Cetaceans and Humanity

What is Cetaceans?

Cetacean is one of the groups of marine mammals. Just like other mammals, marine mammals have similar characteristics such as covered in hair/fur, breathe air through lungs, warm-blooded, nurture their young with milk produced by mammary glands. In addition to those characteristics, marine mammals have adapted to live in the ocean because they rely heavily on the marine ecosystems for their existence.

Cetaceans are completely aquatic, and they cannot survive on land. They have two front flippers, and their tails are uniquely shaped into flukes, which provide tremendous swimming power. Examples of cetaceans are dolphins, porpoises, and whales.

Cetaceans in captivity

You probably have heard about the controversy of keeping cetaceans in captivity. Due to cetaceans’ intelligence, many people believe that they shouldn’t be kept in captivity. Some even believe that marine mammals can commit suicide, a statement which leads to another controversial discussion. But how true is the statement? According to Dr. Ann Weaver, an animal behaviorist and dolphin researcher, animals can get depressed but there is a powerful survival instinct that prevents them from killing themselves. According to her the continuum from melancholy to the blues to depression to despondency to the step to despair, which is a tipping point in suicide, is uniquely human.
On another hand, Dr. Lori Marino – a neuroscientist and expert in animal behavior and intelligence, believes that humans and dolphins share emotions, that they are more alike than different. “I think the idea that other animals can’t commit suicide because they are hardwired to live is very old fashioned. Basically it says that we are aware of what we are doing and other animals are just driven by this hardwired red in tooth and claw to survive and there is no evidence for that.”
Dr. Lori is internationally known for her work on the evolution of the brain and intelligence in dolphins and whales. She showed a human brain and a dolphin brain and explains how evolved they both are. Such big brains indicate a high level of cognitive processes. Suicide in animals is a provocative inquiry and scientists agree it requires more research.
Speaking of research, to provide and sustain a high momentum of research in marine mammal medicine, there is a need for advance conservation, increased research, more skilled scientists and sufficient financial support to improve the benefits of marine mammal medicine to man. How do humanity benefits from marine mammal medicine?

Cetaceans and human survival

Cetaceans and other marine mammals are sentinels of changes in the oceans and public health. Pollution in the sea and overfishing of seafood resources affects these organisms just as much as it affects human beings. Due to their prime position within the food web, marine mammals therefore have the ability to bioaccumulate pollutants and anthropogenic toxic compounds in the marine environment through a process called bio-magnification. Their long lifespans and unique blubber (fat reserves) have high ability to store toxic compounds. In summary, these compounds progressively move through the food chain and increase in amounts each time they enter a new trophic level, which means that by the time they reach the top (i.e., in marine mammals), their concentrations are generally quite high. Thus they are indicators of change in the marine environment and sentinels for public health and the health of our oceans.
Studies on the presence and levels of organic contaminants in marine mammals essentially provide us with a means to assess the potential risks and exposures to our species. A recent ecotoxicological study on a species of coastal dolphin in Brazil showed that octocrylene/OCT, an ultraviolet filtering agent found in sunscreen products, was detected in high concentrations in the dolphins’ livers. Another study shows that in the southeastern estuarine waters of the United States of America, two dolphin populations were found to carry a high load of chlorinated pesticides and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), amongst other organic contaminants, at levels that have reported adverse effects on wildlife and humans.
If dolphins are accumulating toxic compounds in their bodies from the fish they are eating, which for the most part is also the fish that we eat, we may also consume the same toxins. In other words, from public health and food security point of view, if contaminants are accumulated in the bodies of marine mammals, and marine mammal populations around the world are declining due to a lack of food resources, then it is a bad sign for our species’ viability.
Thomas Goetz, an American public health practitioner, stated that “Better health is not a science problem, it’s an information problem”. For the lack of information dissemination to the general public on the actual state of our marine environment and how it is ultimately linked to our overall welfare, one cannot expect the general public to be aware and want to care about the environment.

Last words, do you think keeping cetaceans in captivity is necessary? Is there a need to keep them for research and educational purpose? While it is better to let the wildlife live in the wild, due to pollution the ocean water may have become toxic for cetaceans. However, there are still some sanctuaries left in this world that provide a safe home for them. More info here.

The bee riddles

Hello there! Now it’s fun time for some bee related riddles. Ready?

3…

2…

1…

• What do you get if you cross a bee and a rabbit?
  Answer: A honey bunny.
• What do bees do with their honey?
  Answer: They cell it.
• What did the mother bee say to the baby bee?
  Answer: Beehive yourself please!
• What is more impressive than a talking dog?
  Answer: A spelling bee.
• What did the bee say when she was invited to the party?
  For the answer, please stay tuned at knowledgebeatsignorance.com’s YouTube channel to find out!

New articles and videos coming soon!

I haven’t really posted anything for awhile now, but I’m glad to inform that my articles and videos will soon be available at knowledgebeatsignorance.com! The website is pretty eclectic, and one of the topics they will talk about is (of course) animals and wildlife! It’s not yet live but I’m excited to see my published articles and videos there.

According to their YouTube channel:

This channel has a multidisciplinary approach. It is pretty eclectic. Its main function is to promote the knowledgebeatsignorance.com website. NB, This website is not yet live. We intend to explore the Sciences, social sciences and the humanities, science of learning, mnemonics, memory training, fitness, fashion, languages and communication, animal communication, language learning, law, jurisprudence, international relations, the Commonwealth of Nations, medical science, dance, dogs, meditation, concentration and contemplation, and other things under the sun. Other things far away from the sun e.g. Tabby’s Star or that star’s official name, KIC 8462852.

For someone with a broad range of interests like me (vet med, marine life, surfing, diving, archery, astronomy, calligraphy, cooking, music, human psychology, and many more) it would be a good website to explore. Sounds interesting? I agree!

What is BodyTalk?

BodyTalk is a simple and effective holistic therapy that allows your body’s energy systems to be re-synchronized so they can operate as nature intended. Every cell in our bodies has natural ability to heal itself but due to pollution, stress and our usage of supplements and drugs our bodies slowly forget that natural ability.

A BodyTalk session can restore your natural ability to heal and fix your health issues. It is based on the principle that the body is capable of healing itself at all levels – as evidenced by the healing process that is automatically initiated when a person hurts an elbow or twists an ankle.

As a consciousness-based healthcare, BodyTalk enhances our natural healing ability and stimulates our bodies to balance and heal itself on all levels. A trained BodyTalk practitioner listens to what your body is saying, thus they can identify the roots of problems in your body and heal the problems on physical, emotional, psychological, and energetic levels. BodyTalk integrates seamlessly with medical science, but it does not substitute medical treatment nor medications.

The BodyTalk techniques provide insights to the areas of your body that need attention. Instead of focusing on the symptoms, BodyTalk practitioners find the underlying causes of illness by addressing the whole-person and their whole-story. What might seem like an obvious problem to you is not necessarily the one your body wants to address first.

If a BodyTalk technique is performed incorrectly, it simply means that there will be no result or change. It will not make things worse. It follows, therefore, that anyone who receives BodyTalk has nothing to lose and everything to gain as far as his or her health is concerned.

Indeed, every person who is sincerely interested in the concept of total healthcare and has a respect for the power of the potential of human body-mind should find out more about the BodyTalk System.

The concept of BodyTalk:

Innatism: refers to a philosophy of Plato and Descartes who assumed that a God or a similar being or process placed innate ideas and principles in the human mind. Innatism is a philosophical and epistemological doctrine that holds that the mind is born with ideas/knowledge, and that therefore the mind is not a “blank slate” at birth. It asserts that not all knowledge is gained from experience and the senses. This is what we call innate wisdom in BodyTalk.

Innate wisdom lets every single cell, atom, and system communicates constantly with every other cell, atom and system within the bodymind complex at all times. This includes communication through the nervous system, as well as the other subtle energy circuits of the body – such as the meridians and the electromagnetic frequencies that are produced by the body through its functioning. Exposure to stress, pollution, and chemical substances in our daily life can cause these circuits to become compromised, weakening or disrupting the communication between the cells and systems.

A BodyTalk practitioner connects with the innate wisdom, then using BodyTalk protocol chart they will find out which parts of the client’s body have communication breakdown that causes symptoms/problems. The left and right brain will then be balanced with BodyTalk tapping techniques to fix the communication breakdown and to re-synchronise the whole body-mind complex.

The history of BodyTalk:

In 1995, Dr. John Veltheim introduced BodyTalk, a revolutionary healthcare system that uses state-of-the-art energy medicine to optimize the body’s internal communications and allow it to more effectively respond to injury and illness. Since then, the BodyTalk System has been taught to more than a thousand practitioners around the world.

Veltheim, an Australian, once ran a busy clinic for Chinese medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic and naturopathy. He became exhausted, got ill and couldn’t recover. The long search for a cure led him to experiment with blending these and other alternative therapies, creating “acupuncture without needles”.

The breakthrough in BodyTalk was achieved in 1995 when Veltheim discovered that we can tap into the body’s energy circuits by using simple muscle testing to discover areas of sluggish communication. Tapping on the head then tells the brain to “fix” the faulty circuit, followed by tapping on the heart to “store” the fix, just like a computer downloading a programme.

Until today there are over 200 BodyTalk instructors teaching in over 50 countries with translation of training materials into 10 languages, and there are over 1,300 Certified BodyTalk Practitioner helping people in over 40 countries around the world. BodyTalk is used by people in countries across the globe and from all walks of life, from professional athletes looking for a competitive edge to poor communities desperately in need of affordable healthcare.

Benefits of BodyTalk sessions:

• Balance the brain.
• Remove psychological and energetic blockages.
• Balance chakras, meridians, and the energy body.
• Ease physical discomfort.
• Minimise negative environmental effects.
• Helps to balance posture and physical structure of the body.
• Balance immune system to fight microbes and to reduce allergies.
• Reduce fear and phobia.
• Balance unhealthy memory such of traumatic events in the past.
• Balance the lymph, blood circulation, and nervous system.
• Balance the functions of each organs, endocrine, body parts.
• Ease health issues naturally.
• Enhance your whole health and well being experience.
• Increase concentration and work performance.
• Lower stress level.

Who needs BodyTalk

• People with health problems.
• People with high stress level.
• People with physical complaints (Read a testimonial from a professional golf player here).
• People with emotional complaints.
• People who wants to improve their well-being.
• Basically for anyone, even “the superhuman among us – the Barrack Obamas, the Oprah Winfreys” as quoted from The Telegraph (Source here).

Motivation needed!

Motivation needed!

Okay as you can see I haven’t been updating my blog for a few months now. There are a few reasons to this:

1. I quit my job, then traveled and volunteered abroad, mostly in Thailand, and yes I read your mind, there will be some blog posts related to my volunteering experience coming ‘soon’.

2. I’m back in my right-brained hobbies: making paper art, writing calligraphy, coloring the now-trending-adult-coloring book (yes I’m one of those people who color, so?).

3. I need motivation! There are already a few posts that are almost ready to post but my motivation is currently very dry and I cannot be bothered finishing them.

Okay I’m not going to lie, the last reason as well as laziness are probably my main problems right now. So fellow bloggers and writers out there, please help me keep motivated and tell me:

What keeps you motivated in updating your site even when you are busy and when your mind is distracted?

We’re celebrating World Rhino Day with BIG NEWS

This is a wonderful news on a World Rhino Day! Ratu and Andalas, the rhino couple at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary, my previous work place, are expecting their second baby! Yay! Congrats Ratu and Andalas for the baby, and congrats Andatu for the little brother 🙂

6 Reasons Why Captive Elephant Breeding Does Not Help Conservation

Regarding my article about elephant riding, some readers approached me asking about my opinion in riding elephants that are born and raised in captivity. Some argue that captive born elephants are more tame and treated in a more humane way. Is it true?

Based on my knowledge, almost none of the current captive elephants used in elephant rides or tourism business are born in captivity. Most of elephant owners (apart from zoos) refuse to breed their elephants because nursing mother cannot work full-time and it will bring in less income for them.

Apart from that, captive breeding in both Asian (Elephas maximus) and African elephants (Loxodonta africana) has low successful rate and even though they can produce offspring, the calves will be raised in a non-ideal environment. Read more explanations below:

1. During captive breeding, there is chance that a cow elephant killed by a bull elephant. This could be a result from incompatibility between the bull and the cow. However, finding a compatible elephant pair in captivity is exceptionally difficult. Keeping a bull elephant is another challenge because they have musth period when they become very aggressive, hard to handle and sometimes even kill their own mahouts. A strong (and expensive) facility is needed to hold an adult bull.
2. Some adult cow elephants in captivity show irregular cycle. Based on scientific research, adult captive cow elephants have irregular breeding cycle and some do not cycle at all. There are many reasons to it, from lack of nutrition to lack of interaction with males. In good facilities such as high-standard zoos, they monitor the cow’s hormonal level and maintain the cycle with hormonal supplement. However, this makes the maintenance cost high and is not a solution for small elephant industries, for example in most areas where the elephants are kept by villagers.
3. In rural areas where elephants are kept by villagers, they refuse to breed their cow elephants because breeding is not always successful and can cause hip problem, sometimes lead to broken hip. This is caused by the lack of nutrition, especially calcium. Captive elephants receive less nutrition because their diet is supplied by human and they don’t have the chance to eat various food which they usually get in the wild. In working elephants the condition is worsened because their owners want them to work as long as possible, hence limiting their time to eat and limiting the nutrition they need.
4. Elephant calves that are born in captivity shows low survival rate with high percentage of stillbirth and infant mortality.
5. Naturally the mother elephant and the calf stay together for 3-4 years. Elephant calf still suckles milk until almost 2 years old and will be completely weaned at the age of 4 or younger. However, if the mother has to work, carrying tourists on her back, they’ll spend less time together and sometimes they are separated when the calf is still very young.
6. Even though born and raised in captivity, elephants used for show and tourism industry still need to be trained in order to control their behavior. I have no information about the practice of phajaan (soul crushing ritual) in captive reared elephants, mainly because the successful rate of captive breeding is very low, but I assure that all working elephants, both born in the wild and born in captivity, still have to be controlled using sharp bull hook. Naturally no elephant will allow people to ride their back because it’s not in their nature. In tourism industry, taming them is necessary and one of the very common controlling methods is by using sharp hook.

But they are contributing to conservation, aren’t they?

When we talk about conservation (conservation of any wildlife, not only elephant), we are talking about the wild population, not population in captivity. Unfortunately, there’s only a small chance that captive born wildlife will be released into the wild again because of many reasons, with main concerns are they have lost their natural behavior and may not survive from hunters. Sadly enough, there are only a small percentage of real conservation institutions while the rest are mainly profit-making organizations and get public sympathy by saying they are contributing to ‘conservation’. Last words, captive wildlife breeding without releasing the offspring into the wild does not contribute to wildlife conservation.

Holiztic Vet is moving!

I’m glad to announce that Holiztic Vet has a new website. It means this blog will be less active and all posts, information, facts and tips will be published there from now on. I’ll use this blog to post interesting personal stories only.

Please check the new site for useful information about pets and wildlife. See you there! 🙂

Try a Free Animal Communication Session

Baby Wildlife is So Cute So I Keep One As A Pet

What do you think when you read the title? If you think the title doesn’t make sense, then this article is probably not for you. But if you think the title suits you, then this article is definitely for you and you should read it till the end.

If you travel to Asia, chance is you’ll see cute baby animals, dressed in cute clothing and mostly available as photo props. If you show big interest and say “Cuteness overload! I wanna buy one! I wanna keep one at home!”, sometimes they can be sold as a pet to you instantly. Nobody denies that baby animals are so cute and adorable. They are  tiny, fluffy and super cute. Once you cuddle them, you fall in love with them and decide to keep one as a pet. If you love animals of course you want to do your best for them. There’s no way you want to hurt those cute baby animals, correct? Now the question is, what’s the best thing you can do for the babies? So here are a few options of what you can do to show your love and care for captured baby animals:

1. Pose for pictures with them. Have you ever wondered how the baby animals ended up as a photo prop? Most babies are obtained from the wild, and the easiest way to catch a baby animal is to kill its mother. I won’t give lengthy explanation about this topic here but you can read more about animals and photo props here. Think twice before you pose pictures with baby animals. Is the suffering in their lives worth for your social media picture?

Beyonce Knowles, not a good role model in this case.

2. Keep them as pet. So you fall in love with them and decided to keep one as a pet. Suddenly they are sick, maybe because their diet is not as good and not as natural as what they eat in the wild. Because you love them, of course you take them to the vet. No matter how expensive the bills will be, you are willing to save your beloved baby. Now what happens next at the vet? Your vet looks confused because they haven’t seen this animal before. They are not sure what to do with your baby. Oh, wait… They know someone who can help and ask you to wait for a minute. As a wildlife vet I have numerous experience of being called by other vet colleagues saying they have this unusual patient that looks like a wild cat, or like a kind of monkey, or a kind of bird, or even a kind of alien. Here’s the real situation: Some vets can’t even identify the animal species, leave alone diagnosing what common diseases the animals could possibly have. This inability restricts them from giving the right treatment, in addition to they don’t know what drugs can or cannot be used in those exotic animals. Worse, some even cannot handle the patient for a thorough exam because the animals are aggressive, which is normal because they are wildlife and are not meant to be tamed. I don’t blame the vets for not being able to check the patient because most vet schools don’t teach about wildlife subjects in details. I blame the owner for keeping illegal wildlife.

3. Cuddle them every day. They are so cute! You want to spend every possible second with them. You carry them everywhere, you show your best friends and they envy you, you eat with them, you sleep with them. It’s easy to control baby animals, but days after days, weeks after weeks, it does not take long to show their true wild behavior. What used to be cuddly baby turns to be a feisty kinkajou, a bity loris and a scratchy leopard cat. You can’t cuddle them anymore. So what happens next? Remove their claws and their teeth even though it means you’re hurting them? Wait a minute, you don’t want to hurt them, do you? But at the same time you can’t cuddle and play with aggressive animals too. Well, then the message is clear. Don’t buy exotic pets from the very beginning.

Paris Hilton bitten by her kinkajou. She had to receive tetanus jab because of the bite.

Further read: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/ridiculous-reasons-people-give-for-keeping-exotic-animals-as-pets