A flying squirrel in Florida. Despite their name, flying squirrels do not actually fly, but rather glide between trees. Danita Delimont / Gallo Images / Getty Images Plus
In January of 2019, a concerned citizen in Marion County, Florida noticed something strange: Someone was trapping flying squirrels.
<p>The anonymous tipster notified the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), launching a 19-month investigation that uncovered an elaborate flying-squirrel trafficking operation in which up to 3,600 of the protected <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">animals</a> were captured and sold as part of the international <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/illegal-wildlife-trade" target="_self">illegal wildlife trade</a>.</p><p>"<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">Wildlife</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a> laws protect Florida's precious natural resources from abuse," the investigation's section leader Maj. Grant Burton said in an <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/FLFFWCC/bulletins/2a6945a" target="_blank">FWC press release Monday</a>. "The concerned citizen who initially reported this activity started an investigation that uncovered a major smuggling operation. These <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/poaching" target="_self">poachers</a> could have severely damaged Florida's wildlife populations."</p>
<p>The investigation has so far uncovered seven suspects. Together, the group has racked up 25 felony charges including racketeering, money laundering and scheming to defraud.</p><p>"With the exception of one individual, all those involved have been arrested, so we felt it was the right time to highlight this case," FWC spokeswoman Shannon Knowles told the <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article246561948.html" target="_blank">Miami Herald</a>.</p><p>The arrests took place between April and August of this year and include four men from Florida and two men from Georgia. In addition to targeting flying squirrels, the Florida suspects also caught and sold protected freshwater turtles and alligators, FWC said.</p><p>All told, the poachers set at least 10,000 squirrel traps throughout central Florida over a three year period.</p>
<p>The operation worked roughly like this:</p><ol><li>Poachers set traps for squirrels in several Florida counties.</li><li>The captured squirrels were sold to a wildlife dealer in Bushnell, Florida who laundered the wild squirrels through a licensed business that claimed they were bred in captivity.</li><li>South Korean buyers would buy the squirrels from Bushnell and have them driven to Chicago.</li><li>In Chicago, the squirrels' true origin was further concealed, and a wildlife exporter would send them to Asia without knowing they had been obtained illegally.</li><li>When the operation grew larger, drivers from Georgia would help transport the squirrels from Florida to Chicago in rental cars.</li></ol>
<p>The Bushnell wildlife dealer earned at least $213,800 in illegal proceeds, and the international retail value of the stolen squirrels will probably surpass $1 million, FWC estimated.</p><p>Despite their name, flying squirrels do not actually fly, the Miami Herald pointed out. Instead, they glide between trees. They are one of many small, exotic mammals that have become popular pets in South Korea and other parts of East Asia, University of Florida in Gainesville wildlife ecology and conservation associate professor Steve Johnson told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/us/squirrel-trafficking-ring-florida.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. They are also sometimes featured in cafes where patrons can interact with cute animals.</p><p>However, Johnson pointed out that flying squirrels were not well-suited to domestication.</p><p>"I don't see the point at having a gnawing, nocturnal rodent as a pet," he said.</p><p>In their natural habitat, however, they are an important meal for owls and rat snakes. Johnson thought their absence could have an impact on their predators, but also noted that they reproduced quickly and that their population would likely rebound now that the poachers have been apprehended.</p>
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A Cross River gorilla is seen at Limbe Wildlife Center in Limbe, Cameroon. Julie Langford / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Mike Gaworecki
Today we take a look at efforts to protect the Cross River gorilla, one of the world's rarest great ape subspecies, which include a radio program broadcast to nearly 4 million Nigerians that is helping to address the attitudes and knowledge gaps that lead to the human behaviors threatening the gorillas' survival.
Listen here:
<iframe style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/16399115/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/backward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/3e5014/" height="90" width="100%" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe><p>The Cross River gorilla is a subspecies of the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/9404/136250858" target="_blank">critically endangered Western gorilla (<em>Gorilla gorilla</em>)</a> found only in the remote highland forests of the Nigeria-Cameroon border. It's believed that there are just around 300 individual Cross River gorillas remaining in the wild — which is why it's known as one of the world's rarest great ape subspecies.</p><p>There are both federal and state laws in Nigeria that aim to protect great apes, but enforcement of those laws is lacking. And as the human population grows, Cross River gorillas have come under increasing pressure. Human activities like the conversion of the gorillas' forest habitat to farmland, commercial logging, and the building of new roads drive habitat loss and fragmentation. The bushmeat trade is another notable threat to the gorillas' survival — and thanks to the new roads the government is building to connect remote areas of the country, even the most secluded forests are no longer safe havens for the great apes.</p><p>We're joined on the program today by Hillary Chukwuemeka, host of a radio program called "My Gorilla My Community" that is broadcast to numerous communities on the frontlines of gorilla conservation in Nigeria and encourages them to become active participants in the protection of the subspecies. Chukwuemeka talks about why his radio program is an effective means of community engagement and the impacts he's seen from time spent in local communities.</p><p>We also speak with Inaoyom Imong, program director for the Cross River landscape with Wildlife Conservation Society Nigeria and a member of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. Inaoyom discusses the major threats to Cross River gorillas, the main barriers to their conservation, and why community-based conservation measures are so important in this context.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/podcast-a-radio-program-is-helping-save-critically-endangered-gorillas-in-nigeria/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A ring-tailed lemur similar to Maki, who went missing from San Francisco Zoo. Mathias Appel
Police in San Francisco are asking for help with solving an unusual wildlife crime.
<p>Maki, a 21-year-old ring-tailed <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lemurs" target="_self">lemur</a>, disappeared from the San Francisco Zoo sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.</p><p>"Maki is an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered</a> animal and requires specialized care, we are asking the public to help get him returned to the San Francisco Zoo," the <a href="https://www.sanfranciscopolice.org/news/san-francisco-police-seeking-publics-assistance-san" target="_blank">San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) said in a press release</a>.</p>
<p>Maki was last seen in his enclosure Tuesday night but had vanished by the morning, zoo officials told <a href="https://abc7news.com/san-francisco-zoo-missing-lemur-maki-police/7031021/" target="_blank">ABC7</a>. Police responded to news of his disappearance at around 9:40 a.m. Wednesday, according to the press release, and suspect the lemur was stolen.</p><p>"We found evidence of forced entry, meaning there was damage to the enclosure," SFPD Officer Robert Rueca told ABC7.</p><p>Maki usually lives in the Lipman Family Lemur Forest along with one of his children, zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan told <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/14/san-francisco-zoo-help-find-missing-lemur-maki/3660998001/" target="_blank">USA TODAY</a>. He is one of seven different species of Madagascar lemurs in the enclosure, which is the <a href="http://www.sfzoo.org/animals/exhibits/lemurforest.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">largest outdoor lemur habitat in the U.S</a>.</p>
<p>He was born in the zoo in 1999, making him one of the oldest lemurs at the zoo. Police think he may have been stolen to be sold, or to be kept as a pet, according to ABC7.</p><p>"We understand that lemurs are adorable animals, but Maki is a highly endangered animal that requires special care. We are asking the public for help in his return," zoo executive vice president of animal behavior and wellness Dr. Jason Watters told ABC7. "As one of our oldest lemurs, Maki requires a specialized diet. Of the 19 lemurs here, at 21.5 years, he has exceeded median life expectancy of 16.7 years, but is also one of the slowest, and we believe, likely, the easiest to catch."</p>
<p>The SFPD is asking anyone who sees Maki to call 911 or their local law enforcement agency.</p><p>"Please be prepared to provide the lemur's current location and a description of anyone in possession of him," the SFPD said in their press release.</p><p>Anyone with information about Maki's whereabouts can call the SFPD 24-hour tip line at 1-415-575-4444 or text TIP411 and start the message with SFPD.</p><p>It is illegal to keep lemurs as pets in California, according to ABC7. Despite this, Maki's disappearance is not the first time a lemur has been stolen in the state, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/21-year-old-ring-tailed-lemur-stolen-san-francisco-zoo-n1243488" target="_blank">NBC News pointed out</a>.</p>
<p>In 2018, a ring-tailed lemur named Isaac was stolen from the Santa Ana Zoo overnight. The 32-year-old Isaac was the oldest lemur in captivity in North America. He was found the next day outside a Newport Beach hotel in a plastic container with a note saying he was from the zoo. He was then returned to his home unharmed.</p><p>A Newport Beach man named Aquinas Kasbar later bragged to a bail agent about the theft when he was picked up for another crime. The FBI said Kasbar had wanted to steal a monkey but couldn't persuade any to leave with him.</p><p>In their native Madagascar, ring-tailed lemurs are considered endangered by the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/11496/115565760" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)</a>, and their population is decreasing.</p><p>"Habitat loss, hunting, and live-capture for the illegal in-country pet trade are the greatest causes of concern," the IUCN said.</p>
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The companionship, love and affection between a pet and its owner has taken on more importance during the pandemic. filadendron / E+ / Getty Images
Every year, World Mental Health Day is celebrated on October 10. This year, with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been uniquely stressful and taxing on mental health. Still, people have found surprising ways of coping during the shutdowns and the economic crisis that have improved mental health and wellness.
<h3>1. Baking Bread</h3><p>When "Stay-at-Home" orders were first issued, people began making bread. <a href="https://people.com/lifestyle/quarantine-trends-everything-that-went-viral-during-the-pandemic/?slide=a50c8476-3ad3-467f-b614-fda0ce38ac24#a50c8476-3ad3-467f-b614-fda0ce38ac24" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">People</a> magazine named bread-making the number one viral quarantine trend. The hobby became so popular that bakeware, yeast and flour were sold out for months online and in grocery stores, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2020/04/20/24-products-selling-out-online-due-coronavirus-pandemic-toilet-paper-cleaning-wipes-yeast-and-more/5161629002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">USA Today</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/19/coronavirus-stress-baking-sourdough-kneading-relax" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"Stress baking" can help steer thoughts away from worrying about the future by demanding present attention and mindfulness, The Guardian reported. Bread-making also forces people to slow down because it is time-consuming, the report said. It is calming and meditative through the rolling, kneading and mixing. That tangibility is grounding in a world that otherwise has largely gone virtual, The Guardian reported.</p>
<h3>2. Picking Out Pets</h3><p>Pet adoptions and sales have soared during the pandemic, <a href="https://www.fox19.com/2020/04/24/pet-adoptions-soar-during-coronavirus-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fox News</a> reported. Fostering dogs made People's top 5 for most viral quarantine hobbies, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/31e3e60e7ea6bc4566b0ee3998ab98a6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP News</a> reported shortages in many places of pets to rescue. One New York non-profit helping to place fosters has seen an increase from about 140 applications for adoptions per month at this time last year to around 3,000 during the pandemic, the report said.</p><p>The constant companionship, love and affection between a pet and its owner has taken on more importance during the pandemic. <a href="https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/alleviating-anxiety-stress-and-depression-pet" target="_blank">Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA)</a> cited a survey of pet owners, 74% of whom reported mental health improvements from pet ownership. Pets can also help instill routine into an otherwise confused, upturned daily life, <a href="https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/adopting-a-new-pet-during-the-pandemic" target="_blank">U.S. News & World Report</a> reported, and caring for something helps give people a sense of purpose that can stave away anxiety and depression.</p>
<h3>3. Planting Through the Pandemic</h3><p>People have turned to home gardening and buying seeds during the pandemic as a "soothing, family-friendly hobby" to do, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-gardens/home-gardening-blooms-around-the-world-during-coronavirus-lockdowns-idUSKBN2220D3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a> reported. The <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/blogs/styled-staged-sold/5-design-trends-emerging-during-the-pandemic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">National Association of Realtors (NAR)</a> listed gardening as one of the home design trends that emerged from the pandemic. Seed demand typically rises in tough economic times as people try to plan against food scarcity and economic hardship, Tom Johns, owner of Territorial Seed Company in Oregon, told Reuters.</p><p>Caring for a garden brings many mental health benefits, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/03/health/how-to-start-gardening-coronavirus-wellness/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. It can give a sense of accomplishment, community and belonging, and help people remain connected to nature, even while stuck at home. Being surrounded by green or even just looking at it is linked to less anxiety and depression and better stress management, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-act-be/201906/10-mental-health-benefits-gardening" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> reported.</p>
<h3>4. Home Organizing Is Happening</h3><p>Being at home with so much extra time has also inspired many to reorganize their homes. With home offices and virtual classrooms jammed into existing spaces, the need to maintain "liveable space" has made decluttering a necessity during the pandemic, a <a href="https://blog.cheapism.com/pandemic-decluttering/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">personal blog</a> on the trend said.</p><p>"When there's lots of clutter, you lose control over your physical environment, which is very defeating and can bring on stress, depression, or anxiety," <a href="https://www.mgt.unm.edu/faculty/facultyDetails.asp?id=10095" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Catherine Roster,</a> a professor studying the effect of clutter on our psychological well-being, told <a href="https://www.everydayhealth.com/healthy-living/why-decluttering-is-important-for-self-care-and-when-it-isnt/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Everyday Health</a>. On the flip side, decluttering can help restore a lost sense of control and reduce stress and depression.</p><p>Decluttering, aside from being energizing, also creates confidence and efficacy, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/201802/6-benefits-uncluttered-space" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> reported.</p>
<h3>5. Learning a New Language</h3><p>In March, U.S. sign-ups for the language-learning app Duolingo grew 148%, reported <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/duolingo-sees-spike-in-new-users-during-coronavirus-pandemic-2020-4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Business Insider</a>. Other similar technologies have also experienced a boom in interest since the shutdowns, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2020/04/15/language-learning-apps-are-seeing-a-surge-in-interest-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/#550861b848f4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Forbes </a>reported, and investment in the sector has increased.</p><p>"We've seen evidence of many people taking up language learning during this period of isolation and quarantine as a means of self-improvement," Duolingo's Michaela Kron told Business Insider. "Learning a new language comes with numerous benefits, including cognitive ones such as improved memory and social ones such as connecting better with others."</p><p>Not only does learning a new language provide a productive outlet, but it can combat anxiety and depression, <a href="https://www.languagenetworkusa.com/blog/how-learning-a-new-language-can-benefit-your-health" target="_blank">Language Network USA</a> reported. It also can boost confidence, increase multitasking skills and open your mind, Language Network USA reported.</p>
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The USDA killed 62,000 coyotes in 2019. Steve Krave, TD / DOE
By Andrea Germanos
Days after federal data revealed taxpayers funded the killing of 1.2 million native animal species in 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program was sued Thursday over what conservation advocates decry as a cruel and misguided annual extermination spree.
<p>"Wildlife Services is infamous for the scope and cruelty of its killing campaigns across the nation," Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said in a <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/lawsuit-filed-over-antiquated-federal-wildlife-killing-program-in-new-mexico/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a>.</p><p>"To carry out such a horrific onslaught on native wildlife in the midst of a mass extinction event and a climate crisis, without any real knowledge of the impact," added Smith, "is utterly outrageous."</p><p>The <a href="http://pdf.wildearthguardians.org/support_docs/NM-WS-Complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">lawsuit</a> was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico by WildEarth Guardians and accuses Wildlife Services (WS) of running afoul of various federal regulations stipulated by the National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality regulations, and Administrative Procedure Act.</p><p>According to the court filing, the program has failed to provide an Environmental Impact Statement on the program's impact on key ecosytems, nor has it provided timely supplemental analysis mandated by law. As such, the document states, WS is disregarding "new scientific publications on the ineffectiveness of lethal predator control and the negative cascading ecological consequences of removing keystone species from their native ecosystems," according to the filing.</p>
<p>WS purportedly exists "to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist." But Smith explains the agency's raison d'etre quite differently. "They are good at one thing—killing animals," Smith told<em> Common Dreams</em>, adding that the program is "still operating on data and science and ideas that are 20, 30, 40 years old."</p><p>The lawsuit explains WS in this way:</p><blockquote>Every year, Wildlife Services—a program within the USDA—poisons, traps, and guns down several of our nation's most majestic animals, including wolves, bears, coyotes, and mountain lions in a futile attempt to save livestock and other "resources." Funded with millions of taxpayer dollars, and without modern scientific support, this program uses cruel and often archaic methods to capture and kill wildlife from their native ecosystems, largely at the behest of livestock producers. Across New Mexico, Wildlife Services uses fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to aerially shoot coyotes; body-gripping traps, neck snares and leg-hold traps to kill mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, badgers, coyotes, skunks, and swift and gray foxes; gas cartridges and poisons to exterminate coyotes, foxes, and prairie dogs in their dens; sodium cyanide M-44 devices to kill canines like foxes and coyotes; and other poisons to eliminate native birds like ravens. Family pets and federally-protected endangered and threatened species have been and will continue to be accidentally injured or killed by the agency's indiscriminate killing methods.<br></blockquote><p>The latest annual <a href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/wildlifedamage/pdr/?file=PDR-G_Report&p=2019:INDEX:" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tally</a> of the animals killed by WS—including 1,258,738 native species— drew condemnation from WildEarth Guardians, with Samantha Bruegger, the group's Wildlife Coexistence Campaigner, saying in a <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/federal-government-admits-killing-over-1-2-million-native-animals-in-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> Wednesday: "This mass slaughter is carried out in our backyards, on public lands, and in beloved parks; there is no limit to the program's reach."</p><p>A tweet from New York-based Wolf Conservation Center breaks down a portion of the vast death toll detailed in the WS analysis:</p>
<div id="40246" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="efe7c2e0245773da7c3ddfbb0e96890a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313992296753442817" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">BREAKING In 2019, USDA’s Wildlife Services KILLED: ▪ 62,002 coyotes ▪ 24,543 beavers ▪ 800 bobcats ▪1362 gray… https://t.co/KUwjcNLslM</div> — Wolf Conservation Center (@Wolf Conservation Center)<a href="https://twitter.com/nywolforg/statuses/1313992296753442817">1602115150.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The deaths often came painfully. A statement from WildEarth Guardians says, "Preferred methods include leg-hold traps, strangulation snares, aerial gunning from helicopters and planes, poison gases, and sodium cyanide bombs [M44s] placed on the landscape."</p><p>The lawsuit portrays the annual killing deaths as folly—especially in light of the climate and ecological catastrophes as well water shortages affecting the U.S. West. Regarding beavers, Smith said the agency is "removing the very animals that will save us from these crises." </p><p>They "act as ecosystem engineers, increasing biodiversity and ecosystem function—including filtering drinking water and removing water-borne pollutants—where they are native," the filing states, adding:</p><blockquote>Beavers, due to their beneficial engineering of ecosystems provide outsized ecosystem services. One study, conducted in southern Utah, a landscape analogous to much of New Mexico, found that in terms of wetland habitat only, a mere 2,560 beavers in the lower Escalante River basin would provide $275.5 million dollars per year in wetland habitat services. If riparian and aquatic habitat services are added to that number, it becomes nearly $450 million dollars per year. [...] Beavers particularly can have remarkable impacts on reforestation in areas affected by wildfires.<br></blockquote>
<p>Benefits from other animals further prove the misguided annual kills, the filing states.</p><blockquote>For example, it is now well established that killing predators such as coyotes, mountain lions, and bears create conditions favorable for pandemics to emerge, diminish ecosystem functions, reduce carbon sequestration, and increase instances of irruptions of invasive species, and cost taxpayers millions—and perhaps billions—of dollars in lost ecosystem services... In an arid region such as New Mexico, which is undergoing rapid ecological changes from climate disruption, it is more important than ever that Wildlife Services takes a hard look at the environmental consequences of removing so many animals critical to regulating ecosystems.<br></blockquote><p>Another conservation group, the Center for Biological Diversity, <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/agriculture-departments-wildlife-services-killed-approximately-12-million-native-animals-in-2019-2020-10-07/" target="_blank">offered</a> similar condemnation Wednesday, characterizing the program as both barbaric and needless.</p><p>"Year after year Wildlife Services continues to needlessly kill wildlife, even though effective tools exist to prevent most conflicts," said Collette Adkins, carnivore conservation director at the Center.</p><p>"The scientific consensus is that killing carnivores like coyotes to benefit the livestock industry just leads to more conflicts and more killing," she said, adding, "This taxpayer-funded slaughter needs to stop."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/08/trumps-usda-sued-over-program-allowing-horrific-mass-slaughter-native-wildlife?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>
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Tasmanian Devils Are Reintroduced to Australia's Mainland for First Time in 3,000 Years
09 October
Animals
Tasmanian devils have been reintroduced to Australia's mainland in a protected, disease-free area. Mathias Appel / Flickr / CC0
In a giant step forward for the Tasmanian devil, the iconic species has been reintroduced to Australia's mainland in a protected, disease-free area, The Guardian reported.
<p>As the largest carnivorous marsupial species, Tasmanian devils vanished from the mainland about 3,000 years ago, but survived in Tasmania. However, they have declined in the latter in recent decades due to an aggressive, infectious cancer called Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD) that attacks their faces and mouths, according to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tasmanian-devils-reintroduced-mainland-australia-180975997/" target="_blank">Smithsonian Magazine</a>.</p><p>Scientists believe that a combination of factors — including aggressive dingoes, human activity and extended dry seasons — contributed to Tasmanian devils disappearing from the mainland.</p><p>"I think any one of those three factors alone probably wouldn't have caused extinction — but the three of them together likely caused the devil to become extinct on the mainland," Menna Jones, an ecologist at the University of Tasmania, told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/wildlife-australia-animals-indonesia-tasmanian-devils-68d6281e4d9342dfbd0d3a5e41ac38c7" target="_blank">AP</a>.</p>
<p>To reinvigorate the health of the species, the Australian NGO Aussie Ark introduced 26 disease-free Tasmanian devils to Barrington Tops, a 988-acre wildlife sanctuary in New South Wales, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/05/australia/tasmanian-devils-mainland-australia-scli-intl-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. Aussie Ark has been involved in Tasmanian devil conservation for the past decade.</p><p>"Seeing those devils released into a wild landscape — it's a really emotional moment," Liz Gabriel, director of conservation group Aussie Ark, told the AP.</p><p>Aussie Ark is using tracking devices and camera traps to monitor their health and evaluate how the devils are responding to the new environment. If the released animals thrive and reproduce, then Aussie Ark intends to release another disease-free cluster in a protected area in 2021, The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>"Not only is this the reintroduction of one of Australia's beloved animals, but of an animal that will engineer the entire environment around it, restoring and rebalancing our forest ecology after centuries of devastation from introduced foxes and cats and other invasive predators," Tim Faulkner, president of Aussie Ark, told CNN.<br></p><p>David Hamilton, a researcher at the University of Tasmania who was not involved in the project, explained how the devils scare off cats, which may allow animals that are afraid of cats to come out at night, Smithsonian Magazine reported.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54417343" target="_blank">BBC</a>, the current devil population in Tasmania hovers around 25,000, a fraction of the 150,000 that existed before DFTD took hold in the 1990s.</p>
<p>Those dwindling numbers have classified Tasmanian devils as an endangered species. Aussie Ark hopes that the project is a resounding success so that they can release more devils into unprotected areas in the future.</p><p>"In 100 years, we are going to be looking back at this day as the day that set in motion the ecological restoration of an entire country," Faulkner said.</p>
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747 is the big winner of Fat Bear Week 2020 in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Katmai National Park and Preserve
For bears and the people that love them, it's the most wonderful time of the year.
<p><a href="https://www.nps.gov/katm/index.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska</a> wrapped up its annual <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/fat-bear-week-katmai-park-2640911327.html" target="_self">Fat Bear Week</a> competition Tuesday, in which online fans vote for the coastal brown bear that has had the most success bulking up ahead of winter hibernation.</p><p>"The votes are in! You've crowned the Earl of Avoirdupois, bear 747, the 2020 Fat Bear Week Champion," the park announced on Twitter.</p>
<div id="b2c7f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6a66711f5acee75ef45787edb3f12cc7"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313660315893141504" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Match 11: Lardaceous Leviathan Levels Chunky Challenger The votes are in! You’ve crowned the Earl of Avoirdupois,… https://t.co/4SlXOpVBcH</div> — Katmai National Park (@Katmai National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/KatmaiNPS/statuses/1313660315893141504">1602036000.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>This is the first time bear 747 has won the competition, though he was last year's runner-up, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/10/06/fat-bear-week-winner-2020/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. He was first identified in 2004, according to his <a href="https://explore.org/meet-the-bears" target="_blank">bio</a> on the competition website. At the time, he was still a growing bear who could not compete for the choice fishing areas along the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/national-parks" target="_self">national park</a>'s Brooks Falls. He has significantly beefed up since then, and is now so big that no other bear dare challenge him for prime riverfront real estate. In fall 2019, park workers estimated that 747 weighed more than 1,400 pounds, and they think he likely weighs as much or more this year.</p><p>"Many staff who've worked at Katmai for many years say that [747] is the biggest bear they have ever seen," Katmai media ranger Naomi Boak told The Washington Post. "It's pure coincidence that he has the same name as a jumbo jet, but he is the size of a jumbo jet."</p><p>To earn his crown, 747 faced off against runner-up Chunk, or bear 32.</p>
<div id="bc390" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ec387bc0962cc207aae4e2fa0a5488b"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1313513386878152705" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Today’s the day we will crown 2020’s Fat Bear Week Champion. Where 747’s sedulous quest for salmon secured him a st… https://t.co/tBnlt5eyCS</div> — Katmai National Park (@Katmai National Park)<a href="https://twitter.com/KatmaiNPS/statuses/1313513386878152705">1602000969.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Chunk was estimated to be more than 1,100 pounds in 2019, but he has become something of a gentle giant.</p><p>"In recent years he's shown a tendency to wait patiently to scavenge leftover <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a> and even play with other bears," his bio reads. "These are two uncommon behaviors for a dominant bear to display. Due to his size and strength, 32 Chunk is poised to take advantage of opportunities not available to most other bears. Yet, it is only by observing his full range of behaviors that we can get a true sense of his individuality."</p><p>Fat Bear Week started in 2014 in order to honor the bears of Katmai National Park in their efforts to fatten up for winter. During hibernation, a bear loses a third of its body mass, the <a href="https://explore.org/fat-bear-week" target="_blank">competition website explains</a>, so the summer and fall feasting serves a vital purpose.</p>
<p>At Katmai National Park, the bears' preferred food is sockeye salmon. These fish have about 4,500 calories each, and the bears can eat more than two dozen per day, <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2020/10/06/fat-bear-week-2020-declares-747-fat-and-fabulous-winner/3637634001/" target="_blank">USA TODAY reported</a>. The bears of Katmai are especially lucky, because the park has one of the biggest sockeye salmon runs in the world, the park said. And this year, the salmon run broke records, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-alaska-fat-bear/wide-bodied-747-crowned-alaskas-fattest-bear-idUKKBN26S0BT?il=0" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Katmai National Park has the world's densest concentration of brown bears. The bears like to feast along Brooks River, where people from all over the world can watch them on a <a href="https://explore.org/livecams/brown-bears/brown-bear-salmon-cam-brooks-falls" target="_blank">webcam</a>.</p><p>Since its debut, Fat Bear Week has become increasingly popular. A record 187,000 people voted in 2019, while more than 550,000 voted this year, The Washington Post reported.</p><p>"What a curative healing pleasure it is to, one, be able to laugh, and, two, be connected to nature by understanding the achievements of these individual bears," Boak told the Post. "I think such a cheerful release. And, quite frankly, how often does one get to celebrate fatness?"</p>
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A puppy in Ukraine is cared for by SPCA International partner Clean Futures Fund. CFF received a COVID-19 relief grant from SPCA International. © CleanFutures Fund
By Meredith Ayan
While pet foster and adoption rates have soared in New York and many parts of the United States, globally, the situation is much direr.
In the face of COVID-19, these shelters are continually facing critical challenges, including food shortages, spikes in pet abandonment with a plummeting and near-zero rate of adoptions, overcrowding, and fears of culling. Thanks to our work with partners all over the world, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) International has a direct line of communication with these international shelters and a unique insight into their experiences during the pandemic. What we've been hearing is harrowing.
<p>Under lockdown in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51614957" target="_blank">China</a>, animal organizations reached out to our team early this year reporting animals abandoned in apartments, on the streets, and in shelters as their owners passed away or were unable or unwilling to continue caring for their pets. To contend with lockdown policies and lack of access to food, <a href="https://www.spcai.org/news/video/covid-19-lockdown-impacts-animal-shelters-in-china" target="_blank">one shelter began to make their own pet kibble</a> with our shelter grant. </p><p>In the Dominican Republic, with restaurants and local stores shuttered, shelters have implemented a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/spcai/posts/10163179327035577" target="_blank">feeding program for community stray animals</a> that normally rely on businesses or individuals for food. </p><p>In Montreal, <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/doing-good-wishbone-meals-to-spca-ouest-money-for-resto-workers/" target="_blank">donations of pet food</a> from New Zealand-based pet food manufacturer Wishbone Pet Food provided a crucial resource as local shelters continued to provide care for animals. </p><p>And in Italy, <a href="https://spcaitalia.jimdofree.com/" target="_blank">SPCA Italia</a> implemented a program to subsidize the cost of food and vet care for the pets of people who have experienced recent economic hardship so that they don't have to abandon or surrender them to already overburdened shelters.</p>
<p>Normally, shelter needs vary by region and size. Some simply need food or rescue support, others require veterinary materials and vaccines that are difficult to source internationally, and others seek to improve their community education outreach to help house more animals. However, during COVID-19, there has been a striking similarity in the needs and challenges of shelters across the world:</p><ol><li>They need food: Limited resources, lockdowns, and hoarding mean that sourcing kibble is becoming nearly impossible.</li><li>Animals are being abandoned: Unfounded fears of animal to human transmission of the virus has led to spikes in abandonments and overflowing shelters without the staff or resources to care for them.</li><li>When people struggle, so do animals: As communities face loss of income, due to the economic fallout of COVID-19, providing for pets or community animals is increasingly becoming difficult and sometimes, impossible.</li></ol>
<p>The U.S. has a robust shelter and adoption system, but internationally, this is far from the case, particularly in countries with high stray populations and where keeping companion animals is less customary. Even under normal circumstances, international shelters contend with cultural stigma about strays and disease, volunteer-only staff, and limited resources. Many shelters typically export adoptable animals to countries where adoptions are more popular—mostly the U.S.</p><p>As COVID-19 continues to strain communities and redefine normal life, these typical challenges are amplified beyond recognition. With the situation changing almost daily across the world, borders in many countries still remain closed for non-essential travel, and exporting animals to the U.S. for adoption has become almost impossible. And whereas U.S. pet stores are considered essential, in other countries, these businesses are shuttered, and resources are at a premium.</p>
<p>The recent explosion at the port of Beirut intensified the effects of a city that was already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic and a struggling economy. So many people lost their homes and loved ones in the blink of an eye. Our partners at <a href="https://betalebanon.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BETA Lebanon</a> have stepped up in a big way to help the animals and people affected by this disaster. SPCA International committed $20,000 from our disaster relief fund to aid their efforts during this difficult time.</p><p>Uncertainty, store closures, delayed shipments, and misinformation has had tragic implications for animals, making the work of these shelters on the ground even more urgent. Now more than ever, they need our support through monetary donations and veterinary supplies, which are readily available here. And, if you can, it's a great time to adopt or foster an animal while you're working from home to lighten the load on domestic shelters.</p><p>With the West Coast of the U.S. facing devastating wildfires, people are losing their homes, preparing to evacuate or having to shelter indoors due to the air quality and thick smoke. Similarly, areas in the South have experienced terrible fallout from hurricanes, and face a long season ahead. Displaced families rely on shelters and foster organizations to take care of their animals until they can be reunited. If you can open your home to an animal that needs a temporary place to stay, this can make all the difference for a family in need.</p>
<p><em>Meredith Ayan is the executive director of <a href="https://www.spcai.org" target="_blank">SPCA International</a>.</em></p><p><span></span><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A captive elephant is seen at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Littlebourne, England. Suvodeb Banerjee / Flickr / CC by 2.0
By Bob Jacobs
Hanako, a female Asian elephant, lived in a tiny concrete enclosure at Japan's Inokashira Park Zoo for more than 60 years, often in chains, with no stimulation. In the wild, elephants live in herds, with close family ties. Hanako was solitary for the last decade of her life.
<p><a href="https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/whales/kiska-alone-again/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kiska</a>, a young female orca, was captured in 1978 off the Iceland coast and taken to Marineland Canada, an aquarium and amusement park. Orcas are social animals that live in family <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/o/orca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pods</a> with up to 40 members, but Kiska has lived alone in a small tank since 2011. Each of her five calves died. To combat stress and boredom, she swims in slow, endless circles and has gnawed her teeth to the pulp on her concrete pool.</p><p>Unfortunately, these are common conditions for many large, captive mammals in the "entertainment" industry. In decades of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KvCW9T0AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">studying the brains of humans, African elephants, humpback whales and other large mammals</a>, I've noted the organ's great sensitivity to the environment, including serious impacts on its structure and function from living in captivity.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxODMyODUwM30.AyeRUJ4H_QH0GLX-ypQsC_HoJk5DAf9DcYP44Go6GzE/img.jpg?width=980" id="72ff6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="efdca2380444b7629ae0f338889fd1b6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Hanako, an Asian elephant kept at Japan's Inokashira Park Zoo; and Kiska, an orca that lives at Marineland Canada. One image depicts Kiska's damaged teeth. Elephants in Japan (left image), Ontario Captive Animal Watch (right image), CC BY-ND
Affecting Health and Altering Behavior
<p>It is easy to observe the overall health and psychological consequences of life in captivity for these animals. Many captive elephants suffer from arthritis, obesity or skin problems. Both <a href="https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o2620.1826-36" target="_blank">elephants</a> and orcas often have severe dental problems. Captive orcas are plagued by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.05.005" target="_blank">pneumonia, kidney disease, gastrointestinal illnesses and infections</a>.</p><p>Many animals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.09.010" target="_blank">try to cope</a> with captivity by adopting abnormal behaviors. Some develop "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2017.05.003" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stereotypies</a>," which are repetitive, purposeless habits such as constantly bobbing their heads, swaying incessantly or chewing on the bars of their cages. Others, especially big cats, pace their enclosures. Elephants rub or break their tusks.</p>Changing Brain Structure
<p>Neuroscientific research indicates that living in an impoverished, stressful captive environment <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2019.05.005" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">physically damages the brain</a>. These changes have been documented in many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.903270108" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">species</a>, including rodents, rabbits, cats and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0917" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">humans</a>.</p><p>Although researchers have directly studied some animal brains, most of what we know comes from observing animal behavior, analyzing stress hormone levels in the blood and applying knowledge gained from a half-century of neuroscience research. Laboratory research also suggests that mammals in a zoo or aquarium have compromised brain function.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MjM0MzI1MH0.fp2ujwrgKdMD09Y4jRTH8cUUCyxtcAmp0M30n4LzHIU/img.jpg?width=980" id="7cb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4c195010067513dfa086c5a0dba564bc" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
This illustration shows differences in the brain's cerebral cortex in animals held in impoverished (captive) and enriched (natural) environments. Impoverishment results in thinning of the cortex, a decreased blood supply, less support for neurons and decreased connectivity among neurons. Arnold B. Scheibel, CC BY-ND
<p>Subsisting in confined, barren quarters that lack intellectual stimulation or appropriate social contact seems to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1590/S0001-37652001000200006" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">thin the cerebral cortex</a> – the part of the brain involved in voluntary movement and higher cognitive function, including memory, planning and decision-making.</p><p>There are other consequences. Capillaries shrink, depriving the brain of the oxygen-rich blood it needs to survive. Neurons become smaller, and their dendrites – the branches that form connections with other neurons – become less complex, impairing communication within the brain. As a result, the cortical neurons in captive animals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.901230110" target="_blank">process information less efficiently</a> than those living in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.420020208" target="_blank">enriched, more natural environments</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTY3ODY3NX0.LMeqPwRQnd-zr0FF0JcAEVZ9FC0gAy9uzrnb_aXK99o/img.jpg?width=980" id="2bc51" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d34c18b3323cc4c9f41bbe18d8b5aaf1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An actual cortical neuron in a wild African elephant living in its natural habitat compared with a hypothesized cortical neuron from a captive elephant. Bob Jacobs, CC BY-ND
<p>Brain health is also affected by living in small quarters that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-160040" target="_blank">don't allow for needed exercise</a>. Physical activity increases the flow of blood to the brain, which requires large amounts of oxygen. Exercise increases the production of new connections and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aaw2622" target="_blank">enhances cognitive abilities</a>.</p><p>In their native habits these animals must move to survive, covering great distances to forage or find a mate. Elephants typically travel anywhere from <a href="https://www.elephantsforafrica.org/elephant-facts/#:%7E:text=How%20far%20do%20elephants%20walk,km%20on%20a%20daily%20basis." target="_blank">15 to 120 miles per day</a>. In a zoo, they average <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0150331" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">three miles daily</a>, often walking back and forth in small enclosures. One free orca studied in Canada swam <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-010-0958-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">up to 156 miles a day</a>; meanwhile, an average orca tank is about 10,000 times smaller than its <a href="https://www.cascadiaresearch.org/projects/killer-whales/using-dtags-study-acoustics-and-behavior-southern" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">natural home range</a>.</p>Disrupting Brain Chemistry and Killing Cells
<p>Living in enclosures that restrict or prevent normal behavior creates chronic frustration and boredom. In the wild, an animal's stress-response system helps it escape from danger. But captivity traps animals with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1215502109" target="_blank">almost no control</a> over their environment.</p><p>These situations foster <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000033" target="_blank">learned helplessness</a>, negatively impacting the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6391686" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hippocampus</a>, which handles memory functions, and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2011.02.024" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">amygdala</a>, which processes emotions. Prolonged stress <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/10253899609001092" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elevates stress hormones</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.10-09-02897.1990" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">damages or even kills neurons</a> in both brain regions. It also disrupts the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.03.021" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">delicate balance of serotonin</a>, a neurotransmitter that stabilizes mood, among other functions.</p><p>In humans, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2001.0917" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">deprivation</a> can trigger <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00367" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">psychiatric issues</a>, including depression, anxiety, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2018.00367" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">mood disorders</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858409333072" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">post-traumatic stress disorder</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-010-0288-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elephants</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050139" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">orcas</a> and other animals with large brains are likely to react in similar ways to life in a severely stressful environment.</p>Damaged Wiring
<p>Captivity can damage the brain's complex circuitry, including the basal ganglia. This group of neurons communicates with the cerebral cortex along two networks: a direct pathway that enhances movement and behavior, and an indirect pathway that inhibits them.</p><p>The repetitive, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2014.05.057" target="_blank">stereotypic behaviors</a> that many animals adopt in captivity are caused by an imbalance of two neurotransmitters, dopamine and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.02.004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">serotonin</a>. This impairs the indirect pathway's ability to modulate movement, a condition documented in species from chickens, cows, sheep and horses to primates and big cats.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MDQ0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTk4ODQ5MH0.y-zYv_gEQ-pgdSyytSGEq5Jq3uYWqYR24kKHuEhl7Qo/img.jpg?width=980" id="cf7b3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="03ebc3885a895e0d497ec39dde96d295" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
The cerebral cortex, hippocampus and amygdala are physically altered by captivity, along with brain circuitry that involves the basal ganglia. Bob Jacobs, CC BY-ND
<p>Evolution has constructed animal brains to be exquisitely responsive to their environment. Those reactions can affect neural function by <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311787/behave-by-robert-m-sapolsky/" target="_blank">turning different genes on or off</a>. Living in inappropriate or abusive circumstance alters biochemical processes: It disrupts the synthesis of proteins that build connections between brain cells and the neurotransmitters that facilitate communication among them.</p><p>There is strong evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0577-11.2011" target="_blank">enrichment</a>, social contact and appropriate space in more natural habitats are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1090.2003.tb02071.x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">necessary</a> for long-lived animals with large brains such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152490" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elephants</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13880292.2017.1309858" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cetaceans</a>. Better conditions <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5543669/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduce disturbing sterotypical behaviors</a>, improve connections in the brain, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/cdd.2009.193" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trigger neurochemical changes</a> that enhance learning and memory.</p>The Captivity Question
<p>Some people defend keeping animals in captivity, arguing that it helps conserve endangered species or offers educational benefits for <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.574.3479&rep=rep1&type=pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">visitors to zoos and aquariums</a>. These justifications are questionable, particularly for <a href="https://animalstudiesrepository.org/acwp_zoae/8/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">large mammals</a>. As my own research and work by many other scientists shows, caging large mammals and putting them on display is undeniably cruel from a neural perspective. It causes brain damage.</p><p>Public perceptions of captivity are slowly changing, as shown by the reaction to the documentary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackfish_(film)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">"Blackfish</a>." For animals that cannot be free, there are well-designed sanctuaries. Several already exist for elephants and other large mammals in <a href="https://www.elephants.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Tennessee</a>, <a href="https://globalelephants.org/overview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brazil</a> and Northern <a href="http://www.pawsweb.org/about_our_sanctuaries.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">California</a>. Others are being developed for large <a href="https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cetaceans</a>.</p><p>Perhaps it is not too late for Kiska.</p>
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Reintroducing wolves is on the ballot in Colorado. Gunner Ries / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tara Lohan
Maybe we can blame COVID-19 for making it hard to hit the streets and gather signatures to get initiatives on state ballots. But this year there are markedly fewer environmental issues up for vote than in 2018.
While the number of initiatives may be down, there's no less at stake. Voters will still have to make decisions about wildlife, renewable energy, oil companies and future elections.
Here's the rundown of what's happening where.
Return of an Apex Predator
<p>Wolves are on the ballot in Colorado. <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/ballots/reintroduction-and-management-gray-wolves" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Proposition 114</a> would require the state's Parks and Wildlife Commission to create a plan by 2023 for the reintroduction and management of gray wolves (<em>Canis lupus</em>) in areas west of the continental divide.</p><p>Gray wolves once roamed across the western United States but were mostly eradicated by the 1930s. Slowly efforts are being made to bring them back. The reintroduction of gray wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1996 has been hailed as a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/25/yellowstone-wolf-project-25th-anniversary" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rewilding success</a>.</p><p>"The argument is that by putting back in wolves — an apex predator that has evolved alongside their prey species — we're putting things back into ecological balance," University of Colorado Boulder ecology professor Joanna Lambert <a href="https://therevelator.org/wolf-reintroduction-colorado/" target="_blank">told <em>The Revelator</em></a> in a February interview about the science behind wolf reintroductions.</p><p>The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Colorado Farm Bureau are two of the top donors to the opposition groups.</p><p>The measure does include compensation for losses of livestock caused by gray wolves.</p><p>"What we're all hoping for is a landscape where we can coexist with the species that were originally here, but also acknowledging that humans need to make a living and that the costs of this initiative will be felt by some folks more than others," Lambert said.</p>Confusion Over Clean Energy
<p>In Nevada voters will take a second swing at a constitutional amendment to require that electric utilities source 50% of their electricity from renewables by 2030. Voters passed the same measure, <a href="https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/home/showdocument?id=8826" target="_blank">Question 6</a>, in 2018, but state law requires that constitutional amendments be passed in two consecutive even-numbered election years.</p><p>More clean energy for the state may seem good. But there's concern that enshrining 50% renewables by 2030 in the state's constitution isn't that ambitious and it will make it harder to continue the push for 100% renewables in the future. To do that would be another constitutional amendment that would again take four years and two consecutive ballot wins to move the needle.</p><p>Also, the state is already on its way to the same renewable goal.</p><p>A legislative effort to achieve 50% renewables by 2030 — but with a slightly different timeline for the increments to get there — was signed into law in April 2019 by Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak. Renewable advocates hope the state will do even better than that benchmark, but passing Question 6 would make it harder.</p>Paying a Fair Share
<p>If California's <a href="https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-measures/qualified-ballot-measures/" target="_blank">Proposition 15</a> passes, commercial and industrial properties will need to start paying taxes based on their current market value, instead of paying based on the purchase price from decades prior (which stems from Proposition 13 passed back in 1978). The initiative would exempt agricultural land, small businesses, renters and homeowners.</p><p>Reassessing the worth of large commercial properties could bring in between $7.5 billion and $12 billion a year that would go toward supporting local governments, school districts and community colleges.</p><p>Most of the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_15,_Tax_on_Commercial_and_Industrial_Properties_for_Education_and_Local_Government_Funding_Initiative_(2020)" target="_blank">opposition</a> has come from big business and anti-taxation groups.</p><p>The California Teachers Association Issues PAC is the biggest supporter of the effort, but a number of <a href="https://www.yes15.org/endorsers-environment" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">environmental groups</a> have also endorsed the measure, which would likely see oil companies and other big industrial polluters having to kick in more money.</p><p>"The oil industry has used Prop. 13 loopholes to evade tens of millions of dollars in property taxes," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/victoria-rome/nrdc-announces-support-californias-proposition-15" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote Victoria Lome</a>, California legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Companies like Chevron, Exxon, Phillips 66, Shell and Tosco are paying taxes based on assessments taken prior to 2000. Prop. 15 would end this hidden subsidy to dirty energy."</p><p>Oil companies could stand to lose in Alaska, too. Voters there will weigh in on <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Ballot_Measure_1,_North_Slope_Oil_Production_Tax_Increase_Initiative_(2020)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ballot Measure 1</a>, which would increase taxes on big oil producers (those that have produced more than 400 million barrels overall or 40,000 barrels a day in the past year) operating in three established oil fields in the North Slope.</p>Taking the Wind Out of the Sails of the Electoral College
<p>Colorado's <a href="https://leg.colorado.gov/ballots/adopt-agreement-elect-us-president-national-popular-vote" target="_blank">Proposition 113</a> isn't about environmental issues directly but could cause big shifts in how presidential elections are run and what states and issues are considered important.</p><p>The initiative would add Colorado to the <a href="https://www.nationalpopularvote.com/written-explanation" target="_blank">National Popular Vote Interstate Compact</a>. That effort is aimed at ensuring the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote wins the election. It doesn't eliminate the Electoral College, but it saps its power.</p><p>The compact needs states representing at least 270 Electoral College votes to go into effect. It's currently at 196.</p><p>If Colorado's proposition is passed, and if the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact eventually gets enough votes to go into effect, then Colorado's nine electoral votes would go to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote, not to the one who gets the most votes in Colorado.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
The wildfires that roared through Eastern Washington in September had a devastating impact on an extremely endangered species of rabbit.
<p>The fast-moving Pearl Hill and Cold Springs fires scorched a habitat for Columbia Basin pygmy rabbits on Sept. 7, wiping out around half of the species' recovering population, <a href="https://www.hcn.org/articles/latest-endangered-pygmy-rabbit-population-halved-by-fast-moving-fire?fbclid=IwAR2pzH5M9FLQkGBEVPriSAyklH8Tej1B66EhCfPKYQbnAkSD9j3kEJT8chA" target="_blank">High Country News reported Monday</a>.</p><p>"The sun was blotted out, it was just red from the fire glare and the smoke and all you saw was rocks and sand and dust, there was just nothing," Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Biologist Jon Gallie told <a href="https://www.wenatcheeworld.com/paywalloff/fire-wipes-out-half-of-columbia-basin-pygmy-rabbit-population/article_8c20b63c-f475-11ea-b668-83235dc86d8a.html" target="_blank">The Wenatchee World</a> after the fire. "I have not seen a sagebrush fire that hot in my 13 years out here."</p>
<p>Gallie leads a recovery program for North America's smallest rabbits, which are about the size of a grapefruit, according to High Country News. Their population was devastated during the 20th century by development, agriculture and wildfires and, in 2001, the last 16 were gathered from the wild for a captive breeding program. Scientists bred the Washington rabbits with pygmy rabbits from the Great Basin of the intermountain West and began to reintroduce them to the wild in 2011, according to The Wenatchee World.</p><p>To defend against wildfires, the rabbits were released in three different locations: Jameson Lake, Beezley Hills and Sagebrush Flats. It was the Jameson Lake population that was lost to September's flames.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Nzg4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjQ5MjQ3Mn0.D6_1M4ciX784XMASOHmBKtmQxkxB7aE4WDkiR6Z2MvI/img.jpg?width=980" id="edb37" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1d81accb8933f5bf30a885568b7bcc2c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A pygmy rabbit rescued from a breeding site in Beezley Hills, Washington eats owl clover in its new enclosure. Kourtney Stonehouse, WDFW
<p>"We have pygmy rabbits well distributed on the landscape in two other areas, so not all is lost," Gallie told High Country News. "We will just have to chart a now more challenging path to recovery."</p><p>However, WDFW manager of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> diversity Hannah Anderson told <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/endangered-wildlife-habitat-burned-in-wildfires/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Seattle Times</a> that the department had been focusing on the Jameson Lake population and had expected it to increase.</p><p>"It's devastating," Anderson said. "A catastrophic loss and a significant loss in recovery."</p>
<p>The rabbits aren't the only endangered species that were harmed by the fires. The Pearl Fire may also have reduced the state's sage grouse population by 30 to 70 percent, according to The Seattle Times.</p><p>The fires also damaged the sagebrush ecosystem these and other species depend upon. This unique, biodiverse shrub-steppe environment once covered 10.4 million acres of Washington state, but has declined by 80 percent since the mid-19th century. The fires wiped out thousands more acres within days.</p><p>While sagebrush ecosystems are used to fires, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/invasive-species" target="_self">invasive species</a> of weeds have taken root that dry out early and encourage hotter, larger fires. It takes sagebrush steppe 10 to 20 years to recover from such blazes.</p><p>"Truly, now preserving what we have left is going to be the challenge," WDFW habitat program director Margen Carlson told The Seattle Times.</p>The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> is also <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wildfires-climate-fires-2647729127.html" target="_self">fueling</a> larger, more extreme fires in Washington and around the world.
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A metapopulation project in South Africa has almost doubled the population of cheetahs in less than nine years. Ken Blum / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Tony Carnie
South Africa is home to around 1,300 of the world's roughly 7,100 remaining cheetahs. It's also the only country in the world with significant cheetah population growth, thanks largely to a nongovernmental conservation project that depends on careful and intensive human management of small, fenced-in cheetah populations. Because most of the reserves are privately funded and properly fenced, the animals benefit from higher levels of security than in the increasingly thinly funded state reserves.
<p>Initiated by the Endangered Wildlife Trust nearly a decade ago, the Cheetah Metapopulation Project recognizes that small cheetah populations may be physically secure in several small reserves, but the likelihood of inbreeding remains high if they are kept separated behind fences. By swapping animals between participating reserves, the trust helps private and state wildlife custodians manage overpopulation and underpopulation on their land and also identify new areas of suitable cheetah habitat. Most importantly, swapping animals reduces the risk of inbreeding among closely related animals.</p><p>Vincent van der Merwe, coordinator of the trust's metapopulation initiative, says that when the project began in 2011, there were 217 cheetahs scattered between 41 reserves. Now there are 419 spread across 60 reserves — more than a third of South Africa's total cheetah population.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Njk3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODQ5MTUxN30.-OSR8R8p9Ub3eyrwOEdltu7P4nnXAFwNlwekJVJz50I/img.jpg?width=980" id="4f7f7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="513e5803db97d5d6c8ea489d509274b3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Vincent van der Merwe at a cheetah translocation. Endangered Wildlife Trust
Under Pressure
<p>Cheetah populations elsewhere in Southern Africa have not prospered over the past 50 years. In Zimbabwe, cheetah numbers have crashed from 1,500 in 1975, to just 170 today. Botswana's cheetah population has held steady at around 1,500 over the same period, but illegal capture for captive breeding and conflicts with farmers and the growing human population are increasing. In Namibia, there were an estimated 3,000 cheetah in in 1975; roughly 1,400 remain today.</p><p>In contrast, South Africa's cheetah numbers have grown from about 500 in 1975 to nearly 1,300 today. Van der Merwe, who is also a Ph.D. student at the University of Cape Town's Institute for Communities and Wildlife in Africa (iCWild), says he's confident that South Africa will soon overtake Namibia and Botswana, largely because the majority of South African cheetahs are protected and managed behind fences, whereas most of the animals in the neighboring countries remain more vulnerable on mainly unfenced lands.</p><p>Wildlife researchers Florian Weise and colleagues have reported that private stock owners in Namibia still trap cheetahs mainly for translocation, but there are few public or private reserves large enough to contain them. Weise says that conservation efforts need to focus on improving tolerance toward cheetahs in commercial livestock and game farming areas to reduce indiscriminate trapping.</p><p>Van der Merwe says fences can be both a blessing and a curse. While these barriers prevent cheetahs and other wild animals from migrating naturally to breed and feed, they also protect cheetahs from the growing tide of threats from humanity and agriculture.</p><p>To simulate natural dispersion patterns that guard against inbreeding, the trust helps landowners swap their animals with other cheetah reserves elsewhere in the country. The South African metapopulation project has been so successful in boosting numbers that the trust is having to look beyond national boundaries to secure new translocation areas in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique.</p><p>Cheetah translocations have been going on in South Africa since the mid-1960s, when the first unsuccessful attempts were made to move scores of these animals from Namibia. These relocations were mostly unsuccessful.</p><p>"Most of those early attempts were a flop because the cheetahs were not kept in bomas before release and some of the reserves were also poorly fenced — so the cats shot out almost as soon as they were released," van der Merwe said.</p><p>Translocated cheetahs are now generally confined to capture bomas, small fenced enclosures, for four to six weeks to allow them to acclimate to their new home environment prior to being set free.</p><p>"We have found that four weeks is normally long enough to break the homing instinct and if you keep them in a boma for longer than that, they tend to lose fitness and condition," van der Merwe said.</p><p>The Phinda private game reserve in Zululand, one of several private game reserves that began re-introducing cheetahs in the early 1990s, recently swapped some of its animals with the nearby Manyoni private game reserve.</p><p>"We have found that when we capture and translocate cheetahs to other reserves, the Phinda cats do very well elsewhere because they grew up in a challenging environment," van der Merwe said. "Because they have to share space with lion, hyena and leopard they have learned to look after themselves — so they are pretty tough animals."</p>
<p>Charli de Vos, a wildlife monitor at Phinda, says when new cheetahs are released into the reserve in small units, at least one animal is fitted with a VHF tracking collar.</p><p>For the first few weeks, she says, the animals' movements are tracked on a daily basis to ensure that they are not showing "homing" tendencies and that they are also getting used to the presence of tourist and staff vehicles.</p><p>"This will apply until the animals have relaxed within their new environment. Once the animals have established a home range within the reserve (approximately three months after release), the VHF collar will be removed. Thereafter the research and monitoring team will try and get a visual of each individual cheetah at least once every second week," de Vos said.</p><p>The reserve also has an online database to record sightings of the animals, with tourist guides, researchers, land managers and land owners able to add sightings.</p><p>Despite a cub mortality rate of between 50% and 80% on some reserves, van der Merwe says there are now about 90 cheetahs in the Zululand area. He says cub mortality rates vary according to the number of larger predators such as lions and hyenas.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ0Njk4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzQyMDg3M30.hoAtcVR-rSvXT2T_eraII5U6ClU5pT8RbrLljU3o704/img.jpg?width=980" id="8bc3a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7715fbde7a3198ea9f0b52e504c72761" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Charli de Vos uses a VHF antenna to locate cheetahs in Phinda Game Reserve. Tony Carnie for Mongabay
Swinging for the Fences
<p>But other wildlife conservation leaders have a different perspective on cheetah conservation strategy.</p><p>Gus Mills, a senior carnivore researcher retired in 2006 from SANParks, the agency that manages South Africa's national parks, after a career of more than 30 years in Kalahari and Kruger national parks. He says the focus should be on quality of living spaces rather than the quantity of cheetahs.</p><p>Mills, who was the founder of the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Carnivore Conservation Group in 1995, and who also spent six years after retirement studying cheetahs in the Kalahari, says it's more important to properly protect and, where possible, expand the size of existing protected areas.</p><p>He also advocates a triage approach to cheetah conservation, in which scarce funds and resources are focused on protecting cheetahs in formally protected areas, rather than diluting scarce resources in an attempt to try and save every single remaining cheetah population.</p><p>"People have an obsession with numbers. But I believe that it is more important to protect large landscape and habitats properly," Mills said.</p><p>He suggests that cheetahs enclosed within small reserves live in artificial conditions: "It's almost like glorified farming."</p><p>"In the long run we have to focus on consolidating formally protected areas," he added. "Africa's human population will double by 2050, so cheetah populations in unfenced areas will become unsustainable if they are eating people's livestock."</p><p>Mills, who was closely involved in a similar metapopulation project for wild dogs, said he tried to encourage landowners to pull down the boundary fences, to create larger areas of habitat.</p><p>"But there are many landowners who don't want to do that. They want their own areas and their own management programs. But my philosophy is: Take care of the ecosystem so that the animals can take care of themselves, so that nature can run its course," Mills said.</p><p>"Unfortunately, there are so few areas left where nature can have its say these days."</p><p>Van der Merwe says the financial costs of metapopulation management are unavoidable and justified, noting that private reserves bear the overwhelming bulk of the translocation and monitoring costs.</p><p>"This is 2020. State funding for conservation has collapsed in most parts of Africa and the days of setting aside any new large, wild open spaces are long gone," he said. "We should be celebrating the fact that many more private ecotourism reserves have been established on former cattle ranches in South Africa, outcompeting agriculture as a land use and creating new habitat for cheetah. The best we can do is to try and consolidate smaller private and community-owned reserves with larger national parks."</p><p>Sarah M. Durant of the Zoological Society of London and the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, says cheetahs remain susceptible to rapid decline and that, ultimately, conserving the remaining free-ranging populations in Botswana and Namibia will require "a paradigm shift in conservation toward a holistic approach that incentivizes protection and promotes sustainable human-wildlife coexistence across large multiple-use landscapes."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/spots-of-hope-some-good-news-for-south-africas-cheetahs/" target="_blank">Mongabay.</a></em></p>
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Heo Suwat Waterfall in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. sarote pruksachat / Moment / Getty Images
A national park in Thailand has come up with an innovative way to make sure guests clean up their own trash: mail it back to them.
<p>Thailand's Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-archa issued a stern warning to visitors of the country's Khao Yai National Park last week.</p><p>"I will pick up every single piece of your trash, pack them well in a box and mail it to your home as a souvenir," he wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/posts/1058216911296247" target="_blank">Facebook post Sept. 14</a>, according to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/world/asia/thailand-park-mail-trash.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New York Times translation</a>.</p><p>The post also included a picture of an abandoned tent filled with discarded <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastic</a> bottles and other rubbish.</p>
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b8c0986fe76ad4f2771920a558c9a3f0"><div class="fb-post" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/photos/a.674770099640932/1058314587953146/"></div></div>
<p>The next day, Varawut revealed he had made good on his threat.</p><p>"The garbage that tourists left in the park is now packed into the box. It's ready to be returned to the owner of the garbage already," he wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TOPVarawut/posts/1058561024595169" target="_blank">Sept. 15 post</a>, according to a <a href="https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/thailand-national-park-mails-back-garbage-campers-litter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Travel and Leisure </a>translation. He also posted pictures of the collected trash and a shipping box with the address marked out.</p><p>The trash was shipped back with a special message for its owners.</p><p>"You have forgotten some of your belongings at the Khao Yai National Park," the note read, according to The New York Times. "Please let us return these to you."</p>
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<p>Park officials were able to match the trash to their owners by checking rental equipment forms against a prescription bottle left in the tent. The offending visitors have also been blacklisted from returning to the park for overnight visits.</p><p>Varawut explained that abandoned trash could endanger wild animals, who might eat it by mistake when foraging for food. He said littering in the park could carry a fine of up to up to a 500,000 Thai Baht (about $16,000 U.S. dollars), a prison sentence of up to five years or both, Travel and Leisure reported. He said anyone caught littering would be reported to the police.</p><p>Khao Yai National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site about 100 miles northeast of Bangkok. It is the oldest national park in Thailand, according to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54200833" target="_blank">BBC News</a>, and is famous for its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and landscapes, including waterfalls.</p>
<p>The lockdown initiated due to the coronavirus pandemic was a boon for the animals there, as elephants began returning to their old paths in the absence of human visitors, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/world/asia/thailand-elephants-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported in July</a>. Other animals like the Asian black bear and a type of bovine called a guar emerged from hiding too.</p><p>The park reopened to visitors July 1, but limited the number to 5,000 at a time, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/09/18/tourist-trash-mail/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>. The Thai tourism board praised Varawut for reminding the returning visitors how to properly respect the park.</p><p>"We applaud Khao Yai National Park and The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment for their commitment to maintaining the beauty and wellbeing of our country's natural resources," Charinya Kiatlapnachai, director of the tourism authority of Thailand, told The Washington Post in an email. "Thailand's national parks and wildlife have had time to recover from damaging results of tourism such as littering over the past six months and this gesture has the best of intentions to ensure we all do our part to help our country remain clean, safe and beautiful."</p>
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