Friday, August 15, 2008

Scaring away cheetahs and elephants (in a good way)

Well guys, I'm back from Australia/New Zealand, so I'll be updating the blog more. I had an amazing time, learned so much, and met great people. Time for uni to start again and get back to the real world (and figuring out a way to negate the huge carbon footprint I created while travelling...hmmm.).
I went to the zoo in Auckland, New Zealand, and learned how this breed of dog is being used by African farmers to keep the cheetahs out of the farmers' land. Before this program was initiated, farmers would kill the cheetahs, or leave poison for the cheetahs (and whatever else ate the bait) so they wouldn't eat their livestock. The dogs are trained to keep out the cheetahs, keeping the livestock safe and saving the cheetahs. There's more about that program here: http://www.cheetah.org/?nd=46
In a similar story, in Sumatra the WWF has introduced a program for tame elephants to scare off wild elephants. Wild elephants have been entering farms and plantations because their natural habitat is being logged and destroyed. Nine rangers and four trained elephants keep the wild elephants out. Keeps people from killing the wild elephants, and hopefully the wild elephants find better places for food. There's more on it and a video at this website: http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/borneo/item3729.html?enews=enews0808t

Pretty cool, I think- and everyone likes success stories.

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