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Indonesia releases 25 sea turtles rescued in raid on poachers

KUTA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities released 25 green turtles into the sea on the island of Bali on Wednesday, returning them to freedom after they were rescued last month during a raid on illegal traffickers.

The population of the endangered turtle, a protected species in Indonesia, has declined significantly in recent years due to hunting, loss of beach nesting sites, over-harvesting of their eggs and being caught in fishing gear.

Officials stroked and gently patted the heads of the turtles as they were lined up on the beach, some digging their flippers into the sand before slowly pulling themselves into the sea as waves crashed over them.

There were 36 turtles in total rescued and the remaining 11 will be released next week.

Agus Budi Santoso, head of the Bali Natural Resources Conservation Center, said the turtles needed to be assessed fully to ensure they were healthy and able to cope in the natural environment.

"If they cannot adapt to the environment, we cannot release them," Santoso said.

Indonesia has become a hub of international trafficking of marine turtles, feeding demand in countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and China. Anyone convicted of involvement in the trade can be jailed for up to five years.

Santoso said improvements in law enforcement had helped to reduce the trade in sea turtles.

The green turtle, one the largest sea turtles, is also a victim of the world's growing ocean plastics crisis and is known for eating plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish, according to World Wildlife Fund, which said many turtles had plastic in their stomachs.

Reference: Reuters: 8 hrs ago: 5th August 2020: (Reporting by Sultan Anshori; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ed Davies)

Ornithologists call for birds named after people with links to slavery or racism to be changed

Two ornithologists have suggested that bird names, which are derived from historical figures linked to racism and slavery, should be changed.

Writing in an op-ed in The Washington Post, ornithologists Gabriel Foley and Jordan Rutter, claim that such bird names “cast long, dark shadows over our beloved birds and represent colonialism, racism and inequality."

John James Audubon, author of the acclaimed ornithological work “The Birds of America”, is one of the historical figures who Mr Foley and Mr Rutter say had a "dark side".

The ornithologists acknowledge that Mr Audubon described an impressive 25 new bird species in his book, and that it might seem like a "fitting honour" for Mr Audubon’s shearwater and his oriole bird to bear his name.

But they also note how Mr Audubon "scoured the battlefield for the remains of Mexican soldiers" after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 to prove the superiority of White Europeans to other races.

“For Audubon, this might have been just another way of practising science — but his actions hardly align with modern values, and his scientific contributions do not excuse him from judgment," said the ornithologists.

Included in their list of problematic figures are Bachman’s sparrow who was named after a "pro-slavery reverend", McCown’s longspur who shares a name with a Confederate general and Bendire’s thrasher, which was named after a US major who fought Native Americans.

The ornithologists concluded that when an animal species is named after the person who first made it known to science, we are effectively "honouring that person's contribution".

"Unlike a name describing a bird’s colour or habitat, there is nothing 'natural' about honorific names," wrote Mr Foley and Mr Rutter.

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They imply a choice, and we can also choose not to honour the person whose name has been affixed to the species.

"Bachman’s sparrow, Townsend’s warbler, Bendire’s thrasher, Hammond’s flycatcher, McCown’s longspur — these are all examples of North American common bird names.

"For the bird community — ornithologists, bird-watchers, conservationists and more — these names are collectively referenced every day. For many, the esteem inherent in these names is unconsciously overlooked, and comfort lies in their familiarity."

Backlash as US senator calls slavery 'necessary evil'

They added: "Yet these honorific names — known as eponyms — also cast long, dark shadows over our beloved birds and represent colonialism, racism and inequality. It is long overdue that we acknowledge the problem of such names, and it is long overdue that we should change them."

The ornithologists urge their readers to reject “the colonial monument that eponyms represent” in favour of “inclusion and diversity in our community".

It comes after campaigners across the UK and US called for statues with links to slavery or fascist movements to be pulled down.

Reference: Evening Standard: April Roach 6 hrs ago: 5th August 2020

bai Airport deploys sniffer dogs to detect coronavirus carriers

Specially trained dogs areDu attempting to sniff out coronavirus infections among travellers arriving at Dubai Airport, in a world first.

K9 sniffer dogs have been stationed at Dubai International Airport and other airports across the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where they are “working to track possible infections using swabs gathered from arriving passengers”, Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National reports.

According to Major Salah Al Mazrooei of Dubai Police, the samples are taken from passengers’ armpits for the tests, being conducted “in collaboration with partners from Dubai Health Authority”, and “the results are out in less than one minute”.

“Travellers who have a fear of dogs do not need to worry as there is no direct contact between dogs and passengers,” adds The National. “Instead, the animals are exposed to samples collected from travellers in an isolated room.”

Debate over whether dogs can sniff out the virus has been raging for months. But “the UAE has chosen to believe that sniffer dogs are efficient in detecting Covid-19 in the passengers”, says The Times of India.

In a statement, Dubai’s Ministry of Interior said: “Data and studies showed that detection of presumed Covid-19 cases achieved approximately 92% in overall accuracy.

“Figures indicate that dogs can quickly detect infected cases, help protect key sites, effectively deal with huge crowds and secure large events, airports, etc.”

Although it may sound barking mad, “this method has been used to detect several other diseases that can affect body odor such as cancer and malaria”, The Sun reports.

A recent study revealed that researchers in Germany have trained army sniffer dogs to distinguish between samples of fluids from patients infected with Covid and healthy donors.

“The animals were able to positively detect SARS-CoV-2 infected secretions with an 83% success rate, and control secretions at a rate of 96%,” according to Deutsche Welle.

Reference: The Week: Joe Evans 6 hrs ago: 5th August 2020

Scientists study coronavirus outbreaks among minks in Europe

MADRID (AP) — Coronavirus outbreaks at mink farms in Spain and the Netherlands have scientists digging into how the animals got infected and if they can spread it to people.

In the meantime, authorities have killed more than 1 million minks at breeding farms in both countries as a precaution.

The virus that first infected people in China late last year came from an animal source, probably bats, and later spread from person to person, as other coronaviruses had done in the past. Some animals, including cats, tigers and dogs, have picked up the new coronavirus from people, but there hasn’t been a documented case of animals spreading it back to humans.

The outbreaks among the minks on the farms in the Netherlands and Spain likely started with infected workers, although officials aren’t certain. But it also is “plausible” that some workers later caught the virus back from the minks, the Dutch government and a researcher said, and scientists are exploring whether that was the case and how much of a threat such a spread might be.

The outbreak at the Spanish mink farm near La Puebla de Valverde, a village of 500 people, was discovered after seven of the 14 employees, including the owner, tested positive in late May, said Joaquín Olona, regional chief of agriculture and environment. Two other employees got infected even after the operation was shut down.

More than 92,000 minks were ordered killed at the farm in the Aragon region of Northeastern Spain, with nine out of 10 animals estimated to have contracted the virus.

After the Dutch outbreaks began in April, professor Wim van der Poel, a veterinarian who studies viruses at Wageningen University and Research, determined that the virus strain in the animals was similar to the one circulating among humans.

“We assumed it was possible that it would be transmitted back to people again,” the virus expert said, and that's what appeared to have happened with at least two of the infected workers.

Richard Ostfeld, a researcher at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, said that if confirmed, these would be the first known instances of animal-to-human transmission.

“With the evidence for farmed mink-to-human transmission, we definitely need to be concerned with the potential for domesticated animals that are infected to pass on their infection to us,” Ostfeld said by email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some coronaviruses that infect animals can be spread to humans and then spread between people, but it adds that this is rare.

Both the World Health Organization and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health, are studying the transmission of the virus between animals and people. Several universities and research institutes also are examining the issue.

The WHO has noted that the transmission on the mink breeding farms could have happened both ways. But WHO's Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said at a news conference last month that such transmission was “very limited.”

“This gives us some clues about which animals may be susceptible to infection and this will help us as we learn more about the potential animal reservoir of (the virus),” she said, referring to cases in the Netherlands and Denmark, another major producer of mink fur.

While scientists think the virus originated in bats, it may have passed through another animal before infecting people. A WHO team is currently in China, planning to study the issue.

More than 1.1 million minks have been killed on 26 Dutch farms that recorded outbreaks, according to the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. The government announced Thursday that minks at a 27th farm also were infected and would be killed.

The Netherlands, which has some 160 mink farms, is the world’s fourth-biggest producer of the prized fur after Denmark, China and Poland, according to Wim Verhagen, director of the Dutch federation of fur farmers. Spain has 38 active mink breeding operations, most of them in Northwestern Galicia.

Both Spain and the Netherlands have tightened hygiene protocols at mink farms and banned transportation of the animals and visits to the buildings where they are kept.

China, which produces about a third of the mink fur market, and the United States have not reported any virus outbreaks in minks or animals at other farms.

By ARITZ PARRA and MIKE CORDER, Associated Press 6 hrs ago: 2nd August 2020
Corder reported from The Hague. Associated Press writers Maria Cheng in London and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed.