How hunting cougars can harm Utah’s eco-systems
Letter to the Utah Wildlife Board about cougars
Protecting the American Cecil, the Cougar
Cecil and other lions, video
This video says about itself:
9 August 2015
For LION DAY
A tribute to Cecil the lion and recent events around Walter Palmer the hunter.
Please support and share Ngala film Campaign to put an end to trophy hunting!
World Lion Day is over now. Cecil is dead. However, there can still be pro-lion action on any day.
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Rare pea blue butterflies in the Netherlands
This is a pea blue butterfly video from Spain.
Translated from the Dutch Vlinderstichting entomologists:
Wednesday, August 19th, 2015
Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday pea blue butterflies were seen in our country. Also earlier this year, there were four reports of this butterfly species. With the weather improvement which seems to come it is good to pay extra attention to these occasional wanderers from central France.
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How Can We Get Trees to Communities That Need Them the Most?
Charlotte, North Carolina street trees / Kenny Craft on Pinterest
The science is increasingly clear: trees are central to healthy, livable cities. New studies are only adding to this understanding. For example, recent research published in the prestigious journal Nature found that having 10 more trees on your block, on average, improves the perception of your own health in ways comparable to an increase in annual income of $10,000 or being 7 years younger. However, according to Cene Ketcham, a graduate student in urban forestry at Virginia Tech, the benefits of urban trees rarely fan out equally across a city.
“We know trees have a lot of benefits. And if we know that having trees in our cities is important for our health, the converse must also be true — a lack of trees hurts your health,” Ketcham said at a conference organized by Casey Trees in Washington, D.C.
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Zen for Rhinos
Vietnam is the country responsible for the most demand in rhino horn.
75% of Vietnam is Buddhist.
Recently the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) announced they would actively promote guidelines and awareness toward the illegal and immoral use of rhino horn.
According to the IBC newsletter, “We should move from Compassion to Action…putting forth the need for a pioneering Buddhist initiative that translates Buddha’s teachings of compassion and wisdom into action for the good of all sentient beings.”
Vietnam’s Buddhist leadership has agreed to launch a comprehensive public outreach campaign against the use of rhino horn on the grounds that it is steeped in violence towards animals, biodiversity and human beings (poachers, rangers, and the victims of illegal trafficking in drugs, arms and people).
It’s consumption therefore is unacceptable for any Buddhist and has to stop. Sourced through Scoop.it from: fightforrhinos.com
Decoded octopus genome reveals secrets to complex intelligence
“The elusive octopus genome has finally been untangled, which should allow scientists to discover answers to long-mysterious questions about the animal’s alienlike physiology: How does it camouflage itself so expertly? How does it control—and regenerate—those eight flexible arms and thousands of suckers? And, most vexing: How did a relative of the snail get to be so incredibly smart—able to learn quickly, solve puzzles and even use tools?
“The findings, published today in Nature, reveal a vast, unexplored landscape full of novel genes, unlikely rearrangements—and some evolutionary solutions that look remarkably similar to those found in humans. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)
With the largest-known genome in the invertebrate world—similar in size to that of a house cat (2.7 billion base pairs) and with more genes (33,000) than humans (20,000 to 25,000)—the octopus sequence has long been known to be large and confusing. Even without a genetic map…
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The myth of sport hunting as a solution to conservation
An open letter to Mozambique by Josphat Ngonyo, founder, Africa Network for Animal Welfare
On behalf of Africa Network forAanimal Welfare (ANAW), a network of organizations and individuals interested in promoting humane treatment of animals in Africa while working with communities and governments, I write to you Sir, with the aim of engaging with you, on the most recent development in your country, the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) approving $40 million grant to your country, to fund conservation efforts that include strengthening the country’s program of selling the rights to hunt wild animals.
I write to your government to request you to reconsider this grant in light of the unmistakable negative effects this would have on wildlife conservation in Mozambique and the rest of Africa at large.
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Art, animals, and the earth 