African Zoo poisoning its own lions
At The Lion Zoo in Ethiopia, Abyssinian lion cubs are being poisoned in order to sell them to taxidermists. Abyssinian lions are a very rare species, and are highly respected in Ethiopian culture. They are smaller than the average lion, and they have darker manes. The upkeep of the zoo costs $6,000 a year….and even that leaves a very low provisioned home for the animals it has. Despite the zoo being a popular site, it only makes about $5,000 a year from tourism. The only way they see to have enough money to take care of the animals they have is apparently to kill some of them….to me that doesn’t make too much sense. Especially when there are only an estimated 1000 of these lions left! While it is easy for me to sit here and criticize what the zookeepers are doing, it is hard to imagine what it would be like in that situation. The Lion Zoo is attempting to create awareness for these beautiful creatures so that people will respect them and keep them in the wild…but they don’t have enough money to do that. Of course the poisoning is monitored and is supposed to be painless, but it must really hurt the zookeepers to have to kill the animals that they raise and love. It really is a tragedy that this institution that is striving to educate the public has to harm their greatest teachers.
Image: www.wikimedia.org
Article: www.enn.com
Can’t get away from fragmentation
After all of our dicussions in class about fragmentation, it seems to keep popping up in the news. It just goes to show what an important issue it really is. The article I read happened to focus on the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. It immediately made me think of the movie Fern Gully. I watched it all the time when I was little, and ironically enough, watched it about a month ago with one of my friends. For those of you who haven’t seen it…I highly recommend it. It tells the story of a young man cutting down trees in a rainforest who comes into contact with the creatures of the forest, and they end up saving it! It has always made me ultra-sensitive to deforestation.
Rain forests are pretty timeless ecosystems, the trees can live for centuries.
Cutting downs trees that old would obviously cause a drastic change in an environment. No one expected the effects to be so severe so soon…but when you really think about it it makes complete sense. If the environment is used to staying stable with the same trees for centuries at a time, a small disturbance would cause a huge dilemma for every aspect of the ecosystem. Deforestation removes the staple element, leaving the animals and undergrowth plants without their source of protection, food, and habitat. So along with the destruction of the trees, other plants and animals are disappearing from the forests.
The specific problem in the article I read has to do with hot winds blowing into the forest, killing the trees that weren’t cut down. This kind of leaks into our discussions of edge effect, as much edges are being produced around the ecosystem, more damage is done. It really makes you realize the grand importance of trees as protectors and insulators of the forest. When you really think about it, we’re killing off one of the most diverse areas on Earth on account of rancing, farming, and industrial usage.
In my eyes, it’s definitely not worth it. We’re killing species that we don’t even know about, and they’re being replaced by the common species and pioneer plants. We’re putting ourselves a couple steps behind where we could be, if we only left the forests alone to be researched and preserved. Unfortunately there are no talking chipmunks and fairies to save our forests like in Fern Gully. This just means WE have to start doing our part before it’s too late.
Photos: www.wikimedia.org
Article: www.enn.com
If you think winter in Chicago is cold…
After reading Mr. McKinley’s post about temperature changes, I started wondering what causes an “ice age.” I’ve heard about the ice age Earth went through however many bagillion years ago, but I’ve never really understood what makes that happen or how long it lasted. It turns out there are a few theories as to what causes ice ages. One is continental drift. As most people know, the continents today are not situated the same as they were even a year ago. The continents continue to move every year, because they are made up on techtonic plates. The shift in plates causes mountain ranges, ocean depth and size, and variety of other terrain changes. In turn, these changes effect the atmosphere and can cause temperature and climate change around the globe potentially leading to an ice age.
Another theory for development of an ice age is the amount of iron in the ocean. That seems like such an arbitrary thing, but apparently it can cause a big change. But think of it this way….iron in the ocean would stimulate plant growth, which would pull more CO2 out of the atmosphere, which would cool down Earth! This is an example of how delicate our world really is. Alongside that theory, is the main idea that the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere alters the Earth’s climate. When there is more in the ocean, the planet cools off. When there is more in the atmosphere, the planet heats up…take global warming as an example. There are many other theories to what may cause ice ages including astronomical factors, asteroid impacts, etc. Thinking about a world covered in ice sheets makes January in Chicago seem like a tropical breeze….
Picture: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Inlandeis_Russels_Gletscher.JPG
Article: http://www.arctic.uoguelph.ca/cpe/environments/climate/climate_past/ice_cause.htm
A Response to Poaching
I earlier discussed the high amount of poaching that has been happening on Africa’s savannahs. The poachers were usually looking for ivory or animal skins to sell on the black market. Finally there has been some sort of response to this travesty. In Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, perhaps one of the most well-known parks in Africa, patrols are really going after poachers. There has actually been an increase in the population of many animals, including the black rhinoceros, elephants, and buffalo!
This is a great encouragement that patrolling the national parks can stop poachers, and that more people should be protecting these precious animals. These advancements are especially great for Serengeti, where animal populations had been decreasing since 1977. With a little work and time, hopefully the populations can reach their original number. Today there are 10 to 20 patrols a day, compared to the maybe 60 patrols a year in the 1980’s. The intensity of the poaching has been great, seen as how multiple poachers can be caught on a single patrol. Now that funds are being allocated to protection of wildlife, people can really make a difference. It will take hard work and consistency, but these patrols can save many endangered species from harmful poaching.
Picture:www.wikimedia.org
Article:www.enn.com
