Sharks & Apes

Science World 5/10/2010

Predators in Peril
Many shark attack victims are now fighting for protection rights for sharks. Around 60 people each year are attacked by a shark world wide. Bethany Hamilton was 13 when she was attacked while surfing. Now she is a professional surfer even after losing one of her arms. Most victims say that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or that sparkly bathing suits or glittery surfboards cause them to look like fish scales to a hungry shark. Almost 38% of sharks are being threatened with extinction. They are constantly caught unintentionally by fishermen that are fishing for other species. Congress is currently trying to pass a bill called the, Shark Conservation Act of 2009. If the bill passes it will be illegal to take the fins off of sharks, they need the whole carcass that way regulators can keep track of how many endangered sharks have been caught.

Snap-Happy Ape
Nonja, an orangutan at the Vienna Zoo in Austria was given a camera that dispenses a raisin everytime she takes a picture. The ape takes pictures around the zoo and of herself. Scientists say that orangutans are very smart and observant, so she figured out quickly she is rewarded when she takes more pictures. Now Nonja has a facebook, where zookeepers uploads the pictures she takes and information about her. She has more then 80,000 friends!