Vampire in the Wild

By: Kate M. Serrano

We’ve heard of vampire bats, catfish and moths. Here’s a new addition to the lineage that came even before Twilight made the scene – the vampire frog. Discovered in 2008 by Judy Rowley of the Australian Museum and her student Le Thi Thuy Duong from Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, vampire frogs (Rhacophorus vampyrus) are not necessarily blood suckers but were named as such because of the presence of black fangs in tadpoles used for feeding. 

This unusual frog has adapted for life in trees, using its webbed fingers and toes for moving and gliding hence it is also called the “flying frog.” They use water holes in trees to breed protect their young from all predators that lurk in rivers and ponds. The first vampire frog was discovered in the unexplored Langbian Plateau cloud forest of southern Vietnam in March 2008 but it wasn’t until 2010 that the scientist observed the fangs protruding from the underside of a tadpole’s mouth while examining it under a microscope. One cool thing about the frog? It changes color! In daylight it’s a pale tan, but at night it’s stunning brick red. Very little information is known about this creature in terms of life history, abundance, activity and special behaviours though. But one thing is certain: we would not want this red listed in the endangered species category.

  

A Man Worth Mentioning

By: Daniela Silva

A simple man from the outside; quiet and seemingly introverted, on the outside- just a custodian. English is a new language to this quiet soul,  his efforts to speak are intermittently discarded. Working day to night, this simple man blended into the heart of the building; But yet a simple day, where the wrinkles that lined the smile from his yesteryear's fell; a sudden revision came.

The man I worked with on a daily basis, no longer was a static character. A high school teacher of his was diagnosed of cancer back in his home country of Nepal, and with little money, life for the teacher became utterly unsustainable. To learn that this man I worked with gave a large portion  of his paycheck to his teacher, simply out of the good of his heart; is astonishing. The genuine nature of this is surreal in our world, and even though there is over 7,046 billion people in this world it is difficult to find a person capable of giving to those who really need it.

This man, is a man worth mentioning. Whether or not you see people demonstrating selfless acts, it is a rare art form lost sometime between the growth of technology, disrespect for others and the indulgence of gaining easy money. Have you made a change? or have you become deceased as all the others? Set yourself from the others.

Stand up. Take a chance. Make a difference.