GREENYGREY’S RAMBLES

Hi, no the heading is not a new punk band, or GG’s playmates, but the stars of last night’s BBC Natural World documentary: Prairie Dogs - Talk of the Town.  It contained both very funny footage, and very important information about their ‘culture’.

The funnies were when Professor Con Slobodchikoff, who has been researching prairie dogs for thirty years, wheeled out a fake coyote and other predators to hear the reaction of the prairie dogs.  Turned out the PDs had a different call for each animal, and passed it on to their young, which is thought to be evidence of a ‘language’.  They also have a call for the all clear, which is like a raucous prairie dog Mexican wave!

Anyway, for an expert view I’ll pass you over to Pablo Orlov, distant prairie dog cousin of Alexandr Orlov, the star of the Compare the Meerkats website:

‘Hello Greezygreyzters, Pablo Orlov here.  Pleez excuz mi Eenglish.  It eez great to be here wiz youz.  Alexandr recently told me he owz loads to the Greezygrey one, and earlier influences such as Scoobzy Doo, as their travels and rise to cebrity status paved zee way for udder anthromorphic stars like Alexandr.

Anyway, of course we prairie dogs can communicate.  Simples.’

Thank you for your expert opinion Pablo, and thanks also to Alexandr for the acknowledgement to GG. 

Got the World Science newsletter this morning, and its got lots of good new stories and research, with some of the highlights being:

1. Birds might not be evolved from dinosaurs after all
2. Jellyfish are taking advantage of their predators going extinct to take over the oceans
3. Black holes might be denser than thought, with one measured at the equivalent of 6.4 billion suns: yes, billions!
4. Being conscious takes a lot of energy: must be why sleep is so cool!!

New Poetry

Also put a new Folding Mirror poem up on site this morning about a parachutist, the cloud, Earth and space, so please follow the link over if you’re intrigued!

Hi, it’s the Greenygrey here. 

I’ve just taken some time out from supporting my ol’ pals in Yellowstone and the North Rockies to spend some relaxing time in a town that truly appreciates the wonders of wolves.

Yes, it has been fun revisiting Manitoba, which was of course a part of my first acronym on my epic virtual journey across North America: BASMOQ.

The Thompson Spirit Way is of course a welcome addition to the province and region, and let’s hope more places in the world support and welcome wolves in a similar way.

Amazing to read all the sightings of wolves nearby; just surprised there’s been no recorded sightings of me yet!

First of all, I’d just like to report the news that all the visitor categories for this website are the second highest going into the last week of the month, so please try and visit as much as possible to get a clean sweep of Greenygrey world records.

In my Green Crier article this week I report some good news for wolves and wolf lovers from the UK and USA.  The transcript is below:

In the UK, Jonathan Brown reported in the Independent on Wednesday, 17 September 2008 that wolves, boars and big cats might be reintroduced to the wilds of Scotland.

Conservationists are meeting near Inverness today to discuss the possibility of re-establishing these native mammals in the Highlands. The successful reintroduction of bird species, such as white-tailed sea eagles and red kites, as well as the imminent return of beavers to parts of Argyle, has seen support swing in favor of welcoming back species once persecuted to extinction.

Dan Pulpett, of the environmental campaign group Trees for Life, which seeks to re-establish 900 square miles of the Caledonian Forest north of the Great Glen, believes the experience of other countries which have gone down that route has proved too compelling to ignore.

“It is not just about trying to recreate the past but moving forward to re-establish healthy eco-systems in which these animals will play a crucial role,” Mr Pulpett said. “There are also clear cultural and economic benefits. Lynx reintroduced in Switzerland and Germany have given tourism there a major boost.”

Some of the lost species are already gaining a tentative foothold back in their former strongholds. On the Alladale Estate, owned by MFI furniture heir Paul Lister, elk and wild boar are living happily, and he is now pressing the case for lynx, wolves and bears. The fact that boar have been living relatively happily alongside humans in southern England after escaping in the 1987 hurricane has also added support to the case.

Meanwhile, over the pond, the Defenders of Wildlife conservation group had some wonderful news for its supporters.  An email from excited President, Rodger Schlickeisen reported that: “Officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) say that they plan to rescind the agency’s plan to delist gray wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies sometime soon and place them back under federal protections.

Thanks to your incredible efforts and support over the last few months, the Fish and Wildlife Service has finally bowed to reality by recognizing that there are serious scientific and legal problems with their plan for delisting wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.”

Here’s the second Green Crier article this week.  A bit of a lighter subject, but still very important.

The Greenygrey said it has no relation to the panda as far as it knows, and any cute similarities are purely accidental.

The article:

A panda cub has unfortunately died in a zoo in Japan, three days after its celebrated birth following a rare success in artificial insemination was shown in media across the world.  The cub’s 12-year-old mother was the first giant panda since 1988 to conceive through artificial insemination in Japan.  Pictures showed a quick birth, and the tiny furless cub being cuddled by the mother after squirming about on the floor.

In better news, a similar aged panda cub at Zoo Atlanta continued to recover with his mother after a mysterious medical problem.  The WSBTV.com website reported Keisha Hines-Davis, public relations director at Zoo Atlanta, as stating that the cub was doing well after being diagnosed with dehydration after zookeepers took him from his mother, Lun Lun. He was placed in an incubator for about 24 hours, but returned to Lun Lun the day after.  Veterinarians continue to treat him with antibiotics.  Zoo official Dwight Lawson wrote in a news release that “Lun Lun continues to tolerate the cub’s removal, but responds quickly and appropriately when he is reintroduced.”
 
The Giant Panda, which has featured as the WWF (World Wild Life Fund) logo since its inception in 1961 is an endangered species and highly threatened.  Panda numbers were in decline until the 1990s, with deforestation and hunting the main human causes, and the pandas’ low birth rate another.  However, new laws put in place by the Chinese government to protect an animal loved around the world has stabilised the population.  Native to central and south-western China it is estimated that there are now 1500-2000 pandas surviving in the wild.  China has just over 200 pandas in captivity and there another twenty to thirty living outside the country.

Pandas reach sexual maturity between the ages of 4 and 8, and may continue reproducing until 20 years of age.  The mating season takes place between March and May, when a female goes into her estrous cycle which lasts for 2 or 3 days and only occurs once a year.  The whole gestation period ranges from 95 to 160 days.  Baby pandas weigh only 90 to 130 grams (3.2 to 4.6 ounces), which is about 1/900 of the mother’s weight. It nurses from its mother’s breast 6 to 14 times a day for up to 30 minutes at a time.  They lose interest in mating once in captivity, so the primary reproduction method in zoos is artificial insemination.

My second Green Crier article this week focused on our very own Prince Charlie’s opposition to GM crops.

The article:

Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, spoke up in opposition to GM crops in an interview with the Telegraph newspaper last week.  Charles is known for his outspoken views, and he has previously advocated organic farming and alternative medicines, as well as criticising modern architecture and warning about the dangers of nanotechnology.

Charles has an organic farm on his Highgrove estate in Gloucestershire, and his criticisms of GM technology are twofold: he believes that relying on big corporations for the mass production of food would not only threaten future food supplies, but also force smaller producers out of business.

He accused agrochemical firms of conducting a “gigantic experiment with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong…If they think this is the way to go we will end up with millions of small farmers all over the world being driven off their land into unsustainable, unmanageable, degraded and dysfunctional conurbations of unmentionable awfulness. I think it will be an absolute disaster.  What we should be talking about is food security not food production  -  that is what matters and that is what people will not understand.  If they think it’s somehow going to work because they are going to have one form of clever genetic engineering after another then count me out, because that will be guaranteed to cause the biggest disaster environmentally of all time.’

Charles’ comments follow a UN International Assessment of Agriculture (IAASTD) report that also had negative findings for GM technology.  Carried out by 400 scientists and endorsed by 60 countries it found no conclusive evidence that GM crops increase crop yields.  Any benefits were outweighed by an unacceptable environmental and social cost; such as degrading soils, contributing to climate change and failing the world’s poor.  The biotechnology industry pulled out of the process when it became clear that the report would not endorse GM crops.

Professor Robert Watson, chief scientist at the UK department of the environment (Defra), said the industrialisation of farming has failed to produce the food needed by the world; instead it has led to the heavy use of chemicals, leeching the soil of nutrients and polluting waterways.  Consequently, some 850million people around the world go to bed hungry each night.  Prof Watson considers that: ‘We are putting food that appears cheap on our tables but it is food that is not always healthy and that costs us dearly in terms of water, soil and the biological diversity on which our futures depend.’

Friends of the Earth’s Campaign Director Mike Childs said: “Prince Charles has hit the nail on the head about the damaging false solution that GM crops present.  GM crops will not solve the food crisis - and forging ahead with an industrialised farming system will continue to fail people and the environment around the world.  Global political effort must be channelled into securing long lasting, green farming solutions that put people, not corporations, at their heart - and the UK Government must look at the evidence before falling for GM industry hype.”

The UK Government has been a cheerleader in the EU for GM technology; opposing the labelling of GM foods and supporting U.S. government efforts to have the EU moratorium lifted.  In 2001, the then British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, argued that supporting GM technology was vital for Britain’s reputation as a leader in the field of science. 

However, trials in the UK during 2003, the largest ever, found GM farming harms the countryside.  The spraying regimes for GM oilseed rape and beet killed off weeds, weed seeds and beetles; resulting in food shortages for birds.  Moreover, GM pollen was carried up to sixteen miles from farm trial sites, and there were worries that it might damage natural plants.

Polls in the UK have consistently showed opposition to GM products, and a consumer backlash convinced retailers, led by Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s, to banish GM ingredients from own-label products. 

The Telegraph reported that the Prince’s opposition to GM had received a positive reaction from the vast majority of its readers.

First of all, thanks for all your visits.  At the half way point of the month you are already in silver position for best month, and seem almost certain to break the world record, and get the gold.

Congratulations to all the competitors who have taken part in the Olympics too, and especially those who have won golds and medals, the British team, and those who will be remembered long after the flame leaves for the UK, such as Phelps and Bolt.

Last night saw the last in the three-part series of The Genius of Charles Darwin on Channel 4; last week, presenter Richard Dawkins explained that the evolution of humanity is in fact away from the natural survival of the fittest, and a programme this week hopefully showed that in action.

In last Wednesday’s final episode of Lost Land of the Jaguar Steve Backshall thought he’d found a new species of frog on a high table mountain towering over the unspoilt jungle of Guyana.  However, to verify this would have meant killing the frog to bring it out of the jungle.  Backshall said he was not willing to do that, which I thought was highly commendable, and if all humanity treated nature with such respect the world would surely be a better place for everyone.

In contrast, on Thursday Channel 4’s Dangerous Jobs for Girls showed three British women having to learn to work on a deep-sea trawler.  They impressively managed to do this tough job, but the amount of killing and the way it was done was horrendous.

Fish were split open and emptied of their inners while still alive, and as one of the women stated, the fish must have felt something.  Hopefully, the success of the women in the programme will satisfy the female urge to do such jobs, and they won’t feel the need to undertake such tasks themselves.  This Thursday, the last programme in the series looks at big game hunting.

Finishing on a fishy note, a film last week showed a trawler in European waters tipping 80% of its catch overboard before reaching port, as a quota limits amounts, and they only wanted to present the profitable fish.  It seems crazy in these days of depleted fish stocks and polluted oceans that this kind of waste of life takes place.

If I ever finished being a veggie, fish would probably be the first option I’d consider, but the above programme and news report have made that a much less likely option than it was before.