In Vietnam, if you have a rhino horn, you’re (supposedly) a big deal. They’re worth up to $60,000 per kilo on the black market—more valuable than diamonds or cocaine. Sometimes they’re even ground up and snorted as a party drug. And some proponents of Asian medicine actually believe they can cure hangovers … and cancer….
Category: Wild
Living La Pura Vida
BOOM! I wake in the middle of the night to roaring thunder and a vehement downpour through the trees, crashing against the roof of my bungalow. In the pitch-blackest darkness, my eyes never adjust, with minimal city lights permeating the atmosphere in this little coastal town called Tamarindo in the Guanacaste province of Costa…
Not So Supernatural: How Do Marine Mammals Hydrate?
I didn’t know yesterday was World Oceans Day, but luckily I did spend some time in the ocean. This summer, I have a weekly surf club going on. No, this is not a picture of me, but it could be. I’ll tell you a secret: I’m totally afraid of the ocean. Yes, me, who spent…
Journey to a Secret Spot on Catalina Island
We trudge along a steep incline with 20 pounds of paraphernalia strapped to each of our backs. Tents, sleeping bags, propane tanks, water, a kite, a frisbee, mason jars filled with cake, fairy dust – the essentials. The strain is relentless, until we reach a ridge, where the sea and sky coalesce into one infinite…
Not So Supernatural: Can Snakes Slither Backwards?
Ever sit around and wonder about the small mysteries of the world? How do marine mammals hydrate? Why do turtle doves come in pairs? Why are coconuts hairy? I do. I think about this stuff all the time. Sometimes I feel insecure that I’m asking a stupid question, but of course, there are no stupid…
Endangered Baby: Saiga
The saiga antelope has an old soul – they have roamed the Earth since the age of mammoths, saber-toothed cats, and woolly rhinos. Their distinctive feature, a large hooked nose, not only characterizes them as anomalous creatures, but it’s actually functional – it acts as a filter for sand and dust in the summertime and…
The Buzz About Honeybees
There I stood just a couple of feet away from a honeybee hive, and I felt no fear. I never thought I would feel that way around tens of thousands of worker bees fearlessly protecting and nurturing their queen, but this day I felt attuned to to their plight. By chance, I had just met…
This Baby Needs Help
I have this new friend at the Kitten Rescue, and he’s too young to even have a name yet. He’s sick right now with aspiration pneumonia (a bacterial lung infection), and a pericardial hernia. Right now he’s at VCA West LA in an incubator, on oxygen and antibiotics, with an IV catheter in his jugular….
Endangered Baby: Leatherback Sea Turtle
Recently I visited Las Baulas National Marine Park in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. But I didn’t see a single one of these leatherback turtles that the park is named after (baula is the Spanish word for leatherback sea turtle). It’s because after surviving for more than 100 million years, Pacific leatherbacks are now critically endangered. My…
Seafood Watch
I’m crazy about the fish tacos at El Pescador in Highland Park. But I haven’t been back there in months because I’m afraid to ask the question: where was this fish caught? The last thing I ever wanted was to be one of those people they make fun of in Portlandia! I’m guessing that the…
Sir Robin Knox-Johnston on whale watching
I got a chance to correspond with Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, the first person to sail solo non-stop around the world. It took him 312 days in 1968-1969, and he won the Golden Globe Race. At the age of 75, he’s still at it. His story is well documented, but what I really wanted to know…
Endangered Baby: Amur Leopard
It’s so difficult to choose the first endangered species to highlight here, because there are so many. Obscure ones like tapirs, okapis, saolas, pangolins; and the famous black rhinos, Sumatran elephants, and South China tigers – you’ll learn about them all here at one point or another. I decided to start with the exquisite creature…
everything is nature 