EcoLocalizer

Yesterday, a “thanksgiving” festival for the seasons first fruits included the killing of a black Nguni bull by hand by 40 young men, after legal attempts to stop it failed. The annual festival was hosted by King Zwelithini of the Zulu Nation and attended by President Jacob Zuma of South Africa and other dignitaries.

Nguni Cattle

More South Africans Lean About Ukweshwama

A few days ago firebrand Julius Malema, the President of the ANC Youth League, said three times to reporter Deborah Patta that she knew nothing of the Pedi traditions. While we often like to not hear what Malema has to say, and he certainly knows little of the traditions of English South Africans, his words rang true given the storm now raging in South Africa over the Ukweshwama festival that includes the barehanded ritual slaughter of a bull by a group of 40 young men. Read the rest of this entry »

Tara, the African elephant, is dead.  The 41-year-old pachyderm died unexpectedly yesterday morning at the Toronto Zoo in Ontario, Canada.  According to a press release, staff found the elephant lying down in the Elephant House at about 8:00 A.M.  Read the rest of this entry »

A recent study points out that 95% of illegal African rhino killings since 2006 have occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

A sobering report from the IUCN Species Survival Commission, African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups, and TRAFFIC says that Africa’s rhino poaching crisis is far from over – and warns that the continued involvement of Chinese and Vietnamese nationals in rhinoceros-related crimes must be addressed by law enforcement in both Africa and Asia.

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The largest ever transnational operation targeting wildlife crime across Africa has resulted in the arrests of over 100 people and the seizure of more than two tons of ivory.

INTERPOL has announced that the success of “Operation Costa” – Africa’s largest ever transnational wildlife crime operation – was due to the coordinated efforts of police, national wildlife, customs and national intelligence officers across Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

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A renewed effort at increasing the uptake of domestic solar water heater (SWH) systems looks to replace 620 MW of electricity, to reduce carbon emissions by 2,7 million tons carbon dioxide and  create jobs and develop skills and manufacturing capacity.

Personal Experience

After recently having a domestic hot water geyser fail and investigating the potential of replacing it with a solar unit, I definitely saw the need for something different to advance the penetration of solar water heating in South Africa. While replacing my electric geyser costs R 5,500, an equivalent solar installation costs around R 25,000. Eskom, the state electricity generator, provides a subsidy of around R 3,000 and indicates a payback period is 5 to 8 years. Read the rest of this entry »

The lion cub pictured above is named Gabriella and lives at an animal orphanage in Nairobi. The Pride of Kenya website reports she lives there because she was left parentless due to a human-lion conflict. (Presumably this explanation means her mother was killed by humans). The post about her goes on to say that her life expectancy in captivity is about 22 years.

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According to reports, a pygmy hippopotamus was shot and killed when hunters allegedly mistook it for a pig during a pig hunting expedition in Australia! Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to rampant poaching and habitat destruction, rhinos have the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most endangered animals on earth.

Over the last 30 years, the world’s overall rhinoceros population has declined by over 90% – and if not for dedicated conservation efforts over the last 100 years, it is likely that all rhinoceros species would already be extinct.

To help raise awareness for these proud pachyderms, here are 11 incredible facts about rhinos – plus a compilation of beautiful photos (except for one very graphic photo) and a couple of videos, too. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry »

The complexity and cost of clearing land mines, which are still responsible for to twenty to thirty thousand casualties a year, has lead to a microorganism based detection method that should speed the location mines.

The awesome power released by a detonating mine

The New Mine Detection Technology

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh have engineered a bacteria using the latest BioBrick technology. BioBrick an open source technology of the BioBricks Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded by engineers and scientists from MIT, Harvard, and UCSF. Simplistically stated, it offers the ability to introduce standardised strands of DNA with known function into bacteria. In this case the Bricks gave the ability to detect the chemicals leaked by buried explosives and to produce chemicals that cause it to glow green. Linking these new functions together produces a safe, easy to grow bacteria that after application to the ground in a coulourless liquid glows green within a few hours. With the location of the mine noted, de-mining can be undertaken quickly without the risk of undetected mines. Read the rest of this entry »

According to reports, little Kimutai, a three-year-old child from Kenya, died hours after ingesting carbofuran, an odorless pesticide used to control insects on many crops including rice, beans, bananas, pineapple, coffee and vegetables. 

But the highly toxic pesticide, sold under the name Furadan and manufactured by Farm Machinery and Chemicals Corporation (FMC), is also used by cattle herders for different reasons.  Furadan is often added to carcasses in order to poison and kill lions, hyenas and other wildlife that prey on livestock. Read the rest of this entry »