Red Carpets and Leopard Skins.

Jacob, can you hear us? Why aren’t you up front in the wars! We need real men to fight poachers with their helicopters, drugs and chainsaws. Leave your leopard skin at home –spots don’t hack it in the bush- camo is more fitting. Do you miss the point of all of this? Someone ever tell you leopards are endangered?

Can you get out of your office Jacob? Red carpet dignitaries, filling their hollowness with fresh fillet and rich gravies; paper-umbrella decorated cocktails; dipping their snouts...while scheming to fill their offshore accounts. That takes so much time: oh, the details! But those important matters ignore the rhino decimation: so deal with it by pulling down the shutters and new gagging legislation! Ah, but blood still stains the reddest carpet when so many are trampling it in.

Jacob, how do we know the enemy within? Can we meet you on the battlefield when you finally cave in? The APU guys in the bush know what they’re fighting for: they put their blood out there on the line. Their stains will be those honestly entwined…around every fibre of the red carpet on your office floor. Tread carefully: look away as you walk the canyons of power. Don’t ignore the reminders of the War.

Have you seen their faces Jacob? Deep drugged slumber; chainsawn facelift; agonising wakefulness; stumbling, uncomprehending the hell! 3 days to die in front of their brood: would be better that they killed them! Their red carpet is the ground stained black with clotted blood!

Jacob, have you heard them -the cry of the calves? “Mama, are you sleeping? I can hear no heartbeat sound. Mama, you’ve grown cold now -as cold as the hard ground. Mama, will you protect me? Hyena gather round!”

And the tourists, Jacob –they want the Big Five.  Jacob, will you protect them? How many lion are left alive? Bones in bottles of Asian wine! Oh, the big tuskers – where are they? Chopsticks to enable the Asian to happily dine! Leopard? Just dignitaries ego-boosting attire? How long before they all go?

Jacob, take the lead now: the men will fall right in. Show you’re worthy to walk red carpets, and wear your leopard skin.

"Mama, are you sleeping?"
 South Africans will realise this an appeal to Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa to take the lead in the rhino poaching crisis.
The South African Government must fully fund more Anti-Poaching Units, and bring the organisers of the criminal poaching syndicates to justice!

Red Carpets and Leopard Skins.

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Forget Polar Bears -Rhinos face extinction now!

While the glamour poster stars of the Save The Planet movement grab the public attention -yes they are cute and cuddly, but try hugging one!- rhino are being driven to extinction. We can argue all we like about the fate of polar bears given climate change, but the facts are polar bear numbers are well up on 1970's numbers when hunting brought their numbers to an alarming low of around 7,000. Restrictions on indigenous peoples hunting for meat and fur, and trophy hunting has seen numbers rise to an estimated 23-25,000.
Meanwhile, rhino don't have the luxury of time: a staggering 488 rhino were slaughtered in South Africa alone in 2011. Less than 27,000 rhino of all species exist and the rate of poaching is increasing.

Stop the poaching and rhino numbers will recover, as happened with polar bear numbers.

Rhino have been around for 50 million years and were widespread (occurring in North America and Europe as well as in Africa and Asia), but Traditional Chinese Medicine beliefs are fuelling poaching throughout Africa and Asia. Rising affluence in China and Vietnam mean more people there can afford these ‘treatments’ and criminal syndicates are illegally driving poaching and trafficking of rhino horn to supply this market. Fetching $US65,000 a kilo on the blackmarket, corruption at all levels of Government and along the chain of export to Asian markets make it extremely difficult to stamp out the trade, threatening the very existence of Rhino on this planet.  

It is thought that the surge in poaching after 2008 may have been linked to comments made by an ex -premier of South Korea when he announced he used rhino horn for his cancer, fuelling a growing myth that rhino horn cures cancer. Rhino horn was traditionally prescribed as a cure for sexual dysfunction in Traditional Chinese Medicine, but now is being promoted as a cure for almost any ailment.  In 2010, Elle Macpherson stupidly quipped she used powdered rhino horn to combat ageing. So the myth that rhino horn is medicine for any ailment has been growing concurrent at a time when rising Chinese affluence means more can afford this. At $65,000 a kilo, vested Chinese and Vietnamese criminal interests will be keen to see the myths promoted!

Today, only five species of rhino survive. All rhinos are under threat of, and most species are on the verge of, extinction. Unlike Polar Bears, environmental adaptation isn't going to save them -only drastic action against human predation can!

Estimates are:
White rhino: 20,000

Black rhino: 4,500
Greater One-horned rhino: 2,800
Sumatran Rhino: 200
Javan Rhino: 44

2007 saw 13 killed in South Africa. However rhino poaching escalated to 488 killed in SA in 2011. Plot those figures on a graph and you'll see rhino exterminated in less than a decade.

2011:   448!   

Rhino horn is not medicine, it is Keratin, merely the same as hair and toenails.

We must act urgently to protect the remaining 27,000. We must educate to change beliefs. Volunteers are mainly manning the APU units, risking their their lives to protect rhino. Living rough in the bush for days, ever vigilant, and catching and killing poachers if necessary. Governments must take strong action to fully fund anti-poaching units, and lift their abysmal prosecution rate.

Share this article across your social media networks. Help publicise this issue. Let's generate more worldwide pressure on Governments to act now!

Forget Polar Bears -Rhinos face extinction now!

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Galapagos Islands: Land and sea scapes.

Galapagos Islands is well known for unique wildlife: gentle marine and land iguanas seen nowhere else, tortoises that mimic small cars for size, sea lions so unafraid and inquisitive they will tickle you with their long, sensitive whiskers, and birdlife that astounds in its colour and diversity. It is expected you'll fill up your memory cards with cute animal pics, but this ancient archipelago of volcanic islands erupting from the bowels of the earth offers other treasures: clear waters, raw knife-sharp cliffs, lava faced coastlines, white coral beaches, and colourful vegetation come together for picture-postcard scenes.

This picture was taken through the tinted glass of our G Adventures boat.

Same scene but taken from out on the deck.

This land is just as unique and colourful as its weird wildlife.

Eek! What on earth is this monster?

A lava formation.

BTW, none of the photos have been enhanced. They have merely been cropped for effect. 

Galapagos Islands: Land and sea scapes.

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Tell me Dad, will we go see the rhino?

Child to father-

The pictures you show in the stories that you read me

When I grow, will we go?

Can we see them?

Oh, how I want you to take me to see them,

The great animals you show me in the stories you read me.

Will they be there?

Will they graze where we gaze

In the wild where they should be?

I want to see them.

I want to hear them.

Will they be there when I grow?

I want to know when I grow you will take me to see them.

All the stories you have told,

When you read me to sleep and set me a-dreaming.

And the pictures that you showed.

I want to know we can go see a rhino.

And if I want,

The elephant,

The leopard, the lion and the big buffalo

Are gonna be there,

Roaming free where

A little boy dreamed them?

Tell me Dad, will we go see the rhino?

Can we go and enjoy them?

All the beasts in the pictures in the stories that you read me?

While man destroys them

Can you ignore them?

Will you help me protect them for my own little boy?

I want to know we can go see a rhino.

And if we want,

The elephant,

The leopard, the lion and the big buffalo

Are gonna be there,

Roaming free where

My little boy dreamed them?

467 rhino have been poached in South Africa to date this year!

You can all do a little to help in a big way- add your support to this petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/we-demand-and-expect-that-south-african-government-act-immediately-and-decisively-to-end-rhino-killing-carnage-and-avert-imminent-rhino-extinction

Tell me Dad, will we go see the rhino?

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Magnificent Monday: That Christmas Feeling!

Magnificent Monday is late because it's that busy time of year leading up to Christmas. So much is happening and we have family gathering over the holiday.

In New Zealand, the Pohutukawa flowering heralds our southern Christmas.

 Everywhere, the New Zealand 'Christmas Tree' is coming into full blossom.

The masses of blossoms provide nectar for our native birds, particularly our favourite, the Tui.

Sorry about this short post, but we are waiting for news on someone close, who unfortunately is in hospital.

 I started this year off with a post called "Song Of The Tui " to wish everyone a great 2011, and there seems no better way of wishing her well, and everyone else, by posting up these great photos of our joyful, colourful Pohutukawa flowers so prevalent at this time of year, and finishing with a photo of that same bird! 

Have a wonderful time with your family, and friends. May your God bless you all as we celebrate what Christmas is about - a time of remembering the birth of Jesus. A time when families come together. 

Then for us, straight after Christmas we depart for our dream destination!
Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador has been on our hit list for so long and we finally made the decision to head over to that archipelago monster tortoises and marine iguanas! Unique birdlife and abundant marine mammals await! The stuff of National Geographic and TV feature documentaries. Darwin and finches; pirate havens and National Parks. 

Holes in My Soles will not be updated for some time until after we get back late January.  Spending time on a computer just doesn't figure high on my priorities when Kay and I are travelling, but be sure there'll be plenty written about our travels when we are home again. Get ready for marvellous wildlife photos - my new camera is loaded up with tons of memory cards, and an itchy finger!

Have a wonderful time with your family, and friends. 

I would like to read your end of year articles though, so post a link to your Christmas post here-

Magnificent Monday: That Christmas Feeling!

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This Moment: Fri 16th Dec.

{This Moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment from my week, or from thinking back on our travels. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Adopted from Soulemama. Drop in there and leave your link and comments also.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Yeah, OK we're not supposed to tell you about the pic, but talk about it in the comments.

Guess how old these are?
Where from?

..
I can chat about these a wee bit- they represent to me why I do not worry about Climate Change. These prove to me the fact that the earth has seen massive changes over billions of years of Ice Ages, Interglacial warm periods, and Continental Drift and cataclysmic earthquakes, uplifts in the Earth's crust and the effect of wind, water and temperature on the land.
These shells were found in rocks composed of sediment, laid down millions of years ago and compressed into rock then uplifted to 2,800 metres.
Shells found at that height 1,000's of miles inland? Can we comprehend the changes to the Earth that brought this about?

Oh, but recently, we humans are supposed to fight to control climate!

This Moment: Fri 16th Dec.

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