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July 2021 Factfile - some news from the past month, animals and plants!

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Hi Everyone,

July is over and August is here. This month we've divided the 'News' section into 'Good news' and 'Bad news'. This will hopefully make the post more structured and easier to navigate.

News

Good news:

Pandas classified as vulnerable

Giants pandas are now classified as vulnerable according to Chinese officials. They were originally classed as endangered, but now that numbers in the wild have gone over 1 800 they have been reclassified. This is due to hard conservation work in China and funds from volunteers all over the globe. However, they are still vulnerable so it is important that the good work continues.
For all those who have supported giant pandas through websites or those who work actively with them: keep up the good work!
  

First baby beaver born on Exmoor in 400 years

A baby beaver has been born on Exmoor, England, for the first time in 400 years! This is due to a plan to reintroduce the animals. The parents were brought to the enclosure in 2020. They now have an eight-week-old kit (baby beaver). The baby was caught on a camera trap, swimming with its mother. The beaver family has already had a very positive effect on their environment. Otters have been seen more regularly since the arrival of the adult beavers. The tree that the beavers felled are perfect resources for owls, woodpeckers and bats. The enclosure is now a diverse habitat for sparrow hawks, gray wagtails, herons, moorhens, kingfishers and much more wildlife. This is what happens, simply by reintroducing two beavers back into a habitat! 

UN plan to cut extinction rates by the factor of 10

The UN (United Nations) is drafting another Paris-style agreement. It will include eliminating plastic pollution, reducing pesticide use by two thirds, halving the rate of invasive species introduction, and many other goals. This sounds brilliant and if it works, it will be! However, with the world population growing rapidly, I personally don't quite know how it will work. It'll be quite hard to get us out of this mess. But it's possible. We just need the governments to stop fighting each other and start fighting climate change!

Bad news:

Unfortunately there is quite a bit of bad news this month. :(

The end of Old Faithful?

When geologists mapped Yellowstone Park in 1870, the geysers and springs were as close to endless as possible. Now, over 150 years later, 4 million people come to see Old Faithful, Yellowstone's most famous geyser, every single year. Old Faithful shoots tens of thousands of litres of boiling water roughly 17-times every day.
However, a recent study has shown that rising temperatures, reduced snowfall and increased rainfall could shut Old Faithful off for ever. This would affect an area of 22 million acres. That land would become victim to something that a natural park can't protect against; rising temperatures. And we all know what rising temperatures can and are doing to the world!

Amazon rainforest emitting CO2

Another tipping point has been reached. The amazon rainforest is now emitting more CO2 than it can absorb. This is because the rainforest is being burnt down, so it no longer contains enough trees and plants to keep up with the CO2 being released by the trees burning down. The amazon used to be one of our most efficient CO2 absorber. Now it is CO2 positive! This is another hope lost for us humans. This needs to stop! 

Floods in Germany

Catastrophic floods have destroyed villages and towns in Germany and parts of Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The floods have killed at least 58 people and many more are still missing, in Germany. All across the region, fire-fighters tried desperately to rescue people stranded on rooftops. Many of the roads heading towards the affected were covered in rubble from landslides and some were still flooded, making them impassable.

Lapland records the hottest weather since 1914

Kevo, a city in the north of Lapland, has recorded the hottest temperatures since 1914. The temperature reached 33.6°C on Sunday 4th of July. These high temperatures were due to a heatwave that has swept through most of Europe in the past month. The source of the heatwave was, you guessed it, climate change! Lapland wasn't the only place affected. In south-west England from the 16th to the 23rd, no rain fell and temperatures went over 30°C. The European heatwave was similar to one in USA at a similar time. Hundreds are thought to be dead due to high temperatures in the north-west of the US and southwestern Canada.

Animals and plant

Land: Elk

The elk, also known as the wapiti, belongs to the deer family. They live across North America and Central and South Asia.
They weigh 150 kg to 500 kg. Their shoulder height is 120 cm to 150 cm. However a male elk's antlers can reach up to 120 cm above his head, making him 270 cm tall!
Elks are grassing animals that mostly feed on grass. They live in herds of up to 400 individuals!
During the mating season, males will fight over the females, hence the massive antlers.

Air: Puffin

The puffin is a much loved creature that spends most of it's life at sea or on coastal islands. A puffin’s beak also changes colour! In winter, the beak is grey, but in spring it turns to it's signature orange! This is to attract potential mates. They are carnivorous and so live off small fish. They also flap their wings up to 400 times a minute and can fly at up to 88km per hour! They are not only fantastic flyers but also superb swimmers, able to dive 60m in search of food. They live around 20 years and usually stay with the same mating partner!
National Geographic has a great article of puffin facts which I have used to put this together and also have a great piece on if they are endangered and why.
"Although puffins are not classed as an endangered species, populations in some places are in decline. The main threats are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution – particularly oil spills. Not only does the oil make these beautiful birds sick, it destroys their waterproof feathers, essential for their survival."

Water: Manta ray

Manta rays are gentle giants. They are the largest type of rays. They are known to be very curious and peaceful.

Manta rays are filter feeders. That means that they let the water flow in through their mouths. They then filter it for food and let the remaining water flow out again.
There are two types of manta rays: the reef manta ray and the giant oceanic manta ray. The reef manta ray is smaller, with a wingspan of 335cm. The giant oceanic manta ray is the biggest ray, with a wingspan of 883cm!
These incredible creatures are listed as vulnerable.

Plant: Kauri tree

Kauri trees are found in New Zealand. A fully grown tree has no lower branches. This stops vines from growing up it. It's flaking bark also protects the tree against vines. The fallen bark gathers around the bottom of the tree.
Kauri trees are massive.

90% of all kauri tree areas standing before 1000AD was destroyed by 1970! Today, there are only about 7 500 hectares of kauri trees left.
Kauri trees are incredible. The oldest Kauri tree is between 1 500 and 2 500 years old!

Eco tip

Turn your heaters down! By reducing the temperature by just 2 degrees in winter and up 2 degrees in summer (only when you have a thermostat), you could save 2000 pounds of carbon a year!

Book recommendation

We've just read an amazing book called 'Dairy of a young naturalist' by Dara McAnulty. It's an incredible book that describes the natural world through the eyes of an autistic teenager from Ireland. His descriptions are precise and stunning.


See you soon (next time will be the first amazon rainforest post)!

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Sources:

Images:
Title image: This image is owned by a blog editor.
Panda: This image is owned by .M.Q Huang on pexels.com.
Beaver: This image, owned by Michael Levine-Clark (on flickr.com) is liscensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Old Faithful: This image, owned by Matthew Paulson (on flickr.com), is lisenced under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Elk: This image, owned by Oregon Department of Agriculture (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Puffin: This image, owned by Nigel Appleton (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Manta ray: This image, owned by NOAA's National Ocean Service (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Kauri tree: This image, owned by Jessica Cross (on flickr.com), is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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