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Karen-Jane Dudley from the Isle of Wight has launched an appeal in a bid to to raise money to enable the tracking of 5 rare white lions which are set to be released into the wild. She is trying to raise £1,000 for the Global White Lions Trust in South Africa.

The trust wants to fit the 2 adults and 3 cubs with radio collars before they are released in 2 months.

White lions are a rare mutation of lion found in Timbavati, South Africa, where the charity will be releasing them.

According to African folklore, magical white lions are born every 100 years to bring joy to those who witness them.

According to the trust, there are only about 300 white lions remaining in the world.

It has purchased its own land within the white lions’ ancestral homelands of Timbavati since private reserves there still hunt lions as trophies.

White lions are thought to have become extinct in the wild in 1994 and the Global White Lions Trust began reintroducing them into the wild in 2006.

Ms Dudley said: “With the mortality rate for lions in the wild at 80% – only 20% survive to adulthood – the lives of this royal pride could depend on this radio tracking equipment.

“The money raised… will be vital to allow us to know where they are and keep them as safe as possible. The team will sleep a lot easier knowing the young pride can be monitored day and night thanks to this equipment.”

Ms Dudley is also holding a photographic exhibition of her work with the lions to raise money for the Global White Lions Trust.

It will will be on at Dimbola Lodge Museum in Freshwater Bay, on the Isle of Wight, until 1 March.

Authorities in Thailand have seized the slaughtered carcasses of 2 tigers and a panther and charged the man transporting them with possessing endangered wildlife.

The two Bengali tigers and a black panther were discovered when a truck was stopped for a routine search late on Monday in the southern province of Pattani.

Lieutenant Colonel Theewa Daorueng, of Pattani’s police force, said the animals had been shot, cut in half and frozen for the journey.

It was not clear where the big cats had come from, he said.

“The driver was charged with illegal possession of carcasses of endangered wildlife and faces four years imprisonment,” he said.

“He has denied the charges and said he was not aware that there were carcasses in his pick-up truck.”

The arrested man told police he was hired to drive from Sungai Kolok town on the Malaysian border to Hat Yai city, the Thai south’s commercial hub.

Thailand, with its highly developed infrastructure and location, is a transportation centre for the thriving illicit animal trade in Southeast Asia, animal rights groups say.

Tiger hunting is illegal worldwide, but tiger numbers in Asia are declining because of loss of prey and habitat due to uncontrolled development, and poaching for the black market trade in tiger skins and bones.

The wines and medicines made from the animals are traditionally believed to have healing or aphrodisiac properties.

Remote camera traps set up in protected areas of Ecuador’s Amazon region have captured a series of photos of jaguars. Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society fear that habitat loss and the commercial sale of bushmeat is threatening the long-term survival of the big cats.

Devon, England:- A zoo owner is keeping his fingers crossed that a new arrival could help boost the park’s lynx numbers.  A potential new mate has been brought in from Cornwall for Dartmoor Zoo’s 9 year-old Siberian lynx Kiruna. Les is a 12-year-old male from Newquay Zoo whose previous mate is now too old to reproduce. Dartmoor Zoo’s Benjamin Mee said local zoos were increasingly working together for conservation purposes.  “This is the culmination of a long, long wait,” he said.  It will be Keruna’s first mate, so the two animals will be introduced to each other gradually, with Les first being let out in a small fenced off area of Keruna’s enclosure.  “They’ll be able to see each other through the bars and get the scents and if they get on really well, we’ll open the hatch and just wait to see what happens,” curator Will Walker said.

Uttar Pradesh: Northern India:- Wildlife wardens are hunting 3 tigers that have killed eight people since November. Teams mounted on elephants have been ordered to shoot one of the tigers and chase two others back into the forest. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in fear. Forest officials say conservation work has boosted tiger numbers in India but human settlement is increasingly limiting the animals’ natural habitat.

This week, the World Wide Fund for Nature ran a report about the continued problems of tiger trafficking in Soutyh East Asia when highway police in Kuala Lumpor seized the contents of a truck containing 4 freshly slaughtered tigers, believed to be on their way from Malaysia to China last week.

At the same time as the seizure, and only four hours’ drive north, police from China, the US and Southeast Asian states concluded a meeting in Bangkok on how better to coordinate anti-wildlife trafficking efforts, with tigers a leading item on the agenda.

The result of the meeting was the beginning of a strategy on how to dismantle the organized crime syndicates that are believed to be behind the illegal killing and trade of endangered species such as tigers.

The seizure was particularly shocking for Malaysian wildlife authorities, who just last month launched an ambitious new National Tiger Action Plan which seeks to double the number of wild tigers in Malaysia by 2020.

Poaching is the biggest threat to tigers in Malaysia and the population of tigers there has gone from 3,000 to 500 in the last 50 years. Tigers are poached for their parts, which are used in traditional medicine and eaten as an exotic dish in countries such as China.

“Illegal trade is the most urgent and immediate threat to wild tigers, having the greatest potential to do maximum harm in the shortest span of time,” said Azrina Abdullah, Regional Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, based in Malaysia.

“With a thriving international market for tiger products, there appears to be a large and very well-connected organized network of hunters and traders that target tigers in the region.”

Two men were reportedly arrested in connection with smuggling the dead tigers but according to Dr Loh Chi Leong, Malaysian Nature Society’s Executive Director: “Wildlife crime is not considered a priority within Malaysia’s judicial system and penalties for such crimes are often extremely low and therefore do not serve as a deterrent. Time and again wildlife offenders often escape arrest, prosecution and punishment.”

Conservationists in Malaysia hope that Protection of Wild Life Act 1972 will be updated as it is severely outdated and riddled with loopholes, often enabling wildlife offenders to escape arrest, prosecution and punishment.

The National Tiger Action Plan for Malaysia outlines actions that are specifically focused on the importance of improved intelligence-driven anti-poaching patrols in key tiger habitat and better enforcement of wildlife and wildlife trade laws.

WWF and its partners including the Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, Wildlife Conservation Society (Malaysia Programme) are helping to implement the plan by working on securing key forest areas that are connected so tigers can migrate safely from place to place and providing anti-poaching protection for tigers and their prey.

“This was a bad start to the year for Malaysia’s tigers,” said Dr. Susan Lieberman Director of WWF International’s Species Programme. “There is no time to waste – we must all work together to ensure enhanced enforcement in Malaysia and beyond, and efforts to stop illegal trade into China, so that one of Earth’s most iconic species will thrive and indeed recover in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.”

The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was dog-like in appearance and striped like a big cat – but in evolutionary terms, it had little in common with either, and was more closely related to kangaroos and koalas.

Scientists have detailed a significant proportion of the genes found in the extinct Tasmanian “tiger”.

The international team extracted the hereditary information from the hair of preserved animal remains held in Swedish and US museums.

The information has allowed scientists to confirm the tiger’s evolutionary relationship to other marsupials.

The study, reported in the journal Genome Research, may also give pointers as to why some animals die out.

The two tigers examined had near-identical DNA, suggesting there was very little genetic diversity in the species when it went over the edge.
Although it was hunting that finally drove the Australian animal out of existence, its longevity as a species may already have been fatally compromised, the researchers believe.

The lessons should not be lost on modern conservation efforts, the team says.
“Looking at the genetic diversity in a population is a key marker for endangerment and it should be used to assess the urgency of preservation,” said Professor Stephan Schuster from Penn State University

Wild thylacines were present until the early 1900s; the last known captive specimen died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.

Its recent demise, and the existence of several well-preserved specimens in museums, has led many to speculate that the animal might be the best extinct candidate for attempted resurrection through new molecular science techniques such as cloning.

But the team behind the latest research says its motivation lies in a different direction.

“Our goal is to learn how to prevent endangered species from going extinct,” said Webb Miller, another Penn State professor and a member of the research team that includes scientists from the US, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, the UK, and Germany.
“I want to learn as much as I can about why large mammals become extinct because all my friends are large mammals,” Professor Miller added.
“However, I am expecting that publication of this paper also will reinvigorate discussions about possibly bringing the extinct Tasmanian tiger back to life.”

The team extracted DNA from the preserved hair of the tigers. This tactic has recently become a fruitful avenue of research.

The DNA molecule will degrade over time, but the hair shaft’s keratin material slows the decay and limits bacterial contamination.

This same team used the approach to piece together about 80% of the genome of a woolly mammoth, a beast that disappeared several thousand years ago.

“The hair is like a shrine for DNA,” Professor Schuster said. “In bone you have millions and millions of porous channels, and micro-organisms can penetrate it very deeply; and when they die inside the bone, they deposit their DNA on top of the DNA of the animal. In hair, the bacteria are mostly on the outside, and you can use protocols to decontaminate the hair and once you have done this, you resolve the material from the hair shaft and you retrieve the DNA that was stored on the inside.”

This latest research has identified the small set of genes found in mitochondria, the structures that power biological cells. The DNA in mitochondria is handed down from mother to offspring.

Because it mutates at a stable rate, researchers can use it like a clock to time the divergence of species. By doing this, it is possible to show that the tiger’s closest living relative is another marsupial called a numbat.

Malaysia has launched a plan which aims to double the country’s tiger population by 2020.

Conservation groups and the government have set an ambitious target of expanding the tiger population from 500 to around 1,000 over 12 years.

Numbers have fallen sharply in recent decades because of illegal hunting.

Conservationists say new security measures will prevent poaching and that jungle corridors will be restored so tigers can roam over larger areas.

The National Tiger Action Plan is the government’s first concerted effort to reverse the decline in tiger numbers, instead of merely slowing it.

Although Malayan tigers have been protected by wildlife laws since the early 1970s, their numbers have been hit by demand for their meat and for body parts which are sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine.

Authorities estimate the wild tiger population has fallen from 3,000 to 500 in the past 50 years, largely due to illegal hunting and the human encroachment and destruction of the tigers’ natural jungle habitat.

Malaysia’s tropical forests are home to a wide range of threatened animals, including orang-utans, Borneo sun bears, Sumatran rhinoceroses and pygmy elephants.

A revolutionary new  scheme to protect livestock in Namibia has proved so successful, that it’s being exported to Kenya. The scheme uses Anatolian Kangol dogs to protect goats and sheep from attack by wild animals. With their livestock safe from attack, farmers no longer feel the need to hunt cheetahs and leopards. “We have had amazing results,” said Laurie Marker of the Cheetah Conservation Fund. “Since the dogs were imported, the cheetah population had increased by a third,” she said.

Anatolian Kangal dogs are extremely loyal and are ready to fight to the death.

The puppies are given to farmers when they are just eight weeks old. They grow up with the flocks of goats and sheep they are to guard and bond with them. If a predator approaches, the dogs bark loudly and the flock gathers round them. This is enough to scare most attackers off, Ms Marker says.

The cheetah may go without a meal, but the result is that the farmers don’t suffer losses and so they learn to live with the big cats, she says. Instead of shooting leopard and cheetah or putting poison down to kill jackals, farmers will tolerate these predators.

The Conservation Trust began importing the Kangal from Turkey in 1994 and since then has provided around 300 dogs to farmers.

The dogs have a long history, having been bred specially to protect domestic animals.

“Livestock loss has been reduced by over 80%,” Ms Marker says.

Namibia’s cheetah population has increased by a third. “We have a huge waiting list and we are constantly trying to breed more dogs for the farmers.”  Namibia now has around a quarter of the world’s cheetah.  “Today we estimate the population at 3,000 – it is the world’s most endangered big cat,” says Ms Marker.

So successful has the programme been that it is being exported to Kenya’s famous reserve, the Masai Mara. The first puppy, Iseiya, has arrived safely. The hope is that it will grow up with Kenya’s goats and play the same role in protecting its flocks as they now do in Namibia.

IT was an extra special Christmas at Tiger Island, Dreamworld where tiger cubs Shanti, Ndari and Jaya enjoyed their first look at a Christmas tree.

In the specifically designed habitat of Tiger Island, the tigers and their handlers co-exist peacefully without the constraints of cages creating an exciting and unique experience for guests.

Dreamworld’s tigers are trained (never ‘tamed’) by establishing from birth a strong bond, based on trust, respect and affection, between the handlers and tigers. The tigers live in a stress free environment receiving a highly specialised diet, veterinary care and the necessary stimulation from interaction with their handlers.