Wrap yarn around balloon. Dip balloon in watered down glue. Let dry, pop balloon.
![zoo-logic:
The fascinating bird-beaked, egg-laying mammal the duck-billed platypus (Ornitorhynchus anatinus) could experience trouble as climate change causes things to hot up in its aquatic habitat. The platypus has an extraordinary fur coat providing powerful insulation - thermal imaging has shown that they only lose heat through their eyes, which are closed when underwater, enabling them to hunt for food for up to 10 hours a day in waters around zero degrees Centigrade. (Instead of vision, the platypus hunts using electroperception, sensing its prey’s electric field using receptors in its beak, as we have seen was recently discovered in Guiana dolphins - see previous post.) Should temperatures start to rise, the platypus has few ways to cool down other than resting in its burrow, but by staying there, it would face starvation. An increase in water temperatures could therefore drive the platypus from some areas of its current range and reduce the number of places that remain cool enough to support populations, potentially threatening their survival as a species. Monitoring changes in the population will prove a difficult task, as platypuses are a shy and generally nocturnal species that are not easy to capture. Ref: Walker (2011) Iconic platypus feels the heat. BBC Wonder Monkeys blog [link]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp7b04WwVL1qkrbaho1_500.jpg)
The fascinating bird-beaked, egg-laying mammal the duck-billed platypus (Ornitorhynchus anatinus) could experience trouble as climate change causes things to hot up in its aquatic habitat. The platypus has an extraordinary fur coat providing powerful insulation - thermal imaging has shown that they only lose heat through their eyes, which are closed when underwater, enabling them to hunt for food for up to 10 hours a day in waters around zero degrees Centigrade. (Instead of vision, the platypus hunts using electroperception, sensing its prey’s electric field using receptors in its beak, as we have seen was recently discovered in Guiana dolphins - see previous post.) Should temperatures start to rise, the platypus has few ways to cool down other than resting in its burrow, but by staying there, it would face starvation. An increase in water temperatures could therefore drive the platypus from some areas of its current range and reduce the number of places that remain cool enough to support populations, potentially threatening their survival as a species. Monitoring changes in the population will prove a difficult task, as platypuses are a shy and generally nocturnal species that are not easy to capture.
Ref: Walker (2011) Iconic platypus feels the heat. BBC Wonder Monkeys blog [link]
![zoo-logic:
The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is the world’s most endangered species of tiger - less than 30 remain in the wild, and only around 60 in captivity. What is remarkable about conservation efforts for this particular species is that populations are being returned to the wild in a controversial project that takes them via South Africa. Li Quan, founder of Save China’s Tigers, explains: ”Wildlife management is an art, and it’s one in which South Africa excels. China is still poor and if people are hungry they will hunt wildlife. Poverty alleviation is the Chinese government’s priority, so there’s little money for conservation. There is also wholesale loss of the prey animals on which large predators survive. We have no time to lose, and I persuaded the Chinese government that we should re-wild the tigers in a 600-hectare reserve in South Africa while restoring their habitat in China in preparation for their return.” The ‘re-wilding’ project teaches young tigers, including those from captive backgrounds that may never have even seen grass before, to hunt in order that they can be returned to wild, a process that takes about 18 months. The tigers will be returned to nature reserves in China once sustainable populations of prey have been established and people living in target areas have been resettled.Ref: Armstrong (2011) Li Quan: Why Chinese tigers should return via Africa. New Scientist 2828 29. [link]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr3xlm6g661qkrbaho1_500.jpg)
The South China tiger (Panthera tigris amoyensis) is the world’s most endangered species of tiger - less than 30 remain in the wild, and only around 60 in captivity. What is remarkable about conservation efforts for this particular species is that populations are being returned to the wild in a controversial project that takes them via South Africa. Li Quan, founder of Save China’s Tigers, explains: ”Wildlife management is an art, and it’s one in which South Africa excels. China is still poor and if people are hungry they will hunt wildlife. Poverty alleviation is the Chinese government’s priority, so there’s little money for conservation. There is also wholesale loss of the prey animals on which large predators survive. We have no time to lose, and I persuaded the Chinese government that we should re-wild the tigers in a 600-hectare reserve in South Africa while restoring their habitat in China in preparation for their return.” The ‘re-wilding’ project teaches young tigers, including those from captive backgrounds that may never have even seen grass before, to hunt in order that they can be returned to wild, a process that takes about 18 months. The tigers will be returned to nature reserves in China once sustainable populations of prey have been established and people living in target areas have been resettled.
Ref: Armstrong (2011) Li Quan: Why Chinese tigers should return via Africa. New Scientist 2828 29. [link]
