As the human population around the world focuses on clear-cutting, logging, and the general destruction and deforestation of natural habitats globally; there’s a greater risk that humans will start to come in contact with wildlife that have been displaced from the ecosystems that they call home. The potential for closer contact has lead scientists to study the potentially harmful effects, with a particular focus on disease transmission.
Three stories in the press over the last few weeks, have given South African’s unusual concerns about swimming off Cape Town’s beaches, surfing around the estuaries of Eastern Cape Rivers and canoeing in the Umgeni River.A Zimbabwean man holidaying in Cape Town was killed, when he was attacked by what is believed to be a great white shark at Fish Hoek beach in Cape Town.
Ninety three shark attacks, 12 fatal, were reported in the Eastern and Western Cape beaches in the last 18 years compared to only 19, with one death, on KwaZulu-Natal’s beaches. The shark nets installed there have reduced attacks by 99%, since the 1960s, when attacks were a frequent occurrence. But nets are not suitable for Cape beaches because of rough seas, the presence of whales and seals and the type of sharks. Read the rest of this entry »
In order to save human lives and study the effects of being buried in avalanches, researchers buried live pigs in snow while monitoring them as they died. The research was conducted in order to better understand the effects of oxygen deprivation from being buried in the snow as well as study the timescale of death. A total of 29 pigs were part of the two-week study. Read the rest of this entry »
Justice – at last: Zimbabwe rhino poacher Tichaona Mutyairi has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for killing a rhino and firing on police in October 2009.
After years of letting the killers walk free, could this case finally be the turning point in the war against rhino poaching in Zimbabwe?
Despite opposition, the Welsh government has given the green-light for a limited badger cull in an effort to combat bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Wales. The slaughter is expected to kill “around 1000” protected badgers. Read the rest of this entry »
While demand for illegal rhino horn in Asia surges and threatens to undermine decades of conservation efforts, the market for illegal rhino horn in Yemen has decreased sharply.
Sage-Grouse
The sage-grouse from temperate North America, is one of the many species of birds that practice lekking, a behaviour in which the male birds gather and put on displays that aim to attract female birds. The female bird selects a male based on her judgement of the display. The most attractive males mate with many females strengthening the advantage of an attractive display.
In yet another setback to Zimbabwe’s wildlife conservation efforts, war veterans settled near the Humani Estates in the Chiredzi District are allegedly poisoning rhinos living on a nearby game reserve in order to sell the horns to South African rhino horn dealers.
According to studies conducted by paleontologists over the years into fossils and bones belonging to historic vertebrates such as amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, a rough timeline as to when they evolved from sea to land had been established.
According to Defenders of Wildlife, 2009 was a very bad year for the Florida panther, Puma concolor coryi. Nearly 20 percent of the Florida panther population was killed by vehicles last year. Years ago, these magnificent cats roamed free in eight states. Today, less than 100 of the endangered panthers are believed to exist in the wild. Read the rest of this entry »
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