An African elephant in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Photo: Martin Bureau

Dozens of elephants starve to death in historic Zimbabwe drought – “The situation is dire. We are desperately waiting for the rains.”

21 October 2019 (AFP) – At least 55 elephants have died in a month in Zimbabwe due to a lack of food and water, its wildlife agency said Monday, as the country faces one of the worst droughts in its history. More than five million rural Zimbabweans — nearly a third of the population — […]

Flames consume a tree as wildfires rage in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, 1 August 2019 Photo: The Siberian Times

Massive wildlife tragedy in Siberia as bears and foxes flee taiga, while smaller animals suffocate in smoke – “The climatic situation will deteriorate in Siberia”

By Svetlana Skarbo 1 August 2019 (The Siberian Times) – Predators seek food in villages all around Siberia as climate expert warns of worse fires each year due to soaring rise in temperatures, 10°C above average. Wild animals are turning to humans as they escape gas-chamber-like woods, with wildfires continuing to rage across almost 3 […]

Species richness of freshwater megafauna in the year 1500 and in the 21st Century in Europe. Graphic: Fengzhi He, 2019

88 percent decline of big freshwater animals over 40-year period – “The results are alarming and confirm the fears of scientists involved in studying and protecting freshwater biodiversity”

By Nadja Neumann 8 August 2019 (IGB) – Rivers and lakes cover just about one percent of Earth’s surface, but are home to one third of all vertebrate species worldwide. At the same time, freshwater life is highly threatened. Scientists from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and international colleagues have now […]

Lion population in Yankari National Park, 2006-2014, model fitted to time series (black squares are data, white circles are medians of the model-inferred true population sizes μt, and gray areas between dashes lines are 95 percent credible intervals). Graphic: Bauer, et al., 2015 / PNAS

Where lions once ruled, they are now quietly disappearing – Lion population has declined by 50 percent in 25 years

By Olivia Prentzel 18 July 2019 (National Geographic) – For every lion in the wild, there are 14 African elephants, and there are 15 Western lowland gorillas. There are more rhinos than lions, too. The iconic species has disappeared from 94 percent of its historic range, which once included almost the entire African continent but […]

One of sixty-six giraffes arrives in central China’s Henan Province in the early hours of Sunday, 15 October 2017, on a chartered flight from Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: Henan Daily

Scientists declare Masai giraffes “Endangered” – “We have to regulate the international giraffe trade or risk losing one of our planet’s most remarkable animals”

WASHINGTON, 11 July 2019 (Center for Biological Diversity) – Highlighting the need for global action to fight giraffes’ silent extinction, a body of scientific experts today declared giraffes in Kenya and Tanzania — called Masai giraffes — endangered. Masai giraffes, one of nine giraffe subspecies, had long been considered a key population for the species. But […]

An emaciated polar bear wanders far from its natural habitat up north to the industrial city of Norilsk, Russia, scavenging for food, 17 June 2019. Photo: Putoranatour / Reuters

Video: Starving polar bear wanders into Russian city of Norilsk, hundreds of miles from home

By Gianluca Mezzofiore and Nathan Hodge 19 June 2019 (CNN) – A hungry and exhausted young polar bear was spotted wandering in the suburbs of the Siberian industrial city of Norilsk this week, hundreds of miles from its usual habitat. [Over the years, Desdemona has developed a pretty think skin for doom and mass animal […]

Last male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia dies, eliminating chance of saving the species in the country

By Julia Jacobo 28 May 2019 (ABC News) – The last male Sumatran rhinoceros in Malaysia has died, eliminating the likelihood of saving the species in the country, according to animal conservationists. Less than 100 Sumatran rhinos are left in the world, according to the Borneo Rhino Alliance (BORA). They are scattered across the wild in Indonesia […]

A mother elephant and her baby are attacked by villagers with fire in India. Photo: Biplab Hazra / The Independent

Image of the Day: Mother elephant and her calf attacked with firebombs as deforestation drives them into the paths of humans

26 April 2019 (The Science News Reporter) – Due to the deforestation across India, numerous elephants can be seen wandering in the villages and communities. [Sadly, this is very common, cf. Photo of baby elephant on fire after being attacked by mob wins international award – “The calf screams in confusion and fear as the […]

Due to humans, extinction risk for 1,700 animal species to increase by 2070 – “Losses in species populations can irreversibly hamper the functioning of ecosystems and human quality of life”

By Kendall Teare 4 March 2019 (Yale News) – As humans continue to expand our use of land across the planet, we leave other species little ground to stand on. By 2070, increased human land-use is expected to put 1,700 species of amphibians, birds, and mammals at greater extinction risk by shrinking their natural habitats, […]

Direct killing by humans pushing Earth’s biggest animals toward extinction – “70% of megafauna species are decreasing and 59% are threatened with extinction”

By Steve Lundeberg30 January 2019 CORVALLIS, Oregon (OSU) – One hundred forty-three species of large animals are decreasing in number and 171 are under threat of extinction, according to new research that suggests humans’ meat consumption habits are primarily to blame. Findings published today in Conservation Letters involved an analysis of 292 species of “megafauna” […]

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