Lynx - Why we need to care -

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Defenders At Work

Learn and Care

The lynx is a medium-sized cat characterized by its long ear tufts and short (bobbed) tail with a black tip. It has unusually large paws that act as snow shoes in very deep snow and its thick fur and long legs make it appear larger than it really is.



Fast Facts
Height Around 2 feet (.61m)

Length 2.5 - 3 feet (.76 - .91m)

Weight: 10-23 lbs (8-10 kg)

Lifespan: 10-15 years.

Diet:
Lynx are specialized hunters and can survive only where
there are adequate snowshoe hare populations. Lynx are also known to eat mice, voles, grouse, ptarmigan and red squirrel.

Population:
Perhaps 1,000 lynx exist in the lower 48 states.

Range:
Historically, lynx lived in four geographically distinct areas within the continental United States. These areas included the Northeast, the Great Lakes states, the northern Rocky Mountains/Cascades and the southern Rocky Mountains.

Did You Know?
Lynx have excellent eyesight: they can spot a mouse at 250 feet! Also, the black tufts of hair at the tops of their ears serve to enhance their already phenomenal hearing.
In the United States today, lynx are known to occur only in Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington. A recent reintroduction program has reestablished a population in Colorado.

Behavior:
Generally solitary animals, lynx usually hunt and travel alone and are slightly more active at night than by day. Lynx have complex needs for their habitat. They require different forest types, including young forests with thick vegetation for hunting snowshoe hares and older forests with good cover for their dens.

Reproduction:
Mating Season: March and April
Gestation: 63-70 days
Litter Size: Average of 4 kittens.
Kittens stay with their mother for the first year while they learn to hunt.

Climate Change and Other Threats:
Lynx are threatened by climate change in different ways. Lynx depend on areas with abundant snowshoe hare populations and lots of deep, soft snow where their large snowshoe-like paws give them a competitive advantage over coyotes, bobcats and other predators. Rising temperatures will decrease snowfall overall, and more melting snow will cause more frequent refreezing, creating a hard crust atop softer snow. These conditions will be more favorable to competitors like coyotes.

Defenders at Work:

Defenders has been working for two decades to draw attention to the plight of the lynx, provide it with federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, and protect critical lynx habitat.

Lynx need a mix of young and old forests in close proximity to each other. Young forests with lots of underbrush are where snowshoe hares live, but lynx need older forests with a lot of downed trees to den in. As climate change is altering forest dynamics and increasing the number of forest fires, there may be less older forest for lynx to den in. Lynx are also threatened by logging, which destroys the habitat both it and the snowshoe hare rely upon for survival.

Reasons For Hope:
Many efforts have gone into helping preserve the lynx.

Reducing mortality: Once hunted and trapped for their fur, the lynx is now protected from all hunting in the U.S., except in Alaska.
Protecting habitat: In 2000, the lynx was recognized as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. In February 2009 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated 39,000 square miles of forest in six states to conserve the threatened cat. That includes 12,834 square miles in two areas of Montana.
Restoring a population: In 1999, Colorado began an ambitious lynx restoration program in the remote San Juan Mountains, and by 2005 more than 200 animals had been released. And as proof that conservationists’ hard work has paid off, in June 2009 ten lynx kittens were found in 5 dens in Colorado!

Legal Status/Protection:
Endangered Species Act: Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the lynx is listed as threatened.

Polar Bear Ice Flows - Let’s Fake It

 

I was watching William Shatner’s Weird or What show a while ago and there was a bit about why the seals that usually hang out somewhere off the coast of California suddenly took off a couple of weeks before an earthquake. The details of this segment aren’t all that important because it’s not really what this is about. The show got me thinking about what the seals were doing there. They hang out on the docks and peers of the harbor. Just wooden platforms set out on the water.

This is what led me to thinking about our beautiful-but-in-trouble polar bears of the north. Because of global warming the ice is melting more rapidly and the polar bears are losing their most important form of water transport – the ice flows. These polar bears need something to help them get from one area to another for breeding and feeding throughout different times of the year. It occurs to me that ice flows with ocean currents. All the flows follow the oceans’ lead as to where they are going and how fast they get there. If the ice is melting to fast and the bears can’t use them any more then why don’t we help them by building fake ice flows?

By fake ice flows, I mean that we should be gathering up any sort of recyclable plastic we can get our hands on and forming it into fake ice flows. Then we just place them in the proper ocean currents and let nature take it from there. These fake ice flows would float just as the ice does.

Why not use our plastic garbage to build fake ice flows for polar bears and other animals that use ice flows in and around the artic?

Is there any decent human out there that can help me implement this? Or any decent company that will take the reins (with me involved) to make this real?

Are there any scientists that can tell me that this isn’t a good solution to an immediate problem? Or any that can tell me it is and back me up on this? This really seems like it could work to save hundreds of polar bear lives. Sure, we may have to remove the fake flows once balance is restored but for right now, why not use the fake ice flows.

I am just one person – actually I am one very simple and isolated individual with no real resources to implement this except for reaching out to others that care about this situation. When I am not writing or working on my artwork I am taking care of animals which really means that most of my time is spent taking care of animals. It is a lot of work to really look after animals. I am not very active in the business world and I really shy away from politics and current economic and business practice because it makes me so angry. Because of this I don’t make much money – I never smooze people and as an artist of sorts I am repelled by the process of selling even though it would be in my best financial interest if I was less modest about my work. I am telling you this because this idea of creating fake ice flows as at least a temporary solution to the problems that the polar bears are facing is a good idea that deserves attention. I am not prone to running around trying to get attention for anything but I think this is important enough to warrant me asking around if anyone can make this happen.

So, I am asking. Got any ideas?

Christian the Lion Continues to Inspire

October 28, 2011

Christian the Lion Continues to Inspire





Dear Friends of Real Paid Estate

Last night’s edition of the cable TV program “Oprah’s Lifeclass” featured video clips of Christian the legendary lion — who’d been rescued from a London department store and returned to the wild — being reunited with his former owners. The segment was narrated by Oprah Winfrey, who evidently was moved to tears by the footage.

Christian’s stunningly heart-warming reunion with his two human friends, captured in a documentary by Born Free co-founders Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna (my parents, I’m extremely proud to say), went “viral” on YouTube and has inspired millions of people worldwide. Christian, by the way, spent four months living in my garden before being released to the African wild!

See a slideshow in which my mother recalls details of Christian’s story.
Enjoy footage my parents took of Christian’s reunion with his human friends.
Watch the “Lifeclass” segment about Christian.

And please help spread the word by forwarding this e-mail to your family and friends, and consider posting it on Facebook and Twitter so that all your contacts will have the chance to see Christian the lion’s reunion and to learn more about how Born Free USA works to protect lions.

For the animals,

P.S. Christian the lion received a second chance in Africa and we work to help all wild lions in Africa, so please donate toward the cause.