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Bad news : nepenthes viking extinction ?

Hi All,
I've just finished my "Interview with the Viking expert of Thailand".Then came quake and Tsunami . Probably ,these may cause the extinction of Nepenthes Viking .Local man in Phang-Nga I am contacting says Vikings might be swept into the ocean because they grow in area only 2 acres of savanna-like plainland at sea level. No one dare going out to explore. One of the experts in Thailand believes this Island is the only place where Vikings grow , or at least the best original Vikings grow.
Massive waves triggered by the largest earthquake to shake the planet in more than 40 years have wiped out coastal areas across parts of Asia, killing more than 11,000 people . Most of the Islands in Andaman sea included the remote small Island where Vikings grow were heavily damanged. Some were completely gone.
It is the fourth-largest earthquake since such measurements began in 1899, according to the NEIC, tying with a 1952 quake in Kamchatka, Russia.
Vikings Island is in Adaman sea - The sea famous to all tourists by its beautiful beaches located on coastal area of Phuket and Phang - Nga provinces.One witness said Phuket's famed Laguna Beach resort area is "completely gone." The area provided 40 percent of Thailand's $10 billion annual income from tourism. Among the missing scuba divers who had been exploring
the Emerald Cave off Phuket's coast was the grandchild of King Bhumiphol and Queen Sirikit.
Bad news on New Year holiday.  
Nong , Thailand.
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Extinct in nature or completely extinct? Is there anyone who's growing specimens of it?
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Sorry , I meant in nature. Thanks.
 
Nong,
We thought of you when we heard about the tsunami. Glad to hear from you and that you are safe. The devastation is extremely sad news. The loss of life, both people and plants is immeasurable. The economic damage will be felt for years. Mother nature can seem cruel.
Take care and keep in touch,
Trent and Michelle
PS: Thanks for the Interview translation, we enjoy it.
 
Dear Mr. Nong:

I am deeply saddened by the loss of life (both human and plant life). I think it'll take some time before everything goes back to normal
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If i am not mistaken you should be growing the Vikings in captivity and now your duty to preserve this species has become a top 1 priority.

we were excited when you first introduced this species to the forums and now saddened by the bad news.


Good luck
 
Update News.
       The death toll from Sunday’s tsunami – which slammed into coasts from Indonesia to Somalia – climbed to more than 24,000 yesterday, with Thailand expressing fear that 2,000 people or more may have died here . About 900 people have been confirmed killed but more than 1,000 others are still missing and we expect the death toll to reach 2,000,
The body count grew horrifically fast as rescue workers found dead Westerners, Asians and Thais – many with broken necks, arms and legs. Felled trees, smashed vehicles and toppled buildings littered the ground in many areas. The giant waves – caused by the most powerful earthquake for 40 years – left tens of thousands injured, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
the body of Khun Poom Jensen, the grandson of His Majesty the King, was found yesterday at a beach resort in Phang Nga that had been pounded by tidal waves on Sunday.
The earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale triggered the wall of water up to 10 metres high that fanned out across the Bay of Bengal. Huge waves hurled fishing boats onto roads, flattened houses, sent cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucked sunbathers, babies and fishermen out to sea. The tsunami spared no one. Western tourists were killed as they sunbathed on the beach, poor villagers were drowned in their seaside homes and fishermen died in flimsy boats.
The Meteorological Department yesterday warned people to stay away from beaches after a 6.6 magnitude aftershock prompted fears that another round of disastrously high waves may be in the offing.
Video recorded by a tourist who was on Phi-Phi Island , an Island of Paradise in Andaman sea, demonstrated the destructive power of Tsunami on the Island. However , Phi-Phi Island was not completely gone as  rumored .
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Nong @ Dec. 28 2004,1:09)]Update News.
       The death toll from Sunday’s tsunami – which slammed into coasts from Indonesia to Somalia – climbed to more than 24,000 yesterday, with Thailand expressing fear that 2,000 people or more may have died here . About 900 people have been confirmed killed but more than 1,000 others are still missing and we expect the death toll to reach 2,000,
The body count grew horrifically fast as rescue workers found dead Westerners, Asians and Thais – many with broken necks, arms and legs. Felled trees, smashed vehicles and toppled buildings littered the ground in many areas. The giant waves – caused by the most powerful earthquake for 40 years – left tens of thousands injured, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
the body of Khun Poom Jensen, the grandson of His Majesty the King, was found yesterday at a beach resort in Phang Nga that had been pounded by tidal waves on Sunday.
The earthquake registering 9.0 on the Richter scale triggered the wall of water up to 10 metres high that fanned out across the Bay of Bengal. Huge waves hurled fishing boats onto roads, flattened houses, sent cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucked sunbathers, babies and fishermen out to sea. The tsunami spared no one. Western tourists were killed as they sunbathed on the beach, poor villagers were drowned in their seaside homes and fishermen died in flimsy boats.
The Meteorological Department yesterday warned people to stay away from beaches after a 6.6 magnitude aftershock prompted fears that another round of disastrously high waves may be in the offing.
Video recorded by a tourist who was on Phi-Phi Island , an Island of Paradise in Andaman sea, demonstrated the destructive power of Tsunami on the Island. However , Phi-Phi Island was not completely gone as  rumored .
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Nong,

I have to admit I was dubious that the Viking could be wiped out, but in the middle of the US, it is really hard to visualize this force of Nature(makes a tornado seem like a mild Spring zephyr). I have not been able to watch any news to see any footage. Things that cause extinction are not supposed to happen in our lifetime.
Anyways, I am glad you are safe, and if the worse has occured, hopefully there are enough plants in cultivation to get them started again in Nature.

Cheers,

Joe
 
Thanks Joe. And I have to apologize all in this forum. I've just realized that I misunderstood the meaning of "extinct" because of my skin-deep English knowledge. I thought this word meant " disappear from the original homeland" . What I tried to communicate is " Tsunami might destroy all the Viking in their homeland , so if you grow ones , please take care of them well . In the future we may need to co-operate to propagate by advance technology and bring them back to their homeland."
There are some Vikings in the mainland but experts believe they are not "pure blood" (sorry , I can't find the proper word) because they have short necks , probably mixed with thorel. or mirabilis on mainland.
This is the first Tsunami Thai people in this generation have experienced. We have no idea of its powerful destructive capability too. But in some small Islands ,all plants , coconut tree , weed , even soil surface are wiped out. So we think it may happens to the Viking Island as well. Moreover , sea water flooded and the soil submerge , underground water may be salty which is very dangerous for Nepenthes rooting sysem. Vikings have big rhizomes but short root , how long can they tolerate till new rainy season comes. This is a scientific topic that I 'm unable to share idea.
Nong_Thailand
 
  • #10
It is sad that this plant my be gone but even sadder the devistation throughout Asia. I have been reading the news reports, the more I read the harder it is to read on. My heart aches for everyone who is suffering due to this huge natural disaster!

My brother in law lives in Thailand but fortunately in the North. Nong, I hope your extended family and friends are safe.

Anyone who can spare some $ should donate to a reputable relief agency. This may be one of the worlds costliest (sp?) disasters to date.

Peace
Glenn
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (The Griffin @ Dec. 28 2004,7:35)]Things that cause extinction are not supposed to happen in our lifetime.
Unfortunately, Joe, human activity of "taming the wilderness" or pursuing "progress" is producing large numbers of extinctions during our lifetime. Natural processes, such as this horrible tsunami, are a smaller threat to the planet's living creatures than we are.
 
  • #12
Hi all:

I agree with BobZ: a detonation of an atomic bomb (just for the sake of testing as it occurred in the south pacific several of years ago), may cause more earthquakes and tsunamis.

Human intervention is our worst enemy
 
  • #13
Whether or not this event has lead to an extinction of this variety remains to be seen. I would add that it is likely this population of plants would have seen a tsunami of this magnitude in the past, these sort of things happen every couple of hundred years or even more often. In the many thousands of years that 'Viking' has been growing in such a low-lying areas, it is likely this has happened before and they've survived. Growing so close to the sea, they're probably reasonably salt-tolerant (as can be seen in one variety of Australian mirabilis that grows on cliffs by the sea, with regular sea spray). Also, they've got very tough root systems on them, so it may not be a complete annihilation.
 
  • #14
Beyond the kindly donated money , what Asia and perhaps Thailand need most and urgently is blood donation. We all Thai can donate and are donating blood but some rare type such as Rh group for European and American tourists are very shortage. Some Caucasian tourist patients are in ICU waiting for specific blood. So pitiful to watch them lie hopelessly in local hospitals. Yesterday H.M.S. crowned Princess Maha Chakri Sirinthorn, executive vice president of the Thai Red Cross Society, has sent emails to several embassies seeking blood donations for tsunami victims in the southern provinces The princess went to Red Cross and e-mail to all Embasst to explain how crucial the rare blood type shortage situation is. The Princess has also solicited the cooperation of the Thai hotel associations in urging foreigner guests to donate blood to foreign victims of last Sunday's tsunami disaster. Most of the injured were foreign tourists enjoying holidays in Thailand's beaches.
The director of Thai Red Cross explained that there's a shortage of Rh-negative blood, which some 15 percent of Westerners have as against only four in 1,000 Thais.
Another official said the centre had delivered 17 units of Rh-negative blood out of the 44 units requested by southern hospitals on Monday and expects to complete the order today. Further requests for blood are likely, though
So far more than 50 Westerners have volunteered to donate blood and we should have several more later today.
Persuade your friends and contact Thai Embassy in your country for blood donation is the most important now to save the lives of ones who may be your acquaintances.
 
  • #15
hmm, any other species get completely wiped out, I hope that not all the species were affecxted
 
  • #16
Evolution of species can be very specialized sometimes that's why they are restricted to specific niches. If the evolution of Vikings took hundreds of years, then perhaps it'll come back again. But if it was just a newly evolved species, the adaptation to its new environment have been put to the test for the first time or for the first and last time.

Adaptability is what determines which one will survive and which one will die!. how can measure that, remains to be determined.
 
  • #17
I completely agree with what Hamish said. Sure, a natural diaster of this kind of magnitude is awful on the environment and people, but if the plants are growing in this spot that has been hit more than once with this kind of phenomenon then something must be preventing them from dying off.
 
  • #18
Legendary naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace spent many years exploring the more remote parts of Malesia during the middle of the nineteenth century, and his classic "The Malay Archipelago", is peppered with observations about dead or dying coastal forests due to salt water intrusion from abnormal tidal surge. The book is also filled with passages that detail his own experience with earthquakes, volcanic eruption and tidal waves while travelling through the region. The impact on the landscape is no real surprise to those of us who live in seismically active regions. Following the quake on the Caribbean coast of in Costa Rica in April 1991, several observers noted that live coral reefs had been thrust upwards several feet to roast in the sun, while Bactris palm stands had subsided deep into salt water lagoons.

While many of us shrink at the thought of a showy Nep population challenged by a tidal wave, I suspect that earlier comments that speculate that these plants have surmounted this type of event before are probably quite correct. I presume that we will have an answer on their survival, one way or another, within the next several months.

Clearly, the loss of endemic organisms due to natural causes is no less a tragedy than extinctions prompted by human myopia or evil.

The catastrophe as a whole defies my best efforts at comprehending it.

Prayers for the living,

Jay
 
  • #19
This evening I heard a lot of news with deep regret.More than 20,000 fishing families have been severely affected by the tsunami which ravaged six southern coastal provinces on Sunday. One of those families is one whom I was so worried about because their humble cottage was 15 meters from the beach.Bung Kasem , his wife and two children were whom I tried to make contact by phone since the disaster. The line returned no signal everytime .I just knew why this afternoon.Half of the village was swept out to sea . Their cottage with bodies were found under 5 feet deep sand and mud . Bung Kasem was the one who took picture of Viking in the wild for me . He helpt me collect data of Vikings in their natural habitat .
Late evening , a call from Phang_Nga province again. Nearly all area of plainland on the Island where Vikings grew are covered with sea mud.
Till now , the death toll rose sharply yesterday to 1,657 – with 8,954 injured and 4,086 still missing – and there are still many dead bodies waiting to be removed. The Navy officer believes there are no more survivors left on the islands in Andaman sea. Many coastal villages and resorts – now nothing more than mud-covered and rubble blanketed with the stench of rotting bodies.
Sorry.
Let me share with the idea that if the plants are growing in this spot, they might have been hit more than once with this kind of phenomenon. The statistic from Thailand's Mineral Resources Department shows the earthquake that sent tidal waves crashing into southern Thailand on Sunday was the worst one to affect the country in 459 years. And to review the history of our country , no phenomenon of any Tsunami like disasters had ever been recorded 600 years back. No legend , folktales or any literatures of Tsunami-like disaster while there are few about earthshakes and a lot of monsoons . Or I can say , this is the first Tsunami ever recorded in Thai history.
Just an input for discussion.Anyway , I still believe the plants will survive and recover with the help of mother nature.It may take a month to explore the real situation and I have a lot to do meanwhile .I will join the forum again . Thanks for all.
Nong
 
  • #20
Adaptability is my concern regarding Vikings. We have genuses like periplaneta americana = common american roach which has survived earthquakes, tsunamis for thousands of years. On the other hand we have the Dodo which was extincted hundreds of years ago.
If both were adapted to their own environments why the former is still around and why the latter disappeared?
 
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