Four out of six great ape species one step away from extinction – Updated IUCN list shows ‘just how quickly the global extinction crisis is escalating’

Honolulu, Hawai’i, 4 September 2016 (IUCN) – The Eastern Gorilla – the largest living primate – has been listed as Critically Endangered due to illegal hunting, according to the latest update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ released today at the IUCN World Conservation Congress taking place in Hawai’i. Four out of six […]

Poachers are wiping out giraffes in central Africa just for their tails

By Jani Actman10 August 2016 (National Geographic) – Documentary filmmaker David Hamlin recalls the adrenalin rush when he was flying over the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Garamba National Park in late June and spotted three giraffes standing in a small clearing. “Seeing these giraffes from the air was really exciting,” says Hamlin, who was […]

Sea Shepherd returns to ‘The Cove’ in Taiji, Japan

By Captain Paul Watson 31 August 2016 (Huffington Post) – Since 2009, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has been on the ground in Taiji, Japan, documenting and bringing to light the atrocious dolphin drive hunt taking place from September to March. Originally dubbed Operation Infinite Patience, this Sea Shepherd campaign has volunteers on the ground enduring […]

Catastrophic decline of Africa elephant population revealed by most comprehensive survey ever

By David McKenzie and Ingrid Formanek 31 August 2016 Linyanti Swamp, Botswana (CNN) – Scanning Botswana’s remote Linyanti swamp from the low flying chopper, elephant ecologist Mike Chase can’t hide the anxiety and dread as he sees what he has seen too many times before. “I don’t think anybody in the world has seen the number […]

Balkan wildlife faces extinction threat from border fence to control migrants

By Arthur Neslen 11 August 2016 Ljubljana, the Upper Kolpa valley, and Zagreb (Guardian) – The death toll of animals killed by a razor wire fence designed to stop migrants crossing into Europe is mounting, amid warnings that bears, lynx, and wolves could become locally extinct if the barrier is completed and consolidated. The rising […]

Ocean slime spreading quickly across the Earth – ‘Here the change is just massive – this one species is just taking over.’

By Craig Welch19 August 2016 (National Geographic) – When sea lions suffered seizures and birds and porpoises started dying on the California coast last year, scientists weren’t entirely surprised. Toxic algae is known to harm marine mammals. But when researchers found enormous amounts of toxin in a pelican that had been slurping anchovies, they decided […]

Last woolly mammoths died of thirst – ‘The mammoths were contributing to their own demise’

By Rebecca Morelle2 August 2016 (BBC News) – One of the last known groups of woolly mammoths died out because of a lack of drinking water, scientists believe. The Ice Age beasts were living on a remote island off the coast of Alaska, and scientists have dated their demise to about 5,600 years ago. They […]

Whale sharks, winghead sharks, Bornean orangutans, and addax antelopes slide towards extinction – ‘We are witnessing in real time the extinction of iconic and once-plentiful species’

8 July 2016 (IUCN) – New IUCN Red List assessments reveal that growing human pressures on whale sharks, winghead sharks and Bornean orangutans are putting these species at an increasing risk of extinction. Whale sharks and winghead sharks are now listed as Endangered and Bornean orangutans as Critically Endangered – only one step from going […]

Conservation organizations oppose synthetic rhino horn – ‘It could lead to more poaching because it increases demand for the real thing’

Updated April 2016 (IRF/SRI) – Joint Statement by the International Rhino Foundation and Save the Rhino International (July 2015) Introduction Over the past two years or so, Save the Rhino International (SRI) and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) have been monitoring the progress of four US-based companies that have announced their intentions – with varying […]

Blood spills on shores of Danish Faroe Islands in the first pilot whale slaughter of 2016

[Every fucking year. –Des] 6 July 2016 (Sea Shepherd Global) – Today, at approximately 1200 local time, a pod of 30-50 pilot whales was slaughtered in the first grindadráp (grind) of the year, on the island of Viðoy in the Danish Faroe Islands archipelago. The ordeal began this morning when locals spotted a pod of […]

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