The Return of the Leatherback Turtle

Malaysia witnessed the return of the Leatherback Turtle last month after a one year absence.
The leatherback Turtle can grow up to 180 cm and 600 kilogram in weight. They are the largest of all sea turtles.
The biggest ever recorded leatherback turtle was a male stranded on a Welsh beach that reached 256 cm long and weighed 916 kg.

The nesting of the Leatherback Turtle fell drastically in Malaysia due to over
fishing, pollution and poaching.

While 50 years ago there where around 10,000 female turtles laying there eggs every year on the beaches in Malaysia, the number dropped drastically with only 800 in the eighties and even none last year.

As it becomes increasingly more difficult to find male Leatherback Turtles, most of the eggs found are not fertilized. No eggs hatched since 2000 because of this.

So even today after two Turtles returned to the beaches in Malaysia there is still big skepticism for the survival of the species.

Ugly Gus

Gus, a pedigree Chinese crested, was in California(USA) elected as the ugliest dog in the world.
The Poor dog has only three legs, one eye and a little bit of white fur on the head.
Gus and his owner who lives in Florida traveled thousands of kilometers just to enter the bizarre competition.
Gus might be ugly but by winning the contest he got $500 and a guest appearance on national TV.
The $500 is more than welcome says Gus’ owner who will spend the money on treatment for Gus' skin cancer.
Well, don’t worry Gus. I’m pretty sure that a lot of dogs are uglier than you but they just couldn’t make it to the contest.

Miracle Pig survives 36 days under debris

Soldiers came across a fortunate pig that was trapped beneath debris at a collapsed pig farm in Sichuan.
The Pig survived 36 days by drinking rainwater and munching its way through a bag of charcoal. During its 36 days ordeal the pig lost around 120 kilograms.

A local museum bought the animal for 3,008 yuan and will take care of the animal for the rest of its life. They renamed the pig Zhu Jianqiang or Strong Pig.

The Earthquake that devastated southwestern China leaves 90,000 people either dead or missing.

Manny, The Labrador, Is No More

Yesterday, a Labrador named Manny died.
His death was announced in the newspaper today. Now what can be so special about this dog that they write about it in the newspaper?
They where even planning a post-mortem on the dog to figure out the cause of death.
Well, the dog was special, very special.
This dog was trained to sniff out pirated discs!
Does a pirated disc smells different from a normal one?
The was to become part of the first anti-piracy canine unit.
A pair of Labradors in the unit sniffed out US$ 1.6million worth of CD's and because of this the counterfeiters decided to put a price on the head of these dogs.
So, did Manny died of natural causes or was he murdered by the counterfeiters?

Polar Bears

I had no Idea what to write today until I watched Dr. Dolitle.
Eddy Murphy stars in this movie as a veterinarian who can talk with the animals.
By working together with the animals they save the forest.
So I started browsing a little bit on the internet. I just typed in " endangered animals". Well, I got quite a long list of websites. And I started to get the feeling that there might be more endangered animals than not endangered animals.
I found a very good website about polar bears.
The Polar Bear is the world's largest land carnivore and is threatened by global warming and the destruction of it's natural habitat.The Polar Bear could be extinct within 30 years.
Polarbears International is probably the most complete resource of information on the Polar Bears.
Their slogan is : Conservation through Research and Education!
You find all the Polar Bear facts, Status Reports and even a Bear Tracker where you can track the movement of satellite collared bears on the Beaufort Sea.