A leatherback turtle, dubbed Rantau Abang Princess, has shown up last week on one of Malaysia’s beaches after a 32-year absence. The leatherback is the largest of all sea turtles and the northern state of Terengganu is Malaysia’s sole nesting place for the endangered leatherback.
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The turtles population at the gulf of Mexico is slowly recovering after the oil spill, according to researchers, during the time after the spill most turtles were covered with oil, and today only few moderately or heavily oiled.
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The Russian government decided to create 9 new nature reserves and 13 national parks covering a total area of over 3.8 million ha in addition to marine buffer zones of over 1 million ha. Polar bears, walruses, sea otters, and other endangered species will all benefit from the new protected areas.
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During the next couple of weeks, an effort to save thousands of sea turtle from dying in the oily Gulf of Mexico will begin in order to protect these species from vanishing.
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The USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) announced last week an addition of 75,000 acres to their Wetlands Reserve Program. Wetlands are an important habitat to many species, they filter contaminants from the water, and they prevent flooding and soil erosion, and play other environmental key roles. The USDA will also provide approximately $175 million in funding to the 22 states and Puerto Rico, too.
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The new spectacular giant fruit-eating lizard which discovered in Sierra Madres of Northern Philippines grows up to 2 meters long, displays bright yellow and black stripes and spots across its back, and eats mainly fruit and snails.
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The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has accepted Kenya’s proposal on better protection for rhinos. The proposal includes increasing law enforcement, training of guards, better border surveillance, enhanced rhino monitoring and awareness campaigns in consumer countries.
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The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will have a meeting of 175 countries in a few days which is expected to protect 8 species of endangered sharks: spiny dogfish, porbeagle shark, scalloped hammerhead, great hammerhead, smooth hammerhead, oceanic whitetip, dusky and sandbar sharks.
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The territorial waters of Maldives which spreads over 90,000 square kilometers will become shark sanctuary. By that Maldives is joining Palau to become the first two nations to forbid shark fishing where both of them are regarded as top scuba-diving destinations.
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Sultan Ibrahim, the ruler of Johor state of Malaysia, bans hunting of wildlife in the state including tigers, bears, deer, mousedeer, tapir and porcupines. In addition the state has breeding program with the intention of releasing animals into the jungle.
Read the full story (The Star)
