“And now we welcome
the new year,
full of things
that have never been.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Coming in autumn 2023,
a new love nature story
from
Favorite World Press.
Lisa S. French
January 7, 2023
The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world
Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do
Lisa S. French
As the sun sets on another year, we have two important announcements:
1. We love our readers!
Because when you support Favorite World Press, you’re not just readers, you’re tree planters.
For every book we sell, we plant a tree—a native tree that will help cool Earth, provide food and shelter for wildlife, purify air and water and support local communities.
In 2022, we put down roots in 11 countries; that’s a pretty good year!
By reading with us, you’ve made an investment in the future health of our planet. Thank you for being a force for positive change.
2. We are so grateful!
From our favorite world to yours, wishing you a hopeful heart and a happy New Year.
xo LSF • WW • FWP
Lisa S. French
December 31, 2022
“There is no better place I know
To think of trees in wind and snow
Than here, where embers fall and glow . . .
Trees bewildered now in snow:”
Leigh Buckner Hanes
Wherever you find your joy this season,
wishing you happy holidays.
xo Favorite World Press
FWP Happy, Merry Playlist.
Lisa S. French
December 17, 2022
1.5-minute read
Coexistence is about care, not control. It is about reciprocity, not retribution.
Peter S. Algona from The Accidental Ecosystem.
Over the course of the past year, we’ve written about creature life, the beauty, benefits, and science of nature, and some of the people and organizations working tirelessly to protect and preserve the living world that we love. In the spirit of the giving season, we dedicate this year-end blog to one of our favorite conservation non-profits in the hope that they will become one of yours.
Big Life Foundation: Conservation Supports People. People Support Conservation.
Protecting 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli ecosystem in East Africa, Big Life has partnered with local communities for over a decade to safeguard nature, benefiting both people and wildlife.
Across alpine meadows, mountain forests, savannas, and wetlands, the holistic conservation organization secures habitat and migratory corridors for elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, hartebeests, and other native species by creating economic opportunities for native people to participate in protecting the ecosystem they depend on to survive.
And that collaborative approach to preserving nature has been incredibly effective. Thanks to Big Life’s community-based conservation and anti-poaching campaign, wildlife numbers in the Amboseli are on the rebound—giraffes have quadrupled, and there are ten times more lions and more elephants roaming the ecosystem in the past year than any time in the last half-century—much-needed hopeful news as global wildlife numbers continue to plummet.
Devastating Drought: A Call to Action
Following years of success implementing strategic interventions to sustain East Africa’s wildlife and wildlands, Big Life and their conservation partners are now facing a heart-wrenching climate-based crisis. The fourth year of the worst drought in decades across the Horn of Africa has devastated the region.
Prioritizing vulnerable communities and children, Big Life is providing school lunches across the Amboseli ecosystem and environmental work for women to help feed their families. Until the rains return, they are also pumping water into remote areas for migrating wildlife and providing hay and food pellets to prevent starvation. The effects of this environmental crisis will likely last for months. Right now, the conservation organization is in critical need of assistance. If you would like to pitch in to help save Africa’s iconic animal species and provide relief for drought-impacted communities, please visit BigLife.org to learn more about their life-sustaining work—for the love of the living world.
ICYMI Nature News
A Big Plan for the Entire Planet
This week’s really big news is that international negotiations are underway in Montreal to develop a roadmap to protect biodiversity and keep our home planet’s ecosystems chugging along, providing life essentials and soul-soothing extras. What’s at stake? Oceans, rivers, lakes, wetlands, forests, prairies, woodlands, the climate, all creatures great and small—life on Earth. Here’s an explainer. And here are the biodiversity numbers. And here is a visual tour of nature in crisis.
Glow-in-the-Dark Crustaceans
Described as “the most spectacular natural wonder most people will never see”, tiny Caribbean male crustaceans light up their underwater world. Actually, you lucky people can see it here.
Honeybee Half-Life
According to scientists at the University of Maryland, the life span of honeybees is 50% shorter than it was 50 years ago. Fifty percent! We need to bee better.
City Cougar Quadruplets
The world’s largest wildlife crossing is about to get more big cat traffic. A cougar in the Santa Monica mountains near Los Angeles has delivered four healthy cubs, and the mother and adorable babies are doing fine. You can have a peek at the new arrivals here.
Lisa S. French
December 12, 2022
2-minute read
Could protecting Earth’s largest mammals help tackle the two most critical items on our planetary to-do list: reducing the impacts of both climate change and biodiversity loss? According to new research from Oxford University, by virtue of their size, the most mega of megafauna may have a role to play in maintaining the healthy functioning of ecosystems negatively impacted by global heating.
One of the greatest hazards we face in a warming world is more frequent and intense wildfires. Between 2002 and 2016, 10.45 million acres a year were destroyed by fire globally—67% of the loss was in Africa. As the planet becomes hotter, drier, and more fire-prone, scientists are examining how protecting and increasing populations of endangered species of megafauna like elephants might help lower the temperature and limit the damage.
Beloved for their oversized ears, twisty trunks, keen intelligence, and exceptional empathy, elephants are also prolific stompers, chompers, and seed dispersers; those daily activities can reduce both CO2 in the atmosphere and the threat of wildfires. How so? It’s complicated, but the short story is that by consuming potentially flammable vegetation (and lots of it, up to 375 pounds a day), creating natural fire breaks by trampling soil, and dispersing seeds of trees with high capacity to store CO2, elephants, and other large herbivores, could limit the spread of fires and reduce the conditions that create them.
Elephants aren’t alone in their ability to influence the health of wild places. Conservation projects aimed at protecting ecosystem-engineering wildlife like whales, bison, sea otters, and wolves can help increase the resilience of natural environments under intense pressure from global heating. By continuing to examine the interdependence of wildlife and Earth systems and by creating conditions that allow nature to heal and flourish, amazing things can happen—like this.
ICYMI Nature News
Mighty Forest Mice
Even mini mammals can have a mega impact on the health of ecosystems. According to The New York Times, mice scurrying around forest floors are also important seed dispersers that help ensure the survival of trees exposed to environmental stressors.
Remember the Manatees
Pollution and habitat loss continue to take their toll on the Florida megafauna–over 2,000 manatees have perished in the last two years. It’s well past time to re-classify the charismatic creatures as endangered before they disappear.
NYC’s New Old Tree
In the spring of 2023, visitors to NYC’s High Line Park will be seeing red. A new rosy-hued sculpture installation, Old Tree, by Swiss artist Pamela Rosenkranz, will explore the indivisible connection between human and plant life. Have a look at the preview and swing by in the spring!
Christmas Bird Count
Okay, citizen scientists, if you need a good reason to tear yourself away from the fireplace and holiday cookie pile, Audubon’s 123rd annual Christmas Bird Count runs from December 14th through January 5th. Grab your binoculars and get those cookies to go. You can sign up here.
FWP Carbon Capture Report
We believe trees make a big difference in the health and well-being of people, wildlife, and the planet, and that’s why we keep planting them with the help of our partners at Tree-Nation. The trees that we’ve planted from April through November bring our carbon capture to 2,200 tons of CO2. That is equivalent to 2,235,456 pounds of coal burned, 247,604 gallons of gasoline consumed, and 267,669,777 smartphones charged. Oh, yeah, treeing is believing!
Lisa S. French
December 2, 2022
A single act of kindness throws roots out in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.
Amelia Earhart
In this season of giving and gratitude, we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to our readers. With your kind support of our small business, you help plant trees that provide life-sustaining resources for environmentally vulnerable communities, food and places to perch for wildlife, and clean air and water for everyone.
We couldn’t do it without you. Truly.
Wishing you a peaceful Thanksgiving.
with love,
FWP
Lisa S. French
November 23, 2022
1-minute read
Somersaults, pirouettes, and disco-arms shake.
Body drumming, water splashing, and ice skating.
What may sound like new-fangled cross-training combos are actually some of the dozens of body movements that gorillas use to make themselves understood.
According to researchers at the University of St. Andrews, although gorillas are only capable of a fixed number of vocalizations, when it comes to communicating through gestures, they have a flexible and extensive repertoire of voluntary moves. And those gestures aren’t random; they’re intentional acts of communication aimed at achieving gorilla life goals.
Does This Gorilla Get Me?
Studying three groups of the primates in captivity and one group in the wild, researchers recorded 102 different gestures. Which gestures these movers and shakers used as invitations to travel, play, and cuddle, or requests to calm down, or back off depended on who they were communicating with and how they were responded to. If it was clear that a message was understood, a gorilla would continue the same gestures with the same partner for the same purpose; if not, the persistent primate would switch to a different combination of communication signals to get a point across. They don’t call the clever creatures great apes for nothing!
ICYMI Nature News
A Universal Language
Speaking of creature communications: this chimp mama’s loving gestures towards her newborn are universally understood.
Primates Share Cool Things
And scientists can add another great ape gesture to the list. A wild chimpanzee in Uganda was filmed by Universities of York and Warwick researchers showing an interesting leaf to her mother for no other reason than sharing something cool. Look, mom, beauty!
Rats Get Their Groove On
University of Tokyo researchers have discovered that rats have an innate ability to bop their heads to a good beat. And what’s on these rhythmic rodents’ playlist? Queen, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Mozart. Eclectic!
Octopuses Are Mad Flingers
Australian researchers have discovered another way that octopuses put those plentiful arms to good use: throwing objects—at each other. Whether they’re playing or fighting, only the octopuses know for sure. Either way—”Take that, balloon head!”
Have a lovely weekend, everyone. Stay safe and warm, Upstate New Yorkers.
Lisa S. French
November 18, 2022
2-minute read
Wren you’ve got it, you’ve got it!
The pīwauwau rock wren, the little songbird with the really big feet, has hopped and bopped past its competitors to be crowned 2022 New Zealand Bird of the Year. And what makes the diminutive mountain dweller a winner? For starters, the feathered rock climber is New Zealand’s only true alpine bird, spending its entire life flitting around the unforgiving, rugged terrain of the island country’s mountain regions. Despite weighing less than a double-A battery and lacking an insulating layer of down, the rock wren manages to endure months of bitter cold temperatures that can drop below -10℃ at elevations as high as 3,000 meters.
You might think that an ancient bird species robust enough to survive 62 million years in such a harsh environment could handle just about anything nature throws its way, but the rock wren is in serious trouble. Unfortunately, human-introduced predators have pushed the intrepid avian mountaineers to the brink of extinction.
Even though our Bird of the Year pick, the rockhopper penguin, failed to capture the crown, we’re happy to congratulate this little endangered underbird on its much-deserved big win. With 49% of bird species globally in decline, drawing attention to the plight of rare and at-risk fliers like the New Zealand rock wren can promote conservation strategies that ensure they stick around to prettify the planet for another few million years.
You can find out more about the rock wren and other amazing New Zealand bird species from Forest & Bird. And if you’d like to offer your support to all of the winged wonders of our world, Birdlife International has lots of ways you can lend a hand. Faced with the triple threats of climate change, habitat loss, and invasive species, our beloved birds might just survive with a little help and TLC from their fwrens.
ICYMI Nature News
Prescription Bird Benefits
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again, being around birds is good for you. In case you need another great reason to spend time in nature with the feathered songsters, researchers at King’s College have concluded that seeing and hearing birds improves overall mental well-being. So, if you’ve got a stubborn case of the blues, you may benefit from a daily dose of prescribed birdsong.
Bees Just Want to Have Fun
Apparently, all work and no play makes for very dull pollinators. We knew the brainy, little insects were hard workers, but according to scientists at Queen Mary University, bees are also fun seekers that like to play with toys given the opportunity. Note to self: add teeny-tiny toy chest to garden.
Mapping Pachyderm Facial Feels
Have you ever wondered how elephants maintain such effortless control of their trunks? According to Science Advances, it’s because they have tens of thousands of nerve cells in the grape-sized brain region that controls their facial muscles—63,000 cells for African elephants and 54,000 for Asians. We humans, by comparison, have only 8-9000 nerve cells in our facial control center. Now you know why you can’t pull out tree trunks with your nose.
Nose-Picking Primates
It’s long been accepted that Mother Nature provides each unique species on the planet with the essential tools and abilities needed to survive. In the case of the Madagascar aye-aye, it seems the primate needs to pick its nose, so is equipped with an 8 cm extra-long middle finger to do the job. Researchers believe that the nose-picking habit (hobby?), also common in other primates, is likely a form of self-cleaning. Tissue, little fellow?
FWP Carbon Capture Report
We’ve got another month of tree planting and carbon capture updates to report. But before we get to the number crunching, we’d like to provide a bit of info about why we plant where we plant.
Almost every region on Earth can get a boost from tree planting, but picking spots that provide the optimal social, biodiversity, and environmental benefits is critical to our mission. Through our partnership with Tree-Nation, we plant the majority of our trees in the tropical zone, where they receive the most sunlight to expedite growth and CO2 capture.
Tropical regions also host about 85% of all terrestrial species. Planting trees in the tropics helps combat deforestation and habitat loss that threaten many species with extinction. The Tree-Nation platform also enables us to plant drought-resistant crop trees that support communities most at risk from famine and malnutrition. Our goal is to plant the right trees in the right places for the greatest all-around benefit.
From April through October, the trees we’ve planted across 11 projects bring our carbon capture total to 2020 tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to 2,235,456 pounds of coal burned, 227,350 gallons of gasoline consumed, or 5,015,197 miles driven by an average gasoline-powered passenger vehicle.
Lisa S. French
November 1, 2022
1.5-minute read
“Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume
of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping,
suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping,
rapping at my chamber door—
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered,
“tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Edgar Allen Poe—The Raven
Of all the things that go bump in the night, what is the most hair-raising horror you can imagine tapping at your door this Halloween? A horde of zombies? A pack of werewolves? A coven of vampires? A gaggle of hobgoblins? Or—gulp—all of the above.
There’s no doubt that a spooky-season visit from creatures of the underworld would be pretty darn scary (especially those zombies). Do you know what’s even scarier? The year-round global impacts of climate change. And one of the greatest contributors to climate change is deforestation. Approximately 18% of global heating is caused by the loss of trees. That exceeds the CO2 emissions created by the entire transport sector.
We have two solutions to cool a rapidly warming planet—reduce emissions, or capture the CO2 already released into the atmosphere. But lowering emissions is not happening fast enough. In fact, atmospheric CO2 reached record-high levels in 2021. While other carbon capture systems are being developed, right now reforestation is by far the most efficient and affordable solution. It is considered essential to keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
In addition to helping to combat climate change, planting trees addresses other major planetary perils, including pollution, species extinction, desertification, floods, poverty, and malnutrition. Trees remove toxins from our air, purify our rivers and water sources, serve as habitats for millions of species, bring revenue to local populations, and help us get food, fodder, and medicine.
Trees offer so many benefits for people and the environment that planting them is a no-brainer. Sorry, zombies. That’s why we’ve partnered with Tree-Nation to plant one tree for every print or e-book that we sell. Tree-Nation is committed to planting 1 trillion trees by 2050, and we’re glad to have the opportunity to pitch in and help with the transition to a sustainable future.
You can learn more about forests and the benefits of planting trees right here.
As always, thank you for reading with us, thank you for planting with us.
Happy Halloween!
FWP – No tricks—just trees.
Lisa S. French
October 27, 2022
