IFAW's Animal Rescue Blog

VICTORY! eBay Announces Global Ban on Ivory

We applaud eBay’s decision to institute a global ban on the sale of elephant ivory products by 1 January 2009 and call on all other internet traders to follow their example.

eBay’s decision was announced just hours before the release of our latest investigative report showing Internet trade in wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of elephants and many other endangered species.

You can download the report at http://www.ifaw.org

The report, which followed a six-week investigation that tracked more than 7,000 wildlife product listings on 183 Web sites in 11 countries, singled out eBay as the largest contributor to the problem, responsible for almost two-thirds of the online trade in wildlife products worldwide

The report, Killing with Keystrokes: An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web, will be released tomorrow and shows that more than 70% of all endangered species’ products listed for sale on the Internet occur in the United States. The amount of trade tracked in the U.S. was nearly 10 times the trade tracked in the next two leading countries, the United Kingdom and China.

Elephant ivory dominated the investigation, comprising 73% of all product listings tracked. Exotic birds were second, accounting for nearly 20% of the listings tracked, but primates, big cats and other animals are also falling victim to the e-trade in live animals and wildlife products, according to the report.

We congratulate eBay on this very important step to protect elephants. With these findings and eBay’s leadership, there is no doubt left that all Internet dealers need to take responsibility for their impact on endangered species by enacting and enforcing a ban on all online wildlife trade. eBay has set the standard for protecting elephants, now governments and other online dealers need to follow their example.

Thanks for all your support in keeping the pressure on eBay!

March of the Penguins: Rehabilitated Penguins head home

After a long journey from northern Brazil, 372 penguins were released back into the wild on Saturday, Oct 4th.  Watch this video taken by IFAW's Michael Booth as these fascinating birds find their way home.  Thank you to all of our supporters that make our work possible!

Flight Books 399 Seats For Penguins

It had been a frustrating couple of days. Many of us couldn’t get a full nights’ sleep worrying about the penguins and when we could finally be on our way. After evaluating 400 penguins in record-time, the operation was dangling on a tight-rope. Our ride to southern Brazil in a cargo military plane had been put on hold, twice! Twice we started crating penguins and loading them up to trucks, twice we were told to abort the operation. The Air force was having mechanical problems with their Hercules C-130 and flying was impossible.

Every day that passes with these penguins in captivity is a huge disappointment at this point; we know the grave consequences that captivity has on wildlife. You see, penguins are sea creatures; they spend the great majority of their lives swimming and feeding at sea and consequently suffer after long periods of time ashore. They not only look awkward and innocent as they waddle from one place to the other but sure enough, land-locked life takes a physical toll on penguins, namely on their feet which quickly grow blisters, swell up and easily get infected. Standing or lying on their feces also leads to deterioration in their feathered cover destroying their waterproofing abilities.

Lost Penguins Hop On A Flight Home To Southern Brazil

Two months ago more than a thousand juvenile penguins washed up on the shores of northeast Brazil in extremely poor condition. Northeast Brazil is much farther north than their usual 'home' range, some of the penguins were found as far north as Natal in Rio Grande do Norte. This type of unusual event appears to be naturally occurring and has been seen two or three times in the last 20 years.

Media were quick to link this to global warming, but the science to substantiate this claim is not there yet.

According to penguin researcher, Dr. Dee Boersma, there is a flow of warmer water which has caused the juvenile penguins to keep going north, past their usual range where they are unable to find adequate food.  There is always a high mortality rate for first year birds, however traveling farther north and given the lack of available food increased the normal mortality rate for this group of penguins even more. Almost all of the penguins found on the beaches in northeastern Brazil were juveniles; starving and in an extremely debilitated state. 

Local wildlife groups were alerted to the condition of these penguins and quickly began rescuing them. Instituto Mamíferos Aquáticos was one of the centers in Brazil who made room for the rescued penguins and offered them rehabilitative care at their center in preparation for release. To date, around 850 penguins were rescued. Sadly, many of the other juvenile penguins died on the beach.

IFAW Penguin "Mystery Stranding" Brazil - 8.4.08

More than 1000 juvenile Magellanic penguins have washed-up either dead or dying along the Brazilian coast and as far north as Natal in Rio Grande do Norte, 3000 km north of Sao Paulo. IFAW deployed a team of penguin rehabilitation experts to assist local animal centers that are handling penguins for the first time.

Video comes from: Rodolfo Da Silva in the field in Salvador, Bahia and Vitoria, Espiritu Santo.

Banded Penguin One Of Ours!

This is an update on the Oil Spill IFAW responded to December - February of this year:

One of the biologists that we were working very close with in Argentina, Carla Poleschi - Wildlife Branch Director for the Argentine Government, has been surveying surrounding areas and islands for remnants of the oil spill that IFAW responded to two months ago. Sure enough, hundreds of dead, oiled penguins have been found in remote areas. This is a reminder of what effects an oil spill (small or large) can have on wild populations.

IFAW and local authorities spent two months rehabilitating birds that had been rescued from an oiled beach in Patagonia, however the animals we successfully rehabilitated and released were just a fraction of the total amount of birds affected.

This week, while traveling surroundings of Argentina, Carla informed our team that she had spotted several times one of the penguins we released on February 9th from Southern Argentina. The attached image of a jovial, sunning penguin is the lucky guy I'm talking about. This individual is currently located about 200 miles south of where it was released, residing with a colony waiting to molt around the area of Cabo Dos Bahias.

Carla has been able to identify the penguin because of the band it is wearing. We banded all the penguins that were released from our rehabilitation center just for that reason, so that we are able to find them among penguin colonies that are routinely studied.

More Penguins Released To Join Original Colonies

Over the past couple days IFAW has been coordinating the release of rehabilitated penguins in Argentina following weeks of rehabilitation and intensive care.

"It has been very emotional for volunteers and all other groups involved. There are about 190 penguins left so we are beginning to see the end", said Jay Holcomb IFAW Responder and Executive Director of IBRRC. This is the long awaited end to many hectic days spent effortlessly caring for these animals so that they could receive a second chance at life. However, nothing is more rewarding than to see these penguins touch native soil and water for the first time after coming such a long way through rehabilitation.

Now that nearly all birds except the penguins (cormorants, grebes and ducks) have been released, attention has strongly focused on getting the remaining penguins out the door. "All penguins have been put on a very aggressive swimming schedule that will help them become waterproof", says Jay. We use the terms "go grade" to describe the process of checking for waterproofing. Animal care personnel at the Center go grade daily. Most penguins have passed, however about 20 penguins have been set aside for re-checks.

In total there have been 2 penguin releases in the past couple days. Both have taken place in Rada Tilly which is an ideal shore location just south of the Center. Below is a video from the first release and coming soon is a video from the second release - thanks Rodolfo for taking the video for us! There are several great images from these releases as well, so I've compiled them all into a slide show. (Keep an eye out for Chema - our penguin wrangler!)

There is no way to predict in what direction these penguins will continue on in their journey or if they will travel together to find other penguin colonies. Right now there are many penguin colonies to the north and south of the release site. However if they do venture back to their original colonies they will probably "start molting before migrating north towards Brazil, " says Valeria Ruoppolo, IFAW veterinarian and on-site coordinator.

Here is a slide show of photos taken from the recent releases:

IFAW Begins Releasing Penguins Back to the Sea!

Valeria Ruoppolo, IFAW's Latin American Emergency Responder recently posted this report from the rehabilitation center in Argentina...

We have washed most of the birds by now but still getting 1 or 2 cormorants everyday. There is oil in the water and today we're expecting an extraordinary high tide, with the possibility of more oil washing off the rocks and mussel beds into the water.

Yesterday we released the last 3 steamer ducks and another 4 grebes. Only 4 grebes left, 11 clean cormorants and 3 oiled. 193 clean penguins and 1 (emaciated) still oiled. 212 birds in care, 94 released.

Today we're having another big feather grading day on the penguins! Birds that approve waterproofing get their blood taken, and with blood approval among other criteria, they get measured and banded to be released tomorrow. We're expecting at least 50 penguins to go tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.
Valeria xx

__
Valeria Ruoppolo

International Fund for Animal Welfare

Emergency Relief

45 Minutes To Clean A Penguin

With the release of all of the grebes and most of the cormorants behind us, we are now focusing on getting all the penguins washed and healthy enough to be released as well. (One of my reasons for not posting to the blog as frequently is because our days have become much much longer and I enjoy at least 4 hours of sleep at night).

There are always unpredictable circumstances that challenge us to meet our goal at the end of the day; whether it's that the water tanks have run dry, more birds are brought in that need immediate care, more oil surfacing requires additional search and collection or that some of our staff can't access the Center because the road had been blocked off!

During the first two days of penguin washing our aim was to have at least 20 through the wash and rinse process by the evening. As our routines began to flow easier and an additional wash/rinse section was added, 20 penguins slowly increased to 25. Feeling the endurance, the wash team decided that we should aim to wash 50 penguins in one day whether or not we had to stay until midnight and in the end we did it! That was one very long day.

Entering the "wash and rinse" process can be extremely stressful for the birds, so it is therefore extremely important that each individual present average or above average blood levels and be at a good weight. The first step in the process is to have their photo logged and a feather sample taken. Some penguins are better at standing still for a photo than others. Typically, I was taking 4 shots of each individual hoping at least one would come out reasonable enough. The importance of a good photo is so that our data matches up with the number of animals we claim to have in house at the end of the day and a photo ID of each bird will accomplish that.

From here the penguins move into the wash room where it can take anywhere from 30-45 minutes in a wash tub. A thorough wash is then followed by a lengthy rinse. Again the rinse can take anywhere from from 30-45 minutes, usually closer to 45 or more. At the end of the rinse, the penguin's feathers are closely examined to ensure that water will "bounce" from the feather surfaces.

Here is a slide show compilation of the average wash day:

Feeding Rehabilitated Penguins In Argentina