Rat poison has been found in the bodies of an estimated 80% of American eagles, according to a new study from the University of Georgia. By examining the carcasses of golden and bald eagles found between 2014 and 2018, scientists were able to determine that the majority of them had exposure to poison. That included […]
Tag: us fish and wildlife service
Can red wolves come back from the brink of extinction again?
There are perhaps no more than 10 red wolves left in the wild, and they are all in just one place: North Carolina. It is an astonishing statistic for a species once hailed as undergoing the most successful reintroduction programme in the US, providing the blueprint for Yellowstone national park’s much-lauded grey wolf rewilding project. […]
Petition: Monarch Butterfly Denied Protection by Trump Administration
Despite a rapidly declining population and an important ecological niche, the U.S Fish and Wildlife service voted against listing the Monarch Butterfly as “Threatened” under the Endangered Species Act on Tuesday. A change in its status may have led to increased protective measures for the species and its habitat. The US Fish and Wildlife Service […]
Trump’s border wall construction threatens survival of jaguars in the US
By the 1960s, the North American jaguar had vanished from the southern US borderland after being hunted to extinction. Yet in the mid-1990s, there was a remarkable discovery: the jaguar had reappeared in the Sky Islands of Arizona, a region of rugged linked mountain ranges spanning the US and Mexico border that boasts the highest […]
Trump pentagon nominee hunted and killed elephants in Zimbabwe
Scott O’Grady, a famous former Air Force officer recently nominated for a top Defense Department role in the Trump administration, hunted and killed two elephants in Zimbabwe in 2014 and lobbied Congress to lift trophy hunting restrictions. The revelations were first reported by independent journalist Yashar Ali but come from congressional testimony by Mr O’Grady. […]
Birds ‘falling out of the sky’ in mass die-off in south-western US
Thousands of migrating birds have inexplicably died in south-western US in what ornithologists have described as a national tragedy that is likely to be related to the climate crisis. Flycatchers, swallows and warblers are among the species “falling out of the sky” as part of a mass die-off across New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and […]
Can a 2,000ft fence save Hawaii’s rare native birds from destruction?
Before the first Polynesian settlers arrived roughly 1,500 years ago, the Hawaiian Islands were ruled from the sky. Not a single land-dwelling reptile or mammal called the archipelago home – just winged insects, one variety of bat, and a truly vast array of birds. While Hawaii is still flush with life today, many of those […]
Giraffes are vulnerable to extinction. So why won’t America decide on protecting them until 2025?
Since the mid-eighties, giraffes have been on a steady decline. Population numbers have dwindled by 40 per cent, leaving around 68,000 mature adults in the wild. To put it in context, there is reportedly one giraffe for every four African elephants, which themselves are considered a vulnerable species. Despite giraffes’ precarious status, dubbed a “silent […]