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FLORA AND FAUNA
Extended habitat for the greater bamboo lemur: NGOs

Sea worm thought to be extinct spotted off Spain
A sea worm that uses a trunk to catch prey that was thought to be extinct has been rediscovered in the waters of the Atlantic off northwestern Spain, researchers said Monday. Spanish zoologist Juan Junoy from the University of Alcala de Henares near Madrid discovered 21 of the bright red Lineus acutifrons worms at the National Park of the Atlantic Islands in Galicia, the university said in a statement. "The only news we had of this species is of a description of them at an Irish beach in 1913. Since that year they had never been captured again, and the scientific validity of the description was questioned, and the species considered to be extinct," it said. The worm, which can reach a length of 25 centimetres (10 inches), is blind and uses chemical receptors to locate its prey. Unlike the massive hotel complexes found along Spain's southern coastline, the Galician coast is largely undeveloped. It features instead a maze of coves, caves and inlets that have long made it a smuggler's paradise.
by Staff Writers
 Nairobi (AFP) Oct 5, 2009
 One of the world's most endangered primates, the greater bamboo lemur, a species endemic to Madagascar, has been found in an area where it was feared extinct, environmental organisations said Monday.

The species, "prolemur simus", has been found at 11 sites in a swathe of forest in the east of the island.

This finding opens "a new chapter for the species and for the places we can protect it by preserving the forest as the main problem is loss of habitat," Mahaoly Ravaloharimanitra, a research assistant at the Aspinall Foundation, told AFP.

Illegal logging and slash-and-burn agriculture are among the practices that threaten the survival of this species. Primate specialists say that while this type of lemur was once found throughout this Indian Ocean island, now no more than 300 individuals are still in existence.

As its common name suggests, prolemur simus feeds mainly on bamboo, which limits its habitat options.

"They are very secretive, which makes it difficult to approach them and protect them. Most of the time we don't see the animal, just traces of food or droppings," Tovanahary Rasolofoharivelo from Conservation International told AFP.

The greater bamboo lemur was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in the 1980s, the two associations said in a statement.

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FLORA AND FAUNA
Tourist faeces 'killed off rare Ayers Rock shrimp': report
 Sydney (AFP) Sept 29, 2009
 Tourists may have killed off a rare species of shrimp by relieving themselves on Australia's iconic Uluru, or Ayers Rock, a report said on Tuesday. Biologist Brian Timms said his research had showed one species of small inland shrimp living in pools atop the monolith had become extinct while another had thrived. "The people going up the rock somehow have affected the animals which live ... read more






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