Conservation is scoring through a soccer-based education programme for grade five learners whose neighbours are the big five nature and game reserves in the Eastern Cape. Girls and boys from 13 schools in and around Grahamstown are being taught to “stalk like a leopard, change direction quickly like a rhino or run like a cheetah,” says conservationist and educationist Lesley … [Read more...]
A beautiful conversation with Ian McCallum
Ian McCallum talks about our profound connection to the wilderness, and our place in it – an instinct we have tuned out. A renowned doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, wilderness guide and poet; Ian uses his insight to connect the dots between human psychology and the role our environment plays in our internal make up. “We are intimately linked to wild places, wild animals, … [Read more...]
Not enough being done to fight elephant poaching
On World Elephant Day we are reminded that poaching is a growing concern across much of Africa. Though attempts at working together to end poaching are being made, Don Pinnock argues that stockpile sales of old ivory do nothing to curb poaching and instead promote illicit trade. All over the world today people who care are celebrating and paying homage to the greatest of … [Read more...]
Marathon highlights focus on conservation in Africa
Tusk in partnership with Safaricom held the world-renowned Safaricom marathon which took place in Kenya last week. The marathon was run across one of Tusk’s flagship projects, Kenya-based wildlife sanctuary the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The event was a huge success, drawing 1,200 runners from over 35 different countries—all excited to raise funds for conservation and community … [Read more...]
Stand with the Maasai
The Tanzanian government has just announced that it plans to kick thousands of Maasai families off their lands so that wealthy tourists can use them to shoot lions and leopards. The evictions are to begin immediately. Last time Avaaz raised the alarm, the President shelved the plan. Global pressure can stop him again. Last year, when word first leaked about this plan, … [Read more...]
Traceability a major need for SA’s meat
A dairy cow’s fall in the back of a truck in the Overberg last week, puts focus yet again on the dire need in South Africa for traceability from farm to fork. Marina, an export fruit farmer from Grabouw, told Animal Voice’s Louise van der Merwe that her journey along the N2 on Wednesday last week, developed into a distressing effort to help a cow that had fallen in the truck … [Read more...]
Let your animals heal themselves
For as long as mankind has been on planet earth, we have been trying to heal ourselves when physical ailments have troubled us. Through the centuries this healing has continually evolved and changed until what it is today. Looking back it all began with the humble plant and noticing changes in our bodies when taken into the system or applied to wounds. In the last 100 years … [Read more...]
Reversing the plight of the oribi
The Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Threatened Grassland Species Programme (TGSP) has entered into an exciting partnership with the South Africa Community Action Network (SA CAN) that will assist the EWT in combating illegal hunting with dogs, especially when threatened species such as Oribi are targeted. The Oribi, a highly specialised antelope inhabiting Africa’s … [Read more...]
Save the elephants, petitions Leo
It’s a known fact that hollywood heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio, along with being an extremely talented actor is a hardcore environmentalist. Check out this message he posted on the Avaaz activist site: Across Africa, elephants are being slaughtered by poachers in record numbers - and their tusks hacked off with chainsaws - to make luxury items, statues and trinkets in Asia. … [Read more...]
Great white shark granted new protection in California
The most feared predator in the ocean received new protections on Wednesday when a California commission decided the great white shark should be studied as a potential endangered species. The Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted to advance the candidacy of the shark, which means during a one-year study review it will receive the same protections it would if it were … [Read more...]
Rhino poaching rise threatens to undo years of conservation
World Wild Fund for Nature SA (WWF-SA) CEO Morné du Plessis said on Friday the conservation organisation was concerned that the escalation in rhino poaching — from 13 in 2007 to 668 in 2012 — "threatens to undo years of successful conservation effort." Poachers seeking rhino horn to sell in East Asia, where it fetches an estimated $60,000/kg, have already killed at least … [Read more...]
Joy as migratory falcon arrives in KwaZulu-Natal
Raptor enthusiasts across the world were overjoyed and relieved to learn that a migratory female Amur Falcon Falco amurensis finally reached her wintering grounds at Newcastle in Kwa-Zulu-Natal on the 10th of January 2013 after an eventful 14 500km journey from the species’ breeding grounds in northern China and Mongolia. This bird was fitted with a satellite transmitter in … [Read more...]
Chimp to make history giving birth online
History is about to be made: nine-year-old chimpanzee Nina stands on the brink of delivering a baby at the Jane Goodall Institute South Africa Chimpanzee Eden Sanctuary in Mpumalanga while being monitored live via a special video webcam. Up until now there has never been a live broadcast of a chimpanzee birth, according to David Devo Oosthuizen, Executive Director of the … [Read more...]
