A recent undercover investigation by World Animal Protection revealed that over 200 species from the Amazon rainforest are being sold at a market in Peru. All kinds of animals, in varying degrees of neglect, were found there, including dolphins, sloths, manatees, jaguars, turtles, and primates. Many of the animals were being sold to be used […]
Tag: Amazon rainforest
Fire and forest loss ignite concern for Brazilian Amazon’s jaguars
In August 2019, an unprecedented number of fires ripped through the Brazilian Amazon, sparking worldwide interest in reports of burning rainforest. In fact, the majority of blazes were on land that had already been stripped of forest. According to a report from the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), at least 1,250 square kilometers […]
Culture shock: how loss of animals’ shared knowledge threatens their survival
At the peak of the whaling industry, in the late 1800s, North Atlantic right whales were slaughtered in their thousands. With each carcass hauled on to the deck, whalers were taking more than just bones and flesh out of the ocean. The slaughtered whales had unique memories of feeding grounds, hunting techniques and communication styles; […]
Camera trap pics of rare species in Vietnam raise conservation hopes
HO CHI MINH CITY — Camera traps placed in a remote nature reserve in central Vietnam recently captured images of rare muntjac deer, in addition to a number of other endangered species, raising hopes for the state of biodiversity there. The sightings took place in Phong Dien Nature Reserve in Thua Thien-Hue province, a rugged […]
In Colombia, a successful jaguar conservation program has a whiff of coffee
Fires had a devastating effect in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia’s Caribbean region, between 2012 and 2013. In 2013 alone, the region lost an estimated that 22,000 hectares (54,400 acres) of forest, mainly due to fires, according to CORPAMAG, the environmental authority for the department of Magdalena. At almost the same time, […]
Cat corridors between protected areas is key to survival of Cerrado’s jaguars
With no natural predators to worry about, jaguars (Panthera onca) roam the forests of South and Central America. This feline is found in 18 countries, but only 4% of its critical habitat is effectively protected. The lack of protection has allowed its habitat to be destroyed and fragmented, the main reason why this emblematic species […]
As the Amazon unravels into savanna, its wildlife will also suffer
At the beginning of the 1990s, while observing the large trees of the Amazon ceding ground to the scrub-like vegetation of the Cerrado, in a process driven by human activity, Brazilian scientist Carlos Nobre conceived of the hypothesis that a process of savannization of the world’s greatest tropical forest was underway. Thirty years later, a […]
The Amazon’s short-eared dog was thought to be a scavenger. Now there’s video
In 2016, conservation biologist Holly O’Donnell was striding through the Amazon rainforest in southwestern Peru, recording every mammal she saw or heard while performing a line transect survey for the Peruvian NGO Fauna Forever. A few minutes into her walk, she smelled something fetid. Following the scent several meters off the trail, she found the […]