Perhaps northern Borneo’s last remaining wild rhino captured for breeding project.

Possibly northern Borneo’s last remaining rhino has been captured and will be now used for a captive breeding programme to try to save the species from extinction.

The Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA) and Sabah Wildlife Department had known about the female’s presence in the rainforests of the Danum Valley in Malaysia’s northern state of Sabah through camera trap monitoring; however there have been no signs of any other wild rhinos in the rest of the state.

According to Dr Sen Nathan, Assistant Director / Chief Veterinarian of Sabah Wildlife Department, on Monday 10 March the rhino fell into a purpose built pit trap dug at a site on a well-known rhino trail, and has reportedly suffered no injury. Research has shown that pit traps cushioned with vegetation are the safest way of capturing Sumatran rhinos. Efforts to capture the female were stepped up last year following approval from the State Cabinet.

The female rhino will shortly be translocated to Tabin Wildlife Reserve, where it is hoped that she will breed with the Sanctuary’s last remaining Sumatran male rhino Kretam, known as Tam, who was captured in August 2008, when he was roughly 20 years old. Or the female rhino may be used in wider global Sumatran rhino breeding efforts. This is dependent on the captured female being cyst-free and reproductively healthy and fertile.

Read more Lone Sumatran rhino caught in Sabah.

Wildlife tourism in numbers: the benefits (and potential losses) of wildlife tourism to a country’s economy.

As rampant poaching hits rhinos in Africa and shark finning affects the survival of sharks worldwide, this article shows how the affect on tourism can damage a county’s tourist economy.

Some of the figures:

The shark diving industry in Fiji is worth 42,2 million dollars (30,4 million euros) per year, 18 million dollars per year in Palau and 38,6 million dollars per year in the Maldives.

Whale watching globally is worth about 2 billion dollars a year.

Birdwatchers contributed about 32 billion dollars annually to the US economy.

Indonesia has just created the largest sanctuary for manta rays because it estimated that a manta ray is worth one million dollars over the course of its life.

Read more: Opinion: Wildlife tourism, a multi-billion dollar industry at risk   | Africa | DW.DE | 07.03.2014.

11 wildlife experiences that could vanish in your lifetime.

CNN’s list of the 11 great wildlife experiences could disappear within your lifetime.

1. Witnessing the wildebeest migration
2. Coming eye-to-eye with a polar bear
3. Counting the stripes on a tiger
4. Swimming amid live coral on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef
5. Tracking gorillas in the mist
6. Seeing the creatures of Galápagos as Darwin saw them
7. Hanging around with orangutans
8. Watching sea turtles nest
9. Spotting Africa’s Big Five
10. Swimming alongside whale sharks
11. Be awed by a giant panda in the wild

11 wildlife experiences that could vanish in your lifetime – CNN.com.

Permit to shoot endangered black rhino – in the name of conservation – sells for $350,000

 

Further to our story back in October.  The auction for the black rhino hunting permit has now taken place: raising $350,000 for rhino conservation.  A radical approach to wildlife conservation? Or a smokescreen for for the mega wealthy to hunt yet more of Africa’s endangered wildlife? You tell me.

Background: Permit to hunt endangered African black rhino sells for $350,000 – Telegraph.

Fate of the Jaguar: A Conversation with Panthera’s Dr. Howard Quigley

A good interview discussing the future of jaguar conservation with Dr. Howard Quigley Executive Director of jaguar and cougar programs of Panthera, the most renowned organization in the world dedicated to large felid conservation.

via Fate of the Jaguar: A Conversation with Panthera’s Dr. Howard Quigley – News Watch.