[See Desdemona’s coverage of this story: Jairo.] 29 March 2016 (AFP) – A Costa Rican court has sentenced four men to decades in prison for the 2013 murder of an environmentalist and the rape of four western female volunteers who were with him. The judgment capped a nine-week retrial of seven men accused of killing […]
By Helena Horton29 March 2016 (The Telegraph) – The heartbreaking effect of human waste was discovered when a post-mortem was conducted on 13 beached sperm whales. The plastic we discard into the ocean often makes its way into the mouths and stomachs of sea creatures. A post-mortem of the creatures, found ashore near the town […]
WASHINGTON, 21 March 2016 (Center for Biological Diversity) – The eastern migratory population of the monarch butterfly — which includes 99 percent of the world’s monarchs — is at high risk of extinction within two decades unless the population rebounds dramatically, according to a new study published today by Nature Scientific Reports. The study from […]
By David Shukman 9 March 2016 (BBC News) – The mass slaughter of rhinos has increased for the sixth year in a row, according to grim new figures from international researchers. At least 1,338 of the iconic animals were killed for their horns in Africa last year. This is the greatest loss in a single […]
By Matthew Green24 February 2016 (The Guardian) – On 2 August 2015, a flotilla of white-hulled fishing boats assembled in Sant’Agata di Militello, a port in northern Sicily, in the late afternoon sun. As a brass band played, a holiday crowd gathered along the quay. A float bearing a statue of the Virgin Mary, crowned […]
By Morgan Erickson-Davis4 March 2016 (mongabay.com) – The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has one of the world’s biggest remaining tracts of rainforest (second only to the Amazon in size), home to unique and threatened species like okapis and bonobos. In effort to protect its forests, the DRC implemented a moratorium in 2002 that […]
3 March 2016 (UN) – “Time is running out” to end wildlife poaching that threatens some of the world’s most iconic species, such as elephants, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as the United Nations marked its World Wildlife Day. Urging global efforts to protect this essential natural heritage for the current and future generations, much […]
11 February 2016 (The Economist) – Guo, the driver, pulls his car to a merciful halt high above a crevasse: time for a cigarette, and after seven hours of shuddering along narrow, twisting roads, time for his passengers to check that their fillings remain in place. Lighting up, he steps out of the car and […]
26 February 2016 (Sea Shepherd Global) – The hunt for the last of six known toothfish poaching vessels has ended with the arrest of the Nigerian-flagged Viking in Indonesia. The announcement of the vessel’s arrest was made at a press conference in Jakarta today, held by Indonesian Fisheries Minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, the Commander of the […]
By Shreya Dasgupta 8 February 2016 (mongabay.com) – In Where Have All the Animals Gone?: My Travels with Karl Ammann, author and natural historian Dale Peterson recounts his adventures with Karl Ammann, an eccentric award-winning wildlife photographer, as they travel across several countries in Africa and Asia. Peterson’s book is a witty, humorous, and sometimes […]
