Europe’s wild cattle

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Europe's wild cattle

An image shot by a brilliant photographer from Poland, Sebastian Lasek. Wild cattle, such as these bison as well as others like the Heck cattle, have been used in Pleistocene rewilding programmes in Europe. These programmes aim to introduce populations of wild cattle to replace the aurochs that were made extinct due to hunting in the 17th century. The idea is, that by introducing megafauna into ecosystems, a natural chain of events will restore ecosystems to the state they were in during the Pleistocene era (long before humans).

Scientists are still in the early stages of testing rewilding programmes. It is important to note that rewilding experiments can go wrong, and reintroducing megafauna (large animals) into the wild can have dramatically undesired results. This month’s National Geographic magazine explored the ethics of cloning the woolly mammoth back into existence. The split over de-extiction initiatives seems to be between people who were emotionally scarred by Jurassic Park, and those who weren’t. However, it is important that overenthusiastic scientists weigh up the pro’s and con’s of rewilding.

National Geographic and SOOANG are working in collaboration on a project to clone the woolly mammoth back into existence. According to scientists, the woolly mammoth’s large hooves once ploughed the grasslands of Europe. But after they became extinct, those ecosystems dried up. Re-introducing the woolly mammoth to the wild could dramatically change European wilderness.

Bisons and auroch-like cattle can be thought of as the first step in judging whether more ambitious Pleistocene rewilding programmes, such as resurrecting the woolly mammoth could work.

Maasai herds rise in protest against evictions from ancestral lands

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An Emirati hunting company, the Ortello Business Corporation (OBC) has leased a chunk of land near the Serengeti National Park for private hunting groups, resulting in the displacement of 30,000 residents in the area as well as the nomadic Maasai who rely on this land to graze cattle. The OBC is a big game hunting company through which hunters from the UAE come to Tanzania to hunt lions and leopards. The Tanzanian government maintains that trophy hunting generates immense revenues and brings much-needed foreign money into a debt-ridden nation. Trophy hunting also incentivises tourism companies to conserve drought-prone land for wildlife. However, the OBC's further marginalise a nomadic tribe that has been repeatedly displaced from its ancestral lands, first by the British colonial establishment, and later by post-independence national governments. The Maasai, famed for their ability to jump high, and ancient (now outdated) customs such as hunting lions and drinking cows blood, draws millions of tourists to Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya. This proposal, would remove almost 40% of Loliondo's highland prairie and forested mountains from the Maasai's reach. In retaliation to the OBC's land acquisition, the Maasai have protested by throwing away membership cards to Tanzania's incumbent party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). One Maasai woman, Ms Tenemeri told the BBC, "My son is in secondary school because of the grass from here. "If they need my land they can kill me." The campaign against the OBC corridor is spearheaded by local women, who depend most on the land near Lolindo. Local politicians initially voiced support against the OBC but have since turned their backs on the Maasai by refusing to resign from the party as they had promised to. Tanzania's tourism minister, Khamis Kagasheki defends the evictions, saying the project will promote conservation as the Maasai are exhausting the land. "These 1,500 sq km are a crucial breeding area for wildlife, a corridor for the iconic great migration of wildebeest, and a critical water catchment area," he said in a press release. He has also accused the Maasai of living in Lolindo illegally and defended the government's right to use the land to boost tourism revenues. However, Maasai groups claim to have title deeds to their land in Lolindo. Maasai groups will take the government to court over the evictions.


 Maasai herds evicted from ancestral lands in Lolindo

An Emirati hunting company, the Ortello Business Corporation (OBC) has leased a chunk of land near the Serengeti National Park for private hunting groups, resulting in the displacement of 30,000 residents in the area as well as the nomadic Maasai who rely on this land to graze cattle.

The OBC is a big game hunting company through which hunters from the UAE come to Tanzania to hunt lions and leopards. The Tanzanian government maintains that trophy hunting generates immense revenues and brings much-needed foreign money into a debt-ridden nation. Trophy hunting also incentivises tourism companies to conserve drought-prone land for wildlife.

However, the OBC’s further marginalise a nomadic tribe that has been repeatedly displaced from its ancestral lands, first by the British colonial establishment, and later by post-independence national governments. The Maasai, famed for their ability to jump high, and ancient (now outdated) customs such as hunting lions and drinking cows blood, draws millions of tourists to Tanzania and neighbouring Kenya. This proposal, would remove almost 40% of Loliondo’s highland prairie and forested mountains from the Maasai’s reach.

In retaliation to the OBC’s land acquisition, the Maasai have protested by throwing away membership cards to Tanzania’s incumbent party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
One Maasai woman, Ms Tenemeri told the BBC, “My son is in secondary school because of the grass from here.

“If they need my land they can kill me.”

The campaign against the OBC corridor is spearheaded by local women, who depend most on the land near Lolindo. Local politicians initially voiced support against the OBC but have since turned their backs on the Maasai by refusing to resign from the party as they had promised to.

Tanzania’s tourism minister, Khamis Kagasheki defends the evictions, saying the project will promote conservation as the Maasai are exhausting the land.

“These 1,500 sq km are a crucial breeding area for wildlife, a corridor for the iconic great migration of wildebeest, and a critical water catchment area,” he said in a press release.

He has also accused the Maasai of living in Lolindo illegally and defended the government’s right to use the land to boost tourism revenues.However, Maasai groups claim to have title deeds to their land in Lolindo.

Maasai groups will take the government to court over the evictions.

 

 

 

No elephants at India’s Elephant Festival

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Jaipur, 26 March 2013

Jaipur, 26 March 2013

I was in Jaipur, India for this year’s annually celebrated Elephant Festival held in the so-called ‘pink’ city two weeks ago. The Elephant Festival is supposed to be held to celebrate Holi, an Indian festival that fills every street with colour to inaugurate the spring season. The festival, held at the Rajasthan Polo Grounds, boasted a plethora of Jaipur’s finest talent: dancers in traditional garb, singers thrilling foreign audiences with folk songs, and turban-tying competitions that left the tourists in a twist. This year’s elephant festival however, was conspicuously missing one thing: the elephants.

The cavalcade of elephants, pimped-out so to speak, for a beauty competition which is usually followed by a tug-of-war and an elephant polo match – as it turns out – was flagged by animal rights’ activists from PETA as a cause of serious ill-treatment of the animals, with the Mahouts using inhumane techniques such as iron hooks to train the elephants.

So, whilst many tourists were disappointed at the lack of jumbo-sized pageantry at Jaipur this year, Rajasthan Department of Tourism’s decision to scrap the elephant festival was a decisive gain for the elephants themselves. Assistant Director of Tourism Department of Rajasthan, Upendra Singh Shekhawa passed the buck to the state-controlled Animal Welfare Board, stating “The Animal Welfare Board of India had written to us that there is some violation of exhibiting the elephants. That is why; we are going whatever they are saying. We will adopt whatever they want”.

PETA activist Sarvgya Bhargil, explained the problem more clearly, stating that the elephants used in the festival are given insufficient food and are chained into tight spaces by their Mahout handlers, causing them to develop foot infections and arthritis. He also argued against the use of performing animals as keeping elephants and camels in captivity for long periods of time restricts their natural social behaviour and can induce health problems and loneliness.

The Elephant Festival is a clear example of how irresponsible tourism can be. The cancellation of this year’s Elephant Festival should stand as a precedent to stop the cruel treatment of performing animals in India.

Poaching Britain’s rhinos

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A report in AFP today said that the British police have noted an increase in rhino poaching in Britain’s wildlife parks. The Aspinall Foundation which, a wildlife charity which runs two animal parks in Kent in southeastern England, appealed for residents living near those parks to keep a watch for suspicious activity.

The Aspinall Foundation’s chairman, Damian Aspinall, said police had told them there was a “genuine threat” which it attributed to poachers seeking the rhinos’ valuable horns.

“It is tragic and beyond belief that, as we do everything possible to restore these magnificent animals safely to the wild, the traders who seek to profit from their slaughter should bring their vile activities to the UK,” he said.

The foundation has 20 black rhinos across its two parks in Kent, out of an estimated 200 held in captivity around the world and just 700 who survive in the wild.

This report should alert us of how intense of a threat poaching is to the black rhino.

Pink Elephants & Poison Rhinos

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Reblogged from Fight for Rhinos:

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This weekend many people will partake  in the tradition of dyeing eggs. So it's a fitting time to discuss dying ivory. More specifically the actual  tusks themselves.

This is an idea that I first noticed on Facebook and is being presented in a petition as well. The theory is the dye while safe for the elephants, will serve as a deterrent to poachers.

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