October 12, 2008 at 8:43 pm (working together)
Nature's Crusaders
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed people can change the world: indeed it’s the only thing that ever has!”
- Margaret Meade
“Our task must be to free ourselves widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” - Albert Einstein
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”- the Beatles
Check out our new envir-store at Nature’s Crusaders.com
November 11, 2009 at 4:39 am (animal movements, animals, animals in crisis, beauty of nature, ecosystems in crisis, endangered/threatened animals, mammals)
Tags: animals, oceans, saving endangered animals & plants, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
For his tireless efforts to end cruelty against dolphins and educate the world about the plight of dolphins in captivity, Among Richard O’Barry most outstanding achievements in recent years are the rescue and release of captive dolphins in Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil, Nicaragua and Haiti. The significance of his work has been further highlighted with the award-winning film documentary The Cove, which features his efforts to expose and stop the slaughter of dolphins in Japan.Award for a lifetime of saving dolphins
Dolphins leaping for joy
Campaign Director Richard O’Barry of the Save Japan Dolphins Coalition, was named the winner of the Lifetime AchievementAward presented by The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
ASPCA honors those who have demonstrated extraordinary compassion, bravery and commitment to furthering the human-animal bond.
Richard O’Barry wins ASPCA Lifetime Achievement Award
Richard, Congratulations and thanks from us all for your continued dedication to making this world safe for all of us big and small.
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of Save the Japanese Dolphin.org
Image courtesy of hddesktopwallpaper.com/animals-wallpapers/marine/dolphins-playing.html
Image courtesy of http://bit.ly/1Q7GPP
November 11, 2009 at 1:31 am (Helping out, animal movements, animals and their food, animals in crisis, beauty of nature, endangered/threatened animals, good news, mammals, working together)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
In Namibia, Africa at the Cheetah Conservation Fund recently received another urgent call from a livestock farmer in the area. This might be the animal that has been taking his sheep. He has found an older female cheetah with two cubs, a male and female on his property. CCF went immediately to retrieve the cheetahs.
Rescued cheetah cub gets medical exam
After thanking the farmer for not shooting the mother, but calling CCF, the cheetahs were taken to the Cheetah Conservation Center. The cubs got a clean bill of health, but mama had a broken toe and a broken canine tooth these physical problems were causing her lots of pain and impairing her hunting ability. That is why she was hunting the farmers stock. After an operation on her toe and a visit to the dentist, mama is much better. Hopefully, she will be able to return to the wild with her cubs soon.
Working together with the farmers
Through the tireless efforts of CCF with the community over the past 30 years, this farmer did not just react and shoot the mother cheetah when he first came upon her, but called CCF instead.
Cheetah Conservation Fund has learned through research that if cheetahs prey on livestock as this mother was doing, the cheetahs are disabled in some way either medical or behavioral problem. If CCF can intervene and resolve the problem with immediate medical care the situation can often be reversed, thus reducing the farmers’ losses and providing a way forward for the endangered cheetahs.
CCF continues working with farmers to improve their education of the habits of the cheetah and works hard to find new avenues of support for the local farmers. This two- fold approach increases the chances for the long-term co-existence of man and cheetah in Namibia.
Please run to send your support for CCF. It set the gold standard bar very high for educating the community about the need to respect and saves all animals especially the cheetah from extinction, but has improved the livelihood of the community in which they live.
Please click here to save the extremely endangered cheetah.
If you haven’t already, please help CCF win the BBC World Challenge. Click here for more information.
Please visit www.theworldchallenge.co.uk and choose “No Beating About the Bush”. Voting ends on November 13th!!
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of www.cheetah.org
Image courtesy of www.cheetah.org
November 7, 2009 at 9:45 pm (Environmental crisis, animals in crisis, atmosphere/sky, global warming, good enviro news, save the planet, soils, trees, working together)
Youth working together creating a better world
It is so easy to complain about a problem, but Future Forest, in partnership with the All China Youth Federation, are tackling a health problem plaguing the Far East.
These groups will reforest Inner Mongolia’s Kubuqi Desert, 600 kilometres (370 miles) west of Beijing, the world’s seventh largest.
Sharing the earth at the pollutants
Why is this so important?
The trees will decrease the amount of toxic particulates and “Yellow dust” that blows around when there are no trees to trap moisture and convert it into needed oxygen for us to breathe. The Trees also will create top soil and its roots will keep top soil in place. Reforesting can create more places for wildlife to thrive and help decrease China’s carbon footprint.
The “Yellow dust” can cause or exacerbate existing respiratory problems and endanger their lives. The dust contains dioxins and heavy metals like copper, cadmium and lead absorbed into the dust clouds as they travel across the polluted industrial areas of northern China.
Schools in South Korea and Japan close in the wake of the toxic clouds arrival and residents are advised to stay indoors or wear masks when venturing outside. Even when settled and not blowing around, the dust settles over everything and everybody; cleanup will aggrevate the breathing problems. The “Yellow dust” disrupt the work, outdoor event, plane flight schedules and life in general.
Korea and Japan are bracing for a possible record “Yellow dust” season due to the lack snowfall during the past winter in Mongolia and north-central China due to Global Warming. This left the sand far looser than in previous years, allowing winds to more easily lift it into the atmosphere.
Who is funding the reforestation?
The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project. It will invest 50 million won (42,000 dollars) in the planting project to purchase and plant some 72,000 poplar and desert willow trees.
Desert poplar
Desert willow
Here is a video showing the intensity of the “Yellow dust”. Click here
Thanks everyone that is helping reforest the Gobi. You will make the earth a healthier place for us all. -Mother Nature
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of Terradaily.com/report/ SKoreatoplanttreesinChinatoreduceyellowdust
Excerpts courtesy of http://www.earthweek.com/online/ew070413/ew070413c.jpg
Image (left) courtesy of http://www.earthweek.com/online/ew070413/ew070413c.jpg
Image (right) courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Tarim_river.jpg
Image courtesy of
Video courtesy of Youtube.com
November 5, 2009 at 8:16 am (beauty of nature, ecosystems in crisis, endangered/threatened animals, good news, reptile, turtles, working together)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving the biodiversity of planet, turtles, wildlife, working together
Endangered Sea turtles can get pneumonia or be injured in accidents like humans.
How do they get pneumonia and where can a turtle find a doctor to help nurse it back to health?
Being cold-blooded marine animals, sea turtles are unable to regulate their body’s temperature,
If the water or land temperature gets cold as it did for these Kemp’s Ridley turtles their body temperature could not adjust. When
Two Kemp's Ridley sea turtles saved
the water temperature dropped too low, they went into shock. n that weakened physiological state, the turtle’s immune system was unable to protect the turtle’s lungs from infection and the two turtles developed pneumonia.
In that weakened physiological state, the turtle’s immune system was unable to protect the turtle’s lungs from the infection vets must be called in to help.
The loggerhead was a victim of a traumatic injury to its shell or carapce caused by a bite or being run over and sliced by a boat or a jet ski. Boating and fishing nets account for most sea turtle deaths,
The lucky ones
This week 3 very lucky turtles one loggerhead and two Kemp’s Ridley sea turtleswere flown on an Angel Flight from the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine to the Mount Pleasant Regional Airport. Then they were taken to the South Carolina Aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital. Here the loggerhead with the trauma injury to his shell will stay and have its’ wounds tended to. The two Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles with pneumonia will spent a short while there. After treatment they will be taken to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island to make a full recover before being released next year.
Other good news for turtles
Eighty two beautiful baby green sea turtles were born October 5, 2009 at Sea World in San Diego, California USA. The proud parents have been residents of the Sea World park for more than thirty years. Marine experts at the park discovered the new hatchlings and to everyones delight baby turtles continued to hatch for almost two weeks, officials said.
It is the first time eggs have hatched in the open without putting the eggs in an incubator. Now they are about 3 inches (7.5 cm) in lengthand eat a diet rich in squid, krill, shrimp and special turtle pellets.
Making a difference by helping each other -one person or animal at a time
There are many kind and dedicated individuals, families, groups, organizations and businesses working to save the endangered sea turtles from extinction. When we work together we do make the world a healthier, safer place for all of us.
Thanks everyone.-Mother Nature
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of http://www.macon.com/220/story/901567.html
Excerpts courtesy of http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/sea-turtles-born-at-sea-world.html
Images courtesy of Nature’s Crusaders library
Image courtesy of http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/sea-turtles-born-at-sea-world.html and
Photo: Sea turtles that hatched recently at SeaWorld in San Diego. Credit: SeaWorld
November 4, 2009 at 7:44 am (Helping out, animals in crisis, beauty of nature, endangered/threatened animals, mammals, save the planet, working together)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
An abandoned cheetah cub has stolen the heart of the world’s fastest man. Lightening Bolt is one of three cheetah cubs abandoned by their mother on a Kenya wildlife refuge. Usain Bolt played pappa to a fuzzy headed young male cub at an animal orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. Cheetahs are the fastest land animal and are endangered around the world.
Getting involved to protect wildlife
Usain Bolt adopted this cub by paying $13,700 and promising to continue sending $3,000 a year to support Lightening Bolt.
Bolt and Colin Jackson, the former 110-meter hurdles Olympic champion both adopted animals during their visit. Colin adopted a two-year-old eland, the largest of the antelope species.
The adoption fees will go to the Kenya Wildlife Service, and some will be used to protect Kenya’s endangered species, explained KWS director Julius Kipngetich.
Mr Zeitz, the chief executive of Puma, who was launching a charity campaign to preserve ecosystems.
Lighting Bolt is among three cubs rescued by KWS officials after their mother abandoned them in a game park. Kenyan wildlife is threatened by trophy hunting, poaching, climate change and decreasing habitat.
Will you help save a cheetah? Click here. Cheetah.org
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport
Image courtesy of timesonline.co.uk/6900671.ece and Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty
November 2, 2009 at 10:21 pm (Environmental crisis, animal rights, animals in crisis, beauty of nature, ecosystems in crisis, endangered/threatened animals, good news, mammals, working together)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving our environment, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
Illegal endangered wild cat trade near and far
In China two tigers were caught by capital city police in a taxi this past week! Is there something wong with this picture? After the tigers were confiscated, five people were arrested for suspected involvement in the illegal transport last week.
The appauling trade in tiger and other cat parts.
In Denver, Colorado two people received a 15-count felony indictment charging them with conspiracy, wildlife trafficking and firearms violations for the illegal trapping, killing and selling of bobcats and their pelts. Bobcats, whether alive or dead, are considered wildlife under both the Lacey Act and Colorado law.
November 2006 until March 2008, Bodnar and Anderson-Bodnar conspired to knowingly transport and sell bobcat and bobcat pelts in interstate commerce that were unlawfully trapped and killed without a license and using prohibited leghold traps in violation of state law. The two also conspired to knowingly submit false records and accounts of how the bobcats were trapped for tagging by Colorado wildlife officials.
In Vietnam, less than 50 tigers are left in their natural habitat. Tiger skin, teeth, meat and bones fetch high prices on the black market here.
In India. the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a British-based organisation, showed photos it said were taken by a spy camera revealing the ‘rampant’ sale of tiger and white leopard skins, bones and claws in retail stores sold in China are smuggled from India via Nepal and the lack of enforcement of a ban on the trade is hobbling efforts by New Delhi to save the animal, it said.
Tigers attract huge sums of money in China and elsewhere in Asia, with their body parts used in traditional medicines and aphrodisiacs while their skins are used for furniture and decoration.
Tiger trade is prohibited internationally and also is banned domestically in many countries, including China − historically the largest market for tiger products. These bans have successfully shut down legal tiger trade and nearly extinguished demand. They must be reinforced, not undermined.
Progress is being made for tigers and other cats:
1. China’s 14-year tiger trade ban has been an overwhelming success in reducing trade and demand.
2. Russia’s tiger population and other wild tiger populations is recovering due to an international and country by country ban on their sale or trade.
3. When sufficent funds and political support are in place, traditional tiger conservation methods have worked.
4. In parts of India and in eastern Russia, the entire ecosystem is protected both habitat and prey, plus enforcing their anti-poaching efforts, has stabilized wild tiger populations.
5. Tiger bones are not needed or wanted for medicine in the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) community. Alternatives to tiger products are plentiful, validated by scientific research studies sponsored by the Government of China and embraced by TCM practitioners.
7. Native groups who traditionally have used tiger skins for their traditional dress are changing to silk brocade and other materials that are more in line with their religious beliefs.
Consciousness international, national and individual is turning in favor of protection of wild cats thanks to the dedicated work of many animal protection organization and individuals like you that refuse to purchase endangered or threatened species products.
Thank you-Mother Nature
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of http://www.reuters.com/article
Excerpts courtesy of bigcatnews.blogspot.com/two-colo-residents-indicted-for
Excerpts courtesy of http://www.hsi.org.au/?catID=547
Image courtesy of 1.bp.blogspot.com/s400/tigers+decapitated+in+hua+hin.jpg
October 30, 2009 at 5:03 am (beauty of nature, endangered/threatened animals, save the planet)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving our environment, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
We imagine that we are the most intelligent being on the earth. We are the top predator as well as the only beings that can create a healthy earth again. Will you dedicate your life to being full of life and bringing harmony to our world?
The animals seen in this optical illusion are a mere few of the thousands of animals and plants and the biomes they live in that are endangered or threatened by our unhealthy practices and greedy behavior.
Will you live your life as a predator killing needlessly, trashing the waters and the lands or will you join us in creating a healthier lifestyle and protecting these animals and plants.
Will this seeming optical illusion be seen as our generations death mask image in the world to come or will it be seen as the symbol of hope and the harbinger of peace and symbol of the healthy world we made?
Will the next generations will remember us as the generation that faced the ultimate crisis and solved it?
How many animals do you count in this optical illusion?
optical illusion
Resource
Image courtesy of http://www.newopticalillusions.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/newopticalillusion%20%2839%29.jpg
October 28, 2009 at 6:29 am (ancient animals, animal rights, animals and their food, animals in crisis, sharks)
Tags: animals, oceans, saving endangered animals & plants, saving our environment, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
Can a devise like this one save the lives of the endangered blue whales?
These gentle blue giants of the sea and the right whales need protection from being chopped up in the shipping lanes of the world.
Scientists have engineered a high-tech system of submerged listening posts stretching across 55 miles (88 kilometers) of Massachusetts Bay that can detect the sounds of the critically endangered animals.
The network is protecting the whales in the from deadly collisions in the busy shipping lanes that run through Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. When whale sounds are detected, cell phone and satellite technologies relay the information from buoy to shore in nearly real-time, so that ship captains can be warned to slow down and keep a sharp lookout.
Can the same system work to protect the Blue Whales?
These gentle blue giants of the sea and the right whales need protection from being chopped up
in the shipping lanes of the world.
Last week another blue got chopped off the Northern California. She was a 70-foot, adult female blue whale. Probably struck by a ship the blue whale washed ashore. A few hours after an ocean survey vessel reported hitting a whale a few miles away. Then a long and slender, bluish-grey body with a somewhat lighter underbelly was found dead a few miles down the shoreline.
One day will you only see this beautiful blue’s eye on the web?
The eye belongs to a Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), a baleen whale from the Mysticeti group. They average 32.9 metres (108 ft) in length and 172 metric tons (190 short tons) or more in weight, it is the largest animal ever known to have existed.
Like other baleen whales, the Blue whale’s diet consists primarily of small crustaceans known as krill.
Once abundant in nearly all the oceans, intense hunting for forty years around the turn of the 20th century almost drove them to extinction.Other threats to these ancient creatures include
Other threats to these ancient creatures include:
1. becoming trapped or entangled in fishing gear
2. the excessive amount of ocean noise, including sonar, decreases the ability of the whales to hear the vocalizations produced by other pod members.
3. the accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) chemicals within the whale’s body that come from plastics dissolving in the oceans .
Do you want to see whales, sharks and other ancient animals only in pictures and videos in the future?
In 1966 the international community banned their hunting under most conditions. In 2002, 5,000 to 12,000 Blue Whales have been counted worldwide. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to 311,000). Only 2,000 remain.
Help us put pressure on the shipping and fishing industries to help develop devices that will save these whales and other sea critters from us.
Please write letters to your congressmen and women and insist they support cleaning up the oceans and waterways of the world and protecting the sea creatures.
Do you want to see whales, sharks and other ancient animals only in pictures and videos in the future?
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of news.nationalgeographic.com/blue-whale-washed-ashore
Excerpts courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/blue_whale
Image 1. http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com/photos/radar.jpg
Image 2. http://www.wdcs.co.uk/media/flash/whalebanner/content_pub_en.html
October 26, 2009 at 5:31 am (animal rights, ecosystems in crisis, endangered/threatened animals, family)
Tags: animals, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
Yellow Stone has allowed the killing of their wolves to begin.
Yellowstone National Park’s famous Cottonwood pack. The pack’s adults were all apparently gunned down.
what will happen to the orphaned pups? Without family most likely the abandoned pups will starve to death.
Open season every for wolf pups
Restoring protection for northern Rockies wolves is critical for the balance of nature in Yellow Stone.
Already, more than 60 wolves have been killed in Idaho and Montana. And hundreds more wolves will be targeted in the coming weeks.
In fact, Idaho’s hunting season in some critical areas extends into the crucial denning season for wolves, which could put denning wolf mothers and their newborn pups at grave risk.
Slaughtering the parent wolves
Please help stop the senseless wolf killing in Greater Yellowstone and the northern Rockies.
It is too late for at least 60 wolves like the one in the picture at the left.
Please click here to help by making a tax-deductible donation today.
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of Secure.defenders.org/site/Donation
Image 1. courtesy of Nature’s Crusaders library
Image 2. http://episcoveg.weblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/deadwolves.jpg
October 25, 2009 at 11:42 pm (animal movements, animals and their food, animals in crisis, ecosystems in crisis, mammals)
Tags: animals, saving endangered animals & plants, saving the biodiversity of planet, wildlife, working together
“Team cheetah wins an ostrich”
It is not unheard of for cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) to hunt and eat ostrich or to defend a good hunting area together, but to film these three brother cheetahs in active pursuit is unique.
cheetahs hunting
In the BBC film series entitled Nature the three cheetahs can be seen stalking a male ostrich and giving chase, before breaking off midway to hunt an unsuspecting easier to catch female ostrich instead. These three seem to be able to quickly assess and change victims knowing the main goal is food.
Cooperation is the key to success in all ventures so the old saying goes. These three cheetahs came as a team to this area about ten years ago. They have learned that that can catch faster and feathery game if they work together in the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, Africa. Ranging over 60 square miles, the Conservancy a beautiful giant stretch of natural wilderness that the wildlife comes and go freely.
Working together and protecting all life is NC goal.
Resources
Excerpts courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earthnews
Image courtesy of http://www.voilacapetown.com/images/Cheetah01.jpg
Video courtesy of thesun.co.uk/sol/How-cheetahs-learned-to-hunt-together-to-survive.html
