by Tristan Donovan Chicago Review Press 814 North Franklin Street Chicago, Illinois 60610 256 pages, paperback. $16.95. $16.95 (US $16.95) (CA $19.95) http://www.chicagoreviewpress.com/feral-cities-products-9781569760673.php Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Among the species Tristan Donovan encounters in Feral Cities, at chapter length, among his “Adventures with Animals in the Urban Jungle” are rattlesnakes in Phoenix, feral chickens, snails, […]
Culling cats increases the feral population, Australian study finds
Expecting to validate the use of lethal culling, researchers find just the opposite HOBART, Tasmania, Australia––Perhaps the strongest scientific support yet for one of the key presumptions behind neuter/return feral cat control has emerged from a 13-month study by Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries biologist Billie Lazenby and two colleagues. Expecting to validate the use […]
United Nations arm CITES recommends trade boycott of Laos over wildlife trafficking
“Suspend commercial trade in specimens of CITES-listed species with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic” GENEVA, VIENTIENE–– The Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a treaty organization formed by the United Nations, on March 19, 2015 issued a rare recommendation that all 170 CITES member nations […]
Undercover video calls into question both how deer are culled and why
Have deer been over-counted? JOLIET, Illinois––Video surveillance of ongoing deer culls in Will County, Illinois, southwest of Chicago, has unexpectedly called into question not only whether the culling is humane, but whether the target areas support anywhere near the claimed numbers of deer. Opposition to deer culling––in the Chicago area and nationwide––has historically focused on […]
Ferrets, “pocket pets,” & pit bulls
New York City keeps 1989 ferret ban NEW YORK CITY––The New York City Board of Health on March 10, 2015 voted 3-2 with three abstentions to retain a 25-year-old ban on possession of ferrets. The vote left New York City and Washington D.C. as the two largest cities to prohibit ferrets, […]
Is this the most mismanaged U.S. National Wildlife Refuge?
Not so much as glimmering eyes to indicate the presence of the Columbian whitetailed deer for whom refuge was created by Merritt Clifton CATHLAMET, Washington––Traversing the Steamboat Slough dike at the Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge with headlights and a jacklight on the night of January 29, 2015, Beth and I spotted a large Roosevelt […]
Theo Colborn, 87, identified chemical effects on animal & human health
by Elizabeth Grossman Theo Colborn, 87, died on December 14, 2014. Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Theodora Emily Decker Colborn was a life-long bird-watcher who began her fascination with the natural world early. I spent several days interviewing her in December 2013 at her home in Paonia, Colorado. As we talked on a sub-zero morning, with huge […]
Want to know how many birds & bats are killed by wind turbines? Developer says “Blow me.”
Nature Conservancy loses bid to stop project TULSA, SALT LAKE CITY, WASHINGTON D.C.––Calling concerns about wildlife voiced by The Nature Conservancy “speculative,” District Judge Robert Haney, of Ottawa County, Oklahoma, on November 12, 2014 ordered Osage County to grant a conditional use permit to TradeWind Energy Inc. for the construction of 68 wind turbines on […]
Field Mortalities in Wildlife Research: It’s Time for a Conversation
Preface by Merritt Clifton Jon Geller, DVM, whose guest column “Field Mortalities in Wildlife Research: It’s Time for a Conversation” appears below, is scarcely the first to call into question the ethics of wildlife captures for research purposes. While Geller’s critique focuses on capture techniques, why animals are captured and what happens to them afterward […]
Allowed to hunt rare bustards in Pakistan, Saudi prince kills 20 times the bag limit
Saudi Arabian Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and his retinue in January 2014 killed 2,100 rare houbara bustards in just three weeks CHAGAI, Balochistan, Pakistan––Saudi Arabian Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and his retinue in January 2014 killed 2,100 rare houbara bustards during […]