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In 2010, scientists announced the discovery of a new primate species, the Myanmar Snub-nosed Monkey, which we posted here. At the time, the only known specimen was a carcass. Now, photographs of a group of these monkeys have been taken with a camera trap in the mountains of Kachin state in Burma. Researchers are especially excited to see that this critically endangered species is producing babies. Link -via Geekosystem
(Image credit: FFI/BANCA/PRCF)
You’ve probably seen the 1957 move The Bridge On the River Kwai, but you might not know how much of the film was real and how much was fictionalized. The real history of how the railway between Burma and China was built, including the bridge, is a horrific story. The British didn’t build the railway in the 19th century because it would be too expensive. During World War II, the invading Japanese took on the project, but expected it to take five years to complete. Those plans were drawn before they found a source of free labor: the Allied POWs. Because of the inhuman amount of labor forced on the prisoners, the railway line that was expected to take five years to complete was ready in only 16 months.
Starvation provisions, overloading of work, dismal or absent accommodation and sanitation, and the individual viciousness of Japanese and Korean engineers and guards, took their expected toll. Disease (predominantly dysentery, malaria, beriberi and cholera), brutality (69 men were beaten to death by their guards) and 12 to 18 hour daily work shifts made for a high death rate. In fact, the work went on 24 hours a day with the aid of oil pot lamps and bamboo/wood fires that were kept burning all night long. When looking down on the wok area at night it looked like working in the “jaws of hell” – thus the workers gave it the name “Hellfire Pass”.
Read the rest of the story at Environmental Graffiti. Link
(Image credit: ©Pascal Engelmajer)
Early this year, scientists heard of a new and different monkey in the Kachin state of Myanmar. When they arrived at the site, they found the monkey had been “discovered” by the hunters who killed it. It was eaten soon after.
Scientists first learned of “Snubby”—as they nicknamed the species—from hunters in the remote, mountainous Kachin state (map) in early 2010, according to the U.K.-based conservation group Flora & Fauna International (FFI), which announced the discovery Wednesday.
The hunters told the team of R. strykeri’s fleshy lips, upturned nose, and odd respiratory issue: Rain falling into the monkeys’ noses possibly causes the animals to sneeze, so they often spend soggy days with their heads tucked between their knees, the hunters said.
Local hunters told the FFI team that the rainy season was a good time to look for the monkeys because they made more noise during rain. Eventually, more of the snub-nosed monkeys were seen, but they moved so fast no photographs could be taken. Link
(Image credit: Ngwe Lwin)
Yes, that’s right a volcanic plug. It sounds dangerous but at this stage in its life, Taung Kalat poses no threat. A volcanic plug (sometimes called a ‘neck’) is formed when magma, on its way up through a vent on an active volcano, hardens inside the vent. While the volcano is active this could well lead to the mother of all explosions and it would, you have to admit, be a shame if this beautiful monastery was to be catapulted in to the stratosphere. However, the volcano is thought (perhaps we should say hoped) to be extinct.
(image credit: Flickr user exfordy)
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A very unusual species of fish with fangs made of bone has been found in only one stream in Burma. Researchers from London’s Natural History Museum believe the fish lost its teeth about 50 million years ago, but later evolved the bone fangs.
Dr. Ralph Britz, who has worked with Burmese wildlife for more than a decade, named the new species Danionella dracula after Bram Stoker’s fictional vampire.
The male dracula fish have been observed to open their mouths very wide and nudge each other, but they don’t draw any blood.
Photo by Ralf Britz
“After a year or so in captivity they started dying; and when I preserved them and looked at them under the microscope, I thought ‘My God, what is this, they can’t be teeth!’ Dr. Britz told BBC News.”
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