African lions in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area: how are they doing?

I would like to highlight here a completely different type of project that is supported by Loro Parque Fundación. It is sometimes forgotten that at the basis of any successful conservation effort lies an extensive body of knowledge about the species itself as well as environmental factors that contribute positively or negatively to its survival.This is a project that aims at acquiring such knowledge...

Everybody loves lions, especially now that a new version of Disney’s classic “The Lion King” is out! Loro Parque also hosts a small pride of lions: Simba (the male) and ladies Sarabi and Maliki (guess where the names come from?), as animal ambassadors for their species, Panthera leo.
I was made aware of both the problems that lions face nowadays as well as the existence and participation in this type of project at the actual lion habitat in Loro Parque, so I gues they have been performing their ambassadorial duties quite well!

Many lions are still found in the so-called Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) project, which is a large area (larger than Germany and Austria combined!) which is spread over no less than five African countries Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This region is renowned for its large biodiversity of large mammal species: from Elephants to Rhinos, at least 195 different species have been recorded. KAZA aims to protect the various ecosystem in the area, thus reducing extinction risks of vulnerable species and at the same time increase economic opportunities, for instance by promoting sustainable ecotourism to the region.

As one of the Big Five and a top carnivore, lions are indispensable in healthy ecosystems. Unfortunately, over the past twenty years lion populations in Africa are known to dwindle fast. More than a 40% decline in the number of individuals has been estimatred, mainly due to habitat loss or habitat fragmentation and legal and illegal killing, for instance in retaliation for the hunting of livestock. As a result, lions are currentlt classified as “Vulnerable”, with an estimated 20,000 individuals still living in the wild, this number rapidly declining.

Loro Parque Fundación has assisted in a project to assess the status of lions as well as other carnivores in the Angolan portion of the KAZA region, where this kind of information is sadly lacking. At the same time, human activities that may threaten such species is also examined. The ultimate objective is to use this information as a basis for a long-term plan for this area fully compatible with the conservation of the regions biodiversity.

This is a project that aims at acquiring such knowledge, which may hold the key to successfully save these mighty cats for posterity. That’s why I think it important to also invest into scientific studies such as these beside more direct conservation efforts.

For more information please visit these sites :

• KAZA project page at LPF website
• Kavango-Zambesi website

"Arguments" against orcas in captivity and why I consider them all wrong.

Orca-caretaker interaction: Anything you can do I can do better!

Each time Loro Parque posts an update or news item regarding the orcas in Orca Ocean on Facebook or elsewhere, one can almost set a clock by it: many of the comments come from people who are opposed to the idea that this zoo is host to a number of these animals. Most of these comments are deleted by a diligent team of moderators, for the simple reason that they are of a mind numbing repetitiveness and thus are considered a form of trolling. Most of the objections uttered –politely, but more often in a very hostile manner- have been debunked by science or long experience with caring for these but that does not stop this from happening each time the orcas are mentioned.
So, what are these objections and what is my own stance on them? Here’s a small list I compiled of common issues that are raised in no particular order.

These animals should not be held captive!
Says who? That is a personal  opinion, based on misguided emotions. Why is it OK to have pets or farm animals in captivity but not orcas? Or dolphins? Yet, most of these respondents have no problems with dogs, cats or horses held in captivity and under decidedly more unnatural circumstances than the orcas at Loro Parque. In fact, they usually are very proudly posing with these animals. And what about that guy who shows picture after picture of himself on Facebook with the various fish he caught , yet "orcas should be free"? There is something decidedly hypocritical in insisting certain animals are not to be held captive or used for entertainment, yet for other animals there seems to be no problem.  It is not really an argument, it is a belief and often an inconsistent one as well.

These animals should be free in the oceans, they cannot be happy otherwise.
Yes, and so should any other animal, including those we have around us as pets or for other reasons. Again, the hypocrisy to single out certain animals and not others. As for the second part, there is also a fallacy there. Why can a dog which is being kept in a house with people who care for him be considered ‘happy’ while an orca who is kept in a zoo with people who care for him is considered ‘unhappy’?

It should also be considered that many  animals are born in captivity and do not know any other life. Freeing them while being accustomed to a life in captivity can be devastating as the story of poor Keiko testifies. And in certain cases, the animal cannot survive on its own due to a physical handicap, as is the case for Morgan.

On another note, the oceans are increasingly dangerous places for wildlife, due to pollution, and human activities which disrupt many animals lives. It remains to be seen if we really would do these animals a favour by placing them in such an environment. The reality of the things is that there are animals in captivity and we somehow have to take care of them as this is part of our responsibility. There are those who’d rather euthanize them than place them under human care. I think this is a particularly loathsome stance, not serving anything than such a persons sanctimonious self-righteousness.

These animals are housed in habitats which are too small (pools, ponds, bathtubes, etc.)
This view is usually justified by stating that orcas in the wild habitually swim hundreds or even thousands of miles and they cannot do that in those habitats. The truth of the matter is that no animal in its right mind will waste precious energy like that unless it is absolutely necessary, to find food or to procreate, for instance. The idea behind it seems to be that orcas delight in swimming marathon distances just for the fun of it, as a hobby.  The orcas at Loro Parque live in gigantic basins so that they can display as many of their natural behaviours as is humanly possible. No, they cannot swim there for hundreds of miles, but they do not have to: they are being fed and allowed to procreate if that is their intent. So they don't  and have no indicatioon of wishing to do so either. 
Most people who come up with this issue also have no idea of the sheer sizes of these basins at Loro Parque. An orca is not a small animal, but it can still be quite tricky to spot them in there.

These animals should not be forced to perform.
Nobody’s forcing them, and when an animal does not want to participate in the show , he or she is allowed to do so. Also, the training method used involves a method called Least-Reinforcing Scenarios, which means that animals are only positively reinforced to certain behaviours or actions and that unwanted ones are simply ignored. No punishment, no food deprivation, nothing of the sort, because that would damage the bond of trust between animal and trainer which lies at the heart of this work, and which needs to be safeguarded at all costs.

This objection is actually at odds with the assertion that animals in captivity are unhappy, because this kind of activity and intellectual and physical stimulation is what gives them happiness, probably more so than they would be ‘in the wild’. Oceans are low-stimulus places, so there is not much to do, other than feed and the other F’s.

These animals die younger in captivity than in the wild. |
This is provenly not true, especially since animals in captivity have access to medical assistance, something their wild cousins do not have. Also, their habitats are unpolluted, their diets are balanced and checked against requirements, so they overall lead a healthier life than elsewhere.

And what about “Blackfish”?
I can be short about that. “Blackfish” presents itself as a ‘documentary’ but it is nothing of the kind. It is a carefully constructed story that is designed to create outrage and it has been thoroughly debunked in page after page of misleading sequences, suggestive imagery, statements from experts who are proven not to be experts, or from trainers who never worked with orcas or never worked with a specific orca, and so on. It is a piece of animal activist propaganda that, however, serves its purpose to mobilize the well-meaning masses by painting a distorted and fallacious image of marine zoos, including Loro Parque.

So, in short, there is nothing in these arguments that is actually based on fact or scientific insights, instead, it is all human emotion projected onto the perceived situation –often misrepresented- in which these orcas are living.

And let me finish with this: the best witnesses to orca well-being at Loro Parque are the orcas themselves. And when you see them in action and in interaction with their caretakers, you feel that there is something beautiful and right going on. And that is why I proudly support Loro Parque and zoos like it.

The Return of Lear's Macaw: A Loro Parque Fundación project

On this blog I am going to highlight the various projects that the Loro Parque Fundación participates in or supports. Most of these deal with the conservation and rehabilitation of parrots, but there are also other projects of interest. Let me start with a clear success story: the restoration of the wild population of Lear’s Macaw.

Lear’s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) is a beautiful dark blue parrot, looking very much like the Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) but Lear’s is smaller than his more familiar cousin.

Loro Parque is one of the few zoos worldwide to house these parrots and a few of them are still living close to the entrance to the parque, actually the first birds you encounter after the photo area. I have some fond memories sitting there at the bench and watching them go about their things. 

Lear’s Macaws only live in a small, dry region in Brazil where their main food, around 95% of their diet, consists of fruits of the licuri palm (Syagrus coronata) which also grows there. Like so many parrot species, these macaws have suffered illegal capture and trade, as well as persecution by farmers for grazing maize crops.. 

Licuri palm fruits

 Moreover, their already small habitat has been taken up by cattle use and their main food source diminished by the collection of licuri palm fruits or the leaves for the production of something called ouricury wax which is used to make inks, lubricnats or polishes. As a result, the numbers of birds started to dwindle until no more than 66-70 birds were estimated to be living in the wild by the mid 1980s and the species was considered as “Critically Endangered”.

 The happy news now is that since the numbers of Lear’s Macaws have grown to an estimated 1100-1300 individuals and the population is still increasing. This bird is therefore now listed as ‘Endangered’. This phenomenal success was achieved by a combination of measures: political and regulatory measures, education and participation of the local people into the need of preserving the licuri palm as well as create a viable captive population to ultimately release in the wild to establish new groups of birds.

Loro Parque itself has played a role in the latter as well, and a movie which is shown during the shows tells about the successful release of birds born and raised at the zoo. And the Fundación has contrbuted a significant budget to this effort. So, Lear’s Macaw is doing better, not out of the danger zone yet, but one can be hopeful now. 

It is the multilevel approach that makes this project such a success, but also the scientific knowledge and insights gained by studying these birds in captivity play a crucial role in, for instance preparing captive birds for a return to the wild, training them how to forage on their own, etc. That is why modern zoos like Loro Parque can contribute so much to restoring our planet’s fellow inhabitants. 

For more info, see Loro Parque Fundacion's website. 

No more FedCon for me....and here' s the reason!

As SciFi buffs I love to go to science fiction conventions and for many years that has been the FedCon convention in Germany. It was the first SciFi convention I ever went to and since then we have been regular guests for quite a number of years. A few years ago we had to stop that, mainly for financial reasons but also because the timing of the event became incompatible with our work schedule and with other events. Once we tried to do it ‘on a budget’ but the experience was not as rewarding as we had hoped. Now that our financial situation has improved and the timing of next year’s convention is easier to fit into our schedule, I at least was thinking about getting back to it, even if only for a few days. I do miss it at times and last year’s edition had a guest list that I really would have liked to meet.

Now the thing with FedCon is that it also supports a charity cause and for quite a few years that has been Sea Shepherd, an environmental activist organisation that patrols the oceans and takes offensive action in order to stop, for instance, whaling practices. I cannot say that I applauded that decision by the FedCon board, mainly because I do not believe in their tactics or their effectiveness in actually stopping anything. History has proven me right in that: whaling is still continuing, dolphins are still massacred in Japan, in spite of Sea Shepherd’s efforts to do anything about it. But over the years we learned to tolerate their presence at the con, however unsuitable it actually was. And I learned to get over my misgivings on indirectly supporting this cause that I actually did not believe in.
But that has changed since today. In Loro Parque’s video that I shared earlier today, Loro Parque’s director, Dr. Javier Almunia, stated that Sea Shepherd is involved in the smear campaign that several “animal rights groups” indulge in, with the aim of discrediting Loro Parque and ultimately achieve the “freedom” of Morgan, the orca that was rescued at the Dutch coast, who is deaf and therefore cannot communicate with other orcas or even hunt for prey.

Sea Shepherd has issued a statement regarding the recent lawsuit about Morgan, entitled, “No Justice for Morgan”, and is apparently framing fragments of this video as evidence that Morgan is "suffering" because of her separation from daughter Ula even though they are not (for which I can personally vouch) and even though the orca playing with Ula in the video is Adán, not Morgan. It is the usual ‘misinformation’ and ‘misleading rhetoric’ we’ve come to expect from anticaptivity activists and to put it quite bluntly: it is all a bunch of lies, poppycock, hokum. As anyone can see for themselves who takes the trouble of actually visiting that park and those orcas.
And to put it out even more bluntly: just considering to release a deaf orca who cannot take care of herself, who is fully integrated into a pod, who has a daughter, a social live in a wonderful and intellectually stimulating environment is nothing less than a call for excessive animal cruelty.

So here’s the thing: the FedCon is currently supporting an organization that spreads lies and misinformation about a conservation zoo that probably has done more for the conservation of endangered species than they themselves. They are supporting an organization that actively lobbies for an unprecedented piece of animal cruelty towards a handicapped animal. And that charity support comes from us, those who visit this convention for the thrills and the parties and who pay good money to do so.

I cannot possibly find it in my conscience to support this organisation indirectly any longer by frequenting the FedCon events. I cannot be a supporter of the LP Fundación and then support the opposing side indirectly in this way. So FedCon is completely out of bounds for me, at least until they decide to drop their ill-conceived support to an organisation like that, which will probably never happen.

And just to be clear I am not calling or advocating for a boycott or anything, but let everyone make up their own mind whether to go on supporting this or not and weigh this piece of information in your own conscience. I will not consider going to FedCon anymore, it is done. Pity, because those were good times….