Feathers are flying over who is to blame for killing rare birds on the island where former South African president Nelson Man-dela spent most of his 27 years in jail. Among the suspects: wild cats, giant mice -- and even flesh-eating rabbits.
Robben Island, best known as the prison where anti-apartheid fighters were incarcerated, is now a world heritage site prized not only for its historical significance but also its teeming wildlife.
The wind-swept island off the coast of Cape Town is host to about 132 bird species, including the protected black oyster catcher and about 7,000 breeding pairs of African penguins.
But now a dispute has broken out between the Robben Island Museum and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) on how best to protect the birds.
Robben Island authorities maintain that feral cats -- left behind by prison warders and their families and now thought to number about 70 -- are disrupting the delicate balance of nature. On April 11, a meeting of experts agreed to draft in a sharp shooter to kill the cats, saying they were "having a devastating effect on most of the endangered birds" on the island.
In statement issued after the meeting, Robben Island chief operating officer Denmark Tungwana said "the prudent way is to act swiftly before the next breeding season of the birds resumes."
"It's not just a biological whim. It's serious stuff," said Les Underhill, head of the University of Cape Town's avian demography unit, who works closely with Robben Island environmental officials.
"Cats don't belong on islands where there are breeding birds," he said.
The SPCA cried foul, saying the cull would renege on an agreement to allow the welfare society to trap the cats, sterilize them and return a small number to the island to control the resident rats.
The SPCA mounted cat-catching patrols earlier this year but only managed to trap eight.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in