Meet
Yingying, one of the
five official
mascots brand symbols of the 2008 Olympics. If you have plenty of insulin on hand, you can visit the
official site and read about all
Five Friendlies. Look into this mirror. See the triumph of the west.
It is an anthropomorphized, Disneyfied, anime-fied version of the chiru, an antelope that once roamed the Tibetan plateau a million strong. Now it is all but gone. But isn't it cute?
More . . . .
These are real chiru. The story is probably well known to kossacks. Trade in chiru has been illegal since the mid-70's - it was listed in
Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1975 - although the US Fish & Wildlife Service just got around to affording its available protections
two weeks ago. How many are left? Perhaps 50,000. Perhaps far fewer.
In 1999, the Chinese government estimated that poachers kill 20,000 antelope every year to supply the international fashion market, despite national and international laws that protect the species.
Three to five chiru are killed to make each $15,000 shawl for only the most wealthy and glamorous "ladies" - those who can afford to show off their style.
A film about the chiru, their poachers, and their devoted volunteer protectors recently won the Best Asian Film award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. This tripartite review of Ke Ke Xi Li has me most curious to see it for myself. (Markos has my shipping address.)
Predictably, some Tibetans object loudly to the claim that the chiru is Chinese. It is not for us to judge their actions. When the politics are settled, the Tibetan plateau will still be there. But will the chiru?
You may be told that the lovely shahtoosh shawl is made from captive sheared animals. This is a lie. All chiru fiber is illegal.
Oz: Victoria Losing an Icon
The state of Victoria has as its emblem Leadbeater's Possum. There are fewer than 1,000 left in the wild, in post-logging remnant forest segments that may be too disjointed to sustain the species. The last captive specimen just died. And now the cry for a doomsday pod.
Last captive Leadbeater's possum dies
The possum species was thought to have vanished until it was rediscovered in 1961, but author Peter Preuss says the lack of a breeding program could consign it to the history books.
~~~~~
"It's not too late to do something for our state emblem."
~~~~~
Mr Preuss said the last possums in the wild lived in a 50 square kilometre area in Victoria's central highlands - the mountain ash forests around Noojee, Powelltown, Marysville and Warburton.
The area is protected for other species and is the possum's last stand, even though outside its original territory.
"But it's a tiny reservation, one fire and we've lost them there as well."
Land of the Buffalo
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) should be announcing soon the results of its contest to find a new symbol for the Department of the Interior.
In a joint campaign with Buffalo Field Campaign, PEER says that the treatment of America's last remaining wild herds should make Interior ashamed to sport the buffalo emblem.
This year, more than one in five members of the nation's largest remaining "free-roaming" herd, located within Yellowstone National Park, will be killed - by slaughter, hazing and maiming - as a result of federal action.
Despite the official policy to "protect and maintain a wild, free roaming population of Yellowstone bison," the grim reality is that no other native wildlife is subjected to official eradication efforts on the scale that is occurring within Yellowstone. While most of the bison deaths are deliberate (such as shipping animals to commercial slaughterhouses), others, such as gorings from crowding too many bison into inadequate corrals, are purposeless and preventable.
"Chipmunks in New York's Central Park get more consideration and protection than the bison in Yellowstone," stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, calling Interior's bison management policy "a universally acknowledged travesty. The fact that Interior uses the bison as its official symbol adds the insult of misleading advertising to the injury of mass mayhem."
BFC's website is packed with disturbing videos and reports of the inhumane treament of buffalo in and around Yellowstone Park. Check out Rosalie Little Thunder's video.
Governor Brian Schweitzer is in the mix.
National PEER homepage A great organization. Nuff said.
(I meant to report this last item some time ago, but have been staring at my tax returns instead. The request for an extension was filed on time.)
