Live Luggage

Holy cow! Talk about living luggage...I seriously am so happy customs caught this! There were about sixty two RARE Malagasy tortoises that were seized from a foam-lined bag at the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International Airport this morning. A Malagasy national was the one trying to smuggle these poor animals from Antananarivo to Bangkok. Can you imagine being stuck in a bag with 60 other people? I know, it's probably impossible, but think about how those tortoise's felt! To read more about this topic, please visit Traffic to view the article. Have a great weekend and stay safe with this wintry weather! :)

Amur Leopard: Part II

In my last post I started talking about the beautiful and threatened Amur Leopard. I was looking at the World Wildlife Foundation page and came across this interesting article. Please visit this page and learn more about our endangered species!! WWF Amur Leopard
 
leopard pics

Cloning Animals?

Don't worry, it's not what you think! If it were me, I would think of a cloning process as somewhat painful. This is entirely different! In my environmental biology class, we were watching a video on endangered species and a woman that caught my attention started speaking. Betsy Dresser who works at a zoo with endangered species like the Amur Leopard is trying to save this beautiful animal by "cloning." When I say cloning, I mean the specialists like Betsy are taking eggs from female leopards and freezing them. Other scientiests have done this before and have been able to bring these eggs to life! An interesting, but random fact about the Amur Leopard...there are only thirty left in the world. Just let that sink in.

Amur Leopard - there are only 30 left!!!!

Leopard pic

Little Things Make A Big Difference

As you know, there are tons of endangered species. You have the tigers, elephants, polar bears, cheetahs, all of the big beautiful animals. Did you ever think about little animals like frogs or birds? I know I never thought about them. Recently, hundreds of species of frogs have become part of the endangered list, some of them are even extinct. Once some of these animals are gone, it will affect the whole environment. It would mess up a food chain, maybe plant growth too. Keep in mind that we aren't just protecting the animals that we find a personal attraction to, we are protecting the little ones that need our help.

One of the Most Polluted Places on Earth!

Have you ever been to a big city? If so, have you ever noticed all of the trash on the streets? It hurts me to see all of the garbage laid out everywhere. One of the most polluted places on the earth is Accra, capital of Ghana in Africa. Accra is home to an enormous dump site, Agbogbloshie, where you can dispose of your electronic waste. Things like televisions, toasters, and CD players are thrown together at this site. Agbogbloshie is also known for it's severely high environmental toxicity levels! Because of these levels, this dump site is ranked number ten out of the most polluted places on earth. Check out the photos from the dump site at this link! >> TakePart.com

What Can You Do?

There are hundreds of endangered species around the world, but that list can change within days! Either more animals appear on it, or some disappear because they have become extinct. What we want to see is the list decrease because we are doing something to help save them. The World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, has several ways you can help! A popular way to help is making donations. These donations can range from five dollars to hundreds of dollars. No matter what you give, you are apart of a program that is saving wild animals. Another way to help would be to adopt an animal. You actually don't receive the animal and have to raise it in your home, you are just checking in on it and giving donations. Once you adopt, you can choose to get several gift items like a framed picture of the animal you have adopted! I would love adopt sometime. Feel free to visit the WWF website.

More News On Elephant Poaching Crisis

Earlier this week, delegates from around the globe gathered to discuss the tremendous amount of elephant poaching that has been going on the past several years. All of the delegates decided unanimously on fourteen urgent measures to help handle this task. Most of the ideas for the measures came from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, who also helped host the meeting in Botswana. Seven countries of the thirty that were represented at the meeting have already signed up to be apart of the urgent measures agreement. Those seven countries include the United States, Botswana, Germany, Somalia, the United Kingdom, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The other twenty three countries are supposed to join this agreement by the end of the month. Other people and organizations have also signed up to help with this project, too! Elephants are a big part of our world. If we end up wiping out one species, it will affect us all. Just like with any other animal. I encourage you to read the rest of this article at Traffic!

                                                   
This is a picture of hundreds of elephant tusks collected from the ivory incident in Colorado.

What Are You?

Are you always bored on the job or maybe during your study hall at school? Here is a fun way to help pass the time! I normally have nothing to do 8th hour, so I decided to take this quiz sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund or WWF. You could end up being a monkey, tiger, elephant, anything! You only have to answer a few questions and submit your e-mail address so the WWF can send you more fun things like this quiz or just some information on our wonderful animals. Go on, check it! Just click on the link below and have a wonderful day. :)

WWF Quiz

Trash Not Cash

What do you normally do with all of your food scraps? Just toss them in the garbage can or down the garbage disposal? Instead, some people in Austria collect their food scraps and save them so they can have a meal! This restaurant will weigh your compost and convert it to how much it would normally be worth, then you could order something that would be the same price! I personally think this is a fantastic idea. This is a way to get people to recycle their food scraps and get a nice full meal out of it. I wish more restaurant would took up this idea. They wouldn't have to offer this everyday, but maybe like once a week they could do this so they are still making some kind of a profit. If you would like to read more about this article, please visit Compost Restaurant.

Gone, Gone, Gone...?

Most of you have heard about the six tons of ivory that was confiscated last month in Colorado, well just recently a group of people met to discuss the changes poaching like this will bring. In Gaborone, Botswana, Africa, delegates gathered to talk about the elephants that were killed over the past years. Statistics have shown that at the rate elephants are being killed, Africa is more than likely to lose a fifth of it's elephants in the next ten years. All of these elephants have been ILLEGALLY killed. Thousands are gone within a year, what is going to happen in ten years? Oh, yeah...Africa will lose a fifth of their elephants. If we don't do something to stop these poachers, these innocent elephants will be gone before we realize it. I understand that there are tons of organizations doing the best they can to prevent poachers, but it's just not enough. If you would like to read more about this article, please visit Traffic.
                                             
picture from google

Rethink Christmas

Yesterday at my church, our sermon was based off of this new thing called 'Rethink Christmas.' It was about how all of us spend billions of dollars each year around Christmas time. You'd be surprised what we all spend money on. During the video we watched before the sermon, it said that we spend more money on wrapping paper than the actual gift! What the video was trying to tell us was that we could be saving our money or putting that money towards important things. For example, hundreds of families will be hungry this holiday season, why not donate your money to Feeding America or another organization? Christmas time isn't about buying the best gifts, it's about spending time with your family and being thankful for what you already have. The true meaning of Christmas has slipped most of our minds. This year, try and think about what else you could have done with that gift you'll care about for three months then want nothing to do with it later.

If you're interested in learning more about this, visit Rethink Christmas.
Picture from google

Anything Can Help

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you already know that I have been receiving e-mails from WWF and TakePart. An e-mail I got from WWF was about supporting the penguins in Antarctica! The penguin used to be my favorite animal, so I've always been kind of interested in them. Basically, the message said that the sea ice in the Arctic is melting at rates higher than the global average. When this ice melts, it takes away their homes, opportunities to catch food, and it also creates a higher water level. Once the WWF does research on certain species or conditions like the ice melting and how it affects the penguins, they normally advertise about it and ask people to donate. What the WWF does to receive donations, they normally offer a 'thank you' gift of some sort. For example, they may offer you a calendar with different animals on it or a free t-shirt! In the e-mail, WWF asked for people to make a +$25 donation and they could receive a key chain or calendar. All in all, it's important to try to protect our environment and our animals. Making donations is what keeps these foundations and organizations going!

Deadly Winter Storm

In the beginning, this blog was intended for illegal animal trade things only. I have now realized that hundreds of other things relate to illegal animal trading or poaching. Weather is a big factor on this topic which is why I do a little bit of both subjects! Now that I have finished explaining myself, I'll explain the big storm that has hit the United States. It has been about five days since this storm hit California and it is now heading towards the East coast. So far this storm has taken eight lives and unfortunately, maybe more. There has been inches of snow all over the Western side of the country! Once this storm hits the Gulf of Mexico, it will bring inches of rain instead of snow. Since it's winter, I honestly would prefer snow over rain. If it's going to be cold out, it might as well bring a pretty white blanket of snow, right? With this rain comes warnings of flash flooding across several states. To top this giant storm, there is going to be a lot of wind as well! Sounds like this winter is going to be a rough one. Better gear up for the next couple of months!

I got my information at Yahoo

The Sierra Club

A couple of weeks ago, I did a project on The Sierra Club. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with The Sierra Club, but it is an organization that deals with environmental issues. For example, one of their on-going projects is about restoring and conserving our natural water sources like rivers and streams. In case you haven't noticed, everything leads back to our environment. Where do we get some of our power from? The earth. Where do we get our food from? The earth. Are you catching on now? If we don't protect our environment, we won't have anything! If you think about it, we are all part of a giant chain reaction. Our environment provides us with resources, animals eat the resources, we eat the animals, and then it starts all over again. When I say, "we eat the animals," I mean animals like deer and cows, not tigers and monkeys! The main point of The Sierra Club is to reduce our need for resources like coal so when we run out, we won't be "stuck." Burning fuels like coal also pollutes our air which is another reason why The Sierra Club is an important organization! What do you think it going to happen to our earth in the next fifty years?

This Isn't Usual...

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you probably know that I live in Illinois. My state is normally the butt of a lot of jokes, but I found this pretty cool! Recently, there was a cougar spotted in Morrison, IL. It was a pretty large cougar too! I believe it was around 100 pounds and about five and a half feet in length. Unfortunately, whoever it was decided to euthanize this animal. In other words, they killed it. I understand the whole safety issue, but they could have a least tranquilizer it first. It wasn't causing any harm as far as I know, so why shoot it? Things like this aggravate me. When I hard about this, I wasn't too happy! Hopefully in the future, our departments that deal with this kind of issue will make a better choice next time. 

Pushing To Stop Trade!

September of this year (2013), Beijing officials beat a drum to show that they are fully against illegal wildlife trade. Illegal poaching and trading is a big issue in the China area so this was a big thing! When people see that "higher ranked" people are against issues like this, it makes them think that it's wrong too. It's just like seeing your favorite celebrity rocking a certain style, wouldn't that make you want to be fashionable like them? Maybe not...but hopefully you get what I'm trying to say. From the looks of things, it seems like more and more people are starting to recognize the issues at hand. With the help of officials like the ones in Beijing, we can stop illegal wildlife trade permanently faster than expected! I got my information at traffic.org, maybe you want to check it out too! The article really shows the support the officials have for the issue.

Traffic Wildlife Trade                         

Might Want To Hurry

As you know, our climate is changing. This affects our land forms and boundaries. Since I have been receiving e-mails from TakePart, I've been informed on some things I should do or visit before they are gone! One of the things I found interesting was the list of places to go see before climate change sets in. If you are looking for anywhere to vacation this year, you may want to check this list out! Not only does it inform you of the beautiful landscapes and landmarks, it also lets you know that we need to change something if we want to keep this things here. Below is this link to the website. Please, do yourself a favor and check it out!!

TakePart link

Sunday Not-So-Funday

Living in Illinois, you never know what the weather is going to be like. It's pretty unpredictable! In case you haven't been checking the news, Illinois was hit hard by several tornadoes. Unfortunately, a few towns within 50 miles from my home were destroyed. Gifford, IL was one of the poor victims of this tragedy. Where was I during this storm? Stranded with my mom in our car along the interstate, trying not to get crushed by a blown over semi or get spun around from the wind. The wind wasn't the only problem, there was very heavy rain with hail estimated to be the size of golf balls! There were some awful conditions. After experiencing this storm, I hope people start to realize that these storms are getting bigger. Why are they getting bigger, you may ask? The temperature is rising causing more cold fronts to mix with warm fronts which creates bigger and more dangerous storms. I hate to say this, but we don't realize the destruction storms can cause unless they actually occur! Storms are getting bigger and we need to get smarter. All of us need to be aware of disasters that can strike at anytime.

Have You Heard?!

Surprisingly, I just heard about this yesterday! Once again, here is more news on  illegal trading. In case you haven't heard, I'll sum it all up for you.

The other day near Denver, CO., The Fish and Wildlife Service destroyed over SIX tons of ivory tusks, carvings, and jewelry. Where did this ivory come from? Elephants! All of this ivory came from the past 25 years of killing thousands of elephants. They piled up all of the ivory material and put it in a pyramid-shaped figure, then crushed it at the National Wildlife Property Repository north of Denver. The Fish and Wildlife Service plans on donating the remains to an undetermined museum. Along with this information, there was also a statement saying that elephant poaching is at an all-time high! Someone estimated that there were 32,000 elephants killed just last year and the ivory sells for $1,300 per pound.

As you can see, poaching and trading is still an on-going issue that will take more than a few people to put a stop to. Like I've been saying, it only takes a minute to take a stand to trading. On some of my previous posts, I have inserted several links to where you can "pledge" or sign up to help stop trading! I got my information on this post from Yahoo News. I encourage you to go check out the full article!

Waiting Until The Last Moment

Have any of you ever realized that we wait until the last moment to take action on something? I have, because I have been guilty of waiting myself! To be more specific on what I'm trying to say, I'm talking about how no one really notices the issues our world has until something drastic happens. People didn't realize that we have a hole in the ozone layer until cancer was everywhere. I lost my papaw to melanoma in 2010, which is skin cancer, so I did research on the ozone layer. Do we understand that we are the cause of almost everything? We put that hole in the ozone layer which lets powerful and dangerous sun rays into our atmosphere. What do those sun rays do? Cause cancer, just like melanoma.Yes, we have done some things to help our world, but has it been enough? We all need to keep in mind that whatever we are doing now, our children and grandchildren will have to deal with eventually. Like I said earlier, whether the children of our future have to deal with rising temperatures or not being able to see a polar bear or tiger, we are the cause of almost all of our problems. Before it's too late, I suggest we all start to realize what we are doing to our earth.

Just A Little Information...

I hope you all are enjoying your Saturday! This morning after practice, I was checking my e-mail and came across something. It was an e-mail from an organization I recently became a part of, known as TakePart. The message offered me several links that I could go to and this one caught my eye! Relating to Al Gore's movie that my EVB class just watched, this seemed perfect. I encourage you all to take a look at this article! If you happen to view the article, you might as well join TakePart and take action. :)

TakePart Article

Talking More About My Last Post...

In my last blog post, I talked about how the environment can affect our animal speices life dependancy and how my environmental biology class has really impacted me. We recently just finished watching Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth" and our class had a brilliant discussion about it. If you have watched the movie, you probably noticed that the credits after the last scene weren't just your average "credits." Instead of the ongoing list of producers and directors, this contained inspirational and informational phrases of things you can do to help save our planet. Honestly, if you have never seen this video, I strongly recommend you go watch it. It can really open your eyes to the problems we are facing. Listed below is the link to a webiste called Climate Crisis where you can go and sign up or pledge to help. I did, will you?

Climate Crisis

Curious About Endangered Species?

Do you ever think about what animals could possibly become extinct in our life time? There are animals fighting every moment for their life, some more than others! If you put some thought to it, do you realize that our children may not ever get to see a certain species? One day our kids might be learning about the extinct  polar bear in their science class. Or maybe the extinct  rhino? Poaching and trading aren't the only things causing these animals to decrease in population size. Pollution and global warming have a lot to do with this too! At the rate we are going, Antarctica and Greenland may be gone within 50-75 years which means very little to no polar bears will be left. If everyone could just change something small in their everyday lives, we might be able to cause a chain reaction of some sort. In case you are interested, here is a list of the 2013 Endangered Species.

Endangered Species List

What Got Me Interested

There have been a few reasons as to why I chose this for my blog. The start of this year, I was enrolled in an environmental biology course. It has opened up my mind and shown me what really happens in the real world. At first, I didn't want to be in there. The only reason I had to take that class was because I signed up for astronomy and apparently it's only a semester class. When the current semester comes to an end, I will be pretty sad to leave my class. EVB has impacted me in more ways than anyone could ever imagine! If your school or college offers that class, I recommend you take it. You won't regret it! Unless you aren't into science like I am...We watch several videos and one really stuck out to me. It was the "Planet in Peril" with Anderson Cooper. He traveled around the world and introduced my class to several scenarios such as illegal animal trading, restaurants that offered tiger paw as a main course, and so on and so forth. Once again, I encourage you to take a course like environmental biology. Check out the "Planet in Peril" video too if you can!

Trading Isn't The Only Problem

In the past seven years, the percentage for poaching animals has gone up tremendously! Thanks to the information I found at WWF, I learned that the rhino population has decreased dramatically thanks to poachers. Poaching can definitely lead to trading these poor animals, of course. Rhinos aren't the only animals that have been targeted recently, buffalo and lions are also a popular choice for hunters. Buffalo, also known as bison, are killed and traded for their meat, skin/fur, and horns. Lions are killed and traded for the skin/fur and meat as well. Different organizations have set aside reserves, or areas of land, for wild animals to roam and normal people aren't allowed in those reserves. The only ones allowed inside some of those reserves would be the "park rangers" if that's what you would call them. Poachers and traders try to lure these animals out of their reserves by placing traps with food in them. All in all, poaching and trading fall under the many, many problems in our world.

Animals Have Rights Too!!

One thing I don't and probably won't ever understand is why people think animals are just...animals. What if we did to humans what we did to animals? There would be quite a few people locked up, charged with some sort of assault or battery. Maybe even murder if it comes down to it. Some of us are surrounded by animal cruelty all the time and do NOTHING about it. On occasion, you will have that special someone who takes a stand to this issue. Then, there are those people who are afraid to stand up for what they believe is right. Unfortunately, I used to be one of the many people who didn't do anything about it. Now? I'm a completely different person who isn't afraid to say something to a stranger. To learn more about animal rights, please visit the Humane Research website. You never know what is happening in your neighbor's backyard.

Want Daily Updates?

I was recently searching the Internet for some useful sources for my blog, and I came across this little gem! As I was reading through, I found some pretty interesting articles or segments on trafficking animals. One that was published a few days ago was about people trying to smuggle tortoises and freshwater turtles into their markets or homes! I'm not sure how someone can voluntarily harm or take an animal away from their habitat. Not to mention the actions they are taking are illegal...Anyway, if you are interested in knowing the most recent news on this sort of thing, please visit www.traffic.org for more details!

Want to take action?

Some people want to do something about this, but just don't know how! What people don't realize, is that every little thing can help. I used to be one of those people, so don't worry. I've realized that there are tons of different things we all can do to help! One of those things would be visiting websites like IFAW or www.wcs.org to sign up, pledge, or donate your time and money. Don't stop because you notice the words 'donate your money,' because that isn't always the case. Most of the time, you can send in an opinion of yours or a thank you note to those that have been working to help fight this matter. So, go on! Check it out, I promise it will be worth your time. :)

My intentions for this blog

When you look through this blog, I hope it makes you all aware about what exactly is happening to some of our animal species. Everyday, hundreds of animals are being taken from their natural habitat and killed or sold for their meat, teeth, etc. It's so awful! As you read some of the posts I will be publishing later, I want you all to realize that when people take away animals from their environment, it affects everyone and everything! If you are an animal lover like me and would like to try and put a stop to these horrendous acts, I encourage you to check my blog out weekly!

A little bit about me...

Hey there, stranger! To start things off, my name is Madelyn Budd, but everyone calls me Madie. I am currently a student at Arcola High School, a little town in Illinois. When I'm not scrolling through twitter or in the kitchen eating, I'm playing sports. I play several different sports, but volleyball is my favorite. Picturing my future right now, I plan to be at a university studying something to do with the environment and business. If I'm lucky, I could be playing volleyball as well! If you have any other questions about me, feel free to email me at madiebudd98@gmail.com.