Gates’ point, however, is that it’s really mosquitoes, which he says kill 725,000 people a year versus just 475,000 humans killed by humans. It’s a fun chart that gets people to think about malaria and realize that sharks and wolves aren’t so bad. But the numbers are pretty off, making some already downtrodden animals (like wolves and sharks) look worse than they are. And it makes humans, which are really the worst, look better.

If you just take the way mosquitoes kill–as a disease vector–humans kill 3.2 million through respiratory infections, 1.9 million from diarrhea and 1.6 million a year through AIDS–for a total of 6.7 million just from the top contagious diseases. Car accidents add 1.3 million and I’m not sure how to count all the other drowning, hunting and other kinds of accidents. And if you add in smoking related illnesses, which the WHO says is responsible for one in 10 adult deaths globally, you add roughly another 4 million. You might say that’s controversial, so, to make up for it, I’m not going to count diabetes.

For the human-caused human deaths, Gates might have been using the global homicide rate, which was 468,000 in 2011, according to  this UN report, plus deaths from war, which average about 55,000 per year. But, all tolled, I’d say humans kill about 12 million humans a year.

We’re way worse than mosquitoes. We’re still #1!

Some minor animal quibbles:

Sharks: Gates: 10 Reality: 4.2 according to Oceana

Wolf: Gates: 10   Reality: 2.3, according to a Wikipedia list (yeah, I know, not exactly the New York Times) of wolf attacks .

To Americans this is maybe the most controversial animal on the list, what with ranchers spreading rumors of wolves marauding our western plains and the first documented wolf-caused human deaths. But the number is really low. And now wolf haters are going to be using this official-looking chart for years.

Hippo: Gates 500. Reality: nobody knows, but that’s probably way too high

Lacking an international protection group, a western phobia or even a Wikipedia page, hippo attacks are really hard to track. Huffpo believes it’s an even more implausible 3,000. The problem is that if you’re hippo territory you’re probably not in internet news gathering territory. Or even accurate government mortality territory. The IUCN says there are maybe 125,000 to 148,000 hippos in Africa, decreasing by about 1% a year. If the 3,000 were true it would mean that over the course of a decade hippos would kill 30,000 people, so 25% of hippos on average killed somebody. (Unless the whole trend is the work of a few hippo serial killers, a theory the delightful Animal Review has toyed with.) And since hippos have a lifespan of 40-50 years, statistically every single one could have killed a person.

And then there are all the animals that Gates totally let off. Cows trample 100 American farmers to death a year. Deer kill cause about 200 American fatal car crashes. We’re probably talking in the hundreds, maybe thousands, worldwide.

So if you did stand up and say “humans! humans!” you were right.

Bill Gates’ chart of world’s deadliest animals, which defames a lot of species.

Sharks: 4.2 according to Oceana.http://oceana.org/en/our-work/protect-marine-wildlife/sharks/learn-act/shark-attack-statistics

Courtesy of Island Marine

Blackfin and spinner sharks are passing by Palm Beach, FL, this time of year–so many and so flamboyantly you may be able to see them from the shore.

The sharks are migrating through and will spend the summer along the east coast. (They have similar patterns off Africa and Europe.) The sharks, which average about 6 feet, mate in early summer then carry the young 12-15 months and give birth to 3-15 pups that are already a couple feet long. Because the US shark population is in decline, the inland shark nurseries are important. Oddly, the sharks don’t entertain residents on the way down south. Tellman says the current may make them travel far from shore.

Tellman has another Florida shark watching tip: off Jupiter scuba divers can see lemon sharks. Normally sharks flee from the bubbles of scuba tanks, but these don’t seem to mind.

	Where to SEE SEALS (and sea lion and walrus)
	Where to SEE SHARKS

Where to see animals down south

You’ll definitely be hearing more about both crowdfunding and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs, better known as drones) to help wildlife.

Crowdfunding–where somebody asks the public to fund a project that isn’t likely to get big money elsewhere–is better known for art and design projects that use kickstarter. But Kickstarter has all kinds of rules: the project has to be art and can’t be for a charity. So Ol  Pejeta went to another  crowd-funding site Indegogo. Ol Pejeta has raised about $27,000 (as of Jan. 7) out of $35,000. It’s like the Obama campaign strategy: the donations are small, but there are a lot of them.

They want to buy a custom drone, which will pick up the rhinos’ GPS locations via RFD chips and livestream the video, allowing the 120 local armed guards to patrol the 140 square miles much more efficiently.

Everyone is a little confused about how many northern white rhinos survive in the wild, largely because of the horrific epidemic of poaching Africa has seen. Since 2006, no one has seen the herd (or crash) of rhino that used to wallow in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Southern Sudan might have some,  but biologists are too scared to check.

Biologists are also arguing over whether they are really all that different from the southern version. It’s the lumpers v. splitters argument: should slightly different, geographically separated, animals be lumped together or split into separate species. In 2010 Australian archeologist Colin Groves argued they are totally different species because of their genes, tooth size and angle and skull growth.

But not everybody is so sure. The IUCN Red List says it is undecided on whether to separate the northern white or lump it with the southern and expects more research to rebut Groves.

Either way, these rhinos aren’t from Kenya, which hasn’t had rhinos in the last 200 years, the IUCN says. Rhino specialists just picked Ol Pejeta Conservancy as the rhino’s last, best chance. The rhinos wouldn’t have survived if they weren’t in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.

If these rhinos aren’t the most rare kind of rhino, then they are the least rare. About 20,000 southern white rhinos lived in 2010, according to Some rhino specialists think it’s just too late for the northern white rhinos anyway, since the four known survivors would have to interbreed  too much to recreate a stable population. Aside from the white rhinos, there are four species of rhino left–three (Sumatran, Black, Javan) are critically endangered and one (Indian) is vulnerable.

So these four individuals at Ol Pejeta are either the rarest of all rhino species–or just a handful of the most populous rhino species left (which itself was saved from extinction in the last century).

Help out Ol Pejeta on Indegogo

Where to see animals in Africa

Narcisse snakes / Photo courtesy of Steve McCullough, stevemccullough.ca

How far would you drive or fly out of your way to see a bunch of snakes? In a roundup of the best travel possibilities for 2013, Lonely Planet editors picked the best 10 spots to see snakes around the world.
The Narcisse snake dens of Manitoba is their top pick. You may have seen this amazing spectacle on nature programs: in May tens of thousands of red-sided garter snakes wake from hibernation, slither out of dens and mate in a writhing ball. This a destination snake spot, definitely not something you’ll pass on a roadtrip since it’s a couple hours north of Winnepeg.  But after the trek, it’s kind of tame. You can see these tiny snakes, often kept as pets, from the safety and convenience of a viewing platform.
Most of the other spots on Lonely Planet’s list are far more exotic cultural experiences, like a Hindu festival with cobras in India (though NPR says snake charmers are considered cruel and are fading fast from the scene), a temple for snakes in Benin, west Africa, and a snake pagoda in Myanmar.  A few are snake spots in name only, like the serpent mounds in Ohio, a mythical snake in Australia (but inexplicably, the list lacks Loch Ness, home to the planet’s favorite crpytozoological serpent).

While the list makes a fun read and may inspire some dreamy vacations, it could do with a few more natural locations, like the one they include in the Panatal, Brazil or Isla Pájaros in Costa Rica’s Palo Verde National Park, which has the largest concentration of boa constrictors.

To find spectacular snakes in the wilds of the U.S., head to Everglades National Park, which is the epicenter of the explosion of abandoned pythons not lucky enough to make it into one of the sanctuaries. They have so many, the state of Florida started a hunting season. If you go during a cold snap, you might find them stunned and sleepy.

Many of the big hot, dry parks out west have rattlesnakes, if that’s what you’re into. Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah notes that you may see them on  “Under-the-Rim Trail, Riggs Springs Loop, and the Fairyland Loop.”

For the United States, I would add a few good options for families and thrill seekers:

Snake Sanctuaries take in nonreleasable wildlife and forsaken pets, are a way to see snakes more intimately than a zoo and with less guilt about their captivity. Just as there are places that take in the wolves, big cats and monkeys some idiot thought would make an attention-getting pet, sanctuaries have sprung up to take in the unfortunate snakes that you might have once seen on some attention-seeker’s shoulders. Midgard Serpents Reptile Rescue & Sanctuary in North Carolina, the Colorado Reptile Humane Society, Forgotten Friend Reptile Sanctuary,  Indiana Turtle Care, Inc., or VA Reptile Rescue. 

Lonely Planet wisely left out a couple of the most cruel and unseemly snake events, like the 3,000 year old Italian Cocullo Snake Festival, for which local non-poisonous snakes are rounded up and de-fanged and all of those Texas rattlesnake round-ups, which go down pretty much as you’d think.

But there are a few peculiarities of American culture that could have made the snake list. If you’re going to cultural attractions in India, you might be interested in a popular U.S. tourist destination that features snakes: South of the Border, the cheesy, ever-expanding roadside stop along Route 95. Better known for giant animal  statues, the place also has a real reptile house with an African black mamba.

And while you’re down south, maybe check out some Pentecostal snake-handling pastors. Now, I have no idea which is the most exciting or easiest to access as an outsider, but I’d love for Lonely Planet to find out by visiting La Follette, TN, or  Greenville, NC. If you’re going to see an incomprehensible religious spectacle that uses snakes as props, wouldn’t one in the U.S. be even scarier than those in India?

Lonely Planet mentions that this is the Chinese Year of the Snake, so I’d like more details about snake-themed festivities in Beijing for the New Year in February. But this is an excellent primer on where to see snakes.

More snake stories

Where to see Turtles or Weird Animals

Tigers shot dead

Both Esquire and GQ came out with big stories this week on the horrible Zanesville zoo incident four months ago. Exotic animal hoarder Terry Thompson killed himself just after unleashing about 50 large predators on exurban Ohio on October 18, 2011. To Esquire, it’s a gory action-adventure movie (they even released a movie trailer). GQ’s Chris Heath actually bothers to try to figure out how it happened, which makes his story a lot more interesting.

The Observer chronicled how both reporters stayed at the same hotel and the magazines jockeyed to make a splash. The most incredible part of the dueling stories is that it’s a silly but standard practice for monthly magazines to kill a feature if they know a rival is covering the same topic. Editors don’t want the public (or, more importantly, their peers) to think they are using ideas from each other (not  possible, given the lead time) or just doing the obvious.

I’m glad GQ still went ahead because their piece is so much more nuanced and haunting.

Not that I wasn’t gripped by Esquire’s story, which treats the incident like a rollicking horror film. Lots of gore and men pissing, swearing and doing what they had no choice to do. You learn minute by minute how the cops shot the tigers, lions and bears, but get no sense of how the animals or their suicidal owner got to this point. Writer Chris Jones employs the dopey animal rights strawman to provide the only conflict. At one point the cops see “several” lions in open cages and bravely risk attack to lock the cages so they don’t have to shoot them. But then one cat slips out a hole and the suddenly realize all the cages have holes. Since no lion survived, it’s clear the cops shot the other (mostly) caged animals, but the details are skipped. That’s the conversation I want to hear.

Chris Heath not only covered the minutia of the animal slaughter, but also at least tried to figure out why it happened. Heath looked at the absurd lack of laws about owning dangerous predators, the economics of exotic ownership (cubs can be purchased for a few hundred bucks, but nobody wants to buy an adult, which are dangerous and expensive to keep). And he goes a lot further into figuring out Thompson, whom friends say changed after fighting in Vietnam and had received an anonymous letter the day before saying his wife had been cheating on him. Even thought it’s a whopper of a story, I could have read more from Heath, like how did Thompson and his wife get the money to buy and feed all these animals in the first place. (His wife claimed she spent $30,000 on the macaques and Heath calculates the animals would have needed 600 pounds of meat a day).

Heath also explores one of the odder mysteries of the case: how and why did Thompson cut open all the cages and not get attacked till after he shot himself. The exotic animal owners point to conspiracies involving animal rights activists. But, it may raise doubts about whether the quick carnage was totally necessary. Were the cats, which Health discovered were declawed, going to rush out to eat people? These animals could never have been released to the wild precisely because they wouldn’t have known how to hunt.

Jones lets the cops describe the typical animal lover’s critique as everybody just thinks they were a bunch of rednecks. I’m an animal person and I don’t think so. They did what they thought was right when they were faced with a group of unpredictable animals that should never have been in suburban Ohio. The cops made decisions under extreme pressure and you can always look back and wonder if something could have been done better. Since the incident, has anybody come up with a plan for the next exotic animal collection gone wild? Could they lure the hungry predators to a pile of drugged meat? The assumption is that this will never happen again. Yet we’ve got a country full of backyard exotic predators,  owned by people who feel embattled and under financial stress. We didn’t think Columbine was going to keep happening, but it does. The scariest part of the story is that it could happen again.

SEE ANIMALS IN THE MIDWEST (IL, IA, IN, OH, MI, MN, WI)

Where to see BEAR or BIG CATS not in somebody’s yard

simitar oryx hunting

Laura Logan thanked hunters on 60 Minutes for saving endangered species by paying thousands of dollars to shoot them on canned hunts in Texas.* She gulped down the game ranchers’ argument that they are the only ones keeping animals like the scimitar-horned oryx, which is listed by the IUCN Red List as extinct in the wild, from disappearing from the planet.

That will surely come as a surprise to the other 199 institutions around the world that have been carefully breeding Oryx dammah since the 1960s.

Logan walks five miles to make critics of canned hunts look insane. But even then she doesn’t deliver. She lays a trap for Priscilla Feral of Friends of Animals, asking if it would be better if they were extinct than hunted. Feral doesn’t fall for it.

Logan; So, if the animals exist only to be hunted…

Feral: Right…

Logan: …you would rather they not exist at all?

Feral: Not in Texas, no.

She sidesteps the obvious ploy and says she’d just rather not see them in Texas. Not insane. If I said I’d rather not have the scimitar-horned oryx in my living room, does that mean I’m getting in the way of real conservation? No. Having a scimitar-horned oryx on my sofa or on a hunting ranch in Texas is completely irrelevant to its conservation. If hunting the oryx were really the only way for the species to survive, of course I’d support it. But it has nothing to do with species survival.

Logan lets the hunters conflate surviving and living in Texas. On the show and in online comments, they practically shout Gotcha! I just bagged a crazy animal person!

Logan lets hunters claim that they have the numbers on their side. They say the number or oryx will be cut in half –in Texas–by a new law that makes them illegal to hunt.

But just the raw numbers of oryx aren’t as important as the number in the international studbook. Texas ranchers thousands of oryx (how many nobody says). Only 110 are part of the international effort to save the species. They make up less than 10% of the studbook, a directory of breeding animals biologists keep to save the species. (Typically, individuals aren’t listed if they were too much like ones already in there or genetics are unknown.) The Texas population is so insignificant that the IUCN barely mentions them in its species assessment. There’s another 4,000 in private hands in the United Arab Emirates, where the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort (AWPR) is actually working with biologists, hosting conferences to figure out how to save the species. This giant family zoo in the desert, founded by Sheikh Zayed, who founded the country, is the real unsung hero in oryx conservation.

It’s amazing to see CBS News just take up the hunting ranches’ fight. In Australia, where hunters are doing the same thing, reporters are at least asking questions about ethical hunting. “For me, to see these beautiful animals shot by these madmen is a tragedy. They are extinct in the wild. It’s like shooting a Sumatran tiger or a white rhino. It’s disgusting,” said tycoon Warren Anderson, who bred them.

Logan doesn’t even bother to question the canned hunting ranch assertion that they employ 14,000 people in Texas or the bizarre claim that “Texas has more exotic wildlife than any other place on earth.” First off, that’s not something to be proud of. Second, it’s unprovable and vague propaganda. Are we talking individual animals? Species? The hunted animals are on fenced, ranches, not running wild. So then do farm animals count, too? Or pets? If we’re talking individual animals, then the number or starlings and sparrows alone in New York or many states would eclipse Texas’ antelope numbers.

Here are some other numbers Logan doesn’t bother to bring up. Wildlife watchers spend more more than hunters. Even in Texas. According to the last Fish and Wildlife Survey, animal tourists spent $2.9 billion wildlife watchers (table 69) compared to just $2.2 billion by hunters (table 59).

Again, animal lovers are happy to talk about the real numbers.

	Where to SEE BUFFALO, Bison and Wisent
	Where to SEE DEER (and anteloope and reindeer)

* Think I’m exaggerating? Logan actually said: “How did thousands of Texas ranches become home to the largest population of exotic animals on earth? It’s thanks to trophy hunters like Paul, who come here in the thousands to hunt these animals every year, sold on the idea of an African hunting experience in Texas.”

Manta ray off Hawaii by Steve Dunleavy

The giant manta ray (Manta birostris) just got an upgrade. It’s now listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, so maybe it’s patchwork of local protections will gel into some international cooperation.

The Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) gaves rays the boost Nov. 25 because their population fell 30% in the last decade and 80% since the 1940s.

Its big problem isn’t being delicious; people generally don’t want to eat them. The manta ray has gill rakers–combs to get food out of the water–that are dried and served as tea in Chinese medicine for a range of iffy ailments from rashes to circulation and immunity. The Ray of Hope compares their problems to those of sharks targeted for mystical shark fin soup. Fishermen turn to rays after they’ve wiped out sharks. Their meat is used as a filler in shark fin soup.

The ray’s dried gills are the big prize and the new rule means the world will start tracking the trade. Scubazoo reports finding ray’s gill rakers readily in markets in Sri Lanka, with dried tea selling in several spots in $80-$140 per kilo, again depending on size and quality. That’s a lot of money, but still not as much as manta rays bring in if we let them live and just let animal tourists come look at them. As Scubazoo points out, researcher Chas Anderson estimated last year that manta rays are worth about $4,000 each in tourism to the Maldives.

Here's what people are killing giant manta rays for

The IUCN says fishermen target manta rays in the Philippines, Mexico, Mozambique, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Tanzania and Indonesia.

The ray got help from Ecuador and NGO Equilibrio Azul, which in turn was assisted by the Manta Ray of Hope project, run by WildAid and Shark Savers. They’ll release a report in December on the decimation of manta and mobula rays.

Where can you go see manta rays? Many of the same places you see sharks.  Check out the Manta Ray & Whale Shark Research Centre

SEE ANIMALS IN AFRICA

1. Decorah, Iowa, Eaglets – 119 Million Views

Three eaglets on a windswept nest near the Decorah Fish Hatchery. The Raptor Resource Project has been helpfully keeping their diary and video highlights, too. Sadly, Rob McIntyre, the president of the group, died of a heart attack helping clean up after a recent tornado. The youngest hatched April 6 and they now all have feathers, but haven’t left the nest. Fun to have on as a kind of nature soundtrack even when there is no cuteness or gore.  30 second ads before you can see the live cam, 15 seconds for the highlight videos.

Where to SEE EAGLES

Video streaming by Ustream

2. North American Bear Center, Ely, MN 3 million views

Bear biologist Lynn Rogers runs the North American Bear Center in Minnesota, where you can see bears from platforms or take week-long classes on bear life. The Ustream camera focuses on three bears, Ted, Honey and Lucky at a pond. Hundreds watch even when there’s no action.

Where to SEE BEAR Polar, Grizzly, Black, any kind

3. Wildlife Center of Virginia Orphaned Eaglets 150,000 viewers at one time.

Tens of thousands of people were already keeping their eyes on a nest of bald eagles at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens. They hatched March 13-17. Then on April 26 a plane struck and killed their 15-year-old mother. The father tried to carry on feeding them, but biologist thought he could never keep up, so they took the eaglets to the Wildlife Center of Virgina. The cam has been so popular it’s helped boost the center’s chances in a community grant contest. The first day they cam was up, 30,000 people tuned in and crashed the center’s site. Now it’s hosted on WVEC, though stats aren’t offered.

Where to SEE EAGLES

4. NYU Red-Tailed Hawks — 20,000 Facebook fans, “109 million viewer minutes”

Right on Washington Square Park, a hawk pair built a window sill nest that the New York Times is broadcasting live. There’s been plenty of drama. The mother has a swollen, constricted foot. First they thought it was a fishing line and contemplated a dramatic window sill capture by New York City’s premiere wildlife rehabber Bobby Horvath. But it turned out to be a bad band and they decided to let her be. The Times uses the off-brand LiveStream, which calculates viewers in a completely different way.

5. Shiba Inu Cam, CA, 32 million views

The puppies that started it all are still enduring hits. It’s like American Idol: either you love it or you can’t believe it’s still on. I believe its views are cumulative over several years, so I am discounting them.

8. Oceanside, CA barn owls 1.4 million views

A pair of barn owls moved into a nest box just two weeks after residents installed it.

6. California Hummingbird Nest 1 million viewers

Incredible to see the teeny babies of these tiny birds. The mother’s second year near Laguna Beach.

7. Polish storks 138,000 views

A rooftop stork nest viewed from St. Anton Church in Warszewo, Szczecin, Poland.

9. Botswana Elephants 132,000 views

A family of elephants drinks at the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana, Africa. WildEarth runs the cam (which has lighting) that Geographic’s wildcam started.

10. Japanese Alpaca Farm 91,000 views

This is one of those odd Japanese fascinations I don’t really understand.

Lemur / Open Cages Info

Sir Richard Branson announced this week he’s giving his spare British Virgin Island to lemurs, which are getting wiped out at an alarming rate in Madagascar because of political instability, which has lead to unrestrained logging, slash and burn agriculture, poaching and capturing lemurs to sell as pets.

The BBC claims the plan is setting off alarm bells, quoting Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission saying the plan is “pretty weird – I would be alarmed about it and would want some reassurances.” The IUCN seems mainly troubled that lemurs might interfere with the ecosystem of Moskito and the BBC likens the danger to when rabbits and toad were introduced to Australia.

Here’s why I don’t see what the fuss is about:

Other people are doing it. There are already two outside populations of lemurs in North America and they have not yet overrun our continent. In Florida there’s the Lemur Conservation Society, which isn’t open to the public, but lets their 40 brown lemurs run as close to free as possible on 100 acres so they can be studied and saved. They stress that it’s a functioning lemur colony–a reserve population and not just some tourist attraction. Off Georgia, St. Catherine’s Wildlife Survival Center has another sort of colony, which you also can’t visit. Monkeyland Sanctuary in South Africa keeps three lemur species.

Around the world biologists have set up reserve populations of other primates and mammals. California has the Gibbon Conservation Center, which has 40 gibbons and is open to the public. Tasmania is moving Tasmanian devils who don’t have the horrible, contagious mouth cancer that’s inflicting the species to nearby islands.  Monkey Mountain in France has reintroduced 600 of the endangered monkeys it raises back to the wild in Morocco.

The island is teeny. Plus, it’s an island. Moskito is 120 hecactres (that’s roughly half a square mile or one square km). By contrast Australia is 2.9 million square miles (7.6 million sq. km). It’s a whole continent with several ecosystems and many plants and animals that only live there. Moskito is about 500 feet from the third biggest of the British Virgin Islands, Virgin Gordo, which is a whopping 8 square miles (20 sq km).

We have plenty of the particular lemur he’s helping. Branson is only taking one species, the ring-tailed lemur (lemur catta), which is classified as “near threatened” on the IUCN Red List. Nobody knows how many are in the wild. About 2,000 already live in captivity. Although its status was downgraded from “vulnerable” in 2008, the ring-tailed lemur is relatively well-off compared to other lemur species. If anything I wish Branson were being more aggressive and working on the even more endangered lemur species.

How many lemur species are there? Well, the taxonomists are still working that out. Officially there are now 101, up from about 60 a decade ago. But biologists may be splitting hairs; there’s not enough data on 41 lemur species to get a population estimate and seven they haven’t tried. Some seem to be interbreeding–a big no-no if you want to be considered a distinct species. About one-quarter are in real trouble: eight are “critically endangered” and 18 are plain endangered. Another one-fifth are near trouble (officially, that’s vulnerable or near threatened). Only eight are considered relatively safe or of “least concern.”

Where to go to see primates in the wild or at sanctuaries

 
See our original story on the video and how Parsons benefits Mugabe

SEE ANIMALS IN AFRICA

Where to SEE HAWKS, OWLS & OTHER RAPTORS