Nelson Mandela, elephants and youth
Jan07

Nelson Mandela, elephants and youth

Commentary by Isabel  S. Abrams Most people think of Nelson Mandela as a fighter for racial equality in South Africa. To me, he is also a powerful advocate for protecting wilderness and empowering youth. In 2002, I was in the audience at the World Conference on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa where I heard Mandela address delegates from more than 100 nations. “Many don’t want (conservation areas) set aside for...

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Photo essay – Is tourism killing Bali?
Dec18

Photo essay – Is tourism killing Bali?

Photo essay by Jenny Denton Its natural beauty and colorful Hindu culture have drawn visitors to Bali since the 1930s. But more than three decades of rampant development since mass tourism took hold have left the island and its people in a critical state. Bali is struggling with a severe water shortage, huge volumes of waste, a loss of agricultural land and forest, and an influx of foreign investors and workers that threaten to...

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Photo essay: saving loggerhead turtles in Greece
Dec06

Photo essay: saving loggerhead turtles in Greece

Reader contribution by Jean-Baptiste Pouchain Among the shadows of the night, I finally spot them: fresh tracks, coming from the sea and making their way to the obscurity of the sand dunes. Somewhere up there, a sea turtle is looking for an ideal nesting site. Silently, I lie down on the wet ground and start crawling, all my senses on the watch, along the crescent-like marks. I hear her before seeing her: a muffled noise of sand...

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Reader Contribution: The ‘One Tree In A Billion’ Project
Dec03

Reader Contribution: The ‘One Tree In A Billion’ Project

By Natalie Millar With recent surveys showing the rate of deforestation in the Amazon averaging 2,000 square miles each year, we are at a time where conservation of the rainforest is becoming more and more critical. Threats like logging and illegal gold mining are becoming more prominent, particularly in the Peruvian Amazon, where mercury used in gold mining devastates habitat and pollutes waterway, threatening fauna and local...

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Baby giant armadillo’s first photo wins top award
Dec03

Baby giant armadillo’s first photo wins top award

The elusive and unknown giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) is rarely caught by the lights of a camera, and never before has a baby giant armadillo been captured on film – until now.  This unprecedented image has garnered recognition from the 2013 BBC Wildlife Magazine Camera Trap photo competition. The photo, along with another winning image, is the result of the hard work of the Pantanal Giant Armadillo Project. Dr Arnaud...

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Comic Series: New forest, not home
Nov21

Comic Series: New forest, not home

By Ariel Mark A comic inspired by Mongabay’s article: Malaysia has the world’s highest deforestation rate, reveals Google forest map

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Bouba the (Andean) bear joins the WCS Queen’s Zoo
Nov21

Bouba the (Andean) bear joins the WCS Queen’s Zoo

The Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) is the only endemic bear on the continent of South America.  The IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable to risk of extinction, with habitat loss and hunting as drivers behind its dwindling numbers.  This elegant species is sometimes referred to as the spectacled bear due to occasional markings around the eyes that resemble glasses. The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Queens Zoo has welcomed an...

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Book Summary: Our Beautiful, Fragile World
Nov14

Book Summary: Our Beautiful, Fragile World

By Peter Essick Our Beautiful, Fragile World: The Nature and Environmental Photographs of Peter Essick Our Beautiful, Fragile World features a career-spanning look at the images of photojournalist Peter Essick taken while on assignment for National Geographic magazine. In this book, Essick showcases a diverse series of photographs from some of the most beautiful natural areas in the world and documents major contemporary environmental...

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Meet Max: the 285 lbs baby
Nov07

Meet Max: the 285 lbs baby

A 285 lbs baby Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), that is. Max was on his feet in just a few minutes and entertaining his keepers and elephant family with his independent and playful nature. Max is now three weeks old and zookeeper Stefan Groeneveld said: “[He] has come on so much in just three weeks and is already showing an independent streak. He’ll happily leave his mum’s side to go and play in the paddock with the rest of the...

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World’s largest (harmless) bat inspires Halloween-worthy tales in the Philippines
Oct31

World’s largest (harmless) bat inspires Halloween-worthy tales in the Philippines

By Simon Bradley and Tammy Mildenstein It’s Halloween time again, and around much of the world people are decorating with images of ghosts, vampires, witches, black cats, and, of course, bats. For the superstitious, there may be nothing scarier than the flying foxes of the Philippines, whose 2-meter wingspans make them the largest bats in the world! In keeping with a popular fear and mistrust of nocturnal animals, Philippine flying...

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A jungle day-trip: studying brazil nuts in the Peruvian Amazon
Oct30

A jungle day-trip: studying brazil nuts in the Peruvian Amazon

By Eleanor Warren-Thomas The day begins at around 5 a.m., when the sounds of motorbikes revving, dogs barking, wood being chopped and shouting men start to permeate the room. I haven’t needed to set my alarm for weeks. I am here to help run a project on Brazil nut harvesting from lowland rainforests in Madre de Dios, in the Peruvian Amazon. Brazil nut collection from these forests forms a huge part of many people’s livelihood in this...

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Indonesians working together to save Sumatran tigers
Oct29

Indonesians working together to save Sumatran tigers

Reader contribution by Matthew S. Luskin Indonesians are committed to ensuring the persistence of Sumatran tigers. The gamut of island-wide conservation efforts was discussed this week in Padang, West Sumatra, during the annual meeting of HarimauKita (harimau means “tiger” in Indonesian), which brought together a consortium of stakeholders for Sumatran tiger conservation. Members worked late into each night to coordinate and evaluate...

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Sunset on the Nile
Oct18

Sunset on the Nile

By Jemma Smith This stunning photograph is of the sun setting over the River Nile, which is said to be the longest river in the world with a staggering 6,670 km (4,160 miles) in length and discharges an average of 3.1 million litres of water per second into the Mediterranean Sea. It is long been disputed where the exact source of the river is, however, many believed it to be Lake Victoria in Tanzania. The River Nile travels through...

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Climate Change in the Cloud Forest
Oct10

Climate Change in the Cloud Forest

By Larry Kraft This August, my family and I spent a week and a half in Monteverde, Costa Rica.  This is the tropics, but at an elevation of 4,500 feet or so.  This well-preserved swathe of forest straddles the Continental Divide, which results in clouds and weather coming up from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The elevation means it’s never very hot, and the tropical latitude means it’s never very cold.  The mean temperature...

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Sparing a thought for maleo birds on World Egg Day
Oct10

Sparing a thought for maleo birds on World Egg Day

By Simon Bradley / Save Our Species IUCN Friday, October 11th is World Egg Day, when agribusiness promotes the consumption of eggs as a healthy source of protein. When it comes to one of Indonesia’s national icons however, the Endangered maleo bird (Macrocephalon maleo), conservationists such as the Alliance for Tompotika Conservation (AlTo) an SOS – Save Our Species grantee, are trying to discourage the practice of eating its...

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New York attempts to save one of the world’s largest salamanders
Sep23

New York attempts to save one of the world’s largest salamanders

By Phyllis Sena The WCS’s Bronx Zoo is joining the fight to save the world’s largest salamander, the Eastern Hellbender, by teaming up with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Buffalo Zoo in reintroducing 38 of these animals into wild streams in the state of New York. Juvenile eggs were collected from the Allegheny River drainage at the start of the program, and they were raised off-location...

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World Rhino Day: Sunday, September 22nd
Sep18

World Rhino Day: Sunday, September 22nd

Sunday, September 22nd is World Rhino Day 2013.  This yearly celebration, started in 2010, hopes to remind the world of the plight of the world’s five remaining species of rhinoceros: the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum), black rhino (Diceros bicornis), Indian rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis), Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus), and the Sumatran (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis). Today three of the five species are listed Critically...

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Technicolor turkey: the exotic cassowary
Sep13

Technicolor turkey: the exotic cassowary

By Alexander Holmgren The Cassowary is one the worlds most exotic animals. Three species of Cassowary are recognized to this day scattered across the forests of New Guinea and Australia. The Cassowary’s vibrant blue and red hues that run along its neck as well as its elaborate make it truly a sight to behold. Know primarily for their mysterious nature these birds are adept at disappearing through the forest long before humans...

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Goodbye, Gus: Central Park says goodbye to famous polar bear
Sep05

Goodbye, Gus: Central Park says goodbye to famous polar bear

Gus was visited by more than 20 million zoo goers in the 24 years he graced the waters of The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Park Zoo. Sadly, Gus, the adult male polar bear, passed away last week at the age of 27. “Gus was an icon at the Central Park Zoo and a great source of joy for our visitors and staff,” said Jim Breheny, WCS Executive Vice President of Zoos and Aquarium. “He was an important ambassador for his...

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Sneaky Snakes in Indonesia
Sep05

Sneaky Snakes in Indonesia

A shocking 449 species of reptiles call Sundaland home, of which 249 are endemic to the region. Indonesia has an extremely high level of biodiversity, which is most likely due to the great size and tropical archipelago make-up of the land. The Indonesian fauna is so vivid, that the colors of these snakes actually camouflage them into the background. Each of these snake’s coloring has evolved to blend in with where it tends to...

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