 Did Obama cave on political riders in the budget compromise? Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson de-listed wolves in Idaho and Montana in a closed-door deal. NOAA almost protects orcas in Puget Sound. PA to declare open season on porcupines. Keep reading Budget compromises wolves, other politics shafts orcas, PA porcupines  Galapagos to drop rat poison; New Yorkers have tradition of fighting rats and dogs Keep reading Galapagos to drop rat poison; New Yorkers have tradition of fighting rats and dogs  Nova Scotia is going back to barbaric bounties, offering trappers $20 per coyote pelt. They hope to kill 4,000 that way. Finland wolves and ND coyotes also under attack from poachers and snowmobiles. Keep reading Nova Scotia still paying $20 coyote bounty; Wild bald eagle courts one at zoo  Shamu Rocks, at Orlando SeaWorldcourtesy of Miss Quarel. The horrific killing trainer Dawn Brancheau at Sea World by the orca Tilikum, or Tilly, prompted Sea World to indefinitely close its killer whale shows. But the Tilly problem is a long-term one. He fathered 10 of the current 42 other captive orcas around the world–nearly one-quarter of the stock. Many blame the attack on the whole practice of holding these huge, sociable whales captive to entertain us. Jennifer Viegas at Discovery reports that Tilly, a stud whale, may have had high testosterone levels or swings. That’s what made him the most successful male killer whale captive breeder, siring a record 17 calves, 10 of which are still alive, Viegas says. His offspring include Unna, Sumar, Tuar, Tekoa, Nakai,, Kohana, Ikaika , Skyla, Malia and Ky, who attacked a trainer in San Antonio in 2004. Plus, he has at least one grandchild. That means nearly one-quarter of the killer whales held in captivity around the world and nearly half the 22 held by SeaWorld are related to a killer whale with high testosterone and high aggression. Even if he weren’t a flawed individual, that’s a terribly inbred population. But now that he’s been very publicly involved in three attacks on people, it highlights how misguided these breeding programs might be. Would you keep breeding the dog that attacks and kills people? But breeders probably had little choice but to rely on Tilly. No other male was anywhere near that Keep reading Killer Whale Tilly Father to One-Quarter Captive Orcas 
People may have heard of watching orcas off San Juan Islands, but Donna Sandstrom wants everyone to realize whales are all over the coastal waters of Washington State, including the Salish Sea. For the last two years she’s been working with seven government groups pulling together The Whale Trail, 15 spots where people can see whales from the shore. Aside from Lime Kiln Point State Park, which bills itself as the best shore-based whale-watching site in the whole world, the Whale Trail reaches up to Vancouver and down to coastal La Push, where the Quileute Nation welcomes the gray whales when they return from their migration to Mexico. “They could go extinct in 100 years and that’s heartbreaking to me,” she says. “We are right at the intersection of whether they make it or not.” Yet down the coast from the San Juans people in her native Seattle are largely oblivious to the presence of killer whales, Orcinus orca right outside their doors. “It always makes me a little sad that people are surprised whales are here,” she says. Now they’ll be able to look up public places where they can see whales from public land–which means the viewing is free for people, environmentally low impact and no hassle for whales. Tour operators, sensing the project will just spur more interest, even helped set it up. Behavioral biologist and author Toni Frohoff, has called land-based whale watching “the ideal form,” noting that it works so well in the area Keep reading Set out on the Whale Trail: See Orcas from the Shore in Washington State |
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