Dogs already assist conservationists, researchers, and law enforcement officers sniff out wildlife contraband and detect the scat of various species of animals for noninvasive research.

Dogs can be trained to detect scat from all types of animals such as bears, cougars, and even cetaceans. Furthermore, their abilities aren’t limited to faunal detection, since dogs have even been trained to identify certain species of noxious weed as well. According to Working Dogs for Conservation Foundation:

Examples of non-invasive sampling methods include photographic traps, hair snag stations, and fecal (scat) collection. In particular, scat samples can provide a wealth of information such as a species’ presence, relative abundance, food habits, parasite loads, habitat use and home range size. Furthermore, analyses of endocrine extracted from scats can determine the sex and reproductive status of individuals, and analyses of the DNA contained in scat can verify species and sex, and potentially determine population size, home range, paternity, and kinship.

Currently, the talents of our canine companions are being used to detect the last remaining tigers in Cambodia. From the Jakarta Globe, Indonesia:

A dog trained to sniff for tiger droppings will help conservationists determine if the big cats still roam one of Cambodia’s largest nature reserves.

Starting next week, Maggie, a German wirehaired pointer, will begin scouring the undergrowth and sniffing for tiger scent on trees at the 3,000 square kilometer Seima Biodiversity Conservation Area in northeastern Cambodia.

The unorthodox move to employ a dog trained in Russia to search for signs of tigers comes after camera traps and field surveys failed to find the big cats last year. The last sign of a tiger was in 2007, when a paw print was spotted in the park.

“We think this is the best method when we have a large area and not that many tigers,’’ said Hannah O’Kelly, a wildlife monitoring adviser for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, which along with the wild cat conservation group Panthera is spending about $30,000 to bring Maggie and a second dog from Russia to Seima later this year.

Hiring the two dogs is part of a $10 million, 10–year initiative by WCS and Panthera, also based in New York, called “Tigers Forever.’’ It aims to increase the numbers of tigers by 50 percent in Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Russian Far East and Thailand through a range of measures that include better monitoring, assessments of threats and efforts to minimize the dangers facing the big cats.

The campaign was launched in 2006 to combat a dwindling tiger population in Asia.

Across the continent, the number of tigers has plummeted to as few as 5,000 tigers from a high of 100,000 a century ago due to poaching, habitat loss and other threats. It is unclear how many tigers remain in Cambodia.

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Environmental News Picks presents a summary of news regarding the environment, conservation, science, politics, and other interesting subject matter. The Conservation Report does not endorse any content found in these news picks, but the information is provided to put readers on notice of the various different beliefs and viewpoints. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are very much welcomed. Send your news tips and picks: .

AGRICULTURE: Free-Range Chicken More Disease-Prone?, Google Maps Car Hits a Deer, Records Entire Ordeal on Google Maps

ANIMAL WELFARE: At age 140, lobster to regain freedom, VIDEO: Bat Orphans Babied, Bottle-Fed, Ottawa boy’s invisible invention warns birds about deadly windows

ART: JR Finishes His Most Ambitious Project Yet In The Slums In Kibera, Kenya

BAILOUT: Tracking the $700 Billion Bailout

BIOMIMICRY: Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots, Squid Teeth Inspire Handy Material

BUSHMEAT: Appetite for frogs’ legs harming wild populations

CARBON: Revealed: How The Times Got Confused About Google and The Tea Kettle

CLIMATE CHANGE: China dams reveal flaws in climate-change weapon, Global Warming: Tree Deaths Have Doubled Across The Western U.S.

COAL: Coal plant scrubber’s opponent: Ignore law, Coal Companies Spend Staggering Revenue on Advertising, Not Cleaner Technology or Safety, Giant Toxic Coal Ash Spill Threatens Animals

CORAL REEFS: Growing Taste for Reef Fish Sends Their Numbers Sinking

DEFORESTATION: California scouts logged in sensitive areas: Executives of the Boy Scouts of America in California have repeatedly conducted commercial logging on scout lands in environmentally sensitive areas, sometimes drawing sharp criticism from regulators and environmentalists.

DROUGHT: Snow study shows California faces historic drought

ELECTRIC CAR: Vehicle To Grid: Your Electric Car As A Backup Power Source, Electric car project to create 70 jobs, Newark goes electric with grant for cars

ENDANGERED SPECIES: Rare Hispaniolan solenodon caught on film, VIDEO: Venomous “Giant Shrew” Caught on Film

ENERGY: More Computing, Less Power, Energy-guzzling plasma TVs will be banned in Brussels eco blitz

ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICKS: Environmental Issues Slide in Poll of Public’s Concerns

ETHANOL: Cellulosic Ethanol May Benefit Human Health And Help Slow Climate Change

EVOLUTION: Bird Song Discoveries May Lead To Refinement Of Darwinian Theory, Pregnant fossil shows how early whales evolved, Early Whales Gave Birth on Land, Fossils Reveal, Fruit Flies Put Evolution in Reverse, Oldest Shark Braincase Shakes Up Vertebrate Evolution, Fastest Evolving Birds Uncovered, How Do Species Evolve?

FINANCIAL CRISIS: Fight building over judges redoing mortgages

FISHERIES: Fisheries regulators plea with federal judge to reconsider his suspension of stringent commercial fishing regulations: Federal regulators ask judge to reconsider ruling against stringent directives

FORESTS: New Jungles Prompt a Debate on Rain Forests, Planting Trees Saves Cash, Research Confirms, Warming Doubles Tree Deaths in Western U.S., DR Congo cancels timber contracts: The Democratic Republic of Congo government has cancelled nearly 60% of timber contracts in the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest.: It follows a six-month review of 156 logging deals aimed at stamping out corruption in the sector and enforcing legal and environmental standards.

FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS: Obama moves to tighten fuel efficiency & emissions standards

GEORGE W. BUSH: 11 Eleventh-Hour Bush Environmental Rule Changes

GLACIAL MELTING: Many glaciers will disappear by middle of century and add to rising sea levels, expert warns

GREEN: Design Contest Announced: Green Patriot Posters, Human Hair: The Next Green Fertilizer?, Europe’s Grass-Lined Green Railways = Good Urban Design

INVASIVE SPECIES: Effort to Remove Species Creates More Problems

LITHIUM: In Bolivia, a Tight Grip on the Next Big Resource

MARINE MAMMALS: Stranded whale euthanized on remote N.C. beach, Wannamaker: Navy wrongs right whales, Is Changing Climate Keeping Whales In the Gulf of Maine?, Right Whale, Newborn Spotted Off Daytona Beach, VIDEO: 50 Sperm Whales Beached

MOUNTAIN GORILLAS: Congo Warlord’s Arrest Puts Gorillas’ Future in Turmoil

NATURE: Bizarre Creatures, Owl Cam: Still waiting for Mama Owl!, Three Strange Fish, One Species

NEW SPECIES: Newly discovered catfish species climbs rocks: Fish’s pelvic fin decouples from body and moves backward and forward, Brilliant New Frog, Salamander Species Found

OBAMA: Run DC

OCEANS: Time to dive into Google Ocean?

OIL: Map Reveals a Web of Oil Imports: A new interactive map unveils the details of an oil addiction.

PAPER: Are Paperless Receipts the Future in Retail?

PHENOMENA: Ice one! Walker discovers 10ft-wide, spinning frozen arctic circle in British waters for the first time

PHEV: Texas Governor Proposes $5k/Volt Tax Credit‏

POLLUTION: Reducing Pollution Extends Life Expectancy, Researchers find traces of mercury in high-fructose corn syrup: A swig of soda or bite of a candy bar might be sweet, but a new study suggests that food made with corn syrup also could be delivering tiny doses of toxic mercury., World’s highest drug levels entering India stream: When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

POPULATION GROWTH: Mother of octuplets not getting a lot of support, AP reports

RECYCLING: How can I reuse or recycle metal tubing?, Drop Off Otherwise Un-Recyclable #5 Plastic at Whole Foods: Preserve’s new ‘Gimme 5′ program makes recycling #5s possible and convenient., Incredible Hotel Made From Salvaged Wine Casks, PET Project: Coke’s Big Recycling Plant

REDISCOVERED SPECIES: Life After Death – some species thought to be extinct are being rediscovered

RENEWABLE ENERGY: White House Solar Panels: What Ever Happened To Carter’s Solar Thermal Water Heater? (VIDEO), First Time Ever: Renewable Energy Accounts for Largest Share of Annual Increase in US Electrical Capacity

SCIENCE: Liquid Wood Is Plastic of Tomorrow, Say Scientists: Plastic was one of the great innovations of the 20th century, but German scientists believe a new invention, liquid wood, could soon supplant the chemical in terms of everyday usefulness.

SEA LEVEL RISE: Sea levels rising at nearly double previous estimates due to global warming

SLOW PYROLYSIS: Pyrolysis, SynGass, Carbon Sequestration and BioChar

SOLAR: Solar-Powered Data Center’s Green Inaugural Ball, So what ever happened to the panels? It turns out that during President Reagan’s administration the solar hot water panels were removed from the White House in 1986 and placed in storage. In 1992, Unity College located the panels and transferred them from a General Services Administration warehouse to their campus in Maine. After restoration,16 panels provided their cafeteria with hot water for the next 12 years. In cooperation with Unity College, Google was able to bring one of these panels down to our Washington DC office for display throughout the next year.

SPACE: Fermi’s Paradox (i.e. Where are They?)

SURVIVAL: Pair Found Adrift in Icebox Credit Survival to Bird Spat

TERRITORIAL CLAIMS IN THE ARCTIC: Smaller And Smaller

TRANSPORTATION: The Largest Container Ship In The World. Truly Amazing…

VACATION: Isle Royale National Park

WASTE: As the economy slumps, so does trash, The Trash Was Historic, Too: Workers Pull an All-Nighter to Clear Spectators’ Detritus

WATER: Top 11 compounds in US drinking water

WETLANDS: Tropical Wetlands Sequester 80% More Carbon than Temperate Wetlands

WHALING: Iceland Pressed by Pro-Whaling Groups, The Cove: Sundance Film Exposes Japanese Dolphin Slaughter in Grisly Footage: 23,000 Dolphins are slaughtered each year in a hidden cove in Taiji, Japan. The Japanese government covers it up. No one could get in.

WILDLIFE CONTRABAND: Smuggler Caught With Heads of 353 African Gray Parrots: A new trade in parrot heads and tail feathers is adding to the pressure on the world’s wild population of African Grey Parrots, which is confined to the tropical forest area of West and Central Africa.

WIND POWER: Cape Cod Offshore Wind Farm Cleared for Take Off, Home Wind Turbines Prove Less Effective, Mexico fires up $550 million wind farm

ZOONOTIC DISEASES: Ebola may have passed from a pig to a human

“Environmental News Picks” are made possible with help from Kevin.

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IMAGE shows some of the 900 oven-ready owls that were seized with thousands of monitor lizards.  The image was photograph by Chris Shepherd/TRAFFIC

BREAK

According to TRAFFIC, “Over 7,000 live Clouded Monitor Lizards and almost 900 dead owls plus other protected wildlife species have been seized in two raids in Peninsular Malaysia.” The trade in bushmeat on such a large scale presents a significant setback for conservation efforts, and this particular seizure seems to be especially damaging because of the organization taken to prepare the meat and the numbers of species taken. Certainly, large-scale consumption of wildlife anywhere isn’t sustainable, since Nature can’t keep up with the insatiable demand for bushmeat that is emanating from countries such as China. Some of the species CITES listed appendix 1

Bushmeat, in addition to other wildlife contraband, and trafficking problems are the result of a lack of education, information, and knowledge regarding conservation and environmental problems. Other issues such as poverty and war fuel the bushmeat trade too.

The spread of zoonotic diseases through the consumption of bushmeat is a major problem, and diseases such as HIV and the Ebola virus are thought to have spread due to the consumption of bushmeat in addition to urbanization.

Organizations such as TRAFFIC are working hard to gather information and stop the trade in illegal bushmeat. Donate to TRAFFIC here, and read more about the latest seizures here. From TRAFFIC:

On 4 November, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (Perhilitan) staff raided a house in Muar, in the state of Johor, and found in a freezer and storage room 796 Barn, 95 Spotted Wood, 14 Buffy Fish, 8 Barred Eagle and 4 Brown Wood Owls, 2 Crested Serpent Eagles, 51 live Clouded Monitor Lizards, 4 live juvenile Wild Pigs, plus parts of one or more Wild Pig, Malayan Porcupine, Reticulated Python, Malayan Pangolin, Sun Bear and Greater Mouse Deer.

A local man was arrested and remanded in custody for three days, but pleaded not guilty and was released on bail of MYR19,000 (USD5,300).

Information obtained during the raid led to a second raid on a storage facility in Segamat, Johor, on 7 November 2008, when 7,093 live Clouded Monitor Lizards were seized, but no arrests made.

“The number of owls and monitor lizards seized is truly staggering,” said Chris R. Shepherd, Senior Programme Officer for TRAFFIC’s Southeast Asia office.

“This is the first time we know of where ‘ready-prepared’ owls have been seized in Malaysia, and it may mark the start of a new trend in wild meat from the region. We will be monitoring developments closely.”

All the animals seized are believed to have originated in Malaysia and were probably bound for China, to be sold in wild meat restaurants.

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EBay.com has undoubtedly been a revolutionary website. It has provided a successful platform for sellers to offer their goods and sometimes services to a worldwide audience of potential buyers. As a result, the company has allowed people to make substantial sums of money selling new or used goods. However, an unintended consequence of the eBay phenomenon has been the exchange of illegal goods, such as wildlife contraband, for money—the most famous being ivory. Previously, eBay banned cross-boarder sales of ivory; however, the ban isn’t working, because illegal goods will travel illegally across boarders and will be sold “legally” within a country’s boarders. As a result, except for some antiques containing small quantities of ivory, eBay Inc. will ban all ivory sales from eBay.com. From PC World:

The company has heard calls for the change since at least 2002, when the Humane Society publicized an investigation finding thousands of illegal ivory items on the site on any given day. The complication comes from the fact that ivory trading laws vary from nation to nation. International trade is prohibited by a United Nations convention, however, and eBay had already banned cross-border ivory sales in a ruling last year. eBay now says that ban was not enough.

“This ban tried to balance the protection of endangered and protected species while also providing a way for sellers to offer legitimate ivory products legally allowed for sale within domestic markets,” says eBay blogger Richard Brewer-Hay. “Given the complexities of the global ivory trade, and the distinct and unique characteristics of the eBay Marketplace, the sale of any ivory on our site continued to be a concern within the company and among stakeholders,” he adds.

The New Policy

The new policy goes into effect in December and will be enforced beginning in January. eBay will continue to allow antiques that contain only small amounts of ivory on the site, specifying that only items made before 1900 will qualify. Anyone violating the ban, execs promise, can expect to pay the price.

“We work closely with international and domestic law enforcement authorities … and will assist them with any investigations they initiate,” Christin says.

On the Net:

1. Un-Netting Trade in Endangered Species: eBay Vows Crackdown on Illegal Ivory Sales: Animal rights activists charge the online site has failed to stop Internet sales of endangered animal parts
2. eBay To Ban One of Its Fastest Growing Businesses: Ivory Sales (EBAY)
3. eBay To Institute Global Ban on Ivory Sales

A single great one-horned rhinoceros or Rhinoceros unicornis may not sound like too much to become upset over but the potential biological removal (PBR) level for the species is probably zero or only a few animals because the endangered status of the population cannot sustain poaching or Asia’s demand for traditional medicine. Other factors are considered when determining the PBR level of a population such as birth rates. For example, English Sparrows which are prolific in North America can sustain the loss of more individuals than North Atlantic Right Whales can because English Sparrows adapt better to human influences, produce more young each year and reach maturity quickly. North Atlantic Right Whales have a PBR of zero. Large mammals take longer to reach maturity and have lower production rates.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association or NOAA uses PBR estimates to help manage stocks of marine mammals and sea turtles. NOAA defines PBR as the “maximum number of animals, not including natural mortalities, that may be removed…while allowing [the population] to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population.” NOAA manages marine mammals, sea turtles and commercially important fish by stocks or sub-populations and uses data from statistical areas to manage these stocks. To my knowledge PBR estimates are not used to manage land mammals but I use NOAA’s concept of PBR estimates to illustrate the importance of how critically endangered species cannot sustain anthropogenic pressures such as poaching. In addition, according to WWF only 2,000 great one-horned rhinoceros remain. From the Times of India, India:

“The incident took place at about 6.15 am. We suspect that poachers might be holed up inside the park. We have sealed the park and are trying to track the culprits,” he said.

Eyewitnesses said the rhino’s body was lying by the beel (water hole) close to the national highway. The animal had received two fatal hits in his neck. The horn was missing when the people and forest authorities reached the spot.

Poachers have killed 527 rhinos in the state from 1981 to 2001. According to the forest department, 18 rhinos were killed in 2007.

Rhinos are killed for their horns, which are purported to have aphrodisiac properties and also end up as ornamental dagger handles. Rhino horns can sell at an estimated $ 35,000 per kg in the Far East.

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Ignorance or mistake of law is no excuse for committing a crime (except in very limited cases, such as when the law is not published, or the law is unconstitutional for other reasons). If mistake of law were allowed as a defense, then imagine the consequences of a criminal mind claiming an “inability to grasp . . . highly technical regulations.” Imagine how many speeding tickets would be dismissed if ignorance or mistake of law were used as a successful defense in the United States. Surely, we would all have cheaper car insurance. As a result, mistake of law is not a defense, but mistake of fact is a defense. From Yahoo! News:

Her client’s only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.

Defense papers also argue that the U.S. demand for the meat involved in the Manneh case — from Africa’s green monkey population — is “too small to have any significance for conservation.”

Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.

At age 7, “I was baptized and they used that for the baptizing ceremony,” she told a judge.

Manneh is already serving a two-year sentence in state prison for trying to run over a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband, Zanger Jefferson. If convicted of the federal charges she faces up to five more years in prison and deportation.

On the Net: Bushmeat Project
On the Net: Bushmeat Crisis Task Force
On the Net: FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE UTILIZATION OF WILD MEAT IN EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA

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Certainly, if drugs corrupt and paralyze governments then poor governing will translate into environmental degradation. Shame on the “animal rights activists”, “environmentalists”, “vegans” or anyone who cites an environmental or social cause but uses illegal drugs because that behavior translates into über-hypocricy and ignorance of reality. But that is why people use drugs, to escape reality. From ChartAttack in Canada:

“Rock stars like Amy Winehouse become popular by singing ‘I ain’t going to rehab,’ even though she badly needed and eventually sought treatment,” said Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the United Nations’ Drugs And Crime Office, according to Britain’s BBC 6 Music. “A sniff here and a sniff there in Europe are causing another disaster in Africa, to add to its poverty, its mass unemployment and its pandemics.”

According to nme.com, Costa accused Winehouse and supermodel Kate Moss of glamourizing a global drug trade that threatens “the complete collapse of some impoverished west African nations, where certain governments were now vulnerable to the damaging influence of drug money.”

Not only does drug trafficking inflict government corruption but drug trafficking often merges with wildlife trafficking. From Environment News Service:

In 1993, a U.S. Customs inspector in Miami noticed an unnatural bulge in a live boa constrictor that was part of a shipment of 312 animals from Colombia. Officers found cocaine filled condoms that had been inserted into 225 of the snakes. A total of 39 kilograms (86 pounds) of cocaine was recovered from the reptiles, which all died.

In addition wildlife trafficking and certainly drug trafficking funds terrorism. From Malaysian National News Agency:

“Animal trafficking is exceeding arms trafficking and drugs trafficking. In fact, the same criminals who are doing drug trafficking are doing wildlife trafficking as well.

“And the money that comes from wildlife (trafficking) is going into guns and terrorism, that’s the frightening part of it.

“We have recorded (statements) from people who have actually taken panther skin from here (India) to Nepal and exchanged it for guns and bombs, and I have no doubt it is a worldwide phenomenon,” Maneka, founder of the popular People Against Animals movement that campaigns for animal rights, told Bernama in an interview.

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