Nature & Wildlife
Is the Ability to Identify Wildlife an Endangered Skill, or Unnecessary Knowledge?
There’s an interesting, little book I picked up a few years ago. It’s titled Back in the Day: 101 Things Everyone Used to Know How to Do.
Good Nature Travel Blog
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Conservation
Arctic Sea Ice Declines to Its Sixth-Lowest Extent on Record, Yet Some Still Repudiate the Loss
I’ve always loved ice. Growing up in Wisconsin, my winters were filled with it. I could skate on it, watch it paint the trees with a crystalline, Doctor Zhivago-like romance and break off icicles for an afternoon treat. Back then, I never considered it controversial. It was just a fact of winter.
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Conservation
Gorillas Thwart Poachers: Should Animals Be Trained to Participate in Their Own Conservation?
Those of us who have been lucky enough to share our lives with myriad pets over the years need no further proof that nonhuman animals have a high degree of intelligence. Scientists, however, do not have the luxury of going on gut feelings.
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Conservation
Will Evolution Be the New Antipoaching Tool?
Despite antipoaching patrols, increased arrests, relocation and unmanned security drones, it seems we’re losing the battle against wildlife poachers. Already in the first six months of 2013, for example, in South Africa alone, 428 rhinos have died at the hands of poachers.
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Nature & Wildlife
Youth Art Contest Produced Incredible Wildlife Artwork
When we saw the winning artwork from this year’s Endangered Species Day Youth Art Contest, it was so darn impressive we had to share it with you.
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Videos
Rare Video Footage of Wild Pandas
Giant pandas are among the world’s most uncommon and elusive animals. China’s State Forestry Administration estimates that there are only about 1,600 of them remaining in the wild, down from 2,500 in the 1970s. They inhabit the mountainous regions of China’s Sichuan (1,200 pandas), Shaanxi (300 pandas) and Gansu (100 pandas) Provinces.
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Conservation
Protecting Panda Habitat: China’s First Land Trust Reserve
When images of a wild giant panda gnawing on a takin carcass in China’s Sichuan Province were recently captured on motion-sensor cameras, researchers were caught by surprise. Although pandas are technically carnivores, their diets today consist almost entirely (99 percent) of bamboo leaves, stems and shoots.
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Nature & Wildlife
Eight New Mammals Discovered in Peru’s Cloud Forest
As conservation groups like WWF and others fight to protect a multitude of endangered species, it’s heartening to learn that new species are still being discovered —including previously unknown mammals like this cute creature below, which is a new kind of night monkey, though complete identification by biologists can often take several years.
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Videos
Video: Bear Cubs Rescued from a Dumpster
All bear cubs appear to be incredibly curious, and black bear cubs are no exception. However, this penchant for wanderlust and exploration can sometimes result in some thrilling—but not exactly welcome—adventures. Watch the one-minute video below. Mother bear is frantic: three of her cubs have fallen inside a roadside dumpster.
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Travel Tips
Are Paper Maps Obsolete?
Interstate rest stops are some of my favorite places when it comes to getting ideas for new adventures. Inside their doors are racks filled with printed brochures and colorful maps that promise excitement just down the road.
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News & More
Dirty Adventure Travel
Antibacterial soaps, alcohol wipes and bleach in our everyday cleaning products have made us focused on eliminating all the germs that we possibly can from our lives. And when it comes to our children, it seems that focus turns into an obsession. It’s here, though, where we soon become at odds with nature.
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News & More
Change of Name: Should “Mount McKinley” Become “Denali”?
Nature surrounds us with an amazing variety of animals, insects, birds, plants and topographic features. To refer to and distinguish the entities in this bounty, we assign them names—often two: one for common use and one, a two-parter, for scientific identification. Usually, the person credited with discovering or finding something new gets naming rights.