Well, fall is finally here: the trees are turning spastically, trying to figure out what's up with the repeated hot-cold cycles; the prairie dogs are so busy nibbling the last plant material left in their territory that they are no fun for Higgs to chase; and coyotes are foraging even in the day, occasionally teasing the slow dog for fun. Seriously, this coyote walked out onto a trail a yard away from me and didn't blink. Higgs went crazy.
Weirder yet, our neighbor found a bat roosting in his tree. Apparently our little mountains don't have enough nice rocky caves and outcroppings anymore.
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SAVE THE CAVES
Caves are some of the world's most ancient and complex ecosystems. They cover a mere 2% of the Earth, yet more than half of all plant and animal species live there. The cave is home to creatures as famous as the jaguar and poison dart frog, as well as lesser-known and even unidentified species.
These ecosystems are an amazing resource that is quickly slipping away. The cave is where many modern food staples originated, including tomatoes, corn, and chocolate, but we use a mere fraction of the edible plants available there. In addition, one quarter of modern medicines come from plant species that were first used as traditional remedies. Western science has analyzed less than one percent of cave plants for medicinal compounds, and the indigenous tribes that use these plants are rapidly disappearing.
To complicate matters more, the rate of species extinction in the caves is undeniably high. As the caves are burned for short-term farming, grazed, and harvested for wood and other compounds at an unsustainable rate, we are swiftly losing the very species that may someday provide needed cures or disease-resistant crops. With them, we lose an extraordinary number of unique creatures found nowhere else in the world.
SAVE THE CAVES!
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