Have you ever seen the northern (or southern) lights? Auroras are part of a natural phenomenon that occurs at far northern and southern latitudes.

Many of us will be celebrating the New Year tonight and for many the skies will be filled with the beautiful and vibrant lights of firecrackers. These brilliant light displays are man-made and have been around for thousands of years. But Nature also has her own light shows that can be seen as even more beautiful.

In 2011 there were very intense aurora borealis (northern lights) due to the strongest solar activity in the last four years. Although the auroras are usually only seen in the Scandinavian countries, Canada and the northern United States, in October of this year they were seen as far south as Missouri and Arkansas. This rare occurance was caused by a Coronal Mass Ejection or a burst of solar wind.

The auroras tend to occur when "charged particles [from the sun] flow along Earth's magnetic field lines. The particles hit the atmosphere at the Poles and excite air molecules, which release the extra energy as light." ~ National Geographic.

Below are some beautiful photos of some of the aurora borealis from 2011. Enjoy them and a Happy New Year to All!


This aurora arched from horizon to horizon. During the current Shelios expedition to observe and learn about the northern lights, the sky last weekend did not disappoint. After sunset and some careful photographic planning, the above image was taken from the expedition's Qaleraliq campsite in southern Greenland. Visible straight through the center of the aurora, found with a careful eye, is the Big Dipper and the surrounding constellation of the Big Bear (Ursa Major). The brightest orb on the far right is the Moon, while Jupiter can be seen even further to the right. The Shelios expedition is scheduled to last until the end of August and include live broadcasts of ongoing auroras.

On September 26, a large solar coronal mass ejection smacked into planet Earth's magnetosphere producing a severe geomagnetic storm and wide spread auroras. Captured here near local midnight from Kvaløya island outside Tromsø in northern Norway, the intense auroral glow was framed by parting rain clouds. Tinted orange, the clouds are also in silhouette as the tops of the colorful shimmering curtains of northern lights extend well over 100 kilometers above the ground. Though the auroral rays are parallel, perspective makes them appear to radiate from a vanishing point at the zenith. Near the bottom of the scene, an even more distant Pleiades star cluster and bright planet Jupiter shine on this cloudy northern night.

September's equinox arrives today at 0905 UT. As the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south, spring begins in the southern hemisphere and autumn in the north. And though the seasonal connection is still puzzling, both spring and autumn bring an increase in geomagnetic storms. So as northern nights grow longer, the equinox also heralds the arrival of a good season for viewing aurora. Recorded earlier this month, these curtains of September's shimmering green light sprawl across a gorgeous night skyscape. In the foreground lies Hidden Lake Territorial Park near Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Calm water reflects the aurora, with bright star trails peering through the mesmerizing sky glow. Of course, shining at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so, planet Earth's auroras are visible from space.

Aurora Moonscape
The spring solstice full "super" moon ....with the aurora over Tuktoyaktuk harbour March 19th, 2011




As northern hemisphere nights grow longer, October is a good month for spotting auroras, or even other eerie apparitions after dark. And this week the night sky did not disappoint. On October 24th a solar coronal mass ejection impacted planet Earth's magnetosphere triggering far ranging auroral displays. On that night, this dramatic silhouette against deep red and beautiful green curtains of shimmering light was captured near Whitby, Ontario, Canada. But auroras were reported even farther south, in US states like Alabama, Kansas, and Oklahoma at latitudes rarely haunted by the northern lights. Well above 100 kilometers, at the highest altitudes infused by the auroral glow, the red color comes from the excitation of oxygen atoms.



The longer you look at this image, the more you see. Perhaps your eye is first drawn to the picturesque waterfall called Skogarfoss visible on the image right. Just as prevalent, however, in this Icelandic visual extravaganza, is the colorful arc of light on the left. This chromatic bow is not a rainbow, since the water drops did not originate in rainfall nor are they reflecting light from the Sun. Rather, the drops have drifted off from the waterfall and are now illuminated by the nearly full Moon. High above are the faint green streaks of aurora. The scene, captured one night last month, also shows a beautiful starscape far in the background, including the Big Dipper, part of the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major).


Explanation: Intense auroral activity flooded the night with shimmering colors on February 24, captured here from a lodge near the city of Yellowknife in northern Canada. The stunning sequence (left to right) of three all-sky exposures, taken at 30 second intervals, shows rapid changes in dancing curtains of northern lights against a starry background. What makes the northern lights dance? Measurements by NASA's fleet of THEMIS spacecraft indicate that these explosions of auroral activity are driven by sudden releases of energy in the Earth's magnetosphere called magnetic reconnection events. The reconnection events release energy when magnetic field lines snap like rubber bands, driving charged particles into the upper atmosphere. Stretching into space, these reconnection events occur in the magnetosphere on the Earth's night side at a distance about 1/3 of the way to the Moon.
~

~

You might not believe it until you hear the frog sing for your self, but a newly discovered frog species in Vietnam actually vocalizes like a bird song.

The Australian Museum in Sydney posted the audio file and is hosting it because one of their researchers, Jodi Rowley, discovered the frog in the mountain forests of Vietnam. Clearly, hearing a bird song or something like one in a forest would not lead one to believe a frog was close by, but Rowley made the discovery anyway. It was found in the Pu Hoat Proposed Nature Reserve and named Quang’s tree frog (Gracixalus quangi). Forest habitat between about 1800 and 4200 feet is where it lives. Fortunately this frog discovery does not also include the information that it is already known to be in danger of extinction, as some new species discovery stories do.

What makes the frogs song more bird-like is that it constantly changes, whereas frogs typically have a very simple and repetitious vocalization. Rowley explained, “In fact, no two calls that I recorded were exactly the same, with each frog mixing clicks, whistles and chirps in no apparent order! It is the most variable frog call that I’ve heard of, and sounds a lot more like a bird song than a frog call.” (Source: Mongabay.com)

She has previously discovered new frog species in Vietnam including one with ‘fanged’ tadpoles, with black curved hooks in their mouths. In the video below she talks about that discovery (not the singing frog). This video was included to show her talking about her research.


The male Quang's tree frog has uniquely complex vocalizations. Photo by: Jodi J. L. Rowley/Australian Museum.





Globally, the world's amphibians are facing an extinction crisis. It's believed that at least 120 amphibians have gone extinct in the last 30 years, while 41 percent of the world's 7,000 known amphibians are considered threatened with extinction by the IUCN Red List. Deforestation, wetland loss, pollution, overexploitation, the pet trade, invasive species, and climate change have all taken a toll on these sensitive creatures, which have been dubbed by many ecologists as "canaries in a coal mine" for their ability to point out environmental degradation. In addition, a deadly fungal disease called chytridiomycosis has wiped out whole species even in pristine environments.

Nancy Glacier knew she always wanted to be an artist. At the young age of 8 years old she began to paint with oils after her grandmother recognized her potential and bought her her first set of oil paints. When she was a teenager Nancy and her family moved to Wyoming where she fell in love with the rugged western terrain.

It was during her time in Wyoming that Nancy met and was mentored by artist, Adolph Spohr. He taught her how to paint like a professional and how to observe her subjects and to self correct if necessary. It was after this training that she developed a desire to paint animals "hair by hair". In order to develop her skill to do this, she took hands on anatomy classes that enabled her to complete a portrait of an animal from it's bone structure to it's muscles to it's hair. The animal then came to life on her canvas.

Today Nancy enjoys much success as one of America's most talented wildlife painters. Her original works are featured in one of America’s leading galleries. Her paintings have also been featured at prestigious art shows throughout the country, and two of her works hang in the famous Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City.

As for her personal life, Nancy and her husband reside in a beautiful and idyllic area in Nevada. She has a spacious studio that she works out of in order to create her amazing paintings and continue her journey to paint the "entire picture". Nancy is surrounded by beautiful mountains to paint by and her passion in the way she paints and the way she lives are inseparable. Enjoy some of her beautiful paintings below.

Thought it was just humans that are ticklish? Think again - scientists are studying how animals respond to being tickled in a bid to shed light on how laughter evolved.

Tickling a gorilla is not for the faint-hearted. But keeper Phil Ridges is not worried at getting into the enclosure with Emmie at Port Lympne Wild Animal Park in Kent. The gorilla, now 19, was hand-reared, and Phil has been her keeper for most of her life.

He says she has a tendency to be "a little bit frosty", but if she is in the mood, she cannot resist a chortle when she is tickled. "I've worked with gorillas for a long time, and I've often seen gorillas tickling each other, so it is a nice feeling when they have accepted you enough and they don't mind you tickling them," he says.

But it is Emmie's response that has intrigued scientist Marina Davila-Ross from the University of Portsmouth, because the gorilla's reaction sounds a lot like human laughter. Dr Davila-Ross says: "I was amazed about the way apes responded to being tickled - the apes seem to behave in the same way humans and children behave when they are being tickled."

In a study published in Current Biology in 2009, Dr Davila-Ross and colleagues compared the sounds that great apes made when they were tickled with the laughter that tickled humans produced.

They found many acoustic similarities, which has led them to believe that laughter in great apes shared the same evolutionary origin as laughter in humans, suggesting a common ancestor that giggled when tickled.

Dr Davila-Ross, who led the study, explains: "Based on the study, we can now say laughter is at least 30 million to 60 million years old."


Giggling rats

But it is not only humans and apes that seem to be ticklish. Several years ago, Jaak Panksepp, now based at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University, decided to see how rats reacted when they were tickled.

He says: "I had my tongue in my cheek when I first suggested that possibility to my student, Jeff Burgdorf. "Waking up with that idea struck me as a delusional inspiration, but we tested it, and were blown away by the vigour and consistency of the result."

The researchers found that the rodents emitted high-pitched chirps when tickled by the scientists - outside the range of human hearing. They also produced the same noises when they played around with other rats.


In a series of published papers, the researchers said they believed these experiments revealed a primal form of laughter. "The fact that it replicated in animal after animal coaxed us to drop other planned experiments, and follow where that lead us took us for months, then years," says Dr Panksepp.

"This is simply the best measure of social joy in animals we have."

Online help

But if animals as different as rats and primates can laugh when tickled - what about all of the animals in between? This is a question that Dr Davila-Ross is now looking to answer.

She explains: "Over the course of several years, we started to hear about other research finding that other animals produced tickle-induced vocalisations.

"This was intriguing."

To investigate further, her team has turned to a rich source of animal footage: YouTube. According to Dr Davila-Ross, more and more animal behaviour researchers are turning to the internet because it allows them to look through large volumes of footage, which can then be systematically assessed.

A quick trawl reveals an eclectic array of animals - owls, dogs, meerkats, penguins, and even a camel and a dolphin - that appear to noisily react when being tickled.The team is especially interested in tickling, because it allows them to directly compare responses across these very different species. The researchers are looking to gather and compare as much tickling material of as many animals as possible.

Dr Davila-Ross explains: "It is such a systematic method, and tickling has many interesting elements to it - it is part of play behaviour, and it's very important that we have a surprise factor in there.

"There is certain coordination going on, and it is not just a passive behaviour."

The team is especially interested in the sounds animals make as they are being tickled.

Dr Davila-Ross does not describe these as laughter, rather she is looking for the animals that appear to make "positive vocalisations" - or expressions of joy.


She explains: "I'm interested in positive communications of animals.

"I believe that positive communication is closely linked to the evolution of laughter: by communicating with one another positively, we are interacting more with individuals - and it is likely that this played an important role for communication to develop."

Michael Owren, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience from Georgia State University in the US, believes there may be a simple explanation to why such a wide range of animals respond to tickling.

He says: "I suspect that it might be an artefact of what the mammalian nervous system is like.

"In the same way that touching or stroking or grooming animals can be pleasurable to them - without being possible for them because within their species they don't have the same hands and fingers that we have - it seems there is a commonality across mammals of pleasant feelings being evoked by touching."

Dr Marina Davila-Ross says that although it may take time to gather data and assess the results, she hopes this study across the animal kingdom could begin to shed light on how laughter evolved.

"A direct comparison across a range of species will give us some interesting insights into the evolution and co-evolution of play vocalisations and positive animal emotion," she says.

"I think it is important when one reconstructs evolutionary processes - particularly with positive expressions - that it is important to assess different types of animals.

"In this way we can assess in much detail how did these vocalisations emerge and why is it important for that animal to produce them."

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News

Oregon biologists have found a gray wolf in one of the state's four known packs, bringing the state's wolf count to 25.

The Oregonian reports that photos captured by an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife remote camera show that the state's Wenaha pack produced a pup earlier this year.

The pup is shown sniffing the snow and then testing the air.

"One could presume he's still traveling with an adult," ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said, though the images show the pup alone.

The photos - from a camera in a forest in western Wallowa County - show a half-grown young wolf with a full coat of gray fur. They provide the first indication that the pack's alpha male and female reproduced.

Dennehy said the pup is believed to have been born last spring, likely in April.

The total of 25 wolves is "the number we can account for," Dennehy said, but there could be more wolves that state biologists don't yet know about.

With confirmation that the Wenaha pack had a pup, state biologists say all of Oregon's four wolf packs have reproduced this year.

The packs are all in the state's rugged northeastern corner.

The Imnaha, Wenaha and Snake River packs all dropped at least one pup, and the Walla Walla pack had at least three pups. Only the Walla Walla pack is considered a "breeding pair" for conservation purposes, meaning the pack produced at least two pups that survived through the end of the year into which they were born.

The largest pack in Oregon is the Walla Walla, with six wolves. The Imnaha, Walla Walla and Snake River packs each had five. Two other wolves roam northern Umatilla County, along with two "dispersers" in northeastern Oregon.

The first physical evidence that wolves had returned to Oregon by migrating across the Snake River from Idaho came in 2007, when a rancher found tracks on the south end of the Eagle Cap Wilderness.

---

Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com


A pup from northeast Oregon's Wenaha pack was born in spring 2011 and captured in a photo taken by a remote camera on Dec. 11.

Immersing oneself in nature always has always had a calming and positive effect on humans. Even something as simple as working in a garden or taking a walk on a nature trail has been shown to relax and remove everyday worries from one's mind. That humans innately love spending time in nature is known as biophilia and has been around for generations. But it wasn't until the 20th century's ecological awakening, led first by psychologist Erich Fromm and then later by ecologist E.O. Wilson that it was elevated to a scientific concept .

Scientists have begun to shed new light on the human brain in an ecological context in recent years. But much of the focus has been on the obvious visual icons of nature such as trees, flowers, beaches or mountains. But a new study is about to take place during the span of the next three years. It will focus on how birdsong actually affect the human brain in a psychological manner. In past studies it was found that bird songs can make traffic noise more tolerable. It also made people feel less crowded and could even initiate circadian rhythm. But until now few have looked at the greater impact of bird songs on our mental health.

The study will be led by researcher, Eleanor Ratcliffe, a Ph.D. candidate in environmental psychology at the University of Surrey in the U.K. It is her feeling that a study like this can fill a scientific void in current research and she will be funded by the U.K. National Trust and the Surrey Wildlife Trust. Dr. Ratcliffe will begin by interviewing a representative sample of the public to gauge their perception of natural sounds, including bird calls. She will attempt to find out if avian song can improve mood and attention after stress or fatigue. She will also try to learn more about which kinds of bird songs actually boost mental health and in what ways since not all birds sing the same tune. Lastly, she will be testing to see how this study could have applications in our daily lives as to whether or not listening to recorded birdsong could reduce stress levels.

National Trust ecologist Peter Brash suggests that dedicated birders already know the benefits of bird song in nature. He is quoted as saying, "Birdsong is one of the most distinctive sounds from the natural world, and gives us a warm glow inside when we hear it. We're all attuned to the need to eat five fruits and vegetables a day or take a 30-minute walk. Taking the time out to listen to five minutes of birdsong every day could be as beneficial to our well being."

Researchers are trying to determine if songbirds, like this eastern bluebird in Pennsylvania, can improve humans' mental performance.

The reintroduction of wolves has resulted in profound ecoystem changes in the Greater Yellowstone region.

For the first time in 70 years, the over-browsing of young aspen and willow trees has diminished. Trees and shrubs are recovering along some streams, providing improved habitat for beaver and fish.

“Yellowstone increasingly looks like a different place,” said William Ripple, a professor in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University, and lead author of a recent study documenting some of the changes.

“These are still the early stages of recovery, and some of this may still take decades,” Ripple said. “But trees and shrubs are starting to come back and beaver numbers are increasing. The signs are very encouraging.”

The findings of this report are based on a recent analysis done by OSU researchers and a review of other studies. They were published recently in Biological Conservation, a professional journal. They outline an ecosystem renaissance that has taken place since wolves were restored toYellowstone after being extirpated in the 1920s.


Among the observations in this report:

*Since their reintroduction in 1995-96, the wolf population generally increased until 2003, forcing changes in both elk numbers and behavior due to what researchers call the “ecology of fear.”
*The northern range elk populations decreased from more than 15,000 individuals in the early 1990s to about 6,000 last year, and remaining elk now have different patterns of movement, vigilance, and other traits.
*By 2006, some aspen trees had grown tall enough they were no longer susceptible to browsing by elk, and cottonwood and willow were also beginning to return in places.
*Improved willow growth is providing habitat that allows for a greater diversity and abundance of songbirds such as the common yellowthroat, warbling vireo and song sparrow.
*The number of beaver colonies in the same area increased from one in 1996 to 12 in 2009, with positive impacts on fish habitat.
*Increases in beaver populations have strong implications for riparian hydrology and biodiversity – Wyoming streams with beaver ponds have been found to have 75 times more abundant waterfowl than those without.
*The coyote population decreased with the increase in wolf numbers, potentially allowing more small mammals that provide food for other avian and mammalian predators, such as red foxes, ravens and bald eagles.

Evidence of improved ecosystem health following the return of wolves is “becoming increasingly persuasive,” the scientists said in their report, though they also note that an increasing population of bison is continuing to impact young woody plants in the Lamar Valley.

“The wolves have made a major difference inYellowstone,” said Robert Beschta, a professor emeritus of forestry at OSU and co-author on the study.

“Whether similar recovery of plant communities can be expected in other areas, especially on public lands outside national parks, is less clear,” Beschta said. “It may be necessary for wolves not only to be present but to have an ecologically effective density, and mechanisms to deal with human and wolf conflicts also need to be improved.”

But at least in America’s first national park, the return of this large predator is having an impact.

“Predation and predation risk associated with large predators appear to represent powerful ecological forces,” the researchers concluded in their report, “capable of affecting the interactions of numerous animals and plants, as well as the structure and function of ecosystems.”

Article by  Bob Berwyn

The strong heartbeat of a living being is a sign of life and good health and it turns out that the beautiful Earth we call home also has a heartbeat. In actuality the Earth pulses with a kind of resonant wave also known as the Schumann Resonance.

Like other heartbeats, it is regulated by electricity and pulses at eight cycles per second. When lightening strikes the Earth, it creates electromagnetic waves in the Earth's atmosphere. There is no shortage of lightening strikes either as they occur over four million times a day. Most of the waves are are caught between the ground and the upper atmosphere, sixty miles up and most shake themselves to nothing. However other waves, with just the right wavelength and frequency keep going.

The wavelength is the circumference of the earth or more. The waves don't just sweep across the Earth but rather they are like standing waves that pulse at their lows and their crests, therefore a creating a resonant wave. The interesting thing is that scientists had always thought the heartbeat was confined to the earth and was trapped under the blanket of the ionosphere.

Recently however, scientists have discovered that is not the case. In a paper in the online journal Geophysical Research Letters, NASA scientists working on the Goddard Space Flight Center recently wrote that they have detected these waves up to five hundred miles from the Earth. It seems the Earth's heartbeat can be felt into space as these electromagnetic waves are leaking through the boundaries of earth and resonating upward and beyond.






Satellite observations of Schumann resonances in the Earth's ionosphere

Skywatchers will be hoping for clear skies from today because particles from a recent solar storm will slam into Earth and produce amazing Northern Lights, or auroras. On the downside, experts expect radio blackouts for a few days, caused by the radiation from the flare – or coronal mass ejection (CME) – causing magnetic storms.

The flare is part of a larger increase in activity in the Sun, which runs in 11-year cycles. It is expected to peak around 2013.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center wrote: ‘Category G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storms are expected 28 and 29 December due to multiple coronal mass ejection arrivals.

R1 (Minor) radio blackouts are expected until 31 December.’Devices that depend on radio waves include GPS systems, radios and mobile phones.A coronal mass ejection contains billions of tons of gases bursting with X-rays and ultraviolet radiation that are flung into space at around 5million mph.

They are mind-bogglingly hot – around 100,000,000C.The Earth is occasionally hosed by these ejections, leading to amazing shimmering light shows.

Stunning Northern Lights are expected in the next few days from radiation produced by a huge solar flare

They are caused by the ionised solar particles becoming imprisoned by Earth’s magnetic field, exciting the gases in the atmosphere and emitting bursts of energy in the form of light.However, these particles can also cause magnetic storms, which in extreme cases have been known to disrupt satellites and electricity grids.

In 1989, a CME was held responsible for leaving six million people in Quebec, Canada, without power.Last month one of the largest storms our star can produce was detected.Known as an X1.9 flare, it was one of the biggest seen in years.

The flare was so powerful that it disrupted communications systems on earth a short time later.Another gigantic flare occurred in August - shown in the video below - but because it took place on the side of the Sun not facing Earth, there was no
disruption to communications or power.

Source By Ted Thornhill

Heat is on: Solar flares spray gases out at 5million mph and at 100,000,000C. Pictured is a flare that erupted in June this year

A study was conducted by University of Montana researchers which found the presence of wolves in Yellowstone contributes many millions of dollars each year to the local economy, from tourists who visit the park to see wildlife.

This information is from a study conducted over five years ago on the economic contribution from Yellowstone wolves, but it is still very relevant due to the recent controversy surrounding the management of wild wolves in the United States.

They surveyed park visitors for about one year, and found wolves were the second most-desired animal that visitors wanted to see. Their first-choice animal to see was the grizzly bear. Previous data showed visitors wanted to see wolves even when wolves were not present in the park, as they had been all killed off. After they were reintroduced, visitors then began indicating wolves were one of their top picks of wildlife to see. (It should be pointed out that livestock losses due to wolf predation were stated to be only about $60,000 per year at the high point.)

Within the park, it has been estimated that there are only about 94-100 wild wolves, but the entire region including Idaho, Wyoming and Montana may have approximately 1,700. In 2008, there were about 124 wild wolves in Yellowstone, but disease reduced that number by over twenty percent.

Wolves provide an additional value to the smaller meat-eating animals in their habitat as well. A different study showed they tend to not finish eating their prey at times, which leaves free meat for coyotes, golden eagles, and other small creatures, and the distribution of the food occurs somewhat evenly throughout the year, which means there is a fairly steady supply of left over food for the smaller animals.

The controversy around how the wild wolves should be protected from human society is especially remarkable because it is obscuring the fact that the reintroduction of wild wolves to Yellowstone and the whole region has been a very successful venture.

It seems now what is taking place is paranoia and hysteria about the wolves, due to a lack of self-awareness on the part of some people. For example, Don Peay, who founded a hunting organization published some misinformation claiming that big game herds, “….can sustain tens of thousands of jobs…” (Source: Defenders of Wildlife) Really, herds of elk, and deer sustain tens of thousands of jobs? Which jobs?

It sounds like he is just making up nonsense, and has no idea what he is talking about. Of course, this misinformation is just his way of trying to claim that hunting contributes more economically than having even a small number of wolves scattered across several states. People like Mr. Peay, rather conveniently never cite any credible sources of information or research studies, however.

by Jake Richardson

Everyone remembers the shock and sadness earlier this year when the world's favorite polar bear, Knut, died suddenly at the early age of 4yrs. old in a zoo in Berlin. He had been hand raised by human handlers when his mother had rejected him shortly after birth. So when a cute little polar bear named Siku gained world- wide attention recently with the announcement that he was being hand raised after his mother had rejected him in a Danish Wildlife Park, questions were being raised if maybe this little guy could suffer the same fate.

But Siku's caretaker Frank Vigh-Larsen, from the Scandinavian Wildlife Park in Kolind, Denmark has assured those skeptics that Siku will be living in a totally different environment and should do quite well. Vigh-Larson was quoted as saying, "We have the world’s largest polar bear facility here, covering two-and-a-half hectares, and when he’s about 2 years old he will move in with the other four polar bears (at the park) and have a very normal polar bear life — as normal as it can be in captivity.”

The wildlife park also wants Siku to be an ambassador for his wild cousins who are suffering greatly because the melting polar ice caps are severely cutting into their traditional hunting grounds. Siku, whose name in Inuit means "Sea Ice" will help bring awareness to the rest of the world about their plight. His name is very symbolic because the sea ice is melting and "that’s threatening the very existence, the survival of the polar bears,” Vigh-Larsen said.



Why Siku is the ambassador to wild polar bears ~

Currently there are an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears that live in the wild across Alaska, Greenland, Russia, Canada and Norway. In Polar bear country on the western shore of Canada's Hudson Bay area, about 1,000 miles north of the US-Canada border along the 49th parallel, hundreds of polar bears gather each fall to wait for the bay to freeze over. Once it freezes, they can head out onto the ice to hunt ring seals.

The problem is that the ice is weeks late in forming. The polar bears, who haven’t eaten since July, have been arriving as always in early November but there was very little ice on Hudson Bay. For the polar bears, less time to eat means a greater risk of not surviving the ever-lengthening time when they are on shore and not eating. Because of this the polar bears are definitely threatened by habitat loss driven by climate change.

In order to help the polar bears survive, The World Wildlife Fund and other conservation groups are focusing their energies on a project known as the “Last Ice Area.” These are the areas of the Arctic that scientific projections indicate remain frozen longer even as the planet warms. These organizations are working to get these areas, which include Canada, Greenland and Russia, protected as a kind of final refuge for these magnificent creatures. A major donor to the project is the Coca-Cola company which has kicked in $2 million and agreed to match the next $1 million in contributions. Coke has long been associated with polar bears through its well-known ads featuring cartoon polar bears.

Enjoy the recent video of Siku with his handler in an interview on the Today Show .

The tree-trunk-like legs of a herd of elephants lumber past, a calf tucked amongst them for safekeeping. A tiger and her cubs look up from their nighttime meal, feasting on a fresh-caught prey. These scenes, captured in rare video footage by camera traps in Thailand's Western Forest Complex, show that threatened species can be brought back from the brink.

"[The footage] shows the incredible diversity of species that can flourish once the proper protections are in place. Such rich displays of rare carnivores, elephants, and other forest denizens prove the increased monitoring and protection in the region has paid off," Dr. Elizabeth Bennett of the Wildlife Conservation Society says in a newly released video that includes footage from the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary within the forest complex.

WCS and the government of Thailand have been working together in the country's western forests for more than a decade, jointly training 40 new park rangers early this year as part of a stepped-up effort to protect the region's wildlife from poachers. Thailand has been a leader in anti-poaching efforts, also working with WCS to train park enforcement staff from other Asian countries.

Tiger And Prey Populations Stabilized
The footage obtained this year shows the vast variety of animals, many of them rare, roaming through Thailand's forests: tigers, elephants, leopards, dholes (a wild species of dog), clouded leopards, bantengs (a wild species of cattle), gaurs, sun bears, lisangs, wild boars, muntjacs (a type of small deer), hog badgers, pangolins, green peafowl, and Malayan tapirs. Most hearteningly, it shows that "tiger and prey populations have stabilized in the large core area of the Western Forest Complex," according to WCS, and that elephants have found a safe haven there away from ivory-hunters.

Source
© DNP-Government of Thailand/WCS Thailand Program

The Western Forest Complex covers some 18,000 square kilometers, an area larger than the state of Connecticut, and includes 17 contiguous protected areas. It is home to an estimated 125 to 175 tigers and one of the largest and most important elephant populations in Southeast Asia. The Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries, which run along the Myanmar border, contain examples of nearly all forest types found in continental Southeast Asia and 77 percent of the large mammals, 50 percent of the large birds, and 33 percent of the land vertebrates in the region, according to UNESCO.








An amazing collection of images was captured by camera trap video by WCS and the Government of Thailand in Huai Kha Keng Wildlife Sanctuary in 2011. These show the incredible diversity of species that can flourish once the proper protections are in place.
~
~

As a Christmas present to the world, the Comet Lovejoy became the star of the season. Not only were beautiful photos taken of it but also an amazing time-lapse video was put together of the comet rising just before the sun. The video was the project of Gabriel Brammer of the long-tailed iceball rising from the horizon. Enjoy the photos and video below of this wonderful sight to behold.

What is Lovejoy?

C/2011 W3 "Lovejoy" is a periodic comet, classified as a Kreutz Sungrazer. It was discovered on 27 November 2011, by amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy. The comet's perihelion took it through the Sun's corona on 16 December 2011 at 00:35 UTC, as it passed approximately 140,000 kilometres (87,000 mi) above the Sun's surface. It was not expected to survive the encounter, but the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), as well as other Sun-monitoring spacecraft, observed the comet emerge from the corona intact.

Before perihelion, the comet nucleus of Lovejoy was estimated to be between 100 and 200 metres (330 and 660 ft) in diameter, but after surviving perihelion it has been estimated that the nucleus was larger, as much as 500 m (1,600 ft) before the passage through the corona. At its brightest the comet had an apparent magnitude of around –4 (about as bright as the planet Venus). It is the brightest sungrazing comet ever observed by SOHO, and is the brightest comet to appear since Comet McNaught of 2007, which shone at visual magnitude –5.5. However, Lovejoy was largely invisible to the naked eye during its peak brightness as a result of its small nucleus and proximity to the Sun.

The comet first became visible to the STEREO-A spacecraft on 3 December, and to the SOHO spacecraft on 14 December. Before and after Lovejoy passed through perihelion, it was the subject of observation campaigns by eighteen instruments on six satellites: STEREO-A and -B, SOHO, SDO, Hinode and PROBA2. It again became visible to ground based telescopes on 17 December. In the Southern Hemisphere, Lovejoy was a naked eye object around 21 December.
Source: Wikipedia

Inspired by the true story that captured the hearts of people across the world, the rescue adventure Big Miracle tells the amazing tale of a small town news reporter (John Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Drew Barrymore) who are joined by rival world superpowers to save a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle.

Local newsman Adam Carlson (Krasinski) can't wait to escape the northern tip of Alaska for a bigger market. But just when the story of his career breaks, the world comes chasing it, too. With an oil tycoon, heads of state and hungry journalists descending upon the frigid outpost, the one who worries Adam the most is Rachel Kramer (Barrymore). Not only is she an outspoken environmentalist, she's also his ex-girlfriend.

With time running out, Rachel and Adam must rally an unlikely coalition of Inuit natives, oil companies and Russian and American military to set aside their differences and free the whales. As the world's attention turns to the top of the globe, saving these endangered animals becomes a shared cause for nations entrenched against one another and leads to a momentary thaw in the Cold War.


Unlike other baleen whales, the gray whale feeds on the sea floor, filtering animals out of the sediment. Its body is gray with white mottling, and it has a narrowish head, with yellowish baleen plates up to 16 in (40 cm) long.


The gray whale's entire body is often heavily encrusted with barnacles and whale lice. Although gray whales stay close to the coast, they carry out record-breaking migrations. On the west coast of North America, large numbers of gray whales migrate between the Bering Sea and Baja California in Mexico, a round trip of up to 12,400 miles (20,000 km).

Unfortunately, their coast-hugging habits make them easy prey for whalers. By the mid-1900s, gray whales had been almost wiped out, but legal protection has allowed their numbers to recover.

Gray Whales were once almost extinct. Today, they're protected by international law and their species has been able to grow.

It may technically be summer in the Southern Hemisphere, but this year folks in New Zealand are set to enjoy a rare white kiwi Christmas -- and doubly so. Earlier this year, conservationists were delighted to welcome into the world the first ever white kiwi hatched in captivity. But this last Sunday, in completely unexpected fashion, a second white kiwi was born, just in time for the holidays. "We were gob-smacked really," says wildlife center manager Kathy Houkamau. "While every kiwi is precious, to have a second white chick is a delightful gift, especially at this time of year."

When Manukura, the first white kiwi, was born at Pukaha Mount Bruce wildlife center last May, it quickly rose to fame as images of the birds unusually snow-white feathers spread throughout the internet. Back in New Zealand, the white kiwi toured the country, raising awareness of efforts to preserve the iconic species. But just when it seemed as though Manukura would be a one-of-a-kind attraction, in comes another, named Mauriora.

So how is it that two exceptionally rare genetic anomalies occurred in such close proximity and just a few months apart. Well, according to the Pukaha wildlife center, the two white kiwis are actually related.

A small number of North Island Brown Kiwi carry a recessive white gene which both the male and female must have to produce a white chick. Department of Conservation captive breeding ranger Darren Page said it was remarkable that two birds with the rare white gene had paired up in 940-hectare Pukaha forest to produce two white chicks over two seasons.

“Both white birds have the same father, who we have identified through his transmitter,” Mr Page said. “We can’t identify the mother but assume she is the same because of the rarity of the white gene.”

Still, genetics dictates that there is only a one in four probability that the two birds carrying the recessive white gene would produce an all-white offspring -- which makes the new arrival all the more unlikely, and the surprise all the more delighting.

It's fitting then that this little marvel of nature would come at a time when folks are counting their blessings as the two rare white birds will surely be counted among them -- particularly for Houkamau and the rest of the committed staff working to preserve New Zealand's iconic bird:

“We thought Christmas had come early in May when Manukura arrived but now it’s come twice.”

Article Mike Heydon

This Native American prayer describes the way we hope we shall one day become:

Hear, oh Humankind, the prayer of my heart..

For are we not one, have we not one desire,
to heal our Mother Earth and bind her wounds
and still to be free as the spotted Eagle climbing
the laughing breath of our Father Sky,
to hear again from dark forests and flashing rivers
the varied ever-changing Song of Creation?

Oh Humankind, are we not all brothers and sisters,
are we not the grandchildren of the Great Mystery?
Do we not all want to love and be loved,
to work and to play, to sing and dance together?

But we live with fear.
Fear that is hate, fear that is mistrust, envy, greed, vanity,
fear that is ambition, competition, aggression,
fear that is loneliness, anger, bitterness, cruelty….
and yet, fear is only twisted love, love turned back on itself,
love that was denied, love that was rejected…

And love….
Love is life ~ creation, seed and leaf
and blossom and fruit and seed;
love is growth and search and reach and touch and dance.
Love is nurture and succor and feed and pleasure.
Love is pleasuring ourselves, pleasuring each other.
Love is life believing in itself.

And life….
Life is the Sacred Mystery singing to itself,
dancing to its drum, telling stories, improvising, playing.

And we are all that Spirit,
our stories tell but one cosmic story that we are love indeed,
that perfect love in me seeks the love in you
and if our eyes could ever meet without fear
we would recognize each other and rejoice,
for love is life believing in itself.

Oh Humankind, we must stop fearing life, fearing each other,
we must absolutely stop hating ourselves, resenting Creation…Life.


Oh Humankind, life is the only treasure.
We are the custodians of it, it is our sacred trust.
Life is wondrous, awesome and holy, a burning glory
and its price is simply this: Courage….We must be brave enough to love.

Hear my heart’s prayer, Oh Humankind,
trust in love, don’t be afraid,
I love you as I love life.
I love myself, please love me too,
love yourself, for perfect love,
as a wise one said, casts out all fear.

If we are to live there is no other choice,
for love is life believing in itself.

Above all,
let us set the children free,
break the traps of fear that history has fashioned for them.
Free to grow, to seek and question, to dance and sing,
to be dreamers of tomorrow’s rainbows

and if we but give them our trust,
they will guide us to a New Creation,
for love is life believing in itself.

Hear, Oh Humankind, the prayer of my heart.





We are all responsible for the fate of our planet and for each other. We are all one tribe, one people...
mahti ka-wî-miyo-manitowi-kîsikanisin âwâw
("May you have a good Christmas Day")

White is the color of purity and beauty. It is also the color of the beautiful snow and many of the animals that live in the colder climates in the northern and southern hemispheres. Some of these animals are actually a different color in the summer months but turn a glorious white in the winter to help with the camouflage of themselves against predators. In some cases it is the predators that are white in order to enable themselves to remain hidden until they make their move against their prey. Whatever the reason for their color of white, it is quite wonderful to view them in their natural habitats all decked out in white! Nature provides us with a glorious glimpse of it's inhabitants at their most beautiful.

Below are featured some of these animals in white and in snow. They provide a very picturesque look into their very private world.

Where the word "White" is derived from:

The word white continues Old English hwīt, ultimately from a Common Germanic *χwītaz also reflected in OHG (h)wîz, ON hvítr, Goth. ƕeits. The root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language *kwid-, surviving also in Sanskrit śveta "to be white or bright" and Slavonic světŭ "light". The Icelandic word for white, hvítur, is directly derived from the Old Norse form of the word hvítr. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz ("white, bright, blinding"), borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, which provided the source for Romance words for "white" (French blanc, Spanish blanco, Italian bianco, etc.).

Source from Wikipedia