Showing 1 to 10 of 84 blog articles.
The Tribe Endangered

This is the introduction to a series on animals that are endangered or in decline, giving them a name so that we can give them a voice.

A.E. (Anthony) Lovell

Meet this tribe
These far flung ones
Precious ones we can’t let go
Little do they know
Their lives are in our hands
And in our plans
What is the plan for these friends
Endangered or in decline?
But they are not numbers
Or strange tongue twisting names
Linnaean Taxonomic classifications
They are sentient beings
We are sentient beings
We have that in common
But only we can control
Whether they get to keep ther home
In the wild, not in captivity
We want to see them in the future
In their natural estate
Not protected by being taken and contained
Effectively gone in the wild
On the shortlist to extinction
Let’s get them off the list
Let’s treat them with respect
As if their life matters
To them and us 
Directly and indirectly
We are their greatest threat
We’re giving them a name
And a face to go with it
And a tribe to recognise
These endangered ones banding together
Safety in numbers is their hope
And names as fellow creatures
Their rescue rope

We’ve anthropologised them
Within an inch of their lives
Some even further, now gone
Now we must anthropomorphise
To call them back from the brink
There are better ways in the future
Just recognise sentience
We have to lo and behold them
To hold them and keep them dear
With all the life on earth 
encircled on this sphere

The first is George...
He already has his name
Then it will be your turn
To give the others
Their names

  1 year ago
The Tribe Endangered No. 3 - Penny

A Penny for your thoughts
And if you think about it
So many Pennys are in peril
So many pennys needed to fund
The work of protecting and rehabilitating
These shy creatures
Happy that while in rehab
You are protected and safe
Not against Hyaenas, your armour fits
Not against a lion, your scales protect
Instead against a far worse predator
The worst of the worst 
Those who won’t let you stay free
To shyly and harmlessly spend many a nocturne 
Unless of course you’re an ant!
She wouldn’t hurt a fly
But she is an anteater
Engaging in nature’s ant control
Patrolling, investigating, curling up in a ball
If a threat is detected, she just rolls
All except for one
And no ode to a Pangolin
Can take the man out of the story
But the stark, bleak sadness
Is contained in another verse
About Pascale
But here we keep it as kind
And as hopeful as (nearly im)possible
Focussing on the light in the plight
And those who care and do something
Care for the rescued Pennys and Pascales 
Show them the kind side of humans
The compassionate, the responsible
The never give up, the never quitters
Those that stand in the danger zone
The no-mans land between the species
And extinction
Yes, This is about Penny 
And the plummeting Pangolins
And other red-listed species
But also about the one species
Fighting to defend their right
To keep existing, to stay alive
Spare a thought and gratitude
For the Penny carers
But we need an army of people who care
Greater than the hoardes of exotic easters
And treaters of Pangolins as apothecaries 
Carers like @Wildatlife e.V.
Without whom Penny would end up
Just a pile of scales in a market
Or worse...

This is Penny 
Can you share a Penny for your thoughts
Tell us what you think about Pangolins
In the comments add your verse
Give us your take on them
Or more importantly, your give

A.E. (Anthony) Lovell

Photo: @Wildatlife E.v.



  1 year ago
Tragelaphus scriptus

Bushbucks are one of the most widespread kinds of African antelopes. Their small size, coloring, and reclusive behavior help them survive close to human settlements and in very small habitats. Bushbuck horns have a single twist and smooth edges. This design is well-suited to their preference for dense habitat, as the horns do not hinder their escape from predators.


Although bushbucks usually live alone, they occasionally spend time in pairs or even in small groups of adult females, adult females with young, or adult males. A unique social structure is exhibited by bushbucks In Uganda. There, the female young remain with their mothers throughout their lives, and adult females organize themselves into matrilineal clans. Each related group maintains and defends a home range against unrelated females. Related females also engage in grooming and other social activities. Males leave their mother’s home range to join a bachelor herd when they are six months old and fight other male groups to gain territory.


Bushbucks spend most of their time eating, ruminating, resting, and moving. They are most active at dawn and dusk, though this varies based on season, age, and sex. Males are often combative. A male will first feign an attack by lowering his horns to the ground, but if he and his opponent are closely matched, they will lock horns and try to stab each other’s sides. While female bushbucks can be aggressive toward other females, they tend to fight much less than males. Bushbucks have a keen sense of smell. When either a male or a female senses a predator in the distance, they freeze and drop to the ground, keeping their head and neck against the earth until the danger passes. 

If the predator is close, a bushbuck will emit a bark and flee into the bush with its tail raised.


Bushbucks are solitary creatures that communicate mainly through scent-marking rather than vocalization, although they occasionally emit a bark to warn of danger. A male bushbuck signals a challenge to another male by adopting a rigid walk, raising his head, arching his back, and lifting his tail. If the opponent is an equal match, he takes up a similar posture and the two circle one another; if the opponent submits, he keeps his head low and licks the dominant male. Some researchers think males may bark to indicate their status to another bushbuck.


Bushbucks are browsers. They eat a range of herbs and young leaves from both shrubs and trees throughout the day and night. They also raid farms and plantations to eat crops.


During courtship, the male nuzzles and licks the female, strokes her back with his cheeks, and presses his head or neck against her. If the female accepts his advances, the male guards her against any other eager males. Female bushbucks gestate for 24 to 35 weeks and usually bear a single calf, though occasionally they have twins. Females give birth in dense thickets, where the calves remain for up to four months while their mothers leave to graze. A male’s horns begin to emerge at seven months. Males reach sexual maturity at ten months, but most do not breed until they are two years old. Females reach maturity between 14 and 19 months and can give birth every year. @GodfreyT 

#Interiorsafaris East Africa 

#Africa #Uganda #Fauna #Antelope #Bushbuck

  1 year ago
PLEOCEUS CUCULLATUS

Bigodi  wetland sanctuary, Uganda, 2017.

The Village Weaver is one of the most common, widespread weaver species. It is larger than most weavers, with red eyes in both sexes and a heavy black bill. The breeding male has the head mainly black, the nape, hindneck and breast below the black throat are chestnut. The back is spotted yellow. The breeding female is yellow below, and whiter on belly. The non-breeding birds are duller than the breeding female.


The Village Weaver inhabits bushy savanna, riverine woodland, wetlands, cultivated areas, rural villages, urban and suburban gardens, and villages and clearings in the forest. It is frequently associated with human habitation in west and central Africa. It is absent from arid regions, dense forests, and miombo woodland.


Its diet is seeds, including grass seeds and cultivated cereals. It is regarded as a pest in rice-growing areas, and also damages maize, sorghum and durra crops. It also feeds on fruit, nectar, and insects, such as beetles, ants, termites and their alates, grasshoppers, mantids, caterpillars, and bugs. It forages by gleaning vegetation, including tree trunks.


The Village Weaver is gregarious, being found in large flocks and in the non-breeding period joins large communal roosts. 

It is highly colonial, with more than 200 nests in a single tree and colonies in excess of 1000 nests. The Village Weaver is polygynous, with up to five females simultaneously on the territory of a male, and up to seven during a season. Females may change mates in a season. Larger colonies appear to be more attractive to females, with a higher proportion of females per male.


When females enter a colony, males hang below their nest entrances while giving nest-invitation calls and flapping their wings to show the yellow underwings. The nest is spherical, sometimes with a very short entrance tunnel. The nest is woven by the male within a day, generally from strips torn from reed or palm leaves. 

The male often includes a ceiling layer of broad leaves. The female lines an accepted nest with leaves, grass-heads and some feathers. Nests are suspended from drooping branches. A single male may build more than 20 nests in a season, and unused or old nests are regularly destroyed to make space for new nests. Empty nests may be occupied by other animals, including snakes, wasps, mice and bats, and nests may be used for breeding by a wide variety of species including Cut-throat Finches.


The eggs are white, pale green or blue, either plain or variably marked with red-brown speckling. Incubation is by the female only, for about 12 days. The chicks are usually fed by the female alone, but males in some parts help. Female Village Weavers recognize their own egg pattern, which is constant throughout her life, and discriminate against non-matching eggs. Nest predators include snakes, especially boomslang Dispholidus typus, monkeys and baboons, crows and raptors.

The longevity record is 14 years in the wild.

 #Birdifeastafrica 

#Earthshots

#Visitugandarwandatanzania. 

interiorsafarisea.com 

  1 year ago
LOPHAETUS OCCIPITALIS

Today many birds were seen, but many will soon be forgotten. Yet one master African hunter is indelibly etched on every African child's mind, the Long-crested eagle. 

Growing up in the Gorilla Highlands, this is the bird that children asked whether they would die one day or live forever. Its the one that village belles asked whether they would be married in the East or in the West. 

With just a flick of its long crest, downwards or up, this way or that way, one's fate was sealed. 

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Kamushungushungu, the African bird of prophecy, the "sit and wait" hunter which waits on a perch, scanning the ground and swoops on prey with a gliding flight. 

Here are its 7 behavioral facts:

1. It mostly feeds on rodents, which is a big part of its conservation story. Its pest control reputation in Agricultural Africa is only shrouded by its prophetic myth. It however also feeds on other birds, including owls and the young of other raptors, frogs and lizards, invertebrates and even fish and fruit. 

2. The long-crested eagle is territorial. Thats why they dont flock. 

3. The male displays during courtship, performing steep dives and also using a rocking, level display flight, calling frequently during these displays. 

4. Both sexes build the nest, constructing a stick platform lined with green leaves. The nest is normally situated in the mid-canopy and very close to the trunk of a tree near the forest edge.

5. It breeds all year but most eggs are laid in July to November season. The female lays 1-2 eggs which are laid asynchronously, as much as two weeks apart.

6. The female takes most of the burden of incubating the eggs and the female begins incubation as soon as the first egg is laid which means that hatching is also asynchronous. Incubation lasts 42 days (twice that of domestic hens).

7.  Interestingly, during incubation, the male provides the female with food.@Godfrey

#Earthshots 

interiorsafarisea.com 

  1 year ago
The Tribe Endangered No. 4. Ganges River Dolphin ‘Susu Stupendo - AKA Sagacity’


Meet Susu Stupendo 
We’ll have what she’s having!
Aquatic joie de vivre
Expressed above water
We came from water too
But only she returned
Turned hoofs back into fins
Fifty millions years ago plunged back in
But did not stop breathing the air
Bound to the surface periodically 
Just to catch her breath
If only we had what she shows
Her audacity of sagacity
To adapt to the river of life
Flowing from the high Himalayas
Perfectly in tune
A type of singing to talk
And a clicking to find food
Hidden in the mud
Crunchy crustaceans and fishy tid bits
Echo locating in the turbid waters
Replacing her redundant eyes
Seeing now with her mind
Sage advice indeed she could give us
How to live in tune with nature
Long before we turned up
Turned down the visibility even more
Turned up the heat, set to soar
Flooded her habitat with people
Washed down the river our waste
Turning the river into something unsaid
Far from sacred
The further from the source
The worse the excess
Not just a cesspool, it’s a river of cess 
(Briefly clearer during the Pandemic)
Even the carrier away of death
So we amplify your audacity
Sapiens voices raised in sagacity
Restore the river fit for this life
If us humans clean up our act
And act as if your home is sacred in deed 
The water will be as it used to flow
Making you what you are today
When you evolved in the Ganges
It provided all that you needed
Though it did cost you your sight
Now your sight is sound
You can’t see
Yet your view of the world is sound
Ours, not so much
We can’t see
What we’re bringing down
Yours, far too much
The hope of the Susu
Is the hope of the river
And the people of hope
Now what you need is for us to share
In the light of respect and care
With these wise sentients 
And their other river cousins elsewhere
Expressing such joyful sentiments
Like you Susu Stupendo
Who still live there
Long may the Ganges echo
With your kind

More at ae4e.me


  1 year ago
Is Trophy Hunting Killing or Conservation! We want to hear from you!

If one trophy hunter can spend $200,000 to hunt exotic animals and say it is not about killing, and it is about helping wildlife conservation is he/she being realistic?  Wouldn't one say if it is not about the thrill of killing an animal and it is about the love you have for wildlife then why not use the money in a way that saves our wildlife and their future?


Isn't Trophy hunting more about the money versus conservation?  Breeding and raising wildlife is a million-dollar business.   Do you believe it is about conservation or about the money that flows into one's pocket? 

Let us take a look at one organization in Texas that claims to be about conservation:  This organization run by 2 people has convinced wildlife lovers and organizations that they care about conservation and with this approach has easily raised millions of dollars to get the business up and running! 

Mojostreaming has spoken with the founder and he believes we are not fully educated on what the organization is about.  We have invited him to be our guest on our talk show to help us better understand.  We are still waiting on his reply. 

We encourage you to look up wildlife ranching in America (most are in Texas)  One rancher received over 11 million from investors and I believe they easily convince people they are about conservation versus making money off of selling exotic animals to zoos and making money off of enclosed trophy hunting where people easily pay 10,000+ for a kill.

Please research and see what you find and come up with your own impressions. 

Let us watch this news documentary and ask yourself if it is okay to kill 8 to 14 other wild animals to bait one leopard so you can kill that one leopard.  The fee to participate in this sport cost over 26,000 with the loss of up to 15 animals. Why?  just so you can place the head on your wall, take a photo and brag to your friends, and then sell the skin for you to make money off of? Then tell yourself that you love wildlife and you are helping conservation. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NdopGBtb0A

ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE IS A HUGE PROBLEM- it generates millions of dollars at the expense of the species.  Many animals are on the brink of extinction and one country to blame is the United States of America because that is where the big buyers come from:   Click on the link below to learn more: 

mojostreaming.com

Not only do we have to worry about the illegal trade of wildlife we have to worry about whether our Zoos are participating in such acts.   

Please watch:  mojostreaming.com

We can also debate hunting in your local state to control wild animals such as deer, raccoons, turkey, and more.  We are not doing enough to make sure hunters are following proper protocol.  Are licenses being purchased?  Are they tagging and reporting their kill and keeping it to their assigned limit?  Are they baiting- using salt block, night cameras, feeding stations?  Are they using dogs, scents, and other enticing products to fool the animal?  Are they hunting in enclosed fencing like they do in Peru, Indiana?  Are they dumping the carcass or taking it to the properly assigned stations for their area?  Are they hunting for food or for the trophy and bragging rights?  Are they completing the proper permits to be on someone's property, and tagging their stand?  It is easy to not follow such guidelines when you have stores like Rural King promoting special feed, salt blocks, and other baiting products during hunting season.   How about the hunting contest that is going on in America.

thehuntinggame.com


helibacon.com


 
Coyotes were killed at the Southern Illinois Predator Challenge in 2017. COURTESY OF MARC AYERS/HUMANE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES


Winners for shooting the most gray foxes, West Texas Big Bobcat Contest, February 2014  

Again in Texas

motherjones.com

Here is what we need to keep an eye on!  These types of events bring in a lot of money and money is more important the protecting our wildlife from extinction. 

We can just add one more thing to America's list to be known for.  Cruelty to animals though they wish to call it conservation. 

Mojostreaming asks that you share and educate others on the crisis our wildlife continues to face

To watch Tiger Mafia it is available on Amazon Prime in Europe and we will keep you posted when available in other areas. . 


  1 year ago
The Shooting Trap Part 1.


A Shoot!
Grab your guns! Time for fun!
Don’t get over excited
Only a debate, like a Trap Shoot
Nothing live to shoot
Although that is the subject
Have gun, must shoot
Something
Clay pigeon arguments! Disappointed!

Pull!
A great debate
Hunting for conservation, not verses
Let your arguments fly
We’ll need to follow closely
Get it in our sights, as it speeds by
Fast response, must recognise the target
Well it may fly but gravity will bring it down
Those that are missed, still damaging
If not shot down - in flames is better

Two teams
Affirmative
Hunting is needed for conservation
Negative
How can it be?
Affirmation of killing goes first

Pull!
Their argument flies
Conservation is expensive
How shall we be funded, well may we ask
Agreeing, the Negative lets it by

Pull!
Less dangerous animals, less retaliation
Those that live with risk know
We’re not stalked on the ground
Too, let this argument go
No discharge

Pull!
Not mostly endangered animals, little impact
Plenty of ungulates, need regulating
Less pressure on habitats
A half-hearted shot is taken
Still not the right target

Pull!
Incentives for the local populations
Supposedly benefit as the money filters down
Works out at some cents, makes no sense
Incentivises to open up country for hunting
Protects more land than in Parks, apparently
Figures are dodgy, the clay pigeon goes wobbly
This one is hit, shatters in a puff of powdered clay
Blown out of the sky, dust trailing
Already 1.3 million square kms
Are open to Trophy Hunting
This would add more!
Adds up to more killing
Can’t equal more conservation 

Still, not a good score for the negative
But are they in the right debate?
Both sides seeking alternatives kinder
(The hunters are not in this particular debate)
Conservation needs resourcing, not debatable
It’s the arguments that were not stated
That’s where the real problem is slated
‘Show me the money’ science doesn’t sit well 
The refutation shots are loaded
For a game-changer
And for the recriminations?

Part 2. That’s Debatable (coming soon)

A.E. Lovell
TheOneMillionPoetry.com (launching in April)

  11 months ago
The Unsolved Mystery of Elephants Death in Botswana

The death of hundreds of elephants in Botswana has been an unsolved mystery for a long time during this pandemic in Botswana. Most of these have shown the symptoms of dizziness and walking in circles before dropping dead face-first. Government officials quote that 281 elephants have been verified to be dead with this bizarre behavior, but the conservationists and the NGOs claim that the death toll is much higher.

Initially, wild life experts have omitted the possibility of tuberculosis and believe that the cause is beyond the known diseases. Though the death number does not sound serious in population perspective, it is absolutely critical to complete the diagnosis and have accurate results in order to avoid any foul play or before elephants succumb to more of such mysterious deaths.


Botswana has an estimated 130,000 Savanna elephants and is considered to be one of the last strongholds of species in Africa. The earlier estimations were to be around 350,000 and ivory poaching in 20th century has reduced the species to one third of them today. The thousand-square-mile to the northeast of Okavango Delta, which has witnessed the deaths of elephants has around 18,000 elephants roughly. The wildlife experts and veterans believe that the possible causes could be the ingestion of toxic bacteria into the water, viral infection from rodents in the area or a pathogen infection. Conservationists are also considering the possibility of poisoning by humans.

The investigating officials of the Botswana government had sent for the testing to the laboratories in Zimbabwe, South Africa, US and Canada as well. The wild life department made a press release that the deaths are probably due to natural toxins.

However, the officials have confirmed that the conclusion could not be made about the cause yet.  Authorities have so far ruled out anthrax, as well as poaching, as the tusks were found intact. They believe that some bacteria can naturally produce poison, particularly in stagnant water.

Elephants Without Borders (EWB) is a wildlife conservation charity that first flagged about these mysterious deaths. Their confidential report with references to 356 dead elephants was leaked to the public media in early July. The charity suspected that the deaths were not restricted to any specific age group or gender and has also highlighted that many live elephants have shown signs of weakness, lethargy and even disorientation.

Presence of green lush vegetation and the fact that waterholes in the vicinity are still full of rainwater eliminates the possibility of deaths due to dehydration or starvation. Though the blue green algae can be deadly when consumed along with water, elephants generally drink water from the middle of the water bodies, but not edges. But there has been a pre-historic mass elephant deaths due to Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) and this cause could only be substantiated with the laboratory results, which is still underway. The neurological symptoms like walking in circles suggests that anthrax poisoning is also a possibility.

The Anthrax bacteria occurs naturally in soil and elephants become infected if they have ingested contaminated soil or breathed in. Anthrax is known to be affecting wild life and domestic animals around the world.

Experts opinionated that it requires a detailed sampling of carcasses, soil and water in the delta area for an accurate explanation. But the challenge is the remoteness and the hot weather in the area which could have degraded the body, erasing important evidences, and scavenging animals which may eat organs making it extremely challenging for the examination. Despite the wildlife conservationists’ huge cry worldwide, there is still no confirmation on the absolute cause for the hundreds of elephant deaths.

  2 years ago
Pangolins rushing towards extinction

The primary threat to most pangolin species is illegal hunting and poaching for local use and illicit international trade. Recent estimates based on seizure data suggest that more than 895,000 pangolins were trafficked globally between 2000 and 2019. This trade mainly involves pangolin scales and meat, which are primarily trafficked to East and Southeast Asia, and to a lesser extent other body parts.

Scales for Traditional Medicines

Pangolin scales are used as an ingredient in Traditional Asian Medicine, particularly in China and Vietnam. They are believed to be a cure for ailments ranging from heart disease to cancer, and to help lactating women produce milk. Like rhino horn and human fingernails, pangolin scales are made of keratin and there is no scientific evidence that they are efficacious in medicine. Similarly, pangolin scales are used to treat myriad medical conditions in Traditional African Medicine, especially in West and Central Africa.

Meat consumed locally or as a luxury product

Pangolins have been consumed as a source of protein in virtually every range country throughout human history. In Asia, this continues, but in many places local consumption has been foregone in favor of selling the animals into illicit, international trade because of the high prices pangolins can fetch. The majority of this trade is destined to China and Vietnam, as well as other countries in Southeast Asia, where pangolins are consumed as a delicacy. The high price and perceived rarity means consumers eat pangolins as a luxury product to demonstrate their wealth and reinforce social status. In Africa, pangolins are eaten as wild meat, especially in West and Central Africa, where local rather than international trade is predominant. Estimates suggest that at least 400,000 pangolins are hunted and consumed locally in Central Africa each year.

Ongoing illegal trade despite international protection

Illicit international trade in pangolins and their parts takes place despite international protection afforded to the species. Pangolins have a long history in CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Each pangolin species was included in CITES Appendix II in 1995, meaning trade should be closely regulated, and in the year 2000, zero export quotas for wild-caught specimens traded for primarily commercial purposes were established for the Asian pangolins, in effect, a proxy trade ban. Due to ongoing concerns about the overexploitation of pangolin populations, each species was included in CITES Appendix I at CoP17 in 2016, establishing an international trade ban on commercial trade in wild-caught pangolins and their derivatives. Pangolins are also protected species in most of their range countries under national legislation, but illegal harvest and trade continues unabated.

The impact of overexploitation on pangolin populations

High levels of off take have resulted in steep declines in pangolin populations, especially the Chinese, Sunda and Philippine pangolins in China and Southeast Asia in recent decades. In some places this has resulted in the commercial extinction of the species, or the loss from some sites altogether.

Since 2008, there has been an apparent increase in the trafficking of African pangolin scales, mainly from West and Central Africa to Asian markets, which appears to be placing greater exploitative pressure on tropical African pangolin populations. Quantifying the impact of illicit, international trade and disentangling it from local use is challenging, as in Asia, in part because there is a lack of standardized population monitoring methods for pangolins. Based on the best available evidence, the IUCN Red List assessments for pangolins were updated in December 2019, resulting in the species being categorized as Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable, based on past, ongoing and future population declines attributed to actual or potential levels if exploitation.

  2 years ago