Sibraian Tiger

Also known as Amur tigers.

Amur tiger weighs from 396-600 pounds, and can be as long as 10 feet.  They have striped yellow winter coat, with a white underbelly. They are large and muscular, with thick coats, and have great strength. The thick coat is to keep them warm in the winter. All of their stripes are unique to each other and fingerprints.

Habitat?

Their habitat has been restricted to the Primoski and Khabarovsk provinces of Russian, far East and small section of the boarder of China and North Korea.

Amur tiger are found in Russian Far East, northern China and some parts of North Korea. By the 1940s there was around 40 tigers in the wild, therefore they nearly become extinct. Russia was the first country to put laws to give full protection to the tigers. In the 1980s the numbers increased but so did poaching numbers, this was due to the collapse of the Soviet Union.  

The population is around 540, and stable due to the help of the WWF (World Wide Fund For Nature) and other partners who help to protect them from poaches. Most of the tigers now are located in a tiger sanctuary. 

The northern climate is harsh as it can get very cold, therefore there is the lowest density of human population there, and a complete ecosystem, as they live in the woodlands.  Their habitat is slowly being decreased, as primarily where the tigers live is used for logging, as 30 percent of the forest is used for illegal logging. This means that they are forced to live in smaller and isolated places where it is more exposed to poachers.

Females have around two to six clubs which they raise themselves, with little help from the male tiger. The clubs cannot hunt by themselves until 18 months, therefore they mainly relay on their mother. They remain with the mother for two to three years, then they find their own territory.

Why is the Siberian Tiger endangered?

Poaching effects large number of tigers, this is because of different parts can be used for different situations. Poaching is high on the black market to sell the body of the tiger, such as their eyes, fur and internal organs these are used for trophies, as a status symbol, Chinese medicine, such as tiger bone wine. The teeth, claws and whiskers are used as good luck or belief of protection powers. The coats are used for camouflage to help to hide from other animals when they are hunting. Tigers can bring in around 50,000 dollars on the black market.  Animals such as deer, and wild boar which are the prey that the Amur tiger’s hunt. As poachers all hunt their prey, therefore there is less for the tiger to eat , so Amur tiger have to search larger distances to find food, which may cause them to be killed by locals and poaches. 

Snow Leopard

The beautiful and rare snow leopard has a powerful build and a medium size body, with an extra-long tail that keeps the leopard extra warm, but also contributes to its balance, while climbing mountains. It has thick fur to protect itself from the extreme cold weather, and large paws to keep from sinking into the snow. Their thick grey fur patterned with grey spots (which are unique to all different leopards) which makes a great camouflage and is perfect for them to stalk their prey. Snow leopard are solo travellers and, the only time when they are in company is when they have children and the female will be with her clubs from between 15- 22 month and then the will leave and venture by themselves. 

Habitat?

Snow leopard live in mountains in Asia, China, Himalaya, and Russia. They are also found in 12 other countries. Mainly where there are mountain grassland, mountains, broadleaf forest, coniferous forest and topical coniferous forest. The climate in these places and normally cold and dry as there live in high altitude places. In the Himalayas, they are found in 3,000-5,400 meters above sea level. 

 

Why is the Snow Leopard endangered?

Climate Change create an unstable habitat for snow leopards’, therefore because of change of temperature, certain vegetation will not grow, and the water supply will become less, as they live in such places like the mountains and forests where is doesn’t rain that much. In addition, Mining takes away the environment for the leopards to live, also the increases of grazing space (farms), also takes away land for the Snow Leopards. Mining damages the land and less vegetation will grow, an increase of more roads also damages there habitat. 

Poaching, around 220-450 cat per year are being killed or traded. Snow Leopard’s fur, our used to decorate people house, and their bones and other parts which are used in traditional Asian Medicine. Illegal trade has increased which means that these animals are in more danger from being poached. Snow Leopards are being killed from local people, as they kill their livestock,  but  also because people over -hunt and poach animals, such as wild sheep, goats which are the snow leopard’s food  source , therefore it is  harder for the leopard to find food, therefore its easier for them to go to the local farms to kill livestock
 

You can donate money to WWF, and Snow Leopard Trust. 

If you're interested in a documentary about Snow Leopards you can watch ‘Planet Earth II’ 

Introduction To My Blog

This blog will discuss the importance of protecting endangered animals. Moreover, not just endangered animals, but all animals. We all know the importance of Bee’s and what they do to our environment by producing pollen that grows our flowers and therefore helps to produce food. As each animal has a place in this world, each animal makes a change to our environment and our eco-system.

Sadly because of the increase of population, it makes it harder for the animal to survive as we take and need more places to live, we then damage the forest or field to build more buildings, therefore damaging their habitat. If we could find a better way to live with each other, some of the issues that I will discuss would help to decrease and protect animals, from being endangered or worse extinct.

Some of the main issues for endangered animals are: 

·         Poaching

·         Deforestation

·         Global Warming

·         Environment and Communication

Poaching: Is when an animal is killed illegally. It occurs when the animal possesses something of value to the poacher. For example, using an animal’s fur or bones for trophies. Lots of these items are sold on the black market mainly in Asian countries to be used as medicine. Poaching is threatening a large amount of animals all over the world.

Vietnam, China, Thailand and Korea are a few countries with markets for horns and tusks. The corruption, loose laws and light sentences allow criminal networks to freely, keep poaching animals. As the people who get caught are normal poor locals, therefore this leaves the top dogs to keep running their networks safely.

Deforestation: Is the removal of the forest or standing trees. This is where the forest is therefore converted to a non-forest and change to be farms, ranches or urban uses such as houses. Sometimes the forest is left damaged, because all they have done is cut the trees down, therefore the quality of land is unable to be reused.

Global warming: is the increase of the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This is affected by greenhouse gases increasing such as carbon dioxide and other pollutants. Which in time affects the air that we breathe, also it affects the conditions of the vegetation that we and other animals eat.

Environment and Communication: Lack of communication between people, means less information about how to treat and protect animals. This is because people do not understand the condition that we create for them.  Therefore, it would be beneficial to the environment to have stricter rules about how to protect the environment that we, both human and animal are living in. 

What is the difference between:

• ·         Zoo
• ·         Safari Park
• ·         Wildlife Sanctuary

Zoo

Is an enclosed place, which has a collection of wild animals. This is where animals are shown to the public, so that they can take pictures of them and walk around freely without feeling that they will be harmed from them. Zoo’s, are also there so that endangered animals can be studied and safely reproduce, to keep them from becoming extinct.

Safari Park

An area of parkland, where wild animals are kept in open areas. Where they can roam around freely, therefore, this helps to have tourists to be able to drive through the attraction and observe animals in a more natural habitat.

Wildlife Sanctuary

Is a large area of land which is protected from poaching, animals which are endangered can freely roam around and live in peace.  This can be as big as an island. There is mainly African wildlife Sanctuary. 

Rationale

This rationale is about reflecting on my own media consumption, and how it reflects on the type of blog, I am writing. During the first week of this unit, I was asked to keep a media dairy, that would consist of what I have been watching and what I have been doing while watching the programme or film. From this dairy, I can tell you that I have been watching films and programme from Netflix, and especially Netflix original. I often use my phone while watching programme or films, as most teenagers multitask. As you can see I watch things that I think relate to my age as a teenager, as most of the programme or films are teenager base. Sometimes at night, I would watch children films, as I can be doing something else and you don’t have to concentrate that much t them, especial as I have seen them all before.  As you can see I think to watch programmes or films that are convenient to me, therefore the majority of the usage is online, this would be places like, Netflix, Amazon Prime or YouTube, there is also a app on my phone which I can watch films and series from. Therefore when I am ready to watch these programmes or films I can. Most of the TV watches would be daytime TV, and most of the time I would be playing on social media apps while watching these programme. The majority genre that I would watch would be action, drama comedy, thriller and reality shows which are mainly Korean. My comfort zone would be children films and adult swim which are adult cartoons, as they are funny and light-hearted. 

If I reflect on my social factors of what I watch the majority of the films and programmes are age appropriate and teenage based. These programmes are probably things that some teenagers would watch. As Netflix is one of the best media sites to watch films and series on, most teenagers my age would watch programmes on this site. As being middle class, the majority of the programmes or films I watch are something that I could relate too. Some of the films have a strong women role in them, therefore this helps to connect to the programme or film.  The normal form of media, I would use daily would be Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Tumblr and YouTube, as these social ape, help me to communicate with people easier, and see what the world is up too. This allows me to catch up on things like Kpop which would have news that comes last at night or early in the morning. Therefore, I check my apps throughout the day. The most passionate media form would be Instagram and Facebook as it easy to use and easy to connect with people and see whats on the news. The majority of teenagers would use these apps as well.

The majority of places I would watch programmes and films on would be at home, as it more convenient to be in a relaxing place, but also you do not have to spend money on cinema, as the cinema is expensive. Most teenagers would think the same things as, everything is on the internet. The form of media, that I don’t really engage with, would be twitter, as it doesn’t interest me, also watching horror things, as the majority of them are too scary to watch, but I have watched a few as some have good plots.

From doing this media diary for the first week on the unit, I found out, is that most of the things I watch would be programmes or films that would keep you engaged, throughout the day and at night a more lie back programme or film. I use Netflix daily, as it is an easy form of media to watch programmes and film you want to watch. Most form of social media I would use is Facebook or Instagram, where I can catch up with the latest news and pictures. I use Youtube daily as well, this is where I used to watch videos, read comments and make comments myself.  This helps me write my blog by showing me, that’s using pictures and maybe gifs will keep the audience more engaged on my blog and as nowadays gifs are quite popular to use, as most people will multitask, also that my target audience would be around 17 and over. As the majority of people who would look at this blog would be teenagers.