New Members Introductions

 to WAA Liz

Good to have you here and so pleased you found us.

Bears - mmm well I love them but have never seen them in the wild, apart from in the very far distance in Alaska so definitely on my wish list.  

It sounds like you travel a huge amount, which I admit we do too!  It would be great if you could share some photos.  We have a section which you can add to.

We've 3 dogs, One Rhodesian Ridgeback, Tamu, named after a lioness in Big Cat Diaries, and 2 rescue greyhounds, Rosie and Kip.  They're all around 7 and all get on famously.

I'm really into all wildlife, but especially Africa. My favourite place is Laikipia in Kenya.   Happily my husband enjoys it too  so we get to Kenya once a year together and then I do a photographic safari once a year with a friend.  We've just been to Namibia which was out of this world for scenery.

If you have any questions do ask.  WS is the expert on how to upload stuff sorry Doogs, you are too

Lai

I'm sure we would all love to see any of your photos from your safari trips Inc your bears f you would like to share them. You can post photos after being a member for 7 days. If you need any help with that let me know. You can upload them into Members Safari trips section which you will see on the home page.

WS

Thanks everyone!

We have lots of photos & videos... we even have our own website to help fellow travellers... so lots of trip reports too - we don't have any adverts on our website so we get nothing (financial) out of people visiting, we do it as a hobby and a record (like a journal) that we can look back on. Sure is cheaper than printing thousands of pictures (thank goodness for digital cameras!)

Other than the fact that I have to wait 7 days anyway, I don't want to overload the forum! So I will only post pictures and videos if they are relevant to the discussions.

I'm now going to spend a couple of hours looking through this wonderful forum and do as Doogs suggested and resurrect some old threads :)

Hi Liz.
Welcome to WAA. Like you I also came across WAA by chance a couple of years ago. I had just returned from a safari to the Mara and I was trying to find information on two lions I had seen, Moja and his mother Nyota, and WAA's name came up and I have been a member since then!!!
We are a very friendly bunch of animal lovers of all sorts and never be afraid to state your opinions if you feel strongly about something. We have some lively discussions from time to time!!
My name interest (obsession) is the wildlife of Africa particularly the big cats and I have been fortunate to be able to get out to sub-saharan Africa a couple of times a year having visited Zambia, SA and now Kenya, where I will be returning at the end of Sept. Other than that my UK wildlife watching is limited to the birds in and around my garden.
I know very little about our ursine friends and it will be good to learn a lot more about them from your posts. My only encounter with bears has been either at the zoo when I was very small and on one occasion in India when unfortunately the bear was muzzled and in chains and having to perform as a dancing bear!!
I look forward to seeing your posts, photos and videos.

SM

Hi SM,

Thanks for the lovely welcome.

I will have to make some time to read your posts about safaris in SA & Zambia... we have considered both but have been put off by various reasons including canned trophy hunting (and not knowing which reserves are the 'right' ones to visit) and Kenya being so much better value for money per head of big cats to be seen!

I can be very opinionated about wildlife being left to be wild and keeping human interaction to a minimum. I am totally against trophy hunting and killing animals for 'sport'. I am currently going through period of inner turmoil while I debate with myself about becoming a vegetarian. It is natural for us to eat meat, but I hate the way 'we' generally treat animals... if only we could allow animals to live naturally wild lives and then only harvest what we need.

I'm really looking forward to reading everyone's posts and to posting in the new bear section and to being able share pictures etc. Until then I'll keep on reading :)

Liz

Totally agree Liz as I know the Guys on here do, about canned hunting, and I include Trophy hunting, and hunting for sport . Did you know there are more Lions in captivity in SA on ranches than there are in the wild in Kenya, and SA added together ?. Chris AWD ( The AWD stands for African Wildlife Detective, he has his own site on FB, and is a member here, he lives in SA ) told us that. Its not just the wildlife of Africa that are persecuted,  but also other wildlife on our planet, inc Bears like the hunting of Black Bears in the USA. I can understand, and accept people hunting for their own food to eat, especially where communities really have no choice, and they need to eat to survive, we are after all by our DNA Hunter Gatherers. I can also understand the need for culls in some cases where there is an over population as long as its dome as humanely as possible, but I also know that these over population cases are almost entirely caused by the human race, by habitat loss, and interference with nature. Without our effect on the planet, nature has it's own way of sorting these inbalances out.
Having said that about SA I would love to see the White Lions at Timbavarti Game reserve
WS

Hi WMT.....Liz

Sorry for the late welcome, it's lovely to have you here and it sounds as though you have some great experiences to share with us all and we love to hear about different wildlife experiences and of course see lots of lovely pics too. You have a wide variety of interests there. I love African wildlife, big cats yes, my favourite is the Tiger, never seen a wild one and I believe they are hard to spot even on an organised trip, a friend of mine has been very lucky to see some in India in Bandhavgarh.
I am a lover of all wildlife.....although creepy crawlies do make me shiver......but I do really have a passion for British Wildlife and care passionately about animal welfare.

I have two American semi longhaired Maine Coons, Tiga is my Male and Splodge is my Female, I also have a Black Cocker Spaniel called Nero.......sometimes he doesn't really know if he is a dog or a cat but they all get along famously which is just fantastic.

I am glad you found us by your search and it's great that you are planning on staying around and I hope that in the time you have been here you are enjoying the forum. It's fantastically friendly so I hope you are feeling at home.

Promise I will catch up on your bear threads very soon.......Again a HUGE Welcome to WAA

littlewid-x-

Hi Littlewid,

Thank you, everyone has made me feel very welcome here and I have really enjoyed going back through old threads and posts

My husband and I have been really fortunate to travel to many places to view wildlife including India to see tigers. I'm away from home at the moment, but will be home for the weekend, I'll post a couple of tiger pics when I have access to my PC again

I used to have a Blue roan cocker spaniel, they make great companions & can be lots of fun!

Hope I haven't gone too overboard with my bear posts, I do have quite a passion for them!

Thanks again,

Liz

Hi!!!

Merry Christmas and happy new year! This is SeeWildChina. It's nice to have found your forum through yahoo search today! I'm glad to join a forum with lots of people sharing the same interest in wild animals.    

To tell you something about myself:
My animal encounters started early in life. I lived several years on a farm which lots of animals also called home to - horses, cattles, cats, dogs, chicks, pigs, not to mention all sorts of insects... As a little girl, I was shown animal specimens through a microscope. My first pet was a sweet baby kitten, she always slept by my side at night. Later on, I got a bunch of other small animals, such as Brazilian turtles, chickens, hamsters, golden fish and rabbit. I haven't had any pets for a long time now, but would like to have a cat when I get more time and less demands for traveling in the future. Curling in a bamboo chair and taking a nap together with my cat in the sunshine would be nice!    

I've never used an avatar before, so will figure it out later, it's always nice to learn something new. As to my favorite animals, I probably should say cats, although I enjoy very much watching eagles cruising at ease high up in the sky as well. My feelings toward some animals changed after gaining more information about them. Crows for example, is considered inauspicious in most areas in China, however after I learned that emperors of the Qing Dynasty treated them as devine birds and served them food when they held sacrificial ceremonies for their ancestors and various Gods, and also that legend of aboriginals in Alaska has it that ravens stole the sun to bring back light on earth, my feeling towards the crows changed.  

I enjoy viewing wild animals in their natural habitats. There are lots of places on my list that I would like to visit and also lots of animals that I would like to see. For now enough animals in China keep me busy, in the future I would also like to visit the Amazon rainforest.

I apologize for any errors in spelling and grammar, or even confusions should they occur even though I tried my best to avoid them.

SeeWildChina
SC (has anybody already taken this one? Please feel free to let me know)

Hi SC ( SeeWildChina )

 Welcome to WAA

Your English is excellent, and a lot better than my Chinese . The name you have chosen, and the intials you've selected SC have not been used by anyone so they are yours. you've certainly had some different pets, and animals. It is quiet here at the moment with the Christmas  Holidays, but I'm sure the guys will welcome you soon, and have lots of questions about wildlife in China. In the meantime I have done some instructions with photos, on how to do your Avatar.








Hope that helps, if you have any problems let me know, also if you need help with uploading photos or anything else.

Hopefully see you soon

WS ( Whitestarling the Admin Team )

Hello SC and a big to WAA. It sounds like you have a very varied interest in all wildlife. I hope you enjoy looking round the forum, we have so many different topics and threads.

If you need any help with anything just ask. WS is the expert on techie things

Lai
(Laikipia)

Avatar's working, thank you WS for your instruction with image! It is easy to understand and to follow, definitely very helpful, I wouldn't be able to set it up in a minute without it! It's very nice of you to comment on my English, I know there's still a lot for me to learn, I'm sure if you spend enough time on Chinese, your Chinese will catch up with my English:).

I'll take the opportunity to look around the forum. There's certainly a wealth of interesting information here. And since it's the relatively quiet time in the forum at this time of the year, it's a good time to do it. Thank you Lai!

Look forward to chat more after the holidays!

SC(SeeWildChina)

HI SC and to WAA, it's good to have you with us. WS is right, your English is very good, maybe you could teach us some chinese words in relation to animals

Good to know your another cat lover, they are one of my favourite animals, little and large ones and im the proud owner......or do they own me!!!! of two cats......Tiga and Splodge, I also have a gorgeous Cocker Spaniel dog.

You mention demands for travelling, is that to do with your job or is it visiting for pleasure? Hopefully in the future you will be able to get your cat.

As you say, it is quiet at the moment so you will have time to look around and see what interests you, there is plenty to look at and if there is anything you would like to add then please feel free.

Welcome once again, enjoy the forum and look forward to chatting more soon.

littlewid-x-

Hi littlewid, thank you for welcoming me. I would be glad to share with you any Chinese words related to animals that you are interested to learn. It can be tough at the beginning since Chinese is very different, but it will become easier after some time.

How nice to have cats and dog at your home, they are all wonderful companions! I bet they get a lot of love from you, and you too from them. Very likely your cats and dog feel proud to own you as well:).

As to the traveling demands, I take pleasure in them. As a biologist, I have always been interested in biology. Most of my previous works involved basic research done on model animals. After watching a TV program made jointly by BBC and CCTV called “Wild China”, I was intrigued to check out wildlife in China. The TV program can not possibly cover all species. There are a lot more animal species to watch and even to be discovered and named in China. I try to do research on the destination and species there before my trip. I hope my traveling will lead to more meaningful work in the future, such as conservation work, sharing with other people, writing articles, and discovering a few new species.

While browsing through the forum, I am very impressed of the amount of posting here, and the forum is only 5 years old?! Thumbs up!!! I hope to post soon, currently I'm in the process of learning the ropes here.

SC

Hi SC

I am sure you will now be inundated with request to translate English into Chinese........I could start with the basics of Cat and Dog........always good to start simply in my book

Oh yes the love is a two way thing from my lovely pets and me, I would not be without them and they give so much love back, I could not imagine my life without furry creatures in it, it would be a sad life.

I remember the program Wild China, I don't recall watching it though, sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the good programs but it may be the kind of program that can be found on DVD.
It would be wonderful if your work, knowledge and travels could help towards conservation, what a legacy that would be. As a Nurse my work does not involve animals but I surely try to do my bit with supporting many causes. Maybe my New Years Resolution should be to try and make my own mark and get involved with some conservation work.

The forum has done very well over the last five years, it has it's quiet times like other forums I would imagine but on the whole its a fantastic place to be and everyone is so friendly and we do love sharing news and pictures and the knowledge that we have or have gained. Thanks for the Thumbs up......that means a lot.

littlewid-x-

The first thing that jumped into my mind when I saw your username SC was the series Wild China, that was a really good series, but as you say it could not possibly cover all the wildlife species of China. People tend to look for, and concentrate on the larger animal species, and forget the biodiversity of an area that allows these animals to exist. Everything in wildlife is a chain that starts right at the very bottom under the ground, or sea bottom. Without the life that starts, and exists there we would not have the larger species of animals. When you think about it nature is a wonderful thing, left to its own devices Mother Nature balance every part of the biodiversity of our planet, and the only thing that upsets that balance is human beings. So research like your is really vital into the little known species, to help us understand more about the planet, and country we live in. I wish you luck on your travels, and success in what you are trying to achieve.

WS

Hi littlewid,

Requests for translating English into Chinese is welcomed, it’s a pleasure for me to show people animal related words in Chinese. It's a good idea to start with the basic words, the two words you chose “Dog and Cat” both contain two parts each - the left part which is the same for both words suggests a mammal, and the right part gives a hint for its pronunciation. If you see the left part next time in the name of an other animal, you could guess that the animal is most likely a mammal. Dog is written like this: 狗(pinyin is “gou”, third tone), and Cat is written like this: 猫(pinyin is “mao”, first tone). It is extremely important to learn correct pronunciations if you want to speak in Chinese. The easiest way is to learn “pinyin”- a pronunciation system for Chinese characters. It’s hard for me to describe the pronunciation, this website has animated lessons on pinyin: http://www.words-chinese.com/2010/02/happy-chinese-pinyin-12-lessons.htm, you could pronounce Dog and Cat after learning the lessons. You could ignore the Chinese content of the lessons for now and just focus on pronunciation of English letters in pinyin. One thing to notice, the Chinese pronunciation for cat sounds very much like the cat’s miao:).

The Wild China is on DVD, there may be an English version of it online as well. Yeah, it’s hard to keep up with every good program.

Nurses are totally holy for us, we call nurses “angels in white”. Your work must have improved the quality of life for a lot of people. It’s good to consider contributing to conservation work of wildlife as well, so to help saving wildlife as well other than humans:). The conservation work is down the road, currently my main effort is focused on designing and organizing wildlife trips. I have several ideas for conservation work now but still far away from implementing them, because such work need both funds and involvement of local people and authorities.

The forum is indeed quite impressive, and I can see people here are all very nice and friendly animal lovers. It’s so nice to be here and share with people with the same interest in animals.

SC (SeeWildChina)

Thank you for your encouragement, WS, I will try my best to do as much as I can. Considering the number of species that have been identified is only about 12% of the total estimated number of species on earth, the unknowns are the vast majority, however I think these may be more elusive and in smaller numbers.

I agree with your systematic view on wildlife that all species are interconnected – large or small, they form a complicated web, without smaller ones the larger ones won’t survive either. Yes, I too think that humans pose the main threats to the biodiversity on earth.

SC

HI SC

Thank you so much for that. Is Pinyin the most commonly spoken Chinese? I have looked at the link and had my first lesson with the little dinosaur, it's like learning your ABC all over again, in fact it was like pronouncing our vowels in a completely different way. Chinese is not going to be easy to learn is it but I will seriously have a good go. So I have the hang of cat I believe  but is dog like goooo or like ge - ooo or is the O more like the O in go? who would have thought Dog would be so difficult but it's quite fascinating. I am obviously not going to progress to another animal this evening

You are right, conservation work does take funds and the support of local people. Are you looking for sponsors to help you or do you plan to work with other organisations? Designing and organising wildlife trips sounds very exciting, are these going to be educational or pleasure with the education as an added interest?

Nurses here can still be referred to as Angels but not as often as they used to be and I think that is because the nature of the job has changed so much. You still have all the basic and bedside care but nurses are trained to quite a high level now and tend to specialise so you become experts in your field and can often work their own case load instead of or on behalf of a consultant. However you are right, nurses do change so many peoples lives whether its at the bedside or in a specialist capacity. It is a lovely career to have and I have thoroughly enjoyed mine. I am sure that the conservation work will come along in time but I would like it to be at a time when I physically have more free time to give to it as I believe you have to be serious about it.

Anyway if I disappear off of here for a bit, you know it's because I am trying to perfect my zero knowledge of the Chinese language

littlewid-x-

Hi Littlewid,

Pinyin is a system that marks the pronunciation for Chinese characters, it can be used to indicate pronunciations of any Chinese characters either in Mandarin or in any other dialects, and Mandarin is the most commonly spoken. Yes, Pinyin uses English letters with different pronunciations, it allows one to pronounce any Chinese characters in Chinese way, so it is good to start with. Hope the animated lessons make it easier to learn. Dog is pronounced similar to "go" (in third tone), English pronunciation is similar enough in this case. As to your question: the latter is more precise. The pronunciations for "ou" and "ao" appear in latter lessons, similar to ou in "soul" and ou in "out" respectively. It's good that you kind of figured out the pronunciation for Dog after learning just one lesson!:)

Conservation work indeed will take a lot of fund and extensive collabration with other people and organizations, it has to be done in the correct way. The wildlife trips that I am and will be working on will be mostly for pleasure, but there is educational element as well which is not filled with jargons, but things like the nasal bone of subspecies of Takin living at a higher latitude is placed higher on the skull than subspecies living at a lower latitude;the mother giant pandas fast 2 weeks after giving birth to a baby; etc..:).

It's interesting to know that "Angel" in your country suggests nurses at basic level and bedside care, but not nurses who are specialists. In my country "angel in white" mostly refer to nurses, sometimes doctors as well, and it is a positive expression with no doubt. It's definitely interesting to find out all the differences in different areas of the world!

See you around in the forum:)

SC