As we humans expand in population and hence, land use, we push native wildlife species further and further from their natural habitats.  This is happening all over the world.  Because wildlife is then regarded as a threat to property and livelihood, it is not uncommon for some to kill them because they are regarded as pests, or to kill them for sport or money as a way to survive.

In Africa, this is happening on a large scale because wild animals like the elephant and rhinoceros have tusks and horns that, although they have been outlawed, are still poached because it is big business.  Villagers who poach may find it the only way to make a living in an area where jobs are scarce and they are no longer able to live off the land.

Elephants and rhinoceros are not the only wild animals poached in Africa, but the focus today is mainly on them.  Poachers take the tusks of elephants, cutting as far up the face of the animal where the ivory runs, and some elephants, still alive, are left that way to die.  

Now organized crime has gotten into the business.  They arm men with automatic weapons and helicopters and slaughter whole herds in a matter of minutes.  This fact has put more game wardens’ lives in more jeopardy than ever before.

If you are interested in helping, contact the World Wildlife Fund on the web.

FYI: 

There are now only about 300 lions in the wild left in Africa.  They, among others, are going extinct at a rapid rate. 

               

The pollinators 
View this short film on pollinators from the TED Talks by clicking on the above link (The pollinators).

For some years now, we have been wondering where our bees have gone.  Without these crucial pollinators our food supply will go the way of the bees.  Farmers are finding all of their bees dead after planting their corn and don't know why.  The culprits are the pesticides and fungicides used on the plants.  They are toxic to the bees and are killing them off in the millions.  According to the manufacturers of these deadly products, they are not supposed to kill beneficial insects.

However, the world over, honey bees and Bumble bees are disappearing from farms, fields and flowers where they once teemed in abundance.  Whole colonies are decimated on farms and farmers have to ship in bees to pollinate their plants.  Many of these bees are also not surviving.

According to NPR:  "...chemicals are absorbed by the growing corn or canola plants and transported throughout its roots, leaves, and even it's nectar and pollen.  This makes the entire plant poisonous to lots of insects that feed on it, from root-gnawing worms to sap-sucking aphids."

A major contributor found to be killing off the bees is a nicotinoid insecticide.  In a study in the U.K., bumblebees exposed to nicotinoids did not die but almost completely stopped making new queen bees.  A study in France, using the same nicotinoid reported that the bees never returned to their home hives.

Honey bees are important to our own survival because  approximately 1/3 of all food we eat is pollinated by bees.  If a major part of our food supply dies out, so do we.

This is an image I took from a class I'm taking about the human impact on the environment.  I don't know who to give the credit to for the picture, but I want to pass it on to those who read the blog and are savvy to or want to be savvy about the state of our planet right now.  The denizens of our oceans  need to have a voice if we are going to keep on destroying their habitat and thus, our own.

For every human shark attack, 1 million sharks are killed.  Because of worldwide alarmist media attention, people are afraid of sharks when they need not be.  Yes, they are bigger than us and look scary, but so are a lot of things, and we do not go around killing them for sport.  The shark is becoming an endangered species because of man.  It may be a bigger animal than we are, but we have bigger toys to kill them with.