As someone who loves wild, natural places, you’ve heard plenty of dire environmental alerts and communications. There are more tigers in people’s backyards than there are tigers in the wild. Rhinos are being poached to the point of extinction. The last Galápagos giant tortoise from Pinta Island has passed away. Plant species are disappearing at [...]
Posts Tagged ‘galapagos’
Lonesome George, I Will Miss You
Lonesome George died this past Sunday morning. His caretaker, Fausto Llerena, found the giant tortoise’s remains stretched out in his corral, facing his watering hole, at the Charles Darwin Research Station (CDRS) in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos Islands. I didn’t know George personally, but I grew up knowing about him. [...]
Ten Things the Galápagos Islands Taught Me
If you’re a parent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandparent, or friend, you probably know someone who was part of Graduation 2012. And at this time of year, young, degree-holding students are being bombarded with tips and advice during countless graduation speeches across the country. So in a Natural-Habitat-Adventures-kind-of-way, I’d like to offer my own list [...]
The Incredible, Shrinking Wild World and Why Size Matters
Animals and plants are shrinking, and most scientists believe that global warming is the cause. Recently, researchers examined eighty-five species and found that 45 percent of them have been steadily decreasing in size from generation to generation. What’s more, this downward trend seems to coincide with an uptick in temperatures: Each degree of warming worldwide [...]
Charles Darwin’s Fossils Newly Discovered
Curiosity can lead to wondrous things, as every scientist knows. And it certainly did recently for Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang at the British Geological Survey. Poking around in a dusty corner in the survey’s archives, Falcon-Lang happened to come across an old cabinet. Being a researcher, of course, he opened a few drawers to see what [...]
