Mark Wright
Appearances
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
Every couple of years, we put out a report similar to this. In fact, a week ago, we put out another report that showed over 700 new species in the Congo. So for me, this is like Christmas has come early. It's a thousand new species, a thousand new ways that animals choose to live on this planet. And what I think it tells us is that despite the fact that we think we know everything,
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
We know this planet inside out. It simply isn't true. Every time we look, every time we take the time and patience to peer under a rock, look behind a tree and so on, we find new things. And to me, that's part of the excitement. That's part of the joy of living on this planet.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
So the viper, it's called an eyelash viper, and it's because they have an extra set of scales above their eye. We think that kind of helps break up their outline when they're moving amongst all the foliage and so on. Yeah, they're venomous, they're poisonous to people, and it lives in Thailand and Malaysia. The bat, this is a tiny bat, it's the size of a safety pin. And we know nothing about it.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
We don't know where it roosts. It lives in some of these karst environments, these limestone environments. We think it lives in caves, but we really know very, very little about it. And then, of course, the lizard. That's this fantastic dragon named Lizard. It was found by someone like an adventure tour guide on a zip wire because these things have never been found on the ground.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
They're found on these kind of steep cliffs. limestone rugged cliffs, but with fantastic camouflage. I mean, I take my hat off to him because even on the photographs, it's really hard to make it out.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
I think that's right, because what we see in the Mekong is no different to what we're seeing everywhere else on the planet. I mean, we are really putting nature under the cosh. And that's for a number of reasons. We're changing the habitat for things like deforestation for food and so on. Or in the case of the lizard, it's in these limestone habitats.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
And that limestone is being mined because it's a staple constituent of cement. So as we encroach more and more on these areas, as we take more and more of these resources, so these things are put under stress.
Global News Podcast
The rebels turned rulers providing law and order in Syria
Every time we look, every time we take the time and patience to peer under a rock, look behind a tree and so on, we find new things. And to me, that's part of the excitement, that's part of the joy of living on this planet.