News — wildlife

A friend immensely enjoyed the play acted by Kaiulani Lee. Rachel Carson found joy in observing nature, particularly in the seas and tidepools. And she collected the science, deduced that pesticides were killing the birds, and persuasively and poetically called to save the birds in her book, Silent Spring. The film of the play is available from PBS and iTunes.

http://www.kaiulanilee.com/a-sense-of-wonder.html

http://www.kaiulanilee.com/a-sense-of-wonder-film.html

Yesterday, I saw a group of about 25 northern shovelers swimming in a tight circle on the pond in the CU research park by the bike path SW of Foothills and Arapahoe. They herd and eat insects and snails that they stir up with their feet in the mud. Also, ringneck ducks were doing their mating displays, ducking under, leaping up, splashing, with their wings.   http://nwbackyardbirder.blogspot.com/2010/11/feeding-habits-of-northern-shoveler.html

I like this National Geographic documentary on Jane Goodall. It shows her excited to be living outdoors with animals, unafraid, observing wildlife behavior in the field. She climbs trees, gets the chimpanzee group used to her, discovers they make tools ( blades of grass to gather ants from anthills), observes their mating, birth , and raising of young chimps. She develops friendships with them. She raises her son in the wild with them. She and her filmmaker husband Hugo are also shown with many striking scenes of the Serengetti - lions and cape buffalo, lions and zebras, birds, hippos, elephants, caterpillars,....

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/jane-the-movie

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jane/

Maya K. Van Rossum, the author of the The Green Amendment. spoke about her book at the Boulder Bookstore. She wants people to talk about and pass this in states, to make well known. She wants to get it made into an amendment to the US constitution.

"forthegenerations.or​g​" is their website, They have videos up on their website. It is a project of the Delaware Riverkeepers Alliance. The environment has standing and rights, and we have rights to clean water, clean air, and a healthy ​environment.​ You can also find them on FB under "for the generations".

Oil and gas expanding development is scaring off the deer, so they want to kill the bears and cougars. They don't have any scientific evidence of predator populations increasing and causing deer population declines. The bears are not hibernating as much due to global warming and urban development. The author suggests that it all a strategy to increase oil and gas production and exports.

http://www.boulderweekly.com/uncategorized/off-target-11-time-running-lions-bears-comments/

Here is where to comment: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=APHIS-2017-0107

Doug Peacock writes about the need to save bears and wild places. He coauthored a letter to delay the hunting of grizzly bears. He shot a brief film about a young bear playing with ice on a spring pond, pushing the ice chunks down, then watching them pop back up. He is pushing to get the Monkey Wrench GAng made as a spur to get people to do something to protect wild creatures and places. http://www.wyodaily.com/story/2017/12/16/news/haydukes-final-fist-in-the-wilderness/6085.html