Scientists discover new forest with undiscovered species on Google Earth
Conservationists have found a host of new species after discovering uncharted new territory on the internet map Google Earth.
By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent
Last Updated: 11:08AM GMT 22 Dec 2008
The mountainous area of northern Mozambique in southern Africa had been overlooked by science due to inhospitable terrain and decades of civil war in the country.
However, while scrolling around on Google Earth, an internet map that allows the viewer to look at satellite images of anywhere on the globe, scientists discovered an unexpected patch of green.
A British-led expedition was sent to see what was on the ground and found 7,000 hectares of forest, rich in biodiversity, known as Mount Mabu.
In just three weeks, scientists led by a team from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew found hundreds of different plant species, birds, butterflies, monkeys and a new species of giant snake.
The samples which the team took are now back in Britain for analysis.
So far three new butterflies and one new species of snake have been discovered but it is believed there are at least two more new species of plants and perhaps more new insects to discover.
Julian Bayliss, a scientist for Kew based in the region, discovered Mount Mabu while searching on Google Earth for a possible conservation project. He was looking at areas of land 5,400ft (1,600m) above sea level where more rainfall means there is likely to be forest.
To his surprise he found the patches of green that denote wooded areas, in places that had not previously been explored. After taking a closer look on more detailed satellite maps, he went to have a look.
An expedition was organised for this autumn with 28 scientists from the UK, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania and Switzerland. The group was able to stay at an abandoned tea estate but had to hack through difficult terrain and use 70 porters in order to carry out their investigations.
Within weeks they had discovered three new species of Lepidoptera butterfly and a new member of the Gaboon viper family of snakes that can kill a human in a single bite. There were also blue duiker antelope, samango monkeys, elephant shrews, almost 200 different types of butterflies and thousands of tropical plants.
Jonathan Timberlake, expedition leader, said digital imagery has helped scientists to discover more about the world. He believes there may be other small pockets of biodiversity around the world that are yet to be discovered that could be stumbled upon by searching on Google Earth, especially in areas like Mozambique or Papua New Guinea which have not been fully explored yet.
Mr Timberlake said discovering new species is not only important to science but helps to highlight conservation efforts in parts of the world threatened by logging and development.
Mount Mabu itself is under threat as Mozambique's economy grows and people use the wood for fuel or clear the land to grow crops.
"We cannot say we have discovered all the biodiversity areas in the world, there are still ones to discover and it helps to find new species to make people realise what is out there," he said.
Obama's revolution on climate change• Leading green scientist joins team
• Appointment signals new US policy
Edward Helmore in New YorkThe Observer, Sunday 21 December 2008
Barack Obama ushered in a revolution in America's response to global warming yesterday when he appointed one of the world's leading climate change experts as his administration's chief scientist.
The president-elect's decision to make Harvard physicist John Holdren director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy reveals a new determination to draw a line under eight years of US policy that have seen George Bush steadfastly reject overwhelming evidence of climate change.
News of the appointment was hailed by scientists around the world, including former UK chief government scientific adviser Sir David King. "This is a superb appointment," he told the Observer. "Holdren is a top-rate scientist and his position on climate change is as clear as you could get. This is a signal from Barack Obama that he means business when it comes to dealing with global warming."
Obama also used his weekend radio address to announce that respected climatologist Jane Lubchenco is to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The appointments follow Obama's selection of Steven Chu, a Nobel prizewinner, to the Department of Energy, where he has been directed to lead the development of alternative energy sources.
"Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation," Obama announced. "It's time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and ... worked to restore America's place as the world leader in science and technology."
In one telling remark, he added that respect for the scientific process was not "just about providing investment and resources. It's about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted nor obscured by politics nor ideology."
Obama's appointments are outspoken proponents of the need for urgent action over climate change, and they come after eight years of inaction, during which the Bush administration resisted international emission-reduction accords and the introduction of US laws to protect threatened species.
Holdren, whose expertise runs from nuclear-weapons proliferation to global warming, recently warned in a speech at Harvard that he considered "global warming" to be a misnomer. "It implies something gradual, something uniform, something quite possibly benign, and what we're experiencing is none of those. There is already widespread harm ... occurring from climate change. This is not just a problem for our children and our grandchildren."
As he pointed out, new figures point to a rapid acceleration in the loss of Arctic sea ice, as well as dramatic acidification of the ocean.
With the international community looking to America for leadership, Obama has made it clear that, despite the global economic crisis, the success of his presidency will hinge on a revolution in America's use and production of carbon-based energy. The selection of marine expert Lubchenco underscores that. She has warned that even if the world abruptly shifts away from fossil fuels, the oceans will continue to soak up carbon dioxide and become more acidic. She recommends protecting marine life by reducing overfishing, cutting back on nutrient run-off and creating marine reserves to protect marine eco-systems.
"The Bush administration has not been respectful of the science," she said earlier this year. "I am very much looking forward to a new administration that does respect scientific information and considers it very seriously in making environmental policies."
In another signal of his determination to move on the environment, Obama appointed Carol M Browner as his climate tsar last week. She was quoted as saying: "Time and time again, when the nation has set a new environmental standard, the naysayers have warned it will cost too much. But, once we have set those standards, American ingenuity and innovation have found a solution at a far lower cost than predicted."
For Obama, the creation of this green team is part of a broader push toward economic and environmental self-enlightenment. He has expressed hope that engaging technology with environmental and energy policy will lead to significant job creation.
The way the brain buys
Dec 18th 2008 | BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND
From The Economist print edition
Retailers are making breakthroughs in understanding their customers' minds. Here is what they know about you
IT MAY have occurred to you, during the course of a dismal trawl round a supermarket indistinguishable from every other supermarket you have ever been into, to wonder why they are all the same. The answer is more sinister than depressing. It is not because the companies that operate them lack imagination. It is because they are all versed in the science of persuading people to buy things—a science that, thanks to technological advances, is beginning to unlock the innermost secrets of the consumer's mind.
In the Sainsbury's in Hatch Warren, Basingstoke, south-west of London, it takes a while for the mind to get into a shopping mode. This is why the area immediately inside the entrance of a supermarket is known as the "decompression zone". People need to slow down and take stock of the surroundings, even if they are regulars. In sales terms this area is a bit of a loss, so it tends to be used more for promotion. Even the multi-packs of beer piled up here are designed more to hint at bargains within than to be lugged round the aisles. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, famously employs "greeters" at the entrance to its stores. Whether or not they boost sales, a friendly welcome is said to cut shoplifting. It is harder to steal from nice people.
Immediately to the left in Sainsbury's is another familiar sight: a "chill zone" for browsing magazines, books and DVDs, tempting impromptu purchases and slowing customers down. But those on a serious mission will keep walking ahead—and the first thing they come to is the fresh fruit and vegetables section.
For shoppers, this makes no sense. Fruit and vegetables can be easily damaged, so they should be bought at the end, not the beginning, of a shopping trip. But psychology is at work here: selecting good wholesome fresh food is an uplifting way to start shopping, and it makes people feel less guilty about reaching for the stodgy stuff later on.
Shoppers already know that everyday items, like milk, are invariably placed towards the back of a store to provide more opportunity to tempt customers. This is why pharmacies are generally at the rear, even in "convenience" stores. But supermarkets know shoppers know this, so they use other tricks, like placing popular items halfway along a section so that people have to walk all along the aisle looking for them. The idea is to boost "dwell time": the length of time people spend in a store.
Traditionally retailers measure "footfall", as the number of people entering a store is known, but those numbers say nothing about where people go and how long they spend there. But nowadays, a ubiquitous piece of technology can fill the gap: the mobile phone. Path Intelligence, a British company working with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tracked people's phones at Gunwharf Quays, a large retail and leisure centre in Portsmouth—not by monitoring calls, but by plotting the positions of handsets as they transmit automatically to cellular networks. It found that when dwell time rose 1% sales rose 1.3%.
Having walked to the end of the fruit and vegetable aisle, Basingstoke's hard-core shoppers arrive at counters of prepared food, the fishmonger, the butcher and the deli. Then there is the in-store bakery, which can be smelt before it is seen. Even small supermarkets now use in-store bakeries. Mostly these bake pre-prepared items and frozen dough, and they have boomed even though central bakeries that deliver to a number of stores are much more efficient. They do it for the smell of freshly baked bread, which makes people hungry and thus encourages people to buy not just bread but also other food, including frozen stuff.
Most of the information that shoppers are bombarded with is visual: labels, price stickers and advertising. But the wafting bread aroma shows smell can usefully be stimulated too, says Simon Harrop, chief executive of BRAND sense agency, a British specialist in multi-sensory marketing. In the aisle by the laundry section he suggests introducing the smell of freshly laundered sheets. Even the sound of sheets being folded could be reproduced here and contained within the area using the latest audio technology. The Aroma Company, which Mr Harrop founded, has put the smell of coconut into the shops of Thompson, a British travel agent. Some suntan oils smell of coconut, so the scent is supposed to remind people of past holidays. The company even infuses the fresh smell of citrus into a range of clothing made by Odeur, a Swedish company. It can waft for up to 13 washes.
Such techniques are increasingly popular because of a deepening understanding about how shoppers make choices. People tell market researchers and "focus groups" that they make rational decisions about what to buy, considering things like price, selection or convenience. But subconscious forces, involving emotion and memories, are clearly also at work.
Scientists used to assume that emotion and rationality were opposed to each other, but Antonio Damasio, now professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, has found that people who lose the ability to perceive or experience emotions as the result of a brain injury find it hard or impossible to make any decisions at all. They can't shop.
Oh, that's what I want
Researchers are now exploring these mechanisms by observing the brain at work. One of the most promising techniques is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which uses a large scanner to detect changes in the blood flow in parts of the brain that correspond to increases or decreases in mental activity. People lying inside the scanners are shown different products or brands and then asked questions about them. What they say is compared with what they are thinking by looking at cognitive or emotional activity. The idea is that if, say, a part of the brain that is associated with pleasure lights up, then the product could be a winner. This is immensely valuable information because eight out of ten new consumer products usually fail, despite test marketing on people who say they would buy the item—but whose subconscious may have been thinking something different.
"We are just at the frontier of the subconscious," says Eric Spangenberg, dean of the College of Business at Washington State University and an expert on the subtleties of marketing. "We know it's there, we know there are responses and we know it is significant." But companies commissioning such studies keep the results secret for commercial reasons. This makes Dr Spangenberg sure of one thing: "What I think I know, they probably know way more."
Retailers and producers talk a lot about the "moment of truth". This is not a philosophical notion, but the point when people standing in the aisle decide what to buy and reach to get it. The Basingstoke store illustrates some of the ways used to get shoppers' hands to wobble in the direction of a particular product. At the instant coffee selection, for example, branded products from the big producers are arranged at eye-level while cheaper ones are lower down, along with the supermarket's own-label products.
Often head offices will send out elaborate plans of where everything has to be placed; Albertsons, a big American supermarket chain, calls these a "plan-a-gram". Spot-checks are carried out to make sure instructions are followed to the letter. The reason for this strictness is that big retailers demand "slotting fees" to put suppliers' goods on their shelves, and these vary according to which positions are considered to be prime space.
But shelf-positioning is fiercely fought over, not just by those trying to sell goods, but also by those arguing over how best to manipulate shoppers. Never mind all the academic papers written on how best to stack shelves, retailers have their own views. While many stores reckon eye-level is the top spot, some think a little higher is better. Others charge more for goods placed on "end caps"—displays at the end of the aisles which they reckon to have the greatest visibility (although some experts say it all depends on the direction in which people gyrate around a store—and opinion on that is also divided). To be on the right-hand-side of an eye-level selection is often considered the very best place, because most people are right-handed and most people's eyes drift rightwards. Some supermarkets reserve that for their own-label "premium" goods. And supermarkets may categorise things in different ways, so chapatis may not be with breads, but with ready-meals of the Indian variety. So, even though some suppliers could be paying around $50,000 per store a year for a few feet of shelf space, many customers still can't find what they are looking for.
Technology is making the process of monitoring shopper behaviour easier—which is why the security cameras in a store may be doing a lot more than simply watching out for theft. Rajeev Sharma, of Pennsylvania State University, founded a company called VideoMining to automate the process. It uses image-recognition software to scan the pictures from security cameras of shoppers while they are making their selections. It is capable of looking at the actions of hundreds of thousands of people. It can measure how many went straight to one brand, the number that dithered and those that compared several, at the same time as sorting shoppers by age, gender and ethnicity.
VideoMining analysed people in convenience stores buying beer. Typically it would take them two minutes, with the majority going straight to one brand. "This shows their mind was already made up; they were on autopilot," says Dr Sharma. So brewers should spend their marketing money outside, not inside, the store. The analysis can also help establish the return on investment to a new advertising campaign by showing what proportion of beer-buyers can be persuaded to consider rival brands. Another study in a supermarket some 12% of people spent 90 seconds looking at juices, studying the labels but not selecting any. In supermarket decision-making time, that is forever. This implies that shoppers are very interested in juices as a healthy alternative to carbonated drinks, but are not sure which to buy. So there is a lot of scope for persuasion.
Reducing the selection on offer might help too. Cassie Mogilner of Stanford University and her colleagues found in a study that consumers like unfamiliar products to be categorised—even if the categories are meaningless. In a study of different coffees they found people were more satisfied with their choice if it came from a categorised selection, although it did not matter if the categories were marked simply A, B and C, or "mild", "dark roast" and "nutty".
Despite all the new technology, simply talking to consumers remains one of the most effective ways to improve the "customer experience". Scott Bearse, a retail expert with Deloitte Consulting in Boston, Massachusetts, has led projects observing and quizzing tens of thousands of customers about how they feel about shopping. It began when a client complained that he had mountains of data on the one in four people that entered his store and bought something, but knew hardly anything about the vast majority who left without making a purchase. The "customer conversion" rate varies between types of store: it could be around 20% in some department stores but reach almost 100% in a grocery. And within the same store the conversion rate will vary in different sections.
People say they leave shops empty-handed more often because they are "unable to decide" than because prices are too high, says Mr Bearse. Working out what turns customers off is not difficult, yet stores still struggle with these issues: goods out of stock, long queues at the checkouts and poor levels of service. Getting customers to try something is one of the best ways of getting them to buy, adds Mr Bearse. Deloitte found that customers using fitting rooms convert at a rate of 85% compared with 58% for those that do not do so.
Often a customer struggling to decide which of two items is best ends up not buying either. A third "decoy" item, which is not quite as good as the other two, can make the choice easier and more pleasurable, according to a new study using fMRI carried out by Akshay Rao, a professor of marketing at the University of Minnesota. Happier customers are more likely to buy. Dr Rao believes the deliberate use of irrelevant alternatives should work in selling all sorts of goods and services, from cable TV to holidays.
A lack of price tags is another turn-off, although getting that right will become crucial with the increasing use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. These contain far more information than bar codes and can be scanned remotely. People have been predicting for years that they would shortly become ubiquitous; but, with costs continuing to fall, they eventually will. Tills will then become redundant, because everything shoppers put in their trolleys will be automatically detected and charged to their credit cards.
The basic mechanisms to do this are already in place. A store or loyalty card can be fitted with an RFID tag to identify customers on arrival. A device on the trolley could monitor everything placed in it, check with past spending patterns and nudge customers: "You have just passed the Oriels, which you usually buy here."
Mind over matter
Technology will also begin to identify customers' emotions. Dr Sharma's software has the potential to analyse expressions, like smiles and grimaces, which are hard to fake. And although fMRI scanners presently need a crane to move, something that provides a similar result might one day be worn on your head. Researchers believe it is possible to correlate brain patterns with changes in electrical activity in the brain, which can be measured with electroencephalography (EEG) using electrodes placed on the scalp. Small EEG machines are already available, especially for computer gamers, which fit on the head.
The notion of shoppers wearing brain-scanning hats would be ridiculous if it were not so alarming. Privacy groups are already concerned about the rise of electronic surveillance that records what people do, let alone what they might be thinking. The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation is concerned that because RFID tags can be read at a distance by anyone with the necessary equipment they could create "privacy pollution"; being used to discover what is in not only someone's shopping trolley, but also their cupboards.
To some degree shoppers would have to "buy in" to the process: a bit like having an account with an online retailer which comes with the explicit knowledge that your past purchases and browsing history will be monitored and used to pitch purchase suggestions. And if that makes shopping easier—especially if sweetened with discounts—then consumers might sign up to it. When Dr Sharma asks shoppers what they think about his video-monitoring he says most people do not mind.
But what if psychological selling is done stealthily? That way lies grave perils. It is the anger not of privacy groups that retailers should fear, but of customers at being manipulated from behind the scenes.
There have been backlashes before: "The Hidden Persuaders" by Vance Packard, an American journalist, caused a sensation when it was first published in 1957 by revealing physiological techniques used by advertisers, including subliminal messages. It is what got Dr Spangenberg interested in the subject. He thinks shopping science has limits. "I don't think you are going to be able to make someone buy a car or a computer that they don't need," he says. "But you might persuade them to choose one model instead of another. And importantly, they wouldn't know it." But if they did realise psychological methods were being used to influence their choice, "the counteraction can be so huge it can put someone off buying anything at all," he adds.
Which is probably why at the end of this shopping trip there is not much in the trolley. At least the temptations at the checkout are easy to avoid: a few celebrity magazines and bags of sweets at the eye-level of children. But that will change too.
Barry Salzman, the chief executive of YCD Multimedia in New York, has big plans for the area around a cash till. He is using digital video screens displaying ads that relate to what someone is buying and which can also be linked with facial-recognition software to refine the displays according to the customer's age or sex. His system is already being used in Aroma Espresso Bars in America to present, say, an advert for a chocolate croissant to someone buying only a cappuccino.
But the checkout in this Sainsbury's comes to a halt because the teenager at the till is not old enough to sell alcohol and can't attract the attention of a supervisor for permission to ring up a multi-pack of beer, which is therefore left behind on the counter. The science of shopping is a marvellously sophisticated business; the practice is still a little more primitive.
| On the One Dollar Bill-Truth! | ||
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| A real example of the story as it has been circulated: | ||
| Take out a dollar bill and look at it. The one dollar bill you're looking at first came off the presses in 1957 in its present design. This so-called paper money is in fact a cotton and linen blend, with red and blue minute silk fibers running through it. It is actually material. We've all washed it without it falling apart. A special blend of ink is used, the contents we will never know. It is overprinted with symbols and then it is starched to make it water resistant and pressed to give it that nice crisp look. If you look on the front of the bill, you will see the United States Treasury Seal. On the top you will see the scales for the balance-a balanced budget. In the center you have a carpenter's T-square, a tool used for an even cut. Underneath is the Key to the United States Treasury. That's all pretty easy to figure out, but what is on the back of that dollar bill is something we should all know. If you turn the bill over, you will see two circles. Both circles, together, comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved. If you look at the left hand circle, you will see a Pyramid. Notice the face is lighted and the western side is dark. This country was just beginning. We had not begun to explore the West or decided what we could do for Western Civilization. The Pyramid is UN-capped, again signifying that we were not even close to being finished. Inside the capstone you have the all-seeing eye, and ancient symbol for divinity. It was Franklin's belief that one man couldn't do it alone, but a group of men, with the help of God, could do anything. "IN GOD WE TRUST" is on this currency. The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT COEPTIS, means "God has favored our undertaking." The Latin below the pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means "a new order has begun." At the base of the pyramid is the Roman Numeral for 1776. If you look at the right-hand circle, and check it carefully, you will learn that it is on every National Cemetery in the United States. It is also on the Parade of Flags Walkway at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery and is the centerpiece of most hero's monuments. Slightly modified, it is the seal of the President of the United States and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yet no one knows what the symbols mean. The Bald Eagle was selected as a symbol for victory for two reasons: first, he is not afraid of a storm; he is strong and he is smart enough to soar above it. Secondly, he wears no material crown. We had just broken from the King of England. Also, notice the shield is unsupported. This country can now stand on its own. At the top of that shield you have a white bar signifying congress, a unifying factor. We were coming together as one nation. In the Eagle's beak you will read, "E PLURIBUS UNUM", meaning "one nation from many people." Above the Eagle you have thirteen stars representing the thirteen original colonies, and any clouds of misunderstanding rolling away. Again, we were coming together as one. Notice what the Eagle holds in his talons. He holds an olive branch and arrows. This country wants peace, but we will never be afraid to fight to preserve peace. The Eagle always wants to face the olive branch, but in time of war, his gaze turns toward the arrows. They say that the number 13 is an unlucky number. This is almost a worldwide belief. You will usually never see a room numbered 13, or any hotels or motels with a 13th floor But, think about this: 13 original colonies, 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 13 stripes on our flag, 13 steps on the Pyramid, 13 letters in the Latin above, 13 letters in "E Pluribus Unum", 13 stars above the Eagle, 13 plumes of feathers on each span of the Eagle's wing, 13 bars on that shield, 13 leaves on the olive branch, 13 fruits, and if you look closely, 13 arrows. And for minorities: the 13th Amendment. I always ask people, "Why don't you know this?" Your children don't know this and their history teachers don't know this. Too may veterans have given up too much to ever let the meaning fade. Many veterans remember coming home to an America that didn't care. Too many veterans never came home at all. Tell everyone what is on the back of the one dollar bill and what it stands for, because nobody else will. |
REH & WILDKANINCHEN (DEER & WILD RABBIT)
Der bekannte Kinderfilm Bambi aus den Walt-Disney-Studios stammt aus dem Jahr 1942. Er basiert auf dem 1923 erschienenen Buch „Bambi, ein Leben im Walde" von Felix Salten. Das Bambi in diesem Buch ist ein europäisches Rehkitz. Erst in der amerikanischen Buchübersetzung und der Filmfassung von Disney wurde Bambi im Rahmen der Übertragung nach Nordamerika zu einem dort heimischen Weißwedelhirsch.
Wie diese Bildserie zeigt liegen Märchen und Wirklichkeit oft einander sehr nah. Auch in der Wirklichkeit gibt es durchaus Tierfreundschaften über die Artengrenze hinaus..
Walt Disney Studios produced the well-known children's movie "Bambi" in 1942. It was based on the 1923 book, "Bambi, A Life in the Woods" by Felix Salten. In the book, Bambi was a European roe fawn. As part of the American book translation and the Disney movie version, Bambi turned into a North American whitetail deer.
As this picture series shows, fairytales and reality are often very closely related. There truly are animal friendships across species boundaries..
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Man hörte schon oft alte Jäger berichten, dass sie Rehe und Wildkaninchen zusammen vom Ansitz beobachten konnten. Diese beiden Tierarten ziehen sich an. Nicht selten tauchen sie zusammen auf um gemeinsam zu grasen. Sie halten sich wahrscheinlich gegenseitig die Augen offen und können sich dadurch besser vor Gefahren (Feinden) warnen, um in die Sicherheit rechtzeitig flüchten zu können..
Seasoned hunters have often reported observing deer and wild rabbits together from their tree stands. These two species attract one another. They often graze in the same areas together. Most likely, they both observe the surroundings and alert each other to hazards (predators) to be able to flee to safety when necessary.
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Im Frühjahr (Mai 2005) wird eine führende Ricke vom Auto schwer verletzt und kurz darauf stirbt. Ein paar Stunden später finden Spaziergänger ihr verwaistes Kitz und geben ihm zum Flaschenaufzucht ab, um ihm zu retten..
In May 2005, a lactating doe was severely injured in a car crash and died shortly afterwards. Walkers found the orphaned fawn a few hours later and brought it in for bottle-feeding to make sure it survived.
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Das Kitz bekommt den Namen Finchen und lebt im Garten am Rande eines kleinen Dorfes. Finchen wächst und entwickelt sich prächtig, aber fühlt sich wahrscheinlich ohne ihren gleichen einsam.
Eines Tages taucht ein Wildkaninchen auf und hält sich in der Nähe des Kitzes auf. Zu erst kann man die Beiden nur bei der Dämmerung oder nachts beobachten. Sie grasen in der gleichen Ecke des Gartens, behalten aber immer noch ein gewisse Abstand zueinander..
The fawn was given the name Finchen and lived in a garden at the edge of the small village. Finchen was growing and developing very well, but was probably lonely without other deer around.
One day, a wild rabbit showed up and stayed near the fawn. At first, the two were only observed together at dusk or at night. They always grazed in the same corner of the garden, but kept a certain distance from one another
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Nach ein paar Tagen ist diese Abstand immer kleiner und die Beiden sind auch tagsüber zusammen zu sehen. Es dauert keine Woche mehr und Finchen mit ihrem Wildkaninchen sind unzertrennlich..
After a few days, the distance between the two animals became increasingly smaller and soon the two also were seen together in the daytime. After another week, Finchen and her wild rabbit were inseparable.
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Rehe gehören zum Wiederkäuer und alleine schon dadurch unterscheidet sich ihr Verhalten deutlich von Verhalten eines Wildkaninchens. Das kleine Kaninchen passt sich aber voll an Finchen ihre Bedürfnisse an. Als Wiederkäuer können Rehe auf den Weiden in kurzer Zeit sehr viel Gras zu sich nehmen und in ihrem Versteck in aller Ruhe Wiederkäuen. In diesen Ruhephasen, die Finchen für sich braucht, um ihr Nahrung noch mal zu kauen und besser zu verwerten, kuschelt sich ihr Kaninchen auf ihrer Seite..
Deer are ruminants, which distinguishes their behavior very clearly from that of a wild rabbit. However, the little rabbit had fully adapted to Finchen's needs. As ruminants, deer eat a lot of grass in a short time and then settle down in a hidden spot to chew their cud. During these restful times that Finchen needed to rechew her food to make the most of it, the rabbit cuddled up on her side.
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Wenn Kaninchen gerade unterwegs ist, sieht man Finchen, wie sie unruhig im Garten läuft und nach ihrem Freund sucht..
When the rabbit was out and about, Finchen could be observed running restlessly through the garden, searching for her friend.
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Der Winter kommt und aus kleinem Kitz ist eine schöne Ricke geworden. Nicht mal Schneegestöber hält dem Kaninchen von Finchen ab. Anstatt sich vor der Kälte in einem warmen Bau zu verstecken, bleibt auch nachts über an Seite von Finchen. Sie liegen dicht beinander unter den Fichten am Rande des Gartens. Auch zum fressen sind sie zusammen unterwegs. Finchen kann mit ihren langen Beinen leichter die dicke Schneedecke entfernen, um an Graß zu gelangen und ihr kleiner Freund profitiert davon mit..
Winter came and the small fawn had turned into a beautiful doe, but not even snow could keep the little rabbit away from Finchen. Instead of staying in its cozy warren, it remained on Finchen's side at night. The two rested very close to each other under the spruce trees at the edge of the garden. They also stayed together to feed. With her long legs, Finchen was able to remove the snow cover to access grass, which also benefited her little friend.
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Endlich ist der lange Winter weg, der Frühling hängt in der Luft. Die beiden sind jetzt oft an sonnigen Plätzen zu sehen, um Sonne zu tanken..
Finally, the long winter passed, and spring was in the air. The two friends could often be seen in sunny spots to get warm.
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Tagsüber kann man Wildkaninchen beobachten, wie er für einen Nestbau trockenes Gras sammelt. Die Überraschung ist nicht klein, als er anstatt zu einem Bau zum Finchens Lieblingsplatz unter einer Fichte diese gesammelte Nistmaterial trägt. Er ist fleißig bei der Sache. Verschwindet immer wieder und ein paar Minuten später steht er schon da mit neuer Ladung. Dann verteilt er es sorgfältig und macht sogar noch Probeliegen..
In the daytime, the wild rabbit was observed gathering dry grass for nesting. Imagine our surprise to find that it was carrying the nesting material to Finchen's favorite spot under the spruce instead of a warren. It was very intent on its task, kept disappearing, and was back with a new load a few minutes later. It carefully spread the material and even tested the bed for softness.
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Sommer steht vor der Tür. Finchen ist erwachsen geworden. Es ist die Zeit gekommen, wann sie sich in der Natur vor ihrer Mutter trennen müsste, um eigene Wege zu gehen. Um ihr eine Chance für ein Leben in Freiheit zu geben, kam die Entscheidung Finchen zu einer Auswilderungsstation für Rehe zu bringen. Dort werden Findelkinder für die Freiheit vorbereitet.
Um den Transport für Finchen verträglich wie möglich zu machen, bekommt sie eine Narkose. Als die Narkose anfängt zu wirken, kommt trotz fremden Menschen auf dem Grundstück das scheue Wildkaninchen sich zu verabschieden. Er ist dabei besonders zärtlich und stützt Finchen ihr Kopf, der unter Einfluss von Narkose immer tiefer fällt ….
Summer was around the corner. Finchen had become an adult. If she had been living in the wild, she would now have left her mother to be by herself. To give her a chance at living in the wild, we decided to bring Finchen to a release station for deer, where orphans are prepared for living free.
Finchen was anesthetized to make the transport as comfortable as possible for her. When the anesthesia was about to take effect, the shy wild rabbit entered the property in spite of all the strange people to say good-bye. It was especially tender and even supported Finchen's head, which was drooping under the influence of the anesthesia.
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In der Natur geht oft etwas vor, was wir nicht begreifen ….
How wondrous are the ways of Nature….
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Update 19.01.2007
Finchen ist nach Plan zu einer Wildtierstation gebracht worden, um es dort für das Leben in der freien Natur vorzubereiten. Diese Auswilderungsstation hat sich auf Rehe spezialisiert und hat große Erfahrung damit. Somit sollte Finchen die beste Chance bekommen wieder frei zu leben. Das Wildkaninchen ist hier geblieben. Die Idee ihn zu fangen und mit dem Reh zu der Station zu bringen haben wir nach genauer Überlegung abgelehnt. Das Wildkaninchen in eine fremde Umgebung umzusetzen wäre für ihn ein sicheres Todesurteil. Der erste Fuchs oder ein anderes Raubtier hätte das verunsicherte Kaninchen fangen können. Finchen hat den Sprung ins Leben geschafft und ist noch mit anderen Artgenossen in einem Naturschutzgebiet ausgewildert worden. Dort sind alle ausgewilderten Tiere vor Jägern und Verkehrsunfällen sicher..
Updated Jan 19, 2007
As planned, Finchen was transported to a wildlife release station to be prepared for life in the wild. This station specializes in deer and has great experience with the process. This was Finchen's best chance to return to the wild. The wild rabbit ending up staying here. After giving it a lot of thought, we decided against the idea of catching it and bringing it to the wildlife station with the deer. It would have been its certain death if we had released the wild rabbit into a strange environment. The first fox or other predator to come along would have been able to catch the frightened animal. Finchen has made the transition to living in the wild and is now sharing a nature preserve with other deer. This area keeps the released animals safe from hunters and traffic.
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In der Nähe von unserem Garten lebt eine kleine Population von Wildkaninchen. Nachdem Finchen aus unserem Garten umgezogen ist, hat sich das Kaninchen dieser Gruppe angeschlossen.
A small population of wild rabbits lives near our garden. The little rabbit joined that group after Finchen left the garden.
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