The Peccary

Peccaries are medium-sized animals found in the Americas. They have a strong, superficial resemblance to pigs. Like pigs, they have a snout ending in a cartilagenous disc, and eyes that are small relative to their head. Also like pigs, they use only the middle two digits for walking, although, unlike pigs, the other toes may be altogether absent. Their stomach is non-ruminating, although it has three chambers, and is more complex than that of pigs.

Peccaries are omnivores, and will eat small animals, although their preferred food consists of roots, grass, seeds, and fruit. One of the ways to tell apart pigs and peccaries is the shape of the canine tooth, or tusk. In European pigs the tusk is long and curves around on itself, whereas in peccaries, the tusk is short and straight. The jaws and tusks of peccaries are adapted for crushing hard seeds and slicing into plant roots, and they also use their tusks for defense. The dental formula for peccaries is:

By rubbing the tusks together they can make a chattering noise that warns potential predators not to get too close. Peccaries, indeed, are aggressive enough in temperament that, unlike Eurasian pigs, they cannot be domesticated as they are likely to injure humans. Indeed in recent years in North-western Bolivia near Madidi National Park there have been reports of people being seriously injured and killed by large groups of peccaries.

Peccaries are social animals, and often form herds. Over 100 individuals have been recorded for a single herd of white-lipped peccaries, but collared and Chacoan peccaries usually form smaller groups. Such social behavior seems to have been the situation in extinct peccaries as well.

Peccaries have scent glands below each eye and another on their back, though these are believed to be rudimentary in Pecari maximus. They use the scent to mark herd territories, which range from 75 to 700 acres (2.8 km2). They also mark other herd members with these scent glands by rubbing one against another. The pungent odor allows peccaries to recognize other members of the herd, despite their myopic vision.

Click here to listen to the interview with Melbourne Zoo Keeper, Curtis Prouting.

For more information on Melbourne Zoo, please visit http://www.zoo.org.au/

Lughnasadh or Lammas comes between 31st Jan and 1st Feb in the Southern Hemisphere.

It is a hot, lazy, delicious time of the year. Bees buzz in the heat of the day, the air is still, and the force of the sun remains strong, even though its sway over the earth is slowly diminishing day by day. In the cooler nighttime, frogs and crickets keep us company. It is here, in the gloaming, when so many rituals begin.......

This is when the powerful gods of the grain harvests are honored. They are in their prime, sometimes generous, sometimes quixotic, and always aware with a bittersweet pleasure that their time will wane, as it always does, and they will die, as they always do, and yet nevertheless they will return to another delicious summer next year, as they always do, and have, and will, for this is the endlessly circling Wheel of the Year, and they ride it proudly.

Click here to listen to the interview with Lady Tamara von Forslun about Lughnasadh, in the past and it's relevance today.

Hale Dwoskin - Letting Go of Emotional Baggage

It’s amazing how we can let our past affect our lives….We are wary of a new partner after a past rocky relationship…we don’t go to a new job position because we were looked over last time….and our self esteem is based on how our parents spoke to us as children.

My next guest is someone who helps people deal with the past.

Hale Dwoskin, is a New York Times Best-Selling author of The Sedona Method, and co-author of the best-selling Happiness Is Free (a five-book series). He is the CEO and Director of Training of Sedona Training Associates, an organization that teaches courses based on the emotional releasing techniques originated by his mentor, Lester Levenson. Hale is an international speaker is also one of the 24 featured teachers of the book and movie phenomenon, “The Secret.”

Click here to listen to the full interview with Hale, including where he takes you through a simple Sedona Method.

Click here to listen to the simple Sedona Method exercise.

For more information including how to email Hale to get him to come and run seminars in Australia, please visit http://www.sedona.com/

The Caracal Cat

The Caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat.

The Caracal is labelled as a small cat, but is amongst the heaviest of all small cats, as well as the fastest. Males typically weigh about 13-18 kg (28-40 lbs), while females are smaller. The Caracal is 65 cm in length (about two ft), plus 30 cm tail (about 1 foot). It has longer legs and a slimmer appearance than a lynx. The colour of the fur is variable: it may be wine-red, grey or sand-coloured. Melanistic (black) Caracals also occur. Young Caracals bear reddish spots on the underside; adults do not have markings except for black spots above the eyes.

The most conspicuous feature of the Caracal is elongated, tufted black ears, which also explain the origin of its name – karakulak, Turkish for "black ear". Its ears, which it uses to locate prey, are controlled by 20 different muscles.

The Caracal is distributed over Africa and western Asia. Its habitat is dry steppes and semi-deserts, but also include woodlands, savanna, and scrub forest. It is a solitary, or paired, territorial cat. The Caracal may survive without drinking for a long period — the water demand is satisfied with the body fluids of its prey.

It hunts at night (but in colder seasons also in the daytime) for rodents and hares; rarely it may even attack a gazelle, a small antelope or a young ostrich. It is a picky eater, and discards the internal organs of the mammals it catches, partially plucks the fur off hyraxes and larger kills, and avoids eating hair by shearing meat neatly from the skin. However, it will eat the feathers of small birds and is tolerant of rotten meat.

It is most well-known for its skill at hunting birds; the Caracal is able to snatch a bird in flight, sometimes more than one at a time. The Caracal can jump and climb exceptionally well, which enables it to catch hyraxes better than probably any other carnivore. Its life expectancy in the wild is 12 years, or 17 years in captivity. Since it is also surprisingly easy to tame, it has been used as a hunting cat in Iran and India.

Because it is so easily tamed, the Caracal is sometimes kept as a pet, and is said to adapt easily to living with humans. It is often viewed as vermin by farmers in Africa because it frequently climbs over fences to eat poultry such as chickens.

The Caracal is almost impossible to see in the wild, not because there are very few of them, but because it hides extremely well. Game drives in countries such as Kenya and Botswana widely encounter other animals, but a sighting of a Caracal is extremely rare.

Click here to listen to the interview with Melbourne Zoo Keeper Rebecca Jupp.

For more information on the great things happening at Melbourne Zoo, please visit http://www.zoo.org.au/

Good News! A Win For The Murray Red Gums

In a spectacular New Year’s gift to the environment, Premier Brumby announced the protection of 95,000 hectares of river red gum wetlands in Victoria including four new National Parks along the Murray, Goulburn and Ovens rivers in northern Victoria.

The commitment by the Victorian government is one of the most significant conservation decisions in the state’s history and follows years of work by The Wilderness Society, Friends of the Earth and the Victorian National Parks Association.

The commitment by the Victorian government to protect 95,000 hectares of river red gum wetlands in Victoria is one of the most significant conservation decisions in the state’s history.

Key aspects of the decision include;

The declaration of four new National Parks and extensions to the Murray-Sunset and Terrick-Terrick National Parks, totaling over 95,000 hectares;

1. The new Barmah National Park will be the first in Victoria to be jointly managed with traditional owners, the Yorta Yorta people;

2. Logging will be reduced by around 70% and will cease in the new National parks;

3. Cattle grazing will be cease in the new National Parks.

The decision is based on strong scientific evidence and extensive community consultation by the Victorian Environment Assessment Commission (VEAC), who recommended the urgent need for red gum protection after studies revealed that 75% of river red gums are stressed, dead or dying.

Protecting red gum wetlands;

1. Reduces climate change – Red gum forests are huge carbon stores and protecting them from logging means less CO2 is released into the atmosphere. Red gum national parks will also improve wildlife habitat, giving them a better chance of adapting to climate change.

2. Protects habitat for threatened wildlife - Almost 300 threatened and endangered plants and animals including the Murray Cod, Squirrel Glider and Barking Owl depend on red gum forests. Migratory birds such as the Japanese Snipe and Spine-tailed Swift migrate all the way from north Asia and every year millions of waterbirds from around the world use the red gum wetlands as breeding sites;

3. Improves the health of the Murray – Protecting red gum wetlands gives relief to the stressed Murray Darling system and improves water quality by acting as giant water filters.

The Wilderness Society will now work to protect Red Gum forests on the NSW side of the Murray and urges the NSW government to follow the excellent example set by Victorian Premier John Brumby in protecting red gum forests and wetlands.

Click here to listen to the interview with Jess Abrahams from The Wilderness Society talk about the good news.

For more information please visit The Wilderness Society's website at http://www.wilderness.org.au/

The Sumatran tiger, numbering fewer than 400 individuals in the wild, is found exclusively on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the last stronghold for tigers in Indonesia.

Tigers were also once widespread on Bali and Java; however these two subspecies were exterminated in the 20th century. The last observation in Bali dates back to the late 1930s, and the Javan tiger was recorded for the last time during a survey in 1976. There have been no confirmed records since.

Click here to listen to the interview with Damian Lewis, Supervisor of the Rainforest Department at Melbourne Zoo about Sumatran Tigers.

For more information about all the great things happening at Melbourne Zoo visit www.zoo.org.au.

Should we be scared of Sharks? Or should they be scared of us?

Richard Fitzpatrick is a researcher and film maker who we've worked with very closely on our Coral Sea campaign.

Richard has a new film premiering on the 18th on Discovery Channel (Mysteries of the Shark Coast), as part of Discovery's Shark Week (18th - 24th). The film tracks to lives of lots of different sharks in the Coral Sea like tiger sharks, grey sharks and white tip reef sharks. WWF are working with Discovery Channel on Shark Week to help educate people about sharks - they're incredible creatures and shouldn't be feared.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Dr. Fred Alan Wolf talks about Quantum Physics

Fred Alan Wolf is a physicist, writer, and lecturer who earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at UCLA in 1963. He continues to write, lecture throughout the world, and conduct research on the relationship of quantum physics to consciousness. He is the National Book Award Winning author of Taking the Quantum Leap. Today he takes the time to explain a bit about Quantum Physics.

Click here to listen to his interview.

The Wilderness Society Update

Amelia Young from The Wilderness Society came into the JOY studios to give an update on happenings over the last two months.

The update includes:

• The success of the Warburton Rally


• How logging affects our Water Storage Areas


• The East Gippsland Forest Campaign


• Brown Mountain


• Successful Action on the steps of Parliament


• Long-footed potoroo – endangered species


• Old-growth forests are our richest and safest carbon banks – but only if we don’t log them


• International work – Their campaign delegation has just returned from Posnan, Poland, latest round of climate talks


• A chat with Gavan McFadzean, The Wilderness Society’s Victorian Campaigns Manager who has just returned from the climate negotiations in Posnan.


• TWS Christmas Gifts online
  

Click here to listen to the interview.

For more information, please visit http://www.wilderness.org.au/

Kevin Rudd announces Australia's Carbon Emissions Reduction Target

Kevin Rudd's announcement of just 5% Carbon Emissions Reduction Target seems to have shocked everyone as too low considering the scientific community is looking for a 40% reduction.

Green's leader Bob Brown described the 5 per cent target as "a global embarrassment". The Greens are calling for a 40 per cent reduction by 2020 to save the planet from a climate catastrophe, what we are being offered is in effect surrender to climate change and in breach of Rudd’s election promises.

Rudd argues it is more ambitious than European goals and will allow Australia to pursue deeper cuts if a global climate change agreement is struck.

The Australian Industry Group warned meeting the 2020 targets would "not be easy", while the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry said business and the community would be hit with high costs of industry restructuring.

Click here to listen to what John Hepburn from Greenpeace's Climate & Energy Campaign feels about the target.

For more information please visit http://www.climatesummit.org.au/ and http://www.greenpeace.org.au/

John Assaraf - What is a Vision Board?

John Assaraf is an international best-selling author, speaker as well as an entrepreneur. As a teenager plagued by low self-esteem, John risked the potentially fatal consequences of a turbulent lifestyle—a lifestyle which could have easily led either to jail or to the morgue. In his quest to overcome his challenges and fulfill his desire to live a purposeful and meaningful life, he discovered a unique passion for brain research and quantum physics as it related to achieving success in business and in life.

His expertise in helping organizations and individuals achieve success has landed him on Larry King Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, ABC, CBS and NBC television worldwide. In addition, John recently made his cameo appearance in the new hit movie The Secret, which can be viewed at www.onecoach.com/secret.
In the last 20 years, he has built four multi-million dollar companies including growing RE/MAX of Indiana to over 1500 sales associates, who collectively generate over $5 billion a year in sales and are paid over $120 million in com¬missions yearly.

With Bamboo, a recent start-up that raised $25 million in financing, John developed the marketing strategy and sales team that generated over $30 million in revenues within12 months. Bamboo then merged with Ipix and went on to become the world’s leading provider of imaging infrastructure for the Internet, including managing the scaled imaging infrastructure for companies such as eBay.

John is now putting his experience and knowledge to use as the Founder of OneCoach, a company committed to helping entrepreneurs and professionals grow their small business revenues so they can achieve financial freedom and live extraordinary lives. (http://www.onecoach.com/).

His personal passions are his family, spirituality, exercise, cooking, travel, and helping entrepreneurs understand how to incorporate the psychological and strategic sides of building a successful business and life.

John is well known for his Vision Board (see picture below) story.

Click here to listen to it during the interview.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.johnassaraf.com/

http://www.onecoach.com/

http://www.thevisionboardkit.com/

The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly

The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is Australia's largest butterfly.

The wingspan of the female can measure 180mm. The smaller male butterfly has green wings with black markings, while the female has black wings with yellow and white markings. The abdomen of both the male and the female is yellow and the thorax is red.

The caterpillar or ‘larva’, is black and features short spines along the upper surface of the thorax and abdomen. The spines are red or pink in the intermediate sections. The head of the larva has a white mark. A full-grown caterpillar may have a purple tinge in its colouring and can grow to a length of 90mm.The pupa or ‘chrysalis’, is typically grey-yellow or golden.

The Cairns Birdwing Butterfly is one of 14 subspecies of Birdwing. Birdwing Butterflies are found in north-east Australia, the Moluccas Islands, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. New Guinea is home to the largest known butterfly on Earth, the Queen Alexandra's Birdwing (Troides alexandrae) whose wingspan can reach 280 mm.

After mating the female Cairns Birdwing seeks a suitable plant on which to lay her eggs. Hatching may occur within 5 -10 days, depending on the temperature. As the caterpillar grows it passes through a series of moults in which the outer skin or ‘cuticula’, is shed. Before commencing the final moult (usually the fifth) the caterpillar uses saliva to form a silk pad on the underside of a branch, and a 'girdle' that supports its head as it hangs below the branch. The lower portion of the abdomen is fixed to the silk pad by a network of tiny hooks called the 'cremaster'. The final moult commences the pupal stage.The butterfly emerges from the chrysalis approximately one month after pupation has commenced, although this period is quite variable.The adult Cairns Birdwing Butterfly lives for 4-5 weeks, during which mating may occur. The coupling of the male and female can last for up to 36 hours.
Habitat and distribution.

The destruction of tropical rain forest has led to a decline in the population of the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly and it is now a protected species.

Click here to listen to the interview with Norman Dowsett of Melbourne Zoo about ht eBirdwing Butterfly as well as how to attract more butterflies to your garden.

For more information, please visit http://www.zoo.org.au/

The Cassowary

The Cassowary is a beautiful, large, flightless bird which is found in PNG and far northern Queensland. Cassowaries feed on the fruits of several hundred rainforest species and usually pass viable seeds in large dense scats. They are known to disperse seeds over distances greater than a kilometre, and thus probably play an important role in the ecosystem. Germination rates for seeds of the rare Australian rainforest tree Ryparosa were found to be much higher after passing through a cassowary's gut (92% versus 4%).

However there are many factors contributing to their decline:

· Hand feeding of Cassowaries poses a big threat to their survival. Contact with humans encourages Cassowaries to take most unsuitable food from picnic tables.
· In suburban areas the birds are more susceptible to vehicles
· Dogs - chase the birds away from potential food sources in suburban areas.
· Feral pigs are a huge problem. They probably destroy nests and eggs; but their worst effect is as competitors for food, which could be catastrophic for the Cassowaries during lean times. Pigs also contaminate water sources.

Click here to listen to the interview with Melbourne Zoo's Angelo Foresio.

For further information, please visit http://www.zoo.org.au/

Tuna is becoming endangered

Tuna is one of the world’s most popular fish found in many a restaurant, sushi roll and even cat bowl but there is a growing threat of extinction to Tuna.

Most people probably don't realise that Tuna is on the verge of extinction in many parts of the world. Huge growth in demand has been disastrous for the fish (it's beginning to disappear from sushi plates world over).

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), meeting in
Marrakech, Morocco, for the past week, brushed aside its own review’s description of its
management of the bluefin fishery as “an international disgrace” to endorse a total allowable catch (TAC) of 22,000 tonnes for next year.

ICCAT’s own scientists had recommended a TAC ranging 8,500 to 15,000 tonnes per year, warning there were real risks of the fishery collapsing otherwise. The scientists also urged a seasonal closure during the fragile spawning months of May and June, while today’s outcome allows industrial fishing in practice up to 20 June.

Click here to listen to the interview with WWF Oceans Program Leader, Gilly Lwellyn.

For more information, please visit http://www.panda.org/

Happiness with Marci Shimoff

Marci Shimoff is the author of the new instant runaway bestseller, Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out, which offers a revolutionary approach to experiencing deep and lasting happiness. It has immediately soared to #1 on many national bestseller lists including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.com, and has debuted at #2 on The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. Fedex/Kinkos selected Happy for No Reason as their featured book for April, May and June of 2008. In addition, she’s featured in the international film and book sensation, The Secret

Marci is also the woman's face of the biggest self-help book phenomenon in history, Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her six bestselling titles in the series, including Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul and Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul, have met with stunning success, selling more than 13 million copies worldwide in 33 languages and have been on the New York Times bestseller list for a total of 108 weeks.

Marci is one of the best selling female nonfiction authors of all time. A celebrated transformational leader and one of the nation's leading experts on happiness, success, and the law of attraction, Marci has inspired millions of people around the world, sharing her breakthrough methods for personal fulfillment and professional success. President and co-founder of the Esteem Group, she delivers keynote addresses and seminars on self-esteem, self-empowerment, and peak performance to corporations, professional and non-profit organizations, and women's associations. She has been a top-rated trainer for numerous Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T, GM, Sears, Kaiser Permanente, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Click here to listen to the interview.

For more information, please visit: http://www.marcishimoff.com/ and http://www.marcishimoff.com/

Genetically Engineered Food

To meet the increasing food needs of a growing world population, science has discovered the technique of genetically modifying plants and crops to enhance crop yield and create superior and stronger varieties of crops and fruits.

The main method is to genetically modify the DNA structure of the crop or plant. These genetically-modified plants are used as medicines and vaccines, foods and food ingredients, feeds, and fibres.

Controversies surrounding GM foods and crops commonly focus on human and environmental safety, labeling and consumer choice, intellectual property rights, ethics, food security, poverty reduction, and environmental conservation.

Click here to listen to the interview with Michelle Sheather of Greenpeace.

For more information, please visit http://www.greenpeace.org.au/

Sick ‘Murray the Cod’ seeks emergency life support from Labor’s Bronwyn Pike

Wilderness Society conservationists rushed a sick ‘Murray the Cod’ to the office of several inner city Labor M.P’s including Melbourne’s Bronwyn Pike, Northcote’s Fiona Richardson and Albert Parks’ Martin Foly.

Dressed as Doctors and Nurses and travelling by Ambulance, they sought emergency life support for ‘Murray’ - in the form of new Red Gum National Parks.

Watch the short, one and half minute video they made - it's very funny, and has a catchy soundtrack.



With the health of the Murray in crisis and up to 75% of Red Gums stressed, dead or dying, urgent action is clearly needed to ensure the on-going survival of the river, it’s iconic wildlife and it’s wetlands.Precious Red Gum forests and wetlands are currently being degraded by unsustainable logging, cattle grazing and lack of flooding. If this is allowed to continue, the health of the already stressed Murray will deteriorate rapidly, especially in the face of climate change.The Brumby government must fulfill it’s 2006 election promise to create new Red Gum National Parks if recommended by VEAC, the Victorian Environment Assessment Council. With VEAC wisely recommending over 100,000 hectares of new National Parks along the Murray and it’s tributaries, improved environmental water flows and Indigenous Co-management, It is clearly now time for Labor to act

Click here to listen to the live cross to Adam Barralet's All Natural.

JZ Knight explains where God is and how to download your future

JZ Knight is the chaneller of Ramtha, a Lemurian warrior who fought the Atlanteans over 35,000 years ago. On February 7, 1977 Ramtha, The Enlightened One, appeared to her and her husband and since then she has been sharing his wisdom. JZ has established the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, authored her autobiography, "A State of Mind" and appeared in documentaries such as "The Secret" and "What the BLEEP Do We Know".

The four cornerstones of Ramtha's philosophy are:
1. The statement 'You are God'
2. The directive to make known the unknown
3. The concept that consciousness and energy create the nature of reality
4. The challenge to conquer yourself

Click here to listen to the interview where JZ Knight describes her first interactions with Ramtha, where God exists and how to download your future.

The official website is http://www.ramtha.com/

For information about JZ Knight and Ramtha can be found below:

Please see Ramtha short video clips here on the right column:
http://ramtha.com/default.asp

About Ramtha, JZ & Channeling:
http://ramtha.com/html/pdf/introduction.pdf

JZ predicts USA's Presidential Election CORRECTLY 13 months earlier:http://www.ramtha.com/newsletter/Vol4/Issue9/JZondaveRoss.html

The Philippine Crocodile

The Philippine Crocodile is the most threatened crocodile in the wild. In the Philippines, it is strictly prohibited to kill a crocodile, but its status is critically endangered from exploitation and unsustainable fishing methods such as dynamite fishing.

Chris Banks (Melbourne Zoo) was responsible for setting up a recovery program in the Philippines for these animals and still works very closely with the Philippines. He's heavily involved in conservation and took the time to share his story.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Find out more about the Melbourne Zoo at http://www.zoo.org.au/

Tamarins

Tamarin habitats range from southern Central America (Costa Rica) through to middle South America (Amazon basin and north Bolivia, however not in the mountainous parts).The various species of tamarins differ considerably according to their appearance, ranging from nearly all black through mixtures of black, brown and white. Many species typically have moustache-like facial hairs.

Their numbers are deteriorating mainly due to destruction of their habitat and the illegal pet trade.

Click here, to listen to my interview with Melbourne Zoo Keeper, Noel Harcourt.

For more information on the great work that Melbourne Zoo do, please visit http://www.zoo.org.au/