Tag Archives: endangered living

life in the field: Borneo

September 1, 2013 Sarah Bell 2 Comments

Maybe you’ve read some past blog posts, or been following my journey, or maybe you just read the tagline at the top of my website, but I’m sure you’ve figured out that while I might be in Dallas, my heart lives in Indonesia. I will soon be pursuing a graduate degree at Oxford Brookes University to get my masters in Primate Conservation, which I will be talking about in my next ‘my journey’ post. But while perusing the Facebook page of my future school I came across this lovely blog titled “The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project” which talks about the animals of Borneo and life of a field researcher.

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O.A.P.

odd animal profile: maned wolf

August 22, 2013 Sarah Bell 6 Comments

Down in South America lives the maned wolf, and like the last OAP, it’s name is a little deceiving. The maned wolf is related to wolves, but only very distantly, it is actually much more closely related to the fox, even then it is the only animal in its genus. The maned wolf is an odd animal because of its odd appearance of a fox on stilts, and its unique temperament.

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News

olinguito

August 21, 2013 Sarah Bell Leave a comment

Hiding deep in the Andean Cloud Forests of Columbia and Ecuador was the little, brown, arboreal animal that avoided detection until very recently. The olinguito is the first carnivore discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years. For quite some time it was mislabeled in zoo’s and museums as an olingo, which looks fairly similar but tends to be about double the weight, but with a similar body structure. People simply believed it was just a small olingo.

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News

world orangutan day

August 19, 2013 Sarah Bell 2 Comments

Happy World Orangutan Day! A day especially for those fuzzy arboreal apes, orangutans! Orangutans are very special apes, they are the only arboreal ape and they are the only ape in found outside of Africa! The name orangutan is derived from the Malay words ‘orang’ and ‘hutan.’ ‘Orang’ means person and ‘hutan’ means forest, giving the orangutan the name person of the forest. These people of the forest are an incredible look into the evolution of humans, with their intelligent eyes and knack for gentle parenting, but unfortunately we are destroying their habitat at an alarming rate. 300 football fields worth of forest are cut down every single day in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Photo by WWF-Population: about 41,000 (Bornean), about 7,500 (Sumatran)

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News

tragedy at yasuni

August 16, 2013 Sarah Bell 1 Comment

Yasuni National Park in Ecuador has been dubbed the most diverse place in the world. The nearly 4,000 square miles are home to 150 species of amphibians, 121 species of reptiles, 382 species of fish, 596 species of birds, over 100,000 species of insects, and a number of un-contacted indigenous tribes. It comprises a mere 0.15% of the Amazon Basin but holds almost 1/3 of its amphibian and reptile species. This area is teeming with life, and yesterday, the government of Ecuador approved a plan to begin drilling for oil inside the boundaries of Yasuni National Park.

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News

Chocolate dipped death

August 14, 2013 Sarah Bell 7 Comments

Roughly 30,000 elephants are killed annually to fuel the abhorrent myth that ivory is a cure-all substance. It is believed to cure the common cold, hangovers, impotence and a variety of other illnesses. There is absolutely no medical proof that ivory has any medicinal properties what-so-ever. In fact, you might as well just chew your fingernails since you’d be eating the same stuff.

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Special Interest

Traps on the Serengeti capture endangered species

August 13, 2013 Sarah Bell Leave a comment

Normally this would be horrible news, but these traps are animal friendly. Are any traps animal friendly, you may ask? Well yes! Camera traps! 225 camera traps have been set up over 390 square miles in hopes to get a sense of how the Serengeti functions as an ecosystem without humans being present.

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O.A.P.

odd animal profile: sunda flying lemur

August 12, 2013 Sarah Bell 1 Comment

It’s not a lemur, and it doesn’t fly, so the name is a little misleading. But I bet you’ve never heard of it before! This little gliding animal is pretty rare and in fact, there’s not much known about them. They’re not a new species, people just don’t seem to concerned with learning more about this fuzzy little creature.

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News

mother Dana and baby Kea

August 11, 2013 Sarah Bell Leave a comment

I’m such an emotional sap. This brought tears to my eyes! But how could it not? It’s the miracle of birth seen in a completely new way. This captive Sumatran orangutan named Dana gave birth to a beautiful new baby girl, now why is this so fantastic? Well firstly because Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered, but secondly because it was the first ever orangutan birth caught on film so completely.

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O.A.P., Special Interest

a love for lions

August 10, 2013 Sarah Bell Leave a comment

Happy world lion day! While doing my routine daily scroll through National Geographic’s website I came across something new. Something titled The Serengeti Lion. This website is dedicated to photos, videos, and sound bytes from the Vumbi pride.