Sunday 31 May 2015

NEWSLINK: A second mountain lion crosses the 101 freeway

A male mountain lion known as P-32 became the second big cat in less than a month to cross the 101 freeway.
P-32 made the journey early morning on April 3, a few weeks after his sister, P-33, crossed the same freeway.
But unlike his sister, P-32 also ventured across Route 23. 
“Route 23 is about six lanes wide. That’s no small feat,” said National Park Service spokesperson Kate Kuykendall. “P-32 kept going and he’s currently spending some time in the Simi Hills area, north of the 101 freeway.”

NEWSLINK: Dead bobcat found along busy roadside

A disturbing discovery near a neighborhood has people wondering who would leave a bobcat for dead on the side of a busy road.
Residents passed by the big dead cat and looked on in fascination.
A Seminole County sheriff's deputy inspected the animal, which was found nestled between the sidewalk and a bike path near State Road 434 and Palm Drive in Winter Springs. The deputy said it's likely the cat was hit by a car.

NEWSLINK: Motorist hits mountain lion; troopers have to kill it

State troopers in Richmond, MO, euthanized a mountain lion Tuesday after a vehicle on Interstate 44 hit it, authorities said.

Initially, a motorist at around 4:15 a.m. CT reported possibly striking a mountain lion, said Agent Jarad Milligan of the Missouri Department of Conservation, who recovered the cat and took it to the state capital for a necropsy. But troopers sent to the scene could not find it.

"This was a big adult male and very healthy," Milligan said. "We measured it from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail and it was 6 feet 8 inches long and I'm guessing it weighed 120 to 130 pounds."

Then another report came in about two hours later.

NEWSLINK: Leopard falls into trap set up at Mulliarkurissi

A leopard that caused scare among the people of Mulliarkurissi, near Perinthalmanna, in Keezhattur panchayat fell into a trap set by the Forest officials on Friday. The four-year-old male leopard, weighing 150 kg, was trapped around 4 a.m.

The Forest authorities had set a trap on Thursday after two calves were found killed. The officers confirmed the presence of a leopard and set the trap. A huge crowd gathered at Mulliarkurissi to see the leopard. Forest officers said they faced difficulties in shifting the leopard to the Divisional Forest Office at Nilambur. The leopard was given a bath and food. Forest authorities said they would release the big cat either in the Parambikkulam or the Muthanga wildlife reserve in the night.

Thursday 28 May 2015

NEWSLINK: Natrona County woman finds mountain lion on porch

An Evansville woman found a mountain lion on her porch Monday afternoon after walking outside to investigate a loud thump.
Officials responded to the home on the 7100 block of Geary Dome Road and searched for the mountain lion but were unable to catch it, according to a report from the Natrona County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff deputies and Wyoming Game and Fish wardens checked the area and found the big cat under a bush about 50 feet from the woman’s porch. However, a man wielding a revolver spooked the cat from its hiding place when he ran toward the mountain lion and shouted, “It’s over here!”
The cat sprang from the bushes and jumped over an 8-foot fence. It was last seen running north. Deputies used binoculars to search for the mountain lion but could not find it.
A Game and Fish warden organized for a large animal trap to be placed near the house on Geary Dome Road. Road kill animals were collected to be used as bait in the trap.

NEWSLINK: North Shore cougar sightings prompt warning

B.C.’s Conservation Officer Service is warning North Vancouver residents and visitors after a series of close calls with cougars on trails.
The office has received three reports of the big cats at the base of Grouse Mountain, at the top of Mountain Highway and in the Seymour Watershed in the last week.
“It was reported that the cougar was approaching people and was, in once instance, not easily scared off,” said conservation officer Chris Doyle. ““Generally speaking, they’re elusive animals and they’re not interested in people at all so obviously it’s a concern when they do approach people because they are a predator and the concern is they would be approaching people as potential prey.”
In one other case, a mountain biker used his bike to keep a cougar at bay, while on Seymour’s trails.
Read more...

NEWSLINK: Wildlife officials find no sign of mountain lion spotted near Zane

School staff were patrolling the grounds of Zane Middle School on Monday morning, following word from the Eureka Police Department that a mountain lion had been spotted on the campus at about 3:45 p.m. Sunday.
EPD Sgt. Gary Whitmer said a neighbor of the middle school on S Street called to report a mountain lion had been seen headed south on the school’s soccer field.
Zane Principal Jan Schmidt said she received a call from the Eureka Police Department on Sunday confirming that a mountain lion had been spotted near the school. She then activated the school’s automatic dialer system to warn the parents and advise against walking on any wooded paths to the campus until the area is deemed safe by the Eureka Police Department and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

NEWSLINK:Radio collar help to study tiger behaviour in Madhya Pradesh

To better understand big cat behaviour and their movement pattern, a joint team of wildlife experts from the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun and Madhya Pradesh radio collared a male tiger at Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve in Sidhi district.
The big cat was radio-collared on Wednesday as a part of the WII's project titled 'Prey Base Assessment and Ranging Pattern of Tiger in Sanjay Tiger Reserve'.
The gadget will help the wildlife experts obtain data on big cats and also enhance their safety due to continuous monitoring.
Two more tigers would be fitted with radio collars under the project.
Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve field director Raman K told HT that Dr K Shankar and Dr Parag Nigam from WII, Dr AB Srivastava from Jabalpur and Dr Nitin Gupta, Dr Navneetan, Raj Shekhar and Himanshu from Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve were in the Sanjay Tiger Reserve from May 1 to May 7 for the project.  

Wednesday 27 May 2015

UK SIGHTINGS: Mystery surrounds big cat sighting


Sheila Foster claims she saw a brown-grey animal the size of a dog with a long tail on Moss Lane in Macclesfield.

Grandmother Sheila Foster claims she spotted the unusual animal while looking out her front window on Moss Lane at 6am on Monday.

She described a “brown-grey big cat the size of a large dog which had a long tail with a kink in it”. It was stood on a wall about 50 yards across the road.

Sheila, 72, said: “At first I thought it was a big stone then it moved. I could hardly believe my eyes.”

NEWSLINK: Panther killer wanted by state, feds

CHAD GILLIS, CGILLIS@NEWS-PRESS.COM2:14 p.m. EDT May 13, 2015

Who would be bold enough to shoot a Florida panther at the edge of a national wildlife refuge that bears the animal's name?

Federal and state investigators want to know the same thing, and they, along with animal advocacy groups, are offering a $15,000 reward for anyone who can help identify the shooter — someone who may have also shot other panthers just north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge in Collier County.

The panther was killed in March, and the death was initially reported as a road kill. Biologists later confirmed the death was the result of a gunshot, not blunt trauma associated with vehicle collisions. The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act.

Tuesday 26 May 2015

NEWSLINK: Kapata lifts ban on hunting big cats

Tourism and arts minister Jean Kapata has with immediate effect lifted the ban on hunting of lions and other big cats enforced in January 2013, but cautioned that hunting should only resume next year. 

Kapata said safari hunting was profitable and good for off-take of wildlife and could benefit the whole country if well nurtured. 

 “The main thrust to safari hunting in Zambia is the cat hunting, which involves the hunting of the lion and leopard and that suspension of the hunting in the 19 blocs greatly affected the wildlife resources as well as the livelihood of the locals in the game management,” she said in a statement issued by ZAWA public relations officer Sakabilo Kalembwe. 

Kapata said government’s move to ban the hunting of lions and other cats in 2013 had a good basis with a background of weak regulatory mechanisms. 

 “Some problems that led to the ban included declining lion populations in some areas due to over-harvesting, hunting of underage lions and depleting of the lion habitats,” she explained.  “I am lifting the ban on the following conditions; the guidelines are drafted into statutory instrument so that they become part of the wildlife law; lion hunting should only resume in the 2016-2017 hunting season and not this year.” 

Kapata said only leopard hunting would resume this 2015-2016 hunting season but with “very cautionary quotas”. 

She noted that the leopard population was and is still healthy, but that hunting of this type of cat was equally stopped because lapses in monitoring aspects, hitches which have now been rectified.  

“Government convened experts in the region to assess the status of cats in Zambia and advise on the way forward. 

Based on the advice given and fresh information from the field, ZAWA has produced documentation that describes the status of the lions in Zambia and prescribed guidelines that will be used to regulate cat hunting in Zambia,” said Kapata. 

“Some of the regulatory methods are currently being used in Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 

These have been found to be effective. We are certain as a government that the methods will be useful in the regulation of cat hunting in Zambia.”

Article here

NEWSLINK: Vietnamese man arrested in Russia with body of Siberian tiger

Posted on May 16, 2015 by Leya Musa


Russian police have raided premises in Moscow and arrested a Vietnamese citizen with the head and skin of a critically endangered Siberian tiger.

Following a search of the property they also found 59 big cat teeth and four bones. They are currently awaiting expert identification on these body parts to determine if they came from a tiger or from the critically endangered amur leopard.

If suspicions that the teeth have come from an amur leopard this would be devastating for conservation plans as less than 50 are thought to remain in the wild.

Vietnam is a major consumer country that is leading to large losses of wildlife across the world.

CITES 2016 should not be a time for discussion of a legal rhino horn trade but for the CITES community to pull together and issue an immediate trade ban against Vietnam until it is able to control the demand of illegal wildlife products and body parts of endangered wildlife in it’s borders.



NEWSLINK: Zambia begins hunting of big cats again


On Friday, Tourism and Arts Minister, Jean Kapata announced that the ban on hunting of lions and leopards is to be lifted in the country. The ban has been in place since 2013. Lion can be hunted again from next year and leopards can be hunted and killed from later this year.

The ban on lion hunting was established in Zambia when surveys showed that there could be as few as 2,500 wild lions left in the country. The number of leopards is not known as there has been no recent survey undertaken.

Kapata announced at the press conference that “I am lifting the ban on the following conditions, the guidelines are drafted into a statutory instrument so that they become part of the wildlife law. Lion hunting should only resume in the 2016/2017 hunting season and not this year.

“Leopard hunting can resume this year 2015/2016 season, but with very cautionary quotas”.

Monday 25 May 2015

NEWSLINK: Miscalculated Tiger Census Numbers

Believe it or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to count tigers.

So when India announced recently that it’s most recent tiger survey revealed that the endangered big cats had increased by a whopping 30 percent to 2,226, Ullas Karanth, one of the most revered tiger experts in the world didn’t disagree with the enthusiasm or optimism over the future of the country’s iconic cat.

But he did disagree with the numbers. And that’s not just a quibble. It’s a belief that a miscalculation over how many tigers there are, and, just as important, where exactly they live, could botch the chances for what can be a population in ascendance.

Read more...

Veteran's vision to save big cats lives on in Louisburg

Posted: Friday, May 15, 2015 1:01 am | Updated: 4:00 am, Fri May 15, 2015.


LOUISBURG, Kan. (AP) — The big cats probably no longer look for Billy Dean Pottorff.
Three years have passed since they last saw him. Some used to recognize the sound of his footsteps coming across the shaded brown dirt.

"Voodoo would raise his head and make that noise of his when he knew it was Billy," said Rebecca Shaffer, Pottorff's sister.
Voodoo is a male African spotted leopard, one of 25 big cats that live at Cedar Cove Feline Conservatory and Education Center, about 4 miles east of this town, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1KTuM3J ) reported.
Pottorff, who died of a heart attack on April 18, 2012, at age 60, started the place. He was a local boy who went off to war at 17, nearly died and brought home scars, medals and something else: witness to the decimation of jungle tigers by war and poaching.
Cedar Cove, his idea to show people how to save the world's big cats from extinction, drew only a handful of visitors at first. Last year, nearly 60,000 showed up, many on school buses, to see lions and tigers in the Kansas countryside.
Pottorff's legacy has lived on in the lives of close friends like BJ, Sarge and Too Tall - everyone got a nickname - who kept the place going and growing. Same for the volunteers, including high school students introduced to the cats on field trips.
The guy who took over for Pottorff? The one called Too Tall.
Steve Klein lived in Kansas City's River Market and worked in advertising when he took the Cedar Cove tour. He thought he knew spiel. Never had he heard anything like Pottorff's passion for big cats.
The 6-foot-7-inch Klein soon started volunteering and now is board president and lives in the small house at Cedar Cove.
"Billy made this place," he said. "When he died, my life began. Poaching and expanded agriculture is going to kill off the big cats if something's not done.
"Here, we can't save the tigers in Asia; we can't buy land for them. But we can educate kids about what needs to be done.
"That's what Billy set out to do. I'm trying to keep it going."
Shaffer, nine years younger than her brother, knew something was wrong when neighbors picked her and her sister up from school.
When they arrived home, two military cars were parked out front. It was April 26, 1970.
Pottorff's helicopter had taken fire and gone down in the Ben Tre province of Vietnam. Some crew members were dead. They didn't know what happened to Pottorff, who had been a door gunner.
"My mom was bent over a table like a weeping willow," she remembered.
Days passed before the family learned that Pottorff had been taken to a hospital in Japan. Severe burns covered more than a fourth of his body. He recovered, came home, then returned for a second tour in Vietnam.
When he came home for good in 1972, mostly he talked about the tigers. Casualties of war and greed. He heard them in the jungle. He saw their hides in the village markets. He saw their parts pickled in jars.
"He was a witness to the black market selling tiger parts, and he never forgot that," said Bettie Jean "BJ" Auch, vice president of the Cedar Cove board and a longtime friend.
After a mishmash of jobs - welder, county deputy, small engine repairman - Pottorff got the idea for his big cat conservatory.

NEWSLINK: FOUR PAWS transfers family of six tigers to a new life in South African sanctuary




International animal welfare organisation FOUR PAWS has successfully transferred a family of six Siberian tigers from its Big Cat Centre FELIDA in the Netherlands to the vast plains of it big cat sanctuary LIONSROCK, in South Africa. 
At LIONSROCK, the six tigers –  two parents and their four offspring – will have the opportunity to live a life fit for a tiger in huge enclosures under the South African sun, feeling grass under their paws, having the opportunity to run, to play and to swim in the specially built pools.
Heli Dungler, founder and president of FOUR PAWS, was there to witness the happy moment as the tigers made their first steps into their new home. “The animals arrived safely at LIONSROCK,” Dungler said. “They originally come from very bad keeping conditions. The long trip from the Netherlands to South Africa was more than worth it. Here in LIONSROCK these tigers can start a second life appropriate to their needs.”
The story of the parents, Cromwell and Juno, began in 2000 in Britain, at Dartmoor Wildlife Park, where the two tigers, along with four other tigers and two jaguars, were bred to be sold. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the sale of the animals was no longer possible, and as the animals were kept in enclosures that were no longer safe, they were moved to a shelter in the Netherlands named Pantera (later taken over by FOUR PAWS and renamed FELIDA).
For the two jaguars a new home was quickly found, and the six tigers were supposed to move to a safari park in China. Then, with the outbreak of bird flu, the animals could not be transported. Finally in 2004 four tigers were allowed to leave for China. Cromwell and Juno stayed in the Netherlands and together they had two litters, three sons and a daughter, who also lived with them in the shelter.

UK SIGHTINGS: Is there a big cat on the loose in Wales? Puma blamed for mystery lamb death

BY HYWEL TREWYN

A lamb has been killed by 'unknown predator' while a radio crew are making a documentary about big cat sightings in the area

Farmers have expressed concerns that a puma is on the loose following the discovery of a dead lamb - in WALES.

Dafydd and Pam Parry claim to have seen pumas, a type of jungle cat, in the hills around their Snowdonia home.

They have taken plaster casts of paw prints which they believe have been left by the animals and graphic photographs of sheep and badgers which they believe were killed by large cats.

Daily Post...Best foot forward: Dafydd and
Pam Parry  from Beddgelert have made plaster cats
of what  they believe to be puma footprints

Pam, of Hafod y Llyn Isaf, claims to have seen "a big black puma" with "golden eyes and a long tail, curved up" sitting on rocks watching her feeding her horses.

A BBC radio crew have now followed up the Parrys claims, for documentary The Unexplainers led by John Rutledge, also know as Eggsy from rappers Goldie Lookin' Chain.

Producer Rhys Waters told the Daily Post: "We were looking at the big cat rumours that were in the area, and the night we did a stakeout a lamb was killed by an unknown predator."

Sunday 24 May 2015

NEWSLINK: UK: Police feared for safety of spectators at big cat show

POLICE stopped a show starring the UK’s last circus big cats because of concerns about audience safety.
Lion tamer Thomas Chipperfield was due to put on a show at a former airbase in Aberdeenshire on May 4 but the local council refused to provide an entertainment licence.
It has now emerged that it was Police Scotland who objected to the granting of the licence.
Officers’ concerns included “lack of detail” about safety arrangements for the audience.
Police also believed – it appears incorrectly – that Mr Chipperfield’s licence to keep dangerous animals was due to expire shortly before the show.
Posters for ‘An Evening with Lions and Tigers’ at Crimond Airfield, Fraserburgh, appeared around Aberdeenshire in March advertising tickets for sale at £6 for adults and £4 for children.
The three tigers and two lions involved have spent the winter on a croft in Fraserburgh.
The show drew huge objections from animal rights groups, and a children’s charity which was supposed to receive part of the proceeds, withdrew its backing for that performance.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said yesterday (Fri) the force had “no option other than to object”.
She said this was “due to the short timescale and lack of detail including safety provision for spectators, timings and lay out of the event”.
The spokeswoman added: “Under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 anyone keeping dangerous wild animals can only do so under the authority of a licence granted by the relevant local authority.”
The spokeswoman said their information was that the licence was due to run out “a matter of days before the event was to take place”.
Police Scotland appear to have made a mistake in this regards as Aberdeenshire Council say the licence was valid until the “autumn”. Mr Chipperfield has provided what he says is documentary evidence that the licence is valid until December 31 this year.
But Aberdeen MSP Kevin Stewart, who has put forward a Parliamentary motion calling for a ban on wild animals in circuses, was delighted police objected to the show.
“It’s a real umbrage that Mr Chipperfield is allowed to keep big cats in cages in St Combs,” he said. “They are being kept in conditions that, I feel, are not right for animals.”
He continued: “In my opinion the Scottish Government must bring forward legislation as soon as possible to ban the use of wild animals in circuses and must stop the storage of any wild circus animals in Scotland.
“A large amount of my constituents have been in touch with me who are really upset at this.”
In the 1950s, Thomas Chipperfield’s family owned the biggest circus in Europe with more than 200 animals including elephants, polar bears, chimps and giraffes.
Now he the only circus big cats in the UK.
Thomas Chipperfield said he was “surprised” to hear that it was the police who stopped his show.
He said: “My animal welfare and safety records are impeccable. I’ve never had any incidents.”
He said there is “no contact” between the animals and the audience. “There is basically a double barrier,” he explained.
Mr Chipperfield continued: “The Dangerous Wild Animals licence is in my name and it expires at the end of the year and not the end of April.”
“In regards to Mr Stewart,” he said. “I would urge him to speak to the animal welfare experts we deal with.
“All the vets and animal welfare experts we deal with don’t have an issue with how we keep our animals.”
The lion tamer added that the people locally are “very supportive” of the show.
Event co-organiser Anthony Beckwith confirmed they are reapplying for an entertainment licence.
“We want to get it up and running as soon as possible,” he said.
He insisted the licence was turned down because of “time scale issues”.

Article here

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Could big cats be roaming the UK?

Video transcript for video looking at the scientific evidence of big cats. Presenter Ben Garrod interviews Dr Andrew Hemmings.

Read it here

NEWSLINK: Enable Big Cats to Thrive, End Extinction Fears

By The New Indian Express

Published: 13th May 2015 06:00 AM

Last Updated: 13th May 2015 12:51 AM

The latest census of India’s population of the endangered Asiatic Lion shows that their numbers are up 27 per cent from those thrown up by the previous census conducted five years back. In 2000, the Asiatic Lion was declared the most endangered large cat species in the world by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The latest census shows that India has managed to bring back the Asiatic lion from the brink of extinction through a single protected reserve. While the rise in their population is welcome, it also poses fresh challenges for managing their habitat and conflict with humans. The slow and promising growth in their numbers is satisfactory, but 50 lions still die annually due to a variety of threats. Experts suggest the big cats need to be relocated to another habitat to ensure their safety because a single sanctuary is detrimental to their safety.

However, despite the Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that some of them should be shifted to another sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh, the Gujarat government has repeatedly tried to appeal the decision and refused to transfer the lions. The rise in their population in Gir sanctuary should not be treated as an excuse to cling to its fauna, which they regard as the “pride of the state”. In the larger interest of preserving Asiatic lions, the Gujarat government must start cooperating and put everything else aside to save the lion via the translocation programme of the magnificent animal.

Friday 22 May 2015

Shot Kentucky mountain lion remains a mystery

The Courier-Journal

Shot Kentucky mountain lion remains a mystery
I filed an open records request on May 4 -- my second since the big cat was shot in Bourbon County in December -- asking for all necropsy results, ...

Thursday 21 May 2015

NEWSLINK: Fate of tiger that killed guard hangs in balance

Barely a week after Ustaad, officially known as T-24, mauled the guard, another tigress attacked two onlookers photographing its cubs in the park on Thursday.

The suspected reasons for escalating man-animal conflicts in Ranthambore National Park have left the Rajasthan government and wildlife experts divided over the fate of Ustaad, the tiger who mauled to death a forest guard in the reserve last week.

Barely a week after Ustaad, officially known as T-24, mauled the guard, another tigress attacked two onlookers photographing its cubs in the park on Thursday.

Experts say Ustaad is not a man-eater and by shifting him from Ranthambore to a zoo or a biological park, the forest department would be endangering his entire family — tigress Noor and two young cubs.

“There are two tigers at the corners of Ustaad’s territory. If he is shifted out, either of the two will move in and kill the tigress and cubs,” said Sunayan Sharma, former IFS officer. “Besides, by what logic is he being tagged as a man-eater? A man-eating tiger wouldn’t kill a person and walk away. I have never seen a tiger leave its kill behind.”

On Friday, Forest Minister Raj Kumar Rinwa told The Indian Express that a decision on Ustaad’s fate would be taken only after approval from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje once she returned from Delhi.

“We have constituted a four-member committee to look into the matter. The names have been sent to the CM for approval. These experts will study Ustaad’s behavioural patterns and the history of man-animal conflicts within Ranthambore, and submit a report,” he said.

Following last week’s attack, the forest department was quick to tag Ustaad a man-eater, blaming it for killing three other people in the past. However, outraged wildlife experts and enthusiasts forced the government to defer the “decision” of shifting the tiger out of the park.

At the centre of the state’s latest big cat controversy are two questions: Is Ranthambore, with 64 big cats battling for territory over 390 sq km, too crowded? And if so, why aren’t some of the tigers being translocated to other sparsely populated reserves like Sariska or Mukundara Hills?

Most, including Forest Minister Rinwa, feel Ranthambore is saturated and conflicts between tigers and humans, and within tigers over territory and limited prey, were likely to escalate. “The region’s thriving tourism industry has been lobbying to prevent translocation of tigers from Ranthambore. 

They do not want other reserves, primarily Sariska which is closer to Delhi, to develop as it would divert tourist traffic away from Ranthambore,” said Sharma, who is a part of Sariska foundation.
Shifting some big cats out from Ranthambore was also under consideration during the previous Congress government in the state.

Article here

NEWSLINK: Rajasthan launches inquiry into tiger attacks after activists campaign to keep 'man-eating' big cat in Ranthambhore

The stage seems to be set for a fair trial for Ranthambhore’s tiger T-24. The state government has deferred the decision to shift T-24, popularly known as Ustaad, to a zoo or a park, after strong protests by conservationists and experts.

Ustaad was allegedly the tiger that killed forest guard Rampal Saini on Friday. 

Rajasthan Minister of State for Forests Raj Kumar Rinwa told wildlife activist representatives on Wednesday night that a thorough inquiry would be set up to probe the causes that led to Friday’s incident, before taking a final decision on shifting the wild cat, tiger expert Dhirendra Godha told Mail Today.

Sunayan Sharma, who is the president of the Sariska Tiger Foundation and led a delegation of tiger activists to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje two days ago, was also present during the meeting with the minister.
Mail Today reported the demand for a fair trial on Wednesday. 

The government has decided to constitute a committee of experts to look into various aspects that led to Ustaad’s aggressive behaviour, Rinwa told Mail Today on Thursday. 

The committee would be formed after consulting Raje, who is expected to return from New Delhi on Friday, he added. 
“The reserve is the big cat’s home and it is the tiger’s birthright to live there. People must understand that it is not advisable to disturb animals in their home by going close to them,” Rinwa said. 

They termed Saini’s death as an unfortunate incident. 

A dwindling prey base in the reserve — especially Sawai Man Singh Sanctuary and Keladevi Sanctuary — on either side of the Ranthambore National Park had impacted the tiger territories. 

Tigers were not venturing outside the Ranthambore National Park, making the area densely populated. 

Experts also stressed that mining activities in the vicinity apart from the presence of villages had fuelled the man-animal conflict in the region. 

In the second incident of man-animal conflict within a week in Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve (RTR) in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, a tiger - suspected to be a female, coded T-30 - attacked and injured two villagers in the Khandar area of the reserve on Thursday morning at around 6am. 

The two injured - Satish Meena, 35, and Kuldeep Swami, 25, - were immediately taken to the Sawai Madhopur’s general hospital. 

Meena was referred to Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital in view of his critical condition due to a head injury and excessive bleeding. 

Swami said that both were walking in the forest when all of a sudden two tigers appeared before them and one of the big cats attacked them. 

Ground staff of the reserve maintained that the attacker could be the tigress, coded T-30, who was seen roaming in the area with her two cubs. 

Minister of State for Forests Raj Kumar Rinwa told Mail Today that as per briefing from the officials, the big cat was hiding behind the bushes. 

As soon as the villagers came to know about the tiger’s presence they started assembling to catch a glimpse of the animal. 

Despite a warning, the crowd swelled and the tiger emerged from behind the bushes to attack the two victims, he added.

NEWSLINK: Police feared for safety of spectators at big cat show

Friday, May 15th, 2015 | Posted by Jenny Kane

POLICE stopped a show starring the UK’s last circus big cats because of concerns about audience safety.

Lion tamer Thomas Chipperfield was due to put on a show at a former airbase in Aberdeenshire on May 4 but the local council refused to provide an entertainment licence.

It has now emerged that it was Police Scotland who objected to the granting of the licence.


The three tigers and two lions involved have spent the winter on a croft in Fraserburgh

Officers’ concerns included “lack of detail” about safety arrangements for the audience.

Police also believed – it appears incorrectly – that Mr Chipperfield’s licence to keep dangerous animals was due to expire shortly before the show.

Posters for ‘An Evening with Lions and Tigers’ at Crimond Airfield, Fraserburgh, appeared around Aberdeenshire in March advertising tickets for sale at £6 for adults and £4 for children.

Monday 18 May 2015

VIDEO: Family of six Siberian tigers find freedom in Bethlehem

A family of six tigers has been relocated from an animal shelter in the Netherlands to the Lionsrock big cat sanctuary near Bethlehem in the Free State where they can finally live a “true tiger life”.

NEWSLINK: P-22 vacates home, heads back to Griffith Park, wildlife officials say

Biologists aren’t sure exactly when the cougar known as P-22 slipped away from under Jason and Paula Archinaco’s sleek, multi-level white contemporary in Los Feliz on Tuesday. 

About 1 a.m., officials cleared the area and left P-22, who had startled the workers who came upon him in a crawl space, to find his way out. When officials returned a few hours later they could not locate the 6-year-old, 130-pound mountain lion. 

About 11:30 a.m., Jeff Sikich, a wildlife biologist with the National Park Service’s Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, reported that he had used telemetry gear to pick up a ping from P-22’s tracking collar in a remote canyon in Griffith Park, about 11/2 miles inside the park’s boundaries.

For three years, the animal has ranged the park. Surveillance camera video and data from P-22’s GPS tracking collar show that the Los Feliz neighborhood has also been a regular hangout. Lt. Marty Wall of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife speculated that P-22 might have been regularly using the crawl space of the house, which has frequently been vacant. 

Wall said Tuesday that P-22 showed no signs of aggression when officials tried for hours to coax him out from under the house by launching beanbags and tennis balls at him and poking him with a stick — practices known as hazing.

He did not hiss or growl but “just moved from side to side,” Wall said.

Wall had brought equipment to shoot the lion with a tranquilizing dart, but could not see beyond the lion’s eyes, forehead and ears.

“We need a haunch or a shoulder,” said Janice Mackey, an agency spokeswoman.

On Tuesday, after confirming P-22’s departure, the Archinacos blocked the crawl space to prevent his return. 

Yangzom Brauen, a Swiss actress and activist, said that normally she is not frightened by the wild animals that roam her neighborhood’s narrow streets and undeveloped hillsides.

“We live here in a natural park so we live with the animals,” she said. “We are in their territory.”

She slept with her sliding door closed Monday night, however, after learning that the fully grown mountain lion had holed up nearby.

One animal-rescue activist questioned the decision by wildlife officials not to leave a warden posted nearby overnight.

“I am surprised that no law enforcement was assigned to watch for the animal leaving, to protect it from people,” said Rebecca Dmytryk, president and chief executive of the nonprofit Wildlife Emergency Services in Moss Landing, Calif. Dmytryk said she would have stationed a warden with night-vision goggles in a truck to confirm P-22’s departure.

Mackey defended her agency’s protocol. 

Since 1986, she said, there have been 14 verified mountain lion attacks on people in California, three of them fatal. 

“Lion attacks are rare,” she said. P-22 “wasn’t a lion that was threatening people.... If we can get a lion to return to his habitat on his own, we always strive for that.”

Occasionally, a nonaggressive mountain lion wanders into the wrong place at the wrong time. In March, a healthy young male found outside a Macy’s at a Riverside County mall died after a game warden shot it with a tranquilizer dart.

In December, Sikich successfully tranquilized and collared P-34, a young female mountain lion that residents of a Ventura County mobile home park saw under a trailer. She was returned to the wild.

Most mountain lions remain elusive and out of sight, Sikich noted. But “they are wild and unpredictable animals,” he added.

If anyone has reason to question the wisdom of letting a mountain lion roam through what has become human habitat, it would be Anne Hjelle of Mission Viejo.

On a sunny winter afternoon in January 2004, Hjelle and a friend headed out for a mountain bike ride in Orange County’s Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Barreling down a narrow dirt path, Hjelle saw a blur leaping from the brush. The mountain lion, she said later, hit her “like a train.”

The cougar tore at the left side of her face and sank its teeth repeatedly into her neck. Alerted by the screams of her and her friend, other cyclists pelted the cat with rocks until it ran away. Hours earlier, the same lion fatally mauled a male mountain biker. Authorities tracked and killed the lion.

Hjelle, 42, had six reconstructive surgeries and remains scarred. Yet she is remarkably charitable toward cougars.

“They come with the territory, so to speak,” she said Tuesday.


Article here

NEWSLINK: Mountain Lion Sightings Saturday In Portola Valley, Ladera

Two separate mountain lion sightings were reported in the Portola Valley and Ladera areas this weekend, according to San Mateo County law enforcement. The carcass of a deer, possibly killed by a mountain lion, was also located Friday in the same region. On Saturday, a mountain lion was seen in the vicinity of 700 to 900 block of Westridge Drive in Portola Valley, officials said.
And late Saturday around 11 p.m. in unincorporated San Mateo County west of Interstate Highway 280, county emergency services officials report a big cat was seen in the area of Mimosa Way and Morro Vista Lane in the community of Ladera.
On Friday, a deer carcass suspected of being the work of a mountain lion, was found in a Portola Valley home’s driveway, and a jogger advisory was issued. People are advised to not approach a mountain lion, especially one feeding or in the company of their offspring, according to emergency services officials.
Anyone who plans to hike or jog should avoid going outdoors during dawn, dusk and night hours when mountain lions are most active, emergency services officials said.
Those who encounter a mountain lion should not run but instead face the animal, make noise, throw rocks or other objects and appear larger by waving their arms, according to county emergency officials.

NEWSLINK: Panther killer wanted by state, feds

CHAD GILLIS, CGILLIS@NEWS-PRESS.COM2:14 p.m. EDT May 13, 2015

Who would be bold enough to shoot a Florida panther at the edge of a national wildlife refuge that bears the animal's name?

Federal and state investigators want to know the same thing, and they, along with animal advocacy groups, are offering a $15,000 reward for anyone who can help identify the shooter — someone who may have also shot other panthers just north of the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge in Collier County.

The panther was killed in March, and the death was initially reported as a road kill. Biologists later confirmed the death was the result of a gunshot, not blunt trauma associated with vehicle collisions. The investigation is being conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency charged with enforcing the Endangered Species Act.