Raju the Elephant Meets His New Family

Raju the elephant who stole the world’s heart when he was seen crying when shown freedom after 50 years of brutal treatment has been introduced to his new family in a truly magical moment.  This week footage of the male elephant went viral after he was released from the captivity in Uttar Pradesh in India and now it looks like the brave bull might get a happy ending.

http://tinyurl.com/pzc27oq

Tigers on the Rebound

WWF launched the Year of the Tiger campaign in 2010 and rallied global commitments to double the number of wild tigers by 2022. In early 2013, 120 tiger researchers fanned out across some of the wildest sections of India and Nepal to assess the status of that work. That team completed the first joint tiger and prey-base survey of the entire Terai Arc, a 600-mile-long transboundary landscape that boasts one of the highest densities of tigers in the world.  Using camera traps and lots of legwork, the surveyors identified individual tigers by their unique stripe patterns and found something amazing: Tiger numbers in Nepal have risen by an estimated 63% in four years.

http://tinyurl.com/k8ny4tn

Teen Saves Lives by Speaking to Elephants

Here's a language you never got the option to learn in school! A 14-year-old girl from India knows how to speak to elephants, a skill that comes in handy more often than you'd think.  Last June, a herd of 11 elephants from nearby forests entered a residential area in the city of Rourkela. Before the wild animals could wreak havoc on the town and its residents, authorities got hold of teenage girl Nirmala Toppo, because unbelievably, she seems to have the ability to communicate with elephants.

http://tinyurl.com/nrd2h6c

Artificial Beaks Helping To Save Hornbills From Extinction In India

For centuries the tribal Nyishi people in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh have worn the magnificent beaks of hornbill birds as a part of their traditional headgear, called pudum, which are considered a sign of manhood and tribal identity. Hornbills are the state birds of Arunachal Pradesh, but overhunting for pudum threatened all five resident species with regional extinction at the end of the 20th century.

http://tinyurl.com/6pzw59d

Armed Commandos To Protect India's Tigers

Armed commandos are to be deployed in the jungles of southern India to deter poachers from capturing and killing endangered tigers, state government officials announced on Wednesday.  The 54-strong Special Tiger Protection Force will patrol the two main tiger reserves of Bandipur and Nagarhole national parks on the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu state border, the Karnataka government in Bangalore said.

http://tinyurl.com/7juyvze

12 New Frog Species Discovered

Years of combing tropical mountain forests, shining flashlights under rocks and listening for croaks in the night have paid off for a team of Indian scientists which has discovered 12 new frog species plus three others thought to have been extinct.

http://tinyurl.com/3hgfdah

Monkey Couple Ties the Knot

In the tiny Indian village of Talwas, deep in the forests of India, live to two monkeys who tied the knot last week - a first for the country (and possibly the universe?).

http://tinyurl.com/5vu5kjr