Hopping With The Tasmanian Forester Kangaroo!

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The Tasmanian Forester Kangaroo is an endangered subspcies of the gray kangaroo. This kangaroo lives only in, surprise, Tasmania. There's not too many of these kangaroos left. They've lost their habitat due to the clearing of land for the purpose of agriculture. They have to compete for food with introduced livestock, cattle and even rabbits. These kangaroos also get hunted for their meat. Climate changes have not benefited them either. Then there's road deaths, poisonous baiting and disease. Things are not look well for the tasmanina forester kangaroo.

Luckily the Australian government has recognized that this species is endangered and has declared them protected by the law. Also, most of the Tasmanian Forester Kangaroo's habitat is now on private property. Hopefully soon we will see an increase in their population and maybe someday they will be able to be taken off the endangered species list.

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Slow And Silly Sloths

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Sloths are odd little creatures. They spend most of their lives upside down! Sloths eat upside down. Sloths sleep upside down. Sloths mate and give birth upside down. It is probably because of all this time spent upside down that the organs in sloths are in different positions then in most other mammals. Also, the hair of sloths curves in a different way then other mammals.

The main diet of sloths is tree leaves. So they rare called aboreal folivores. Sloths spend their whole life up in the tree tops. When they need to find more food then they climb to the ground to change trees. While on the ground sloths move incredibly slow.

Sloths are found in countries in South America such as Chili, Brazil and Peru.

That's all for today. Coming next: Hopping With The Tasmanian Forester Kangaroo!

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A World Without Pandas? How Can We Help?

Save the pandas! Yes, that's what this blog is about. In 2004 there was only around 1,600 left! That's like the amount of people in a small hick town. Their habitat has been cut down to around 14,000 square feet. And this is one big block of land, no. It's a little spot here and a little spot there that has somehow remained unscathed by the greedy clearing of land for agriculture. This is why there are so few pandas. Like almost every other endangered species it is humans that are killing them off by taking their land away from them. If they have nowhere to live how can they survive? And the fact that the land they do have is highly fragmented is a huge problem as well. They can't travel to find new sources of bamboo when their little patch become deleted. Also, incest! They can't find new pandas, new blood which results in constant inbreeding. Inbreeding causes birth defects and makes them more likely to contract diseases.

What can we do though? China is trying to save the pandas. It's not enough yet but at least they're working on it. Their programs cost about $1 billion dollars every year. And they are cracking down on poaching. Long term prison sentences or sometimes even death is what panda poachers can expect if they're caught by the law. More help is needed though. You can help by donating as little as $15 to the World Wildlife Fund. I know I would if I had money that I didn't need to spend on my daughter.

That's all for today! Coming up next: Slow and Silly Sloths

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Giant Pandas: Why Bamboo? And Sex Habits

Let's start this blog off with an all time favorite. The giant panda. Beautiful creatures. The strange thing about giant pandas though is this: they're herbivore carnivores. They're in the carnivore family but they aren't carnivores. They only eat bamboo. I shouldn't say only. They eat 99 percent bamboo. The other one percent of their diet consists of honey, yams and eggs. Another strange fact: the panda's digestive system can not properly break up plant material. Why is that their sole diet then? I haven't a clue.

Pandas are very shy animals so it's very hard to study their habits in the wild. Giant pandas are physically able to start producing offspring by the time they're six and a half MONTHS old! This before they're even weaned from drinking mama's milk. That happens at 9 months. Then mommy gets pregnant again when baby is 18 months and baby goes off on it's own into the world. Like a lot of animals male pandas will fight over a single female panda. (I guess that's true for us humans too, huh?) They mate in the spring. Ah, the season of love. Pregnancy lasts 97 to 163 days. Is it it just me or is that a somewhat large span. It gets to the 97th day and it's like oh, it could happen today OR it could happen 75 DAYS FROM NOW! That's over two months! Unfortunately most cubs born in captivity don't make it past 6 months old. However, if they do survive pandas in captivity can live for 30 years in comparison to only 15 or 20 in the wild.

That's all for today. Coming up next: A World Without Pandas? How Can We Help?

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