Video Shows Lions Licking Tent With Camper Still Inside

A camper in Africa experienced a too-close-for-comfort encounter with nature when she recorded three lionesses licking her tent while she was still inside.  Francie Lubbe was camping at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in Botswana on May 9 when she recorded the lionesses licking water on the tent leftover from a heavy rain the night before. The lionesses, inches away, were visible through the tent's clear mesh. Drinks and sunblock lotion can be seen on the other side of the tent, directly opposite the lionesses' heads.

http://tinyurl.com/zb3em2t

Baby Elephant Rescued From Bottom of Well

An adorable baby elephant narrowly escaped death when it was rescued from the bottom of a well in Africa.  The heartwarming survival tale began when a heroic herder discovered the poor exhausted creature — malnourished and covered in bruises — in Kenya, Caters News reported.  The quick-thinking local called Kenya Wildlife Service staffers, who rushed to the stranded creature’s aid before flying it in a small plane to a wildlife rescue center in Nairobi.  “The little elephant was exhausted and after feeding, promptly collapsed and slept,” said Rob Brandford, director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

http://tinyurl.com/lr9amzf

Poachers Killed 100,000 Elephants in Just Three Years

For years we’ve been hearing reports of elephant poaching in Africa, but a new study has put a number on the problem. Between 2010 and 2012, poachers slaughtered 100,000 pachyderms across the continent.The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the first to scientifically measure the number of elephants killed across Africa. Researchers counted killings in a Kenyan park and used other data to estimate deaths in other regions. They found that the percentage of elephants killed illegally has increased from 25 percent of all pachyderm deaths 10 years ago to about 65 percent today.

http://tinyurl.com/k4t49ua

Your Supermarket Choices Could Endanger Africa’s Apes

The spread of palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia has ravaged forest-dwelling orangutans, whose population has dwindled to 7,300 individuals in the wild. Now a budding palm oil boom in Africa threatens that continent’s great apes.  Demand for palm oil, which is considered a healthy alternative to butter, has skyrocketed in recent years, becoming an ingredient in scores of products, from chocolate to shampoo to biodiesel. About half of the stuff you buy from your local supermarket contains palm oil, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

http://tinyurl.com/na9yr48

Will Elephants Still Roam Earth In 20 Years?

At the start of the 1980s there were over a million elephants, during that decade 600,000 were destroyed for ivory products. Today perhaps no more than 400,000 remain across Africa, according to Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington, who is widely recognized as an authority on the subject. It is a tragedy beyond reckoning and humanity needs to pay attention to the plight of the elephants before it is too late.

http://tinyurl.com/7q3uk8x

Lions On The Loose In Kenyan Capital

Big cats are under pressure as one of Africa's fastest-growing cities creeps onto hunting grounds.  The encroachment of the urban jungle onto lion habitat is increasing the probability of attacks. Development needs to be managed in a sustainable manner.

http://tinyurl.com/dxh6dgt

Every Day, An Adventure

When I grow up, I want to be just like Osa Johnson. A small-town girl from Chanute, Kansas, Osa lived a life of adventure with her husband Martin Johnson. Explorers, naturalists and pioneering filmmakers, they traveled the world. Starting in 1917, they documented the people and wildlife they found on their safaris through the South Pacific, Africa and Borneo.

http://tinyurl.com/7bcm53u

Bururi Long-Fingered Frog, Cardioglossa Cyaneospila, Comes Out Of Hiding

A long-fingered frog last seen in 1949 and feared extinct has come out of hiding in the forests of Burundi, a small country in eastern Africa, scientists reported this week. Called the Bururi long-fingered frog (Cardioglossa cyaneospila), the amphibian is about 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) long, with a black and bluish-gray coloration.

http://tinyurl.com/83wx9g6

Pink Flamingo Found in New York

He could have one-upped the neighbors with this lawn ornament. A Westchester County naturalist was canoeing on Lake Kitchawan, near his home in Pound Ridge, last month when he spotted something of a fish out of water -- a real pink flamingo.

http://tinyurl.com/d8wjyrs

Video: Rare Footage Of African Golden Cat

One of Africa's "most elusive" animals has been recorded by scientists, and shared in what may be the only publicly released video, according to CNN.

http://tinyurl.com/4xaa3cc