Alarm over mass vulture poisoning in South Africa
DURBAN, South Africa — Another mass vulture poisoning incident has ended the year on a sour note for Wildlife ACT rangers in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. Soon after…
Lift-off for first African vulture safe zones
Howick, SOUTH AFRICA – The first of at least five new “vulture safe zones” in Southern Africa are about to take off as private landowners and other partners join the…
Hunting, agriculture driving rapid decline of jaguars in South America’s Gran Chaco
New research finds that one-third of critical jaguar habitat in the Gran Chaco, South America’s largest tropical dry forest, has been lost since the mid-1980s. According to the study, led…
Gold mining suspected as cause of Cambodian mass poisonings
A spate of mass toxic poisonings in the Cambodian provinces of Kratie and Mondulkiri have hospitalized hundreds and killed at least 16 people since May. Although the causes of the…
Two suspected poachers arrested for killing of Sumatran elephant
Authorities in Indonesia have arrested two of four suspects alleged to have killed a rare Sumatran elephant and hacked off one of its tusks last month. Police in East Aceh…
Poachers blamed in second Sumatran elephant death this year
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia have blamed poachers for the death of an elephant found with one of its tusks hacked off, in one of the world’s most…
Poachers blamed as body of Sumatran elephant, missing tusks, found in protected forest
PALEMBANG, Indonesia -- Wildlife activists in Indonesia suspect poachers poisoned an elephant found with its tusks hacked off in a protected forest in southern Sumatra. The body of the male…
Perched on the precipice: India’s vultures threatened by E.U. sale of killer drug
Poisoned by cattle carcasses treated with Diclofenac, India’s vultures died by the millions in the 1990s. A captive breeding program is helping to save the once-ubiquitous birds, but the very…
The quicksilver demon: rogue gold-mining is the world’s largest source of mercury pollution
In 1956, in the quiet seaside town of Minamata on the southwestern coast of Japan's Kyushu Island, cats began to behave very strangely. They convulsed, displayed excessive salivation, and gradually…
Not far from Rome, Italy’s distinct bear faces down extinction
The Marsican brown bear is on the brink of extinction. Despite authorities spending millions of Euros on its conservation, high human-caused mortality is menacing the survival of this distinct subspecies.…
600 vultures killed by elephant poachers in Namibia
As the illegal poaching of African elephants and rhinos reaches epidemic levels, other species are also suffering catastrophic losses as a direct result of poachers' behavior. A recent incident in…
Poisonous jellyfish on the rise in the Mediterranean
Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world's most overfished seas but also the…
Scientists discover high mercury levels in Amazon residents, gold-mining to blame
The Madre de Dios region in Peru is recognized for its lush Amazon rainforests, meandering rivers and rich wildlife. But the region is also known for its artisanal gold mining,…
Unidentified toxin caused the deaths of Borneo elephants
After three months, officials still don't know for certain what killed at least 14 Bornean elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) in the Malaysian state of Sabah. However tests do indicate that…
96 percent of the world’s species remain unevaluated by the Red List
The IUCN Red List releases its 2012 update, adding 247 species to its threatened categories. The king cobra has been evaluated by the IUCN Red List for the first time…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Two deaths trigger alarm at Mexico’s Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve
- Fighting to save an endangered ape, Indonesian activists fear for their lives
- Iran sentences eight conservationists convicted of spying
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Amazon infrastructure
- Database offers new details on the dams that hold mining waste
- Xavante tribe digs in as Brazil reneges on vow not to build a road in their reserve
- Vale has filed hundreds of requests to exploit indigenous lands in Amazon
Asian rhinos
- Indonesia-WWF split puts rhino breeding project in Borneo in limbo
- Indonesian officials wield sharia law in defense of Sumatran rhinos
- Love triangle complicates efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos
