A Dutch court has sentenced a Chinese man to a year in jail for smuggling five rhino horns and four other horn objects worth about €500,000 ($613,000) in his luggage. The man was caught by customs officials at Schiphol airport in December as he traveled through Amsterdam on his way from South Africa to the […]
Category: News
Bowhead whales: jazz artists of the deep whose calls rival birdsong
How do bowhead whales in the unbroken darkness of the Arctic’s polar winter keep busy during breeding season? They sing, of course. From late autumn to early spring, off the east coast of Greenland, some 200 bowheads, hunted to the edge of extinction, serenade each other with compositions from a vast repertoire of song, according […]
The spring hunting ban in Kazakhstan: One Year On
In early 2017, the government of Kazakhstan introduced a ban on spring hunting. One year on, Danara Zharbolova (ACBK/BirdLife Kazakhstan) reflects on why this decision was – and remains – so important. Never has the expression “to be full of the joys of spring” rang so true than when all of us at ACBK/BirdLife Kazakhstan […]
Australia opens vast swaths of famed marine parks to fishing
Australia is known for protecting its sea life in a 3.3 million square kilometer (1.3 million square mile) system of marine parks that covers 36 percent of the country’s oceans. The protection of those parks is now at stake, as the government last week approved five long-awaited management plans covering 44 parks. The new plans open […]
The Joy of Frogs: a 360 film about the mating season
Every spring, ponds around the UK start stirring and frogs come out of their winter slumber to mate. Here’s a unique perspective on an event that’s been happening since the age of the dinosaurs. If you’re viewing on mobile you’ll need to download the YouTube app for the full 360° experience. If you’re viewing on […]
Milking the cow: why Dutch dairy is becoming bird-friendly
For the last few years, VBN/BirdLife Netherlands has been working closely with Dutch farmers in the hopes of making the country’s world-famous dairy products as sustainable and nature-friendly as they are tasty. Gerrit Gerritsen tells us more about a most promising start. International studies recently showed Dutch men to be the tallest in the world, […]
Trump’s elephant, lion trophy hunting policy hit with double lawsuits
Just weeks after the Trump administration announced a new policy allowing the importation of dead African elephant and lion parts by U.S. trophy hunters, a group of environmental and wildlife conservation NGOs has filed a lawsuit alleging the move goes against recent court rulings. Around the same time, Born Free USA filed a second lawsuit […]
Stand by me: bears adapt to hunting ban on family groups by keeping cubs longer
Female brown bears have learned to protect themselves from being shot by spending more time caring for their young as they adapt to legislation banning the hunting of mothers with cubs. The finding, published on Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, was made by a team of international researchers who spent 22 years studying data […]