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 Tim Hirsch Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a controversial bill allowing Amazon farmers to acquire an area of public land larger than France. But the president vetoed some of the most contentious clauses that would have enabled absentee landlords and companies to benefit from the measure. Smaller parcels of public […]
Brazil moved a step closer to passing a controversial law that would allow landowners who illegally deforested land in the Amazon to get legal title to these holdings. Environmentalists say HB 458 — which now only needs the signature of President Lula, an avid supporter — will legitimize years of illegal colonization and may promote […]
By Jeremy Hance Watch any nature documentary and it’s sure to include pulse-pounding footage of large herbivores migrating across African plains, Asian steppe, or the Arctic tundra. The images have become iconic: wildebeest forging a crocodile-inhabited river, caribou breaking through snow fields, Saiga running over tall grass. Despite such images of plenty, migrations are […]
‘Uncontacted’ tribes forced to flee armed gangs and bulldozers in forests of Peru, Brazil and Paraguay, says Survival International By John Vidal, environment editor Five “uncontacted” tribes are at imminent risk of extinction as oil companies, colonists and loggers invade their territiories. The semi-nomadic groups, who live deep in the forests of Peru, Brazil and […]
Poor regulation of the international wildlife trade has increased the vulnerability of the U.S. to outbreaks of disease and alien invasive species, report researchers writing in Science. Analyzing Law Enforcement Management Information System (LEMIS) data gathered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 2000 through 2006, Katherine Smith of Brown University and colleagues found […]
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 […]
Gangs of illegal rosewood loggers continue to pillage the wildlife-rich forests of northeastern Madagascar, reports a local source. “More and more people are entering the [protected area] to cut wood,” said the source, whose identity has been concealed for protection. “All the rosewood — regardless of its diameter — will disappear.” The source adds that […]
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 […]
