Polio-like virus affecting Rainbow Lorikeets

30/07/2001 0 Comments read Environment & Development, Health & Science

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 30.07.2001 (WFS): A mysterious and devastating polio-like virus is affecting Rainbow Lorikeets in Australia. The bright hued, gregarious bird with a distinguishing blue head is unable to stand, fly or perch on contacting the disease.

Similar to Poliomyelitis or infantile paralysis in humans where a virus affects the nervous tissue, in the birds too, part of the nervous system is affected causing symptoms of paralysis.

With virtually nothing known about the `suspected viral polioencephalomyelitis’ in the birds, Dr Rosemary Booth, a veterinarian at the University of Queensland in Brisbane and Dr Karrie Rose, a pathologist at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney are carrying out intensive research to unravel the mysterious virus affecting the Rainbow Lorikeets.

Continue reading →

Ornithologists turn match-makers for Siberian Cranes

10/02/1997 0 Comments read Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

Bharatpur, India 10.02.1997 (IPS): Dodging rockets in Afghanistan and poachers in Pakistan, three Siberian cranes — India’s most famous winged visitors — touched down last November at their winter home here in the Ramsar Wetland Site of Bharatpur in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

The Siberian cranes or Grus Leucogeranus were the first since 1994 to make the perilous 6,000-km long journey from south of the Arctic Circle, through Central Asia to India. In the 1960s, at least 200 used to regularly winter in Bharatpur’s famed Keoladeo National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Continue reading →

Where have all the butterflies gone?

01/11/1995 0 Comments read Environment & Development

Cethosia penthesilea, Orange Lacewing butterflies, are native to the far north of Australia. Photo Credit: © Neena Bhandari

By Neena Bhandari

New Delhi, 01.11.1995 (IPS): While the world tries hard to stop poachers from wiping out tigers and elephants in the wild, the threat from collectors to butterflies — a crucial link in the food chain — has been ignored.

“These delightful creatures may soon disappear,” warns Virendra Singh, an environmentalist. “Foreigners visiting the country on tourist visas are indiscriminately catching and smuggling out butterflies.”

Four large cartons containing some 15,000 moths and butterflies were seized recently from two Germans, Herman Heinrich and Weigert Ludwig. The collection included 400 rare and endangered species of butterflies, carefully packed in small plastic sachets with codes indicating where each was caught.

Continue reading →