for me, being able to use this creative outlet to share such a powerful narrative shows that anyone, using any of their interests/talents, can raise awareness about environmental issues. my art is a reflection of myself and the issues that are of importance to me.

i want to inspire others to partake in environmental activism in any way that they can. this video not only includes inspiring stories of conservation successes (such as that of the gray wolf and the bald eagle), but also showcases statistics of extinction that will hopefully display the dark reality of the situation we face.

many seem to forget that we are currently in an age of mass extinction, and that a threat to one species is a threat to all. we must learn to respect the flora and fauna that we share this land with, and protect the wildlife that we have already caused harm to. this video aims to achieve this by presenting viewers with an emotional and artistic chronicle of the holocene extinction. 

the potential extinction of this land snail points to a much larger issue of land snail extinction around the world, as well as the mass extinction of the world’s important biodiversity. this short video shows us the importance of the role that academia and passionate citizens can play in the protection of our worlds sensitive biodiversity, all beginning with a local endangered and endemic species of land snail.

when first welcoming our student group to ol pejeta conservancy’s endangered species facility, mwenda warned us that our morning with him would be one of mixed emotions. with the bright kenyan sun filtering through the open roof of our vehicle as it rumbles down an uneven dirt trail, it is impossible not to catch mwenda’s infectious enthusiasm first.

when we arrive at our destination, mwenda jumps out of the vehicle and snaps a few carrots in half, tossing the pieces onto the grass. “fatu!” he calls. fatu trundles over and begins crunching carrots off the ground, and he proudly introduces her: “this is my girlfriend.”

fatu farts in response. “say ‘thank you,’” he laughs. “that’s how rhinos say hello.”

18-year-old fatu is one of the last two known northern white rhinoceroses. her 36-year-old mother, najin, observes us quietly from the shade of a squat tree.

perhaps najin is still getting used to the hot african sun – after all, both she and fatu were born at the dvůr králové zoo in the czech republic, and only arrived in ol pejeta 10 years ago.

perhaps her legs are bothering her – both she and fatu suffer joint issues from spending their formative years on concrete surfaces. these maladies prevent them from successfully reproducing, thwarting the intention of the relocation to a more natural habitat.

or perhaps she is simply taking a break from the attentions of the tourists that blow through her isolated enclosure every day, snapping pictures and hanging precariously out windows for a chance to touch one of the rarest animals on earth.

while we intruders are confined to the cruisers, mwenda stands freely next to fatu, occasionally tossing her another carrot and tossing anecdotes to his audience. after eight years of working at ol pejeta, he is used to sharing space with an animal that rivals our vehicle in size and wields two curving horns on her oblong snout.

those magnificent horns, composed of the same keratin that makes up human fingernails, are the reason that only two northern white rhinos remain, hidden away under heavy guard. when political unrest struck many african countries in the mid-twentieth century, conflicts were frequently financed by blood-stained rhino horn, poached for its high value as traditional medicine.

the northern whites, distinguished from their southern white cousins by their tufted ears and their black rhino relatives by their wide grazing mouths, were hardest hit by these illegal campaigns, and their numbers plummeted. now, the last mother-daughter duo will live out their days in the shadow of mt. kenya, with only a southern white companion to mentor them in natural behavior, and a cadre of humans tasked with easing the passage of yet another species into oblivion.

the tragic tale of the northern white rhino is hard to listen to without your heart sinking into your gut and a righteous outrage burning behind your eyes. however, mwenda is a master of walking the line between despair and optimism. for every sad statistic, he includes a charming fact about rhino behavior – as a noteworthy example, he spends several minutes explaining how they defecate in a communal “midden pit” to stay clean and swap olfactory signals with distant neighbors.

he also offers us hope for the future. while neither fatu nor najin can breed, and their male counterparts are gone, the genetic material of their species lives on in labs around the world. in-vitro fertilization of a rhinoceros is an unprecedented, risky, and costly procedure, but mwenda assures us that the scientists and caretakers that make up the last chance for survival initiative are working tirelessly to beat the odds. the female southern whites that watched us suspiciously as we traveled through other parts of the park, stepping pointedly between us and their curious calves, may be the surrogate mothers of the next generation of northern whites.

mwenda considers himself an educator as much as he is a caretaker, and is dedicated to raising awareness of the plight of his “girls.” he communicates his experiences, his knowledge, and his thoughts about issues ranging from the environmental to the social via his popular instagram account, @jemu_mwenda.

a member of our group, caitlin schiavoni, discovered mwenda’s social media after hearing about his heartbreaking tribute to sudan, the last male northern white rhino, who died in 2018. “it was inspiring to see someone still so hopeful after dealing with such devastating loss,” she remarks.

schiavoni contacted mwenda via instagram prior to our visit to inquire whether he would be available to guide us, and he graciously agreed. later, the former volunteer and current intern at the smithsonian national zoological park would say that “james’ discussion with us reaffirmed [her] commitment to wildlife conservation.” her biggest takeaway from the experience: “we must keep trying to preserve nature no matter what obstacles we face.”

for now, though, our time with the rhinos is done. our cruisers bump away across the savanna, and fatu and najin dwindle in the distance until they appear to be nothing more than a pair of dusty gray rocks rising from the sea of grass.

after a quick group photo (which fittingly ends up on the account that brought us together), mwenda gathers us one last time to issue two challenges for our return home.

“share what you have seen today,” he declares. we agree, because how could you deny the power of a picture or story to a man who has touched lives around the globe?

“and plant a tree,” he adds with a smile. we agree, because how could you deny the importance of seemingly insignificant action to a man who guards the last of a species?

i will always work towards the first challenge. perhaps i will double the second, and plant one tree in honor of every northern white rhino left on earth.

washington—native bees contribute an estimated $3.5 billion to the u.s. economy each year, but their dwindling numbers must be addressed to avoid possible extinction of some species, department of agriculture officials said june 28.

among all native, or u.s.-born, bee species, more than half—about 750—are declining in population and nearly one in four is imperiled and at increasing risk of extinction, a recent study by the center for biological diversity said.

the prolific pollinators are vital to natural ecosystems and enhance the yield of fruits, vegetables, nuts, specialty crops, horticultural plants, and native wildflowers. commercial tomato growers rely heavily on native bees to pollinate their crops, said mary purcell of the national institute of food and agriculture.

“when we are counting the density of native bees in a crop, we are finding significantly more yield, and we are talking about native bees that are local to an area, to a region, and are the most prolific for that season,” said dave hunter of crown bees, a washington-based beekeeping business.

“the world resource institute suggests that between 2016 and 2050 the world needs 69 percent more calories,” he said, “and we can do that with bees.”

president barack obama’s landmark 2014 pollinator memorandum created a task force from the usda, the environmental protection agency, and a dozen other government agencies, to work together on a plan to restore the native bee population. the 2018 farm bill specifies $75 million for the creation and implementation of the plan.

in 2015, the task force released its research plan to “develop baseline data, assess trends in pollinator populations, expand bee identification capacities, and expand collaboration between government and university scientists.”

the government accountability office issued a report last year that concluded, ‘‘the usda has increased monitoring of honey bee colonies managed by beekeepers to better estimate losses nationwide but does not have a mechanism in place to coordinate the monitoring of wild, native bees.”

this year, the usda and others are holding meetings to gather outside testimony as the task force finalizes its plan, pending funding from the farm bill.

at a recent meeting, university of virginia graduate student kathryn lecroy emphasized the importance of the citizen scientist in monitoring bee losses.

“we engaged 98 citizen scientists throughout virginia, with participants using pan trap data and trap nesting data,” lecroy said. “the … study reveals that virginians are passionate about bee data and the demand for more knowledge on bees is strong. they are very interested to see the full results of our study when they come out.”

to get the needed nationwide data, studies like lecroy’s need to be standardized and conducted in every state because there are many species of bees to tabulate and only a handful of bee experts to evaluate the samples, said jonathan mawdsley, science advisor at the association of fish and wildlife agencies.

the task force next will meet with scientists and farmers as it aims to create a standardized method of tracking native bees.