In my last post, I told you about a wonderful TV show about a black rhino. And then, I showed you a video which had some great photos of the amazing animals in Africa, one of them being the elephant.
Do you know what you get if you cross an elephant with a rhino? The answer will be at the end of this post!
One of the main points of the rhino documentary that I told you about was that the rhino is an endangered species due to illegal poaching. Hopefully, if enough people care then this species will not become extinct the way that others have gone before, like the Passenger Pigeon in this country.
The Passenger Pigeon once numbered in the BILLIONS. Yes, I typed that correctly, billions not millions. The last Passenger Pigeon, named Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on Sept. 1, 1914. You may read a good essay about the Passenger Pigeon just here.
The Audubon Society have a program this year to draw attention to the Passenger Pigeon to make people understand the very real possibility of the extinction of animal species. They have asked for people to make birds from paper and to pose these origami pieces all over the country. "Fold The Flock", is what they have called this, and they are hoping for one million by September 1, 2014. It looks as if they might not make the one million, but you might guess that Richard folded a paper in the form of this bird and that we took it with us to one of our favorite places...Arabia Mountain.
OKAY....so what do you get when you cross a rhino with an elephant? ('El IF I KNOW!) HA!
I might have told you this before but I still think it's funny!
The Passenger Pigeion, the Dodo, the Tasmanian Wolf... the list is long, and getting longer all the time. The rise and extinction of species (both plants and animals) has been going on for as long this planet has been habitable, but only since man has taken over and developed firearms has it sped up to the incredibly fast and unhealthy pace of today.
ReplyDeleteI like the Audubon Society's campaign. It is a good way of making people think - but, unfortunately, a lot of the time it is just the kind of people whose hearts and minds are already on the right way who participate in such campaigns. Those who don't care will probably not start caring now, I'm afraid.
Maybe those who are posing with their paper birds can start a conservation with people who don't know or care about the possibility of the extinction of living things. It might surprise you to know how much talking I can do when it is something that I care about! :-)
DeleteOddly enough as I was reading this I was thinking that all the people who are likely to read your blog are likely to be of your way of thinking on theses matters. Like Meike I think that, very unfortunately, it is true that people who don't care now are unlikely to be converted. Not that that should stop people trying. I did smile, though, at the idea of trying to place a paper bird anywhere in the Hebrides (in fact most of Scotland) without placing a rock on top of it to stop it blowing away.
ReplyDeleteSee my reply to Meike . I can tell you that hardly anybody that I know cares about the birds we way that my husband and I do.
DeleteAnd we were lucky the day that we were on Arabia Mountain, there are lots of times when we would have had to use a rock to anchor the paper bird!
What a lovely little bird you all created to tell the story. I loved the pictures showing different sights. A great way to get the news out for sure.
ReplyDeleteRichard worked at bit on that paper to get it to look like that!
DeleteArabia Mountain is also a place that could have some positive attention!
That is funny! The plight of our endangered species is not, though, and i'm glad you are spreading the word.
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at my last post, and there was a picture of a rhino and an elephant, I couldn't resist that joke!
DeleteAnd yes, you are right, the idea of losing a species is something quite serious and I hope that folks will forgive my corny joke when I was talking of this subject.
You will get 'the bird' with jokes like that!
ReplyDeleteOh, you are British, I thought you used two fingers! Oh, you must be turning American! Too much telly, I reckon!
Delete(And I know you laughed at that joke and most likely telling folks today, come on, ADMIT IT.)
I downloaded the origami printout.
ReplyDeleteNow I'll have to figure out how to do it. I'm a little clumsy.
There's a small park nearby called Clearbrook which would make a great location for it.
~John M
That's great, John! I will be very pleased to see your photo on your blog!
DeleteAlso, Richard said that it WAS a bit tricky to figure out how to do it properly, he watched the video on that site....he said you have to turn the paper over at certain times and that was not apparent in the written instructions.
Love your paper bird! I'm not a great paper folder but I might just have to give this a shot! I'll suggest it to some coworkers and see if I can get them to do it too! It's so sad to see how our beautiful world and animals get trashed for money...I've been reading about elephants and how they have such strong emotions and how they get poached for the ivory. So sad.
ReplyDeleteI love elephants! I have not told you this but I find them fascinating creatures and to think that they are killed for their ivory, you are right, it is very sad.
DeleteSee my reply to John M. above! Would love to know if you were able to get this origami bird made, perhaps your sweet grandkids would enjoy it!
I love your creativity with the bird project. I'll have to take a look at it.
ReplyDeleteIt was all due to the Audubon Society! And to my husband for folding the paper. I do think it is a sweet idea though. Hope you have a go!
DeleteCute pun!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I totally stole that from joke from the Muppets!
DeleteI'm flat out folding the sheets....particularly fitted ones...I'd hate to see what my end result was if I tried to fold a paper bird...it'd probably end up looking more like a porcupine! ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! Me and you both! You might notice that it was my HUSBAND who folded the paper, not me! There must be SOMETHING that I can do better than Richard, but I have not found it yet.
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