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!