It’s the most dramatic bird decline ever recorded – faster even than those that robbed our planet of the Passenger Pigeon Ectopistes migratorius or the Dodo Raphus cucullatus. Since the 1990s, a staggering 99% of the vulture population in Asia have disappeared – a drop from several million to just a few thousand. As a […]
Tag: poisoning
POLL: Should wildlife crime be enforced by tougher legislation?
Almost 200 reports of shooting, trapping and destruction of birds of prey were received by the RSPB in 2015, the charity said. Some 64 out of the 196 reports were confirmed, including the shooting or attempted shooting of 46 birds of prey, including 16 buzzards, 11 peregrines, three red kites, one red-footed falcon and one […]
Saving the vultures of Saudi Arabia
An overview of the vulture species that nest in Saudi Arabia, the threats they are facing and what BirdLife is doing to help them. Vultures are one of the most threatened families of birds in the entire world and their decline has been shockingly rapid. Some species in Africa and the Indian subcontinent have declined […]
Poisoned to extinction: a bold new approach to saving Africa’s vultures
Illegal wildlife poisoning can cause a chain reaction of disastrous effects in the environment, for example one poisoned elephant carcass can cause the death of up to 500 Critically Endangered vultures. To prevent this from happening, a rapid response is needed. For the first time, an anti-poisoning training event is being held in Kenya, organised […]
Africa’s reviled vultures are being hunted to the brink
Vultures are rarely viewed as the poster boys and girls of the natural world. They have repulsive eating habits and are strikingly ugly. Nevertheless, they play a critical role in maintaining the ecological health of many parts of the world. Vultures consume animal carcasses more effectively than any other scavengers and because their digestive juices […]
New Zealand kea, the world’s only alpine parrot, faces extinction
The world’s only alpine parrot is at threat of extinction in New Zealand as numbers plummet in the face of threats from non-native predators and human development. The kea is the world’s only mountain-dwelling parrot and also one of the most intelligent species of bird known for their playfulness and novelty-seeking nature. The birds, which […]
Rare desert lions of ‘five musketeers’ fame poisoned
A trio of male lions died earlier this month after they were poisoned—but they weren’t just any big cats. They were three of the five brothers, known as “the five musketeers,” who starred in the film Vanishing Kings: Lions of the Namib, which aired on the National Geographic Channel earlier this year. The film traced […]
POLL: Should the coyote continue to be exterminated?
The howl of the coyote is America’s “original national anthem,” says Dan Flores, author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History. A totemic animal in Native American mythology, the coyote has lived in North America for more than a million years. But since the early 19th-century, when Lewis and Clark first encountered them, coyotes […]