Ice cream crisis as bees buzz off

John Sterlicchi, guardian.co.uk 25 Feb 08;

The collapse of US honeybee colonies this year is set to devastate America's multibillion dollar agriculture and food industries.

Last year about 750,000 of the 2.5m hives in the US were wiped out in mysterious circumstances, and already this year the American Beekeeping Federation says there is evidence from its members that losses will be even greater this year.

For the first time individual businesses have stepped forward to give money to try to speed up the process of finding out, first of all, what causes colony collapse disease (CCD) and then eradicating it.

Häagen-Dazs, the ice cream making subsidiary of General Mills, gave a total of $250,000 (£127,000) to two university research teams and Burt's Bees, the personal care products maker, made a undisclosed grant to create the Honeybee Health Improvement Project, a research task force.

Burt's Bees also launched a public service announcement to run in cinemas showing Bee Movie. In the announcement co-founder Burt Shavitz talked about the important role bees play in agriculture.

He then urged audiences to visit the company's website (www.burtsbees.com ) to sign up to receive a free packet of wildflower seeds to help create a bee-friendly environment.

Honeybees are said to be critical to the production of $15bn worth of crops in the US and Häagen-Dazs says around 25 of its 60 flavours depend on fruits and nuts pollinated by bees.

The ice cream maker is also aiming to raise consumer awareness about CCD by launching a new flavour this spring called Vanilla Honey Bee.

Flying off

Diana Cox-Foster, professor of entomology at Pennsylvania State University College of Agricultural Sciences, which received $150,000 from Häagen-Dazs, believes researchers have identified a major cause of CCD.

Her team has recently given the mite-transmitted Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) to healthy bee colonies and has seen rapid die-off??. As it is winter those tests took place in greenhouses so the researchers are waiting for the weather to improve to verify the results with bees in their normal environments.

The mysterious and unique aspect of CCD is that the bees are not being found dead near their colonies. They are flying off; just abandoning their life's work, leaving behind the queen and a few younger bees.

Professor Cox-Foster believes that there are other factors together with IAPV are the cause of CCD, such as other viruses, the use of chemicals near colonies and whether the bees are receiving enough nutrition.

To beekeepers pesticides are definitely part of the problem, says Troy Fore, executive director of the American Beekeeping Federation. "A lot of beekeepers blame neonicotinoid insecticides. These are safer for humans and other mammals but they affect the neurological systems of bees. They don't kill the bees outright but they cause to act in ways different to the norm."

The beekeepers believe these insecticides, which in fact have been partially banned in France, weaken the immune system of the bees thereby allowing viruses such as IAPV to strike.

Beekeepers that have their hives in the forest or grasslands and not near cultivated crops are doing well, so there is anecdotal evidence that the pesticides and insecticides are part of the problem, said Fore.

Australia on the attack

But not everyone agrees that IAPV is a cause of CCD. Australian government scientists miffed that the Penn State team suggested in a paper published in Science that IAPV arrived in the US in imports of live bees from Australia pointed out in a follow-up letter that there were several CCD colonies free of IAPV and the "shivering phenotype", and the death of bees close to the hive associated with IAPV in Israel.

The assertion that IAPV came from Australian bees was also refuted by the US Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service, which said that IAPV was found in the country back in 2002, two years before the importation of Australian bees was instituted to replenish colonies.

The Australians, which see their $5m a year live bee exporting industry endangered by such allegations, have demanded that Penn State withdraw its conclusions. They also point out that neither CCD nor large-scale, unexplained mortality events have occurred in the Australian bee industry.

The first description of IAPV came from Israel in 2002 and since then there have been die-outs of bees across the globe, some definitely attributable to the virus.

British beekeepers too are worried that CCD may come to these shores and they have called on the government to back a five-year, £8m research programme designed to save the insect.

Back in America all eyes are nowadays on California's almond trees, which represent a $2.5bn industry. The pink and white blossoms have started to appear and the concern is whether there are the tens of thousands bees needed to pollinate the crop.

"The almonds are in bloom right now in California and we are hearing there are some significant die-offs. It's worrisome," said professor Cox-Foster.

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Rainforest logging threatens endangered sea turtles

Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com 25 Feb 08;

Logging is having an unexpected impact on endangered sea turtles in Central Africa, reports a new study published in Oryx.

Aerial surveys in Gabon reveal that logs lost during transport are clogging beaches, preventing critically endangered leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) from nesting.

The researchers — an international team that included William F. Laurance from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Michael Fay from the Wildlife Conservation Society — found that logs blocked nearly 30.5 percent of Pongara Beach, one of the world's most important turtle nesting areas, during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 breeding seasons.

The logs caused multiple problems for sea turtles, including trapping and disorienting turtles, causing them to die; physically blocking access to nesting areas, forcing turtles to abandon nesting altogether or establish nests dangerously close to the waterline (seawater inundation kills sea turtle eggs); and altering the structure of the beach so that turtles were unable to climb steps caused by sand erosion.

Overall 8-14 percent of 2,163 observed nesting attempts were "disturbed or thwarted by lost logs, sometimes with fatal effects for the nesting female".

Given the low survival rate to maturity of marine turtles, the researchers say that displaced logs may be a significant threat to endangered populations. They further note that logs likely impact survival of hatchlings, by impeding their path to the ocean and increasing their vulnerability to predators.

To reduce risk of escaped logs to sea turtle, the researchers recommend establishing a log-removal program supervised by conservation organizations. The salvage program would benefit both turtles and the local communities involved — the 11,000 logs counted in Gabon's beaches during the survey were worth $11.1 million.

Taking a broader look, Laurance and colleagues write that the lost logs "typifies a wider problem of excessive waste and inefficiency in the tropical timber industry... such inefficiency exacerbates pressures on remaining forests, many of which are being rapidly overharvested."

The authors say that better forest management could help reduce waste from timber operations.

Linkages between land and sea

The authors suggest that the impact of deforestation on sea turtles is only one example of the ties between degradation of land and sea ecosystems.

"Our findings bolster the notion that important linkages exist between terrestrial and marine ecosystems," they write. "Coral reefs, for example, can be seriously degraded by sedimentation from nearby deforestation... and by algal blooms caused by phosphate and nitrogen pollution."

"In coastal West Africa depletion of marine fisheries has led to increased hunting pressure on terrestrial wildlife," they continue. "The rapid destruction of mangrove forests, which provide nurseries for many fish and shrimp species, is having serious impacts on coastal fisheries... Plastic waste is pervasive in the world's oceans and is a particular threat to leatherback turtles, which can choke to death on plastic debris they mistake for jellyfish, their principle food."

Marine turtles, like many other species, face a multitude of threats, both on land and at sea.

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South Africa to resume elephant culling after 13 years

Fran Blandy, Yahoo News 25 Feb 08;

South Africa is to resume elephant culling for the first time in 13 years, lifting a moratorium on the practice to bring ballooning populations under control, the government said on Monday.

After months of emotive public debate over government plans to reduce elephant numbers, Environment Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk announced culling would be an option from May 1, but only as a last resort.

"Our department has recognised the need to maintain culling as a management option, but has taken steps to ensure that this will be the option of last resort that is acceptable only under strict conditions," the minister said in a statement.

Since domestic and international pressure led the government to introduce a moratorium on culling in 1995, the number of elephants rose from about 8,000 to 18,000, saddling many game parks with unsustainable populations.

"The issue of population management has been devilishly complex and we would like to think that we have come up with a framework that is acceptable to the majority of South Africans," said Van Schalkwyk.

His spokesman, Riaan Aucamp, could not put a number on the elephants to be killed.

"There is no estimation. Everything will depend on the management plan of each park," he told AFP.

The World Wildlife Fund's Rob Little said elephants had no natural predators after the age of 15, and with populations growing at six percent a year they become a hazard to their habitat.

"We are not pleased with the thought of culling elephant, but we do recognise it as a management tool," he told AFP.

"Historically they would have vast areas to migrate and move in, whereas today we confine them by artificial boundaries. We call elephants habitat engineers, because they consume such vast amounts of vegetation that they have the potential to change the landscape."

Announcing norms and standards for elephant management, the minister said contraception and translocation would continue to be the preferred population control measures.

Culling may be undertaken only when recommended by an elephant management specialist, and on approval by authorities.

"It was to be expected that strong emotions would be part of this debate. There are few other creatures on earth that have the ability of elephants to 'connect' with humans in a very special way," said van Schalkwyk.

Added Little: "We all love our elephants, they are the most charismatic icon of Africa. But we don't have the luxury to allow one species to dominate and alter the composition of our natural assets."

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which opposes culling, said legislation should be strict enough to ensure it is truly done only as a last resort.

"In no way do we condone culling as an option, if it is to be then it really must be with only the most careful management," said Christina Pretorius of IFAW Southern Africa.

Most of southern Africa is struggling to contain elephant numbers, with some 300,000 individuals estimated to roam the region today, according to Pretorius.

"In all likelihood a few of our neighbouring elephant range states are watching South Africa to get guidance," added Little.

Van Schalkwyk also announced a prohibition from May 1 on the capture of wild elephants for use in commercial exhibition, such as circuses.

This was welcomed by IFAW, with Pretorius saying: "Elephant back safaris in particular, it's an industry out of control".

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Australia says carbon emissions keep growing

James Grubel, Reuters 25 Feb 08;

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's carbon emissions would continue to grow due to a heavy reliance on coal for electricity, a government report said on Monday, although the country would meet its Kyoto emissions targets by 2012.

Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said emissions would grow by 108 percent of 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012, meeting commitments under the Kyoto Protocol which sets binding Greenhouse gas targets for developed nations.

Wong said the figures were good for Australia, and showed a cut in expected emissions, although emissions would continue to grow to 120 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2020.

"We should not be celebrating an increase in Australian greenhouse pollution," said climate lobbyist John Connor, from the Australian Climate Institute.

The driest inhabited continent is also the world's largest coal exporter with an economy reliant on fossil fuel for transport and energy, with about 80 percent of electricity coming from coal-fired power stations.

Australia is responsible for about 1.2 percent of global emissions, but remains one of the highest polluters per capita.

The former conservative government negotiated a generous deal under the Kyoto Protocol, allowing for a 108 percent increase in emissions by 2012, but then refused to ratify the pact, saying the targets would unfairly hurt the economy.

But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change last December in his first act after being sworn in to power, leaving the United States isolated as the only developed nation not to sign up to the pact.

The emissions report on Monday found government decisions to stop landclearing and deforestation were the main reasons Australia would reach its Kyoto targets, with most other sectors set to record large increases in carbon pollution.

Emissions from stationary energy, including electricity generation, would increase by 56 percent on the 1990 levels by 2012, and would be 64 percent higher by 2020.

Emissions from transport were projected to increase 42 percent on 1990 levels by 2012, and be 67 percent higher by 2020, while industrial process emissions would rise 49 percent by 2012 and 95 percent by 2020.

Greenhouse emissions from land use and forestry would fall 68 percent from 1990 levels by 2012 and remain stable from 2010 to 2020, the report predicted.

But while emissions per capita would fall 13 percent from 1990 levels, from 33 tons to 28 tons, by 2012, they would climb back to 29 tons per person by 2020, it said.

"We recognize that much more needs to be done," Wong said, adding Australia planned to introduce a system of carbon trading by 2010 to give business a financial incentive to cut emissions.

(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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Indonesian government moves to regulate turtle trade

WWF 22 Feb 08;

The Indonesian government has moved against rampant illegal trade in threatened species of turtles and tortoises, tightening regulations and contacting countries where turtles and tortoises are being obtained or sold.

The action follows revelations that more than half the species of freshwater turtles and tortoises being sold in Jakarta’s markets are threatened and illegally obtained.

The report, by TRAFFIC, a joint programme of WWF and IUCN - the World Conservation Union, was released last month.

From 1 March 2008, all specimens of freshwater turtles and tortoises listed in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) will require an import permit before entering into Indonesia. Those without will be disposed of.

The Indonesian government went into action in response to a report issued by the WWF-linked wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC which highlighted the rampant illegal trade in tortoises and turtles in the pet markets of Jakarta.

“This is the kind of swift and decisive action that is needed to stamp out the illegal trade in threatened tortoise and turtle species”, said Azrina Abdullah, Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia.

Countries of origin will also need to notify Indonesia before issuing export permits.

Private people already owning tortoises and turtles in Indonesia will have to comply with a new CITES Management Authority registration, the government announced.

The new regulations will benefit threatened species such as Radiated Tortoise and Indian Star Tortoise, which are amongst the most popular in trade, despite both being listed in the CITES Appendices and being protected in their native countries of origin.

Related articles

Southeast Asia's illegal pet trade threatens turtles: experts
Yahoo News 8 Jan 08;

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Manila Rice Plea a Wake-Up Call for a Hungry World

Carmel Crimmins and Rosemarie Francisco, PlanetArk 25 Feb 08;

MANILA - The Philippines' unusual plea for Hanoi to guarantee rice supplies is the clearest sign of a growing global anxiety over how nations will feed their people.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had contacted Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to see if he could pledge an undisclosed supply of rice, officials said on Thursday, an exceptional move in a market that normally operates on a purely commercial basis among traders or state procurement agencies.

It was not the first time an Asian government has taken action in the face of soaring grain prices and growing fears over the security of food supplies. India has restricted some rice exports, Indonesia has raised taxes on palm oil shipments and Malaysia is building up stocks.

But Arroyo appears to be the first to take an overtly political route to allay fears that the Philippines, whose rapidly expanding population is among the most dependent on imports, could run short of its staple national food.

"This is a wake-up call," Robert Zeigler, director general of the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), told Reuters on Friday. "We have a crisis brewing in terms of rice supply."

Nearly half the planet's 6.6 billion people depend on rice to survive but rising populations and economic growth mean that the world is already eating more of the grain than is harvested. Vietnam, the world's second-biggest exporter, has put a temporary ban on shipments to meet domestic demand between harvests.

World stocks of the grain are currently around 72 million tonnes, their lowest levels since the early- to mid-1970s when food shortages triggered a devastating famine in Bangladesh.

Zeigler said other importing nations in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia could also be at risk and as soon as this year.

"When you have a president calling a prime minister asking them to guarantee rice supplies it's a possibility, that's for sure," said Zeigler.

Bangladesh is currently scrambling to secure supplies of rice after a devastating cyclone last year washed away about 1 million tonnes of the grain.

The rising price of food has triggered protests in Indonesia and Jakarta is having to hike its food subsidy bill by over a third to around 9 trillion rupiah this year, partly due to climbing prices.

China, a net exporter of corn, rice and wheat in 2007, has removed import taxes, raised export taxes and imposed export quotas on grains and flour due to red-hot inflation.

NO RELIEF IN SIGHT

Average rice prices have nearly doubled to around $393 per tonne in the past five years but yields are plateauing as rapid urbanisation shrinks available farmland and diverts water and labour away from production. Meanwhile soaring grains prices are also driving up competition for arable land.

Surging demand from the fast-growing Middle East and growing African consumption have boosted the price of rice from Thailand, the world's biggest exporter, by over 20 percent to their highest in a decade -- yet another inflationary headache for policymakers.

"There is no easy relief in sight," said Ted James, principal economist at the Asian Development Bank. "I don't think we will see them (prices) falling precipitously any time soon."

"But I don't think there will be a shortage if the price is allowed to reflect the market. If you try to keep prices below the market then shortages could emerge because of hoarding and speculation."

The IRRI, which spearheaded the development of high-yielding rice seeds in a Green Revolution around 40 years ago, says more research and development is needed to kickstart another Green Revolution that will help feed the world for decades to come.

Meanwhile the Philippines faces a sterner test than many other nations, as it has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world with three babies born every minute.

It is planting more high-yielding varieties of rice and is hoping to produce a record 17 million plus tonnes this year, but is constantly struggling to keep pace with demand.

"They have a challenge that is much greater than in other countries in terms of trying to be somewhere near self sufficiency. They have to keep running faster than other countries run," said Randy Barker, of the IRRI's social services division.

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins and Rosemarie Francisco; Editing by Jonathan Leff and Sonya Hepinstall)

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Best of our wild blogs: 25 Feb 08

New Semakau Walk buttons
join the walks to get them! on the rmbr news blog

Life History of the Baron
A pretty butterfly on the butterflies of singapore blog

Mass leaf bathing
sunbirds making a splash on the bird ecology blog

Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk Tour
a brand-new approach on the adventures with the naked hermit crabs blog

Green Tip #8: use rechargeable batts
on the Asia Is Green blog

Reflections on the Chek Jawa project
Kok Sheng shares on the cj project blog

Tagore: My Heart Beats her Waves at the Shore
on the flying fish friends blog

Mantid montage
on the budak blog

At Central Nature Reserve
on the manta blog and tidechaser blog

Semakau guide training
more posts on the manta blog and ginger rocks the shores blog

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Air quality in Singapore dips as Riau fires rage on

Salim Osman , Yeo Ghim Lay, Straits Times 25 Feb 08;

SINGAPORE'S air quality dipped further yesterday as smoke from raging fires in the Indonesian province of Riau continued to make its way north.

A haze hung over parts of Singapore yesterday afternoon and the island's official air quality index worsened but remained in the 'moderate' range.

'They (Indonesia) know that we are concerned about this and I hope they do something about it,' said Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim.

Firefighters in Riau province are facing an uphill battle against the blazes, which are sweeping across peatlands and almost inaccessible forests, governor Rusli Zainal told an Indonesian news portal.

'I have asked the central government for help. Fighting fires on peatland is much more difficult than battling flames elsewhere,' he said.

Yesterday, he joined firefighting teams in worst-hit Rokan Hilir, injecting water into peatland to help douse the embers still smouldering several metres underground. Fires there have been raging for almost a week.

Choking smoke from the flames has blanketed parts of neighbouring North Sumatra and Jambi provinces, and also covered the coast of Serdang Bedagi, forcing fishermen to stay indoors instead of sailing out to the sea, according to reports.

Visibility in some places has been reduced to 500m, according to state-owned Antara news agency.

Meanwhile, Singapore is doing what it can to help Indonesia tackle the haze, Dr Yaacob said. This country has sent satellite images to Indonesia outlining the hotspots and in November pledged $1 million to prevent fires in Jambi's Muaro Jambi regency.

'We have given the commitment, the funding has already been established,' Dr Yaacob told reporters yesterday.

In Singapore, the PSI reading - which measures the quality of air - has stayed in the moderate range for three days, and went from 52 to 56 yesterday. A reading of 0 to 50 is considered good while 51 to 100 is moderate. A figure above 100 is unhealthy.

The haze comes almost five months early. It is usually present in July, when smoke from land-clearing fires in Indonesia drifts over to Singapore.

The last time haze struck this early in the year was 2005, when there were six days when the air quality was moderate.

The National Environment Agency said weak winds are expected to continue for the next few days, so the haze could be hanging around.

Haze cloud weekend skies
PSI reading rising, hitting a high of 56 yesterday
Sheralyn Tay, Today Online 25 Feb 08;

DON'T rub your eyes, it's not your vision blurring. It's just the haze which returned this weekend.

Yesterday, Singapore experienced its haziest day this year, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) reading hitting a peak of 56 (picture) at 4pm. This is the highest reading since December last year.

Yesterday was also the third consecutive day that the 24-PSI reading has crept past the good range into the moderate range of 50-100. On Saturday, the 24-hour PSI reading hit 52, up from 51 on Friday.

According to the National Environment Agency's (NEA) hot spot map, there are "numerous" hotspots over Thailand and Laos. Hot spots indicate areas with fires or hot smoke and are detected by infrared images captured by weather satellites.

While isolated hotspots have been detected over Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, western Borneo and parts of Sumatra, it was Riau in Sumatra that had been enveloped in thick smoke over the weekend as land-clearing fires created a choking haze that reduced visibility in some parts to 20 metres.

But the number of hot spots in Riau appears to be dropping, as yesterday's hot spot count was four, compared to 100 on Thursday and 50 on Friday.

According to NEA, the moderate haze is due, in part, to drier conditions. So far prevailing winds have kept most of the smoke away from Singapore, although changes in wind direction could account for hazier days ahead.

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Don't make Jurong Lake another white elephant

Letter from Heng Cho Choon, Straits Times Forum 25 Feb 08;

THE report, 'Jurong Lake area: Big changes planned' (ST, Feb 20) gave an optimistic account of plans the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has in the pipeline. I hope those proposals - to turn the area into a commercial, retail and entertainment centre - when materialised, will not result in another fiasco like Tang Dynasty City and the moribund Chinese Garden.

My visit to the Chinese Garden two months ago set me thinking why there are so few visitors to this sprawling garden with its inconspicuous fountains, dilapidated buildings, god-forsaken pagodas and drink kiosks with only a few miserable customers. In the lake lie the forlorn row- boats which were an attraction to courting couples in their heyday.

Next to this garden is Jurong Park which was once used by many schools for their annual cross-country races. The cement tracks and stone benches are worn down and the place is filled with litter.

Across Sungei Jurong lies Jurong Country Club with its pristine and manicured lawns, and this golf course is always bustling with night golfers.

Mosquitoes breed in abundance in the Chinese Garden and since that visit I have avoided this once beautiful park which used to attract hordes of morning joggers.

I have always made a weekly pilgrimage to those fascinating places in Johor like the Jusco supermarkets in Tebrau City and Permas Jaya, and the Danga Bay entertainment resorts. On weekends, Tebrau City teems with shoppers and bargain hunters, while Danga Bay comes alive at night with children, shoppers, diners and pub crawlers.

Our URA planners should visit these places which never fail to pull in the crowds from both Johor and Singapore.

Danga Bay has both cheap cafes and pasar malam stalls on the pavements and also air-conditioned Chinese restaurants for the jet-setters. The famous Grand Straits Garden Restaurant next to Danga Bay is a favourite watering hole for drinkers from near and far, and its Chinese cuisine draws the crowds, including tycoons, bankers, politicians and businessmen.

My fervent hope is that the 'big changes' will signal a resurrection on our doorstep of another Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, another Danga Bay or another Gurney Drive in Penang, where tourists from near and far will not hesitate to make a beeline.

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Going green a PR stunt in Singapore?

Still lots of paper, disposable cutlery wasted
Letter from Phillip Keng Hong, Today Online 25 Feb 08;

Singaporeans' support on climate change issues may just be academic. From my experience, the number of changes many companies have implemented is negligible.

No business can claim it is environmentally-friendly when it has yet to take the first step of conducting a business review to factor in its cost to the environment. The "environmental-friendly" label has largely been a public relations stunt.

Financial institutions have not done enough to reduce paper wastage. For example, both DBS and United Overseas Bank insist that their customers must receive mailed statements, citing that it is a Monetary Authority of Singapore requirement.

The archaic rules of the Singapore Exchange still require shareholders of listed companies to receive mailed copies of annual reports, when such information is already available on the Internet and is easier to archive.

At Changi Airport's staff canteen (a food court also open to the public), disposable cutlery is used, unlike at other food centres. Fast food restaurants have a similar practice and seem resistant to change. Shouldn't disposable cutlery be totally prohibited for dining-in patrons?

There also seems to be a lack of recycling bins at most shopping centres. Ikea gets the kudos for being one of the most environmentally-friendly companies but its restaurant has yet to cease the use of disposable cutlery totally.

While teaching students about the environment, schools do not take into consideration the amount of resources used in projects. The Ministry of Education should have a list of guidelines for schools, for instance on the practice of double-sided printing. Lessons on reducing carbon footprints would be more meaningful when students can see their lessons in action.

Ditto for our country's biggest employer, the Singapore Civil Service. I would be interested to know if it has a list of environmentally-friendly practices and measures to ensure their implementation.

The inter-ministerial committee on sustainable development, recently formed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, shows the Government's resolve to address climate change issues head on. If it embarks on an educational approach, it should be directed at those whose policies/actions will have trickle-down effects.

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Is Kusu Island Auntie Ah Meng's 'Mum'?

Tay Shi'an, The New Paper 25 Feb 08;

FOR the last 60 years, she has been taking care of the famous Da Bo Gong (Merchant God or God of Prosperity) temple on Kusu Island.

And that may not be the only Singapore icon Madam Shim Choy Yeng, 78, is linked to.

She and her late husband, Mr Seet Hock Seng, may have been the original owners of Ah Meng, the much-loved orang utan who died of old age in the Singapore Zoo earlier this month.

According to the zoo, back in 1971, eight orang utans including Ah Meng, were confiscated from homes and given to the zoo after a crackdown on those who illegally kept wildlife as pets.

Ah Meng, who was 48 when it died, was 11 then.

Neither the zoo nor the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has written records of who and where Ah Meng was taken from.

But one of the officers involved in the crackdown is certain it had been confiscated from a family on Kusu Island.

Mr Madhavan Kannan, 60, head of the AVA's Centre for Animal Welfare and Control, was then an officer with the Primary Production Department – the AVA's predecessor.

He recalled going to Kusu Island in the early 70s with three fellow officers to confiscate an orang utan there – after they had received a tip-off from a member of the public.

"It was a pet kept on the temple premises. There was a male caretaker and a woman," Mr Madhavan told The New Paper on Sunday.

He said the man told him the orang utan's name was Ah Meng. "They agreed to surrender her, but they were sad to part with it," he said. "But as they knew it was going to the Singapore Zoo and that they could see it there, they felt comforted."

He remembered the orang utan clinging on to the officers like a baby and refusing to let go.

For decades, the Seets have been the only family living on Kusu Island. The temple has been passed down the family for generations.

When contacted by The New Paper on Sunday, Madam Shim confirmed her family had kept an orang utan as a pet back then.

But was the primate Ah Meng?

Madam Shim said while she could not be totally sure, she did not rule out the possibility.

She is uncertain as the family had named their orang utan Datuk (grandfather in Malay). The name came about because even though it was young, the orang utan had an "old person's face".

But neither Mr Madhavan or Madam Shim's family can shed light on how Datuk could have been eventually renamed Ah Meng.

Madam Shim's late husband bought the orang utan from a man on a passing ship some 40 years ago.

His daughter, Madam Cecelia Seet, 50, said: "My father was an animal lover. We had up to 12 dogs, parrots, and a goat. If you had given him an elephant, he would have kept it too."

The family claimed they did not know then that keeping an orang utan – an endangered species – was illegal.

Madam Shim's son, Mr Seet Nan Hua, 58, said: "Datuk was naturally smart. It would drink milk out of a cup instead of a plate, then make a face and make us laugh."

FRIENDLY

Madam Seet: "It was very friendly, and it knew how to comb its hair."

Pointing to a tree on the temple premises next to a turtle enclosure, Mr Seet said: "We would chain it to the tree in the day, for fear of scaring the devotees. At night, we let it free."

But after two years, some visitors complained about it and tipped off the authorities.

Madam Shim said: "The day Datuk was taken away, the children couldn't stop crying."

Even though the family was told that Datuk would be kept in the zoo, they still feared it might be put to sleep.

Mr Seet said: "We went down to the zoo to see if it was really there.

"But there were so many orang utans, and they all looked the same."

SAD MEMORIES

After two visits, the family didn't go back as it was too inconvenient to travel from the island. They didn't want to dig up sad memories, Madam Seet said.

Zoo curator Alagappasamy Chellaiyah, 57, had looked after Ah Meng from the day it arrived at the zoo until the day it died.

He said he remembered a middle-aged couple visiting the zoo with a teenage girl and feeding Ah Meng.

"But it was more than 35 years ago – I can't remember their faces," he said. He didn't ask them for personal details about their lives.

But he remembered the family telling him that the orang utan's name was Ah Meng.

The zoo had wanted to change the name to an Indonesian one to better suit her roots. Ah Meng was born in Sumatra, Indonesia.

But since it responded well to the name Ah Meng, they left it at that.

Madam Seet said that the family had lost all the photographs they had of their orang utan.

But Madam Shim said she did follow Ah Meng's death in the news. She said: "They did the funeral very nicely. She was happy and had a good life, that's what matters."

...OR ARE YOU THE ORIGINAL OWNER?

THE long passage of time, coupled with the lack of formal records, has made Ah Meng's past before it became a celebrity at the zoo a mystery.

Madam Shim Choy Yeng and her family are not the only ones who could possibly be AhMeng's former owners. Ah Meng was among eight orang utans confiscated from homes and given to the zoo in 1971.

Zoo curator and long-time employee Alagappasamy Chellaiyah, better known as Sam, 57, recalls that about 17 orang utans came to the zoo under similar circumstances during that period.

Over the years, he said, several other families have come forward to claim the zoo's former grand dame as theirs.

All of them, like Madam Shim and her family, had seen their pet orang utans confiscated during that period and taken to the zoo.

Just yesterday, it was reported that Australian oil rig worker Paul Carter had claimed in his new book, Don't Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs, that Ah Meng spent 15 years serving cocktails on an oil barge that plied South-east Asia's waters.

He wrote that the crew was forced to give her up to the zoo when the ship was sold to new owners in the 1970s.

Do you think you or your family could be Ah Meng's former owner? Do you have pictures of the orang utan from all those years ago?


RETIREE CLAIMS HE'S ORIGINAL OWNER
Ah Meng? That's my 'Frankie'
Tay Shi'an, The New Paper 12 Mar 08;

SINGAPORE's most famous orang utan has been gone for a month.

But even after her death, Ah Meng is still causing waves.

Who is her original owner?

Three weeks ago, The New Paper ran a report on whether Madam Shim Choy Yeng, 78, and her late husband, who live on Kusu Island, may have been Ah Meng's original owners.

Now, another person thinks he used to own the Singapore icon.

Retiree Yeo Cheng Siah, 71, said he kept an orang utan and a bear as pets for about 10 years – from the 1960s to the early 1970s – before they were both taken away by the authorities.

The former pig farmer's relatives contacted The New Paper after our earlier report.

Ah Meng died of old age in the Singapore Zoo on 8 Feb.

She was 11 when she and seven other orang utans were confiscated from homes and then given to the zoo in 1971.

Neither the zoo nor the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has written records of who and where Ah Meng was taken from.

So for years, families who had their pets taken away have been wondering if the zoo's former star was their long-lost pet.

Mr Yeo is one of them.

He said he bought his orang utan in the early 1960s when he was living in a kampung in Kallang with his parents and eight siblings.

He recalled: 'My friend's uncle was a merchant who sailed the seas, and he bought (the orang utan) for me. I paid him $100 for it.

'It came to me in a basket. That time, it was very, very small, and had very little hair on its belly.'

His family named the orang utan Frankie, but realised later it was female after it grew breasts.

But they continued calling it Frankie anyway, as the name had stuck.

Two to three years after he bought Frankie, Mr Yeo, an animal lover, also bought a baby bear, which he kept in a cage, for $100.

MOVING HOUSE

When the family moved to a farm in Jalan Lembah Bedok, near Bedok Reservoir, they brought the animals with them.

Mr Yeo's wife, Madam Ngo Kee Ngan, 60, said Frankie, which they kept chained to a tree, was adorable and obedient.

Mr Yeo added: 'It was friendly to everyone, even strangers.

'If you held out your hand, it would take it and follow you to the well to take its bath.'

Frankie was also very strong, and broke its lock several times. But it never ran away or disturbed the neighbours, said Mr Yeo.

'Once, it ran to my sister's room and slept on her bed with her.'

Mr Yeo would also walk around town with Frankie on his shoulders, making him an instant hit with the children.

Madam Ngo said: 'At my father's provision shop, many children would surround it and play with it.'

Mr Yeo's nephew, Mr Tan Yeow Lang, 45, a taxi driver, said: 'I was about 8 then and I remember shaking hands with it.'

Mr Yeo said he went to the authorities to get Frankie back after it was taken away but to no avail.

A few months later, he and a friend went to the zoo to visit the orang utan.

But he stopped going after that.

'We had already given it up, no point going again,' he said.

'I also didn't think it could recognise us anymore.

'If I knew it would became famous, I would have gone to the zoo every month to take a picture with it. Then people would know it's mine.'

Read more!

Butterflyfish may go extinct

ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
Science Alert 25 Feb 08;

A beautiful black, white and yellow butterflyfish, much admired by eco-tourists, divers and aquarium keepers alike, may be at risk of extinction, scientists have warned.

The case of the Chevroned Butterflyfish is a stark example of how human pressure on the world’s coral reefs is confronting certain species with ‘blind alleys’ from which they may be unable to escape, says Dr Morgan Pratchett of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

In a study published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Dr Pratchett and Dr Michael Berumen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) warn that the highly specialized nature of the feeding habits of this particular butterflyfish – the distinctively patterned Chaetodon trifascialis - make it an extinction risk as the world’s coral reefs continue to degrade due to human over-exploitation, pollution and climate change.

“The irony is that these butterflyfish are widespread around the world, and you’d have thought their chances of survival were pretty good,” Dr Pratchett said today.

“But they only eat one sort of coral – Acropora hyacinthus – and when that runs out, the fish just disappear from the reef.”

The team found it hard to believe a fish would starve rather than eat a mixed diet, so they tested C. trifascialis in tank trials on a range of different corals. The fish grew well when its favourite coral was available – but when this was removed and other sorts of corals offered, it grew thin, failed to thrive and some died.

“We call these kinds of fish obligate specialists. It means they have a very strong dietary preference for one sort of food, and when that is no longer available, they go into decline. We still don’t have a satisfactory scientific explanation for this, as it seems like rather a risky tactic in evolutionary terms – but it must confer some advantage provided enough of its preferred food is available,” Dr Pratchett says.

The A. hyacinthus coral, which the butterfly fish feeds on, is itself highly vulnerable – to attacks by plagues of crown-of-thorns starfish (thought to be triggered by humans releasing excess nutrients onto the reef as sediment, fertilizer or sewage), to storms and to the coral bleaching caused by the heating of ocean surface waters to 32 degrees or more, which is thought to be linked to global warming.

“Although extremely widespread, the Chevroned butterflyfish may be at considerable risk of extinction following ongoing degradation of coral reefs around the world, because the coral itself is exceptionally vulnerable," Dr Pratchett explains.

“It is estimated that up to 70 per cent of the world’s coral reefs are now badly degraded, which usually involves the loss of this particular coral – and, when it goes, the C. trifascialis also disappear from the reef."

“To make matters worse, butterflyfishes are one of the main families of coral reef fishes being targeted by aquarium collectors. However, the specialized coral-eaters are clearly not suitable for keeping in aquaria - and often die because they cannot obtain their main food source.”

A previous case where a coral-dependent fish vanished was that of Gobiodon; a specialized coral-dweller known only from one site - Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea - which was thought by scientists to have possibly become extinct after its habitat was destroyed.

Researchers consider that such extinctions are likely to occur as part of the global mass extinction of species now taking place, and that marine ecosystems may be particularly vulnerable in that small changes in habitat or water quality can have a big impact on their species.

Dr Pratchett and Dr Berumen say theirs is one of the few studies so far to consider the evolutionary and ecological basis of dietary versatility, and has implications for the fate of specialised feeders throughout the animal kingdom.

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