How the threat to lions, leopards and wolves endangers us all

ORIGINAL POST FROM THE GUARDIAN ( http://www.theguardian.com/environment)

Cape Times 6-12-1012

How the threat to lions, leopards and wolves endangers us all

Though fearsome killers, big carnivores are also a precious resource, as their feeding habits keep many delicate ecosystems in balance. But too many predators are now facing extinction
They are the planet's most prolific killers – and also some of nature's most effective protectors. This is the stark conclusion of an international report that argues that lions, wolves, pumas, lynxes and other major carnivores play key roles in keeping ecosystems in balance. It also warns that the current depletion of numbers of major predators threatens to cause serious ecological problems across the globe.

The paper, written by a group of 14 leading ecologists and biologists from the US, Europe and Australia and published in the journal Science, calls for the establishment of an international initiative to conserve large carnivores and help them to coexist with humans. Failure to protect our top predators could soon have devastating consequences, they warn.

"Globally, we are losing our large carnivores," said William Ripple, the report's lead author. "Many of them are endangered and their ranges are collapsing. Many are at risk of extinction, either locally or globally. And, ironically, they are vanishing just as we are learning to appreciate their important ecological effects."

The report has been produced, in part, to show that the classic vision of a large predator, such as a lion or a wolf, being an agent of harm to wildlife and a cause of widespread depletion of animal stocks is misguided. Careful analysis of predators' food chains reveals a very different picture. "In fact, the myriad social and economic effects [of large carnivores] include many benefits," it states.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/26/endangered-species-carnivores-extinction

Cape Times 6-12-1012

BABOON EXTERMINATION AROUND TABLE MOUNTAIN

FIRST THEY KILLED BART AND NOW FRED

Another baboon died by the wisdom of the baboon caretaker squad in Cape Town, last week.
Even though this is happening during an election year and in a DA ruled province, Helen Zille is still the only politician who spoke out about the lack of attention the animals in nature are receiving from our conservation efforts. We will sacrifice their shelter, habitat and food source, to further for our emotional, indiscriminate fynbos recovery efforts.

We all know that the fynbos is being threatened with extinction and needs preservation, but so are many of our animal and insect species who were forced to seek shelter and habitat in an alien environment.

So if you love animals and nature the DA still deserves your vote.
(I am not siding with any party in particular, except for the one that supports the quality of all life, the poor as well as the defenseless. I will also side with the political party that will put his money where his mouth is and not in his/her own pockets)

1 I was just wondering if the conservation training covers animal behavior and psychology. Are they taught how to tune into nature and mentally get into the thought or survival patterns of the habitats that are threatening the perfect vision of co-habitation of animals and plants? Can anyone tell me?
2 What type of student chooses conservation as a career? Is it those who love nature or is it students who do not have the courage to tackle difficult subjects? In the past animals were voiceless victims, but thankfully in today’s society there are many nature lovers who are speaking up for our silent victims and are starting to use the Internet to fight their cause. Soon we will have to train conservation students who are sensitive to the life forms they control.
3 Do the conservation students learn all about laws and botanical names at the beginning of their curriculum, and if they are taught to tune into nature by observing any species, is the training offered at the end of their term? Will some students pass their degree without having had time to build that much needed quality to make holistic decisions? How many first year students have silently sat in nature and ask themselves the question: “What does this particular area need”, and then listen to their intuition for answers?

The baboon squad should have had the sensitivity and knowledge to come up with better solutions than killing the alpha males, who adopted the survival behavior of low class humans. It is so sad that experts, who have been employed to solve the baboon problem, could come up with no other solution than to kill them.

Whenever baboons evolve and adapt they are exterminated or locked I cages in some zoo. By taking out the alpha male every time, they leave behind the weaker ones to lead the troop (often into trouble). For animals to survive in this unfriendly environment, where people squeeze them out of their habitat, chop their shelter down, burn their food supply and take pot shots at them and commit acts of cruelty to deter them, we need the strong, intelligent ones to survive and guide the troop.


There have been lots of animal experiments done, internationally, on how to change the behavior of animals; they include, naming a few methods:
1 Shock treatment when animals behave unfavorable and reward them when they behave the right way.
2 The use of animal whisperers,
3 High frequency sound waves etc.
4 Booby traps in homes, bins and vehicles and other places of unsocial survival attempts by the baboons.
5 Pepper spraying of baboons that approaches vehicles and homes.
6 Supply food in a space that can also become a tourist attraction and provide the necessary funds to manage the existence of the species.
7 Set up trust funds or other initiatives to employ necessary international expert or humanitarian groups to train our conservationists.
(Sometimes we may need to be a bit cruel, in the beginning, to save the lives and existence of a troop of baboons.)

The nature of wild animals is to live in one area but move onto another more suitable habitat when the area becomes to overpopulated for the available food supply. Because the baboons can no longer split the troop and look for food somewhere else, they adapted by getting additional food by raiding the obstructive human habitat. This is a very clever adaptive behavior pattern.

We can prevent this by also being clever and provide alternative solutions.
With the right survival training, who knows, perhaps they will one day learn how to propagate and grow their own food in their protective habitats?


There is a lot we can experiment with and learn from the behavior of these animals and there is a lot they can learn from us if we use methods other than kill the clever ones.

They need our help and understanding not their execution and eventual extinction.


Rosalie - 6 April 2011

The Lord’s Prayer for animals forced into extinction by the efforts of man.

God forgive us for our narrow-mindedness and blindness due to the fact that we cannot see the bigger picture.
If our conservation efforts are your will, please bless our actions.
If not, forgive us for we do not always know what we are doing.
If the animals and birds suffer because we temporarily destroyed their chance of survival in order to give future animals a better place to live in, please provide a special habitat for them, with lots of food and trees where they can live undisturbed in animal heaven.

Amen



The latest tree felling at Table Mountain and at Rietvlei, Cape, prompted this prayer

Penguin chicks die from cold

It is time we change the focus of conserving local species; to try and save the species of the world in places where they can survive.

We may need to move animals around and that is going to be very difficult.   We still know so little about ecosystems and even the function and interrelationships of the smaller life forms in the wild.

A

Article from Cape Times 17-06-010

Killing rhinos for Chinese medicine.

This is when I find it difficult to be proudly African.

We are killing the earth

Africa can no longer sustain the human tide that devours everything in its path, while like locusts or parasites it plunders all natural resources in its path.
The majority of Africans take from the earth without giving anything back in return
It is no good to just to reduce pollution and waste.  We need to heal the earth.

Every living thing needs healthy food, clean oxygen rich air and clean healthy water to survive.
It is no longer good enough to stop waste and to recycle; we need to actively heal the land, water and air we breathe.
Humanity is sick.  Humanity dies from infections like aids, TB and the various flue viruses.
Even our food (swine flu, mad cow disease) is infected.

Infected people deposits polluted waste products into the soil and water.   When they die their infected bodies are buried into the ground.

The ground itself is contaminated.  People die from cancer and do not know where they get it from.  We eat food that grows on decaying diseased pollution.

Toxic wastes are deposited into the air, or are buried into the ground, and because we can not see it we think it causes no harm.

Have you ever considered that the earth itself needs to be fed and needs to breathe and needs a clean water supply to sustain life?

The byproducts of nature heals the earth, while the byproducts of human occupation poisons it.

For the earth to heal and for people to grow healthy immune systems again we need to correct the balance of nature to human occupation.
We need to actively heal the earth.
Humanity is physically dying in front of our eyes.
How long will antibiotics have any effects against viruses?
How much stronger can we mix antibiotics to fight viruses before the antibiotics start killing the people it is supposed to cure?  It is already happening right now!

We need to heal the earth so that the earth can sustain human life.  So that the food we eat strengthens our immune systems.

We need to clean our air so that it contains the amount of oxygen again that will destroy germs.
A decrease of oxygen in the air means an increase of harmful organisms.
Poisonous particles in the air replace oxygen.  This is serious; humanity is poisoning the very land we need for the survival of the specie.

It is no longer good enough to just recycle and hide toxic waste.

We need to drastic reduce the birthrate in areas where humans are overpopulated.
One baby per every two humans will gradually reduce the imbalance and decrease toxic waste.

We need to feed the earth, clean the waters and purify the air and remove the buried toxic waste; 
Before nature enforces its own protective mechanisms against the human invasion.
We need to spend money to introduce earth healing strategies.
We must stop the burying of toxic wastes and diseased human carcasses.
We need to stop pouring human and chemical waste into our waterways, sea and air.

Before the earth dies, it will kill humanity.
Be warned!

I

Information about the photographs:

• First photograph: - rubbish deposited into stormwater drains running into the sea.
• Second photograph: - One can see the layer of pollution in which er live and breathe.
• Third photograph: - waste being cleaned from the beach.  Much of it has been dumped by ships in our waters.
• Squatters occupying every bit of spare land.  Every bush hides illegal residents.   Their waste remains long after they stripped the area from wildlife and moved on.

Global warming hits my Cape Town garden

It is official.  Global warming is here.   If there is any doubts, put it aside and do what the scientists of the day advise us to do to reduce greenhouse gasses; because we do not know how warm it will get before things change back to normal.

The shortest day is on 21 June.  I remember that date because it is my mother's birthday.     My mother has her birthday in the middle of the winter.

Today, 5 June, not yet mid winter, my birds are doing the spring thing.
They are breaking last year's nests down, building new ones and are in mating plume.

It is time conservationists put their old conservation thoughts on the subject into archives and start to work our how to preserve species during the global warming phase of the earth.

It is stupid to keep local species local if conditions are not suitable for the survival of the specie.

This is a challenge for humanity, but we have the intelligence to counteract these earth changes with drastic measures.

Nations must stop fighting against each other because now it is a time for co-operation; in the wake of the expected global natural catastrophes awaiting earth dwellers.

Killing rainforests for chocolate

The life of a goose in a busy city suburb

T

These photographs were taken by Wally. He had to try and stop the traffic in De Grendel rd. so that the geese could cross.
They can not fly yet and are at the mercy of dogs, people and other predators.
One year, at Rietvlei, we watched how they disappeared one by one over a period of about a week.

Flooded former Rietvlei, Cape woodland.

2oo9-07-16


The birds in our garden have been breeding since before the shortest day in the year, 26 June 2009.
It is freezing cold and there is snow on the mountains.
This is the first time that I see birds breeding in mid winter.

Is this mid winter breeding a reaction to all the alien trees being removed from our area in such a way that we are having seasons without any high vegetation on our floodplains?

Do the birds have to spread their breeding throughout the year so that each one gets a chance to nest?

Perhaps the birds know about a looming natural disaster that we are not aware of?

Whatever the case, while we are destroying the lung (woods) of Cape Town in an attempt to save, what we perceive as being the natural vegetation ( At some stage of the global history), in such a way that no consideration is given to birds and animals who settled in the woodlands of the area, life is struggling to go on.

Together with the plant species that we are trying to save, many birds are also becoming endangered and leaving their normal habitats.

For some reason we seem to be concentrating on removing the alien trees at the expense of all other mammals and wildlife who habitats our wetlands.

We seem to be introducing sand-veld (fynbos) vegetation into an area that lies below the flood-plain.
When the water rises, there are nowhere for animals and birds to go. There is nothing for them to climb onto.

Snakes are driven into domestic dwellings.
Larger animals that are stopped by fences just drown.

The motives behind the conservation efforts are good throw.
What is being done is done to save our plant species.
I just question the wisdom behind how it is being done.

I understand the removal of alien trees, but I do not understand why indigenous trees are not being replaced.

We have been removing alien trees since 2002. Today in 2009, while the rest of the world is planting trees, we are still removing trees without replacing them.
Is it one big conservation folly?





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Poor little tortoises.
This Table Mountain view is beautiful if we forget that it once hid behind a woodland.

Considertions before keeping a tortoise as a pet

Keeping a tortoise as a pet.

In South Africa a license is required to keep a tortoise on a domestic property.
As with any other pet, we need to determine whether it is fair to keep a tortoise.

We need to consider certain facts before adopting a tortoise as a pet.

• Why did we choose to have a tortoise as a pet?

• That a tortoise, given the right environment, can live a long time. (150 years)

• That tortoises are not cage animals and require a large space.

• They are territorial and keeping two males in a confined space are cruel. They will fight and sometimes to the death.

• That tortoises require food in order to survive.

• They require a space that is not damp yet provide sun and shady areas.

• That they require a space free from floods.

• They need a dry undisturbed area, of their own choosing, for hibernation.

• They may drown if they fall into an open swimming pool.

• Dogs will chew them.

• They do not like being handled.

• Conservationists are not keen to accept a domestic tortoise back into a conservation area once it has been in captivity.

• Domestic tortoises, like any other introduced animal, requires a time in quarantine, in case it carries disease, before it is introduced into a conservation area. It will only be accepted if the local population requires a boost.

Killing rabbits without conscience

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

10,000 Rabbits are being killed on Robben Island because they destroy the local indigenous vegetation. They have no predators are growing at a rate that can no longer be supported by the small island.

If these rabbits are disease free, why kill something that can be farmed for food in a continent where so many people are dying from hunger?

Why kill rabbits during the breeding season?

Killing a female, who has a litter of young in a barrow, will cause the sucklings to die from starvation, Just like so many people in Africa do. Do we need any more cruelty and suffering on this continent?

I would suggest that the rabbits on Robben Island be caught and placed in a breeding sanctuary to become food for starving African people and wild animals in captivity.

Rabbits should be caught during low breeding times and each rabbit should be examined to determine if she is suckling young before being removed.

It has came to my attention that when the Tars, from Table Mountain, were killed a drug that paralyses the muscles, but not necessary the consciousness were being used. The poor Tars were consciously dying of suffocation.

Humanity needs to cultivate a global consciousness.

We need to find global solutions to local problems. We can no longer afford to create waste and glut in one area and poverty and starvation in another. We should all be global role players and put our differences aside and help one another to farm this globe.

Global humanitarian organizations should support projects that can provide long-term solutions rather than feed people for a day at a time.

Further Reading

• Article
• The Cape Argus
• Post
• Encyclopedia

Killing a leopard cub slowly, painfully

Carte Blanche, M-Net, showed how a three months old leopard cub got caught in a very cruel metal claw trap that penetrated the cub’s front paw right to the bone. The little animal dislocated his shoulder trying to pull its claw free. It was caught in the trap for three days before someone cared to check on it. The cub was in the most terrible agony while its mother frantically remained by its side. How can humanity be so cruel? How can people be so without any feeling?

How could a conservation department allow this type of cruelty to happen and to have used it themselves in the past?

Perhaps farmers living near game farms should be encouraged to farm with something other than live stock if they cannot find humane ways of discouraging wild animals from straying onto their farms.

I have watched the agony of my own cats when we had to give her kittens up for adoption. The agony of a mother, watching helplessly how her young suffers, must tear into her very being.

Stories like this make me ashamed to be human.

Perhaps humanity deserves the famines and other plagues that sweep over our globe.

One up for the Plovers and Oystercatchers

Read the article

Read about how the plover chick got killed

http://www.a-whitegranny.iblog.co.za/2008/05/05/plover-chick-killed/

Elephants don't like bees

"The researchers found that a significant majority of African elephants fled immediately after hearing the sound of bees, providing "strong support" for the idea that bees, and perhaps even their buzz alone, might keep elephants at bay."

Read more:

Confusion about the Rietvlei Nature Reserves in Africa

The Cape Rietvlei (wetlands) Reserve has a brother in Gauteng.

This can confuse visitors.

Lets clear up the confusion.

Here are the links – Check them out.

Gauteng:

Birding in Rietvlei

Rietvlei

Birding

Venues

Table view, Cape Town:

http://www.maclub.co.za/

Rietvlei

Visit Cape Town

Friends of Rietvlei

CSIR

Bird Watching

There are no large animals at the Rietvlei Wetlands Nature Reserve in Cape Town.

Tourists can become confused if they rely on a web-search for information.

The Above links to the two areas have been separated

The Rietvlei Wetlands Reserve is in a process of transformation, as the trees are at present being removed to create an indigenous fynbos vegetation area.

The bird species that have been visiting the vlei may change as the habitat changes. At present, the place is a mess but will still be of interest for recreation and birding. See Milnerton Aquatic Club

The best view of Table Mountain is still to be viewed from here.

Tourists can obtain a seasonal membership at MAC Club and enjoy a drink while viewing the sunset over Table Mountain from the windows of the club’s comfortable pub.

Or just go for a safe stroll in nature. The area is completely fenced and is very safe.

Remember to take a hat or sun umbrella in the summer as there will be no shade to protect you from the sun.

Day visitors to the nature area are welcome for fishing, bird watching, boating, or a picnic with the family.

The area is well worth visiting and a small area of indigenous fynbos garden, which has been planted by the municipality a few years ago, is an example of how the vlei may look in the future.

Even with the surrounding houses in clear view, the area is still very peaceful.

Artificial watering of the dusty flood plain during the dry summer .months may be a distraction.

You may wish to check with MAC Club if the pumps are running to avoid the noise pollution.

The mountain view over the water is magnificent. Sometimes the water is like a mirror giving a double image to Table Mountain and the clouds above. Beautiful!

Ps. Remember Africa has two southern points also.

Cape point is the most Southern POINT of Africa but Cape L’Agulhas is the actual most Southern geographic Area of Africa. Both have their own unique beauty.

Tourists can visit both.

Dove chicks left the nest

The dove chicks left the nest. The weavers were not so lucky. They are still building nests. It is still raining.

At Rietvlei the large birds just lost their trees. It is raining. The poor birds will have to look for another territory in this poor weather conditions

Read More

Read More

Snakes 'left to die' in container

21 June 2007 Helen Bamford reported that Twenty six venomous snakes found in appalling conditions at the Helderberg Nature Reserve have been confiscated by the SPCA, which has laid charges of cruelty against the owners of the reptiles and those entrusted with their care.
Read the report

endangered plants and species are smuggled across South African borders

Smugglers plundering SA heritage
Sunday Argus July 15 2007
Myrtle Ryan
http://www.scienceinafrica.co.za/2004/july/biopiracy.htm

THE LIFEBLOOD of South Africa's natural heritage could be leaking away as ivory, rhino-horn, perlemoen, endangered plants and species are smuggled across our borders.
A combined exercise between the Environmental Management Inspectorate, SARS, Customs and the SAPS Border Police last week high lighted just what the country's environmental law enforcement officers are up against, as they seized a suitcase stuffed with four rhino horns off an international flight at the airport.
"If this is, the kind of contraband passing through our borders undetected on a daily basis environmental criminals could be having a field day,"
read the full report