In another disappointing step backwards for the environment, the Trump administration has just overturned a ban on the use of pesticides and genetically modified crops on national wildlife refuges where farming is allowed. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Deputy Director Greg Sheehan, said in a memo this month that the reversal is necessary to […]
Category: News
A ‘perfect policy storm’ cuts puma numbers by almost half near Jackson, Wyoming
Like many places in the American West, the region is a patchwork of land that’s under the control of different government agencies with differing opinions and management goals. “It makes that part of our country really unique,” Mark Elbroch, a biologist with the wild cat conservation group Panthera and one of the study’s lead authors, […]
World’s Largest King Penguin Colony Has Declined by Almost 90 Percent
Scientists haven’t visited the Île aux Cochons, an island in the southern Indian Ocean, since 1982 when it had the distinction of being home to the world’s largest colony of king penguins, and the second largest colony of all penguins. At the time, there were estimate to be 500,000 breeding pairs, and over two million […]
These six species are about to be sacrificed for the oil and gas industry
Republicans in the western United States have been trying to whittle away the Endangered Species Act (ESA) since Donald Trump took office. Under new proposals, wildlife managers would limit protections for species designated as “threatened” (a level below endangered), consider the economic costs prior to defending a species, and de-emphasize long-term threats such as climate […]
How many hippos are too many? Proposed cull raises questions
The hippo — really? That’s the common response when tour guides in Africa tantalize travelers with this question: “What’s the most dangerous animal on the continent?” Lion? Rhino? Elephant? No, no, no. Eventually, the tour guide delivers the answer with a twinkle in their eye: the hippo, yes, that water-loving, one-tonne mammalian oddity. Despite their […]
Going on a bear hunt: the animal activists signing up to ‘shoot’ grizzlies
Jane Goodall, the renowned conservationist, and a group of wildlife activists are some of the unexpected entrants in a lottery to hunt up to 22 grizzly bears near Yellowstone national park. Their goal is to infiltrate Wyoming state’s first grizzly bear hunt in 44 years by acquiring licenses they have no intention of using. “We […]
‘Better and better’: Thermal cameras turn up the heat on poachers
Nearly 2 million animals, mostly wildebeest and zebra, migrate roughly 800 kilometers (500 miles) each year between Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara National Reserve across the border in Kenya. Their joint search for fresh green grass is an ecological phenomenon and a major tourist attraction in both countries. But along with tourists, […]
Krill fishing companies pledge to protect key food of Antarctic animals
A majority of krill fishing companies have announced their commitment to voluntarily stop harvesting the tiny crustaceans from vast areas of the Antarctic Peninsula, including around important breeding penguin colonies.The announcement on July 9 follows years of campaigns and negotiations led by environmental groups such as Greenpeace. “This is a bold and progressive move from […]