What is a Saola? | What are the main threats for Saola?

Saola

FACTS

Class                          : Mammalia
Scientific Name         : Pseudoryx nghetinhensis
Location                    : Mountains of Vietnam-Laos border
Colour                       : Brown, Black, Red
Size                           : 150cm-200cm
Weight                      : 80kg-100kg
Diet                           : Herbivore
Prey                          : Leaves, Grasses, Herbs
Predators                  : Humans, Tiger, Crocodile
Life span                  : 8-12 years
Conservation status  : Critically Endangered
Biggest threat           : Habitat loss and hunting


The saola is one of the world’s rarest large mammals on earth. They are mysterious animal that inhabits pristine woodlands. It is the sole species of a genus of bovids, and has been known to science only since 1992. Both males and females have long, slender horns that are up to 52 centimetres in length and slightly curved horns, and white markings above the eyes, like eyebrows. The tail is split into three bands of colour - brown at the top, cream in the middle, and black towards the end, tipped in a fluffy tassel. Its genus name comes from its resemblance to the oryxes –antelopes of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.
The entire range of the saola lies within a narrow area of forests along the northern and central Annamite mountain range, on the border between Vietnam and the Laos. While most records come from south of the Song Ca River in Vietnam, populations to the north have also been found. The Saola is thought to be a diurnal animal meaning that they are most active during the day-light hours, possibly resting out of sight to protect themselves from predators under the cover of night.

Habitat:
The Saola typically inhabits climatically wet, broadleaf forests, evergreen, usually between 400 to 1,000 meters. Areas of low human disturbance are preferred. The species appears to occupy lowlands during the dry season when the upper mountain streams have dried up and higher elevations during the wet season when upper streams have plenty of water.

Breeding:
The species appears to have a fixed breeding season: in Lao, births take place at the beginning of the rains (between April and June). The Gestation has been estimated at between 7 to 8 months.

What are the main threats?

1. The main threats to the saola are hunting and fragmentation of its range through habitat loss.
2. Snares set in the forest for wild boar, barking deer or sambar, also trap saola. Locals set some snares for subsistence use and crop protection, but recent increases in lowland people hunting to supply the illegal trade in wildlife has led to a massive increase in hunting pressure.
3. In the north of their range, saola are hunted for the horns which have become prized trophies.
4. In the Annamites, rapid and extensive infrastructure development is underway as the government attempts to reduce the high levels of rural poverty.

Saola Conservation Status and Life Today

Today, the Saola is listed by the IUCN as being an animal that is Critically Endangered in it's natural environment. Despite the fact that no formal survey has been conducted, the IUCN estimates that populations could have been as low as 250 when the Saola was first recorded in the summer of 1992, a number that is thought to have dropped significantly since then due to the increased growth of Human settlements.
The Saola Working Group was formed in 2006 in recognition of the need for urgent, coordinated action to save the saola from extinction. Part of the Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), we held our first biennial meeting in 2009. In addition to being the main driver of saola conservation in Laos and Vietnam, the SWG advocates for conservation of the globally significant Annamite Mountains as a whole.
WWF claim that the distinctiveness, rareness, and uniqueness of the Saola, make it one of the greatest priorities to conservation in the Indochina region today. A small 61 square mile reserve has just been set up in the Quang Nam province in central Vietnam, specifically to try and protect the dwindling populations of Saola.

 "Protect the Saola"

Why do Leatherback Sea Turtle become critically endangered?

Leatherback Sea Turtle

Scientific Name: Dermochelys coriacea

Leatherback turtles are the largest, oldest, and most widely distributed of the world’s marine turtles. The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), sometimes called the lute turtle or leathery turtle, is the largest of all living turtles and is the fourth-heaviest modern reptile behind three crocodilians. It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys and family Dermochelyidae. The leatherback sea turtle is a global species, meaning that it can range throughout almost all the oceans of the world. It nests on tropical beaches in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

Its appearance alone distinguishes the leatherback from its relatives: shell-less and bluish black in colour, with seven fleshy ridges along its back, and dappled all over with white spots. It is the only extant member of the ancient Dermochelyidae family, which first appeared around 100 million years ago.

They can keep themselves warm in water close to freezing

RANGE DESCRIPTION

There are several populations of leatherback turtles that live in very different parts of the world. Western Pacific leatherbacks nest in areas such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Mariana Islands of the South Pacific and travel across the Pacific Ocean to the west coast of the US and Canada to forage for food.  Eastern Pacific leatherbacks nest in Mexico and Costa Rica and travel to both South America and California. Atlantic leatherbacks nest in places like the southern states of the US, the Caribbean, Trinidad, French Guyana, Mexico, and Western Africa. They travel to various locations throughout the Atlantic as far as the Eastern Coast of Canada even to South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Size/Weight/Age

Adult Leatherback Turtles grow to 1.3 - 2.7 meters (4 - 9 feet) long. Average weight of mature individuals is 660 to 1,100 pounds (300 - 500 kg). The largest leatherback ever recorded was almost 3.1 meters (10 feet) from the tip of its beak to the tip of its tail and weighed in at 2,019 pounds (916 kg). According to the World Wildlife Foundation, the actual lifespan of Leatherback Sea Turtles is still unknown but they have estimated that it could be between 40 - 45 years. Its lifespan estimates exceed up to 100 years.

Diet

Leatherbacks have delicate, scissor-like jaws. Their jaws would be damaged by anything other than a diet of soft-bodied animals and organism. Jellyfish are the main staple of its diet, but it is also feed on sea urchins, squid, crustaceans, tunicates, fish, blue-green algae, and floating seaweed. The large size of leatherback is all the more remarkable given their low energy, low protein diet of soft-bodied creatures. They can eat hundreds of pounds of jellyfish a day.

Breeding

Female leatherbacks sea turtle may lay up to 4 to 5 times per season, and each time depositing 60 to 120 eggs. Leatherbacks appear to nest once every two or three years with an incubation period of approximately 60 days. Leatherback sea turtle hatchlings break out of their egg with a special tooth.

Turtle faces these problems

Leatherbacks are facing extinction mainly due to human impacts on their environment.

Nesting sites are disturbed through tourism or commercial development, and poachers often harvest eggs for food.

Adult turtles are sometimes captured for food and their body parts are used for various commercial products (like traditional medicines).

Turtles can also be killed and injured in collisions with boats. Turtles become trapped in fishing nets and drown.

Population

Leatherbacks have been recorded as far north as Alaska, and as far south as Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

The Pacific may now have as few as 2,300 adult females.

Why is this species important?

The leatherback sea turtle provides natural ecological control of jellyfish population. Jellyfish can feed on fish larvae and reduce population growth of commercially important fish.

How you can help

Send a turtle to rehab! Help the recuperation process for thousands of sick and injured turtles.

Don't buy products which have been made from sea turtle parts. Guitars, ashtrays, jewelry and other products made from sea turtles are sold to tourists around the world.

The largest leatherback sea turtle ever found was an 8.5-foot long weighing 2020 pounds

"SAVE THE TURTLE TO INCREASE THEIR COUNT"

You can also see:- https://lovecreaturetosavenature.blogspot.in/2016/10/why-hawksbill-sea-turtle-matter-facts.html