On World Wildlife Day, March 3, Nepal celebrated 365 days with zero poaching. No rhinos, tigers, or elephants were killed. It’s the second year of such success in Nepal. In 2011 the country also had none, and in 2012 it lost just one rhino to poaching. This achievement is particularly notable in the face of […]
Tag: endangered species
Local knowledge sheds light on some of the world’s strangest mammals
One of the difficulties of studying rare and endangered species is that they are, by definition, hard to find. Scientists attempting to understand their distributions and the threats to their survival can spend hundreds of hours in the field while collecting little data, simply because sightings are so few and far between. To find out […]
Conservationists seek federal protection for tufted puffins
Oil spills, fishing nets and collapsing forage fish populations due to warming sea surface temperatures are decimating tufted puffins and could lead to the disappearance of one of the most photogenic seabirds in the United States south of Alaska. The situation has become dire enough for the Natural Resources Defense Council on Wednesday to file […]
The U.S. House of Representatives Declares War on Wildlife and the Environment
Can the second session of the 113th U.S. House of Representatives be any more harmful to wildlife and the environment than the first session of 2013? It appears that they can! On January 3, 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives convened to start its second session of the 113th Congress. By the end of the […]
Photos: mass turtle hatching produces over 200,000 babies
Biologists recently documented one of nature’s least-known, big events. On the banks of the Purus River in the Brazilian Amazon, researchers witnessed the mass-hatching of an estimated 210,000 giant South American river turtles (Podocnemis expansa). The giant South American river turtle, or Arrau, is the world’s largest side-necked turtle and can grow up to 80 […]
Huge chimpanzee population thriving in remote Congo forest
In one of the most dangerous regions of the planet, against all odds, a huge yet mysterious population of chimpanzees appears to be thriving – for now. Harboured by the remote and pristine forests in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on the border of the Central African Republic, the chimps […]
How hunters have become key to saving Bulgaria’s capercaillie
Surprising clatter cuts through the silence in the snowy forest shortly before sunrise. The powerful clicking sounds like a dropping Ping-Pong ball before culminating in a loud pop resembling the opening of a champagne bottle. This sound is heard clearly and far. Propped on a thick pine tree branch, with a peacock-fanned tale, relaxed wings […]
POLL: Should the Faroe Islands’ whale slaughter be allowed to continue?
For more than four centuries, the dwellers of the remote Faroe Islands located 200 miles off the coast of Scotland have been killing pilot whales for blubber and meat. Recently, the gory tradition has piqued the interest of an American photographer with ties to the region who travelled to the archipelago to capture the horror […]