Humans Failing as Guardians of Planet: Extinctions Ensue

China's Rare White River Dolphin Likely Extinct

SHANGHAI (AFP) - China's rapid industrialisation has likely made extinct a species of fresh water dolphin that had been on Earth for over 20 million years, Chinese and British biologists said Wednesday.

Scientists from China, Japan, Britain and the United States failed to find the white dolphin, known as the baiji, during a six-week search of its natural habitat in the Yangtze river last year.

"This result means the baiji is likely extinct," Wang Ding, co-author of the survey and one of the world's leading experts on the species, told AFP.

The dolphin was a victim of devastating pollution, illegal fishing and heavy cargo traffic on the Yangtze, Wang said.

The findings mean the baiji is likely the first mammal to become extinct in more than 50 years. It is the cousin of the bottlenose dolphin, which is also on the critically endangered list.

Wang, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasised that not all hope was lost for the dolphin, which had made its home along the lower reaches of China's now heavily polluted Yangtze River for more than 20 million years.

"We are not saying the baiji is already gone," he said.

But he lamented that further searches this year had failed to find any sign of the dolphin.

Wang said that a letter written by the survey team had been published in the latest issue of the Royal Society Biology Letters journal in Britain to confirm the dolphin was believed to be extinct.

The baiji, identifiable by its long, teeth-filled snout and low dorsal fin, was last officially sighted more than two years ago.

The last confirmed count by a research team was conducted in 1997, when just 13 were recorded.

Up to 5,000 baiji were believed to have lived in the Yangtze less than a century ago, according to the baiji.org website, which was established by a range of international conservation groups.

"The decline in the baiji population has been caused by extreme human pressure on its freshwater habitat," the website said, blaming illegal fishing and massive discharges of industrial and agricultural waste into the river.

Other rare species that live in the Yangtze, such as the Chinese sturgeon and the finless porpoise, are also in danger of extinction.

The British-based zoologist who also worked on the six-week search meanwhile said the loss of the Yangste dolphin was a huge blow.

"The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy," said co-author Sam Turvey of the Zoological Society of London.

"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago."

International environmental group WWF has warned that river dolphins are key indicators of a river's health and of the availability of clean water for people living on its banks.

"River dolphins are the watchdogs of the water," said Jamie Pittock, head of WWF's Global Freshwater Programme in a recent alert over their fate.

"The high levels of toxic pollutants accumulating in their bodies are a stark warning of poor water quality. This is a problem for both dolphins and the people dependent on these rivers," he added.

Turvey added: "This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet."

http://www.baiji.org/start.html




Habitat Loss Threatens Pygmy Elephants
By VIJAY JOSHI

Associated Press Writer

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Satellite tracking of pygmy elephants has found that the endangered animals — unique to Borneo island — are under threat due to logging and commercial plantations encroaching on their habitat, conservationists said Thursday.

A World Wildlife Fund study, based on two years of satellite tracking, found that pygmy elephants thrive best in forests on flat lowlands and in river valleys — the same terrain preferred by loggers and oil palm plantations.

About 40 percent of forest in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where most pygmy elephants live, has been lost to logging, conversion for plantations and human settlement over the last four decades, WWF said.

Very little was known about pygmy elephants until a chance DNA analysis in 2003 revealed them to be a distinct subspecies of Asian elephants, which triggered a new effort to conserve them.

In June 2005, the WWF set in motion a landmark project to track pygmy elephants in the rain forests of Sabah by placing collars fitted with transmitters around the necks of five elephants, known to be leaders of their herds.

The collars beamed their locations via satellite to a WWF-Malaysia computer as often as once a day in the first study of its kind, providing valuable information about the elephants' grazing habits and movement patterns.

Data gathered so far reveals there are probably not more than 1,000 pygmy elephants left in Sabah — less than the 1,600 or so estimated previously.

The study revealed that pygmy elephants prefer lowland forests because there is more food of better quality.

"The areas that these elephants need to survive are the same forests where the most intensive logging in Sabah has taken place, because flatlands and valleys incur the lowest costs when extracting timber," said Raymond Alfred, head of WWF-Malaysia's Borneo Species Program.

The study also showed that elephants' movements are noticeably affected by human activities and forest disturbance. It found that some of the elephants were trekking five times as far as they normally would each day in search of food.

The loss of habitat brings them into more frequent contact with people and cultivated land, generating conflict with humans who sometimes capture or poison them to protect their farms.

While pygmy elephants can live in logged and secondary forests, it is crucial that their remaining habitat is managed in a sustainable manner and not converted into plantations, the WWF said.

Logging in elephant habitat should only occur if there is a long-term forest management plan in place, and oil palm plantations should be established on degraded, non-forested land devoid of elephants and orangutans, it said.

Malaysian officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but in the past they have accused Western activists of trying to undermine the palm oil industry by claiming that forest clearing in Malaysia and Indonesia is threatening wildlife. The government says most palm oil plantations are established where forests have already been cleared for other crops.

Alfred said an initiative aimed at conserving 92,650 square miles of rainforest straddling the border between Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia should ensure that most herds will have a home in the long term.

Adult pygmy elephants stand up to 8 feet tall — a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants. They are more rotund and have smaller, babyish faces with longer tails that reach almost to the ground. They are also less aggressive than their Asian counterparts.

Though smaller than its cousins, an adult pygmy elephant can still devour up to 330 pounds of vegetation each day. One of their favorite treats is the large, thorny and pungent durian fruit, which they often roll in mud to gulp it down whole, spikes and all.





Tornado in Brooklyn
New York City Storm Wake-Up

Wednesday, 08 Aug 2007

Heavy rain and thunderstorms brought down trees in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. A tornado warning had been issued for the area for several hours. It's not clear if a tornado touched down. SideBar

MyFoxNY.com -- Some people in Bay Ridge Brooklyn think a tornado touched down early Wednesday in a storm that killed one woman. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that at least 40 buildings in Brooklyn had damage from the storm.

The National Weather Service had issued a tornado warning in the 6 a.m. hour for Brooklyn. It expired at 7 a.m.

New York Weather Authority Mike Woods says Fox 5 Sky Guardian showed conditions that could have spawned a tornado. The National Weather Service will send an investigator to the scene to determine if a tornado hit the area.

Heavy rains caused localized flooding and Fox 5 news crews showed dozens of downed trees. Several trees crushed cars and roads were blocked.

A woman on Narrows Avenue reports a tree that would rival the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree was uprooted on her block.

There were some power outages reported in the area. That's bad news as it will be a hot and humid afternoon in New York City. The temperatures could climb to over 100 degrees.

At a 12:15 p.m. news conference Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a woman on Staten Island has died as a result of the storm.




Rodents Plague Northern Spain

By DANIEL WOOLLS, Associated Press Writer
(08-08) 11:24 PDT MADRID, Spain (AP) --

It's been a messy summer in Spain: a blackout in Barcelona, an oil spill in the Mediterranean and giant schools of jellyfish lurking off beaches packed with vacationers.

Now comes another woe: millions of mouse-like rodents called voles feasting on beets and potatoes in an infestation that has prompted desperation in one of Spain's agricultural heartlands.

The invasion of Castille-Leon in north-central Spain began gently 10 months ago but has snowballed to stunning proportions. Farmers' unions say the region is crawling with an estimated 7.5 million voles. The local government doesn't know the cause, or the solution.

Spanish television aired footage of scores of voles darting in and out of holes in what would normally be rich, healthy farmland, or quivering in the throes of death brought on by pesticide. Some of the critters have even made it into gardens of homes in the region's main city, Valladolid, according to news reports.

"There has never been a plague like the one we have now," said the Castille-Leon regional agriculture minister, Silvia Clemente. Officials have asked agronomists, veterinarians and biologists what on earth is happening and nobody really knows, she told Cadena Ser radio.

"There are no measures that have been proven to work against a plague of these characteristics," Clemente said.

For now, crews are fighting with fire. They started igniting controlled blazes Wednesday on harvested farmland to try to kill off the pests, acting with utmost care to keep the flames from spreading to bone-dry terrain prone to forest fires.

Jose Antonio del Brio, head of the local farmers' association in the town of Fresno el Viejo, where the first fires were set, said literally every farm in the area is being eaten by voles. First it was the grain crops — 40 percent lost to the critters — and now beets, potatoes and corn are on the menu.

"We cannot do anything against these animals, who are taking food out of our children's mouths," del Brio said.

A vole problem was first detected in Castille-Leon last September. Then, officials used chemicals to try to kill them off, but ecological groups filed a complaint and the practice was halted. The vole population suddenly exploded.

"Nothing of what is happening with this plague falls within the expected because there are no precedents," Clemente said.





Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person'

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV.
But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person—at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person."

Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.

"Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

"We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said.

"We're not talking about the right to vote here."

The campaign began after the animal sanctuary where Hiasl (pronounced HEE-zul) and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years went bankrupt.

Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the shelter closes. Both have already suffered: They were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.

Their food and veterinary bills run about $6,800 a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal donations.

Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Hiasl, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

"If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes.

If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'" said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, which is working to end the use of primates in research.

Paula Stibbe, a Briton who teaches English in Vienna, petitioned a district court to be Hiasl's legal trustee. On April 24, Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency.

Although Bart expressed concern that awarding Hiasl a guardian could create the impression that animals enjoy the same legal status as humans, she didn't rule that he could never be considered a person.

Martin Balluch, who heads the Association Against Animal Factories, has asked a federal court for a ruling on the guardianship issue.

"Chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans," he said. "OK, they're not homo sapiens. But they're obviously also not things—the only other option the law provides."

Not all Austrian animal rights activists back the legal challenge. Michael Antolini, president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he thinks it's absurd.

"I'm not about to make myself look like a fool" by getting involved, said Antolini, who worries that chimpanzees could gain broader rights, such as copyright protections on their photographs.

But Stibbe, who brings Hiasl sweets and yogurt and watches him draw and clown around by dressing up in knee-high rubber boots, insists he deserves more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes."

"He can be very playful but also thoughtful," she said. "Being with him is like playing with someone who can't talk."

A date for the appeal hasn't been set, but Hiasl's legal team has lined up expert witnesses, including Jane Goodall, the world's foremost observer of chimpanzee behavior.

"When you see Hiasl, he really comes across as a person," Theuer said.

"He has a real personality. It strikes you immediately: This is an individual. You just have to look him in the eye to see that."


Great Ape Project, http://www.greatapeproject.org

Animal Defenders International, http://www.ad-international.org