A Year to Conserve, to Learn, and to Educate
Elephant Poaching in Kenya - Elephants in Kenya have been one of the most heavily poached populations on the whole continent, especially in the Eastern National Parks like Tsavo. These parks are close to ports where poachers can easily kill elephants and smuggle the ivory out of the country and into the Chinese black market. … Continue reading Kenya
Lion Research in Hwange - Hwange National Park is home to one of Africa’s largest and most successful lion conservation programs. A large part of their success comes from the way researchers use radio collars and track how many times they venture outside the park’s boundaries. Jane Hunt, a predator researcher in the park for … Continue reading Zimbabwe
Much More Than a Desert: Australia A Unique Variety - Few places on earth have enough space and climatic diversity for rainforests, coral reefs, deserts, and grasslands to survive. Australia is an exception. Millions of years of evolution have developed a comprehensive diversity in both the biomes and wildlife. To explore this variety, we spent … Continue reading Australia
Fragile Habitats: Indonesia A Biodiversity Hotspot - As the center of mammalian and marine biodiversity, Indonesia holds a special place in global ecology. It was once a natural paradise, bursting with marine and terrestrial life of all kinds in every one of its 17,000 islands. The surrounding sea was also an underwater eden, harboring more … Continue reading Indonesia
Wildlife Protection in Ancient Islands: New Zealand Conservation in New Zealand - In its last remaining patches of intact forest and miles of pristine coastline, the remote islands of New Zealand shelter some of the animal kingdom’s most bizarre and endangered species as well as inspiring stories of conservation efforts. Conservation challenges here are … Continue reading New Zealand
The KMP - The Kalahari Meerkat Project is easily one of the most comprehensive and successful wildlife studies on earth. It was founded by Tim Clutton-Brock, an animal ecology professor at Cambridge University, and is run by a variety of scientists and volunteers, who are working to understand the meerkat’s unsolved mysteries. They have made … Continue reading Kalahari
Antarctica: The White Continent Although Antarctica is a vast polar desert, the surrounding ocean supports an array of marine life and seabirds, including both migratory and resident whale species as well as several types of penguins. These waters produce more food sources than any other sea, even surpassing coral reefs, and attract whales from all … Continue reading Antarctica
A Wildlife Haven Just north of the Antarctic convergence lies the Falkland Islands, which is a major biodiversity hotspot for Subantarctic wildlife. We planned a week here to observe animal behavior, including various species of birds and marine mammals, and understand the impact of invasive species on several outer islands. In contrast, some islands, like … Continue reading Falkland Islands
Patagonia: The ends of the earth Although mostly formed by steppe and desert, Patagonia is home to an array of ecosystems, wildlife, and cultures. This remote region has dramatic biodiversity, which includes Torres del Paine, a mountainous national park with a steppe ecosystem in Chile, and Tierra del Fuego, a Subantarctic forest-covered island at the … Continue reading Patagonia
Ranthambhore, the second Indian park we visited, is home to around 70 tigers and is an instrumental part of their protection. We went on four game drives and two of them were full day excursions. In this brief period, we saw five adult tigers and four cubs. Seeing a tiger in the wild has been … Continue reading Ranthambhore
Although India is undergoing a massive urbanization and population boom, the country has sheltered a few remote parks from human influences. These national parks harbor a myriad of life, and many of the most impressive creatures to tread the earth inhabit them. The first park we visited, Kaziranga, has some of the greatest biodiversity … Continue reading Kaziranga
Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos were the subject of our time in Southeast Asia. These three extremely different countries each have their own strengths and weaknesses in conservation. In Thailand, we learned about the plight captive animals, used for tourism, and how captivity affects wild populations as well. The Elephant Nature Park rescues captive elephants … Continue reading Southeast Asia
After a few weeks at home, my mom and I took off again for a week and a half trip to Tokyo and the north island of Japan, Hokkaido. I trained and wrestled with Japanese Olympic wrestler, Sunny Abe, and a recent Olympic gold medalist, Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu, at the Japanese Olympic training center in Northern … Continue reading Japan
BTO: Thetford, the historic capital of East Anglia and home of the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), was the perfect place to explore conservation initiatives that protect Britain’s birds. At their headquarters, CEO Andy Clements discussed the recent Atlas project, which has been a massive undertaking. It demonstrated population fluctuations through maps that are easily … Continue reading United Kingdom