NEWS -GORILLA BORN AT PITSBURGH ZOO, MOM & BABY DOING FINE< BABYS GENDER UNKNOWN

Gorilla born at Pittsburgh Zoo, mom and baby doing fine; zookeepers don’t know gender yet

 

By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 17, 2012

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Zoo has a new baby gorilla in its midst.
Zoo officials say 15-year-old Moka gave birth last week after a year-and-a-half courtship with the zoo’s lead gorilla, 20-year-old Mrithi.

Zookeepers don’t yet know the baby’s gender, but say it appears to weigh between three and five pounds.
The new baby was born sometime after workers left the evening of Feb. 8. By the next morning the band of gorillas had grown from six to seven.
The baby is the first gorilla born at the zoo since 2001. Its father was the first born at the Pittsburgh Zoo, while Moka arrived from Miami in 2007.
Zoo officials say the other gorillas are keeping a respectful distance.
Visitors can see the new arrival at the zoo’s Tropical Forest exhibit.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

NEWS - OKLAHOMA SENATE PASSES PERSONHOOD ACT. SAYING LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION

Oklahoma Senate passes Personhood Act, saying life begins at conception

After two hours of debate, the state Senate voted 34-8 for a bill that states life begins at the moment of conception.

 

BY MEGAN ROLLAND 

Published: February 16, 2012

The first bill of the session passed by the Oklahoma Senate was an anti-abortion statement that life begins at the moment of conception, approved by senators Wednesday after two hours of debate.
The practical effect of the bill is open to question. Its author, Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, said it's merely a statement that Oklahoma is “pro-life.” He labeled as fear mongering contentions by opponents that it could lead to restrictions on abortions, birth control, in vitro fertilization and stem cell research.
The Personhood Act, Senate Bill 1433, received international attention in the wake of a proposed amendment from Sen. Constance Johnson, D-Holdenville. The amendment said it was an act against unborn children for men to waste sperm.
“A lot of people thought that I was being facetious with my amendment in committee, and it was humorous and it has gotten international response,” Johnson said to her fellow senators.
“But I was serious as a heart attack. It wasn't until I used the biological and scientific references to those functions that somebody heard it. Maybe nobody in this chamber gets it but somebody heard that all we're asking for is for this conversation to include both individuals that are necessary to bring life about.”
Johnson, whose amendment was tabled, said she is sick of legislation that pries into the private lives of women with no mention of the men who are co-actors in the process of conception.
The bill passed 34-8 with several Democrats voting in favor.

Crain defended the bill he authored as a necessary step toward protecting Oklahoma's most vulnerable people, unborn children.
“The unborn have no voice of their own. We must be the voice of the unborn,” Crain said. “It will take us to the very limit of what the United States Supreme Court has deemed to be constitutional.”
He said the bill was a lobbyist request from the group Oklahomans for Life, but he would not name people who had sought the bill.
Oklahoma already has some of the strictest regulations on the books when it comes to abortions. Only three clinics in the state perform abortions, and the abortion rate in Oklahoma is lower than the national average, according to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2008, about 10 out of every 1,000 women had an abortion in Oklahoma, lower than the national average of almost 20 abortions per 1,000 women.
“What would I do in the situation where one of my daughters found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy?” Crain said. “I would hope that my children would say, ‘Dad, I choose life. ... I would like to raise this child or I can't raise this child but I would like to bring this child into the world and then that child could be adopted.'”
Sen. Jim Wilson, D-Tahlequah, made a plea for the men of the Senate not to take that choice away from women.
“We say we're pro-life out here, but we don't do anything to limit pregnancies,” Wilson said. “We could do medically accurate sex education, but we choose not to do that. We could make birth control more available, but we choose not to do that.”
Related measuresThe bill, now headed to the House, is one of several the Legislature will consider that deals with abortion. SB 1274 requires that women listen to the heartbeat of a fetus before having an abortion.
House Joint Resolution 1067 would make the personhood issue a vote of the people.

NEWS - BALD EAGLE NOW ON DISPLAY AT RIVERBANKS ZOO COLUMBIA, SC

Thursday, Feb. 16, 2012

Bald eagle now on display at Riverbanks

 

By JOEY HOLLEMAN 

 

 

Riverbanks Zoo decided to ship its two bald eagles to other zoos in 1998 and go with more exotic birds in its new Birdhouse.
Since then, people routinely asked Martin Vince, curator of birds, why the national bird wasn’t represented at Riverbanks. This week, the bald eagle finally returns to the Riverbanks collection.
The young female eagle now on display at Riverbanks was found injured in a ditch in December and taken to Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research in Delaware. Veterinarians nursed the bird back to health, but a shoulder injury makes her too poor of a flyer to survive in the wild. When the bird was offered to zoos, Riverbanks provided her a home. A new enclosure has been built next to the grizzly bear exhibit.


When the zoo’s two original bald eagles, donated by Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1979, were sent to other zoos, the species was in the midst of an amazing rebound in the wild. Populations had shrunk to endangered levels in the mid-1900s before the banning of the insecticide DDT, which not only killed bugs but weakened bird eggs. Bald eagles now are common sights soaring along the waterways of South Carolina, with an estimated 250 nesting pairs in the wild in the state and 10,000 nationwide.
“This bird’s survival story is really a metaphor for the species as a whole,” Vince said.
In the Midlands, nesting pairs have settled in recent years on the Saluda River near Saluda Shoals Park and at the confluence of the Broad and Saluda rivers near the zoo.
But zoo visitors missed seeing the majestic creatures up close. “We loved those bald eagles,” Vince said visitors often said to him. “When I got the email about this bird, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to reacquire the species.”
The bird is estimated to be a year old, and bald eagles can live up to 35 years in captivity. She will be allowed to acclimate slowly to her new enclosure and to the keepers, Vince said. The goal is to train the bird so she can be brought out perched on a gloved hand at the climax of the daily Wings of the South Bird Show.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/02/16/2154380/bald-eagle-now-on-display-at-riverbanks.html#storylink=Morning%20Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/02/16/2154380/bald-eagle-now-on-display-at-riverbanks.html#storylink=Morning%20Newsletter#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/2012/02/16/2154380/bald-eagle-now-on-display-at-riverbanks.html#storylink=Morning%20Newsletter#storylink=cpy

ARTICLE - A GORILLA LOVE STORY

A Gorilla Love Story

Submitted by Mary Friona, Reporter

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012, 

 

 BUFFALO, NY - Sydney loves eating her heart-shaped treat off of the windows, but there is something even sweeter than cupcake frosting inside the gorilla habitat. This is a story about love. This is a family. Koga, his lady, Sydney, and their baby, Amari.
This story started at the Memphis Zoo, where Koga was in an all-bachelor group destined to be single forever, until he was sent to the Buffalo Zoo and immediately fell for Sydney. There were no flowers or chocolates or hand-holding. The only way zoo keepers knew of this affection was the fact that Koga was willing to share his food with Sydney.
Soon, their love brought them little baby Amari. An adorable 15-pound baby girl gorilla. Amari just rides along on her mama's back. Turns out Sydney is quite the mama. Koga takes a more hands-off approach.
You can see the gorilla family hanging out in their habitat at the Buffalo Zoo. Visit them at www.buffalozoo.org

 

 

QUOTE -OPPORTUNITY - Henry Ford

An Opportunity
===============
Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.

~Henry Ford~

NEWS - FEARS RESEARCH MONKEYS ARE ILLEGALLY TAKEN FROM WILD

Fears research monkeys are illegally taken from wild 

 

Richard Baker, Nick McKenzie

February 13, 2012

AUSTRALIA'S importation of primates for research has sparked an investigation into allegations that the little-known trade breaches international agreements on animal welfare.
The Deputy Speaker of Federal Parliament, Anna Burke, has asked the Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, if monkeys imported from Indonesia, classified as bred in captivity, have been taken from the wild, in breach of Australian and international protocols.
Ms Burke has also questioned why Australia has had to import at least 368 pigtail macaques from Indonesia for research since 2000, when it has three long-established, government-funded primate breeding centres in Victoria and NSW.

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Australia and Indonesia are signatories to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, which bans the export for research of primates caught in the wild.
An undercover investigation by a British animal rights group found Indonesia was classing monkeys from an island off West Java as being bred in captivity rather than in the wild. The island is home to the monkeys imported by Australia.
The pigtail macaque is in danger of being added to the threatened species list unless trade is strictly regulated. The European Union recently suspended imports.
In a letter to Mr Emerson, Ms Burke said importing primates was irresponsible because of uncertainty about their origins.
"The unethical importation of these creatures is not necessary as we have the capacity to supply primates for research in Australia through our three domestic primate breeding facilities,'' she said.
Ms Burke wrote to Mr Emerson after meeting the animal rights group Humane Research Australia last year.
The push for a ban on importing primates for research is gathering momentum, with a federal Labor MP, Mike Symon, last year presenting a petition with 10,300 signatures to Parliament.
Indonesia's Garuda airline said last year that it would no longer transport primates or other animals destined for use in research, toxicity testing and other experiments.
The Health Department is reviewing its policy on primate imports for research and has called for public submissions. The present policy bans research on monkeys captured in the wild.
The Environment Department, which along with the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service oversees the importation of the monkeys, said it relied on the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species' Indonesian officials to verify the accuracy of information provided in export permits.
Indonesia's Tinjil Island is the source of the pigtail macaques exported to Australia.
An Environment Department spokeswoman said the department was not aware of any Australian officials visiting Tinjil Island to assess Indonesia's claim monkeys are bred in captivity.
Presenting the petition to Parliament in November, Mr Symon said the Indonesian authority responsible for ensuring the country's obligations to the international convention on trade of endangered species were met had classified the monkeys as "born in captivity", and therefore exempt from export bans.
A report by the British Union Against Vivisection rejected the claim that island breeding could be considered captive breeding.
"True captive breeding comprises a closed environment where variables can be strictly controlled … one where monkeys are excluded from other wildlife and placed in an environment where they have no direct impact on the ecosystem," it said.
The chief executive of Humane Research Australia, Helen Marston, said Australia should aim to end the use of primates in medical research rather than import animals.
''Banning the importation of further animals should not be of any detriment to Australian research," she said.
The secretariat of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species did not respond to questions about allegations its Indonesia-based management team was failing to stop the improper export of monkeys.

NEWS - WHITNEY HOUSTON (R&B/POP SINGER) DIES AT AGE 48

Singer Whitney Houston dies at 48

 

By the CNN Wire Staff

February 12, 2012


Los Angeles (CNN) -- Legendary pop singer Whitney Houston was found dead Saturday at a Beverly Hills, California, hotel, officials said. She was 48.
The entertainer, whose incredible talent was discovered at an early age, was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. (6:55 p.m. ET) at the Beverly Hilton hotel despite resuscitation efforts, a police spokesman said.
Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent" and that the cause of her death is being investigated.
Houston's bodyguard found her body, said Courtney Barnes, publicist for hip-hop artist Ray J, who was dating the pop diva.
According to her official website, Houston sold more than 170 million albums, singles and videos. But she also struggled with addiction problems over the years.
Houston, whose hits included "The Greatest Love of All," died on the eve of the 54th annual Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. She had performed as late as Thursday night at a pre-Grammy event in the area. A pre-Grammy party was scheduled Saturday night at the Beverly Hilton.
Music producer Jimmy Jam, after conversations with those heading up to Sunday's night show, told CNN that he believes the event will change significantly -- including a tribute to the singer.
The entertainer recently returned to a movie set for "Sparkle," a remake of the 1976 hit, which was loosely based on the story of The Supremes. It is scheduled be released nationwide in August, according to Sony Pictures. It was her first movie role since 1996's "The Preacher's Wife."
News of her death elicited a flood of reaction from fans and fellow celebrities alike.
Singer Aretha Franklin said, "I just can't talk about it now. It's so stunning and unbelievable. I couldn't believe what I was reading coming across the TV screen. My heart goes out to Cissy (Houston's mother), her daughter Bobbi Kris, her family and Bobby (Brown)."
Dolly Parton, who wrote "I Will Always Love You," said, "mine is only one of the millions of hearts broken over the death of Whitney Houston. I will always be grateful and in awe of the wonderful performance she did on my song and I can truly say from the bottom of my heart, 'Whitney, I will always love you. You will be missed.'"
Another entertainment legend, Quincy Jones, said he was "absolutely heartbroken" by the news. "She was a true original and a talent beyond compare," he said.
Houston's body of work included a string of Billboard No. 1 hits in the 1980s, including "Saving All My Love for You," "How Will I Know," "The Greatest Love of All," "Where Do Broken Hearts Go," and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)."
Billboard put her soundtrack to the 1992 movie "The Bodyguard" as one of the top 10 biggest-selling albums of all time. She also starred in the film with Kevin Costner. The soundtrack included the hit,"I Will Always Love You."
Whitney Houston was born on August 9, 1963, in Newark, New Jersey.
Famed music producer Clive Davis reportedly spotted Houston 20 years later in a New York nightclub, signing her on the spot, according to her website. Davis steered Houston's career for more than 25 years, also serving as a mentor.
Just Thursday, Davis told CNN's "Piers Morgan Tonight" that, with Houston, "I saw a depth and a range and soul ... that rarely ranks at the top level. And that's why we've been working together ever since."
The singer's rendition of the national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl, days into the first Persian Gulf War, earned raves and cemented her place in the American musical landscape.
After "The Bodyguard," Houston went on to appear in several more films in the 1990s, including "Waiting to Exhale."
In 2000, Houston earned her sixth Grammy for best female R&B performance and, a month later, she was named female artist of the decade at the "Soul Train" Music Awards.
Her career stalled, however, in subsequent years as she entered rehab for addiction problems.
Houston took a hiatus for several years before releasing her first album in seven years, "I Look to You," in 2009.
"I just took a break, which sometimes you have to," said Houston. "You have to know when to slow that train down and kind of just sit back and relax for a minute."
In May 2011, Houston got help for her much-publicized struggle with drugs and alcohol, her representative said at the time.
In a 2009 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Houston recalled how her mother arrived one day at her doorstep at her daughter's house with sheriff's officers and a court order in a drug intervention. She talked about doing cocaine and smoking marijuana.
"(My mother) says, 'I have a court (injunction) here,'" Houston said. "Either you do it my way, or we're just not going to do this at all. We are both going to go on TV, and you're going to retire.'"
Houston had a high-profile and tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown, a former "New Edition" star who has had multiple brushes with the law.
The couple appeared together in the mid-2000s on the reality show "Being Bobby Brown." They had one child together, Bobbi Kristina.
Houston was the cousin of Dionne Warwick, another acclaimed performer.
Singer Lionel Richie told CNN that Houston was one of the best.
"She had that voice that could just turn a story, a melody into magical notes," Richie said.

NEWS - TINY PRIMATE 'TALKS' SECRETLY IN ULTRASOUND

Tiny primate ‘talks’ secretly in ultrasound

 

 February 12, 2012 

Philippines: One of the world’s smallest primates, the Philippine tarsier, communicates in a range of ultrasound inaudible to predator and prey alike, according to a study published on Wednesday. No bigger than a man’s hand, Tarsius syrichta can hear and emit sounds at a frequency that effectively gives it a private channel for issuing warnings or ferreting out crickets for a night time snack.   Only a handful of mammals are known to be able to send and receive vocal signals in the ultrasound range, above 20 kilohertz (kHz), including some whales, domestic cats and a few of the many species of bats.   And few of these can squeal, screech or squawk at the same sonic altitudes as the saucer-eyed tarsier, which up to now had been mistakenly described as “ordinarily silent.”   Its finely-tuned ears are capable of picking up frequencies above 90 kHz, and it can vocalise in a range around 70 kHz. By comparison, humans generally can’t hear anything above 20 kHz, and a dog whistle is pitched to between 22 and 23 kHz.   A team of scientists from the United States and the Philippines led by Marissa Ramsier of Humboldt State University gathered their inaudible results in two ways.   First they captured six of the docile nocturnal creatures and placed them inside custom-build sound chambers to test their sensitivity to high-pitched sounds. To measure the frequency of the tarsier’s ultrasound chatter, the researchers recorded another 35 specimens in the wild. “The minimum frequency of the call – 67 kHz – is the highest value of any terrestrial mammal, excluding bats and some rodents,” said the study, published in the British Royal Society’s Biology Letters.   What advantages do the tarsier’s high-end vocal acrobatics confer? There are several, they suggest. One is being able to sound a silent alarm. “Ultrasonic calls can be advantageous to both the signaller and receiver as they are potentially difficult for predators to detect and localise,” the researchers explain.   The tarsier’s exceptional hearing may also facilitate acoustic eavesdropping on noises emitted by prey, which range from crickets and cockroaches – their staple diet.   Finally, they speculates, being able to communicate in ultrasonic ranges filters out all the low-frequency “noise” of a tropical environment. Tarsier’s have five-digit hands that eerily resemble – in emaciated form – their human counterparts. Lacking the typical “night vision” of other nocturnal creatures, they also have – in relation to their body size – the largest eyes of any primate.

NEWS - RAPID URBANISATION PUTS LIVES OF MONKEYS IN DANGER

Rapid urbanisation puts lives of monkeys in danger

 

Animal rights group rescues pregnant primate beaten by residents

• By S. Narendra, Correspondent
• Published: 00:00 February 12, 2012

Mumbai: Animal rights activists rescued a pregnant monkey which was badly bruised after being beaten up by local people in a town near Mumbai. The monkey is recovering in a veterinary hospital.
However, another female Rhesus monkey died from burn injuries. The Thane Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) tried to save it after it came into contact with a high-tension electric wire.
Both animals were victims of loss of habitat through rapid urbanisation, Thane SPCA president Shakuntala Majumdar said.
The Rhesus macaque that got electrocuted fell on a high-tension wire in the industrial area of Kolshet in Thane on February 4 and got badly burnt, Majumdar said.
"Having entered the urban area, the Rhesus monkey was swaying from height to height and got electrocuted ... She was thrown down more than 70 feet. She sustained more than 70 per cent burns on her body, before she was rushed our hospital on February 4," Majumdar told Gulf News yesterday.
"What moved us most is that even after having sustained critical internal injuries as well as burns, she was never aggressive for even one day when she was dressed or treated by our doctors, while she lived. She died on Tuesday, after being in our care for three days," she said.
The second female monkey was relatively lucky. "On Monday, we received information that a female monkey was beaten up by some dwellers of a slum located on Pokharan Road-II of Thane for having entered their area. When we rushed to the spot, she could hardly move. She is in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Without losing any time we brought her to our nearby hospital.
Vision lost in one eye
"She was so badly wounded that for the first few days she was not in a position to keep her head up or open her mouth. She had lost vision in one eye and the other was swollen and closed. She had to be hand-fed pureed fruits and water through a syringe," Majumdar said.
"Today our wildlife surgeon gave us a good progress report about this monkey. Though it will be many more days before we can even think of rehabilitating her, but chances are good. Maybe by then, she will have given birth," Majumdar said.