Rhino horn demand leads to record poaching

More rhinos have been killed in South Africa in the past 10 months than were killed in all of 2010, new poaching numbers reveal. Statistics from South Africa National Parks show that 341 animals have been lost to poaching so far in 2011, compared to a record total of 333 last year.

South Africa’s grim milestone comes on the heels of an announcement by WWF last week that rhinos have gone extinct in Vietnam. The carcass of Vietnam’s last Javan rhino was found with a gunshot wound and without its horn.

At a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) last year, the international community concluded that the increase in rhino poaching has been caused largely by demand for horn products in Vietnam. Law enforcement efforts, while increasing, are not yet sufficient to protect rhinos from poachers or stop the smuggling and sale of their horns by organized crime rings.

Governments fail to protect endangered species at CITES - Greenpeace

Greenpeace divers with underwater banner reading 'Where have all the tuna gone' in Balearic Islands, Spain - a breeding ground for the bluefin tuna. ©Greenpeace/Gavin NewmanGreenpeace condemns governments for putting short-term economic interests ahead of the long-term survival of endangered species.

“Too many governments at CITES have voted to protect profits not endangered species,” said Oliver Knowles, Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner. “This conference has been a disaster for conservation.”

Marine species get raw deal at CITES

A United Nations meeting on endangered species trade adjourned today after two weeks of negotiations marked by the repeated rejection of proposals to better protect marine species, such as the Atlantic bluefin tuna, corals and several shark species.

Trade issues on marine species failed to attract the necessary support at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which meets once every three years.

Fishing countries must respect Doha message on tuna, says WWF

At the close of the world’s largest wildlife trade convention meeting, global conservation organization WWF welcomes the statement today by the regional fisheries management organization in charge of the Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery – the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, ICCAT – that its members should agree and implement a scientifically sound recovery plan for the species when they meet in November in Paris, France.

In a statement in Doha, Qatar, today on the last day of the meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ICCAT chair Dr Fabio Hazin told delegates: “Setting management measures not in line with scientific advice is no longer an option. (...) The commitment to recover bluefin tuna stocks in the Atlantic must be strengthened at ICCAT’s forthcoming meeting in Paris in November.”

Atlantic bluefin tuna trade ban fails

Discussion of a long-awaited proposal to ban international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna was cut short today at the largest wildlife trade convention when an immediate vote was pushed through.

Member governments of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) chose to vote today on the proposal. 72 out of 129 CITES members voted against the trade ban, 43 voted in favour, with 14 abstentions.

Sturgeon more critically endangered than any other group of species

Eighty five per cent of sturgeon, one of the oldest families of fishes in existence, valued around the world for their precious roe, are at risk of extinction, making them the most threatened group of animals on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The latest update of the Red List assessed the status of 18 species of sturgeon from all over Europe and Asia and found that all were threatened.

New analysis points to ivory enforcement failures in parts of Africa, Asia

Urgent law enforcement action by governments in Central and West Africa and South-east Asia is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory trade, according to a new analysis of elephant trade data released today.

Detailed regional summaries of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), the world’s largest database on ivory seizures, highlight the failure of law enforcement in key elephant range States facing an increasing threat from organised crime and the presence of unregulated markets.

All 27 EU countries to back Atlantic bluefin tuna international trade ban

Credit: OpenCageWWF applauds the confirmation from European Union member states that they will vote for a ban on international commercial trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna during a meeting of the largest wildlife trade convention starting this week.

The 27 EU members said today they would vote to list Atlantic bluefin tuna on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), joining a growing list of supporting countries, including the United States of America.

CITES can help save bluefin tuna, stem wildlife poaching crisis

Governments meeting March 13 for the largest wildlife trade convention will have a unique opportunity to help preserve the world’s oceans and simultaneously stem a worldwide poaching crisis.

The 15th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 15) will consider an unprecedented six proposals to better protect marine species - including a crucial ban on the international commercial trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna.

American pika are thriving in the Sierra Nevada and southwestern Great Basin

New research addressing climate change questions, a priority focus of the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station, documents that American pika in the Sierra Nevada and southwestern Great Basin are thriving and persist in a wider range of temperatures than previously discovered.

Results were recently published in a paper titled "Distribution and Climatic Relationships of the American Pika (Ochotona princeps) in the Sierra Nevada and Western Great Basin, U.S.A.; Periglacial Landforms as Refugia in Warming Climates," by Constance Millar and Robert Westfall in the February 2010 issue of the journal Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research.

Ancient DNA reveals caribou history linked to volcanic eruption

DNA recovered from ancient caribou bones reveals a possible link between several small unique caribou herds and a massive volcanic eruption that blanketed much of the Alaskan Yukon territory in a thick layer of ash 1,000 years ago, reports research published today in Molecular Ecology.
It's just part of the story being read from ancient caribou remains by an international team of scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Canada who have been studying the history of this iconic and fragile Canadian species.

Tyler Kuhn, a Whitehorse native and Simon Fraser University graduate researcher, were able to coax short bits of ancient DNA from caribou bones found in 6,000-yr-old ice patches scattered across an area just north of the British Columbia border.

Understanding the threat to monkey numbers from forest decline

Monkey populations in threatened forests are far more sensitive to damage to their habitat than previously thought, according to new research.
An analysis of monkeys living in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains suggests that the impact of external factors, such as human activity, on species numbers is felt in forests as large as 40 square kilometres.

Researchers also found that the health of monkey populations is closely related to the type of habitat found between forest fragments, rather than the distance that separates them.

Decade-old dream comes true for Lake Chad

World Wetlands Day is being celebrated with the full recognition of Africa’s Lake Chad as a wetland of international significance, fulfilling an agreement made a decade ago by the four nations that share it.

The declaration by the Cameroon Republic that its portion of Africa’s fourth largest lake is being declared a wetland of international importance under the 1971 Ramsar Convention on Wetlands follows similar declarations by Niger and Chad (both in 2001) and Nigeria (2008).

NOAA considers listing Atlantic Sturgeon as endangered

Credit: NOAANOAA’s Fisheries Service has announced that it will consider listing Atlantic sturgeon as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. The agency received a petition from the Natural Resources Defense Council in October 2009, requesting that the species be listed throughout its range.

NOAA has been evaluating the need to list the species since 2007, when a formal status review was completed for the species by a team of biologists from NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Camera traps yield first-time film of tigress and cubs

Camera traps deep in the Sumatran jungle have captured first-time images of a rare female tiger and her cubs, giving researchers unique insight into the elusive tiger’s behaviour.

After a month in operation, specially designed video cameras installed by WWF-Indonesia’s researchers seeking to record tigers in the Sumatran jungle caught the mother tiger and her cubs on film as they stopped to sniff and check out the camera trap.

New warbler found in South-East Asia

Limestone Leaf-warbler has been described from the limestone karst country of Vietnam and Laos.Photo:Ulf Johansson/Swedish Museum of Natural HistoryA new species of warbler has been described from the karst limestone country of Vietnam and Laos by scientists from BirdLife International, Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, and Wildlife Conservation Society.

Named Limestone Leaf-warbler Phylloscopus calciatilis, the new species is very similar to Sulphur-breasted Warbler P. ricketti, in morphology, but it is smaller with a proportionately larger bill and rounder wing. Its song and calls are diagnostic.

Whiskers hold secrets of invasive minks

Details of the lifestyle of mink, which escaped from fur farms and now live wild in the UK, have been revealed through analysis of their whiskers. Research led by the University of Exeter reveals more about the diet of this invasive species and provides a clue to its whereabouts. There are now plans to use the findings to eradicate it from environments where it can be devastating to native species.

Published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, the study focused on American mink living in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. The scientists used stable isotope analysis to study the whiskers and claws of mink carcasses collected on the islands.

Lawsuit to be filed over delay in protecting Florida panther habitat

A coalition of conservation and government accountability groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), and Council of Civic Associations — filed a formal 60-day notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today over the agency’s failure to respond to a scientific petition to designate critical habitat for the endangered Florida panther.

“The Florida panther is on its way to extinction as its habitat becomes suburbia,” said petition author Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity.

Kenya's Tana River Delta under siege

Photo:Michael Laplace-Toulouse/BirdLifeThe Tana River Delta in Kenya's north coast is under unprecedented threat as corporations and foreign agencies scramble to exploit its riches for export crops, biofuels and minerals. NatureKenya (BirdLife Partner) – with support of RSPB (BirdLife in UK), Schweizer Vogelschutz SVS/BirdLife Schweiz (BirdLife in Switzerland) and DOF (BirdLife in Denmark) – are working with local communities to try and stop the proposed poorly planned developments which would result in tens of thousands of people losing their livelihoods.

Zoning the ocean may help endangered whales to recover

Conservation success depends on understanding feeding behaviour

Scientists in Scotland, Canada and the US have proposed a new method to identify priority areas for whale conservation. The team's findings, published in Animal Conservation, suggest that even small protected areas, identified through feeding behaviour, can benefit highly mobile marine predators such as killer whales.