Yellowstone National Park’s annual culling of the last wild herd of bison, or buffalo, in the United States has been controversial since it began in 2000, and now it has prompted a First Amendment battle between National Park Service officials and reporters determined to document the grim spectacle. The U.S. National Park Service originally proposed […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Peru issues its first sentence against species traffickers, setting a precedent
On January 6, two men happened to be near San José church in the Lima district of Jesús María, when they were stopped by various agents from the Office Against Illegal Logging and Protection of Natural Resources (Dirección Contra la Tala Ilegal y Protección de los Recursos Naturales, or DIRCTIPRN – PNP), in coordination with […]
Over 40 years, half of China’s land vertebrates disappear
From 1970 to 2010, the world’s populations of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish shrunk by about 52 percent. China is right in the middle of the global pack with a nearly 50-percent loss of its land-based vertebrates, according to a recent report by the international NGO World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The situation […]
Alarming proof of underreported bushmeat crisis in heart of Amazonia
When satellite imagery of the Brazilian rainforest shows lush, dense forests, most of us likely expect that those trees are packed with wildlife. But what if what we are actually seeing is an empty forest? According to a recent study published in Conservation Letters, this possibility is already becoming a reality in the pre-frontier areas […]
POLL: Should the US FWS be sued for failing to protect the Monarch butterfly?
Over the past two decades, populations of America’s iconic orange and black monarch butterflies have declined by more than 80 percent. Now, two environmental groups — the The Center for Biological Diversity and Center for Food Safety — have filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to […]
POLL: Could synthetic rhino horns help save the rhino?
From knee joints to human organs, and from prosthetics for pets to guns, it seems that the limits of 3D printing are bound only by imagination. Taking 3D printing to the next step are the founders of a start-up company, Pembient, who want to print synthetic rhino horns. Matthew Markus, one of Pembient’s founders, stated in […]
POLL: Can ‘Bear-moving’ be a better way to reduce conflict in the Himalayas?
In the Indian Himalayas, threatened Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) are frequently drawn to energy-rich human food sources such as apple orchards and other crops. This resource-driven movement frequently brings bears and humans into close contact, increasing potential risks for either side that can end in retaliatory killings of bears by local people. Because of […]
Komodo dragon: one of Indonesia’s rare conservation success stories
The Komodo dragon – that giant monitor lizard inhabiting a few islands in Eastern Indonesia – is an exception. Biologically-speaking, of course, it is the world’s largest lizard, and a last survivor of monster lizards (bigger even than the Komodo) that once roamed a good portion of both Indonesia and Australia. But the Komodo dragon […]