Carolina Reptile & Exotic Pet Expo

I had a pretty good weekend overall, and yesterday, I went to the Carolina Reptile & Exotic Pet Expo held in Raleigh by Gila Productions. I went with my friend and we had a great time. I've been to the expo many times before, but it's always fun to look around at the different animals, and be able to interact and touch some of them.

I want to share a few photos with you of my visit there yesterday:

Some tiny baby Chameleons, I think they're Veiled Chameleons, though I'm not sure.

A Rhino Iguana, apparently they are a bit more intelligent than most lizards.

A poison dart frog, very beautifully colored.

An Argentine Tegu, I'd really like to get one someday.

A Jackson's Chameleon, I can't be the only one who immediately thinks of The Magic School-bus, can I?

A blue and gold macaw with a mustached parakeet in the background, to my surprise, the parakeet seemed to have more cognitive skills in the bird show they had.

Well, that's the gist of what I saw, there were some other things like tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, an alligator, a snapping turtle... a pretty big variety of animals. I was chosen as a volunteer in the audience for the reptile show they had. I handled the front end of a Burmese Python named 'Cleopatra.' She kept wanting to get out of my right hand to explore, so I let her, because she was moving backwards through my hand and I didn't want to damage her scales any. I did have a video that my friend took of that, but I've been having computer troubles lately, and I'm trying to learn some new programs using my new netbook. I had no idea what I did, but I was trying to compress the video and I somehow had it overwrite the video, and now it won't open or play.

Anyway, like I said, the expo was pretty great. I hope that I can buy something there eventually.

Creature Profile: Glaucus atlanticus

I feel like I've been ignoring this blog to much, so like with my other blog, I'm going to start doing weekly articles. This article series will be about organism profiles, though it will consist of mostly animals, I may delve into other kingdoms every so often.

The first creature I decided to profile is:
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Video

Glaucus atlanticus
Common Name: Sea Swallow, Blue Ocean Slug, Blue Dragon
Size: 2-3 mm (Juvenile) 20-30 mm (Adult)
Location: Supposedly Tropical Waters Worldwide
Habitat: Pelagic


This nudibranch has enticed me with its beautiful blue colors and it's large appendages relative to it's body size which makes it look some kind of tiny whale. It feeds on other pelagic organisms like the Porteguese Man-O-War, and converts the venom it ingests into it's own.

I don't have much else to say about it, other than it's just really cool-looking. Don't you think?
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That's pretty much how the creature profiles will go. I'll tell you the scientific name, the common name, size, location and habitat, and then I'll say a few words about it, such as something about it's behavior or diet, or maybe just what I think of it's physical appearance.

I'll try keep up with this and post many more creatures in the following weeks. I hope you enjoy them!

Gray Skies and Sunny Days

A few days ago, it was pretty gloomy here, and I felt a bit drained. I felt like there wasn't much here, I'm still longing for the days when I move to a place closer to the ocean, and I'll be able to visit it anytime I want. There are a lot of days like that... but then there's comes something like today, where the sky was cloudless and a cool breeze was running through the warm air. North Carolina weather is usually very bipolar during this time of year, and I'm not saying that other places are better, but I would rather be leaning on the rails of a pier, looking out into the ocean, than sitting on my front porch. I guess I'm just longing for those moments I had back in California, whether it be at San Diego, visiting SeaWorld, or just having a walk on the beach in Oceanside. It's the only place that I've literally walked for miles, and didn't mind the time wasted.

I miss doing this most of all. Photo by RoyalDolphin.

Perhaps I'm just being a bit too cynical with my situation. I only have until the end of this year to finish up my community college education and then at the earliest, next spring, to move to Florida and start on my Bachelor's. It's not as bad as my heart thinks it is... I'm just very eager, and money is an issue.

That's a poor explanation for why I haven't been posting anything on this blog this month, but I suppose that I've been very busy over at PK Gaming, so let's use that as an excuse instead. I still have many ideas that I want to write about, but haven't fully developed them.

While you're waiting for more articles on this site (ha, like there's anyone who reads this blog), have a look over at these two fantastic blogs I came across:

The Middle Flipper

Diary of a Marine Mammal Trainer

They're for the aspiring dolphin trainer, so if you are one, definitely check them out, or if even if you just want to see what trainers write about!

Visiting the Aquariums of America: The Plan

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to detail my plan for the web series I hope to do. It's something I've been wanting to do ever since I graduated from high school, and the plans for it has changed quite a lot ever since I first conceived the idea.

At first, I wanted to visit every zoo, aquarium and natural history museum in the U.S.... in one summer. Yeah, that would never happen. Then I narrowed it down to just aquariums, but still, there's quite a lot of them to visit. So, instead, I divided aquariums up by their location. The first location of aquariums I want to visit will be in the Southeast. That will consist of around 23 facilities that will be visited in a span of around 30 or 31 days.

Friends have told me this route looks like a Manta Ray, how fitting!

Filming at these places won't have much narration, but just having the footage of the facilities so they can be used later when making the episodes. I suppose what I might do, is begin each episode introducing the aquarium in person at the beach or something, talking about the history of it, and then narrating over the footage we took over the trip. Yes, I said 'we' in that last sentence... because I won't be doing this alone, I will have two others traveling with me. Wouldn't you want to experience these places with someone else rather than by yourself?

I'll be talking about the aquariums I plan to visit in an article series each month leading up to the day I finally take this trip. The articles will consist of my expectations and what I'm excited to see there. Hopefully, this will remind me that everything I'm trying to earn now will be leading up to this trip. By 'everything I earn' I mean money obviously, but also my Associate's in Science that I should receive at the end of the year. This trip will be the start of my journey to become a Marine Biologist.

Window to the Sea

A little more than a week ago, I signed up for a free trial of Netflix, and I've been enjoying it so far. One program I found on the service was a PBS special about aquariums called 'Window to the Sea' featuring four facilities here in the states: The John G. Shedd Aquarium, the New England Aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and the Waikiki Aquarium.

Here's a preview of the program:

If you have Netflix, I suggest watching this if you have any interest in aquariums.

I bring this up because it relates to a web series I want to create that I mentioned in my preview in January. I guess it also relates to the importance of aquariums on the list, but I suppose the two ideas can be fused into one.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be detailing what the web series will consist of. I'm not completely sure when the series will start specifically, but I'll definitely be starting it sometime next year.

Georgia Aquarium's Dolphin Tales and SeaWorld's One Ocean

I've always been excited about seeing dolphins finally make their way to the Georgia Aquarium ever since they announced the expansion back in 2008. From what the video shows, it seems to be a pretty large exhibit. I have a bit of a gripe with the place though... they said that this wasn't going to be a 'SeaWorld' show... what? They mean like Believe or Blue Horizons? Because that's sorta what it looks like from the video... I thought they meant the show was going to be more educational and not have much of a 'story' behind it. Speaking of SeaWorld... they just announced a new show this month:

I suppose it's because of the backlash with the congressional hearing they had last year, questioning the educational value of their shows... but then... One Ocean doesn't seem that different to me... maybe it's just the fountains and special wetsuits that bother me, it makes it seem like a big production.

I don't know... for some reason, these shows really bother me... I want the Shamu Adventure show back, at least that didn't seem as cheesy and fake as Believe is. If marine parks and aquariums really want to have shows like this, I wouldn't make it a regular thing, I'd rather see it as something seasonal, like the summer shows at SeaWorld. I'll withhold my official opinion on both shows for now though, since I haven't actually seen them.

Oh yeah, one more thing... why are they charging separately/extra to see the dolphin show at the Georgia Aquarium? That probably bothers me the most... though other aquariums have done it as well, like the Brookfield Zoo and National Aquarium in Baltimore. I still think it's pretty ridiculous to charge separately.

The Problem with The Cove

As many people know, The Cove is a documentary about the dolphin slaughter that takes place in Taiji, Japan. And as many people will tell you after seeing this film, with no previous knowledge about dolphins in captivity, they will tell you that aquariums in America and most of Europe are linked to this dolphin slaughter. There is a large problem with that though: It's not true. Don't get me wrong, what happens in Taiji and in other parts of Japan with cetaceans of all kinds is just horrific, but they are not linked to the western world of marine parks and aquariums... well, they haven't been in over 20 years that is. Admittedly, there were some rash decisions made by dolphinariums back in the 80's, as this video explains:

That video really reminds me of when I became interested in cetaceans due to SeaWorld, as Stewart Clark explains, it's that first visit or close-up encounter with a live animal that hooks you for life. But... last year, SeaWorld had some pretty bad publicity, with the death of trainer Dawn Brancheau due to an accident with Tilikum and there were the deaths of four orcas, Taima (and her stillborn), Sumar and Kalina. All of this bad publicity fed the activist Ric O'Barry and others with ammunition to try and criminalize marine parks and aquariums for keeping cetaceans. Captivity in itself is a very complicated issue, whether we're talking about a cetacean or some other animal, it really depends on the individual and where they came from, and I'll touch on that in a later, more in-depth article. As it stands, Ric O'Barry blindly assumes that marine parks and aquariums in the western world get their dolphins from the slaughter, but these two videos I have embedded below investigates the facts of the matter.

Videos originally posted here: http://www.seaworldparksblog.com/thecove