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© 2013 Heidi Haris.
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Gadis Saintis
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Wednesday 30 January 2019 +
Hello greedy people.
Today, I am going to talk about Romeo and his journey to find his Juliet. Romeo has been waiting for his soulmate for more than a decade and was once thought as the last known species of it's kind. Who is this Romeo? Romeo is actually a Sehuencas water frog (Telmatobius yuracare) who live in a small stream within Andean cloud forests in Bolivia, alone before he was being collected from the wild 10 years ago to be brought to Centro Kayra, a captive-breeding center in Cochabamba. This poor frog is native to that single stream, which means it can only be found there. Sehuencas water frogs are now critically endangered and the reduction of their numbers are majorly due to habitat loss, pollution and climate change (See Trump, we told you climate change is real). Afraid that Romeo, one of the last of his species goes extinct, Joel Sartore, the founder of PhotoArk took his portrait, joining the other 9,000 species that may face the same fate like Romeo. Ok fun fact, taking Romeo's photos are not that easy as Joel said he needs to go through the refrigerated trailer and he needs to change into sterilized jumpsuits and boots, just to see Romeo! Why? Because he is so valuable. One careless mistake may wipe out this entire water frog species from the earth.
So, after 10 years living alone in the aquarium of captive breeding center, turns out he isn't lonely any longer! The non-profit Global Wildlife Conservation teamed up with the dating website, Match.com to find his Juliet. Psssst, Romeo has it's own dating profile okay and also his own twitter account (so cute meh). Their efforts paid off as in January 2019, they discovered FIVE Sehuencas water frogs including Juliet, a juvenile female and three males. Now, Juliet is on her way to Romeo- but they are still not sure whether the pair will hit it off. For now, the five new members are being quarantined to monitor for any disease especially a deadly fungus that may threaten their life. They also don't want Romeo to get sick on his first date! So far, the conservationist claimed that:
"Romeo is very shy. He doesn't come out very often. He stays under his shelter, he's been kind of a reluctant star, a reluctant celebrity. Juliet, on the other hand, is "very, very active," swimming around her tank and making several daring escape attempts." Well, let's hope in this case that opposites attract. The fate of this entire species may rest on their little green shoulder but thankfully, they are not the last hope for their species as the conservationists will keep searching for more frogs.
Romeo species is an example of what other species are going through right now. In Malaysia, there are only two individuals of Sumatran Rhino left, Tam (middle-aged male) and Iman (a female that has a uterine cyst, so typical reproduction is impossible). Which means they are now considered as extinct in the wild. Sad isn't it? Ironically, it is entirely because of us, human. We are causing the sixth mass extinction on this earth, possibly the worst wide-scale extinction since the dinosaurs. Fikir-fikirkanlah dan selamat beramal (drop mic). That's all for now, till next time!
p/s: drop any questions or suggestions in the comment box below, don't let me be another Romeo pls Labels: Animals, Awareness, Biodiversity |
    
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2 Comments:
This is the cutest eventhough I get easily grossed out by frogs :"")
then, it is "grossingly" cute. hihi
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