Hi, Kids!  I discovered that in the All Things Wild Forum, there is a thread "Pictures taken during studytrip, Kenya" by Fabby.  I noticed in one of the pictures the road and soil was very red.  It looked like the iron ore mining pits we have here in northern MN.  From 1942-1968 there were also a few low grade ore mining pits in SE MN where I grew up.  For a time, they were mining some pits about 3 miles south of me and there was a crushing, processing plant just a few miles north of me.  I lived on the highway and 1/2 mile south of our farm, the huge ore dump trucks would turn onto the highway and would be shifting gears right at the end of our driveway.  A truck would go past every 3 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  There are no lakes in SE MN, even though the state is famous as The Land of 10,000 Lakes.  We used to go swimming in the old iron ore pits.  Very dangerous!  Water that was spring fed and very cold and huge drop offs.  I was not a good swimmer and came close to drowning there one day!  If you are interested in learning anything about iron ore mining in MN, you can Google "Minnesota's Geology" a book by Richard W. Ojakangas, Charles L Matsch.  You will find a book review there.  Chapter 8, Metallic Minerals, on page 125 tells some about iron mining in MN and on page 132 mentions the mines near where I grew up.  Spring Valley, Ostrander, Etna and Chatfield.  While I was looking for other places that had red soil, I also found this website that has a lesson plan that you might like to do in your science classes.

https://www.soils.org/lessons/plans/lessons/color.html

Hi Kids!  I was trying to find out what makes that high pitched sound at night at the NK waterhole.  I thought it was a frog or toad, but it is probably an African Cicada.  Someone thought there must be a lot of them in the marula tree, sitting right near the mic.  They are rather quiet right at the moment.  Wonder if a leopard or other climbing cat is there right now?!  Anyway, this website has a long list of interesting facts about animals.  I don't know if I gave you this before or not.  When you get to the section that tells about the loudest, you will find that it says this cicada is almost as loud as a road drill!

http://www.g-kexoticfarms.com/funanimalfacts.html

There is a picture of one on this website:

http://www.entomon.net/locust-swarms-african-cicadas-at-107-decibels.htm m

Say Kids, are you working on a chart or graph that shows how tall each animal we see is compared to each other?  I noticed today that the National Geographic site has a big list of animals from all over the world.  Some of the ones I see there that we have seen at Nkorho are African Elephant, African Lion, African Wild Dog, Baboons, Cheetah, Egret, Giraffe, Hippo, Hyena, Impala, Leopard, Mongoose, Spotted Hyena, Squirrel, Vulture, Warthog, Wildebeest and Zebra.  Each animal article shows how big they are compared to a 6 foot tall man.  It also tells how tall each one is and how much they can weigh.  Some of the pages have sound clips too.  Maybe you could use the size drawing for each one and then put them all in order by height and you could also make a graph that shows them in order of weight too.  I would be interested to see that.  You maybe have already explored their entire site, but if you haven't here is the website for Facts, Information, Photos, Pictures, Sounds, Habitats, Reports, News

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals

Ms Charlie, you started a number of forum topics "All things.......".  I see you have two separate ones for "following the Mapogo Pride" and "All things Nkuhuma Pride".  If you want some more about lions in general, this site has lots of information.  It has interesting pictures of their teeth too!

http://www.predatorconservation.com/lion.htm

Cynthia

I agree entirely with the view of Born Free, on the suspect value of certain zoos and wildlife parks in our modern society - and have expressed the same views myself on many occasions.

However, the arguments for keeping wild animals in captivity that some Zoo organisations (such as the London Zoological Society, among others) put forward are difficult to dispute - in that they do valuable work towards the conservation and the preservation of endangered species.

Certain species of Rhino - just one example - would now be extinct in the wild if it were not for the extensive research and breeding programmes that have been carried out, over many years, by zoos around the world, who work in conjunction with projects in the countries where these animal naturally occur.

There are too many zoos which are only interested in making money - and use their existence as an excuse that children will not learn about wildlife if they were not there - but there are a few whose intentions are very credible and whose research efforts results in the saving of many animal species.

I suggest that anyone who is planning to visit a zoo does some research beforehand to ascertain whether they perform valuable conservation work and whether the conditions the animals are kept in are acceptable.

** AFRICAM - BOOK (3) ADD YOUR PAN CAM PHOTOS

THIS  SITE HAS   ANIMAL  FACTS AND SIGHTINGS AT THE

 NKORHO WATER HOLE AREA - THE KIDS  MIGHT GET

SOME INFORMATION IN HERE ON AFRICA ANIMALS  ETC

http://www.africam.com/wildlife/africam_book_3_add_your_pan_cam_photos

This is an opinion written in response to the tiger killing in SF zoo. I thought it would be a great discussion in your class. Just think...think...what we could do in the wild with all the money spent in this country to build bigger & stronger cages.

You kids can help make a different world.