Mudfooted.com

Incredible detailed drawing of an adult male African Elephant - Drawing by Rory Mccann

One of the main aims of Mudfooted.com is to increase awareness for wildlife conservation. Fortunately I am not the only one who thinks this is important, many artists around the world are combining their imaginative skills and interests to promote appreciation for our wonderful natural world. So is Rory Mccann, a wildlife artist and conservationist working in Cambridge, UK. His drawings are characterised by an amazing precision and wonderful detail of often highly endangered wildlife. A selection of his work is featured below:

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An amazing image of the Kakapo, a flightless parrot from New Zealand, of which only 124 individuals are alive today. (Photo: Shane McInnes/TheWorldsRarest.com)

A large proportion of the almost 10,000 World’s bird species is threatened with extinction and more than 2,000 species need urgent conservation action to ensure their survival. With this in mind, last year the international photo competition The World’s Rarest Birds was launched with the aim to photograph the 566 most threatened bird species on Earth. These bird species inhabit some of the most remote and inhospitable places on the planet and even seeing one could take weeks or months.

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A young bonobo - Photograph: {link:http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/behavior/Spring2004/laird/Mating.htm}link{/link}

Bonobos are the enigmatic fifth member of the great ape family which also consists of orang-utans, gorillas, common chimpanzees and humans. In the same way as we relate to common chimpanzees, the DNA recipe which makes up humans differs by around 1% to that which makes up bonobos, making them both equally our closest living genetic relatives. Their scientific name (Pan paniscus), means ‘diminutive Pan’: a minute version of the goat-horned and legged Greek forest god, who enjoyed some nymph debauchery while playing the pan flute in mythological times. This term has only been used to designate the bonobo since 1933 as prior to that date, bonobos were largely unknown or misunderstood to be dwarf chimpanzees.

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By now you must have heard words like “conservation”, “extinction” and “global warming” a thousand and one times – meaning they are often ignored. Conservationists have campaigned to inform the world about the severity of the damage being done to its ecosystems and in many cases humans are to blame.

However, not all ecosystems are endangered and, in fact, in a lot of cases many species and populations are on the increase, evolving to suit a changing habitat. So what’s all the hassle about?

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In the county of Leicestershire, UK, animal conservationists have come up with a creative way to protect the endangered harvest mouse, Britain’s smallest mammal. With the help of a local tennis club and Wimbledon, a couple hundred used tennis balls will be re-used to become tennis-ball-homes. Although little is known about the current status of the harvest mouse, population numbers have been under increasing pressure because of intense farming methods.

Let’s now just hope these tiny mice, which only weigh some 6 grams as adults, like their new home.

See another fantastic picture of harvest mice at the amazing photography {link:http://www.davidtipling.com/picture_ofthe_week.php}website of David Tipling{/link}