India zoo put its stuffed dead animals on display

Indian zoo to put its stuffed dead animals on display

Mumbai zoo hopes its stuffed exhibits will keep drawing the crowds The only zoo in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) plans to stuff its animals after their deaths and put them on show in a museum, officials say. The move follows a ban by India's central zoo authority on new animals being kept in confined spaces. Mumbai zoo says it is unable to replace animals as they die because existing enclosures for some animals do not conform with anti-cruelty guidelines. Stuffing the animals will at least allow people to see them, the zoo says. Officials plan to set up a taxidermy museum as part of a $100m makeover at the zoo, which occupies 53 acres of land in central Mumbai. Mangal, a 35-year-old Himalayan black bear, was a star attraction at the zoo until he died last week. He has already been stuffed along with a python and a leopard. Renovation plan Zoos across the state of Maharashtra are now sending animal carcasses to a taxidermy centre in Mumbai, the only one of its kind in India. Zoo visitors will still be able to see the lion couple, Maya (left) and Ranga Taxidermy is the ancient art of preserving an animal's skin and skeleton and then stuffing it to make it appear lifelike. The museum is expected to open to the public in two years time. Mumbai zoo director Sanjay Tripathi says stuffing the animals and putting them on display will be educational. "The public will be able to see and appreciate the animals and even study their body structure," he told the BBC's Prachi Pinglay. Dr Tripathi said the zoo would not for now be adding to its existing population of more than 200 mammals, 500 birds and 45 reptiles. "The existing enclosures do not accord to the new guidelines," he said, "and the taxidermy museum is part of the renovation plan. "Once the open spaces surrounded by trenches are created we will be able to get new animals. It could take up to five years." 'Dying art' Taxidermist and veterinarian Santosh Gaikwad - who runs the taxidermy centre in western Mumbai - says it is a multi-disciplinary art involving skills in leather tanning, animal anatomy, sculpting and painting. Preserving an animal by taxidermy takes weeks of painstaking work "It takes about two months to make a trophy [out] of a medium-sized animal like a leopard," he said. "We have received requests from other states like Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh also. It is a dying art and needs to be preserved. Such museums will spread awareness about the animals as well as this art." However, animal rights activists are not so enthusiastic. Campaigners are increasingly against confining wild animals in small spaces They say stuffing animals may increase the illegal trade in animal skins and carcasses. Debi Goenka, an environmentalist who studies taxidermy, says it is an ancient practice that was carried out for scientific studies or to show off hunted animals. "Both these purposes are redundant now. Hunting as a sport is not allowed... so to stuff an animal's body which has anyways lived in captivity is just adding insult to injury," he said. "How would ministers and civil servants like it if they were stuffed instead of the poor animals?"

Singapore jewellers 'selling tiger parts'

"Singapore - A local animal protection group said on Friday that some jewelery shops in Singapore were illegally selling tiger parts, helping fuel the disappearance of the big cat from Asia.

A three-month investigation by Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) found that 59 out of 134 jewelery and antique shops it visited in the south-east Asian city-state were allegedly selling tiger parts, including claws, teeth and pieces of skin.

Acres said all commercial tiger trade had been banned by the international Cites convention that Singapore had signed, and under domestic law the sale of tiger specimens was prohibited, even if the products turned out not to be real.

It said shopkeepers had told it that demand had been higher over Lunar New Year - the start of the Year of the Tiger - and that more orders could be placed for parts, which could take from a week to three months to be delivered.

The shopkeepers said the parts came from south-east Asia, China and south Asia.

Tiger parts are used to make jewelery and Chinese medicine.

Conservationists say tigers in the Greater Mekong region face extinction.

Global tiger populations are at an all-time low of 3 200, down from about 100 000 a century ago, as forest habitats disappear and the animals are killed for their body parts.

Asian countries are a hot spot for the illegal wildlife trade, which the international police organization Interpol estimates may be worth more than $20 billion (R150bn) a year.

'As long as there is demand, there will be supply,' said Singapore member of parliament Lim Wee Kiak.

'Legislation alone is insufficient to bring a complete halt to the illegal trading."

Half of world's primate species endangered, report says - CNN.com

Half of world's primate species endangered, report says - CNN.com
February 18, 2010 -- Updated 0203 GMT (1003 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Scientists say primates are humankind's closest animal relatives
* Primates include apes, monkeys, and lemurs
* Main threats are tropical forest destruction, wildlife trade, hunting

RELATED TOPICS

* Endangered Species

(CNN) -- Nearly half the world's primate species are in danger of extinction, according to a report released Wednesday by a major conservation group.

The main threat facing primates -- including apes, monkeys, and lemurs -- is tropical forest destruction, with the illegal wildlife trade and commercial bush meat hunting also playing roles.

Scientists say primates are humankind's closest animal relatives.

Of the world's 634 primate species, 48 percent are threatened with extinction, according to the report, issued by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Switzerland-based group calls itself the world's oldest global environmental organization.

"This report makes for very alarming reading," said Christoph Schwitzer, an adviser to the group, in a statement. "Support and action to help save these species is vital if we are to avoid losing these wonderful animals forever."

A handful of primate species count populations in the dozens. For example, there are just 60 to 70 Asian monkeys known as golden headed langurs, found only on an island in Vietnam's Gulf of Tonkin.

There are fewer than 100 remaining northern sportive lemurs, which live in Madagascar, and around 110 eastern black crested gibbons, found in northeastern Vietnam.

The report, which details the 25 most endangered primates, has been issued biannually by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2000. It will be formally released Thursday at Britain's Bristol Zoo Gardens.