Blind Orangutan Mother Sees Babies For The First Time

In 2008, Gober, a Sumatran orangutan, was caught in the North Sumatra province after conservationists realized she had gone blind. She had taken to raiding crops for food and was under threat from local farmers so she was taken to a care facility and entered into a breeding program. In 2011, Gober gave birth to twins but she was unable to see them. Finally on Monday, doctors were able to perform catatract surgery on Gober and declared the operation a success. It was the first such eye surgery done on an orangutan in Indonesia.Doctors were forced to wait until Gober's twins were old enough to be separated from their mother for the duration of the surgery.

The proud mother was reunited with her children and was finally able to see them for the first time. She was also able to see their father, Leuser, who is tragically blind as well after farmers attacked him.

Sumatran Orangutans are critically endangered and only 6,600 still exist in the wild. Gober is a vital part of the breeding program that may bolster their numbers and once grown, her children will be released to the wild.

Prisoners Work To Save Endangered Butterfly

Most people hear the word prisoner and assume the worst, after all, that person is in jail because they did something wrong for which society has said they should be punished. One prison is proving, however, that there may be hope yet for those who have found themselves behind bars. The inmates at Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Belfair, Washington, have embraced a movement to save the endangered Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas editha taylori). Working with guards and graduate students, a select group of prisoners are actively breeding the beautiful insects for release back into the wild. In a greenhouse just outside of the prison, the team works to not only continue raising the butterflies' numbers through breeding but have also conducted studies to determine which flowers it prefers to lay eggs on in the hopes that planting more such flowers will help the species bounce back from the brink.

This is all part of an initiative by the Sustainability in Prisons Project (SPP), a group that is working to utilize an untapped resource in the form of prisoners who want to help make amends and make the world a better place. The SPP treats the inmates as collaborators instead of manual labor. The inmates apply for  positions on the teams and receive training, education and a small wage. Together with the SPP, they have helped to conserve endangered butterflies, frogs, flowering plants and moss. So far 800 butterflies have been reintroduced to the wild with 3,600 more being prepped for next year.

Efforts to determine which plant the butterflies prefer show that they tend toward the golden paintbrush, a native plant of Washington, but with that plant also being threatened, the butterflies had been laying their eggs on plantain plants which are an introduced species. With this knowledge, the SPP hopes to increase efforts to save both the butterflies and the golden paintbrush.

The SPP projects also extend to other prisons where inmates are working to save prairie plants and spotted frogs.

Illegal Logging In Mexico Butterfly Reserves Has All But Stopped

For 12 years, the Mexican authorities have struggled to stop illegal logging in the monarch butterfly reserves that were established in 2012. For many local farmers and familes, logging was the only income they knew and as many as 1,140 acres a year were being clear cut, leaving monarch butterflies with a smaller and smaller area to breed and rest during migration. The journey of the monarch is a tale of epic proportions with no one generation managing the entire round trip. The butterflies begin flying north in March, making their way all the way to Canada and returning to Mexico in the early weeks of November but the logging of their forests, coupled with harsh winters, had been causing a massive decline in their numbers.

This year marks the first time that no logging has been discernable from satallite photos, proving the efforts of the Mexican government, ecological groups, and private donors has helped. Many families that used to log have instead been shown how to start seedlings, replant trees, and build up tourism business based on the fascination people have with the butterfly migration. Authorities state that this change may not mean that all logging has stopped but the only operations still running at this time appear to be mostly individuals whose impact on the forest is much smaller.

Omar Vidal of the environmental group WWF Mexico states that more education and policing efforts will be needed to stop these last holdouts of the logging days. There is hope, however, that the butterflies will be able to recover in numbers once the forests are stable again.

To read more, click here.

Turkeys and Apologies

We here at GNN apologize for not having our normal daily post up at noon. There was some delay in getting it ready. By way of apology, please have this video of the Turkey Whisperer. I dare you not to at least giggle.

Tiger Population in Nepal Doubles

Extinction is a very real threat for the Bengal tigers living near Nepal and in 2009, that's just what researchers thought would happen. Only 18 total adult tigers had been spotted in Bardia National Park that year, a paltry number that worried conservationists. Hidden cameras had been placed around the park in the hopes of counting just how many of the majestic cats were still around and when the shockingly low numbers came to light, the Nepalese government began working closely with park rangers to double security. Poachers are the number one threat to the tigers and for years, the locals had been trying to stop the killings on thier own.

Fortunately, the cause has been taken up by high level politicains who have pressed to add more guard posts and offered greater support for the rangers cracking down on poaching. Over 300 poachers were caught in 2011 alone. The results of this increased secrutiy have had a noticable impact though and researchers are elated to find that the population of tigers has doubled, going from 18 in 2009 to 37 in 2011. For more information, click here.

80-Year-Old Lobster Rescued from a Boiling Connecticut Pot

People Are Awesome: 80-Year-Old Lobster Rescued from a Boiling Connecticut Pot - News - GOOD

Sometimes the folks who benefit from kind deeds aren't people at all. Lobsters need love, too! The best part is that the lobster in question was released into a habitat that's safe from fishing boats, so he's not likely to be caught someplace else.



(Photo by flickr user Patrik Neckman)

New Procedure Saves Poisoned Dog and May Save People Too

It was a nightmare situation for Helen Abel. Her two-year-old Mini Australian shepherd, Kasey, had eaten death cap mushrooms at an oak grove in Healdsburg during a walk. Mushroom poisoning kills many pets and sadly the prognosis did not look good for Kasey. Godd fortune smiled however, when it was discovered that  Dr. Todd Mitchell at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz was currently in the middle of testing a new drug which could potentially save people with mushroom poisoning. During his tests, he had discovered that while the drug he was working on had a high chance of success, there was also a surgical procedure which might save lives as well.

The procedure involved draining toxic bile from the victim's gallbladder and Kasey seemed to be the perfect test subject to see if this would help. Vetrinarians performed the surgery and sure enough Kasey began getting better and better. She has made a full recovery now and her miraculous survival is a good sign for people suffering the same fate. Dr. Mitchell intends to attempt the same procedure on people in rural areas who suffer from poisoning but for whom the drug he is developing might not be available.

Scientists Teach Baby Beluga Whale How To Bottlefeed

Photos courtesy of Mercury News.

For the first time ever, a baby beluga whale has been rescued in US waters and brought back to an aquarium for care. The little whale is only two days old and was found in South Naknek, a part of Alaska's Bristol Bay. Previous rescue attempts had not been successful with most calves passing away before they could be transported to a care facility. The only previous rescue attempt that had shown any success ended with the rescuers returning the baby whale back to its pod but in this case, there was no sign of the mother to be found.

The little male calf was transported 90 minutes to the Alaska SeaLife Center where scientists around the world have been flocking in an attempt to help. Currently, he is being fed via a stomach tube but there is hope that he will learn to feed from the bottle being offered to him. There is a long road ahead for this baby but scientists are hopeful that someday he'll grow to his full size of around 15 feet long.

For more information and additional photos, click here. 

Man Helps Over 1000 Animals

The beings that need us most are often the ones who can't ask for that help. Many animal shelters find themselves a little overrun dealing with all the stays in their care but one team is helping to alleviate the problem and saving quite a few lives along the way. Pilots and Paws is an organization that flies pets from overwhelmed kill shelters to areas where they stand a much better chance of being adopted. On June 21st, 2012, pilot Jeff Bennett saved his 1000th animal. 

Is it me or did it get dusty in here all of a sudden? *sniffle*