Illegal online sales endanger Cameroon chimps

Advertisements on the Internet to woo buyers into taking “playful primates” from Cameroon into their homes have become one of the primary means of further threatening already endangered species. Such sales would be illegal, since dealing in primates is forbidden in the central African country. In the past three years, however, the Internet has led […]

Extinction of bat highlights critical ecosystem failure

By TOM ARUP, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT A LAST-DITCH effort to save the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat has failed, leaving the animal facing almost certain extinction. A dejected Lindy Lumsden from the Australasian Bat Society said a four-week trapping program to breed the endangered pipistrelle – endemic to Christmas Island – had failed to net a single […]

Endangered Madagascar lemur nears extinction from forest destruction

By Josia Razafindramanana, special to mongabay.com A small group of crowned sifaka lemurs Propithecus coronatus have been located in the corridor d’Amboloando-Dabolava, Miandrivazo district-Madagascar, but are immediately threatened with local extinction. The small, fragmented, and isolated forest shelters a group of only six adults and one baby. Interviews with local people revealed that once several […]

Desperate effort to save Christmas Island bat species fails

By John Platt Well folks, it looks like this is it for the Christmas Island pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus murrayi). This critically endangered species of microbat now appears to be doomed to impending extinction as last-gasp efforts to capture the few remaining bats and place them in a captive breeding program have failed. Eight scientists, along […]

First gray wolf hunt in decades begins tomorrow

By Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York Starting tomorrow, the gray wolf is about to be hunted for the first time in decades. The Obama administration removed the wolves from the endangered species list last March. And unless a federal judge decides to halt the hunt and reopen the question of whether the species is threatened, […]

Australia Environment Minister concedes extinction inevitable

By Tom Arup, Environment Correspondent THE Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, has warned that money to save endangered wildlife is limited and some species may have to be abandoned when funding decisions are made. In one of the strongest speeches of his ministerial career he told an international conference of ecologists in Brisbane that the Government […]

Endangered penguins get sniper bodyguard

Snipers will stand guard over Sydney’s endangered penguins until vicious attacks on them stop, wildlife experts say. The National Parks and Wildlife Service has employed marksmen to protect the colony of about 120 little penguins at Manly and North Head for “as long as necessary”. Nine of the penguins have been mauled to death on […]

Endangered Indian turtles poached for restaurant trade

Despite being accorded the highest level of protection under Indian law, soft shell turtles are regularly trafficked in Kerala for the restaurant trade, report researchers writing in in the journal Tropical Conservation Science. Conducting a survey in Punnamada (South India), K. Krishnakumar, Rajeev Raghavan and Benno Pereira found that Indian pond terrapins and Indian Flap-shelled […]

European bison on 'genetic brink' of extinction

By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Europe’s largest mammal, the European bison, remains extremely vulnerable to extinction, despite long-standing efforts to save it, new research shows. One of the two remaining wild herds of pure bred European bison is down to an effective population size of just 25. That is despite the actual number of […]

Australia and the Pacific 'becoming extinction hotspots'

The Earth is in the throes of its “sixth great extinction event” and Australia and the Pacific are becoming the worst regions for the destruction of animals and plants, a study has found. By Bonnie Malkin in Sydney Land clearing and overlogging of forests have been highlighted as the greatest threats to land-based flora and […]

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