This is the third natural feature in the country to receive individual recognition.
The same legal rights were previously granted to the Whanganui River and the Te Urewera National Park.
The Maunga of Taranaki-which is also called Taranaki Maunga in Maori language-is considered by indigenous people as an ancestral being.
Mt Taranaki will be managed by the local tribes, iwi and government, which constitute the effective ownership of Mt Taranaki.
Spotted Hyena in Egypt
Egyptian researchers have found a spotted hyena (Crocutta crocutta) existed in southern Egypt some 5,000 years ago.
Spotted hyena also disappeared in Egypt 5,000 years ago.
There are two other species of hyenas that are found in Egypt; the striped hyena and the aardwolf.
At this time warthogs and zebras also became extinct in Egypt.
Golden-headed Cisticola
Cisticola exilis, the Goldenheaded Cisticola, is commonly found in grasslands and recently was found in the Mathikettan Shola National Park, Idukki, Kerala.
The discovery of the bird is the first in the southern Western Ghats since a long time.
The Golden-headed Cisticola has been previously seen in some areas of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and northern Kerala.
The bird is mostly found in the grasslands within the mountain ranges.
A23a in Atlantic Ocean
The A23a is the biggest iceberg globally to have been released off the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica.
Recently it was floated on his tour of the south Atlantic.
It weighs approximately one trillion tons and covers a size of approximately 400 square miles.
A23a was 37 years old; this means that it was sitting on the ocean floor 37 years northwest of Antarctica before it was separated in 1986 by the Antarctic Filchner Ice Shelf.
Once the iceberg is 300 kilometers out of the South Georgia Island it will take two to four weeks to approach it.
Big Cat Alliance 2025 International.
IBCA has also officially been established as a treaty based, inter-governmental organisation.
On January 23 it is becoming fully functioning as an international legal entity.
The Framework Agreement was being deposited by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
Other instruments of the ratification have been deposited in the last five years, by the Republic of Nicaragua, the Kingdom of Eswatini, the Republic of India, the Federal Republic of Somalia and the Republic of Liberia, becoming the founding members of IBCA.
India introduced the IBCA on April 9, 2023, as part of a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Project Tiger.
The primary goal of the initiative is the preservation of seven large species of big cats: the Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Cheetah, Jaguar and Puma.
There are 27 countries (including India) who have signed to become members of the IBCA.
Rusty-Spotted Cat
Rusty spotted cat was first discovered playing in the jungles of the Purulia district in West Bengal.
It is the lightest and millions of years old cat known to the world.
Rusty-spotted cat can only be found in India and Sri Lanka and it was not discovered until recently in Nepal.
The total population of the cat lies in India (80 percent), and a significant fraction of its natural habitat is threatened with land conversion.
Eurasian Otters in Kashmir
The Eurasian otters have reappeared in the last 3 years in the Valley of Kashmir.
This is the first live record of the species in the past 25 years.
They were seen in the back water of well-known Dal Lake in 1997.
Eurasian otters are called Vodur locally and belong to the family Mustelidae and are semi-aquatic.
The fish eater species keeps the ecosystem healthy.
In 2004 and 2008, IUCN included the Eurasian otters on its redlist as near threatened.
White-naped Tit
First white-naped tit in Kappatagudda hills, North Karnataka at the village of Kadakola.
It is a tit in the tit family Paridae.
It is native to India, and occurs in two disjunct populations in dry thorny scrub forests in western India and in southern India.
This species is highly patchily distributed, and has been susceptible to extinction.
It is only present in parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, the Eastern Ghats of Southern Andhra Pradesh, Northern Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Southern Karnataka in India.
It is found only in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in South Karnataka.
2025 Pong Dam Lake annual bird count.
A total number of 1,53,719 birds of 97 species were recorded in the annual bird count of the Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary in 2025, which was the highest number recorded.
Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife