#conservation centre

[seosanskritiias]

World's first Asian King Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre in Uttar Pradesh

Recently, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated the Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Center.

[caymanturtlecentre]

Supporting Sustainable Livelihoods Through Wildlife Tourism

No one can deny the temptation of meeting wild animals in their natural habitat. However, nowadays, responsible travellers are looking for wildlife experiences that not only gratify their wanderlust but also contribute to a noble cause.

Therefore, wildlife conservation centre offer a solution where travellers like you can experience wildlife, while contributing to eco-friendly and sustainable livelihoods.

The Mighty Wildlife Tourism

Wildlife tourism involves observing and engaging with wild animals within their natural environments. This industry has gained huge popularity due to an increased understanding of the environment and a need for unparalleled experiences.

According to reports, the global wildlife tourism market was valued at $146.27 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $249.45 billion by 2031. Growing interest in nature and wildlife experiences are the two prime factors contributing to this sector’s growth.

Nonetheless, wildlife tourism covers many activities, but some are sustainable. When done responsibly, wildlife tourism becomes an effective tool for conservation. Here’s how:

Economic Incentive: Tourism revenue generated can support essential activities such as anti-poaching patrols, habitat restoration and research by wildlife conservation centres. This financial incentive creates a vested interest in protecting wildlife, leading to healthier ecosystems.

Community Engagement: Local communities living around protected areas often face economic burdens. Through sustainable wildlife tourism, they can be employed as tour guides, lodge staff, and conservation assistants. Thus, they feel ownership and responsibility towards the wildlife, thereby reducing local threats like poaching.

Raising Awareness: Seeing animals in their natural habitats brings about more profound empathy for them. Tourists play an ambassador role, promoting protection awareness back home while inspiring others to travel responsibly.

Choosing the Right Wildlife Conservation Center

Not all wildlife tourism experiences are created equal. Here are some key factors to consider when choosing a wildlife conservation centre:

Focus on Conservation: Ensure that scientific research, habitat protection and animal welfare are top priorities at the centre. Check to see if it has accreditations from globally recognized organisations such as the Global Wildlife Conservation Association.

Minimal Animal Interaction: Good centres never allow direct interaction between visitors and animals, so watching takes place only within a natural setting.

Community Involvement: Look for centres that actively engage local communities so that locals benefit from tourism income and participate in its processes, thus conserving nature.

Sustainable Practices: Find centres that embrace environmentally friendly travel, such as alternative sources of energy, proper waste disposal systems, and water management.

To read a full blog, click on this link.

[chiangraitimes-blog]

Injured False Killer Whale Rescued in Pattaya Thailand-https://www.chiangraitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/false-killer-whale.jpg -https://www.chiangraitimes.com/thailand-national-news/news-asia-thailand/injured-false-killer-whale-rescued-in-pattaya-thailand/

New Post has been published on https://www.chiangraitimes.com/thailand-national-news/news-asia-thailand/injured-false-killer-whale-rescued-in-pattaya-thailand/

Injured False Killer Whale Rescued in Pattaya Thailand

A faulse killer whale was rescued after it washed ashore on a Pattaya beach on Wednesday night in Bang Lamung district, authorities said yesterday.

Officials said the whale, which weighs 300kg and is 3.4 metres long, had a number of injuries and had also suffered severe trauma. The Killer whale was immediately taken from the beach to the Royal Thai Navy’s Sea Turtles Conservation Centre for treatment.

Jirayu Wanphusit, 34, who first spotted the whale, said he was fishing off the coast in Pattaya on Wednesday night. The whale swallowed his bait and tried to pull his fishing rod into the sea. He said the whale had many injuries.

Mr Jirayu reported the sighting to authorities.

Meanwhile, tourists visiting Bangbao Bay, on Koh Kood Island off Thailand’s eastern province of Trat, have been asked to exercise caution while swimming in the sea. The cautioning comes after a false killer whale was spotted swimming near the beach.

Officials from a local research centre and volunteers were deployed to try to ease the mammal away from the beach. However their efforts were in vain as it kept swimming back inshore.

The officials eventually gave up and sought to warn tourists and speed boats to exercise caution.

Officials said that the creature might have become separated from a pod, recently sighted near Koh Kood Island.

  Source: Bangkok Post, Mgr Online

Video of Black Killer Whales Rescue

[thehobbitbadger]

Zoos are kinda evil - they're just full of fluffs I'm not allowed to pet.

[medicsinn]

Lekki Conservation Centre

This is definitely a spot to visit while on your elective in Lagos as a group or even by yourself. I went with some lovely friends and we easily arrived at the centre by taxi. The cost of entry and canopy walk is relatively inexpensive N2000 (approximately £4-5/$5-6). We enjoyed the grounds and canopy walk with another group, friendly and informative guides.

The grounds have some beautiful…

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[therakyatpost]

New Post has been published on The Rakyat Post

New Post has been published on http://www.therakyatpost.com/life/environment-life/2014/08/15/ultra-rare-crocs-survive-philippine-noahs-ark/

Ultra-rare crocs survive in Philippine 'Noah's Ark'

A CHORUS of chirps filled the room as one of the Philippines’ top crocodile breeders checked on his wards in an overcrowded Noah’s Ark for one of the world’s most endangered animals.

The chick-like cries came from metal tanks holding the baby Philippine crocodiles, artificially hatched by incubators from eggs that Glenn Rebong and his team had poached from their mothers’ nests.

“We’re producing so many but there are few opportunities to release them in the wild.

“So they get stuck here and you get overcrowding,” Rebong told AFP at the two-hectare Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Centre.

Crocodylus mindorensis once lived in large numbers in freshwater lakes and rivers across the Southeast Asian archipelago, and are endemic to the Philippines, but were decimated by illegal hunting for the fashion industry.

Fearful humans mistaking the timid creatures for their man-eating saltwater cousins and killing them, as well as a loss of habitat, have also contributed to their demise.

By the time the Philippine government launched its captive breeding programme in 1987, a survey found only about 250 were estimated to be in the wild.

Today there are likely fewer than that, as the areas they have been seen in recent years have got steadily smaller, according to Rebong.

The International Union of Conservation and Nature lists them as “critically endangered”, which is one step away from extinct in the wild.

The largest collection of the species now live at the centre, while two smaller private breeding operations elsewhere in the Philippines and some small sanctuaries in the wild are also key to the crocodiles’ survival.

Built with Japanese development aid, the now financially struggling centre in the southwestern city of Puerto Princesa is home to about 500 crocodiles, about half of them freshwater and the rest “salties”.

The centre augments a meagre government budget by putting some of the baby and adult crocs on display for tourists, who are warned not to stick their hands or feet into the enclosures.

The annual revenue of 12 million pesos (RM2.9 million) from the tourists’ entrance fees is just enough to pay for the fish that the reptiles are fed, as well as to cover the salaries of 45 staff.

Selling some of the saltwater crocodiles for their leather provides another source of revenue.

However it is illegal to sell the freshwater crocodiles, because of their critically endangered status, and the centre offers sanctuary for them.

The breeding adults are kept inside grassy pens segmented by low concrete walls, where females build mounds of mud and weed for nests.

The staff periodically raids the nests to transfer the eggs to the incubators, increasing their chances of hatching and ensuring an “insurance population” of at least 100 adults is maintained, Rebong said.

Dangers in wild

The species was hunted close to extinction even though the rougher skin on its flanks is inferior to those of Crocodylus porosus, the larger saltwater crocodiles that are a mainstay of the fashion industry.

Growing to not more than 10 feet, the freshwater crocodiles are shy animals that eat smaller prey than their bigger cousins.

Unlike large crocodiles that defend territory, they tend to slink away from humans and Rebong said there was no record of any member of the species ever killing a person.

However few Filipinos make the distinction between the aggressive salties and the freshwater crocodiles, wanting to kill either if seen.

This has been a big factor in so few having been released into the wild, as has been their relentlessly diminishing natural habitats.

Freshwater swamps that are their favoured homes are rapidly being converted into farms, housing, or ponds for commercial fish culture.

In the nature parks where they have been released, the government has had to run education and incentive programmes to try and ensure they are not hunted down out of fear or for their lucrative skins.

“You can’t simply release them anywhere.

“We have to make sure they are secure in a particular area, otherwise they could end up getting killed,” Rebong said.

“People moving into a crocodile habitat kill them mostly out of fear.

“To them, a crocodile is a crocodile.”

In the biggest and most successful release, 50 freshwater crocodiles were let go over the past decade in the Northern Sierra Madre National Park, a sprawling 1,000-hectare spread of tropical rainforest in the north of the main island of Luzon.

Communities in the Northern Sierra Madre went along with the scheme in exchange for jobs and skills training, said park superintendent William Savella.

“They asked for incentives,” Savella told AFP, and 10 locals were eventually hired as forest rangers, helping the government protect their habitat as well as monitoring the crocodiles’ progress.

Another 25 were set free last year at a nature park on the southern island of Siargao, but Rebong said there were no plans to release more into the wild anytime soon because of the habitat restrictions.

“The ultimate measure of success is, they will breed and become a viable adult population (but) even if you breed a million here, they are still considered endangered if you cannot find any in the wild,” he said.

[museumstudies]

Ethnography - Textile Restoration in Italy and Afghanistan

Certificate hand-out today at the ISCR - the Italian Institute for Conservation and Restoration, in Rome - for two trainees from Afghanistan, who completed a one month training in restoration of textiles.

Qudsia Zohab and Fauzia Hamraz work at the Ethnographic Department of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul.

Both ladies had previously been my pupils in a UNESCO sponsored capacity building workshop on risk management and preventive conservation at the National Museum in Kabul, in May 2010.

Great people, good professionals. I'm particularly happy they had the opportunity for undergoing such a focused training in Rome!