Australian Marine Conservation Society

Australian Marine Conservation Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting  the biodiverse ecology of the 3 Oceans which Australia borders. 

"Australia's oceans contain the richest, most diverse life on Earth. We have the third largest marine territory (behind the United States and France), and our continent borders three mighty oceans - the Pacific, Indian and Southern Ocean.

Such global significance brings a global responsibility. We have a privilege and a duty to manage our oceans wisely and with the future in mind. Our island nation has lost so much already, but in almost 50 years since our inception, AMCS has made great gains to preserve what we have and recover what we've lost."

           - AMCS

The AMCS has many projects currently targeting practices which put Australia's marine wildlife and their habitats at risk.  These projects range from endangered/threatened species recovery, to the promotion of sustainable seafood, combating whaling / shark hunting and cleaning up pollution.

One of the more devastating human practices on our marine wildlife is shark finning. Shark finning, in short, is when shark fishers hack off the fins of a shark (the valuable bits in the international trade) and throw the rest of the living shark back into the water where they die a horrible death. The practice of shark finning allows for the fishers to carry more of the valuable product, increasing profit margins and destroying more sharks.

"Sharks are in serious trouble in every part of our ocean planet. Scientists estimate that 73-100 million sharks are killed every year, primarily for their fins. And here in Australia, from the Great Barrier Reef to our cool southern seas, we're sending shark fins overseas by the tonne, to service the shameful international trade in shark fin.

The international trade in shark fins is widely believed to be responsible for causing the decline in so many shark populations around the world. Australia is complicit in driving our global shark populations closer to extinction by our role in the international shark fin trade.

Shark fin soup is traditionally served at formal occasions in Chinese culture to symbolise both the wealth of the host and respect for their guests. With an increasingly affluent Chinese middle class, the demand for shark fin soup is driving a 5% annual increase in the shark fin trade, putting additional pressure on a range of shark species, many of which are already considered endangered.

Live shark finning, the practice of cutting the fins from live sharks and dumping the body, is illegal in all jurisdictions in Australia, thanks largely to AMCS campaigning. However, the legislation differs between various states, the Territory and the Commonwealth; in Commonwealth, NSW and Victorian waters, all sharks caught must be brought back to port (‘landed’) with their fins attached to their bodies. In Tasmanian, Western Australian, Northern Territory and Queensland waters however, fishers can cut the fins off at sea, as long as they bring back a ratio of shark fins to shark meat."

     - AMCS

Support the Australian Marine Conservation Society and help promote education about the living oceans which surround and sustain us in Australia!

http://www.marineconservation.org.au/

Enrichment Building Day!

Hey All,

A.P.P.L.E. has planned it's first ever official event! On Tuesday, May 7th we are going to be getting together on the UQ Gatton Campus for a fun afternoon of DIY dog enrichment creation. We are planning on constructing toys/puzzles for the greyhounds at the clinical studies centre on campus. We will be starting around 10:30am and going for as long as people want to stay. We will be watching some cool documentaries while we put together the in cage enrichment for the hounds. This should be a lot of fun so come out and help affect positive change for the pups that live on campus!

Here are some of the materials we are going to need to build the toys:

 o   Cereal boxes

 o   Toilet paper / paper towel rolls

 o   Milk / Juice containers (non plastic)

 o   Egg containers

 o   Cardboard

 o   Newspaper

 o   Raw Bones

 o   Pvc tubes

 o   Rope

 o   Old sheets

 o   Paper bags

If anyone has any of these things kicking around, or comes across them in the next few weeks hold on to them because they will be really valuable for our efforts to improve the lives of the greyhounds. Cheers!

- A.P.P.L.E.

Wildlife Vets International

(Painted Dog / African Wild Dog)

Wildlife Vets International is an organization working in the field of conservation medicine. As is so important in conservation, WVI helps the recovery of individual critically endangered species while also working with local human populations along side.

"Wildlife Vets International is at the forefront of wildlife and conservation medicine – capable of exerting a profoundly positive influence on attempts to ensure species survival globally.

We fund specialist wildlife veterinary surgeons to deliver on-site skills, training and field management to conservation organisations battling to save endangered wildlife worldwide.

Our multi-species expertise addresses an underdeveloped aspect of conservation at a time of increasing and urgent need as wildlife populations become increasingly vulnerable to the effects of infectious disease.

As a small but effective organisation, our work is typified by programmes such as helping resolve conflict between local people and the man-eating tigers of Bangladesh, preserving Africa’s disappearing painted dogs and rare primate rehabilitation in Nigeria.

Perhaps the most ambitious of all is WVI’s pivotal role in proposed re-introduction to the wild of the rarest big cat on earth – the Amur leopard.

We have worked successfully in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, Vietnam, Sumatra, Russia, Nigeria, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and the Seychelles, WVI has become recognised as a leader in its field. Therefore we are increasingly being asked to tackle new projects and new challenges.

WVI patrons Steve Leonard, Matt Brash and Kate Humble share our determination to establish veterinary issues as an integral and natural part of all endangered wildlife projects. Our veterinary specialists such as WVI founder, director and world renowned big cat expert, Dr John Lewis, ensure that WVI holds its own on the world conservation stage."

              - WVI

                                                                     (Amur Leopard)

Wildlife Vets International does not employ veterinarians. Instead they have a pool of vets who work very closely with the organization. The vets working directly on WVI projects are therefore volunteers, however WVI employs vets working in other areas of management within the organization. Here is the background on one of the vets who works for WVI:

"Andrew Greenwood

A few years after qualifying as a vet, Andrew formed the UK based International Zoo Veterinary Group  to provide freelance veterinary services across the world. He is an internationally recognised expert in conservation medicine, bird diseases and marine mammal care and sits on many committees as an expert. Andrew has spent many years campaigning for  improvement in the welfare of animals kept in zoos using his membership of British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the government’s Zoos Forum which produced the first zoo legislation. This subsequently became the model for European legislation. He is  actively working with  Defra and many local authorities as an inspector and advisor. Andrew has published widely in his areas of expertise.

As well as providing expertise for policy formers and to captive endangered species across the world, Andrew has been a long term veterinary advisor to conservation projects worldwide, including the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, the Seychelles flycatcher translocation project and has provided expertise and training for a number of conservation projects for island birds and reptiles where disease can be catastrophic to whole species.

Andrew is currently Secretary to WVI, plays an active part in its running and provides advice on how WVI can help the many projects we receive enquiries for."

        - WVI

(Golden Cheeked Gibbon)

I think this organization has some very exciting prospects for people aspiring to work in the field of conservation medicine. They are involved in some really interesting and critical projects around the world and being internationally supported they have the opportunities to have some very wide reaching effects. Go to their website for more information about who they are, what they are all about and what projects WVI is focussing on at the moment. 

http://www.wildlifevetsinternational.org/

First Brain Surgery on Bear

Check out this link! Brain surgery has now been performed for the first time on a bear!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/04/130411-bear-brain-surgery-laos-wildlife-trafficking/

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Founded by Gerald Durrell (an Indian born British Conservationist), the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is an amazing charity which promotes conservation in many of the most ecologically and economically threatened parts of the world. 

Gerald Durrell revolutionized how zoos are run, believing that zoos have a responsibility to global conservation efforts. He was ridiculed for his belief that zoos could be an effective tool of conservation until he finally founded his own zoo to show the world how it should be done. Now the Durrell Wildlife Park is recognized as one of the world's best zoos as well as a pioneering institution in terms of the captive breeding of critically endangered species. Find out more through the Wildlife Park's website: 

                             http://www.durrell.org/Wildlife-park/

                        
                                       (Gerald Durrell, 1925-1995)

"Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is an international charity working globally towards our mission of saving species from extinction. Committed to conserving the diversity and integrity of the life on earth, Durrell has developed a worldwide reputation for its pioneering conservation techniques.

Working with a wide range of international partners, we combine the skills of our staff at our wildlife park, in our field programmes and our conservation academy to save some of the most threatened species in the most threatened places.

Headquartered in Jersey, Durrell Conservation Academy also supports the development of future conservationists and has educated over 3300 graduates from 135 countries."

             - Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust is committed to individual species recovery as well as ecological recovery. For an example of what kind of conservation Durrell is committed to check out this link for information about their Ploughshare Tortoise conservation project.

http://www.durrell.org/Home/ploughshare//

Please check out the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. Durrell is heavily involved in building conservation strategies from the ground up, which I believe is integral for conservation strategies to be both effective and long lasting.  Durrell is a world class organization and provides wonderful educational opportunities for people from developing countries looking to affect conservation change in their home countries. 

http://www.durrell.org

Species of the Day: Giant Pacific Octopus

This beautiful and incredibly intelligent creature inhabits coastal regions of Western North America and Eastern Asia. It is one of the largest of all octopuses and is renowned (like many of the cephalopods) for it's ability to change it's body's colour and texture as a defence mechanism. The intelligence of these creatures is not very well understood however their incredible powers of shapeshifting are indicative of how much really goes on in their neuro system! More research needs to go into how intelligent cephalopods are. Their intelligence is often dismissed, largely because of how differently these organisms express their intelligence from vertebrates.

The following video highlights the octopus' ability to change it's shape. The octopus is visible from 0:08 in the video. Try and spot it! you will be amazed!!

Gorilla Doctors

Hey all,

I thought some of you might be interested in looking into this organization. The organization is called "Gorilla Doctors" and it is a group of vets who provide health care for mountain gorillas in central africa. They are doing some amazing work with not only gorillas, but also other wildlife and local human populations. Many of  these gorillas are situated in one of the most ravaged warzones in the world (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and Gorilla Doctors is attempting to help the last of the mountain gorillas to survive through the conflict and go on to thrive!

"Gorilla Doctors is dedicated to saving the mountain gorilla species one patient at a time. We are the only group providing wild mountain and Grauer's gorillas with direct, hands-on medical care. Research has proven that by intervening to save sick and injured gorillas, the Gorilla Doctors have helped the overall mountain gorilla population to increase."

To learn more check out their website:

http://gorilladoctors.org/