Starting every Saturday & Sunday from 30 May - 28 June, hop into the Australian Festival at the Singapore Zoo this June Holidays to experience the beauty and culture of the vast semi-arid land of the Australian Outback!
Meet the Wild Aussies - a star-studded crew of a wallaby and her friends - a cockatoo and a frilled neck lizard as they sing and dance their way around Australia to help you learn more about their endangered animals.
Witness how the Outback is buzzing with well-adapted wildlife such as kangaroos, wallabies, reptiles, emu, brolga, breaded dragon, frilled-neck lizard and more. Get up close and personal with the kangaroos and wallabies in the Great Outback drawing competition and join in a token feeding session right after.
And don’t miss our exciting Australian bazaar every weekend! With exciting stalls featuring Australian performances, art and crafts and face-painting, families and kids can celebrate all things Australian and enjoy a wide spectrum of family entertainment.
Ticketing of Australian Festival 2009
Adult : $18, Child $9
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Dragons attack Indonesians
Komodo dragons have shark-like teeth and poisonous venom that can kill a person within hours of a bite. Yet villagers who have lived for generations alongside the world's largest lizard were not afraid _ until the dragons started to attack.
The stories spread quickly across this smattering of tropical islands in southeastern Indonesia, the only place the endangered reptiles can still be found in the wild: Two people were killed since 2007 _ a young boy and a fisherman _ and others were badly wounded after being charged unprovoked.
Komodo dragon attacks are still rare, experts note. But fear is swirling through the fishing villages, along with questions on how best to live with the dragons in the future.
Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, was doing paperwork when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast's powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand.
"I thought I wouldn't survive... I've spent half my life working with Komodos and have never seen anything like it," said Main, pointing to his jagged gashes, sewn up with 55 stitches and still swollen three months later. "Luckily, my friends heard my screams and got me to hospital in time."
Komodos, which are popular at zoos in the United States to Europe, grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and 150 pounds (70 kilograms). All of the estimated 2,500 left in the wild can be found within the 700-square-mile (1,810-square-kilometer) Komodo National Park, mostly on its two largest islands, Komodo and Rinca. The lizards on neighboring Padar were wiped out in the 1980s when hunters killed their main prey, deer.
Though poaching is illegal, the sheer size of the park _ and a shortage of rangers _ makes it almost impossible to patrol, said Heru Rudiharto, a biologist and reptile expert. Villagers say the dragons are hungry and more aggressive toward humans because their food is being poached, though park officials are quick to disagree.
The giant lizards have always been dangerous, said Rudiharto. However tame they may appear, lounging beneath trees and gazing at the sea from white-sand beaches, they are fast, strong and deadly.
The animals are believed to have descended from a larger lizard on Indonesia's main island Java or Australia around 30,000 years ago. They can reach speeds of up to 18 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) per hour, their legs winding around their low, square shoulders like egg beaters.
When they catch their prey, they carry out a frenzied biting spree that releases venom, according to a new study this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors, who used surgically excised glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, dismissed the theory that prey die from blood poisoning caused by toxic bacteria in the lizard's mouth.
The long, jagged teeth are the lizard's primary weapons, said Bryan Fry of the University of Melbourne.
"They deliver these deep, deep wounds," he said. "But the venom keeps it bleeding and further lowers the blood pressure, thus bringing the animal closer to unconsciousness."
Four people have been killed in the last 35 years (2009, 2007, 2000 and 1974) and at least eight injured in just over a decade. But park officials say these numbers aren't overly alarming given the steady stream of tourists and the 4,000 people who live in their midst.
"Any time there's an attack, it gets a lot of attention," Rudiharto said. "But that's just because this lizard is exotic, archaic, and can't be found anywhere but here."
Still, the recent attacks couldn't have come at a worse time.
The government is campaigning hard to get the park onto a new list of the Seven Wonders of Nature _ a long shot, but an attempt to at least raise awareness. The park's rugged hills and savannahs are home to orange-footed scrub fowl, wild boar and small wild horses, and the surrounding coral reefs and bays harbor more than a dozen whale species, dolphins and sea turtles.
Claudio Ciofi, who works at the Department of Animal Biology and Genetics at the University of Florence in Italy, said if komodos are hungry, they may be attracted to villages by the smell of drying fish and cooking, and "encounters can become more frequent."
Villagers wish they knew the answer.
They say they've always lived peacefully with Komodos. A popular traditional legend tells of a man who once married a dragon "princess." Their twins, a human boy, Gerong, and a lizard girl, Orah, were separated at birth.
When Gerong grew up, the story goes, he met a fierce-looking beast in the forest. But just as he was about to spear it, his mother appeared, revealing to him that the two were brother and sister.
"How could the dragons get so aggressive?" Hajj Amin, 51, taking long slow drags off his clove cigarettes, as other village elders gathering beneath a wooden house on stilts nodded. Several dragons lingered nearby, drawn by the rancid smell of fish drying on bamboo mats beneath the blazing sun. Also strolling by were dozens of goats and chickens.
"They never used to attack us when we walked alone in the forest, or attack our children," Amin said. "We're all really worried about this."
The dragons eat 80 percent of their weight and then go without food for several weeks. Amin and others say the dragons are hungry partly because of a 1994 policy that prohibits villagers from feeding them.
"We used to give them the bones and skin of deer," said the fisherman.
Villagers recently sought permission to feed wild boar to the Komodos several times a year, but park officials say that won't happen.
"If we let people feed them, they will just get lazy and lose their ability to hunt," said Jeri Imansyah, another reptile expert. "One day, that will kill them. "
The attack that first put villagers on alert occurred two years ago, when 8-year-old Mansyur was mauled to death while defecating in the bushes behind his wooden hut.
People have since asked for a 6-foot-high (2-meter) concrete wall to be built around their villages, but that idea, too, has been rejected. The head of the park, Tamen Sitorus, said: "It's a strange request. You can't build a fence like that inside a national park!"
Residents have made a makeshift barrier out of trees and broken branches, but they complain it's too easy for the animals to break through.
"We're so afraid now," said 11-year-old Riswan, recalling how just a few weeks ago students screamed when they spotted one of the giant lizards in a dusty field behind their school. "We thought it was going to get into our classroom. Eventually we were able to chase it up a hill by throwing rocks and yelling 'Hoohh Hoohh.'"
Then, just two months ago, 31-year-old fisherman Muhamad Anwar was killed when he stepped on a lizard in the grass as he was heading to a field to pick fruit from a sugar tree.
Even park rangers are nervous.
Gone are the days of goofing around with the lizards, poking their tails, hugging their backs and running in front of them, pretending they're being chased, said Muhamad Saleh, who has worked with the animals since 1987.
"Not any more," he says, carrying a 6-foot-long (2-meter) stick wherever he goes for protection. Then, repeating a famous line by Indonesia's most renowned poet, he adds: "I want to live for another thousand of years."
The stories spread quickly across this smattering of tropical islands in southeastern Indonesia, the only place the endangered reptiles can still be found in the wild: Two people were killed since 2007 _ a young boy and a fisherman _ and others were badly wounded after being charged unprovoked.
Komodo dragon attacks are still rare, experts note. But fear is swirling through the fishing villages, along with questions on how best to live with the dragons in the future.
Main, a 46-year-old park ranger, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, was doing paperwork when a dragon slithered up the stairs of his wooden hut in Komodo National Park and went for his ankles dangling beneath the desk. When the ranger tried to pry open the beast's powerful jaws, it locked its teeth into his hand.
"I thought I wouldn't survive... I've spent half my life working with Komodos and have never seen anything like it," said Main, pointing to his jagged gashes, sewn up with 55 stitches and still swollen three months later. "Luckily, my friends heard my screams and got me to hospital in time."
Komodos, which are popular at zoos in the United States to Europe, grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and 150 pounds (70 kilograms). All of the estimated 2,500 left in the wild can be found within the 700-square-mile (1,810-square-kilometer) Komodo National Park, mostly on its two largest islands, Komodo and Rinca. The lizards on neighboring Padar were wiped out in the 1980s when hunters killed their main prey, deer.
Though poaching is illegal, the sheer size of the park _ and a shortage of rangers _ makes it almost impossible to patrol, said Heru Rudiharto, a biologist and reptile expert. Villagers say the dragons are hungry and more aggressive toward humans because their food is being poached, though park officials are quick to disagree.
The giant lizards have always been dangerous, said Rudiharto. However tame they may appear, lounging beneath trees and gazing at the sea from white-sand beaches, they are fast, strong and deadly.
The animals are believed to have descended from a larger lizard on Indonesia's main island Java or Australia around 30,000 years ago. They can reach speeds of up to 18 miles (nearly 30 kilometers) per hour, their legs winding around their low, square shoulders like egg beaters.
When they catch their prey, they carry out a frenzied biting spree that releases venom, according to a new study this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The authors, who used surgically excised glands from a terminally ill dragon at the Singapore Zoo, dismissed the theory that prey die from blood poisoning caused by toxic bacteria in the lizard's mouth.
The long, jagged teeth are the lizard's primary weapons, said Bryan Fry of the University of Melbourne.
"They deliver these deep, deep wounds," he said. "But the venom keeps it bleeding and further lowers the blood pressure, thus bringing the animal closer to unconsciousness."
Four people have been killed in the last 35 years (2009, 2007, 2000 and 1974) and at least eight injured in just over a decade. But park officials say these numbers aren't overly alarming given the steady stream of tourists and the 4,000 people who live in their midst.
"Any time there's an attack, it gets a lot of attention," Rudiharto said. "But that's just because this lizard is exotic, archaic, and can't be found anywhere but here."
Still, the recent attacks couldn't have come at a worse time.
The government is campaigning hard to get the park onto a new list of the Seven Wonders of Nature _ a long shot, but an attempt to at least raise awareness. The park's rugged hills and savannahs are home to orange-footed scrub fowl, wild boar and small wild horses, and the surrounding coral reefs and bays harbor more than a dozen whale species, dolphins and sea turtles.
Claudio Ciofi, who works at the Department of Animal Biology and Genetics at the University of Florence in Italy, said if komodos are hungry, they may be attracted to villages by the smell of drying fish and cooking, and "encounters can become more frequent."
Villagers wish they knew the answer.
They say they've always lived peacefully with Komodos. A popular traditional legend tells of a man who once married a dragon "princess." Their twins, a human boy, Gerong, and a lizard girl, Orah, were separated at birth.
When Gerong grew up, the story goes, he met a fierce-looking beast in the forest. But just as he was about to spear it, his mother appeared, revealing to him that the two were brother and sister.
"How could the dragons get so aggressive?" Hajj Amin, 51, taking long slow drags off his clove cigarettes, as other village elders gathering beneath a wooden house on stilts nodded. Several dragons lingered nearby, drawn by the rancid smell of fish drying on bamboo mats beneath the blazing sun. Also strolling by were dozens of goats and chickens.
"They never used to attack us when we walked alone in the forest, or attack our children," Amin said. "We're all really worried about this."
The dragons eat 80 percent of their weight and then go without food for several weeks. Amin and others say the dragons are hungry partly because of a 1994 policy that prohibits villagers from feeding them.
"We used to give them the bones and skin of deer," said the fisherman.
Villagers recently sought permission to feed wild boar to the Komodos several times a year, but park officials say that won't happen.
"If we let people feed them, they will just get lazy and lose their ability to hunt," said Jeri Imansyah, another reptile expert. "One day, that will kill them. "
The attack that first put villagers on alert occurred two years ago, when 8-year-old Mansyur was mauled to death while defecating in the bushes behind his wooden hut.
People have since asked for a 6-foot-high (2-meter) concrete wall to be built around their villages, but that idea, too, has been rejected. The head of the park, Tamen Sitorus, said: "It's a strange request. You can't build a fence like that inside a national park!"
Residents have made a makeshift barrier out of trees and broken branches, but they complain it's too easy for the animals to break through.
"We're so afraid now," said 11-year-old Riswan, recalling how just a few weeks ago students screamed when they spotted one of the giant lizards in a dusty field behind their school. "We thought it was going to get into our classroom. Eventually we were able to chase it up a hill by throwing rocks and yelling 'Hoohh Hoohh.'"
Then, just two months ago, 31-year-old fisherman Muhamad Anwar was killed when he stepped on a lizard in the grass as he was heading to a field to pick fruit from a sugar tree.
Even park rangers are nervous.
Gone are the days of goofing around with the lizards, poking their tails, hugging their backs and running in front of them, pretending they're being chased, said Muhamad Saleh, who has worked with the animals since 1987.
"Not any more," he says, carrying a 6-foot-long (2-meter) stick wherever he goes for protection. Then, repeating a famous line by Indonesia's most renowned poet, he adds: "I want to live for another thousand of years."
Friday, May 29, 2009
Porcupine, python strut catwalk for Russian zoo
Leggy models shared the catwalk with a porcupine, a python and a yak on Sunday at a fashion show to raise public awareness of animal welfare and Saint Petersburg's zoo.
About a dozen animals in all -- some on leashes, others in the models' arms -- strutted their stuff for the zoo, one of the oldest in Europe but hard-pressed for funds.
"Casting the models was not easy," Tatiana Fedorishenko, the zoo's deputy director, told AFP, referring to the human kind. "The animals in the show are tame, but the models have to be without fear, and comfortable with them."
"It was hard," confided one of the models, Natasha. "My fox was always trying to run away. I had trouble finishing my walk."
The show was the idea of fashion designers in Russia's second city, in solidarity with the 410 species and 2,000 animals at the zoo in Alexander Park that was founded in 1865.
"I'm taking part because of my compassion for animals," said designer Vladislav Aksyonov. "I am flatly opposed to the use of natural fur and I also want to help our zoo." - AFP
About a dozen animals in all -- some on leashes, others in the models' arms -- strutted their stuff for the zoo, one of the oldest in Europe but hard-pressed for funds.
"Casting the models was not easy," Tatiana Fedorishenko, the zoo's deputy director, told AFP, referring to the human kind. "The animals in the show are tame, but the models have to be without fear, and comfortable with them."
"It was hard," confided one of the models, Natasha. "My fox was always trying to run away. I had trouble finishing my walk."
The show was the idea of fashion designers in Russia's second city, in solidarity with the 410 species and 2,000 animals at the zoo in Alexander Park that was founded in 1865.
"I'm taking part because of my compassion for animals," said designer Vladislav Aksyonov. "I am flatly opposed to the use of natural fur and I also want to help our zoo." - AFP
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Bears 'celebrate' Jewish holiday
Bears at an Israeli zoo are given a festive meal of cheese as part of the celebrations of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.
Normally accustomed to fruit, the bears are instead enjoying blocks of
cheese.
In modern Jewish Israeli custom families gather to eat a dairy-based meal.
And the keepers at the zoo thought the bears should be able to join in with
the celebrations.
SHAI DAVID, ZOO KEEPER, SAYING:
"This is a special breakfast, specially made for Shavuot, the
Jewish holiday. It's basically made of cheese, cream cheese, and fruits as a
custom - just like we do it on this holiday."
Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah by God to the Jewish people on
Mount Sinai, seven weeks after their exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Traditionally, Jewish residents of Israel visit the Western Wall in
Jerusalem's Old City - one of Judaism's holiest sites.
And while it's unlikely the bears will be making any such pilgrimage, they
certainly got into the spirit of the holiday where the food was concerned.
Normally accustomed to fruit, the bears are instead enjoying blocks of
cheese.
In modern Jewish Israeli custom families gather to eat a dairy-based meal.
And the keepers at the zoo thought the bears should be able to join in with
the celebrations.
SHAI DAVID, ZOO KEEPER, SAYING:
"This is a special breakfast, specially made for Shavuot, the
Jewish holiday. It's basically made of cheese, cream cheese, and fruits as a
custom - just like we do it on this holiday."
Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah by God to the Jewish people on
Mount Sinai, seven weeks after their exodus from slavery in Egypt.
Traditionally, Jewish residents of Israel visit the Western Wall in
Jerusalem's Old City - one of Judaism's holiest sites.
And while it's unlikely the bears will be making any such pilgrimage, they
certainly got into the spirit of the holiday where the food was concerned.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
New Zealand zookeeper killed by white tiger
(AFP) - A zookeeper was mauled to death by a white tiger at a New Zealand wildlife park Wednesday in an attack witnessed by horrified tourists, police said.
The male wildlife keeper was attacked by the animal while cleaning an enclosure in Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand's north.
Eight foreign tourists at the park were understood to have seen the mauling, a police spokeswoman added.
"It was very, very frightening," an Auckland man told a Fairfax reporter, without giving his name.
Two keepers had gone into an enclosure containing two white tigers, when one of the animals attacked, the police spokeswoman said.
"Despite the best efforts of the second keeper and a rapid response from other wildlife park staff, the tiger would not let the park worker go and he died at the scene," she said.
The tiger was later destroyed by staff and the wildlife park was closed.
Another employee of the park, which is home to around 40 rare lions and tigers, required surgery after he was attacked in February by a white tiger after it was startled by a pride of lions.
Zion Wildlife Gardens are well known in New Zealand as the home of the Lion Man television series, which followed the work of Craig Busch, who was dismissed from the park controlled by his mother last year.
On Tuesday, Busch claimed in a court hearing over his dismissal that animal care and safety standards had slipped at the park since the breakdown of his relationship with his mother.
"I became very concerned with animal welfare issues," he said. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents released to Television New Zealand last year expressed concerns over animals kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions.
Inspectors were at one stage so concerned by conditions at Zion Wildlife Gardens they considered having 40 lions and tigers put down.
I thought such things only happen in Singapore.
The male wildlife keeper was attacked by the animal while cleaning an enclosure in Whangarei's Zion Wildlife Gardens in New Zealand's north.
Eight foreign tourists at the park were understood to have seen the mauling, a police spokeswoman added.
"It was very, very frightening," an Auckland man told a Fairfax reporter, without giving his name.
Two keepers had gone into an enclosure containing two white tigers, when one of the animals attacked, the police spokeswoman said.
"Despite the best efforts of the second keeper and a rapid response from other wildlife park staff, the tiger would not let the park worker go and he died at the scene," she said.
The tiger was later destroyed by staff and the wildlife park was closed.
Another employee of the park, which is home to around 40 rare lions and tigers, required surgery after he was attacked in February by a white tiger after it was startled by a pride of lions.
Zion Wildlife Gardens are well known in New Zealand as the home of the Lion Man television series, which followed the work of Craig Busch, who was dismissed from the park controlled by his mother last year.
On Tuesday, Busch claimed in a court hearing over his dismissal that animal care and safety standards had slipped at the park since the breakdown of his relationship with his mother.
"I became very concerned with animal welfare issues," he said. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry documents released to Television New Zealand last year expressed concerns over animals kept in crowded, unsanitary conditions.
Inspectors were at one stage so concerned by conditions at Zion Wildlife Gardens they considered having 40 lions and tigers put down.
I thought such things only happen in Singapore.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Iraq to cull wild boars in Baghdad Zoo to halt flu
Iraq will kill three wild boars in Baghdad Zoo to ward off the new flu sweeping the globe, officials said, despite experts' advice that people are spreading the virus, not pigs.
Dr. Ihsan Jafar, who heads Iraq's committee on what the World Health Organisation calls influenza A (H1N1) but is widely known as swine flu, said on Friday that a request was sent to Baghdad municipality to cull the hogs as soon as possible.
The government of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region said medical teams were checking travellers at airports, especially foreigners coming from countries affected.
"It is also possible the disease could be spread by eating pork, so we banned hunting wild boars," regional health minister Abdul Rahman Osman said. Most Iraqis are Muslim and do not eat pork, but a Christian minority does.
Iraq has registered no cases of the flu, which global health experts say derives from a swine influenza but has not been found in pigs.
In an effort to halt misinformation linking the virus to pigs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) renamed it Influenza A on Thursday. It has consistently said the disease cannot be caught from eating pork if it is prepared properly.
Still, Egypt on Thursday started seizing and slaughtering herds of pigs as precaution against the flu in a campaign the United Nations called a "real mistake".
"We know this virus is spreading by human to human transmission but we can't say 'don't take these secondary measures', which any country in the world would take," Jafar said, defending the planned boar slaughter.
Dr. Ihsan Jafar, who heads Iraq's committee on what the World Health Organisation calls influenza A (H1N1) but is widely known as swine flu, said on Friday that a request was sent to Baghdad municipality to cull the hogs as soon as possible.
The government of northern Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdistan region said medical teams were checking travellers at airports, especially foreigners coming from countries affected.
"It is also possible the disease could be spread by eating pork, so we banned hunting wild boars," regional health minister Abdul Rahman Osman said. Most Iraqis are Muslim and do not eat pork, but a Christian minority does.
Iraq has registered no cases of the flu, which global health experts say derives from a swine influenza but has not been found in pigs.
In an effort to halt misinformation linking the virus to pigs, the World Health Organisation (WHO) renamed it Influenza A on Thursday. It has consistently said the disease cannot be caught from eating pork if it is prepared properly.
Still, Egypt on Thursday started seizing and slaughtering herds of pigs as precaution against the flu in a campaign the United Nations called a "real mistake".
"We know this virus is spreading by human to human transmission but we can't say 'don't take these secondary measures', which any country in the world would take," Jafar said, defending the planned boar slaughter.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Egypt's culling of 300000 pig inhumane
A LEADING animal rights group criticised Egypt on Monday for using 'shocking and cruel' methods to slaughter the country's pigs over swine flu fears, responding to a YouTube video that showed men skewering squealing piglets with large kitchen knives and hitting others with crowbars.
The controversy was the latest swirling around Egypt's decision to kill all the country's 300,000 pigs out of concerns they will spread swine flu. But the World Health Organisation has said it is entirely unnecessary because the illness is being spread through humans.
The government decision also brought accusations that Muslims are attacking minority Christians, who breed the animals. Most Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.
The Egyptian government has denied the claims and subsequently expanded its rationale for the slaughter to confront a long-standing hygienic problem posed by pigs raised by garbage collectors who live amid the refuse in Cairo slums.
There were also protests within Egypt's parliament. Christian lawmaker Seyada Ilhami Gress expressed anger on Sunday over the 'government's random and inhumane way of slaughtering the pigs'.
Responding to the criticism, Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said the killing should be done in a 'civilised and humane way because animals have rights like human beings'. But he did not specifically comment on the video.
Both Muslim and Christian lawmakers supported the government late last month when it issued its order to kill the country's pigs, even though no swine flu cases have been reported.
The Ministry of Agriculture issued instructions at the time that owners should kill their pigs by piercing their hearts with a needle and then slitting their throats before burying them in pits lined with quicklime. But the video showed that those recommendations were not being heeded.
The head of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends, Ahmed el-Sherbini, said in a statement published Monday in Al-Dustour newspaper that some of the pigs were being buried alive. The government said it was not aware of the practice.
The World Health Organisation says the H1N1 virus that has sickened more than 8,000 people around the world and killed 76 is being spread by humans, not pigs, and pork products are safe to eat. -- AP
The controversy was the latest swirling around Egypt's decision to kill all the country's 300,000 pigs out of concerns they will spread swine flu. But the World Health Organisation has said it is entirely unnecessary because the illness is being spread through humans.
The government decision also brought accusations that Muslims are attacking minority Christians, who breed the animals. Most Muslims consider pigs unclean and do not eat pork.
The Egyptian government has denied the claims and subsequently expanded its rationale for the slaughter to confront a long-standing hygienic problem posed by pigs raised by garbage collectors who live amid the refuse in Cairo slums.
There were also protests within Egypt's parliament. Christian lawmaker Seyada Ilhami Gress expressed anger on Sunday over the 'government's random and inhumane way of slaughtering the pigs'.
Responding to the criticism, Parliament Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said the killing should be done in a 'civilised and humane way because animals have rights like human beings'. But he did not specifically comment on the video.
Both Muslim and Christian lawmakers supported the government late last month when it issued its order to kill the country's pigs, even though no swine flu cases have been reported.
The Ministry of Agriculture issued instructions at the time that owners should kill their pigs by piercing their hearts with a needle and then slitting their throats before burying them in pits lined with quicklime. But the video showed that those recommendations were not being heeded.
The head of the Egyptian Society of Animal Friends, Ahmed el-Sherbini, said in a statement published Monday in Al-Dustour newspaper that some of the pigs were being buried alive. The government said it was not aware of the practice.
The World Health Organisation says the H1N1 virus that has sickened more than 8,000 people around the world and killed 76 is being spread by humans, not pigs, and pork products are safe to eat. -- AP
Saturday, May 16, 2009
No more Whale Shark after strong oppositions!
A Singapore casino developer said Saturday it was considering alternatives to its plan to exhibit whale sharks, the world's largest fish, which had run into strong opposition from animal welfare groups.
"We have started to explore plans for an alternative to a whale shark exhibit," Krist Boo, the spokeswoman for Resorts World at Sentosa, told AFP.
Resorts World at Sentosa, one of two casino resorts being built in Singapore, had planned to import the whale sharks for its Marine Life Park (MLP) which set to become the world's biggest oceanarium upon completion.
The park however said its move was not due to pressure by the seven animal welfare groups which have launched an online petition that has gathered more than 9,000 signatures.
"The MLP team does not take its responsibilities to both conservation and Singapore lightly and as such, we spent the past two years doing much groundwork," it said in a statement to AFP.
"We strongly believe that our action must be governed by the conservation of this species rather than what is dictated by fleeting public opinion."
Alternative options to the whale shark exhibit being considered by the MLP were shown to the various animal welfare groups last month, it said.
"This proposal is still in the process of being refined for a further round of review," the MLP said.
Any changes to the planned whale shark exhibit would have to get the final approval of the Singapore government.
Animal welfare groups welcomed the move by Resorts World at Sentosa to consider alternatives to exhibiting whale sharks, which can reach lengths of 12 metres (40 feet) or the size of a bus.
"I think it's very progressive in that they are considering other alternatives," said Louis Ng, executive director and founder of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society group.
Jaki Teo, the campaign coordinator behind the online petition (www.whalesharkpetition.com), hoped the authorities would consider the concerns raised by animal welfare groups about the whale sharks.
"A lot of the concerns are about the fact that they are not suited to be held in captivity," she said.
Resorts World at Sentosa is scheduled to open in phases starting from early 2010 and will feature the world's biggest oceanarium with 700,000 fish.
"We have started to explore plans for an alternative to a whale shark exhibit," Krist Boo, the spokeswoman for Resorts World at Sentosa, told AFP.
Resorts World at Sentosa, one of two casino resorts being built in Singapore, had planned to import the whale sharks for its Marine Life Park (MLP) which set to become the world's biggest oceanarium upon completion.
The park however said its move was not due to pressure by the seven animal welfare groups which have launched an online petition that has gathered more than 9,000 signatures.
"The MLP team does not take its responsibilities to both conservation and Singapore lightly and as such, we spent the past two years doing much groundwork," it said in a statement to AFP.
"We strongly believe that our action must be governed by the conservation of this species rather than what is dictated by fleeting public opinion."
Alternative options to the whale shark exhibit being considered by the MLP were shown to the various animal welfare groups last month, it said.
"This proposal is still in the process of being refined for a further round of review," the MLP said.
Any changes to the planned whale shark exhibit would have to get the final approval of the Singapore government.
Animal welfare groups welcomed the move by Resorts World at Sentosa to consider alternatives to exhibiting whale sharks, which can reach lengths of 12 metres (40 feet) or the size of a bus.
"I think it's very progressive in that they are considering other alternatives," said Louis Ng, executive director and founder of the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society group.
Jaki Teo, the campaign coordinator behind the online petition (www.whalesharkpetition.com), hoped the authorities would consider the concerns raised by animal welfare groups about the whale sharks.
"A lot of the concerns are about the fact that they are not suited to be held in captivity," she said.
Resorts World at Sentosa is scheduled to open in phases starting from early 2010 and will feature the world's biggest oceanarium with 700,000 fish.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Orang Utan escape Australia Zoo
An Australian zoo was evacuated Sunday when an orangutan escaped after using a branch to scale an electric fence around her enclosure, zoo officials said.
Adelaide Zoo said patrons were evacuated as a precaution when 27-year-old Karta, described as "extremely intelligent", breached the electric fence on Sunday morning.
Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta got as far as a boundary fence but was still some distance from the public before seeming to realise she was in the wrong place and returning to her enclosure.
Whitehead said although the primate showed no aggression during her 30 minute escapade, she was secured inside her night den before the public were readmitted.
"She was probably secured by the time we got most of the people out of the zoo," he told Sky News.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
No More fireflies in Six months?
MALAYSIA: The entire firefly population in Kampung Kuantan and Kampung Bukit Belimbing in Kuala Selangor is facing wipe-out in six months.
"All the fireflies there will be gone for good by the end of this year if no measures are taken to protect them," said Selangor Tourism, Consumer Affairs and Environment Committee chairman Elizabeth Wong.
The Selangor Government had issued a stop-work order for all activities in firefly sanctuaries along Sungai Selangor yesterday, she said.
She said the decline of the firefly colonies in the two popular tourist spots was at a very serious stage, with half of them already disappeared.
"We have identified seven critical areas in the two villages where the firefly colonies in four spots are already gone," she said after the weekly exco meeting here yesterday.
Last month, The Star reported that the days of firefly watching would be over because of land clearing which has damaged the habitat.
Wong said that massive cutting of trees and improper development along the river were the main reasons the fireflies were dying.
Furthermore, some areas along the river bank had been turned into oil palm plantations, she said, adding that there were also factories and restaurants operating too close to the river.
"A total of 38ha of land along the river has also been cleared," she added.
Wong said the fireflies, whose lifespan is only three months, could not survive in such an environment where there was only polluted water.
She also said that there was no river reserve along the river and part of the land had been sold to individuals.
The state government, she said, would gazette the land along the 20km river into a buffer zone.
It had also identified 52 landowners along the river and would take over the land from them as soon as possible, she said.
Wong said that the state government would also start to replant trees such as sagu, berembang, nipah and rembau immediately to rebuild the habitat of the fireflies at the critical areas.
The state government was establishing a fund to get the private and public sectors involved in preserving the firefly sanctuaries.-- The Star
If we continue to let this World bleed, at the end our children will be made to pay for it.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Poor Pigs are killed becos of Swine Flu!
IRAQI authorities have killed three wild boars at Baghdad's zoo because of swine flu fears.
Dr. Sabah Jassim Mozan, head of the Agriculture Ministry's veterinary unit, says the animals were killed on Saturday as a precaution against the spread of swine flu.
But international health experts say the virus is not transmitted by pigs. Iraq has no documented cases of swine flu.
Baghdad municipal spokesman Hakim Abdul Zahra gave no details Sunday on how the boars were killed, saying only it was 'according to veterinary practices.' Iraq has virtually no pig farming because Islam prohibits consumption of pork products. But Egypt, which has a sizable Christian population, has ordered the mass slaughter of pigs. -- AP
Friday, May 01, 2009
Swine Flu outbreak
The swine flu outbreak that has sparked widespread fear — so much so that Egypt has ordered the slaughter of the country's 300,000 pigs, even though no cases have been reported there — is easy to pin on the eponymous animal from which it emerged, but the fact is, the current epidemic is little more than an accident of evolution. If pigs are to blame, so too are birds and humans. (See pictures of thermal scanners hunting for swine flu.)
The problem begins with the wily nature of the influenza virus itself. It may be an uncomplicated thing, made up of nothing more than 10 proteins assembled into a genome that's simple even by microbiological standards, but that bare-bones genome is unusually flexible, with snap-in, snap-out gene segments that allow easy mutation and exchange of information with other viruses. That's the reason we need a new flu vaccine every year: by the time one flu season has ended and the next one begins, the virus has changed so much, it can simply shake off last year's shot. Compare that with, say, polio; the vaccine was perfected in 1955 and hasn't had to change much since.
What keeps the flu relatively in check is that there simply aren't that many species that are susceptible to it — with humans, pigs and certain kinds of birds leading the list. "There are surface markers on the cells of some species that bind with sites on the flu virus," says Dr. Peter Daszak, an emerging-disease ecologist and president of the Wildlife Trust. "The influenza virus evolved along with pigs, and it did the same with a few other mammals and with birds." (Read "To Travel or Not to Travel? A Swine Flu Dilemma.")
The adaptability of the virus, however, made it a certainty that a strain that evolved in one of the susceptible species would easily make whatever changes were necessary to allow it to survive in one of the few other eligible hosts. So quickly and efficiently does the virus transform itself that it may require just a single passage through a single individual to get that shape-shifting job done. "Different viruses from different sources enter a cell, and the virus that comes out the other end is an entirely different one," says Dr. Richard Webby, an infectious-disease specialist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis and the director of the hospital's World Health Organization collaborating center. "The process is called reassortment."
Birds are the natural reservoirs of the common flu strains that strike in winter — and those strains reassort themselves to hit humans particularly hard. But while humans are not susceptible to every strain of avian flu, pigs definitely are. When bird flu viruses replicate in pigs, they pick up the viral machinery that gives more selective flu strains the power to spread to other mammals, like us. That's what makes pigs such potent mixing bowls for flu. The roundabout bird-pig-human route may be less common than the straight bird-human jump, but it may be more problematic. Strains of avian flu, like the much-feared H5N1, can infect individual humans, but they can't make the person-to-person leap. Avian flu that is passed through the pig's mammalian system, however, can be passed readily among humans. (Read "Why Border Controls Can't Keep Out the Flu Virus.")
All of this made the flu virus a tenacious foe from the outset, but once humans invented farming and learned to cultivate animals, we made a bad situation much worse. All at once, chickens, ducks and pigs — which never had much to do with one another — began living cheek to jowl in high numbers and often unsanitary conditions. Farm families and people working in live markets then began mingling with the critters. That's a pathogenic speed blender, and the viruses have taken full advantage of it. "It's really an ecological issue," says Daszak.
So if we can't fairly blame the pigs (indeed, the CDC has officially stopped calling the virus "swine flu," opting instead for the more hog-friendly 2009 H1N1 flu), can we blame Mexico? That charge doesn't stick either. Decades ago, numerous countries came together to develop the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN), which allows epidemiological teams to spot new flu viruses as soon as they emerge and get vaccines ready in time. But the GISN only tracks human flu, meaning animal flu can slip by undetected. What's more, pigs that carry influenza tend not to die en masse the way flocks of birds do, eliminating the immediate tip-off that a serious pathogen is at large. None of that is Mexico's fault either. In fact, since human tourists and domesticated animals cross into Mexico all the time, there's every reason to believe that the progenitor virus behind the epidemic hitched a ride in one of them.
"I'm of the opinion that this doesn't have to be a Mexico-originated virus," says Daszak. "Somehow it got to Mexico and then mixed with humans."
If we have to pin the rap somewhere then, forget any one species or country and blame simple biology. But regardless of whence the virus came, the more salient question is, Where will it go? That's what concerns doctors as they work to stem the epidemic and make sure healthy people stay that way.
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