FAUNA DIVIDIDA POR MURO ENTRE MEXICO Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

ESPAÑA: PROTESTA CONTRA EL TIRO A PALOMAS A BRAZO

Fuente: YouTube

28/02/2012

Activistas por los derechos animales de la Fundación Equanimal, Igualdad Animal y Fauna Libre han llevado a cabo dos novedosas protestas contra el campeonato de "tiro a palomas a brazo" que se ha celebró el domingo 26 en Valencia, en el municipio de Ribarroja, coincidiendo con la primera tirada puntuable del campeonato de España de esta modalidad todavía permitida en el estado.

A las 10h, y en pleno campo de tiro, los activistas han ofrecido a los cazadores platos de tiro, con el fin de incentivarles a que opten por su uso en vez de provocar el sufrimiento y matanza de miles de animales.

Dos horas más tarde, en la Plaza de los Pinazo de Valencia, alrededor de 50 activistas han llevado a cabo una protesta en la que mostraron a 3 palomas muertas obtenidas del campeonato, con el fin recordar a las miles de palomas que en esos mismos instantes estaban perdiendo la vida y a la vez exigir el fin de esta modalidad de caza y de cualquier otra práctica que no respete a los animales.

Esta modalidad consiste en disparar y abatir al mayor número de palomas posible. Las palomas llegan hacinadas en jaulas, luego son agarradas y arrojadas de forma violenta al aire y sufren el impacto de los disparos. Tras ser abatidas, caen al suelo a una velocidad de entre 50 y 70 km/hora, y muchas sufren una prolongada agonía hasta morir. En otros países de Europa las palomas ya no son matadas con este fin, y en lugar de ellas se utilizan platos.

Para las entidades organizadoras, este campeonato, al igual que cualquier modalidad que suponga la utilización de animales, debería ser abolido, ya que causa sufrimiento y muerte y anuncian que seguirán trabajando para avanzar hacia una sociedad donde matanzas como las que se van a llevar cabo en este campeonato formen parte del pasado.

                                                    Subido por tvanimalista el 28/02/2012

EL VIAJE DE LA TORTUGA

Este documental sobre la vida de una tortuga marina es fascinante. Nos permite ver la vida secreta de estos maravillosos animales acuáticos.

MEXICO: EXITOSA LABOR DE CONSERVACION DE TORTUGAS MARINAS

En la playa de Ixtapilla (Michoacán, México) se ha estado llevando a cabo un proyecto de conservación de tortugas marinas desde 1994. Ya han liberado al mar más de un millón y medio de tortuguitas golginas (Lepidochelis olivacea), una especie que está en peligro de extinción.

El año 2009 liberaron unas 600.000 tortuguitas. Cientos de personas de todas las edades participaron en la liberación, de esa manera tuvieron una experiencia única, especialmente los niños. Los mexicanos están desarrollando una buena cultura de conservación de la biodiversidad. ¡Enhorabuena!!

LOS JAGUARES DE GREENPEACE DEFIENDEN BOSQUES EN ARGENTINA

Los Jaguares de Greenpeace detienen un desmonte en la Finca las Maravillas, al norte de Salta (Argentina).  

ELEPHANTS: AMAZING PAINTERS!

Source: YouTube

Watch this elephant paint a beautiful image of an elephant holding a flower. You'll be amazed at how her talent unfolds as she carefully completes each stroke. Her mahout talks to her throughout the process as his gentle touch gives her confidence. She focuses on her work and seems to enjoy the approval of the audience and, of course, the sugar cane and banana treats. All of her training has been reward based.

So touched by their horrific backgrounds and loving personalities, ExoticWorldGifts.com now supports, "Starving Elephant Artisans" by selling their paintings so they can continue to have a new life in Thailand. Own a print of the art for $15.

Some Thai elephant experts believe that the survival of the Asian elephant species will most likely depend on the good treatment of the elephants in well managed privately owned elephant camps. All of us would prefer that all of the elephants be free to be in the wild. For many reasons, that is not possible at this time.

You can learn more and purchase these unique paintings at http://www.exoticworldgifts.com/



PALAWAN (PHILIPPINES): WORLD´S LONGEST UNDERGROUND RIVER

Source: YouTube

Travel by boat, through a massive cave on the longest underground river in the world. declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. See hundreds of bats, (close your mouth when looking up at the bats) giant monitor lizards, monkeys, python, sea snakes and other wildlife. An ECO-TOURISM adventure. info@globalvideoprotv.com

SHAPE-SHIFTING FROGS: HERBICIDES ARE CHANGING AMPHIBIANS

Source: Mother Jones

By Tom Philpott

Thu Apr. 5, 2012 3:00 AM PDT

Tadpoles share a meal. Badly Drawn Dad/Flickr

Syngenta's atrazine isn't the only widely used herbicide that appears to have bizarre effects on frogs. According to a study (PDF) from University of Pittsburgh ecologist Rick Relyea, Monsanto's flagship weedkiller Roundup—by far the most-used herbicide on the planet—not only has lethal effects on tadpoles at doses found in ponds near farm fields, but it also literally changes their shape in ways that mimic tadpole's reaction to predators.

Importantly, Relyea stresses that what's likely causing the problem isn't Roundup's active ingredient, glyphosate, but rather the surfactant Monsanto uses to penetrate plant tissues so that glyphosate can effectively kill weeds.

The herbicide atrazine turned a male frog female. Is it affecting us too?

For his paper, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ecological Applications, Relyea created conditions in outdoor tanks that mimicked natural wetlands and added tadpoles from three different frog species to the tanks. Some of the tanks contained caged predators (newts and dragonflies) and some didn't. He then exposed the tanks to several different Roundup concentrations—all of them at levels found in ponds in and around farm fields—and waited several weeks.

He found that in the tanks without predators, Roundup decimated the tadpole populations at concentrations of 3 milligrams per liter—a result that jibes with a 2005 paper Relyea published. It's what happened to the survivors that surprised him. He found that surviving tadpoles subjected to Roundup experienced shape changes that almost exactly mimicked their response to predators. Here's how Relyea explained his result to Science Daily:

It was not surprising to see that the smell of predators in the water induced larger tadpole tails....That is a normal, adaptive response. What shocked us was that the Roundup induced the same changes. Moreover, the combination of predators and Roundup caused the tail changes to be twice as large.

The presence of predators alters hormones in the tadpoles, in turn triggering the shape changes, Relyea explains in the paper. It works like this:

In most cases, tadpoles respond to predators by building a relatively deep tail fin, which helps evade deadly predator strikes, at the cost of building a relatively smaller body, which leads to slower growth likely due to reduced food consumption and reduced digestive efficiency.

The fact that Roundup causes a nearly identical response could mean that the ubiquitous herbicide is interfering with tadpoles' hormones, Relyea adds.

Relyea's latest experiment builds on one from 2005, in which he found that low levels of Roundup in field-simulated conditions devastated not only tadpole populations, but also those of frogs. (Monsanto responded to Relyea's 2005 study; and Relyea rebutted Monsanto's response.)

The severe decline of frog and other amphibian populations over the past three decades likely has several causes, including habitat loss and climate change. But Relyea's work on Roundup, like that of UC Berkeley scientist Tyrone Hayes on atrazine, strongly implicates herbicides as a factor. And what's bad for for frogs may be bad for us, too. Previous research has suggested that the surfactants used by Monsanto in Roundup damage human cells.  And we also know that Roundup is commonly found in air and water in farm states. "It is out there in significant levels. It is out there consistently," the head of the agricultural chemicals team at the US Geological Survey Office told Reuters last year.

As Relyea told Science Daily, "amphibians not only serve as a barometer of the ecosystem's health, but also as an indicator of potential dangers to other species in the food chain, including humans."

Original source:
http://motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2012/04/study-monsantos-roundup-herbicide-has-weird-effect-frogs

DR. STEVEN BEST: ACTIVIST OR TERRORIST?

Dr. Steven Best explains his stand against animal cruelty. He is one of the most outspoken activists against animal exploitation and torture in our society. His animal liberation movement is growing each day that passes by.

He defines terrorism as "Any intentional act to injure or kill a living sentient, innocent being for scientifical, political or economic purposes".

Our civilization needs a new paradigm and Dr. Best clearly points to us the road we must take.

ENGLISH

SPANISH

                                 

THE SUPERIOR HUMAN?

Source: YouTube



"The Superior human?" is the first documentary to systematically challenge the common human belief that humans are superior to other life forms. The documentary reveals the absurdity of this belief while exploding human bias.

Featuring Dr Bernard Rollin, Gary Yourofsky Dr Richard Ryder, Dr Steven Best. Narrated by Dr Nick Gylaw.

"The Superior human?" is dedicated to 2012 Earth April (EA) which includes Earth Day and World Lab Animal Day.

EA official website : http://EarthApril.GoodEasy.info

GORILLAS: EXCELLENT ECOSYSTEM ENGINEERS

Mountain gorilla. Credit: International Gorilla Conservation Programme.

We have to learn a lot from our cousins the gorillas. They feed on plants and as they travel around in the forest they disperse the seeds. Wherever they deposit their droppings they are actually planting trees. Thus they act as gardeners and maintain the forest diversity. Gorillas are ecosystem engineers.

                          LET´S US PROTECT THE GORILLAS!

                                

If you want to put a price tag to the gorillas´ ecological services, just remember that it costs on the average 450 euros each recently planted tree.

                                                 References

Poulsen JR, Clark CJ & Smith TB (2001). Seed dispersal by a diurnal primate community in the Dja Reserve, Cameroon.  J Trop. Ecol. 17: 787-808.

LAS BALLENAS: INGENIEROS DE ECOSISTEMAS

Fuente:
BIOSFERA - FUNDACION PARA LA CONSERVACION Y PROTECCION DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE


Los grandes cetáceos tienen mucha más importancia en el equilibrio natural de los mares de lo que cabría esperar. El científico Indio Víctor Smetacek ha descubierto un importante ciclo de equilibrio de mucha importancia, ya que afecta al plancton de los mares, y en definitiva al clima y la vida en la tierra.

Todo está increíblemente interrelacionado, prueba de ello es lo ocurrido con las ballenas azules en el siglo XX. De las 300.000 que había, sólo 350  escaparon de las matanzas desenfrenadas de los irresponsables balleneros.

Contra todo pronóstico, esto originó una caída del plancton del que se alimentan las ballenas (el krill), porque las ballenas son las que reciclan el hierro y lo convierten en fertilizante para el nacimiento del nuevo krill. Este fitoplancton (el krill) es el mecanismo más importante para la reducción del CO2 en la atmósfera.
El Krill captura muchísimo más CO2 para generar oxígeno, que todos los bosques juntos de la tierra. Alrededor de un millón de toneladas al año.

El krill en la cadena alimenticia. Fuente: Smetack V (2008).

Sin ballenas, el krill entrará en crisis con las consecuencias climáticas añadidas.
Por lo tanto no solo se trata del daño moral por la desaparición de especies. La caza de ballenas puede tener consecuencias drásticas y desconocidas al delicado equilibrio de todos los ecosistemas de nuestro planeta.

 Why are whales important?

Large cetaceans are much more important in the natural balance of the seas than expected. Indian scientist Victor Smetacek has discovered an important cycle of balance of great importance as affecting the plankton in the seas, and ultimately the climate and life on earth.

Everything is incredibly interconnected, and in fact the proof is what happened to blue whales in the  XX century. Of the 300,000 that existed only 350 escaped the killings of the  irresponsible whalers.

Against all predictions, this caused a drop in plankton, which whales eat (krill), because whales are the ones that recycle iron and turn it into fertilizer for the birth of newkrill. This phytoplankton (krill) is the most important mechanism for  reducing CO2 in the atmosphere. Krill capture much more CO2 to produce oxygen than all the forests of the earth together. On the order of one million tons per year.

Without  whales,  krill will enter into crisis with the addition of climate change.
We are not just talking about the moral issue of the disappearance of a species. Whale hunting could have drastic and unknown consequences on the delicate equilibrium of all ecosystems on our planet.

                        

Fuente original: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=252776601412017

                                                     
                                                                  Referencias

Smetacek V (2008). Possible effects of retreating sea-ice cover on sub-Arctic and Arctic ecosystems. 2008 ICES Annual Science Conference, Halifax. 80 p.

FAROE ISLANDS: PILOT WHALE MEAT ON BLACK MARKET

Source: flickr de Yahoo!

Pilot whale meat can be ordered in restaurants like “Marco Polo” and in the four stars hotel “Hafnia”
en.mercopress.com/2010/09/16/activists-show-evidence-of-w...
Thursday, September 16th 2010 - 21:50 UTC

Activists show evidence of whale meat trade in the Faroe Islands

For the first time animal activists have shown evidence that an open and a black market in whale meat exists on the Faroe Islands. The animal protection activists Andreas Morlok (Project Whale Protection Action – ProWal) and Juergen Ortmueller (Whale and Dolphin-Protection-Forum – WDSF) (*) discovered on these islands, under the pretext of being anglers, that the pilot whale hunt nowadays has nothing to do with the old traditions which the hunters claim to be following.

“Contrary to the insistence of the Danish and Faroe governments that there is no trade in whale meat, we did uncover that the whale meat is not only available to the population living there at no cost, but that there exists a lively trade in pilot whale meat. Pilot whale meat can be ordered in restaurants like “Marco Polo” and in the four star hotel “Hafnia” and can be openly purchased in the fish market of the capital Thorshavn. Anybody can buy and consume whale steaks there and this at an exorbitant price of 40 to 50 Euros per meal” according to Morlok (ProWal).

By being undercover anglers, the two activists discovered that there also exists an additional “grey” market for whale products. WDSF-CEO Ortmueller explained that since after a hunt “every inhabitant has a right to whale meat at no cost, there is a very strong temptation to sell the marine mammal meat to people who will pay for it”.

The two incognito anglers were offered whale meat in the restaurant of the hotel Sjoemansheim in Klaksvik, a specialty that the chef had “acquired “ since the private freezers are full to the top after the slaughter of over 800 whales during this hunting season.

A fellow with boats for hire sold the activists half a kilo of marinated whale meat.

In the capital of Thorshavn the biggest supermarket SMS with a footprint of more than 10.000 square meters sells mink-whale meat imported from Norway as a delicacy at a price of 43 Euros per 2.5 kilos. Up to now Norway maintains that the whale meat is only for own consumption and that they only export whale products to other whaling countries like Japan and Iceland.

The two activists think that it is also a dangerous neglect to omit the fact that whale meat is contaminated to a high degree with mercury and PCBs. The Faroe government only mentions that ‘children and pregnant women should maybe abstain from eating whale meat’.

Morlok of ProWal argues that slaughtering whales nowadays is unnecessary since it has nothing to do with old traditions: “there are plenty of groceries to be had on the Faroe Islands: by way of daily ferry and airline service consumer goods are imported and readily available. The living standard is well above average.
Every family owns their home and is motorized. Motor boats, yachts and jet-skis are predominant in all of the many harbors. There are several movie theaters, museums and three hospitals for the around 48.650 inhabitants of the Faroe Islands. Super modern underwater tunnels connect some of the islands and there are helicopter taxis available.

On top of this motherland Denmark gives the Faroe Island a nice annual subvention of 125 million Euros, which affords the Faroese a very nice life indeed. The pods of whales are nowadays located through expensive satellite detection devices. The unregulated hunting quotas lead to overkill so that the whale meat ends up on the open market. More than nice pocket money for the Faroese.”

Ortmueller of WDSF argues through experience that today’s whale hunt in the Faroe Islands is nothing but entertainment following an old tradition and there are many other forms of animal cruelty manifested.

“Rabbits are being shot with lead pellets although that renders them inedible. The catching and cooking of young water-bird chicks unleashes great enthusiasm. The birds are being scooped up off the ground with net catchers at a time when they are unable to fly and are heavy from a good summer feeding. In November they start the annual hunt for herring shark, which is authorized by their government. This hunt is just sheer entertainment which brings high prizes for the best catch as we were told by the administrator of the local Natural Science museum. The hunters are not interested in the fact that the sharks are endangered as per the IUCN and should not be hunted at all. I asked one of the Faroese hunters provocatively, why they do not eat any dogs and he answered that there were not enough of those around“.

WDSF and ProWal sharply criticize the government of the Faroe Islands and are demanding an immediate halt to all whale-hunting. The two organizations warned: “We will report to the respective police departments on the Faroe Islands as well as in Norway and shall advise the supervising authorities of the Danish motherland of the active commercial trade in whale meat”.

(*) Juergen Ortmueller, CEO, WDSF (Germany) (Whale and Dolphin-Protection-Forum – WDSF - www.wdsf.eu/faeroeer). Andreas Morlok (Project Whale Protection Action – ProWal www.walschutzaktionen.de/226301/home.html)

Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9183672/5432213726/
Date: September 16, 2010

JAPANESE WHALE MEAT FOUND ON BLACK MARKET

Source: Discovery News

 By Kieran Mulvaney

Police in South Korea reportedly raided a Japanese restaurant in Seoul today, the latest development in a widening scandal involving illegal trade in whale meat. The raid comes a day after a new study established that the whale meat that was served to customers in a Los Angeles sushi restaurant came from a whale that was killed as part of Japan's "research whaling" program. The lead researcher in the study says that the findings underline that provisions in a draft "deal" being negotiated by members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) are inadequate to prevent illegal trade in the future.
A team of undercover activists, working with an associate producer of the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, documented late in 2009 that an upscale LA sushi restaurant, The Hump, was selling whale meat - a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act. (Prosecutors have brought charges against the chef and the owners, who have since closed the restaurant).
The scientist who determined that the meat in question was from an endangered sei whale, Scott Baker of Oregon University, is the lead author of a paper published in the journal Biology Letters on Wednesday. Using DNA analysis, Baker and colleagues determined that the genetic sequences of the meat were identical to those in whale meat products purchased in Japan in 2007 and 2008, "consistent with an origin from a whale killed in the JARPN II (Japanese scientific hunt) in the North Pacific." The Biology Letters paper also identified samples of whale meat served in a Seoul restaurant as being Antarctic and North Pacific minke whale, sei whale, fin whale, and Risso's dolphin. Baker and his team noted that several of those samples were "inconsistent with local origin":

The Antarctic minke whale is not found in waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The sei whale has not been found in previous surveys of Korean markets or reported in the 13 years of official record of bycatch submitted by the Government of Korea to the IWC. The fin whale has not been found previously in surveys of Korean markets and only twice as bycatch in Korea records, once in 2002 and once in 2004.

Antarctic minkes are hunted only by Japan, and the fin whale sample also matched meat purchased in Japan in 2007, strongly suggesting it came from the same whale.
The findings come as IWC member countries seek to finalize a controversial deal that would essentially legitimize continued whaling by Japan, Norway, and Iceland in exchange for agreed restrictions on that whaling. Advocates of the proposed agreement argue that inclusion of a provision for a DNA database of whale meat is a defense against illegal trade, but Baker says that, as presently drafted, that provision is wholly inadequate.
"We have argued that an acceptable scheme must be robust, transparent and independent and, if possible, efficient and economic. Unfortunately, the current proposal does not fully satisfy any of these criteria," he wrote in an email. For example, he says, the present draft "makes it quite clear that the submission procedure for a comparison (a 'test' sample) is at the discretion of the member nation holding the register [...]This offers considerable protection (to the hunting nation) from 'fraudulent claims' but not much protection to the whales."
Added Patrick Ramage of the International Fund for Animal Welfare: "The language on a DNA database in the draft proposal is written to reassure, but in truth would allow whales to be killed and sold, and enable governments to cover their tracks. Instead of devoting their energies and resources in ending the trade in whale meat, our formerly conservation-minded governments are trying to rush through a compromise that asks us to ignore the whale meat behind the curtain."

Image: Stefan Powell (Whale meat on sale in Tsukiji fish market, Japan)
 
Original source:
http://news.discovery.com/earth/sei-it-aint-so-japanese-whale-meat-found-on-black-market.html

Date: April 15, 2010

NIKOLA TESLA: PIGEONS, HIS ONLY FRIENDS AND LOVE

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) in his laboratory. Source: Yount Lisa (2012). NIKOLA TESLA: Harnessing Electricity. Chelsea House, New York.

The aging [Nikola] Tesla, still impeccably dressed in his old-fashioned clothing, grew increasingly gaunt as he confined himself to an ever-more-limited diet; in his last years he ate little except warm milk. He moved back to New York fulltime in the mid-1920s and lived in a series of residence hotels, moving from one to another as the manager of each became unwilling to continue postponing the collection of rent.

Some hotels also were less than happy to have Tesla as a guest because of his habit of feeding and caring for the city’s pigeons, which had gone from a hobby to an obsession. Always a night person, the inventor went out around midnight every night to feed the birds near the New York Public Library, Bryant Park, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. “These are my sincere friends,” he once told a visitor, according to Margaret Cheney. If a pigeon was injured, he brought it up to his room and took care of it until it could be released. Hotel maids did not appreciate having to clean up the birds’ droppings.

Tesla treasured all his pigeons, but one bird, a white female with a little gray on the tips of her wings, was special. Tesla told John O’Neill and another science journalist, William L. Laurence (1888–1977), “No matter where I was, that pigeon would find me; when I wanted her I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. She understood me and I understood her.”

Indeed, O’Neill wrote in his biography of Tesla, the elderly man went on to make a startling confession:

I loved that pigeon . . . as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. When   she was ill I knew, and understood. . . . That pigeon was the joy of my life. If she needed me, nothing else mattered. As long as I had her, there was a purpose in my life.

Pigeon lives are short compared to those of humans, however, and in time Tesla lost his beloved. His last sight of her was an overwhelmingly strange experience that he recounted to O’Neill:

One night as I was lying in my bed in the dark, . . . she flew in through the open window and stood on my desk. I knew . . . she wanted to tell me something important so I got up and went to her.

As I looked at her I knew she wanted to tell me—she was dying. And then, as I got her message, there came a light from her eyes—powerful beams of light. . .

It was a real light, a powerful, dazzling blinding light, a light more intense than I had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in my laboratory.

                  

     

         “When that pigeon died, something went out of my life,” Tesla concluded. “Up to that time I knew with a certainty that I would complete my work, no matter how ambitious my program, but . . . [then] I knew my life’s work was finished.”

Original source:

Yount Lisa (2012). NIKOLA TESLA: Harnessing Electricity. Chelsea House, New York. 128 p. (Extracted from pp. 87-89)