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February 29, 2008

From Sea To Savannah: Plastics Are Perilously Pervasive

When I drink soda from cans, I always cut up those plastic rings that come with them. I have seen too many pictures of shorebirds and sea turtles and baby seals strangled by little convenient plastic nooses.

When plastic bag naysayers give examples of how plastic messes with the ecosystem, it often give marine ecosystem examples, but land creatures are also very vulnerable to poison by plastic. Sure, the marine mammals have an added problem of often not being able to see the bags in the water, but really, nothing is safe, not even the largest predators on the African savannah - the lions.

My husband and I went to Kenya on our honeymoon, we did not go on a tour but planned it ourselves so we would have the freedom to do what we liked. We went during the season of the Great Wildebeest Migration, wanting to see this amazing sight of 2.5 million wildebeests trying to cross the Mara River on the Serengeti. Some of them would get munched by crocs, others would drown, and a vast majority would climb up the steep river bank on the other side and graze on the green grasses of the Mara. An awesome spectacle, to be sure. But a natural one.

Certainly we were upset to see that even here in one of the last wild places on earth, the insidious first world garbage known as the plastic bag has found its way into the wild.

We drove around in the vast Mara reserve with our local Maasai guide, watching wildlife and meeting very nice people. One morning, we were stalking a leopard. Now, in these game parks, it's quite common for an animal sighting to quickly become overrun with sightseers. The tour guides radio to each other, and everyone descends upon a good sighting, effectively ruining it and potentially upsetting the wildlife.

We found the leopard about the same time as one of the major TV networks Big Cats vehicle showed up. We decided to leave the hubub behind, but check out two nearby lions. They were a young male and a young female and as we watched, a plastic bag (likely from someone's lunch) blew in front of these two lions.

Now, all the other photographers around stopped taking pictures. The plastic bag had ruined their perfectly good wildlife portrait. Now, you cannot blame people for not trying to take the plastic bag away from these lions. They were wild, and not babies. And by the speed at which the lioness caught this bag was actually really astounding. These young lions had been acting like kids, playing until it blew by, distracting them and triggering their hunting instincts.

So I took these pictures of the two wild young lions - a lion and a lioness - playing with this deadly toy - a plastic bag. Perhaps you've played with a kitten before and you know how cute it can be to harass them with simple objects, but you always take the bag away so it won't suffucate or eat it, right? Not an option here.

There has been a lot of news this week about plastic bag bans, especially in Europe. I'm flattered to say that one of these pictures of the lions has made it into some of the major papers lately, and I'm proud to help improve the public's awareness on how hurtful plastic bag can be to the environment. You can read more about plastic bag bans around the world here.

Interested in doing your part? Consider switching to canvas totebags, like one of ours, or make your own!

Posted by sorsha at February 29, 2008 12:19 PM