Record number of fires recorded this year in the Amazon rainforest, home to 45 species of turtles
Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.
Inpe said it had detected more than 74,000 fires between January and August – the highest number since records began in 2013. It said it had observed more than 9,500 forest fires since Thursday, mostly in the Amazon region.
In comparison, there are slightly more than 40,000 in the same period of 2018, it said. However, the worst recent year was 2016, with more than 68,000 fires in that period.
Turtle News From Around the World
Conservation
USA: Loggerhead Marinelife Center, FL current record breaking nest count at 20,603 with 3 months before nesting season ends
Philippines: Pawikan Conservation Center in Morong, Bataan receives four new vehicles from Honda Foundation, Inc. to aid in conservation of sea turtles
Canada: Ontario’s conservation authorities advised to “wind down” all non-essential programs; not only may turtles suffer for it, so would entire projects (VIDEO)
Singapore: 150 sea turtle eggs successfully hatched since 2018 for Turtle Hatchery at Sisters’ Islands Marine Park, Singapore’s first and only hatchery so far (VIDEO)
Singapore: around 200 volunteers now help National Parks Board (NParks) locate and record data on nesting sea turtles
Education
Smithsonian.com: learn more about the mystery of how and when the turtle evolved its shell
Miscellany
USA: “Tortoise Terrace” at Academy of Academic Excellence, CA provides place for endangered desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) to live before being adopted out
USA: Alabama’s second known green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) nest hatches, all hatchlings make it safely to ocean (VIDEO)
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Photo from CTV News.
