Fire-breathing the agenda, too!
"As Myanmar opens, new species found" Associated Press June 06, 2014
YANGON, Myanmar — A dragon fish with intricate, maze-like markings on every scale, a frog with rough, chocolate-colored skin, and a ginger plant are among more than two dozen species found in Myanmar since it emerged from a half-century of military rule and isolation.
The World Wildlife Fund said Thursday the discoveries by global scientists in the last two years highlight the need to invest in conservation as the biologically diverse nation of 60 million accelerates its economic engines and opens up to foreign investment.
Already, it is starting to succumb to many of the pressures felt by neighbors in Southeast Asia, from deforestation and illegal wildlife trade to mining and the development of hydropower.
The 26 plants and animals newly identified include a species of dragon fish, which are hugely popular in the Asian aquatic world. The so-called ‘‘scribbled arowana’’ is creating a buzz on the aquarium fish blogosphere because of its complex, maze-like markings.
Previously unidentified by scientists, a ginger plant collected from a single region in the cloud forests of the western state of Rakhine had been hiding in plain sight at local markets, WWF said. And a chocolate-spotted frog was discovered in a mountain range near India.
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Related: Myanmar
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