I can think of no better way to wake up in the morning than to the music of birds. Granted, they wake up a lot earlier than I prefer, but their song and poetry makes it easy to drift back into a sweet morning sleep. I’m incredibly grateful for the presence of birds. I have lived where they are silent and rare and it truly makes for a dismal day.

So how are our avian companions doing these days? Due to contaminants in the environment and habitat loss (i.e., …

Tags: animal preservation , animals , environment , news

3 Comments |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark

Biodiversity, while healthy for the earth, is a real boon for human health, too. Take the West Nile virus, spread to humans by mosquitoes. It turns out that that the greater diversity of bird species in a region, the lower the amount of human West Nile virus cases.

You’d think the greater number of birds in a region will ensure that more mosquitoes get eaten, but that’s not what’s affecting the statistics. Some species of birds are particularly good hosts for the virus and that’s how the mosquitoes get …

Tags: animal preservation , animals , environment , health

Add Comment |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark

A tourism paradox plagues beautiful Costa Rica, the must-see destination for every family I know. Its highly visited parks, like Manuel Antonio, depend on visitors to keep the bulldozers and loggers out, yet the growing crowds pose an obvious threat to the protected birds, iguanas and sloths, not to mention the monkeys in the trees people aren’t suppose to feed.

As a result, this original capitol of eco-tourism is taking steps to reduce the impact, capping the number of daily visitors to Manuel at 600 during the week and 800 …

Tags: animal preservation , conservation , Costa Rica , eco travel , tourism , zip-lines

2 Comments |

Link to this post |

|

Bookmark