A new study assessing the cumulative impacts of human activities on wildlife found that the vast majority of terrestrial species are facing “intense” pressure due to humanity’s footprint across the globe. A research team led by Christropher O’Bryan of Australia’s University of Queensland looked at human pressures across the ranges of 20,529 terrestrial vertebrates and […]
Tag: Rhett Butler
Palm oil processors top plantations in destroying proboscis monkey habitat
JAKARTA — The oil palm processing industry has become the biggest threat to the iconic and endangered proboscis monkeys of Indonesian Borneo, a new study has found. The study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation, analyzed the loss of habitat of the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) in Balikpapan Bay, home to one of […]
Conservationists welcome China’s wildlife trade ban
Conservationists are welcoming news that the Chinese Government has temporarily banned the sale of wildlife in markets, restaurants and over e-commerce as part of an effort to contain the Coronavirus outbreak, which has already claimed 56 lives. Defined as a zoonotic disease since it’s normally relegated to wildlife, it may have originated from a snake […]
‘We have cut them all’: Ghana struggles to protect its last old-growth forests
KUMASI, Ghana — The West African country of Ghana is known for having rich natural resources including vast tracts of rainforest. But its primary forest has all but vanished, with what remains generally relegated to reserves scattered throughout the country’s southern third. These reserves are under official protection. However, that hasn’t stopped logging and other […]
Whale stress levels influenced by human activity, earwax study suggests
Scientists have mapped whale stress levels in relation to human activity going back nearly a century and a half — using earwax collected from baleen whales. From 1870 to 2016, the whales’ stress levels seem to be closely associated with activities such as industrial whaling, naval operations during World War II, and rising sea-surface temperatures, […]
The appeal acquittal of Feisal Mohamed Ali: A victory for rule of law, a process corrupted, or both?
Could it have come at a worse time for Kenya’s Tourism and Wildlife Ministry? With Kenya still stinging from the humiliation and embarrassment over the translocation-related deaths of 11 rhinos, a Kenyan court declared on August 3 that convicted ivory trafficker Feisal Mohamed Ali was to be set free. Lady Justice Dora Chepkwony ruled that […]
Owner of South African hunting company indicted by US prosecutors over illegal elephant hunt
The owner of a trophy hunting business in South Africa has been indicted by prosecutors with the United States Department of Justice for violating the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act. Prosecutors in the US state of Colorado have alleged that Hanno van Rensburg, a South African national and owner of Authentic African Adventures, […]
Indonesia races to catch tiger alive as villagers threaten to ‘kill the beast’
PEKANBARU, Indonesia — A wildlife conservation agency in Indonesia has deployed two special teams to capture alive a tiger blamed for killing two people this year, amid mounting calls for the animal to be killed. The Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in Riau province has been on the trail of the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris […]
