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To: T L Comiskey who wrote (4505)	9/29/2000 2:51:46 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 65232

Vanishing Fast Species Disappearing Especially From Central America An eastern Pacific green turtle that was rescued from being stranded on the rocks in Cordova, Alaska. The turtle is considered threatened and is on the Endangered Species List. (Ken Bohn/Sea World/AP Photo) By Will Weissert The Associated Press Sept. 29 — Green turtle females lay upward of 100 eggs a year on Caribbean beaches in Central America — but today just one of those eggs will grow into an adult turtle. Poachers from Mexico to Panama slaughter baby turtles to make tasty filets from their spongy, grayish-green flesh. Others, too impatient to wait for them to be born, sell their plundered eggs for exotic omelets. The species is just one of the 11,046 plants and animals that risk disappearing forever, according to the most comprehensive analysis of global conservation ever undertaken, the World Conservation Union’s 2000 Red List of Threatened Species. The report, released Thursday, examined some 18,000 species and subspecies around the globe. Earth has estimated 14 million species — and only 1.75 million have been documented. Extinction Rate Soaring Conservationists estimate that the current extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it should be under natural conditions. That means that in the first decades of the 21st century, many creatures — from a majestic Albatross to Asian freshwater turtles — may join the ranks of the flightless Dodo bird. The primary reason: humans. Everything from expanding cities to deforestation, agriculture and fishing pose a significant threat to the planet’s biodiversity. In the last 500 years, some 816 species have disappeared — some permanently, while others exist only in artificial settings, such as zoos. “Animals are a finite resource much like oil in a lot of ways,” said Enrique Lahmann, regional director of the World Conservation Union. “But because the public does not need these species to drive every morning, it is easy to forget about them.” Worst in Central America Of the 11,046 plants and animals at risk of extinction, 1,184 are in Central America and Mexico, where poverty and logging are teaming up to shrink habitats and decimate species, according to the study. “What this latest list shows is that many of the animals most have come to associate with the jungle are in danger,” said Marino Gemenez, adjunct head of the group’s Species Survival Commission, a network of 7,000 international species experts who researched the report. Even Guatemala’s national bird — a small green creature with a red chest and long tail-feathers known as the quetzal — is at high risk, along with other lesser-known regional creatures including the Pacific pilot whale and the Mexican long-nosed bat. The report reveals that Indonesia, India and China are among the countries with the most threatened mammals and birds. But Central America and Mexico as a region have a higher percentage of problems and rank among the world’s poorest defenders of native plants and animals, Lahmann said by telephone from his office in San Jose, Costa Rica. The contrast of richly diverse terrain, coupled with poverty and often deficient environmental controls, has left this part of the world facing the potentially crippling loss of hundreds of plants and animals that are thriving elsewhere, Lahmann said. Further, problems are getting worse — plants and animals in Mexico and Central America are being threatened at a rate 10 times that they faced a decade ago, Lahmann said. Besides poaching, the most serious threat is the clearing of forest areas for crops and cattle, and logging by lumber companies or rural families in search of firewood. Adding to the problem are forest fires that rage out of control while cash-strapped governments look on helplessly. Exotic Animal Trade As in Africa and Asia, another major factor is the sale of exotic animals as pets. The illegal smuggling of animals to dealers has become the third-most profitable smuggling racket behind drugs and guns, said Gustavo Aldofo Martinez, field researcher for Guatemala’s Jungle Life Rescue Association. Martinez said a captured spider monkey or Belizean Crocodile can fetch up to $5,000 overseas. Poachers work so fast that natural predators which once snacked on green turtle hatchlings and eggs are now going hungry. “They lay a lot of eggs because nature has always been a very tough place for eggs and for little turtles,” Lahmann said. “But nature wasn’t prepared for man.”

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (4505)	9/29/2000 2:53:48 PM
From: Dealer	Respond to of 65232

Probably opened his mouth around the blackjack or crap table at the Mandalay Casino......:-) Yea! He probably did it for a free trip to Vegas......and gambling money. The perfect crime.............almost....too much greed! dealie &hearts;