Thu 2 Jan
2020 16.25 GMTLast modified on Mon 6 Jan 2020 10.15 GMT
A lone wolf in Belgium has
a love interest, after a potential female mate was spotted in his habitat in
the east of the country, authorities have said.
The Flemish Agency for Nature and
Forests (ANB) revealed this week the first images of a she-wolf it has
christened Noëlla, who was spotted in the north-eastern province of Limbourg,
bordering the Netherlands.
The agency said she was in the
same habitat as August, a male who was seen “acting like a solitary wolf”
after the
“virtually certain” death of Naya, a female wolf who had been
carrying cubs and receiving food from him.
Posting nocturnal images of
Noëlla on its Facebook page, the ANB said her arrival in August’s habitat was
great news, adding that the wolf mating season was in February: “That makes
dreams for 2020!”
“It’s a female. With the she-wolf
Noëlla, August has a potential new love in Limbourg,” tweeted Zuhal Demir, the
Flemish region’s environment minister.
A Belgian zoo announced Friday the "extremely rare" birth of twin baby giant pandas, three years after the arrival of a young male, which was a first for Belgium at the time.
The Pairi Daiza zoo said the safe delivery of the twins, one male and one female, on Thursday represented a "new hope" for the charismatic black and white bear, of which fewer than 2,000 now live in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
The mother Hao Hao showed signs of going into labour on Wednesday evening and gave birth to the 160-gram male baby on Thursday afternoon, under careful monitoring by Belgian and Chinese experts, followed by the female, weighing 150 grams, two hours later.
"This double birth is marvellous news for this extraordinary species," said Eric Domb, president of the zoo.
"We are very proud... the birth of these two babies is a tremendous reward for the huge work carried on every day by all our teams."
Mon 22 Jan
2018 16.54 GMTLast modified on Tue 23 Jan 2018 00.55 GMT
The first recorded wolf on
Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark.
Farmers in north-east Flanders
have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female
originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek
across Europe,
had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout.
Naya’s arrival in Belgium completes the
return of the predator to every mainland country in Europe, turning back
decades of persecution, although not every community might welcome it.
“Any sheep farmers should know
[they are] in range of this wolf,” said Hugh Jansman, a researcher from the Wageningen
University and research centre, who has been following Naya’s westward trek
across hundreds of miles of European landscape.
Officials will work to transfer ex-circus tiger from Belgium to Isle of Wight zoo after topic came up during Jeremy Corbyn’s first PMQs as Labour leader
Wednesday 16 September 2015 18.52 BSTLast modified on Thursday 17 September 201501.10 BST
Government officials have said they will work to help the Isle of Wight zoo import a tiger held in isolation in Belgium after David Cameron promised his support when the topic unexpectedly came up during Jeremy Corbyn’s first appearance at prime minister’s questions as leader of the opposition.
Andrew Turner, Conservative MP for the Isle of Wight, used the first question after Jeremy Corbyn’s PMQs debut to plead with the prime minister to aid the zoo in breaking through a “bureaucratic logjam” to import the tiger.
Simi had been a circus tiger in Germany but was taken on welfare grounds to a Belgian rescue centre two years ago, to be held at isolation. Turner told Cameron: “She was firstly cruelly treated in a circus and now has been kept in isolation for nearly two years despite Belgium being wholly free from rabies.”
Cameron said: “I do want to hear about the tiger. We will help with the Defra Animal and Plant Health Agency.”
A spokeswoman for the agency said: “Quarantine waivers are strictly controlled and only issued if certain criteria can be met by the premises of origin and destination. APHA will work with the Isle of Wight zoo to ensure that the correct procedures are followed.” She said certain criteria had not been met so far.
By Denise Chow, Staff Writer | March 26, 2014 03:57pm ET
Belgium is slated to destroy its entire stockpile of illegal ivory next month, joining the United States, China and several other countries in taking a stand against wildlife trafficking.
Earlier this month, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Laurette Onkelinx announced plans to destroy all the illegal ivory seized by customs, on April 9. A special ceremony will be held to mark the occasion, with dignitaries from the Belgian government present.
Onkelinx made the announcement March 3 at an event celebrating Belgium's involvement in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which is an international treaty to protect endangered plants and animals.
March 2014: The Belgian government has announced that that they will destroy their entire stockpile of illegal ivory on 9 April.
The ceremony will take place in the presence of dignitaries from elephant range states and in collaboration with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
“The Belgian government should be saluted for taking a firm and public stand on ivory trafficking and working to save the world’s threatened elephants. Not only are we losing an elephant every 15 minutes but the ivory trade is undercutting law and order in elephant range states and enriching organised crime syndicates– the slaughter of elephants must be stopped,” said Sonja Van Tichelen, IFAW’s European Regional Director.
Belgium is the latest country to destroy its stocks, following in the footsteps of France, the United States and China. Seizures of illegal ivory in the world continue to increase: 24.3 tonnes in 2011, 30 tonnes in 2012 and 41.5 tonnes in 2013.
Jan. 6, 2014 — New fossils from Belgium have shed light on the origin of some of the most well-known, and well-loved, modern mammals. Cats and dogs, as well as other carnivorous mammals (like bears, seals, and weasels), taxonomically called 'carnivoraformes', trace their ancestry to primitive carnivorous mammals dating back to 55 million years ago (the beginning of the time period called the Eocene). A study, published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, discusses the origins of this group and describes new specimens of one of the earliest of these primitive taxa.
Dec.
13, 2012 — Researchers in Belgium show how dogs can help patients with
severe sleep problems, in an article on bmj.com.
They
describe a 35 year old patient with severe excessive daytime sleepiness. She
suffered sleep attacks up to six times a day and sometimes slept up to 16 hours
a day.
Until
recently, this severe sleepiness considerably hampered her social life and
limited her use of public transport, as she usually fell asleep within a few
minutes of sitting down.
She'd
then wake up at the end of the line and have to fight sleepiness on the way
back. Sometimes she'd forget where she started from.
Medication
had only a limited effect, so the patient was put in contact with a charity
that provides trained dogs for people with visual or hearing impairment.
A
dog was first trained to wake the patient in the morning at the sound of an
alarm clock, even if this sometimes required 30 minutes of gentle biting. The
dog then learnt to wake the patient at the sound of the mobile phone ringing.
Eventually, he learnt to wake her up, if necessary, at every metro, tram, or
bus station.
This
animal companionship has allowed our patient to move around the city
efficiently and carry on a social life, say the authors. "The intervention
could benefit other patients with similarly extreme and treatment resistant
daytime sleepiness," they conclude.
Lemmings
became "regionally extinct" five times due to rapid climate change
during the last Ice Age, scientists have found.
Each
extinction was followed by a re-colonisation of genetically different lemmings,
according to the study.
It
investigated how Europe's small mammals fared during the era when large numbers
of megafauna became extinct.
Previously,
experts believed that small mammals were largely unaffected during the Late
Pleistocene.
But
when the international research team analysed ancient DNA sequences from
fossilised remains of collared lemmings (Dicrostonyx torquarus) from
cave sites in Belgium, they were surprised by the results.
"What
we'd expected is that there'd be pretty much just a single population that was
there all the way through," said research team member Dr Ian Barnes from
the school of biological sciences at Royal Holloway University in Surrey.
Wolf sighted in Belgium
September 2011. After some sheep were killed near the Belgian town of Gedinne in July, a TV camera crew set up an camera trap to see if, as suspected, a lynx had killed the sheep. Much to their, and everyone elses, surprise, what they caught on camera was not a lynx, but appeared to be a wolf (see below to view the video). To read more about this story and to find out about Animals in Trouble, the TV programme that set up the camera trap, click here.
First wolf in Belgium for 100 years
The last known Belgian wolf was seen in 1898, though there was a recent sighting in the Veluwe National Park in Holland of a lone wolf. This could potentially be the same wolf, or one from the same family. Either way, on the assumption that this wolf/wolves originated in Germany, they would have to have crossed several large motorways and rivers.
Veluwe National Park - Holland
De Hoge Veluwe National Park is the largest actively managed conservation area in private hands in the Netherlands. The Park covers 5,400 hectares of woodland, heathland, peat bogs and drift sand. It enjoys a wide variety of plants and animals and provides habitats to extremely rare Red List species.
Originally the Veluwe was surrounded by a string of swamps, heavily populated with game such as deer and wild boars because these areas offered rich vegetation to feed on. Since the 1990s many plans are underway, or have already been implemented, to restore these wetlands by blocking the drainage systems built by farmers during the last 150 years. This results in very dry heathland changing into wetland within a span of just a few hundred meters.
Parts of the Veluwe that have been separated from each other by roads, towns and farmland are being reconnected by returning farmland to nature and creating wildlife crossings over highways. In 2007, three of these overpasses had been built, each one about 50 meters wide and covered with sand and vegetation to encourage animals to use it. Six more will be built in the next five years. Wildlife corridors connecting the Veluwe to other wildlife areas such as the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands and the Klever Reichswald in Germany are being developed. It is hoped that by doing so the genetic diversity of the wildlife population will increase.
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