Tag Archives: Tunisia

Manatees’ ancestors discovery

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A reconstruction of the early sirenian Pezosiren. Photo by Thesupermat, image from Wikipedia

From Smart News blog:

January 18, 2013 2:44 pm

Sea Cows Used To Walk on Land in Africa And Jamaica

Sea cows, also known as manatees, were not always the Florida-dwelling gentle giants of the sea that they are today. In fact, they once walked on land. Their 48-million-year-old ancestor, Pezosiren, ran all over prehistoric Jamaica and resembled a hippo at first glance. But sea cows also share ancestry with elephants, which first appeared in Africa around 66 million years ago. Paleontologists, however, have always drawn a blank on the evolutionary link between the manatee’s African and Jamaican relatives—until now. Researchers digging around in Tunisia found a skill fragment that fills the missing piece of the puzzle. National Geographic continues:

That might not seem like much to go on, yet the intricate, complicated features in this single bone allowed Benoit and coauthors to confirm that it belonged to a sirenian rather than an early elephant or hyrax. The researchers have wisely avoided naming the animal on the basis of such limited material. They simply call the mammal the Chambi sea cow.

The fact that the mammal lived in Africa confirms what zoologists and paleontologists suspected based upon genetics and anatomical traits shared with elephants and other paenungulates.

The bone is about 50 million years old. The researchers guess the animal it once belonged to resembled Pezosiren more than the modern sea cow, though the bone also hints that the Chambi manatee spent a lot of time in the water since the inner ear resembles that of whales.

The fossil, however, may raise more questions than provide answers. Like, if the Chambi manatee and the Jamaican one are about the same age, when did the dispersal event occur that first separated those animals? How did legged sea cows first make their way across the Atlantic? In the absence of other bones, what did the Chambi manatee look like? As NatGeo writes, paleontologists are slowly assembling the outline of how sea cows evolved, bone by bone.

See also here.

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Humpback whale watching on Dutch coast

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This video from Mexico is called Humpback Whale Shows AMAZING Appreciation After Being Freed From Nets.

Translated from NOS TV in the Netherlands:

“Humpback to the left of the flag!”

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 16:56

By reporter Pauline Broekema

He is from Sousse, Tunisia. Grew up near the sea and is used to marine animals. But for Hesni Sougnir, owner of the beachbar the Weather Vane on the boulevard in Egmond aan Zee this is a unique day. He interrupts his work regularly. In his blue apron he watches intensively behind the surf. In front of his bar the two whales swim. He can not believe his luck.

Regularly, whale watchers come. The humpback whale spotters are of the helpful kind. “To the left of the flag!” it sounds. “Keep the binoculars focused on the surf, then you will see it there!”

Excellent condition

A passerby without binoculars can borrow one. Though there is little to see of the humpback, still the sudden blow fountain is an unexpected sensation. A fin that suddenly pops up out of the sea creates turbulence on the coast. Sougnir has many nature lovers among its customers. “They have been waiting for this for thirty years,” he says.

It’s probably a mother with a baby. This morning, the men of the Egmond lifeboat were close to them in an open boat. “The animals were a in fine condition, as far as I could see” says Henk Biesboer of the lifeboat.

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Good Tunisian antelope news

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Scimitar-horned oryx in Tunisia’s Dghoumes National Park, photo: Marie Petretto/Marwell Wildlife, courtesy of the Sahara Conservation Fund

From Wildlife Extra:

Hope for Tunisia‘s oryx and addax

November 2012. With the aftermath of the Arab Spring still being played out in front of the world’s media, conservation work away from the spotlights is helping Tunisia restore its once vibrant large mammal fauna. Almost 50 years since Tunisia’s Forest Law laid down the basis for wildlife conservation in the country, the results are on the whole positive.

Many desert species, like the Dorcas gazelle and the North African ostrich, enjoy the relative safety of the semi-wild in restored habitats inside a significant network of protected areas. However, the most striking success is probably the return of the large antelopes, the scimitar-horned oryx and addax, which existed in large herds but are now considered extinct in the Wild and Critically Endangered by IUCN respectively.

The reintroduction of antelopes into a network of relatively small, fenced protected areas poses particular challenges because of inherent risks to small isolated populations.

Hence, in collaboration with Sahara Conservation Fund, Marwell Wildlife is starting a 2-year project to assess the impact of increasing numbers of oryx on their habitat and the effects of limited space on the performance of the population in Dghoumes National Park. The results will help inform management of the species, and create a practicable monitoring system that could be applied more widely.

180 oryx now in Tunisia

It is now 27 years since the first group of scimitar-horned oryx was brought back to Tunisia from UK zoos. Several other imports have occurred since then and there are now about 180 individuals in four protected areas (Bou Hedma, Sidi Toui, Oued Dekouk and Dghoumes).

Forthcoming fieldwork will include DNA analyses to evaluate the impact of current management on genetic diversity, and help design a national meta-population plan, including translocations of animals between protected areas and augmentation with new animals from breeding programs in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East.

Wild herd

Meanwhile, the herd of addax that was reintroduced to Djebil National Park in 2007with support from SCF is doing well. During the coming months, births will be monitored so that calves can be identified and selected for future translocation to Senghar National Park to help achieve long term goals for the restoration of this species in the Grand Erg Oriental.

While there is hope for the reintroduction of the oryx and the conservation of remaining addax populations elsewhere in North Africa, Tunisia must take great credit for over a quarter of a century of efforts to re-establish these species within their network of protected areas. This meta-population model needs refinement but may be the only option for many former range states if they want to see the return of these magnificent antelope. SCF and its partners, including Marwell, will continue to play a central role in these endeavours at all scales.

This article was kindly contributed by Marie Petretto (right), Tunisia-based Conservation Officer with Marwell Wildlife via The Sahara Conservation Fund.

Extremist anti-poetry violence in Tunisia

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This video from the USA says about itself:

Spoken Word Poetry – Support Tunisia

Written the day of the protests. The day after a man who had burned himself alive died. Days before revolutions spread in other countries and people united in a beautiful cause.

From the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (Cairo, Egypt):

Tunisia: ANHRI Condemns the Repeated Attacks On Freedom of Expression, Latest Attack Was On the Poet, ‘Mohamed Al-Saghir’

Press release

ANHRI, today, condemns the attack on the poet, “Mohamed Al-Saghir Awlad Ahmed” by a group of extremist Salafis at the end of the last week, due to his participation in the program “La Paz” on the Tunisian Channel.

The Tunisian poet “Mohamed Al-Saghir Awlad Ahmed”, aged 57 years, at the end of last week was assaulted by a group of extremists Salafis, following his participation in a Tv program on the Tunisian Channel, in which he criticized the extremist Islamists.

It is worth to be noted that the assault on the poet “Mohamed Al-Saghir,” is not the first of its kind, as Tunisia witnessed during the last period many violations against freedom of opinion and expression. The government did not take any procedures to stop these attacks.

See, eg, the salafist attack on unemployed workers in Sidi Bouzid.

On August 14, 2012 the extremists prevented in the city “Menzel Bourguiba” in the state of “Bizerte” a theatrical show by Tunisian comedian actor “Lutfi Abdali” allegedly “mocking religion” after they broke into the House of Culture (Perm Tunisian); and on August 15 Salafists prevented an orchestra from Iran from performing at the conclusion of the International Festival of Sufi and spiritual music in the state of Kairouan.

In addition 200 activists armed with swords, sticks and stones attacked the Festival of “Al-Aqsa Victory” in the city of “Bizerte” in the north of Tunisia on August 16, 2012, to protest against the presence of the former Lebanese detainee in Israel, “Samir Kuntar,” whom they accused of supporting the regime of Syrian President “Bashar Al-Assad”. Four people were wounded, including a security officer, in addition to the attack on the playwright “Rajab Mokri” in the city of El-Kef during the month of May this year, by the Salafi groups, in which he had serious injuries after being beaten severely on his head and chest.

ANHRI said that the attack on the poet Mohamed Al-Saghir is an explicit violation of the freedom of opinion and expression in the country and represents a challenge to the Alnnahdah Movement, the governing party in Tunisia, which announced several times their respect for freedom of expression, especially with the presence of the statements issued by the Alnnahdah Movement saying that “freedom of expression and artistic creativity, although they are recognized, are not free from all controls” which suggests that they are trying to restrict the freedom of opinion in the country and overlook the repeated violations of the creators and owners of opinion”.

ANHRI calls on the Tunisian authorities and Alnnahdah Islamic Movement to protect the makers of opinion and expression and the creators from the repeated attacks and that the perpetrators of such attacks should urgently be on trial.

Yesterday, a group of Tunisian women affiliated with the leftist Nidaa Tounes – the Call of Tunisia party – reported that they were verbally and physically assaulted during a meeting held in the small town of Menzel Chakeur, located in the governorate of Sfax: here.

Tunisia: Amnesty International Tunisia Calls for Enshrining Abolition of Death Penalty in Constitution: here.