February 15, 2013 Ryukyu Shimpo
On February 14, as its caregivers looked on, the black-faced spoonbill that had been receiving medical treatment in an animal hospital in Naha since the end of last year was safely released back to the wild. Its injuries have healed but the bird was becoming weak because its broken leg had made it unable to catch prey for itself. The spoonbill was looked after by the people at the Manko Waterbird and Wetland Center in Tomigusuku. The bird stepped out of a...
December 22, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On December 19, a male Yambaru kuina or Okinawan rail that was saved from an attack by crows near the Okuni Forest Road in Taiho, Ogimi Village was released back into the forest. The place in which the Okinawan rail was rescued is at the southern limit...
April 18, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On April 17, the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium announced that the unfamiliar galatheoidea (a superfamily of decapod crustaceans comprising some squat lobsters and porcelain crabs) that they found is a new species of galathea, or squat lobster. The staff member of the...
March 15, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On March 14, a black-faced spoonbill that had been entangled in fishing line recovered from its troubled situation flew into the sky over the Toyosaki mudflats, Tomigusuku. Two staff members of the Nature Conservation Section of the Okinawa Prefectural Government...
March 12, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On the evening of March 11, a black-faced spoonbill that had been found with a fishing line wrapped around its beak on March 4 at the mud flats in the southern part of the main island, was taken into care.
From around 4:30pm that day, more than a dozen people...
March 13, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
In Ishigaki, people saw the first baby water buffalo in many a year, and have named it Katsuzakura. Yoji Fukunaka, a teacher at Yaeyama Agriculture High School and Karin Heanza, a second grade student, have been taking care of the buffalos. Katsuzakura is the first...
March 8, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
At around 10:00pm on March 5, Kouki Tarama, a police officer of the Yagaji Police Substation in Nago caught a poisonous habu snake that was about 1.5 meters in length in the front yard of the police substation. Nago Police Station drew residents’ attention...
March 7, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On March 7 courtship displays by rare bearded mudskippers (tokagehaze or Scartelaos histophorus) were seen on the tidal flats in Fusozaki, Nanjo. Because the temperature was relatively high, the mudskippers stand up to attract each other before cuddling...
March 5, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
On March 4 in the southern part of Okinawa’s main island, a black-faced spoonbill, a species listed by the Ministry of Environment as “critically endangered” on its Red List, was found with a fishhook in its beak. A similar accident occurred four years ago,...
February 15, 2012 Photograph by Hiroaki Yamashiro
A high-pressure zone over the Okinawa region on February 14 brought blue skies and a summer-like day. A temperature of 26.5 degrees was recorded at Hateruma and on the Iriomote Islands, and in Naha it was 25 degrees, the sort of temperatures...
January 1, 2012 Ryukyu Shimpo
As it does every year, to celebrate the Year of the Dragon the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Motobu organized a special display of creatures. Visitors enjoyed watching sea horses and other creatures named after dragons as they swam gracefully in their tanks.
The...
