Articles in ‘Asia nature’
World Press nature photos
October 1st, 2009
World Press Photo have just released on the Net its remarkable archive gallery some 10,000 images. The above photo of a snow leopard was taken by Steve Winter, whose report here on snow leopards in Ladakh in the Indian Himalayas won the nature category in 2008. “A snow leopard walks a high mountain trail, photographed using a remotely operated camera trap. The camera recorded just a single image in five months.”
163 speces discovered in the Mekong
September 28th, 2009
A new WWF report celebrates the recent discovery of 163 new species in 2008 in the Greater Mekong region of South-east Asia – including a bird-eating fanged frog, a leopard-patterned gecko (pictured above) and a bird that would rather walk than fly. But the report wans that many may soon face extinction because of climate change. WWF The discoveries include 100 plants, 28 fish, 18 reptiles, 14 amphibians, two mammals and one bird species in the region that spreads over Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and southern China.
Hope for Asian primates
September 24th, 2009
The establishment of new reserves in China and Vietnam could save two of the world’s rarest primates, the cao vit gibbon and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey. Just 110 cao vit gibbons and about 200 Tonkin snub nosed monkeys are thought to survive in the wild. The new sanctuary for the gibbons, the 6,500-hectare Bangliang Nature Reserve in China’s Guangxi Province, runs adjacent to Vietnam’s Cao Vit Gibbon Conservation Area, and more than quadruples the amount of protected forest for the gibbon. The cao vit gibbon currently lives mainly on the Vietnamese side of the border but it now can expand into China.
Video of cao vit gibbons:
The other protected area, in Khau Ca forest in northern Vietnam, is home to 90 Tonkin snub-nosed monkeys. The new 2,000-hectare reserve also supports a relatively pristine sub-tropical forest with a wide range of other wildlife. The wildlife charity Fauna and Flora International ( above photo), which works for wildlife protection in developing countries, was instrumental in establishing the new reserves.
Cheetah reintroduction plan in India
September 21st, 2009
A Mughal painting showing cheetahs hunting leopards
An international meeting in India of cheetah experts and conservationists has agreed that the case for the reintroduction of the cheetah is strong.
The plan, backed by the Indian government, is to bring the cheetah back to India and make it, as many wildlife experts say, the “flagship species” of the country’s grasslands, which today lack a prominent species on which to base conservation.
Seven sites in the four states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh have been shortlisted as potential homes for the cheetah. They will now be surveyed to ascertain the state of the habitat, the number of prey and prospects of man-animal conflicts. India would then import the animals from Africa, as the numbers of the Asiatic cheetah still surviving in Iran have fallen to less than 100. Genetic studies suggest that the similarities between the Iranian and African cheetah is “very close”.
Conservationists are split on the plan. Some say are concerned that if the the cheetah is brough back too quickly, they will end up being housed in semi-captive conditions in huge, secured open air zoos, but not free in the wild. They say without restoring habitat and prey base and the chances of a man-animal conflict, viable cheetah populations cannot be established. MK Ranjitsinh, chairman of the Wildlife Trust of India, says the plan is to release the cheetahs in the wild in designated open areas, after studying them thoroughly.
Reintroducing cheetahs in India has symbolic value. The first cheetahs to be bred in captivity were in India during Mughal rule. See also history of Cheetahs in India.
The calling of the gibbons
September 18th, 2009
Dawn is often not fully visible in the jungle. The Iban, a people from Papua New Guinea, call this time of the day, Empliau bebungi - the Calling of the Gibbon.
Collected from Into the Heart of Borneo by Redmond O’Hanlon, 1987.
Note: I’m not sure which gibbon this refers to but I supect it may be the Grey Gibbon:
Müller’s Bornean Gibbon is endemic to the island of Borneo. It inhabits the northern and eastern part of the island. In the southwest of the island the Agile Gibbon lives, and surprisingly their territories hardly overlap. They are diurnal rain forest dwellers that are characterized by the long arms that all gibbons have, with which they brachiate through the trees. The Grey Gibbon lives together in monogamous pairs, and defend their family territory against intruders with long, loud singing, which rings out above all else early in the morning. Wikipedia
Giant rat discovered in Papua New Guinea
September 7th, 2009 A new species of giant rat has been discovered in an extinct volcano in Papua New Guinea by an expedition team filming the BBC’s new series the Lost Land of the Volcano. The rat, named the Bosavi woolly rat, after Mount Bosavi crater where it was found, is the size of a cat and has no fear of humans. BBC The team may have also discovered as many as 40 new species, including approximately 16 species of frog, one species of gecko, at least three new species of fish, 20 species of insect and spider and one new species of bat. More hereSaola antelope close to extinction
September 3rd, 2009
The Saola antelope (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) was discovered to world science only in 1992, but now stands on the edge of extinction. Already endangered when discovered, the saola inhabits a few remote valleys of the Annamite Mountains along the border of Laos and Vietnam. Snaring and hunting are thought to be its main threats. Read more
Photo from Wikipedia
“Saolas stay in mountain forests during the wet seasons, when water in streams and rivers is abundant, and move down to the lowlands in winter. They are shy and never enter cultivated fields or come close to villages. To date, all known captive saolas have been dead, leading to the belief that this species cannot live in captivity.”
Photos of snow leopard in Afghanistan
August 31st, 2009
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has released some great camera trap photos of snow leopards in the Sast Valley in Wakhan Corridor in northeastern Afghanistan. The IUCN estimates that only 100-200 snow leopards still survive in Afghanistan. The aim of the survey is to eventually establish a new protected area. The region also contains the Pallas’s cat and the Altai weasel, both classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN. More on story here. Photo from here
See also: Snow leopard holidays
With breathtaking views of the Himalayas, you can soar alongside Egyptian Vultures and Black Kites who will approach to take food out of your hand. They are specially trained rescue birds who can’t be returned to the wild. Among them is Kevin the young Egyptian Vulture, famous for his scrapes with Steppe Eagles. The ultimate aim of the venture is to draw attention to the serious decline of Asian vultures, being poisoned to extinction by vet-prescribed drug Diclofenac. Visit 
This year breeding conditions have been exceptionally good for budgerigars in Queensland, Australia. Heavy rain and river flooding revived the land, providing plenty of grass seeds for the birds to feast on. When all the available trees with the best nesting sites had been taken, budgerigars were laying their eggs on the ground. And now local people are marvelling at the unprecedented size of the flocks, turning the sky green. 
Customs officials first suspected the 22-year old Norwegian, who’d just stepped off a ferry from Denmark, when they spotted a tarantula scuttling inside his bag. They then noticed “his whole body was in constant motion”. The wriggling movement was due to the 14 baby royal pythons tucked away in socks strapped to the man’s torso. That wasn’t all: when the officials made him drop his trousers they found 10 cans taped to his legs, each containing an albino leopard gecko. As Norway bans the import of reptiles, including unendangered species like these, he has been fined 12,500 Norwegian crowns (£1,800). 
