Zoo gets a new baby Polar Bear

It may have been the most anticipated package ever delivered to the Buffalo Zoo: an orphaned polar bear cub that arrived 15 May 2013 from Alaska and will spend the summer with another cub born six months ago.

Kali arrived aboard a UPS flight at Buffalo Niagara International Airport shortly before 5:30 a.m., ending a 14-hour trip that was set in motion in March when a hunter in Alaska realized an adult female bear he'd killed was nursing.

"He followed the tracks back to the den, crawled down inside, found a cub, pulled it out, put it in his coveralls, rode it back into Point Lay and then got hold of U.S. Fish and Wildlife," said Patrick Lampi, executive director of the Alaska Zoo, which has cared for the bear since.

Subsistence hunting is allowed in the area, but hunters aren't allowed to shoot females with cubs, Lampi said after accompanying the cub to Buffalo.

Called Kali after the Inupiat name for Point Lay, the male cub now weighs 65 pounds and is estimated to be just less than 5 months old. It would have been unable to care for itself in the wild, experts said. Young polar bears stay with their mothers for about 2 years.

In Buffalo, it will slowly be introduced to Luna, a female polar bear born Nov. 27 that has become a visitor favorite and the face of an $18 million fundraising campaign for a planned Arctic exhibit and new zoo entrance. Experts said both cubs will benefit from interacting with each other rather than only human caretakers.

A few hours after Kali's arrival, the cubs were in adjacent dens, able to smell and hear each other but prevented by a solid barrier from visual and physical contact. The next step will be to replace the barrier with mesh.

"Then they can have some limited physical contact, visual contact," zoo president Donna Fernandes said. "If that goes well and they're spending lots of time near each other by the mesh barrier and showing interest, then we can gradually open it up a little bit, give them room for a paw to go through.

"If they're not swiping at each other and it looks good, we'll open the door a little bit more, a little bit more, until they get a full physical introduction," Fernandes said at a press conference as Luna, behind a glass partition, dove over and over into a pond, pounced on a toy ark and ball, and wrestled with shrubbery.

"When you have adult animals, it can be more problematic," Fernandes said, "but I don't think we'll have a problem with these young guys. I think they'll be very excited to have a playmate."

Kali, expected to stay in Buffalo six months, made the 4,400-mile trip in a stainless steel crate, tended to by handlers given Federal Aviation Administration clearance to be on the cargo deck, UPS Capt. Jon Burrows said.

The logistics were hammered out over about 225 emails, Lampi said.

"Knowing he's coming here to be with another cub, that's just perfect," he said. "You just can't substitute being with a same species 24/7 so it'll be great for both of them."

The Buffalo Zoo hopes Kali will be a permanent resident, but the decision will be up to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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Vesak Day warnings, No releasing of animals.

The National Parks Board (NParks) said there have not been any cases of animals being released at reservoir parks and nature reserves in the past two years.

NParks is reminding the public not to release animals into the wild this Vesak Day, which falls on 24 May.
NParks' director of conservation, Wong Tuan Wah, said: "We will continue to reach out to the community and appeal to the public not to release animals into the wild. Most of these animals are kept as household pets, and many die shortly after their release as they are unable to adapt to the new surroundings."

NParks is running its annual campaign “Operation No Release”, held around Vesak Day to spread awareness of the dangers related to animal release.

It is working with volunteers to keep a lookout for any signs of animal release and conduct nature walks for the public.

Besides introducing the flora and fauna in the nature reserves to the participants, volunteer guides will also explain how animal release will impact the biodiversity and ecology of the nature reserves.

Singapore raised to observer status on Arctic Council

Arctic states today (May 15) agreed to let nations that are located nowhere near the Earth’s north to become observers to their diplomatic council, boosting rising superpowers China, India and South Korea that are seeking to mine the region for its untapped energy and other natural resources.

The European Union also was tentatively granted observer status to the eight-state council but must first address several questions about its bid, including concerns about its ban on Canadian seal exports.

It was an odd but not entirely unexpected move by the long-obscure Arctic Council, which traditionally has served as a watchdog for the rights of the region’s indigenous people and protector of its fragile ecosystem.

Widespread thawing of Arctic ice, which keeps the rest of the world cooler, has alarmed environmentalists but has become an economic lure to nations seeking to ship cargo across once-frozen seas. The global warming is making the Arctic’s elusive supply of oil, gas, minerals and precious metals available — in some areas, for the first time ever - as ever-expanding counties like China and India hunt for additional energy supplies.

Officials estimate the Arctic holds 13 per cent of the world’s undiscovered oil reserves, and 30 per cent of undiscovered gas deposits.

Ministers suggested the inclusion of the energy-hungry nations at the Arctic Council will force them to uphold the diplomatic panel’s core goals of safeguarding the region.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. “By becoming an observer you’re also signing up to the principles embodied by this organization, and that is why we have been working hard to make that happen.”

In all, six nations - China, India, Italy, Japan, Korea and Singapore - were granted observer status to the council, joining several previously-accepted counties from Europe. The eight states that are permanent members of the non-binding panel all touch the Arctic Circle, including the United States, through Alaska. Denmark is connected to the Arctic Circle through its relationship with Greenland, which is a semi-autonomous territory.

Canada’s minister to the council, Leona Aglukkaq, voiced mild but restrained discomfort with the new observers to the council, which she said was created “by northerners, for northerners, before the Arctic was of interest to the rest of the world.” Canada will chair of the council for the next two years.

The ministers’ short meeting, which is held only every two years, also attracted a scattering of protesters form the environmental group Greenpeace, who held banners outside Kiruna’s small city hall urging “No Arctic oil.” A hulking black mountain, from which iron ore is mined, served as the backdrop for the meeting in the small Arctic town where snow had melted to slush.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, sporting a blue suit coat amid the ski sweaters and tribal costumes at the meeting, said the world must crack down on polluting emissions that endanger the Arctic. He said the U.S. and China are two of the globe’s largest contributors to emissions.

“No one nation can solve this,” Kerry said. “No one is doing enough. The problem is that everything we do, or everything that another nation does, is going to be wiped out by China or another nation if they continue with coal-fired power at the rate we are seeing. So the warning signals are there.”

Singapore has interest in the Arctic region

SINGAPORE'S application for permanent observer status in the Arctic Council might seem like an obscure pitch for a country lying just a smear north of the Equator.

But the Republic's interest in the icy northern region ranges from the risk of rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice to the possibility that its port might be bypassed should the Northern Sea Route running through the Arctic coast take off in a big way.

The council comprises eight Arctic states, including Canada, Russia and the United States.

Tomorrow's Arctic Council Ministerial Meeting, which takes place once every two years and will open in Kiruna in northern Sweden, is expected to decide on the applications. Singapore's special envoy for Arctic Affairs Kemal Siddique is in Sweden.

Singapore applied for permanent observer status, which is likely to allow a country to attend council meetings and take part in working groups, in December 2011. Others that have applied for similar status include China, the European Union, India, Japan, Italy and South Korea.

While Singapore has no territorial or resource claims, it does have various economic and political interests in the Arctic. As a major international port, it takes a keen interest in maritime affairs.

The emergence of new sea routes would reduce the distance between the North Atlantic and the North Pacific, causing shifts in shipping patterns a few months every year. The implications of these shifts could have far-reaching consequences for Singapore's economic viability and existence.

Rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice could threaten Singapore. Moreover, the island is on the migratory pathway of some Arctic species and the effects of climate change on Arctic flora and fauna would affect those here.

Singapore hopes to contribute its shipping-related expertise in areas such as oil spill prevention and maritime traffic management to the Arctic Council.