Extinct in the Wild
This week's series is animals with blue in their name.
In spite of the fact that a national park makes up almost ⅔ of Australian territory on the island, many species there are suffering. The forest skink is now extinct, but thankfully more than 60 of these were captured right before a massive die-off. They are hoping to reintroduce them eventually. There were a lot of them up until the 1980's. There are more than 1000 now in captivity. There is an island called Pulu Blan nearby. They are hoping to put 300 skinks there. Due to the continued prevalence of crazy yellow ants, wolf snakes, feral cats, etc., it is impossible for them to go back to their original home. Pulu Blan is only 6½ feet above sea level, so a tsunami or other massive storm could sweep everything off the island, which is why they are not releasing all of them there.
Living in Oregon with parents who live at the coast, the potential of a tsunami wiping out everything is in the back of my mind quite often. When Oregon has "the big one" of the earthquakes that is expected, there will be a tsunami most likely, and a whole lot of the coast here will be gone. If it stays standing through the earthquake, my parents' home should survive. I've made them a survival kit, so that if this happens while they are there. I want to make sure they can get by until help gets to them. Mild soap box here. I'm not an extreme prepper, not by a long shot, but I like to be prepared for anything. Please, if you live in an area likely to have a natural disaster, set aside at maybe a week of food and water, a way to prepare that food, a way to purify additional water, a way to keep warm, and a way to provide shelter. There are the 3s of survival. You can live 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. All of them have additional information, like your time without shelter could be vastly different in a great balmy climate, but it is easy to remember.