FORT PIERCE, Fla. | April 2011

Donovan the chimp transformed from a friendly ape who "adapts well to peers" to one who beat his female cage-mate so aggressively they had to be separated.

Lira became a "chronic hair plucker," with large barren patches on her body.

Bobby bit and mutilated his own arm, leaving permanent scars. He was so depressed that he slept sitting up, facing the wall of his cage.

The debate about medical testing on chimpanzees often revolves around the physical impact on the chimps - week after week of liver biopsies or year after year of being infected with HIV or hepatitis.

01/05/2011
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Illegal forest conversion by mining and plantation companies in Indonesian Borneo has cost the state $36 billion according to a Forest Ministry official.

Speaking to AFP, Forestry Ministry information center director Masyhud said that more than 1,200 mining companies and 500 oil palm plantation firms are under investigation by the Ministry of Forestry for operating illegally in Central, East and West Kalimantan provinces on the island of Borneo.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0429-kalimantan_forest_mafia.html

29/04/2011
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Indonesia's low carbon development strategy will not impede the palm oil industry's growth said a key Indonesian climate official during a meeting with leaders from the country's palm oil industry.

During a meeting on Thursday, Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's REDD+ Task Force, asked industry leaders for their input on the government's effort to shift oil palm expansion to degraded non-forest land.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0429-indonesia_redd_palm.html

29/04/2011
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Southeast Asia boasts nearly 250,000 square kilometers of peat swamp forests, which host creatures such as orangutans and the world's smallest fish, and store vast quantities of carbon. But these peat swamps are in trouble, according to a new study of deforestation in the region. If people continue to chop, drain, and burn at current rates, researchers report, by 2030 no native swamps will remain and billions of metric tons of carbon will be lofted into the atmosphere.

Almost all peatland in Southeast Asia is found in peninsular Malaysia and an archipelago of islands that includes Borneo and Sumatra. Rain trickles down mountains and through forests there, ultimately ending up in low-laying lands that can't quickly drain. Plant matter can't fully decay and turns into a peaty, acidic stew, trapping carbon and forming a unique environment for wildlife. Although Southeast Asian swamps comprise between 6% and 7% of global peatland, they store roughly 69 billion metric tons of carbon-about nine times the global emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2006.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/04/tropical-peat-forests-in-trouble.html

29/04/2011
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Each gorilla critical to species' survival

April 2011: For the first time, a virus that causes respiratory disease in humans has been linked to the deaths of wild mountain gorillas. The study reports on the deaths of two mountain gorillas in Rwanda in 2009 and the research from African and US team confirms that serious diseases can pass from people to these endangered animals.

‘Because there are fewer than 800 living mountain gorillas, each individual is critically important to the survival of their species,' said Mike Cranfield, executive director of the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project and a UC Davis wildlife veterinarian.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/gorilla-virus.html#cr

15/04/2011
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Orphan chimpanzees successfully released into the wild using advanced GPS technology
April 2011. The 2008 release of 12 orphan chimpanzees into the wild using sophisticated GPS tracking technology has been deemed a success by the project team.

‘Group Release of Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the Haut Niger National Park, Guinea, West Africa: Ranging Patterns and Lessons So Far' was originally published in the International Journal of Primatology andcan be accessed at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/3x307609x4361x1q/

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/guinea-chimps.html#cr

15/04/2011
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