IUCN Species of the Day: Kaempfer’s Woodpecker

 

Photo credit: Ciro Albano

 

Kaempfer’s Woodpecker, Celeus obrien, is listed as ‘CRITICALLY ENDANGERED’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.

IUCN Species of the Day: Tulotoma Snail

 

Photo credit: T.A. Conrad

 

The Tulotoma Snail, Tulotoma magnifica, is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.

EIA Warns Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of Tiger Vow ‘Mockery’

PRESS RELEASE: CHINA PREMIER WARNED OF TIGER VOW ‘MOCKERY’

 EIA’s personal letter highlights gap between promises and actions

The Environmental Investigation Agency has written a personal letter to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to warn him that significant failings within a key state department in China are making a mockery of his pledge to “vigorously combat poaching, trade and smuggling of tiger products”.

Photo credit: WWF-Indonesia

Bush Warriors Photography & iLCP: Celebrating the International Year of Forests with Amy Gulick

Being a conservation photographer is more than just tripping the camera shutter. The real work begins after the pictures are made. What defines an iLCP photographer is a commitment to using powerful images for conservation. A shining example of this commitment is iLCP Fellow Amy Gulick. She takes the time to step out from behind the camera and put her images in front of those who can make a difference.

2011 is the International Year of Forests as designated by the U.N. General Assembly — perfect timing to showcase Amy’s work on the Tongass National Forest of Alaska and call attention to one of the most magnificent forests on Earth.

Live from the Congo: Poachers, Smoked Monkey Head, and Trapped Parrots, But No Elephants in Sight

There was a shootout.  Andy and I weren’t there, but we learned through satellite text messages that Colonel Gui and his soldiers from the Congolese army ran into the bandits somewhere between Kisangani and Obenge—likely the brothers of Colonel Toms, a convicted war criminal and poacher. A gunfight ensued. One poacher was injured and two others were apprehended. Colonel Gui, with his prisoners in tow, is still coming to Obenge to route out poachers in the region.  We should see them tomorrow.

I got the news during a four-day sampling hike through TL2 with Andy and the scientist John Hart [http://www.bonoboincongo.com]. But let me back up. After Kisangani, which is where I last blogged, we flew to Kindu, a town on the border of the 25,000 square mile jungle known as TL2. It’s the region Elephant Ivory Project-lead Samuel Wasser [http://depts.washington.edu/conserv/Director.html] wants elephant dung samples from most (read the previous posts to understand why). From Kindu, the three of us spent two days on the back of motorbikes, riding dirt paths notched into the jungle and savannah. These paths are arteries out of the bush. We saw locals pushing bicycles loaded with everything from pineapples to bush meat in the form of monkeys and okapi, a striped cousin of the giraffe. At the Lomami River, we loaded into motorized pirogues for a supposed two-day trip north to Obenge, the Hart’s research camp in the northern part of the proposed Lomami National Park. John stopped at every riverside village—about a dozen–to explain what the national park meant for the locals.

Live From The Congo: Despite Poacher’s Cross-Burning Death Threats, Elephant Ivory Project Team Courageously Presses On

‘Moses’, a suspected poacher in the Congo jungle, is burning crosses as death threats to National Park supporters, but it’s not enough to derail the Elephant Ivory Project team on to their mission to stop elephant poaching.

We just arrived this morning and I already want to leave Kisangani, a city of 700,000 in the center of Congo’s jungle. A cholera outbreak started in the city last week and left 27 dead—200 more cases have been reported. Andy and I are with Terese and John Hart, conservationists who have been working in the DRC for 30 years (check out their project Bonobos in Congo). They’ve agreed to help us plan our mission. But the question of where to start sampling elephant dung isn’t simple. The region Dr. Wasser wants us to sample most, the proposed Lomami National Park in the 25,000 square mile jungle known as TL2, has become even more dangerous.

Officials burning a poacher's camp near Obenge

Live From the Congo: Elephant Ivory Project’s Journey to Stop Elephant Poaching Begins

Equipment needed for expedition

Today, I’m packing. After two years in the works, we’re kicking off the Elephant Ivory Project in earnest on Sunday morning, when Andy Maser and I fly to Kinshasa–the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)–with a case of collection vials and the goal of saving a species.  Here’s the back story:

Happy Birthday Bush Warriors!

Note: Please play this MUST SEE video and enjoy.  This is what is at stake!

 

 

A year ago on November 13^th, Bush Warriors was first launched into to the world.  This was my attempt to put the truth out there of what is really going on with our world’s wildlife.  Everyone loves nature and wildlife.  We all love lions, tigers, bears and dolphins.  We even love sharks, though we were taught to be afraid of them.  Wildlife and nature is gaining more popularity than ever, everywhere you look “a green lifestyle” is the new trend.  ‘Organic’ and ‘nature’ are buzz words surrounding corporate board rooms, the way we live,  and the food we eat.  It’s all about ‘going back to nature’.

The sad and unfortunate reality is that we are just about as far from nature as we can get.  In fact, we, as humans, are getting further from it by the minute.  Despite the growing popularity of the ‘green revolution’, species continue to be lost at unprecedented rates.  The fight to save species is not small or easy.  Many challenges block the path to success, including corruption, economics (both poverty and wealth), overconsumption of our natural resources, consumerist demand, and societal values.

Photo by Takeshi Igarashi

We live in a world where biodiversity is given due attention only when it is deemed profitable or there is some underlying financial interest in saving it.  Some even say, “What is the point in spending well needed funds on animals we know will be extinct from their natural habitat in a generation or two?”

If we truly open our eyes to see what has happened to the world around us, we will not be able to live with ourselves and the destruction of our planet that we cause on a daily basis.  Plastic bags that help us carry food from stores are killing our sea turtles, as they  are being mistaken for jellyfish.  Palm oil, as harmless as it sounds, is a real killer to many of our earth’s forests and all that inhabit them.  Yet it is widely used to give our foods a longer shelf life, so that we may enjoy our microwave popcorn.  The cost of palm oil is not just the cost of cheap, processed foods.  It is also costing us majestic creatures, like orangutans.  Valuable components of an ecosystem that also display many similar emotional and social behavior as us humans.  Now they slip into the brink of extinction and are being used, abused and slaughtered, while their natural habitat is replaced by palm oil plantations.

Rhinos and elephants, animal icons that we love so much, are systematically being murdered for their horns and tusks. In fact is its estimated that 102 elephants are being killed a day. That is almost a kilometer (over half a mile) of dead elephants on a daily basis.

Photo Credit: Michael Nicols

Since 1997, 353 new species have been discovered in the Himalayas, 1,220 in the Amazon and 1,231 in the Mekong region.  Our world has such a rich biodiversity,  and yet, with all of our knowledge and growing understanding of how fragile our ecosystems are, we are losing species before they are even discovered.

We citizens of the world must unite in a unified global voice saying, “Enough is enough.”  We must put a stop to the war taking place on our wildlife and natural world.  If we don’t, it will be lost for good and we will also lose ourselves in the process.

We need your help is educating and spreading the word. Please join our growing Bush Warriors global tribe in spreading the message.  We have created the Bush Warriors Ambassadors program that gives you tools for five second online advocacy.  All you need to do is paste our blurbs and links on your Facebook, Myspace, email, or any other social platform, and you are done. By doing this you have become an ambassador for change.

We have already grown so much in our first year, and plan to push harder and reach more people in our coming years.  Join us in our efforts and step up to be a voice for wildlife today!

Asante Sana

Dori & The Bush Warriors Clan

Letter From the Founder In Response to Dixie Water Story

Hi everyone,

Thank you all for your comments regarding our story about the Dixie water project.  It’s really amazing to see how passionate people are about conservation no matter what side of the globe they live in.

It has been brought to our attention that the funds for the Dixie water project were raised by the viewers.  We were unaware of this information at the time that we wrote this article back in July, but wish to clarify that fact now.  We apologize for this error to all of the viewers, fans, and supporters who worked so hard to raise this money.  Your efforts should not be overlooked, as they are very important, and we have corrected the post.  For those of you who are wondering if we Bush Warriors has a stake in WildEarth, the answer is no.  Like all of you, we are passionate about wildlife and think it’s important for people to connect with it.

The Dixie uproar is a perfect example that illustrates how people have the power to change anything, when they unite for a cause they believe in.  It is now time for us, the people of the world, to take a stand for our world’s wildlife and make it known that we will not let it diminish and be wiped out.

When our wildlife and nature will be gone so will we.  Take a look at this video, it says it all……

As parents, grandparents, and citizens of the world, we must rise up, take a stand and become a unified global voice for our wildlife, as they do not speak our language.  My aim in starting Bush Warriors is to create awareness and unify people around the globe to become the voice for those who can’t speak.  Now with social media platforms such as Facebook the world has shrunk into a boundaryless universe where we can all come together no matter how remote our physical geographical locations are. This is a historical moment in time, because for the the first time in our worlds history that people can unify globally and become a force that will have to be recognized by governments worldwide.

Together as global citizens we can all come together in large numbers and can create enough noise and awareness to put a stop to the abuse of our wildlife and the loss of nature that has been taken from us over  the last 100 years.  It took our ecosystem millions of  years to evolve.  It is unacceptable that in less than 100 years it will all be gone.  We must rise us and take a stand and educate everyone around us including our politicians and leaders, because in this day and age, it’s the global community that will rule  and we must remember that.

When enough people care about a cause, things get done.  I ask each and every one of you to rise us and take a stand for our world’s wildlife.  The first step is education and letting people know what is really happening. We can no longer sits around  sip our lattes or check our emails for the latest Groupon, while all this distraction is happening around us.

We at Bush Warriors are committed to educating and sharing with the world about that the real state of our wildlife and the natural world.  We ask you to spread the word and share with your community our daily posts. Additionally  through the Organization of the Day, we bring you close to some of the most charismatic and passionate organizations who are on the front lines of conservation and education.  While our Photo of the Day is to show you the true beauty of our wildlife, how nature intended it to be.

We recently created a US-based non-profit whose purpose is to raise funds and support these groups and many others who are on the front lines saving our wildlife, as well as educating the communities they coexist with. Whether you are interested in volunteering your time, skill, resources, or donating funds, please keep in touch with us because its when we are united that change happens.

Please  join us on our Facebook to lean more, or visit our blog as often as you can. You can also subscribe to our emails or become an Ambassador for change.  At this point we cannot wait any longer.  It’s time for us to start the change, educating one person at a time.

Thank you for taking a stand for our world’s wildlife.

Respectfully yours,
Dori Gurwitz
Founder
Bush Warriors

 

Poll: Should Rhino Horns Be Poisoned?

On Monday we brought you a story that made headlines and stirred up a lot of emotions. In case you missed it, see:  “Unpleasant Surprise for Rhino Horn Consumers: Poisoned Rhino Horns“.

We want to do a survey and find out what the world is thinking.  So we ask you:  Should rhino horns be poisoned?

 

This is the result of poaching rhinos for their horns……

 

…as opposed to a naturally happy, ALIVE rhinos like this one…

 

Please feel free to share this with everyone you can, and post it in all your social media hubs. We will publish the results of this survey on Friday, August 6th.  You can also use this short link to direct people to this poll: http://wp.me/pH76q-17r