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News articles on biodiversity

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Mongabay.com news articles on biodiversity in blog format. Updated regularly.

New York City to dim lights to protect migrating birds

(09/21/2005) New York civic leaders on Tuesday said the lights of buildings above the 40th floor will be turned off after midnight in the fall and spring migration seasons to save birds. Since 1997, more than 4,000 migratory birds have been killed or injured from colliding into skyscrapers, bird experts said.


Ant produces own natural herbicide to poison unwanted plants

(09/21/2005) For the first time, scientists have identified an ant species that produces its own natural herbicide to poison unwanted plants. Stanford University biologist Deborah M. Gordon and her co-workers describe the findings in the Sept. 22 issue of the journal Nature.


Domestic black market for endangered wildlife thrives in Indonesia

(09/18/2005) Indonesia is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and yet has the longest list of endangered wild species. Wild species are becoming endangered due to unsustainable deforestation and poaching. The government does not yet have a national plan to seriously address this problem; while Indonesia has laws protecting wild species, enforcement is weak.


Missing Gulfport dolphins rescued following Hurricane Katrina

(09/16/2005) Wildlife experts on Thursday began rescuing a group of eight bottlenose dolphins swept from their aquarium home into the Gulf of Mexico by Hurricane Katrina.


How to save disappearing amphibians subject of meeting this weekend

(09/14/2005) Scientists are meeting this weekend to discuss strategies for addressing the global decline of amphibians. Earlier this year, the Global Amphibian Assessment, a survey of the planet's amphibian species, found that nearly a third (32%) of the world's amphibian species are threatened and 129 species have gone extinct since 1980.


WCS supports new primate protection agreement

(09/14/2005) The Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) announced today that a new international agreement signed last week in the Democratic Republic of Congo will play a key role in safeguarding and improving populations of the world's great apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans.


Hurricane Katrina to cost Louisiana fisheries $1.1 billion

(09/13/2005) The Louisiana Department and Wildlife and Fisheries' preliminary estimates indicate a potential $1.1 billion loss in retail fisheries revenue over the next year and an additional $150 million loss in oyster revenue in the second year due to Hurricane Katrina damage.


Gator season delayed due to Hurricane Katrina

(09/09/2005) The Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has delayed the opening and closing dates of the 2005 wild alligator harvest season in accordance with the provisions of R.S. 49:953B of the Administrative Procedure Act and LAC 76:V.701 due to Hurricane Katrina.


New Method Can Rapidly Detect Potential Bioterror Agent causing Q fever

(09/06/2005) A new combination of analytical chemistry and mathematical data analysis techniques allows the rapid identification of the species, strain and infectious phase of the potential biological terrorism agent Coxiella burnetii. The bacterium causes the human disease Q fever, which can cause serious illness and even death..


Poverty decimates great apes

(09/05/2005) Fewer than 250 wild Sumatran orangutans may exist in fifty years, their habitat is disappearing and the devastation of the Asian tsunami has accelerated the rate of destruction. This is among the findings being announced at the launch of the first World Atlas of Great Apes and their conservation by the UNEP World conservation Monitoring Centre, which reveals that it is not just humans that will benefit from a campaign to 'make poverty history'. For the other 6 species of great ape -- the eastern and western gorilla, chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran and Bornean orangutan -- it could literally save them from the cooking pot.


Global Wildlife Center; Jackson, Birmingham, Baton Rouge Zoos OK

(09/04/2005) The American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) reports that the Jackson zoo, Birmingham zoo, Montgomery Zoo, and Baton Rouge Zoo came through Hurricane Katrina with relatively little damage. None of the facilties lost staff or animals and most of the damage was limited to fallen trees.


Rare asiatic cheetahs pictured in Iran

(08/30/2005) Researchers working in Iran made a suprising discovery that had nothing to do with nuclear weapons. Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) scientists, working in conjunction with Iran's Department of Environment (DOE) recently discovered that a remote camera set out to survey wildlife had photographed an entire family of extremely rare Asiatic cheetahs in an isolated region in the Dar-e Anjir Wildlife Refuge. The pictures show an adult female and her four youngsters resting in the shade of a tree, marking the largest-known group of these rare cats ever photographed in Asia.


Global warming may have triggered worst mass extinction

(08/29/2005) A dramatic rise in carbon dioxide 250 million years ago may have caused global temperatures to soar and result in Earth's greatest mass extinction, according to a study published in the September issue of Geology. Global warming, which may have produced temperatures 10 to 30 degrees Celsius higher than today, would have had a significant impact both on oceans, where about 95% of lifeforms became extinct, and on land, where almost 75% of species died out.


Safeguarding biodiversity key to human health, poverty alleviation says Annan

(08/24/2005) Failure to conserve and use biological diversity in a sustainable manner would result in degrading environments, new and more rampant illnesses, deepening poverty and a continued pattern of inequitable and untenable growth warned United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a statement before the First International Conference on the Importance of Biodiversity to Human Health in Galway, Ireland.


Plan to move African wildlife to America would undermine ecotourism and African economies

(08/23/2005) A proposal to create a refuge for African wildlife in North America has come under harsh criticism from African conservationists according to a report from Sapa-AFP.


Andes of South America are world's biodiversity champion says news study

(08/18/2005) The first full map of where the world's birds live reveals their diversity 'hotspots' and will help to focus conservation efforts, according to research published in Nature today (18 August).


Avian flu, H5N1, identified in wild Mongolian birds

(08/18/2005) The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has positively identified the pathogenic form of avian flu--H5N1--in samples taken from birds last week in Mongolia by field veterinarians from the Wildlife conservation Society (WCS). It is the first instance of this viral strain occurring in wild migratory birds with no apparent contact to domestic poultry or waterfowl.


Humpback whale tracked migrating between ocean basins

(08/18/2005) For the first time ever, a genetic study has followed a single humpback whale from one ocean basin to another, adding to traditional notions of the migratory patterns of these majestic marine mammals in the process, according to researchers from the Wildlife conservation Society (WCS), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and New York University.


Endangered wildlife trafficked via eBay

(08/16/2005) An investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reveals that vast quantities of wildlife products and live animals are bought and sold illegally on the Internet -- a lucrative trade that is driving the world's most endangered species to the brink of extinction.


China funds massive palm oil plantation in rainforest of Borneo

(08/12/2005) Plans to create the world's largest palm oil plantation along Indonesia's mountainous border with Malaysia could have a devastating impact on the forests, wildlife and indigenous people of Borneo, warns World Wildlife Fund.


Animals behaving strangely; climate change the culprit?

(08/11/2005) For the first time, scientists have found a direct relationship between global warming and the evolution of contemporary wildlife.


After Chernobyl accident wildlife flourishes

(08/10/2005) Chernobyl's ecosystems seem to be recovering just 19 years after the region was badly contaminated with radiation from a nuclear meltdown. Researchers, who presented the results of suverys around old nuclear power plant at the Ecological Society of America meeting in Montreal, say that biodiversity is actually higher than before the disaster.


Two tiny lemur species discovered in Madagascar

(08/09/2005) German and Malagasy primatologists have discovered two new species of lemurs, naming one of them after Steve Goodman, a Field Museum scientist who has devoted nearly two decades to studying the animals of Madagascar.


1,000 wild orang-utans poached a year says WWF

(08/06/2005) The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a leading conservation group, estimates that 1,000 orang-utans are poached annually from the wild, often for sale as pets for the wealthy. The organization says there are some 30,000 to 40,000 orang-utans left in the wild.


Organic farming benefits wildlife over conventional agriculture says study

(08/03/2005) In the largest and most comprehensive study of organic farming to date, published today in the Royal Society Journal, Biology Letters, scientists from leading UK institutions show conclusively that organic farms provide greater benefits for a range of wildlife including wild flowers, beetles, spiders, birds and bats than their conventional counterparts.


Food demand greater threat to wildlife than global warming

(07/28/2005) A redoubling of human food demand over the next 50 years that could imperil vast tracts of wildlife habitat. Recognizing the food demand, however, would shift government research funds from climate models to politically incorrect agricultural research stations-our main hope to double crop and livestock yields.


Zoologists to discuss latest in animal enrichment techniques

(07/27/2005) The Wildlife conservation Society is hosting the 2005 International Conference on Environmental Enrichment where zoologists from 15 countries will gather to learn about the latest in animal enrichment techniques to keep animals healthy and stimulated.


Uganda imports rhinos from Kenya

(07/26/2005) Uganda has imported four rhinos from Kenya according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA). UWA hopes to develop a captive breeding program in an effort to reintroduce rhinos after their disappearance from the country in the 1960s due to poaching.


Sea turtles protected in Costa Rica are killed in Nicaragua

(07/26/2005) Sea turtles that receive the highest protection in Costa Rica and other neighboring countries are dying by the thousands at the hands of unregulated - and unsustainable - commercial fishing in Nicaragua, according to a study by the Bronx Zoo based Wildlife conservation Society.


Microchip implant saves endangered turtle from the cooking pot

(07/18/2005) An extremely rare "royal" turtle narrowly escaped a trip to a Chinese soup-pot, thanks to a tiny microchip implanted in its skin, according to experts from the New York-based Wildlife conservation Society (WCS), who rediscovered the species four years ago in Cambodia.


New monkey virus infects human; jumps species barrier

(07/14/2005) Scientists have identified the first reported case in Asia of primate-to-human transmission of simian foamy virus (SFV), a retrovirus found in macaques and other primates that so far has not been shown to cause disease in humans. The transmission of the virus from a monkey to a human took place at a monkey temple in Bali, Indonesia, the researchers report in the July issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.


Nature photo blog lauched by mongabay.com

(07/10/2005) Today mongabay.com, a leading rainforest information site, announced the launch of a photo blog featuring images of wilderness from around the world. The aim of the new blog, hosted on Google's blogger.com and found at mongabay.blogspot.com, is to raise interest and appreciation of wildlife and wildlands.


Controlling Wildlife Trade Key to Preventing Health Crises, Study Says

(07/05/2005) According to a study by the New York-based Wildlife conservation Society, controlling the movements of wildlife in markets is a cost-effective means of keeping potential deadly pandemics such as SARS and influenza from occurring. The study appears in the July edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The cost of controlling the spread of diseases afflicting both human and animal populations has reached hundreds of billions of dollars globally.


16% of frogs species in Sri Lanka may be gone, new survey finds

(07/02/2005) In a study published Thursday in Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, researchers confirmed the discovery of 35 new frog species in Sri Lanka over the past decade brining the number of frog species in the island country to 105. However, the survey found that 17 of these species have disappeared and at least another 11 face imminent extinction unless their habitat is protected.


Climate change could ruin tourism in the Mediterranean

(07/01/2005) According to a new study the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), global climate change will bring hotter, drier summers to the Mediterranean and significantly impact two of the region's largest industries, agriculture and tourism.


Ebola, SARS battle requires new look at humans, livestock, and wildlife relationships

(06/28/2005) The threat of potential pandemics such as Ebola, SARS, and avian influenza demands a more holistic approach to disease control, one that prevents diseases from crossing the divide between humans, their livestock, and wildlife, according to a report in the journal Foreign Affairs. This "One World, One Health" concept, as described by Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) veterinary staff, calls for the integration of efforts to deal proactively with disease threats to human and animal health before they reach crisis levels.


Siberian tiger population stabilizes according to new census figures

(06/28/2005) Results of the latest full range survey indicate that tiger numbers in Russia appear to be stable, say the coordinators of a 2005 winter effort to count the animals, led by the New York-based Wildlife conservation Society.


Protectors of wildlife in war-torn Congo recognized with new Award

(06/01/2005) Abraham Prize Awarded to Families of Murdered Guards, Survivors of Poaching, Rebel Attacks; UNESCO World Heritage Site Parks Still Under Siege.


Dancing lemur attracts tourists to island of Madagascar

(05/30/2005) In the dry deciduous forests of south western Madagascar there lives a lemur that loudly cusses but "dances" like a ballet performer. Verreaux's sifaka is among the most popular of lemur species, a group of primates endemic to islands off the southeastern coast of Africa. While threatened, Verreaux's sifaka is easily spotted is several of Madagascar's more accessible parks.


ExxonMobil asked to stay out of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by shareholder group

(05/25/2005) Green Century Capital Management, U.S. PIRG Education Fund, and Clean Yield Asset Management will be attending the ExxonMobil shareholder meeting later this week in an effort to convince the company to stay out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and to improve company policies on operations in other protected and sensitive areas worldwide. The groups have filed a shareholder resolution with the company on this topic and ExxonMobil shareholders will vote on the proposal at Wednesday's annual meeting.


Recordings of coral reef sounds attract fish

(05/24/2005) Using recordings of reef sounds may increase reef fish stocks depleted by shipping traffic, underwater drilling and overfishing. Scientists have discovered that some species of young coral reef fish are lured back to home reefs by sounds they hear while still developing in the egg.


Why visit the real island of Madagascar?

(05/23/2005) Later this week Dreamworks releases Madagascar, an animated film depicting a group of zoo escapees who visit the island by the same name off the eastern coast of southern Africa. While the film takes certain liberties with its representation of the country, The real-life Madagascar is a fascinating place to visit. Madagascar's wildlife is among the best in the world in terms of diversity, abundance, and approachability and travel to Madagascar for this purpose is most rewarding. Madagascar also offers spectacular landscapes, an unusual history, and a countryside full of generally friendly and wonderful people.


Photos of new monkey species found in Africa

(05/20/2005) Photos of the new monkey species discovered in remote mountains in the southern Tanzania.


New monkey discovered in Tanzania

(05/19/2005) Africa's first new species of monkey for over 20 years has been discovered in remote mountains in the southern Tanzania. The Highland Mangabey was first discovered by biologists from the Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) in a remote highland forest.


Vampire Fish discovered in the Amazon

(05/19/2005) A new species, dubbed the 'vampire fish,' was recently discovered in the Araguaia River of the Amazon Basin.


Should environmentalists fear logging or learn to understand its impact?

(05/18/2005) Environmentalists usually oppose logging, associating it with deforestation and biodiversity loss. A new report, Life after logging: reconciling wildlife conservation and production forestry in Indonesian Borneo, from CIFOR suggests that in reality, many logging operations have a lesser impact than than generally believed by conservationists. Further, since more forests in Borneo -- the area of study -- are allocated for logging than for protected areas it is imperative that we have a better understanding of how biological diversity and ecological services can be maintained in such areas and how they can be integrated with protected areas into "multi-functional conservation landscapes." conservationists, loggers, and policy-makers alike need to recognize that logged-over forests have conservation value and work to ensure that these areas are indeed used for this purpose especially when other options for biodiversity conservation are not available.


Somewhere Out There, Millions of Species Await Discovery

(05/17/2005) While Planet Earth is becoming an increasingly smaller and more familiar world as every corner is explored and colonized, there remain millions of species undiscovered and undocumented. A number of significant species have been discovered in recent months, revealing humans' huge gaps in knowledge of the world around them.


How did rainforest shamans gain their boundless knowledge on medicinal plants?

(05/14/2005) For thousands of years, indigenous people have extensively used rainforest plants for their health needs -- the peoples of Southeast Asian forests used 6,500 species, while Northwest Amazonian forest dwellers used 1300 species for medicinal purposes. Perhaps more staggering than their boundless knowledge of medicinal plants, is how shamans and medicinemen could have acquired such knowledge. There are over 100,000 plant species in tropical rainforests around the globe, how did indigenous peoples know what plants to use and combine especially when so many are either poisonous or have no effect when ingested. Many treatments combine a wide variety of completely unrelated innocuous plant ingredients to produce a dramatic effect.


Rebuilding tsunami-ravaged Indonesia without further deforestation

(05/12/2005) American Forest & Paper Association joins World Wildlife Fund, conservation International in seeking donated timber for Indonesia.


Bizarre rodent discovered in Southeast Asia; Oddity new to science

(05/11/2005) A team of scientists working in Southeast Asia have discovered a long-whiskered rodent with stubby legs and a tail covered in dense hair. But don't call it a squirrel. Or a rat. Because it's actually more like a guinea pig or chinchilla. But not quite. In fact the new species, found in Laos by scientists from the Wildlife conservation Society (WCS) and other groups, is so unique it represents an entire new family of wildlife.



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