Unprecedented drought hits wildebeest migration

The animals’ stampede through the Mara river is one of nature’s most spectacular events. But now the watercourse is drying up, a sign of the damage being done to Africa’s fragile eco-system By Daniel Howden The scale of it is hard to comprehend. Even standing on the dented roof of an old jeep in the […]

Vietnam eats one million wild animals per year, many species near extinction

Prosperous middle class contributing to a growing appetite for ‘forest food’ By Andrew Buncombe, Asia correspondent As any visitor to Vietnam can confirm, its people have a remarkable taste for meals made from each and every creature. From snakes and spiders to monkeys and rats, there are few wild animals not prized when it comes […]

Lemur carnage in Madagascar as governance collapses

By Rhett A. Butler, http://www.wildmadagascar.org  As governance collapses and aid disappears, commercial poaching emerges New pictures released by Conservation International depict a troubling development in Madagascar: the emergence of a commercial bushmeat market for lemurs. In the aftermath of a March coup that saw Madagascar’s president replaced at gunpoint by the capital city’s mayor, Madagascar’s […]

Kenya lions to be extinct within 10 years

By Shanta Barley Kenya has been losing 100 lions a year for the past seven years, leaving the country with just 2000 of its famous big cats, says the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) – which concludes the country could have no wild lions at all in 20 years. Conservationists have blamed habitat destruction, disease and […]

Slaughter of Idaho wolves to kill 25 percent in one season

By Jeremy Hance The state of Idaho has set a quota of 220 individuals for the wolf hunting season which begins on September 1st. If the quota holds, a quarter of Idaho’s estimated 880 wolves will be killed. The 220 quota is actually a reduction from an earlier proposal that called for a quota of […]

Kenya lions to be extinct within 20 years

NAIROBI, Kenya, August 17, 2009 (ENS) – Kenya could lose all its lions in the next 20 years if the current rate of decline continues unless urgent and decisive measures are taken, the Kenya Wildlife Service warned today. World famous for its wildlife, Kenya now has 2,000 lions in seven national parks and conservation areas, […]

Poaching crisis as rhino horn demand booms in Asia

ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2009) — Rhino poaching worldwide is poised to hit a 15-year-high driven by Asian demand for horns, according to new research. Poachers in Africa and Asia are killing an ever increasing number of rhinos—an estimated two to three a week in some areas—to meet a growing demand for horns believed in some […]

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 […]

Graph of the Day: Sequential Collapse of Marine Mammals in the North Pacific Ocean and southern Bering Sea

By Gloria MaenderOctober 2003 The rapid removal of at least half a million great whales from the North Pacific Ocean by intensive industrial whaling more than 50 years ago may have unleashed a complex ecological chain reaction that has since rippled resoundingly from ocean to coastal ecosystems, according to a team of eight scientists, including […]

When rain falls on snow, Arctic animals starve

By Christopher Joyce When wildlife biologists visited a remote spot in Canada called Banks Island in the spring of 2004, they discovered thousands upon thousands of dead musk oxen. It took years to determine the cause. They called it “rain-on-snow” — the worst case of it ever documented. “Long story short, about 20,000 musk oxen […]

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