Wildlife Conservation

Elephant-koala swap draws activists' ire
Zoos deny it would endanger species
Bangkok Post, 08 March 2005, KULTIDA SAMABUDDHI

An elephant-koala exchange programme between Thailand and Australia has drawn fierce opposition from animal right activists in both countries who fear it would lead to maltreatment of the endangered animals.

Under the scheme, Thailand is to send eight female elephants and one male, aged 3-8 years, to Sydney's Taronga zoo and Melbourne zoo in Australia and to Wellington zoo in New Zealand in exchange for at least two koalas from Australia.

The koalas will be kept at the two-billion-baht new Night Safari zoo scheduled for opening next month in northern Chiang Mai province. Thailand also plans to import several wild animal species from Kenya for the zoo to boost its attraction.

Interim Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suvit Khunkitti last week moved to speed up the export of the elephants. He also ordered officials to complete the koala shelter being built at the Night Safari zoo by April as instructed by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

International animal welfare groups, meanwhile, have been drumming up opposition to the exchange scheme since late last year, when they submitted a petition to Australia's Minister for the Environment and Heritage Ian Campbell, demanding him to reject the zoos' applications to import the young elephants from Thailand.

The activists said the animals would suffer a myriad of physiological and psychological problems caused by poor living conditions and Australian zoos' lack of experience in breeding Asian elephants.

Taronga, Australia's biggest zoo, said on its website that the project's aims were to breed and start a new population of Asian elephants in Australia, educate zoo visitors about the plight of elephants, and contribute to elephant conservation efforts in Thailand.

The zoo has committed A$40 million (about 1.2 billion baht) to the project, including the construction of an ``Asian Elephant Rainforest'' to display the Thai pachyderms.

Surapol Duangkhae, secretary-general of Wildlife Foundation of Thailand, said there was already a sharp drop in Thailand's elephant population and the animals should not be placed at risk to advance commercial interests.

"Exchanging rare animals for commercial purposes is no longer acceptable. A large number of our wild animals have died and were maltreated in such animal exchange projects,'' Mr Surapol said.

He said most young captive elephants were illegally caught from the wild, so supplying captive elephants to Australian zoos posed a direct threat to Thailand's wild elephant population.

The country now has about 1,600 elephants in the wild and about 3,000 captive elephants.

However, the head of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Schwann Tunhikorn, said the elephants to be exported were captive-bred and came from various shelters, so there was no need to treat them as endangered wild animals.

Elephants with a certificate of captivity were exempt from the wildlife export criteria of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), he said.

"The department's only job is to ensure that these elephants are accompanied with certificates to prove they did not come from the wild,'' he said. [return]

Safari World, Phuket FantaSea could close this week
The Nation, 07 March 2005, Suchat Sritama

Safari World Plc, the operator of Phuket's landmark tourist attraction, Phuket FantaSea, as well as Bangkok's Safari World open zoo, is threatening to close both businesses this week if it fails to secure financial support for the ailing parks.

The company's president Pin Kewkacha said that without the loan, he was ready to sell the business and seek a permanent home in China with his family.

"I'll do what I say. This is the last call for help from the government," he said.

The threat comes after Pin's failure to secure a Bt120-million loan from commercial banks and the Bank of Thailand needed to restore Phuket FantaSea, which was damaged by the December 26 tsunami. The banks have told Pin that the soft loans he wanted were only available for existing clients and Safari World Plc was not a customer.

Pin said that if he were unable to receive financial aid from the banks, he would be left with no choice but to abandon both FantaSea and Safari World. He noted that the group expected to lose at least Bt900 million in revenue this year from both businesses - Bt600 million from Phuket FantaSea and the remainder from Safari World.

He said the company was now in its worst financial position since Safari World was opened 20 years ago, and since Phuket FantaSea first opened its doors to tourists seven years ago. Pin said Phuket FantaSea had suffered a revenue decline of Bt250 million since the tsunami. The tsunami also destroyed the entrance area to the theme park, which cost Bt70 million to restore.

Safari World, located north of Bangkok, earned between Bt200 to Bt300 million in the same period, down from its target of Bt500 million because of a fall in the number of tourists visiting the park.

Phuket FantaSea was closed for 22 days following the tsunami, from January 8 to January 31. Pin's company has invested Bt3 billion in Safari World, which employs 1,100 people. Phuket FantaSea was built at a cost of Bt3.5 billion and has 800 employees.
Pin said it costs Bt1 million a day each to run FantaSea and Safari and there were not enough visitors passing through the gates to cover that cost.

Safari World is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Safari World's sister company, which owns Phuket FantaSea, was planning to list in November. The owners of FantaSea earlier announced that they would build another theme park in the east of Thailand. [return]

Lop Buri monkeys get hot under the collar
The Nation, 03 March 2005, Sorasak Taptimprai

LOP BURI - The soaring mercury has apparently stressed the more than 1,000 monkeys living in front of a local shrine here, turning the famously tame animals violent.

Some of the Macaque monkeys have bitten passers-by, who were sent to hospital for tetanus shots.

Authorities have also been forced to step up security, dispatching young red-clad security guards to chase away monkeys that act threateningly toward people visiting San Phra Kan shrine in the city known for its monkey inhabitants.

"When it's very hot, the monkeys appear moody and they will try to snatch food from people," said Yongyos Kongcharoen, manager of the shrine.

To appease the primates, the shrine has been giving them food and provided a three-metre-wide pool for the ornery critters to bask in when temperatures soar.

People bitten by monkeys should be given tetanus shots, said Chumpol Boonrod, a veterinarian working for the provincial livestock office.

"There's little risk of rabies, but a high risk of tuberculosis infections, from the bites," he said.

Located in Muang district, the shrine with the monkey residents attracts many tourists.

MP Suchat Lainamngern, who often pays respects to San Phra Kan, suggested people donate milk to the monkeys.

"The monkeys like milk and it will be good for all," he said.

Meanwhile, local people near Sompoch Mountain in Chai Badan district and Samorkhon Mountain in Tha Wung district have complained that the monkeys in their neighbourhoods had stolen their food after having trouble foraging for chow during the drought. [return]

Mahouts, tigers swap for African animals
Bangkok Post, 17 December 2004, TUL PINKAEW

Chiang Mai - Thailand will trade mahouts and tigers for Kenya's prized trophy animals in a bid to get Chiang Mai's Night Safari Park up and running by next year, the project chief said yesterday.

"We will send six Thai tigers (Pantera tigris) plus five trained mahouts to train African elephants as well as establish a Wildlife Preservation Centre in Kenya in exchange for 300 native Kenyan savannah animals of 34 different species,'' said Plodprasop Suraswadi, chairman of the government committee in charge of the project.

The animals, to include African elephants, antelopes and even rare birds and lizards, will be selected from Nairobi National Park and the renowned Masimara National Park.

"It will also be the first time anyone has tried to train the African elephant. People say it cannot be tamed, but I believe we have what it takes'' said Mr Plodprasop.

Five mahouts will travel to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, next year after the exchange deal is confirmed in January, and the elephant training team will start work on orphaned calves first and see how it progresses.

Mr Plodprasop said the Wildlife Preservation Centre, which will be taken care of by the Thai ambassador to Kenya, would concentrate on developing ways to deter poachers.

The trade move comes after Thailand and Kenya signed a Memorandum of Understanding last month to assist each other on wildlife and tourism issues.

"The rest of the animals will come from Tanzania, South Africa and Australia, as well as some from local national parks. The transfer of the animals is in accordance with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) cross-boundary regulations'' said Mr Plodprasop.

"Everything will be ready by April.''

Chiang Mai's Night Safari Park, based on Singapore's Night Safari Zoo, was a project initiated by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to boost tourism in his hometown.

Since 2002 the 800-rai project, however, has faced stiff opposition from locals who rely heavily on underground water for consumption. The villagers fear their water will be used up by the zoo and what is is left of it will be contaminated by animal droppings.

Surapon Duangkhae, secretary-general of Wildlife Fund Thailand, said he did not understand why the country had to have a night safari full of foreign animals as Thailand had its own abundant wildlife resources.

"A zoo is suppose to educate people and teach them about their native animals but all we have here are foreign immigrants imported to raise ticket prices,'' he said.

Mr Surapon was also afraid that smuggling could occur, warning that local Cites officials had been known to make "private deals''.

"The orangutan and the tiger incidents could play themselves out all over again,'' he said a reference to the alleged smuggling of orangutans by the Safari World zoo and the export to China of 100 tigers by Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. [return]

Wildlife protection events
The Nation, 16 December 2004

The Khao Ang Reu Nai wildlife sanctuary in Chachoengsao will stage a three-day event in the lead up to National Wildlife Protection Day, including a photo exhibition of rare species and a night safari.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation would be holding simultaneous celebrations for National Wildlife Protection Day on December 26 at Phrae, Nakhon Ratchasima, Surat Thani and Chachoengsao, said Yoo Senatham, sanctuary manager.

Between December 24 and 26, the wildlife sanctuary, which encloses 600,000 rai of forestland, would host a photo exhibition of rare animals, an animal drawing contest for children, a wildlife quiz and a live concert, Yoo said. At night, visitors will have the chance to see wild elephants and a variety of nocturnal animals near Highway 3259 between kilometre 15 and 30, Yoo added. [return]

FORESTRY POLICE: Safari park owner to face charges
The Nation, 16 December 2004

DNA tests confirm orang-utans were not bred on site, as keepers claimed.

The owner of Safari World is facing charges of illegally possessing 57 orang-utans after DNA tests confirmed that 12 young apes were not the offspring of the zoo's breeding stock as claimed, thus increasing the number of allegedly smuggled orang-utans.

If convicted, Pin Kiewkacha will be liable to up to five years in jail or a fine equal to four times the value of the orang-utans, or both.

"We'll press charges against Pin once we're sure the evidence is solid," Maj-General Sawaek Pinsinchai, chief of the Forestry Police, said yesterday.

He appeared along with Kasetsart University staff yesterday at a press conference announcing the test results. The university was paid Bt300,000 to do the testing.

Sawaek said that police have been investigating the popular private zoo since late last year and have acted only after receiving solid evidence.

"We've treaded carefully with this case, because it's quite sensitive. It can affect tourism here," he said.

The zoo said 43 of the 102 orang-utans found in its compound were legally bred but admitted that it had obtained 45 others through illegal donations. The remaining 14 were from breeding stock, it said.

The tests, however, found that the DNA of 12 of the young apes supposedly bred legally did not match their alleged parents.

Sawaek said available evidence suggested that the orang-utans might have been smuggled from Indonesia, but it remained unclear how they ended up at Safari World. "Even if some people really did donate the apes to the zoo, Safari World has still committed the offence of illegal possession," he said.

Orang-utans are classified as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites).

Sawaek said he would ask Suwit Khunkitti, minister for natural resources and the environment, to return the illegal orang-utans to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Pin said he would not challenge the test results, but still insisted that the DNA tests could have picked up on some illegally obtained apes instead of the legally bred ones.

"I think this case is very common. Most zoos do the same thing," he said. He remained adamant that the scandal would not affect the number of tourists to his zoo.

Safari World used to hold daily orang-utan boxing matches before they were suspended in early August after the smuggling allegations. [return]

Wildlife exchange deal agreed with Kenya
Night Safari to get 300 native animals
Bangkok Post, 05 December 2004, Anucha Charoenpo in Nairobi, Kenya

Thailand and Kenya have signed a first-of-its-kind deal to exchange native wildlife to promote tourism between the countries.

The agreement was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Suwat Liptapanlop, who oversees tourism, and Kenyan Tourism and Wildlife Minister Raphael Tuju. Mr Suwat, on a week-long visit to Kenya, said the Kenyan government would send about 300 indigenous animals of 24 different species, including a lion and leopard, to the Chiang Mai Night Safari which opens on April 13.

Thailand would send 20 officials to study wildlife management for three months in Kenya so they can properly look after the animals.

In exchange, Thailand will send tigers to Kenya. It will also help Kenya to relocate elephants, currently foraging for food in agricultural areas, to forest areas.

The agreement was the result of talks between Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who visited Thailand in October last year.

Plodprasop Surasawadee, who accompanied Mr Suwat to Kenya and was financing the two-billion-baht Chiang Mai Night Safari project, said all wildlife exchanged between the two countries will be quarantined for one month.

Meanwhile, Thailand says it will let Kenya Airways run seven flights a week from Nairobi. At present the airline only runs three flights a week to Thailand. [return]

Disease control effort hurting wild animals
Scientific consensus needed, experts say
Bangkok Post, 20 November 2004, KULTIDA SAMABUDDHI

Increased international collaboration among public health, wildlife, and trade sectors is needed to cope with emerging diseases such as avian influenza, mad cow and food and mouth diseases, health experts, veterinarians and economists said.

Speaking at a forum on "Emerging Diseases and Ecosystem'', held yesterday during the third IUCN World Conservation Congress in Bangkok, the experts called on IUCN member states to include wildlife biology in decision-making relating to the control of outbreaks of animal diseases.

Wild animals had become "victims'' of many governments' outbreak control schemes, which were often portrayed by public health officials as the host of infectious diseases, said William Karesh, co-chair of the IUCN's veterinary specialist group.

"The mass cull of free-ranging wildlife species for disease control must be limited to situations where there is a multidisciplinary, international scientific consensus that a wildlife population poses significant threat to public health,'' the group said in a draft resolution, to be submitted to the congress next week.

The draft stresses the need for a crackdown on global wildlife trade, which they say is a major cause of infectious animal disease outbreaks. Governments must also warn people against eating exotic animals to avoid contracting animal-borne diseases.

They also warned that changing ecosystems through development can lead to changes in populations of vectors and potential hosts and to new patterns of diseases spread in ways which are often unforeseen and could cause potentially catastrophic effects.

"We have seen a lot of interesting emerging diseases in the past few years. The current outbreaks of bird flu in Asian countries are the most dramatic,'' said Dr Sonja Olsen, of the US Centers for Disease Control.

"It is interesting that the (H5N1) virus is everywhere now. But why are there very few cases? This maybe because the virus is inefficient in transmitting from poultry to humans.

"We don't know the precise reason (why there have been few human cases), but I would not be surprised if there are more human cases that have not been reported in the region,'' she said.

The outbreak of avian influenza in Southeast Asia had resulted in economic damage in the range of US$5-10 billion, while damage caused by livestock disease outbreaks in the past decade cost up to about $80 billion, according to economist James Newcomb, vice-president of the US-based Bio-Economics Research Group.

"We need a new type of institutional instrument to tackle this emergency,'' he said.

Nicholas Robinson, chairman of the IUCN commission on environmental law, said a lack of cooperation between agricultural, health, and environmental officials was a major cause of the weakness in infectious disease control systems worldwide. [return]

Lab glitch delays DNA test results
Bangkok Post, 09 November 2004, RANJANA WANGVIPULA

DNA testing on 50 orang-utans suspected of having been smuggled into the country has run into an unexpected delay, as the lab doing the testing has failed to identify their genetic code, a veterinarian said yesterday.

"The lab did a good job on the first sample but failed in the other 49. I have no idea what happened and am quite upset at having to start things all over again,'' said Theerapol Sirinarumitr, a vet at Kasetsart University.

He declined to name the lab but said it is state-owned.

Mr Theerapol has led a team of vets to test DNA samples taken from the 50 orang-utans at the request of forestry police, who suspect the Safari World Zoo may have illegally imported the rare primates from Malaysia or Indonesia.

The private zoo earlier claimed to have acquired about half of its orang-utan population of more than 100 through donations, but insisted 43 of them were born to their seven captive parents purchased before 1992, when the Wildlife Protection Act came into effect.

The police demanded the primates be subject to DNA tests and started collecting blood samples from them in late September. Mr Theerapol then extracted their DNAs from the blood samples and employed a scientific method called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to increase the volume of each DNA, so it could be detected and identified.

A problem occurred when all DNA samples were sent to the lab, which allegedly failed to identify their genetic codes, according to Mr Theerapol, who needed the results to compare whether the DNAs of the 43 orang-utans matched those of the seven apes the zoo said were their parents.

He said the lab's excuse was that it had received an insufficient DNA volume, making it unable to detect the substance. Some of his work that required the lab's expertise had also faced a similar problem in recent months, Mr Theerapol said.

His team had sent two new samples to another state-owned lab. If everything went smoothly, he would send all samples to the new lab, which should give him the test results in the next three weeks, the vet said.

"There's nothing to do but to wait for the results. We can't do it ourselves,'' said Pol Lt-Col Chatchai Thamvichai, who heads a team of forestry police handling the case. Wildlife Conservation Bureau director Schwann Tunhikorn defended the laboratory, saying technical mistakes can happen. [return]

Another 60 tigers under bird flu watch
Sri Racha zoo closure extended by 21 days
Bangkok Post, 29 October 2004, Jerdsak Saengthongcharoen and Preeyanat Phanayanggoor

Another 60 tigers have been put under bird flu watch at Sri Racha Tiger Zoo and they will be put to death if tests show they are infected with the virus.

Blood samples had been sent to labs at Kasetsart and Chulalongkorn universities and the Livestock Research Centre for testing, Chon Buri governor Pisit Ketphasuk said yesterday. They would be killed by lethal injection if the tests came back positive.

The zoo previously had 441 tigers but 83 have died of bird flu or been killed after tests showed they were infected with the disease. Provincial officials inspected the zoo yesterday and decided to keep it under watch for 21 more days under the communicable disease control law.

Mr Pisit said the zoo could reopen if the tests were negative and the zoo could prove it was free of bird flu.

Raw chicken carcasses believed to have transmitted the virus to the tigers were not from slaughterhouses in Chon Buri province, he said. The Livestock Development Department was now heading the search for the source and working on measures to prevent it happening again.

Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng advised pet owners, especially children, to be very careful when touching pets which have come in contact with chickens or ducks because it was possible they could indirectly be infected with the virus. Mr Chaturon leads the national committee combating bird flu.

The director-general of the Disease Control Department, Thawat Suthracharn, said health officials would instruct provincial governors to pay more attention to chicken-raising areas and ensure they were kept clean to help prevent the further spread of the disease. [return]

Virus kills 23 tigers at private zoo
Bangkok Post, 20 October 2004

Twenty-nine tigers at Sri Racha Tiger Zoo in Chon Buri have died since last Thursday, with most of the deaths confirmed to be from bird flu. Earlier yesterday, officials said laboratory test results confirmed that 23 tigers kept at the private zoo have died of avian influenza. Later in the day a zoo spokesman said a total of 29 tigers have died.

The dead tigers are believed to have contracted bird flu from eating raw chicken carcasses, their staple food at the zoo. But officials said the mass tiger death did not signify a virus mutation although a research team would make a study.

"Mammals can contract the disease if exposed to it. Those tigers ate a lot of chickens suspected of carrying the virus,'' said Dr Nirundorn Aungtragoolsuk, who heads the Livestock Development Department's Bureau of Disease Control and Veterinary Services.

The dead tigers were aged between eight months and two years. Prior to their deaths there were 441 at the zoo, which opened in 1997 to raise mainly tigers and crocodiles. They fell ill and died of severe lung infection at a rate of four or five each day from Oct 14.

Dr Charal Trinvudhipong, director of the government's anti-bird flu centre, said about 30 other tigers were also ill. They had been quanrantined and their tissue samples sent for testing.

More than 200 zoo workers have been given medical examination. Thirty-seven of them had earlier developed fever but were tested negative for bird flu, he said. The zoo operator has decided to close down the park until safety can be assured. Managing director Maitri Temsiripong said the zoo bought 15 tonnes of raw chicken ribs daily from exporting factories in the province and in Bangkok.

The zoo shutdown would mean an income loss of 700,000-800,000 baht a day, he said, but he was thankful more than 50 officials had been deployed to help contain the disease at the zoo. If the problem was not solved soon, tourism and tiger breeding at the zoo would be severely hurt, he said.

Dr Charal said raw chicken carcasses supplied by a slaughtershouse nearby were probably the prime cause of the epidemic at the zoo. Tests on carcasses there would be completed soon. More than 600 workers at the slaugterhouse also received medical checks but none showed symptoms of bird flu.

Officials would check the slaugtherhouse to see whether it had violated official guidelines that chickens must be examined before slaughter. Violations would lead to its closure. "We can say now that the situation is under control,'' Dr Charal declared, saying the mass tiger death was ``not an unusual occurrence''. Six tigers contracted the virus during the first bird flu outbreak and only one survived.

Dr Schwann Tunhikorn, director of Wildlife Conservation Bureau, said other zoos in the country, 45 of which also raise tigers, had been told to pay special attention to the food they give their animals. During the current outbreak of the disease, the second in the kingdom, four people were infected from July 1-Oct 1. Three of them died while the other has recovered. Four patients are under medical care as suspected cases, while 116 others are awaiting lab test results.

Since Oct 1, bird flu has been confirmed in poultry in 39 provinces and 177,069 chickens have been culled. [return]

needed to crack down on wrongdoers, many of whom walk away with light punishments and carry on the trade.

''We need time to teach lawyers, judges and prosecutors it's an organised crime which is very serious,'' said Katalin Rodics, head of Hungary's Division of International Nature Conservation Agreements. Hungary is a major transit point for wild animals smuggled from Asia and Africa to major western European markets, where animal parts for traditional Chinese medicines are in huge demand. But she said many eastern central European countries, including Hungary, have weak wildlife smuggling laws. She said the way forward is to raise awareness among judges about how grave wildlife crime is since punishments very much depend on them.

Hong Kong senior forestry officer CS Cheung said: ''Several years ago we organised training for magistrates and it worked. We saw some magistrates starting to impose heavier fines on wildlife [trade] criminals.'' Mr Cheung said many countries have already established systems embracing fines, life sentences and the death penalty. But which of these is chosen depends on the various perceptions by judges about the severity of the crime.

The illegal transnational wildlife trade has been a major concern of the global wildlife trade regulator, CITES, which has been striving to end the problem through stricter trade controls. According to the official World Conservation Union ''Red List,'' a total of 5,428 species, from insects to elephants are threatened with extinction.

Thailand's Forestry Police Commander Pol Maj Gen Swake Pinsinchai claimed illegal wildlife trade penalties in Thailand were not weak as there was a maximum fine of 40,000-baht and four years in jail. He admitted most criminals were usually fined, but punishment was up to the courts and it was inappropriate to interfere with their decisions. [return]

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