The Black Crappie

The Black Crappie is a large sunfish, it can grow up to 16 inches and it can weigh about 5 pounds. The black crappie has a rounded body with green, silver, and black scales all over its body. They live in warm ponds; lakes; streams; and resevoirs; so they are a fresh water fish. The black crappie is a schooling fish, so they are usually found in groups.
The Black Crappie is a native fish in Eastern-Texas. They are located in the majority of the Texas freshwater bodies. In Texas, they are hunted (fished) for game and for food. The time is unknown of when they were introduced to other states, but people from Texas introduced the fish to all 48 continental states. These fish can cause problems due to their reproduction and eating habits.

The Black Crappie eats fish, like  golden shiners; largemouth bass; creek chub; and yellow perch. They eat insects and worms, like water fleas; large diving beetles; yellow jackets; and aquatic worms. They also eat newts; bullfrogs; and amoeba. The black crappie are threats to these species because of their schooling habits, many of their prey are eaten at a time and threatens their population in that body of water, and since many of the animals that compete with the black crappie for food end up losing because the crappie will end up killing and eating it. The black crappie has a few predators that compete with it for other food. The largemouth bass; the great blue heron; the king fisher; the common snapping turtle; sea gulls; and humans are the main predators of the black crappie.

The only way to reduce the black crappie's impact is to fish them for food and for fun.

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/black_crappie.htm
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/crappie/

The Endangered Aye-aye

The Aye-aye is an endangered species of lemur, which is apart of the primate family. Aye-ayes are located on the Eastern Coast of Madagascar. There natural habitat is the rainforest, they create their nest in the canopies of the trees. They sleep during the day and forage for food at night. The Aye-aye eats berries, nuts, fruit and by using their long middle fingers, they chew and poke holes into trees so the can grab grub from inside.

Many Aye-aye are driven out of the forests due to deforestation, so they end up on the streets of the towns nearby. As deforestation continues, many of these animals die, because they are sleeping and do not know what is going on until it is to late. Many are killed when they are being captured for zoos. Due to their odd looking appearance, many people want to capture them and show the world how they look and the way they act. The Aye-aye is very peaceful and extremely friendly, in some cases, they will go up to people and eat food right out of the people's hands.

There is a legend of the Aye-aye in Madagascar. The Malagasy People believe that the Aye-aye is a symbol of death. They say that the Aye-aye will enter into people's homes and use their long, boney middle fingers to stab a person in the heart, killing them. This causes a lot of fear, so when an Aye-aye is spotted inside of a village, the people will take whatever they have, and kill it. This is the main reason why the Aye-aye are endangered, because they are feared, and because they will steal food from the home of the villagers.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/aye-aye/
http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/aye-aye

Why Are Mountain Gorillas Becoming Extinct?

Humans and gorillas are 98% genetically identical. You may ask or not know, "Why is this important?" Its important to understand that gorillas are much like us both socially, and genetically. 

Mountain gorillas are the largest of all primates. They have long arms, massive chests, and very large hands and feet. They are the hairiest gorillas out of all gorillas, they have thick black hair which keeps them warm when they nest in the high elevations of the jungle canopies. Gorillas are very strong, but docile. They will become hostile when a predator or a human enters their territory.

There are only 786 mountain gorillas left in the world. Almost all of them live in four separate national parks in Africa. Mountain gorillas live in groups. Any group can have from two, to forty gorillas in at at a time. These groups are led by the alfa-male, also known as the silverback. They are called silverbacks because when they become adults in the gorilla community, they grow gray hairs on their backs. These males protect the groups from danger and make all of the group's decisions. 

The reasons mountain gorillas are becoming extinct are the destruction of their homes and poaching. Forest clearing destroys all of their food, and homes that the make in the trees. Poaching is a gigantic threat to the mountain gorilla. People will slaughter families to capture a baby gorilla to sell to zoos. People kill them to skin their hair to create fur coats,, boots, hand bags, and more. Some will remove the hands, heads, and feet to keep as trophies. Another reason why these creatures are becoming extinct is because they have an extremely low rate of reproduction. They are not replacing the elder gorillas, when they die, with new baby gorillas.

http://www.awf.org/content/wildlife/detail/mountaingorilla

 http://www.outtoafrica.nl/animals/enggorilla.html?zenden=2&subsoort_id=1&bestemming_id=1

Smog In Los Angeles

Los Angeles is one of the most polluted major cities in the United States, behind Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. For years Los Angeles has been covered by clouds of smog caused by an over abundance of pollution. The main cause of the pollution in Los Angeles is from the automobiles and the industrial/manufacturing of products. Over the past 100 years, the air in Los Angeles was scientifically proven to be unhealthy so, during the 1960s and 1970s, government set up laws against the amount of air pollution Los Angeles could make. Scientist found that the amount of pollution crated in Los Angeles was deadly to the O-Zone and caused a larger hole to be ripped into it.

At its peak of pollution, Los Angeles was virtually unseen from less than a mile away. The only way people could see L.A. from a distance was looking for the tops of the sky scrapers. Now, in 2011, the smog has virtually disappeared. Los Angeles can be seen from miles away now due to the strict laws to cut pollution and now that more people are going green, they cut back on the majority of pollution.

This Smog isn't just effecting the people on the west coast, this will effect the people who are back wind to them, like India and other Pacific places like China, Japan, Vietnam, and some entering the middle east. This is a problem that we must take care of, who is stopping other countries from doing the same thing to us in the United States?