"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead, American anthropologist, 1901-1978
Sir David Attenborough is back with a new series, Frozen Planet II. It starts at 8pm on Sunday 11th September 2022 on BBC1.
He starts in Antarctica. Emperor Penguin parents leave their chicks as spring arrives. And to survive, the chicks have to find their own way across dangerous sea ice to the Southern Ocean.
Killer whales and Weddell seals feature in tonight’s programme, the former generating their own waves to wash the seals off their ice floes.
From Antarctica, the series moves on to the Himalaya, home to the Pallas’s cat who has incredibly dense fur (needed for the Mongolian winter). And then North of the Great Steppe is the boreal forest, frozen for six months of the year, home to the majestic Siberian tiger who is on the look-out for black bears in winter, as they hibernate in caves.
The Arctic Circle’s tundra is home to musk ox, whose calves face the danger of hungry grizzly bears in spring.
And north of that lies the Arctic Ocean, where the hooded seal lives. Males can produce a bright red balloon out of their left nostrils to make themselves irresistible
All the areas are threatened by climate change.
We still have time to save these frozen wildernesses. But we need to act
The Giraffe Conservation Foundation reports that they have made efforts to make sure that giraffe numbers in Kenya receive better protection.
The charity has given financial support to the Kenya Wildlife Service and other conservation partners to undertake aerial surveys in northern Kenya.
And good news! The surveys are showing a 30% increase in reticulated giraffe numbers on communal land and private conservancies in the last 6 years.
Meantime, in the south of Kenya, the charity has held the first ever Masai Giraffe Working Group meeting to bring conservation partners together with the Kenya Wildlife Service. The aim was to identify current threats to Masai giraffe and pinpoint measures to protect them.
And there’s more – the charity’s year long surveys in Mwea National Reserve and Ruma National Park show there are double the numbers of Nubian giraffe than previously thought, so this is a great boost to Nubian giraffe there.
There are renewed efforts to update and complete a National Recovery and Action Plan for giraffe in Kenya, held over a two day workshop. The plan will be launched later this year.
Don’t forget – a date for your diary – the 21st June is World Giraffe Day. Why not adopt a giraffe as a gift for someone or for yourself?
Giraffes are in trouble. The giraffe population is already down between 36 to 40%.
For the first time ever, 5 African countries are proposing to add the giraffe to the list of protected species. This would really make a difference.
How you can help giraffes with a click
There’s a petition calling on CITES to launch and fund an Africa-wide Giraffe Action Plan. The Plan would:
Recover giraffe populations
Protect giraffe habitats
Support local communities living alongside giraffes
The petition can be found at Avaaz.org. Avaaz.org is a world-wide community with nearly 50 million members. It has petitions you can set up and sign to give your support to proposed changes or messages about causes you care about and want to help
When you go through to Avaaz and the petition, there’s a picture of someone called Tess and a dead giraffe, just to warn you.
Avaaz say that Tess killed the giraffe for fun. She's certainly got a big smile on her face. There are no words to describe how I feel about people who do this. Why this petition to help giraffes now?
Very shortly, countries from across the world will meet for a crucial global wildlife summit.
Back in January 2019, 57 proposals to amend the list of species subject to CITES regulations were submitted by 90 countries for consideration. This consideration will take place from 23 May to 3 June 2019 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the 18th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
(I can’t help feeling that if they spent less time making up titles like that, and more on protecting wildlife, we might make more progress.)
So how could this CITES meeting affect giraffes?
For the first time ever, five African countries have proposed adding giraffes to the list of protected species.
Hot on the news that the Greeks have created the world’s first dolphin sanctuary, two Beluga Whales from an aquarium in Shanghai have just arrived in Iceland 6,000 miles away to go to a whale sanctuary there.
The whales – Little Grey & Little White – are 12 years old. They’ve been in captivity since they were about 2 years old and performed in font of crowds as “entertainment”.
The British Firm that runs the aquarium – Merlin Entertainment – bought the Changfeng Ocean World Zoo in 2012. And it started to look for a home for Little Grey & Little White.
Head of the British Conservation Charity, Sea Life Trust, explained that preparations have been on-going for about 18 months to prepare the whales for their journey.
They travelled by plane on a Cargolux freighter to Iceland, then, truck and a ferry from the mainland to the island where they will live. Teams monoitored the whales to ensure they were safe and comfortable during the flight. A Cargolux engineer and a team of global veterinary experts with experience in transporting marine mammals were also on board to check on the whales’ welfare.
Their new home is the world’s first open water Beluga sanctuary – it will provide a more natural sub-Arctic environment for them, with wilder habitat. The bay will be protected to protect the two female whites as it is thought they won’t survive on their own in the wild. The Sanctuary is in a natural and beautiful sea inlet, in Klettsvik Bay. There’s a landside care facility, and a visitor centre minutes away – so you can visit!
The sanctuary was created in partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation. It’s run by the SEA LIFE Trust with a donation from Merlin Entertainments.
Scientists are going to study Little Grey & Little White to see how they adapt to their new natural home. And depending on how they get on, the sanctuary could become home to other Belugas as well.
So here's the update: May 2022
Little White and Little Gray are released into an open sea sanctuary, where they can adapt and explore. They will then be released further into the open sea - and monitored to ensure they can live in peace.
Good luck in your new home, Little Grey & Little White and a big thank you to Cargolux Airlines for your help and role in moving Little Grey & Little White to sanctuary.
And if you're in the UK, why not check out The Cornish Seal Sanctuary, which rescues and rehabilitates grey seals pup from around the Cornish Coastline.
I’ve had an email from Fauna and Flora International (FFI) about an impending crisis that is about to get catastrophically worse.
The beautiful Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia are being covered in snares.
FFI say that the snares are shredding through clouded leopards, ripping elephant trunks in half and snapping the limbs of their calves. Pangolins, sun bears, moon bears and indeed any mammal than a mouse are being badly impacted, as any animal larger than a mouse can be trapped in these cruel snares.
To make matters worse, FFI’s project funding in the area has fallen through. FFI patrol teams are still able to operate in some areas and maintain an effective resistance. A very generous donor has enabled them to remove countless snares – and so save many, many animals. FFI had hoped to extend the areas that they were covering.
Unfortunately, the donor is unable to continue their support – and FFI must fill a £92,345 hole.
If FFI cannot fund the project, the warden leaders won’t be able to pay their patrol teams’ wages – and any who have the means won’t be able to have equipment and the backing to mount and maintain an effective resistance.
Funds will be spent on boots, machetes, camping gear, hammocks, rucksacks and everything wardens need to wear as they go out on one patrol after another. The wardens need GPS kits, patrol mapping – and they need to be paid.
FFI say time is short.
What’s so important about the Cardamom Mountains? Well, they have dense rainforest, mangroves and wetlands – and they have more than 60 globally threatened animal species and 17 globally threatened trees. The Cardamom Mountains matter. These include:
Asian elephants
Sun bears
The clouded leopard,
Dholes, a type of wild dog
The Sunda pangolin
Young elephant wears a protective boot to help recovery, after being caught in a snare. Credit: Charnwood Photo
These snares are CRUEL – as the metal clasp tightens, causing the animal terrible pain. The more they struggle, the tighter the snare gets, cutting more and more deeply into flesh and bone. It is a terribly cruel and painful way to die.
At the same time, the animals have lost their habitat, because of illegal logging, land encroachment and unsustainable agricultural ways of doing things. Over 10% of the forest has gone in 15 years So the animals find themselves in smaller spaces, into what is known as a “wall of death”, because it is easy for them to get trapped by a snare.
Enter the wardens. They are from the local communities and they cover over 100km every month, spotting and removing snares, watching for any signs of illegal poaching or logging, and undertaking biomonitoring and data-gathering activities. These activities are important because they give a better understanding of the wildlife in the area, and enable the right decisions to be made about how to help them.
Wardens also help by supplying the human-wildlife conflict teams with flashlights and noise-makers. These can help deter elephants from the boundaries of farms and villages, so preventing damage to crops and property. These things make a huge impact – there have been no retaliation elephant killings since the wardens started such work.
The warden team is essential to protect the animals of the Cardamom Mountains.
