THE BEANS VISIT THE JEFFERSONIAN: TEMPUS FUGIT

Memories of Paqui Bean in the CRAM

This morning, The Beans have reviewed some English grammar. It has been a day to improve grammar and consolidate knowledge. 

They have talked about the Future Simple, Adverbs of Manner, Superlative and Comparative and Social English. 

They have also read a bit more about Christmas Carol of Charles Dickens. 

More information: Comparative & Superlative Adjectives

 

Taking care of the nature is a very important thing and the family has been talking about animals and their protection. Paqui Bean has talked about two important centres: the CRAM in El Prat de Llobregat and the CRARC in Masquefa. Both of them are near Barcelona, and  both of them work strongly to save animals. She has also talked about the Zeehondencentrum in Pieterburen.

Then, the family has listened carefully Ana Bean's speech about Maria Callas, her lovely friend. They have discovered a lot of secrets about her and her difficult and successful life and about the connection between Ana and Maria. It has been a very important moment for The Grandma who has appreciated a lot Ana's effort and work.

Óscar Bean and Temperance Brenan's Team

After talking about Asperger Syndrome, The Beans have visited Temperance Brennan and her scientific team in the Jeffersonian Institution and they have asked her some questions about the skeleton that was found by Óscar Bean in the Georgetown University Campus yesterday.

Dr Brennan has answered all the questions of the family and has been very interested in answering Anton Bean's questions about the Piltdown Man while The Grandma, fascinated by the laboratory and imitating Salvador Dalí, has lost her head and her idea of time and has started to live in a parallel universe until The Beans have waken her up.

More information: Live Science

This afternoon, the family has visited the Natural History Museum founded in 1846 as part of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a natural-history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. 

Tempus Fugit for The Grandma

Opened in 1910, the museum on the National Mall was one of the first Smithsonian buildings constructed exclusively to hold the national collections and research facilities. 

The main building has an overall area of 140,000 m2 with 30,200 m2 of exhibition and houses over 1,000 employees. The museum's collections contain over 126 million specimens of plants, animals, fossils, minerals, rocks, meteorites, human remains, and human cultural artefacts. In 2016 it was the second most visited of all of the Smithsonian museums. It is also home to about 185 professional natural-history scientists, the largest group of scientists dedicated to the study of natural and cultural history in the world.

More information: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The time is always right to do what is right. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

CLAIRE FONTAINE & THE GRANDMA VISIT THE CRARC

Claire Fontaine & The Grandma in Masquefa

Masquefa is a municipality in the comarca of Anoia in Catalonia. It is situated on the edge of the Penedès Depression on the road between Piera and Martorell. It is served by a station on the FGC railway line R6 from Barcelona via Martorell to Igualada.

Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have visited Masquefa this morning. They have gone to visit the CRARC, a wonderful place where some reptiles and amphibians live in a special atmosphere waiting their moment to be returned to its original habitat. You can see lots of different species in this place: crocodiles, frogs, snakes, iguanas and turtles. One of the most interesting species is the Hermann's tortoise, aka Testudo hermanni which is under danger of extinction and thanks to CRARC is returning to its original habitat in ranges like the Albera, the Garraf, the Montsec or the Montsant.

More information: CRARC (Catalan Version)

Hermann's tortoise or Testudo hermanni is one of five tortoise species traditionally placed in the genus Testudo, the others being the marginated tortoise, Greek tortoise, Russian tortoise, and Kleinmann's tortoise. Two subspecies are known: the western Hermann's tortoise and the eastern Hermann's tortoise. Sometimes mentioned as a subspecies, Testudo hermanni peleponnesica is not yet confirmed to be genetically different from Testudo hermanni boettgeri.

Claire, The Grandma & Testudo Hermanni

Testudo hermanni can be found throughout Southern Europe. The western population is found in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Tuscany. The eastern population, Testudo hermanni boettgeri inhabits Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Turkey and Greece, while Testudo hermanni hercegovinensis populates the coasts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro.

Hermann's tortoises are small to medium-sized tortoises from Southern Europe. Young animals, and some adults, have attractive black and yellow-patterned carapaces, although the brightness may fade with age to a less distinct gray, straw, or yellow coloration. They have slightly hooked upper jaws and, like other tortoises, possess no teeth, just strong, horny beaks. Their scaly limbs are greyish to brown, with some yellow markings, and their tails bear a spur, a horny spike, at the tip. Adult males have particularly long and thick tails, and well-developed spurs, distinguishing them from females.

More information: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

Claire, The Grandma, Peke and a crocodile

The real purpose of Claire Fontaine and The Grandma's visit has been to meet one old friend, Peke, a sulcata tortoise that was adopted by The Grandma, some years ago and nowadays lives comfortably in the CRARC.

The African spurred tortoise or Centrochelys sulcata, also called the sulcata tortoise, is a species of tortoise, which inhabits the southern edge of the Sahara desert, in Africa. It is the third-largest species of tortoise in the world, the largest species of mainland tortoise, and the only species in the genus Centrochelys.

Its specific name sulcata is from the Latin word sulcus meaning furrow and refers to the furrows on the tortoise's scales.

More information: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The African spurred tortoise is native to the Sahara Desert and the Sahel, a transitional ecoregion of semiarid grasslands, savannas, and thorn shrublands found in the countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. 

Claire & The Grandma in the CRARC, Masquefa

In these arid regions, the tortoise excavates burrows in the ground to get to areas with higher moisture levels, and spends the hottest part of the day in these burrows. This is known as aestivation. Burrows may average 30 inches in depth; some dig tunnel systems extending 10 feet or more underground.

Centrochelys sulcata is the third-largest species of tortoise in the world after the Galápagos tortoise, and Aldabra giant tortoise, and the largest of the mainland tortoises. Adults can reach 83 cm and can weigh 105 kg . They grow from hatchling size very quickly within the first few years of their lives. The lifespan of an African spurred tortoise is about 50–150 years, though they can live much longer. The oldest in captivity is 54 years, located in the Giza Zoological Gardens, Egypt.

More information: CITES

Sulcata tortoises are herbivores. Primarily, their diets consist of many types of grasses and plants, high in fibre and very low in protein. Flowers and other plants including cactus pads can be consumed. Feeding of fruit should be avoided.

Sadly, it's much easier to create a desert than a forest. 

James Lovelock

THE IUCN & THE CITES: THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE

A selfie with The Grandma

Hi friends! I'm Peke, a Geochelone Centrochelys Sulcata. I'm a tortoise which I have been living with The Grandma during 6 years and now I'm living in the CRARC in Masquefa, Anoia with my partners.

While I was living with The Grandma, I was a happy tortoise. We played baseball together, we walked hours and hours, I ate lots of vegetables and I had comfortable showers in the terrace. It was a happy life but I grew up a lot and when I was six years old it was time to move to Masquefa where I'm living now with my friends, a fantastic community of sulcatas. The Grandma often visits to me and we remember old times together.

More information: CRARC

I want to talk about the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN),  an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources that has a membership of over 1200 governmental and non-governmental organizations. 

Some 11,000 scientists and experts participate in the work of IUCN commissions on a voluntary basis. It employs approximately 1000 full-time staff in more than 60 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland. IUCN has observer and consultative status at the United Nations, and plays a role in the implementation of several international conventions on nature conservation and biodiversity. It was involved in establishing the World Wide Fund for Nature and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

My new home in the CRARC, Masquefa

The origins of IUCN were in 1947 when the Swiss League for the Protection of Nature organised an international conference on the protection of nature in Brunnen, Switzerland. 

The IUCN was established on 5 October 1948, in Fontainebleau, France. 

The initiative to set up the new organisation came from UNESCO and especially from its first Director General, the British biologist Julian Huxley.

The objectives of the new Union were to encourage international cooperation in the protection of nature, to promote national and international action and to compile, analyse and distribute information. At the time of its founding IUPN was the only international organisation focusing on the entire spectrum of nature conservation.

More information: IUCN

When we talk about IUCN we must pay attention to three facts:

• Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972). IUCN provides technical evaluations and monitoring.

• CITES- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (1974) IUCN is a signatory party and the CITES secretariat was originally lodged with IUCN.

• Ramsar Convention – Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (1975). The secretariat is still administered from IUCN's headquarters.

The most important of these three facts is the CITES because thanks to it, I'm protected and different associations and people are working very hard every day to keep alive not only my species but thousands and thousands around the planet, which are still in danger sadly.

I offer to you a list of them. Take a look and join to us in this legitimate battle against the ilegal traffic of animals and the ilegal hunting.

More information: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved. 

Richard Rogers

TIMON LEPIDUS: THE LIZARD RETURNS TO SANT RAMON

Timon Lepidus

The Ocellated Lizard, Eyed Lizard or Jewelled Lacerta in the pet trade is a species of wall. Timon Lepidus is one of the largest members of its family. The adult is 30 to 60 cm long and may reach up to 90 cm, weighing more than 0.5 kg. About two-thirds of its length is tail. Newly hatched young are 4 to 5 cm long, excluding tail.This is a robust lizard with a serrated collar. The male has a characteristic broad head. It has thick, strong legs, with long, curved claws. The dorsal background colour is usually green, but sometimes grey or brownish, especially on the head and tail. This is overlaid with black stippling that may form a bold pattern of interconnected rosettes. The underside is yellowish or greenish. The male is brighter in colour than the female and has blue spots on its flanks; there are fewer or none in the female. Young are green, grey, or brown, with yellowish or white, often black-edged, spots all over.

More information: CRARC

This reptile is found in various wild and cultivated habitats from sea level up to 2100 metres in the Iberian lands. It is rare at higher altitudes. It prefers dry, bushy areas, such as open woodland and scrub, old olive groves and vineyards, and is sometimes found on more open, rocky or sandy areas. It can occasionally be seen basking on roadsides. The lizard usually stays on the ground, but climbs well on rocks and in trees. It can dig holes and sometimes uses abandoned rabbit burrows. 

Timon Lepidus

This lizard feeds mainly on large insects, especially beetles, and also robs birds’ nests and occasionally takes reptiles, frogs, and small mammals. It also eats fruit and other plant matter, especially in dry areas. 

Breeding occurs in late spring or early summer. Males are territorial in spring and fight in the breeding season. The female lays up to 22 eggs in June and July about three months after mating, hiding them under stones and logs or in leaf litter or in loose damp soil. It tends to lay fewer, larger eggs in dry areas. The eggs hatch in eight to 14 weeks. The lizard is sexually mature at two years of age. 

Last August, a pair of this species of lizard was released in Sant Ramon Mountain in Sant Boi de Llobregat. This species had disappeared because of the last fires in 2005 and 2006. The CRARC (Centre de Recuperació d’Amfibis i Rèptils de Catalunya) is working to reintroduce it in this zone. Previously, this species had been released in the range of Montserrat.

I love all animals. I have a fascination with fish, birds, 
whales -sentient life- insects, reptiles.

Nicolas Cage