India, the land and her people, a mere mention of the word India takes one to heights of delight and compels people from other countries to pay a visit at least once. However, the fauna is something, which is unique to this land. The source of these exotic varieties is the jungles of India, which are scattered over the geographic landscape. Then there is a wide array of about 80 national parks and countless reserved forest areas. For the people from other countries, who want to savor the very best of the jungle life and yet can’t do without the luxuries, wildlife tour India is the answer. The package provides a unique, though refreshing experience for the people from other countries. Through this package, you can get the accommodation at the wildlife resorts which have been furnished with the modern gadgets.

India is a wildlife paradise for the nature seekers and can offer anybody a chance to take a peep at its fauna. For wildlife lovers, a number of wildlife tour India packages are there to be selected from. These wildlife tours take you to many wildlife parks and sanctuaries in India. Many wildlife safari options are available which include jeep safari in the Indian jungles and elephant safari. Tiger viewing on the back of an elephant is one of the favorite activities for the adventure seekers. During the wildlife tour India, you can experience the flavors of India while putting up at various accommodations in the resorts in the jungles. One of the famous places is the Corbett National Park, which is home to the Indian tiger. Others include Bandhavgarh National park, Kaziranga National Park, Gir wildlife sanctuary and others. For centuries, India has been famous for her flora too and the Indian jungles are a sight to see. It is a treat to see so much greenery which is missing in the concrete jungles of India.

Many wildlife resorts in India have been fitted with the modern gadgets. For the tourists, this type of experience proves to be very exciting as they can now savor the luxuries of life in the midst of a jungle. The resorts have been constructed right in the middle of the reserved sanctuaries, which at times, prove to be very distracting to the animals. Though you can watch them from your window, it amounts to disturbing their space which at times, proves to be fatal. A number of incidents in recent years prove that the conflict between the beast and the man is increasing. Yet everybody knows who is to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs. Provisions should be made to re-locate these luxurious resorts far from the jungle. Wildlife tour India will then serve its purpose if the people visit these resorts and leave the animals in peace.

Wildlife tour India includes much more. Some of the packages include the viewing of tribal dances and their culture. The tribes, which have been living since ages outside these forests possess a lot of local knowledge. This includes the knowledge about the unique medicinal value of the jungle plants. You can enrich yourself with their age-old wisdom in case you want to. One more thing here. Take a good pair of boots with yourself to withstand the rough terrain of the jungle and also the mosquito repellants. At night, these will protect you from the insect bites and the infection, which you might acquire form them.

One year ago today Graham and myself created CEU and wrote out our very first blogs. Since then the blog has seen many pictures Composed, Exposed and Uploaded! We have had plenty of visitor frequent the blog, for which we are very grateful! We are now looking forward to the next year and the pictures that we are planning and the ones we are not planning on taking with great excitement!

Currently we are in the early phases of making CEU something much bigger and better than this simple blog. Early next year (hopefully!) we will have the new CEU up and running. The details of what to expect will be posted here first, so keep a keen eye out for the emerging details as they come.

To mark this special occasion I have uploaded my Gigrin Farm Red Kite photographs below. The Day started well with the sun out and the Kites looked spectacular when the sun caught there colours. Unfortunately the sun went away quickly and I was faced with much more difficult photographic conditions. Still I am extremely pleased with my results for a first trip to the farm.

The Final picture at the bottom I took with this blog in mind. I wanted to try and show the incredible number of kites that were present. All the little dots in the shot are Kites and this was only one of 3 ’stacks’ of the birds around the farm. On top of the stacks, the air above the feeding site was full of birds as well. It was such a wonderful experience and I highly recommend everyone taking a trip to see them.

Before the photos, I have another few pieces of news. I, much to Graham’s delight I’m sure, have created my very own Flickr account (link on the right)! I have been contemplating doing so for a long time, but I am always put off by the time it can take to upload pictures. To solve this problem I have purchased an export plug-in for Aperture (The program I edit my photos in). This plug-in allows me to directly export images straight from Aperture to Flickr with minimal hassle! Hopefully this export feature will mean I keep updating Flickr regularly. On top of this I have realised that I have a bit of a back log in processing my images and I have stumbled upon some really great photos that I took a while ago and haven’t processed yet. Expect to see a few of these over the coming weeks! Also don’t forget that you can keep up to date with Graham and myself more regularly via Twitter, link on the right!

Larger version can be found on my flickr account, link on the right!

Andy

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and purpose driven life on this Thanksgiving Day.

Image copyrighted Martha Lochert. Reproduction, copying and file sharing prohibited.

Often, walking in woods and fields here, we come across little scatterings of grey and white feathers on the grass, as if someone has burst a small cushion. While I’ve always known that these are the remains of something’s meal, I’ve never known for certain what the something was. A buzzard seemed most likely, as we have a great many of them; but I am not sure if they catch birds on the wing. (Can anyone enlighten me?) A fox seems possible, but there is little other evidence of foxes around here. Last year we saw a hawk take out a blue tit from our bird table, which was dramatic (and which put the other little birds off their lunch for some time, understandably). Would the local hawks be capable of taking out something as big as a wood pigeon, though? I thought not.

A few mornings ago, however, I had opened the shutters in our bedroom and was looking out across the fields to gauge the level of the river, which was running very high after all the heavy rain. Our bedroom is on the top floor of the castle, which is itself built on a little escarpment on that side, so it is rather like standing at a window on a cliff face. Frequently one sees crows or swans beating past below the window, or bats flitting out from under the slates on summer evenings. This particular morning, as I stood at the high window, there was suddenly an explosion of movement about 20 feet in front of my eyes. A wood pigeon had been flying slowly past when suddenly a hawk, a peregrine falcon I think, slammed into it – bang! – from above. The tangled bodies fell fluttering towards the earth, leaving a small puff of feathers floating innocently on the morning air. The pigeon was bigger than the hawk and put up a desperate fight, but the hawk’s talons were locked fast into its back. The two birds tumbled over and over before landing in the field far below, with the hawk pinned upside-down under the pigeon’s flapping body. Unperturbed, the little predator began pecking (as far as I could make out) at the neck of its victim, plucking feathers out of the way  and scattering them over the grass while the pigeon’s flutterings grew progressively weaker. After several long, long minutes, the flutterings stopped, and the hawk – now disengaged from the body of the pigeon and sitting coolly on top of it – was able to enjoy its breakfast in peace.

I enjoyed my breakfast too: but I thought about the pigeon all morning.

This is a good book, and I’m recommending it, but it isn’t at all like Julia Glass’s first two novels, Three Junes and The Whole World Over, both of which I reviewed favorably. I See You Everywhere is much darker, and more serious, than Glass’s previous work. This isn’t a criticism, but it’s important information for anyone who might read this book.

It begins lightly, however, and at first I thought it was going to be one of those novels about sisters that makes me glad I have brothers instead (thanks for not being girls, John and Steve!). With rather unexceptional parents, Louisa is the older daughter who is expected to be good at everything (been there), who wants a more conventional life, and who’s not much of a risk-taker. Clem, short for Clement, is 4 years younger, wilder, uninterested in settling down despite the occasional love interest, and a devoted animal lover. Louisa becomes the editor of an art magazine after giving up on being an artist herself, and Clem makes her career as a field biologist, starting with oceanic mammals and ending up following bears in Wyoming.

So they have interesting lives, they bicker, and they turn to each other for comfort even though they don’t understand each other very well. Eventually, the bickering turns into their way of communicating, and they understand each other all too well. It’s an intriguing psychological journey. It’s also very sad throughout most of the book. Both sisters will break your heart at different times, one more than the other. Books don’t make me cry, but if that’s ever happened to you, it’s entirely possible here. You are warned.

And this is a beautifully written, well-told story with great depth. I strongly recommend it, but not for when you’re already blue or want something light.

As for animals, it’s heartbreaking on that front as well. When I read books for this blog, I stick tape flags on the pages with relevant animal activity. I ran out of tape flags while reading this book. Animals die in I See You. Some are mentioned in passing, a few are characters. And yet there are some lovely passages relating to wildlife, like the injured hawk whose mate was there waiting for her when she was released after wildlife rehabilitators helped her through a broken wing. There are cats, horses, seals, birds, animals grown for food, and bears. One of the few light sequences has to do with foxhounds, a devoted caretaker, and puppies, in which Glass shows her characters’ capacity for warmth and compassion. But the bears — oh, the bears will tear at your soul. That’s not to say they all come to a bad end, but they will break your heart nonetheless. After considerable thought, I am declaring this book MOSTLY UNSAFE for animal lovers. I still recommend it for animal lovers, but go into it with your eyes open. This isn’t a beach book.

Enjoy an afternoon watching the antics of the Blue Jays with the Adirondack Naturalist. (fun photos!)

A very Happy Thanksgiving from my house to your house. Nothing political today. Just some fun.  Everyone needs a break. Click here. And Here.

For those that like games – try to guess whose claws, paws, fingers and toes are whose (answers below the montage).

Claws, Paws, Fingers and Toes -
Left to right:
Row 1: Black bear foot, Lace Monitor hand(?), Capybara foot
Row 2: Puma feet, Monkey hands, Chimpanzee hand
Row 3: Tapir feet, Malaysian Flying Fox, Meerkat hands
Row 4: Cotton-top Tamarin feet, Baboon feet
Row 5: Eagle Talons, Elephant foot
Row 6: Saki MOnkey fot, Turtle Foot, Snow Monkey Hand and Foo

3100504    การจัดการสุขภาพสัตว์ป่าและสัตว์วิเทศ    Wildlife and Exotic Animal Health Management

โรคที่สำคัญ เวชศาสตร์ป้องกัน การจัดการด้านสุขภาพ โภชนาการ และระบบนิเวศของสัตว์ป่าและสัตว์วิเทศ รวมทั้งการอนุรักษ์สัตว์ป่าและกฎหมายที่เกี่ยวข้อง

(Important diseases, preventive medicine, health management, nutrition and ecology of wildife and exotic animals; wildlife conservation and related laws.)

(3100504 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Do you feed garden birds? Keep feeders clean and, if possible, change their position in the garden.

Source.

It’s Thanksgiving, so I have to do something on turkeys.

And turkeys, like a lot of gallinaceous birds, have these unique courtship motor patterns.

They do display them at relatively early age.

The adult version is far more dramatic:

Source

Sometimes hen turkeys will go into this same motor pattern and gobble:

Source.

Now, turkeys can be made to gobble at virtually any weird sound, and it is also easy to get them to puff up and display.

However, the actual strutting behavior is a courtship motor pattern.

Of course, it is nothing like the courship motor patterns of the sage grouse, which is far more bizarre. The following was filmed using a “Fembot” sage grouse hen:

Source.

Over the generations,  certain hens in various chicken-like birds have selected for unusual motor patterns in their mates.   If a male can develop such weird behavior and have such extravagant display plumage, he must be a healthy bird with good genes to pass onto the next generation. Of course, she’s not reasoning that way, but her brain is wired to find these features attractive or at least somewhat novel. Eventually, the “aesethic sense” becomes as deeply ingrained in her DNA as the display motor pattern is in the male.

Last Saturday, this was the scene from my window. Oh how happy I was! You may be thinking, “So what? You have birds that visit your feeder.” This scene however, with a chickadee, a white-breasted nuthatch, and a male downy woodpecker happened at the same time!

99% of the time when I look out the window I either see a sparrow at the feeder or a big stupid squirrel stealing seeds from me. It is excitement when I witness a “non-regular”. To have 3 non-regulars at the same time is big time happiness for me.

I sketched this scene so that at a later time I can thumb through my sketchbook and reminisce on the day when I saw these birds together at the same time. Notice that I make sure to document the date, time and weather conditions. I want to know if there is a connection. My hypothesis right now: The 3 different types of birds are following each other to team up, attacking the same feeder, because it is colder out and insects are less common than free available seed/suet. The birds are going to use a lot of energy keeping themselves alive in the winter. Food/energy source is crucial to survival. I know that the chickadee is known to travel and follow the downy woodpecker, but do they do that in the summer time as well, when food is abundant everywhere? If I witness the same scene in the summertime and document the time, date, and weather conditions in my sketchbook, then I know my hypothesis is incorrect.

My sketchbook helps me learn. You can start a sketchbook too. It is rather inexpensive. The sketchbook may cost you $10 and you can buy a watercolor travel kit for $20. No experience necessary! Why not document what you see and we can learn together.

Predator Control as a Viable Management Tool in Alaska
Introduction
The Fortymile Caribou herd (FCH) was once one of the largest migratory herds in North America. In the 1920’s, the herd included over 500,000 caribou and ranged from the White Mountains north of Fairbanks, Alaska to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory of Canada. But by the 1990’s the herd had crashed in population and was not seen in its traditional range for many years. Predator control is the correct management tool for the Fortymile herd because it reduces mortality by maintaining biodiversity of the ecosystem while helping to recover the herd to its traditional range and promoting viewing opportunities during spring and fall migrations.
History of the Fortymile Caribou Herd
In 1920, the Bureau of Biological Survey, the forerunner to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), sent biologist Olaus Murie to Fairbanks, Alaska to “make a through study of the wild caribou (Murie, 1935). He followed the caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) of Interior Alaska from July 1920 to December 1923, and made four additional trips in the next few years to study the herds in Alaska and the Yukon Territory of Canada. The Porcupine and Fortymile herds spent much of their yearly cycle on the other side of the border and almost half of the traditional range of the Fortymile herd was in the Yukon (Murie, 1935).
Named for the Fortymile River, which begins near the eastern border of Alaska and flows into the Yukon River not far from Dawson, the herd occupied a range of some 85,000 square miles. For comparison this represents 15% of Alaska’s land area and is larger than the state of Idaho. The Native peoples of the region, as well as gold miners and settlers who arrived with the gold rush of 1898 had depended heavily on the herd for subsistence.
In the fall of 1920, Murie estimated the size of the Fortymile herd by watching for 20 days as the herd passed by a point off the Steese Highway north of Fairbanks. From his vantage point, the herd covered a strip approximately 60 miles wide. Based on his count of the number of animals passing each day, he estimated the herd to include 568,000 animals. He thought this was likely an underestimate:”In the light of subsequent experience, this figure seems conservative and it is safe to say that the herd numbered well over half a million, possibly much nearer a million”(Murie1935).
Seventy four years after Murie made his observations, Fairbanks journalist Sam Bishop made his own notes in the same area:”Weathered trails lace the rolling hills northeast of Fairbanks, appearing here and there like evidence of a lost civilization. In the low saddles, paths worn into the moss thread like braided rivers through the spruce…Finding such pathways, one understands that the vast numbers of feet once traversed these mountains….The Fortymile herd should be recovered (so) everyone could once again enjoy the sight of the herds roaming the ridges, reclaiming their ancient path”(Bishop 1994:A4).
But, by 1975 less than 7,000 animals remained. A combination of factors was to blame. Unfavorable weather probably took a toll in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. In addition, high wolf numbers added to herd mortality. But a key factor was poor management decisions. The size of the caribou herd was grossly overestimated during the 1960’s and biologists allowed long hunting periods with no bag limits and no restrictions on bull versus cow harvests. When combined with new roads that allowed access to formerly remote areas, unfavorable weather conditions and high wolf numbers, the results were disastrous.
The legend of this once-enormous herd was alive and well in the Yukon. First Nation elders, who knew themselves as the Caribou People, sorely missed the herd that had sustained them in their youth. But the younger generation had never seen it. In the late 1980’s, the elders pressed the Yukon government for action to return the herd to its former glory. The Canadian Wildlife Service hired Janet McDonald to search documents and interview longtime residents to reconstruct the historical range of the herd in the Yukon. She learned that the herd crossed the mighty Yukon in such numbers one could not see the water. Riverboat traffic came to a halt for days. “The vacuum started,” one elder told McDonald, “in the 1960’s and 1970’s, the caribou quit coming-quit coming altogether” (McDonald, 1996).
The herd began growing again in 1976 and continued to increase slowly until 1990. During this period, weather was generally favorable, wolf numbers were low to moderate, and harvest was relatively low. But the herd stopped growing in 1990, coincident with unfavorable weather and increasing wolf numbers. Between 1990 and 1995, it remained at 22,000 caribou despite low harvests. Since humans contributed to the herds decline, many people felt humans should play a role in restoring it to its previous prominence. But given the international aspect of the issue and the involvement of both state and federal agencies in wildlife management in Alaska, residents of both countries doubted that an effective solution would come from any one agency.
In February 1994, citizens from the Upper Tanana and Fortymile watersheds in Alaska and from the Dawson area of the Yukon decided to form a team to address the issue. The purpose of the team was to develop management recommendations to the Alaska Board of Game, the Federal Subsistence Board (in Alaska) and the Yukon Department of Renewable Resources (YDRR)-each of which endorsed the team’s effort. Central to the approach was the idea of having members who represent the full range of public opinion related to recovery of the herd, as well as all of the agencies involved in management of the herd. The 20 members of the team included representatives of environmental groups, animal rights, local and non-local hunters, Native organizations and villages, and the eco-tourism industry. The team also had representatives from the Bureau of Land Management, the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the YDRR. Although the agencies provided expertise, administrative support and funding for the effort, the agency representatives on the team had no more authority than the citizen members.
The team tried to strike a balance-to find common ground on this long divisive issue that made adversaries of the very people who have the strongest commitment to wildlife. The convening agencies agreed with the team they should develop an “implementable plan” for herd management and recovery. The assembled group made it clear they wanted a comprehensive plan not just a harvest plan. The basic plan was to begin with whether or not actions should be taken to increase the herd, then if that were agreed to, move to ways to increase productivity and finally, if necessary, ways to reduce predation(Todd,2003).
The Plan
Boertje and Gardener ( (Boertje, 1995) published the proposed management and relevant biology of the Fortymile herd from 1992-1997. The collaring of large numbers of adult and calf caribou and investigating the causes and rates of mortality, we documented that wolf predation was consistently the major cause of mortality among the Fortymile caribou. It was estimated that wolves killed between 2000 and 3000 caribou calves annually and between 1000 and 2300 adult caribou. To reduce wolf predation the team envisioned a state-sponsored wolf translocations and fertility control in 15 key wolf packs during November 1997-May 2001. The plan was approved by the Alaska Board of Game. This unprecedented combined effort of the many interested parties produced a non-lethal plan for predator control on the Fortymile herd.
The sterilization and relocation program ran for five years. Yukon residents were jubilant in 2000 and 2001 when then herd crossed the river-the first time in thirty years large numbers of caribou had been seen in the territory. In 2001, Yukon residents could have hunted the herd but they chose to contribute their quota to herd growth. Photo census data indicated that the Fortymile herd increased throughout the reporting period and had doubled in size from 22,000 caribou in 1995 to 43,000 animals in 2003. Circumstantial evidence from adjacent herds indicated that the Fortymile herd probably would not have increased substantially with out treating wolves. All Interior Alaska herds were stable or declining during this period. Clearly, recovery of the herd occurred during implementation of the plan and the plan was deemed a management success.
So why did Alaska abandon this successful approach to predator control? Money and man hours are the answers. Since, the majority of caribou calving grounds are located in considerably remote areas technicians and veterinarians were airlifted to the sites to perform the sterilization and relocation of specific wolf pack individuals. Financial boundaries halted this intensive effort and the non-lethal predator control plan stopped in 2003 (Harmes, 2009).
Identifying attitudes of the public and wildlife agency personnel is important to implementing management policies, particularly in controversial situations. Wildlife agency personnel were more supportive of lethal wildlife management in all situations presented than were members of the public (Koval, 2007). In 1996, 2000 and 2008 Alaskan voters rejected aerial shooting of wolves and bears as a means of predator control. Each time the Legislature overturned the will of the public. Managers of wildlife have to rely largely on using lethal methods until such time as nonlethal techniques, such as fertility control, become universally available. Unfortunately, use of lethal tools has met with opposition from animal welfare and animal rights proponents. Solutions need to recognize and accept the diversity of values within a pluralistic strategy ( (Warburton, 2009). No doubt the issue of predator control by lethal means, aerial shooting, is a controversial topic in Alaska and has been since before statehood in 1959 when shooting wolves from aircraft was common. Aerial sport hunting was banned in 1972, but the law allowed aerial shooting for predator control. Following the abrupt resignation of Governor Palin in 2009,Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen released this statement ”Palin’s increasingly extreme anti-wildlife management policies included shooting wolves from airplanes and helicopters, using airplanes to track black and brown bears then shooting them from the ground, and the gassing of wolf pups in their dens (Schlickeisen, 2009)”.
In 2006 the Alaska Department of Fish and Game released its 2006-2012 Harvest Plan for the Fortymile herd. It states “because the FCH is an Intensive Management population under Alaskan Law, it is absolutely necessary to implement a lethal wolf predation control program (Alaska Board of Game 2006). In response to this management decision the National Park Service, Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve (YUCH), requested a buffer zone be established around YUCH which would be excluded from wolf control activities. The State of Alaska refused stating “the FCH’s calving grounds rim the Preserve’s boundary. Avoiding wolves outside of the Preserve within the calving grounds would be biologically and politically unfeasible for the wolf control program (Dudgeon, 2009).
Predator control controversies are not unique to Alaska. Reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone National Park showed a 50% reduction in elk calves concurrent with an increase in bighorn sheep numbers (White, 2008). The report emphasizes the intricate balance of predator-prey ecosystems. Management of wildlife populations is a delicate balance and the final objectives must be clear. In Alaska indigenous peoples rely on the caribou for subsistence and this need must be factored into any management decisions. Rural and urban hunters in the state also supplement their food supply with caribou and moose taken from the field and they expect management decisions to be reflected in continued harvest opportunities.
Predator control is a controversial topic to raise in any conversation and most Alaskans have passionate feelings about this management tool. Wildlife management decisions must have a sound scientific foundation. Aldo Leopold said “to save every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering” (Leopold, 1949). The entire ecosystem needs to be managed if caribou are to be harvested from that system and that includes predator management. Non-lethal predator control is a promising technique that should be utilized to maintain a healthy and thriving Fortymile Caribou Herd.

Bibliography
Bishop, S. (1994, October 26). Coaxing the caribou back. Fairbanks Daily News Miner , pp. A-4.
Boertje, R. (1995). Factors Limiting the Fortymile Caribou Herd:. Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Progress Report Study 3.38 .
Dudgeon, G. (2009). Briefing Statement. National Park Service-Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve.
Gardner, R. D. (2003). Reducing Mortality on the Fortymile Caribou Herd. Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project 3.43.
Harmes, K. (2009). Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Fairbanks, Alaska: phone conversation.
Koval, M. H. (2007). Attitudes of Michigan public and wildlife agency personnel toward lethal predator control practices. Journal of Wildlife Management , pp.232-243.
Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County Almanac. New York: Oxford University Press.
McDonald, J. (1996). Project Caribou. Whitehorse, Yukon: Yukon Department of Education.
Murie, O. (1935). The Caribou Herds of Alaska. United States Biological Survey.
Pemberton, M. (2009, September 14). Moose,Caribou gain in areas of predator control. The Anchorage Daily News, p. B3.
Schlickeisen, R. (2009). Palin’s Resignation Leaves Wake of Wildlife Devastation. Washington D.C.: Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.
Thomas, A. (2007). Predator Management in Alaska-A Critique. Washington D.C.: Defenders of Wildlife.
Warburton, B. (2009). Towards a Knowledge-based Ethic for Lethal Control of Wildlife. Journal of Wildlife Management , pp.158-164.
White, P. J. (2008). Initial effects of reintroduced wolves on sheep dynamics in Yellowstone National Park. The Journal of Wildlife Biology , 138-146.

A while ago, I entered a writing contest to win a trip to Costa Rica. No, I didn’t win, but I’d like to re-post my slightly edited entry. It’s about my family vacation in Uganda, where I contracted malaria. See some of the pics below.

Side note: The malaria that I got is contagious in no way, shape or form. It does not recur. Once treated properly, it’s out of your system. I got it from an infected female Anopheles mosquito. And yes, you can still get malaria if you are taking the preventative  pills.

Malaria Takes the Bite Out of Ethnocentricity

What thoughts come to mind when you think of the word “vacation”? When you think of a family vacation, does being catapulted out of a river raft down class five rapids on the Nile, drinking unpasteurized and warm goat’s milk, getting stuck in the mud in the middle of the rainforest and contracting the deadliest form of malaria come to mind? Most people would undoubtedly say no, but in December of 2006, this is what happened with my family in Uganda. As an adventure-loving family, we got everything we could have asked for and more.

Uganda is a country so beautiful that it is deemed “the pearl of Africa” in several prominent guidebooks and online sites. The irony: not one native Ugandan, including our guide, knew what a pearl was. From the savannah plains filled with elephants, giraffes, and zebras, to the Nile River filled with crocodiles and hippos, to the capital, filled with the hustle and bustle of city life, this was an unforgettable experience.

Making the trip even more unforgettable, I became extremely sick to my stomach at two o’clock in the morning on the last day of our excursion. The bathroom floor quickly became my bed, as I could barely move due to a high fever, weakness, and continued nausea. Thinking this was just a bad case of traveler’s sickness, I took the prescribed medicine that my doctor had given me in case something like this happened. Fifteen minutes later, that medicine was back in the toilet, and I continued to lie on the floor in agony, waiting for daylight to break.

The buzz from the staff at the hotel was that I had malaria. What a preposterous idea we thought. What did they know? I had been taking malaria pills. Of course I didn’t have malaria. There was only one way to find out: take me to a nearby health clinic.

So, off to the health clinic they took me. This was no first-world health clinic; this was a primitive place, fully equipped with antiquated equipment, dirty concrete floors, open windows with no screens, no air conditioning, and mosquitoes itching for a victim. What was I getting myself into? I was repelled. Maybe I should have just stayed back at the hotel. Scratch that idea. I felt too sick.

Upon waiting 20 minutes, I went in to see the doctor. She immediately told me I had malaria. How did she know? How could she just wing it and tell me I had malaria without a blood test? Then it came … the blood test.

My blood was examined under an old microscope. The doctor, without hesitation, with little to no affect, and with a serious lack of comforting bedside manner, bluntly asserted that I had contracted the deadliest and most common form of malaria, from the plasmodium falciparum protozoan parasite, only spread by the female anopheles mosquito in certain regions of the world. After significant panic set in, I was told that I would be fine with the right medicine and that it is actually fairly common for people to still contract malaria when taking malaria pills.

Luckily, the shot and the strong antibiotics they administered had me feeling great in record time. By the last leg of our long flight home from Amsterdam to Los Angeles, I had almost forgotten that I had contracted one of the deadliest diseases in the world.

Malaria can incubate for months. I was glad to have contracted it in the host country. If the disease had surfaced in the United States, the doctors may have just dismissed it as a bad case of the stomach flu. How fortunate I was to be able to get the treatment I needed. My naivety about the sickness and my poor judgment of the doctor’s skills initially blurred my view about how to handle the situation. However, I can now happily say that I made the right decision by putting my trust in the Ugandan doctor. She saved my life.

The missing link here was indeed trust. Malaria is one of the biggest killers in Africa. This doctor sees cases of it every day. I learned to trust the locals because they know much more about my surroundings than I do. This experience taught me to be aware of my ethnocentric mindset and not let differences “bug me” or inappropriately color my perceptions.

My ability to keep an open mind and put my confidence in the natives has greatly contributed to my appreciation for adventuresome travel experiences. In fact, I would be happy to do this trip all over again, mosquitoes, malaria and all.

Incredible Scenery

Don't Mess With That Croc!

Don't Mess With the Hippo Either!

Just Us and Nature

Giraffe - So Elegant

Elephants

A Very Muddy Buffalo

Zebra

Baboon

Chimp

Lion

Gorgeous Lake

River Rafting

Curious Kids Looking At Their Photo On The Digital Camera

Yes, it’s been spotted. It was mistaken for a black dog.

It’s one of this year’s fawns. If I can get a photo of it, it will be posted!

Some people just can’t stand to eat off the same plates as a skunk.

Frankly, I don’t see the problem.  It’s not like the plate remains unwashed.

"Really, are they are going through the wash next?" asks Sagie who is washing dishes for Mama.

Unless the skunkie fools you into thinking it is washed.  They will lick a plate for ten minutes and it will shine when it has not been into a sudsy dishwater bath.  But we skunk people know that and we wash everything.

My family though, my dad namely, has issue.  And I can see the point.  But these are not dogs or cats doing what dogs are cats do.  They are tidy, polite little domestic skunkies.

One Thanksgiving we had everyone to the cabin.  One of the last years we were all together, we meaning all of us in the family and both my pet skunks, Jeronimo and Sequoia.

After dinner, I made a feast plate for my skunkies.  Brought them out to the kitchen to eat their dinner where everyone could enjoy how cute and sweet and cuddley.    Skunk people are like new parents, they never get over the pride and bragging.

Sequoia and Jeronimo usually ate off stompable, unbreakable plastic plates.  But all skunk holiday feasts are served on white antique stoneware china from England.  Remember the lead in antique china is real, so don’t do this often.  But we humans had antique china, so did they, the skunkies.  Dining with all but the candles that might set ablaze their little tail feathers.

The next holiday my sister admitted how cute they were.  But Dad had a problem.  She politely, diplomatically asked if I have plates for the people from which the skunks did not eat.

Since those are their special plates and I have modern day white stoneware for everyone else, rest assured, Dad did not eat from a skunk plate.

But really, only skunk people know.  These are special creatures.  Intelligent.  Resourceful with their surroundings…..

Skunks wipe like people.  Skunks do not lick their hineys.  They might scoot on the nearest rug to wipe…. but they do not lick.  So the plan is to place right by the litter pan the washable rug you want them to use for wiping.   But no,  skunks do not lick.  They wipe and everyday they brush themselves and brush their teeth too.  They sit on their fat flat haunches and groom their hiney fluff with their little hands.  So cute.

"Can I have your bean?" "No."

Skunks do not eat gucky stuff.  Unless of course, we are feeding them crickets and grubs.  That more real version of skunk dining is not happening in my house, I kiss my skunks.  They must be content with steak and chicken, shrimp and salmon.  Proteins that I, too, am willing to eat.

Thanksgiving dinner, skunks eat turkey (no ham or pork, please) and stuffing and yams without sugar.  They eat corn on the cob, French bean casserole, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie.  They should never eat too much sugar at once but they will eat all you give to them.

Want the Thanksgiving dishes from prep-cooking to be pre-washed before they hit the dishwasher or after they are inside said dishwasher?  Skunks can handle it.  Just don’t put in knives or fork tines facing up.

Turn a flock of skunks loose on a huge bowl where pumpkin pie filling was mixed, fifteen minutes of licking and it is good to go.

Yes, you will want to consider sugar, salt and seasoning intake.  No raisin cookies or mock mince meat, since the raisins in those cause renal failure in animals.  No asparagus which causes grand mal seizures.

But these domestic skunks, they are thorough if nothing else.

Skunkie moral of the story:  I’ve got nothing.  Except you want a dish washed right, give it to a skunk.

Thirty skunks stories about the boys.

It’s that time of year again…the leaves are changing colors, the weather is getting cooler and our thoughts are turning to parties, pumpkin pie, and peace on earth. Each year, before I begin my holiday shopping or plan my family get-togethers, I like to spend some time thinking about all the animals for whom I am thankful. You may recognize a few favorites from my Thanksgiving column last year as well as some new ones!

I AM THANKFUL for Miss Bella, my rescued British Shorthair kitty, whose early life in a “kitten mill” caused her to mistrust people. Throughout our years together, you have taught me that our past doesn’t determine our future. With gentleness and grace, you have shown a remarkable ability to forgive humans for their shortcomings and you’ve blossomed into a loving and trusting member of my family.

Miss B. gets comfy in her autumn-inspired cat bed!

I AM THANKFUL for my extended furry family—Axel, Bashful, Chaos, Felice Navidog, Felix, Hope, Java, Kung Pao, Mietz, Olive, Pasha, Ricky, Russie (R&R), Sandy, Teddy Bear, and Yum Yai—you are all love personified and I feel privileged to care for you when your human families are away.

I AM THANKFUL for the foster kittens who have allowed me to be their ephemeral “mom.” With your impossibly tiny whiskers and claws and oh-so-soft fur, you have wrapped yourselves around my heart and brought me endless joy and amusement.

I AM THANKFUL for the happy hounds who prance and play in the park. You bring a smile to my face and instantly transform my ordinary day into an extraordinary one. You are gentle reminders that life is meant to be lived in the precious present moment.

I AM THANKFUL for the blue jays, the sparrows, and the hummingbirds whose presence never ceases to add a bit of beauty to my garden. You add color, entertainment, and a symphony of sweet sounds to my day.

I AM THANKFUL for all the many furred and feathered creatures who serve as animal ambassadors at my “Compassion for Critters” classes so that children may learn more about you – for it is the compassionate children of today who will grow up to be the kindhearted adults of tomorrow.

I AM THANKFUL for the animal rescuers and animal shelter volunteers whose never-ending work to save abandoned and abused animals often goes unnoticed and unappreciated. You take the animals’ broken bodies and shattered spirits and make them whole again. You give them a chance to become someone’s treasured companion – a chance to live wonderful lives. I am in awe of you.

I AM THANKFUL for the many animals with whom I have shared my life. I am thankful for your unbridled joy every time I walked into a room—whether I had been gone for five minutes or fives hours. I am thankful for the late-night “therapy sessions” where I confided my innermost thoughts and concerns to you without feeling judged. Even though your physical bodies no longer exist, you will always be with me in spirit.

I AM THANKFUL for all the animals with whom we share our planet. Thank you for your willingness to be here to teach us, to guide us, to inspire us to be better people. I am thankful that you have allowed us to open our hearts and souls to you, for it is through your unwavering love and loyalty that we begin to understand that the connection between us is stronger and deeper than we ever imagined.

I AM THANKFUL for ALL of you.