There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
Tracking Gobi Grizzlies. After several slow days with no bear activity reported near the trap sites, Hunter Causey, the volunteer hydrologist, went out to set a PVC pipe with calibrated markings among the reeds of Shar Khuls to serve as a gauge of the water level in the oasis. In trying to drive the pipe into the ground, he was met by a solid field of underlying ice. His discovery pointed to the possibility that this Gobi permafrost layer, insulated by the reed's roots and a thick mat of decomposing stalks, might reliably deliver meltdown even through a severe spell of drought. When a small crew went with Hunter to install a PVC pipe gauge in the Tsagaan Tokhoi canyon where water collected, I hiked on far up the course of the wash. After bouldering through one narrow section, I reached a fork where the rock had eroded into hoodoos - odd spires and towering walls honeycombed with shallow caves. Gale-force gusts surging up this deeply cut reach of the canyon turned the hoodoos into giant wind instruments. The place shrieked and wailed and uttered prolonged, anguished moans, as if I'd stumbled into the Gorge of Lost Souls. And not necessarily on my home planet. A moon two-thirds full stood in the ribbon of daylight sky above the slot like a second, unearthly sun. In my imagination, the cave-pocked cliffsides were mutating into high-rise apartments of an alien culture.
Bears of the Himalayan Mountains
