Category: Help a species

1. Students plant over 1,300 plants in a wild flower meadow

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 16th Mar 2018

   30 students from the University of Cumbria joined up with the Cumbria Wildlife Trust last autumn. They helped to plant over 1,300 plants in a wildflower meadow in the Eden Valley. It’s the fifth year running that conservation under-graduates at the University have helped plant these meadows The Cumbria Wildlife Trust explained that since the 1950s hay meadows have been in national decline and the Trust is working to restore the. They provide habitats for animals such as the brown hair, the great yellow bumblebee and skylarks, curlews, lapwings and twits. The Meadow Life project helps ensure that meadows will be around for years to come.   The Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust funded this work as part of the Westmorland Dales Hay Time Project. Well done the students!   Plant your own cornflower seeds from Suttons Seeds Wildflower Seeds - Collection - from Suttons Seeds

    

2. Where wines meet elephants....there's help for conservation

   Posted on 8:00pm Tuesday 13th Mar 2018

   The New Zealand company Elephant Hill will be partnering with Elephant Family, an international charity dedicated to the conservation of the Asian Elephant. The winery is to launch a bespoke series of it’s “Le Phant” wines, initially to be launched in Asia but then made available to other markets around the world.   A percentage of each bottle sold will be donated to the Elephant Family charity. The wines will have tailor-made labels with elephant sculptures from Elephant Parade.   This is a social enterprise that runs an enormous art exhibition of decorated elephant sculptures.  It’s all in aid of elephant conservation, and the sculptures have been shown in over 24 cities worldwide. As it happens, the heart of Asian elephant territory lies equidistant between Elephant Family’s headquarters in London and the New Zealand Elephant Hill’s base in New Zealand, so it’s wonderful that elephants will receive help from this partnership.    After all, they are just a trunk call away! Visit Elephant Family’s website here.   And Elephant Hill here

3. African Parks report 3 successes for big cats

   Posted on 8:00pm Tuesday 6th Mar 2018

   There’s an awful lot of bad news about big cats around at the moment; they are being hunted for their skins, claws, bones and other parts; killed to prevent human-wildlife conflict, and their habitats are increasingly fragmented and lost. So it’s great to hear from African Parks that there are some hopeful signs across the continent for these majestic animals. Lions are being restored to Malawi In 2012, African Parks reintroduced lions to the Majete Wildlife Reserve.  They secured the park and brought back key species, including prey populations.  The lions have formed a small but growing pride to such an extent that African Parks have moved the first two of 10 lions to Liwonde National Park – the first time lions have been there for at least 4 years! New cheetah population doubles in less than a year In 2017, African Parks reintroduced cheetahs to Liwonde National Park, also in Malawi.  They’d been absent for 100 years.  Several females have had cubs, so increasing their numbers in just a few months since their arrival. Lion numbers grow in Rwanda Lions were eradicated by refugees coming back to Rwanda after the genocide, so they had been absent for 20 years.   African Parks reintroduced 7 lions to the Akagera National Park.   With the space to thrive, lions have nearly tripled, and the park is now a real wildlife gem.  Tourism is flourishing with over 36,000 annual visitors to the park, bringing $1.3 million in tourism revenue.  This is reinvested in the surrounding areas. Restoring and protecting the big cat in Africa’s wild places does a number of things: It maintains vital ecological processes It gives tourism a boost Tourism gives much needed benefits to the local communities and revenue to the region Get involved You can help African Parks continue to protect Africa’s big cats and ensure they have the space, prey and safety they need to breed and thrive.    Donate here

    

4. Help bears

   Posted on 9:00pm Friday 9th Feb 2018

   World Animal Protection sent an email today to give the great news that the last two known dancing bears in Nepal have been rescued. Sloth bears 19 year old Rangila and 17 year old Sridevi were extremely distressed when they were found.   They are now both recovering well in the temporary care of Parsa National Park in Nepal.     WAP worked with the Jane Goodall Institute of Nepal and Nepali police to rescue the two sloth bears last December.   Their noses had been pierced with a burning hot rod by their owner, who had also shoved a rope through so he could control them.    Bear dancing is very cruel animal abuse.  Cubs are trained by setting them on a hot sheet of metal while music plays.  The pads of their paws are constantly burned so they hop from one foot to another.   This is repeated until their response becomes automatic - they swap and hop when they hear the music.  So they are conditioned to do this by a terrible method of cruelty.  WAP is also working to end the bear bile and bear baiting industries.  About 22,000 Asiatic black bears are stuck in tiny cages, with permanent holes in their stomach.  They are constantly milked for bile.  Find out more about the work WAP does for bears here, and how you can help

    

5. India starts world's largest tiger census

   Posted on 8:00pm Thursday 8th Feb 2018

   India is roaring off to conduct a tiger census which apparently is the largest survey of wildlife in the world.   The tiger study is done every 4 years, invovling a whopping 38,000 forestry officials and zoologists.  They cover an amazing 155,000 square miles of terrain.  And 14,000 camera traps across 18 states form a vital part of the effort.  India is home to about 70% of the world's wild tiger population.  For the first time, ground staff are being co-ordinated with a mobile app called M-STrIPES.   It records the staff's path through the forest and helps upload geo-tapped pictures into a central database.  So it will make the whole exercise faster and more accurate.   In 2006, the first census recorded 1,411 tigers;   by 2010 this had risen to 1,706;  by 2014, tiger numbers had gone up again to 2,226.  What's helped this rise?   Tougher anti-poaching laws, new conservation initiatives and improved counting techniques.   The 2018 census will last for several months, and also count other large cats.   In 2014, 11,000 leopards were counted by the census.   It gets more exciting:   the 2018 census will extend beyond Indian territory to try to avoid doulbe counting big cats that cross borders with Bhutan, Napal and Bangladesh.   It should also help establish the territorial spread of the animals in the sub-continent.   The whole process is being overseen by the National Tiger Conservation Authority and the Wildlife Institute of India.  You can find out more about the 2014 results here Can't wait to see the results!