New species of plants and creatures discovered in Vietnam -- 70 last year -- are already endangered.
Giant stick insect
A report from World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says 139 new species of plants and creatures were found last year in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Among them were the giant stick insect (Phryganistria heusii yentuensis), which at 54cm long is the second longest insect in the world. And the long-toothed bat, Hypsugo dolichodon, is said to be valuable to the local eco-system.
But most of the new species identified are already endangered.
In two decades, 10 species have gone extinct in the wild of Vietnam due to poaching and environmental changes including the Sumatran rhinoceros and the otter civet.
