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Your Weekend Guide (April 7, 2017)

PERFORMANCES
Ateneo Blue Repertory is celebrating its 25th year with a concert, Company Call: blueREP at 25, that will bring together current members and alumni, featuring some of the organization’s most recognizable musical numbers, on April 8, 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., at the Cine Adarna, UP Film Institute, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Tickets are P500, P600, and P700. For tickets visit http://bluerepertory.org/Tickets, or call 0917-531-6026 or 0917-520-1998.

RED TURNIP Theater’s science fiction play The Nether has performances until April 9 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight, Circuit Makati. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph), and at www.facebook.com/RedTurnipTheater.

FILM
Pineapple Lab’s Dark Room Series presents a new documentary short film by Jean Claire Dy and Manuel Domes on April 9, 4 p.m. Pagrara Sang Patipuron follows a group of indigenous Aeta women weavers in Nagpana. The film will be followed by a short talk with the artistic team. Tickets are P400. Pineapple Lab is at 6071 R. Palma Street, Barangay Poblacion, Makati City.

EVENTS
Edsa Shangri-La and Wedding Treasures and Fashion Pulis, present a bridal fair called Unveil 2017, on April 8 and 9, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., at the hotel’s Grand Isla Ballroom. Unveil 2017 is open to the public. There will be a talk on Ting Hun (Chinese engagement ceremony) on the first day, and a bridal fashion talk on the second day. There will be bridal fashion shows on both days at 7 p.m., featuring gowns by Veluz, Val Taguba, Joel Escober, Anthony Ramirez, Michael Leyva, Francis Libiran, and Roulette. Wedding stylists will decorate the ballroom. Guests can check a variety of sources for wedding cakes and pastries, car rentals, furniture rentals, designers, artists, event coordinators, event stylists and florists, fashion choreographers, gifts and novelties, event emcees, invitations, jewelry, musicians, audio visual equipment, photography, videography, among others. The hotel will likewise be offering fitness, beauty and wellness programs to brides and grooms to be in preparation for their big day.

ART
THE BenCab Museum presents SinEaster, an exhibit of paintings by Olan Ventura, and Philippine Religious Engravings (18th to 19th century prints) starting April 12. Both will run until June 11. Meanwhile, TAKE 5 on Aquarelle, an exhibition of watercolor paintings is on view until April 7. The BenCab Museum is at Km. 6 Asin Road, Tuba, Metro Baguio.

ON VIEW at the Makati Shangri-La Manila until April 17 is a show by Hiraya Gallery titled By the Sea, By the Beautiful Sea.

NAICHAYU: An Architectural Exploration of the Kalinga Tattoo is ongoing until April 29 at the 12F, School of Design and Arts, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, 950 Pablo Ocampo St., Malate, Manila.

RUSS Ligtas’ Another World is on view at the Cultural Center of the Philippines until May 14. Also ongoing until June 4 is Lying In State: Cesar F. Legaspi.

MAPPING of the Philippine Seas, an exhibit of rare antique Philippine maps and sea charts, is on view until April 29 at the Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Roxas Blvd., Manila.

MAYIE DELGADO’s Poetic Images, an exhibit of landscape photos, is on view at the Globe Headquarters in Bonifacio Global City.

AN EXHIBIT of video work by Lani Maestro, “her rain”(slaughter), has been extended until April 16 at MO_Space at Bonifacio High Street, BGC, Taguig City.

THE Pang Hui Ba Ho Public group exhibit runs until April 24 at the Post Gallery, Cubao X in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

Wynn Wynn Ong: Redefining Boundaries (A Retrospective) runs until June 15 at the Yuchengco Museum. Also on view is Naoko Tosa’s Digital Dimensions.

THE group show LIGALIG: Art in a Time of Turmoil is on view until May 27 at the Ateneo Art Gallery, Ateneo University Campus, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City.

THE Korean Cultural Center (KCC) presents a Korean media art exhibit, Eternal Light, featuring installation art by Korean artist Han Ho, at the KCC Exhibit Hall, Taguig City until April 28.

APICHATPONG Weerasethakul’s traveling exhibition The Serenity of Madness is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, 950 Pablo Ocampo St., Malate, Manila.

ARTINFORMAL has three ongoing exhibitions: Eugenia Alcaide’s See, Rene Bituin’s The Earth Doesn’t Need Us, and Micaela Benedicto’s Paths of Invisibility. The gallery is at 277 Connecticut St., Mandaluyong City.

ARTURO LUZ: First Light is on view until June 11 as part of Ayala Museum’s “Images of Nation,” a program in honor of the National Artists for Visual Arts. Ayala Museum is located at Makati Ave. corner De La Rosa St., Greenbelt Park, Makati City.

Your Weekend Guide (March 24, 2017)

PERFORMANCES
REPERTORY Philippines presents Sarah Ruhl’s In The Next Room or the Vibrator Play from March 24 to April 23 at the Onstage Theater, Greenbelt 1, Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. A comedy set in the 1880s, it follows the events that happen after Dr. Givings invents a device to relieve “hysteria” in both men and women. The brilliant new device is a vibrator. Directed by Chris Millado, the play is for adults only. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

THE Manila Improv Festival 2017 is ongoing until March 26 at the PETA Theater in Quezon City. Presented by SPIT and PETA, the festival features over 20 improv groups from all over the Philippines and the globe. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

THE Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company Recital presents Jean Genet’s Ang Balkonahe, translated and directed by Dennis Marasigan. For adults only. Performances are on March 25, 7 p.m., and March 26, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

THE Ywan Ballet Theater Company of South Korea will be performing on March 24, 6:30 p.m., at the Shangri-La Plaza Grand Atrium, Level 2 of the Main Wing. The ballet company, founded in 1987, has since been making efforts to spread Korean culture all over the world through contemporary ballet. For inquiries, call 370-2597/98 or visit facebook.com/shangrilaplazaofficial.

BENILDE’S Art and Culture stages Makbet, Shakespeare’s tragedy translated into Filipino by Rolando Tinio, with performances until April 1 at the 6/F Black Box, School of Design and Arts Campus, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Pablo Ocampo St., Malate Manila. The show is directed by Nonon Padilla and the cast includes theater veterans Irma Adlawan and George De Jesus III. Tickets are available at TicketWorld (891-9999, www.ticketworld.com.ph).

THE Union of Journalists of the Philippines-UP and The UP Repertory Company present Barangay Pagkatularan: A Travelogue Experience on the War on Drugs on March 24, 1-4 p.m., at the Student Activity Center, Plaridel Hall, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines-Diliman. For reservations, visit UJP UP Diliman on Facebook.

RED TURNIP Theater’s The Nether, starring Jenny Jamora, Alba Berenguer-Testa, Junyka Santarin, TJ Trinidad, Bernardo Bernardo and Bodjie Pascua and directed by Ana Abad Santos, has performances until April 9 at Power Mac Center Spotlight, Circuit Makati. Visit ticketworld.com.ph or www.facebook.com/RedTurnipTheater.

ART
THE Freedom Art Society presents Babae, Sino Ka?: Isang Daang Babae, Isang Daang Obra, an exhibition in celebration of the International Women’s Month. It is on view until March 30 at the Unit C-1 Windsor Villas 348 Tandang Sora Ave. cor. Congressional Ave. Extension, Quezon City.

MAPPING of the Philippine Seas, an exhibit of rare antique Philippine maps and sea charts, is on view until April 29 at the Tall Galleries, Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Complex, Roxas Blvd., Manila.

MAYIE DELGADO’s Poetic Images, an exhibit of photos featuring landscape images in New Zealand and Iceland, is currently on view at the Globe Art Gallery at the Globe Headquarters in Bonifacio Global City.

AN EXHIBIT of video work by Lani Maestro, “her rain”(slaughter), has been extended for viewing until April 16 at MO_Space at Bonifacio High Street, BGC, Taguig City.

FORCED EVACUATION, an exhibit of works by Jaime Pacena II, runs until April 1 at the Blanc Art Gallery, 145 Katipunan Ave., St. Ignatius Village, Quezon City. Blanc Gallery has two other ongoing exhibitions: Too Late for Today, Too Early for Tomorrow by Don Dalmacio and Hinggil sa Mukha ng Kasalukuyan.

PANG Hui Ba Ho Public showcases a private space that is made public, specifically a toilet shared by multiple users with varying private routines. The group exhibit runs until April 24 at the Post Gallery, Shop 7 of Cubao X in Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City.

JEWELRY, art, furniture, couture, and objets d’art are on view in Wynn Wynn Ong: Redefining Boundaries (A Retrospective) until June 15 at the Yuchengco Museum. Also on view is Naoko Tosa’s Digital Dimensions. The museum is at the RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Gil J. Puyat Avenues, Makati City.

GALLERIA Duemila features Sacha Cotture’s Moments de Creation until April 3. Galeria Duemila is located at 201 Loring St., Pasay City.

THE group show LIGALIG: Art in a Time of Turmoil is on view until May 27 at the Ateneo Art Gallery (AAG). Also at the AAG are Lines: Pictures and Poems by Jose Garcia Villa which is on view until August, AAG in Review: Bellarmine Hall (1960-1967) and Print and Drawing Room (1997-2005) until May, and #LUZ@90 which celebrates National Artist for Visual Arts Arturo R. Luz. It is on view until April 8. The Ateneo Art Gallery is at the Rizal Library Bldg., Ateneo University Campus, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City.

THE Korean Cultural Center (KCC) presents a Korean media art exhibit, Eternal Light, featuring 15 works and installation art by Korean artist Han Ho, at the KCC Exhibit Hall, Taguig City until April 28.

APICHATPONG Weerasethakul’s traveling exhibition The Serenity of Madness is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD), De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, 950 Pablo Ocampo St., Malate, Manila.

TAKE 5 on Aquarelle, an exhibition of watercolor paintings by Alfredo Roces, BenCab, Elmer Borlongan, Kelly Ramos, and Abi Dionisio, is on view at the BenCab Museum in Baguio City until April 7.

ARTINFORMAL has three ongoing exhibitions: Fearful Symmetries by Ronald Achacoso; Other Things in the World by Jan Balaquin, Nice Buenaventura, Nicole Tee, Juni Salvador, Lubin Nepomuceno, Van Tuico, and Reg Yuson; and Still by Raena Abella. The gallery is at 277 Connecticut St., Mandaluyong City.

ARTURO LUZ: First Light is on view until June 11 as part of Ayala Museum’s “Images of Nation,” a program in honor of the National Artists for Visual Arts. Ayala Museum is located at Makati Ave. corner De La Rosa St., Greenbelt Park, Makati City.

FILM
AS PART of its current exhibition, Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness, MCAD Manila will be screening a selection of the acclaimed Thai filmmaker’s short films on select Fridays of March and May 2017 starting on March 10, 3 p.m., at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde SDA Cinema (12th floor). Admission is free. For more information, visit the events page Short Films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul on Facebook.

FILMMAKER Ivy Universe Baldoza converses with Patrick D. Flores on the film Marciano on March 24, 2:30 p.m. at the UP Vargas Museum in University of the Philippines. The film traces the life of a gay overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who lived and died in Paris by gathering anecdotes from friends, colleagues, and strangers. Admission is free.

INSTITUTO CERVANTES presents Espacio Femenino, a series of documentaries directed by Spanish female filmmakers at the FDCP Cinematheque, Manila this month. To be shown on March 25, 6 p.m. is Maite Vitoria Daneris’ El lugar de las fresas. For details on the films and schedules, visit www.manila.cervantes.es or www.facebook.com/InstitutoCervantesManila.

EVENTS
JOIN a pop-up marketplace for antique and vintage goods in Warehouse Eight, Makati City, on March 25 at 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Istorya is an appreciation fair that aims to revitalize Filipino history and culture with workshops, demonstrations, and stories behind vintage pieces. Entrance fee is P200.

BONIFACIO High Street (BHS) presents Summer on the Street every weekend from March 25 to 28. from March 25 to May 28, with different activities staged around BHS. The summer series is kicking off with a Food Truck Festival on March 25-26. Subsequent weekends will see a Pet Summit (April 1-2); Walkways: Stations of the Cross (April 9-16), Easter Sunday celebration (April 15); a Health & Wellness Weekend (April 22-23); United Geekdom 2 (May 7); Mother’s Day Weekend (May 14); Waggin Tails (May 21); and the Summer Ender Concert (May 27 or 28).

Red Turnip’s virtual reality play reflects real world issues

Theater
The Nether
Produced by Red Turnip Theater
Directed by Ana Abad Santos
Weekends until April 9
The Power Mac Center Spotlight Theater, Circuit Makati

IN A THEATER landscape dominated by musicals, Red Turnip Theater has focused on staging contemporary straight plays. It ends its fourth season in an unusual manner, with a science fiction crime drama, The Nether.

Written in 2012 by Susan Smith Blackburn Prize awardee Jennifer Haley, The Nether focuses on the dilemmas of living in a virtual world.

In the play, Mr. Sims (portrayed by veteran actor Bernardo Bernardo) creates the “Hideaway,” a virtual space inside online world called The Nether.

Aside from issues familiar in this age of the Internet where people masquerade as someone they are not, The Nether also tackles unsettling issues such as pedophilia and bloodlust. In “Hideaway,” Mr. Sims runs a business in which clients pay to meet young girls who satisfy their desires.

This and other situations raise ethical questions about living out one’s hidden fantasies and their moral consequences.

The play made its debut in the West End and Off-Broadway in 2015 and has since been produced across the United States and Europe. Red Turnip’s production is its Asian premiere. It is directed by award winning actress and director Ana Abad Santos, one of the founders of the theater company.

“The Internet is really a demon that we don’t know what’s capable of. In the last 10 years, it has developed greatly and has taken us by storm,” Ms. Santos said during the play’s opening night on March 9 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight in Circuit Makati.

She felt the need to stage The Nether because there are issues of morality that people should be reminded of. “Pedophilia is just a tool that they used in terms of games and role-playing. There is a lot that you don’t see. They just used that as one concept, but there are a lot more,” she said of the play.

Joining Mr. Bernardo onstage are Bodjie Pascua, TJ Trinidad, and Jenny Jamora. Young actresses Alba Berenguer-Testa and Junyka Santarin alternate as nine-year-old Iris, an avatar with whom men act out their fantasies.

Ms. Santos admitted that it was difficult explaining what the story was about to the children. She however said the playwright wanted to keep the Iris’ character innocent to make it more believable.

“It was hard explaining it to them because it was a very sensitive subject, but what was important for the play was to keep their innocence. We couldn’t really tell them about everything,” she said.

Ms. Santarin said she had no idea what The Nether was about even after auditioning for the part.

“I got the role and my parents explained to me that it was intended for adults,” she said. “Whenever I have questions in mind, I ask Ms. Ana. But to be honest, I don’t understand some of it.”

Messrs. Bernardo and Pascua said they could relate to the story being public figures who most of the time live a “double-life.”

Mr. Pascua said: “It’s kind of similar to what we, as actors and as celebrities, what image would we show in our public side — like ‘Kuya Bodjie’ (his iconic character from the children’s program Batibot). I have to look for my ‘other side’ and demonstrated something as real.”

Mr. Bernardo noted there are dangers in social media that could lead to lose one’s identity. “We are creating our own avatars… Up until where you will be responsible for this? What are the impacts brought by your own loved ones and other people?”

As the director puts it, The Nether is both beautiful and grotesque, and certainly it is a play that is very relevant to today’s reality, both virtual and not. — Camille Anne M. Arcilla

Tickets are available at www.ticketworld.com.ph and www.redturnip.com.ph.

Manila joins global run to ‘Break the Silence’

Fun Run
Break the Silence
March 19, 6 am.
McKinley West Park, Taguig City

MANILA joins 20 other cities across the globe to “Break The Silence” on March 19, as the Philippine Accessible Disability Services, Inc. (PADS) initiates a solidarity run to stop sexual abuse and exploitation to deaf communities in the Philippines.

The goal of the run is to generate a global wave of awareness which will contribute to stopping the sexual abuse of deaf women and children who are the more vulnerable to exploitation according to a recent survey conducted by the Philippine Deaf Resource Center. It found that 65-70% of Deaf boys and girls in the Philippines have been molested while a further study revealed that one-third of female respondents had been raped.

PADS is a Cebu-based nongovernment organization with the vision of a “Disability Inclusive Filipino Society.”

While the primary run will be held in Cebu City, AIESEC Alumni Philippines is organizing a local fun run in Manila to support the global movement.

The Manila run will be held at McKinley West Park, Taguig City from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., with a 2.5K and a 5K running route.

PADS’ partners and networks across the Americas, Australia, Asia, Europe, and the Pacific nations will also host runs in their cities on that day. The final run of the day will be hosted by Google at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California.

Approximately 10,000 global people of all abilities and ages are expected to participate in the Global Run. PADS is also encouraging other local organizations and NGOs to adopt the project and host fun runs in their cities as well.

Participants are encouraged to donate a minimum of P350 which will help strengthen the Break the Silence advocacy through a year-long activity which involves raising awareness, providing training, and improve access to education for the PWD community.

AIESEC Alumni in partnership with DDB Cares produced a promotional video and started circulating a video challenge on social media to help raise awareness. The challenge is done by filming one’s self saying “Together, we can break the silence” in sign language and uploading it on Facebook using the #BreakTheSilence hashtag and tagging it to friends to do the same.

For more details and to pre-register, visit the Break the Silence Event Page through PADS’ Facebook Fan Page or visit PADS Web site at www.pads.org.ph.

Fossils suggest hominids may have lived alongside modern humans

MAROPENG, SOUTH AFRICA — Primitive hominids may have lived in Africa at the same time as humans, researchers said Tuesday, in new findings that could change the understanding of human evolution.

Fossils found deep in South Africa’s Rising Star cave complex in 2013 have been dated by several expert teams with their findings suggesting the hominids, called Homo naledi, may have lived alongside Homo sapiens.

It had previously been thought that the hominids were millions of years old.

A team of 20 scientists from laboratories and institutions around the world, including in South Africa and Australia, established the age of the fossils which suggests that Homo naledi may well have lived at the same time as humans. Their findings have been published Tuesday in three papers in the journal eLife.

The focus of the team’s research has been South Africa’s barely accessible Rising Star Cave system, part of the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site, about 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. The area has been an incredibly rich source of artifacts for palaeontologists since it was first discovered.

“There has been a great deal of speculation on how old Homo naledi was… Everyone who has examined the anatomy of Homo naledi has suggested that it would be in the millions of years,” said project leader and researcher at Wits University, Lee Berger.

But now, having established the age of the fossils using six independent methods, the team estimates that they are between 236,000 and 335,000-years-old — the beginning of the rise of modern human behavior, said Berger.

Researcher John Hawks said that the separate discovery of new Homo naledi fossils — including a pristine skull — in two other caves “confirmed that we’re looking at an anatomical pattern that is very different from any other common species.”

Some experts disputed the findings of the team that discovered the initial fossils and named the new species Homo naledi, arguing that they were merely early Homo erectus.

‘ALL SORTS OF POSSIBILITIES’
“We’re looking at a diversity of species in Africa in the latest stages of our evolutionary history that no one had suspected would be there,” said Hawks, an academic at the University of Wisconsin in the United States.

“That implies that as our species arose, it arose with others, that there were a diversity of hominid species in Africa occupying these environments during what we had considered to be the critical time period of modern human origins.”

Work has begun to also date the latest fossils to be found.

Paul Dirks, a professor at Australia’s James Cook University which is involved in the project, said that Homo naledi’s hand structure and the more recent era in which it is thought to have lived means it could have been a toolmaker.

The new findings have shown that the history of evolution is far more complicated than a straight-forward sequential history, he said.

“We have many different branches on the family tree and it is only fairly recently that there is only one survivor on the landscape. The new dating of the fossils opens up all sorts of possibilities for an interchange of… behaviors between Homo naledi and Homo sapiens,” Dirks added.

“This will have profound effect on archeology… (it is a) critical missing part of what happened in human evolution,” said Berger, who described the findings as “a Rosetta Stone for us.”

Homo naledi had a tiny brain, about the size of an orange and stood about 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, weighing around 45 kilos (100 pounds), experts say.

Homo naledi’s teeth and skull are similar to those of early humans while their shoulders are more similar to those of apes.

They had a brain about a third of the size of a modern human brain and curved fingers that are seemingly well suited for climbing. — AFP

Humans threaten crucial ‘fossil’ groundwater: study

VIENNA — Human activity risks contaminating pristine water locked underground for millennia and long thought impervious to pollution, said a study Tuesday that warned of a looming threat to the crucial resource.

Even at depths of more than 250 meters (820 feet) under the Earth’s surface, so-called “fossil” groundwater — more than 12,000 years old — has been found to contain traces of present-day rainwater, they said.

This suggests that deep wells, believed to bring only unsullied, ancient water to the surface, are “vulnerable to contaminants derived from modern-day land uses,” study co-author Scott Jasechko, of the University of Calgary, told AFP.

Groundwater is rain or melted ice which filters through Earth’s rocky layers to gather in aquifers underground — a process that can take thousands, even millions, of years.

It is the largest store of unfrozen fresh water on the continents.

Groundwater is pumped to the surface by deep wells for drinking and irrigation, and supplies about a third of all human water needs — including safe drinking water for billions of people.

For the latest study, presented at a European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Jasechko and a team set out to determine how much of Earth’s groundwater was more than 12,000 years old.

They used the carbon signature of “fossil” H2O — the bulk of groundwater pumped from wells deeper than 250 meters — to distinguish it from younger groundwater.

New groundwater has more radioactive carbon because it was more recently exposed to Earth’s atmosphere and shallow soil, tainted by nuclear tests since about the 1950s.

Fossil waters, in comparison, were isolated underground long before human activity could blight it.

The comparison showed that “a substantial share of global fresh waters are of fossil age, replenished more than 12,000 years ago,” Jasechko said.

“By contrast, only a small share of global groundwater has been replenished over typical human timeframes of years or decades.”

They then assessed the potential for contamination.

Against expectations, they found that rain and snowmelt “often” mixed with fossil groundwater reservoirs.

Half of the fossil groundwater wells they studied contained detectable levels of tritium — a radioactive isotope of hydrogen found in much younger waters.

“This observation questions the common perception that fossil groundwaters are largely immune to modern contamination,” concluded the study, published in Nature Geoscience.

This meant that fossil well waters, and possibly the aquifers from which they derive, “are more vulnerable to pollution from modern-era contaminants than previously thought.”

Such mixing could happen through holes or leaks in wells.

“Securing safe drinking water remains a key challenge for hundreds of millions of individuals around the globe,” said Jasechko. — AFP

More Antarctic protections urged on World Penguin Day

SYDNEY — The world needs to do more to protect the Antarctic wilderness and its wildlife, scientists warned Tuesday, as they marked World Penguin Day.

The flightless seabirds — a favorite with children for their clumsy, waddling gait — offer a useful yardstick for researchers to judge the health of their habitat.

“Penguins are great ambassadors for understanding the need to conserve Southern Ocean resources,” Christian Reiss, an Antarctic fisheries biologist at the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told AFP.

“They are the iconic species of this ecosystem and the fate of their populations will depend on effective ecosystem-based management, including understanding the role of climate change and human impacts.”

A Pew study in 2015 showed two thirds of the world’s 18 penguin species, which range from the volcanic Galapagos Islands on the equator to the frozen sea ice of Antarctica, were in decline.

Antarctic penguins in particular are vulnerable to climate change, with shifting ice reducing habitat while warming seas affect their prey.

Scientists blame intense fishing pressure on forage species such as krill, as well as pollution, degradation of breeding grounds, and climate change.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species, only two types of penguin — Adelie and King — are increasing in numbers.

STRUGGLING TO ADAPT
Penguins live most of their lives at sea but return to land to breed and molt, making them important gauges of marine health that are easily accessible to researchers, who can then develop realistic and effective conservation ocean strategies.

Stanford University marine scientist Cassandra Brooks, who specializes in the Antarctic, said penguin populations on the frozen continent were both increasing (Adelies in the Ross Sea) and decreasing (Chinstraps in the Antarctic Peninsula area).

“In short, we know climate change is dramatically changing the Antarctic environment and that the animals that comprise the Southern Ocean ecosystem are struggling to adapt,” she told AFP.

“Scientists need to continue working to untangle the complex interactions between climate change and penguin populations.”

A deal sealed last year by the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) — an international grouping tasked with overseeing conservation and sustainable exploitation of the Antarctic Ocean — will see a massive US and New Zealand-backed marine protected area established in the Ross Sea.

The sea is one of the last intact marine ecosystems in the world, home to penguins, seals, Antarctic toothfish, whales, and huge numbers of krill, a staple food for many species.

It is considered critical for scientists to study how such ecosystems function and to understand the impact of climate change on the ocean.

But two other proposals — the Australia and France-led East Antarctica sanctuary and a German plan to protect huge tracts of the Weddell Sea — are still under negotiation.

The East Antarctica sanctuary proposal spans one million square kilometers while the Weddell Sea plan would extend from the southeast of South America over an area of some 2.8 million square kilometers.

“A network of Southern Ocean MPAs (marine protected areas), which include no-take zones in areas important to penguin life history, may help ensure their survival in an uncertain future,” said Brooks.

The CCAMLR holds its annual meeting in Hobart, Australia, in October. — AFP

Sulphur-powered giant shipworm unearthed in Philippines

AN ENORMOUS black worm that lives in the mud of the sea floor and survives on the remnants of noxious gases digested by bacteria has been unveiled by scientists for the first time.

The slimy giant shipworm can grow up to 155 centimeters (five feet) in length, despite living a sedentary life in ocean sediment and apparently eating nothing more than the waste products of the microorganisms that live in its gills.

“We are amazed. This is the first time we saw a shipworm as large as this. Usually, shipworms are only as short as a matchstick and are white,” Filipino marine biologist Julie Albano told AFP.

The shipworm is a not actually a worm at all, but a bivalve — like mussels and clams — and has its own brittle, tusk-like shell.

Also known by its scientific name Kuphus polythalamia, the mollusk is radically different from its smaller shipworm cousins, which burrow in — and digest — wood.

Researchers who analyzed the creature found that although it had its own digestive system, this was shrunken and appeared to be largely redundant.

Instead, Kuphus polythalamia relies on bacteria that live in its gills, which digest hydrogen sulphide — a gas that smells of rotten eggs — from the mud and emit traces of carbon.

The process is photosynthesis in plants, where they take carbon dioxide from the air, use the carbon to grow and expel oxygen as a by-product.

“We suspected the giant shipworm was radically different from other wood-eating shipworms. Finding the animal confirmed that,” said Margo Haygood, a research professor at the University of Utah who also took part in the study.

The discovery of the giant shipworm, a species never before studied, marked the first time scientists had live specimens in hand, according to an article published this week in American journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

“This remarkable species remains to be fully described and explained,” the journal said.

Albano said the giant shipworm was found in the coastal town of Kalamansig in southern Sultan Kudarat province and its bacteria are now being studied for possible pharmaceutical use.

While the odd-looking animals are new to international marine scientists, Albano said, local people have clearly known all about them for years.

“The shipworm is edible, tastes like an octopus,” she said. “Locals eat it and it serves as an aphrodisiac for them.” — AFP

Key leopard population ‘crashing’

PARIS — The leopard population in a region of South Africa once thick with the big cats is crashing, and could be wiped out within a few years, scientists warned Wednesday.

Illegal killing of leopards in the Soutpansberg Mountains has reduced their numbers by two-thirds in the last decade, the researchers reported in the “Royal Society Open Science” journal.

“If things don’t change, we predict leopards will essentially disappear from the area by about 2020,” lead author Samual Williams, a conservation biologist at Durham University in England, told AFP.

“This is especially alarming given that, in 2008, this area had one of the highest leopard densities in Africa.”

The number of leopards in the wild worldwide is not known, but is diminishing elsewhere as well. The “best estimate” for all of South Africa, said Williams, is about 4,500.

What is certain, however, is that the regions these predators roam has shrunk drastically over the last two centuries.

The historic range of Panthera pardus, which includes more than half-a-dozen sub-species, covered large swathes of Africa and Asia, and extended well into the Arabian Peninsula.

Leopards once roamed the forests of Sri Lanka and Java unchallenged.

Today, they occupy barely a quarter of this territory, with some sub-species teetering on the brink of extinction, trapped in one or two percent of their original habitat.

Leopards were classified last year as “vulnerable” to extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of endangered species, which tracks the survival status of animals and plants.

South Africa recently suspended trophy hunting of leopards, though experts agree this is not a major cause of the population decline.

BLEAK FINDINGS
A 2008 census of leopards in the 6,800-square kilometer (2,600-square mile) Soutpansberg Mountains found a robust population of nearly 11 adult cats for each hundred square kilometers (39 square miles).

To find out how the carnivores had fared since then, Williams and his team set up four dozen motion-triggered camera traps across the area, and left them in place from 2012 to 2016.

The cameras captured a total of 65 individual leopards during the four-year period: 16 adult males, 28 adult females and 21 younger cats.

They also fitted eight adults with GPS collars to track their movements — or lack thereof.

Only two of the GPS-tagged leopards survived the monitoring period. Three were done in by snares, one was shot by a local resident whose cattle had been attacked, and two went missing, probably killed since they also disappeared from camera surveillance.

A statistical analysis of the results showed “a 66% decline over a period just over 7.5 years,” the study concluded.

Ironically, the bleak findings helped conservationists and local officials raise money to hire a “community engagement officer.”

“One of the things he does is help local people adopt non-lethal techniques” to prevent leopards from attacking cattle and other livestock, including the use of guard dogs, Williams added.

But the clash between humans and big carnivores, experts agree, is mostly due to humanity’s expanding footprint, especially in Africa, whose population is set to expand by more than a billion before mid-century.

As a result, the habitats of most wild megafauna are diminishing, and getting chopped up into smaller and smaller parcels.

“It is extremely alarming that the trends that we are reporting exemplify trends in large carnivores globally,” Williams said.

Studies in Africa of lions, black-backed jackals, and bat-eared foxes have showed similar rates of decline. — AFP

Strike force: world’s most venomous scorpion in action

PARIS — The world’s most lethal scorpion, the death stalker, has been caught on high-speed camera for the first time lashing out with its lethal stinger, scientists reported Tuesday.

A comparison of half-a-dozen scorpion species shown in ultra-slow motion revealed an unsuspected variety of strike modes, they reported in the journal Functional Ecology.

The death stalker had the fastest lunge of all, with its venomous stinger snapping over its head like a whip at 130 centimeters (51 inches) per second.

It has a no-nonsense trajectory, moving straight toward its target before flicking upward. The emperor scorpion — the world’s largest — has a similar open strike.

Other species, such as the black spitting scorpion, which can squirt venom at a distance, and various members of the hottentotta genus, strike with a more circular motion, forming an “O.”

“We found that different ‘tail’ shapes” — some slim, some fatter — “appear to permit different strike performances,” said senior author Arie van der Meijden, a professor at the University of Porto in Portugal.

To record and analyze the lightning-fast strikes, Van der Meijden and his team built a small platform surrounded by mirrors on all four sides.

They filmed the scorpion strikes from above with a video camera at 500 frames per second, and then created 3-D models with computers.

“Just taking them out of their container and putting them in the arena was enough to get them in stinging mood,” Van der Meijden said.

“All that was necessary to make them strike was touching their pincers with a thin piece of wire.”

Next on the research agenda is to figure out the evolutionary forces which explain why the strike patterns are so varied.

It could be “related to the kind of predators they need to defend themselves against,” Van der Meijden told AFP.

The differences could also arise from the fact that some scorpions rely less on their tail stingers, and more on their pincers to ward off a threat.

Scorpions use their defensive arsenal against bats, snakes, lizards and other predators.

They also use their stinger to catch prey, and during mating.

A 2008 study in the journal Acta Tropica estimated that more than 3,000 people die every year from scorpion bites.

Measuring up to 110 millimeters (4.3 inches) in length, death stalkers (Leiurus quinquestriatus) are found in dry regions of North Africa and the Middle East, where they live under rocks.

Their venom is highly dangerous for adults, and potentially lethal for children, but has been a valuable avenue for drug research. — AFP

Hope for elephants as ivory prices fall: conservation group

NAIROBI — The price of ivory has fallen by nearly two-thirds in the last three years, according to research conducted in China and published on Wednesday by the conservation group Save the Elephants.

At its peak in 2014 wholesale prices for raw ivory stood at $2,100 per kilogram at Chinese markets, but by 2017 the price had fallen to $730 per kilogram, according to the report by two ivory trade experts, Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin.

“Findings from 2015 and 2016 in China have shown that the legal ivory trade especially has been severely diminished,” Vigne said in a statement.

Chinese demand has driven a decade-long spike in elephant poaching in Africa, where the population has fallen by 110,000 over the last 10 years to just 415,000, according to a recent continental survey.

Vigne said both the amount of ivory for sale as well as prices had fallen at 130 licensed outlets in China, reflecting a drop in demand in the world’s biggest ivory market.

The researchers said China’s economic slowdown, plus a crackdown on corruption which sharply reduced the giving of ivory trinkets as gifts to officials, had also crimped demand.

At the end of this month, China’s 34 remaining licensed ivory-carving factories will be closed, after a recent government order putting an end to the legal trade.

But it remains unclear how the closing of the legal market will affect the illegal trade in elephant ivory.

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989, yet poaching continued and has accelerated in recent years, feeding a black market controlled by criminal gangs.

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Save the Elephant’s founder, said it was a critical but hopeful moment for the future of elephants.

“With the end of the legal ivory trade in China, the survival chances for elephants have distinctly improved,” Douglas-Hamilton said.

“There is still a long way to go to end the excessive killing of elephants for ivory, but there is now greater hope for the species.” — AFP

Planet protection plans: participate, pledge, preserve

ON MARCH 25, everyone is encouraged to participate in turning off their lights for just an hour — from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. — in celebration of the annual Earth Hour organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The main switch-off event will be at the SM Mall of Asia complex from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

According a WWF-Philippines press release, this year’s campaign urges millennials in particular to be the “climate change leaders and advocates of tomorrow” by, for instance, sharing their participations on their social media accounts to create more awareness and engagements.

“While the theme of Earth Hour remains ‘Shining a Light on Climate Action,’ we took to heart the role of the youth as the key to further propel the country into [being] a climate-resilient [country]. We continue to engage and encourage the public to emphasize that together we thrive,” Joel Palma, WWF Philippines president and CEO, was quoted as saying in the release.

The annual global campaign, which started in 2007, is more than just a symbol. “It aims to bring concrete solutions at a time when the challenges of climate change and environmental issues are all too real, yet showing the power of collective climate action,” said Gia Ibay, Earth Hour Philippines director, in the release.

The Philippines, one of the first member country participants and also one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, earned the title “Earth Hour Hero Country” as it topped global participation records from 2009 until 2012.

The WWF and the Earth Hour organizations worldwide have been raising both support and funds for access to renewable energy, protection of wildlife and their habitats, and building a sustainable tomorrow. Interested donors can visit the main Earth Hour website, and choose to give donations of $25, $50, or $100. The Earth Hour-Philippines website for donations is currently under construction.

MALL GOER DONATIONS
One of WWF-Philippines’ fund-raising projects is the Individual Donor Program (IDP) which targets mall goers. WWF-Philippines ambassador Luis Manzano became a fundraiser for a day at Glorietta 4 on March 16 as he encouraged random shoppers to participate in IDP.

Mall goers can now contribute to WWF’s ecological sustainability initiatives by going to the Glorietta mall booths or logging on to the WWF Philippines web site. They can either make a one-time donation or make monthly donations P500, P700, or P1,000.

The P500 donations will go towards training public school teachers in sustained environment awareness. The P700 donations will support tuna fishermen in the Ilocos Norte, Bicol Region, and Mindoro; while the P1,000 donations will go towards protecting the Tubbataha Reefs which serve as the food provider for people who rely on fish as their primary protein source.

The Glorietta 4 booths will be open until April. The locations of other mall booths nationwide are yet to be finalized.

WWF Philippines is working to combat climate change, alleviate poverty, conserve wildlife, and help transform lives through sustainable livelihood programs. It currently has 13 project sites: Tubbataha Reefs and Cagayancillo in Palawan, Donsol in Sorsogon, Mt. Iglit-Baco Mountain Range in Mindoro, Ipo Watershed in Bulacan, Hamilo Coast in Batangas, Pasquin in Ilocos Norte, Mamburao and Apo Reef in Occidental Mindoro, Tawi-Tawi, Sta. Rosa in Laguna, Davao Gulf, and Samal Island. — Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman

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