If they didn’t have enough to worry about from dodging poachers, snow leopards, and landslides in Central Asia’s rugged mountains, a population of endangered markhor—a majestic wild goat species—has contracted pneumonia, detected for the first time by the Wildlife Conservation Society and partners in Tajikistan and France. Markhor are known for their impressive corkscrew horns […]
Climate changing outlook for harp seals
Warming oceans and melting sea ice may have a major impact on harp seals, the doe-eyed animals that are the prime target for Canada’s annual seal hunt. Researchers from Duke University in the US found that sea ice in the seals’ breeding grounds has shrunk by about 6% per decade over the last 30 years.In […]
Community service for former gamekeeper who poisoned four buzzards
A 45 year old man, has been ordered to carry out 100 hours of community service after admitting to poisoning four buzzards. Today at Lanark Sheriff Court, David Alexander Whitefield was sentenced for killing the protected birds of prey whilst working as a gamekeeper at the Culter Allers Estate in South Lanarkshire in 2009. On […]
Bird Smuggler Busted in Sumatra
Indonesian authorities arrest a bird smuggler traveling through the island of Sumatra by bus, saving more than 20 rare birds—including the palm cockatoo—from becoming victims of the illegal wildlife trade. Authorities in Indonesia have arrested a smuggler using a public bus to transport a veritable aviary of rare birds for the illegal pet trade. The […]
An amazing conservation success story in Seychelles
In the 1960s, Seychelles Warbler Acrocephalus sechellensis became one of the world’s rarest birds when the population slumped to just 26 individuals, all on tiny Cousin island in the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean. Formerly, the bird had been more widely distributed in the Seychelles, but habitat destruction and non-native species brought the warbler to […]
International appeal for Patagonian grebe in crisis
Recent surveys on its coastal Patagonian wintering grounds indicate that the Endangered Hooded Grebe Podiceps gallardoi has declined by 40% in the last seven years and this, along with alarming new threats detected on its breeding grounds during 2011, indicate action is now urgently required to prevent the rapidly increasing threat of its extinction. In […]
Snowy Owl Invasion
Snowy Owls lead nomadic lives and travel vast distances from year to year searching for productive feeding areas. Some years, most recently in the winter of 2011/2012, conditions cause them to come south in great numbers. Get an intimate look at these white owls from the north through video and photographs captured by the Cornell […]
Singing Kagu In Focus
The Kagu Rhynochetos jubatus of New Caledonia is an iconic bird that symbolises the challenges faced by many island species in the modern era. This charismatic species is classified as Endangered by BirdLife on behalf of the IUCN Red List on the basis of its very small, severely fragmented population which is suffering an overall […]