Bush administration pushes through midnight regulations
ProPublica Nov 21, 08 8:28 AM CST
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With the Bush White House pushing through a raft of last-minute rules, the nonprofit journalism group ProPublica offers a running list, with the status of each: Business-friendly safety regulations would loosen restrictions on exposure to toxic chemicals in the workplace. Local police would get increased surveillance ability. Loaded guns would be allowed in some national parks.
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Tiny primate thought extinct found alive and well in Indonesian mountaintop forest
CNN Nov 20, 08 4:21 AM CST
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Scientists on a remote Indonesian mountaintop have discovered a pocket-sized primate not seen alive since the 1920s, CNN reports. The giant-eyed, two-ounce pygmy tarsier had been thought extinct until one was found dead in a rat trap, inspiring a professor from Texas A&M University to lead an expedition to Sulawesi. She was delighted to find the Furby-like creatures still living in the island cloud forest.
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Freshwater crocodiles munch on invaders
with fatal results
AFP Nov 19, 08 1:53 AM CST
(Newser)
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Poisonous cane toads are proving more than a match for Australia's freshwater crocodiles, AFP reports. The toads are hopping their way into the crocs' northern Australia territory in huge numbers, killing off all who opt to make a meal of the invaders. Toad poisoning has already cut the numbers of crocodiles in some rivers by half.
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Mexican salamander suffers in polluted canals and lagoons
Associated Press Nov 2, 08 6:18 PM CST
(Newser)
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Mexico’s “water monster"—a mere foot long but once central to the Aztec legend and diet—is close to dying out, the AP reports. Axolotls have long endured in the polluted Venice-like canals of Lake Xochimilco in Mexico City, but baby-gobbling fish and ebbing water quality are killing them off. Scientists are in a rush to save them, but can't agree on how.
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Total ban announced ahead of report showing site fuels trade in wildlife products
Ars Technica Oct 22, 08 4:23 AM CDT
(Newser)
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EBay will introduce a total ban on ivory sales after the holidays in a bid to prevent elephant poaching, Ars Technica reports. The company banned international sales of ivory on its site in 2007 but critics say it did little to halt the trade in illegal ivory. Conservationists estimate 20,000 elephants are killed every year for their tusks.
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Whale population just won't rebound
New York Times Oct 18, 08 3:29 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The beluga whales living in Alaska’s Cook Inlet were declared an endangered species yesterday over Sarah Palin’s vehement objections, the New York Times reports. The beluga population was cut almost in half during the late '90s, and hasn’t recovered despite a wave of new protections. But Palin campaigned hard against declaring them endangered, because it might restrict coastal oil and gas development.
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UN says too many people on islands is destroying animal habitats
Los Angeles Times Oct 8, 08 9:48 AM CDT
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Ecuador is forcing those without permission to live in the Galapagos to leave, over fears that a growing human population threatens the species that make the islands unique. Even Ecuadorean citizens need special visas to visit the Galapagos, but thousands of mainland migrants have been staying illegally, drawn by high wages and good schools, the Los Angeles Times reports.
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Deforestation, climate change among culprits threatening 1,141 types of beasts
Guardian (UK) Oct 6, 08 2:17 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Nearly 25% of the world’s mammal species face extinction, the Guardian reports, and 3% are critically endangered. The stark conclusion, based on research conducted over 5 years in 130 countries, paints an especially bleak picture for marine mammals, the highly regarded Red List says. "We are threatening the future of wildlife and nature and denying our children the chance to experience what we have experienced," said the WWF's chief scientist.
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Court overrules Bush administration's move to cross it off
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sep 30, 08 11:45 AM CDT
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A federal court restored gray wolves to the endangered species list in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin yesterday, again making it not OK to kill wolves that attack livestock or pets, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. In answer to a lawsuit by environmental groups, a judge said the wolves couldn’t be dashed from the list in those states while they were still endangered elsewhere.
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Habitat loss, climate change, disease likely to wipe out amphibian species
Independent (UK) Sep 26, 08 3:49 AM CDT
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Half of all of Europe's amphibian species could be doomed to extinction within the next few decades, scientists warn. Habitat loss and climate change are already wiping out huge numbers of frogs, toads, newts and salamanders, the Independent reports. The situation has been exacerbated by a skin disease that has spread around the globe, devastating amphibian populations.
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In 13 years since killing ban, overpopulation posing serious threat
National Geographic Aug 21, 08 2:19 PM CDT
(Newser)
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South Africa's 1995 ban on culling elephants has proven wildly successful—perhaps too successful, writes Karen Lange in National Geographic . As the population has skyrocketed from 8,000 to 13,000 in the years since, starving elephants are now ravaging vegetation and taxing the nation's ecosystem, forcing experts to consider the unthinkable: a fresh wave of killing.
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Glossies
Australian aims to overcome fish shortage by simulating breeding grounds
Time Aug 17, 08 7:22 AM CDT
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A seafood entrepreneur thinks he can solve the world's bluefin tuna shortage by making the fish feel frisky, Time reports. German ex-pat Hagen Stehr, the baron of a $230-million Australian seafood empire, is simulating the tuna's breeding grounds in a hatchery—a "fishy virtual reality" with 14 hours of daylight and water at 73°F—and has succeeded in harvesting fertilized eggs from bluefin breeding stock.
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