odds ’n’ ends

MEXICO CITY: Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto agreed Wednesday to increase efforts to save the vaquita marina porpoise, burying the hatchet in a Twitter feud over the endangered species.

In May, DiCaprio asked his millions of Twitter and Instagram followers to sign a petition calling on Pena Nieto to do more to protect the world’s smallest porpoise, which is on the verge of extinction.

The Mexican president responded with what was, for him, an unprecedented flurry of seven tweets in English defending his government’s efforts to save the estimated 30 vaquitas that remain.

The two were all smiles, however, as they shook hands and signed a deal in which Mexico promised to protect the marine ecosystems of the Gulf of California and in particular the vaquita, which is found only there.

The plan is backed by DiCaprio’s foundation and that of Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim.

Slim — the world’s sixth-richest person, according to Forbes magazine — also signed the deal. (AFP)

SINGAPORE: A rare white tiger involved in the 2008 killing of a zoo worker has been put down after suffering from skin cancer and joint degeneration, the Singapore Zoo said Thursday.

Omar, who would have turned 18 in September, or the equivalent of 88 in human years, had been suffering from skin cancer for the past three years, zoo operator Wildlife Reserves Singapore said in a statement.

“Recent assessment had seen worsening of his health and the difficult decision was made to euthanise him to prevent further deterioration of his quality of life,” the statement said, adding that Omar also suffered from joint degeneration.

Omar was born in captivity in Indonesia and was brought to Singapore in 2001.

It made headlines in 2008 when a zoo worker apparently committed suicide by jumping into the big cat’s enclosure. The Malaysian man was mauled to death by Omar and two female white tigers as visitors looked on, thinking it was part of a performance. (AFP)

KIGALI, Rwanda: A wildlife official says a Hungarian ecologist has been killed by a rhinoceros in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park while tracking animals there.

Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks in Rwanda, told The Associated Press on Thursday that Krisztian Gyongyi had been instrumental in supporting the reintroduction of black rhinos into the park.

Gyongyi had been training rangers how to track and protect the rhinos.

At least 18 Eastern black rhinos returned to Rwanda last month from South Africa, a decade after the last such animal was sighted in the East African country.

More than 50 black rhinos lived in Akagera park in the 1970s, but they were hunted down by poachers until they disappeared. (AP)