Coronavirus crisis, wildlife and less crime

This 9 April 2020 video says about itself:

Virtual safaris show animals emboldened by lockdown in South African game parks

WildEarth, an innovative daily live stream, provides viewers with an interactive view of an African game reserve experience in the comfort of one’s home.

Hosted by experienced guides, viewers get the chance to ask questions about what is happening on screen.

A vehicle stands in the background, live-streaming the scene for thousands of people watching the animals from the comfort of their homes.

“Since the lockdown occurred we’ve seen an amazing explosion in our audiences. Across the board, we’ve seen a tripling of our audiences per safari. So literally overnight, somewhere around the end of March it went three times bigger. But more specifically we’ve seen a massive rise in the South African audience,” said Graham Wallington, CEO of WildEarth.

As the number of viewers tripled over the last days of March, Wallington noted that the audience, typically Americans, were increasing from South Africa.

The orange nation is almost two weeks into a 21-day lockdown meant to halt the spread of COVID-19.

The country is the worst-affected in Africa, with more than 1,700 infections recorded so far including 13 deaths.

“We have two vehicles out in Djuma Game Reserve and one vehicle out at Ngala Private Reserve. And on each of these vehicles, we have one expert qualified experienced guide that’s driving the vehicle, answering the questions and finding us the animals. And then at the same time, behind the guy we have a camera operator,” Wallington added.

WildEarth operates from two vehicles in two private game reserves bordering the internationally famous Kruger National Park.

Guides take viewers along for a virtual game drive finding wildlife and sharing facts about animals

“We’ve noticed for example, we’ve had hunting dogs coming into our area, wild dogs coming in and hunting, almost every day, which is unheard of. And it’s because there’s no one else there and they’ve got the run of the place for themselves,” Wallington said.

The cameras are positioned at the back of the vehicles, where passengers would usually be seated, in order to create a real-life experience.

This coronavirus crisis has terrible consequences. So many people, babies, teenagers, middle-aged people, elderly people getting sick and dying. So many people who might have done still so much good for the world. Workers sacked without pay. Workers in essential services having to work unsafely. Workers in non-essential corporations (nobody is buying cars now; especially the military self-styled ‘defence’ industry) still having to work in crowded halls for billionaires’ profits.

However, even this tragedy has some upsides.

This 7 April 2020 video is called Himalayas visible for first time in 30 years as pollution levels in India drop | [Hindi].

Levels of two major air pollutants have been drastically reduced since lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a secondary pollutant — ground-level ozone — has increased in China, according to new research: here.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio:

Corona leads to much less crime worldwide

The corona crisis has caused crime rates to plummet, reports AP news agency.

In Latin America, crime has fallen to its lowest level in decades. In Peru, crime rates fell by as much as 84% ​​last month. El Salvador, ravaged by gang violence, reported an average of two murders a day last month, while that is normally a multiple. A large part of the decline can be explained by the fact that gangs can hardly move on the street.

The crime rate also fell in the US. Eg, 42 percent fewer drug arrests were made in Chicago compared to the same period last year. In New York, the number of serious crimes decreased by 12% from February to March. In South Africa, the number of serious crimes fell from more than 2,600 to 456, and in Australia, the number of crimes fell by more than 40 percent.

The Netherlands

The Dutch police also report less bicycle theft and pickpocketing. The number of incidents fell from 15,000 to 12,500 between March 9 and 22. In that period, the number of burglaries fell from 430 to 260, the number of pickpockets reported from 220 to 130 and the number of bicycle thefts from 1100 to 750.