I couldn't decide what to do for a journal activity, though I had thought of doing a volunteer project, I found the activity was due earlier than I expected. Anyway for my journal project, I went to two small exhibitions, one was about the the mysterious Giant Squid, the other was called the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) exhibitionl. I'll start with going to the Yellowstone to Yukon.
The Y2Y was a photographic exhibtion by a German-born photographer, Florian Schulz. He wanted to capture the wilderness through photography, after studying biology. His photographs were reminiscent of another favorite photographer of mine: Thomas Mangelsen, who also photographs incredible landscapes and animals. Anyway Schulz has devoted much of his time with the Y2Y photography, which seemed to be part of the project to conserve Yellowstone to Yukon.
What is the Y2Y? It is a conservation effort by a group of dedicated scientists and environmentalists, who want to make a large "bridge" between the Yukon to Yellowstone; hence it would be a large corridor for species of animals to roam. This also means there wouldn't be any large fragmented 'islands' of land where species, such as grizzly bears can not have space to roam freely, since tertiary carnivores need large amount of space to roam.
My parents also came, which they thoroughly enjoyed. And they bought a book, with Florian Schulz's photographs. The book also contains articles by scientists who talk about the ecosystem and the beauty of the lands. Hence one scientist wrote:
" Isolated populations go extinct under circumstances in which mainland populations refill the gaphs. Net result: Fragmentation of habitat into ecological islands leads to loss of diversity in each fragment." David Quammen (36, Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam). This is crucial, since if there was a bridge between the Yukon and Yellowstone, species of animals will be able to adapt better, without disturbance and losses of diversity. One of the most positive sides was when I read that some ranchers, living close to Yellowstone are working with scientists and conservationists to 'fit in' with the biodiversity. Ted Kerasote, who wrote an article for book wrote that one rancher "avoids conflicts with grizzlies by breeding his herd earlier in the year than is traditional. He's also worked with local fish adn game department to distribute cattle carcasses....hungry grizzlies count out their dens, they can fill up on the meat of dead cattle...." (66, Yellowstone to Yukon: Freedom to Roam). I found several of what scientists wrote crucial and tied in with environmental science. I could write a lot more about what the other scientists wrote and what the project entails, but since it is a journal project, I won't pontificate and bore readers.
Florian Schulz's photos of animlas were my favorite (I prefer photos of animals to landscapes). However, I found some of his photos of landscape were amazing: my favorite being one of the "spine of the continent, southewestern of B.C." the mountains were a dark blue, but there was an icy frostiness to them-it's hard to describe without seeing a photo of it. Another photo was one of Kokanee Salmon in British Columbia. This was surprising to me, since Kokanee salmon population decreased due to the Opossum shrimp in Montana. Then I wondered could Kokanee salmon from B.C. be reintroduced into the Flathead lake?
The exhibition was one, which was insightful and though I don't like art exibitions, I think I may have gained some insightul examples of ecoystem and conservation in a real life scale.
Another exhibition is about the mysterious Giant Squid. I'll just write a small piece. The exhibition, being small had a short documentary film about the Giant Squid. I didn't see thw whole film, though I heard that scientist were trying to raise baby squids to learn more about the Giant squids.
There are few interesting facts about Giant Squids that I never knew, some of these facts I wrote down from the display board:
- The Giant Squid captures its' food using a feeding tentacle, tentacle club and suckers
- It has beak, which is made from the same material similar to the finger-nail. The beak is used to tear food into small pieces
- It uses its' arms and suckers to hang onto its' food
- Their eyes are the size of our heads...Scary!
- They are the largest invetbrates
- One of the funniest facts that I read was: a scientist was curious to know what the Giant Squid tasted like, so he tasted one which had been frozen. It didn't taste good, at all! Cross that off the seafood list!
- Scientists who study the Giant Squids are called teuthologist
I don't think the Burke Museum is hosting the Giant Squid exhibition, though they are still hosting the Y2Y photo exhibition. The opportunity to see both these exhibitions has been interesting-though fact based...I see them as a supplement to what I am learning.
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