More about animals and climate change...We would like to introduce ourselves and talk about our researches on climate change by Patrizia Rapali

Monarch butterly

rapalipatrizia4 — 2020-05-28 07:20:29 UTC

Hi! I teach English in Class 4e. We've been reasonig a lot about Endengerd species and Climate change and how all is INTERCONNECTED... Here is a link to to an amazing video about Monarch butterflies...and their migration to their winter home in Mexico on the day of dead...
Like most butterflies, monarchs are highly sensitive to weather and climate: They depend on temperature for reproduction, migration, and hibernation; they depend on MILKWEED alone as a host plant. As milkweed abundance is declining, monarchs can't reproduce.
Do we know that we are all responsible of climate change?
What is our impact? Can we measure how our habits affect the planet and the survival of butterflies, bees....
Let' calculate our impact together using this link . The first step to limit our impact is getting to know how big our enviromental footprint is. Click on this link
https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/
My students will tell you what their impact is

Desert bighorn sheep by Elisa Salvetti

salvettielisa — 2020-05-31 17:23:39 UTC

Hi, my name is Elisa, I'm a student at Agrarian institute in Bergamo. Today, I'm going to talk about Desert bighorn sheep. It lives in rough terrain, rocky and steep, broken by canyons and washes, of the West USA's desert: State of Texas, Nevada, California, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
Desert bighorn sheep uses its climbing ability to escape of its potential predators such as Mountain lions Coyotes and Bobcats, but is it endangered! Currently, the population is 18,000 individuals in the world. The excessive hunting and poaching, the destruction of habitat by expansion city, the usurpation of watering areas, the critical range by human activities, new diseases and climate change are the causes of its endangered. Climatic variables such as rising temperatures and decreased precipitation affect the availability of vegetation and dependable sources of spring water for the desert bighorn sheep. Water is critical to desert bighorn sheep survival and lactating ewes need to drink almost every day. To save Desert bighorn sheep, governments have implemented a policy in favor by creating reserves and natural parks and limiting hunting. Associations were born to help the Desert bighorn sheep.
All of us can reduce the impact of CO2. Here is my carbon footprint: 84% of target impact on the world, or 8.8 tonnes against 10.5 tonnes of the 2020 target. Bye!
This article explais how climate change has and will continue to have a negative impact on the population of desert bighorn sheep

http://tinyurl.com/ycoqx7m5

FOOD AN CLIMATE CHANGE

rapalipatrizia4 — 2020-05-31 17:42:56 UTC

WHAT WE EAT AFFECTS OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

Polar bear by Testa Giada

testagiada — 2020-05-31 18:01:28 UTC

Hi, my name is Giada, I'm a student at Agrarian institute in Bergamo. Today, I'm going to talk about Polar bear. The conservation status of polar bear populations has been studied both nationally and internationally. The total number of polar bears estimated to date is between 22,000 and 31,000 specimens, divided into 19 populations. This large carnivore, the first largest in the whole planet, lives in the whole Arctic region, from the North Pole to the northern areas of Alaska, Russia, Greenland, the northern part of Norway, Svalbard Islands and Canada, where there is the highest concentration of polar bears (60% of the total population). The alarm is the same as last year: by 2050 we may have 30% less polar bears. The main cause is climate change, to which man has contributed enormously in recent decades. The emergency has not returned at all, the WWF remembers it on the occasion of the International polar bear day, which is celebrated on February 27: "The reduction will take place in a few years, if the melting of polar ice caused by global warming continues this step. "

The king of the Arctic, explains the environmental association that carries out the "Last ice area" conservation project at the North Pole, is "already classified among the vulnerable species in the red lists of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the climate changes caused by human activities are making its habitat and survival increasingly fragile. Polar bears need sea ice to be able to move and search for food. "

Below I will show you a video that I found on Twitter showing the effects of climate change on the polar bear. ( https://twitter.com/i/status/939283476334895104)

The golden snub-nosed monkey

brignolibeatrice — 2020-06-01 08:10:42 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/ycfz9maa
Hi, I'm Beatrice, and today I'm going to talk you about the Golden snub-nosed monkey.
They lives in the temperate forests on mountains in China.
The golden snub-nosed monkey is ENDANGERED due to habitat loss. For instance, lichens are the main staple of the monkey's diet and dead trees have the greatest lichen coverage. Unfortunately, dead trees are harvested, this reducing the quality of the habitat and availability of food. The monkey is a highly selective feeder, so damage to its habitat seriously impacts the species.

At present, the estimated heads of this species, that are left in the wild, range between 8,000 and 15,000 individuals.

https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/results/

The Sea Turtle

villaester — 2020-06-01 08:27:42 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/y8r2wk52
Hi, I'm Ester and today I'm going to talk about the Sea Turtle.
Sea turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines, they lives in almost every ocean throughout the world. The adults stay in shallow water and near the coast, but sometimes they enter the open sea.
The coral reefs provide them shelter.
Sea turtles are now classified as endangered because of human activities and climate change. Unusually warm temperatures caused by climate change are disrupting the normal ratios, resulting in fewer male hatchlings. Slaughtered for their eggs, meat, skin, and shells, sea turtles suffer from poaching and over-exploitation. They also face habitat destruction and accidental capture—known as bycatch—in fishing gear. There are nearly 6.5 million sea turtles left in the wild with very different numbers for each species.

GIANT PANDA by Daniela Tironi

2020-06-02 11:46:41 UTC

Hi, I'm Daniela and today i'm going to talk about the Giant Panda.
The Giant Panda has luxuriant black and white fur. Adults measure around 1.2 to 1.9 m long, including a tail of about 10-15 cm. Males can weight up to 160 Kg, female can weight as little as 70 Kg, but can also weight up to 125 Kg. These bears are excellent tree climbers despite their bulk.
Giant Panda is a vulnerable specie, because infrastructure development is increasingly fragmenting and isolating panda populations, preventing pandas from finding new bamboo forests and potential mates. Forest loss also reduces pandas' access to the bamboo they need to survive.
According to the latest WWF census, it seems that there are only 1864 left. We are talking about giant pandas, increasingly confined in the bamboo and coniferous forests of the mountain clearings of Southwest China, in the provinces of Sichuan and Shan-si Gansu.
the giant panda feeds exclusively on bamboo, but given this climate change, this plant species is definitely disappearing.

A recent study by scientists from the University of Michigan has been published in the journal Nature, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences which unequivocally demonstrates that bamboo expanses are definitively fadin in the territories of Northwest China. By the end of the 21st century, The Panda habitat will probably be completely destroyed.

http://tinyurl.com/ydevovd2

KIWI BIRDS by Andrea Brevi, I.I.S. Mario Rigoni Stern

2020-06-02 15:01:10 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/y75t2qj8

Hi everyone, I'm Andrea, a boy who is attending the fourth grade at the Mario Rigoni Stern Institute and today I intend to talk to you about kiwis ...
No, not those fruits with green flesh, which have many black seeds inside them , but the kiwi birds, yes those animals similar to chickens,
the symbolic animal of New Zealand, where they are respected by all cultures today
Kiwi birds have become the emblem of the uniqueness of the country's fauna and the value of its natural heritage.

Kiwi birds can only be found in New Zealand.
The natural habitat of the kiwi bird is the rainforest, but due to deforestation these animals have also had to adapt to different environments, from the undergrowth to the grasslands.
There must be soft, moist soil where it is easier for the kiwi bird to dig with its beak in search of food.
It is fond of earthworms, but also feeds on spiders, insects, larvae and snails. Sometimes it can eat fallen fruit from trees, small fish and amphibians.

The kiwi bird, however, is at high risk of extinction: hunting, climate and environmental changes, which negatively affect the courtship, mating and care of the offspring and the introduction of the voracious opossum, which devours both adults and eggs .The IUCN Red List Kiwi birds range from recovering to critical, they are vulnerable.

We are all responsible for climate change. We need to act NOW to reduce the temperature of the planet
Here is the link to my carbon footprint

Bye!!

Koala

brescianichiara — 2020-06-03 12:19:16 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/ycdyqrzv
Hi, I'm Chiara and today i'm going to talk about Koala.
We can say that the largest population of koalas, which is about 80,000 specimens, is located in Australia, where this marsupial has become a symbol of the nation. They mainly live in South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria, although the progressive destruction of its natural habitat has caused slight changes in its distribution. However, these migrations are relative in that it is a very slow animal that cannot travel great distances.
The habitat of the koala turns out to be of great importance for this species, in fact, its population can extend only in an adequate environment. It must fulfill some requirements such as the presence
of eucalyptus trees, in fact, the leaves of this shrub make up a large part of the koala's diet.
According to the IUCN, the conservation status of the
koala today is vulnerable. South Australian koalas were exterminated during the early part of the 20th century for their fur. Due mainly to the progressive reduction of eucalyptus forests, in 2019 the Australian Koala Foundation estimated, in Australia, a residual population of around 80,000 specimens, declaring that it "believed that koalas could be functionally extinct". In addition to
the various consequences of climate change, fires and the presence of invasive species, the main threats to this species are residential and commercial development, deforestation and the spread of road and railway infrastructures.
https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/results/

The Wolf, by Valentina

2020-06-03 12:53:48 UTC

Today I'm gonna talk about the Canis lupus, known as the Wolf. This animal lives in isolated places from human, like deserts, cold areas and forests. It used to live everywhere, but when the human started the hunt of the wolf, it was forced to leave. It is an endangered spiecis because of our fault. WWF says that the main problem is that people are responsible of killing 300 wolves per year. This is because people are scared of losing the animals that they breed and being attacked by them. The WWF gave advice to save the wolf, here are some of them: fight against poaching, correctly inform about the ecology and behavior of the wolf, monitor the wolf using standardized and shared methodologies and reduce stray animals in order to avoid the risk of wolf/dog hybridization.; it’s estimate that there are only about 200,000 wolves left, and they're are in North America, Asia, ex Sovietic Union, Central and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, the Balkans and the Middle East.
The beauty of this animal also lies in the herds or the pack: it's the social structure hierarchically divided into the Alpha (male), the Beta that defend the Alpha (it can also become it) and then we have the rest of the pack. Sometimes there are wolves that don't belong in any herd and they're called the Omega that are attacked by other wolves.
The most famous wolf is the Gray wolf, and the most rare are the black wolf, the red wolf and the white wolf, this is because or they're extremely shy or extremely endangered. How beautiful!
http://tinyurl.com/y9ahjlkw

PENGUINS by Nicola Santini

santinisimone05 — 2020-06-03 12:54:36 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/ya4gefcp

Hi,i’m Nicola and today i’m going to talk about penguins

Spheniscidae are a family of birds commonly known as penguins

They are the most aquatic birds ever. Their group evolved from flying birds, but now no species of penguin is able to fly. They are highly specialized and social animals, have a hydrodynamic shape and wings transformed into fins that make them perfect swimmers. Their habitat is Antarctica, but

ecosystem changes and environmental pollution in Antarctica seriously threaten the health of penguins, in fact

several specimens have highlighted genomic instability and alterations to the immune system that could lead to the development of carcinogenic forms in the long term.
What threatens penguins?
First of all, global warming that alters the mechanisms of currents and tides, which means that many sedentary penguin species no longer receive the nourishment that comes with the currents, on which they are closely dependent.

Other causes are intensive fishing with nets, which often also catches penguins, and the introduction of predatory or competing species.
see you soon

CALIFORNIA CONDOR

2020-06-03 15:26:47 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/y7zulqk6
Hi everyone, today I want to talk to you about the Californian Condor.

This condor is a large bird, which once occupied a large area of diffusion that covered the entire peaceful coastal area of North America from Canada to Mexico, reduced, during the nineteenth century, to the most inaccessible and mountainous areas. Today, this bird inhabits areas of the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, the coastal mountains in western California, and the northern part of Baja California in Mexico.

It has the appearance of a large black vulture with white spots under the wings and a feather-free head with a color varying between yellowish and bright red, depending on the emotion. It is a scavenger animal, which feeds on large quantities of meat from carrion. Globally, it is one of the birds that lives longest, reaching the maximum age of 50 years.

Nowadays the bird feeds mainly on carcasses of large land mammals such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cattle or even bears and cougars. Alternatively, it also feeds on the carcasses of smaller mammals such as rabbits or coyotes, marine mammals such as Californian whales and sea lions, or salmon.

The California condor is an endangered species.

There is no real reason why this animal is endangered, but it is really superstition. People started hunting him because they believed he was an unfortunate animal.

The censuses of this species had about forty specimens between 1966 and 1971.

Twenty years later, with the awareness programs towards this species, the population doubled, with the birth of 50 specimens in 1991.

Plebani Luca.

BEES-Riccardo Marchesi

marchesiriccardo — 2020-06-03 15:28:59 UTC

https://www.voki.com/site/create?VkId=16511122&chsm=e671dcfb099e05bf483d1a79f2a75f52&share=sharing&create=YES&vname=Little%20Bee
Bees are very important in food production and in environment. One third of the food we eat dependson insect impollination. Bees are on the decline, threatened by pesticides, habitat loss, monocultures, pests, diseases and climate change.
Albert Einstein said:"If the bees disappeared, mankind would become extinct in 4 years".
The plants that rely on entomophilic pollination (or made possible by insects) are many. Estimates speaking of almost 90% of wild plants and 75% of crops for food. It is therefore no exaggeration to say that, if the bees were no longer there, we would no longer be able to eat most of the food that we find every day on our table.

According to some studies, in the next decades the 40% of insects could disappear. According to the CIA (Italian Farmers Confederation) data, in the last 10 years as many as 10 million hives have disappeared in the world, of which 200,000 in Italy alone. The EU has imposed very strong restrictions on the use of the three most dangerous insecticides, precisely to safeguard the survival of these small pollinators so important for the global ecosystem. But it was not the only one to move.

PUFFIN by Abruzzese Althea

abruzzesealthea — 2020-06-03 15:38:53 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/yahhpbe2

Hi I'm Althea , I'm a student of "Mario Rigoni Stern" , an agrarian school of Begamo. Today i'm going to talk about the Puffin and how it may become extinct because of climate change .

It is a bird that populates the seas and coasts of the North Atlantic. Its presence is particularly important on the Icelandic coasts, but it is also present on the Norwegian, Breton, Scottish, Irish, English, Welsh coasts, on the island of Newfoundland.
It is recognizable by its triangular, flat beak of red, yellow and blue color. The cheeks are gray, the upper part black and the lower part white. The legs are red / orange.
They are specialized feeder and if they don’t have forage fish to eat, they won’t survive in the future .

The increase in the temperature of the waters, their hunting ground has made the favorite prey, the herring, move away: the fish that this seabird catches, to try to remedy the scarcity of food, however, cannot be eaten by the chicks, which therefore lose weight and weaken irreparably. Another factor that brings puffins back to the endangered animals is fishing: they often end up trapped in fishing nets and die drowned. One of the last natural habitats where a colony of Puffin can be seen is in the city of Vik, in Iceland where a lot is being focused on environmental sustainability.
The population is estimated to have gone from around 7 million to 5.4. To diminish are the members of the new generations.

How can we help to fight climate change and therefore save these animals?
Even small daily actions can often help. For example, instead of using the car to go shopping, let's have a nice walk. Even a smaller use of the electric current can lead to an improvement. We take advantage of the simple sunlight during the day.

Watch this alarming video to see how they die and what the effects of climate change are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxgoBg56moU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNxDZsuRcNM&feature=emb_title

Corals by Nembrini Ilaria

2020-06-03 16:13:43 UTC

https://www.voki.com/site/pickup?scid=16511427&chsm=4ff286e96b28c3bea591b74cc745a924
Hi, I'm Ilaria and today I'm going to talk about corals.
Corals are made from a lot of little marine invertebrates called Anthozoa that in adult stage lives in colonys.
Usually they produce a calcium carbonate shield for give themselves a strenght shelter, but in nature you can find soft corals( they haven't any shield).
Corals lives in tropical ocean areas where they make coral reefs, but some species lives near Scotland or in Antarctica.
They exist from 541 million of years and they can live for thousands of years, but now they are in danger: the global warming, the pollution and trawling threaten their survival.
In fact these animales are very sensitive to pollution and water heating: if the ocean will became just 2 or 3 C° hottest, the corals became white and this phenomenon is know as coral bleaching.
This bleaching is possible because the coral expel the algae that live in his tissues and in this way he can't produce any food: he can live but not for long periods.
The most important phenomenon of coral bleaching started in 2014 and finish in 2016: after these two years, on the Great Barrier Reef died between 29 and 50 % of the reef's coral.
This is a very serious problem, because corals are essential for sea life: they made a very very important habitat and if corals disappear, a lot of species will lose their habitat and it is easy for them to become extinct.

The end of a king: the lion

2020-06-03 19:55:18 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/y8ynkbyw
Hi, I'm Marco and in this post I'm going to talk about a special animal that always fascinated people, the lion.

About ten thousand years ago, the lion was the second most common large mammal after man, there were lions in much of Africa and Eurasia, and there was not uncommon to find them in North America.

The illegal hunting have made the lion become a vulnerable species and now there are only about 30.000 of them in the world.
In addition to hunting, the lion is threatened by the effect that climate change has on its habitat.
Infact, the climate change could create a competition between two big biomes: the forest and the savannah.

In a few years, one biome could invadethe other with serious effects for the species that live there because animals and plants that live in one of the two habitats can hardly adapt to the other.
The two environments, in fact, are not compatible and losing the savannah means losing all its species.

Whales-Pezzotta Fabrizio

2020-06-03 20:26:19 UTC

Hi, I'm Pezzotta Fabrizio and today I'm going to talk to you about how climate change is putting the survival of cetaceans in particular whales at risk.
Given its longevity and poor reproductive activity, this species is very sensitive to changes in the environment and to climatic changes such as the ozone hole.
The ozone hole positioned under the Antarctic has created many damages to the feeding of the whales. With the increase in exposure to ultraviolet rays, the distribution of these species is altered, as is the density. This leads to a reduction in the amount of food that drops exponentially.
Furthermore, the increase in UV rays also causes the onset of some diseases hitherto never found in such species, such as cancer but also irreparable damage to the organism.
Just think that to date the specimens still alive are only 5000-12000, the data is very variable since it is very difficult to totally trace these animals.

Chinese alligator by Sara Bonetti

2020-06-03 20:43:21 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/ydh8j4y2
Hi everyone! I’m Sara, and now I’m going to talk to you about the Chinese alligator, which scientists call Alligator sinensis.

This wonderful animal, also known as the Yangtze alligator, China alligator, or historically the muddy dragon, is a critically endangered crocodilian endemic to China and it falls into the “extremely threatened” category. It and the American alligator are the only living species in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae.

In 2017 about 300 specimens existed in the wild, some of which had been born captive and reintroduced to the wild. As of 2018 the population, luckily, is not considered to be further declining.

The habitat of the Chinese alligator is bodies of freshwater, particularly wetlands and ponds. It lives at the base of mountains, in areas where grass and shrubs are common. Habitat loss has also forced it to live at higher elevations than it prefers, where the weather is colder and the soil is unfit for burrow digging.

Considered to be one of the most endangered crocodiles in the world, the Chinese alligator's biggest threats in the late 20th century were human killing and habitat loss. During the 1970s and 1980s, humans sometimes killed the alligators, because they believed they were pests, out of fear, or for their meat. Their meat was thought to have the ability to cure colds and prevent cancer and their organs were sold for medicinal purposes. In several restaurants the alligators were killed for human consumption. In the late 20th century, people ate its meat due to believing that it was dragon meat. The Yangtze was flooded in the winter of 1957, which is believed to have caused many Chinese alligators to drown. Rats and snails, which this species eat, have been poisoned by farmers, so were also a cause for the diminishing of the species. Other factors that led to the endangerment of the alligator include natural disasters and geographic separation.

Bye!

https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/results/

abruzzesealthea — 2020-06-04 07:33:26 UTC

JAGUAR by Elisa Bosio

2020-06-04 08:39:03 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/yawlfzze

Hi, I'm Elisa and I'm a student of "Mario Rigoni Stern" in Bergamo.
Today I'm going to talk about the jaguar, an endangered animal doomed to extinction in the very near future: 15 years ago jaguars in the world were about 130.000 and now there are only 65.000 specimens of jaguar.

An endangered species is a species of wild animal or plant that is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A species is considered threatened if it is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. Jaguars are being killed because of
perceived conflicts with livestock and
over hunted for trophies and as a substitute for tiger bones in Asia.

Habitat loss is also a big problem for the northern population and the U.S.-Mexico border wall threatens to block jaguar migration routes. Because jaguars are top predators, the only real dangers they face are from humans. It began in the 1800s when the American West was being settled. It took a really long time for humans to realize how few jaguars were left and they were only put on the endangered species list in 1972. They are still endangered today.
Another big problem that caused the decrease of the number of jaguars in the world is the climate change. Forest fires are growing rampant, and climate change research predicts that the problem will grow worse, putting the Jaguar under increasing threat.

The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) is the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organisation aimed at finding solutions to the most pressing environment and development challenges.

Jaguars are carnivorous animals and they can be found most frequently in dense, flooded rainforest. This could be due to preference and shy nature, or it could be because dry habitats
have been rapidly developed in its range. While they are more commonly found near water sources and in rainforests, jaguars have been
spotted in, and have historically inhabited, grasslands, subtropical forests, and deciduous forests. Deforestation is now causing jaguar's
disappearance. Over time, global climate change and more deforestation will likely lead to increased temperatures and changing rain patterns in the Amazon, which will undoubtedly affect the region's forests, water availability, biodiversity, agriculture, and human health.

What can we do to save jaguars from extinction?
- Protect wildlife habitat
- Recycle and buy sustainable products
- Slow down when driving
- Herbicides and pesticides may keep yards looking nice but they are in fact
hazardous pollutants that affect wildlife at many levels.

Video:
1) Saving Endangered Jaguars in Mexico:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPwmM9JZGMc
2) Jaguar: The True King of the Jungle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvOPBvSJnvM&t=256s

The great white shark by Lorenzo Mazzucchelli

2020-06-04 15:20:44 UTC

http://tinyurl.com/y8fd6vl2
Hi everyone, I'm Lorenzo , a student of fourth year to Mario Rigoni Stern Institute, today i'm here to talk about The Great white shark....
Also known as the great white, white shark or white pointer, is a species of large mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans, especially in oceans which have water temperature between 12 and 24 °C, for example, in California, South Africa; Japan, Oceania, Chile and Mediterranean. It is notable for its size, in fact for exaple a female individual growing to 6,1 m in lenght and 1,905-2,268 kg in weight.
The lifespan of great white sharks is estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fish currently known. The great white shark is the world's largest-known extant macropredatory fish and one of the primary predators of marine mammals.
The species faces numerous ecological challenges which has resulted in international protection. The IUCN lists the great white shark as a vulnerable species, ( high risk of becoming extinct in the medium term), and it is included in Appendix ll of CITES. It is also protected by several national goverments such as Australia. It is unclear how much of a concurrent increase in fishing for great white sharks has caused the decline of his populations from 1970s to nowdays. There is no accurate global population numbers are available...
Fishermen target many sharks for their jaws, teeth and fins and as game fish in general.
to fight against fishermen, shark culling and shark net is difficult but goverments must stop these actions as soon as possible!!
WWF supports research and monitoring of white sharks as they migrate to and from the Gulf of California. Sharks are tagged and the movements are tracked by satellite. This information on their behavior will help with a managment plan for the protected area where they are found ( Guadalupe Island Biosphere Reserve) such as how to protect them from bycatch and to regulate tourism!!
Bye !

2020-06-04 16:29:29 UTC