Ramblings of Nature

Hi Everyone!

I was thinking about what to write about. I pondered with talking about the Tasmanian Devil (because it's endangered) but I will save that for another time. I haven't read many environmental books lately and projects to help the environment sound really cliche, or at least the ones I come up with. Rather, as the title suggests, I will simply reveal my musing on the subject of the environment.

Some people don't like nature. Or rather, they are not educated enough to know the truth and therefore, claim they don't like the environment. (If only they knew we wouldn't be living like we are today with the environment providing for us day and night). But, most people (at least somewhere in their hearts) like nature. They smile when they see wildlife, at least when they see the cute fuzzy animals and the intense breathtaking creatures like tigers and bears. However, it's how much people care about nature where the lines get hazy. People like it, they like what they get from it, but they aren't willing to do anything in return for mother nature. I simply don't understand it. How, how on earth, can people that claim to love nature, and still go along with the treacherous and evil acts that humans push upon the environment every day. Even if these 'nature lovers' don't support what is occurring to mother nature, they aren't doing anything to help her. It's like watching a bully beat up a kid for his lunch money and then say how awful it is, the bully should be punished. Well, you didn't do anything, so you are just as bad as the bully.

I'm not that great of an example for environmental lovers, but I try. Yes, I'm in high school and I have come to terms that my schedule does not permit me to really make a huge difference. I can make small differences in my community and possibly other communities but nothing major. But you see, I want to become a conservation biologist. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I think that's a good step for me to repay mother nature. Basically what I'm trying to say is if you love nature, do something to help it. If you, for whatever reason can't, simply refrain from saying I love the environment (because, in most cases, if you can't do the simple things to help, like recycling your plastics and newspapers, you do not have much respect of love for nature. Maybe that is harsh, however, it's, put simply, annoying to go throughout my life, especially in school, and be surrounded by people that like hiking, like the earth's creatures, like everything about nature but can't walk ten feet to put their bottles in the recycling.

What brought up this idea in my mind is the recent developments in the tar sands in Canada. They want to to  construct the Keystone XL, a 1,700 mile pipeline from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. First of all, tar sands are messy. Utilizing and processing tar sands is one of the dirtiest actions in all of the energy realm. It's terrible for the surrounding area, it destroys vast amounts of land and kills ecosystems. The pipeline will disrupt and probably destroy at least 1700 miles of United States land. The environment will be tainted, animals will lose their homes, be killed in the process, plants will be disturbed and trees cut down, water supplies will most likely become polluted from run off and direct pollution from the construction. The list goes on and on about why this is bad. There have been many rallies, protests, etc against this construction. People know it's affects, they know what it will cause yet the question is still up in the air whether it will be built. I was listening to a pro-keystone XL person on TV last night and I just wanted to scream at them and smack some sense into their head. He kept repeating how this will be a cheap way to get oil, how it won't do much harm, and more lies. To my astonishment, the State Department announced that this construction will NOT have a major environmental impact. What? Are you kidding me? It's one thing to want this (stupid) pipeline, it's another to blatantly lie! This, this is what annoys me every single day and it kills me to not be able to do anything.

But alas, I will cease my ramblings here, or else risk going on forever :)
Random picture time:

(baby Sumatran rhino) I think it's one of the cutest things ever

Baby Pygmy hippo

Slow Loris! (I actually got to see one the other day at a sanctuary)

I could just keeping going and going with all the amazing, cute and endangered species pictures. But, my point is, wouldn't you want to save the earth just to see these creatures living peacefully? I sure would.

I hope you enjoyed this nature chat.
Stay tuned for more,
KZ

Did you know, African Wild Dog's are ENDANGERED

Hi Everyone!

I have thinking about which species I was going to talk about today and I decided upon the African Wild dog. One reason I chose them was because I recently did a project on these amazing creatures, but I also want to talk about them because not many people know enough about them. I am a cheetah lover (it's always been my favorite animal) and I used to always research everything and anything about them, including where they live. Though the African Wild dog doesn't (usually) live in the same areas as Cheetah's because they both live in similar habitats I would learn small tid bits about them. I thought they were okay, I had the idea that they were aggressive and almost like hyenas (which are both false). But, I didn't know anything past that. Then, a month ago, I was looking through the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species and there the African Wild Dog was. What? That can't be, I thought they were so common. But alas, no. Their numbers have been small for many many years and they continually becoming less abundant. I also learned what truly intelligent and adorable creatures they are. So, here I begin (sorry if it is long, I have so much I want to share with you).

   

Their latin name means "painted wolf-like animal" and they are also called: Cape hunting dog, painted hunting dog, spotted African dog.

The Basics:

Height 2.5 to 5 feet

Weight: 40 to 75 pounds

Bushy tail with a white tip

Only four toes on the front feet (most canids have five)

Large rounded ears

Each dog has a unique coloration pattern

Yellow, black, white gray coloring

Used for identification because no two wild dogs are marked exactly the same

Great endurance and thin, muscular body,

Long legs

            Improves their speed (able to run 30 mph for over three miles)

Strong jaw and sharp teeth (second strongest biting force in the world)

Very good eyesight

They live about 11 years and in captivity 15

One litter per year (average of 10 pups)

This species used to live in sub-Saharan Africa. But now they are found in fragmented populations throughout southern and eastern Africa (the largest populations exist in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe)

They hunt in the dawn and dusk of the day and in groups. They are able to take down large prey and have a high success rate (often estimated at 70 to 90%) (impressive huh?) I won't go into detail with this (we would be here all day if I did) but the African Wild Dog has a "ceremony" before each hunt called the meet. Basically it is waking up the whole pack and getting them excited for hunting, then they run off together. They will most often hunt medium sized antelope species.

These dogs are highly sociable and can't exist alone. They live in packs ( average 5 to 15 dogs) and get along with each other very well: searching for a lost member for days, pacifying each other with actions (sometimes like those that domestic dogs do when they want food or a belly rub), and help the wounded members by feeding them and licking the wounds.

          Fun pack facts:

          All members of the same sex are related!

          Only the dominant female and male will breed

          If another female becomes pregnant, the alpha female may steal the pups to raise as her own

Random facts:

Though they are hunters, lions and the spotted hyena are their predators.

Chemical communication through scent marking is the most common way for the dogs to recognize pack boundaries

The hoot of a lost African wild dog can be heard by humans from as far away as 2.5 miles

They are nomads when it's not breeding season and their home ranges can be up to 3000 miles

The sad truth

Maybe I didn't do these amazing creatures justice, because if I were to go into full detail with all my facts, you wouldn't want to read it :) but these animals are important. They keep the populations and ecosystems in balance, they deserve to be here and isn't it impressive how they work together, how they hunt, how they live? If this creature can do that, imagine what else we can learn from them. They are endangered, and have been for years. This is in part due to a various number of diseases like Canine distemper. Habitat loss and human encroachment also hurts their populations, as well as, humans killing them (intentionally and accidentally).

The numbers:

3,000–5,500 free-ranging wild dogs remain in Africa and less than 2,500 are mature individuals

And only about 500 in captivity (zoos, private ownership)

 We need to change these numbers. Sadly, there aren't many ways to help right now, but people are trying more and more to save these creatures. In this project I was involved with, we formulated some ways to help, other than what has been put in place. I'm not going to list them, if you want to know more please just leave a comment and I will give you my email address. I do want to stress that the easiest way to help is simply telling people. Maybe you knew everything I just said or mabye you didn't even know such a canine existed, but now you do. So just pass one fact onto your friends or parents or teachers. The more people that know, the more that

care and the more that will help.

I hope you enjoyed this nature chat. Go search African Wild Dog pups (they are really cute)
Stay tuned for more,
KZ

 

Alas, where has the time gone

Hello Everyone!

I have been busy this summer, hence the reason for my lack of posts. First it was my volunteering. I dearily loved working at the national zoo but my, after my day I was tired. I love kids and the other odd assortment of people that filtered through the invertabrate house, but it was exhausting. So many questions, so many school groups with little kids, so many hot humid days. To be honest, when the days were slow we would make up invertabrate jokes.
What is the most romantic creature in this exhibit? the cuddlefish.
Why are our spiders so high tech? because they are web based spiders
And there are many more :)

And then, there was volunteering at the national aquarium. Even though it's in the bottom of the commerce buidling and I constantly get "there is a national aquarium in dc?" I love that place. I get to talk to kids about endangered species, answer all the visitors questions, bring out carts with shark teeth and jaws, with alligator purses (telling people it's wrong to buy this!), with snake skin and skulls. I get to stare at my favorite animals (the posion dart frogs, horn shark, octopus and loggerhead turtles) to my hearts content. I get to meet really amazing people (young and old) that impress me and teach me something. I could ramble on for days with how much I love that place.

Then there was Cornell. To put it simply I took a conversation biology course for three weeks at Cornell University. It was an eye opening expierence that made me want to pursue this career (teaching about and helping the environment) even more, which I didn't think possible.

And that brings me to my last, non fun non environmental task: college applications. This combined with all my summer homework, has bogged down my life since August 1st when the common application opened. Every second I don't have something to do I am in the library (as I am right now) working on my essays (which I am taking a break from with this blog). I blame this for my lack of writing. I mean, after writing all day and becoming overly frustrated with my inability to convey anything, I just don't even want to think about writing more :)

I will, my fellow environmentalists or just curious humans, write more soon. I have so many ideas for topics to discuss (rhinos, pygmy hippos, slow loris etc.) But right now I must bang my head against the table and try to bring to life my voice so that I can pursue my dreams in college :)

I hope you enjoyed this nature chat.
Stay tuned for more,
KZ