Mubu & Hoot Educational Supplement

Saving Spotted Owls

An educational supplement to Kennebec's forthcoming book, 

                           Mubu The Little Animal Doctor™

                                   Mubu & Hoot

For about forty years, Dr. Eric Forsman, a research biologist for the United States Forest Service, has worried about spotted owls. 

The spotted owls Eric studies settle in northwest United States. Spotted owls love to live in the big evergreen trees that have lived for at least 200 years. Tall and cool, these forests wear the drapings of their age. Mossy green old-man's beard lichens hang like Christmas decorations in these ancient woods.

The Baby Hoot who Mubu kept in her bedroom during the weeks it took for the frightened owl to grow up strong and healthy was a smaller bird than the spotted owls who survive today in America and Canada.

 Eric Forsman began studying the spotted owl in the 1970s when loggers started cutting down the owls’ homes- the great old trees that provided so many of nature’s secrets that have been beneficial to the health of human beings.

For example, scientists have made helpful drugs like Taxol, which is used to treat lung and breast cancer, found only from the inner bark of one species of yew tree. The yew tree is only found in old growth forests where the spotted owls live.

Spotted owls prefer old-growth forests with tree branches that are high and open enough for the owls to fly between and underneath the trees. 

Preferred areas have large trees with broken tops, deformed limbs or large holes used by the owls as nesting sites.

Dr. Forsman explains how spotted owls like to fly when they are hunting. They beat their wings rapidly a few times and then like to glide silently between the branches, hunting for flying squirrels, wood rats, mice and other small rodents. 

They have unusual eyes and ears that help them hunt. Spotted owls are one of the only owl species with dark colored eyes. Most owls have yellow or orange eyes.

Their ears are different in shape so that the spotted owl can pinpoint the location of any sound in three-dimensional space. A night hunter, the owl can perch silently in the forest and listen intently.

If it hears the scratching of a wood rat on a log or the landing of a flying squirrel on the trunk of a tree, the spotted owl noiselessly launches itself toward the sound. Its prey hears no flapping of wings, only the sudden grip of the owl’s talons around its body.

The spotted owls, therefore, use their ears to spot the prey, and need their special night vision to avoid hitting tree trunks while in flight.

Another unusual fact about spotted owls is that the female is larger and heavier than the male. Scientists believe this is due to the fact that the female performs all the nest duties, such as laying the eggs and caring for the babies, while the male does almost all the hunting for food for the family.

Perhaps the smaller size of the male allows him to eat less of the prey he catches, so he can pass on more to the growing family. Also his size makes him more agile so he can catch flying and jumping prey more easily.  

Each pair needs a large amount of land for hunting and nesting. Although they do not migrate, spotted owls may shift their ranges in response to seasonal changes, such as heavy snows, that make hunting difficult. 

Many people today talk about how to help the North American spotted owl continue living in our crowded world. 

Because people are trying to force spotted owls out of their precious living space, today there are fewer than ten pairs of Northern spotted owls in Canada, 1,200 pairs in Oregon, 560 pairs in northern California and less than 500 pairs in the state of Washington.

The United States government has made laws to reduce logging activities in the old growth forest, but people who make their living cutting down trees still challenge the rules.

However, the biggest problem facing Dr. Forsman in his struggle to save the spotted owl has been the arrival in the American northwest forests of a relative of the spotted owl known as the barred owl. The barred owl, a bigger bird (20% larger), one with a greater appetite than the spotted owl, used to live in eastern U.S. Some scientists blame the invasion of barred owls on climate change. Whatever the reason, spotted owls are disappearing three times faster than biologists had feared. In Canada’s old growth forest, only one dozen spotted owls can be found.

One scientist calls barred owls, “the new bully on the block.” 

Conservationists say it is too soon to give up on the spotted owl, and that the fight to save the bird has helped benefit the forests by providing clearer air and water and homes for hundreds of other species, including the endangered salmon.

                                        Coming Soon....  Mubu & Hoot!

                                      

             Copyright @ 2012 by Peter Alexander and Kennebec Entertainment, LLC

                      

                                       

12.21.2012 ... BENEATH, THE NOVEL

Mubu Visits The Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, Ca.

Kennebec Entertainment’s Promise to Birds and Animals Everywhere

Dear Friends of Mubu & Kennebec,

We are excited to announce to all of you who work so hard to protect the welfare of birds and animals around the world that Kennebec is developing a program to aid your efforts. 

Though we are a small company, we believe that where there’s the will, there will be a way. We have already published three Mubu books about Mubu, The Little Animal Doctor™, to encourage young people around the globe to take a personal interest in helping protect birds and animals the way Mubu has done.

Paulo Sergio, our magnificent illustrator, is currently working on pictures for Mubu’s fourth book, “Mubu & Hoot.” This is the warm, true story of how Mubu’s grandfather rescued a baby spotted owl and how then Mubu raised the bird. Mubu called her new friend, “Hoot.” Later, she and her grandfather released the healthy Hoot back into the wild.

Kennebec is also currently planning to create and sell a Mubu doll and stuffed animals based on Goldie, the elephant, Hoot and Mu-Mu, the gibbon. 

In fulfilment of a long-standing idea, Kennebec plans to help cooperative bird and animal conservation organizations by substantially sharing the proceeds from the sale of our books and related products to benefit the animals being protected by our partners.

Furthermore, Kennebec intends to utilize its Mubu fansites and website to promote the news from our friends about their bird and animal conservation activities, present pictures of their events, and offer the worldwide public opportunities to interact with our partners.

Appropriately, our first partner in this endeavour will be the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita, California, the only facility in the world devoted exclusively to gibbons, an increasingly rare ape. Created by the late Alan Mootnick in 1976, GCC works for the endangered gibbons' benefit through conservation, propagation and study, and by teaching people about these lovable, lively animals. Our own Mu-Mu would have appreciated GCC.

We wish to work with any number of similar organizations, and to share whatever wealth the Mubu brand may realize in the months and years to come for the benefit of creatures like Hoot, Goldie and Mu-Mu, not to forget the tiger in Book Two, who kindly spared Mubu’s life. The endangered tiger needs all the help it can get.

We also want to help spread the news on our Mubustories website (mubustories.net) about all the work our many Facebook friends are doing on behalf of other gravely endangered animals such as rhinos, elephants, wild horses in America, dolphins, the whole gamut of primates, to mention just a few.

Therefore, dear friends of the birds and animals of the world, if you feel we might be able to work with you, as we plan to do with the Gibbon Conservation Center in California, please leave us a message here on Facebook’s Mubustories. 

Most sincerely,

Peter Alexander

Founder, Kennebec Entertainment

Jacquelyn Quattro

CEO, Kennebec Entertainment LLC.

Mubu & Goldie Her First Elephant

The Mubu The Little Animal Doctor™ books, are written by life long animal activist and author, Peter Alexander, and brilliantly illustrated by Brazilian artist, Paulo Sergio.

 Peter Alexander spins a beautiful and exciting tale of a little girl's adventure with her gigantic pet elephant in this latest Mubu adventure.

Mubu and her friends spend countless hours playing games and having fun with Goldie, in this new adventure. They splash about in the river and help to feed and care for Goldie. Mubu's brother even tries to find gold inside of Goldie's mouth. The illustrations are so lively, they make any child wish that they were with Mubu and her friends frolicking about the jungle with Goldie. A surprise ending tells why this lovely creature is worth her weight in gold. As an added bonus, at the end of the book there is a short story about a baby elephant.

"Mubu was a secret name that my grandfather called me when I was a child," Lek said. "I was just a little girl, about five years old, when my grandfather, who was a shaman in a small village in Northern Thailand, saved a man’s life. Because of this deed, my grandfather was given an elephant which he in turn gave to me, I named the elephant Goldie.."

Mubu, is now known as the grown-up Lek Chailert, a world-renowned animal rights activist and environmentalist, that Paul McCartney, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Meg Ryan all have sought out regarding her work with Thailand’s abused elephants. She’s been featured on CNN, Animal Planet, The Discovery Channel, Time Magazine (selected as one of “Asia’s Heroes”) as well as National Geographic. Lek was also recognized by the Humane Society of the United States with the prestigious Genesis Award. Chosen as one of the top ten environmentalists in the world, Lek was invited to the White House by Hillary Clinton to promote green and global conservation. On Sept. 6, Lek Chailert, founder of Save Elephant Foundation, received the Outstanding Woman of Thailand award in Bangkok. Lek stated, "Mubu & Goldie will be the best of all Mubu" to her Facebook fans.

Animal lovers of all ages will love this latest Mubu adventure. The illustrations by Sergio are brilliant and of a quality rarely seen in children's books.