Tag archives for extinction
Posted by The top 10 stories on our radar today: Archaeologists find evidence of cannibalism at historic Jamestown, zombie worms munch on whale bones, and…
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That’s the question we’re asking that month at National Geographic. Tomorrow, top biologists and ethicists will convene to discuss the details.
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Bonobo orphans are pouring into primate sanctuaries across central Africa and thousands of adults are being killed, smoked and bundled with monkeys, pangolins, small antelope and bush pigs for sale in distant bushmeat markets. We are about to reach a tipping point in Africa beyond which it is going to be very hard to save…
To Protect Threatened Species: Follow the Three R’s
Posted by Wildlife Conservation Society on September 13, 2012 The passenger pigeon was once among the most abundant birds on the planet, sometimes flying in flocks so vast they reportedly darkened the skies. Likewise, tens of millions of North American bison once thundered across the American Great Plains. As the United States emerged as a major global economy in the late 1800’s, both species experienced catastrophic losses due to overhunting. Yet when they arrived at a conservation crossroads, facing extinction or survival, they traveled two very different paths.
Posted by Joint Book Review of: Roman, Joe, Listed: Dispatches from America’s Endangered Species Act. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2011. Seidl, Amy, Finding Higher Ground: Adaptation in the Age of Warming. Boston MA: Beacon Press, 2011 As we reflect on global climate change policy in the next decade, the seminal metric for environmental policy-makers will be…
The Cape Parrot is one of the most endangered bird species in South Africa with less than 1,000 individuals remaining in the wild. Most of the remaining wild population are infected by and dying from a Pssitacine Beak and Feather Disease epidemic that erupts during early winter each year. Early cold snaps and mild droughts escalate…
Nat Geo WILD: Your Shark Questions Answered #1
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 25, 2011 For more about the prehistoric megalodon, see “Ancient Giant Shark Had Strongest Bite Ever, Model Says.”
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A big, LIVE, television event that is built around putting humans into the water with sharks may seem, well, calculated, to garner attention. That’s not far off – our goal is to create an entertaining and informative show. But shark conservation is at the heart of Shark Attack Experiment LIVE. One of the show’s primary…
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For 20 years, field scientists participating in Conservation International’s Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) have been exploring some of the world’s most abundant, mysterious and threatened tropical ecosystems; to date, they’ve discovered more than 1,300 species new to science.
A paper published today by a trio of American and British researchers in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B reveals that as many as a third of all flowering plants could be threatened with extinction. A great many of them could disappear before they are discovered and studied by scientists. The lead author…
By Hans-Dieter Sues A lively debate continues regarding the cause(s) of the extinction of dinosaurs (other than their descendants, birds), along with many other organisms, at the end of the Cretaceous Period some 65 million years ago. While this subject has tremendous appeal, the biologically interesting issue of the origin and early evolution of these…
Alaotra grebe (Tachybaptus rufolavatus) is extinct, BirdLife International has announced in the 2010 IUCN Red List update for birds. “Restricted to a tiny area of east Madagascar, this species declined rapidly after carnivorous fish were introduced to the lakes in which it lived. This, along with the use of nylon gill-nets by fisherman which caught…
