An Italian mafia boss used his pet crocodile to threaten people and extort money, authorities said.
Caiman crocodiles are considered too dangerous to own as a pet.
Antonio Cristofaro kept the 40-kilogram (88-pound) reptile on a terrace of his home near Naples and fed it live rats and rabbits, according to LAV, an Italian animal rights group.
Authorities discovered the animal during a search for weapons at Cristofaro's home, LAV said. The crocodile was found on September 18 but the news was only made public Wednesday, the group said.
The crocodile was 1.1 meters long (3.6 feet), the Italian Forest Service said, and was capable of pulling off a man's limb with one bite. It lived atop Cristofaro's condominium in Caserta, less than an hour northeast of Naples, the Forest Service said.
Cristofaro used the crocodile to intimidate people, notably entrepreneurs, to pay him more money, Italy's ANSA news agency reported.
The crocodile is of a type known as a caiman, commonly found in Latin America. It is protected under the Washington Convention, which regulates the international trade of endangered animals, and is considered too dangerous to own as a pet, the Forest Service said.
Police charged Cristofaro with illegal possession of animals, ANSA said. It was not clear whether he had been arrested.
The Forest Service is now holding the reptile at an animal center near Rome, ANSA reported.
Cristofaro, who the Forest Service said comes from a mafia family, already had a criminal record for weapons-related charges, resisting police, and extortion, ANSA reported.
Authorities found a flak jacket during a search of Cristofaro's house, the Forest Service said.
It was not the first time the Forest Service discovered an illegal crocodile at someone's home, the Forest Service said. In August 2008 in Naples, authorities found a 2-meter-long (6.5-foot-long) crocodile at the home of a man known for drug dealing, they said
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Charlie Crist cutting back his deal
Fla. gov.: Everglades deal will be scaled back
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is cutting back his celebrated $1.34 billion deal to buy land from U.S. Sugar Corp. to help restore the Everglades.
Crist said Wednesday that the tanking economy forced the state to scale back the purchase to less than half the acreage at less than half the cost.
Environmentalists praised Crist when he announced the deal in June. Since then, the deal has slowly unraveled.
The state had been working to secure financing for the 180,000 acres of land in the Everglades from the nation's largest producer of cane sugar. The deal apparently became too expensive amid budget shortfalls and crashing property taxes.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is cutting back his celebrated $1.34 billion deal to buy land from U.S. Sugar Corp. to help restore the Everglades.
Crist said Wednesday that the tanking economy forced the state to scale back the purchase to less than half the acreage at less than half the cost.
Environmentalists praised Crist when he announced the deal in June. Since then, the deal has slowly unraveled.
The state had been working to secure financing for the 180,000 acres of land in the Everglades from the nation's largest producer of cane sugar. The deal apparently became too expensive amid budget shortfalls and crashing property taxes.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Everglades Restoration
U.S. interior secretary wants to proceed with Everglades restoration
Groups being asked to settle differences
By William E. Gibson Sun Sentinel Washington correspondent
June 25, 2009
WASHINGTON After a decade of foot-dragging, it's time to get moving on Everglades restoration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today."We are going to be on this project with everything that we have," he said.Salazar brought the main players overseeing Everglades restoration to Washington for the first time to underscore the Obama administration's commitment to reconstruct South Florida's ecosystem after years of talk, planning, litigation and delays.
"It can be a template for other global landscapes," he told the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a group of government officials and representatives of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.Fresh from a tour of the Everglades last month, Salazar said he wanted to look back four years from now, at the end of President Barack Obama's term, to see progress toward restoring an ecological landmark.These were welcome words for the often-squabbling coalition of environmentalists, water-management, tribal and state officials who have complained for years that Florida has had to carry the whole weight of the work.The federal government pledged in 2000 to be a full partner in restoration and to pay half the cost. Since then, the state has bought land and begun preliminary work, but the first federal dollars for restoration construction did not begin flowing until this year.Much of Salazar's task is to overcome inter-agency divisions that have created bureaucratic delays."There's been in recent years tension and disagreement between the Army Corps of Engineers, the White House and the Department of Interior about how to carry out restoration projects and how to pay for it," said Eric Draper, deputy director of Audubon of Florida. "Given that the new president is all about cooperation, we can start with agencies working together on restoration."One of the first actions will be construction of a 1-mile bridge over Tamiami Trail in western Miami-Dade County to allow fresh water to flow into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.An injunction blocking construction was removed last week when a judge ruled against the Miccosukee tribe, which fears the project dubbed Modified Waters will flood and pollute tribal land.The tribe's attorney warned Wednesday of disastrous floods, a jarring note amid the mutual congratulations at the Washington meeting."When this happens, your political support will abandon you in a heartbeat," said Dexter Lehtinen, who represents the tribe.But the task force is determined to move ahead, with several projects slated to begin this year or next.The Army Corps plans over the next few months to build pumping stations at Picayune Strand on the western edge of the Everglades. The pumps will spread water in sheets across the Everglades to nurture plants and wildlife, reversing the past practice of channeling water out to sea.The state bought the land, plugged canals and removed roadways to prepare the way.Spending by Congress has unleashed the Army Corps to complete Picayune Strand and start work on other projects.Congress approved $241 million for the Everglades this year. The economic-stimulus bill added $119 million. And the administration has proposed $278 million for the Everglades in the fiscal year that begins in October."I hope you have seen from the Obama administration up to this point that he is walking the walk," Salazar said.
Groups being asked to settle differences
By William E. Gibson Sun Sentinel Washington correspondent
June 25, 2009
WASHINGTON After a decade of foot-dragging, it's time to get moving on Everglades restoration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today."We are going to be on this project with everything that we have," he said.Salazar brought the main players overseeing Everglades restoration to Washington for the first time to underscore the Obama administration's commitment to reconstruct South Florida's ecosystem after years of talk, planning, litigation and delays.
"It can be a template for other global landscapes," he told the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, a group of government officials and representatives of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes.Fresh from a tour of the Everglades last month, Salazar said he wanted to look back four years from now, at the end of President Barack Obama's term, to see progress toward restoring an ecological landmark.These were welcome words for the often-squabbling coalition of environmentalists, water-management, tribal and state officials who have complained for years that Florida has had to carry the whole weight of the work.The federal government pledged in 2000 to be a full partner in restoration and to pay half the cost. Since then, the state has bought land and begun preliminary work, but the first federal dollars for restoration construction did not begin flowing until this year.Much of Salazar's task is to overcome inter-agency divisions that have created bureaucratic delays."There's been in recent years tension and disagreement between the Army Corps of Engineers, the White House and the Department of Interior about how to carry out restoration projects and how to pay for it," said Eric Draper, deputy director of Audubon of Florida. "Given that the new president is all about cooperation, we can start with agencies working together on restoration."One of the first actions will be construction of a 1-mile bridge over Tamiami Trail in western Miami-Dade County to allow fresh water to flow into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.An injunction blocking construction was removed last week when a judge ruled against the Miccosukee tribe, which fears the project dubbed Modified Waters will flood and pollute tribal land.The tribe's attorney warned Wednesday of disastrous floods, a jarring note amid the mutual congratulations at the Washington meeting."When this happens, your political support will abandon you in a heartbeat," said Dexter Lehtinen, who represents the tribe.But the task force is determined to move ahead, with several projects slated to begin this year or next.The Army Corps plans over the next few months to build pumping stations at Picayune Strand on the western edge of the Everglades. The pumps will spread water in sheets across the Everglades to nurture plants and wildlife, reversing the past practice of channeling water out to sea.The state bought the land, plugged canals and removed roadways to prepare the way.Spending by Congress has unleashed the Army Corps to complete Picayune Strand and start work on other projects.Congress approved $241 million for the Everglades this year. The economic-stimulus bill added $119 million. And the administration has proposed $278 million for the Everglades in the fiscal year that begins in October."I hope you have seen from the Obama administration up to this point that he is walking the walk," Salazar said.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Everglades swamped with invading pythons
THE EVERGLADES, Florida (Reuters) – The population of Burmese pythons in Florida's Everglades may have grown to as many as 150,000 as the non-native snakes make a home and breed in the fragile wetlands, officials said Thursday.
Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat.
"They eat things that we care about," said Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park biologist, as he showed a captured, 15-foot (4.6-meter) Burmese python to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was on his first fact-finding mission to the Everglades since the Obama administration took office.
With Snow maintaining a strong grip on its head, the massive snake hissed angrily at Salazar and the other federal officials who gathered around it at a recreation area off Alligator Alley in the vast saw grass prairie. It took two other snake wranglers to control the python's body.
"A snake this size could eat a small deer or a bobcat without too much trouble," Snow told Salazar before the secretary boarded an airboat for a tour of the Everglades.
Everglades biologists have been grappling with the growing python problem for a decade. The snakes are one of the largest species in the world and natives of Southeast Asia, but they found a home to their liking in the Everglades when pet owners started using the wetland as a convenient dumping ground.
"They're fine when they're small but they can live 25 to 30 years. When they get bigger you have to feed them small animals like rabbits, and cleaning up after them, it's like cleaning up after a horse," Snow said. "People don't want big snakes."
TRAPPERS AND HUNTERS
Pythons captured in the Everglades are often killed. Wildlife officials are trying trapping and other eradication methods, and are considering offering bounties to hunters. Scientists are experimenting with ways to lure the snakes into traps, including the use of pheromones -- chemicals that serve as sexual attractants -- as bait.
"They are estimating there are 150,000 of these snakes. They proliferate so quickly," said Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who accompanied Salazar on the airboat tour of the Everglades. "They've already found grown deer, they've found full sized bobcats inside them. It's just a matter of time before one gets the highly endangered Florida panther."
But biologists played down the risk to the panther, the most endangered species in the Everglades. There are believed to be only about 100 left, but they range over a territory of some 2 million acres.
"It would take some awfully unique circumstances for a python and a panther to meet up," said Darrell Land, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist. "And the cats are very wary and they have very quick reaction times."
Pythons are not the only invader troubling the Everglades.
New fish and rodent species have also become pests, and two thriving colonies of the Nile monitor lizard, an Africa native that can grow to 7 feet in length, have established themselves on opposite sides of the state.
Nelson, a Democrat, said the Obama administration had committed $200 million, including $100 million of stimulus money, so far this year to Everglades restoration, a 35-year project valued at $8 billion when it was started nearly a decade ago.
The project is designed to restore natural water flow and native wildlife populations to the shallow, slow-moving river that dominates the interior of southern Florida.
Wildlife biologists say the troublesome invaders -- dumped in the Everglades by pet owners who no longer want them -- have become a pest and pose a significant threat to endangered species like the wood stork and Key Largo woodrat.
"They eat things that we care about," said Skip Snow, an Everglades National Park biologist, as he showed a captured, 15-foot (4.6-meter) Burmese python to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who was on his first fact-finding mission to the Everglades since the Obama administration took office.
With Snow maintaining a strong grip on its head, the massive snake hissed angrily at Salazar and the other federal officials who gathered around it at a recreation area off Alligator Alley in the vast saw grass prairie. It took two other snake wranglers to control the python's body.
"A snake this size could eat a small deer or a bobcat without too much trouble," Snow told Salazar before the secretary boarded an airboat for a tour of the Everglades.
Everglades biologists have been grappling with the growing python problem for a decade. The snakes are one of the largest species in the world and natives of Southeast Asia, but they found a home to their liking in the Everglades when pet owners started using the wetland as a convenient dumping ground.
"They're fine when they're small but they can live 25 to 30 years. When they get bigger you have to feed them small animals like rabbits, and cleaning up after them, it's like cleaning up after a horse," Snow said. "People don't want big snakes."
TRAPPERS AND HUNTERS
Pythons captured in the Everglades are often killed. Wildlife officials are trying trapping and other eradication methods, and are considering offering bounties to hunters. Scientists are experimenting with ways to lure the snakes into traps, including the use of pheromones -- chemicals that serve as sexual attractants -- as bait.
"They are estimating there are 150,000 of these snakes. They proliferate so quickly," said Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who accompanied Salazar on the airboat tour of the Everglades. "They've already found grown deer, they've found full sized bobcats inside them. It's just a matter of time before one gets the highly endangered Florida panther."
But biologists played down the risk to the panther, the most endangered species in the Everglades. There are believed to be only about 100 left, but they range over a territory of some 2 million acres.
"It would take some awfully unique circumstances for a python and a panther to meet up," said Darrell Land, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologist. "And the cats are very wary and they have very quick reaction times."
Pythons are not the only invader troubling the Everglades.
New fish and rodent species have also become pests, and two thriving colonies of the Nile monitor lizard, an Africa native that can grow to 7 feet in length, have established themselves on opposite sides of the state.
Nelson, a Democrat, said the Obama administration had committed $200 million, including $100 million of stimulus money, so far this year to Everglades restoration, a 35-year project valued at $8 billion when it was started nearly a decade ago.
The project is designed to restore natural water flow and native wildlife populations to the shallow, slow-moving river that dominates the interior of southern Florida.
Florida's turtles
June 23
The (Lakeland) Ledger, on protecting Florida's turtles:
Florida's turtles are so slow they can't get out of their own way. That sounds like a joke, but it's not. Slow-moving turtles are especially vulnerable to large-scale harvesting, and there's a growing global demand for turtle meat. That's a prescription for extinction.
But no longer. This week the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission slammed the door on commercial turtle harvesting. The commission banned the taking of alligators, snapping turtles, Suwannee cooters and other imperiled species, and it limited the taking of softshell turtles to one per day for personal use.
"This decision may be one of Florida's greatest conservation stories," Commissioner Brian Yablonski said. "This is a legacy vote."
Dr. Matthew Aresco, a turtle expert who directs Nokuse Plantation, a private wildlife refuge in the Florida Panhandle, said the vote was "a wise, forward-thinking move to protect Florida's turtles from mass commercial hunting."
In the period from 2000 to 2005, exports of snapping turtles shipped from the United States increased 1,200 percent; shipments of softshell turtles rose by 270 percent.
Having often been critical of the commission, especially for its ambivalence toward Florida manatees, we are happy to commend it for moving so decisively to protect Florida's turtle species.
Several Floridians engaged in turtle harvesting objected to the commission's action, but as a St. Petersburg Times story pointed out, "the new rules allow turtle farms to collect turtles to reproduce in captivity and thus become self-sustaining without taking turtles from the wild."
"When you're over-fishing, you're not only hurting the species, you're hurting the food chain as well," argued Commissioner Ron Bergeron.
Florida's turtles were easy pickings, but no more.
--
The (Lakeland) Ledger, on protecting Florida's turtles:
Florida's turtles are so slow they can't get out of their own way. That sounds like a joke, but it's not. Slow-moving turtles are especially vulnerable to large-scale harvesting, and there's a growing global demand for turtle meat. That's a prescription for extinction.
But no longer. This week the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission slammed the door on commercial turtle harvesting. The commission banned the taking of alligators, snapping turtles, Suwannee cooters and other imperiled species, and it limited the taking of softshell turtles to one per day for personal use.
"This decision may be one of Florida's greatest conservation stories," Commissioner Brian Yablonski said. "This is a legacy vote."
Dr. Matthew Aresco, a turtle expert who directs Nokuse Plantation, a private wildlife refuge in the Florida Panhandle, said the vote was "a wise, forward-thinking move to protect Florida's turtles from mass commercial hunting."
In the period from 2000 to 2005, exports of snapping turtles shipped from the United States increased 1,200 percent; shipments of softshell turtles rose by 270 percent.
Having often been critical of the commission, especially for its ambivalence toward Florida manatees, we are happy to commend it for moving so decisively to protect Florida's turtle species.
Several Floridians engaged in turtle harvesting objected to the commission's action, but as a St. Petersburg Times story pointed out, "the new rules allow turtle farms to collect turtles to reproduce in captivity and thus become self-sustaining without taking turtles from the wild."
"When you're over-fishing, you're not only hurting the species, you're hurting the food chain as well," argued Commissioner Ron Bergeron.
Florida's turtles were easy pickings, but no more.
--
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Everglades' wood stork
Everglades' wood stork enjoys a rebirth
A boom in breeding by the rare wood stork has added fuel to developers' argument that the bird no longer belongs on the endangered list.
The wood stork, an ungainly duckling among the Everglades' elegant wading birds, has been breeding in numbers unseen in decades.
Rain in the last crucial month of nesting season took a toll, leaving half the weakened fledglings prey for waiting gators. But even with that loss, preliminary surveys estimate that 3,500 will leave South Florida nests this year.
Contrast that to the survivors last year: zero.
''We haven't seen this kind of nesting efforts and eggs laid since the 1930s,'' said Dean Powell, director of watershed management for the South Florida Water Management District, which compiles an annual population assessment of wading birds.
A boom in breeding by the rare wood stork has added fuel to developers' argument that the bird no longer belongs on the endangered list.
The wood stork, an ungainly duckling among the Everglades' elegant wading birds, has been breeding in numbers unseen in decades.
Rain in the last crucial month of nesting season took a toll, leaving half the weakened fledglings prey for waiting gators. But even with that loss, preliminary surveys estimate that 3,500 will leave South Florida nests this year.
Contrast that to the survivors last year: zero.
''We haven't seen this kind of nesting efforts and eggs laid since the 1930s,'' said Dean Powell, director of watershed management for the South Florida Water Management District, which compiles an annual population assessment of wading birds.
For complete article go to http://www.miamiherald.com/news/environment/resources/story/1109340.html
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