environmental folly

Condors and Their Habitat

2012-01-21T20:53:00.001-08:00

The California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps. These giants birds roamed the Americas in the Pleistocene epoch living off megafauna carcasses.

The 19th and 20th century brought destruction of this vulture and its habitat:

In the California Gold Rush, condors were kept as captive pets
Eggs were collected
They got poached as museum specimens
They suffered lead poisoning (from eating animals containing lead shot)
DDT poisoning
Electric power line electrocution
Being shot at
Habitat destruction and fragmentation

The remaining 22 wild condors were captured in 1987 and bred up in a zoo. In 1992 some birds were introduced into the 'wild'. In 2011, there were 394 of "the world's rarest bird species" known to be living, including 181 outside of captivity. The endangered bird is having trouble surviving in a human junkspace landscape.

" Today 70 percent (53 out of 76) of condor moralities can be attributed to human influences...For nestlings (birds younger than 6 months of age), 73 percent of known mortalities can be attributed to the consumption of microtrash, such as bottle caps and small pieces of broken glass, plastic and metal. Lead toxicosis, from the ingestion of spent ammunition, was the most important factor in juvenile condor mortality (birds between the age of 6 months and 5 years) and was the only significant cause of death in adults (birds 6 years old and older). Eight of 23 birds that died of lead poisoning still had metal or lead fragments in their gastrointestinal tract."

Image
Condor (Sarcorhamphus gryphus) Brehm, Alfred Thierleben via Zeno
video
See
Shooting endangered Eagles

Dogs Unleashed - Mauling and Other Folly

2010-08-31T22:13:00.000-07:00

It took ages in history eradicating dangerous animals from human settlements. Bears, wolves, wild cats etc were and still are fought out of existence. The other diverse 'wildlife' gets squeezed out of a habitat and the monoculture of the human and their baggage takes its place. The dog in its so called domesticated form has been included in the 'human family' with all the benefits of that species (Medical care, rights, beauticians, sitters etc). There is serious money and emotional investment in pets. It is still a mystery how societies tolerate the destructive outcomes of dogs un-leashed.

The following arbitrary list emphasises the folly of excluding biodiversity and boosting 'pet' species. The gray wolf seems to have re-entered our domesticated space via 'the dog' (Canis lupus familiaris) off leash or gone feral:

Attacks on children:
Twenty-two-month-old Kara Compton suffered 100 bite wounds from the family's pet dog when it climbed onto her bed mauling her. The toddler passed away. Bunyip, Victoria, news.com.au 01092010

"A 10-year-old girl whose jaw was broken in two places by a pair of Rottweilers.." while riding her bike telegraph.co.uk 31082010

A "11-month-old boy was crawling on the floor when the family's pet terrier set on him. He was left with deep cuts and puncture wounds to his mouth, nose, lip and forehead." abc 23082010

Five children" were at a birthday party ... when a bull terrier broke free from a house on the same street.The children were taken to hospital with two suffering serious injuries." abc 10082010

"A two-year-old girl suffered facial injuries when she was knocked down and mauled by a dog in the hallway of her home in at Delahey" abc 230809

"A girl also suffered facial injuries after(she) was mauled by a rottweiler in McElroy Street at Sunshine West" abc 230809

"A five-month-old baby was mauled to death in Leicester yesterday by two rottweilers who were left guarding the families pub." the sun.con.uk 250906

Attacks on adults:
The NSW Dog Attack Register shows that 666 attacks occurred in the first quarter of 2010, up from 470 in the previous quart smh 16012009

"A 90-year-old man was bitten on the thigh by a neighbour's dog and then suffered head injuries when he fell off his bike." abc 23032010

"A roaming pack of wild dogs mauled a couple in rural Georgia to death...The pack of 16 dogs first attacked Sherry Schweder, 66, a retired librarian, while she was out for a stroll over the weekend near her home in the town of Lexington, Georgia, leaving her body severely mutilated." abc 200809

Attacks on domestic stock:
Warning! offensive images! Feral.org.au

The Western Australian government is making available $5 million to employ eight additional doggers to manage out of control dogs attacking stock. abc 14092010

Allowed to go feral:
Domestic feral dogs in large, disorganised packs are roaming SE Australia. "They attack just for the sport of it. They're not out just to kill for food." abc 03092010
"An increase in the severity of wild dog attacks on farm animals in the Bundaberg region...It could be only a short space of time before we have an attack on either a child or another human being" abc 13092010
Dog dumping Moscow style: 84 dogs per square mile. Financial Times 16012010
''Cave Canem'' (Beware of Dog) more unwanted dogs in Pompeii News Discovery 171109

Quotes:
“Dogs are the only naturally occurring models of psychiatric disorders.” Nature 2010

"Each year more than 100,000 Australians are attacked by dogs... Dog attacks alone result in more than 2,000 hospital admissions every year. The Australian Companion Animal Council: Most of the dogs that attack humans belong to the victim's family or friends." abc 08042010

Image:
Macke, August: In the Garden: Elisabeth and Walterchen with Wolf, 1911 via Zeno

Peppered Seal or Peppered Tasmanian Salmon? - The Habitat Grab

2010-08-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

When one thinks of Tasmania, the extinct animals such as the Thylacine/ Tasmanian Tiger (image) or the battling Tasmanian Devil might come to mind. If one endulged in some Tasmanian farmed salmon, one might keep in mind what one is chewing on...

Various seals (Pinnipeds) along with other endemic fauna have inhabited the coastline of Tasmania for aeons. It is in the nature of these marine mammals to annually aggregate on solid ground, like beaches or rocky islands to rest and reproduce.

Human factory farming encroaches on the animals' only habitat - the ocean. A grid of commercial infrastructure clutters the coastal waters. Fish are in sea cages that are "more like the battery hen of the sea".

The aqua-'culture' encroachment of human industry entails the elimination of 'wild' habitat for the other species. The Wildland/Urban Interface (WUI), or better the ocean industrial interface (OII) is the battle ground where our species conquers bio-diversity by replacing it with a simple mono-culture. Monetizing the ocean does mean an extra $350 million!

The Battle
The remaining inhabitants can be framed as pests, in need of culling, a popular Australian strategy for endemic wildlife. Their eradication as a competitor could boost profits, as the seals might mistake a fish for their own. Members of the fishing community set to work shooting at the beasts for hours. Many get away with firearm wounds. Others resort to shallow graves for the seals. But the 'unintentional' by-kill, also known as by-catch is via fishing industry gear. Feral plastic debris causes a slow and painful death for 2% of Tasmania's seals.

In desperation seals fight for their homes and resources. Agents of the fishing industry will now be equipped with a chemical club reserved for riot control of human beings. Pepper spray (Oleoresin capsicum) is designed to disable the terrestial mammal. Aquatic marine mammals might just drown instead of dying from lead or plastic. The grab for their habitat, deeper and deeper into the ocean, will probably spell the end of many species.

When making consumer choices enquire if your fish came from an overcrowded sea cage in a seal habitat.

Links:
Seals, Parks & Wildlife, Tasmania
How green and clean is Tasmanian salmon? The 7.30 Report, abc 09/12/2009
Peppered seal the new fish farm defence abc 27/08/2010
Ocean clutter delicious tag

Image:
Albert Bierstadt, Seal Rock, California 1872 via Zeno

You might also like to read
Strangling and Piercing Fur Seals 'Unintentionally' with Fishing Gear
Tasmanian Salmon marinated in...

The Alpine Ibex

2010-08-05T03:57:00.000-07:00

The Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex) mingled with Wooly rhinoceros and Mammoth. Today they still inhabit the steep mountains of the European Alps. The wild goat survived Cro-Magnon stone-age hunters. Intensive hunting, especially in the 19th century eradicated many Alpine ib ex, except for a few in the Gran Paradiso massif (Valle d'Aosta region, Italy) The region is a protected National Park today.

At present 75% of the ibex offspring die within their first year of their life. (Via it/de) Speculation about their population collapse ranges from high temperatures and sparse grass to poisoned grass. Aircraft engine exhaust gas is thought to settle and accumulate in the snow/ soil that provides the food for the 2.500 remaining herbivores. The young simply collapse exhausted at the beginning of their life.

Images:

Marc, Franz: Steinbock, (Capra ibex) 1913 via Zeno
Brehm Alfred, Brehms Thierleben, Bergsteinbock (Capra pyrenaica) via Zeno

Blasting Light Pollution and a Right to Starlight

2009-08-17T00:53:00.000-07:00

Due to our light pollution we can only see 150 out of 5000 stars with the naked eye today. To be able to view the sky "should be considered a fundamental socio-cultural and environmental right", according to the International Astronomical Union.

Life evolved between heaven and earth. Ancient civilisations observed constellations in the sky with their naked eye for eons. Stargazing took place in ancient Egypt, Mesoamerican civilizations, Aboriginal Australia , the Pacific and many other places. The observation of natural phenomena shaped human society, their knowledge and the landscape. Astronomy and technology developed further thanks to a dark and observable sky.

After 'the candle' and gas, electrification illuminated the industrial world in the 19th Century to work 'around the clock'. Rapid urbanisation followed at lightning speed. Aggregations of people blocked the universe out to get on with business. Networked mega cities glow 24/7, illuminating the Earth. Speeding navigation in the sky, on the waters or on the terrestial zones relies on artificial 'stars' that guide us through augmented reality. Bright billboards inform us of our desires while drifting through light tunnels. Dwellings are show cased by bright lights, announcing their presence to the universe, or prospective buyers.More (of the same) is always better, so it is with light. Perception and orientation function better with more watts. No one wants to be kept in the dark. The absence of light is more concerning than the end of energy and water on the planet. Dark is just so dark.

Ineffective lighting design and unnecessary illumination is wasting energy and water. Light pollution is also negatively affecting humans, flora and fauna.The legacy of a degraded sky is an irrevocable loss for living beings on earth. Future generations will be deprived of a social right of 'being in the universe' that all previous generations had enjoyed.

More on
Light Pollution, delicious
More on Light pollution, Mnly Blog

Images:
Milky Way, via Zeno
Vincent Willem van Gogh, The Cafe Terrace, 1888, via Zeno
Vincent Willem van Gogh, Starry Night over the Rhone, with gas lighting, 1888 via Zeno

Camels - Invasive Species in Australia and Aerial Shooting

2009-08-13T03:20:00.001-07:00

The dromedary or Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) was introduced in 1840 to the driest inhabited continent, Australia. As a beast of burden (images) it was to carry heavy loads and cross the dry and inhospitable lands. Their water-conserving abilities made them suitable as "draught and pack animals for exploration and construction of rail and telegraph lines; they were also used to supply goods to remote mines and settlements." Together with Muslim cameleers they pioneered inland routes of arid Australia from 1860s - 1930s.

The arrival of petrol powered motor vehicles in the 1920s made the work animal obsolete. Many were killed, but some escaped and prospered without predators. Today they are an invasive species in a desert ecosystem, constituting a threat to biodiversity.
Anthropogenic climate changes, permanent drought and increasing desertification are a stress for settlers, their stock, wildlife and feral animals. The camels are seeking the watering places where humans and their stock have settled. They are "tearing down fences and smashing troughs to get at water.""Camels are also an increasing hazard to motorists traversing outback roads."

They are to be culled in national parks and on pastoral leases. It will cost AS $19m to fire at them from helicopters, as was done in the aerial predator control programme shooting wolfs in the same way. Contraceptives are thought of as too ineffective as they would still have time to trample vegetation. Selling the meat in controlled harvest is also thought of as not feasible.

There is no doubt, invasive species have to be limited or eradicated from Australia, but is this method the most appropriate one?

Questions remain:
What is being done about live stock 'trampling' water courses and National Parks etc?
What is being done about epidemic populations of dogs and cats going feral?
What is being done about selling exotic flora and fauna?
What is being done about smuggling exotic flora and fauna?
What is being done about peak oil mobility in a desert environment?
What is being done about the many off-road vehicles in the 'outback', 'trampling' the landscape and biodiversity?

Camel season opens in Australia, The Great Beyond August 12, 2009

Update:
Another 60,000 feral camels from Central Australia will be culled through aerial shooting abc 05082010

Images:
Pisanello, Dromedary, 1425–1450 via Zeno
Camel, Abû Sa'îd 'Ubaydallâh ibn Bakhtîshû, Persian Master, 1297-1299, via Zeno

Depriving Other Species of the Right to Live on Earth

2009-06-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

Depriving other species of the right to a habitat on planet Earth:

The Polar bear and the Pacific walrus in Alaska are disappearing due to our actions.

"Both species are imperiled due to the loss of their sea-ice habitat due to global warming, oil and gas development, and unsustainable harvest...Polar bears and walrus are under severe threat, and unless we act rapidly to reduce greenhouse pollution and protect their habitat from oil development, we stand to lose both of these icons of the Arctic"

Via Center for Biological Diversity (2009, June 19). Polar Bear And Walrus Populations In Trouble, Stock Assessment Report Suggests. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 20, 2009

The report by the Marine Mammals Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the walrus and the Polar bear.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Study of the landscape, natural resources, and natural hazards of Alaska
The Cryposphere Today

Image: American Photographer, 1898 Alaska Goldfever stampede via Zeno

Shooting Wombats

2008-12-02T02:25:00.000-08:00

The ancestor of the wombat, the diprotodon "existed from 1.6 million years ago until about 40,000 years ago". The 2.5 tonne wombat-like Diprotodon was 1.8 metres tall and 3.5 metres long. Kangaroos reached 2.5m height at that time.

The wombat today is a surviving shrunk-down version of this mega fauna. 100 % vegetarian, it eats mainly grasses and roots. Home is a burrow which they defend fiercely.

The problem today is, that they are running out of a habitat, or it is fragmented and criss-crossed by roads and dangerous vehicles. Additionally, it has to compete with all the invasive species that have been introduced to Australia.

Formally protected in its habitat, mainly 'National Parks', it seems ignorant of human real estate and wanders great distances to be a wombat. Private landholders of the South Coast and Southern Highland do not wish to share and asked to shoot the 'intruders'. 'Property damage' was a 'knock-me-dead' argument to the wombat's guardians, the National Parks and they handed out 200 licences to shoot the marsupials this year. "Most of these shooting licences are restricted to 10 or 20 animals and that can be the whole wombat population that is on a particular farm"

Soon tourists wishing to see the iconic wildlife of the area, will only be able to view the impeccable fences and pipes of private properties. An alternative would be to bestow effective protection on to the native fauna and require, vineyards and other private enterprises to install appropriate fences to signal their unwillingness to share the land with the indigenous fauna.

Update:
And the slaughter continues:
'Farmers are illegally slaughtering thousands of wombats in South Australia. Burrows of southern hairy-nosed wombats are being bulldozed or blown up on Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas and in the Murraylands. Farmers can get permits to destroy a few wombats, but that it not a licence to wipe out the entire population. Mass killings with petrol bombs or bulldozing'.. abc 011009

Images:
1. Wombat and Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), lithograph, 1878, via Wikimedia Commons
2. John Gould, Vombatus ursinus,"Mammals of Australia", Vol. I Plate 55, 1863, via Wikimedia Commons

Strangling and Piercing Fur Seals 'Unintentionally' with Fishing Gear

2008-11-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

Fur Seals were killed during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries to lubricate human progress. In proud defiance the glorious deeds are continued today, despite the marine mammals protected status.
It is common practice in Australia in the 21 Century to shoot the sea creature with bullets or arrows. Recently a pair emptied 100 bullets in an hour into a fur seal colony on Canowa Island near Wilson's Promontory. If not intentionally eradicated, then they are apparently "unintentionally" pierced, strangled and cut up by the marine debris left by mind-less "recreational" fishing people. Here is one example from Victoria's Bass Coast:

"Over the past 10 years, seal rescue crews have found more than three entangled seals for each day they spend researching the colonies...Thirty-one seals were found entangled in discarded fishing debris at Seal Rocks in the year to June 2008. The shark hooks were embedded deep. One was lodged in the side of the seal's head; the other was caught in the underside of its tongue. It looked like it had a bridle on because it had these two hooks through its head and a wire trace." connecting between them...Material like fishing line starts to wear its way into the seal pretty quickly, then they get wounds opening up and they can die of dehydration because they've got these big open wounds weeping all the time . Squid jigs and hooks create the most gruesome scenes, while recent missions have also found seals trapped in a pair of fisherman's overalls and another seal was found sporting a degraded baseball cap."

The fin-footed mammals escaping fishing debris have to deal with other human 'debris, toxic pollution and oil spills'.

Toothless 'appeals' do not pose effective conservation of the species. Make "recreational taking" with such a high by-kill rate illegal in wildlife protected areas and densely populated areas. Enforce the law, otherwise the 'ecotourism' industry will get to see 'Seal Rocks' in name only, as it is so common in Australia.
Images:
1. Baldung Grien, Hans, 1516 (altered) via Zeno
2. Skeleton of a seal, A. Brehm, (altered) via Zeno

>> Peppered Seal or Peppered Tasmanian Salmon? The Habitat Grab

Leatherback Turtles out of a Habitat

2008-10-21T02:31:00.000-07:00

For 100 million years the giant leatherback turtle (Dermochelyidae) swam in the warm and open oceans and sought to lay its eggs on a beach. It can get up to 3m long, can weigh up to 550 to 1,545 pounds (250-700 kg). The dinosaurs, came and went, but the largest living sea turtle continued on its long migration paths. One has been recorded swimming 20,000-kilometers (13,000-miles), from Indonesia to the U.S. looking for food. It loves eating jellyfish and other marine invertebrates. The the human species expanded and robbed it of all of its habitat.

The Beaches ashore - no place to nest

Beachfront developments, infrastructure and the activities of people destroy their habitat
SUVs on beaches damage the eggs and light pollution disorients the hatchling orientation.
Poaching turtles, eggs, leather or oil or commercializing the 'out-door zoo' is devastating
Nesting beaches are disappearing through human caused global warming-induced sea level rises and cyclone destruction.

At the Ocean of foreshore - a dangerous place to be

It becomes bycatch/bykill through ineffective fishing activities (longline and gillnet, crab pots and trawls)( "An estimated 50 000 leatherback turtles were likely killed incidentally by the pelagic longline fishery in 2000".)
It gets eaten as meat or used as an aphrodisiac to boost the human population
It gets entangled or injured in the marine plastic debris form the fishing industry (lines, fishing hooks, nets, ropes, floats or traps)
It eats the plastic litter (especially plastic bags, as they look like a jelly under water) and dies.
Boats and ships strike it and cut up the soft 'shell' with sharp propellers and anchors contributed to the mortality of the turtle.
Pollution and pathogenic bugs (sewage) dumped into the ocean impact on the health of the turtle
Urban shark nets trap turtles
Deliberate acts of cruelty by human beings
Sea grass depletion and reduced water quality

No Place to Live

Swimways - lobbying for turtle real estate
To reduce the risks for the sea turtle in "areas of highest risk/interaction with fisheries" 'safe swimways' are to be created. "The IUCN is urging nations to protect the leatherback turtle fr om the world's industrial fisheries by identifying and creating marine protected areas along the Pacific leatherback's migratory routes. " It is to be seen what coastal habitat is put aside for the giant to reproduce and not hit the extinction vortex.
A giant jelly bloom in a dead sea is sure to be left behind without the jelly eater. "If current trends continue, Pacific leatherbacks are predicted to go extinct within the next few decades...Now it's time to turn the high-tech science into political will and conservation action for critically endangered leatherbacks."

Images:
1. Part of Chelonia, E.Haeckel via Wikipedia
2. Discomedusa, plate 8, E.Haeckel via Zeno

Links:
SWOT Report, The State of the World's Sea Turtles
As a Threatened Species, NSW
Conservation Status, gov.au
Tagging (attaching huge radio transmitters on their backs) to hopefully go beyond the gathering of hard 'census' data.
How NOT to eat turtle as a bycatch/bykill
Boat strike and entanglement, Queensland.gov.au.

Updates:
- In the name of conservation, 'hard data' has to be gathered on the species to be protected. Previously animals had to be cut up, stuffed and staged in dusty museums. The mode of the day is to tag them or 'observe them in captivity'. So it is that the 100 million years survivor, potentially making it to the size of a small car is serving science today. The leatherback is being kept for 2 years in captivity with a rubber harness to "generated new information crucial for the conservation of the critically endangered species." On the human-wildlife interface, it is only the 'wild-life' that serves as object to be managed. The anthropogenic values and impacts are not on the agenda. The human can continue to roam and erase the other species unhindered in their habitat. A 'blind spot' of 'science' ?
Howard, Peter, The Beast Within: An Exploration of Australian Constructions of Wildlife, Griffith University, 2007
Soft Rubber Harness Enables Researchers To Study Leatherback Turtles In Captivity For Years. University of British Columbia (2008, November 1) ScienceDaily.

Shooting Endangered Eagles

2008-10-17T03:41:00.000-07:00

Shooting endangered birds on South Australia's west coast:
"Two white-bellied sea eagles and a juvenile coastal raptor have been found with bullet wounds near Searcy Bay, Ceduna and Port Fowler in the past three weeks. In the case of the white-bellied sea eagle, we know that there are only about 50 breeding pairs left in South Australia so they're a very endangered species" abc 171008
Image: C. Spitzweg, Shooter of Eagles, 1875 via Zeno

Update: Birds of prey killed illegally in Scotland: 69 in 2007. "Of these, 37 were confirmed as pesticide or poison abuse killing or threatening raptors...Carbofuran, an agricultural pesticide which has been banned since December 2001, was used in 30 out of the 37 confirmed cases. There were also 78 reports of other types of persecution, such as nest destruction, traps and shooting incidents, down on 85 in 2006." BBC 1108
- Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition:Implications for Wildlife and Humans, 2008 ( of blinded eagles starving due to lead)

Water and Desalination Factories by M. Barlow

2008-10-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Maude Barlow speaking about water and desalination plants in May 2008.

"Desalination plants will ring the world's oceans, many of them run by nuclear power; corporate nanotechnology will clean up sewage water and sell it to private utilities who will sell it back to us at a huge profit; the rich will drink only bottled water found in the few remote parts of the world left or sucked from the clouds by machines, while the poor die in increasing numbers. This is not science fiction. This is where the world is headed unless we change course."

Her book Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water – (October 16, 2007) is a very readable and an informative insight on the expropriation of water. From water as a right to water only to be delivered in the commodity form for those who can pay.
There are also more videos of her talks
- Door Wide Open for Private Investment in the Water Industry, Department of Water and Energy, NSW gov. au, 080808

'World Animal Day' - Facing the Animal within

2008-10-04T00:13:00.000-07:00

Is is "world animal day" today. One day to "To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom". The WAD is out there visualising what 'animals' means, namely dogs. In Sydney it is spelled out as: "...dogs, cats, ferrets, birds and mice" which are to be brought by pet owners to be given a blessing. Animals requiring their own habitat seem to be excluded. Only 'pets', degenerated lineages, richly bestowed with resources are to be 'blessed'.
The rest, not at our command, are pushed off the degraded planet. Mostly robbed of a habitat and resources, 'wild'-life is being made extinct by our actions on this planet.

Tolerated 'wild-life' in captivity, generating revenues, is frequently violated by young human beings. In the latest case, a seven-year-old boy illegally entered a N.T. zoo, " b ludgeoned some of the animals to death with stones and hurled others over the two fences surrounding the crocodile enclosure...A turtle, four Western blue-tongued lizards, two bearded dragons, two thorny devil lizards and the zoo's 20-year-old goanna were among those killed....The fact a seven-year-old can wreak so much havoc in such a short time, it's unbelievable," said the zoo director. They are looking at suing the parents.

Going wild in the wild
Many formally protected native animals get violated in their remaining fragmented habitat. Just some of the recent hate crimes:

The Koala

A group of young humans at a park in Kallangur:"It had a crushed skull, a punctured left eye, big trauma to the left side of its body, it had a broken right arm and when I asked the vet is this consistent with clubbing or bashing or whatever they said, yes," Brisbane, 0808
Koala bashed to death, mutilated (leg removed), Clear Mountain property, south-east Queensland.0808
An adult firing a slingshot at a protected Koala, Adelaide, 0908
A 19-year-old rammed his ute into a tree at the Barmah State Park, north-east of Echuca, trying to dislodge a koala from a branch.Victoria 0908

Kangaroos

"Five western grey kangaroos have been found shot and dumped at a rubbish tip in Adelaide's south."near a National Park, Adelaide, 1008
A youth using a young kangaroo as a punching bag, knocking it unconscious, Western Australia, 0908

Birds

Cruelty against seabirds, pelicans are being deliberately snared with nylon fishing line and hooks.: "Local children who have been throwing rocks and trying to actually catch the pelicans with hooks."These birds have a lot of hooks in them, but one of the things that have really stuck out are the number of injuries to their pou ch and head from ... local children we understand, from people around the area" Eurobodalla, 0808 It is not just an unintentional 'accident' of 'recreational' fishing.
"We've had a number of bird poisonings and possum poisonings and that horrific case where a crow had its wing sawn off at the shoulder and was left to hop around a shopping centre in Sinnamon Park - I mean you just have to wonder what's going through the minds of these people" SE Queensland 08

These are just a few examples of hate crimes committed by individuals/ groups against iconic and 'protected' creatures of Australia. There is also the systemic culling, shooting, sterilising, poisoning (baiting) etc of wild-life as a form of 'management'. It is a mystery why Australians seem to have so much hate for their iconic native animals and pamper foreign animals. But often, they too get sadistically abused, dogs get burnt, horses raced to death.
Cruelty against pets is also right up. "Animal cruelty by children is correlated with exposure to d omestic violence". Working on the mental health of young human beings prevents not only cruelty against pets and Australian animals, but also is a good strategy to prevent violence between human beings.

Still, the ever expanding sprawl of industrialised human society is pushing the animal kingdom off the planet. Animals that are commercialisable or are obedient to our whimsical wills may stay for a while longer. The next round is for humankind’s relationship with the animal within themselves and others.

Images:
1. Bruegel d. Ä., Jan: Paradise 1620, via Zeno
2. Haeckel, Ernst: Plate 79: Lacertilia. Lizards via Zeno
3. Blake, William,1819, Tate Gallery,via Zeno

Links:
World Conservation Union
The Encyclopedia of Life
The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi

Updates:
- Almost one in four mammals are at risk of disappearing forever, according to the latest comprehensive assessment. IUCN 061008
- "Australia a key culprit. One in five Australian mammal species is in danger of dying out, the highest proportion of any developed country, the global survey of more than 44,000 animal and plant species found." SMH 061008

- "We've seen over 30 extinctions in Queensland since records were kept, we've got 151 endangered plants, 51 endangered animals, we've got 220 endangered regional ecosystems, so Queensland has really got to get going to stop a tidal wave of extinctions.They'll go extinct on massive scales, many times above the natural level of extinction...The current rates of extinction that are caused by people are 20 or more times the natural rate of extinction." abc 071008
- Dolphins are being lured with fish, then attacked by local youths in Whyalla in South Australia. The dolphins were tame because of human feeding. Youths dropped rocks on the marine mammals. abc 151008
- A killed platypus, an endangered lungfish and other fish were found dead in an illegal net...along Obi Obi Creek near Kenilworth. Maroochidore.The EPA is calling on the public for help. abc 171008

- "Sickening" attacks on endangered birds on South Australia's west coast:
"Two white-bellied sea eagles and a juvenile coastal raptor have been found with bullet wounds near Searcy Bay, Ceduna and Port Fowler in the past three weeks. In the case of the white-bellied sea eagle, we know that there are only about 50 breeding pairs left in South Australia so they're a very endangered species " abc 171008
- An 80 years old, blind flamingo in a zoo has been bashed by a 17 yo ,18 yo and 19 yo persons in the middle of the day. The animal is in a critical condition. Adelaide. Do we need to cage animals to protect them from human beings ? abc 301008 >The flamingo has survived, but is so traumatised that all food is refused. The Adelaide Zoo is considering higher fences to protect the animals from violent human beings. abc 021108

Pelican Shooting in a Coastal Wildlife Reserve

2008-10-03T01:27:00.000-07:00

A pelican, a protected Australian species (Pelecanus conspicillatus) has been shot by 'hunters' in the Shoal Bay Coastal Reserve in the Northern Territory. In another catchment reserve another ' hunter' has been fined $ 330 as he was caught with a lead shot. About the effects of this heavy metal on birds and the environment Folly has reported before. Elsewhere Albatrosses and Pelicans are dying from human caused eutrophication.
Via abc 021008
Image: altered, Brockhaus image, via Zeno
Videos: Pelicans

The Black Swan Culling Fabel

2008-07-27T04:04:00.000-07:00

90 Black swans (Cygnus atratus) are to be shot on the edge of a protected wetland. Caught out in the middle of their breeding season, they are starving as the lakes have dried up. On the edge of their international protected refuge humans engage in “overstocking, over-grazing (and) the growth of rabbit populations, “. Forced to leave their 'dead wetland' these birds moved in on" some non-native greens. As some of ”the swans had trespassed onto a farmer's land adjacent to the Ramsar-listed wetland” they were declared a “pest” by authorities and permits were issued to shoot the protected Australian waterfowl.

East Gippsland in Victoria, Australia is where the forces of drought, severe floods and fires have for a long time stemmed the tide of irrigated dryland 'agriculture'. The “vulnerability” of human habitation, 'land management as usual ',mining and aqua-factories are on the cards. 'Pastoralists' and graziers seem to display a natural allergy against the conservation of public wetlands as a threat to their rights/territory.

The indigenous mythologies link black swans with their territory, the wetland, human practices and sustainable land-use strategies. Progressive encroachment on Aboriginal land and habitats of native wildlife followed. Accounts of 'vandalising the swans in the 'swamps', stealing eggs during their non-flying moulting season exist from 1882. Gould reported of whaling ships filled with black swans. Settlers and swans appeared already then as incompatible.

A culture of culling entrenched itself on the southern continent. Native fauna was extracted from the land and water to divert these resources to introduced and often costly run-away fauna. Struggling to extract a European-like life-style out of the driest continent on Earth, which by then was undermined by their feral hopping rabbits, land erosion and sandstorms. A scapegoat had to be sacrificed in 1932 when farmers called in the army against starving emus in WA. 20,000 emus were gunned down by machine guns. Dingoes and kangaroos are being 'culled' today not to restore a non-existing agricultural paradigm, but to conquer habitat for human beings (and their dogs) exclusively.

Today the culling go-ahead is issued to get Dingoes out of national parks and kangaroos out of the edge of towns. All space and resources have to become usable only by humans and their best friends. The flags and heraldry appear like mockery, boasting with unique Australian animals, such as the black swans, emus and kangaroos. The birds in the backyard are long gone, the backyard too.

Should there be any survivors, the shooting of waterfowl (and other creatures) is a popular 'sport', this time by civilians. The severe drought, caused by self-inflicted climate change does at the moment not permit any massacres of birds. But the freedom of exemption is liberally taken in 'nature'. Both forms of 'recreational' killing of waterfowl and fish socialise large amounts of toxic lead into the water bodies and ecosystems. Waterbirds, if not mutilated or shot, suffer from the toxic lead run-off. The human community receives their dose later as it is dependent on the health of well managed wetlands. Some Victorian lakes receive up to 138 kg of lead p.a., a shooting range in the US gets contaminated with more” than 80,000 tons of lead shot and bullets each year.”

Australian protected wetlands are too often utilised for purposes other than conservation of a biome. Dogs are allowed to roam and stress the waterfowl. Vehicles, boats and aircraft leave their pollution. (pdf) Energy intensive vehicles share the habitat of waterbirds generously, whether their owners are willing to share water or any other resource with 'wildlife' is another. Habitat destruction, “environmental mismanagement” and climate-induced drought is a challenge for Australian wetlands and their flora and fauna. "This is the beginning of the end for the lakes, but going out and slaughtering the wildlife is not the solution."

Images:
1. "Mulgo" (Black swan) by Port Jackson Painter, uploaded via Wikipedia
2. Image from Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, via Zeno
3. Image from Brehm's Life of Animals. via Zeno

Rich Media:
Videos of Black Swans on IBC
Videos & info, Victoria - the place to be
Audio of Black swans, Birdguides

Links:
- Johne's disease,(Mycobacterium paratuberculosis) a serious wasting disease of introduced animals.
- Habitat Network East Gippsland
- 30 protected black swans (image!) and 35,000 ducks were shot as part of 'recreation' in Tasmania in 2006 abc.net, 30.11.07

Update 280708:
- United Nations University (2008, July 27). Rising Energy, Food Prices Major Threats To Wetlands As Farmers Eye New Areas For Crops. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 28, 2008
- Ingestion of Spent Lead Ammunition:Implications for Wildlife and Humans, 2008 ( of blinded eagles from lead, starving)

Pesticide leaking from shipping container at Moreton Bay, Brisbane

2007-09-22T03:34:00.000-07:00

“A man is in a serious condition in a Brisbane hospital after a dangerous pesticide leak in a shipping container at Fisherman Islands at the Port of Brisbane.” The toxin “is believed to contain the chemical endosulfan”.

This highly toxic POP is banned in the EU and other countries, it is very persistent in the environment.” Endosulfan is a very toxic chemical for nearly all kind of organisms. Endosulfan has the potential to cause some endocrine disruption in both terrestrial and aquatic species. Endosulfan causes neurotoxicity and haematological effects and nephrotoxicity.”

The organochlorine pesticides came from “a leaking shipping container” on Fisherman Islands (map, pdf) which is surrounded by the Moreton Bay Marine Park.

The Bay Journal reports on the 'rapid crowding' of Moreton Bay in the Port of Brisbane.
Already there are a lot of threats to the Moreton Bay Marine Park .There are more horror tales of a 'A Primeval Tide of Toxins' in Moreton Bay.
Hope, the man makes it and the abundant marine wildlife and birds are not harmed.
Links:
- "The European Commission has proposed to amend the annexes to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants by adding endosulfan, a neurotoxic organochlorine insecticide."
- Moreton Bay Marine Park

The Nullarbor - from diversity to BIG monotony

2007-09-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Nullarbor is the world's largest piece of limestone.The vegetation consists mainly of “ bluebush and saltbush plants, hardy shrubs that are drought-resistant and salt-tolerant." The area is arid and almost treeless. The karst stretches over 200,000 km² (77,200 sq miles). Some of the “the worlds largest semi-arid cave karst system ” is protected by National Parks.

Aboriginal people have occupied it for 1200 generations, “compared with a maximum of 8 generations of European occupation.” The Nullarbor Plain has many indigenous historical sites, five known cave art sites and numerous hand stencils (pdf). Preserved meteorites are in the area.

Additionally the fragile limestone caves have been found to be an “palaeontological "treasure trove" “ of extinct marsupial lions.
The Great Australian Bight “receives very little...runoff “ and is home to whales, sharks, albatrosses, leafy sea dragons.

The most recent occupants (and visitors) tend to be only mobile in motor-cars. "Most people try to traverse the [Nullarbor] journey as quick as possible and they just endure it..” Maybe this is not a remark about the Nullarbor, but about a way of perceiving the environment (in Australia) when racing to get to 'it' or 'getting away from it all'. Knowledge and a positive disposition to the land (scape) would probably aid 'seeing'/understanding. The inability to see 'country', makes Australians pop BIG artifacts into the landscape, usually after it has been shaved. Then there is a reason to travel to 'it' and pay for 'it'.

The answer to the 'unused space' of the Nullarbor is to put “the world's biggest golf course” on top of it. It will be “ three times the size of Japan, twice the size of Texas.. 1,300 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain”. “..Hopefully this is the catalyst for actually slowing people “ are the hopes of the tourism industry.

Already impacts by increasing visitor numbers is resulting in damage. The N.P. is the size of Tasmania and enforcement is limited by staffing. Golfing is associated with huge water needs and mostly toxic run offs. This would impact significantly on the diverse marine and terrestial flora and fauna of the area.

Could the Federal Government not fund its unique natural assets, instead of furthering another unsustainable venue, that might eliminate what is special about Australia. Local or o.s. tourists are unlikely to visit such a venue. Keep the natural, indigenous, paleontological heritage of the Nullarbor plain as an asset.

Ecological Communities - A Biological Survey of the Nullarbor Region, S.A.gov
The Nullarbor Plain - world’s largest limestone karst landscape, The Wilderness Society
Great Australian Bight, BBC documentary
Cave art in Australasia, Robert G. Bednarik
Image: Eora handstencil on Sydney sandstone

Skinning the Earth for Food

2007-08-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

Mining the soil, the interface between the atmosphere and the lithosphere is unsustainable.
David Montgomery, professor of Earth and space sciences claims that skinning the Earth for food also constitutes an 'erosion of civilisations' in his book 'Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations'. "Soil loss through conventional agriculture is in a range of 10 to 100 times greater than the rate at which soil is created...We are skinning our agricultural fields"
Previously human populations could just move on to some one's elses land and continue their 'agri-culture' there. With 6.6 billion people today unable to embrace a paradigm shift with respect to food security, there would have to be another planet to 'harvest' elsewhere.

Toxic waste from Australia to Germany

2007-04-16T04:09:00.000-07:00

The once prestine bay in Sydney, called Botany where British colonialisation started off, habours highly toxic waste form the industrial age. To 'keep Australia clean and beautiful', they are planning to off-shore their industrial waste to Germany.
“Orica Australia is proposing to export 22,000 tonnes of highly toxic hexachlorobenzene (HCB) waste to Germany. The waste is supposed to be incinerated in Leverkusen, Dormagen, Herten and Brunsbuettel. Two of the incinerators are run by the Chemical company Bayer.” “Orica, the $5.4 billion parent company of Dulux, Cabot's, Selleys, Yates and Thrive, and the world's biggest maker of explosives, owns the waste, and says it cannot be properly destroyed in Australia.“
Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)
Petition against in Germany, Bund-N.R.W.
Image: Graffiti, Berlin

Lyrebird coroboree in Eora land

2007-04-08T09:15:00.000-07:00

Once there was a place where people incorporated the sound of collaborative frogs and birds gatherings into their songs. The human ceremonial aggregation, known as coroboree belonged to the oldest living cutures in the world. Many of the indigenous Australians lost their lives with the British invasion in 1788. “By the 1840s, most of the Aboriginal people had disappeared from Pittwater and their traditional lands had been taken over by white settlers.”

Some years ago I heard a lyrebird mimic coroboree-sounds in this Sydney national park. The memory must have passed on, although the dominant sound now is a ubiquitous rage of the (petrol) machinery over the land and ocean of contemporary Australia. This was a one-off magic space-time. The superb lyrebird can be heard sounding the new motorised racket of chainsaws, 4x4s and of course the Australian mowers starting up. It still engages in the mimicry of the remaining other birds that the packs of dogs from the subs have not yet mauled.
Do watch this wonderful creature on this video, presented by D. Attenborough:

Update 29.12.2011
Captive lyrebird mimics the sound most prevalent in Australia: Construction work, drills, hammers and saws. ( video ) The bird has been in captivity for 20 years. Maybe noise pollution and vibration put an end to his life at age 32 abc 29122011

Our Plastics in our Oceans - video

2007-04-04T08:43:00.000-07:00

To visualise the previous post on ocean pollution, this video is worth watching.
The Algalita Marine Research Foundation depicts the problem of marine debris in our ecosystem.In the video entitled "Plastic Debris, Rivers to Sea" it is claimed that "80% of marine debris is land-based and 90% of floating marine debris is plastics."

Hack, mix, distribute and eat – your plastics

2007-04-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Since the beginning of time human beings have utilised the 71 % of the Earth's watery surface to dump their rubbish. What has changed, is the massive population and the nature of the artificial anti-products that are now disposed in the world oceans by individuals and industry. Apart from the cost-effective discarding of 'millions of tonnes of sewage and toxic waste' gigantic amounts of plastic is added. ”80% of marine debris originates from land based sources.” Just the plastic alone floats for hundereds of years on the surface and is distributed/ 'flushed' with the ocean currents to all corners of the globe (map). With time the pellets of domestic and industrial waste develop into ever smaller particles. They are given the cute term: 'Tears of the Mermaid'. These toxic, microscopic particles then enter living organisms in the ocean at all levels. They remain and accumulate in the aquatic and terrestial living beings.The degradation of the entire food-chain is the inheritance left behind.
The issue is unfortuntely not sufficiently important to act on, there have been various reports over the years – all in wane. Some attention is generated now as there is a financial impact on large boats having trouble getting thorough the plastic debris.
More on causes and effects
Disposable Oceans, Greenpeace
Mother Jones defending oceans

Visualising mass consumption

2007-04-03T15:14:00.000-07:00

The photographic art of Chris Jordan depicts Grand Canyons of anti-products heaped up. 'Intolerable Beauty' is a documentation of (American) mass consumption. Fictions of certainty are dislodged in 'Kartina's Wake'. Worth viewing.

Wasting water as a life-style

2007-03-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Water - the clear, colourless, odourless, tasteless liquid was once generated by the primordial atmosphere of the Earth and also might 'have originated from the outer parts of the solar system' as well. Life dwells in the wet of the biosphere. Diversity has been sprouting in it for over 4 billion year of evolution. Early humans attributed a sacred nature to this substance.

Today's demand by an unsustainable population for a finite supply of fresh water has brought about a water crisis. Megaprojects attempt to wring more of that profane liquid from the water cycle for the sole use of (some) Homo Sapiens. It is a nonrenewable ”resource that is finite in quantity and is being used faster than its ability to regenerate itself.“ Degradation of the biosphere and resulting desertification are the results of such 'harvesting'.

With great optimism they continue to build fantasy-cities in deserts. The life-sustaining liquid is siphoned off from somewhere-land nearby. The many bathrooms and pools of lawn-framed McMasion-sprawl, celebrate wastage as a life-style. Motorised 'water sports' on drinkable water, washed cars and green golfing turf are still the norm.

All our undesirable anti-products are flushed into the hydro-cycle. Most toxins and actions remain imprinted, as some claim, in the 'memory' of H20. This body of water gets re-cycled through living bodies.

Now that the 'water boom' is over, it is claimed that only the private sector will know how to manage sustainably the remaining resource. Turning the remaining essence of life into a commodity restricts the last drops to the ones that can pay, leaving not a drop for the ones to come or other species. The wars for water will be fiercer than the ones for oil.
On ice crystals
On crystals & audio
Siphoning off ponds
State of major rivers
Effects on saliva from mobile radiation

Strawberries costing the Earth

2007-03-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Huge strawberries were on offer at the market yesterday. The WWF is calling to boycott this Spanish produce, because their cultivation is leading to an "environmental catastrophe". The majority are grown around the national park Coto Donana. Germany and France are the largest importers of this water intensive and polluting crop. WWF claims that ”that strawberry cultivation is highly polluting, resulting in 4,500 metric tons of plastic waste each year and pesticide pollution.“ If you buy them before April, they are most likely destroying the Iberian natural milieu.
Graffiti:Berlin_mitte

Ivory mobile, disappearing species, climate comforts

2007-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

- On the gadgets market, the latest ivory-clad Nokia is sure to be a trophy. Maybe exemptions have been made for this casing.

- Rare rhinos are disappearing in Nepal. There are still 26 one-horned Rhinoceroses left to be possibly pulverised into aphrodisiac.

- A new species of fish called: By-Product has been discovered. Despite plundering the oceans, there are still wonderful fish remaining, even in the deep oceans.

- The record temperatures of a world burning up can not be alleviated by artificially creating cooled habitats for Humans. It has been found that their air-conditioned urban places of aggregation have a raised temperatur of 1 to 2ºC.

Human-caused mass extinction for a healthy economy

2007-03-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

The extinction of dinosaurs opened up a niche on the Earth for mammals to take up the vacant real estate. Within a blink of time Homo sapiens evicted most of Earth's plants and animals out of their homes. 150 species a day have to exit this planet because of human action.
They talk, and are worried, that the 'biodiversity treasure trove' will be soon scooped empty and the global economy might be hurt. Putting a negative monetary value on climate change alone does get Homo S. thinking...
Image: Ivory at the Berlin flea-market, depicting European heroes o.s.

What plants we tolerate in our urban parks

2007-03-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

A study about urban parks has found that "Increasing human population is significantly related to decreasing native species and increasing nonnative species...Higher levels of human disturbances such as trampling, air pollution, or arson have more of a destructive effect on native species.” The goal to feature biodiversity in the urban wilderness fails as only tough and introduced plants survive the “repeated human disturbances”.

Fairy Penguins killed by toxins

2007-03-14T06:54:00.000-07:00

25 Fairy Penguins in captivity died of an “unidentified toxin”. It “ injured the brain, the kidney and the liver”. But first they were renamed from Fairy Penguins to Little Penguins to not offend the paying families..

Australian birds killed by lead

2007-03-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

Thousands of native Australian birds died from ”lead levels up to 10 times higher than a fatal dose.” The toxin lead is cumulative and leads to severe seizures. The human manufactured catastophic event took place in Esperanca, W.A. The area planned “...to ship around 84,000 tons of lead in concentrate from the port to its Chinese customers this year....Lead exports from the port were suspended March 12 after testing of dead birds in the region found a number died of lead poisoning.“
The concerned residents now have their water checked. But as usual "no evidence" can be found...and there is an eerie bird-less silence.
The Canary in the mine...
Lead fact sheet, gov.au
Birds Australia
update:The birds started dying three months ago, ABC
update: 22.3. An expert found that the lead carbonate 'poses a hightened risk to human health'.

Slaughter by mouse click

2007-03-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

Remote-control cyberhunting of wildlife is taking place as a pay-per-view slaughter.
Graffiti: Berlin

Extinct species exhibition

2007-03-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

Eliminating the wealth of biodiversity and racing to cut the last branch (one is sitting on).Unable to learn and act. The floating skeleton is not yet in a history of science museum,'Habibi', by Adel Abdessemed at this stage was an event in Berlin. A video of the floating art-work can be found here.
Sculpture: 'Habibi', Adel Abdessemed, Berlin 2003