Last week we received positive news on the border wall’s imminent construction in an Arizona wildlife refuge. The Trump administration delayed construction of the wall through about 60 miles of federal wildlife preserves. The win came shortly after the Center for Biological Diversity asked a federal judge to stop construction in 68 miles of the […]
By Wesley Rahn The global population of forest-dwelling vertebrates has plummeted in the period between 1970 and 2014, according to a study published Tuesday by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Berlin. The study, titled Below The Canopy tracked the development of 268 vertebrate species and 455 populations in forests around the world. […]
The statistics around threatened species are looking grim. A new report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has added more than 9,000 new additions to its Red List of threatened species, pushing the total number of species on the list to more than 105,000 for the first time, according to the Guardian. […]
By John R. Platt For years now conservationists have warned that many of Madagascar’s iconic lemur species face the risk of extinction due to rampant deforestation, the illegal pet trade and the emerging market for the primates’ meat. Yes, people eat lemurs, and the reasons they do aren’t exactly what we might expect. One 2016 […]
By Jessica A. Knoblauch Say goodbye to one of the dreamiest things about childhood. In the Midwest, fireflies are dying off. For many Americans, it’s hard to imagine summer nights without the magical glow of dozens of bioluminescent bodies fluttering above the grasses and fields, and lighting up the dark skies above. But the die-offs […]
Less than two months after Botswana lifted its ban on elephant hunting, a new study has confirmed that poaching is on the rise in the country that around one-third of Africa’s savanna elephants call home. The study, published in Current Biology, used aerial surveys to conclude that the number of fresh elephant carcasses had increased […]
It pays to pollinate in Minnesota. Minnesota’s state budget celebrated pollinators last month by crowning the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee the state bee. And, to protect the plump pollinator, the state earmarked $900,000 dollars for bee-friendly spaces, according to Atlas Obscura. From that money, the state government will pay the gardening bill for residents who are […]
By Jason Bittel Planet Earth is in crisis, and we’re all in it together. One million species could soon face extinction. Climate change is accelerating at a breakneck pace, already affecting about half of all threatened mammal species and a quarter of threatened birds. And according to a study published in Science last year, if […]
The World Health Organization (WHO) approved the inclusion of traditional Chinese medicine in the revision of its influential International Classification of Diseases for the first time on May 25, touching off worries that the move could drive up demand for body parts of wild animals. “As the world’s leading global public health organisation, the WHO […]