Hippo and tortoise

While helping a customer find a book for her granddaughter at the bookstore where I work, I came across another remarkable Tsunami story and one that involves an unlikely and remarkable friendship.The book is called Owen & Mzee-A true story of a remarkable friendship. The reason that the friendship is so unbelievable is because Owen was a baby hippopotamus and Mzee a 130 year old giant tortoise.

During the Tsunami floods Owen was separated from his mother and saved by some Kenya residents who found him stranded, and almost out to the sea.They took him to a wildlife refuge and there he meant Mzee, who he quickly bonded with and the two followed each other everywhere, according to park employees. It’s an interesting story, the hippo now lives in a separate enclosure due do to the fact that he eventually got too large to live with the tortoise.

NBC’s new show Journeyman

I don’t get to watch much television or keep up with the current shows-however I have watched NBC’s new show Journeyman and found it entertaining. Writer, producer Kevin Falls of the West Wing has created another interesting drama. But, this one has more of a mystery and romantic element to it. There’s something about the time travel theme that never seems to get boring, I mean who wouldn’t want to have the opportunity to go back in time and change history or your life decisions, stop loved ones from dying and prevent people from doing horrible things to one another.

The show Journeyman is about a newspaper reporter Dan Vasser (Keven McKidd, HBO’s Rome) who gets pulled “somehow” from the present and into the past in order to help people change their lives. It is an uncontrollable process, Vasser will be enjoying time when his seven year old son at a park, or working on the pipes in the upstairs bathroom, and then his head will start to ache and he’ll find himself in the past. I have a difficult time keeping up with all of the deadlines for my journalism classes, so being transported into the past throughout the day must cause deadline making to be impossible for Vasser. These trips to the past begin to cause him to miss his deadlines and  start to affect his life-both work and home.  

Dan realizes that he has been sent back to certain times in order to help people-but his disappearing acts start creating suspicion with his brother, who thinks that Dan has returned to his past addition, and the FBI. 

It wouldn’t be a good television show if there were not some sort of love triangle going on. Between Dan going back in time and meeting up with his believed to be decreased fiancée, and the fact that his wife used to date his older brother leaves room for the writers to develop complicated relationships and compelling plots. Despite these issues Dan is trying to keep his marriage together.               

The story reminds me of the book “The Time Travelers Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. The main character in the book also travels back through time uncontrollably. But, he mainly revisited parts of his own past and does not help others. Though, like Dan he tries to find a way to stop himself from time traveling.           

 It’s interesting to watch the drama unfold and the plot thicken. The music selection enriches the story and both the writing and acting is captivating.  

 

Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming and his film “An Inconvenient Truth.” He said that he will donate the money to the cause and share the prize with a team of intergovernmental scientists. But, he’s not the first and “only” person who has been trying to inform the public about the dangers of global warming. Plus, has he really merited the Nobel Peace Prize? And how do the intergovernmental scientists truly feel about it, after all, they have been studying and talking about global warming since 1990, but none of them have ever received a Nobel Peace Prize. Don’t get me wrong, I think that Gore helped bring a face to the global warming cause. His film had more of an impact on the public and he seems to genuinely care for the environment. Many scientists have spent years researching climate change and trying to convince the public that global warming is a serious issue that deserves attention. But no one seemed to give them much attention. But, when Gore joined the cause the public opened their eyes to the problem. Even through these scientists did all the work I’m sure that they are grateful because people are now beginning to pay attention to global warming, because someone like Gore got involved in the cause.

This just shows how our culture values the rich and famous. If a regular scientist says something people don’t pay much attention, but when someone famous says something, people start listening. On the positive side, at least people are beginning to pay attention to global warming.

Listening to the chirps and calls from frogs and toads can be very relaxing after a long day, but what if there were no frogs. This is the reality for many places around the world where frogs have disappeared. They have been declining for years and scientists say that a hundred species of amphibians are already gone.

People seem to take them for granted; they use pesticides in their yards without realizing or caring about what kind of impact it has on the environment and amphibians. Pesticides cause deformities and affect the animals breeding abilities.

Besides living amongst harmful chemicals, frogs have to compete for land with non-native species.

Not only that, amphibians are faced with habitat destruction, air pollution, global warming, the pet trade and the chytrid fungus. A fungus that comes from plants and occurs worldwide. It kills the amphibian by clogging its skin and causing it to dry up.

But all is not lost. Many zoos and aquariums are involved in amphibian conservation. Lowry Park zoo, located in Tampa, is breeding frogs and releasing their tad poles back into the wild. Though, these tad poles are still susceptible to all the threats facing amphibians today. The hope is that they will help aid the depleting wild populations.

The two species that they are breeding are the Puerto Rican crested toad and the Panamanian golden frog. I spoke with a herps and aquatics keeper during a story assignment for my advance reporting class and he provided me with a tour of the frog breeding tanks located off exhibit.

Photos of the golden Panamanian frog taken at Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa

  

It wasn’t difficult to witness his passion for amphibians. He carefully removes the frog and toad eggs from the tanks and places them into a homemade incubator. That way he can make sure that they hatch into tap poles.

Currently, the zoo is only releasing the crested toad tad poles, but they plan on releasing the golden frog ones, as well. Conservation and education are vital to saving these species. In order to inform the public about the amphibian crisis, the zoo is going to transform its education building into an amphibian house.

If people want to get involved with frog conservation, they should volunteer with the frog listening network in their area. If someone is interested all he or she has to do is contact their state’s wildlife center to get more information. It is pretty simple. The frog listening network here in the Hillsborough area provides volunteers with an audio CD that teaches them how to identify frog and toad species in the area by their calls.

It is time that everyone did something to aid in conservation, for once these species disappear it will be too late.

For more about frogs, visit Amphibian Ark, or Save a Frog.