Month: June 2015

Male caribou, Denali

Touring through Denali is unlike other U.S. national parks because there is only one road, and few trails. This glorious park is well designed to preserve the park, protect the wildlife, and lighten the impact of human visitors.

Denali Park Road is 92 miles long, with only the first 15 miles open to private vehicles. Going deeper into the park requires park buses.  Additionally, most of the park does not have trails; those that exist are less than five miles long and primarily near the entrance. This is to minimize maintenance in this extremely remote and unserviceable place.

Denali Park Rd & Mt. McKinley

There are 39 species of mammals, including caribou, moose, bear, wolves; and 169 species of birds.  With over 650 plant species in an environment of forest, tundra, and glaciers, there are numerous habitats.   In addition, majestic Mt. McKinley looms at 20,320 feet offering…

This video says about itself:

19 June 2015

A three year old Amur tiger has been successfully captured, collared and released into a mountainous region in the Russian Far East. The young male was identified as a ‘conflict tiger’ in a prey depleted area but rather than confining him to a life of captivity, the Russian government opted to give him a second chance. – See more here.

From Wildlife Extra about this:

WWF films tiger being released back to the wild

WWF has filmed an Amur Tiger being released back into the wild after spending time in a wild animal rehabilitation centre in the Russian Far East.

The tiger is a young male called Uporny, who was captured in November 2014 after being identified as a ‘conflict’ tiger.

He had been living in an area where there was a lack of prey and had killed dogs to…

Today, Dutch conservation Landschap Overijsselreports that a rare species, the northern emerald dragonfly, has been found reproducing in Wierdense Veld nature reserve.

Probably, these insects have benefited from a higher water level in the reserve.

Related articles

• Saving otters from cars
• Smooth newt males ready for mating season
• Rare butterflies in the Netherlands
• Rare moss in Dutch canal
• Dutch otters use wildlife crossings daily
• Otter in Dutch nature reserve
• First eco-aqueduct for Dutch wildlife
• Judges stop goose killing plans
• Egret, konik horses, great crested grebe
• Another rare owl in the Netherlands

(Reuters) – A spike in earthquakes across Oklahoma is forcing the state’s energy regulator to urgently consider tougher restrictions on drilling activity, a spokesman said on Wednesday, calling it a “game changer.”

From June 17 to 24, there have been 35 earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or greater in the state, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey. Particularly worrying for regulators, some of the recent quakes occurred in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, where there are no high-volume wastewater injection wells.

Continue reading:  RPT-Oklahoma drilling regulator calls spike in quakes a “game changer”

“There is one especially interesting aspect of the current political landscape, and that is the matter of human populations. At one time a widely debated and much analyzed problem of the day, human population pressure has mysteriously slipped from both political and popular ‘environmental’ agendas.”[

[So wrote the late Canadian naturalist, and outspoken author, John A. Livingston in his 1994 book, Rogue Primate, back when there were only 5.67 billion of us as opposed to today’s 7.3 billion.]

“There is plenty of talk about food distribution (there is enough food for everyone in the world if we could only get it to them) and both industrial and low-impact agriculture, but the matter of absolute human numbers appears to have receded, if not from our private reflections, from our public utterances.

“The deadliest and most insidious form of thought repression is self-censorship. It has

8 is enough, but 13 is…

LEGO will invest $150 million to build a sustainable materials research center at its headquarters in Denmark. It is hiring over 100 specialists in material science to shape the green future of the building brick. PHOTO: Pinterest

By 2030, LEGOs will no longer be made of plastic. Instead, the world’s largest toy company will be using a more “sustainable material” to compose their toy blocks, which have been made of a strong plastic called acrylonitrile butadiene styrene since 1963.

While the switch will certainly save the company on its carbon footprint — the production of LEGOs uses more than 6,000 tons of plastic annually — it won’t be cheap. The Lego Group plans to invest $1 billion in their new Lego Sustainable Materials Centre in Denmark, where a team of 100 specialists will conduct research to find the best sustainable replacement for the building blocks’ current building material.

This Zulu phrase means wild animals. There are about 12,000 white, and 627 black rhinos in Kruger National Park. This one is looking at you for protection!

Leopards in Kruger are rare and rarely seen.

We were very lucky to see this one! The Kruger population is estimated at approximately 1000, although they are hard to count, because they are hard to find.

1,700 lions are thought to live in Kruger.

There are about 37,000 cape buffalo, and yes this one is sleeping. They do that a lot in water holes!

There are only around 300 nyala. This is a male and two females. Quite a sighting of beautiful, shy, creatures!

2000 warthogs,

5000 waterbuck,

over 127,000 impala,

and more than 8,000 kudu call Kruger home. A trip to Kruger is an incredible experience and aids the park’s impressive wildlife conservation efforts.
Estimates, calculated between 2008 and 2009. Read more…

This video is called Humpback Whales – BBC documentary excerpt.

From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Humpback whale numbers increasing as conservation practices take effect; tourism benefiting

By Bridget Brennan

22 June 2015

If you have ever wanted to watch the migration of humpback whales along Australia’s east coast, now is a great time to do it.

Whale watchers and marine officers say humpback numbers are up by between 8 and 10 per cent in 2015, sending thousands of additional humpback whales along the New South Wales coast.

From May to August, the humpbacks relocate from cold Antarctic waters to the warmer Queensland climate, where pregnant females will give birth.

Wildlife officer Geoff Ross, from New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, said better conservation practices have helped the humpback population bounce back in recent years.

“They’re definitely recovering, the science tells us that humpback whales are recovering…