“Nonno Toby” (Grandpa Toby) passed away on October 6, Elisa Livia Pennacchioni of the Parco Natura Viva, a zoo near the northern city of Verona, told AFP.
“He collapsed on the floor on the way back to his nighttime shelter, and after about half an hour, his heart stopped,” she said.
Toby will be embalmed and put on display at the MuSe science museum in Trento, where he will join Blanco, a white lion from the zoo who died five years ago, Pennacchioni said.
White rhinos normally live up to 40 years when held in captivity, and up to 30 years in the wild, she said.
Toby’s death, which follows the passing of his female partner Sugar in 2012, leaves the Parco Natura Viva with one remaining white rhino: Benno, aged 39.
However, there are only two examples left of the northern white rhino subspecies who live in Kenya, which are watched round-the-clock by armed guards, the environmental group says.
Heavy artificial rains were caused in several regions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the middle of a heat wave that almost reached 50 degrees of temperature, last Wednesday and Thursday.
The National Center of Meteorology to emiratí operations carried out cloud seeding to increase rainfall, explained the middle Gulf News . First, they issued weather alerts for the east of the country for the possibility of convective cloud formations .
This type of convective cloud is characterized by causing precipitation and winds with speeds of 40 km / h that cause displacement of dust and sand . They are formed due to high temperatures that cause the warm and humid air to rise from the colder surrounding air in the atmosphere.
Rain-inducing technology in the United Arab Emirates has proven drones that can cause rain by applying electric shocks to clouds without the need for chemicals.
In the past, researchers have blamed humans for hunting these animals to extinction thousands of years ago. But new research suggests that climate change is the likely culprit in the demise of prehistoric mammoths, mastodons and early elephants rather than overhunting by early humans at the end of the last Ice Age.
Waves of extreme global climate change chipped away at the proboscideans over time, eventually causing most of them to go extinct in different parts of the world between 2 million and about 75,000 years ago, the researchers said.
The study was published on Thursday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The international group of palaeontologists created a detailed data set analyzing the rise, evolution and fall of the 185 different proboscidean species, which took place over the course of 60 million years and began in North Africa. In order to track these elephants and their ancestors, the researchers studied global fossil collections and focused on traits like body size, skull shape, tusks and teeth.
“Remarkably for 30 million years, the entire first half of proboscidean evolution, only two of the eight groups evolved,” said Zhang Hanwen, study coauthor and Honorary Research Associate at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, in a statement.
“Most proboscideans over this time were nondescript herbivores ranging from the size of a pug to that of a boar. A few species got as big as a hippo, yet these lineages were evolutionary dead-ends. They all bore little resemblance to elephants.”
That all changed 20 million years ago, when a migration corridor that opened up at the Afro-Arabian tectonic plate pushed into the Eurasian continent. This allowed elephants and their predecessors to live in new environments, first in Eurasia and then North America by crossing the Bering Land Bridge — a strip of land that once connected Asia and North America.
Moving out of Africa exposed the elephants to habitats, changing climates and the need for adaptation.
“The aim of the game in this boom period of proboscidean evolution was ‘adapt or die,’” Zhang said. “Habitat perturbations were relentless, pertained to the ever-changing global climate, continuously promoting new adaptive solutions while proboscideans that didn’t keep up were literally, left for dead. The once greatly diverse and widespread mastodonts were eventually reduced to less than a handful of species in the Americas, including the familiar Ice Age American mastodon.”
As Earth experienced ice ages, the elephants had to adapt: The woolly mammoth, for example, had giant tusks that could plow beneath snow in search of food and a thick, shaggy coat.
“We discovered that the ecological diversity of proboscideans increased drastically once they dispersed from Africa to Eurasia 20 million years ago and to North America 16 million years ago, when land connections between these continents formed,” said Juha Saarinen, study coauthor and postdoctoral researcher in the department of geosciences and geography at the University of Helsinki.
While diversity initially increased after these events, that began to fall between 3 and 6 million years ago as the global climate cooled.
“The ecologically most versatile proboscideans, mostly true elephants which were adapted to consuming various plant resources, survived,” Saarinen said.
The extinction peaks for proboscideans started around 2.4 million, 160,000 and 75,000 years ago for Africa, Eurasia and the Americas, respectively, according to the researchers.
“It is important to note that these ages do not demarcate the precise timing of extinctions, but rather indicate the points in time at which proboscideans on the respective continents became subject to higher extinction risk,” said Juan Cantalapiedra, lead study author and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Alcalá in Spain, in a statement.
These times don’t line up with when early humans began to branch out and hunt giant herbivores, because it largely predates such advances.
“We didn’t foresee this result,” Zhang said. “Conservatively, our data refutes some recent claims regarding the role of archaic humans in wiping out prehistoric elephants, ever since big game hunting became a crucial part of our ancestors’ subsistence strategy around 1.5 million years ago.”
Chris Widga, paleontologist and head curator at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum at East Tennessee State University, believes this research points to how important it is to track the evolutionary history of animal groups over longer time scales. Widga was not affiliated with this study.
“Those of us who study extinctions are usually most concerned with when and where the last of a certain species blips out,” Widga said. “In order to understand whether the final extinction of some of these proboscidean groups was significant, we need to know something about ‘background’ extinction rates that occur in response to global ecological and climate changes. This paper shows how proboscideans responded to broad-scale climate changes and how they diversified ecologically to fill new niches. And because proboscideans have such an outsized impact on their surroundings — this is a big deal.”
This research also suggests that while 185 different proboscidean species have been identified with more than 2,000 fossil locations around the world, there may have been more.
“As if we needed more encouragement to find and describe more fossil proboscideans,” Widga said.
The study authors note that overhunting by humans “may have served as a final double jeopardy” after proboscideans already suffered harsh, changing climates long before.
“This isn’t to say we conclusively disproved any human involvement,” Zhang said.
“In our scenario, modern humans settled on each landmass after proboscidean extinction risk had already escalated. An ingenious, highly adaptable social predator like our species could be the perfect black swan occurrence to deliver the coup de grâce.”
According to the statement signed by the Director General of Rwanda Meteorological Agency, Aimable Gahigi, the strong winds are predicted to blow mostly in the Eastern Province, Western Province, Northern Province and a large part of the Southern Province.
Strong winds are expected to gust on a speed between 8m/s and 12m/s equal to 29Km/h and 43Km/h as per the statement.
“The predicted wind could cause disasters to people and properties and infrastructure. Hence, we call on the population to take measures in a bid to avoid and stop disasters,” the statement reads.
Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Management has cautioned the public of potential disasters that could come with the rainy season.
“About schools, church houses and other places that attract gatherings of people, we ask the public to check if roofs are well tightened and install lightning rods in public buildings,” the Minister in Charge of Emergency, Germaine Kamayirese said.
Statistics by the Ministry of Emergency Management indicate that between January and June last year, disasters killed a total of 234 people and injured 268 others, destroying 15,264 houses and 9412 hectares leaving 797 livestock dead.
An assessment conducted in 15 districts most affected by disasters showed that disasters caused more than Rwf204 billion in economic losses between January and October last year.
Semafara who has led the Rwanda Meteorological Centre (Meteo Rwanda) for the last 24 years has retired. His retirement request was approved by the Cabinet meeting held on January 28 this year which also appointed Aimable Gahigi as his successor.
Speaking after handing over the office instruments to Gahigi, Semafara commended the Government of Rwanda for the trust conferred on him in climate data services and urged his successor to build on what was achieved before.
“Meteo Rwanda has a main duty to timely share weather and climate information which helps different institutions in planning. You have all it takes to achieve goals you set,” Semafara said.
Semafara urged the remaining staff members to help the Director General in delivering the best services to Rwandans.
The incoming Director of Rwanda Meteorological Centre, Aimable Gahigi has pledged to improve the timely dissemination of weather related information and climate services to all sectors of the economy including agriculture, health, and energy among others.
“It requires working hand in hand with every sector to know information they need and disseminate it to them on time. We will focus on working well with partners,” Gahigi said.
The Minister of Environment, Dr. Vincent Biruta who chaired the handover ceremony said Meteo Rwanda has grown into a large institution and collaboration among staff will help it get to another level.
Minister Biruta handed Semafara a certificate of appreciation and thanked him for his role in the growth of the Centre.
“The outgoing Director General has had a big role in the growth of this Centre. He retired after serving the Government with commitment,” Biruta said.
“We hope the new Director General will use his experience to build on what was achieved. You should know that all you do is for the service of Rwandans. We promise our full support in your work to help the citizens access weather related information,” Minister Biruta added.
Semafara has been in meteorological services since 1972 while the incoming Director General Aimable Gahigi previously served as a researcher at Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB).
The authorities of the City of Kigali then said 968 residential houses, according to the City’s master plan, served as business houses and other services other than residence with Gasabo District having 517 houses, Nyarugenge with 356 while Kicukiro District counted 95 services operating in residential houses.
One month to two years today, the directive has been implemented by 95 per cent according to the City of Kigali Vice Mayor in charge of Economic Development, Parfait Busabizwa.
“The deadline we had set was not met by all the concerned but about 95% have relocated despite some who vacate residential houses in one area and relocate to another residential house to another area. It is an ongoing task,” Busabizwa said in an exclusive interview with IGIHE.
Busabizwa also spoke on establishments in wetlands including business houses, residential houses revealing that their relocation stands at 93%.
“Houses found in wetlands are 178 with 138 having relocated, a 93% relocation rate. All garages operating in wetlands will have relocated by the end of December 2018,” Busabizwa added.
The event was organized by AfroGroov, a local Artistes and Events management organization and saw some 100 guests at the Kigali Cultural Village, which gave the session an intimacy that was enhanced by Berita’s soulful performance.
Berita Khumalo’s performance was preceded by a talk show led by Afrogroov’s Eric Soul where Berita gave her insights on being an African artiste in the world of Music, and Gender equality in music, and her career journey, among other subjects.
According to the songstress, artistes should not be evaluated on their genders but on their talents.
“I am getting to a point where I no longer see myself as a female artiste, but an artiste who’s able to compete with my peers, either male or Female.”
On late Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Berita recalled her as “a friend, a mother figure and a great counsellor.” To her, having Mama Winnie helped her a lot in shaping who she wanted to become in the world.
With her blissful toned voice, Berita conquered her audience with “Sophinda Sidibane”, an inspirational song that means ‘Till we meet again’. The tune lyrically uplifted spirits with each intoned harmony, as the Afro-soul singer dedicated the song to all Rwandans who lost friends and families in the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi.
Among others she performed ‘Phakama Afrika’, a song that speaks on the rise of Africa and ‘Sophinda Sidibane,’ ‘Thandolwethu,’ ‘Menziwa,’ and ‘Sukundixhesha’.
Also present was Inanga musician Deo Gratias Munyakazi who shared his artistic experience with the ‘Live and Unplugged’ show attendees as he performed his local popular songs including “Isoko Dusangiye” meaning ‘the flow we share’ and “Urakwiriye Mwami” meaning ‘You are worthy O’ Lord’.
Both vocally gifted and intelligent, Berita Khumalo grew up in a family of seven, including five younger siblings, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
The issue was raised by Members of Parliaments this Thursday, as it appeared in the 2016/2017 Ombudsman’s report.
The Standing Committee on Political and Gender Affairs invited the Minister of Local Governance, Francis Kaboneka to explain more about measures in place to end the problem.
MPs said that some people in the report spent four years waiting for compensation after being relocated from their properties by the government.
MP Evariste Kaliza said that the problem is a concern everywhere across the country. He said that laws should be revised if they are hampering compensation and that the government should raise resources to compensate population before they start relocation exercise to avoid interrupting their welfare.
“There is a big problem of local debts that the government owes the population; we always come across this problem in all reports. We always request the Minister of Finance to solve it, but it is still there. You should think of how to solve it,” he said.
By responding to MPs, Kabonekasaid there are more than 1000 people claiming over Rwf200 million.
“I cannot mention the deadline to solve this problem as it touches on different ministries. Also it requires using resources from national budget where sometimes we encounter other priority activities to invest in, but we wish to have this problem solved by 2018-2019 financial year,” he said.
Kaboneka went on to explain that the government has changed ways to compensate people on their properties saying that those relocated from their homes will have new houses constructed for them other than giving them cash.
The Rwf12 million infrastructure launched Wednesday will benefit over 3200 residents.
Speaking to IGIHE, PriscaMukarugema from Nyagishubi Sector said that they used to fetch water from rivers, some of which was contaminated leaving them susceptible to diseases.
“In case we needed water to drink we had to travel from Shyogwe Sector of Muhanga District where we could get water from taps” she said adding that they are now relieved.
FH-Rwanda Country Director, Alice Kamau said that they understood how people were burdened with water problem and constructed the 3km water connection which she believes will bring cross-cutting impacts.
“Households heads will spend more time doing other economic activities. Even children used to drop out of school and others missed some classes because of the long distances they had to walk. As our corporate responsibility we decided to connect the community to water supply and support government end these problems,” she said.
The Acting Mayor of Kamonyi District, ThaddéeTuyizere welcomed the activity saying that it will help in people’s development and the district in general.
The announcement falls on World Rhino Day, September 22nd, and comes only four months after 18 Eastern black rhinoceroses were successfully trans-located from South Africa into the park.
Ineza (the mother of born rhino) was brought over from South Africa with her older male calf, which now at two and a half years of age has left his mother and found his own territory and independence in Akagera.
“The first rhino calf to be born in over a decade is a profound moment for Rwanda and its people, a country that is leading in its commitment to the conservation of endangered species,” said Jes Gruner, Akagera National Park Manager.
“The collaboration with the RDB in the restoration of the park over the past six years has made bringing back the Eastern black rhino, one the rarest subspecies on the planet, possible in Rwanda. Through our management and protection and collaboration with local communities, we’re working to safeguard the growth of an important population of rhinoceroses for the region,”Gruner added.
After six years of securing the park and essentially eliminating poaching, in May this year, Akagera National Park re-introduced 18 Eastern black rhinos from South Africa
