By John R. Platt Say good-bye to the “ghost cat.” This week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officially declared the eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) to be extinct and removed it from the endangered species list. This news, sad though it is, has been a long time coming. The big cats, once native to […]
By John R. Platt While visions of sugarplums danced in some of our heads, the Trump administration had a different vision—of a country unbound by rules that protect people, places, wildlife and the climate. Over the past two weeks, the administration has proposed or finalized changes to how the government and the industries it regulates […]
China’s ivory trade ban is now in effect, making it illegal to sell and buy ivory in the country. China, one of the world’s largest markets for both legal and illegal ivory, has been a major driver of elephant poaching in Africa. Last year, the Chinese government announced its commitment to shut down its legal, […]
By Allison Guy Centuries ago, naturalists believed that the animals of the sea mirrored the animals of the land. Elephants were matched by sea-elephants, chickens by sea-chickens. The clergy even got paired with sea-bishops and sea-monks. In 2017, land and sea mirrored each other in a less literal way. As humanity reeled from hurricanes, wildfires, […]
The Republican-controlled 115th Congress has introduced at least 63 separate pieces of legislation that would strip federal protections for specific threatened species or undermine the U.S. Endangered Species Act, according to a new analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity. That’s one such bill every six days in 2017 alone. The majority of these bills […]
British Columbia’s provincial government Monday announced a decision to prohibit grizzly bear hunting province-wide. In stark contrast to the province’s decision to protect its estimated 15,000 grizzly bears, the Trump administration in June removed endangered species protections for the roughly 700 bears found in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Following the removal of federal protections, Idaho, […]
It’s been a big year for conservation. Together we assured the world that the U.S. is still an ally in the fight against climate change through the We Are Still In movement, a coalition of more than 2,500 American leaders outside of the federal government who are still committed to meeting climate goals. WWF‘s activists […]
The Havasupai Tribe and a coalition of conservation groups praised the decision Tuesday by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the Department of the Interior’s 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims across 1 million acres of public lands adjacent to the Grand Canyon. The court ruled that the ban, adopted in […]
A year ago, scientists reported that cheetahs had disappeared from across 91 percent of their historic range. The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), the researchers recommended in their study, should be up-listed from Vulnerable to Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Doing this could afford the imperiled species greater attention and support, they said. […]
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