Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brief Introduction

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG) was acquired by the city of Brooklyn in 1854 along with the land that is Prospect Park.

There are so many gardens on display at the BBG that is honestly hard to keep count of them. There’s the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden, the Osborne Garden, the Shakespeare Garden... you get the point. Each garden that is displayed will be showing off a different group of amazing plants that come m all sorts of colors and sizes. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden offers something for the entire family. They even have a Children’s Garden for the little ones.

Attractions

Japanese Hill and Pond Garden

One of the most frequency visited gardens at BBG, the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden is certainly a favorite among visitors. This garden features a variety of styles as well as beautiful scenery with a viewing pavilion (亭子) and a waterfall. The Shogun Lantern featured in the Japanese Hill and Pond Garden is over 500 years old. It was given to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as a gift from the city of Tokyo.

Children’s Garden

Children have been planting plants at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden since 1914 and continue their efforts today. Currently, there are over a thousand children contributing to the Children’s Garden.

Shakespeare Garden

For those who have fallen in love with the works of Shakespeare, this will be a garden that they can truly appreciate. Over 80 plants that have been mentioned in the writing of Shakespeare currently grow in the Shakespeare Garden.

Getting to Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden: 900 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225

Closest Subway: Prospect Park/ Eastern Parkway/ Franklin Avenue

Bus Tour Stops: Stop 34 or 35 Brooklyn route

Opening Times

15 March— 6 November：

Tuesday— Friday: 8:00 am—6:00 pm; Saturday—Sunday: 10:00 am—6:00 pm

8 November —11 March

Monday—Friday: 8:00 am—4:30 pm; Saturday —Sunday: 10:00 am—4:30 pm

Kenyan mother Beth Mwende heard her sleeping child cry out, but did not worry after the three-year-old quickly quietened down. The next morning, however, she found her daughter, Mercy, nearly unconscious with two bite marks in the neck. “I didn’t know that it was a snake,” Mwende said.

Although snakebites are common in her hometown, antivenom medication is difficult to get. Mwende lives about 160 kilometers east of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. So she took her daughter to a traditional healer. He placed stones over the bites. Mercy died within hours. She was one of about 700 Kenyans killed by snakebites each year, notes a report in the scientific publication Toxicon.

The Kenya Snakebite Research and Intervention Center (KSRIC) is working to change that. The KSRIC hopes to have East Africa’s first antivenom medication on the market within five years. It estimates the cost will be about 30 percent of an imported product, which often sells for about US $ 30.

More than 70, 000 people are bitten in East Africa each year. Climate change and deforestation are worsening the problem as snakes get pushed out of natural surroundings into populated areas.

Nearly 100 snakes live at the research center in a forest near Nairobi. Researchers take venom from snakes and study it before injecting small amounts into other animals, such as sheep. The animals then create antibodies that can be made into antivenom.

“Up to now, no one has made any kind of antivenom in Kenya,’’ said Geoffrey Maranga Kepha, a senior snake handler.

Two effective antivenoms are available in Kenya, from India and Mexico, the center says.

The center is teaching communities that using antivenom immediately after receiving a snakebite can save lives, said head researcher George Adinoh.

“After seeing how people died in Kenya from snakebites I decided to devote my life to coming up with a rescue measure that will help or prevent people from dying from snakebites,” snake handler Kepha added.

Scientists have recently discovered that Andean condors (秀鹫)— some of the world’s largest birds——barely flap their wings at all while flying. Instead, they use rising air currents to remain in the air for hours.

The Andean condor is the world’s largest soaring bird. They can weigh up to 15 kilograms. Their wings, when spread out, measure up to three meters. Their main food source is the meat of large animals which have died. Soaring high in the sky allows condors to easily spot possible meals on the ground.

Scientists worked together to study the flight patterns of these huge birds and how much effort the birds use when flying. To study the birds while they were in the sky, the researchers attached special devices which could record every beat of their wings.

The scientists learned that most of the condors’ flapping— over 75%— came when the birds were taking off. Once in the sky, the birds flew for very long periods of time without flapping at all. In fact, they only flapped their wings for 1% of the time they were in the air. One bird flew for over five hours without flapping, covering nearly 117miles.

Soaring without flapping is important because birds burn energy every time they flap their wings.

The birds’ soaring isn’t magic. They use the fact that hot air rises to keep themselves up. As hot air rises, it often creates “thermals”— currents of warm air moving upward. The condors soar by making use of these thermals. The tricky part is finding thermals and moving between them.

When birds are forced to land and take off again often, it costs them a lot of energy. The researchers learned that to avoid having to land, the condors did most of their non-take-off flapping when they were closer to the ground and looking for a new thermal.

The scientists reported that even though all of the condors they studied were young, they knew well how to take advantage of the air currents.