Public Service Announcement: One week until Bowling for Rhinos!

Yes, that's right! Alexis and I are once again throwing heavy spheres at vaguely duck-shaped pieces of wood, for the good of rhinoceros habitat. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Bowling For Rhinos is a charity event put on by the American Association of Zookeepers. The proceeds go to help protect rhino habitat in Africa and Indonesia. All rhinoceros species are endangered, some critically so.  Besides rhinos, the habitat being protected is inhabited by elephants and grevy's zebras in Africa and Sumatran tigers in Indonesia, plus thousands of other smaller beings that deserve protection.

The bowling is happening next week, Wednesday July 15th, at Lucky Strike lanes in Boston (stop by if you like).  So what I'm looking for is a little money.  No amount is too small, no amount is too large.  I need to raise a hundred bucks to participate, but there are prizes for raising the most money and so on, plus it's all about more money for more rhino habitat protection.  Last year when I did this, most people gave 10 dollars, which is really cool.  I feel like I should offer something in return, but all I have is this blog. 

Therefore I have a proposal.  With each 10 dollar donation, you can make a request.  Maybe you want to see a picture of a specific zoo animal.  Maybe there's a place in Boston you think I should take a picture of.  Maybe there's some controversial subject you want to hear my crackpot opinion on, or a natural history question that's always bugged you that you think I can help sort out.  You know my territory, you make the request, you paypal me ten dollars.  The rhinos will be bowled for!    Thank you!

If you don't want to use PayPal, write a check to Bowling for Rhinos and send it to me, Jef Taylor/The Urban Pantheist 423 Brookline Ave Suite 271 Boston MA 02215.

I went to my dad's house Friday, because my brother was coming to spend the night before he and my dad go to Germany together. Here are some pictures of the town where I grew up. This is a tobacco barn under construction.

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I saw this one pick a Russula, and run over to the tree to eat it.

I didn't get any real good ones today, but there were some nice opportunities. Alexis voted for this one because it was "the most mysterious."
( a few more to share )

Water strider on Ward's Pond.

My neighbor's young children noticed that this puddle was serving as habitat. ( Read more... )

For whatever reason, my pictures of things at Lost Pond from this morning come in pairs. Here is a group of Indian pipe flowers.( Read more... )

They may swear a lot, but this article from Cracked.com is more entertaining and contains less misinformation than the average piece of science journalism.  Their "5 most hated creatures (don't deserve it)" even short circuits an article which I've never gotten around to writing: "WHY are mosquitoes?"

I still have a ton of information to process from the Urban Wildlife Conference, but I will share it in dribs and drabs, so that it won't become overwhelming or boring (hopefully). One of the first people I met was Travis Longcore, who is the Science Director for The Urban Wildlands Group, "dedicated to the conservation of species, habitats, and ecological processes in urban and urbanizing areas."

Travis was an outgoing catalyst, always involved in a spirited conversation or another, and always trying to bring others into those conversations. He gave presentations on the ecological consequences of night lighting (which unfortunately I missed, but I could just go buy the book) and a "Critical assessment of claims regarding management of feral cats by trap–neuter–return." Both of these are difficult policy issues as well as complicated ecological problems, and I'm glad a guy as energetic as Travis is working on them.

The cat issue is controversial even (especially?) among the people who comment on this blog, but the scientific community--or at least those researchers studying the effects of cats on urbanized habitats--is more or less unanimous that free-roaming and feral cats comprise a major human-caused problem. I'll definitely come back to the issue later; there's a lot to say, and it needs to be said delicately.

Please take a look at some of these links. This is scratching the surface of the information I was exposed to, but it's some great stuff.