While their trade has been prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) since 2002, Asian pangolin populations are rapidly declining due to poaching for use in traditional Chinese medicine, report conservationists. Trade has nearly wiped out the species in Cambodia, Viet Nam and Laos, once strongholds […]
As climate change causes temperatures to increase in Hawaii’s mountains, deadly non-native bird diseases will likely also creep up the mountains, invading most of the last disease-free refuges for honeycreepers — a group of endangered and remarkable birds. A just-published U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) review discusses the likelihood of a forthcoming “disease invasion” by examining […]
Australia has lifted protection levels for the Tasmanian devil, the world’s largest surviving marsupial carnivore, from vulnerable to endangered. The devil population, which is found on the island state of Tasmania, has been decimated by a facial tumour disease. The number of Tasmanian devils in the wild is thought to have fallen by up to […]
In this year’s updated IUCN Red List on birds, six species were down-listed from Critically Endangered to Endangered, but eight species were up-listed to Critically Endangered, leading to the highest number of Critically Endangered birds ever on the list. In all 1,227 bird species (12 percent) are currently considered threatened with global extinction. … Updated […]
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Illegal poaching has escalated to such a degree in Zimbabwe that some rhinos there are now under round-the-clock armed protection, Discovery News has learned from conservationists who are attempting to defeat poachers equipped with automatic machine guns and ammunition belts. See footage of the protected rhinos here. “We are losing […]
Six bonobos, a species of chimpanzee, have died from a flu epidemic in a month at the Lola Ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Ten more have contracted the flu. “There is no fever. Antibiotics don’t do anything. The bonobos have severe respiratory infections and then they can’t breath for 3 days […]
During 2008 and early 2009, Endangered Species International (ESI) conducted monitoring activities using undercover methods at key markets in the city of Pointe Noire, the second biggest city in Congo. Findings reveal that 95 percent of the illegal bushmeat sold originates from the Kouilou region about 100-150 km northwest to Pointe Noire where primary and […]
By Peter Greste, BBC News, Nairobi Kenya has mobilised 3,500 security personnel to fight a series of bush fires raging out of control in some of the country’s most important forests. The government estimates that more than 4,600 hectares (11,370 acres) of bushland have already been destroyed. At least 10 people have been arrested on […]
by Abby Haight, The Oregonian Researchers were shocked when they counted breeding tufted puffins along the Oregon coast last summer. The numbers showed the charismatic seabird with the comical mask had become alarmingly scarce. From 6,560 tufted puffins in 1979 to a rough count of 142 found on Oregon’s cliffsides and rock islands last year. […]
When dealing with the world’s most endangered feline species, the Iberian Lynx (estimated population, 200) every death matters. So when a pregnant Iberian Lynx was found dead in Doñana National Park it’s worth passing on the news. The cat in question was pregnant with two cubs and had been run over by a vehicle […]
