Animal trainers are teaching wildlife to conserve themselves
Chimps have been taught to sound an alarm when poachers approach; polar bears and condors have been trained to avoid towns; and even butterflies can learn new tricks.
Articles by Linda Lombardi
Linda Lombardi specializes in writing about the animals that share our planet and our homes. Her Animals Behaving Badly: Boozing Bees, Cheating Chimps, Dogs with Guns and Other Beastly True Tales, probably the only book with 25 pages of bibliography that you'll find shelved under Humor, uses evidence from science and the news to show that animals aren't always as cute as they'd like you to believe. Her forthcoming The Pit Bull Life, co-authored with Deirdre Franklin, helps owners appreciate and advocate for this misunderstood dog with information from history, the law and the science of dog behavior. She has worked as a zookeeper with small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, including a breeding colony of the critically endangered Panamanian Golden Frog.
U.S. zoos learn how to keep captive pangolins alive, helping wild ones
The Pangolin Consortium is mastering the art of helping pangolins thrive in captivity, which allows researchers to study the animals, aiding in their survival in the wild.
Can the Javan rhino be saved before disaster strikes?
As the old saying warns, it's bad enough to put all your eggs in one basket. If you have to, though, at least try not to leave that basket sitting…
Bowling for Rhinos: a grassroots project with global reach
The first Bowling for Rhinos fundraiser almost didn't happen. In the summer of 1987, a small group of keepers at the Kansas City Zoo wanted to raise funds to support…
Preserving orangutan culture an ingredient for successful conservation
Subtle variations seen in a species across its range often turn out to be important to successful conservation. That’s because, on closer examination, populations are found to be genetically different…
Connectivity and coexistence key to orangutan survival on croplands
Critically Endangered orangutans live in a part of the world where pristine forest is rapidly disappearing under human cultivation. From 1973–2010, Borneo lost 39 percent of its forests, and estimates…
The clouded leopard: conserving Asia’s elusive arboreal acrobat
If quizzed on what we know about Asia’s clouded leopard, most of us would be stumped. But ask an expert who works with these wild cats, and you’ll get an…
From Ohio to Indonesia: captive-bred Sumatran rhinos may be the species’ only hope for a future
This is the second article in two-part series about a captive breeding program attempting to rescue the Sumatran rhino (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) from the brink of extinction. Read Part One here.…
From Indonesia to Ohio: the struggle to breed Sumatran rhinos in captivity
This is Part One of a two-part series about attempts to rescue Sumatran rhinos from the brink of extinction by breeding the critically endangered species in captivity. Read Part Two…
Pet trade’s “cute” and “adorable” label endangers the slow loris
f you've ever heard of the slow loris, it's likely for all the wrong reasons. People may coo over viral videos of pet lorises being tickled or eating rice balls,…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Number of murdered environmental activists rose once again in 2017
- Indonesia to investigate death of journalist being held for defaming palm oil company
- Madagascar: Yet another anti-trafficking activist convicted
Indonesias forest guardians
- Papuan chef Charles Toto serves up sustainability and environmental protection in a platter
- In eastern Indonesia, a forest tribe pushes back against miners and loggers
- Faith in the forest helps Indonesia’s Dayaks keep plantations, loggers at bay
Amazon infrastructure
- Ruralists in Brazilian congress put nation’s protected areas at risk
- Chinese / Western financing of roads, dams led to major Andes Amazon deforestation
- Temer’s deforestation policies put Paris goals at risk, scientists warn
Asian rhinos
- In protecting the Javan rhino, locals gain a ‘more meaningful life’
- Rhino poop gives villagers in India a conservation incentive
- In its fight against rhino poachers, India lets the dogs out
