Wildlife News
I don't know what it is with my taste in animals, but the uglier they are, the more I seem to like them. Okay, I also like the cute and cuddly ones too. But I do so like to see a good ugly rhino face. Fat warty old toads just captivate me. Maybe this love of the ugly underdog is part of the reason I pay so much attention to the plight of wildlife. Obviously I'm not alone, since so many people support organizations like World Wildlife Fund, the National Wildlife Federation, the Audubon Society and other environmental organizations. We just never seem to be able to do enough for conservation, though, because there are simply too many people taking up too much space and resources. At my favorite web news site ENN recently, I read about the following issues and followed ENN's great links to additional information. (Everyone should subscribe to ENN.)
President Clinton recently signed a Rhinoceros and Tiger Product Labeling Act, which bans the sale of products labeled as containing rhino or tiger parts. This is an interesting act. It bans the sale of products with labels that claim they contain rhino or tiger parts. Such products are popular with in Asian communities. The problem with the law, as I see it, is that a manufacturer could easily remove references to rhino or tiger parts from the label, but continue to sell the product based on popularity generated by word-of-mouth support. Hey. Black markets run on word of mouth. If you can still hit this article at ENN, it's worth a look at the two super photos. And this quote from a Dec. 18, 1998 ENN article: "Increased violence and ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo is threatening the last few Northern White Rhinos, according World Wildlife Fund" is cause for great concern. The article also says, "Only 25 rhinos were counted in Garamba during the last aerial survey of the population last May."
Meanwhile, bog turtles made the news in the Philadelphia area, according to an Associated Press wire service article that appeared in my local paper, The Morning Call. Bog turtles are on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's list of protected species. The AP reported that "the turtle has its own Nature Conservancy stamp, patch, notepaper, three posters and a video," something I hadn't heard about and which I still don't have enough information to find out more about.
Latest Articles