Showing posts with label endangered species. Show all posts
Showing posts with label endangered species. Show all posts

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Carcass of a seven foot Gangetic dolphin in North Dinajpur


The carcass of a seven feet Gangetic dolphin was found on the banks of river Nagor at Karandighi in North Dinajpur and, from all appearances, it looks to be a case of poaching. Foresters are waiting for the postmortem report but, in the opinion of conservationists, the injuries on its head indicate that it was killed by the locals.
The Gangetic dolphin is the national aquatic animal and is considered 'endangered' by the IUCN and, it is presumed that the animal somehow slipped through a channel of the Mahananda and came to Nagor.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 8 January 2016.
The Gangetic dolphinIt is primarily found in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers and their tributaries in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. It is protected under Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act and enjoys the same protection status as accorded to the Bengal tiger. The dolphins are found in India in seven states namely, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal.
The animal lovers are shocked that first a deer and now a gangetic dolphin has become a victim of human cruelty. The discovery of the carcass of the dolphin has angered animal lovers. Incidentally on the same day another deer was found dead at Adina Deer Park of Malda. This was the second deer killed within a span of three days and, this death spree of animals has been on since December - it began with the death of a gharial.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

Some more interesting links -

Moody gifts his neighbor a turban on his birthday (satire)

Lord Shiva’s solution for global warming – go under water (satire)

Didi discusses industries with Moo Cool and Omit Misra (satire)


Use online honey trappers to test the fidelity of the spouse

NASA developing hopping drones to explore Martian caves for human settlement

Cleanliness drive by Railways - collects Rs 58 lakhs in fine from Delhi Railway station


Kissing scenes in movies – why this fad has never caught on in Bollywood

All female pop-group Moranbong Band cancels China goodwill tour

“The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar” - Disney’s upcoming television movie


Christmas Day bushfire destroys 100 homes in popular tourist spot of Lorne in Victoria

Migrants ready to pay £1,200 to people smugglers for trip across Channel in UK-registered car

US airdrops 50-tons of ammunition for M-16s and AK-47 to Syrian fighters

Thursday, December 10, 2015

The cheetah is not African but American


The cheetah is an iconic predator found on the plains of Africa. It streaks like lightning after its prey at speeds of up to 100km/h and is seen in countless wildlife documentaries about the continent of Africa but, it now appears that the animal is not really African at all.
Latest research has revealed that it actually migrated from North America around 100,000 years ago during the last Ice Age before becoming isolated in Africa.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 11 December 2015.
A genetic study has found the cats actually evolved from the North American puma and went for an epic journey across a landbridge into Asia. From there they traveled south to Africa and, in the course of these happenings, their populations dwindled. This led to a dramatic reduction in their gene pool as the animals were forced into incestuous mating.
In order to arrive at these findings, researchers from St Petersburg State University in Russia have sequenced the genome of seven cheetahs from Tanzania and Namibia, including a male.
Incidentally, the endangered species is currently found in the wild in eastern and southern Africa.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Moody on climate change – promote bullock carts and tonga (satire)

Moody shelves black money, goes for gold (satire)

Moody wants dhokla to be the National dish (satire)


Amy Poehler set to receive Hollywood Walk Of Fame star

Malaika Arora Khan wants to open a restaurant

Nicole Kidman all praises for Bollywood


Laldighi in Kolkata to lose its trams and make way for East-West Metro

Radiation from Fukushima nuclear reactor in Japan has spread to the United States

Electric cars to combat greenhouse effect


RAF jets pound ISIS oil field in Syria

Britain bares its fangs - RAF Tornados bomb ISIS oilfields

United States sending 200 troops to help Iraqi and Kurdish forces take on ISIS

Friday, August 21, 2015

First wolf pack spotted in California after 90-years


It was the first ever wolf pack spotted in California in the last 90-years – the family of two adult grey wolves and five pups, dubbed the Shasta pack, have been picked up by remote cameras in Siskiyou County. It was the photograph of the first wolf pack in the wild in California for more than 90 years.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 21 August 2015.
The State and federal authorities have revealed that the pack has been named the Shasta pack after the nearby Mount Shasta. It was good news because the grey wolf had been declared extinct in the state in 1924. It comes four years after the Oregon wandering wolf OR-7 first reached Northern California.
In the opinion of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), it was an amazing accomplishment for grey wolves to establish themselves in Northern California just 21 years after wolves were reintroduced in the Canada's Northern Rockies. Those wolves finally shifted to Oregon and Washington before reaching California, where they are protected by federal and state endangered species acts.
Incidentally, wolves in the state enjoy full freedom and it is illegal to harass, harm, hunt, shoot, wound, kill or capture wolves in the state.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

Some more interesting 'must reads'-

Britain battered by heavy rains - parts of England saw 40mm rain in an hour

Sri Lanka get the better of a star studded India – Rangana Herath wreaks havoc

Controversy around Maggi, the 2-minute noodle: Bombay HC lifts ban, orders fresh tests


60-years of Pather Panchali – the Bengali movie of Satyajit Ray that was a pathbreaker

Spider-Man will be seen in his traditional costume in ‘Captain America: Civil War’

Big-B and Deepika Padukone’s ‘Piku’ gets best movie award at Indian Film Festival, Melbourne


ISIS planned to carry out ‘lone wolf’ terror attacks, target the Queen and the Royal family

Terrorism a family affair in London – 5 of a family arrested by counter-terror police

At least 60 killed in truck bomb explosion by ISIS in a Baghdad food market


Independence Day as I have seen it

The days of mughlai parathas

Khichudi – the favorite monsoon recipe for Bengalis

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Endangered sei whales come to the beaches of Chile to die


There is a confusion on the number of dead sei whales that have beached on the Chile coast in the Gulf of Penas but the fact remains that from 20 to 30 of these whales have been seen by a group of foreign scientists who have informed this to the National Fisheries Service.
This has been reported in dailymail.co.uk dated 9 May 2015.
The International Union for Conservation of Natures IUCN lists the sei whales as an endangered species and these are banned from being hunted commercially.
Adults of the species can be longer than 50 feet and weigh 20 tons or more and the ones that have been found were in rotting condition when they were discovered – they measured about 33 feet in length.
Incidentally, the sei became endangered when it was heavily hunted after the stocks of blue and fin whales became depleted and, according to WWF, it now has a population of about 12,000.
Beaching of whales along Chile's 2,400-mile coast is not uncommon but, this happens to be the first time sei whales have been found beached here. It seems there is a military base several miles from the fjord where these whales were found.

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


More than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last year by Boko Haram have vanished

Journey to freedom – 5800 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean

Indonesian smugglers stuff yellow-crested cockatoos into plastic bottles to get past customs

Engineering graduate of Hyderabad goes astray, dies because of links with ISIS

Dozens of corpses found in bamboo cages in Thai human trafficking camp

Quick tour of Delhi by ITDC bus

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Two cotton-top tamarins of the endangered species die in Alexandria Zoo from cold temperatures


#Tamarins #PETA #AlexandriaZoo It was unfortunate that two cotton-top tamarins, belonging to the endangered species, died from freezing cold temperatures in the Louisiana Zoo. Each of the monkeys weigh less than a pound and they died when a caretaker "overlooked" them and left them out in the cold on Jan.7 at the Alexandria Zoological Park. There was a third monkey but, it survived the exposure.
News of these deaths have been made public only this week.
Incidentally, these monkeys from Colombia are among the world’s smallest new-world primates and need temperatures of 76 to 85 degrees to survive. However, the high temperature last Wednesday in Alexandria was in the 50s while the overnight low was in the teens. The deaths are seen as due to carelessness.
The cotton-top tamarins monkeys are critically endangered and there are roughly 1,800 in captivity and about 6,000 in a small area of northwest Colombia – this is as per the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
PETA, is demanding a federal investigation into the deaths of the tamarins because, in their opinion, the deaths could have been avoided.
With drop in temperatures, the zoos have been stepping up measures to ensure that the animals are kept protected from the cold.