Speck On A Dot

In the past few years there's been a growing number of increasingly strident petitions in our local community about the "infestation" of Canadian Geese. The complaint - they're everywhere, they make a mess of our nice clean paved sidewalks with their droppings, they pose a danger to kids, pets etc. etc.Some have even called Animal Control to come take the birds away. To no avail. The birds are here more frequently, stay longer and are growing in numbers. What got me curious, was the recency of this phenomenon. The area around here has been inhabited by species homo sapiens for many decades, and I myself dont remember this being an issue a few years ago, so why this sudden outcry? So of course I started researching it. And figured out that it's happening because of marked changes in the geese's behavior. And what caused that you may ask? Wait ...take a wild guess... surprise, surprise, WE DID! Canadian Geese as the name implies were native to Canada an

Photo courtesy National Tiger Conservation Authority / Project Tiger, India In my opinion one of the key success factors in conservation efforts is the role of government, as illustrated by the Tiger conservation effort in India.  "Whoa, whoa, hang on there," you say... "what are you about, complimenting the government for anything, especially something that is not self-serving? are you crazy? or worse yet a government stooge?" But I assure you I'm neither, I just believe in giving credit where credit is due. Let me backtrack a little so I can tell you how I formed this opinion, and hopefully you'll see things my way. When I was in India a few months ago, I saw several stories in the media about the successful resurgence of the wild tiger population, a species that was close to and is still on the brink of extinction across the world. Here are some stats to understand how dire the situation is - Over the last 100 years, the global tiger populati

A sudden screech..."Eeeek!", followed by a vigorous flailing of arms or stomping of feet... now that would be the normal reaction. Instead this morning I gently picked up in my hands and saved two "ugly" brown bugs while swimming laps in our pool. I see them often, struggling to get out of the water before they drown. I know many who see me doing it probably think I'm crazy. My response to anyone who would ask; not that anyone does, they just stare at me weirdly and look away, probably wondering when the men in the white coats are coming to take me away to a padded cell; is because they matter, and because we owe it to them . Here's another similar story I saw on the news today, yesterday, almost everyday. A local reporter interviewing a panicked family as they recount the fear of what they experienced. A bear/coyote/deer broke into their backyard/house/garbage, scaring the kids and causing general panic until help arrived in the form of uniforms with