Plight of albino animals

It is the ultimate hunter’s prize. From the timid deer to the rampant tiger: the whiter the animal, the bigger the bounty on its head. As deer stalkers take to the British countryside this week for the British roebuck shooting season, one young deer will be a more vulnerable position than its peers. An extraordinarily rare, white deer has had a four-figure bounty put on its head as hunters clamour to be the first to kill the animal.

The white roe, nicknamed Pearl by animal rights protesters, was initially spotted in December in Dumfries, in the Scottish lowlands. It is one of about a dozen found since the Second World War, according to experts. The animal is usually brown coated and one of the most common species in the UK, with an estimated 800,000 living up and down the British Isles.

Initially it was thought the deer was suffering from albinism, but experts now believe a rare genetic mutation resulting in a condition called leucism has changed the deer’s pigmentation.

Now hunters are keen to stalk the animal and be the first to kill it. One German stalker has reputedly offered more than £5,400 for the deer.

“Selling the opportunity to shoot this deer is a very good money earner,” said Charlie Jacoby, editor of Sporting Rifle magazine, which is to publish a diary chronicling the animal’s life, and death. “American and German hunters like deer and once this deer has its antlers, it will be even more attractive to them for stalking.”

But Kevin Stuart, who owns the stalking rights to the 3,000 acres of land, this weekend vowed to protect the animal. Mr Stuart last saw the creature about 10 days ago, but is reluctant to get close to it as it may alert people to its whereabouts. “As long as the deer stays within the confines of the estate it will be fine. But it is a wild animal and will go wherever it wants to go. At the moment it is a yearling and doesn’t even have antlers. It is a beautiful animal and we are worried about poachers and people coming to shoot it.”

The Scottish MSP Elaine Murray has put forward a motion in Parliament to have the animal protected. “We are also looking to whether protection could apply to an animal which is genetically rare from a species itself that isn’t particularly rare,” she said.

The white deer is just one example of many white or albino animals that have attracted the attention of hunters, illegal animal traders and the plain curious. An albino corn snake can fetch about $500 (£350). Albino alligators are also prized possessions. Last year, seven rare albino alligators were stolen from a zoo in Brazil. They were said to be worth $10,000 each. White tigers have been hunted to such a degree that they are effectively extinct in the wild. Inbreeding in captivity has led to an abundance in zoos. Assuming they could get at them, hunters are reportedly willing to pay as much as $60,000 for a chance to shoot one of the animals, 10 times the bounty for a normal tiger.

Alistair Currie, senior researcher at the animal charity Peta, said: “It is an incredibly Victorian attitude that if something is unusual your response is to kill it. You would hope that if people take the view that if something is unusual, they would want to preserve it and that it should be valued.”

Flu epidemic killing bonobos in Congo sanctuary

Six bonobos, a species of chimpanzee, have died from a flu epidemic in a month at the Lola Ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ten more have contracted the flu.

The Oldest Living Organism

Bristlecone pines are the oldest living trees in world. It is also considered the strongest living organism in the planet for it survived the harshest living conditions on earth.

In 1957, a scientist named Edmund Schulman discovered the oldest living organism in earth’s history – the Bristlecone pine. He named his discovery “Methuselah”. The name actually came from a Bible character under the same name who was known to be the longest-lived person mentioned in the Scriptures.

This tree is estimated to be 5,000 years old. Imagine it was already an old tree when the Egyptians were building the pyramids.

The Bristlecone pine can be found atop the mountains of Western United States and grows at an elevation of more than 10,000 feet. The tree survived the harshest living conditions on earth: below zero temperature, brawny winds, small amount of rainfall and thin oxygen.

Tribulations in a man’s life will give him character. As such, difficulties that we will encounter could actually be good for us. Adversities are important ingredients of life’s process that will produce good results in our lives. Just like the proud “Methuselah”, the tree that survived the harsh elements of nature.

Poison Takes Toll On Africa’s Lions

We all grew up learning that the lion is the king of the jungle. And now that we’re not little any more, we know just how vulnerable they are. In fact, when exposed to man’s devices, lions are extremely fragile.

The latest weapon being used against them is poison. African herders whose livestock and livelihood are threatened by lions are killing them in the most effective and economical way they can.

And overwhelmingly, that is by using a cheap American chemical called Furadan. It is marketed as a pesticide, to be used for protecting crops. But it’s bought by many to kill animals. And that?s one reason why, conservationists say, Africa’s lions are in trouble.

60 Minutes and correspondent Bob Simon took a journey through the bush in Kenya to find out what’s going on. We learned that 20 years ago, there were some 200,000 lions in Africa. Today, there are 30,000 and the numbers are going down all the time.

Lions are being poisoned at a staggering rate in Kenya, and there’s little chance cubs outside the wildlife reserves there will make it to adulthood.

Dr. Laurence Frank, of the University of California Berkeley, told Simon he believes that poison, combined with other threats, will make the lion in Africa extinct.

Frank has been following lions for the last 30 years, looking for ways to keep them alive. While 60 Minutes was there, Alayne Cotterill, his colleague, needed to put a new collar on a lioness named Mara. She darted her and put her to sleep.

Cotterill and Frank had less than an hour to do their work before Mara would wake up. A sleeping lion is a deceptively gentle creature. Her coat, which looks exquisitely smooth, is actually quite rough to the touch.

Seeing Mara’s claws retracting into soft, padded paws, you understand why she is such an efficient killer. But actually, she may be more afraid of us than we are of her.

“They’re very unlikely to attack us,” Cotterill explained. “There’s been so many years of conflict with people in this area, it’s almost hardwired into their systems to be terrified of people.”

And with good reason: over the millennia, people have speared, shot and trapped lions. Today, the primary culprit appears to be poison.

“We know of 30-plus poisonings just in this area in the last five or six years. We have data on another 35 or 40 poisonings in our other study area, elsewhere in Kenya. But that’s gotta be just the tiny tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Frank told Simon.

Mara is part of a pride which lives on Claus Mortensen’s ranch. Five years ago he found out just how devastating poison can be when he discovered that another of his prides had gone missing.

“After a few days, vultures were seen circling on our northern boundary there. And we went out and we found first one lion, then another, and then another,” Mortensen remembered.

Seven lions in all had perished. The lions had been vomiting and there were no bullet wounds.

Mortensen said he was sure the lions had been poisoned and suspects that Furadan was responsible. It’s one of the most toxic pesticides sold in Kenya, widely available and hard to detect because it dissipates quickly in poisoned animals. Lab tests, he says, ruled out any other poison.

So why would anyone want to poison these glorious creatures? The first thing you need to know is that 70 percent of the country’s wildlife is found outside the protected game reserves, on Kenya’s vast plains, where wild animals and cattle mingle. Lions are there too, and that’s where the trouble begins. The lions attack and eat the cattle.

The area is inhabited by the Maasai people, who always had a way of dealing with that. The young men went out hunting lions with spears; it was a rite of passage. Antony Kasanga was one of them.

Asked what it means for a young Maasai man to kill a lion, Kasanga told Simon, “It makes you famous. You get the whole community to know you, because you killed a lion?.If you had one girlfriend, you get 20 more.”

It’s more than just having 20 girlfriends: killing lions protects cattle, the very foundation of the Maasai?s existence.

When a cow is killed by a lion, Kasanga said it’s a disaster.

And Kasanga’s job now is to avert that disaster and save the lion at the same time. He is a leading member of the Lion Guardians, a group of reformed Maasai warriors who keep track of collared lions and warn herders when the lions get too close to their cattle.

“Bodies” exhibition probed in Poland

Polish prosecutors are investigating whether a controversial exhibition displaying human cadavers amounts to desecration of the human body, a spokesman said Friday.

“Bodies… the exhibition,” which has toured a number of countries, consists of 13 corpses and around 250 body parts which have undergone a process known as “plastination” which preserves human tissue permanently using liquid silicone rubber.

“We are investigating this case to check whether the corpses were not desecrated and whether all procedures needed to mount such an exhibition in Poland were carried out,” a spokesman for the Warsaw prosecutors’ office, Mateusz Martyniuk, told Reuters.

The exhibition, which has also drawn criticism from some Polish politicians, is housed in a Warsaw shopping mall and is scheduled to run until mid-July. The organizers said they had met all legal requirements to bring it to Poland.

“The exhibition entered the European Union a few months ago and in line with all sanitary procedures, customs regulations and others,” said Agnieszka Rojewska from Media Metropolis, the public relations agency promoting the display in Poland.

She said more than 10,000 people had visited the exhibition since it opened a week ago. Its chief medical adviser is Roy Glover, professor emeritus of anatomy and cell biology at the University of Michigan.

Sanitary officials expressed concern. “Thirteen dead people appear out of the blue in the center of Warsaw. It provokes the deepest astonishment, amazement and suspicion,” said Deputy General Sanitary Inspector for Poland, Jan Orgelbrand.

He invoked the specter of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, located in southern Poland, where the remains of murdered Jews were used in the manufacture of various products.

“The human being is sacred… A ‘beautiful’ lamp made of human skin in Auschwitz is the riposte to the question of where the human being ends and where art begins,” he said.

Poland was home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities before the Nazis slaughtered most of them during World War Two in camps such as Auschwitz, where some 1.5 million Jews from all over Europe were killed.

Comment among people viewing the exhibition was mixed.

“There are some critical opinions about this, but I don’t agree with them. That’s what we are like,” visitor Anna Jurek told Reuters.

Last year, the “Bodies” exhibition also stirred controversy in the United States. The promoter agreed to stop using remains of undocumented origin in the New York display after a probe by the state attorney general.

Gorilla slaughter sparks campaign

If the people of Congo save the mountain gorilla, might the gorilla return the favour?

That is the hope of environmental activists, who realise that wildlife conservation and tourism could be the key to survival for people as well as animals in a part of Africa where conflict has been the norm.

Mountain gorillas are gentle giants that range across the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. These primates are considered extremely endangered, with fewer than 720 in existence.

After a decade of relative calm for these animals – the same cannot be said of the humans around them – wildlife officials report at least 10 have been killed this year.

Photographs documenting the slaughter are heartbreaking, mostly because of the peaceful, human-like expressions the dead gorillas wear.

These pictures are part of the tool kit brought to the United States by Arthur Mugisha, a former game warden in Uganda and now manager of the International Gorilla Conservation Programme.

Mugisha acknowledged that the people of Congo can well survive without the mountain gorilla, even though they might not survive the continuing conflict between government forces and rebels in the Virunga National Forest.

But he said the plight of the gorillas was one way to focus attention on the plight of the humans.

“If we were not talking about gorillas … the story would be very different,” Mugisha said. “It would be another group of people who are suffering and dying, and the world continues.”

No one really knows why mountain gorillas are being killed now, though jealousy might play a role, said Craig Sholley of the African Wildlife Foundation.

In this area of rich biodiversity, Uganda and Rwanda have been able to capitalise on gorilla tourism, Sholley said, with tourist permits alone accounting for about $15 million in annual revenue.

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s unstable Government has been unable to do the same.

“Folks in Congo are taking a look at the successful situation in Rwanda and Uganda, which have revitalised over the last several years, and they’re jealous,” Sholley said. “A degree of jealousy has led to a degree of institutional breakdown that is causing problems in terms of enforcement on the ground.”

Personal animosity might also be a factor, Mugisha said, with gorilla killings becoming a way to settle scores against those charged with protecting the creatures.

What is clear is that fighting between Congolese military and rebels in the park has left gorillas unprotected as park rangers and civilians flee from violence.

“They live hour by hour, not even day by day, because any time they can die,” Mugisha said of the people living in the area.

“These are communities that are looking for livelihood, but they are not sure if they will be able to see tomorrow, so it’s a very frustrating and empty life that they are living.”

The possibility for change might lie in saving the gorillas and their environment, Mugisha said. His program works to make sure that, through the gunfire, wildlife professionals are still able to go into the gorilla areas to do their jobs.

The program also encourages such activities as bee-keeping and mushroom cultivation that individual families can do in and around their homes and that can bring in money.

A trans-boundary strategy to protect mountain gorillas has been supported by the political powers in Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, he said. It lets wildlife organisations such as Mugisha’s take a neutral stance to warfare while trying to preserve gorilla populations.

It also aims to save the forests where the gorillas live, rather than clearing the trees for cropland.

For those whose fields lie just outside the forest, the gorillas can be a nuisance. So Mugisha and others have set up Human Gorilla Conflict Organisations – like neighborhood watch groups, except, instead of keeping the area clear of crime, they aim to keep it clear of crop-raiding mountain gorillas.

“These gorillas are intelligent and they know they are crop-raiding,” Mugisha said. “So when there is an organised group that comes, we can actually chase them without harming them.”

Though they can appear threatening and are certainly large and strong, mountain gorillas are very timid, Sholley said.

“If you put a force of 10 people between them and the gardens, the gorillas are in no way, shape or form going to go into the gardens,” Sholley said.

Pink dolphin appears in US lake

The world’s only pink Bottlenose dolphin which was discovered in an inland lake in Louisiana, USA, has become such an attraction that conservationists have warned tourists to leave it alone.

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, photographed the animal, which is actually an albino, when he began studying it after the mammal first surfaced in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA.

Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, which also has reddish eyes, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.

He said: “I just happened to see a little pod of dolphins, and I noticed one that was a little lighter.

“It was absolutely stunningly pink.

“I had never seen anything like it. It’s the same color throughout the whole body and it looks like it just came out of a paint booth.

“The dolphin appears to be healthy and normal other than its coloration, which is quite beautiful and stunningly pink.

“The mammal is entirely pink from tip to tail and has reddish eyes indicating it’s albinism. The skin appears smooth, glossy pink and without flaws.

“I have personally spotted the pink dolphin 40 to 50 times in the time since the original sighting as it has apparently taken up residence with its family in the Calcasieu ship channel.

“As time has passed the young mammal has grown and sometimes ventures away from its mother to feed and play but always remains in the vicinity of the pod.

“Surprisingly, it does not appear to be drastically affected by the environment or sunlight as might be expected considering its condition, although it tends to remain below the surface a little more than the others in the pod.”

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, senior biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: “I have never seen a dolphin coloured in this way in all my career.

“It is a truly beautiful dolphin but people should be careful, as with any dolphins, to respect it – observe from a distance, limit their time watching, don’t chase or harass it

“While this animal looks pink, it is an albino which you can notice in the pink eyes.

“Albinism is a genetic trait and it unclear as to the type of albinism this animal inherited.”

A close relation of dolphins, the Amazon River Botos, called pink dolphins, live in South America in the Amazon.

18 of Nature’s Most Powerful Medicinal Plants

From marijuana to catnip, there are hundreds of remarkably common herbs, flowers, berries and plants that serve all kinds of important medicinal and health purposes that might surprise you: anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, insect repellent, antiseptic, expectorant, antibacterial, detoxification, fever reduction, antihistamine and pain relief. Here are eighteen potent medical plants you’re likely to find in the wild – or even someone’s backyard – that can help with minor injuries, scrapes, bites and pains.*

Marijuana

Seriously. Though marijuana is still illegal in the United States, it is legal in 12 states for medicinal purposes, and if a case of poison ivy in the woods isn’t a medicinal purpose, what is? Marijuana was *mostly* legal until 1970 when it became classified as a hard drug. No one thought of it as a dangerous or illicit drug until the 20th century; in fact, hemp was George Washington’s primary crop and Thomas Jefferson’s secondary crop. The Declaration of Independence is written on it; the Gutenberg Bible was printed on hemp, too. There’s actually an environmental dimension to legalizing marijuana – hemp is a remarkable and renewable plant, offering all kinds of foodstuff and product uses that surpass cotton and plastic. But health benefits are well documented, from depression and anxiety relief to reduced blood pressure, pain alleviation and glaucoma treatment. It is not addictive, does not kill brain cells and is not a “gateway” drug – in fact, when pot is more available, studies show that the use of hard drugs like heroin and cocaine actually decreases. The bottom line for hikers: when your leg is broken from a misjudged boulder hopping attempt (pain) and a bear has eaten your friend (depression) and you’re lost because you forgot the compass (dumbass), consult the cannabis.

Lady Ferns

If you grew up in the Pacific Northwest you likely know what ferns are good for: treating stinging nettles. One of the world’s oldest plants, there are many varieties of ferns, but if you’re lucky enough to spy the soft, delicate lady fern, grab some and roll it up between your palms into a rough mash. The juices released will quickly ease stinging nettle burns and can also ease minor cuts, stings and burns (fresh salt water also works in a pinch for bee stings). Bracken fern are similar to lady fern and will work, as well. The rougher, glossier, stiff sword fern and deer fern won’t be as effective, though. (Learn about types of ferns.) Lady ferns actually grow all over North America but are common in areas with high rainfall.

California Poppy

The brilliant blooms of the poppy make this opioid plant an iconic one. The plant is an effective nervine (anxiety reliever) and is safe for use on agitated children. Can be made into a a tea for quick relief of nervousness and tension. A stronger decoction will offer pain relief. (A decoction is made by “stewing” all safe plant parts, including stems and roots if possible, in water for several hours and, ideally, soaking overnight.)

Blood Flower

The blood flower (also Mexican butterfly weed) is a type of tropical milkweed with toxic milky sap that is emetic (it makes you hurl). It’s also historically favored as a heart stimulant and worm expellent. Pretty useful for a number of potential hiking disasters, if you think about it. (Of course, if you’d quit eating those poisonous berries you probably wouldn’t need to worry about finding a natural expectorant.)

Tansy

If you’ve decided to backpack through Europe instead of the mountains of Mexico (but why?), you’ll want to know about a few helpful medicinal plants. Tansy is an old-world aster and remedy, used for flavoring beer and stews as well as repelling insects. Rubbing the leaves on the skin provides an effective bug repellent, but tansy can also be used to treat worms. It is said to be poisonous when extracted, but a few leaves are not harmful if ingested.

Korean Mint (hyssop)

Who doesn’t want to be minty fresh? Most of the various types of “mint” or mentha – spearmint, Korean mint, applemint, regular old mint – offer reported health benefits and medicinal properties. (Avoid pennyroyal, as it’s poisonous.) Mint is famous for soothing headaches, fighting nausea, calming the stomach and reducing nervousness and fatigue. Korean mint, also called Indian mint and hyssop, is a fairly effective antiviral, making it useful for fighting colds and the flu. Whatever continent you’re on, some type of mint is usually to be found. Eat whole, garnish food or make tea to get the all purpose health benefits.

Alfalfa

Alfalfa is fodder for livestock for a reason: it’s incredibly rich in minerals and health-promoting nutrients and compounds. With roots that grow 20 to 30 feet deep, alfalfa is considered the “father of all plants”. (It also contains a high amount of protein for a green.) Alfalfa originally grew in the Mediterranean and Middle East but has now spread to most of Europe and the Americans. It can treat morning sickness, nausea, kidney stones, kidney pain and urinary discomfort. It is a powerful diuretic and has a bit of stimulant power, helping to energize after a bout with illness. It’s a liver and bowel cleanser and long-term can help reduce cholesterol. You can purchase seeds and sprouts, but it’s fine to eat the leaves straight from the earth.

Catnip

The cannabis of the cat kingdom. Famous for making cats deliriously crazy, catnip has health properties that are great for humans, too. Catnip can relieve cold symptoms (helpful if you’re on a camping trip and don’t have access to Nyquil). It’s useful in breaking a fever as it promotes sweating. Catnip also helps stop excessive bleeding and swelling when applied rather than ingested. This mint plant (yep, another one) is also reportedly helpful in treating gas, stomach aches, and migraines. Catnip can stimulate uterine contractions, so it should not be consumed by pregnant women. It grows in the Northern Hemisphere.

Sage

Sage is an incredibly useful herb, widely considered to be perhaps the most valuable herb. It is anti-flammatory, anti-oxidant, and antifungal. In fact, according to the noted resource World’s Healthiest Foods, “Its reputation as a panacea is even represented in its scientific name, Salvia officinalis, derived from the Latin word, salver

e, which means ‘to be saved’.” It was used as a preservative for meat before the advent of refrigeration (eminently useful: you never know when you’ll be forced to hunt in the wild). Sage aids digestion, relieves cramps, reduces diarrhea, dries up phlegm, fights colds, reduces inflammation and swelling, acts as a salve for cuts and burns, and kills bacteria. Sage apparently even brings color back to gray hair. A definite concern when lost in the woods.

Blackberries

Did you know blackberries have useful healing properties? Of course they’re loaded in antioxidants and vitamins, but the leaves and roots have value, too. Native Americans have long used the stems and leaves for healing, while enjoying the young shoots peeled as a vegetable of sorts and the berries, either raw or in jams. The leaves and root can be used as an effective treatment against dysentery and diarrhea as well as serving usefulness as an anti-inflammatory and astringent. Ideal for treating cuts and inflammation in the mouth.

Wild Quinine

According to Alternative Nature Online, wild quinine is a potent herb that “is used as an antiperiodic, emmenagogue, kidney, lithontripic, poultice. It has traditionally been used in alternative medicine to treat debility, fatigue, respiratory infection, gastrointestinal infection, and venereal disease.” Whatever the ailment, quinine is famously helpful in treating it. Only the root and flowers are edible; avoid the plant.

Navajo Tea

Also called greenthread, Plains Tea or Coyote Plant, this plant has been used for centuries by Native Americans to quickly relieve that most brutal and irritating of infections: the UTI (urinary tract infection). Best when made into a tea or decoction.

Red Clover

Native to Europe, Northern Africa and Western Asia, red clover is now ubiquitous worldwide. The plant’s reddish pink blossoms can be used for coughs and colds, but they are an excellent detoxifier and blood cleanser as well.

Sweet Marjoram

Marjoram and oregano are often used interchangeably, but the aromatic sweet marjoram is slightly different. The Greeks called it the “Joy of the Mountain” and it was revered throughout the Mediterranean for its fragrance, flavor and medicinal value. The famous French herbs de provence and Middle Eastern za’atar both use sweet marjoram. Marjoram has many uses (it’s a famous digestive aid) but it is effective as an antifungal, antibacterial and disinfectant treatment in a pinch.

Burdock Herb

Burdock, or cocklebur, is a prickly, thistle-like plant that grows commonly in many parts of the world. It can get fairly big and its leaves resemble the elephant ear plant. Though the burs often get caught in pets’ and livestock’s fur, don’t think of it only as an annoying plant. It is a highly effective treatment against poison ivy and poison oak (claims that it cures cancer are slightly *less* substantiated).

Feverfew

Feverfew is a plant that has well-known and documented health properties and medicinal benefits. This anti-inflammatory can treat rheumatism, arthritis and, most famously, migraine headaches and tension headaches. It’s also good for alleviating tension and general anxiety (it is a natural serotonin inhibitor). It also helps to reduce swelling and bruising. Though feverfew is most effective when taken daily, it can be a helpful pain reliever when no Advil is on hand.

Sweet Violet

Native to Europe and Asia, sweet violet is cultivated around the world and is a pleasant, delicate purple color. When brewed into a syrup the plant is effective as a treatment for colds, flu and coughs or sore throat. However, when made as a tea, it is wonderfully effective for relieving headaches and muscle and body pain.

Winter Savory

Winter savory is your savior against insect bites and stings. One of the most effective natural plant treatments for bug bites is originally from Europe and the Mediterranean but often shows up elsewhere thanks to global trade. In addition to being an antiseptic, it is delicious – used for flavoring meats and stews – and all parts are edible.

With so many amazing medicinal plants on the planet, be sure to look for future posts covering more. Feel free to submit your own request or share your botanical knowledge in the comments.
* Disclaimer: the content of this post is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered qualified medical advice. Always consult an expert before consuming or applying any foreign substance or material. Also, don’t do drugs.

The World’s Oldest Tree

Earth’s oldest living inhabitant “Methuselah” has reached the age of 4,768 years.

Of the many scenic wonders found within the Inyo National Forest, one of the most amazing is the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, located between 10,000 and 11,000 ft. in the White Mountains, east of the Sierra Nevada. These trees are the oldest known living trees on earth. Here in the White Mountains, the ancient trees have survived more than 40 centuries, exceeding the age of the oldest Giant Sequoia by 1,500 years. For trees that old, one would expect giants, but Bristlecone pines look more like weathered dwarfs than like old giants. They add no more than an inch per century to their girth. The harsh climate above 10,000 ft elevation and very poor soil conditions don’t let things grow too big. As a matter of fact, Bristlecone pines are the only trees to have adapted to these conditions. That gives them a competitive edge allowing for a long and undisturbed life.

The above coordinates refer to “point 15? of the self-guided tour of the Methuselah Loop Trail. This point is called
The Ancient Forest. Each Bristlecone pine, from young seedling to ancient relic, has an individual character. And in the Ancient Forest, where trees had more than four and a half millennia to develop their character, each tree is a true individual. Every single tree in the Ancient Forest is at least 4,000 years old, many reach 4,500 years and the oldest one – Methuselah – has a confirmed age of 4,768 years which secured its place in the Guinness Book of World Records. In order to protect Methuselah from souvenir hunters and people who would just “love it to death,” the forest service does not disclose its location. It only hints that Methuselah is on of the trees right along the trail in the Ancient Forest. So, we took pictures of the most magnificent trees along that trail. Rest assured that each and every one of them is older than any other tree you have ever seen and that one of them is Methuselah.

If these trees could talk they would tell us what it means to be 4,600 years old:

“The oldest of us started growing at around the time when the Great Pyramid of Giza was completed (2600 BC). We were 600 years old when Stonehenge was completed (2000 BC) and 800 years at the beginning of the Bronze Age (1800 BC). When we were 1,100 years old (1500 BC) the Maya Civilization rose in Central America and when we were 1,300 years old (1300 BC), Moses lead the Hebrews from Eygpt to the land of Israel. Most of us were already 1,400 years old when the ancient Pueblo civilization rose in North America while at the same time, at the other end of the world, the Greeks fought in the Trojan War (1194 BC). We were 1,800 years old at the beginning of the Iron Age (800 BC) and some of us reached already 1,900 years when the city of Rome was founded (753 BC). We were close to 2,100 years old when Gautama Buddha achieved enlightenment and founded Buddhism in India. When we were 2,100 years old, China’s first emperor built the Great Wall of China (528 BC) and when we were 2,500 years old, Julius Caesar was born. We were 2,600 years old when Jesus Christ was born and 3,200 years old when Muhammad founded Islam (610). King William conquered England when we were 3,760 years old (1066) and Christoph Columbus landed in America when we were 4,370 years old (1492). We were almost 4,400 years old when the United States declared independence and had reached the age of 4,450 when California joined the Union. And we keep getting older still!