I recenlty read about a non profit dedicated to giving lab chimpanzees a better life . After reading that several of them were afraid to go to sleep at night , I contacted them and we are sending them some of our favorite bedtime plush toys- the cuddly plush" Judy" wild bactrian camel from our book - Bradford and the Journey to the desert of Lop.
To learn more about Save the Chimps- visit- http://www.savethechimps.org/about.asp
and see why were compelled to reach out
Monday, June 19, 2006
Monday, May 22, 2006
Gobi- Taklimakan Ancient lost city
Ancient city reveals life in NW China desert 2,200 years ago
Chinese and French archaeologists claim to have discovered the ruins of an ancient city which disappeared in the desert in Northwest China more than 2,200 years ago.
The ancient city, shaped like a peach, is located in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the second largest shifting desert in the world, covering a total area of 337,600 square kilometers, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
full story :
">http://english.people.com.cn/200605/22/eng20060522_267664.html">
Chinese and French archaeologists claim to have discovered the ruins of an ancient city which disappeared in the desert in Northwest China more than 2,200 years ago.
The ancient city, shaped like a peach, is located in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the second largest shifting desert in the world, covering a total area of 337,600 square kilometers, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
full story :
">http://english.people.com.cn/200605/22/eng20060522_267664.html">
Thursday, April 20, 2006
I would like a camel milk chocolate please
camel milk- even a new kind of camel milk chocolate could be on its way-
Read more :
camel milk: Surmounting a few production humps
Thursday, 20 April 2006,
Press Release: United Nations
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0604/S00337.htm
By surmounting a few production humps, camel milk could bring in billions – UN
Developing camel dairy products such as milk can not only provide more food to people in arid and semi-arid areas but also give nomadic herders a rich source of income, with a $10 billion world market entirely within the realm of possibility, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“The potential is massive. Milk is money,” FAO’s Dairy and Meat expert Anthony Bennett said in a review of camel milk potential, noting that the agency is hoping donors and investors will come forward to develop the sector not only at the local level but helping it move into lucrative markets in the Middle East and the West.
“No one’s suggesting intensive camel dairy farming, but just with improved feed, husbandry and veterinary care daily yields could rise to 20 litres,” he added, noting that at present production is a low-tech business with a meagre five litres a day considered a decent yield.
Since fresh camel milk fetches roughly $1 a litre on African markets, that would mean serious money for nomad herders who now have few other sources of revenue.
From the Western Sahara to Mongolia demand is booming for camel milk, but there just isn’t enough to go round. State-of-the art camel rearing is rudimentary, and much of the 5.4 million tonnes of milk currently produced every year by the world population of some 20 million camels is guzzled by young camels themselves.
To devotees, camel milk is pure nectar. While slightly saltier than cows’ milk, it is three times as rich in Vitamin C as its bovine equivalent. But tapping the market involves surmounting a series of humps in production, manufacturing and marketing.
One problem lies in the milk itself, which has so far not proved to be compatible with the UHT (Ultra High Temperature) treatment needed to make it long-lasting. But the main challenge stems from the fact that the producers involved are, overwhelmingly, nomads, a situation similar to a tomato cannery depending on suppliers who regularly disappear, taking their tomatoes with them.
Another problem is that nomad camel herders are often reluctant to sell their spare milk, which tradition reserves for honoured guests and the poor. It has been noted, however, that such reluctance can be dispelled by the offer of a good price.
Jumping on the camel train, Vienna-based chocolatier Johann Georg Hochleitner intends to launch this autumn a low-fat, camel milk chocolate with funding from the Abu Dhabi royal family, making it in Austria from powdered milk produced at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, then shipping 50 tons back to the Gulf each month.
“It sounds crazy but it’s a huge project. There’s a potential market of 200 million in the Arab world,” Mr. Hochleitner says.
Read more :
camel milk: Surmounting a few production humps
Thursday, 20 April 2006,
Press Release: United Nations
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0604/S00337.htm
By surmounting a few production humps, camel milk could bring in billions – UN
Developing camel dairy products such as milk can not only provide more food to people in arid and semi-arid areas but also give nomadic herders a rich source of income, with a $10 billion world market entirely within the realm of possibility, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
“The potential is massive. Milk is money,” FAO’s Dairy and Meat expert Anthony Bennett said in a review of camel milk potential, noting that the agency is hoping donors and investors will come forward to develop the sector not only at the local level but helping it move into lucrative markets in the Middle East and the West.
“No one’s suggesting intensive camel dairy farming, but just with improved feed, husbandry and veterinary care daily yields could rise to 20 litres,” he added, noting that at present production is a low-tech business with a meagre five litres a day considered a decent yield.
Since fresh camel milk fetches roughly $1 a litre on African markets, that would mean serious money for nomad herders who now have few other sources of revenue.
From the Western Sahara to Mongolia demand is booming for camel milk, but there just isn’t enough to go round. State-of-the art camel rearing is rudimentary, and much of the 5.4 million tonnes of milk currently produced every year by the world population of some 20 million camels is guzzled by young camels themselves.
To devotees, camel milk is pure nectar. While slightly saltier than cows’ milk, it is three times as rich in Vitamin C as its bovine equivalent. But tapping the market involves surmounting a series of humps in production, manufacturing and marketing.
One problem lies in the milk itself, which has so far not proved to be compatible with the UHT (Ultra High Temperature) treatment needed to make it long-lasting. But the main challenge stems from the fact that the producers involved are, overwhelmingly, nomads, a situation similar to a tomato cannery depending on suppliers who regularly disappear, taking their tomatoes with them.
Another problem is that nomad camel herders are often reluctant to sell their spare milk, which tradition reserves for honoured guests and the poor. It has been noted, however, that such reluctance can be dispelled by the offer of a good price.
Jumping on the camel train, Vienna-based chocolatier Johann Georg Hochleitner intends to launch this autumn a low-fat, camel milk chocolate with funding from the Abu Dhabi royal family, making it in Austria from powdered milk produced at Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, then shipping 50 tons back to the Gulf each month.
“It sounds crazy but it’s a huge project. There’s a potential market of 200 million in the Arab world,” Mr. Hochleitner says.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Baby bactrian camel born in Wales
Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo is the home to new baby camel "Scrummy" , the first bactrian camel born in Wales
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=16905899&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=scrummy-s-a-real-mummy-s-girl-name_page.html#story_continue
Scrummy's a real mummy's girl Apr 5 2006
By David Powell, Daily Post
BABY camel Scrummy makes her first public appearance at Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo yesterday.
Scrummy became the first Bactrian camel to be born in Wales when proud mum Flanka gave birth on February 16.
Bactrian camels are highly endangered with only 1,000 remaining in the wild, and the zoo is part of a carefully controlled international captive species breeding programme.
Mum Flanka and dad Lock - named in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup - are enjoying the company of their lively new offspring who, while cute and cuddly now, will grow to be
North Wales
Scrummy's a real mummy's girl Apr 5 2006
By David Powell, Daily Post
BABY camel Scrummy makes her first public appearance at Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo yesterday.
Scrummy became the first Bactrian camel to be born in Wales when proud mum Flanka gave birth on February 16.
Bactrian camels are highly endangered with only 1,000 remaining in the wild, and the zoo is part of a carefully controlled international captive species breeding programme.
Mum Flanka and dad Lock - named in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup - are enjoying the company of their lively new offspring who, while cute and cuddly now, will grow to be 2.4m (seven feet) tall and will weigh three quarters of a tonne.
Zoo director Nick Jackson said: "It is wonderful that we now have a genuine Welsh baby for our visitors to admire.
"Camels are big, beautiful and delightfully smelly creatures. They grab respect and admiration from children and adults."
Bactrian camels are the two-humped variety and are found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and in the Gashun Gobi in China.
They featured in the BBC's Planet Earth documentary on Sunday, when viewers watched a dramatic chase across a desert to film the timid creatures.
They are recognised by the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) as highly endangered.
for info on saving wild bactrian camels visit: www.wildcamels.com
http://icnorthwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/regionalnews/tm_objectid=16905899&method=full&siteid=50142&headline=scrummy-s-a-real-mummy-s-girl-name_page.html#story_continue
Scrummy's a real mummy's girl Apr 5 2006
By David Powell, Daily Post
BABY camel Scrummy makes her first public appearance at Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo yesterday.
Scrummy became the first Bactrian camel to be born in Wales when proud mum Flanka gave birth on February 16.
Bactrian camels are highly endangered with only 1,000 remaining in the wild, and the zoo is part of a carefully controlled international captive species breeding programme.
Mum Flanka and dad Lock - named in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup - are enjoying the company of their lively new offspring who, while cute and cuddly now, will grow to be
North Wales
Scrummy's a real mummy's girl Apr 5 2006
By David Powell, Daily Post
BABY camel Scrummy makes her first public appearance at Colwyn Bay Welsh Mountain Zoo yesterday.
Scrummy became the first Bactrian camel to be born in Wales when proud mum Flanka gave birth on February 16.
Bactrian camels are highly endangered with only 1,000 remaining in the wild, and the zoo is part of a carefully controlled international captive species breeding programme.
Mum Flanka and dad Lock - named in the aftermath of the Rugby World Cup - are enjoying the company of their lively new offspring who, while cute and cuddly now, will grow to be 2.4m (seven feet) tall and will weigh three quarters of a tonne.
Zoo director Nick Jackson said: "It is wonderful that we now have a genuine Welsh baby for our visitors to admire.
"Camels are big, beautiful and delightfully smelly creatures. They grab respect and admiration from children and adults."
Bactrian camels are the two-humped variety and are found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and in the Gashun Gobi in China.
They featured in the BBC's Planet Earth documentary on Sunday, when viewers watched a dramatic chase across a desert to film the timid creatures.
They are recognised by the International Union for Conservation and Nature (IUCN) as highly endangered.
for info on saving wild bactrian camels visit: www.wildcamels.com
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Illegal miners threaten wild camel's survival
Illegal miners threaten wild camel's survival
From Jane Macartney in Beijing
ON AN expedition in China’s remote Lop Nur desert six years ago the British explorer and camel conservationist John Hare stumbled across a valley whose rare argali sheep and endangered wild Tibetan asses had never seen man.
Returning late last year to the Kum Su spring, Mr Hare found a valley of death. Sheep skeletons lay on the ground and no living animal was to be seen. Gold-miners had found the spring and had used its water for the processing of rock with potassium cyanide to extract the precious metal. They had shot the sheep for food and left behind 74 opened four-gallon cyanide drums. Mr Hare, founder of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, said: “You can imagine my feelings — to go into a naive animal population is so rare on this planet and to go back and to find the whole thing devastated.”
The spring lies in hills at the foot of the Arjin escarpment, in the foothills of Tibet within the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve that covers 65,000 sq km (25,000 sq miles) of mostly inhospitable desert in far western China. For decades this was a nuclear testing ground. Mr Hare said: “If this is not checked in the Arjin and Kunlun mountains it will be lethal to all wildlife.” It was another survey of the wild Bactrian camel, the last in the world, that had taken the explorer to the Kum Su spring. In the spring in 1999 he saw a wild camel waddle away into the desert at his approach. On his visit last year, he saw none.
Nevertheless, he believes that 650 of the double-humped camels — on the critically endangered list of the World Conservation Union since 2002 — still roam in Lop Nur. Aerial surveys to assess the numbers are impossible since the shy animals make their home in what remains a military zone. Threats to the survival of the dwindling herds come not only from the miners, but from hunters and wolves. There were 3,000 wild camels in 1980-81 but it is now outnumbered by the endangered panda, estimated at 1,000 still in the wild.
more info - http://www.wildheartranch.com/ourBrands/ob_desertOfLop.htm
or www.wildcamels.com
From Jane Macartney in Beijing
ON AN expedition in China’s remote Lop Nur desert six years ago the British explorer and camel conservationist John Hare stumbled across a valley whose rare argali sheep and endangered wild Tibetan asses had never seen man.
Returning late last year to the Kum Su spring, Mr Hare found a valley of death. Sheep skeletons lay on the ground and no living animal was to be seen. Gold-miners had found the spring and had used its water for the processing of rock with potassium cyanide to extract the precious metal. They had shot the sheep for food and left behind 74 opened four-gallon cyanide drums. Mr Hare, founder of the Wild Camel Protection Foundation, said: “You can imagine my feelings — to go into a naive animal population is so rare on this planet and to go back and to find the whole thing devastated.”
The spring lies in hills at the foot of the Arjin escarpment, in the foothills of Tibet within the Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve that covers 65,000 sq km (25,000 sq miles) of mostly inhospitable desert in far western China. For decades this was a nuclear testing ground. Mr Hare said: “If this is not checked in the Arjin and Kunlun mountains it will be lethal to all wildlife.” It was another survey of the wild Bactrian camel, the last in the world, that had taken the explorer to the Kum Su spring. In the spring in 1999 he saw a wild camel waddle away into the desert at his approach. On his visit last year, he saw none.
Nevertheless, he believes that 650 of the double-humped camels — on the critically endangered list of the World Conservation Union since 2002 — still roam in Lop Nur. Aerial surveys to assess the numbers are impossible since the shy animals make their home in what remains a military zone. Threats to the survival of the dwindling herds come not only from the miners, but from hunters and wolves. There were 3,000 wild camels in 1980-81 but it is now outnumbered by the endangered panda, estimated at 1,000 still in the wild.
more info - http://www.wildheartranch.com/ourBrands/ob_desertOfLop.htm
or www.wildcamels.com
Friday, December 30, 2005
Bradford and the Journey to the Desert of Lop
Bradford and the Journey to the Desert of Lop
Meet "Judy", a plush, wild Bactrian camel, from the story "Bradford and the Desert of Lop". Branded with a gold moon and star, this soft, cuddly nighttime companion is sure to send children on a magical, sleepy journey with the Sandman. This 14" soft plush toy includes a neck tag and web site info on The Wild Camel Protection Foundation, a United Kingdom registered charity, with Jane Goodall as its patron. click here
The new line of children's non violent toys and books produced by Wild Heart Ranch empowers children with cancer and brings awareness to the endangered wild Bactrian camel. The wild camels living in the far away Gobi Desert may offer a possible cure for illness based on preliminary research. The book teaches us that, "One small boy with cancer can change the world if you listen."
read more at http://www.wildheartranch.com/ourBrands/ob_desertOfLop.htm
the book at Barnes and Noble :
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=oI0FVKoCnw&isbn=0976176823&itm=3
Meet "Judy", a plush, wild Bactrian camel, from the story "Bradford and the Desert of Lop". Branded with a gold moon and star, this soft, cuddly nighttime companion is sure to send children on a magical, sleepy journey with the Sandman. This 14" soft plush toy includes a neck tag and web site info on The Wild Camel Protection Foundation, a United Kingdom registered charity, with Jane Goodall as its patron. click here
The new line of children's non violent toys and books produced by Wild Heart Ranch empowers children with cancer and brings awareness to the endangered wild Bactrian camel. The wild camels living in the far away Gobi Desert may offer a possible cure for illness based on preliminary research. The book teaches us that, "One small boy with cancer can change the world if you listen."
read more at http://www.wildheartranch.com/ourBrands/ob_desertOfLop.htm
the book at Barnes and Noble :
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=oI0FVKoCnw&isbn=0976176823&itm=3
Monday, December 26, 2005
Nuclear Testing - Desert of Lop
The area , once closed off was the home of 45 tests - 23 atmospheric and 22 underground all conducted at Lop Nur Nuclear Weapons Test Base in Malan Xinjiang
Xinjiang is home to several Muslim Turkic groups including the Uighurs and the Kazakhs . Other minority ethnic groups include Hui Chinese the Kirghiz the Mongols the Russians the Xibes the Tajik the Uzbek the Tatars and the Manchus .
Xinjiang is home to several Muslim Turkic groups including the Uighurs and the Kazakhs . Other minority ethnic groups include Hui Chinese the Kirghiz the Mongols the Russians the Xibes the Tajik the Uzbek the Tatars and the Manchus .
Wild Camels
The wild Bactrian camel, the remarkable ancestor of all domestic camels lives in three separated habitats in China and one in Mongolia. The wild Bactrian camel has been listed bu the IUCN in 2002 as critically endangered after years of pressure from the Wild Camel Protection Foundation. There are approximately 600 surviving in China and 350 in Mongolia making them rarer and more endangered than the giant panda. Their numbers are decreasing each year. The majority of these shy animals live in the parched Gashun Gobi (Lop Nur) desert in the south eastern area of the Mongolian. The wild Bactrian camel is a migrating species and moves across the Chinese Mongolian border.
learn more at www.wildcamels.com
learn more at www.wildcamels.com
New Highway for Desert in China - Silk Road Revisited
Silk Road ...
Xinjiang is home to the famous Taklimikan and Lop Nor deserts. It's also home to one-fifth of China's land area. Separating it from the Tibetan Plateau to the south are the soaring Altun and Kunlun mountains. To its west are Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan; to the north, Russia; and to the east, Mongolia and the rest of China.
At a cost of 0.8 billion yuan ( about 100 million US dollars), the Chinese Ministry of Communications is building China's longest domestic highway across the Taklimakan desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to People's Liberation Army Daily as announced in June of 2005
The "Aral to Hotan desert road" will be 424 kilometers in length. It will start at the city of Aral and end at the Hotan prefecture in the county of Lop.
The original route of the Silk Road , across the Lop Nor Desert and skirting the southern edge of the Taklimikan Desert , was abandoned in favour of a northern route due to the peril involved in crossing the Lop Nor.
Xinjiang is home to the famous Taklimikan and Lop Nor deserts. It's also home to one-fifth of China's land area. Separating it from the Tibetan Plateau to the south are the soaring Altun and Kunlun mountains. To its west are Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan; to the north, Russia; and to the east, Mongolia and the rest of China.
At a cost of 0.8 billion yuan ( about 100 million US dollars), the Chinese Ministry of Communications is building China's longest domestic highway across the Taklimakan desert in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to People's Liberation Army Daily as announced in June of 2005
The "Aral to Hotan desert road" will be 424 kilometers in length. It will start at the city of Aral and end at the Hotan prefecture in the county of Lop.
The original route of the Silk Road , across the Lop Nor Desert and skirting the southern edge of the Taklimikan Desert , was abandoned in favour of a northern route due to the peril involved in crossing the Lop Nor.
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