It is dusk beside a creek and we are instructed to look for a trail of bubbles, under which could be one of the world’s weirdest mammals. When you’re desperate to see a platypus in the fading light, everything looks like one. Floating logs from bank-side paperbark trees, gyrating leaves caught in a dance with the […]
Tag: threatened species
Australian wildlife 20 times more likely to encounter deadly feral cats than native predators
Australia’s wildlife are at least 20 times more likely to come across a deadly feral cat than one of the country’s native predators, according to a new study. Invasive cats, which kill billions of native animals each year, form a triple threat, the study finds, by hunting with greater intensity, in broader environments and in […]
British dad arranges for clients to kill vulnerable ‘big game’ wildlife abroad
A British dad-of-one is flogging sickening overseas trophy hunting trips to slaughter big game. Mike Taylor arranges for clients to kill vulnerable wildlife including baboons, elephants, leopards, lions and zebras. These include big game hunts throughout Africa, as well as Alaska. The firm also arranges bird shooting trips to Argentina and deer hunts in Mauritius. […]
Brazil’s blue macaws, golden lion tamarins back in traffickers’ sights
Experts at two of Brazil’s leading wildlife conservation bodies are on high alert following a spate of seizures of hyacinth macaws and golden lion tamarins from alleged traffickers in recent years. The illegal wildlife trade was what drove the hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), the world’s biggest flying parrot species, and the golden lion tamarin (Leontopithecus […]
Petition: 31 Species Declared Extinct in Latest IUCN Red List Update
The International for Conservation of Nature updated its red list this week and includes 31 newly extinct species. There was some good news in the released report as well, however. The European Bison is showing signs of recovering and is no longer listed as “Vulnerable.” The report highlights the success that conservation efforts have had […]
America’s last wilderness is about to go to the highest bidder for oil drilling
Those who argue for oil drilling in the Arctic national wildlife refuge, a place of stunning wild beauty in far north-east Alaska, seldom call it what it is – a refuge. Instead, they reduce it to an acronym: ANWR. They talk about “opening it up”, as if it is closed. It’s not. It is public land. […]
POLL: Should hunting birds with glue traps be banned?
French bird hunters won a legal victory to continue trapping wild birds with glue on Thursday [20 November] when a European magistrate found the practice acceptable on cultural grounds. An advocate general of the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest legal body, issued a legal opinion approving French laws that permit the limited use of […]
The Amazon’s short-eared dog was thought to be a scavenger. Now there’s video
In 2016, conservation biologist Holly O’Donnell was striding through the Amazon rainforest in southwestern Peru, recording every mammal she saw or heard while performing a line transect survey for the Peruvian NGO Fauna Forever. A few minutes into her walk, she smelled something fetid. Following the scent several meters off the trail, she found the […]