Meet Titanoboa, Monster Prehistoric Snake: Your Worst Nightmare!
The modern-day King Cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), the world's longest venomous snake at up to 18.5 feet, is terrifying enough, rising upwards of 2 meters (6.5 feet) to survey its surroundings. Even though the King Cobra hunts other snakes, an attack by this mighty predator would be horrific consisting either of multiple bites or biting and holding on. Living in and sharing the ecosystem with the mighty King Cobra would result in a state of perpetual alert and mostly likely a continuous subconscious terror, especially avoiding accidentally violating an egg mound area, tenaciously defended by the female.
In the world of the prehistoric Titanoboa, the King Cobra is insignificant, a worm, not even a player. Titanoboa the Great, the mightiest snake that has ever lived on planet Earth, is your worst nightmare! Weighing in at 2,500 pounds (that's 1.25 tons), 49 feet long, and 2+ feet wide, this giant is beyond comprehension. Our feared King Cobra averages 13 pounds, is 10 to 13 feet long, and only inches wide, not even a decent snack for this monster.
Bad day at the prehistoric beach for this crocodile Titanoboa: Monster Snake Meet Titanoboa: She's longer than a bus, eats crocodiles for breakfast and makes modern anacondas look like a garter snakes.
Very Rare Shepherd’s Beaked Whales Sighted, First Video Ever!
he Australian Antarctic Division team was tracking blue whales off the coast of Victoria state last month when they spotted the reclusive mammals, which are so rarely seen that no population estimates of the species exist. Voyage leader Michael Double said the black and cream-coloured mammals with prominent dolphin-like beaks had been spotted in the wild only a handful of times through history.
According to the Australian environment department, there have only been two previous confirmed sightings - a lone individual in New Zealand and a group of three in Western Australia. They have never been filmed live before.
"These animals are practically entirely known from stranded dead whales, and there haven't been many of them," Double told AFP, calling the footage "unique". "They are an offshore animal, occupying deep water, and when they surface it is only for a very short period of time."
Double said what was remarkable about the sighting was that the whale was previously thought to be a solitary creature, yet was in a pod of 10 to 12. "To find them in a pod is very exciting and will change the guide books. Our two whale experts will now carefully study the footage to work out the whale sizes and so on and prepare a scientific paper."
The Shepherd's beaked whale, also known as the Tasman beaked whale, was discovered in 1937 but little is known about them.
Rare Whales Spotted in Bass Strait Scientists hope the sighting of a pod of rare Shepherd's beaked whales will lead to new research into the species.
Source: Physorg.com and AFP
Shepherd’s Beaked Whale (Tasmacetus shepherdi) Status: Data Deficient Shepherd's beaked whales are primarily known from a few dozen strandings, all south of 30°S, around New Zealand, southern Australia, southern South America, the Juan Fernandez Islands, and Tristan de Cunha (Mead 1989).
Giant Anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) Image credit: Joel Sartore / National Geographic
Joel Sartore and The Biodiversity Project: For many of Earth’s creatures, time is running out
Photographer Joel Sartore describes his Biodiversity Project: "For many of Earth’s creatures, time is running out. Half of the world’s plant and animal species will soon be threatened with extinction. The goal of the Biodiversity Project is simple: to show what’s at stake, and to get people to care, while there’s still time to save them. More than 1,800 species have been photographed to date, with more to come." Further, he states, "It's folly to think that we can doom everything to extinction, and we'll be just fine," he said. "When we're saving biodiversity, we're saving ourselves."
New View of Endangered Species A new project by National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore is illustrating why all creatures have a right to exist. NBC’s Anne Thompson reports.
Endangered Animals Say 'Cheese' for Nature Photographer For most portrait photographers, odds that their subjects will defecate in front of them, rip their backdrops or charge at the camera tend to be low. But that's just a day's work for Joel Sartore, a freelance photographer who often works for National Geographic. He has been working his way through zoos and rescue organizations across the country as part of a personal mission to photograph all of the roughly 6,000 captive species in the United States before they disappear.
Coquerel’s Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) Image credit: Joel Sartore / National Geographic
Lead is an extremely toxic element that we’ve sensibly removed from water pipes, gasoline, paint and other sources dangerous to people. Yet toxic lead is still entering the food chain through widespread use of lead hunting ammunition and fishing tackle, poisoning wildlife and even threatening human health. At least 75 wild bird species in the United States are poisoned by spent lead ammunition, including bald eagles, golden eagles, ravens and endangered California condors. Thousands of cranes, ducks, swans, loons, geese and other waterfowl ingest spent lead shot or lead fishing sinkers lost in lakes and rivers each year, often with deadly consequences.
That’s why the Center for Biological Diversity’s Get the Lead Out campaign in March 2012 organized more than 150 groups to petition the Environmental Protection Agency to take toxic lead out of hunting ammunition. Our coalition calling for a transition to nontoxic bullets and shot included groups from 38 states representing conservationists, birders, hunters, scientists, veterinarians, American Indians and public employees. In April 2012, the EPA denied our request — but we won't let the agency abdicate its responsibility to protect the environment from toxic substances.
California Condor Rehabilitated from Lead Poisoning This is California condor #22 getting rehabilitated at liberty wildlife from lead poisoning. Here he is spreading out his wings to get sun. He is massive!!!
Note: lead bullets and poisoning make the endangered california condor population reliant on humans. Please dont leave hunting carcasses around as the lead bullets inside contaminant the meat and hurt scavenging wildlife. You can also use copper bullets!
Now, the National Rifle Association and its well-heeled gun lobby are arguing that removing toxic materials from the sporting marketplace is "extreme" and somehow anti-hunting and fishing, introducing legislation that would gut the Toxic Substances Control Act and prevent the EPA from regulating toxic lead ammunition. We’re countering the NRA’s move with a campaign to get people across the country to write to their congresspeople asking them to oppose the misguided, anti-wildlife Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012. Please sign our letter now, and share it with everyone you know.
Animals that scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated with lead bullet fragments, or wading birds that ingest spent lead-shot pellets or lost fishing weights mistaking them for food or grit, can die a painful death from lead poisoning, while others suffer for years from its debilitating effects. In the United States, an estimated 3,000 tons of lead are shot into the environment by hunting every year, another 80,000 tons are released at shooting ranges, and 4,000 tons are lost in ponds and streams as fishing lures and sinkers — while as many as 20 million birds and other animals die each year from subsequent lead poisoning.
The iconic California condor, one of the world’s most endangered species, was so near extinction in the mid-1980s that the last nine wild birds were captured for an expensive captive-breeding program. By the mid-1990s, the captive population was healthy enough to begin the bird’s reintroduction to the wild, and condor recovery has come a long way since, with 205 birds in the wild in 2011. But this majestic species is far from safe: Every year, new captive-reared condors are released only to find themselves dining on lead. Condors are poisoned — often fatally — when they scavenge on remains of game animals shot with lead ammunition. Scientific studies provide overwhelming evidence that lead poisoning in condors comes from ammunition fragments in carcasses and gut piles hunters leave behind in the condor range. Since 1992, at least 30 reintroduced condors in California and Arizona are known or suspected to have died from lead poisoning, and many more must periodically receive emergency, life-saving treatment. Experts agree that as long as lead ammunition contaminates the condor’s food, recovery of the species is unlikely. In May 2012, the Center and other conservation groups filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Forest Service for its failure to protect endangered California condors in Arizona’s Kaibab National Forest from toxic lead ammunition left behind from hunting activities.
Lead ammunition also poses health risks to people. Lead bullets explode and fragment into minute particles in shot game and can spread throughout meat that humans eat. Studies using radiographs show that numerous, imperceptible, dust-sized particles of lead can infect meat up to a foot and a half away from the bullet wound, causing a greater health risk to humans who consume lead-shot game than previously thought. State health agencies have had to recall venison donated to feed the hungry because of lead contamination from lead bullet fragments. Nearly 10 million hunters, their families and low-income beneficiaries of venison donations may be at risk.
USDA Updates Plant Hardiness Zone Map, Minimum Winter Temperatures Rise
The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map continues to report some areas of the United States in warmer zones. This would affect the long-term viability of plant and tree species in specific zones, especially near the zone boundaries. Over time this would also impact the habitat, breeding, and migration areas of birds, insects, and other wildlife.
Plant Hardiness Zone Maps Below is a comparison of the 1990 and 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps, illustrating the warmer zones moving northwards in some areas of the United States.
The interactive USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2012 to determine your zone can be viewed here.
Planet Earth: At Capacity, No Vacancy
For decades the West comprised a small percentage of the Earth's population but consumed a high percentage of the resources. Now with the economic rise of China, India, Brazil, et. al. the demands for natural resources has skyrocketed and so has the number of humans. The Earth's population reached 7 billion in 2011 (World Population Reaches 7 Billion: Unprecedented, dangerous, unsolved problems of human impact on biosphere). The math of the planetary supply and demand to generate and sustain a Western consumer lifestyle worldwide doesn't add up. That is, demand ultimately is much greater than supply. Technological innovation can mitigate this unsolvable equation and supply problem to some extent, but is this a viable hope or solution?
Paul Gilding, in the video below, begins, "Let me begin with four words that will provide the context for this week, four words that will come to define this century. Here they are: The Earth is full. It's full of us, it's full of our stuff, full of our waste, full of our demands. Yes, we are a brilliant and creative species, but we've created a little too much stuff - so much that our economy is now bigger than its host, our planet."
Gilding further asserts, "This is not a philosophical statement, this is just science based in physics, chemistry and biology. There are many science-based analyses of this, but they all draw the same conclusion - that we're living beyond our means. The eminent scientists of the Global Footprint Network, for example, calculate that we need about 1.5 Earths to sustain this economy. In other words, to keep operating at our current level, we need 50 percent more Earth than we've got. In financial terms, this would be like always spending 50 percent more than you earn, going further into debt every year. But of course, you can't borrow natural resources, so we're burning through our capital, or stealing from the future."
Paul Gilding: The Earth Is Full Have we used up all our resources? Have we filled up all the livable space on Earth? Paul Gilding suggests we have, and the possibility of devastating consequences, in a talk that's equal parts terrifying and, oddly, hopeful.
About Paul Gilding Paul is an independent writer, advisor and advocate for action on climate change and sustainability. An activist and social entrepreneur for 35 years, his personal mission and purpose is to lead, inspire and motivate action globally on the transition of society and the economy to sustainability. He pursues this purpose across all sectors, working around the world with individuals, businesses, NGOs, entrepreneurs, academia and government.
Every day 2.5 million pounds of explosives are detonated in Appalachia to blow up mountains to access cheap coal. Mountaintop removal has already destroyed more than 500 peaks in one of the oldest and most biologically diverse mountain ranges on Earth.
Mountaintop removal kills endangered species, permanently pollutes streams and has been linked to cancer and birth defects in people. More than 1.4 million acres of hardwood forests and 2,000 miles of streams have been lost. We need to stop blowing up Appalachia.
"The Last Mountain" - Official Trailer
The fight for the last great mountain in America's Appalachian heartland pits the mining giant that wants to explode it to extract the coal within, against the community fighting to preserve the mountain and build a wind farm on its ridges instead. THE LAST MOUNTAIN highlights a battle for the future of energy that affects us all.
You can help by demanding that Congress take action to end mountaintop-removal coal mining. The Clean Water Protection Act, a bill now in the House of Representatives, will sharply curtail mountaintop removal.
The Humane Society released an undercover video of extraordinarily cruel treatment of animals at a pig supplier for Tyson Foods, the largest meat producer in the U.S.
The video is shocking. Baby pigs are being kicked around like soccer balls. Sick mother pigs are being beaten. And sows are being locked in “gestation crates” - cages so small the animal can barely move, and can’t even turn around…for their entire lives.
There is no reason to treat animals this cruelly.
Shocking Animal Cruelty at Tyson Foods Supplier Warning: Contains Graphic Footage. Undercover video footage at "Wyoming Premium Farms" revealing egregious cruelty and filthy conditions at a Wyoming pig breeding facility owned by a supplier for Tyson Foods.
Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and Safeway have all committed to eliminating gestation crates from their supply chains. But Tyson doesn’t just condone this cruelty, which scientific evidence proves causes extreme animal suffering - it defends it. It shouldn’t take intrepid animal welfare activists going undercover to document mistreatment. Tyson should be making every effort to root animal mistreatment out of its supply chain. And with so much momentum building around this issue now, we have a huge opportunity to make the second largest meat producer in the world stop this abuse for good.
Elephant Poaching Increasing in Africa, Nearly 300 Elephants Slain in Cameroon
The African Elephant (Loxodonta africana) is classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with a probable stable to increasing population trend. Preliminary genetic evidence suggests that there may be at least two species of African elephants, namely the Savanna Elephant (Loxodonta africana) and the Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). A third species, the West African Elephant, has also been postulated. The estimated population is unknown and estimates vary widely as do populations in various countries.
Elephant Poaching on the Rise in Africa CNN's Brooke Baldwin talks to Rob Atkinson, CEO of The Elephant Sanctuary, about elephant poaching in Africa.
The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary Narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons, this "mockumentary" video hammers home the stark reality of California's plastic bag pollution situation.
