And the good news came in a form of an adorable hairy-nosed otter.
Thought to be extinct
An almost extinct species of otter was recently spotted in Sabah’s biodiversity-rich Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary.
According to a report by The Star Online, the hairy-nosed otter was spotted by a group of students and researchers at the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC).
DGFC director Dr Benoit Goossens told the news portal that this particular otter species has not been caught on camera for about 100 years and was thought to be extinct until 2010, when a photo of one was captured on camera at the Deramakot Forest Reserve.
“This latest discovery provides another glimmer of hope that the otter can still be prevented from dying out in Sabah, ” he said.
He also explained that the hairy-nosed otter, listed as Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List and as Schedule II of the Sabah Wildlife Conservation Enactment 1997, is thought to be the world’s rarest otter species.
Now, let’s just hope that humans will leave them otters alone.