DAILY QUICK READ - AUGUST 5, 2016

Just Saving and Saving and Saving

This is a special place. 

Gently Marlice van Vuuren started tending to the dreadful wounds and injuries inflicted for several months on a wild baboon female (estimated to be between 5 and 6 years old) – a baboon who had endured the most appalling treatment – a baboon who could not protect herself or fight back – a baboon who had suffered at the hands of humans, let down by humanity whose responsibility it is to safeguard and defend those who cannot defend themselves!

We called her Hope.

Painted dogs.

Three male pups, aged between two and three weeks, had been removed from a den, their pack having come into conflict on communal farmland. Having been kept tied to chains, the situation demanded immediate attention, and the researchers rushed to the location.

This tiny band of brothers, now motherless and alone, were immediately brought back to the

N/a’an ku sê sanctuary and Marlice van Vuuren’s experienced and dedicated touch.

Their health being constantly monitored, with a watchful eye and regular weigh-ins ensuring their peak condition, the pups are faring well, with giant appetites belying their diminutive size.

 Check out the full N/a’anku sê Facebook page.  It is an awesome place.  If you’re thinking of doing some volunteer conservation work in Africa, this is a place to consider.

Chillin' Out

Bears need to cool off and Tahoe in August is a perfect place.

No More Helicopter Hunting (in Alaska)

It’s about time that national wildlife refuges became, you know, refuges for wildlife.

Alaska has long allowed authorities and hunters to kill bears and wolves on national wildlife refuges as part of what it called an “intensive predator management” program. Approved methods included shooting wolves and their pups in dens, using bait to hunt bears, killing mother bears with their cubs – and one made famous by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin: gunning down wildlife from helicopters.

That’s now about to change. In defiance of several Alaska officials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved regulations that ban nearly all predator hunting on national wildlife refuges that is not approved by the federal government and “based on sound science and in response to a conservation concern.” The new regs specifically prohibit hunting bear cubs as well as bear hunting using traps, snares or helicopters, among other methods.

Volunteer Closer to Home

The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center has a help wanted sign out.

My first and most important job at CWWC was that of “wolf walker.” When I met Wakanda for the first time, he jumped up on me and licked my face, it was love at first site. This began our journey together.

I always looked forward to my time at the center with him. When I would arrive he would be waiting for me at the bottom of his enclosure ready for our next adventure but not before I received the infamous wet, sloppy wolf kisses. Wakanda and I would walk in snow (the deeper the better for him) and rain and everything in between.

The Colorado Wolf and Wildlife Center is one of very few sanctuaries in the United States which has been certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). 

DAILY QUICK READ - JULY 6, 2016

Painted Dogs- Enthusiastic

Brilliant predators, dedicated family creatures and, no matter what, they are dogs.  And, dogs are cool.

“They are the most enthusiastic animals,” said Rosie Woodroffe of the Institute of Zoology in London, who has studied wild dogs for the last 20 years. “Other predators may be bigger and fiercer, but I would argue that there is nothing so enthusiastic as a wild dog,” she said. “They live the life domestic dogs wish they could live.”

In 1997, while devising an action plan to help save the wild dog species, Lycaon pictus, Dr. Woodroffe felt anything but exuberant. Wild dogs were considered among the most endangered of Africa’s mammals; Dr. Woodroffe had yet to see one in the wild, and she feared she never would.

“I remember sitting on my kitchen floor thinking, ‘They’re going to go extinct,’ ” she said. “They have such a massive requirement for space in a world where human populations are only increasing.”

“Everything I thought 20 years ago was, if not entirely wrong, then certainly inaccurate,” said Joshua R. Ginsberg, the president-elect of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., who was Dr. Woodroffe’s adviser. “Wild dogs turn out to be far more resilient than anyone expected.”

We Need More Mines

Exploiting the environment in the most sensitive places.  Why?

There are few places in this country more beautiful than the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, which is contained by the equally staggering Superior National Forest. So, naturally, it's just the perfect place to drop a massive copper mine.

Over the weekend, former vice president Walter Mondale and Teddy Roosevelt IV wrote an op-ed in The New York Times calling our attention to this free-market brainstorm.

At issue is the renewal of a couple of 20-year-old leases granted to a Chilean mining behemoth. But the proposed mine is just the biggest part of a general struggle in northeastern Minnesota between the people charged with keeping public wilderness pristine and extraction companies waving the promises of fees and jobs around in a tough economy. In June, the U.S. Forest Service came out against renewing the leases and set off a huge controversy concerning not only the Boundary Waters mine, but also existing iron and mineral producing facilities all over the Iron Range. Governor Mark Dayton has written a strong letter against the Boundary Waters mine.

Gap Year Colonialism

The gap year is a right of passage for many young people in Europe.  Sadly, for some it is an excuse to be real jerks.

Westerners writing about their gap year in Africa should be aware of the risks by now. After Gap Yah guy’s satire of his time in “Tanzaniaaa”, “Africaaa”, where he actually saw someone contract “Malariaaa”, travellers have had to think carefully about how they talk about their year abroad.

At best they risk ridicule. At worst they will be accused of colonialism, cultural blindness and perpetuating an outdated narrative of the developing world for their own means.

But no one seemed to have warned Louise Linton, whose article “How my dream gap year in Africa turned into a nightmare” appeared in the Telegraph this week to promote a book about her experience.

Despite being in Zambia, she writes about becoming a “central character” in the Congolese war of the late 1990s – terrified of what the rebels from across the border “would do to the ‘skinny white muzungu with long angel hair’”.

She goes on to rattle through the dictionary of “white saviour in Africa” cliches: from 12-inch long spiders, “brutal tales of rape and murder”, “close encounters with lions” and helping a “smiling gap-toothed child with HIV”.

The response on social media was immediate. One tweeter known as Mr Aye Dee, said that Linton’s piece had “echoes” of Rudyard Kipling’s poem The White Man’s Burden – except of course that in 1899 people couldn’t tweet Kipling to complain about his imperialist overtones.

Zambians and Africans from around the continent were furious as Linton’s piece started to circulate online. “Hell hath no fury like an African scorned,” tweeted BBC presenter Sophie Ikenye.

The Duke of Cambridge

Tusk Award finalists.  Individuals working to save wildlife in Africa.

The economic security of millions of African people relies on the tourism industry, with around 80 per cent of tourism revenue in Africa coming from people watching wild animals. If current poaching rates continue, diminishing opportunities for tourists, the impact on the future development and prosperity of large parts of this continent will be incredibly damaging.

That is why I am so proud to congratulate the three Tusk Award finalists [see below] for their tireless commitment to preserving Africa’s important natural heritage.

Since its formation in 1990, Tusk has raised £30 million for a wide range of projects across Africa. These not only aim to protect wildlife, but also help to alleviate poverty through sustainable development and education among rural communities who live alongside wildlife. The Duke of Cambridge became royal patron of Tusk in 2005 and supports its work both privately and publicly.

Cathy Dreyer, South Africa

Cathy Dreyer started her career more than 17 years ago with South African National Parks (SANParks), as a conservation student. There she developed a deep concern for black rhino which has shaped her career in conservation.

Olivier Nsengimana, Rwanda

Dr Olivier Nsengimana, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, taught science in secondary school for several years before being chosen by the government to attend veterinary school. He works as a field veterinarian with the gorilla doctors. Through his project Saving Endangered Grey Crowned Cranes, Olivier hopes to inspire the next generation of young Rwandans to help with the conservation of the country’s wildlife and natural heritage.

Rachel McRobb, Zambia

“I am one of those lucky people in life who finds fulfilment just being in wild places surrounded by wildlife,” says Rachel McRobb. “The possibility of losing this in South Luangwa and other parts of Zambia is enough for me to fight the daily battles involved in running a wildlife conservation NGO in Africa and managing an anti-poaching unit.”