Endangered Species

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September 2008
- Panda Cub Taken From Mom
  
  Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Sep 2, 08 4:29 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A giant panda newborn has been taken away from its mother and transferred to an incubator at the Atlanta zoo. Officials said the move was based on “some behaviors by the its mother, Lun Lun," but offered no details. All had seemed well earlier for both the cell-phone-sized cub, born Saturday, and Lun Lun. More »
August 2008
- Atlanta Panda Now a 2-Time Mama
  
  WEBTV | Aug 31, 08 3:00 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A giant panda in Zoo Atlanta became a mommy for the second time last night, and a twin might even be on the way, WSB Atlanta reports. Lun Lun gave birth at 10:10pm, the first panda in the US to do so this year. She previously gave birth in 2006. “We are delighted, proud and elated,” the zoo’s president says. More »
- Numbers Soaring, S. Africa Mulls Elephant Cull
  
  National Geographic | Aug 21, 08 2:19 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Bluefin Tuna Tricked Into Spawning
  
  Time | Aug 17, 08 7:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - 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. More »
- Doom Looms for Spotted Owl
  
  Seattle Times | Aug 14, 08 3:01 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The outlook appears bleak for America's most controversial bird, reports the Seattle Times . Despite logging bans in huge swathes of old-growth forests initiated 14 years ago to protect the northern spotted owl, researchers have discovered its numbers have dropped by nearly half. The decline is blamed on pre-1994 habitat loss and the invasion of a tougher owl species. More »
- Humpbacks No Longer in Danger
  
  Guardian (UK) | Aug 12, 08 9:56 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Humpback whales, once feared to be on the verge of extinction, have made such a dramatic comeback that the International Union for Conservation of Nature has removed them from its list of vulnerable species. A ban on humpback whaling in the 1960s has allowed their numbers to grow to 55,000 worldwide, reports the Guardian . More »
- Federal Changes Threaten Endangered Species: Critics
  
  Oregonian (Portland) | Aug 12, 08 3:21 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Critics are raising an alarm over planned White House changes to the Endangered Species Act, reports the Oregonian . The modifications would give federal agencies such as the US Forest Service more leeway to decide whether activities such as logging would harm endangered species—and such determinations would no longer be scrutinized by outside reviewers. More »
- Huge Gorilla Population Found in Congo
  
  New York Times | Aug 5, 08 4:55 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - As recently as last year, the western lowland gorilla was listed as one of the world's most critically endangered primate species, nearly wiped out by the Ebola virus. But an arduous survey has revealed that 125,000 gorillas are living in the northern Congo Republic, deep in a swampy region rarely visited by humans. "This is the light of hope you look for," one conservationist told the New York Times . More »
July 2008
- It's Raining Baby Pandas in China
  
  BBC | Jul 27, 08 4:09 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Four giant pandas were born within 14 hours of each other at a Chinese breeding center over the weekend, giving a much-needed population boost to the endangered species. Nine-year-old Qiyuan gave birth to twins, and two other 8-year-old pandas each gave birth to a cub in Sichuan province, BBC reports. Only 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild due to deforestation and rare contact between populations, but 180 are being raised in captivity in China. More »
- Zoo Shows Off Baby White Lions
  
  Der Spiegel | Jul 16, 08 6:02 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The world's population of just 200 white lions leaped by seven in a single day when twin lionesses gave birth in June, Der Spiegel reports, and the German safari park where they were born has now unveiled the extremely rare cubs. But while one new mom took to motherhood with zeal, the other showed little interest, forcing zookeepers to hand-raise her four cubs. White lions are a mutation of a sub-species extinct in the wild. More »
- UN Approves China to Buy Ivory
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Jul 16, 08 5:29 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - China has been given a green light to begin importing African ivory by a UN body that banned the sale 10 years ago, a decision that has infuriated conservation groups, the Daily Telegraph reports. African states say they need to sell stockpiles of ivory from elephants that are culled or die of natural causes in order to fund conservation efforts. Critics believe the move will encourage poaching and put more pressure on endangered elephant populations. More »
- Even Toughest Toads Are Being Unmanned
  
  Independent (UK) | Jul 13, 08 10:40 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The mystery of the hermaphrodite toads may be solved: Researchers have found that various chemicals used in farming are linked to sex changes in certain amphibian species, the Independent reports. In a population of cane toads, 40% of males had developed feminine coloring and ovaries, and an additional 20% had marked female characteristics. And the toads are not unique. More »
- Big Sugar's Exit Gives Hope to Everglades
  
  Yale Environment 360 | Jul 9, 08 10:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Everglades restoration may finally be a reality, writes Michael Grunwald in Yale Environment 360 during his “vacation from defeatism.” Florida's tentative $1.75 billion land deal with US Sugar would halt sugar production (and pollution) on nearly 300 square miles, and have an ecological ripple-effect that extends beyond saving the Florida Panther or sparing nature from suburban development. More »
- Orangutans In Trouble as Forests Shrink
  
  Daily Telegraph (UK) | Jul 5, 08 5:46 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Illegal loggers and palm oil plantations may make the orangutan the first great ape to become extinct, scientists warn. In Indonesia, a mere 6,600 of the apes remain, while on Malaysia’s Borneo Island, the population has fallen 10% to 49,600, the Telegraph reports. More »
June 2008
- Farming Tigers for Profit Best Way to Save Species
  
  Spiked | Jun 22, 08 5:42 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Though animal conservationists hail the success of India's Jim Corbett National Park in increasing populations of endangered tigers, Kirk Leech complains in Spiked that numbers continue to decline—and that expanding protected areas for tigers harms indigenous human populations. His solution: for-profit tiger farms, where selling animal parts to meet unrelenting demand can finance more farms and better breeding to prevent extinction. More »
- Celebs Earn Stripes Helping Save Tigers
  
  CNN | Jun 10, 08 11:39 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Actors Bo Derek, Harrison Ford, and Robert Duvall helped the World Bank kick off a tiger-preservation campaign yesterday in Washington, CNN reports, with efforts to save the endangered species' habitats atop the list. Derek, who works with the US State Department to fight trafficking, says the tiger initiative should stem "loss of habitat" and "demand for their body parts, mainly in Asia." More »
- Polar Bear Shot After 200-Mile Swim
  
  Guardian (UK) | Jun 6, 08 8:27 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Police in Iceland shot dead a polar bear that swam more than 200 miles to reach the island nation, the Guardian reports. The bear, thought to be the first to reach Iceland since 1993, probably came from Greenland or a floating chunk of Arctic ice. Authorities said they had to shoot the bear for public safety, but conservationists are furious. More »
May 2008
- Tasmania Moving Its Devils
  
  Wall Street Journal | May 28, 08 1:22 PM CDT
  
  (Newser) - The Australian government is stepping in to prevent the Tasmanian Devil from extinction, the Wall Street Journal reports, as the ill-tempered beasties have been dying off thanks to the world’s first contagious cancer, which they transfer by biting each other in the face. So zoologists are now working to quarantine infected devils in a natural prison—the Tasman-Forestier Peninsula. More »
- Wolves, Back From Brink, Are Targets Again
  
  Salon | May 27, 08 11:22 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - A success story is at risk of turning into a bloodbath as gray wolves, newly removed from the US endangered-species list, are no longer protected from being hunted outside national parks. A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Bush administration, claiming that the wolves still need protection in the northern Rockies due to low genetic diversity, Salon reports. More »
- Wildlife Populations Plunging
  
  BBC | May 16, 08 8:25 AM CDT
  
  (Newser) - Humanity is rapidly wiping out the planet's species, sending wildlife populations plunging, the BBC reports. Pollution, habitat loss, and overfishing have cut wildlife numbers as much as a third since 1970 and wipe out 1% of species each year. One of the "great extinction episodes" in Earth's history also spells serious trouble for humanity, warned the director of the World Wildlife Fund. More »