Outdoor recreation is a fun way to bond with friends and family. After all, there's nothing like going back to nature to recharge after long days of work or study. However, if you're going to use the outdoors as your playground, make it your responsibility to use it wisely. You must do your part in preserving the natural environment of the site you’ve chosen to play in. If you're unsure what to do, just keep this in mind: "clean as you go." That involves cleaning up your own mess, and other people’s, too, if it’s possible for you to do so.

In order to stop the work from piling up, make sure you clean up each time after a mess is made. If you keep putting off cleaning, the accumulated work may be too overwhelming and may ruin the enjoyment of your outdoor experience. To avoid this from happening, make cleaning a bonding activity among you and your companions. The task at hand will not only be less stressful, but it will actually be fun to do.

Take all your trash with you. Don’t bury or burn it. Wild animals may smell the material and dig it up, leaving quite a mess for the next campers who come to that site. Put yourself in their shoes -- if you came to your site and saw a big mess left by previous users, you would be angry at them for sure. Bringing your trash with you is just a matter of simple courtesy. Besides, it’s rather embarrassing to have your trash laid out and exposed to strangers.

When packing your stuff, it's a good idea to include plastic bags in your backpack so you can have containers to put your trash in. Once you get home from your trip, put the garbage in the proper disposal bins.

Nature: Dogs That Changed the World. Academy Award-winner F. Murray Abraham narrates this NATURE miniseries about the remarkable and enduring relationship between dogs and humans, and why dogs have earned a unique and fundamental place in the human heart.

Fun With Nature (Take-Along Guide) (Hardcover) Fun with Nature is six nature handbooks in one. Each of the book's six sections--"Caterpillars, Bugs and Butterflies"; "Frogs, Toads and Turtles"; "Rabbits, Squirrels and Chipmunks"; "Snakes, Salamanders and Lizards"; "Tracks, Scats and Signs"; and "Trees, Leaves and Bark"--is like its own self-contained book.

Planet Earth - The Complete BBC Series (2007) As of its release in early 2007, Planet Earth is quite simply the greatest nature/wildlife series ever produced.Following the similarly monumental achievement of The Blue Planet: Seas of Life, this astonishing 11-part BBC series is brilliantly narrated by Sir David Attenborough and sensibly organized so that each 50-minute episode covers a specific geographical region and/or wildlife habitat (mountains, caves, deserts, shallow seas, seasonal forests, etc.) until the entire planet has been magnificently represented by the most astonishing sights and sounds you'll ever experience from the comforts of home.

Other Resources:

Channel Title: Wildlife Archives

Cape Horn

Cape Horn island (named after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile.

Cape Horn is widely considered to be the most southerly point of South America, and marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage. For many years it was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. However, the waters around the cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs ; these dangers have made it notorious as a sailors' graveyard.

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Source : Wikipedia
Band-e Amir National Park

Afghanistan just created it's first National Park, named Band-e Amir. Band-e Amir (meaning "Dam of the Amir") refers to five lakes high in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Central Afghanistan. They were created by the carbon dioxide rich water oozing out of the faults and fractures to deposit calcium carbonate precipitate in the form of travertine walls that today store the water of these lakes. Band-e Amir is situated at approximately 75 kilometers to the north-west of the ancient city of Bamyan.

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Source : Wikipedia
Wildlife Archives has a Facebook group

I created some time ago a Facebook group, wich you can find here.

I'll post some news about WLA and the new posts of the blog.

Feel free to join this group !
Giant Panda

The Giant Panda is a mammal classified in the bear family, native to central-western and southwestern China.

It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body.

Though belonging to the order Carnivora, the Giant Panda has a diet which is 99% bamboo. It may eat other foods such as honey, eggs, fish, yams, shrub leaves, oranges, and bananas when available.

The Giant Panda lives in a few mountain ranges in central China, in Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. It once lived in lowland areas, but farming, forest clearing, and other development now restrict the Giant Panda to the mountains.

The Giant Panda is an endangered species and highly threatened. According to the latest report, China has 239 Giant Pandas in captivity and another 27 living outside the country. It also estimated that around 1 590 pandas are currently living in the wild.

Giant Panda distribution map :

Source : Wikipedia
Baobab

Baobab is the common name of a genus (Adansonia) containing eight species of trees, native to Madagascar (having six species), mainland Africa and Australia (one species in each).

The species reach heights of 5?30 m and trunk diameters of 7-11 m. A specimen in Limpopo Province, South Africa, often considered the largest and oldest example alive, has a circumference of 50 m and an average diameter of 15 m, and coul be about 2 200 years old.

Adansonia grandidieri (Grandidier's Baobab), the most famous of Madagascar?s six baobabs, is an endangered species. It is endemic to Madagascar.

Baobabs store water inside the swollen trunk (up to 120 000 liters) to endure the harsh drought conditions particular to each region.

Source : Wikipedia
Mount Etna

Mount Etna is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, south of Italy. It is the largest active volcano in Europe, currently standing 3 329 m high, though it should be noted that this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m lower now than it was in 1981. Etna covers an area of 1 190 km� with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius, wich is near Naples.

Very large image :

Very large image :

Map of Mount Etna :

Agrandir le plan

Source : Wikipedia
Addax

The Addax (Addax nasomaculatus), also known as the screwhorn antelope, is a critically endangered desert antelope that lives in several isolated regions in the Sahara desert. This species of the antelope family is closely related to the oryx, but differs from other antelopes by having large square teeth like a cattle and lacking the typical facial glands. Although extremely rare in its native habitat, it is quite common in captivity and is regularly bred on ranches where they are hunted as trophies. There are fewer than 500 addax left in wild, with fewer than 860 in captivity.

In ancient times, Addax spread from Northern Africa through Arabia and Palestine. Pictures from Egyptian tombs show them being kept as domesticated animals in around 2500 BC. More recently, Addax were found from Algeria to Sudan but due to several reasons, they have become much more restricted and rare. The population became critically endangered from both destruction of their habitat for commercial projects and hunting for horns or use as leather. Since the addax are slow by comparison with other antelopes, and are known to ride themselves to death, they have been an easy target for mounted hunters.

Addax live in desert terrain where they eat grass, and leaves of what bushes are available. They are amply suited to live in the deep desert under extreme conditions. Addax can survive without free water almost indefinately, because they get moisture from their food and dew that condenses on plants. Addax are nocturnal: they rest during the day in depressions they dig for themselves.

Source and images : Wikipedia, Arkive
Coconut Crab

The coconut crab is the largest land-living arthropod in the world. It is a highly apomorphic hermit crab and is known for its ability to crack coconuts with its strong pincers in order to eat the contents. It is the only species of the genus Birgus (Birgus latro).

Coconut crabs distribution map :

Source and images : Wikipedia
Leptotyphlops carlae

Leptotyphlops carlae is a blind species of threadsnake discovered in 2006 on the island of Barbados by S. Blair Hedges. The average length of Leptotyphlops carlae adults is about 10 cm, wich make them the smallest snakes in the world. They are said to be "as thin as spaghetti".

Sources and image : Wikipedia
Koala

The Koala is a thickset arboreal marsupial herbivore native to Australia.

The Koala is found in coastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, from near Adelaide to the southern part of Cape York Peninsula.

Populations also extend for considerable distances inland in regions with enough moisture to support suitable woodlands. The Koalas of South Australia were largely exterminated during the early part of the 20th century, but the state has since been repopulated with victorian stock.

However, it remains near threatened of extinction, australian roads are very dangerous for the koala populations.

Source and images : Wikipedia, St�phanie Le Rouzic

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