Category: General News

Environmental, Farm Animals, General News

EU / China: EU investments driving unsustainable farming in China.

17 December 2021

Study found a significant increase in EU investments flowing to the Chinese livestock sector following the introduction of new investment rules in China. In the absence of sufficient animal welfare related standards in the country, this practice harms the global transition towards sustainable food systems, and fuels the public health and environmental crises the planet faces.

In 2020, EU and EFTA-based investors owned shares worth around €4.5 billion across four of the largest Chinese meat and dairy companies: WH Group, Muyuan, Mengniu and Yili. With the introduction of new investment rules in China, investors like JP Morgan Asset Management Europe, Allianz SE and BNP Paribas significantly increased their shareholding. 

In recent years, European livestock giants like Tonnies and Danone have also entered the Chinese market. Tonnies, whose core business is pork and beef processing, spent €500 million in 2019 on a slaughter and butchering centre in the Sichuan region, initially for two million pigs a year (rising to six million), while Danone earned almost €1 billion in profits from the 2021 sale of its stake in Chinese dairy company Mengniu. The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, which holds the world’s biggest stock portfolio, also entered the market after the new rules were introduced, now owning shares worth approximately €437 million in these four companies. 

The business opportunities may seem eye-watering, but a perfect storm of economic, cultural and regulatory issues that accompany EU investments into the Chinese livestock sector could lead to misery for millions of animals. China’s livestock sector is growing in the direction of greater intensification and automation, and the welfare problems associated with intensive livestock are well known and increase with scale.

In addition to being detrimental to animal welfare, intensive industrial farming has a very negative impact on the environment (air, water and ground pollution), biodiversity (as related land-use changes often lead to habitat loss), public health (as intensive conditions tend to favour the spread of zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance) and climate change (as animals emit greenhouse gases, and also because of the related deforestation). Intensive farming also leads to huge volumes of waste (i.e. high level of water use, animal remains, excrement, water and soil pollution). 

Without careful management and awareness of the welfare concerns associated with intensification and automation – and in the absence of further regulation in China – EU investments risk transforming China into a living laboratory for futuristic experiments in animal husbandry, with consequences that could affect the entire planet. 

In that context, the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) – which has not been ratified yet – is also a missed opportunity as it does not allow to address a situation where investments fostered under the deal would fuel unsustainable sectors.

To prevent such situation, Eurogroup for Animals thus calls on the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU Member States to:

  • adopt effective rules on due diligence, including animal welfare within their scope; 
  • bring up the animal welfare dimension in the work started with China on agreed terms for responsible investment;
  • establish a cooperation mechanism with China around animal welfare standards;
  • promote a reform of the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles in multilateral development banks where the EU and/or its Member States are share owners to include EU-equivalent animal welfare  requirements.

The sustainability of EU investments in the Chinese livestock sector – The role of Animal Welfare

File

Report: The sustainability of EU investments in the Chinese livestock sector – The role of Animal Welfare2.38 MB

Regards Mark

Environmental, General News

England: ‘Gentle giants’: rangers prepare for return of wild bison to UK.

European wild bison

The rangers will manage the first wild bison to roam in the UK for thousands of years. Photograph: Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright

Animals arrive in Kent in spring 2022 and will create forest clearings – described as ‘jet fuel for biodiversity’

“When you see them in the wild, there’s this tangible feeling of humility and respect,” says Tom Gibbs, one of the UK’s first two bison rangers. “The size of them instantly demands your respect, although they are quite docile. I wouldn’t say they are scary, but you’re aware of what they can do.”

The rangers will manage the first wild bison to roam in the UK for thousands of years when four animals arrive in north Kent in the spring of 2022. The bison are Europe’s largest land animal – bulls can weigh a tonne – and were extinct in the wild a century ago, but are recovering through reintroduction projects across Europe.

“They are magnificent animals, truly gentle giants,” says colleague Donovan Wright, who spent 20 years working with rhino, cape buffalo and other large animals in southern Africa. “The Kent project is very different, but it’s no less important.”

Wright says: “How amazing will it be to track the largest land mammal in the UK on foot right here in [Kent]? To experience something like this only five miles from Canterbury would be just incredible, and help people reconnect with nature.”

Gibbs and Wright have just returned from training with wild bison herds in the Netherlands, where they were reintroduced in 2007. The £1m Kent project is called Wilder Blean and is run by the Kent Wildlife Trust and the Wildwood Trust, and funded by the People’s Postcode Lottery. A principal aim is for the bison to rewild a dense, former commercial pine forest.

Continued on page 2

Tom Gibbs (L) and Donovan Wright.
Tom Gibbs (L) and Donovan Wright. Photograph: Tom Gibbs and Donovan Wright
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Environmental, General News

Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds.
Plastic washed ashore on Berawa Beach, Bali, Indonesia.
Plastic washed ashore on Berawa Beach, Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds

Surprising discovery shows scale of plastic pollution and reveals enzymes that could boost recycling

Bugs across globe are evolving to eat plastic, study finds | Plastics | The Guardian

Microbes in oceans and soils across the globe are evolving to eat plastic, according to a study.

The research scanned more than 200m genes found in DNA samples taken from the environment and found 30,000 different enzymes that could degrade 10 different types of plastic.

The study is the first large-scale global assessment of the plastic-degrading potential of bacteria and found that one in four of the organisms analysed carried a suitable enzyme. The researchers found that the number and type of enzymes they discovered matched the amount and type of plastic pollution in different locations.

The results “provide evidence of a measurable effect of plastic pollution on the global microbial ecology”, the scientists said.

Millions of tonnes of plastic are dumped in the environment every year, and the pollution now pervades the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. Reducing the amount of plastic used is vital, as is the proper collection and treatment of waste.

But many plastics are currently hard to degrade and recycle. Using enzymes to rapidly break down plastics into their building blocks would enable new products to be made from old ones, cutting the need for virgin plastic production. The new research provides many new enzymes to be investigated and adapted for industrial use.

“We found multiple lines of evidence supporting the fact that the global microbiome’s plastic-degrading potential correlates strongly with measurements of environmental plastic pollution – a significant demonstration of how the environment is responding to the pressures we are placing on it,” said Prof Aleksej Zelezniak, at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Continued on next page

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Environmental, General News

Pesticides have polluted our rivers and lakes – and there’s no quick fix.

From ‘The Guardian’, London.

Pesticides have polluted our rivers and lakes – and there’s no quick fix
Damian Carrington   I have been reporting on pesticides for more than a decade, but some revelations really stick in my mind. One was the discovery in 2013 of insecticide pollution in the ditches by Dutch fields that was so bad the water itself could have been used as an effective pest killer. Not surprisingly the impact on dragonflies, snails and other wild water creatures was devastating.

The situation does not appear to have improved. New research by the European Environment Agency showed excessive levels of pesticides in about a quarter of rivers and lakes across the EU, with the Netherlands the worst affected. More than half of all Dutch water bodies – 56% – had high levels of pesticides, including 62% of lakes.
Agriculture is particularly intensive in the Netherlands, but it is far from alone in dousing its landscapes in pesticides. In Italy, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Finland, about half of water bodies were heavily polluted, as well as 38% in Germany, 33% in Ireland, and 26% in France.

The EEA also reported excess pesticides in groundwater in about 5% of sites. The striking aspect of this was that the most common pollutant was atrazine, which was banned in the EU in 2007. “It is very persistent,” said the EEA, which also noted that, unlike most pollutants, pesticides are specifically designed to kill living things.

The data analysed by the EEA was taken from more than 20,000 monitoring sites across the EU between 2013 and 2019, but it is far from the full picture. Only half the pesticides detected have exceeded limits set by Europe – the other half could not be included in the study.
The data is also reported voluntarily by countries, meaning considerable gaps remain, but there is no indication of an improving situation. The UK is no longer an EU member, so was not included in the EEA analysis, but insecticides were revealed to be polluting rivers in England in 2017.

The number of different pesticides reported in EU rivers and lakes was more than 100 in Germany and Italy. France detected 215 different pesticides in groundwater. That reminded me of another striking finding from France, from a study I reported in 2017: virtually all farms could significantly cut their pesticide use while still producing as much food. Most pesticides are applied “just in case”, the work showed, doing little other than harming nature.

Only a few months after that, another memorable study laid out the big picture: the assumption by regulators around the world that it is safe to use pesticides at industrial scales across landscapes is false, said senior scientists. With no limit on the total amount of pesticides used, and virtually no monitoring of their effects in the environment, the damage is done before it is detected.

The new EEA analysis comes at an important time. The European Green Deal plan is aiming to reduce the use of, and risks from, chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030. Addressing the risks, as well as the volume, of pesticides is vital – the amount being used is falling, but the increasing toxicity of the chemicals is outpacing that fall.

But cutting pesticide use it is not going to be easy. Last week, the website DeSmog published an investigation into the powerful companies and lobby groups working to water down the EU’s targets for more sustainable farming. These companies and groups spent €45m lobbying EU decision-makers between 2019 and 2020, DeSmog reported, and held hundreds of meetings with relevant bodies.

Natacha Cingotti, at the Brussels-based Health and Environmental Alliance, said: “When working on pesticide-related policies, the imbalance of stakeholders in favour of industry interests is striking. The dominating actors are those very companies set to profit from the sale of harmful chemicals, not those who stand for health and environment protection.”

It looks like I’ll be writing about pesticides for the next decade as well.  

Regards Mark    


Environmental, General News

England: London Mayor (Sadiq Khan) Leads Ambitious Plans To Rewild Hyde Park.
The Serpentine in Hyde Park, west London, in autumn.
The Serpentine in Hyde Park, west London, in autumn. Photograph: Tim M/Alamy

WAV Comment:  London town – home of the brash, outrageous and free !

We very much welcome this releasing of funds to bring nature directly into central London.  Hyde park and Richmond park are such wonderful places for city folk to escape into a more natural environment before they head off back to metropolis land.

Anything that brings back nature deserves support; and we very much welcome this proposal.

Regards Mark

London mayor releases £600,000 funding to help create green rooftops and reintroduce lost species

Hyde Park could be redesigned and lost species including beavers reintroduced to London under ambitious rewilding plans.

The city’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is working with Ben Goldsmith – a member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the brother of Khan’s former rival for the mayoral election Zac Goldsmith – to boost nature in the capital, including making the royal parks wilder and encouraging people to plant green rooftops.

Ben Goldsmith said the plans would involve “more wild spaces, more scrub, river rewiggling and species reintroductions”.

Khan has released £600,000 in funding to assist the project, which will help London reach its net zero goal. Further fundraising will take place, with members of the new London rewilding roundtable group tasked with sourcing private donations.

Goldsmith said: “I’m so excited to be working with Sadiq on this new rewilding taskforce for London. All people need to experience close connection with nature in their lives, and yet for many Londoners this is a remote possibility today.

“From green rooftops to pocket parks, nest boxes for peregrines and swifts, rewiggling streams and reintroducing long lost native species, our plan is to weave wild nature back through the very fabric of our city.”

There are 1,600 places designated by local authorities as sites of importance for nature conservation, covering 20% of the capital. These include Richmond Park, Sydenham Hill Wood and the downlands in Bromley and Croydon that inspired Charles Darwin’s discoveries. At the moment, just half of these are deemed appropriately managed to conserve or enhance the wildlife.

The project will focus on 20-30 of these sites to protect species including stag beetles, sparrows, peregrine falcons and water voles. Khan has stated an aim for all Londoners to live within a 10-minute walk of green space, with this scheme aiming to connect existing spaces so everyone in the capital can enjoy nature.

A red deer stag at sunrise on a winter’s morning in Richmond Park, south-west London.
A red deer stag at sunrise on a winter’s morning in Richmond Park, south-west London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

It is also hoped the work will help tackle problems that plague Londoners including flooding and air pollution. Improving floodplains, rewiggling streams and boosting the health of rivers can alleviate floods, and planting more greenery can ease air pollution.

Khan said: “The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. In London, we need to take bold action to ensure we not only halt the decline of biodiversity in our natural environment but pave the way for growth and change.

“That’s why I’ve announced my new rewilding fund, which will help restore the capital’s precious wildlife sites, improve biodiversity and ensure all Londoners have a thriving web of nature on their doorstep. And as part of our green new deal, we’re supporting young Londoners to gain the skills required for jobs that help secure a future for London’s natural environment.”

Nature campaigners have been trying to add wildlife back to London, with a beaver group comprising Wildlife Trusts, the Beaver Trust and Citizen Zoo working on how to return the species to the capital.

The community wilding group Citizen Zoo is also involved with projects to return grasshoppers and water voles to areas in the city in which they have been depleted or lost.

Sadiq Khan leads ambitious plans to rewild Hyde Park | Rewilding | The Guardian

Regards Mark

Above – Hyde Park London.

History

King Henry VIII expropriated the park from the church in 1536. It then became a hunting ground (Boo !) for kings and aristocrats, and later a place for duels, executions and horse racing. The park was the site of the Great Exhibition in 1851, and during WWII became a vast potato bed. 

Above – The deer at Richmond Park, London

General News

European Parliament Shows Broad Political Support to Stop Circus Suffering.

16 December 2021

Thanks to 1 million citizens demanding action for wild animals in circuses, today the European Parliament (EP) discussed the topic in plenary for the very first time. The European Commission’s position is not committal and in sharp opposition to the EP’s demand for action. However, the debate showed a groundswell of political support to end the suffering of wild animals in entertainment, and a recognition for the public and civil society demands.

Back in October Eurogroup for Animals and its members, along with InfoCircos, handed over the 1 million signatures collected through the Stop Circus Suffering campaign to representatives of the European Parliament, Eleonora Evi MEP and Anja Hazekamp MEP. 

Today an “EU ban on the use of wild animals in circuses” made it to the Plenary agenda with an oral question: “Does the Commission intend to introduce a ban on the use of wild circus animals in the EU in order to ensure that the exposure to the risks of the illegal wildlife trade and risks to public health and security are uniformly mitigated across the Member States and to assist with the enforcement of national restrictions for the majority of Member States that already apply them?” and was discussed after a statement from the European Commission (EC).

The EC’s representative clearly stated that it’s an ethical issue for which only Member States (MSs) have competency. Even if the welfare of wild animals used in circuses raises concern, it’s only on the MSs to act, hence he invited them to follow the ones which have already implemented bans.    

MEPs from across the political spectrum and from a variety of MSs countered this statement and urgedthe EC not to hide behind a lack of competency. They stressed the need to listen to citizens and base the decision on science: in circuses wild animals are not only imprisoned and forced to behave unnaturally, they also pose a threat when it comes to the risk of disease transmission, to the accidents which impact trainers and public, and the use of endangered species could fuel their illegal trade.  

New circus performances without animals could keep the tradition alive without inflicting unnecessary suffering to animals and not losing anything in terms of creativity and performance. 

We welcome the strong crossparty support from the EP and the call for the Commission to not hide behind a lack of competence as several grounds could be used to enact a ban. We will not stop our efforts until the EC acts to safeguard all the wild animals currently trapped for “entertainment”, their welfare is a European responsibility and we’re going to make their voices heard

Reineke Hameleers, CEO Eurogroup for Animals

Yesterday, AAP Animal Advocacy and Protection, a member organisation of Eurogroup for Animals, signed a contract with the Portuguese authorities to rescue almost all of the remaining wild animals from Portuguese circuses. Portugal’s national ban on the use of wild animals in circuses, enacted in 2018, will enter into full force in 2024. To aid the enforcement, AAP offered suitable rescue solutions for all the remaining wild circus animals, to which most of the circuses agreed. 

The rescue community is always willing to step up and offer solutions to enforcement authorities in implementing these important bans. But we must not forget that this cruel and dangerous use of wild animals in circuses is inherently a cross-border issue, as is the rescue of these animals. We are being asked to coordinate rescues across the EU, because there are no mechanisms in place for this. These transboundary issues are still left solely to Member States to deal with nationally, while they so clearly require an EU solution. We really need the EU to step up and play its coordinating and harmonizing role here

David van Gennep, CEO, AAP.  

Text of the Oral Question

EU Stop Circus Suffering campaign

Read the report Wild Animals in EU Circuses : Problems, Risks and Solutions also available in French

Regards Mark

General News

Medina Spirit- the new victim of the horse racing mafia

Update: December 10, 2021

After PETA requested a thorough investigation into the sudden death of 3-year-old racehorse and Kentucky Derby “winner” Medina Spirit, we’re taking it a step further to protect other horses trained by Bob Baffert. Yesterday, we called on the California Horse Racing Board to protect the surviving horses in trainer Bob Baffert’s barn by issuing what amounts to a restraining order against him.

Medina Spirit

Pending necropsy results, PETA is calling for 24/7 security guards and additional drug testing. We’re also pushing the board to ban Baffert from having unsupervised contact with the horses in his barn and from making any veterinary decisions about them, as well as appointing an independent veterinarian to make all medical decisions.

Update: December 7, 2021

Medina Spirit collapsed and died during a workout at Santa Anita racetrack.

Trainer Bob Baffert claimed that the horse died of a heart attack—but this isn’t the only time one of his horses has suddenly dropped dead.

Medina Spirit

Seven of Baffert’s horses died mysteriously during a 16-month period that was suspiciously linked to his reckless and routine administration of the powerful hormone thyroxine to horses without thyroid conditions.

He has continued to be embroiled in drug controversies since then, right up until Medina Spirit’s notorious positive drug test in the Kentucky Derby.

All of Medina Spirit’s veterinary records must be seized, and a thorough investigation must be conducted. Baffert’s attorneys must not be allowed to control the narrative.

PETA urges Del Mar and Santa Anita racetrack officials to bar Baffert pending the outcome of an investigation and necropsy.

Medina Spirit –  Bob Baffert

UPDATE: June 3, 2021

Now that a second sample from the Bob Baffert–trained horse Medina Spirit has tested positive for a prohibited substance, bettors who’ve been cheated by putting money down on the rigged Kentucky Derby may contact PETA or attorneys who are filing class-action lawsuits.

But it’s important to remember the other victim here: Medina Spirit.
He should be thoroughly examined by independent veterinarians to find out why he was administered a powerful medication and whether it was through injections to his joints rather than with a topical cream.
The racing industry must at last stop buying Baffert’s nonsensical excuses and kick him out for good.

Bob Baffert and Medina Spirit, the morning after the May 1 Kentucky Derby.

“Doping horses has got to stop—not only is it cruel, it’s also race fixing. This settlement serves as a shot across the bow to trainers who care more about their bank accounts than about horses: Stop cheating or risk having to pay up.”
(PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo)

Performance-enhancing drugs often mask horses’ pain, allowing them to race and train with injuries that would otherwise be disabling.
Illegal doping and the overuse of medication are rampant and frequently lead to injury, broken bones, and death.

As a PETA investigation showed, illegal drugging is common in horseracing, as is the misuse of anti-inflammatories, painkillers, muscle relaxants, and more to keep injured horses on the track and bringing in money when they should be recuperating from strains and injuries.

An average of three horses die every day on racetracks in the U.S.

https://www.peta.org/blog/bettor-sues-horse-trainer-owner-doping/

And I mean… Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit was training on a California racetrack. Then suddenly the horse collapsed.
Betamethasone has been detected in Medina Spirit.
This is an anti-inflammatory steroid that can be administered no later than 14 days before a race.
Of course Baffert did not want to know anything about it, he emphasized that he had not given the horse the remedy.

In recent years, however, Baffert has repeatedly been targeted by the state horse racing authorities, as permanently prohibited substances have been detected in horses from his stables.

Many people view horse racing as a harmless sport in which the animals are willing participants who enjoy the thrill to the fullest.
The truth is that behind the scenes lies a story of immense suffering.

The life of a horse used for racing is miserable and painful:

-The use of performance-enhancing and pain-masking drugs is rampant in the racing industry. The horses are more likely to suffer from pulmonary bleeding and catastrophic injuries on the track as they’re pushed beyond their physical limits.

– While their bones are still growing and not yet strong enough to handle the speed of racing, the abuse of yearlings and 2-year-olds in training is commonplace, resulting in catastrophic injuries and often death.

– Jockeys have been known to whip horses so mercilessly that the animals’ eyes have hemorrhaged and they’ve sustained other injuries.
As if the races themselves weren’t hard enough, the horses endure repeated auctions, serial ownership, and constant travel throughout their careers.

Racehorse at the slaughterhouse – Australia

Retirement equals slaughter.
Whenthe animals are no longer making money, they’re shipped to Mexico, Canada, or Japan to be slaughtered for food.

The easiest and best way to speak out against the horceracing Mafia is by not supporting these tragic events.

We want an end to all horse racing because it is a cruel and exploitative industry.
We can all help: Avoid anything horse racing related and educate your friends about the cruelty to animals practiced by unscrupulous veterinarians and business people to make money from horses.

My best regards to all, Venus

General News

EU: Commissioner Stella Kyriakides & (England) Dr Jane Goodall: Improving animal welfare is in the interest of all of us.

Commissioner Stella Kyriakides & Dr Jane Goodall: Improving animal welfare is in the interest of all of us

14 December 2021

Last week, Commissioner Kyriakides and Dr Jane Goodall took part in the high level Conference “EU Animal welfare today & tomorrow”, gathering the main players in the field of animal welfare from the EU and beyond.

Animals are sentient beings. This is recognised in the EU treaties, and we have a moral and societal responsibility to ensure that on-farm conditions for animals reflect this. The reality is however that today, billions of animals around the world are kept in intensive conditions. Millions are shipped for very long distances. The fact that each farmed animal is a sentient being that is able to feel fear, despair and pain is at times ignored. They are not always treated with the care and respect they deserve. Changing this is a priority for the EU.

The Jane Goodall Institute has worked tirelessly, in partnership with local communities and farmers, to improve the lives of people, animals and the environment, introducing sustainable livelihood options that address local needs. These values mirror the beliefs and ambitions of the European Union, which places sustainability at the centre of improving its citizens’ lives, rights, working conditions, and the environment.

The EU is also leading by example on animal welfare in many areas. Since the adoption of the first EU animal welfare legislation in 1974, laws, regulations and multiple actions that protect our animals have been consistently expanded and reinforced, resulting in a better quality of life for millions of animals. 

A strong commitment to animal welfare is among citizens’ growing concerns and demands. Everyone can help make a difference, and in the EU, citizens have been given the power to do just that. In 2020, over one million people joined together through a European Citizens’ Initiative calling on the EU to ‘End the Cage Age’. This led to unprecedented action and the EU Commission’s commitment to propose, in 2023, to phase out and finally prohibit cages for animals such as sows, calves, rabbits, hens, ducks, and geese. 

But we still have a long way to go. Where possible, animals should live in an environment where they can behave naturally, and us, citizens, we need to move towards a more plant-based diet with less red and processed meat. 

As we all know, climate change and loss of biodiversity are threatening our future. The health of humans, animals, plants, and even our planet, are all intrinsically linked. We humans are part of the natural world and depend on it for air, food, water – everything. But we also depend on healthy ecosystems, each one made up of interconnected plant and animal species. 

The harm to the environment driven by our current demands on resources has led to increasing recurrences of droughts, floods, and new pests that pose significant threats to our food systems and habitats. To our future. They only highlight the need for sustainability in every aspect of our lives, including our food systems. 

Our task is to build a robust and resilient food system that guarantees citizens a sufficient supply of affordable food, of good and safe quality and with the wellbeing of farmed animals front and centre. Animal welfare and health is both a cornerstone of this shift and the way forward.

The Commission’s ambition is, with the help of farmers, industry, animal welfare organisations and consumers, to maintain the EU’s status as world leader in animal welfare. We can only achieve this objective by putting people and partnerships at the centre of our approach. 

The EU’s Farm to Fork Strategy is an unprecedented commitment to making food systems fair, healthy, environmentally and animal friendly and based on sustainable models of agriculture. A shift in this direction would not only benefit millions of farmed animals, but also the quality and safety of our food, our health, as well as the environment. 

With the Farm to Fork Strategy, we have a unique opportunity to improve the lives of every being, both human and animal, always having as our guiding force that animal welfare matters.

Let us aim high to the benefit of farming families, consumers, animals and our planet.

– Commissioner Stella Kyriakides & Dr Jane Goodall

Regards Mark

Jane studies primates as a young lady

Environmental, General News

Europe: Golden Jackal Spreading Across Europe as Climate Warms.

© Getty Images/iStockphotoGolden jackals are native to Asia, north Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, but are now advancing north and west into Europe

Golden jackals are spreading out across western Europe for the first time in centuries, with the reclusive mammal spotted in places such as Italy, the Netherlands and Norway.

The dog-sized creatures are commonplace in southern Asia, north Africa and the Middle East but in recent years environmentalists have spotted them in regions hundreds of miles from their normal ranges.

Last week, one was snapped by a photo trap in Tuscany, in the heart of Italy close to the city of Florence.

Earlier this year a farmer stumbled across a jackal in the Netherlands, managing to grab a photo of the little-known animal on his phone before it fled.

The reasons for this sudden migration, thought to be one of the largest mammal movements ever seen in modern times, are highly debated.

Many believe golden jackals might be benefitting from climate change. As Europe warms, there are fewer periods of heavy snow in many countries, which suits the jackals.

Others argue they are flourishing as wolves, their larger canid competitor, are persecuted and hunted out of the ecosystem.

Golden jackals are from the same family as the more famous grey wolf but are smaller, closer in size to a large dog, and with a fur coat with varies from a creamy yellow to dark tawny beige depending on the season.

They are an adaptable scavenger and predator species which live in breeding pairs and will eat almost anything, from insects, fruit, birds, small mammals, rodents and human refuse.

Their traditional range has included a large swathe of southern Asia and the Indian subcontinent, much of the Middle East and Gulf, and parts of the Balkans and south-west Europe.

However, in the past five or so years it has increasingly been spotted in western and northern Europe, including as far as Norway where a camera trap snapped one jackal in 2020.

“It is one of the largest range expansions for a mammal that we have ever witnessed, anywhere in the world,” Nathan Ranc, an ecologist and golden jackal expert from the University of California Santa Cruz, told The Daily Telegraph.

“It’s a continent-wide trend. This week, for instance, we had the first report that golden jackals are reproducing in Germany. Jackals are turning up in new places.”

Mr Ranc believes the spread of the animal into new ground is related to the decline of wolves, which were once endemic across Europe but were mostly hunted to extinction by the early 20th century.

“We think there’s a correlation,” he said. “This is what happens when the population of a dominant carnivore goes into decline. We think the persecution of wolves was a trigger.”

However, others disagree, noting wolf populations bottomed out more than a century ago and since the post-war period have actually been rapidly bouncing back as they acquired environmental protections across Europe.

John Linnell, from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, said he believed a reduction in the use of poison by Eastern European nations since they joined the EU in the 2000s could have made the continent more jackal-friendly, since the scavengers regularly eat dead livestock they stumble across.

Mr Ranc said another factor could be climate change, which was warming Europe and leading to less snow. Jackals are known to avoid heavy snow drifts which they struggle to traverse.

Although the return of wolves since their near extinction in western Europe has been highly controversial with farmers and others, the emergence of the golden jackal has been broadly welcomed.

They never attack humans and while they might kill some small domestic farm animals such as chickens or lambs, they are not likely to cause major concerns, said Prof Luigi Boitani from Rome University, the chairman of the Large Carnivore Initiative for Europe.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/golden-jackal-spreading-across-europe-as-climate-warms/ar-AARL8cB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Regards Mark