Terrae Filia's Blog

After the trauma of attack and loss comes healing—and a richer understanding of the emotions and intelligence of elephants.

Green — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:24:19 GMT

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Dedicated keepers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Nairobi Elephant Nursery in Kenya protect baby Shukuru from the cold and rain, and the risk of pneumonia, with a custom-made raincoat.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Even orphaned babies out for their morning walk from the nursery seem to understand the complex structure of elephant society. Here the oldest orphans lie down to invite the younger ones to play on top of them.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Wasin, rescued from the Namunyak Wildlife Conservation Trust in Samburu, was about two weeks old in this photo.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Orphans playfully vie for a bottle of formula not finished by little Sities, the blanketed baby at the keeper's feet. Every three hours the orphans are fed the formula, which was developed over decades.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Daphne Sheldrick, who founded the Nairobi Elephant Nursery, makes her evening rounds. In 1987 Sheldrick, a pioneer of wild animal rehabilitation, became the first person to rear a newborn orphan African elephant.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

The introduction of orphan elephants to Tsavo National Park is bringing wild herds back to a region devastated by poaching decades ago. Ithumba mountain is near the park's northern border.

Photograph by Michael Nichols

Elephants enjoy their midday ablutions near the Voi stockades in Tsavo National Park. Daily mud baths are key to elephant hygiene, offering them effective sun protection while also cleansing their skin of bugs and ticks.

Photograph by Michael Nichols
Emily is an orphan that transitioned into the wild and now leads a group of 22 independent orphans. She returned to the Voi stockades with an arrow in her hindquarter; it was removed by the Tsavo area's mobile veterinary unit.

'Handimals' by Guido Daniele

Green — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:40:15 GMT

Guido Daniele was born in Soverato (CZ - Italy) and now lives and works in Milan.

Since 1964 until 1968 he attended Brera artistic High School and he graduated from Brera School of Arts (major in sculpturing) in 1972. He lived in India since 1972 to 1974 where he attended the Tankas school in Dharamsala. Since 1968 he has been painting and participating to personal and group art exhibitions. In 1972 he started working as hyper-realistic illustrator, in co-operation with major editing and advertising companies, using and testing different painting techniques.

In 1990 he added a new artistic experience to his previous ones: using the body painting technique he creates and paints models bodies for different situations such as advertising pictures and commercials, fashion events and exhibitions.

'Handimals'

Alligator

Cat

Cheetah

Dog

Eagle

Elephant

Pigeon

Swan

Toucan

Zebra

+ Other Art

Heart transplant story

Green — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:31:56 GMT

A dramatic story of the heart transplantation. The patients life was about to end, but suddenly everything changed - hospital received a heart. Was it a miracle or just a sign that there will be more troubles? Doctors try hard to save a life, but death is hardly going away...

PART 1

PART 2

More facts: The first heart transplantation is said to be done in Sounth Africa by Christiaan Bernard in 1967.

Chrsitiaan Bernard

Heart donor was Denise Darwall, 24 years old. Her brain were extremely injured in car accident. She had no chances to live. Heart recipient was Louis Washkanksy, 54 years old. He had already suffered from 3 infarcts.

Christiaan Bernard was explaining heart operation methods for the journalists.

The first hearts transplantation picture was not taken - this is the second Heart Tranpl. picture in 'Groote Schuur' hospital. In the middle the same doctor C. Bernard with assistants.

Petition Nike and Adidas to Detox Now!

Green — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:05:54 GMT

Sign the Petition and show that you care! Save beautiful nature and people lives - DETOX NOW!

Yangtze

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/water/detox/Tell-Nike-and-Adidas-to-Detox/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GPI%20detox%20now%20petition%20launch%20(1)&utm_content=[/[/url]

Did you know that 30 billion tonnes of wastewater are dumped into the Yangtze river every year and that Shanghai’s 20 million residents are dependent on the Yangtze for clean drinking water?
Nike is the first company to publicly take up the Detox Challenge, claiming it aspires to the same goal of a toxic-free future. The question now is, who will be first amongst Nike, Adidas and other would-be champions to turn these words into action.

As much as 70 percent of China's rivers, lakes and reservoirs are affected by water pollution, and the clothing industry is making it worse by pouring hazardous chemicals into the mix.
Our brand choices give industry leaders like Nike and Adidas power. Now, we need them to use that power for good and help champion a toxic-free future. By working with their suppliers to eliminate the use and release of all hazardous chemicals in their supply chains and products, these brands can detox our sportswear, detox our water, and detox our future.

Yangtze

GreenPeace - The world needs more champions: The Detox Challenge

Green — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:34:16 GMT

By Green Peace:

Nike and Adidas are playing with toxic polluters in China and we need your help to lay down a new challenge for them today - the Detox Challenge.

During recent investigations, we identified several major international clothing brands, including the sports giants Adidas and Nike, supplied by factories in China that are releasing toxic chemicals into major rivers.

Clean freshwater is one of our most precious and most threatened natural resources. In China as much as 70 percent of rivers, lakes and reservoirs are polluted. Many chemicals released from textile factories threaten human health and the environment. Some of these chemicals can cause cancer while others may disrupt hormone systems. And they don't break down in the environment but build up in the bodies of animals and contaminate human food chains.

Like any of the champion athletes and superstars sponsored by Nike and Adidas - who at times have stumbled, suffered setbacks and faced difficult decisions - these companies now have a choice. They can see this challenge as an obstacle and try to ignore it - or they can use it as an opportunity to come back stronger than ever before, and work with their all of their suppliers to eliminate the release of toxic chemicals into our water.
Nike and adidas are in the best position to score a major goal against hazardous water pollution. Who do you think will rise to the challenge?

GO ALL IN: Watch the video, share it with your friends and tell us which company you think will step up to the Detox Challenge.
JUST DO IT!
Thanks for your support!
The Greenpeace Detox Team

'The World As I See It' - an essay by Einstein

Green — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 20:12:46 GMT

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving...

"I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. The ideals that have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. Without the sense of kinship with men of like mind, without the occupation with the objective world, the eternally unattainable in the field of art and scientific endeavors, life would have seemed empty to me. The trite objects of human efforts -- possessions, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.

"My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities. I am truly a 'lone traveler' and have never belonged to my country, my home, my friends, or even my immediate family, with my whole heart; in the face of all these ties, I have never lost a sense of distance and a need for solitude..."

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling.

"This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor... This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. It was the experience of mystery -- even if mixed with fear -- that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man... I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence -- as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature."

Video Of Today!

Green — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:40:02 GMT

Unconditional love - Gentlemen Without Weapons

The beginning of life (2) Dogs

Green — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 21:05:40 GMT

The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting and companion animal in human history. There are many people out there who keep various kind of dogs and again, maybe just few know something more about the beginning of dogs life. Lets look inside the womb, where starts dogs life and the whole gestation.

Dog embryo at 30 days. It is approximately 2 centimetres in length – no larger than a grape.

At 60 days in the womb, three days before birth, the puppy has developed a full coat of hair, with nails and paw pads, and the body is covered with touch-sensitive nerve endings.

Dog fetus at 60 days, nearly full-term. A full coat of hair, nails and paw pads are present.

From conception through to birth, one thing becomes obvious – mammals undergo similar stages of development in the womb. In fact, in the early embryonic stages, it is not easy for the untrained eye to spot the difference between a dolphin, a dog, an elephant and even a human.

Note: useful website: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/in-the-womb/all/Overview03#tab-time-line

Pictures and information are taken from the internet.

The beginning of life (1) Elephants

Green — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:55:02 GMT

Elephants are large land mammals. Three species of elephant are living today: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant (also known as the Indian elephant). Elephants are the largest land animals now living. The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms (260 lb). They typically live for 50 to 70 years, but the oldest recorded elephant lived for 82 years.

After a twenty-two-month pregnancy, the mother gives birth to a calf that weighs about 115 kg (250 lb) and stands over 75 cm (2.5 ft) tall. Elephants have a very long development. As is common with more intelligent species, they are born with fewer survival instincts than many other animals. Instead, they rely on their elders to teach them what they need to know.

We all have seen big elephants living in wildlife. However, we don't know much about their beginning of life. Let looks inside the womb.

Here you can see 11 weeks old elephant:

Here you can see 22 weeks elephant:

Here +- 22 weeks:

I do not own these pictures. It is used only for educational purpose.

If you are interested, visit this site http://www.elephanttag.org/General/general_elephant_reproduction.html - there you will find more information.

Hachiko: A dog's story

Green — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:24:56 GMT

Hachikō known in Japanese as "faithful dog Hachikō" ('hachi' meaning 'eight', a number referring to the position within the nest the dog came from, and 'kō' being a Japanese familiar suffix)). Hachikō was an Akita dog born on a farm near the city of Odate,Akita Prefecture, remembered for his loyalty to his owner, even many years after his owner's death.

LIFE

In 1924, Hachikō was brought to Tokyo by his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo. During his owner's life Hachikō saw him out from the front door and greeted him at the end of the day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return on the usual train one evening. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage at the university that day. He died and never returned to the train station where his friend was waiting. Hachikō was loyal and every day for the next nine years he waited sitting there amongst the town's folk.

Hachikō was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, showing up again and again at his old home. Eventually, Hachikō apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachikō waited for Professor Ueno to return. And each day he did not see his friend among the commuters at the station.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachikō attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachikō and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachikō treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years with Hachikō appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

Publication

That same year, another of Ueno's faithful students (who had become something of an expert on the AKita breed) saw the dog at the station and followed him to the Kobayashi home (the home of the former gardener of Professor Ueno — Kikuzaboro Kobayashi) where he learned the history of Hachikō's life. Shortly after this meeting, the former student published a documented census of Akitas in Japan. His research found only 30 purebred Akitas remaining, including Hachikō from Shibuya Station.

Professor Ueno's former student returned frequently to visit the dog and over the years published several articles about Hachikō's remarkable loyalty. In 1932 one of these articles, published in Tokyo's largest newspaper, threw the dog into the national spotlight. Hachikō became a national sensation. His faithfulness to his master's memory impressed the people of Japan as a spirit of family loyalty all should strive to achieve. Teachers and parents used Hachikō's vigil as an example for children to follow. A well-known Japanese artist rendered a sculpture of the dog, and throughout the country a new awareness of the Akita breed grew.

Eventually, Hachiko's legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty.

Death

Hachikō died on March 8, 1935. He was found on a street in Shibuya. His heart was infected with filarial worms and 3-4 yakitori sticks were found in his stomach. His stuffed and mounted remains are kept at the Natinal Science Museum of Japan in Ueno, Tokyo.

Want to know more about Akita breed? Visit http://www.shiroshita.dog.sk/