Rare all-white panda spotted in China reserve: State media

Aljazeera –AFP, 26 May 2019

China's Wolong National Nature Reserve is in Sichuan province which is home to 80 percent of the world's wild pandas.

Pandas are currently listed as a vulnerable species, with fewer than 2,000 living in the
wild according to the World Wildlife Fund [Handout Wolong National Nature Reserve/AFP]

A rare all-white panda has been caught on camera at a nature reserve in southwest China, showing albinism exists among wild pandas in the region, state media reported.

The bear was photographed while trekking through the forest in mid-April in southwest Sichuan province, said official news agency Xinhua on Saturday.

The panda is an albino between one to two years old, said Li Sheng, a researcher specialising in bears at Peking University, who was quoted in Xinhua's report.

The Wolong National Nature Reserve - where the animal was spotted - told AFP it had no further details about the albino panda.

More than 80 percent of the world's wild pandas live in Sichuan, with the rest in Shaanxi and Gansu province.

Giant panda park

There were about 548 giant pandas in captivity globally as of November, reported Xinhua.

The number living in the wild has dwindled to fewer than 2,000, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Famed for its "panda diplomacy", in which China dispatches the rare animals to other countries as a symbol of close relations, Beijing has invested in different programmes to protect its furry ambassadors in recent years.

In 2018, China announced plans to create a bastion for giant pandas three times the size of Yellowstone National Park to link up existing wild populations and encourage breeding of the notoriously slow-reproducing animal.

At least 10 billion yuan ($1.45bn) had been budgeted for the Giant Panda National Park in mountainous southwestern China the state-run China Daily reported.

Pandas are currently listed as a vulnerable species, which means that while their survival is still threatened, conservation efforts have helped reduce their danger of extinction.

Zimbabwe sells 100 elephants to China, Dubai

Yahoo – AFP, May 15, 2019

Zimbabwe has sold nearly 100 elephants to China and Dubai for a total price of
$2.7 million over six years, the country’s wildlife agency said Wednesday,
citing overpopulation (AFP Photo/MARTIN BUREAU)

Harare (AFP) - Zimbabwe has sold nearly 100 elephants to China and Dubai for a total price of $2.7 million over six years, the country’s wildlife agency said Wednesday, citing overpopulation.

Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo told AFP Zimbabwe's elephants were overcrowding national parks, encroaching into human settlements, destroying crops and posing a risk to human life.

"We have 84,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 50,000," he said, justifying the sales. "We believe in sustainable use of resources, so we sell a few elephants to take care of the rest.

Farawo said 200 people have died in "human-and-animal conflict" in the past five years, "and at least 7,000 hectares of crop have been destroyed by elephants".

The animals' natural habitat has been depleted by climate change, he added, while recurrent droughts have added to strain on the overburdened national parks, forcing the pachyderms to seek food and water further afield.

Farawo said money from the legal sales was allocated to anti-poaching projects, conservation work, research and welfare.

According to the Zimbabwe Chronicle newspaper, 93 elephants were safely airlifted to parks in China and four to Dubai between 2012 and 2018, They were sold in a price range of between $13,500 and $41,500 each.

Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe have called for a global ban on elephant ivory trade to be relaxed due to the growing number of elephants in some regions.

But over the past decade, the population of elephants across Africa has fallen by about 111,000 to 415,000, largely due to poaching for ivory, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Rare dandelion, thought extinct in NL, spotted in island field

DutchNews, May 13, 2019

Common dandelions. Photo: Depositphotos.com

A type of dandelion thought to have died out in the Netherlands 50 years ago has been rediscovered in a field on the Wadden Sea island of Schiermonnikoog. 

The dandelion taraxacum euryphyllum, which has mottled leaves, is common in Scandinavia, but the last examples in the Netherlands were seen on the island of Texel decades ago, Karst Meijer founder of the Herbarium Frisicum, told local broadcaster Omrop Fryslan. 

Meijer told the broadcaster he suspects the plant had always been on Schiermonnikoog but that no-one had ever gone looking for it. He and a team were on the island looking for a different sort of dandelion when they made the discovery.

‘Most people think a dandelion is a dandelion, but we were actively looking for another rare species, which is why we spotted it,’ he said.

At least 300 Himalayan yaks starve to death in India

CAN – AFP, 12 May 2019

In this file photo taken on Dec 13, 2014, an Indian local walks with his yak on a
snow-covered road during the season’s first snowfall at Kufri, some 17km from the
northern hill town of Shimla. (Photo: AFP/STR) 

NEW DELHI: Indian officials Sunday said (May 12) that at least 300 yaks starved to death in a remote Himalayan valley after a bout of unusually harsh winter weather.

Officials in the northeastern state of Sikkim said they received the first distress call from around 50 people cut off in the remote Mukuthang Valley in December.

Following very heavy snowfall the residents asked for help providing feed for their herd of around 1,500 yaks, a source of local milk, milk products, transportation and wool.

"We made several attempts to reach them but couldn't. No roads or air transport could reach there because of the weather conditions. We reached there now and have already confirmed at least 300 yak deaths," local official Raj Kumar Yadav told AFP.

"The local families say that 500 yaks have died because of starvation. We are trying to confirm that. Around 50 yaks are also receiving urgent medical attention," Yadav added.

Yaks are one of the mainstays of the region's tourism-dependent economy.

A few yaks die because of extreme conditions in the region each year, but the authorities say that this year's toll is unprecedented.

"The weather was too harsh. One heavy spell of snowfall in December was followed by even more snowfall and even the grass didn't grow. They died because of both cold and starvation," Yadav added.

The authorities are making arrangements to bury the dead yaks and assist local families in the valley, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) from state capital Gangtok.

UN biodiversity conference to lay groundwork for Nature rescue plan

Yahoo – AFP, Marlowe HOOD,  April 29, 2019

Up to a million species face extinction, many within decades, according
to the draft UN report (AFP Photo/ISHARA S. KODIKARA)

Paris (AFP) - Diplomats from 130 nations gathered in Paris on Monday to validate a grim UN assessment of the state of Nature and lay the groundwork for a rescue plan for life on Earth.

The destruction of Nature threatens humanity "at least as much as human-induced climate change," UN biodiversity chief Robert Watson said as the five-day meeting began.

"We have a closing window of opportunity to act and narrowing options."

A 44-page draft "Summary for Policy Makers" obtained by AFP catalogues the 1001 ways in which our species has plundered the planet and damaged its capacity to renew the resources upon which we depend, starting with breathable air, drinkable water and productive soil.

The impact of humanity's expanding footprint and appetites has been devastating.

Up to a million species face extinction, many within decades, according to the report, and three-quarters of Earth's land surface has been "severely altered".

Biodiversity loss around the world measured in percentage compared to 

an intact ecosystem (AFP Photo/Simon MALFATTO)

A third of ocean fish stocks are in decline, and the rest, barring a few, are harvested at the very edge of sustainability.

A dramatic die-off of pollinating insects, especially bees, threatens essential crops valued at half-a-trillion dollars annually.

Twenty 10-year targets adopted in 2010 under the United Nations' biodiversity treaty -- to expand protected areas, slow species and forest loss, and reduce pollution -- will, with one or two exceptions, fail badly.

Based on an underlying report that draws from 400 experts and weighs in at 1,800 pages, the executive summary has to be vetted line-by-line by diplomats, with scientists at their elbow.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) document, once approved, will be released on May 6.

Historically, conservation biology has focused on the plight of pandas, polar bears and a multitude of less "charismatic" animals and plants that humanity is harvesting, eating, crowding or poisoning into oblivion.

But in the last two decades, that focus has shifted back to us.

"Up to now, we have talked about the importance of biodiversity mostly from an environmental perspective," Watson told AFP ahead of the Paris meet.

Three-quarters of Earth's land surface has been "severely altered", according 

to the draft UN report (AFP Photo/Mauro Pimentel)

Agriculture is key

"Now we are saying that Nature is crucial for food production, for pure water, for medicines and even social cohesion."

And to fight climate change.

Forests and oceans, for example, soak up half of the planet-warming greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere.

If they didn't, Earth might already be locked into an unliveable future of runaway global warming.

And yet, an area of tropical forest five times the size of England has been destroyed since 2014, mainly to service the global demand for beef, biofuels, soy beans and palm oil.

"The recent IPCC report shows to what extent climate change threatens biodiversity," said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation and a main architect of the Paris Agreement, referring to the UN's climate science panel.

"And the upcoming IPBES report -- as important for humanity -- will show these two problems have overlapping solutions."

Graphic on Earth's "mass extinctions" during the last 500 years. (AFP 

Photo/Alain BOMMENEL)

Extinctions hard to see

That overlap, she added, begins with agriculture, which accounts for at least a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

Set up in 2012, the IPBES synthesises published science for policymakers in the same way the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) does on climate.

Both advisory bodies feed into UN treaties.

But the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has always been a poor stepchild compared to its climate counterpart, and the IPBES was added as an afterthought, making its authority harder to establish.

Biodiversity experts are trying to engineer a "Paris moment" for Nature akin to the 2015 Paris climate treaty.

Public concern about global warming has crystallised around impacts ranging from rising seas to deadly heatwaves, and the Paris pact's hard target for capping the rise in global temperatures.

The 2018 IPCC report cited by Tubiana added a time imperative: to hold the line at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), the world must reduce CO2 emissions 45 percent by 2030, and become "carbon neutral" by mid-century, it concluded.

But finding the equivalent for Nature has proven difficult.

"Extinctions are not something the public can easily see," said Watson.

A growing number of scientists and NGOs are calling for 30 to 50 percent of Earth's surface to be "sustainably managed" by 2030, and more thereafter.

But the draft report makes no such concrete proposals.

The next opportunity for a visionary plan to be ratified would be the next full meeting in October 2020 of the parties to the Convention on Biodiversity in Kunming, China.

Related Article:

20TH KRYON SUMMER LIGHT CONFERENCE, US (7), June 2-4, 2017 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Text version "The State of the Earth")

"....  A mini ice age is coming. "Kryon, isn't that doom for the planet?"  Many have seen the artist's rendering of major earth cities under ice and all of the other things that go very well with science fiction movies. That's simply a painting of someone's doom scenario, not reality based in the history of the cycle. If you want to know what a mini ice age is like, just flash back in history and study what took place in about 1650. That was a mini ice age. Due to the change in the Gulf Stream (the ocean), the river Thames froze in London. Dear ones, it was cold, but it did not doom the planet. That's a mini ice age.

That's what you're facing, and I'll say it again. If you live in a cold climate, heed this advice: It's going to get colder. Get off the grid! Within the next 15 years, find a way of producing electricity independently or in smaller groups. This can be done neighborhood-wide or separately in homes. You're going to need this, dear ones, because the grid as it exists right now all over the world is not prepared for this coming cold, and the grid will fail. That's not doom and gloom, that's just practical, commonly known information. Your electricity infrastructure is delicate, too delicate. Prepare for a cold spell that may last for a couple of decades. That's all it is. Technology is racing forward to allow this. Don't let your politics get in the way of your survival. ..."

"...  This is controversial. The planet can't just "change the water". It does it instead with a "reboot of life in the ocean" using the water cycle. Watch for evidence of this as it occurs, and then remember this channel. This weather cycle is to refresh the life in the ocean so that everyone on the planet will have needed food from the ocean. Gaia does this by itself, has done it before, and it does it for a reason - so it will not stagnate.

Dear ones, indeed, you have put compromising things into the air and the water, but it has not caused this cycle. We have said for a very long time, stop killing the environment! The reason? It's going to kill you, not Gaia. Gaia is spectacularly resilient and will survive anything you do. However, it is you who may not survive if you continue polluting. All this is starting to change with your awareness, and you're starting to see this and move with it. But Humans are not causing the current weather shift. This will be known eventually.

What is happening has happened before, and it's almost like a reboot for the oceans and it carries a lot of dichotomous events. You're going to see reports of a dying ocean, but at the same time you're going to see unusual reports of too many fish and other sea life in places that were supposed to have a decline. You're going to see the life cycle of the ocean itself start to change and reboot.

The chief player in this renewal is a place you would not expect: Antarctica. I want you to watch for magic in Antarctica. It has always been the core of the refreshing of microbes and other kinds of life in your oceans and it's especially active during these mini ice ages. The process will cause currents under the sea to be filled with new life, delivering it to both hemispheres almost like an under-sea conveyor belt. ..."

Dog pulled from ruff seas 220 kms off Thai coast to be adopted by rescuer

Yahoo – AFP, April 16, 2019

Local charity Smile Dog House has been caring for the dog, who will be adopted
by the oil rig worker who found him at sea (AFP Photo/Handout)

An exhausted dog found paddling 220 kilometres (135 miles) off the Thai coast is set for a new lease on life after an oil rig worker who rescued him promised to adopt the plucky pooch.

The tan-coloured dog, named Boonrod by his rescuers -- Thai for "survivor from karma" -- was fished from the ocean on Friday by rig workers who spotted his head bobbing between the waves in the Gulf of Thailand.

There was no indication of how he got there, or how long he had been lost at sea.

But local media speculated he may have fallen off a fishing vessel and paddled towards the rig.

Boonrod the dog was welcomed on the shore with a lei of

 yellow flowers and lots of neck scratches from port workers 

(AFP Photo/Handout)

Boonrod is recovering in Songkhla province under the care of a vet, an animal charity group told AFP Tuesday.

"Since he came onto the platform, he didn't cry or bark at all," Chevron worker Vitisak Payalaw said in a Facebook post chronicling the dog's rescue.

"He likely lost a lot of body water from the sea water."

Vitisak told AFP in a message Tuesday he plans to adopt the now-famous canine once he returns to shore at the end of the month.

Boonrod stayed on the rig for two nights before another vessel picked the pooch up on its way back to shore, arriving at a port in Songkhla province on Monday morning.

Local charity Smile Dog House has been caring for 

the dog, who will be adopted by the oil rig worker who 

found him at sea (AFP Photo/Handout)

In a video posted by animal rights group Watchdog Thailand, Boonrod was welcomed on the shore with a lei of yellow flowers and lots of neck scratches from port workers.

"Thank you for seeing the value of a little life that floats so far," said Facebooker Wanna Wongvorakul.

Boonrod was placed in the care of local charity group Smile Dog House.

"So far his health is ok... it's only skin problems that he's suffering from now," a Smile Dog House staff told AFP.

Minister brings users of electrified dog collars to heel, and gives cats a break too

DutchNews, April 4, 2019

Photo: Graham Dockery 

Agriculture minister Carola Schouten is to ban electrified collars to train dogs from next year and will tackle unscrupuous cat breeders at the same time. 

The collars are used to administer shocks to dogs from a distance but, the minister said in a letter to MPs, that they ‘cause considerable suffering’. 

The defence department has stopped using the collars but some police dogs are still subjected to electric shocks. 

Dog expert Martin Gaus said he was happy about the decision. ‘If a dog can’t be at home on its own or pulls at the lead, owners want to train it to behave. But if the animal can’t stand being alone it will get stressed. Zapping it with electricity will make it even more stressed out and miserable,’ he told broadcaster NOS. 

Gaus is not in favour of a total ban because, he said, because electrified collars can help in training hunting dogs but only if done by experts. 

The minister is also going to tackle cat breeders who, she said, are ‘creating new breeds without any thought to the consequences for the animal.’ 

‘This, to my thinking, shows a total disregard for the integrity, wellbeing and health of the animal,’ the minister said. 

One of the victims of unbridled cat breeding is the Bambino Sphynx. A quarter of these hairless cats dies while still in the womb and the breed has very short legs and no whiskers which makes it difficult for the animals to orientate themselves. 

The breed will still be allowed but will be subject to stringent breeding criteria and  unscrupulous breeders will be fined, NOS said.

Doggy diagnosis can sniff out seizures: study

Yahoo – AFP, March 28, 2019

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Paris (AFP) - Dogs can use their remarkable sense of smell to recognise the specific scent of seizures, researchers said Thursday, raising hope that canine carers could one day protect sufferers before a fit takes hold.

Previous tests have shown dogs are able to detect the odours of certain diseases, including some cancers, diabetes and malaria.

There is also anecdotal evidence they can sense that their owner may be about to have a seizure, though this was poorly understood until now.

Researchers in France used five dogs -- Casey, Dodger, Lana, Zoey and Roo -- in a study to sniff out a scent specifically linked to a human seizure.

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic 

compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion (AFP Photo/OLI SCARFF)

They presented the dogs with a variety of smells taken from epileptic patients, including body odours emitted during calm activity, while exercising, and during an attack.

Casey, Dodger and Zoey all identified the seizure scent 100 percent of the time, while Lana and Roo sniffed out the right sample two goes out of three.

"The results went beyond our expectations by showing that there is indeed a general odour of an epileptic seizure," Amelie Catala, a researcher at the University of Rennes and lead study author, told AFP.

"We hope it will open new lines of research that could help anticipate seizures and thus get patients to seek security."

Dogs are awesome (AFP Photo/Astrid Stawiarz)

Dogs' noses have evolved to be highly sensitive, and can detect specific organic compounds at a concentration of less than 0.001 part per billion.

The most sophisticated current "electronic noses", meant to pick up potentially harmful odours that humans can't smell, have a detection threshold of around 300 parts per billion.

Catala said that while dogs had been shown previously to be able to sniff out chronic diseases, this experiment showed they could potentially diagnose acute health episodes that last just a few minutes.

"The study of odours by the use of dogs constitutes a fast, low-cost, non-invasive, and effective screening method of diseases that can be difficult to identify normally," she said.

The paper was published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

Dutch introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs before they can breed

DutchNews, March 18, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The Netherlands is to introduce fitness tests for flat faced dogs such as pugs and boxers to make sure they are fit enough to breed, broadcaster NOS said on Monday. 

Agriculture minister Carola Schouten has sent new rules covering the breeding of flat faced dogs to parliament in an effort to reduce the health problems many dogs suffer from. 

The tests, which will be administered by vets, will involve dogs walking up to 1km at a fast pace and then being checked for their heart rate and recovery speed. Those which fail will be considered unsuitable for breeding. 

New criteria are also being introduced covering the form of the dogs’ skulls, noses and eyes. 

The measures are contained in a report by Utrecht University vets who say many flat faced dogs suffer poor health, including breathing difficulties, over-heating and runny eyes because of their extreme appearance. 

In 2014, the government launched a special programme with breeders to try to improve the health and socialisation of some breeds. However, while this has led to some successes, a number of breeders refuse to join and ‘a number of challenges’ remain, the minister said in her briefing.

Horse takes daily stroll through Frankfurt — without owner

Deutsche Welle, 9 March 2019

Veterinarians have dismissed criticism that the Arabian mare poses a danger to herself and others during her morning walks. Despite dozens of calls from worried pedestrians, police say they've never had to intervene.

Jenny the Arabian mare snacking on garden shrubs during a morning stroll in
Fechenheim

Every morning in Frankfurt's Fechenheim district, an Arabian mare named Jenny takes a leisurely stroll through the streets by herself. But she has to wear a card that reads: "I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk. Thanks."

For more than a decade, police have had to tell worried pedestrians calling in that Jenny is known throughout the neighborhood and that she does not present a danger, local media reported this week.

"The police know. When someone calls in, the police ask me: 'Werner, do you know where Jenny is?' Yes, I say. 'Ok, then everything is in order,'" Jenny's owner, Werner Weischedel, told "Maintower," a news show.

"We've never had to do anything before," police spokeswoman Isabell Neumann told German news agency dpa.

Read more: Thousands petition to move 'bullied' ape Bili out of Germany

Werner Weischedel said there has never been a problem during Jenny's
promenades through Frankfurt

But that hasn't stopped some from criticizing Jenny's unsupervised strolls through the city. Several social media users have accused the owner of negligence, saying the chaotic streets could lead her to hurt herself or someone else.

However, the horse veterinarians union told dpa that there isn't any issue, especially since Jenny is well-acquainted with her surroundings after 14 years of making her way through the area alone. Veterinarian Maren Hellige said the mare "seems very relaxed and satisfied."

Read more: Petrified horse remains found near Pompeii

The tag reads: 'I'm called Jenny, not a runaway, just taking a walk'