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Published: September 19th 2006
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Okay I couldn't come to Costa Rica, conservation capital of the world without getting a little more conservation concious (not that that is easy when you spend so much time with Zoe), but here goes. I semi appologise for the rant, but not completely.
We visited Monteverde, which is famous for its cloud forest, anyone who watched Blue Peter as a child probably had some sort of fund raising effort to buy some rainforest somewhere, and in Monteverde there is a huge tract owned my children. (So not everything is waste of time). The cloud forest is perched on the continental divide - where Pacific meets Atlantic, so has a huge variety of plant and animal life. It boasts more variety of trees and birds than all of Europe or the US in a few 100 sq miles, not bad for diversity.
We took a guided tour of the forest. Not because of the trails, it is difficult to get lost, but more for the information. Our guide was absolutely brilliant, a constant source of fascinating information about the different birds, plants, wildlife, and even country politics. I was seriously considering taking him and carrying around in my back
Resplendant Quetzal
Taken through a telescope, missing a head, but beautiful and unmistakable nonetheless. pack like the walking talking encyclopedia that he is. If only I had a bit more space, I would have done. The politics was pretty scarey stuff, with the new Free Trade agreement with the US becoming imminent, the environement will suffer as well as local people. The current president is in league with the big corporations, and has little concern for the environment, or for local communities that survive on locally produced goods at local prices.
Before we even entered the forest our guide had shown us a Praying Mantis, stick insect, and tiny tree-growing orchids. We saw hummingbirds aka colibris, little jewels of light and colour that blur past you at high speed- reminding me of the golden snitch from Harry Potter as the sound of a tiny helicopter whirrs by. Heart rate of 12,000bpm, wing speed 4000bpm. Many of them have an annual migration of 40,000km from North America, not bad for a bird weighing a few grams. The smallest is only 1g, similar to a postage stamp. Almost unbelievably their lifesan 6-8 yrs. The colours are iridescent blues, indigos, greens, shimmerig in the sun, but - brown under a white light. Incredible.
And then
we enter the forest, five minutes after, another guide showed up, and beckoned to follow, which we did at almost a running pace. At first none of us quite realised why, but then we peered through the trees...We were incredibly lucky, it was a Resplendant Quetzal. A Resplendant Whatzal? A beautiful emerald green a ruby red bird, about the size of a parrot. They are rarely seen this time of year, and my children will probably never have a chance to see them other than in photos. Our guide was saying that in 20 years they will be extinct. There are only 150 left in the country. Although they can live for almost 20 years they are monogamous. If their partner dies, they die of a broken heart soon after, similar to Macaws in that respect. (Awww, I hear the girls amoungst you coo, guys I doubt you will have the same response). They also only have an 18% success breeding rate, and have yet to be succesfully kept alive in captivity. With habitiat destruction being the main cause for the dropping numbers, and the ultimate inbreeding that comes with it means these stunning birds won't be around much longer.
Familiar Bromeliads
Slightly strange seeing my houseplants growing in trees high up in the canopy Sad but nothing you can do about it right?
We were shown photos of the Golden toad, only found in Monteverde, there used to 40,000 of these beautiful bright orange toads in 1983. By 1987 there was 1 male that turned up to mate. Now there are none. I will never see the bright orange cute looking toads that once was so abbundant. Scientists think it is due to the now proven climate change. Monteverde temperature has risen by 3 degrees in 17 years, hence the climate being too hot for these amphimbians. It´s frightening. It's not just here that this is happening, frogs and toads the world over are disappearing. Just ´cos they're not cute and cuddly no one has done much about it. Certainly nothing you can do about it. Right?
Well here I go with the ranting. You CAN do something about it. It might only be small things, and you probably think that it is barely worth it. But if EVERYONE did just a little, then things might not be too late. You don't have to buy a whole rainforest, or stop driving your car, but there are things that help.
For a start you can make a donation at www.magikbirds.com/ctf/donate/donate.htm or www.mclus.org/, to help buy more rainforet and protect that which still exists...
From climatecrisis.net there are 10 simple things you can do to help reduce global warming...
1. Change a LIGHT BULB- replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
2. Drive less - WALK, bike, carpool or take public transport more often and you'll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don't drive.
3. RECYCLE- you can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.
4. Check your TYRES- keeping car tyres inflated properly can improve petrol mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of petrol saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
5. Use less hot WATER- it takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low flow shower head and washing your clothes in cold or warm water.
6. AVOID packaged products - you can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your rubbish by 10%.
7. Adjust your THERMOSTAT- moving your heating thermostat just a few degrees lower in winter and cooling up a couple of degrees in summer could save you about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide with this simple adjustment.
8. Plant a TREE- a single tree will absorb one tonne of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.
9. TURN OFF electronic devices - simply turn off your television, DVD player, stereo and computer when they're not in use and you will save thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
10. Spread THE WORD - tell everyone, so all the little differences keep adding up.
To put the above figures in perspective, the average American generates about 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide every year. You can visit climatecrisis.net to check their carbon dioxide calculator and look at ways you can offset the gases you generate.
So it might not be much, and it probably won't stop global warming completely, and my children will still probably have to look at my photos of Quetzals rather than take their own, but maybe there will still be forests, with frogs, toads and beautiful birds, and maybe they won't live in a place called Birmingham-by-the-sea...?
Ok, enough of the ranting, promise I won't go on about it any more. Well, not much, maybe just a bit about the turtles in the next blog...
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Tim
non-member comment
Have I missed a couple of blogs? What children? Is there a shorter gestation period in the southern hemisphere?