Halloween Candy

Be an informed consumer for Halloween and be careful about the candies you buy and give out. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo staff have been very diligently researching palm oil and disseminating the information so that more people can choose wisely when they shop.

"Like many zoos, we have a Halloween event (ours is called Boo at the Zoo) with sponsors handing out candy. In the past the sponsors brought their own candy. To have better control over the quality we are now charging the sponsors a fee and we provide the candy. So, to help our events staff make candy decisions that reflect our commitment to the palm oil issue, we went to a large national store where we are going to purchase the candy, and looked at the labels of all the candy products offered there. Here are the results of our research, if anyone would like to use this list. Candy choices - palm oil info <http://www.cmzoo.org/Palmoil-candy.pdf> You can also access this list on the CMZ palm oil page, look for the pumpkins."

Hope it is helpful!
Dina Bredahl,
Animal Care ManagerCheyenne Mountain Zoo

Recently in the news

Sierra Leone steps up efforts to save chimpanzees
AFP, October 2, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7509

Malaysia returns four orangutans to Indonesia
AFP, September 27, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7497

Guerrilas in Their Midst
Smithsonian, October 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7488

Congo rangers break suspected gorilla traffic ring
Reuters, September 25, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7489

Orphan chimps turned killer find Leone refuge
Scientific American, September 26, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7491

'Green Fuel' Harming Rainforests
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30400-1286104,00.html

Dian Fossey Fund Expands to Help Save Congo Mountain Gorillas
E-Wire, September 21, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7473

Fate of Western Lowland Gorillas is worsened

On Thursday, October 11, Minnesota Public Radio hosted an hour-long program on the worsening situation of the western gorilla, which has been recently reassessed as Critically Endangered. To explore this and related issues in great ape conservation, MPR interviewed Peter Walsh of the Max Planck Institute, whose research has documented the severe effects of Ebola on great ape populations, and Michael Hoffmann, a biodiversity analyst with IUCN and a key figure in the recent great apes assessment.

Listen to the broadcast:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2007/10/11/midmorning2

Don't be fooled by biofuel claims

Indonesia's government is supporting a new initiative to increase palm oil plantations to provide palm oil for biofuel. See the following article:
http://www.ecoearth.info/alerts/send.asp?id=indonesia_peatland

A related article about paying countries to protect rainforests:
http://www.ecoearth.info/alerts/send.asp?id=climate_rainforest


Oil for ape scandal - research report
http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/oil_for_ape_full.pdf

World Conservation Union Publishes New Red List

The new World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List has been published.
www.iucn.org/redlist

Gorillas now 'critically endangered'
Associated Press, September 12, 2007
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/scripts/external.php?link=7469

Satellite Tracking Reveals Threats To Borneo Pygmy Elephants

The fact that destruction of forests in Indonesia affects the survival of species other than orangutans is not surprising. Destroying an ecosystem has far reaching effects on all flora and fauna that rely upon that ecosystem for life.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070809204625.htm

Of interest...

It has been awhile since the last posting...apologies to those who regularly check the blog. Here are a few links for you to peruse.

NASA images show expansion of logging in Congo rainforest -- 07/15/2007New high resolution images of logging roads in the Congo region of Africa are helping researchers understand the expansion of industrial logging in Central Africa.

Beware biofuel promises. Although, in theory, biofuel sounds as though is could solve some of our oil dependency issues, more and more information is becoming available indicating this is not the case. Additionally, some biofuel admixtures use palm oil (say it isn't so).
Corn ethanol is not the solution to energy independence -- 07/18/2007A new report claims that corn ethanol will not significantly offset U.S. fossil fuel consumption without "unacceptable" environmental and economic consequences.

And, as if gorillas and orangutans don't have enough to contend with in their struggle to survive the onslaught of anthropogenic factors...
Rare gorillas slaughtered in mass killing -- 07/24/2007At least four critically endangered gorillas have been killed in Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park. National Geographic News reports they were shot "execution-style". Illegal charcoal harvesters are leading suspects in the slaying. Two other gorillas are missing and feared dead.

Coal mining threatens the "Heart of Borneo" -- 07/25/2007Coal mining in Borneo imperils the island's fast-disappearing forests and threatens to undermine the effectiveness of an monumental conservation initiative, according to a report from the The Sunday Times and Parliamentary testimony.