Indian giant squirrel

The Indian giant squirrel Commonly known as 'Shekhru'. It inhabits the deciduous or mixed forests, and is abundant in the forests of the Western Ghats of Maharashtra.

The size of their body comes to almost 3ft. with only the tail measuring up to 2ft. in length. The long bushy tail helps in balancing their body on the trees. They are deep brown in colour with buff-coloured underparts. Giant squirrels live only in forests. They keep to the branches of higher trees and rarely come to the ground. They move from tree to tree taking amazing leaps with limbs outspread, covering as much as 20 ft. in a single leap. They are active agile animals, mostly active during the early mornings and evenings. They are shy and wary, not easy to discover. Despite its brilliant colouring, the Indian Giant Squirrel is sooner heard than seen.

The Indian Giant Squirrel usually lives alone or in pairs. These animals build large globular nests of twigs and leaves, placing them for greater security among the slimmer twigs and branches of trees, where heavier predators cannot reach them .

The Indian Giant Squirrel has been classified as least concern by IUCN. They became least due to the threats of hunting. Hunting for food, for medicine. And loss of habitat, loss of habitat because of fragmentation, trade, trade for parts

Forest Department officials have teamed up with Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to chalk out a conservation plan for the endangered giant squirrel

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Sturgeon fish

Sturgeon is the common name used for some species of fish in the family Acipenseridae. The family is also known as the true sturgeons. This fish has been around for 250 million years – yes, that means that they were around when dinosaurs roamed the earth! These types of fish are bottom dwellers. They are saltwater fish, but go to freshwater to spawn.

Sturgeons are found in greatest abundance in the rivers of southern Russia and Ukraine and in the freshwaters of North America. In early summer they migrate from the sea into rivers or toward the shores of freshwater lakes for breeding purposes.

Several species of sturgeons are harvested for their roe, which is made into caviar — a luxury food which makes some sturgeons pound for pound the most valuable of all harvested fish. The premier delicacy in the world can be the tempting and truly mouthwatering caviar. Highly prized for its extraordinary taste and scarcity
caviar finds its way to the palate of the popular and well-off individuals worldwide.


A teaspoonful of a certain type of caviar could command thousands of dollars in five star hotels. that’s huge amount of money for ordinary people but for the rich and famous that is definitely peanuts, besides eating caviar would enhance and maintain a lofty status in the society and good image as well.





Sturgeon has their long reproductive cycles, long migrations, and sensitivity to environmental conditions, this many species are under severe threat from overfishing, poaching, water pollution and damming of rivers. According to the IUCN, over 85% of sturgeon species are classified as at risk of extinction, making them more critically endangered than any other group of species.

The development of a recovery plan for the sturgeon was led by the US Fish and Wildlife Service with the assistance of both federal and provincial biologists from British Columbia, to stop fishing these species.

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Red panda

Red panda, also known sometimes as cat bear and lesser panda, is largely herbivore. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, an adult red panda in the forest weighs around 4 kg. They lives in eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.

It feeds mainly on bamboo, but is omnivorous and may also eat eggs, birds, insects, and small mammals. These animals spend most of their lives in trees and even sleep aloft. When foraging, they are most active at night as well as in the gloaming hours of dusk and dawn.

The red panda has been classified as Vulnerable by IUCN because its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals.

Although red pandas are protected by national laws in their range countries, their numbers in the wild continue to decline mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression.

The poaching of red panda,for their  meat, while its hide is used to make decorative household items.local farmers in china kill the red pandas if they enter their farms.The Himalayan Times reported that a man was found selling 3 red panda skins highlights how poaching of such an endangered animal is on the rise. Red Panda is protected by the law but it is surprising how the person could get the panda skins all the way from Rasuwa district to Kathmandu.




Protecting the red panda goes hand in hand with protecting its habitat. By conservation awareness among the locals to change their attitude for red panda. Thus it will encourage the local to build civil society network for red panda conservation.

There is a need of regional cooperation to control the wildlife trade and ensure long-term protection of the endangered species by managing their natural habitats and foster participatory biodiversity conservation

  Protecting the forest where red pandas live is the most important key to keeping them from disappearing.

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Olive Ridley

OLIVE RIDLEYS

      A well known critically endangered species of the world. A really beautiful creation of mother earth. It is a species of sea turtle which are very small, about 60cm* in length and weighing 40kg* (*average). They've been a vulnerable species for years yet people tend to protect them in vain.
     Orissa, India, is known to have been the world's largest Olive Ridley nesting site. Every year, between December and April, thousands of Olive Ridleys emerge from the Bay of Bengal for mass nesting, known as the Arribada.
     A recent data released by the state's Forest and Wildlife department reveals a sharp decline in the number of Olive Ridleys in the last decade. In recent times, some historical arribada sites have only recorded intermittent nesting. Beach erosion caused some turtles to nest in a fishing village this year.
    The Olive Ridleys have been declared vulnerable by the IUCN. Nature plays its role in keeping the population of the Ridleys under control by many ways. Some of them are given below.


Birds and other creatures

    These are the creatures of nature expected to control the population of the Olive Ridleys. But there also is an unexpected intruder in the nature's cycle. The HUMANS


 






  Poaching for turtle shell, fancy items made of it, eggs of the turtles in large scale has brought the species to near extinction which is very near
















  Though many are busy destroying these vulnerable species, some busy not caring for other creatures of nature, few have come up with their effort to save the creatures by their own ways, atleast to create awareness among people. Youths of Fishing villages have got a high hand at this context by creating awareness among their people.
 

 
 A Puducherry-based NGO's (Pudhuvai Samadhana Pura) efforts to protect the turtle species have borne fruit with 110 hatchlings being let into the sea on April 6 this yea, at Pudhukuppam, a fishing village of Puducherry, said Muthu, the Convenor of the NGO to the PTI.


    Fishermen have raised their hands to protect nature. Where are we? Share this among your friends so that they may know that there's a species going towards extinction.

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