March
6, 2018
Lacoste,
the French clothing company, temporarily replaced its polo shirts’ iconic
crocodile logo with the images of 10 endangered species, including the Burmese
roofed turtle, to help counter the threat of extinction.
The
shirts, which are part of a limited run supporting the “Save Our Species”
campaign by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that
launched during Paris Fashion Week on 1 March, quickly sold out.
In
addition to the Burmese roofed turtle, embroidered logos of the Gulf of
California porpoise, the Sumatran tiger, the Anegada ground iguana and the
northern sportive lemur replaced the famous crocodile above the left breast of
the shirt.
“From
this year, Lacoste will support IUCN’s SOS – Save Our Species programme to help
fight the extinction crisis”, the IUCN said in a statement.
Lacoste
calibrated the number of shirts produced for each series to the population of
the remaining animals in the wild. Of the 1,775 shirts available, the Gulf of
California porpoise had the smallest print run, with just 30 shirts available.
The
Anegada iguana, by contrast, was the most available, with 450 editions.
Proceeds went to International Union for Conservation of Nature, an
international advocacy organization working to protect nature that sponsored
the campaign.
“Together
these rare reptiles, birds and mammals champion the plight of all known
threatened species,” IUCN said in a statement.
The
US Fish & Wildlife Service has placed 1,459 animals on its threatened and
endangered list. The Burmese roofed turtle is native to Myanmar, but was
believed to be extinct until rediscovered in 2002. It remains very rare in the
wild (only 5 females are known to exist in the wild), but a conservation
project has been successful and several hundred are now kept in the Yadanabon
Zoological Gardens in Mandalay and a turtle conservation center in Lawkananda
Park, Bagan. Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin lauded Lacoste’s efforts and said he
hoped it would inspire other companies to take on similar projects.
GNLM
Ref;
The Global New Light of Myanmar
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