Animal Planet Announces Search for 2009 Hero of the Year

/PRNewswire/ -- Animal Planet is once again launching its annual search for HERO OF THE YEAR, a competition now in its fourth year. In partnership with the makers of Fresh Step(R) Litter, HERO OF THE YEAR is a nationwide search and celebration of animal advocates who demonstrate extraordinary effort, talent and spirit in support of animals in their community.

Beginning March 9, 2009, the general public is encouraged to nominate candidates for HERO OF THE YEAR using the Animal Planet website (www.AnimalPlanet.com). To nominate a hero, viewers must submit an essay (250-word maximum) that describes the cause that their nominee supports, the activities and actions that demonstrate the nominee's commitment, the impact of the nominee's actions, and how the nominee has inspired others to get involved. By nominating a friend or family member for HERO OF THE YEAR, the nominator is automatically entered to win a $50 PetSmart(R) gift card, one of which will be given out daily during the nomination window. Official rules, FAQ and entry forms are located online.

The nomination process ends on June 28, 2009, at which point a panel of judges will select ten finalists for HERO OF THE YEAR. The general public will then be able to choose their favorite finalist during People's Choice voting, which will be available on AnimalPlanet.com from September 14 to September 27, 2009 and ultimately decide the winner.

The winner of HERO OF THE YEAR will be recognized on-air and will receive a trip for two to a destination that supports their animal welfare passion. Additionally, Animal Planet will donate $10,000 to the recipient's favorite animal-related charity.

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Zoo Atlanta Works on Global Amphibian Issue

Zoo Atlanta’s Curator of Herpetology, Joseph R. Mendelson III, Ph.D, joined scientists
from around the world at San Diego Zoo’s reptile house recently to create a
comprehensive manual for how to control combating diseases in amphibians (amphibians
consist of frogs, salamanders and the little known caecilians).

The amphibian populations have steadily been declining dramatically because of chytrid,
an amphibian fungal disease that infects the skin of amphibians; a vital organ through
which many drink and breathe. It was discovered a decade ago; dozens of frog species
have already vanished because of it. In environments where it thrives, the fungus can kill
80 percent of the native amphibians within months. Currently, it is unstoppable and
untreatable in the wild, even in ‘protected’ areas. “Chytrid fungus is doing things that
diseases don’t normally do; namely, it’s driving species directly to extinction. That doesn’t
happen in a normal, healthy world,” said Joseph Mendelson.

The San Diego Zoo and Zoo Atlanta invited amphibian specialists from the United States,
Australia, and the United Kingdom, to work toward a consensus on the best practices to
prevent and control amphibian diseases. The Institute of Museum and Library Services,
the largest governmental cultural agency in the United States, provided the funds for the
three-day workshop. “We hope the work we do with our colleagues will allow us to
understand this disease and help save the amphibian species in the wild,” said Dennis
Kelly, President and CEO, Zoo Atlanta.

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Animal Planet Follows the Wildlife of America's Most Extraordinary Wilderness in Breathtaking New Documentary YELLOWSTONE: BATTLE FOR LIFE

/PRNewswire/ -- Yellowstone National Park is a place of changing, but never-ending, beauty. From the delicate flowers that bloom in spring to the saturated colors of autumn and even to the barren sublimity of winter, its picturesque landscape has made it a world icon. Ironically, one of the most beautiful backdrops in the world has one of the harshest environments, making life a constant struggle for the wildlife that roam its mountains, grasslands, rivers and valleys. Over 640,000 years ago, a massive supervolcano, which lies just beneath the surface of Yellowstone, was the source of a cataclysmic eruption, covering half the U.S. in debris and ash. The lasting effect of that volcanic blast is the extreme and unpredictable weather that plagues Yellowstone to this day. Yet, despite its brutality, the park is home to countless wildlife, including such symbols of the American west as the grey wolf, buffalo, elk, and grizzly bear.

Premiering Sunday, March 22, at 8 PM (ET/PT), Animal Planet's new documentary YELLOWSTONE: BATTLE FOR LIFE captures the essence of this bitter and mercurial environment as it follows the animals that struggle for life in the midst of this treasured wilderness. Filmed over the course of a year, the documentary explores how, by virtue of pure instinct, the creatures of Yellowstone find food, protect their young, reproduce and survive the severe winters and everyday struggles of our most famous national park. Both a documentary and a work of art, YELLOWSTONE tells the story of these hardy animals and simultaneously illustrates the beauty of this American landscape in amazing HD.

"YELLOWSTONE exemplifies Animal Planet's unfaltering dedication to truly beautiful natural history television," says Marjorie Kaplan, president and general manager of Animal Planet. "This gorgeous special celebrates life and survival as it pays homage to an iconic American landscape."

Buried between the peaks of the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone National Park is an American gem. However, what makes Yellowstone so unique is also what makes it so dangerous; the park is the biggest geothermal area on Earth with forces of unimaginable power controlling its future from just below its surface. The effect of Yellowstone's last volcanic blast is a crater so big that it controls the weather of the park even today, acting as a giant funnel as it brings cold air and precipitation into the park's valleys. Due to the crater's presence, Yellowstone's temperatures can vary from 99 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to -66 degrees in the winter with a range of 10 to 80 inches of precipitation every year.

Throughout YELLOWSTONE: BATTLE FOR LIFE viewers will find a new appreciation for the animals that struggle to survive this extreme weather. Cameras follow a plethora of creatures, both on land and underwater, as their lives are constantly imperiled by the very land they inhabit; a land that could unleash destruction at any moment.

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Gas Chamber Legislation Bill in Georgia

AAG Note: This story was recently covered by the Georgia Front Page on February 15, 2009. Within that article are the Georgia counties and cities who still use the gas chamber for euthanizing animals.

This plea was sent to the Fayette Front Page by the Georgia Heartland Humane Society.

This concerns banning the use of the remaining gas chambers in Georgia animal shelters as a method of euthanizing animals. The more humane method is lethal injection. This is an issue that you can have a direct hand in changing. You can help put an end to this inhumane, cruel treatment of the least fortunate animals. PLEASE read the message and instructions below then make those calls and send those emails. We only have until Monday! Thank you so much.

PLEASE CROSS POST TO PUSH "GRACE'S BILL" THROUGH!

We now have a bill in the House (HB 606) and the same bill in the Senate (SB 232). Two opportunities is better than one!

We have only until next Thursday the 12th for either bill to make its way "out of committee" and through a vote of the full House (or Senate). In other words, the bill (on either side) has to make it to the other side on or before the "crossover" date, which is the 12th. For example, if HB 606 doesn't make it out of the Agriculture Committee, it's dead. If it makes it out of the Ag Committee but doesn't pass a vote of the full House, it's dead. Same scenario on the other side, in the Senate.

The bill has to make through one side (before crossover date), then the other, then the Governor's approval to become a law.

A hearing of the Livestock, Poultry and Aquaculture Subcommittee (subcommittee of the House Committee on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs) is set for HB 606 Monday 8:00 a.m. in room 403 of the Capitol.!

The Chairman of that subcommittee is Ellis Black.

We've been informed by lobbyists and legislative aides that phone calls are the most effective method of communicating your support of a bill to a legislator. So please help us start a campaign of phone calls to the offices of members of both Agriculture Committees (House and Senate).

Here's the link to the General Assembly with all legislators' contact information, bios, etc.:

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/

Here's the link to the House Committee on Agriculture:

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/Committees/agriculture/agIndex.htm

Here's the link to the Senate Committee on Agriculture:

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/senate/agriculture.php


Please call these individuals to express your support of HB 606 [leave messages with their assistants or interns]:

Subcommittee Chair, Ellis Black: (404) 656-0287

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/bios/blackEllis/blackEllis.htm

Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Tom McCall: (404) 656-5115

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/bios/mccallTom/mccallTom.htm

Vice Chairman, House Committee on Agriculture, Terry England: (404) 656-0183

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/bios/englandTerry/englandTerry.htm

Secretary, House Committee on Agriculture, Dr. Gene Maddox DVM (supports gassing!!): (404) 656-0152

http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2009_10/house/bios/maddoxGene/maddoxGene.htm

Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, John Bulloch: (404) 656-0040

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/senate/bullochbio.php

Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Ralph Hudgens: (404) 656-4700

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/senate/hudgensbio.php

Secretary, Senate Committee on Agriculture, Lee Hawkins: (404) 656-6578

http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/senate/hawkinsbio.php

If you prefer to email any or all of these folks, please do so. It's your choice. Their email addresses are on these hyperlinks.

What you can do also, in regards to the Senate bill, which is newer than the House bill, is thank Senator Steve Henson (D-Dekalb County) for his sponsorship of the bill [stevehenson@mindspring.com] and ask your own Senator to co-sponsor the bill.

Please take into consideration that the time and resources of the handful (10) of individuals (myself included) who are "heading" this campaign for the passage of this legislation are limited, as are your own. If you have ideas of how to further the campaign... if you want to draft and cross post something else... if you want to contact the media.... PLEASE DO! There is no proprietary interest in this campaign. It belongs to every resident of the State of Georgia. If you want to see this bill passed, then you do whatever you are able and willing to do to ensure its passage. There are no rules. You don't need anyone's consent. Each and every one of us is a free-thinking, tax-paying registered voter. You don't need anyone's permission or instructions on how to contact our State elected officials to express your opinions and make your requests. Just go for it! There's no time to waste.

Thank you for your active participation in this important and historic campaign for the welfare of Georgia's homeless pets.

Chamblee Abernethy in Dekalb County (678) 640-1177

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Flint EMC, DNR Put up Nest Boxes to Ease Kestrel Housing Crunch

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Flint Energies are helping ease a middle Georgia housing shortage for southeastern American kestrels, a small falcon listed as rare in the state.

Flint Energies, an electric cooperative serving 17 central Georgia counties, put up 10 power poles and wildlife biologists recently added kestrel nest boxes on each at Fall Line Sandhills Natural Area and a nearby state-owned tract, both in Taylor County. The lack of nest sites is a limiting factor for this species, said Nathan Klaus, a senior wildlife biologist with the DNR Wildlife Resources Division.

“I believe next week if you come out here there’ll be (a kestrel) sitting on top of each pole,” Klaus said with a grin after Flint Energies’ 1st class lineman Craig Montgomery and Chad Albritton attached the first box last week.

Klaus has good reason for the optimism. Nest boxes added earlier in the project started by Jonathan Stober, a wildlife biologist with Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center at Ichauway, have boosted kestrel numbers at Fall Line Sandhills from six nesting pairs a few years ago to more than 20. On a recent sunny day, a few of the colorful raptors perched alone on power lines high above the older boxes, apparently staking out claims.

Kelly Trapnell, a public relations specialist with Flint Energies, said the not-for-profit company is “proud to be a small part of this project to boost the kestrel population in our service area.”

“It will be exciting to watch with the rest of the community as the kestrel population grows along our rights of way and safely in nesting boxes on our poles in Taylor County," she said.

Assessing populations of southeastern American kestrels is one of the high priorities in the Georgia Wildlife Action Plan, the strategy that guides Wildlife Resources and DNR efforts to conserve biological diversity. The partnership with Flint Energies is aimed at restoring the Taylor County kestrels, one of three small populations in Georgia.

The southeastern American kestrel probably was once widely distributed throughout Georgia’s Coastal Plain, roosting and nesting in hollow trees and abandoned red-cockaded woodpecker cavities, and preying on lizards, mice, large insects and occasionally small birds. But as the state’s native open habitat types were lost to agriculture, intensive silviculture, development and a lack of fire, kestrels and other grassland birds disappeared from most of their former ranges.

Power-line rights of way provide suitable kestrel habitat, as does ongoing thinning and burning to restore the landscape at Fall Line Sandhills near Butler. Klaus and Stober attribute the missing ingredient – cavities for nesting – to fewer older snags and hollow trees, and the lack of cavities created by red-cockaded woodpeckers, a federally endangered species no longer found in the area.

In late spring, Klaus, Stober and volunteers will check the boxes and band chicks as part of monitoring local kestrel trends.

Partners in the project include Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center and The Environmental Resources Network, or TERN, which provided a grant to build the boxes.

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Will Tiger Cubs be Zoo Atlanta Next Big Birth?

Just nine months after welcoming the arrival of three African lion cubs – the first of their kind born at 800 Cherokee Avenue in more than 10 years – Zoo Atlanta is hopeful that another popular feline species may soon end a second decade-long wait. Chelsea, a 5-year-old female
Sumatran tiger, may be expecting cubs.

While the Animal Management and Veterinary Teams have not yet been able to confirm a pregnancy, staff is hopeful that Chelsea, who arrived at the Zoo in 2006, could be on her way to first-time motherhood. The tigress was seen breeding with her mate, 8-year-old Kavi for the first time in early January (tiger gestation is around 103 days, with litter sizes ranging from one to five cubs).

The birth of Sumatran tiger cubs would be a triumph for a vanishing species. The most endangered of the world’s remaining tigers, Sumatrans are believed to number fewer than 400 in the wild. Poaching, habitat loss and habitat fragmentation caused by deforestation are the primary threats to the charismatic cats, which are found only on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

As is the case with their wild counterparts, Chelsea and Kavi interact only at specific times. The species is solitary, with males and females associating briefly during short breeding intervals. The Zoo’s pair met in 2007, but Chelsea did not demonstrate any signs of receptivity to Kavi until January 2009.

Zoo Atlanta is home to two other Sumatran tigers, Jalal, 15, and Sekayu. At 21, Sekayu is the nation’s oldest living Sumatran tiger. The last tiger cub born at the Zoo was their offspring, Bahagia, a female born in November 2000.

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Now is the Time for Pine Beetle Action

Local forest landowners are being urged to take advantage of available assistance that helps combat the destructive southern pine beetle. The Georgia Forestry Commission is offering a number of solutions to battle the pest, which has caused more than $250 million in Georgia timber losses since 1972.

“Forest landowners should contact us now to arrange for any of several services that can improve the health of their stands and increase their value,” said James Johnson, Forest Health Coordinator for the GFC. “For the seventh consecutive year we are offering a cost-share program that provides significant assistance for prevention and relief from southern pine beetle attacks.” April 15 is the deadline by which land owners must sign up for the Southern Pine Beetle Cost-Share Program, according to Johnson.

The program helps fund practices that support forest health, including non-commercial thinning
(reducing the number of stems per acre to an optimum level), pine release treatments (removing unwanted hardwoods from the stand and lowering the number of stems per acre), prescribed burning, southern pine beetle infestation treatments, and replanting stands harvested due to southern pine beetle attacks. These healthy forestry practices are also known to increase wildlife benefits for many species, including deer, turkey, and quail.

For more information, contact your local GFC office or visit GaTrees.org/ForestManagement/spb.cfm.

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