DANA, Jordan — Rugged hills frame a valley surrounded by evergreen oak, pistachio and pine trees in the village of Dana, where stone houses built centuries ago perch on the edge of a canyon that blends into the natural surroundings. At a crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is home to […]
Tag: threatened species
‘Wondrous and amazing’: female California condors can reproduce without males
The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America, with a 10ft wingspan that enables it to soar up to 15,000ft – nearly half the height of a commercial airplane. Now the birds can claim another superlative feat: scientists have discovered that females can reproduce without a male partner, in a rare phenomenon […]
Conservationists say rocket launch site could push endangered southern emu-wren to extinction
Conservationists say a plan to build a permanent rocket launch facility at Whaler’s Way in South Australia could push threatened bird species to extinction. Southern Launch, an Adelaide-based startup, operates the Whalers Way Orbital Launch Complex in a privately owned conservation area at the tip of the Eyre Peninsula. The facility is expected to help […]
Meet the kitten-sized, clown-faced monkey that’s leaping toward extinction
I’ve been writing about wild things for more than 10 years, and while there are many animals I don’t know, I thought I’d at least heard of most of the world’s primates: monkeys, lemurs and apes. And then a conservationist sent me a photo of a buffy-headed marmoset (Callithrix flaviceps). My response: Holy bananas, what […]
‘We are going to lose these birds’: the quiet fight to save the golden-shouldered parrot
In 1922, Cyril Jerrard captured the first and only photographs of the paradise parrot, the only Australian bird to be officially declared extinct since European colonisation. Jerrard was well aware he was looking at one of the last of its kind: “The one undisguisable fact [is] that the advent of the white man has spelled […]
‘The unsung heroes of Australian fauna’: how quolls can help us understand the modern world
All Harry Saddler really wanted to do was to see a quoll in the wild. It was November 2019, and the Melbourne-based author was enjoying a surprise publishing success: his small book, The Eastern Curlew, a telling of the extraordinary migration of Australia’s largest shorebird, had sold through its hardcover print run, opening a new […]
Grizzly bear attack kills person at campsite in western Montana
A grizzly bear attacked and killed a person at a western Montana campground early on Tuesday, the Powell county sheriff said. The attack happened between 4am and 5am in the area of Ovando, a town of fewer than 100 people about 60 miles north-west of Helena, said Greg Lemon, a spokesman for Montana fish, wildlife […]
POLL: Should there be a permanent ban on the shooting of at-risk turtle doves?
Nearly 1 million migrating turtle doves will be spared after Spanish authorities agreed a one-year ban on the shooting of the bird. The turtle dove is a globally threatened species and is Britain’s most endangered breeding bird, with populations having halved in just five years and possibly fewer than 2,000 pairs left. Population modelling has […]