theolduvaigorge:

Conservationists release manual on protecting great apes in forest concessions

“A new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) highlights the plight of great apes in the forest concessions of Central Africa and recommends actions to improve protection for gorillas and chimpanzees in these mixed-used landscapes, according to authors from the Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, IUCN, Lincoln Park Zoo and Washington University.

While most conservation efforts are focused on protecting great apes and other species in Central Africa’s protected areas, a significant area of the region’s rainforest used by gorillas and chimpanzees lies outside of these protected areas in lands designated for some form of extractive use. Extractive activities such as logging and mining and the accompanying road construction and poaching represent significant threats to great apes in the region.

The report—titled Great Apes and FSC: Implementing ‘Ape Friendly’ Practices in Central Africa’s Logging Concessions—is now available through the IUCN website. The authors include: David Morgan of Lincoln Park Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society; Crickette Sanz of Washington University in Saint Louis and Lincoln Park Zoo; David Greer of the World Wide Fund for Nature; Tim Rayden and Fiona Maisels of the Wildlife Conservation Society; and Elizabeth Williamson of the Great Ape section of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group.

“Many of the forests of Central Africa remain outside existing protected areas,” said David Morgan, the lead author of the study. “The survival of gorillas and chimpanzees in these unprotected landscapes depends on balancing the activities of logging and other forms of development with conservation” ”  (read more).

(Source: PhysOrg)

Whoooo!!!! Now if only there was implementation…

funatheism:

We are Apes. 

faunachimps:

Hey…quiet up there! 

(via thejunglenook)

anthrocentric:

Food Washing and Placer Mining in Captive Great Apes
Allritz et al, 2013 [Springer]

Abstract: Sweet potato washing and wheat placer mining in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) are among the most well known examples of local traditions in non-human animals. The functions of these behaviors and the mechanisms of acquisition and spread of these behaviors have been debated frequently. Prompted by animal caretaker reports that great apes [chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), and orangutans (Pongo abelii)] at Leipzig Zoo occasionally wash their food, we conducted a study of food washing behaviors that consisted of two parts. In the first part we assessed the current distribution of the behavior on the basis of caretaker reports. In the second (experimental) part, we provided subjects individually with a water basin and two types of food (apples and cereal) that was either clean or covered/mixed with sand. We found that subjects of all species (except gorillas) placed apples in the water before consumption, and that they did so more often when the apples were dirty than when they were clean. Several chimpanzees and orangutans also engaged in behaviors resembling wheat placer mining.

(via theolduvaigorge)

ruineshumaines:

by Irawan Subingar

(via cacajao)

laboratoryequipment:

Boycott of Vaccine Causes Measles Surge a Decade Later

More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of a vaccine scare that raised the specter of autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease.

This year, the U.K. has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/05/boycott-vaccine-causes-measles-surge-decade-later

(via theolduvaigorge)

treehugger:

Meet Earl, your solar-powered backcountry survival tablet

Sure, you can wrap your high-tech smartphone in a bombproof case, but between its high power demands and lack of ability to charge itself, and its inherent fragility, you might be working against its own design by trying to put it to a use that was never intended.

But Earl, well, Earl is different.

(via mothernaturenetwork)