NARWHALS THREATENED BY SHELL DRILLING OIL BUT SAFE NOW

Shell gave up drilling in Alaska. President Obama withdrew licence for 2016 and 2017. Thanks to Greenpeace and seven million people.

Narwhals have an unusual feature, a tusk. The male has a left incisor and is an unusual spiral tusk. Sometimes it even grows two tusks. The female rarely  grows any but it has two incisors up to 20 cm long.It is assumed that their tusk might a social role. It could play a part in breeding or social status. Male do use their tusk for fighting and there are injuries.Their communication has a great variety. It ranges from calls, whistles, clangs to clicks and even cow-like moos. 

The tiny community of Clyde River in the Canadian Arctic is under threat: oil companies have been given the green light to start looking for oil in Baffin Bay.

To do that, they’ll use seismic testing, firing deafening explosions through the ocean to try and find the pockets of oil under the seabed. The noise from these explosions could be catastrophic for the wildlife that live here too, including most of the world’s narwhal population.

NARWHALS  IN  CANADA

The people of Clyde River are doing everything they can to keep the giant oil industry out of their home. Can you stand with them and send an urgent message to Canada’s energy board asking them to keep the oil industry out of the Arctic?

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/narwhal

The explosions - 100,000 times louder than a jet engine - can disrupt the narwhal’s migration paths and calving areas, cause permanent hearing loss, and even lead to death.

The Arctic is coming under increasing threat from oil companies. Baffin Bay has just been opened up to seismic testing, and last week Shell announced it intends to push forward with drilling new oil wells this year - with potentially devastating consequences.

Oil companies know seismic testing is a problem. Just a couple of years ago, the courts agreed with the people of nearby Lancaster Sound that seismic testing shouldn’t take place there. The reasons? Concerns for marine mammals and traditional lifestyles, the same struggles faced by the people of Clyde River.

There are just 900 people who live in Clyde River, but so far over 60,000 people from all over the world have already shown their support for this brave community. Add your voice to show the National Energy Board that the world’s eyes are on Clyde River.

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/narwhal

We know that when we act together we are strong. Last September, people all around the world supported the Mahan community in their campaign to protect local forests from the coal industry. When the time came, India’s Supreme Court scrapped 200 coal mining licenses, including at Mahan.

Let’s see if we can do the same for the people of Clyde River struggling against the oil industry. Send your message: https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/narwhal

 What happens in the Arctic affects us all. We all benefit from keeping the Arctic healthy and free from risky oil drilling. Send an urgent message to protect our Arctic. https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/narwhal

GORILLAS

SILVERBACK MALE

Gorillas are man’s closest relatives. The Gorilla became known as aggressive and ferocious but it is completely unfounded.  He is the largest primate. The gorilla is a vegetarian and of gently nature.

It is thought that gorillas at their beginning lived in trees but today only the younger members are climbing and the adult stay on the ground because they are too heavy. Mother Nature provided them with strong grasping fingers and thumb for gripping. Their arms are very strong and designed for swinging from trees to trees. It also has, like man, a good binocular vision for judging distances.  Although very well equipped for climbing trees it is only the young ones which climb.

The adult stay on the ground and walk on its feet and pivoting on his knuckles of its hands.

The colour of its fur can vary. The western lowland gorilla living in the Cameron, Central ~African Republic, Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Africa has a brown-greycoat. The well known male silversaddle extends to their rump and thighs.

WESTERN GORILLAS

The eastern lowland gorilla living in easy Zaire in the forests of Lualaba, or Upper Congo River, to the foothills, has a black coat. The male silver saddle is smaller but its chest is larger and so are his jaws and teeth.

LOWLAND GORILLAS

The mountain gorillas are living in Zaire, Rwanda and Uganda at an altitude of 1650-3790m. They are in the foothills of the Virunga volcanoes and mountains bordering Lake Kivu.  It is very much like the eastern gorilla but has lager jaws, teeth, longer hairs, especially on the arms

It mainly eats leaves and stems and there is plentiful in his habitat but they have to eat huge amount.  They live in family groups and move slowly about in their territory which can range from 5 to 30sqkm. They never stay a long time and it gives the plants to grow again. They feed in the mornings and afternoons. Midday they take a rest and at night they make nests from leaves and branches and sleep in it.

They eat a wide range of vegetation but prefer plants with stringy stems. They are also fussy eaters like all primates. It had been seen they pull their food apart and if there are any discolouring they throw it away. 

FAMILY

It is the adult silver back which is the centre of the family group.  He has a favourite female and she is second in command.  The rest of the family has to establish their status in the group.

Other males might be challenging the dominate male of the group for his harem but he mostly get sent off by showing their teeth, chest beating and hooting. Sometimes young males chases away the old dominate male. The new male will kill all the babies fathered by the old male and start mating with the females to establish his own family.

 Baby gorilla starts to crawl at the age of nine weeks. Till such time it clings to his mother belly. It is weaned at an about three and half years of age, and then the mother starts mating again. However, the baby is still not able to fend for itself and half of the babies die. An incoming male sometimes kill the baby which is not his own and therefore the female makes sure to chose a very strong male who is able to defend his family.

The female is not sexually mature until it is seven or eight years old but only starts breeding when it is ten years old.  The male reaches adult hood at the age of 15-20 years old.

GORILLAS AND MAN

Chimpanzee and Gorillas are the closest to man.  Man has no tail and walks upright.  Both man and gorilla are intelligent. The similarity is also in the bone, muscles and internal organs. The difference is that the gorillas have shorter toes and longer arms. His big toes are thumb-like.

The gorilla received a name for being fierce but it was due to the earlier explorers to make out they had great courage.  Therefore for many years it was believed that the gorilla was dangerous. It was discovered that the male gorilla only attacks when he feels his family group is threatened and with that his breeding rights.

Thousands of tourist travel to Rwanda to watch gorillas and are within a few metres from them. Nobody ever has been attacked.

CONSERVATION

Mountains gorillas are in great danger of extinction. The main reason is that the forests round the Virunga volcanoes were cleared for agricultural use.  It is thought that there are only 350 gorillas left in the wild. In spite of foothills of Virunga Mountains have been declared a National Park and the gorillas are a declared a protective animals a terrible trade in skulls and severed hands continues. They are sold on to tourists as ‘souvenirs’. There again if the tourists wouldn’t be so pathetic as to buy it the natives would not kill them. It is again the demand which causes the damage.

At first the poachers kills the male with a spear. Then they kill the mother and take the babies for selling them. The buyer couldn’t care less if the young gorilla dies soon after mostly from the wrong food and emotional shock.  All this is a disgraceful way to behave and to destroy such magnificent animals.

The lowland gorillas are 9,000 – 10,000 are in the wild and the eastern gorillas are assumed to be 4,000 but nevertheless they also suffer of loss of habitation and illegal hunting.  

TRUE SEAL

TRUE SEAL

The true seals have no ear flaps as in comparison to the eared seals. These two families of seals exist today.

They are descended from land animals. However, it is assumed that the true seal evolved about 15 million years ago while the eared seal developed about 25 million years ago.

True seal size ranges from the ringed seal of 116-138cm till the male southern elephant seal which is 490cm. The weight of a ringed seal is 50kg and the southern elephant seal is 2500kg. Amazingly, the females of southern species which are monk, leopard and Weddell seals are larger than the male.

In contrast, the males of the northern species like the grey, hooded and elephant seals, are much larger than the females. The different sizes between the male and female are enormous with the southern elephant seal; the male is three times the weight of the female.

ELEPHANT SEAL 
FEMALE AND MALE

RINGED SEAL

RINGED SEAL PUP

WEDDELL SEAL

HABITAT

The habitat of seals, because they are sea mammals, they spend most of their time in the ocean. They come on land to breed and rest.

Weddell, crabeater, leopard, southern elephant and Ross seals live amongst the ice floes of the Antarctic waters. The harp, bearded, spotted, hooded and ringed seals are amongst the arctic pack ice.

Ringed seal live under the Arctic ice almost all year round and scraping breathing holes, near pressure ridges, in the ice. Under the deep snow they excavate ice caves to haul out or rest. It is assumed that the males defend their territory under water. The Weddell seals do it too. When the spring sunshine begins to melt the ice, the ring seals congregate on the surface. After the ice melted they go back to sea for the short summer.

The Harbour seals live further south and closer to man. They often rest on a sandbank or bay. The grey seals are more oceans going but does come out and lies on a rock to dry its pelt.

It is thought that the first seal probable evolved in warm waters. However, the monk seals are living in sub-tropical waters but their numbers are declining.

The Baikal seal is the only freshwater species and it lives in the Lake Baikal in Siberia.

HEAT CONSERVATION

The seal blood has to be kept at 37C to survive the cold sea water. They live in Arctic and Antarctic in water temperature of -1.8oC. To avoid heat loss the seals are cylindrically built. The seal has a layer of blubber of 7-10cm all over the body. This fatty tissue protects and streamlines the body.

SWIMMING

The true seal swings its tail from side to side in opposition to the powerful strokes of the hind flipper. The fore flippers they keep closely to their sides.

On land the true seal can move a short distance with humping their way over the ground. The Grey seal uses its flippers to haul them onto the rocks. The ribbon and crabeater seal travels over ice by wriggling.

DIVING

Being descended from land mammals, the seals have lungs and have to hold its breath when diving. The seal has more ribs and the lungs are larger than most land mammals. The lungs don't carry air when they dive. They breath quickly to fill their blood with oxygen and just before diving they breath out to get the air our of their lungs.

The harbour and harp seal dive for about five minutes but if necessary they can stay under water up to half an hour. Larger seal can stay under water longer. The northern elephant seal can dive up to 47.7 minutes and the Weddell seal up to 73 minutes.

The Weddell seals can dive up to 600m. When they do this the blood circulation to the heart, brains and lungs is slowed down. The heart rate drops from 50-60 beats per minute to 15 beats. After such a lengthy dive the seal will rest an hour and half to recover.

FOOD

Their food consists of fish, planktonic crustacean and molluscs. They switch from one food to another whatever is available. The Weddell seal in the Antarctic Peninsular eats octopus and squid but in the Ross Sea they eat fish. Grey seals living near salmon fishing stations on Great Britain's northwest coast feed on salmon. When they are in other areas they ignored the salmon.

The crabeater seal does not eat crabs but live on krill and some kind of zooplankton. The crabeater seals are eaten by the leopard seal which also catches penguins.

Seal stay without food for a long time when breeding and moulting. The weaned elephant seal does not eat for 12 weeks while learning how to hunt.

BREEDING

At mating season only the dominant male covers as many as females as possible. But as there are other males the dominant male must lead an aggressive live. The female gives birth and nurture her single offspring. The breeding season varies. The female gives birth at the same time every year and mates shortly after giving birth. They have a delayed implantation of the foetus and the females give birth on the communal breeding beaches every year. The male does not help to raise the pup and comes purely for the mating season to the beaches.

There is a great variety of giving birth at which place amongst the seals. Some on ice, others on beaches or water. True seals leave their pups on the beach and return to the sea and going back only to feed them. However, the harbour seal has a very strong bond with the mother. The pup cannot stay under the water or swim very far. The mother carries it on her back or holds it between her flippers. When there is danger she makes a loudcrack on the water to make her pup dive.

The elephant seal differ so much in size, between the female and the male; you would think they are different species. The female has a sleek body and looks rather underdeveloped; the male is huge and has three times the weight and size of the female. The male neck and chest is covered with thick wrinkled skin. The huge head has an elephantine nose.

Male elephant seals fight violently about their territory. They are also very aggressive toward the female. They rape pregnant females as well as the ones which just have given birth. When she resists, they bite the female or slam it with their huge body. They also squash pups to death.

The ringed seals mates under the ice and the female gives birth in the early months of the year inside a maternity cave which was dug out in the snow.

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

The relationship between man and seals are complex. They find them fascinating enough to put them into folklore and legend yet they hunt them to almost extinction. The reason is they get blamed for depleting fish-stock. The other is for their fur.  In the 1970 harbour seals and grey seals were seriously in trouble in northern British waters. They hunted nearly all the pups. Harbour seals were shot trying to protect their pups.

Fur trade worked by supply and demand and when the demand stopped, the killing ceased. Then they could also enforce protective legislation. It is thought that today are more seals around than for the last thousand years.

There was an outcry when they showed a film on the TV showing a pup being clubbed in front of his mother. However, it is still going on today. The culling of harp seals in Greenland and Newfoundland is controlled by an agreement from Denmark, Norway and Russia. The population is now on the increase. Unfortunately, because of their beautiful belts and Norway trying to protect the capelin fisheries, the culling will continue in spite of the outcry.

The ring seals are not better off because their population were reduced from many hundred of thousands down to 10,000 in the Canadian Arctic. In the Baltic Sea they are affected by chemicals being damped into the sea. The chemical waste was of organ chlorines called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) These chemicals also had an affect on the seabirds around the British Isles.

The warm water monk seal is the rarest seal of them all. It is thought that the Caribbean monk seals are extinct. The last time it was sighted was in 1950. Furthermore, the HawaiianTop of Form

 Mediterranean monk seal are in danger of being extinct. One reason for it was hunting and the other monk seals are very sensitive and react badly for being disturbed.  If pregnant females have to give birth on an unsafe beach and then being disturbed the pups could starve to death. Every effort is made to safe the Hawaiian monk seal but in spite of all the number remain small.  As for Mediterranean monk seal it has lost its sites mostly to developers.