Knowledge and awareness on wildlife among primary school students in Bintulu Sarawak

Lack of knowledge and awareness towards its wildlife diversity and importance could cause the demise of its biological treasures. Knowledge on wildlife and its importance should be developed from an early age. It is vital to allow children to be exposed to the natural environment, which can indirectly create awareness on wildlife conservation at a young age. A study was conducted to determine the knowledge and awareness of wildlife among Year 5 primary school students in Bintulu, Sarawak. A total of 638 respondents from 12 primary schools were involved, and their response was recorded through a survey using questionnaires. From the survey's result, most students have knowledge of the definition of wildlife (76%). Students obtained knowledge and information about wildlife mostly from television (79%), teacher (73%) and family (58%), while less knowledge and information about wildlife from natural habitat (0.5%). Demographic factors also seem to contribute to knowledge on wildlife. Wildlife is significant for people in Sarawak due to the highest food consumption (81%) is from wildlife. Most children had their first exposure to wildlife at the zoo (57%) and from television (32%). From the results, this could mean television, teachers, parents and zoo play important roles in developing the knowledge and awareness of wildlife among children. Nevertheless, exposure through environment educational programs and video documentaries must be blended either in school or home. The knowledge and exposure on wildlife should be nurtured since childhood so that awareness about the importance of wildlife can be raised among young generation

HPLC-ICP-MS speciation analysis of arsenic in river water of Sungai Kinta Malaysia

The toxicity and carcinogenicity of arsenic depend on its species. A procedure for the separation of the arsenic species namely arsenite As (III) and arsenate As (V) by liquid chromatography coupled to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LC-ICP-MS) is described. It has been successfully applied to the analysis of arsenic in river water of Sungai Kinta, Malaysia. No interference of (40) Ar, Cl-35 and As-75 was observed using the developed method. The separation of arsenic species produced peaks of As (III) at 1.6 min and As (V) at 4.8 mm. The detection limits were found to be 1.0 and 0.5 ppb for As (III) and As (V) respectively. Standard addition method confirmed the accuracy with. acceptable recoveries of As (III) and As (V). The results revealed that As (V) was more prominent than As (III) in most sampling sites