Indian temple helps nurture 'extinct' turtle back to life

JUNE 11, 2019

by Anup Sharma

The black softshell turtle is officially extinct in the wild, but a centuries-old Indian temple and its nature-loving caretaker are helping the creature make a tentative comeback.

The northeastern state of Assam was once rich in freshwater turtles, but habitat loss and over-exploitation—they were once a popular local food—have massively depleted their population.

The black softshell turtle was declared extinct in the wild in 2002 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, while the Indian softshell turtle and the Indian peacock softshell turtle are classified as vulnerable.

But all the while, the pond of the Hayagriva Madhav temple in the Hajo pilgrimage centre has provided a safe haven, thanks to the sacred status of turtles protecting them from harm.

"There are plenty of turtles in the temple pond," said Jayaditya Purkayastha, from conservation group Good Earth.

The group has teamed up with the temple authorities in a breeding programme.

"The population of the turtle in Assam has gone down by a great extent. So we thought we needed to intervene and do something to save the species from extinction," he told AFP.

Continued

Swimming with dragons

The highly sought-after Malaysian golden arowana fish has disappeared from the wild. Yet today in Malaysia, buying and selling of the arowana, also known as the ornamental dragon fish, has become a multi-million dollar industry.

Over a decade ago, filmmaker Chew Han Tah learned of the dwindling number of wild arowana, and an obsession was born, much to the chagrin of his wife. Chew is exploring the potentially lucrative business of breeding arowana and is in the midst of moving his family to a new home so that he can upgrade his aquarium for his $30,000 worth of fish.

In this very personal journey into the heart of Malaysia's flourishing fish business, we see what motivates collectors and investors, and what fuels Chew's dreams.

Continued

Hope for Tunisia's oryx and addax

Courtesy of the Sahara Conservation Fund

November 2012. With the aftermath of the Arab Spring still being played out in front of the world's media, conservation work away from the spotlights is helping Tunisia restore its once vibrant large mammal fauna. Almost 50 years since Tunisia's Forest Law laid down the basis for wildlife conservation in the country, the results are on the whole positive. 

Many desert species, like the Dorcas gazelle and the North African ostrich, enjoy the relative safety of the semi-wild in restored habitats inside a significant network of protected areas. However, the most striking success is probably the return of the large antelopes, the scimitar-horned oryx and addax, which existed in large herds but are now considered extinct in the Wild and Critically Endangered by IUCN respectively.

The reintroduction of antelopes into a network of relatively small, fenced protected areas poses particular challenges because of inherent risks to small isolated populations.

Hence, in collaboration with Sahara Conservation Fund, Marwell Wildlife is starting a 2-year project to assess the impact of increasing numbers of oryx on their habitat and the effects of limited space on the performance of the population in Dghoumes National Park. The results will help inform management of the species, and create a practicable monitoring system that could be applied more widely.

180 oryx now in Tunisia
It is now 27 years since the first group of scimitar-horned oryx was brought back to Tunisia from UK zoos. Several other imports have occurred since then and there are now about 180 individuals in four protected areas (Bou Hedma, Sidi Toui, Oued Dekouk and Dghoumes).

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/tunisia-addax.html