I love to travel, mainly to Africa where I was born, I enjoy reading and playing bridge. I go for rambles in the countryside. I collect stamps and go to T'ai Chi classes. I love my two cats and my garden birds. I adore the African wildlife and try to help Conservation groups.
Malaysia seeks Irish sniffer dogs.
Lucky and Flo have proved a big hit in Malaysia. The Malaysian government has said it hopes to obtain a full-time pair of Northern Irish sniffer dogs trained to seek out counterfeit DVDs and CDs. Aiming to form Malaysia's first canine anti-piracy unit, the new dogs will be a replacement for two Irish black labradors it currently has on loan.
These two dogs, Lucky and Flo, have been so successful, they have attracted death threats from Malaysian criminals. Malaysia is one of the world's biggest producers of illegal films and albums.
Lucky and Flo, who were trained by a Northern Ireland-based dog handler, were loaned to the Malaysian authorities by the US-based Motion Picture Association.
Since their arrival in March, they have helped Malaysian officials uncover more than 1.3 million counterfeit DVDs and CDs worth about 15m ringgit ($4.43m; £2.23m) in nationwide raids on warehouses and shops. The dogs are able to do this thanks to being trained to sniff out the chemicals used to make DVDs and CDs.
Their police handlers then have to check whether the hidden discs they have discovered are legitimate or counterfeit. Iskandar Halim, a senior enforcement official in Malaysia's Domestic Trade Ministry, told the Associated Press news agency that they hoped to gain a new pair of Irish trained dogs by next year.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
City mascot returns to Jakarta
By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta
High above the local government office in east Jakarta, a massive bird spreads its frozen wings over the flowerbeds and gazes down, with its hard bronzed eyes, on hurrying uniformed officials. The kites are making a slow comeback.
But the only place you will catch a glimpse of one nowadays is on a statue, or perhaps on the side of a city bus. Jakarta's kite population has been hunted to extinction by illegal traders. Having a caged bird of prey in your house is something of a status symbol here, and one by one all the city's birds have been captured and sold as pets.
But one organisation is trying to bring them back.
Off the coast of the capital, a small team funded by the UK charity International Animal Rescue has been quietly battling the illegal trade to repopulate the area.
Getting to Kotok Island means sailing a couple of hours out into the Java Sea. As the boat pulls into the wooden landing stage, tiny fish dart away under the clear water, and a sandy shore, thick with coconut palms, opens up.
The birds are still more commonly sighted on the sides of buses. Hidden inside the tangle of tropical shrubs, at the heart of the island, sit a series of large wire cages. This is where Jakarta's new kite population is being born. Or rather, rehabilitated. Every one of the birds in these cages has been wrested back from illegal traders or from private houses. All have had their wings clipped, and some will never fly again. But those with a chance spend months here learning again how to survive in the wild.
Karmele Llano, a vet with International Animal Rescue, showed me round one of the cages where nine Brahminy Kites are currently waiting to be released.
"This is the Flying Cage," she said, "it's one of the final steps before the kites are released back into the wild. "This is where they learn to fly again. The cage gives them a chance to strengthen their wings and practise catching fish."
The Flying Cage - 12m (39ft) long and 8m tall - has a small pond at the centre, into which staff drop fish every night under cover of darkness. They avoid the cage during daylight hours, to minimise human contact with the kites.
After arriving at the centre, and being checked for medical problems, the birds spend several months in the Flying Cage, practising their skills before being released. Those whose wings are too badly damaged to heal will spend the rest of their lives on the island.
"For us it's really amazing," Karmele said. "To see these birds ready to be released. They're really social animals, so it makes it easy for us - we can keep them in one cage, and release them altogether."
But rehabilitation takes time. In two years, the team has released just 34 kites. Nine more are due to be freed soon. It is a drop in the ocean, but Karmele says that what you see on Kotok Island is only the tip of a large and very bureaucratic iceberg.
"We are working to stop the illegal market," she said, "and investigating how the trade happens from capture to sale. "This is just the last step of a whole process - which includes educating local people, forestry officials, everyone."
But it is never easy to completely erase the damage done by the illegal trade. Many of the kites that are released have spent most of their lives surrounded by people, and some are too nervous to return to the wild. Instead they never leave the island at all, but sit in the tree-tops and welcome the occasional boats of tourists with bright rasping cries.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Blue whales 'making a comeback'
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, Anchorage, Alaska.
Marine scientists are encouraged by the gentle giants' progress. The blue whale, possibly the largest animal ever to live on Earth, is making a comeback, scientists have said. Data shows that the population of marine mammal in the Southern Hemisphere have increased from a few hundred to a few thousand.
Before the commercial hunting era, there would have been hundreds of thousands in the oceans. The findings were presented at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting. Numbers of other large species such as fin whales and humpbacks are also rising in many parts of the world.
"The most recent data is really encouraging," said the IWC's head of science Greg Donovan. "Blue whales have now been increasing by about 7-8% per year for the last 10 years at least, for which we have good data. "The abundance is still very low, it's about 2,300 for the whole southern hemisphere so it's a tiny fraction of what it used to be, but it's good news they're increasing."
There is less data available for the northern hemisphere, but off the Icelandic coast a recovery has also been noted. The IWC's "guesstimate" is that globally, numbers are currently about 4,500.
Blue whales are true leviathans, growing up to 30m in length and weighing up to 190 tonnes. Before industrial-scale commercial hunting began in earnest about a century ago, there were thought to be 150,000-200,000 in the oceans. Commercial whalers caught thousands of blue whales each year.
As factory ships and efficient harpoons multiplied, the blue's size made it the favoured species, as vast quantities of oil could be extracted from its blubber. The 1930-1931 season alone saw about 30,000 prised from the oceans. Protection arrived in the 1960s; but with numbers so low, it was doubtful whether the species could survive.
For now, it has survived, with its extraordinary capacity to communicate acoustically over distances of thousands of kilometres meaning it could find mates even when so few remained.
Renewed threat?
Global protection from hunting for the second largest species, the fin, and the whale-watcher's favourite, the humpback, have also led to populations rising in several parts of the oceans.
But that can bring mixed benefits. There have been rumours over the last six months that scientists advising the organisation which decides threat categories for animals, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), are contemplating moving humpbacks from their current Vulnerable status to a less threatened category.
As numbers grow, so does the likelihood that a species will be hunted.
For the moment, catches of these giant creatures remain low. Over the next 12 months, hunters from Japan, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean will target 78 fins and 54 humpbacks, and nobody is suggesting catching blue whales again.
Dr Donovan sees climate change as potentially the biggest long-term threat. "We don't know whether climate change is going to be a big problem for whales, but it could be," he said. "Blues feed very close to the ice edge, and if there's less ice then it could affect them. But it could be that the opposite will happen, we really don't know at the moment."
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Freed Chinese panda dies in wild.
Xiang Xiang was released into Sichuan's forests in April 2006. The first Chinese panda released into the wild after being bred in captivity has died, Chinese media has announced. Xiang Xiang was released in April 2006 from the Wolong Giant Panda Research Centre and was said to be adjusting well to his new life.
But the five-year-old was found dead in February. Officials said his death was likely due to a fight with wild pandas. Xiang Xiang's death is a set back for China's efforts to increase the number of giant pandas in the wild.
Giant pandas are one of the world's most endangered species. Only about 1,600 remain in the wild, with another 200 living in captivity.
Before his release, Xiang Xiang spent three years in a special training compound at the research centre in Sichuan province to prepare him for a natural habitat.
Last year, experts there said he appeared to be integrating into the area's wild panda population.
But he was briefly taken back to the centre in December for treatment after a fight with other pandas.
"We chose Xiang Xiang because we thought that a strong male panda would have a better chance of surviving in the harsh natural environment," Xinhua news agency quoted the reserve's deputy director Li Desheng as saying.
"But the other male pandas clearly saw Xiang Xiang as a threat."
Officials suggested that Xiang Xiang, whose injuries included broken ribs, had fallen from a high place after a fight with other pandas over food or territory.
Zhang Hemin, head of the centre, said that they would continue to release pandas into the wild.
"We are all sad about Xiang Xiang, but it doesn't mean the project has failed," he said. "The lessons we have learnt from what happened to Xiang Xiang will help us adapt and improve the project."
The delay in reporting Xiang Xiang's death was because of the need for a full investigation, Xinhua quoted officials as saying.
BBC NEWS REPORT
Great apes 'facing climate peril'.
Dr Leakey says climate change is putting great ape species at risk. Great apes are facing an "inevitable crisis" arising from climate change, a leading conservationist has warned. Dr Richard Leakey said that growing pressure to switch from fossil fuels to biofuels could result in further destruction of the animals' habitats.
The chair of WildlifeDirect called for immediate action and proposed financial incentives to save forests from destruction as one possible solution. He said: "Climate change will undoubtedly impact everything we know."
The great apes - gorillas, chimps, bonobos and orangutans - are already under threat from habitat destruction, poaching, logging and disease. The Great Apes Survival Project (Grasp), a United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) initiative, has warned that great apes are at risk of imminent extinction unless drastic action is taken.
In advance of a talk at the UK's Royal Geographical Society, Dr Leakey told journalists that climate threats now had to be added to the mix.
The former director of the Kenyan Wildlife Service said: "I am concerned about the pressures on the land as a result of changes to the climate, but also the pressures on the land in terms of people's reaction to climate change and the shift away from fossil fuels to biofuels."
He said that "great swathes" of forest had already been destroyed in South Asia to make way for palm oil plantations, and this had had a dramatic impact on orangutans, which currently number 50,000. Palm oil is used in vegetable oil, soaps, shampoos, industrial substances, but it has also been proposed as an alternative to fossil fuel. Dr Leakey said the growing pressure to turn to biofuels such as palm oil could place the great apes' habitat in further peril.
He added: "People shrug their shoulders and say what are poor countries to do if they cannot exploit their natural resources, and I can understand this, but it is not sustainable the way it is going.
There is also evidence that deforestation would further drive climate change itself by raising the amount of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Dr Leakey said.
Dr Leakey suggested "biodiversity credits" could be a possible solution. "Being paid for not cutting down indigenous forests and getting credit for that is a further step that builds on the idea of getting paid for planting new forests," he explained. "It does seem that we cannot stop development, but it does also seem that perhaps we can stop development where critical species are threatened, and perhaps there could be a price added to that."
Dr Leakey is a prominent conservationist in Kenya. He said that there could be creative ways to solve the problems that climate change could bring, but added that it was crucial that action was taken now. Dr Leakey told journalists: "Could the great apes go because of climate change? Yes. Possibly not within our lifetime, but what about in 100 or 200 years?
"Climate change is measurable and is happening at rate that is almost unprecedented from what we know in previous history, and the implications for biodiversity are there for all to see."
Richard Leakey is a palaeo-anthropologist, responsible for extensive fossil finds related to human evolution, and renowned Kenyan conservationist. His parents, Louis and Mary Leakey, were prominent palaeontologists, finding and excavating key sites around Africa.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Irish eagle chick is first in century.
A wild golden eagle has been hatched in Ireland for the first time in nearly a century. Two chicks were hatched in a remote area of the Glenveagh National Park in County Donegal but one of the young birds died after five days.
There will be a further nervous wait to see if the remaining chick can continue to grow and fledge in late July.
Golden eagles last bred in Glenveagh back in 1910.
The bird had become extinct in Ireland but was reintroduced at Glenveagh six years ago in an effort to reintroduce the bird to Ireland.
The new chick, whose father is from Skye and mother from Sutherland, is now just five weeks old.
Project manager for the Golden Eagle Trust Lorcan O'Toole said he was delighted at the news. "We think it is a girl but we are not quite sure. It is still relatively small," he explained. "Eagle chicks are quite vulnerable but she will quickly grow."
The trust has been monitoring the birds in Donegal for the last five or six years. Eggs are normally laid around mid March and take six weeks to hatch. This first wild golden eagle is described by conservationists as a milestone in efforts to reverse the decline of native animal and plant species in Ireland.
"Emotionally we are just delighted to have such a wild creature breeding in Ireland once again," Mr O'Toole said. "Golden eagles would have been quite a common sight, 300 or 400 years ago. But they have had a pretty poor history for the last two to three centuries. "We just feel that it is a good omen and it bodes well for the future where we can all maybe show more awareness of our landscape."
The birds were recently reintroduced to Ireland from Scotland with the assistance of various enthusiasts. In Scotland, under wise management, there are still 420 pairs of golden eagles. But the eagles have also died out in England and Wales.
"Maybe if there is a bit more tolerance of wildlife, we can see some of these species return to their former haunts," Mr O'Toole said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Cheating cheetahs caught by DNA .
By Jonathan Fildes - Science and technology reporter, BBC News.
Infidelity is not common among other big cats,The female cheetahs that prowl the Serengeti in Tanzania appear to live up to their name, scientists have shown. DNA analysis of the spotted cats found that they were serial cheaters, with nearly half of their litters made up of cubs from different fathers.
Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the scientists say the infidelity may expose them to disease.However, it could also ensure the genetic diversity of the endangered species, the researchers hypothesise.
"If the cubs are genetically more variable it may allow them to adapt and evolve to different circumstances," Dada Gottelli of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and one of the scientists on the study told the BBC News website.
"If there is a big change in the environment some may be able to cope better."
Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) are classified as a vulnerable species according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
The effective breeding population is estimated to be below 10,000 individuals and the species faces threats including habitat loss and poaching.
The new research tracked known cheetahs in the Serengeti National Park in north-west Tanzania over nine years. Analysis of DNA collected from the faecal samples of 176 cheetahs showed that infidelity was rife, although uncommon in other big cats.
Researchers tracked the cheetahs for nine years.Of 47 litters of cubs, 43% contained cubs from multiple fathers. In some cases, three males were responsible for the cubs of just one litter.
"If anything, this is an underestimate," said Ms Gotelli. "Cheetah cubs suffer high mortality on the first few weeks so it was difficult to get samples from all of them."
Female cheetahs are able to successfully mate with multiple males as they produce a new egg each time they mate, a process known as induced ovulation
Common in domestic cats and other species such as rabbits, it means that each egg can in theory be fertilised by sperm from a different male.
The high incidence of promiscuity among females coupled with the fact that they increase their risk of predation, parasites and disease to mate with multiple males suggests that there must be a benefit to the behaviour.
The researchers believe the evolutionary pay-off is increased genetic diversity, allowing some of the cubs to more readily adapt to change.
This is good news for conservationists trying to preserve the threatened species as small populations of animals can face problems of inbreeding.
However, the duplicitous behaviour may also bring other benefits such as protecting the cubs from marauding males.
"Infanticide has not been observed in the wild cheetahs, like it has been in lions and leopards," said Ms Gotelli. "Maybe this is why. "It may create confusion in the males. In that case it's better not to kill any cubs in case they were yours."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Leopard in visit to Israeli home.
Mr Du Mosch had no time to think before grabbing the wild creature. An Israeli wildlife guide has overpowered an ageing leopard that jumped into his bed during the night. Clad only in his night clothes, Arthur Du Mosch lunged at the big cat and grabbed its neck, pinning it down for 20 minutes until help arrived.
"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," the 49-year-old said. "I wasn't thinking, I just acted."
Leopards usually enter villages after they become too weak to hunt in the wild. They are little threat to humans.
The uninvited guest is thought to have been trying to catch the family's domestic cat, which had also been lying in the bed.
Mr Du Mosch, who emigrated to Israel from the Netherlands in 1985, said he took the whole experience in his stride, "but the kids were excited".
Israel nature and parks protection officials answered Mr Du Mosch's emergency call and came quickly to collect the leopard.
Spokesman Raviv Shapira said a group of leopards had been observed near Mr Du Mosch's small community of Sde Boker in southern Israel's Negev desert. "But we have never heard of a leopard coming into a private home," Mr Shapira said.
Mr Du Mosch admitted he might not have fared so well if the leopard had been in better physical condition.
The animal was taken to Beit Dagan veterinary hospital near Tel Aviv for tests and was expected to be released into the wild with an electronic tag.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Goose smashes sea-crossing record.
Barbow the goose broke the record previously set by Godzilla. A barnacle goose from south west Scotland has smashed the record time for crossing the North Sea to Norway.
Barbow - named by a school on the Solway Firth - made the trip from Caerlaverock in just five hours.
A satellite tracking device clocked the speedy bird at an average speed of over 75mph from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Dumfries and Galloway reserve.
The previous quickest crossing was by fellow barnacle goose Godzilla who made the journey in about eight hours.
Barbow is part of a project to tag and track the travels of 10 migrating geese. He set off from the Solway Firth on Saturday evening at a speed of at least 78mph - the maximum speed the transmitters can record.
Dr Larry Griffin, who leads the WWT's project team, said they had been shocked by how quickly the birds made the journey.
"The more we follow the geese, the faster they seem to get," he said.
"We were already impressed with Godzilla rapid progress but Barbow has given goose travel a whole new dimension." Dr Griffin said the record had been set in far from ideal conditions. "By reaching speeds in the region of 80mph it looks highly likely that he crossed the North Sea in five hours," he said. "It is very impressive that he sustained such high speeds as the tail winds, although in his favour, were not particularly strong - Godzilla has nothing on this goose."
All 10 geese were named and championed by Solway schools and Barbow was named by Bowness-on-Solway Primary School in Wigton.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Climate 'threatening UK species'
By Sarah Mukherjee - BBC environment correspondent.
The report says the capercaillie could disappear by the 2050s. Action is needed to prevent the loss of some of the UK's best-loved plants and wildlife to climate change, the authors of a report have suggested. The seven-year research programme known as Monarch was developed to assess the impacts of projected climate change on wildlife in the UK and Ireland.
The authors warn that some species, such as the capercaillie, could vanish from Britain by the 2050s. But other species, including the stone curlew, may spread to more of the UK. Species likely to do best in the hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters predicted by climate scientists are species whose strongholds are currently in continental and Mediterranean Europe.
For example, while it is mainly a Mediterranean and continental European bird, there is a British stone curlew population centred on Breckland and Salisbury Plain, with smaller enclaves elsewhere in southern and eastern England.
Researchers from Monarch (Modelling Natural Resource Responses to Climate Change) say climate change may create the potential for the stone curlew to colonise other sites across much of southern Britain.
However, while more frequent summer drought conditions across southern Britain are likely to favour the dry, short vegetation that it needs for breeding areas, it will reduce the availability of earthworms, which are an important component of its diet.
The adonis blue butterfly is another species that might thrive with a warmer climate. At present, it is restricted to southern England in Britain and Ireland, as it is at the northern limit of its climatic range. It has declined over the last 200 years and has been lost from the northern part of its British range, in the Cotswolds and East Anglia, and is now largely confined to chalk grasslands.
Researchers say a population expansion is possible, although it may be limited by the fact it likes to live on chalky soil. Conversely, the climate may become unfavourable for birds like the capercaillie which is found in more northerly climes.
In Britain, it became extinct in the18th Century but was reintroduced in the 19th Century from Sweden, and, currently, is confined to central and northern Scotland.
Conservationists say the report reminds us that helping wildlife adapt will become an increasingly important strand of British conservation work - not just for the threatened species but for thousands of others that will also need to move to find more suitable climes.
They suggest creating wildlife "corridors" through urban areas to help species travel and adapt.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Plague kills monkey at Denver Zoo.
Monkeys could be more susceptible to plague than other animals, Officials at Denver Zoo in the US state of Colorado are taking precautions to avoid an outbreak of plague after a monkey at the zoo died of the disease. The zoo's 17 remaining capuchin monkeys have been put into an isolated cage and are being treated with antibiotics.
Zoo officials suspect the monkey caught the disease from the carcass of an infected squirrel it may have eaten.
Several squirrels and a rabbit have been found dead of the disease in recent weeks near the zoo.
Veterinarians say there is little risk of the plague spreading to humans but visitors are being warned to avoid squirrels and rabbits.
None of the zoo's other monkeys or animals have shown symptoms of the plague. The disease is normally found in some wild animals in Colorado during the spring, but usually in rural areas.
"We see it very year in wild rodents," said John Pape, an epidemiologist with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
"But it's uncommon circulating in tree squirrels in urban neighbourhoods, including metro Denver."
Plague is usually spread among rodents by flea bites, but humans can pick it up by eating an infected animal or handling its faeces. Plague is endemic in many countries in Africa, in the former Soviet Union, the Americas and Asia, according to the WHO.
If left untreated, it has a case-fatality ratio of 30%-60%.
A form of plague - the Black Death - is believed to have killed millions of people in Europe in the early 1300s.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Worries for at-risk bird species.
Waved albatrosses have suffered because of long-line fishing. More birds than ever are threatened with extinction, according to the latest evaluation by the conservation group BirdLife International. Its annual assessment of population sizes, trends and ranges for all 10,000 species worldwide indicates that 1,221 now have an Endangered status.
The data will be fed into the IUCN Red List, which documents the status of the planet's flora and fauna.
BirdLife says conservation efforts must be redoubled to reverse the declines. "There are two sides to this story: whilst conservation efforts have been successful in recovering some species, there are more and more species slipping towards extinction. The challenge becomes greater each year," commented Dr Stuart Butchart, BirdLife's global species programme co-ordinator "But where efforts, resources and political will are directed, species can recover. Conservation works," he said. "We just need much more of it in order to turn back the tide of impending extinctions."
BirdLife says the overall conservation status of the world's birds has deteriorated steadily since 1988, when they were first comprehensively assessed. Now, more than a fifth (22%) of the planet's birds are described as being at increased risk of extinction.
"Lowlights" this year include the waved albatross (Diomedea irrorata), which breeds only in the Galapagos Islands. It has been categorised as Critically Endangered, which under the internationally accepted definitions of the IUCN Red List means the bird is now at extreme high risk of disappearing.
Like all the albatross species it has suffered terribly with the expansion of commercial long-line fishing, in which birds attracted to bait are hooked and pulled under water to drown.
The 2007 Red List, compiled by the World Conservation Union (IUCN), will be released in September.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
RSPCA is 'alarmed' at goat cull.
The goats have grazed in the 300-acre valley for years. The RSPCA says it is "alarmed" that a controversial cull of goats at a Devon beauty spot has been carried out. The wild animals have roamed for years within the Valley of Rocks at Lynton but have been escaping and causing damage to trees and gardens.
The charity said it was seeking assurances from Lynton authorities that the animals were killed outright and did not suffer unnecessarily.
Mayor Suzette Hibbert said it had been done professionally and humanely.
Some locals have described the goats, which graze in the 300-acre valley in Exmoor National Park, as "destructive and dangerous pests".
The council had decided in 2005 against culling the animals and voted instead to install fencing and a cattle grid.
But in January it appeared the goats had learned how to "tiptoe" over the grid to get back into the village.
In March, 12 green peppers, thought to have been meant for the goats, were found stuffed with what was believed to be caustic soda crystals and baited blue grain, similar to rat poison.
And in April councillors voted for the cull, which was confirmed by Ms Hibbert in a statement issued on Friday. She said the welfare of the animals and the public had been "paramount" throughout. She could not confirm how many of the 100-strong herd had been culled but said only the billy goats were affected. "We have said all along the nannies and kids would not be touched," she said.
The RSPCA said it believed as many as 20 billy goats had been culled and said it was "not aware" of any research that demonstrated a cull was necessary.
A spokesperson for the charity said it had alerted the Lynton authorities to long-term alternatives in April 2005 and said it was "disappointed" to see its advice has not been investigated further.
Jan Hunt from the Friends of Lynton Goats said she believed the problem could have been solved by adapting a cattle grid and raising existing fences. "It is so sad and so unnecessary, we're now left with a really depleted stock, the leaders and the strong ones are lost," she said. "I think the herd is really in trouble and it's a great shame because they are such an attraction."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Female chimps can become killers.
Female chimps were previously thought to be less aggressive. Scientists in Scotland have discovered that female chimpanzees can be just as violent as their male counterparts. The St Andrews University psychologists found examples of female chimps killing the offspring of incoming mothers, previously regarded as a male trait. The Fife team has been studying chimps in the Budongo Forest, Uganda.
The researchers said only three previous instances of lethal aggression in wild female chimps had been documented in the past 50 years. The belief was that male and females differed greatly in nature but the psychologists found that if the chimps' resources come under threat, the females could become just as aggressive as males.
While observing chimps in the Sonso community, the researchers came across three examples of female apes killing the offspring of incoming mothers. One attack was so violent that a baby chimp's head was bitten off.
Simon Townsend, who led the study, said: "It's true that males are much more often seen to engage in extreme physical violence than females, and this has led to the notion of violent and demonic males in contrast to quite peaceful females. "However, our research shows that, under the right socio-ecological circumstances, these chimp gender stereotypes collapse completely. "If their resources are under threat, females can become just as violently aggressive as males."
Similar behaviour was described by a leading primatologist in the 1970s, but her findings were later disregarded as inconsistent. Mr Townsend said female aggression only occurred under specific circumstances. He added that an increase of immigrant females entering the Sonso community had put pressure on food and mate resources, which had caused the violence. "It is impossible to predict when another instance may occur," Mr Townsend said.
"However, we are very interested in keeping a close eye on levels of female aggression in the Sonso community, especially in the instances when new females attempt to immigrate."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Rare giant turtle found in Mekong.
The giant turtle has rubbery skin and a powerful bite .One of the world's largest turtles, said to be on the brink of extinction, has been found in abundance in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold in Cambodia.
Conservationists discovered an 11kg (24lb) female Cantor's giant soft-shell turtle and a nesting ground during a survey of the country's Mekong River.
The species, which can grow two metres (6ft) long and weigh 50kg (110lb) was last spotted in Cambodia in 2003. Scientists say the find could help save it from disappearing off the planet.
Experts from Conservation International (CI) and WWF, along with Cambodian wildlife officials, stumbled across the animal and the nesting ground when conducting a survey in March.
"We thought it might be almost gone but found it in abundance in this one pristine stretch of the Mekong, making the area the world's most important site for saving this particular species," David Emmett, a CI biologist said.
Eggs that were found have since hatched. The baby turtles were released into the wild earlier this month, along with another adult turtle. The species has a rubbery skin and a powerful bite, with jaws strong enough to crush bone. It spends most of its time hidden in sand with only its eyes or nose showing.
The hatchlings were released along with an adult turtle Mr Emmett said the turtle could extend its neck with lightning speed. "It has the fastest strike of any animal I've ever seen, including cobras."
The region where the species were found had been closed to scientific exploration for many years because it was one of the last places under the control of the Khmer Rouge.
Mark Bezuijen of the WWF, who led the team, said the area was "a near pristine region of tall riverine forest, waterways and island archipelagos where further exciting biological discoveries will almost certainly be made." The conversationists plan to protect the turtles by employing local people to patrol the beaches.
They hope to prevent illegal fishing of the species, which is an expensive delicacy in Vietnam.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
South West faces losing dolphins.
Conservationists say dolphin sightings are down. Dolphins could be wiped out in South West waters within four years unless the EU takes action, conservationists have warned. A report found strandings were up and sightings were down over the last 15 years and blamed this on dolphins being caught in nets slung between trawlers.
In 2004, the practice of "pair trawling" was banned for British trawlers within 12 miles of the UK coast. But other European boats can continue because they are outside the rules.
Dr Lissa Goodwin, from the dolphin protection charity Marine Connection, said sightings of bottlenose dolphins in the region were at an all-time low, with just 16 reported so far this year. Sightings peaked at 335 in 1992 but by 2004 the number had fallen to just 60, she added.
''We could be having a severe impact on a sub-population of common dolphins that we could be close to wiping out,'' said Dr Goodwin. ''There is also a very real danger that we could be seeing the last of the bottlenose dolphins off the South West (Devon, Cornwall and Dorset) shores." Numbers of dolphin strandings have risen in Devon and Cornwall.
She said entanglement in fishing gear, or "bycatch", was the number one cause of death in stranded dolphins, particularly common dolphins. Dr Goodwin said the number of strandings in the South West had risen from 58 in 1990 to more than 100 every year since 1997. Last year, there were 128 across Devon and Cornwall.
Campaigners say only an EU-wide ban on pair trawlers, and the deployment of "pinger" devices which emit a noise to warn creatures away from the nets, will save the dolphin population.
Rob Deaville of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), which conducts post-mortems on stranded dolphins, confirmed entanglement in fishing gear was the main cause of death of dolphins in the South West over the past 15 years.
He said: "It is a particular problem in the South West, but it is likely to be a European-wide problem and needs a European-wide solution."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Kangaroo cull plan sparks anger.
Culls of kangaroos have proved controversial in the past. Plans to cull more than 3,000 kangaroos roaming near the Australian capital Canberra have been labelled cruel and violent by animal rights groups. Defence officials say the animals are near starvation. They have asked the local authorities for permission to cull almost half the area's population.
Campaigners claim there is no evidence of starvation, and have pledged to protest if the cull is approved.
Canberra's local government is deciding whether to grant a shooting licence. "Our concerns are for the welfare of the animals and the potential for a starvation event," city official Russell Watkinson told ABC radio.
The defence department already runs a pilot scheme using food laced with contraceptives to try to thin the kangaroo population in the area.
But military officials say the problem near their Majura training area is so severe that they cannot wait for the scheme to take effect.
They want to shoot 3,200 common grey kangaroos by July.
Mary Hayes, of local campaign group Animal Liberation, said a cull would burden the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) with a worldwide reputation for cruelty. "It is a very cruel, violent way to treat animals - on a par to just treating them as if they were weeds to be mown or pulled out," she said.
And Pat O'Brien, another wildlife campaigner, said the cull plan was "just an excuse to kill them". "If they go ahead with it, they are going to be sorry. We will do whatever it takes to stop this," he said.
According to the ACT's government, the Canberra area contains the densest populations of kangaroos ever recorded.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Greenpeace protest 'was suicidal'.
Fishermen warned that the protest put lives at risk. Fishing industry leaders have branded an attempt by environmental pressure group Greenpeace to stop a trawler fishing for cod as "suicidal". Greenpeace members jumped into the North Sea directly in front of the fishing boat Endurance on Saturday.
The protestors claim overfishing could cause stocks of cod to be completely wiped out.
But a spokesman for the Scottish Fishermen's Federation said the stunt had put lives in danger.
Greenpeace campaigners leapt into the water and swam in front of the fishing boat 40 miles off the coast of Unst, Britain's most northerly island, holding a red sign that read 'Stop - Cod in Crisis'.
The pressure group said its members were swept aside in the trawler's wake after it failed to change its course and had to be picked up by a Greenpeace inflatable boat.
The swimmers involved in the protest were from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.
They are calling for a halt to cod fishing, and for large areas of the North Sea to become protected as 'marine reserves'.
Willie Mackenzie, a campaigner on the ship, said: "The fishing industry and politicians have ignored the scientists and continued to batter cod stocks.
"We're in the North Sea to save the cod from extinction.
"We've had to take action today to stop cod being caught because otherwise it will disappear from the seas and our dinner plates."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Confused penguin strays 5,000km.
A Magellanic penguin whose natural habitat is the cool climes of southern Chile has strayed thousands of miles from his home, arriving in Peru. The penguin, native to the Strait of Magellan region of Chile, swam all the way to Peru's Paracas national reserve.
Scientists say the bird appeared to have made the 5,000km (3,000-mile) journey alone. They say the penguin must have "got off course" to end up just 14 degrees south of the equator.Scientists say they fear that the solitary Magellanic penguin may not be accepted by some of the area's 4,000 Humboldt penguins.
Biologist David Orosco told AFP news agency that the native birds may even try to reject the penguin. "Conditions in the park are not the ones it is used to. They usually seek out their own species, and it could suffer discrimination," Mr Orosco said.
The penguin, found by a fisherman, managed the epic journey suffering only a small wound on its wing. Mr Orosco said he was trying to contact colleagues in the penguin's home country. "It would be better for it to go to Chile," he said.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Birds 'starve' at S Korea wetland.
Fewer than 1,000 spoonbilled sandpipers remain in the wild. Tens of thousands of migratory birds are facing starvation in South Korea, the UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says. The group says a land reclamation project has destroyed key wetlands used by the birds on their way from Asia to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. Without the food at the Saemangeum wetlands, on the east coast, many of the birds will not survive the journey.
Two endangered species of wading bird face extinction because of the changes. There are believed to be fewer than 1,000 mature spoonbilled sandpipers and Nordmann's greenshanks left in the wild. The RSPB and other wildlife and conservation groups are highlighting the environmental problems at Saemangeum to mark World Migratory Birds Day. Saemangeum was once an estuarine tidal flat on South Korea's Yellow Sea coast.
It was an important feeding ground for about 400,000 migrating birds making their way on a 24,000km round-trip between Asia and Alaska and Russia. But 15 years ago, the government revealed plans for the world's biggest land reclamation project in order to drain the estuary and create fertile paddy fields.
After a succession of legal challenges from conservationists, the 33km sea wall was finally closed a year ago. Since then, according to the RSPB, the vast wetlands have been replaced by parched earth, shellfish beds and plants have been destroyed, and thousands of birds are starving as a result.
"What we've lost here is one of the jewels in the crown of wetland habitats," Sarah Dawkins, who is monitoring the impact of the sea wall on birds, told the BBC. "The Yellow Sea is an amazingly important stopover point for birds travelling up from places like New Zealand and Australia to their breeding grounds in the Arctic." "And Saemangeum was one of the most important areas in the Yellow Sea."
Ms Dawkins said the birds relied on the tidal flats at Saemangeum as somewhere where they could land and "refuel" after a nine-day flight from New Zealand. "It's a bit like losing a motorway service station and then your car running out of petrol," she explained. Despite the damage, Ms Dawkins said there was still hope for the wetlands if the two sluice gates built into the sea wall were opened. "That would restore a few thousand hectares of estuary system within Saemangeum and that would be at least something to help the birds," she said. "The birds are still here. They're still coming." "I think we really do need to still try to save some of their habitat."
Ms Dawkins also said it was critically important to mount a global effort to safeguard other estuaries around Saemangeum, one of which the government is planning to reclaim.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Cat survives slow boat from China.
The cat is thought to have spent at least 35 days in a cargo crate.A cat trapped in a cargo crate without food or water seems to have survived a 35-day sea voyage from China to the US. The owner of a North Carolina shop was amazed to find the animal, weak but still alive, when he took delivery of a consignment of motorcycle helmets.
It is thought the cat, now named China, chewed its way into a cardboard box which was then loaded into a crate on a ship that left Shanghai on 3 April.
A local vet suggested cats coped well with shortages of food and water. "Usually we say that animals can only survive a few weeks without food and only a few days without water," Raleigh veterinarian Michelle Misavage told the Associated Press.
"The theory is that cats have such good kidneys their bodies adjust to the lack of water and somehow they received small amounts of moisture from condensation."
Eric Congdon, owner of Olympia Moto Sports, said he and a colleague called animal services when they discovered the frightened animal.
Another colleague plans to adopt the cat, but it must first satisfy the state's strict laws on foreign animals. It must be vaccinated and quarantined for six months.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
A quarter of the world's oceans will be protected from fishing boats which drag heavy nets across the sea floor, South Pacific nations have agreed. The landmark deal will restrict bottom trawling, which experts say destroys coral reefs and stirs up clouds of sediment that suffocate marine life. Observers and monitoring systems will ensure vessels remain five nautical miles from marine ecosystems at risk.
The South Pacific contains the last pristine deep-sea marine environment. It extends from the Equator to the Antarctic and from Australia to the western coast of South America. The high seas encompass all areas not included in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a country. The agreement reached in the coastal town of Renaca in Chile will come into force on 30 September.
It will close to bottom trawling areas where vulnerable marine ecosystems are known or are likely to exist, unless a prior assessment is undertaken and highly precautionary protective measures are implemented.
The delegation from New Zealand, whose fishermen are responsible for 90% of bottom trawling in the South Pacific high seas, said the restrictions would "severely constrain" its fishing vessels. "Because of the cost implications of the necessary research and assessment and observer requirements, it may even have the effect of putting an end to bottom trawling," it said.
The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an alliance of leading environmental and conservation groups, welcomed the agreement. Because of the cost implications of the necessary research and assessment and observer requirements, [the agreement] may even have the effect of putting an end to bottom trawling
"This is a major step forward in the protection of biodiversity on the high seas," Matthew Gianni, a spokesman for the group, said. Mr Gianni said the deal was the first step taken towards implementing a UN resolution passed in December, which urged the adoption of unilateral "precautionary measures" to ensure bottom-trawlers do not cause significant damage. "This is the most significant meeting of fishing nations since the UN General Assembly resolution and it has done what the resolution required." "It can be done, it has been done, and it's time for all countries to do the same in all other ocean regions."
In addition to the weighted nets and rollers which crush coral reefs, bottom trawling targets slow-growing species of fish, such as orange roughy, which take decades to reach breeding age. Such species are especially vulnerable to overfishing because the population replenishes itself very slowly.
Last month, leading scientists warned there would be no sea fish left in 50 years if current practices continued.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Spider venom could boost sex life
By Vladimir Hernandez - BBC News.
Brazillian and US scientists are looking into using spider venom as a possible treatment for male impotence. Their investigation follows reports that men bitten by the Phoneutria nigriventer experienced priapism - long and painful erections.
A two-year study has found that the venom contains a toxin, called Tx2-6, that causes erections. Further tests are being carried out in the US before the substance can be approved for human use. The results, from the Medical College of Georgia, are expected in a month's time.
The bite of Phoneutria nigriventer, known as the Brazilian wandering spider, is potent and can be deadly in some cases. The Brazilian and US researchers interviewed men who claimed their sex lives had improved after a spider attack. The relevant toxin identified in the venom has been tested successfully on other animals.
So far, scientists believe that combining a version of the spider's venom with an existing drug for erectile dysfunction - such as Viagra, Cialis or Levtra - could produce better results.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
China uses chips in dog crackdown.
Many dogs in Beijing are thought to be unregistered. The Chinese authorities in an area of Beijing have begun implanting digital chips into dogs in a bid to cut down on the number of unregistered dogs. Chips the size of a rice grain are being injected into the necks of dogs in a pilot project in the Xicheng district, Xinhua news agency reports. The chip contains details of the dog's breed, birth, inoculations and owner.
China implemented a "one-dog" policy back in November as part of a campaign to tackle a surge in rabies cases. But the new regulations - which also includes a ban on larger breeds - have been criticised by some, who fear it will lead to an increase in dog confiscations and culls.
A police officer in charge of dog registration told Xinhua that the project was being piloted in Xicheng before being rolled out to the rest of the city. He said the chip, with its 30-year lifespan, would help identify lost and homeless dogs, make it easier for owners to take their dogs abroad and help curb the spread of rabies.
Dogs are required to have a chip implanted when they are registered. More than 10,000 dogs are registered in Xicheng alone, out of 600,000 across Beijing - although there are believed to be an equal number of unregistered dogs, Xinhua says.
Rising wages have led to a boom in dog ownership, but high fees have prevented many from being registered and vaccinated.
Rabies has become the biggest cause of death among infectious diseases in China. As many as 2,000 people are reported to have died from the disease in 2006 alone.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Police launched the operation in the early hours of the morning. Thirty people have been arrested for alleged animal rights extremism in raids across the UK and Europe. About 700 police officers and support staff were involved in the early morning operation at 32 addresses in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Police say the raids were one of the largest operations against animal rights extremists in the UK.
The 15 men and 15 women arrested will be questioned at undisclosed police stations across the UK. There were 29 addresses raided in Berkshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Greater London, Merseyside, Worcestershire, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Surrey and South Wales from 0530 BST. Two unnamed locations in the Netherlands and one in Belgium were also raided.
Although the vast majority of animal rights protesters campaign lawfully, a small minority seeks to force change through criminal action - ACC Adrian Leppard
Police say the "substantial operation" targeted burglary, conspiracy to blackmail, and offences against animal research operations. The extremists' targets included Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridgeshire, officers said.
Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard, of Kent Police, who commanded the operation, said: "In recent years, animal rights extremists have conducted sustained campaigns of harassment and intimidation against the animal research industry, seeking to achieve their objectives by creating a climate of fear. "Although the vast majority of animal rights protesters campaign lawfully, a small minority seeks to force change through criminal action."
Aisling Burnand, chief executive of the BioIndustry Association (BIA), said: "News of today's operation will act as a great fillip to the medical research community across Europe. "Recent efforts of the police, government and judiciary have resulted in a significant decline in the incidence of animal rights extremism and are much welcomed by the UK's bioscience community."
Mr Leppard said the operation focused on the south-east of England, because that was where extremist activity was concentrated. Action was being taken to minimise any disruption caused by the raids, he added. One of the locations raided was Freshfields Animal Rescue Centre in Ince Blundell, Merseyside.
Centre manager Dave Calendar, who says they have "nothing to hide", accused the police of "heavy-handed tactics". Merseyside Police rejected claims that any injuries had been caused during the raid. The operation is ongoing and no one has yet been charged.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Clock ticks for Malta's spring hunt.
By Stephen Mulvey - EU reporter, BBC News.
Malta's spring bird hunt is in full swing for what could be the last time before the country is taken to court accused of violating the EU Birds Directive.
The European Commission began infringement proceedings against the country last year, for allowing the hunting of two migratory birds - the quail and the turtle dove - as they travel to their breeding grounds.
Malta is the only country in the EU that allows bird hunting in spring.
And according to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, some hunters fire at any bird that flies past, not just the two species the government permits.
"They are blasting at everything. While waiting for quail and turtle dove they will use swallows and house martins for target practice," says the RSPB's Grahame Madge.
"They will literally shoot anything that casts a shadow over Malta, they will blast it out of the sky."
Members of the public have been handing dead and injured birds to Birdlife Malta, or e-mailing pictures, almost every day since the season began on 10 April.
The list includes numerous marsh harriers, a bee eater, a golden oriole and a little bittern. The bee eater was spotted, fatally injured, by primary school children on a visit to nature reserve.
British tourists raised the alert about a dead purple heron on 30 March, 10 days before the season began.
Birdlife Malta's conservation officer, Andre Raine, says the birds handed in represent just the tip of the iceberg, as hunters usually hide any birds they have shot illegally.
"The birds we are getting firstly have to actually manage to fly away from the site where they are shot and then have to be found by a sympathetic member of the public rather than a hunter, and then they have to be reported to us," he says. "So the chances of getting any of these birds in the first place is very slim."
The Maltese Government says the spring hunting season can be justified under the EU Birds Directive, because the migratory patterns of the quail and turtle dove make it impractical to hunt them in the autumn.
MALTA BIRD FACTS
Malta is a key stepping stone for migratory birds crossing the Mediterranean
170 species are regularly observed on the islands
Many of the birds breed in northern Europe
Malta has an exemption from EU law allowing it to trap finches
The European Commission rejects this argument and is reportedly pushing ahead with infringement proceedings at full speed.
It sent the Maltese authorities a first warning in March 2006, and is expected to progress to the next stage of the proceedings later this year, possibly in July, after which the case will be handed to the European Court of Justice.
Birdlife Malta argues that "judicious" autumn hunting of the quail and turtle dove - which the directive might permit under certain conditions - is a contradiction in terms, because their populations are declining or depleted.
Malta is small group of islands with a total area of about 300 sq km, roughly one fifth the size of Greater London, and only half of it is available for hunting. About 15,000 hunters make use of this limited territory.
The Federation for Hunting and Conservation Malta argues that spring is the best time of year to enjoy the countryside.
Mizieb, Girgenti and Delimara are among the main hunting grounds."This is yet another reason why autumn hunting is not a 'satisfactory solution' as a replacement for spring traditional hunting in Malta," the group says on its website. "Just the weather and the feeling of nature itself, are totally different."
Andre Raine says the sheer concentration of hunters makes some sites "no-go areas" for the public until the season ends on 20 May, and that birdwatchers can get a hostile reception.
Leonard Caruana of Malta's Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment says the maximum penalty for hunting protected species has been increased to up to 14,000 euros and two years' imprisonment , and is now one of the toughest in the European Union. Police, soldiers and environment inspectors are constantly patrolling hunting areas, he says.
But Birdlife Malta says the 27 police and 50 soldiers assigned to the task are unable to keep track of thousands of hunters, while the hunters - sometimes communicating by radio - can easily keep track of the officers of the law.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Template by motime.com | header image credit: Markus Gann © www.begann.de