Endangered Animals - Sea Turtle

Sea Turtles date back to long before the Age of the Reptiles, when their ancestors shared the world with dinosaurs. They live in the oceans from the far north to the far south, but only breed in warm waters.

Today seven species of sea turtle are critically endangered. Sea turtles are critical players in marine biodiversity and are highly migratory- breeding, nesting, and feeding across thousands of miles of ocean. They are air-breathing reptiles that have survived more than 110 million years of evolution. During their historic radiation that separated them from all other turtles, they split into two distinct family subgroups: the unique family Dermochelyidae, which consists of a single species, the Leatherback; and the six species of hard-shelled sea turtle in the family Cheloniidae.

Their shells consist of an upper part (carapace) and a lower section (plastron). Hard scales (or scutes) cover all but the leatherback, and the number and arrangement of these scutes can be used to determine the species. Sea turtles come in many different sizes, shapes and colors. The Olive ridley is usually less than 100 pounds, while the Leatherback has been recorded up to 2000 pounds. Sea turtles do not have teeth, but their jaws have modified "beaks" suited to their particular diet.

Sea turtles are found in every ocean on the planet but prefer to stay in coastal areas. They use tropical and sub-tropical beaches as nesting sites during reproduction. The populations of all seven species are distributed across the oceans, as they share the same migratory lifecycles.
The greatest threats to sea turtles today arise from human activities. The increasing development of coastal areas has resulted in both the loss and degradation of sea turtle nesting habitat.

Artificial lighting along beachfront areas may deter nesting females from coming ashore to lay their eggs and may disorient hatchlings and adults. At sea, turtles may become entangled in fishing line, or fatally consume waste dumped in the sea, such as plastics. They are hit by boats and drowned in the nets of commercial shrimpers. The increasing level of persistent pollutants in our seas and oceans including heavy metals like mercury and highly toxic chemicals is diminishing their chances of survival.

On land their eggs are often stolen and sold as a delicacy. Turtles are also captured to supply the trade for their meat, oil, leather and attractive shell.
These combined threats to the sea turtle may mean that some populations will decline to such low levels that they cannot recover. We may soon see the extinction of these magnificent and ancient animals.

Endangered Animals - Chiru

Common Name/s: Chiru, Tibetan antelope
Scientific Name: Pantholops hodgsonii
Status: Endangered (IUCN Red List)

The Chiru is a medium-sized bovid which is about 1.2 meters (4 feet) in height. The coat is grey to reddish-brown, with a white underside. The males have long, curved-back horns which measure about 50 cm (20 inches) in length. Chiru are gregarious, sometimes congregating in herds hundreds strong. The females migrate up to 300 km yearly to calving grounds in the summer where they usually give birth to a single calf, and rejoin the males at the wintering grounds in late autumn.

The Chiru or Tibetan antelope is found on the remote high plains of the Tibetan Plateau and the Zianjiang and Qinghai provinces of Western China and the Ladakh province of northwestern India. Chiru live at altitudes of between 3,700 to 5,500 meters, where the average annual temperature is -4oC. Adapted to its environment, the chiru has a unique downy underfleece called shahtoosh - sadly this under fleece is the very reason for the Chiru's plight today.

Chirus live on the high mountain steppes and semi-desert areas of the Tibetan plateau such as Kekexili, where they feed on various forbs and grass species. Habitat loss has impacted on chiru numbers, as has the demand for Tibetan antelope horn, used in Tibetan medicine for centuries.
However, poaching for the antelope's very fine under-fleece to satisfy the demand for shahtoosh is a far more immediate and severe threat. Shahtoosh is different from other wools in that it cannot be 'harvested' - shorn or combed from the animal - because it is an under-fleece. The only way to obtain it is to kill and skin the chiru.

In recent years poaching has increased dramatically. Experts estimate that there are fewer than 75,000 and possibly fewer than 50,000 chiru left in the wild and that as many
As 20,000 a year are killed by gangs in China, who then smuggle the wool and hides into India and Nepal. The situation for the chiru has become even more desperate since the poachers found their calving grounds and for the past 2 years even pregnant chiru and those with young have been killed.

Endangered Animals - Giant Panda

The Giant Panda, is a mammal classified in the bear family, Ursidae, native to central-western and southwestern China. The panda was previously thought to be a member of the Procyonidae. It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though belonging to the order Carnivore, the panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. Pandas may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges and bananas when available.

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.

The Giant Panda is an endangered species. According to the latest report, China has 239 giant pandas in captivity (128 of them in Wolong and 67 in Chengdu) and another 27 pandas living outside the country. It also estimated that around 1,590 pandas are living in the wild. However, a 2006 study via DNA analysis estimated that there might be as many as 2,000-3,000 pandas in the wild. Though reports show that the numbers of wild pandas are on the rise, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) believes there is not enough certainty to remove pandas from the endangered animal list.

While the dragon has historically served as China's national emblem, in recent decades the Giant Panda has also served as emblem for the country. Its image appears on a large number of modern Chinese commemorative silver, gold, and platinum coins. The species is a favorite of the public, at least in part because many people find that it has a baby-like cuteness. Also, it is usually depicted reclining peacefully eating bamboo, as opposed to hunting, which adds to its image of innocence. Though giant pandas are often assumed docile, they have been known to attack humans, presumably out of irritation rather than predatory behavior.

Unlike many other animals in ancient China, pandas were rarely thought to have medical uses. In the past, pandas were thought to be rare and noble creatures; the mother of Emperor Wen of Han was buried with a panda skull in her vault. Emperor Taizong of Tang is said to have given Japan two pandas and a sheet of panda skin as a sign of goodwill.

Dinosaur - the Great Animals from the Past

For about half of the 20th century both scientists and the general public regarded dinosaurs as slow, unintelligent cold-blooded animals. However, the bulk of research since the 1970s has supported the view that they were active animals with elevated metabolisms, and often with adaptations for social interactions. This change of view was strongly influenced by evidence of the descent of birds from theropod dinosaurs.

Since the first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the early nineteenth century, mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world. Dinosaurs have become a part of world culture and remain consistently popular among children and adults. They have been featured in best-selling books and films (notably Jurassic Park), and new discoveries are regularly covered by the medi.
In colloquial English "dinosaur" is sometimes used to describe an obsolete or unsuccessful thing or person, despite the dinosaurs' 160M-year reign and the global abundance and diversity of their descendants, the birds. This usage became common while dinosaurs were regarded as cold-blooded and sluggish. Non-avian dinosaurs suddenly became extinct approximately 65 million years ago.

There are many theories about why the dinosaurs finally became extinct, some of which are more than a little outlandish. The two main 'serious' theories are the asteroid/meteor and volcano theories.

Barringer Meteor Crater in northern Arizona is a bowl-shaped depression 180m deep and 1.2km in diameter. It was named after American scientist Daniel M. Barringer who in 1905 theorized that the crater was meteoric in origin. The crater was the first impact site of an object to be identified on the Earth. Scientists think that the crater was formed sometime between 25,000 and 50,000 years ago by an iron meteorite, somewhere between 30 and 100m in diameter, weighing roughly 60,000 tons.

The energy released by the impact was roughly equivalent to 3.5 million tons of TNT. Most of the object vaporized, but about 30 tons of fragments have been collected. There are other craters on the planet but due to erosion and plate movement it takes a trained eye to find them. From these two examples it can be seen that when large objects enter the atmosphere a great deal of energy can be released causing large amounts of damage. This evidence helps to support the Asteroid theory.

Global Warming

Global warming is one of the most serious challenges facing us today. To protect the health and economic well-being of current and future generations, we must reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases by using the technology, know-how, and practical solutions already at our disposal.

Human have the technology and ingenuity to reduce the threat of global warming today. Solutions are already available that will stimulate the American economy by creating jobs, saving consumers money, and protecting our national security. By investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and increasing the efficiency of the cars we drive, we can take essential steps toward reducing our dependence on oil and other fossil fuels that cause global warming.

Using energy more efficiently and moving to renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, and bio energy) would significantly reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases. The United States currently produces 70 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and oil, but only two percent from renewable sources. Since the burning of fossil fuels releases large amounts of carbon dioxide—the leading cause of global warming—but renewable energy does not, increasing the share of our electricity generated from renewable resources is one of the most effective ways to reduce global warming emissions. Cars and trucks are another significant source (25 percent) of world carbon dioxide emissions. A serious effort to address global warming must therefore reduce emissions from cars and trucks.

Many technologies already exist that can do this, while also creating new jobs in the U.S. automotive sector and other industries throughout the country. In addition, American consumers would save billions of dollars on gasoline, and we would reduce our dependence on foreign oil. By putting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and vehicle technology solutions in place at the federal level, we can reduce our contribution to global warming while creating a stronger, healthier, and more secure world.

Global Warming mostly cause by pollution that could make the layer of our atmosphere become thicker so that sun radiation couldn't be release through the atmosphere because of the thickness. The other cause is by greenhouse effect. The most problem is that human throw many carbon dioxide through car emission and also industry