Five 2009 wildlife successes

This video is called Inside Nature’s Giants: The Leatherback Turtle.

From the Wildlife Conservation Society in the USA:

Top Five Hits of 2009

Before we ring in 2010, we’d like to thank you for all of the conservation successes you helped us achieve this year. With your support, we made big strides for wildlife throughout the world’s coral reefs, rainforests, rocky shores, savannahs, and mountains. Below are five of our favorite headlines from 2009.

Dr. Howard Rosenbaum Interview

Watch an interview with Dr. Howard Rosenbaum on a 2009 victory for sea turtles.

January

Victory for penguins

With support from WCS, Argentina declares a new coastal marine park to protect half a million penguins, cormorants, oystercatchers, and other rare seabirds. The region’s Magellanic penguins represent about a quarter of the entire population in Patagonia.

April

Afghanistan’s national park

Afghanistan establishes its first national park, with aid from WCS. Band-e-Amir will protect one of the country’s best-known natural areas, renowned for its spectacular series of six deep blue lakes separated by natural dams made of travertine, a mineral deposit.

April

Irrawaddy dolphin discovery

WCS marine researchers discover 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins alive and swimming in the Sundarbans mangrove forest and adjacent waters of Bangladesh. Prior to this study, the largest known populations of Irrawaddy dolphins numbered in the low hundreds or fewer.

August

Tiger poachers busted

WCS’s Wildlife Crimes Unit plays a key role in the arrests of illegal wildlife traders attempting to sell Sumatran tiger skins in Indonesia. The island’s populations of tigers and other endangered species are under siege by poachers.

October

Pronghorn migration route

WCS-North America researchers discover a group of pronghorn antelope living in Idaho that have one of the longest overland migration routes in the Western Hemisphere. The antelope make an annual round-trip exceeding 160 miles.

April 2011: America’s pronghorn population is being tracked by satellite to find out more about their perilous annual migration: here.