Sit Study

She Saved Them

2015-07-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Yang Xiaoyun's house

Yang Xiaoyun is a former school teacher who put her pension to good use and converted her Tianjin home into an animal shelter. Known as the “Common Home for Stray Animals”, the safe house lodges nearly 1500 dogs and 200 cats, whom she fondly refers to as her "children". And she really does take care of her pets as her own - by preparing their meals and feeding them with her own hands. She sold her family's two houses to fund her dog's shelter.

Slaughter: Up to tens thousand dogs and cats are killed and eaten at the Yulin festival (pictured) every year

Yulin festival - It is tradition for up to 10,000 dogs - plus scores of cats - to be slaughtered for the pot at the annual event, which marks summer solstice. According to Hong Kong–based charity Animals Asia, the majority of dog meat in China comes from stolen pets and strays.

She determined to save the dogs from getting slaughtered at the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, Yang has saved up to 50,000 Yuan that approximately translate into 8000 dollars! She has set her mind to purchase these helpless beings from their ruthless dealers at Yulin and bring them to her safe house at Tianjin. Last year, Yang rescued 360 dogs from the festival.

Cruel meat sellers throttled dogs in front of her to try to make her buy more for a higher price - and they sent messages between them entitled 'kill her'.

It hasn't been an easy journey for Yang. Sacrificing and constantly putting her life in danger, Yang has come a long way. Her efforts have not gone waste as she has managed to rescue and adopt dogs from a number of horrific fates, one being this Festival itself.

She says she has no idea how many dogs she has saved over the years, but estimates 'tens of thousands'.

She has no regrets about giving up her comfortable life for the sake of the animals, even though she now sleeps in basic accommodation near her shelter bases so she's always on hand to work.

'Although my family has suffered I have saved lives and I feel proud of myself,' she says.

A Simple Bird Bath

2014-06-05T11:13:00.001-07:00

Like all animals, birds need water to survive. Though they can extract some moisture from their food, most birds drink water every day. Birds also use water for bathing, to clean their feathers and remove parasites.

For these reasons, a dependable supply of fresh, clean water is attractive to most birds. In fact, a birdbath will even bring to your yard birds that don’t eat seeds and wouldn’t visit your feeders. Providing water for birds can also improve the quality of your backyard bird habitat and should provide you

with a fantastic opportunity to observe bird behavior.

Make a birdbath:

When you’re choosing a birdbath, look for one with a basin that you can clean easily. It should also have a gentle slope to allow birds to wade into the water. You can make your own bath out of a garbage can lid, a saucer-type snow sled, or even an old frying pan.

Try to imitate a natural puddle as much as possible when you’re installing your birdbath.It’s a good idea to put some sand in the bottom of the bath, to give the birds sure footing.

The key to attracting a large number of birds is to keep your bath full of water at all times

Place your birdbath in the shade, near trees or shrubs if possible. A shady location slows evaporation and keeps the water fresh longer.

But remember to clean your birdbath every couple of days. Don’t let the water become stale; clean off the bottom of the bath immediately if green algae starts to form.

Last of all, Be patient! It takes a while for the birds to become accustomed to the bath.

Remember: if you’re trying to make your backyard a better place for birdlife, few things are more attractive like a well-maintained birdbath.

Foodscaping

2014-05-08T10:33:00.002-07:00

Foodscaping, sometimes called edible landscaping or front yard farming, is a type of landscaping in which all or major areas of a lawn on private property or sometimes public property are used to grow food.

Geneva, Switzerland. Each yard is a vegetable garden and neighbors consult and plan what each will grow so they can trade. When food shortages sweep across the world and food prices rise, it simply makes sense to grow your own food.

Nilgiri Tahr

2013-01-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

The Nilgiri Tahr is the state animal of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a goat antelope found at the grass covered hills in Nilgiri Hills and southern part of Tamil Nadu and Kerala in South India.

Nilgiri tahr are short with coarse fur. They have curved horns, which are larger in males, can reach upto 40 cm long. Males are dark brown and grown females are greyish in colour.

The Total population of the animal is about 1800-2000 individuals only. As per IUCN 3.1 red list nilgiri tahr has been threatened has endangered species. Population trend is has been decreasing in ratio.

The major and principal threat of the animal is habitat loss and poaching. The habitat loss are mainly from domestic livestock and spread of invasive plants. Hunting of ancestors make them decrease in numbers.
Making conservation helps to reduce threaten of Nilgiri Tahr.

Wildlife overcross

2012-08-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Wildlife crossing in Netherland

This wildlife bridge (ecoduct) provides a safe crossing path for wildlife amidst the danger of highways.

The first wildlife bridges were constructed in France during the 1950s. European countries like Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, and France have been using various crossing structures to reduce the conflict between wildlife and roads for several decades and uses variety of overpasses and underpasses to protect and reestablish wildlife, such as: amphibians, badgers, ungulates, invertebrates, and other small mammals.

Mandarin Duck

2012-07-13T10:38:00.003-07:00

The mandarin duck is the medium sized perching duck. These ducks has a glossy greenish-black forehead that turns to purple as it slopes to a crest at the back of the head. The sides of the head are white with chestnut in front of the eyes. The sides of the neck and the cheeks have longer brown feathers. The upper breast is maroon, and the lower breast and belly are white. The sides and flanks are brown with black streaks and wing sails, which are bright orange feathers.

The mandarin ducks are closely related to the North American wood duck. Largest population found in Japan and England

Their diets are varies with season and locality, acorns, buckwheat, and rice (in fall), insects snails, small fish, and vegetation (in spring); grapes, roses, rhododendrons, pines, aquatic plant seeds, horsetail shoots

Mandarin ducks are highly social, flying in large flocks during winter.

Pair bonds are very strong among them and if they survive beyond one breeding season, they will return to the same bond rather than establish new ones.

Females take the initiative in choosing a mate by orienting enticing behavior toward a preferred mate.

Japanese and Chinese cultures hold the mandarin in high regards. In these countries, they serve as a symbol of happiness and fidelity.

The mandarin duck are classified as least concern by IUCN

Predation of the Mandarin Duck varies due to its geological ranges. Mink, raccoon dogs, otters, polecats, eurasian eagle owls, and grass snakes are all predators of the Mandarin Duck. The greatest threat to the Mandarin Duck is habitat loss due to loggers. Hunters are also a threat to the Mandarin Duck, because oftentimes, they are unable to recognize the Mandarin in flight and as a result, many are shot on accident. Mandarin ducks are not hunted for food, however they are still poached because their extreme beauty is prized

Indian giant squirrel

2012-06-27T10:06:00.003-07:00

The Indian giant squirrel Commonly known as 'Shekhru'. It inhabits the deciduous or mixed forests, and is abundant in the forests of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

The size of their body comes to almost 3ft. with only the tail measuring up to 2ft. in length. The long bushy tail helps in balancing their body on the trees. They are deep brown in colour with buff-coloured underparts. Giant squirrels live only in forests. They keep to the branches of higher trees and rarely come to the ground. They move from tree to tree taking amazing leaps with limbs outspread, covering as much as 20 ft. in a single leap. They are active agile animals, mostly active during the early mornings and evenings. They are shy and wary, not easy to discover. Despite its brilliant colouring, the Indian Giant Squirrel is sooner heard than seen.

The Indian Giant Squirrel usually lives alone or in pairs. These animals build large globular nests of twigs and leaves, placing them for greater security among the slimmer twigs and branches of trees, where heavier predators cannot reach them .

The Indian Giant Squirrel has been classified as least concern by IUCN. They became least due to the threats of hunting. Hunting for food, for medicine. And loss of habitat, loss of habitat because of fragmentation, trade, trade for parts

Forest Department officials have teamed up with Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to chalk out a conservation plan for the endangered giant squirrel

Sturgeon fish

2012-06-09T21:12:00.001-07:00

Sturgeon is the common name used for some species of fish in the family Acipenseridae. The family is also known as the true sturgeons. This fish has been around for 250 million years – yes, that means that they were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth! These types of fish are bottom dwellers. They are saltwater fish, but go to freshwater to spawn.

Sturgeons are found in greatest abundance in the rivers of southern Russia and Ukraine and in the freshwaters of North America. In early summer they migrate from the sea into rivers or toward the shores of freshwater lakes for breeding purposes.

Several species of sturgeons are harvested for their roe, which is made into caviar — a luxury food which makes some sturgeons pound for pound the most valuable of all harvested fish. The premier delicacy in the world can be the tempting and truly mouthwatering caviar. Highly prized for its extraordinary taste and scarcity
caviar finds its way to the palate of the popular and well-off individuals worldwide.

A teaspoonful of a certain type of caviar could command thousands of dollars in five star hotels. that’s huge amount of money for ordinary people but for the rich and famous that is definitely peanuts, besides eating caviar would enhance and maintain a lofty status in the society and good image as well.

Sturgeon has their long reproductive cycles, long migrations, and sensitivity to environmental conditions, this many species are under severe threat from overfishing, poaching, water pollution and damming of rivers. According to the IUCN, over 85% of sturgeon species are classified as at risk of extinction, making them more critically endangered than any other group of species.

The development of a recovery plan for the sturgeon was led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service with the assistance of both federal and provincial biologists from British Columbia, to stop fishing these species.

Red panda

2012-06-08T09:55:00.002-07:00

Red panda, also known sometimes as cat bear and lesser panda, is largely herbivore. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, an adult red panda in the forest weighs around 4 kg. They lives in eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.

It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.

The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN because its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.

Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.

The poaching of red panda,for their meat, while its hide is used to make decorative household items.local farmers in china kill the red pandas if they enter their farms.The Himalayan Times reported that a man was found selling 3 red panda skins highlights how poaching of such an endangered animal is on the rise. Red Panda is protected by the law but it is surprising how the person could get the panda skins all the way from Rasuwa district to Kathmandu.

Protecting the red panda goes hand in hand with protecting its habitat. By conservation awareness among the locals to change their attitude for red panda. Thus it will encourage the local to build civil society network for red panda conservation.

There is a need of regional cooperation to control the wildlife trade and ensure long-term protection of the endangered species by managing their natural habitats and foster participatory biodiversity conservation

Protecting the forest where red pandas live is the most important key to keeping them from disappearing.

Olive Ridley

2012-06-02T01:27:00.000-07:00

OLIVE RIDLEYS

      A well known critically endangered species of the world. A really beautiful creation of mother earth. It is a species of sea turtle which are very small, about 60cm* in length and weighing 40kg* (*average). They've been a vulnerable species for years yet people tend to protect them in vain.
     Orissa, India, is known to have been the world's largest Olive Ridley nesting site. Every year, between December and April, thousands of Olive Ridleys emerge from the Bay of Bengal for mass nesting, known as the Arribada.
     A recent data released by the state's Forest and Wildlife department reveals a sharp decline in the number of Olive Ridleys in the last decade. In recent times, some historical arribada sites have only recorded intermittent nesting. Beach erosion caused some turtles to nest in a fishing village this year.
    The Olive Ridleys have been declared vulnerable by the IUCN. Nature plays its role in keeping the population of the Ridleys under control by many ways. Some of them are given below.

Birds and other creatures

These are the creatures of nature expected to control the population of the Olive Ridleys. But there also is an unexpected intruder in the nature's cycle. The HUMANS

Poaching for turtle shell, fancy items made of it, eggs of the turtles in large scale has brought the species to near extinction which is very near

Though many are busy destroying these vulnerable species, some busy not caring for other creatures of nature, few have come up with their effort to save the creatures by their own ways, atleast to create awareness among people. Youths of Fishing villages have got a high hand at this context by creating awareness among their people.

A Puducherry-based NGO's (Pudhuvai Samadhana Pura) efforts to protect the turtle species have borne fruit with 110 hatchlings being let into the sea on April 6 this yea, at Pudhukuppam, a fishing village of Puducherry, said Muthu, the Convenor of the NGO to the PTI.

Fishermen have raised their hands to protect nature. Where are we? Share this among your friends so that they may know that there's a species going towards extinction.

House sparrow

2012-05-18T10:23:00.002-07:00

Many in India have grown up with the chirruping of the house sparrows. These tiny little grey birds have been constant companions, sometimes noisy neighbors, morning alarm bells, and fluttering representatives of the aerial species that live amidst humans.

Unfortunately, while once you opened your windows to be automatically greeted by their calls, the house sparrows have stopped calling your house their home in the present world.

Their numbers are dwindling at such a high rate, that conservationists are concerned, that this specie that has had such an amicable relationship with the urban world, may slowly but steadily be losing its population and just not finding its little space among the concrete jungle anymore. According to a survey there has been an 80 percent decline in their population.

Today the reasons for the sparrows’ decline are largely electromagnetic radiation from mobile phones and lack of insect food due to excessive use of pesticide in urban gardens. But most certainly, it is the loss of habitat that drives any species towards extinction.

It is therefore, that last year the world decided to dedicate a day to the common house bird that is becoming uncommon. 20^th March is thus World House Sparrow day.

If you have been friends with this chirrupy neighbor for a long time and want your kids and their kids to remember the feathery mate as fondly as you have, just pledge today that you will make your home more house sparrow friendly.

Here is how,

Create a mini forest within your housing society or home compound.
The house sparrow is not a fussy eater, therefore place any kind of seed, flower seed, bread, and grain and even home leftovers at a pre designated place every day for them to feed on.
Place a water vessel at a comfortable location.
If you have the space in your balcony or garden, hang a nesting place like a bamboo basket, an earthen pot that they find safe and secure.
Use cellular phones as little as possible.

sit for tigris

2012-05-10T10:42:00.001-07:00

Tigers to be saved

As few as 3,200 tigers are at all-time now, Asian big cats may be on top of the food chain and one of the most culturally important and best-loved animals, but they are also vulnerable to extinction. Tigers are forced to compete for space with dense human populations, face unrelenting pressure from poaching, retaliatory killings and habitat loss across their range.

By saving tigers, we also save the biologically rich and diverse landscapes where they still roam — Asia’s last great rain forests, jungles and wild lands. These forests are home to thousands of other species, people and the food, freshwater and flood protection that local communities need to survive.

Three tiger subspecies - the Bali, Javan, and Caspian - have become extinct in the past 70 years. The six remaining subspecies - Amur, Bengal, Indochinese, Malayan, South China, and Sumatran - live only in Asia, and all are threatened by poaching and habitat loss.

more details......

corals

2012-05-10T04:01:00.000-07:00

Coral organisms, called polyps, can live on their own, but are primarily associated with the spectacularly diverse limestone communities, or reefs, they construct.

Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms related to sea anemones and jellyfish. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which forms the structure of coral reefs. Reefs begin when a polyp attaches itself to a rock on the sea floor, then divides, or buds, into thousands of clones. The polyp calicles connect to one another, creating a colony that acts as a single organism. As colonies grow over hundreds and thousands of years, they join with other colonies and become reefs. Some of the coral reefs on the planet today began growing over 50 million years ago. Clownfish live at the bottom of shallow seas in sheltered reefs

Coral polyps are actually translucent animals. Reefs get their wild hues from the billions of colorful algae they host. When stressed by such things as temperature change or pollution, corals will evict their boarders, causing coral bleaching that can kill the colony if the stress is not mitigated.

Corals live in tropical waters throughout the world, generally close to the surface where the sun's rays can reach the algae. While corals get most of their nutrients from the byproducts of the algae's photosynthesis, they also have barbed, venomous tentacles they can stick out, usually at night, to grab small fish.

Coral reefs teem with life, covering less than one percent of the ocean floor, but supporting about 25 percent of all marine creatures. However, threats to their existence abound, and scientists estimate that human factors—such as pollution, global warming, and sedimentation—could kill 30 percent of the existing reefs in the next 30 years.

Corals are so sensitive to climatic change that scientists study coral reef fossils to construct highly detailed chronologies of prehistoric climate patterns.