SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Sunday, October 28, 2012

They're at it again!

A plan to import 18 beluga whales from Russia to U.S. aquariums including SeaWorld San Diego has sparked conflict between proponents, who said the transfer would promote conservation, and critics, who said it would fuel an international market for the species.
Although the United States’ Marine Mammal Protection Act bans the capture or import of animals such as whales and dolphins, it grants an exemption for species placed on public display.

The whales — 10 females and eight males from 3½ to 11½ years old — were caught in the eastern Russian Sea of Okhotsk between 2006 and last year. They are now held in facilities on the Black Sea.

If transferred to the United States, they would be housed at the aquarium in Atlanta; SeaWorld parks in San Diego, Texas and Florida; and the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.

 Critics said marine parks in the U.S. have not imported wild-captured belugas in 20 years and should not return to that practice now. Getting the whales from Russia would feed a lucrative international market for marine mammals that American facilities should discourage instead of support.
More than 7,000 people have weighed in, many of them imploring the agency to deny the transfer permit.
Read the full story HERE