ACEH BESAR, Indonesia — A Sumatran elephant calf has died days after conservation officials in Indonesia amputated half of her trunk due to severe injuries from a suspected snare trap. The female calf had been found alone and severely wounded by locals in Aceh Jaya district, in northern Sumatra, and handed over to the provincial […]
Tag: deforestation
As Covid recedes in US a new worry emerges: wildlife passing on the virus
As America’s pandemic – for now – seems to be moving into a new phase with national rates in decline from the September peak and vaccines rolling out to children, a new worry has appeared on the horizon: wildlife passing on the virus. A new study shows that deer can catch the coronavirus from people […]
Study Reveals 1,470 Jaguars Killed or Displaced in Brazilian Amazon
A Panthera study revealed that a staggering 1,470 jaguars in the Brazilian Amazon are estimated to have been killed or displaced. All between 2016 to 2019 from forest fires and deforestation. Panthera, the global wild cat conservation organization, along with other institutes, assessed the jaguar population based on a satellite imagery database. This assessment led […]
Gorilla baby boom sparks hope in DRC, but threats to great apes persist
As a clear morning dawned on May 18, 2021, a baby was born. She was a gorilla, born to the Mapuwa family, one of 10 gorilla families in Virunga National Park, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A month later, news broke that another gorilla, Mafuko from the Bageni family, was born on June […]
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 […]
Malaysian hornbill bust reveals live trafficking trend in Southeast Asia
In August 2021, authorities at Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport discovered a shipment of eight hornbills, caged but alive, en route to international markets. The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (PERHILITAN) seized the birds and arrested two men for failing to display valid documentation for possession of the birds. Among the haul was a […]
Fashions to die for: The fur trade’s role in spreading zoonotic disease
In the complex universe of COVID-19 and other zoonotic diseases (those that can jump from animals to humans and back), key questions remain largely unaddressed, including what role fur farming for the fashion industry plays in the spread of highly transmissible zoonotic diseases, and how the industry should be managed to minimize risk. Zoonoses are […]
Loss of forests turns up the heat, literally, on giant anteaters
Giant anteaters are native to the savannas of Central and South America. They forage in the open spaces of the mosaic of forests, grasslands and wetlands, and rest in the more sheltered and covered habitats. That latter part is important: A recently published study shows that giant anteaters are relatively poor regulators of their own […]