leopard
Land Use/Forests

Paradise Closing: Oil Drilling Begins in Okavango Delta

WINDHOEK, Namibia, February 1, 2021 (ENS) – The fate of one of Africa’s most valuable ecosystems will depend on results from wells being drilled deep into the bedrock beneath the Kalahari Desert of northern Namibia and Botswana in the hunt for a petroleum reservoir. If the search by Canadian oil and gas company ReconAfrica is successful, the region could be irrevocably transmogrified… […]

dead killer whale
Latest News

The Killing of Killer Whales

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, December 9, 2020 (ENS) – When marine predators themselves face mortal threats, researchers at the University of British Columbia studying orca deaths in Pacific Ocean waters believe that human tampering with the ocean is to blame. […]

Sci/Tech

New Book Links Southeast Asia’s Wildlife Trade to COVID

HANOI, Vietnam, December 8, 2020 (ENS) – “The price of the private dining room would be included in the price of the pangolin, along with the rest of the dinner.” In this excerpt from his new book, “Pangolins: Scales of Injustice,” wildlife conservationist Richard Peirce recounts a trip to Vietnam during which, within 15 minutes in one restaurant, he was offered both of the animals that are the likely vectors for COVID-19 and SARS. […]

tegu
Latest News

Leapin’ Lizards: Argentine Tegus Run Wild in Georgia

ATLANTA, Georgia, November 24, 2020 (ENS) – Georgia wildlife officials and their partners are scrambling to eradicate a wild population of large invasive black and white Argentine lizards called tegus in two counties in southeast Georgia. Growing from two to four feet long and weighing 10 pounds or more, this lizard native to South America is an invasive species that threatens Georgia wildlife. […]

wolf
Latest News

Trump Pushes Gray Wolf off Endangered Species List

WASHINGTON, DC, November 7, 2020 (ENS) – To the dismay of conservationists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has opened hunting season on gray wolves across the United States by removing them from the national Endangered Species List. Farmers, cattlemen and ranchers applauded the delisting, but conservationists issued dire warnings, and a coalition of conservation groups is going to court to reverse the rule. […]

whale
Latest News

Worst Whale Stranding in Australian History: Hundreds Die

STRAHAN, Tasmania, Australia, September 28, 2020 (ENS) – Tasmanian environmental authorities are coordinating the disposal of a mass of whale carcasses after about 470 long-finned pilot whales washed ashore in the shallow waters of Macquarie Harbour on the island state’s west coast. […]

rhino
Latest News

Software Foils Poachers With Rare Rhinos’ Footprints

DURHAM, North Carolina, September 14, 2020 (ENS) – Interactive software that reads and analyzes footprints left by black rhinoceroses can be used to monitor the movements of the critically endangered animals in the wild, giving conservationists a new way to keep watch on the species and help keep them safe from poachers, according to a new Duke University-led study. […]

Latest News

Congo Imprisons Elephant Poacher for 30 Years

BRAZZAVILLE, Republic of Congo, August 22, 2020 (ENS) – A criminal court in the Republic of Congo has sentenced a notorious poacher and ivory trafficker, Mobanza Mobembo Gérard, alias Guyvanho, to 30 years in prison for the attempted murder of park rangers, trafficking of ivory from poached elephants, possession of military weapons, and other charges. […]

yaks
Latest News

Wildife Suffers Humpty Dumpty Effect as Humans Multiply

FORT COLLINS, Colorado, June 9, 2020 (ENS) – Some of the world’s largest, most spectacular and unheralded mammals are silently slipping away – species like Tibetan wild yaks and Patagonia’s huemul, Bhutan’s takin and Vietnam’s saola. Even Africa’s three species of zebras and wildebeest have suffered massive reductions over the last several decades. […]

chimps
Latest News

South Africa’s Live Wild Animal Trade to China Exposed

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, May 26, 2020 (ENS) – Chimpanzees, Bengal tigers, wolves, wild dogs and lions are among thousands of endangered wild animals exported from South Africa to China, sometimes in contravention of regulations imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), often in shameful conditions. […]

wall
Land Use/Forests

Lawsuit Tests Trump’s Grab of $7.2B for Border Wall

WASHINGTON, DC, May 12, 2020 (ENS) – Conservation groups today sued the Trump administration for taking $7.2 billion from the Department of Defense for border wall construction from the Pacific Ocean to the Rio Grande Valley without congressional approval. To date, Trump has taken more than $13 billion from the Department of Defense for border walls. […]

hornet
At Risk

First Invasive ‘Murder Hornets’ Found in United States

OLYMPIA, Washington, May 4, 2020 (ENS) – “Murder hornets,” known officially as Asian giant hornets, Vespa mandarinia, have made their first appearance in the United States. These giant stinging insects, the world’s largest species of hornet, are an invasive species and a known predator of honeybees. They were found for the first time in the United States late last year in northwest Washington, according to the state’s Department of Agriculture. […]

eating bat
At Risk

China Bans the Eating of Wild Animals

BEIJING, China, February 24, 2020 (ENS) – China’s top legislative committee Monday approved a proposal to ban all trade and consumption of wild animals, a practice believed to be responsible for China’s deadly coronavirus outbreak, thought to have originated in a Wuhan market where wild animals were sold for food.  […]

lemur
Latest News

Climate, Logging Menace Madagascar’s Unique Ecology

NEW YORK, New York, January 2, 2020 (ENS) – Left unchecked, the combined effects of deforestation and human-induced climate change could eliminate Madagascar’s entire eastern rainforest habitat by 2070, impacting thousands of plants, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians endemic to the island nation, finds new research from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York […]

infant lion
Latest News

New Animal Rules Rattle South African Tourism Industry

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, December 13, 2019 (ENS) – Interactions with all infant wildlife, walking with predators or elephants, interacting with predators and the riding of wild animals are no longer acceptable practices, according to the South African Tourism Services Association, SATSA. […]

lions
Latest News

South Africa Reclassifies 33 Wild Species as Farm Animals

PRETORIA, South Africa, October 25, 2019 (ENS) – By the stroke of a legislative pen, a list of iconic and, in some cases, endangered wild animals can now be manipulated as farming stock. Lions, cheetahs, rhinos, and zebras are among 33 wild species which became farm animals as of May… […]

stork
Latest News

Indianapolis Hosts 1st Global Center for Species Survival

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, October 14, 2019 (ENS) – The world’s first Global Center for Species Survival, GCSS, will open next year at the Indianapolis Zoo in Indianapolis, Indiana in the midwestern United States under a new agreement between the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN, and the zoo. […]

fox
Latest News

California Becomes First State to Outlaw Fur Trapping

SACRAMENTO, California, September 5, 2019 (ENS) – In a victory for wildlife, California has become the first U.S. state to outlaw fur trapping. The Wildlife Protection Act of 2019 was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday. It prohibits trapping native animals such as bobcats, gray foxes, coyotes, beavers, badgers and mink, on both private and public lands. […]

elephant
Latest News

CITES Bans Sale of Wild Baby African Elephants to Zoos

GENEVA, Switzerland, August 28, 2019 (ENS) – Wildlife conservationists are celebrating a cliff-hanger of a win for elephants at the triennial Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, in Geneva where delegates Tuesday voted to limit the controversial trade of wild-caught baby African elephants from Zimbabwe and Botswana to zoos. […]