Off-Topic: Greyhounds

Hello all! As the title has warned you, this post is not about wildlife conservation. Today, I want to shed some light on another issue. 

I don't talk too much about myself on my blog here, but I will tell you that I share my home, and my heart, with a rescued greyhound who was retired from a racing track. Since we got her, my family has become more aware of the cruelty these animals face. 

Right now, there is an international movement to close down the Canidrome, a racetrack off of mainland China, where there is no rescue program. No dog gets out alive. Even while racing, these poor greyhounds suffer malnutrition, illness, and open wounds without any sort of treatment or proper care. Please take a moment and go to www.grey2kusa.org to sign their petition. 

Thanks guys! I'll be back with more wildlife blogs shortly! 

Species Suffering (Warning: Graphic Photographs)

Hello everyone, and thank you for stopping by. Today, I'd like to look at a few images that represent several tragic events that are happening to global wildlife right now. All too often, it is easy to discount an issue, or underestimate it. The following pictures show the devastating effects that humans have on their neighbors. "A picture is worth a thousand words", so I will not describe or interpret, I will simply include the link if you'd like to learn more. Keep in mind, these things may not be happening right where you are, but they are happening right now. 

The White Rhino Almost Wiped Out

Melting Sea Ice Spells Doom for Polar Bears

Palm Oil Fuels Primate Genocide

The Perils of Plastic Pollution

The Slow Loris Species Suffering Because of Illegal Pet Trade

Shark Finning is an Unnecessary Slaughter

What are these pictures saying to the world? "Open your eyes." Will you? 

News Review: Burt the Bee Man Dies, Galapagos Tortoises Hatchlings, and More

Hello everyone! This is just a quick post pointing out some interesting news stories in the world of conservation:

Burt of Burt's Bees Dies
On July 5th, Burt Shavistz, the names and face of Burt's Bees skin products, passed away at the age of 80. His recognizable lip balms, hand salves, and baby washes have helped to bring consumer's attention to the conservation of an extremely important animal, the honey bee. Rest in Peace, Burt. 

Baby Galapagos Tortoises Found for the 1st Time in 100 Years
After 18th century sailors introduced rats to the Galapagos island of Pinzon, the island's tortoises perished from the egg-eating intruders. When a conservation program aimed against rats proved successful in 2012, the island was declared rat-free. And now, tortoise babies!!

Costa Rica Bans Sport Hunting
Costa Rica has become the first Latin American country to ban hunting for sport. This will help protect their native wildlife, including wild cats like ocelots, pumas, and jaguars! 

Volcano Shark? 
No, not Sharknado, try Shark-cano! Two shark species, and one stingray species were found in an underwater volcano. What does this have to do with conservation? Well, if you don't love animals, you don't conserve them- what better reason (among many others) to love sharks and rays- they can live in an active volcano!

The Great Barrier Reef Retains Its World Heritage Listing
The UNESCO World Heritage status means that the Great Barrier Reef will continue to be protected, and conservation efforts will be progressing. All around the world, many of these locations have recovered from previous damage/decay. Hopefully this valuable area of biodiversity will flourish for many years to come!

Movie Review: What We Can Learn from Jurassic World

So the other night I went and saw Jurassic World in IMAX 3D. My heart was racing the entire time, my palms were sweating, and no matter if they died or not, I am still super jealous of the kids at the triceratops petting zoo. Long story short: it was amazing. So for the rest of this blog post, I'd like to explore out a few concepts the movie hit on:

Intelligence

Impressive considering I don't know any humans who can bake underwater!  

Intelligence is not reserved exclusively for humans. Primates, dolphins, and even elephants all have very high functioning brains, and we still don't know everything about how animals think! Probably the most recent issue on this topic, or at least the most heated, pertains to the orcas in captivity, particularly at Seaworld. While it doesn't encompass the entire Blackfish debate, the intelligence of these animals certainly plays a huge part in it. 

Jurassic World makes the point that animals can be smart, and we often times underestimate their abilities. Like the raptors. Definitely the stars of the movie (Blue is my favorite!!). They have demonstrated their ability to work together in a team, communicate, and problem-solve. Who would've thought that dinosaurs could be smart? The reality is that we're learning more and more every day about the mental capacity of animals. Keeping that in mind, we shouldn't be surprised to find that many species are more intelligent than we previously thought. I mean, in fifty years, we could discover that seahorses are super smart- who knows! 

Any Nostalgia Critic fans out there? 

Wild Animals

No matter how much you train an individual animal, if they are wild, they will do what they want. Wild animals are, and will act like, wild animals. Just take a look at TIME's top 10 incidents. In my opinion, wild animals need to be treated with respect, understanding, and if you see one, distance. In no way am I saying animals are out to get us, but they can be dangerous if we aren't careful. (Of course, there are also many cases of domesticated animals going batpoop crazy, but we won't get into that.) 

I missed this scene because I was in the ladies room. True story. 

Technology


I can sit here at my desk and type out a novel of why we should be using technology for helping with poverty, or preventing suicide, or fighting terrorism. Or I could rant about how we should be using technology to innovate more ways to conserve our planet's natural resources, and help save the many endangered species of animals before they are lost to us forever. But instead, we're focused on using technology for something cool, but useless: bringing back dinosaurs. In this case, I'll just leave the rest of the talking to Ian Malcolm: 

Yeah, go tell this to the people trying to make dino-chickens (see link at end)

The Influence of Money

One of the concepts that really hit home with me was the emphasis on corporate sponsorship. It seems nowadays, advertisements are everywhere- billboards, tv commercials, and even roller coaster cars! Granted, some advertisements are really cool! Take the Science World ads, for example. Go ahead and Google it. Their facts are stunning, educational, and fun! I even picked a dinosaur one for you guys: 

The real question is who would sit on those chairs? 

But unfortunately, in today's day and age, we are overwhelmed with companies begging for our attention. In Jurassic World, the main lady (I'm not bothering to remember her name, sorry- she wasn't my favorite character) is so engulfed by the need to satisfy corporate sponsors that she forgets that the "assets" are actually living animals. This whole attitude keeps her from evacuating the park as soon as the can't-be-caught-asaurus gets out. A good lesson to learn, folks, money isn't as important as lives are. And with animals, they aren't objects, toys, or displays. They are living, breathing creatures, just like you and I, and should be treated as more than just money-makers. Besides, haven't we learned from Little Shop of Horrors that a lot of people will get eaten by giant mutant creatures if we grow them for money? 

Feed me Seymour!

That's all folks! Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and check back soon for more! I also included some funny related links you might like: 

Zookeepers Recreating the Raptor-Training Scene

Nostalgia Critic's Review (NSFW)

Dino Chickens?

News Review: Ivory Crushing, Glamour Gushing, and Extinction Fussing

Hello everyone! Remember me? I know it's been a while since my last post, and I do apologize- my life has been pretty hectic lately! I intend to get back in the swing of posting more regularly, so keep checking back for more! Today, I'd like to show you a few news articles that have caught my eye. (The links to the articles are underneath my little blurbs.)

Sixth Extinction

It's not new news. We've known that lately, humans, whether directly or indirectly, have been destroying the biodiversity of our planet by pushing many species to extinction. Some may argue that extinction is a natural process, and while that is true, the problem here is the rate at which extinction is occurring- that is, much much faster than natural. Amidst all the Caitlyn Jenner hype and other soap-opera-style stories that somehow make headlines, I am happy to see real problems like this are getting more attention. Of course, it has to be titled "...It could kill us" in order for anyone to pay any mind, but if that's what it takes so be it. As much as you can argue it, humans are animals and we are part of this planet's ecosystem. If we continue to destroy everything else, we will destroy ourselves.            Sixth Extinction on NBC News

Glamour
This isn't really news, but here are two of the women featured in Glamour magazine (which is probably the girly-est thing you'll ever see in this blog). Not a very long read, but it's nice to know people are out there trying to make a difference! 
Elizabeth Brajevich  Vanessa Alejandro




Crushing the Ivory Trade
In several previous posts I have talked about the illegal ivory trade. Today, the United States made a very powerful statement about its views on it: in Times Square, New York City, one ton of confiscated ivory, in the form of trinkets and carved tusks, was pulverized. In my opinion, it is fantastic publicity for a global problem, and I hope it is a sign that the US will be more committed to stomping out this horrendous problem.     
 WWF on the Ivory Crush

The illegal ivory trade may seem like a very foreign problem for many of us, but keep in mind that wildlife crime, in any form, affects humans somewhere along the line. Don't dismiss it just because you think elephants safe in zoos are enough. Think about the ecosystem they live in, that will be thrown into chaos in their absence, the humans whose livelihoods depend on that particular ecosystem, and so on and so forth. Just like I said about the first news article on this post, we are not immune to the destruction we are inflicting. And the sooner people realize it, the better. 


Thank you for reading! 

Creature Feature: Rhinoceros

Good evening everyone! I have decided to write a blog on rhinoceros in a different fashion: with drawings!! Why? Well, unfortunately, there are millions of graphic pictures you can find on the internet involving rhino poaching, some of which I have used in earlier blog posts. Tonight, I want to give the subject a more read-able face. As a warning: I am a horrible artist, and as you scroll down you will be exposed to the horror of my attempted drawings, but I figured it would be less painful than images of slaughtered animals and their orphaned young. So here we go, let's talk a bit about rhinos: 

If you want to learn more or donate, I've included quite a few links below. And as I've said before, you can help simply by saving energy. Whether its recycling, saving water, or consuming less, saving energy saves resources and habitat, which helps animals out in the wild. (For example, all of my drawings on this post were done on the back of used paper!)

World Wildlife Fund

United for Wildlife

Tusk Trust

25 Things you Didn't Know

The last male Northern White rhino

Rangers Protecting Animals from Poachers

I hope you enjoyed reading, and thank you so much for checking out my blog!! 

News Review: Ricky Gervais Against Trophy Hunting

Hello all! Quick post for today- just wanted to showcase what I think is the best use of fame. Actor/writer/producer Ricky Gervais has spoken out against trophy hunters, showing his support of wildlife conservation. 

The best example of a trophy hunter I could think of.
(Just keep in mind that many sport hunters are avid conservationists as well,
and I am in no way implying they all have Gaston's attitude.)

If you don't know already, trophy hunting is the hunting of wild animals primarily for sport and to claim a part of the slain animal as a memorial (aka a "trophy", such as horns, antlers, head). There has always been controversy surrounding trophy hunting, and its morality, especially when the animal's carcass is wasted and not eaten and you can read more about it here. In my personal opinion, I don't have a problem with trophy hunting as long as it's: 
a) done in a lawful manner, following the area's bag limits, seasons, ect. 
b) done as humanely as possible
c) done sustain-ably by only hunting animals whose populations are stable 

This is the Scimitar-Horned Oryx, now extinct in the wild due (in part) to trophy hunting. 

In my part of the US, the spotlight species to trophy hunt is the whitetail deer. They are overpopulated, and hunting them could be considered essential to the balance of the ecosystem, since it seems they are only preyed upon by automobiles. But out in Africa, trophy hunting takes on a much more harmful role. Big African animals are aesthetically prized, and for many hunters, these majestic animals only have a place in the world if dead on their wall. Now, if all African game was as overpopulated as the white-tail deer, I would personally have no problem with trophy hunting these animals. However, many African species are Threatened, Endangered, or even Critically Endangered. The species most sought after for the challenge they present are called the Big Five: African elephants, black rhinoceros, cape buffaloes, African lions, and leopards. Just out of those five, elephants and lions are endangered, and the black rhino is CRITICALLY endangered (look for my next blog on them). That means that conservationists are struggling to keep these species extant, and are desperately fighting against habitat loss and poaching to save the species. And trophy hunting is added to the list on top of that too! How completely ridiculous and unnecessary,- this is how we lose species people.  

African lions are powerful predators, but no match for human weapons, and they could be lost forever. 

The specific incident I wanted to tell you about is of a female hunter who posted images online of her with African animals she killed, such as giraffes and lions. Mr. Gervais commented on her pictures, expressing how much he disagreed with the morality of her hunting. You can read a great summary of the whole story right here, and I think it's definitely worth a look.

How could I not put this GIF here? 

I know I've been a bit slow getting new posts up, but please keep checking back- I have a few in the works! As always, thank you all so much for reading!