While the world focuses on the development of new vaccines against COVID-19, biologists are building the case for using vaccines for the conservation of wildlife. Our own research on the impact of canine distemper virus (CDV) in the Russian Far East concludes that vaccination of Amur tigers is a potentially important strategy to avoid extinction […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Songbird trade in Indonesia threatens wild Sunda laughingthrush
JAKARTA — The songbird trade in Indonesia has battered the wild population of the Sunda laughingthrush, an important seed disperser in the primary forest ecosystem, a new study shows. Bird market surveys in more than 30 cities across Indonesia between December 1991 and February 2020 point to a population decline in the Sunda laughingthrush (Garrulax […]
Brazil’s blue macaws, golden lion tamarins back in traffickers’ sights
Experts at two of Brazil’s leading wildlife conservation bodies are on high alert following a spate of seizures of hyacinth macaws and golden lion tamarins from alleged traffickers in recent years. The illegal wildlife trade was what drove the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), the world’s biggest flying parrot species, and the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus […]
A forest in Sumatra disappears for farms and roads. So do its elephants
Jumar is no stranger to the presence of elephants. Having lived and farmed in the village of Pematang Pudu village in Bengkalis district, in Indonesia’s Riau province, for more than 20 years, he’s seen elephants wandering through his village and fields of sweet potato. And he has never become upset with the animals. He says […]
The New Guinea singing dog, once thought extinct, is alive in the wild
An analysis of the DNA of three wild dogs living above 4,300 meters (14,000 feet) on the island of New Guinea matches that of captive New Guinea singing dogs. These findings show that the New Guinea singing dog is not extinct in the wild, as most zoologists had assumed, researchers reported recently in the Proceedings […]
The Amazon’s short-eared dog was thought to be a scavenger. Now there’s video
In 2016, conservation biologist Holly O’Donnell was striding through the Amazon rainforest in southwestern Peru, recording every mammal she saw or heard while performing a line transect survey for the Peruvian NGO Fauna Forever. A few minutes into her walk, she smelled something fetid. Following the scent several meters off the trail, she found the […]
Snare traps decline, but still pose a threat to Leuser’s Sumatran rhinos
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — For the rhinos of Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, snare traps set by poachers are a key factor that threatens to drive them closer to extinction. The Leuser Ecosystem is one of the last refuges of the critically endangered Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Fewer than 80 of the animals are believed to remain […]
Video: Vets hail ‘victory’ as jaguar burned in Pantanal fires returns to wild
Ousado the jaguar could hardly walk. Fires had blown through his territory in the Pantanal region of Brazil, scorching the very ground the animal was running upon as he tried to escape. When a team of volunteer veterinarians eventually captured him in Encontro das Águas State Park, all four of his paws had turned beet […]