Amur Leopards: Run and save your skins!

Amur leopards, Amur leopards, Amur leopards...
Ah, the great beauty of spots that walk gracefully and savagely.  Those solitary creatures, those who's furs can be found in the illegal market for up to $1000.  Found in Russia and China the Amur leopard is CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.  How much is this creature endangered?  What is "critical"?

There are only 20-25 wild Amur leopards left in this entire world and they only live in Russia.  About 12 or so are found in China.  All together there are about 35 or so of these creatures left and we must stop this illegal poaching.

So, first you would probably ask why on earth we need to do this?  Heck, they could die out for all we care, right?

Wrong.  To our delicate ecological system, losing one species leaves this big giant gap that nothing can fill.  A huge earthquake of destruction will occur if one species dies out.  Each time one goes, each time our delicate balance of life is thrown off.  If the Amur leopards go, so does their forest and the prey species (roe deer, sika deer, etc).  Everything will be thrown off, you see?

GIMME SOME PICTURES!  You might say so here's one from WWF.

http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/amur_leopard2/

Aww, what a cutey :)

Apparently, the Amur leopards are getting special treatment from the WWF.  They have this Priority Species label.  It mean the species is really important to Earth so WWF is making sure that the Priority Species survive in their home-sweet-homes.

Now, here's another picture from WWF.  We shall hope it is not the same Amur leopard.



















It's from the same website so I'm not gonna put the link.

This is the fur of an adult Amur leopard.  Apparently it was found in a private car.  Yes, it sure is beautiful but... but... they slaughtered an Amur leopard :(
One that could've even been a mother :(

Here is a devastating photo of a killed...no, MURDERED Amur leopard.  It's from a site called ALTA (Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance).



Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance Website

If this makes your stomach churn and you feeling like rushing to the toilet, then, good.  At least someone's grossed out.  If you don't want to see this sort of stuff anymore, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your teachers, spread the word, get it out, make it stop!

Heck, if only I had a group of people with me then I could really get this word out but right now all I have is people like you who happen to stumble upon my blog, or happen to read the whole thing and think, oh, huh, this is interesting, huh.  Well, hope you think more than just "huh".

Now that we've covered tigers and Amur leopards almost to the brink, I'll have to think of the next topic.  Possibly something about the countries they're from or something.  I don't want to offend anyone and have my blog shut down or anything so I'm trying to stay neutral.  It's really hard when the people in the country are involved though...  Eeesh, don't wanna go into all that stuff :/

Go to
This Place to See What You Can Do

And, yes, you can do something even if you live thousands of miles away from where the Amur leopard lives.

Save us, you can

Tigers: The Grim Reality and the Placebo Effect

Disclaimer: I do not own these pictures.




    

 

 

If these pictures gross you out, bring tears to your eyes, or make you feel sick to the stomach, then good.  This is the grim reality.  This is what's happening to the tigers.




According to the WWF, tiger bones have been used as a traditional medicine in China for over a thousand years.  Their whiskers, claws, teeth are said to have the power of good luck.  And plenty of people believe the affects to be true.

Consumer demands bring illegal poaching.  "Illegal" because of a treaty many countries signed in 1973.  It's called CITES (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).    Even China signed.  Even Japan signed.  Even the US signed.  Even the UK signed along with lots of other countries like Panama, Spain, Togo, Sierra Leone...

CITES signed countries

I remember reading something about rhinos, which are also endangered.  Apparently their ivory tusks have some medicinal value and people are even "cultivating" some just so that they can "harvest" the tusks somehow without damaging the rhinos or something...  Anyway, the tusks aren't scientifically proved to cure any sickness even though users are claiming it helps.

Perhaps the tigers are having to endure the same false belief.

If you don't get it, let's put humans in this light.  I know it sounds harsh to use us but... the reality is harsh :/

Let's say there are some otherworldly creatures that have been living amongst us for a long time.  They are slightly stronger than us but for a long time we have lived in harmony.  Until one of them gets the idea that our bones are a good use for medicine.  Or rather profit.  Maybe they hunger for riches.

They might try dead bodies but maybe digging up graves wasn't such a good idea... where is the livestock?  All around them.  Illegal human poaching begins and we are slaughtered just so that our bones can be ground into powder and used a medicine that may not even work.

I would be so mad at these otherworldly people.  Our race may come to extinction just because of their "needs".

I don't like to be grim all the way through so here's a happy tiger pic I got off the Internet:

So, now that we've basked in cuteness.  Have you guys heard of the placebo effect?  It's pretty interesting.

If you believe that the said medicine works, it will work even though it actually has zero effect.  Why it works?

Humans are quite amazing.  As long as we believe, our bodies will cure themselves even though the medicine doesn't help.

So, because someone put an idea in people's heads, those people are asking for more ivory, more tiger bones, more good luck charms.  Even though they don't work.

Oh, you probably wonder, hey ho, why is it ALWAYS China?  It's not.  Trust me.  All 3200 or so tigers don't live in China.  Seriously, there's already enough people living there.

And take a look at this.  WWF tells us the truth.

The Problems Tigers Face

It's grim.  Too grim.  If this was us, it's like one of those dystopian novels where at the end, everyone dies.  Or is that one of those cheesy horror films?  But this isn't a film.  It's reality.  We can still do something.

I'll repeat;
WE CAN STILL DO SOMETHING, PEOPLE!!  AND WE ARE GOING TO DO IT!!
DON'T FORGET THE TIGERS!!

The Cycle: How it works

So, I haven't been able to post a new one on here for a while for a few reasons:
1. I've been busy with school
2. I didn't have a clue on what to write next
3. Life just didn't bring me here... no wait, scratch that.

Okay, so I'm going to reveal the cycle.  In life, there are lots of cycles.  The easiest one we all know is the cycle of life and death.  We die and the next generation is born.  Another cycle is the food chain.  There's a fish in the sea and the people that eat the fish blah blah but I'm just going to go right to our tigers.

So, you all know from the RAWR! facts what tigers eat, right?  If you don't, you'll need to go back to my archives or whatever and read it.  Well, lets use deers as an example.  I'm assuming everyone or anyone who happens upon this blog will know what a dear is and that it is a harbivor.

Here is the order of the cycle:

One less tiger to eat one deer

One more deer to eat grass

Less grass for all the deer

Deer venture in to people's gardens and fields

People blame deer because no crops means no food and some may kill deer

(I'm not sure of the true reason but maybe) People kill tiger to sell coat and make money to buy food

One less tiger to eat one deer


So here you are!  I throw at you the reality of the cycle!
What do you think?  Are you one of those guilty people who killed a deer then hunted for a tiger?  I hope not.  Poaching tigers is illegal.

Well, I have this slight feeling that people might be the reason to the extinction of tigers in the short run and long run.  The short run is directly killing the tiger for profit.  The long run is killing the tigers' food scorce that was a result from killing the tiger or destorying the deer's habitat.  Uh, this is such a deep and confusing cycle, isn't it?

I've been doing this thing lately and you can do it, too.  Every cent you spend on buying something tiger-related, you donate to the WWF or other organization to save the tiger.  I bought three little tiger decorative stuffed animals today and I kept the receipt so when I have enough, I'm going to donate.  Some of you out there might be too young to donate by VISA.  But if you're really into it, you can still do something about it.  Talk to your parents or make a blog, like me... or you can promote my blog on Twitter or something.

Hopefully, we won't have a humongous deer population in the near future...  This balance, this cycle, this, this, food chain better hold up.  If we have so many deer, someone might make a movie of deer invading our earth.

"The deer have over populated the human race.  We cannot survive any more.  As you can see behind me, there are hundreds, if not thousands of deer just roaming and trashing the city.  The military are doing their best to rid of some of these deer but there are absolutely too many.  The government has authorized people to pack their bags and leave the city.  The only way to rid of them all is to burn the whole city down.  I repeat, the government has authorized people to pack their bags and leave the city.  I repeat--"

SAVE THE TIGERS IF YOU WANT TO AVOID THIS

Sorry, that wasn't such as serious article... :/

The Rawr Facts: Amur Leopards

So, now let's head on back to our old friend the Amur leopard.  Amur leopard!  C'mon out!

RAWR!

















Okay, so, these cats can cook up a pretty good growl, huh?

Now, let's get down to the facts; what is an Amur leopard?

FACT R: Amur leopards are Russian and Chinese, meaning, they're found in Russia and in China.  But there are only a dozen at most in China.  Their lifespan is 10-15 years.

FACT A: You know the little spots leopards have?  Those are called rosettes, apparently, and Amur leopard's have rosettes with thicker borders than its other leopard cousins.  Also, each rosette has more space in between.



Amur Leopard rosettes: The reddish coat is its summer coat.

Leopard rosettes

Can you tell the difference?  It's really hard when you're not an expert  :/

FACT W: The Amur leopard is one of those cats that like alone time better than together time.  They are lone rangers that prowl in the night, kill prey in the darkness, and hide their unfinished dinner, lunch, or breakfast so no one would steal it.  Sometimes, the males will be good daddies and stay with their wives and even help raise the cubs.  So, they're not completely solitary creatures, I guess.

FACT R: Amur leopards have cubs.  And they're cute.  They have 1 to 4 at a time.  The little cubs stay with their mums until they're 1 1/2 to 2 years old.  To care for their little ones, the mother must keep her milk coming!  She will hunt for deer, boars, hares, badgers, and raccoon dogs.

FACT !: Amur leopards have been poached and illegally traded.  It seems that people haven't been able to resist the leopard's beautiful fur coats.  It was a mean game.  The people killed the leopards for fur and to protect the deer and hares that the people hunted for food and cash.  The Amur leopards would hunt the deer and hares for survival.  I would think that the people could have done without deer and hares.  Those poor, poor, cats, survival was tough and still is  :(

Extra FACT: The Russian government is trying its best to help repopulate these beautiful creatures.

What can you do?  How can you help?  Well,

Click here for more info at the bottom!  This is also the site I used for reference.  You can check it out.  And, definitely spread the word to your friends and family.  I'm pretty sure some people from Russia are looking at my blog.  If you are from Russia, get the word out!!!

I'm not sure what to do for my next tiger post... maybe some endangered species heads up thing...

The Rawr Facts: Tigers

RAWR!






















Okay, so, that was impressive, eh?  Now, let's get down to the tiger facts.

First, the basics.  What's a tiger?

FACT R:  Well, a tiger is a big cat.  In fact, the Siberian tiger is the biggest cat on the face of this earth!  It can weight from 181-306 kilograms!  That's 400-675 in pounds.  My goodness, Siberian tigers!

FACT A: Tigers are carnivores, which means they eat meat.  They love a nice juicy deer brushed with some field grass, a nice wild pig with a tint of mud flavor, and water buffalo with a side order of antelope.  It is only when us stupid humans take away their forest that tigers would come and steal our cattle or even turn to man-eaters.  If we were desperate, we'd eat things we won't normally eat too, right?

FACT W: Tigers like to be alone.  Of course, except for mating season, that is.  Territory is basically everything to them until the season of love comes around.  Tigers can fight for territory even to the death.  They're kind of like great warriors but all year round.

FACT R: Tigers have cubs.  And they're cute.  They have 3-4 at a time.  The little wabbly-legged cubs will follow they're mother around until they're 18 months old.  Then, at 2 1/2 years, they leave home.  Here's a scary thing the males might do that I'm glad humans don't: The male might kill the little babies to make the female able to mate again.  Not the same male but some other male.  It's all about passing down the genes.



So, those are the RAWR facts of the tiger.  Oh, wait, I forgot the exclamation point.

FACT !: Our old tiger friends live in all kinds of places.  Tropical forests where greenery is dense and lush, evergreen forests where winter leaves a beautiful contrast of the orange tiger in the white snow, woodlands, mangrove swamps, grasslands, the stretching Savannah, and even the hardcore rocky countries.  You might be wondering, "What?  Swamps?  Don't cats hate water?"  Well, remember, this is a wild cat.  And well, actually, tigers are pro swimmers and can even slay some dinner while they swim.  Talk about taking dinner to go.

Extra FACT: Did you know that tigers' stripes weren't all black?  They can be brown or even gray.  He he, you probably didn't know that, did you?  Well, you're not alone!  Neither did I until a few minutes ago.

Stay tooned for facts on Amur leopards!  And of course, even more for tigers!

References
Defenders of Wildlife: Fact Sheet Tiger

Critically Endangered: Amur Leopards

So we come to my next favorite animal; the Amur leopards.

Most of you probably have never heard of the beautiful creatures.  I'll tell you why.

Because there are only 30 left in this entire world.

Think about it.  This world is sooooooooooooo huge!!  So vast and wide and there are so many countries and so many undiscovered places.  And there are only 30, ONLY 30 Amur leopards left.  Some of you may have been in a classroom with 30 students.  Imagine each of those students as one Amur leopard.  It might seem like a lot but compared to the rest of the endangered animals on the menu, Amur leopards are so few.  That's why they're in the "Critically Endangered" category.

Let's take a look at the beautiful Amur leopards in a moment.  So little is known about them to the public.  I didn't know about them for a long time until something sparked in me to look up the endangered species on Wikipedia.  There, I noticed for the first time that inside "Endangered Species" there were different categories.

All together there are seven categories.  We have, in order, "Least Concern (LC)", "Near Threatened (NT)", "Vulnerable Species (VU)", "Endangered Species (EN)", "Critically Endangered (CR)", "Extinct in the Wild (EW)", and finally "Extinct (EX)".

"So what is the difference between the last two?" you might ask.  Well, "Extinct in the Wild" and "Extinct" seem somewhat similar to each other but, "Extinct" means that you won't even find those species in the zoo or conservation parks.  "Extinct in the Wild" means just that; they are extinct only in the wild but you can find them in zoos and/or conservation parks.

Then, we have the Red List, the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List.  All species are measured on population by experts like conservation biologists and people of specialty in those sort of fields.  The Red List covers three of the threatened categories; EN, CR, and EW.  Once the species passes EW, there is no going back.  Unless maybe if clone technology is improved... but that's just a random thought.

So, let's get back on topic.  Amur leopards are in the CR category.  Can you see how close they are to extinction?  CR is only one category away from complete extinction!

Now, to get a sense of what these creatures look like, here are some pictures.





A picture of an Amur leopard from the Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
 

An Amur leopard in the snow.

Amur leopard cub.

I'll go into more detail later on.  If you don't feel compassionate about conserving the Amur leopard, think about your favorite animal.  Maybe a dog?  Maybe a cat?  Maybe a frog or a pelican or something?  Now, think about the what-if.  What if there were only 30 of your favorite animals left in the whole entire world?  What if your favorite animal was doomed to become extinct unless we did something about it?

Here's something you can do to help; adopt an Amur leopard.  You can send an invitation to your friends, or you can get one as a gift for them or a family member.  The more people help out, the better chance we have in saving these beautiful creatures.  If you're too young to adopt anything, talk to the parents about your passion for helping to keep the Amur leopards in this world.  If they say "no", like my mother did for some weird money reason, act.  Take action.  Help me promote this to the world.  Your help will be greatly appreciated.





References
Endangered Species Wikipedia
IUCN Red List Wikipedia
Central Florida Zoo: Amur leopards
Marwell Wildlife
ALTA: Amur Leopard and Tiger Alliance  (check out this site!)

The Common Creature On The Menu

Tigers.  We have known them for decades.  On Sundays parents may take their children to zoos to see the beautiful creature, to see their power and their ancientness.

In Asian culture tigers are depicted as being king of all beasts, fearless and royal. 

Painting by Zhang Shanzi (1882-1940)

In Bangladesh, Malaysia, and in South Korea, the tiger is the national animal.  In China, the tiger is a member in the zodiac and seen in Buddhism as symbolizing anger.  Many other cultures also use tigers in their religion and in their folklore.

We all know (hopefully), Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book".  Shere Khan the tiger is the enemy of the man-cub, Mowgli. 

And we also all know (hopefully), of the bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun, fun Tigger in Winne-the-Pooh.

 

 



And we even went to great lengths to create plush out of our favorite animals.  Like the Beanie Baby, India, for example.

So, there you go.  Tigers are quite loved and quite common and one might think they'll always exist and we'll always see them around in zoos and on Animal Planet and the National Geographic show and BBC.

But now here they are, feared to become extinct, reduced to less than 4000 in the world.  According to the World Wildlife Fund's website called WWF Global, since the 20th century, the numbers of these beautiful creatures met with a drastic reduction.  From an approximate 100,000 to about 3,200.

Wow...  Wonder what did that, eh?

There are actually three types of tigers already extinct; the Bali tiger, the Caspian tiger, and the Javan tiger.  The Bali tiger lost its last in the late 1930s in the island of Bali in Indonesia.  The Caspian tiger (reminds me of Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia), was never seen again by the mid-1970s.  And last, the Javan tiger was never spotted again after the 1990s.

Now, they are on the menu of the Endangered Species list.  But the WWF is putting effort in saving these beautiful creatures.

If you're interested in saving the tigers, check out

WWF Tiger Adoptions and ways you can help

Also, please tell your friends about the situation with tigers.  Things need to be done and creatures need to be saved!

Later on I'll post more reasons on why we should save the tigers and what is making them reduce so dramatically.



References
Tiger Wiki
WWF Global Tiger Populations
Tiger Painting

Why this blog?

There are a few reasons why I started this blog.

1. My love of animals.

2. I'm not a leader.  I'm not a politician or someone who can organize a protest or something.

3. I want to help animals that are becoming extinct or that are critically endangered.

My favorite animals are:

The Tiger
and
The Amur Leopard

Of course I support the conservation of many other animals.  But tigers... they're such common animals.  A child's favorite zoo animal, depicted in Winnie the Pooh as the mischievous Tigger and in the Jungle Book as the cunning Shere Khan... how can we let this go?

And, Amur Leopards, these are beautiful creatures that are critically endangered.

Guess what?  There are only 30 Amur leopards in the whole entire world according to the WWF site.  At the World Wildlife Fund website, did you know you could adopt an Amur leopard?  I might adopt a tiger but I have to consult the Parents first.  I'm not old enough to be deciding these things on my own yet :/  Too bad.

Click here to adopt an Amur Leopard!

This is the beautiful Amur Leopard hunted down for fur :(

 

 



The Amur Leopard cub!  So cute! :)