World Elephant Day, celebrated on August 12th, honours the gentle and nurturing giants of Asia and Africa, who are revered for their deep spiritual wisdom, gentle strength, and nurturing natures. Over the past decade, their numbers have plummeted by 62% due to habitat encroachment for palm oil deforestation, other agriculture, infrastructure expansion, mining and the cruel #poaching for ivory. Without radical intervention, these magnificent beings could be near #extinction by the 2060s. Yet, do not despair because hope endures in the form of activism. Explore the extraordinary resilience and intelligence of pachyderms, and discover how you can help safeguard their future with consumer boycotts and supporting organisations fighting wildlife crime. #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Category Archives: Amazing Animal Adaptations
The world’s smallest ‘fanged’ frog found in Indonesia
Researchers have identified a species of frog Limnonectes phyllofolia completely new to science. The tiny Indonesian amphibian is in the possession of little fangs. Researchers think that their fangs may be used to fend off would-be competitors for mating or territory. This species adopts a unique approach by laying their eggs on tree leaves. Adding to their distinct behavior, the male frogs play an active role in guarding and nurturing the nests. This discovery not only enriches our understanding of amphibian biodiversity but also highlights why it is absolutely crucial that we protect their home – rainforests in Indonesia. Help them every time you shop and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Amphibians Glow in Ways People Can’t See
Many animals have a colourful, yet largely hidden, trait. Marine creatures like #fish and corals can glow blue, green or red under certain types of light. So can land animals like penguins and #parrots. But until now, experts knew of only one salamander and a few #frogs that could glow. No longer. Among #amphibians, this ability to glow now appears fairly common — even if you can’t see it. Research has found that most amphibians glow as well – even if it’s not visible to human eyes. Protect amphibians and reptiles every time you shop and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
African Forest Elephants Help Fight Climate Change
Discover the awe-inspiring role of African forest elephants in the Congo Basin—nature’s master gardeners who literally shape the world around them! These gentle giants roam through muddy, mineral-rich paradises called baïs, fostering the growth of carbon-absorbing trees that make our planet healthier. By tending to these unique landscapes, they are the unsung heroes in the fight against climate change. Want to ensure these ecological architects keep doing their vital work? Join the movement to protect their habitat—say no to palm oil and adopt a vegan lifestyle! 🐘🌳#BoycottPalmOil #BeVegan #Boycott4Wildlife
Strange Species Could Vanish Before Discovery
Scientists have described around 1.5 million species on Earth – but how many are still out there to be discovered? This is one of the most heated debates in biology. Discounting microbes, plausible estimates range from about half a million to more than 50 million species of unknown animals, plants and fungi.
Our present knowledge is just scratching the surface. Evolution has had billions of years to create biologically active compounds that can combat human diseases, generate genetic diversity that could save our food crops from disastrous pathogens, and spawn ecological innovations that can inspire marvellous new inventions. Help the rarest and most cryptic animals, plants and fungi to survive when you #BoycottPalmOil adopt a #vegan lifestyle and #Boycott4Wildlife
Apes Enjoy Joking and Teasing Each Other
New research finds that it’s not only human babies who love to playfully tease each other. Researchers reasoned that since language is not required for this behaviour, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals such as chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans. Now cognitive biologists and primatologists have documented playful teasing in four species of great apes. Like joking behaviour in humans, ape teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Because all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the prerequisites for humour evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago.
Green Dragontail Lamproptera meges
Green Dragontails could arguably be called the most exquisite and beautiful butterflies alive.
They flutter through sunlit patches of leaves near to streams and rivers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, and northeastern India.
They are mostly black and white with a bright turquoise or light green band running roughly parallel to their abdomens.
Their forewings feature a stunning glass-like transparent triangle known as a hyaline. Their tail features a star-like galaxy pattern that glints in sunlight.
It has been over a decade since they were last surveyed, their range overlaps significantly with areas already cleared for palm oil. Help their survival and use your wallet as a weapon! #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Reptiles Facing Extinction: How to Help
#Reptiles are fascinating creatures who are sadly feared, misunderstood and persecuted by humans. It is high time that we stand up for #lizards, #snakes, #terrapins, #crocodiles, caimans, #turtles and more.
Many of these fascinating creatures are feared by humans and inhabit hard-to-traverse places such as swamps. Compared with birds, amphibians and mammals, there is little data available on the distribution, population size and extinction risk of reptiles. This has meant that wildlife conservationists have largely helped reptiles indirectly in the past by meeting the needs of other animals (for food and habitat for example) living in similar places. Here’s how we stand up for them #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife
Spider stories are unfairly negative – here’s the truth
Frequent errors in news reports likely contribute to the animals’ undeserved bad reputation Spiders are pretty remarkable. They live almost everywhere, from rainforests to deserts. Some even spend most of their lives underwater. They are smarter than you think, with some able to make plans and count. Scientists think they might even dream when theyContinue reading “Spider stories are unfairly negative – here’s the truth”
Uncovering The Glasswing Butterfly’s See-through Wings
Most butterflies sport colourful, eye-catching wings. But some species flit about using mostly transparent wings. Researchers have now uncovered the tricks that one of these — the glasswing butterfly (Greta oto) — uses to hide in plain sight. The tricks of their transparency include sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coated membrane. Many thousands of insect species are threatened by large-scale deforestation for agriculture and especially pesticides. Help them to survive and #BoycottPesticides #BoycottPalmOil!
Caecilians: Secretive Underground Dwellers
OK, Ok…I know this is quite a scary photo but hear me out. Caecilians are legless, eyeless creatures live secretive, strange lives underground and underwater. Not quite snakes, not quite worms and not quite amphibians either.
Once you know more about them they may still come to you in dreams, but you might just love them too.
They belong to the same group of animals that includes frogs and salamanders. But unlike other amphibians, caecilians lack legs. Some caecilians are as short as a pencil, while others grow as long as a child. Their eyes are tiny and hidden beneath skin and sometimes bone. And they have a pair of tentacles on their face that can sniff out chemicals in the environment.
Celebrate World Rhino Day by boycotting palm oil
Indonesia is home to two of the world’s five rhinoceros species. Both the Javan rhino Rhinoceros sondaicus and the Sumatran rhino Dicerorhinus sumatrensis still exist today, uniquely only in the country. In India’s north east, the Indian Rhino hangs on to survival. Yet their existence has become increasingly fragile due to the unrelenting growth of palm oil in both of these countries.
#WorldRhinoDay is 22nd Sept. But every day should be World Rhino Day as three of the five species of rhino may go extinct as a result of #palmoil #deforestation and illegal poaching. Fight for them each time you shop and be #vegan and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife.
‘Mystery monkey’ hybrids of Proboscis’s and Silvery Lutungs
A new study has found that fragmentation of forests in Malaysian Borneo due to palm oil and mining has pressured two species of monkey (the Proboscis Monkey and Silvered Leaf Monkey/Silvery Lutung) to mate causing an unusual hybrid offspring. This has scientists worried as it indicates the animals are under stress
Climate change forces human and non-human beings to migrate
Climate change. Climate denial. Global warming. Call it what you will, the planet is shouting at us. We have ignored the warning signs for decades, but we can no longer ignore what is happening right now.
Chimpanzees once helped African rainforests recover from collapse
Most people probably think that the rainforest of central and west Africa, the second largest in the world, has been around for millions of years. However recent research suggests that it is mostly just 2,000 or so years old. The forest reached roughly its modern state following five centuries of regeneration after it was massively fragmented when the dry season suddenly became longer some 2,500 years ago. Help #chimpanzees to survive and #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife every time you shop
Fascinating history of warrior turtles: myths to teenage ninjas
Ask anyone the identity of the world’s most famed turtles, and the answer is likely to be those legendary heroes in a half-shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninjas. Since first appearing in comic book form in 1984, the pizza-eating, nunchuk-wielding characters have shown the world the tougher side of turtles. Help them to survive every time you shop and Boycott Seafood, #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Why bonobo mothers meddle in their sons’ sex lives
New research shows that for #bonobos, sex really is often a family affair. What’s more, rather than being an embarrassing hindrance, motherly presence greatly benefits bonobo sons during the deed.
Along with #chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus) are our closest living relatives. Restricted to a 500,000 km² thickly-forested zone of the #Congo Basin, these endangered great apes were only formally discovered in 1928, which until 2017 made them the most recently-described living great ape species.
Operating in female-led social systems, bonobos are capable of showing a wide range of what were long held as human-specific feelings and emotions, such as sensitivity, patience, compassion, kindness, empathy and altruism. Help them to survive every time you shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
Bonobos Can Inspire More Peaceful Democracies
Bonobos can inspire a more peaceful democracy. Primatologists explain the fascinating lives of these mostly peaceful primates. Boycott palm oil when you shop!
Why humans and bonobos share contagious yawns
Most of us have experienced the overwhelming urge to yawn in response to another person yawning – but we’re not the only species to do this. Research published in PeerJ shows that bonobos – our closest evolutionary cousins – also experience “yawn contagion”. Similarly to how yawning occurs in human beings, the effects of yawn contagion in bonobos is influenced by the quality of relationships shared between individuals.
The tendency for humans to mirror the behaviours and emotions of another – sometimes referred to as “emotional contagion” – is also thought to reflect our heightened capacity for empathy. Help all non-human primates to survive extinction and be #Vegan #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
For primates, having a mother helps them learn social skills
Wild #bonobos, like other Great #Apes and humans, spend long childhoods with their mothers, learning the social skills they need to function as emotionally stable members of their community. But orphaned bonobos at sanctuaries don’t have that kind of upbringing. Can they still learn the skills they need to get by in bonobo society? A study by Zanna Clay and Frans de Waal in PNAS found that the mother-infant bond is vital in developing healthy social and emotional skills. Help these mighty and intelligent primates when you shop and #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife
How plywood kicked off Indonesia’s deforestation
Indonesia now has the has the fastest rate of deforestation in the world, driven largely by clearing for palm oil plantations. But the process began long ago, with one of the most common building materials: plywood. As far as commodities are concerned, it was plywood that defined the rainforests of Borneo in the 1970s andContinue reading “How plywood kicked off Indonesia’s deforestation”
Rainbow Cliffs: Why Parrots in the Amazon Eat Clay
Our world holds a whole host of glorious natural spectacles, from great starling murmurations to the ethereal display of coral reef spawning. But none is more thrilling than catching a glimpse of a majestic #macaw.
Screeching their way through the #Amazon rainforest, leaving scattered fruit, broken branches, and a considerable quantity of parrot poop in their wake, #parrots are simply animals like no other. But high in the treetops, flying far above the dense, dark foliage below, how can you ensure that you see their bright colours? A safe bet is to find a clay lick.
African Greys: How politics killed the parrot
The African Grey Parrot of the Congo is an understated beauty sporting ash-grey plumage, which partially conceals the red flash of their short tails – not to be confused with the smaller and darker Timneh grey parrot. This species is found, as their name suggests, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), along with Kenya, Tanzania and parts of Angola. Already globally threatened, any self-described bird lover must understand jus how the political environment in the DRC is threatening this gorgeous parrot. One of the most pervasive threats for these rare birds is poaching for the illegal pet trade, which, in the past 40 years alone, has resulted in almost three million birds being snatched from their homes. That’s three million birds who will never reproduce in the wild and ensure continuity of this species. Help these birds every time you shop and be #Vegan, #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife.
Every living being has a way of communicating
Every living organism has a way of communicating. We may not be able to understand each other’s language. But its there and communication get passed from one organism to another. How do forests speak to us? If you have ever been into the woods and feel different ways nature talks to us. From the windContinue reading “Every living being has a way of communicating”
African grey parrots help each other in times of need
Corvids – birds such as ravens, crows, and magpies – and parrots are considered to be special among birds, as they have unusually large and densely packed brains. They show many cognitive capacities that are linked to an advanced understanding of their surroundings. This has earned them the name “feathered apes”. A recent study has found that it’s not only crows and ravens who help one another – grey parrots do as well.
Okapi: African Unicorns
Deep in the heart of Africa, in the dense tropical rainforests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), there lurks a very curious creature. With long legs and predominantly dark brown coat of short fur, Okapi look, at first glance, a bit like a horse. But a second look will reveal a somewhat deer-like face atop a relatively long, flexible neck, and, most strikingly, horizontal white stripes on its upper legs and rump. Help them to survive every time you shop #BoycottPalmOil #Boycott4Wildlife and be #Vegan.
The Plight of the Pangolin
Pangolins are one of the strangest looking and most under-appreciated animals. And a weird, elusive, nocturnal creature that looks almost like a walking pinecone. There are only two groups of pangolins alive today. In the Americas, there are 21 species of armadillo. Two can roll up into virtually impregnable balls to defend themselves. Conversely, inContinue reading “The Plight of the Pangolin”
Gibbon song is music to the ears of language students
#Gibbons and humans have more in common than might immediately seem apparent. Among many behavioural traits shared by our two species is singing. Not just that – the songs of gibbons have the potential to teach us about the origin of our own human capacities. Many are threatened by #palmoil #deforestation 🌳✨ #Boycottpalmoil #Boycott4Wildlife 🎶Continue reading “Gibbon song is music to the ears of language students”
Borneo’s bearded pig: forest gardener and eocosysem protector!
Borneo – fourth-largest island in the world, home to more than 20 million people. With so many well known species on the island like elephants, rhinos and orangutans, one species continues to fly under the radar. Sus barbatus AKA the Borneo Bearded Pig should be the most emblematic animal on the island. This wild boarContinue reading “Borneo’s bearded pig: forest gardener and eocosysem protector!”