Conservation efforts aim to save Amazonian koalas and pandas

Syd Straaf, Raider associate, seen here providing care to
the endangered Amazon koala. Photo by Persephone Bolero

By Bolero News Services

AMAZON -- Besides being shrewd at business, the Raiders are also known for using their wealth for various philanthropic programs.Their latest humanitarian endeavor is a conservation effort, in partnership with Catadore Resort.

Once plentiful in the Amazon, the Amazonian koala and Amazonian panda have long vanished from the rain forest.

Native tribes hunted the animals for food, and as one source tells Bolero News Services, the tribes people believed that koala testicles were a power aphrodisiac.

After being wiped out from the Amazon, the koalas became primarily associated with Australia and the pandas with Japan. Thanks to the efforts of the Raiders, these key Amazon species will be reintroduced to the jungle.

"The Raiders have always been a humanitarian organization, [and] now we're expanding to be conservationists as well," explained Syd Straaf, a member of the Raider organization.

Straaf said his organization had managed to secure an Amazonian koala from a supplier in northern Ontario, Canada. The Amazonian pandas are being shipped from a private collector in Belarus.Straaf said they hope the animals will breed and repopulate the jungle.

Eve Heartsong, owner of the Catadore Resort, will also be breeding some of the animals in captivity, as part of her own support for conservation efforts. She plans to open their habitat to the public in hopes that more people can enjoy the beauty these creatures bring to the Amazon.

Heartsong said she's concerned with generating too much publicity for the effort, though, as it might encourage natives to begin hunting the animals again. Besides believing koala testicles have magical powers, the tribes people often use the animals' fur to have sex on.

"Syd [Straaf] should not have even told them they had bears. All [the natives] care about is the fur so they can breed on it themselves," she said.

According to Straaf, the animals are protected by law. The Amazonian Koala and Panda Protection Act of 2014, he said, outlaws violence and attempted violence against these "harmless creatures."

 "Hopefully the police will do their duty and enforce the laws that protect these creatures," Straaf said.

Straaf is currently preparing a few of the adorable koalas for release into the wild. He said Raiders are making every effort to ensure the animals are properly cared so they may survive in the harsh jungle environment.

By quarantining the animals, he said they can ensure they're disease-free.

"Much like keeping a new fish in the plastic bag before letting it swim free in the aquarium," he explained.

While Straaf and other Raiders have declined to provide details of their financial dealings, it's widely believed the philanthropy efforts are funded with a vast network of industrial ventures across the globe.

The group once operated a lucrative oil refinery that created a sizeable endowment for environmental causes. Like the koalas and pandas, the natives destroyed that operation.