Animal of the Week

Giant Pandas                                                                            Jan. 26


We usually think of giant pandas are bears, but is this really true? There have been several debates on whether these fascinating mammals are or not. Are they bears, or raccoons, or a species of their own? Nobody really knows.

All wild pandas live in China, mainly in the Qinling and Minshan mountains. The climate there is usually cool and humid, so giant pandas, or ailuropoda melanoleuca, have very thick fur to keep them warm.

 As you probably already know, the main food the giant pandas will eat is bamboo. In fact, about 99 percent of their diet consists of it, while the other one percent is usually other sorts of plants or sometimes small animals or rodents they can find. There are several different kinds of bamboo, but wild pandas only eat 40 of them. These include Bashania fangiana, Fargesia Qinlingensis, and Fargensia niditia. The average panda will spend about 12 hours per day eating!
 Unfortunately, the giant panda is very endangered. Nobody is really sure exactly how many pandas are left in the world, but it is estimated that there are about 1,600 giant pandas left on earth. One of the main reasons for this is because of habitat loss. Forests are cut down for things such as farming and building roads, and pandas have nowhere to go. You can help by recycling, not buying products made from the rainforest (especially bamboo ones), and adopting a panda from one of the websites below. 

http://www.wwf.org.uk/adoption/giant-panda/?figurefocus=toy

http://www.pandasinternational.org/wptemp/other-ways-to-help-the-giant-pandas/adopt-a-panda/

http://www.worldanimalfoundation.net/chooseanimal/Adopt_A_Panda.html

Chimpanzees                                                                      Dec. 3                                                                   


Chimpanzees are extremely intelligent. They have been seen using tools such as long sticks to pull termites out of their nests to eat. Many people find great apes, like chimpanzees, interesting because they look and act very similar to humans. 

Wild chimpanzees live in  western and central Africa, very near the equator. They are smaller than orangutans and gorillas, males at 3 to 4 feet, while females are usually about 2 to 3.5 feet tall.


Figs are a favorite food of the chimpanzees

Chimpanzees are omnivores, so they eat both plants and meat. Some of these are leaves, fruit, plant shoots, and flowers. They also like to eat ants, termites, or small animals.

All great apes, including chimpanzees, are very endangered. Lots of this is due to habitat loss. People cut down the rainforests chimpanzees live in for farming space, or for the lumber. The chimpanzees are either killed in the process, or are forced to leave their home.

We can help chimpanzees by using less paper and not buying anything made from rainforest wood. You can also adopt one on one of the links below.

http://www.adopt-a-chimp.com/chimps/chimps.html

http://www.worldanimalfoundation.net/chooseanimal/Adopt_A_Chimpanzee.html

https://www.savethechimps.org/adopt-a-chimp


Honeybees                                                                                  Dec. 1

Believe it or not, bees are actually very important to the environment. Most plants need to be pollinated in order to reproduce. And both animals and people depend on plants for food, oxygen, and many other things.



Goldenrod, a favorite of bees

Over the last few years, the population of honeybees has decreased very rapidly. Lots of the food we eat was grown using pesticides or fertilizers. These chemicals are not bee-friendly. This is a big reason why the number of bees has gotten lower and lower.

It's a big problem that honeybees are getting fewer and fewer. Bees play a big role in pollinating the plants. If there are less bees, that means there are less plants. That's not very good, because all animals, (including humans), depend on plants for things like oxygen and food.

 Bees like pretty much any kind of flowers, but a few of their favorites are coral vine, black eyed Susans, or goldenrod. Try to pick plants that are native to where you live. On the link below, there is a list of some more flowers.

Another way to protect honeybees is to try to eat food that is grown organically. That means it is grown without using any chemicals. Pesticides are meant to kill pests, but they often kill other insects that are actually good.

Click here for some bee-friendly flowers.
http://gardening.about.com/od/attractingwildlife/a/Bee_Plants_2.htm

Click here to learn more about why we should protect the honeybees.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/declining_bee_populations_pose_a_threat_to_global_agriculture/2645/

Gorillas                                                                                      Nov. 16



Mountain gorillas

Like orangutans, gorillas are very closely related to humans. They are part of the primate family, along with people, monkeys, and lesser apes.

There are two species of gorillas, the Eastern and Western. For each of these, there are a few sub species: Eastern lowland, (gorilla gorilla graueri), Western lowland, (gorilla gorilla gorilla), and Mountain (gorilla gorilla beringei) gorillas. All of these are endangered mainly because of poaching and habitat loss.

Gorillas are the biggest of the great apes, (chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, and gorillas). Males stand at around 1.8 meters, while females are about 1.5 meters tall. They live to be about 30 years old in the wild.



  Gorillas are very endangered - there are only about 790        mountain gorillas, 50,000 Western lowland gorillas, and  2,500 Eastern lowland gorillas in the world. We can help the  gorillas by using less paper and recycling it, or adopting a  gorilla from one of the websites below.



 
http://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Species-Adoptions/Gorilla.aspx

http://www.adoption.co.uk/gorilla/fossey/

http://gorillafund.org/


Elephants       

                                                                                                    Oct. 27

Cleaning Lucky the elephant

Elephants are known for their huge size. In fact, the African elephant is the biggest land animal on earth. African elephants are about 3-4 meters tall (10-13 feet), while Asian elephants stand around 2-3 meters (7-8 feet). Other than the African elephant, there is also the Asian elephant. African elephants are larger and have bigger ears.

Elephants are vegetarians, eating mostly leaves, bark, shrubs, fruits, and grasses. They normally eat about 300 - 600 pounds of food every day. They can spend up to 16 hours a day eating.

Elephants at Patara Elephant Farm

There are several organizations that are dedicated to helping elephants, such as the Patara Elephant Farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand, or the Elephant Village in Luang Prabang, Laos. They take care of the elephants and spread the word about saving them.

Elephants are endangered mostly because of habitat loss and poaching. People illegally hunt elephants for their tusks for the ivory. A way you can help save the elephants is to not buy anything made with ivory. You can also learn more about and adopt an elephant with the links below.



http://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/elephant

http://worldanimalfoundation.homestead.com/AdoptAnElephant.html

http://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Species-Adoptions/African-Elephant.aspx



Sea Turtles                                                                 Oct. 19   

A mother green sea turtle

 
 
There are seven different types of sea turtle: flackback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, olive ridley, loggerhead, and Kemp's ridley sea turtle. All of these, except the leatherback sea turtle, are part of the Cheloniidae family. The leatherback belongs to the Dermochelyidae family and is its only member.
Depending on the species, some sea turtles are vegetarian or omnivorous, while others are  carnivorous. Green sea turtles are vegetarian, and  eat mostly algae and sea grasses. Hawksbill jaws are adapted to eat from crevices in coral reefs, so they eat mostly sponges, shrimp, and squids. Loggerheads' and ridleys' jaws are adapted for eating harder things like crabs, mollusks, and vegetation.
  


Sea turtle hatchlings in Selingan Turtle Island

 Sadly, only about one of all the eggs laid by a  mother sea turtle will usually survive to adulthood.  Sometimes, they don't even get to hatch. In some  countries, people collect sea turtle eggs and illegally  sell them for money. The babies have many  predators, such as birds, raccoons, fish, and many  more. Lots of the hatchlings don't even make it to  the ocean.


Luckily, there are a few places where the turtle eggs are hatched and then released into the ocean. The two pictures of sea turtles here were taken when I went to the Selingan turtle island. There are also several websites that let you adopt a sea turtle. Here are a few links to them:

http://worldanimalfoundation.homestead.com/AdoptASeaTurtle.html

http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/join-us/adopt-a-turtle/

http://www.marinelife.org/turtleadopt

 Adopt your own virtual pet!

Orangutans                                                                            Oct. 12   
 

Believe it or not, orangutans have about 97 percent of the same genes as we humans do. We
 are more closely related to great apes than any other animal.

There are two different kinds of orangutans; the pongo         pygmaeus, or Bornean orangutan, and the pongo abelli, or Sumatran orangutan. The word "orangutan"  means "man of the forest" in Malay.

Orangutans are part of the primate family, along with humans,   great apes, lesser apes and monkeys. Orangutans are great apes, and so are gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. We can tell that they are apes because they don't have tails, while most monkeys do. 

The durian fruit

Their diet consists of mostly fruits and plants. One of the orangutan favorites is the durian fruit, which smells awful, but  apparently tastes good to the orangutans (and many people,  too.) They will also eat some flowers, tree bark, and insects.

 Orangutans are very intelligent - they have been seen to hold  big leaves over themselves when it's raining like umbrellas.

 Almost all great apes are in danger of becoming extinct,  mostly because of deforestation or habitat loss. People are cutting down the rainforests they live in to build roads or houses, for mining, for growing palm oil or other sorts of plantations, or to sell the timber for money. Sometimes, people kill mother orangutans and sell their babies as illegal pets. The babies are cute at first, but get very aggressive, and usually people will keep them in cages or basements, which is not good for any wild jungle animal. If all of this keeps going on, soon the orangutans will be extinct.

Baby Ten Ten

Apart from the people capturing or killing the orangutans, there are lots of people who want to help. I have been to a few nature reserves dedicated to helping the orangutans - the Rasa Ria Nature Reserve and the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary in Malaysia. Here is a picture of Ten Ten, from the Rasa Ria.

You can help orangutans or any other rainforest animals by using less paper, and reusing or recycling things instead of throwing them away. You can also adopt an orangutan (I mean donate money to help them, not actually keep one), on the websites below.

http://redapes.org/adopt

http://gifts.worldwildlife.org/gift-center/gifts/Species-Adoptions/Orangutan.aspx

http://www.orangutan.org.au/adopt_orphan_orangutan