Wildlife

"Numbers of the country’s carrion-loving birds dropped by over 97% in the 1990s. Now, a successful breeding scheme is giving them a boost".

"Governments should take advantage of the third postponement of a United Nations biodiversity summit tasked with striking a global deal to protect nature by boosting ambition and finance for conservation and restoration, environmentalists said Thursday."

"At the peak of the whaling industry, in the late 1800s, North Atlantic right whales were slaughtered in their thousands. With each carcass hauled on to the deck, whalers were taking more than just bones and flesh out of the ocean. The slaughtered whales had unique memories of feeding grounds, hunting techniques and communication styles; knowledge acquired over centuries, passed down through the generations, and shared between peers. The critically endangered whale clings on, but much of the species’ cultural knowledge is now extinct."

"The policy-setting board for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved a wolf harvest quota of 300 wolves for this fall’s wolf hunt."

"Conservationists are accusing federal land managers of illegally withholding information about environmental assessments used to justify plans to create fuel breaks to slow wildfires by clearing forests and shrubs across six western states with little if any public oversight."

"The oil industry will be able to continue working around polar bears on the North Slope for the next five years, thanks to a renewed authorization from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

"Barry the Barred Owl, whose majestic presence and unusually extroverted demeanor made her a beloved Central Park celebrity, died early Friday in a collision with a Central Park Conservancy maintenance vehicle."

"Globally, numerous infectious diseases are being transmitted between wildlife, livestock and humans at escalating rates, including outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola, dengue, HIV and others, as the threat of new emergent zoonotic diseases grows ever greater. The cost is huge in lives lost and ruined economies. The driver: human activities, particularly intrusion into wild landscapes and eating and trading wild animals."

"Agricultural pesticides sold to farmers ready-mixed into "cocktails" can kill twice as many bees, according to an analysis of 90 studies."

"Surrounded by fires, parched by drought, and shut down by the pandemic – residents of California’s scenic South Lake Tahoe thought they’d endured everything. That was until this week, when the US Forest Service announced it was closing several popular sites after discovering bubonic plague in the chipmunk population."