Swiss to ban foreign trophy hunters from killing Alpine ibex

Yahoo – AFP, DIETER NAGL, August 28, 2020

There are over 6,000 Alpine ibexes in the Swiss canton of Wallis

A Swiss region that has faced heavy criticism for allowing wealthy foreigners to pay large sums to shoot protected Alpine ibexes, a species of wild goat, for trophies decided Friday to end the practice.

The southern Swiss canton of Wallis, the only one to allow the trophy hunting, said in a statement that as of next year, foreigners would no longer be granted permits to hunt ibexes.

The canton stressed that its Alpine ibex population was growing healthily and said there was still a need for responsible regulation through hunting.

But it said that from 2021, "ibex regulation will only be carried out by hunters residing in the canton of Wallis or those who hold a Wallis hunting licence."

The canton has for years quietly allowed trophy hunters to shoot ageing male ibexes already destined for elimination.

But a documentary aired by public broadcaster RTS last year brought the trophy hunt to the attention of the broader public, sparking a heated debate across Switzerland about the practice and its potential impact on the viability of the species.

Outraged citizens launched a petition demanding the "disgraceful" hunt be halted, gathering some 75,000 signatures in a matter of months.

The entire Swiss ibex population was wiped out at the end of the 19th century, but since they were reintroduced from neighbouring Italy, the population in the country has grown to around 17,000.

Wallis counted 6,030 ibexes at the end of 2019 -- nearly double the roughly 3,500 in the canton 15 years earlier.

The canton allows several hundred animals to be culled each year, with the maximum quota this year standing at 544 animals.

Animals across all age groups and of both sexes can be listed for culling, but males over the age of 11 are typically offered to trophy hunters, at a price.

The cost depends on the length of the horns, with the longest specimens, measuring around 1.10 metres, reportedly raking in up to $20,000 for a pair.

The canton has pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from this hunt annually.

For 2020, authorities have granted hunting permits for up to 45 large males over the age of 11, including 25 to foreign hunters.

While the canton will lose income once the foreign trophy hunters are gone, it pointed out Friday that the shift would lead to a reduction in workload for game rangers, who had been tasked with supervising and accompanying foreigners holding one-day hunting permits.

This, it said, would allow the region to save on personnel resources, meaning there would be no need to hike hunting licence prices for Wallis residents, which had been one of the main sticking points in the debate.

Mink farmers to shut up shop next year, reported compensation deal worth €180m

DutchNews, August 28, 2020 

Mink on a fur farm. Photo: Dzīvnieku brīvība via Flickr 

The government has decided to bring forward the closure of the Dutch mink fur industry from 2024 to next March, following outbreaks of coronavirus on at least 41 of the country’s 110 fur farms. 

Fur farmers begin killing young mink for their fur in November and have been told by farm minister Carola Schouten that they must shut up shop before the next breeding season in 2021, broadcaster NOS has reported. 

The mink on all 41 farms where coronavirus has been found – well over 160,000 – have already been killed. Before coronvirus hit, there were some 700,000 young mink on fur farms in the Netherlands, national statistics agency CBS said last week. 

There had been calls from some quarters to close down the industry immediately because of the risk coronavirus is spread to humans and because pockets of infection could remain. 

However, government health experts have said the risk to human health is not serious enough to merit such a move, NOS said. 

Sources suggest the government has come up with a €180m compensation package to offset the financial impact of early closure. Of this €40m is to pay for the cull and the rest will go to the farmers who have lost their income. 

Schouten is expected to go public with her plan after discussing it with the cabinet on Friday morning.

Dutch baby panda is named after Van Gogh, with a nod to Starry Night

DutchNews, August 14, 2020

A webcam still from the promotional video

The baby giant panda born in the Ouwehands zoo in Rhene in May has been named  Fan Xing, which refers to Van Gogh and his painting Starry Night, zoo officials said on Friday. 

Fan comes from Fan Gao which means Van Gogh in Chinese while Xing, which means star, and symbolises hope, is also a reference to the panda’s father Xing Ya. The name is gender neutral because no-one yet knows the baby’s sex. 

In total, 22,000 people from all over the world helped chose the name from a shortlist of five, all of which had a link to the Netherlands. The baby panda and mother Wu Wen are currently remaining in their nest, but officials expect the baby will first be on view to the public in October. 

Fan Xing will stay in the Netherlands for a maximum of four years.  Wu Wen and Xing Ya, who arrived in the Netherlands in May 2017, will return to China in 2032. 

Fans can also follow the baby panda via webcam, at a cost of €1 per hour. The money raised goes to help pandas in the wild, the zoo authorities said.

Alpaca therapy helps convicts with mental illness

Yahoo – AFP, LENNART PREISS, August 8, 2020

A German psychiatric hospital is offering alpaca therapy for criminals with mental illnesses

Offenders with mental health conditions at a southern German hospital can pitch in with looking after a small herd of alpacas as part of their therapy.

Staff at the Mainkofen psychiatric hospital in Bavaria say the aim is for the generally calm animals to help patients develop skills towards social reintegration.

Those on the programme have daily tasks, such as to feed the around 10 alpacas, walk them, brush their coats, dress their wounds and clean out their stables.

Erwin Meier, whose name has been changed for this report, has helped care for the alpacas since October and believes it has helped him.

"I like it very much," he said.

Patient Erwin Meier (not his real name) says looking after alpacas has helped 

him to control his anger

"It's fun to work with animals. There is something to do every day."

The animals, which can be known to spit, have helped him to control his anger, said Meier, who did not want to give details about his conviction.

"I used to get angry quite quickly, I was impulsive, but it's improved thanks to the animals, because if I get angry, they get angry too, and the calmer I am, the calmer they are too," he added.

Hats and blankets

The programme is open to all patients at the hospital but intended primarily for offenders.

Alpaca owner Silke Lederbogen has a farm with about 50 of the animals and 

uses their wool to make hats and blankets

If they stay out for too long or outside the authorised hours, permission to spend time with the alpacas is revoked.

Silke Lederbogen, the programme leader and owner of the alpacas, runs a nearby farm with her husband with about 50 of the animals, using their wool to make hats and blankets.

"Usually, patients in the hospital do not have contact with 'normal' people," she said.

But, in walking with the alpacas on the hospital grounds, they are given the chance to chat and answer questions about the animals from interested visitors, patients and staff, she added.

"And they can do so competently," she said.

Leopards, wolves vanishing from panda conservation areas: study

Yahoo – AFP, 3 August 2020

It may be one of the most recognisable symbols of conservation, but efforts to protect the giant panda have failed to safeguard large mammals sharing its habitats, according to research published Monday showing dramatic declines of leopards and other predators.

The giant panda is seen as an 'umbrella' species because its conservation is
considered to help many less well-known animals, plants and birds

The giant panda has won the hearts of animal lovers around the world and images of the bamboo-eating creature with its ink-blot eye patches have come to represent global efforts to protect biodiversity.

Since conservation efforts began, China has cracked down on poachers, outlawed the trade in panda hides and mapped out dozens of protected habitats.

The strategy is considered one of the most ambitious and high-profile programmes to save a species from extinction -- and it worked.

The panda was removed from the International Union for Conservation of Nature endangered species list in 2016 although it remains "vulnerable". 

But a new study published on Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution has cast doubt over the idea that efforts to protect the panda automatically help all other animals in its territory.

Researchers found that the leopard, snow leopard, wolf and dhole -- also known as the Asian wild dog -- have almost disappeared from the majority of giant panda protected habitats since the 1960s.

The findings "indicate the insufficiency of giant panda conservation for protecting these large carnivore species," said Sheng Li, of the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, who led the research.

The authors compared survey data from the 1950s to 1970s with information from almost 8,000 camera traps taken between 2008 and 2018.

They found that leopards had disappeared from 81 percent of giant panda reserves, snow leopards from 38 percent, wolves from 77 percent and dholes from 95 percent. 

The predators face threats from poachers, logging and disease, the study found.

The authors said a key challenge was that while pandas may have a home range of up to 13 square kilometres (5 square miles), the four large carnivores can roam across an area exceeding 100 square kilometres.

Sheng Li told AFP that individual panda reserves -- typically around 300-400 sq km -- are too small to support a "viable population of large carnivores like leopards or dholes".

- 'Enormous charisma' -

Panda conservation has helped protect other animals, he said, including small carnivores, pheasants and songbirds.

"Failing to safeguard large carnivore species does not erase the power of giant panda as an effective umbrella that has well sheltered many other species," he added.

But he called for future conservation to see beyond a single species, or animals with "enormous charisma", to focus on broader restoration of natural habitats. 

He said he hoped this can be achieved as part of a proposed new Giant Panda National Park, a long-term programme that would link up existing habitats over thousands of kilometres to allow isolated populations to mingle and potentially breed.

The recovery of large carnivore populations would "increase the resilience and sustainability of the ecosystems not only for giant pandas but also for other wild species", the researcher added.

The IUCN estimates there are between 500 and 1,000 mature adult pandas in the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu regions of China.

The conservation group lists the leopard and snow leopard as vulnerable across the areas they are found in, while the dhole is listed as endangered.