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Essential Exercises for the Childbearing Year: A Guide to Health and Comfort Before and After Your Baby Is Born

A book to help women understand the biomechanics of the entire maternity cycle and the rationale for and against certain exercises. Noble shows how to recognize and remedy weakness and dysfunction that often plagues the average, sedentary woman during her childbearing year. As well as chapters explaining role of the key muscles (abdominal and pelvic floor) during pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum, there are chapters on the principles of exercise, posture, comfort, bed rest, and Cesarean rehabilitation. Hands-on techniques for relieving some of the common joint discomforts are listed in the appendix and there are summary tear-sheets at the back of the bookfor the prenatal, postpartum and Cesarean recovery programs.

Asian elephants differ in several ways from their African relatives. They have smaller ears, which are straight at the bottom, unlike the large fan-shape ears of the African species. The Asian elephant is also much smaller. Due to habitat loss, fragmentation, poaching and culling for their ivory, and other body parts, it is now endangered and numbers between 38,000 to 51,000 wild individuals compared to more than 600,000 African elephants.

Elephants, being wide-ranging species, need large areas of natural habitat to live and breed. A crucial factor in their survival is, among other things, the availability of large enough areas that are managed sustainably to meet the needs of both human and animal populations. With elephants being squeezed into increasingly smaller habitats only a fraction of its former extensive range, much needed solutions are necessary.

Physical and species description: Genetically distinct sub-species of conservation importance
DNA analysis shows that Asian elephants in Borneo are genetically distinct and may have separated from those in mainland Asia about 300,000 years ago. This discovery highlights the conservation importance of Borneo’s elephants. Due to their small size, gentle nature and relatively large ears, they have been dubbed “pygmy” elephants. Less than 1,500 Borneo Pygmy elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) are found, mostly in the Malaysian state of Sabah. This makes Sabah home to the world's smallest known sub-species of elephants.

Smaller than other Asian elephants, the Borneo Pygmy has a longer tail that reaches almost to the ground and straighter tusks. Their babyish faces and more rotund shape lend them appeal.

Size
Males grow to a height of less than 2.5 meters compared to other Asian elephants that grow to 3 meters.

Colour
Asian elephants have dark grey to brown skin. Borneo Pygmys are no different.

Interesting Facts
These placid pachyderms can be greedy at times. They love durian and will roll the entire fruit - spikes and all - in mud, then swallow it whole!


Ecology and Habitat
Elephant routes and habitats lost due to forest conversion
Borneo Pygmy elephants are shy and generally avoid people. Because their natural route and former range have been converted, they have to pass near populated areas and plantations. Herds are sometimes seen moving along the banks of the Kinabatangan River in Sabah, making the area ideal for wildlife watching.

Elephants live at greater densities in lowland forests below 300 meters. They move mostly in secondary forests with an annual home range of about 300 sq km. Adult males disperse over relatively small, widely overlapping home ranges.

Social Structure
Elephant societies are matriarchal, led by a female in small groups of around eight individuals, although larger groups can be seen gathering in open feeding grounds, particularly on riverbanks. Family groups consist of mothers, daughters, sisters and immature males. Sometimes an adult male can be associated with a herd. When not in a herd, adult males usually remain solitary. They sometimes gather in small but temporary bull herds. Contact with other family groups at such gatherings is valuable to maintain genetic diversity for their evolution and survival.

Life Cycle
These pachyderms live for up to 60 years in the wild and more than 80 years in captivity.

Breeding
One calf is born at a time and female Asian elephants have about 7 calves in a lifetime. They give birth about every 4 - 6 years, although this period may be extended when conditions are unfavourable for survival, such as during drought. The gestation period is between 19-22 months, almost 2 years! Calves suckle for 3 - 4 years.

Diet
Borneo Pygmy elephants are forest herbivores. One adult can eat up to 150 kg of vegetation per day, feeding mostly on species of palms, grasses and wild bananas. They also appear to require supplementary minerals, which they obtain from salt licks

(2010 DW Photography)

Both black and white rhinoceroses are actually gray. They are different not in color but in lip shape. The black rhino has a pointed upper lip, while its white relative has a squared lip. The difference in lip shape is related to the animals' diets. Black rhinos are browsers that get most of their sustenance from eating trees and bushes. They use their lips to pluck leaves and fruit from the branches. White rhinos graze on grasses, walking with their enormous heads and squared lips lowered to the ground.

White rhinos live on Africa's grassy plains, where they sometimes gather in groups of as many as a dozen individuals. Females reproduce only every two and a half to five years. Their single calf does not live on its own until it is about three years old.

Under the hot African sun, white rhinos they take cover by lying in the shade. Rhinos are also wallowers. They find a suitable water hole and roll in its mud, coating their skin with a natural bug repellent and sun block.

Rhinos have sharp hearing and a keen sense of smell. They may find one another by following the trail of scent each enormous animal leaves behind it on the landscape.

White rhinos have two horns, the foremost more prominent than the other. Rhino horns grow as much as three inches (eight centimeters) a year, and have been known to grow up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) long. Females use their horns to protect their young, while males use them to battle attackers.

The prominent horn for which rhinos are so well known has been their downfall. Many animals have been killed for this hard, hair-like growth, which is revered for medicinal use in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The horn is also valued in North Africa and the Middle East as an ornamental dagger handle.

The white rhino once roamed much of sub-Saharan Africa, but today is on the verge of extinction due to poaching fueled by these commercial uses. Only about 11,000 white rhinos survive in the wild, and many organizations are working to protect this much loved animal.


----National Geographic

Yoga calms the mind, bringing a sense of peace, relaxation, and well-being as well as optimizing physical health, agility, adn strength. Step-by-Step Yoga for Pregnancy is an essential guide to the best exercises for each stage of pregnancy and the resources you need for a harmonious pregnancy, birth, and recovery. Step-by-Step Yoga for Pregnancy is:
a beautifully illustrated yoga handbook for all three trimesters and the weeks following delivery
the perfect resource for newcomers to yoga and invaluable for experienced students
a complete collection of safe, carefully selected postures
written in consultation with top yoga instructors, midwives, and doctors
approved by leading pregnancy experts Wendy Teasdill is an experienced yoga teacher and the mother of three children. She began teaching yoga in Hong Kong, where she adapted her teaching to meet the needs of pregnant students. She lives in Glastonbury, England.