Wildlife

A new carnivore species has been discovered in the marshes of the Lac Alaotra wetlands in central eastern Madagascar. The small, cat-sized, speckled brown mammal has been named Durrell’s vontsira (Salanoia durrelli) by scientists. The discovery, announced in the latest issue of the taxonomic journal Systematics and Biodiversity, was made by researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Natural History Museum, London, Nature Heritage, Jersey, and Conservation International. The...

Rewards totalling $10,000 are being offered for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible for illegally killing an endangered gray wolf in Oregon's Umatilla National Forest. The US Fish and Wildlife service announced Friday it is offering $2,500. A coalition of conservation groups has chipped in with another $7,500 to the kitty. The wolf was a two-year-old male from the Wenaha pack and had been captured and fitted with a radio tracking collar in August...

Investigators have recovered 20 rhino carcasses from a poaching syndicate suspect's property in South Africa. Two people were also arrested during the raid, bringing the number of the so-called Groenewald gang to 13. The suspects have been named as Gys du Preez, a professional hunter, and Joseph Maluleka, a farm worker. Dawie Groenewald was arrested in September and is currently out on R1 million bail. At the time of Groenewald’s arrest last month, there were 32 live rhinos on his property...

A fanged fish and a fangless snake, five new mammal species, a bald bird and a frog that sounds like a cricket are among the 145 species newly described by science in the Greater Mekong region during 2009, says a WWF report. The report, New Blood: Greater Mekong new species discoveries 2009, says an average of three new species are recorded by science each week in the Greater Mekong – a rate of discovery that marks this region as one of the frontiers for new species discoveries on our planet...

An alliance of conservationists and international donors have unveiled a map of six priority areas on the Mediterranean rim aimed at guiding policy for preserving precious habitats and threatened species. The 251-page ecosystem profile was launched last week by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), whose constituents include the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Government of Japan, the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation, and Conservation International...

Environmental crimes are booming in a Madagascar, plunged in political chaos. Ten or more carts filled with around 100 terrestrial tortoises each are leaving the Mahafaly Plateau in south Madagascar every week, a WWF survey has found. Poaching of both the endemic radiated tortoise ( Astrochelys radiata) and the spider tortoise ( Pyxis arachnoids) for the bush meat and pet trade had long been known. But the ongoing political stability is now being exploited to the hilt for wildlife trade. These...

Plants are as threatened as mammals, with one in five of the world’s plant species threatened with extinction. It is for the first time that the true extent of the threat to the world’s estimated 380,000 plant species has been quantified. The shocking numbers come from the Sampled Red List Index assessments carried out by Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Natural History Museum and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Specialist Groups. The findings have been released ahead of...

Some people have all the luck. Six such individuals from the world over now have the opportunity to work as panda caretakers for one month, after an intense three-hour live showdown on China’s largest television network, CCTV. Starting October 1, the six finalists will spend three weeks at the Chengdu Panda Base where they will learn about all aspects of giant panda care, breeding and conservation. One important stop will be a visit to a WWF conservation project at the Longxi-Hongkou Nature...

Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio will visit India soon to see tigers in the wild and promote global awareness about their dwindling numbers. The Titanic star, who is an ambassador of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), met India's minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh in New York on Friday to discuss ways to get involved in tiger conservation, the Press Trust of India news agency has reported. In fact, DiCaprio teamed up with the WWF in May to launch a campaign called Save Tigers Now...

England's nature reserves, national parks and protected areas are failing in four out of five key quality benchmarks, a major year-long government-sponsored review has concurred. Around £1.1bn is needed to help rebuild nature in England. A 14-member team of wildlife experts has warned that England's wildlife protection areas are not effective enough at preserving species due to poor management, small size, ease of reach by the wider public (especially in urban areas) and lack of inter...