In early December, a major anti-trafficking operation resulted in the arrest of a suspected pangolin scale broker and the seizure of over 2 metric tons of pangolin scales. Representing approximately 1,100 pangolins, the seizure is a significant blow to transnational wildlife trafficking networks operating in Nigeria, where the bust was carried out. Acting on intelligence […]
As polar ice caps melt, how are ‘Christmas animals’ faring?
Between snowy winters and holiday songs, many animals come to mind during Christmas. There are polar bears wearing Santa hats and red-nosed reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh. Turtle doves and the partridge in a pear tree are also immortalized in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” But climate change and habitat loss are taking a […]
Wild Cam: As snow decreases, wolf stomachs rumble
The first sign that Thomas Gable and his colleagues were approaching a kill site was the calls of crows and eagles cutting through the winter silence in northern Minnesota. The ecologist in the Voyageurs Wolf Project at the University of Minnesota was surveying wolf predation last winter when snowfall was particularly low. He and his […]
A Marine Heatwave Killed 4 Million of Alaska’s Murre Seabirds
Beginning in late fall 2014 and lasting into 2016, an anomalous, massive marine heatwave nicknamed “the Blob” developed off the western coast of the U.S., covering all of Alaska‘s coastwater and extending as far south as Southern California, raising ocean temperatures by several degrees Celsius. The Blob had an extreme effect on Alaska in particular. […]
Two Tigers Couldn’t Be Apart–A Love Story Born of Restoring Big Cats in Russia After 50 Years
Conservationists have succeeded in restoring tiger populations in a region where they were virtually absent for more than 50 years in Russia. It took a decade; from 2012 to 2021 in the Pri-Amur region of Russia, but more than a dozen members of the largest subspecies of the world’s largest feline are now roaming the […]
Asiatic wild asses return to Saudi Arabia after 100 years
It’s been a century since an onager or Asiatic wild ass was last seen in Saudi Arabia. But in April this year, seven onagers were relocated from neighboring Jordan into one of Saudi Arabia’s nature reserves. One of the onagers has even birthed a female foal since then. “These are the first free running onager […]
VOTE for the Best Photo of the Month December 2024
Welcome to the “Best Photo of the Month” competition showcasing and celebrating the biodiversity of Planet Earth. Voting is easy and lots of fun. By popular request the number of images to be selected has been increased to six. First click an image and the slideshow will start automatically. Select the SIX images you like best […]
Armed conflict, not Batwa people, at heart of Grauer’s gorillas’ past decline in DRC park
A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in […]