COBRA VS. INDIAN MONGOOSE

by Editor on September 2, 2010

There Is One Animal That Is Not Afraid Of A Deadly Snake . . .

At the end of this video, the narrator says, “Rudyard Kipling would be proud.” Kipling was a British author who, in the late 1800′s wrote many stories about India’s people and wildlife. One of his stories, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” was about a pet mongoose who saves a human family from a family of huge cobras. It is well worth reading—or re-reading, if you have already enjoyed it!

The gray mongoose is a hero in its native India, specifically for its habit of fearlessly attacking poisonous snakes. It relies on speed and lightening reflexes to overcome the fast-striking reptiles. [click to continue…]

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DOLPHIN SLAUGHTER CONTINUES

by Editor on August 31, 2010

Dolphin Slaughter Continues In Taiji, Japan

Despite the worldwide publicity garnered by Ric O’Barry’s Academy Award-winning documentary film, “The Cove,” Japanese fisherman continue slaughtering dolphins in the City of Taiji. So O’Barry and his crew have been back undercover as well as back behind the camera, and the results of their relentless exposure of the Cove’s horrors will be airing soon on Animal Planet.

When The Journalists Moved On, The Killing Of Bottlenose Dolphins & Pilot Whales Resumed

It should have been predictable, given the the world’s short attention span: The release a year ago of Ric O’Barry’s documentary movie, The Cove, sparked international outrage over the methodical killing of dolphins the film depicted. Journalists swarmed the fishing town of Taiji, where the slaughter was taking place, the Japanese suspended their dolphin-killing activities in response, and The Cove won an Oscar for Best Documentary.

Then, the reporters moved on to other things—and as soon as things were quiet, Taiji’s dolphin hunters went back to business as usual.

Fortunately for the dolphins, they have a stubborn friend in O’Barry. Determined to keep the pressure on, O’Barry has been back in Japan with his film crew, which now includes his son, Lincoln. He’s got new visual documentation of Taiji’s sins against sea mammals, and once again, he’s ready to show them to the world via Animal Planet.

Click here to visit the web page that showcases O’Barry’s latest investigative work and to find out how you can see his new footage in its entirety.

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White-Sided Dolphins Killed In The Faroe Islands (Denmark) Between Iceland And Britain. Undated File Photo By Eric Christensen

A Year-Long ‘Cooling-Off’ Period Is Declared After Talks At The 88-Member International Whaling Commission Meeting Collapse

Anti-whaling groups are far from satisfied despite the fact that talks to lift a 25-year-old international moratorium on the killing of whales collapsed in disarray during last week’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Morocco.

Proponents of replacing the ban with a legal quota system—a group that included the US IWC commissioner—had claimed that strict quotas would curb illegal whaling and therefore result in fewer whales being killed each year. The proposal had the support of the handful of remaining whaling nations, while anti-whaling groups, in general, deplored it.

In addition to rejecting calls for a return to legal whaling, many conservation groups such as Greenpeace had been hoping the IWC would resolve to further reduce or even eliminate whaling altogether. For years, Iceland and Norway have been defying the moratorium, while Japan has harvested as many as 1,000 Minke and other whales a year through a loophole in the language of the ban. The total annual worldwide whale harvest has been as high as 2,000. [click to continue…]

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BAN ON WHALING MAY BE LIFTED

by Editor on June 16, 2010

A Minke Whale Surfaces For A Breath. Minkes Are The Whale Most Frequently Hunted. Photo:Wikipedia

Officials May Decide To Allow Commercial Whaling For The First Time In 25 Years. But That Might Be A Good Thing For The Whales

When the international body that governs whaling meets in Morocco next week, it may vote to lift a world-wide ban on whale hunting that has been in place for over 20 years. Many environmental groups are up in arms over the whale-hunting proposal that the International Whaling Commission (IWC) will be discussing, and which has the backing of the Obama administration, in spite of the fact that doing away with the moratorium could actually result in fewer whales being killed.

Currently, in spite of the whaling moratorium, around 2,000 whales a year are killed by whalers from Iceland, Norway and Japan. Iceland and Norway defy the ban outright, while Japan hunts whales by exploiting a loophole in the moratorium, which technically permits the killing of the large sea mammals for “scientific research” purposes. The whales killed for research are then sold as as food on the Japanese market.

The whale species currently targeted by hunters are not listed as Threatened or Endangered whales on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. However, whales reproduce slowly, and whale conservationists are concerned that the hunting of any whale species, regardless of whether it is officially endangered, could significantly damage its population.

The US and some of the other IWC nations hope that by restoring the legal hunting of whales, the three remaining whaling nations can be drawn into an agreement under which annual whaling quotas will actually be lower—perhaps by as much as 50 percent—than the number currently being harvested. [click to continue…]

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VOLUNTEERING TO HELP GULF WILDLIFE

by Editor on June 12, 2010

An Oiled Gannet Gets A Bath In Dawn. Photo:International Bird Rescue Research Center

Over the past week, hundreds of birds oiled in the Gulf spill have begun rolling into rescue centers, most of them in Louisiana. A number of All About Wildlife.com readers have asked how they can help, and we turned to Eliza Russell, a volunteer coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, for the latest information. According to Ms. Russell, officials are looking for helpers—especially people with experience caring for sick and injured creatures.

Aiding Birds And Animals Affected By The Oil

Ms. Russell writes (all emphasis is ours):

“This is a response that we are providing to individuals who are specifically looking to help wildlife—especially rescue or clean. As you know, working with wildlife, especially if they are in distress, requires specific skills and training. Individuals with the skills and training (especially certification) should register with NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research through the hotline. They have received a great response from individuals with the training and are utilizing these folks first.”

[The Deepwater Horizon Response Volunteer Request Line (hotline) number is 1-866-448-5816. Please be aware that if you do not have specific training or certification to work with birds or animals, they might not be ready to accept you as a volunteer. However, even if you don't have training, but you are local person living on the Gulf Coast, there might be a volunteer job for you.]

“It is important that your readers understand that this will be a long-term issue. Even after the oil is stopped, the impacts for wildlife and need for restoration will be long-term. We will need volunteers both in the short term but more for the long-term—when it is not on the news every day. [click to continue…]

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‘LIFE’ COMES OUT ON DVD

by Editor on June 11, 2010

Documenting The World's Wildlife Is Now More Important Than Ever.

In another 50 years, film documentary projects like this one may be all we have to remind us of much of the wildlife that now exists on the planet. We should all be grateful to the BBC and its many film teams for this painstaking, panoramic and loving group portrait of our world’s wild creatures.

Series Brings Vanishing Wild Places And Wild Creatures Into the World’s Living Rooms

BY PAUL GUERNSEY

It is a bittersweet irony that, even as much of our wildlife dwindles toward extinction, people around the world are able to get visually closer to wild animals, and to a greater variety of wild animals, than at any other time in history. That’s because filmmaking and editing technology, combined with the 21st century ease of travel, allow contemporary wildlife cinematographers to create breathtaking, intimate and informative documentaries—the best that have ever been filmed—by focusing on the shrinking remnants of formerly vast and pristine ecosystems.

The BBC television series, “Life,” which aired in the US in March and was recently released on DVD, is a case in point. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better or more ambitious wildlife series. This is in part a testament to the dedication and expertise of the dozens of film crews that the BBC sent around the globe to shoot wildlife footage in many of the planet’s most remote locations. But I’m grateful to the BBC itself for undertaking a project of this scope, with all it’s attendant logistics, liabilities and massive expenses. What they’ve accomplished is to document for future generations a world that is being lost, and the value of that accomplishment goes far beyond whatever it cost to create it, and whatever revenues it may bring to its maker.

The massive effort that the BBC put into making “Life” spanned 3 years and 3,000 shooting days on 7 continents. There were 70 film crews involved in capturing the life stories of 200 species, from the smallest insects to the largest mammals—ants, apes, orcas and, seemingly, just about everything else a wildlife lover would be interested in learning about. [click to continue…]

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OILED BIRD NUMBERS ZOOM

by Editor on June 10, 2010

These Brown Pelicans Are Awaiting Treatment For Oil Damage. Photo: The International Bird Rescue Research Center

Gulf Tragedy: The Number Of Birds Covered In Oil Has Begun Climbing Steeply

It was bound to happen.

Despite the fact that the US Gulf Coast continues to experience and suffer from the largest oil spill in history, the number of birds and other wildlife visibly injured by the oil has remained surprisingly low—until now.

According to figures published by the disaster response coordinators, over the past week oiled birds, both dead and alive, have begun turning up in much larger numbers. Between June 2 and June 9, the total number of oiled birds collected alive along the coasts of the five affected Gulf states—but predominately in and offshore of Louisiana—rose from 82 to 442. During the same period, the number of birds collected both alive and dead increased from 604 to 1075. [click to continue…]

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