The Ganges River Dolphin faces a high risk of extinction in India’s Brahmaputra river system unless critical habitat is protected, report conservationists. Once abundant in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river systems in India and Bangladesh, the population of the Ganges River Dolphins has fallen sharply over the past century due to accidental bycatch by fishermen, […]
Swiss banks, Credit Suisse and UBS, together with the French BNP Paribas, are helping Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources raise up to 280 million Swiss francs ($258 million) to finance conversion of large areas of rainforest in New Guinea and Borneo for oil palm plantations, reports the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), a group that campaigns on behalf […]
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News The world’s largest cat is down to an effective wild population of fewer than 35 individuals, new research has found. Although up to 500 of the big cats actually survive in the wild, the effective population is a measure of their genetic diversity. That in turn is a good […]
By Matt Walker, Editor, Earth News Hopes are dashed that some of the few remaining hirola antelope have managed to colonise new, safer territory. Fleeting sightings of the world’s rarest antelope, the hirola, in a new safe haven are cases of mistaken identity, a survey has found. That has dashed hopes that some of the […]
By Matthew McDermott Hopefully you already are aware of the plight of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra as logging and palm oil plantations continue to rapidly destroy their habitat. The rate of deforestation and habitat loss is so great that some scientists are predicting that the orangutan will be the first great ape to go […]
A fifth of reptiles and almost a quarter of amphibians in Europe are threatened with extinction on the continent, according to the European Commission. By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent The first European Red Lists of threatened species for the two groups of species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) shows 23 per […]
People have been listening to skylarks singing in Britain for 10,000 years. But now they, and many other much-loved species, are vanishing fast. By David Adam, environment correspondent …the star attraction of the neighbouring fields has flown. Until a year ago, a clutch of woodlark nested there, one of Britain’s rarest birds with just 1,000 […]
Chimp populations continue to decline in Africa. A new survey of our closest relatives in the Cote D’Ivoire found that the population fell from an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 individuals to a paltry 800 to 1,200, a decline that took place in less than twenty years. Perhaps most troubling about this new survey is Cote […]
Traditional fruit orchards are vanishing from England’s landscape – with serious consequences for wildlife, conservationists have warned. The National Trust says 60% have disappeared since the 1950s, putting local varieties of apples, cherries, pears, plums and damsons under threat. It is launching a £536,000 drive to reverse the decline of the orchards. Their trees provide […]
In Masai Mara, one of Africa’s most treasured parks, researchers have found significant, in some cases catastrophic, declines of wild grazing animals. In fifteen years six of seven hoofed animals—giraffes, warthogs, hartebeest, impala, topis and waterbucks—showed declines. The study published in the British Journal of Zoology confirms what has long been expected: wildlife populations in […]
