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10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye

Global warming is making it bad for our favorite artic animals like the ‘big and fuzzy’ polar bear or the penguins that can walk and be crazily cute, but here are ten species are even worse off than the artic animals:

· California Condor

· Sumatran Orangutan

· Ganges Shark

· Mountain Gorilla

· Philippine Crocodile

· Black-Footed Ferret

· Siberian Tiger

· Red Wolf

· Western Gray Whale

· Sumatran Rhinoceros

These animals all belong on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List is a list of critically endangered animals that face an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future, and they may not live to see the end of the next decade without a similar effort of human intervention that brought them to the brink in the first place.

California Condor

The carrion-eating California Condor is a resident of the Grand Canyon area and the western coastal mountains of California. They should live a long life; their life span is about fifty years which makes then the world’s longest-living birds. However, because of poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat loss that are caused by humans, they have become the world’s rarest bird species— they were almost completely wiped out in the 1980s. Now, there are now 332 condors that are known to exist, including 152 in the wild.

Sumatran Orangutan

Habitat loss and poaching has pushed the Sumatran Orangutan to extinction. The fruit and insect loving Sumatran Orangutan can live roughly for 45 years in the wild, but they breed a lot more slowly than other primates; a single female can only produce a maximum of three offspring in her lifetime. So if the death rate is higher than the birth rate, you got yourself one species that needs help fast.

Ganges Shark

India’s Ganges River’s rare species of shark, the Ganges Shark, is known for being a man-eater, and in other words, dangerous but highly valuable. The sharks are sought after for its oil, however, that’s not the only reason for their placement on the IUCN’s Red List of endangered species. Rampant fishing, habitat degradation from pollution, and increasing river utilization are the primary causes for its rapid disappearance.

Mountain Gorilla

The Mountain Gorilla’s population has decreased rapidly by deforestation, hunting, and the illegal pet trade, and now only a mere 720 remain in the wild although they have managed to elude discovery until as late as 1902.

Philippine Crocodile

Although it is legally protected in its native country, the islands from which it derives its name, the Philippine Crocodile continues to face threats from human disturbance like habitat loss and accidental death by dynamite fishing. A survey from 1995 found that only 100 adult crocs are left in the wild, making the animal a severely threatened species on the planet.

Black-Footed Ferret

Native to North America, the Black-Footed Ferret is one of the most endangered mammals on the continent, and they teeter on the edge of extinction because of human development has reduced their grassland habitat to less than two percent of its original size. Also, since prairie-dogs cover most of a ferret’s diet, about 90 percent, the destruction of the prairie-dogs’ colonies due to habitat destruction, pest-elimination programs, and disease are huge contributors to the ferret’s disappearance.

Siberian Tiger

The Siberian Tiger, also known as the Amur tiger, used to live in northeastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and Mongolia, but now is confined to Russia’s Amur-Ussuri region where it is protected. It is estimated that about 350 to 450 tigers still live although they still face dangers like habitat loss through logging and development as well as poaching for their fur and bones.

Red Wolf

The Red Wolf managed to survive the Late Pleistocene ice age but may not be able to survive extinction in the modern age. The red wolf used to populate throughout the southeastern US, but now are so devastated by predator-control programs and habitat loss that the lack of breeding partners has led many of them to mate with coyotes instead which reduces the number of genetically pure wolves. About 100 still live in northeastern North Carolina today, while another 150 roam at captive breeding facilities across the US.

Western Gray Whale

The population of Western Gray Whales has never recovered from unchecked whaling in the 19^th and early 20^th centuries even though the International Whaling Commission banned the hunt of gray whales in 1947. While there are about 100 western grays that still live, only 23 are reproductive females, and their only known feeding ground off the northeastern coast of Sakhalin Island in Russia has been annexed by oil companies whose exploration and mining activities like high-intensity seismic surveying, drilling operations, increased ship and air traffic, and oil spills are driving the mammals to extinction.

Sumatran Rhinoceros

Used to flourish through the rainforests, cloud forests, and swamps of India and Southeast Asia, the smallest of rhinoceroses, the Sumatran Rhinoceros, are now critically endangered. Illegal poaching, the rampant destruction of their habitat in the name, and the little success that zoos have made for the rhinos to breed are the main culprits for their dwindling numbers.

Links:

10 Species You Can Kiss Goodbye

The Top 10 Phobias

There are all different kinds of phobias: the common fear of spiders is arachnophobia, or you might be deathly scared of going to high places which is acrophobia, the fear of heights. You might be scared of reading, thus have a bibliophobia. People all around the world have some type of fear or phobia. This year, it was found that 19.2 million American adults over age 18 have an extreme fear, or phobia, which is about 8.7 percent of people in the age group.

Here are the worst phobias:

1. Snakes- This could actually be a good thing. According to studies, spotting a snake or a spider helps us survive, and it helped our ancestors to survive too. But I never understood why people were afraid of snakes. Of course they are venomous (that's the only thing that scares me), but only 20% of all snakes around the world are venomous and it is very rare that the poison actually kills a human. However, I can sympathize with the fear.
2. Spiders- Women are four times likely to flinch and search for some sort of weapon when they encounter a spider than men. Studies show that even 11 month old girls flinch at the sight of a creepy crawly.
3. Closed Spaces- Claustrophobia is the fear of closed spaces, and the common feared spots are elevators, public transportation, and shopping malls while the activities include driving, avoiding to leave home, and being in crowded areas. According to reports, 1.8 Americans over age 18 suffer from claustrophobia.
4. People and Society- 15 million American adults suffer from some type of social phobia. There are a few symptoms: being nervous when delivering a speech in front of an audience, eating or drinking in front of others, being uncomfortable around anyone except family, etc. The fear begins early, during an adolescence's 13 year. 3.
5. Heights- 3% to 5% of the American population suffer from acrophobia, the fear of heights. A study shows that acrophobics usually misjudge the height of a building and think it is a lot taller than it really is.
6. The Dark- Being afraid of the dark is a kid's most common fear, whether they are afraid of the boogey-man or not.
7. Thunder and Lightning- The loud sounds of thunder can make your heart pound, and the flash of lightning can make your palms sweat from your pores. In some cases, if you are scared of thunder and lightning, you have some severe weather phobia.
8. Flying (on Airplanes)- Flying was always a dream to mankind, but some people panic when they are scheduled to board a plane. The fear can keep the person with the flying fear off an airplane at all costs.
9. Dogs- People tend to develop a dog fear when they witness someone or themselves being bitten. Some are fearful and already know that dogs sometimes bite. Really, did grandma's dog biting you really mean every dog was out to get you?
10. The Dentist- 9% to 20% of Americans have a fear of the dentist, and I totally agree with them. I wouldn't be so happy at the thought of having some intense sessions with the dentist.

Personally, I think numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 10 scared me, although I also think needles (belonephobia, the fear of needles and pins) and clowns (coulrophobia) scared me even more than snakes and the other creepy crawlies. At least I know I’m bigger and smarter than them.

Here are some of my top 10 phobias:

10. Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns.

9. Phasmophobia- Fear of ghosts.

8. Nosocomephobia- Fear of hospitals.

7. Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables.

6. Dromophobia- Fear of crossing street.

5. Bufonophobia- Fear of toads.

4. Belonephobia- Fear of pins and needles.

3. Ophidiophobia- Fear of snakes

2. Entomophobia- Fear of insects.

1. Arachnophobia- Fear of spiders.

Links:

What Really Scares People: Top 10 Phobias

The Phobia List

Phobia Picture

Why Fall Colors Are Different Around the World

The colors of autumn are different all around the world: in America, they take on a hot and blazing shade of red, while in Europe, they are almost always yellow. Hasn’t it puzzled you why the fall-blooming colors differ depending on which side of the world you’re on? I certainly was surprised to find out that in different regions of the world, we have different autumnal colors; I thought they were all the same!

Groups of researchers were just as interested, and they have developed a likely idea why the fall colors are different around the world. But first, we need to know about the pigment processes.

Pigment chlorophyll is a molecule found in the fresh, green leaves of the spring and summer, and they allow plants to capture sunlight and make energy in the process of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll is extremely sensitive to coldness, so when summer slowly fades into the cooler fall, plants stop producing it. Then the yellow and orange pigments take over the dominating green color of the leaves. These new, colorful pigments that we see commonly during the fall season are called carotenoids.

I mentioned yellow and orange, but what about red? The hues of red prove to be a lot more complicated than the colors of yellow and orange. This is because the red color comes from a substance different from carotenoids, called anthocyanins, and the difference lies in the times they are produced. The pigments of carotenoids can be shown when the green fades away, but are always present in the leave’s color. The mechanism of anthocyanins is different because they only produce in the fall.

This concept is a lot harder to comprehend from my reader’s point of view, but my perception on the leaves of autumn has now broadened as I feel this is something very important to understand.

Now we can talk about the idea on color evolution: the idea states that in larger areas in the world, they are covered with green forests and tropical jungles, and there is a phase in which series of ice ages and dry spells occur. This results the species of trees to drop their leaves for winter.

In North America, the “north-to-south mountain chains enable plant and animal migration to the south or north with the advance and retreat of the ice according to the climatic fluctuations,” says Simcha Lev-Yadun of the University of Haifa-Oranim in Israel, “and, of course, along with them migrated their insect ‘enemies’, and the war for survival continues.” East Asia goes along the same concept.

In Europe, “the mountains— the Alps and their lateral branches— reach from east to west, and therefore no protected areas were created,” says Jarmo Holopainen of the University of Kuopio in Finland. As a result, the tree species that did not survive the cold died and so did the insects that depended on them. The trees that had survived in Europe had no need to survive with the insects that had died out, and thus did not need red leaves since the red pigments were believed to be able to ward off pests that munched on the trees’ leaves— in my opinion, I think it is because red is a very brilliant and warning color.

Did you know...

Did you know that carotenoids (the yellow and orange pigments) are responsible for the orange color of carrots?

Did you know that anthocyanins (the red pigments) act as sunscreen for trees? They block the harmful radiation of the sun, preventing overexposure of light, and they also act as anti-freeze so the leaf cells won't freeze during the autumn chill.

Links:

Why Fall Colors Are Different (http://www.livescience.com/environment/090922-fall-leaves.html)

Autumn Leaves Picture (http://casarobles.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2-autumn-leaves.jpg)