Article: Telur Rangers hit the road to save turtles

Tuesday July 28, 2009

By YEE CHERN YUNN and NG MIN XI

PETALING JAYA: All it took was a website, and turtles now have three young women fighting to keep them alive.

Chong Heuy Meim, 29, Nelleisa Omar, 26, and Grace Duraisingham, 26, will be travelling throughout Peninsular Malaysia to collect 100,000 signatures from Malaysians in support of WWF-Malaysia's "Egg=Life" campaign.

Their mode of transport – a decked-out Volkswagen Beetle, sponsored by AMC Motors.

Road trip: (From left) Chong, Grace and Nelleisa are on a mission to save the turtles from extinction.

Calling themselves Telur Rangers, the group will stop at various states to educate the public on turtle conservation and to obtain signatures for the WWF petition calling for a ban on the sale and consumption of turtle eggs.

"I was sent a website on the plight of the turtles and decided to do something about it. After talking to my colleague (Huey Meim), we came up with this idea. We approached WWF-Malaysia with it and they loved it," said Nelleisa.

News of the road trip reached Grace, a field biologist for WWF who is passionate about turtles. She immediately jumped at the chance to be part of the project.

"If we can get people to change their mindset and stop eating turtle eggs, it's a huge step," said Grace.

According to WWF-Malaysia, there were 10,000 leatherback nests in Rantau Abang each year during the 1950s but there are now less than 10.

The trip began at Carrefour, Tropicana City Mall here, yesterday and will end on Aug 8.

To find out the Telur Rangers' schedule and follow them on their journey, visit their daily-updated blog at www.telurrangers.blogspot.com

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 28 July 2009