Saturday 17 October 2015

Programmes to watch - 'This Wild Life'

Since my last post my aims have changed back to my true passion of animal protection and conservation, hopefully with the continuation of my education via a zoology degree at university, in order to extend my qualifications in order to allow me to make as big a difference as possible in the conservation industry.

Back to the aim of this post, and my newest inspiration from the BBC's stunning documentary This Wild Life. The programme follows the progress of Saba Douglas-Hamilton who re-homes her family to the Samburu National Reserve in Kenya to take over her mother's Safari camp and eco-lodge. The family makes a large contribution to the local Samburu tribes by employing all local people in their camp and funding local schools, this in turn causes many of the people drawn to poaching for money, to change sides and help protect the animals in Samburu instead. Yet despite this Peter Leimgruber, a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute has stated that 'elephant populations currently decline by nearly 60 to 70 percent every 10 years, making it likely for the species to go extinct in the near future if poaching and the illegal ivory trade are not stopped'.

From left to right, Frank Douglas-Hamilton, 4 year old twins Luna and Mayian, Mporian a warrior who helps out at the camp, Saba Douglas-Hamilton and Selkie (6) 
This story is truly incredible and epitomises the inspiring lengths that a few brilliant people are willing to go to save wild animals, particularly from the seemingly ever-present danger of poaching. Saba’s husband Frank also works for the Save the Elephants Charity on the Reserve, making sure that all the famous elephants are tracked using collars to study their movements for scientific purposes and to prevent them from the horrific poachers that can enter the park. Despite this, ivory still has a high demand in Asia where it is used as 'medicine' and to make ornamental gifts and jewellery particularly in China and Thailand. Today 1 kilogram of ivory is worth between $1,000 and $1,500 in Asia, and with each elephant tusk weighing on average 10 kilograms, the incentive is clear for many desperate locals. However the major problem in current poaching is the huge amount of mother elephants being killed, as they have large tusks in order to protect their calf, with their tusks being worth $80,000 each with the addition of the extra tragedy of the calf being orphaned, poachers are effectively killing both the elephants and if it wasn't for charity organisations creating orphanages to rehabilitate and release the calves, the elephants could easily be extinct in a matter of only a few generations. This further emphasises how key the work of safari camps, such as Saba's, and organisations such as Save the Elephants, WWF and the David Shepard Foundation, to mention a few, are in raising funds for the cause and whilst also raising awareness for these organisations that can help, as we, the human race, are destroying their habitats and forcing them to be critically endangered, therefore I believe it is our duty to fix this problem as best we can, in order to preserve this world for future generations.


Overall this programme is a must watch and is particularly for me, a truly inspiring story exemplifying the type of work I would love to be involved in after university, in order to truly make a difference to these animals and to share not only their beauty but also their vital cause with the world. To book to visit the amazing camp simply visit the Elephant Watch Camp website, http://elephantwatchportfolio.com/elephantwatchcamp/

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Turtle Farming

I am a close supporter and admirer of the work of WSPA, World Society for the Protection of Animals. Currently they are campaigning to stop sea turtle farming in the Cayman Islands.



'Sea turtles crushed, stressed and diseased. Living with open wounds in waste-filled waters. Welcome to the Cayman Turtle Farm.'

The Cayman Turtle Farm was built in 1968 and aimed to deal with the rising consumption of green sea turtle meat, by farming the animals industrially so as not to deplete the wild population of the species. This farm is known as a 'tourist attraction' and a 'conservation project', however it is in fact abusive of the turtles and most tourists are disgusted.



The conditions at the Caymen Turtle Farm are appalling. Due to the close proximity of the turtles, stress-induced fighting causes many infected wounds and inbreeding produces many deformities such as turtles being born with no eyes.




Also the farm does not seem to be imitating their natural environment at all as you would expect a conservation project to do. An example of this is their food. In the wild green sea, turtles have a very specific diet and only feed on sea grass - however on the farm they are fed pellets to increase their growth, proving that this is no conservation project, but rather a commercial farm only interested in producing large turtles to sell. 



To support the campaign about this go to :http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=24&ea.campaign.id=16220&ea.tracking.id=website

For more information on this go to: http://stopseaturtlefarm.org


Tuesday 25 February 2014

British Divers Marine Life Rescue

I am currently looking to apply to a veterinary related course at universities. For this you are required to make yourself different and stand out, the best way to do this is by going above and beyond with work experience. 
Recently I have found an amazing course which I think will defiantly make any aspiring vets stand out a little more. The course is a Marine Mammal Medic training course with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue. 
These are sessions in which you will be shown what to do in situations of animal rescue by the sea, for example strandings of seals, dolphins and whales.
However you do have to pay for these courses and they are only in select places. The course usually costs around £90 and on the British Divers Marine Life Rescue website (http://www.bdmlr.org.uk/you can find more information about the courses around the  UK.

Friday 14 February 2014

Anatomical Studies Dissections

For the next few weeks I have opted for an anatomical studies programme offered at my school to broaden my range skills and knowledge in this area. This week in the 2 hour session we dissected muscles and marine ragworms. Here are some pictures of what we got up to !
Male (left) and female (right) mussels, you can tell this by their colourings.
After my dissections where I removed their foots, digestive systems, gills, anterior adductor muscles, mantles and anus.
This was our marine ragworm ready for dissection.
If you apply pressure just above the head of the ragworm, it's fangs can be seen more prominently.

Here you can clearly see the oesophagus  of the ragworm.
This clearly shows in anatomy of the marine ragworm, followed by a post dissection snapshot.