http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/mustached-bird-lost-photographed/.
Greetings Paul, yes I was aware of the recent discovery of a male Guadalcanal Mountain Kingfisher. Sadly, before we could revel in that amazing event, the bird was killed to be used as a museum specimen. I am still trying to wrap my brain around that decision. I am still searching for something that will give me a "reason" why that decision was made or who made it, instead of setting up a captive breeding situation in the forest(apparently females have been sighted more often over the years.) I have often pondered how a person would have felt years ago, ordering a buffalo burger in a restaurant, and upon receiving their burger being told, "enjoy it, that's the last of the buffalo." Thank God for controlled, licensed hunting, but how do you justify a museum specimen with possibly the last remaining individual?? At the moment the best we have are photo's and a sound recording.
.
First photographs and sound recordings of Guadalcanal Moustached Kingfisher
In Sep 2015, the first sound recordings of Guadalcanal Moustached Kingfisher (Actenoides excelsus) were made by a team from the American Museum of Natural History, and a male was subsequently captured and photographed. The taxon is found only in remote, almost inaccessible forests on the island of Guadalcanal and was previously documented from three specimens (two females and a probable immature male), a female observed in 1994 and several birds heard in 1997. The adult male was unknown to science and remains undescribed.A. excelsus has been considered conspecific with Bougainville Moustached Kingfisher A. bougainvillei, the two being split in the HBW & BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Preliminary evidence appears to support this decision, and expedition findings should lead to better protection for this Endangered species.
Wade: Our Zoo either ended after only five episodes or they took it off the air. Did you hear about the Canadian election? A huge landslide win for Pierre Trudeau's son Justin. The official residence of the Prime Minister was his childhood home and now he's moving back there. Oh before I forget Mary Ann called me and we spoke for about an hour and a half. I hadn't heard from her in a long time. She said that she knows people who look at your blog regularly and report back to her on the content. Another thing is they just had twin panda cubs born at Toronto Zoo. I guess they are using fertility drugs and artificial insemination all the time now to maximize the yield. Thanks for the message. Take care. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeletePanda triplets were born last year at the safari I am at in China. They are still going strong, and fertility drugs were the catalyst. Crazy how the mankind will focus on an animal like the Panda, yet not have a clue about the rest of the animal kingdom. I have asked at least a thousand Chinese people, "forget Panda's for a moment. How about those Sichuan Takin(one of my favorite animals?) Not a one knew what a Takin was. Four had heard about the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey. Next year is the year of the Monkey. Maybe the beautiful blue faced buggers will get some deserved press. :)
Regards, Wade Burck
Wade: The takin is also one of my favorite animals. Maybe the Chinese call it something else and that's why they don't know what you mean. I think that the Chinese were interested in the musk ox in 1972 because they are related to the takin. Take care. Sincerely Paul PS: I thought you lived in Mexico.
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteThey do call it something different as they call everything different(example Starbucks is Seimbaco) which is why I had my Chinese translator ask. A Takin is phonically Neo seow lein. Don't mistake panda reproduction as China's concern for wildlife conservation/protection. It is just an incredible "national pride" animal, exclusive to China, that the world has fallen in love with since it's first export to foreign shores and China is riding the publicity horse to the finish line. I left Mexico a year and a half ago(and I miss it dearly) after turning the tiger act over to the show presenter, and accepted a position at Chimelong Safari in China. Wrapping up a new tiger act with 4 White tigers and 4 snow tigers(snow tigers are useless, and as I have always stated, should never have been bred) which I will be turning over to the show presenter next month. As my internet has been poor the last couple of years, the blog has suffered. I hope to get it back on track soon.
Wade Burck
Wade: I saw on Jack Hanna a while back that they are doing a lot of research on Takin in collaboration with the Chinese at the Wilds in Ohio. Thanks for the message. Take care. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteWade: Did you read in the paper about the Sumatran rhino born at the Cincinnati Zoo being shipped to Indonesia? It's a male and according to the paper was the last Sumatran rhino in the US. It's gone to a National Park to join three females. There are 100 left in the world. They also said that it is also known as the "hairy rhino". I was thinking back on the subject of the Takin that I've heard that it may have been the origin of the Golden Fleece and also that the elephant may have been the origin of the Cyclops because an elephant skull looks like a giant human skull and the nasal cavity like a giant eye socket. Take care. Sincerely Paul PS: Did you hear about the Presidents of mainland China and Taiwan meeting? I think that's fantastic. Taiwan has been offered pandas on a number of occasions. I can't recall whether they ever said yes. They declined a number of times.
ReplyDeleteWade: I was watching a documentary the other day on TV. I just caught the last 15 or 20 minutes of it. It was about circus animals I guess. The part I saw was all about the elephant which killed the trainer in Hawaii. At the end of the show the screen went black and then white letters appeared which read: "John Cuneo declined to be interviewed." I remember that day extremely well. I went to the circus in Montreal and spent part of it talking to Allen Gold and photographing the tigers close up in their cages and asking him a whole lot of questions and taking notes to help that Australian guy with his research project (a thankless task and a huge waste of time as it turned out). I think that Allen Gold only had one orange tiger and all the rest were white with nice dark stripes. I went back the next day hoping to resume our conversation about the tigers, but he was so upset about the death of the elephant trainer that he wanted to be left alone. I'm sure I have told you that Allen Gold's little children spoke to each other in German. They must be all grown up by now and graduated from university. I hope they can still speak German. They must have had the most incredible childhoods growing up with the white tigers and going to school in Germany etc. I really envy them. Allen Gold told me that he wanted to move to the Caribbean (the computer just corrected my spelling) and give scuba lessons for a living. I seem to recall that somebody in the Bahamas had a white tiger. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteThe elephant Tyke, originally Mike had a long history of "issues." In an unregulated world, folks like John Cuneo did what they wanted to with incidences like Hawaii the normal outcome. The gold tiger was Sultana whom I trained in the late 80's and delivered to Germany with a number of other tiger's as replacements for older animals. Allen's wife at the time was German(I believe she was killed in a traffic accident here in America) which is why the children spoke German. Allen was a scuba instructor for a time at a Las Vegas casino after leaving Hawthorn and I believe now runs a charter fishing boat service in Hawaii.
Wade Burck
I was watching a documentary about Louis XIV and they said that he had what was universally acknowledged as the best zoo in the world at Versailles. He had ostriches and what looked to be, from the illustration, and Indian rhinoceros. I suppose it could have been a Javan rhino from India. but that would be less likely. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteWade: I found a website which confirmed that he had a rhinoceros, but it doesn't say of what variety: Culture & Stuff Strange Meetings: The Royal Menagerie at Versailles-an Extract from Vintage Script Magazine by Culture & Stuff Published August 15, 2011. Sincerely Paul PS: I also saw a documentary about Frederick the Great and it occurred to me that he could be considered the father of Germany since he inherited a kingdom which consisted of small fragments scattered across Germany, like a landlocked archipelago, but he contributed so much toward German unification (for good or bad) Today Prussia is two thirds of Germany so all Bismarck did was add the remaining two thirds which were under the smaller local monarchies. He signed a treaty of friendship with the United States even though the King of England was his grandfather. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteWade: I'm guessing he never had a rhino. I found this written by Amandine Pequignant: "The rhinoceros of Louis XV was a gift to the king from Jean-Baptiste Chevalier, French Governor of Chardannagar in West Bengal. It left Calcutta on 22 December 1769 and arrived in the port of Lorient, Brittany six months later on 11, June 1770. From there it was transported to the royal menagerie in Versailles which had been built in response to increasing interest in zoology and Louis XIV's passion for the exotic in 1664. When the rhinoceros died in 1793, having been in captivity in France for more than 20 years, its skeleton and stuffed skin were preserved and have been held since in the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris." This is from "The Rhinoceros of Louis XV".
ReplyDeleteWade: The Indian rhinoceros was a male and today it is a 300 year old museum specimen. Louis XIV lived a long time and was became king as a child. He outlived I believe his son and grandson (I'd have to check) so Louis XV who got the rhino was not his son, but a descendant in the direct line. A grandson of his became King of Spain. He told that one to always remember that he was born French. There was something I saw when I was here checking my e-mail this morning, this news story: Cold in Blacked-out Crimea kills Rare Bengal Tiger Cub. This was at the zoo in the Black Sea resort of Yalta in Russian occupied Ukraine. Somebody blew up the power lines and they've had no electricity for two weeks (I'd go insane). The tiger in question was a white tiger, and it sure didn't look like a Bengal tiger. It must have carried a lot of Amur tiger blood. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeletePS: I meant that Frederick the Great signed a treaty of friendship with the United States and he was the grandson of the King of England, NOT Bismarck (re a previous message). Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteWade: There was also an article recently in the paper, which I saw the same day I left you the message about the rhino in the royal menagerie at Versailles, about a judge in South Africa who rendered a decision making it legal for local people to trade in rhino horn. The article stated that 80% of the world's rhinos live in South Africa and of course the horn is more valuable than gold. I probably mentioned this before. There's a book titled "Clara's Grand Tour" by Glynis Ridley. It's all about another Indian rhinoceros which was brought to Europe in 1741 by a Dutch sea captain and taken on tour. She became a favorite of heads of state including Frederick the Great. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteWade: I was watching more documentaries over the weekend. One was on this French channel Docu-D which I guess comes from France. It was about gorillas in the Congo and specifically a family group headed by a silverback named Makumba, which is being studied by a lady named Angelique Todd who sounds as though she is from England or Australia. It was titled Ma vie avec les gorilles. It's translated into French, but you can still hear what she's saying in English. http://www.canald.com/emissions/contact-animal-1.1206601?tab and also: http://www.natgeotv.com/fr/ma-vie-avec-gorilles I guess it was a National Geographic documentary translated from English of course. The gorillas were drinking from the deep footprints left by forest elephants. And get this. They were eating termites. I've never seen film of wild gorillas eating anything other than vegetable matter, but I heard somewhere (I would guess from George Schaller) that wild gorillas eat baby birds out of nests, and I remember from National Geographic that Snowflake liked cooked chicken. They showed the gorillas mating, and I think they said that Angelique has only observed this four times in I believe ten years of studying this group. Quite a few local people work for her. They said it would be a disaster for the group if Makumba were to be killed or otherwise die. They sure had a lot of baby gorillas in the group. I also saw a man interviewed recently on TVO who has just written a book about Rwanda. He was talking about the genocide, and he said that today Rwanda is one of the best governed countries in the world, although not very democratic. He said it's like Singapore. He also said that it is unique in that a majority of its members of parliament are women. I believe it was over 60%. Maybe 63%. He said that Dian Fossey saved the mountain gorilla from extinction. and that there were 200 left when she was murdered. Today there are 800. Eco-tourism pays for schools and medical clinics and they always make the people aware of the fact that the gorillas pay for all this stuff to discourage poaching. The gorillas are more valuable alive than dead. He went to see them and was warned not to appear to be interested in the females. I watched another program about springbok and mountain zebras in South Africa on TV5. Take care. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteThere was something else here I was just looking at which I wanted to show you about Angelique Todd. She's in the Central African Republic. In The Jungle With the Gorilla Whisperer http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=7498531&page=1 Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteDear Wade: I was playing around with the computer at the bookstore at the local shopping mall the other day (having far too much time on my hands it seems since Christmas and New Year's) and I came up with two interesting titles. The first is Zoo Tails by Oliver Graham Jones with a Foreward by Desmond Morris. I'm sure that I had this book when I was a child, but it was titled Zoo Doctor. Oliver Graham Jones was the veterinarian and curator of mammals at London Zoo from 1951 to 1966. There's a picture of the famous Chi Chi, who was the only the giant panda in the free world before Nixon visited China, on the cover of the edition I found, but I just saw a different cover. Anyway what are the odds he just wrote another book if his zoo career ended in 1966? It must be the same book. As I recall he operated on a puma which died during surgery and was brought back to life. I guess it died for our sins. There was also a toucan who had part of the bottom of its beak snipped off by a cagemate. They replaced it with something like a cap on a tooth which was given the correct colouration and everything although it was artificial. There was also a chimpanzee which had its thumb bitten off. The other book is Zoo Renewal: White Flight and the Animal Ghetto by Lisa Uddin. "Examining the campaign against cages, renovations at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and the San Diego Zoo and the cases of a rare female white Bengal tiger and a collection of Southern white rhinoceroses." Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteGreeting's Paul,
ReplyDeleteOften when a zoo book is republished it is done with a new more modern cover photo, and occasionally with a title change. I say "zoo books" because that is all I have or read, but it may happen with other literature as well.
Wade
The one I was looking at must have been an old picture of Chi Chi since there wouldn't be any recent ones and it was in black and white which seems appropriate for a panda. I can always recognize her in photographs I think because they used to brush her fur and I don't think any other zoo panda had its fur brushed like that. Today she is in the British Museum with Guy the gorilla. It's interesting to think that she made those trips to Moscow etc. and also spent time in the East and West Berlin zoos. I have often wondered whether Nixon ever discussed the American POWs from the Korean War who were never released. I know that Eisenhower had Nehru raise this issue with the Chinese before India and China fell out. When Nixon went to China the Korean War had only been over for 19 years. I have heard stories about other American POWs from WWII being taken from German POW camps by the Russians and shipped back to Russia and never released. I don't know whether that is true, but someone told me that a Czech general who defected told the Americans that some POWs from Vietnam were also shipped to Russia. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteDear Wade: I found a newspaper article about the Australian guy I did all that white tiger research with. "Another '80s AIDS victim passes away." The Age, Victoria, July 20, 2014. He and John F. Cuneo Jr. exchanged a lot of letters. I was thinking that Chi Chi was like an orphan of the Cold War. She was locked out of the US and bounced from zoo to zoo. She started in Peking and was earmarked for Brookfield, but nobody wanted her, at least not for $25,000. She must have been to more zoos than me. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDeleteGreetings Paul,
ReplyDeleteAs long as I have known John Cuneo Jr., he has never exchange a "lot of letter's" with anybody. By the way, he was taken to the hospital a few week's ago, after suffering, I am told a stroke. I am expecting to hear more in a few day's.
Wade
Wade: I'm very sorry to hear about Mr. Cuneo. I hope he will make a full recovery. Maybe I was mistaken about the volume of mail between that Australian person who passed away in 2014 (I just found out and was surprised), but they communicated by mail in pre-internet times and never met in person or spoke on the phone. I also communicated with Mr. Cuneo by mail and by phone, but that was years ago when I was still doing that research. If you looked at the newspaper article about the Australian guy it mentions genealogy as one of his interests, along with fossils and stamps and the history and culture of Hawaii. White tigers were a part of his interest in genealogy. He was drawing up genealogical charts for all of the white tigers in the world or attempting to. I hope Mr. Cuneo will make a speedy recovery. Take care. Sincerely Paul
ReplyDelete