Well we’ve made it another year; tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday, the sunday where everyone laments that the following monday is not a holiday and the day where many large, burly men run into each other until they’re too concussed to know which way is up. But it’s also the time of the year for America to rely on some odd animals to pick the results of the super bowl, and I must say, they all seem to be leaning in the same direction.
I am very excited to announce Endangered Living’s first video in our new video blog series “Videos About Your Wild World.” I have been wanting to branch into video blogging for a while now, but I wasn’t quite sure which route to take. This is a short educational video that focuses on bumble dart frogs, a species of South American poison dart frog.
Hopeful within the coming weeks I will get the chance to add some sound and a better title/introduction. But for now, I am proud of my self seeing as I had to learn a whole new version of Final Cut to make this video. I promise if you stick around the videos will only get better in quality from here on out.
Look at that! Dr. Carin Bondar’s name fits perfectly in my title! Not to mention it’s always fun to start off a post with an alliteration, they’re just so catchy, aren’t they! Well it’s been a little while since I featured a fabulous female scientist (there I go again!) and Dr. Bondar has been keeping me entertained on almost every facet of social media this past month. Whether it’s her quirky YouTube videos, her sarcastic Tweets or her down right adorable Instagram feed, she is always up to something entertaining! So lets take the time to honor this science queen and get to know a little more about her.
By now everyone has seen the memorable reuniting of Christian the lion and his two former owners John Rendall and Anthony Bourk. It has been making its round on the social media circuit for several years, but what do we know of Christian’s story beyond he lived in London for some time before being moved to Kenya to live a free life among other lions. But first, if you haven’t seen the clip that made Christian famous, check it out.
Today is the age of social media. News papers and magazines are dying and people are now getting their information from places like Facebook, Twitter or… hey! even blogs like this one! Well, besides from online news sources like National Geographic or Science Daily who should you be following to get your daily dose of science? Well, lets take a look at a few of my favorite places gain some serious knowledge.
Woah, woah, woah! What is this? A hump day post? Well, you see, every day when I go online and check my stats I see that ‘dolphins and rape’ always without fail has seen activity, even though it is one of my older posts. So let’s see if cross dressing animals can catch your attention the way my previous hump day posts have.
I am so excited to finally announce that I will be spending three magnificent weeks in Sierra Leon observing chimpanzees this summer. It has been a while since I published a personal post, since I have been waiting to hear back from a few different institutions regarding my future in primatology. But now that I am pumped full of excitement and vaccines, I think that it is safe to share a little bit about the Tonkolili Chimpanzee Project in the Tonkolili District of Sierra Leon in Western Africa.
I have been working on an independent project where I have been evaluating a series of protected areas around the world that are home to a variety of species of primates. I am doing so to evaluate what exactly is going wrong in these parks in comparison to some protected areas that are not overrun with illegal hunting, logging and development. One of the ‘parks in peril’ that I am examining is the Aceh Protected Forest. This forest is in Indonesia on the island of Sumatra which is being degraded at an alarming rate. Take a look at some of the information I’ve found:
I know that my posting frequency has drastically declined, but thank you guys all for hanging in there with me. I’m hurtling headlong into my last semester of undergrad and it’s been exhausting. As you may know I will be graduating a year early and will be heading off to Oxford for postgrad studies this coming fall, but there is still a lot to do in between now and then.
But between applying for graduation, preparing for my upcoming trek to Africa, dealing with some seriously stressful personal things (some people, you know?!), and getting ready to move overseas I am one busy girl. Hopefully over this winter break I will have more time to spend on here and share in detail all of the exciting things that are happening not just in my life but in the science and conservation world (we’re talking evolution/creationism battles, IUCN red list additions, national parks in peril, and maybe even the return of the ‘happy hump day’ weekly post). But I’m heading into finals week and I am seriously behind, the woes of being a professional procrastinator. So.. Hopefully you’ll hang on just a bit longer! Until next time loyal anthrojunkies
The article “Historic U.S. Ivory Crush a Call to Global Action” is a well written article that examines what is wrong with society and the flaws in trying to end the ivory trade. It even sums up with a nice little analogy from earlier in the article. I’ll link it here for you all to read. But that is besides the point. The burn on the ivory trade is that the U.S. has just destroyed six tons of seized ivory in a public display of defiance of the slaughter of these animals.
Endangered Living 