PENGUINS ARE AFFECTED BY GLOBAL WARMİNG !!!

What are penguins?

Penguins are flightless birds that live in the southern hemisphere. The largest living species is the Emperor Penguins. Not all penguins live in cold climate. So much of the penguins are found in the temperature zone. Not all penguins are black on the outside, in fact most of them are born with a brown outside. We need to take care of them before we lose them, we might lose them because of global warming.  

Effects of Climate Change

 Climate change is a growing concern for penguins that live in Antarctica—the emperor penguin and the Adelie penguin. These species depend on sea ice for access to food and for places to breed. But the sea ice has been disappearing, and penguin populations along with it. A 2008 WWF study estimated that 50% of the emperor penguins and 75% of the Adelie penguins will likely decline or disappear if global average temperatures rise above pre-industrial levels by just 2 degrees C—a scenario that could be reached in less than 40 years.

“From polar bears in the Arctic to penguins in Antarctic, climate change is having a devastating impact on animals around the world.”
Dr. Sybille Klenzendorf WWF’s Managing Director of Species Conservation

 

 The Antarctic continent is warming up because of this rapid warming, sea ice along the Antarctic Peninsula is shrinking in size and the sea-ice season is becoming shorter. The loss of the sea ice is harming the penguin chicks and adults as adult penguins rear their chicks on sea ice when the sea ice breaks up before their chicks have matured, chicks that are swept in to the ocean are likely to die. Ocean warming and sea ice loss are also linked to the decline of the penguins’ major food source; Antarctic krill. The krill in the Antarctic region have declined as much as 80% since 1970s.    

How can we Protect Penguins from extinction?

We can find a new home for penguins. Penguins are becoming extinct because they have no place that can offer them a home so finding a new place is important. We can find new places that have rich resources and food that can provide for penguins. Then we can offer artificial security care to care for penguins and make a new place where no external factors will cause penguins to die. Another thing we also can do is to take care of young penguins during the time when the penguins don't have a good immunity against high temperature.


We should ban some artificial activity which pushes penguins to die. These kinds of artificial activity also have a big effect to push penguins to die. Therefore we should ban people from doing commercial fishing, harvesting and hunting.


We have to find some solution to prevent and reduce global warming to stop global warming from pushing penguins to die. People can study new energy resources for reducing use of fossil fuel. Another easy thing we can do is we have to reuse and recycle, not to use any product for just one time, and people have to plant a number of trees because trees can reduce the CO2. These things can help us to prevent global warming. 

      

 

                                                               WHALES

Whales belong to the order cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Whales are divided into two suborders: baleen and toothed whales. Baleen whales have a comb-like fringe, called a baleen, on the upper jaw, which is used to filter plankton, as well as small fish and crustaceans. They are the largest species of whale. Toothed whales have teeth and prey on fish, squid, other whales and marine mammals. They sense their surrounding environment through echolocation.

Like all mammals, whales breathe air into lungs, are warm-blooded, feed their young milk and have some (although very little) hair. Their bodies resemble the streamlined form of a fish, while the forelimbs or flippers are paddle-shaped. The tail fins, or flukes, enable whales to propel themselves through the water. Most species of whale have a fin on their backs known as a dorsal fin.

HOW DO THEY EAT?

What you would eat if you lived in the ocean? If you said fish and squid, you’d be right.

But there’s a second correct answer – some whales eat ocean creatures called plankton that are so small they are hard for us to see.Now think about how whales eat fish and squid. That’s easy – pretty much the way you eat your dinner, by using your teeth.But what about catching and eating the tiny creatures? Teeth are not much help. And yet, these huge creatures thrive on this diet. They have figured out a different way to eat.

BEHAVIOUR

Many whales, especially baleen whales, tend to migrate long distances from their cold-water feeding grounds to warm-water breeding grounds each year. They travel alone or in groups, or pods, on their annual migrations. Toothed whales often hunt in groups, migrate together and share young-rearing duties.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Blue Whale is the largest known mammal that has ever lived, and the largest living animal, at up to 110 feet long and 150 tons.

Most whales are quite active in the water. They jump high, or breach, out of the water and land back in the water. They also thrust their tails out of the water and slap the water's surface, which is believed to be a warning of danger nearby. Whales also communicate with each other using lyrical sounds. These sounds are extremely loud depending on the species and can be heard for many miles.

THREATS TO WHALES

The effects of climate change will be felt by most marine creatures, and whales are certainly not excluded. Sea level rise and changes in sea temperature will leave whales quite vulnerable, and they may not be able to adapt quickly enough to survive. Arctic and antarctic whale habitat faces a particular threat from climate change. Whale food sources will also face challenges, such as a decline in krill population, which is the main food source for many large whale species.

What Defenders Is Doing to Help Whales

Defenders is currently hard a work on behalf of two highly endangered North American whale species. Learn more about our efforts to save the Cook Inlet beluga whale and the North Atlantic right whale.

Whaling is one of the biggest threats to whales. By the middle of the 20th century, whaling had left many populations severely depleted. The International Whaling Commission introduced a moratorium which continues to this day. However, there are still some exceptions to this moratorium. This allows countries like Norway, Iceland and Japan and the aboriginal communities of Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada to continue their annual whale hunts.

Answer the questions.

How do whales feed?
Where do they live?
What do you know about the featutures of giant whale?
What categories are they divided to?

The giant panda 

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION:

Giant pandas live in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. They once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict giant pandas to the mountains.

HABITAT:

Giant pandas live in broadleaf and coniferous forests with a dense understory of bamboo, at elevations between 5,000 and 10,000 feet. Torrential rains or dense mist throughout the year characterizes these forests, often shrouded in heavy clouds.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:

The giant panda, a black-and-white bear, has a body typical of bears. It has black fur on ears, eye patches, muzzle, legs, and shoulders. The rest of the animal's coat is white. Although scientists do not know why these unusual bears are black and white, some speculate that the bold coloring provides effective camouflage into their shade-dappled snowy and rocky surroundings. The panda's thick, wooly coat keeps it warm in the cool forests of its habitat. Giant pandas have large molar teeth and strong jaw muscles for crushing tough bamboo. Many people find these chunky, lumbering animals to be cute, but giant pandas can be as dangerous as any other bear.

SIZE:

About the size of an American black bear, giant pandas stand between two and three feet tall at the shoulder (on all four legs), and reach four to six feet long. Males are larger than females, weighing up to 250 pounds in the wild. Females rarely reach 220 pounds.

STATUS:

The giant panda is listed as endangered in the World Conservation Union's (IUCN's) Red List of Threatened Species. There are about 1,600 left in the wild. More than 300 pandas live in zoos and breeding centers around the world, mostly in China

LIFE SPAN:

Scientists aren't sure how long giant pandas live in the wild, but they are sure it's shorter than lifespans in zoos. Chinese scientists have reported zoo pandas as old as 35. The National Zoo's Hsing-Hsing died at age 28 in 1999.

DIET:

A wild giant panda’s diet is almost exclusively (99 percent) bamboo. The balance consists of other grasses and occasional small rodents or musk deer fawns. In zoos, giant pandas eat bamboo, sugar cane, rice gruel, a special high-fiber biscuit, carrots, apples, and sweet potatoes.

SOCIAL STRUCTURE:

Adult giant pandas are generally solitary, but they do communicate periodically through scent marks, calls, and occasional meetings. Offspring stay with their mothers from one and a half to three years.

The giant panda has lived in bamboo forests for several million years. It is a highly specialized animal, with unique adaptations.

FEEDING ADAPTIONS:

Millions of Zoo visitors enjoy watching giant pandas eat. A panda usually eats while sitting upright, in a pose that resembles how humans sit on the floor. This posture leaves the front paws free to grasp bamboo stems with the help of a "pseudo thumb," formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin. The panda also uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to crush the tough, fibrous bamboo into bits.

A giant panda’s digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore, and so much of what is eaten is passed as waste. To make up for the inefficient digestion, a panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food—from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day—to get all its nutrients. To obtain this much food means that a panda must spend 10 to 16 hours a day foraging and eating. The rest of its time is spent mostly sleeping and resting.

WATER:

Wild giant pandas get much of the water they need from bamboo, a grass whose contents are about half water. (New bamboo shoots are about 90 percent water.) But giant pandas need more water than what bamboo alone can provide. So almost every day wild pandas also drink fresh water from rivers and streams that are fed by melting snowfall in high mountain peaks. The temperate forests of central China where giant pandas live receive about 30 to 40 inches of rain and snow a year. Charleston, West Virginia—a city with a similar temperate climate—receives about the same amount of rain and snow: an average of 42.5 inches a year.

REPRODUCTION:

Giant pandas reach breeding maturity between four and eight years of age. They may be reproductive until about age 20. Female pandas ovulate only once a year, in the spring. A short period of two to three days around ovulation is the only time she is able to conceive. Calls and scents draw males and females to each other.

Female giant pandas give birth between 95 and 160 days after mating. Although females may give birth to two young, usually only one survives. Giant panda cubs may stay with their mothers for up to three years before striking out on their own. This means a wild female, at best, can produce young only every other year; in her lifetime, she may successfully raise only five to eight cubs. The giant pandas’ naturally slow breeding rate prevents a population from recovering quickly from illegal hunting, habitat loss, and other human-related causes of mortality.

DEVELOPMENT:

At birth, the cub is helpless, and it takes considerable effort on the mother’s part to raise it. A newborn cub weighs three to five ounces and is about the size of a stick of butter. Pink, hairless, and blind, the cub is 1/900th the size of its mother. Except for a marsupial (such as the kangaroo or opossum), a giant panda baby is the smallest mammal newborn relative to its mother's size.

Cubs do not open their eyes until they are six to eight weeks of age and are not mobile until three months. A cub may nurse for eight to nine months. A cub is nutritionally weaned at one year, but not socially weaned for up to two years.

LIFESTYLE:

A wild panda spends much of its day resting, feeding, and seeking food. Unlike other bears from temperate climates, giant pandas do not hibernate. Until recently, scientists thought giant pandas spent most of their lives alone, with males and females meeting only during the breeding season. Recent studies paint a different picture, in which small groups of pandas share a large territory and sometimes meet outside the breeding season. Much remains to be learned about the secret lives of these elusive animals, and every new discovery helps scientists in their battle to save this species.

ENRICHMENT

Enrichment helps animals demonstrate their natural behavior, adds variety to their day, allows them exercise, gives them choices in their environment, and enhances their well-being. Enrichment also gives Zoo scientists the chance to study and observe the animals' behavior. What the scientists learn can benefit both Zoo animals and wild animals.

There are several different kinds of enrichment, including objects, sounds, and smells that challenge the animals, and stimulating and naturalistic enclosures.

Keepers work at varying the pandas' routine by preparing toys with an added twist: Honey, apples, and leaf-eater biscuits are often put inside to provide a challenge. They are also sometimes given water bottles, blankets, burlap bags, and boxes. Another option is the fruitsicle—frozen fruit juice and water, sometimes with cut up fruit.

Most of the pandas' toys are made of heavy-duty plastic, rubber, or bamboo since those are materials that can withstand the force of a bear whose jaws crush bamboo all day!