White Rhinos, Kenya

The African rhino species originated on this planet about 14.2 million years ago.  Let’s take a look at this astounding creature.

A century ago, at least in Africa, rhinos were heading for extinction due to over-hunting in the colonial era.  Now, all five rhino species are killed for their horns, which are coveted for medicinal purposes and ornamental carvings.  Sadly, sophisticated poaching syndicates have evolved into organized crime, utilizing advanced technologies and weaponry.

The dwindling rhinoceros population is so depressing that I will stop talking about it at this point.  You can, however, click here to read the exact numbers of remaining species.  Fortunately, there have been enormous conservation efforts toward reviving the population; and the white rhinos, the most abundant rhino species, have increased.

There are rhinos in Africa and Asia, a total of five different species.  The two African rhinos are called Black and White…

Conservation Magazine writes about why lizards need elephants to survive?

Lizards, it turns out, rely on the debris created by elephants as they trample trees. Shards of wood and leaves haphazardly left behind by marching pachyderms provide good cover for a small lizard to escape the piercing talons of a hungry raptor. Kill the elephants, and the lizards could suffer.

Read full story at Why lizards need elephants to survive – Conservation.

The Rochester panel.

The Sego Canyon panel.

Detail of the Sego Canyon panel.

These beautiful photos were taken by Kirk Robinson, who writes this about them –

The pecked images, such as the Rochester panel, are called petroglyphs; and the painted ones, such as the Sego Canyon panel, are called pictographs.  Originally, many of the petroglyphs were also painted.  They may have also been decorated with feathers and other natural materials.

There is obviously a lot of meaning in these interesting figures, but it is hard to know what they mean.  Sometimes you can tell what individual images represent – desert bighorn sheep being the most common of the petroglyph figures in most of the West, but also deer, bears and birds, etc. – but other times they are mythical creatures or spirits that combine body parts from more than one animal.  Some look like images of prehistoric animals.  Others…

EarthJustice Press Release

Logging Industry Lawsuit Demanding Aggressive Cutting Thrown Out By Federal Court

Washington, D.C. — A logging industry lawsuit that sought to force the Bureau of Land Management to increase logging on public lands in southwest Oregon was thrown out today by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling vacates a 2013 decision that would have forced the Bureau of Land Management to sell timber even when those sales would have harmed salmon and had detrimental impacts on water quality and recreation.

The Olifants River is a tributary of the “Great, grey, green, greasy Limpopo river.” *

The river runs through the center of Kruger National Park, dividing the northern and southern regions.

Olifants rest camp has arguably the best view in Kruger, lying hundreds of feet about the river and offering panoramic views of the African veld from the comfort of your rondavel porch. All of these photos were taken from our porch, with the exception of a few of the following ones, taken in the bush near the river.

If you look you can see blurring near the elephants feet. This is when my camera started to break down after three harsh weeks in the bush.

A huge variety of animals come to the river to drink, including of course the elephants that often walk single file to the water. In South Africa winter is the dry season, and the…

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Activists-form-human-chain-as-Arctic-oil-rig-heads-out-of-port-307363311.html

by KOMO StaffPublished: Jun 15, 2015

SEATTLE – A massive oil-drilling rig pulled out of Seattle on Monday and headed for the environmentally sensitive Arctic Ocean despite a last-ditch effort by protesters to block it from leaving by forming a waterborne blockade of the harbor.

The Coast Guard says 24 people were detained while taking part in the blockade of the Polar Pioneer.

Many of those detained were in kayaks – including Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien, said a Greenpeace spokesman. Around 50 other protesters on the water were not arrested, Greenpeace said.

The Polar Pioneer’s owner, Royal Dutch Shell, plans to tow the rig to the Arctic Ocean off Alaska to drill for undersea oil deposits during relatively calm summer weather conditions.

The first wave of “kayaktivists” headed out in the predawn darkness, as soon as they got word the Polar Pioneer would be on the move…