Year of Biodiversity and Tiger Updates

UN's International Year of Biodiversity is really taking off. Besides educating about biodiversity, there is a PUMA ad campaign, constant press releases, inspiring stories of people and groups doing what they can to promote a healthy world, and so much more! They are even partnering with WWF to promote Earth Hour, which is coming soon.

The website is loaded with all kinds of informative videos, podcasts, photos, and other goodies designs to inspire and educate. There is even a calendar with all the events that are going on for this year. Truly, UNEP has done a fabulous job with trying to get the message out there.

On the other end, the WWF year of the tiger isn't doing so bad either! They are constantly releasing articles on the fight for the tiger like this one about Chinese medicine societies rejecting tiger bones. This is a very big step to conserving these amazing creatures.

So between learning about awesome animals here on Potspoon!, reading up on biodiversity, learning about tigers and how you can help, and the upcoming Earth Hour, how have you been impacting your world?

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Debate!: Animals in Captivity

In the wake of yesterdays bombardment of the news of an orca attack on a trainer at SeaWorld, Orlando, the conversation came up many times about the purpose of keeping these large mammals in captivity. While animals have been held in captivity for thousands of years for the simple sake of enjoyment, showcase, and pride of ownership, many a conversation has been had about the reasoning behind this. This sort of thing is perfect for the now rare and occasional Debate! series.

Too many times, the presence of non-native wildlife in an area, no matter how contained the plants or animals may be, the organisms end up becoming invasives and manage a way into the wildlife in the surrounding areas. This destroys the biodiversity in many areas and since this is the Year of Biodiversity, an appropriate debate as well. That is what happened, if you recall, with the Vervet monkeys in St. Kitts. There is also a very serious problem with invasive lionfish in the Caribbean. There is even a bounty out for these guys. The lionfish ended up in these waters as wayward pets. People buy exotic animals and instead of properly disposing of, selling, whatever, they release these animals into the wild. Now the lionfish is destroying reef systems simply by not having any natural predators. We'll get into that later, though.

On a larger scale, however, killer whales (Orcinus orca) and other dolphins are not your average pets. Many of these animals start out as rescue animals or are bred in captivity. The rescue animals, such as those found at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, are rehabilitated for release. Many of the seriously injured ones, like Winter, would never make it being re-released in the wild so they are used for educational purposes. Many of these amazing mammals, however, actually are captured for use in entertainment shows, suffer various pathologies, and have a decreased life expectancy.

So, dear readers, on what side of the argument do you weigh in on here? People do die of pig related accidents all the time, and this was a bit of a freak incident, but should animals of this nature be held captive? There are a lot of angles one can take here, so happy debating!

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2010: Year of Biodiversity

As the new year takes off running, we also have a new something to celebrate. If you all recall, last year was Year of the Gorilla. This year has been declared by UN as the Year of Biodiversity. This is rather exciting for me since I am all about biodiversity and how things rely on each other. One of the first posts I ever did on Potspoon! was about it as well.

fig 1. a swamp biome

The official Year of Biodiversity site is up and running. Like with the gorillas, I will do various posts throughout the year and make a header link for this topic.

They list four reasons why this is the year of biodiversity but the first one stuck out the most: human's are a part of the earth's diversity and we are the ones who can protect or destroy it. On the site you will even find an interactive map with the locations of events around the world. So say your last goodbyes to the Year of the Gorilla and welcome in the Year of Biodiversity.

To find out more, click the links above or go to the United Nations Environmental Programme website.

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