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Aurochs, Project Tauros

11/23/2015

First off, what do you think of when you hear the word aurochs? To me, the word resembles a big, beastly creature of tremendous strength and power, which, in fact, the aurochs is. An aurochs is a humongous extinct horned herbivore, SIX FEET tall standing normally, and the biggest and most efficient grazer in the forest. The aurochs was known for roaming in herds across the landscape in terrains from desert scrubland to colder forests, but sadly was hunted to extinction in 1627, leaving their main food (the beech tree), free to grow. Among other disadvantages, beech trees, without a browsing predator, have in some places clogged the forest with overgrowth!

One group of scientists, called project Tauros, is trying to bring back the aurochs. They are trying to create a living replica of an aurochs by mixing genes from aurochs teeth and cattle relatives. The aurochs was a creature of tremendous strength and size. As is shown by the over growth of the beech tree upon the aurochs extinction, the loss of the aurochs is another example of the fact that every plant and animal in the environment, from beetles to bears, depends on each other and needs to be saved in order for a healthy ecosystem to thrive. My hope is that project Tauros will work and enable more organizations to help bring back other extinct animals.

Sources: National Geographic July 2010, Project Tauros

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Manzanar

11/10/2015

Manzanar is a Japanese-American prison city and concentration camp placed in the middle of Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierras. Made during World War II along with ten other camps, Manzanar had 10,000 American residents of Japanese ancestry, all forced out of their homes bringing only what they could carry. Mostly American citizens born and raised in America, they were forced to leave their homes, jobs, businesses, even their pets.

Completely disrespecting the laws of America, Manzanar was a wrong and unjust piece of American history which the US must remember not to copy again.

We visited Manzanar on November 7th and I was wholly surprised about how racist some parts of America were back then, even after the Civil War. Cartoons of Japanese people were drawn with buck teeth and slanted eyes in the newspapers, and Japanese families were excluded from neighborhoods by the public. The US government also backed the public by launching exclusion acts on the Japanese and earlier on the Chinese people, not allowing them to immigrate to the US.

Surprisingly, Manzanar was like a city, with everything a city would have, from boys scouts to gardens, sports clubs to newspapers, and dance halls to temples. Sadly though, the Japanese residents were being surveyed by watch towers and guarded by barbed wire, so it was nothing less than a city of prisoners.

The Albino Redwood

11/4/2015

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At long last, we had found it, the legendary Albino Redwood! Hearing about it in Dubai, TWO YEARS earlier, it had temporarily slid from memory until a reception lady at the RV place where we were staying gave hint of an Albino Redwood in the park, one of 60 left in the whole entire WORLD! Unfortunately, we had no light left to go tree hunting that day. The next day we left to explore the park to look at all the humongous redwoods, and to see the Albino Redwood, but despite directions and walking around the supposed location, we couldn’t find a trace!

Coming back to the RV Park pretty bummed, we soon asked another receptionist for confirmation of where the Albino Redwood was.Getting a totally different answer than before, we went out that afternoon for another hunt. Going past the freeway, we turned into a pull off and pulled off, (logically,) and followed an unmarked trail for about a thousand feet until we rounded a ridge and saw it. Pure white, the Albino Redwood uses NO photosynthesis, but instead, takes the life out of other trees, earning the mysterious nickname, The Vampire Tree. When we saw it, we didn’t see the tree at first because so much of it was dead, but as soon as we recognized it, we new it was the one and soon started snapping pictures like crazy. You definitely CAN NOT miss it because it looks so different from the other trees, pure white needles that look so unreal. Though it may not be as big as the other redwoods, it was certainly my favorite.

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Aurochs, Project Tauros

Manzanar

The Albino Redwood

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Aurochs, Project Tauro﻿s

Manzanar

The Albino Redwood

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Aurochs, Project Tauros