Cephalopodcast

April 27 is World Tapir Day. So go hug your nearest perissodactylid.

Today is World Tapir Day. I know, it’s the kind of celebration that can just sneak up on you out of the woods without you even knowing it. Which is the same kind of problem facing these creatures. They are disappearing from the forest without enough people noticing it.

I met a tapir once. It was at the Belize Zoo, and the tapir was kind of famous, if mostly locally. Her name was April. And profits from the sale of merchandise from the first Tapir Day celebration are going towards the Belize Zoo’s tapir conservation and education programs.

So what is a tapir? They are odd-looking herbivorous mammals that inhabit Central and South America and South-East Asia. In Belize they call them mountain cows, which seems apt if not exact. There are four species left in the world and all face threats from shrinking natural range.

As large herbivores, tapirs are invariably the first species affected by human encroachment into their territory, and amongst the last to return to regrowth forest. They require substantial tracts of undisturbed land to maintain a genetically-diverse population. Tapirs inhabit jungles, grasslands, swamps and cloud forests, yet each is threatened by human activity - be that mining, palm oil plantations, roads or settlements. They form an important part of the ecosystem as seed dispersers, and form one of the oldest surviving genera in the animal kingdom.

Despite their size, history and ecological importance, tapirs remain one of the least recognised species of animals. In comparison with other animals, tapirs feature little in the collective consciousness and are frequently misidentified by zoo visitors. Even in their home ranges, tapirs receive little attention, with exotic species featuring more prominently in zoos, children’s books and the media.

Resources

• Official World Tapir Day Web Site
• Tapir Day: Facebook Group
• Tapir Day forums: Help Name the Tapir Day mascot
• Tapir Day: eStore and Tshirts. Proceeds benefit the Belize Zoo.
• Teacher’s Guide to Tapirs: Tapirs of the World (PDF)
• The Belize Zoo also has a podcast.
• Flickr: skoop102’s all Tapir photoset, including cross-stitch and gingerbread tapir cookies.
• The Tapir Blog
• TAPIRS: The Tapir Preservation Fund (TPF) Blog
• The Tapir Gallery

Tapir Books

• The Tapir’s Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest (Paperback) by Elizabeth Royte.
• Jungle Song (Hardcover) by Miriam Moss (Author), Adrienne Kennaway (Illustrator). A story set in a South American tropical rain forest for PreSchool-Grade 3.

It can be a challenge for environmental non-profits and educational outfits to produce original multimedia content. On a tight budget it can be tough to produce compelling content in-house, so at some point, the question of using stock images or video comes up. This has a cost too in the form of licensing, clearances and properly managing the rights to the media. Fortunately, there are some low cost (and free) resources available.

Reef Vid

A resource of free coral reef video clips for educational use

Professor Peter Mumby from the University of Exeter has made available a number of coral reef video clips. The database has over 500 clips which are free for educational and research use. The clips on the Web site are suitable for use in a PowerPoint presentation. Full-quality footage is available on mini-DV tapes, DVD, or DVD-ROM (recorded in PAL) by contacting them.

Environmental Video from the Feds

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also maintains a library of public domain video footage. The only cost is for reproduction, there are no other licenses or clearances required. All they ask is that you credit them as the source. In particular, I’ve found the Year of the Ocean, Turtle Excluder Device (TED) and Commercial Fishing to be useful stock footage for many projects. They also have a photo library of royalty-free still images.

Quality at a Price

Finally, there are also exceptional stock libraries available for a fee. The quality of these is incredible and the staff are available to help you find just the right image for your message. Some of the more marine-themed ones are listed below.

Have you used any other video resources for ocean conservation? Let me know.

• Reef Vid
• NOAA B-Roll
• Stock Photo: Image Quest 3-D
• Stock Video: Ocean Footage
• Stock Video: BioMedia Associates. Bacteria, Protozoans and more.
• Stock Video: Al Giddings Images
• Previously: Vintage Ocean and Science Fair Footage
• Previously : Free fish pics: NOAA updates online photo library
• Previously: Free undersea images from Coral Reef Alliance

Earthcast 2008 Web badge by Jason Robertshaw is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Webcast Around the Earth Day 2008

Earth Day is coming up on April 22 and the fine folks over at the Worldbridges.net community are celebrating by hosting a 24 hour webcast focused on the environment. Earthcast 2008 will feature live, interactive programs from educators, students and other citizens of the planet starting at midnight GMT.

The Other 71%

I am planning on covering one of the hours with a program focused on the other 71% of our planet’s surface. Guests for the program include Dr. Karen James from the Beagle Project and Kevin Zelnio of Deep-Sea News and The Other 95%. I also have feelers out to a few other ocean bloggers. If you know of anyone else who would like to join the conversation, let me know. More details on how to participate will be posted here in the coming days. Stay tuned.

What: This is intended to be a 24 hour long conversation about the health of our planet. We hope to have participants from around the world moderate an day long conversation. Potential guests could include local leaders, student environmental advocates, scientists/engineers, politicians, grassroots leaders, etc.

When: Tuesday, April 22nd 2008. We will follow the 24 hour GMT day (we’ll use the time in Greenwich, England as the standard for planning the time blocks).

Why: The goal is to help our participants (both listeners and moderators) form a more global perspective on the issue of sustainability and the health of the earth.

• Enviroscims: Earth Day 2008 24 Hour Webcastathon!
• Earthcast 2008 flyer (PDF)
• Dr. Karen James, The Beagle Project
• Kevin Zelnio, Deep-Sea News and The Other 95%

UPDATE: Rick MacPherson from Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice and Sunsets is now also on the ticket.

Last Sunday was International Rock-Flipping Day. I made another 60 second video highlighting some of our discoveries. It’s a little choppier production, since I only had the Powershot A95 (movie setting). Once again, edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Click To Play

Blip.tv | YouTube

• Official IRFD declaration
• Flickr: International Rock-Flipping Day photo pool
• Previously: International Rock-Flipping Day is September 2