A zorse?!

I saw the craziest thing on the news this morning...a zorse! It's a cross between a zebra and a horse. Zorses result from zebra stallions being bred to horse mares. The one I saw on the news this morning, from a safari park in Germany, has stripes in some parts of its coat and pure white in others. From a quick search of the internet, however, it seems like in most cases the zorse gets the coat color of its mother and the zebra stripes of its father all over. There's even an International Zebra-Zorse-Zonkey Association!

And yes, that's right. It's not just zorses that can be bred. There are zonkeys (cross between a zebra and a donkey) and hebras (cross between a zebra mare and horse stallion).

I wonder what they'd make of a zorse in Samburu?!

Conservation success!

This isn't Kenya-related, but I just wanted to take a moment to recognize the success of conservation efforts here in the US to save the bald eagle. The bald eagle was nearly wiped out completely by 1970, but today it was taken of the endangered species list. What a comeback! The species went from having only 417 breeding pairs in 1963 to 9,789 breeding pairs today.

Some conservationists worry about delisting the species because bald eagle habitats will no longer be protected. If landowners begin developing land where bald eagles live, this could threaten the species again. Hopefully the protection provided by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act will be enough to keep the symbol of our country safe!

You can read more about the bald eagle's delisting and see pictures and videos of the birds on CNN.com.

Ms. Dolan Goes to Argentina!

One of my good friends has the chance to go on her own Earthwatch adventure this summer! I'm so excited for her. Amy Dolan, a science teacher at Hanover Middle School, is going to travel to Argentina next month on an Earthwatch Education Fellowship. She'll be helping researchers on an expedition called Argentina's Mysterious Cats. She will travel with 5 other volunteers to Laguna Chasico Provincial Park to help researchers study four wild cats: the pampas cat, the jaguarundi, the Geoffrey's cat, and the puma. On the expedition, Amy will get to help track, examine, collar, and track these cats. She will be staying in cabins at Los Alamos farm; unlike my expedition, they won't have a staff to cook and do laundry for them, but will have to share those tasks with the researchers. She might get the chance to do some horseback riding on her day off, and she'll be able to try the beef for which Argentina is famous.

If you're interested in following Amy's experiences in Argentina, you can check out her website.

It was almost a year ago that I left for my own Earthwatch expedition, so I know what this time is like for Amy. I can't wait to hear all about her adventure...and to see what she brings me back as a souvenir!