American Airlines Cargo announced that it had joined United for Wildlife, a group dedicated to ending the illegal trafficking of wildlife, as first reported in the airline’s 2022 Sustainability Report. American signed the Buckingham Palace Declaration in December 2022, making it the first U.S. airline and U.S. cargo carrier to join the organization.

United for Wildlife was founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2014 to protect endangered species from illegal trade. As a member of the Transport Taskforce and the North American Chapter, American plays a vital role in stopping the illegal trafficking of wildlife by preventing these products from being transported across borders.

Together with other players along the supply chain and regional partners from various sectors, American Airlines Cargo is part of a critical network of stakeholders trained to recognize patterns of illegal wildlife trade where it is most prevalent.

“We are proud to be the first U.S. cargo carrier to join United for Wildlife. We take our membership in the Transport Taskforce very seriously and are committed to doing our part to put an end to wildlife smuggling within the supply chain,” said Cargo President Greg Schwendinger. “It’s a privilege to link up with other industries and logistics players to fight for this mission together.”

Ian Cruickshank, United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce Manager, said: “Airlines can play a vital role in disrupting the supply chains of international criminal syndicates trafficking in vulnerable and endangered species. No country is immune from these crimes – between 2009 and 2021; there were an average of seven wildlife seizures a day at US airports. We’re thrilled to welcome American Airlines on board as our first U.S. airline partner and look forward to working together into the future to drive down this exploitation.”

The criminal wildlife trafficking trade is estimated to be worth up to $20 billion annually as poachers and traffickers illegally trade wildlife and wildlife products, such as monkeys, rhino horn, ivory, pangolin scales or tiger parts, among many others. This illegal trade is a major threat to global biodiversity and human health and is linked to many other criminal acts.

Source: Metro Airport News

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Wildlife officials were trying to capture a wayward sea otter Thursday that has been wrestling surfboards away from surfers and aggressively approaching kayakers off the coast of Santa Cruz, California.

The 5-year-old female otter has shown aggression toward people for several weeks and poses a public safety risk, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement.

Video and photographs shared on social media show the marine mammal getting on top of different surfboards — on at least one occasion biting and tearing chunks off a board — and aggressively approaching surfers.

A team of wildlife experts with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the nearby Monterey Bay Aquarium were working to capture and put the animal in a new home, the service said.

“While there have been no confirmed reports of injury, due to the highly unusual behavior of this otter, kayakers, surfers, and others recreating in the area should not approach the otter or encourage the otter’s interactions,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said.

Federal wildlife officials said the otter’s behavior is highly unusual and the exact cause for such behavior is unknown.

“Aggressive behavior in female southern sea otters may be associated with hormonal surges or due to being fed by humans,” federal officials said.

The animal, which wildlife officials named sea otter 841, was born in captivity and released into the wild in June 2020. She is tagged with her number and has a radio transmitter that officials are monitoring to find and capture her, wildlife officials said.

They said it is not the first time the otter has shown aggressiveness toward humans. The sea otter was observed approaching people in late 2021. Last May, she was spotted with a pup in the Santa Cruz area and four months later exhibited similar aggressive behavior.

In September, a team of California wildlife officials and Monterey Bay Aquarium staff hazed sea otter 841 by yelling loudly at her and using a paddle to beat the water in an effort to create a negative association with people, said Kevin Connor, a spokesperson with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“Ultimately, that effort was not successful and as we can see, the interactions with people continued and escalated and now we’ve got an otter 841 that is very bold,” Connor said.

“We need the animal to listen to its natural survival instinct and have a healthy fear of people so it won’t approach them,” he added.

Connor said that once captured, the otter will be evaluated by aquarium vets and be given a new home in a zoo or an aquarium where she can be “an ambassador for her species.”

If she harms a person, wildlife officials would have to consider euthanizing the animal, he said.

Southern sea otters, whose population dwindled to about 50 in 1938, are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They are listed as federally threatened under the Endangered Species Act and are protected under the Marine Mammal Act and California state law.

Now with a population of about 3,000, sea otters play a fundamental role in maintaining healthy coastal ecosystems by preying on sea urchins that can multiply and chomp their way through the kelp forests they share, Connor said.

Source: Fox News

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The Cape May County Park & Zoo in Cape May Court House, New Jersey, announced this week that they had added a South American bear to the community.

What Is a Spectacled Bear From the Andes?

“Meet Billie Jean,” the zoo wrote on Facebook Wednesday. “She is an Andean bear, also known as a spectacled bear. This is South America’s only bear species, native to the Andes and surrounding mountain ranges. They are solitary, preferring to live alone outside of breeding season.”

The zoo had this to say about the bear species:

“Spectacled bears grow 5 to 6 feet long and stand 2 to 3 feet at the shoulder. Males grow up to 30% larger than females and weigh up to 340 lbs. Females rarely grow heavier than 180 lbs. They eat fruits and bromeliads along with berries, grasses, bulbs, cactus flowers, and small animals such as rodents, rabbits, and birds.”

Jersey Shore Retirement for ‘Billie Jean’

Billie Jean might look like a cub, but she’s actually 17 years old — and a mother — and came to South Jersey from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., the Cape May zoo said.

Most spectacle bears live just over 20 years old, according to the World Wildlife Fund. So, it looks like Billie Jean will be spending her golden years at the Jersey Shore.

“Spectacled Bear populations in the wild are threatened and declining. ‘Billie Jean’ has been an important member of the AZA Species Survival Plan through the years,” Dr. Alexander Ernst, Associate Veterinarian at the Cape May County Zoo said. “She has successfully raised many cubs that, one day, may be important for the survival of this species in the wild. But her reproductive years are now behind her and she came to Cape May County to retire with us.”

Where Can You See Billie Jean the Bear?

The Cape May zoo is open daily from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Visitors can find Billie Jean in the bear habitat of the South American section of the zoo.

“Make sure to stop by and welcome her,” the zoo said.

Source : 10 Philadelphia

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Experts say a sea star wasting disease epidemic that began in 2013 has decimated about 95% of the population from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, The Astorian reported.

The decline triggered the International Union for Conservation of Nature to classify the species as critically endangered in 2020. A petition to list the species under the federal Endangered Species Act was filed in 2021.

Steven Rumrill, shellfish program leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said in his more than 40 years as a marine scientist, he hasn’t seen a widespread decline of a species on the same scale as the sunflower sea star.

The sea stars, which are among the largest in the world and can span more than 3 feet (91 centimeters), are predators to the kelp-eating sea urchin, sea urchin populations have exploded, causing a troubling decline in kelp forests that provide food and shelter to many aquatic species along the West Coast.

Rumrill contributed to a recently published roadmap to recovery for the sea star as a guide for scientists and conservationists.

Source: Associated Press News

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The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has a new book out to help teachers.

The commission’s Education Division recently released a free book to help teachers show students just how important local wildlife and the natural resources are for North Carolina.

“Educators often want students to know about the wildlife and habitats that live around them but seem to have more access to resources on the tropical rain forest and African savannah than North Carolina,” said Tanya Poole, special initiatives coordinator with the Wildlife Commission. “Place-based education is critical to supporting students who will one day make decisions that impact local wildlife and natural resources.”

Officials said the book looks at the three different geographical areas of our state and “highlights the three to four ecosystems within each region.”

Officials shared that the book can be used across all grade levels from elementary to high school.

Source: My Fox8

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