Timeline of Animals
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750Mil BC Researchers at UC
Riverside in 2009 reported evidence in rock sediments that indicated
the presence of sponges dating back from 750 million to 635 million
years ago. Sponges were believed to be one of the first animals to
evolve from single-celled organisms.
(SFC, 2/6/09, p.A8)
575Mil BC-160 Mil BC Rangeomorphs, a world-wide
feathery life form, lived during this period known as the
Ediactaran. They fed by filtering tiny organisms from seawater were
later considered as the 1st examples of complex animal life.
(SFC, 8/20/04, p.A12)
397Mil BC Four-legged creatures were mucking
around a muddy basin in what is now Poland about this time. In 2010
scientists reported the discovery of their the fossilized footprints
in the Holy Cross Mountains in southeastern Poland.
(http://tinyurl.com/ybp6x78)
375Mil BC In 2006 scientists reported the
discovery of a predator fossil fish dating to this time in on
Canada’s Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic. It was later named
Tiktaalik roseae and further analysis found it to have developed a
mobile neck, an important development for living on land. The fish
displayed bones at the ends of its fins suggestive of developing
fingers and toes.
(SFC, 10/16/08, p.A10)(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
260Mil BC Scientists in 2011 reported the
discovery of the remains of a saber-toothed vegetarian. The
leaf-crunching animal, about the size of a large dog, lived 260
million years ago in what is now Brazil. Its upper canine teeth were
nearly 5 inches long.
(AP, 3/25/11)
170Mil BC The semi-aquatic platypus is thought to
have split off from a common ancestor shared with humans
approximately about this time. In 2008 scientists laid bare the
platypus genome of 2.2 billion base pairs spread across 18,500
genes.
(AFP, 5/8/08)
166Mil BC Monotremes split off from ancestral
mammals about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
155Mil BC - 150Mil BC In mid-Jurassic rocks of
Germany occurred the very rare remains of Archaeopteryx, widely
considered as the earliest known bird. It was about the size of a
dove, had a long, reptile-like tail but with real feathers, not
scales, and it possessed teeth in its beak. The first Archaeopteryx
fossil turned up in 1861.
(Econ, 11/10/07, p.101)(SFC, 7/28/11, p.A8)
148Mil BC Marsupials parted company with
placentals about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
110Mil BC An ankylosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur
with powerful limbs, armor plating and a club-like tail inhabited
northern Alberta. Its fossils, discovered in 2011, were not supposed
to be there because the area at this time was covered by water.
(AP, 3/26/11)
95Mil BC About this time birds that were the
ancestor of modern birds, evolved an improved sense of smell. In
2011 studies used fossils of Bambiraptor to determine that birds
inherited a good sense of smell from dinosaurs, and then improved
the faculty. Bambiraptor, dating to this time, was a fast-moving,
non-flying critter about the size of a dog.
(AP, 4/13/11)
67Mil BC In 1987 scientists in India found the
fossilized remains of an 11½-foot snake, dating to about this
time, coiled around a dinosaur egg.
(SFC, 3/3/10, p.A3)
50Mil BC Placentals split into four superorders
about this time.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.88)
50Mil BC The dog traces its ancestry back to a
5-toed, weasel-like animal called Miacis, that lived about this
time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
49Mil BC The Ambulocetus natans, a walking and
swimming whale, inhabited the warm seas which covered eastern
Pakistan. In 1996 fossils of the creature, about the size of a
modern sea lion, were found by paleontologist Hans Thewissen.
(SFC, 5/12/09, p.A8)
40Mil-35Mil BC Cynodictis resembled a modern dog
and lived about this time.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
34Mil BC -23Mil BC Indricotherium, a 15-foot tall
mammal, lived during this period. It was later said to be the
largest known mammal and related to the modern day rhinoceros.
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.C5)
21Mil BC A fossil of a creature called
Morotopithecus bishopi, a tree-dwelling, ape-like creature that
lived in what is now Uganda, was found in the 1960s and indicated
that its transverse process had moved backward, behind the opening
for the spinal cord. In 2007 Dr. Aaron Filler authored "The Upright
Ape: a new origin of the Species," in which he argued that this
common ancestor, and ancestors going back many millions of years
before, walked upright. Homo sapiens, the human species, continued
upright, while apes evolved back toward all fours.
(AP, 7/16/07)
20Mil BC Ugandapithecus Major, a remote cousin of
modern great apes, roamed Uganda about this time. The fossilized
skull of a male Ugandapithecus Major was discovered in 2011.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
15Mil BC In Australia a sheep-sized creature with
giant claws lived about this time. The wombat-like marsupial was
later named Nimbadon lavarackorum. In 2010 scientists discovered a
cave filled with fossils of the creature.
(SFC, 7/17/10, p.A2)
12Mil BC A raptorial sperm whale living about this
time grew up to 60 feet with some teeth 14 inches long. Fossils were
discovered in a Peruvian desert and in 2010 scientists named it
Leviathan melvillei.
(SFC, 7/1/10, p.A3)
2Mil BC - 50,000BC In Australia a herbivorous
diprotodon, the largest marsupial to ever roam the earth, lived
about this time. A fossil of the car sized mega-wombat was unearthed
in northern Australia in 2011.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
1Mil BC DNA evidence in 2008 suggested that the
black rat originated in South-East Asia about this time and then
split into 6 lines, one of which colonized India and the Middle East
and then spread to Europe.
(Econ, 3/15/08, p.97)
135,000 BCE DNA evidence in
1997 indicated that the modern dog has been around since about this
time.
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.A10)(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
48000BC -18000BC In 2011 the journal Current
Biology reported that all polar bears today have descended from one
female brown bear in Ireland between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A6)
c15,000BCE Dogs first began to associate with some
humans as people began to form settlements.
(WSJ, 11/22/02, p.B1)
14,000 BCE The earliest fossils of domestic dogs
date to this time. They were found in Germany.
(MT, Fall 02, p.14)
8000BC Mastodons roamed over Ohio. In 1887 Newton
S. Conway discovered the skeleton of a mastodon on his farm on the
Clark-Champaign County line. It became known as the Conway Mastodon.
(SSFC, 1/9/11, p.A10)(http://tinyurl.com/2ecv34t)
8000BC The 15-foot, 3-toed Macrauchenia, a native
of Patagonia, went extinct about this time. It had a body like a
camel, a neck like a giraffe, and a flexible nose like an elephant’s
trunk. Its fossil was discovered by Charles Darwin during his trip
to the region (1833-1834).
(SFC, 4/2/10, p.C5)
c7,500BCE A research team in 2004 uncovered a
carefully buried cat on Cyprus, placed just inches from a human
burial that also contained polished stones, shells, tools and
jewelry. The graves were estimated to be 9,500 years old.
(AP, 4/9/04)
246BC-222BC Ptolemy III
Euergeter served as Egypt’s 3rd ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. In
2010 archeologists discovered a temple, thought to belong to Queen
Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd
century B.C. Archeologists believed that the temple might have been
dedicated to the ancient cat-goddess Bastet.
(www.crystalinks.com/ptolemaic.html)(AP, 1/19/10)
565 Aug 22, St. Columba
reported seeing a monster in Loch Ness.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1751 Feb 25, The 1st performing
monkey exhibited in America was in NYC.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1751 Pietro Longhi painted
“Exhibition of a Rhinocerous at Venice.” It depicted Clara, a
touring Indian rhinoceros owned by Dutch sea captain Douwemout Van
der Meer.
(SSFC, 3/27/05, p.E1)
1755 The “last specimen” of a
dodo bird, a stuffed but rotted relic, was burned at the Ashmoleum
Museum at Oxford, England. Fortunately, someone removed the head and
the foot of the specimen and saved them. In 1996 by David
Quammen authored The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age
of Extinctions. In 2003 Clara Pinto-Correia authored “Return of the
Crazy Bird.” The London Museum of natural History later displayed a
mounted specimen of Raphus cucullatus.
(www.complete-review.com/reviews/divsci/pintocc.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/c9zpyw)
1765 Mar 24, Austrian Empress
Maria Theresa issued a decree to establish a School for Healing
Animal Diseases.
(StuAus, April '95, p.23)
1780 A Japanese whaling ship
ran aground near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. Rats from
the ship reached the nearest island giving it the name Rat Island.
The incident introduced the non-native Norway rat, also known as the
brown rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized all but the largest birds
on the island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was dropped onto the
island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a half. By mid
2009 there were no signs of living rats and some birds had returned.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)
1796 Apr 3, The 1st elephant
was shipped to the US from Bengal, India, by Broadway showman Jacob
Croninshield.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.B3)
1796 Apr 13, The 1st elephant
arrived in US from India.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1808 A 56-foot oarfish washed
ashore in Scotland. This was the first documented sighting of the
rare fish.
(SFC, 12/4/10, p.A7)
1831-1832 Animals from the Tower of London
menagerie created the core of the London Zoo.
(Hem, 9/04, p.71)
1835 Jun 2, P.T. Barnum and his
circus began 1st tour of US.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1845 Mar 5, Congress
appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to western US. [see 1855]
(MC, 3/5/02)
1845 Walter Potter, English
taxidermist, opened his stuffed animal museum in Bramble, south of
London. Admission was 2 cents.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.K8)
1847 Dr. Thomas Savage,
American doctor and missionary, brought back to the US partial
skeletons of gorillas, and gave them the scientific name Troglodytes
gorilla.
(ON, 11/04, p.11)
1851 Jan 27, John James Audubon
(b. 1785), wildlife painter and conservationist (Audubon Society),
died. He was buried in NYC. In 2004 Duff Hart-Davis authored
"Audubon's Elephant," and account of his 12 year sojourn to Europe
to oversee the production of "Birds of America." In 2004 William
Souder authored “Under a Wild Sky: John James Audubon and the Making
of the Birds of America.”
(HNQ, 7/15/01)(MC, 1/27/02)(WSJ, 3/26/04,
p.W6)(SSFC, 6/20/04, p.M6)
1855 Mar 3, Congress approved
$30,000 to test camels for military use. [see 1845]
(SC, 3/3/02)
1856 Sep 2, Paul Du Chaillu
(1831-1903), French-American journalist and hunter, shot and killed
his 1st gorilla in Gabon. Over the next 3 years he killed 31
gorillas. In 1861 he published “Explorations & Adventures in
Equatorial Africa.”
(ON, 11/04, p.12)
1859 The London Fish
House unveiled 4 seahorses, long believed to mythical creatures.
Seahorses are the only species in which the males become pregnant,
providing the young with food and oxygen before giving birth to up
to 1,000 babies, each the size of a flea.
(Econ, 9/12/09, p.93)
1862 Jun, SF Lawmakers signed a
petition to anoint Lazarus (d.1963) and Bummer (d.1865), 2 popular
rat catching dogs, as official city property and exempt from the
recently passed muzzle law. In 1984 Malcolm E. Barker authored
“Bummer & Lazarus: San Francisco’s Famous Dogs.”
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.D6)(SFC, 1/30/04, p.A23)(SSFC,
7/24/11, p.E11)
1866 Apr 10, The American
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was
incorporated.
(AP, 4/9/97)
1874 Mar 17, Kincsem, a horse
that never lost a race, was born.
(MC, 3/17/02)
1874 Jul 1, The 1st US zoo
opened in Philadelphia.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1874 Cattleman Charles
Goodnight rounded up 5 orphaned buffalo calves and set them loose on
10,000 acres in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle. The
herd grew to 250 animals and a number were sent to start herds
elsewhere. In 1997 the herd was put under the guardianship of the
state. By 2001 it was realized that inbreeding put the herd at risk
of extinction. In 2005 Ted Turner agreed to provide 3 bulls from his
herd in New Mexico to help the Texas herd.
(WSJ, 8/2/05, p.A1)
1876 Mar 1, Guernsey Cattle
Club formed in Farmington, CT.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1878 Mar 26, Sabi Game Reserve,
world's 1st official designated game reserve, opened.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1879 P.T. Barnum (60) teamed up
with James A. Bailey to create "The Greatest Show on Earth." [see
Mar 28, 1881]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R40)
1881 Mar 16, Barnum &
Bailey Circus debuted. [see Mar 18]
(MC, 3/16/02)
1881 Mar 18, Barnum and
Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth opened in Madison Square Gardens.
[see Mar 16]
(HN, 3/18/98)
1881 Mar 28, "Greatest Show On
Earth" was formed by P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey. [see 1879 and
Mar 16,18, 1881]
(MC, 3/28/02)
1882 Aug 28, Belle Benchley,
the first female zoo director in the world, who directed the
Zoological Gardens of San Diego, was born.
(HN, 8/28/98)
1888 Jul, Harold P. Brown, on
behalf of Thomas Edison, zapped dogs at Columbia College to
demonstrate the supposed danger of alternating current, a mode of
power favored by Edison’s rival George Westinghouse. The NY state
legislature had recently designated electrocution as the official
means for capital punishment.
(SFEC, 3/22/98, p.A26)(ON, 10/04, p.7)
1889 The British Royal Society
for the Protection of Birds was founded.
(www.infomat.net/infomat/rd741/rd1/database/rspb/index.asp)
1890 In California the first
opossums were released by humans in Los Angeles County about this
time. Tow more releases were documented in 1910 and 1924.
(SFC, 11/26/08, p.G3)
1891 Feb 26, The 1st buffalo
was purchased for Golden Gate Park in SF under John McLaren. A pair
of bison, named Benjamin Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, were settled
in Golden Gate Park following reports that only 1000 were left in
the US.
(SFC, 12/13/99, p.A18)(SC, 2/26/02)(SFC,
10/30/08, p.B1)
1892 Mar 3, 1st cattle
tuberculosis test in US was made at Villa Nova, PA.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1893 Feb 26, 2 Clydesdale
horses set a record by pulling 48 tons on a sledge in Michigan.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1894 Mar 8, NY passed the 1st
state dog license law. [see Mar 10]
(MC, 3/8/02)
1894 Mar 10, New York Gov.
Roswell P. Flower signed the nation's first dog-licensing law. The
license fee was $2, renewable annually for $1.
(AP, 3/10/99)
1894 May 31, Victor Horsley,
medical researcher, published a report in Nature indicating that
cats shot through the head stop breathing and that resuscitative
efforts helped them survive.
(WSJ, 8/21/96, p.A15)
1897 Apr 6 & 16, Frank M.
Chapman, ornithologist with the American Museum of Natural History,
observed large numbers of flying hawks over Veracruz, Mexico.
(NH, 10/96, p.37)
1897 The Royal Pigeon Racing
Association formed in England. In 2004 it began drug testing among
its members for the use of steroids in their pigeons.
(WSJ, 11/11/04, p.A1)
1900 May 25, President William
McKinley signed the Lacey Act of 1900, or more commonly The Lacey
Act, 16 U.S.C. § 3371–3378. It banned the illegal commercial
transportation of wildlife. The conservation law was introduced by
Iowa Rep. John F. Lacey. It has been amended several times. The most
significant times were in 1969, 1981, and in 1989.
(Econ, 9/12/09,
p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_Act)
1903 Jan 4, Topsy the elephant
was poisoned electrocuted in Luna Park, Coney Island, NYC. The
10-foot elephant had killed 3 keepers over the last 2 years. Edison
used the opportunity to demonstrate the lethal potential of
alternating current, promoted by rival George Westinghouse.
(Econ, 7/26/03, p.33)(Internet)
1903 Mar 14, The 1st national
bird reservation was established in Sebastian, Florida.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1905 East Coasters including
Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington set up
the American Bison Society. In 1907 they sent 15 animals by rail to
the new Wichita Bison Refuge in Oklahoma. The society met for the
last time in 1935. The society was revitalized in 2005 to secure the
ecological future of the animal. In 2009 Steven Rinella authored
“American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon.”
(Econ, 1/17/09, p.82)
1905 California banned the
collection of condor eggs. By 1982 only 22 condors were left in the
state. In 1987 government biologists caught the last of 5 wild
condors. Between 1992 and 2004 161 condors were released of which
about half survived.
(CW, Winter 04, p.26)
1908 Aug 28, Roger Tory
Peterson, author, was born in Jamestown, NY. His work included the
innovative bird book “A Field Guide to Birds.”
(HN, 8/28/00)
1909 Mar 4, US prohibited the
interstate transportation of game birds.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1910 Feb 17, In San Francisco 3
elephants appearing at a Broadway vaudeville house went on a rampage
while parading in North Beach.
(SSFC, 2/14/10, DB p.42)
1910 Aug 19, The advance guard
of the Barnum & Bailey Circus began arriving in San Francisco,
claiming to be the biggest ever to visit the Pacific Coast. It
included 1,280 people, 85 railroad cars, 700 horses and 400
elephants.
(SSFC, 8/15/10, DB p.42)
1911 A group of South Africans
took part in the Trans-Saharan Ostrich Expedition to claim the
Barbary Ostrich from French West Africa. They then sold the
expensive plumes to milliners in across American and Europe.
(Econ, 6/4/11, p.95)
1914 Sep 1, Martha, the last
known passenger pigeon, died at Cincinnati Zoo.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1916 Jul 11, Dan Patch
(b.1896), a record-breaking, Indiana-born, harness race horse, died
and was buried in Minnesota. He was the first harness race horse to
break the 2-minute mile. In 2008 Charles Leersen authored “Crazy
Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, The Most Famous Horse in
America.” Here Leersen details the pharmacopoeia used in racing at
the turn of the century.
(WSJ, 5/17/08, p.W9)
1917 Mar 29, Man O'War,
racehorse (winner of 20 out of 21 races and $249,465), was born.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1920 Dec 6, In Boston, Mass., a
dog with spectacles was shown at the annual fair of the Animal
Rescue League.
(http://tinyurl.com/5hbur6)
1920-1935 In the US thousands of mustangs were
sent to slaughter to provide cheap meat in what came to be called
the “Great Removal.” In 2008 Deanne Stillman authored “Mustang: The
Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.”
(Econ, 6/28/08, p.90)
1922 Jul 15, 1st duck-billed
platypus was publicly exhibited in US at a NY zoo.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1924 An Ohio state spider count
recorded 306 species.
(USAT, 5/18/04, p.17A)
1925 The goat races began in
Tobago as a working-class alternative to horse racing. In 20011 the
Buccoo Goat Race Festival, scheduled for April 25-26, sought support
on Facebook.
(AP, 4/16/11)
1926 The last grey wolf
disappeared from the Yellowstone region. By 1973 only a few wolves
remained in northern Michigan and Minnesota. In 1995 the federal
government reintroduced wolves to the greater Yellowstone region
(Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) and by 2008 their population reached
1,500.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)
1928 May 19, The 1st annual
"Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, Ca., drew 51 frogs.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1929 Jan 29, The first
seeing-eye Dog Guide School in the United States received their
charter. Seeing Eye, Inc., was founded in Morris Township, New
Jersey, by Dorothy Harrison Eustus. In February Morris Frank and
Jack Humphrey began operating the 1st Seeing Eye school in the US in
Nashville, Tenn. Frank had trained under Humphrey in Switzerland at
a kennel owned by Dorothy Eustis. Buddy was Frank's 1st dog and in
1936 became the 1st seeing-eye dog to ride as a passenger on an
American commercial airline.
(HNQ,
3/10/01)(www.seeingeye.org/aboutus/?M_ID=472)(ON, 12/03, p.5)
1931 Jul 27, Grasshoppers in
Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota destroyed thousands of acres of
crops.
(MC, 7/27/02)
1932 Mar 31, 150 wild swans
died in Niagara waterfall.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1932 Aug 14, Rin Tin Tin, US
Hollywood-dog, died.
(MC, 8/14/02)
1932 Phar Lap, an Australian
race horse, took ill and died after being taken to the United
States. The giant New Zealand-born chestnut became an icon in
Australia during the Great Depression, winning 37 of his 51 races,
including one Melbourne Cup in 1930 and two Cox Plates in 1930 and
1931. In 2008 tests proved that Phar Lap was poisoned by arsenic.
(AFP, 6/19/08)
1933 May 3, A white buffalo
calf was born in western Montana. He was later named "Big Medicine"
and lived until Aug 25, 1959. His hide was molded to a mannequin and
that went on display at the Montana Historical Society on Jul 13,
1961.
(Helena Museum flyer, 9/11/97)
1934 Apr 3, Jane van
Lawick-Goodall, ethologist (studied African chimps, 1974 Walker
Prize), was born in London, England. She was a British
anthropologist, known for her work with African chimpanzees. In 2000
her autobiography "Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters,
The Early Years, 1934-1966," was edited by Dale Peterson.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SFEC, 6/18/00, BR p.6)(SC,
3/4/02)(MC, 4/3/02)
1935 Apr 29, It was reported
that live rabbits were being sewn onto dog-track racing machines in
the San Francisco Bay Area counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara.
(SSFC, 4/25/10, DB p.54)
1935 Dec 6, The San Francisco
Chronicle reported that rats now exceeded city’s population of
people by a factor of 3 to 1.
(SSFC, 12/5/10, DB p.50)
1935 In Australia cane toads
(Bufo marinus) from Hawaii were introduced to wipe out beetles that
were devastating Queensland's sugar cane industry. The beetles
survived and the toads became a pest and a threat to the native
quolls, small spotted marsupials. On March 28, 2009, a festive mass
killing of the creatures began as “Toad Day Out.” The corpses were
turned into fertilizer for the very farmers who've battled the pests
for years.
(Econ, 7/12/03, p.38)(SFC, 6/10/06, p.B8)(AP,
3/26/09)
1936 Jun 18, In San Francisco
Wally the elephant (25) was shot to death following the June 16
trampling death of Fleishhacker Zoo keeper Edward Brown (42).
(SSFC, 6/12/11, DB p.46)(SSFC, 6/19/11, DB p.46)
1936 Nov 9, In China Ruth
Harkness and her party found a 3-lb giant panda cub, eyes not yet
open, in a hollow tree. They named the cub Su-Lin - Chinese for
"something very cute."
(http://femexplorers.com/full_article.php?article_id=17)
1936 Dec 18, Su-Lin, the 1st
giant panda to come to US from China, arrived in SF. The giant
panda, captured by Ruth Harkness, was the 1st ever seen in the US.
In 2005 Vicki Constantine Croke authored “The Lady and the Panda.”
(http://femexplorers.com/full_article.php?article_id=17)(SSFC,
7/17/05, p.F2)
1937 Mar 18, In Missouri Jim
the Wonder Dog died at age 12 at the Lake of the Ozarks. The dog had
uncanny abilities that were verified but never explained.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A3)
1938 Florida passed a law
making it illegal to export alligators.
(SSFC, 5/15/05, p.C2)
1939 Mar 3, The new Goldfish
swallowing craze began to sweep college campuses getting a start at
the Ivy League's Harvard University.
(HC, Internet, 3/3/98)
1939 Jul 17, Paddy the
Wanderer, a stray Airedale, died. The dog had become the unofficial
mascot of the docks in Wellington, NZ. A fleet of black taxis led
its funeral procession.
(SSFC, 11/14/04, p.F11)
1945 Maria Dickin decorated
Rip, a dog, for finding more than 100 people trapped by German bomb
damage in World War II. Dickin was the creator of the Dickin Medal
program, Britain's highest honor for animals. Rip died in 1948 and
is buried in a pet charity cemetery in east London. In 2009 the
medal sold at auction in London on Friday for 24,250 pounds
($35,700).
(AP, 4/24/09)
1946 Paul Falknor Iams
(1915-2003), self-taught animal nutritionist, started Iams Food Co.
(SFC, 11/3/04, p.B15)
1947 Aug 28, Legendary
bullfighter Manolete was mortally wounded by a bull during a fight
in Linares, Spain; he died the following day at age 30.
(AP, 8/28/97)
1952 Mar 14, J. Fred Muggs,
chimp on the Today show, was born.
(MC, 3/14/02)
1957 Mar 1, Kokomo the Chimp
became the Today Show animal editor.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1957 Mar 23, US army sold its
last homing pigeons.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1958 Apr 14, Sputnik 2 (with
dog Laika) burned up in the atmosphere.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1959 May 28, Monkeys Able &
Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile and
became the 1st animals retrieved from a space mission.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1959 Rex Burch (d.1996),
microbiologist, and William Russell, a classics scholar, outlined
how the use of animals in scientific research could be made more
humane in their book: “The Principles of Humane Experimental
Technique.”
(www.nal.usda.gov/awic/newsletters/v7n2/7n2burch.htm)(Econ, 5/9/09,
p.84)
1959 The Usutu virus, a life
threat to birds, was 1st observed in South African mosquitoes. By
2004 it had spread to Europe and ravaged the blackbird population.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.B10)
1960 Aug 19, Korabl-Sputnik-2
(Spaceship Satellite-2), also known as Sputnik 5, was launched. On
board were the dogs Belka ( Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow).
Also on board were 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants. After a
day in orbit, the spacecraft's retrorocket was fired and the landing
capsule and the dogs were safely recovered. They were the first
living animals to survive orbital flight.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1960 Aug 23, World's largest
frog (3.3 kg) was caught in Equatorial Guinea.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham
landed safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute
flight aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961
Mar 9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with
a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also
onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Aug 27, Francis the
Talking Mule was the mystery guest on "What's My Line."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1962 Mar 21, A female
black bear was taken aboard a B-58 bomber out of Edwards Air Force
Base in California, flown up to 35,000 feet at a supersonic speed of
850 miles per hour, and ejected from the bomber in a specially made
capsule. She landed safely, and became the first living creature to
survive a parachute jump from a plane flying faster than sound.
(www.worldhop.com/Journals/J1/Bear1.html)
c1962 Macaque monkeys began
bathing in the hot springs near Nagano.
(SSFC, 8/11/02, p.C10)
1965 Jul 3, Trigger (25),
the golden palomino horse of Roy Rogers, died. Trigger was mounted
by Bishoff's Taxidermy of California and were on display for years
at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California.
The original Trigger is currently on display at The Roy Rogers -
Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri. In 2010 Trigger, along with
his saddle, took top dollar at an auction of memorabilia.
(www.surfnetinc.com/chuck/hoss-rr.htm)(SFC,
7/7/98, p.A2)(http://tinyurl.com/2blll9t)
1965 A Navy dolphin named Tuffy
carried tools and messages to Sealab II divers off the coast of La
Jolla, Ca.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D1)
1965 Martin Seligman,
psychologist, conducted experiments with dogs subjected to electric
shock and found that they “learned helplessness” when unable to
escape shocks.
(Econ, 3/31/07, p.63)
1966 Mar 10, Kelso, 5 time
Horse of the Year, retired.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1966 Jun, Allen and Beatrix
Gardner of the Univ. of Nevada began teaching sign language to a
10-month-old female chimpanzee named Washoe (d.2007).
(www.friendsofwashoe.org/timeline_project_begins.shtml)(SFC,
11/1/07, p.A2)
1967 Peru and 3 other countries
in South America banned trade in vicuna, a relative of the llama,
after numbers had severely dwindled. A CITES ban followed in 1975.
(Econ, 3/8/08,
p.86)(www.rumbosonline.com/articles/4-46-vicuna.htm)
1969 American Museum of Natural
History in NYC installed a 94-foot, 21,000-pound, synthetic Blue
Whale. It was based on a female carcass found in the South Atlantic
in 1925.
(WSJ, 7/24/03, p.D10)
1969 Fish and wildlife
officials in New York and Vermont banned fish shooting. In 1970 the
Vermont Legislature re-instated the sport.
(SFC, 5/11/04, p.A2)
1969-1971 Yellowstone Park officials attempted to
force grizzly bears to return to a wild diet. 220 bears, unable to
quit junk food, were shot and killed during this period.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.88)
1970 Mar 1, End of US
commercial whale hunting.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1970 Mar 30, Secretariat, race
horse, triple crown (1973), was born.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1970 Dec 24, A US Animal
Welfare Act was passed expanding the list of animals covered by the
1966 Animal Welfare Act. It included guidelines for the use and care
of laboratory animals.
(www.nal.usda.gov/awic/legislat/usdaleg1.htm)
1970 The US sent a 5-dolphin
team to Vietnam to guard the Army munitions pier at Cam Ranh Bay.
The dolphins were in Vietnam for 6 months and the pier remained
safe. It was blown up after they left.
(SFC, 4/11/03, p.D1)(SFC, 5/18/10, p.C3)
1970 Mister Ed the talking
horse, star of the 1961 TV sitcom, died. By the time Mister Ed
reached the age of 19 he was suffering from a broken leg and a
variety of health problems, and was quietly put to death with no
publicity. However, in an interview on Los Angeles station KECT's
program "Life and Times", Alan Young stated that Mr. Ed died from an
inadvertent tranquilizer administered while he was "in retirement"
in a stable in Burbank, California.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Ed)
1971 Nov 18, The US federal
Airborne-Hunting Act prohibited shooting animals from planes without
license.
(WSJ, 12/9/03,
p.A1)(www.fws.gov/laws/lawsdigest/AIRBORN.HTML)
1971 Dec 15, Pres. Nixon signed
the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act. An $18 million
Wild Horse and Burro Program, headed by the Bureau of Land
Management, was designed to find homes for wild horses. "Excess"
animals were annually culled. The 10-17,000 wild horses grew to some
43,000 in 1998. In 2004 Conrad Burns, Republican Senator for
Montana, introduced an amendment that removed protection for wild
horses over age 10.
(www.fs.fed.us/rangelands/ecology/wildhorseburro/whb_faqs.shtml)(WSJ,
8/25/98, p.A1)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.90)
1972 Apr 16, The Republic of
China presented two Pandas to the US National Zoo: Hsing-Hsing and
Ling-Ling. Ling-Ling died in 1992.
(SFC, 4/16/97, p.C14)(HN, 4/16/98)
1972 Jul 10, Herd of stampeding
elephants killed 24 in the Chandka Forest of India.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1973 Feb 26, Triple Crown horse
Secretariat was bought for a record $5.7m.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1973 India began Project Tiger
and established a network of tiger reserves. Under Indira Gandhi 9
national parks were set aside to protect tigers. 14 more were later
added. By 2010 the tiger population dropped to 1,400 from 40,000 a
century earlier.
(SFEC, 8/11/96, p.A16)(NG, 12/97,
p.13)(http://projecttiger.nic.in/introduction.htm)(Econ, 9/11/10,
p.52)
1973 In Uganda some 14,300
elephants were in the Murchison Falls National Park at this time. By
1980 only 1,400 were left.
(NG, May 1985, p.627)
1974 Dr. Charles Lieber at the
VA Medical Center in the Bronx, NY, fed alcohol to baboons along
with a nutritionally complete diet. He found that the animals
developed every stage of human alcoholic liver disease.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.K6)
1975 May 23, The US Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) banned the sale of turtles with shells
that measured less than four inches in length. The turtles were
identified as major carriers of salmonella bacterium and had been
widely sold as pets for kids.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.B1)(http://tiny.cc/IEWJ3)
1975 Jul 28, The US Dept of
Interior designated the grizzly bear a threatened species in the
lower 48 states under the US Endangered Species Act. Most of the
bears in the lower US lived in and around Yellowstone National Park
in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.
(http://fieldguide.mt.gov/detail_AMAJB01020.aspx)(Econ, 11/5/05,
p.88)
1976 Malcolm Douglas
(1941-2010), Australia's original TV crocodile hunter, shot to fame
with the production of his first documentary, "Across The Top." He
had trekked across Australia's harsh hinterland filming his
encounters with poisonous snakes and ferocious reptiles.
(AFP, 9/23/10)
1976 The UN Convention on
Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) imposed a ban on the
trade of rhino horn. By the mid-1990s 90% of the world’s rhinos had
disappeared.
(Econ, 11/20/10, p.55)
1979 Nov 22, Penny Patterson
led Koko the gorilla from Stanford to a new home at the Gorilla
Foundation in Woodside.
(SFC, 11/19/04, p.F2)
1980 Jun 2, The California
State Senate voted 30-0 to pass a bill prohibiting the destruction
of any pet through instructions left in an owner’s will.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jun 2, The California
State Fish and Game Commission approved a captive-breeding plan to
save the vanishing California condor from extinction.
(SFC, 5/27/05, p.F5)
1980 Jul 10, Nepo (14), a
killer whale, was found dead in his Redwood City Marine World show
tank.
(SFC, 7/8/05, p.F2)
1982 May 3, Sinbad the Sailor,
the star horse of Ronald Reagan’s “Death Valley Days” TV series,
died when he was struck by lightning at Kanab, Utah.
(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C12)
1982 Jul 23, The Intl. Whaling
Commission (IWC) voted for a total ban on commercial whaling
starting in 1985.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling)
1982 Sep 9, Robert Thibadeau at
CMU-10A: Pittsburgh Zoo Options: The zoo is a worthwhile place to
visit, but in my three years in Pittsburgh I have watched it
deteriorate for lack of funds. Fortunately they have this wonderful
'adopt an animal' program. The adoption can be a day or month.
Orangutanns (sic) eat light at $.75 a day or $22.50 a month, and for
$15 a day or $450 a month you get yourself an entire elephant.
Double that and you can probably have his name changed to Clyde.
Triple it and I bet they will let you dye him pink. Visitation
rights come with any adoption. The flyer is on my office door --
5321.
(http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sef/Orig-Smiley.htm)
1982 In Oman efforts to breed
captive oryx and release them back into the Arabian Peninsula, the
only place this species is found, began, a decade after the last one
was apparently shot in the wild. By 2011 about 1,000 of the wild
Arabian or White Oryx thrived owing to nearly three decades of
successful breeding.
(AP, 6/16/11)
1983 Jul 25, 1st nonhuman
primate, a baboon, was conceived in a lab dish in San Antonio.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1987 Apr 19, The last
free-flying condor in California, a 19-pound, 7-year-old male, was
captured. He was released in 2002.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A21)(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A6)
1988 Apr 29, Molloko, the 1st
California condor chick conceived in captivity, was born in the San
Diego Zoo.
(www.highbeam.com/library/docFree.asp?DOCID=1G1:6703253)
1988 Jun 6, In NYC 2 large
snapping turtles were found in a Bronx sewage plant.
(http://ebeltz.net/column/chs/1988colu.html)
1988 Belgium passed a law that
forbade the ritual execution of animals at home.
(WSJ, 1/4/07, p.A1)
1989 Nedim Buyukmihci, animal
rights leader, founded the nonprofit Animal Place sanctuary in
Vacaville, Ca.
(SFCM, 8/24/03, p.8)
1989 The UN Convention on
Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) imposed a total ban on
the trade of ivory and elephant hide. In 2007 the ban was extended
for another 9 years.
(WSJ, 1/7/97, p.A1)(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC,
4/18/00, p.A9)(Econ, 3/8/08, p.85)
1990 Apr 10, H.J. Heinz said it
would not sell tuna caught in nets that also trap dolphins.
(http://tinyurl.com/kj7mq)
1990s A movement began to
establish the Australian bilby, an long-eared, endangered marsupial
of the bandicoot family, as a symbol for an Australian Easter.
(WSJ, 3/25/05, p.A1)
1991 The Canary Islands banned
bullfighting.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
1994 Prof. Melvin Bradley
(d.2203 at 83) authored his 2-volume "The Missouri Mule: His Origin
and Times."
(SFC, 1/21/02, p.A16)
1995 Carol Buckley and Scott
Blais founded the Elephant Sanctuary on a 800-acre farm in
Hohenwald, Tenn.
(SSFC, 2/24/02, Par p.14)
1995 Prof. Marc. Hauser,
Harvard psychologist, claimed that cotton-top tamarins can recognize
themselves in mirrors. His results were questioned and in 2001
Hauser published another paper admitting failure to replicate
earlier findings. His work on the cognitive abilities of monkeys
were again questioned in 2007.
(Econ, 8/28/10, p.69)
1996 Mar 10, Birdwatchers noted
the "act of raptor love" between two red-tailed hawks on the Hotel
Carlyle at 2:30 p.m. in New York City. It lasted a full five
seconds.
(WSJ, 4/17/96, p.A-18)
1996 Apr 13, The annual
Canadian seal hunt in Newfoundland went out of control and some
16,500 seals were slaughtered instead of the 8,000 quota.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-15)
1996 Jul 4, Koko, the first
gorilla to use sign language, turned 25 and asked for a box of
scary, rubber snakes and lizards. Koko was the offspring of Jackie,
who was donated to the SF Zoo by benefactor Carroll Soo-Hoo (d.1998
at 84).
(SFC, 7/4/96, p.A24)(SFC, 7/3/98, p.D6)
1996 Aug 16, In Brookfield,
Ill., a 3-year-old boy fell 15-feet into a concrete area of a zoo’s
gorilla exhibit and was rescued by Binti-jua, a 7-year-old gorilla
with her own 2-year-old on her back.
(SFC, 8/17/96, p.A3)(MC, 8/16/02)
1996 Aug 21, In Australia
rescuers worked to save some 200 pilot whales on the southwestern
coast near Dunsborough. Most were herded to sea but 14 died.
(SFC, 8/22/96, p.E3)
1996 Sep 1, In India wolves
were reported to have killed 33 children in the area of Banbirpur in
the state of Uttar Pradesh. Some reports had it that at least some
of the killings were by disguised human beings.
(SFC, 9/1/96, p.A16)
1996 Frans de Waal authored
"The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and other Animals."
(MT, Fall 02, p.33)
1997 Mar 1, At Spring Lake near
Santa Rosa, Ca., Paul Duclos caught a 24-pound largemouth bass,
photographed it, weighed it and released it. The official record was
a 22-pound, 4-ounce bass caught in Montgomery Lake, Ga. To be
official the fish has to be killed, properly weighed and certified
by the Int’l. Gamefish Assoc.
(SFEC, 4/20/97, p.C3)
1997 Apr 28, It was reported
that a type of Mad Cow Disease was killing deer and elk in the Fort
Collins region of Colorado and Wyoming. The "spongiform
encephalopathies" riddled the brain with holes and it was wondered
if the disease might be transmitted to humans as the fatal
Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A5)
1997 A North American ban on
cattle feed that included bovine brain and spinal tissue went into
effect to prevent the spread of mad cow disease, bovine spongiform
encephalopathy.
(SFC, 12/30/03, p.A1)
1997 May 10, It was reported
that Iceland would resume whaling. Whaling had stopped there in
1989.
(SFC, 5/10/97, p.A8)
1997 May 17, From Gabon it was
reported that controlled logging in the tropical forests has led to
savage territorial wars among the native chimpanzees. The population
was estimated to have dropped from 50,000 to 30,000.
(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A4)
1997 May 31, It was reported
that more than 60 monk seals were killed from eating fish that had
ingested a toxic algae off of Mauritania’s Atlantic coast. It was
estimated that only some 350 of the monk seals were left worldwide.
(SFC, 5/31/97, p.A17)
1998 Feb 7, It was reported
that over 1200 Hooker’s sea lion pups had died in the sub-Antarctic
islands south of New Zealand from an unknown disease.
(SFC, 2/7/98, p.A5)
1998 Mar 30, In eastern Arizona
nearly a dozen Mexican gray wolves were released into the White
Mountains after an absence of 30 years.
(SFC, 3/31/98, p.A3)
1998 Aug 3, In Austria Hermann
Nitsch (b.1938) ignored animal rights protestors and began a 6-day
festival during which he planned to kill pigs and bulls and paint
pictures with their blood. This was his 100th such performance
(named the 6-Day Play after its length) and it took place at his
castle, Schloss Prinzendorf.
(SFC, 8/4/98,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Nitsch)
1998 Aug 15, In Britain it was
reported that 6,000 mink from a fur farm in Ringworm had been
released by animal rights activists. The released mink caused a
wildlife disaster as they preyed on all wildlife.
(SFC, 8/15/98, p.A5)
1998 Aug 29, A England new
type of mosquito was reported to be breeding in the underground Tube
with a taste for the rats and mice that lived there.
(SFC, 8/28/98, p.A5)
1998 Sep 10, Keiko the killer
whale, star of the 1993 "Free Willy" movie, was returned to Iceland,
where he was captured in 1979 at age 2. Much of his early life was
spent at a Mexico City amusement park.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.A10)(SFC, 10/17/03, p.D1)
1998 In France Eric Baratay and
Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier authored "Zoo: A History of Zoological
Gardens in the West." An English translation by Oliver Welsh was
published in 2002.
(SSFC, 8/4/02, p.M6)
1999 May 17, In Neah Bay,
Washington state, Makah Indian hunters legally harpooned their first
gray whale in 70-75 years.
(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A3)(AP, 5/17/00)
1999 May 19, Researchers
reported that pollen from corn infused with genes from the Bacillus
thuringiensis (Bt) is toxic to monarch butterfly larvae when
sprinkled on milkweed, a natural food source for the caterpillars.
The genetically manipulated corn comprised about 20% of the US crop.
(SFC, 5/20/99, p.A1,15)
1999 Aug 20, The Peregrine
falcon was removed from the list of endangered species.
(SFC, 8/20/99, p.A2)
1999 Aug 25, It was reported
that Mickey Rooney had joined animal rights activists to support
legislation to outlaw "crush" videos, which depict small animals
being killed by scantily clad women.
(SFC, 8/25/99, p.C5)
1999 Barbara Smuts authored
"Sex and Friendship in Baboons."
(MT, Fall 02, p.12)
2000 Feb, Rescue Bear 0001
arrived at the Animals Asia Foundation in Chengdu, China. He was
named Andrew by the Hong Kong philanthropist who donated $1 million
to create the animal sanctuary. Andrew (15) died in 2006 from a
liver cancer likely related to years of being tapped for bile fluid.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A14)
2000 Jul 15, From China it was
reported that an attack force of 700,000 ducks and chickens, trained
to hunt and eat insects at the sound of a whistle, were placed in
the locust-plagued fields of Xinjiang province.
(SFC, 7/15/00, p.A24)
2000 Jul 24, In Minneapolis,
Minn., 80 people were arrested as demonstrators protested against a
meeting of the Int’l. Society for Animal Genetics.
(SFC, 7/25/00, p.A4)
2001 Mar 6, The EU ordered all
livestock markets closed for 2 weeks to contain foot-and-mouth
disease.
(SFC, 3/7/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 21, In Vermont a flock
of 234 sheep were seized by federal agents over fears of infection
with a version of mad cow disease. The sheep had originated in
Belgium in 1996.
(SFC, 3/22/01, p.A3)
2001 Apr 28, It was reported
that researchers at the Univ. of Pennsylvania had used gene therapy
to reverse a form of congenital blindness in dogs.
(SFC, 4/28/01, p.A3)
2001 Aug 14, In India it was
reported that 15 wild elephants had died in Nameri National Park in
Assam state from an unknown disease.
(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep 1, Scientists gathered
in the French Alps to discuss a medicine called ivermectine given to
livestock to protect them from parasites. Dung from the animals was
toxic and virtually indestructible and threatened the survival of
insects, birds and bats.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)
2001 Laura Hillenbrand authored
her best selling book “Seabiscuit,” the story of the champion race
horse (1933-1947).
(Econ, 11/27/10,
p.94)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabiscuit)
2001 Rome declared the ruins of
the Torre Argentina Cat Sanctuary to be a cultural heritage.
(SFC, 11/15/02, p.J1)
2002 Mar 6, It was reported
that new regulations (Kuschelregel, the cuddle rule) required German
pig farmers to spend at least 20 seconds each day looking at each
pig.
(WSJ, 3/6/02, p.A1)
2002 May 11, It was reported
that a dead orca whale found off the Washington state coast
contained toxic PCBs so high that test equipment needed to be
recalibrated. Levels were measured at 1,000 parts-per-million.
(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A5)
2002 Sep 24-25, In the Canary
Islands over a dozen beaked whales beached themselves following NATO
exercises that involved a cluster of warships and submarines. 9 of
the whales washed ashore dead and showed lesions in the brain and
hearing system, consistent with acoustic impact.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)(SFC, 10/7/02, p.A6)
2002 Sep 7, In Portugal the
town of Reguengos de Monsaraz openly flouted a new bullfighting law,
killing a bull in the ring without government permission, and
selling the beef for human consumption afterward. The matador and
the festival organizers will be arraigned in the first legal test of
the new anti-bullfighting law. Killing in the bullring had been
banned since 1928. However, Parliament voted in July to allow bulls
to be put to death, but only in cities and towns that have carried
on the bullfighting tradition for 50 years or more.
(AP, 9/8/02)
2002 Sep 14, In Ivory Coast’s
Azagny National Park there are only 39,000 western chimpanzees left
of an original 600,000. The western chimpanzee, one of four
subspecies of the common chimpanzee, is already extinct in the wild
in Benin, Gambia and Togo. It is almost extinct in Senegal, Burkina
Faso, Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Ghana.
(AP, 9/14/02)
2002 Sep, At least a dozen
beaked whales beached themselves following NATO exercises that
involved a cluster of warships and submarines. 8 of the whales died.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A20)
2002 Oct 24, It was reported
that over 8,000 backyard poultry had been killed in southern
California to stop the spread of Exotic Newcastle disease. The
deadly avian infection last surfaced in California the 1970s when
some 12 million birds were destroyed. The number of chickens killed
reached 100,000.
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.G2)(SFC, 10/26/02, p.A3)(SFC,
12/28/02, p.A3)
2002 Oct 28, It was reported
that 200 farms in China tap 7,000 live, caged bears for their bile
in an excruciating process. Owners slice into the bears to milk bile
from their gall bladder with a tube. Bear bile is viewed as a
panacea in traditional Chinese medicine. Many bears do not survive
the initial operation and few live longer than 10 years, less than
half the average life expectancy.
(Reuters, 10/28/02)
2002 Oct, Pat Derby opened the
Ark 2002 elephant sanctuary in San Andreas, Ca.
(SFC, 6/21/04, p.A8)
2002 Nov 13, A U.N. body voted
to restrict the international trade of bigleaf mahogany, sea horses
and 26 species of sea turtles, but failed to pass legislation to
protect two species of threatened sharks.
(AP, 11/14/02)
2002 Nov 20, Louisiana began
offering a $4-a-tail bounty on the swamp-dwelling nutria rodent, due
to wetlands damage from devoured plants.
(SFC, 11/20/02, p.A2)
2002 Dec 1, The US federal
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began rounding up over 2,650 wild
horses in Nevada to prevent starving and rangeland destruction.
(SFC, 11/29/02, p.J7)
2002 Matthew Scully authored
"Dominion: The Power of Man, the suffering of Animals, and the Call
to Mercy," in which he pleaded for the humane treatment of animals.
(WSJ, 10/30/02, p.D8)
2002 Oklahoma banned
cockfighting following a referendum. In 2005 state senator Frank
Shurden proposed gamecock boxing with cocks wearing foam-filled
muffs and protective vests.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.27)
2002 The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration found 64,700 pounds of shark fins on a
single Honolulu-bound vessel they boarded southwest of Mexico.
Federal agents estimated that they were taken from 28,000 sharks,
most of them blue.
(CW, Winter 04, p.14)
2003 Jan 15, The EU Parliament
voted to ban the use of animals to test cosmetics by 2009. Imports
of cosmetics using animal testing would also be banned.
(WSJ, 1/16/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 12, It was reported
that the Congo Ebola outbreak was decimating the gorilla population
with up to 800 lost at the Lossi sanctuary.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 22, In Rome,
Italy, some 2,000 cat lovers marched in the city’s 1st Cat Pride
march and demanded protection for the many, local stray cats.
(SSFC, 2/23/03, A2)
2003 Feb 23, In Malawi a
lion, who escaped from Kasungu National Park and attacked and killed
about 7 people, was shot and killed by game hunters.
(AP, 2/24/03)
2003 Mar 12, It was reported
that the Congo Ebola outbreak was decimating the gorilla population
with up to 800 lost at the Lossi sanctuary. The ape population of
west equatorial Africa had fallen 50% since 1983 due to hunting and
Ebola.
(WSJ, 3/12/03, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/7/03, p.A1)
2003 Mar 25, The US Navy
brought in 2 specially trained bottle-nosed Atlantic dolphins to
help ferret out mines in the approaches of the port of Umm Qasr.
(AP, 3/26/03)
2003 Apr 1, A cloned Javan
bantang was born by a beef cow in Iowa. Only 3-5,000 cattle-like
bantengs remained worldwide.
(SFC, 4/8/03, p.A3)
2003 Apr 9, A large shipment of
African rodents, including Gambian rats, dormice and sun squirrels,
arrived in Dallas aboard a commercial flight from Ghana. An
"unusually large number of sick and dead animals." Some of the
larger animals had consumed the smaller ones. African rodents
imported as pets caused a monkeypox outbreak in the Midwest that
sickened dozens of adults and children with a virus related to
smallpox.
(AP, 11/29/06)
2003 Apr 17, The prairie dog
population stood at 10-15 million over some 1.5 million acres. A
century ago they numbered in the billions over some 100 million
acres.
(WSJ, 4/17/03, p.A1)
2003 Apr 18, In the Florida
Keys at least 28 pilot whales stranded themselves and 5 were
reported dead.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.A4)
2003 Apr 29, California
biologists reported that some 92 southern sea otters had died since
the beginning of the year between Point Conception and Half Moon
Bay. A cat parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, was cited as one factor
weakening the animals.
(SFC, 4/30/03, A1)(SFC, 5/7/03, p.A1)
2003 May 3, It was reported
that British researchers had shown that fish feel pain.
(SFC, 5/3/03, p.B8)
2003 May 28, Prometea, the
world's 1st cloned horse, was born in Cremona, Italy.
(SFC, 8/7/03, p.A2)
2003 Jun 25, An Australian
military spokesman said the army will kill as many as 15,000
kangaroos to keep a southeastern army base from being overgrazed.
(AP, 6/25/03)
2003 Jul 7, It was reported
that the night crawler, Lumbricus terristris, was not native to
northern American forests and that its introduction was causing
problems on the forest floor.
(WSJ, 7/8/03, p.A1)
2003 Sep 2, Two South China
tigers, the first ever to leave the country, arrived in South Africa
as part of a project to save the endangered species.
(AP, 9/3/03)
2003 Oct 17, A new family of
frogs was reported from the western India. The purple, burrowing
frog family, named Nasikabatrachus sahydrensis, appeared to date
back some 200 million years.
(SFC, 10/17/03, p.A10)
2003 Nov 7, Prof. Donald
Griffin (88) of Harvard, leading proponent of animal consciousness,
died. "There is now abundant evidence of non-human cognition and
consciousness."
(WSJ, 11/28/03, p.B1)
2003 Dec 11, Scientists
reported on a partial list of genes that make people human based on
comparisons with the chimpanzee genome.
(AP, 12/12/03)
2003 Dec 12, Keiko the killer
whale (27), whose early life inspired the film "Free Willy," died in
Norway of apparent pneumonia.
(SFC, 12/13/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 16, Taiwan's lawmakers
banned the selling of dog meat and introduced heavy fines for
killing pets for food or fur.
(AP, 12/18/03)
2003 Dec 23, A cow, slaughtered
in Washington state on Dec 9, was reported to have tested positive
for mad cow disease, the 1st such US case. The $2.6 billion beef
export industry was hit as 7 nations quickly suspended imports of US
beef: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and
Australia. The infected Holstein was imported into the United States
from Canada about two years ago. A US beef recall soon spread to 8
states and Guam.
(AP, 12/24/03)(SFC, 12/24/03, p.A1)(AP,
12/27/03)(SFC, 12/29/03, p.A1)
2003 Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
authored "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon: The Emotional World of Farm
Animals."
(SSFC, 11/30/03, p.M3)
2003 Sharman Apt Russell
authored "An Obsession with Butterflies."
(WSJ, 6/20/03, p.W10)
2003 Alaska resumed limited
aerial wolf hunting. In 1996 and 2000 Alaska voters turned down
proposals to resume aerial predation control.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.36)
2003 Some 3,951 bears were
killed by hunters in Maine. 92% of them were bagged by the use of
bait or dogs.
(WSJ, 10/28/04, p.A1)
2004 Jan 8, A mountain lion was
shot and killed following 2 attacks on people. Mark Jeffrey Reynolds
(35) was found dead and partly eaten near his bike in the Whiting
Ranch Wilderness in Orange County, Ca.
(SSFC, 1/11/04, p.A23)
2004 Mar 18, Jahari, a
13-year-old lowland gorilla, broke out of the Dallas Zoo and was
shot to death after snatching up a toddler with his teeth and
attacking 3 people.
(SFC, 3/20/04, p.A2)
2004 Apr 15, It was reported
that over 20 sea otters have turned up dead or sick at Morro Bay
over the last week. Scientists suspected a natural marine toxin. 62
otters died by the end of the month and the opossum parasite
Sarcocystis neurona was later found to be responsible.
(SFC, 4/15/04, p.A1)(SFC, 5/21/04, p.B10)
2004 Apr 28, The Dian Fossey
fund reported that the lowland gorilla population in eastern Congo
has dropped over 70% since 1994 due to human warfare.
(WSJ, 4/29/04, p.A1)
2004 May 11, In West Virginia
it was reported that some 2,000 bats and 200 birds were likely
killed by whirling blades at a Tucker County wind farm.
(USAT, 5/11/04, p.10A)
2004 May 18, Kubi, SF Zoo’s
29-year-old gorilla, died, 11 days following his May 7 surgery to
remove a diseased lung.
(SFC, 5/19/04, p.A1)
2004 May 20, Detroit Zoo
officials said they will stop exhibiting elephants on ethical
grounds because elephants can develop arthritis and stress-related
ailments in captivity.
(Reuters, 5/20/04)
2004 Jun 10, German researchers
reported that a border collie named Rico understands more than 200
words and can learn new ones as quickly as many children.
(AP, 6/10/04)
2004 Jun, In Georgia Chris
Griffin reportedly killed a 1,000-pound hog with 9-inch tusks at the
River Oak Plantation. Only a photo portrayed the “Hogzilla” kill. In
2005 experts from National Geographic confirmed the kill but reduced
the size to about 800 pounds.
(AP, 7/29/04)(SFC, 3/22/05, p.A2)
2004 Jul 16, Peru’s National
Agrarian Research Institute launched a new super-cuy (guinea pig),
weighing up to 10 pounds, to help improve the Peruvian diet.
(Econ, 7/17/04, p.37)
2004 Jul, In Tanzania over
10,000 flamingos died at the Lake Manyara National Park. Officials
were puzzled and no other wildlife appeared affected.
(SFC, 7/24/04, p.B10)
2004 Aug 9, Officials in South
Africa prepared to kill some 30,000 ostriches following the deaths
of over 1,500 due to avian influenza.
(SFC, 8/10/04, p.A3)
2004 Aug 12, I was reported
that a huge ant colony measuring 100 kilometers (62 miles) across
had been found under the southern Australian city of Melbourne. The
ants were a mutant variety of Argentine ants.
(AP, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 12, Laboratory monkeys
that started out as careless procrastinators became super-efficient
workers after injections into their brains that suppressed a gene
linked to their ability to anticipate a reward.
(LAT, 8/12/04)
2004 Aug 21, A Chinese official
said a lethal strain of avian influenza had been found among pigs at
several farms.
(SFC, 8/21/04, p.A9)
2004 Aug 23, Researchers
presented results on genetically engineered mice capable of running
farther and longer than those bred naturally.
(SFC, 8/24/04, p.A2)
2004 Sep 8, It was reported
that some 60 hippos had died of unknown causes over the last 2
months in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
(SFC, 9/8/04, p.A6)
2004 Sep 28, Kenya said it will
push for an international ban on trade in lion trophies and skins,
expressing concern that the African lion is "under threat."
(AP, 9/28/04)
2004 Jan 1, In Norway a new law
went into effect to allow foreign hunters to hunt seals. The
legislation raised the seal kill quota to 2,000.
(SFC, 11/27/04, p.A10)
2004 Nov 28, On southern
Australia’s King Island about 80 whales and dolphins died after
beaching, and about 50 more were still at risk.
(AP, 11/29/04)
2004 Dec 7, In Illinois after
Babs the gorilla died at age 30, keepers at Brookfield Zoo, decided
to allow surviving gorillas to mourn the most influential female in
their social family. One by one, the gorillas filed into the Tropic
World building where Babs' body lay, arms outstretched. Curator
Melinda Pruett Jones called it a "gorilla wake."
(AP, 12/8/04)
2004 Dec 22, A Texas woman paid
$50,000 for a cloned cat, Little Nicky, created by Genetic Savings
and Clone of Sausalito, Ca.
(SFC, 12/23/04, p.A1)
2004 Stanley Corem authored
“How Dogs Think: Understanding the Canine Mind.”
(NH, 2/05, p.48)
2004 Mark Derr authored “A
Dog’s History of America.”
(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.M3)
2004 M.R. Montgomery authored
“A Cow’s Life: The Surprising History of Cattle and How the Black
Angus Came to Be Home on the Range.”
(NH, 2/05, p.52)
2004 Mark Obmascik authored
"The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession." It was
about a 1998 competition to see as many birds as possible in one
year.
(SSFC, 3/28/04, p.M1)
2004 John Jeremiah Sullivan
authored “Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son,” an eloquent
tour of the history of men and horses.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.80)
2005 Feb, Vietnam signed an
agreement with the World Society for the Protection of Animals to
phase out its bear bile farms, where an estimated 3,000 bears were
held for their bile. In China an estimated 7,000 caged bears were
milked for their bile.
(SFC, 4/25/05, p.A8)
2005 Mar 10, It was reported
that a Texas ranch has implemented a computer-assisted remote
hunting website allowing paying hunters to bag big game from their
home computers.
(SFC, 3/10/05, p.A1)
2005 Mar 14, Experts said
poachers are killing between 6,000 and 12,000 elephants a year to
supply illegal ivory markets in Sudan to meet growing Chinese
demand. Most of the elephants are killed in southern Sudan, Congo
and the Central African Republic, with some ivory also coming from
Kenya and Chad.
(AP, 3/14/05)
2005 Apr 11, Some 12,000
Wisconsin citizens took part in an advisory poll on shooting
free-roaming domestic cats. 57% voted to allow shooting them. An
advisory committee dropped the issue May 13 following an outcry from
animal rights groups.
(Econ, 4/16/05, p.27)(SFC, 5/14/05, p.A2)
2005 Apr 26, In Australia, a
state official said thousands of wild camels will be shot in the
Outback from helicopters in an effort to reduce their numbers.
(AP, 4/26/05)
2005 May 1, Thai fishermen
netted a 646-pound Mekong giant catfish believed to have been the
world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand.
(AP, 6/30/05)
2005 May 6, An Indian federal
probe into disappearing tigers in a state-protected reserve has
found the entire population of big cats has been wiped out by
poachers. "The special investigation team in its preliminary
assessment report has indicated that there was no evidence to prove
the presence of tigers in Sariska (national park)."
(AP, 5/6/05)
2005 May 11, The Wildlife
Conservation Society announced that the Laotian rock rat, also
called kha-nyou, belonged to a new species with the formal name
Laonastes aenigmamus.
(SFC, 5/12/05, p.A2)
2005 May, US airlines were
required to begin disclosing the death of dogs being shipped as
cargo. By mid 2010 122 dog deaths were reported.
(SFC, 7/17/10, p.A4)
2005 Jul 15, It was reported
that an estimated 100,000 gamecock breeders operated in the US,
where cockfights were only legal in Louisiana and New Mexico.
Breeders prepared the birds with injections of testosterone and
methamphetamines.
(WSJ, 7/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Richard Adams authored
“The Philosopher Fish: Sturgeon, Caviar, and the Geography of
Desire.”
(Econ, 2/26/05, p.85)
2005 Vilmos Csanyi authored “If
Dogs Could Talk: Exploring the Canine Mind.”
(NH, 2/05, p.48)
2006 Dec 5, Knut became the
first polar bear born to be born in Germany’s Berlin Zoo in 30
years. He was rejected by his mother and spent his first 44 days in
an incubator. Zookeeper Thomas Doerflein (d.2008 at 44) raised the
cub by hand.
(www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,461624,00.html)(SFC, 9/26/08,
p.B9)
2006 William J and Winifred A.
Krause authored “The Opossum: Its Amazing Story.”
(http://web.missouri.edu/~krausew/Histology/Home_files/opossum.pdf)
2006 Biologist Bill Erickson of
the US Environmental Protection Agency wrote a memo describing
hundreds of documented wildlife deaths due to poisoning from
pesticides aimed at rats. Later studies indicated that new
generations of rat poisons were killing a large variety of wild
animals including mountain lions, foxes, eagles, owls and vultures.
(SFC, 12/17/10, p.A23)
2007 Mar 6, In western India
wildlife officials said poachers had killed three highly endangered
Asiatic lions in their only remaining sanctuary, removing their
claws and bones and raising fears for the future of these rare cats.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 24, Thieves in
Cambodia poisoned a 62-year-old domesticated elephant and sawed off
its tusks to sell on the black market. In 2008 2 men were arrested
for the killing and faced up to 3 years in prison for the
intentional destruction of private property.
(AP, 3/27/07)(AP, 3/26/08)
2007 Jun 23, Authorities said
an outbreak of distemper has been killing seal pups off the coast of
Denmark, warning that thousands of seals could die if the disease
spreads to other northern European countries.
(AP, 6/23/07)
2007 Aug 20, In China Jia
Youling, chief veterinary officer, said that the Porcine
Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS), aka as blue-ear pig
disease, head been brought under control. He said 257,000 pigs in 26
provinces had been infected. 68,000 had died from the disease and
175,000 were destroyed.
(Econ, 8/25/07, p.41)
2007 Oct 9, In Puerto Rico
animal control workers seized dozens of dogs and cats from housing
projects in the town of Barceloneta and hurled them to their deaths
from a bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja. Mayor Sol Luis
Fontanez blamed a contractor hired to take the animals to a shelter.
In 2008 a Puerto Rican judge found a contractor and two of his
workers not guilty of animal cruelty due to lack of evidence.
International anger led more than 50,000 people worldwide to sign a
petition threatening to boycott travel to the Caribbean island.
Tourism officials estimated Puerto Rico lost more than $15 million
as a result.
(AP, 10/13/07)(AP, 9/10/08)(AP, 9/16/10)
2007 Oct 30, Washoe the chimp
(42), who had learned American sign Language, died at Central
Washington Univ. in Ellensburg, Wa. Cognitive researchers had
adopted the 10-month-old chimp from military researchers in 1966.
(SFC, 11/1/07, p.A2)
2007 Nov 11, Animal rights
activists attacked as inhumane an Australian state government's
plans to shoot more than 10,000 wild horses to protect the
environment.
(AP, 11/11/07)
2007 Dec 25, A Siberian tiger
named Tatiana (4) escaped its enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo,
killing Carlos Sousa (17) of San Jose and mauling two others. The
same animal had chewed a keeper’s arm during an attack last
December.
(AP, 12/26/07)(SFC, 12/26/07, p.A1)(SFC,
12/27/07, p.A1)
2007 Dec 29, Nonja (55), a
Sumatran orangutan, was found dead at the Miami Metro Zoo. She had
lived in Miami since 1983 and was believed to be the world’s oldest
orangutan.
(AP, 12/30/07)
2008 Jan 3, Sir David
Attenborough told the Independent that between a third and half of
the world's 6,000 amphibian species could be wiped out in the next
few decades by a species chytrid fungus.
(http://tinyurl.com/38tyec)(SFC, 1/5/08, p.B6)
2008 Jan 30, It was reported
that bats were dying off by the thousands as they hibernated in
caves and mines around New York and Vermont, sending researchers
scrambling to find the cause of mysterious condition dubbed "white
nose syndrome." Up to 11,000 bats were found dead last winter and
many more were showing signs of illness this winter.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Mar 23, It was reported
that 1,195 migrating bison had been culled in Montana after leaving
Yellowstone in search of food. The culling was expected to continue
through April.
(SSFC, 3/23/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 28, The grey wolf of
the northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection
list after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater
Yellowstone region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after
disappearing from the area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored
protection for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing
plans for public wolf hunts this fall. On Sep 29 a federal court
overturned the Bush administration’s decision to remove gray wolves
from the endangered species list in the Great lakes region.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
9/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Mar, In South Africa tens
of thousands of swallows fell dead in Limpopo province as wet
weather prevented them from eating properly less than a week before
their migration for Europe.
(SFC, 4/12/08, p.B6)
2008 May 1, South Africa lifted
a 13-year ban on killing elephants. The country had some 18,000
elephants.
(WSJ, 5/2/08, p.A8)
2008 May 3, Big Brown pulled
won the Kentucky Derby 4 3/4 lengths ahead of the filly Eight
Belles, who was euthanized by injection on the track with 2 broken
ankles.
(AP, 5/4/08)
2008 May 4, In the Cayman
Islands 5 captive Grand Cayman Blue Iguanas, critically endangered
lizards that resemble miniature turquoise dragons, were found
scattered across a breeding park in the British dependency after
they apparently were stomped and gouged.
(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 13, Timothy Kooyman
(24), a homeless man in Rancho Cucamonga, Ca., was arrested on
animal cruelty charges. In 2009 additional charges of using scissors
to cut off feline tails was added to counts of soaking cats in gas
and torching them. Kooyman pleaded insanity.
(www.animalshelter.org/forum/Serial_Cat_Torturer,_Timothy_Kooyman/m_1804/tm.htm)
(SFC, 2/27/09, p.B4)
2008 May 14, US Interior Sec.
Dirk Kempthorne said the government will list the polar bear as
threatened under the Endangered Species Act, making it the 1st
animal to win protection due to global warming.
(SFC, 5/15/08, p.A1)
2008 May 19, In Australia the
Tasmania state government said the Tasmanian devil will be listed as
an endangered species this week as a result of a deadly and
disfiguring cancer outbreak. Animal rights activists said Australian
authorities have started the controversial killing of about 400
kangaroos on the outskirts of Australia's capital of Canberra.
(AFP, 5/19/08)(AP, 5/19/08)
2008 May 22, Several companies
agreed to pay a combined $24 million to pet owners to resolve
lawsuits over contaminated pet food linked to the illness and death
of animals. The settlement involving Canada-based Menu Foods Income
Fund and other pet food manufacturers and suppliers was outlined in
documents filed in the US District Court in New Jersey.
(Reuters, 5/23/08)
2008 Mar 28, The grey wolf of
the northern Rocky Mountains was taken off the federal protection
list after reaching a population of some 1,500 in the greater
Yellowstone region. Wolves were reintroduced in 1995 after
disappearing from the area in 1926. On July 18 a judge restored
protection for the wolves in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, derailing
plans for public wolf hunts this fall. On Sep 29 a federal court
overturned the Bush administration’s decision to remove gray wolves
from the endangered species list in the Great lakes region.
(Econ, 3/29/08, p.44)(SFC, 7/19/08, p.A4)(WSJ,
9/30/08, p.A1)
2008 Jun 25, Spain's parliament
voiced its support for the rights of great apes to life and freedom
in what will apparently be the first time any national legislature
has called for such rights for non-humans.
(Reuters, 6/25/08)
2008 Jul 22, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed SB685 giving state pet owners the right to set
up a legally enforceable trust to care for their animals. The bill
was sponsored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo).
(SFC, 7/26/08, p.C1)(http://tinyurl.com/5uppps)
2008 Aug, Puerto Rico passed an
animal protection law, nearly a year after authorities charged the
owner and two employees of a private animal control company with
taking away dozens of pet dogs and some cats from public housing
projects and throwing them off a bridge.
(AP, 9/16/10)
2008 Sep 7, The conservation
group WWF said Australian koalas are dying by the thousands as a
result of land clearing in the country's northeast, while millions
of birds and reptiles are also perishing. Queensland state last week
revealed that 375,000 hectares of bush were cleared in 2005-06, a
figure WWF said would have resulted in the deaths of two million
mammals.
(AP, 9/7/08)
2008 Sep 9, Morocco said it
would start vaccinating all livestock after the outbreak of Peste
des Petits Ruminants, a deadly viral disease, ahead of the Eid
festival when millions of animals are sacrificed.
(AFP, 9/9/08)
2008 Sep 22, in Australia 400
sheep died in a road accident, prompting animal rights activists to
repeat their call for an end to the long distance transportation of
livestock for slaughter.
(AFP, 9/23/08)
2008 Sep 27, It was reported
that the elephant population in Congo’s Virunga National Park had
dropped to under 200, mostly due to poaching. In 1964 there were an
estimated 2,900. In 2006 the number had dropped to 400.
(Econ, 9/27/08, p.62)
2008 Oct 1, In Australia a
major report to the government on global warming suggested that
Australians should eat kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep.
(AP, 10/1/08)
2008 Oct 14, Gray wolves in the
northern US Rocky Mountains returned to the endangered species list,
thanks to a court victory by environmental groups over the US
government [see Mar 28, 2008].
(AFP, 10/14/08)
2008 Oct 20, In China, a
veterinarian said some 1,500 dogs, bred for their raccoon-like fur,
have died after eating feed tainted with the same chemical that
contaminated dairy products and sickened tens of thousands of babies
nationwide.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Oct 28, Namibia sold more
than seven tons of ivory for $1.1 million, in the first legal
auction of elephant tusks in nearly a decade, exclusively for
Chinese and Japanese buyers.
(AP, 10/28/08)
2008 Oct 30, In Australia 4
teenagers were charged with attacking an almost blind greater
flamingo at Adelaide Zoo. The bird is believed to be the oldest of
its kind in the world.
(AFP, 10/30/08)
2008 Oct 31, The Leakey
Foundation awarded its Leakey Prize to American primatologist Jane
Goodall and Japanese scientist Toshidada Nishida for their work with
chimpanzees.
(SFC, 10/30/08, p.B1)
2008 Nov 3, Zimbabwean
officials say they have sold almost 4 tons of ivory for over
$450,000 and the money will go to the country's cash-strapped
wildlife authorities.
(AP, 11/3/08)
2008 Nov 17, The Kenya Wildlife
Service (KWS) said a ton of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted
in a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on
wildlife crime. Operation Baba also seized cheetah, leopard, serval
cat and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets,
airports and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya,
Uganda and Zambia.
(AFP, 11/17/08)
2008 Dec 9, A South African man
accused of attempting to smuggle hundreds of rare chameleons,
snakes, lizards and frogs out of Madagascar inside his jacket and
luggage was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail.
(AP, 12/9/08)
2008 James Lever, a book
editor, authored “Me Cheetah: My Life in Hollywood,” a
pseudo-autobiography by Tarzan’s friendly chimpanzee. It was first
published in Britain before the author’s name was revealed. The
American edition came out in 2009.
(WSJ, 3/13/09, p.W10)
2008 Marion Nestle authored
“Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine,” which
illuminates the connections between the food supplies of
humans, farm animals and pets.
(Econ, 9/6/08, p.97)
2008 Irene Pepperberg authored
“Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Uncovered a Hidden
World of Animal Intelligence – And Formed a Deep bond in the
Process.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.100)
2008 In Nepal a WWF survey
found just 121 adult tigers of breeding age in the country.
(AFP, 6/3/11)
2009 Jan 16, In India a herd of
nearly 150 hungry elephants rampaged through a village in the remote
northeast, trampling to death a young family as they slept in their
hut.
(AP, 1/17/09)
2009 Jan 16, South African
police and game park rangers said they have arrested 11 suspects in
an international rhinoceros poaching ring. Some of the rhinos had
their horns hacked from them while they were still alive.
(AP, 1/16/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indian officials
said tigers have killed at least three children and four adults in
northern Uttar Pradesh in recent weeks, forcing frightened villagers
to stay indoors while forest rangers search for the wild cats.
(AP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 4, Arkansas Gov. Mike
Beebe signed into law new animal-cruelty restrictions that make
aggravated cruelty to cats, dogs and horses a felony on the first
offense. According to the US Humane Society Arkansas became the 46th
state to make cruelty to animals a felony.
(AP, 2/5/09)
2009 Feb 16, In Stamford,
Connecticut, a 200-pound domesticated chimpanzee was shot dead
by police after a violent rampage that left a friend of its owner
badly mauled. Travis (15) had once starred in TV commercials for Old
Navy and Coca-Cola. The chimp was acting so agitated earlier that
afternoon that the owner gave him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in
some tea. Owner Sandra Herold later denied giving Xanax to the
chimp. Charla Nash lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids in the
attack. Doctors later said she will be blind for life.
(AP, 2/17/09)(SFC, 2/19/09, p.A5)(AP, 4/7/09)
2009 Feb 21, In western
Indonesia a Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death,
bringing to 5 the number of people killed by the critically
endangered cats in less than a month.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Mar 9, In Sweden
researchers reported that a chimpanzee named Santino had collected a
stash of rocks and then hurled them at visitors at the Furuvik Zoo,
confirming that apes can plan ahead just like humans.
(SFC, 3/10/09, p.A3)
2009 Mar 14, In Algeria
Islamists cut the throat of a shepherd and 300 of his sheep in
Chatabia village near the Tunisian border. Three family members and
an elected official died in a bomb explosion the following morning
as they headed to the site of the killing.
(AFP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 18, Russia said it was
banning the hunting of baby harp seals, weeks after PM Putin
reportedly called the hunt a bloody industry.
(SFC, 3/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 19, A report issued by
the US Interior Department said one-third of the nation's endangered
birds are in Hawaii. 31 Hawaiian bird species were listed as
endangered, more than anywhere else in the country. The native birds
were threatened by the destruction of their habitats by invasive
plant species and feral animals like pigs, goats and sheep, habitat
loss and insect born diseases. The report also said energy
production of all types — wind, ethanol and mountaintop coal mining
— was contributing to steep drops in bird populations.
(AP, 3/20/09)
2009 Mar 23, Canadian officials
declared the nation’s annual seal hunt open, despite a potential EU
ban on the improt of seal products.
(SFC, 3/24/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 23, In eastern
Indonesia 2 Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death. An
8-year-old boy was killed in 2007, the first recorded deadly attack
on a human by one of the endangered lizards in three decades.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 24, In Indonesia
rangers found the bodies of 2 rare Sumatran elephants with gunshots
to the head hours after they were used for a patrol against illegal
loggers and several hundred yards from their camp.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 25, Conservation
International, a Washington D.C.-based conservation group, announced
the discovery of over 50 new animal species in a remote, mountainous
region of Papua New Guinea. The group spent the past several months
analyzing more than 600 animal species found during its expedition
to the South Pacific island nation in July and August.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 25, China’s state
media said forestry officials in far western China have resorted to
scattering abortion pills near gerbil burrows in a bid to halt a
rodent plague threatening the desert region's fragile ecosystem.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 29, In Australia
thousands of poisonous cane toads met their fate as gleeful hunters
gathered for a celebratory mass killing of the hated amphibians,
with many of the creatures' corpses being turned into fertilizer for
the very farmers they've plagued for years.
(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 20, In Florida 7 more
Venezuelan polo horses sickened just before a tournament died
overnight, raising the death toll to 21. Officials said they may
have been killed by some type of poison. On April 23 Franck’s
Pharmacy admitted to having prepared a generic version of Biodyl, a
vitamin supplement banned in the US, which was administered to all
the dead horses.
(AP, 4/20/09)(SFC, 4/24/09, p.A7)
2009 Apr 24, In India's remote
northeast Assam state wild elephants demolished two thatched-roof
huts, killing five villagers in a pre-dawn attack. India's northeast
has the world's highest number of wild Asiatic elephants, with 7,000
estimated in the states of Assam and Meghalaya alone.
(AP, 4/24/09)
2009 Apr 27, America, Canada,
Europe and Japan promised to cooperate on validating alternatives to
using animals in medical research. An estimated 50-100 million
animals were used in research annually around the world.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.18)
2009 Apr 27, In Kenya 2 men
pleaded guilty in court to illegally possessing 1,500 pounds (700
kilograms) of elephant tusks in what was believed to be the largest
seizure of illegal ivory in recent years. Rangers and police
arrested the two, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian, on April 25, when the
Kenya Wildlife Service acted on a tip about planned ivory smuggling
in Amboseli National Park.
(AP, 4/27/09)
2009 Apr 29, Egypt began
slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country as a
precautionary measure against the spread of swine flu even though no
cases have been reported here yet.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, The Iraqi
government decided to kill three wild boars at the Baghdad Zoo amid
worldwide fears of swine flu. No date was set for their killing. Two
US Marines and a sailor were killed during combat operations in
Anbar province.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 5/2/09, p.A2)
2009 May 2, Mine That Bird, a
gelding from New Mexico trained by Bennie Woolley Jr., won the 135th
Kentucky Derby. With an inspired ride on the rail from Calvin Borel
the 50-to-1 odds win was one of the greatest upsets in America's
most famous horse race.
(AP, 5/3/09)(SSFC, 5/3/09, p.C1)
2009 May 2, In Trinidad 4
police officers allegedly hijacked a smuggling boat from Venezuela
and stole 1,000 endangered birds and monkeys along with 400 pounds
of wild animal meat. Investigators acting on a tip found birds and
monkeys in people's homes, in pet shops and even along roads in
Port-of-Spain.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 4, Wolves in parts of
the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the
endangered species list, opening them to public hunts in some states
for the first time in decades. States such as Idaho and Montana
planned to resume hunting the animals this fall, but no hunting has
been proposed in the Great Lakes region. About 300 wolves in Wyoming
will remain on the list because the US Fish and Wildlife Service
rejected the state's plan for a "predator zone" where wolves could
be shot on sight. An estimated 4,000 wolves lived in Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota.
(AP, 5/4/09)
2009 May 5, Australia's army
started shooting 6,000 kangaroos to thin their population on an army
training ground near the capital, outraging conservationists who
have vowed to protest.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 5, The European
Parliament voted to update the rules on the use of animals in
research and to ban imports of seal products, including fur coats
and even omega-3 pills, trying to force Canada to end the annual
seal hunt that animal rights groups call barbaric.
(AP, 5/5/09)(Econ, 5/9/09, p.84)
2009 May 7, Animal welfare
activists said more than 300 stray dogs, dumped on isolated islands
in Malaysia’s Selangor state, turned to cannibalism after weeks of
starvation.
(AP, 5/7/09)
2009 May 7, In northwestern
Indonesia 2 rare Sumatran elephants, believed to have been poisoned
with cyanide-laced pineapples, were found dead with their tusks
removed. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to still be
living in their natural surroundings.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 14, In Australia a
court suspended a government program to kill 7,000 kangaroos on
federal land near the Australian capital, halting efforts to thin a
mushrooming population of the beloved marsupials that authorities
say are threatening endangered species.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 18, A leading animal
rights group criticized Egypt 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.
(AP, 5/18/09)
2009 May 19, Scientists in New
York unveiled the skeleton of what they said could be the common
ancestor to humans, apes and other primates. The tiny creature,
officially known as Darwinius masillae, but dubbed Ida, lived 47
million years ago and is unusually well preserved. The monkey-like
creature, discovered in 1983, was preserved through the ages in
Germany's Messel Pit, a crater rich in Eocene Epoch fossils.
(AFP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental
groups in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp &
Paper, one of the world's largest paper companies, plans to
clear a large swath of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as
a sanctuary for critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 23, It was reported
that millions of bats in at least 7 US states (Connecticut, New
York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and West
Virginia) have died from white-nose syndrome, a fungal diseases.
(Econ, 5/23/09, p.36)
2009 May 26, In New Zealand an
animal keeper was mauled to death by a rare white tiger at a
wildlife park in New Zealand while visitors watched in horror. South
African national Dalu Mncube was attacked after he and a colleague
entered the cage at Zion Wildlife Park on New Zealand's North Island
to clean it.
(AP, 5/27/09)
2009 May 30, In South Africa 55
pilot whales beached near Cape Point, prompting a massive rescue
operation. The rescue efforts failed and 44 of the whales were shot
to end their suffering. The rest died of stress and organ failure.
(AP, 5/30/09)(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 8, In Malawi an
international organization began moving more than 60 elephants from
Phirilongwe village, south of Lake Malawi, to the Majete Wildlife
Reserve. Local farmers had used violence to protect their crops from
raids by the elephants, and at least 10 people and a number of
elephants have recently died in such confrontations.
(AP, 6/8/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Indonesia a
male Sumatran elephant was found dead in a pulp plantation in Riau
province, Sumatra with its tusks removed. Six other endangered
Sumatran elephants had been killed in Riau in the last two months
and two were found with missing tusks.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 14, In Florida Tyler
Hayes Weinman (18), whose divorced parents live in the neighborhoods
where many of the cats were killed, was charged with 19 counts each
of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body. Police
said they investigated more than 30 cat deaths since May and were
flooded with tips from concerned citizens.
(AP, 6/15/09)(SFC, 6/15/09, p.A6)
2009 Jun 17, The number of
Nebraska cattle herds quarantined because of bovine tuberculosis
concerns jumped to 42 and Colorado and South Dakota were warned the
disease may have already spread there.
(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 18, Canadian officials
said about 70,000 harbor seals were killed in this year’s hunt out
of a commercial quota of 273,000 animals. The 7-month hunt had ended
earlier this week.
(SFC, 6/19/09, p.A2)
2009 Jun 21, Ukrainian border
guards seized 250 turtles being smuggled into the country on a train
from Uzbekistan, where they had been hidden and strapped down with
tape to prevent them from moving.
(AFP, 6/22/09)
2009 Jul 1, Bolivia enacted
what animal rights defenders called the world's first law that
prohibits the use of animals in circuses. A handful of other
countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the
Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well. The law would become
effective on July 1, 2010.
(AP, 7/30/09)(AP, 4/16/10)
2009 Jul 1, In Namibia the
annual seal hunt opened despite objections by animal welfare groups.
Hunters were expected to club over 90,000 seals including 85,000
pups by Nov 15.
(SFC, 7/7/09, p.A2)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 1, In San Sebastian,
Spain, a meeting was underway of five regional fisheries management
organizations, tasked primarily with protecting tuna populations
worldwide. The groups representing 80 countries met for the first
time in two years to assess stocks of the fish and determine what
more can be done to save the 23 tuna populations, nine of which are
under threat.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 1, In southern
Thailand a rampaging elephant stomped three rubber tappers to death
after it was left to wander freely by its handler.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 14, In Nairobi, Kenya,
authorities seized over 660 pounds of illegal ivory and black
rhinoceros horn, some of it still bloody, on a Mozambique-to-Asia
plane.
(SFC, 7/15/09, p.A2)
2009 Jul 17, In Namibia 2
European journalists were fined $625 (US) by a court for filming the
annual seal hunt along the coast of the southern African nation. On
July 31 British investigative journalist Jim Wilckens and South
African cameraman Bart Smithers were found guilty of violating the
Marine Resources Act by entering a restricted area without
permission.
(AFP, 7/18/09)(AFP, 8/4/09)
2009 Jul 23, In China female
panda You You (pronounced Yo Yo) gave birth to the new cub at the
Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in southwestern Sichuan. This was
the first successful birth of a panda cub from artificial
insemination using frozen sperm, giving a new option for the
notoriously poor breeders.
(AP, 7/24/09)
2009 Jul 27, European Union
nations gave their final approval to a ban on imports of seal
products in an effort to force Canada to end its annual seal hunt.
(AP, 7/27/09)
2009 Aug 12, In Montana a
grizzly bear named Maximus, one of the largest in the state, was
found shot to death on a ranch near Dupuyer. He had stood 7½
feet tall and weighed 800 lbs.
(SSFC, 8/23/09, p.A7)
2009 Aug 16, In Uruguay some 20
dead Fraser's dolphins turned up this weekend on the Punta Negra
beach in Piriapolis outside Montevideo. Experts theorized the
tropical dolphins became disoriented or were carried there by
changing water currents.
(AP, 8/18/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Indonesia a
group of thieves killed an endangered Sumatran tiger in a zoo in
Jambi province on Sumatra island and stole most of its body. Police
suspected the theft was motivated by the animal's valuable fur and
bones. The number of Sumatran tigers has dwindled to about 250 from
about 1,000 in the 1970s, according to the Washington DC-based World
Wildlife Fund.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 22, The West
Australian town of Broome, with deep historical ties to Japan, voted
to sever its sister city relationship with the Japanese village of
Taiji to protest an annual dolphin slaughter near there. At an
extraordinary meeting on October 13 Broome rescinded the decision,
which it said was made in haste and without wide consultation, and
issued an apology to the Japanese community in Broome and Taiji,
their families and friends for any disrespect caused by council's
resolution. But it noted that it did not condone the harvest of
dolphins in Taiji, with which it forged sister-city relations in
1981.
(AP, 8/24/09)(AFP, 10/16/09)
2009 Aug 24, It was reported
that Peruvian police expecting to find a shipment of cocaine hidden
in a crate holding two live turkeys were surprised to discover the
drug surgically implanted inside the birds.
(AP, 8/24/09)
2009 Sep 1, Idaho hunters began
stalking gray wolves, following their removal from the federal
endangered species a few months earlier. The quota for this season
was 220. The quota in Montana was set at 75.
(SFC, 9/2/09, p.A8)
2009 Sep 1, In the Bahamas an
amended fisheries laws took effect to give full protection to all
sea turtles found in the Atlantic archipelago's waters by banning
the harvest, possession, purchase and sale of the endangered
reptiles, including their eggs.
(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 9, Conservationists
said poaching and drought-related hunger have killed more than 100
of Kenya's famous elephants in the north of the country so far this
year. Around 23,000 elephants live in Kenya but populations can be
devastated by poaching within a couple of years. A recent survey in
Chad showed its elephant population had declined from 3,800 to just
over 600 in the past three years.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 25, An environmental
group said a gecko with leopard-like spots on its body and a fanged
frog that eats birds are among 163 new species discovered last year
in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, which included Laos,
Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 25, Palau announced to
the UN General Assembly that it is creating a shark and ray
sanctuary over some 240,000 square miles around its coastline. Palau
had just one boat to patrol the protected waters. Some 20,000 people
populated the 190-square mile archipelago.
(SFC, 9/25/09, p.A6)
2009 Sep 29, Ethiopian and
Kenyan authorities seized more than 2,600 pounds (1,200 kilograms)
of ivory from nearly 100 illegally killed elephants. Specially
trained dogs sniffed out a consignment of bloodstained tusks at
Kenya's national airport. Another shipment of tusks sent by the same
individual had been seized a day earlier at the airport in
Ethiopia's capital.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Sep 30, Bangladesh awarded
a farmer who killed more than 83,000 rats and launched a monthlong
campaign nationwide to kill millions more, to protect crops and
reduce the need for food imports.
(AP, 9/30/09)
2009 Oct 13, Montana wildlife
commissioners shut down gray wolf hunting in backcountry adjacent to
Yellowstone National Park after 9 wolves were killed in recent
weeks. The statewide quota was kept at 75.
(SFC, 10/14/09, p.A4)
2009 Oct 19, Japan said it has
caught 59 whales off Hokkaido, one short of the maximum allowed by
international guidelines, under a research program that critics say
is a cover for commercial whaling.
(AP, 10/19/09)
2009 Oct 22, The Obama
administration said it is designating over 200,000 square miles in
Alaska and off its coast as critical habitat for polar bears.
(SFC, 10/22/09, p.A7)
2009 Oct 27, In Canada 2
coyotes attacked and killed Taylor Mitchell (19), a
singer-songwriter from Toronto, as she hiked alone in Cape Breton
Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia.
(SFC, 10/29/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 30, The BBC said Anton
Turner (38), a British guide working on a children's television show
in Tanzania, was killed after being charged by an elephant. The show
"Serious Explorers" followed David Livingstone's famous 19th-century
trek across the African continent.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Kashmir the
bodies of 2 senior rebels, mauled to death by a wild bear, were
recovered. Police said they were members of the region's most
powerful group, Hizbul Mujahedin and had been active in Indian
Kashmir for more than six years.
(AFP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 13, India officials
said all elephants living in Indian zoos and circuses will be moved
to wildlife parks and game sanctuaries where the animals can graze
more freely.
(AP, 11/13/09)
2009 Nov 16, Thai police
arrested Samart Chokechoyma (36) and Kanokwan Wongsaroj (38) on
charges of smuggling African ivory into the country to supply shops
that sell jewelry and trinkets, including to customers in the US.
DNA tests showed that it was of African origin.
(AP, 11/17/09)
2009 Nov 19, Four whaling ships
left Japan for a five-month hunt in the Southern Ocean, using a
loophole in an international moratorium that allows their killing
for lethal "research."
(AFP, 11/20/09)
2009 Nov 24, In Nepal the 2-day
Gadhimai festival, celebrated every five years, was attended by many
Hindus from India as well as Nepal. More than 200,000 buffaloes,
pigs, goats, chickens and pigeons were expected to be slaughtered
this year.
(AP, 11/20/09)(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Australian
Northern Territory officials said some 6,000 feral camels are
running wild in the remote outback community of Docker River in
search of water, smashing infrastructure and invading the airstrip.
(AFP, 11/25/09)
2009 Nov 27, Bison returned to
Mexico for the first time since the 1800s, with Mexican authorities
releasing 23 donated US animals in northern Chihuahua state. The
donated bison came from the Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota.
(AP, 11/27/09)
2009 Nov 30, Interpol and the
Kenya Wildlife Service said African authorities over the last 3
months had raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and
used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768kg) of
illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation. This involved the
wildlife authorities, police and customs departments of Burundi,
Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(AP, 11/30/09)
2009 Dec 2, Cambodian police
confiscated two tons of live snakes and tortoises and arrested two
men trying to smuggle the slithering cargo up a river from Cambodia
to Vietnam. Police arrested two Cambodians, aged 17 and 20, who said
they were hired to transport the cargo but did not know the
identities of their employers.
(AP, 12/3/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Ohio a barn fire
killed two workers and 43 horses at a harness racing track in
Lebanon.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 7, ITV, the British TV
channel behind hit show "I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!",
apologized for the death of a rat during filming in Australia, as
the stars who killed it faced police charges.
(AFP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 11, Australia's PM
Kevin Rudd threatened legal action against Japan if it does not stop
its research whaling program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 12, In Italy at least
5 sperm whales died after a pod of nine beached on the southern
coast. Experts called it a rare and puzzling mass beaching for such
a large species. Officials were considering euthanizing the last two
whales still trapped in high waves.
(AP, 12/12/09)
2009 Dec 15, Australian
scientists reported the discovery of an octopus in Indonesia that
collects coconut shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated
behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool
use in an invertebrate animal.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 15, Mexican
authorities found the decapitated bodies of four men in the border
city of Tijuana. A grenade attack on a police station in western
Mexico wounded a pregnant woman and her 3-year-old daughter. US
officials delivered five helicopters to Mexico to help the country
in its fight against drug cartels. 7 vehicles were burned in Mexico
City. Investigators found evidence linking an animal rights group to
homemade bombs that burned the cars.
(AP, 12/15/09)(AP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 17, Malaysian marine
police rescued 62 pangolins. 2 days later Malaysian wildlife
authorities said they rescued 130 pangolins and arrested two men
attempting to smuggle the protected species. They were expected to
be illegally exported to China, Japan and Hong Kong, where animal's
meat is considered a delicacy with medicinal qualities.
(AFP,
12/20/09)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin)
2009 Dec 20, Four of the
world's last known 8 northern white rhinos landed in Kenya and were
transported to a game park. No white rhinos are known to remain in
the wild, and the animals transported have produced no offspring
after nearly 24 years in a Czech zoo. Officials hoped the endangered
mammals will reproduce and save their subspecies. Two northern
whites remained behind; two others are in San Diego.
(AP, 12/20/09)
2009 Dec 22, Chinese local
media reported that a man who killed and ate what may have been the
last wild Indochinese tiger in China was sentenced to 12 years in
jail. Kang Wannian, a villager from Mengla, Yunnan Province, met the
tiger in February while gathering freshwater clams in a nature
reserve near China's border with Laos. He claimed to have killed it
in self-defense.
(Reuters, 12/22/09)
2009 Dec 23, Japanese whalers
and militant conservationists clashed in the Antarctic Ocean over
two days, with weapons including water cannon, blinding lasers and
bottles of rancid acid.
(AP, 12/23/09)
2009 Dec 26, In New Zealand
some 20 pilot whales died on Colville Beach after stranding but
holiday-makers and conservation workers managed to coax 43 others
back out to sea. Some 105 long-finned pilot whales, stranded on
South Island, died.
(AP, 12/27/09)(AP, 12/28/09)
2009 Dec 28, In northern Nevada
federal officials began a 2-month roundup of some 2,500 wild horses
due to overpopulation. Federal managers on Feb 5 said the roundup
was completed with 1,922 mustangs removed from the Calico Mountains
Complex. 86 horses died in the government roundup, mostly from
stress and trauma.
(SFC, 12/29/09, p.A8)(SFC, 2/6/10, p.A6)(SFC,
4/20/10, p.A6)
2009 Dec 28, In central Kenya
poachers killed an endangered southern white rhino in a privately
owned ranch and cut off its horns. Wildlife Service rangers tracked
down the suspected poachers and suspected buyers on Dec 3 and caught
them with two rhino horns weighing more than 7 kg (16 pounds) and
647,000 Kenyan shillings ($8,500) in cash. 12 suspects, all of them
Kenyans, were arrested as other suspects escaped.
(AP, 1/4/10)
2009 Dec 31, In St. George,
Utah, a trailer at an RV park containing some 19 pet pythons caught
fire. 11 of the snakes survived.
(SFC, 1/2/10, p.A4)
2009 Jonathan Safran Foer
authored “Eating Animals.”
(SSFC, 11/8/09, p.E1)
2009 Brad Kessler authored
“Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A short History of Herding and the Art
of Making Cheese.”
(Econ, 7/4/09, p.81)
2009 In Florida the tally of
manatee deaths reached a record 429 for the year, surpassing the
2006 record of 417.
(SFC, 1/9/10, p.A4)
2009 In the Netherlands 6
people died this year from Q-fever. Some 2,300 had become infected
by Coxiella burnetti, the infectious bug responsible for the
disease. The bug is released into the air during birthing or
miscarriages by infected goats. 40,000 pregnant goats were slated to
be destroyedin early 2010.
(Econ, 1/9/10, p.52)
2010 Jan 1, It was reported
that Australian researchers have cracked the genetic origin of the
deadly cancer that is threatening to wipe out Tasmanian devils,
raising hopes that the animal's future is safe.
(AFP, 1/1/10)
2010 Jan 4, In Kenya US citizen
Sharon Brown (39) and her daughter Margaux (1) were trampled to
death when a lone elephant charged out of the brush just outside
Mount Kenya National Park.
(AP, 1/6/10)
2010 Jan 8, In Puerto Rico
officials said they have killed 800 monkeys blamed for scavenging
crops and damaging natural resources in southwest region. Most of
those killed were patas monkeys. About 200 rhesus monkeys were sent
to the Caribbean Primate Research Center at the University of Puerto
Rico and to other countries. The monkeys had escaped from research
labs in the 1960s and '70s.
(AP, 1/8/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Florida a 3-day
state-coordinated hunt began to track down invasive pythons. It was
feared that the African rock python would begin breeding with the
Burmese python, which has already gained a foothold in the
Everglades, and produce a new “super snake.”
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A8)
2010 Jan 13, In Seattle,
Washington Tohru Shigemura (71), a Japanese psychiatrist traveling
the world as a big game hunter, was charged in connection with
smuggling black bear gall bladders. He had pretended to be a US
citizen to buy guns, which he used to kill 6 black bears in and
around the Quinault Indian Reservation.
(SFC, 1/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Jan 14, Austrian
scientists stopped a 2-week old avalanche experiment that involved
burying pigs in snow and monitoring their deaths, following vehement
protests by animal rights activists.
(SFC, 1/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Jan 19, The World Wildlife
Fund warned that the wild tiger faced extinction in China after
having been decimated by poaching and the destruction of its natural
habitat.
(AFP, 1/19/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Vietnam 19 rare
Asiatic moon bears, found at an illegal Taiwanese-owned operation in
southern Vietnam, reached a new home at Tam Dao National Park,
joining 29 bears already at the rescue center. Ultrasound tests had
found evidence of thickened gall bladders, a telltale sign of gall
bladder milking. Some may need to have the organ removed because of
extensive damage.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, Police in Mexico
City rescued 150 ferrets from armed robbers after a high speed
chase. 14 boxes of ferrets imported from the US were taken by force
by 3 robbers from a truck after it left the Mexico City airport. Two
suspects were under arrest and another escaped.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 22, In South Africa
the national parks authority said poachers have killed 14 rhinos
this year. The parks authority announced military patrols in Kruger
National Park, where 7 of the rhinos were killed. The other 7 were
killed in the North West province.
(AFP, 1/23/10)
2010 Jan 23, In New Zealand 48
pilot whales stranded at Port Levy on South Island, but scores of
volunteers joined Department of Conservation workers to refloat them
off the shallow, muddy inlet. By the next day rescuers managed to
coax 33 back out into deep waters, but another 15 of the pod died.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Thailand 13
tiger range states attended the first Ministerial Conference on
Tiger Conservation. The aim of the 3-day meeting was to convince
countries to pledge to spend more on tiger conservation and set
targets for boosting their numbers. The meeting was being organized
by Thailand and the Global Tiger Initiative, a coalition formed in
2008 by the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institute and nearly 40
conservation groups. It aimed to double tiger numbers by 2022. The
13 countries attending were Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China,
India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand
and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/27/10)
2010 Jan 29, In New Zealand
police seized weapons used by two men to slaughter more than 30 dogs
owned by a neighbor in what animal welfare authorities said could be
the country's worst animal cruelty case.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 29, In Thailand a
dozen Asian nations and Russia vowed to double the number of wild
tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big
cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm
their habitats. The 13 countries included Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal,
Russia, Thailand and Vietnam.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Feb 6, Spanish matador
Jairo Miguel Sanchez Alonso (16) killed six bulls in one afternoon,
pulling off a feat normally attempted only by seasoned veterans and
winning trophies for his skill, ears from animals he had just slain.
(AP, 2/6/10)
2010 Feb 8, The Obama
administration said it will spend $78.5 million on efforts to
contain the Asian carp, which threatened to endanger the Great
Lakes’ $7 billion fishing industry.
(SFC, 2/9/10, p.A4)
2010 Feb 8, In Australia ITV
Studios, producer of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here," was
fined 3,000 Australian dollars ($2,615) after pleading guilty of
animal cruelty after two reality show contestants skinned, cooked
and ate a rat during filming in Australia.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 11, In the Antarctic
Ocean Sea Shepherd protesters shot butyric acid, produced from
stinking rancid butter, at Japanese whalers to try to disrupt the
annual whale hunt. The activists maintained that butyric acid is
nontoxic.
(AP, 2/12/10)
2010 Feb 11, Willem
Wijnstekers, head of the UN program to protect endangered species,
said that Zimbabwe security forces had killed over 200 rhinos over
the past 2 years putting that population on the verge of extinction.
(SFC, 2/12/10, p.A2)
2010 Feb 14, In New Zealand
Department of Conservation workers found 9 whales dead on Stewart
Island's West Ruggedy Beach after they were alerted by a passer-by.
Wild seas and strong winds made it impossible to mount a rescue for
19 survivors. Conservation officials were forced to euthanize the
animals.
(AP, 2/15/10)
2010 Feb 17, It was reported
that a mysterious illness was killing brown pelicans along the
northern California coast. Some 100 birds were in for treatment at
the Int’l. Bird Rescue Research Center in Cordelia. Some 300 others
found treatment at the center’s San Pedro branch. Biologists on Feb
22 said stormy weather had caused the disappearance of prey in
stirred up waters possible due to El Nino and recent big storms.
(SFC, 2/17/10, p.A1)(SFC, 2/23/10, p.C2)
2010 Feb 23, It was reported
that Florida wildlife officials have created a special python
hunting season to stop the spread of the nonnative snakes throughout
the Everglades. A $26 permit allow hunters to kill the reptiles from
March 8 to April 17.
(SFC, 2/23/10, p.A6)
2010 Feb 24, In Orlando,
Florida, SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed after Tilikum, a
12,000 pound killer whale, grabbed her hair and pulled her under
water.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 24, Thailand officials
seized two tons of elephant tusks from Africa hidden in pallets
labeled as mobile phone parts in the country's largest ivory
seizure.
(AP, 2/25/10)
2010 Feb 26, Mozambique state
media said 2 young men accused of having sex with a goat in central
Mozambique are facing criminal charges, and the goat's owner is
demanding they make traditional wedding arrangements.
(AFP, 2/26/10)
2010 Feb 27, Militant
anti-whalers declared an end to this season's pursuit of Japanese
harpoon ships in Antarctic waters, saying it was their most
successful and intensely fought campaign so far.
(AFP, 2/27/10)
2010 Mar 5, In Spain the
regions of Madrid, Valencia and southern Murcia said they will keep
bullfighting legal and give the sport cultural heritage protection.
(SFC, 3/6/10, p.A2)
2010 Mar 7, In the US Academy
Awards the film “The Hurt Locker” triumphed with six prizes and made
Kathryn Bigelow the first woman ever to win the directing Oscar.
Sandra Bullock won as best actress for "The Blind Side"; Jeff
Bridges as best actor for "Crazy Heart"; Mo'Nique as supporting
actress for "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire"; and
Christoph Waltz as supporting actor for "Inglourious Basterds." The
best documentary feature was won by “The Cove,” an examination of a
bloody dolphin hunt filmed with hidden cameras in Taiji, Japan.
(AP, 3/8/10)(SSFC, 3/14/10, p.A4)
2010 Mar 8, In Alaska the body
of rural teacher Candice Berner (32) was found a mile outside of
Chignik Lake. Wolf tracks surrounded the body.
(SFC, 3/12/10, p.A8)
2010 Mar 13, In Qatar a two
week UN conference opened with a focus on the Atlantic bluefin tuna
and other marine life in the world's overfished oceans. The
175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES) discussed new proposals on regulating the trade in number of
plant and animal species.
(AP, 3/13/10)
2010 Mar 15, At the CITES
conference in Qatar a top official with the UN wildlife agency said
the world has "failed miserably" at protecting tigers in the wild,
bringing an animal that is a symbol for many cultures and religions
to "the verge of extinction."
(AP, 3/15/10)
2010 Mar 16, At the CITES
meeting in Qatar a marine conservation group, Oceana, said surging
demand for shark fin soup among Asia's booming middle classes is
driving many species of these big fish to the brink of extinction.
(AP, 3/16/10)
2010 Mar 18, In Qatar the CITES
convention said consumer appetite for caviar is pushing sturgeon to
the brink of extinction. Fishing nations led by Japan rejected a US
backed proposal to ban export of the Atlantic bluefin tuna. A
proposal to ban the int’l. sale of polar bear skins also failed to
pass.
(SFC, 3/19/10, p.A2,5)
2010 Mar 19, In Las Vegas a
fire at the private Gilcrease Nature Sanctuary killed over 250
exotic birds and a dog.
(SFC, 3/20/10, p.A5)
2010 Mar 19, Polish authorities
said a herd of some 300 bison in southeastern Poland is at risk from
tuberculosis after one recently died of the disease.
(AP, 3/19/10)
2010 Mar 21, Conservationists
at the CITES meeting in Qatar said the Internet has emerged as one
of the greatest threats to rare species, fueling the illegal
wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live baby
lions to wine made from tiger bones.
(AP, 3/21/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a
rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from
a hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park,
and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 23, At the CITES
convention in Qatar Asian nations blocked US-backed proposals to
protect the heavily fished hammerhead and oceanic whitetip sharks on
concerns that regulating the booming trade in fins could hurt poor
coastal nations.
(AP, 3/23/10)
2010 Mar 24, The UN and
Interpol released a joint report saying gorillas in central Africa
are in danger from illegal logging, mining and from hunters who are
killing great apes for meat.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Mar 25, In Qatar the CITES
UN wildlife meeting rejected efforts to regulate the trade in
overfished porbeagle sharks, reversing an earlier ruling at the
conference and leaving none of the proposed shark species with
protection. Asia nations managed to reopen the debate on the final
day of the conference and voted to kill the proposal.
(AP, 3/25/10)
2010 Apr 3, It was reported
that some 4.5 million animals in Mongolia had perished over the last
3 months. A dry summer in 2009 followed by low temperatures and a
heavy snow cover, a phenomenon called the zud, afflicted 19 of the
countries 21 provinces.
(Econ, 4/3/10, p.44)
2010 Apr 7, Innovation for the
Development and Protection of the Environment (IDPE) said that from
March 3-28 Congo government troops killed 7 hippos and 5 elephants
as well as five antelopes, four baboons, three chimpanzees and two
buffalo in Virunga national Park, a UNESCO world heritage. The
soldiers "use their wives and cousins to sell the meat" in villages
near the park, the IDPE said in a report that included photos of
decomposing elephant carcasses.
(AFP, 4/8/10)
2010 Apr 8, Canada’s annual
seal hunt began with this year’s quota raised by 50,000 to 330,000
due to a rising seal herd population estimated at 6.9 million.
(SFC, 4/9/10, p.A2)
2010 Apr 20, The US Supreme
Court struck down a federal law aimed at banning videos that show
graphic violence against animals, saying it violates the right to
free speech.
(AP, 4/20/10)
2010 Apr 29, In Vietnam a Javan
rhino, one of the world's rarest large mammals, was found shot dead
with its horn chopped off in a southern national park, a suspected
victim of poachers. There were only three to five Javan rhinos
believed left in Vietnam. The animal was first caught on camera at
the park in 1999.
(AP, 5/10/10)
2010 Apr, In Canada some 100
dogs appeared to have been "slaughtered" inhumanely, shortly after
the end of the Winter Games. The incident became public after an
employee of Outdoor Adventures Whistler filed a compensation claim
with the province, saying he was suffering from stress after being
forced to shoot the animals and bury them.
(Reuters, 1/31/11)
2010 May 13, Scientists
reported that 6% of the world’s lizard species will disappear in the
next 40 years and up to 20% in the next 70 years if climate change
continues unabated.
(SFC, 5/14/10, p.A4)
2010 May 15, In Brazil a fire
destroyed what may be the world's largest scientific collection of
dead snakes, spiders and scorpions. The Instituto Butantan’s
collection of nearly 80,000 specimens was the main source for
research on thousands of species.
(AP, 5/16/10)
2010 May 26, In Greece a horde
of frogs caused a two-hour closure on a major highway near the city
of Thessaloniki. The city's traffic police chief said that the
"millions" of frogs were probably looking for food.
(AP, 5/26/10)
2010 May 28, Hawaii became the
first US state to ban the sale or possession of shark fins, used in
the creation of some Chinese delicacies, in an effort to help
prevent their overfishing.
(SFC, 5/29/10, p.A4)
2010 May 28, Australia said it
will challenge Japan's whale hunting in the Antarctic at the
International Court of Justice, a major legal escalation in its
campaign to ban the practice despite Tokyo's insistence on the right
to so-called scientific whaling.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 28, In South Africa an
expert with the country's national parks said poachers killed a
record number of rhinos in South Africa last year and are already on
track to surpass that number again in 2010.
(AP, 5/28/10)
2010 May 28, In Alaska a
backpacker shot and killed a grizzly bear with his handgun in Denali
National Park. A man and woman reported that they were hiking when
the bear emerged from trailside brush and charged the woman.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 May 31, Australia filed an
international lawsuit against Japan arguing that its whale cull does
not qualify for a scientific exemption to a 1986 ban. Japan said the
next day that it would staunchly defend its research hunt that kills
hundreds of whales per year.
(AP, 6/1/10)
2010 May 31, A Malaysian
government official, Malacca Chief Minister Mohamad Ali Rustam,
defended an Indian company's plans to build an animal testing
medicine lab in his state, saying that God created monkeys and rats
for experiments to benefit humans.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 10, The Zimbabwe state
wildlife authority said poachers last week killed 10 elephants in a
single attack in southeastern Gonarezhou national park. All the
tusks were removed, leaving the carcasses on a river bank.
(AP, 6/10/10)
2010 Jun 13, Nepal’s PM Madhav
Kumar Nepal and Forest Minister Deepak Bohara summoned conservation
officials and the chiefs of police and army ordering them to come up
with a strategy to halt the killing of endangered rhinos. 28 of the
endangered animals had been killed over the past 11 months.
(AP, 6/14/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Indonesia the
discovery of three dead Javan rhinos has intensified efforts to save
one of the world's most endangered mammals from extinction, with an
electric fence being built around a new sanctuary and breeding
ground.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 25, In Morocco a 5-day
meeting of the International Whaling Commission ended. Native people
of Greenland won a long battle to extend their annual whale hunt to
humpbacks, overriding objections from conservation-minded members of
the IWC. A 2008 investigation showed about one-fourth of the whales
the Greenlanders caught were sold on the market in violation of the
commission's rules.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jun 25, In Venezuela it
was reported that fish and birds covered with tar-like oil are
washing up on the eastern shores of Lake Maracaibo, angering
fishermen who fear their livelihood is at stake because of the
country's state-run oil company.
(AP, 6/26/10)
2010 Jul 2, Jakarta's annual
month-long flora and fauna expo opened. It included sales of the
world's most threatened ploughshare tortoise and the critically
endangered radiated tortoises, both from Madagascar. While the
government has passed legislation banning such illegal trade,
dealers continue to blatantly sell endangered species without fear
of arrest or prosecution.
(AP, 7/3o/10)
2010 Jul 4, In Bellevue, Iowa,
a pair of runaway horses in harness crashed into a Fourth of July
parade float and collapsed, ending a rampage that injured nearly two
dozen people and killed one.
(AP, 7/5/10)(SFC, 7/5/10, p.A4)
2010 Jul 6, California Gov.
Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill extending voter approved
mandates for the humane treatment of egg-laying hens in the state.
(SFC, 7/7/10, p.C1)
2010 Jul 9, In California scuba
divers began killing invasive Asian clams in Lake Tahoe. Long rubber
mats were laid over half an acre in a test effort starve the clams
of oxygen.
(SFC, 7/10/10, p.C2)
2010 Jul 10, It was reported
that Amazon river dolphins were being killed by fishermen for bait
and that the population was dropping 7 percent a year. The gentle
and curious dolphins were easy targets for nets and harpoons as they
swim fearlessly up to fishing boats.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 10, Baghdad officials
said 58,000 stray dogs have been killed in and around the Iraqi
capital over the past three months as part of a campaign to combat
dog attacks.
(AP, 7/10/10)
2010 Jul 13, In Malaysia a
police raid for stolen vehicles found 42 of them at a warehouse in
Malaysia along with and hundreds of birds and other protected
wildlife. Officers found some 700 birds and caged leopard cats,
albino pygmy monkeys and other animals. They included about 20
protected species.
(AP, 7/14/10)
2010 Jul 15, Australian
scientists reported their discovery of bizarre prehistoric sea life
hundreds of kilometers below the Great Barrier Reef, in an
unprecedented mission to document species under threat from ocean
warming.
(AFP, 7/15/10)
2010 Jul 16, In Mexico Roberto
Cabrera (38), with a mysterious bulge under his T-shirt, was
stopped, searched and detained at Mexico City's international
airport after arriving from Peru. Authorities found 18 tiny
endangered monkeys in a girdle he was wearing. Two of the monkeys
were dead.
(AP, 7/19/10)
2010 Jul 28, In Spain a
bullfighting ban, passed in Catalonia's parliament, provoking
passionate reactions throughout the country.
(Reuters, 7/28/10)
2010 Jul 28, South African
wildlife authorities said poachers killed 152 endangered rhinoceros
in the country so far this year, about 20 more than the number
killed in the whole of 2009.
(AP, 7/28/10)
2010 Aug 5, A federal judge in
Montana reinstated protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho.
(SFC, 8/6/10, p.A5)
2010 Aug 12, In Zimbabwe a
wounded buffalo, known as one of the most aggressive animals in the
African bush, gored veteran Zimbabwean conservationist Steve Kok
(71) to death, ending his years of dedication to saving wild animals
from poachers' traps.
(AP, 8/17/10)
2010 Aug 18, In Spain a bull
leapt into the packed grandstands of a bullring at the Tafalla arena
in the northern region of Navarra and ran amok, charging and
trampling spectators and leaving 40 people injured.
(AP, 8/19/10)
2010 Aug 20, The European
Union's high court temporarily exempted Inuit hunters in Canada and
Greenland from the bloc's new trade ban on seal products, while
asking European Parliament and EU governments to justify the ban.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 20, Mexican police
detained six suspects on the southern Pacific coast with 3,756
illegally harvested eggs from protected sea turtles.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 20, In northern New
Zealand 58 pilot whales died after they washed onto an isolated
beach. Rescue volunteers' initial efforts to refloat 15 others that
survived failed. A fresh attempt to save the beached sea mammals was
planned for the next day.
(AP, 8/20/10)
2010 Aug 24, A Kenyan official
said wildlife officers have seized two tons of elephant ivory and
five rhino horns at the main airport that were to be illegally
shipped to Malaysia.
(AP, 8/24/10)
2010 Aug 25, Police in
northeastern Congo said they have seized 116 elephant tusks and
arrested two men following a truck crash.
(AP, 8/25/10)
2010 Aug 26, A Malaysian man
was arrested after his bag bursting with 95 live boa constrictors
broke open on a luggage conveyer belt at Kuala Lumpur International
Airport. Keng Liang "Anson" Wong (52), who had been previously
convicted of wildlife trafficking in the United States, later
pleaded guilty to wildlife smuggling.
(AP, 9/4/10)
2010 Aug 28, In northern Greece
break-ins over the last 24 hours at two fur farms near the city of
Kastoria set more than 50,000 minks on the loose. The cost to the
farm owners could pass euro1 million ($1.27 million).
(AP, 8/30/10)
2010 Sep 8, In Australia a
kangaroo was beaten to death with a metal pole in the Great Otway
National Park in the southern state of Victoria. Three 8th grade
pupils were later suspended from school as authorities investigated
the beating.
(AFP, 9/17/10)
2010 Sep 14, It was reported
that only about 3,500 tigers worldwide were left in the wild, with
less than a third of them breeding females. Most of the tigers were
in India.
(SFC, 9/15/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 15, In Puerto Rico a
man, accused of dragging a stubborn horse last February alongside
his truck, became the first person convicted by a local jury under
an animal protection law enacted after dogs were thrown to their
deaths from a bridge. On Nov 17 Georgenan Lopez (24) received a
12-year prison sentence, becoming the first person convicted by a
jury under the animal cruelty law implemented in August 2008.
(AP, 9/16/10)(AP, 11/17/10)
2010 Sep 16, Australian
scientists said they had made a breakthrough in the fight to save
the cancer-hit Tasmanian devil by mapping the species' genome for
the first time.
(AFP, 9/16/10)
2010 Sep 21, A new report,
"Mauritius: The trade in primates for research," said wild
long-tailed monkeys sustain broken limbs and other injuries when
trappers catch the primates and transfer them to breeding farms on
the island nation of Mauritius. The report said Mauritius justifies
the catching of wild monkeys on the grounds that the long-tailed
macaque is not native, is a pest and is not deserving of
conservation concerns.
(AP, 9/21/10)
2010 Sep 21, South African
police said 11 suspected members of an alleged rhino poaching
syndicate have been arrested, as part of an ongoing investigation.
The suspects included 2 veterinarians and a game farmer.
(AFP, 9/21/10)(SFC, 9/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 21, In New Zealand a
pod of 74-80 pilot whales stranded themselves on a remote northern
beach, the second time in a month that a mass beaching has happened
in the region. 25 of the animals were already dead when officials
arrived at Spirits Bay beach. Only 24 of the stranded whales
survived.
(AP, 9/22/10)(SFC, 9/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Sep 23, In eastern India a
speeding freight train struck a herd of elephants overnight in a
densely forested region, killing seven. India's wild elephant
population was recently estimated at around 26,000.
(AP, 9/23/10)
2010 Sep 24, Investigators of
the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, who visited an animal reserve
near the southern border town of Beit Bridge and the Limpopo river,
reported that occupiers slaughtered 300 zebra for their skins in the
last two months. 7 African antelope were killed this week.
(AP, 9/24/10)
2010 Sep 29, In northwest
Ireland managers at Anderson's Mink Farm said that many of their
cages and fences were cut and opened over the weekend, freeing an
estimated 5,000 animals into the wilds of County Donegal. About
28,000 others declined to bolt for freedom.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Sep 29, New Zealand
rescuers cut free a humpback whale that had been entangled for at
least two days in a heavy nylon rope that officials said would have
caused its slow death.
(AP, 9/29/10)
2010 Oct 5, South Africa
launched a special wildlife crime unit to tackle a dramatic surge in
rhino poaching driven by demand for the animal's horn in Asia for
use in traditional medicines.
(AFP, 10/5/10)
2010 Oct 6, Scientists unveiled
a spectacular array of more than 200 new species discovered in the
Pacific islands of Papua New Guinea, including a white-tailed mouse
and a tiny, long-snouted frog.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Malaysia a
newborn baby died after being snatched by a monkey from her family's
living room in Negri Sembilan state. Wildlife authorities fatally
shot the monkey, which had remained near the house and might have
been attracted by a female pet monkey the family kept in a cage.
(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 9, It was reported
that Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens,
has acquired a Nevada ranch for use as a wild horse sanctuary, the
Mustang Monument Preserve. The 14,000 acre property included grazing
rights to 540,000 acres of public land. She was also said to be
negotiating for and adjoining 4,000-acre ranch with grazing rights
to 24,000 acres. She hoped to return all 34,000 in government funded
holding facilities and pastures to their natural habitat.
(SFC, 10/9/10, p.A7)
2010 Oct 12, In Japan residents
of Taiji village, notorious for the dolphin hunt documented in the
film "The Cove," slaughtered a pod of dolphins but spared the
youngest animals.
(AP, 10/12/10)
2010 Oct 13, In Brazil Milton
Marcondes of the Humpback Whale Institute said at least 75 humpback
whales have died in 2010. The previous high was 41 in 2007.
(AP, 10/14/10)
2010 Oct 14, In Madagascar
conservationists said a new species of carnivorous mammal, likely
highly endangered, has been discovered in the wetlands of Lake
Alaotra, the largest expanse of fresh water on the Indian Ocean
island. It has been baptized Durrell's vontsira (Salanoia durelli)
after the late British naturalist Gerald Durrell, who led
conservation projects in Madagascar.
(AFP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 22, A shark attack off
the coast of Santa Barbara County, Ca., killed surfer Lucas Ransom
(19).
(SFC, 10/23/10, p.A12)
2010 Oct 22, In Canada Alberta
Provincial Court Judge Ken Tjosvold found Syncrude, one of Canada's
largest oil sands producers, guilty in the deaths of the 1,600 ducks
in a toxic waste pond last June. Syncrude accepted the C$3 million
sentencing proposal.
(Reuters, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 22, World Wildlife
spokeswoman Marie von Zeipel, speaking at a seminar in Sweden,
estimated that only 3,200 tigers remain in the wild and that this
population would shrink 97% over the next 100 years.
(SFC, 10/23/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 22, Thai police raided
a warehouse where wildlife smugglers were storing thousands of
illegally collected reptiles for shipment overseas.
(AP, 10/22/10)
2010 Oct 26, In Belize the body
of Bruce Cullerton, an American who also held Belizean citizenship,
was found. He had been killed by a 30-pound (59 kilogram) jaguar,
that had escaped from its cage last week during Hurricane Richard.
Max, the jaguar, was recaptured and euthanized On Oct 27.
(AP, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 27, Scientists said a
new type of snub-nosed monkey has been found in a remote forested
region of northern Myanmar, which is under threat from logging and a
Chinese dam project.
(Reuters, 10/27/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Japan
representatives to a UN conference on biodiversity agreed to expand
protected areas on land and at sea in the hopes of slowing the rate
of extinction of the world’s animals and plant. Scientists have
estimated that the Earth is losing species at 100 to 1,000 times the
historical average.
(SFC, 10/30/10, p.A2)
2010 Oct 31, In Kenya a
suspected elephant poacher was killed on the outskirts of Meru
National Park. 2 suspected poachers were killed last week in Tsavo
National Park following the poaching deaths of 4 other elephants.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Oct 30, Zimbabwean
businessman Peter Evershed (59) was mauled by five lions while
showering under a tree at the Chitake Springs bush camp.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 2, Missouri passed the
Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act. The state was home to 1,462
licensed commercial dog breeders.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.36)
2010 Nov 3, A federal judge in
Reno ordered 6 months of prison time for 2 men who admitted to
shooting wild horses while drinking and leaving them to die.
(SFC, 11/4/10, p.A9)
2010 Nov 13, In Germany a fire
at the Karlsruhe zoo killed 26 animals including Shetland ponies,
goats, sheep and a llama.
(AP, 11/13/10)
2010 Nov 19, South African
officials said wildlife officials found the decomposing bodies of 18
rhinos, dehorned victims of poaching, on a private game preserve
near Kruger National Park.
(SFC, 11/20/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger
summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging
program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in
the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that
still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China,
India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam
and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if
countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect
their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 26, Kenya’s Wildlife
Service said its agents shot dead 2 suspected poachers shooting at a
herd of elephants in a national park.
(SFC, 11/27/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 27, In France
delegates at an Atlantic conservation conference in Paris took
measures to protect sea turtles and several types of sharks. ICCAT
members agreed to reduce the allowable Mediterranean and eastern
Atlantic bluefin tuna catch to 12,900 tons from 13,500 tons. The
allowable western Atlantic catch was reduced to 1,750 tons from
1,800, a level that American and Canadian fisherman already had been
unable to meet due to stock decline.
(AP, 11/27/10)(SSFC, 11/28/10, p.A10)
2010 Nov 26, In Indonesia 5
endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead in Riau province on
Sumatra island. Conservationists suspected that farmers poisoned the
animals to stop them from damaging crops.
(AP, 11/28/10)
2010 Dec 4, A Nevada panel
voted to establish the state’s first-ever bear hunting season. Some
200-300 lived along Nevada’s eastern Sierra.
(SSFC, 12/5/10, p.A14)
2010 Dec 5, A shark tore the
arm off an elderly German tourist at an Egyptian Red Sea resort,
killing her almost immediately, only days after sharks badly mauled
four other European tourists in the waters.
(AP, 12/5/10)
2010 Dec 6, New Zealand
officials attackers wielding bats or clubs slaughtered two dozen fur
seals, including newborn pups, over several days at the Ohau Point
colony, one of the country’s most popular sanctuaries for watching
the animals. Oahu Point was only reoccupied for breeding in 1990,
and about 600 fur seal pups were born there in 2004.
(AP, 12/6/10)
2010 Dec 7, Hendrik Coetzee
(35), an acclaimed South African outdoorsman, was dragged from his
craft by a crocodile on the Lukuga River in Congo. 2 Americans
watched, horrified, and paddled to safety. Coetzee was leading a
kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo.
(AP, 12/9/10)
2010 The Missouri Department of
Corrections established a Puppies for Parole program in which
inmates train animals with behavioral or other issues that make them
difficult to adopt. Inmates managed to train deaf dogs to respond to
hand signals.
(Reuters,
2/9/11)(http://doc.mo.gov/documents/dai/PuppiesForParole_flyer.pdf)
2010 South Africa lost 333
rhinos to poaching in 2010, the highest number ever recorded and
almost triple the previous year's losses.
(AP, 1/12/11)
2011 Jan 1, In Arkansas some
3,000 red-winged blackbirds died and fell from the sky over a 1-mile
area of Beebe. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said that it
began receiving reports about the dead birds about 11:30 p.m. the
previous night.
(AP, 1/2/11)(AP, 1/2/11)(SFC, 1/4/11, p.A5)
2011 Jan 4, Officials in
Louisiana said 500 birds were discovered dead, shortly after
thousands of birds were discovered dead in neighboring Arkansas.
(AFP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 5, In Japan a giant
bluefin tuna fetched a record 32.49 million yen, or nearly $396,000,
in Tokyo, in the first auction of the year at the world's largest
wholesale fish market.
(AP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 5, Swedish officials
said 50 to 100 jackdaw birds, a type of crow. were found lying in a
snow-covered street in the southwestern town of Falkoeping.
(AFP, 1/5/11)
2011 Jan 8, An Italian
association for bird protection said that over 700 dead birds have
been picked up since Jan. 1 from the streets of Faenza, about 30
miles (50 km) southeast of Bologna. They appeared to have overeaten
sunflower seeds, which damage their livers and kidneys. The seeds
were mostly waste from a nearby oil factory.
(AP, 1/8/11)
2011 Jan 11, German authorities
ordered 140 pigs slaughtered after tests showed high levels of
cancer-causing dioxin in swine at a farm near Verden that purchased
tainted animal feed.
(SFC, 1/12/11, p.A2)
2011 Jan 14, In Tennessee an
8,000-pound elephant named Edie (26) backed Knoxville zoo
trainer Stephanie James (33) into a wall and crushed her to death.
(Reuters, 1/16/11)
2011 Jan 17, Japanese
researchers said they will launch a project this year to resurrect
the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the
ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 20, Dubai media
reported that undercover agents have wrapped up a real sting
operation, finding devices that delivered electric shocks to camels
to make them run faster in races. Small vibrating robot "jockeys"
were being used atop camels for racing in the United Arab Emirates.
(AP, 1/20/11)
2011 Jan 20, WWF officials said
Gabon has arrested five people, four Nigerians and a woman from
Benin. who were found with the heads of 12 chimpanzees and an
endangered gorilla. The seizure was the largest of its kind in a
decade.
(AP, 1/21/11)
2011 Jan 25, Zimbabwe's
wildlife chief said poachers are using aircraft to hunt and kill
rhinoceros as demand in Asia for their horns' supposed medicinal
benefits grows.
(AP, 1/25/11)
2011 Jan 27, The European
Commission launched legal action against Sweden for allowing hunters
to shoot 20 wolves this year even though the species is threatened
with extinction.
(AFP, 1/27/11)
2011 Jan 31, Pakistan wildlife
authorities said they have found the carcasses of six endangered
river dolphins in Pakistan over the last month. Sindh Wildlife
Department deputy head Ghulam Mohammad accused local fisherman,
saying their poison and nets were to blame for the deaths of the
blind Indus River Dolphin. A 2006 survey put the number left at
1,300.
(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Feb 4, In New Zealand
rescuers struggled to save scores of pilot whales after 80 beached
themselves. 14 died and others were not expected to last the night.
66 survivors of the pod freed themselves and swam back to sea during
a late night high tide.
(AP, 2/4/11)(AP, 2/5/11)
2011 Feb 5, In northern Mexico
Serengeti Zoo owner Alberto Hernandez said 14 parrots, 13 serpents,
five iguanas, two crocodiles and a capuchin monkey died after power
failures cut off electrical heating at the zoo in the town of
Aldama, Chihuahua state.
(AP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 6, In South Africa
game park rangers shot and killed 3 suspected rhinoceros poachers in
confrontations in Kruger National Park. A 4th poacher was killed a
day earlier in a KwaZulu-Natal park.
(AP, 2/7/11)
2011 Feb 6, Zimbabwe state
media reported that the nation’s ivory stockpile has rocketed to
42,000 kilos up from a previous record of 29,000, but the country
cannot sell it due to a ban. It reportedly costs Zimbabwe $13
million annually to secure the stockpile, valued at $10 million.
(AFP, 2/6/11)
2011 Feb 9, Indonesia's biggest
palm oil producer pledged to follow new standards to protect
carbon-rich forests and peatlands, in a move cautiously welcomed by
environmentalists including Greenpeace. A suspect was arrested in
his Jakarta art shop during a raid carried out by police and
forestry officials for allegedly using the Internet to sell hundreds
of illegal wildlife parts, from ivory and tiger skins to the teeth
of the world's smallest bears.
(AFP, 2/9/11)(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 11, Canada asked the
World Trade Organization to set up a panel to resolve its dispute
with the European Union over the EU's ban on trade in seal products.
(Reuters, 2/11/11)
2011 Feb 15, Kyrgyzstan
officials say budgetary constraints are forcing them to shoot an
estimated 10,000 stray dogs in Bishkek rather than build shelters
for them.
(AP, 2/15/11)
2011 Feb 16, A government
official said Japan, as of Feb 10, has temporarily suspended its
annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a
conservationist group.
(AP, 2/16/11)
2011 Feb 17, An Australian
diver was killed by sharks in south Australia, in only the second
fatal shark attack in Australian waters in more than two years.
(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 20, In New Zealand a
pod of 107 pilot whales were found stranded on a remote New Zealand
beach. All members of the pod died, including 48 that were
euthanized.
(AP, 2/21/11)
2011 Feb 25, Panama customs
director Gloria Moreno de Lopez said that nearly a half ton (421
kilos) shark fins were found at Panama's international airport in a
shipment labeled as dried fish. She says the container originated in
Ecuador and was bound for New York City.
(AP, 2/26/11)
2011 Feb 25, Thai authorities
displayed a ton of illicitly smuggled African elephant ivory and
rhino horns seized at Bangkok's airport, a haul described as a
victory for better international intelligence sharing among wildlife
officials.
(AP, 2/25/11)
2011 Mar 2, The US Fish and
Wildlife Service declared the eastern cougar to be extinct,
confirming a widely held belief among wildlife biologists that
native populations of the big cat were wiped out by man a century
ago.
(AP, 3/2/11)
2011 Mar 3, Mexican
agricultural officials say they have euthanized 114 peacocks,
ostriches and other birds at a zoo due to an avian virus.
(AP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 4, Mankind may have
unleashed the sixth known mass extinction in Earth's history,
according to a paper released by the science journal Nature. In the
last five centuries, at least 80 out of 5,570 mammal species have
bitten the dust, providing a clear warning of the peril to
biodiversity.
(AFP, 3/4/11)
2011 Mar 4, A US Navy training
exercise off the coast of San Diego led to the death of at least 3
dolphins and prompted a probe into whether the military violated a
federal law protecting marine mammals.
(SSFC, 3/27/11, p.A10)
2011 Mar 8, In southern
California hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of sardines
floated dead in the King Harbor area of Redondo Beach. Authorities
said a storm had chased the sardines toward shore where they died
due to a lack of oxygen. The millions of sardines soon tested
positive for domoic acid, a powerful neurotoxin. This acid is often
found in the stomach of fish that have been feeding on plankton
during toxic algae blooms.
(SFC, 3/9/11, p.A9)(AP, 3/12/11)
2011 Mar 9, In Australia Todd
Bairstow (28) was fishing with his dog at a creek near the town of
Weipa in northern Queensland when a four-meter (13-feet) saltwater
crocodile lunged at him and tried to drag him under the water. The
crocodile only retreated after Bairstow's friend heard his screams
from the nearby pub and helped beat off the predator.
(AP, 3/11/11)
2011 Mar 16, The
Malta-registered MS Olivia was grounded on Nightingale Island in the
Tristan da Cunha chain. All 22 crew were rescued by 17th March. The
ship broke in two and some 20,000 penguins became coated in oil.
There was a risk rats from the ship could come ashore and eat the
chicks and eggs of native seabirds.
(AP, 3/22/11)(www.tristandc.com/newsmsoliva.php)
2011 Mar 17, In Australia a pod
of long-finned pilot whales beached themselves at Bruny Island,
south of the Tasmanian state capital Hobart. 21 whales died but 11
were saved.
(AP, 3/18/11)
2011 Mar 18, US wildlife
advocates and the Dept. of Interior reached an agreement to lift
gray wolf protections in Montana and Idaho and allow hunting of the
predators to resume.
(SFC, 3/19/11, p.A5)
2011 Mar 19, In Germany Knut, a
four-year-old celebrity bear, died in front of hundreds of visitors,
taking keepers, animal experts and fans by surprise.
(AP, 3/20/11)
2011 Mar 23, Scientists warned
that up to 45 rare species of wallaby, bandicoot and other
Australian animals could become extinct within 20 years unless
urgent action is taken to control introduced predators and other
threats.
(AP, 3/23/11)
2011 Mar 25, A global network
of conservationists said Africa's rhinos face their worst poaching
crisis in decades with organized crime syndicates killing more than
800 in the past three years alone.
(AP, 3/25/11)
2011 Mar 28, Australia's annual
cane toad cull was declared a success by organizers who said that
more than 14,000 of the noxious pests had perished as a result. The
number of cane toads across Australia is estimated to have ballooned
to more than 200 million since being introduced from Brazil in the
1930s to control scarab beetles infesting the country's sugar cane.
(AFP, 3/28/11)
2011 Mar 29, Thailand police
raided secret ivory carving workshops in central in Nakorn Sawan
province, seizing an allegedly illegal haul of elephant and walrus
tusks.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, A new study in the
journal Conservation Letters by an American and Canadian research
team suggested that the discovery of more than 100 dead dolphins on
Gulf of Mexico shores likely reflects only a small fraction of the
total killed by the BP oil spill last year.
(AFP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 30, Thailand
confiscated two tons of African elephant tusks worth millions of
dollars being smuggled through a Bangkok port. This was the
country's largest ivory seizure.
(AP, 4/1/11)
2011 Apr 7, Thailand
authorities seized 1,800 Bengal monitor lizards being smuggled on
pickup trucks to the capital. Their meat could sell for $7.50-$15
per pound ($16-$33 per kg) in China, making them worth more than
$60,000.
(AP, 4/8/11)
2011 Apr 14, Russia was
reported to have banned the hunting of polar bears this year, thanks
to a group with close ties to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a
longtime defender of large endangered animals.
(AP, 4/14/11)
2011 Apr 14, In Vietnam
authorities in the central Quang Nam province agreed to set up the
reserve dedicated to the secretive saola, a relative of antelopes
and cattle and one of the world's rarest animals, which was only
discovered in 1992. This was the second Sao La conservation zone in
Vietnam, after the first one located at the Bach Ma National Park in
the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.
(AFP, 4/18/11)(http://tinyurl.com/3u3l889)
2011 Apr 24, In New Mexico
Margaret Salcedo (48) was mauled to death by a pack of four pit
bulls in the town of Truth or Consequences.
(Reuters, 4/25/11)
2011 Apr 24, Turkmenistan
culminated a weekend horse show with opening of the four new lavish
race tracks. The country boasted around 3,000 Akhal-Teke horses, of
which 500 are owned by the President Gurbanguli
Berdymukhamedov.
(AP, 4/24/11)
2011 Apr, In Chad at least 30
elephants were poached this month.
(Econ, 5/21/11, p.56)
2011 May 4, The US Interior
Dept. declared wolves fully recovered in most of the Northern
Rockies, opening the door for hunts in the Fall.
(SFC, 5/5/11, p.A7)
2011 May 4, A Gervais beaked
whale washed up on the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico. A necropsy
of the whale found more than 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of twisted plastic
inside its stomach.
(AP, 5/7/11)
2011 May 4, Ukrainian
prosecutors said they have opened a criminal investigation against
the former head of the Kiev Zoo, where hundreds of animals have died
or gone mysteriously missing in recent years. Svitlana Berzina was
suspected of embezzling some $47,000 (euro32,000) from the zoo by
commissioning projects that weren't fully carried out, if at all.
Berzina was fired last year after nearly one-half of the zoo's
animals either died or disappeared.
(AP, 5/4/11)
2011 May 5, In Vietnam customs
officials intercepted 661 pounds (300 kg) of smuggled African
elephant tusks from Tanzania at a northern port city.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 6, Kenyan authorities
said they have seized the tusks of 58 elephants, totaling one ton of
ivory, after sniffer dogs led investigators to containers at the
country's main airport that were bound for Nigeria.
(AP, 5/6/11)
2011 May 13, In Thailand
authorities at Bangkok's international airport arrested a
first-class passenger whose suitcases were filled with baby
leopards, panthers, a bear and monkeys. The animals had been drugged
and were headed for Dubai.
(AP, 5/13/11)
2011 May 15, In China a one dog
per family policy went into effect in Beijing.
(SSFC, 5/15/11, p.A5)
2011 May 21, It was reported
that a mutated form of equine herpes virus-1 has killed at
least 7 horses and sickened another 37 in 8 states including 14 in
California.
(SFC, 5/21/11, p.D1)
2011 May 21, Thailand police
arrested a man suspected of being a key player in one of Thailand's
largest tiger trafficking rings.
(AP, 5/22/11)
2011 May 24, In India
representatives of eight countries with large wild elephant
populations pledged to eradicate poaching of the animals and
smuggling of ivory to ensure their survival for future generations.
The "Elephant 8 Ministerial Meet" included officials from Thailand,
Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Botswana, Congo, Kenya and Tanzania.
(AP, 5/24/11)
2011 May, Ecuador banned
bullfighting in which bull dies after five centuries of tradition.
(SSFC, 7/3/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun 1, In Thailand customs
authorities found 431 turtles and other rare reptiles stuffed into
four suitcases and smuggled into the Bangkok airport.
(AP, 6/2/11)
2011 Jun 7, Authorities in
Uruguay remained puzzled by the fact that more than 600 dead
penguins had washed up on the shores at La Paloma and Piriapolils
since the weekend. Marine biologists were trying to determine why
such a large number of penguins were found dead.
(AP, 6/7/11)
2011 Jun 9, California
officials reported that giant Central Valley water pumps killed 6
million young splittail fish last month and tens of thousands of
imperiled chinook salmon since October.
(SFC, 6/9/11, p.A1)
2011 Jun 9, It was announced
that the world’s wealthiest dog has died. Trouble, the pet of
billionaire hotel tycoon Leona Helmsley, died at age 12. Helmsley
provoked controversy when she cut several of her grandchildren from
her will and left the money for the care and maintenance of her pet
Maltese. The money will now go into the Helmsley Charitable
Trust.
{Animal, USA}
(NYT, 6/9/11)
2011 Jun 9, Indian news
reported that 2 wild elephants killed a man and injured other people
in Myysore.
(SFC, 6/9/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 10, Officials from
NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) were trying
to find the person who has been shooting and killing gray seals. In
the past month, five adult seals, all with gunshot wounds to the
head, have been found dead on Cape Cod (MA)
beaches.
(Boston Globe, 6/10/11)(New Bedford MA Standard-Times, 6/10/11)
2011 Jun
11, A 140 lb. male mountain lion was struck by an SUV on a highway
in Milford, CT. The driver was unhurt but the mountain lion died
from its injuries. Since mountain lions are not native to
Connecticut, officials from the Department of Environmental
Protection believed the animal had been held in captivity and then
escaped from its owner.
(Hartford Courant, 6/11/11)(Reuters, 6/12/11)
2011 Jun 28, The Dutch
parliament passed a bill banning the slaughter of livestock without
stunning it first, removing an exemption that has allowed Jews and
Muslims to butcher animals according to centuries old dietary rules.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.A2)
2011 Jun 28, The UN officially
declared that the rinderpest disease has been wiped off the face of
the Earth. The UN program to eradicate the animal disease began in
1945 and cost some $5 billion.
(SFC, 6/28/11, p.A4)
2011 Jun, Scientists from the
Philippines and the California Academy of Sciences completed a
6-week study of the island of Luzon and discovered over 3000 new
species of land animals, plants and deep sea creatures.
(SFC, 6/25/11, p.A8)
2011 Jul 1, In Indonesia an
18-month-old Sumatran tiger died seven days after it fell into a
trap and within three hours of being tranquilized by local
conservation officials. The trap was on the border of an acacia
forest and an APP logging concession. Estimates of the number of
Sumatran tigers remaining in the world range from 300 to 400.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Italy a horse
smashed into a barrier and died during training for a famed race
around Sienna’s cobblestone piazza, leading to calls from animal
rights groups for a suspension of the risky bareback contest. Some
50 horses have died since 1970.
(AP, 7/2/11)
2011 Jul 4, The WWF said South
Africa lost 193 rhinos in the first six months of the year, with 126
of them killed in Kruger National Park.
(AFP, 7/4/11)
2011 Jul 5, The Bahamas banned
commercial fishing of sharks, awarding protection to the more than
40 species circling the island chain that touts itself as the shark
diving capital of the world. The ban applies to an estimated 243,000
square miles (630,000 square km) of water surrounding the
archipelago.
(AP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 6, In Wyoming a female
grizzly bear attacked and killed a man who encountered the bruin and
her cubs while he was hiking with his wife in Yellowstone National
Park.
(Reuters, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 7, The journal Current
Biology reported that all polar bears today have descended from one
female brown bear in Ireland between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.
(SFC, 7/8/11, p.A6)
2011 Jul 9, An Indian wildlife
official said 3 wild elephants were electrocuted after they toppled
a high-tension electricity line near Dudhwa National Park, Uttar
Pradesh state.
(AFP, 7/9/11)
2011 Jul 20, Kenyan authorities
burned five tons of contraband elephant ivory in hopes of raising
awareness about rising levels of poaching. Africa had 1.3 million
elephants in the 1970s but only 500,000 remained today.
(AP, 7/20/11)
2011 Jul 21, Ecuadoran
authorities said they have seized 357 dead sharks from a boat
fishing illegally in the protected waters off the Galapagos Islands.
(SFC, 7/22/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 23, Rescuers in
Scotland said they have guided 44 pilot whales stranded in an
estuary back to sea, but 25 other whales from the pod did not
survive the incident and died.
(AP, 7/23/11)
2011 Aug 3, Conservationists
urged Malaysia to impose a national ban on the trade and consumption
of turtle eggs to ensure the survival of the marine creatures.
Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay eggs on Malaysian
beaches but are now increasingly rare due to poaching and coastal
development.
(AFP, 8/3/11)
2011 Aug 5, In the Norwegian
Arctic archipelago of Svalbard a polar bear mauled one person to
death and left four other members of a British youth expeditions
group seriously injured.
(AFP, 8/5/11)
2011 Aug 9, In Sri Lanka
wildlife groups announced they were withdrawing their support for an
elephant count after Wildlife Minister S.M. Chandransena was quoted
as saying 300 young elephants will be captured and handed over to
Buddhist temples after the census. The groups had agreed to deploy
about 200 volunteers to help the Wildlife Department count the
animals.
(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Aug 11, Brazilian police
arrested seven people and seized more than 2,600 animals in a 2-day
crackdown on the illegal trafficking of wild animals. The watchdog
group Renctas says about 15% of the $10 billion to $20 billion
global illegal animal trade takes place in Brazil.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 11, Sri Lanka closed
all its national parks to tourists for a 3-day census of elephants.
Officials believed the Sri Lanka elephant population to be 5,000 to
6,000, down from an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 in the early 1900s.
(AP, 8/12/11)
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