Biophilia Hypothesis — Photo I took in February 2006 in Tarangire...

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#elephants #tarangire national park #tanzania #baobob tree #landscape photography

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This is a four-minute video about the Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, and the crucial need to maintain wildlife corridors connecting the Park to areas outside of the Park where the wildlife migrates during the seasonal changes (wet….outside the Park, dry….inside the Park).

I spent three days in Tarangire a few years ago. It really is a remarkable place. Most people visiting Tanzania spent time in the Serengeti National Park or the Ngorongoro Crater, and skip the other treasures of Tanzania, such as Tarangire and Arusha National Parks.

Here are a few photos that it took during my visit to Tarangire:

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Tarangire National Park Tanzania

For World Elephant Day, I’m posting photos that I took in Africa of elephants. The photos were taken in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, the Serengeti in Tanzania, Arusha National Park in Tanzania and in a private reserve (Tanda Tula) outside of Kruger National Park in South Africa. The pictures were taken at various times in 2004 through 2007.

The elephant in the last photo is Harvey. He was well known as a cranky old guy. He looks kind of gnarly with his broken left tusk and his floppy left ear that he couldn’t control (tendons and muscles shredded). He didn’t want us where we were and forcefully approached the vehicle from the back, warning us to leave him alone. I hope he’s still around. I’m guessing poachers won’t be after his broken tusks.

elephants tanzania south africa
Uploading some of my old photos. This is a baobob tree, otherwise known as the upside down tree. I posted an article a few weeks about the probability that the baobob will most likely not be able to adapt to the new ecology of a changing climate. So,...

Uploading some of my old photos. This is a baobob tree, otherwise known as the upside down tree. I posted an article a few weeks about the probability that the baobob will most likely not be able to adapt to the new ecology of a changing climate. So, maybe this iconic tree will be no longer.

This was a sunset moment in a preserve off the western boundary of Kruger National Park in South Africa. We were enjoying a “sundowner” moment. A sundowner happens in late afternoon, after you’ve completed your visits with the land and the wildlife. The guide stops somewhere for everyone to enjoy drinks (usually South African wine in South Africa) and munchies while enjoying the sunset before heading back to camp.

baobob tree Kruger National Park South Africa landscape photography
Cheetahs (mom and two juvenile cubs) in the Serengeti. Photo taken by rjzimmerman in March 2006. I just posted a few photos from one of our trips to Tanzania. When I read about the slaughter of elephants and rhinos and lions in Tanzania, I’m upset...

Cheetahs (mom and two juvenile cubs) in the Serengeti. Photo taken by rjzimmerman in March 2006.

I just posted a few photos from one of our trips to Tanzania. When I read about the slaughter of elephants and rhinos and lions in Tanzania, I’m upset and angry. The local people we met, from the Massai and the Chagga tribes, cherished their wildlife and the land. What changed? I’ve read governmental corruption. The expansion of the terrorist groups from Somalia into Kenya and Tanzania for the sole purpose of poaching, to fund their terrorist operations. The insatiable demand in China for ivory chopsticks. Poverty is a problem in Tanzania. The people can’t eat scenery and landscapes, so they turn to criminal poaching.

Regardless of the causes, I hope things settle down and the animals and the people and the land can resume harmony and balance.

cheetahs tanzania serengeti nature photography landscape photography
smithsonianmag.com

Stunning Photos of Africa's Oldest Trees, Framed by Starlight > Smithsonian

The photographer is Beth Moon. "Diamond Nights" captures the surreal beauty of ancient trees after nightfall. The photos show us baobab trees in South Africa and Botswana and quiver trees in Namibia.
Melissa Wiley
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“Andromeda” - Baobobs in Botswana.

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“Corvus” - Quiver Trees in Namibia.

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“Lacerta” - A Baobob Tree in South Africa

Here’s a link to the photographer’s web site for the series, explaining the intrigue of trees and celestial bodies and her technical approach to photographing these trees.

baobob tree quiver tree Beth Moon photography
nature.org

Using Fireworks to Save Elephants | The Nature Conservancy

Working with partner Honeyguide Foundation, we are using fireworks, air horns and flashlights to save elephants' lives in northern Tanzania.
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Elephants in Tanzania don’t recognize the dotted lines that separate their sanctuaries, preserves and national parks from farmlands. They also ignore the signs that say “Private Property, Keep Out.” So they wander out of their protected zones onto farms, and all hell breaks loose. But some of the areas in Tanzania are using non-lethal effective means to scare them off. Good for the farmer and his or her family, good for the elephant, who doesn’t get hurt (other than his or her pride) or killed.

Excerpt:

As more and more people turn to farming in corridors where elephants range, conflicts between the two cause huge problems. When an elephant wanders onto a villager’s farm, it can have a devastating effect: A single elephant can destroy someone’s food supply for the entire year in one night, trample property, and threaten a family’s safety.

In the past, when an elephant made a wrong turn and ended up in a community garden, a villager used the only defense he had against a five-ton animal: a spear. A direct hit was always enough to chase her away…and make sure she would never come back. More than likely, she retreated into the park before succumbing to her wounds after a few days.

But these villagers now have a better — if slightly unorthodox — way to redirect elephants away from their crops. Honeyguide Foundation, with critical support from The Nature Conservancy, has created a unique, four-step elephant alarm system to protect a villager’s food source without harming the elephant.

The alarm system involves four sequential steps, each deployed only if the previous strategy didn’t work. These methods do not harm the elephant, they just make the elephant uncomfortable enough to turn around. (Watch this short video to see how it works.)

  • Step 1: Shine very bright flashing lights at the elephant 
  • Step 2: Sound off a very loud air horn
  • Step 3: Throw a “chili cloud” — chili powder mixed with sand and a lit firecracker inside of a condom — near where the elephant is grazing
  • Step 4: Set off a roman candle — they are loud, bright, and a little scary!

Here’s a video of the four steps. (I laughed at the construction of step 3……mixing a condom and a firecracker along with chili powder and rocks)

Tanzania elephants
From The Guardian: “A team of conservationists attaches a GPS collar to an immobilised elephant in Mikumi national park, Tanzania, in an ambitious elephant-collaring project covering the park and the neighbouring Selous game reserve. By December 2018...

From The Guardian:

A team of conservationists attaches a GPS collar to an immobilised elephant in Mikumi national park, Tanzania, in an ambitious elephant-collaring project covering the park and the neighbouring Selous game reserve. By December 2018 the team will have fitted 60 collars to elephants in and around the reserve, providing real-time data for rangers and managers. This will help Tanzanian authorities to proactively protect the elephants from poachers as well as provide conservation data. Photograph: Rob Beechey/WWF

elephants Tanzania
From National Geographic: “Three female ostriches (brown feathers), three males (black feathers), and 42 chicks keep watch for jackals and other predators in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. Chicks hatched in communal nests may stay together as...

From National Geographic:

Three female ostriches (brown feathers), three males (black feathers), and 42 chicks keep watch for jackals and other predators in Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. Chicks hatched in communal nests may stay together as long as a year or two. PHOTOGRAPH BY KLAUS NIGGE

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Decades after a US butterfly species vanished, a close relative is released to fill gap
Wildlife experts are bringing butterflies back to the Presidio National Park in San Francisco as part of an effort to restore native ecosyst
AP News
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Excerpt from this story from the Associated Press (AP):

More than 80 years ago, a beautiful butterfly called Xerces Blue that once fluttered among San Francisco’s coastal dunes went extinct as stately homes, museums and parks ate up its habitat, marking the first butterfly species in the United States to disappear due to human development.

But thanks to years of research and modern technology a close relative of the shimmery iridescent butterfly species has been reintroduced to the dunes in Presidio National Park in San Francisco. Dozens of Silvery Blue butterflies — the closest living relatives of the Xerces Blue — were released in the restored habitat last week, officials said Monday.

Scientists with San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences utilized the Academy’s genetic sequencing capabilities and analyzed Xerces Blue specimens in their vast collection to confirm a group of Silvery Blues in Monterey County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of San Francisco, could successfully fill the ecological gap left by the Xerces Blue.

“This isn’t a Jurassic Park-style de-extinction project, but it will have a major impact,” said Durrell Kapan, a senior research fellow and the lead Academy researcher on the project. “The Silvery Blue will act as an ecological ‘stand-in’ for the Xerces Blue, performing the same ecosystem functions as both a pollinator and a critical member of the food web.”

Presidio National Park Xerces Blue butterfly Silvery Blue butterflies
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