Setiu Post

A photograph of the Swinhoe's Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) that was rescued following a dam break in Dong Mo Lake, Hanoi, Vietnam in 2008. Photo by: Timothy McCormack- ATP  Breaking News - Rarest Turtle in the world found in the wild in Vietnam. We are so excited to break this news today. Environmental DNA has helped us confirm a new Swinhoe's Softshell Turtles (Rafetus swinhoei), better known in Vietnam as the Hoan Kiem Turtle, in the wild. Years of surveys have paid off, the global known population for this species is now four individuals. Xuan Khanh Lake has been on our radar since 2012 and in 2016 we got fresh information from this lake. The ATP/IMC Field Team have spent almost 3,000 hours making observation on the lake through 2017 and were able to observe the turtle on a number of occasions. One photograph in May 2017 is clearly a large softshell turtle but the identify can still not be confirmed. But we have also been working on a collaborative Environ...

Carliforte Island, Sardinia, Italy A scuba diver photographs tuna as they swim into a tonnara—a maze of fixed nets—off Carliforte Island, Sardinia, Italy. The tonnara nets are part of an ancient fishing method, now practiced in only a few locations around the Mediterranean. The fish are channeled into a part of the maze from which they cannot retreat, and from where they can be hoisted onto boats, and slaughtered by hand. The killing, known as la mattanza, is surrounded by age-old tradition and ceremony. The fish—northern blue-fin or Mediterranean tuna—are at the end of a long migration, and can be up to 400 kilograms in weight. Tonnara fishing is a more sustainable technique than other methods of catching tuna, such as trawling. It is dying out not only because it is so labor-intensive, but because pollution and large-scale commercial fishing have diminished stocks. by:  FRANCESCO ZIZOLA NATIONALITY:  Italy WEBSITE:  www.zizola.com

A female of the Pterosoma planum species Heteropoda A female of the Pterosoma planum species, photographed in the Pacific Ocean between Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, and Sydney, Australia. Pterosoma planum belongs to a group of predatory snails that live in the open sea. Individuals can grow up to three or four centimeters long. The species is carnivorous and hunts fish and other snails and slugs. It has a shell, but its body cannot be completely withdrawn. Pterosoma planum is planktonic—it floats passively, depending on currents for its movement—and pelagic, spending its entire lifecycle independent of either the bottom of the ocean or the coast. JOAN COSTA

A young male polar bear climbs on a cliff face above the ocean, attempting unsuccessfully to feed on eggs from the nests of Brünnich’s guillemots, in late July. Ostrova Oranskie, Novaya Zemlya, Russia A young male polar bear climbs on a cliff face above the ocean at Ostrova Oranskie, in northern Novaya Zemlya, Russia, attempting unsuccessfully to feed on eggs from the nests of Brünnich’s guillemots, in late July. The location falls within the Russkaya Arktika National Park, covering more than 46,000 square kilometers of islands and sea in the Arctic Ocean, one of the largest protected areas in the northern hemisphere. A polar bear’s primary prey is the seal, the blubber satisfying the bear’s enormous energy needs. Bears hunt seals from sea-ice platforms, and also use ice floes to move from place to place. In summer months, when much sea ice melts, polar bears can become stranded, and have to forage for what food they can. Their dependence on sea-ice platforms for food, traveli...

But for Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the HMS Beagle, we would probably never treasure the  Galápagos  archipelago as we do today. It was here that the Father of Evolution observed the islands' numerous endemic species and drew up the fundaments of his game-changing theory of evolution by natural selection, which he published in 1859 as the iconoclastic treatise "On the Origin of Species". Lying 973 km off the coast of Ecuador, the 18 major islands straddle both hemispheres, being scattered both north and south of the Equator. The archipelago encompasses three smaller islands as well as 107 rocks and islets. Many centuries before Darwin's visit, the islands were described to the Western world in 1535 by the Dominican friar Fray Tomas de Berlanga, who landed there by accident, blown off course on a voyage from Panama to Peru. It was De Berlanga who first described the islands' unique landscape and fauna. Interestingly, credit for charting the first navig...

It is said that great wildlife photography comes from the heart and not the head. Whatever the case, capturing the Big Five in  South Africa , orangutans in Southeast  Asia  or Emperor Penguins in  Antarctica  requires a lot of patience, and much luck. The trouble is, you never quite know what’s going to happen next - but that’s what makes it so exciting, too. The following tips will help you get the best wildlife shots out of your trip by being prepared...well as prepared as you can be. Get the right gear One great step in achieving that great image is having the right gear for the purpose. This doesn’t mean you have to have the most expensive or the latest equipment to take good wildlife photographs, but you must have a thorough knowledge of the right kit for the right situation and how to use it properly. Otherwise, you’ll be consulting the manual, completely oblivious to your subject posing for you. Pick the right camera While digit...