Endangered babirusa piglets Olive and Myrtle check out their habitat Friday at Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

The piglets are now 8 weeks old, and zoo curators have deemed them ready for their public debut, but their mother Guava keeps close track of them.

Babirusa (BAH-bee-ROO-suh) means “pig-deer” in Malay. The name comes from two pairs of long tusks that curve back toward male pigs’ faces. The inner pair grows through the snout. Females have smaller or no tusks.

Babirusa pigs have a very distinct look about them. They are linked, through paleontology record, to hippos. Their hairless, wrinkly, brownish-pink skin is reminiscent of hippos, but their upper tusks resemble the antlers on deer. Like deer, they have long legs and are swift runners. However, they are technically members of the pig family.

Unlike other pig species, the babirusa has only one to three babies in each litter. The piglets will nurse for six to eight months, but start to become active and will begin to forage with the group and eat solid food within three to 10 days.

Because of their tusks, babirusas do not root under the dirt for food like other pigs. They eat fruits and nuts, insects and larvae. They also eat mangos, mushrooms and leaves. They are different from other pigs, because they have stomachs similar to sheep. The stomach has two sacs that help digest fibrous plant material more readily.

Only 13 zoos across the country have babirusa pigs. They are native to a few Indonesian islands, but fewer than 10,000 babirusa remain in the wild, where they are illegally hunted for meat, even as their native habitat is shrinking.

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The Franklin Park Zoo, a Boston institution that has drawn generations of city and suburban families, might be forced to close its doors and possibly euthanize some of its animals as a result of the deep budget cuts imposed by Governor Deval Patrick, zoo officials said Friday.

Without more state funding, those zoo officials said, they will run out of money by October and have to close both the Franklin Park Zoo and its smaller counterpart, the Stone Zoo in Stoneham. They would lay off most of their 165 employees and attempt to find new homes for more than 1,000 animals, the officials said.

The zoo officials, in a written statement that echoed a letter sent earlier to legislative leaders, said they would be unlikely to find homes for at least 20 percent of the animals, “requiring either destroying them, or the care of the animals in perpetuity.”

The zoos, which are run by Zoo New England and attracted nearly 570,000 visitors over the past year, are operated through a public-private partnership that is funded by taxpayers and revenues from visitors. If the partnership dissolves, as it would in October if it runs out of money, the custody of the zoos would be turned over to state officials, according to state law.

(Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff) Children checked out the mandrills in the Tropical Forest exhibit in 2005.

Zoo officials estimate that it would take three years and cost at least $9 million to completely shut down the zoos, and they said the state would be in charge of that process.

The Legislature had originally provided $6.5 million to the zoos – which accounts for more than half of their budget – but Patrick, using a line-item veto, cut the state funding to $2.5 million.

The head of the zoo, John Linehan, sent his letter to legislative leaders Tuesday urging them to override Patrick’s veto and effectively restore their funding. Linehan did not respond to requests for comment Friday. Instead, a private public relations company hired by the zoo released a lengthy statement.

“The only areas left to cut are in non-animal care, revenue-generating departments,” the zoo’s statement reads. “This would result in a bare-bones staff that would care for the animals and the facility, but would eliminate any that would service the public.”

Even the threat of closures illustrates the far-reaching impacts of state budget cuts and the fallout they can have on those who make the decisions – in this case, Patrick. As word of the zoos crisis broke, complete with the vision of euthanized animals, Patrick, his entire cabinet, senior aides, and political advisers gathered at the governor’s estate in the Berkshires, plotting strategy for the months ahead.

“These are extremely difficult times across the state, and there have been tough cuts in every area,” a Patrick spokeswoman, Cyndi Roy, said in a statement. “This is an example of an unfortunate cut that had to be made in order to preserve core services for families struggling during the economic downturn.”

But for every cut, there is an affected constituency, and with a zoo, the users are far and wide, and the victims – exotic animals – unusually sympathetic. Perhaps for that reason, zoo officials bluntly threatened closure, and the criticism of Patrick began in earnest.

“This is just another bad decision on budget cuts, affecting working families,” Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino said.

“It’s a big deal,” he said of the possible closure of Franklin Park Zoo in Dorchester. “It’s a great resource for the community. The zoo is an inexpensive place to spend a day in tough economic times.”

The Franklin Park Zoo, which was founded in 1913, has faced closure numerous times in the past because of a lack of funding, most recently in 2002 when House lawmakers cut its funding from $6 million to $3.5 million.

Zoo officials have been lobbying House and Senate lawmakers and are hoping they can convince a two-thirds majority to override Patrick’s veto in each chamber. The Legislature is expected to begin addressing all of Patrick’s line-item vetoes, which totaled nearly $150 million, on Tuesday.

“They just can’t make the math work,” said Representative Elizabeth A. Malia, a Democrat from Jamaica Plain, speaking of the finances of Zoo New England with the cut in state funding. “It’s very upsetting. It would be a horrible, horrible loss for the community.”

The Franklin Park Zoo, located in a section of the city where Dorchester, Roxbury, and Jamaica Plain come together, represents something of a touchstone for virtually anyone who grew up in Boston and walked through its majestic gates.

The zoo was a featured site in the 1980 science fiction film “Altered States,” where a Harvard professor devolves into a gorilla and goes on a rampage. It also achieved a certain notoriety in 2003, when a gorilla named Little Joe escaped from his cage and attacked a 2-year-old girl and her babysitter.

The Franklin Park Zoo was operated by city and state agencies until 1991, when a nonprofit, private corporation was founded to oversee it. The same corporation operates the Stone Zoo, which is located on a 26-acre site near Spot Pond in Stoneham. The partnership has a clause that states that if the zoos shut down, the state would have to assume control of the property and the animals.

The total operations budget for the zoos last year was $11 million, about 60 percent of which came from state funding. The remainder came through admissions, food and gift shop sales, memberships, and fund-raising.

The Globe reported Friday that a film crew is laying the groundwork to begin filming a comedy, “The Zookeeper,” starring Kevin James and Rosario Dawson, near an unused outdoor gorilla exhibit near the zoo’s rear entrance. Filming is scheduled to run from July 20 through October, and the zoo was paid a substantial location fee that zoo officials would not disclose.

“We all know it’s a tough time economically, and cuts are going to have to be made,” said Representative Linda Dorcena Forry, a Boston Democrat. “But with families losing their jobs and not able to go out of state, we have an amazing jewel here for people to visit.”

Senate President Therese Murray’s spokesman did not return requests for comment, but a high-ranking Senate source said it was among the proposals that they plan to override.
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo was less definitive.

“The House is still reviewing the governor’s vetoes and deciding what action to take,” he said through a spokesman, Seth Gitell.

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By Urmee Khan, Digital and Media Correspondent, The Daily Telegraph

Delivering this year’s Richard Dimbleby Lecture, the Prince said that the next generation will face a “living hell” unless governments urgently tackle climate change and stop plundering the Earth’s natural resources.

“In failing the Earth, we are failing Humanity,” the Prince said, drawing parallels with the global financial crisis. “Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts… so Nature’s life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too. If we don’t face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it.”

He highlighted that the dual challenge of an economic system with “enormous shortcomings, together with an environmental crisis of climate change” threatened to “engulf us all”.

He said: “We need urgently to look deeply into ourselves and at the way we perceive the world and our relationship with it? If only because, surely, we all want to bequeath to our children and our grandchildren something other than the living hell of the nightmare that for so many of us now looms on the horizon.”

The Prince re-emphasises the urgent need for action – there are “96 months left” before it may be too late to reverse the impact of climate change.

In an earlier speech in March, the Prince said that nations had “less than 100 months to act” to save the planet from irreversible damage due to climate change.

Last night, he called for a new Age of Sustainability rather than our current “Age of Convenience” where the goal of unlimited economic growth is depleting finite Natural resources to dangerously low levels.

He said mankind needed to reassess the relationship with the natural world and recognise that “we are not separate from Nature – like everything else, we are Nature.”

He called for greater “financial incentives and disincentives” to move innovative business ideas from the economic fringes to the mainstream.

In addition to greater corporate social and environmental responsibility, the Prince urged the Government to make greater use of “community capital – the networks of people and organisations, the post offices and pubs, the churches and village halls, the mosques, temples and bazaars”.

One solution “lies in the way we plan, design and build our settlements”, said the Prince. “I have talked long and hard about this for what seems rather a long time – but it is yet another case where a rediscovery of so-called “old-fashioned”, traditional virtues can lead to the development of sustainable urbanism.”

The Prince of Wales delivered BBC One’s annual Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St James Palace in front of a live audience. It is 20 years after his father, the Duke of Edinburgh, gave his own Dimbleby Lecture. The annual address is named after the late broadcaster, whom the Prince said “he combined a flair for language with great human insight to report on some of the most significant moments of the twentieth century – not least when he guided millions of viewers on the day television came of age, with the BBC’s coverage of my mother’s Coronation in 1953.”

It is understood the Prince was invited to give the lecture by Mr Dimbleby’s 64-year-old son Jonathan, who wrote a biography of the Prince in 1994.

Other previous Richard Dimbleby lecturers include Bill Clinton, General Sir Mike Jackson, Dame Stella Rimington and Dr Rowan Williams.

The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) has stepped up efforts to curb the illegal trade in great apes in the Middle East by producing anti-poaching posters in Arabic on behalf of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Great Ape Enforcement Task Force.

The posters, which were unveiled at the CITES Standing Committee meeting today in Geneva, will be distributed to law enforcement agencies, customs officials, and border guards throughout Arabic nations in Africa and the Middle East.

The poster bears the message “Stop Killing and Smuggling These Animals,” along with photographs of each of the four great apes: chimpanzee, gorilla, bonobo and orangutan. Contact information for CITES, Interpol, the Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), and other international law enforcement agencies is also included.

Experts believe that approximately 25 chimpanzees and gorillas are smuggled out of Africa through Egypt each year into the Middle East, where great apes are prized as pets. All great apes are classified as endangered animals and their trade is strictly prohibited.

“PASA is committed to closing down the black market and the illegal trade routes to the Middle East,” said Doug Cress, executive director of PASA. “Although great apes do not naturally occur in this region, it is a well-defined destination. We believe these posters will help border guards and customs officials in places such as Cairo, Khartoum, Beirut, and Doha do their jobs more effectively.”

PASA produced earlier versions of the poster in English, French and Bahasa Indonesia, which were distributed by the CITES Great Ape Enforcement Task Force to range-state countries in Africa and Asia.

The Arabic-language posters are particularly timely, given the increased focus within CITES on Egypt’s role in the illegal trade in great apes. A PASA mission visited Egypt in March 2009 and reported serious lapses in law enforcement and CITES compliance.

PASA was formed in 2000 to unite the rehabilitation centers that care for orphaned chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, drills and other primates across Africa. For more information, please visit the PASA website.

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Geneva, Switzerland – Experimenting with tiger farming is too risky and could drive wild tigers further toward extinction, the World Bank told a key international wildlife trade meeting today.

WWF endorsed the World Bank’s call for countries to ban tiger farming because of the uncertainty that it will have for the long-term conservation of wild tigers.

“Extinction is irreversible, so prudence and precaution suggest that the risks of legalized farming are too great a gamble for the world to take,” World Bank Director Keshav Varma told the member countries of the 58th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Standing Committee. “We cannot know for sure if tiger farming will work.”

Need to stop all trade in tiger parts now

“Stopping all trade in tiger parts, and phasing out these tiger farms, is of the utmost urgency if the tiger is to survive in the wild”, said Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme of WWF International, “It is time for the world community to join together, with tiger range state governments, to stop all poaching of tigers for illegal trade, and WWF welcomes the engagement of the World Bank in these efforts”.

Because of the unpredictability of the market environment and the small number of remaining tigers in the wild, there is “no room for experimentation,” Varma, who leads the World Bank’s Global Tiger Initiative, said after the meeting.

© WWF The World Bank called for countries to ban tiger farming because of the uncertainty that it will have for the long-term conservation of wild tigers.

“Commercial trading in tiger parts and its derivatives is not in the interest of wild tiger conservation.”

Tiger trade is prohibited internationally and banned domestically in all of its range countries, including China – historically the largest market for tiger products.

However, owners of privately run tiger farms and a contingent of wealthy business men across China have been pressuring the Chinese government to allow legal trade in tiger parts within China and lift its domestic tiger trade ban, implemented in 1993.

“Having carefully weighed the economic arguments we urge the CITES community to uphold the ban on wild tiger products and for all countries to continue to ban the domestic trade of wild tigers,” the World Bank statement said.

“We also call upon the international community at large to join efforts in providing the necessary technical and other support to the respective countries in phasing out tiger farming. This is the only safe way to ensure that wild tigers may have a future tomorrow.”

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Geneva, Switzerland — Rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns, according to new research.

Poachers in Africa and Asia are killing an ever increasing number of rhinos—an estimated two to three a week in some areas—to meet a growing demand for horns believed in some countries to have medicinal value, according to a briefing to a key international wildlife trade body by WWF, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and their affiliated wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.

The impact in Africa

An estimated three rhinos were illegally killed each month in all of Africa from 2000-05, out of a population of around 18,000. In contrast, 12 rhinoceroses now are being poached each month in South Africa and Zimbabwe alone, the three groups told the 58th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species Standing Committee this week in Geneva.

© WWF-Canon / Martin Harvey A black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) in Zimbabwe. Twelve rhinoceroses now are being poached each month in South Africa and Zimbabwe alone, according to new research.

“Illegal rhino horn trade to destinations in Asia is driving the killing, with growing evidence of involvement of Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai nationals in the illegal procurement and transport of rhino horn out of Africa,” the briefing states.

The impact in Asia

Meanwhile, rhino poaching is also problematic in Asia. About 10 rhinos have been poached in India and at least seven in Nepal since January alone—out of a combined population of only 2,400 endangered rhinos.

“Rhinos are in a desperate situation,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman, Director of the Species Programme, WWF-International. “This is the worst rhino poaching we have seen in many years and it is critical for governments to stand up and take action to stop this deadly threat to rhinos worldwide. It is time to crack down on organized criminal elements responsible for this trade, and to vastly increase assistance to range countries in their enforcement efforts.”

Almost all rhino species are listed in CITES (the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in Appendix I, which means that any international trade of any rhino parts for commercial purposes is illegal.

“Increased demand for rhino horn, alongside a lack of law enforcement, a low level of prosecutions for poachers who are actually arrested and increasingly daring attempts by poachers and thieves to obtain the horn is proving to be too much for rhinos and some populations are seriously declining,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC.

The situation is particularly dire in Zimbabwe where such problems are threatening the success of more than a decade’s work of bringing rhino populations back to healthy levels.

For example, earlier this week a park ranger arrested with overwhelming evidence against him for having killed three rhinos in the Chipinge Safari Area, was acquitted without any satisfactory explanation for the verdict. Similarly, in September 2008, a gang of four Zimbabwean poachers who admitted to killing 18 rhinos were also freed in a failed judiciary process.

The briefing concludes that governments need “an accurate and up-to-date picture of the status, conservation and trade in African and Asian rhinoceroses, as well as the factors driving the consumption of rhinoceros horn, so that firm international action can be taken to arrest this immediate threat to rhinoceros populations worldwide.”

© Sameer Singh - WWF AREAS and Tiger Programmes An adult rhino in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam

“Rhino populations in both Africa and Asia are being seriously threatened by poaching and illegal trade,” said Dr Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Biodiversity Conservation Group. “IUCN and its African and Asian Rhino Specialist Groups are working hard to gather data and information on rhinos so that CITES parties can make informed decisions and ensure that rhinos are still here for generations to come.”

The 58th meeting of the CITES Standing Committee is being held in Geneva from 6 -10 July. This issue will be further discussed at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, which will be held in Doha, Qatar March 13-25, 2010.

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The sales tax, passed in 1990, has lead to numerous improvements in the Zoo over the past 19 years. The Great EscApe, Cat Forest/Lion Overlook and Oklahoma Trails exhibits are all major additions funded by the sales tax. These remarkable exhibits meet the Zoo’s promise to taxpayers to focus on the ABC’s of the animal kingdom–apes, bears and cats. Our current project, a new Children’s Zoo, will open in 2010. It is a place where children can explore, touch, and immerse themselves in a natural environment that will stimulate their imagination, encourage exploration and give them a greater appreciation for nature.

“We will continue to express our gratitude and commitment to the citizens of Oklahoma City by building on the foundation of the past 19 years,” said Executive Director/CEO Dwight Scott. “We’re excited for what our future holds including the new Children’s Zoo and our state-of-the-art elephant exhibit designed to house a larger herd of elephants including bulls. This will allow for the Zoo to further its conservation mission by participating in the reproduction of these outstanding, yet endangered species.”

Come see us grow! Visit the Oklahoma City Zoo today, Oklahoma’s #1 attraction and one of the top three family-friendly zoos in the nation. The wild is calling! Located at NE 52nd and Martin Luther King Blvd., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73111, in the heart of Oklahoma City’s Adventure District, Zoo hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily during Morning Zoo Rise from July 1 to August 16. Through September, the Zoo will remain open until 8 p.m. on Saturdays with exhibit buildings closing at 7:45 p.m. Standard admission is $7 for adults and $4 for children ages three to 11 and seniors ages 65 and older. Children two and under are free. For more information, call (405) 424-3344 or visit www.okczoo.com.

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Using a lure system – similar to the kind used on greyhound tracks – the scientists recorded female cheetah Arabia as she chased after a piece of chicken as it was pulled at high speed through her paddock.

One of six North African cheetahs at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo, on the Cheetah Rock exhibit, Arabia was quick to catch on to the new “toy” and has been enjoying ad hoc games of chase, watched closely by the scientists.

But whilst the activity provides good enrichment and sprinting fun for the cheetah, there is a serious side to the project.

Professor Alan Wilson from the RVC is studying why animals, such as greyhounds, race horse and cheetah, can run so fast so that the information can be used to understand more about limb injuries in both animals and humans.

© RVC

Speaking about the project, which is funded by BBSRC, Professor Wilson said: “Cheetahs are fascinating because they are 50% faster than a racing greyhound or race horse, which are bred for high speed locomotion.

“We don’t know why the cheetah is so much faster – is it just a little bit better in every way or does it have fundamental differences in the way it runs that means it is so much quicker?”

The speed of the cheetah is recorded on high speed cameras on either side of the paddock to monitor both views of the cheetah and also using plates dug into the ground which the cheetah crosses as she runs.

Penny Hudson, an RVC PhD student also working on the study, said: “The plates are like sophisticated Wii Fit boards and they measure all the forces the animal is applying to the ground.”

Arabia is two years old and is one of a group of three females and three male cheetahs at Whipsnade.

“It was quite a nice way of giving her enrichment, it’s all a big game to her and she loved it,” said Penny.

The study is still ongoing and this is the first phase. The scientists are hoping to record more cheetah data both at the Zoo and in the wild.

ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is very pleased to be taking part in such a worthwhile study, which provided good activity for the animals as well as enabling important data to be collected.

Click here to view video

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The Cincinnati Zoo shows off two new additions today. They’re a pair of rare horses.

“Bellatessa”, 24 years old, and “Raison”, 20 years old are two NEW Przewalski’s (pronounced SHEE-VOL-SKEE) horses that will make their public debut at the Zoo today. The Cincinnati Zoo was the first Zoo in the country to exhibit a Przewalski’s Horse in 1905. The Cincinnati Zoo has not had this species since 1935.

Once extinct in the wild, small herds of Prezewalski’s horses now run free thanks to captive breeding in zoos and reintroduction programs. However, they are still considered critically endangered with approximately 300 remaining in the wild. The Cincinnati Zoo is one of only 13 zoos in the country to exhibit Przewalski’s horses.

Przewalski Horses (iaea.org)

Przewalski’s horse was the only species of wild horse first discovered in Mongolia in 1879. With a short, muscular body, Przewalski’s horses are smaller than most domesticated horses. They have a pale belly and beige to reddish-brown coat that is short during summer and longer in winter. The mane is dark, short and erect with no forelock.

They stand about 12 to 14 hands tall at the shoulder, or about 48 to 56 inches and weigh about 440 to 750 pounds. Their diet consists of grasses and other vegetation.

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EXPANSION plans at Edinburgh Zoo have been thrown into doubt after an independent inquiry rejected proposals for a major housing development on Corstorphine Hill.
The zoo wanted to pay for a multi-million-pound redevelopment project by selling off about a sixth of its land.

But Scottish Government reporters decided the building of 120 homes on the western side of the site would have dramatically altered the character of Corstorphine Hill, spoiling views of the beauty spot.

Local campaigners welcomed the news, but the decision raised fears over whether the zoo will be able to push ahead with a £72 million redevelopment scheme.

Only a fraction of the zoo land will be allowed to be sold, bringing in less than a quarter of the funds bosses had hoped to make.

The plans called for a string of tower blocks up to seven storeys high to be built, but now less than 20 homes are set to be approved.

Councillors staged a surprise U-turn over the proposals almost two years ago, when the city’s planning committee threw out the sale plans, a move branded as a “kick in the guts” by zoo officials.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs the zoo, had been banking on the sell-off as the major source of funding for its long-term ambitions.

A number of features were to be bankrolled by £20m in funds from the sale, including a new entrance, four “biomes” replicating different environments and featuring new animals, research centres and modern, covered enclosures and wildlife trails.

But the Scottish Government reporters said that “the overall number of units and the extent of residential development proposed, particularly in the blocks of flats and the locations envisaged, would place the general character of the green belt and the landscape of Corstorphine Hill at risk”.

They ruled that new housing should be limited to a small part of the zoo’s western boundary, no more than two storeys high. It should be shielded by existing trees and ruled out any housing being created facing the main road.

Eddie Price, chairman of the Friends of Corstorphine Hill group, said: “We’re delighted at this result, it’s pretty much what we were looking for. We’ve nothing at all against the zoo, but the development they were proposing would have changed the whole nature of the area.”

Local councillor Jeremy Balfour said: “We were in favour of some development being allowed to help the zoo raise funds, but not on the scale proposed.”

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland declined to comment, with a spokeswoman saying the organisation had only just received the report.

The findings are not binding on the city council, but the planning committee had backed the campaigners, against the advice of the local authority’s own officials.

A council spokesman said: “We will put forward our proposals based on these recommendations to the council’s planning committee later in the year.”

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