Gif Animations That I Learnt

Wow! Am proud of my effort to learn GIF animations... I managed to learn to create them and also learnt to upload them on the blog! Bravo!...



These are two students of mine whom i got to meet more than a decade later... here you could see them trying to act brave with a baby python on hands...



These are the Anglo Chinese School students of Singapore who were a part of the WED programme that we conducted called, Crusaders of Climate Change". Here you could see the students trying to act brave with a baby python on hands... I like the little Sardar's expressions here... :)

A Problem Like No Other...

Watch the Al Gore's cartoon explaining the process of Global Warming...



Polar bears live only in the arctic and as the sea ice continues to melt due to global warming, the polar bears' primary habitat becomes more threatened. They are incredibly specialized hunters that have adapted to life in the Arctic environment. They depend on the sea ice for survival - it is their hunting grounds; it is their lifeblood. The polar bears featured in this movie are calling us to action as their habitat is threatened. Scientists are calling us to action as they study the current data and make concerning predictions for our future. Future generations are calling us to action as they hope to inherit a better world.

All of the images featured in this movie have been provided by Howard Ruby, Chairman of Oakwood Worldwide, the temporary housing specialist and a supporter of the Global Warming Crusade Fund, LLC. A passionate photographer, his adventures have taken him on numerous trips to the Arctic to photograph this dramatic area and the amazing polar bears and cubs that live there. After witnessing the effects of global warming first-hand and seeing the polar bears' plight, he was moved to assist Oakwood Worldwide in creating the Global Warming Crusade Fund to raise public awareness and to support various research programs and charitable organizations.






Although developed for a Thai commercial for Halls Lite drops, the following video has a hard hitting message presented in a hilarious manner. After laughing if you think a little while, you feel like saying like the famous villain Gabbar "Hamara Kya Hoga Kaaliya..."

The video shows a Polar bear shaving it's fur off to adapt to the increasing global warming. The Arctic grooming leaves polar quite embarassed and puts us to shame. Tears rolled up my eyes when i watched it the first time...

If you were a wildlife biologists, you may question, but polar bears have a black skin below their fur...!

Perhaps all the governments around the world have a similar view to global warming.

Say No To Plastics

The following is a presentation I had developed for addressing a group Students of the Ashok Leyland School, Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The idea for developing this presentation came about from an article in an old issue of National Geographic (Sept 2003), which I picked up from a street vendor in Bangalore the day prior to the programme. Never did i realise that it would become such a widely appreciated presentation from far and wide.

I've uploaded the presentation in the form of a movie with music and posting it below.

Cicada Song

Last week, I had been to Nagarhole, Rajiv Gandhi National Park (see map) and got to watch and learn from several of the marvellous creatures of nature. Cicada was one, which we frequently got the chance to observe. I was of the belief that they make their noise by rubbing their legs as the crickets and locusts do! I was wrong! They make their noise using special body part called tymbals. if you are interested in learning more about these magnificent insects, please read further!


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The Insect
Cicada (sih-kay-duh) is an insect of the order with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. The adult insect, sometimes called an imago, is usually 2 to 5 cm long, although some tropical species can reach 15 cm. Cicadas have prominent eyes set wide apart on the sides of the head, short antennae protruding between or in front of the eyes, and membranous front wings. Over 2,500 species of cicada are found in temperate to tropical climates where they are among the most widely recognized of all insects, mainly due to their large size and remarkable acoustic talents.

Harmless
Although the Cicadas appear large and scary, they do not bite or sting, are benign to humans, and are not considered pests. Some people in Ancient Greece, China, Malaysia, Burma, Latin America and the Congo eat cicadas: the female is prized as it is meatier. Some of them are considered as pests, when they swarm the area in large numbers.

Did You Know?
Desert cicadas are also among the few insects known to cool themselves by sweating, while many other cicadas can voluntarily raise their body temperatures as much as 22oC above ambient temperature.

The Cicada Song

Male cicadas have loud noisemakers called "timbals" on the sides of the abdominal base. Unlike other familiar sound-producing insects like crickets their "singing" is not created by the stridulation (where two structures are rubbed against one another). The timbals are regions of the exoskeleton that are modified to form a complex membrane with thin, membranous portions and thickened "ribs". Contracting the internal timbal muscles produces a clicking sound as the timbals buckle inwards. As these muscles relax, the timbals return to their original position producing another click. The interior of the male abdomen is substantially hollow to amplify the resonance of the sound. A cicada rapidly vibrates these membranes, and enlarged chambers derived from the tracheae make its body serve as a resonance chamber, greatly amplifying the sound. They modulate their noise by wiggling their abdomens toward and away from the tree that they are on. Also, each species is known to have its own distinctive song.



Although only males produce the cicadas' distinctive sound, both sexes have tympana, which are membranous structures used to detect sounds and thus the cicadas' equivalent of ears. Males can disable their own tympana while calling. Adult cicadas have a sideways-ridged plate where the mouth is in normal insects.

Some cicadas produce sounds up to 120 dB "at close range", among the loudest of all insect-produced sounds. Conversely, some small species are known to have songs in such high pitch, that the noise is inaudible to humans. Species have different mating songs to ensure they attract the appropriate mate. Male cicadas are also capable of making a loud squawk when disturbed. It is believed that such squawking may be effective in deterring predators. Males of many species tend to gather which creates a greater sound intensity and protects against avian predators. It can be difficult to determine which direction(s) cicada song is coming from, because the low pitch carries well and because it may, in fact, be coming from many directions at once, as cicadas in various trees all make noise at once.

In addition to the mating song, many species also have a distinct distress call, usually a somewhat broken and erratic sound emitted when an individual is seized. A number of species also have a courtship song, which is often a quieter call and is produced after a female has been drawn by the calling song.

The song of the cicada is a favourite sound effect used by filmmakers and animators as a means of representing silence, pathos, and the great outdoors.

Life Cycle

After mating, the female cuts slits into the bark of a twig, and into these she deposits her eggs. She may do so repeatedly, until she has laid several hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newborn nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. These long life cycles are an adaptation to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis, as a predator could not regularly fall into synchrony with the cicadas.

The insects spend most of the time that they are underground as nymphs at depths ranging from about 30 cm up to 2.5 m. The nymphs feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging. In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then moult (shed their skins), on a nearby plant for the last time and emerge as adults. The abandoned skins remain, still clinging to the bark of trees. Cicadas inhabit both native and exotic plants including tall trees, coastal mangroves, urban gardens and desert shrubs.

Dugong (Dugong dugon)

Description

The Dugong is a gentle 3m long, grey brown bulbous marine mammal with a flattened fluked tail. Like whales, they do not have any dorsal fin, forelimbs modified into paddle like flippers and distinctive head shape. The broad flat muzzle and mouth are angled down to enable ease of grazing along the seabed (See image--my first attempt to illustrate, after my work for the record sheets during my college days!). Eyes and ears are small reflecting the animal's lack of reliance on these senses.

Distribution & Habitat

In India the dugongs are known to exist along the Gulf of Mannar coast and along the Palk Bay, apart from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. These are places where the sea is shallow and their feeding grounds, seagrass beds exist over large areas. They prefer wide shallow bays and areas protected by large inshore islands. Vagrant animals will occasionally appear as far south as Kanniyakumari, in Tamil Nadu. Dugongs are legally protected by the Indian Government, and all the Commonwealth Nations. With less than 80,000 existing in the wild, their populations are listed as Vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Food & Feeding

They are purely vegetarian, feeding exclusively on seagrasses, cropping the leaves and roots by using their broad muzzle to move the food into the mouth. Dugongs tend to occur in groups or herds and their movement over an area can be followed by the sand plume disturbances to the sea floor.

Breeding

Like their close relatives, the manatees in America, female dugongs in season, attract the attention of a number of males, one or two of which will eventually mate with her. One young is born after a gestation period of 12-14 months and will continue to suckle from the mother for about 18 months. They may remain with the female for a number of years, as she will not calve again for periods of between 2.5 to 7 years. This low reproductive rate has implications for their conservation worldwide and leaves them vulnerable to dramatic declines due to the impact of human activities.

Threatened
Today, thanks to several unplanned development activities, that occur along the two "under developed" districts of Tamil Nadu, viz., Ramanathapuram and Thoothukudi, the region is degrading more than ever before. Add to this, the trawl-fishing activities along practiced by the fishermen in these region have litterally scrapped the seabed off their food, the seagrass.

A Greenpeace Video on Dugong


Dugong Feeding


Something for the Kids
A cute cartoon video with a song on Dugong. Although the song calls it ugly and says also called Manatee, (they are two different species) and give only the 3rd prize in a Miss Sea World Competition among sea-creatures, it's worth watching and probably with a little change in words to make it positive, teachers could teach the song as a nursery rhyme. Something I tried would read like...:

Dugong... dugong
It's the cow of the sea
Sea.... sea... SEA...!

Dugong... dugong
It's also locally known in Tamil as
Aavuliya... aaaahhhh...

It doesn't have wings
That would be silly
B'coz, it doesn't
Live in the Treeee
Compared to the Dolphin...
it's quite...pretty

Dugong... dugong
It's the cow of the sea
Dugong... dugong
It's quite the queen of the sea!

Turtles in Trouble

Are you going on a beach holiday abroad? Have you thought about the turtles that might nest there? Nowadays, tourism affects most corners of our world. Tourism can be used positively for marine turtle conservation, as the Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) in Sri Lanka has shown. But more often than not, insensitive tourism can present serious threats to marine turtles and their habitats, especially at the nesting beaches.
Turtles in Trouble: You can make a difference!

The good news is that there are things that we can do while on holiday to reduce tourism-related threats to marine turtles at popular holiday destinations.

Marine Conservation Society(MCS) has joined forces with The Travel Foundation and design company Juniperblue to produce this entertaining and educational cartoon called Turtles in Trouble. The humorous, 8-minute animation is for UK tourists planning holidays in the Mediterranean, but includes advice relevant to all destinations with marine turtles. Narrated by Kate Humble, the animation demonstrates how small changes to our behaviour while on holiday can make big differences to the lives of marine turtles found at tourist destinations.

Click on the image to watch Turtles in Trouble. Am sure you would enjoy it, and if you do, please tell all your friends about it!