Samstag, 19. Februar 2011

"Uli rennt...." - Meet Wuppertal's cutest ears....!

Photo: Barbara Scheer

Und das ist Uli, noch ein Elefantenkind, diesmal nicht vom Nil, sondern aus Wuppertal.-
And that is Uli, another elephnat kiddo, this time not from the river Nile, but from Wuppertal.

Photo: Barbara Scheer

Und das ist Uli, wenn er rennt.-
And that is Uli whn he runs.


Photo: Barbara Scheer

Man beachte seine Ohren...! -
Watch his ears...!

...))

Thanks to Barbara Scheer for having captured these priceless seconds...!More on 'Uli rennt' here...

Vorwitzige Augen hat Uli auch... Hier mal ein Foto aus der Presse...

Nach einer Tragzeit von 670 Tagen brachte Mutter Sabie den kleinen Uli am 16.01.2011 im Wuppertaler Zoo zur Welt. Schon drei Stunden nach der Geburt am Sonntag lernte er seine ältere Schwester Tika (3) kennen. Benannt wurde der kleine afrikanische Elefant nach Zoodirektor Ulrich Schürer. Der kleine Elefant wog bei seiner Geburt rund 100 Kilogramm und brachte es auf die stattliche Schulterhöhe von 95 Zentimetern. (Quelle )

Insgesamt wurden seit 2005 im Wuppertaler Zoo 6 Jungtiere geboren, das letzte namens Shuwa gleich 4 Tage nach Ulis Geburt. Die Wuppertaler Elefantenherde bestehend aus Tusker, dem sechsfachen Kindesvater, den Elefantenkühen Punda, Sabie, Numbie und Swenie, stammt aus dem südafrikanischen Krüger-Nationalpark. (Quelle) -


Uli & Shuwa von hinten.../Barbara Scheer

It took mum Sabie 670 days until she could deliver little Uli on 16 January at Zoo Wuppertal. Already 3 hours later he met his 3 and half year older sister Tika. Uli was named after Ulrich Schürer, the director of the zoo. Uli weighed about 100 kg with a length of 95 cm up to the shoulder. In total 6 elephant calves were born since 2005. The last one, Shuwa, just 4 days after Uli. Tusker, the father of the 6, and the ladies Punda, Sabie, Numbie and Swenie came originally all from South-African Kruger-Nationalpark.

Mehr Uli, Shawu und die anderen hier bei Barbara Scheer - More Uli , Shawu & the others

Freitag, 18. Februar 2011

Ein Krokodil vom Nil.....A crocodile from river Nile...

Ein Besuch an einem Wasserloch und ein offenbar hungriges Nilkrokodil...-
A visit to a water hole and an obviously hungry Nile crocodile ....

...führte zu einem ungewöhnlichen Kampf: Wie schüttelt man bloß so ein Krokodil vo seinem Rüssel?-
...resulted in an unusual struggle for the elephant mum to get rid of the croc hanging onto her trunk....
Eine Richtungsänderung mit voller Kraft vielleicht...?-
Maybe just turning around with full power...?

Letztlich ist es der kleine Elefantennachwuchs, der der Mutter zu Hilfe kommt....Einmal über das Krokodil stolpern, und schon lässt es los...! Ob das Stolpern unabsichtlich oder das Resultat eines cleveren Schachzugs war, wird nicht berichtet, wie auch immer, mir hat diese Wendung ausnehmend gut gefallen!

Help comes from the little elephant calf, just stumbling once over the croc, made it release mom's trunk..If mishap or a clever move was not reported, however I liked that turn of the story....(Full story here)

Source:
- Rare Pictures: Crocodile attacks elephant/National Geographic 11.11.2010

All photos by Martin Nyfeler taken last September at Zambia's South Luangwa National Park

Mittwoch, 16. Februar 2011

Australian Bat Rescue After Floods...5 kleine Flughund-Schätzchen....

Thanks to Tim and his blog I found that wonderful photo of these rescued youngsters/Photo:Luke Marsden/Newspix/Rex

Diese kleinen Schätzchen wurden während der jüngsten Überschwemmungen in Australien gerettet. Das australische Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Center mit Leiterin Trish Wimberley und ihren Pflegekräften hat in den vergangenen Wochen bereits 130 verwaisten Flughunden an der Gold Coast helfen können. Während der Sturmsaison 2008 retteten sie 350 junge Flughunde. In Bezug auf dieses Jahr denken sie, dass die Flughunde auf mehr als nur wildes Wetter reagieren. Pflegepersonen haben in den letzten Wochen verschiedene Flughund "Camps" an der Küste besucht mit Jungen nicht älter als 4 Wochen, die auf dem Boden gefunden wurden, bedeckt mit Maden und Fliegeneiern. Trish sagte : "Sie kommen bis auf den Boden um sich zu ernähren. Das macht sie verwundbar. Es ist kein natürliches Verhalten und zeigt, dass es Ärger gibt in der Umwelt. "Flughunde sind ein Barometer des Umweltzustands. Sie sind unsere Kanarienvögel unten in der Kohlengrube". Die überlebenden Jungen werden mit der Flasche gefüttert und entweder hängend an Wäscheleinen oder in speziellen Intensivstationen gehalten, bis sie nach etwa 4 Wochen wieder bereit sind zu fliegen. "

As mentioned earlier concerning the floods in Australia...

"It's not only humans who are suffering due to the recent floods in Australia. Australian Bat Clinic and Wildlife Trauma Centre director Trish Wimberley and her carers have helped save 130 orphaned bats on the Gold Coast in past weeks. They saved 350 young bats during the 2008 storm season but this year think there's more going on than just wild weather. Carers have visited several bat 'camps' on the coast in recent weeks to find four-week-old babies on the ground covered in maggots and fly eggs. Trish said: "They're coming down to feed on the ground. That makes them vulnerable. It's not a natural occurrence and shows there is trouble in the environment. "Bats are a barometer to what is going on in the environment. They're our canaries down the coal mine". The surviving youngsters will be bottle fed and kept either hanging on clothes lines or in special intensive care units until they are ready to fly again in about four weeks."

Source:
- Widespread Australian Flood displace residents, wildlife/MSNBC Photoblog January 2011
- Flooded Australians return to mud and mess/MSNBC January 2011

Related:
- Zwischen El Nino, La Nina und Klimaerwärmung...When disaster strikes/ 24.01.2011

Montag, 14. Februar 2011

From Gaypride to Graypride...

Cartoon: Unknown author...

Diesen Cartoon hatte Marga, sehr zu meiner Freude, vor einiger Zeit mal auf Facebook gepostet, letztens fand ich einen Thread bei ZooChat, der ein wenig dazu passt...-

This cartoon was posted by Marga some weeks ago, much to my liking, a few days ago I found a slightly matching thread on ZooChat which is about the topic 'Homosexuality in zoos'...)


Cartoon: David Booth

Tja, und wo wir nun schon bei cartoons sind, Freund David aus Alaska hat sich einer neuen Bewegung angeschlossen und mir eine Einladung zugeschickt, alle die sich alt genug fühlen oder denen die Altersweisheit grausilbern vom Kopf scheint, können sich beim Grey Network einklinken....Selbstverständlich dürfen auch Eisbären sich an Diskussionen um Hygiene im Alter gerne beteiligen und was sonst noch so eben anfällt...

And as we are at cartoons, friend David from Alaska has recently joined a new movement and invited me to have a look, everybody who feels the privilege of age, will say old enough, with or without wisdom shining gray-silver over the front, might find in the Grey Network an appropriate platform to discuss age-related topics (...which means more or less all topics, just under the angle of age...). It goes without saying that polar bears are welcome too to share their invaluable views on hygiene in age and who knows what else...

So just go and check yourself...

Related:
-
Elefanten...Geschminkt, schwul und in Festtagslaune/13.04.2009
- Tango Time in Bremerhaven/ 04.06.2009

Sonntag, 13. Februar 2011

Von Chicago nach Louisville:Arki zieht um....Arki heading south

Arki (undated)/ photo:Brookfield Zoo

Arki zieht südwärts

Arki, die ehemalige Zuchtbärin des Brookfield Zoos zieht in die neue Eisbärenanlage des Louisville Zoos, die im April 2011 eröffnet werden soll. Sie wird die erste Bewohnerin der neuen Eisbärenanlage. Der Louisville Zoo hat seine Eisbärin Aquila 2009 abgeben, als man mit dem Neubau der Anlage begann.

In Chicago glaubt man, dass Arki mit 26 zu alt ist, um noch Jungtiere zur Welt zu bringen und aufzuziehen. Da man aber züchten möchte, hofft man eine andere jüngere Eisbärin zu erhalten. Die kann sich dann ihren Partner unter den den beiden männlichen Bären Aussie (25 Jahre alt) und seinen Sohn Hudson (4 Jahre alt) aussuchen.

Arki wurde am 27. November 1984 im Brookfield Zoo geboren und hat vier Jungtiere aufgezogen. Ihr letzter Nachwuchs ist Hudson, der am 14. Dezember 2006 zur Welt kam. Vater aller ihrer Nachkommen ist Aussie, der seit 1986 in Chicago lebt.

Bill Zeig­ler, der Senior Kurator des Brookfield Zoos sagte, dass der Zoo auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene nach einem jungen Weibchen suche. Man wolle noch einmal mit Aussie züchten, aber für die Zukunft werde Hudson der Zuchtbär des Zoos sein.

Die Eisbären in der Zoos Nord Amerikas werden gemeinschaftlich wie eine einzige Population verwaltet. Zuchtpaare werden so zusammengestellt, dass die genetische Vielfalt möglichst groß bleibt und sich die Zahl der Eisbären in den Zoos vergrößert.

Den genauen Umzugstermin von Arki wollte der Zoo nicht mitteilen, doch am Wochenende wird sie noch in der Eisbärenanlage des Brookfield Zoos, der Great Bear Wilderness, zu sehen sein. Die Anlage wurde im Sommer 2010 eröffnet. (Quelle:UlliJ)

Arki with male cub Marty/27.03.1997 photo:Jim Schulz

Even polar bears are heading south

Arki, Brookfield Zoo’s once-fertile female polar bear, is moving to the Louisville Zoo’s new Glacier Run exhibit.

Brookfield Zoo officials believe Arki, 26, is in the bear version of menopause and hope to bring in another female bear to mate with bears Aussie, 25, and his son Hudson, 4.

Arki was born at Brookfield Zoo in 1984 and is a mother to five litters, including Hudson.

Arki with Hudson on 05.12.2007 (9 days before his first birthday)/ photo:Brookfield Zoo

“The last couple of years her and Aussie tried to produce a cub and haven’t been successful,” said Bill Zeig­ler, Brookfield’s senior vice president for collections and animal care. “We’d like to try Aussie one more time. Hudson is our prime target animal for future breeding.”

Polar bears in North American zoos are managed as a single population. Zoo officials work together to expand the species and ensure genetic diversity when deciding which zoos get which bears.

“We’re looking nationally and internationally for a nice young female,” Zeigler said.

Zeigler wouldn’t disclose the date of Arki’s move, but said she will be in the zoo’s Great Bear Wilderness exhibit this weekend.

A popular polar bear at Brookfield Zoo is moving to Louisville

"Arki will definitely be missed," according to a zoo post on Facebook. The move to Louisville was recommended by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Polar Bear Species Survival Plan. The group manages the population of polar bears.

The friendly, outgoing animal will be on display at the Louisville Zoo's Glacier Run. The exhibit is home to polar bears and brown bears, as well as sea lions, owl and fox.

"On one hand it is sad to see her leave, but Arki will have a wonderful home at Louisville Zoo, where she will get much attention from her new keepers and is sure to be a big hit with visitors, just like she was here," said Mike Brown, zookeeper, in the facebook posting.

Arki was born in 1984 at Brookfield Zoo. She's the mother of five litters of cubs and her 4-year-old son Hudson remains at Brookfield Zoo's Great Bear Wilderness. He's the polar bear often seen greeting visitors at the glass.

Arki (undated)/ photo:Brookfield Zoo

Arki is the mother of Marty, Tiguak, Payton and Hudson.

Article & photo sources:
- Arki zieht um/ Ulli J Eisbärblog 11.02.2011
- Even Brookfield Zoo's Arki is heaading south/Chicago Sun Times 11.02.2011
-
Brookfield Zoo says good-bye to Arki/ABC News 11.02.2011
- Photo galleries
here and here
- About the new Polar Bear Project in Louisville some infos here

Samstag, 12. Februar 2011

Boat ride for Rothschilds...A February Story

Giraffes boat ride in Kenya
Photo credit: Samatian Island Lodge/AP

Vier Jahre Planung brauchte es, 8 Rothschild Giraffen in Kenia über den Lake Baringo dorthinzubringen, wo 70 Jahre zuvor ihre Heimat war. In 2 Gruppen , 4 Kühe und 4 Bullen, ging es zum Ruko Game Conservancy, einem Reservat an der östlichen Seite des Baringo-Sees.
Man hofft mit dieser ungewöhnlichen Maßnahme, es ist das erste Mal, dass Giraffen auf diesem Wege in Kenia transportiert wurden, zur Vermehrung dieser bedrohten Tierart beizutragen, von der es nur nuch wenige Hundert wildlebende Exemplare gibt.

Abenteuerlich genug sehen diese 4 Segler auf jeden Fall aus, diesen Langhälsen dürften nur wenige Artgenossen widerstehen können...:))



In this photo taken Feb. 7, 2011 and released by the Northern Rangelands Trust, endangered Rothschilds giraffes are seen aboard a barge to cross Kenya's Lake Baringo
Photo:
Northern Rangelands Trust/AP

"They are more used to plucking leaves from tall trees with their feet firmly on dry land.But these adventurous giraffes looked every part the sailors as they floated across a lake.

The eight giraffes were being ferried from Lake Baringo in Kenya to the native habitat they had vanished from 70 years ago.
It was the first time that giraffes have been transported across water in Kenya's history.And they made sure that they kept their head for heights by peeking above the boat's parapet to watch what was happening.

Two boats holding conservationists
sailed alongside the large raft that held the giraffes to keep the boat steady. Several more animal workers boarded the former landing craft to keep the giraffes calm as they crossed the water.

Eight of the animals, who number only a few hundred in the wild, were shipped to Ruko Game Conservancy in two groups of four.The 8 Rothschilds giraffes, also known as Baringo giraffes, were composed of four males and four females, and prior to their boat trip, the 8 giraffes were released into a holding pen for a week to make them adjust to their temporary environment.

Apparently, the success of the 90-minute journey of the giraffes and the whole project hoping to increase their production took four years in planning, which was supported and executed by Northern Rangelands Trust and the Safari and Conservation Company.

Ian Craig, director of the Northern Rangelands Trust, said giraffes were some of the most difficult animals to move. Lake Baringo has become famous for its wildlife.The Ruko Game Conservancy is on 19,000 acres of land on the eastern shore of Lake Baringo."



Source:
- 8 giraffes on a boat ride.../Batangas Today 11.02.2011
-
No need for a crow's nest: Giraffes keep lookout as they are ferried across river to their old stamping ground/Daily Mail 10.02.2011

Freitag, 11. Februar 2011

687 km in 232 Stunden....Swimming 427 miles in 9 days....Polar Bear 20741

Polar Bear 20741 swam 427 miles in 9 days/(this is not the bear of the story in this photo / Arctic Bear Productions)

Eisbärin schwimmt 687 Kilometer am Stück

Eisbären gelten als hervorragende Schwimmer. Völlig zu Recht, haben amerikanische Forscher erstmals belegen können. Ein Weibchen, das sie mit einem Sender versehen hatten, schwamm neun Tage lang ohne Pause und legte dabei eine Strecke von 687 Kilometern zurück.

“Diese Fähigkeit könnte dem Eisbär helfen, mit dem Rückgang des arktischen Meereises zurechtzukommen”, erklären George Durner vom US Geological Survey und seine Kollegen. Die Ausdauerleistung habe dem Weibchen allerdings einen hohen Preis abverlangt, berichten die Forscher im Fachblatt “Polar Biology”. Das Tier habe nicht nur viel Körpermasse verloren, sondern auch sein Junges.

Eisbären (Ursus maritimus) ernähren sich beinahe ausschließlich von Robben, die sie von der Meereisdecke aus jagen. Die Fläche insbesondere des alten, mehrjährigen Eises auf dem Nordpolarmeer hat sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten jedoch halbiert. Um mehr über die Konsequenzen zu erfahren, statteten Durner und Kollegen mehrere Tiere mit GPS-Sendern und mit Sensoren aus, die laufend die Temperatur in der Umgebung und unter der Haut maßen.

Das extrem ausdauernde Weibchen war im August 2008 in der Beaufortsee vor Alaska bzw. Kanada gefangen und mit Sender und Sensoren versehen worden, der Wiederfang erfolgte zwei Monate später. Die Auswertung der zwischenzeitlich gesammelten Daten ergab, dass das Tier zusätzlich zu seiner Marathon-Schwimmleistung eine Strecke von 1.800 Kilometern mal auf der Eisdecke, mal im Wasser zurückgelegt hatte. Seine Körpermasse nahm in dieser Zeit um mehr als ein Fünftel ab.

Dem Nutzen der großen Ausdauer angesichts der schwindenden Eisdecke stehen also hohe energetische Kosten und ein verminderter Fortpflanzungserfolg gegenüber, folgern Durner und seine Kollegen. Unter den harschen Bedingungen der Antarktis schafft es ohnehin nur die Hälfte des Eisbären-Nachwuchses bis zur Geschlechtsreife.

Forschung: George M. Durner, Steven C. Amstrup und Merav Ben-David, Alaska Science Center, US Geological Survey, Anchorage, und Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie; und andere.

Veröffentlichung Polar Biology, DOI 10.1007/s00300-010-0953-2

A skinny polar bear (not the one described in the story) that hauled itself onto a passing floe after being observed swimming in the open water off the coast of Alaska, far from the ice edge/ text & photo: Kieran Mulvaney

Polar bear swims for 9 days , pays heavy price...

"Researchers in Alaska have tracked a female polar bear swimming for 232 consecutive hours, during which time she covered 687 kilometers (427 miles) until she finally reached the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean. The finding underlines the enormous capacity of polaBild hinzufügenr bears to survive in the water, but also demonstrates the immense cost to them of having to do so for long periods. By the end of the ordeal, the bear had lost 22 percent of her body mass, and her yearling cub had apparently died.

Writing in the journal Polar Biology, George Durner of the United States Geological Survey and colleagues describe capturing an adult female bear and her cub on Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast in late August 2008. Around the adult's neck, the researchers placed a radio collar with GPS unit, satellite uplink, and an accelerometer to monitor the bear's activity rate independent of the GPS measurements. (She was one of 13 bears so equipped by the researchers that month.)

The bear weighed 226 kg (498 lbs), and the yearling weighed 159 kg (350 lbs). When the scientists found the bear again, two months later, she weighed just 177 kg (390 lbs) and was not lactating; the yearling was nowhere to be seen.

By analyzing the recovered data and overlaying the bear's movements with ice charts, Durner and colleagues deduced that on 25 August (two days after capture and release) she entered the water off the Beaufort Sea coast and swam north for nine days, before finally reaching sea ice. She then spent three days on the ice, another day swimming, and a further 49 days on the sea ice before being found again.

The researchers write that although polar bears are marine mammals, in that they derive their nutrition from the ocean (i.e. they eat seals), they are not aquatic mammals. They can swim reasonably well and survive for long periods in the water, but they pay a high energetic cost for doing so. (Durner and colleagues were unable to determine whether this particular bear had recovered some of her weight by eating seals after hauling out on to the ice, or whether her condition had continued to deteriorate, perhaps as a consequence of patrolling an area of ice that was not rich in hunting opportunities.)

The question might reasonably be asked: Why did the bear keep swimming? Why didn't she at some point turn around? The answer seems to be that, simply, late August is the period when polar bears in northern Alaska head north on to the sea ice, and that is what she was doing. It is what polar bears are programmed to do, and there is nothing in their mental toolkit that would lead them to believe that ice wouldn't be just around the figurative corner, as long as they headed in the right direction.

Which, for the great majority of the time that polar bears have been polar bears, has been a reasonable assumption. But in 2008, Arctic sea ice extent was the second-lowest on record, with losses particularly acute in the Beaufort Sea. At the time this bear and her cub took their plunge, the ice was well over 500 km (320 miles) north of the Alaska coast.

As Arctic sea ice continues to decline, situations such as that confronted by this female bear could become more common, with even more severe consequences, an observation previously made in a 2006 paper in Polar Biology. In that paper, Charles Monnett and Jeffrey Gleason reported that, during aerial observations from 1987 to 2003, they saw 315 polar bears, of which just 12 were in open water. All 315 bears were alive. But in 2004, they saw 55 bears, of which 51 were alive. Ten of those 51 were found in open water, as were all four of the dead bears. And while it could not be proven that those four bears had drowned, it could reasonably be inferred that they had died in the water.

Monnett and Gleason speculated that "mortalities due to offshore swimming during late-ice (or mild ice) years may be an important and unaccounted source of natural mortality," and suggested that "drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues."

Shell Werbekampagne 2010/see ad here

Im Zusammenhang mit dieser Geschichte steht auch ein Aufruf, sich dafür einzusetzen, dass Shell's Vorhaben in der Arktis von Alaska nach Öl zu bohren, gestoppt wird. Und es gibt gute Nachrichten, denn am 3. Februar scheint Shell sein Vorhaben, bereits in diesem Sommer mit Bohrungen dort zu beginnen, nun zum 3. Mal hat aufs Eis legen müssen...

In the context of this story I got appeals to help stopping Shell to start with petrol drilling in Alaska. But at least since February 3 there is good news for the time being...

"Polar bears and other imperiled Arctic species got a reprieve today with Royal Dutch Shell's announcement that it will not go forward with plans this summer to drill in critical habitat for the polar bear in Alaska. Shell's drilling plans off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have long been opposed by conservationists and native communities along the Alaska coast.

"The polar bear and other wildlife of Alaska's Arctic, as well as the local communities that depend upon a healthy ocean, were granted a well-deserved reprieve today," said Brendan Cummings, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Now, the Department of the Interior needs to turn that short-term reprieve into permanent protection of America's Arctic."

Today's announcement marks the third time that Shell's plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea have been put on hold in recent years. Drilling in 2007 and subsequent years was stopped by a federal court, which overturned the Interior Department's approval of Shell's exploration plan due to poor environmental review. Plans to drill in 2010 were suspended by Interior following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell's 2011 plan were put in doubt by an Environmental Protection Agency appeals-board decision overturning a necessary air permit, as well as the recent designation of polar bear critical habitat in the drilling area.

Oil development in the Arctic remains a dangerous proposition because no technologies exist to clean up oil spills in icy waters.

"Rather than revisiting the decision year after year on whether Shell and others can drill in the Arctic, the Department of the Interior needs to acknowledge the reality that it is impossible to clean up an oil spill in the Arctic, and simply pull this region off the table permanently for oil development," said Cummings.

Shell also has plans to drill in the adjacent Chukchi Sea next year. The Chukchi is also critical habitat for polar bears, as well as home to the Pacific walrus. Interior is scheduled to announce in the coming days whether walrus should also be listed under the Endangered Species Act."

Source:
- Eisbärin schwimmt 687 km am Stück/Scienceticker Umwelt 25.01.2011
-
Polar Bear swims for 9 days,pays heavy price /Disvovery news - Kieran Mulvaney 26.01.2011 - Polar Bear's long swim illustrate ice melt/ Los Angeles Times - Kim Murphy 29.01.2011
-
Researchers witness polar bear's epic search for ice/ red orbit 26.01.2011
-
GPS tracks 9-day polar bear's swim/GPS Tracking News 09.02.2011
-
Polar Bear Swim covers 426 miles/Juneau Blogger.com 05.02.2011

Related to Shell's drilling plans & lobbying campaingn in the Arctic:
- Future plans for offshore drilling in the ractic could prove to be disastrous/Defenders of Wildlife 17.06.2010
-
Don't be fooled by Shell's Arctic ads/Greenwash 15.11.2010
-
Shell presses for Drilling in Arctic/ The New York Times 05.11.2010
-
Shell halts plans to Drill in Heart of Polar Bear's Alaska Habitat/Yuba Net.com /Center for Biological Diversity 03.02.2011

Mittwoch, 9. Februar 2011

Ertrunken.....Baby elephant drowned in Sri Lanka floods

While looking for news on recent February floods in Sri Lanka I found this photo from January.../ Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa

Während ich nach Nachrichten zu den Überschwemmungen in Sri Lanka im Februar schaute, fand ich dieses Foto vom letzten Monat, als Sri Lankas Bevölkerung zum ersten Mal im neuen Jahr von Überschwemmungen heimgesucht wurde.

Dieser junge Elefant hängt hoch in einem Baum, ertrunken durch den reißenden Strom der Wassermassen, der Wasserstand des Kaloya Flusses stieg 5.5m über seinen Normalstand.

Flood-hit Sri Lankan elephant calf found dead in tree 13 January 2011 (BBC) – An image has emerged from Sri Lanka of a dead elephant calf stuck high in a tree after getting caught up in the country's fast-flowing floods. The animal was found near the Kaloya river in northern Sri Lanka, which rose 18ft (5.5m) above its normal height. Local villagers alerted photographer Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa, who took the picture on Thursday. He believes the photo will be a defining image of the country's recent heavy flooding. "I have been working as a journalist for the last 10 years but this is likely to be one of the strangest photos I will ever take in my career," Mr Ariyadasa told the BBC. "The animal is still stuck in the tree as we speak while wildlife officials work out the best way to get it down to conduct a post-mortem examination." Thousands of animals - including elephants, snakes, water buffaloes and livestock - are thought to have perished in the floods. More than 30,000 army, navy, police and air force personnel are currently battling to provide urgent aid to people hit by the disaster. At least 23 people have died and more than a million have been affected by the flooding, which the government says has displaced more than 325,000 people.

Source:
-
Flood-hit Sri Lankan elephant calf found dead in tree/ BBC 13.01.2011