Sunday, June 20, 2010
World Wildlife Fund and Leonardo DiCaprio
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Wild Animals and E-Commerce
Not only do I own a great e-commerce business that sells bamboo clothing, specifically bamboo t-shirts that feature endangered animals, but I just signed on as the VP/CFO of My Local Home Show. This incredible site will go live February 15 in Tucson. We showcase local businesses that provide products and services for home and gardens. In other words, it's like going to your local home and garden show online, browsing booths and even getting your questions answered via chat or phone. The day has arrived when you can narrow down your search for home and garden products and then go see them. Or -- order over the internet! It's a new day for E-Commerce.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Jaguar to be Protected
Good News! The U.S. government announced this weekt that it will "protect the endangered jaguar's prime habitat and develop a jaguar recovery plan.
But with no known jaguars living today in the United States, it's unclear how the federal government will use habitat protection and recovery planning to bring the elusive cat back. The last known jaguar in this country, 15-year-old Macho B, was euthanized last March after being captured and recaptured in rugged desert country southwest of Tucson. As they announced the separate but closely related decisions, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they had no plans to try to reintroduce the jaguar into the United States, in the footsteps of the agency's decade-old efforts to reintroduce the endangered Mexican wolf. The agency's Sherry Barrett would not completely rule out reintroduction but said the idea is not a possibility at all unless scientific research during the recovery planning effort shows it's an essential step in protecting the entire jaguar species living south into South America. Barrett is the service's assistant Arizona field supervisor."
azstarnet.com
But with no known jaguars living today in the United States, it's unclear how the federal government will use habitat protection and recovery planning to bring the elusive cat back. The last known jaguar in this country, 15-year-old Macho B, was euthanized last March after being captured and recaptured in rugged desert country southwest of Tucson. As they announced the separate but closely related decisions, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said they had no plans to try to reintroduce the jaguar into the United States, in the footsteps of the agency's decade-old efforts to reintroduce the endangered Mexican wolf. The agency's Sherry Barrett would not completely rule out reintroduction but said the idea is not a possibility at all unless scientific research during the recovery planning effort shows it's an essential step in protecting the entire jaguar species living south into South America. Barrett is the service's assistant Arizona field supervisor."
azstarnet.com
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Wildlife Habitat Endangered by Border Fence
Check out today's Arizona Daily Star for an article about the affect of the border fence on wildlife. There is a depressing picture of a Javelina family turning back from the fence. I hope they weren't separated from their pack! I've mentioned in earlier posts my concern about the border fence's impact, especially on the jaguar. Defenders of Wildlife has been pointing out this issue for awhile. In particular, they say that the concerns "include fragmentation of habitat; increase of wildlife disturbance by motorized vehicles that now have more access; and severing of migration and dispersal corridors for animals such as the jaguar, ocelot, black bear, cougar and coatimundi, all species that require large amounts of habitat."
Jaguar T-Shirt Available at Amazing Tee's and More:
Jaguar T-Shirt Available at Amazing Tee's and More:
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Jaguar Euthanized
I am so sad -- the beautiful jaguar that was accidentally captured in southern Arizona and then released with a tracking collar two weeks ago, has been euthanized. Apparently, he developed severe kidney failure. The tracking collar revealed decreasing physical activity, so the Fish and Game department recaptured him and took him to the Phoenix Zoo for euthanization. The tragedy is that it may have been the stress from the initial capture that triggered the kidney failure. Just yesterday we had decided to donate 10% of the sale of the Amazing Jaguar bamboo t-shirt to the Phoenix Zoo. You can buy this shirt at: http://www.AmazingTeesandMore.com or go directly to the page: http://www.amazingteesandmore.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=19&products_id=52
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Jaguar Captured in Arizona!
An amazing and true story! A jaguar was spotted southwest of Tucson on February 18, captured and is now being tracked with a satellite tracking collar! This is so exciting. It is the first time a tracking collar has been placed on a jaguar in the United States. The report is that the jaguar has already travelled 3 miles from where he was captured!
The jaguar weighs 118 pounds with a thick and solid build. The field biologists said the cat appeared healthy and hardy. If jaguars fascinate you, go to: http://www.amazingteesus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=page&id=26&chapter=3
Monday, February 9, 2009
Amazing Jaguar
By Rita Weatherholt for http://www.AmazingTeesandMore.com
http://www.amazingteesus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19
The sonorous uh-uh-uh-uh roar of the jaguar is at once awe-inspiring and fearsome—a fact that is emblematic of the cat’s very existence. Indeed, the jaguar has been deity, enemy, and trophy of man, depending on its place in our history and our geography.
As the world’s third largest felid, Panthera onca is the largest wild cat in the Western hemisphere, with two distinct varieties—the big cats of the Amazon jungle, and the smaller version found in northern Mexico, southern Arizona and New Mexico. Jaguars are carnivores and hunters, and for this reason, even the North American cat, while only half the size of its jungle kin at 6-8 feet in length, and 100-160 pounds, carries a big fear factor for humans. Its powerful bite—the most powerful among cats of its size—penetrates with fangs able to crush the skulls of prey as large as elk. With the largest eyes of all carnivores relative to head size, the jaguar’s “eyeshine” makes it especially adept at night hunting, and with extraordinarily acute hearing, its tracking abilities are rivaled by none.
Despite its fearsome abilities, the jaguar is a beautiful creature, each with its own unique decoration. While the jungle cats can be completely black, or have black stripes, clusters of spots, or a combination, the northern jaguar’s reddish-yellow coat is marked by dark rosettes of spots, often in a butterfly pattern, lending it the name, “tigre mariposa.” The sleek profile of the jaguar’s flattened skull was greatly admired by the pre-Columbian Olmecs, who flattened their own skulls in an effort to emulate the cat’s deistic power.
The jaguar’s history in North America begins with its migration from Eurasia nearly two million years ago. These huge prehistoric creatures roamed much of the continent, alongside mammoths, shrub oxen and sabre-toothed tigers. As the Ice Age advanced over the northern hemisphere, the jaguar population split between what is now North and South America, with the northern cats’ decreased size an evolutionary means of adapting to its new climate and limited prey. As Europeans arrived on the continent, the jaguar was still abundant. However, as human settlements increased, so too, did the hunting and slaying of jaguars whose pelts were used as coats, and whose heads were prized as trophies. By the 1600’s Spanish settlers had introduced livestock to North America, creating a deadly catch-22 for jaguars: livestock represented a tempting prey for the cats, but at the cost of more deaths at the hands of man, who saw them as a threat to their own food source.
By the mid-twentieth century, jaguars had retreated to the most remote regions of the American Southwest and northern Mexico, where they stalk through the pine and oak of the Madrean woodlands and the scrub forests of Sonoran Desert foothills—a far cry from the lush jungles of their southern cousins. For food, they feed on javelina, deer and other smaller mammals, birds and fish. Carnivores first, and hunters second, jaguars will often opt for carrion as their food source, giving rise to some doubt about their being a primary source of livestock attacks.
Today, with only 100-150 jaguars occupying the 100,000 square miles of Sonoran Desert Region, the panthera onca is an endangered species, as it has been since 1960. Moreover, its fate is becoming increasingly tenuous in the United States where, in January, 2008 the federal government made a determination to abandon jaguar recovery under the Endangered Species Act. Efforts between conservation groups in Mexico and the United States, aimed at protecting jaguars’ natural corridors and conserving the remaining population, are currently underway.
By Rita Weatherholt for Amazing Tee’s US LLC
###
http://www.amazingteesus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=19
The sonorous uh-uh-uh-uh roar of the jaguar is at once awe-inspiring and fearsome—a fact that is emblematic of the cat’s very existence. Indeed, the jaguar has been deity, enemy, and trophy of man, depending on its place in our history and our geography.
As the world’s third largest felid, Panthera onca is the largest wild cat in the Western hemisphere, with two distinct varieties—the big cats of the Amazon jungle, and the smaller version found in northern Mexico, southern Arizona and New Mexico. Jaguars are carnivores and hunters, and for this reason, even the North American cat, while only half the size of its jungle kin at 6-8 feet in length, and 100-160 pounds, carries a big fear factor for humans. Its powerful bite—the most powerful among cats of its size—penetrates with fangs able to crush the skulls of prey as large as elk. With the largest eyes of all carnivores relative to head size, the jaguar’s “eyeshine” makes it especially adept at night hunting, and with extraordinarily acute hearing, its tracking abilities are rivaled by none.
Despite its fearsome abilities, the jaguar is a beautiful creature, each with its own unique decoration. While the jungle cats can be completely black, or have black stripes, clusters of spots, or a combination, the northern jaguar’s reddish-yellow coat is marked by dark rosettes of spots, often in a butterfly pattern, lending it the name, “tigre mariposa.” The sleek profile of the jaguar’s flattened skull was greatly admired by the pre-Columbian Olmecs, who flattened their own skulls in an effort to emulate the cat’s deistic power.
The jaguar’s history in North America begins with its migration from Eurasia nearly two million years ago. These huge prehistoric creatures roamed much of the continent, alongside mammoths, shrub oxen and sabre-toothed tigers. As the Ice Age advanced over the northern hemisphere, the jaguar population split between what is now North and South America, with the northern cats’ decreased size an evolutionary means of adapting to its new climate and limited prey. As Europeans arrived on the continent, the jaguar was still abundant. However, as human settlements increased, so too, did the hunting and slaying of jaguars whose pelts were used as coats, and whose heads were prized as trophies. By the 1600’s Spanish settlers had introduced livestock to North America, creating a deadly catch-22 for jaguars: livestock represented a tempting prey for the cats, but at the cost of more deaths at the hands of man, who saw them as a threat to their own food source.
By the mid-twentieth century, jaguars had retreated to the most remote regions of the American Southwest and northern Mexico, where they stalk through the pine and oak of the Madrean woodlands and the scrub forests of Sonoran Desert foothills—a far cry from the lush jungles of their southern cousins. For food, they feed on javelina, deer and other smaller mammals, birds and fish. Carnivores first, and hunters second, jaguars will often opt for carrion as their food source, giving rise to some doubt about their being a primary source of livestock attacks.
Today, with only 100-150 jaguars occupying the 100,000 square miles of Sonoran Desert Region, the panthera onca is an endangered species, as it has been since 1960. Moreover, its fate is becoming increasingly tenuous in the United States where, in January, 2008 the federal government made a determination to abandon jaguar recovery under the Endangered Species Act. Efforts between conservation groups in Mexico and the United States, aimed at protecting jaguars’ natural corridors and conserving the remaining population, are currently underway.
By Rita Weatherholt for Amazing Tee’s US LLC
###
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