Categories
Society

Nepal’s “Community Forest” Paradox, When Protecting Wildlife Leads To Captivity

The public can view caged wildlife in these locally managed preserves under federal laws allowing for ecotourism ventures. But the parks do more harm than good, experts say.

Categories
Geopolitics

From Mao To Now, How Pandas Became China’s Not-So-Secret Diplomatic Weapon

China’s Premier Li Qiang has offered to send Australia two new pandas during his visit to Adelaide Zoo, as “friendly messengers of China-Australia relations.” It’s the latest example of China’s enduring and unique “panda diplomacy.”

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

Ya Ya, Between A Broken Heart And Big Chill In Giant Panda Diplomacy

This is the story of Ya Ya, a female panda whose fate captures for the degrading relationship and eroding trust between China and the U.S.

Categories
In The News

Blinken Lands For Surprise Visit In Ukraine With $2 Billion Aid Package

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Thursday, his second visit to the country since the start of the war on February 24, annoucing that the U.S. intends to provide an additional $2 billion aid package to Ukraine and 18 other countries in and around the region. This new […]

Categories
In The News

How Pablo Escobar’s Hippos Sparked An Ecological Debate

Once part of the cocaine kingpin’s private zoo, the animals are now an invasive species impacting the local environment. But few in Colombia have the heart to kill them off.

Categories
In The News

Sorry, Monkey

Sorry, little spider monkey of Crococun zoo, near Cancun: My favorite zoo is still Hamburg’s Tierpark Hagenbeck. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.

Categories
In The News

Do Elephants Have The Right To File A Lawsuit Against Their Zoo?

Animal rights activists in Argentina are testing the limits of democratic rights on behalf of elephants they say are being mistreated at the Buenos Aires Zoo.

Categories
Food / Travel

Up Close With Lions And Tigers Rescued From The Underworld

The public is welcome at Germany’s “Big Cat Sanctuary,” a place of last resort for animals once in the grips of illegal circuses and mob traffickers.

Categories
blog

Sri Lanka Show

The Dehiwala Zoo in Sri Lanka is one of the oldest zoos in Asia. It used to be a sanctuary for orphaned baby elephants, but when we visited it, the huge nursery — actually the largest herd of captive elephants in the world — had moved to nearby Pinnawala . There were only a couple […]

Categories
blog

Animal Rights Group Files ‘Habeas Corpus’ Petition To Free Orangutan From Zoo

BUENOS AIRES — The right to protection from arbitrary detention, known as Habeas Corpus, is one of humanity’s greatest achievements, the fruit of England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688. Now, a group of animal-rights activists in Argentina is demanding its application for an orangutan, which they say is being “illegally deprived of its liberty” inside the […]

Categories
blog

In Benghazi, A Baboon Breakout Amidst Human Warfare

A dozen baboons escaped Sunday from Benghazi’s zoo and roamed around the city amid deadly clashes between the army and anti-government militias that have killed more than 300 people in the past three weeks. All but two were returned to their enclosures by Tuesday — but not before they baffled residents and posed for pictures […]

Categories
blog

Fearing Ebola, Owners Abandon Pets In The Ivory Coast

As the Ebola epidemic continues to sweep across West Africa, fear is so great that people have begun to abandon their pet big cats and monkeys out of panic, leading local zoos to take in these animals to prevent potential spread of the deadly virus. The AFP visited one Ivory Coast zoo where vets have […]

Categories
blog

Incredibly Rare Triplet Pandas Born in China Zoo

It’s a … trio! Three bundles of giant panda joy were unveiled in Guangzhou’s Chimelong Safari Park, and are said to be the world’s first surviving set of panda triplets. They were born July 29, though the zoo delayed the announcement until they were sure that all three would survive. Proud mamma Ju Xiao, 12, […]

Categories
blog

Change Of (Marine) Life

The owners of SeaWorld San Diego bought Los Angeles’ Marineland of the Pacific in early 1987 before suddenly closing it. That meant all the animals had to be transferred to San Diego. A year later, when we went to see them, Corky the killer whale had been renamed “Shamu.”

Categories
blog

Feeding Time At The Zoo: Ice Cream Edition

It’s hot in Colombia, and severe drought conditions are affecting most of the country. Though forest fires have sadly killed thousands of wild animals, those at the zoo in the southern city of Cali are getting some pampering and a little help cooling off. Staff there have decided to mix the animals’ food with ice, […]

Categories
blog

Lion Dies In Argentine ‘Torture Zoo’

The death of an African lion in Mendoza Zoo in Argentina has revived allegations of the zoo keeping its animals in awful conditions, said Clarín earlier this week. The lion reportedly died two weeks ago, though the zoo apparently concealed this while they investigated the cause of death. Provincial environmental authorities recently declared it had […]

Categories
blog

No Cages For Giraffes! Zoos, Animal Activists Join Up To Set Basic Standards

An orangutang at the Berlin zoo. Photo: achschav via Instagram Animal welfare groups and German zoos have been working together to fix minimum standards for the keeping of animals. An assessment, a kind of catalogue, launched earlier this month is meant to be the definitive reference point for German zoos both large and small, game […]

Categories
blog

Pablo Escobar’s Hippos Are Running Wild In Colombia

For reals.

Categories
blog

Ukraine Zoo Out Of Money, Animals Begin To Starve

KHARKIV — There’s a critical situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and it doesn’t involve human rights. If the city zoo doesn’t get more money by Monday, officials say the animals there will begin to die of starvation. Zoo director Aleksey Yakovlev says that there is a pregnant elephant named Tandy who is […]

Categories
Society

What TV-Watching Chimps Tell Us About Human Behavior

STUTTGART — Banbo is the first one to get the idea. The 11-year-old female chimpanzee presses her thumb firmly on the button and changes the channel on the TV set up in her enclosed living space. Fifteen-year-old Liboso is less certain and still sometimes presses her feet against the screen. The rest of the group […]

Categories
Society

After Knut: Zoos And The Line Between Animal Boredom And Animal Cruelty

HAMBURG – For Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck, whose family has run this city’s zoo for over 100 years, there are challenges both inside and outside the gates of any such “animal park.” Inside this zoo, as for every zoo around the world, the biggest challenge is to keep the animals from getting bored. Hering-Hagenbeck explains that animals […]

Categories
Food / Travel

A Waldorf Astoria Hotel Tries To Brighten A Gray Berlin Neighborhood

Located near the Berlin zoo, the address is the first in Germany for the famed US luxury hotel brand.

Categories
Society

U.K. Police Investigate Reports Of Lion Loose In Essex, Internet Roars

DAILY MAIL, BBC NEWS, THE GUARDIAN (U.K.) Worldcrunch British Police are investigating reports on Monday of a lion on the loose in the southeastern county of Essex, near the village of St. Osyth. Residents of #stosyth are advised to enjoy the bank holiday Monday but to be cautious. Officers still in the area conducting searches […]

Exit mobile version