A Million-Mile Freeway for the Jaguar, Amazon’s Shadowy Lord
The mythology of many pre-Columbian societies regard the jaguar both as the Guardian of the Forest and the Keeper of the Underworld. For the native peoples of the jungle, the largest cat of the Western Hemisphere has always been a mysterious creature, associated with death and renewal. There’s even an old shamanic folktale that portrays the jaguar as a purifier, a character who’s capable of “devouring negative energies of anger, fear and grief.” He’s also the one entrusted with the task of easing your soul into its voyage to the great beyond.
That quality seems to still ring true to this day, as anyone who happens upon this phantom rarely comes back to tell the story. So elusive is this creature that many researchers dedicated to study them rarely have a chance to see one of them up close in the wild.
Now Panthera, a wild cat conservation organization, has conceived the Jaguar Corridor Initiative to connect 90 distinct populations of this Continue reading →
While you were arguing about what will finally bring peace to the Middle East, science was busy creating things, discovering stuff, taking care of its business.
So it may be as good a time as any to find out about two radically different directions modern research is taking, both aiming loosely at improving your life twice fold.
We assure you, if these scientists succeed in their quest, you, and the tribes of Libya, and the refugees of Gaza, as well as the job seekers in Atlanta, and the immigrants from Mexico, and pretty much everyone else and their nieces, will have a lot to benefit. GHOST HEARTS
The first time the heart of a human being was implanted into the chest of another was in 1967 in a breakthrough surgery conducted by Dr. Christiaan Barnard.
It may have been the most classic example of the surgery being a complete success, despite the patient dying a short while Continue reading →
Just when San Francisco is considering a ban to all pet sales, focus groups for monkeys, a thinking parrot and pot head rabbits are making news around the world.
While to the untrained eye, these events wouldn’t amount to much on the “liberal-biased media,” for Colltales this is serious stuff, lest not forget the majority of Americans households is the domain of a pet or two. NO FUR OR FEATHER FOR SALE
At the city named after the patron saint of the animals, a ban on the sale of cats, dogs and the eventual hamster is in the works since last year.
The idea was to curtail the ever increasing puppy mills trade, Continue reading →
Last year they rounded up hundreds of geese and shot them. Everybody got mad. So this time, they dialed up the Collies.
It’s fair to say that when Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger successfully averted a major disaster over the skies of New York City, in 2009, safely landing a commercial U.S. Airways plane full of passengers in the Hudson River, everybody was happy. It was a major accomplishment of the veteran pilot, a feat of sheer skill and courage, and a great piece of positive news that made the rounds across the globe.
Soon after, though, the reasons for the emergency landing became clear and the culprits were identified: it was all the Canadian Geese’s fault. What not many had realized then was that flocks of geese had already collided many times with Continue reading →
Perhaps the announcement was made to coincide with Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the U.S. Knowing the topic of human rights violations by his country would be on the table, for example, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to imagine some political wrangling over how to divert the pressure, at least for now.
But be it as it may, the recent ban on circuses’ use of wild animals by the Chinese government does represent a step closer to a new attitude in our relationship with wild animals. In fact there’s a growing movement advocating an end for all instances of captivity of great beasts, regardless if it’s for educational or entertainment purposes.
China’s ban on all wild animal shows in some 300 state-owned Continue reading →
JUST IN: Recent reports of mass killings of birds and fish all over the world, are having a curious effect: while some are ready to zoom out from such news, anchored by the idea that the phenomenon is more common that people realized, others are ready to freak out. These are calling it “The Great Planetary Die-Off,” adopting the restrained tone typical of Apocalypse Now proponents. So perhaps it’s time to pause and consider that oldest of human assumptions, now being generously applied to the animal kingdom: dead is a booming business; even those who’ve never died before, are getting on with it.
1,000 and counting. That’s how many dead birds were found in Beebe, Arkansas, over the weekend within a small area. Almost as if they were all hit at the same time by the same catastrophic Continue reading →
You’ve read here about a summit of 13 nations in Russia last month to discuss their commitment and strategies to protect the wild tiger, said to be facing a serious threat of extinction. Vietnam is among those nations.
But old, misguided cultural habits die much harder than these magnificent animals, it seems. Word just came out that Vietnamese authorities are planning a public auction of approximately six pounds of tiger paste – ground bones and Continue reading →
Several nations have recently gathered in St. Petersburg, Russia, in a last ditch effort to prevent the imminent extinction of tigers. Big cats face threats to their natural habitats, which shrink as the human presence increases, are hunted relentlessly for the black market value of their skin and body parts, and are down to an ever-diminishing genetic pool. Captives living in private reserves, which outnumbered those in the wild, don’t have the necessary biological diversity to guarantee the species’ survival.
Without a global, effective and consistent strategy to preserve them as they’ve lived for millennia, neither their mythological charisma nor the powerful allure they’ve always exerted over our Continue reading →
CollTales 