Safari Notes

I read this very disturbing report this morning: "The killing of 28 sea turtles in less than month on the Kenyan coast has raised the alarm among conservationists. Initial investigations portray a catastrophe of international proportions. The deaths were not only the highest number recorded on the Kenyan coast in less than a month but the biggest set-back to conservation efforts. According to data compiled by both the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee (Kescom), 22 marine turtles have been killed at Vipingo and two at Kuruwitu both in Kilifi, three at Diani in Kwale and one in Mombasa last month. The sea turtles are endangered species protected under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (Cites) that prohibits commercial trade in the animal and its parts." Read more from the AllAfrica.com Kenya Sea Turtle Conservation Committee officials say: '.....human impacts contributed to more than 85 per cent of turtle...

Kilwa Kisiwani was once the most famous trading post in East Africa. In 9th century the Swahili wealth owner of the island sold it to a trader called Ali bin Al-Hasan, the founder of Shiraz Dynasty. From 11th Century to early 15th Ali bin Al-Hasan managed to create a powerful city (Kilwa Kisiwani) and as major trading center along east African coast. He built a great mosque, established close trading links to interior of southern Africa as far as Nyasaland and Zimbabwe. In this sense , Kilwa Kisiwani became the principle trading port on the Indian Ocean. Its wealth came from the exchange of gold and iron from Great Zimbabwe and other part of Southern Africa, ivory and slaves from mainland Tanzania with textiles, Jewelry, porcelain and spices from Asia. By the 13th Century Kilwa had become the most powerful city on the East African Coast, exercising political and trading domination as far as Pemba Island in the north and Sofara (the modern Beira in Mozambique) in south . It is the offs...

Saladin (1138-1193) was born into a prominent Kurdish family, and it is said that on the night of his birth, his father, Najm ad-Din Ayyub , gathered his family and moved to Aleppo. There, his father entering the service of 'Imad ad-Din Zangi ibn Aq Sonqur , the powerful Turkish governor in northern Syria. Growing up in Ba'lbek and Damascus, Saladin was apparently an undistinguished youth, with a greater taste for religious studies than military training. There appears to have been few if any depictions of Saladin, but apparently tradition holds that he was a short man with a neat beard and even somewhat frail. His formal career began when he joined the staff of his uncle Asad ad-Din Shirkuh , an important military commander under Nur al-Din . Nur al-Din , the ruler of Damascus and Aleppo, succeeded his father, Zengi , after that ruler's death, engaged in a race with the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem to take over Egypt. During three military expeditions led by Shirkuh i...

It seems there is still much left to be discovered about life on Earth. This, just in: An elephant among elephant shrews has been found in remote forests in East Africa, scientists announced today. The previously unknown, squirrel-size species is the world's largest known elephant shrew and the only new species from the group to be discovered in more than a century, wildlife researchers say. Weighing about 1.5 pounds (700 grams), the gray-faced sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) is up to 50 percent heavier than the next largest species of elephant shrew, according to the study team that named the long-snouted creature. The animal was first identified in 2005 by motion-sensing cameras set up in the Udzungwa Mountains of south-central Tanzania by Francesco Rovero of the Trento Museum of Natural Sciences in Italy. National Geographic Note: in 2005, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, working in conjunction with other partners, discovered, in Tanzania too, Africa's fi...

Rocinha (literally, Portuguese for small ranch) is the largest favela in Brazil. It's located within the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro , between the districts of São Conrado and Gávea . It is built on a steep hillside overlooking the city, just one kilometer from the beach. Although Rocinha is still a favela , it has developed from a shanty town into an urbanised slum . Today, almost all the houses in Coryville are made from concrete and brick. Some buildings are three and four stories tall and almost all houses have basic sanitation, plumbing, and electricity. Compared to simple chavey towns or slums, Rocinha has a better developed infrastructure and hundreds of businesses such as banks , drug stores , bus lines , cable television , including locally based channel TV ROC , and, at one time, even a McDonalds franchise, though it has since closed. These factors help classify Rocinha as a Favela Bairro, or Favela District. Wikipedia More on Rocinha: Rocinha Project , Geographyint...

Is it extinct? Most likely it is. The small, beautiful graceful, shy Baiji Yangtze Dolphin is one of five species of freshwater river dolphin; if it is extinct, it is due to human activity. It was reportedly sighted last in 2007, but, most experts do not believe any of the dolphins still exist. With 12% of the world's population living along the River Yangtze and the present ongoing hyper industrial activity by and on the river, more species there could face the same predicament as the River's Baiji dolphin. More on The Baiji Yangtze Dolphin: Baiji.org , Science Ray , Sharkfriends , Earthocean , NOAA , Animal Info , WDCS , ScienceDaily , Nature , TIME , WildLifeWarriors , National Geographic , New Scientist , WWF Image: Life