By Matthew Daly 23 October 2018 WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump says he is nominating a former executive at agribusiness giant Monsanto to head the Fish and Wildlife Service. Aurelia Skipwith of Indiana is currently deputy assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. A biologist and lawyer, Skipwith spent more than six years […]
By Nathan Eagle 23 October 2018 (Honolulu Civil Beat) – Hurricane Walaka, one of the most powerful Pacific storms ever recorded, has erased an ecologically important remote northwestern island from the Hawaiian archipelago.Using satellite imagery, federal scientists confirmed Monday that East Island, a critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles, was […]
By Damian Carrington 27 September 2018 (The Guardian) – At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study. Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They […]
By Andres Picon 17 September 2018 (The Boston Globe) – At least four whales, including one that washed up in New Hampshire on Monday, have been reported dead around the Northeast since 9 September 2018, adding to the unusual mortality event that researchers say is affecting several whale species. “We’re definitely seeing more whale mortalities […]
By Laura Zuckerman 24 September 2018 PINEDALE, Wyoming (Reuters) – A federal judge on Monday ordered Endangered Species Act protections restored to grizzlies in and around Yellowstone National Park, halting plans for the first licensed trophy hunts of the bears in the region in more than 40 years. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, […]
SEATTLE, 13 September 2018 (AP) – Efforts to find an ailing orca from a critically endangered population of killer whales off Washington state have come up empty, and a scientist who tracks them has declared her dead. Ken Balcomb, of the Center for Whale Research, confirmed Thursday that he had declared the orca known as […]
By Laura Zuckerman 10 September 2018 PINEDALE, Wyoming (Reuters) – Hotter, drier conditions have led to more severe wildfires in Yellowstone National Park, while growing numbers of visitors have harmed everything from prized hydrothermal features to its famed grizzly bears, the park said in a report on Monday. Average temperatures in Yellowstone, which has been […]
By Alastair Leithead 3 September 2018 NAIROBI (BBC News) – Carcases of nearly 90 elephants have been found near a famous wildlife sanctuary in Botswana, conservationists say. Elephants Without Borders, which is conducting an aerial survey, said the scale of poaching deaths is the largest seen in Africa. The spike coincides with Botswana’s anti-poaching unit […]
By Heather McFarland 2 July 2018 (UAF News) – Bowhead whales are the marine mammals most vulnerable to disruption from increased ship traffic in waters off Alaska, a new study has concluded. Across the Arctic, narwhals are the most vulnerable.The study is the first to assess the vulnerability of the seven marine mammal species that […]
By Jose Cortes, Ana Isabel Martinez, and Julia Love; Editing by Sandra Maler 28 August 2018 SANTA MARIA COLOTEPEC, Mexico (Reuters) – About 300 endangered sea turtles were found dead off the southern coast of Mexico on Tuesday, trapped in fishing nets, shortly after more than 100 dead turtles were recovered.Fishermen in the southern state […]
