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Maybe it is a name most of the people in the world haven’t and will never get to hear. This beautiful kind of duck became extinct a long time before a lot of us were even born.

It inhabited one of the biggest lakes in Guatemala – a country in Central America . – It’s biology and natural history was studied in the 60’s.

It used to be 20 to 25 inches tall, dark brown plumage with white sidings; down its chest it was gray with white spots, and a neck that changed its color depending on the season, dark brown in the spring and white in the winter. It also had a rare black stripe around its peak.

When reproducing, they used to have 4 to 5 eggs and both parents used to take care of the chicks. They used to feed from crabs.

This species started to diminish in numbers due to the increase in the fishing and tourism. Different kinds of fishes were artificially introduced into their habitat to boost the catch of the fishermen but they didn’t realize that they were creating another competitor that would take the ducks’ way to feed and survive.

Also the ducks started dying as a result of being trapped in the fishing nets and killed by boats.

In 1966, the Ecologist Anne LaBastille started a campaign to save the duck from extinction but her efforts were in vain. Her natural reserve wasn’t enough to counteract the damage we did to their environment and finally in the year 2004 after a study made by the UICN with the sponsorship of BirdLife International, the bird was officially considered extinct.

It is an animal like a lot other that I will never get to meet or even watch on TV. It is sad to think about all we’ve lost and continue losing day after day. I can’t stop thinking about the number of species our children will never get to see or even hear from.

History is all we have left, and we have to learn from it to ensure not only the survival of the wild life but also ours and this planet’s. Thank you Mrs. LaBastille for trying to fight against human nature and I really hope that the future generations don’t look back and hate who we are and what we represented to earth and their future.

I’ll keep posting more of what we’ve lost as a plea for forgiveness to the countless lives of the animals that have fainted in history and in the name of all mankind all I can is, “I’m sorry, we didn’t care”.

It isn’t pretty to the eyes I mean, let’s face it; it’s a bug but, is it only a bug? Actually it isn’t.

This bug used to be the mark of an era that does not exist anymore and guess who’s responsible for this loss? We are.

I remember when I was a little kid that, I and my friends liked May as that was the month that came with a rain of this particular kind of bugs, a hilarious and exciting sight for our eyes. They flooded the streets like a live mantle and we used to enjoy playing with them though some car owners used to get upset as their automobiles were almost fully covered with these insects since the early mornings.

May’s giant ants were not only a fun thing to play with for us the once “little kids of our country”, and an annoying thing for the drivers and traffic, but they were also a particular part of May’s commerce and eating supplements. Believe it or not these bugs could and were highly consumed as they were very rich in nutrients and some say “tasty” – fortunately or not, I never got to taste one of these little creepy insects. I never gathered the gust to try one. – “They taste like peanuts”, my mom used to say.

I remember the first May these insects didn’t show up. We were noticing from years before that they arrived later and later in the month every year. But that particular May – I don’t remember the year – they didn’t. We all started asking our friends if they found or at least had a glimpse of one and we all said no. However, nobody paid attention to that as it was a “little” and “insignificant” thing that didn’t affect our daily living.

Surprising the entire country and mostly the people living in the capitol city, May’s giant ants showed up in “June” for the first time ever, which is a little bit ironic considering the popular name of the ants – nobody ever even tried to change that name to “June’s giant ants”. – That continued to happen the subsequent years until last year – 2009 – which for some reason or better said our fault; they didn’t show up at all.

I’m not a biologist or a scientist, and I have not been able to find any recent information about this giant ants, but I can tell that in my personal experience I didn’t get to see any and that made me think a lot about the damage we’re doing to this planet and the number of species that are going extinct due to us.

These little and magnificent creatures had a biological clock that made them get out of their hideouts every year at the same exact time but, we messed up so much with their environment that we changed that clock. We changed it to the point of telling them not to get out anymore as the weather wasn’t good for them; that made them stop feeding and reproducing themselves, and now they stopped visiting us.

I wonder how many other species, traditions, pleasures, etc. we will void our children to enjoy if we keep treating this planet with unbelievable disrespect and careless attitude.

I’m just looking forward for this years May or June – maybe July – to see if these now missed creatures forgive us for neglecting their way of living and pay us a visit. I sure hope to see at least one.

A few weeks ago I was thinking about starting a blog but I didn’t know what to write about. I thought to myself, “You know a lot about movies; why don’t you write about them?” But that’s something so burned out that nobody is going to read what I write as I know someone already does it a lot better so; suddenly today something came up to my mind and it is something I want to share with you all.

Three weeks ago I had my first week of vacations in over three and a half years. I was so tired about my job that I just wanted to sleep. The first two days I did so, nothing else. But on the third day I decided to watch some TV and the first channel that was in it was playing a documentary about nature and how we’re recklessly destroying it.

I followed that documentary for days as it was divided in different chapters and after watching them all I thought, “Oh my God, we’re killing this planet.”

I found this website one day while I was wandering around the internet and the information it displayed was very interesting but also frightening. Check it yourselves and you’ll see what I’m talking about http://www.worldometers.info/. I hope it had also a count for the days we have left on this planet, or the days we have left until we completely destroy it.

I know it is more than known by a huge part of the world’s population that global warming is a reality but, I’ve closely seen the changes we’ve done to our environment as a result of the careless sense of appreciation we have for all living beings, animal and vegetable.

More than 15 years ago I remember swimming in the nearest lake to the city in my country. It was clean and beautiful. We had a lot of tourists visit it due to its incomparable tranquility and natural richness. 10 years ago it was impossible not to be afraid of even being touched by the water as it was completely polluted, dirty and unhealthy. Though you still could see people fishing on it you could only think of the damage they were doing themselves by eating those very contaminated fish. But that’s all they had to live day by day.

More than 10 years ago I remember swimming in this other beautiful lake, not so close to the city but you really wanted to go there as it was priceless to feel its water touching your body, as if someone was holding you gently. Now, if I turn my TV on and watch the local channels for sure I’ll see some adds advertising the lake, asking for help to the whole country to save it, as it is infested by this very poisonous seaweed that is literally killing the lake and all the life in it. You cannot swim in it now. But some – not a lot – people are still fighting to save it.

If both cases happened only in my country, knowing that the UN has 192 nations as members, how much similar cases do we have in the entire world? You may think that I wrote “much” as a grammatical mistake but actually I did it on purpose as I know that the damage we’re doing to this planet is countless.

I really want to thank the small group of humans that are fighting to defend this planet, saving species, protecting forests, the sea, etc. By this I’m not thanking the world known organization of extremists that actually do more harm than good; but all the unknown saints that are actually fighting for their lives and ours and to give humanity at least a couple of days more of clean air.

Before I used to think, “when I have lot of money the first thing I’ll do is buy an expensive car as I love them”, even when I know that it has been proven that in my country we cannot make a full use of them as we do not have the roads to be able to ride them well; they’re merely a luxury item, an item that marks a status.

A few days I came to the conclusion that I don’t want a luxury car anymore even believing that I will get to be wealthy, as it is not something that I need but something I want. The only way we’re going to live longer is if we start thinking about what we need to about what we want. Therefore I will use a lot of my wealth to help not only the planet but also the people that are suffering due to how greedy we are. I will no longer wish for a 10 acre house or a $100,000.00 car. I will only get what I need to live, that’s it. That way when I have kids I will leave for them something to dream for, or at least save for them some water to drink.

I thought one day, “I wish I had a lot of money to be able to do something to help this planet and the people leaving on it as others do”, but then I realized that I don’t need it. If I get at least one person to read my blog day after day I’ll be doing my part to create awareness amongst humanity.

Consider this note a start for a blog dedicated only to nature. I’ll be publishing every story I live or find about the damage we’re doing to this planet and how we can contribute to help it, as after all, we’re only going to be helping ourselves and our children.