In 2006, the United States Congress designated the third Friday of May as Endangered Species Day. The day highlights the importance of protecting the most endangered animals on our planet. The World Wildlife Fund tracks the most critically endangered species today. These are ten magnificent animals who are designated as critically endangered. 1. Amur Leopard […]
Tag: Orangutan
Bornean orangutan declared ‘critically endangered’ as forests shrink
The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is now critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This change means that both species of orangutan now face an “extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.” “This is full acknowledgement of what has been clear for a long time: orangutan conservation is failing,” […]
30 illegal orangutan pets seized in West Kalimantan
Thirty orangutans being kept as household pets in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province have been seized and placed in a rehabilitation center, local conservation authorities report. Sustyo Iriyono, head of the province’s Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), said he was relieved that the push to save the creatures, conducted jointly with International Animal Rescue (IAR), was […]
Helping orangutans survive: new project aims to connect habitat fragments in Kalimantan (Part II)
Two decades ago, a project to convert one million hectares of forest to rice paddies was undertaken by the Indonesian government in southern Kalimantan. As predicted by experts, this Mega Rice Project (MRP) was a massive failure and was eventually abandoned, but not before it destroyed critical orangutan habitat. Now a new project is trying […]
Marooned in shrinking forests, Bornean orangutans hang on as disaster looms (Part I)
The great apes are among some of the most endangered species on Earth, the targets of poachers and the victims of deforestation. However, from time-to-time there comes news of hope. A study published recently in Oryx describes the dire situation faced by Bornean orangutans, as well as an ambitious project to help save them. The […]
One lizard, four species: the collared treerunner
Now, that’s a horse of a different color. Or, in this case, a lizard of another species – four species. Recent research suggests that the collared treerunner (Plica plica), previously thought of as one widespread species, is actually four distinct species inhabiting diverse geographical areas east of the Andes in northern South America. “The four […]
Unraveling the secrets of one of the world’s most mysterious big cats
The Sunda clouded leopard has always been shrouded in mystery. Only declared a separate species from its mainland cousin, the Borneo clouded leopard, in 2006, the IUCN lists the cat as Endangered. The distinction between the Borneo clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulas) and the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) was made by ground-breaking molecular coding technologies […]
Meeting the mammal that survived the dinosaurs
So, here I am, running in a forest at night over 2,000 miles from home. This forest—dry, stout, and thorny enough to draw blood—lies just a few miles north of a rural town in the western edge of the Dominican Republic on the border with Haiti. I’m following—or trying to keep pace with—a local hunter […]