Tasmanian devils

Yawn! Tasmanian devil in Tasmania, Australia.
Copyright (c) 2006 Wendee Holtcamp

Deane Rimerman wrote on his Forest Policy site about the risk of Tasmanian devil extinction, and linked to my two articles I've written about the critters. Check out the page Stop Tasmanian Devil extinction, Save Tarkine from eco-tourism road, or the main page.

Here are links to the two articles I wrote about Tasmanian devils and the horrible facial tumor cancer disease they're facing which may drive them to exticntion:

Tasmania's Devil of a Problem. The world’s most famous marsupial predator may face extinction within 15 years from a contagious cancer. National Wildlife Magazine. June/July 2008.

&

Sympathy for the Devil, Ideas Emerge to Save the Dying Tasmanian Devil. [PDF of piece Reproduced with permission. Copyright (c) 2007 Scientific American Magazine. Mar 07] (Text copyright (c) 2007 Wendee Holtcamp)

And here are some pics I took of devils in captivity - I've never posted most of these before now.

Their ears turn bright red when they get riled. This one was actively running around and at one point chasing its tail. It reminded me of Taz who spins around! Ha!

Snoozing devil. Notice the scars on his snout. This is nothing - as they age they get many more! They bite during mating and they scuffle quite a bit in general.

Devil dogpile!
Thought I'd include a shot of the drop-dead gorgeous Tasmanian temperate rainforests!
Sleepy lil' devil. So cute!
Resting my head...
Two devils check each other out.
Hanging out. I love these little guys!
They are just beautiful animals.

Scientific American piece

A dead Kemp's ridley sea turtle - a critically endangered species - washed ashore at Texas' Padre Island National Seashore, probably a drowning victim to net entanglement from shrimping boats offshore.
Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp

This piece in Scientific American I wrote came out a few weeks back and I forgot to include a link! The article is called, Fury Over Conservationists Taking Fees from Developers: A proposed megaport and a sea-turtle nesting beach collide within the group that maintains the endangered species list (IUCN). This was a crazy piece to write. It is an extremely complex and controversial issue, and I had to research and write it very quickly and cover a LOT of info in a relatively small space. Here's a link to the PDF that has the full magazine layout with a cool pic of mating sea turtles, and here's a link to the article on Scientific American's website.

It starts with these two paragraphs:
Every winter and spring, tens of thousands of endangered olive ridley sea turtles clamber onto the shores of Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, along India’s northeastern coast, to lay eggs in one of the world’s most spectacular phenomena—the arribada, or mass nesting, which occurs only in India, Costa Rica and Mexico. This past season, however, the arribada did not happen at Gahirmatha.

Although turtles have occasionally failed to mass-nest in previous years, conservationists fear this time the cause is dredging for a new seaport. Indian scientists and conservation groups place some blame on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), among the world’s most respected conservation organizations. The union has taken corporate money to consult on the port, effectively giving it a green stamp of approval even though it may spell the end for this nesting site....

Read more here!

snowed in

Hope is the thing with feathers
that perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
--Emily Dickinson

Boy it's been a snowy, wintry wonderland since I've been here! We'll get one clear day then a boatload of snow. I am still in Tacoma and pondering whether to return to Portland, or my dad's log cabin (about an hour away from Portland) today or tomorrow. I leave home Monday morn super early so need to be in Portland by Sun night at the latest but a huge storm is predicted with ice and snow Saturday afternoon, so I definitely gotta get there before then. The downfall is that I may not get to see my dad again! The original plan was to spend this coming weekend with him while he's off work, but... we got a very rare snowfall event. Like a once in 20 years snowfall snowstorm event! Apparently the area only gets about 11" of snow a year (which is nothing, compared to Colorado and other snowy places!). It typically snows about once a year here in the coastal Pacific NW and it rarely sticks for long. So I picked a fine time to travel! However I am blown away by the beauty and peacefulness, and I'm cozy inside (except when we venture out to play!).

So I've just been hanging out with my cousin Holly, her husband Ross and their adorable two kids! They have an awesome home with a view of Puget Sound and it's very peaceful and cozy here. I am trying to get caught up on some work, such as teaching my writing class, which ends this weekend (a new one starts up Jan 3!).

My latest article is out, in Scientific American Magazine, Jan 2008. Check it out...Fury Over Conservationists Taking Fees from Developers: proposed megaport and a sea-turtle nesting beach collide within the group that maintains the endangered species list. Here's a PDF of the story that looks really cool with the sea turtle image.

We walked down to the Starbucks a few blocks away and it started snowing. We caught snowflakes on our tongue! :)

My niece making snow angels!

The "Snowhead" Ross and the kiddos made. It started to melt a bit when the weather warmed up, but then it snowed again yesterday and they made an even bigger one!
The view out their window. Looks like a Norman Rockwell painting!
My cousin Holly and I. We grew up together pretty much until I was about 8 and moved to my dad's!