Vegan News 5.16.13

Colorado Parks and Wildlife ranger demoted, not fired, for poaching. “A Colorado Parks and Wildlife ranger was fined and demoted, but not terminated, for using artificial light while poaching a trophy mule deer after legal hunting hours last October. Rick Cables, director of Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told The Denver Post on Tuesday the punishment for the incident was adequate but acknowledged some employees who were unhappy the ranger wasn’t fired. Last October, Travis McKay, a park ranger of the Trinidad Lake State Park, was cited for poaching a trophy mule deer after hunting hours while using artificial light, according to incident report. The wildlife officer who stopped McKay originally congratulated him on the kill, but noticed the deer wasn’t tagged, the report states.”

Mysterious Poop Foam Causes Explosions on Hog Farms. “…starting in about 2009, in the pits that capture manure under factory-scale hog farms, a gray, bubbly substance began appearing at the surface of the fecal soup. The problem is menacing: As manure breaks down, it emits toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide and flammable ones like methane, and trapping these noxious fumes under a layer of foam can lead to sudden, disastrous releases and even explosions. According to a 2012 report from the University of Minnesota, by September 2011, the foam had ’caused about a half-dozen explosions in the upper Midwest…one explosion destroyed a barn on a farm in northern Iowa, killing 1,500 pigs and severely burning the worker involved.'”

World’s most distinct mammals and amphibians mapped. “Scientists have developed the first map of the world’s most unique and most endangered mammals and amphibians. The map highlights the fact that only a fraction of the areas identified as critical for the conservation of these species are protected. Amphibians are suffering a ‘terrifying’ rate of extinction say the researchers, making them the most threatened vertebrates in the world. The Mexican salamander or axolotl is being threatened by expanding cities, pollution and invasive fish species which eat their young.”

Indian tigers face threat ‘due to lack of genetic diversity.’ “India’s tigers are facing extinction owing to a collapse in the variety of their mating partners, say Cardiff University researchers. They found that 93% of DNA variants found in tigers shot the period of the British Raj were not present in tigers today Prof Mike Bruford said the genetic diversity needed for the species to survive had been ‘lost dramatically’. There are fewer than 2,000 tigers left worldwide, 60% in India.”

Photo credit: ERIO via Flickr