What is the deal with the Llama and Alpaca, am I living under a stone or have these become very popular of late.

The year is 2000, I'm 5 years old and I just watched the iconic film "JAWS" starring a ravenous Great White shark, out for cold blood. Killing everyone and everything in it's path, leaving destruction in it's wake. Being a young and impressionable native Floridian, this movie really shook me to the core, and it took years for me to recover from the stigma that this movie (and so many others) had created. The media's portrayal of sharks and their insatiable appetite had done it's part in keeping me out of the oceans for quite some time.

The Earth’s average temperature has been keeping on increasing at a rapid pace over the past few decades. A major problem that contributes to the increase in global temperature is the presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected into space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by the greenhouse gases.

The Greater Wynnewood Zoo, a road-side big cat facility that was the focus of Netflix’s The Tiger King series, has recently been under investigation by the state of Oklahoma for alleged animal abuse after a series of photos and videos that document the claims were leaked to the public. The evidence to support these claims include photos of lions suffering from skin conditions caused by insects biting their skin off and laying eggs on them. The zoo was once owned by Joe Maldonado-Passage, who is better known to the world as “Joe Exotic” before all ownership of the facility was turned over to Jeff Lowe and his partner, Lauren.

While living in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, one of our favorite activities is visiting Cleland Wildlife Park. This conservation park offers an immersive nature experience where we get up close and personal with Australian wildlife. Very few of the animals are in cages, so I liken it to a several-acre petting zoo. As you walk in the doors, you can purchase a small bag of food and get started on your adventure.

It’s hard to describe the sound that koalas make in the middle of the night during mating season. If I had to guess, I’d say that it is a cross between a pig snorting and a bear rutting. It’s rhythmic and loud, and more nights than not, it is just outside our bedroom window in Stirling, South Australia, located just 15 minutes away from the capital city of South Australia.

Sea turtles have been in our oceans for over 100 million years. They are fantastic navigators; they swim great distances between feeding and nesting grounds. They are elegant, beautiful, and adapted perfectly to live in the oceans. Aside from the cuteness and charm that comes with sea turtles, their biology has some very interesting quirks to it, some good, some bad. Yet it’s their biology that helps conservationists and scientists better conserve these species, as they need the help.

A world without the buzz of bees would really sting. The humble bumblebee- the same ones we swat and scream at when they fly our way, play a crucial role in each of our daily lives! We actually have a bee to thank for every 1 in 3 bites of food that we eat every single day. Bees work tirelessly, sometimes up to 12 hours a day foraging nectar and transporting pollen between plants to produce essential foods in our diet like fruits, vegetables, nuts, chocolate and even coffee! Bee populations have been drastically declining more and more each year since the 1980s. If we lose our precious pollinators to extinction, we lose up to 90% of the world’s nutrition. It’s time for us humans to beehive!

For the conservation of anything to be possible, there first needs to be awareness. This can be done in several ways such as protests, strikes, advertisements, social media, government changes etc. There's not a singular way to bring light to a topic. Regarding ocean conservation, we have seen ALL the above in recent years.

This 8 armed, beak wielding, marine invertebrate belongs to a family (Cephalopods) of approximately 300 species worldwide. They're known for their camouflage abilities, intelligence, and generally for being weird yet wonderful creatures of the blue. So why are they cool? Aside from how they look like aliens, or how they can squeeze into tiny places, they've got a few things about their biology that makes them cool.

A Quick Aside

We had been in Australia for only a month when we moved into our new place in Sydney.  Imagine my surprise when I walked out of my room and found this huge beautiful bird sitting on our wall.