Action for Conservation and Teaching, Seychelles (ACTS)
Photo: Spix’s Macaw © Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation
Birdlife – Eight bird species, including two species of macaw, look set to have their extinctions confirmed following a robust new assessment of Critically Endangered species. The findings reveal a worrying new trend: for the first time, mainland extinctions are outpacing island extinctions.
Photo: Another caecilian, the Hypogeophis pti, locally called petite Praslin caecilian, was discovered on Praslin, late last year. (Salifa Karapetyan, Seychelles News Agency)
(Seychelles News Agency) – A new legless amphibian known as the caecilian has been discovered on the Seychelles’ main island of Mahe by scientists from the UK, according to an article published by the University of Wolverhampton last week.
The new species called montane Mahé (Hypogeophis montanus) was discovered through an ongoing study led by the University of Wolverhampton lecturer Simon Maddock and colleagues from London’s Natural History Museum.
Nature Kenya’s (BirdLife Partner in Kenya) Insect Committee have made available for free download a pollinators conservation handbook. “Our Friends the Pollinators: A Handbook of Pollinator Diversity and Conservation in East Africa” is written and illustrated by Dino J Martins. According to the publishers The goal of the book “is to inspire excitement about pollinators, and make the link with food, and people’s livelihoods.”
The book “also aims to create awareness, provide practical information on the diversity of pollinators in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi), and introduce you to a few of them.” An excerpt from the book says: “The relationships between insects and flowers are ancient, intricate, and fragile. Working with pollinators helps us to glimpse, and understand some of the most wonderfully beautiful, and complex interactions on the planet. We expect that the learning shared in this book will help to shape a strong grassroots movement that works for the protection of habitats, better farming practices, and the restoring of pollination services. We hope that our sense of wonder at pollinators, and their interaction with flowers, will pass to future generations through this book.” Download and share the handbook from this link
An excellent guide to biodiversity for youth part of the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance Learning and Action Series. Download it, share it, use it and apply it!