2008: Mar 4th Good News (Medal of Honor given to Sioux for Heroism, 140 year old Math Problem Solved, more...)

Good Morning Everyone!

I think I may have to go back to the way I was categorizing things before (as in March 3-4 News). The reason is because now that I do the news in the morning, I miss a lot of great articles that come out later in the day.

So, if you notice today, the first 4 articles are from this morning. All the rest are from yesterday afternoon. The way I categorized it, therefore is slightly different. I put the March 4 news all in the top 5, and then the top March 3 news article as the last top 5 article.

The Honorable Mentions are also put in order of how important I thought they were, but only include articles from March 3rd. So, the article about the Sioux who got the first Medal of Honor for a member of the Sioux Nation, would have been in the Top 5, if there hadn't been March 4 news that fit the top 5. Please feel free to comment if you like or dislike this method, and please enjoy today's pickings. :)




Today's Top 5:
1. American Biologist Wins Norway's Sophie Prize (PR Inside)
2. 140-year-old Math Problem Solved (Science Daily)
3. North America's Oldest Known Primate Discovered (Yahoo India)
4. General Motors to Offer New Hybrid System (MSNBC)
5. 1,300 Firefighters Take on Seattle's Charity Stair Climb (Seattle Times)


Honorable Mentions:
1. HIV Breakthrough: Protein That Fights Immunodeficiency Identified (Science Daily)
2. Medal of Honor given to Sioux for Heroism (MSNBC)
3. Snowmobilers Survive Night on Ice (CBC Canada)
4. Beeswax from Centuries-old Shipwrecks Still Found on Oregon Beaches (Seattle Times)
5. New Move to Save the Unique Goats of Arapawa Island (Scoop News)





1. American Biologist Wins Norway's Sophie Prize
http://www.pr-inside.com/american-biologist-wins-norway-s-sophie-r469277.htm
2008-03-04 14:17:24 -

OSLO, Norway (AP) - American biologist and writer Gretchen C. Daily won Norway's Sophie Prize on Tuesday for exploring the potential profits of protecting the environment.A jury selected Daily, a professor at Stanford University in California, for the US$100,000 (¤69,000) environment prize, citing «her involvement, knowledge and merits as one of the world's forerunners in the debate on sustainable development and conservation of biological diversity.

The jury praised Daily for her ability to translate science into practical recommendations and action, citing her 2002 book «The New Economy of Nature» as an example of how she explains ways to use market forces and the economy in the fight against loss of biodiversity and ecological destruction.

The book _ subtitled «The Quest to make Conservation Profitable» _ recognizes the economic value of the world's natural resources and the potential profits of protecting them.

«I see it as quite elegant, and an incredible challenge, to find ways of harmonizing our day-to-day economic activities with supporting our life-support systems,» a news release quoted Daily as saying.

The prize was created in 1997 by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder and his wife, Siri Dannevig, and named after Gaarder's surprise international best-seller «Sophie's World,» a novel based on philosophy for young people

.Last year's prize went to Former Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson for his efforts to draw attention to the dangers of global warming.

The 2008 prize will be presented at a June 12 ceremony in Oslo.




2. 140-year-old Math Problem Solved
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303110214.htm
ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2008)

A problem which has defeated mathematicians for almost 140 years has been solved by a researcher at Imperial College London. Professor Darren Crowdy, Chair in Applied Mathematics, has made the breakthrough in an area of mathematics known as conformal mapping, a key theoretical tool used by mathematicians, engineers and scientists to translate information from a complicated shape to a simpler circular shape so that it is easier to analyse.

This theoretical tool has a long history and has uses in a large number of fields including modelling airflow patterns over intricate wing shapes in aeronautics. It is also currently being used in neuroscience to visualise the complicated structure of the grey matter in the human brain.

A formula, now known as the Schwarz-Christoffel formula, was developed by two mathematicians in the mid-19th century to enable them to carry out this kind of mapping. However, for 140 years there has been a deficiency in this formula: it only worked for shapes that did not contain any holes or irregularities.

Now Professor Crowdy has made additions to the famous Schwarz-Christoffel formula which mean it can be used for these more complicated shapes. He explains the significance of his work, saying:
"This formula is an essential piece of mathematical kit which is used the world over. Now, with my additions to it, it can be used in far more complex scenarios than before. In industry, for example, this mapping tool was previously inadequate if a piece of metal or other material was not uniform all over - for instance, if it contained parts of a different material, or had holes."

Professor Crowdy's work has overcome these obstacles and he says he hopes it will open up many new opportunities for this kind of conformal mapping to be used in diverse applications.
"With my extensions to this formula, you can take account of these differences and map them onto a simple disk shape for analysis in the same way as you can with less complex shapes without any of the holes," he added.

Professor Crowdy's improvements to the Schwarz-Christoffel formula were published in the March-June 2007 issue of Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Journal reference: 'Schwarz-Christoffel mappings to unbounded multiply connected polygonal regions,' Math. Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. (2007), 142, 319.




3. North America's Oldest Known Primate Discovered
Tue, Mar 4 03:05 PM
http://in.news.yahoo.com/ani/20080304/r_t_ani_sc/tsc-north-america-s-oldest-known-primate-f32bc39.html

A paleontologist has discovered fossils of a 55-million-year-old ape on the Gulf Coastal Plain of Mississippi, which makes it North America's oldest known primate. Discovered by Christopher Beard, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fossil is of an animal named "Teilhardina magnoliana."

According to a report in National Geographic News, the animal is related to similarly aged fossils from China, Europe, and Wyoming's Big Horn Basin. "They are very, very primitive relatives of living primates called tarsiers, which live today in Southeast Asia," said Beard.

But the layer of rock in which the new fossils were found raises the controversial possibility that primates appeared in North America before their close relatives showed up in Europe, as previous studies had suggested, added Beard.

According to Beard, the discovery suggests that Teilhardina primates migrated to North America across the Bering land bridge from Asia. Then, the creatures proceeded to Europe across an Atlantic land bridge that emerged thousands of years later.

Previous research had suggested the primates reached the Americas via a westward route instead, from Asia through Europe.

"But that path was submerged at the time the primates show up in ancient Mississippi," said Beard.
At that time, the world was undergoing an ancient global warming event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. "T. magnoliana dates to a time before sea levels had fallen enough for primates to cross over to North America from Europe," said Beard.
"We know the sea level was high when our fossil primates lived in Mississippi, because the actual bed that yielded our fossils is a marine bed," he added. The same sea-level imprints are found in the rock section where Teilhardina was found in Europe. This indicates that Teilhardina arrived there after the sea level had dropped.
"So we know the Teilhardina fossils we're finding in Mississippi are older than the ones that have been found in Europe and along with that they are anatomically more primitive," said Beard.

If T. magnoliana indeed predates the Teilhardina find in Wyoming, it would also indicate the primates stuck to the coasts for tens of thousands of years before the climate changed enough for them to migrate inland.
"It took time for the North American ecosystems, especially in the interior part of the continent, to kind of adapt to this big warming event," said Beard.




4. General Motors to Offer New Hybrid System
Automaker will put lithium-ion battery into hybrid engine by 2010
Updated 2 hours, 2 minutes ago
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23464330/

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. says it expects to bring its first lithium-ion battery powered hybrid engine system to market in North America in 2010.

The world’s largest automaker by sales was to announce the hybrid system Tuesday at the Geneva International Motor Show, saying the new battery will deliver three times the power of GM’s current nickel-metal-hydride batteries.

Automakers and battery companies across the globe have been racing to develop lithium-ion technology, seen by many as the key to mass producing hybrid vehicles powered by conventional and electric motors. The batteries also are essential in producing the next generation of electric cars.

Daimler AG plans to introduce a gasoline-electric hybrid version of its Mercedes-Benz flagship S-Class luxury sedan that also uses a lithium-ion battery starting next year.

Lithium-ion technology already is widely used in consumer electronics, but now is being adapted to meet demanding automotive requirements. The batteries are lighter than other batteries, but cost and concerns about overheating have delayed their use.

Lithium-ion batteries common in laptops are smaller, yet more powerful than the nickel-metal hydride batteries used in gas-electric hybrids like Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius.

The GM and Daimler announcements in Geneva indicate increasing confidence about lithium-ion technology.
In addition, Toyota said in December it was preparing to start mass producing lithium-ion batteries for low-emission vehicles.

GM said the new hybrid system eventually will spread worldwide, and it expects sales volumes to exceed 100,000 vehicles per year. The system would build on GM’s current hybrids, reducing engineering costs and the cost to consumers, the company said.

The battery system would be paired with a wide range of GM engines, including turbocharged gasoline, diesel and biofuel power plants. It would be used in multiple GM models across all brands, but the company would not say which models would get the new system.

The new system will produce a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in fuel economy over what a nonhybrid vehicle would get in 2010, GM spokesman Brian Corbett said.

The company said the hybrid system would debut in North America before the Chevrolet Volt, which is an electric car with a small conventional motor used to recharge the batteries. The company hopes to bring the Volt to market in 2010 as well.

GM said in a statement that the new hybrid system would save fuel by turning the engine off at idle and cutting off fuel during deceleration. It would offer brief electric-only power, the company said in a statement.



5. 1,300 Firefighters Take on Seattle's Charity Stair Climb
By Natalie SingerSeattle TimesMarch 03, 2008
http://www.firerescue1.com/news/387303/

SEATTLE — There was no fire, but it sure was hot inside Seattle's Columbia Center Sunday.
Brows sweated, muscles bulged, tattoos peek-a-booed, and a continual chorus of catcalls echoed through the downtown Seattle skyscraper in support of the more than 1,300 gear-laden firefighters who powered up stories of stairs to benefit the fight against blood cancer. It took all day to get the firefighters, more than 1,200 men and nearly 100 women ages 18 to 66, through the course — a grueling 788-foot vertical climb that takes up to several months of extra training to prepare for.

By the time they reached the top, the overheated firefighters puffed, swayed and wriggled like worms to get out from under their heavy coats, breathing masks and metal air tanks.

Each firefighter coming off the last step walked straight into the arms of two volunteers, who moved down the hallway unbuttoning clothes and lifting off gear with NASCAR pit-stop precision. Minutes later, after stripping down, rehydrating and loosening up with a free massage, the men and women from around the country and beyond traded jokes, cheered others and shrugged off the strain.

One firefighter, emerging at the top, dropped to the floor in full gear and gave the crowd five energetic push-ups, to a round of extra-loud hoots.

But if they managed to still look good at the end of it, they didn't seem to notice. Their top concern was raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society — and maybe the bragging rights that come along with hauling in more cash or racing to the top faster than other departments. Last year, competitors raised more than $365,000 for the society.

Civilians eager to try the climb can participate in the Big Climb on March 16 that also benefits to society. See www.bigclimb.org to register.
Seattle Fire Department's Zach Schade, 40, of Tumwater, climbed the steps in 11 minutes, 37 seconds to capture his second consecutive Scott Firefighter Stairclimb title, while Denise Little, 34, of the Sparks (Nev.) Fire Department, near Reno, captured the women's title in 17 minutes, 34 seconds.

"Nah. Us? Competitive?" joked Capt. Ralph Ashmore, 46, of the Redmond Fire Department, who was proud to say his own climb, which took about 18 minutes, was faster than last year. Waiting with his buddies, who had yet to make the climb, Ashmore sat in a corner in the vast bowels of the Columbia Center, where departments from as far as New Zealand spread gear, camping chairs, and of course, because they are firefighters, snacks into every nook and cranny.

Jim Odell, 40, from Redmond, said he uses the event to gauge how fit he is. His co-worker, Bryan Martin, 31, was readying for his first-ever climb and planning to try to power through on a single compressed air tank, although many firefighters choose to switch to a fresh one on Floor 40.

For Seattle firefighter Ryan Doherty, who also completed in the event last year, Sunday was different. In December, the son of a family friend was diagnosed with cancer. "It's a lot more personal this time," he said after the climb. "I wanted to do it for him."

The little boy, Alex Davidson, 7, watched eagerly from the sidelines on the top floor for about 20 minutes for his buddy to emerge. Every time the pounding footsteps of another firefighter bounded down that hall, followed by the wail of an oxygen alarm as they yanked their breathing apparatus off, Alex craned his fuzzy head around the corner to check for Doherty. He waved a homemade sign with a red heart, and hung back to hug his mom's leg when it all got to be a bit too much.

Finally, Doherty, flushed and a little drippy, with a picture of Alex taped to the front of his faded black coat, swept past the boy and gave him a high-five. Alex, of few words, grinned a big, toothless smile of approval.



Honorable Mentions:

1. HIV Breakthrough: Protein That Fights Immunodeficiency Identified
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080303093559.htm
ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) —

A Canada-U.S. research team has solved a major genetic mystery: How a protein in some people's DNA guards them against killer immune diseases such as HIV. In an advance online edition of Nature Medicine, the scientists explain how the protein, FOX03a, shields against viral attacks and how the discovery will help in the development of a HIV vaccine.

"HIV infection is characterised by the slow demise of T-cells, in particular central memory cells, which can mediate lifelong protection against viruses," said lead researcher Rafick-Pierre Sékaly, a Université de Montréal professor and a researcher at the Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and the French Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm).

"Our group has found how the key protein, FOX03a, is vital to the survival of central memory cells that are defective in HIV-infected individuals even if they are treated," added Dr. Sékaly, who produced his study with CHUM and Inserm colleagues including Elias El Haddad and Julien van Grevenynghe. Collaborators also included Jean-Pierre Routy, a McGill University Health Centre researcher and professor at McGill University and Robert S. Balderas, Vice-President of Research and Development at BD Biosciences of San Diego, CA.

Public support for the research came through Genome Canada and Génome Québec, among others, while private contributions came via a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company). "Public-private collaborations such as this play an important role in advancing medical research," Robert S. Balderas. "BD Biosciences was pleased to provide powerful research instruments, reagents and technical expertise to support this breakthrough research."

The breakthrough emerged by studying three groups of men: One HIV-negative sample, a second HIV-positive group whose infection was successfully controlled through tritherapy and a third group whose HIV did not show any symptoms. Called elite controllers, this third group fended off infection without treatment because their immune system, which would normally be attacked by HIV, maintained its resilient immune memory through the regulation of the FOX03a protein.

"Given their perfect resistance to HIV infection, elite controllers represent the ideal study group to examine how proteins are responsible for the maintenance of an immune system with good anti-viral memory," said Dr. Haddad. "This is the first study to examine, in people rather than animals, what shields the body's immune system from infection and to pinpoint the fundamental role of FOX03a in defending the body."

Beyond HIV treatment, Dr. Sékaly said his team's discovery offers promise for other immune diseases. "The discovery of FOX03a will enable scientists to develop appropriate therapies for other viral diseases that weaken the immune system," he said, citing cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C, as well as organ or bone marrow transplant rejection.

Paul L'Archevêque, president and CEO of Génome Québec, lauded Dr. Sékaly's team for their breakthrough and the people who volunteered for the study. "This discovery, the first such study in humans, is a major step forward in the understanding of how our immune system responds to life-threatening infections such as HIV. This advance stems directly from research co-financed by Génome Québec, which demonstrates the impact that genomic research can have in improving healthcare."

This research was made possible by public and private institutions across Canada, the United States and France: the Université de Montréal, CHUM, Inserm, MUHC, Genome Canada, Génome Québec, Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Institutes of Health and BD Biosciences.




2. Medal of Honor given to Sioux for Heroism
Nation's highest military for valor in North Korea; Master Sergeant died in 1982
Updated 7:14 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 3, 2008
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23456218/

NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports on the medal and Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble, the first member of the Sioux Nation to receive the honor.

WASHINGTON - President Bush apologized Monday that the country waited decades to honor Master Sgt. Woodrow Wilson Keeble for his military valor in Korea, giving him the Medal of Honor more than 25 years after he died.

Keeble is the first full-blooded Sioux Indian to receive the nation’s highest military award. But it came almost six decades after he saved the lives of fellow soldiers. Keeble died in 1982.

“On behalf of our grateful nation, I deeply regret that this tribute comes decades too late,” Bush said at the White House medal ceremony. “Woody will never hold this medal in his hands or wear it on his uniform. He will never hear a president thank him for his heroism. He will never stand here to see the pride of his friends and loved ones, as I see in their eyes now.”

But, Bush said, there are things the nation can still do for Keeble, even all these years later.
“We can tell his story. We can honor his memory. And we can follow his lead, by showing all those who have followed him on the battlefield the same love and generosity of spirit that Woody showed his country every day,” the president said before a somber East Room audience that included three rows of Keeble’s family members.

Fellow soldiers, family members and others have been pushing Congress and the White House for years to award Keeble the medal. They said the man known as “Chief,” a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux tribe, deserves the medal for his actions in Korea in 1951, when he saved the lives of other soldiers by taking out more than a dozen of their enemies on a steep hill, even though he himself was wounded.

“Soldiers watched in awe as Woody single-handedly took out one machine gun nest, and then another,” Bush said. “When Woody was through, all 16 enemy soldiers were dead, the hill was taken, and the Allies won the day.”

Pentagon officials had said the legal deadline had passed to award the medal to Keeble unless Congress specifically authorized it. Sens. Byron Dorgan and Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Tim Johnson, D-S.D.; and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced legislation to award Keeble the medal, and it was signed by Bush last year.
Keeble was recommended twice for the medal in the 1950s but the applications were lost both times. He instead received the Distinguished Service Cross.

“Some blamed the bureaucracy for a shameful blunder,” Bush said. “Others suspected racism — Woody was a full-blooded Sioux Indian. Whatever the reason, the first Sioux to ever receive the Medal of Honor died without knowing it was his.”

'Woody never complained'His friends felt he was cheated, Bush said, “yet Woody never complained. See, he believed America was the greatest nation on earth — even when it made mistakes.”

Seventeen members of Keeble’s family, along with soldiers who served with him, attended the ceremony. Keeble’s stepson, Russell Hawkins, accepted the award along with Keeble’s nephew. He said after the ceremony that he does not believe it was racism that delayed the honor.

“I think it was truly lost,” he said of the original recommendations. “I don’t think Woodrow would say it was discrimination. He didn’t see racial colors, he didn’t see racial barriers.”

Hawkins said the family has been pushing for the medal since the early 1970s. Keeble, who was born in Waubay, S.D., moved to North Dakota as a child. He was also a veteran of World War II and received more than 30 citations, including four Purple Hearts.

Bush saluted Keeble for his military heroism, but also for his conduct in his personal life — pursuing a woman he loved, becoming “an everyday hero” in his community and maintaining cheerfulness — despite his own grief and physical suffering. The wounds he suffered in Korea would “haunt him the rest of his life” and strokes paralyzed his right side and took away his ability to speak, but he mowed lawns and gave money to down-and-out strangers.

“Those who knew Woody can tell countless stories like this — one of a great soldier who became a Good Samaritan,” the president said.





3. Snowmobilers Survive Night on Ice
Last Updated: Monday, March 3, 2008 1:35 PM CT http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2008/03/03/snowmobile-saskatchewan.html

It could have been a disaster for a group of snowmobilers who ran into a raging blizzard in northern Saskatchewan on the weekend, but they emerged with a tale of survival.

"It's a miracle that they found us," said Lavina Catarat after spending a night on the ice in a snow cave.
Buffalo Narrows is about 500 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon. (CBC) Catarat and eight other snowmobilers set out from Buffalo Narrows across Peter Pond Lake on Saturday evening heading home to Dillon.

A blizzard struck and the group was faced with blowing snow, wind chills that made it feel like it was -50 C and near-zero visibilty. "The storm hit us pretty fast," Catarat told CBC. Four turned back, but the other five, Catarat among them, disappeared in the blowing snow.

Further ahead, the snowmobilers got separated again, and Catarat and a male friend found themselves alone.
"It was dark, zero visibility, couldn't see the lights," she said. They got closer to Dillon, but got stuck in a snowbank. The two dug a shelter underneath their snow machines and waited for help.

Cellphone coverage is spotty in the area, but Catarat managed to get through to Dillon on her phone and alerted people about what had happened. Search crews from Dillon and Buffalo Narrows went to work, although efforts were hampered by the stormy weather.

The two were wearing protective clothing, but were warned by people in Dillon that they couldn't allow themselves to go to sleep. "We kept shaking each other to stay awake," she said.

The next morning, they moved to the treeline hoping to be more visible. Catarat said that just as she felt herself dozing off, she heard snowmobiles, a sound she thought might be a hallucination. She got up, but to her dismay, the snow machine kept going.

Fortunately, a searcher on a second machine spotted them and they were saved. Hugs and tears followed. "Thank God there was another one," she said.

Later in the day, two other women who had also sought shelter were found walking back to Buffalo Narrows.
The fifth snowmobiler was found Sunday afternoon. The man, 25, was taken to hospital for observation, with injuries that the RCMP said were not life-threatening.

Catarat said she wanted to thank everyone in Dillon and Buffalo Narrows who helped searched for her.
"It's good they found us when they did," she said.




4. Beeswax from Centuries-old Shipwrecks Still Found on Oregon Beaches
Monday, March 3, 2008http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004256105_beeswax03m.html

GOLD BEACH, Ore. — It was the amber luminescent glow of an egg-shaped object in the winter sun that grabbed Loretta LeGuee's attention on the beach she had combed for years. Experts say it almost certainly is a chunk of beeswax from a Spanish trading vessel that sank off the coast more than 300 years ago. The wax has been turning up on Oregon's north coast in the Nehalem and Manzanita areas for centuries. A find this far south is rare.

"From the picture they sent me, that's what it looks like to me, it's definitely beeswax," said Scott Williams of Olympia, assistant state archaeologist for Washington. He leads the Beeswax Wreck Project of volunteers probing why blocks of beeswax have been popping up along the Oregon Coast for centuries.

This hunk could have been from the Santo Christo de Burgos, which sank in 1693, or the San Francisco Xavier, which disappeared in 1705. Both were en route from the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico, with tons of wax.
Such discoveries have been traced to the Philippines by the wings of the bees, native to those islands, found in the wax.

"Where she [LeGuee] found it would be unusual, being so far south," Williams said, noting the ocean currents off Oregon flow north, not south. "But we know the Indians were trading it prehistorically up and down the coast."

LeGuee, 52, and her German shepherd, Norman, found the 10-pound chunk just south of Gold Beach in early December. After a ferocious storm in the area, she kept a sharp eye out. She had found fishing floats and agates in the past after storms. "And we had just had high winds, real bad weather," she said.

Beeswax was once preferred for candles over malodorous tallow, or rendered animal fat. "The Catholic Church required the use of beeswax," he said. "There were no native honeybees in the New World. The churches in Mexico had to get wax from someplace and the large Asian honeybees produced a lot of beeswax."

Records dating to the early 1800s record Indians trading cakes of beeswax to settlers arriving in the Pacific Northwest. "As soon as the Northwest fur traders came into the country, the Indians were trying to trade beeswax to them," he said. "The Indians told them it was from a shipwreck."

The San Francisco Xavier was carrying some 75 tons of beeswax, according to shipping records. Because a massive earthquake and tsunami in January of 1700 would have sent earlier ship remains farther inland, a researcher on the team says the Nehalem Bay beeswax is likely from the 1705 shipwreck.

Finds of the wax along the north coast still occur. The wax lacks the monetary value of the gold and silver thought to be lost, or even buried, along the north coast but discoveries are considered priceless to archaeologists.

"It's 300-year-old beeswax from a Spanish galleon — to me, that's really neat," Williams said.




5. New Move to Save the Unique Goats of Arapawa Island
Monday, 3 March 2008, 10:08 amPress Release: Arapawa Island Goats http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0803/S00003.htm

Time is running out for the unique goats of Arapawa Island, as a DOC cull looms. In response, a group of concerned rare breeds enthusiasts from around New Zealand, the UK and the USA have come together to try to raise enough money to rescue as many goats as possible before the cull takes place in March.

The money will be used to help Betty Rowe of the Arapawa Wildlife Trust (and island resident) to repatriate as many animals as possible, to save their unique genetics which are found nowhere else in the world.

While the Arapawa Island goat isn’t a native animal of New Zealand, it is an endangered breed only found here. It is thought that the goats originate from a few left by Captain James Cook on visits to NZ in 1773 and 1777. It may be with more DNA testing that the goats can be shown to be ancestors of the now extinct Old English Goat, a breed that died out in the UK in the 1950s.

Betty’s Wildlife Trust already provides a sanctuary to approximately 50 of the goats, but the more goats that can be saved, the more genetics will be available for breeding for future generations. The total number of goats worldwide is believed to be approximately 360, with a precious few exported to rare breed enthusiasts in the UK and USA to help protect their genetics if NZ ever has a biosecurity threat such as Foot and Mouth.

While DOC’s mission is to protect the unique flora and fauna on the island’s reserve, Betty and many rare breed supporters around the country have been trying to persuade DOC to give them time to round up as many as possible for rehoming to the mainland where enthusiasts have volunteered to take them on. However, despite repeated requests DOC will not enter into a dialogue, only saying they have done a formal head count by helicopter, although they won’t release any details of it.

“New Zealand is a signatory to the Rio Convention, which we signed in 1992, and as such it obligates us to a Biodiversity consideration,” says Betty. “The old cry of "destruction to native flora" cannot be upheld, as the island where the goats are in residence, is regenerating. This began with the cessation of most sheep farming on the island some 10 years ago.”

“I might add that back in 1977 when the Forest Service came to the island to begin shooting, we had an upswelling of angry people who trudged up the hill and back down again every night for two weeks, putting themselves between the shooters and the goats. It was a beautiful moment of compassion.”
“However, at 76, I cannot now lead a charge up the hill and am endeavouring to find a way to keep the few fragmented groups of these goats who represent part of our history and heritage and are a New Zealand taonga (treasure) from being further decimated.”

DOC originally planned a cull – without informing any of the Arapawa Island goat supporters – in January this year. An outcry at the time got that postponed until March.

Despite repeated requests to DOC by Betty Rowe to have meetings and try to sort out an alternative solution, such as rehoming, DOC do not appear to want to find any solution other than a cull.

Repeated offers to DOC to meet and discuss the possibilities of capturing and rehoming the goats have met with stony silence. Betty and her volunteers have a number of people around New Zealand offering homes and help in rehoming any goats. Despite this offer being put before DOC several times, they still remain silent and one can only wonder why there seems to be reluctance on their part to follow this up? Requests to have an independent headcount of the animals in the DOC controlled areas have been ignored.

DOC claim they have done a recent headcount by helicopter but will not release details of what that head count is and therefore numbers cannot be verified at this time. Betty has been told by a source close to DOC, that DOC officials climbed up a hill and saw 5 goats, and apparently heard 5 more goats. If this is their way of officially “counting” the number of goats, then it is not a very professional way of doing so.

How to help
If you can spare just $1 it would make a huge difference to the work Betty (and her many supporters) can do. It would give Betty and the goats a fighting chance and would be used to either rehome (where possible) as many goats that can be caught and repatriated to those people who have put their hands up to offer them sanctuary.

Donations can be made as follows:
You can make a donation directly to Betty Rowe’s Charity Trust. Cheques should be made out to Arapawa Wildlife Sanctuary, and can be sent care of Betty Rowe, Arapawa Wildlife Sanctuary, Private Bag, Picton.

Arapawa Island goats – DNA research
The following information comes from Betty Rowe and can be used as quotes from her.

“The Arapawa Island Goats have recently had DNA analysis presented by D.P Sponenberg, DVM,PhD, Professor of Pathology and Genetics, Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine .The work was carried out at the University of Cordoba on behalf of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (the ALBC).

“The results indicate that the Arapawa Island Goats, however, are a unique genetic resource when compared with other goat breeds. As such, it warrants continued conservation as a pure population.
More on the analysis can be obtained from Professor Sponenberg at dpsponen@vt.edu

“My own involvement began in 1973 when we began to become interested in the wild sheep on the island. The subsequent visits of scientists to Arapawa Island declared the sheep to be of historical and scientific interest, but condemned the goats and pigs that were also found on the island to a death sentence.

“My own research had shown that goats were left on Arapawa Island by Captain James Cook back in 1773 and 1777 and that Edward Jerningham Wakefield had observed goats at the whaling station which is on Arapawa Island.

“This observation was noted in Wakefield's journals in 1839 when he wrote "the children of the settlement (meaning the whaling station) were as active and hardy as the goats with which the settlement swarmed".”
“I remarked to the scientists that perhaps the other feral animals, ie goats and pigs, should be studied before any extermination plan took place, given that they had been in residence on the island for a very long time. No such study was forthcoming and the battle lines were drawn that continue to this day to try and protect and preserve the now proven uniqueness of the goats.”

“Michael Willis, Director of Willowbank Wildlife Reserve and founder of the New Zealand Rare Breeds Conservation Society and a present Director of Rare Breeds International, organized three separate musters consisting of volunteers to come to the island to bring the goats into the safety of our farm in East Bay.
“The volunteers were few at first with only seven people, but by the third muster we had 50 volunteers and we managed to bring a lot of the goats onto "Aotea", our farm.

“One of the volunteers was a lady from England who identified the goats as Old English. We were told that the Old English goat had died out in a severe winter of 1954. Putting pieces of the puzzle together we had goats left on Arapawa Island centuries ago, either by early settlers, whalers and, according to history books, by Captain James Cook himself. Goats were observed as "swarming "by Wakefield and the goats had been identified as the Old English Goat by an English woman (name unknown) who had a background in goat keeping. The news that the Old English had become extinct seemed to me to form something that, at the very least, required research. However, the authorities would have none of it, dismissing it as the emotional trivia of an ex-pat American woman.

“Years of research was lost in the fire that consumed our home in 1999, but slowly some of it has been recovered as I had shared it with others and they in turn returned copies to me over the years. I have offered to share this research with the Department of Conservation, here in New Zealand and to talk to their scientists and knowledgeable people.

“Just last October, we received confirmation of the uniqueness of the goats, through Prof Sponenberg's analysis. The DNA showed that the goats were a close knit family group that originated from only a few original releases, tying in with the Captain Cook releases of two - three animals or with early settlers on the island. None of the early visitors to Arapawa Island would have had the capacity, nor desire, to release large numbers of goats, and would have left only a small grouping, which is what the DNA tells us.” “I felt this was exciting news that had at last vindicated the goats and would ensure their survival as the numbers of goats is very low world-wide. I believe we can only account for around 360."

“The goats outside of the Arapawa Wildlife Sanctuary http://www.rarebreeds.co.nz/rowe.html which my late husband and I established and which is now a Charitable Trust, assumed greater significance when we realised we were desperately low in numbers to try to preserve this unique breed.

“Due to the over-zealous culling activities of first the NZ Forest Service and more recently the Department of Conservation we could not meet the recommended number of 500 as a viable herd to be retained on the island as a genetic back-up, so I requested DOC work with us to this end.

“The DNA results were ignored by the new Minister of Conservation as had all research by the government's previous ministers been ignored. Instead we were told just a month or so ago that DOC were to arrive on the 7th January 2008 and shoot the goats for three weeks up until the 25th January, excluding weekends.
“This was definitely overkill and I began the campaign to try to stop this yet again.

“New Zealand is a signatory to the Rio Convention which we signed in 1992 and as such obligates us to a Biodiversity consideration. The old cry of "destruction to native flora" cannot be upheld, as the island where the goats are in residence, is regenerating. This began with the cessation of most sheep farming on the island some 10 years ago.

I might add that back in 1977 when the Forest Service came to the island to begin shooting, we had an upswelling of angry people who trudged up the hill and back down again every night for two weeks, putting themselves between the shooters and the goats. It was a beautiful moment of compassion.

“However, at 76, I cannot now lead a charge up the hill and am endeavouring to find a way to keep the few fragmented groups of these goats who represent part of our history and heritage and are a New Zealand taonga (treasure) from being further decimated.

“This is only a part of the whole, but perhaps enough to bring the urgency of the present situation to those prepared to listen.”

Thank you
Betty Rowe
Arapawa Island