Japan Whaling Once Again

Unfortunately, The annual Japanese whale hunt is setting sail again. What an terrible waste. Under the excuse of scientific research the fleet is looking to take 50 humpbacks, over a thousand minke and others. None of the whale populations are secure though they have recovered since the 1963 ban. these are intelligent and beautiful creatures and to have them ruthlessly hunted just really pains me.

It might be somewhat different if the Japanese themselves actually ate the whale meat or depended on it for protein. The reality is that it's becoming less and less popular and last year most of the whale meat ended up in school lunches because it failed sell in the markets. This is all about the ego of a few political extremists and not the will of the Japanese people who would be very happy not to have whale meat.

Terrorist Whales?

Whales lose this one because we are so concerned with Al-Qaida submarines sneaking into the Gulf of California and launching an attack on Hollywood from the south. If we don't kill the whales how are going to stop the terrorists? This is a really stupid decision and I mean really, really stupid.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- The Navy can use high-power sonar during exercises off the Southern California coast, despite the technology's threat to whales and other marine mammals, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

National security interests outweigh the possible harm to marine life, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined in overturning a judge's order banning the practice.

"The public does indeed have a very considerable interest in preserving our natural environment and especially relatively scarce whales," Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote for the majority. "But it also has an interest in national defense. We are currently engaged in war, in two countries."

A Warning from the Butterflies

Welcome to the world we have created. First came the bees gone missing and now comes the warning from the butterflies. It may seem something trivial but it is a horrible portent of the things to come.

Britain's astounding April, the warmest on record, has produced an astounding effect in the natural world, with at least 11 species of butterfly making their earliest recorded appearances this spring in what will be seen as the most remarkable demonstration yet of the effects of climate change on Britain's wildlife.

For several years biologists have been watching warming temperatures affect living organisms, with leaves opening, birds nesting and insects emerging earlier. But what has happened in 2007 with butterflies has been quite exceptional.

Of our 59 resident and regular migrant species, 37 have now appeared, and of these, all except one (the orange tip) have emerged earlier than they would have done a decade ago, according to the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation.

More remarkably still, 11 of them have broken all records for early emergence, some by scarcely-believable margins.

This is not a good thing.

Pleasant Evening

Bachelor tonight as Madam is out. Decided to eat my leftover dinner on the deck and was rewarded for doing so. Not only were the slow cooked beef short ribs especially succulent after resting for a couple of days in their rich sauce of wine and tomatoes but I had multiple visitors while I sat quietly enjoying my meal.
First came three white tail deer, a young male and a doe with youngster. They were busy sampling the new young shoots on the buffet around the yard and didn't seem to care that I was watching. I introduced myself, even sharing my real name, but such a gracious welcome was not returned in kind. Sometimes, in the right atmosphere, sharing your real name with another species will allow them to trust you enough to respond in kind. Regardless, my offer of mutual trust was not accepted by these three. It is understandable however. Here they are trying to scratch out a living in the middle of a metropolitan area of millions of people and worse...cars. Jumping fences and dodging traffic day in and day out. Gotta make you a little cranky. It does me.
While the deer moved off into the woods beyond, who should wander in but Mr. Raccoon. He too was interested only in what might have been left by the birds, squirrels and chipmunks and none to ready for a pleasant chat. He was much less sanguine about my presence and kept giving me the eye. He cased the joint and had a hearty drink from the bird bath before continuing on his nightly rounds. I was pretty sure that the look he gave me as he crossed the fence was for not replenishing the suet in the feeder. I will do it in the morning since he has been known to remove the feeder from its hanging and consume an entire cake of Peanut Delight in a single evening. Shouldn't encourage such gluttony.
An interesting evening and a reward for my attention in maintaining an attractive natural habitat for the wildlife. I must admit that the frequent trips to the bird seed store for another bag of sun flower seeds, dried corn, peanuts and suet make me hesitate at times but it is then that I remember the short episodes like this evening when I get a chance to connect.

Next Target - Bald Eagles

A little later tee time today so I am getting a chance to cruise a bit. Nearly the first thing I stumble on is this bit of insanity.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to drop the U.S. national bird from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in June.

Environmentalists and scientists widely support the move because of the species' success since a 1972 ban on the pesticide DDT and since it was protected by the Endangered Species Act in 1978.

Still, many eagle experts are worried, warning that the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the law that will protect bald eagles after delisting, does not adequately shield the nesting trees and feeding perches eagles depend on.

What I want to know is who exactly are the "environmentalists and scientists" who are supporting this because Reuters conveniently neglected to mention them by name in the article? Why so you suppose these so called "environmentalists and scientists" aren't mentioned? I wish I had time to figure out which bunch of GOP businesses were set to make money off this. I am beginning to think that the goal of the Bush administration is to destroy everything before they leave office. Seriously, can someone explain to me why we need to remove these birds from the list?

Remember the Good Times

The Fallenmonk has landed in Indianapolis again for another week. When I checked in with Monk World HQ there was some sad news. A big part of our lives over the last quarter century or so was released from the trials of her earthly existence and set free to roam the universe. My daughter's first horse Kui(named for the Kokui nut because she was a deep brown) had to be put down this evening. She was 28 years old and had led a full life.

We bought her for my daughter as a yearling and completely unbroken when we lived in North Carolina. My daughter broke her to hunt seat and western and went on to win a boatload of trophies and ribbons in North Carolina and later in Georgia when they were both young girls. She has been out to pasture for the last few years as her age prevented any regular riding and my daughter has other horses but Kui was her first and very special. I can't tell you how many hours yours truly spent driving to and from horse shows and then standing around holding Kui while outfits were changed and all. I made a pretty competent hitching post if I do so say so myself.

So anyway, it is the end of another chapter in our lives and an especially meaningful one for my daughter. Kui did her job and did it well and lived a nice long life for a horse. She has nothing to be ashamed as she joins the cosmic herd. Those of us still confined to the physical plane can remember the blue ribbons and the not blue ribbons and the pleasure and completeness she gave to a young girl and feel good about our time together.

Don't Bear Witness!

This is almost laughable were it not so sad. The Bush administration obviously thinks that if we don't hear about polar bears then there is no problem and Global Warming is not really happening since you aren't hearing any drowning polar bears stories.

Internal memorandums circulated in the Alaskan division of the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service appear to require government biologists or other employees traveling in countries around the Arctic not to discuss climate change, polar bears or sea ice if they are not designated to do so.

[snip]

In December, the Bush administration, facing a deadline under a suit by environmental groups, proposed listing polar bears throughout their range as threatened under the Endangered Species Act because the warming climate is causing a summertime retreat of sea ice that the bears use for seal hunting.

Environmentalists are trying to use such a listing to force the United States to restrict heat-trapping gases that scientists have linked to global warming as a way of limiting risks to the 22,000 or so bears in the far north.

It remains unclear whether such a listing will be issued. The Fish and Wildlife Service this week held the first of several hearings in Alaska and Washington on the question.

Over the past week, biologists and wildlife officials received a cover note and two sample memorandums to be used as a guide in preparing travel requests. Under the heading “Foreign Travel — New Requirement — Please Review and Comply, Importance: High,” the cover note said:

“Please be advised that all foreign travel requests (SF 1175 requests) and any future travel requests involving or potentially involving climate change, sea ice and/or polar bears will also require a memorandum from the regional director to the director indicating who’ll be the official spokesman on the trip and the one responding to questions on these issues, particularly polar bears.”

The sample memorandums, described as to be used in writing travel requests, indicate that the employee seeking permission to travel “understands the administration’s position on climate change, polar bears, and sea ice and will not be speaking on or responding to these issues.”

BTW... Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears,Polar Bears. There I said it! So come and get me if you think you can.
Update: If you want some more Polar Bear Stories go see Maya's Granny

Attack of the Chimpanzees

For the first time chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making spears and spearing bush babies.

That's right, another example of tool usage has cropped up in primates, but this time they aren't cracking nuts with rocks, or fishing termites out of their mounds with reeds. This time, they've moved ahead to honing their tools to make more efficient hunting weapons.

The chimps are sharpening sticks with their teeth and then jabbing their homemade spears into the dens of bush babies, which they then eat. Jane Goodall had witnessed carnivorous activity in chimps so I knew they ate the occasional meat but the news that they actively hunted was pretty surprising.

Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other animals, according to a study in the journal Current Biology. It's the first time primates have been seen using tools to hunt.

Actually the above quote is a little off if you think about it. Using the term 'primates' is technically wrong since humans are primates as well. The article should say non-human primates. Humans are primates after all. Not only do we share the same order (Primate), we are also in the same suborder (Haplorrhini), infraorder (Simiiformes), parvorder (Catarrhini), superfamily (Hominoidea), family (Hominidae) and subfamily (Homininae) as gorillas and chimpanzees. We can even go down to the tribe (Hominini) if we exclude gorillas and only include the chimps.

Chimps have been known to use tools before... but this use of spear-like weapons to attack other animals is completely new.

More At: BBC News: Chimps use spears to hunt and BBC News: Chimpanzees 'hunt using spears'

Another interesting side note in all of this is that most of the tool manufacture and use in hunting was initiated by the females. This little bit of information supports the theory that all through human evolution it has been the female of the species that has been on the forefront of innovation and creativity while the male has been focused on hunting etc.

It is also interesting to note that only about 1 out of 22 of the bush baby "spear-hunts" were successful. This leads one wonder if this is a recently adopted behavior. If you had only 4.5% chance of catching dinner, would you give up and go back tried and true methods? It could be that this is statistically an improvement on catch rates and so the behavior will reenforce itself?