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Florida Bear Hunting Postponed

June 24, 2016 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Florida can enjoy a happy bear hunting free year.

The results of the public consultations convinced FWC to delay the second bear hunting that was planned in Florida. The decision was taken after several hours of deliberation.

The 2015 bear hunting was the first one to be organized in Florida in a period of two decades. The state’s conservation commission aimed to curb the growing population of large animals, which were becoming more and more daring and were threatening the locals.

However, the number of bears that were killed during the event was of 304, with more killings than necessary in two of the four regions. For example, in East Panhandle, the objective was of 40 bears and the hunters put down no more than 114 animals.

There are no less than 3,776 hunting permits released in Florida.

The last autumn killing targeted both males and females, which led to an incredible result of 21% lactating females that were killed. The Commission explained that the cubs might have reached the age of 8 months by that time of the year, and therefore they could manage to survive by themselves.

Taking into consideration the powerful reaction received from non-governmental organizations and advocacy groups, the officials decided to organize public webinars and to consult the general opinion on the matter.

The supporters of the radical measure were people frightened by a large number of animals appearing near their homes and towns. On the other hand, the mass bear killing is barbarian and can easily get out of control, just like it seems to have happened in autumn.

FWC concluded that the second bear hunting will not take place. The organization declared that their teams have prepared a new plan to address the issue of increased bear population.

The officials said that this year, all the methods that will be used to control the number of animals will be non-lethal. FWC recently employed new staff members that will specialize in bear management activities.

The agency has also financed studies on the bear population in Florida. Thus, all measures that will be taken this year will be based on scientific information and will hopefully obtain a positive result.

However, if this year’s efforts to limit the number of bears will not prove to be successful, the commission plans to hold another public vote in 2017 to determine if the second bear hunting should be re-scheduled.

During the last years, FWC trained 16,000 local respondents to handle wildlife conflicts and provided educational information to more than 50,000 people. This year’s budget dedicated to bear management actions is of $825,000, an amount that, wisely spent, may create the fundaments of a calmer human-bear relation in Florida.

Image Source: Flickr

31 migratory species get protection status by UN

November 10, 2014 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

The UN Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) at Quito stated after six days of intense negotiations and discussions between researchers and scientists that new protection laws for 31 new species have been suggested. Polar bears, whales, sharks and gazelles were among 31 new species granted new protection status by the UN conservation body

A record 21 species of shark, ray and sawfish were added to the list. The polar bear, which is found in the Arctic, and the widely distributed Cuvier’s beaked whale made the list too. The red-fronted gazelle, common in Africa and the great bustard, found in Europe and Asia are also included.

“Migratory animals have become the global flagships for many of the pressing issues of our time,” said CMS executive secretary Bradnee Chambers. “From plastic pollution in our oceans, to the effects of climate change, to poaching and over-exploitation, the threats migratory animals face will eventually affect us all.”

More than 900 experts from 120 countries met for the six-day meeting, approving all but one proposed species to be included on the protected wildlife list. The African lion did not make the list even though speculations were present that it might make the final cut but since there was not enough information from the countries where it lives so it was not on the list.

WWF Report Shows How The Last 40 Years Affected The Population Of Wildlife: Report

September 30, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

According to the recent reports of WWF (World Wide Fund), the population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles chop down by 52% within 1970 to 2010, which believes to be far faster than ever thought.

On the other hand, the report of conservation group’s Living Planet, published every 2 years, stated that, the demands of human kinds are increased by 50%, which seems more than that the nature bears, trees felled, ground water pumped, CO2 emissions increased more than the Earth can bear (Reuters).

Ken Norris (Director of Science at the Zoological Society of London) stated, “This huge damage is not foreseeable, though the outcome of the way we choose to live.”

Moreover, the report stated that we can still cope with this situation if politicians and businesses took the right actions to save nature.

International Director of WWF, General Marco Lambertini stated, “It’s quite vital that we grab the opportunity in order to develop a sustainable future where people could live and prosper in harmony with nature.”

He further stated that we can’t preserve the nature by only protecting wild places, though it’s also about conservation of the humanity’s future, indeed, our only way to survive.

The major declines were in tropical regions, especially Latin America, report results on the populations of vertebrate wildlife discovered. WWF, which believes to be a “Living Planet Index”, is relying on the trends in 10,380 populations of 3,038 mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian and fish species.

WWF told, the average 52% decline is much larger than the previously published reports, partially because these studies has based on more readily accessible information from Europe & North-America. According to the same report published 2 years back, stated the decline of 28% within 1970 to 2008.

Certainly, the worst decline was believed to be amongst the population of fresh water species, which is declined to 76% till 2010. On the other hand, marine and terrestrial decline is by 39%.

The report stated that, the major reason for the decline in populations happened due to the loss of natural habitats, exploitation due to hunting and fishing and most importantly due to climate change.

In order to measure the variation between the statistics of different countries experimental impact, the report gauged that how large an ‘ecological footprint’ each one had and how much productive land and water area, or “bio-capacity”, each country accounted for.

Furthermore the report revealed that Kuwaitis followed by Qatar and UAE had seems to be the largest ecological footprint so far, as they are consuming and wasting more resources as compared to any other nation.

The report stated, “ If everyone on this planet have the same footprint as of Kuwait & Qatar resident, then we probably need 4.8 planets and if we lived similar to an USA resident, then we need 3.9 planets.”

Some poorer countries such as India, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo also had ecological footprint that seems fine with the planet’s ability to absorb their demands.

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