Under the watchful eyes of a group of heavily armed guards, three rhinos graze on the grassland of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Most of the world knows that the rhinoceros is threatened, but the status of these animals is in another league. They are the planet’s last three northern white rhinos. None is […]
Tag: endangered
World’s Smallest Porpoise Is on the Verge of Extinction
The world’s smallest and rarest porpoise, the vaquita, is on the verge of extinction. A mere 60 remain, the Mexican government announced Friday. Their numbers have dropped 40 percent in two years, down from 97 in 2014, due in large part for illegal fishing for another endangered species. The totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder […]
POLL: Should Australia do more to protect threatened species?
Nearly 50 new species of flora and fauna have been added without fanfare to the federal government’s list of threatened species, including nine that are critically endangered. Among the species to be added to the list under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were the brush-tailed bettong (endangered), the three-toed snake-tooth skink (vulnerable), the […]
POLL: Should the trade in rare lizard species be banned?
Europe has moved to close a loophole that allows wildlife smugglers to trade in several endangered lizard species, after revelations by the Guardian about the scale of the problem. An EU proposal to strictly regulate the trade in arboreal alligator lizards (Abronia), backed by Mexico, will be debated at the Convention on international trade in […]
POLL: Should the trade of polar bear parts be banned?
The US government has quietly dropped its campaign for an international ban in the trade of polar bear parts, which would have given the practice the same outlaw status as the elephant ivory market. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has spent several years attempting to ban the overseas trade of polar bear skins, teeth, […]
Saving Bristly and his fourteen companions from extinction
Stresemann’s Bristlefront Merulaxis stresemanni: a long-tailed bird with distinctive forehead bristles, a rufous rump, a musical whistle song, seen perhaps eating frogs and insects, and with a tennis-ball-sized tunnel for its nest. Spotted a handful of times since its rediscovery in Brazil’s Atlantic forest in 1995, that’s about all we know of this unique bird. […]
POLL: Should the trade in wild birds be stopped?
Singapore plays a key role as a major international transshipment hub for the global aviculture industry, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and the wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC. That’s especially true for trade in African grey parrots. African greys are highly sought-after as pets because they’re so smart and […]
Animals Rule Chernobyl 30 Years After Nuclear Disaster
Marina Shkvyria watches for animal tracks as she walks toward an abandoned village in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, the area sealed to the public after a nuclear power plant exploded here 30 years ago, on April 26, 1986. Spotting one, she crouches and runs her finger over the toes of a wolf print in the […]