NEWSLINK: Fewer tiger subspecies, better protection?

Date: June 27, 2015

Source: Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V. (FVB)

Summary: New scientific research could help to protect tigers (Panthera tigris) from extinction. The findings indicate that tigers should be classified as only two subspecies – up to now nine subspecies were previously recognized. This will have a significant impact on species conservation since management efforts and breeding programs can now be organized in a simpler, more flexible and effective way.

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NEWSLINK: Magnetic Hill Zoo unveils new $1.4M Big Cat exhibit

The Magnetic Hill Zoo in Moncton is opening a $1.4-million exhibit on Saturday that will showcase three big cats. 

Visitors will be treated to a new exhibit featuring two Amur Tigers — Alik and Anya — and a leopard, named Katushka. 

Jeremy Nelson, a board member of Friends of the Zoo and chair of the fundraising campaign, said the new exhibit is the biggest project the zoo has ever undertaken.

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NEWSLINK: London River Junk Recycled Into Big Cat Toys

Lions and leopards from a cat sanctuary in Kent are playing with recycled toys made of bits of river junk.

They come from the Port of London Authority (PLA) which is sending materials that otherwise would be thrown away, to be used at the sanctuary as scratch posts and play pens.

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NEWSLINK: Exotic animals banned from entering Beaufort County

Transporting certain exotic animals into Beaufort County became illegal Monday, under an emergency ordinance passed unanimously by Beaufort County Council.

The ordinance, good for 61 days, buys time for the county to craft a permanent rule amid uncertainty about the plans of a Beaufort business owner who recently purchased a Colorado wildlife center.

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NEWSLINK: Does Florida have enough panthers?

For the second year in a row, the Florida panther is dying from road kills in record numbers.

To conservationists, that’s a clear signal more needs to be done to protect the 100 to 180 cats that remain. But in a state heavily influenced by big developers, big ranchers and the rush to build on the last remaining tracts of open land in the heart of panther country, wildlife managers say the number represents something entirely different: the successful rebound of a cat back from the brink of extinction.

In a meeting Tuesday, state officials will ask to scale back a federal conservation plan that calls for two additional populations in Central Florida long considered critical to the panther’s survival.

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RRead more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article25145704.html#storylink=cpy

NEWSLINK: WWF films tiger being released back to the wild

WWF has filmed an Amur Tiger being released back into the wild after spending time in a wild animal rehabilitation centre in the Russian Far East.

The tiger is a young male called Uporny, who was captured in November 2014 after being identified as a ‘conflict’ tiger.

He had been living in an area where there was a lack of prey and had killed dogs to survive. There were also fears that he could come into conflict with humans in a nearby town. 

After undergoing the necessary health checks in a wild animal rehabilitation centre in the Russian Far East, Uporny was released into a sparsely inhabited mountainous area. 

Uporny’s new home is an area with a good source of prey. It’s also home to a female Amur tiger, which provides hope that Uporny will not only continue to live wild and free, but also breed – contributing to the recovering tiger population in Russia.

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ARTICLE: The Sad Truth About Animal Hybrids

Mix a zebra and a horse, and you get a zorse. Swap the horse for a donkey, and you have yourself a zonkey. When a pony and a zebra love each other very much, you wind up with a zoni.

It’s fun to think of animal hybrids as the Reese’s peanut butter cups of nature. You take a little of this and mix it with a little of that, and voilà—you get an end product more interesting (and delicious?) than the creatures you started with. But hybridization has its costs.

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