Kruger National Park rangers and other employees were filmed allegedly abusing a euthanised leopard. SANParks says their conduct was contrary to the ethos of the organisation whose primary goal is to act as the custodian of wildlife. File image. Image: Lesley Stones Rangers and employees at the Kruger National Park have had their statements taken […]
Tag: biodiversity
Global Biodiversity Crisis Is Worse Than We Thought, New Survey Finds
A new survey of 3,331 scientists studying biodiversity across 187 countries has revealed that more species are threatened with extinction than previously thought. As many as 50% of species have been threatened with extinction or driven to extinction since 1500, according to survey results. The survey, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the […]
Where is the threshold of environmental change that biodiversity can withstand before it is destabilized and collapses planetwide?
Biodiversity. When you hear this word, what do you picture? Iconic animals like African elephants, gray wolves and humpback whales? Or multicolored coral species that make up a reef system? Or bacteria and microbes that regulate nutrients in the soil, or oxygen-releasing phytoplankton that live in the ocean’s sunlit zones? While biodiversity does embrace all […]
Nearly half of Britain’s biodiversity has gone since industrial revolution
Almost half of Britain’s natural biodiversity has disappeared over the centuries, with farming and urban spread triggered by the industrial and agricultural revolutions being blamed as major factors for this loss. That is the shock finding of a study by scientists at London’s Natural History Museum, which has revealed that the UK is one of […]
Record number of bear cubs born in French Pyrenees brings cheer and fear
French animal rights groups are celebrating news that populations of brown bears – which had been threatened with extinction – have seen a strong revival in the Pyrenees mountains. Livestock owners, however, warn bears attacks on their flocks are out of control. Bear numbers rose to from 52 to 64 last year, including 16 cubs […]
Petition: Protect Swedish Lynx From Hunts Starting in March
Although the population of the Eurasian lynx is quite stable right now, they are still on the IUCN red list. They mate during late winter, so late February through March and as protected animals, they should not be disturbed during their mating period. Yet, in Sweden, the government allows licensed hunts of the lynx in […]
Scottish wildlife at risk after £100m funding cut, say charities
Public funding for environment bodies in Scotland has plummeted by 40% in a decade, placing already declining wildlife at risk, according to analysis of government budgets. Scottish Environment Link, a coalition of more than 35 wildlife, environment and countryside charities, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, WWF and the Scottish Wildlife Trust, […]
Why you should care about the current wave of mass extinctions
The scientific imprimatur fell on us just six months ago: Yes, the extinction crisis we are witnessing is only the beginning of a wave of mass ecocide of non-human life on Earth, a process that could wipe out a million species of plants and animals from our planet in the short term (read: decades). About […]