animalphiles

Bigger home needed for rare bear

From The Daily Mail:
A tiny endangered bear is being kept as a house pet and has all the creature comforts he needs after he was rescued from callous animal traders. (See more cute pictures here).

But two-month-old Koda the Andean bear cub cannot stay playing in armchairs and climbing house-plants for long. His rescuers, an animal rights organization, are looking for a permanent home for the cub who could grow up to 6 ft and weigh more than 340lbs.

Koda liked strawberry yoghurt and chewing on bamboo. In the wild he would eat fruits, but the bears also eat berries, grasses, bulbs, insects, and small animals such as rodents, rabbits, and birds.

The endangered bear is living in the home of animals rights activists in La Paz, Bolivia, where he climbs on the furniture instead of trees as he would have done in his natural habitat.

The Andean bear, also known as the Spectacled Bear, are recorded as "Vulnerable" on the World Conservation Union's Red List of Threatened Animals.

Animal charities are battling to keep the bears in their natural habitat in the Andes range and outlying mountain ranges. This stretches from western Venezuela south to Bolivia. A few have been reported in eastern Panama and extreme northern Argentina.

 

Bearing up in a difficult situation

A bear crossing a bridge in Truckee, California was startled by some passing cars and dove over the side.  At one point it dangled over the edge of the 80-foot high bridge, but managed to pull itself onto a girder. See the amazing BBC photo gallery.

The bear was stranded nearly 24 hours.  Volunteers eventually strung a net under the bridge, and an animal control officer shot the bear with a tranquilizer dart. It was safely lowered in the net and eventually released back into the wild.

One million fans can't be wrong - but Knut show might end

From Spiegel Online:
Knut the polar bear got his one-millionth visitor today at the Berlin Zoo.

Bear-lovers from all around the world have made the pilgrimage to see the orphaned bear since he went on show to the public in March.

The lucky millionth visitors were a couple from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Ilja and Vincent Arends. "It's our first time in Berlin and to get such an honor and a stroke of luck!" Vincent enthused. As a prize the couple, who had bought their entrance tickets on the stroke of noon, got a gift basket from the zoo, containing a soft toy version of Knut and other goodies.

As usual, Knut appeared completely unfazed by all the attention - happy to just play and wrestle with his loyal carergiver Thomas Dörflein, who has raised the bear by hand since he was born in December.

But, the seven-month old's glory days may already be behind him. Dörflein said in an interview with the daily Der Tagesspiegel published Thursday that Knut's public appearances with his trainer would soon be brought to an end. He told the paper that his boss, zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, had told him that "it will be the end of the Knut show in a few weeks." Visitors to the zoo have enjoyed watching Thomas and Knut play together in two hour-long shows each day since March. Soon, Knut will be on display just like any other bear at the zoo.

Tabloid Bild speculated that the Knut show might be cancelled as early as next week. The newspaper reported Thursday that the security staff who are currently responsible for crowd control will no longer be present as of this Sunday. The barriers which have been used to contain onlookers are also being dismantled.

Dörflein said that he would still be together with Knut behind the scenes for a while yet. "For me there won't be any separation just yet," he told Der Tagesspiegel.

He said that his relationship with his girlfriend has survived the intensive few months looking after Knut. "We have even moved in together now," he said. He described the interest from his many female fans as "unbelievable," admitting that his desk was covered with "love letters from around the world with songs and poems."

Dörflein expressed a certain nostalgia for Knut's infancy, saying he liked to watch the videos of when Knut was younger. "You forget so much," he said.

The process of weaning Knut off his human step-father and encouraging him to be more independent is going well, Dörflein said. However he said that if Knut were to go and live with a female bear of the same age in another zoo in the future, then he would not go to visit him. "If he smelt my scent, it would cause him suffering," he said. "I wouldn't do that to him, or to myself."

He said that he would not want to raise another bear for the moment. "At the moment I'm burned out," he confessed. "I would do it again if I got my own apartment in the zoo. But there'll never be anything like Knut again."

Feds consider trust fund for grizzlies, wolves

State and federal officials are considering the establishment of a sizeable trust fund to pay for conservation efforts related to grizzly bears and wolves in the Northern Rockies.

Grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park were recently taken off the threatened species list, and there is movement towards revoking the wolves' status as endangered.

Right now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spends about six-millon dollars each year managing the animals in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. But much that spending is expected to be rechannelled as grizzly and wolf populations thrive.

To cover the costs of research and protection, state and federal officials are making plans to establish a trust fund that would distribute financial aid to wildlife agencies as needed. The trust could range from tens of millions to 100 million dollars. The funds would, in part,  help pay the salaries of wildlife biologists and the purchase of radio collars. Congress would be asked to fund the bulk of the trust.

Ernst living in Knut's shadow

Everyone loves cute Knut - the polar bear that's been drawing record crowds to the Berlin Zoo. But what about Ernst? The baby sun bear lives in an enclosure around the corner from Knut's, but he hardly gets any attention.

Doctor Ragnar Kuehne, Berlin Zoo Curator says Ernst "lives his existence in a bit of a shadow."

Ernst was born the month before Knut but he was not rejected by his mother nor is his natural habitat in Malaysia endangered - both important factors, keepers say, in Knut's route to global stardom.

Australia's Daily Telegraph offers a photo gallery of the two bears in black and white (in color).

Knut shares cover of Vanity Fair

Knut, the world-famous polar bear, is getting face time on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair. He is sharing the "Green Issue" cover with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Celebrity photographer Annie Liebovitz snapped the picture of Knut at the Berlin Zoo. It was then photoshopped into an image of DiCaprio taken on a glacier in southeast Iceland.

Knut has become a symbol for his fellow polar bears in the wild, who are threatened with extinction because of global warming.
photo: Vanity Fair

Feds say Yellowstone grizzlies thriving

From the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

After nearly disappearing three decades ago, grizzly bears are thriving in the Yellowstone ecosystem and no longer need the protection of the Endangered Species Act, Deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett announced. "The grizzly's remarkable comeback is the result of years of intensive cooperative recovery efforts between federal and state agencies, conservation groups, and individuals." "There is simply no way to overstate what an amazing accomplishment this is. The grizzly is a large predator that requires a great deal of space, and conserving such animals is a challenge in today's world. I believe all Americans should be proud that, as a nation, we had the will and the ability to protect and restore this symbol of the wild."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is removing the Yellowstone population of grizzly bears from its status on the U.S. list of threatened and endangered species. Four other grizzly populations in the lower 48 states have not yet recovered and will continue to be protected as threatened species under the Act.

Grizzly numbers in the Yellowstone ecosystem have increased from an estimated population of 136 to 312 when they were listed as threatened in 1975, to more than 500 bears today. Since the early 1990s, the Yellowstone population has grown at a rate of 4 percent to 7 percent per year. Grizzly range in the Yellowstone Ecosystem has increased 48 percent since they were listed, and biologists have sighted bears more than 60 miles from what was once thought to be the outer limits of their range.

Biologists believe the Yellowstone area grizzly population and other remaining grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states and Canada are markedly separate from each other, with no evidence of interaction with other populations. There are approximately 1,100 to 1,200 grizzly bears in the lower 48 states, in five separate populations in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington.

Cute Knut makes public debut

The tiny polar bear cub who has become the unofficial symbol of Berlin Zoo, made his public debut today.

He explored his outdoor enclosure and delighted gathered crowds as virtually every step he took resulted in a Kodak moment.

Knut was escorted by his care-taker Thomas Dörflein, zoo director Bernhard Blaszkiewitz and Germany's Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. Durflein has been raising Knut by hand since the cub's mother rejected him. Knut's open displays of affection showed how closely he and Durflein have bonded.

Read more and see an awesome photo gallery at SpiegelOnline. Reuter's Web site has great video.

Calls to kill "Cute Knut"

Animal rights activists say the Berlin Zoo should have killed the cuddly polar bear that has become a media sensation. They argue the cub would have died in the wild when his mother rejected him - and the zoo's decision to raise him by hand was inhumane.

"Feeding by hand is not species-appropriate but a gross violation of animal protection laws," animal rights activist Frank Albrecht told the newspaper Bild.

The German animal rights organization "Four Paws" argued along similar lines, while Ruediger Schmiedel, head of the Foundation for Bears told the weekly publication Der Spiegel. "They cannot domesticate a wild animal."

When Knut — or "Cute Knut," as the 19 pound bear has become known — was born last December, his mother ignored him and his brother, who later died. 

Albrecht cited a similar case of a baby sloth bear that was abandoned by its mother last December in the Leipzig city zoo and killed by lethal injection, rather than being kept alive by humans.

Berlin Zoo vet Andre Schuele says, "These criticisms make me angry, but you can't take them so seriously. Polar bears live alone in the wild; I see no logical reason why this bear should be killed."

See the absolutely adorable video posted by Knut's surrogate parents on YouTube.

Hearing on listing of polar bears

A public hearing on whether the government should list polar bears as a threatened species drew  activists on both sides of the issue Monday night in Washington. Conservationists urged further protections, while hunters and oil industry reps argued no action is needed.

Some biologists told the panel global warming is threatening the polar bear, which relies on sea ice to breed and hunt. But others witnesses said the science at the heart of the proposal is nothing more than a speculative prediction.

If the polar bear is listed as a threatened species, all federal agencies would have to ensure that anything they authorize that might affect polar bears will not jeopardize their survival or the sea ice where they live. That could include oil and gas exploration, commercial shipping or even releases of toxic contaminants or climate-affecting pollution. Read more from Associated Press.