Asian Animals
This screensaver includes endangered
species such as the Orangutan, the Asian Rhinoceros, Green Sea Turtles and the Asian
Elephant.
Asian Elephants are seen in the
Chitwan reserve (southwestern Nepal) where a project is being carried out to favor
reproduction in captivity. There are very few Asian Elephants living in the wild left.
On Selingan Island, Malaysian Borneo
(near the border with the Philippines), park biologists and volunteers are resident
permanently due to a campaign to protect sites where Turtles leave the sea to lay their
eggs. The main threat has become poachers much more than natural predators.
For thousands of years the turtles
have been leaving the relative safety of the sea and crawling onto the beach until they
reach a patch of trees or other vegetation. They then dig a hole in the sand using their
front "flippers", deposit up to 400 or 500 eggs, cover them with sand and return
to the sea. What happens today is that after the female turtle has finished her
"labor", the resident biologists will uncover the hole, gently remove the eggs
and place them in a safer place in an area which is constantly guarded. The new area is
identified with pertinent details (date, number of eggs, etc.). The incubation period is
about 3 weeks during which numerous forms of statistical data is recorded. The eggs will
hatch more or less all at the same time and the infant turtles (about an inch and a half
long) are brought to the sea shore where they will then have to crawl to the sea
unassisted. Although the biologists supervise this, they won't intervene if natural
predators (such as sea gulls) capture some of the new born turtles.
Some very common animals such as
squirrels and monkeys as well as a large number of different bird species can also be
found
