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.

Golden jackal caught on camera in Drenthe, third sighting in three years

DutchNews, December 6, 2019 

A golden jackal. Photo: tontantravel via Wikimedia Commons

A golden jackal has been spotted in Drenthe, a first for the province, local broadcaster RTV Drenthe reports. The animal was photographed by chance when it walked past a wild life camera in a undisclosed location. 

The sighting dates from November 22 but has only now been made public to prevent people from going out and trying to find the notoriously shy animal. 

There are only two other reported sightings of the jackal in the Netherlands – in 2016 and 2017 two of the animals were spotted in the Veluwe nature reserve. The camera that caught the jackal in Drenthe was part of a project by the Zoogdierenvereniging Nederland to count mammals such as otters, beavers and pine marten. 

‘When I saw the pictures on my camera I was flabbergasted, volunteer Cindy de Jonge-Stegink told the broadcaster. De Jonge-Stegink thought at first she was looking at a wolf but was put right by Forest Commission warden Aaldrik Pot. ‘It was relatively small, with pointy ears and snout’, he said. 

Jackals have been making their way to northern Europe from eastern Europe for a number of years now and have been spotted in Germany and Denmark as well. There have been no signs the animals have actually settled there. 

Shy 

The organisation’s wolf expert Glenn Lelieveld said jackals are shy and only need a small habitat of around four square kilometres. ‘It might well be that the jackal has been walking around in Drenthe for quite a long time. But it may have crossed the border by now. They can walk hundreds of kilometres in search of a new area to settle in and their tracks are very difficult to see.’ 

Jackals are omnivores and it has been suggested that if jackals were to settle here they could help reduce the deer population in a natural way. 

Jackals are not a danger to humans. ‘If you leave them alone they will leave you alone,’ Lelieveld told RTV Drenthe.

Female wolf settles in the Netherlands and may have a mate

DutchNews, February 19, 2019

A gray wolf. Photo: Depositphotos.com

A female wolf which has been roaming the northern part of the Veluwe national park in Gelderland can now be considered to be the first wolf to be officially settled there and off-spring may be on the way, wolf monitoring organisation Wolven in Nederland claims. 

A wolf is considered settled when it stays in a certain area for longer than six months. DNA in the wolf droppings, show that this is the case for Veluwe wolf GW998F, the organisation said, while droppings from a male wolf and tracks in the snow from both animals suggest that the female has found a mate. 

‘It is the start of the breeding season and if young wolves are born in May this could be the start of a pack,’ a Wolven in Nederland spokesperson told NOS. 

The return of the wolf, which became extinct in the Netherlands some 150 years ago, means a plan agreed on by a number of provinces that have been visited by wolves will be put into action. Under the scheme farmers who lose livestock to wolves will be automatically compensated for the next three years. The animals are protected and can only be shot under very exceptional circumstances. 

Wolven in Nederland said the fact that the wolves settle means they will be less dangerous to livestock. 

‘A roaming wolf will pick off a sheep for a quick snack but a settled wolf stays out of sight. It will go for boar and deer and won’t show himself near houses. It is very unlikely to cross paths with humans,’ spokesman Maurice Lahaye told the broadcaster. 

The settled wolf comes from a pack in Germany where wolves have been proliferating in recent years. In Schleswig- Holstein the authorities recently allowed a ‘problem wolf’ which had been killing sheep to be shot.

Wolf at the door? Farmers to get compensation for three years

DutchNews, January 25, 2019

A gray wolf. Photo: Depositphotos.com

Damage done by wolves will be automatically compensated for the next three years, and the animals will only be shot as a last resort, under a new plan to manage the increasing presence of wolves in the Netherlands. 

The plan, drawn up by provincial councils, will be put into action once it is certain that wolves have chosen to settle permanently in the country. The animals have been spotted in Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland and one female wolf may settle permanently in the Veluwe area in Gelderland this year. 

Sheep farmers lost some 134 sheep due to what are thought to be attacks by roaming wolves in 2018. 

‘When we know for certain that wolves are here to stay we will confer with sheep farmers, local councils and area managers,’ NOS quotes provincial deputy Peter Drenth as saying. ‘We will have to learn how to deal with the wolf. It has been gone a long time and we’re in uncharted waters and have to learn as we go.’ 

Shooting wolves, an option farmers would like to keep, is a last resort, Drenth said. ‘The wolf is a protected species and can only be shot if it is a danger to people or if other measures do not work.’ 

Safety 

Agricultural organisation LTO called the plan ‘disappointing’ and said it did not sufficiently ‘guarantee the safety of people and animals’. 

‘Many of our questions remain unanswered,’ LTO Nature and landscape development expert Ben Haarman said in a reaction. 

‘How will all locals and farmers be informed if a wolf is in the area? Wolves can travel up to 70 kilometres in day. People need to know what to do in case of an incident. Why are preventive measures left to the individual provinces? (..) What will happen once the three years are up? Much is still unclear.’ Haarman said. 

Controversial 

The re-emergence of wolves, which come mostly from Eastern Europe, remains controversial. Recently the director of the Hoge Veluwe national park Seger Emmanuel baron van Voorst tot Voorst said wolves have no place in the Netherlands and should  be removed from the protected species list so they can be controlled. 

Wolven in Nederland spokesman Roeland Vermeulen told DutchNews.nl at the time that management is key. The return of the wolf in the Netherlands is subject to policies agreed upon by the provincial authorities and in line with European guidelines, he said.

Caveman's best friends? Preserved Ice Age puppies awe scientists

Yahoo – AFP, Maria Antonova, 28 March 2016

A scientist performs an autopsy of the remains of a puppy, which died 12,460 

years ago and was discovered in Russia's northern Yakutia, at the North-Eastern 

Federal University in Yakutsk (AFP Photo)

Moscow (AFP) - The hunters searching for mammoth tusks were drawn to the steep riverbank by a deposit of ancient bones. To their astonishment, they discovered an Ice Age puppy's snout peeking out from the permafrost.

Five years later, a pair of puppies perfectly preserved in Russia's far northeast region of Yakutia and dating back 12,460 years has mobilised scientists across the world.

"To find a carnivorous mammal intact with skin, fur and internal organs -- this has never happened before in history," said Sergei Fyodorov, head of exhibitions at the Mammoth Museum of the North-Eastern Federal University in the regional capital of Yakutsk.

The discovery of 12,460-year-old puppies

 in Russia could contribute to the lively

 scientific debate over the origin of 

domesticated dogs (AFP Photo)

And the discovery could contribute to the lively scientific debate over the origin of domesticated dogs.

When the hunters stumbled on the first frozen pup in 2011, they alerted Fyodorov who immediately flew out to the remote Arctic tundra, about 4,700 kilometres (2,900 miles) from Moscow and only 130 kilometres from the Laptev Sea, which borders the Arctic Ocean.

Last year he returned for a more thorough look and found the second puppy close to the same spot, farther down the slope. Both had died when they were about three months old.

They most likely come from the same litter, said Fyodorov.

Last week he oversaw the removal of the second puppy's remarkably well-preserved brain -- "the first in the world", he said.

"Puppies are very rare, because they have thin bones and delicate skulls," he said.

The duo have been named the Tumat Dog, after the nearest village to the site.

Fyodorov said a preliminary look at the mammoth remains also found at the dig suggested some had been butchered and burned, hinting at the presence of humans. It remains to be seen, however, whether the puppies were domesticated or wild.

The answer can only be determined by reconstructing their genomes, which would take at least a year.

Grass-eating dogs?

"Thus far, the lineages of wolves that likely gave rise to dogs have not yet been discovered and it's possible that these puppies could be on that lineage, which would be very exciting," said evolutionary biologist Greger Larson of University of Oxford, one of the scientists behind a collaborative project aimed at finding out when and where dogs became the first domesticated animals.

Scientists from the Mammoth Museum of the North-Eastern Federal University

 extract the brain of a puppy, which died 12,460 years ago and was discovered in

Russia's northern Yakutia (AFP Photo)

What makes the dog particularly intriguing is that it managed to become "man's best friend" even before humans became settled farmers.

It is still unclear whether dogs were domesticated in one place or in several places independently, and whether the process started when humans took in cubs or whether wolves themselves gradually drifted to human sites in search of food.

Whatever their precise lineage, the Tumat pups will keep Fyodorov and other scientists busy for some time.

The second puppy's preserved brain will be compared with that of modern dogs and wolves. Parasites found on its body will be analysed, as will the contents of its stomach, which Fyodorov is particularly excited about.

"When we opened it, we were very surprised. The second puppy's stomach is mostly full of twigs and grass," he said, wondering if perhaps the animals were not exclusively carnivorous or whether they started eating grass after they were trapped by a mudslide and began to starve.

"This material is really exceptional and unique," said Mietje Germonpre, a palaeontologist from the Royal Belgian Institute who partnered up with Fyodorov on the project and came to Yakutsk to oversee the autopsy of the second puppy earlier this month.

"The fact that soft tissue is preserved will give much more information compared to information that can be obtained from 'normal' fossils," she said, meaning bones and teeth.

Graphic on the origins of the domestic dog (AFP Photo/Adrian LEUNG, John SAEKI)

Permafrost secrets

Fyodorov lamented the long time it takes to get ancient biological material to suitable labs due to financial constraints, the rugged terrain and red tape which sometimes means that samples reach laboratories only six months later.

"Everyone understands that the tissue of mammoth fauna loses its structure with every passing second, even in the freezer," he said.

Yakutia's melting permafrost is likely to yield up even more treasures in the coming years, he added, saying the number of reported prehistoric finds has grown "severalfold" in the last decade.

Warm and wet weather and flash floods have been a big contributor to the thaw, he said.

"Right now it's 0 degrees (Celsius) here. That should not be the case in March."

As better transport and technology becomes affordable, he said, locals are embarking on expeditions to more and more remote corners of Siberia to look for the precious and lucrative mammoth tusks, which can sell for tens of thousands of dollars and are increasingly prized by Chinese carvers given trade bans on elephant ivory.

In Russia, indigenous tribes are allowed to hunt for ancient remains on their ancestral lands.

"Our land is locked in by permafrost, but little by little it is revealing its secrets," Fyodorov said.

Related Article:

"Do Animals Reincarnate?" - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channelled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)

Dogs domesticated over 27,000 years ago: study

Yahoo – AFP, 22 May 2015

A woman holds a Husky puppy during an exhibition in Kyrgyzstan's capital 

Bishkek (AFP Photo/Vyacheslav Oseledko)

Washington (AFP) - Man's best friend may have been his companion for far longer than believed, scientists have reported, publishing an analysis that dates domesticated dogs to more than 27,000 years ago.

Humans possibly domesticated the animals between 27,000 and 40,000 years ago, according to Swedish researchers whose work was published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The scientists based their analysis on an ancient Siberian jaw fragment. Previous estimates said modern dogs diverged from their wolf ancestors 16,000 years ago after the last ice age.

The "Taimyr" wolf bone in the study, dated to 35,000 years ago, shows that the animal was the most recent ancestor of wolves and modern dogs.

"Dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than is generally believed," said Love Dalen from the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Curt Willis (L) kisses one of his Treeing Walker Coonhounds during a press conference

by The Westminster Kennel Club on January 28, 2013 (AFP Photo/Stan Honda)

Dalen said the only other explanation for the unusual bone was the less likely possibility that a major divergence between wolf populations took place at that time that gave birth to modern wolves while the wolf population became extinct.

The Taimyr wolf lived a few thousand years after Neanderthals disappeared and modern humans spread throughout Asia and Europe, the study said.

DNA analysis also showed modern Siberian Huskies and Greenland sled dogs have an "unusually large" number of gene in common with the Taimyr wolf.

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Norwegian court to rule on six men accused of illegal wolf hunt

Landmark case pits survival of one of Europe’s smallest wolf populations against Norwegians’ cherished hunting rights

The Guardian, Elisabeth Ulven and Tone Sutterud in Oslo, Sunday 19 April 2015

Norway has one of the smallest populations of wolves, with perhaps as
few as 30. Photograph: Alamy

Six men charged over hunting some of Norway’s last wolves will learn their fate this week when a court rules on a landmark case that has gripped the country.

Illegal hunting of wolves is thought to be extensive in Norway, driving down population numbers to perilously low levels.

Now, for the first time, the authorities have prosecuted an alleged hunting team, charging the six men with environmental offences and organised crime, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 11 years.

“It’s such a serious offence that we were given almost unlimited investigative powers by the state attorney,” said Tarjei Istad, a prosecutor in the case.

The indictment includes attempted illegal hunting, firearms offences and organised crime. The prosecutor has asked for a five-year ban from hunting, which is something most Norwegians see as a birthright. The defendants are pleading not guilty.

All European countries except the UK and Ireland are believed to have a population of wolves, ranging from the largest, in Spain with an estimated 2,000 animals, to Norway, which has one of the smallest populations, with perhaps as few as 30. The grey wolf is listed by Cites as endangered regionally, though not globally.

“This is a question of attitude in certain hunting teams and communities,” said Istad, referring to audio surveillance of the suspects that revealed the suspects allegedly boasting about their hunts. He believes the case is important to get the message across that Norway will not take illegal hunting lightly.

Petter Wabakken, an internationally acclaimed expert on wolves, said: “Our research shows that half of all wolves felled in Norway were killed by poachers,” he said. “This is disturbing, especially considering that we have the smallest wolf population in Europe. Government policy has been to allow three breeding female wolves within an allocated area. This is not enough to sustain a healthy population.”

Norwegians are deeply divided over the management of wolves. Urban communities are generally positive about having large predators in their vicinity, while people in the countryside see them as more of a threat.

Wolves tend to be targeted because of conflicts with human interests, such as competition for game, human safety and depredation of livestock.

“We can only conclude that poachers take the law into their own hands. It’s not licensed but illegal hunting that regulates the Norwegian wolf tribe,” Wabakken said.

Dutch wolf came from German pack, dna tests on sheep bites show

DutchNews.nl, April 2, 2015

The lone wolf which spent a few days in Groningen and Drenthe last month came from a German pack, dna tests show. 

Research institute Alterra has checked dna traces left on two dead and two wounded sheep found in areas where the wolf was spotted. The tests show the Dutch wolf came from a pack known as Munster which lives near Hamburg and Bremen. 

Although the bites on the animals appear to have come from either a large dog or a wolf, the dna testing shows at least one bite came from a wolf. 

The bites also show the wolf was young and inexperienced in tackling large prey, Alterra, which is part of Wageningen University, said in a statement. 

The wolf spent several days in the Netherlands before heading back to Germany. It’s odd behaviour led some people to conclude it had been raised by humans.

Related Article:

Video: is the wolf really back in the Netherlands this time?

Video: is the wolf really back in the Netherlands this time?

DutchNews.nl, March 8, 2015

NOS / Photo: (Jan van der AA)

A wolf has been photographed and filmed in the Netherlands, near the German border in Drenthe province. 

The last wolf was officially seen in the Netherlands in 1897. 

The wolf was first spotted and photographed next to the N381 road in rural Noord-Sleen near Emmen. It was later filmed in a nearby holiday camp.

Website Wolven in Nederland said the photographs clearly show a wolf although there are questions about its behaviour, because it does not appear to be scared of cars. 

Road

It is thought to be same wolf which was filmed walking along a road in Germany the day before. 

A spokesman for Drenthe province said the animal is welcome. ‘We will keep an eye on its location as well as we can because this is the first wolf to be walking around the Netherlands in two centuries,’ the province said in a statement.

In June 2014, a wolf was spotted in the Twente countryside by three separate eyewitnesses, according to local paper Twentsche Courant Tubantia. That wolf came from Germany and appeared to have gone back after a few hours. 

Dumped

A dead wolf was found in Flevoland in summer 2013 but research showed it had probably been dumped there. 

The last wolf was officially seen in the Netherlands in 1897.

In March 2014, the government announced the wolf will be a protected species when it returns to live in the Netherlands. This means farmers will receive compensation from a special fund if livestock are attacked and killed.

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Video: Lone wolf moves north, officials say it should be caught - New

Earth lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years, says WWF

Earth lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years, says WWF

Species across land, rivers and seas decimated as humans kill for food in unsustainable numbers and destroy habitats

See picture gallery of wild animals facing decline

The Guardian, Damian Carrington, Monday 29 September 2014

Rubbish dumped on the tundra outside llulissat in Greenland stand in stark contrast
 to icebergs behind from the Sermeq Kujullaq or llulissat Ice fjord – a Unesco world
heritage site. Photograph: Global Warming Images/WWF-Canon

The number of wild animals on Earth has halved in the past 40 years, according to a new analysis. Creatures across land, rivers and the seas are being decimated as humans kill them for food in unsustainable numbers, while polluting or destroying their habitats, the research by scientists at WWF and the Zoological Society of London found.

“If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news,” said Professor Ken Norris, ZSL’s director of science. “But that is happening in the great outdoors. This damage is not inevitable but a consequence of the way we choose to live.” He said nature, which provides food and clean water and air, was essential for human wellbeing.

“We have lost one half of the animal population and knowing this is driven by human consumption, this is clearly a call to arms and we must act now,” said Mike Barratt, director of science and policy at WWF. He said more of the Earth must be protected from development and deforestation, while food and energy had to be produced sustainably.

The steep decline of animal, fish and bird numbers was calculated by analysing 10,000 different populations, covering 3,000 species in total. This data was then, for the first time, used to create a representative “Living Planet Index” (LPI), reflecting the state of all 45,000 known vertebrates.

“We have all heard of the FTSE 100 index, but we have missed the ultimate indicator, the falling trend of species and ecosystems in the world,” said Professor Jonathan Baillie, ZSL’s director of conservation. “If we get [our response] right, we will have a safe and sustainable way of life for the future,” he said.

If not, he added, the overuse of resources would ultimately lead to conflicts. He said the LPI was an extremely robust indicator and had been adopted by UN’s internationally-agreed Convention on Biological Diversity as key insight into biodiversity.

A second index in the new Living Planet report calculates humanity’s “ecological footprint”, ie the scale at which it is using up natural resources. Currently, the global population is cutting down trees faster than they regrow, catching fish faster than the oceans can restock, pumping water from rivers and aquifers faster than rainfall can replenish them and emitting more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oceans and forests can absorb.

The report concludes that today’s average global rate of consumption would need 1.5 planet Earths to sustain it. But four planets would be required to sustain US levels of consumption, or 2.5 Earths to match UK consumption levels.

The fastest decline among the animal populations were found in freshwater ecosystems, where numbers have plummeted by 75% since 1970. “Rivers are the bottom of the system,” said Dave Tickner, WWF’s chief freshwater adviser. “Whatever happens on the land, it all ends up in the rivers.” For example, he said, tens of billions of tonnes of effluent are dumped in the Ganges in India every year.

As well as pollution, dams and the increasing abstraction of water damage freshwater systems. There are more than 45,000 major dams – 15m or higher – around the world. “These slice rivers up into a thousand pieces,” Tickner said, preventing the healthy flow of water. While population has risen fourfold in the last century, water use has gone up sevenfold. “We are living thirstier and thirstier lives,” he said.

But while freshwater species such as the European eel and the hellbender salamander in the US have crashed, recoveries have also been seen. Otters were near extinct in England but thanks to conservation efforts now live in every county.

The number of animals living on the land has fallen by 40% since 1970. From forest elephants in central Africa, where poaching rates now exceed birth rates, to the Hoolock gibbon in Bangladesh and European snakes like the meadow and asp vipers, destruction of habitat has seen populations tumble. But again intensive conservation effort can turn declines around, as has happened with tigers in Nepal.

Marine animal populations have also fallen by 40% overall, with turtles suffering in particular. Hunting, the destruction of nesting grounds and getting drowned in fishing nets have seen turtle numbers fall by 80%. Some birds have been heavily affected too. The number of grey partridges in the UK sank by 50% since 1970 due to the intensification of farming, while curlew sandpipers in Australia lost 80% of their number in the 20 years to 2005.

The biggest declines in animal numbers have been seen in low-income, developing nations, while conservation efforts in rich nations have seen small improvements overall. But the big declines in wildlife in rich nations had already occurred long before the new report’s baseline year of 1970 – the last wolf in the UK was shot in 1680.

Also, by importing food and other goods produced via habitat destruction in developing nations, rich nations are “outsourcing” wildlife decline to those countries, said Norris. For example, a third of all the products of deforestation such as timber, beef and soya were exported to the EU between 1990 and 2008.

David Nussbaum, chief executive of WWF-UK said: “The scale of the destruction highlighted in this report should be a wake-up call for us all. But 2015 – when the countries of the world are due to come together to agree on a new global climate agreement, as well as a set of sustainable development goals – presents us with a unique opportunity to reverse the trends.

“We all – politicians, businesses and people – have an interest, and a responsibility, to act to ensure we protect what we all value: a healthy future for both people and nature.”

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Why such a fuss about extinction?

Leonardo DiCaprio boosts Nepal bid to save tigers

Google – AFP, 21 November 2013

Leonardo Dicaprio speaks during a movie premiere on November 1, 2013 

in Los Angales (Getty/AFP/File, Jason Merritt)

Washington — A foundation set up by actor Leonardo DiCaprio pitched in $3 million Thursday to save tigers in Nepal, whose plan to double the big cats' population has shown success.

The "Titanic" heartthrob warned that "time is running out" for tigers, whose global population in the wild has dwindled to an estimated 3,200 after years of poaching and habitat loss.

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation channeled the $3 million through the World Wildlife Fund environmental group for improvements in the Terai Arc Landscape, a stretch of ecologically diverse protected lands bordering India.

"I am hopeful this grant will help them exceed the goal of doubling the number of these noble creatures in the wild," DiCaprio said in a statement.

The grant will fund improvements in border posts and more sophisticated tools to monitor poaching.

Nepal has set its goal of doubling the big cats' population by 2022, the next year of the tiger in the Chinese zodiac.

Nepal's government said in July that its population of Royal Bengal tigers in the wild has soared 64 percent to 198 in just four years.

DiCaprio, who stars in Martin Scorsese's upcoming film "The Wolf of Wall Street," in May led an art auction that raised $38.8 million for environmental charity work.

Dogs likely born with 'Canine Telepathy'

Discovery News, Analysis by Jennifer Viegas, Thu Jun 9, 2011

(Image: Monique Udell)

Dogs are so in tune with us that they can read our minds, according to a new Learning & Behavior study that also determined canines are probably born with the ability.

Practice makes perfect, however, so the more a dog hangs around humans, the better he or she becomes at "canine telepathy," which actually relies upon hyperawareness of the senses.

Those of us who have owned or been around dogs for any period of time know how well they often "get" us, sensing tiredness, depression, headaches or other maladies before we consciously exhibit any major outward signs of distress. Dogs can even detect when a person has cancer. They also seem to sense our joy and good health.

Monique Udell and her team from the University of Florida wondered why dogs are so clever at reading us, and how they accomplish this feat. Are dogs born with the ability to sense our mental states, or do canines learn from experience?

To explore these questions and more, Udell and her team carried out two experiments involving both wolves and dogs. In the experiments, the two sets of animals were given the opportunity to beg for food, either from an attentive person or from a person unable to see the potential begger.

The researchers showed for the first time that wolves, like domestic dogs, are capable of begging successfully for food by approaching the attentive human. This demonstrates that both species - domesticated and non-domesticated - have the capacity to behave in accordance with a human's attentional state. They are therefore likely born with the ability, since wolves would not have had much practice, which the typical pet dog gains by begging for treats during dinner and at other times.

Some dogs were better at reading people than others were, however. Shelter dogs were not nearly as good as pampered house pooches, demonstrating that exposure to humans allows dogs to hone their natural people-reading skills more.

According to the researchers, "These results suggest that dogs' ability to follow human actions stems from a willingness to accept humans as social companions, combined with conditioning to follow the limbs and actions of humans to acquire reinforcement. The type of attentional cues, the context in which the command is presented, and previous experience are all important."

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"The Akashic System of Remembrance" - Sep 2010 (Kryon Channeling) - Reference to Whales/Dolphins/Animals/Pets > 28:00 min

A child enjoys the view at the Batang Dolphin Center in
Cisarua Safari Park in Central Java, Indonesia.The center also
offers special therapy sessions for autistic children. Interacting
with the seagoing mammals is believed to aid with development.
(JG Photo/Ali Lutfi)