Nature News - November 14, 2020
This is the first of the “Nature News”-type newsletters that I hope to run on a weekly(ish) basis, along with the (also weekly-ish) contemplative newsletters on wildlife, stories from safaris, and more.
At the moment, I am thinking each of these Nature News updates will have three-to-five little news stories or events, so without further ado, let’s get cracking.
Pets Return to the White House
I can never really trust anyone who doesn’t get along with animals, do you? I mean, you might be a dog person or a cat person or even a fish person, or you might not have any pets at all but admire them from afar, but if you really dislike all animals and find them kind of gross … well, that’s a red flag for me.
So, it’ll be nice to have animals returning to the White House: two German shepherds named Champ and Major. One will be the White House’s first dog rescued from a shelter.
Statista put together this comprehensive look at presidential pets.
According to this, Trump was the first president since Johnson to serve out a term without pets. No — not that Johnson, Andrew Johnson, the man who served after Lincoln was assassinated.
Wikipedia contends, though, that even Andrew Johnson fed four white mice sometime during his term. I’ll leave it up to you to decide whether that counts as pet ownership, but, if true, it seems he, too, fit the American norm of having some kind of fondness for animals.
Nature Flicks
I’m so excited to write about three amazing-sounding nature flicks, one of which has been released, and two of which will be released by National Geographic in the coming weeks.
The one that’s been released is Echos in the Arctic. This film was made to draw attention to critical orca habitats — it’s absolutely gorgeous, but what’s maybe especially neat about it is the behind-the-scenes conversations with National Geographic photographers Christina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen about their process making the film. I always like hearing about what it’s like to be right there with the animals, trying to make a piece of art in the middle of chaos.
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National Geographic Events, as the name implies, offers events (all of them virtual at this point) with their explorers & photographers, etc.
On Sunday, November 22, at 7 pm, they’re screening two short films: Last Wild Places: American Prairie Reserve and Last Wild Places: Iberá National Park. After the films, they’re hosting a discussion with “some of the people behind the rebirth of these areas, including American Prairie Reserve CEO Alison Fox; Kristine Tompkins, co-founder and president of Tompkins Conservation; Kenneth “Tuffy” Helgeson, Vice Chairman of the Island Mountain Development Group; Sebastián Di Martino, Conservation Director for Fundación Rewilding Argentina; and Vanessa Serrao, Executive Producer for the National Geographic Society.”
#FatBadgerContest!
Who doesn’t love badgers getting ready for winter? I love all the entrants, but Large Bob might get my vote …
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