raise the status of animals in order to improve welfare standards across the globe". Anyone who knows me will know how much I love animals, and today is very special as it is a celebration of all animals, whether our pets or our favourite animals, those we see at the zoo or those which are so endangered we may never see them at all. The idea of today is to raise awareness and education about the state of all animals, especially those which are threatened with extinction or mistreated and hopefully raise the profile of charities and organisations trying to better the lives of these creatures around the world. Today is also a celebration of groups involved in Conservation, stopping the illegal wildlife trade, protection of natural habitats, animal care and children's education as they are really championing the causes relating to animal care. Many celebrities are also voicing their love of animals and the need to look after them by supporting groups involved in World Animal Day, especially through their social media campaigns. Other forms of support come through fundraising and global events. In 2003, 44 events were held in 13 countries, and this has now grown to around 1000 events in 100 countries, ranging from conferences to spay & neuter marathons. A list of events can be found here if you would like to get involved or have a look at the organisations working with animals in your area. Simply using the hashtag #WorldAnimalDay will help get the word out about today and will help many charities and grass roots groups raise their profile online by receiving support and attention they need to campaign for their causes. Even if it is just to see beautiful photos of animals, please visit the website, or use the hashtag to spread the word about October 4th. As many of the posts so far on Twitter have been of people's favourite animals, I think I will finish off here with my own, the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), and some information about it. Happy World Animal Day everyone! Photo: Green Sea Turtle via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_turtle_swimming_in_Kona_May_2010.jpg
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Twitter, Facebook and the world of news today has been outraged at the death of a Lion called Cecil in Zimbabwe, whose fate was sealed when American dentist Walter Palmer paid £32,000 to shoot it with a bow and arrow. The lion in question was 13 years old, lived in Hwange National Park and had a GPS collar as he was part of a study at Oxford University. He was cruelly (and illegally) lured out of the park to be killed by Mr Palmer and his two Zimbabwean hunters who are now facing poaching charges in court. The Metro this morning published photos of Mr Palmer next to Cecil's lifeless corpse, as well as photos of him posing with a dead leopard, white rhino, bighorn sheep and African buffalo. What could possibly drive a person to pay so much and take pleasure in killing such majestic creatures is beyond my comprehension. Mr Palmer had the audacity to state: "I had no idea the lion I took was a local favourite and part of a study until the end of the hunt", although this did not stop him from decapitating Cecil with the intent of keeping his head as a trophy. The fact that a lion (or any animal) is not part of a study should not be a reason to justify its death. Mr Palmer has it so wrong.
The African Wildlife Foundation states that 85% of the African Lion's historic range has already been lost, making them more vulnerable to extinction along with other iconic wildlife such as the black rhino and African elephant. In this particular case it is quite upsetting that Cecil was the alpha male of his pride and the father to 6 young cubs which are now likely to be killed by the remaining males. Infanticide is common in lions to ensure the remaining males are the ones to pass on their genes to the next generation, so Mr Palmer has effectively killed 7 lions in one go. Whilst it is great that this case has got so much media attention, the senseless murder of defenceless animals is incredibly widespread, not only in Africa but across the world. Mr Palmer has had much backlash on his social media pages and is likely to lose a lot of business from his dental practice. Hopefully making an example of this man for demonstrating how wrong the world of trophy hunting is will dissuade others from committing the same senseless, murderous crimes in future. 2015 is absolutely flying by! A sure sign being that the annual Spanish field course with the University of Southampton is already over and done! I'm a little behind on this, as we landed back in the UK on Saturday night, but I thought a little summary of what we were up to would be quite nice! Each year, Biology and Zoology students in their first year at Southampton descend upon Bolonia on the south coast of Spain for the Experimental and Field Biology module. For the third time, I had the privilege of attending this trip as a Translator and Demonstrator, along with 14 other members of staff and around 90 undergraduates. This field trip is the highlight of first year for many, and is a great chance to get to know everyone on the course. The 10 day trip consisted of learning how to identify various plants and animals by their observable features, learning how to collect data in the field and conducting projects at the end of the week, to be presented to the whole group. Bolonia is a beautiful little town that the University of Southampton has been returning to year after year. Nestled in a bay on the Straight of Gibraltar, the area has very different habitats, ranging from open fields to pine forests and sand dunes. The trip began by exploring the local area and learning about the plant and invertebrate families found in the region, both native, (such as the Rockrose, Cistaceae family) and imported (such as the Agave americana). It wasn't restricted to these though! We found a chameleon, a couple of lizards and some teeny tiny snakes on the first day alone! Students then returned to the hostels to study the distinguishing features and taxonomy of everything they found and create posters on what they had learnt so far. Along with the other demonstrators, we drew up our own posters about the flora and fauna with their distinguishing features (see below) for revision purposes as unfortunately there was a test! But it wasn't all doom and gloom, everyone still found time to have some fun and enjoy the spectacular views of the area. Later on in the week explored the Ojen Valley, a beautiful area surrounded by cork oak, with a huge variety of Coleoptera. The data collected there and on the rock flipping day were used to introduce the first years to statistics so they would not feel as overwhelmed when they came to design their own projects.
Marine day began with a short presentation on marine taxonomy and what was likely to be found on the rocky shore, based on what we had collected last year. However the awkward timing of low tide meant that we did not find such a varied selection of phyla, but at least the sun was shining throughout! The second half of the field course was very much about the student's own research projects. Each demonstrator was assigned groups to supervise. My groups looked at The impact on pollinators after disrupting UV patterns on Cistaceae petals and Woodlouse preference of soil moisture and rock cover. Both worked exceptionally well in the time they were given! Once all the research and background reading had been done, each group did statistical tests on their data sets and created posters and videos showcasing their projects, to be presented to everyone at the hostel. They were seriously impressive, and certainly a lot better than when I did mine as an Undergrad! This marked the end of the assessment for the trip, so we organised some games on the beach, a treasure hunt and a pub quiz to lighten the mood. Our amazing hostel, Rios, brought out bottles of wine and jugs of sangria for everyone on our last night to celebrate, and more importantly, PAELLA. Our flight back to the UK left from Gibraltar in the early evening, so we had a great relaxing morning in the sunshine in Bolonia, then a little wander around Gibraltar itself before checking in - didn't see any Barbary macaques though! Parting ways at Heathrow was very strange, especially after spending every waking moment in each other's company, but that's what reunions are for! All in all, another brilliant trip! Had an amazing time and I hope that everyone else did too! If you'd like to find out more about the module (in a LOT more detail than I've gone into here) please follow this link: Biol1001 For more photos and tweets from this year's trip, follow this link: #SotonBiol1001 Great news appeared on the TIME website recently: "Wild Panda's making a comeback in China" with an increase of 268 individuals across their 27 giant panda preserves since 2003.
Pandas are the epitome of cuteness and global branding - they are even the logo of the WWF, a charity I personally support. In China, they are a much loved native cuddly species, greatly protected at a substantial cost. They are a distinctive species, only found in China, and have previously been given to other countries as gifts or peace offerings. However, it was not always like this. Pandas used to be poached excessively for their fur and their populations diminished greatly. The WWF now estimates the Giant Panda population to be around 1826 in the wild, with the recent increase being attributed to greater public awareness in China for the need to conserve their charismatic species. The irony here is that whilst China has been working so hard to preserve the panda, they seem to have turned a blind eye to the rampant illegal wildlife trade which is diminishing the populations of thousands of animals worldwide, including, but certainly not limited to, pangolins, sharks, seahorses and rhino. The soaring demand in China is leading to more species becoming critically endangered, simply because their body parts are consumed as delicacies or claimed to be everything from hangover cures to aphrodisiacs. A perfect example is their excessive demand for ivory. The Guardian estimates that Elephant ivory prices in China are around $3,000 per kilo, and CITES data suggests up to 20,000 elephants are killed yearly to fulfil the demand in China, which has lead to their extinction in some countries. Is it then fair to say China is protecting their main charismatic species whilst decimating the population of another charismatic species abroad? Well, yes. China has experienced rapid economic growth over the last few years, and the excess money of the super-rich is being spent satiating their need to display higher status, for example, with shark fin soup at weddings, or to keep their libido high with powdered rhino horn "medicines". Whilst they are fast to protect their beloved panda, more has to be done to raise awareness and educate the Chinese as to the horrendous consequences of their current actions around the world and lower their demand for animal products. Stricter legislation must be put into place and more wildlife rangers need to be on the ground in order to further lower the trade. If even a fraction of the money they spend yearly on ivory was plugged into protecting those very elephants, and the hundreds of other species that are being exploited to extinction, then I am sure they would follow in the panda's footprints and see growth in their wild populations. Sad news surfaced last week on the death of a Beluga Whale at SeaWorld Orlando. The individual, called Nanuq, is suspected to have died of an infection resulting from a broken jaw. The fracture seems to have been caused "from an interaction between two animals that were part of a compatible social group" - according to SeaWorld's Facebook page.
Now this is where I struggle with SeaWorld. Whilst I am aware that they carry out brilliant animal rescue work (just yesterday they rescued 19 manatees from a drainpipe, according to their Twitter feed), they fail to address the issue of keeping such huge animals in tanks that simply are not fit for purpose, for the sole reason of entertaining the public. Here is a paragraph about Belugas, taken from Wikipedia (I know... not the most reliable of sources, but it gives a rough idea of what this animal is about): "Belugas are gregarious and they form groups of up to 10 animals on average, although during the summer months, they can gather in the hundreds or even thousands in estuaries and shallow coastal areas. They are slow swimmers, but can dive down to 700 m (2,300 ft) below the surface." From this alone we can gather that Belugas are social animals, and the ones in captivity could never experience the interactions with others that they would do in their hundreds in the wild. Furthermore, they are capable of diving down to 2,300ft, whilst the largest tank at SeaWorld Orlando is a mere 36ft deep, and is exclusively for the Orcas. I am unable to find information on the dimensions of the Beluga tank, however it is safe to assume it is smaller than this. It is worth noting that Nanuq lived with three other Belugas in this tiny enclosure, and his broken jaw is unlikely to have happened in the wild, as he probably could have swum away from any confrontation. Unfortunately, this latest death at SeaWorld does not surprise me, and it upsets me that these animals have not been retired, but instead are exploited for public interactions worth $119 a pop (still listed on their website). If you still haven't watched it, I urge you to watch Blackfish. No animal should be kept in an enclosure the equivalent of a bathtub. We have come so far in society; we are now horrified at the idea of circuses which use animals as part of their entertainment and performances, yet the same occurs daily across SeaWorld's parks at a huge profit, at the expense of these majestic creatures. |
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