Cecil

Now I hope that many of you have seen on the News that a lion called Cecil was shot and killed over a cause of a few days from the 1st July. This is clearly horrible news and something which most rationally thinking people believe should never happen.

Cecil was lured of the Hwange National Park but to local men before an American dentist who had payed £32000 shot him with a arrow and after 40hour finally killed him with a gun before Skinning and beheading the animal. The dentist claims to have believed  to be undertaking the hunt legally but Cecil was wearing a GPS collar and so it was clear that this lion wasn't a option to be hunted.

I know this is really sad news but I believe people need to look for the good in it. Cecils death has really brought forward hunting and conservation in everyone's mind. However the problem is we can't let it turn into a passing fad on social media, make his death worth something.

It's high profile events like this that conservation work actually needs to make people care, for instances the fifth last Northern White Rhino died a couple of days ago which means there are only 4 of these animals left in the entire world. Basically it's to late to save them but attempts are being made through the use of IVF. The fact is though I'm sure very few people have actually heard about this due it the lack of coverage by the media.

For conservation to work it needs the support of everyone and so please try to pay attention and simply share the message of conservation.

Thanks for reading

http://www.wildcru.org/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/11541074/Hunter-Rebecca-Francis-gets-death-threats-after-Ricky-Gervais-tweets-photo-of-her-with-dead-giraffe.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNCzSfv4hX8

Elephants

So I’ve got another animal post for you today. I’m sure you have all heard of this iconic animal and there is already a lot of conservation going on to help them, but some parts are being overlooked as other issues are focused on.

I want to talk about elephants today. African Elephants are the largest land mammal found on earth today and are the most recognisable species of elephants, followed by Asian elephants and then there are even subspecies of these like the Sumatran or Sri Lankan elephants. The Bornean pygmy elephant is also believed to be a separate subspecies as well but it is yet to be confirmed.

Elephants are famous for their ivory and it is well known that they are still illegally hunted for it which is then carved and used to produce ‘luxury’ products (that of course is in some people eyes).  Some people don’t know but basically a tusk is just a forward facing canine with absolutely no special properties at all. There was a large show in New York in June where 970kg of ‘blood ivory’ was destroyed in front of crowds to symbolise the vast majority of peoples view towards this product.

I however don’t want this post to focus on the illegal ivory trade, I’m not even planning on talking about wild elephants that much either. It’s the elephants which are used for work in places within Asia such as Thailand which I want to bring to your attention.

 Over the last couple of years many of my friends have been on gap years and a lot of them go traveling through Asia and of course you see pictures of their trips on facebook and Instagram. The majority of them have some form of interaction with elephants whether that is just a simple ride, washing them in rivers or watching them work in the forest moving logs around. They all look like amazing experiences however there are many problems beneath the surface which go overlooked by many.

Some of these elephants are born into captivity and so are brought up round humans this means that they are domesticated to a point. The problem comes however from the fact that the demand for elephants outweighs the numbers born into captivity, so there is an illegal trade of wild elephants being captured young for these jobs across Asia. Up to a couple of hundred wild elephants are illegally captured and sold into the tourist industry across Asia each year and this might not sound like a huge number but the estimated population of Asian elephants is only estimated at 4-5 thousand and they are classified as endangered.

Taking them from the wild is bad enough as inhumane traps are used to trap the leg of the animal or mothers are shot and the young are taken. But the cruelty doesn’t end there, the elephant then has to be broken in just like a horse but it’s nowhere near as nice. The actual term they use for this process if elephant ‘crushing’ which I’m sure you can tell from the name isn’t all that pleasant.

Elephant crushing involves beating the elephants with sticks and bullhooks and stabbing their feet which are extremely sensitive, they are also chained up in a way to cause sleep-deprivation and starved all to break their spirits so as to be submissive when used for work.

I know there isn’t all that much an individual is really able to do about this apart from boycotting elephants in areas where things such as animal welfare isn’t a high priority. So I’ve just written this in a hope to bring it to few more people’s attention as it has always been in the shadow of the illegal ivory trade.

There is lots of literature online with more in-depth information on the subject and number of petitions which you can sign to show you support.

https://www.change.org/p/government-of-thailand-stop-the-practice-of-crushing-torture-of-elephants-in-thailand

Thanks for reading

Check out these links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2s5ev0i8tM

This isn't the best of quality but is from an area in Borneo in which I took some the photos

seen in this post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKNRKGSvtsQ

Awesome Articles

I have a few more internet articles for everyone to check out. Hopefully you are all already regularly checking these websites now, so this is just in case you missed them.

This is a good one from the Netherlands about their roads, there was a report a few month back as well about how well a test had gone with a few solar cycle paths that have been put in around Amsterdam that is worth a read as well if you can find it.

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-netherlands-plans-to-pave-its-roads-with-recycled-plastic

This one comes with an amusing title but if you read the article you'll see that it makes a lot of sense and with the human population forever rising it's time to start thinking about what that means. The earths human carrying capacity (the number of humans it can support) is estimated to be around 10 billion. This is a number we are rapidly approaching, and as we draw closer to it more and more damage is being done to the earth.

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/could-pill-save-polar-bear

The final article is something I'm extremely interested in as it relates to amphibians but this knowledge could be spread across to help other extinct species. It's also pretty cool as I was in Newcastle University while a little bit of this work was going on.

http://www.sciencealert.com/watch-how-scientists-brought-an-extinct-species-back-to-life


Thanks for reading

Pets

Many of you will have pets whether that is the more common cats and dogs or something slightly more unusual like reptiles or insects. I for example have a snake and my family have recently got a new puppy. I have always grown up with dogs and they’re for me like many people a part of my life. But they do of course have an environmental cost.

Both cats and dogs are naturally carnivores and so they need meat as part of their diet, this isn’t a problem within its self but it’s the production of this food which causes the problems and with the number of pet owners constantly growing the demand is only getting larger. 

The UK in 2014 had 9 million dogs with 24% of households owning a dog and 7.9 million cats meaning 18% of UK households own a cat. These sorts of percentage of pet owners are common across the developed world and countless feral and stray cats and dogs are also found but not taken into account. This is an awful lot of animals which need feeding.

The point I’m trying to get across with this post isn’t the fact that everyone should get rid of their pets as I know for a fact I’d never be talked into that. But I want everyone to evaluate the type of food they feed their pet and see if it is the best option for both the animal and the environment.

In almost every case dry food is more environmentally friendly than the wet canned food for both cats and dogs, alone with the fact that the majority of them contain both less fats and sugars which are sometimes not appropriate for your pets diet. Dry food is usually more environmentally due to the fact it contains less animal based protein and more plant based material.

Of course you should consult an professional vet if you are considering a drastic change in your pets diet or have a trial period to see how your animals fairs. The fact is though it’s hard to say things like this in general as of course there are many different breeds of dogs and they all live different lifestyles. For instance a working dog on a farm will require more food in general compared to a family pet.

Another point I’d like to make about pets is you need to be responsible when it comes to breeding in general it’s better to get your pet spaded or neutered as if left fertile pets and especially cats as they go out on their own will breed and multiple rapidly. Also even if your cat for example is male it could be mixing with the feral population and increasing their numbers. Which just create more animals to feed and look after.

The final point I want to make is about cats and dogs and their effects on local wildlife. This goes for both pets and feral animals but they are decimating native animals across the world. For instance in Australia 75 million native animals are killed each night by feral cats. There has been a case of a single cat called Tibbles who over the course of a few nights killed the entire population of Stephen island wrens (in New Zealand) when a lighthouse keeper brought his cat with him. I guess there isn’t much you can do with this information simply don’t encourage your pet to hunt, but also understand that in some cases it is necessary to 

Thanks for reading

Check out these links 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOcx4447zjM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3o1iNx5wK0

Farming

Just a short post to bring these articles  to your attention

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/produce-worlds-first-underground-urban-farm-about-hit-shelves

http://www.sciencealert.com/these-underwater-biospheres-in-italy-could-be-the-farms-of-the-future

I think this is amazing as it  shows how far technologies have progressed, and what we are actually capable of doing.

I would hope that you have all tried to grow a few of your own veggies at home. Even if you don't have a large garden with a few pots or even a compost bag you'll be able to grow things such as runner beans and tomatoes. 

There is also a on going  movement called  guerilla gardening which is groups of people using bits of waste land to ground their own produce. There are many websites and blogs dedicated to this movement and you should defiantly check them out if you're keen.

Thanks for reading

I'll just throw this on the end as well

http://www.sciencealert.com/what-if-the-whole-world-suddenly-went-vegetarian

Aye-Aye

My last post, which was trying to expand your knowledge on the animals we share this planet with was about foxes, and of course everyone has heard of these and the majority of those 12 species populations are at least stable which is great. Other animals however are not so lucky; the next animal we’ll be looking into is called an Aye-Aye.  It is the only remaining

species which is part of the Daubentonia family.

Aye-Ayes have been on the IUCN Red List of Threatened species since 2006 and is classed as endangered. It is a species of lemur and so is endemic to the island of Madagascar which is found of the eastern coast of Africa. The Aye-Aye is found in extremely low densities throughout the islands eastern r

ainforest belt and in a few isolated regions in the dry forests found in the northwest and west of the island. It is estimated that the population is only 1,000 – 10,000 individuals, this is a rather large range in the population as the Aye-Aye is nocturnal and extremely timid and so conducting a population review is extremely difficult.

Although Aye Ayes are endangered their population numbers have climbed and stabilized in the last few decades since they were believed to have become extinct, they were rediscovered in 1957.  This was because for many years the locals believed that the Aye-Aye was a bad omen and was possessed by dark spirits and so were hunted to near extinction. Also they were struggling as they are only found in extremely low densities and so require large undamaged forests, which were being destroyed as hardwood was being removed.

Apart from humans the Aye-Aye has few natural predators with the only Fossa, a cat like nocturnal carnivore, being the only major threat to a fully grown adult, while birds and snakes are able to predate on the more vulnerable young.

The Aye-Aye is capable of breeding throughout the year and the gestation period lasts for 5 months. Once born the young remain in the nests for 7 months at which point it is weaned of its mother’s milk. It will still remain with the mother however for the next year and a half till it reaches 2 years old. The juvenile then sets of to establish their own territory, which in the case of males can be 100 – 200ha but these territories are likely to overlapped with other male territories.

The ring tail lemur is well known and can be seen throughout the world in Zoo’s and private collections but the Aye-Aye isn’t and this is a shame as it’s an amazing creature although some might say it isn’t as cute as some of the other lemurs. It is however the largest nocturnal primate in the world and are almost completely arboreal and so are rarely seen on the ground. They spend their days in nest which are made in the forks of tree branches and at night hunt for grubs which they are extremely well equipped to do.

The Aye-Aye possesses a specially modified digit, which is elongated and extremely thin, to tap tree bark in search of wood-boring grubs.  They listen to the reverberations from the tap to locate the burrows of these grubs and then use forward facing canines to strip away the bark and wood and impale the grub on their versatile digits. This method of foraging is known as percussive foraging and is almost unique to the Aye-Aye with the only other species known to employ this method being the striped possum. The remained of the An Aye-Ayes diet is made up of fruit, nuts, seeds and fungi all of which they forage for during their night time wandering which can be up to 4km  a night. This diet means that the Aye-Aye fills niche that in taken by woodpeckers in other parts of the world in Madagascar as they are not found on the island.

Thanks for reading 

Check out these videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw2DtZYJuiI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzF9RUUum4A

and a non-related video 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QUXUmgwXQw