In February, 55-year-old Charla Nash made headlines around the world when she was brutally attacked by a friend’s 200-pound pet chimpanzee. She decided to reveal her disfigured face on Oprah this week and I am posting a clip* because I have extremely strong emotions concerning this particular issue–foremost as a result of my conservation biology background and also due to my friendship with science writer Vanessa Woods and her husband, evolutionary anthropologist Dr. Brian Hare. Together they study sanctuary orphans in Congo and often mothers have been killed so the babies can be sold as pets.
Most people still do not seem to understand the gravity of this issue. After watching, make sure to read Brian’s original guest contribution on the science behind why chimpanzees are not pets below the fold.
(A warning to readers of graphic content.)
The Science Behind Why Chimpanzees Are Not Pets by Brian Hare, Evolutionary Anthropologist at Duke University
Last month, a 200 pound male chimpanzee named Travis mauled a woman outside the home where he has been living with his owner Sandra Herold. Charla Nash was nearly killed by Travis and now has life changing wounds to her face while Travis was stabbed by his owner with a butcher knife and shot dead by the police.
Was this incidence preventable or just a freak accident? Should chimpanzees and other primates be kept as pets? What is the effect of the primate pet trade not only on the welfare of these “pets” but on their species survival in the wild? To answer these question I consider what science has to say and draw on both my own work on domestication and over 50 years of research by primatologists on wild chimpanzees.(more…)
The SEAPLEX (Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) voyage to the island of garbage in the North Pacific Gyre continues… Watch marine mammal specialist Josh Jones deploy his acoustic array to study dolphins and whales:
I’ve been on the road in California all week so it’s been difficult to post, but I’d like to share this wonderful presentation by Elinor Ostrom at the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Elinor won the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics and I’ve long been a tremendous fan of her work. Take a look:
Watch another terrific talk by Elinor entitled, “Beyond The Tragedy of the Commons” here.
There has been no comprehensive statement from our government on oceans. Now for the first time, we have a common vision to govern the 4.4 million square miles of America’s marine waters: President Obama’s Ocean Policy Task Force has issued science-based recommendations for a national policy to govern, protect, maintain and restore ocean habitat.
Why should you care? Oceans are important to all of us–not just fishermen and boaters, but snorkelers, sunbathers, divers… even those who may not see the coast on a regular basis. They drive life on our planet. Unless we take responsibility for keeping oceans sound, we’re all in trouble. As the Marine Conservation Biology Institute explains:
If adopted, implemented and funded, the recommendations would usher in a new era of ocean management — one based on environmental stewardship. Just imagine the impact we could have if, rather than the hodgepodge of agencies and laws that currently govern oceans, coasts and the Great Lakes, we work together to restore the health of these critical ecosystems!
Go visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/initiatives/oceans/ and tell the White House Council on Environmental Quality that you support a comprehensive national policy to protect, maintain and restore our oceans and coasts. The 30 day comment period ends on the 17th.
For inspiration, once again, here’sMy Top Ten List of reasons why oceans are vital:
Ocean critters generate a good deal of the oxygen we breathe.
We’re talking 99% of the habitat, 97% of the water, and 71% of surface on the planet!
Oceans drive climate and weather through transfer of water and heat.
Most U.S. commerce travels through the nation’s ports.
Oceans account for a $20 billion recreational fishing industry… not to mention, a $60 billion annual seafood industry.
And we’re talking $8 trillion estimated in oil and gas reserves.
They support nearly 50 percent of all species on Earth.
Over 50% of our nation’s population lives in coastal counties.
Oceans mitigate the effects of CO2 in the atmosphere at their own expense… (okay, and ultimately ours).
Marine animals and plants produce a ton of compounds that prevent and treat human disease. Like sea cucumbers…
You may have already come across this fantasticclip of a beautiful, very confused, critically endangered parrot circulating the interwebs:
Yes, this fellow is cute and funny, but more importantly, the video provides reason to tell the rest of his story.
The Kakapo (Strigops habroptila) is the fattest, largest, and rarest species of parrot on earth. It is a flightless, nocturnal bird that lives on four offshore islands near New Zealand. Estimates vary, but according to the BBC, there are only 90 left on Earth (after numbers have increased over past decades). The Kakapo feeds on leaves, nectar, fruit, stems, roots, and seeds, and breeds just once every two-five years. I hope, despite the title of this television series, this is not our ‘last chance to see‘ this incredible animal.
The answer to the eternal mystery of what makes up a Filet-O-Fish sandwich turns out to involve an ugly creature from the sunless depths of the Pacific, whose bounty, it seems, is not limitless.
The world’s insatiable appetite for fish, with its disastrous effects on populations of favorites like red snapper, monkfish and tuna, has driven commercial fleets to deeper waters in search of creatures unlikely to star on the Food Network.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, our oceans are going to hell in a handbasket. Sad, but not news to anyone paying attention. The signs of dramatic ocean decline are crystal clear.
When there’s nothing but jellyfish and algae left, our children may wonder why we knew, yet did nothing. So it goes.
LOS ANGELES, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
A research vessel carrying a team of about 30 researchers, technicians and crew members embarked on Sunday on a three-week voyage from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, based at the University of California at San Diego.
When Shifting Baselines announced the Rotten Jellyfish Awards for the top ten worst ocean decline stories of 2003, this artificial ‘plastic’ island came in at number 7. But in all seriousness, ocean currents have amassed so much garbage in the Pacific that there’s a collection of floating refuse estimated to be larger than Texas.
In other words, it’s past time for us to start to pay attention to this environmental disaster. You bet I’ll be following along…
Over at The Nature Conservancy’s conservation blog Cool Green Science, Peter Kareiva discusses the central theme of Unscientific America that resonated most with him. As a professional scientist for over 30 years at major research universities, government laboratories, consulting firms and now at The Nature Conservancy, he boldly reiterates:
The blame lies to some large extent with us scientists — not with the media, and not with an intellectually lazy public.
Too few scientists think about audience and how to reach it. We are boring instead of entertaining — in fact, we would probably be embarrassed if we were called entertaining. What is up with that? Instead of presenting just the facts, we need to be able to use our science to address the topics most people care about — job security, health, children, national security.
I was a professor in what was perhaps the best ecology research group in the country (if not the world) at the time. We looked down on our colleagues who were masterful communicators as somehow lesser scientists. We were fools. Since leaving academia, I have learned how hard it is to reach a congressional committee, or the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, or Nature Conservancy trustees, or a town hall meeting of farmers and fishermen. It is not just talking:
You have to first listen, observe and scope out your audience and know how they look at the world.
Then, using those data, you have to frame your talk in terms to which the audience relates.
Then you have to have the courage to select only the few most salient numbers and facts or results, and discuss those facts in a way that makes the point you seek to make. Yes, you need real numbers and metrics — but they have to be chosen and talked about in a way that suits the audience, not the way scientific colleagues are comfortable talking about.
This is a terrific piece and Kareiva continues to illustrate his perspective, driving the message home with this final point:
The snail’s pace with which the United States has admitted to and acted on climate change is testimony to the human and economic costs of an unscientific America.
Sheril Kirshenbaum is a research associate at Duke University and co-author of Unscientific America. Sometimes she's a classicist, radio jock, or congressional staffer. For more information, visit her website.
Last month, a 200 pound male chimpanzee named Travis mauled a woman outside the home where he has been living with his owner Sandra Herold. Charla Nash was nearly killed by Travis and now has life changing wounds to her face while Travis was stabbed by his owner with a butcher knife and shot dead by the police.
