Forget the groundhogs, February 2nd is also World Wetland Day, commemorating the historic convention of wetlands in Ramsar, Iran in 1971. The Ramsar Treaty was an international agreement meant to address the loss and degradation of wetlands worldwide.

The golden orbs motifs

Madagascar: the home of thousands of endemic species of flora and fauna, flourishing in the island that has been isolated for over 70 million years. As one of the largest islands in the world, Madagascar homes about 5% of our world’s animal and plant species, including unique species of lemurs, chameleons, butterflies, and foxes. While the rare and folkloric orb spiders can be found in some climates around south Africa, they are most prevalent in Madagascar, where their silk is used to weave stunning, Malagasy motifs.

Recently, a gorgeous, shimmering textured cape was produced out of the golden orb spiders’ webs, designed by textile artists Simon Peers and designer Nicholas Godley, who revived a fabric that has not been woven in more than a century.

Peers wanted to revive the ancient, ritualistic weaving that once thrived in Madagascar. To accomplish this task, Peers and Godley organized a silk harvesting operation, hiring locals to collect live female spiders in boxes, then pulling threads out of their spinnerets. These threads are braided, joined, and brocaded into the traditional textile that we see in Peers’ cape and other tribal prints.

If taking a trip to Madagascar,whether via jetcharter, commercial airline,or boat,a trip to see the golden orb spiders and other Malagasy creatures is a must.

Note: this is a guest post by Logan B. from JetCharteresDirect

Antandroy from Band-Originale on Vimeo.

In case you want to know more about this experience, you can always check out the Antandroy website, and hey, you can even download the HD version of the movie for your computer of for your iPhone. Ain’t that nice?

The National Association of Music Merchants is doing a ‘disservice’ to its members by misrepresenting the provisions and spirit of the Lacey Act, a law that aims to curb illegal logging abroad, states a letter published by a coalition of environmental groups. The letter, issued Thursday, urges the National Association of Music Merchants to reconsider its support for the RELIEF Act (HR 3210), introduced by Representatives Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), and Jim Cooper (D-TN) last October. The RELIEF Act would weaken key provisions of the Lacey Act aimed to ensure that illegally sourced wood products aren’t imported into the United States.

Kara Moses may have never become a biologist if not for a coin toss. The coin, which came up heads and decided Moses’ direction in college, has led her on a sinuous path from studying lemurs in captivity to environmental writing, and back to lemurs, only this time tracking them in their natural habitat. Her recent research on the black-and-white ruffed lemur is attracting notice for theorizing connections between Critically Endangered primates and the carbon storage capacity of forests in Madagascar. Focusing on the black-and-white ruffed lemur’s (Varecia variegata) ability as a seed disperser—animals that play a major role in spreading a plant’s seeds far-and-wide—Moses has found that not only are the lemurs important seed carriers, but they could be instrumental in dispersing seeds the seeds of big species that store large amounts of carbon.