Humboldt Penguin

Exotic animals such as crocodiles, tigers and penguins may soon be disappearing from homes in Russia as parliament is considering a bill which would help cut down the number of animals which could be kept as pets.

Yevgeny Tugolukov, the chairman of the lower house’s natural resources committee, has commented that a pending bill on the care of animals may also include a list of animals which are “inadvisable to keep at home”.

That list of animals would include “exotic” animals such as crocodiles, snakes and monkeys which are rather popular amongst the people of Russia, but can also promote the spread of rather nasty diseases.

This bill was submitted to the State Duma this past Monday.

It will help to drive the responsibility of pet owners to take good care of their pets home, and is in response to a steep rise of cases of animal cruelty. However, there are very few cases of animal cruelty which actually make it to court.

The latest outrage, which helped to prompt the promotion of this new bill, was from a woman in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, who had kept a rare Amur tiger in a cage. However, the biggest outrage comes not from the crime, but from the punishment. She is expected to pay a “hefty” fine of 2,500 rubles or about 80 US dollars.

Russia is known as being a nation filled with pet lovers, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is no exception. His rather extensive group of pets was just recently made larger by a Karakachan puppy, which was a thoughtful gift from Boyko Borisov. While the gift may not have done anything to improve politics, it did bring a smile to his face.

Cane Toad

Cane toads are killing off the freshwater crocodiles which make their home in the Victoria River District in Australia. The toads have been credited for the demise of hundreds of these crocs, and don’t show any sign of letting up any time soon.

A group of scientists have been studying the happenings of the Victoria River since 2005, to take a gander at how the toad is effecting the local wildlife.

The leader of the group, Dr. Mike Letnic, has recently returned from a scouting trip to the area.

“I haven’t put all of the figures together yet but when we look at the data from Victoria River Downs, where the cane toads came through in 2006, the crocodile populations are down as much as 80 per cent.

“We did test some crocodiles a few years ago, some of the survivors, but we found no evidence that they had any immunity.

“The other idea we had was that the crocodiles might learn to avoid toads and we found a little bit of evidence in the laboratory, that crocs will learn.

“But in the wild it seems to be a different story, we keep seeing crocodiles chomping on toads.”

Yes, you would think the crocs would learn, however, seems that when a croc goes to chomp a cane toad, none of the other crocs are watching… Seems to me the crocs need to come up with a defensive plan, and soon, before they are all wiped out.

Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest lake and the world’s largest tropical lake, has long been plighted by environmental problems caused by pollution and exotic species being introduced to the lake. On of the most well know of these problems was the introduction of Nile perch to the lake; a large predatory fish that all but wiped out the lakes wide variety of native, endemic species.

Moses Kabuusu, Member of Parliament for Kyamuswa country in Kalangala district, has now expressed concerns about another problem developing in the area. According to him the amount of fish in the lake has now become so low that crocodiles are increasingly looking at humans as food. The number of croc attacks on humans has indeed increased in Kalangala, but it is hard to tell whether this is due to less fish being present or if there are other reasons that have increased the number of attacks on humans.

Kabuusu warns people about spending time in the water due to the rampant problem of humans being eaten by crocodiles and adds that it is mostly people swimming in the lake and women getting water in the lake that are being hunted by crocodiles.

He has requested help by the Uganda Wild Authority.

Lake victoria beach.

A 25 year old worshipper was killed and eaten by a crocodile in Bangladesh last week. The death took place in a pond next to a shrine and the man was seeking the crocodiles blessing when he was killed.

The man had travelled 50 km to visit the shrine with his mother. The shrine is an important religious place for Muslims in the area. The Khan Jahan Ali shrine is a place where visitors offers hens and goats to the five crocodiles that lives in the pond. Many worshippers bath in the pond as a part of the ritual and the crocodiles seldom injure worshippers although accidents have happened in the past as well although they are rare. The man was making his way into the water to get blessed when the crocodile attacked him and dragged him into the deep parts of the pond.

Numerous other worshippers (around 25) jumped into the pond and tried to find the man. They were unsuccessful and the body of the man was found a few days later when it floated up the surface. Large parts of the body had been eaten.

The crocodiles are apparently normally very friendly.

It should be mentioned that the sacrificing of hens and goats to crocodile is not a part of mainstream Islamic fait and only a small percentage of Muslims do this.