A new Canadian pilot project which sees microchips inserted in polar bear hides is aiming to help stop the trafficking of wildlife and protect the country's reputation of having sustainable and well-managed hunts. This year, local conservation officers in a number of Nunavut and Labrador communities began using the microchips, which allow potential buyers and wildlife enforcement officers to find out where the bear was hunted. "This is something that we're really excited about," said Sheldon Jordan, the director general of the wildlife enforcement division of Environment and Climate Change Canada. "We've tried it in a number of communities across Northern Canada and it seems to be working quite well." The microchips, combined with back-up DNA samples, will make it possible for people to see if the bear is from a population that is allowed to be exported, at any point in the supply chain. As a bonus, the data will help wildlife enforcement analyze where bears are being hunted, so they can adjust management practices. 

Wildlife trafficking exploding worldwide

Over the past decade, Jordan, who is also the chair of Interpol's wildlife crimes working group, says wildlife trafficking has "exploded," mainly driven by demand from East Asia. That might seem far removed from Northern Canada, but Jordan says when the price of elephant ivory went up, so did the value of narwhal tusks. Between 2009 and 2013, the price of polar bear pelts quadrupled, said Jordan. "When the price goes up, there's an incentive for some people, especially middlemen, to try to go around the rules, to try to smuggle out polar bear skins, which are not allowed to be exported." Jordan says it's not common for traffickers to be caught breaking the law in Canada, but enforcement officers still need to be "ahead of the curve." "If they're not legally traded or legally exported, it doesn't matter if the harvest is legal or not," he said. "People in the rest of the world are going to say that Canada can't be trusted."

Process could help African elephants

Jordan says the pilot program has been a big success so far, and there are already plans to expand it to a few communities in Yukon and the Northwest Territories this fall. Eventually he hopes it will be used across Nunavut and in northern Quebec. "There are people in small communities in central Africa who are dependant on elephant for trade and for tourism," said Jordan. "Why not [try] what we've tried here in the North, in our small communities, let's try and see if we can transfer that to a little bit of the rest of the world to try and protect small communities elsewhere." The process is relatively inexpensive, and tests done on confiscated hides show the microchip stays put, even after the hide is tanned and mounted. "Really what we want is sustainable trade," said Jordan. "That way we protect the good guys, we stop the bad guys."

By Elyse Skura (c) CBC News

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division arrested four persons with nine red panda skins from Kapan, Kathmandu last week. It was the single biggest seizure of body parts of endangered wild animal.

According to statistics of the Metropolitan Police Office, the law enforcement agency has confiscated as many as 70 units of red panda hide, while District Forest Office, Kathmandu brought to book 180 poachers and wildlife criminals in the Kathmandu Valley in the past four years.

The concerned district Forest office is the only authorised agency to prosecute wildlife poachers and smugglers under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act, 1973. Any suspect arrested by police in connection with wildlife crimes is handed over to the DFO.

Police officials said cases of poaching red pandas, and sale, possession and smuggling of their skin are on the rise. 44 red panda hides were seized in the last two years alone, a testimony to the increased threat to red pandas.

Red panda, called ‘habre’ in Nepali, is an endangered animal whereas trade and smuggling of its body parts is illegal under the prevailing laws, as well as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES Convention, 1975). The act has a clear provision of complete protection of protected wildlife, including red panda under its Section 10. As per section 26 (2) of the act, any person who kills or tries to kill red panda may be fined up to Rs 40,000-75,000 or jailed for 1-10 years, or both.

According to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Nepal is home to around two per cent of the global population of red panda amounting approximately to 300 individuals. Their numbers are dwindling due to all-pervasive human pressure on their natural habitat and poaching.

A study by Red Panda Network Nepal shows that the wild animals are found in Panchthar, Taplejung, Shankhuwasabha, Solukhumbhu, Ramechhap, Ilam, Dolakha, Sindhupalchowk, Rasuwa and Khotang districts. They live at altitudes of between 2,200 and 4,800 metres.

Police said red panda hides and body parts are usually smuggled to China and Myanmar for their supposed medicinal qualities and aesthetic use. Poachers have been found selling red panda hide for Rs 200,000-6,00,000 depending on their clients.

(c) The Himalayan Times

Police in Vietnam have seized an illegal transport of bear legs. The bear parts were being transported from Laos to Vietnam. The legs have been identified as belonging to the endangered sun bear. Bears in Mind supports the ongoing battle against illegal wildlife trade, among others by supporting a TRAFFIC project: Sun bears in trouble.

Source: Thanh Nien News (http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/vietnam-busts-illegal-transport-of-18-bear-legs-from-laos-64663.html)

Police in the central province of Thanh Hoa seized 18 frozen bear legs transported aboard a bus by its driver without a license on Tuesday July 26. The limbs, weighing 38 kilograms in all, were identified as belonging to red-listed sun bears, news website VnExpress said. Dinh Hong Phuong, 47, the driver, and Bui Thien Loi, 52, the bus owner, told the police that a man had paid them to deliver the legs from Laos to Vietnam.

The police also confiscated the bus for further investigation. Sun bears are categorized as "endangered" in Vietnam, where they are protected from hunting. Along with Asian black bears, sun bears are often targeted for their bile, hands and legs for use in traditional medicine. (Photo: VnExpress)

Politie in Vietnam heeft een illegaal transport van berenpoten onderschept. De berenpoten werden van Laos naar Vietnam getransporteerd. Het gaat om poten van de bedreigde Maleise beer, ook wel honingbeer en sun bear genoemd. Bears in Mind steunt de strijd tegen de illegale handel in dieren, onder andere door het steunen van een TRAFFIC project gericht op de bescherming van Maleise beren: Beren in 't nauw in Maleisië.

Bron: Thanh Nien News (http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/vietnam-busts-illegal-transport-of-18-bear-legs-from-laos-64663.html)

Police in the central province of Thanh Hoa seized 18 frozen bear legs transported aboard a bus by its driver without a license on Tuesday July 26. The limbs, weighing 38 kilograms in all, were identified as belonging to red-listed sun bears, news website VnExpress said. Dinh Hong Phuong, 47, the driver, and Bui Thien Loi, 52, the bus owner, told the police that a man had paid them to deliver the legs from Laos to Vietnam.

The police also confiscated the bus for further investigation. Sun bears are categorized as "endangered" in Vietnam, where they are protected from hunting. Along with Asian black bears, sun bears are often targeted for their bile, hands and legs for use in traditional medicine. (Foto: VnExpress)

See how the small sun bear native to southeast Asia, is struggling to survive amid deforestation and poaching. The Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre is working to protect sun bears through its rescue efforts and by educating the public about forest protection. National Geographic grantee Eddie Roqueta films the bears up close in their natural habitat at the center as its founder discusses the organization's quest to keep this vulnerable species wild in its rain forest home. More information on the way Bears in Mind protects sun bears can be found in the project section of this website.

De vrouwtjes vestigen zich in deze periode graag in gebieden waar ook mensen leven, omdat mannetjesberen daar niet of nauwelijks komen. 

Mannelijke beren doden in het paarseizoen vaak jongen om vervolgens eigen nageslacht te verwekken bij de moeders.

Dat melden Noorse onderzoekers in het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

GPS

De wetenschappers volgden dertig vrouwelijke bruine beren met behulp van een GPS-halsband. Van deze groep raakten negentien vrouwjes zwanger. Elf van de dieren verloren hun jongen aan moordlustige mannetjes.

Mannetjes doden in het paarseizoen vaak jonge beren, omdat de moeders na het verlies van hun jongen opnieuw bronstig worden. De mannetjes maken dan een goede kans om zelf nageslacht bij haar te verwekken.

De acht vrouwtjes uit de studie die hun jongen niet verloren, bleken te zijn verhuisd naar door mensen gewoonde gebieden. Ze verbleven gemiddeld op een afstand van slechts 783 meter van menselijke nederzettingen. De vrouwtjes wier jongen werden vermoord, leefden gemiddeld op 1213 meter afstand van mensen.  

Schild

De vlucht naar menselijke leefgebieden levert de vrouwtjes dus voortplantingssucces op. "De berenmoeders gebruikten de aanwezigheid van mensen duidelijk als een soort schild voor hun jongen", verklaart hoofdonderzoeker Sam Steyaert op de nieuwssite van het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift Science.

De beren bouwden goed beschutte nesten zodat mensen niet gemakkelijk in hun buurt konden komen. "De moeders selecteerden de meest dichte struiken. Op die manier konden ze dicht bij mensen zijn, zonder dat deze mensen zich daarvan bewust waren," aldus Steyaert. 

Na het paarseizoen verhuisden de berenvrouwtjes weer naar meer afgelegen gebieden.

(c) NU.nl

For a mother brown bear in Scandinavia, few sights are as terrifying as a strange male. Adult male bears are known to kill cubs that are not theirs—and sometimes the mother that defends them. A new study suggests that smart mama bears have found a surprising way to protect their young. To shield her cubs from male attacks, mom just has to raise them near an adult bear’s No. 1 enemy: humans.

“People fear bears,” says Marcus Elfström, a wildlife ecologist at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås, Norway, who was not involved in the research. But the new study shows that “vulnerable bears fear dominant [fellow bears] more than they fear people.”

Female grizzly bears and Scandinavian brown bears move away from male territory after giving birth, often choosing areas far from the best bear habitats. If a mother loses her cub, she soon goes into heat, so an infanticidal male has a good chance of impregnating her. When researchers in Sweden found some mother bears and their cubs living near human settlements, they wondered whether it might be a reproductive strategy—a way of protecting their young from killer males. After all, adult male bears don’t often venture near towns because humans are likely to kill them. If it was for safety, did the mothers’ strategy work?

To find out, researchers from NMBU tracked 30 GPS-collared mother brown bears in south-central Sweden from 2005 to 2012. Nineteen of the mothers successfully raised their cubs, but 11 lost their litters to infanticidal males. That’s in line with previous studies showing that some 35% of brown bear cubs in this region die every year, most of them from male attacks.

When the researchers examined where the successful mothers lived during the mating season, they found that they stayed close to human settlements, at a median distance of 783 meters, they report today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Some bears stayed even closer. “They were clearly using the humans as a shield,” says Sam Steyaert, a wildlife biologist at NMBU and the study’s lead author.  

The successful bear families also use clear-cut areas, where young trees and shrubs are thick. “These mothers select the densest vegetation, especially when they’re close to humans,” Steyaert says. “That way they can be very close to people, but the people don’t know they’re there,” potentially minimizing conflicts. Every year between August and October, people in the region hunt and kill bears, often close to homes and villages. But bear families—the mothers and the cubs—are not targeted.

The smart mother bears seem to have figured this out. They stay closer to human settlements during the most likely time of male infanticide, the mating season. “It’s surprising because it shows that female bears are smart enough to think way ahead,” says William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State University, Corvallis, who was not involved in the study.

In contrast, the mothers who lost their cubs avoided areas with human settlements, roads, and clear-cuts, and instead stayed in areas with tree-rich bogs and forest. They kept a median distance of 1213 meters from any human habitation—exposing their offspring to despotic males in the process.

The successful mother bears are engaging in a tactic found elsewhere in the animal kingdom: treating the enemy of their enemy as a friend. “That’s a well-established strategy in ecology,” says Scott Creel, a wildlife ecologist at Montana State University, Bozeman. “But this study reveals that such ‘double negatives’ can have a big effect on survival.”

The study also upends the long-held belief that some bears move close to human settlements because of easy access to food. The areas near homes and clear-cuts where the successful mothers live are much poorer in food quality than areas farther from human settlements. “They aren’t associating people with easily accessible food,” but with safety, Elfström says. That’s a difference wildlife managers should take into account when brown bears are spotted close to humans, he adds.

But the study may raise more questions than it answers, says Merav Ben-David, a wildlife ecologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, who was not involved in this research. “Is this a learned behavior? And what happens to the cubs that were sheltered near human settlements? Are they more habituated to people, and thus, at greater risk of conflict [with humans] as adults?”

All good questions, says Steyaert, who hopes that others will repeat his team’s study on other and larger brown bear populations.

(c) Sciencemag.org

Het aangekondigde zware onweer weerhield sommige mensen waarschijnlijk van een bezoek aan de dierentuin, maar de bezoekers die wel kwamen konden genieten van een beregezellige dag met prachtig weer! De vele kraampjes op de burcht in het midden van Het Berenbos hadden veel aanloop, en bij de tafels waar de kinderen geschminkt werden stond regelmatig een rij. Avonturier Mountain Mike trok veel bekijks, en veroorzaakte zelfs een heuse file bij de ingang van Het Berenbos toen hij de beren ging voeren. Dat hij hierna nog genoeg energie over had voor de Berenquiz zegt genoeg over de steengoede conditie van deze avonturier! Ook de jonge bezoekers lieten zich van hun beste kant zien bij het blikken gooien, het visspel en het ijsberenspel. Imker Gerard Weterings had zijn handen vol aan het maken van de vele kaarsen van echte bijenwas die  kinderen konden maken en versieren. Na al die inspanningen was het  heerlijk genieten van een vers berenbrood vol honing en rozijnen van bakkerij ’t Haverland. En de echte sterren van dit feest, de beren zelf, lieten zich in grote getale en van hun beste kant zien. Kortom, het was weer een beregoede dag!
[Slideshow-berefeest2016mei]

Jakarta, Indonesia, 26th May 2016 — The illegal wildlife trade endangers an enormous amount of wildlife species, among them bears but also birds. A new study has revealed that 13 bird species—including Indonesia’s national bird, the Javan Hawk-eagle—found in Sundaic Indonesia are at serious risk of extinction because of excessive over-harvesting. The study also finds that an additional 14 bird subspecies are in danger of extinction. The driver behind this crisis is the enormous demand for birds for the domestic pet trade. The keeping of birds as pets in Indonesia is an integral part of the national culture, yet the high levels of demand for some species have fuelled excessive hunting with the populations of many rapidly disappearing.

Besides the Javan Hawk-eagle, the other full species at risk include the Silvery Woodpigeon, Helmeted Hornbill, Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet, Javan Green Magpie, Black-winged Myna, Bali Myna, Straw-headed Bulbul, Javan White-eye, Rufous-fronted Laughingthrush, Sumatran Laughingthrush and Java Sparrow. Although most of them are kept as pets, the Helmeted Hornbill is an exception: as TRAFFIC recently revealed, thousands are being illegally killed and traded for their unique solid bill casques, carved as a substitute for elephant ivory, to meet demand in China.

Another of them, the Javan Green Magpie, was recognized as a full species as recently as 2013—and simultaneously documented as in grave danger of extinction owing to trade pressure. In direct response, the Threatened Asian Songbird Alliance (TASA), operating as a formal body of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), initiated a programme of captive breeding in a number of zoos, as assurance colonies, for security and propagation purposes. Such conservation breeding is the last hope for some of the taxa affected. According to the study: “Regrettably five subspecies…are probably already extinct, at least in the wild, due primarily to trade.” They include one subspecies of a parrot (Scarlet-breasted Lorikeet), three subspecies of White-rumped Shama, an accomplished songster and one of the Hill Myna, popular because of its ability to mimic human voices.

“Whether its species or subspecies, the message is the same: excessive trade is wiping out Indonesia’s wild bird species at an alarming rate” said Dr Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC’s Director for Southeast Asia, and a co-author of the study.

“Despite the alarming scale and consequences of the bird trade, governments and even conservation organizations often don't view this issue as a high priority. This hampers efforts to prevent further losses.”

The solutions to the bird trade crisis in Indonesia lie in a combination of better law enforcement, public awareness campaigns, in situ management, conservation breeding, conversion of trappers to wardens and field, market and genetic surveys, say the study’s authors. Meanwhile as certain favoured species disappear because of trapping, others are targeted as “next-best” substitutes, while commercial breeders sometimes hybridise taxa for “better” effects, leading to further conservation complexities.

The study’s authors also consider whether commercial breeding could help alleviate the situation, but conclude that “while attractive in theory, [commercial breeding] presents difficulties that are probably insurmountable in practice.”

Trade-driven extinctions and near-extinctions of avian taxa in Sundaic Indonesia was published in Forktail, the journal of the Oriental Bird Club.

For further information, contact:

Dr Chris R. Shepherd, Regional Director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia Tel: 03-7880 3940 Email: chris.shepherd@traffic.org

About TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC is a strategic alliance of IUCN and WWF. http://www.traffic.org/

Onze partner Free the Bears heeft ons een veronturstend bericht gestuurd over de mogelijke sterke stijging van het aantal bear farms in Laos. Het artikel is gepubliceerd op de website van National Geographic en uitgevoerd door hun ‘Special Investigations Unit’. De sluiting van bear farms in buurland Vietnam, in combinatie met een gebrek aan wetshandhaving, vormen een serieuze bedreiging voor de populaties beren die in het wild leven. Stropers en handelaren halen steeds meer beren uit het wild om aan de groeiende vraag van de illegale bear farms te voldoen. Het gal van de beren wordt gebruikt in Traditionele Geneeskunst, voornaleijk in China. Hoewel sommige bear farms beweren dat ze met de beren fokken, wkomen alle beren die in bear farms leven in werkelijkheid uit het wild. In 2012 was Bears in Mind de hoofdsponsor van de IUCN motie om bear farms in Azië te laten stoppen. De motie wil dit doel bereiken door wetenschappelijk aan te tonen dat het aantal beren in het wild daalt door toedoen van de bear farms. Daarnaast bevordert het project de vele alternatieven voor berengal. Meer informatie hierover vindt u in ons projectenoverzicht.

Het National Geographic artikel kunt u vinden op hun website.

Photograph: Hoang Dinh Nam, Getty Images