Today we celebrate the life of the elephants that continue to bless Africa’s landscapes in their gentle and empathetic ways.
As we work tirelessly with our partners and local communities we find hope in the knowledge that, with your support, elephant births continue to exceed deaths in northern Kenya!
With 1 male left worldwide, northern white rhinos under guard 24 hours
Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya (CNN)
At first glance, Sudan looks like any other northern white rhino: stout and agile, with square lips. He grazes under the hot sun, his massive head lowered to the ground, at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya.
When he’s not wallowing in his enclosure, he waddles around the sprawling savannah, stopping briefly to drink water from a concrete hole. But Sudan is not just any rhino.
He’s the last known male northern white rhino left in the entire world.
For an animal on the verge of extinction, the fate of the subspecies rests on his ability to conceive with the two female northern white rhinos at the conservancy.
The last male northern white rhino in the world is being protected around the clock by armed guards in Kenya.
The northern white rhinoceros, or northern square-lipped rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum cottoni), is one of the two subspecies of the white rhinoceros. Formerly found in several countries in East and Central Africa south of the Sahara, it is listed as Critically endangered. This subspecies is a grazer in grasslands and savanna woodlands. As of December 2014, there are only five rhinos of this subspecies left. They all belong to the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic.
After 2000, six northern white rhinoceros had lived in the Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic but four of them (which were also the only reproductive animals of this subspecies) were transported to Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, Africa, in 2009, where scientists hoped they would successfully breed and save this subspecies from extinction; one of the four died in October 2014. One of the two remaining in the Dvůr Králové Zoo died in late May 2011, making Nabire the only rhino there. Another rhino lives at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park in California. A second rhino, Angalifu, also lived at the San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park and died in December 2014.
Following the phylogenetic species concept, recent research has suggested the northern white rhinoceros may be an altogether different species, rather than a subspecies of white rhinoceros, in which case the correct scientific name for the former is Ceratotherium cottoni. Distinct morphological and genetic differences suggest the two proposed species have been separated for at least a million years.
GOOGLE has marked Lunar New Year with a Doodle on its homepage.
The animation shows a ram head-butting a tree until a bee flies out – causing firecrackers to go off and a series of fireworks to spell out “Google“.
This refers to the Chinese celebration of Lunar New Year, which marks today as the beginning of the Year of the Ram.
Chinese New Year is not only celebrated in China.
It is also observed in countries with significant Chinese populations, such as Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
~~GALLERY~~
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There is some confusion over whether 2015 is in fact the Year of the Ram, or whether it is actually dedicated to the sheep or the goat.
This is because in Mandaring ‘yang’, meaning ‘horned animal’, covers all three – so nobody is sure which one it really is.
In Chinese culture the color red is considered lucky.
So the Lunar New Year is celebrated by decorating windows and doors with red colored Chinese paper cuttings, as well as couplets with themes of ‘good fortune’, ‘happiness’, ‘wealth’ or ‘longevity’.
~~Lunar New Year – Google Doodle 2015~~
~~Published on Feb 18, 2015~~
Lunar New Year – Google Doodle – Thursday, February 19 – Lunar New Year 2015 Google Doodle!
Google celebrates Lunar New Year 2015 with an animated Google Doodle in the following countries:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States.
Alex Boye performs Disney’s ‘Circle of Life‘ in Africa
Recording artist Alex Boye released a music video Thursday, January 15, featuring a cover of “The Circle of Life” from Disney’s “The Lion King.” The video, which was filmed in Kenya, also features two African artists.
Boye explained in the video description that many of his fans have asked him to perform “The Circle of Life,” but it didn’t seem right until Grant Victor co-founder Burt Matthews invited him to travel to Kenya.
“When I received a call from Burt Matthews to accompany him with his company to Kenya to do some humanitarian work, including the building of a brand-new school in Boyani, the song ‘The Circle of Life‘ was just screaming out to me,” Boye wrote.
In the video, Boye also explains that all proceeds from downloaded copies of the song will go to Koins for Kenya, a charity that provides better educational opportunities for those in Kenya.
It Is What It Is 