Re -Train Your Brain To Happiness: Conservation

Showing posts with label Conservation. Show all posts

December 16, 2016

Sabrina:A Sumatran/Bengal tiger,

Sabrina, a Sumatran/Bengal tiger, was born in 1998. She was clinging to life when authorities found her and two other tigers in the backyard of a rural Texas home. Sabrina and her two sons were left to fend for themselves after their owner passed away. It was ten days before anyone knew the owner had passed or that three tigers were baking in the Texas heat with no food and little water. Sabrina had somehow escaped her enclosure and authorities had to sedate her to get her into a travel trailer.

See photos from Sabrina’s rescue here.
Unfortunately, her story doesn’t end there. Sabrina was then left in the trailer for over a week before being brought to Pride Rock Wildlife Refuge in Texas. Here Sabrina got some much needed food and water as she was severely dehydrated and very malnourished. After hearing Sabrina’s triumphant story of survival, we knew we had a place for her here at the Sanctuary.

Why Wild Animals Shouldn’t Be Pets: A ManageMyLife.com article mentioning Sabrina’s story.

Sabrina arrived in the spring of 2010 very frightened and confused. She had lost the only home she knew and was very nervous around new people. After months of working with Sabrina, she finally came out of her shell. It was a group effort to rescue Sabrina and her two sons and we thank Pride Rock Wildlife Refuge for their immediate help in the rescue, Peace River Refuge who provided a home for Sabrina’s sons and donors who provided support so we could help Sabrina.

Today, Sabrina is a totally different cat than when she first arrived. She chuffs to her tiger neighbors and can sleep peacefully even when strangers are around. She enjoys getting new enrichment and likes to shred any boxes. She really likes snowmen and even made a huge snowball herself after rolling one of the segments around her habitat. In the summer, she soaks in her pool and takes long naps on her perch. Her amazing transformation inspires us all and reminds us that we can make a difference.

You can help provide daily care for Sabrina by becoming her sponsor.

Your help will be greatly appreciated.

With many thanks to Wildcat Sanctuary

November 29, 2016

Last Wild Ocelots In Texas Get New Paths To Safety

One of the rarest and most striking wild cats in the United States is getting a helping hand in South Texas.

Eighty or fewer ocelots – ornately spotted middle-weight felids resembling undersized, big-eyed jaguars – inhabit the far south of the Lone Star State. Long gone from its former range in Arkansas and Louisiana, and phantom-level scarce in Arizona, the species is making its last stand in the South Texas plains.

But the unique brush country here has become rarer and more fragmented in the face of agriculture and urbanisation, whittling down the ocelots' favoured habitat to perhaps one percent of South Texas. And these days, the cats face another nasty threat: getting squashed on the region's busy highways. Over the past couple of decades, about half of all ocelot mortalities in the state have come as roadkill, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

For such a critically small population, the road deaths are a big problem. In an especially dismal stretch between June 2015 and April 2016, seven ocelots were struck by cars in three adjoining South Texas counties.

Now, the Texas Department of Transportation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are teaming up to make some of the offending roadways a little more feline-friendly. The agencies are installing a dozen highway underpasses along two highways in the vicinity of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, the most important remaining ocelot stronghold in the state. The crossings, slated to be finished by March 2017 at a price tag of $8 million, will enhance State Highway 106, which cuts through the refuge, and State Highway 100, which borders it (and which saw an ocelot death as recently as April 10 of this year).

"This is new terrain for us, since wildlife crossings have not really been built in ocelot habitat before," said Hilary Swarts, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist studying Laguna Atascosa ocelots, in a press release quoted by the Nature Conservancy. "It will be very interesting to see what our wildlife crossing monitoring program reveals about when and how ocelots and other wildlife use the newly installed crossings."

The underpasses will be broad enough to offer an approaching ocelot an enticing view of the other side, while chain-link fencing will funnel the animals toward the portals. The cats will need the encouragement, according to Swarts. "We can't put up a sign saying, 'Cross here, cross here,'" she told San Antonio's KSAT 12

A stone's throw from the Mexico line, Laguna Atascosa is the region's biggest swath of protected native habitat, and its tangled thorn wood – virtually impenetrable to human beings – makes for the perfect ocelot digs. But things are getting a little crowded for the resident population, which means young cats must brave suboptimal habitat (and those lethal thoroughfares) to find new territory.

The other significant ocelot population in the state lies about 30 miles north of Laguna Atascosa on private ranchland. As Defenders of Wildlife noted in a recent blog post, connecting these two populations – and, ideally, linking them by brushland corridors to Mexican ocelots – may be the only hope for the long-term survival of the species in Texas. Building underpasses is just one part of the solution; restoring thornscrub on either side of the border is just as critical. Public and private collaboration is also essential to expand the cats' habitat.

The South Texas thornscrub also serves as sanctuary for another rare borderland cat: the Gulf Coast jaguarundi. For both animals (not to mention jaguars farther west in New Mexico and Arizona) the future looks bleak if plans to install a wall along the US-Mexico border – which President-elect Donald Trump made one of his defining campaign promises – get the green light.

For Swarts, the ocelot highway deaths have been devastating, but she's hopeful the underpasses will make a difference. "I really take it personally. I'm hoping I won't have to feel that in the future, certainly not at the levels we've seen," she told KSAT 12.

Meanwhile, take a gander at the Laguna Atoscosa National Wildlife Refuge ocelot gallery (which has kitten shots, mind you!) for a unique look at the painted cat doing its thing in the wild subtropical thickets of South Texas.

By Ethan Shaw

With many thanks to Earth Networks

November 16, 2016

Over 100 Tigers Killed And Trafficked Each Year

Not good news but thankfully some countries are doing a lot to stop this, see links below.

With fewer than 4,000 left in the wild, tigers are on a precipice -- yet more than 100 of the big cats are still killed and illegally trafficked each year, according to fresh analysis published Wednesday.

The latest estimate comes as experts and dignitaries, including Britain's Prince William, gather in Vietnam's capital for an international wildlife conference which kicks off on Thursday.

The two-day meet joins governments, NGOs and activists to combat illegal wildlife trade and is being hosted in a country that has become a nexus for smuggling and consumption.
Traffic, which campaigns to protect endangered animals and help governments catch those who trade in their parts, published a new analysis looking at 16-years of tiger seizure data from across the globe.

They estimate an average of 110 tigers became victims of the trade each year since 2000.
The study also illustrates the growing role breeding centres play in fuelling the trade, especially in Southeast Asia.

Researchers singled out Thailand, Laos and Vietnam as among the world's top countries for tiger farms.

"These countries have clearly made little meaningful progress in controlling this source of supply," Kanitha Krishnasamy, a co-author of Traffic's report said in a statement.

"Any further stimulation of demand could have a more disastrous impact on wild tigers."
Around 30% of tiger parts seized between 2012 and 2015 now come from captive tigers compared to just two percent between 2000 and 2003.

Animal rights groups argue that by keeping demand for tiger parts going, farms simultaneously perpetuate the destruction of tigers in the wild.

Laos recently announced plans to close its tiger farms while Thailand has initiated investigations after a long tussle with a controversial Buddhist "tiger temple" that for years had been at the centre of allegations of complicity in the trade.

But both countries have a long history of corruption and policing crackdowns that rarely result in permanent successes on the ground.

Animal rights groups hope the Hanoi conference will pile pressure on governments to redouble efforts to stem the trade and close down farms.

"Ending tiger farming would ease the pressure and help law enforcement agencies focus on the poachers and traffickers of wild tigers," Michael Baltzer, from the World Wildlife Fund said.

Prince William, who has become a champion of endangered species in recent years, met with Vietnam's prime minister and vice president on Wednesday.

With many thanks to The Bangkok Post