a Mysterious Wildcat Caught on Video

China is coming around to animal conservation.
In the past and as shown in documentaries like The Cove, China hasn’t been as receptive to endangered wildlife conservation. However, Hong Kong lawmakers have recently submitted a proposal to move away from cruel practices. The proposal makes a case for stronger efforts in combatting the illegal rhino horn trade and it seeks to ban the commercial farming of bears. (They extract bile from the bear while it is still alive.) Tiger farming has also been targeted. [Washington Post]

Africa is using drones to terrify poachers and watch over its endangered wildlife.
Poaching has caused significant declines in species like rhinos and elephants all across Africa. But a $5 million grant from the World Wildlife Fund is allowing Africa’s wildlife parks to purchase drones and use them to monitor park activity at night. If they see any boats or trucks coming into the parks when they shouldn’t be, they use intense lighting and noise to spook the poachers away. [New York Times]

Ottawa has a recovery plan for endangered orcas on the West Coast, but it might be too weak.
An endangered population of orca whales is most likely going to be threatened by an increase in oil tanker traffic off of British Columbia’s southern coast. The “action plan” put forth by the federal government suggests new research on food supply and human’s impact on the whales, but it doesn’t call for any specific action to help them. The WWF wants immediate regulation instead and claims the proposed research is going to take too long to do any good — the orcas are under threat right now. [CTV News]

Some Massachusetts turkeys just marched in a perfect circle around a dead cat.
A Boston resident filmed more than a dozen turkeys moving in a single-file conga line around a dead cat last week, and then asked the internet, “why?” After calling the video one of the “spookiest” he had ever seen, a bird behavioral biologist offered a possible explanation to The Verge, explaining that the flock may have considered the dead cat a predator and therefore thought it best to parade around skeptically in order to “keep an eye on it.” Others believe it was a satanic ritual. [The Verge]

These turkeys trying to give this cat its 10th life pic.twitter.com/VBM7t4MZYr

— J… (@TheReal_JDavis) March 2, 2017