World wildlife populations halved in 40 years – ‘The scale of biodiversity loss and damage to the very ecosystems that are essential to our existence is alarming’

By Roger Harrabin30 September 2014 (BBC News) – The global loss of species is even worse than previously thought, the London Zoological Society (ZSL) says in its new Living Planet Index [pdf]. The report suggests populations have halved in 40 years, as new methodology gives more alarming results than in a report two years ago. […]

Ohio Supreme Court: It’s OK to strip mine state wildlife areas

By Ari Phillips 19 September 2014 (ThinkProgress) — This week, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled 6-1 to potentially allow part of a state wildlife area to be strip-mined for coal. The ruling, which settles a dispute involving an esoteric land contract from 1944, could open up $2 million of coal to be dug out of […]

Failure of spring rains forces Kenya national parks to feed wildlife

By Antony Gitonga 8 July 2014 NAIVASHA, KENYA (The Standard) – The government has announced plans to supply fodder and water to  wildlife in various national parks following adverse weather conditions that has hit parts of the country. The exercise that will be carried out by KWS is meant to save hundreds of wild animals […]

Drought threatens grazing on U.S. land – Federal land can’t continue to support livestock and wildlife – ‘To be honest with you, I think our way of life is pretty much going to be over in 10 years’

By Julie Cart15 June 2014 Snake River Plain, Idaho (Los Angeles Times) –  There’s not much anyone can tell Barry Sorensen about Idaho’s Big Desert that he doesn’t know. Sorensen, 72, and his brother have been running cattle in this sere landscape all their lives, and they’ve weathered every calamity man and nature have thrown […]

Californians scapegoat the drought for wandering lions … and bears – ‘This is the third year of drought, and that’s three bad years of reproduction for wildlife species’

By Haya El Nasser5 June 2014 LOS ANGELES (Al Jazeera) – A bear wandered into a public park in San Luis Obispo County and sent Little Leaguers scampering for shelter. Who’s to blame? The drought, of course. Mountain lions are jumping fences in northern California and killing goats. Whose fault? The drought again. In California, […]

Increased climate stress causing extensive change to Australia’s eucalypt ecosystems

By Lucy Cormack13 January 2014 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Australia’s standing as the home among the gumtrees could be challenged, with increased climate stress causing extensive change to Australia’s eucalypt ecosystems. A study by the National Environmental Research Program’s Environmental Decisions Hub has found that climate stress on eucalypts will mean many of Australia’s 750 […]

Graph of the Day: Worldwide population estimates of large-carnivore species

10 January 2014 (Science) – Worldwide population estimates of large-carnivore species. Error bars represent the low and high range of the estimates when available. Population estimates were not available for all species. Species ranges vary widely, and range sizes can have a strong influence on species population levels (table S1). Sources: Gray wolf (90), all […]

Catastrophic collapse of wildlife in Sahara Desert – Conservationists warn of looming extinctions including cheetahs and gazelles – Four species of large mammals already extinct

Contact: Mart Dixon (1-347-840-1242; mdixon@wcs.org) Stephen Sautner (1-718-220-3682; ssautner@wcs.org)3 December 2013 NEW YORK – A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Zoological Society or London warns that the world’s largest tropical desert, the Sahara, has suffered a catastrophic collapse of its wildlife populations. The study by more than 40 authors representing 28 […]

Climate change could kill off Andean cloud forests, home to thousands of species found nowhere else

By Jeremy Hance18 September 2013 (mongabay.com) – One of the richest ecosystems on the planet may not survive a hotter climate without human help, according to a sobering new paper in the open source journal PLoS ONE. Although little-studied compared to lowland rainforests, the cloud forests of the Andes are known to harbor explosions of […]

New global map of ecosystem vulnerability to abrupt climate change

Contact: Stephen Sautner, ssautner@wcs.org, 718-220-368216 September 2013 NEW YORK (Wildlife Conservation Society) – Using data from the world’s ecosystems and predictions of how climate change will impact them, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Queensland, and Stanford University have produced a roadmap that identifies the world’s most vulnerable and least vulnerable areas […]

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