A tawny water fowl that lived in a tiny corner of Madagascar has officially been declared extinct by conservationists. The Alaotra grebe, also called the rusty grebe, had been highly vulnerable as it was found only in Lake Alaotra, eastern Madagascar, according to the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which compiles […]
Climate change will trigger a dramatic and sudden decline in the number of polar bears, a new study has concluded. The research is the first to directly model how changing climate will affect polar bear reproduction and survival. Based on what is known of polar bear physiology, behaviour and ecology, it predicts pregnancy rates […]
By MICHAEL BURNHAM AND NATHANIAL GRONEWOLD of GreenwirePublished: May 25, 2010 AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK, Kenya – … When the rains failed for the second straight year in 2009, plants withered to their roots in this critical dry-season refuge. Marshes and the shallow bed of Lake Amboseli, usually fed by seasonal rains and runoff from […]
By John PlattMay 24, 2010 02:03 PM An extremely rare “grolar bear”–a polar bear/grizzly bear hybrid–was shot and killed by an Inuit hunter in Canada’s Northwest Territories last month. Global warming has reportedly been driving grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) further north in search of food, bringing them into polar bear (U. maritimus) territory. […]
By Tom Kirkwood; editing by Tim CocksSERENGETI NATIONAL PARK, TanzaniaFri May 21, 2010 4:44pm EDT (Reuters) – Conservationists flew the first five of 32 critically endangered East African black rhinos from South Africa back to their habitat in Tanzania’s Serengeti park Friday. The rhinos had been bred from a group that was rescued from […]
By Ben RainesMay 23, 2010, 6:15AM Scientists are worried that manatees moving along the Florida coast and headed for Mobile Bay could be swimming into trouble. A pod of manatees was seen and photographed off Destin, Fla., Thursday. There have been sightings in Orange Beach, Fowl River and Fairhope in the last two weeks, according […]
By Michael McCarthy, Environment EditorSaturday, 22 May 2010 A report showing that Britain is failing to halt the declines of many of its highest-priority wildlife species and habitats, from the red squirrel, the juniper and the common skate to chalk rivers and coastal salt marshes, was “sneaked out” this week by the Government with […]
By Ker Than for National Geographic News Published May 21, 2010 If the Gulf of Mexico oil spill kills just three sperm whales, it could seriously endanger the long-term survival of the Gulf’s native whale population, scientists say. Right now between 1,400 and 1,660 sperm whales live year-round in the Gulf of Mexico, making up […]
Swimming with a whale shark off the Alabama coast By Janet McConnaughey, AP WriterMay 19, 2010, 11:37AM NEW ORLEANS — The world’s biggest fish may be highly vulnerable to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and one of its favorite feeding grounds is in the area of the spill. Whale sharks feed on the surface, […]
By Sebastian Smith (AFP) NEW YORK — The world faces the nightmare possibility of fishless oceans by 2050 unless fishing fleets are slashed and stocks allowed to recover, UN experts warned Monday. “If the various estimates we have received… come true, then we are in the situation where 40 years down the line we, effectively, […]
