Fake rhino horn cell phone cases coming to a store near you? It may sound strange, but that’s what one San Francisco-based startup has in mind—and it thinks such products can save the animals. The company, Pembient, plans to bioengineer fake rhino horn that artists could carve into lifestyle items such as jewelry, libation cups, […]
Tag: endangered species
POLL: Should the whale slaughter in the Faroes be banned?
A pod of 11 pilot whales has been slaughtered on in the sixth drive hunt – or grindadráp – of the season. Conservationist said today that 501 pilot whales have so far been slaughtered this year in the northern archipelago. While the Faroese authorities say the slaughter is quick, Sea Shepherd campaigners refute the claims […]
POLL: Can legalised trade save Africa’s last rhinos from poaching?
Time is fast running out for the rhinoceros. In their final stronghold of South Africa, rampant poaching for horn threatens to wipe out the last 20,000 southern white rhinos in less than two decades. Among conservation scientists, there is deep uncertainty over how best to respond to the poaching crisis. Many express reserved support for the […]
Video: Drones playing a crucial part in helping Spanish Ibex goats
High above the forest of the Sierra de las Nieves there is a saviour in the sky. It is s drone on a medical mission. Below it roam the Iberian wild goats known as the Spanish Ibex. But the population is being ravaged by scabies – sarcoptes scabiei is the medical name. It is a […]
POLL: Should wolves be rewilded in other countries?
Wolves have returned to a large national park on the outskirts of Warsaw, decades after they were wiped out there under a hunt launched by the communist authorities. “We’re really happy,” said Magdalena Kamińska, spokeswoman for the 150sq mile (385sq km) Kampinos national park, Poland’s second largest. “The fact that wolves have returned to our […]
POLL: Could a referendum to ban ivory sales be a model for other countries?
Voters in Washington state sent a strong message to the world on November 3 when they passed the country’s first ever comprehensive state ban on commerce in endangered animal species. The Washington Animal Trafficking Initiative 1401 (I-1401) prohibits the purchase, sale, and distribution of ten endangered species groups and their parts. It includes not only […]
Latin American wildlife trafficking takes to the air
Each year millions of travelers stream through the gates of Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaría airport in route to one of the country’s many natural wonders. But often when tourists leave, a piece of the country’s biodiversity goes with them. Turtle shell bracelets, reptile-skin wallets, bird feathers and even live animals have all been snuck out […]
POLL: Is Trophy Hunting Helping Save African Elephants?
African elephants are in trouble. Their numbers have fallen from as many as ten million a hundred years ago to as few as 400,000 today. Recent losses are largely from poaching for the illegal ivory trade (some 30,000 elephants a year), but also because of the shrinking habitat for elephants, as people open up land […]