Another Chance To See

Long Way Down to see the Mountain Gorillas

2008-05-09T07:16:00.000-04:00

I've recently been enjoying Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's second globe-trotting motorcycle adventure "Long Way Down", and particularly enjoyed the segment up in the Virunga mountains when they got to meet the Mountain Gorillas. However, the whole adventure if full thrills and spills, and interesting meetings with local people and cultures as they travel from London to Cape Town on their big BMW bikes.

This DVD is not yet available in the USA, so I bought it from Amazon.co.uk and I've been using my cheap and cheeful Region Free DVD player from Philips. The Philips DVP5140 Multiformat DVD Player will play any NTSC/PAL DVD on any PAL or NTSC TV, and at this price you can't fall off.

First, to make it region code free follow these instruction:
1. Turn on the unit
2. Open the loading tray
3. Press the "Setup" button on the remote
4. Navigate to the "Preferences" page using the right arrow key
6. Press the down arrow once to enter the Preference page
5. Enter 138931 on the remote
6. You will now see the current region code displayed
7. Use the Up/Down arrow keys to select the region required or "0" for all regions
8. Press the "Play" button on the remote

And that's it, your all set for watching DVDs from anywhere in the world. My latest acquisition is the sequel to the BBC America smash-hit "Life On Mars", this time set in the 1980s and called "Ashes to Ashes". Great stuff.

Baby Amazonian Manatee gets a little help from his friends

2008-05-06T07:12:00.000-04:00

Here's a rare piece of Amazonian Manatee news from Florida's TCPalm.com. It seems that Piti, an orphaned baby manatee was entangled in a net deep in the Brazilian Amazon, when conservationists came to his rescue.

Conservationist Dr. Miriam Marmontel arrived with her team to find the locals had pulled the river animal free using a harpoon to the back.
[...]
The two scientists with a passion for preserving aquatic life collaborated to rehabilitate the manatee named Piti in a fiberglass pool on a houseboat in western Brazil's Tef'é Lake. The plan remains to release him back into the wild this fall.

Kakapo Encounter 2008 is coming

2008-05-05T19:00:00.002-04:00

Just a reminder that Kakapo Encounter 2008 will be running from 12th August to 23rd October (according to this Wildlife Extra page), although the official site still has it listed for September 8 - October 22, 2008.

Kakapo are nocturnal, so viewing is limited to once a day immediately after nightfall. A charter boat will take you from the wharf at Halfmoon Bay to Ulva Island. Each group will have a experienced guide not only to inform and educate, but ensure no harm or discomfort comes to Sirocco!

Sirocco will be living in a large natural enclosure, with a full time minder in attendance. As a bird that was hand-reared by humans, Sirocco is very sociable with people, and your opportunity to view will come when he comes to his minder to recieve his nightly feeding. The encounter will be very much on Sirocco's terms, but given his consistent fascination with people, we are hoping he will find the experience as enjoyable as you do.

Any profits go to Trust projects which include trail maintenance on Ulva Island (a predator-free bird sanctuary), and the reintroduction and care of endangered bird and plant species.

Gorilla Round Up

2008-04-26T18:23:00.003-04:00

Here's a few Mountain Gorilla related links that have wafted through my inbox recently...

King Kong Lives On

How tourism helps the majestic mountain gorillas of Rwanda and the people who share their habitat
By Julie Davidson

The ultimate patriarch, he eases himself up from buttocks which have flattened their own forest glade and looks at me thoughtfully. On all fours he is the size of a small car. His hands are as big as bolsters, with fingers like black puddings and long, oddly elegant nails. He prods the infant playing between his feet, gives an instructive grunt, and together they join the family. The youngster's mother is nearby, but if she is lost to disease or poachers her child will be raised and protected - defended to the death, if necessary - by his colossal father: King Kong, the man-beast, greatest of the great apes, the beleaguered primate whose identity has evolved over the past century from homicidal monster to gentle giant.

Mobile game to help save embattled gorillas

For mobile users a new mobile game hopes to raise awareness of the plight of the mountain gorilla and funds for their conservation. Silverback takes gamers through eight levels, following the life-span of a gorilla from childhood to adult.

Mountain Gorilla Rally Called Off

CACMS Chairman Surinder Thatthi informed all registered drivers for this year's African Rally Championship that Rwanda Gorilla rally was cancelled out of this year's championship due to lack of available sponsorship.

And for the Western Lowland Gorilla... Ebola Virus Threatens Gorilla With Extinction

If the usual threats of poaching and habitat loss weren't enough, gorillas face the added danger of a deadly disease that has been surging through their ranks.

The highly-infectious Ebola virus has decimated huge swaths of the already diminished western lowland gorilla population.

Kakapos: Pictures of Chicks

2008-04-25T13:55:00.002-04:00

Here's a couple of pages at New Zealand's Stuff, with pictures one of the new Kakapo Parrot chicks. The chick is pictured with kakapo technical officer Daryl Eason.

Check the pictures out here and here.

The four female chicks and three males are fed five times a day and kept in a dark, temperature-controlled room.

Though they spend much of their time sleeping, Mr Eason said the chicks' individual personalities were already starting to show and they were all making good progress.

They put on about 40 grams a day, and now weighed about 500g, he said.

Three Gorges Dam - 3D model for Google Earth

2008-04-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

There's a fairly simplistic model of the Three Gorges Dam created by SugarSmax up on the Google 3D Warehouse. It can be downloaded into Google Sketchup or Google Earth and viewed from any angle, but it does give a nice idea of how the Chinese landscape has been modified by such a massive construction as this dam.

To aid in your Google Earth navigation, I still HEARTILY recommend the "3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator" from 3DConnexion. It's remarkably affordable, and brings the whole Google Earth experience to life. Lots of fun!

Try flying around the Last Chance To See locations which you'll find in our Another Chance To See KMZ file, and also the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Google Earth blog which is a very clever use of Google Earth. The Space Navigator brings so much to the whole experience, and it's thoroughly addictive! The device is not just for Google Earth though. It also works with Google Sketchup, Autodesk products, and much more besides. I highly recommend it.

$720 for 720 Mountain Gorillas - Update

2008-04-23T12:21:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Gwen who generously donated $50 to my Mountain Gorilla Fundraiser after seeing the incredible footage of Titus on the PBS special "The Gorilla King" this weekend.

To remind you, since there approximately 720 Mountain Gorillas left in the world, we're trying to raise $720, $1 for every single gorilla up there in the Virunga Mountains.

So please visit our Firstgiving donation page at "720 Dollars for 720 Mountain Gorillas", if you'd like to make a contribution. Proceeds will go to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, a charity of which Douglas Adams was a great supporter and patron.

Anyone can donate, from anywhere in the world, the site is secure, and you can contribute as much or as little as you can afford. $1 will do, as that's one Mountain Gorilla towards our target!

Here's our progress graph so far...

Komodo Dragon bites like a pussy cat

2008-04-22T12:17:00.002-04:00

There's been quite a lot of coverage around the web this week about a new study which concludes that a Komodo Dragon's bite is weaker than that of the domestic house cat! Instead, it seems that the Komodo Dragon relies on razor-sharp teeth, powerful neck muscles, and a "space frame" skull to bring down its prey. This National Geographic News page has the story.

Using computer models, researchers from Australia's University of New South Wales analyzed a Komodo specimen from the Australian Museum in Sydney.
[...]
"The bite is really quite incredibly weak for such a big lizard—less than you'd expect from the average house cat," said Stephen Wroe, an author of the study, which was recently published in the Journal of Anatomy.

If a Komodo actually tried to crush prey with its jaws, like crocodiles do, "it would break its own skull," he said.

Thomas B Hildebrandt clarifies Northern White Rhino cloning story

2008-04-21T13:56:00.000-04:00

Dr Thomas B Hildebrandt has added a clarification to the recent story about the Northern White Rhino cloning process, and his words appear here on the Scotsman website.

Further to your report on the bid to save rare animal species (17 April), I would like to add that this groundbreaking research concept allows the inclusion of infertile, captive northern white rhinos in a breeding programme and even permits frozen cell samples from dead individuals to be used.

I'd like to emphasise that due to the high-tech approach the only animals that will be involved are the remaining captive northern white rhinos in two zoos and not individuals living in the wild. The final goal is to create a stabile captive northern white rhino population.

The major advantage of the procedure is that only skin samples of the northern white rhinos are required. These will be joined with embryos of their southern counterpart to produce pure sperm and eggs derived from the northern white rhino.

TV: Silverback Titus to star in PBS Nature special "The Gorilla King"

2008-04-20T11:47:00.005-04:00

Check your local PBS listings in North America, for April 20th, 2008 sees the premier of "The Gorilla King" staring famed Mountain Gorilla Silverback "Titus". The special, narrated by award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham will also air on the BBC sometime later in 2008.

See the PBS "Gorilla King" webpage for more information and video clips.

Two more Kakapo chicks! We're at 92 Kakapos!

2008-04-19T12:29:00.000-04:00

Two more Kakapo chicks have successfully hatched, to add to the previous five, and the newly renovated Kakapo Recovery Programme website has the exciting news. However, the site also revealed the very sad news that they recently discovered the body of Bill, who had appeared in good health. So we now stand at 92 Kakapos in the world, and the 7 chicks are being relocated to Nelson Island for further hand rearing. This Wikipedia article has the full list of names.

Today we are saying goodbye (temporarily) to the seven youngest kakapo in the world. The chicks are being relocated to Nelson where they will be hand-raised until they are ready for wild release.

Daryl is looking forward to going home to his family after being on the island looking after the chicks for over a month; taking the chicks with him means they will get the best possible care without him being away from home for so long. Though we’re sad they’re leaving it's exciting that they are one step closer to becoming big green budgies…yippeeeee!

Here's a video of some hand-feeding in progress...

Cloning of Northern White Rhino seen as last hope for species

2008-04-18T12:22:00.003-04:00

The Telegraph has an interesting article on the possibility of using some sort of cloning technique to save the Northern White Rhino from extinction.

A novel kind of test tube reproduction is to be used to help save one of the world's rarest animals - the northern white rhino - which is on the brink of extinction with few, if any, individuals left in the wild.
[...]
Now the Institute for Breeding Rare and Endangered African Mammals in Edinburgh has approached Dr Thomas Hildebrandt at Berlin Zoo and Sir Ian Wilmut' and Dr Paul De Sousa at the University of Edinburgh to find a way to test an alternative to conventional cloning methods that could help northern white rhino repopulate the grasslands of north-east Africa.

Funnel Web Fright

2008-04-04T19:46:00.003-04:00

The colourful scientist Dr Struan Sutherland got a mention in this frightening article about 50-year-old Catherine Brill who was bitten by a funnel web spider in her back garden. After a frantic rush to the hospital her life was saved by the anti-venom created by Dr Sutherland all those years ago.

Inside Catherine’s wrist a blizzard of toxins had started ripping at her nervous system. Her heart pumped faster, and the moisture and feeling seeped from her face.

Catherine had been bitten by a funnel web.

“It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. I’d rather have kids than face that again,” she said. “It felt like I’d been set on fire. It’s like someone’s stabbed you with a hot knife, and it just slowly crept up my arm as the venom spread.

“My tongue went numb in my mouth and a tingling went up and down my arm.”

Remember Struan's advice to Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine... "Don't get bitten in the first place!"

Five Kakapos Hatched! We're up to 91, and 2 more due...

2008-03-31T07:24:00.003-04:00

Check out the press release around the web which reports that five of the recently laid eggs have hatched out successfully, with hopefully two more to come. It'd probably be a good time for Stephen Fry to be heading down that way for a bit of filming on the Last Chance To See TV series.

A species of flightless parrot edged back from extinction with the hatching of five new chicks in New Zealand in recent weeks and two more on the way, officials said Monday.

The latest births of owl-like kakapos in southern New Zealand brought the population of the rare bird to just 91, said Emma Neill, a senior official of a Department of Conservation program to save the parrot.

Neill said even a small lift in numbers was "awesome," especially because the birds only breed every few years.

Ranger held over gorilla killings

2008-03-19T12:35:00.002-04:00

The BBC News site is reporting that Honore Mashagiro, a member of the Congolese Nature Conservation Institute (ICCN) has been arrested on claims that he organised the mountain gorilla killings in 2007. It was the ICCN themselves that brought the charges. How utterly baffling!

Ten gorillas were killed in 2007 in the Virunga National Park, a Unesco world heritage site.

The park is in a volatile region where rebels have set up a base.

The area is also home to more than half of the world's last 700 mountain gorillas living in the wild.

Six other foresters could be questioned over the killings, and their role in trapping and slaughtering the animals on the alleged orders of Mr Mashagiro, reports say.

INTERNET EXPLORER PROBLEMS

2008-03-12T16:33:00.002-04:00

I've recently discovered that this website is not rendering correctly in Internet Explorer due to a serious problem deriving from my Comcast webspace. While I explore my options for moving images and other page elements away from Comcast, may I HEARTILY recommend using Firefox where the problem does not seem to occur. That's the reason I didn't know about this problem earlier, because I ditched IE years ago. I have no idea how long this problem has been going on. Apologies for any inconvenience.

More Komodo Dragon Babies!

2008-03-12T14:58:00.001-04:00

Reuters.co.uk has news that Surabaya Zoo has fourteen newly hatched baby Komodo Dragons on the prowl...

A zoo in Indonesia's second-largest city Surabaya has succeeded in hatching Komodo dragons, the largest living species of lizard, for a second time outside their natural habitat.

Komodo dragons are found only in eastern Indonesia, in Komodo island and several other islets in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago.

Fourteen Komodo dragon eggs were hatched in incubators at the zoo in Surabaya on the main Java island over the weekend, bringing to 41 the number of the reptiles in their collection. The zoo succeeded in hatching 13 eggs in the first attempt during the 1990s.

Sixth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture - With Live Hitchhikers Performance

2008-03-06T20:09:00.004-05:00

REMINDER: The Sixth Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture will take place next week at the Royal Geographic Society in London, on Wednesday 12th March 2008.

The lecture will be presented by psychologist Steven Pinker, the Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His subject will be "The Stuff of Thought, Language as a Window into Human Nature".

The lecture will be followed by a very special LIVE 30th anniversary performance of material from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio scripts which will hopefully reunite many original cast members such as...

Simon Jones as Arthur Dent
Geoffrey McGivern as Ford Prefect
Mark Wing Davey as Zaphod Beeblebrox
Susan Sheridan as Trillian
Roger Gregg as Eddie
Stephen Moore as Marvin The Paranoid Android
With a Very Special Guest as the Voice Of The Book

Proceeds from the event will go towards Save The Rhino, including the auction of a rare handcrafted model of Vogon Commander Kwaltz from the Hitchhikers Guide movie.

Also raising money for Save The Rhino are the team of runners in training for the RAW Africa ultra-marathon this April. Apparently one of their members has been spotted roaming around Hyde Park, dressed in his Save The Rhino suit. Check out the video evidence...

Following in Darwin's footsteps

2008-03-03T12:12:00.001-05:00

David Bird wrote this interesting article, published on Canada.com, about his trip to the Galapagos Islands, in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, which he describes as an almost religious experience.

I was champing at the bit to do likewise, to follow in his footsteps, but Julio informed us that no one was allowed ashore on that part of San Cristobal Island. It was to these islands that Darwin sailed on the H.M.S. Beagle in 1835 to observe and collect specimens as part of the development of his theory of natural selection, which lead to his book, On the Origin of Species.

I had taught the speciation of Darwin's finches for years in a Wildlife Ecology course on McGill's Macdonald campus and it was almost a religious experience to physically go there.
[...]
The other bird, whose name elicited giggles from everyone, was the blue-footed booby. Like most of the birds in the islands, these goofy-looking gull-like birds shamelessly danced and called to convince females to come and copulate with them.

Darwin's books, now in the "public domain", are available in free ebook format in several places, and have been nicely formatted for devices such as the Kindle and Sony Reader over at the premier ebook community mobileread.com. I have both "Origin of Species" and "Voyage of the Beagle" on my wonderful Sony Reader, I just haven't got around to reading them yet. Sometimes difficult when you have such a large library at your fingertips.

Link: Darwin books available at mobileread.com

Mauritius Island Life

2008-03-02T12:04:00.003-05:00

Here's an excellent essay about the wildlife of Mauritius, written by by Mark Daffey and published on "The Smart Set - Grand Tour" page back in January. The essay covers Dodos, Pink Pigeons, Mauritius Kestrels, Echo Parakeets and more.

From a total of just nine of the endemic Pink Pigeons remaining in the wild in 1990, a successful captive breeding program has increased their numbers on Île aux Aigrettes to 94, out of an estimated 380 throughout Mauritius. Most of them can be found in the protected Black River Gorges — Mauritius’ only national park.
[...]
While such feral animals are slowly being eradicated, the more than 30 staff who work on the island on any one day concentrate most of their efforts towards preserving native species, such as the Mauritius Fody, Echo Parakeet, Telfair’s Skink, and the Mauritius Kestrel, whose numbers had dropped to just four worldwide in 1974 (there are now more than 1,000).

Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund - January and February

2008-03-02T11:58:00.002-05:00

I've missed a couple of months of the Dian Fossey Field News. Here's a quick catch-up...

January 2008

During 2007 the three large multi-male groups we had studied at Karisoke for the past several years broke up to form smaller groups, each with fewer males, and many females transferred among groups. Some silverbacks began to roam on their own. This was the most dramatic period of change in the Karisoke gorillas’ social organization since our long-term studies began decades ago!
more...

February 2008

On Jan. 7, the Karisoke Research Center field staff was amazed to find that Kwiruka, a 31- year-old female, had moved into Bwenge’s group, which was formed in 2007. Kwiruka had lived in Shinda’s group since 1993, when an older group (called Group 5) split into Shinda’s group (including Kwiruka) and Pablo’s groups. Kwiruka held a very high position in the group, and that makes her decision to leave the group really unclear. In moving to Bwenge’s group, she left behind numerous offspring in Shinda’s group, including three silverbacks, an adult female and a 4-year-old daughter, Ubufatanye.
more...

Komodo is a diver's heaven, and ecotourism destination

2008-03-02T11:49:00.005-05:00

TIME recently ran an article called "Here Be Dragons" about the development of Komodo's visitor facilities and lure as an ecotourism destination.

More than 2,500 Komodo dragons still roam freely across the island, with some measuring up to 10 ft. (3 m) in length. There are 37 different types of reptile species besides, as well as 32 species of mammals. The waters off Komodo are diver heaven — home to more than 1,000 species of fish, 385 species of reef-building corals and six species of whales.
[...]
Detailed information, including a guide to alternative transport arrangements, can be found at www.komodonationalpark.org. Do note that July and August is mating season, which makes it more difficult to catch a glimpse of the dragons — and even if you do spot one, a mating Komodo dragon is disturbed only at your dire peril.

Fertile Kakapo Eggs for 2008 - Cracking News!

2008-02-29T21:37:00.003-05:00

Hurray! For the first time since 2005, at least two fertile Kakapo eggs have been laid for this year's breeding season. Scoop.co.nz has the exciting news. It feels like such a long time since I was able to report such news, and this blog was less than a year old at the time.

The breeding season of New Zealand’s most endangered bird, the kakapo, is off to a great start with at least two fertile eggs laid on Codfish Island and two female birds, previously thought to be too young, also laying eggs.

Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick says these are the first eggs laid by kakapo in three years, and it is hugely exciting that two six-year-old kakapo have laid eggs, because we previously thought the minimum breeding age was nine years.

Don Merton: Famous Faces 2 exhibition

2008-02-28T07:37:00.004-05:00

Down in Gisborne, New Zealand, there is an exhibition going on called "Famous Faces 2" which features a profile of Don Merton. Don was the saviour of the Chatham Island black robin, and is a man who has done so much good work towards saving the Kakapo Parrot from extinction.

It is a joint venture between the Pride in Gisborne Trust and Tairawhiti Museum.

Following up on a successful exhibition of 29 personalities from the Gisborne and East Coast district in 2002, the latest exhibition is 21 additional -- but just as worthy -- profiles, said museum curator Dudley Meadows, who is also a Pride in Gisborne trustee.

The Gisborne Herald had the story back in January, but the exhibition continues through the end of March.

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Another Virgin Birth For Flora

2008-02-28T07:24:00.003-05:00

Chester Zoo's Komodo Dragon Flora as welcomed another baby male to the world, and once again there was no daddy to be found. It's parthenogenesis at work again. The Wirral Globe has the story.

Kevin Buley, Chester Zoo's Head of Zoo Programmes, said: "The absence of a strong male partner really doesn't seem to trouble Flora. She remains determined to do her own sweet thing with fantastic results."
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Flora's solitary existence, however, is going to be short-lived and in a few months time she will finally get to cosy up with dragon Norman who has made his home at Chester.

The story also goes on to say that visitor numbers have gone up quite sharply, which they're attributing to David Attenborough's TV series "Life In Cold Blood".

The start of the new BBC One series Life in Cold Blood has reawakened an enthusiasm for reptiles and amphibians and some of Chester Zoo's cold-blooded inhabitants have received many visitors during half term.

More than 50,000 visitors have passed through the gates already this month and February looks set to be one of the busiest in the zoo's 74-year history.