hleavesk - Tumblr blog

[hleavesk]

whale song. glad that whales are still letting human talking to them after so much the latter have done to nature.

(source: bbc.com | apr 2024)

[hleavesk]

good for them.

(source: ap news | 8 feb 2024)

[hleavesk]

(source: atlas obscura | 4 feb 2024)

the largest living organism, if we’re measuring by volume, is a tree. 

At 275 feet tall, the General Sherman Tree is as tall as three blue whales are long. It’s just thirty feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty. It weighs over 2,000 tons, the same weight as 400 elephants. Its base measures 36 feet in diameter.

[hleavesk]

(source: AP | 1 feb 2024)

The return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland, a new study shows.

Sea otters eat constantly and one of their favorite snacks is the striped shore crab. These crabs dig burrows and also nibble away roots of the marsh grass pickleweed that holds dirt in place.

[hleavesk]

love her ritual and passion. respect.

(source: bbc news | 16 jan 2024)

Rosemary Parslow crawls on her hands and knees across the frozen ground under a wintry sky.

Most other visitors to the Isles of Scilly are holed up with family and friends.

But this natural history lover has other things on her mind: discovering a tiny endangered fern that 'blooms' in the middle of winter.

It's become something of a seasonal tradition for Rosemary, to the bewilderment of her three children.

[hleavesk]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/24/white-rhino-embryo-surrogacy/

(source: washington post | jan 2024)

scientists say opens the way to saving the endangered northern white rhino. Only two females exist in the world, Najin and daughter Fatu, and both are unable to carry pregnancies. Najin and Fatu live at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy, which was also home to Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, which died in 2018.

[hleavesk]

(source: atlas obscura | 16 jan 2024)

Female octopuses, rolled into balls in a defensive position to protect their eggs, were clustered together on the rocky terrain, gently swaying back and forth. They were gathered around the warm waters of a hydrothermal spring.

Seeing hatchlings emerge from eggs in 2023 convinced scientists the deep sea octopus nursery was active and thriving. (check the clip in this story).

four new species of octopus were discovered from this expedition in Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast.

[hleavesk]

love is in the air. love between human and animals (pets).

[hleavesk]

fire ants alert. watch this clip.

(source: the guardian | 16 jan 2024)

[hleavesk]

(source: associated press | 20 dec 2023)

As the world’s demand for chocolate grows, farmers in Nigeria are moving into protected areas that’s home to endangered species like African forest elephants. Farmers are found harvesting cocoa beans where that work is banned in areas of the Omo Forest Reserve.

[hleavesk]

iceland volcano. eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland. live image from reuters. (dec 2023)

[hleavesk]

penguins at KING GEORGE ISLAND, Antarctica 

(source: associated press | 11 dec 2023)

[hleavesk]

(source: bbc future | nov 2023)

Imagery that was once hauntingly attention-grabbing was criticised for being too distant, unrelatable and devastating, prompting a call for more diverse representations of climate change. Popular media began to shift away from these iconic photos, opting instead for images of extreme weather, such as heatwaves, droughts and typhoons, which emphasise an issue far closer to home.  

...

With polar bear images, there is a risk of alienating the public by implying that the issue is removed from their reality. Stereotypical images of the Arctic – that are icy, blank, so remote it appears otherworldly – create a sense that climate change is a distant problem. "The focus on this iconic visual can exclude the wider realities of climate change. It misses the essential perspectives of indigenous Arctic communities, for example" says O'Neill. 

[hleavesk]

One positive news to survive this ailing world.

[hleavesk]

(photo journal from reuters | 15 nov 2023)

Cormorants have been a constant presence in Youichiro Adachi’s life, and when he was young, he cried whenever one of his family’s birds died. Now 48, Adachi still cares deeply for his birds, drawing them out of their baskets each morning and stroking their long necks to confirm their health and maintain a bond.

“For me, cormorants are my partners,” he said.

Adachi is the 18th generation of his family to be a master cormorant fisherman, and one of about 50 people in Japan carrying on the 1,300-year tradition of using trained birds to dive for fish. It is considered the ideal way to catch the sweet ayu river fish, and his family has a hereditary mandate to supply the delicacy to the Japanese imperial household.

[hleavesk]

banyan, breadfruit, kukui, and ulu trees we all care.

(source: associated press | 19 oct 2023)

Now, as Maui recovers from the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, one that left at least 98 people dead, a band of arborists, farmers and landscapers has set about trying to save Lahaina’s ulu, kukui nut and other culturally important trees, in some cases digging down to the roots of badly burned specimens to find live tissue that could be used to propagate new shoots.

They see the destruction as a chance to restore the trees to Lahaina, to teach about their care and use, and to reclaim a bit of the town’s historic identity amid a larger discussion about whether the community’s reconstruction will price out locals and Hawaiian culture in favor of deep-pocketed outsiders seeking a slice of tropical paradise.

The banyan tree at the center of Lahaina was a sapling when it was planted in 1873 — a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a U.S. territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom. It was a gift shipped from India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Protestant mission in Lahaina.

researchers believe breadfruit and kukui nut — now the state tree of Hawaii — were among the many edible plants Polynesian voyagers brought around 1,000 years ago. Such imports could have been carried across the ocean, wrapped in rotted coconut husk and dried leaves and protected in a woven coconut basket.

Kukui nut oil was used for torches — kukui is known as the “tree of light.” Other uses included wood for canoes, dyes for tattoos and bark infusions for preserving fish nets.

Ulu can grow to 60 feet (18 meters) tall, with large dark green leaves, and each can bear hundreds of pounds of breadfruit. A staple in some tropical countries, the fruit looks like an oversized, scaly lime. It is typically eaten cooked and is starchy, like potatoes or bread. It has a short shelf life, rotting within 48 hours of ripening.

[hleavesk]

(source: afp | 13 oct 2023)

Hong Kong on Friday added two major shark families to a list of endangered animals whose trade in the city will be tightly controlled under CITES regulations.

The city is one of the world's largest markets for shark fin, which is viewed by many Chinese communities as a delicacy and often served as a soup at expensive banquets.

Its trade is regulated under an international treaty on endangered species that requires export permits proving it was sustainably captured.

The new protected species list includes the two shark families, as well as various types of turtles and stingrays, according to the statement.

Marine experts in Hong Kong say the majority of shark fins consumed in the city are blue sharks -- which are part of the requiem family.

"Before the two families were covered, around 20 percent of the shark fins imported to Hong Kong were under control. But now with the two families, up to 90 percent would come under control," Stan Shea, marine programme director for the BLOOM Association, told AFP.