Lonesome George Dead

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Staff at the Galapagos National Park in Ecuador say Lonesome George, a giant tortoise believed to be the last of its subspecies, has died. Scientists estimate he was about 100 years old. Lonesome George, a giant tortoise, was believed to be the last of his subspecies. With no offspring and no known individuals from his subspecies left, Lonesome George became known as the rarest creature in the world. For decades, environmentalists unsuccessfully tried to get the Pinta Island tortoise to reproduce with females from a similar subspecies on the Galapagos Islands. Park officials said the tortoise was found dead in his corral by his keeper.
LINK: The presurfer

Beautiful National Parks, Reserves and Sanctuaries in Peru

"Huascaran National Park"
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From Machu Picchu to Lake Titicaca Peru has some of the most beautiful natural wonders in the world and all the great wonders are protected in national parks, reserves and sanctuaries in Peru.

Hard not to be impressed with the beauty of Peru.
Link, Via: Neatorama

Vintage national park posters

National Geographic has a gallery of vintage national park posters from the 1930s.

Created in the mid-1930s in response to the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration and its Federal Arts Project were focused in part on providing artwork for public buildings while assisting struggling artists. Artists were tasked with creating posters that promoted the landscapes and wildlife of America's parks. The program ended in 1943, and the largest collection of WPA-era prints--including the selection in this gallery--is now in the Library of Congress.
Photo gallery: Vintage U.S. Park Posters [National Geographic], Via: Boingboing

World's Largest Cave

This is amazing...

An astonishing 80 by 80 metres in most places, a local farmer led the joint British-Vietnamese expedition team to the cavern openening which he had personally discovered a few years ago.

Explorers of the cave walked 2.8 miles into Son Doong cave, in Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park, before being stopped by seasonal floodwaters. In the dry season it is thought they could have walked much further. What an amazing privaledge to have been any part of this team.

Link, Via: Neatorama