Editor's Den

Hank Tylrr

Editor

Earlier this year, more than 12,000,000 hectares of Australian bushland was burned by uncontrollable wild fires. Prolonged drought and extremely high temperatures created disastrous fire conditions. Electrical storms ignited most of the fires throughout the country. Mega-fires were concentrated in the eastern states of New South Wales and Victoria. The estimate of destroyed wildlife from marsupials, birds, to thousands of invertebrate species including butterflies and insects are still being estimated by wildlife biologists. Estimates could be in the billions of individual animals. Australian bush vegetation has evolved with frequent fires, and usually can regenerate after fires. Australian biologist Emily Jordan writes about the fire’s impact on the well-known marsupial Koala.

From Costa Rica, Daniela Solano Rojas writes about her conservation efforts to protect the endangered Squirrel Monkey on the Osa Peninsula. As part of her conservation efforts she founded the Saimiri Foundation. Monkeys are one group of mammals that are threatened around the world by habitat loss and poaching.

Our Cover Story with Jayaprakash Bojan introduce us to his conservation efforts and his award winning wildlife photography. Conservation of endangered and threatened species plays a major role in Jayaprakash’s stunning photography.

Also, from India, Praveen Mohhandas, gives us a black and white visual travelogue of the small fishing village of Mangalajodi on the banks of Chilka Lake in Orissa.

From Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Hermis Haridas gives us a field review of the new Nikon D6’s operation and technical abilities.

From Argentina, Marcelo Moreno tells his story of becoming a botanical illustrator at the Darwin Institute. Combining fine art skills with scientific knowledge, M creates illustrations that aid to identify species. Many of his illustrations are of newly discovered and identified species. There are over 390,000 known vascular species, and many new species being discovered each year. Botanical illustrators around the world are very busy, and we look forward to featuring the artistic works of more botanical illustrators.

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