Last month I was fortunate enough to be able to have the trip of a life time that started in the Peruvian Amazon and ended high in the Andes exploring Machu Picchu. Less fortunately I was struck quite ill from the experience. That, on top of general life things and a cross country road trip I’ve been less than active on Endangered Living. Continue reading Into the Amazon
Tag Archives: nature
Omo the White Giraffe
In 2015 an oddity was first spotted in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. A newborn giraffe was reported, and she was dubbed Omo by a park ranger. The reason that Omo caused such a stir in Tanzania is that she looks a bit different from the other giraffes she shares the park with. This is because Omo is leucistic. Continue reading Omo the White Giraffe
In Search of Dragons
We stepped off the boat and onto a dry, desert-like island, then walked on a rocky path until we reached two towering statues. These stone Komodo dragons guarded the entrance to the national park. Within minutes we spotted a troop of mischievous macaques, and one 7 foot long Komodo dragon sauntering across a dry marsh where the tide encroached during the wet season. Continue reading In Search of Dragons
Key Deer
So this is my first attempt at anything like this, but I am pretty proud of my first try. Not to mention I edited it on free software on my mother’s laptop while I was home for Christmas, so it could be a bit smoother. I also wish I had left out the bit about the dolphins. I was just so excited to have found them, but unfortunately they were a bit too far away. I wish you could have seen them!
I am probably going to re-edit this footage for something a bit smoother, but I am so excited to share the awesome footage I got of the endangered key deer! So here is a rough cut, I hope you hang on until the end (I know it’s long, I’ll shorten it, I promise) to meet a very special little lady.
hump day: cross dressers
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.
olinguito
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.
pura vida
Costa Rica’s motto is pura vida which means pure life. They have been ranked the third greenest country in the world time and time again by Yale’s Environmental Performance Index or EPI. When looking to travel through Costa Rica, eco-lodges and environmental tourist destinations are everywhere. The country has planted well over 5 million trees in the last five years, this previously third world country is now leading the environmental example for countries everywhere. While trying to uphold their green status the government has recently decided that the best way to experience wildlife is through national parks, where nature can be enjoyed naturally. This has lead to the closure of the two public zoos and the relocation of the residents to animal sanctuaries, where the native animals will hopefully be released back into the wild.
“non-human persons”
India is the fourth country to ban keeping cetaceans in captivity, behind Costa Rica, Hungary and Chile. Dolphins and other cetaceans have long been kept as a source of entertainment and guaranteed income in zoos and theme parks alike. But knowing what we know now about cetacean intelligence, is that really the right thing to do?
odd animal profile: binturong
The binturong, the malaysian bearcat, what ever you call it, it’s still one of my favorite animals. I vaguely remember hearing about the strange animals on some television show when I was young, but I never really knew anything about them until I began my internship at the Palm Beach Zoo. Behind the scenes of the Wild Things show lived the retired Scooter, a very old, very sweet binturong.
orphaned for a horn
In April a greater one-horned rhino called ‘Rhino 17’ was shot and killed for her horn. These stories are all to common across India and Africa as rhino poaching is on the rise across the globe as the demand for ground horn soars. This rhino was a little different, however, because she had a new born calf by her side as she was killed. Now although this little rhino’s story is not a happy one, it may not have to end in tragedy.
Endangered Living 