Aimed at refugees, fences are threatening European wildlife – ‘The big problem is that from Mongolia to the United States to Europe, building fences and walls – that’s a trend’

By Jim O’Donnell15 December 2016 (Yale e360) – The Dinaric Mountains of southeastern Europe are home to three of the continent’s largest carnivores – the Eurasian brown bear, the Eurasian wolf, and the Eurasian lynx. They roam widely through woodlands of ash, oak, beech, and pine that run the length of the range from Greece […]

Global wildlife populations could drop two-thirds by 2020 as human demand continues to exceed Earth’s capacity

OAKLAND, California, 26 October 2016 (Global Footprint Network) – The overexploitation of ecological resources by humanity is directly contributing to the 67 percent plunge in wild vertebrate populations scientists forecast for the 50-year period ending in 2020, according to WWF’s Living Planet Report 2016. The top threats to species identified in the report are directly […]

Study finds ‘catastrophic declines’ of wilderness worldwide – ‘The amount of wilderness loss in just two decades is staggering and very saddening’

9 September 2016 (UQ News) – A University of Queensland-led international study released today reports catastrophic declines in wilderness areas around the world over the past 20 years. UQ School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management and Wildlife Conservation Society in New York researcher Associate Professor James Watson said findings demonstrated alarming losses comprising a […]

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 […]

UN calls for end to poaching and trade of migratory birds – ‘We must stop the illegal killing now, if we don’t want our skies to fall silent’

10 May 2016 (UN) – Millions of migratory birds are being lost each year as a result of illegal killing, taking and trade, United Nations officials warned on World Migratory Bird Day, calling for concerted action to end the threats to migratory birds and urging everyone to step outside and “listen to the birds chirping,” […]

This is the reality of what India forest fires are doing to wildlife

By Susmita Mukherjee7 May 2016 (India Times) – Thank the Gods for the rains; it has helped in putting out one of the worst forest fires we have known in the Himalayas. But do all eyes now turn away from the truth behind such a tragedy? What happens to what remains, charred and vulnerable? Forest […]

Historic drought forces Zimbabwe to sell off wildlife – ‘Zimbabwe is facing one of its worst droughts ever, even worse than 1992 when thousands of wildlife were decimated’

4 May 2016 (AFP) – Drought-hit Zimbabwe has invited local farmers and private game rangers to buy wild animals as it destocks national game reserves to save fauna from starvation, the wildlife authority said Wednesday. Parks and wildlife authority spokeswoman Caroline Washaya said it has asked individuals and private game keepers to step in and […]

Radioactive wild boars rampaging around Fukushima nuclear site

By Will Worley7 April 2016 (The Independent) – Radioactive boars are running wild and breeding uncontrollably in the northern region of Japan contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The animals have been devastating local agriculture and eating toxic, nuclear-contaminated food from around the accident site. Mass graves and incinerators have been unable to cope with […]

Indonesia’s orangutans suffer as fires rage and businesses grow – ‘Every day we’re losing forests the size of a football field, and that’s orangutan habitat’

By Joe Cochrane5 April 2016 NYARU MENTENG, Indonesia (The New York Times) – Katty, a docile, orange-haired preschooler, fell from a tree with a thump. Her teacher quickly picked her up, dusted off her bottom, refastened her white disposable diaper and placed her back on a branch more than seven feet off the ground. Katty […]

Ash tree set for extinction in Europe – ‘Between the fungal disease and a bright green beetle called the emerald ash borer, it is likely that almost all ash trees in Europe will be wiped out’

By Claire Marshall23 March 2016 (BBC News) – The ash tree is likely to be wiped out in Europe, according to a review of the evidence. The trees are being killed off by the fungal disease ash-dieback along with an invasive beetle called the emerald ash borer. According to the research, published in the Journal […]

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