Washing Up Before Pigging Out

     Some Wild Boar like to wash certain foods before they will eat them. A study showed wild pigs in a zoo would often bring dirty apple chunks down to the stream to wash them off before eating them. Study also showed that pigs know when their food is too dirty too eat, so they will take the time to wash it before digging in. This discovery could help change the way some people see pigs. Despite pigs reputations for selfish acts and dirtiness, they’re actually thoughtful and focused animals.
     Pigs aren’t the only animals that clean their food in water before eating it. Raccoons, birds, and monkeys all do this too. But, not all these animals are truly washing their food like the pig does. To prove this study, researchers gave pigs a clean cut up apple and an apple cut up covered in sand. As research showed, the pig picked up the dirty apple and carried it to the stream to clean it off before eating both of the apples. 
     Pigs are known for rolling around in their own feces and mud, so why would they take the time to wash off their food? Researchers assume they might not like the taste or texture of sand on their food. But, it could also be to protect there teeth. Maybe this new finding can help change the way people view pigs and can assist to helping the pigs from becoming extinct. More than 15 pig species are endangered, some even extinct in the wild.

Maybe "you eat like a pig" isn't so bad afterall

Kony and his Elephant Poaching

     A recent article written by Brian Christy, tells his story of attempting to catch ivory poachers. He asks taxidermist, Dante to create a lifelike ivory tusk with a gps tracking system inside. If he could do this, he would be asked to create more. In the criminal poacher world, Ivory works as currency. This is why Brian has asked him to make this counterfeit currency he can track. The purpose of these tusks is to find out where these illegal items are taken. Brian wanted to find out what ports it leaves, what ships it travels on, what cities and countries it visits, and where it ends up.
     Ivory poachers will run a lighter underneath it or scratch it to see if it is legit. A real ivory tusk wont melt and it won't scratch. Dante has to pay attention to this, along with creating the lines at the end of the tusk that resemble the circles in a tree. About, 30,000 elephants are slaughtered every year for their tusks. The Chinese middle class is number one buyer in ivory. Most illegal ivory goes to China where a pair of Ivory chopsticks could see for thousands of dollars and Ivory carved tusks can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
     East Africa is number one for elephant poaching, In June the government announced they had lost 6o percent of it's elephant population. In the past five years the population went from 110,00 too 48,000. Poor villages and unpaid park rangers hunt them for cash. Poachers are enslaving people, taking over villages and killing anyone who gets in their way. “Ivory operates as a savings account for Kony,” says the U.S. State Department’s Marty Regan.
     If you don't know who Kony is, he is one of the biggest African terrorists. His number one goal is to overthrow the Ugandan government. Kony's minions have killed over 10,000 people, doing inhumane and unthinkable acts of violence to these innocent families. He has kidnapped thousands of young boys and have trained them to be killers. Kony tends to set up camp where elephants are plentiful. One of the former sex slaves ws interviewed by Brian Christy and she said "They say the more elephants to kill the more money to be made".
     This is where the artificial tusks come in, to track where it goes and hopefully into the hands of one of Kony's men.

In May 2013 poachers with the insurgent group Seleka massacred 26 elephants at Dzanga Bai, a mineral-rich watering hole in CAR.

 

The 'Blue World' Expansion Contract

     On October 9,2015 hundreds of Sea World activists and supporters gathered in a court room to vote for or against the killer whale tank expansion for the Sandiego Sea World. The contract will include destruction of the 1.7 million gallon tank to construct a 5.2 million gallon tank for the killer whales to live in. The expansion contract also says Sea World "will not house any killer whales taken from the wild after Feb, 12 2016". Along with capturing wild killer whales an further, Sea World is not allowed to breed the whales in capitivity. This includes artificial insemination. 

     The vote insures "no more orcas will be condemned to a nonlife of lonliness, deprivation and misery." -People from the Ethical Treatment of Animals

     "These 11 Orcas will be the last Orcas there" -PETA lawyer Jared Goodman.

     Hundreds of people were expected to show up at the California Commision Hearing and that's exactly what was the outcome. Blackfish has lead thousands of people to change there perception and opinion of Sea World and how they treat the Orcas in captivity. Sea Worlds profits have dropped 84 percent between the premiere of Black Fish and the beginning of 2015. Sea World claimed to be disappointed by the conditions attached to the 'Blue World' contract expansion which is set to start in 2018. 

     Many animal rights activists are outraged. "The only appropriate expansion of a tank at Sea World would probably have to be a 100 miles long, because that's how much wild Orcas swim a day" stated by Michael Harris, a board member at the Orca Conservancy. Activists believe the new tank expansion  would only lead to more captivity for Orcas's around the world. Activists, over 500 of them filled the court room carrying signs reading things like "Vote no on Sea World tanks" and "Sea World hurts Orcas". If you were to vote for the tank expansion or against the expansion? What would you do? And why would you choose this? 

Pumpkin the Rescue Racoon

     Around this time last year in the Bahamas, a woman named Rosie Kemp  was heading home when a baby Raccoon fell out of a tree and right in her arms. The one-month old orphan baby Raccoon had a broken leg and was completely helpless. So Rosie gave her a warm, loving home and nursed her back to health. 

     Rosie named her Pumpkin and welcomed her into her family with her two kids, husband and two rescue dogs. Pumpkin bonded right away with the two rescue dogs and actually started to copy them. 

     Now you must be thinking that Raccoons are usually viscous and you are warned to keep away when you see one. That's correct. "Raccoons are NOT pets" said Rosie to the Dodo. Raccoons will often get moody and mischievous. So if Pumpkin doesn't get her way, she will let you know. Despite the title, Pumpkin acts more like a toddler then the average house dog. She likes watermelon, eggs sunny side up, swimming in the pool, and being lazy on the couch with the dogs. 

     She's even potty-trained and flushes after using the toilet! She's really just a happy creature. You can follow Rosie's posts on Instagram of Pumpkin at pumpkintheraccoon seeing posts like below. 

Sufferpup

     Two explorers Cedar Wright and his expedition partner, Alex Honnold gave themselves just three weeks to finish biking 800 miles and to climb 45 towers in the American Southwest. They go so far off the normal path and have to make unexpected pit-stops. But, during one pit-stop what Cedar found was totally unexpected. In an interview, Cedar said “I have to pee so I just stop on my bike randomly in the desert and all of a sudden I hear this whimpering sound and at first I can’t figure out what it is and then I look and there’s this little puppy curled up in an old tire hiding from the wind. I quickly realized that he had been abandoned.”
     Cedar and Alex decided to name him Sufferpup. They didn't have any dog food with them but, they decided to give him string cheese and some water. Sufferpup ate the entire string cheese and drank all of the water. Sufferpup ended up releasing the digested string cheese onto their sleeping bags later that night. So they made him his own little kennel out of an empty beer box and some rags. "It’s really heartening at the end of the day to come down and have this adorable little puppy to cuddle with. Without Sufferpup I don’t know if we would have made it.” Cedar said. It looks like Cedar and Sufferpup needed each other. Sufferpup went from scared and shivering to a energetic, happy little puppy.
     I thought this was just a really cute story to share, it put a smile on my face and hopefully it put one on yours as well.

Sufferpup, taken by Cedar during a pit-stop