BackyardBio - A ‘Sight’ To Behold!
May 17, 2021
Greetings Fellow Nature Lovers!
The big day is coming up quickly. May 22nd, International Day For Biological Diversity - We’re part of the solution #ForNature.
If someone had have told me last year that I would love taking pictures of bugs, birds, butterflies, and other insects or animals for a biodiversity event taking place the month of May 2021, I would have said – YES, You’re Right! I love being part of BackyardBio’s inspiring and invigorating program that gets kids/teachers and all sorts of people out learning more about their own backyard’s flora and fauna and how they can take part in learning how to preserve it for future generations.
I’m Fran Duthie, and I am the President and Co-Founder of Elephanatics, an elephant nonprofit organization in Vancouver, Canada. The mission of our organization, elephanatics.org, is to assist global elephant conservation efforts by educating Canadians about issues of ivory poaching, habitat loss, and the continued exploitation of elephants by humans, and to connect Canadians directly with elephant conservation partners in Africa and Asia.
I hope everyone is enjoying this fantastic event as much as I am and posting as many critters as they can find. Appreciating and bringing awareness to the importance of each and every species and the role they play in keeping ecosystems in balance is critical for our own survival. The term ‘circle of life’ couldn’t be more fitting in that we are all part of this grand design and ultimately, responsible for the upkeep!
Two years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the Mara Elephant Project in the Maasai Mara, in Kenya. MEP is an elephant organization based in the Mara that protects elephants to conserve the greater Mara ecosystem. I got to see, first hand, elephants, hippos, lions, and a cacophony of other animals co-existing in their natural surroundings. It was surreal! Dr. Jake Wall, a Co-Founder of Elephanatics, works for Mara Elephant Project and was gracious enough to provide us with a tour of their facility and visit some of the elephants he has collared for tracking. His job entails enhancing the protection of elephants and the habitat in which they and other wildlife depend; a huge job given the ramifications of Covid and lack of tourism causing immeasurable economic damage to so many conservancies and elephant organizations over this past year. Our trip was an experience beyond words and a trip of a lifetime never to be duplicated.
The importance of elephants for biodiversity cannot be underestimated. Elephants are a keystone species in that they help maintain forest and savannah ecosystems for other species and are integrally tied to rich biodiversity. They modify their environments by tearing down trees and dense grasslands making room for smaller species to exist and they create water holes used by other wildlife. Their dung is responsible for the dispersal of up to 35 different types of tree seeds. Because so many other animals rely on different types of plants this promotes species biodiversity by creating new niches for organisms to inhabit. This is why they are referred to as ‘ecological engineers'. Elephants are not only magnificent, intelligent, compassionate, and family-oriented animals, they are also climate change mitigators. Elephant herds that dwell in forests help sequester more atmospheric CO2. They do so by feeding on fast-growing plants in more open spaces, which facilitates the spread of slow-growing trees with higher wood density. These plants are better at sequestering carbon from the air.
For teachers or educators who are interested in learning more about the importance of the elephant to climate change and biodiversity, please refer to:
https://elephanatics.org/education/intermediate-lessons/
Lesson plan #4 – One mouthful at a time: How Forest Elephants Fight Climate Change
Quick Facts:
• Within the past century the African elephant population has decreased by 96 percent, from 10 million in 1930 to a few hundred thousand today.
• In the last forty years, elephant habitat has decreased by nearly two-thirds largely due to human activities.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN - has updated its red list of threatened species to include the African elephant. It is now split into two different categories with the Savannah elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant classified as critically endangered. It highlights a broad scale decline in African elephant numbers across the continent. The number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, while the population of African savanna elephants decreased by at least 60% over the last 50 years, according to the assessments.
Loss of biodiversity is also greatly affected by wildlife trafficking, wildlife markets, poaching, and hunting. Live animal markets are a major source of new viruses including ones that cause zoonotic diseases, such as Covid, that are transmitted between species. We are living today with the results of our actions due to the mistreatment of our environment through our continued commodification of wildlife and nature. Wildlife is being hunted and poached to extinction for fake medicine, trophies, pets, and exotic food. There is a finite number of elephants and other species available for exploitation. We need a ban on markets trading in wildlife and a ban on the domestic and commercial trade of elephant ivory in order to address the all-encompassing loss of biodiversity. Please sign our petition at: change.org/IvoryFreeCanada.
Taking part in #BackyardBio has given me the opportunity to be able to assist in connecting schools in Vancouver BC, with schools in Africa, as well as other areas globally. We have connected schools in San Diego and Vancouver with schools in Kenya and Zambia. We hope these schools continue to connect throughout the year and make it a monthly event to compare their respective flora and fauna, or just to say hi and learn more about each other’s culture and life experiences. How fun would that be!
We would also hope that teachers/educators take advantage of our free education lesson plans that are written for both the US and Canadian curriculums. https://elephanatics.org/education/
Nature is all around us waiting to be explored. As David Attenborough so eloquently states - "It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. ...
It’s up to all of us to be the caretakers of our world. Let’s keep exploring and sharing and making nature part of our daily routine as something to be acknowledged and respected and not just something to be taken for granted. Everything has worth and should be recognized for its place in the wheel of life.
Thank you, Jesse Hilderbrand, for creating an event that piques the interest of the inner child and encourages everyone to be a willing participant in restoring our planet for the betterment of all. I’ve had a blast taking pictures with my grandsons and preparing them to become future stewards of our planet's biodiversity, as well as getting schools and students involved globally in the fun.
Looking forward to May 22nd. Enjoy the rest of the month everyone!
Fran
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