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It is often suggested that bears are merely opportunistic when it comes to meat eating. The suggestion is that bears are vegetarians who are capable of scavenging from dead animals.
Now, of course we need to be careful as bears have a wide range of intelligences. Brown bears have an intelligence on par with chimpanzees, where as black bears are far less bright (though they are still one of the brightest animals).
No biologist has ever seen one in the wild, and they were only confirmed to exist in 1992 becoming one of a very rare group of mammals only discovered in the last few decades.
Camera traps have photographed them a handful of times, and possibly even local villages have tried to keep them in captivity. Unfortunately, they have never survived -presumably because they were not given suitable food.
In 1992 2 skills and a pair of trophy horns were discovered. Over the next few years about 20 more specimens including a full skin were collected, and in 1993 DNA evidence revealed it was not only a species unknown to science, but exists in a new genus of the Bovid family (which include cattle antelope goats and sheep).
The name means spindle horns.
Although not directly hunted, poaching has exploded in its range – likely reducing its population further. While efforts to mount more patrols have been undertaken, there are thousands of people setting up snares, with millions in the forest.
Other species like the Large-antlered Muntjac have also become critically endangered.
In 2001 the Saola population was estimated to number 70 to 200 individuals. More recently, this has been reduced to ‘no more than 100’. It was last camera trapped in 2013 with villagers continuing to report its presence.
The problem with species like this is simple. If you imagine looking for a small antelope with a small population in a large forest, it is clear how rarely you would stumble upon it; if you add that it is shy and good at hiding, it makes it particularly hard to protect.
Its thought that the Saola has lived on earth for 8 million years, as it is present in the fossil record. At the moment, there is an effort underway to find and catch enough to create a captive breeding program; though we must hope that if they succeed, the scientists will be more successful than the villagers in keeping them alive.
For decades there have been schemes, where people from wealthy countries give someone a gift of a gift for those elsewhere. In most cases, the gift is a goat or cow to a family living in one of the poorest countries on earth.
In theory, this is a lovely idea. The family is better off and well fed. In practice it seems that it can often do more harm than good.
In many of the areas that these livestock are sent, there is little water. These livestock need a lot of water, so their introduction can quickly change the water balance in the area, and push it towards desert.
Often the animal cannot be found enough food or drink, and veterinarian care is completely missing.
Much more useful is to support seed hubs, water irrigation systems and soil regeneration. While these do not produce the sweet picture, they are likely to benefit hundreds of people rather than one family, and often for decades to come.
That is not to say goat gifts are useless, in places with plenty of water, they can produce milk and meat, and can also have 6 kids a year which can be sold. A goat gift in the wrong place is worse than useless.
Two monkeys have been blamed for hundreds of puppy deaths and have now been captured. There was an incident where a group of dogs caught and killed a monkey, last year so it is thought that these monkeys have been on a revenge trip.
Now, firstly, this should permanently do away with any idea that humans are the only group who grieve, or scheme or carry out plans over a few months. The two Langurs were reported after they were watched targeting dogs, carrying them to significant height and then dropping them. It is thought that 250 dogs have been killed in this way, over the last few months. Other puppies were abandoned at height to start or die of thirst.
Two monkeys, thought to be the culprits, have been caught and translocated, and this appears to have worked
To much fanfare, the British government decided to ban the sale of Ivory 3 years ago. This is certainly a good thing. Unfortunately, they have just delayed its introduction again – and we are already 3 years after this law was supposed to come into effect. Admittedly, this time the delay is only supposed to be for 2 months, but it sends the wrong message.
Forest and Savannah elephant populations across west and east Africa have been decimated over the last decade or two.
Ministers claim that background work has not been carried out, but given they have had 3 years this is inexcusable. Someone should be fired for this.
At the moment elephants are being killed at the rate of one every 15-25 minutes or 50-100 a day. The UK is the largest exporter of Ivory. Also much ivory from recently poached animals is passed off as antique – avoiding the rules.
The EU is now considering acting on this pressing issue. Our original advance has been destroyed, and we now look like we are incompetent.
It is currently down to issues creating the technical standards for exempting legal ivory.
My proposal would be to ban all ivory sale until this system was in place. This would put pressure on people to finish it quickly (and I would be surprised if it wasn’t solved very fast).
Lord Goldsmith wrote in a letter that he committed to enacting the bill by the end of 2022, though similar things were said 3 years ago.
Uganda has suffered during lockdown. As much as 7% of the countries population works in tourism, a sector which has been either totally shut down, or greatly reduced over the last few years. Several other countries like Tanzania have suffered in a similar way.
How can we expect countries to protect huge ecosystems if the income to protect them can dry up with no warning?
Continue reading “Lockdown has shown the perils of overreliance on tourism: what to do”This proposal would mean that Indonesia could cut down all its rainforest and replace them with Palm Oil, and would have engaged in zero deforestation.
This has to be condemned globally, There are myriad problems with this. The destruction of the rainforest would release billions of tonnes of carbon into the air. Palm oil, will be incapable of reabsorbing all this carbon. Furthermore, palm oil plantations support just a handful of species of wildlife, so this would mean the end of the orangutan Sumatran elephant, tiger leopard and rhino.
Thankfully, there are many voices within Indonesia which are already condemning this move.
At the moment, this idea is the thought of various extreme academics (and much of the government). If it were to find acceptance, we could see the wholesale destruction of the forests of Indonesia, an area of deforestation that would have a huge effect on the worlds attempts to mitigate global warming. Arguments that palm oil trees absorb carbon as well, are absurd, as they absorb a tiny proportion of the carbon that would be emitted.
Hopefully, this will remain a crackpot academic idea, and a governmental daydream and never be put into place. We must be vigilant that it isnt.
Perhaps a more alarming way of looking at this, worldwide fossil fuel subsidies last year were $11 million a minute.
Just think what that amount of money could do for mitigating climate change and reversing the damage on the natural world.
Continue reading “Worldwide fossil fuel subsidies last year were $5.9 trillion!”Back in 2019, the conservative government passed a law banning the import of trophies from animals hunted abroad.
Despite their status, various wild species are hunted in the wild and in theory this law would stop this.
Now, you might notice that it is now almost 2022, so what happened? Well it was announced in 2019 queens speech but has not been brought forwards by the conservatives who are currently in power (and suggested the law in the first place). Worryingly, they have not actually announced a timetable of when they will try to enact this law! Given it has been 3 years before they announced it, no firm timetable being in place would suggest that this is still not a certainty. Delay is particularly concerning, as many Conservative supporters are wealthy, so it is reasonable to think that wealthy donors are the reason that this law is taking so long to come into place.
Continue reading “Is the government finally going to ban hunting trophy import”With the improving covid situation worldwide finally we can return to visiting wild areas of the planet. Not only has the tourist industry missed this basil so it has had a terrible impact on conservation efforts in many parts of the world.
This is because in many cases there is not enough money to protect animals without out.the tourist dollars that they bring in. Since covid start there have been very few tourists arriving in many of these countries.
Yet this situation is changing. Now, many countries in Africa are considered completely safe. There have been less infections across the whole of Africa than have been reported in the UK – now while some of this may be down to poor health care (there are slightly more people who have died from covid in Africa than the UK), clearly your risk in Africa is far lower than your risk in the UK.
My family will be travelling to Kruger in South Africa in August! Obviously I hope for this to create many stories for this site and videos for the sister YouTube channel.
My other aim is to be able to list all of the public rest stops on the website after this trip.
What does this mean?
Currently we only list the private reserves along the borders of the Kruger. These are fantastic ways of seeing wildlife. You will be pampered indeed spoilt, by the wonderful treatment you will receive.
However, even amongst wealthy people, the cost of these lodges can become prohibitive – a one week safari in some of these places can run to $10,000 or more per person.
Of course on this website we wish to cater for people who have large amounts of money, however we are not in this category and we want to cater for everyone.
Self-drive safaris are something that many people greatly enjoy. With a little bit of research you can quickly become competent at finding the animal to yourself (sighting maps in each rest stop help). There is something liberating about entering an area so large, and being able to go where you like as you like, exploring whichever part of the park you prefer.
On self-drive safaris your accommodation is different. Generally you have the choice of setting up your own tent, taking a hut, or in some places a mid option is a a fancy safari tent. These obviously very in price, but even in the most expensive you are likely to be spending less over your whole holiday then you would for one night on a private reserve.
For those who could afford it I would recommend to do a self-drive safari with a couple of days on a private reserve at the beginning or end of your trip.
DO CONSIDER BOOKING TRIPS ABROAD. THESE RESERVES WILL BE LESS CROWDED THAN NORMAL, AND WE CAN STOP RESERVES BEING TURNED INTO HUNTING AREAS IF WE RETURN SOON ENOUGH.
All of the partners on this site have very reasonable policies on cancelation if this is necessary because of Covid.
There is also the advantage at the moment, that most airlines have a simple policy of cancellation if advice suggests that travel is not wise.
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