CHOCOLATE - Endangered Species Chocolate Company

Many thanks to my friend Gwen who recently sent me a few bars of chocolate from the Endangered Species Chocolate Company. What can I say except that it's really good stuff! As a devotee of Cadbury's choccy, I detest the Hersheys stuff over here, and these Endangered Species bars were highly "lur-licious" to my taste! The Gorilla bar with Pecan Praline was especially good.

The Endangered Species Chocolate Company donates 10% of the profits to protecting endangered animals around the globe, and each bar's wrapper is printed with information on the animals along with conservation tips. Good stuff!

PHOTO GALLERY - Gorilla and Komodo Dragon Skeletons

We paid a family visit to Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences recently. Our son very much enjoyed the dinosaurs exhibit.

They also have a very interesting Bones exhibit which features skeletons of a Gorilla and a Komodo Dragon. Click on the image to open up the Google Picasa Web Album.

KOMODO DRAGONS - San Diego Event

Andy Phillips, deputy director of conservation research for the San Diego Zoological Society will be sharing photographs and stories of his time in Komodo National Park at a special event on September 2nd - SignOnSanDiego.com - Researcher to share Komodo dragon tales.

Earlier this month, Phillips of San Marcos traveled to Komodo National Park, a nature conservancy in the center of the Indonesian archipelago. He will share photographs and stories from his trip during “A Taste of CRES,” a new educational program geared toward adults, at the San Diego Wild Animal Park's Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Conservation Research.

The event, from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Sept. 2, will include a tour of the facility, a wine-and-cheese-tasting reception.

There's an interesting paragraph, further down the article which says...

More than 800 of the lizards in the park are equipped with identification chips or Global Positioning System collars so they can be monitored at each stage of their lives, Phillips said. Naturally, for a lizard to be studied or implanted with a tracking device, it must first be captured.

AUDIO - Carl Jones, Pink Pigeons and Lemurs - Radio 4 programme alert!

Tonight on BBC Radio 4, 9pm BST (4PM ET), "A Life With Lemurs" is introduced by Gabrielle Walker.

In the 1970s, Patricia Wright left her a life as Brooklyn housewife to begin a journey that led to her becoming one of the world's leading lemur experts.

Gabrielle Walker travels to Madagascar to meet Pat and the lemurs, finding out what it's like to discover an entire new species, and encountering Mother Blue - one of the oldest animals in the forest.

The programme is available to Listen Again here.

Back on 25th July, the programme was devoted to conservationist Carl Jones's work with the Pink Pigeons!. Click to Listen Again to "A Life With Pink Pigeons".

Conservationist Carl Jones left Wales 26 years ago for Mauritius - once home to the infamous Dodo - to try to stop the unique Mauritian pink pigeon sharing the Dodo's fate. Among the island's ebony forests and giant tortoises, he tells Grant Sonnex what his life's work has taught him, and why he is optimistic for the future of conservation worldwide.

GOOGLE EARTH - Jane Goodall Gombe Chimpanzee GeoBlog

Not exactly Last Chance To See related, but the Jane Goodall Gombe Chimpanzee GeoBlog for Google Earth is WELL worth a look.

Follow their Google Earth KML feed here, and check out the area flyovers, profiles of many of the chimps, along with video of some. All in all, a very impressive mashup indeed.

Google Earth Blog has more on this marvellous endeavour.

MOUNTAIN GORILLAS - Couple of Gorilla Trekker reports

Here's a couple more Mountain Gorilla trekkers who've posted their experiences online....

Roberta Leung at Canada.com...

Our first sighting of the family came even sooner than expected. Two male silverbacks approached us when we stopped to receive last-minute instructions from our guide. One stood about a metre ahead of me and even though we had been told to not return the gorilla's stare, I simply could not help myself.

I was overwhelmed by his magnificence and became very emotional as I watched him looking at me. I will always remember the intensity of his stare and the look on his face.

Jacinta Bowman at the Courier Mail...

No matter what scenarios my imagination conjured up that morning, nothing could have prepared me for the impact of being at close quarters with an adult male gorilla. Sitting quietly in a small clearing, he feasted on a sapling, stripping its branches of leaves and stuffing the wads of foliage into his mouth with a contented grunt. His jet-black leathery skin and thick coarse hair were a stark contrast to the gentle green of the forest. With a huge potbelly he looked more jungle buddha than beast.

I held my breath as his massive chest rose. He lifted his muscular arms, tilted his head back and opened his mouth wide to reveal a set of huge fangs.

SATELLITE SUNDAY - Ulva Island : Sirocco the Kakapo Parrot (Google Maps & Google Earth)

In a new semi-regular feature, I'll post some more location maps for the endangered animals featured in Last Chance To See using the Google Maps API, links to the full Google Maps and a handy Google Earth shortcut.

On Monday September 4th, blogger Mosher will arrive on Ulva Island, a small island on the eastern side of Stewart Island, New Zealand for his Kakapo Encounter with Sirocco the Kakapo Parrot. Its costing him an arm and a leg, so I wish him the best of luck for a successful trip.

Here's the location of Ulva Island using the Google Maps API. The full Google Maps and Google Earth versions links to this location are available below.

Full Google Maps Version - Google Earth Version

Click here to download the free Google Earth application if you don't have it installed already.