Vietnam bears

In 2001, just around the time that the keeping of bears for bile production in Vietnam was becoming known in the west, I was introduced to a family who knew a senior specialist at one of Hanoi’s major hospitals. This Doctor kept 4 bears on the roof of his home and also moonlighted as a freelance bile extractor for several other small-scale bear owners. They took me to meet him. Welcomed into his home with typical Vietnamese hospitality we chatted about his work with cancer patients he treats with bear bile. Well aware of western opinion on bear farming in China the Doctor was keen to promote the benefits to human health of his business. I thought to get access I would have to “charm and betray” but he was happy for me to document his business as long as I represented it honestly.

Unlike the method used in China where a permanent catheter is sutured into the bears abdomen, in Vietnam a medical ultrasound machine is used to locate an anaesthetised bears gall bladder and the bile withdrawn by syringe. In the early days this complicated procedure would be performed by people with medical skills and equipment. Doctors or Vets usually.

Using a medical ultrasound machine to locate the bear's gall bladder.

I contacted the Australian organisation Free the Bears Fund who I had worked with before in Cambodia and they commissioned me to photograph as much of the process as possible and produce a report on what I saw. This also led to feature articles for BBC Wildlife Magazine and the Guardian.

Since then much has changed but in a way nothing has changed. There has been a shift towards larger commercial bear farms than the mom and pop operations I mostly witnessed. As Vietnam’s own wild bear population was hunted almost to extinction, cubs started to be smuggled in from neighbouring Laos and Cambodia. Bear bile tourism has been developed in some areas where larger farms, are catering particularly to Korean tourists who visit the facilities, watch the extraction process and are then sold bile.

Bear cubs at a larger facility just outside Hanoi. It was claimed that they were captive bred but they were probably smuggled in from Laos.

Two animal welfare charities, Animals Asia and Free the Bears have opened bear rescue centres and have been lobbying the authorities to confiscate illegally held bears. Rescue centres are controversial. Several field conservationists I have worked with in Asia are set against them. They argue that providing a facility for confiscated animals without effectively controlling demand simply leads to more animals being taken from the wild to fill the vacuum. When animal welfare charities campaign vigorously on wildlife trade issues they seem to do so without much support from the major wildlife conservation groups.

In 2005 the Vietnamese environmental authorities decided to phase out bear farming and with support from the World Society for the Protection of Animals and Vietnam-based NGO Wildlife at Risk they developed a plan to register and microchip all captive bears. This meant that chipped and registered bears could be legally held by the owners (technically the bears belong to the VN government) but they were not allowed to sell bile from them. Given that bile production was only reason these bears were kept in the first place, anyone who seriously expected the owners to stick to this part of the agreement was being pretty naïve.

Under new legislation, bear farms would be monitored and any unregistered, unchipped bears found after Feb 2006 would be confiscated and transferred to one of the new centres.

Given that the life expectancy of a farm bear is 5 to 10 years it was estimated that it would take ten years or less to completely phase out bear farming in Vietnam, but only if the plan was implemented rigorously.

This has not happened. In 2007, several bear farms in Quang Ninh province were checked and out of 280 bears 80 were found to be unregistered. In Vietnam, various government departments at national, provincial and local levels sometimes have conflicting agendas. Laws are often contradictory and complex which leaves them open to wide interpretation but there is little doubt that these bears should have been confiscated. In an inspired episode of buck-passing the decision was shunted all the way up to the Prime Ministers office. After consultation with other government ministries it was decided that the bears would not be confiscated. This decision sets a very dangerous precedent which will have far reaching consequences not only for the plan to phase out bear farming but also wider wildlife trade issues.

Using a syringe to extract bile. A pump and bottle is more commonly used now.

It has been suggested that even if bear farming in Vietnam is stopped by enforcement and confiscations, production will simply move to neighbouring countries and this may already be happening in Laos where several farms have been found using Vietnamese procedures and staff. Perhaps the only way to end bear farming is an all out effort to address the demand for bile. When I first started on this project in 2001 the family helping me sent their 20 year old daughter Kim along to translate and keep me out of trouble. She knew all about bear bile, her family used it for various ailments, but the first time we witnessed an extraction and saw the appalling conditions in which the bears were kept she was as shocked as I was. And this perhaps is the key.

Hanoi-based Education for Nature Vietnam is developing various projects aimed at young people and has enlisted pop stars, commissioned TV ads, radio programmes, poster campaigns and school outreach programmes to show young Vietnamese people the cruelty and environmental impact of bear bile production.

Bear farming background. This information is from 2004 so may be a little out of date now.

Bear farming started in China the 1980s, allegedly as a conservation measure. It was claimed by the authorities that a single bear “milked” for 5 years would produce the same amount of bile as 220 bears killed in the wild. By 1996 there were over 7000 bears in 247 state registered Chinese bear farms. Most are Asian black bears Selenarctos thibetanus with small numbers of brown Ursus arctos and sun bears Helarctos malayanus. South Korea banned the production of bile but still holds over 1000 bears. In Vietnam small family operations are the norm but there is a trend towards larger out-of-town operations. Chinese farms are breeding bears but low birth rates and high infant mortality mean that animals are still taken from the wild to sustain the industry.

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is found in the bile of most mammals but is more concentrated in bears. Manufactured from cow bile by several multinational pharmaceutical companies it is available in China, Korea and Japan but not Vietnam. In the west UDCA is licensed for the treatment of gallstones but is also being tested for a variety of conditions including chronic liver disease and neurological disorders. An agent isolated from cow bile is undergoing clinical trials in the US as a treatment for pancreatic cancer.

Bile, and almost every other part of the bear, has a long history of use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It is prescribed for chronic liver disease, sprains, bruises, gallstones and cancer. In China the supply of bile far outweighs the demand from bona fide practitioners and aggressive marketing by producers has resulted in bile being included in a wide range of non-medicinal products.

Links:

Animals Asia Foundation

Free the Bears Fund

Wildlife at Risk

WSPA

Education for Nature Vietnam. Their website is currently flagged as unsafe so here is their Facebook page.

More Vietnam bear images

Charm and betray. I first heard this phrase used by Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill.

Weathering the Storm

Working from home for several days on image processing, agency submissions and website updates during the recent spate of stormy weather I decided I needed to get out and take some photos. On Sunday afternoon I set myself a mini-project to photograph the constantly changing conditions along the seafront right outside my door. All these images (and lots more) were taken during a two hour period along a stretch of beach from Sandgate to Hythe. On stepping out I was surprised to find a sea-angling competition in full swing along Princes Parade.

River Medway Photo Competition

Just a quick plug for the River Medway Photo Competition run by the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership who do a lot of excellent local community nature conservation. I have donated a one day workshop as a main prize and have been asked to help judge the competition.

Troup Head

Most gannet colonies in the UK are on Islands with access only by boat. This means that without special permission, time spent with the birds is restricted. Troup Head on the Moray Firth is one of only a couple of mainland breeding colonies. While working with the CRRU this September I spent the days we were weathered in photographing the gannets. I already have lots of gannet images taken elsewhere so I thought I would make the most of the 24 hour access and shoot mostly very early morning and in the evenings, working in marginal light and even in the dark. Unlike film, digital sensors have incredible light-gathering ability and it's surprising how much detail they capture in what appears to be complete darkness. Obviously shutter speeds are long but I found that flash would pick out the birds nicely, stopping most of the movement, but still keeping the dark, ominous-looking sea below.



Nestled at the foot of the cliffs below Troup Head the old fishing village of Crovie seems homely and inviting in the half-light.

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition

I am very pleased to have 2 images Highly Commended in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and one of those also received the Prize of the Audience award. I didn't go to the bunfight in Germany as it clashed with Wildphotos in London and that meant having to choose between presentations by Joel Sartore and "Nick" Nicholls and that was a tough choice.

The dolphin photo is rather poignant for me. The image is of a chance encounter between man and animal that is obviously being enjoyed by both but this dolphin’s time spent with humans eventually ended badly for her. More on that later.

Bottlenose dolphins, Moray Firth

Around 130 coastal bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) live in and around the Moray Firth. A few years ago calves started to appear with spinal scoliosis and it is possible that this condition is on the increase. While working with the CRRU in September this year I was surprised to see 2 2009 born calves with this condition in a group of 21 dolphins. The cause is as yet unknown but there are several theories. One is that it’s a hereditary condition and increased occurrence is due to inbreeding within the population. Although generally regarded as a resident population, recent collaborative photo ID research between various groups has shown that dolphins from the Moray Firth have travelled round to the west coast of Scotland and even as far as Cornwall. Another theory is that it’s caused by a build up of persistent environmental pollutants. Research, particularly on other odontocete species e.g. killer whale and beluga has shown that as apex predators they are particularly at risk from organochlorines, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals. The pollutants build up in the animals blubber and females “dump” high loads into their calves in the placenta and via lactation.

Another theory is that the condition is caused soon after birth by trauma and observations made by CRRU this year lend further weight to this idea.

Another issue that is causing considerable concern is the plan to allow further oil and gas exploration in the Firth, including one area inside the Special Area of Conservation set up under European legislation specifically to protect this vulnerable population. More here.

A fine healthy calf breaching. The white stripes on the calve's body are foetal folds from when the calf was bent double in the placenta.

A very young calf with a pronounced scoliosis.

A scoliotic calf of around 2-3 years old.

Oil rig moored for maintenance in Cromarty Firth.

2 of this year's calves with adults.

Oil rigs moored for maintenance in Cromarty Firth.

Adults breaching beside the boat.

Pine Marten

As the controversial idea of a pine marten reintroduction to southern England gathers momentum I thought I would post on some of the background science involved in PM conservation.

Although it is recovering well in Scotland and Ireland the jury is still out as to whether there is a viable population in England and Wales. Is there, as one of the wildlife charities involved claims, a remnant population of survivors that are poised to re-colonise the southern UK as soon as conditions permit, or, as other experts claim, perhaps a few escapees from wildlife collections and private keepers that show up from time to time that are too scattered to form a viable population. Regardless of this, it is probably not unreasonable to suggest that the pine marten will gradually spread south from Scotland and repopulate northern England. However it will take an awfully long time for them to reach southern England, if ever. If suitable habitat exists, why not reintroduce this species, once one of our most common predators, and now the UK’s second rarest (the wildcat has the dubious distinction of being the rarest) and is almost certainly extinct south of the Thames, sorry Severn, and probably a good deal further north?

But where would they come from? Recent DNA analysis of museum specimens has shown the original Welsh (and I think English but I could be mistaken) population was genetically quite different to animals currently living in Scotland. The Irish ones are different to both. It seems that the original Welsh (and English?) martens are more closely related to those of central Europe while the Scottish haplotype are closer to those found in Scandinavia. Why? Given that the pine marten was – and still is in North America - a valuable fur-bearing mammal; could there have been introductions in the dim and distant past? Perhaps Monty Python had the answer: Bloody Vikings! This is pure speculation on my part of course.

The DNA work is being done by Pete Turner and Catherine O’Reilly and their (very small) team at Waterford Institute of Technology. Using baited plastic tubes (originally trialled at Wildwood in Kent on captive martens) they collect small samples of hair for DNA analysis to study the interrelatedness and distribution of pine martens in Ireland. They are now also working on the identification of possible marten samples collected in England and Wales.

Camera trap image of a wild pine marten in southern Ireland.


Camera trap image of a wild pine marten in southern Ireland. I am trying to photograph non-habituated martens in their natural forest habitat, but despite long days spent in a hide in the middle of an Irish wood, I have yet to get photos other than by camera trap. They are not particularly nocturnal and have visited the cam trap in daylight but not if I am in the forest. I think they hide behind trees waiting for me to leave.

These images were taken with a Trailmaster IR monitor, Nikon D200 camera and multiple SB800 and SB25 speedlights.

Captured by a camera trap a wild Irish marten using the hair tube. A small piece of chicken is fastened inside the tube and a sticky patch traps a few hairs from the marten's neck.

Pete Turner collects the hair sample.

Jacinta Mullins of Waterford Institute of Technology extracts DNA from the hair sample. Jacinta explained the process in some detail but I won't bother to post it here. Besides, I didn't understand a word.

Hopefully, the pine marten roadshow extends to Scotland next year where I will be collaborating with local photographer James Moore: http://jamesamoore.blogspot.com/ James already has some great PM photos and will bring in-depth knowledge of the local forests and wildlife to the team and I will bring, er...