Source:  Boothbayregister.com

Quarry Hill will launch its winter-spring 2014 Adventures in Living Well series with a presentation by Hope Elephants director Andrew Stewart on Wednesday, February 19, from 10:30 a.m. - noon at the Penobscot Bay YMCA on Union Street in Rockport. Cosponsored by the YMCA and specially designed for adults age 55-plus, the program will be offered free of charge.

Illustrating his remarks with slides, Stewart will share the history and mission of Hope Elephants, discuss the pressures affecting elephants' survival worldwide, and describe the nonprofit organization's involvement in efforts to protect the giant land animals. Light refreshments will be served.

Stewart worked as a safari guide in Botswana after graduating with a degree in animal biology from the University of St. Andrews in his native Scotland. He developed an interest in elephants and, after moving to Maine, moonlighted as an assistant handler at Hope Elephants while running Hope General Store. He was named director of Hope Elephants in September 2013.

Registration is required for Stewart's presentation. To sign up, call Quarry Hill at 230-6116.

For information about future Adventures programs, call 230-6116 or visit www.quarryhill.org/news-and-events.

Source:  Nairobinow.wordpress.com

Are you a conservation enthusiast? Do you love elephants? Does ivory poaching worry you?

Join Kenya Museum Society for an interactive, informative and what should be a captivating talk by Jim Nyamu

Date: Saturday, 1 February 2014
Venue: Louis Leakey Auditorium, Nairobi National Museum
Time: Refreshments 3.15pm Starts 4:00 pm
Donation: Ksh 400 KMS Member, Ksh 500 Guest, Ksh 200 Citizen & Student

About
Jim, is the founder and director of Elephant Neighbours Center (ENC), an NGO that aims to promote peaceful co-existence between elephants and communities, with a mission to protect African elephants and secure their landscape outside protected areas.

Jim has an amazing passion for what he does, peppered with vast experience in elephant conservation as a research scientist and elephant specialist.

We hope that his experience and findings on poaching and the illegal ivory trade and their adverse effects on wildlife will leave you wanting to join in this worthy cause of saving the largest land mammals on earth.

Jim will also launch his 2014 campaign plan on the ‘Ivory Belongs to Elephants’ walks.

Help, Please! NAP has just opened up a new business (nonprofit) Facebook page, and we need desperately need your FB "likes" in order to obtain FB analytics. (What a world this has become!) With your personal FB account you can "like" a business page and/or a photo and/or a post on a FB business page, etc. (Unfortunately, a business FB account cannot "like" anything on a personal FB page and almost nothing on another business FB page, or else I'd reciprocate. Crazy, ain't it?) Looking forward to your help and please do leave a comment or more, too. MANY THANKS in advance!

Link to the NAP page:  facebook.com/noanimalpoaching

P.S.--I'm working on a NAP Google+ page, too, and that should be ready shortly.

Source:  News.coinupdate.com

By Michael Alexander

The Government of Niue has launched the first coin in a new 10-coin series which focuses on the animal kingdom’s most endangered species on each continent, with the first coin featuring one of South America’s rarest parrots – the Hyacinth Macaw.

Native to central and eastern South America, this extraordinary bird has a length from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail - of about 100 cm or 3.3 ft. It is longer than any other species of parrot and is the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species. Habitat loss and trapping wild birds for the pet trade has taken a heavy toll on their population in the wild, and as a result the species is now classified as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, and as a result, it is protected by its listing on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora or CITES.

The coin, struck on behalf of the Government of Niue by the Mint of Poland in Warsaw and designed by Dobrochna Surajewska, includes on the reverse - a vivid, digital printed application along with a matching color crystal which serves as the indication of the Hyacinth Macaw’s indigenous habitat on the South American Continent. The obverse cleverly includes illustrations of the future animals which will be included in this series hidden or integrated into the leaves on the symbolic tree of life shown as a primary motif. A cameo portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II is also included and is positioned to the upper half of the coin.

Denomination     Metal      Weight      Dimensions      Quality      Mintage

$1                 .999 silver     17.5 grams    38.6 mm          Proof       2000 pieces

The coin is available in a custom presentation circular box with certificate from the retail outlet of the Mint of Poland on-line – however international orders cannot be dispatched.

For more information on this and other coins offered by the Government of Niue and the Mint of Poland, please visit their retail website at: http://www.skarbiecmennicy.pl/monety-zagraniczne/zagro/1-ara-hiacyntowa-ag-999.html Information offered only in Polish. Photo.

Source:  Kpcnews.com

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Region has launched Endangered Species Daily, a free electronic calendar featuring 365 facts about rare plants and animals.

Endangered Species Daily facts cover life history and conservation efforts for federally endangered in threatened species around the world, with a focus on Midwest species.

The Midwest is home to a fascinating variety of rare plants and animals – some instantly recognizable and some less well known. Did you know Missouri’s Ozark hellbender, at almost 2 feet long, is one of the world’s largest salamanders? Or that Indiana bats hibernate in clusters of up to 500 bats per square foot? Or that the purple cats paw mussel survives in only one place in the world: an Ohio creek?

Find out how the Endangered Species Act has helped recover the bald eagle, gray wolf and peregrine falcon in the Midwest and learn about recovery efforts for species in danger of extinction, including species around the country and around the globe.

Educators, students and anyone interested in wildlife conservation can keep up to date these and other rare plants and animals with Endangered Species Daily.

Subscribers will learn about imperiled species in the Midwest, the United States and around the world.

Subscribers can sign up to automatically receive the daily fact by visiting fws.gov/midwest/ESdaily.html. A full monthly calendar of facts also appears on the site.

For information about endangered and threatened species in the Midwest, go to fws.gov/midwest/endangered.