Myanmar works for wildlife conservation

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Myanmar has been working for wildlife conservation and it will soon open its first ever international level Safari Park in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, according to official media report Sunday.

The park, with endangered species of animals from inside and around the world, was designed to serve as a public recreation center and enable people to learn about the natural ecology.

Animals are kept in natural condition as an open zoo in order that visitors could feel as though there are in an African forest, an administrator of the park was quoted as saying.

The park would soon be filled with over 200 animals of 16 rare species from some foreign countries, the administrator said, introducing kangaroo, giraffe, white rhino, zebra, ostrich, goat, deer, one-hump camel, lion and African deer.

The Safari booths are to be divided as Asian booth, Australian booth and African booth, of which the African Safari booth is the largest with an area of 24 hectares serving natural habitats for a total of 68 animals including six camels, eight African deer, six goat deer, six lions, 10 tigers, six white rhinos, 10 ostriches, six giraffes, six zebras and four ponies, it was disclosed.

Partly moved from the zoological garden in the former capital of Yangon, the first-ever zoological garden was opened in Nay Pyi Taw in March 2008 in which famous animals in Myanmar and rare ones such as penguins, Kangaroos and white tigers as well as mammals, birds and reptiles are kept.

The Nay Pyi Taw zoological garden project, which covers an area of more than 400 hectares stands the third after Yangon's and Mandalay's but the largest in the country.

Of the two existing zoological gardens, the historical Yangon's, which expands as 20.3 hectares, was set up in January 1906, accommodating over 1,000 animals including 554 mammals of 62 species such as elephant, tiger, bear, hippopotamus, monkey, takin and mountain goat, 424 birds of 70 species and 130 reptiles of 19 species such as crocodile, snake and monitor lizard; while the Mandalay zoological garden, which expands as 21.5 hectares, was inaugurated in April 1989 and has 107 mammals of 35 species, 142 birds of 39 species and 137 reptiles of 15 species.

In January 2006, the Yangon Zoological Garden celebrated its rare centenary with special fun fair and drew thousands of visitors.

According to the garden officials, the Yangon zoological garden is among the 40 ones in the world which have a history of over 100 years, attracting about 1.5 million visitors annually.

The Yangon zoological garden also exchanges animals and facts about them with counterparts of other countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Nepal, Germany and Czech Republic apart from many international organizations.

Meanwhile, the Myanmar forest authorities are calling on the country people to participate in the task for conservation of rare birds and wildlife to stabilize the ecosystem which faces collapse as in the world.

Taking note that the population of tigers worldwide gradually declines with tiger species being available in 13 countries only, Myanmar is cooperating with seven other Asian nations in an effort to establish a tiger protection corridor which extends as 5,000 miles (8.000 kilometers) for endangered ones.

In the wake of warning that there survives only 100 tigers in the country, Myanmar is also cooperating with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in undertaking tiger conservation in Hukaung Valley.

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